A few questions to heighten your interest in the subject matter of this message: Have YOU been “turned aside” or are YOU “fixed” body, soul, and Spirit IN our Lord’s ‘unchangeableness’? Have you “drifted” or are YOU “established” or “being established” in Him? Are YOU “still asleep” or “fully awakened” to God’s eternal intent in you and through you with the Resurrection Presence of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ? Do YOU ‘daily’ reserve your life for your fleshly intents or ‘daily’ take the sentence of death unto yourself that His resurrection Presence may be manifested in your mortal flesh?

Are YOU willing to “be abased” by God Himself or are you ‘self-determined’ to map out your own spiritual significance in our modern world? Do YOU base your spiritual journey on ‘fleshly-grit’ or on “Christ-given amazing grace”? Do you continue, ‘though being a professing believer’, to examine yourself on “an awakening sympathy” for yourself, OR rest in the eternal Truth that your old man was crucified WITH Christ? If ‘dejection’ about one’s spiritual maturity or lack of it prevails or arises, where or upon Whom does one’s allegiance really lie? “Trust Him and His Word or ‘rely’ upon my own abilities or intents”?

It’s really interesting how Paul identified himself and the early true followers of Christ as “fools for Christ’s sake” but “pretenders” are the “puffed up” in full array of “self-best” rather than “dead to self but alive in Christ”! In 1 Corinthians 4:8-17 Paul wrote: “You (Corinthians) are already full! You are already rich! You have reigned as kings without us – and indeed I could wish that you did reign, that we also might reign with you! For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored! To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and we are poorly clothed, and beaten, and homeless. And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat.

We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now. I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I WARN YOU. For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.

Therefore I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church.”

How often have YOU wondered or questioned if today the “true gospel of Christ Jesus is preached” or one’s opinion as to “saving grace and mercy and love of God”?

In 1 Corinthians 1:17-31 Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote “foundational Truth” for truly “seeking souls” longing for understanding about reconciliation with Holy God! He said: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For IT IS WRITTEN: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” [Prudent being judicious or wisely cautious, careful concerning one’s present and future, without little, if any, consideration of God’s plan and provision!).

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; BUT we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

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.”

“True Disciples of Christ Jesus”? Do YOU think it would be necessary to see what the Holy Word has to say about the “foundation” of True Temple Building (which IS YOUR life, His holy Presence in YOU!) to the honor and glory of Christ alone? In Romans 1:1-7 Paul instructs, inspires, and informs all “seekers” about the path and person of truly following Christ Jesus! He said:

“Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, [Have you been ‘branded’, ‘marked’, ‘signed on’ to God’s eternal intent and purpose of ‘Christ in you His hope of glory through you’?], CALLED to be an apostle, SEPARATED to the gospel of God, which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures (Old Testament!), concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. THROUGH HIM we have received grace and apostleship (or grace and His servant ministry) FOR OBEDIENCE TO THE FAITH among all nations for His name, among whom you also ARE THE CALLED OF JESUS CHRIST; To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, CALLED TO BE SAINTS: Grace to you AND peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

What do YOU see in these previous few verses about YOUR identity “in Christ”? 1) Marked or set apart to His honor, glory, and administration only? 2) Called? – in 2 Timothy 1:9-11 Paul enlightens us even more about our “calling”! He said, “…who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace WHICH WAS GIVEN TO US IN CHRIST JESUS BEFORE TIME BEGAN, but 3) has now been revealed by the appearing of our SAVIOR Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed (What’s YOUR appointment?) a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.”

It’s so, so interesting when one reads Isaiah 42:6-7 with God Himself speaking to humanity, “I, the Lord, have called You (Christ Jesus and His true disciples!) in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to OPEN blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.” [That ‘prison house’ is one’s “self-enslavement” under the devil’s domination and even a ‘religion’ apart from Divine Truth!].

Proverbs 1:20-33 tells us about “wisdom” from God Himself, but how some have rejected His earnest entreaties! It says: “Wisdom calls aloud outside; (Question! “Wisdom calling aloud to those outside God’s eternal Kingdom of love, grace, and mercy through His Son and the world’s ONLY Savior”?). She raises her voice in the open squares. She cries out in the chief concourses, at the openings of the gates in the city she speaks her words:

How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For SCORNERS delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge. (That’s like, “The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God’”?). Turn at my rebuke; surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.

Because I HAVE CALLED AND YOU HAVE REFUSED, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.

Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat ‘the fruit of their own way’, and be filled to the full with their own fancies.

For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; BUT whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.”

Are you aware that ‘unbelievers’ are described in the Word as ‘enemies’ of God? In Romans 5:10 we read, “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be (being) saved by His life.” Glory!

But apart from Christ? “Enemies of God”! Apart from Christ? “Death through sin”! Apart from Christ? “Bound in the chains of slavery to sin”? OR, as Paul said in Romans 6:5-11, “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, KNOWING THIS, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should be NO LONGER SLAVES OF SIN. For he who has died has been freed from sin. NOW IF we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, RECKON YOURSELVES to be dead INDEED to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Glory!

I love how Oswald Chambers put it in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.223), “It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration. NEVER!! I am put right with God because prior to all, ( and I say, yes, prior even to world creation), Christ died…Lamb slain BEFORE the foundation of the world”, in God’s heart and mind!). When I turn to God and by belief (trust in, rely upon, adhere to) accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God; AND by the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The Spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.”

Apart from Christ? Alienated, separated, other worldly, rather than submission to God’s will and Kingdom allegiance! Apart from Christ? Astutely minded but brainless and heartless to the good, acceptable and perfect will of God! Apart from Christ? “Allegiance to my concept of fleshly independence, emancipated from loyalty to your Christ! Why should I even think about loyalty to your Christ?” Apart from Christ? Like a statement made on national TV recently, “The cop who breaks the law doesn’t deserve to wear the shield,” and when did THAT change? When ‘law-breakers’ in the heart refused submission, repentance, and true faith to the eternal ‘Law-Giver’, Holy God, they have NO appreciation or desire to ‘know’ Christ, and certainly not to be one with Him!

Apart from Christ? It’s ‘self-gratification,’ ‘self-emphasis,’ ‘self-indulgence’, or ‘self-denial debunked,’ ‘self-choice promoted’, with no concern if it pleases self, without even a thought if it ‘honors’ or shames the Lord Himself! Apart from Christ? No concern about ‘the strong ‘husk’ of individual independence from God’, but only, “what pleases ME, my thoughts, my fleshly indulgences, my emancipated personality with ‘sinners’ of a like-mind and self-indulgent body”!

Apart from Christ? Though the Holy Word says, (Ephesians 5:25-27), that “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water BY THE WORD, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish,” but YOU say, “Who needs the church if I profess Christ?”

In Hebrews 10:24-25 the author, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, wrote: “And let us CONSIDER ONE ANOTHER in order to stir up love and good works, NOT FORSAKING THE ASSEMBLING OF OURSELVES TOGETHER, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” You ‘draw nigh to God’, but have no desire to be drawn in as a part of His earthly ‘Body’ called the church of Jesus Christ? Are YOU unaware of His great love of the “local assembly” of His born-again children of faith and His desire to minister to you and through you by your devotion to “the church Jesus loved and gave Himself for”? Oswald Chambers wrote: (“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.263), “The idea is not that we do work for God, but that we are so loyal to Him that He can do His work through us – ‘I reckon on you for extreme service, with no complaining on your part and no explanation on Mine’. God wants to use us as He used His own Son.”

I haven’t prepared or preached the following thought, but I believe it has to be expressed: “Bestowed Grace – Blessed Victory”! In 1 Corinthians 15:9-10 Paul tells us: “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. BUT by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Glory!

Do YOU consider “the Christ in you” to be ‘incompetent’ to be Himself in you and through you? OR, do you major on ‘your redeemed, but imperfect spiritual inclinations’, voiding out “Christ in you the hope of glory”? How many have you witnessed who ‘professed’ faith in Christ but continued walking in the darkness of the ‘unredeemed’? John said in 1 John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from all sin.” His grace is not ‘in vain’, but MY grit blinds me to the blessing of “the blood of Jesus cleansing me from all sin;” which is why some don’t want to know the whole of Biblical Truth in Christ, because they desire to be forgiven as they willfully continue ‘to sin’!

Doesn’t the Holy Word declare, Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”? And that, “here and now”, upon one’s repentance before Holy God and faith in Christ and His “It is finished” on the Cross? God wants you understanding that true salvation is His gift, not a position you earn in His Kingdom! And that precious journey of redemptive faith is not one’s reflection of how good he/she “thinks” he/she behaved in God’s Kingdom – reflect even for a brief moment upon 2 Corinthians 5:21 where Paul said, “For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

“Identifying True Disciples of Christ”? By His grace, mercy, and love, repentant and faith-filled, grace-abounding sinners made saints by Him, strike a “new chord” of heavenly music and praise and adoration, and the Resurrected, Reigning Christ declares them His “Holy Temple”, and again He shines , illuminating the world around you by His presence IN YOU! HE IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD! Why would one profess faith in Him but still ‘enjoy’ the darkness?

Reflect upon Ephesians 1: 3-14!! Our “new”, “eternal”, “family of God identity” BEGINS HERE! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places IN CHRIST, just as He (God) chose us in Him (Christ Jesus) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having PREDESTINED US to adoption as sons BY JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He (God the Father) made us accepted in the Beloved (Christ Jesus the Son).

IN HIM (in Christ Jesus) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace (not your ‘grit’!) which He (God the Father) made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, HAVING MADE KNOWN TO US THE MYSTERY OF HIS WILL, (reconciling sinners & declaring them saints, sons, servants of God!), according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him.

In Him also WE HAVE OBTAINED AN INHERITANCE, being predestined according to the purpose of Him (ALMIGHTY GOD) who works all things according to the counsel of His will, THAT WE WHO FIRSTED TRUSTED IN CHRIST SHOULD BE TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY. (Is THAT how YOU see yourself in your walk with Christ?).

In Him you also TRUSTED, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed (trusted in, relied upon, adhered to!), you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

Reflect upon Titus 3:4-7! MARK IT IN YOUR BIBLE – AND REJOICE EVERMORE! It says: “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, THROUGH the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that HAVING BEEN JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” [But YOU see it differently? YOU’RE CONVINCED GOD SHOULD APPRECIATE YOUR BEST EFFORTS?] Give me a break from intellectual and fleshly pride – Yes, God, humble the proud and shatter the shell of mental and maligned understanding and mind-set, darkened hearts, and captured wills!

What did Jesus say in Matthew 9:12-14? “Those who are ‘well’ have no need of a physician, but those who are sick (‘sin-sick’?). But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous (‘self-righteous’?) but sinners to repentance.”

Are you ‘a goat’ or a ‘lost sheep’ in need of the “Seeking Shepherd”? Are you a ‘secure family-member in the household of unbelief’ OR a ‘lost soul’ , sought, found, and liberated by the One True Shepherd of men’s souls? Are YOU aware that Christ Jesus came to “bring division” not unity in fleshly intents? In Matthew 10:34-39 the Savior said:

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I HAVE COME TO ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.”

What is it YOU hold onto in the place of His love, grace, and mercy extended to you as if YOU were the only man or woman to ever live – what He did for all on the Cross, He did for you intentionally! 2 Corinthians 5:17 declares: “Therefore, if ANYONE is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

“New creation”! It was John Newton who once said: “There is a signature of wisdom and power impressed on the works of God, which evidently distinguishes them from the feeble imitations of men.” “New birth”! “Newness of life and newness of spirit”! “New name”! “New song” in a redeemed, re-born, resurrected Life in Christ”! “New creation”! “New wine” in “new bottles”! “New man”! “New testament”! “New garment – His robe of righteousness”! “New spirit”! “New heart”! “New Day”!

Do you understand, comprehend, and yield to the Master, the Savior, the Lord, the Author of the eternal epistle of “New Creations”? In Romans 6:4 Paul wrote: “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that JUST AS Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”!

Dare you to say with Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:10, “But BY THE GRACE OF GOD I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain…”? How about saying daily with thanksgiving and great joy: “I have repented ! I have returned to Holy God! I have been born again, born of Truth and Born of the Spirit! My “new day” has dawned – I AM One With and In Christ!” “His grace was not in vain toward me!” Glory!!!

Oh, but then what did Jesus say in Matthew 12:33b? “For a tree is known by its fruit”! For you? Fruit of the flesh or fruit of the Spirit?

(MCF 2000, NAGAR 2000) BY:J.FARRELL FISHER (UPDATED:MAY 17-18,2019!)

THE TITLE OF THE MESSAGE TODAY SUGGESTS OR IMPLIES THAT THERE CAN BE MAJOR ROADBLOCKS IN EFFECTIVE, REDEMPTIVE PRAYER. ARE YOU AWARE OF THAT? LET ME INFORM YOU OF THE MEANING OF THE WORD ‘HINDRANCE’,IF YOU DON’T ALREADY KNOW: FROM NOAH WEBSTER’S 1828 DICTIONARY, ‘HINDRANCE’ MEANS, “THE ACTS OF IMPEDING OR RESTRAINING MOTION…IMPEDIMENT; THAT WHICH STOPS PROGRESS OR ADVANCE; OBSTRUCTION.”

1 PETER 3:7 IS VERY CLEAR WHEN IT SAYS, “…THAT YOUR PRAYERS MAY NOT BE HINDERED.” IN REV.5:8 THE WORD SAYS, “NOW WHEN (THE LAMB, THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH) HAD THE SCROLL, THE 4 LIVING CREATURES & THE 24 ELDERS FELL DOWN BEFORE THE LAMB, EACH HAVING A HARP,AND GOLDEN BOWLS OF INCENSE “WHICH ARE THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS.”

AND THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS ARE PRECIOUS TO GOD. THEY PLEASE HIM.YET AT THE VERY SAME TIME PSALM 66:18 SAYS, “IF I REGARD INIQUITY IN MY HEART, THE LORD WILL NOT HEAR.” THE WORD “REGARD” COMES FROM A HEBREW WORD MEANING “TO SEE”, “TO HAVE”, “TO RESPECT”, “TO APPROVE”, “TO GAZE ON OR TAKE HEED TO”. IF ‘INIQUITY’ IS IN MY HEART OR MIND, THE LORD WILL NOT HEAR ME.

BUT THAT’S NOT GOD’S HEART OR DESIRE FOR ANYONE OF US, BUT THERE ARE SPIRITUAL LAWS ESTABLISHED BY GOD FOR A FRUITFUL WALK IN THE KINGDOM AREA OF PRAYER, & IF THOSE LAWS ARE VIOLATED, WE’VE PERSONALLY CHOSEN TO EXEMPT OURSELVES FROM GOD’S BLESSINGS. TO THE GALATIANS, (6:7), PAUL SAID CORRECTLY, “DO NOT BE DECEIVED, GOD IS NOT MOCKED; FOR WHATEVER A MAN SOWS, THAT HE WILL ALSO REAP.” YET IN JOHN 11:42 JESUS SPOKE CONFIDENTLY & SAID TO THE FATHER, “I KNOW THAT “YOU” ALWAYS HEAR ME.” WHY? BECAUSE JESUS SOWED THE SEEDS OF FAITH & OBEDIENCE, NOT THE WILD TARES OF UNBELIEF & DISOBEDIENCE TO THE NATURE & CHARACTER OF GOD!

THE ONE THING I WANT YOU TO KNOW TODAY IS THAT THE ‘NORMAL’ FOR THE DISCIPLE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST “IS TO LIVE IN CONSTANT COMMUNION WITH GOD & TO LIVE THE ABUNDANT, JOYFUL, FRUITFUL LIFE OF DAILY ANSWERED PRAYER”.

BUT YOU KNOW HOW A WATER-LINE CAN SOMETIME BUILD UP A CORRISON & ALL OF A SUDDEN THE FLOW OF FRESH WATER IS STOPPED. IN THE SAME WAY, THERE CAN COME A TIME WHEN OUR PRAYERS ARE NOT GETTING THROUGH BECAUSE THERE IS A ‘BLOCKAGE’. IN LEVITICUS 26:19 GOD SAID, “I WILL BREAK THE PRIDE OF YOUR POWER; I WILL MAKE YOUR HEAVENS LIKE IRON & YOUR EARTH LIKE BRONZ.” IT’S NOT AN ‘OPEN’ HEAVEN!!

DAVID SAID IN PSALM 35:13 THAT HE WOULD PRAY, EVEN FAST, BUT (LISTEN!!), “MY PRAYER WOULD RETURN TO MY OWN BOSOM OR HEART.” EVEN JEREMIAH, THE WEEPING PROPHET, SAID IN LAMENTATIONS 3:8-9, “EVEN WHEN I CRY & SHOUT,HE (GOD) SHUTS OUT MY PRAYER…HE HAS BLOCKED MY WAYS WITH HEWN STONES; HE HAS MADE MY PATHS CROOKED.”

IN VERSE 44 OF THE SAME CHAPTER, JEREMIAH SAID, “YOU HAVE COVERED YOURSELF WITH A CLOUD, THAT PRAYER SHOULD NOT PASS THROUGH.” “THAT” SOUNDS SERIOUS! IT’S MAJOR! AND SOMETHING HAS CLOSED THE ‘FREE-WAY’ TO HEAVEN’S HEART! IT GETS REAL SERIOUS IN ISAIAH 1:15 WHEN GOD SAID TO HIS PEOPLE, “WHEN YOU SPREAD OUT YOUR HANDS, I WILL HIDE MY EYES FROM YOU; EVEN THO’ YOU MAKE MANY PRAYERS, I WILL NOT HEAR.YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD.”

I DON’T WANT OUR PRAYERS TO BE A ‘MESS’ BEFORE GOD; I WANT THEM GOING UP AS A “MEMORIAL”! I DON’T WANT TO DRAW NEAR TO GOD WITH MY MOUTH ONLY & HONOR HIM WITH MY LIPS WHILE MY HEART IS FAR FROM HIM LIKE THE PHARISEES – I WANT TO BE ONE WITH HIM. I DON’T WANT TO TRIFLE AT THE THRONE WITH IGNORAMUS TIDBITS – I WANT TO BE JOINED IN TRUTH & TRUST WITH THE CHRIST OF CALVARY.

I GREW UP ON A GREAT OLD HYMN & THE CHORUS SAYS THIS: “NOTHING BETWEEN MY SOUL & THE SAVIOR, SO THAT HIS BLESSED FACE MAY BE SEEN; NOTHING PREVENTING THE LEAST OF HIS FAVOR, KEEP THE WAY CLEAR! LET NOTHING BETWEEN.” IS THERE SOMETHING BETWEEN YOU & JESUS?IS THERE A MAJOR HINDRANCE TO EFFECTIVE MINISTRY OF YOUR PRAYER LIFE? THE VERSES OF THAT OLD HYMN SAYS:

“NOTHING BETWEEN MY SOUL & THE SAVIOR, NAUGHT OF THIS WORLD’S DELUSIVE DREAM; I HAVE RENOUNCED ALL SINFUL PLEASURE, JESUS IS MINE, THERE’S NOTHING BETWEEN.

NOTHING BETWEEN LIKE WORLDLY PLEASURE;HABITS OF LIFE,THO’ HARMLESS THEY SEEM, MUST NOT MY HEART FROM HIM EVER SEVER – HE IS MY ALL, THERE’S NOTHING BETWEEN.

NOTHING BETWEEN, LIKE PRIDE OR STATION;SELF OR FRIENDS SHALL NOT INTERVENE; THO’ IT MAY COST ME MUCH TRIBULATION, I AM RESOLVED, THERE’S NOTHING BETWEEN.

NOTHING BETWEEN, E’EN MANY HARD TRIALS, THO’ THE WHOLE WORLD AGAINST ME CONVENE; WATCHING WITH PRAYER & MUCH SELF-DENIAL,I’LL TRIUMPH AT LAST, WITH NOTHING BETWEEN.” HOW GLORIOUS, MARVELOUS, & AWE-INSPIRING IS THAT?!?

BUT, IN THIS MOMENT, SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT! IN THIS MOMENT, THERE’S MAJOR BLOCKAGES! IN THIS MOMENT HINDRANCES ARE ABOUNDING! IN THIS MOMENT, HEAVEN HAS CLOSED – & YOU KNOW IT!! THOMAS BENTON BROOKS WROTE: “GOD HEARS NO MORE THAN THE HEART SPEAKS; & IF THE HEART BE DUMB, GOD WILL CERTAINLY BE DEAF.”

SOMETIMES GOD IS DEAF TO OUR CRIES BECAUSE WE TREAT HIM LIKE “A COSMIC BELL-BOY”. SILENCE COMES FROM HEAVEN’S SIDE BECAUSE WE’VE SEEN HIM LIKE OUR PERSONAL ‘ERRAND-RUNNER’! SOMETIMES IT’S EXPECTATION APART FROM APPRECIATION! SOMETIMES IT’S EVEN EARNESTNESS WITHOUT ANY TRUE EXPRESSION OF FAITH! SOMETIMES IT’S AN INFREQUENT OR OCCASIONAL IMPULSE LIKE AN UNIMPORTANT CALL TO A DUTY THAT DOESN’T HAVE OUR HEARTS!

SOMETIMES IT’S PRESUMPTION OR ASSUMING THAT WE KNOW WHAT GOD MUST DO! SOMETIMES IT’S THE HIGH SOUNDS OF UNCEASING WORDS SEEKING ONLY TO GET GOD DOWN TO OUR POINT OF VIEW RATHER THAN SUBMISSION TO WHAT WE KNOW GOD WOULD HAVE US DO! SOMETIMES IT’S THE FINEST OF PHRASES, BUT EMPTY, BECAUSE IT’S HEARTLESS PRAYING RATHER THAN LAYING HOLD OF GOD HIMSELF & ALL HE IS!! 1 PETER 3:12 SAYS, “FOR THE EYES OF THE LORD ARE OVER THE RIGHTEOUS, & HIS EARS ARE OPEN UNTO THEIR PRAYERS: BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THEM THAT DO EVIL.” THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS SERIOUS CONFRONTATION BETWEEN A MAN CHOOSING TO SIN WILLFULLY & BETWEEN HOLY GOD THAT SEEKS THE ONE AFTER HIS OWN HEART & MIND!

“MAJOR HINDRANCES TO THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER”? FIRST, THERE IS THE MAJOR HINDRANCE OF A DIVIDED RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUSBANDS & WIVES!! READ 1 PETER 3:1-7, NOTING SPECIFICALLY VERSE 7, “THAT YOUR PRAYERS MAY NOT BE HINDERED,” WHICH IS NOT A STATEMENT ONLY FOR ‘HUSBANDS’. THE FIRST 6 VERSES ARE LAID OUT TO SHOW HOW A WIFE CAN BE THE BLOCKAGE TO ANSWERED PRAYER!

IF YOU READ THOSE SIX VERSES OVER & OVER AGAIN SEEKING TO HEAR WHAT GOD IS SAYING TO THE WOMAN ABOUT WHY HER PRAYERS ARE NOT ANSWERED, I BELIEVE YOU COULD SUM IT UP IN ONE WORD – “REBELLION”!! LISTEN TO DR.JOHN R.RICE, (IN “PRAYER”, SWORD OF THE LORD PUBLISHERS, P.281), “REBELLION IS THE SIN OF FALLEN ANGELS. REBELLION IS THE SIN WHICH DAMNS EVERY CHRIST-REJECTING SINNER. REBELLION AGAINST AUTHORITY IS THE HEART OF ALL CRIME, & EVERY CRIMINAL IN A PENITENTIARY HAS BEEN GUILTY FIRST, NOT OF MURDER, NOR OF THEFT, BUT HAS BEEN GUILTY FIRST OF REBELLION AGAINST AUTHORITY. THIS WAS THE SIN OF THE PRODIGAL SON. REBELLION IS THE VERY HEART OF ALL SIN. DEAR CHRISTIAN WIFE, GOD SAYS THAT IF YOU WILL NOT BE SUBJECT TO YOUR HUSBAND THAT YOUR PRAYERS ARE HINDERED.” SO TRUE!!

GOD DECLARES THROUGH PETER THAT YOUR HUSBAND IS NOT WON OVER BY OUTWARD BEAUTY ALONE, BUT (LISTEN!!), VERSE 4, “LET IT BE THE HIDDEN PERSON OF THE HEART, WITH THE INCORRUPTIBLE ORNAMENT OF A GENTLE & QUIET SPIRIT, “WHICH IS VERY PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD”.” BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN HUSBANDS ARE OFF THE HOOK BECAUSE THEY HAVE A REBELLIOUS WIFE. IT MAY BE THAT WIVES ‘REBEL’ AGAINST EVERYTHING THEIR HUSBANDS ARE NOT!

3 THINGS THAT GOD SAYS TO HUSBANDS: 1) “DWELL WITH THEM IN UNDERSTANDING”; IN OTHER WORDS, “LIVE WITH YOUR WIFE ACCORDING TO THE BIBLICAL KNOWLEDGE OF HEALTHY MARITAL BLISS & BLESSING”! FIND OUT FROM THE WORD OF GOD WHAT GOD EXPECTS OF YOU!

2) “GIVING HONOR TO THE WIFE, AS TO THE WEAKER VESSEL…” IT DOESN’T SAY SHE ‘IS’ THE WEAKER VESSEL! IN FACT, I’VE SEEN MANY WIVES FAR BEYOND THE STRENGTH OF HUSBANDS IN MANY AREAS. HE SAID: “…AS TO THE WEAKER VESSEL;” SHE’S LIKE PRICELESS CHINA OR CRYSTAL THAT MUST BE CAREFULLY CARED FOR! SHE’S NOT A FLOWER WITHOUT FRAGRANCE! SHE’S NOT A BODY WITHOUT A MIND! SHE’S NOT A PARTNER WITHOUT A CONTRIBUTION TO MAKE! MARTIN LUTHER ONCE WROTE: “EARTH HAS NOTHING MORE TENDER THAN A WOMAN’S HEART WHEN IT IS THE ABODE OF PIETY.” SO TRUE!

THOMAS OTWAY, IN “VENICE PRESERVED”, WROTE: “O WOMAN! LOVELY WOMAN! NATURE MADE YOU TO TEMPER MAN: WE HAD BEEN BRUTES WITHOUT YOU; ANGELS ARE PAINTED FAIR, TO LOOK LIKE YOU; THERE’S IN YOU ALL THAT WE BELIEVE OF HEAVEN, AMAZING BRIGHTNESS, PURITY, & TRUTH, ETERNAL JOY & EVERLASTING LOVE.” IT’S WHY, HUSBANDS, YOU GIVE YOUR WIFE HER HONOR! BUT TO KEEP YOU ‘HUMBLE’, LADIES, LISTEN TO SPURGEON: “GOD SAVE US ALL FROM WIVES WHO ARE ANGELS IN THE STREET, SAINTS IN THE CHURCH, & DEVILS AT HOME.”

3) “AS BEING HEIRS TOGETHER OF THE GRACE OF LIFE…”, A HUSBAND TAKING HIS PLACE AS THE WIFE TAKES HER PLACE! AND WITH JOSHUA, BECAUSE WE WANT OUR PRAYERS ANSWERED: “AS FOR ME & MY HOUSE, WE WILL (UNITEDLY) SERVE THE LORD!” DO YOU REMEMBER EPHESIANS 5:20? “FOR NO ONE EVER HATED HIS OWN FLESH, BUT NOURISHES & CHERISHES IT, ‘JUST AS THE LORD DOES THE CHURCH!’”

HOME DISTURBANCES HAMPER OUR PRAYER-LIVES! HOME DISCORD DISRUPTS EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH GOD! HOME DISTRESS CALLS FOR EMERGENCY S.O.S’S OF BROKEN REPENTANCE SO WE CAN REACH GOD! HOME DISUNITY MUDDIES THE WATERS OF TRYING TO REACH OUT TO GOD! HOME DIATRIBES SILENCES THE RESPONSE OF GOD! IT’S SERIOUS!! “THAT YOUR PRAYERS MAY NOT BE HINDERED!”

SECOND: THERE IS THE MAJOR HINDRANCE OF BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS OF BROTHERS IN CHRIST! LISTEN TO MATTHEW 5:23-24! “THEREFORE IF YOU BRING YOUR GIFT TO THE ALTAR, & THERE REMEMBER THAT YOUR BROTHER HAS SOMETHING AGAINST YOU…LEAVE YOUR GIFT THERE BEFORE THE ALTAR, & GO YOUR WAY. FIRST BE RECONCILED TO YOUR BROTHER, & THEN COME & OFFER YOUR GIFT.”

DO YOU REMEMBER WHY JESUS SAID OF ZACCHAEUS (LUKE 18:9), “TODAY SALVATION HAS COME TO THIS HOUSE”? WHY DID JESUS SAY IT? BECAUSE HE SAW AN OUTWARD DEMONSTRATION OF A TRUE INWARD RESPONSE. IN VERSE 8, ZACCHAEUS HAD SAID, “LOOK LORD, I GIVE HALF OF MY GOODS TO THE POOR; & IF I HAVE TAKEN ANYTHING FROM ANYONE BY FALSE ACCUSATION, I RESTORE FOUR-FOLD.”

IN MATTHEW 18:15 JESUS SAID: “MOREOVER ‘IF YOUR BROTHER SINS AGAINST YOU, GO & TELL HIM HIS FAULT BETWEEN YOU & HIM ALONE. IF HE HEARS YOU, YOU HAVE GAINED YOUR BROTHER.”

WELL, WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU GAINED? YOU’VE GAINED THE EAR OF GOD. YOU’VE GAINED THE OVERFLOWING HEART OF GOD WHO WANTS TO DO NOTHING BUT BLESS YOU. YOU’VE GAINED THE HELP & THE HAND OF MERCIFUL GOD!! IN PHILLIPIANS 2:3 PAUL SAID, “LET NOTHING BE DONE THROUGH SELFISH AMBITION OR CONCEIT, (KJV, ‘LET NOTHING BE DONE THROUGH STRIFE OR VAINGLORY’), BUT IN LOWLINESS OF MIND LET EACH ESTEEM OTHERS BETTER THAN HIMSELF.”

NOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY SOME DON’T HAVE THEIR PRAYERS ANSWERED? THEY SEE THEMSELVES BETTER THAN OTHERS, DESERVING MORE RESPECT, “BECAUSE”: “IT’S MY WAY COME HELL OR HIGH WATER; HOT WORDS OF A HEATED EVENT? & THEY DESERVED EVERY WORD! WRONGS ARE MEDALS I WEAR PROUDLY! GRUDGES ARE GOLDEN IN MY SCHEME OF THINGS! ANGER & REVENGE ARE JUSTIFIABLE ATTITUDES IN MY COSMIC CONSTITUTION! HATCHES ARE SO HELPFUL IN SELF-JUSTIFICATION!

THE COST OF HATRED IS NOT A HIGH PRICE TO PAY WHEN I’VE BEEN WRONGED! INJURING THE OFFENDER IS EXCUSABLE! SLIGHTING THE ONE WHO HAS HURT ME IS SANE! INDULGING UNFORGIVENESS IS A ‘VIRTUE’ OF TRUE MANHOOD, NOT A VICE! I DON’T MIND DE-CLAWING THE ‘LION-HEARTED’ & EXTRACTING HIS TEETH IF HE/SHE COMES AGAINST ME – DOESN’T HE/SHE KNOW WHO I AM?”

RECEIVE MATTHEW 6:14-15!! “FOR IF YOU FORGIVE MEN THEIR TRESPASSES, YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER WILL ALSO FORGIVE YOU..BUT IF YOU DO NOT FORGIVE MEN THEIR TRESPASSES, NEITHER WILL YOUR FATHER FORGIVE YOUR TRESPASSES.” IS THAT CLEAR TO YOU? THERE CAN NEVER BE AN OUNCE OF MISUNDERSTANDING BETWEEN YOU & A BROTHER IF YOU WANT YOUR PRAYERS ANSWERED!!

THIRD, THERE IS THE MAJOR HINDRANCE OF THE STRANGLING ATTITUDE OF UNFORGIVENESS! IN MATTHEW 6:12, AS JESUS TAUGHT HIS DISCIPLES, HE SAID: “AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE FORGIVE OUR DEBTORS…”. AND WHAT A CLASSIC TEACHING IS MATTHEW 18:21-35!! IT IS SO “LIFE-SHAKING”! IF THIS DOESN’T WAKE YOU UP ON YOUR PATH OF UNFORGIVENESS, “NOTHING WILL”!! IT SAYS: THEN PETER CAME TO JESUS SAYING, “LORD, HOW OFTEN SHALL MY BROTHER SIN AGAINST ME, & I SHOULD FORGIVE HIM?UNTIL SEVEN TIMES?”

JESUS SAID TO PETER: “I SAY NOT TO YOU, UNTIL SEVEN TIMES:BUT, UNTIL SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN. THEREFORE IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN LIKENED UNTO A CERTAIN KING, WHICH WOULD TAKE ACCOUNT OF HIS SERVANTS. AND WHEN HE HAD BEGUN TO RECKON, ONE WAS BROUGHT UNTO HIM, WHICH OWED HIM TEN THOUSAND TALENTS (OR $10 MILLION DOLLARS!!). BUT FORASMUCH AS HE HAD NOT TO PAY, HIS LORD COMMANDED HIM TO BE SOLD, & HIS WIFE, & CHILDREN, & ALL THAT HE HAD,AND PAYMENT TO BE MADE.

THE SERVANT THEREFORE FELL DOWN, & WORSHIPPED HIM,SAYING, LORD, HAVE PATIENCE WITH ME, & I WILL PAY YOU ALL. THEN THE LORD OF THAT SERVANT WAS MOVED WITH COMPASSION, & LOOSED HIM,&FORGAVE HIM THE DEBT. BUT THE SAME SERVANT WENT OUT, & FOUND ONE OF HIS FELLOWSERVANTS, WHICH OWED HIM AN HUNDRED PENCE ($18); & HE LAID HANDS ON HIM, & TOOK HIM BY THE THROAT, SAYING, PAY ME THAT WHICH YOU OWE.

AND HIS FELLOWSERVANT FELL DOWN AT HIS FEET, & BESOUGHT HIM, SAYING, HAVE PATIENCE WITH ME, & I’LL PAY YOU ALL. AND HE WOULD NOT: BUT WENT & CAST HIM INTO PRISON TILL HE SHOULD PAY THE DEBT. SO WHEN HIS FELLWSERVANTS SAW WHAT WAS DONE, THEY WERE VERY SORRY, & CAME & TOLD THEIR LORD ALL THAT WAS DONE.

THEN HIS LORD, AFTER THAT HE HAD CALLED HIM, SAID UNTO HIM, O YOU WICKED SERVANT. I FORGAVE YOU ALL THAT DEBT, BECAUSE YOU DESIRED IT OF ME; SHOULD YOU NOT ALSO HAVE HAD COMPASSION ON YOUR FELLOWSERVANT, EVEN AS I HAD PITY ON YOU? AND HIS LORD WAS WROTH (OR ANGRY!), & DELIVERED HIM TO THE TORMENTORS, TILL HE SHOULD PAY ALL THAT WAS DUE UNTO HIM. (CK.OUT MATTHEW 5:24 &6:14-15!). VERSE 35, SO LIKEWISE SHALL MY HEAVENLY FATHER DO ALSO UNTO YOU, IF YOU, FROM THE HEART, FORGIVE NOT ONE HIS BROTHER THEIR TRESPASSES.”

NO SUN SHOULD EVER SET UNTIL YOU’VE FORGIVEN EVERY OFFENSE. NO WEEK SHOULD EVER PASS UNTIL YOU’VE WILLFULLY FORGIVEN EVERY WRONG. NO MONTH SHOULD EVER END UNTIL THERE’S A MENDING OF ONE’S MESSES. NO YEAR SHOULD EVER FACE ITS LAST DAYS UNTIL YIELDEDNESS TO GOD’S WAYS HAVE FOUND F ULL FRUITION IN A TRUE DISCILE OF CHRIST!

MARK TWAIN PUT IT LIKE THIS: “FORGIVENESS IS THE FRAGRANCE THE VIOLET SHEDS ON THE HEEL THAT HAS CRUSHED IT.” I REMEMBER READING OF ONE LITTLE BOY WHO THOUGHT HE WAS REPEATING THE LORD’S PRAYER WHEN HE SAID: “AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO ARE DEAD AGAINST US.” I LOVE WHAT JAMES HILTON WROTE IN HIS “TIME & TIME AGAIN.” IT’S A CLASSIC! “IF YOU FORGIVE PEOPLE ENOUGH YOU BELONG TO THEM, & THEY TO YOU, WHETHER EITHER PERSON LIKES IT OR NOT – SQUATTER’S RIGHTS OF THE HEART.” AND WHEN FORGIVENESS BECOMES THE TESTIMONY OF YOUR WALK, GOD HAS EXERCISED HIS SQUATTER’S RIGHTS RIGHT IN YOUR HEART! BUT TO BE UNFORGIVING, & TRY TO PRAY, IT’S NOT THAT GOD WILL STAMMER – HE’LL BE SILENT!!

FOURTH, IS THE MAJOR HINDRANCE OF THE ‘ROBBING SPIRIT’ OF COVETOUSNESS OR GREED!! IN MALACHI 3:6-12 WE READ, “FOR I AM THE LORD, I CHANGE NOT; THEREFORE YOU SONS OF JACOB ARE NOT CONSUMED. EVEN FROM THE DAYS OF YOUR FATHERS YOU ARE GONE AWAY FROM MY ORDINANCES, & HAVE NOT KEPT THEM. RETURN UNTO ME, & I WILL RETURN TO YOU, SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS. BUT YOU SAID, WHEREIN SHALL WE RETURN?

WILL A MAN ROB GOD? YET YOU HAVE ROBBED ME. BUT YOU SAY, WHEREIN HAVE WE ROBBED YOU? IN TITHES & OFFERINGS! YOU ARE CURSED WITH A CURSE: FOR YOU HAVE ROBBED ME, EVEN THIS WHOLE NATION. BRING YOU ALL THE TITHES INTO THE STOREHOUSE, THAT THERE MAY BE MEAT IN MY HOUSE, & PROVE ME NOW HEREWITH, SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS, IF I WILL NOT OPEN THE WINDOWS OF HEAVEN, & POUR YOU OUT A BLESSING THAT THERE SHALL NOT BE ROOM ENOUGH TO RECEIVE IT.

AND I WILL REBUKE THE DEVOURER FOR YOUR SAKES, & HE SHALL NOT DESTROY THE FRUITS OF YOUR GROUND; NEITHER SHALL YOUR VINE CAST HER FRUIT BEFORE THE TIME IN THE FIELD, SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS. AND ALL NATIONS SHALL CALL YOU BLESSED; FOR YOU SHALL BE A DELIGHTSOME LAND, SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS.”

BUT, DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT CLOSING OUR HEARTS TO THE SPIRIT OF GIVING “TO GOD” CLOSES GOD’S HEART TO THE BLESSINGS HE WANTS TO BESTOW UPON THE CHEERFUL GIVER? AREN’T YOU AWARE THAT A COVETOUS MAN NEVER ‘HAS’ MONEY – IT HAS HIM! IN FACT COLOSSIANS 3:5 SPEAKS OF “GREED…WHICH IS IDOLATRY”!! IN YOUR LIFETIME HAVEN’T YOU WITNESSED THE BLESSED DISCIPLE FINANCIALLY WHO HAS TURNED INWARD ON HIMSELF & WHAT HE HAS BECOMES A CURSE RATHER THAN A BLESSING?

ROBERT SOUTH WROTE THAT “COVETOUSNESS IS BOTH THE BEGINNING & THE END OF THE DEVIL’S ALPHABET – THE FIRST VICE IN CORRUPT NATURE THAT MOVES, & THE LAST WHICH DIES.” IN LUKE 12:15 JESUS SAID, “TAKE HEED, BEWARE OF COVETOUSNESS; FOR A MAN’S LIFE DOES NOT CONSIST IN THE ABUNDANCE OF THE THINGS WHICH HE POSSESSES.” HOW COULD WE EVER FORGET ACHAN? A LONG TIME AGO I DID A MESSAGE ENTITLED “THE CONSEQUENCES OF BURIED SIN”. IT RELATED TO HOW ONE MAN’S SIN OF GREED & COVETOUSNESS WITHHELD THE BLESSING OF GOD UPON ALL HIS PEOPLE!

RECEIVE JOSHUA 7:21! “WHEN I SAW AMONG THE SPOILS A BEAUTIFUL BABYLONIAN GARMENT, I COVETED THEM & TOOK THEM. AND THERE THEY ARE, HIDDEN IN THE EARTH IN THE MIDST OF MY TENT WITH THE SILVER UNDER IT.” POSSESSING OR BEING POSSESSED BY ALL THE WEALTH OF THE WORLD IS NOT WORTH HAVING TO EXPERIENCE THE SILENCE & SEPARATION FROM GOD IF “SILVER OR GOLD” HAS THE MIND & HEART BUT NOT TOTALLY YIELDED TO GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY & SAVING GRACE THROUGH CHRIST ALONE!

IT’S AN AMAZING STATEMENT THAT THERE ARE MEN WHO HAVE NO GUILT AT ALL IN ACTUALLY “ROBBING GOD”. OH, YOU MAY FEEL SECURE IN YOUR SELFISHNESS WITHHOLDING FROM GOD, BUT THAT SENSE OF SECURITY IS G OING TO F ADE AWA Y IN A FLASH WHEN GOD ARISES BEFORE YOU TO SAY TO YOU, “I AM THE SAME – I DO NOT CHANGE!”

LISTEN TO THIS NOW DEPARTED SAINT: “…THOSE WHO SING, “OH, HOW I LOVE JESUS”, BUT DO NOT LOVE HIM A DIME’S WORTH OUT OF A DOLLAR WILL NOT GET FAR IN THEIR PRAYING. IF YOU CANNOT TRUST GOD TO SUPPLY YOUR NEED & TO REPAY YOU FOR ALL THE TITHES & OFFERINGS YOU BRING IN FOR HIM, YOU HAVE NOT MUCH FAITH.”

FIFTH, EXAMINE THE MAJOR HINDRANCE OF THE DESTRUCTIVE TRACK ONE WALKS ON IN DISOBEDIENCE, ROTTENING REBELLION, & A STRONG SELF-WILL RATHER THAN DAILY YIELDEDNESS TO THE KING OF KINGS!! IN 1 SAMUEL 15:22-23 WE READ, “HAS THE LORD AS GREAT DELIGHT IN BURNT OFFERINGS & SACRIFICES, AS IN OBEYING THE VOICE OF THE LORD? BEHOLD, TO OBEY IS BETTER THAN SACRIFICE, & TO HEED THAN THE FAT OF RAMS…FOR REBELLION IS AS THE SIN OF WITCHCRAFT, & STUBBORNNESS IS AS INIQUITY & IDOLATRY. BECAUSE YOU HAVE REJECTED THE WORD OF THE LORD, HE ALSO HAS REJECTED YOU FROM BEING KING.”

I REMEMBERED, AS I WAS WRITING THIS MESSAGE, A COMMENT I HAD MADE ON PRAYER, THAT THE ONLY PRAYER GOD HEARS FROM A SIN-DARKENED HEART IS THE CRY OF REPENTANCE.THAT HASN’T CHANGED. I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT SAUL WANTED TO PRAY TO GOD, EVEN WITH SAMUEL, BUT SAMUEL KNEW SAUL’S ONLY INTEREST WAS PERSONAL HONOR BEFORE HIS PEOPLE, NOT THE HONOR OF GOD ALONE! IN FACT, VERSE 30 SAYS, “I HAVE SINNED; YET HONOR ME NOW, PLEASE, BEFORE THE ELDERS OF MY PEOPLE & BEFORE ISRAEL…”. THAT’S WHAT ‘REBELLION’ IS ALL ABOUT: SELF-INTEREST, SELF-CONCERN, SELF-CONSIDERATION, SELF-DOMINATION, SELF-THOUGHTS, SELF-WILL, SELF-DESIRES, SELF-SERVING, SELF-SEEKING! CAN YOU HEAR OR SENSE THE SPIRIT OF THAT?

AND IF ONE PRAYS WITH THAT ATTITUDE, WHAT’S THE END RESULT OF IT? SILENCE –TOTAL SILENCE. THE ‘DEAFENED EARS’ OF GOD THAT DO HEAR ARE OVERRIDDEN & CLOSED BY STUBBORN HEARTS & REBELLIOUS WILLS! THOMAS ERSKINE WROTE: “MOST MEN ARE SO POSSESSED BY THEMSELVES THAT THEY HAVE NO VACUUM INTO WHICH GOD’S DEEP WATER MAY RISE.”

WHY DID JESUS DIE? LISTEN TO 2 COR. 5:15! “AND HE DIED FOR ALL, THAT THOSE WHO LIVE SHOULD “NO LONGER LIVE FOR THEMSELVES, BUT FOR HIM WHO DIED & ROSE AGAIN.” WE ARE NOT LIVING FOR THE LORD WHEN WE’RE SO CONSUMED WITH OURSELVES EVEN WHILE WE PRAY!

SIXTH, THERE IS THE MAJOR HINDRANCE OF ADVERSE ACTION OF ALWAYS ASKING AMISS! NEVER FORGET JAMES 4:1-3! “WHERE DO WARS & FIGHTS COME FROM AMONG YOU? DO THEY NOT COME FROM YOUR DESIRES FOR PLEASURE THAT WAR IN YOUR MEMBERS?. YOU LUST & DO NOT HAVE. YOU MURDER & COVET & CANNOT OBTAIN. YOU FIGHT & WAR. YET YOU DO NOT HAVE BECAUSE YOU DO NOT ASK…YOU ASK & DO NOT RECEIVE, BECAUSE YOU ASK AMISS, THAT YOU MAY SPEND IT ON YOUR PLEASURES.”

WHAT DID IT SAY? “YOU ASK, & DO NOT RECEIVE, BECAUSE YOU ASK AMISS…!” “AMISS”? IT COMES FROM A ROOT WORD MEANING, (LISTEN!), DISEASED, EVIL, GRIEVOUSLY, MISERABLY, SICK, & SORE!! IN PSALM 2:8 GOD SAID, “ASK OF ME, & I WILL GIVE YOU THE NATIONS FOR YOUR INHERITANCE, & THE ENDS OF THE EARTH FOR YOUR POSSESSION.”

JUST THINK OF THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE HEART OF GOD & HIS DESIRE TO BLESS & THE HEART OF A MAN, EVEN IN ASKING GOD, TO HELP HIM BUILD HIS OWN MISERABLE KINGDOM OF ‘FLESH’, PERSONAL PLEASURES, & A SICK ‘SELF-CENTERED EGO’! I THINK I UNDERSTAND WHAT & WHY JESUS SAID IN MATTHEW 21:13, “MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER, BUT YOU HAVE MADE IT INTO A DEN OF THIEVES!” FENELON ONCE WROTE: “TO PRAY…IS TO DESIRE, BUT IT IS TO DESIRE WHAT GOD WOULD HAVE US DESIRE. HE WHO DESIRES NOT FROM THE BOTTOM OF HIS HEART , OFFERS A DECEITFUL PRAYER.” (AND I WOULD ONLY ADD: “WHO DESIRES, NOT FROM THE BOTTOM & TOP OF GOD’S HEART, BUT ASSUREDLY OFFERS A DECEITFUL PRAYER FROM SELF-INTEREST ALONE, NOT GOD’S GLORY!).

SEVENTH, THERE IS THE MAJOR HINDRANCE OF THE DEADENING DOUBT OF A DIVIDED HEART! JAMES 1:6-8 SAYS, “BUT LET HIM ASK IN FAITH, WITH NO DOUBTING, FOR HE WHO DOUBTS IS LIKE A WAVE OF THE SEA DRIVEN & TOSSED BY THE WIND…LET NOT THAT MAN SUPPOSE THAT HE WILL RECEIVE ANYTHING FROM THE LORD; HE IS A DOUBLE-MINDED MAN, UNSTABLE IN ALL HIS WAYS.”

LET ME GIVE YOU TWO STATEMENTS FROM ANONYMOUS WRITERS: 1) “DOUBT DIGS THE GRAVE OF FAITH.” THAT’S WHY JESUSAID TO PETER IN MATTHEW 14:31, “O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH, WHY DID YOU DOUBT?” JESUS WASAYING, ‘WHY DOUBT? EVEN WHILE YOU’RE SINKING – I’M HERE!” 2) “DOUBTERS INVERT THE METAPHOR & INSIST THAT THEY NEED FAITH AS BIG AS A MOUNTAIN IN ORDER TO MOVE A MUSTARD SEED.” ISN’T THAT SO OFTEN TRUE?

DO “YOU” REALLY BELIEVE NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD? DO WE REALLY BELIEVE & TRUST THAT HE “IS ABLE TO DO EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL WE ASK OR THINK”? SPURGEON PREACHED: “IT IS NEVER WORTH WHILE TO MAKE RENTS IN A GARMENT FOR THE SAKE OF MENDING THEM, NOR TO CREATE DOUBTS IN ORDER TO SHOW HOW CLEVERLY WE CAN QUIET THEM.”

DOUBT IN A DIVIDED HEART IS TYRANNY AGAINST GOD! DOUBT IN A DIVIDED HEART IS A CRUEL TASK MASTER! DOUBT IN A DIVIDED H EART IS ANOTHER EXPRESSION OF COWARDICE – FEARFUL TO STAND FOR THE TRUTH! DOUBT IN A DIVIDED HEART IS SELF-BURIAL IN A ROTTING GRAVE! DOUBT IN A DIVIDED HEART IS THE PRESENT ‘HELL’ OF A HUMAN SOUL! SOREN KIERKEGAARED PUT IT LIKE THIS: “THE METHOD WHICH BEGINS BY DOUBTING IN ORDER TO PHILOSOPHIZE IS JUST AS SUITED TO ITS PURPOSE AS MAKING A SOLDIER LIE DOWN IN A HEAP IN ORDER TO TEACH HIM TO STAND UP STRAIGHT!”

I DON’T WANT TO LIVE IN DOUBT – I WANT TO LIVE IN FAITH! I DON’T WANT TO LIVE IN FEAR – I WANT TO LIVE IN TRUSTING GOD! I DON’T WANT TO LIVE IN UNBELIEF – I WANT TO LIVE IN CONFI DENCE & ASSURTANCE THAT I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED, & THAT I’M PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE – WHATEVER – HE IS ABLE!

EIGHTH,THERE IS THE MAJOR HINDRANCE OF DEAFENED EARS THAT CAN SO EASILY & CONVENIENTLY NEGLECT GOD’S MERCY & GRACE! IN PROVERBS 21:13 WE READ, “WHOEVER SHUTS HIS EARS TO THE CRY OF THE POOR WILL ALSO CRY HIMSELF & NOT BE HEARD.” IS THAT PLAIN? IS THAT CLEAR TO YOU? IS THAT UNDERSTANDABLE TO YOU? IN ZECHARIA 7 THE LORD HAS BEEN TALKING ABOUT SHOWING MERCY & COMPASSION, NOT OPPRESSING THE WIDOW OR THE FATHERLESS OR THE ALIEN OR THE POOR OR YOUR OWN BROTHER. BUT HIS PEOPLE “REFUSED TO HEED; SHRUGGED THEIR SHOULDERS, & STOPPED THEIR EARS SO THAT THEY COULD NOT HEAR.” VERSE 13 THEN SAYS: “THEREFORE IT HAPPENED, THAT JUST AS GOD PROCLAIMED & THEY WOULD NOT HEAR (THE CRIES OF THE NEEDY), “SO THEY CALLED OUT & I WOULD NOT LISTEN, SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS.”

WHAT DID JESUS SAY IN MATTHEW 25:41-46? THEN SHALL HE SAY UNTO THEM (GOATS?) ON THE LEFT HAND, DEPART FROM ME YOU CURSED, INTO EVERLASTING FIRE, PREPARED FOR THE DEVIL & HIS ANGELS. FOR I WAS HUNGERED & YOU GAVE ME NO MEAT: I WAS THIRSTY, & YOU GAVE ME NO DRINK.I WAS A STRANGER, & YOU TOOK ME NOT IN; NAKED, & YOU CLOTHED ME NOT; SICK, & IN PRISON, & YOU VISITED ME NOT.

THEN SHALL THEY ALSO ANSWER HIM, SAYING, LORD, WHEN SAW WE YOU AS HUNGRY, OR THIRSTY, OR A STRANGER, OR NAKED,OR SICK,OR IN PRISON, & DID NOT MINISTER UNTO YOU? THEN SHALL JESUS ANSWER THEM SAYING, VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, INASMUH AS YOU DID IT NOT TO ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE , YOU DID IT NOT TO ME. AND THESE SHALL GO AWAY INTO EVER;LASTING PUNISHMENT: BUT THE RIGHTEOUS INTO LIFE ETERNAL.” WOW! WHAT WORDS OF CONVICTION & INSPIRATION!!

NINTH, OH, PLEASE NOTICE: THE MAJOR HINDRANCE OF DEAFENED EAR S TO THE WORD OF GOD!! PROVERBS 28:9 SAYS, “ONE WHO TURNS AWAY HISEAR FROM HEARING (GOD’S WORD!) THE LAW, EVEN HIS PRAYER SHALL BE AN ABOMINATION.” BUT!! WHAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF THAT? PSALM 1:1-3 SAYS, “BLESSED IS THE MAN THAT WALKS NOT IN THE COUNSEL OF THE UNGODLY, NOR STANDS IN THE WAY OF SINNERS, NOR SITS IN THE SEAT OF THE SCORNFUL. BUT HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE LAW OF THE LORD; & IN HIS LAW DOES HE MEDITATE DAY & NIGHT. AND HE SHALL BE LIKE A TREE PLANTED BY THE RIVERS OF WATER, THAT BRINGS FORTH HIS FRUIT IN HIS EASON; HIS LEAF ALSO SHALL NOT WITHER; & WHATEVER HE DOES SHALL PROSPER.” WHAT A HOLY INSPIRING WORD OF GOD!

IN JOHN 15:7 JESUS CHALLENGED US: “IF YOU ABIDE IN ME, & MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, YOU SHALL ASK WHAT YOU WILL, & IT SHALL BE DONE UNTO YOU.” HOW ARE “YOU” EVER GOING TO PLEASE GOD IF YOU HAVE NO PLEASURE IN THE POWER OF HIS HOLY WORD? WHAT DID JEREMIAH SAY? “YOUR WORDS WERE FOUND & THEY BECAME THE JOY & THE REJOICING OF MY HEART”, BUT FOR A MAN WHO SHUNS GOD’S WORD? – SILENCE FROM THE THRONE!!

TENTH, THERE IS THE ETERNAL HINDRANCE OF UNCONFESSED SIN THAT CLOSES HEAVEN’S GATES!! YOU KNOW WHAT IT SAYS, PSALM 66:18, “IF I REGARD INIQUITY IN MY HEART, “THE LORD WILL NOT HEAR.” DR. RICE ALSO STATED (P.305), “…IT IS NOT PRIMARILY THE FACT OF SIN, BUT IT IS A LOVE FOR SIN, A WILLINGNESS TO SIN, AN EXCUSING OF SIN THAT MAKES IT SO GOD CANNOT ANSWER OUR PRSAYERS.” AND DR. RICE IS CORRECT!! GOD SAYS: 2 CHRONICLES 7:14, “IF MY PEOPLE, WHICH ARE C ALLED BY MY NAME, SHALL HUMBLE THEMSELVES, & PRAY, & SEEK MY FACE, & TURN FROM THEIR WICKED WAYS: THEN WILL I HEAR FROM HEAVEN, & WILL FORGIVE THEIR SIN, & HEAL THEIR LAND.” 1 JOHN 1:9 DECLARES, “IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS, HE IS F AITHFUL & JUST TO FORGIVES US OUR SINS, & TO CLEANSE US FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.”

IN THE OLD “AMERICAN HYMNAL”, PUBLISHED IN 1933 BY THE BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN., IS THE HYMN ENTITLED “AT THE CROSS”, (P.41), BY ISAAC WATTS & R.E,HUDSON. IT SAYS: “ALAS, & DID MY SAVIOR BLEED? & DID MY SOVEREIGN DIE? WOULD HE DEVOTE THAT SACRED HEAD FOR SUCH A WORM AS I?

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

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

BUT DROPS OF GRIEF CAN NE’ER REPAY THE DEBT OF LOVE I OWE: HERE, LORD, I GIVE MYSELF AWAY, IT’S ALL THAT I CAN DO!

AT THE CROSS, AT THE CROSS WHERE I FIRST SAW HE LIGHT, & THE BURDEN OF MY HEART ROLLED AWAY THERE BY FAITH I RECEIVED MY SIGHT, & NOW I AM HAPPY ALL THE DAY! AMEN?

JUNE 24-25, 2018, by J.Farrell Fisher

In Kurt Bruner’s book entitled “Inklings of God”, between his introduction and Chapter One, he recorded a statement of H.W. Webb-Peploe; it was: “Joy is not gush; joy is not jolliness. Joy is perfect acquiescence in God’s will because the soul delights itself in God Himself.”

And I certainly agree, but must add: “Joy is a fruit of the Spirit as the Holy Spirit unveils Christ fully to us, blessing us with our Lord and Savior’s gracious giftings, for those who desire to BE “the Potter’s House”!” Yet, I am afraid that there are those ‘believers’ (?) who are naïve to the spiritual dynamics of a Spirit-birthed, Spirit-presence, Spirit-guidance, AND Spirit-empowerment of a disciple’s pilgrimage! For many ‘Christian believers’ it’s as if the Holy Spirit doesn’t exist and isn’t necessary for the “illumination of true salvation ‘in Christ’!”

Plus, are there options ‘professing believers’ hold, or dismiss, related to Holy Spirit giftings, since ‘in and of themselves’ they sense no need of a ‘higher power’ to guide their spiritual pilgrimage: “We’re capable without the Spirit’s oversight”? Isn’t there in many ‘disciples’ a spiritual state of faith in living with a ‘spirit’ of ‘naivety’, void of Holy Spirit instruction, and unveiling of the ‘spirit-life’, a ‘journey’, a spiritual pilgrimage, apart from THE indwelling Holy Spirit who IS called our “Guide”, our “Tutor”, our “Equipper”, who is able to do, in us, exceedingly abundant and beyond what we dream or think to be possible in the spiritual journey of faith, obedience, and “Christ-revealing discipleship”!

Please understand! The Holy Spirit even begins the opening of our understanding of, yes, the “need” of trusting Christ’s saving grace, convicting us, appropriating for us and awareness of His eternal forgiveness of our sin and sin nature within us, and desiring to “open” the doors of our hearts to Christ so He may establish the Holy Temple in a repentant heart in eternal partnership with the Holy Spirit! Has He: “knocked”, but you didn’t truly “open the door” for His entrance IN YOU as His earthly dwelling, you “Choosing God In Christ”?!? Didn’t Jesus say, “I and My Father are one”? And dare I tell you? Believe I will! There IS NO choosing God in Christ for His graciousness and kindness and mercy apart from the Holy Spirit “guiding us into all Truth” under Father-God’s anointing of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s “conviction”, “converting”, “transforming”, “INDWELLING”, and “divine-fruit-bearing”!!

Highly interesting words from King Jesus when in Matthew 7:13-14 He said: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Later, in Verses 21-23, the Lord Jesus said:

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven (on earth!!!!), but he who DOES THE WILL of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And THEN I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”

Have you ever heard ‘professing believers’ say to you: “It’s OK, I’m OK, even though as a ‘believer’ (?) I still live with a bent toward and an appreciation for my old sin nature and sin often, but I thank God He doesn’t see or hold me accountable any longer, because ‘I believe in Jesus’ mercy’.” Really? It’s in John 8:11 where Christ Jesus said to the former, but redeemed adulteress woman, “Go, and sin no more.” A suggestion or a biblical command?

Jesus says: “Sin no more”! – And that’s because the Lord Jesus says, “Sin no more!” “Sin no more” because Christ Jesus KNOWS what willful sin does in the human soul, human life, AND to the human body! “Sin no more” because willful sin ‘promotes’ and honors ‘fleshliness’ and the old sin nature, AND “IS NOT” THE “NEW LIFE OF LIBERTY AND FREEDOM AND UNVEILING OF THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF DIVINE, HOLY LIVING”, honoring God alone, without a silly ounce of ‘sinful-self-acceptance and sinful -self-appreciation’! THAT WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST AT THE CROSS!

In John 8:12 the Lord Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me SHALL NOT WALK IN DARKNESS, BUT HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE.” Darkness? “Falling short of the glory of God”! Darkness? “Choosing sin in place of the Light of heavenly glory”! Darkness? Leaning on Lucifer’s lie rather than TRUSTING in the Lord’s Truth! Darkness? Settling to co-mingle spiritual death with spiritual life, hoping, in time, maybe, the “Life” will crowd out the “spiritual death”! Darkness? Flawed, scarred, dis-eased nature, a world-spirit of rebellion against God, but convinced the Holy Spirit world overlooks one’s own rebellion because “he, she, at least tries to overcome it, as he, she does her ‘best’ in both worlds he/she has chosen to “live” in”! Really?

Dare I tell you? “There is no ‘broad-mindedness’ in the true disciple’s eternal world that allows his indulgence in ‘flesh’ or one’s ‘crucified sin-nature’ while he/she professes devotion to the Spirit-world of King Jesus!” That’s like the “fallen humanity’s belief” that marriage to one wife or one husband doesn’t exclude sexual indulgence with another woman or man at the same time. But, yes, we live in the time period of the ‘modern-day’ Christian world where “anything goes”, even contradiction to the revealed will, way, and Word of faith! Do you understand? If you accept, “anything goes in my Christian world if it gives me pleasure and satisfaction”, unaware that is ‘professing’ allegiance to death’s ways, not to Jesus, “the Way” – which means, the world of one’s compromising ‘old man’ or ‘sinful self’ opens the door to God’s condemnation!

IF THERE IS ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM, what happens if I devote myself to a religious world which is nothing more than man’s creation, fallen man’s creation, of a great, enlarged spiritual smorgasbord, that gives me options in ‘legitimate faiths’ to choose from? Dare I tell you? Believe I will: There are ‘religious choices of pickles’- (Sour pickles at best!), while God unveils “THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE”, whose name is the Lord Jesus Christ! There is no other redeeming faith – it’s Jesus Only!! “Pickles or The Pearl of Great Price”?

