By: J.Farrell Fisher, September 5, 2014

Considering the title of this teaching, “Eternal Punishment Or Eternal Life?”, it’s not an easy thing to do because one is so involved in so many ways that consideration of eternal outcomes puts one on an uneasy street, especially if present time living has captured you but eternal punishment or eternal life you’d like to delay, cancel, put off, or face it wisely and courageously.

I don’t mind telling you that I consider my last years, or last months, or last days frequently because I know, my earthly departure is near.” At 78 years of age, knowing my “papa Fisher” died at 78 years of age, my father, James Emerson Fisher, died at 78 years of age – and I’ve at least wondered, “Is this my year of departure?”

In Genesis 8:21-22 God said in His heart (after the flood!), “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night, shall not cease.”

And the seasons are still with us, but there IS coming an hour or a time when God will arise from His throne, and He’ll say: “Gentlemen, IT’S CLOSING TIME FOR THE EARTHLY!” That will be “Hell” for some but “Heaven” for others!

Consider “LIFE”! Are you aware of some ‘achieving’ while others experience ‘failure’? Have you experienced “joy”; and then a cloud of sorrow moves over you? Does ten steps forward and five steps in reverse describe you at times in business, in studies, in work, in marriage? Have you known outstanding success but all of a sudden you experience defeat after defeat after defeat?

Think about your own “spiritual journey” of faith. Oh, I know there are some disciples of faith who move steadily along in their spiritual journey without ever experiencing an ounce of trouble, but for the majority of us as disciples there have been high mountains and low, low valleys, there have been phenomenal advances in the Word and the Spirit, there have been the “easy street” of soul-winning and discipling, but for some their faith-trip has been a lonely journey, often even isolated from a vibrant fellowship and having to “press in” alone, fearful, discouraged, and maybe even blind to the presence of God’s Holy Spirit!

Has ‘affliction’ ever hit you physically, morally, emotionally, spiritually, mentally – and you pause, reflect, question, hopefully even asking others for counsel and advice? Are you aware, having experienced it yourself, that there are times when up is down or down is up, when ‘normalcy’ becomes so abnormal, when all of a sudden your life, your situation, your walk, your experiences become some dark clouds of ‘my straying’?

I can’t even fathom a day without one resolving for himself/herself “eternal punishment or eternal life”! Life is so very uncertain! I can’t comprehend Godless sorrow, Godless lives, Godless futures!! Oh, and then, you try to understand Godless religions that have no hope, no precious promises, no power to implant “new hearts and new hopes and new futures,” and you paused and consider: ‘How could they miss Divine Revelation’? But they do.

What happens with unregenerate religionists is that they become devoted to ‘outward regularity’ without inward heart-change by the grace and mercy of God! But beyond deathly empty religions, there is the aching void and emptiness of, yes, a Godless life and one who is offended by anybody sharing “saving faith”!

Most ‘church folk’ have little, if any, understanding of the purpose of the law of God. Oh, they think they do, and, more than likely brag about not being ‘law-breakers’! But Jesus said, “Offend in one point and you’re guilty of ALL!!” Law-breaking is the exposure of guilty hearts that need Blood Redemption – Jesus’ only!

Look around your little world! You’re not aware at all of the manifestations of ‘sin’ that are so apparent? Your little world is a ‘jewel’ and ‘crown’ of godliness? How is your state’s divorce rate? Tell me about your schools where the majority of students have both parents for parenting nurturing! Is abortion a non-issue in your state and community? What’s your prison population like and what does it cost your state? “Sir, you may be a Christian, but I choose ‘my way,’ I chose ‘my pleasures;’ I’ll think as I want to think! Who needs the mind of Christ? I’m a promoter of self-aggrandisement and could care less about being ‘conformed to the image of Christ’!”

In Matthew 10:33 Jesus spoke ever so clearly: “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father in heaven.” ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OR ETERNAL LIFE? And don’t take Romans 5:17-19 lightly! Examine your own heart, mind, and spirit! “For if by the one man’s offense [Adam] 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. 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. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

Each of us must deal personally with “offense” against God and His Word, the awareness of one’s spiritual death status before Holy God, the consideration of judgment, the matter of, yes, God’s condemnation, and the end result of disobedience. It must not be taken lightly or of no concern to you – you will stand before Holy God’s throne and give an answer of rejection or of the repentance and faith that gripped, graced, and birthed a “new life”!

Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, came “to seek and to save that which is lost.” In Luke 13 our Lord introduced “the narrow way.” Don’t miss His life-changing or life-condemning word! Verses 22-30 says: And He [Jesus] went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?” And He 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.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out…

They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”

Did you catch it? Were you stopped in your tracks? Have you examined YOUR heart? Have you contemplated your ways or His will for your life? What did Jesus say? “Many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” He spoke of “the strait gate” – is Jesus that gate? John 10:9 says, Jesus speaking, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” SAVED? SAVED FROM WHAT?

Let’s look at the sad reality of “ETERNAL PUNISHMENT”! If you didn’t know, it was Cain who murdered his brother Abel! In Genesis 4:8 we read that “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” Deadly actions, deadly deeds, deadly choices, yes, deadly resistance to God’s Way always opens the door to one’s ‘eternal punishment’! Murder is violent but so is ‘murder’, not only as a deed, but as one’s self-determination of supremacy over others, even ‘killing’ by gossip, word, or deed!

Have you never considered that a man’s ‘fool-ish-ness’ is a deadly involvement? Have you never evaluated the price and extent of a man’s disobedience? I’ve already mentioned that the breaking of one commandment brings judgment as if I’d broken all the Law of God! Most men embrace the world’s godless ways because they have not, cannot, will not, separate themselves from that in which they believe that they are so much a part !

‘Attachment’ is a powerful persuader of devotion to godlessness! “They’re my friends – I can’t forsake them,” even if it costs them an eternal relationship with Christ! “It’s my religion for generations,” even if their ‘religion’ closes the door to oneness with Christ!

‘Similarity’ is a common excuse by a lot of fallen people! “Everybody labors and is heavily ladened; why should I look to one who says He’ll give me rest? Rest from what?” And they don’t even know that godlessness is like the full weight of the world itself crushing them to more and more death!

‘Paralysis’ spiritually is so similar to “spiritual blindness” because one has no desire to move toward God and certainly has no insight to sense Holy Presence before him with open arms – so he ignores a loving Savior and Lord.

‘Deception’ is a devilish tool with sad results. Satan lied to Eve and Adam and the experienced the reality of spiritual death! “You can sin and not die” – but they did! Have you read recently 2 Peter 2:1-3? Peter wrote: “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.”

Oh, but then in 2 Peter 2:12-14 and verses 18-20 Peter exposes the spiritual hypocrisy that is SO DECEPTIVE AND DEADLY: Verses 12-14, “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…

Verses 18-20, 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 the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.”

But then we read a word of hope from Paul when he said in Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” It is so vital for you to know in the midst of even Satanic deception, GOD IS FOR YOU! He wants to see you overcoming in Christ Jesus – not by your own effort!

“Born of sinful flesh” is the reality of every human born into this world! Though we are not owned by Satan and his demons, we certainly were sadly influenced to devilish sins, vices, lusts, and choices that distress, disturb, demean, degrade, and destroy our very souls!

Satan isn’t out to heal you but to harm you; he’s not interested in binding up your wounds but cutting you deeper; he’s not out to encourage you toward a Godly faith but to decei9ve you into his ‘hellish’ fires!

And Satan’s greatest deception? Paul spoke about those who are “ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,” certainly in opposition to the call to submit one’s self to the righteousness of God! [Romans 10:1-3]!

God’s righteousness or your own righteousness? Pleasing self or pleasing God? Trusting ‘religion’ or His Divine Revelation? Obeying a surface, religious faith that has not, will not, cannot change your heart OR heart obedience in Christ to honor God Himself? Do you realize that there are those who hold ‘respect’ for religious activity but have not an ounce of commitment to obey God? Aren’t you aware of others around you, maybe even yourself, that ‘outward appearance’ has veiled, yes, a rebellious heart and mind? Religious but unregenerate, separate from most of the world but knowing nothing of justification, sanctification, or glorification? Outward allegiance to religious truths but no full surrender to Eternal Truth whose name is Jesus?

Oh, but I pray you clearly understand that there are those who never have and never will come to Christ in repentance and faith. But in this given moment I want you to consider, yes, defectors from the Faith! If you read John 6:66 His Word tells us: “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” WHAT A SAD COMMENTARY!!

One of the most heart-rending moments a true church family may endure is not separation from a local body to another local body, but when there are those you’ve shared your life with who choose to walk away from the Redemptive Faith of Christ! John 6:67 then tells us Jesus asked His inner circle, “Do you also want to go away?”

You’ll remember that earlier in John 6, verse 56, Jesus said: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” And the response? Verse 60, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” And I believe the biblical demands of true discipleship become a hindrance and a stumbling-block because they were not willing to obey Him! Don’t you know and realize that personal prejudices, one’s own likes or dislikes, one’s devotion to his/her depraved life, can and does take precedence over the “I do it “I do it my way” crowd?!

In Spurgeon’s Sermons, [Memorial Library, Vol. 12, pps.293-309], the great preacher of England listed s number of reasons why some walk away and lose their souls!

• They depart from Christ because they cannot bear His doctrines.
• They depart from Christ for the sake of gain – money speaks loud.
• They depart from Christ because they’re afraid of persecution.
• They depart from Christ out of sheer levity.
• They depart from Christ tempted by evil companions.
• They depart from Christ for the sake of sensual enjoyments.
• They depart from Christ because their life circumstances changed.
• They depart from Christ because unsound doctrine led them to apostatize.
• They depart from Christ out of sheer laziness.

That should cover “A Mournful Defection” admirably! ETERNAL PUNISHMENT OR ETERNAL LIFE?

In John 3:14-15 Jesus tells us: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him [trusts in, abides in] should not perish, but have ETERNAL LIFE.”

Paul laid it out for us in a clear and convincing way when in Romans 6:23 he wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Oh, but also consider what he wrote in Romans 6:22! “But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.”

Performance or Provision? By one’s ‘grit’ or by God’s grace? By our self-effort or Jesus’ ‘self-less sacrifice’? Look at Romans 5:15-18 which tells us, But ‘the free gift’ is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more, the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many…

And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification….

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…

Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous acts “the free gift” came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”

Have you come to a full understanding of this ‘gift’ God has given to us in Christ? We’re: “justified as a gift by His grace,” “free gift,” “the gift of righteousness,” “eternal gift,” “your own gift,” “a generous gift,” “a bountiful gift,” “an indescribable gift,” “the spiritual gift within you,” “the heavenly gift,” “the perfect gift,” “a special gift,” – Oh, yes, “The gift of Jesus Himself!!”

Do you understand “freely received” so we “freely give”? Have you experienced: “…such as I have, I give to you”? Have you discovered that it’s more blessed to give than to receive? And when one has received God’s greatest gift in true sacrifice, tell me about the pattern of YOUR “laid-down life” in service and ministry to others, yes, because of what God has given you, understanding He never gave gifts to “pump your flesh” but to service and bless others and His precious Body called the Church of Christ!

I remind you of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:3 when He prayed to Father-God, “And THIS IS ETERNAL LIFE, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Yes, you do understand, you do know, but have you ventured your all in full surrender to His Lordship and taken “the sentence of death to yourself” that His Resurrection Life can be fully manifested in and through you?

I love what Oswald Chambers said in his “My Utmost For His Highest.” [p.74]. He said: “It takes omnipotence to live the life of the Son of God in mortal flesh.” And it’s so true, so necessary, and so fully available! We don’t ‘copy’ Jesus – we surrender to His resurrection presence in us: “Christ in you the hope of glory!” Stop being so determined and become totally dependent on Him because ‘He Is Able!’

In Acts 4:13 the Word tells us, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized [or took knowledge of] that they had been with Jesus.”

Hear me! WE WERE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST! If you didn’t know, when Jesus went to the Cross He took us all with Him! I want you to slowly, intently, passionately read over and over Romans 6:5-14!!

“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 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…

And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

This is why Paul could testify in Galatians 6:14, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” You either are boasting in yourself or you’ve accepted your crucifixion with Christ, and you boast only in Jesus!

His death at the Cross and your identity with Him on the Cross tells me YOU ARE TOTALLY AWARE OF GOD’S JUDGMENT ON YOUR SIN – and you, yes, choose death to sin in you, death to a depraved world spirit, death to your own personal self-interest and ambition, and you passionately long for your own full awareness that the “old self” died with Christ on the Cross!

Receive I Corinthians 2:12! “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 given freely to us by God.”

Paul told the Roman believers, and us, Romans 8:15-17, “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The 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 also be glorified together.”

His death on the Cross, your death with Him on the Cross, and you’re full awareness now that you are ‘joint-heir’ with Him in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ, brings you to a confident, assured, blessed journey of faith and eternal hope. And you know it how?

Examine our Lord’s words for us in John 14:27! “My peace I leave with you, My peace I GIVE TO YOU; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” Paul told the church at Philippi, [Philippians 4:7], “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

As you read this message, I don’t know who you are or where you are in your own spiritual journey – and you are in a journey of faith or a journey of faithlessness – I don’t know, but you know and God knows. In John 12:37 His Word tells us, “But although He had done so many signs before them, they did not believe in Him.” Oh, and then follow carefully John 12:26-36!

“If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him will My Father honor. Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour?’ But for this purpose I came to this hour…

Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.’ Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to Him.’ Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake…

Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” This He said, signifying by what death He would die…

The people answered Him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?’

Then Jesus said to them, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.

