There is an interesting Verse of the Holy Word in Isaiah 26:3 when the prophet spoke, saying, “You (God) will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in you.” But can there be, is there a ‘spirit’ today in many minds AND hearts focused on themselves, “my best”, one’s ‘spiritual determination to live godly’, but ignoring “You MUST be born again”? Dare I tell you that today there IS ‘a spiritual starvation diet’ though ‘devoted’ to “trying” to be acceptable to Holy God, clearly unaware that their old man with its old sin nature was crucified with Christ?

There IS a ‘religious climate’ today where “pretenders” announce their ‘right standing before God’ because “we are fully devoted in our best efforts to honor Him” – “Imitation Allegiance”! – when the Holy Word, through Paul, 2 Corinthians 10:4-6, unveils, not ‘imitation allegiance’ but “Sovereign Birthing”! It says: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing (in a man’s fleshly mind!) that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”

Is ‘punishing all disobedience’ the exposing of every lawless deed that raises itself up in one’s disobedience in order to unveil the love, mercy, and grace of God for the spiritually needed, the ‘sinner’, the alienated and separated from God? Of course it is, but “imitators” sense no need to be “witnesses” to a godless generation, but at ‘peace’ that they are a part of the family of God, so no concern for the ‘imitators’ or deniers of Emmanuel, “God with us”!

Our ‘modern-day’ in American- evangelical circles is often guided by ‘suspicions’ rather than Revelatory Truths! Many in ‘modern-day’ religious circles are focused on idols of self-invention and not the Holy Word of God! Oh, they want to be ‘religious’, but ignore the path and Person of “blood redemption”! Look at many in Israel who ‘heard’ biblical Truth but still lived devoted to idols, sexual immorality, and the shedding of innocent blood! Of course, in America today, aborting babies is reasonable without any spiritual consequences! Really? In fact, Isaiah says, in Isaiah 28:15, Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, IT WILL NOT COME TO US, for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”

Does that sound like a ‘life testimony’ based on falsehood, on deception, on the excusing of the sin-nature apart from the blood of the Lamb of God? Does that sound like ‘self or flesh vindication’ and an unwillingness to accept the crucifixion of the flesh and old sin-nature, but acceptance or adapting or affirming one’s independence from God, exalting ‘individuality’ as all their life is and will be without any consideration of divine, eternal intent?

You are aware of the multitudinous assumptions, not only of fallen men but even ‘religious devotees’, who create their own ‘canned faiths’, but are void of Resurrection Life, Resurrection Power, and Resurrection Hope! And just because one ‘attends’ a church and ‘professes’ faith does not mean that they are exemplary ‘unveil-ers’ of Christ’s indwelling presence!

I was awakened more to this ‘message-Truth’ when I came across Winston Churchill’s amazing word when serving as England’s stout leader! He said: “Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on,” just being a religious observer apart from ‘You must be born again’!

As I recently opened Isaiah’s prophetic word, in Isaiah 1:2, I was gripped by a convicting passage that I saw relating not only to the nation of Israel but even many ‘church-goers’ across the world! It says: “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! FOR THE LORD GOD HAS SPOKEN: ‘I have nourished and brought up children, and they have REBELLED AGAINST Me!”

“Sovereign Birthing” is not for a ‘believer’s desire’ to be religious apart from being ‘atoned for by the blood of the Lamb’, or ‘new-born’ in the sense that the ‘flesh’ has learned how to ‘perform’ religious leanings, or ‘pretending’, ‘imitating’, or at least ‘leaning’ toward Christian ideas! Isaiah continued in Isaiah 1:4 saying, “Alas, sinful nation (which was the majority of Israel, the chosen people of God!), 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.”

Walter Chantry wrote a little book full of prophetic truth in 1970 entitled “Today’s Gospel – Authentic or Synthetic?” His ‘Introduction’ began, saying, “Evangelicals know that all is not well in their churches and missions. Behind the façade of glowing missionary reports and massive statistics there is a profound awareness that the church has little power in evangelism. While bravely trying to produce an aura of joy and victory among their followers, church leaders are uneasy and deeply dissatisfied with their present experience and the result of their efforts.”

As a disciple, a church, a pastor, a gathering of the “blood-bought”, certainly there IS a calling ‘out of the world’s ways’ but not abandoning them to their ‘lost estate’! True disciples are called to abandon their self-centered, idolatrous ways, and to faithfully yield to the Lord in submission and obedience to His every Word, including “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”Amen?