Most ‘religious activities’, non-inclusive of the Resurrected, Reigning, Royal Christ Jesus, are mythical ‘ideas’ (man-birthed) in order to better align his/her life with his/her ‘best’ of fleshly hopes, sensual dreams, and ‘self-motivated ‘religious’ ideals and tendencies, leaving God in Christ Jesus still ‘up’ on His Throne, not reigning in their hearts! (Doesn’t it ‘shock’ you when you hear some people or read about them in their ‘informative writings’ or newspaper articles asserting their ‘religious activity’, void of even the mention of Christ’s Name and purpose through the Cross and Empty tomb because, “our best at being ‘religious’ is all a true, living God expects”, like those who assert that “Your ‘holy God’ is (as Kurt Bruner wrote about), exposing ‘fleshly, religious ideals’, that “God is not a personal, loving father. He/She/It is the cosmic oneness we all inhabit, not God in flesh – ‘He is one of many enlightened ones who invite us to discover our higher selves.” (Bruner’s book, “Inklings of God”, p.167). He said also, indicting the religious, care-free world void of God’s love:

“Ours is not a world of fallen, sinful men and women. Ours is a world of men and women who have forgotten their true goodness – and their true goodness, learning to lean on our higher consciousness.” The ‘god’ or ‘gods’ of fallen man’s religious activities reveal the depths of their “fallen-away-faith”, being more and more of “satanic lies” and “warped, fleshly, religious ‘best’”, and a “spiritually dead world’s ‘higher concepts’ of ‘a true god’,” but sadly void of “saving grace, the Master’s mercy, and the height and extent of God’s Calvary Love, Grace, and Meaningful Power in Resurrection Life and Resurrection – Never-Fading Hope”!!

Do you remember Joshua gathering “all the tribes of Israel together with their leaders, their judges, and their officers”, exposing their religious indifference to the purpose of God? In Joshua 24:14-15 he said: (The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, Copyright,1964, B.B. Kirkbridge Com., Inc.), “Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served…;and serve the Lord. And if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve; whether the gods which your (worldly) fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites (or the Americans) in whose land you dwell; BUT as for me and my house, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”

I think it’s absolutely essential that I have you to read also Deuteronomy 29:14-20! It says: “Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that stands here with us this day before the Lord our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day: (For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which passed you by; And you have seen their abominations and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)

Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; and it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst; The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord, and His jealousy shall smoke against that man,,. And all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven.” Does that sound serious to you? At the same time, IS THERE HOPE?

In Psalm 1:1-3 the psalmist wrote: “Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law he meditates day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper.” HEAR ME!!

“CHOOSE GOD ‘IN CHRIST” BECAUSE “IN HIM” WE ARE “GRACED”!! Notice, rejoice in, rest in, Romans 5:18-6:1-3, 5-12, and Verse 14!

Romans 5:18-21! “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the FREE GIFT CAME TO ALL MEN, resulting in justification of life. (So, all men then are “saved, born again, guaranteed eternal life”! “NO! Ten thousand times ‘NO!”).

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous. Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, GRACE abounded MUCH MORE, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 6:1-3, 5-12, and Verse 14! “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Verses 5-12, “For IF we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, KNOWING THIS, that our old (sin-natured) man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he WHO HAS DIED has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin ONCE FOR ALL; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore DO NOT LET SIN REIGN IN YOUR MORTAL BODY, that you should obey it in its lusts.” Are YOU “graced” in Christ?

“CHOOSE GOD ‘IN CHRIST’ BECAUSE “IN HIM” WE ARE SOVEREIGNLY GUARDED! I want you to come with me to 2 Corinthians 1:18-22!! Paul wrote: “But as God is true, our word toward you was not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no, but in Him was YES! For all the promises of God in Christ are yes, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now He which establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us is God; Who has also SEALED US and GIVEN US THE EARNEST (or guarantee) of the Spirit in our hearts.” Are YOU GUARDED?

“CHOOSE GOD ‘IN CHRIST’ BECAUSE “IN HIM” WE ARE SUPERBLY AND FAITHFULLY “GUIDED”!! In “A song and psalm of the sons of Korah”, Psalm 48:14, we read: “For this is God; our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.”

How encouraged are you when in Hebrews 13:5b you read: “For He Himself (Holy God!) has said: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Glory!

The old hymn by William Williams and Thomas Hastings, in the very old “The Broadman Hymnal” (pps 181-182) says: “Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim thro’ this barren land; I am weak, but You are mighty, Hold me with Your powerful hand: Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more; Bread of Heaven, Feed me till I want no more.

Open now the crystal fountain Where the healing waters flow; Let the fiery, cloudy pillar Lead me all my journey through; Strong Deliverer, You BE still my Strength and Shield; Strong Deliverer, You BE still my Strength and Shield.

When I tread the verge of Jordan (that’s “facing my death”!), Bid my anxious fears subside; Bear me through the swelling current, Land me safe on Canaan’s side; Songs of praises I will ever give to You; Songs of praises I will ever give to You.”

“CHOOSE GOD ‘IN CHRIST’ BECAUSE “IN HIM” WE ARE SACREDLY AND SOLEMNLY AND SONGFULLY GIFTED!! In Psalm 68:19-20, 32-35, we read: “Blessed be the Lord, who DAILY loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation! Our God is the God of (true) salvation; AND to God the Lord belong escapes from death.

Verses 32-35 says, “Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth; Oh, sing praises to the Lord, To Him who rides on the heaven of heavens, which were of old! Indeed He sends out His voice, a mighty voice. Ascribe strength to God; His excellence is over Israel, and His strength is in the clouds. O God, You are more awesome than Your holy places. The God of Israel is He who gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God!”

Are YOU rejoicing in “the gift of gladness”? How about “the gift of amazing grit”? And do you live by “the gift of the amazing grasp of holy understanding of His will, His Word, and His ways”?

Maybe you need to sing day by day, “Jesus, be Jesus in me, No longer me, but Thee, Resurrection power, Fill me this hour, Jesus, be Jesus in me”! HAVE YOU “CHOSEN” THIS HOUR FOR JESUS TO BE JESUS IN YOU?

You’ll remember, no doubt, that in Luke 18:1 Jesus spoke to His disciples after the Pharisees had asked Him about the coming of the Kingdom of God, and said to them [and us!], Then He spoke a parable to them, that “MEN ALWAYS OUGHT TO PRAY AND NOT LOSE HEART, SAYING…”, and He illuminated the importance, the necessity, the faithful ‘heart-cries’ unto God, like the prayers of desperation of the widow who knew that in her life there was no hope except in the loving, caring, merciful God, who gives His kingdom-rule and presence, like “little children” who trust, lean, and depend upon Him ALONE!

Do you realize, comprehend, or discern why many “church-goers” are like many “American voters”, confused with true allegiance to “religion over relationship,” or “pretense over possession”, or a “fleshly substitute over the spiritual reality of you ‘must be born again’”, or “surrender to Christ’s Lordship”, or “yielded-ness to Resurrection Presence”?

In my Random House Collegiate Dictionary (1975, Random House Inc.), I read about “mountain-sickness” and wondered if that is illustrating many poor, praying, professing disciples of the Lord Jesus! It says: “Mountain sickness” is defined as: “a condition characterized by difficult breathing, headache, nausea etc. caused by the RAREFACTION OF THE AIR AT HIGH ALTITUDES.” “RAREFACTION? – “extremely high or elevated; lofty; exalted: rarefied thinking, understanding, or rarefied art”!!!

Have YOU ever heard that “prayer” or “the wings of prayer carrying one high and far” – even into the presence of Holy God and His Throne”? In Matthew 5:1, as Jesus saw the masses, the multitudes following Him, “He WENT UP ON A MOUNTAIN…” like, Exodus 19:3? “And Moses went UP to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, Saying…”! “Mountainous Experiences”? Mountainous experiences like “prayer”?

Several months ago I read Eric Metaxas’ book, “Miracles”, [Copyright@ 2014 by Metaxas Media,LLC], and in his ‘preface’ before his own Introduction, he quoted G.K. Chesterton, from his book “Orthodoxy”, saying: “But my belief that miracles have happened in human history is not a mystical belief at all; I believe in them upon human evidences as I do in the discovery of America.” Do I believe in the “miracles” of prayer? Just as assuredly as I believe in the historical discovery of our great nation”. Chesterton went on to say, “That is, you either deny the main principle of democracy, or you affirm the main principle of materialism – the abstract impossibility of a miracle. You have a perfect right to do so; but in that case you are the dogmatist. It is we Christians who accept all actual evidence – it is you rationalists who refuse actual evidence being constrained to do so by your creed.” [Would that be the “creed of self-actualization” apart from the need of any divine intervention?]. Chesterton went on: “But I am not constrained by any creed in the matter, and looking impartiality into certain miracles of medieval and modern times, I have come to the conclusion that they occurred.”

Have YOU come to the conclusion in the 21^st Century that Holy God is still the God who hears and answers your prayers, with miracles or without one in your journey?

Oh, and then, in his “Introduction”, Eric Metaxas wrote, “Most readers will consider this volume a departure from my previous oeuvre , ‘the works of a writer, painter, or the like, taken as a whole,’ (Random House College Dictionary, 1975, Random House Inc.), and from my recent biographies it is certainly a departure. In fact, the subjects of those books, William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, do not seem to have had any experiences that could be described as miraculous, at least not in the sense of that word as it is used in this book. Their deeply inspiring lives – their extraordinary actions and accomplishments – were manifestly fueled by their passionate faith in the God of the Bible, yet we have no record of that God speaking to them or revealing Himself to them in any ways that would qualify for mention in a book like this SO perhaps we should let their exemplary lives stand as evidence that one can have a world-changing and even saintly life of faith without miraculous experiences,” which I too believe to be true, but not apart from the “prayer-life and ministry”, which should be the testimony of every true disciple!

In fact, please remember Christ Jesus, in Matthew 5:1, “went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him,” and He shared the blessed “Beatitudes”, but went on in Matthew 6:5-13, saying, “And WHEN YOU PRAY, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward ( what’s that? “seen of men” but not by God!). But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. [Isn’t that amazing to you? Jesus acknowledged that ‘heathen’ pray, even though with vain repetitions!]. For they THINK that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore, do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one (Satan). For Yours is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory forever. Amen.”

Do YOU understand, grasp, and live by the inevitable, unceasing, empowering ‘heart-cry’ of the truly transformed? Psalm 145 is David’s song of prayer and praise to the Holy God of majesty and indescribable, unending, deserving worship, and never-ending availability to the humble, needy, yielded vessel of true faith and blood redemption! It says:

“I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever, (just not today?) (No!). Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable (Maybe even “indescribable”?). One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.

I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness. They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy.

The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works. [Are YOU one of His works?]. All Your works shall praise You, O Lord, and Your saints (those “set apart” to His honor and praise!) shall bless You. They SHALL SPEAK OF THE GLORY OF YOUR KINGDOM, and talk of Your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. {Under God’s “Heaven on earth, what have YOU been waiting for, looking for, or hoping for ‘someday’ out there in “the sweet by and by”, when the Word declares His kingdom rule is for here and now in all true believers’ lives, whether they know it or not!!!}

King David went on in Verses 13-21, Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord upholds (even) all who fall, and raises up all who are bowed down (ever been bowled over, bowed down by “tribulations” that Jesus said you would experience in your world, but, you realize, you know, you are not to “Lean to your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him”, giving Him room to be Himself, in you and through you”! David went on:

The eyes of all look expectantly to You, and You give them their food in due season. You open Your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in ALL HIS WAYS, gracious in ALL HIS WORKS. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and save them.

THE LORD PRESERVES ALL WHO LOVE HIM, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh shall bless His holy name forever and ever. “ { And “all flesh” praises Him forever, even if it’s while bound in Hell!}.

Psalm 145 declares: 1) The personal expression of praise and extolling God the King! Verse one.

2) It is the perennial occupation of the “redeemed”! Verse two: “Every day I will bless You, and praise Your name forever and ever.” Really?

3) It is the powerful overture of symphonic praise! Verses 3, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.”

4) It is to be a “passed-on priority”! Verse 4, “One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.”

5) It is passion for His majestic ways! Verses 5-6, “I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty, and on Your wondrous works. Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts, and I will declare Your greatness.”

6) It is poured-out, overflowing, abundant declarations (even in YOUR prayer to Him, “The sacred instinct, the ‘natural’ spiritual state of one redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!”) Verses 7-9, “They shall utter the memory of Your goodness, and shall sing of Your righteousness: “The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.”

7) It is the inevitable heart-cry of the transformed, the royal revenue of a redeemed, regenerate heart, the holy heritage of hearts helped by Him, and the continuing, on-going, eternal ministry and thanksgiving and “hallelujahs” of the “blood-bought”, the “joint-heirs” of God “in Christ”!

Psalm 149:1-2 declares: “Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints. Let Israel (the people of God, the ‘remnant’), rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.”

“Mountain Prayers – Mountainous Privileges!” As Eric Metaxas started his book, early in the first chapter, (p.13), he stated, “It is vital that we do not have a “Disney” theology that only says “Believe!” – one that is ‘merely’ about childlike wonder – because if we aren’t careful with what we believe in, we will end up believing in anything”. How true!

But, at times, “professing believers” live in a ‘spiritual’ (?) state of blindness, even thoughtlessness, and often times even hyper-critical of God “for my present circumstances – where are You, God?”, and with Metaxes, see themselves in “thoughtless gullibility on the one hand, and flippant, dismissive cynicism on the other”, while “prayers” are steeped in prayer-faithfulness, even IF it’s a long-time coming!

Are you aware of the humblest servant, the ‘least’ gifted, the unknown faithful witness of “amazing grace”, being used by Holy God to exalt, exemplify, explain, and interpret the Living Jesus through their ‘unglazed’ but “graced” walk of true discipleship? Do YOU discern, witness, and are heart-broken because of so much “pretense” apart from “faithful practice” and “faithful seeking” and “faithful proclamation and privilege of”, yes, “sharing Christ Jesus with others”? Is there such a thing as “biblical, redemptive, life-changing faith” that is “salt and light” to the unredeemed, ‘lost’, alienated and separated from God individuals, and, yes, even “dead religions” and “dying, though professing, godless nations”?

From “the mountain” our Lord and Savior was led to the Cross! Yes! “In the world you will have troubles – but, be assured, as I have overcome through prayer and faith in My Father’s finished work, even so you, trusting disciples, will walk through the valleys of the very shadows of death into the “mountainous privilege” of relationship, intimacy, blessing, and fulfillment and finishing of the redemptive work He is doing in you and through you!” Glory

B.B. McKinney, in 1929, wrote the chorus, “Over the Line”, which says, “Over the line, Over the line, Step over the line to Jesus; Out of your night, into the light, Step over the line to Jesus”; and there is “the line” between ‘darkness and light’, between ‘life or death,’ between “best efforts” and “Blessed Assurances”!

“Mountain Prayers – Mountainous Privileges”! Have you ever said: “Father-God, WHY am I here?” How profound, personal, praise-worthy, was the prayer of Christ Jesus in Matthew 6: 9-10, as He taught the disciples then and now, “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

YOUR prayers should be, must be, will be, the seeds of sowing for the ‘heart of God’ to find fertile fields through our available lives! And as Phillip Brooks once said, “Prayer is not laying hold of God’s reluctance, but (us) taking hold of God’s willingness”! Glory!

In fact, as we pray, as we search the Scriptures, as we witness the powerful testimony of our Lord and Savior, as we read dynamic testimonies of our overcoming “fathers of the faith” and “mothers of the mission” and “sons and daughters, brothers and sisters of the walk of faith”, we see “prayer-warriors” overcoming, “prayer-warriors” empowering the ‘saints’, “prayer- warriors” celebrating “the promises” and “the privileges” and even “the paths” Holy God directed them to walk upon and the fires, even, that He brought them through! Do you believe Romans 8:28 is as valid today as it was when Paul wrote it? Romans 8:28 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,” going on to say in the very next verse that we were “predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

Do you remember Paul writing to the church at Colossae and us about our “Mountainous Privileges”? Colossian 1:15-23 declares, “He (Christ Jesus) IS the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. 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”!

I challenge YOU to consider: “Does Christ Jesus HAVE PREEMINENCE IN YOU, IN YOUR MARRIAGE, IN YOUR FAMILY, IN YOUR BUSINESS, IN YOUR STATE, NATION, OR WORLD, AND ESPECIALLY YOUR PRAYER-MINISTRY?”

I do not know Samuel Henry Price. I came across a statement he once made, found in “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” [edited & compiled by Frank S. Mead, and Fleming H. Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey]. He wrote: “The world is full of faces, black with anger, green with envy and red with shame, which could be made radiantly white with holiness and spirituality aglow by the transfiguring power of prayer.”

Dare I say, “enough of prayerless disciples, enough of prayerless preachers, enough of prayerless leaders wherever they reside”!?! Yet, how ‘the dark cloud of prayerlessness’ seems to ‘hang’ over lives, families, churches, states, and nations! Yes, passionate ‘pray-ers’ and prayers unleash divine willingness, not reluctance! Prayers open the “flood-gates” of divine willingness and sovereign desires and holy ambitions in lives, churches, cities, states, nations, whether political, social, or spiritual!

In Colossians 4:2-4 Paul wrote this challenging word to the Colossians and us: “Continue EARNESTLY in prayer, BEING VIGILANT in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains (imprisoned for the faith!), that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” Is that word ‘ought”, yes, our own “holy mandate” and “sovereign commission” as “ambassadors for Christ”? Without a single doubt! Every believer, every disciple, every servant of Christ, every man, woman, child of faith, are Commissioned by Christ Himself to “pray without ceasing” and “persevere in endurance” to touch our world with sovereign grace, mercy, and love, as WE “pray them into the kingdom”!

Do you believe it? “If God created the world, and He did, can He raise the ‘spiritually dead’ to “life everlasting” in and through Christ Jesus”? Dare I tell you? Believe I will: “Faith in Christ Jesus, because of intercessory prayers, births “new-born” lives into the eternal kingdom of God in Christ, and “they” are the “pray-ers” interceding for “world redemption”! They lay hold of the horns of the altar, and they won’t let go!

By: J.FARRELL FISHER

“Heirs of His grace, brought face to face, indwelt by His presence, an eternal, heavenly celebration, complete in Christ with nothing lacking, a ‘finished work’ of heavenly grace, blessed with His Spirit’s faithful backing!” (JFF).

INTRODUCTION

To say ‘it’s been easy to write a book on “Christ-given Amazing Grace Or Fleshly-Grit” is a fiction in one’s spiritual journey’ because of so many ‘opinions,’ mis-interpretations, and even demonic deception some fall victim to!

Without a doubt “Christ-Given Amazing Grace” is so eternal in its authorship, yet stripped by some of its authenticity, its challenges, and its benefits and blessings. Consider, that for some, God’s grace is, for them, ‘amazing grease’ that enhances their ‘self-effort-sliding’ but not into Heaven but Hell itself!

“Fleshly Grit” has become for some, in their interpretations of ‘living For Jesus’, the very threshold of ‘good discipleship’! But, is the walk of a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ by his/her ‘self-improvement’ or by the Sovereignly-implanted Presence of the Resurrected, Reigning Christ? Is one’s ‘salvation experience’ the call to self-righteous determinations or the Savior’s “rescue” of your life from the devil’s control?

Is ‘fleshly grit’ one’s self-righteous determinations or the blessing of the gift of Christ by grace of His eternal gifts of forgiveness, His Indwelling, and His calling, that through YOU He’ll touch your world with the same Grace, Mercy, and Love?

Is it blasphemous self-righteousness OR the Savior’s rescue of your life from an imploding, unfulfilling, fleshly, worldly, devilish existence? Is it the unbelieving, self-prominence that deepens the chasm between fallen man, or the “Door-Way” through the loving Savior who longs for YOUR Spirit-transformation, by grace, into a true Spirit-birthed son or daughter of God?

If a leper is confident that he/she is incurable, is that any different for men/women who say, “What you see is what you get – and I’m satisfied with my fleshly world and what I’m becoming by my own self-will, self-dependence, and self-determination”?

There is no consolation for a man who loves his own old sin nature, alienated from God and content with that reality. The best moment of an unredeemed life is when he/she repents (convicted and convinced by the Holy Spirit!) and willingly receives God’s grace that saves, redeems, washes him/her with the blood of the Lamb of God, and indwells that person as the new residence, tabernacle, temple of Jesus’ holy presence!

The worst moment is when spiritual blindness to saving grace becomes blasphemous as one “pumps ‘flesh’ or self-righteousness” over God’s “Amazing Grace”!

Do you understand or comprehend that ‘self-righteousness’, or ‘earn my own way,’ or even determining ‘goodness’ over godliness, is the closing of the “Door” of Christ to one’s heart TO THE SCRIPTURAL RIGHTEOUSNESS IMPARTED BY GOD’S GRACE?

Dare I tell you in this “Introduction” that there is no consolation for a man/woman who ‘loves’ and is devoted to his/her own, old sin-nature and self-governance? You are aware, I assume, that you understand that ‘conscience’ is often, for many, the will of convenience, and they’ll execute that, but “mighty grace” resisted reveals ‘midget, marred, masked men or women’ trying their best, at times, to be ‘religious’. Christ Jesus isn’t interested in your ‘choice of a religion’ – He’s proven His interest is your “new birth”!

I love Paul’s anointed declaration in Romans 1:3-7 (Amplified Bible by Zondervan): “[THE GOSPEL] regarding (God’s) Son, Who as to the flesh (His human nature) was descended from David;

And [as to His divine nature] according to the Spirit of holiness, was openly designated the Son of God in power – in a striking, triumphant and miraculous manner – by His resurrection from the dead, even Jesus Christ our Lord, the Messiah, the Anointed One.

It is through Him THAT WE HAVE RECEIVED GRACE – God’s unmerited favor – and (our) apostleship to promote obedience to the faith and make disciples for His name’s sake among all the nations,

And this includes yourselves, CALLED OF JESUS CHRIST and INVITED (as you are) to belong to Him. To [you then] all God’s beloved ones in Rome, CALLED TO BE SAINTS AND DESIGNATED FOR A CONSECRATED LIFE: GRACE and spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

I tell you, without hesitation, one who “trusts AND obeys” Christ alone as His only ‘hope of glory’ is the true believer who ‘floats’ on God’s never-ending ‘stream or river of grace’! Called by God to serve His Son in faith and obedience never happens by ‘grit’ but by grace! Grace ‘grinds’ the SIN IN US by the blood of the Lamb and gives us His gracious gift of ‘overcoming power’!

In “The Merchant of Venice” by Shakespeare, he wrote: “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose, An evil soul, producing a holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart.”

WE CLOSE THE DOOR TO THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL OF GRACE IN US IF we think ‘grace’, God’s grace, is unimportant in our walks!

I came across a quote of Spurgeon in Ray Comfort’s “Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit of Righteousness.” Spurgeon said: “Salvation by Grace does not erase a single precept of the Law (of God), nor lower the standard of justice in the smallest degree; on the contrary, as Paul says, we do not make the Law void through faith, but we establish (or ‘MAKE TO STAND’) the Law. The Law is never honored by fallen man TILL HE COMES UNDER ITS CONDEMNING RULE, and walks by faith [and obedience! JFF], and live under the covenant of grace.” AMEN?

FOREWARD

By Dr. Doug Darville, Professor at Rome, Georgia’s “SHORTER COLLEGE”,

OUTLINE

CHAPTER ONE: “The Necessity of a New ‘Great Awakening’ of the Gospel of Grace”

CHAPTER TWO: “Stall or Call?”

CHAPTER THREE: “The Intentionality of True Discipleship”

CHAPTER FOUR: “VOID OF THE WORD OF GOD OR VICTORY THROUGH THE WORD?”

CHAPTER FIVE: “Abounding Grace – Gracious Ministries”

CHAPTER SIX: “WANDERING FROM THE FAITH?”

CHAPTER SEVEN: “GUTSY GRIT OR GODLY SORROW?”

CHAPTER EIGHT: “ASININE CHOICES OF FLESHLY DEVOTION TO CHRIST?”

CHAPTER NINE: “CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH!”

CHAPTER TEN: “SHEDDING THE SHAME – LIVING TO THE GLORY!”

CHAPTER ELEVEN: “BEARING THE NAME – LIVING WITH SHAME!”

CHAPTER TWELVE: “EVIDENCES OF NEW-BIRTH CONVERSION”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: “THE UNDESERVED OR UNRESERVED RELEASE OF GOD’S OMNIPOTENT POWER!”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: “THE FLESHLY UNFULFILLED OT THE SPIRITUALLY FULFILLED?”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: “OPTIONAL EXPRESSIONS OF LIFE”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: “FATAL FORGETFULNESS”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: “FAITHFULNESS OR DISTRESSING DISGUISES?”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: “CONSIDERING A WORLD OF ABSURDITIES!”

CHAPTER NINETEEN: “THE DIVINE MIRACLE OF A TRANSFORMED MIND”

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER ONE

“THE NECESSITY OF A NEW ‘GREAT AWAKENING’ OF THE GOSPEL OF GRACE”

In Max Lucado’s “The Inspirational Bible, (Copyright, @1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing), Romans 5:21 says, “Sin once used death to rule us, but God gave people more of His grace so that grace could rule by making people right with Him. And this brings life forever through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Oh, but then Romans 6:1 Paul wrote: “So do you think we should continue sinning so that God will give us more grace?” How inciteful is that inspired word? Verse 2 then says, “No! We died to our old sinful lives, so how can we continue living with sin?”

If YOUR ‘old life’ of sin and a sin-nature was crucified with Christ, how convenient and ‘conscious-less-ness’ is it for modern-day ‘church-folk’ to assert, ‘we can’t do anything but sin until we get to Heaven’? In Verses 8-11 the “Inspirational Bible” continues:

“If we died with Christ, we know we will also live with Him – Christ was raised from the dead, and we know that He cannot die again. Death has no power over Him now. Yes, when Christ died, He died to defeat the power of sin one time – enough for all time. He now has a new life, and His new life is with God. In the same way, YOU should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive with God through Christ Jesus.”

I wanted to put Verse 12 by itself as one of the necessities of a new “Great Awakening” of the Gospel of Grace! It says: “So, do not let sin control your life here on earth so that you do what your (old) sinful self wants to do.” Continuing to willfully sin after supposedly receiving Christ as Lord and Savior is to insult Sovereign God and ‘shame’ the Victory of Jesus for you through His sacrificial death and resurrection!

Examine for yourself as we begin this chapter Romans 5:18-21! It says: “So as one sin of Adam brought the punishment of death to all people, one good act that Christ did makes all people right with God. And that brings true life for all. One man disobeyed God, and many became sinners. In the same way, one Man obeyed God, and many will be made right…

The law came to make sin worse. But when sin grew worse, God’s grace increased. Sin once used death (spiritual death) to rule us, but God gave people more of His grace so that grace could rule by making people right with Him. And this brings life forever through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (That is, IF men repent and rest in His finished work! It’s “finished”, but that doesn’t mean automatic salvation of all with no repentance and faith!)

Why then “The Necessity of a New ‘Great Awakening’ of the Gospel of Grace”? Because ‘deception’ IN the church, offered by many pastors, teachers, leaders, and ‘grass-root-sympathizers’, who major on what ‘devoted, religious people’ (?) can do apart from true repentance toward God and faith alone in the finished work of Christ at the Cross and through His empty tomb and available Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection-Ever-Present-Eternal-Hope (!!) in the here and now, this present moment of your opportunity IF you RESPOND ON His terms!

But how broad a support does one find across our world today concerning “The Gospel of Grace”? Whether a ‘liberal’ church in New Testament times or a ‘liberal’ church today worldwide, many churches, seminaries, pulpits, or ‘professing’ believers have substituted fleshly wisdom for divine truth, or ‘intellectual professors (?) and teachers’ opinions for holy revelation, or ‘fallen men’s’ warped ideas of human existence void of God,’ or even worldly plans ‘to be religious’ on their terms!

One of the major concerns today is: IS IT POSSIBLE TO SEE A “NEW GREAT AWAKENING” spiritually in the hearts, homes, holy gatherings, OR ‘will compromise, convenience, and false comfort zones prevail’?

A question for YOU in this very moment of reading is: Is it ‘fleshly impotence’ at its best the answer for true revival, renewal, and the spiritual, eternal life importance in touching OUR world redemptively or a return to revival in, restoration through, and full appropriation and full realization BY divine blessing through the amazing power of the Sovereign Work of God’s Grace?

A few words I recently wrote just might be a tool God uses to arouse your search and your hunger for only what God desires to graciously GIVE TO YOU: HIS AMAZING GRACE! It says:

“In the midst of a darkened world, the LIGHT of God’s GRACE still shines; as a darkened world bows before it’s ‘self’, the Throne of God’s Grace still radiates!

Whether in darkness or light, day or night, His mercy and grace and love remains, with repentant hearts and men of faith, bowing before Him with new and opened hearts, they are gladly receiving what Grace alone imparts!

It’s the God of Heaven and the God of the Cross that resurrects ‘dead hearts’ to daughters and sons of the ‘Redeemer’s Faith’, born again by the grace of God, the re-born extending His Kingdom, expressing His love, and imparting His grace to a spiritually dead race!

‘I’m OK, you’re OK’ no longer has any solid ground on which to stand, as the ‘devil’s brand’ gives wayward men NO solid surface on which to land, but only a ‘social change’ outside Heaven’s rule and reign!

‘Happiness is my goal’ is what most men strive for, when it’s God who says, “I’m The Door”! No lofty, fleshly goal ever opens that “Door”, but only a passion, a prayer, a life-presentation with longing for Him alone who IS the ‘eternal cure’!

“Blessed” is God’s intent with an ever enlarging gathering of repentant, trusting, and obedient hearts, but “blind and cursed”, never to be erased is the devil’s gathering of darkened minds, lost lives, and limited fleshly plans.

BUT, “God is able,” the Word declares, and so able to take the repentant sinner and yielded heart and lavish His grace fully on the life that desires only God’s part!

No longer ‘manipulators’ of the best of human nature, but only resting in “the hope of His calling,” no longer ‘stalling’ but fully desiring to be His Temple-manifestation of Holy Presence, not a museum of mortal flesh, but the residence of Christ as His earthly home!

God Himself is our OWNER, our MASTER ENGINEER, using our resident hearts His Way to draw near – near to the needy, near to the lost, near to those who never imagined the price of Heaven’s cost, to reconcile the broken, grant them His token of Amazing Grace for full restoration to Heaven’s Purpose and Place.”

It’s very interesting that as Paul defended his ministry in the Corinthian church, (2 Corinthians 10:4-5), (again, Lucado’s “The Inspirational Bible,”p.1333), “We fight with the weapons that are different from those the world uses. Our weapons have power from God that can destroy the enemy’s strong places. We destroy people’s arguments and every proud thought that raises itself against the knowledge of God.”

When you personally evaluate, if you do, ‘self-evaluation,’ or fallen humanity’s present condition, or even dare to look at whether ‘present-day- church-life’ abounds in the fullness of God’s blessing or is involved in ‘back-slapping’, proud of how they’ve ‘ worked for God’, what do you see or sense based on DIVINE REVELATION?

In his book, “The Gospel of Grace,” by James Montgomery Boice, he magnified the “True Church” of the Lord Jesus Christ as a church that stands for or holds to FIVE CONVICTIONS: 1) SCRIPTURE ALONE 2) CHRIST ALONE 3) GRACE ALONE 4) FAITH ALONE 5) GLORY TO GOD ALONE!

But, consider, 1) How many churches or denominations do you examine or witness who select ‘partial tenets’ but bankrupt or avoiding ALL THE WORD OF GOD? 2) How many churches or denominations uphold their ‘prominent leaders’ as more important than sold out to Christ alone? 3) How many churches, pastors, denominations have you witnessed, heard, or seen on TV promoting ‘grit’ rather than grace alone? 4) Have you ever heard some speak, in the church, about “do your best,” when Christ crucified both your worst and your best? 5) And, in Romans 11:36, Paul talked about “to Him be the glory forever,” but in many corners of the modern-day Christian world, there is a lot of “personal back-slapping”!

I found it so interesting recently to come across one of Martin Luther’s “The Ninety-five Theses,” where he once said: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said ‘repent’, He meant the entire life of believers should BE ONE OF REPENTENCE,” and I would say, “Absolutely true until Christ Jesus is fully formed in you who “do not lean to your own understanding, but in all your ways you give Him His rightful place in you as Savior, Lord, and Master of your life!”

“Christ-Given Amazing Grace Or Fleshly Grit”? In your circles of religious influences do you witness “THE NECESSITY OF A NEW ‘GREAT AWAKENING’ OF THE GOSPEL OF GRACE”? Again, 2 Corinthians 10:5 (the old KJV), “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God”!

In “Christ-Given Amazing Grace”, there ARE “EVIDENCES OF NEW-BIRTH CONVERSION”! In his book entitled “Inklings of God,” Kurt Bruner used a quote by Winston Churchill in his Introduction that says: “Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time will pick himself up and continue on.”

Do you realize how true that statement is? And, especially when confronted by Christ with “You must be born again, born from above, born of the Spirit,” many are offended, resentful, and continue on in unbelief! “I don’t want to hear that, truth or not!”

I was impressed by Kurt Bruner when later in the same book, (p.147), he said: “Frankly, I embrace the Christian faith because it points to God who expects us to behave ourselves but who also knows we can’t.”

Do you know that God knows we can’t ‘redeem’ ourselves? Yet, man-made ‘religions’ worldwide that are so ‘synthetic’ are still active , they think “authentically” to Deny Christ and His call to “You must be born again.” And, sadly, many modern-day ‘so-called’ “Christian” churches live in the façade of even active denial of “new birth” when they believe ‘church membership’ is the same!

Walter Chantry, in his writing, “Today’s Gospel,” 9p.13), wrote: “Products of modern evangelism are often sad examples of Christianity. They make a profession of faith, and then continue to live like the world… ‘Decisions’ for Christ mean very little. Only a small proportion of those who ‘make decisions’ evidence the grace of a transformed life.”

But sadly a large number of American churches AND some preachers major on a “You can do it” mentality rather than “Christ IN YOU the hope of glory”!

No wonder Socrates became a well-appreciated philosopher! He once said: “To move the world we must first move ourselves.” Where do you find THAT in the Word of Almighty God? Didn’t Paul tell us, 2 Corinthians 1:9, [New Chain Reference Bible], “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead,”?

Most humans all across the world in this nation, the USA, and every other nation, are oblivious to the state of their spiritual death and separation from Holy God! Spiritual success in life is not by the mental philosophy of ‘whatever you sense, you can succeed in’, which may have some ‘truth’ for the ‘flesh’ (or old sin nature) but has no relevance at all to the spiritual dimension that most know nothing about!

So many today, yes, even worldwide, are locked into the philosophy of ‘self-achievement’ so strongly that rewarding ‘self’ with pats on one’s back blocks, denies, or starves any word, leaning, or turning from that ‘self’ to a “Savior”? Life is not a ‘do what you can, as best as you know how’ mental philosophy but an eternal opportunity to be one with God Himself through Christ alone!

It’s amazing to me, and exciting, as I read a statement by Benjamin Franklin. He said several hundred years ago (!), “There is perhaps not one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”

Are you aware of the “embarrassing encumbrances” that are brought to a lot of ‘church folk’ who are swamped by ‘self-importance’, drowning in ‘self-worth’ that Christ crucified, yet stubbornly, stupidly, studiously in pagan teachings, devote themselves to “what we’ve become” apart from the revealed knowledge of God as to the Way, the only Way, to their salvation, healing, and deliverance?

David F. Wells, in his book, “No Place For Truth,” [Wm.B.Eerdmans Publishing Com. Grand Rapids, Michigan & Inter-Varsity Press, Leichester, England, (1993)], so unveiled for me a story that encouraged this book and this chapter [Introduction,p.10]: Wells wrote: “I’m saying that I am a staunch disbeliever in the modern world, I do not wish to appear immodest, as if I come finished with the knowledge of a new discovery. In fact, I do not. In this connection, I will remember G.K.Chesterton’s story about the restless yachtsman who set sail from England with the intention of arriving at an exotic South Sea Island. After many days, he sighted land and, as soon as he could, beached his boat and went inland. Before him stood a dreadful pagan temple. Undaunted, he decided to claim it for England. He scaled its walls and bravely planted the Union Jack [flag] at its pinnacle. Only then did he realize that what he had scaled was the Brighton Pavilion on England’s south coast! He thought he had sailed in a straight line, but, because of an unfortunate miscalculation he had actually traveled in a circle. He imagined that he was first in the land, but it turned out that he was the last.”

Do you realize, sense, or discern that many, many people begin their “religious journey” on the basis of men’s speculations about what they think “God expects” rather than Jesus’ declaration: “You MUST be born again”? Do you remember Paul saying in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, [and I would also say TODAY: “and don’t be conformed to a man-made religious world”!], but be [BEING] transformed by the renewing of your mind.” And what the Holy Word through Christ Jesus teaches is not simply a ‘mind change’ but a mind changed by the birthing of a new heart through our Lord’s shed blood on Calvary as Heaven’s expression of its love, grace, and mercy, as a result of Holy Spirit-conviction, and conversion!

Several verses from John 3 that I want to use as I continue building, I pray, a strong foundation to this chapter and book: John 3:5-7 [Holman Study Bible NKJV Edition], Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [the water of the Word!] and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again,’” because Jesus KNEW the difference between born of flesh and birthed by the Holy Spirit!

And then, in John 3:16-21, we read: “For 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 life everlasting. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world THROUGH HIM might be saved.

He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” THAT’S PAUL’S DECLARATION, “I die daily that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in my mortal flesh”!

EVIDENCES OF NEW BIRTH CONVERSION? FIRST, NO LONGER IS THERE THE DENIAL OF ONE’S ‘OLD MAN’ SIN NATURE AND SEPARATION FROM GOD, BUT A PASSIONATE, SUSTAINED LONGING AND LEANING ON BIBLICAL ‘RECONCILIATION’! Sometimes it takes a Holy Word from God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, to release His deep conviction reality of one’s old, lost, alienated, separated from Him, awareness in what was unbelieving hearts; and I do believe 2 Peter 2:4-5 can be that ‘shock awareness’ in some hearts and minds to awaken afresh and anew what they once were without His saving grace! It says: (NKJV), “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down into hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly…”.

Notice: GOD DIDN”T SPARE EVEN ANGELS WHO SINNED BUT CAST THEM INTO HELL! GOD DIDN”T SPARE EVEN THE ANCIENT WORLD, EVEN ‘RELIGIOUS PRETENDERS’ CALLED “JUDAIZERS”, OR ‘PROMINENT’, WELL-KNOWN POLITICAL LEADERS’, OR THE “DO MY BEST” CROWD of the ‘self-anointed’ who worship and are devoted to their old sin natures as personal points of admiration to which they yield themselves!

In fact, Hebrews 10:25-31, my prayer is that “IT WILL SCARE HELL OUT OF YOU!” It says: “…not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

FOR if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Of HOW MUCH Worse Punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of Grace?

For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” IT IS A FEARFUL THING TO FALL INTO THE HANDS OF THE LIVING GOD.”

If YOU were “crucified with Christ”, does that not mean He took YOU, your old sin nature, your old godless-living life, and put it to death on the Cross with Him as He shed His blood and died that ALL YOUR SIN AND MINE MIGHT BE WASHED AWAY? WHY RESURRECT WHAT CHRIST CRUCIFED WITH HIM ON THE CROSS? (Galatians 2:20!)

SECOND: “EVIDENCE OF NEW-BIRTH CONVERSION”? “NO LONGER A DEEP, ABIDING LOVE OF THE WORLDLY INFLUENCES, OR PEACE WITH ALL THE DEVILISH AND DEMONIC INFLUENCES AND CONTROL”! Here’s how John relates this as we read his anointed exposure and heavenly challenge in 1 John 2:2-6! “And He Himself (Jesus Christ the righteous) is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we know Him, IF we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. BUT whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk just as He walked.”

Jesus was so aware of both the religious influences of false Judaism (not the true “remnant”!) and the darkness of devilish, demonic activities through man-made “religious expressions”, when in John 6:57,60-69, He said, with Peter grabbing hold and holding on to “Jesus Only”! Follow the Word:

“As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.” Then look at Verses 60-69! Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”

When Jesus KNEW in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, [And to us today?], “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh (that’s ‘best-effort’ of human devotion apart from the Spirit!) profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe.”

For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, “Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father.” From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.

Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of ETERNAL LIFE. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

There is such a vast difference between ‘religious’ individuals who WILL FALL AWAY, and the vital picture and reality of a regenerated soul, birthed by, indwelt by, and led by the Holy Spirit! I love Watchman Nee’s word in his book, “Ye Search The Scriptures,” [Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc. New York. Copyright @1974, p.16], “Canst thou by searching find out God?” Nee then saying, “God is never arrived at through research. He is found by one way only – through the regenerated spirit.”

In 2 Corinthians 2:1-4, [Amplified Bible], Paul wrote: “As for myself, brethren, when I came to you proclaiming to you the testimony and evidence or mystery or secret of God [concerning what He has done through Christ for the salvation of men] in lofty words of eloquence or human philosophy and wisdom;

For I resolved to know nothing – to be acquainted with nothing, to make a display of the knowledge of [nothing] – among you except Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and Him crucified. And I (passed into a state of) weakness and was in fear (dread) and great trembling [after I had come] among you.

And my language and my message were not set forth in persuasive (enticing and plausible) words of wisdom, but they were in demonstration of the [Holy] Spirit and power of God, operating on me and stirring in the minds of my hearers the most holy emptions and thus persuading them.”

An unbelieving world, a self-indulgent flesh, and a demonically, devilish controlled mind will create and establish all kinds of ‘religious mannerisms’ but oppose “You MUST be born again”! For the most part, fallen humanity and the devil’s crowd, including ‘church pretenders’, will settle for religious entertainment but highly oppose no longer living for yourself but for Christ alone!

What did Paul write in 2 Corinthians 5:14-19? “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died FOR THEM and rose again.

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

And I say to you, “Don’t casually (kinda) knod at this Word, overlook, or reject Eternal Truth related to YOUR salvation opportunity! I have no doubts that even many ‘church-folk’ easily accept the blood of the Cross for their forgiveness but will rebel, excuse, accuse faithful men of the Word for ‘lying’ when they even share Jesus saying, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, but you do not do what I say?” Dare I tell YOU that obedience is not an option in the age of grace?

Spiritual focus, even in a religious setting, is more often on fleshly concerns than divine revelation! I love what Charles Stanley wrote in his booklet, “In Touch”, [April,2016, p.13], “The Lord isn’t looking for people who change a few habits by sheer force of will; He’s calling people to surrender to Him…We don’t evolve into a saved people by deleting old habits and instituting better religious ones; we are transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ when we believe [trust in, rely upon, adhere to] Him.”

Many ‘church folk’ are highly appreciative of ‘compromisers’ because they ‘believe’ that “fleshly indulgence is justified”, because, though one is ‘saved’, he/she cannot do anything but sin until Christ comes – so, they blame God rather than trust His Truth! They are euphorically violent to those who uphold Jesus’ Word when He said, “Go, and sin no more,” but they believe sin in a believer is normal, and that without ‘guilt’, because “God is love.”

There’s even, by some, a ‘ministerial’ maligning of the Holy Word because they feel ‘justified’ in ungodly behavior though a professing believer. In the ‘world’ around you there is philosophical rationalization because of ‘spiritual brain-tumors and deformed hearts’ called resistance to Holy Truth: “Who really needs a Savior and Lord? We’re OK – and you, with or without Christ are OK”! Really?

But I can tell you without hesitation that to continue sinning as a ‘believer’ is to deny Jesus’ Victory at the Cross and to refute Jesus’ words in John 15:22 that, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but NOW they have NO EXCUSE FOR THEIR SIN!”

Do you remember Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:34? [Amplified Bible], “Awake (from your drunken stupor and return) to sober sense and your right minds, AND SIN NO MORE. For some of you have not the knowledge of God – you are utterly and willfully and disgracefully ignorant, and continue to be so, LACKING THE SENSE OF GOD’S PRESENCE AND ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM. I say this to your shame.”

But, in Isaiah 41:8-15, there is a powerful word of hope to, ‘sometimes,’ discouraged disciples who’ve tried to live the overcoming life, no discipleship-training, but only a sad, ‘pastoral’, “do your best”! IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW, AT THE CROSS Jesus took your worst and your best, and it was: “Crucified with Christ”! But look at what God said in the Isaiah passage I just mentioned:

• Verse 9 – “I have chosen you and not cast you off.” 2) Verse 10 – “Fear not…for I am with you.” 3) Verse 10 – “I am your God…(Elohim), meaning the high and lifted up, the Mighty One,” and He’s ‘able’ to sustain us, strengthen us, and guard us (if we let Him) against the world you face, the “old man” trying to resurrect, and even victorious, for us, over Satan! 4) Verse 10 – “I WILL STRENGTHEN YOU and HARDEN YOU TO [DIFFICULTIES]…” And this is probably why Paul shared, “When I am weak, then I am strong,” because he did not lean on ‘fleshly abilities’ but Holy Presence – Christ in YOU the hope of glory!

5) Verse 10 again – “I will hold you up and retain you with My victorious right hand of rightness and justice.” God said in Isaiah 42:13, “The Lord will go forth as a mighty man; HE WILL ROUSE HIS ZEALOUS INDIGNATION AND VENGENCE LIKE A WARRIOR; HE WILL CRY, YES, HE WILL SHOUT ALOUD, HE WILL DO MIGHTILY AGAINST HIS ENEMIES.” 6) Verses 11-13 – “Behold, all they who are enraged and inflamed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; they who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall PERISH. You shall seek those who contend with you, and shall not find them; they who war against you shall be as nothing, as nothing at all.” 7) VERSE 15 – “Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument having teeth…” In 2 Corinthians 13:10 Paul wrote: “So I write these things while I am absent from you, that when I come to you I may not have to DEAL SHARPLEY in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me, [to be employed, however] for building [you] up and not tearing you down.”

THE “SHARP TOOL” OF HOLY TRUTH will ‘shape’ you up in His image OR ‘silence’ your voice if you betray Him!

“EVIDENCE OF NEW-BIRTH CONVERSIONS” sharpened in life by His Word, Will, and Work” – OR seeing the slicing to threads the disobeying, compromising, contented disciple who “plays” on both sides of the street! WHICH LEADS ME TO POINT NUMBER THREE AND LAST:

“NO LONGER DEVOTION TO WALK OUT ONE’S LIFE OF ‘FAITH’ (?) ON THE STREETS OF “SELF-INDULGENCES” AND “SELF- EMPHASES,” But STEPPING FAITHFULLY ON HIS HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS!” In Colossians 2:5-10 (Holman Study Bible, NKJV Edition), Paul so strongly laid the foundation of a truly ‘birthed’ and ‘overcoming-LIFE IN CHRIST”! “For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, SO WALK IN HIM, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”

Don’t you think this foundation of the true “Evidence of New-Birth Conversion” is seen in what Paul wrote to us? AND it strongly agrees with what Christ Jesus Himself said in John 7:37-38! On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to], as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Even in the walk of redemptive faith there are doors before us – some to condemnation, frustration, and captivity, while others are Christ’s ‘door’ to liberty, freedom from bondage to the old nature and ‘birthed’ to the freedom of everlasting life in the here and now, in and through Christ alone! So…it’s either:

Self-directed in one’s ‘walk of flesh-faith’ or “born-again to new Life In Christ”; it’s either a ‘kingdom-rule, self-determined, that is fleshly rich in sensual satisfactions’ OR the Holy Spirit-enriched life in the very wealth of Holy God and Heaven’s Son, better known as “Emmanuel” or “God With Us, God in us, God through us,” because of Resurrection Life in Christ, Resurrection Power through Christ, and Resurrection Hope instilled within us by His Holy Presence!

It’s ‘philosophically-wise’ in godless ways or personally and intimately blessed with the very “mind of Christ”! It’s either trained by the best of world deceivers, even the devil himself, or Sovereignly guided by the Holy Spirit, truly enriched by the treasures of His Holy Word, and “Master-led” disciple-makers who “feed” us on the “bread of life”, the “milk of the Word,” and upon the very “meat” of God’s Holy Truth!

In Philippians 3:7-14 Paul gives us a “New Testament Hallelujah Chorus”! It says: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

The claim of Christ that He had come that we might have life and that abundant was not a fictitious claim of a ‘false prophet’ but from the Creator of mankind and the Savior and Lord over mankind!

Jesus said: “I AM THE DOOR” to reconciliation with God, the Door of divine forgiveness, the Door to abiding presence of God within repentant and faith-filled hearts, and the Door of receiving, walking in, and being blessed by the fruit of His Holy Life and His Holy Spirit!

Don’t you find it sad and heart-breaking that you see around you, yes, multitudes who are ‘satisfied’ with the ‘flesh-life’ and all it has to offer (?), closing the Door on the love, grace, and mercy of God? But time will unveil for many the fundamental reality that vocational and financial successes fall short of filling the inner hunger that ONLY Christ Jesus meets and fills!

In Catherine Marshall’s book, “Something More,” [Copyright, 1961, Published by Chosen Books, Lincoln, Va. 22078,p.3], she wrote about: “the famous Hollywood actress, Mary Astor, (who) has known the fairy-tale of movie stardom. An Academy Award, glamourous marriages, two children, several Beverly Hills mansions, furs, jewels, publicity – what more could any woman want? Yet Mary Astor admitted in print that “for years – even in the midst of fame and glamor – I yearned for contentment, happiness. It took me almost twenty years to go from idle curiosity about religion…to meeting God as a Person and a Father and knowing that walking in (redemptive) faith meant growing up.”

AND THAT “GROWING UP” IS “FALLING DOWN” before the King of kings and Lord of lords, repenting, resting in His finished work at the Cross, and experiencing the reality of His Indwelling Presence! IS YOUR BODY NOW HIS “HOLY TEMPLE”?

H.G.Spafford and P.P.Bliss wrote an old, old hymn entitled, “It Is Well With My Soul”:

“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea-billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come, Let this blest assurance control; That Christ has regarded my helpless estate, And has shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin – oh, the bliss of this glorious thought – my sin – not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul!

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, “Even so” – it is well with my soul.

It is well…with my soul,…It is well, it is well with my soul.”

Do YOU rest in body, soul, and spirit-contentment because you’ve “rested” in Jesus only? YES!! THERE IS THE NECESSITY OF A NEW GREAT AWAKENING OF THE GOSPEL OF GRACE!!

CHAPTER TWO

“STALL OR CALL?”

In Acts 24:22-27 we find an interesting, yet sadly, too often, passage about Felix, the procurator over Jerusalem, having been appointed by Rome. It says: “But when Felix heard these things, having more accurate knowledge of the Way, he adjourned the proceedings and said, “When Lysias the commander comes down, I will make a decision on your case (referring to Paul the Apostle).” So he commanded the centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty, and told him not to forbid any of his friends to provide for or visit him.

And after some days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning faith in Christ. Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.”

Meanwhile he also hoped that money would be given him by Paul, that he might release him. Therefore he sent for him more often and conversed with him. But after two years Porcius Festus succeeded Felix; and Felix, wanting to do the Jews a favor, left Paul bound.”

Felix, the procurator over Jerusalem, representing the Roman government, came very, very close to ‘surrender’ to Christ-allegiance, but he ‘stalled out’ and ended up neglecting ‘repentance toward God and faith in Christ alone’, maybe consent to Christ’s reality was enough for him, which it never is!

A “staller” is a man confronted with the reality of God and his need for Him, but far too often is a man who has invested in himself far too long, and has so invested in his own independence from God, to surrender to Him is painful! One doesn’t easily ‘sin’ and then want to commend himself to God without a heavy, heavy struggle with the necessity of repentance and faith in His Word! Sin confessed but not forsaken is not sovereign grace at work but sentimental, religious judgments that remain ‘deadly’!

What was it Felix said? “Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you.” THAT could easily be defined as “procrastination”, or putting off a necessary decision, or delaying one’s commitment or lack of it, for ‘some other time – not now!’

Sometimes “stallers”, unimpressed by devoted followers, go on their own to “invent” what “tempers” their rebellion and unveils “desires” for the false and not the True or Christ, the Author of Truth! In Exodus 32 Moses was on the mountain-top fellowshipping with Holy God and the people were impatient with him. Exodus 32:1 says, the people ‘gathered together to Aaron’, and said to him, “Come, make us gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf.

Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.”

“Stallers” are creators who invent, create, or substitute “things” for the Living God, whether idols of their imagination, or “businesses” before which they bow, or ‘monies’ rather than God’s mercy, or ‘pleasures’ rather than the peace that passes all understanding, or ‘pretense’ rather than Divine Reality and Holy Presence in and through Christ’s Resurrection life, power, and hope! They settle for the ‘fleshly’ – not the Life of the Spirit of Christ!

And dare I tell you that “stallers” can be, and often are, inventors of their own altars, ‘fleshly fires’, and are verbal declarers of their imitation ‘faith’, inviting the world to follow them? And they have success. Many are ‘wealthy’ word-ers of their perverted, yet often, fleshly profound thoughts and ‘ideas’, and as Horatius Bonar once said, unbelievers promote two things: “a good opinion of one’s self, and a bad opinion of God.” “Stallers” see themselves as individuals with a “perfectly full-orbed, man-made existence, worthy of the praise of a god if there is one”!

“Stallers” are really unbelievers. And Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher once wrote: [The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Fleming H. Revell Comp., Westwood, New Jersey,p.457], “Unbelief does nothing but darken and destroy. It makes the world a moral desert, where no divine footsteps are heard, where no angels ascend or descend, where no living hand adorns the fields, feeds the birds of heaven, or regulates events.” And its ‘stallers’, who are ‘unbelievers, who reward themselves with darkness and personal destruction, with some only gathering the full impact as the devil opens hell’s gate to welcome them!

“Stallers”, for the most part, are governed by their natural inclinations and in their fleshly manners have determined they are too intelligent to believe in or trust the God of Creation and the Cross to make any difference in their natural-born life! Some even attribute their unbelief to their studious thinking when a godless mind is nothing more than superficial insignificance to life itself! That’s ‘surface living’ with no true foundation.

Would you even consider “stallers” to be “pagans”? The Random House College Dictionary (Revised Edition of 1975) defines a pagan as “an irreligious or hedonistic person”, or ‘a worshipper of false gods’, or one who bows down to self alone! I love Frederick William Robertson’s statement from the same “Encyclopedia..” mentioned earlier, (p.464), “What the world calls virtue, without Christ, is a name and a dream. The foundation of all human excellence must be laid deep in the blood of the Redeemer’s cross and in the power of His resurrection.” “Stallers” are like ‘passing shadows’ that take steps in God’s universe dressed in its’ ‘sensuality’ that is nothing more than the graveyard of one’s soul, waiting for the devil’s call rather than the call of God to the glorious destiny of a redeemed, blood-bought life through Christ!

“Stallers” are authors of the scripts of naked souls, the inventors of fleshly indulgences, sold out to the temporal but bankrupt when it comes to the Kingdom of God rule and reign! That’s like an “Esau” who in Genesis 25:33 sold his birthright! And, sadly, how many do you cross paths with every day who sell themselves for fleshly concerns, resulting in aching voids, and temporal impulses, unaware of the destinies of eternity? The bondage of fleshly indulgence is a soul enslaved to fleshly will, worldly aims, demonic intents, and slavish impulses – divine will to them is a “No, no”! And you are aware: there are many who want elbow-room away from God so they can do as they please without any sense of guilt! That’s why in 1 Peter 2:11 Peter said: “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul”; but sadly, the ‘staller’ yields to the flesh, indoctrinated in darkness!

Listen to Christ Jesus in Matthew 16:24-27! Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life (and I say, FOR himself!) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works. “

Do you think this just might be why Joshua was so inspired to write his challenge in Joshua 24:15? “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. BUT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.” His name is Christ Jesus, Emmanuel (“God With Us”!), Messiah, Master, Savior, and Lord, the Son of God, the Atoner and the Atonement: “His shed blood on Calvary’s Cross”! Oh, but also the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords Who rules and reigns in the Kingdom of God now and forever!

SO, IF YOU’RE THROUGH WITH “STALLING”, WHY NOT “CALL” ON HIM? Do you recall the Word of God through Joel? Joel 2:28-32 declares: “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; [Dare I say that there is not one person worldwide, then or now, who has not been “poured upon” by the Spirit of God to turn them from self to the Savior?] Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth; blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be SAVED. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.”

There was a “remnant” in Joel’s day – there’s a “remnant” even now – there will be another “remnant” in future days to come! They “hear the call” and they respond in repentance and trust of the saving power of the blood of the Lamb of God!

Aren’t you both convicted and enlightened, unveiled as the ‘sinner’ and revealed as the ‘saint’, through the blood of the Lamb? Isaiah so challenged every man, every lady, every boy or every girl, when in Isaiah 1:16-20 he was divinely inspired to write: “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. CEASE TO DO EVIL. Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. ‘COME NOW AND LET US REASON TOGETHER’, says the Lord, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. IF YOU ARE WILLING AND OBEDIENT, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; FOR THE MOUTH OF THE LORD HAS SPOKEN.”

Are YOUR EARS, MIND, AND HEART ATTUNED TO THE MOUTH OF THE LORD THAT HAS, DOES, AND WILL SPEAK TO YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN? I love Oswald Chambers’ word in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.12), when he wrote: “The call of God is not the echo of my nature; my affinities and personal temperament are not considered. As long as I consider my personal temperament and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of God. But when I am brought into relationship with God, I am in the condition Isaiah was in. Isaiah’s soul was so attuned to God by the tremendous crisis he had gone through that he recorded the call of God to his amazed soul. The majority of us have no ear for anything but ourselves, we cannot hear a thing God says. To be brought into the zone of the call of God is to be profoundly altered.” Dare I ask YOU? “Have YOU been ‘profoundly altered’?”

Follow carefully 1 Peter 1:17-25! “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish or without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”

Have YOU “called on the Father”? “IF” YOU call on the Father, the door of your redemption has been opened wide! “IF” YOU repent, the amazing grace of God is released for your divine transformation from a son/daughter of the devil to a son/daughter of faith in the family of God! Acts 3:19 says, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,” and that “presence of the Lord” IS Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

Dare I tell you that “repentance toward God” is often denied, overlooked, or even considered unimportant, as long as one says, “I believe in Jesus,” and they fail to see the divine intent of being “vessels” through which God does through them what He did through His Son! In John 5:17-30, 35, 38-40 we find a powerful, convicting, unveiling of eternal Truth! It says:

But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” THEREFORE the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, [modern-day opponents aren’t interested in His death any more than they are of His Resurrected Presence at their heart’s door!], because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, MAKING HIMSELF EQUAL WITH GOD. Then Jesus answered and said to them (and to YOU?), “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son does also in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, AND NOW IS, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteousness, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. Verse 35, “He was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in His light.” Oh, but then Verses 38-40 says, “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe (trust in, rely upon, or adhere to!). 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.”

Have you received, leaned on, accepted the truth of 2 Corinthians 7:10? “For godly sorrow produces repentance LEADING TO salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” Godly sorrow, true repentance, opening the door to Salvation, but fleshly, worldly sorrow never opens the door to divine transformation through the Resurrected Christ! That just opens the door to a local church assembly but not to oneness in Christ and His eternal, resurrected family of faith and hope! Oh, but when one sees himself as God sees him, “a sinner truly in need of the Divine Savior,” then a holy hymn of praise begins to be written about his/her life:

“My sins, borne to the Cross by God’s Lamb, my sins, not in part but the whole, my Savior willingly carried them Himself to be forgiven and freed from by His blood!

My sins, and its nature, deserving of death, He willingly accepted, and gave His own life for my soul; sin forgiven, death’s debt paid, my relationship to God fully restored!

My sins, so imperfect, closing the door to God’s kingdom of faith, He willingly accepted, and shed His blood that a new door would open, and access gladly given, as broken-hearted men reached out to God in His name and fame.

My sins, no longer the scar that defames, but my sins forgiven brings glory to His name; by my Savior’s offering on Calvary’s Cross, by God fully accepted, and my life of faith perfected in the Name above all names!

My sins, the closed door to God’s wisdom, His righteousness, His sanctification, His redemption, but faith in Christ Jesus and His finished work of the Cross, is clear indication of one’s desire to be dead to himself, but alive in Him, and an open door to all God desires to be in us.”

Receive 1 John 5:11-13! “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; and he who does not have the Son does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in [trust in, rely upon, adhere to], the name of the Son of God, that YOU MAY KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, and that you may “CONTINUE” to believe in the name of the Son of God.” DO YOU CONTINUE TO BELIEVE, REST IN, ASSURED OF ETERNAL LIFE IN AND THROUGH CHRIST ALONE?

I was impressed and encouraged by Dr. Charles Stanley’s “In Touch” publication, April, 2016, entitled, “Qualifications for Sainthood,” [p.28], when he wrote: “Many people hold an unbiblical view of sainthood. Their idea of a saint is one who has led such an exemplary life that he or she is venerated by the church, but God’s Word presents quite a different picture. The Corinthian church struggled with all sorts of ungodly behaviors, yet Paul describes them as “those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints,” (1 Cor. 1:2)…saying in the closing paragraph: “Just think – God set you apart for a sacred purpose. That means you are here, not to live as you please but to bring glory to Him. He calls us to live according to our new position in Christ. When we accept this responsibility of sainthood with gratitude, we bring joy to the Father’s heart.”

Sainthood is not a position earned, but a declaration clearly made by God alone! No doubt this is why Asaph, one of David’s chief musicians sang in Psalm 50:2, “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God will shine forth,” and then in Verse 15 of the same Psalm, Asaph heard God say, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” Yes! “The called of the Lord” are vessels through which God honors the Son and lifts the saints and they glorify God!

Don’t you rejoice in a Simone Biles, several times U.S. Olympic gymnast victor who openly professes her faith in Christ Jesus? And I’m sure she’s one who thanks God for her giftings physically but more importantly spiritually – she’s an ambassador of Christ Jesus as well as a U.S. sports representative – and she’ll strongly influence many aspiring youth in faith, fame, and fortune! Amen? She “heard the call”! And, I pray, she never “stalls” or “falls away”!