I pray you caught it as you read Jesus answering the people in John 12:30! Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake.” Have you heard His voice? It was Him speaking to you “for your sake”! There is a “Voice” – and it will declare “Eternal Punishment” or “Eternal Life.” What is His “Voice” saying to you right now?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, SEPT.23-25, 2019

ARE YOU AWARE OF THE ‘LESS AND LESS’ OF FALLEN HUMANITY WITHOUT FULL, SERIOUS, COMPLETE EXAMINATION OF GOD’S “MORE AND MORE”? THE ONE THING THE WORD OF GOD DECLARES WITHOUT WAVERING IS FOUND IN JOSHUA 24:15 WHEN JOSHUA SAID: “And if it seems evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you shall serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorities, in whose land you dwell; BUT AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”

In Deuteronomy 30:19-20a, Moses declared, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life, that both you and your seed may live (and that’s in the Abiding Presence of Christ, before the Throne of God, filled with the Holy Spirit who birthed your life through true repentance and faith!), that both you and your seed may live; That you (and yours!) may love the Lord your God, AND that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave unto Him (Is that “holding fast?), for He is your life, and the length of your earthly days…!” But! Look at the “Christ-less life” as it chooses ‘self’ over the “Savior”, ‘sin’ over the “Righteousness of God in Christ Jesus”, ‘worldly pleasure, wandering from God pursuits’ over the Lord’s freedom-gift of “His Eternal Life & Presence”!

“LESS & LESS?” IN JOB 2:7-10 WE READ, “SO WENT SATAN FORTH FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD, SMOTE JOB WITH SORE BOILS FROM THE SOLE OF HIS FOOT UNTO THE CROWN. AND HE TOOK WITH HIM A POTSHARD TO SCRAPE HIMSELF ALL OVER; AND HE SAT DOWN WITH THE ASHES.

THEN SAID HIS WIFE UNTO HIM, “DO YOU STILL RETAIN YOUR INTEGRITY? CURSE GOD AND DIE.” BUT JOB SAID TO HIS WIFE, “YOU SPEAK AS ONE OF THE FOOLISH WOMEN SPEAKS. WHAT? SHALL WE RECEIVE GOOD AT THE HAND OF THE GOD, AND SHALL WE NOT RECEIVE EVIL? IN ALL THIS JOB DID NOT SIN WITH HIS LIPS.

“LESS &LESS OR MORE &MORE?” IN JOB 19:23-27 ARE FOUND MORE INSPIRING WORDS ABOUT THE “LESS & LESS OR THE MORE & MORE”: JOB SAID, “OH THAT MY WORDS WERE NOW WRITTEN! OH THAT THEY WERE PRINTED IN A BOOK! THAT THEY WERE GRAVEN WITH AN IRON PEN AND LEAD IN THE ROCK FOR EVER!

FOR I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES, AND THAT HE SHALL STAND AT THE LATTER DAY UPON THE EARTH; (AND KEEP ON STANDING THERE?): AND THOUGH AFTER MY SKIN WORMS DESTROY MY BODY, YET IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD.”

“LESS & LESS?” MANKIND WAS BIRTHED BY GOD IN HUMAN FORM, YES, WITH THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE! ADAM’S NATURE OR GOD’S NATURE? FLESH OR SPIRIT? WRONG OR RIGHT OR WRONG MINGLED IN WITH A TASTE OF RIGHT? SELF-EMPTINESS OR SOVEREIGN FULLNESS? A HELLISH, DEVILISH, DEMONIC WORLD’S BEST OR: “HEAVEN CAME DOWN AND GLORY FILLED YOUR SOUL”?

A GREAT OLD HYMN OF THE 1940’S IN THE OLD BROADMAN HYMNAL (P.357) SAYS: “ARE YOU TIRED OF THE LIFE YOU’RE NOW LIVING? ARE YOU WEARY OF SIN AND ITS SNARES? ARE YOU SEEKING FOR THAT WHICH IS LASTING? LOOK TO JESUS; YOU’LL FIND THAT HE CARES.

ARE YOU LONGING TO KNOW HIS FORGIVENESS? DO YOU YEARN TO BE FREE FROM ALL SIN? DOES YOUR LONELY HEART LEAP WHEN YOU WITNESS GOD’S WONDERFUL LOVE FOR ALL MEN?

LOOK TO JESUS THE BLESSED REDEEMER, GIVE YOUR HEART, AND YOUR ALL TO THE LORD; TO HIS OPEN ARMS RUN FOR SALVATION, HE HAS PROMISED IT ALL IN HIS WORD.

HE IS WATCHING, HE IS WAITING, HE IS LONGING YOUR SOUL TO SET FREE; WEARY ONE, GIVE YOUR HEART TO THE SAVIOR, LIVE WITH HIM THROUGH ALL ETERNITY.”

DO YOU KNOW, DO YOU UNDERSTAND, DO YOU COMPREHEND, THAT LIFE AFTER DEATH IS EITHER HELL OR HEAVEN, CONTINUING ‘FLESH-BONDAGE UNDER SATAN’S CONTROL’ OR “ETERNAL FREEDOM FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH”, BECAUSE YOU ARE, WERE, WILL NOW FOREVER BE FREE FROM THAT LAW OF SIN AND DEATH BECAUSE OF THE SHED BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD? LIFE NOW & LIFE AFTER DEATH IS EITHER ‘FLESH’ OR SPIRIT, HUMAN NATURE OR DIVINE NATURE FOREVER FLOWING THROUGH YOUR VEINS, MIND, AND HEART, WRONG NATURE OR RIGHT NATURE, SELF-EMPTINESS OR SOVEREIGN FULLNESS. AND YOU? YOUR ALL IN ALL OR CHRIST IN YOU YOUR ONLY HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE, ETERNAL BLESSING, ETERNAL PRESENCE, YES, ETERNAL BEFORE THE THRONE OF CHRIST JESUS WILLING TO DAILY BE HIS “FOOT-WASHER”?!!!?

AGAIN, IN JOSHUA 24:25-28, WE FIND POWERFULLY CONVICTING WORDS: “SO JOSHUA MADE A COVENANT WITH THE PEOPLE THAT DAY, AND SET THEM A STATUTE AND AN ORDINANCE IN SHECHEM. AND JOSHUA WROTE THESE WORDS IN “THE BOOK OF THE LAW OF GOD”, AND TOOK A GREAT STONE, AND SET IT UP THERE UNDER AN OAK, THAT WAS BY THE SANCTUARY OF THE LORD. SO JOSHUA SAID UNTO ALL THE PEOPLE, BEHOLD, THIS STONE SHALL BE A WITNESS UNTO US; FOR IT HAS HEARD ALL THE WORDS OF THE LORD WHICH HE SPOKE UNTO US; IT SHALL BE THEREFORE A WITNESS UNTO YOU, UNLESS YOU DENY YOUR GOD. SO JOSHUA LET THE PEOPLE DEPART, EVERY MAN UNTO HIS INHERITANCE.”

“EVERY MAN UNTO HIS INHERITANCE”?“THIS STONE A WITNESS UNTO YOU”? GOD’S WORD CUT INTO A LARGE NATURAL STONE WRITTEN FOR MEN TO READ? AND YOUR INHERITANCE? SOME READ, SOME TRUSTED, SOME OBEYED, AND EXTENDED THE KINGDOM OF GOD THEN! BUT DO YOU KNOW GOD DECLARES IN HIS WORDS THE “NEW STONE” FOR MEN TO READ? IN LUKE 20:9-13 JESUS TELLS US ABOUT A MAN PLANTING A VINEYARD:

THEN BEGAN JESUS TO SPEAK TO THE PEOPLE THIS PARABLE: “A CERTAIN MAN PLANTED A VINEYARD, AND LET IT FORTH TO HUSBAND-MEN, AND WENT FORTH INTO A FAR COUNTRY FOR A LONG TIME. AND AT THE SEASON HE SENT A SERVANT TO HIS HUSBANDMEN, AND WENT INTO A FAR COUNTRY FOR A LONG TIME.

AND AT THE SEASON HE SENT A SERVANT TO THE HUSBANDMEN, THAT THEY SHOULD GIVE HIM OF THE FRUIT OF THE VINEYARD; BUT THE HUSBANDMEN BEAT HIM, AND SENT HIM AWAY EMPTY. AND AGAIN HE SENT ANOTHER SERVANT; AND THEY BEAT HIM ALSO, AND ENTREATED HIM SHAMEFULLY, AND SENT HIM AWAY EMPTY.

AND AGAIN HE SENT ANOTHER SERVANT; AND THEY BEAT HIM ALSO, AND ENTREATED HIM SHAMEFULLY, AND SENT HIM AWAY EMPTY. AND AGAIN HE SENT A THIRD; AND THEY WOUNDED HIM ALSO, AND CAST HIM OUT. THEN SAID THE LORD OF THE VINEYARD, WHAT SHALL I DO? I WILL SEND MY BELOVED SON; IT MAY BE THEY WILL REVERENCE HIM WHEN THEY SEE HIM.” DARE I ASK? WHO IS THE LORD OF THE VINEYARD? THAT’S ALMIGHTY, HOLY, PASSIONATE GOD OVERSEEING HIS WORLD OF LOST MANKIND, DEAD-FRUIT, WILLFUL SINNERS – AND BECAUSE HE’S THE GOD OF LOVE, MERCY, AND GRACE, WITH A FORGIVING HEART, HE SENDS HIS OWN SON TO BE THE SACRIFICE FOR YOUR SIN, THE SAVIOR FROM YOUR MISGUIDED, DECEIVED, SIN-BOUND, SATANIC-CONTROLLED MIND, BLACKENED HEART, AND A WORLDLY PERCEPTION AND DETERMINATION TO DO AS “FLESH, THE WORLD AROUND YOU, AND SATAN PROGRAMS YOU INTO!!!”

SATAN’S INTENT? SATAN’S INITIATIVE? DESTROY THE HEIRS OF FAITH! DESTROY THEIR SAVIOR AND LORD! DESTROY THE HOPE OF ETERNAL PURPOSE, OF HEAVENLY PLEASURE, OF THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH PASSES ALL UNDERSTANDING, BUT OVERFLOWS YOUR MIND AND HEART WITH THE REALITY OF CHRIST’S RESURRECTION-PRESENCE!! DESTROY ANY HOPE OF AN OVERCOMING LIFE OF THE WORLD, YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE, OR SATAN AND DEMONIC PRESENCE AND ACTIVITY! SATAN SAYS, “YOU’RE MINE TO DO IN YOUR FLESH WHAT HELL INTENDS, NOT HEAVEN OR WHAT A SO-CALLED ‘LORD AND SAVIOR’ SAYS!”

DARE I SAY IT? I BELIEVE I WILL! “YOU DON’T HAVE TO LIVE UNDER THE CLOUD OF SATANIC DECEPTION ANY LONGER!!” THERE IS THE REALITY, THE ETERNAL TRUTH, THE BLESSED ASSURANCE, THAT IN CHRIST JESUS YOU CAN BE “MORE THAN A CONQUEROR” OVER THE WORLD-SPIRIT, OVER THE SIN-NATURE DISEASE, AND THE ‘DIS-EASE’ OF WORLDLINESS, OF A SIN-BOUND MIND AND HEART, AND SATANIC-PRETENSE!

IN ROMANS 8:8-14 WE READ, “SO THEN THEY THAT ARE IN THE FLESH CANNOT PLEASE GOD. BUT YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH, BUT IN THE SPIRIT, IF SO BE THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU. NOW IF ANY MAN DOES NOT HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS. AND IF CHRIST BE IN YOU, THE BODY IS DEAD, BECAUSE OF SIN; BUT THE SPIRIT IS LIFE BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. (IF THE SPIRIT IS LIFE IN YOU BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, DOES THAT MEAN AS A NEW, TRUE BELIEVER IT’S “OK!” IF I SIN NOW AND THEN AS I PLEASE?).

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

FOR IF YOU LIVE AFTER THE FLESH, YOU SHALL DIE; BUT IF YOU THROUGH THE SPIRIT DO MORTIFY THE DEEDS OF THE BODY, YOU SHALL LIVE. FOR AS MANY AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD.”

LESS & LESS OR MORE & MORE? IT IS A CHOICE YOU MAKE! “BEST EFFORT OR SOVEREIGN BLESSING?” THE INTELLECTUAL MIND-SET OF SELF-DETERMINATION OR THE HEART AND MIND WASHED CLEAN THROUGH THE SHED BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD BY THE CONVICTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE BIRTH IN THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN GUIDING YOU INTO THE REALITY OF THE GIFT OF ABIDING TRUTH, EVEN CHRIST JESUS EXPRESSING HIMSELF IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE AGAINST SATAN AND HIS DEMON FORCES THROUGH YOU AS YOU REJOICE WITNESSING JESUS BEING JESUS, SAVIOR AND LORD, AND KING AND SOVEREIGN OVER SATAN, YOUR OLD WORLD ALLEGIANCE, AND YOUR WARPED, GODLESS ALLEGIANCE TO YOUR “CHURCH” THAT MOSTLY ‘PRETENDS’, EVEN UPSET IF YOU ASSERT LOYALTY TO THE INDWELLING CHRIST BUT NOT LOYALTY TO THEIR ‘CHURCH OF IMITATION’!

IN REVELATION 7:9-17 WE READ ABOUT THE “SEALED SERVANTS OF GOD’’! “AFTER THIS I BEHELD, AND, LO, A GREAT MULTITUDE, WHICH NO MAN COULD NUMBER, OF ALL NATIONS, AND KINDREDS, AND PEOPLE, AND TONGUES, STOOD BEFORE THE THRONE, AND BEFORE THE LAMB, CLOTHED WITH WHITE ROBES, AND PALMS IN THEIR HANDS;

AND CRIED WITH A LOUD VOICE, SAYING, SALVATION TO OUR GOD WHO SITS UPON THE THRONE, AND UNTO THE LAMB. AND ALL THE ANGELS STOOD ROUND ABOUT THE THRONE, AND ABOUT THE ELDERS AND THE FOUR BEASTS, AND FELL BEFORE THE THRONE ON THEIR FACES, AND WORSHIPPED GOD. SAYING, AMEN: BLESSING, AND GLORY, AND WISDOM, AND THANKSGIVING, AND HONOR, AND POWER, AND MIGHT, BE UNTO OUR GOD FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN. AND ONE OF THE ELDERS ANSWERED, SAYING UNTO ME, WHAT ARE THESE WHICH ARE ARRAYED IN WHITE ROBES? AND WHERE DID THEY COME FROM?

AND I SAID UNTO HIM, SIR, YOU KNOW. AND HE SAID TO ME, THESE ARE THEY WHICH CAME OUT OF GREAT TRIBULATION, AND HAVE WASHED THEIR ROBES, AND MADE THEM WHITE IN & THROUGH THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB. THEREFORE ARE THEY BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD, AND SERVE HIM DAY AND NIGHT IN HIS TEMPLE: AND HE THAT SITS ON THE THRONE SHALL DWELL AMONG THEM.

