CONCECRATION TO CHRIST’S LORDSHIP?”

J.FARRELL FISHER, JUNE 20-21,2019

LEVITICUS 11:44 IS SO VERY, VERY CLEAR & PLAIN. IT SAYS: “FOR I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD. YOU SHALL THEREFORE CONSECRATE YOURSELVES, & YOU SHALL BE HOLY; FOR I AM HOLY.” BUT IN OUR WORLD, OUR DAY & TIME, JUST AS IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE : “SO-CALLED” PEOPLE OF GOD, THEIR LIVES WERE BEING CONSUMED BY “COMPETING LIFESTYLES.” ‘HOLINESS’ BECAME, & STILL IS, EVEN IN SOME ‘CHRISTIAN’ (?) CIRCLES TODAY, A STRANGE WORD, A DEROGATORY WORD; RATHER THAN AFFIRMATION,& IT HAS BECOME A FROWNED-UPON CONCEPT OF “THE LESSER INFORMED”, BECAUSE, ‘THEY’ [THE SPIRITUALLY ELITE] ARE SO ‘ABOVE’ SUCH AN ‘ILL-INFORMED, UNEDUCATED, NARROW-MINDED GROUP’, WHO CAN’T POSSIBLY REPRESENT GOD!!

YET IT’S GOD HIMSELF WHO SAID, “..BE HOLY,” & “CONSECRATE YOURSELVES.” AND THE MEANING OF THE WORD, ‘CONSECRATE’? IT’S FROM A HEBREW WORD MEANING, ‘TO BE SET APART,’ OR ‘SACREDNESS’! WEBSTER’S 1828 DICTIONATY SAYS OF ‘SACRED’, “HOLY, PERTAINING TO GOD OR TO HIS WORSHIP; DEDICATED; DEVOTED; DUE REVERENCE OF GOD [IN THE WAY ONE LIVES!!]; IT MEANS, SET APART TO HONOR GOD WITH ONE’S LIFE & ONE’S WALK.”

I THINK YOU’LL UNDERSTAND THE TITLE OF THIS MESSAGE WHEN YOU REMIND YOURSELF OF GALATIANS 6:14 WHERE PAUL SAID, “BY WHOM THE WORLD IS CRUCIFIED UNTO ME; & I UNTO THE WORLD.” REALLY? IN JOHN 17:15 JESUS PRAYED TO THE FATHER ABOUT HIS DISCIPLES: “I DO NOT PRAY THAT YOU SHOULD TAKE THEM OUT OF THE WORLD, BUT THAT YOU SHOULD KEEP THEM FROM THE EVIL ONE.” WE’RE LEFT IN THE WORLD, NOT TO BE CAPTURED & CONSUMED BY ITS FALLEN SPIRIT, BUT TO BE OUR LORD’S WITNESSES OF HIS SAVING GRACE, MERCY, & LOVE! BUT SOME RECEIVE ‘SEED’ IN THE MIDST OF ‘THORNS’- MATTHEW 13:22 SAYS, “NOW HE WHO RECEIVED SEED AMONG THE THORNS IS HE WHO HEARS THE WORD, & THE CARES OF THIS WORLD & THE DECEITFULNESS OF RICHES CHOKE THE WORD, & HE BECOMES UNFRUITFUL.”

“COMPETING LIFESTYLES”? SOMEONE ANONYMOUSLY WROTE: “THE SHIP’S PLACE IS IN THE SEA, BUT GOD PITY THE SHIP WHEN THE SEA GETS IN IT. THE CHRISTIAN’S PLACE IS IN THE WORLD, BUT GOD PITY THE CHRISTIAN IF THE WORLD GETS THE BEST OF HIM.” COMPETING LIFESTYLES? IT WAS THEODORE MUNGER WHO ONCE SAID: “THE UNREST OF THIS WEARY WORLD IS ITS UNVOICED CRY AFTER GOD,” & SADLY DOESN’T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT’S ‘UNVOICED CRY’ IS ALL ABOUT!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? GOD’S PEOPLE ARE TO BE FAITHFUL “TO THE WORLD IN ITS WITNESS,” BUT… “FRIENDSHIP OF THE WORLD [MAKES ONE] THE ENEMY OF GOD.” (JAMES 4:4). WE ARE TO BE DISENGAGED FROM ITS WAYS BUT ENGAGED IN ITS CONVERSION & SUBMISSION TO HOLY GOD THROUGH THE “RECONCILER” & “REDEEMER”, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? THE ‘WORLD’ IS A NET TO SNARE, ENTRAP, & CAPTURE ONE’S SOUL – IT HAS NO SPIRIT OF CONTENTMENT BUT ONLY DISCONTENT, NO PEACE BUT CHAOS, NO FORMING BUT FRACTURING, NO LAYING UP OF TREASURES IN HEAVEN BUT WASTEFUL SPENDING & ROTTING OF WHAT COULD HONOR HOLY GOD! COMPETING LIFESTYLES? THE ‘WORLD’ BIRTHS WORRY, WAR, FALSE WORSHIP, CHAINS & BONDAGE, RATHER THAN FREEDOM & LIBERTY, CHAOS RATHER THAN “THE PEACE THAT PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? “DAY OF WRATH THAT DAY OF BURNING, SEER & SIBYL SPEAK CONCERNING, ALL THE WORLD TO ASHES TURNING,” [THOMAS DE CELANO]. MASTERS OF ‘SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS’ BECOME MIDGETS MIRED IN THE MUD OF ONE’S OWN MAKING.IT WAS JAMES MILNER WHO SAID: “WHILE A MAN RESTS IN HIS OWN MERITS FOR ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD, IT IS OF LITTLE CONSEQUENCE WHETHER HE BE A PAGAN IDOLATER, OR A PROUD, ARROGANT PHARISEE – I KNOW NOT WHICH OF THE TWO IS MOST DISTANT FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? IRREVERANCE IS THE NAME FOR TOO MANY PEOPLE WHO BOW BEFORE THEIR ‘FLESHLY IDOLS’,NOT EVEN KNOWING IT IS A ‘god’ THEY BOW BEFORE & WORSHIP. FOULNESS IS ITS FRUIT, SMELLY STENCH ITS JUICE, POISONOUS VINES THE VEINS WITHIN THEIR ‘SICKENED, SINFUL, NATURAL, THO’ RELIGIOUS PRESENCE’, BUT “STILL” ALIENATED & SEPARATED FROM HOLY GOD, BECAUSE, THOUGH ‘BELIEVING’, THERE’S BEEN NO TRUE REPENTANCE OR TRUE “RESTING” IN THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST AT THE CROSS & HIS EMPTY TOMB,OR WELCOMING OF HIS REIGNING PRESENCE!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? WEALTH IS THE ‘god’ BEFORE WHOM MANY BEAR WITNESS! JESUS SAID IN MATTHEW 6:19, “LAY NOT UP FOR YOURSELVES TREASURES UPON EARTH, WHOSE MOTH & RUST DOES CORRUPT, & WHERE THIEVES BREAK THROUGH & STEAL.” IT WAS ROBERT SOUTH WHO ONCE SAID: “THERE ARE NOT A FEW WHO BELIEVE IN NO GOD BUT MAMMON, NO DEVIL BUT THE ABSENCE OF GOLD, NO DAMNATION BUT BEING POOR, & NO HELL BUT AN EMPTY PURSE; & NOT A FEW OF THEIR DESCENDANTS ARE STILL LIVING.” NO WONDER JOHN FOSTER WROTE: “THE PRIDE OF DYING RICH RAISES THE LOUDEST LAUGH IN HELL.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES! I’VE SAID BEFORE, & I’LL SAY IT AGAIN: “RELIGION IS NOT AN ETERNAL, VIBRANT RELATIONSHIP, BUT AN OCCASIONAL ‘SUNDAY-NODDING OF THE HEART’, BUT ABSENT OF A “NEW, GRACED, SPIRIT-ANOINTED LIFE & HEART”!! YET ‘RELIGIOUS GATHERINGS’ ALL OVER THE WORLD WILL INCLUDE JESUS CHRIST AMONG THE ‘WORSHIP’ (?) OF THEIR NATURAL GODS!! BUT THERE IS NO GRASP AT ALL OF THE LORD’S WORDS: “YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN”!!

WALTER BAGEHOT WROTE: “THE WHOLE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION IS STREWN WITH CREEDS & INSTITUTIONS WHICH WERE INVALUABLE AT FIRST, & DEADLY AFTERWARDS.” (CONTEMPLATE THAT THOUGHT FOR A DAY!). COMEPETING LIFESTYLES? HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW WHO’VE BOWED BEFORE THEIR OWN MINDS AS THEIR ULTIMATE ‘god’? I DO KNOW THAT IN PHILLIPIANS 2:5 PAUL WROTE: “LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS,” BUT THAT’S CONTINENTS AWAY FROM BOWING BEFORE ONE’S OWN MIND AS HIS RESOURCE OF SALVATION, WISDOM, & UNDERSTANDING! BUT HOW MANY ‘EDUCATED’ UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS HAVE DISAVOWED ALLEGIANCE TO GOD & BOW BEFORE THEIR FLIMSY, FAITHLESS BRAINS?