Is there ‘rebellion’ today in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ or a serious surrender to His calling with the church touching their world with “saving grace”? Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in his Volume 19, “Spurgeon’s Sermons,” (p.60) wrote: “The true church consists of men who are called, and faithful, and chosen. They are redeemed from among men, and called out from among their fellows by effectual grace. God the Holy Spirit continues to call out, and bring to the Lord Jesus, those who are chosen of God according to the good pleasure of His will.”

I often have wondered, over my, now, 80 years of life, how Acts 1:8 has become so buried in a ‘believer’s’ (?) mind, since you know, sadly, it’s not in most ‘church’ hearts, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” And, sadly, most Christians ‘prove’ their loyalty by church attendance but ignore His “Great Commission”! Are YOU, as a disciple of Christ, the ‘faithful witness’, the ‘ambassador of Christ’, the ‘openers to others’ of the Way, the Truth, and the Life, or do you emit an appearance of only a religious man without identity before God as a faithful sharer of the Truth to your needy friends, family, or a nation’s followers void and empty of Saving Grace and Mercy and Calvary’s love?

Again, Walter Chantry nailed it strong when in his book, (p.11), he wrote about ‘the church’ in our day, and individual Christians, “lowering their estimate of the value of truth.” He stated: “In a large congress on evangelism we could not insist on a truth of God’s Word that would offend ANY brother evangelical. Thus we must find the lowest common denominator to which all born-again Christians hold. The rest of the Bible will be labeled ‘unessential’ for missions. After all, unity (among Christians) is more essential than doctrinal preciseness,” and especially if it means we should be stressing evangelism and witnessing as one of the primary essentials of a “Live” congregation! God, help us!

If YOU did your ‘discipleship’ thesis, what would be your strong points of emphasis, besides one’s fellowship and communion with your Savior and Lord? Would it include “the just living by faith” AND the awareness of those who know nothing of justification, sanctification, and glorification? Come to Romans 1:16-32 – patience, please, as I share these 16 Verses! It says:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For IN IT (the gospel of Christ!) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith.’

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse; because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

With that sad word of faithless men’s condition, please hear and receive God’s Word of intent for all men “in Christ”! Colossians 1:12-18 illumines our minds and hearts, granting us mercy and grace! Paul said: “giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He (God!) has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH HIS BLOOD, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. (Is that so one can continue in it without any consequences? GIVE ME A BREAK! HOW UNGODLY IS THAT?)

He (Christ Jesus) is the image (exact likeness and identity) of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation (new creation!). For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. ALL THINGS WERE CREATED THROUGH HIM AND FOR HIM. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (or ‘are held together’).

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, THAT IN ALL THINGS HE MAY HAVE THE PREEMINENCE.” Do you see yourself as a “new creation” in Christ, having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb? Are YOU “a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in the light (of His eternal glory)”? Have YOU been delivered from the powers of darkness and then, yes, conveyed into the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love? If Christ Jesus says, “You must be born again,” is that true of you? If it pleased Father-God that “in Christ” all the fullness should dwell, are YOU living in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Do you see yourself, new-born, having been conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love? And that’s here and now, not in the “sweet by and by”!

“IMITATION ALLEGIANCE OR SOVEREIGN BIRTHING”? Isn’t it true that James was inspired to unveil the sin of partial allegiance or obedience? In James 2:14-17 he wrote: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

To me, “imitation allegiance” is a half-hearted, compromising, convenient way of declaring ‘salvation in Jesus’ with no evidence of the “new-born life in Christ”! Several things I encourage you to deal with, examining your own mind and heart which God clearly reads:

• TO COMPROMISE THE LORD’S LIFE AND COMMANDS IS TO ACKNOWLEDGE DISOBEDIENCE AND TO STAND UNDER ALMIGHTY GOD’S JUDGMENT! Didn’t Jesus say, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, but you do not do what I say?”
• TO COMPROMISE IS TO ACKNOWLEDGE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF ITS CONSEQUENCES, INCREASING OUR ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY BEFORE THE GOD OF THE THRONE WHO RULES AND REIGNS IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, AWARE ONE’S OWN CHOICES HAS CONSEQUENCES! “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’ but you do not do what I say?”
• TO COMPROMISE IS TO DECAY OBEDIENCE, BRINGING ON THE OPEN DOOR TO THE DETERIORATION OF BIBLICAL MORALITY AND LORDSHIP HONOR! Do you think the Lord Jesus is pleased if, at least, you do half of what He says?
• TO COMPROMISE IS TO INVITE THE ABSENCE OF BLESSING AND ANOINTING, OPENING THE DOOR AGAIN TO “LIVING UNDER THE CURSE”! David came to the spiritual awareness of what betrayal to Holy God could bring! In Psalm 28 he stared spiritual danger in the face, cried out to Holy God, and was delivered! He said: “To You I will cry, O Lord my Rock: Do not be silent to me, lest, if You are silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit.

Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to You, when I lift up my hands (in surrender?) toward Your holy sanctuary. Do not take me away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors, but evil is in their hearts.

Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors; give them according to the work of their hands; render to them what they deserve.

Because they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up. Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard the voice of my supplications! The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped;

Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise Him. The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving refuge of His anointed. Save YOUR PEOPLE, BLESS YOUR INHERITANCE; Shepherd them also, and bear them up forever.”

Reading Spurgeon recently in his “Spurgeon’s Sermons”, (Vol. 19,p.66), Spurgeon wrote and preached, no doubt, about Abram before he became Abraham. He said, God speaking to Abram, “You have left Ur of the Chaldees – the place of open sin; but you have not come to Canaan the holy.” Is that why some “professors of faith” never enter into their Land of Promise because, as Spurgeon said a few sentences later, “They are willing to be saved by the cross of Christ, but they are not willing to take up Christ’s cross, and come right out decidedly upon His side at all times.”

And “compromisers” have not the blessing of perfect peace, abounding joy, intimate fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, but live with ‘religious appreciation’ of “imitation allegiance” but not Heaven’s blessing in and through Christ alone, knowing, yes, “Sovereign Birthing” by the Holy Spirit with “the seed of His eternal Word” blooming in their “new-born” Life in Christ! AMEN?

I’m so impressed with Isaac Watts and George F. Root’s hymn entitled, “There Is a Land of Pure Delight,” – and I believe it’s illumining the “Land of Sovereign Birthing”! It says: “There is a land of pure delight, Where saints immortal reign; Eternal day excludes the night, And pleasures banish pain.

There everlasting spring abides, And never withering flowers; Death, like a narrow sea, divides This heavenly land from ours.

Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood Stand dressed in living green; So to the Jews old Canaan stood, While Jordan rolled between.

But timorous mortals start and shrink To cross this narrow sea, And, lingering, shivering, on the brink, And fear to launch away.

Oh, could we make our doubts remove, Those gloomy doubts that rise, And see the Canaan that we love With un-be-clouded eyes!

Could we but climb where Moses stood, And view the landscape o’er, Not Jordan’s stream nor death’s cold flood Should fright us from the shore.” [Dare I tell you? I’m not frightened by ‘death’s cold flood’ because of Christ in me!

“Irresponsible impregnation”? And I’m not writing about careless, unwanted, unexpected ‘child-births’ by immoral behavior and choices, but rather ‘sinful choices’ infusing, fertilizing, permeating a life with fallen nature’s fleshly desires, the world’s lust, and the devil’s delight!

Irresponsible impregnation is individuality and its choices as the ‘husk’ of an unredeemed life! It was Oswald Chambers who wrote: [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.257], “Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love,” and that is so on target! He had said earlier, [p.256], “It is the things that are right and noble and good from the natural standpoint that keep us back from God’s best.”

And I’m sure that the ‘irresponsible impregnators’ are unaware that “ they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh” or as Paul said in Galatians 5:24, “those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh WITH ITS PASSIONS AND DESIRES.” In the flesh men are dominated by, controlled by, even deceived by their, yes, devotion to their old sin nature, devotion to “if I want to do this, I’ll do it,” without any consideration of the natural consequences of opposing God’s Purpose, His will, or His holy desire for their lives!

“Irresponsible impregnation” is bowing before the idol of ‘self-indulgence’ intent on satisfying their ‘natural independence’ from God Himself, from His Son, and resist strongly the convicting power of the Holy Spirit BECAUSE “I crown the passions of my heart, my desires, my wants – and if that’s opposite of the Way, the Word, or the Will of God, who cares?” GOD DOES AND HE DEMONSTRATED HIS LOVE AND CONCERN THROUGH HIS SON AND THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST’S LIFE ON CALVARY’S CROSS WITH YOUR NAME ON HIS LIPS, MIND, AND HEART!