THEY SHALL HUNGER NO MORE, NEITHER THIRST ANY MORE; NEITHER SHALL THE SUN LIGHT ON THEM, NOR ANY HEAT. FOR THE LAMB WHICH IS IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE SHALL FEED THEM, AND SHALL LEAD THEM UNTO LIVING FOUNTAINS OF WATERS; AND GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS FROM THEIR LIVES.”

“LESS AND LESS OR MORE AND MORE?” DO YOU WALK ‘LESS AND LESS’ IN WILLFUL CONDEMNATION AND SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS BECAUSE YOU’VE ASSURED YOURSELF THAT HOLY GOD WILL BE PLEASED WITH YOUR “BEST EFFORT” OR THAT YOU “JOINED A CHURCH” OR THAT YOU ‘TRY HARD TO DO THE RIGHT THING’?

PLEASE COME WITH ME TO ROMANS 8 EXAMINING CAREFULLY VERSES 1-10! “THERE IS THEREFORE NOW NO CONDEMNATION TO THEM WHO ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE FLESH (THAT MEANS “STILL IN LOVE WITH YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE!”), BUT YOU WALK IN AND AFTER THE HOLY SPIRIT. FOR THE LAW OF “THE SPIRIT OF LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS” HAS MADE ME FREE FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH. FOR WHAT THE LAW COULD NOT DO, IN THAT IT WAS WEAK THROUGH THE FLESH, GOD SENDING HIS OWN SON IN THE LIKENESS OF SINFUL FLESH, AND FOR SIN, CONDEMNED SIN IN THE FLESH ( THE FLESH? IS THAT THE OLD MAN BIRTHED INTO PHYSICAL LIFE WITH THE CHOICE OF SELF-ALLEGIANCE OR THE CHOICE OF THE NEED OF GOD IN THEM?);

THAT THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE LAW MIGHT BE FULFILLED IN US, WHO WALK NOT AFTER THE ‘FLESH’ (OR ALLEGIANCE AND DEVOTION IN SATISFYING THE CONDEMNED ‘SIN NATURE’!), BUT THEY WALK AFTER, IN, BY, GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT! FOR THEY THAT ARE AFTER THE FLESH DO MIND (ATTEND TO) THE THINGS OF THE FLESH; BUT THEY THAT ARE AFTER THE SPIRIT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT. FOR TO BE CARNALLY MINDED IS DEATH; BUT TO BE SPIRITUALLY MINDED IS LIFE AND PEACE. BECAUSE THE CARNAL MIND IS ENMITY AGAINST GOD; FOR IT IS NOT SUBJECT TO THE LAW OF GOD, NEITHER INDEED CAN BE. SO THEN THEY THAT ARE IN THE FLESH CANNOT PLEASE GOD. BUT YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH, BUT IN THE SPIRIT, IF SO BE THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU. NOW IF ANY MAN DOES NOT HAVE THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS CHILDREN. AND IF CHRIST BE IN YOU, THE BODY IS DEAD, BECAUSE OF SIN; BUT THE SPIRIT IS LIFE BECAUSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.”

FROM THE “BREAKFRONT DAILY” FROM THE COLSON CENTER, THERE WAS A WRITING ON “ACADEMIC AND CORPORATE ‘WOKENESS’: THE REAL THREAT TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM.” (IT WAS RECORDED BY JOHN STONESTREET WITH ROBERTA RIVERA.) IN IT THEY WROTE THE FOLLOWING: (A PORTION ONLY!) “THE SOUND YOU HEAR IS DOORS OF OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS SLAMMING SHUT EVERYWHERE. BASICALLY, ANY ORGANIZATION THAT RUNS AFOUL OF THE NEW SEXUAL ORTHODOXY THAT’S DRIVING THIS NEW POLICY WILL FIND IT MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO RECRUIT YALE LAW SCHOOL GRADS; AND THOSE GRADS WHOSE MOTIVATIONS RUN TOWARD NON-PROFIT OR PUBLIC SERVICE WILL FIND THEIR CHOICES SIGNIFICANTLY NARROWED.

YALES’ BLATANT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST PEOPLE WITH TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS BELIEFS IS AN IMPORTANT REMINDER OF WHERE THE GREATEST CHALLENGE TO RELIGIOUS FREEDOM CURRENTLY LIES IN OUR CULTURE. AS DAVID FRENCH WROTE AT NATIONAL REVIEW, ONE OF ‘THE PRIME SOURCES OF [CULTURE WAR] CONFLICT IS THE INCREASING TENDENCY TO USE THE FINANCIAL AND CULTURAL POWER OF PROGRESSIVE INSTITUTIONS TO FORCE SOCIAL CHANGE REGARDLESS OF THE UNDERLYING MISSION OF THE INSTITUTION.”

AND I SAY TO YOU, “UNLESS THERE IS A SECOND, A THIRD, A FORTH, A FIFTH, “GREAT AWAKENING”, MAYBE EVEN MORE, OUR NATION WILL BECOME MORE AND MORE, MAYBE, FINANCIALLY RICHER, BUT PROBABLY BARREN OF THE LOVE, GRACE, AND MERCY OF HOLY GOD! SHUT THE DOOR ON GOD? AND HE’LL SHUT THE DOOR ON YOU!!” BUT, IN JOHN 7:37, JESUS SAID, “IF ANYONE THIRSTS (FOR GOD?), LET HIM COME TO ME AND DRINK.”(NKJV EDITION).

LET ME SHARE THIS MESSAGE FROM PSALM 97 EXALTING THE MAJESTY OF GOD’S REIGN IN THE HUMAN HEART ADVANCING HIS KINGDOM THROUGH THEM: “THE LORD REIGNS: LET THE MULTITUDE OF ISLES BE GLAD THEREOF (BECAUSE OF IT!). CLOUDS AND DARKNESS ARE ROUND ABOUT HIM: RIGHTEOUSNESS AND JUDGMENT ARE THE HABITATION OF HIS THRONE.

A FIRE GOES BEFORE HIM, AND BURNS UP HIS ENEMIES ROUND ABOUT. HIS LIGHTNINGS ENLIGHTENED THE WORLD: THE EARTH SAW, AND TREMBLED. THE HILLS MELTED LIKE WAX AT THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD OF THE WHOLE EARTH. THE HEAVENS DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THE PEOPLE SEE HIS GLORY. CONFOUNDED BE ALL THEY THAT SERVE GRAVEN IMAGES, THAT BOAST THEMSELVES OF IDOLS: WORSHIP HIM, ALL YOU GODS.

ZION HEARD, AND WAS GLAD; AND THE DAUGHTERS OF JUDAH REJOICED BECAUSE OF YOUR JUDGMENTS, O LORD. FOR YOU, LORD, ARE HIGH ABOVE ALL THE EARTH: YOU ARE EXALTED FAR ABOVE ALL GODS. YOU THAT LOVE THE LORD, HATE EVIL; HE PRESERVES THE SOULS OF HIS SAINTS (THE “SET-APART ONES”?); HE DELIVERS THEM OUT OF THE HAND OF THE WICKED. LIGHT IS SOWN FOR THE RIGHTEOUS, AND GLADNESS FOR THE UPRIGHT IN HEART. REJOICE IN THE LORD, YOU RIGHTEOUS ONES; AND GIVE THANKS AT THE REMEMBRANCE OF HIS HOLINESS.” WHEN I COME TO HEBREWS 9:14, I REJOICE IN THE “HALLELUJAH TRUTH”! “HOW MUCH MORE SHALL THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, WHO THROUGH THE ETERNAL SPIRIT OFFERED HIMSELF WITHOUT SPOT TO GOD (JESUS WAS YOUR SIN OFFERING!!), PURGING YOUR CONSCIENCE FROM ‘DEAD WORKS’ TO SERVE THE LIVING GOD.”

ARE “YOU” RE-BORN? HAVE YOU BEEN TRANSFORMED FROM A CHILD OF DARKNESS TO THE CHILD OF ETERNAL LIGHT BECAUSE OF YOUR REPENTANCE, YOUR SAVING FAITH, AND YOUR DESIRE TO DAILY HONOR HIM WHEREVER YOU GO AND IN WHATEVER YOU DO? HEAR ME! CHRIST JESUS “IS” RESURRECTION PRESENCE, RESURRECTION POWER, RESURRECTION PRIVILEGE, ARRIVING, ABIDING, ASKING, EVEN PLEADING: “OPEN YOUR HEART’S DOOR, AND I WILL COME IN.”

CHRIST BLED – SO HE PLEADS, HE KNOCKS ON YOUR HEARTS’ DOORS, COMPASSIONATELY SAYING, “SIN NO LONGER IS TO BE YOUR MASTER ANYMORE. MY BLOOD I’VE SHED, YOUR BOOK OF LIFE I’VE READ – AND MY SACRIFICE FOR YOUR SIN?” FOR CHRIST JESUS, IT’S AS IF YOUR SIN HAD NEVER BEEN!! (ARE YOU A REJOICING, THANKFUL, CELEBRATING SON AND DAUGHTER OF GOD, OR ARE YOU “TUNED IN” TO ALL THE WORLD, YOUR OLD SIN-NATURE, AND SATAN HIMSELF HAS TO DECEIVE YOU? WHY NOT, RIGHT NOW, ACCEPT YOUR CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST TO DO AWAY WITH YOUR OLD SELF, BEING “RAISED UP IN THE NEWNESS OF HIS EVERLASTING LIFE AND PRESENCE” TO LEAD YOU THROUGH THE DARK SHADOWS OF EARTHLY EXISTENCE INTO THE PRESENT FULLNESS OF HIS FOREVER REIGN? YOUR DAY – GOD’S TIME?

“MENTAL MISTAKES OF MISGUIDED MEN”

I don’t know how anyone can read Paul’s message in Romans 1 and not understand the “mental mistakes of misguided men”! Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote in Verses 16-26, and Verse 28, the following:

Romans 1:16-26,28 says: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every who believes (or trusts in!); to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (or the African, the Arminian, the European, the American, the South American, the Asian, any man on any continent of the entire world!!);

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith (or “trust”)’. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Because that which may be known of God IS MANIFEST IN THEM; for God shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they (all mankind then and now!) are without excuse: BECAUSE THAT, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful; but became vain in their imaginations (or ‘speculations’), and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore GOD ALSO GAVE THEM UP to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this cause GOD GAVE THEM UP unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

Verse 28, And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO A REPROBATE MIND, to do those things which are not convenient..”! AND THEY GOT FILLED UP! LOOK AT VERSES 28b-32!

“…and God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

OH!! Then in Romans 2:4-16 Paul tells us about the “captured by Christ” or the “contentious ones opposed to repentance and faith in Christ alone”, saying, “Or do you despise the riches of God’s goodness and forbearance or longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leads you TO REPENTANCE? But after your hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto yourself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life:

BUT unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also the Gentile; BUT glory, honor, and peace, to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; BUT glory, honor, and peace to every man that works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentiles; (Every man working good? Honoring, yielded to, surrendered to the King of kings and Lord of lords, being the “temple” in which the eternal Christ dwells to extend His Kingdom, express His love, and prove His power, THROUGH YOU?).

For there is no respect of persons with God. (Although many feel God ought to respect them concerning their “best effort”, even when it has nothing to do with “True Faith”?). For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the DOERS of the law shall be justified.

For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.”

The mental, yes, and the ‘blinded, darkened, unbelieving heart’ explain, expose, and uncover the personal, religious, and, for many, the national indifference to Divine Revelation and Unveiling of the One and Only Savior and Lord, Christ Jesus! BUT, the “captured by Christ” no longer live under the bondage of unbelief, religious pretense, or religious ‘best-effort’ mentality! They accept “crucified with Christ” and “raised up in the newness of His resurrected, reigning ministry”, daily taking the sentence of death to the “old man”, yielding daily to His Indwelling Presence in the “new man”, again, extending His Kingdom, proving His power, and expressing His love, THROUGH THE TRUE, REPENTANT, YIELDED BELIEVER TO HIS EVER ABIDING PRESENCE IN YOU, HIS “NEW TEMPLE”, having repented, and willfully choosing to allow Jesus, yes, to be Himself through you!!!

MERCY is the measure of the very heart of God told to all of fallen humanity, but not all of fallen humanity even know, care, or are out to find God’s mercy – they say,“In our best effort we’re OK”! REALLY? But this is why the Holy Word says, in Hebrews 4:15-16, “For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let US therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, THAT WE MAY OBTAIN MERCY, AND FIND GRACE TO HELP IN TIME OF NEED.”

To be without Christ Jesus, abiding within, ruling and reigning, expressing Himself as “the Light of the world” in you and around you and through you, is willfully choosing to be your own lord, striving to overcome only what is overcome through the blood of the Lamb of God, infecting your world more and more with the radical consequences of a ‘sin-loving’ but ‘religious, empty, self-serving life’, convinced by deceived religious thinkers that “best effort” is all Holy God is concerned about, never considering His “Temple Presence” in true repentant, yielded choice of “Christ in me, for me, through me”, extending His eternal Presence, in the avenue and street of the “born-again believers”, those believers willing to choose death daily to their old self , that His Resurrected Life in you might be, not simply prominent for a world to witness but preeminent in HIS SELF EXPRESSION IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU DAILY!!!

Do YOU really know the “cost of true faith”, the “cost of true religion”, the “cost of true abandonment of the best of fleshly effort”? In Luke 14:25-27 we read, And there went great multitudes with Him: and He turned, and said unto them, “If any man come to Me, and hate not his father; and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever does not bear His cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple.” How clear is that for you?

Christ Jesus comes! Receive Revelation 3:19-22!! “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hears My voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and him with Me. To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches.”

Christ Jesus comes! And as He comes, through the witness of the Holy Spirit and His awesome Word, He exposes the unrestrained sinfulness of men AND unveils the unrestrained love of God!

