OR CHRIST’S RE-BORN DISCIPLES?”

Examine our vast world of population explosion on every continent and every nation of the vast world and their divided allegiances between the ‘kingdom of darkness’ and Christ’s “Kingdom of Light”! There ARE those deceived who believe in the reality of “mixed blessings”, assuming: “I’m devoted to Christ, but I enjoy and am excited by, at times, my ‘fleshly indulgences’. You see, I think God understands that one can have the best of both worlds.” Really?

It’s so illuminating and convicting and convincing about one’s choosing to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and His passions OR, though ‘believing’, to find one’s self “deceived by the powers of darkness”!

In Joshua 24:14-15 we read of Joshua challenging his people, Israel, who’d been in bondage but by the grace of God had been freed. Joshua said: “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and ‘put away the gods which your fathers served’ on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seeks evil to you to serve the Lord, CHOOSE FOR YOURSELVES THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”

But, you are aware that there are some ‘religious zealots’ who serve Satan thinking they’re servants of Christ! In 2 Peter 2:12-22 Peter enlightens servants of Christ, if they want to be, exposing the “pretenders” who are “presumptuous, and self-willed”! He said of them: “But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed (which they will be before the judgment seat of Christ!), 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. (Of course, some prefer the “darkness”!). They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions WHILE THEY FEAST WITH YOU (the true believers!), having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and ARE ACCURSED CHILDREN. They HAVE FORSAKEN THE RIGHT WAY AND GONE ASTRAY, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. (That’s a shocker isn’t it? Peter mentions “the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error”, becoming prime targets of Satan and the powers of darkness!). 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. (Do you understand that? Satan has deceived, blinded, equipped and trained those who, yes, were given liberty, but he makes them slaves of corruption!).

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. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and ‘a sow having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’.” WOW!

Do you remember what Paul wrote to Titus? In Titus 3:3-7 lay hold of both ‘fleshly deceit’ OR “the kindness and the love of God”! Paul said: “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived,( by whom? Satan and his equipped ‘deceivers’?), serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. BUT when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Once known sinners were ‘foolish’, once they walked in disobedience, deceived by Satan, indulging in various lusts and pleasures, easily angered, easily hateful, but then, “I got saved and baptized, joined the church, enjoying the ‘fellowship’, as I do as I please spiritually or fleshly,” strongly suggesting they are under the influence of the powers of darkness!

The saddest thing I could ever imagine is a man who is born a sinner and continues under the Hell-inspired head of darkness, Satan, but “believes in Jesus” in the best of ‘head knowledge’, and not understanding Christ Jesus is his Savior, his Healer, and Emancipator from the rule and darkness of Satan! How many have you encountered who just ‘sit and watch’ as the world Christ died for becomes consigned to Hell because they “played the game of both worlds,” the kingdom of Satan and The Eternal Kingdom of the Resurrected, Reigning Christ?

The Holy Word is fully aware of how Satan sought to influence Job adversely saying to God, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing?…but You, God, stretch out Your hand and touch all that Job has, and he’ll surely curse You to Your face!” And God allowed Satan to take on all Job had but not to lay a hand on his person! Satan stripped Job, and Job’s wife wanted him to “Curse God and die! But Job responded, to her, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” And the Holy Word then says: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

Thank God for men like Paul who stood strong against ‘disciples of Christ’ with tendencies of walking both sides of the street of faith And disobedience! I don’t think Colossians 1 is an encouragement in one’s accepting Christ that what your old life was without Him is acceptable as you walk with Him in the Spirit-realm now! Colossians 1:18-23, and Verses 26-28, IS a powerful Word about “Striving according to His (God in Christ!) working which works in me mightily” so Paul wouldn’t be a “split-personality servant” of Christ and Satan! He said: Colossians 1:18-23 first: “And He (Christ Jesus) 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.

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Get ready!!).

And YOU, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight – IF INDEED you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached (Is that message “Christ in you the HOPE OF GLORY”? You’ll see it in a few seconds!) to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” [Did Paul mention those who were “alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked works” – but you don’t, won’t, or can’t see Satan as the author of the “Book of revolt against God’s plan” with his desire to use slaves of darkness to build his kingdom of darkness with his darkened help?].

Now: Verses 26-28 of Colossians 1! “…the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

And Satan’s realm, not only in Hell, in the world at large, but even in some churches or denominations that flourish on “Christian activities” but fail miserably in revealing “The Indwelling Christ”, because they don’t like: “dying daily that Christ may be exalted through us; it just doesn’t measure up to OUR ‘religious understanding’!”