I’ve prayed for her that she never “stalls” out but remains firmly planted on the solid foundation of “Amazing Grace”, and continues to honor the Lord faithfully! By “Amazing Grace” she understands NO STALLING, but faithfully calling daily to Him as she leans, rests in, and presses into the King of kings!

Fallen mankind, alienated from God, independent of God mankind, is no more able to live the “blessed life” apart from grace than he is settling and controlling the universes and stars as God does!

Don’t you see, grasp, understand, or stand in His Word alone, that only the grace of God builds hope in the heart and life through Jesus Only? That’s Christ Jesus, the Son of God, bruised for our iniquities, crucified willingly on the Cross in and through Holy God’s willingness, and designated, by God, as the only redemptive way, by grace, for sinners to be reconciled to Him!

Has ‘church membership’ become the fallen man’s religious choice and his/her ‘self-made ticket’ to religious activity, affirming his/her harlotry, apart from accepting the Lamb’s Blood for death to self, washed in that blood, and affirmed by God’s grace as a true son or daughter in the Kingdom of ‘grace-fitted’, ‘God-implanted’ resurrection life, power, and hope?

Omnipotent grace has reigned, does reign, and forever will reign to assure the truly repentant and grace-gifted, and faith-lifted of our Lord’s victory over the devil, your enemy, and your weak or strong ‘flesh-nature,’ plus the deceiving influences of an enslaving world-mind-set, as if one ‘enjoys’ the world as he/she cooperates with Hell!

Do you comprehend that it’s only the grace of God that closes the door on the “stall” and brings you to the foot of the Cross and to the “empty tomb”, revealing to you the Resurrected, Reigning King of kings and Lord of lords? Loving God “calls” YOU by name, appealing to you to open your eyes and see the “Savior” AS IF it was FOR YOUR SIN ALONE He suffered, bled, and died on the Cross?

Hear me! “Stalling” and not calling, no death to your sin and old sin nature will NOT open the door to God’s mercy and grace, but only bind the door stronger to keep Christ out of your life! Deception about your sin is not deliverance from it! If a man refuses to open the door of deliverance from sin by Christ’s sacrifice, he/she reinforces the door from the Savior, Lord, Master of God-pleasing submission and obedience!

When divine sovereignty is denied or ignored, it interprets a life void of grace but still writing one’s ‘best-seller’ of meaningless existence, a marred imitation, and his/her ‘Master-less’ portrait of even a ‘religious self-effort’.

Have you ever come to the place of deep awareness and conviction of God’s ‘knocking’ on your heart’s door, but ‘self’, sin, the world, or the devil deceives you that reconciliation with Holy God is an unnecessary door to open because you’re ‘OK’ with the life you have under your own control and you don’t want to be governed by God, governed by His Word, or governed by His Spirit, or governed by “Emmanuel, God with us”?

No fear of God is not an open door into His presence! And grace IS the only key available to sinners that opens that door for those who fear Him! Where grace abounds in one’s life, though the devil wants you dancing to his tunes, Christ Jesus has you daily dancing to His “Amazing Grace”!

I pray, right now, and again and again, that YOU will not be one who “stalls” but one who “calls” on the God of Grace! I can tell you that it is an easy matter to cross the line from devotion to Christ to, yes, a ‘vile imitator’ of grace and faith, because someone told you that it’s OK to be a ‘disciple’ and ‘sin’ with the lusciousness of their old sin-nature still alive, and “God understands”. Really? Again, were YOU “crucified with Christ”? If so, when ‘sin’ calls, you immediately lean not to your former ‘mind-understanding’ of that old sin-nature, but “Look to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our Faith by His “Amazing Grace”!

CHAPTER THREE

“THE INTENTIONALITY OF TRUE DISCIPLESHIP”

There is a very interesting story in Judges 3 beginning at Verse 20 when Ehud went in to the ‘private chamber’ of King Eglon of Moab, saying to him, “I have a message from God for you.” So the king arose from his seat. Oh, and then Ehud, Verse 21, reached with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into King Eglon’s belly. He died! And later the king’s servants came to find him, but the door had been locked. The servants took a key, unlocked the door, and went in to find their master dead on the floor. (Judgment of God or judgment of man?)

What I desire you examining is the statement by Ehud to a compromising, self-serving king: “I have a message from God for you.” Paul had an interesting word for Timothy to say to a rebellious though ‘religious people’ in 2 Timothy 3:8-9, Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”

And then in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said to his spiritual son (in training), “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Ehud’s message to King Eglon? “I have a message from God for you.”

And when it comes to “The Intentionality of True Discipleship,” “I have a message from God for you,” and we see it in Luke 19:10 when the Lord Jesus said, “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” From Adam onward, most men are totally unaware of God’s eternal intent for each AND every man, but “few there be who find it”, which is sad commentary on fallen mankind or even most of the Christian community, intended by God to be extensions of His life, expressions of His love, and the proof of His power!

As a ‘professing disciple’ of the Lord Jesus Christ, even to you who ‘profess’ but ‘publicly’ deny by silence and daily intent to avoid saying to anyone and everyone around, “I have a message from God for you,”, is there the day, the time when Holy God exposes one’s silence concerning His “Intentionality of True Discipleship”?

Isaiah 50:4-11 is another awakening, prophetic word about the coming ministry of Emmanuel and ends with the word of warning for ‘neglectful’ followers of God who ‘profess the Light’ but walk in darkness! It says, “The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned.

The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, nor did I turn away. I gave My back to those who struck Me; therefore I will not be disgraced; therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me.

Surely the Lord God will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; the moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Look, all you who kindle a fire, who encircles yourselves with sparks; walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks you have kindled – this you shall have from My hand: YOU SHALL LIE DOWN IN TORMENT.”

I love the statement Charles Spurgeon shared in one of his powerful teachings related to this same passage from Judges 3:20, “I have a message from God for you;” Spurgeon said: “It cannot be that God has left the world; it must be that the world has left God. It is not possible that God has ceased to speak to the soul. Surely the soul has ceased to hearken to God; to acknowledge His messages; or to reply to them.”

In fact, if you read Proverbs, you discern “wisdom” from God Himself that should turn one from ‘fleshly wisdom, self-intent, and worldly avoidance of surrender and loyalty to’ “the God of eternal His-story”! In Proverbs 1:24-33 the Spirit-inspired ‘wise-man’ wrote: “BECAUSE I HAVE CALLED AND YOU REFUSED, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes,

When your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. THEN they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke.

Therefore they shall “eat the fruit of their own way,” and be filled to the full with their own fancies. FOR THE TURNING AWAY OF THE SIMPLE WILL SLAY THEM, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; BUT whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.” What an amazing revelation and unveiling of the “graceless crowd” so proud of their independence from God and the “saving blood of Christ, the Redeemer”!

“God called – and YOU refused”? Is it your indifference to spiritual matters? Is it extreme ‘fleshly carelessness’ that blocks the door to your mind and heart about God’s wisdom? Is it that you only fraternize with worldly, flesh-reinforcing, societal curses, influences of godless parents or wayward associates, friends or neighbors? Does a well-trained, philosophical, godless community of unbelievers succeed in a continual defiling of mind and heart about the “Blood Redemption” Holy God provided for you, but you sense for yourself, “Too late – I’m gripped, guided, and governed by my fleshly intent and that alone!”

“God called – and YOU refused”? Dare I tell you: IT’S NOT TOO LATE! MY GOD SITS ON THE THRONE OF MERCY AND GRACE, READY, SAYING TO YOU: “COME UNTO ME, AND I WILL GIVE YOU REST!!” “I, J.Farrell Fisher, have a message from God for YOU!”

Holy God has called and called and called and called! Holy God encapsulated within the human heart and mind His reality and their need of Him, but ‘selfish flesh’, demonic deception, and a lost world’s neglect of submission and obedience to Holy God and His , promotes ‘self-allegiance’ as normal and natural, which it is not! So: “God called – and you refused?” And, as a result, you became enchanted with devotion to your old sin nature, delighted to a ‘low degree’ of Satanic deception, like a magical spell, a ‘bewitching’, a ‘charming of indifference to the will and purpose of Holy God’!

In 2 Kings 20 there is a powerful, convicting, life-changing word as Isaiah said to King Hezekiah, “Thus says, the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.” “I have a message of God for you!”

Why did the Lord Jesus come? Why did He willingly yield Himself to Calvary’s Cross? Why did He rally twelve disciples to be His messengers? And were they? And what happened to them? As Christ was crucified in YOUR place and died, each of those twelves messengers also sacrificed their lives for the sake of the Gospel!

FIRST, PLEASE NOTICE THAT JESUS CAME TO RECONCILE US ALL TO HOLY GOD! Sadly, He shed His blood for all men to reconcile them to God, but many ignore the “Door” to reconciliation with Holy God, even attempting to ‘debunk’ our Lord’s death and resurrection!

In Hebrews 2:9-10, 14-17, we read of the blessed, “Good News” of reconciliation with God! It says: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for to suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, might taste death for everyone.”

Verses 14-17, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Glory!!

Reconciled to God means Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross voided the penalty of every man for his/her sin, destroyed the devil’s power over men, and released them from the curse of death and bondage TO life, freedom, and the fullness of Holy Presence: Christ in you the hope of glory! Romans 5: 17 is so encouraging and uplifting. It says: “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more THOSE WHO RECEIVE ABUNDANCE OF GRACE and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”

Again, reflect upon more words from Oswald Chamber in his “My Utmost…” book, [p.206]: “Sin is a thing I am born with and I cannot touch it; God touches sin in Redemption. In the Cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “And this is the judgment.” 9the critical moment”, “that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.”

Reconciled to God Because we were “redeemed by the blood of the Lamb”! But…

SECOND, HAVING BEEN REDEEMED BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB AND RECONCILED TO GOD, THERE IS THE HEAVENLY PURPOSE REVEALED WHICH IS: REVEALING THE RESURRECTED CHRIST IN ME TO THOSE AROUND ME! Look at Galatians 1:15-16a! “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…”!

Transformed by the blood of the Lamb, indwelt with Jesus’ resurrection life, anointed with and by the Holy Spirit, discipled in and through His Holy Word, a new believer receives his/her ‘marching orders’: Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Peter later said in Acts 2: 32: “This Jesus God raised up, of which we are all witnesses.”

Some ‘disciples’ in the modern-day church feel or sense that witnessing is for preachers and evangelists, but is not necessary as simply a ‘believer’s calling or ministry’. For them, it’s beyond their capabilities. But receive Acts 26: 22-23! Paul said: “Therefore HAVING OBTAINED HELP FROM GOD, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come – that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to Gentiles.”

Without Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, men you know are alienated FROM GOD, under Satan’s control and domination, limited in the Spirit-realm by ‘flesh’ and without hope of any spiritual blessing – but as a believer you sense no responsibility? Will you stand alone before God’s Judgment Seat one day to give an explanation of your sin, disobedience, unbelief, and rejection of His mercy and grace through Christ, or will your attorney, your advocate, be Christ Jesus Himself?

I rest in Hebrews 9:24-28! “For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”

What an amazing revelation! And the encouragement the Word gives? 2 Corinthians 5:20-21, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ (the Redeemed, the Reconciled!), as though God were pleading through us: We implore you on Christ’s behalf, BE RECONCILED TO GOD. For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin TO BE SIN FOR US, that WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.” There is no such possibility ever that a man is reconciled to God by his own self-effort or religious bent! It is the biblical unveiling of Blood Redemption through Christ – not by one’s best effort or a ‘conscious experience’ that he’s able to “save” himself! A religious life based only on a man’s self-determination is a fraudulent expression of religious intent that has NO redemptive element at all!

And, as the “righteousness of God in Him,” entrusted with God’s redemptive plan and Person of reconciliation only, 1 Peter 3:15 instructs us, “But sanctify (set apart) the Lord God in your hearts, and ALWAYS BE READY to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear…!”

THREE: “THE INTENTIONALITY OF TRUE DISCIPLESHIP”? I’M FIRMLY CONVINCED IT GOES BEYOND THE FIRST TWO POINTS TO THE AWARENESS OF THE END RESULT OF AVOIDING BOTH – NO REPENTANCE, NO RELEASE OF THE WITNESS, THEN THE AWESOME AWARENESS OF GOD’S FINAL JUDGMENT!

“No repentance”? “No heart-broken confession before Holy God of one’s independence from Him and trust only in his/her own fleshly abilities to ‘please God’? No discernment of His eternal intent that humanity, having repented, become, yes, ‘temples’ or ‘tabernacles’ of Christ’s Resurrection Presence? No awareness of THE final judgment when every man/woman stands before the Holy Throne to “give an account of their ‘saving faith’ or lack of it”?”

Do you remember Christ Jesus Reminding those in His day and ours about being cast into hell “where ‘Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’? And, yes, He made mention of “being cast into hell”! The awesome awareness that one cannot save himself/herself is ever before all humanity, or should be, and true disciples, inhabited by Christ Jesus in His resurrection, is the same Christ who preached, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest”, informing us and the world around us, “Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish!”

Fallen humanity CANNOT SAVE ITSELF! Fallen humanity CANNOT ATONE FOR ITS WILLFUL SIN AND SEPARATION FROM GOD! But there IS “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” whose names IS Christ Jesus, one and only, Redeemer, Reconciler, of fallen men to Holy God!

Receive what Spurgeon said long ago – it never changes! [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.12, p.39], “Methinks I hear the cry of spirits lost without hope; mark the worm that never dies, and witness the agonies of conscience never appeased, while the remembrance of opportunities haunts them, and the wrath of God stirs the fire that never shall be quenched.”

Examine carefully 2 Peter 3:10-13! It says: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, WHAT MANNER OF PERSONS OUGHT YOU TO BE IN HOLY CONDUCT AND GODLINESS, LOOKING FOR AND HASTENING THE COMING OF THE DAY OF GOD, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” [Dare I ask? Does righteousness dwell in you?].

CHAPTER FOUR

“VOID OF THE WORD OF GOD OR VICTORY THROUGH THE WORD OF GOD”?

Have you ever considered that you as a believer are to be guided by God’s Holy Word? Being united WITH Christ in your heart, soul, and mind, is it in the fabric of your redemptive faith to “be being saved” in and through your devotion to His Holy Word? Is it possible that in your “wedding vows” with Christ you omitted “devoted to His Word and His will”?

Is it in you as it was with Davis as he wrote in Psalm 25:4-5, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day,” but YOU know nothing of the daily discipline of His Word to be taught personally day by day by the King of kings and Lord of lords?

Your will be done”, but you never daily yield yourself to discover His will, His ways, His directive Word, but you settle in, “I’m saved; that’s all I need to know?” I believe that I read IN Psalm 25:12, “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way that He chooses.” And God’s choice? Matthew 4:4, But He [Jesus] answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

I would challenge you as you’re reading this to evaluate your “saving experience” in Christ IF you are void or neglectful of His Word! So-called “religious experiences” that never leads one to His “revelation” and a hunger to know His will and Word absolutely frightens me! If one has been “born again”, I believe one of the evidences is “that we might KNOW the things that are freely given to us of God” [1 Corinthians 2:12]. Consider a “crying baby” for the warm milk of its mother’s breasts, but for so-called believers , as babes in Christ, how foolish, they say, to “cry for the milk of the Word of God”!

To his spiritual son, Timothy, Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Be DILIGENT to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly diving the word of truth.” I look upon God’s revelation of divine truth in both the Old and New Testaments as magnificent promises and instructions for maturing men and women, boys and girls, who have come to Him in true repentance and faith.

It was Peter who told us in 2 Peter 1:2-4, “Grace and peace be multiplied to YOU in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us ALL things that pertain to life and godliness, through the KNOWLEDGE OF HIM WHO CALLED US BY GLORY AND VIRTUE, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that THROUGH THESE you may be PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

“Christ-Given Amazing Grace or Fleshly Grit”? Do you remember Abraham’s servant, sent by Abraham to find a bride for his son Isaac? In Genesis 24:48 the servant spoke: “And I bowed my head and worshipped the Lord, and blessed the Lord, and blessed the Lord God of my master Abraham, who had led me IN THE WAY OF TRUTH to take the daughter of my master’s brother for his son.” Thank God for His servants who are “led in the way of truth!”

In Mark 4 Jesus had been explaining His parables to the new disciples. Verses 33-34 tell us: “And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.” [Do You have an “alone time” with Christ Jesus daily to hear His will and Way?]. The very desire of Jesus for you right now is that you listen to Jesus and let Him “explain all things in the Word to you” by the Holy Spirit who “guides us into all truth.” In John 16:13-14 our Lord told His disciples, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit if Heaven’s personal “tutor” in the Holy Word of God!

But haven’t you heard it? “I don’t need a personal “tutor” to teach me the Bible! I don’t accept the Bible as the authoritative Word of God – I’m smart enough in myself to sense there is no divine truth as there is no ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’ – find a brain-dead ‘christian’ and you’ll probably fool them, but not me!” And if you haven’t learned it yet in your classrooms or from many university professors who ‘are smarter than God Himself’ they believe, by human interaction you will learn that the most harmful ‘curse’ in life’s spiritual realm is personal pride and intellectual superiority, yes, even superior to Jesus Himself who IS “God in Flesh”!

Have you ever examined thoroughly Jesus’ passionate PRAYER IN John 17 for you and for all mankind as He described “grace” as that which reveals Him and then He unveils “eternal life” by His “grace”? John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You [God Himself ], the only true God, AND Jesus Christ whom You sent.” Oh, and then in Verse 17 Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” Sanctify? “Set them apart,” “save them, redeem them, reconcile them, declare them ‘holy’ by Your Word”!! As Josh MacDowell used to say of Jesus: “Liar, lunatic, or the Lord God?”

BUT, “void of the Word of God”, men will, at least some, profess a mental assent and knowledge of Him but never experience “Victory in Him alone through His eternal Word”! Oswald Chambers, in his famous book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” []p.4], said: “Natural devotion may be all very well to attract us to Jesus, to make us feel His fascination, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion (fleshly admiration) will always deny Jesus somewhere or other.” What did the Lord Jesus tell us in John 3:3-7?

Jesus answered and said to Nicodemus, “MOST ASSUREDLY, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water [that’s the “water” of the Word!], AND the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Didn’t Jesus then say, “Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.”

All believers, then and now, born-again believers, WILL face worldly and satanic opposition to their true faith, but Paul tells all believers in Ephesians 6:10-19, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD, praying always with all prayer, and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.” [Don’t you find it interesting that Paul said, ‘And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel,” yet sadly most believers never consider their mandate as God’s messengers or even ask that He will open their mouths wide to share the gospel! Much of ‘Christendom’ remains silent in vocal ‘witnessing’ to the lost, alienated, separated from God, but ‘rests’ in, “I’m saved, what else matters?”

But what you need to grasp is that ‘natural mankind’ poses fierce opposition to Jesus because they in their natural minds are “void of the Word of God” and have no heavenly understanding. Even the early disciples, like Philip, had a hard time understanding who Jesus was and what He was about. Look at John 14:7-11!! “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him and have seen Him…”

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works…

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.” But natural mankind and far too many ‘professing believers’ do not realize the resurrected presence of Christ’s desire to live within them, within them to fulfill divine intent and purpose: “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

Natural mankind and ‘deceived professors of faith’ are, yes, void, opposed, and ‘willfully’ resist Biblical Truth that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.” Natural mankind is highly opposed to Biblical Truth that says, “obedience to Jesus is required as evidence of a born-again life”, even when Jesus said in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” In fact, in Luke 6:46 Jesus said: “But why do you call Me ‘

Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” Obedience is not an option in the age of grace but is the evidence grace is at work in you ‘finishing’ its work in you!

We do know beyond a shadow of a doubt that not all of Israel was “lost” because of rejection of the coming of the Promised Messiah – there was a ‘remnant’! But Romans 10:21 says, But to Israel he says, “All day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” And even as “Jews” there are those who lived in the “natural”, yes, fully opposed to “saved by grace”! Natural mankind are those who are “a disobedient and contrary people” who have no desire to live by the Life of Another, even by Emmanuel or “God in flesh”!!

Natural mankind, friends of the world, the flesh, and the devil, does not “know” Father-God or the Son of God or the Holy Spirit, the Three in One! We ALL came into this world through “fallen Adam”, yes, “hiding from God, without hope in ourselves, or hope in each other” – we needed a miracle of God! In John 17:25-26 Jesus prayed, “O righteous Father! THE WORLD HAS NOT KNOWN YOU, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be IN THEM, and I IN THEM.” Yes! Glory! Jesus prayed for YOU and ME that God’s love would capture our minds and hearts and wills, drawing us out of the land of darkness of unbelief to the “Promised Land” of heavenly living on earth through His Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

“Void of the Word of God”? I pray that you have not set aside the Epistle to the r! In Hebrews 1:1-3 we read, “God, who at various times and in various ways, spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

But those who are “void of the Word of God,” “void of Christ Himself”, willfully shut the door to His saving grace and mercy and have no seat in the heavenly places! Read carefully Ephesians 2:4-7! “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), AND RAISED US UP TOGETHER, AND MADE US SIT TOGETHER IN CHRIST JESUS, that in the ages to come “He Might Show” the EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS GRACE in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

“Void of the Word of God”? That’s those blinded by the world, the flesh, and the devil! It’s why in Galatians 6:7-8 Paul tells us all: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh [that’s his old sin nature, old man, First Adam] will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit [of God] will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

“Void of the Word of God”? Are you aware of the “stumblers”? Peter told us in 1 Peter 2:8, “…they stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.” God Himself read their hearts and appointed them to their just reward, yes, because of a mental, willful, head and heart rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ!

I think it vitally important to have you read also 1 Corinthians 1:18-31!! Receive it for yourself: “For the message [or word] of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…

For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise ? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer [the debater] of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?…

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom;…

But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God…

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 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 [First Adam, old sin nature], 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.” Foolishness of men ‘void of the Word’ OR Victory through the Word because we “glory” only in the finished work of Christ “At The Cross”, living a celebratory life because of His Resurrection from the dead?

How about for you an eternal shift by the grace of God to “Victory Through His Word”? In 1 John 5:4-5 John tells us: “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. [Our trust in Christ, our relying upon Christ, our total dependence upon Christ, through His shed blood, His death, His Resurrection, His Ascension, and His soon coming to celebrate with Him eternally!!]. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”

I’m forever sorry and broken that ‘religious’ people will never see Jesus in heaven but only at the Judgment Seat as He tells them, “Depart from Me, you who work iniquity!!”

But “born of God”? Are you familiar with Galatians 1:15-16? “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…” What an awesome revelation!

Do you remember what Jesus said in John 5:38-40? “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.”

There are those who will “read” the Word without “resting” in its Author. There are professors of allegiance to the ‘paper’ of the Book but fail to possess its Author and His Resurrection Life, Power, and Hope! There are ‘historical verifiers’ without “blood-bought, redeemed hearts”! And certainly there are devoted legalists without the Person and heavenly love of the Lord.

The Holy Word tells us: 2 Timothy 3:14-17, “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Have YOU been “made wise for salvation through faith in Christ alone”? What did Paul tell us in Romans 5:10? “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be [“being”] saved by His life.” Have you forgotten “justified by His blood” and “saved by His grace”?

The author of the Hebrews letter put it like this in Hebrews 9:11-14, “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation…

Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,…how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

If your life is not a testimony of continuous rejoicing in God for His forgiveness and, yes, forgetfulness of your old sin nature and your pattern and participation in fleshly sins, I believe I would seriously examine what I “thought” was my salvation and what God Himself “says” it is!

Hebrews 10:12-14 tells us, “But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice f or sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool…For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.”

Your sin became His “pain,” your pain became His suffering, His suffering became your freedom, and your freedom became the theme of your praise to your true Savior, Lord, Redeemer, your Liberator from sin and death, BY HIS GRACE!

So…YOU take the sentence of death DAILY that the Resurrection Life of your Lord and Savior may be manifested in and through you for an unbelieving world to see and seek!

Have you forgotten, overlooked, or never seen and received Paul’s word to us in Galatians 5:24? “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” so…Verse 25, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Is it your daily ambition to honor Christ in your earthly walk?

I close this teaching, this chapter, with Oswald Chambers’ words: “Beware of refusing to go to the funeral of your own independence.” [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.256]. AMEN?`

CHAPTER FIVE

“ABOUNDING GRACE – GRACIOUS MINISTRIES”

For me, at least, there is an amazing revelation Paul gave us in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 when he wrote: “Now then, WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, BE RECONCILED TO GOD. For He [God the Father] made Him [God the Son] who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” “Abounding Grace – Gracious Ministries”!

“Now then…”! But what was “before then”? Are you aware of ‘strong-willed’, ‘self-determined’, ‘intensely proud flesh’, and, yes, a life dictated to by the devil and the powers of darkness, or even ‘religious people’ shaped by ‘self-indulgent rulers’ of their own destinies, who ignore “Amazing Grace” and lean on their own ‘fleshly grit’ to prove their ‘worthiness’?!?

Christ Jesus spoke, after revealing the “abounding grace” of John 3:16, saying in Verses 17-21, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, (Why? Because a godless, faithless life has already been birthed into a life of ‘self-rule’, godless or not!), but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. AND THIS IS THE CONDEMNATION, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone PRACTICING EVIL hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Are you aware that the ‘human spirit’, without “born the second time”, yet warned, no doubt, as Paul talked about “taking the sentence of death daily, that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in (my) mortal flesh”, (2 Corinthians 1:9-10), is unbelieving people who self-appoint themselves to be “cut in two and appointed to his place or portion with the hypocrites, ‘play-actors’ who experience eternal weeping and gnashing of teeth”? Or is that unveiling of “death to self” taking place in your faith-walk, and as a result, you’re experiencing eternal, resurrection life and hope? Or are YOU, or those around you who ARE unbelievers, like the masses, even from the world’s creation, ‘mockers’ of God and true disciples of Christ unveiling the world’s mentality of, yes, limited mental prowess, maimed minds, and warped wills, while the Holy Word of God describes them (and you, if that’s where YOU stand!) as: “idle talkers and deceivers” (Titus 1:10), and Titus 1:15b, “…but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled”!

In Revelation 21:8 the Holy Word says this: “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and ALL LIARS shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone which is the second death.”

Are you aware that “sinners” are “slaves”, imprisoned in the human spirit, since Adam, and completely unfit to be a servant of God in Christ apart from the “Blood Redemption” and Miraculous Resurrection into sons and daughters of God through biblical repentance and saving faith in Christ alone, offered by God’s grace and that alone? [Didn’t Jesus say in John 8:56 to the Jews: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad”?!?].

In 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5 Paul wrote, blessed and anointed by the Holy Spirit, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

I wonder how many “believers” you know who sense an awesome, heavenly gratitude, daily, to God, the God of love and Grace and mercy, who tells us in Revelation 1:5-6, “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Or SO BE IT!!)”! Do YOU have an ‘Amen’ in your life or a ‘So Be It’?

But our theme of this chapter? “Abounding Grace – Gracious Ministries”! Question! Did man reach out to God or God Himself reached out to man? In Genesis 3, lied to by Satan himself, Eve and then Adam ate of ‘the forbidden fruit’, instituting “Fig-leaf religion” with verse 7 telling us, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings”! God spoke, and Genesis 3:8 then says, aware of their nakedness, they “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”

Men hide themselves by willful blindness, by woeful ‘dressings’ of nature, by outright, ignoramus ideas that He doesn’t exist, by ‘worshipping’ self or idols, by wrapping themselves in the ‘garments’ of human inadequacy, fleshly disgrace, and invented religious preferences – but YOU don’t see anything wrong with that as “men make their own acceptable away to appease empty hearts and minds, and feel ‘justified’ in self-efforts of their ‘religious needs’”?

Historical mankind has gone from one major conflict to another, from battle to battle, from ‘ups and downs’ to ‘ins and outs,’ from stress to stress, sensing if he remains faithful to what he has determined for himself fleshly, religiously, educationally or not, it’s “My best effort that counts”! Really?

Unbelievers, atheists, agnostics, religions apart from Christ, enemies of Christ’s resurrection, ascension, and coming again, are untiring warriors against “Abounding Grace – Gracious Ministries”! And, though untiring, even by neglect or indifference, their judgments are already sealed by the Victorious, Conquering King of kings and Lord of lords! It’s SO interesting that we read in Jude 14-21,”Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesies about these men (apostates), also, saying, “Behold the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain an advantage. But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time (of historical Judaism) who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts.

These are sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

Opponents of “redemptive faith” are no worthy opposition to the message of “abounding grace” and, certainly cannot even by killing its “messengers”, put a halt to the move and ministry through their “gracious ministries”! Holy God appoints His ‘ambassadors’, inspired even by men recognizing they and their country need God’s mercy and grace! In Acts 16:9 we read, And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Tell me of YOUR encounters with men pleading with you, “Come over to….and help us”! But, without men, Holy God will intervene in your life as a disciple of Christ Jesus, “Come over and help us,” or God Himself, “I send YOU as my appointed, anointed representative and ambassador – tell them about Christ Jesus!” I’m convinced it’s time for God’s “assembled church” to begin asking Him, “Lord what would you have us to do?” And I believe He’ll say, “Lift up Christ Jesus WHO WILL draw all men to Himself!”

And…how do YOU respond or react to Christ Jesus’ indictment of ‘religious pretenders’? Examine Matthew 23:27-28! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites (or ‘play-actors’)! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

Bu God gives a life-changing, eternal promise in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14! “…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, THEN I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Are YOU aware of His “abounding grace”? Are you celebrating in your life the awesome grace of the Prince of Peace and rejoicing that He chose You and assigned you as a ‘special ambassador’ with His “gracious ministry”? And having fully surrendered to this awesome calling, amazing privilege, and ambassadorial assignment, are you aware of how, at times, “sheep are led to the slaughter”, because the world, the flesh, and the devil, want NO interference in their ‘world’ they’ve chosen for themselves! Let’s nail it down permanently in our minds, hearts, and wills!!

FIRST, EVERY CHRISTIAN, EVERY DISCIPLE OF CHRIST, EVERY MEMBER OF HIS REDEEMED BODY IS COMMISSIONED AS HIS REPRESENTATIVE AMBASSADOR! Again, 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

Even across the world nations acknowledge, welcome, and honor ‘ambassadors’ from other countries. But, are you aware of nations today closing their doors to Christian- discipleship ministers, men or women, no longer allowed to enter their nations to evangelize?

Again, what did Christ Jesus tell us in Luke 24:46-48? “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, AND that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things.”

Examine the dramatic, life-change in Simon Peter, from a casual fisherman of fish, to an eternally significant “messenger” of Christ’s redemptive power! In Acts 4, being examined by the rulers, elders, and scribes around Jerusalem, they asked him, Verse 7, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”

Verse 8 and following, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, BY HIM this man stands here before you whole. This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved.”

And what really thrills me in this section of the Holy Word? Verse 13! 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.

In Romans 11 there is a very interesting unveiling of divine intent about a true remnant “according to the election of grace.” It says: Verses 1-7, Paul speaking, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. (The true remnant of faith, grace, and mercy ‘within’ Israel the nation that crucified the Christ!). Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying, ‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life’? But what does the divine response say to him? ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant ACCORDING TO THE ELECTION OF GRACE.”

God’s intent today for any nation, anywhere, any time? “I have reserved for Myself faithful men, faithful disciples, faithful messengers, and they have beautiful feet and carry the message of the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things” to the needy, alienated, separated from Me, men and women, who need to hear of God’s “Abounding Grace – Gracious Ministries”!

What does Romans 10:14-15 tell us? “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher (a “messenger”)? And how shall they preach (witness) unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’”

SECOND, COMMISSIONED, ANOINTED, DIVINELY ORDAINED MESSENGERS, ARE FULLY AWARE OF BOTH GOD’S HEART AND HIS ULTIMATE INTENTION THROUGH THEM! In Ezekial 33:11 there is a profound, liberating word from God! It says, Say to them, ‘As I live’, says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live. Turn, turn, from your evil ways! For why should you die…”, apart from abounding grace and a gracious ministry, in you, through Christ?

What did Holy God say to Isaiah in Isaiah 1:18-19? “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. IF you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

With that revealed by God, how is it that many professing believers and preachers are deceived into thinking we have, in Christ, no demands on discipleship – “only believe and receive”; like a famous author I’ve admired for many, many years, coming along in his day to say, [“Spurgeons’ Sermons”, Vol. 12, p. 132], “With what joy should a rebellious sinner hear the voice of the ambassador who brings no hard conditions from God”; really? No hard conditions from God?

In Proverbs 15:10 the inspired writer wrote: “Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, and he who hates correction will die.” Dare I paraphrase Proverbs 15:5? “A fool or foolish disciple of Christ despises Father-God’s instruction, but he who receives correction is prudent (or discerning or wise!).”

Did Jesus say, “IF you are willing and obedient?” IF YOU are not aware of biblical truth, please note Luke 14:25-33! Now great multitudes went with Him. And He (Christ Jesus) turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see begin to mock him saying, “This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”

I don’t know how YOU read what you just read in the previous paragraphs, but I’m convinced it is His challenge that true disciples are fully devoted to Him, first and foremost, and highlights radical, personal devotion and surrender to His Lordship! How easy to ‘profess’ a creed, a religious creed, but it’s ‘tough’ to “forsake all and follow Me!” Dare I tell you that the evidence of true conversion, the evidence of a ‘new-born’ life in Christ, the evidence of a true son or daughter of God, IS unaltered obedience and surrender, denying ‘self’ and willfully exalting Christ, and witnessing in your yielded life the ever-abiding and spiritual reality of His Holy Presence being Himself because you chose to be dead to your old self, daily, that His Resurrection Life, then free, to be Himself through YOU!

True disciples willingly offer themselves without hesitation to the Person, Presence, and Purpose of the Indwelling Christ, even as Chambers once said: (“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.26), “It is one thing to go on the lonely way with dignified heroism, but quite another thing if the line mapped out for you by God means being a door-mat under other people’s feet.” But unbelieving, fallen mankind is often so ‘comfortable’ in themselves and their chosen way of life they often say, “Who cares?”, but when trouble arises, it’s either hear God, or, watch your walls fall down! Song of Solomon 5:2 says, “I was asleep, but my heart was awake. A voice! My Beloved was knocking: Open to Me!” Isn’t that Acts 17:28 (NIV)? “For in Him we live and move and have our being”?

It’s so interesting to me that many ‘professing disciples’ are devotedly religious but avoid the Word, the Spirit, the very instruction of Christ Jesus, like when He said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and THEY FOLLOW ME,” and I wondered as I read that passage recently, if those ‘professing disciples’ are willing to be stoned! John 10:31 says, Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Jesus.” Have you forgotten, overlooked, or were never taught 1 Corinthians 1:9? It says, “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord”?

In Isaiah 40:27-31, it’s as if God sees and senses His ‘chosen people’ saying “God’s asleep” when it’s really careless disciples not fully awakened to His claims on their lives! It says: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel: ‘My way is hidden from the Lord, and my just claim is passed over by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard?

The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints not is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Dare I ask? Are YOU “waiting on the Lord”?

THIRD, AND LAST POINT IN THIS CHAPTER, “BUT FULLY AWARE OF GOD’S INTENT THROUGH US, ARE YOU ‘FOLLOWING, FULFILLING, FINISHING WHAT HE ASSIGNED TO YOU TO DO AS HIS AMBASSADOR’?” Again, 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”

Are YOU aware that God wants you pleading for the salvation of others? Did Paul say, “as though God were pleading through you”? But to unbelievers, there is the message of witnessing disciples, Ezekial 18: 31b-32, God speaking, “Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O American unbeliever? For I (God Almighty) have no pleasure in the death of one who dies (in his/her sin!)”, says the Lord God. “Therefore turn and live!” Repent, return, rest in Christ alone!

What will it be? Ears that are open and responding to His Call: Repent, return, sand rest in My finished work at the Cross and the Empty Tomb, OR, Ears that are closed to “Abounding Grace & Gracious Ministries”? It’s a sad, sad day when Gracious, Loving, Merciful God on His Throne, continues to witness hardened hearts, unbelieving races, world leaders, stubborn students, national ‘all-sufficient-in-self’ political leaders and educational overseers, who sense no need of God’s grace and mercy being ‘worthy’ of their consideration or inclusion in their ‘reigns’ – SO.. “Welcome, Devil – you’re more acceptable with us than God Himself!”

I choose with Paul, Philippians 2:17, “Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.”

CHAPTER SIX

“WANDERING FROM THE FAITH?”

There are not many men anywhere who live with a total disregard of Holy God; and there are many men all over the world who in their deep and abiding love for Him would never consider ‘walking away’ from Him. But, at the same time, there are those “journeyers” with Jesus who have chosen, not simply to willfully walk away, but at times are “drawn away”, or often “swept away” by powerful tides of false influences thrusting them onto the rocks of “doubt, fears, twisted unbeliefs, or careless, fleshly indulgences”! And, for them, ‘surprisingly’ (?) they “fall into” those temptations and give way to the devil’s strong deceptions, the devil even telling some, “you cannot do anything but sin until you get to heaven; so, at least, have a little ‘fun’ on the way!”

“Faith journeys”? There are missed or messed-up directions that some believers take that become “detours” away from the true and living Way, and become “dead-end streets” that cause a “scattering” and not “gathered unto Jesus”! In fact, in John 16:32, Jesus SPOKE TO HIS DISCIPLES! “Do you now believe? Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, EACH TO HIS OWN, and will leave Me alone.”

Don’t you pray that that never happens to you, to yours, to your fellow believers, to your pastoral leadership, even ‘up-until-now’ faithful political leaders who for the most part have sought to honor the Lord Jesus Christ? But are you aware of, yes, some “wandering from the Faith”?

Are you aware of how easy it is to be ‘side-tracked’ to personal interests rather than the cause of Christ in a careless world of, often, a “straying from the faith”? Are there “mental” strayings from pure devotion and surrender to Christ’s Lordship? Are there “willful” choices to disobey and stray away? Are there “inner desolations” or “private sins” that no one sees but God Himself that has captured one’s heart and mind “spoiling” the redemptive blessing of a “new life” in Christ?

course, when you read Luke 19:41-44 about Christ Jesus “weeping over Jerusalem”, you clearly understand how the ‘religious pretenders’ claimed allegiance to Jesus but then participated in His crucifixion, but since “All Scripture is inspired by God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God (anywhere, anytime, anywho!) may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work,” (2 Timothy 3:16-17), hear the Master, Lord, and Savior in the Luke passage!!

“If YOU had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you, and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave one stone upon another, BECAUSE you did not know the time of your visitation.” WOW! [Happened to Jerusalem – can happen to you!]

In our “faith journeys” does the Lord Jesus tell us that there are “times of visitation” that become His “times of examination” of ALL disciples? Don’t you find it so interesting and challenging to read King David in Psalm 26:2-8? “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth.

I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, nor will I go in with hypocrites. I have hated the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked. I will wash my hands in innocence; So I will go about Your altar, O Lord, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all Your wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation of Your house, and the place where Your glory dwells.”

In the “faith journey”, with an awareness of examinations and testings by Father-God, some live out the faith carelessly unaware of God’s plan and desire to ‘conform us all into the very image and likeness of Christ’, but darkening opportunities, avoiding divine ability, and limiting the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ! I really don’t know how it is that many ‘believers’ consider “self-effort-best” in the walk of faith when “Christ in us IS the hope of glory!”

How many do you know or become aware of in your pilgrimage who know nothing about “the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us In Christ Jesus”, not in one’s best effort? But, in the “journey” of “being conformed to the image of Christ”, is it possible that some ‘fall way from the faith’?

In Jeremiah 6:10 the “Lord of hosts” spoke to a “falling-away-people”: “To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. [Why?], Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; they have no delight in it.”

Oh, but Holy God didn’t stop there! Jeremiah 6:13-15 is a strong, holy, convicting, awakening Word! He said: “Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush. Therefore THEY SHALL FALL among those who fall; At the time I punish them, they shall be cast down,” says the Lord.

Do you remember Joseph preparing his brothers for their ‘journey’ back to Israel and their father? He said, in Genesis 45:24 So he sent his brothers away, and they departed; and he said to them, “See that you do not become troubled along the way.” Did YOU have a spiritual father of the faith who told you that as you began your “pilgrimage of faith and devotion to Christ Jesus”? And yet many failed to warn sons and daughters of the faith that “troubles” leading to a “falling away” can be numerous and horrific!

Didn’t Paul warn the Thessalonians about “the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish (along the way), because they did not receive (or see as necessary for themselves because they were so “spiritual” in their own understanding!) the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10). Oh, and then God made a sovereign judgment! Verses 11-12 says, “AND FOR THIS REASON GOD will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie ( like ‘you can sin and not die’?), that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” Isn’t it true, haven’t you heard them, read them, witnessed them, teaching and preaching the “white-washing” of “dark truths”, promoting “one can sin, and sin, and sin, and not die, because God overlooks a believer’s sin but condemns sinners”?, when it hasn’t changed: “The wages of sin is death!”

Thank God FOR “the Pauls” who serve Him faithfully and warn of the dangers of “falling away”! In Galatians 5:1 and Verses 4-6, Paul wrote: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage….Verses 4-6, You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law ( you who compromise and want to blend fallen flesh with “new birth spirit”); you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.”

And isn’t “the liberty of Christ” the liberty of freedom from, not the liberty to be or do as redeemed ‘flesh’ dictates, but the liberty of Lordship, committed to and dominated by His Holy Will, which IS “Go and sin no more”? (John 8:11!). What ‘yoke’ have you submitted to? The yoke of indulgent flesh or the yoke OF “Christ-Liberation”?

There’s an awesome word from the Lord in Revelation 3:10-12 which says: “Because you have kept My command to PERSEVERE, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. Behold, I am coming quickly! (Have YOU heard His “door-knocking” at your heart?). Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He WHO OVERCOMES, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.” There doesn’t have to be a “wandering away from the true, redemptive Faith in Christ alone”, but, sadly, there are those who do!

WANDERING FROM THE FAITH? IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THERE ARE THOSE WHO BEGIN THE JOURNEY WITHOUT COUNTING THE COST? I assume that the words of the Lord Jesus apply as we seek to determine why the ‘wandering away’ occurs – Right? In Luke 14:25-33 we see several ‘types of followers’, temporary-eternal, adapters-adopted, reckless-reliant, divided allegiances- undivided devotion, cost ignoramuses-cost evaluators! Receive Christ Jesus’ “demands of true discipleship”!

Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegate and asks conditions of peace. SO LIKEWISE, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”

A ‘king’ considering the cost? Jesus evaluated the ‘human condition’ of sin and separation from Holy God, willingly giving Himself in death to bring opportunity for Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope to every man who lives in repentance toward God and faith in the Savior’s finished work at the Cross, then three days later rising from the dead, then offering every repentant soul forgiveness, a “new Life”, ushering in the eternal kingdom of God, and assigning all “followers” to endure ‘world rejection’ but rejoice daily in God’s eternal affirmation of a true child of faith that rejects what a fallen world offers and ‘rests’ in what Christ Jesus assures!

It was Paul who said in Acts 17:26-28, “And He (God) has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being…”. And then in Acts 17:30-31 we find out about the eternal governance of God! “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now Commands all men everywhere to repent, BECAUSE He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Glory!

Were you informed of “the cost” when you “joined” a church? In Luke 24:46-49 Jesus said, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, AND THAT REPENTANCE AND REMISSION OF SINS SHOULD BE PREACHED IN HIS NAME TO ALL NATIONS, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

Repentance? Brokenness over one’s sin and sin nature, brokenness over alienation and separation from Holy God who made you, brokenness that you ignored Christ’s historic death for you too long, brokenness over the alienation and separation from God’s desire to extend His love, express His grace, and exalt His Son through you – but for too long you ignored divine intent, lived with a closed mind to His love, His will, His sacrifice, brokenness realizing that if YOU were the only sinful man who ever lived, and Christ died just for you, how do you relate to that? Will YOU just wander away from redemptive faith or halt the mis-direction of your life and “lean on Christ Jesus only”? “Count the cost”? Death to the old man and full surrender to the “new man” in Christ!

WANDERING FROM THE FAITH? IS IT POSSIBLE A BELIEVER, HAVING REPENTED, SERVED FAITHFULLY HIS MASTER FOR SOME TIME, CAN BELIEVE THE MASTER ‘MAY DELAY HIS COMING’, THEREFORE “I” CHOOSE TO PLAY AROUND FOR AWHILE! Come to Luke 12: 42-46 where Jesus speaks so clearly about this danger that comes over some ‘believers’ lives: “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. But if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not aware, and will cut him in two and appoint his portion with the unbelievers.”

It’s really, really interesting that early in the church’s existence the Apostle Paul had to intervene, at least in Thessalonica, but you’ll find his concern elsewhere in his writings if you so desire, but in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 he stirs up a strong warning to the “play-around” folks who engaged in sexual immorality. Paul wrote:

“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles, who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified.

For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.”

I wonder how many “flesh indulgers” of the past, having come to Christ, consult their Master and Lord before plunging into a sea of sexual immorality? Of course, sadly, some were never discipled as to the ‘holy life’ as “ambassadors of Christ”! When Jesus said in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world,” which, I believe, is certainly a call in one’s life of faith that ‘kingdom living’ under His Lordship is opposite of submission to, entertainment of the world’s fleshly ways, especially sexual immorality!

Have you been taught that coming to Christ through repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross opens the door of your heart and life to “Kingdom Allegiance”? Jesus told the religious Pharisees in Luke 17:20-21, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

In Romans 14:16-19 we find interesting, convicting, challenging words: “Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil; [but at the same time, I add: “but do not let your evil be spoken of as good”, or “Sexual immorality is OK! Don’t let the ‘Bible-thumpers’ scare you! We all do it.” Really?]. for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men. Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.”

In 1 Thessalonians 4:1-3 I repeat what I read earlier: “Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us HOW YOU OUGHT TO WALK AND PLEASE GOD; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is THE WILL OF GOD, your sanctification: THAT YOU SHOULD ABSTAIN FROM SEXUAL IMMORALITY…!”

WANDERING FROM THE FAITH? IS IT POSSIBLE THAT SOME BELIEVERS, SO ENAMORED WITH “PEACE AND SAFETY” TEACHINGS, RATHER THEN “PURSUE, PRESS IN, OR PERPETUALLY” HOLD ONTO CHRIST JESUS, THEY BECOME SO IN LOVE WITH PLEASING ‘FLESH’ THEY ALLOW “SPIRIT-HUNGER” TO DIE? It’s really amazing to me and heart-breaking to read in Isaiah 56:9-12 about Israel’s careless, compromising, irresponsible leaders that influenced a ton of Israel’s people, with only the true remnant remaining steadfast! It says: “All you beasts of the field, come to devour, all you beasts in the forest. (And Jerusalem was ultimately destroyed in 70AD!) His watchmen are blind, they are all ignorant; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down loving to slumber.

Yes, they are greedy dogs which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand; THEY ALL LOOK TO THEIR OWN WAY, every one for his own gain, from his own territory. “Come,” one says, “I will bring wine, and we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink; Tomorrow will be as today, and much more abundant.” But they ended bankrupt!

That’s “flesh-loving, flesh-desiring, flesh domination”, even as one sings “Peace and Safety”! Oh, but then! SUDDEN DESTRUCTION COMES! In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Paul challenges every believer then and now: But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.

But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us NOT SLEEP, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who ARE OF THE DAY be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.”

Of course, the question of the moment is, “Are you walking, now, this very moment, in the ‘darkness’ of fleshly indulgence or in the “Light” of glorious grace and mercy?” Walking in the “peace and safety” frame of reference is often held by ‘believers’ walking both sides of the street – a devotion to flesh observance during the week and a spirit observance on Sundays! In Matthew 6:24 Jesus said: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Are YOU a ‘compromising disciple’ walking both sides of the street, or His disciple willing to walk in His “way of the Cross” that leads home victoriously?

In Revelation 1:17-18 John was blessed in the divine unveiling of Christ’s Presence! He said: And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I AM He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.” Amen means “So be it,” and our Lord intends His “AMEN” to be YOUR “AMEN”, not in “falling away” but resting in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

If there has been a tendency in YOU to “walk away”, never resist His Holy Presence within you or around you, or even His Presence through caring, compassionate ambassadors of Christ who have no desire seeing you fall away! HE WILL COME! THEY WILL COME! And caring, loving brothers and sisters ‘in Christ’ will seek to turn you back to Him, not rest as they see you turning to satisfy your ‘flesh’ and fall away!

In Deuteronomy 33:26-27 there is a word of ‘hope’ for Israel as a nation, but also a word of ‘hope’ for people committed to Christ Jesus today, for God is the Same ‘yesterday’, ‘today’, and ‘forever’! “There is no one like the God of Jeshuran, who rides the heavens to help you, and in His and in His excellency on the clouds. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, “Destroy!”

You didn’t let Revelation 1:17 just fly over your head without understanding, did you? Again, “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, ‘Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last..”, saying then and now: “I’m Lord over everything you face – you don’t have to “fall away” – let Me finish your earthly walk of faith as you choose to be dead to yourself but fully alive and overcoming in Me!”

I love Oswald Chambers’ words in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest”. (P.104-105): “He laid His right hand upon me.” In the midst of the awfulness (and JFF says, ‘the awfulness of falling away”!), a touch comes, and you know it is the right hand of Jesus Christ. The right hand not of restraint nor of correction nor of chastisement, but the right hand of the Everlasting Father. Whenever His hand is laid upon you, it is ineffable peace and comfort, the sense that “underneath are the everlasting arms,” full of sustaining and comfort and strength.”

The question is: When the temptation comes to “fall away”, will I yield to the ‘old man’ OR surrender to the “new man” in Christ; will I give Jesus His rightful place, in me, as Savior, Lord, Master, Conqueror over temptation Himself, conqueror over sin itself, and Conqueror over the spiritual death within you, and the Author of everlasting Life through your available vessel? “CHOOSE CHRIST, THE WAY, THE TRUTH, and ,THE EVERLASTING LIFE”, finishing strong, not in flesh-effort that fails!

CHAPTER SEVEN

“GUTSY GRIT OR GODLY SORROW?”

There’s an interesting verse in Jeremiah 45:5 where the Lord Himself speaks: “And do not seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the Lord. “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.” And, if God is no respecter of persons, (and He’s not!), then what He said through the prophet to Baruch, does the same hold true to you? Is YOUR “gutsy grit” what Holy God desires from you or a broken, repentant heart, and truly godly sorrow over the sinful state of your God-less life?

One of the saddest words in all of Scripture, so definitive of “fallen men”, is found in Proverbs 21:2 where the Word declares: “Every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.” A gutsy, gritty heart or a heart of Godly sorrow? A gilded heart of showy appearances or a graced heart of Godly indwelling?

Do you sense any of “gutsy grit” around you, whether child, youth, young adult, or aging adult? Do you ever view the “culture of fleshly intellect” and shake your head as you visualize “cultural unbelief” and fleshly rejection of Holy God and His love and purpose for all fallen men?

Jonathan Edwards, in his writing, “The Freedom of the Will,” wrote: “The heart (that’s the heart of fallen men!) is like a viper, hissing, and spitting poison at God.” The hearts of “fallen men”, alienated and separated from Holy God, are yielded to the aim of pursuing and satisfying the ‘flesh’ and its indulgences with no consideration of eternal purpose or what pleases and honors Holy God with His desire that they be reconciled to Him through the blood of the Lamb of God!

“Fallen men”, large in prominence or known by few, are no different! Both are citizens of the kingdom of darkness and the devil, intent on satisfying all fleshly desires, accepting of “seeming shows,” indulging in vain delights, programmed by civilized ‘stupidity’, critical of true men of redeeming faith through the Blood, satisfied with mental allegiance apart from ‘heart-transformation,’ and certainly with “No fear of God” but only acknowledgement of His existence, even if that! Faith, to them, is simply an awareness of God, if even that by some, but absent from true repentance and redeeming faith and them becoming the temple of Holy Presence on earth! Faith, to them, is for far too many, even some pastors, the faith of possibilities, not the faith of divine realities, which is why ‘philosophy’, factual or fiction, at least governs some’s ‘mental allegiance’!

“Gutsy grit” is never able to translate or transform the ‘chord discords’ or ‘off-key’ fleshly realities into an ‘orchestrated-life-harmony’ apart from the grace and the mercy of God! It was Thomas Carlyle who once said: [“The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” edited by Frank S. Mead, Fleming H. Revell com., Westwood New Jersey,p.456], “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 or fact at all.”

Do you remember Moses and Aaron going in to Pharoah of Egypt and telling him, (Exodus 5:1-2), “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’” And Pharoah said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” Yet, in Exodus 14 we read of the destruction of the Egyptian armies AND Pharoah with Verse 28 telling us, “Not so much as one of them remained,” and certainly not “gritted Pharoah”! And, dare I tell you, FROM HELL PHAROAH STILL GRIEVES AND GROANS, BUT NOW VOID OF HIS GUTSY GRIT!

“Gutsy grit” by unbelievers and rejecters of Resurrection Life in Christ are men, past, present, and future, who will reveal to you, if you’re ever able to ask them, (I hope not!), “We know now only anthems of despair, the themes of avenging demons, the scary, constant, unyielding voices of devilish phantoms,” or Harriet Beecher Stowe’s words, “No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man. Life and death to him are haunted grounds, filled with goblin forms of vague and shadowy dread.”

There is no evil so great as the evil of the rejection of grace, mercy, forgiveness, and life in and through Christ, just as Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:12b, “If we deny Him, He [the One True and Living God, the Resurrected Christ], ALSO will deny us.”

I find the anointed spirit of Paul so needed in this 21^st Century in our own journey of faith, and especially as one is cemented and grounded in the Holy Word, and fully aware of the fallacy of “gutsy grit”, and fully aware of the need of “godly sorrow”, “redemptive faith,” “and true repentance”! In 2 Timothy 2:23-26 he wrote: “But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that THEY MAY COME TO THEIR SENSES AND ESCAPE THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

Do YOU find that a frightening statement that unbelievers are those “snared by the devil”, functioning in their lives according to his wants, desires, and plans? Isn’t it amazing, shocking, awakening, alerting to you to even hear Jesus, in Revelation 3:9, even mention “those of the synagogue of Satan”? SO…let’s just call on “gutsy grit” to see us through in our earthly warfare with the devil and the powers of darkness – right? WRONG!

Examine Revelation 12:7-12! And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. AND THEY OVERCAME HIM BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB AND BY THE WORD OF THEIR OWN TESTIMONY, AND THEY DID NOT LOVE THEIR LIVES TO THE DEATH. THEREFORE rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them!

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

But, hear me! Whether it’s the world, the flesh, or the devil, Psalm 50:15 tells us: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” What a promise! Dare I ask YOU? “Do YOU stand on the promises in “gutsy grit” or “REST” in the finished work of Christ “At Calvary”? What does the Holy Word tell us in Ephesians 6:10-18?

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord [ Does that sound like “gutsy grit” to you?] and IN the power of HIS MIGHT. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

STAND THEREFORE, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, [that’s imparted, implanted, imputed righteousness by the grace and mercy of God!], and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints –“

Dare I tell you that the day of your ‘helpless feeling’ can be, should be, must be, the day of full awareness of ALL God Himself wants to be and to do through you? Proverbs 3:1-6 is a powerful expression from God that should be the launching of your life of faith and trust through “Godly Sorrow” from a heart and life that does not lean on “gutsy grit” or “fleshly best” but God’s mercy, grace, and love! It says: “My son, do not forget my law (the wisdom and instruction from “trust” in the Lord!), but let your heart keep my commands; for length of days and long life they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, And SO find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. [Look now at Verses 13, and 21-26]! “Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding.” That’s the wisdom of God and the understanding the Holy Spirit gives to you as you faithfully feed on His Word! Verses 21-26 says, “My son, let them not depart from your eyes – keep sound wisdom and discretion; So they will be LIFE TO YOUR SOUL and GRACE TO YOUR NECK.

Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.”

So…what does a fleshly, sinful, mortal man do to obtain his personal salvation? Do you remember Paul and Silas imprisoned for the faith in Acts 16 when the jailer came to them after a great earthquake, finding all the prison doors opened, and Paul and Silas still there! He was ready to kill himself, but went in to Paul and Silas asking, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And it wasn’t ‘saved from an earthquake but “saved from his sins”! And in Acts 16:31 Paul and Silas told him, “Believe [trust in, rely upon, adhere to] on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

That’s: BE FINISHED WITH YOURSELF AND ANY ATTEMPT AT BEING “RELIGIOUS”, AND REST IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT THE CROSS! Have you never received, rested in, or relied upon 2 Corinthians 5:17? “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he IS a ‘new creation’; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

“In Christ” we sing a “new song”! “In Christ” we walk in “newness of life” and serve Him in “newness of spirit”! The Lord Jesus said in Revelation 21:5, “Behold, I make all things new…!” We’re ‘clothed’ with “new garments”, we “LIVE” by a “new and living way,” He grants us a “new name”, He bestows upon us out of our death the reality of “new-born”, a “new covenant,” a “new heart and a new spirit,” and as “newborn babes in Christ” we desire, hunger for, rest in, and are assured of His able-ness to keep what we’ve committed unto Him and to keep what He has committed unto us!

2 Corinthians 5:21 declares: “For He (God) made Him (Jesus Christ) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God In Him.” ARE YOU “the righteousness of God IN CHRIST JESUS”? Hear me!

“In Christ” we are no longer ‘mere men’ but sons and daughters of redemptive faith birthed by God to bear, share, unveil His Name!

“In Christ”, by God’s mercy, grace, and love, we’ve been set apart to be “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own special, blood-bought people”!

“In Christ”, ‘born again by the Spirit into the Holy Family of God, we are declared by Him to be the “righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”! We’re now “sons and daughters” of our Heavenly Father!

Our lives, now “in Christ”, are “hidden with Christ in God”! We’ve been “raised up to be seated with Him in heavenly places at the very right hand of God the Father!

Our lives “in Christ” are now identified as “ministers of reconciliation” and “ambassadors of Christ”! We’ve been counted worthy to walk with Christ, entrusted with His Gospel!

Christ Jesus is the Bridegroom – we’re “the bride of Christ”! We’re now “trustees of the ‘mysteries’! We’re “witnesses” of His Redeeming Grace! God even says of all repentant believers that they are “priests and kings unto Him.”

To God, we are the ‘fragrance of Christ,’ His ‘peace-makers’ in a troubled world, His disciples and disciplers, His “soldiers of the Cross”! We’re “more than conquerors” – we’re “new creations”!

“In Christ” we’re “living sacrifices”, eternal epistles, poems of the grace, mercy, and love of God! Doesn’t the Word declare the truth and reality, and visual presence of “apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, or ‘disciples’ meaning “Followers of Christ”?

“In Christ” we’re “servants” of the King of kings and Lord of lords – we bear the image of the Heavenly Man, because WE ARE ‘the called, the separated, the anointed, indwelt by all the very fullness of God”!

“In Christ” we are His messengers, His proclaimers, the heralds of His gospel or ‘good news’! “In Him” we ARE the “glorious Body of Christ,” members of the Holy Body in particular!

“In Christ” we’re “vessels” through which God Himself reveals His Son, we’re “salt” and “light”, we’re the “Symphony” God sings about, the music of His heart, and over us He sings the sounds of joy and sweet pleasure!

It’s time to settle it for Eternity! Are you a ‘mere man’ or “the anointed, appointed, affirmed holy man of God, infilled by the Holy Spirit to be His holy messengers?

Are you a ‘mere man’ or the biblically-declared “mighty men of valor”? Are you a ‘worldly, anxious ant’ or an “ambassador of Christ”? Are you a ‘mere man’ or a son or daughter of the family of Father-God?

Are you a ‘mere man’ or a “true minister and servant of reconciliation”? Are you simply a ‘mere man’ or a true witness of Saving Grace, Master-Full Mercy, and overflowing in Calvary’s Song of eternal love and Christ-Alone “Blood Redemption”?

Are YOU a “witness” of “Saving Grace”? Are YOU “the elect,” the “set-apart”, the “chosen of God”? Are YOU “the apple of God’s eye”? Are YOU His “workmanship”? Are YOU a “partner with God”, a “vessel of honor before Him daily”, available for Him to do as He pleases through YOU?

Are You “clay in the hands of the Potter, being sculpted into His Holy Image and Likeness”? Are you a “partaker of the divine nature”, one with Him, the fullness of Him who fills all in all?

You do realize that a ‘roller coaster’, at least once in your life, ought to be fun to ‘play on’, but the “ups and downs”, the “around and around” moves you nowhere in life in relation to Holy God! A ‘ferris wheel’ at the State Fair will get you ‘up’ momentarily to look “over” for a brief glimpse of the beautiful side, but then it’s down again and around again to the same old circumstances!

And anonymous writer penned these words: “Do you know what makes man the most suffering of all creatures? It is that he has one foot in the finite and the other in the infinite, and that he is torn between the two worlds.” Are You “torn” or “settled” on the True Foundation of Eternal Life, Christ Jesus, our Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Reconciler of men to God?

CHAPTER EIGHT

“ASININE CHOICES OF FLESHLY DEVOTION TO CHRIST”

Who could ever believe that ‘the safe place of a coffin is about the only choice to live out one’s devotion to Christ’? Certainly assaults against one’s devotion to the Lord and Savior has, can now, and will in the future stir up opposition and resentment toward faithful believers! Genuine, passionate, faithful hunger to know the Lord indicts unbelievers, incites their anger often, and releases personal intimidation against the faithful!

Unbelievers don’t see the desire to know the Lord as ‘sane thinking’ but as exposing believers’ stupidity! It’s as if they think heart passion to know the Lord Jesus is an ‘asinine’ activity, not worthy of their time! ‘Asinine’? The Random House Collegiate Dictionary (Revised Edition, 1975) defines ‘asinine’ as “stupid, unintelligent, silly, or foolish”, which sadly unveils the condition of many opponents of the faith, yet at the same time unveils the sad condition of many professing Christians!

Some believers look on radical disciples who hunger for God’s Word and live to extend His kingdom, walk in His love, and ‘witness’ to others about the Way of reconciliation, as ‘arrogant, pride-full, stuck-up slaves’, which is exactly what many ‘pretenders’ openly are!