Christ Jesus still abides in the repentant heart and trusting mind that says “No” to the world, one’s old sin nature, and even to Satan himself, but true believers say “Yes” to the resurrected, reigning Christ! In 2 Corinthians 1:19-24 Paul enlightens us even more, saying, “For all the promises of God in Christ are ‘yes’, and in Him ‘Amen’, unto the glory of God through repentant, trusting believers;

Who Now He which establishes us with you in Christ, (establish means “makes to stand”), AND ‘anointed’ us is God Himself; who has also ‘sealed us’ and given the earnest of the Spirit (the guarantee, the abiding treasure, the never-ending pledge) of the Spirit in our hearts.

Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth. Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for by faith you stand.”

Dare I ask you? Do you believe? Are you trusting in Him, His Word, His ever abiding Presence? Is it by Faith in Him you stand, walk, live, unveiling His Resurrected Presence in your daily journey through life wherever it carries you?

In the old “Broadman Hymnal”, published in 1940 by The Broadman Press of Nashville, Tennessee. It says: “O come, all you faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come you, O come to Bethlehem; Come and behold Him born the King of angels;

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation, O sing, all you bright hosts of heaven above; Glory to God, all glory in the highest;

Yes, Lord, we greet You, born this happy morning, Jesus, to You be all glory given; Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;

O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord.”

This Easter Sunday! Is it your declaration of submission to His earthly reign through His abiding presence in you? Or do you need to open the door of your heart, maybe for the first time, saying, “Christ, be Jesus in me; No longer me but Thee; Resurrection Power, fill me this hour; Jesus, be Jesus in me”? Can you say right now: “Make ME this day another earthly residence where you reign as King of my heart and life”?

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 27-28, 2017

The title is not original at all with me but heard on national television about certain ‘criminals’ who couldn’t conceive the seriousness of the charge because they were so sure they were doing what was right! How stupid can one be? Yet much of fallen humanity today, alienated and separated from God, are clueless as to their guilt, alienation, and separation from God. And, of course, the felon minds, mostly, refuse to admit there is a God that they are, supposedly, supposed to be accountable to!

Depraved minds rain “innocent pleas” when Holy God desires “new-born” divine minds choosing lives yielded for the purpose of glorifying God on earth through Christ as He is in Heaven! Just maybe, there are those specific, godless people Holy God doesn’t choose, even though He died for them, shed His own blood on the Cross, and arose desiring those to be His whose hearts beat with passion and desire to be His ‘tabernacle’ on earth, but some sadly refuse!

It’s either submission to the will of God for one’s life or his/her own insistence they’ll go their own ‘way’ – and He allows that decision, evidenced by godless living! Submission to the will of God goes against the grain of fleshly desire to remain “misdemeanor minds in a felony world”, understanding for the humbled, broken, and ‘faith-seekers’, “There must be a better life than man at his best demonstrates!” And they learn, “Jesus IS the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes TO God but through Me!”

“Misdemeanor minds in a felony world” are personally deafened by choice to sense, hear, or desire to even know or do the will of God, deepened and drowning in the dangerous ‘sea waters’ of godless brainlessness and darkened, hardened hearts! You may have read some of Frank C. Laubach’s “Letters by a Modern Mystic”, (1884-1970), but one of his classic statements that alerted me to this message was a statement saying, that he became “disgusted with the pettiness and futility of my unled self” – and I thought, “How true of all men without God!”

I’m convinced that the “misdemeanor minded” are individuals who pay no attention to “the Wind that blows wherever it wishes, and even hear its sound, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes” – their attitude? “Get me out of this windy place!” But one who faces the reality of “wind conviction” can experience the reality of being “born from above, born of God, born of the Spirit” becoming “new men and new women in Christ”!

“Misdemeanor minds in a felony world” are relentless and tireless in avoiding any confrontations about God! Even in the educational fields, or ‘high business commerce’, in both professional and private lives, and, sadly, even in the ‘creative’ arts, plus the masses of unbelievers, there is a drought of any desire to know God, be apprehended by Him, or to have to acknowledge a need of any ‘saving grace’ outside themselves!

Do you remember the prophetic words of Isaiah when in Isaiah 1:2-9 he spoke unveiling the sad dilemmas of sinful nations like Israel became, except for its remnant. Isaiah wrote: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me; the ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.’ (Are you aware of that fleshly spirit around you?).

Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity; a brood of evildoers, children who are corrupters! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward. Why should you be stricken again? (By God?). You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints.

From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire; strangers devour your land in your presence; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

So the daughter of Zion is left as a booth in a vineyard, as a hut in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

And, do you know what Verse 10 follows with? “Hear the word of the Lord!” Has that changed much, if any? God still calls today for men to hear Him, but, for many, ‘deaf ears’ rule, or ‘professors of a faith’ will substitute ‘religious rituals’ trying to ‘atone’ for their guilt themselves apart from the ‘Lamb’s blood through His crucifixion, followed by His Resurrection’, with the promise to birth “new lives” making them His Holy Temple of abiding Presence! THAT would change their lives too much, so they settle for religious pretense!

Included in ‘fallen men’s religious pretense’ is: BE INVOLVED AND COMMITTED TO WHATEVER MAKES YOU “HAPPY”. The problem with that is that Holy God isn’t interested in your fleshly happiness but your holiness because of the true working of Christ’s shed blood! Fleshly happiness, even in men’s best efforts, is academy award winning effort in intense cravings for life’s meaning that can only be discerned through the Blood Atonement – and that only occurs when one craves for oneness with God, and settles that desire God’s Way! Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me!”

In John 7:38 Jesus said: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said: ‘out of his heart will flow rivers of living water,” explaining in the very next verse that He spoke of the flow of the Holy Spirit in one’s life as they leaned on and trusted in the ministry of the Holy Spirit and not their “best effort determination”! Do you understand that there are a ton of things representing ‘flesh’ or your old sin nature that must go, and a ton of things of God’s blessing and provision the Spirit wants to release in you if you’re willing to give Him His rightful place! Are YOU abandoned to Spirit-anointing and His guidance in, through, and over your walk of faith?

In 2 Peter 1:21, just after he had spoken about ‘a light shining in dark places,” he said: “For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they WERE MOVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.”

Sad to say, too many ‘disciples of Christ’ are not informed about the necessity of Holy Spirit anointing, abiding, equipping, gifting, and training by the Holy Spirit – it’s ‘strange’ to far too many believers! But Paul equipped His followers in Romans 15:13 when he wrote: “Now may the God of hope fill you WITH ALL JOY AND PEACE IN BELIEVING, that YOU may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Jude really laid a super-strong foundation when he wrote in Jude 20-25 the following: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, (Is that “Standing on the Promises?”), praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

And on some have compassion, making a distinction, but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh (or old sin-nature). NOW to HIM who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, To God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.” AND, do YOU say “Amen to that”?

Some “build themselves up” on their self-evaluation and their self-confidence which is ‘zero’ in comparison to “Holy Faith, Holy Promises, and Holy Ability”! They are blind to God and His promises!

For one powerful promise, God tells us: “I’m Able to “keep you from stumbling”, when ‘flesh’ ALWAYS leans to stumbling and ‘falling away’! Second promise? “I’m Able “to present you faultless before the presence of My glory”, when ‘flesh-presence’ is riddled with weakness’! Third promise? “I’m able to bless you with exceeding joy”, when ‘godless vessels’ attempt only to ‘be happy’ but fails over and over! Fourth promise? “I’m able to bless you now AND forever throughout all eternity!”

Yet, how many do you know who are aware of the last four promises yet never execute in faith and obedience? What did Jesus say in John 14:6? “I am the way, the truth, and the life; not a single person comes to My Father except through Me.” Do you know anything about “the deer that pants for the water”? I love Wood Kroll’s comment in his book “7 Secrets to Spiritual Success”. He said: (p.49), “Don’t thirst for God for what you can get out of Him. Love God not what He can do for you, but because there is no equal to Him….This kind of intimacy is not found through the experience of salvation alone, but through the ongoing desire of a longing heart, thirsting after God.” Glory!

Isaiah, the prophet, elaborated in Isaiah 64:6-8, saying: “But WE ARE ALL LIKE AN UNCLEAN THING, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us, and have consumed us because of our iniquities. BUT NOW, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; and we all are the work of Your hand.”

Dare I tell you that you are either being ‘shaped by the world, your sin-nature, or Satan’ OR you “YIELD” to the Sovereign hands of Holy God, yes, to mold you in the exact likeness of Christ Jesus Himself”! It’s either a “maimed life” or it’s a “MASTER-ED LIFE” carefully and wonderfully being shaped into the image of Christ!

A.W.Tozer, in his writing, “The Pursuit of God”, (Camp Hill, Penn.: Christian Publications,Inc., 1982, p.12), wrote: “We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit. The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him. All the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand: ‘Thy right hand upholdeth me.’” SO TRUE!

If Holy God plants within us, yes, the desire to even turn to Him and know Him, is it then because of our ‘fleshly ingenuity’ that we become capable to discern God’s will for us? And, I say to you, absolutely not! Flesh will misinterpret, limit, change, inspire, to fit into us what flesh wants, but the Holy Spirit of God, yes, “guides us into all truth”! In Romans 8:9-11 Paul instructs and inspires us about “Spirit-Anointed Living”! He said:

“But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he/she is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” Oh, and then in Romans 8:14, Paul clearly spells out the EVIDENCE OF A TRUE SON OF GOD: “For as many as are led by the Spirit, these are sons of God.”

Do you remember when Jesus came and found the disciples sleeping? Mark 14:37 tells us Jesus said, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Peter was sure he’d never be made to stumble, but he did! But some believers are not aware of the mental construction of defensive walls against the powers of darkness wanting to invade you and infect you with “Satan’s brand of temptation”, alluring you away from a truly Christ-honoring walk!

Hear the wise man of Proverbs as he spoke in Proverbs 23:26-28! “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways. For a harlot is a deep pit, and a seductress is a narrow well. She also lies in wait as for a victim, and increases the unfaithful among men.” Earlier, in Proverbs 6:27-29, the Holy Spirit says, “Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be seared? So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; whoever touches her shall not be innocent.”

How do you receive and benefit from God’s “gift” of the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth or do you ignore the ministry of the Spirit? And knowing “Christ in you” is your hope of glory, abiding within you, how blind spiritually must you be to recklessly choose to indulge His “temple of grace” into your house of illicit activity? No “born again believer” lives without the Holy Spirit living within, but that doesn’t mean we’re automatically free from embarrassing Him! And since He does abide in every true born- again believer, is it that the Spirit is insensitive to the enemies’ spiritual warfare against those who want us in their darkness or us being ignorant ourselves to win the war against the demons or us just ‘stupid’ about what the Spirit longs to be and do for us?

“Misdemeanor minds in a felony world” or new hearts and lives birthed into the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and us “resting in Him” as our hope of glory, yes, against the fallen world, the failing flesh, and futile Satan and his demons? “Choose you this day whom you will serve!” And every day you need to make that choice! “Yes, Lord, I am Yours, and I have no desire to live indulging a misdemeanor mind in a felony world, but longing day by day to live in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ!”

A few fresh words just birthed: “Living in the Light of our Lord’s victorious Way, gone from the dark paths of sin that cause me to stray; Lord, no longer darkness for me, but the Light of Your eternal Day!

I now know the love of God perfected, Because I know it was for me He was resurrected; Grace once denied I now take to my side; and thanks to the Spirit who helps me abide!

Days in the flesh are only fleshly understood, Dark shadows bring demons to my mind covering my mind with a hood; But when the Spirit comes He comes to enlighten, to fade the night and spark the Day of Jesus’ Presence in His eternal Way.

Though stranded at times in stupid deception, the Spirit comes to show me the Loving Father’s reception; the Spirit is clear about God’s power to forgive, and the bright Day awaiting as to Jesus I bow.

Though disconsolate in spirit when to Jesus I bow, His faithful Word of mercy shows me how, that from the Light I’ve been straying, His love for me is never failing, and His Ship of Faith is ready for my sailing!

So, Holy Spirit, lead us all to pray, that from the darkness we may depart, and rest in peace before our Lord’s merciful heart. Spirit of God, empower us this day, and by Your power endue us with love never failing, with love excelling to honor our King.” AMEN?

PRAISING THE SUPREME FATHER?”

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER,MAY 3-4,2019

“FALLEN-AWAY MANKIND FROM GOD’S BIRTHING OF THEM WITH A RIGHT TO CHOOSE”, NATURAL MEN CHOSE & STILL CHOOSE ‘FLESHLY FATE’ & IGNORES GOD’S GRACIOUS GIFT OF SAVING FAITH! FLESHLY FATE IS THE ‘SELFISH RULING’ IN A MAN’S HEART & MIND INDEPENDENT OF GOD & HIS LOVE, GRACE, & MERCY! SPIRITUAL NOBILITY IS IGNORED & RADICAL SPIRITUAL NUMBNESS REIGNS! UNBELIEF IGNORES EVERY MIRACLE OF GOD THAT ABOUNDS AROUND MANKIND LIKE THE OCEANS OF THE WORLD SURROUND ‘DRY LAND’!

IN “THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGIOUS QUOTATIONS”,(P.457), I READ A STATEMENT BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL IN HIS WRITING ENTITLED “BIBLIOLATRIES”. HE SAID: “GOD IS NOT DUMB, THAT HE SHOULD SPEAK NO MORE; IF YOU HAVE WANDERINGS IN THE WILDERNESS AND DON’T FIND SINAI, IT’S YOUR SOUL& YOUR HEART (& YOUR SELF-CENTERED WILL) THAT IS POOR.” TODAY AS I READ THAT WISE STATEMENT I THOUGHT, “THE SELFISH PUMPERS OF FLESH”, IN LOVE WITH THEIR OLD SIN-NATURES, IGNORE ‘SINAI’ BUT ALSO “THE SAVIOR”, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!- IS TODAY,2019, DIFFERENT FROM ALL ‘HUMAN HISTORY’ THAT IGNORED OR IGNORES GOD’S “KNOCK” ON THEIR HEARTS’ DOORS?

IN JOHN 12 I WANT YOU TO SEE THE LORD JESUS’S CLEAR UNDERSTANDING OF “PUMPING FLESH” OR “PRAISING THE SUPREME FATHER”! JOHN 12:23-28a, tells us, Jesus speaking, “The hour is come, that the ‘Son of Man’ should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of fall into the ground and die, it abides alone:but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.

He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour?But for this cause came I unto this hour. Verse 28a, “Father, glorify Your name.”