IT WAS J.B.PHILLIPS IN HIS “NEW TESTAMENT CHRISTIANITY” WHO WROTE: “THE MODERN INTELLIGENT MIND, WHICH HAS HAD ITS HORIZONS WIDENED IN DOZENS OF DIFFERENT WAYS, HAS GOT TO BE SHOCKED AFRESH BY THE AUDACIOUS CENTRAL FACT THAT AS A SOBER MATTER OF HISTORY, “GOD BECAME ONE OF US.”!!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? “HAPPINESS IS WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT – GET BUSY WITH WHATEVER MAKES YOU HAPPY!” HOW PHONY IS THAT? NOWHERE DO YOU FIND GOD SAYING, “BE HAPPY”…HIS CALL ON YOUR LIFE? “BE HOLY” – BUT WITHOUT HIM IT NEVER HAPPENS! BLESSED IS OUR LORD’S SERMON. BLESSED IS OUR SAVIOR’S PROVISION. BLESSED IS TRULY THE FRUIT OF A HOLY-SPIRIT-DIRECTED, GOVERNED LIFE.

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? “THERE IS NO GOD!” IT WAS PLATO WHO LONG AGO SAID, “ATHEISM IS A DISEASE OF THE SOUL BEFORE IT BECOMES AN ERROR OF UNDERSTANDING.” I CHOOSE TO STAND WITH GOD HIMSELF WHO SAID: “THE FOOL HAS SAID IN HIS HEART ‘THERE IS NO GOD’!” IT WAS MARY ANN VINCENT WHO SAID: “AN ATHEIST’S MOST EMBARASSING MOMENT IS WHEN HE FEELS PROFOUNDLY THANKFUL FOR SOMETHING, BUT CAN’T THINK OF ANYBODY TO THANK FOR IT.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? ALL ACROSS THE SPECTRUM OF HUMANITY FLOWS THE IDEA IN MANY MINDS THAT THEY CAN, IN & OF THEMSELVES, FULFILL THEIR OWN DESTINIES & BE RICHER FOR IT THAN ‘THOSE POOR CHRISTIANS’, YET GOD SAID IN JEREMIAH 2:11-13: “HAS A NATION CHANGED THEIR GODS, WHICH ARE YET NO GODS? BUT MY PEOPLE (ISRAEL) HAS CHANGED THEIR GLORY FOR THAT WHICH DOES NOT PROFIT. BE ASTONISHED, OH YOU HEAVENS, AT THIS, & BE HORRIBLY AFRAID, BE YOU VERY DESOLATE, SAYS THE LORD. FOR MY PEOPLE HAVE COMMITTED TWO EVILS; THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS, & HEWED THEM OUT CISTERNS, BROKEN CISTERNS, THAT CAN HOLD NO WATER.” (IS THAT ‘WATER’ THE “WATER OF THE WORD” THAT ISRAEL DID NOT UPHOLD?). (BY THE WAY, THE “WATER OF THE WORD” IS KING JESUS THAT THEY WILLINGLY CRUCIFIED!!).

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? THAT’S THE ‘godless’, THE ‘convenient’, THE ‘careless’, THE ‘self-exalting, self-ruling, self-indulgent, self-deceived individual, who, like Israel, (Gen.11:4), “..LET US BUILD A CITY, & A TOWER, WHOSE TOP MAY REACH UNTO HEAVEN; & LET US MAKES US A NAME, LEST WE BE SCATTERED ABROAD UPON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH.” SELF-EXALTATION, NATIONAL EXALTATION, FAMILY EXALTATION, BUSINESS EXALTATION – & MAKE SURE THAT YOU LEAVE ‘YOUR ‘god’ out of our self-governing right!’ REALLY? IN JOHN 5:44 THE LORD JESUS SAID TO THE ‘SELF-REIGNING JEWS’, “HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE, WHICH RECEIVE HONOR ONE OF ANOTHER, & SEEK NOT THE HONOR WHICH COMES FROM GOD ONLY?”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? IN 2 CORINTHIANS 13:5 PAUL SAID TO THE “CHURCH” IN CORINTH, “EXAMINE YOURSELVES, WHETHER YOU BE IN THE FAITH; PROVE YOUR OWN SELVES. KNOW YOU NOT YOUR OWN SELVES, HOW THAT JESUS CHRIST IS IN YOU, EXCEPT YOU BE REPROBATES?” WHEN IS THE LAST TIME YOU READ GALATIANS 6:1-8? IT SAYS: “BRETHREN, IF A MAN BE OVERTAKEN IN A FAULT, YOU WHICH ARE SPIRITUAL, RESTORE SUCH A ONE IN THE SPIRIT OF MEEKNESS; CONSIDERING YOURSELF LEST YOU ALSO BE TEMPTED.

BEAR YOU ONE ANOTHER’S BURDENS, & SO FULFILL THE LAW OF CHRIST. FOR IF A MAN THINK HIMSELF TO BE SOMETHING, WHEN HE IS NOTHING, HE DECEIVES HIMSELF. BUT LET EVERY MAN PROVE HIS OWN WORK, & THEN SHALL HE HAVE REJOICING IN HIMSELF, & NOT IN ANOTHER. FOR EVERY MAN SHALL BEAR HIS OWN BURDEN. LET HIM THAT IS TAUGHT IN THE WORD COMMUNICATE UNTO HIM THAT TEACHES IN ALL GOOD THINGS. BE NOT DECEIVED; GOD IS NOT MOCKED; FOR WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWS, THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP. FOR HE THAT SOWS TO HIS FLESH SHALL OF THE FLESH REAP CORRUPTION; BUT HE THAT SOWS TO THE SPIRIT SHALL OF THE SPIRIT REAP LIFE EVERLASTING.”

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? YOU’VE HEARD THE WORLD’S ‘EDUCATIONAL ELITISTS’ SAYING, “WE “are” the “ELITISTS”!! WE ARE THE SUPERIOR MINDS OF OUR DAY! WE ARE OF SUCH AN ACADEMIC MENTALITY THAT OUR EDUCATIONAL & SCHOLARSHIP COMPETENCE LEAVES NO ROOM FOR DISCUSSIONS ABOUT GOD, YOUR ‘JESUS’, THE BIBLE, LIFE OR DEATH, ‘SALVATION’, OR WHAT YOU ‘CHRISTIANS ‘ (?) CALL ‘FREE GRACE’ – WE’LL JUST SLIDE INTO ‘YOUR HEAVEN’ BY OUR ‘GREASE’!” BUT I CHOOSE JOHN 17:6 FOR MY EDUCATIONAL DEGREE! IT SAYS: (THIS IS JESUS SPEAKING TO FATHER-GOD!), “I HAVE MANIFESTED (UNVEILED) YOUR NAME (FATHER-GOD) UNTO THE MEN WHICH YOU GAVE ME OUT OF THE WORLD: THEY WERE YOURS, & YOU GAVE THEM TO ME; & THEY HAVE KEPT YOUR WORD.” (WHAT AN AWESOME WORD OF HOLY TRUTH!!).

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? ARE WE IN “THE LAST DAYS”? IN 2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5 WE READ, “THIS KNOW ALSO, THAT IN THE LAST DAYS (OF JUDAISM?), PERILOUS TIMES SHALL COME. FOR MEN SHALL BE LOVERS OF THEIR OWN SELVES, COVETOUS, BOASTERS, PROUD, BLASPHEMERS, DISOBEDIENT TO PARENTS, UNTHANKFUL, UNHOLY, WITHOUT NATURAL AFFECTION, TRUCEBREAKERS, FALSE ACCUSERS, INCONTINENT, FIERCE, DESPISERS OF THOSE THAT ARE GOOD, TRAITORS, HEADY, HIGHMINDED, LOVERS OF PLEASURES MORE THAN LOVERS OF GOD; HAVING A FORM OF GODLINESS, BUT DENYING THE POWER THEREOF: FROM SUCH TURN AWAY.”

OH, I HAVE NO DOUBTS AT ALL! WHAT WE JUST READ REFERRED TO JUDAISM IN THAT DAY & TIME PERIOD, BUT THAT ‘FALSE SPIRIT’ DOESN’T ABOUND IN THE 21^ST CENTURY OF “MODERN-DAY CHRISTIANITY”? HAVE “YOU” NOT GRASPED THAT ALL YOU SEE IN “YOUR” ‘LAST DAYS’ IS ALSO MUCH ‘godlessness’ THOUGH MANY ARE “PROFESSING BELIEVERS, CHURCH-GOERS, & STRONG PROMOTERS OF THEIR ‘SELF-RELIGIOUS DECEPTION’? YES, EVEN IN THE CHURCH THERE ARE THOSE, MEN & BOYS, WOMEN & GIRLS, WHO HAVE DECIDED, “THE LOW LIFE IS THE HIGH LIFE,” “VIOLENCE IS VIRTUOUS,” “REBELLION IS SPIRITUAL INDEPENDENCE”, “GODLESSNESS IS GREAT”, “SIN IS JUST THE CELEBRATION OF “WHO WE WERE”, BUT NOT WHO WE ARE NOW (EVEN AS WE CONTINUE TO MANIFEST, CELEBRATE, & PROFESS OUR ‘TWO-WORLDS FAITH’, “OURS & GOD’S”!)”. REALLY?