Asinine choices of fleshly devotion to Christ is evident when you often hear ‘church members’ talk about, “We work hard at seeking to be like Jesus”; and I have to ask, “What’s the scriptural text for that false assertion?’ Have you ever heard a ‘pretender’ say, “I’m trying to be faithful in making some changes from my fleshly-indulgent days,” not even aware he/she was crucified with Christ over 2000 years ago, yes, your worst and best of human existence put to death on the Cross with Christ? The Living Savior does not, as Charles Stanley wrote in his “In Touch” Bible readings of April, 2016, (p.13), “The Lord isn’t looking for people who change a few habits by sheer force of will; He’s calling people to surrender themselves to Him.” Dr. Stanley went on to say in the same article, “We don’t evolve into a saved people by deleting old habits and instituting better religious ones; we are transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ when we believe (trust in, rely upon, adhere to) in Him,” and I add: “Trust in Him only to ‘birth me to oneness with the divine, eternal Kingly-Presence of Christ in me, my hope of heavenly glory’”!

There was an interesting statement on national television a few days ago when someone said, “The cop who breaks the law doesn’t deserve to wear the shield!” But compare that to someone professing faith in Christ saying, “I’m so thankful that my forgiveness through His shed blood overshadows any sin I continue to willfully enjoy”, totally oblivious to His ‘finished work’ on the Cross!

In Revelation 2:7 the angel (or messenger) of the church of Ephesus wrote: “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.”

But remember the title of which I am now writing: “Asinine Choices of Fleshly Devotion to Christ”! Where, in the Bible, do you find, “A Christian can’t do anything but sin until he/she gets to heaven one day,” when the Holy Word tells me, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God…”. That’s Galatians 2:20-21!

“Asinine Choices of Fleshly Devotion to Christ”? Do you remember what followed in Galatians 3:1? Paul went on to say, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified?” Oh, then adding in Verse 3, “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”

When Jesus said on one occasion: “In the world you will have tribulation..”, (so try your best to overcome? No!..;), but, “ be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33).

But, sadly, many are ‘programmed’ that, yes, “Sin in the believer is still normal; get used to it – you’re forgiven,” when the Holy Word declares, Jesus Himself speaking, (John 8:34-36), “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

“Asinine Choices of Fleshly Devotion to Christ”? Rather than ‘pressing on’ in fleshly determination, is there the biblical reality of willful evaluation of the bankruptcy of ‘self-effort’ and the willful trust in Christ’s work on the Cross in my place?

In Philippians 3:7-11 Paul illuminates, not an ‘asinine choice of fleshly devotion to Christ’, but THE spiritual trust in His finished work on the Cross in my place! He said: “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I HAVE SUFFERED THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found IN HIM, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but THAT WHICH IS THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I MAY KNOW HIM AND THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, and THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, BEING CONFORMED TO HIS DEATH.”

This is why “spiritual ‘fleshers’” (?) of devotion to Christ are so “self-exposing” as to Who or what they put ‘faith’ or trust in, which is “the accomplishment of the best of our self-effort to honor Jesus”, which is nothing more than “pumped up flesh with a religious ‘twang’” that celebrates ‘fallen-men’ at their ‘religious best’ – not “the finished work of Christ” in the Cross and empty tomb!

This is why in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 Paul wrote: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we SHOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES but in God who raises the dead, who delivers us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us..”.

“Asinine Choices of Fleshly Devotion to Christ”? I’m taking personal liberty in Matthew 15:29-31 to use “the physically afflicted” as a “picture”, ‘blown up’, to describe “fleshly people devoted to Christ” who spiritually are still ‘sick’, ‘crippled’, ‘blind,’ ‘no voice of a true, eternal testimony that glorifies God alone,’ even ‘spiritually maimed’ though professing, I’m saved! It says: Jesus departed from there, skirted the Sea of Galilee, and went up on the mountain and sat down there. Then great multitudes came to Him, having with them the lame, blind, mute, maimed, and many others; and they laid them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified God.”

“Asinine Choices of Fleshly Devotion to Christ”? How many “asinine assemblies” have you observed in your faith walk? How many “asinine voices” have you heard that make you want to throw up? How many “asinine publicly professing leaders” have you heard, encouraging you to follow their examples, which often leads to nothing more than fleshly indulgences?

At least Paul, ordained of the Holy Spirit, was able to say, “Follow my example”! In Philippians 3:17-19 the Apostle wrote: “Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame – WHO SET THEIR MINDS ON EARTHLY THINGS.”

“Asinine Choices of Fleshly Devotion to Christ”? There are those who ‘profess’ devotion and allegiance to Christ Jesus, but “seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus”! (Philippians 2:21). Paul later said, Philippians 3:2, “Beware of dogs, (professing unbelievers), beware of evil workers, beware of mutilation!” Why did Paul write Colossians 2:8? “BEWARE lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ."

Later, in Colossians 3:5-6, Paul challenged, yes, Christians and the church at Colossae and the Christians here in America and the rest of the world, “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which YOU YOURSELVES ONCE WALKED WHEN YOU LIVED IN THEM,” and he is saying, “Part-time indulgence is as dangerous as full-time indulgence”!

“Asinine Choices of Fleshly Devotion to Christ”? In Colossians 4:3-8 we are confronted with another stout Biblical warning, and especially in a nation like the U.S.A. where “fleshly indulgences” appear to be rampant! The Word says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit.”

In Isaiah 26:3 is a ‘song’ of the salvation, healing, and deliverance for the ‘biblical remnant’! It says: “You (God) will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” Are you aware of how “the mind of Christ” can be neglected and the “implanted mind of ‘flesh’” can rule in ‘religious pretenders’? The perfect peace of Christ can be amended, altered, or torched by the “hot flashes” of ‘self-indulgence’ while ‘professing’ allegiance to the Savior, Lord, and Master of eternal life in the Spirit! The perfect peace of Christ starves ‘fleshly imagination’ and STAYS on Father-God! But many leave behind His peace and live on their indulgences! Many are ‘zoned in’ on the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ or ‘zeroed’ Him out in the ‘stultification’ of fleshly futility or absurd distractions from Christ Himself to adoring one’s fallen sin-nature!

It’s so sad that some ‘believers’ easily forget, as Chambers once said, “Remember Whose you are and Whom you serve!” In his “My Utmost For His Highest,” [Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids, Mich.,49501,p.31], Chambers wrote, writing about 1 Samuel 3:10, “Speak Lord; for Your servant hears,” saying, “Because I have listened definitely to one thing from God, it does not follow that I will listen to everything He says. The way in which I show God that I neither love nor respect Him is by the obtuseness of my heart and mind toward what He says. If I love my friend, I intuitively detect what he wants, and Jesus says, “You are My friends if you do what I command you,” (John 15:14); Have I disobeyed some command of my Lord’s this week? If I had realized it was a command of Jesus, I would not consciously have disobeyed it; but most of us show such disrespect to God that we do not even hear what He says, He might never have spoken.” It’s as if in the Christian pilgrimage many have determined it’s ‘OK’ to live TO himself/herself, but not to the glory and honor of Christ alone!

What a promise we find in Isaiah 60:1-3! “Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles (unbelievers) shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

What a calling! What a promise! What an opportunity! What a privilege! Used by God to touch your world with “Amazing Grace”! Isaiah 59:20-21 says: “The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” says the Lord. “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is my covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.” Amen? “SO BE IT, LORD!”

CHAPTER NINE

“CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH”

At a “National Hispanic Leadership Conference” in Houston, Texas, April 29, 2015, former Florida governor and presidential candidate, at the time, Jeb Bush, said: “There is no more powerful and liberating influence on this earth than the Christian conscience in action and today in America it is important to respect and to protect Christians acting on their faith…not just talking about their faith, but there is a constitutional right and more importantly for a loving society Christians need to have the space to be able to act on their conscience.” My only problem with his statement is, that often, the ‘Christian conscience’ is willful determination of ‘flesh’ opinions rather than Holy Word of God revelation!

It wasn’t long ago, maybe same day as Jeb Bush, that former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee, said, maybe same conference, “We are living in perilous times where people who are Christian are on the brink of being criminalized for their convictions.”

And both men, stressing their beliefs, are easily, in this day and time, set aside and considered ‘radical’ by ‘godless’ or even ‘misinformed’ professing believers who don’t stand on the Word of God! It’s difficult to “stand for Truth” when one’s foundation is built on “self-evaluation” rather than “God-revealed-Holy Truth”!

We can go all the way back to Joshua’s day when in Joshua 24:14-15 we read, Joshua speaking, “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

We live in days as a nation that are not foreign to any nation, any people, or even to one, and can visualize what goes on anywhere, anytime, with any persons, just like the historical history of Christ’s crucifixion on the Cross several thousand years ago! Come with me to Luke 23, beginning with Verse 32! “There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.”

The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” {“If”? Are you aware of the reality of literally millions and millions, more likely billions, who understand, ‘There IS the King of the Jews, the King of all Americans, the King of every European, African, or Asian’ but who selfishly decide for themselves as to whether or not they will choose to serve the Lord?!?}.

In Luke 23:34 then tells us that Christ Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do,” {Which is so true of literally millions and millions who do not know what they do when they trivialize Christ, join those who divide His garments and “roll the dice” hoping what He says is not true – BUT IT IS!}. Even the rulers of Israel SNEERED, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.”

Don’t you find that so interesting? They had an inkling about ‘the Christ, the chosen of God,’ but couldn’t, wouldn’t, didn’t receive the prophetic word from many of their prophets hundreds and hundreds of years before His actual coming! Do you remember Jesus saying in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad”? Verse 57 follows, Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?” In Verse 58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” And their response? THEN they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them (the “stone-throwers”), and SO PASSED (THEM) by.” {Will Jesus have to “pass you by” when all are brought before His Throne of Judgment, whether you like it or not?}.

In Luke 23:36-38 we read: The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrews: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Didn’t we just read in Luke 23:33, “And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.” At least Luke KNEW Jesus was not a criminal, but, as God in the flesh, Who willingly offered Himself as THE sacrifice for the sins of all humanity! Even John, early in his writing of the Gospel of John, John 1:14, wrote: “And the Word (the Living Word of God!!) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth,” proclaiming in Verse 29, The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Examine John 1:32-35! And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ AND I HAVE SEEN AND TESTIFIED THAT THIS IS THE SON OF GOD.” Again, the next day, John stood with two of His disciples. And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

Dare I tell you that Christ Jesus IS “the Way of Life” that leads to the “way of death”? In Matthew 10:16-18,21-22 Jesus challenged the original ‘twelve disciples’, saying to them, “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

Verses 21-22 then says, “Now brother will deliver up brother TO DEATH, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

It is so evidently true that to “follow Christ Jesus” is to follow Him in every step He had to take, including the way of ‘suffering’, the way of ‘rejection’, the way of ‘obedience’, willing to fulfill the Father’s eternal will: death to Himself that resurrection life and hope could, would, and was manifested! Oh, and then in John 20, after His crucifixion and burial and resurrection, in Verses 19-21, we read:

Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” John 20:30-31 then says: And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”

And do you understand that “life in His name” does not come in full fruition apart from the awareness of and willingness to die daily to the ‘flesh’, the old sin-nature, and self-will, plus, a readiness of physical death by persecution if it comes your way, BECAUSE you will not deny Him?

In 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 Apostle Paul wrote: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death (“the wages of sin is death”!), and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us…”! Did Holy God, the Father, allow Jesus’ death and then manifest His Holy Power to raise the dead after Jesus’ three days in the grave?

And, how pleased is God the Father for the willingness of 21^st Century disciples to offer their lives daily as a “willing sacrifice” taking that sentence daily to themselves that His Resurrection Life may be manifested in their mortal flesh?

Do you remember Paul and Silas imprisoned, Acts 16:20-24? It says: And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” ( Ever heard it yourself? “We’re free Americans and not interested in anything you ‘Christians’ have to say! Keep on, and we’ll have you imprisoned, or kill you ourselves!”}. [I actually heard that threat in India as I preached openly on the streets!].

Continuing in Acts 16:22-24, Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.”

That was a literal event for faithful believers, and it does still happen today that some believers are physically jailed for faithful testimonies in certain locations. BUT there IS a ‘symbolism’ which extends to many today who are vocal for the faith but ostracized by ‘friends’ and ‘family’, opponents shutting the door on them for their outspoken challenge to receive Christ!

“CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH OF GOD’S HOLY WORD”? Are you aware of Christian Institutional and openly, strong, faithful disciples of Christ witnessing a rapidly growing opposition and threats because of many enemies of God who are becoming openly hostile to the Word and Will of God and against those who uphold “All Scripture is divinely inspired…”?

Prayer is rapidly being removed from classrooms with kids being told “School is not a place to pray!” Really? Yes, really! Ten Commandments are being removed from lots of places across the Nation where the banners of Truth used to fly! In Sweden pastors have been jailed for opposing homosexuality – and that threat is not far away in the U.S.A.!

There’s an active homosexual- sick man named Mitchell Gold whose diatribe against the Word of God and churches, pastors, and faithful disciples who stand on that Word of God, who has said, “They must be made to take homosexuality off the sin list,” and a New York Time’s writer, Frank Bruni, affirmed Gold’s obscene opposition to Holy God and His Word, saying, “His commandment (that’s Mitchell Gold’s commandment) is worthy – and warranted.”

And what sickens me is when I hear some say of their pastors, “They’ll not expose or speak the Truth because they don’t want to offend ANYBODY!” God, help us! It’s as if our formerly great nation, “one nation under God”, is fast becoming a nation under opposition to God!

“CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH OF GOD’S HOLY WORD”? I want to urge you right now to commit yourself to reading faithfully, over and over, the Book of Daniel for at least a week! In Daniel you’ll find, not trivializing Truth, but many who want Biblical Truth obliterated from the national scene or stage! Follow Daniel 6:1-16!

It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom one hundred and twenty satraps, to be over the whole kingdom; and over these, three governors, of whom Daniel was one, that the satraps might give account to them, so that the king would suffer no loss. Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm.

So the governors and satraps SOUGHT TO FIND SOME CHARGE AGAINST DANIEL concerning the kingdom; BUT THEY COULD FIND NO CHARGE OR FAULT, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”

So these governors and satraps thronged before the king, and said thus to him, “King Darius, live forever! All the governors of the kingdom, the administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisers, have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree, that whoever petitions any god or man for thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions. Now, O king, establish the decree and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.” Therefore King Darius signed the written decree.

Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows opened toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days. Then these men assembled and found Daniel praying and making supplication before his God.

And they went before the king, and spoke concerning the king’s decree: “Have you not signed a decree that every man who petitions any god or man within thirty days, except you, O king, shall be cast into the den of lions?” The king answered and said, “The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not alter.”

So they answered and said before the king, “That Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, does not show due regard for you, O king, or for the decree you have signed, but makes his petition three times a day.”

And the king, when he heard these words was greatly displeased with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him; and he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. Then these men approached the king, and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is the law of the Medes and Persians that no decree or statute which the king establishes may be changed.”

SO the king gave the command, and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, “Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.”

In Verses 21-22 Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him; and also, O king, I have done no wrong before you.”

AND the accusers, on the king’s command, were all cast into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions overpowered them, and broke all their bones in pieces before they ever came to the bottom of the den!!!

What was King Darius’ response? He wrote a proclamation! Verses 25-28 says: “To all peoples, nations, and languages that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you. I make a decree that in every dominion of my kingdom men must tremble and fear before the God of Daniel For He is the living God, and steadfast forever; His kingdom is the one which shall not be destroyed, and His dominion shall endure to the end.

He delivers and rescues, and He works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, Who has delivered Daniel from the power of lions.” So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. Glory!

“CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH OF GOD’S HOLY WORD”? John 8 is a strong chapter defining Christ’s strong “Personal Witness” against the ‘religious’ Pharisees who determined He deserved to die because He opposed their religious pretense and no true eternal foundation upon which they walked and talked “the game” yet they never faced their guilt, sin, and separation from Holy God, and certainly had no ears to hear both prophetic utterances from hundreds and hundreds of years before or His declaration of Messianic identity!

Jesus told them in John 8:19, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.” Oh, and then in John 8:23-24 Jesus released the eternal arrow of Truth about the scribes and Pharisees and the ‘religious but unredeemed’ Jews: “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also.”

In John 8:37-47 Jesus then said: “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Him, “Abraham is our father.”

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I

heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father – God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.

Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

So…Christ Jesus Himself was ‘criminalized’ by the religious, unbelieving, unrepentant crowd and CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS for all men because of God’s great love for the world!

What went on then still goes on today! The unbelieving world still condemns the holy and congratulates the hollow; the unbelieving world sentences the sincere and celebrates the sinner; the unbelieving world imprisons the faithful and frees the ‘foul’ from any and every offense; the unbelieving world still maligns the merciful and merits the ‘molded’ in mind and heart!

It was Harriet Beecher Stowe who once said: “No one is so thoroughly superstitious as the godless man. Life and death to him are haunted grounds, filled with goblin forms of vague and shadowy dread.” And, in most cases, it’s the godless man criminalizing those who stand for, in, and through the truth, resulting, for them, a Hell forever with the devil, his demons, and all rejecters of Biblical Truth, and all sin-infected ‘profound minds’, and all ‘superficial thinkers’ who know nothing about standing on Eternal Truth!

CHAPTER TEN

“SHEDDING THE SHAME-LIVING TO THE GLORY OF CHRIST’S NAME”

You’ll remember that I wrote a teaching recently entitled, “Bearing the Name, Living With Shame”! And it certainly majored on “pretenders”, “imitation game-players in the spiritual arena”, or like the scribes and Pharisees about whom Christ Jesus spoke “woes”, in one case saying, (Matthew 23:14), “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.”

There is a powerful, encouraging, challenging word in Psalm 4:2-3 when David “sang”: “How long, O you sons of men, will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness and seek falsehood? But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself him who is godly; The Lord will hear when I call to Him”, saying in Verse 8, “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”

What you’ve just read from the Psalms is both a song of divine safety, Prince of Peace gifting, and a song of living to the Glory of Christ’s Name, because through His shed blood, we are reconciled to the protective arms of Almighty, Holy, Loving, Caring, Holy God and His family of redemptive faith!

“Shedding the Shame”? The prophet, Isaiah, in Isaiah 54, began the chapter alerting attention to the “barren ones…who have not born,” alerting us to the fact and reality that, “For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord!

Oh, but then in Isaiah 54:3, enlightening the “true remnant of Israel”, are God’s promises to them, and us, “For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.”

And then in Verses 4-8, the prophet increases the intensity of excitement, saying, “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name; and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; (not Mohammed, not Confusius, not the idols of pagan peoples with their pagan gods); He is called the God of the whole earth!

For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused, says your God. “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; BUT WITH EVERLASTING KINDNESS I WILL HAVE MERCY ON YOU,” says the Lord, your Redeemer.”

And when Holy God “sheds your shame”, He then said in Isaiah 54:14, “In righteousness you [Now!] shall be established [or “made to stand!],” adding in Verse 17, “This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,” says the Lord.

Nor a ‘self-attained’ righteousness but a divinely implanted righteousness, not a recollection in one’s mind about God, but reconciliation with God through repentance and faith, not a positive ‘best effort’, but a persuasive, perpetual, powerful, Prince of Peace miracle of grace, not a collection or gathering of like-minded folks, but a conversion of the flesh-minded to the very mind of Christ, not a mental adjustment of a moral nature, but the might and miraculous power of Holy God; Oh, but then Paul, in Titus 3:5-7, declared, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, THROUGH the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that HAVING BEEN JUSTIFIED [declared ‘just as if we’d never sinned’!] by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” WHAT A DECLARATION OF REDEMPTIVE FAITH!

In “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations” that I turn to frequently as I write, I came across a statement by someone named Dwight E. Stevenson,(p.67), that shocked me! Whoever he is, Dwight Stevenson is credited with the following: “The Christian church is not a congregation of righteous people. It is a society of those who are not good.” And, I immediately was ‘sickened’, all because a man declares the ‘church’ ‘a society of those who are not good’! The ‘church’ of the Lord Jesus Christ is the “gathered” by Christ through their repentance and faith, and before Holy God the Bridegroom, Jesus, was united with you, His believing, trusting, yielded bride, “the righteous”, whom Jesus described in Matthew 13: 43, “Then the RIGHTEOUS will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

But as Jesus dealt with the ‘spiritual elite’ of Israel in His day of ministry on earth, the scribes and Pharisees, he spoke directly to a ‘seeking’ Pharisee, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, in John 3:3-9, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (that’s ‘the water of the Word’!) and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus answered and said, to Him, “How can these things be?”

“Shedding the Shame – Living To The Glory of His Name”! How familiar are you with Ephesians 2:8-16? Paul wrote: “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.

THREFORE REMEMBER that you, once Gentiles in the flesh – who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands – that at that time YOU WERE WITHOUT CHRIST, BEING ALIENS from the commonwealth of Israel and STRANGERS FROM THE COVENANTS OF PROMISE, HAVING NO HOPE and WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD.

BUT NOW in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, [That’s God and man!] and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinance, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.”

Oh, we clearly know that man without God is fully described when in Romans 3:23 Paul said, “For ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..”, but then in Verse 24-26 continues, (thank God!), “being JUSTIFIED FREELY by His grace through THE REDEMPTION THAT IS IN CHRIST JESUS, whom GOD SET FORTH AS A PROPITIATION BY HIS BLOOD, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Let Biblical Truth sink in!! “Brought near by the blood of Christ”, the open door to the Holy Presence of God! “No separation from God but oneness with Him” through the blood! “Holy God births ‘new men’ through faith in Christ’s sacrifice”!

“Reconciled to God through Christ’s Cross”! “Redeemed” by the blood of the Lamb”! “Peace with God through Christ alone”! “Justified freely by God’s grace through Christ’s blood sacrifice”! “From ‘strangers to God’ to sons of God through Christ”! “Hopeless without the hope only Jesus gives to be brought into the Holy Family of God”! “God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus”! “Through Christ’s Cross, the old sin nature crucified – Resurrected, He grants Holy Presence within every true son and daughter of faith”! “Grit grounded and buried – grace the love gift of God in and through Christ Jesus”!

“No wavering before the promises of God in unbelief, but fully convinced that what God has promised, He’s ABLE to fulfill, in you”! “No excusing God’s sentence of death on your old nature, old man, old fleshly ambitions, but daily celebration and thanksgiving for being reconciled to God through the blood of the Lamb”! “No longer bound by the shame of a godless life, fleshly rebellion, loveless indifference, worldly desires, but NOW consumed with the passion to KNOW HIM and THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION, and THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS”!

Do YOU rejoice “in Christ” every day? Do YOU thank Him, every day, for your new, eternal, heavenly identity? Do YOU praise God that NOTHING has to separate YOU from God’s love because of WHO Christ Jesus is? Paul says in Romans 8: 37-39, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created things, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

But “the battle, the warfare,” to separate us from our Savior is not any ‘small disturbance’ as we live in this world, but the battle-fronts of the world, the flesh, and the devil are faced in our life’s journey, regularly, looking for opportune moments to turn us away from our Lord and Savior! Paul assures us of “Victory In Jesus” when we lean not to our own understanding BUT Lean on Jesus, the Spirit, and the Word, reminding ourselves to Whom we truly belong!

In 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 Paul reminds us again of the spiritual war-clouds, war-storms we will face! “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high things that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”

How ‘strange’ a term Paul highlights for our modern day in America and American churches! Did he really say, “bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” and as a result refute the point many churches, pastors, leaders assert: “To say Christians have to obey” is, for them, to assert you don’t have to obey – “that would be salvation by works”! No, True salvation births a yielded, surrendered, willing heart, desirous of pleasing the Lord, Master, and Savior who has made true disciples His Holy Temple!

“Christ in you the hope of glory”, but you choose the choice of whether today you want Jesus to be Jesus in you, but when and how and where you please?

True believers are temples of Holy Presence! True believers are men so desirous of honoring Christ in them! True believers understand He ‘predestined’ repentant hearts and yielded souls to, yes, be conformed to the image of God’s Son, and that they clearly understand God called them to His intent, justified them, sanctified them, and glorified them in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

“LIVING TO THE GLORY OF HIS NAME”? Is this why God inspired Paul to instruct us, enlighten us, empower us in Romans 12:1-2? “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world but be [being!] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

IF we are true believers living to the glory of His Name, are we, yes, praying daily, “Lord, your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, in us, through us, and by our devotion to Your Holy Presence to extend Your life to others, express Your love to others, and prove, yes, Your present life and power, extending Your Kingdom-rule, and fulfilling the eternal ‘heart-beat of the Father for His Kingdom-rule through others’”?

Even King David became awed by God’s purpose when in Psalm 40:5-10 he prayed: “Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears You have opened. [Are YOU hearing the voice of God speaking to YOU?]. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.

Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart. I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness in the great assembly; indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lord, You Yourself know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly.”

“LIVING TO THE GLORY OF HIS NAME”? It was Leo Tolstoy, in his writing, “The Kingdom of God,” (Chapter 12), who wrote: “The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God; and this can be done only by means of the acknowledgement and profession of the truth by each of us.” How true, and yet many believers remain “silent servants”, embracing ‘a tale told by others’ but not worthy enough for them to lay down their lives extending His Kingdom, expressing the fruit of His Spirit, and proving, by faithful trust, His power and able-ness in bringing others to His glory, grace, mercy, love, and eternal purpose through them! Are you “fruitful” in the extending and expressing and enlightening of Kingdom Living under Christ’s Lordship?

I heard a black disciple, not a pastor, speak in my son’s (Scott) church recently and hearing him say: “Churches are full but their doors are closed,” and what he was speaking about was a ‘cloud of unconcern’ for those of another race, with few outreach ministries, black or white, in both cultures!

I read an interesting quote from Frederick William Robertson, {“The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations”, compiled by Frank S.Mead, p.294}: “In these two things the greatness of man consists, to have God dwelling in us as to impart His character to us, and to have Him dwelling in us, that we recognize his presence, and know that we are His, and He is ours. – The one is salvation; the other, the assurance of it.” But I add a third: A deep awareness of responsibility in extending His Kingdom rule and expressing His love to the “lost” who need His “Blood-Redemption” also for their wayward walks apart from Him and His eternal purpose and plan through their redeemed lives!

“LIVING TO THE GLORY OF HIS NAME”? Holy God “convicts” one of his sin nature and need of redemption! Holy God “bears witness” through Christ’s Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension, and His desire to make your heart and life His earthly tabernacle and sanctuary of Holy Presence: Again, “Christ in YOU the hope of glory”! Holy God mandates in every new believer’s heart this word, Acts 1:8, “But YOU shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; AND YOU SHALL BE WITNESSES TO ME IN JERUSALEM, AND IN ALL JUDEA AND SAMARIA, AND TO THE END OF THE EARTH.” Didn’t Paul say later, in Acts 2:32, “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.” Glory!

It’s so interesting AND convicting when we read in Matthew 20:25-28 that as Jesus called His disciples to Himself, He said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

“LIVING TO THE GLORY OF HIS NAME”? We just read that Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The one thing you ought to be assured of in this moment is that Christ came to You, forgave you, redeemed you, and anointed and appointed YOU to live and share the glory of His Name!! Christ Jesus came to unveil God’s mercy to you and through you!

In John 10:10b, Christ Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” HE CAME TO GIVE HIS LIFE AS A RANSOM FOR MANY, but how many around YOU are you seeing who lay their lives down for the lost, the alienated, the separated from God who so needs His love, grace, and mercy?

Hear me, “The soul that sins (and keeps on sinning) shall die,” but the soul that repents, returns, confesses and forsakes his sin, finds mercy and grace through the Lamb’s blood! And the “new, bright, eternal day” dawns and one begins to live to the glory of His Name, His honor, His praise! Spurgeon quoted an old, old hymn from his day, (Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, p.66), that says: “Come, guilty souls, and flee away, and look to Jesus’ wounds; This is the accepted Gospel day, Wherein free grace abounds….God loved His church, and gave His Son to drink the cup of wrath; And Jesus says He’ll cast out none Who come to Him in faith.” Faith is more than awareness – it’s trust!

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“BEARING THE NAME-LIVING WITH SHAME”

“Bearing the Name, then living with the shame, is a life professing faith in Christ Jesus but continuing in a love-relationship with the world, the flesh, and the devil; sadly that’s a life still governed by selfishness rather than the Savior and Lord!

In “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” (p.398), Robert R. Brown said: “It is part of our human nature but there is that within us which always wants to make self the center of its own universe and, in that selfish way, wants to tear God from His throne and deny his brother and advance his own ambition.”

“Bearing the Name, then living with the shame of self-promotion and self-indulgence”, rather than faithful submission to Christ’s Lordship, is a willing renunciation of that Lordship and compromise with that which is diabolically opposed to the honor and glory of Holy God! And, sadly, sin-indulgent men live with no awareness of its harm and destructive influence and impact on others, even those and that it influences in its ‘cursing’ disregard of ‘blessing and honoring of God’!

Some are confronted with the claims of Christ Jesus for their hearts and lives, but are so contaminated by the sin of self-indulgence that “they” consider ‘suicide’ a better calling for them than surrender to Christ’s Lordship! THAT, my friends, is the depth rebellion can carry one to! But “cold-hearted”, “sin-bound” men will just celebrate their “lost-ness” and “separation” from God with indifference! Oh, and then, “believing Christians” just profess: “We’re under the Blood! So, it’s OK!”

There is a sad, sad commentary of Israel in Jeremiah 11:15-17, (Bearing a resemblance to Titus 1:10-16!!), with God saying in the prophetic passage: “What has My beloved to do in My house, having done lewd deeds with many? And the holy flesh has passed from you. When you do evil, then you rejoice. The Lord called your name, Green Olive Tree, Lovely and of Good Fruit. With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken. For the Lord of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced doom against you for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke Me to anger in offering incense to Baal.”

Isn’t it liberating to know what Proverbs 28:13 says? “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” But “covered” sounds so inviting, but “continuing” in after “forgiveness” (?) is more than costly – it’s deadly, destructive, deceiving, dis-abling, and reveals a lingering heart and mind of a darkened mind and heart, if though a ‘religious one’!

And I believe if one presses into Proverbs 28:13 he/she finds biblical covering through the shed blood of the Lamb of God that there is both forgiveness AND freedom to live in the fullness and blessing of His Resurrection Life – but forgiveness with a warped mind, “I can continue to sin since I’m under the blood of the Lamb” which is disgracing the name and work of Christ at the Cross!

In YOUR church surroundings have you witnessed “fig-leaf” dressing rather than clothed in the “finished” garments of the crucified and Resurrected Christ? The shed blood of Christ “washes” clean, but “fig-leaf” rationale suggests “self-will” rather than divine revelation!

Do you hear ‘unbelievers’ even denying their “sin” or sinful state and ‘trusting’ in their personal ‘pretense’, or ‘excusing’ themselves in blaming others – parents, teachers, ‘stars’ that surround them in ungodly behavior and ‘faith-denial’, and because they are such good people, good citizens, good soldiers, but faithless as to the blood redemption, they leave ‘flesh followers’ with no redemptive hope because they view it as unimportant to their ‘refined’ life?

In fact, many, many people, influenced by godless lives, ‘excuse’ their ‘sin’ as a ‘religionized, homogenized milk’ that is fundamental to every human, without consequence, because: “If there is a God, He made us this way; and it’s normal and natural, without consequence!” Others assert, “God’s to blame because He made us this way!” Blame God?

I love what Spurgeon said about it when he once said: “Shall the prisoner at the bar bring accusations against the Judge who tries him?” And “the prisoner in prison” blames the prison superintendent for his guilt and sentence of death?

“Fleshly denial” is certainly a strong influence for many ‘naturalized’ unbelievers AND ‘professing Christians’ who ‘blame God’. “If God ‘made’ man, ‘birthed’ man, and that with a sin nature, then it’s reasonable to blame Him, and free ourselves from guilt. The fault lies with God who made us, and He ought not be holding us accountable for what He created!”

Some say, ‘ God’s harsh in His judgments’, when fallen men initiate perverseness of lifestyles and vacuums of faith, trust, and obedience to the God who birthed them for the pleasures of self-will, self-pleasure, and self-rule – “We may be ‘fallen men’ in God’s mind, but we’re free to do as we please!” And most sense no need of the Savior, Lord, and Master of life!

Oh, but then there are those fully aware of disobedience to God, diabolical hiding to loving, caring Godly parents, and a coveting, masking, fraudulent hiding from even their fallen world around them, because, at least, they have no desire to be included with “transgressors”! So, they choose “dark clouds”, “deceitful explanations”, or only “deceived circles of sin” that they mostly move in, but at least “profess” and “attend” the church that Jesus loved and gave Himself for. They ‘imitate’, they ‘mimic’, they ‘copy’, they ‘assume’ the religious mask when they feel it’s necessary!

Again, Spurgeon wrote: [ Memorial Library, Spurgeon’s Sermons, Vol.12, p.187-188], “Possibly they themselves held their tongue, and flattered themselves that no observer witnessed their movements or could divulge their action. So it was with Achan. I dare say he took the wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment, ‘mid the confusion of the battle, and hid it when his comrades seemed to much engaged to notice so trivial an affair. While they were rushing over the fallen walls of Jericho, amidst the debris and the dust, he might be unmolested; and then, in the dead of night, while they slept, he turned the sod of his tent, dug into the earth, and buried there his coveted treasure. All looks right, to his heart’s content. He has smoothed it down, and spread his carpet over the grave of his lust. Little did he count on the unerring lot that would come home to the tribe of Judah, to the family of the Zarhites, to the house of Zabdir, and, at last, to the son of Carmi, so that Achan himself would have to stand out confessed as a traitor – a robber of his God. Men little know the ways in which the Almighty can find them out, and bring the evidence that convicts out of the devices that were intended to cover their sin.”

“Bearing the Name – Living with Shame”! One of the things that the “shameful” fail to realize, comprehend, or understand, is that ‘mental dexterity’ does not see, sense, or take note, that, though good at ‘covering their compromising lifestyle’, it does not close the door on Holy God’s spiritual examination and exposure of what’s going on in the secret places of a divided heart!

In Luke 11:17-26 we find a strong, exposing word from Jesus about “kingdom division”! He said: “Every kingdom divided against itself (‘half to Jesus – half to me?’) is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons by Beelezebub. And if I cast out demons by Beelezebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils. HE WHO IS NOT WITH ME IS AGAINST ME, AND HE WHO DOES NOT GATHER WITH ME SCATTERS.

When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

“Half to Jesus – half to me”, and the devil rejoices! “Split kingdoms are open doors to devilish shame”! A split kingdom is the devil’s opportunity to thrive in “spoiling” one’s compromised allegiances! Does that result in “empty vines”? Does that mean some measure “fruitfulness” in the spiritual walk as “fruit for myself”? I dare you to search the Scriptures for what it has to say about “divided hearts”!

How strong, how awakening do you find Romans 1:16-25, speaking of a religious but rebellious people who “bear the Name but live with shame”, except for “the few” who are truly the “blood bought” and who DIDN’T exchange “the Truth for the lie”, the lie meaning you can sin and NOT die! It Says:

“For I am not ashamed of the GOSPEL OF CHRIST, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes [Rests in, relies upon, & adheres to!), for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who SUPPRESS THE TRUTH in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even the eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

Because, although THEY KNEW GOD, they DID NOT GLORIFY HIM as God nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, (the lie? You can sin and not die!), and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

“Bearing the name –Living with the shame?” It’s as if one who ‘bears the name’ believes he/she can cover “disobedience” by occasional response to Christ in some ‘form’ of a ‘Christ-like’ activity when in reality he/she loves the crossing of the line and life of holiness in fleshly rebellion “some of the time”. Concealed sin, cunning deliberation about how to hide it, evasions of responsibility and accountability, are ignored – then the Holy Word speaks! In Numbers 32:23 Moses said: “BE SURE YOU SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT!”

“Coverings, masks, excuses, ‘fleshly interpretations’, even outright denials of sin before Holy God” will have “no grounds” of excuse before the Judgment Bar of Holy God! Even long, elegant robes like the Pharisees and priests often wore in Temple activities, cannot conceal what reigns in the heart!

But there is eternal hope – not in our ‘self-efforts’, but in the finished work of Christ at the Cross! In Hebrews 13:20-21 we read: “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT, make you COMPLETE in every good work TO DO HIS WILL, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Again, Psalm 85:2 says: “You have forgiven the iniquity of Your people; YOU HAVE COVERED ALL THEIR SIN. You have taken away all Your wrath; You have turned from the fierceness of Your anger,” and in His love, grace, and mercy, He sweeps us up in the arms of His Holy Presence, caresses us in His compassion, anoints us in His Spirit-Power, and the Most High establishes us in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

And like Paul, we’ve learned to daily take the sentence of death unto ourselves that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in mortal flesh! That’s “Christ in you the hope of glory”!

All because of the Love of God! Sinners declared saints, rebellious children birthed into the Holy Family of God, darkened lives becoming enlightened minds and hearts in the Glory of God, sin-imprisoned souls transformed into sons and daughters of Heaven’s Royal Family, condemned souls because of sin and the sin nature translated out of fleshly slavery to consecrated spirits of spiritual freedom and spiritual identity as royal ambassadors of the eternal Kingdom of God, the ‘chained’ to the devil’s dark kingdom-rule freed by the power of Christ over demonic control, ‘darkness’ allegiance, and the deathly walk of deception, loosed by the blood of the Lamb, no longer condemned because of sin but commissioned by the Master as His messengers!

Atoned, anointed, appointed, birthed, blessed, baptized in the Spirit, broken bread, poured out wine, consecrated on the altar of service as delegated representatives of the King of kings and Lord of lords, commissioned as holy representatives of the Savior and Lord, guiltless blood for guilty men, from darkened nights of the soul Christ changes miraculously the repentant heart into the Eternal Daylight by His Being, His Presence, His Purpose, His Power, as constant “Son-risers” and “Servant-saints”, and “Sanctified-Sermons” of His grace, mercy, and love!

Do YOU testify and testify regularly? Far too many ‘believers’ who ARE “temples of Christ’s holy presence”, though ‘steepled’, too often fail to ring their “bells” of worthy testimony that the spiritually unlearned might be drawn to Christ by their ringing – but sadly too many times, those “bells” are never rung!

You, as you hear this, may be those who have been redeemed but you haven’t truly reverenced Him because you’re not sure He can redeem others through you! But John 15:13 tells us about “greater love” – and it says, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends”; and then Jesus said in Verse 14, “YOU ARE MY FRIENDS, if you do whatever I command you.” Has there been a New Testament, Christ-Spoken, Spirit-anointed Word to all believers? YES!

In John 15:22 Jesus went on to say to His disciples, and us, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, BUT NOW THEY HAVE NO EXCUSE FOR THEIR SIN.” And, of course, some would say that that related to the Pharisees and Sadducees, but not to all Christians since then. Really? Don’t forget what “All Scripture” is for all believers!

There certainly is the reality of men who pore through the Word but deny its worth for the redemption of their souls! There are those who ‘examine’ Him but without any intent of “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at Calvary’s Cross and the Empty Tomb! There are those who admire His compassion but will deny His Crown! There are those who give credit to Him for His strong character and caring outreach to the hungry and needy, but care not that He confessed He was the Promised Messiah! To them, “No man can atone for the sin of all humanity!”

In 1 Peter 2:22-25 Peter wrote, speaking of Christ Jesus, “Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth”; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – BY WHOSE STRIPES YOU WERE HEALED. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

This is why the author of Hebrews sought to awaken sleeping souls when he wrote in Hebrews 9:27-28, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” A sinful vessel washed, purified, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, becomes the holy temple of His residence in true believers of redemptive faith! Parodies abound in unbelieving hearts and minds, but “symphonies of praise” are heard worldwide by the “Blood-bought” citizens of Christ’s glorious Kingdom!

Oh, it’s ‘easy’ to deny Christ’s saving grace and mercy when one’s intent is to live with and satisfy one’s sin nature! Self-pride, self-indulgence, self-adulation becomes ‘ruler’ in so many sin-blackened minds and hearts! But one, also, of the great stumbling blocks in unbelievers is their ‘love’ of indifference and unconcern for anything ‘spiritual’! In fact, most unbelievers and rebellers against Holy Truth are “listless”, or, as the Dictionary describes it: “feeling or showing no inclination toward or interest in anything,” except self-rule, self-indulgence and self-pleasure!

Most unbelievers are immersed in the monopoly of what promotes the success I want in what “I” determine as ‘my way of salvation’. But since only true redemptive faith in Christ’s shed blood washes away one’s guilt, ‘fleshly resolutions’ become the fallen’s avenue to success, but always falling short, missing the mark, and coming up empty and drained without saving grace and mercy and love from God Himself!

In Isaiah 45:22-24 the prophet wrote a word from God that call every unbelieving man to repentance and faith. God said: “LOOK TO ME, AND BE SAVED, all you ends of the earth! For I AM GOD, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself’ the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, THAT TO ME EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW, EVERY TONGUE SHALL TAKE AN OATH. He shall say, ‘Surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength. To Him men shall come, and all shall be ashamed who are incensed against Him.”

No ‘looking to Him,’ no repenting of one’s sin, no surrendering to His Lordship, no resting in His shed blood and His promise of forgiveness and resurrection life, no turning to worship and praise the God of Creation, the God of the Cross, and the God whose Throne is in Heaven, Over the Earth, and according to Hebrews 1:8, But to the Son God says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. Verse 9, You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness more than Your companions.”

Yet, how easy for many to “Bear His Name –Yet – Live With Shame”! But then the grace of God is “Rescuing the perishing, and caring for the fallen!” I love Frederick William Robertson’s words in “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” [p.399], “We are too much haunted by ourselves, projecting the central shadow of self on everything around us. – And then comes the Gospel to rescue us from this selfishness. – Redemption is this, to forget self in God.”

B.B. McKinney and W.T. Dale co-authored an old Hymn entitled: “Crimson Calvary Answers, ‘No!’” Their words? “Shall I be condemned forever, If I to the Lord draw near; If I sue for peace and pardon, Will He deign to hear my prayer? Will He scorn my deep contrition, Will He not His grace bestow? Will He scorn my heart’s petition? Crimson Calvary answers, “No!”

I am mourning over my follies; I am weeping over my sin; For my guilt’s become oppressive, And a burden long has been; Will the Lord be gracious to me, If I tell Him all my woe, Will He leave me in my anguish? Crimson Calvary answers, “No!”

If I go and tell Him truly How I have His love abused, How I’ve sinned against His mercy, And His pardon have refused; Will He grant His loving favor When in penitence I go; Or in wrath will He forsake me? Crimson Calvary answers, “No!”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“EVIDENCES OF NEW-BIRTH CONVERSION”

In his book entitled “Inklings of God”, Kurt Bruner used a quote by Winston Churchill in his Introduction that says: “Man will occasionally STUMBLE OVER THE TRUTH, BUT MOST OF THE TIME HE WILL PICK HIMSELF UP AND CONTINUE ON,” and I say, totally ignoring ‘divine intervention’!

But do YOU realize how true that statement is? And, especially when confronted by Christ Himself saying to us all, “You MUST be born again, born from above, born of the Spirit,” but many are offended, resentful, and continue on in unbelief.

I was impressed by Kurt Bruner when later in the same book, (p.147), he said, “Frankly, I embrace the Christian faith because it points to a God who expects us to behave ourselves but who also knows we can’t.” But do YOU also know that God KNOWS we can’t ‘redeem’ ourselves? Yet, man-made ‘religions’ worldwide think and act ‘synthetically’, thinking they are ‘authentically’ worshipping, even though like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, deny Christ, the Promised Messiah, and deny His calling: “You must be born again”, and still today the ‘synthetic’ denies the “authentic”, “eternal reality of the Crucified, Resurrected Lord and Savior”!

And, sadly, many modern-day, so-called ‘Christian churches’, live in the façade of even active denial of “new birth” when they believe ‘church membership’ is the same!

Walter Chantry, in his writing, “Today’s Gospel,” (p.13), wrote: “Products of modern evangelism are often sad examples of Christianity. They make a profession of faith, and then continue to live like the world… ‘Decisions’ for Christ mean very little. Only a small proportion of those who ‘make decisions’ evidence the grace of a transformed life.”

But sadly a large number of American churches AND some preachers major on a “you can do it” mentality rather than “Christ in you the hope of glory”! No wonder Socrates became a well-appreciated philosopher! He once said: “To move the world we must first move ourselves.” Where do you find that in the Word of Almighty God? Didn’t Paul tell us, 2 Corinthians 1:9, [New Chain Reference Bible], “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead”?

Most humans all across the world in their nations, or here in the USA, are mostly oblivious to the state of their spiritual death and separation from Holy God! Spiritual success in life is not by the mental philosophy of ‘whatever you sense, you can succeed,’ which may have some ‘truth’ for the ‘flesh’, but has no relevance at all to the spiritual dimension that most know nothing about!

So many today, yes, even worldwide, are locked into the philosophy of ‘self-achievement’ so strongly that rewarding ‘self’ with pats on one’s back blocks, denies, ignores, or starves any Word, leaning, or turning from that ‘self’ to the “Savior”! Life is not a ‘do what you can’ mental philosophy, but an eternal opportunity to be ONE with God Himself through Christ alone!

It’s amazing to me, and exciting, as I read a statement by Benjamin Franklin. He said several hundred years ago,(?), “There is perhaps not one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive. Even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of ‘my humility’.” That’s Why we were “crucified with Christ”!

Are you aware though, at times, of the “embarrassing encumbrances” that are brought on a lot of ‘church folk’ who are swamped by ‘self-importance’, who are drowning in ‘self-worth’ that Christ crucified, and stubbornly, stupidly, studiously in pagan teachings, devote themselves to “what we’ve become” apart from the revealed knowledge of God as to the Way, the only Way, to their salvation, healing, deliverance, and completion?

David F. Wells, in his book, “No Place For Truth,” [Wm.B.Eerdmans Publ. Com., Grand Rapids, Mich., & Inter-Varsity Press, Leichester, England, 1993], so unveiled for me a story that encouraged this message! [Introduction, p.10}” Wells wrote: “In saying that I am a staunch disbeliever in the modern world, I do not wish to appear immodest, as if I come finished with the knowledge of a new discovery. In fact, I do not. In this connection, I will remember G.K.Chesterton’s story about the restless yachtsman who set sail from England with the intention of arriving at an exotic South Sea Island. After many days, he sighted land and, as soon as he could, beached his boat and ventured inland. Before him stood a dreadful pagan temple. Undaunted, he decided to claim it for England. He scaled its walls and bravely planted the Union Jack [flag] at its pinnacle. Only then did he realize that what he had scaled was the Brighton Pavilion on England’s south coast! He thought he had sailed a straight line, but because of an unfortunate miscalculation he had ACTUALLY TRAVELED IN A CIRCLE. He imagined that he was first in the land, but it turned out that he was the last.”

Do you realize, sense, or discern, that many, many people begin their “religious journeys” on the basis of men’s speculations about what they think God expects rather than Jesus’ declaration: “You MUST be born again”?

Do you remember Paul saying in Romans 12:2, “And do not be conformed to this world, [and I would say also, “and don’t be conformed to a man-made religious world”!], but be {being} transformed by the renewing of your mind.” And what the Holy Word through Christ Jesus teaches is not simply a ‘mind change’ but a mind changed by the birthing of a new heart through our Lord’s love, grace, and mercy, AS A RESULT OF HOLY-SPIRIT-CONVICTION AND HOLY SPIRIT CONVERSION!

Several verses from John 3 that I want to use in the foundation and overview of this message: John 3:5-7 says: (Amplified Bible), Jesus answered, “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, except a man be born of water (that’s the “water of the Word”!) and (even) the Spirit, he cannot [ever] enter the kingdom of God.[Ezekial 36:25-27].

What is born of [from] the flesh is flesh – of the physical is physical; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not – do not be surprised, astonished – at My telling you, “You must all be born anew (from above).”

Oh, and then in John 3:16-21 (Amplified Bible) we read: ‘FOR god so greatly loved AND dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only-begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts, clings to, relies upon) Him shall not perish – come to destruction, be lost – but have everlasting life.

For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge – to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on – the world; but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.

He who believes on Him – who clings to, trusts in, relies on Him – is not judged (he who trusts in Him never comes up for judgment; for him there is no rejection, no condemnation; he incurs no damnation). But he who does not believe (not cleave to, rely on, trust in Him) is judged already; (he has already been convicted; has already received his sentence) because he has not believed on and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God. – He is condemned for refusing to let his trust rest in Christ’s name.

The [basis of the] judgment (indictment, the test by which men are judged, the ground for the sentence) lies in this: that the Light is come into the world, and people have loved the darkness rather than and more than the Light, for their works (deeds) were evil. [Isaiah 5:20].

For every wrongdoer hates (loathes, detests) the light and will not come out into the light, but shrinks from it, lest his works – his deeds, his activities, his conduct – be exposed and reproved. BUT HE WHO PRACTICES TRUTH – who does what is right (according to God’s Word, will, and His ways!) – comes out into the light; so that his works may be plainly shown to be what they are, wrought with God – divinely prompted, done with God’s help, in dependence upon Him.”

“EVIDENCES OF NEW BIRTH CONVERSIONS”? FIRST, NO LONGER IS THERE THE DENIAL OF ONE’S ‘OLD MAN’ SIN NATURE AND SEPARATION FROM GOD BUT A PASSIONATE LONGING OF RECONCILIATION!

Sometimes it takes a Holy Word from God to release His deep conviction in one’s lost, alienated, separated from Him awareness in unbelieving hearts; and I believe 2 Peter 2:4-5 can be that ‘shock awareness’ in some hearts and minds! It says: [Amplified Bible], “For God [even] SPARED NOT ANGELS THAT SINNED, BUT CAST THEM INTO HELL, DELIVERING THEM TO BE KEPT THERE IN PITS OF GLOOM TILL THE JUDGMENT AND THEIR (FINAL) DOOM. And He spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, when He brought a flood upon the world of ungodly [people].”

Notice! GOD DIDN”T EVEN SPARE ANGELS WHO SINNED BUT CAST THEM INTO HELL! GOD DIDN”T SPARE EVEN THE ANCIENT WORLD, EVEN ‘RELIGIOUS PRETENDERS’ CALLED “JUDAIZERS”, OR ‘PROMINENT’, WELL-KNOWN NATIONAL POLITICAL LEADERS, OR THE “DO MY BEST” CROWD OF the ‘self-anointed’ who worship and are devoted to their old sin natures as personal points of admiration to which they yield themselves!

In fact, Hebrews 10:25-31, my prayer is that “IT WILL SCARE HELL OUT OF YOU, IF NEEDED TO!” It says: “Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the HABIT OF SOME PEOPLE, but admonishing – warning, urging and encouraging – one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.

For if we go on deliberately and willfully sinning after once acquiring the knowledge of the Truth, there is no longer any sacrifice to atone for [our] sins – no further offering to which we look forward. [There is nothing left for us then] but a kind of awful and fearful prospect and expectation of divine judgment and the fury of burning wrath and indignation which will consume those who put themselves in opposition [to God]. [Isaiah 26:11].

Any person who has violated and [thus] rejected AND set at naught the Law of Moses is put to death without pity or mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. [Deut. 17:2-6]. How much worse (sterner and heavier) punishment do you suppose he will be judged to deserve who has spurned AND [thus] trampled under foot the Son of God, and who has considered the covenant blood by which he was consecrated common and unhallowed, thus profaning it and insulting the (Holy) Spirit (Who imparts) grace – the unmerited favor and blessing of God? {Exo.24:8}.

For we know Him Who said, Vengeance is Mine – retribution and the meting out of full justice rest with Me; I will repay – I will exact the compensation, says the Lord. And again, The Lord will judge and determine and solve and settle the cause and the cases of His people. It is a fearful (formidable and terrible) thing to incur the divine penalties AND be cast into the hands of the living God!”

IF you were “crucified with Christ”, does that not mean He took YOU, your old sin nature, your old godless-living life, and PUT IT TO DEATH on the Cross with Him as He shed His blood that ALL YOUR SIN AND MINE MIGHT BE WASHED AWAY? Why ‘resurrect’ what Jesus crucified?

SECOND, “EVIDENCE OF NEW-BIRTH CONVERSION”? “NO LONGER A DEEP, ABIDING LOVE OF THE WORLDLY INFLUENCES OR PEACE WITH ALL THE DEVILISH AND DEMONIC INFLUENCES AND CONTROL”! Here’s how John relates this, as we read his anointed exposure and heavenly challenge in 1 John 2:2-6!

“And He – that same Jesus Himself – is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours alone but also for [the sins of] the whole world. And this is how we may discern [daily by experience] that we are coming to know Him – to perceive, recognize, understand and become better acquainted with Him: if we keep (bear in mind, observe, practice) His teachings (precepts, commandments).

Whoever says, I know Him – I perceive, recognize, understand and am acquainted with Him – but fails to keep and obey His commandments (teachings) is a liar, and the Truth [of the Gospel] is not in him.

But he who keeps [treasures] His Word – who bears in mind His precepts, who observes His message in its entirety – truly in him has the love of ‘and’ for God has been perfected (completed, reached maturity). By this we may perceive and know and recognize and be sure that we are in Him;

Whoever says he abides in Him ought – as a personal debt – to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.”

Christ Jesus was so aware of both the religious influences of false Judaism (not the true “remnant”!) and the darkness of devilish, demonic activities through man-made ‘religious expressions’, when in John 6:57-69, He said, with Peter then grabbing hold and holding on to “Jesus Only”:

“Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live (by, through, because of) the Father, even so whoever continues to feed on Me – who takes Me for his food and is nourished by Me – shall [in his turn] live through and because of Me. This is the Bread which came down from heaven. It is not like the manna which our forefathers ate and yet died. He who takes this Bread for his food shall live forever.

He said these things in a synagogue while He was teaching at Capernaum. When His disciples heard this, many of them said, This is a hard and difficult and strange saying – an offensive and unbearable message. Who can stand to hear it? – Who can be expected to listen to such teaching?

But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were complaining and protesting and grumbling about it, said to them: Is this a stumbling block and an offense to you? – Does this upset and displease and shock and scandalize you? What then [will be your reaction] if you should see the Son of Man ascending to the place where He was before?

It is the Spirit that gives life – He is the Life-giver; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever – there is no profit in it. The words (truth) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life. But [still] some of you fail to believe and trust and have faith. For Jesus knew from the first who did not believe and had no faith, and who would betray Him and be false to Him.

And He said, This is why I have told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him – unless he is enabled to do so – by the Father. After this many of His disciples drew back – returned to their old associations – and no longer accompanied Him.

Jesus said to the twelve, Will you also go away? And do you too desire to leave Me? Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words (the message) of eternal life. And we have learned to believe and trust; and [more], we have come to know [surely] that You are the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son of the living God.”

There is such a vast difference between ‘religious’ individuals who WILL FALL AWAY and the vital picture and reality of a regenerated soul, indwelt by and led by the Holy Spirit! In John 6:63 Jesus said: “It is the Spirit that gives life – He is the Life-giver; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever – there is no profit in it. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life.”

I love Watchman Nee’s word in his book, “Ye Search The Scriptures,” [Christian Fellowship Publishers, Inc. New York, Copyright 1974], (p.16), “Canst thou by searching find out God”, challenges the Book of Job (11:7). God is never arrived at through research. He is found by one way only – through the regenerated spirit.”

In 1 Corinthians 2:1-4, “As for myself, brethren, when I came to you I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony and evidence or mystery or secret of God [concerning what He has done through Christ for the salvation of men] in lofty words of eloquence or human philosophy and wisdom;

For I resolved to know nothing – to be acquainted with nothing; to make a display of the knowledge of [nothing] – among you except Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and Him crucified. And I (passed into a state of) weakness and was in fear (dread) and great trembling [after I had ] among you.

And my language and my message were not set forth in persuasive (enticing and plausible) words of wisdom, but they were in demonstration of the [Holy] Spirit and power of God, operating on me and stirring in the minds of my hearers the most holy emotions and thus persuading them.”

An unbelieving world, a self-indulgent flesh, and a demonically, devilish controlled mind will create and establish all kinds of ‘religious mannerisms’ but oppose “You must be born again”! For the most part, fallen humanity and the devil’s crowd and, yes, ‘church pretenders’ will settle for religious entertainment but highly oppose no longer living for yourself but living for Christ alone!

What did Paul write in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1? Don’t miss, overlook, or casually kind of knod at his word!! It says: [Again, Amplified Bible!], “Do not be unequally yoked up with unbelievers – do not make mismated alliances with them, or come under a different yoke with then [inconsistent with your faith]. For what partnership have right living and right standing with God with iniquity and lawlessness? Or how can light fellowship with darkness?

What harmony can there be between Christ and Belial [the devil]? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement [can there be between] a temple of God and idols? For (In Christ!) WE ARE the temple of the living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

SO, come out from among (unbelievers), and separate (sever) yourselves from them, says the Lord, and touch not [any] unclean thing; then I will receive you kindly and treat you with favor. And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

7:1, Therefore, since these great promises are ours, beloved, LET US CLEANSE ourselves from everything that contaminates and defiles body and spirit,, and bring [our] consecration to completeness in the (reverential) fear of God.”

I have no doubts that even most ‘church folk’ easily accept the blood of the Cross for their forgiveness but will rebel, excuse, accuse faithful men of the Word for lying when they even share Jesus saying, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, but you do not do what I Say?” Dare I tell YOU that obedience is not an option in the age of grace?

Spiritual focus, even in a religious setting, is more often on fleshly concerns rather than divine revelation or the ultimate Will of God’s eternal intent? I love what Charles Stanley wrote in his booklet, “In Touch”, [April,2016, p.13], “The Lord isn’t looking for people who change a few habits by sheer force of will; He’s calling people to surrender to Him…We don’t evolve into a saved people by deleting old habits and instituting better religious ones; we are transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ when we believe [trust in, rely upon, adhere to] Him.”

Many ‘church folk’ are highly appreciative of ‘compromisers’ because they ‘believe’ that “fleshly indulgence is justified because, though one is ‘saved’, he/she cannot do anything but sin until Christ comes again – so they blame God rather than trust His Truth! They are euphorically violent to those who uphold Jesus’ Word, like when He said, “Go, and sin no more,” but they believe sin in a believer is ‘normal, and that without ‘guilt’, because “God is love”.

There’s even by some a ‘ministerial’ maligning of the Holy Word because they feel ‘justified’ in ungodly behavior though a professing believer. And in the world around you there is philosophical rationalization because of spiritual ‘brain-tumors’ called resistance to Holy Truth! “Who needs a ‘Savior’? We’re OK , you with or without Christ are OK”! Really?

But I can tell you without hesitation that to continue sinning as a ‘believer’ is to deny Jesus’ Victory at the Cross and to refute Jesus’ words in John 15:22, “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but NOW they have no excuse for their sin.”

Do you remember Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15:34? “Awake (from your drunken stupor and return) to sober sense and your right minds, AND SIN NO MORE. For some of you have not the knowledge of God – you are utterly and willfully and disgracefully ignorant, and continue to be so, LACKING THE SENSE OF GOD’S PRESENCE AND ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM. I say this to your shame.”

But, in Isaiah 41:8-15, there is a powerful word of hope to, ‘sometimes’, discouraged disciples who’ve ‘tried’ to live the overcoming life, (with no ‘discipleship’ training), but only a sad pastoral “do your best”. IF YOU DIDN’T KNOW, at the Cross Jesus took YOUR worst and YOUR best, and it was “crucified with Christ”! Look at Isaiah’s ‘Word of Hope’!

• Isaiah 41:9, “I have chosen you and not cast you off.” 2) Verse 10, “Fear not…for I am with you.” 3) Verse 10, “I AM your God…(Elohim), meaning the “high and lifted up, the mighty One,” and He’s ‘able’ to sustain us, strengthen us, and guard us (if we let Him) against the world you face, the “old man” trying to resurrect, AND even victorious over Satan! 4) Verse 10, “I WILL STRENGTHEN AND HARDEN YOU TO [DIFFICULTIES]…”. This is probably why Paul shared, “When I am weak, then I am strong,” because he did not lean on ‘fleshly abilities’ but Holy Presence – ‘Christ in YOU the hope of glory’! 5) Verse 10 again – “I will hold you up and retain you with My victorious right hand of rightness and justice.” God said in Isaiah 42:13, “The Lord will go forth as a mighty man; HE WILL ROUSE HIS ZEALOUS INDIGNATION AND VENGENCE LIKE A WARRIOR; HE WILL CRY, YES, HE WILL SHOUT ALOUD, HE WILL DO MIGHTILY AGAINST HIS ENEMIES.” 6) Verses 11-13 – “Behold, all they who are enraged and inflamed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; they who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall PERISH. You shall seek those who contend with you, and shall not find them; they who war against you shall be as nothing, as nothing at all.” 7) Verse 15 – “Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument having teeth…” In 2 Corinthians 13:10 Paul wrote: “So I write these things while I am absent from you, that when I come to you I may not have to DEAL SHARPLY in my use of the authority which the Lord has given me, [to be employed, however] for building [you] up and not tearing you down.” The “SHARP TOOL” of Holy Truth will ‘shape’ you in His image or ‘silence’ your voice if you betray Him!

“Evidence of NEW-BIRTH CONVERSIONS”, sharpened in life by His Word, Will, and Work OR slicing to threads the disobeying, compromising, contented disciple who “plays” on both sides of the street? WHICH LEADS US TO NUMBER THREE AND LAST: “NO LONGER DEVOTION TO WALK OUT ONE’S LIFE OF ‘FAITH’ (?) ON THE “STREETS OF SELF-INDULGENCES AND SELF-FLESH EMPHASES,” BUT STEPPING FAITHFULLY ON THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS!

In Colossians 2:5-10 Paul so strongly lays the foundation of a truly birthed and overcoming ‘Life In Christ’! “For though I am away from you in body, yet I am with you in spirit, delighted at the sight of your [standing shoulder to shoulder in such] orderly array and the firmness and the solid front and steadfastness of your faith in Christ, [that leaning of the entire human personality on Him in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness]. As you therefore received the Christ, [even] Jesus the Lord, [so] walk – regulate your lives and conduct yourselves – in union and conformity to Him.