There was no spirit in Christ Jesus of “Pumping Flesh”,but living His life fully and faithfully to honor the Father’s will and purpose for His life as the Son of God – and if it meant the Cross, “So be it”!,,, without a doubt or fear!!

In the world around you are, sadly, lives lived unaware of the will of God – and for many, even though they know the will of God, they will not say “Yes” to Him! Sadly, many live, countless lives, of unawareness of their becoming and being,through saving faith in His beloved Son, Christ Jesus,“shining lights”, who are to live lives rejoicing in His abiding presence within them, and the “Light” in them shining through them to enlighten the unsaved, unredeemed, ‘away from God people living for self’!

Oswald Chambers, in his book “My Utmost For His Highest” wrote: (pps.58-59), “Much of our distress as Christians comes not because of sin,but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own spiritual nature. For instance, the only test as to whether we allow an emotion to have its way is to see what the outcome of the emotion will be. Push it to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something God would condemn, allow it no more way. But if it be an emotion kindled by the Spirit of God and you do not let that emotion have its right issue in your life, it will react on a lower level.”

Where have your “life choices” left you? The “low level” of self-choice, self-will, self-pleasure, self-satisfaction, even if it means continual, eternal separation from the God who made you, lost you, but paid a price through the shed blood of His Son on the Cross to redeem you & reconcile you to Holy God?

Or has it been, will it be, the “Eternal Life Choice” by repentance to God and faith in the finished work of Jesus on the Cross, His precious blood to bring you forgiveness from the very heart of God, elevated out of spiritual death into “Eternal Life”, and by God’s grace and mercy then commissioning you as “disciples of Christ” and “faithful witnesses” of His blood redemption to labor to needy souls surrounding you that they might find Christ Jesus?

Again, in John 12,following the Father’s voice, after Jesus had said, “Father, glorify Your Name,” in Verses 28-29, we read:then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore,that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said,An angel spoke to Him.

Verses 30-32, Jesus answered & said, “This voice came not because of Me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” OH; THEN,IN VERSES 35&36,JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, “YET A LITTLE WHILE IS THE LIGHT WITH YOU. WALK YOU WHILE YOU HAVE THE LIGHT, LEST DARKNESS COMES UPON YOU; FOR HE THAT WALKS IN DARKNESS DOESN’T KNOW WHERE HE GOES.” OH, SO, WHERE IS YOUR ‘LIFE PATH’? IS IT ‘SPIRITUAL DARKNESS’ OR DO YOU “WALK IN THE LIGHT OF THE ‘ETERNAL SONSHINE’ OF CHRIST JESUS”?

AGAIN, JOHN 12, VERSES 42-50! NEVERTHELESS AMONG THE CHIEF RULERS (EVEN A MODERN-DAY PRESIDENT & SENATE OR HOUSE CONGRESSMEN?),ALSO BELIEVED ON “CHRIST”; BUT BECAUSE OF THE PHARISEES THEY DID NOT (‘PUBLICLY’) CONFESS HIM. LEST THEY SHOULD BE PUT OUT OF THE SYNAGOGUE: FOR THEY LOVED THE PRAISE OF MEN MORE THAN THE PRAISE OF GOD.

JESUS CRIED AND SAID, “HE THAT BELIEVES ON (TRUSTS IN, RELIES UPON, ADHERES TO!) ME, BELIEVES NOT ON ME, BUT ON HIM THAT SENT ME. AND HE THAT SEES ME SEES HIM THAT SENT ME.I AM COME A LIGHT INTO THE WORLD, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES ON ME (TRUSTS, RELIES UPON,YIELDS TO, ABANDONS THE OLD ‘CRUCIFIED LIFE’, TO BE BLESSED WITH THE “NEW LIFE” OF THE TRUE SAVIOR & LORD & MASTER & RULER OVER ALL – OVER ALL?THIS WORLD INFILTRATED BY SATAN & HIS KINGDOM, SATAN’S DOMAIN- OR THE SAVIOR’S SOVEREIGN RULE OVER HIM & HIS, YOU & YOUR LIFE OF UNBELIEF & DISOBEDIENCE OR HIS MASTER-FULL RULE OVER YOU & YOURS?), AGAIN, BUT TRUSTING CHRIST,, RELYING UPON, YIELDED TO, HAVING ACCEPTED JESUS’ ATONEMENT & ‘THE END’ OF YOUR FLESHLY, SINFUL, WORLDLY, DEVIL-DOMINATED EXISTENCE, YOU COME TO LIVE,BREATHE,& SHARE WITH OTHERS THE “VERY LIFE, BREATH, FULLNESS, & POWER & PURPOSE OF ‘CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY’!!

BACK TO JOHN 12:47-50! “AND IF ANY HEARS MY WORDS, & BELIEVES NOT, I JUDGE HIM NOT: FOR I CAME NOT TO JUDGE THE WORLD, BUT TO SAVE THE WORLD. HE THAT REJECTS ME, AND RECEIVES NOT MY WORDS, HAS ONE THAT JUDGES HIM: THE WORD THAT I HAVE SPOKEN, THE SAME SHALL JUDGE HIM IN THE LAST DAY.(THAT’S THE MAN OR WOMAN,OLD OR YOUNG!).

FOR I HAVE NOT SPOKEN OF MYSELF; BUT THE FATHER WHICH SENT ME, HE GAVE ME A COMMANDMENT, WHAT I SHOULD SAY, AND WHAT I SHOULD SPEAK. AND I KNOW THAT HIS COMMANDMENT IS LIFE EVERLASTING; WHATSOEVER I SPEAK THEREFORE, EVEN AS THE FATHER SAID TO ME, SO I SPEAK.”

BUT “HEAR ME!” IN THE WORLDWIDE CULTURES, EVEN ‘RELIGIOUS CULTURES’, LIKE THE ‘RELIGIOUS JEWS (?)’ OF JESUS’S DAY WHO WANTED NO PART OF HIM SINCE THEY WERE ‘SO RELIGIOUS ALREADY’, THEY THEN BELIEVED, ‘WHO NEEDS A SAVIOR IF YOU’RE RELIGIOUS?’ AND IN ACTS 4:18-20, THE ‘RELIGIOUS JEWS’,IN JERUSALEM, CONFRONTED BY “EVANGELISTIC CRUSADERS”, HAD NO PATIENCE AT ALL WITH HEAVEN’S “BORN-AGAIN SONS OF SAVING FAITH”, WITH THE “BELOVED LUKE’S WORDS”,

“AND THEY (JEWISH RELIGIOUS LEADERS) CALLED THEM (JESUS’S “BORN-AGAIN DISCIPLES”!), AND COMMANDED THEM NOT TO SPEAK AT ALL NOR TEACH IN THE NAME OF JESUS. (ANOTHER PAUSE! ARE YOU FULLY AWARE OF 21^ST CENTURY AMERICA WHERE, YES, PUBLIC PROCLAMATION OF THE WORD OF GOD IS BECOMING INTOLERANT TO “STUPID POLITICAL LEADERS, BRAIN-DEAD PROFESSORS, & DECEIVED MASS-GATHERINGS OF OPPOSERS TO GOD, HIS SON, HIS SPIRIT, & HIS WORD”?). ACTS 4:19-20, BUT PETER & JOHN ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THEM, “WHETHER IT BE RIGHT IN THE SIGHT OF GOD TO HEARKEN UNTO YOU MORE THAN UNTO GOD, JUDGE YOU. FOR WE CANNOT BUT SPEAK THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE SEEN & HEARD.”

ALWAYS REMEMBER, AS A TRUE FOLLOWER OF KING JESUS, YOUR SAVIOR & LORD, & APPOINTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT TO BE “CHRIST’S WITNESSES”, THAT LIKE PETER & JOHN IN ACTS 4:29-31, YOU’LL FIND “GREAT ASSURANCES” AS YOU CHOOSE TO BE HIS WITNESS IN THE MIDST OF CULTURAL OPPOSITION! THE WORD SAYS: “AND NOW, LORD, BEHOLD THEIR THREATENINGS: AND GRANT UNTO YOUR SERVANTS, THAT WITH ALL BOLDNESS THEY MAY SPEAK YOUR WORD,

BY STRETCHING FORTH YOUR HAND TO HEAL; AND THAT SIGNS & WONDERS MAY BE DONE BY THE NAME OF YOUR HOLY CHILD JESUS. BUT WHEN THEY HAD PRAYED THE PLACE WAS SHAKEN WHERE THEY WERE ASSEMBLED TOGETHER; AND THEY WERE ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, AND THEY SPOKE THE WORD OF GOD WITH BOLDNESS.”

HOW MANY ARE YOU AWARE OF IN CHURCHES ACROSS AMERICA WHO LIVE SERVING CHRIST, SUPPOSEDLY, BUT HAVE NEVER “CROSSED THE LINE” TO UNSAVED SOULS TO SHARE “REDEMPTIONS’ STORY OF “NEW-BORN IN CHRIST ALONE”? ‘BEST EFFORT’ DOESN’T BIRTH DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, ‘BOGUS APPEARANCE’ DOESN’T SEE MIRACLES OF GRACE, ‘PHONY-BOLOGNA’ DOESN’T FEED THE SICK IN SIN EXCEPT BY “THE TOUCH OF THE MASTER’S HANDS ON THE MIND, HEART, & SOUL OF UNBELIEVERS”!

ROMANS 1:20-28 IS GOD’S EXPOSURE THROUGH PAUL OF UNBELIEVERS & PRETENDERS! “FOR THE INVISIBLE THINGS (OF GOD) FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD ARE CLEARLY SEEN, BEING UNDERSTOOD BY THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE, EVEN HIS ETERNAL POWER & GODHEAD; SO THAT THEY ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE: BECAUSE THAT, WHEN THEY KNEW GOD, THEY GLORIFIED HIM NOT AS GOD, NEITHER WERE THANKFUL; BUT BECAME VAIN IN THEIR IMAGINATIONS, AND THEIR FOOLISH HEART WAS DARKENED.

PROFESSING THEMSELVES TO BE WISE, THEY BECAME FOOLS,AND CHANGED THE GLORY OF THE INCORRUPTIBLE GOD INTO AN IMAGE MADE LIKE TO CORRUPTIBLRE MAN, & TO BIRDS,&FOUR-FOOTED BEASTS, AND CREEPING THINGS. WHEREFORE GOD ALSO GAVE THEM UP TO UNCLEANNESS THROUGH THE LUSTS OF THEIR OWN HEARTS, TO DISHONOR THEIR OWN BODIES BETWEEN THEMSELVES:

WHO CHANGED THE TRUTH OF GOD INTO A LIE, & WORSHIPPED & SERVED THE CREATURE MORE THAN THE “CREATOR” WHO IS BLESSED FOREVER. AMEN. FOR THIS CAUSE GOD GAVE THEM UP UNTO VILE AFFECTIONS: FOR EVEN THEIR WOMEN DID CHANGE THE NATURAL USE INTO THAT WHICH IS AGAINST NATURE: & LIKEWISE ALSO THE MEN, LEAVING THE NATURAL USE OF THE WOMAN ( AND THAT’S IN MARRIAGE ONLY!!!), BURNED IN THEIR LUST ONE TOWARD ANOTHER; MEN WITH MEN WORKING THAT WHICH IS UNSEEMLY, & RECEIVING IN THEMSELVES THAT RECOMPENCE OF THEIR ERROR WHICH WAS MEET. (OR MET IN ONE’S LOST ESTATE OF SIN & DEATH,SEPARATED FROM HOLY GOD UNTIL THEY OPEN THE HEART’S DOOR & A WILLFUL MIND TO CONFESS THEIR SIN & THEIR NEED OF “THE SAVIOR & LORD” TO BE IN, OVER, & AROUND THEIR EVERY STEP THROUGH THE REMAINING EARTHLY TIME!). VERSE 28,

AND EVEN AS THEY DID NOT LIKE TO RETAIN GOD IN THEIR KNOWLEDGE, GOD GAVE THEM OVER TO A REPROBATE MIND, TO DO THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT CONVENIENT!’

ARE “YOU” ‘OK’ WITH YOUR REPROBATE MIND? OR WOULD YOU HEAR, ACCEPT, & RECEIVE GOD’S “GIFT” OF A “NEW HEART, NEW MIND, & NEW WILL” OUT TO PLEASE THE LORD OF GLORY & MERCY & LOVE? I CLOSE THIS MESSAGE WITH AN OLD HYMN IN THE BROADMAN HYMNAL PUBLISHED IN 1940 BY THE BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, WRITTEN BY FANNY J.CROSBY & W.H.DOANE. IT SAYS: “PASS ME NOT, O GENTLE SAVIOR, HEAR MY HUMBLE CRY; WHILE ON OTHERS YOU ARE CALLING, DO NOT PASS ME BY.

LET ME AT A THRONE OF MERCY FIND A SWEET RELIEF; KNEELING THERE IN DEEP CONTRITION, HELP MY UNBELIEF.

TRUSTING ONLY IN YOUR MERIT, WOULD I SEEK YOUR FACE; HEAL MY WOUNDED, BROKEN SPIRIT, SAVE ME BY YOUR GRACE.

YOU THE “SPRING” OF ALL MY COMFORT, MORE THAN LIFE TO ME, WHOM HAVE I ON EARTH BESIE YOU? WHOM IN HEAVEN BUT YOU?

SAVIOR, SAVIOR, HEAR MY HUMBLE CRY; WHILE ON OTHERS YOU ARE CALLING, (PLEASE) DO NOT PASS ME BY.” COULD THESE WORDS OF A GREAT OLD HYMN STIR YOUR HEART ENOUGH FOR “YOU” TO CRY OUT: “LORD, JESUS, PLEASE, DON’T PASS BY ME! NO MAN ON EARTH NEEDS YOU MORE THAN ME.”

WHY NOT, RIGHT NOW, “RUSH” TO THE THRONE OF CHRIST WHERE HE SITS IN THE SEAT OF MERCY, GRACE, & LOVE, LONG-WAITING ON YOU TO CALL ON HIM!

AMEN?

“BLAND-SOME, HANDSOME, OR

AWESOMELY TRANSFORMED?”