But are you aware of how strong ‘spiritual selfishness’ is as unbelievers ignore, close their ears, and seek to avoid even any contact with ‘true seekers’ and ‘faithful disciples’? It’s as if they feel or sense God, the Savior, or His people are “out to make something of me I don’t want to be!” So they erect ‘high walls’ of resistance to Biblical Truth, or to ‘emancipation proclamations’, or even testimonies about “blood redemption through Christ and His transforming power” because they’re satisfied with their “irresponsible impregnation” of self-will, self-rule, and selfish pleasures! It’s absolutely heart-breaking to encounter ‘smug indifference’ to the love of God! It’s so disturbing when you encounter ‘fleshly pride’ in the fallen sin nature in people you encounter regularly who have no desire to hear or learn about ‘godless existence with a hellish ending’ because they truly are enslaved to a self-love, self-enchantment, and a slavish determination to satisfy every sinful, self-centered desire, warped or not!

Do you remember Jesus’ encounter with the ‘rich young ruler’ in Luke 18? Verses 18-27 tell us: Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”

And the rich young ruler responded, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

And when Jesus saw that he became very sorrowful, He said, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And those who heard it said, “Who then can be saved?”

But Jesus said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Then Peter said, “See, we have left all and followed You.” So He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

A “blessed life” is not because one chooses for himself/herself ,or both, what satisfies them, what they work for in their fleshly goal, fulfilling it and feeling ‘rewarded’ – personal ambition takes precedent over the eternal purpose of God and they miss out on eternal blessings through Christ only; self-determined, fleshly plans, goals, ambitions super-cede the eternal will of God “in Christ”; and spiritual self-centeredness -making one’s self the “idol” before which they bow, worship, and consent , without any awareness of serious consequences-, is the establishment of a fleshly altar before which they “bow” to worship their ‘self-realization’!

It was Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in her “The Poetical Works Of Elizabeth Barrett Browning”, (From 1826-1844, J.E.Beale Book Department, The Fancy Fair, Bournemouth, Eng.,p76), who began “The Soul’s Travelling” saying: “I dwell amid the city, the great humanity which beats its life along the stony streets, Like an unsunned river In a self-made course, is ever Rolling on, Rolling on!,” saying a little later: “I dwell amid the city, and hear the flow of souls! I do not hear the several contraries – I do not hear the separate tone that rolls in act or speech, For pomp or trade, for merrymake or folly – I hear the confluence and sum of each, And that is melancholy! – The voice is a complaint, O crowned city, The blue sky covering you, like God’s great pity!’”

The prophet Isaiah was given by God a glance of Holy God’s judgment on the nation of Israel and the holy city’s destruction in 70AD, and I believe a warning to every human being between then and now,(Isaiah 5:30),“In that day they will roar against them like the roaring of a sea. And if one looks to the land, BEHOLD, darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened by clouds.” And if you are unsure about God’s fulfillment of judgment upon lives, cities, states, or nations, examine what Jesus had to say in Luke 21: 20-28!

But Holy God does not leave His children of faith hopeless in the midst of a faithless, rebellious people, whether family or friends, states or nations! In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Paul wrote: “But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

For when they say, “Peace and safety!”,(while doing their own thing!), then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. AND THEY (who do their own thing without the Savior!) SHALL NOT ESCAPE ( OR AVOID GOD”S JUDGMENT)! But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day (Day of the Lord & His presence and governing and watchcare over us?) be sober (serious-minded), putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.

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

But for many who live without redemptive, saving faith in the victorious work of Christ at the Cross and beyond His empty tomb, there is the sad reality of many who “choose” to ignore “saving grace and mercy” and are ‘self-determined’ to ‘rescue’ and ‘save themselves’!

But then there are those who have, not an ounce, of fleshly hope in themselves at all, and cannot even see in the fleshly successful of our modern-day world any example of ‘better, fleshly living’, but at the same time remain deaf to our Lord’s entreaty, “Come to Me, and I’ll give you rest!”

In contemplating this teaching of “Irresponsible Impregnation Or Sovereign Selection?”, a few words of distraught souls who ignore His holy plea and invitation to be birthed “In the Spirit”. I wrote: “The rich man has a tower, the politician has power, the beauty has an orchid-flower, but I only cower.