THERE’S NO ‘GOD-THING’ IN THE RELIGIOUS CLIMATE THAT CELEBRATES BOTH ‘THE LOW-LIFE & THE HIGH-LIFE’, OR ‘VIOLENCE IS VIRTUOUS – IT HAS ITS PLACE’, OR ‘REBELLION ( A ‘LITTLE-DAB WILL DO YOU’!)’, OR ‘SIN IS JUST THE CELEBRATION OF WHO & WHAT WE ARE – GOD UNDERSTANDS OUR TWO-PART SYSTEM: FLESH & SPIRIT, WORLDLY & THE KINGDOM OF GOD ‘– SORRY, YOU CAN’T WALK ON TWO STREETS!!’ ‘SACRILEGE IS PERMISSABLE’, ‘THOUGH MY WAY MAY NOT BE GOD’S WAY, HE STILL OVERLOOKS MY ‘FLESHLY TRAITS’ & ACCEPTS MY ‘BEST EFFORTS’! NO! YOUR ‘BEST EFFORT MENTALITY’ WAS CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!!!!

COMPETING LIFESTYLES? OH, THERE ARE THOSE WHO READ THE BIBLE & HEAR FROM JESUS, “IN THE WORLD YOU WILL HAVE MUCH TRIBULATION, IF YOU FOLLOW HIM,” & YOU HEAR THEM SAY, “PLEASURE FOR ME – NOT PAIN; GOOD TIMES HELL’S WAY, NOT HEAVEN’S WAY; WE WANT “ALL” THAT ENCIRCLES US IN THE WORLD’S WAY”, [NOT KNOWING “IN CHRIST” THEY INHERIT HEAVEN’S FORTUNES!]; INTEGRITY? HOW ABOUT FOR US, COMPROMISE? ‘ALL-OUT’? – HOW ABOUT: HALF-HEARTED? HALF OF FLESH, HALF OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?’ COMPETING LIFESTYLES? DON’T TELL ME YOU’VE NEVER BEEN AROUND THEM! THEY’RE USUALLY VERY VOCAL!

THEY STAND INCESSANTLY AT THE “CONSTANT COMPLAINT CENTER”; THEY’RE A PART OF “MISERY IS COMPANY-CROWD; IT MAY NOT BE PRINTED ON A POSTER BOARD BUT IT’S EASILY VISIBLE: “FATAL FRETTING FULL OF FRUSTRATION FREE OF CHARGE!” COMPETING LIFESTYLES? IN GALATIANS 4:7 PAUL WROTE: “FORMERLY, WHEN YOU DID NOT KNOW GOD, YOU WERE ENSLAVED TO BEINGS THAT BY NATURE ARE NOT GODS.” HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW TODAY PAYING BIG BUCKS FOR THE SHYSTERS WHO “CAN READ YOUR MINDS”? HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW WHO PRACTICE WITCHCRAFT? HOW MANY DO YOU KNOW WHO TODAY CELEBRATE THE “DEMONS”? HOW OFTEN HAVE YOU WITNESSED “HELL’S ANGELS”? (JUST TURN ON YOUR TV &YOU’VE WITNESSED “HELL’S ANGELS”?)

BUT WHAT DID JOSHUA SAY? “CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE, BUT AS FOR ME & MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD!” CHOICE! WEBSTER’S 1828 DICTIONARY SAYS THAT ‘CHOICE’ IS THE ACTS OF CHOOSING; THE VOLUNTARY ACT OF SELECTING OR SEPARATING FROM TWO OR MORE THINGS THAT WHICH IS PREFERRED..CARE IN SELECTING; JUDGMENT OR SKILL IN DISTINGUISHING WHAT IS TO BE PREFERRED…HOLDING DEAR…”

I DON’T THINK YOU’LL FIND IT SHOCKING THAT GOD HIMSELF MADE A CHOICE! IN ACTS 15:7-9 WE READ, AND WHEN THERE HAD BEEN MUCH DISPUTING, PETER ROSE UP, & SAID UNTO THEM, MEN & BRETHREN, YOU KNOW HOW THAT A GOOD WHILE AGO GOD MADE CHOICE AMONG US, THAT THE GENTILES BY MY MOUTH SHOULD HEAR THE WORD OF THE GOSPEL, & BELIEVE. AND GOD, WHICH KNOWS THE HEARTS, BORE THEM WITNESS, GIVING THEM THE HOLY SPIRIT, EVEN AS HE DID UNTO US (JEWS); & PUT NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN US & THEM, PURIFYING THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH.” [BUT THAT’S NOT WHAT GOD STILL DOES TODAY?].

THE BROTHER OF JESUS, JAMES, IN JAMES 2:5, WROTE: “HEAR ME, MY BELOVED BRETHREN, HAS NOT GOD “CHOSEN” THE POOR OF THIS WORLD RICH IN FAITH, & HEIRS OF THE KINGDOM WHICH HE HAS PROMISED TO THEM THAT LOVE HIM?” [I ASSUME THE QUESTION IS: “ARE ‘YOU’ THE POOR OF THIS WORLD WHO ARE, YES, RICH IN FAITH & HEIRS OF THE KINGDOM BECAUSE “YOU” TRULY LOVE THE GOD WHO PROVED HIS LOVE FOR YOU EVEN WHILE YOU WERE ‘CHIEFEST OF SINNERS’?”].

“GOD HAS CHOSEN! GOD HAS CHOSEN ME! GOD HAS GRACIOUSLY CALLED MY NAME, KNOCKED ON MY HEART’S DOOR, & ASSURED ME THAT HE HAS SET ME APART AS AN HONOR TO CHRIST, A TESTIMONY OF CHRIST’S INDWELLING PRESENCE, & AS AN ASSURANCE OF HIS SAVING GRACE & HIS ETERNAL POWER TO, YES, RAISE THE “DEAD” INTO HIS ABIDING PRESENCE!” IT OUGHT TO PUT YOU ON “HALLELUJAH GROUNDS” WHEN YOU READ JOHN 15:16 WHERE JESUS SAID: “YOU HAVE NOT CHOSEN ME, BUT I HAVE CHOSEN YOU, THAT YOU SHOULD GO & BRING FORTH FRUIT, & THAT YOUR FRUIT SHOULD REMAIN:THAT WHATSOEVER YOU SHALL ASK OF THE FATHER IN MY NAME, HE MAY GIVE IT TO YOU.” AN AWESOME DECLARATION!! YOU DO UNDERSTAND: “JESUS TOOK UNTO HIMSELF THE TWELVE INITIAL DISCIPLES,” & THEY WERE FOR SO LONG UNSURE OF HIS INTENT & PURPOSE WITH THEM, BUT THEY ‘FOLLOWED’.

I LOVE HOW OSWALD CHAMBERS PUT IT IN “MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST”, (P.158), “THE BRAVERY OF GOD IN TRUSTING US! YOU SAY – ‘BUT HE HAS BEEN UNWISE TO CHOOSE ME, BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING IN ME; I AM NOT OF ANY VALUE.” & THAT IS WHY HE CHOSE YOU! AS LONG AS YOU THINK THERE IS SOMETHING IN YOU HE CAN’T DO WITHOUT, HE CANNOT CHOOSE YOU BECAUSE YOU HAVE ENDS OF YOUR OWN IF YOU CHOOSE TO GIVE HIM YOUR BEST, (WHICH HE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST ON THE CROSS!); BUT IF YOU HAVE LET HIM BRING YOU TO THE END OF YOUR SELF-SUIFFICIENCY, THEN HE CAN CHOOSE YOU TO GO WITH HIM TO JERUSALEM, & THAT WILL MEAN THE FULFILLMENT OF PURPOSES WHICH HE DOES NOT DISCUSS WITH YOU.”

HAVE “YOU” HEARD HIS VOICE OR HIS ‘KNOCK’ ON YOUR HEART’S DOOR? “FOLLOW ME”!! MRS. CECIL F. ALEXANDER WROTE AN OLD HYMN ENTITLED “JESUS CALLS US.” IT SAYS: “JESUS CALLS US; O’ER THE TUMULT OF OUR LIFE’S WILD, RESTLESS SEA; DAY BY DAY HIS SWEET VOICE SOUNDS, SAYING, “CHRISTIAN FOLLOW ME.”…JESUS CALLS US FROM THE WORSHIP OF THE VAIN WORLD’S GOLDEN STORE, FROM EACH IDOL THAT WOULD KEEP US, SAYING, “CHRISTIAN, LOVE ME MORE.” IN OUR JOYS & IN OUR SORROWS, DAYS OF TOIL & HOURS OF EASE, STILL HE CALLS, IN CARES & PLEASURES, “CHRISTIAN, LOVE ME MORE THAN THESE.” JESUS CALLS US: BY YOUR MERCIES, SAVIOR, MAY WE HEAR YOUR CALL, GIVE OUR HEARTS TO YOUR OBEDIENCE, SERVE & LOVE YOU BEST OF ALL.”

OH, I KNOW THAT EVERY BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER DOESN’T HAVE THE EXACT EXPERIENCE OF JOHN ON THE ISLAND CALLED PATMOS, BUT I PRAY THESE VERSES STIR YOUR HEARTS TO AFRESH & ANEW HEAR HIS VOICE! REVELATION 1:12-18 SAYS, AND I TURNED TO SEE THE VOICE THAT SPOKE WITH ME. & BEING TURNED, I SAW SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS; & IN THE MIDST OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS ONE LIKE UNTO THE SON OF MAN, CLOTHED WITH A GARMENT DOWN TO THE FOOT, & GIRT ABOUT THE PAPS WITH A GOLDEN GIRDLE.