It was really interesting when I read casually a statement written anonymously but included in a major book called “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations.” The encyclopedia was a Fleming H. Revell Company publication. The statement? “Beware of no man more than yourself.” And I’m sure without hesitation that there ought to be at times the necessity of looking to ourselves, examining ourselves, and determining if we’re responsible and accountable to God about our ‘present state’, mentally, emotionally, health-wise, and certainly spiritual evaluation about ourselves, whether under our own control or moving daily through life under God’s agenda and not our fleshly anticipation!

It was Alexander Maclaren who once said, “All along the Christian course, there must be set up altars to God on which you sacrifice yourself, or you will never advance a step.” So true!

When there is no inward analysis about where we presently are in the inner man, it is so easy in making turns more and more away from God but centering and surrendering and classifying ourselves as our own ‘man’ able to determine one’s own spiritual destiny or as an ‘asserting believer sure of one’s ‘salvation’ because they attend ‘church’ regularly yet bear “no fruit” of a redeemed, Spirit-led walk of true discipleship!

Shockingly I read where Benjamin Franklin once said, “God helps those who help themselves.” NO! A THOUSAND TIMES, NO! God helps those who empty themselves of self-control, choosing death daily to our ‘old man’ and being filled with and controlled by the Holy Presence of Christ and His “guiding” Holy Spirit, by the reality of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope!

A paraphrased statement of Charles Caleb Colton says: “Heroism, magnanimity, and self-denial, in which they do not spring from the foundational truth of “death to self and pure life only in Christ’s Resurrection Presence within”, may be religious in their tendencies, but are only on the ‘personal altar’ of sacrifice of one kind of self-love to another kind of self-love,’ with no glory to God and no honor to the pretender,” but just promotes attention to ‘self-gratification”!”

Have you ever heard people in religious circles encouraging those in their circles having a hard time adjusting to their ‘profession of faith’, “You must TRY HARDER”! And the true disciple understands that it’s not a matter of ‘trying harder’ but “trusting more and more”, like we read through Paul’s teaching, led by the Holy Spirit, “Take the sentence of death daily that the Resurrection Life of Christ may be manifested in your mortal flesh”!

Daily denial of the “old self” willfully explodes”(!*) in the reality of the heart’s open door to the “Master-ing” of Christ Himself through you! Holy God longs and looks for those who willfully deny themselves and are filled and over-flowing with the Holy Presence of the Resurrected Christ, yes, Him reigning as the Victorious King in one’s humble heart, daily dead to self and the old man but living in “the fullness of the blessing” of His moment by moment “reign in victory” over your life, even over all your trials, temptations, and troubles! Sadly, in much of modern-day Christianity, many know nothing of “the joy of the Lord”!

Modern-day ‘humanity’, the general public, the national or international make-up of men, includes often rulers with no allegiance to “King Jesus”, business owners and some of their employees, State leaders with some having NO allegiance to the will of God, even universities or local school employees or state governments who’ve decided the “Sacred Scriptures” have no place in their communities, even doctors, nurses, and hospitals who have no desire or place for the ministry of the Great Physician! And even more sad is when some churches are ‘ruled’ by some pastors and elders who major more on their personal philosophies than they do “Preaching and Teaching the Word of God”, yes, excellent in its history but void and empty of its message to “go into all the world and preach the Gospel”, or validating His Presence in them by witnessing, evangelizing, loving and caring for the lost community that surrounds the local gathering and ‘smart’ preacher (?)!

Let’s examine “The Bland-some”! In “The Random House Collegiate Dictionary”, Revised Edition of 1975 by Random House Inc., the word “bland” is described as follows: “pleasantly gentle or agreeable, (and I have to ask, “With anything and everything”?), non-irritating,lacking in interest (of what doesn’t fit their mind or heart-set?,lacking liveliness, lacking loveliness in what miraculously blesses it?),unemotional, indifferent, casual, possessing either a softness, or harshness, or irritating.”

The bland-some? That’s individuals being consumed in their self-awareness that they do not like, but indifferent to the “knock” at their hearts’ doors to a caring, merciful, able God, Savior, and Lord, able to do exceedingly above All that one might consider or think, even miraculously producing a “new man”!

The bland-some, un-governed, have no desire to be governed by Another who IS the Master of an individual’s destiny! The bland-some, though within their minds and hearts are often encouraged by even a human touch or a fleshly encouragement, are strongly minded against anything Holy God has to say about them! That’s why Jesus said about the rulers over the religious Pharisees, in John 12:43, fearful of being put out of the synagogue, “for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God”!

Even from the time of beginning, by God, of man’s earthly residency, many of natural mankind had an aversion to God! And because of, and even being created “in the image or likeness of God”, and really for His glory only(!), some of natural mankind had and has no desire to be birthed again (in the Spirit!) and see their ‘seed’ becoming “servants of God”! And buried in the recesses of their minds and darkened hearts was and is, by some, was and is, resistance to obedience to God’s will or purpose for their lives! That attitude is still paramount across our known world! (That’s why true believers are called by Christ to be “witnesses to their world” of saving grace, love, power, and purpose!).

The bland-some? Have you ever read through early Exodus about Moses’ encounter with the Pharaoh of Egypt? Holy God sent faithful Moses as a witness, but Pharaoh’s heart was “hardened by God” because of his resistance to divine truth, the divine Way, and the divine purpose, exactly the ‘spiritual disease’ of the bland-some!

In 1 Samuel 8 we find the historical record of ‘bland-some’ folk who have no desire to even know what God thinks about the purpose of their existence! Follow carefully the historical record, beginning at Verse 4 through Verse 9! It says: “Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” [Please consider!! What would happen worldwide if nations declared allegiance to Jesus’ saving grace and Jesus’ eternal purpose for lives, homes, cities, states, and nations?].

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, THAT I SHOULD NOT REIGN OVER THEM. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day – with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods – so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed there voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.” [Tell me of the present result in your life of the results of the “bland-some king of flesh” ruling in you, through you, for his hellish ‘academy award’ of deceit reigning over you presently!].

OH, BUT THEN, BEYOND THE BLAND-SOME, LET’S EXAMINE THE HANDSOME, THE ‘HOLLYWOOD’ PRODUCTION OF SELF-BEAUTIFIED, SELF-GLORIFIED, SELF- CELEBRATING!!

In, yes, the context of human existence, beyond the ‘bland-some’, there are the ‘handsome’ who truly are ‘successful’ in what most consider to be “successes, academy award winners of the best efforts of ‘flesh’, best efforts of godless men, best efforts of human achievements.” And the world around them celebrate, rejoice, and are giddy about their achievements – but GOD LAUGHS and opens the door to Hell’s celebration of their self-centered, godless existence!

Are you familiar with Pharoah of Egypt’s handsomeness, his impressiveness in ascending to national leadership, and his allegiance to his ‘handsome way’ of leadership(?)? He had ‘the peacock-pride’ of self-will, self-rule, self-preeminence! He was ruler, he was ‘master’ over slaves, he owned Egypt (he thought), and lived a self-centered, wealthy, prosperous life-style while his citizens hungered! Some consider ‘pride’ as the beginning of sin, when in reality it is only the bad fruit of what is already there, thus reigning ‘in sin’ as he ruled over his people! What are You ‘reigning’ in as you live, yes, independently of the Indwelling Christ as He makes a man’s redeemed life the center of His Earthly Throne and His Heavenly Presence?

The ‘handsome back-slappers’ have no awareness of the sin of pride, of hypocrisy, and of, yes, their vain-glory! The ‘fallen’ are spiritually blind and need the miracle of God’s saving grace to “open their eyes” to see eternal opportunity!! I was reading somewhere, not sure where or even by whom, but I wrote down a reference to the words of Charles Churchill in his writing “Independence” about William Warburton, Bishop of Glouchester, in England, many, many years ago. The statement? Speaking about the Bishop:

“He was so proud that should he meet the Twelve Apostles in the street he’d turn his nose up at them all and shove his Savior from the wall.” Wow! What an illuminating statement! Can YOU believe that even some national church leaders have been ‘pretenders’, imitators, comical ‘showboats’, shaming their profession of Christ without an ounce of possession of “the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”? Was it pride that shamed some angels even before human creation?

Do you even grasp the absurdity of ‘fallen’, ‘professing’, ‘religious’, ‘pretending’, supposedly ‘righteous men’, celebrating their ‘religious faith’ (?), but they hold out, yield to a ‘heaven-inspired’ (?) of their ‘salvation’ when the historical, living testimony, is a Christless life never yielding to the Christ who desires to indwell them, but they profess that on their terms! YOUR “BEST” IS NOT HIS BLESSED PRESENCE!!!

You don’t seek to understand so that you may believe, you TRUST what Jesus says He’s already accomplished through His death, His Resurrection, and His Throne-Reigning in Heaven, graciously granting His Holy Spirit’s residence in you to “guide you into all truth” in “the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ”!

Valiant, blessed, fulfilled, rejoicing individuals, though having “embraced the darkness of their old sin natures” COME TO THE LIGHT OF CHRIST IN AND THROUGH And BY HIS GRACE AND MERCY THEY ARE ETERNALLY CHANGED INTO SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF A TRUE, LIVING, TRANSFORMING FAITH – It’s “JESUS ONLY”! THIS BRINGS US TO:

THE DIVINE REALITY, THE HEAVENLY MIRACLE OF GRACE OF AWESOME TRANSFORMED LIVES THROUGH THE SHED BLOOD OF CHRIST!! In John 1:14, 16 we read: “And the Word (that’s Jesus!) 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”, with Verse 16 telling us, “And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.” Are you trying to live the Christian walk by ‘grit’ or by God’s grace?

Patiently read and follow with me Ephesians 1:15-2:10!! It says: “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God (and Father!) of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, they 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. And God put all things under Christ Jesus’ feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 2:1-10, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

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, 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.” Can you say, “Glory, Hallelujah”?

Do you know and understand what Paul was saying in Ephesians 3:19? He was praying for Ephesian believers and us in the 21^st Century in America and the world over that we should “know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Oh, and then in Ephesians 5:17-21 we read:

“Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” Is there a continuous song of praise in your heart, spirit, and mind, even when it may be the darkest moment of your life, walk, and journey of faith and trust?

I AM TRULY ALWAYS AWED WHEN I READ PAUL’S ANOINTED ASSETMENT OF THE “PREEMINENCE OF CHRIST JESUS” IN COLOSSIANS 1:9-18! 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 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 (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 preeminence.”

Question! “If Christ Jesus is meant to have preeminence IN ALL THINGS, in your life and walk, does He have preeminence in who you are and what you do? Does He have ‘preeminence’ in determining the streets upon which you walk? Your education, your training, who you date, who you marry, your evaluation and commitment of your ‘best effort’ to what you consider your spiritual, eternal calling?” What did the Word just say? “that in all things He may have the preeminence”! DOES JESUS HOLD PREEMINENCE IN YOUR LIFE’S JOURNEY? Fanny Crosby and Robert Lowry wrote the following hymn words: “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 all 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, and 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 of love. (Now, not someday, ABOVE in the after-life!).When my spirit, clothed immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day (Actual Heaven’s abode!), This my song thro’ endless ages: JESUS LED (IN ME) ALL THE WAY; (EVERY DAY IN THE STILL ETERNAL DAY, IN THE ENDLESS AGES OF NO DEATH, NO SORROW, NO PAIN, NO SEPARATION)!” And His “Eternal Light” in us never dims, never fades, never darkens! AMEN?

ARE YOU ENJOYING AND CELEBRATING AND CONTINUALLY REJOICING AND PRAISING HIM THAT BY HIS GRACE, MERCY, AND LOVE, THROUGH REPENTANCE AND FAITH, YIELDEDNESS AND SURRENDER, YOUR “NEW-BORN” LIFE IN CHRIST BECOMES HIS HOLY TEMPLE OF ABIDING PRESENCE, YES, HEAVEN ON EARTH!??!

J.FARRELL FISHER, MAY 31,2019

HOW AWARE ARE YOU OF, YES, THE DANGER OF “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”? THOSE SATAN-INSPIRED & FALLEN-NATURE ‘DISEASES’ HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COMMON & ACCEPTABLE, EVEN BY ADAM & EVE THO’ EMBARASSED WHEN THEY REALIZED THEIR ‘NAKEDNESS’; GENESIS 3:7 SAYS, “AND THE EYES OF THEM BOTH WERE OPENED, & THEY KNEW THAT THEY WERE NAKED; & THEY SEWED FIG LEAVES TOGETHER, & MADE THEMSELVES APRONS.”

IN HUMAN NATURE, VOID OF SOVEREIGN PRESENCE THROUGH THE “BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD, THE RESURRECTED SAVIOR”, THERE IS NO HOPE OR TRUE ACCEPTANCE OF THE ETERNAL SALVATION THAT PROPERLY “DRESSES THE SPIRITUALLY NAKEDNESS IN UNREGENERATE LIVES” APART FROM GOD’S KNOCK ON A NAKED ONE’S HEART, HIS KNOCK TO ALERT THE NAKED ONE’S MIND, & BY HOLY SPIRIT CONVICTION TO UNVEIL THE WILL OF FALLEN MAN OF HIS/HER NEED TO “REPENT, REST IN, REACH FOR THE FREE GIFT OF AMAZING GRACE” & BE WRAPPED IN THE “FREE GIFT OF THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF CHRIST” SINCE “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRE” IS DESCRIBED BY HOLY GOD IN ISAIAH 64:6 AS: (LET ME SHARE THE WHOLE VERSE!),

“BUT WE ARE ALL AS AN UNCLEAN THING, & ALL ‘OUR’ RIGHTEOUSNESSES ARE AS FILTHY RAGS (THAT’S MENSTRUAL RAGS!); & WE ALL DO FADE AS A LEAF; & OUR INIQUITIES, LIKE THE WIND, HAVE TAKEN US AWAY.” ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES IS A “NEVER LOOSING TIME EFFORT” & A“BINDING,BLINDING,BELITTLING, AND SAD BESMEARMENT OF THE SOVEREIGN PRICELESSNESS OF GOD’S GRACE”!