No life, no hope, no talent, no gift, no rope – just a helpless, hopeless feeling of no purpose on earth. Stars shine even in the darkest night, for some, while others feel there is no hope, and respond: “Just not right!”

Eyes on their circumstances, selfish will clamoring to change their surroundings, but no looking up to the God who made them, and no desire for Him to ‘save’ them.

In Mary and Joseph’s day, “No room at the inn,” before Jesus was born. But in this modern-day, no room for Jesus in “my world of scorn!”

“Deny yourself”, was that Jesus’ call? So why should I do what He says at all? Master of my own destiny, owner of my own home – it’s ‘my will, my way,’ not Jesus at all!

Unteachable minds, darkened hearts, self-centered wills, for just a start, in explaining the blindness and pain of men’s hearts who have no desire to be reconciled but willing to live apart.

No desire for reconciliation, no sorrow over separation, no sadness of incoherence of His divine intent – “just leave me to myself and all my flesh invents!”

In the ‘lust of self-vindication’ men willingly attack or just ignore the “love of His vibrant manifestation” – but devotion to their ‘sad sweet selves’ takes precedence over His INTERCESSION!

So easily ignoring divine revelation and spoofing the Truth of Jesus’ crucifixion, men will try to debunk His ‘holy-blood sacrifice’, willingly choosing to assert their “all-rightness”.

But the day will soon come when sinful sorrows will be multiplied as they traded away God for ‘flesh’ and a ‘sin-nature’ as the companions of their side – “No Savior for me as I ‘save’ myself, enjoying my walk in a fool’s paradise’!”

You are aware that though many rebel and talk about their “peace and safety”, the day is coming when before Holy God they’ll have to stand with an explanation of their spiritual stupidity! But, let me shift gears from God saying “I called, but you refused” to Jesus saying, in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

“Come to Me!” Don’t YOU find it so interesting that unredeemed men and women, even boys and girls, have their sights, souls, intents, desires, and passionate longings on everything and anything except God’s eternal intent for willful sons and daughters, birthed in His ultimate intent spiritually to be vessels of His Holy Presence, temples of His resident-ministry, and extensions of His passionate longing to “draw” all mankind unto Himself through them?

It’s so eternally life-changing when one hears, receives, and walks in what Jesus said in John 14:6! “I AM THE WAY, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” True salvation, true redemption, true reconciliation to Holy God, true service, at His bidding, is only by “Christ in you the hope of glory.”

In 2 Corinthians 1:9 Paul wrote, revealing God’s eternal intent for true disciples “in Christ”: “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that WE SHOULD NOT TRUST IN OURSELVES but in God who raises the dead…”! And, no doubt, this is why Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31, “I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I DIE DAILY.” If Christ Jesus intended to be Himself in us, then why do men attempt to imitate Him rather than be dead to one’s self, allowing His Resurrection to be manifested in them and through them?

Do you believe this is why we read in 2 Corinthians 4:10-12 the following true plan of loving God for our lives as His ‘temples’ in which He dwells? Paul said: “always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life (fleshly life) in you.” Paul was intent on maturing ‘messy diaper babies’ into sons and daughters of true faith who die to themselves daily that His Resurrection Life may be manifested in and through their mortal flesh!

This just may be why we read early in the Old Testament writings, Genesis 24:26-27, of the man who said: “Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on (or in) the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.” And, IF JESUS IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE, then why do we assume He lauds our ‘best efforts’ when in reality, He weeps?!?

Did Jesus come to heighten your darkness or to bring you “Light”? Did Jesus come to improve or transform? Did Jesus come to ‘alarm’ or to say, ‘Be not afraid’? Did Jesus come to adapt ‘religious people and unbelievers’ to a plateau of ‘self-acceptance’ or to crucify you and your old sin nature with Him on the Cross? Did He come to affirm your best intentions or to atone for blackened hearts, selfish wills, and godless minds?

Did Jesus come to let you know, though clouds may surround you, in Him the Bright Son-Light of God’s love for you can be affirmed in your heart and mind by His ever-abiding, Spirit-raised, resurrection Presence in a redeemed heart and mind? Did Jesus come to assure us that even if sorrow or sadness befall us, in Him it will not stall us in complacency, doubt, or fear, but will be our reminder, “I’ll never you nor forsake you!”?!?