HIS HEAD & HIS HAIRS WERE WHITE LIKE WOOL, AS WHITE AS SNOW; & HIS EYES WERE AS A FLAME OF FIRE; & HIS FEET LIKE UNTO FINE BRASS, AS IF THEY BURNED IN A FURNACE; & HIS VOICE AS THE SOUND OF MANY WATERS. & HE HAD IN HIS RIGHT HAND SEVEN STARS, & OUT OF HIS MOUTH WENT A SHARP TWO-EDGED SWORD; & HIS COUNTENANCE WAS AS THE SUN SHINES IN ITS STRENGTH.

AND WHEN I SAW HIM, I FELL AT HIS FEET AS DEAD. & HE LAID HIS RIGHT HAND UPON ME, SAYING UNTO ME, ‘FEAR NOT; FOR I AM THE FIRST & THE LAST: I AM HE THAT LIVES & WAS DEAD; &, BEHOLD, I AM ALIVE FOREVERMORE. AMEN; & I HAVE THE KEYS OF HELL & OF DEATH.” CHRIST JESUS CONQUERED DEATH, THE GRAVE, & HELL ITSELF! OH, & THEN, IN MATTHEW 16:19, WE READ: “AND I WILL GIVE UNTO YOU THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN; & WHATSOEVER YOU SHALL BIND ON EARTH SHALL BE BOUND IN HEAVEN; & WHATSOEVER YOU SHALL LOOSE ON EARTH SHALL BE LOOSED IN HEAVEN.”

DO YOU BELIEVE ONE OF THE “KEYS” IS THE KEY OF TESTIMONY? EXAMINE ROMANS 5:1, & VERSES 6-11! “THEREFORE BEING JUSTIFIED BY FAITH, WE HAVE PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST:

VERSES 6-11 THEN SAYS: FOR WHEN WE WERE YET WITHOUT STRENGTH, IN DUE TIME CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY. FOR SCARCELY FOR A RIGHTEOUS MAN WILL ONE DIE:YET PERADVENTURE FOR A GOOD MAN SOME WOULD EVEN DARE TO DIE. BUT GOD COMMENDS HIS LOVE TOWARD US, IN THAT WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US.MUCH MORE THEN, BEING NOW JUSTIFIED BY CHRIST’S BLOOD, WE SHALL BE (BEING) SAVED FROM WRATH THROUGH HIM.

FOR IF, WHEN WE WERE ENEMIES, WE WERE RECONCILED TO GOD BY THE DEATH OF HIS SON, MUCH MORE, BEING RECONCILED, WE SHALL BE (BEING) SAVED BY HIS LIFE. & NOT ONLY SO, BUT WE ALSO JOY IN GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, BY WHOM WE HAVE NOW RECEIVED THE ATONEMENT.” DO “YOU” TRULY UNDERSTAND THE WORD, ATONEMENT, OR WOULD IT BE BETTER TO SEE IT AS “AT-ONE-MENT” WITH GOD THROUGH JESUS ONLY?

IN PHILIPPIANS 1:21 PAUL WAS SO CONFIDENT, EVEN IN PRISON, THAT WHETHER BY LIFE OR BY DEATH, THE LORD JESUS WAS GOING TO BE MAGNIFIED IN HIS BODY BECAUSE HE SAID, “FOR TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST, & TO DIE IS GAIN.” WHAT HAD JESUS SAID IN JOHN 10:10? “I HAVE COME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE, & THAT THEY MAY HAVE IT MORE AVBUNDANTLY.” THAT’S “CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY!” IT’S LIFE, THE LIFE IN & OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, LIFE THAT IS ABUNDANT, LIFE THAT IS ETERNAL!

GALATIANS 2:20-21a TELLS US, “I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST:BUT I LIVE;& THE LIFE WHICH I NOW LIVE IN THE FLESHLY BODY I LIVE BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD WHO LOVED ME, & GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME. I DO NOT FRUSTRATE THE GRACE OF GOD…!” OUR “LIFE” IS CHRIST, OUR “DAILY WALK” IS CHRIST, OUR UNDERSTANDING IS THAT “IN CHRIST” DWELLS ALL THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY: “AND YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM!”

THAT TELLS ME OF THE “POSITIVENESS OF HIS PERSON: RESURRECTION LIFE, RESURRECTION POWER, RESURRECTION HOPE” – & I AM WRAPPED UP “IN HIM” IN THE VERY FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY! THIS TELLS ME OF “THE POSITIVENESS OF PRECIOUS PRIVILEGE”- ONE IN CHRIST, AMBASSADOR OF CHRIST, MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF GOD HIMSELF – OPENING THE DOOR EVEN BROADER & WIDER TO THE “POSITIVENESS OF DAILY PURPOSE” – LIVING IN HIM, BY HIM, THROUGH HIM, WHICH OPENS DOOR AFTER DOOR TO THE PATHS OF CHRISTIAN GRACES, FOR THE HONOR OF CHRIST ALONE!!

I CLOSE WITH THE WISE WORDS OF PETER IN 2 PETER 3:9-14!! “THE LORD IS NOT SLACK CONCERNING HIS PROMISE, AS SOME MEN COUNT SLACKNESS; BUT IS LONGSUFFERING TO US-WARD, NOT WILLING THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH, BUT THAT ‘ALL SHOULD COME TO REPENTANCE.’ BUT THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL COME AS A THIEF IN THE NIGHT; IN THE WHICH THE HEAVENS SHALL PASS AWAY WITH A GREAT NOISE, & THE ELEMENTS SHALL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT, THE EARTH ALSO & THE WORKS THAT ARE THEREIN SHALL BE BURNED UP.

SEEING THEN THAT ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE DISSOLVED, WHAT MANNER OF PERSONS OUGHT YOU TO BE IN ALL HOLY CONVERSATION & GODLINESS, LOOKING FOR & HASTING UNTO THE COMING DAY OF GOD, WHEREIN THE HEAVENS BEING ON FIRE SHALL BE DISSOLVED, & THE ELEMENTS SHALL MELT WITH FERVENT HEAT?

NEVERTHELESS WE, ACCORDING TO HIS PROMISE, LOOK FOR NEW HEAVENS & A NEW EARTH, WHEREIN DWELLS RIGHTEOUSNESS. WHEREFORE, BELOVED, SEEING THAT YOU LOOK FOR SUCH THINGS, BE DILIGENT THAT YOU MAY BE FOUND OF HIM IN PEACE, WITHOUT SPOT & BLAMELESS.”

IT WAS CHARLES WESLEY & S.B.MARSH, IN THE OLD “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL”,(P.131), (PUBLISHED BY “THE BROADMAN PRESS,” NASHVILLE, TENN.), WHO WROTE THE HYMN, “JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL.” IT SAYS: JESUS, LOVER OF MY SOUL, LET ME TO YOUR BOSOM FLY, WHILE THE NEARER WATERS ROLL, WHILE THE TEMPEST STILL IS HIGH! HIDE ME, O MY SAVIOR, HIDE, TILLTHE STORM OF LIFE IS PAST; SAFE INTO THE HAVEN GUIDE, O RECEIVE MY SOUL AT LAST!

OTHER REFUGE HAVE I NONE;HANGS MY HELPLESS SOUL ON YOU: LEAVE, AH, LEAVE ME NOT ALONE,STILL SUPPORT & COMFORT ME!ALL MY TRUST ON YOU IS STAYED, ALL MY HELP FROM YOU I BRING; COVER MY DEFENSELESS HEAD WITH THE SHADOW OF YOUR WING.

YOU, O CHRIST, ARE ALL I WANT; MORE THAN ALL IN YOU I FIND; RAISE THE FALLEN, CHEER THE FAINT, HEAL THE SICK, & LEAD THE BLIND.JUST & HOLY IS YOUR NAME, I AM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS; FALSE & FULL OF SIN I AM, YOU ARE FULL OF TRUTH & GRACE.

PLENTEOUS GRACE WITH YOU IS FOUND, GRACE TO COVER ALL MY SIN; LET THE HEALING STREAMS ABOUND, MAKE & KEEP ME PURE WITHIN.

YOU OF LIFE THE FOUNTAIN ARE; FREELY LET ME TAKE OF YOU; SPRING YOU UP WITHIN MY HEART, RISE TO ALL ETERNITY.” (IS CHRIST “RISEN” IN YOU?).

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, NOV. 21-22, 2017

In addressing, affirming, and alerting the young disciples of Corinth, and us ‘young disciples’(?) in our modern-day, in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, Paul wrote: “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? 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 God has said:

‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.” That’s collectively all the truly repentant, faith believing and trusting, all the “soldiers of the Cross”, and individually, yes, “the least of these”!

As a result of awareness of one’s true repentance, then exercising the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit, yes, CHOOSING to “rest” in Christ alone, in 2 Corinthians 7:1, Paul also said: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” Do YOU see yourself as a Foundation Stone of the Holy Temple of Christ?

Come with me to 2 Corinthians 5:17-21! Buckle yourself in tight to Biblical Truth about our identity “in Christ”!! It says: “Therefore, if anyone in 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.

Now then, WE (In Christ!) 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 (Jesus the Son) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

“Foundation Stones of the Holy Temple of Christ”? God’s ministry to us and through us? In 2 Corinthians 4:3-7 Paul lays a strong foundation upon which “true temples” are birthed, survive, and prosper! He said: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Are YOU aware of “commanded light shining in you and through you to reveal to others ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ as The Holy Spirit, yes, “forms” Christ in you by your submission and obedience to the Living Word”?