I love what Dr. Charles Stanley wrote in his book entitled, “When The Enemy Strikes”. There was a section in his book, (p.200), entitled “Be Bold In Your Testimony About Jesus”. He said: “Your testimony is not based upon what you believe, what you have done, or what you are doing. Your testimony is based upon who Jesus is in your life, what He has done on your behalf, and what He desires to do in you, in your family, and through you and your family to others in your community.

When you hear a lie being told by a family member, speak the truth of God’s Word. When you hear statements of doubt about God’s love or about God’s provision, speak the truth of God’s Word.

When you hear a family member take the Lord’s name in vain, speak the truth about who Jesus is, who God is, and who the Holy Spirit is. [And I say, JFF, be sure your identify Satan’s activities as, yes, he seeks to destroy your marriage, your family, and your witness!].

Don’t allow yourself to become comfortable with “just a little sin” in your family. A little arsenic spoils a plate of food – a little cyanide poisons a large body of water. (And I,JFF, say: “Be careful when Satan seeks to poison the waters of your family’s faith by denying Biblical Truth, even truth about the devil and demons!). Sin is deadly. It pollutes and infects and destroys. (So does Satan’s lies!). Don’t develop a tolerance for any amount of it in your life or the lives of loved ones.

If you allow yourself to be comfortable with sin (Or Satanic deception!), you soon will begin to defend the presence of sin (and you’ll even find yourself defending Satanic demonology!) – to justify it and to give place to it. Deal with those issues that underlie a person’s willingness to commit sin or to act in rebellion.” [Or to “give place to the devil through YOU!”].

There is SATANIC ACTIVISM, Satanic temptations, Satanic enticements, Satanic traps, like for animals, hoping you’re open to his “hook and lure”, Satanic horns that blow loud verses of fleshly pleasures with “death” as its final verse or chorus, there is Satanic invitations out to get one voluntarily rejecting “Holy Truth” because it lies “about what your flesh should enjoy”, there is Satanic deception about you, about self-interest, about ‘self-preservation and self’s indulgences, about the validity of ‘human nature’ as the center of its own universe ruled by “what my flesh tells me – I’m my own man”, with no consideration at all why God made you!

It was Martin Luther, in his writing “Table Talk,” who wrote: “The Devil has two manner of shapes or forms, wherein he disguises himself; he either appears in the shape of a serpent, to affright and kill; or else in the form of a silly sheep, to lie and deceive; these are his two court colors.”

And, consider: “Where does ‘not according to Christ’ come from?” If one reads Paul in Colossians 2:8 saying, “BEWARE lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ,” but I add, “The traditions of men in their personal philosophies and empty deceits and principles of the world were and are authored by Satan himself – from Satan himself: ‘Anything goes, but not God’s Truth, and it’s OK to “exchange the truth of God for the LIE because you can sin and not die!”

Satan will not speak the TRUTH either, and if, as he has, convinced ALL they can sin and not die, exchanging the truth of God for Satan’s lie, Paul says in Romans 1, Verse 21b, men become futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts are darkened, or Verse 22-23, men profess to be wise, but become fools, substituting the glory of the incorruptible God into images made like corruptible man, or Verse 24, God gives them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, exchanging the truth of God for the “Lie”, or, Verse 26, receiving Satan’s lies, “God gives them up to vile passions,” or Verse 28, “God gives them over to (Satan’s version) – a debased mind, to do those things WHICH ARE NOT FITTING;

Verses 29-32, “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 (except still ‘loving their flesh & old sin natures’!), 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.”

BUT, don’t ever forget, overlook, or take lightly Colossians 1:19-20, which I’ve already highlighted for you, but I sense after shocking you with Satan’s premier practices, you need to be reminded of Colossians 1:19-20!! Paul wrote, inspired by the Holy Spirit, “For it pleased the Father that in Christ Jesus all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to RECONCILE all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having MADE PEACE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST’S CROSS.” Have you ever been to Calvary’s mountain? It was there Christ Jesus “put to death the body of the sins of your flesh,” and according to Colossians 2:13-15, (Get ready to sing the “Hallelujah Chorus”!), “And YOU, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh (or old sin nature!), He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers (including Satan’s chains binding your Christless life?), He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

And, if that is true, and it is Eternally True, “if YOU died with Christ” and “died with Him from the basic principles of the world, including Satan’s kingdom of darkness”, why, as though living in the world to the glory of God, do you give Satan inches, feet, yards, or miles on the property of your life “blood bought” by the very blood of the Lamb of God?