I find it so encouraging, so enlightening, so uplifting to read and absorb that early prayer of Christ Jesus as He sought to equip His early disciples and those to come when in Matthew 6:9-10 and Verse 13 He taught them “In this manner, therefore pray: “Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” with the strong plea of Verse 13, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen (Or “so be it!”), and you have to ask: “Are ‘Christians’ today discipled to live under the King’s rule, His leadership, His heavenly desire for their earthly ministries?”

Do we say daily, just as the Genesis 24 man stated, “I being in the way, the Lord led me..”? Do we say with Paul as he stated in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified WITH CHRIST; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Verse 21, I do not set aside the grace of God”, relying on my “grit” and “self-will, self-determination, or self-pleasure”? NO! We take the sentence of death unto ourselves daily that the resurrection Presence of Christ may be manifested, released, and extended through our mortal flesh!

This is why Paul declared in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation…

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He (God) made Him (Christ Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that WE MIGHT BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM.”

Discipleship in Christ is not the best of human effort or the best of fleshly adornment and improvement, but the reality of “new creations” through Christ Jesus’ BLOOD ATONEMENT!

There’s an old hymn in “The American Hymnal,” published by The Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee, copyrighted in 1933! The hymn is entitled “Crimson Calvary Answers, “No!”, written by W.T.Dale and B.B. McKinney. It says:

“Shall I be condemned forever, I I to the Lord draw near; If I sue for peace and pardon, Will He deign to hear my prayer? Will He scorn my deep contrition, Will He not His grace bestow? Will He scorn my heart’s petition? Crimson Calvary answers “No!”

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

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

While upon the cross He suffered, Jesus prayed with dying breath, “Father, oh, forgive them,” cried He, “Save them from eternal death;” Am I worse than those who mocked Him, And who pierced Him long ago, Have I passed beyond His mercy? Crimson Calvary answers, “No!”

The chorus then says: On the cross the blessed Savior Paid the sin price long ago; All who will on Him believe, Full redemption shall receive, For the blood of Jesus cleanses Whiter than driven snow.”

Ephesians 1: 7-8 declares: “In Him (in Christ Jesus) we have REDEMPTION through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence..”! Redemption! Forgiveness of sin and the sin nature crucified with Him!

Reconciliation! That’s reconciled to God and “adopted” as sons and daughters of God by Jesus Christ! But hear me! One of the most thrilling truths of having been reconciled to God is: If YOU are a “born-again” child of God, it is because Holy God choice you and called you to Himself! In John 15:16 the Lord Jesus said: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you,” saying in Verse 19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not (any longer) of the world, but I CHOSE YOU out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

Self-chosen, self-appointed, self-determined ‘service’ (?) in the name of Jesus is so opposite of Genesis 22:3 where the Word tells us: “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey…and arose and went to the place of which God had told him,” obedience to the call, faithful in the divine ministry, intimacy based on faithful, personal response in His eternal purposes!

In 2 Timothy 1:8b-11 Paul testifies, edifies, and instructs true “disciples of Jesus”: “…share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and CALLED US WITH A HOLY CALLING, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.” And if Jesus redeemed You, reconciled YOU to Holy God, and set YOU apart as a chosen son or daughter of the true faith, please understand, it’s not what YOU choose and select for your ‘witness’ but what He gifts you to be and to do for His honor and glory! One thing you need to reflect upon! Jesus said: “I didn’t come to be served, but to serve and to give My life a ransom for many!”

And the called, the chosen, the gifted, the assigned, are those “born again” and set aside by the Lord Jesus as His ambassadors in our troubled world! We aren’t redeemed to do what we selfishly want to do in His kingdom, but to respond obediently to His gifting, His leading, yes, His directive for your life of ministry and service to the King of kings and the Lord of lords!

Since it’s mid-December, 2016, just prior to the “Christ-mas Celebration” and reminder, receive Adolf Adam’s, “O Holy Night,” from the old American Hymnal”! It says: “O holy night; the stars are brightly shining; It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth; Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Till He appeared, and the soul felt His worth;

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and cloudless morn! Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices, O night divine! O night when Christ was born! O night divine! O night, O night divine!

Led by the light Of faith serenely beaming; With glowing hearts by His cradle to stand; Led by the light of the star, so brightly gleaming, Here came the wise men from Orient land;

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and cloudless morn! Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices, O night divine! O night when Christ was born! O night divine! O night, O night divine!” Jesus has come!