Have the roots [of your being] firmly and deeply planted [in Him] – fixed and founded in Him – being continually built up in Him, becoming increasingly more confirmed and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and abounding and overflowing in it with thanksgiving.

See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism, and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human traditions – men’s ideas of the material [rather than the spiritual] world – just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe, and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ, the Messiah.

For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead), continues to dwell in bodily form – giving complete expression of the divine nature. AND you [in Christ] are in Him, made full and have come to fullness of life – in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and reach full spiritual stature. And He is the Head of all rule and authority – of every angelic principality and power.”

Don’t you think this foundation of the true “Evidence of New-Birth Conversion” is seen in what Paul wrote to us? And it strongly agrees with what Christ Himself said when in John 7:37-38 we read: “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! He who believes in Me – who cleaves to and trusts in and relies upon Me – as the Scripture has said, Out from his innermost being springs and rivers of living water shall flow (continuously).”

Even in the walk of redemptive faith there are doors before us – some to condemnation, frustration, and captivity, while others are Christ’s ‘door’ to liberty, freedom from bondage to the old sin nature and ‘birthed’ to the freedom of everlasting life in the here and now, in and through Christ alone! SO…it’s either:

Self-directed in one’s ‘walk of faith’ OR “born-again to new LIFE IN CHRIST”; it’s either a ‘kingdom rule’ that is fleshly rich in sensual satisfactions or the Holy Spirit-enriched life in the very wealth of Holy God and Heaven’s Son, better known as “Emmanuel”, or “God With Us, God in Us, God through Us”, because of Resurrection Life in Christ, Resurrection Power through Christ, and Resurrection Hope instilled within us by His Holy Presence!

It’s ‘philosophically-wise’ in godless ways or personally and intimately blessed with the very “mind of Christ”! It’s either trained by the best of a world’s ‘master’ deceivers, even the devil himself, or Sovereignly guided by the Holy Spirit, truly enriched by the treasures of His Holy Word, and “Master-led” disciple makers who “feed” us on the “bread of life,” the “milk of the Word,” and upon the very “meat” of God’s Holy Truth!

The claim of Christ that He had come that we might have life and that abundant was not a fictitipous claim of a ‘false prophet’ but from the Creator of mankind and the Savior and Lord over mankind!

Jesus said: “I AM THE DOOR” to reconciliation with God, the door of divine forgiveness, the door to abiding presence of God within repentant and faith-filled hearts, and the door of receiving, walking in, and being blessed by the fruit of His Holy Life and His Holy Spirit!

Don’t you find it sad and heart-breaking that you see around you, yes, multitudes who are ‘satisfied’ with the ‘flesh-life’ and all it has to offer, closing the door on the love, grace, and mercy of God. But time will unveil for many the fundamental reality that vocational and financial successes fall short of filling the inner hunger that only Christ Jesus meets and fills!

In Catherine Marshall’s book, “Something More,” [COPYRIGHT, 1961, by Catherine Marshall, Published by Chosen Books, Lincoln, Va. 22078], (p.3), she wrote about “the famous Hollywood actress, Mary Astor, (who) has known the fairy-tale of movie stardom. An Academy Award, glamourous marriages, two children, several Beverly Hills mansions, furs, jewels, publicity – what more could any woman want? Yet Mary Astor admitted in print that ‘for years – even in the midst of fame and glamor – I yearned for contentment, happiness. It took me almost twenty years to go from idle curiosity about religion…to meeting God as a Person and a Father, and knowing that walking in (redemptive) faith meant growing up.”

AND THAT “GROWING UP” IS “FALLING DOWN” before the King of kings and Lord of lords, REPENTING, TRUSTING, RESTING IN HIS FINISHED WORK AT THE CROSS< AND EXPERIENCING THE REALITY OF HIS INDWELLING PRESENCE THROUGH THE “EVIDENCES OF A NEW-BIRTH” RELATIONSHIP!

IS YOUR BODY NOW THE “HOLY TEMPLE”?

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“THE UNDESERVED OR UNRESERVED RELEASE OF GOD’S OMNIPOTENT POWER!”

In Hebrews 10:11-14 the author of Hebrews gives us an amazing unveiling of the awesome, unreserved release and availability of God’s omnipotent power to change hearts, birth eternal ministries, and equip “perfected saints”! It says: “And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

BUT this Man (the Lord Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, “God in Flesh”), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins FOREVER, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. FOR by one offering HE HAS PERFECTED FOREVER THOSE WHO ARE BEING SANCTIFIED.”

And “the sanctified”, those “set apart” by the grace and mercy of God, have been “perfected forever” for the very purpose of extending Christ’s life, expressing His love, and proving His power, through you and me? Absolutely! The Holy Word declares it! God’s eternal desire is that He, Christ Jesus, be glorified THROUGH YOU as a true believer!

What does Ephesians 2:4-10 tell us? “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together with Christ, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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.”

It’s so interesting to me that when I read Revelation 3:7-8 Jesus clearly says, “These things says He who is holy, He who is true, ‘He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts, and no one opens.’ I know your works. (SO!) See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have Not Denied My Name.” There IS an open door to Jesus!

But then in Revelation 3:19-22 the Lord Jesus declared: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. BEHOLD, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” [And don’t you find this amazing that Jesus was speaking to those “in the church at Laodecia”?] THEREFORE, HOW EASY FOR UNBELIEVERS TO SHUT THE DOOR ON JESUS, BUT HOW HORRIFIC WHEN “professing Christians and churches” shut the door on Jesus?!?

And I remind you again of Jesus describing ‘believers’ as: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” [Ephesians 2:10!].

Repentant men of faith and trust in the work of Christ at the Cross accept their crucifixion with Him and receive with passion, joy, and celebration His forgiveness, His acceptance of us, and His desire to make each of us His earthly temple and dwelling, not a destroyed memory of a building in Israel, but temples of holy dwellings in the hearts of men in every nation of the world!

Notice, FIRST, what Ephesians 1:3 tells us of GOD’S GOODNESS, “who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…!” And what amazes me is Ephesians 1:4 tells me, “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,” and that with an eternal purpose: “that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” And that’s ALL because of the shed blood of Christ for us and because of our ‘redemptive faith’ in (Ephesians 1:5-6), “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

That’s because of God’s goodness, His graciousness, and His sovereign will, which leads us to:

SECOND, GOD’S Gracious Birthing OF Redemption Through Jesus’ Blood, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE, which Ephesians 1:7-8 declares “which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” Notice!

It’s only “divine wisdom” that reveals the sin nature, your sin nature and mine, was crucified with Christ, that the open door to His presence and purpose, was then fully revealed as the blood of Christ bought us out of slavery to sin, granted us forgiveness from the guilt of our sin, made us accepted In Christ, with Ephesians 1:12 telling us, “that we who first trusted in Christ SHOULD BE TO THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORY”!

Colossians 1:13-14 declares: “He (God) has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

Are you aware of what Hebrews 10:12-14 unveils to true repentant believers? “But this Man, after He had offered ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOREVER, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. FOR BY ONE OFFERING He (the Lord Jesus Christ!) has PERFECTED FOREVER THOSE WHO ARE BEING SANCTIFIED.” Sanctified? That’s “set apart”, repentant believers then, now, and future, who Repent For the Forgiveness of Sins, are washed in the blood of the Lamb, indwelt by Resurrection Presence, anointed in the power of the Indwelling Holy Spirit, and become “witnesses”, “ambassadors”, “evangelists”, who proclaim the “goodness of God” for His children of faith and hope in Christ alone!

1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption – Verse 31, that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” Having forgiveness through the shed blood of the Lamb of God, we realize, rest in, and rejoice, in the reality that our blood-bought faith has opened the door to us of faithfully participating, now and forever, in all God is!

I receive with joy and gladness Oswald Chambers’ words in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.255), where he said: “We have forgiveness through His (Christ Jesus’) blood. Identification with the death of Jesus Christ means identification with Him to the death of everything that never was in Him…God is justified in saving bad men only as He makes them good. Out Lord does not pretend that we are all right when we are all wrong. The Atonement is a propitiation whereby God through the death of Jesus makes an unholy man holy.”

THIRD, IN GOD’S WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING, OF BRINGING ABOUT WORLD REDEMPTION AFTER THE “FALL”, DID HE CONCEDE TO A MAN’S ‘BEST EFFORT’ AS A PARTICIPANT IN WORLD REDEMPTION, OR THE NECESSITY OF “NEW VESSELS”? Remember, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!” (Romans 6:23). “Fallen flesh” never reveals the nature, character, true vision of Holy God, but only ‘man’ defining ‘self’, ‘sinful self’, as a ‘worthy vessel’ even God should use! No!

Romans 6:5-11 unveils fallen humanity’s “old man, old nature, old identity as a slave TO SIN”, but then reveals “Victory In Jesus”! It says: “For if we have been united in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, THAT WE SHOULD NO LONGER BE SLAVES OF SIN. For he who has died has been freed from sin.

Now IF WE DIED WITH CHRIST, we believe (trust in, rely upon, adhere to the fact) that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God IN Christ Jesus our Lord.” Far too many fail to understand the consequences of their sin and sin nature! That’s why Paul was inspired to say also in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God IS eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

And if that is Biblically true, AND IT IS, does Jesus have to say the same thing to ‘modern-day’ Christians as He did to the “Sad-you-sees” (?) in Matthew 22:29, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.”

And then, in Mark 9:1, to a crowd of people plus His own disciples, Jesus said to them: “Assuredly, I say to you, that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.” What a promise to them and to us!

Luke 4:13-14 there is a mind-boggling, heart-searching, disciple-questioning passage! It says: “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him (that’s Jesus!) until a (more) opportune time. Verse 14! Then Jesus returned in the POWER OF THE SPIRIT to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.” And “the news of Him”, Spirit-filled, is STILL being spread through available “vessels” who RECEIVE the Spirit’s anointing!

In Acts 10:34-38 we read about “Spirit-Anointed Peter” speaking Holy Truth! “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. BUT IN EVERY NATION whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Christ Jesus – He is Lord of all – that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how GOD ANOINTED JESUS OF NAZARETH WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND WITH POWER, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

Oh, but then look at the awesome extension of the Holy Spirit’s ministry beyond Peter and the early church even to today and beyond! It says in Acts 10:44-45, While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, BECAUSE the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.”

It’s really interesting as you study Isaiah 40 that you see in Verse 7 about “the breath of the Lord” (Do you believe that breath might be the Holy Spirit?) blows upon it; surely the people are grass. Verse 8, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever.” And the Word of God, the Living Word, IS “Christ in you the hope of glory”, men and women re-born and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, empowered by the Spirit to be the Lord’s “faithful witnesses” and “Royal Ambassadors” of Kingdom Living in and through Him and His Holy Spirit!

Do you remember what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:3-5? “I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, BUT IN DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT AND OF POWER, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

The “Holy Temple” in Christ, in you, is built upon a strong and sure foundation, which is not only His Word, but His Spirit having His rightful place in you, over you, and around everything you are and everything you do! We’re not led by our “emotions” in the Christian walk but by the “emissions” or “emanating” of the Holy Spirit through your available life of faith and trust in Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit! Dare I tell you that Holy God desires to be and to do more through us, by His Spirit, than tragically, and often, we keep Him from doing?

In Revelation 12: 10-11 John HEARD the voice from Heaven! “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, AND THE POWER OF HIS CHRIST HAS COME, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. AND THEY OVERCAME HIM by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death!”

But, not only Old and New Testament histories, but ‘modern-day’ church “productions”, present to us many who “are at ease in Zion”, content as Pretenders rather than Converted and Transformed and Dwellings of His Resurrection presence!

In Isaiah 32:1 says, “Behold, a king will reign in righteousness…”, and if you didn’t know, that’s a prophetic utterance of the reign of King Jesus in the repentant, redeemed, regenerated, restored hearts of men to God’s eternal intent! And it then boldly described “lands” with thorns and briers, forsaken ‘temples’ or palaces, cities ‘of faith’ even ‘deserted’, but Verse 15 is filled with divine assurance and eternal confidence as Jesus states: UNTIL THE SPIRIT, (the Holy Spirit!) IS POURED UPON US FROM ON HIGH, when ‘the wilderness’ of a fleshly believer becomes a “fruitful field” through Spirit-anointing!

Dare I tell you that to live a victorious, overcoming, Christ-unveiling, Christ-revealing life is not by your “best-efforts” but by a “vessel’ anointed and overflowing in the fullness and fruit and eternal force of the very Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who “girts” us, “anoints” us, “empowers” us, and, according to 1 John 5:6b, “… And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.” And far too many “professing believers” never become “confessing believers” to others because there is no surrender to be led by Holy Spirit leadership – too many feel they can handle their own ministries, which sadly never occurs – they never become “voices” in life’s wildernesses because, if they ‘witness’, it’s usually about their own spiritual prominence rather than the importance of “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ in and through Calvary’s Cross and the empty tomb”!

I’m an ‘old hymn’ kind of guy – repeated ‘choruses’, far too often in modern-day churches, leave preparation for preaching on “shallow ground”! But a hymn, like “Thou, Whose Almighty Word”, written by John Marriott and W.R. Braine, in the old “The American Hymnal,” [ Compiled and edited by Robert H. Coleman, the Broadman Press, Nashville, Tenn., 1933], says:

“Thou, (or You) whose almighty word Chaos and darkness heard, And took their flight, Hear us, we humbly pray; And where the gospel’s day Sheds not its glorious ray, LET THERE BE LIGHT!

Spirit of truth and love, Life-giving, Holy Dove, Speed forth Your flight: Move over the water’s face, Bearing the lamp of grace; And, in earth’s darkest place, LET THERE BE LIGHT!

Blessed and Holy Three, Glorious Trinity, Truth, Love and Might! Boundless as ocean’s tide, Rolling in fullest pride, Through the world, far and wide, LET THERE BE LIGHT!” How about “Light IN YOU the hope of glory”?

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“THE FLESHLY UNFULFILLED OR THE SPIRITUALLY FULFILLED?”

In 2 Corinthians 1:12 Paul stated, “For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.” ‘Conduct in the world’? And Paul laid down his challenge: “Not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God”! And, you realize, there are multitudes who live by ‘grit’, honoring one’s fleshly determination or fleshly abilities, but not to God’s honor and glory, leaving ‘fleshly lives; UNFULFILLED, though crowned by the world and the devil as outstanding folks and ‘worthy examples’.

As Jesus was instructing His disciples, He said in Mark 9:35, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” Yet how many do you know who function through ‘flesh’ at its best and miss God’s eternal intention, with a fleshly, unfulfilled, short of God’s blessing, satisfied with their best life-style and fleshly effort?

Are you aware of the danger of fleshly imagination that has nothing to do with ‘eternal purpose’, but is even that which either doesn’t consider ultimate intention by divine design, or personally chooses to exalt one’s self through personal self-determination above even the knowledge of God Himself?

If the Lord Jesus lived “to do My Father’s will”, don’t you find it so strange that even most Christians have not been disciplined in “bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”? As a result, their view of their salvation ‘experience’ is short-changed concerning relating to worldly influences, old sin-nature limitations, or even the devil’s interferences with the fullness of their development!

But, “the fleshly unfulfilled” I see as worldly, unfulfilled unbelievers who determine to be ‘god’ or ‘goddesses’ themselves, godless lives governed by self-rule, even satisfied with their own “just-rewards”. Didn’t Paul tell young Timothy about those who were “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of, (some) having a form of godliness but deny its power. And from such people turn away”? [2 Timothy 3:5].

It’s interesting that even in old Israel there came a time, even a time after the time, when, As Deborah said that she arose as a ‘mother’ in Israel only to see Israel “choosing new gods”! [Judges 5:8]. But, of course, in modern-day America, I’m not sure many Americans (?) now have any grasp of the “new gods they choose wo worship”!

Most today bow to a ‘god or goddess’ of appearances with more attention to outside ‘show’ but no inward purified hearts by the blood of the Lamb! Psalm 82:5 speaks of those who, “do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of [their] earth is unstable.”

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? Sadly, most are unaware of a ‘way of evil’, walking perverted paths, with no concern for the path of uprightness because they truly love the ways of darkness, rejoice in doing evil things, delight in the perversity of the wicked, looking for crooked paths, desirous pleasures, and devilish men and women – they love unrighteousness and bow willingly before their idols of darkness, deceit, and deathly deception.

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? In 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, Paul spoke of a ‘lawless one (who) will be revealed, saying, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. AND FOR THIS REASON God will send them a strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth BUT HAD PLEASURE IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS.”

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? I have no hesitation in saying that unbelievers that avoid “spiritual fulfillment” are individuals undeniably interested only in themselves, with an attitude of mind and heart that is in “what pleases me, the cares of my world, the concerns of what satisfies me and me alone.” Many are so carnal, crude, self-caring, that to expose their need of the Redeemer heightens their anger, resentment, and bitterness! For many, it’s ‘cold minds’, ‘cold hearts,’ and ‘over-all coldness’ to even the awesome love of God for them or even the Name of Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior!

In Luke 19:41 as Jesus “wept over Jerusalem”, I’m convinced the Ascended Lord at the right hand throne of Almighty God still weeps over cities all over the world, saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.”

How many times have you heard someone say that Jesus spoke in parables to make it easily understandable to them about what He wanted them to grasp? Yet when you read what He said in Matthew 13, having spoken of “the Parable of the Sower,” in verses 3-9, the disciples of Christ came asking Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus responded in Verses 11-17,

“Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, BUT TO THEM IT HAS NOT BEEN GIVEN. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, BECAUSE SEEING THEY DO NOT SEE, AND HEARING THEY DO NOT HEAR, NOR DO THEY UNDERSTAND. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes THEY have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so I should heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly, I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

You do realize that when most men hear about “water” they are considering a physical water to drink, or a water to nourish their fresh-sown seeds, or a water that cleans a dirty car or what they wash their sweaty bodies with, but they never consider “living water”, or as Proverbs 21:1-2 says, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. Every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” [And does YOUR heart over-flow with rivers of your own will or rivers of the divine will?]. Sadly, most ‘fleshly’ lives are not even aware of any fountains of life that ought to be ‘abounding with the water” of Life in Christ, of Holy Presence, or of Holy Purpose!

In Jeremiah 2:13, though speaking historically of ‘the chosen people of Israel’, what the prophet heard God say speaks prophetically of all men who go their own way: “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

And Jeremiah is usually associated with “Lamentations” – and he certainly had much to lament about as he saw his own people turning to their own fleshly ways. There is a bold, icing word he gives us when in Lamentations 5:4 he wrote: “We pay for the water we drink!”

Yes, there is a water the world drinks that is not the “water of life”! There’s a water that is not the water that cleanses the heart! There is a water that is not “pure water”! Are you aware that Peter, in 2 Peter 2:17, wrote: “These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever”?

In the previous verses of 2 Peter 2, he was pointing out the “depravity of false teachers” who were warped in their understanding of the holy life birthed through the blood of Christ! He spoke about those who ‘perish in their own corruption,’ ‘spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions’, ‘eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin,’ ‘enticing unstable souls,’ ‘hearts trained in covetous practices, AND ARE ACCURSED CHILDREN,’ ‘having forsaken the right way and gone astray,’ ‘loving the wages of unrighteousness,’ and, Yes, ‘rebuked for one’s iniquity’; but you realize these are those who say, “Who cares what God thinks? We’re in charge of our own lives!” Then, a day of reckoning awaits them! And it does come!

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? How many do you know who major on things in their lives that will surely guarantee a “successful life” if they set their own goals, and they meet their goals to their satisfaction, but never ask, ‘Is this God’s will, God’s purpose, God’s plan for my life?” Sadly, for many ‘successful people’, relationship to Holy God is the furtherest thing from their minds, if at all!

But, there was “the rich young ruler” who at least acknowledged the reality of eternal life but deemed his riches should be his ‘calling card’ into a blessed life! This ‘rich young ruler’ even took advantage of an opening door to Jesus’ presence, asking Jesus in Luke 18:18, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus reminded him of ‘the commandments’ with the rich young ruler responding, “All these things I have kept from my youth.”

Then in Verses 22-23 we read about those who major on “self” and refuse “selflessness” as a way of life! It says: So when Jesus heard these things, He said: “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. [How rich are YOU in yourself?].

Being even sorrowful is not full surrender if one wants his wealth more than the will of God! Did he understand it? Yes! For him, he didn’t walk away defiantly – he purposefully listened, but reasoned his fleshly goal was more important to him than God’s eternal desire for men, proven in the sacrifice of His own Son on the Cross of Calvary! His desire for fleshly wealth became more vital to him than a “fire in his bones” for the glory of God’s earnest desire for sons of true faith in their hearts and walks before Him.

“The fleshly unfulfilled”? Most will never admit it, but they are men, if they were to ever consider the will of God for their lives, would at least admit that their “self-allegiance and self-devotion” takes precedent over a man’s devotion to God or His Son, the Lord Jesus! For them, there’s no discouragement about a Godless life, no disenchantment with ‘self-idolatry’, no darkness for them about ‘self-love’ or ‘self-devotion’ – they’ll even say, “That’s my religious faith – I am my own main god!”

And being one’s own conviction about “self”, there are so many who are overwhelmed by the influences of family, or friends, or even societal circumstances, like a war, where many are hardened by the splitting of devotion to protecting lives or ending lives in human wars! There’s nothing that should EVER turn you away from Him, but always turn you to Him in absolute, total surrender and submission to His eternal watch-care, but many are divided, weakened, and become unbelieving that a Holy God could ever care about them!

As one even begins to consider himself related to a fleshly world purpose or eternal divine intent, there’s always, “follow your instincts” or “follow His inspiration” – and, of course, in the world, many are overcome by “the world, the flesh, and the devil”!

There’s a powerful few verses in John 2:23-25 that reveals our Lord’s insight as a discerner of human hearts and their exposure to worldly rather than eternal intent. It says: Now hen Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.”Illusions, ideas, intents, personal intuitions, for many, become more important than divine revelation or Eternal Will, eternal purpose, eternal provision, or plan – “my ideas take precedent over eternal will,” and they’re eternally settled into that frame of mind and heart, united with the devil himself, though they’d never admit that to you, but look upon you as a ‘spiritual lunatic’ or a child of the devil yourself!

For unbelievers, even on their dying death-beds, they’ll hold out for their way of human existence, even if it’s brought them pain, suffering, a void of eternal purpose – “I’ve had my way, and with that, I’ll live and leave with what I face after my death.” Oh, really? They really don’t know what the devil and the hordes of Hell’s demons have in store for them, do they?

After life? Oh, yes! The body way decay to “ashes and bones”, but the true ‘you’ is eternal with the devil’s insignia of ownership if you were never ‘purchased by the blood of the Lamb’! The one thing about Hell you need to be reminded of is the fact the devil doesn’t leave you for a season, but day after day inflicts the consequences of your yieldedness to him rather than to Jesus! Eternal agonizing is the identifying reward for all unbelievers.

Do you have any conception at all of an unbeliever’s ‘multiplied sorrow’ forever and ever as the reward of his/her unbelief and rebellion and disobedience before Holy God? There IS the sorrow of heart and mind that intensifies and is never soothed or removed! There is a sorrow of heart that gets heavier and heavier for any unbeliever under Satan’s domination – and it intensifies more and more, forever and forever! Proverbs 10:10 says, “He who winks with the eye causes trouble, but a prating fool will fall.” Prating? Idle chatter, foolish talking, absurd reactions to the love and purpose of Holy God! That’s about as good as I can describe ‘a prating fool’ – God says, “He/she falls!”

Are you familiar with “astrologers”? “Astrology” is a ‘professed science’ that supposedly can “read the stars” and, for them, basically, interpret their influences on human affairs! Really? Or is it not more of human attempts at ascending to God’s throne and seeing for themselves how they’d like to see things turning out? It’s like men who are natural desiring to be supernatural, determining for themselves how earthly things ought to be since “we see it in the stars”! Dream-World?

Oh, certainly, there are “fleshly star-gazers” who believe they’ve seen heavenly visions for themselves with a ‘bright light’ or “me, my, mine” so alien to submission to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Walking in their “own light, as I see it,” with a strong sense of self-will, self-direction, because of a fleshly sense of property and a fleshly sense of personal right, even ahead of or more than God’s divine sovereignty! It’s the fallen attitude of fallen men that “my life consists of what I want it to be, what I choose, what I want to possess for myself”, when the Lord Jesus said, and still says, (Luke 12:15), “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundances of the things he possesses”, or packages according to his own flesh desire, worldly influence, or devilish possession and domination!

Dare I tell you that you’ve just read up on “The Fleshly Unfulfilled”? But, what about “The Spiritually Fulfilled”? Why not truly examine the Word of God for yourself about Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“OPTIONAL EXPRESSIONS OF LIFE – HUMAN OR DIVINE, FLESHLY OR SPIRITUAL, TEMPORARY OR ETERNAL?”

A life bleak or blessed, a life scarred with sin and the old sin nature, or a life conceived by the Holy Spirit, a life trying or trusting, a life programmed by the world, the flesh, and the devil, or a life purposed, promised, and spiritually prosperous in God’s Kingdom because of “new births”, or a life experiencing, exposed to, exasperated by, encapsulated by fears, anxieties, worries, doubts or a life enraptured with, enduring, exciting, and exhilarating in the joy of Jesus’ indwelling, overcoming, victorious Resurrection Presence?

What is your life? Is it the life in Christ Jesus with a peace that passes all understanding or is it a life of spiritual death of the guilty, a life of sinful flesh to offer as best one can, or the “Life in Christ” graciously granted in victorious, overcoming, rejoicing- in- Jesus hearts with symphonic Hallelujahs and glorious praise and thanksgiving from a new-born heart?

A ‘worldly life’ sustained by physical bread alone and the best ‘fallen flesh’ has to nibble on without an ounce of true repentance or pure sustenance or purified heart and mind, void of the Holy Spirit, void of the “fruit” of heavenly love, eternal peace, and life-changing joy that never subsides, wanes, or falters, is a life, though mentally religious but never “born again”, that tries to imitate, even pretend, and attempts with all flesh has to offer, but falls short of the reality of truly transformed hearts and lives by the miracle of the “new birth”!

Do you ever consider, think about, evaluate ‘God-less –living’ as empty, self-centered, mindless, purposeless, unfulfilling, unrewarding in its long haul, or a life filled with the manifestations of Holy Presence in Christ?

Do you remember Jesus saying, “Come to Me, learn of Me, rest in Me, and you’ll find “rest” that is eternal and blessing for your soul” that truly is indescribable?

Is your life based on fleshly ‘fairy’ tales or a life blessed on the divine, eternal, revelation of the Christ of Resurrection Life, Resurrection power, and Resurrection Hope?

The enemy of the “God-Life”, the devil, deceives, entraps, blinds men to the “Christ-in-you-Life” of Holy presence, Holy purpose, and Holy power, with ‘imitation’, ‘non-redemptive,’ ‘fleshly intents alone,’ without any consideration of the miracle of “new birth,” the blessing of “Christ-in-you,” or the fulfillment of divinely-ordained, eternal intent, or sovereignly, ordained, and graciously given “Oneness” with the divine nature in and through Christ!

It was Philip James Bailey, in his “Festus, A Country Town,” who once wrote: “We live in deeds, not years; in thought (or Truth) not breath: In feelings, not figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best. Life’s but a means unto an end; that end Beginning, mean, and end of all things – God.”

What is YOUR life? “Hell’s bells” or “the Joy-Juice of Jesus’ Presence”? A fleshly flame revealing failing, futile living or the pure flame of the Eternal Son and Sun of Life within us, the Crucified, Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords?

Life is not a ladder finitely stepped – never has been, never will be – Life was extraordinarily given to give men personal choice of ‘flesh-life’ or the “Divine Life” – life without God or life in Him – not fleshly dreams, finite feelings of sensual pleasures, or faltering feelings of human successes, but a life, not of temporary thoughts of pleasure and satisfactions, but one of eternal peace, resurrection presence, and heavenly joys!

Is your life the “bondage” of your ‘old- as- ADAM’ SIN NATURE OR THE “BLESSING” of LIVING IN, BY, and FOR THE LIFE OF ANOTHER, EVEN CHRIST ALONE THE HOPE OF GLORY?

A man who lives only to satisfy his Adam’s original nature, his flesh, his old, ancient sin nature, his selfish ambitions, is a man who never discovers perfect peace in Christ, selfless surrender to the sovereignty of God, or complete liberty and freedom and desire to honor, bless, exalt, and please the Savior, the Blessed Redeemer only!?!

A life that is satisfied with ‘flesh’ (the old sin nature), that knows no ‘self-denial’, that accepts the devil’s ‘slant’ that ‘You Can Sin And Not Die, That Thinks “devotion to God” is unnecessary, that’s been deceived by the powers of darkness, that loving the world and its lust of the flesh is not evil, never submitting to the reality that THAT world of idiotic, fleshly foolishness, is fading, failing, unfulfilling, and that the lust of it is death constantly just warmed over, and is passing away into a dark abode of demon presence, insisting it’s ‘OK’ – and that’s a life ‘OVERCOMING’ ?– just not overcoming by the blood of the Lamb?

You’ve heard it: “Live while you live – satisfy the passions of your old sin nature, realize you are your own, do as you please, never silencing the demons, and you “just go to Hell” – “it’s OK” – “everybody does it”; while that’s true for the most – it’s not true for God’s redeemed, blood-bought remnant – they find the only Way, the only Truth, and the only Life!

How sad that many never come to know the Life that is “in Christ”, never know the true pleasures that never fade that Jesus brings, that never experience the peace that passes all understanding, that never knows “death to self” and “Life in the Savior”, or “death to the fallen nature” and Life in the fullness of the divine nature, or the “death of bad fruit” and not the Life of “the fruit of the Spirit”!

Are you aware of the man-made philosophy that ‘best effort here’ is worthy of life in the “here-after”, that “fleshly best ensures life forever”, that “trusting is good for humanity,” even if God says trusting in Him alone is your only hope?

“Live while you live as your ‘flesh’ dictates” or “Live in Me alone” as Jesus declared? “Live while you live for the pleasures that satisfy your fleshly tendencies” or is it “Live for the purpose of honoring the God who made you, lost you, but bought you with a price, even the blood, innocent blood, of the precious Lamb of God?”

How many do you know who see “life is living it to the fullest for yourself as YOU see it for yourself,” or is it “Life is living as God desires, defines, declares, and delivers me to through a repentant heart, fully trusting and receiving forgiveness, and the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

Have you ever heard it? “A man’s ingress into his own world is knowing, satisfying, and promoting himself with all due diligence”, without any consideration of the eternal purpose of God of ordination as a vessel or container of divine life and holy presence? It’s not ingress in ‘self’ but INDWELT by Resurrection Life in Christ alone!

Facts of human existence are not as Fosdick once spoke of as ‘loose types with many meanings,” but human existence was intended before time began to be habitations of Holy Presence as “temples” of a loving Lord and Savior, but many have fallen victims desiring the “Las Vegas’ residences of self-indulgence, unbelief, and fleshly rebellion”!

Can you even ‘see’ in fallen humanity the reality of “chaotic disarrangement” and “self-centered”, self-serving, cynical or godless arrangements, fleshly affirmations and loyalties, and descents into hellish, hollow, and ‘holey’ attempts at life in the flesh alone ,but wanting spiritual existence on their own terms? That’s nothing more than fragments of existence offered as one’s best but never aligning or becoming one with God’s intent! But in 2 Corinthians 4:7-15, (Is this the testimony, not simply of your existence but God’s Indwelling?),

“But we have this treasure in earthern vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed (at times), but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.”

Do you see it? Do you sense it? Have you settled it? Are you aware of it? There is the reality of one’s “best”, the “fleshly unfulfilled”, or God’s “best”, the spiritually re-born, indwelt, regenerated, Spirit-anointed, and “blessed” with the Resurrection Presence of the Living Lord, OR there is the unending evidences of the godless OR the eternal workings of Christ in the “Spirit-Man”.

Yes, there is “the sufferings of the saints” who ARE SUSTAINED BY THE SAVIOR, and who know both toughness in determination to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, and at the same time are tender followers who show others the way of Redeeming grace, purpose, and power! And though most saints are “forgotten by the world”, they live “fulfilled, blessed, contented, peaceful lives in and through Christ alone”! They are prayers, prepared, and equipped by the Word and the Spirit!

Do you comprehend “fleshly lives as containers of man’s best” or “spiritual lives birthed by the Spirit as recipients and containers and vessels of God’s best, the Living Christ, crucified, resurrected, ascended, reigning, and available to any repentant heart willing to be the temple of the Eternal Christ”?

In ‘fallen flesh” the “best” of human existence is only ‘variations’ and ‘shadows of the True’, but only ‘IN CHRIST’ is there the ‘victory over sin and death and emptiness and meaninglessness’, when only in the flesh is there the rewards of God’s enemy; but ‘IN CHRIST’ is the reaping and receiving of everlasting Life in Him! Christ-less lives are “oil-less lamps” with no ‘Light” that shines forth God’s glory.

Christ-less lives are ‘fragmented’ left-overs of ‘what could have been’ rather than Christ-Indwelt lives, fully revealing a God-ordained, and God-birthed Resurrection Presence!

Fleshly lives at the human-level “best” is only a cheap imitation of illumined, divine, resurrection presence of eternal life, eternal hope, and eternal fruit.

Free men? That’s not ‘freedom’ to do as one “damn well pleases”, but spiritual freedom in the Spirit to honor Christ alone! Only “in Christ” are men truly liberated to honor Holy God!

Most men, apart from God, arise each morning thinking, “What will really make ‘my day’ and ‘pump my flesh’ to historic levels?”, rather than, “What will honor God and exalt Christ through me to the world around me?”

A mortal man is only committed and satisfied in his self-complacency, his self-promotion, and his self- indulgence , but the “Christ-man” desires, longs for, driven by, and holds onto “honoring Christ alone, the hope of glory through me, as a vessel!”

Everything that promotes ‘flesh’, even ‘flesh at its best’, gives honor to the ‘old sin-nature’, turns a blind eye to the will, the Word, and purposes of Holy God, and is a clear exposure of one’s spiritual nakedness and his ‘egression’ willfully further away from God, and not his willful ‘ingression’ in Him by “repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ alone.”

Misspent lives apart from the presence of Christ are like ‘empty glasses or vessels’ rather than residences of Christ in them as His Holy Temple!

Useless living is ‘born in sin’ with no desire to be reconciled to God, just indifferent to His Word and will, with no desire or longing or fleshly impulse to reconciliation or understanding of His Word or anything different from ‘fleshly satisfaction’ or even a thought about ‘birthed in Christ’ through repentance and faith! Yes, millions live without any desire to be “citizens of the Kingdom of God”, living consumed in promoting ‘self’ , not understanding the rebellious attitude that is the ‘death-nail’ to eternal purpose. Personal imagination and personal intent is not divine life nor divine presence nor divine power, but simply “best of the flesh” honoring “self-made men” of temporary existence, fading fame, tainted rewards, and terrible, eternal residences apart from the God who loved them, wanted them, but lost them by their lusts, their stubbornness, indifference, and mindlessness and heartlessness to His good, acceptable, and perfect will –“best effort” or “fallen flesh” is acceptable to them, and not even the Crucified and Resurrected Christ matters to them!

It’s not even ‘how long you lived’, but “in Whom you lived”, not the “best of self-effort existence in the sands of life” but “the solid foundation” of the True Rock who is Christ alone.

Do YOU fathom, do you understand, do you comprehend lives that are nothing more than ‘helpless pieces’ on “Life’s Game-board” with no submission or open door in them to the True Author of Everlasting Life, Purpose, or Divine Moves on their ‘play-boards’ of one’s earthly existence? Apart from Jesus it’s emptiness, vainness, personal game-playing – not the unveiling and revealing and revelation of Eternal Intent!

Life ‘found’ for one’s self apart from the Savior and Lord is a life guaranteed of eternal loss and one of serious desperation and consequences, but life “FOUND” in Christ for His honor, His glory, His praise, will stand eternally before Holy God, constantly reflecting, radiating, revealing Jesus’ everlasting Presence! It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his “A Psalm of Life,” who wrote: “Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal,” but I’m not sure if he even grasped, “Life is eternal” – and it’s either ‘in your best’ or Jesus’ “Resurrection Life and Holy, Resurrected Presence”; yes, there is life that continues beyond the grave and Hell with all its demons, devil, and unbelievers, but with the “graced saints” graciously living in God’s gift of eternal life in and through Christ’s “finished work”, there IS Heaven! Yes, Jesus Only!

Any definition of ‘life’ that has no foundation under it of honoring and glorifying Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior is ‘fruitless’, even ‘hollow religions’, ‘unregenerate church members’, or ‘temples steeped with ‘hypocrites’! But Jesus IS “the Light”, and “Jesus Only” is the ONLY UNVEILING OF LIGHT within men!

Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, Promised Messiah, IS the “Life”, the “Bread of Life”, is the “Author of LIFE” and that more abundantly, IS the “gift of God” and the only door to “eternal life”, and Paul says, “To live ‘in Christ’ is to flourish, and to die ‘in Christ’ is to gain eternal Presence and an eternal home in Heaven; life apart from Christ is a ‘vapor’ that only ‘exists’, and that ‘forever’ with flesh’s author and finisher who is the devil, but ‘in Christ’ there is victorious presence that never dies, falters or fades away in insignificance, but constantly joins Heaven’s Angels in the “Hallelujah Chorus”!

Unhappy lives or even ‘happy lives’ are not “God-blessed” or “Spirit-birthed” but just Adam-seeded, sin-natured attempts at “doing one’s best” with even totally unconcerned, misinformed, or blinded allegiance to God’s purpose in their ‘creation’. Have you ever heard someone say, “The purpose of life is just be yourself to your fullest and be happy?” when God’s intent is one being through with himself, accepting God’s judgment of his/her death with Christ as his/her only hope, and rejoicing daily in His Resurrection Presence in their repentant, redeemed, reconciled to God hearts!

It was Shakespeare, in his “Macbeth”, [Act V, sc.5.1,26], who wrote: “Life…is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” Did the prophet mention the one who says, “Peace, peace, but there is no peace?”

You do understand, you do comprehend, you have evaluated the consequences of “Godless-men, nations, individuals” who ‘try’ to live with “no need of God”! Leo Tolstoy was right on target when in his writing “The Kingdom of God,” (Chapter 12), he said: “The only significance of life consists in helping to establish the kingdom of God; and this can be done only by means of the acknowledgement and profession [and I, JFF, would add ‘confession’ and ‘acceptance’] of the Truth by each one of us.”

I like what Augustine said when he spoke, “Before God can deliver us we must undeceive ourselves”! “The wages of (“my”) sin is death, but the ‘gift of God’ IS eternal life in and through Christ ONLY!” And as a result of receiving the “finished work of Christ AT THE CROSS,” resurrected to the King’s Presence, His Kingdom, and His witness in us and through us, He gives us graciously the “gift of the Holy Spirit,” and Romans 8:16 declares: “The Spirit (the Holy Spirit!) Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.”

As a result of the amazing miracle of grace and the habitation of the Risen Christ within repentant hearts, and the recipients of the Holy Spirit “bearing witness in us and through us,” do you doubt, or just never informed and discipled to be led by the Holy Spirit? “The Spirit bears witness!” Is He “bearing witness” in you and through you?

I love Oswald Chambers’ explanation of “The Witness of the Spirit” in his amazing writings entitled, “My Utmost For His Highest.” (p.218). “We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, wanting the witness before we have done what God tells us to do. “Why does not God reveal Himself to me?” He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as you won’t abandon absolutely to Him. Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself. He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses instantly to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before the reality, it would end in sentimental emotion. Immediately you transact on the Redemption, and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives the witness. As soon as you abandon reasoning and argument, God witnesses to what He has done, and we are amazed at our impertinence in having kept Him waiting. If you are in debate as to whether God can deliver from sin, either let Him do it, or tell Him He cannot. Do not quote this and that person, try Matthew 11:28, – “Come unto Me.” “COME”, if you are weary and heavy laden; “ask”, if you know you are evil. (Luke 11:13).

Chambers went on to say: (p.219), “The Spirit of God witnesses to the Redemption of our Lord, He does not witness to anything else; He cannot witness to our reason. The simplicity that comes from our common-sense decisions is apt to be mistaken for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason. If we try to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder we are in darkness and perplexity. Fling it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give the witness.”

That’s so true “IF”! “If any man be in Christ, If any man is finished with his old life, old sin-nature, and his ‘fleshly ambitions’, willing ALL old things “are passed away,” then the “new-creation man”, indwelt by Resurrection Life in Christ, is then ready to “receive the Holy Spirit” to guide, direct, empower, and overflow in you and through you with, yes, “the gifts of the Spirit,” ready to reveal a redeemed, re-born, Spirit-filled, appointed, anointed witness to the glory and honor of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

In the old American hymnal of Robert Coleman’s, published by The Broadman Press in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1933, I came across the song By Horatuis Bonar entitled “I Heard The Voice of Jesus Say.” It says:

“I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto Me and rest; Lay down, you weary one, lay down your head upon My breast.” I came to Jesus as I was, Weary, and worn, and sad; I found in Him a resting-place, And He has made me glad.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Behold I freely give The living water; thirsty one, Stoop down, and drink, and live.” I came to Jesus and I drank of that life-giving stream; my thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him.

I heard the voice of Jesus say, “I am this dark world’s light: Look unto Me, your morn shall rise, And all your days be bright.” I looked to Jesus and found in Him my Star, my Sun; And in that light of life I’ll walk Till all my journey’s done.”

Old man – “new man”; flesh – Spirit; the sinner’s man – His saint; the Undone – in Him a “finished work” complete in Christ lacking nothing; grit, grease, garbage, and gall – “in Christ” is grace, victorious virtue, “fresh springs”, and perfect “God-Likeness”; empty, insignificant, earthly dwelling of ‘human flesh’ – “in Christ” is eternal Life, Holy Presence, and All-Sufficient grace; ‘flesh-poverty? – how about “enriched in Him, heirs, sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father, co-laborers in the Savior’s eternal, redemptive work, recipients of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, blessed with “amazing assurance”, divine anointings, holy callings, the natural crucified but resurrection Life amplified, Kingdom living and resident address, Kingdom presence, Kingdom power, Kingdom privileges, and Kingdom testimonies, visions and dreams, and Holy anointings in fulfilling His good and acceptable and purposeful will, citizens of the eternal Kingdom, members of the divine Family, appointees “in Christ” to the mission of world-wide “redemption” through our testimonies of “the blood of the Lamb and His Resurrection Presence in every “born-again” life! “Rise up, O men of God!”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“WHEN MERCY IS MEANINGLESS – FATAL FORGETFULNESS”

I don’t know how you respond when you read a verse like Isaiah 27:11, but it does tell us our Lord is speaking of people who have “no understanding.” It then says, “Therefore He who made them WILL NOT HAVE MERCY ON THEM, and He who formed them will show them no favor.”

I love what Peter wrote about “mercy” as a heavenly inheritance when in I Peter 1:3 he said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” What did Peter call God’s mercy? ABUNDANT MERCY! But there are those upon whom He will have no mercy!

Why is that? It’s ‘fatal forgetfulness’ – mercy is not a ministry of God, an event of epoch proportions, they are interested in. Oh, they may at least on the surface be aware of the mercy of God, but it’s not a road they need to walk down – about like Solomon who said in I Kings 3:6, “You [God] have shown great mercy [Underline that! At least Solomon knew God’s mercy was great!] to Your servant David my father, because He walked before You in truth, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with You; You have continued this great kindness for him, and You have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.”

Solomon was saying what? “God, You’ve shown great mercy to my dad, and you were merciful giving me his throne, but as for me mercy is meaningless – merit is my ambition and I’ll earn whatever I set my mind to!” Does Solomon reflect at all on modern man today who find mercy meaningless to their existence? Look with me at Psalm 103:17-18,

“But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them.” The mercy of God is for WHO? Those who “fear Him,” to those who understand blood covenant relationship and keep it, to those who sense His commandments are to be kept! [Why do some miss ‘mercy’? “That’s salvation by works”!!]

But, sadly, many are blinded to the misery of fallen sin natures and sense no need to cry out to God for “mercy”! You’ll remember Jesus making that visit to His hometown in Mark 6:5-6 that says: “Now HE could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief…” Does that explain “mercy” as “meaningless” to some people?

Have you forgotten the Galatian dilemma? It explains tons of understanding about “when mercy is meaningless”! In Galatians 3:3 Paul asked: “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

And do you understand that meaningless mercy is not only for heathens or pagans or the self-assured – it’s for deceived masses in the borders of Christendom who substitute repentance for the rigors of personal disciplines and pats on the back of their self-sufficiency!

But…it’s not what YOU achieve but what you receive as a gift from God! It’s not what YOU earn but what you receive by His grace. It’s not a portrait you paint of yourself but the precious privileges God grants to you! It’s not “trying harder” – it’s trusting God more and more.

Deaf ears, blinded eyes, clouded senses to the nearness of God in a man’s life assign him to a meaningless existence weighed against the eternal purpose of God for one’s life. But put that up next to the story of Joseph! In Genesis 41:50-51 Joseph named his firstborn Manesseh and said: “It is because God has made me FORGET all my troubles and all my father’s household.”

But some men manufacture forgetfulness of God, establishing in their minds and hearts that “mercy is meaningless”, but God mercifully blots out our troubles, blessing us with the forgetfulness of man-made miseries and builds in us Heaven’s blessings!!

Men manufacture forgetfulness of God like a Pharoah who says in his mind and heart: Exodus 5:2, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.” Men easily obliterate the memory of God because they’re bound to the god of self-rule, self-adulation, self-importance, and are comfortable in their state of godlessness and their paralysis of self-analysis!!

But God remains the same! Acts 17:24-31 says: “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

In fact, in Matthew 5:45 Jesus said of Father-God: “…for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous…”

Listen to A.W. Pink in his “The Attributes of God – The Mercy of God”: “…let us note how vain is the presumptuous hope of the wicked, who, notwithstanding their continued defiance of God, nevertheless count upon His being merciful to them. How many there are who say, ‘I do not believe that God will ever cast me into Hell; He is too merciful.’ Such a hope is a viper, which if cherished in their bosoms will sting them to death. God is a God of justice as well as mercy, and He has expressly declared that He will “by no means clear the guilty,” [Exodus 34:7]. Yes, He has said, “The wicked shall be turned into Hell, all the nations that forget God.”

The willful pride of blindness to God’s mercy, the fleshly forgetfulness of God’s graciousness and kindness, the soulish settling on “me, my, or mine”, deludes one into darkened, defeated, devilish, disillusioned misery with eyes, ears, minds, and hearts off of mercy, God’s mercy, into a state of despair, in which one is comfortable because he’s in control!

There are those who even unashamedly seek to defame, deny, disgrace, and seek to delude the ‘infinite efficacy of the Savior’s atoning death.’ IT WASN’T FOR THEM JESUS SUFFERED, BLED, AND DIED ON THE CROSS! Yet II Corinthians 5:15 clearly tells us: “and He [Jesus] DIED FOR ALL, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

I was reading Spurgeon recently when he told of a man who decided to keep a ‘tame’ leopard in his home. The man had nursed it from a cub and allowed free roam in the house. The man was sleeping soundly one day when the growing cub licked his hand and it licked a cut where the blood was still seeping…and all the jungle instincts kicked in and the beast began to feed…awakened, the man knew he was in trouble – a life or death situation was before him and he knew it was his life or the leopard’s life.

There was a loaded pistol beside the couch and without hesitation he aimed it at the hungry leopard and killed it!….Whether you believe it or not the leopard of sin, rebellion, disobedience, unbelief, is out to drain your blood – give up your precious leopard of lust, livid sin, furious fleshly instincts – leave them at the Cross where Jesus willingly and gladly took them and yourself upon Himself and willingly laid down His Life for you!! Jesus killed your leopard sin-nature!

I know it’s so hard for prideful men and women to admit the bankruptcy of their births; it is so hard for some and so easy for others to acknowledge high treason against Holy God. In fallen man there are no glamorous genes or heavenly glories or personal worthiness that merits the favor of God!

There’s an amazing confession of King David in 2 Samuel 7:18-22! Hear it:

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: ‘Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of man, O Lord God? Now what more can David say to You? For You, Lord God, know Your servant. For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these things, to make Your servant know them. Therefore, You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears.” I ask you: ARE YOU LISTENING TO GOD?

And before you came to faith in Christ, I’m sure you wondered like David: “Who am I, O Lord God, that You’ve shown me YOUR MERCY?” Without faith in God, mercy is meaningless to many. Without Holy Spirit conviction, mercy is a futile term. Without the historic crucifixion of Christ, mercy is an insignificant, unimportant eternal truth.

But for those who know “the narrow way that leads to life,” they understand deliverance from the pit of destruction; they are aware of God’s lifting them up out of the miry clay of sin and deceitfulness; they clearly grasp freedom from a prison of sin, selfishness, and self-importance apart from God; they rejoice that God’s mercy is His eternal heavenly light, leading them out of the darkness of Egyptian bondage of sin, separation from His “Holy Land,” and the silence of the lightning bolts of eternal revelation and purpose. They know God has shown them HIS MERCY!

But still, for me, there rages an ever-building question, repeated often: “Why, for some, is mercy so meaningless? Why does intentional forgetfulness of God’s mercy dominate so many lives?” WHY?

FIRST, BECAUSE SOME WILL ACCEPT MERCY IF THERE’S NO CALL UPON THEIR LIVES TO WALK MERCIFULLY WITH OTHERS! In Micah 6:8 there is an illuminating verse that reveals why some miss God’s mercy. It says: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

How does one ‘do justice’ when he/she could care less about others? How does one ‘love mercy’ when he/she is so merciless toward others? How does one ‘walk humbly with God’ when they’re so proud and so self-sufficient, void of the need of God to be God in and over their lives?

Come to Matthew 18:23-35 which is such an eye-opening, heart-convicting story that calls for examination of ourselves, yes, testing ourselves to see if we’re truly of the Faith and the faithful: “Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. [Before inflation that was about $18 million dollars!!].But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had,, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave the debt. But [THEN] that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; [about $18] and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’ So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt [$18 million!!] because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And his master was angry; and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

What does Luke 1:50 tell us? “And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.” It’s why in 2 Corinthians 5:11 Paul wrote: “Therefore knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men…” Proverbs 1:7 tells us: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge…”

Come to Proverbs 14:26-27. “In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.” Beside this passage I wrote in my Bible the following statement – I don’t remember if I wrote it or it was a quote, but the sentence says: “Even what one likes, that is not necessarily evil, can become an entrapment of death, like cheese in a mouse-trap.”

Here is Jesus’ amazing challenge to those who believe or border on mercy being meaningless for them and hold no fear of God – Matthew 11:25-28 – At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

SECOND, FOR SOME MERCY IS MEANINGLESS BECAUSE THEY DENY SIN, CONCEAL SIN, EXCUSE SIN, OR ACCEPTING THEIR SINFUL STATE BEFORE HOLY GOD AS NORMAL OR NATURAL! But look at Proverbs 28:13!! “He who conceals his sins [transgressions, wrongs, violations of God’s laws] does not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes and renounces his sin finds mercy.”

Do you remember John’s word in I John 1:7? “But if we walk in the light as He [Jesus] is in the light…the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.” I love what Oswald Chambers said about the truly conscious awareness of sin in a person: “The evidence that I am delivered from sin is that I know the real nature of sin in me.”

Concealment is a covering and convincing of one’s self that sin may be a problem for others but not for the deceived mind. And because of that there are God-sent, God-mandated, even God-initiated consequences in one’s life – like an empty prosperity that never satisfies, like a barking, biting dog in the inner man that never quits or quiets down, like a rich man who loses all his monies because the bank within him is bankrupt, like a criminal who believes he’ll never be caught but lives every moment expecting arrest and final judgment!

I love the call of God on our lives as true believers as expressed by Paul in Galatians 6:1-2 [NIV], “Brothers, if a man is trapped in some sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself; you may also be tempted…Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way fulfill the law of Christ.”

Listen to John Piper in his book, “A Godward Life,” [p.77], “Don’t be muzzled by the comment that you can’t force your religion or morality on others. You are not forcing it; you are commending it for serious consideration. Declaring and persuading are not forcing. Commending is not coercion. The fact is this: Everybody’s idea about what should be done is guided by some kind of prior commitment. Secularists as well as Christians have a world-view that governs their opinions. Every policy suggestion is rooted in view of how things should be.”

Exposing sin is merciful. Exposing sin is an act of grace. Challenging sinners with the claims of Christ builds foundations of possible super-structures in the new lives He can birth and bless!

THIRD, FOR SOME MERCY IS MEANINGLESS BECAUSE THEY’VE NEVER BEEN CONFRONTED WITH GOD’S CLAIMS OF JUDGMENT. I want you to come to Nahum 1:2-8. “God is jealous, and the Lord avenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies; The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon wilts. The mountains quake before Him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at His presence, Yes, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him. But with an overflowing flood He will make an utter end of its place, and darkness will pursue His enemies.”

Two things that are easily discernible here: 1) God is ‘slow to anger,’ and 2) God “will not at all acquit the wicked.”

In Spurgeon’s Sermons, his “Memorial Library,” the great English preacher preached on the verses we just read. Hear Spurgeon: “God ‘will not acquit the wicked.’ Let me unfold this, first of all; and then let me, after that, endeavor to trace it also to its source: God ‘will not acquit the wicked.’ How do I prove this? I prove it by this. Never once has God pardoned our unpunished sin; not in all the years of the Most High, not in all the days of His right hand, has He once blotted out sin without punishment. What say you, were not those in heaven pardoned? Are there not many transgressors pardoned, and do they not escape without punishment? Has He not said, ‘I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and like a thick cloud your iniquities?’ Yes, true, most true, and yet my assertion is true also – not one of all those sins that have been pardoned were pardoned without punishment! Do you ask me why and how such a thing as that can be the truth? I point you to a dreadful sight on Calvary; the punishment which fell not on the forgiven sinner fell there. The cloud of justice was charged with fiery hell; the sinner deserved it; it fell on him; but, for all that, it fell, and spent its fury; it fell there, in that great reservoir of misery; it fell into the Savior’s heart…It is Jesus suffering all the plagues of sin. Sin is still punished, though the sinner is delivered.”

It was Orin Philip Gifford who said: “You may juggle human laws, you may fool with human courts, but there is a judgment to come, and from it there is no appeal.” I pray you find God’s court of mercy, because in His court of judgment, Daniel 5:27 says: “You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting.”

I want you to be confronted with God’s claim of judgment. In Jeremiah 5:3 Jeremiah asked the Lord, “O Lord, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return.”

Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 6:10, “To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; they have no delight in it.”

Do you see it? Do you hear it? Do you sense it right now for yourself? GOD DESIRES TO GIVE YOU “THE SURE MERCIES OF DAVID.” [Acts 13:34]. SURE MERCIES ARE REDEMPTIVE – God bought you out of slavery to sin that you might be servants of Christ.

SURE MERCIES ARE REGENERATIVE – God takes you out of spiritual death unto His ETERNAL LIFE.

SURE MERCIES ARE REFLECTIVE – we see no longer a man in his bondage and brokenness – we see Christ in His fullness.

SURE MERCIES ARE RESPONSIVE – in Jeremiah 29:11 God says: “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.”

Hear me! Jeremiah 31:3 says: “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

And I say to you: Sense His tug, surrender to His Sovereignty, and side with our Savior and Lord!!

You may have denied it – but today is the day to side with Sovereign Mercy! It was Edwin Hubbell Chapin who wrote: “Mercy among the virtues is like the moon among the stars – not so sparkling and vivid as many, but dispensing a calm radiance that hallows the whole. It is the bow that rests upon the bosom of the cloud when the storm is past. It is the light that hovers above the judgment seat.”

This is why David came to say in Psalm 23:6, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

In the old Broadman Hymnal there is a song simply entitled “Calvary”. It says: “On Calvary’s brow my Savior died, It was there my Lord was crucified; it was on the cross He bled for me, and purchased there my pardon free…

‘Mid rending rocks and darkening skies My Savior bows His head and dies; The opening veil reveals the way To heaven’s joys and endless day…

O Jesus, Lord, how can it be That You should give Your life for me, To bear the cross and agony In that dread hour on Calvary!

O Calvary! Dark Calvary! Where Jesus shed His blood for me; O Calvary! Blest Calvary! It was there my Savior died for me!”

Do you grasp it when to you mercy has been meaningless? If you were the only person to have ever lived – past, present, future – what Jesus did 2000 years ago At Calvary, He did it just for you!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the never-ending care of God for each of us!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the measure of God’s forgiving, never-ending love!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the reality of God’s remedy of a godless life!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the explanation of God’s possession of the land of our souls and spirits!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is not man trying harder but hearing Christ say: “It is finished” as He died on Calvary’s cross!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the voice of God saying to a praying man: “Your prayer has been heard” [Luke 1:13].

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the stepping stone into the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the open door into Holy Presence!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is God’s remedy for a man paralyzed by his past!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the healing grace of spiritual amnesia, fleshly blindness, and a darkened heart!

Mercy is not meaningless – mercy is the divine healing of a hurtful, harmful, hideous past!

In closing this teaching, please come to Luke 18:9-14, And He []Jesus] spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“FAITHFULNESS OR DISTRESSING DISGUISES?”

I don’t know how you’ll respond to the title of this chapter because only you really know the secret chambers of your heart and mind. Why? Appearances can be deceiving; outward ‘show’ can be simply fictitious, uneventful heart-change, or a desire not to be exposed for what one really believes.

It was C.S. Lewis who once wrote: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because of it I see everything else.”

But then in a real world of life and death, success or failure, blessing and disappointment, true examples and pretenders, wise or blinded, divine fruit or diseased or dis-eased citizens, people will either “press in to Him” or fall away by their own free will.

Don’t you find it interesting, convicting, and challenging, that in Revelation 2:10b, Jesus tells us: “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”? Is it possible that some begin the walk of faith, are faithful for a period of time in what they know, and then walk away? “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Are bad turns made away from the highway of holiness that lead to ‘dead-end’ places? Does disappointment in one’s self or others mean, “I choose to be disappointed in Jesus also”? If a ‘Texas dust storm’ can restrict your vision, can a believer’s storm of doubt cast dark shadows on one’s devotion and allegiance and all-out surrender to the King of kings and Lord of lords?

Oh, and hear me – can a preacher-pastor’s ‘falling away’ be the ‘straw that breaks the camel’s back,’ and you decide, “I want nothing more to do with ‘phony Christianity’?

In Ezekial 18:23 God spoke: “Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?” And whatever is opposite of the Word and the will of God and His ways is determined wicked and brings a judgment of death – and God says, “turn from YOUR ways and live!” He went on to say in verses 31-32, “Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord. “Therefore turn and live!”

I know, and I assume you also know, that there are “distressing disguises”! It’s so evident by spiritual blindness, unholy hearing, willful rejection, painful indifference, yes, even deeply-wounded scars from spiritual events of the past that one holds on to, residence in a jail of unforgiveness because someone, somehow, somewhere led them down, they believe, to a place, a practice, a persuasion that didn’t line up with the desire for a ‘godly lifestyle’ but an ungodly lifestyle even when the Word declared and still declares ‘separate from sinners.’

I’m really sorry, but I do not see projected in God’s Holy Word ‘comfort’ or ‘comfortable’ or ‘pleasurable for the flesh’ in a world where Holy Truth is seen as needed to be suppressed and certainly worthless in schools, universities, or any governmental institution locally or nationally!

How dangerous is it for men of all standings, places, ranks, abilities or inabilities, education or the absence of it, to find themselves in a place they don’t feel comfortable, identifying themselves as men unreservedly sold out to Christ so they ignore the church Jesus loved and gave Himself for, going the way of “silent allegiance” when Jesus instructs us to identify ourselves as His true followers and devoted to build up, strengthen, and, yes, laboring for His church-body’s success?!? “Distressing disguises”? Are you ever confronted by those who once have known Truth and then, all of a sudden, because of multitudinous fleshly crises, the door was opened to cast doubt on the Word of God? Sadly, I’ve known men over the years who so devotedly shared God’s Holy Word, but crisis came from business, family, spiritual family, resulting in undefinable criticism, and like a wounded ‘puppy’ they crawl away from upholding Truth!

“Distressing disguises”? Are you aware of those who have been ingrained with partial truth and they profess “Peace, peace! When there is no peace”? [Jeremiah 6:14]. It’s as if the ‘gospel’ they held onto was ‘peaches and cream’ without Jesus’ word, “In the world you will have tribulation!” I would urge every disciple over the next three to four months to devote himself/herself to the four gospels and determine if Jesus ever talked about a ‘trouble-free walk of discipleship!’

“Distressing disguises”? Do you remember in the Gospel of John Jesus telling the scribes and Pharisees that denying Him was the result that they never knew the One True and Living God? In John 8:13 they told Jesus, “You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true.” In the eighth chapter alone Jesus told the ‘religious crowd’ about 4 times, similar to verse 21, “I am going away, and you will seek Me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go you cannot come.”

“Distressing disguises”? I hope it doesn’t seriously offend you if I tell you that there are “sticklers” for legalism apart from God’s grace, mercy, and love! On the tablet of stone God carved out and imprinted Ten Commandments that exposed men as true ‘law-breakers’ in need of mercy, grace, and love, but deception blinded men to their true need of God because they graded by the ‘curve’, wanting acceptance by self-effort rather than acceptance through the finished work of Christ at the Cross, with God then writing His love, His law, and His liberty on a redeemed heart! How about your devotion? Is it by law or the very love of Calvary’s Cross and the reality of Jesus’ empty tomb and His present residence in Heaven at the throne of God interceding in your behalf?

“Distressing disguises”? Have you not wrapped your mind around the fact that fallen humanity is fully absorbed in the mind-set and heart-absorption of materialism, and the more one has, the nearer he/she is to God? Yet, our Lord and Savior and True Master of all of life has said, Matthew 16:24-26, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life [for himself] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

“Distressing disguises”? You’ll remember as Moses was leading Israel to the Promised Land there came a time when he went up on the mountain for an alone-time with God that became a long time – and his people became anxious.

