“CRIMINALIZED FOR STANDING FOR THE TRUTH”!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By J. Farrell Fisher, July 9-11, 2017

Paul gives us holy, eternal, and life-changing truth when in 1 Corinthians 2:14 he wrote: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned,” even mentioning in 1 Corinthians 3:3 about those, in the Corinthian church, who “are carnal and behaving like mere men”!

How clear was Christ Jesus when in John 3:6 He said to Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,’ and that’s true of every natural man – and born of flesh, his greatest need is to be “born of the Spirit”!

As you study the Word of God, are you clear about why Christ Jesus “exposed” the religious Jews of His day? In John 8:31-44 is an unveiling of the “True seed” and those of Satan’s family loyalists! It says: The Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, “You will be made free.” Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin (present tense, continuous action!) is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

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

Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.”

Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father – God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from (or out of) God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

To be confronted by Christ Jesus is to have one’s heart and mind exposed to Truth, to the need of blood redemption, to the alternative of ‘life in Christ’ or death under Satan’s domination, or to “the desires of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do,” or to resurrection life, resurrection power, or resurrection hope!

If you continued in John 8:48-51, you’d discover your greatest hope! Then the Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?” Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; but I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. And I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death.”

“Never see death”? We all ‘see’ death, but Christ Jesus was saying that if anyone stands in His Word he’ll never be held in death’s bondage eternally but live in His life throughout eternity, and those who live without Him will be held eternally under Satan’s control in the death that never dies with all unbelievers! And dare I to say, “to live without Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior and Master of one’s life is to be bound by a hopeless and unfulfilling existence forever and ever”?

And one has to wonder: “Why the great chasm between ‘professing Christians (?)’ and true disciples, true followers, true sold-out-disciples?”

I was highly impressed and encouraged when I read in Dallas Willard’s book, “The Great Omission”, in his introduction, he satiated, “The governing assumption today, among professing Christians, is that we can be ‘Christians’ forever and never become disciples.” And he called it the Great Omission with Great Disparity flourishing, or, “Will they break out of churches to be His Church”? So, I would assume, one of the greatest needs across ‘modern-day’ church life is the necessity of re-instituting “making disciples”!

So, let’s examine, FIRST, in discovering YOUR greatest need: HAVE YOU TRULY BEEN RECONCILED TO GOD THROUGH THE GIFT OF CHRIST JESUS IN REPENTANCE TOWARD GOD AND TRUE FAITH IN CHRIST’S REDEMPTIVE WORK THROUGH HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION?

In 2 Corinthians 7:10 Paul tells us, “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.” Didn’t Jesus say in Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”?

My concern? Sometimes one’s grief about his circumstances and situations in life is but the shadow of God’s convicting presence apart from a true desire to be reconciled to God! But Isaiah 61:1-3 unveils a true repentant mind and heart! It says: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn,

To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

It was William Cowper who once wrote: “The path of sorrow, and that path alone, leads to the land where sorrow is unknown; no traveler ever reached that blessed abode who found not thorns or briers in his road.” And I would ask YOU, “Have you recognized, repented of, and seen the blood of the Lamb removing from you what separated you from Him? Is there, was there, sorrow in your heart when the Holy Spirit convicted you, if He did, of your sin and separation from Holy God?

It was Harriet Beecher Stow who many years ago wrote: [The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations, Fleming H. Revell Com., Westwood, N.J.], “Sorrow is divine. Sorrow is reigning on all the thrones of the universe, and the crown of all crowns has been one of thorns. There are many books that treat of the sympathy of sorrow, but only one that bids us glory in tribulation, and count it all joy when we fall into divers afflictions, that so we may be associated with that great fellowship of suffering of which the Incarnate Son of God is the head, and through which He is carrying a redemptive conflict to a glorious victory over evil. If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him.”

How familiar ARE YOU WITH THE Book of Lamentations? [But, of course, there are those who would say, “Old Testament truths have nothing to do with New Testament disciples,” but I would say, “These folks are far, far from the Truth!”]. You should read ALL of Lamentations, but let me share Lamentations 1:12-16!!

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Behold and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been brought upon me, which the Lord has inflicted in the day of His fierce anger.

From above He has sent fire into my bones, and it overpowered them; He has spread a net for my feet and turned me back; He has made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions was bound; they were woven together by His hands and thrust upon my neck. He made my strength fail; the Lord has delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.

The Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst; He has called an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord trampled as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. For these things I weep; my eye, my eye overflows with water; because the comforter, who should restore my life, is far from me; my children are desolate because the enemy prevailed.”