A foundation stone of the Holy Temple of Christ’s presence is a “blood-bought vessel”, and Paul says the ‘treasure stone’ is your earthen life, an earthen vessel, (2 Corinthians 4:7), “that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” And, “a bondservant”, as His earthen vessel presence, radiates “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ”!

You’re aware that early disciples were of Jewish descent, and, no doubt, were looking or hoping for a new physical tabernacle to be rebuilt, because of prophecy, they knew the “Temple” in Jerusalem would soon be destroyed, but, immaturely, they hadn’t seen themselves as the True Temple of the Resurrected Christ! In Hebrews 8:1-2 we read: Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest (Christ Jesus), who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary AND of the true tabernacle (or Temple) which the Lord erected, and not man.”

Have YOU ever considered the “revelation-truth” that redeemed, born-again lives, become, by His grace, His mercy, His eternal intent, that “redeemed lives” become holy temples with each new man or woman of faith being a “foundation stone” of the ‘over-all structure of His abiding Presence in us’ as “true temples”? It’s THROUGH YOU, man or woman of true faith, that the Light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who IS the image of God, should shine in you and through you!

Reflect upon Hebrews 3:5-6! “And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house (Is that the ‘wilderness’ tabernacle”?) as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, BUT CHRIST as a Son over His own house, whose house we are IF we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”

YOU must examine the Holy Word and reflect upon whether or not you are a true son or true daughter in God’s Holy Family! The Hebrews author continued expanding understanding about “Holy Temple soundness”! In Hebrews 3:7-19 we read, examine, and determine to what or Who we are truly committed!! It says:

“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, IF you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” THEREFORE:

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another DAILY, while it is called “Today”, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ IF we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, DO NOT harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

For who, having heard, rebelled? Did the Hebrew author speak of those who possess evil hearts of unbelief and willfully depart from the living God? Did he also alert us to mind, will, and heart-hardening through the deceitfulness of sin? Oh, and is there also the tragedy of hearing the Word, knowing the Word, but it didn’t and doesn’t profit some because of “Not being mixed with faith IN those who heard it”? Remember, Jesus said to some, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, BUT you do not do what I say”??!!

Do you see “obedience to the Word of God in Christ” as evidence that one has been born again? In Romans 16:25-27 we read, “Now to Him who is able to establish you (or ‘make you to ‘stand in Him’ completed, obedient, and Christ-honoring!!) according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, FOR OBEDIENCE TO THE FAITH – to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.”

You do understand: “obedience is not an option disciples of Christ hold”, but it is the outward expression of Who healed us, honored us by choosing us for Himself, and Who reminded disciples then and disciples now: “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, BUT you do not do what I say?” Do you do what Jesus says as His earthly mediator between Holy God, King Jesus, and His Holy Spirit to the unredeemed around you, even to your own family and friends?

In Colossians 1:9-18 we’re given another ‘wake-up call’ to true disciples. Paul was concerned that some in the Colossians community had very little understanding of the “preeminence of Christ in them”. It says: “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience (or steadfastness) and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has QUALIFIED us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He 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.

He is the image (exact likeness!) of the invisible God, the firstborn over all (new) 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’d be amiss, off-track, deceived, uncaring for you, if I didn’t ask you: “Does Christ Jesus have preeminence in you, over you, through you, leading you to let Him have His way in your heart and life?”).

“Foundation Stones of the Holy Temple of Christ?” And those are “living stones”, but so valuable in unveiling Christ to all those who come in contact to the “Holy Temple of Christ,” YOUR redeemed, born-again, Spirit-filled life, walk, and personal testimony! I’m sure it’s why in 1 Peter 1:13-16 we read as a “wake-up call” in our Spirit-Kingdom Presence: “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober (or serious minded!), and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation (or unveiling) of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also BE HOLY IN ALL YOUR CONDUCT, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” AND THAT’S NOT AN OPTION YOU HOLD BUT A VISIBLE DEMONSTRATION OF AN INWARD REALITY OF THE WORKING OF SOVEREIGN GRACE AND MERCY!

“Foundation Stones of the Holy Temple of Christ?” Continue in 1 Peter 1:22-2:10!! It says: “SINCE YOU HAVE PURIFIED YOUR SOULS IN OBEYING THE TRUTH THROUGH THE SPIRIT [Can’t you hear the ‘naysayers’ rising up? “That’s ‘salvation by works’!” NO! That’s obedience to the Word because one has been ‘born again’ by faith in Christ’s Work at the Cross and empty tomb!] in sincere love of the brethren, love one another with a pure heart, HAVING BEEN BORN AGAIN, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God WHICH LIVES AND ABIDES FOREVER, because

‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, BUT the word of the Lord endures forever.’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.”

1 Peter 2:1-10 follows, convicting, educating, and inspiring us: “THEREFORE, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, and evil speaking, (That, my friends, IS what true, born-again, yes, maturing children of True Faith DO!), as newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may GROW THEREBY, IF INDEED you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.(“IF”? Does that mean true discipleship is ‘conditional’?).

Coming to Him AS A LIVING STONE, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, AS LIVING STONES, are being built up a spiritual house, (THAT IS, “a holy temple, an earthly kingdom of grace and mercy and love, Holy God’s spiritual family of “blood-bought faith”), a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Therefore it is also contained in Holy Scripture: (Isaiah 28), “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame.” Therefore, to you who believe, (trust in, rely upon, adhere to!), He is precious, but to those WHO ARE DISOBEDIENT, “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone,” (Psalm 118), AND “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense.”

They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they were also appointed. (2 Timothy 2:19!). BUT you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but ARE NOW the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now HAVE OBTAINED MERCY!”

There’s an old, old hymn that was written by Julia H. Johnston, who entered high school in about 1865, but started writing hymns and songs when she was about nine years of age. It was 1911 when she wrote the following hymn: “Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt, yonder on Calvary’s mount out-poured, there where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Dark is the stain that we cannot hide, what can avail to wash it away! Look! There is flowing a crimson tide; Whiter than snow you may be today.

Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace, freely bestowed on all who believe; you that are longing to see His face, will you this moment His grace receive?

Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; Grace, grace, God’s grace, Grace that is greater than all our sin.”

It was Dwight L. Moody who once preached: “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully consecrated to Him.” And to the ‘fully consecrated man’? In Ecclesiastes 2:26 the “wise man” wrote:

“For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight; (That’s the man whose daily aim, ambition, and faithful desire IS to Please God!) but to the sinner He gives the work of gathering and collecting, that he may give to him who is good (or godly) before God.” HOW SWEET IS THAT?

BY:J.FARRELL FISHER, DEC. 2-4, 2017

In Proverbs 23:4-5, 12, and 17-19, are extremely wise, necessary words for all men, but especially to true believers! It says, Verses 4-5, “Do not overwork to be rich; because of your own understanding, cease! Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away like an eagle toward heaven.”

Verse 12 says, “Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.” (Would you think that means ‘turn your hearts and minds TO God’s Word’ and ‘your ears to “Biblical Truth”?’).

Verses 17-19 says, “Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day; for surely there is a hereafter, and your hope (in Him and His Word!) will not be cut off. Hear, my son, and be wise; and guide your heart in the way.”

What ‘way’ do you choose to walk in? “Mindful indulgence or Mastered independence?” In Matthew 6:19-21 the Lord Jesus said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Is there a reason for what Christ said? In Colossians 3:5 Paul wrote, “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.”

All unbelievers and ‘sons of disobedience’ WALK in “mindful indulgence” completely unaware of the consequences! In Romans 8:8 Paul wrote, “So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God”, meaning that those who live ‘in the flesh’ dominated by their old sin-natures cannot please God, emphasizing even more in Romans 8:13 saying, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die…”, unveiling unregenerate people who are, yes, hostile to God, and in the ‘flesh’ cannot create, invent, manufacture, or idealize ‘holy living’ – that takes a miracle of the love, grace, and mercy of God!

‘Mindful indulgence’ is the result of the birthings of perverted generations as Romans 3:23 clearly announces, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God!” Natural man “misses the mark” and needs “Blood Redemption” by the purely innocent shed blood of the Son of God who knew no sin yet willfully took our sin natures to the Cross with Him!

In Romans 3:10-18 Paul quoted Old Testament passages to open men’s eyes, minds, and hearts to the need of their “blood redemption through Christ” saying: “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; Destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

“Mindful indulgence” is ‘self-effort’ denying the need of ‘sovereign provision’ in any form or any Person, seeking to ‘justify’ one’s life by ‘grit’, refusing the grace of God; and, of course, there are those who believe by ‘working at it’ their effort ought to be “passed” with flying colors, rather than “Resting” in the finished work of Christ at the Cross and the empty tomb, making available Resurrection Life, Resurrection Hope, and Resurrection Power!! Romans 3:24 clearly tells us, “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, WHOM GOD SET FORTH AS A PROPITIATION BY HIS BLOOD…!!!”

It’s so convicting and heart-breaking to become aware of, yes, multitudes who truly believe their ‘working at being a better person’, or for some, they just don’t care what God thinks about them – but…Romans 4:4 is clear: “Now to him who works (at making himself/herself acceptable before Holy God), the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.” Is ‘true salvation’ “working at it” or “RESTING” in Christ’s “finished work at the Cross”?

In John 5:38-40 Christ Jesus exposed the “religious Pharisees” of His day, as He does today with ‘modern-day’, religious activists who, yes, major on “self-effort” rather than His “finished work”! John wrote: “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe (trust in, rely upon, 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.”

In John 17:11b-19 the Lord Jesus prayed for His new disciples that He’d soon be departing from, saying, “…Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition (Judas), that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.