They went to Aaron and told him, Exodus 32:1, “Up, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what is become of him.” Verse 4 tells us he, Aaron, received golden earrings from the people, and fashioned it with a graving tool into “a molten calf”; and the people said, “This be our gods who brought us out of the land of Egypt.” Then the end of verse 6 then tells us, “and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.” God then told Moses, “your people, Moses, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them.”

Has anything changed? What is it that has become your own ‘distressing disguise’? But reality also speaks so loud and clear as when Samuel said in I Samuel 10:19, about some in Israel, “And you have this day rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your calamities and your distresses; and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us!’”

At least David had the sane attitude of brokenness, repentance, and turning from that which scarred him and others so deeply. In Psalm 25:17-22 he prayed: “The troubles of my heart have enlarged; bring me out of my distresses! Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins. Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. Keep my soul, and deliver me; let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for You.”

I’m sure you’ll remember Paul challenging the church at Corinth when he said in 2 Corinthians 6:12, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.” And he paid a heavy price for standing in truth! He said to the Corinthians and us in 2 Corinthians 12:10, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. For when I am weak, then I am strong [in Him].”

Paul further testified in 2 Corinthians 13:4-6, “For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.”

In Christ you are made to soar, not to sink; you’re a new creation in Him to live victoriously, not defeated; in Him you overcome the devil himself and his temptations, not swallowed up in a sea of denial of truth or ocean depths of drownings in deceptions opposite of Holy Revelation, Eternal Truth, and His ever-abiding presence in you!

“Distressing disguises”? I picked up again recently Mark Levin’s book entitled “LIBERTY OR TYRANNY,” sub-titled “A Conservative Manifesto.” I read it several years ago, but on the back cover of his book he had a statement of Abraham Lincoln, spoken in 1864. Lincoln said, “We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men’s labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names – liberty and tyranny.”

Do you remember the unbelieving Pharoah of Egypt? In Exodus 5:1-2 we read, “Afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharoah, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness.’ And Pharoah said, ‘Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.’”

It’s certainly not always true, but it seems, for some like Pharoah, that ‘wealth’ or ‘riches’ lead an awful lot of people to bow down in idolatry and not live in worship, praise, or thanksgiving, with adoration and submission and loyalty to the God who laid down His Son at the Cross! “That’s not MY calling!” – have you ever heard that? “I serve the Lord who blesses me,” yet the Lord God Almighty, Emmanuel (“God With Us”), Savior and Lord, Master of all of life said: Deuteronomy 30:14-20, “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, THAT YOU MAY DO IT. [“Why, YOU legalistic God! Who would want to submit to Your Word, Your will, Your way? Not me!”] See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God WILL BLESS YOU in the land which you go to possess. BUT IF YOUR HEART TURNS AWAY SO THAT YOU DO NOT HEAR [and some choose, ‘I don’t want to hear what God says!’] and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today THAT YOU SHALL SURELY PERISH; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

[And just as a reminder if you have questions about what you just read and its spiritual relevance to New Testament disciples, John 8:56 says, Jesus speaking: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”]

“Distressing disguises”! I pastored a church many years ago in which a very visible leader became involved in an adulterous relationship with another church member. In my office he denied it and assured me it never happened.

A few weeks later I received a late night call to hurry to a particular home where the police had already arrived. The church leader was in the home of his adulteress mate with an irate, almost uncontrollable husband.

The church leader had lied and then resigned his visible office in the church. I advised our church officers or deacons that this situation required church discipline, but they all said, “He’s our friend, and it won’t happen. He deserved better than having to care for a sick wife!” Within a short time, God moved our leadership role as pastor elsewhere!

When open sin is ignored it manifests itself in abundant rebellion to God’s Holy Word – I heard years later that adultery, broken marriages, and a suffering church had about died, until several pastors later God placed His man in a strong place of leadership – now, the church prospers spiritually.

“Distressing disguises”! Consider it, examine it, reflect upon it – what’s the result of half-hearted allegiance to a local body of believers, yes, the local body Jesus suffered, bled, and died for? What’s the result of the negligence of whole-heartedness; what’s the result of divided allegiance; what’s the outcome of ‘profession’ apart from possession of the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ; what’s the ‘fruit’ of a ‘couldn’t-care-less’ attitude concerning a needy fellowship of believers?

Is it really possible that believers feel no sympathy for, devotion to, or commitment of their lives to a needy church fellowship or even comfort and healing grace to despondent saints, a battered pastor, or, yes, immature church members? But they find ‘their’ place where the crowd gathers, where the smiles abound, but in far too many living a “laid-down life” is omitted! It’s even happening today that ‘forsaking of the assembling of yourselves together’ is like an old ‘wives’ tale’ – “we don’t need the church assembling”!

I was reading Spurgeon recently. [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.15, pps. 78-79]. He said: “Is it so, that because you are yourself a member of a flourishing church, and because you enjoy all sorts of Christian privileges, you therefore harden your heart concerning dying churches and desponding saints? Do you imagine that the body can be sick, and yet you as a member of it will not suffer? I tell you, if the church of God goes aside it will be to your injury;’ if the truth of God be not preached you will be a loser; if Christian life be not vigorous you will be weakened.”…(p.80), “If you are not creating a holy warmth, the chill of sin is freezing you.”

‘Ice-berg city’ – the gathering of chilled believers! ‘Ice-berg city’ – the union place of divided allegiances! ‘Ice-berg city’ – the creeping sickness of unconscious allegiance to self-birthing of paralyzed infants who don’t know where they came from or where they are headed. The Lord Jesus said in Revelation 3:11, “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.” [It would be worth your effort and time to research about “your crown.”]

“Distressing disguises”! It was so interesting and challenging recently when in Luke 16:1-13 I read about the parable of the unjust steward. Read carefully and consider your walk as a professing disciple of Christ! Jesus also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods.

So he called him and said to him, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.” [I pray you realize “stewardship” has much more to do in your walk than what you “give” in money!]

Then the steward said within himself, “What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.” So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’

So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail, they may receive you into an everlasting home.

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Is Jesus teaching us about faithfulness in ‘little things’? Is He teaching us about money and its blessing or curse? Is He informing us about faithfulness in what belongs to another man? But now, let’s transition from “distressing disguises” to “FAITHFULNESS”! We’ve just witnessed Jesus talking about “faithfulness” in three ways. Is there more in His precious and powerful Word we should discern and apply?

It’s not difficult to grasp or understand or comprehend the subject of “faithfulness” – the battle comes when faith and faithfulness must be exercised and YOU must discern for yourself, ‘a walk of fleshly sight and its desires OR a walk of faith and faithfulness to honor the God of the Cross and the empty tomb!

I do not know or understand how a person reads or hears read Ephesians 2:4-8, 12-13, and determines to walk away from saving grace! It says: “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God…Verses 12-13, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH AND BY FAITH ALONE! That’s what you just read!

WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH! Examine Romans 3:19-26 very, very carefully: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Do you remember the lame man outside the temple asking alms as Peter and John were about to go in? Follow Acts 3:6-16, 19-20, 23, 26: Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”

And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them – walking, leaping, and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God.

Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: ‘Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pontius Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.

But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know.

Verses 19-20, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before..

Verse 23, And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people… Verse 26, To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”

WE ARE TO CONTINUE IN THE FAITH. In Acts 14:21-22 Paul was endeavoring to build a solid foundation in new disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. It says: “And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.”

WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND, RECEIVE, WALK IN THE WALK OF OUR HEART, MIND, SOUL, AND SPIRIT PURIFICATION BY FAITH. Acts 15:6-9 says: Now the apostles 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, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”

WE ARE TO WALK IN THE PEACEFUL REST OF FAITH LIKE ABRAHAM. In Romans 4:1-8 we read of the faith of faithful Abraham: “What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,

Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”

WE ARE TO BE EMPOWERED BY FAITH – NOT IN THE EARTHLY WISDOM OF MEN. I Corinthians 2:4-5 instructs us: Paul speaking, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

WE ARE TO BE AT PEACE IN OURSELVES BECAUSE OF OUR FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT THE CROSS. Galatians 2:20 illumines our minds and hearts as Paul tells us: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Verse 21, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

WE ARE TO BE DILIGENT TO THE END BECAUSE OF OUR INHERITANCE OF GOD”S PROMISES. In Hebrews 6:11-12 we see our calling as true believers: “And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

WE ARE TO BE WELL-TRAINED, PERSONALLY DISCIPLINED, AS A TRUE SOLDIER IN GOD’S ARMY, NOT GIVEN AN ‘AWOL’ SPIRIT, BUT DEVOTED TO HIM AND THE CHURCH JESUS LOVED AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR. Paul wrote young Timothy as a wise spiritual father, 2 Timothy 2:1-4, “You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.”

Earlier, in I Timothy 6:12, he told Timothy, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

You do understand that we serve a God and Savior who is so ever faithful to us! In Lamentations 3:22-27 Jeremiah shared both a broken heart because of Israel’s sin but also a peaceful heart and soul because He knew the faithfulness of God’s compassion:

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: GREAT IS YOUR FAITHFULNESS!! ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘Therefore I hope in Him!’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth.”

And I have no doubts that this is why Isaiah encourages us in Isaiah 25:1 because he knew God’s faithfulness: “O Lord, You are my God. I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things; Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.”

Because of our Lord’s faithfulness, His people sprout and bear His fruitfulness! Because of our Lord’s faithfulness to us, our faithfulness to Him is not to be a probability but a sure certainty! Because of our Lord’s faithfulness, we don’t enlist for a seat in a church pew but a place in the front-line of a holy war! Because of our Lord’s faithfulness, we’re not to be inventers of simply religious activities but fully surrendered lives available to His presence, power, and promises to be expressed through our available lives!

It was the old “The Defender” who had this quote: “Faith is dead to doubt, dumb to discouragement, blind to impossibilities.” How true!

Off-key lives are invaded by the “Master-Tuner” and discords vanish and perfect harmonies erupt! When repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross finds a permanent home, empty barrels become the overflowing presence of His never-ending LIFE!!

Faithfulness is not a philosophy but Divine Presence, holy certainty, continual blessing, and a sacred marriage of eternal bliss!

Faithfulness is the Shining Sonlight of the resident Christ within, the evidence of God’s Holy Presence, and the certainty of the Holy Spirit’s fulfilling ministry in sons and daughters of faith.

It was B.B. McKinney who wrote the old hymn, “Have Faith In God.” “Have faith in God when your pathway is lonely, He sees and knows all the way you have trod; Never alone are the least of His children; Have faith in God, have faith in God.

Have faith in God when your prayers are unanswered, Your earnest plea He will never forget; Wait on the Lord, trust His Word and be patient; Have faith in God, He’ll answer yet.

Have faith in God in your pain and your sorrow, His heart is touched with your grief and despair; Cast all your cares and your burdens upon Him, and leave them there, oh, leave them there.

Have faith in God though all else fail about you; Have faith in God, He provides for His own; He cannot fail though all kingdoms perish, He rules, He reigns upon His throne.” AMEN?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

“CONSIDERING A WORLD OF ABSURDITIES”

When individuals go through a God-created, God-ordained, and a God-sustained world without any consideration of His intent, desires, and pleasures, they void from their lives the awesome discovery of God-blessed lives. Without hesitation, a ‘God-less world’ is ‘a world of absurdities’!

An ‘absurdity’? The ‘Random House Collegiate Dictionary’ of 1975 defines it as “contrary to all reason, or common sense, illogical, ridiculous, untrue; absurd, ridiculous, preposterous, inconsistent with reason or common sense.” I then liked the dictionary telling me ‘preposterous’ “implies an amazing extreme of foolishness.”

That definition may be why the Holy Word of God tells us in Psalm 14:1, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”

You do understand that highly distinctive people you meet in your lifetime can be superbly blessed people who look inward to themselves and their upbringing with no consideration at all of God’s divine intent or eternal purpose for His reason, desire, intent, or purpose for their existence – they just ‘journey’ in love with who they are and no consideration of “WHO” God IS! They ‘journey’ void of the awesome treasure of being “reconciled to Holy God”!

Just as sad is the person who acknowledges “God is” but has no intention of giving Him His desired place in their hearts and lives, content to make “my way in my world by my personal choice of ‘god unto myself’”!

A little more than two thousand years ago Holy God used strong, influential, political and religious figures of the day, powerful men, to bring about the awesome historical reality of the crucifixion of His Son, the Promised Messiah, not even understanding that they were ushering in His eternal plan of “blood redemption.”

Here’s God’s eternal heart: John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him [trusts in, relies upon, adheres to] should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Superbly blessed people, endowed by God with certain inalienable rights, often “choose” in moral stupidity, to go their own way with no concern for the awesome love of God and His eternal purpose in and through His Son and the only Savior from sin and death! Multitudes turn blind eyes and deaf ears to His unchanging love and awesome sacrifice choosing recklessly to go their own way void of eternal intent and purpose.

Selfish utilization of divine intent is the “door-closer” to eternal intent of heavenly blessing! When Paul wrote Ephesians 2:10 he had been sovereignly blessed with the eternal awareness that he existed in the divine plan through the heavenly door of Resurrection Life, Resurrection power, and Resurrection purpose and intent: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Unselfish living is the “door-opener” to dynamic living of a life honoring the reality of the “Indwelling Christ”! It’s that “sentence of death daily that the Resurrected Christ may be manifested in mortal flesh.” There is not a redeemed person living void of eternal intent – every new-born believer has been “gifted” by the Holy Spirit, yes, in some dramatic way, to honor and glorify the Indwelling Christ as they willfully choose to express His love and prove His power.

In 2 Timothy 1:9-11 Paul testified about ‘the gospel according to the power of God’ that He “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, and apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.”

It should be so very clear to you that every disciple has a true, distinct, God-honoring call through Christ Jesus, their Savior, Lord, Master, and Guide to the Father’s glory. I want to major on two things in this teaching: First, Our Calling, and Second, Our Commission.

First, Our Calling. Did we just read in 2 Timothy 1: 9, that ‘the gospel according to the power of God’ is that He “saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,” which tells us of Creation, the Fall, and God’s determination of the need of “the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.”

How clear do you find 2 Timothy 1:10 about “God’s own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus BEFORE TIME BEGAN”, “now revealed (clearly) by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, WHO HAS ABOLISHED DEATH AND BROUGHT LIFE AND IMMORTALITY TO LIGHT THROUGH THE GOSPEL,” opening the Door to:

• Following Christ as Lord, Savior, and Master over our earthly existence, transforming fleshly life into Heavenly Presence! “Christ in you the hope of glory”! What did Jesus say to His first and all disciples after them? “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” When the Savior and Lord of life calls you it is the calling of hearing, submitting, and following His Sovereign leadership – a new door opened to touch the world around you with His love, grace, and mercy! We extend His life, express His love, and offer His power to transform others!

Paul said Christ “abolished (spiritual) death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” and that ‘life and immortality through the gospel’ births disciples submitted to His Lordship and His eternal purpose, “I came to seek and to save that which is lost,” which results in

• Disciples who worship Him and submit to His Lordship and leadership! “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ but you do not do what I say?” Worship apart from submission? Worship apart from doing what He says? Worship apart from yieldedness to the divine intent of expressing His love, sharing His power, and expressing His eternal desire to reconcile all men to Himself?
• Are YOU the tree “planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither; and does what prospers and honors His Master, Lord, and Savior”?
• Examine “the fields” around you! In John 4:34-38 Jesus said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”
• Be ready, be prepared for His coming to you and for you! I often wonder if any consider regularly as they arise, “This may be my final day, hour, or breath. Am I ready to meet my Lord and Savior? Have I fulfilled all He asked of Me?” I tell you: This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it.” Gladness or grief? Gladness or sorrow over His unfulfilled desires for your life, walk, and witness? Gladness in obedience or sadness in your failure to fulfill His calling?

SECOND, CONSIDER A WORLD OF ABSURDITIES! Did I begin this teaching emphasizing ‘a godless-world is a world of absurdities’? I said, “When individuals go through a God-created, God-ordained, and a God-sustained world without any consideration of His desires, His intent, or His pleasures, they void from their lives the awesome discovery of God-blessed lives”!

They ‘breathe’, and have no appreciation of God’s blessing – breath to them is ‘natural’, not super-natural, human without any consideration of divine intent, one’s fleshly ‘best’ without even a thought of eternal purpose, divine will, or sovereign significance!

• Consider a world of absurdities that there is willful sinfulness and no recompense! Have you never heard Romans 6:23? “For the wages of sin is death…”!

What did the Apostle Peter write in 2 Peter 2:1-22? But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked

(for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) – then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority.

They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption, and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime.

They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.

They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and, ‘a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’.”

Sin without recompense? That’s destructive heresy! Sin and no penalty? That’s the devil’s lie and the sinner’s reward! Sin and no judgment? That’s the destructive way of denying the word of truth and blaspheming the very Name of Christ! Sin and no consequences? Paul said under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

• Consider a world of ‘profession’ but no possession. Our Lord and Savior declared in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”

A profession but no possession! A talk but no walk of true faithfulness and submission. A song but the wrong writer, wrong theme, and wrong intent, which is ‘pumping flesh’ and strangling the Spirit! Though dressed like a sheep, they walk inwardly as ravenous wolves! That’s ‘planked eyes’ that cannot see revealed Truth! That’s lives hearing the sayings of Jesus but never does them because their ‘house of faith’ has no true foundation, and when the floods come and the winds blow and beat on that ‘empty house’ of professed faith, it falls – and great and sad and eternally lives with its reward: kinship with the devil and his demons and a condemned world of faithless people! Jesus will say, “I called, but you refused; I implored, but you ignored the call of the laid-down life; I entreated, but you retreated into your own spiritual world of ‘make-believe’ when I invited you to heaven on earth!”

• Consider a world of ‘claimed allegiances’ but with no responsibilities, accountabilities, or true devotion! To Titus Paul wrote in Titus 1:10-16, “For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.
• One of them, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. THEY PROFESS TO KNOW GOD, BUT IN WORKS THEY DENY HIM, BEING ABOMINABLE, DISOBEDIENT, AND DISQUALIFLED FOR EVERY GOOD WORK.”

Profession is not possession! This is why in 1 Corinthians 1:1-3 Paul declared: “Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ THROUGH the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are SANCTIFIED IN CHRIST JESUS, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Called to be saints? That means “set apart” by God from enmity against God in the flesh to oneness in Him in the Spirit through the sacrificial death and resurrection of God’s Son and our Savior by repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s finished work at the Cross!

But, sadly, some have been deceived by the powers of darkness, that they cannot but sin until they get to Heaven one day when Jesus said, “Go and sin no more”!

I’m not surprised at all that Paul had to expose those who taught opposite of the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, yes, denying the ‘doctrine which accords with godliness’, saying that they are ‘proud, knowing nothing, even believing ‘that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.’ [1 Timothy 6:3-13!].

Before Christ – alienated from God; In Christ – united with God! Before Christ – enemies of God; In Christ – one with God! Before Christ – owned, controlled, dictated to by the powers of darkness; In Christ – transformed into sons and daughters of the Holy Family of God!

Paul closed out his writing to Timothy saying in 1 Timothy 6:20, “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is called knowledge – by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.”

Some live by ‘grit’ apart from grace and receive an unbeliever’s reward rather than “blessed in and through Christ alone”! Sainthood is a life lived in continual gratitude to Holy God for His amazing love and awesome grace!

CHAPTER NINETEEN

“THE DIVINE MIRACLE OF A TRANSFORMED MIND”

I was recently reading a new book by pastor-friend, Jim Hylton, entitled “Being At Ease”, subtitled Thinking At Ease – Lessening Disease. It is a powerful, challenging, encouraging, informative read that every disciple of Christ ought to read. My son, Scott, bought the book for me and had Jim sign it with “To Farrell a special friend!” Jim Hylton, with a scripture reference, Luke 12:32, then shared Jesus speaking, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

I’ve often wondered how many ‘pulpit pastors’ have majored on the reality of “kingdom living” through “The Divine Miracle of a Transformed Life”! Are you familiar with Romans 12:2 where Paul challenged the Roman disciples and us saying, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be [‘being’] transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

It was after the Bruce Jenner – Caitlyn Jenner diabolical disaster that Sue and I heard a psychiatrist, Dr. Paul R. McHugh, speaking about Jenner, and spoke of “the disorder of assumption” – and I’ve often wondered about how many so-called ‘Christians’ who are “pretenders” having never experienced, lived by, or taught the truth of “The Divine Miracle of a Transformed Mind,” but are, too many, ‘professors of faith’ who will someday fall into the perilous state of Hosea’s word from God when in Hosea 4:6 the prophet recorded Holy God saying, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.”

To be ‘found in Christ’ is what Jim stated as “the mystery of God” or the “secret of God”, quoting Colossians 1:26-27, [The Message Version of the Bible], “This mystery has been kept in the dark for a long time, but now it’s out in the open. God wanted everyone, not just Jews, to know this rich and glorious secret inside and out, regardless of his or her background, regardless of their religious standing. The mystery in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you; therefore you can look forward to sharing in God’s glory. It’s that simple.”

But the sad reality for many, even some ‘professors of faith’, is never being possessed, owned, bought, indwelt by Christ, through repentance toward God and faith in His finished work at Calvary’s Cross, resting in “saved by grace through faith”, and being declared by God Himself as a true son or daughter of the blood redemption, but living with or contending with or conquered by the sad reality of a worldly mind with no eternal purpose, practicing mental and spiritual gymnastics apart from the thoughts and truths of God, even educational geniuses of worldly thought apart from the thoughts, truths, or mind of Holy God, or, yes, even a redeemed life with an uninformed mind or a born-again believer living on a starvation diet apart from the ‘bread,’ the ‘milk’, or the ‘meat of God’s Word’.

Pre-salvation is a state of mind and heart, void of redemptive faith, but governed by an attitude of “enemies of God”, “helpless”, “hopeless”, yet loved by God to the extent of the sacrifice of His Son on the cruel Cross that we might be redeemed through “the blood of the Lamb,’ reconciled, regenerated, restored to His eternal state and plan as sons and daughters of true redemptive faith, “sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling” (1 Corinthians 1:12), no longer enemies or pretenders or professors, but “possessors” of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope that is eternal!

In 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 Paul gloriously declared, “For the love of Christ compels us, because we thus judge: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God IN HIM.”

Are you at all familiar with Ezekial 11 as God informed the prophet and Israel and us of His “New Covenant” that was coming? Verses 19-21 declares: “Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes (or My Word) and keep My judgments and do them, and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose hearts follow the desire for detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord.

There’s a description in Isaiah 28:14 about scornful men in Israel who lived in deception, professing one thing, but living another, even the religious majority of Israel , living in deception with their idols, with sexual immorality, and the shedding of innocent blood as some offered their own children as bodily sacrifices in God’s Holy Temple! Isaiah 28:15 tells us of many in Israel who “made a covenant with death”, even admitting, “For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”

And in Isaiah 29: 13-16a Holy God prophetically declared for both then and now, Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, BUT have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men, Therefore, behold, I will again do a marvelous work among this people, a marvelous work and a wonder; [my son, Scott, described it as “shock and awe”!], for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord, and their works are in the dark; They say, ‘Who sees us?’ and, ‘Who knows us?’ Surely you have turned things around!” In fact, earlier in Isaiah 1:12-21, Holy God spoke:

“When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies – I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting !!! Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings before My eyes. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. IF you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. How the faithful city has become a harlot!”

What you’ve just read is a sad indictment against “pretenders” who “profess” religious loyalty but deny “blood redemption” through the sacrificial Lamb of God! It’s like Moses and Aaron confronting the Pharoah of Egypt with Pharoah saying in Verse 2, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go,” telling him, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness,’” eventually leading to Pharoah and his armies being swept away in the Sea of God’s judgment!

If you are familiar with the Psalms, you’ll remember in Psalm 1:1-2 that David described “the blessed man” who “walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night;” then stating in Verses 4-6, “The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

Psalm 2 then unveils “the realness of rebellion”, which is people plotting “vain things”, taking personal counsel against Holy God! As a result, in Verse 4-5, God describes “the rareness of personal laughter” because Holy God, yes, does and will “distress them in His deep displeasure”! Oh, but then in Verse 6, Holy God unveils “the revelation of compassion” as He sets His King on “My holy hill of Zion” called Mt. Calvary! Then, Verses 7-11, Holy God introduced “the richness of relationship”, Yes! “You are My Son, today I have begotten You,” with holy sons and daughters, “serving the Lord with fear, and rejoicing with trembling” faithfully “kissing the Son” because they no longer have any desire to experience God’s anger or perish in their self-centered ways, but long for, pursue, and rest in “the blessing” of putting their trust in Christ Jesus only!

“The Divine Miracle of a Transformed Mind”! I find Colossians 3:16 to be such a powerful word of encouragement as Paul wrote, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

How did David describe this attitude of heart and mind in Psalm 100? “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.”

I, years ago, highlighted Psalm 34 as one’s “Lordship Ministry”, 1) Calling for a life of praise, “I will bless the Lord at all times,” 2) Calling for a life of continual seeking of Him and His will and Word, Verse 4, 3) Becoming aware of His “birthing changes”, Verse 6, as this Poor man cried out, the Lord hearing, and saving him out of all his troubles, 4) Verse 7, Awed by His release of angelic ministries, 5) Awed in Verses 15-16 by His fastened eyes and opened ears to the cries of His righteous ones, 6) Promising us deliverance, Verses 17-18, as the “righteous cry out to Him, God hearing, and God delivering them OUT OF ALL THEIR TROUBLES!” Hear me! Verse 18, “The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit,” 7) With a firm declaration of Lordship ministry! Verse 19, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Our Lord and Savior transforms trouble into triumph, pain into praise, even ‘wars’ into righteous deliverance!

In the process of “The Miracle of a Transformed Mind”, at times the walk of a true disciple is faced with the clouds of terror, the clouds of temptations, the clouds of triviality, and, for some, the clouds of fleshly treason against the One True Living God and the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords, and even against the Holy Spirit! At the same time, God empowers His true disciples to exercise fortitude in the midst of faithless, formidable, frightening opposition! And “The Miracle of the Transformed Mind” is KNOWING there are consumers of religious fabrications or confessors of eternal Truth!

Some walk in their path of redemptive faith apart from the divine revelation and explanation of God’s eternal intent that His children of faith live, not under a man-made philosophy, but under revelation of holy truth and divine authority! In Colossians 2:1-10 Paul wrote:

“For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, who is the head of all principality and power.”

How clear was Paul to the Ephesians and us, when he instructed “the saints who are in Ephesus, and [the] faithful in Christ Jesus”, testifying in the Lord, that [Ephesians 4:17-24], “you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, AND THAT YOU PUT ON THE NEW MAN which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” How awesome is that?!?

Do you understand, receive, and walk in “the new beginning”, that through Christ Jesus alone God has granted to you “a new spirit” under a “new covenant”, miraculously birthing “a new creation”, instructing us to sing to Holy God “a new song”, yes, with “shouts of joy”? The biblical command you read in the previous paragraph is: “put on the NEW MAN which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 1:6-7 declares: [NASB], “Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord [or received Christ Jesus as Lord over your life], so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and NOW being built up in Him and established [or “made to stand”] in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”

If Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life”, and you are now “in Him”, are you experiencing day by day resurrection life, resurrection power, resurrection presence, and resurrection hope? Do YOU think, ‘as He is so am I’? If Jesus IS “the Light of the world”, and He now lives in you, how do you explain unfruitful works of darkness in your pilgrimage with Him? If Jesus ‘overcame’ and He lives in you, then why is there, in you, at times, the ‘overcoming spirit’ of the world of lawlessness, indifference, or ingratitude?

Or, for you, with Paul, does “the thorn in the flesh” speak to you at times? In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 the apostle alerted us, “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

“The Miracle of a Transformed Mind”? Though ‘birthed in the world with an old sin nature’, and ‘thorned in the flesh’ by the devil and demons, even ‘held captive by a godless world spirit’, the Savior came whose Name is Jesus, and the “new day” dawned for a blessed deliverance.

Though ‘birthed in bondage’ as a slave to the sin nature, blackened in mind and heart to a destructive life, void of trust in God’s eternal purpose, mankind wandered in a world of unending strife.

Though ‘best’ effort arose in place of a ‘blessed life’, humanity continued in godless strife; “I am able to do as I please” without a thought of sin’s dreaded disease – a state of mind, a darkened heart, a fleshly will that set God apart. No need of Him – we’re fit and trim, happy in sin, unaware of any consequences.”

Though ‘birthed in spiritual death’ sinners sincerely try to make sense of their emptiness, their godlessness, their imaginary happiness, even declaring for themselves that darkness is light, that self-determination is might, and that willful rebellion to Holy God is a fleshly right.

Though going through life in defense of self-will, they blind themselves to God’s holy will; and walking alone apart from divine purpose, fallen mankind walks in pride and arrogance, never knowing their spiritual emptiness and brokenness, never receiving the gift of God’s mercy and graciousness.

Though granted by God with an awesome free-will, most men in their selfishness never take time to be still; time to look inward, time to look upward, for most men is time to be selfish, time to be enslaved to the pleasures of flesh, but no time to look inward to their godless existence!

Though challenged by God and calling men out, most will relax in their sin-natures of drought, deaf ears to God and eyes that are blinded to God’s invitation and His awesome provisions – oneness with Him and His blessed intent to fill each new heart with Sovereign promises, His Holy Presence, and a heart of assent, raised from death to life, from poverty to wealth, a child of the King in His family of the blessed!

“The Miracle of a Transformed Mind”? I close with Paul’s words to the Philippians in Philippians 3:7-14, “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have (fully) apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Amen?

CONCLUSION

_{Time. What is it? The seconds, minutes or hours on your wrist watch? For the ancients was time just the shadow on their sun dial? Is time the gauging of the midnight hour on your old grandfather clock? Is it the grains of sand seeping through the hour glass?}

_Leo Tolstoy, in “War and Peace,” said: “Time is infinite movement without one moment of rest.” Sometimes I say YES to that! J.A. Van Horn, in “Physics Today,” said: “To the philosopher, time is one of the fundamental quantities. To the average man, time has something to do with dinner.” Longfellow wrote in “Hyperion,” “Time is the life of the soul.” That definition gets a little closer to the truth! Plato put it like this: “Time is the image of eternity.”

Considering all of the prior attempts at defining time, I believe a better explanation would be, “Time is the moment for a life, with the brush of faith, to stroke on the canvas of one’s being the masterpiece of the presence of God, the reflection of the eternal, through repentance, reconciliation, and redemption.”

Look with me at Ecclesiastes 3:1-9. “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven – a time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build up. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to throw stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing. A Time to search, and a time to give up as lost; a time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together; a time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?”

And verse 9 brings us to the moment of divine confrontation, “What eternal profit is there in the daily investment of my life?”

In “A Psalm of Life,” Longfellow wrote: “Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sand of time.” Leah Richmond said, “There is a time to be born and a time to die, says Solomon, and it is the momento of a truly wise man; but there is an interval between these two times of infinite importance.”

In Galatians 4:10,11, Paul is talking to a church who saw only the “surface” and had not yet majored on the “substance.” “You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”

Jesus spoke to the multitude in Luke 12:54-56, “And He was also saying to the multitude, ‘When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?”

The Psalmist had a discerning of the days when in Psalm 39:4-7 he said, “Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the extent of my days, let me know how transient I am. Behold, You have made my days as handbreaths, and my lifetime as nothing in Your sight, surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Surely every man walks about as a phantom; surely they make an uproar for nothing; he amasses riches, and does not know who will gather them. And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.”

I want us to study what we must possess in order to face new days confidently. FIRST, WE MUST KNOW THE DAYS ARE DIVINELY ORDAINED.

Psalm 31:15 says, “My times are in God’s hand…” Do you believe that, or is each day just an accident of the ages? Ecclesiastes 8:15 speaks of “the days of [a man’s] life which God gives him under the sun.” Are the days of my life gifts of His grace? Is He in control of those seconds, minutes, hours, days on the clock of my life?

Psalm 118:24 says, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” How awesome when we see it!

I believe without a doubt that multitudes never come into confident living in their hour because they’ve never seen themselves as a piece of the puzzle that God is putting together. I believe that many never come into confident living in their marriages because they have never really seen their marriages as an interpretation to the world of what Christ and His bride are like. I believe that far too many businessmen have missed eternal blessings because they’ve built, they think, businesses as a reward of their own diligence and not a tool to honor God and expand His kingdom.

Frederick William Faber: “The surest method of arriving at a knowledge of God’s eternal purposes about us is to be found in the right use of the present moment. Each hour comes with some little fagot of God’s will fastened upon its back.” I would only add, “…not some little fagot of God’s will, but the full assurance of divine intent fastened to your heart!”

Paul, in Acts 17:26-28, said to the aimless Athenians, “And He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist…”

Isaiah 49:5 says, “And now the Lord says, Who formed ME from the womb to be His servant…” And because I know my days and times are ordained of God, according to Psalm 62:8, I will “Trust in Him at all times…” In verse 5 the Psalmist said, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation (or hope) is from Him.”

And because I know my days and times are ordained of God, according to Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth…” And because I know my days and times are ordained of God, I’ll not see change as a disaster, but as a blessing! Daniel 2:20-22 says, “Daniel answered and said, let the name of the Lord be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. And it is He who changes the times and epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, and knowledge to men of understanding. It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.”

In Robert Wise’s book, “When The Night Is Too Long,” he quotes a poem written by Ruth Harms Calkin entitled “Once For All.” The poem was found in the belongings of a friend, Jan Wolfard, who had helped him with typing over the years. Jan had suffered from a serious mental illness, he says, “triggered by the failure of her marriage.” But with God’s help and Robert Wise’s, she’d climbed back. At the age of 38, she died. In her belongings they came across Ruth Calkin’s poem: “Lord, may I settle it once and for all that I am dealing directly with You. You need never apologize for any plan You ordain for me since nothing but good can come from Your hand. You are sufficient for every changing circumstance in my God-planned life, for every unchanging circumstance as well.”

Do you sense divine ordination over your life? In Jeremiah 1:9,10, Jeremiah says, “Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

Is God’s divine ordination written on your mind and heart yet? Look with me at Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your Book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

WE MUST SEE THE DAYS AS DAYS OF DIVINE OPPORTUNITY. In Ephesians 1:5,6, Paul said, “having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will – to the praise of the glory of His grace.” Verse 12 goes on to say, “that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.” And verse 14 reiterates, “to the praise of His glory.”

Days of divine opportunity are to be days of magnifying Him! 2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.”

To the Galatians, Paul put it like this: “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!”

Robert Wise, in “When The Night Is Too Long,” tells an awesome story of Christ-like ministry and response as we walk life’s paths of opportunity:

“Kitty Hart is an amazingly energetic woman with great drive. An x-ray technician, she has also raised two out-standing sons. Perhaps the most remarkable quality one discovers as Kitty talks is her energetic buoyancy and zest for living. Considering the extraordinary pain that has filled her life, her optimism is confounding. The fact that she is alive is itself something of a miracle.

As a teenage Jewish girl, Kitty and her family were torn apart by the Nazi assault that ripped her world to pieces. As her family struggled to survive annihilation, they were separated. She and her mother were shipped to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland. Her father and her brother disappeared.

Kitty discovered quickly that survival depended on doing daily jobs too nauseating to describe. Such tasks as carrying out buckets of human waste from latrines provided minimal shelter to keep winter ice storms from devouring her. Removing jewelry and other items from bodies being prepared for crematoriums gave her precious trinkets with which to bargain for bits of food. Being on a detail that spent the days throwing bodies onto wagons kept her out of the endless flow of human traffic toward the crematoriums. Kitty’s adolescence was spent in pursuit of an existence that seems worse than death.

The horror of the murder of six million Jews is so overwhelming that statistics have persuaded many that people are essentially only animals. The Hitlers, Himmlers, Eichmanns, and Mengelas seem to prove the hypothesis that humanity is no more than the most cunning and dangerous of all species. The death camps suggest that survival of the fittest is a fact and the only measure of right in this universe. So the experience of Kitty Hart poses an unavoidable question for us. Can people really be a reflection of a God of love?

As the years dragged on, Kitty was subjected to horrors that only increased with time. During one period she worked in the infirmary. As the sick poured in, Kitty found old friends and relatives among the multitude. Reunions were a singular source of joy when she was able to smuggle in a crumb of bread or an article of clothing to help someone survive. On one of those bleak winter mornings, the commandant appeared, demanding that the entire infirmary be emptied into waiting trucks. Instantly everyone knew that must mean death.

The influx of more and more Jews had produced an overload of sick people. The Nazi solution for the crowding was to exterminate the present population. Since none would survive anyway, recovering patients were only marking time until they disappeared.

Kitty knew there was no alternative but to comply with the orders, which soldiers stood ready to enforce with club and bayonet. One by one she helped her friends out of the cold, shabby sick bay on their way to death. At such moments the terror and horror that mingled with overwhelming anger created a single desire. Should she survive, the day would come when she would avenge the butchery. Hate kept Kitty alive.

Even though the end of the war was at hand and the defeat of the Nazis had become imminent, Kitty and her mother were sent on a death march to another camp. All that kept her bleeding feet moving was the burning intention to get her hands on her German captors. Germans of any shape or size. Germans who would bleed and die as her people had. Germans who could be strangled.

On the final day of their imprisonment, Kitty and her mother noticed that men in strange uniforms were walking outside the barbed wire. Then an SS guard appeared and announced surrender to the Allies. Immediately the prisoners turned on him, tearing his uniform from his body. As the other inmates beat him, Kitty saw his dagger fall to the ground. Instantly she grabbed the knife and ran for the gate out of the camp. Surging together, the prisoners rampaged into the town seeking food. Kitty clutched at the dagger with one thought in mind. Somewhere she would find a German to try to even a score that had never been settled.

Breaking down the door to one of the village houses they poured in seeking food. The house appeared empty until a prisoner noticed a door that went down to the basement. Quickly Kitty descended the stairs with the knife in the air, poised for attack. From out of the shadows the forms of people began to emerge. There they were. Germans who were trapped just as Kitty and her friends had been for all those years.

“Throw it!” someone yelled in her ear. “Stick them!” As one man stepped from the group, Kitty drew her arm over her head ready to plunge the knife into his chest.

“Throw it!” the man behind her screamed. With the blade overhead, a most contrary impulse surged up from her soul. An almost lost emotion touched her intention. Deep within the recesses of her mind, compassion arose. Unexpected goodness froze the knife in the air. Her obsession with revenge gave way to thoughts of forgiveness. To Kitty’s amazement, her own hand turned, hurling the knife against a wall where it fell harmlessly to the floor.

“I realized that if I killed the man, the Nazis would have succeeded in making me like them,” she now reflects. By bearing humiliation and degradation with forgiveness, Kitty demonstrated that the inhumanity of the Nazis was only a momentary perversion of true humanity. Kitty is living proof that the image of God can be obscured, but not destroyed. The worst life offers produced in her a transcendent quality of character.

Kitty found that she was changed by her decision. By exchanging benevolence for bestiality, she profited the most.

How can the effect of years filled with hate be revised in a few moments of forgiveness? Nothing compares with the power of love. No cleansing agent, no scouring powder, no catharsis can accomplish what a few moments of absolution will do for the soul. The darkest depths of hate reveal most fully the highest possibilities of love.” WOW! DAYS OF OPPORTUNITY – days of ministry to reveal Christ!

WE MUST SEE THE DAYS AS DAYS OF OCCUPATION! Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 says, “I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything beautiful in its time.”

Luke 10:13 makes a similar point: “So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Occupy (or do business) till I come.” Do you remember young Jesus’ response to His parents when they came back to Jerusalem to find him? Luke 2:49, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

George Macdonald, in the “Marquis of Losaie”, wrote, “I find the doing of the will of God leaves me no time for disputing about His plans.”

** DAYS OF OCCUPATION ARE DAYS OF DECISIONS – Ephesians 1:1 says, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God…” What is the will of God for your life? I Corinthians 2:2 says, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Ephesians 6:6 says, “servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart…”

**DAYS OF OCCUPATION ARE DAYS OF DETERMINATION – Look with me at 2 Samuel 23:10-12, “He arose and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary and clung to the sword, and the Lord brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to strip the slain. Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hazarite. And the Philistines were gathered into a troop, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it and struck the Philistines; and the Lord brought about a great victory.”

Henry Parry Liddon says, “Nothing is really lost by sacrifice; everything is lost by failure to obey God’s call.” John Greenleaf Whittier wrote, “In simple trust like theirs who heard beside the Syrian Sea the gracious calling of the Lord, let us, like them, without a word rise up and follow God.”

Hebrews 12:2-3 says, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.”

** DAYS OF OCCUPATION ARE DAYS OF DISCIPLINE – Look carefully at I Corinthians 9:23-27 and ask yourself, “Is my walk with Christ disciplined?” “And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body, and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.”

As Paul came near the end of his life, he wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

WE MUST SEE THE DAYS AS DAYS OF ORDER: Do you remember “good King Hezekiah?” In 2 Kings 20:1-2 Hezekiah was sick and near death and Isaiah the prophet went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” In Amos 4:2 God said, “Prepare to meet your God!!” Set your house in order! Days of order are days of preparation, examination, devotedness and readiness.

In Luke 16:2 Jesus speaks of the rich man’s steward when he called him to himself and said, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship…”

To the church at Corinth Paul said, “It is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” Set your house in order.

Matthew 25:10 speaks of those five foolish virgins: “And while the five foolish virgins went to buy, the bridegroom, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding. And the door was shut.” Set your house in order!

Revelation 19:7 also speaks of a wedding. “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and HIS WIFE HAS MADE HERSELF READY.” Set your house in order!

Oswald Chambers, in “My Utmost For His Highest” wrote, “The great need for the Christian worker is to be ready to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience is. The battle is not against sin or difficulties or circumstances, but against being so absorbed in work that we are not ready to face Jesus Christ at every turn. That is the one great need, not the facing of our belief, or our creed, the question whether we are of any use, but to face Him…Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical connections. The only way a worker can keep true to God is by being ready for the Lord’s surprise visits. It is not service that matters, but intense spiritual reality, expecting Jesus Christ at every turn…If you are ‘looking off unto Jesus’ avoiding the call of the religious age you live in, and setting your heart on what He wants, on thinking on His line, you will be the only one who is ready. Trust no one, not even the finest saint who ever walked this earth, ignore him, if he hinders your sight of Jesus Christ.” SET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER!

WE MUST LIVE THE DAYS WITH THE PROMISE OF OVERCOMING! I John 5:4 says, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world – our faith!”

In I Corinthians 15:57 we read, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Is it so? Then…”These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace; In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” 2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

We are not called to Christ to be men and women filled with pessimistic fear, but men and women empowered by a powerful faith of “Victory In Jesus.” We are not called to Christ to be disciples clouded by doubts, but disciples who are gloriously certain of our conquest because of the unconquerable majesty of Christ. We are not called to Christ to be His servants bathed in the foul smell of failure and short coming, but servants flooded with the heavenly perfume of Christ’s joy, His triumphant victory, and His overcoming life.

We don’t walk despondently toward heaven’s gates, we ride the chariot of faith radiant in the triumphant procession of oneness with Christ. We don’t walk toward heaven’s gates hoping that at least some of our time we are triumphant in Christ, the Word says God “always” leads us in triumph in Christ! We walk toward heaven’s gates because we willfully chained ourselves to Christ, responding to the unfathomable love of the Victor!

George Matheson wrote the text to the hymn, “O Love That Will Not Let Me God.” Those four verses say: “O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in Thee; I give Thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.

O Light that follows all my way, I yield my flickering torch to Thee; my heart restores its borrowed ray, that in Thy sunshine’s blaze, its day may brighter, fairer be.

O joy that seeks me through pain, I cannot close my heart to Thee; I trace this rainbow through the rain, and feel the promise is not vain, that many shall tearless be.

O grace that lifts up my head, I dare not ask to fly from Thee; I lay in dust life’s glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red, life that shall endless be.”

By J.Farrell Fisher, August 10-12, 2017

It was John Greenleaf Whittier who wrote: “In simple trust like theirs who heard beside the Syrian sea the gracious calling of the Lord, Let us, like them, without a word Rise up and follow Him.” Have YOU risen up out of spiritual death to follow Christ, being willing and obedient to whatever the Lord and Savior tells you to do? In Luke 6:46 the Lord Jesus spoke to a large gathering who had been following Him, saying to them, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things which I say?”

In Luke 6:47-49 we read Christ Jesus’s further unveiling of false and true disciples! He said: “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

How would you define the distinguishing trait of true ‘religious’ faith? “ Well, in Jesus I’m set free from the penalty of my sin – and, thank God, He continues to forgive me as I continue to sin.” Really? And one feels that way when Jesus clearly said to His new disciples, “Go, and sin no more”?

It was Henri Frederic Amiel who wrote: “The distinguishing mark of religion is not so much liberty as obedience, and its value is measured by the sacrifices which it can extract from the individual.” Is ‘a sacrifice’ “the taking of the sentence of death daily to my old man so that day by day I might walk in victory over the old sin nature that was crucified with Christ?”

What did the beloved John write in 1 John 3:9? “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.” That will go over well for those who believe Christians can’t stop sinning until they get to heaven in the “sweet by and by”, RIGHT? WRONG!

Here’s how Oswald Chambers addressed it in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest.” “Do I seek to stop sinning or have I stopped sinning? To be born of God means that I have the supernatural power of God to stop sinning. In the Bible it is never – Should a Christian sin? The Bible puts it emphatically – “A Christian must not sin.” The effective working of the new birth life in us is that we do not commit sin, not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have stopped sinning. I John 3:9 does not mean that we “cannot” sin; it means that is we obey the life of God in us, we “need not” sin.”

Without a doubt, if one is interested in determining “Kingdom of God rule”, the evidence is one of a “new birth” relationship to Holy God, a “new gift of Holy Spirit presence within”, and, yes, willing to walk in the Biblical revelation that one, through the blood and Indwelling Life of Christ, takes the sentence of death to himself/herself daily that the Resurrection Life may be manifested in mortal flesh – and His Eternal Life is void of the sin nature or the desire to sin! Does Christ Jesus LIVE within YOU as His earthly “Temple Presence” where “sin” has been washed away through His shed blood and you’ve chosen to, yes, die daily to your old sin nature?

In Psalm 16:7-9 David wrote: “I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord ALWAYS before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope.” Paul said in Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” And, to me, I don’t see the ‘dying’ as ultimate physical death, but that daily sentencing of the death of the old sin-nature that Christ’s Resurrection Presence have ‘holy ground in and through me washed in the blood of the Lamb,’ unveiling His awesome victory at the Cross over sin and Satan!

And, certainly, this without a doubt is why Paul wrote in Romans 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing (trusting, adhering to, relying upon), that you MAY ABOUND IN HOPE by the power of the Holy Spirit.” And when it comes to “joy and peace” in the life of true believers, notice what the Lord Jesus said in John 15:10-11! Jesus said:

“IF you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” (HOW MANY “JOYFUL CHRISTIANS” DO YOU REALLY KNOW TODAY?). Are YOU abounding in hope over your sin and sin-nature?

Is it possible that in modern-day churches that there are those who teach “Great blessings in Christ” but oppose loving obedience to Him as unattainable and unnecessary, describing it as “salvation by works”, when obedience is a reality of having been saved, not to be saved or born again? There IS a ‘closed door to God’s abiding presence’ if one determines for himself, “Obedience to God’s every command is not expected but is simply uninformed stupidity!” And a lot of folks stand on that foundation-less frame of reference to “knowing God”!

What was Paul speaking about when in 2 Corinthians 6:12 he wrote: “O Corinthians! You are not restricted by us (the apostles), but you are restricted by your own affections,” stating further in Verses 14-16, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial (the ‘wicked’ or ‘ungodly’)? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God.”

As “the temple of the living God” are we thus declared free from sin’s penalty if we willfully choose to “sin as I please because Jesus understands my nature?”, even though He crucified sin and its nature in Himself on the Cross? What did Samuel tell us in 1 Samuel 15:22-23? “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For REBELLION is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.” I know Samuel was speaking to Saul, but I also know the Word declares repentant believers “kings and priests”.

Therefore, take notice, “kings and priests”! Willful sin and disobedience will be faced with two doors! One, being true repentance and a forsaking of sin with a wide-opened door into His Abiding Presence, or Two, willful sin and disobedience without repentance facing God’s “door-closing” to you into His Presence and a cancelation of your Royal Ambassadorship! And that’s serious!

Consider! Is “fleshly ambition” idolatry if one omits Holy God’s eternal intention for that life? It was Thomas Southerne in his writing “The Loyal Brother” who said: “Ambition is our idol on whose wings Great minds are carried only to extremes; to be sublimely great, or to be nothing.” But ‘ambition’ is not evil when one desires to be fully available in honoring one’s Lord and Savior in his/her chosen occupation or lifestyle or relationships! ‘Greatness’ without God ends empty – ambition without God breeds sublime ‘nothingness’!

In Luke 12:41-46 is a sharp, awakening, convicting story Jesus interpreted for Peter AND US about “faithful servants” or “Unfaithful servants! Get ready! Get geared up! Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, do you speak this parable only to us, or to all people?” And the Lord said: Verses 42-46, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?

Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. BUT if that servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and be drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, AND WILL CUT HIM IN TWO AND APPOINT HIM HIS PORTION WITH THE UNBELIEVERS.”

Does what I’ve just read from the lips of Jesus ring the bell of remembrance with Jeremiah 34:17-20? Therefore THUS SAYS THE LORD: “You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you, says the Lord – to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine! And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth. And I will give the men who transgressed My covenant, who have not [performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it – the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people who passed between the parts of the calf – I will give them into the hands of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth.”

Does that sound serious to you about those who do not walk in submission and obedience to every Word of the Lord’s declaration to His followers who are called to be servants to their Master, Lord, and Savior? Is “partial obedience” to King Jesus a satisfying response for you OR are you permanently committed to a permanent separation from the world, the flesh, and to Satan, and a “Lord, what would You have me to do?” He tells you in His Word – AND YOU DO IT WITHOUT HESITATION!

Isaiah 1:9-20 is one of the most helpful, hopeful, holy Word of Scripture anywhere, anytime, for anyone hungry for more than his/her flesh has been able to produce, even at their “flesh-inspired, gut-level best”! It says: “Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah; [That’s the high priests of Israel’s ‘religious faith’, the kings and priests, and regular attenders in the sanctuary!]; To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord.

“I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before Me, who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies – I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; they are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good; seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. IF you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Are you fully aware of the amazing grace of our Lord when one truly repents, takes the sentence of death to his old sin nature daily, receives the anointing and abiding of the Holy Spirit, and, yes, feeds on the bread, milk, and meat of the Word daily, willfully following Christ Jesus in “offering Himself without spot to God”, then seeing God “cleansing your conscience from dead works to serve the living God”? Are you ‘dying daily’ to the old sin-natured man, yes, “permanent separation” from what you once were TO TODAY HONORING CHRIST JESUS IN THE “NEW MAN” WASHED IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB, ANOINTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND COMMISSIONED AS HIS ROYAL AMBASSADORS IN OUR NEEDY WORLD?

“Partial obedience” can result in permanent separation from God, but I pray you clearly understand that after one’s disaster of “Partial Obedience”, and because he/she receives the conviction of the Holy Spirit, that the ‘forgiven sinner’ can turn to permanent separation from ‘partial obedience’ to a fully surrendered, Christ-honoring life!!

By: J.Farrell Fisher, July 21-22, 2017

You are aware, I’m sure, of how the Jews in Jesus’ day were well-trained in Jewish traditions, yet the majority of Jews in Jesus day were the ones who participated in or ordered Jesus’ crucifixion! They “heard” the Word, learned certain “truths” about it, but never read the heart of God or His eternal purpose in and through Christ Jesus as revealed in both Old Testament prophecies and New Testament realities!

Acts 4 is an important chapter as I seek to lay the foundation for this message! It says in Acts 4:1-12, Now as they (the first, new disciples!) spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees (“Sad-you-see”, refusers of belief and trust in Christ as Lord and Savior!) came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole.

This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ (Psalm 118:22). Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

Would YOU say that these early fishermen who became followers, disciples, servants of Christ, as “disciplined students”, didn’t simply “practice” the Faith, but lived it out in and through their availability to the Indwelt, Ruling, Reigning, King of kings and Lord of lords, who made, by His mercy, grace, and love, their physical, forgiven, blood-washed bodies into His Holy Temple and Heavenly Hospital of saving, healing, delivering, re-birthing needy souls as His earthly presence, to continue touching a needy world around YOU with His Holy Presence IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU?

“Disciplined students” are not the ‘well-trained’ in biblical principles but the “well-served, finished with themselves, only offering their bodily presence for Christ to be Himself in them and through them”! I don’t know of a more hypocritical thought than one who believes, “How grateful God must be to have me on His team since I am the great performer of Christ-likeness!” It’s not performance but Christ’s Presence that must be our testimonies: “Christ in us, Christ through us,” as Paul instructed us about the ‘mystery’ in Colossians 1:26-28, saying, “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints (Those who are “set apart”). To them GOD WILLED to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect IN CHRIST Jesus.”

How ‘shocked’ were you when you read and re-read John 2:23-25? Now when He (Christ Jesus) was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. BUT Jesus did not commit Himself to them because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, FOR HE KNEW WHAT WAS IN MAN.

Our Lord and Savior explained in John 3:16-21 the Lord Jesus said: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to, fully surrendering all rights in one’s self and full trust in Who Christ is and what He desires to do through you) 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. He who believes in Him (trusts in, adheres to, relies upon) is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” (Do you think that this just may be why Paul said what he did in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I DIE DAILY”?)

And didn’t Paul add in 2 Corinthians 1:9, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead”?

Christ Jesus knew what was in those early disciples, and He still reads men’s hearts today as if they were wide-opened books for all to read! He didn’t commit Himself to those ‘partial believers’ who assumed their ‘fleshly bodies’ were worthy of His blessing and forgiveness – but Christ Jesus turned THEM away!

“Disciplined Students”? Luke 14:25-33 speaks of Jesus telling the great multitudes (!!) who followed Him, turning to them and saying to them, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear HIS CROSS and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, (Have you truly been seated before Christ, determining the cost of full surrender unto His Lordship, AND have YOU taken the sentence of death unto yourself that His Resurrection Presence will be manifested in YOUR mortal flesh?”), whether he has enough to finish it – lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’? Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace. So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”

Paul made a highly interesting and convicting statement in 1 Corinthians 7:35, saying, “And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without distraction.” DISTRACTION? How many examine the true faith and only see Jesus ‘wanting slaves to Him’ when in reality He passionately longs for “servants”. He said of Himself, “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for many.” Christ Jesus was a “foot-washer, not a pew sitter”! Christ Jesus was a servant, not a ‘slave driver’! Christ Jesus WAS the sacrifice, not a proud, self-centered, cruel ruler demanding your unrelenting devotion to, often, an earthly king’s insane demands on his citizens! But consider the “distractions” of imitators, of “professors” of a faith that omits, or overlooks repentance toward God and faith ONLY in Christ’s Resurrection Presence within their “blood-washed” hearts and minds and surrendered wills only to His Lordship!

In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 the heavenly blessed, humbled Paul, wrote: “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be a partaker of it with you.”

You’ll find it very interesting that Paul also said in Hebrews 10:39, “But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.” In fact, earlier, in Ephesians 6:6, he said, “not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart…”

There are those who have drawn back to perdition! There are those who are ‘man-pleasers’, not servants DOING THE WILL OF GOD OUT OF THE OVERFLOW OF THE HEART OF CHRIST IN THEM!!! There are those who are religious, strong-willed, intense imitators, who pat themselves on their backs about their ‘devotion to the Christian ‘church-faith’, but in their innermost being are the award winners of ‘play-acting’ by their best efforts and know nothing about “crucified with Christ” and “raised by the convicting, converting power of the Holy Spirit” to prepare YOU to be His earthly, home-outreach in ministering in you, to you, and through you!

Follow Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:1-16! “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. FOR I DETERMINED not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

However, we (Paul and the early Apostles) speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written:

“Eyes has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual (like: “You are not your own but have been bought with a price, even the shed blood of the Lamb of God!”). But the natural man (unbeliever, ‘sinner’, captive of Satan!) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him (while in 1 Corinthians 3:19 Paul declared under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God!”); nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (emphasizing Jesus’ words in John 3:19-21, “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in (and through) God.”), Paul continuing in 1 Corinthians 2:15-16, But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no man. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” BUT we have the mind of Christ,”

And true disciples wait upon the guidance and leadership of the Holy Spirit in the Spirit’s witness through us, not impulsive, self-directing ‘believers’, but vessels through which the Holy Spirit honors, guides, and glorifies Christ through us!!!

I ask YOU: “Are YOU a “disciplined student AND a delighted servant” living in the light of the glow and glory and submission to Christ’s Resurrection Presence IN YOU? By Christ’s precious blood He purchased through His cross the title deed to ownership of your life – He bought you out of Satan’s bondage and your sinful nature ownership to be “A Child of the King”! Have you “bid farewell” to your old self-controlled life to submit yourself to the sovereignty of “Christ in you”, to the King of kings and Lord of lords? If so, why not “walk in Him, your only hope of glory, blessing, and never-ending satisfaction if His precious, eternal Presence?

Nowhere in my earthly dreams or spiritual visions did I ever consider myself a “spiritual father.” I’ve looked UP to many men in my forty-two years of ministry as strong spiritual guides and encouragers – and even at 68 years of age I still look for them and warmly receive them.

But my November, 2004, trip to India confirmed some things in me that I genuinely had not realized. Though a lot of the India pastors call me “Papa,” I’m definitely appreciative of their love – but when they say, “Papa Farrell, you are to me my spiritual father and I love you for the example you’ve been to me,” IT IS VERY HUMBLING!!

There is an awesome responsibility that is so real, so needy in mentoring, training, and equipping young men TO WALK WITH CHRIST AS A MATURING DISCIPLE AND A WINNING WITNESS.

It is filled with heartaches and disappointments as wellas great joys and distinct pleasures. There are days and weeks and months that oftentimes it is so dark and cloudy because of choices some of your spiritual sons make – decisions that blot their witness but crush your heart! Then the sun shines brightly because one son begins to look like Jesus more and more, and you rejoice.

Physically I’m the father of three sons and a daughter and I look upon them as spiritual sons and a spiritual daughter. How I pray and long that they’ve picked up the best from Sue and me – not our worst! I came into physical and spiritual parenting with a lot of baggage; a lot of unresolved conflicts; and even more basic, a lack of my true identity in Christ. And in all four, Scott, Susan, Stan, and Steve, no father could be as proud as I am of all of them. THEY DO LOVE JESUS!

Spiritually God has blessed me beyond measure. He has put into my sphere of influence even guys I didn’t know I was influencing! But then there are those that I’ve walked with, worked with, wept with – blessed a hundred-fold!

November, 2004, Coimbatore. Young university students ad graduates who were thankful for the ministry of the Word then commented, “We look to you as our spiritual father.” Mumbai, engineer-pastor, bi-vocational, “Since the first time I heard you teach eight years ago, I’ve looked to you as my spiritual father. The anointing, the Word, your spirit in Christ captured me heart.” Mumbai, a New Life senior pastor – “

Papa Farrell, I’ll always look to you as my spiritual father; a lot of India pastors feel the same way.”

I want no glory, no honor, no praise – if there is any, “Let It Go To Calvary.” But it has awakened some new and wonderful things in me. I sense a weighty, weighty responsibility on me the the “sentence of death” on me is a daily reality so “The RESURRECTION LIFE OF JESUS IS MANIFESTED IN MY MORTAL FLESH>“ I sense that passion for Christ to be all He wants to be through me. I sense a call to greater humility, greater dependance, greater hunger, more wisdom, more power than a lowly disciple could ever try to muster up on his own. I love what Paul said to the Philippians about himself – “apprehended of God” – and for God’s purposes; “apprehended of God” – and for His people; “apprehended of Go” – and for His pleasure.

It was certainly the intent of Christ Jesus in spiritual fathering. There’s the twelve He drew to Himself. There was that inner circle with such quality time with their teacher. And I do know it is WHAT He taught, but also what they “CAUGHT” from Him in those years together, and what He “WROUGHT” into their lives by Word, deed, and Holy Presence.

I remember those two disciples on the road to Emmaeus as their “hearts burned within them” as Jesus opened the Word and Spirit.

That deep bond between Paul and the Ephesian elders speaks so loud to us as we see that history of time, teaching etc., “holding back nothing that was necessary” for their spiritual health.

Does early Acts speak to you? They were together, had all things common – and they CONTINUED STEDFASTLY IN THE APOSTLES’ DOCTRINE AND FELLOWSHIP. Does that say anything about fathering “spiritual sons and daughters?”

From the Old Testament I’m reminded of the prophets and…”the sons of the prophets.” I see a Naomi and a Ruth. What about Elijah and tha “mantle of Elijah” that Elisha “picked up?” I look at an Eli encouraging a young Samuel, “When you hear the voice again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’ “ And Samuel is raised up, prepared to serve God in a powerful way.

What was the role of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednigo in equipping “wise men” to look for the “Star?” And hundreds of years later the “teaching” is still going on and “wise men” from the East show up at Jesus’ birthplace to bless the newborn King!

Zacharias’ son John gets a prophetic word through his father that he’ll PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD and even be a servant of God turning the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

In 2 Timothy 2:1-2, Paul speaks: “You therefore, MY SON, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus…AND THE THINGS YOU HAVE LEARNED FROM ME AMONG MANY WITNESSES, COMMIT THESE TO FAITHFUL MEN WHO WILL BE ABLE TO TEACH OTHERS ALSO.” What a revelation and inspiration to training, mentoring, discipline!!

I saw in MalachI I as I was flying back from India verse 6 when God said, “a son honors his father,” yet today in far too many corners of our globe ‘sons’ (and I use that reservedly) use their fathers, accuse and abuse, ignore, circumvent his leadership, blessing and birthright, and with the Korahs, Dathans and Abirims go out on their own insisting “all are holy” and they don’t need, don’t want, and could care less about a “father’s blessing.”

I believe Jesus was very clear when in Luke 16:12, He said: “And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, WHO WILL GIVE YOU WHAT IS YOUR OWN?” There are those ‘sons’ who KNOW NOTHING ABOUT FAITHFULNESS TO THAT WHICH IS ‘ANOTHER MAN’S…and they really never know the blessing that COULD HAVE BEEN THEIR OWN. Oh…they believe they have it!