This is why in Colossians 3:1-4 Paul exposes some and encourages others who live by His enlightment: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died (Did YOU?), and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears (or is unveiled in us!), then you also will appear with Him,( unveiling ) in glory!” AMEN?

OR CHRIST’S RE-BORN DISCIPLES?”

Examine our vast world of population explosion on every continent and every nation of the vast world and their divided allegiances between the ‘kingdom of darkness’ and Christ’s “Kingdom of Light”! There ARE those deceived who believe in the reality of “mixed blessings”, assuming: “I’m devoted to Christ, but I enjoy and am excited by, at times, my ‘fleshly indulgences’. You see, I think God understands that one can have the best of both worlds.” Really?

It’s so illuminating and convicting and convincing about one’s choosing to serve the Lord Jesus Christ and His passions OR, though ‘believing’, to find one’s self “deceived by the powers of darkness”!

In Joshua 24:14-15 we read of Joshua challenging his people, Israel, who’d been in bondage but by the grace of God had been freed. Joshua said: “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and ‘put away the gods which your fathers served’ on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seeks evil to you to serve the Lord, CHOOSE FOR YOURSELVES THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, WE WILL SERVE THE LORD.”

But, you are aware that there are some ‘religious zealots’ who serve Satan thinking they’re servants of Christ! In 2 Peter 2:12-22 Peter enlightens servants of Christ, if they want to be, exposing the “pretenders” who are “presumptuous, and self-willed”! He said of them: “But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed (which they will be before the judgment seat of Christ!), 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. (Of course, some prefer the “darkness”!). They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions WHILE THEY FEAST WITH YOU (the true believers!), having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and ARE ACCURSED CHILDREN. They HAVE FORSAKEN THE RIGHT WAY AND GONE ASTRAY, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. (That’s a shocker isn’t it? Peter mentions “the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error”, becoming prime targets of Satan and the powers of darkness!). 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. (Do you understand that? Satan has deceived, blinded, equipped and trained those who, yes, were given liberty, but he makes them slaves of corruption!).

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. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: ‘A dog returns to his own vomit,’ and ‘a sow having washed, to her wallowing in the mire’.” WOW!

Do you remember what Paul wrote to Titus? In Titus 3:3-7 lay hold of both ‘fleshly deceit’ OR “the kindness and the love of God”! Paul said: “For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived,( by whom? Satan and his equipped ‘deceivers’?), serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. BUT when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Once known sinners were ‘foolish’, once they walked in disobedience, deceived by Satan, indulging in various lusts and pleasures, easily angered, easily hateful, but then, “I got saved and baptized, joined the church, enjoying the ‘fellowship’, as I do as I please spiritually or fleshly,” strongly suggesting they are under the influence of the powers of darkness!

The saddest thing I could ever imagine is a man who is born a sinner and continues under the Hell-inspired head of darkness, Satan, but “believes in Jesus” in the best of ‘head knowledge’, and not understanding Christ Jesus is his Savior, his Healer, and Emancipator from the rule and darkness of Satan! How many have you encountered who just ‘sit and watch’ as the world Christ died for becomes consigned to Hell because they “played the game of both worlds,” the kingdom of Satan and The Eternal Kingdom of the Resurrected, Reigning Christ?

The Holy Word is fully aware of how Satan sought to influence Job adversely saying to God, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing?…but You, God, stretch out Your hand and touch all that Job has, and he’ll surely curse You to Your face!” And God allowed Satan to take on all Job had but not to lay a hand on his person! Satan stripped Job, and Job’s wife wanted him to “Curse God and die! But Job responded, to her, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” And the Holy Word then says: “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

Thank God for men like Paul who stood strong against ‘disciples of Christ’ with tendencies of walking both sides of the street of faith And disobedience! I don’t think Colossians 1 is an encouragement in one’s accepting Christ that what your old life was without Him is acceptable as you walk with Him in the Spirit-realm now! Colossians 1:18-23, and Verses 26-28, IS a powerful Word about “Striving according to His (God in Christ!) working which works in me mightily” so Paul wouldn’t be a “split-personality servant” of Christ and Satan! He said: Colossians 1:18-23 first: “And He (Christ Jesus) 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.