I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify (Set apart) them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.”

Question! “Have YOU been ‘set apart’ for the glory of God alone? Do YOU live to unveil the Indwelling Christ to the ‘lost world’ around you? Are YOU His messenger, His ambassador, His witness of saving grace, mercy, and love? Do YOU by “life example” reveal to your world your allegiance to King Jesus?

“Mindful Allegiance” is a life “too busy” with one’s natural surroundings to be concerned with, involved in, or a messenger of “King-dom Allegiance”! Some in church fellowships that, as disciples, the Lord Jesus said to them and us in Matthew 16: 17-19, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, (Farrell Fisher, David Clark, T.Roy Jones, anointed wife of a strong, trusting husband, medical doctor “So and so”, banker, car-washer, educator), for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, AND ON THIS ROCK (OF FAITH, TRUST, AND OBEDIENCE!) I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR “BINDING AND LOOSING MINISTRY!” Do YOU realize that YOU are either binding kingdom ministry on the earth around you OR you are loosing the Kingdom of Christ around you by, yes, your faithful ministry as an appointed, anointed servant of the Master or is it just an ‘imitator’, ‘do nothing’ church member?

Are YOU a “kingdom minister”? In Matthew 6:33 Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”, with more enlightment for true believers and servants of the Master coming in John 18:36-38 when Jesus said: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”

Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?” Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

Right before His ascension, in Acts 1:7-8, the Lord Jesus said to His new disciples, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 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.” Witnesses, messengers, ambassadors, proclaimers, servants in the Name and for the honor and glory of Christ in us and through us, because in you the Word reveals a redeemed life filled with the Holy Spirit, being, yes, guided by the Holy Spirit in being a faithful witness to the unredeemed around you?

But, sadly, the Holy Word of God reveals the truth that there are those who, according to Romans 2:4-11, should have God’s holy judgment against them clearly revealed! Paul wrote: “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? BUT in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ‘who will render to each one according to his deeds’: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; BUT TO THOSE WHO ARE SELF-SEEKING AND DO NOT OBEY TRUTH, BUT OBEY UNRIGHTEOUSNESS – indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who seeks what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”

I’m sure that at least most ‘professing believers’ know what is commonly called the “Lord’s Prayer” as He taught His new disciples in Matthew 6 unveiling it with powerful instructions in Verses 5-8 followed by the “Lord’s Prayer” in Verses 9-13! Receive our Lord’s powerful ministry AND instruction through His teaching!

Matthew 6:5-8, “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites (or “play actors”). 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. 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. 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.

Verses 9-13 follows – Receive our Lord’s Prayer! It says: 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. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

“Mastered Independence”? That’s a life conquered by the love of God, set free from the law of sin and death by the blood of the Lamb, governed by His Kingdom rule and revelation, freed from the “chains of Satanic bondage”, issued the “Master’s instruction of heavenly independence from the worldly aims of godlessness, from a world system of self-dependence, from the ‘flesh’ stronghold of sin and death, and from the darkness of demonic activity”, and discerning of what, yes, fallen mankind and, sadly, some believers are influenced by as John was inspired to write in 1 John 2:15-17,

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

And “Mastered Independence”? That’s pastors, churches, families, individuals, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, then loosed in a fallen world, yes, “mastered independently” to BE “salt and light” in one’s darkened world, not making sure the “salt and light” is protected by the four walls of a church building, but poured out faithfully in the streets of one’s city, state, nation, and its world!

I’ve often wondered if pastors and churches today “rest” in the Word of God, then find themselves “released” to touch the World God loves with the message of His Son. In Isaiah 54:1-3 merciful God is touching His ‘barren people’ who’ve failed to be “poured out drink offerings” to a thirsty, dry, unredeemed world! Receive His Word!! “Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who have not labored with child! For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman,” says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; do not spare; lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall EXPAND to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.”

It’s time for “stained glass curtains” hiding too many disciples faith to be removed, maybe, allowing the “True Light” to shine in the streets where they walk, work, witness, worship, and willfully share their faith in Christ! Our Lord and Savior willfully left the “Throne Room of God” to pour out His life to our needy world, and I believe He wants us, yes, laying down our lives in the streets of the cities of our world! Great witnesses are mortal men and women touched and taken over by Jesus, tutored by the Holy Spirit, and commissioned by Christ to see transformed lives by faithful witnesses who share God’s eternal love, grace, and mercy for, yes, ALL of fallen mankind!

Grace E. Uhler once wrote: “For God so loved the world, not just a few, The wise and Great, the noble and the true, Or those of favored class or race or hue. God so loved the world. Do you?”

It’s time for modern-day churches, faithful pastors, families of faith and biblical mission to lose themselves in a flood of Calvary’s love, faithfully becoming “poured-out drink offerings” to this spiritually dehydrated world! Amen? Sadly, some ‘professing disciples’ are the result of a ‘dead faith’ that isn’t worth sharing, so they don’t, because their ‘faith’ isn’t of any value in them or around them because they’ve never comprehended the end result of Christ-less living! “God, help us, convict us, prepare us, and pour us out to our thirsty world!” Amen?

FAITHFUL DISCIPLES!”

(BY:J.FARRELL FISHER)……

APRIL 30 -MAY 1,2018

HAVE YOU EVER CONSIDERED ‘PROVIDENCE’?IT IS A HIGHLY INTERESTING WORD. IN THE “RANDOM HOUSE COLLEGE DICTIONARY”, PUBLISHED IN 1975 BY RANDOM HOUSE INC., DEFINING IT AS,”THE FORESEEING CARE AND GUARDIANSHIP OF GOD OVER HIS CREATURES..A MANIFESTATION OF DIVINE CARE OR DIRECTION: PROVIDENT OR PRUDENT MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES…”!

AND WHEN I READ THAT DEFINITION, I CONSIDERED, “BIRTHED INTO THIS WORLD BY THE PLAN AND MANAGEMENT OF GOD,IS IT WRONG TO SAY, “GOD HAS NO PLACE IN PLANNING OR MANAGING ME”? UNBELIEVERS, SINNERS, BOSSES OF THEIR OWN LIVES ARE NOT AT ALL INTERESTED IN “GOD’S PROPERTY- MANAGEMENT” OF THEIR LIVES!THEY SEE ‘SELF’ AS “OK” ON THEIR OWN TERMS & DEFINITIONS OF WHAT “I CHOOSE – NOT WHAT YOUR GOD TELLS ME, BUT WHAT I CHOOSE FOR MYSELF!” AND WHEN YOU FULLY CONSIDER THE “PRIDE OF A MAN’S CHOICE OF ‘SELF-WILL, ‘SELF-PLEASURE’, ‘SELF-PURPOSE’, WITH NO INTEREST OR AWARENESS OF THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY OF BEING ‘RECONCILED TO GOD’ SINCE THEIR ATTITUDE IS, “I’M OK – YOU’RE OK”, WITHOUT ALLEGIANCE TO SOME GOD, IS BETTER KNOWN & UNVEILED AS ‘SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS’, ‘SPIRITUAL PREJUDICE’, ‘SPIRITUAL RESENTMENT OF ANYTHING PERTAINING TO HOLINESS’!!” SO, ‘FALLEN MEN’, FALLEN AWAY FROM GOD, NEED TO BE “RECONCILED” TO HIM! IN 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-21 PAUL WAS INSPIRED BY GOD HIMSELF TO WRITE, “THEREFORE IF ANY MAN BE ‘IN CHRIST’, HE IS A NEW CREATION, OLD THINGS ARE PASSED AWAY;BEHOLD, ALL THINGS ARE BECOME NEW.

AND ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD, WHO HAS RECONCILED US TO HIMSELF BY JESUS CHRIST, AND HAS GIVEN TO US THE MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION; TO WIT, THAT GOD WAS IN CHRIST, RECONCILING THE WORLD UNTO HIMSELF, NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM; AND HAS COMMITTED UNTO US (ALL BORN-AGAIN DISCIPLES!) THE WORD OF RECONCILIATION.

NOW THEN WE ARE AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST,AS THOUGH GOD DID BESEECH YOU BY US:WE PRAY YOU IN CHRIST’S STEAD, BE YOU RECONCILED TO GOD. FOR HE (GOD) HAS MADE HIM (CHRIST JESUS) TO BE SIN FOR US, WHO KNEW NO SIN:THAT WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.” GLORY! GLORY BE TO GOD ALMIGHTY, OUR LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER, WHO GAVE HIS OWN SON,JESUS, TO BE THE SAVIOR OF FALLEN MANKIND!

WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING, MOST SINNERS, MOST UNBELIEVERS,MOST ‘DEAF-EARRED’ & ‘HEART-DISEASED’ & ‘SELF-AND-SIN DEVOTEES’, MUST EXPERIENCE THE MIRACLE OF GOD’S GRACE & MERCY THROUGH HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION TO OPEN THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS TO EVEN THE ‘CONSIDERATION’ OF WHETHER OR NOT THEY WANT UNDER DIVINE MANAGEMENT & DIVINE MERCY & DIVINE MISSION! IN PROVERBS 1 ARE SOME HIGHLY INNATE,INTERESTING, INFORMATIVE VERSES. VERSE 5 SAYS, “A WISE MAN WILL HEAR, AND WILL INCREASE LEARNING; AND A MAN OF UNDERSTANDING SHALL ATTAIN UNTO WISE COUNSELS.” OH, THEN VERSE 7 SAYS, “THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE; BUT FOOLS DESPISE WISDOM AND INSTRUCTION.”