I remember a young evangelist about twenty-five years ago who used to preach on “You may get what YOU WANT, but not want what you get!” That is so on target! Even Jesus Himself said, “You are of your father the Devil, for his works you do.” And how disappointed Jesus must have been with the eloquent professors who never possessed one ounce of earnestness of faith and obedience to the “SPIRIT of OUR FATHER!”

You may not know the name Frederick Faber, but he was a discouraged Anglican minister who had left that church to become a part of Roman Catholism.And there he found an emptiness of strong hymns of faith and the joy of singing, so he began to write “new songs.” He was so fearful of “new religious movements” and new attitudes of ‘discipleship’ that looked only at the experience of the moment, immediacy of the moment, that left a void of devotion to relationships. One of his hymns says:

“Faith of our fathers! Living still In spite of dungeon, fire and sword; O how our hearts beat high with joy When’er we hear that glorious word!….Faith of our fathers, HOLY FAITH! We will be true to You till death.”

And I wondered if Faber had been in the role of “spiritual fatherhood” and had his heart broken over ‘immediacy,’ ‘all are holy,’ ‘I do it my way,’ ‘I have things I want to accomplish’ – leaving a father in despair as wayward sons manufacture self-appointed ‘ministries’ and begin to build their own little kingdoms.

In the matter of “spiritual fathers” and sons in training there are certain principles of RELATIONSHIP, RIGORS IN TRAINING, AND, YES, RELEASE – but far too many ‘sons’ want relationship without the rigors of training and certainly not ‘RELEASE’ because that interferes with the ‘me, my, mine’ philosophy. It’s why Steve Farrar wrote in “Finishing Strong,” (p39), “…the qualification for having a public ministry is not ‘giftedness.’ The qualification for ministry is PROVEN CHARACTER.” And Jesus told some that they ought to make friends for yourself who have ‘deep pockets,’ because when you fail they can take care of you, inferring He’s not going to. Why? No faithfulness in little things, no faithfulness in handling money in a godly fashion, and no faithfulness to the nurturing father!! That’s Luke 16 if you need it!! And sometimes you wonder, “Who will be true till death” in relationships?

I want us to examine as thoroughly as possible “RAISING SPIRITUAL SONS” from a biblical perspective:

Let’s look FIRST at THE FATHERS AND THE PRODIGALS: And what God’s Word is telling us is that some sons are intent on leaving the father’s presence and living a self-centered, self-willed, self-indulgent life. And try as the father may some are ‘hell-bent’ on ‘me, my, my way, my choices, my decisions,’ and they end up wasting so much of their lives, potential, and possessions with prodigal living. Life choices like that brings one to a “spent all” style of living with a loss of not only any possessions but any small degree of ‘family heritage’ he may have possessed.

It always leaves these sons of personal choice beginning to be in want! He stoops to swine-slop and no one seems to care. But in Luke 15:17 God’s Word tells us, “when he came to himself.” That is so very good. And we all rejoice because finally he decides, “I will arise and go to my father’s house.”

But in the midst of all this I’m wondering, “What’s going on with the Father?” And I begin to say, “Father, as you’ve given us roles and ministries to fulfill as earthly fathers and spiritual fathers, how do we relate to WAYWARD SONS?” And I learn several things:

One, God has built into us all the will of self-determination. He has not, will not, violate the free will of man in choosing his destiny over the will of the Father. The loving Father is not interested in ‘puppets on a string’ or electronic robots, but sons desperate for the father’s love, the father’s blessing, and the father’s intent.

Secondly, even the son who stayed, ‘the elder brother,’ missed the ‘spirit’ of the father. Close proximity is no guarantee of the spirit of a father’s heart. Sometimes the need is never sensed until one FINDS himself at the end of the road.

Third, the father’s heart never changes. He’s “the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Sorrowful, but wise as to the need of one discovering who he is and what he needs. Able, but unwilling to force the issue. Loving, whether the son stays or oes into the “wild, black yonder.” Forgiving because He understand illumined sons have greater potential than blinded sons.

Fourth, a loving father’s eyes are never off “the road of return and restoration.” Compassionately he waits, energetically he prays, with vision he plans, with anticipation he prepares for “the party.”

Fifth, He did not run after the son – he patiently waited because “the ball is in the court” of the son, not in the court of the father!!

Secondly, look at the spiritual fathers and the ‘John Marks’ as the ‘fathers’ relate to the sons’ fears, frustrations, failures and fallabilities.

And the one thing I want you to grasp is, that whether it’s sons or disciples, our walk RELATES TO THE CROSS – our Lord’s cross and our own. In Matthew 16:24, Jesus says, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

In Mark 14:51-52 I believe our Lord is giving us insight into the pattern a lot of sons set for their lives. We see this picture of John Mark’s early steps, however fault-ridden, into the beginning of his ‘becoming.’ And I believe later in life John Mark is telling about himself!!

“Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him…and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked.” When the ‘cross’ is omitted in a son’s life it always leaves him in a state of ‘spiritual nakedness.’

But something is going on in John Mark’s life. Don’t know about his natural father, but we learn in Acts 12 that Peter came to a certain house after the iron gate of the prison was opened and Peter was freed. What house did he come to?

Acts 12:12, “…he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.” John Mark had a powerful witness from a praying mother and a grandmother!

Verse 25 of that same chapter says, “Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their mission, taking along with them John, who was also called Mark.”

A spirirtual father, Paul the apostle, is now in the strong circle of influence of John Mark. Acts 13:5 says that as Barnabas and Saul are sent out on a new mission that they have a “helper” named John Mark! Then verse 13 of Acts 13, please see it, “John left them and returned to Jerusalem.” Is fear a reason? Is faithlessness a guiding factor? Is human fallability rather than divine identity a controlling influence? Does frustration capture a son because he wants a greater role and believes he has a better vision?

It was so very, very serious that the spiritual father, Paul, does not want John Mark on another ministry with him – the mission is too vital! In Acts 15:37-38, “And Barnabas was desirous of taking John, called Mark, along with them…But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work.”

In fact, verse 39, says: “there arose such a sharp disagreement that Barnabas and Paul separated from one another…” And Barnabas took John Mark with him.

How wrong was Paul? He wasn’t wrong at all! The mission was too vital, the call was too clear, the danger too imminent to have to be consumed with one who could walk away again! But, thank God, for “sons of encouragement” who are willing to “diaper-rize” spiritually infant sons who ought to be spiritual, vibrant sons already.

But then look at 2 Timothy 4:11!! He’s writing Timothy and says, “Only Luke is with me. Get MARK and bring him with you, FOR HE IS USEFUL TO ME FOR MINISTRY.”

The ministry was and always is uppermost in a spiritual father’s life and plans. And sometimes someone else has the role of spiritual encourager to bring a ‘son’ along.

And get this – the day came when John Mark ‘probably’ penned the first Gospel. Thank God, for team effort that brings us all along where the Father truly wants us to be!!

Third, look at the spiritual fathers and their relationship to ‘sons’ who struggle with opposition, persecution, and doubts. Who might that be? Do you think maybe Paul and Timothy?

My New King James Bible opens 2 Timothy with a statement: “Prison is the last place from which to expect a letter of encouragement,” but that’s what it is because Paul somehow has learned the plight or position his young spiritual son finds himself in. Paul’s in prison, the opposition is very intense, persecution abounds all around him, and Timothy is wondering, “Is this walk of faith worth it?” He’s even been weeping about it!

Without a doubt I believe Timothy was on the verge of walking away! Remember Peter? “I’m going back to fishing.” I don’t know what Timothy might have done if Paul, his spiritual father, had not sent him that letter of encouragement. [ I remember calling the home of a “fallen son” and he never returned my call. And I don’t know his spiritual health to this day. Heartbreaking. I did hear he trashed me all over his area for ‘interfering.’]

I was flabbergasted when I read Farrar’s book “Finishing Strong” and he told about John Bisagno’s future father-in-law telling him that it had been his observation “that just one out of ten who start in full-time service for the Lord at 21 are still on track by the age of 65.” He said, “they’re shot down morally, they’re shot down with discouragement, they’re shot down with liberal theology, they get obscessed with making money….but for one reason or another NINE OUT OF TEN FALL OUT.” (p6)

No wonder Paul wrote to the Ephesians (4:1-2), :I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called…with all lowliness and gentlness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.”

When you read 2 Timothy 1:8 you realize the battle that Timothy was in as he must have been wrestling as to whether or not devotion to Christ was really worth it. Paul said, “..do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.”

And then Paul hit’s a homerun when in verse 9 he reminds Timothy that God “has SAVED US and CALLED US WITH A HOLY CASLLING, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was GIVEN TO US IN CHRIST JESUS BEFORE TIME BEGAN!!!”

That is so awesome! And how it needs to be spoken by spiritual fathers to struggling, unsure sons – “You’re SAVED, Washed In The Blood Of The Lamb, Called Of God to a distinct ministry and gifting, GIVEN TO US Before Time Had Even Begun, THE CHOSEN AND ELECT OF GOD, …AND YOU CAN’T WALK AWAY!!!”

Encouragement from spiritual fathers? Paul reminds Timothy he’s “a good soldier” of Jesus Christ; he reminds him he’s “a strong athlete” with a gold medal awaiting him; and he reminds him as a “profitable farmer” he gets to enjoy the abundance of the harvest!

Encouragement from spiritual fathers? “Defeat, Timothy, is not a stumbling block – it’s a stepping stone. Doubt, Timothy? It’s the door to certainty and confidence; Fear, Timothy? It’s a step away from the greatness and ableness of God!!”

Henry Ward Beecher put it like this: “It is defeat that turns bone to flint, and gristle to muscle, and makes people invincible, and forms those heroic natures that are now in ascendancy in the world. Do not, then, be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause.”

Fourthly, look at spiritual fathers who give their sons lofty and significant goals for their lives and not a sense of shortsightedness. Come to Colossians 4:17 where Paul challenges Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.”

Two things to note here: One, ministry received “in the Lord.” I have no doubts that some men are shoved into places they should never be by thoughtless and unspiritual men. But true ministry is ‘in the Lord.’ It’s not an option I have – it’s a conviction God holds for one’s life.

And, two, ministry is to be fulfilled! What did Paul say in 2 Timothy 4:7-8? “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

What greater example than Christ Himself? In John 17:4, He said to the Father, “…I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.” Pressing in, laying hold, finishing the work is a Call we cannot run from! Break the tape, cross the line, then….rest in the arms of Jesus! Not now will I stop short; not now will I slow down in the race; not now will I R & R in the time of the battle of the ages. Not now – WE’RE GOING ON, WE’RE GOING IN!!

Fifth, consider Jesus and Judas! There is BETRAYAL; there is DENIAL; and there is REFUSAL TO TAKE A BIBLICAL PATH TO RESTORATION. In spiritual parenting there is always the path of brokenness, deep sorrow, and fearfulness over one you relate to who turns on you, betrays your trust, out for what the ‘son’ can get on his own. He’ll even publicly kiss you and then put a knife right into your heart. Because his consideration is, “What can I gain?’ rather than “What can I give?”

Judas’ want to hold the purse strings. Judas’ want the majority vote. Judas’ have “legitimate” explanations for betrayal and denial – and even if it dawns on them they’ve been wrong, a noose is better than the Good News of repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ. They go it alone and abandon even their fellow disciples and choose Pharisees. Judas’ are down on spiritual extranagance like the woman with the expensive perfume pouring it all over Jesus, washing His feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. Judas’ are guided by, “That doesn’t sell,” as if discipleship and ministry are marketable products. “God, help us. Where have we come to in the American church?”

No wonder James Boren said, “It’s hard to look up to a leader who keeps his ear to the ground.” Judas’ are political poll watchers who put their finger up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing rather than “Follow Me.” Judas’ measure their devotion by the visible not the invisible and they never become a part of seeing the impossible accomplished. They are “nickles and dimes” folk and not ministry or servant hood focused.

Remember Judas’ approach to Jesus? He’s going to betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver by way of a ‘kiss.’ But Jesus said to him, “Friend, why have you come here?” HOW AWESOME! Do you doubt Jesus knew what was about to happen? But He still called him, “Friend…”

I’m ith Peter – ‘let’s cut off some ears,” but thank God that Jesus says, “Put your sword in its place!” Yes, Lord; but I sure would like to tanny some fanny! Yes, Lord; but will those faithless sons pay? Yes, Lord; but can I call down a little fire and brimstone? And ‘In His Time’ there is an accounting of one’s stewardship of trust in the “purse strings” of responsibility and relationship – and the FATHER will work it out.

The only problem I see in spiritual fathers and “sons” relationship is what is going on in a son’s heart? It was John Ruskin who said: “When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.” Big God Himself has a major problem getting even into “small packages.”

It’s why Josiah Gilbert Holland cried out: God give us men. A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands.

Men whom the lust of office does not kill, men whom the spoils of office cannot buy, men who possess opinions and a will, men who love honor, men who will not lie.”

Whether a spiritual father or a growing, maturing spiritual son, Paul has inspired advice when truthfully he said in Philippians 3:12-14, (TLB),

“I don’t mean to say I am perfect. I haven’t learned all I should even yet, but I keep working toward that day when I will finally be all that Christ saved me for and wants me to be…..

No, dear brothers, I am still not at all I should be but I am bringing all my energies to bear on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God is calling us up to heaven because of what Christ Jesus did for us.”

That is my passionate heart-cry for myself and for anyone our Lord has put in my path to influence, inspire, encourage – whatever; so that we all might come into the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Rise up, fathers! Rise up, sons! BE ALL CHRIST SAVED YOU TO BE! Hold on, fathers, to that high and holy calling of nurturing, mentoring, and training! Hold on, sons, until the ‘father’s release!’

By: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 21-23, 2017

It’s really astounding to me that some immature believers sincerely believe they are the “called” to fight the good fight of faith “in Christ’s place” – and if that is their ‘frame of reference’ in living out their calling as a believer, be assured, they are greatly deceived!

In Matthew 16:21-25 we find Christ Jesus telling His disciples about His coming death. It says: From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!”

But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” Then Jesus said TO HIS DISCIPLES, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

In our modern-day there are many who feel by ‘joining a church’ that they are ‘fighting for’ the honor of Christ, but, sadly, that attitude, that frame of reference about discipleship is foreign to what Jesus taught and explained by His life journey. The “fellowship of believers” in and through the church fellowship is vitally important! “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is!” But when it comes to “serving the Lord” the disciples were “discipled” not to “fight for” Christ but to “fight from” Him!

In 2 Corinthians 1:9 Paul wrote: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, THAT WE SHOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES but in God who raises the dead…!” He said later in 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us DIFFUSES the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.”

The “triumph” in the walk and witnessing of redemptive faith is not well-planned, fleshly best, but is ‘willful choice daily’ to be dead to the old man and allowing Resurrected Jesus to have an available vessel in and through which He expresses Himself, or a ‘temple’ yielded to His abiding Presence in and through which He chooses to validate Himself in a passionate, Spirit-anointed witness through YOU! Our lives are the ‘book-covering’ while Christ Jesus is the content! This is why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:2-6,

“You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an EPISTLE OF CHRIST, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”

“Fighting For” is the absence of the sentence of death in ourselves, “Fighting For” is ‘peddling the word of God’, “Fighting For” is emitting the spirit of fleshly death at its best, “Fighting For” is ‘the aroma of death leading to death’, and, sadly, ensuring it, “Fighting For” is ‘church-mentality’ void of the ink of the Spirit of God, “Fighting For” is human self-sufficiency written with imitation ink and void of the Spirit who, yes, gives life.

“Fighting For” is ‘walking in craftiness’, ‘handling the word of God deceitfully’, and sharing with others a ‘veiled gospel’, the ‘god of this age’ blinding unbelievers and choking believers lest the glory of Christ would shine through them!

“Fighting For” is taking pride in one’s ‘earthen vessel’, even treasuring it unwittingly, wanting the “power” to be the best of flesh rather than the very power of God! “Fighting For” is the immature believer, undiscipled, who is “restricted by his/her own affections”, not the heart of the Indwelling Christ beating within them!

In 2 Corinthians 10:1-6 Paul reminds the Corinthian believers and us of where our “strength” in fighting the good fight of faith comes from, or more clearly, “IN WHOM”! He said, “Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness OF CHRIST – who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.

But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (or ‘fleshly’) but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

Paul the Apostle didn’t choose to live by the “best effort” philosophy of some immature disciples in their spiritual walks, by ‘arming’ himself with the best human invented war weapons, or by his own invention of ‘flesh-minded’ rhetorical or philosophical reasoning, stating strongly, anointed in the Spirit, in Ephesians 6:10-18,

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having gird your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”

Tell me about your prayer ministry from the “best efforts” of your flesh OR do you pray resting in the Christ within and appropriating the POWER of HIS MIGHT? We do face “the wiles of the devil”, but THERE IS THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD, not your ‘fleshly desires’ to be an overcomer by YOUR “self-determination”! It’s “your best”, which means you’re “whipped”, or Christ Jesus in you being YOUR “more than conqueror Victor” over the world, the flesh, or Satan himself!

“Fighting For or Fighting From”? Do you understand how Holy God desires to have available “vessels” through which He is able to be Himself and touch individual lives, needs, and purposes THROUGH YOU? Have you overlooked, denied, or never known the eternal Truth? “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY”? In YOUR spiritual journey, day by day, is it with the TRUTH? The TRUTH? 2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God who ALWAYS leads us in triumph in Christ, AND THROUGH US diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” I’d say that that is “Living In” and “Fighting From”, not ‘living trying’ but Living Triumphant, Fighting From His abiding presence within!

In 1 Peter 4:2 Peter challenges all believers “that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” If God says, and He does, “I have chosen you”, dare we congratulate God on His wisdom for being able to discern our ‘potential’, or is it His grace, mercy, and love, willing to use our ‘will-less awareness’ of “Why me?” Almighty God, the Faithful Creator, the Loving Father, the Discerning Genius of spiritual matters, desires the “empty” vessels that He fills with Holy Presence, or as Oswald Chambers wrote: “Paul’s secret joy was that God took him, a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive, and now that is all he is here for,” and, praise God, you learn you’re a cleansed vessel by the blood of the Lamb, through which Loving God, obedient Son, and the Holy Spirit, touches your world around you with Christ’s Presence released through you!

If God sovereignly chose you before the foundation of our world, and He did, was He interested in ‘robots’ or rescued, renewed, re-born sons and daughters, washed in the blood of the Lamb and available to all He desires to be and to do in you and through you? He crucified your ‘old life’, and by grace and mercy and love, raises it up as He resurrected Jesus, “giving us a future and a hope”, and that is, “a new, useful vessel” in which the Resurrected, Reigning Christ is able to extend Himself and express His love for all of sinful, fallen, alienated and separated humanity, yes, in need of the Savior and Deliverer from Satan’s grasp!

Natural men and women have the opportunity of witnessing SUPERNATURAL, DIVINE PRESENCE making their bodies the “Holy Temples” of Resurrection Presence! Do you fully understand or grasp the reality of God as the “Faithful Creator”? Examine the undeniable physical cosmos and its glory – is its future firmly in the hands of its Creator? If so, in the spiritual realm of a “new-born Life”, do we fret or faith His faithfulness in fulfilling the work He started within us? Why do doubts and fears even arise? Is it from demonic influences of, “Has God really said?”, or worldly philosophies that major on man’s genius of “flesh abilities”, or the ‘flesh-nature’ itself that so wants ‘fleshly advancement’ apart from the grace and power and provision of God “in Christ”?

In Psalm 71:1-2 the psalmist was a realist concerning true awareness of the victorious status of one “fighting for” or “fighting from”. He said: “In You, O lord, I put my trust; let me never be put to shame. Deliver me in YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, and cause me to escape; incline Your ear to me, and save me.” But have YOU decided it’s YOUR “best effort”, it’s YOUR “self-determination”, or your “confidence” in your own abilities that makes the difference in your journey of the ‘flesh’ or the Spirit?

How is it that “famous Christians” became famous? Do YOU understand that “famous Christians” never advanced their personal abilities, but they saw their “ordinariness” in Kingdom Living to be authored by the Holy Spirit of God? What does Matthew 6:33 tell us? “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” So, if God clothes the lilies of the field, can He cloth you in Kingdom ministry, not “your best”, but His faithful provision of the Christ within you as His hope of glory for you and through you?

Religions abound worldwide, but where, in the Word, did Holy God ever endorse fallen men’s devotion to their own religious ideals? Yes, it was not only for fallen humanity that Christ Jesus came to sacrifice His life for their reconciliation to God, but to replace ‘religious ideals’ with the “redemption through the blood of the Lamb of God”, thus through repentance toward God and faith in Christ’s “finished work” at the Cross, men and women, boys and girls, would learn to live by the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ Jesus! No other way exists before the throne of Holy God!

B.B. McKinney and Hattie Bell Allen wrote the Hymn, “Christ for the Whole Wide World!” It says: “Christ for the whole wide world! Our task has just begun, For millions wait in every land The message of God’s Son. Shall they be left in sin, To die without His Word, Without the Savior Jesus Christ, Because they never heard?

Christ for the whole wide world! His message must be sent To millions dying in their sin To call them to repent. Christ Jesus died to save, But they can never know Until we bring our gifts of love And bid His heralds go!

Christ for the whole wide world! His heralds will proclaim Salvation for men everywhere in Jesus’ blessed name. And we who cannot go To bear His tidings far Will pray for those who take the Word – And witness where we are.

We will give, we will pray, We will witness every day, That the millions of the whole wide world May know our Savior’s love.”

Is that YOUR song OR do YOU no longer sing?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, MAY 20-21,2019

HOW AWARE ARE “YOU” OF HEAVENLY VISIONS OR,YES,THE TESTIMONIES OF OTHERS OF VITAL MOMENTS WHEN THEY “KNEW” HOLY GOD WAS SPEAKING INTO THEIR LIVES? HIGHLY INTERESTING VERSES ARE FOUND IN ACTS 26 AS WE READ ABOUT PAUL SHARING WITH KING AGRIPPA! VERSES 13-23 SAYS: “AT MIDDAY, O KING, I SAW IN THE WAY A LIGHT FROM HEAVEN, ABOVE THE BRIGHTNESS OF THE SUN,SHINING ROUND ABOUT ME & THEM WHICH JOURNEYED WITH ME.

AND WHEN WE WERE ALL FALLEN TO THE EARTH, I HEARD A VOICE SPEAKING UNTO ME, & SAYING IN THE HEBREW TONGUE, “SAUL, SAUL, WHY DO YOU PERSECUTE ME? IT IS HARD FOR YOU TO KICK AGAINST THE PRICKS.” AND PAUL SAID, “WHO ARE YOU, LORD?” AND HE SAID, “I AM JESUS WHOM YOU PERSECUTE. BUT RISE, & STAND UPON YOUR FEET: FOR I HAVE APPEARED UNTO YOU FOR THIS PURPOSE, TO MAKE YOU A MINISTER & A WITNESS BOTH OF THESE THINGS WHICH YOU HAVE SEEN, & OF THOSE THINGS IN THE WHICH I WILL APPEAR UNTO YOU;

DELIVERING YOU FROM THE PEOPLE, & FROM THE GENTILES,UNTO WHOM NOW I SEND YOU:TO OPEN THEIR EYES,& TO TURN THEM FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT, & FROM THE POWER OF SATAN UNTO GOD, THAT THEY MAY RECEIVE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, & INHERITANCE AMONG THEM WHICH ARE SANCTIFIED BY FAITH THAT IS IN ME.” WHEREUPON, O KING AGRIPPA, I WAS NOT DISOBEDIENT UNTO THE HEAVENLY VISION:

BUT SHOWED FIRST UNTO THEM OF DAMASCUS, & AT JERUSALEM, & THROUGHOUT ALL THE COASTS OF JUDEA, & THEN TO THE GENTILES, THAT THEY SHOULD REPENT & TURN TO GOD, & DO WORKS MEET FOR REPENTANCE. FOR THESE CAUSES THE JEWS CAUGHT ME IN THE TEMPLE, & WENT ABOUT TO KILL ME.

HAVING THEREFORE OBTAINED HELP OF GOD, I CONTINUE UNTO THIS DAY, WITNESSING BOTH TO SMALL & GREAT, SAYING NONE OTHER THINGS THAN THOSE WHICH THE PROPHETS & MOSES DID SAY SHOULD COME: THAT CHRIST SHOULD SUFFER, & THAT HE SHOULD BE THE FIRST THAT SHOULD RISE FROM THE DEAD, & SHOULD SHOW LIGHT UNTO THE PEOPLE, & TO THE GENTILES.” THAT, MY FRIENDS, IS AN AMAZING, CONVICTING, LIFE-CHANGING REVELATION! WHAT GOD DID FOR PAUL, HE STILL DOES TODAY, & WILL DO FOR YOU ALSO!!

GOD’S CALLING THROUGH “HEAVENLY VISIONS” “IS” PERSONAL & PREEMPTIVE & POWERFUL & PERSUASIVE, TAKING EVEN DOUBTING MEN & WOMEN OUT OF THEIR SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS INTO “ETERNAL REALITY” OF HOLY GOD’S COMPASSIONATE, LOVING, MERCIFUL HELP, FROM ‘SINNERS’ TO “SAINTS”, FROM EARTHLY, SELF-CENTERED BEINGS INTO HEAVENLY CITIZENS OF CHRIST’S ETERNAL KINGDOM LIVING & MINISTRY, FROM TEMPORARY,EARTHLY ALLEGIANCE TO THE CROSS, TOMB, & RESURRECTED PRESENCE OF THE INDWELLING CHRIST, ALIVE & WELL ON PLANET EARTH IN THE HEARTS OF “BLOOD-WASHED”, TRANSFORMED, ‘MADE-ALIVE-IN-CHRIST’ SERVANTS, FOOT-WASHERS, MESSENGERS, AMBASSADORS OF THE KING OF KINGS & LORD OF LORDS!!!!

OH, BUT THEN IN 1 CORINTHIANS 11:23a, PAUL SAID: “FOR I HAVE RECEIVED OF THE LORD THAT WHICH I ALSO DELIVERED UNTO YOU.” DO YOU SEE,SENSE,& SEPARATE YOURSELF UNTO THE MISSION & MINISTRY OF CHRIST IN TOUCHING OTHERS AROUND YOU WITH CHRIST’S LOVE, GRACE, & MERCY? ARE “YOU” CHRIST’S AMBASSADOR IN & AROUND WHERE YOU LIVE? LET’S EXAMINE GOD’S CALLING!

FIRST: THERE IS THE CALL OF GOD UPON EVERY BORN-AGAIN DISCIPLE THE,YES, ‘MINISTRY’ OF IMPACTING A LOST & DYING WORLD WITH GOD’S, THE HOLY SPIRIT’S, & CHRIST’S DESIRE TO ‘SAVE THE WORLD’! DID PAUL SAY TO KING AGRIPPA, “I WAS NOT DISOBEDIENT TO THE HEAVENLY VISION”? QUESTION! AS A ‘PROFESSING’,OR ‘CONFESSING’, OR ‘POSSESSING’ DISCIPLE OF CHRIST IN THE 21^ST CENTURY, OF,YES, HIS CALLING YOU IN YOUR HEAVENLY VISION, ARE YOU DISOBEDIENT OR OBEDIENT? IN GALATIANS 2:20-21a, PAUL WROTE: “I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST; NEVERTHELESS I LIVE;YET NOT I, BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME; & THE LIFE WHICH I NOW LIVE IN THE FLESH I LIVE BY FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME, & GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME. 21a, I DO NOT FRUSTRATE THE GIFT OF GOD.”

IN GALATIANS 4:19 PAUL SAID, “MY LITTLE CHILDREN, OF WHOM I TRAVAIL IN BIRTH AGAIN UNTIL CHRIST IS FORMED (FULLY) IN YOU.” SALVATION IN CHRIST IS INITIAL IN BIRTHING BY THE SPIRIT, IT IS PROGRESSIVE FROM BABES, CHILDREN, & YOUTH, IT IS ULTIMATE IN ONE TRULY, FULLY, YIELDINGLY, BEING AVAILABLE AS THE “TEMPLE” IN & THROUGH WHICH CHRIST CONTINUES HIS MINISTRY “THROUGH YOU”!!

AND IN THAT PROGRESSIVE SPIRITUAL STATE OVER THE YEARS AS ONE MATURES, IN THE BOOK OF ACTS YOU LEARN ABOUT DISCIPLES THAT WERE “STORM-TOSSED”, “SHIP-WRECKED”, & EVEN “SNAKE-BITTEN”, BUT THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST INSPIRED THEM, UPLIFTED THEM, & CROWNED THEM AS FAITHFUL SOLDIERS OF THE CHRIST OF THE CROSS & EMPTY TOMB!!

ACTS 1:8 SAYS, “BUT YOU SHALL RECEIVE POWER, AFTER THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS COME UPON YOU; & YOU SHALL BE WITNESSES UNTO ME BOTH IN JERUSALEM, & IN ALL JUDEA, & IN SAMARIA, & UNTO THE UTTERMOST PART OF THE EARTH.” TELL ME ABOUT YOUR RECEPTION OF CHRIST’S CALLING OF YOU TO BE HIS “CHOSEN WITNESS”! THE MASTER’S MANDATE INSTILLED BY GOD IN HIS SON BY THE HOLY SPIRIT IS “YOUR” MANDATE IF TRULY YOU ARE CHRIST’S NEW-BORN CHILD OF FAITH EMPOWERED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT!

SECOND, THERE MUST BE THE AWARENESS IN YOU, BY THE HOLY SPIRIT’S PRESENCE, THAT YOUR ‘CALLING’ IS THE CONSIDERATION OF THE NEEDS OF THOSE WE ENCOUNTER, & THAT THE ONE’S WE “WIN” TO FAITH IN CHRIST ARE NOT A NOTCH ON A CERTAIN CHURCH’S GUN! LOST,ALIENATED,SEPARATED,WANDERING ‘SHEEP’ ARE TO BE RECONCILED TO “THE TRUE SHEPHERD”, CHRIST JESUS! SPURGEON, IN HIS WRITING ENTITLED “SOUL-WINNING”, (P.13) SAID: “DO NOT CONSIDER THAT SOUL-WINNING IS OR CAN BE SECURED BY THE MULTIPLICATIONS OF BAPTISMS & THE SWELLING SIZE OF YOUR CHURCH…WHAT DO THESE DISPATCHES FROM THE BATTLEFIELDS MEAN? LAST NIGHT 14 SOULS WERE UNDER CONVICTION, 15 WERE JUSTIFIED, & 8 RECEIVED FULL SANCTIFICATION.’ I AM WEARY OF THE PUBLIC BRAGGING, THIS COUNTING OF UNHATCHED CHICKENS, THIS EXHIBITION OF DOUBTFUL SPORTS. LAY ASIDE SUCH NUMBERINGS OF THE PEOPLE, SUCH IDLE PRETENSE OF CERTIFYING IN HALF-A-MINUTE THAT WHICH WILL NEED THE TESTING OF A LIFETIME.”

GOD ISN’T INTERESTED IN YOUR’S OR A CHURCH’S STATISTICS – HE’S INTERESTED IN THEIR TRUE CONVERSIONS BASED UPON GENUINE REPENTANCE & GRACED SALVATION; GOD’S NOT INTERESTED IN OUR RANKING IN ONE’S STATE OF LIFE IN COMPARISON TO OTHERS – HE’S INTERESTED IN OUR RESCUE, OUR RENEWAL, & OUR RELEASE AS THE “AMBASSADOR OF CHRIST”!! GOD ISN’T INTERESTED IN YOUR ‘SPIRITUAL PRIDE’ ABOUT THE ‘JOB’ YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING FOR HIM – HE’S INTERESTED IN THOSE SAVED WHO’VE SENSED THE URGENCY OF THEIR CALLING, & THEN HUNGER FOR THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT UPON THEM & THROUGH THEM WHO,YES, GUIDES THEM IN THEIR ‘WITNESS’ TO THOSE STILL SEPARATED FROM GOD!

ACTS 26:15-19 TELLS US OF PAUL’S EARLY CONVERSATION WITH THE LORD: AND I,PAUL, SAID, “WHO ARE YOU, LORD?” AND HE SAID, “I AM JESUS WHOM YOU’VE BEEN PERSECUTING. BUT RISE, & STAND UPON YOUR FEET;FOR I HAVE APPEARED UNTO YOU FOR THIS PURPOSE, TO MAKE YOU A MINISTER & A WITNESS BOTH OF THESE THINGS WHICH YOU HAVE SEEN, & OF THOSE THINGS IN THE WHICH I WILL APPEAR UNTO YOU;

DELIVERING THEM FROM THE PEOPLE, & FROM THE GENTILES, UNTO WHOM I NOW SEND YOU: TO OPEN THEIR EYES, & TO TURN THEM FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT, & FROM THE POWER OF SATAN UNTO GOD, THAT THEY MAY RECEIVE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, & INHERITANCE AMONG THEM WHICH ARE SANCTIFIED BY FAITH THAT IS IN CHRIST.” THEREUPON, O KING AGRIPPA, I WAS NOT DISOBEDIENT UNTO THE HEAVENLY VISION.” LOOK CAREFULLY AT VERSE 18 AGAIN!! THAT’S AFTER THE LORD SAID:

• HE WAS SPEAKING ABOUT PROCLAIMING SAVING TRUTH!
• HE WAS ENCOURAGING WITNESSING, PREACHING, TEACHING, EVANGELIZING, WITH ‘FIRE IN YOUR BONES’!
• HE WAS ALERTING TRUE DISCIPLES OF POSITIONING THEMSELVES AS A ‘WITNESS’ IN THE FULLNESS & ANOINTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT,LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, WALK & WITNESS IN THE SPIRIT!
• HE WAS SAYING: HAVING POSITIONED YOURSELF UNDER THE SPIRIT’S ANOINTING,PRACTICALLY STAND ON FAITHFULNESS OF THE WORD & THE SPIRIT PROCLAIMING THE NECESSITY OF REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD & FAITH IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST! IN ACTS 20:17-24 PAUL TESTIFIED:AND FROM MILETUS HE SENT TO EPHESUS, & CALLED THE ELDERS OF THE CHURCH. AND WHEN THEY WERE COME TO HIM, HE SAID UNTO THEM, YOU KNOW, FROM THE FIRST DAY THAT I CAME INTO ASIA, AFTER WHAT MANNER I HAVE BEEN WITH YOU AT ALL SEASONS, SERVING THE LORD WITH ALL HUMILITY OF MIND, & WITH MANY TEARS, & TEMPTATIONS, WHICH BEFELL ME BY THE LYING IN WIT OF THE JEWS:

AND HOW I KEPT BACK NOTHING THAT WAS PROFITABLE UNTO YOU, BUT SHOWED YOU, & HAVE TAUGHT YOU PUBLICLY, & FROM HOUSE TO HOUSE. TESTIFYING BOTH TO THE JEWS, & ALSO TO THE GREEKS, REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD, & FAITH TOWARD OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. AND NOW, BEHOLD, I GO BOUND IN THE SPIRIT UNTO JERUSALEM, NOT KNOWING THE THINGS THAT SHALL BEFALL ME THERE:SAVE THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WITNESSES IN EVERY CITY, SAYING, THAT BONDS & AFFLICTIONS ABIDE ME.

BUT NONE OF THESE THINGS MOVE ME, NEITHER COUNT I MY LIFE DEAR UNTO MYSELF, SO THAT I MIGHT FINISH MY COURSE WITH JOY, & THE MINISTRY, WHICH I HAVE RECEIVED OF THE LORD JESUS, TO TESTIFY THE GOSPEL OF THE GRACE OF GOD.

SPURGEON USED TO PREACH ABOUT, “TRUE BELIEF & TRUE REPENTANCE ARE TWINS,” BUT AS I READ THE WORD OF GOD, I SEE, FOR HIS TRUE SERVANTS, TRUE BELIEF, TRUE REPENTANCE, TRUE ETERNAL LIFE, & TRUE FAITHFUL WITNESS TO ALL THE SPIRITUALLY NEEDY!! SPURGEON ALSO SAID: “IDLE ARE THE BOASTS OF A MAN WHO HARBORS WITHIN HIMSELF THE LOVE OF ANY TRANSGRESSION. HE MAY FEEL WHAT HE LIKES, & BELIEVE WHAT HE LIKES, BUT HE IS STILL IN THE GALL OF BITTERNESS & THE BONDS OF INIQUITY WHILE A SINGLE SIN RULES HIS HEART & LIFE. TRUE REGENERATION IMPLANTS A HATRED OF ALL EVIL. WHERE ONE SIN IS DELIGHTED IN, THE EVIDENCE IS “FATAL” TO A SOUND HOPE. A MAN NEED NOT TAKE A DOZEN POISONS TO DESTROY HIS LIFE; ONE IS QUITE SUFFICIENT.”

• PAUL WAS SAYING: “YOUR CALLING “IN CHRIST” IS THE CALL OF DIVINE EXPERIENCE & DIVINE EXPRESSION! AGAIN ACTS 26:16-18 AS A REFRESHING REMINDER: “RISE,&STAND UPON YOUR FEET; FOR I HAVE APPEARED UNTO YOU FOR THIS PURPOSE, TO MAKE YOU A MINISTER & A WITNESS BOTH OF THESE THINGS WHICH YOU HAVE SEEN, & OF THOSE THINGS IN THE WHICH I WILL APPEAR TO YOU.

DELIVERING YOU FROM THE PEOPLE & THE GENTILES, UNTO WHOM I NOW SEND YOU:TO OPEN THEIR EYES, & TO TURN THEM FROM THE DARKNESS TO LIGHT, & FROM THE POWER OF SATAN UNTO GOD, THAT THEY MAY RECEIVE FORGIVENESS OF SINS, & INHERITANCE AMONG THEM WHICH ARE SANCTIFIED BY FAITH THAT IS IN CHRIST!

THIS ALSO TELLS US THAT OUR CALLING IS A CALL OF TRUST & DEPENDENCE! ACTS 26:22 SAYS, “HAVING THEREFORE OBTAINED HELP OF GOD, I CONTINUE…” & CONTINUING TO BE FAITHFUL & OBEDIENT, IT LED HIM TO BE MARTYRED FOR THE FAITH.

THAT, MY FRIENDS, MAY AWAIT YOU OR ME, WHEN GODLESS MEN & NATIONS DETERMINE YOU’RE TOO GREAT A RISK TO ALLOW YOU TO CONTINUE! BUT “TRUTH” NEVER DIES – IT’S JUST TRANSFERRED TO A BETTER PLACE OF ETERNAL REST IN CHRIST!! AMEN?

REV.J.K.ALWOOD WROTE THE HYMN “THE UNCLOUDED DAY” IN THE OLD BROADMAN HYMNAL PUBLISHED BY BROADMAN PRESS IN NASHVILLE, TENN., IN 1940! IT SAYS: “O THEY TELL ME OF A HOME FAR BEYOND THE SKIES, O THEY TELL ME OF A HOME FAR AWAY; O THEY TELL ME OF A HOME WHERE NO STORM-CLOUDS RISE, O THEY TELL ME OF AN UNCLOUDED DAY.

O THEY TELL ME OF A HOME WHERE MY FRIENDS HAVE GONE, O THEY TELL ME OF THAT LAND FAR AWAY, WHERE THE TREE OF LIFE IN ETERNAL BLOOM SHEDS ITS FRAGRANCE THRO’ THE UNCLOUDED DAY.

O THEY TELL ME OF A KING IN HIS BEAUTY THERE, & THEY TELL ME THAT MY EYES SHALL BEHOLD WHERE HE SITS ON THE THRONE THAT IS WHITER THAN SNOW, IN THE CITY THAT IS MADE OF GOLD.

O THEY TELL ME THAT HE SMILES ON HIS CHILDREN THERE, & HIS SMILE DRIVES THEIR SORROWS ALL AWAY; & THEY TELL ME THAT NO TEARS EVER COME AGAIN, IN THAT LOVELY LAND OF AN UNCLOUDED DAY.

O THE LAND OF CLOUDLESS DAY, O THE LAND OF AN UNCLOUDED DAY; O THEY TELL ME OF A HOME WHERE NO STORM-CLOUDS RISE, O THEY TELL ME OF AN UNCLOUDED DAY.”

HAS YOUR ‘SORROW’ MELTED BY YOUR SAVIOR’S SWEET VOICE? HAS YOUR ‘PAIN’ BEEN ARRESTED BY CHRIST’S FAITHFUL PRESENCE? HAS YOUR ‘HEART-ACHE’ BEEN TRANSFERRED INTO A HALLELUJAH CHORUS BECAUSE OF YOUR LORD’S HELPING HAND?

“IN CHRIST”,EVERYDAY SHOULD BE A SONG OF PRAISE, EVERY TRIAL THE RINGING OF HIS TRIUMPHANT VICTORY EVEN THROUGH HIS CROSS, EVERY TESTING,TROUBLING MOMENT SHOULD ERUPT IN YOUR HYMN OF PRAISE FOR HIS SUSTAINING, ABIDING, OVERCOMING PRESENCE, EVERY TRIBULATION MUST BE “EYES OFF SELF –EYES FULLY ON JESUS ONLY”!

“IN CHRIST”, EVERYDAY SHOULD BE A DISCIPLE’S CELEBRATION OF THE “VICTORY IN JESUS”! FANNY CROSBY & ROBERT LOWRY WROTE THE OLD HYMN “ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME”,( THE AMERICAN HYMNAL, PUBLISHED BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENN.) THAT SAYS: “ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME; WHAT HAVE I TO ASK BESIDE? CAN I DOUBT HIS TENDER MERCY, WHO THRO’ LIFE HAS BEEN MY GUIDE? HEAVENLY PEACE, DIVINEST COMFORT, HERE BY FAITH IN HIM TO DWELL! FOR I KNOW, WHATE’ER BEFALL ME, JESUS DOES SLL THINGS WELL.

ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME, CHEERS EACH WINDING PATH I TREAD, GIVES ME GRACE FOR EVERY TRIAL, FEEDS ME WITH THE LIVING BREAD. THOUGH MY WEARY STEPS MAY FALTER, & MY SOUL ATHIRST MAY BE, GUSHING FROM THE “ROCK” BEFORE ME, LO! A SPRING OF JOY I SEE.

ALL THE WAY MY SAVIOR LEADS ME; OH, THE FULLNESS OF HIS LOVE! PERFECT REST TO ME IS PROMISED IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE ABOVE. WHEN MY SPIRIT, CLOTHED IMMORTAL, WINGS ITS FLIGHT TO REALMS OF DAY, THIS MY SONG THRO’ ENDLESS AGES; JESUS LED ME ALL THE WAY. AMEN?

PART 3 (by J. Farrell Fisher, November 17-19, 2016)

Are “true disciples of Christ” known by what church they attend or does the Holy Word of God express and interpret ‘true discipleship’ in a totally different manner or unveiling and revelation? Are “true disciples of Christ” mentally confused or the visible explanation of “Life IN Christ”, dead to ‘self-realization’ but alive to the purpose, presence, and promises of God? Are “true disciples of Christ” the ‘compromisers’ with ‘flesh’ and ‘the world around them’, OR the “committed” to the Lordship of Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, evidenced by the Spirit’s “fruit” and anointings, and evidenced by God’s gift of “blood-washing”, God’s gift of heavenly declarations of His grace, mercy, and love, to birth you to “new life in Christ” that is pure, spotless, recognizable, no longer recognizable by the old sin-nature but recognizable as “new-born” into the Kingdom rule and reign of the Resurrected Christ?

I’ve often thought that one day I want to search out a “message” or Biblical teaching, on “irresponsible ‘self-impregnation’ of one’s identity as a disciple of Christ, or the “Sovereign-Birthing of the Spirit of God”, because there is a difference between physical birth and Born of the Spirit! There is a vast difference between one’s ‘self-awareness’ of his/her spirituality and one’s “New Life in Christ”, or one’s ‘spontaneous originality’ of his/her spiritual adequacy in himself/herself, or the divine intervention of the Holy Spirit, convicting, convincing, converting, and consecrating a ‘new life’ before the very Throne of Almighty God and King Jesus!

It’s so interesting, encouraging, convicting, and relieving to read of Isaiah’s awesome experience after the death of King Uzziah. He said in Verse one, “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple, and, two seraphim, seeing the Lord, covered their faces, crying to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts’ the whole earth is full of His glory!” Then when Isaiah saw that Holy event of divine presence before him, he said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Having encountered the Holy Presence of the King of kings, been convicted about himself and all fallen humanity before Holy God, God stepped in to say to Isaiah, you, and me, (Isaiah 6:7), “Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”

But, be assured, God’s Promise only becomes reality in those who know their iniquitous ways, sorrow over it, confess it, and rest in the finished work of the Blood of the Lamb of God! And “true disciples” with Isaiah, then say as they become aware their sin is purged, and having heard the Voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send and who will go for Us (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit)?”, Isaiah said, as every true disciple does, “Here am I! Send me.” And God said: “Go, and tell this people…!” (Are you telling life’s spiritual opportunities of receiving Christ or rejecting Him?).

As the Lord Jesus was instructing His disciples, in John 4:34-38, He said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then the harvest’? Behold, I SAY TO YOU, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that Both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

“True Disciples of Christ”? They understand and are committed to the Master’s mandate and commissioning to “plow, sow, and reap,” to “plow, sow, and reap,” to “plow, sow, and reap”, because true disciples have heard, received, and respond to the Master’s Holy instruction, “Go, and make disciples!” And, of course, we KNOW it’s in every man’s mind, and , when confronted by Christ and His Word and will, as to whether he/she is even interested in obeying or closing their eyes and ears to the eternal beating of His compassionate, merciful heart, they will respond in faith and obedience or ‘walk away’ from God’s heart, mindful only of that which satisfies what they have set their minds and hearts to be or to do! Some respond positively, while others turn and walk away from His callings, gifts, and ministries!

It should excite you greatly and motivate, inspire, and encourage you as a true disciple of Christ to hear Him say to YOU in John 15:11-16, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you DO WHATEVER I COMMAND YOU. No longer do I call you servants, (as Jesus Himself was!), for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”

But there is the “cost of Christ’s choosing you and me”! John 15:19 clearly says, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” [Is it possible that YOU don’t sense ‘the hate of the world’ because there is that in you that says: “I want the ‘best’ of both worlds: ‘flesh’ and Spirit, compromise and convenience the world gives me AND the ‘calling’ with the ‘commissioning’ – why not the “best” (?) of both worlds?”

You do understand that there are even ‘unbelievers’ who are ‘pious’ unbelievers who hold, at least, a ‘dutiful spirit of reverence for God’, but not to the point of repentance or recognizing their sinful nature, their religious ‘feelings’ only about God, or their, sometimes, ‘religious indulgences’, as they continue in ‘pious deception’ about themselves and their need of God’s “saving grace” through Christ! BUT, TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST?

FIRTST, TRUE DISCIPLES BEGAN OR NOW BEGIN THEIR JOURNEY OF FAITH WHEN CONVICTED, CONVINCED, CONVERTED, AND CONSECRATED BY AND THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT’S MINISTRY! In Romans 8: 12-17 we read of God’s gracious promise of the Holy Spirit’s ‘overseeing ministry’ of the lives of the true disciples of Christ! It says: “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh (your old sin nature and trying your ‘best’ by it!). 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 (Victorious, overcoming , and conquering!).

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these ARE sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, BUT YOU received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit BEARS WITNESS with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”

‘Flesh’ never has, never will, never can bear witness that we’re ‘children of God, children of faith, children of the royal family of God’, but Christ Jesus was so very clear when He said to Nicodemus in John 3:5-6, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water (the water of the Word of God) and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

There is another interesting, convicting, and life-identifying word from Jesus in Luke 13:22-27 that certainly, initially, related to the ‘religious, Jewish community’ who were not a part of the True Remnant of repentant and ‘faith-trusting’ Jews, but only religious, traditional ‘back-slappers’! It says:

And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord are there few who are saved?” Jesus said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able…

When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, “I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know you, where you are from. DEPART FROM ME, all you workers of iniquity.’”

Did John say, “…that which is born (or birthed by) of the Spirit is spirit,” with Paul the Apostle affirming also in Romans 8:13-14, “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.” And what an awesome, identifying unveiling of “true disciples”!

The Holy Spirit of God, living IN the life of every true born-again believer, is there to initially bear witness to our “Blood-bought redemption”, then assuming, as one allows Him, to guide and direct their every step toward maturity, from birth to childhood, from childhood to youthfulness, from youthfulness to young adults, from young adults to adults, and from young adults to ‘senior’ adults IN SPIRITUAL MATURITY TO THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST! Oswald Chambers said, in “My Utmost For His Highest” (p.219), not witnessing ‘to our reason,’ but “the Spirit witnesses (in us) only to His own nature, and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason.”

The ministry of the Holy Spirit in YOU? CONTINUING THE UNVEILING OF THE REALITY OF YOUR OLD MAN CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS, UNVEILING MORE AND MORE YOUR AWARENESS OF YOUR “NEW CREATION” STATUS, AND NOT ALLOWING THE “OLD MAN” TO CAPTURE YOUR INTEREST AGAIN, BUT MAGNIFYING THE UNENDING BLESSINGS OF YOUR ONENESS IN CHRIST! We’re not, under the Holy Spirit’s leadership, defined as simply a “refined order”, but a “new-born” son or daughter God’s Holy Family! And because of the Word AND the Holy Spirit, we can truly say with Paul, (2 Corinthians 2:14), “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (stage of life or circumstances!)” – and THAT by the Spirit, with Jesus telling us, in John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth…Verse 14, He will glorify Me…(that’s the Lord Jesus)! And the Spirit “glorifies” Jesus in that faithful ministry THROUGH YOUR LIFE AND MINE, BORN AGAIN BY THE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD AND INDWELT IN US BY HIS HOLY SPIRIT! And the Spirit’s continuing ministry in us and through us?

SECOND, TRUE DISCIPLES ARE IDENTIFIED AS THEY REFLECT, REST IN, RELY UPON, AND RESPOND TO THE WILL OF FATHER-GOD IN THEIR LIVES AS JESUS DID IN HIS! In Matthew 20:20-28 there is, for the young disciples before Christ, the eternal truth of ‘greatness’ in being the servant unto others. Jesus said: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among YOU, let him be your slave – JUST AS the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Superiority is NOT the calling of Christ for His disciples but the servant-spirit as He told His initial disciples in Luke 22:24-27 after His chosen disciples began to argue “as to which of them should be considered the greatest”, Jesus responded, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those who exercise authority over them are called ‘benefactors’. (That’s, according to The Random House Collegiate Dictionary, “one who confers a benefit, a kindly helper”). But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. For who is greater, he who sits at the table, or he who serves? Is it not he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as the One who serves.”

Certainly the Apostle Paul clearly understood the spirit, nature, and character of Christ in himself after his conversion and transformation from a Jewish ‘Rabbi” to a ‘servant’ that Christ Jesus exemplified! He wrote, in 2 Corinthians 12:15, “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.”

“Very gladly spend and be spent for your souls”? Is that not the spirit of Christ, our Lord, our servant, our example? “The Son of Man did not come to sit on a throne to be served and to be ministered to but to lay down His life in caring for others!”

But as one reads passionately Paul’s writing in the Letter to the Romans, especially in Romans 9 and Romans 10, you see Israel rejecting Christ, rejecting God’s purpose for them, even as we witness those today who turn deaf ears and blind eyes to the call of Christ to “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” In Romans 9:6-8 we read, “But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ‘In Isaac your seed shall be called.’ That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.”

But as you continue into Romans 10:1-4, you see unfolded before you, not only Israel’s need of the Redeeming, Reigning Savior and Lord, but all of fallen mankind, void ‘in the heart’ as well as the mind, even “the religious” who are “ignorant of God’s righteousness”! Paul wrote, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved (re-born, regenerated, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God). For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to).”

Paul went on to say in Verse 8 that ‘redeeming faith’ is “the word of faith which we preach” Verse 9, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” How needful is that message for today?

THIRD, TRUE DISCIPLES ARE IDENTIFIED AS THEY HAVE THEIR EARS OPENED TO HEAR GOD AS JESUS OPENED HIS EARS, YES, TO HEAR, RECEIVE, AND WALK IN THE REVEALED WISDOM OF GOD! Wasn’t it Stephen, in Acts 7:51, speaking of, yes, ‘unbelieving Israelites’ saying, “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did so do you.”

In Romans 10:8, as the judgment of God came upon ‘the unbelieving’, Paul said: Just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.’

Yet, over and over, in the Four Gospels, Jesus said often, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!!” Paul, in Acts 28, encountered resistant Israelites who didn’t believe what they heard from the Apostle, but also, Verse 24, reveals: “And some were persuaded by the things which were spoken, and some disbelieved.”

If you open your Bible to 2 Thessalonians 2:9-16, you’ll see the “unbelievers” and the true disciples of Christ! It says: “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, AND with ALL UNRIGHTEOUS DECEPTION among those who perish, BECAUSE they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you to our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught by word or our epistle.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.” Are YOU established, gifted, standing in, firmly rooted in Christ Jesus and His resurrection life, power, and hope?

FOURTH AND LAST, FOR THIS CHAPTER, ARE YOU A TRUE FAITHFUL DISCIPLE OF CHRIST WITH A HEART, MIND, AND SPIRIT TURNED TO DO AS JESUS DID IN “PLEASING FATHER-GOD”? In Mark 1:9-11 we read, It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

So, is this not why Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:9, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead…”? The sentence of death in ourselves? Yes! Because it is so easy to pretend, to imitate, to do as best as we know how to ‘in the flesh’ – and as a result to miss the anointing and indwelling of the very Spirit and Life and Anointed Presence of the Resurrected Christ and the fullness of the Holy Spirit! Be through with yourself – Jesus crucified it – and promised the fullness of the Holy Spirit! Holy God has no desire to see you professing Christ, then trying your “best” as an “illuminated, imitation version”! God wants Christ, in and through His Spirit, indwelling, infilling, overflowing with Resurrection Life and Resurrection Hope! AMEN?

The Christ-like walk of discipleship is not a “sand-box life” of playing, but devotion to His Presence, His Lordship, His will! Didn’t Jesus say in John 15:4, “Abide [or remain] in Me, and I in you. As the Branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” Have YOU resolutely determined to abide or remain IN CHRIST?

“A CHURCH’S, A PASTOR’S, A DISCIPLE’S

MINISTRY TO A LOST, NEEDY, SINFUL WORLD”

VERY ‘WEIGHTY,CONVICTING VERSES’ RESIDES IN JAMES I:26-27 WHERE THE BROTHER OF JESUS, JAMES, WROTE: “IF ANY MAN AMONG YOU,SEEM TO BE RELIGIOUS, AND BRIDLES NOT HIS TONGUE, BUT DECEIVES HIS OWN HEART, THIS MAN’S RELIGION IS VAIN. PURE RELIGION AND UNDEFILED BEFORE GOD AND THE FATHER IS THIS,..

TO VISIT THE FATHERLESS AND WIDOWS IN THEIR AFFLICTION, AND TO KEEP HIMSELF UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD.” THE BROTHER OF JESUS SAW A GREAT NEED, ‘THE FATHERLESS AND WIDOWS IN THEIR AFFLICTION.’ THANK GOD FOR JAMES BECAUSE “HE SAW” A GREAT NEED AND INSTRUCTED DISCIPLES AROUND HIM TO MEET THAT NEED! BUT IS THAT ALL THAT A CHURCH, A PASTOR, OR A DISCIPLE IS CALLED TO DO? “I DON’T THINK SO! I KNOW IT’S NOT ALL! DID JAMES REALLY SAY: “TRUE DISCIPLES ARE TO KEEP THEMSELVES UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD”?

BUT MULTITUDES ACROSS AMERICA AND THE REST OF THE WORLD WILL IGNORE “BLOOD ATONEMENT THRU’ CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION, IGNORE HIS RESURRECTION, DENY HIS PROMISE, “OPEN THE DOOR OF YOUR HEART AND I WILL COME IN!” BUT RATHER THAN REPENTING, INVITING JESUS IN, LETTING THE “HISTORIC CHRIST” BE HIMSELF IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU, MOST PROFESSORS OF FAITH IN CHRIST ‘PROFESS’ BUT THEY WANT ‘CHURCH MEMBERSHIP’ APART FROM “NEW BIRTH”!

IN 2 TIMOTHY 3:16-17 PAUL WROTE: “ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD, AND IS PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS: THAT THE MAN OF GOD MAY BE MADE PERFECT, THOROUGHLY FURNISHED IN ALL GOOD WORKS.” WHAT POWERFUL, CONVICTING, INSTRUCTIVE WORDS OF GOD TO EVERY DISCIPLE!

THE CONVERTED, POWERFUL, NATURAL FISHERMAN AND SPIRITUAL FISHERMAN,SIMON PETER, WROTE IN 2 PETER 1,FIRST,VERSES 3-4, “ACCORDING AS HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN UNTO US ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN UNTO LIFE AND GODLINESS, “THROUGH” THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST WHO HAS CALLED US TO GLORY AND VIRTUE: AND, WHEREBY ARE GIVEN UNTO US EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISES: THAT BY THESE YOU MIGHT “BE” PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, HAVING ESCAPED THE CORRUPTION THAT IS IN THE WORLD THROUGH LUST”!

READ IN YOUR OWN BIBLE VERSES 5-7 BEFORE YOU CONTINUE READING THE FOLLOWING, VERSES 8-11, WHEN PETER,YES, ALSO INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WROTE: “FOR IF THESE THINGS BE IN YOU, AND ABOUND,THEY MAKE YOU THAT YOU SHALL NEITHER BE BARREN NOR UNFRUITFUL IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. BUT HE THAT LACKS THESE THINGS IS BLIND, AND CANNOT SEE AFAR OFF, AND HAS FORGOTTEN THAT HE WAS PURGED FROM HIS OLD SINS.

WHEREFORE THE RATHER,BRETHREN,GIVE DILIGENCE,TO MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE; FOR IF YOU DO THESE THINGS, YOU SHALL NEVER FALL; FOR SO AN ENTRANCE SHALL BE MINISTERED UNTO YOU ABUNDANTLY INTO THE EVERLASTING KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.”

I’M SORRY IF IT ‘BOTHERS’ YOU THAT I SHARE SO MUCH SCRIPTURE WITH YOU, BUT I’M FULLY CONVINCED THAT YOU NEED GOD’S TRUTH MORE THAN MY THOUGHTS!

WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO READ IS GOD’S HOLY CALLING TO FAITHFUL DISCIPLES TO, YES, BE MISSION-MINDED MEN AND WOMEN IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD LITERALLY AND FAITHFULLY LAYING DOWN YOUR LIFE IF NECESSARY TO SHARE THE EVANGELISTIC TRUTH OF GOD’S LOVE FOR THE WORLD THROUGH HIS SACRIFICE OF HIS SON! AND YOU?

SO…IN 1 CORINTHIANS 1:17-31 WE READ EVERY TRUE DISCIPLE’S CALLING AND LIFE-IN-CHRIST’S MISSION AND MINISTRY!! IT SAYS: “FOR CHRIST SENT ME NOT TO BAPTIZE, BUT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL: NOT WITH WISDOM OF WORDS, LEST THE CROSS OF CHRIST SHOULD BE MADE OF NO EFFECT. FOR THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS IS TO THEM THAT PERISH FOOLISHNESS; BUT UNTO US WHO ARE ‘BEING’ SAVED IT IS THE POWER OF GOD.

FOR IT IS WRITTEN, I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND WILL BRING TO NOTHING THE UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRUDENT. WHERE IS THE WISE?WHERE IS THE SCRIBE?WHERE IS THE DISPUTER OF THIS WORLD?HAS NOT GOD MADE FOOLISH THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD?” (‘THE DISPUTER OF THIS WORLD’? THAT’S MEN WHO BELIEVE THE WORLD WAS MADE ‘FOR THEM’, NOT FOR THE GLORY OF GOD ALONE!).

VERSES 21-31 FOLLOWS: “FOR AFTER THAT IN THE WISDOM OF GOD THE WORLD BY WISDOM KNEW NOT GOD, IT PLEASED GOD BY THE FOOLISHNESS OF PREACHING TO SAVE THEM THAT BELIEVE. FOR THE JEWS REQUIRE A SIGN, AND THE GREEKS SEEK AFTER WISDOM:(LET ME PAUSE &SAY,“FOOLISH AMERICANS, ASIANS,AFRICANS,EUROPEANS”?),VERSES 23-31!BUT WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED, UNTO THE JEWS A STUMBLING BLOCK, AND UNTO THE GREEKS FOOLISHNESS; BUT UNTO THEM WHICH ‘ARE CALLED’, BOTH JEWS AND GREEKS, CHRIST,THE POWER OF GOD,AND THE WISDOM OF GOD.

BECAUSE THE FOOLISHNESS OF GOD IS WISER THAN MEN; AND THE WEAKNESS OF GOD IS STRONGER THAN MEN. FOR YOU SEE YOUR CALLING,BRETHREN,HOW THAT NOT MANY WISE MEN AFTER THE FLESH, NOT MANY MIGHTY, NOT MANY NOBLE, ARE CALLED;

BUT GOD HAS CHOSEN THE FOOLISH THINGS OF THE WORLD TO CONFOUND THE WISE; AND GOD HAS CHOSEN THE WEAK THINGS OF THE WORLD TO CONFOUND THE THINGS WHICH ARE MIGHTY; AND BASE THINGS OF THE WORLD, AND THINGS WHICH ARE DESPISED, HAS GOD CHOSEN,YES, AND THINGS WHICH ARE NOT, TO BRING TO NOTHING THINGS THAT ARE:THAT NO FLESH (OR OLD ‘SIN NATURE’) SHOULD GLORY IN HIS PRESENCE. (YOU’RE AWARE,MAYBE,THAT EVERY BELIEVING MAN OR WOMAN,AND EVERY UNBELIEVING MAN OR WOMAN, WILL STAND BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF HOLY GOD TO EXPLAIN TO HIM ONE’S LACK OF FAITH OR ONE’S FULL TRUST IN THE BLOOD REDEMPTION SACRIFICE OF KING JESUS!!).