CERTAINLY HOLY GOD, IN HIS OMNISCIENCE, “KNEW” WHEN HE CREATED MANKIND WITH FREEDOM OF CHOICE OF ALLEGIANCE TO “HIM” OR ALLEGIANCE TO “SELF” THAT “SELF” WOULD HAVE A CRUDE CROSS TO WALK OVER THAT LED TO HELL ITSELF, BUT GOD WANTED THEM ON THE “BRIDGE OF AMAZING LOVE, GRACE, & MERCY, TO BE BEFORE THEM WITH A CHOICE: FAULTY BRIDGE OR THE FAITHFUL BRIDGE OF THE FINISHED WORK OF CHRIST HIS SON”! “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”? IT WAS ALEXANDER MACLAREN WHO LONG AGO TOOK THE STRONG, RIGHT, CONVICTING STAND SAYING,”THAT WHICH OF ALL THINGS UNFITS MAN FOR THE RECEPTION OF CHRIST AS A SAVIOR, IS NOT GROSS PROFLIGACY & OUTWARD,VEHEMENT TRANSGRESSION, BUT IT IS SELF-COMPLACENCY, FATAL SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, & SELF-SUFFICIENCY.” WOW! OH, HOW TRUE!

“ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES” ARE ALSO CONSTRUCTED ON THE ‘FAULTY FOUNDATION’ OF ‘FLESHLY INFIDELITY’! RICHARD CECIL ONCE SAID, “THE NURSE OF INFIDELITY IS SENSUALITY.” AGAIN, SO TRUE! AND IF THAT’S ‘BLIND REASONING’ TO YOU, BE ASSURED THERE IS THE “GREAT PHYSICIAN”, CHRIST JESUS WHO DOES “OPEN BLIND SPIRITUAL EYES”! IN MATTHEW 9:1-13 THE WORD DECLARES: AND JESUS ENTERED INTO A SHIP, & PASSED OVER, & CAME INTO HIS OWN CITY. & BEHOLD, THEY BROUGHT TO HIM A MAN SICK OF PALSY, LYING ON A BED; & JESUS SEEING THEIR FAITH SAID UNTO THE SICK OF PALSY: “SON, BE OF GOOD CHEER; YOUR SINS ARE FORGIVEN YOU.”

AND, BEHOLD, CERTAIN OF THE SCRIBES SAID WITHIN THEMSELVES, THIS MAN BLASPHEMES. & JESUS KNOWING THEIR THOUGHTS SAID, “WHEREFORE THINK YOU EVIL IN YOUR HEARTS? FOR WHETHER IS EASIER, TO SAY, ‘YOUR SINS BE FORGIVEN YOU; OR TO SAY, ARISE, & WALK? BUT THAT YOU MAY KNOW THAT THE SON OF MAN HAS POWER ON EARTH TO FORGIVE SINS, (THENSAID HE TO THE SICK OF THE PALSY), ARISE, TAKE UP YOUR BED, & GO INTO YOUR HOUSE.” AND HE AROSE, & DEPARTED TO HIS HOUSE.

BUT WHEN THE MULTITUDES SAW IT, THEY MARVELED, & GLORIFIED GOD, WHICH HAD GIVEN SUCH POWER UNTO MEN. & AS JESUS PASSED FORTH FROM THERE, THEY MARVELLED, & GLORIFIED GOD, WHICH HAD GIVEN SUCH POWER UNTO MEN. & AS JESUS PASSED FROM THERE, HE SAW A MAN NAMED MATTHEW, SITTING AT THE SEAT OF CUSTOM: & HE SAID UNTO HIM, “FOLLOW ME.” AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS JESUS SAT AT MEAT IN THE HOUSE, BEHOLD, MANY PUBLICANS & SINNERS CAME & SAT DOWN WITH JESUS & HIS DISCIPLES. & WHEN THE PHARISEES SAW IT, THEY SAID UNTO HIS DISCIPLES, WHY DOES YOUR MASTER EAT WITH PUBLICANS & SINNERS? BUT WHEN JESUS HEARD IT, HE SAID UNTO THEM, “THEY THAT BE WHOLE NEED NOT A PHYSICIAN, BUT THEY THAT ARE SICK. BUT YOU GO & LEARN WHAT THAT MEANS, I WILL HAVE MERCY, & NOT SACRIFICE; FOR I AM NOT COME TO CALL THE RIGHTEOUS, BUT SINNERS TO REPENTANCE.”

“ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES?” COULD IT BE, THAT EVEN IN ‘TOUGH TIMES’, ‘SERIOUS,PERSONAL WARFARES’, ‘QUESTIONS ABOUT VICES,IMMORAL HABITS, OR A ‘FAULT’, A ‘SLIGHT DEFECT’, OR ‘A LITTLE BIT OF DEGRADING BEHAVIOR’,THAT MEN & WOMEN, & YOUTH & KIDS TODAY, SEE THEIR EXPERIENCE AS ‘LEARNING TO GROW UP & MATURE’, RATHER THAN ROBERT BURNS’ FAMOUS STATEMENT, “PERHAPS THE CHRISTIAN VOLUME IS THE THEME, HOW GUILTLESS BLOOD FOR GUILTY MAN WAS SHED, HOW HE WHO BORE IN HEAVEN THE SECOND NAME HAD NOT ON EARTH WHEREON TO LAY HIS HEAD.” ROBERT BURNS WAS SPEAKING OF KING JESUS WHO “LIVED & DIED, NOT “IN” SIN, BUT HE LIVED, THEN DIED “FOR SIN” TO WASH AWAY ITS PENALTY IN THE ROYAL BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD WHO’D NEVER SINNED!

IN PHILIPPIANS 2:5-13 PAUL WROTE, “LET THIS MIND BE IN YOU, WHICH WAS ALSO IN CHRIST JESUS: WHO,BEING IN THE FORM OF GOD, THOUGHT IT NOT ROBBERY TO BE EQUAL WITH GOD…(I MUST INSERT AN AWAKENING WORD FROM GOD IN JEREMIAH 17:5, “THUS SAYS THE LORD: CURSED BE THE MAN THAT TRUSTS IN MAN, & MAKES FLESH HIS ARM, & WHOSE HEART DEPARTED FROM THE LORD.” WELL, CONSIDER THIS: CHRIST JESUS NEVER DEPARTED FROM GOD THE FATHER,NEVER! HE WAS & IS GOD IN HUMAN FORM! THERE “IS” THE HOLY TRINITY: GOD THE FATHER, GOD THE SON, & GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE ETERNAL “THREE IN ONE”!!), NOW, BACK TO PHILIPPIANS 2:7-13, BUT MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, & TOOK UPON HIM THE FORM OF A SERVANT, & WAS MADE IN THE LIKENESS OF MEN;

AND BEING FOUND IN FASHION AS A MAN, HE HUMBLED HIMSELF, & BECAME OBEDIENT UNTO DEATH, EVEN THE DEATH OF THE CROSS.WHEREFORE GOD ALSO HAS HIGHLY EXALTED HIM, & GIVEN HIM A NAME WHICH IS ABOVE EVERY NAME: THAT AT THE NAME OF JESUS EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, OF THINGS IN HEAVEN, & THINGS IN EARTH, & THINGS UNDER THE EARTH; & THAT EVERY TONGUE SHOULD CONFESS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER. WHEREFORE, MY BELOVED,AS YOU HAVE ALWAYS OBEYED, NOT AS IN MY PRESENCE ONLY, BUT NOW MUCH MORE IN MY ABSENCE, WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION IN FEAR & TREMBLING. FOR IT IS GOD WHICH WORKS IN YOU BOTH TO WILL & TO DO OF HIS GOOD PLEASURE.”

THAT LAST SCRIPTURE EXPLAINING “IT’S GOD WHO WORKS IN YOU,” SHOCKS THE ‘SELF-CENTERED “CHRISTIAN” DEVOTEE’ WHO SEES HIMSELF BEING A GOOD ‘FOLLOWER’, BUT IS EASILY ENRAGED WHEN HE/SHE LEARNS THEY’VE BEEN SHAMMED BY ‘RELIGIOUS LEADERS’ RATHER THAN “SHIELDED” BY THE SPIRIT, WHO,YES, INFORMS US OF BEING ‘INFLAMED’ BY THE “STAR” IN THE EAST! MATT.2:2 SAYS, “WHERE IS HE THAT IS BORN KING OF THE JEWS? FOR WE HAVE SEEN HIS STAR IN THE EAST, & HAVE COME TO WORSHIP HIM.” A “STAR” GIVES LIGHT! OH, & IN JOHN 8:12, THE LORD JESUS SAID: “I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD: HE THAT FOLLOWS ME SHALL NOT WALK IN DARKNESS, BUT SHALL HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE.”

BUT, SELF-CENTERED ‘PROFESSORS OF FAITH’ WHO PROFESS BUT KNOW NOTHING OF BEING “POSSESSED, OWNED, RULED OVER BY THE INDWELLING CHRIST WHO DOESN’T TAKE YOU INTO DARK PATHWAYS”, BUT “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES” WILL CAPTURE YOU IN “DARKNESS” RATHER THAN YOU FAITHFULLY BEING LED BY “THE LIGHT OF LIFE, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IN HIS RESURRECTED PRESENCE IN YOU AFTER YOUR FINISHED WORK OF FAITH & TRUST IN HIM ALONE – NOT “BEST EFFORT, FALSE ‘CHRISTIANITY’”!!!

AND TO THOSE “ENSLAVED” TO THE FALSE CLAIMS OF JUDAISM IN HIS DAY, REJECTING HIS JOHN 8:12 CLAIM, JESUS THEN SAID IN JOHN 8:24, “I SAID THEREFORE UNTO YOU, THAT YOU SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS; FOR IF YOU BELIEVE NOT (TRUST NOT,ADHERE NOT TO ME) THAT I AM THE “TRUE MESSIAH”, “GOD IN FLESH”, YOU SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS”; & THAT INCLUDES, “REGARDLESS HOW ‘RELIGIOUS’ YOU THINK YOU ARE”!! OH, THE LORD JESUS WASN’T FINISHED YET IN HIS EXPOSURE OF THE “JEWISH RELIGIOUS PRETENDERS”! IN JOHN 8:38 JESUS SAID: “I SPEAK THAT WHICH I HAVE SEEN WITH MY FATHER, & YOU “DO” THAT WHICH YOU HAVE SEEN WITH YOUR “father”, (OR SATAN HIMSELF, THE DEVIL OF HELL!).” AND EVEN THOUGH PAUL UNDERSTOOD CLEARLY ‘RELIGIOUS DECEPTION’ IN HIS JEWISH COMMUNITY, AS HE WROTE TO HIS SPIRITUAL SON IN THE FAITH, TIMOTHY, IN 2 TIMOTHY 2:15-26, HE WROTE: “STUDY TO SHOW YOURSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD, A WORKMAN THAT NEEDS NOT TO BE ASHAMED, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH. BUT SHUN PROFANE & VAIN BABBLINGS: FOR THEY WILL INCREASE UNTO MORE UNGODLINESS. AND ‘THEIR’ WORD WILL EAT AS DOES A CANKER; OF WHOM IS HYMENAEUS & PHILETUS; WHO CONCERNING THE TRUTH HAVE ERRED, SAYING THAT THE RESURRECTION IS PAST ALREADY; & OVERTHROW THE FAITH OF SOME.

NEVERTHELESS THE FOUNDATION OF GOD STANDS SURE, HAVING THIS SEAL, “THE LORD KNOWS THOSE THAT ARE HIS.” &, “LET EVERY ONE THAT NAMES THE NAME OF CHRIST DEPART FROM INIQUITY. BUT IN A GREAT HOUSE THERE ARE NOT ONLY VESSELS OF GOLD & OF SILVER, BUT ALSO OF WOOD & OF EARTH; & SOME TO HONOR, & SOME TO DISHONOR. IF A MAN THEREFORE PURGE HIMSELF FROM THESE, HE SHALL BE A VESSEL UNTO HONOR,SANCTIFIED,& MEET FOR THE MASTER’S USE, & PREPARED UNTO EVERY GOOD WORK. FLEE ALSO YOUTHFUL LUSTS: BUT FOLLOW RIGHTEOUSNESS, FAITH, CHARITY, PEACE, WITH THEM THAT CALL ON THE LORD OUT OF A PURE HEART.

BUT FOOLISH & UNLEARNED QUESTIONS AVOID, KNOWING THAT THEY GENDER STRIFES (OR SPECULATIONS!). AND THE SERVANT OF THE LORD MUST NOT STRIVE; BUT BE GENTLE UNTO ALL MEN, APT TO TEACH, PATIENT, IN MEEKNESS INSTRUCTING THOSE “THAT OPPOSE THEMSELVES”; IF GOD PERADVENTURE WILL GIVE THEM, REPENTANCE TO THE ACKNOWLEDGING OF THE TRUTH; & THAT THEY MAY RECOVER THEMSELVES OUT OF THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, WHO ARE TAKEN CAPTIVE BY HIM AT HIS WILL.”

‘SNARED BY SATAN’? ‘TAKEN CAPTIVE BY SATAN AT HIS WILL’? IT WAS JOHN DRYDEN, IN HIS WRITING, “ABSALOM & ACHITOPHEL”, (PT.1,L.79), WHO SAID: “WHEN TO SIN OUR BIASED NATURE LEANS, THE CAREFUL DEVIL IS STILL AT HAND WITH MEANS.” OR, EVEN ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING’S WRITING IN “AURORA LEIGH,” (BK.7,L,105), WHO WROTE: “THE DEVIL’S MOST DEVILISH WHEN RESPECTABLE.”

OH, BUT ONE OF THE BEST STATEMENTS I READ ABOUT SATAN’S ‘BEST’? IN HIS WRITING: “SUENOS”,BY SIR ROGER L’ ESTRANGE, HE SAID: “WHEN THE DEVIL PREACHES THE WORLD’S NEAR AN END.” AND HE, SATAN, PREACHES “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”, EVEN PROCLAIMING, “APPROVED BY GOD HIMSELF”! REALLY? ARE YOU AWARE THAT THERE ARE THOSE “RELIGIOUS FOLK” WHO “FEEDS ON ASHES”? THAT’S ISAIAH 44:20! “HE FEEDS ON ASHES; A DECEIVED HEART HAS TURNED HIM ASIDE, THAT CANNOT DELIVER HIS SOUL, NOR SAY, ‘IS THERE NOT A LIE IN MY RIGHT HAND’?”

“ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”? PAUL SAID IN GALATIANS 6:3, “FOR IF A MAN THINKS HIMSELF TO BE SOMETHING, WHEN HE IS NOTHING, HE DECEIVES HIMSELF.” IT’S TRUE! “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES” ARE THE FOUNDATION STONES OF “RELIGIOUS PRETENCE” & “RELIGIOUS FABRICATIONS” WITH NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SACRIFICIAL BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD ATONING FOR THEIR FALLING AWAY FROM GOD’S GRACED WAY OF LIVING, GOD HAVING CRUCIFIED THE OLD SIN-NATURE WITH CHRIST, & OFFERING JESUS’S RESURRECTED PRESENCE IN THE BODY GOD HAS DESCRIBED AS ‘WORTHY’ ONLY OF BEING CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST!

“ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”? IN GENESIS 11:4 WE READ ABOUT WHAT FALLEN MEN CONSIDER THEIR ‘REMEDY’FOR THEIR ‘RELIGIOUS PRETENCES’: AND THEY SAID, “GO TO, LET US BUILD A CITY & A TOWER, WHOSE TOP MAY REACH TO HEAVEN; & LET US MAKE A NAME, LEST WE BE SCATTERED ABROAD UPON THE FACE OF THE WHOLE EARTH.” BUT, ZEALOUS SELF OR RELIGIOUS DESIRES, HAVE NOT, CANNOT, WILL NOT BE RECONCILED TO HOLY GOD – ONLY BY CHRIST’S SHED BLOOD ON THE CROSS DO MEN FIND THEIR SINS WASHED AWAY & “NEW BIRTH” GENERATING, BY GOD’S GRACE, HIS ABIDING PRESENCE IN THE REDEEMED HEART & LIFE!!

OH, BUT THERE IS: “THE SOVEREIGN PRICELESSNESS OF GOD’S GRACE”!!! ROMANS 6:23 ILLUMINATELY DESCRIBES IT AS PAUL, INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WROTE: “FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH; BUT THE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE IN OR THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.” WHAT DID PAUL ALSO TELL US IN ROMANS 8:32? HE (GOD) THAT SPARED NOT HIS OWN SON,BUT DELIVERED HIM UP FOR US ALL, HOW SHALL HE NOT WITH HIM ALSO FREELY GIVE US ALL THINGS?” IN ERIC METAXAS’ BOOK, “7 MEN & THE SECRETS OF THEIR GREATNESS”, INTRODUCED THE BOOK, SAYING, (P.XIV),

“NOW, MY OWN PERSONAL ‘GREATEST’ ROLE MODEL IS JESUS. &YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT HE DIDN’T JUST TALK. OF COURSE HE SAID A LOT OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS, BUT HE ALSO LIVED WITH HIS DISCIPLES FOR THREE YEARS. THEY SAW HIM EAT & SLEEP& PERFORM MIRACLES. THEY SAW HIM LIVE LIFE & SUFFER & DIE. THEY SAW HIM INTERACT WITH ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE, INCLUDING THEMSELVES. HE LIVED AMONG THEM. THAT’S THE MAIN WAY THAT HE COMMUNICATED HIMSELF TO THE MEN WHO WOULD COMMUNICATE HIM TO THE WORLD. THAT’S HOW HE MADE DISCIPLES – WHO WOULD MAKE DISCIPLES, WHO WOULD MAKE DISCIPLES. SO FROM THE GOSPEL STORIES OF JESUS’ LIFE, YOU GET THE IDEA THAT SEEING A PERSON’S LIFE IS AT LEAST AS IMPORTANT AS GETTING A LIST OF LESSONS FROM THAT PERSON. YES, SERMONS ARE IMPORTANT, BUT SEEING THE ACTUAL LIFE OF THE GUY WHO GIVES THE SERMON MIGHT BE EVEN MORE POWERFUL. AND YOU GET THE IDEA THAT HOW YOU LIVE AFFECTS OTHERS. IT TEACHES THEM HOW TO LIVE.”

IN PROVERBS 3:5-8 THE “WISE MAN” WROTE, “TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART; & LEAN NOT UNTO YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING. IN ALL YOUR WAYS ACKNOWLEDGE HIM ( THAT’S GIVING JESUS THE REINS OF YOUR LIFE, NOT YOU ‘PERFORMING’ FOR HIM!), & HE SHALL DIRECT YOUR PATHS. BE NOT WISE IN YOUR OWN EYES; FEAR THE LORD, & DEPART FROM EVIL. IT SHALL BE HEATH TO YOUR NAVEL, & MARROW TO YOUR BONES.” HOLY GOD SAID TO ISAIAH IN ISAIAH 55:11, “SO SHALL MY WORD BE THAT GOES FORTH OUT OF MY MOUTH:IT SHALL NOT RETUTN TO ME VOID, BUT IT SHALL ACCOMPLISH THAT WHICH I PLEASE, & IT SHALL PROSPER IN THE THING WHEREIN I SENT IT.”

ARE “YOU” FACING LIFE’S “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES”, REJECTING THEM, ABANDONING THEM, & SHUTTING THE DOOR ON THEM? THEN ARE “YOU” ACCEPTING “THE SOVEREIGN PRICELESSNESS OF GOD’S GRACE”? THERE’S AN OLD “BENEDICTION” CHORUS IN THE BACK OF THE 1940 BROADMAN HYMNAL THAT SAYS: “MAY THE GRACE OF CHRIST OUR SAVIOR, & THE FATHER’S BOUNDLESS LOVE, WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT’S FAVOR, REST UPON US FROM ABOVE. AMEN, OR SO BE IT.” IS THERE A “SO BE IT” IN YOUR SPIRITUAL VOCABULARY & YOUR DAILY SPIRITUAL PILGRIMAGE?

ALSO IN THAT SAME OLD HYMNAL IS ANOTHER “SONG-MESSAGE” ENTITLED, “FOLLOW, I WILL FOLLOW THEE”. IT SAYS: “JESUS CALLS ME, I MUST FOLLOW, FOLLOW HIM TODAY; WHEN HIS TENDER VOICE IS PLEADING, HOW CAN I DELAY? JESUS CALLS ME, I MUST FOLLOW, FOLLOW EVERY HOUR, KNOW THE BLESSING OF HIS PRESENCE, KNOW THE FULLNESS OF HIS POWER.

JESUS CALLS US, I MUST FOLLOW, FOLLOW HIM ALWAYS; WHEN MY SAVIOR GOES BEFORE ME I CAN NEVER STRAY.

FOLLOW, I WILL FOLLOW YOU, MY LORD, FOLLOW EVERY PASSING DAY; MY TOMORROWS ARE ALL KNOWN OF THEE; YOU WILL LEAD ME ALL THE WAY.” BEING LED BY GOD TRULY IS BEING LED BY HIS GRACE, HIS MERCY, & HIS LOVE!

EXODUS 13:18 TELLS US THAT GOD LEADS US THROUGH LIFE’S WILDERNESSES. ISAIAH 63:12 SAYS GOD LED US WITH HIS RIGHT HAND.ROMANS 8:14 SAYS WE’RE LED BY GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT, & ESPECIALLY SINCE THE WORD SAYS, THE SPIRIT GUIDES US INTO ALL TRUTH! WHAT ABOUT THE INSPIRATION OF GALATIANS 5:16-25? THIS I SAY THEN, WALK IN THE SPIRIT, & YOU SHALL NOT FULFILL THE LUST OF THE FLESH. FOR THE FLESH LUSTS AGAINST THE SPIRIT, & THE SPIRIT AGAINST THE FLESH: & THESE ARE CONTRARY THE ONE TO THE OTHER: SO THAT YOU CANNOT DO THE THINGS THAT YOU WOULD.BUT IF YOU BE LED OF THE SPIRIT, YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW.

NOW THE WORKS OF THE FLESH ARE MANIFEST, WHICH ARE THESE: ADULTERY, FORNICATION, UNCLEANNES, LASCIVIOUSNESS, IDOLATRY, WITCHCRAFT, HATRED, VARIANCE, EMULATIONS, WRATH, STRIFE, SEDITIONS, HERESIES, ENVYINGS, MURDERS, DRUNKENNESS, REVELLINGS, & SUCH LIKE: OF THE WHICH I TELL YOU BEFORE, AS I HAVE ALSO TOLD YOU IN TIME PAST, THAT THEY WHICH DO SUCH THINGS SHALL NOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD.BUT THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT IS LOVE,JOY,PEACE, LONGSUFFERING,GENTLENESS,GOODNESS,FAITH, MEEKNESS,TEMPERANCE; AGAINST SUCH THERE IS NO LAW. AND THEY THAT ARE CHRIST’S “HAVE CRUCIFIED THE FLESH, WITH THE AFFECTIONS & LUSTS. IF WE LIVE IN THE SPIRIT, LET US ALSO WALK IN THE SPIRIT.”

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR WALK? “BEST EFFORT”? “TRYING HARD”? OR, DAY BY DAY, “TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH DAILY TO THE OLD SIN-NATURE, THE OLD MAN, THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED IN YOUR MORTAL FLESH”? IN THE OLD “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL”, (PUBLISHED IN 1933, BY BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE,TENN.P.43)IS A HYMN ENTITLED “MOMENT BY MOMENT.” IT SAYS: “DYING WITH JESUS, BY DEATH RECKONED MINE; LIVING WITH JESUS, A NEW LIFE DIVINE; LOOKING TO JESUS TILL GLORY DOES SHINE, MOMENT BY MOMENT, O LORD, I AM THINE.

NEVER A TRIAL THAT HE IS NOT THERE, NEVER A BURDEN THAT HE DOES NOT BEAR; NEVER A SORROW THAT HE DOES NOT SHARE, MOMENT BY MOMENT, I’M UNDER HIS CARE.

NEVER A HEARTACHE, & NEVER A GROAN, NEVER A TEARDROP & NEVER A MOAN;NEVER A DANGER BUT THERE ON THE THRONE, MOMENT BY MOMENT HE THINKS OF HIS OWN.

NEVER A WEAKNESS THAT HE DOES NOT FEEL, NEVER A SICKNESS THAT HE CANNOT HEAL; MOMENT BY MOMENT, IN WOE OR IN WEAL, JESUS, MY SAVIOR, ABIDES WITH ME STILL.

MOMENT BY MOMENT I’M KEPT IN HIS LOVE; MOMENT BY MOMENT I’VE LIFE FROM ABOVE;LOOKING TO JESUS TILL GLORY DOES SHINE; MOMENT BY MOMENT, O LORD, I AM THINE.” FOR YOU,IS IT “ZEALOUS SELF-DESIRES OR THE SOVEREIGN PRICLESSNESS OF GOD’S GRACE”? I MUST SHARE COLOSSIANS 2:6-17!! “AS YOU HAVE THEREFORE RECEIVED CHRIST JESUS THE LORD, SO WALK IN HIM; ROOTED & BUILT UPON HIM, & STABLISHED IN THE FAITH, AS YOU HAVE BEEN TAUGHT, ABOUNDING THEREIN WITH THANKSGIVING. BEWARE LEST ANY MAN SPOIL (OR TAKE YOU CAPTIVE!)THROUGH PHILOSOPHY & VAIN DECEIT, AFTER THE TRADITION OF MEN, AFTER THE RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD, & NOT AFTER CHRIST. FOR IN HIM DWELLS ALL THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY. & YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, WHICH IS THE HEAD OF ALL PRINCIPALITY & POWER: IN WHOM ALSO YOU ARE CIRCUMCISED WITH THE CIRCUMCISION MADE WITHOUT HANDS, IN PUTTING OFF THE BODY OF SINS OF THE FLESH (OR OLD ‘SIN-NATURE’) BY THE CIRCUMCISION OF CHRIST: BURIED WITH HIM IN BAPTISM, WHEREIN ALSO YOU ARE RISEN WITH HIM THROUGH THE FAITH OF THE OPERATION OF GOD, WHO HAS RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD.

AND YOU, BEING DEAD IN YOUR SINS & THE UNCIRCUMCISION OF YOUR FLESH HAS HE QUICKENED TOGETHER WITH HIM, HAVING FORGIVEN YOU ALL TRESPASSES; BLOTTING OUT THE HANDWRITING OF ORDINANCES THAT WAS AGAINST US, WHICH WAS CONTRARY TO US, & TOOK IT OUT OF THE WAY, NAILING IT TO HIS CROSS; & HAVING SPOILED PRINCIPALITIES & POWERS, HE MADE A SHOW OF THEM OPENLY, TRIUMPHING OVER THEM IN IT.

LET NO MAN THEREFORE JUDGE YOU IN MEAT, OR IN DRINK, OR IN RESPECT OF AN HOLYDAY, OR OF THE NEW MOON, OR OF THE SABBATH DAYS; WHICH ARE A SHADOW OF THINGS TO COME; BUT THE BODY IS OF CHRIST.”IN CLOSING, CONSIDER SERIOUSLY COLOSSIANS 3:1-5A,PLUS VERSES 15-17! “IF YOU THEN BE RISEN WITH CHRIST, SEEK THOSE THINGS ABOVE, WHERE CHRIST IS SITTING ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. SET YOUR AFFECTION (MIND) ON THINGS ABOVE (ETERNAL), NOT ON THINGS ON THE EARTH. FOR YOU ARE DEAD, & YOUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD. WHEN CHRIST, WHO IS OUR LIFE SHALL APPEAR, THEN SHALL YOU ALSO APPEAR WITH HIM IN GLORY. MORTIFY THEREFORE YOUR MEMBERS WHICH ARE UPON THE EARTH…” VERSES 15-17, “AND LET THE PEACE OF GOD RULE IN YOUR HEARTS, TO THE WHICH ALSO YOU WERE CALLED IN ONE BODY; & BE THANKFUL. LET THE WORD OF CHRIST DWELL IN YOU RICHLY IN ALL WISDOM; TEACHING & ADMONISHING ONE ANOTHER IN PSALMS & HYMNS & SPIRITUAL SONGS, SINGING WITH GRACE IN YOUR HEARTS TO THE LORD. AND WHATSOEVER YOU DO IN WORD OR DEED, DO ALL IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS, GIVING THANKS TO GOD & THE FATHER BY HIM.” AMEN? I PRAY SO!