THERE IS A ‘SPIRIT OF WISDOM’ THAT CRIES OUT TO EVERY MAN WHO HAS EVER EXISTED! BUT PROVERBS 1:23-24 SAYS: “TURN YOU AT MY REPROOF; BEHOLD, I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT UNTO YOU, I WILL MAKE KNOWN MY WORDS UNTO YOU.

BECAUSE I HAVE CALLED, AND YOU REFUSED; I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HAND, AND NO MAN REGARDED;” AND THAT’S NOT ALL THE GOD OF WISDOM HAD TO SAY! EXAMINE VERSES 25-33! “BUT YOU HAVE SET AT NOUGHT ALL MY COUNSEL, AND WOULD NONE OF MY REPROOF: I WILL ALSO LAUGH AT YOUR CALAMITY; I WILL MOCK WHEN YOUR FEAR COMES; WHEN YOUR FEAR COMES AS DESOLATION, AND YOUR DESTRUCTION COMES AS A WHIRLWIND; WHEN DISTRESS AND ANGUISH COME UPON YOU.

THEN SHALL THEY CALL UPON ME, BUT I WILL NOT ANSWER; THEY SHALL SEEK ME EARLY, BUT THEY SHALL NOT FIND ME: FOR THAT THEY HATED KNOWLEDGE (THAT’S SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE!), AND DID NOT CHOOSE THE FEAR OF THE LORD;

THEY WOULD HAVE NONE OF MY COUNSEL; THEY DESPISED ALL MY REPROOF. THEREFORE SHALL THEY EAT OF THE FRUIT OF THEIR OWN WAY, AND BE FILLED WITH THEIR OWN DEVICES. FOR THE TURNING AWAY OF THE SIMPLE SHALL SLAY THEM, (THE TURNING AWAY OF THE SIMPLE? “GOD CALLED – THEY REFUSED TO COME TO HIM!),AND THE PROSPERITY OF FOOLS SHALL DESTROY THEM.

BUT WHOSO HEARKENS UNTO ME SHALL DWELL SAFELY, AND SHALL BE QUIET FROM FEAR OF EVIL.” DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT? THE WISEMAN,SOLOMON, ALSO SAID, IN PROVERBS 3:5-6,&VERSE 8, WE READ: “TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART; AND LEAN NOT UNTO YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING. IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE THE LORD, AND HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS.” & VERSE 8? “IT SHALL BE HEALTH TO YOUR NAVEL, AND MARROW TO YOUR BONES.”

“GODLESSNESS” PRODUCES A “THIRST”, A “SPIRITUAL ILLNESS FROM THE ‘SIN-DISEASE’, AND A SPIRITUAL ‘HUNGER’THAT ONLY GOD HIMSELF THROUGH CHRIST CAN QUENCH OR SATISFY”! ISAIAH 55:1-3,6-7, & VERSE 11 SAYS:

“TRUST?” IN HIS WRITING ENTITLED “HYMN”,

(ST.5),HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW WROTE: “O HOLY TRUST! O ENDLESS SENSE OF REST! LIKE THE BELOVED JOHN TO LAY HIS HEAD UPON THE SAVIOR’S BREAST, AND THUS TO JOURNEY ON!”

IS YOUR ‘JOURNEY OF LIFE’ A LIFE OF TRUE BIBLICAL TRUST? IS YOUR JOURNEY ‘A WALK OF SPIRITUAL ‘REST’? YOUR ‘JOURNEY’, YOUR ‘EARTHLY WALK’, YOUR ‘SPIRITUAL’ (?) PILGRIMAGE, IS IT ‘FULL’, ‘DRAINING’, OR ‘DROWNED’ IN THE SEA OF SELF-INDULGENCE, SELF-DETERMINATION, SELF-‘FLESH’ OR ‘SIN-NATURE’ SATISFACTION? OH, BUT THEN UPON “CONVERSION, THE NEW BIRTH, RECONCILED TO GOD, AND COMMISSIONED BY HIM”, ARE “YOU” A “MISSION-MINDED MAN AS A FAITHFUL DISCIPLE”, OR ARE ‘YOU’ A ‘SELF-INDULGING, SATAN-BLINDED,WARPED WORLD WANDERER FROM GOD AND HIS WORD AND WILL, FROM JESUS AND HIS LOVING WAY, FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO CALLS, CONVICTS, AND SO DESIRES TO CONVERT THE REPENTANT HEART & MIND, BECAUSE, FOR “YOU”, IT’S YOUR WAY, NOT GOD’S WAY OF “THE CROSS THAT LEADS ONE HOME” TO SHARE LIFE WITH COMPASSIONATE GOD, MERCIFUL JESUS, AND LOVING HOLY SPIRIT?!?

AND, IF YOU’RE “SHARING LIFE IN CHRIST”,LET US GO BACK TO READ ALSO 2 CORINTHIANS 5:14-15! PAUL WROTE: “FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINS US; BECAUSE WE THUS JUDGE, THAT IF ONE DIED FOR ALL, THEN WERE ALL DEAD: AND THAT HE DIED FOR ALL, THAT THEY WHICH LIVE SHOULD NOT HENCEFORTH LIVE UNTO THEMSELVES, BUT UNTO HIM WHICH DIED FOR THEM, AND ROSE AGAIN.”

AND, “IF THE LOVE OF CHRIST HAS CONVICTED US, CONSTRAINED US, CONVERTED US, DOES THE LOVE OF CHRIST ALSO COMMISSION US AS NEW DISCIPLES TO BE ONE WITH CHRIST IN “WORLD OUTREACH” TO PREACH THE GOSPEL, PROCLAIM IT’S SAVIOR AND LORD, AND PROVIDE EVEN FINANCIALLY AND PRAYER-SUPPORTED BY EVERY ‘BORN-AGAIN’BELIEVER, EVERY PASTOR, AND EVERY CHURCH?

“IN CHRIST” DISCIPLES LIVE FULLY AWARE OF “AMAZING GRACE” THAT IS NOT TO BE HIDDEN AWAY IN THEIR MINDS OR HEARTS, BECAUSE, “BIRTHED IN HIM TRULY”, THEY ARE “MISSION-MINDED MEN” AS FAITHFUL DISCIPLES!!! ARE YOU?

By: J. Farrell Fisher, July 24-25, 2017

A craving, fleshly heart is because of all lives birthed in the ‘natural’ world void of the “new creation miraculous birth” through the free gift of God Himself through the shed blood of the Redeemer! Didn’t Jesus say to the ‘religious’ Nicodemus, in John 3:3, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is BORN AGAIN, he cannot see the kingdom of God”?

In fact, in John 3: 5, Jesus unveiled the process of redemptive faith! He said: “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,” saying also in Verse 6, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Peter amplified the eternal ministry of “blood redemption through Christ” when in 1 Peter 1:22-23 he wrote: “Since you have purified your souls IN OBEYING THE TRUTH through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.” Are YOU SPIRIT-BIRTHED by the living and abiding Word of God?

A craving, fleshly heart? A life lived independent of the Word, satisfying the impulses of a fleshly mind and heart, fitting in to the natural world of sin, deceit, and fleshly indulgences, yes, disobedient to the revealed Word of God, consumed by fleshly lusts warring against one’s soul and God Himself, living in the biblical ignorance of foolish men, camouflaging devilish hearts with “beautiful and handsome appearances”, embracing one’s appearance in its sinful nature as the height of fleshly wisdom, even openly and willingly denying the revealed Word of God, accepting of fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, even disobedience to the revealed will of God while stating “I’m a believer”, but drunk on the ‘wine’ of self-will and self-pleasure assuming falsely, “God understands”! Really?

Craving, fleshly hearts for the most part live in opposition to the good, acceptable, perfect will of God, ‘satisfied’ that as they disobey, “God understands and continually forgives,” as if in all our ‘fleshly dispensations’ or understanding, God just wipes, wipes, keeps on wiping, because forgiving through the blood of Christ is capable of changing ‘my nature’ – No! He crucified your sin nature with Christ!

Holy God was not fashioned, nor ever needed to be, because God IS Holy God – always has been and forever will be, but men birthed in the image, likeness, and nature of Adam, Jesus says, “These MUST be born again, born of the Spirit, born in and through His revealed Word”!

Mortal men are not like God, nor God like mortal men! God is not flesh but Spirit, not sin-natured but divine holiness and perfect righteousness, not striving but speaking who and what He is, always has been, and forever will be, the Way, the Truth, and the Life! But mortal men too often rest in themselves and lose out on the eternal blessing of “Christ in them the hope of glory”! And how many do you know or have heard speak about their own abilities, and how blessed God must feel to have them on His team, with no consideration of what and who Christ took to the Cross with Him!

If God made us for Himself, making us free to choose how and in whom we choose to live, having been created ‘free to choose’, sadly many choose to live independently of God, reasoning, “my best effort should be acceptable to God”, but reconciliation is by His terms, not fallen men’s terms! Fallen men announce from the mind and heart of “fallen flesh”, while Holy God announces His “finished work” and only way of reconciliation in and through the “shed blood” of Christ alone! It is dangerous grounds on which men stand if they fail to heed the voice of God: “Only guiltless blood redeems, regenerates divine life within, or restores men to My eternal will, plan, and power, in overcoming the world, the flesh, and the devil!”