VERSES 30-31, “BUT OF HIM ARE “YOU” IN CHRIST JESUS, WHO OF GOD (GET READY FOR THE FOLLOWING!!), “YOU IN CHRIST JESUS, WHO OF GOD IS MADE UNTO US (HIS) WISDOM, AND (HIS) RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND (HIS)SANCTIFICATION, AND (HIS) REDEMPTION: THAT, ACCORDING AS IT IS WRITTEN, “HE THAT GLORIES (IN LIFE’S JOURNEY), LET HIM/HER GLORY IN THE LORD”!!!

B.B.MCKINNEY,IN THE OLD “BROADMAN HYMNAL” OF 1940 (COPYRIGHTED BY BROADMAN PRESS IN NASHVILLE,TENN.)WROTE THE HYMN “HE LIVES ON HIGH”(P.336) THAT SAYS: “CHRIST THE SAVIOR CAME FROM HEAVEN’S GLORY,TO REDEEM THE LOST FROM SIN AND SHAME; ON HIS BROW HE WORE THE THORN-CROWN GORY, AND UPON CALVARY HE TOOK MY BLAME.

HE AROSE FROM DEATH AND ALL ITS SORROW, TO DWELL IN THAT ‘LAND OF JOY AND LOVE’; HE IS COMING BACK SOME GLAD TOMORROW, AND HE’LL TAKE ALL HIS CHILDREN HOME ABOVE.

WEARY SOUL, TO JESUS COME CONFESSING, REDEMPTION FROM SIN HE OFFERS THEE; LOOK TO JESUS AND (SURRENDER?) AND RECEIVE A BLESSING, THERE IS LIFE, THERE IS JOY AND VICTORY .”

DO “YOU” UNDERSTAND THAT THERE IS “VICTORY IN JESUS” OVER THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH, A GOD-ORDAINED LAW? DOESN’T ROMANS 3:23 TELL US:”FOR ALL HAVE SINNED, AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD”? DARE I SAY IT? BELIEVE I WILL! “ARE YOU AWARE THAT SOME ‘PROFESSING BELIEVERS IN CHRIST, CHURCH MEMBERS’, SINCERELY BELIEVE THEY CAN’T DO ANYTHING BUT SIN UNTIL JESUS COMES THE SECOND TIME?” JESUS “CAME” AND HE STAYS IN THE HEARTS OF TRUE BELIEVERS, EXPRESSING HIMSELF,EXTENDING HIS LOVE, & PROVING HIS POWER – AND HE DOES IT, BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO IS, CONVICTING, CONVERTING, TRANSFORMING,ESTABLISHING ANOTHER “TEMPLE” IN WHICH HE RESIDES, REMAINS, AND REACHES OUT THROUGH THEM TO EXTEND HIS KINGDOM RULE IN MANY MORE HEARTS AND LIVES!

OH, THEN IN ROMANS 5:5 PAUL WROTE: “HOPE MAKES YOU NOT ASHAMED (ANY LONGER!MY TWO WORDS!); BECAUSE THE LOVE OF GOD IS SHED ABROAD IN OUR HEARTS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO IS GOD’S GIFT TO ALL TRUE BELIEVERS!!”

BUT YOU ARE AWARE OUR KNOWN WORLD IS ALSO FILLED WITH “RELIGIOUS SUBSTITUTIONS”, ‘THAT’ IN AND THROUGH WHICH RELIGIOUSLY DECEIVED MINDS WILL EXERCISE THEIR ‘REIGIOUS FEELINGS’ APART FROM CONVICTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, APART FROM CONVERTED TO “NEW LIFE IN CHRIST” AND UPON CONVERSION, IN-FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND COMMISSIONED AS HIS “ROYAL AMBASSADORS”!

SO MANY CHOOSE NOTHING BUT “ME, MY, AND MINE”,OR SOME WILL ‘UNITE’ WITH, ‘LIAR-OLOGY’, ‘MYTH-OLOGY’, ‘FLESH-OLOGY’, ‘WORLD-RELIGIONS’ THEOLOGIES, ‘SELF-ORDAINED THEOLOGY’ – CHOOSING ‘MY CHOICE IS BETTER THAN GOD’S CHOICE, YOUR CHURCH’S CHOICE, OR THE FALSE CHOICES OF OTHER WORLD RELIGIONS’! “AS FOR ME? I’LL TRY TO BE THE BEST RELIGION-PARTICIPANT I CAN BE!” REALLY?

BUT IN 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7-12 PAUL ENLIGHTENS US EVEN MORE AS HE WROTE: “AND LEST I SHOULD BE EXALTED ABOVE MEASURE, THROUGH THE ABUNDANCE OF “REVELATIONS GIVEN TO ME”, THERE WAS GIVEN TO ME A THORN IN THE FLESH, THE MESSENGER OF SATAN TO BUFFET ME, LEST I SHOULD BE EXALTED ABOVE MEASURE. FOR THIS THING, I BESOUGHT THE LORD THRICE, THAT IT MIGHT DEPART FROM ME. AND HE SAID UNTO ME, “MY GRACE IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU: FOR MY STRENGTH IS MADE PERFECT IN WEAKNESS.

MOST GLADLY THEREFORE WILL I RATHER GLORY IN MY INFIRMITIES, THAT THE POWER OF CHRIST MAY REST UPON ME. THEREFORE I TAKE PLEASURE IN INFIRMITIES, IN REPROACHES, IN NECESSITIES, IN PERSECUTIONS, IN DISTRESSES FOR CHRIST’S SAKE: FOR WHEN I AM WEAK, THEN AM I STRONG.” WHY? BECAUSE HE DOESN’T PROFESS THROUGH “BEST EFFORT” BUT “RESTS” IN JESUS’S BEST, & BECAUSE YOU “DIE DAILY THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED THROUGH YOUR MORTAL FLESH.”

IT’S TIME FOR YOU AS A ‘PROFESSING DISCIPLE’ TO ALLOW JESUS TO POSSESS YOUR BODY, HEART, AND MIND THROUGH WHICH HE LIVES OUT HIMSELF THROUGH YOU TO TOUCH THE WORLD AROUND YOU WITH HIS MERCY, GRACE, AND LOVE.

I CLOSE THIS MESSAGE FROM ANOTHER HYMN OUT OF THE BROADMAN HYMNAL, THE HYMNAL I QUOTED FROM EARLIER, BUT HERE IT’S A HYMN (P340)BY P.P.BLISS THAT SAYS:

“FREE FROM THE LAW (THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH?),O HAPPY CONDITION, JESUS HAS BLED, AND THERE IS REMISSION; CURSED BY THE LAW AND BRUISED BY THE FLL, GRACE HAS REDEEMED US ONCE FOR ALL.

NOW ARE WE FREE – THERE’S NO CONDEMNATION, JESUS PROVIDES A PERFECT SALVATION; “COME UNTO ME”, O HEAR HIS SWEET CALL, COME, AND HE SAVES US ONCE FOR ALL.

“CHILDREN OF GOD”, O glorious calling, surely his grace will keep us from Falling; passing from death to life at his call, blessed salvation once for all.

Once for all, O sinner, receive it; once for all,O brother, believe it; cling to the cross, the burden will fall, Christ has redeemed us once for all.”

AT THE ETERNAL THRONE OF JUDGMENT AS GOD EXAMINES “YOU”, WILL IT BE, “I TRIED MY BEST”, OR: “I TRULY, WHOLE-HEARTEDILY, ONCE FOR HIM ONLY DO I “REST” THROUGH CHRIST’S DEATH, RESURRECTION, ASCENSION, HIS REIGN IN ME, REJOICING DAILY IN HOPE!

By J. FARRELL FISHER, APRIL 10, 2017

In Proverbs 25:25 we read, “As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country.” I clearly understand that, because for 25-30 years I traveled 3-6 months a year, 3 weeks to 3 months at a time, equipping, encouraging, and, I pray, inspiring pastors in their ministries, plus proclaiming the Gospel in crusades and youth ministries, and at times I needed the cold water for a weary soul.

There are times when disciples of Christ become “weary souls”, but, thank God, for the encouragers rather than the “bad news bears”! In Genesis 27:46, Rebecca said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

At the same time some become wearied, yes, even from “bad, sad, maddening news”, but they are those who understand that the “good news” CAN overcome bad circumstances and events and, for others, it’s “news” that totally disheartens them, good news or bad news. But in fact, in Galatians 6:9, Paul wrote: “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” In life’s journeys, some lose heart because they major on “bad news” rather than the “good News” of God’s grace, mercy, and love!

In Genesis 24:27 “the man” said: “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.” How interesting do you personally find that! “As for me, being in the way, the Lord led me…”? Dare I say to you in beginning, “To not be in the Way, the Truth, and the Life of Christ, is to be traveling on the highway of “bad news”, yet, at the same time, some have committed to the True Way of “good news” yet willfully wander or are deceived by “the powers of darkness” and choose “rough roads” rather than the “Welcome Highway” of goodness, graciousness, and gentleness of Spirit, even satisfied, at times, to ‘taste’ the “bad news” from their “fleshly choices”!

Be assured! Holy God does not Author the “bad News” of one’s life unless that person lives with “my way” to the point he/she doesn’t care for God’s “Amazing Grace” because he/she is wedded to “what I want, not what God declares AND demands”! How many do you know who favor their own ‘religious conceit’ to the divine will of God?

“Bad News” is consistency and devotion to one’s fallen sin nature, to the “stubborn will” of what one desires and not what God commands, to the ‘false peace’ of the godless, world-citizens, who write and observe their own constitutions, void of the will of God!

There are fleshly, devilish, worldly wedges called ‘self-pride, self-will, or self-justification and approval’ of “Who I am and what I desire apart from anything your God demands,” so they willfully choose the “bad news” of “My way – I do it my way – not what your God expects!” “Bad News”? “I’m deeply in love with my natural virtues and passionate about the ways of my godless world!” “There’s nothing evil about my ‘evil thoughts’, just a little bit of the beastly and lots of the demonic that makes my godless life fun, pleasurable, and enjoyable – you Christians ought to try it sometime!” I don’t know how some see it and say it without shame, but they do: “Most of humanity spends its best hours choosing between evils that are rampant all around them – jump in, have fun,” not knowing that’s a leap into the pit of Hell with the devil’s crowd!

“Bad News”? When you turn to the Book of Revelation, in Revelation 2, the heading of my New King James Version of the Bible, entitles Revelation 2:18 and following as “The Corrupt Church”. Certainly it fitted Thyatira, but it also can be an inspired Word of conviction for any compromising church, group of Christians, or even one professing disciple of Christ! Hear it!

Revelation 2:18-29 are words from the angelic messenger over Thyatira, And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: “These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass. ‘I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. NEVERTHELESS I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.

Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who ‘commit adultery’ with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.

Now to you I say, and to the rest in (Thyatira), as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations – ‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’ – as I have also received from My Father, and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says TO THE CHURCHES.”

“Bad News”? My dear friend, fellow classmate and football teammate at Baylor University, from 1956-1958, seminary classmate at Southwestern Seminary also, sent me a message about 8 years ago that was Vance Havner’s sentence about the ‘average Baptist church’ that I feel now is the right time to share it with you! Havner said: “If an airplane had as many useless parts as the average Baptist church, it’d fly about as fast as a canary with a sack of wheat tied to its tail!” But dare I say it? ‘Useless parts of any church today across the USA defined with a tied tail trying to fly that bag of wheat’?

“Bad News”? THERE IS LITTLE PROCLAMATION OF “EXCEPT YOU REPENT, YOU WILL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH!” In fact, most in our modern day simply say, “Join our church – and everything will be OK!” What you see across, around, within most churches today is what Walter Chantry, in his book, “Today’s Gospel – Authentic Or Synthetic?”, wrote about: “in love for souls, true evangelicals invariably present some profound truths in their witnessing. Yet by THE UNCONSCIOUS OMMISSION OF ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS OF THE GOSPEL, many fail to communicate even that portion of God’s Word which they meant to convey. When a half truth is presented as the whole truth, it becomes an untruth.”

“REPENT!” Really? Is that in a church’s ‘salvation’ presentation? “FORSAKE!” Really? Isaiah 55:7-9 clearly says, God Himself speaking, proclaiming, informing: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; LET HIM RETURN TO THE LORD, and He (the Lord Himself) will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, now are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heaven are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” AND THE FLESHLY PROUD UNBELIEVER SHAKES HIS FIST AGAINST HOLY GOD, AND TURNS TO HIS SINFUL WORLD TO SATISFY HIS ‘FLESH’ OR OLD, ADAMIC SIN-NATURE! And the fleshly sinner turns away from Holy God’s merciful invitation, trying to be ‘happy’ in himself rather than knowing “the Joy of the Lord”!

It was H.W.Webb-Peploe, in Kurt Bruner’s “Inklings of God”, (p.21) who said, “Joy is not gush; joy is not jolliness. Joy is perfect acquiescence in God’s will because the soul delights itself in God Himself.” Bruner closed out his book, saying, (p.193), “Every religion reminds me that I am made for more. Every religion reaches for God. Every religion offers to make the wrong right again. But only one religion, Christianity, is honest enough to tell me that I can’t solve my own problem. I can’t obey enough rules, offer enough sacrifices, or become enlightened enough to rise above the wretchedness around and within me. All I can do is humbly accept the redemption offered by the One who made me for more and who heroically sacrificed Himself on my behalf. It’s like the preacher told me when I was seven. I am a sinner who needs to be saved.”

Life without the Redeemer, the Atoner, the Savior and Lord, is a life like a bronze statue but void of God’s eternal Presence in and through Christ Jesus. Because to come to Him is to confess: “Without His Resurrection Life and Presence within me, I have no hope, no peace, no eternal purpose – I just ‘counterfeit’ what I have determined is my purpose and my chosen intent!” And Bruner, later in his book, used powerful, convicting words: (p94), “…air out of the illusion of adult omniscience.” And the problem with most of the unregenerate world? Daniel 5 tells us about “Belshazzar’s feast”, and Verses 3-4, unveils, not only an idolatrous worship then but unfolds what, I believe, the Spirit of God sees today in a lot of churches! “Then they brought the gold vessels that had been taken from the temple of the house of God which had been in Jerusalem; and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.”

Dare I tell you that that ‘religious observance’, like much across the religious world today, is like ‘another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority’ – Revelation 18:1, and the earth (the present religious systems!) is now or will be soon “illuminated with his glory.” And he cried mightily: Verses 3-8, “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and GOD HAS REMEMBERED HER INIQUITIES! [But today? Most in ‘churchianity’ profess “Glad our sins have been forgiven and that the loving God understands we can’t do anything but sin until we get to Heaven!”] HOW PHONY IS THAT, even to the words of Jesus: “Go, and sin no more!” (John 8:10-12!).

Three things out of John 8:10-12! 1. “Sin no more” because Christ Jesus says so! 2. “Sin no more” because of what sin does! 3. “Sin no more” because “sin” promotes “fleshliness” of the old sin nature that Christ took to the Cross – Christ Jesus gives, after repentance toward God and faith in His finished work at the Cross the “new life” of liberty and freedom from sin and the sin-nature bondage with His Presence within to be released as with Paul we “take the sentence of death to ourselves that His Resurrected Life will be manifested in our mortal flesh”!

False ‘religious hopes’ and ‘carnal mind-twisting of the Scriptures’, vague resemblances, cheap imitation, fleshly, fallible persuasions, a “give your best” mandate substituting what Christ did at the Cross for what one sees him/her capable of doing in one’s outer countenance and personal determination, puts many on ‘dirt roads’ rather than the Christ-constructed “Highway of Holiness”! And this ‘spirit’, this attitude, this fleshly-minded determination , may be why God inspired through Paul, in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6, to write: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves – that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified, [Paul and the co-laborers traveling with him!].

Hear me! There are blessed assurances in the Word to the true believer who “leans not (even) to his own understanding, but in all his/her ways they acknowledge their “only hope” is Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and moment by moment abiding with the true “born-again believer”, saying, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.” Glory!

Paul said in Galatians 1:15-16, “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…,” with John saying in 1 John 3:24, “Now he who keeps His (Christ’s) commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”

We know! Do you? Serious assurance and confidence flows out of the child of the King because they repent, they rest in His Resurrection presence with them, in them, through them, no longer ‘self-deceived hypocrites’, but living daily, yes, even moment by moment, “Lord, what do You desire to do in me and through me – I’m Yours?” And YOU KNOW you’ve been drawn to Him because YOU KNOW that you were born again, not of the will of men, but of God!” (John 1:13). Do you understand Ezekial 36:25-27, AND receive it? The Lord God speaks! “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean (real water or the water of the Word?); I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

Glory! A walk of grace, of divine favor, of the supernatural power of the Spirit of God!

I close with a writing I assume, by Max Lucado in his book, “In The Grace of God”, (Copyright, 1996 by Max Lucado, W Publishing Group, A division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. www. Thomas Nelson. Com). It’s entitled “What a God!” (p.55):

“Ponder the achievement of God.

He doesn’t condone our sin, nor does He compromise His standard.

He doesn’t ignore our rebellion, nor does He relax His demands.

Rather than dismiss our sin, He assumes our sin and, incredibly, sentences Himself.

God’s holiness is honored. Our sin is punished… and we are redeemed.

God does what we cannot do so we can be what we dare not dream: perfect before God.”

DO YOU UNDERSTAND? GOD’S GRACE IS GREATER THAN ALL OUR SIN!

William Hunter and J.H. Stockton wrote the old hymn, “The Great Physician”. It’s found in the Broadman Hymnal of Broadman Press, Inc., Nashville, Tennessee. It says: “The great Physician now is near, The sympathizing Jesus; He speaks the drooping heart to cheer, Oh, hear the voice of Jesus.

Your many sins are all forgiven, Oh, hear the voice of Jesus; Go on your way in peace to heaven, And wear a crown with Jesus.

All glory to the dying Lamb! I now believe in Jesus; I love the blessed Savior’s name, I love the name of Jesus.

Sweetest note in seraph song, Sweetest name on mortal tongue; Sweetest carol ever sung, Jesus, blessed Jesus.” AMEN?

By: J.Farrell Fisher, July 11-14, 2017

How would you describe “Satanic Duplicity” as you seek to make a difference in your world around you as, yes, an “ambassador of Christ Jesus”? Sadly, I fear “ambassadors of Christ” are often mislead, ill-advised, and ‘cooperative with the powers of darkness’ rather than True Lights of Christ expelling and exposing and unveiling victory over Satan through Christ but sadly compromising their calling as ‘disciples of Christ’ ,and cooperating with, rather than “fighting the good fight of faith” against Satan and his enemies of Christ!

If true disciples are called to “glorify Christ” in their daily walks, how is it that many assume ‘pietistic pilgrimages’ apart from supernatural presence and power or ‘washed in the blood of the Lamb’ or none, if any, anointings of the Holy Spirit – no “new birth”, no “Kingdom of God identity”, no “transformation” by repentance toward God and faith ONLY in the finished work of Christ at the Cross and Empty tomb, but “Jesus is our pattern while in and of ourselves we seek to live like Him”! No! Ten thousand times, No!

‘Trying’ is not “trusting” but a fleshly attempt to ‘duplicate’ Satan’s ‘trust’ (?) in himself rather than surrender to and allegiance to the honor of being “saved by grace through faith” in Jesus’ Calvary’s Cross and Empty Tomb victory over Satan and his powers of darkness. Satan’s ‘religious philosophy’ is void of the absolute need of being ‘born again,’ regenerated by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, and assuming that attempting to ‘live’ like Jesus is as good as His indwelling Resurrection Life! No! Ten thousand times no!

There is no doubt that in God’s awesome birthing of humanity from Adam and Eve onward were all, yes, birthed with a humanitarian need for God, but the ‘sin natures’ we were all birthed with imitates Satan but not duplicating Christ Jesus! Holy God is not interested in any natural life being ‘programmed’ to “try your best” because ‘natural life’ will attempt, at times, to even try to live ‘like Jesus’ but is void of the birthing of “spiritual life” by the Holy Spirit! Holy God determined all of fallen humanity to be “crucified with Christ at the Cross and raised to new life in His resurrection presence” – your ‘best’ as well as your worst was summed up as deserving of death only, and Jesus took your death unto Himself so you could have His Resurrection Life!

But ‘Satanic Duplicity’? “Sin may be my ‘curse’, but it doesn’t produce ‘death’ and separation from God – it’s my reminder to do my best, while those Christians who insist ‘my best is the tyranny of godlessness while I really desire to please Him’, are those Christians telling me, ‘Only the Son sets you free’, when I know I can overcome Satan,” not even aware they’ve already been overcome and owned by him in their satanic duplicity!

It was Leo Tolstoy, in his writing “The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays”, (Oxford University Press, 1936, p.158), who wrote: “Man’s whole life is a continual contradiction of what he knows to be his duty. In every department of life he acts in defiant opposition to the dictates of his conscience and his common sense.” Tolstoy understood “satanic duplicity or Christ-like resistance”, but examining fallen mankind, he saw undergirding their rebellion to truth ‘a pervasive and profound hopelessness and sense of worthlessness,’ being unaware they were living with ‘savorless salt’ without any assistance for their godless families, friends, or associates – no eternal meaning but only ‘cosmetic’ coverings and unfulfilling imitations!

It was really, really interesting to hear Christ Jesus exposing the ‘religious elite’ of Judaism who cooperated with Satan in Christ’s crucifixion saying in Matthew 23:1-5a, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat (self-appointed!). Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men…”.

Is “seen by men” one of the strong evidences of ‘Satanic duplicity’? In John 6:66 we read, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him.” And Jesus turned to the twelve saying to them, “Do you also want to go away?” A little later Jesus said, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” That was Judas – and just as there has always been a Judas, there have been and will be those who “choose” to ‘walk away from the Savior and Lord’ because “deceived by Satan” is ‘masterful strategy’ – the world, your old sin nature, and Satan are out to pull you away from the true Lord, Savior, and Master of eternal life!

In fact, in John 2:23-25, we read, “Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.” This just may be why the Apostle Paul said later in his ministry: “I die daily! I take the sentence of death daily unto myself that His Resurrected Presence may be manifested in my mortal flesh.” [Too many ‘believers’ like ‘faith’ without dying daily!].

Jesus’ words about “Follow Me” aren’t words to be taken lightly but purposefully! In fact, in Mark 10:21, Jesus responded and counseled the ‘rich young ruler,’ “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But the next verse tells us, “But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” Or could we say, “His great possessions had him”? Consider it! What or who has your heart?

Jesus’ words “Follow Me” comes not from a dictatorial ruler but from the Lord and Savior who said, “I didn’t come to be served but to serve and to give My life as a ransom for the many!” (Matthew 20:28). Nondiscipleship majors on, yes, ‘human achievement in the name of Jesus’ but is an overflow of religious activity, not availability to His indwelling presence! Nondiscipleship majors on personal performance apart from seeking to have a vessel, temple, or tabernacle through which He extends His life, expresses His love, and proves His amazing power to “raise the dead” to His honor and the honor of Father God through the mighty anointings of the Holy Spirit!

Resurrection Life, in and through Christ’s living presence, is the only hope modern-day churches have in giving Him honor, glory, and praise – He’s not interested in “your best” but your availability to all He is in His Resurrection Presence! Many ‘professing Christians’ will thank Jesus for His forgiveness, but never ask Him His intent through His resurrection presence – too many believe they serve Him in the best of their head knowledge, missing out on “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ” which IS, “Christ in you the hope of glory”. I think it’s time modern-day Christians “loose Him and let Him be Himself in and through them!” Why would one accept His forgiveness but never find out what a forgiven disciple is to be about?

Satanic duplicity is evidenced by the godless, by individual lives and, for many, by ‘family’ godlessness or by ‘family’ church attendance with no concern, really, about why they are there. Satanic duplicity is strengthened and furthered, yes, by religious attendees of church gatherings but no grasp at all about “dead to self” or “tools in God’s hands – not knowing what dominates their ‘church attendance’ or what their ‘salvation’ in God’s plan has to do with them where they live”!

Satanic duplicity will blind ‘church attenders’ to ‘why am I here in this gathering’(?), knowing nothing of a true church’s equipping, training, raising up the “new-born” into true sons and daughters of kingdom living in touching their world with the love and grace of Almighty God, revealed through Christ, the Lamb of God! In the ‘flesh’ they are aware of its lust, of worldly eyes, and the boastful pride of life! But Christ took your old man to the Cross, and there YOU were crucified with Christ, all that was under Satan’s domination and control – that was crucified! But now, having repented, and put your faith in the finished work of Christ at the Cross, you live as “the tabernacle of Holy, Resurrection Presence”, you being His footstool upon which He stands to extend His life, express His love, and prove His power through you!

Satanic duplicity blinds far too many ‘church attenders’ to the intent of Christ’s Resurrection Life in them and through them. In fact, I’m convinced Satan has achieved awesome ‘self-destruction’ in many ‘believers’ rather than Christ’s victory over sin and death because he deceives in saying, “You can’t do anything but sin until you get to heaven,” denying Jesus’ words: “Go, and sin no more!”

Oswald Chambers wrote in his famous book, “My Utmost For His Highest,” (p.206), “Sin is a thing I am born with and I cannot touch it; God touches sin in Redemption. In the Cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “And this is the judgment,” (the critical moment), “that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.”

Several truths I want you to be aware of: FIRST, BLOOD FORGIVENESS THROUGH CHRIST’S SHED BLOOD IS NOT AN OPENED DOOR FOR A ‘BELIEVER’ TO KEEP ON SINNING SO HE CAN EXPERIENCE MORE AND MORE OF CHRIST’S FORGIVENESS! Have you ever encountered those who openly talk about receiving Christ’s forgiveness, and yet, beyond that day they were “reconciled”, they see it as such ‘amazing grace’ that they can just go on ‘sinning’?

You do understand that modern-day ‘Christianity’ in many churches has interpreted ‘grace’ as the license to sin, convinced that ‘obedience’ is an option in the age of grace because that would be ‘salvation by works’! No! You don’t obey in order to be saved – you obey because you have been saved!

Dallas Willard, in his book, “The Great Omission,” (p.14), having quoted Tozer saying, “that salvation apart from obedience is unknown in the sacred scriptures,” went on to say himself: “This ‘heresy’ has created the impression that it is quite reasonable to be a ‘vampire Christian.’ One in effect says to Jesus, “I’d like a little of your blood, please. But I don’t care to be your student or have your character. In fact, won’t you just excuse me while I get on with my life, and I’ll see you in heaven.’ But can we really imagine that this is an approach that Jesus finds acceptable?”

In fact, didn’t Jesus say in Luke 6:46, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do the things which I say?”

SECOND, BLOOD FORGIVENESS IS FAR MORE THAN YOUR SIN’S FORGIVENESS, IT IS GOD’S ENTRANCE INTO OUR LIVES TO REVEAL HIS SON THROUGH YOU AND ME! In Galatians 1:15-16 Paul 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…”. But, for you, there was a different purpose? Forgiveness without a purpose? Forgiveness without a cause? Forgiveness without any divine, eternal intent?

In 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 Paul wrote: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, AND has given to us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

But how many “church members” see themselves as available vessels in and through which Christ Jesus has open tabernacle doors through which He reveals Himself? And if Christ’s entrance into my heart and life is divine, eternal reality, out of the overflow of God’s loving, merciful heart, if it’s not by our best efforts, what is it or who is it Holy God uses to unveil the Christ in you? And the Word tells us that it is the Holy Spirit interpreting Christ through us! In Galatians 5:16 Paul wrote: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh”, adding in Galatians 5:22-25, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If WE live in the Spirit, let us also WALK IN THE SPIRIT.” Do you?

THIRD, BLOOD FORGIVENESS, CHRIST-AWARENESS IN THE REPENTANT, FAITHFUL HEART, IS ALSO EVIDENCED BY TRUE DISCIPLES WHO UNDERSTAND “PLAY-ACTING” IS NOT THEIR CALLING AND MISSION! Follow Luke 12:1-3! It says: In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, so that they trampled one another, Jesus began to say to His disciples first of all, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy (or “play-acting”, pretending). For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.”

God knows when a sparrow falls, but your “hidden sins” are unknown to Him? I don’t believe that’s what Jesus said! Your walk as a disciple of Christ is carefully recorded on God’s amazing ‘mind-chart and heart-chart’ of your every spoken word and every ‘deed’ of your heart you thought was hidden from Him, but He knows! Exposure of one’s bent to sinning is not something many men and women and, yes, youth, had rather not hear about! But it’s true – judgment day comes when every life has its ‘history’ unveiled before Holy God!

There is in the redemptive process of “being saved” the reality of birthed as a babe in Christ, growing from infancy to childhood, from childhood to teen years, from teen years to young adults, from young adults to mature adults, processing in a way as a child of the King to solid citizens of the “kingdom of heaven on earth”! Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

And I pray you understand, rest in, and hold on to what we read in Acts 10:38! “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” AND, is God with you, in you, released through you to touch your needy world with Christ Jesus, the only Lord and Savior and Master of life?!?

Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:17-21, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation (or unveiling!) of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”

My question for this moment? Are YOU living in ‘the age which is to come’ when in the fullness of His resurrection Life He is, yes, again being honored through your redeemed, fully surrendered Life, to His Presence, Power, Purposes, and Plan to touch the world around you with His grace, mercy, and love? As a recipient of “the keys of the Kingdom”, are YOU presently unlocking doors in men’s hearts that Christ Jesus might enter and be Himself in them as He is in you? Dallas Willard said, “Grace is opposed to earning, not to effort.” How about the ‘effort’ of daily taking the sentence of death to your ‘old man’ that the Resurrection of Christ’s Presence in you may have full release through you? Amen?

BY: J.Farrell Fisher, August 31-Sept.2, 2017

Really, seriously, personally, even corporately as a church, denomination, individual disciple, family, or international community of faith, consider the title and then consider if the world at large or locally or near-people around you has any understanding or comprehension of “The awareness of a God-blessed life”!

When it comes to a God-blessed life, there is a major warfare in the minds and hearts of men that face stiff opposition from the world, the old sin-natured man, and, of course, from Satan and the powers of darkness who want to blind you to the Truth of a “God-Blessed Life”!

But, at the same time, in immature disciples, there is the significant problem of failing to understand and deal daily with the ‘old nature’ that wants to remain dominant in you even if you ‘believe’. Some seriously do not grasp the tendencies of the old sin nature to be justified to remain around, even if you desire to be a professing believer and active church member! And, of course, in the maturing process from ‘babes in Christ’ to maturing disciples, and, yes, to senior citizens of the Kingdom, it is the blessed, powerful professor of Christ-like ‘citizenry’ and ‘loyalty’ and “royalty”, the Holy Spirit, who “guides us and matures us in the True Faith”!

Some fail to understand what Paul spoke about in Galatians 4:19 when he said, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is (fully) formed in you.” The problem exists of young, immature, untrained disciples, who are unaware of “standing fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,” Paul, having said earlier in Galatians 4:5, “For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”

So, there is for some, in the state of spiritual immaturity, an unawareness of the Sovereign God’s blessing of, yes, “the gift of the Holy Spirit”, who instills blessing after blessing, Sovereign gifting of the necessary arms to equip you in fighting the good fight of faith, AND manifesting in you the victorious nature of Christ, not your old man’s best ‘fleshly giftings’, but the “fruit of the Spirit” of God’s tree of life!

In Galatians 6:22-25 Paul enlightens every believer, saying, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those WHO ARE CHRIST’s have crucified the flesh (daily!) with ITS passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

Have you been discipled in, discipling now in others, the reality, the spiritual reality of the “new-birth”, born into the Kingdom of God by the Spirit, Paul saying in 2 Corinthians 6:16b, “For you (“in Christ”) ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD!” You’re the structure – the Holy Spirit is the “manifested Spirit of Christ in you the hope of glory!” You’re the ‘tabernacle’ – He’s the cloud of Holy Presence!

What was it Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:20-21? “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.” And, if the “Him” is not in you, evidenced by the presence, anointing, fruit-producing of the Spirit, releasing God’s power through your crucified life daily, that His Spirit might then manifest Himself in power through our available bodies, or is it ‘try your best?’, demonstrating a ‘failing religiosity’?!?

Or, in the awareness of a God-blessed life, is it your ‘striving, trying, attempting’, or is it faithfully taking the ‘sentence of daily death that His Resurrection Life, Spirit, and Power may be manifested in YOUR mortal flesh’? How shocking did you find it when in 2 Corinthians 6:12 Paul wrote of, yes, Corinthian believers, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.”

And that’s so valid across the spectrum of ‘church life’ because “our best” that was crucified with Christ has, by some, Christian people been ‘resurrected’ to inspire them, rather than “to REST” in His Presence through them by His Holy Spirit!

The awareness of a God-blessed life? In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 we read: “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.’”

But, in the reality, worldwide, of “the awareness of self-made lives”, consider those who are “wise in their own eyes”, enormously ‘self-sufficient’, extremely ‘braggadocios’ about their own manifested abilities, their own manipulated mind trained to be above and beyond the ‘lesser achievers’ that surround them, and just as arrogant as Pharoah of Egypt who didn’t know the Lord, didn’t want to know the Lord, and led his armies to their death opposing God and His people! And you’d be surprised if you thought the “pharaohs” were still around trying to expose God? There is a known world AROUND YOU who’d just as soon see attempts on God, on His Son, on His Spirit, on His Word, on His Church, on His sons and daughters of Redemptive Faith – “Let’s wipe them out”, “let’s dumb them down”, “let’s ignore their ministries and bodies and cloud their callings, and seek to expose their dumb, twisted, unlearned ways which are of no benefit in our world of prosperity and fleshly achievements”!

But then, confronted by different ‘world philosophies’ and ‘man-designed religions’, God prophetically unveiled in the Old Testament Holy Word the coming of the Promised Messiah! And Christ Jesus came, born of the Virgin Mary, matured in His true identity as a child, fully equipped by Merciful God to be His reconciler for fallen mankind into, yes, the Holy People of God, who become “salt and light” in their needy worlds around them! At the same time, Holy God knew, understood, and provided for His repentant people the Holy Spirit to “bless” His chosen people, and see that the Resurrected Christ is manifested in them and through them, becoming God’s “fruit producer” in every knew son or daughter of “blood redemption faith”!

In fact, Jesus said in Luke 11:13, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” [Tell me, do you know if your church leads in new discipleship training, and does it include the necessary ministry of the Holy Spirit?]. Let my highlight Biblical Truths about “The Blessed Life”!

FIRST, BE AWARE YOU’RE BEING LED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! In Romans 8:23 Paul mentioned disciples having “the first-fruits of the Spirit”, yet he went on to say that, “we who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves (at times) groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body,” understanding IT IS THE TEMPLE OF THE LORD, and we must daily learn to allow the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to glorify Christ in us and through us. Are YOU “led by the Holy Spirit”?

SECOND, THERE WILLFULLY MUST BE A “LEANING” ON THE HOLY SPIRIT AS WE NO LONGER TRUST EVEN A HAIR OF OUR BEST IN THE FLESH – WE ACCEPT THAT THAT WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT DOESN”T WANT YOU FORGETTING THAT HISTORICAL, ETERNAL EVENT: YOU WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!

I don’t find it ‘shocking’, but I do find it heart-breaking to learn what we ALL were like void of the presence of Christ in us! In Proverbs 1:24 the God of wisdom allows wisdom to speak! Proverbs 1:24-33 says, “Because I called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, because YOU DISDAINED ALL MY COUNSEL, and would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; (I wonder if He’s saying, “How stupid, thoughtless, mindless can they be before My open arms?”).

I will mock when your terror comes, when your terror comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. THEN they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

Because they have hated knowledge and DID NOT CHOOSE THE FEAR OF THE LORD, they would have none of my counsel and despised my every rebuke. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled to the full of their own fancies. For the turning away of the simple will slay them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; BUT whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.” WOW! THE RICH TREASURE OF EXPOSURE FOR THE FOOLISH WHO REJECT EXPOSURE AND DIE WILLFULLY, SELFISHLY, AND FUTILELY, BUT THE RICH TREASURE OF THE FEAR OF THE LORD THAT BLESSES AND KEEPS ON BLESSING!

THIRD, WE DO “LEARN” FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT AS HE GUIDES US INTO ALL TRUTH! In a “godless life”, a “godless purpose and meaning of one’s existence”, a “civilized leanings void of God’s purposes”, a “manly (?) misleading and misleaning attitude further marring the heart and mind and flesh into deeper darkness away from eternal intent”, and a “self-picking-up of the pieces of a godless live that inevitably shatters into emptiness, frustration, despair, and desperation, as one learns what it means to live without the “Redeemer’s intervention”, facing eternal darkness, eternal death that will not die, and living with eternal disgust with one’s self because they leaned to fleshly stupidity rather than “resting” in the Eternal Savior and Lord!

That veil of life promoting ‘vainness of the flesh’ and ‘self-rule, self- management’ and ‘self-indulgence’ comes about from ‘godless lives, godless professors, spiritual shysters, satanic deceivers, deadly truth-twisters unknown to themselves that they are the very mindless source of their own deception, but, at least and at last, they learn they are rejoiced over by the demons of Hell but rejected by the Eternal God of the Throne who gave His ALL so that they wouldn’t have to face a godless future, but the day does come when they will face that spiritual dilemma!

So Holy God the Father, having sent the Son as the source of eternal redemption, calls Jesus home, and sends the Holy Spirit to reside in your “born-again” life as the Eternal Temple of Holy Presence, plus, God having redeemed, re-birthed, raised up, and Rested the Holy Spirit in new disciples, releases the Spirit to guide our lives of ministry, mission, service, and blessing of the “New Life” in us!

I want you to see God working, not only in early New Testament disciples, but, yes, disciples in our own very day and time-period of God continuing to reclaim His own people to Himself and to His purpose. So He sends messengers and the ministry of the Holy Spirit!

In Acts 9:10-20 we read: Now there was a ‘certain disciple’ (Not a prophet, not an evangelist, not a ‘Bible scholar’, not a ‘well-trained’ senior citizen of the Kingdom!) at Damascus named Ananias; and to him THE LORD SAID in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” So the Lord said to him:

“Arise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus, for behold, he is praying. And in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, so that he might receive his sight.”

Then Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard many things about this man, how much harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”

And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has SENT ME THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE YOUR SIGHT AND BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.” Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized. {Water baptism AND THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? Without a doubt!}.

So when he had received food, he was strengthened. (Including the bread of life, the meat of the Word, AND the fruit of the Spirit?). Then Saul spent some days with the disciples at Damascus. Immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.” Was he Spirit-guided in sharing the Word? If so is true of early New Testament disciples, have we in the modern-day just outgrown the Lord speaking and instructing us? I don’t think so, but, of course, many “church folks” could care less about evangelism and missions in their daily lives – “That’s divisive!”, some say! SO???

If the maturity in true discipleship involves justification, sanctification, and glorification, how and why do so many ignore “being set apart to Christ’s ministry” WHICH IS SANCTIFICATION!

FOURTH, TRUE BELIEVERS “LEARN TO LOVE” OTHERS, (AND I SAY: ESPECIALLY A LOST, NEEDY, ALIENATED AND SEPARATED MANKIND!!) JUST AS FATHER-GOD LOVED US! “God so loved the world”! And you hear some saying: “Just sentimental garbage, not reality! Why should He love me, love us, if He really does?” John 3:16 Eternally declares, Personally shares, Extends the very heart of God, yes, to every man, every family, every nation, saying: “For 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!”

What you must realize is that Holy God envisioned creating humanity with a choice, a freedom, yes, an option of whether or not they would choose, desire, and sense the need of being reconciled to God on His terms – not forced, but convicted and convinced by the Spirit and the witness of the truly redeemed the need to be reconciled to God. And faithful witnesses, yes, are “LOVING” people into the Kingdom!

FIFTH, HAVING BEEN BORN AGAIN, BIRTHED INTO THE KINGDOM, LEARNING, LEANING ON THE SPIRIT, TRUE DISCIPLES “LISTEN”!! In John 5:24-29 HEAR JESUS! He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, AND NOW IS, when the dead (Physical death or spiritual death?) will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth – those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”

And the statement of faith and obedience of every true disciple every day should be: “Lord, this Is the day You have made; what would You desire today to do through Me. I AM LISTENING!” And, more likely, you’ll be influenced by those who’ll say in their “self-centered Christian walk”: “Isn’t God blessed to have me on His Son’s team – I can surely enhance His reputation”; AND I WANT TO CHOKE, THROW UP, OR SOMEHOW, SOME WAY, OVERTHROW “RELIGIOSITY OF SELF WORSHIP” in those who deny Christ His rightful, Living Presence within them to, yes, DO HIS WORK! How many do you know who “try to serve”, and that’s not Jesus’ commands! In Matthew 11:15 JESUS SAID: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Again, what did Jesus say in John 5:24? “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who HEARS MY word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation or judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

SIXTH, HAVING LEARNED TO LISTEN TO JESUS, WE LEARN TO LEAD! I can’t remember the preacher in earlier years who said it, but one stout preacher said: “Clean out your ear wax, your gobbledy-gook eyes, your dim, fleshly mind, grasping the truth that Jesus never said He came to be served, but to serve and lay His life down in the care and concern for others!” And He led His disciples by example of the “servant spirit”, caring for others more than Himself – He was willing, and did, lay His life down as our example!

SEVENTH, AND IN LIVING THE LIFE THAT LEADS IN THE SERVANT SPIRIT OF CHRIST HIMSELF, WE LEARN TO “LAST”, ENDURE, PERSEVERE, OVERCOME WHATEVER WOULD COME AGAINST US FROM ENTERING THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST!

In Ephesians 6:10 we read: “Finally, my brethren, be strong IN THE LORD and IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT,” yet how many “try and try and try”, yes, “falling short of the glory of God”! Notice Verses13-18! “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with Truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness (Whose righteousness?), and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith (What YOU work up or what Christ instills in His Presence within You?) with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints –!”

EIGHTH, WE LEARN TO “LIGHTEN” OURSELVES AND “ENLIGHTEN” THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN US AND THROUGH US! To “lighten” ourselves is day by day taking the sentence of death to ourselves and seeing the “enlightment” of Christ’s radiant, ruling, reigning, and releasing of victory after victory, Him honoring His Father, the Spirit, and the Word – even you who “rest” in Him alone!

“Christ in you” unveils to the world around you the awesomeness of the Resurrected King of kings and Lord of lords! You see, it’s of God, to “lighten” ourselves and “enlighten” to others the awesomeness of our Savior and Lord! I tell you: “Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, Sing His mercy and His grace; Sing the wonderful words of life in Christ, Sing His song of pardon and peace, Sing Him reconciling us to God!”

NINTH, AND LAST, WE ARE TO “LUMINATE” OUR “BLESSED LIFE IN CHRIST”! In Psalm 67:1-2 the chief musician taught God’s people in song. He sang: “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His (Christ’s) face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” I dated the day I read it, and recorded in my Bible about “us”, Farrell & Sue, my wife! And that’s because the two of us in Christ together long to see the ushering in on earth as it is heaven the very Kingdom of God in the here and now!

It’s time to be finished with ourselves, but fulfilled and filled full of the Reigning, Victorious Christ! Amen? At His altar, would you present yourself to Him as His abiding and ministering location on earth? Now is the Time!!

REVELATION

BY: J. FARRELL FISHER

JULY – AUGUST, 2018

INTRODUCTION

It’s absolutely amazing as one walks with the Lord through the door of faith and trust: – the walk begins, you’re on the Way, and you believe that ‘soon this amazing walk of faith will be over’, but He reminds you, “You’ve just begun! There’s more to see, understand, receive, exercise, release as YOU then share with others!”

At 82 years of age, as of June 12, 2018, I’m STILL “awed” about more and more of His revealed, Spirit-inspired, necessary and essential, Word of Truth! The “inspirational part” NEVER LET’S GO! You know you’re “hearing from God Himself”, and that, it is not only for you, but all the world around you! By the Spirit, you KNOW you’ve opened the Book of divine revelation, even “GIVEN” understanding, that as human food is necessary to sustain the human body, so the Bible is ‘spiritual food’ to nurture the “new-born journey” into adult spiritual identity – without the Word, babes, children, teenagers, young adults, older adults, never come into the fullness of Christ!

The Word is our milk, our water, our ‘bread’, our ‘meat’, our necessary ‘food’, to mature us in our walk with Christ! We’re not to “forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is”, nor should a true disciple ever be in his walk of faith void of devotion to the Holy Word of God! Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God!” Return to the Word so His Word may faithfully return YOU to Him in ‘fullness, completeness, and abiding joy’!

How many do you know who’ve “professed faith”, and yet, have not come into its fullness, because, sadly, the Holy Word of God has not been their spiritual nourishment in a ‘well-fed walk’ by the Word of Holy God being released in them and through them? Word-less ‘disciples’(?) live ‘deceived lives’ because, yes, they still feed on world wisdom, but not His divine revelation and eternal promises!

How many do you know who will submit themselves to every ordinance of man but stubbornly ignore the mandates of the Master?

It was Simon Peter who wrote so wisely and in eternal understanding, saying in 1 Peter 2:2, “As newborn babes, desire the ‘sincere milk’ of the Word, that you may grow.” Some “professors of faith” live ‘stunted lives of faith’ because they ignore the Holy, Spirit-inspired Word of God Almighty! AND He wants you blessed, anointed, maturing into the fullness of Christ! Let me help!

OUTLINE

CHAPTER ONE: REMAINING ‘FLAWED’ OR “FAITHING THE FINISHED WORK”?

CHAPTER TWO: SETTLING THE REALITY OF JUDGMENT BY ‘FLESH ALLEGIANCE’ OR IN “AMAZING GRACE”?

CHAPTER THREE:THE ‘ACTS’ OF TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST!

CHAPTER FOUR:

CHAPTER FIVE:

CHAPTER SIX:

CHAPTER SEVEN:

CHAPTER EIGHT:

CHAPTER NINE:

CHAPTER TEN:

CHAPTER ELEVEN:

CHAPTER TWELVE:

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:

CHAPTER NINETEEN:

CHAPTER TWENTY:

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE:

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO:

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE:

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR:

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE:

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX:

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT:

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE:

CHAPTER THIRTY:

CHAPTER ONE

REMAINING ‘FLAWED’ OR “FAITHING THE FINISHED WORK”?

How aware are you of the ‘deception’ fallen men and women live with as they are confronted with Eternal Truth and minimize its’ importance in, they assume, the ‘supposed’ walk of faithful disciples as they, at least, admit to knowing about? How many do you know who will even ‘profess faith’ about Christ, but they hold onto “the heels” of a dead, condemned, Christ-less life, ‘hoping’, though hopelessly in reality, to maintain both the world, the flesh, and the devil, as they declare their ‘belief’ in Jesus, assuming by ‘head knowledge’ alone that one can be reconciled to God! Really? As they dance with the world, the old sin nature, and Satan himself, even enjoying the devil’s ‘fleshly music’?

Like a ‘government’ of ‘functional service’ apart from the grace and mercy of God, so, many ‘believers’ today in, at least, the ‘professing church’, PROFESS, apart from being “possessed” by the Indwelling Christ, but continue to live under the strong influences in an unbelieving world, adoring the seeming satisfactions of their sin natures, sadly avoiding but attempting to imitate Jesus in “best effort” demonstration and activity, blind to the reality that their ‘best effort’ was also crucified with Christ! But they continue, at least, every Sunday morning, the “Sabbath” day, to celebrate ‘IMITATION’, that is, yes, a ‘false impression’ of the True Christ, continuing to use His name, pretending Him apart from His Indwelling, Resurrection, Reigning Presence!

‘Sinners’, who are determined to remain as they are, still at times, will acknowledge the ‘name of Jesus’, ‘profess a flawed faith’, join ‘a church’, being ‘flawed disciples’, asserting their ‘faith’ as a believer, but within their mind and heart are blind to one’s “completion in Christ”, not by what they try to do, but by what He and He alone has done at the Cross and empty tomb, thus releasing a “new, eternal agenda” with Christ Jesus as the only “Commandeer-in-Chief” who rules, guides, inspires, comforts, empowers, and, yes, corrects, when necessary, through you by His Resurrection Presence!

You, no doubt have heard it, or at least sensed it, maybe said it: “Oh, I ‘believe’ in Jesus, as long as He allows Me to be myself. I want to be with Jesus, but if I must die to myself, to my old sin nature, forsaking devotion to a world philosophy and worldly pleasures, even, at times, agreeing with Satan’s false assertions and the desires of fleshly demons, I’ll just have to pay the price for a stubborn heart, mind, and life – ‘good-by, Jesus’!” So, by God, He decrees you: “Assigned to Satan, to the world spirit, and the bad fruit of your ‘flesh’ or old sin nature”!

Do YOU remember ‘Pharaoh of Egypt’ in Exodus 5:2 in response to Moses who confronted him for God? Pharoah said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” It wasn’t long until God’s judgment WAS released upon Pharoah, as it will be released on every opposer, mind, heart, or will, of the grace, mercy, and love of God!

Fallen mankind does not truly KNOW God, though inclinations about Him remain hidden in their dark minds and dark hearts – maybe only a ‘reflection’, but they DO KNOW HIM! Men, unbelieving men, though spiritually ignorant, ARE birthed, by God’s design, with, at least a “primitive knowledge or awareness of the ‘CREATOR GOD’”, even though ‘fools’ say, “There is no God!” But, in spite of unbelieving stupidity, the awareness of God IS written on the mind, even if the heart remains ‘dark’, or ‘cold’ to the love of God!

The Bible does declare of unbelievers, “The way of peace they know not”, so they create ‘crooked paths’! Often one’s awareness of God is crowded out, shoved into the back recesses of the mind, or ‘short of God’s righteousness’, they fabricate their own, even giving God credit, though THEY “warped” their own view of Him, but they still wanted to verbalize His name without any devotion or commitment to His will!! They refuse to submit to “the righteousness of God”! “Blindness of heart” IS a serious disease or ‘dis-ease’, because one will never be “comfortable” with himself apart from “saving grace, mercy, and love of God”!!

In Jeremiah 4:22 God spoke about His “created people”! It says: “For my people is foolish (Is there a tribe, a nation, a brand of human people around that God didn’t ‘make, birth, or brand’?), they have not known Me; they are ‘sottish’ children, and have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to DO GOOD they have no knowledge.”

‘Sottish”? The Random House College Dictionary” of 1975, published by Random House Inc., New York, NY, defines it as: “stupefied with or ‘as with drink’” – that means “drunk”, and certainly, ‘strong drink, stupid thoughts, always intoxicates one’s mind, thoughts, and spirits’ – also the dictionary said: “given to excessive drinking” – unbelieving thoughts WILL stupefy!! ARE YOU SOBER OR STUPIFIED, OR “SET APART BY HIM TO HIS GLORY”?

In Jeremiah 6, as the prophet Jeremiah was sent BY GOD, yes, to His own ‘chosen people’, he wrote, in Verses 13-16, about God Himself speaking, Oh, so clearly and in convicting passion! “For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.

They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Were they (My people) ashamed when they had committed abominations? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; THEREFORE they shall fall AMONG them that fall; at the time that I VISIT THEM they shall be cast down, says the Lord.

THUS SAYS THE LORD, Stand you in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We, yes, have chosen not to walk THAT WAY any longer!”

Don’t YOU thank Almighty God for sending ON-TO-US-FIREY-PROPHETS to shock His own people in hopefully responding to His insightful Word?

In Jeremiah 7:23-24, again, God speaks: “But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people: and walk you in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they did not hearken to me (shutting their ears so they wouldn’t hear His voice of mercy), nor incline their ears, BUT walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went BACKWARD, and NOT FORWARD.”

Have you witnessed it? “Sold-out disciples of the Savior, deflecting their eyes AND heart AND will away from Him, absolutely ‘straying’ into what is absolute, infinite nothingness in place of the “fullness of the blessing of the Resurrected Life in Christ”?

And, I’m not highlighting ‘atheists’ or ‘agnostics’, even though they stupidly deny God’s existence, but “His own”, who, deceived by Satan, the old-sin-nature, and the world around them, are “led astray”, “caught up by ‘fleshly’ passions”, and intentionally ‘deceived by Satan and his demon forces’, are ‘turned’ away from Truth to be made spiritually ill by the disease of literal deception! Aren’t you aware that, yes, some believers are led astray by ‘spirits’, by uninformed Bible-believers who mix their ‘flesh-natures’ that were crucified, but won’t let go, and see no problem with holding hard to ‘untruths’ that they held before ‘salvation’, but now, though ‘saved’, decide it’s OK to pour their ‘old’ captive thoughts in with “Divine Truth”?

‘Compromising disciples, ‘intellectual’ preachers, ‘highly-fallible-folks, seeing themselves as ‘smarter than God Himself, immature, untrained, yes, neglected ‘babes in Christ’, WILL unashamedly wear “messy diapers”, and the “smell” is real! True disciples must not be betrayed by ‘split-allegiance-folks’ who claim Christ but unveil their spiritual stupidity!! Some ‘disciples’, yes, ‘set aside’, minimize, or, for a time, will forfeit ‘revealed Truth’ for “humanistic ideals, but absent of God’s Truth”!!

‘Compromising disciples’ often see themselves in their ‘spiritual fantasies’ as “Superman, Super woman”, living on the basis of fleshly, academic, worldly ‘truths’, promoted by ‘intellectual, spiritually ‘brain-dead’, men or women’, but ‘high-class’ in ‘godless theology’, or their ‘interpretations’, and,yes, with ‘religious minds’ but ‘godless hearts’! Reasonable revelation is forfeited for ‘restricted truths’ enlightened by their own persuasions, not guiding by God’s Spirit!

Have YOU ever even considered at all God’s INTENT in the ‘humans’ creation? If you haven’t, then I’m persuaded, for you, revelation-Truth is a ‘joke’ promoted by ‘religious fanatics’, and not to be ‘studied’, as a true disciple does!

What was Paul’s ‘inspired word’ to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15? “Study to shew yourself approved unto God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”

Rather than ‘study’, too many ‘believers’ “rest themselves” on the divided explanations of ‘prophets’ or ‘teachers’ or ‘professors’ who, subtly believe, though you’d never hear them say it, that, really, they are smarter than God Himself!

Again, the Prophet Jeremiah quoted God, saying, in Jeremiah 23:21-22, “I have not sent ‘these prophets’, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they ‘prophesied’. BUT, if they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they should have turned them from THEIR evil way, and from the evil of their doings.”

So, of course, the question remains: Are YOU, at all, concerned about what Holy God has spoken about, yes, the precious words of Jesus, and, also, what the Holy Spirit directs you to in “guiding you into all Biblical Truth”? Jeremiah 23:28-29 also challenges all “followers” of God: “The prophet that has a dream, let him tell his dream; and he that has My word, let him speak faithfully My word. What is the chaff to the wheat, says the Lord. Is not My word like as a fire? AND like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

THE HOLY WORD OF GOD “IN CHRIST” DOES AND WILL SHATTER THE WORLD, THE OLD SIN-NATURE, AND SATAN WITH HIS DEMONS DAILY, ‘IF’ YOU “TAKE THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY TO YOUR OLD MAN THAT THE NEW MAN, LIVING BY HIS PRESENCE WITHIN, BY HIS ANOINTED POWER, AND HIS GRACIOUS HEART, AND GUIDING HOLY SPIRIT, IS, YES, WILLFULLY RELEASED TO BE HIMSELF THROUGH YOU?

Far too many “professors of faith” live, behave, and share from a sad foundation of willful, ludicrous loyalty, while neglecting one’s “Life-Blessed Loyalty of the Indwelling Christ”!!

I don’t even know who said it, but I held onto it, over my 82 years of life, a statement someone wisely made that says: “Virtue in distress and vice in triumph makes atheists of mankind,” of course, knowing, as Psalm 14:1 declares, “The ‘fool’ has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’. For, they are corrupt, they do abominable works, none seeks the good,” because all ‘fallen men and women’ want ‘the good’ on their terms, not God’s will, Word, or His Way only in and through the Resurrected, Reigning Christ Jesus, the ONLY “Blood-Atoner”!

Have YOU ever turned to the ONLY “Blood-Atoner”? Of course not, because no man ever has “sought Him” without Him coming to “knock on your heart’s door and the intellect of your mind”, even offering “the gift” of understanding, from which, or out of His graciousness, one discerns the sad estate of his/her life, existence, and affairs, absent of His “abiding Presence”, but He says, “Open the door – and I’ll come in to make your life My “dwelling, My residence, My earthly Temple”!!

Do YOU “wait on the Lord” or continue ignoring Him, living in a self-initiated, fleshly lifestyle, ignoring the “knock”, strongly convinced you DON’T NEED HOLY GOD, because for you “self-determination and self-will” is sufficient to “fill’ your godless life, therefore no need of a Lord or Savior, even learning by biblical revelation, that He “knew” you before He ‘birthed’ you on earth!

One’s “true identity” is wrapped up in the eternal love of God for “coming mankind”, though as yet, you hadn’t even been born! Matthew knew that eternal truth when in his ‘gospel’, the ‘gospel’ according to “Saint Matthew”, in Matthew 1:1-17, there is found the historical record of God’s initiation of His own people and the birth of His Son through Mary! It’s so awesome! Verses 18-25 tells us: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, BEFORE THEY CAME TOGETHER (in holy wedlock!), she was found with child by the Spirit implanting Holy Ghost seed in her womb (though she “never knew any man in a physical, sexual relationship!).

Joseph was so confused: he was a just man and had no desire to expose Mary publicly, and considering his dilemma, Verse 20 says, “behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto yourself Mary as your wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

And she shall bring forth a son, and you shall call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.” Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US.’

Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took Mary unto himself as his wife; and knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn son: and he called His name JESUS.” Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit who guides us into ALL TRUTH!

Not long after, God raised up John the Baptist to begin preaching “repentance” because, yes, the Kingdom of Heaven was to be established on earth as it is in Heaven, through redeemed prophets, disciples, evangelists, yes, “PREACHING CHRIST AS THE SAVIOR AND LORD OF ALL, AND ESPECIALLY IN AND THROUGH THOSE WHO REPENT, RECEIVE, AND RELEASE THE ETERNAL TRUTH OF CHRIST JESUS AS KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS OVER ALL!

EVEN HOLY GOD BEGAN TO SPEAK FROM HEAVEN, SAYING, “THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED”, with the continuing call even unto today, “Be clothed in the righteousness, through repentance and faith, that only comes when YOU make Christ Jesus Lord and Savior of your life!!”

T.O.Chisholm and C. Harold Lowden, in the old, “The American Hymnal, (Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee)”, wrote a hymn entitle “Living for Jesus” which should have been entitled as “Living IN Jesus”. It says: “Living (in) Jesus, a Life that is true, (yes), striving to please Him in all that I do, Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free, This is the pathway of blessing for me.

Living in Jesus who died in my place, Bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace, Such love constrains me to answer His call (That’s daily, even moment by moment!), Follow His leading and give Him my all.

Living in Jesus wherever I am, Doing each duty in His holy name, Willing to suffer affliction or loss, Deeming each trial a ‘test’ in my cross.

Living in Jesus thro’ earth’s little while, My dearest treasure, the light of His smile, Seeking the lost ones He died to redeem, Bringing the weary to find rest in Him.

O Jesus, Lord and Savior, I (moment by moment) give myself to You; For Your, in Your Atonement, DID give Yourself for me; I own no other Master, my heart shall be Your Throne, My life I give, henceforth to live, O Christ in You alone.”

But many are so ‘fleshly soulful’ that BONDAGE holds until you know, lean on, and rest in His Word: “As God knocks on my sinful heart’s door, wanting residence in me, so that, through me, an earthly vessel, He can be Himself in Christ’s Resurrection Presence, yes, “guiding me by the ‘Spirit-Teacher’, the Holy Spirit, constantly, day by day, perfecting the Word of God faithfully, receiving, partaking, standing in, obeying the Eternal Word of God, because, the alternative, life without Christ, life without my “Trainer and Equipper”, life apart from being a member of His Holy Body, would be to disgrace God’s promises, deny His Spirit’s work, and shame the “Truth” He gave Himself for, that I might be free from guilt, godlessness, and ‘gory’ fleshly, sinful, imprisoned living under control of Satan and his demon soldiers, denying the blessing of the “gift of Eternal Life” living in the ‘curse’ of self-will, self-pleasures, AND satanic bondage!

Holy God, the true Heavenly Father, has said, and continues to say, “I called, I knocked, I atoned, I overcame the world, your sinful nature, and your devilish chains – but in unbelief and ‘fleshly resistance’ you chose the path of darkness, the deception of Hell’s ruler, the blindness of unbelief, so you could indulge, bow before, entertain, even worship the government of Hellish allegiance – you continue to ‘live’ with no thanks, no appreciation, even blinded to My “Amazing Grace”, – I gave “gifts” and the “gift of everlasting Life in Christ”, but YOU rejected Him, turned inward only, and continue to pursue your ‘own way’, your ‘darkened desires’, and your ‘devilish loyalty to darkness’, not allegiance to Him who IS the “Eternal Light”! You ignored your ‘cleansed ledger’, rejected my ‘deposit’ of Christ’s offer of eternal freedom through His shed blood; I even deposited on your eternal account, “Forgiven through Christ”, but you settled for the deathly participation in self-will, self-determination, and self-glory, REJECTING JESUS’ invitation, “Come unto Me, and I will give you “rest”! Yes! I deposited YOUR NAME in the eternal ledger, “Forgiven through My shed blood!”, but you refused to hear, you shut your ears to My loud

knock, you chose ‘self-indulgence’ over My grace, mercy, and love!” And, yes, sorrowing God has to say, “Good-by”, because YOU chose ‘sinful flesh’ over being His “new creation”!!

Is it for you, “Remaining Flawed”, or “Faithing The Finished Work?” P.P. Bliss, in the old, “The American Hymnal”, published by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1933, has a song entitled, “Almost Persuaded”. It says: “Almost persuaded” now to believe; “Almost persuaded” Christ to receive; Seems now some soul to say, “Go, Spirit, go Your way, Some more convenient day On You I’ll call.” Really? There are many who never answer the Spirit’s call! Will YOU?

CHAPTER TWO

SETTLING THE REALITY OF JUDGMENT BY ‘FLESH ALLEGIANCE” OR IN “AMAZING GRACE”?