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (Get ready!!).

And YOU, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight – IF INDEED you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached (Is that message “Christ in you the HOPE OF GLORY”? You’ll see it in a few seconds!) to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” [Did Paul mention those who were “alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked works” – but you don’t, won’t, or can’t see Satan as the author of the “Book of revolt against God’s plan” with his desire to use slaves of darkness to build his kingdom of darkness with his darkened help?].

Now: Verses 26-28 of Colossians 1! “…the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: WHICH IS CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

And Satan’s realm, not only in Hell, in the world at large, but even in some churches or denominations that flourish on “Christian activities” but fail miserably in revealing “The Indwelling Christ”, because they don’t like: “dying daily that Christ may be exalted through us; it just doesn’t measure up to OUR ‘religious understanding’!”

I love what Dr. Charles Stanley wrote in his book entitled, “When The Enemy Strikes”. There was a section in his book, (p.200), entitled “Be Bold In Your Testimony About Jesus”. He said: “Your testimony is not based upon what you believe, what you have done, or what you are doing. Your testimony is based upon who Jesus is in your life, what He has done on your behalf, and what He desires to do in you, in your family, and through you and your family to others in your community.

When you hear a lie being told by a family member, speak the truth of God’s Word. When you hear statements of doubt about God’s love or about God’s provision, speak the truth of God’s Word.

When you hear a family member take the Lord’s name in vain, speak the truth about who Jesus is, who God is, and who the Holy Spirit is. [And I say, JFF, be sure your identify Satan’s activities as, yes, he seeks to destroy your marriage, your family, and your witness!].

Don’t allow yourself to become comfortable with “just a little sin” in your family. A little arsenic spoils a plate of food – a little cyanide poisons a large body of water. (And I,JFF, say: “Be careful when Satan seeks to poison the waters of your family’s faith by denying Biblical Truth, even truth about the devil and demons!). Sin is deadly. It pollutes and infects and destroys. (So does Satan’s lies!). Don’t develop a tolerance for any amount of it in your life or the lives of loved ones.

If you allow yourself to be comfortable with sin (Or Satanic deception!), you soon will begin to defend the presence of sin (and you’ll even find yourself defending Satanic demonology!) – to justify it and to give place to it. Deal with those issues that underlie a person’s willingness to commit sin or to act in rebellion.” [Or to “give place to the devil through YOU!”].

There is SATANIC ACTIVISM, Satanic temptations, Satanic enticements, Satanic traps, like for animals, hoping you’re open to his “hook and lure”, Satanic horns that blow loud verses of fleshly pleasures with “death” as its final verse or chorus, there is Satanic invitations out to get one voluntarily rejecting “Holy Truth” because it lies “about what your flesh should enjoy”, there is Satanic deception about you, about self-interest, about ‘self-preservation and self’s indulgences, about the validity of ‘human nature’ as the center of its own universe ruled by “what my flesh tells me – I’m my own man”, with no consideration at all why God made you!

It was Martin Luther, in his writing “Table Talk,” who wrote: “The Devil has two manner of shapes or forms, wherein he disguises himself; he either appears in the shape of a serpent, to affright and kill; or else in the form of a silly sheep, to lie and deceive; these are his two court colors.”

And, consider: “Where does ‘not according to Christ’ come from?” If one reads Paul in Colossians 2:8 saying, “BEWARE lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ,” but I add, “The traditions of men in their personal philosophies and empty deceits and principles of the world were and are authored by Satan himself – from Satan himself: ‘Anything goes, but not God’s Truth, and it’s OK to “exchange the truth of God for the LIE because you can sin and not die!”

Satan will not speak the TRUTH either, and if, as he has, convinced ALL they can sin and not die, exchanging the truth of God for Satan’s lie, Paul says in Romans 1, Verse 21b, men become futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts are darkened, or Verse 22-23, men profess to be wise, but become fools, substituting the glory of the incorruptible God into images made like corruptible man, or Verse 24, God gives them up to uncleanness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, exchanging the truth of God for the “Lie”, or, Verse 26, receiving Satan’s lies, “God gives them up to vile passions,” or Verse 28, “God gives them over to (Satan’s version) – a debased mind, to do those things WHICH ARE NOT FITTING;

Verses 29-32, “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 (except still ‘loving their flesh & old sin natures’!), 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.”