It was J. Wilbur Chapman who wrote years ago these words: “I know of a name that is sunk in shame, where hearts often faint and tire; But I know a Name, a precious Name, That can set that world on fire: Its sound is sweet, its letters flame. I know a Name, a precious Name, It’s Jesus!”

But, how many really live unashamed in Christ Jesus’ Name? Are there still a few “Judases” who will sell Him for a “few pieces of silver” or a “few indulgences in my fallen flesh” or a “few transgressions understanding there is no consequence for a ‘believer’”? In the “modern-day” of “church life” the modern-mind of “professing Christians” must be reminded: “The wages of sin IS death”! When did that change? Or how many ‘church folk’ do you hear refuting that Biblical declaration? Fallen human natures ‘professing faith in Christ’ are more likely than not what the Duke of Wellington said: “Men who have nice notions of religion have no business to be soldiers (of the Cross of Christ)!” So true!

A craving, fleshly heart, baptized or not, has no business declaring their dependence upon God when they live with a declaration of independence from Holy God as they willfully choose to indulge the “flesh” He crucified! It was John Bunyan, in “The Pilgrim’s Progress” (Pt.11), who wrote: “One leak will sink a ship; and one sin will destroy a sinner;” and, I add, “One sin will sink a ‘saint’ if there is no repenting and forsaking of sin and the sin nature Christ took to the Cross”! How many “Christians” do you know who truly possess a repugnance about sinning “after choosing to be Christ’s disciple” yet excuse their ‘sinning tendencies’?

1 John 3:5 says, “And you know that He (Christ Jesus) was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin,” understanding that a ‘good tree’ birthed by Christ Jesus, according to Matthew 7:18, “cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” It certainly doesn’t mean a full tree of fruit cannot witness even “one bad apple” – it happens! If you examine studiously I John 3:5, you’ll discern at least four truths:

• Jesus was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin.”
• Christ within you is the eternal presence and manifestation of Holy God who is senseless, only abiding and never changing in eternal Truth.
• Being one with Christ means, yes, we’re to live senseless lives.
• It is the height of absurdity to profess allegiance to the Sinless Savior and Lord but believe it’s OK without any awareness of or conviction about sinning as an evidence one never knew Him! “in Him is no sin.”

If that is true, and it is, what does Paul tell us 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 NO LONGER BE SLAVES OF SIN. For he who has died (were YOU crucified with Christ?) has been FREED FROM SIN. (Has YOUR body of sin been crucified with Christ?).

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 CHRIST 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.” Dare I tell you that Jesus not only took our sins and sin nature upon Himself to wipe out the disgrace of sinful hearts and minds, but through His shed blood also to vanquish sin’s grip – and if we’re “joined to Christ by grace and mercy”, what spirit is it that has deceived us if we ever get to the place we say, “sinning is Ok as long as we ‘believe’ in Jesus”, when ‘belief’, true belief, true scriptural evidence, doesn’t introduce an ‘OK’ to sin!!

But some ‘compromising believers’ disavow victory in and through Jesus concerning their old sin natures! In 2 Corinthians 4:2-7 Paul tells us: “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending every man’s conscience in the sight of God. But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age (Satan and/or the ‘false religious leaders of the day who are ‘tools of the devil’!’) has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.” Counterfeit lights in ‘self-made followers of Jesus’ are not the Salvation Light of the Indwelling Disciple who has lived with a truly repentant heart toward God and faith only in the Christ within them, not their cheap imitation!

A.W. Pink wrote in his book “An Exposition of 1 John”, (p.115), commenting about “whoever sins has not seen Him, nor known Him,” saying: “Between abiding in Christ and sinning there is such an absolute incompatibility, that whoever sins (And keeps on saying, I JFF say!) is for the time not merely in the position of not abiding in Christ, but in the position of not having seen or known Him. In so far as he is sinning, his is virtually the very same case with that of the man who has never either seen or known Christ. The statement is very emphatic and very categorical. It is more than a mere assertion of a sort of moral inconsistency or incongruity, a certain manifest unsuitableness, in the view of common sense and right feeling. It is an assertion of absolute incompatibility, in the nature of things; and it is a very strong assertion of that, put in two forms, positively and negatively, to make it all the stronger.”

Did YOU “die with Christ”? And are YOU “abiding in Christ” through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, confession of your sin and sin nature through the Spirit, and guided by the Holy Spirit that Christ Jesus only is YOUR WAY, YOUR TRUTH, and YOUR LIFE? You “live resurrection life” because of the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ in you, yes again, “the hope of glory”! It’s not “servile pretense” but “Spirit of Christ presence”, being Himself in and through your convicted, broken, cleansed heart by the Blood of the Lamb, washing you, resurrecting you to be Christ’s resident Temple of Holiness! If you live with a faithful heart, you live your life of faith apart from sin and your old sin nature! It’s clear, at least in the Word! “If YOU are Christ’s child of faith you’ve offered your life to be dead from and in sin so the Victorious Christ will have an earthly home to be Himself! And, IF SO, “Go and sin no more!”

Again, John, in 1 John 3:7-10, in a convicting declaration states: “Little children (which can include 80-year-olds who’ve just believed!), let no one deceive you. He who practices (and keeps on practicing!) righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. (It’s extremely sad that some choose Satan’s works over God’s grace and mercy, but they do!). Whoever has been born of God (in the spirit-realm) does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”

And, some just laugh, saying: “Well, I guess I’ll just have to show Jesus!”, as they rebel, deny, AND choose to do as they please rather than as God decrees and declares: “The wages of sin IS death, but the gift of God IS eternal life in and through Christ Jesus only!!”

Sadly, around you flourishes a ‘society of sinners’ under the rule of Satan that see their sin-tendencies as blessings not curses, because of sinful mind and heart, dictated to by Satan, yes, desires to satisfy their ‘flesh-nature’, failing to understand it exposes their true identity of godlessness! Yet, at the same time, “confession booths” are open doors for many to ‘feel’ forgiven as they walk out, but intent on doing the same things over and over! There isn’t a ‘heavy-heart’ of brokenness about how their sin breaks God’s heart, but a ‘confession’ without any desire to be delivered from their bondage!

“Natural, worldly, self-centered, Satan-influenced individuals,” are spiritually bankrupt when it comes to understanding, receiving, reaching out to, or resting in the Word of God – they are part of societal madness, void of spiritual discernment, and blind to the grace, mercy, and love of God demonstrated in and through Calvary’s Cross!

Is it for you a craving, fleshly, God-forsaking heart or are you willing to be another “new creation miracle” out of the overflow of God’s heart and out of the abundance of Christ’s promises and fulfillment in millions and millions of lives?

There is: A new blood-covenant, the promise of a “new name”, the eternal miracle of a “new heart”, a “new door or new gate of entrance into the fullness, the brightness, the glory of God’s presence in you, the hope of glory,” a “new drink of eternal blessing – the wine of Truth, mercy, and love”, a “new spirit, attitude, outlook, and fulfillment”, a “new creation”, a “new man”, a “new and living way”, “all things made new by His eternal creative powers”, a “new vision, a new dream” not figments of one’s sleepy dreams but the formulated plans of God for your destiny as clay in the hands of the Master-Potter!

The prophet, Joel, wrote in Joel 2:28-29, God speaking: “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; 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.”

Dare I tell you that apart from God’s visions and dreams for every individual soul, mankind lives only with the best or worst of fallen men’s fleshly ambitions apart from eternal intent! It was James Russell Lowell who once said: “The wicked and the weak, by some dark law, have a strange power to shut and rivet down their own horizons round us, to unwing our heaven-inspiring visions.” So absolutely true, but then I came across Peter Marshall’s word in “Mr. Jones, Meet the Master,” when he said: “Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for, because unless we stand for something (and I say, FOR SOMEONE EVEN CHRIST!), we shall fall for anything.”

But how many do you know who willfully and intently stand, yes, opposed to God’s heavenly vision unveiled in and through Christ alone? But we have the Word of God in Christ – and it is not an old Aladdin’s lamp with ‘flickering, dying flames”, but eternal Truth “setting the captives free” and appointing them to extend His Kingdom and express His love, and exercise and prove His eternal power in bringing Heaven and the Kingdom of God to earth in the repentant, believing, trusting hearts of His disciples! ARE YOU ONE OF HIS DISCIPLES?

Milton Littlefield and E.M.Wren, in the old “American Hymnal” of 1933, wrote this hymn entitled, “Follow Me, the Masrter Said” – it says: “Follow Me”, the Master said; We will follow Jesus: By His word and Spirit-led, We will follow Jesus. Still for us He lives to plead, At the throne He does intercede, offers help in time of need: We will follow Jesus.

Should the world and sin oppose, We will follow Jesus; He is greater than our foes; We will follow Jesus. On His promise we depend, He will succor and defend, help and keep us to the end: We will follow Jesus.

Though the way may dark appear, We will follow Jesus; He will make our pathway clear; We will follow Jesus. In our daily round of care, As we plead with God in prayer, With the cross which we must bear, We will follow Jesus.

Ever keep the end in view; We will follow Jesus: All His promises are true; We will follow Jesus. When this earthly course is run, And the Master says, Well done!” Life eternal we have won: We will follow Jesus.”

Tell me! Who or what has your heart and on what path are you following? Are YOU “following” Jesus, anywhere, everywhere, any time, any place, any battle field He’s already fought and won for His glory, His honor, His praise alone? Dare I tell you, “the way of the Cross leads home”!