BUT, don’t ever forget, overlook, or take lightly Colossians 1:19-20, which I’ve already highlighted for you, but I sense after shocking you with Satan’s premier practices, you need to be reminded of Colossians 1:19-20!! Paul wrote, inspired by the Holy Spirit, “For it pleased the Father that in Christ Jesus all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to RECONCILE all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having MADE PEACE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST’S CROSS.” Have you ever been to Calvary’s mountain? It was there Christ Jesus “put to death the body of the sins of your flesh,” and according to Colossians 2:13-15, (Get ready to sing the “Hallelujah Chorus”!), “And YOU, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh (or old sin nature!), He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers (including Satan’s chains binding your Christless life?), He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

And, if that is true, and it is Eternally True, “if YOU died with Christ” and “died with Him from the basic principles of the world, including Satan’s kingdom of darkness”, why, as though living in the world to the glory of God, do you give Satan inches, feet, yards, or miles on the property of your life “blood bought” by the very blood of the Lamb of God?

This is why in Colossians 3:1-4 Paul exposes some and encourages others who live by His enlightment: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died (Did YOU?), and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears (or is unveiled in us!), then you also will appear with Him,( unveiling ) in glory!” AMEN?

BY:J.FARRELL FISHER, MAY 2-3, 2019

THE PSALMIST, IN PSALM 111, WAS,(YES), INSPIRED TO WRITE, VERSE 5, “GOD HAS GIVEN MEAT UNTO THEM THAT FEAR HIM: HE WILL EVER BE MINDFUL OF HIS COVENANT.” BUT ‘ILLOGICAL DEBATERS’, STRONGLY ‘POISONED’ BY ‘GOD-RESENTERS’ ACCEPT ‘LESSONS’ (?) FROM THE ‘FLESH OR SIN-NATURED’ MEN OR WOMEN, WHO RATHER THAN “TRUST GOD” WHO BIRTHED MANKIND WITH THE CHOICE FOR THEIR LIFE’S JOURNEY TURN INWARD & AROUND BUT NOT TO GOD, WHO,YES,EVEN THOUGH HE “KNOCKS”, AND THEY REFUSE TO OPEN THE HEART’S DOOR BECAUSE THEY ‘LOVE’ “FLESH” NOT SPIRIT, LOVING A “LOST WORLD’S RESENTMENT OF DEVOTION TO GOD”,SO, “GUIDED BY ‘HEART-DEAD, MIND-BLINDED’, AND WARPED WILLS DECEIVED BY SATAN HIMSELF”, THERE WILL BE THOSE WHO FOOLISHLY CHOOSE TO REMAIN SEPARATED FROM GOD, UNDER SATAN’S DOMINATION, BLINDED BY ‘A FOOLISH LOST-WORLD MENTALITY’, UNAWARE THEY’VE CHOSEN ‘ILLOGICAL, NATURAL,DEMONIC,AND ‘HELLISH’ INSIGHT THAT LEAVES MERCIFUL, LOVING, GRACIOUS, CARING GOD & HIS WILL, WORD, & WAYS OUT OF THEIR LIVES, SO THEY “CHOOSE” THE WORLD’S GODLESS SPIRIT, THE SIN-NATURE’S DEPRAVITY, AND SATAN’S BLINDNESS!!

“ILLOGICAL DEBATERS” ARE OFTEN BLINDED BY AN INNER ‘ATTITUDE’, STRONG BUT WEAK AND DEFENSELESS, THAT, “UNABLE TO DO ANYTHING BUT SIN”, THEY LIVE HOLDING ONTO, ‘IN SOME’, A “WILDER-LESS”, “WONDER-LESS”, “WISDOM-LESS”, “WITNESS-LESS” ATTITUDE THAT EVEN ‘BELIEVERS’ (?) WHO CALL THEMSELVES ‘DISCIPLES OF CHRIST’, CAN’T DO ANYTHING BUT SIN SINCE ‘BEING SAVED’ (?), THOUGH JESUS TOLD HIS THE MAN IN THE TEMPLE THAT HE HEALED, JOHN 5:14, “BEHOLD, YOU ARE MADE WHOLE:SIN NO MORE, LEST A WORSE THING COME UPON YOU.”

“ILLOGICAL DEBATERS”? IN TITUS 3:2-11 PAUL STOUTLY AND WISELY WROTE: “TO SPEAK EVIL OF NO MAN, TO BE NO BRAWLERS, BUT GENTLE, SHOWING ALL MEEKNESS UNTO ALL MEN.

FOR WE OURSELVES ALSO WERE SOMETIMES FOOLISH,DISOBEDIENT,DECEIVED,SERVING DIVERS LUSTS AND PLEASURES, LIVING IN MALICE AND ENVY, HATEFUL, AND HATING ONE ANOTHER. BUT AFTER THAT THE KINDNESS AND LOVE OF GOD OUR SAVIOR TOWARD MAN APPEARED, NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH WE HAVE DONE, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US, BY THE WASHING OF REGENERATION, AND RENEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST;

WHICH HE SHED ON US ABUNDANTLY THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOR; THAT BEING JUSTIFIED BY HIS GRACE (JUSTIFIED? “JUST-AS-IF-WE’D-NEVER-SINNED!”), WE SHOULD BE MADE HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE.

THICH IS A FAITHFUL SAYING, AND THESE THINGS I WILL THAT YOU AFFIRM CONSTANTLY, THAT THEY WHICH HAVE BELIEVED IN GOD MIGHT BE CAREFUL TO MAINTAIN GOOD WORKS, THESE THINGS ARE GOOD AND PROFITABLE UNTO MEN. BUT AVOID FOOLISH QUESTIONS, AND GENEALOGIES, AND CONTENTIONS, AND STRIVINGS ABOUT THE LAW; FOR THEY ARE UNPROFITABLE AND VAIN.

A MAN THAT IS A HERETIC AFTER THE FIRST AND SECOND ADMONITION REJECT; KNOWING THAT HE THAT IS SUCH SUBVERTED, AND SINS, BEING CONDEMNED OF HIMSELF.” WHAT A POWERFUL, ENLIGHTENING, CONVICTING REVELATION OF THE HOLY WORD!!

“ILLOGICAL DEBATERS” ARE DESCRIBED IN PSALM 2:1-4! THE PSALMIST ASKS, “WHY DO THE HEATHEN RAGE, AND THE PEOPLE IMAGINE A VAIN THING? THE KINGS OF THE

EARTH SET THEMSELVES, AND THE RULERS TAKE COUNSEL TOGETHER, AGAINST THE LORD, AND AGAINST HIS ANOINTED, SAYING ‘LET US BREAK THEIR BANDS ASUNDER, AND CAST AWAY THEIR CORDS FROM US. HE THAT SITS IN THE HEAVENS SHALL LAUGH; THE LORD SHALL HAVE THEM IN DERISION. ( THAT WORD ‘DERISION’ MEANS, ‘RIDICULE’ OR ‘MOCKERY’!)

PLUS, IT’S SATAN HIMSELF & HIS DEMONIC WARRIORS THAT “PUT CORDS & BANDS” ON THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF ALL BIRTHED MANKIND WHO MUST RECEIVE CHRIST’S BLOOD REDEMPTION FOR THEM TO BE FREE FROM SATANIC BONDAGE!

BUT, IN THIS MOMENT, THIS TIME PERIOD OF YOUR LIFE, ARE YOU AN “ILLOGICAL DEBATER” OR ARE “YOU” A “CONVINCED,CONVERTED, CONSECRATED, CONFIRMED TRUE DISCIPLE OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST”? A VERY ENLIGHTENING VERSE IS FOUND IN HEBREWS 11:4! “BY FAITH ABEL OFFERED UNTO GOD A MORE EXCELLENT SACRIFICE THAN CAIN, BY WHICH HE OBTAINED WITNESS THAT HE WAS RIGHTEOUS, GOD TESTIFYING OF HIS GIFTS; AND BY IT BEING DEAD YET SPEAKS.” (A WITNESS THAT ‘CONTINUES’, EVEN AFTER ‘YOU’ DIED? “AMAZING GRACE”!!).

ARE “YOU” CONVINCED? AND “CONVINCED”, DO “YOU” ALLOW THE HOLY SPIRIT TO “CONVINCE” OTHERS THROUGH YOU? IN MATTHEW 10:19-20, JESUS TELLS US: “BUT WHEN THEY DELIVER YOU UP, TAKE NO THOUGHT HOW OR WHAT YOU SHALL SPEAK: FOR IT SHALL BE GIVING YOU IN THAT SAME HOUR WHAT YOU SHALL SPEAK. FOR IT IS NOT YOU THAT SPEAKS, BUT THE SPIRIT OF YOUR FATHER WHICH SPEAKS IN YOU (AND “THROUGH YOU”!).”

“CONVINCED” BECAUSE YOU “WERE CONVERTED”? IS THAT “BORN AGAIN”, GRACE-FILLED, SPIRIT-BIRTHED, SPIRIT-ENLIGHTENED, SPIRIT-CONFIRMED,SPIRIT-ANOINTED, SPIRIT-GUIDED, TO TOUCH YOUR WORLD WITH THE ETERNAL GOSPEL STORY OF GOD’S POWER TO SAVE OTHERS THROUGH YOU AS YOU LIFT UP THE MESSAGE OF “BLOOD REDEMPTION, RECONCILIATION, AND REACHING OUT THROUGH YOU WITH HIS AMAZING GRACE TO OTHERS?”

“CONVINCED”, “CONVERTED”, BUT ARE YOU “CONSECRATED”? IS THAT “SET APART”, AS ONE DISTINCTIVELY DIFFERENT BY THE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD, “BORN AGAIN”, A “NEW CREATION” NO LONGER ONLY UNTO ONE’S SELF, BUT “CAPTURED, CONVERTED, CONSECRATED, ONE BECOMES CHRIST’S “ROYAL AMBASSADOR”, COMMISSIONED BY CHRIST TO BE HIS WITNESS TO A WORLD THAT NEEDS TO BE RECONCILED TO GOD, REPENTING OF SIN AND SEPARATION FROM HIM, BUT THEN “SET APART” FOR THE UNVEILING OF THE GLORY, GRACE, AND MERCY OF GOD THROUGH YOU BECAUE OF THE RESURRECTED, REIGNING CHRIST WITHIN YOU!!

“CONVINCED,CONVERTED, CONSECRATED” – GOOD, EXCELLENT, GRACE-GIVEN – AND – “CONFIRMED” BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, EVIDENCED BY THE “FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT” MULTIPLYING IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU!

MARCUS M.WELLS, IN “THE AMERICAN HYMNAL”, PUBLISHED IN 1933, BY THE BROADMAN PRESS OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, (P.188),WROTE THE HYMN, “HOLY SPIRIT, FAITHFUL GUIDE”. IT SAYS: “HOLY SPIRIT, FAITHFUL GUIDE, EVER NEAR THE CHRISTIAN’S SIDE; GENTLY LEAD US BY THE HAND, PILGRIMS IN A DESERT LAND;

EVER PRESENT, TRUEST FRIEND, EVER NEAR YOUR AID TO LEND, LEAVE US NOT TO DOUBT AND FEAR, GROPING ON IN DARKNESS DREAR.

WHEN OUR DAYS OF TOIL SHALL CEASE, WAITING STILL FOR SWEET RELEASE, NOTHING LEFT BUT HEAVEN AND PRAYER, WONDERING IF OUR NAMES WERE THERE.

THEN JESUS SPEAKS! WHISPERING SOFTLY, ‘WANDERER, COME! FOLLOW ME, I’LL GUIDE YOU HOME!

WEARY SOULS FOREVER REJOICE, WHILE THEY HEAR THAT SWEETEST VOICE, WHEN THE STORMS ARE RAGING SORE, HEARTS GROW FAINT, AND HOPES GIVE O’ER,

WADING DEEP THE DISMAL FLOOD, PLEADING NAUGHT BUT JESUS’ BLOOD, THE SPIRIT SPEAKS, WHISPERING SOFTLY, “WAN DERER , COME! FOLLOW ME, I’LL GUIDE YOU HOME!”IS THE WORD, THE “TRUTH”, THE HOLY SPIRIT, YOUR GUIDE TO VICTORY OR IN “BEST EFFORT”, “FLESH-SPIRIT”, “SATAN-DECEIVED” ATTEMPTS TO BE ‘CHRIST-LIKE’, HAVE YOU “FALLEN AWAY” FROM THE FULLNESS OF THE BLESSING OF THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST?

HE IS THE “FULLNESS”, BUT YOU “TRIED” RATHER THAN “TRUSTED”? “ATTEMPTED” RATHER THAN “ATONED”? “SELF-EFFORT” RATHER THAN “BOUGHT WITH A PRICE”, ‘PAID FOR’ REDEMPTION BY THE SHED BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD BECAUSE “GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD”? IN WHOM WILL “YOU” STAND WITH BEFORE HOLY GOD AT HIS ETERNAL JUDGMENT SEAT WHEN YOUR DAY OF DEATH COMES?!?