SECOND, HAS YOUR LIFE SITUATIONS BROUGHT YOU TO THE ETERNAL SITUATION OF EXAMINING YOURSELF, DETERMINING WHAT REALLY HAS YOUR HEART? I’m really sorry if the Word offends you, but YOU must examine what really has your heart! It’s as if some church folk today, and certainly those in and of the world, are convinced it’s their choice as to what rules and reigns in their own hearts!

And it was Oswald Chambers who once commented on either ‘selective affinity (that) dies’ or the ‘sanctified abandonment’ of lives that live in and through Christ only! [“My Utmost For His Highest,” p.120]. He said: “You cannot consecrate what is not yours; there is only one thing you can consecrate to God, and that is your right to yourself (Romans 12:1). If you will give God your right to yourself, He will make a holy experience out of you. God’s experiments always succeed. The one mark of a saint (One set apart to God’s glory!) is the moral originality which springs from abandonment to Jesus Christ. In the life of a saint there is this amazing wellspring of original life all the time; the Spirit of God is a well of water springing up, perennially fresh. The saint realizes that it is God Who engineers circumstances, consequently there is no whine, but a reckless abandon to Jesus.”

And the question of this very moment for you before Holy God is: Are you abandoned only to the glory of Christ alone or does ‘selective affinity’ rule and reign over you? What YOU face in your life’s pilgrimage up until now, have those ‘life experiences’ brought you to what or who has your heart?

THIRD, HAVING BEEN RECONCILED, HAVING DETERMINED WHO HAS YOUR HEART, AND NOW AS “THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS”, ARE YOU EXERCISING THROUGH GOD’S DIVINE POWER ALL AUTHORITY OVER THE THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO LIFE AND GODLINESS?

You do understand that in the ‘religious world’, including even your local church setting, that you will find some awareness or awakenings we all need to be alerted to! For example: There can be an inclination to without the appropriation of, there can be thoughtful considerations without transformation, there can be argumentation without acceptance by God, there can be theories of the mind religiously without Truth that transforms, and one can possess a ‘thirst’ but no desire for the “Living Water’!

In 2 Peter 1:1-11 Peter awakens us to the true righteous remnant! (And I’ll never forget Miss Bertha Smith, missionary to China most of her adult life, who said on an occasion, teaching in a church I pastored: “Probably 90-95% of the church pastors in America need to be “born again”!” I tell you, it scared Hell out of some pastors that day!) Peter wrote:

“To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, AS HIS DIVINE POWER HAS GIVEN TO US ALL THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO LIFE AND GODLINESS, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,

To virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

THEREFORE, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Our modern-day world, related to ‘Christian activity’, is faced with, I believe, three distinct choices that people everywhere can choose from: 1) Cultural Christianity (where a very significant number have chosen to live, 2) World religions, that number millions upon millions, or 3) Christ-Given Re-Birth! In fact, in John 3:3, Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” In the kingdom of God, King Jesus rules and reigns! Does He rule over, in, through your heart, mind, spirit, and body?

A spiritual evaluation? 1) Is there in you “undivided devotion”? Check Luke 14: 26! 2) Is there costly commitment? Check Luke 14:27! 3) Is there costly analysis? Check Luke 14:31! 4) Is there “awesome and full surrender? Luke 14:33!

Frank S. Mead wrote “The March of Eleven Men”. Listen with both mind and heart!! “James the brother of Jesus and James the son of Zebedee preach and are killed by mobs in Jerusalem; Matthew is slain on a sword in Ethiopia; Philip is hanged in Phrygia; Bartholomew flayed alive in Armenia. Andrew is crucified in Achaia, Thomas is run through with a lance in East India, Thaddeus is shot to death with arrows, a cross goes up in Persia for Simon the Zealot, and another in Rome for Peter. Matthias is beheaded; only John escapes a martyr’s grave.”

D.W.Whittle and May Whittle Moody wrote an old hymn entitled “Moment by Moment”. (The American Hymnal of 1933). 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, and never a groan, Never a teardrop and 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.”

In “Christ Ascended,” Michael Bruce wrote: “In every pang that rends the heart, The Man of Sorrows has a part.” He’s with you, He’s in you, He works through you!

Can you say that Christ Jesus is your “everlasting portion”, more than a friend or life, all along your ‘pilgrim journey’, but the Lord and Savior of your inner strength?

Can you say, “not for ease or worldly pleasure, not even for fame will your prayer be, but you’ll gladly toil, even suffer, if it gives glory and honor to Him”?

Can you say, “Lead me, if necessary through the vale of shadows, Just bear me over the fitful seas, Knowing the gate of life eternal, Open it wide, Lord, for You and me”?

In Ephesians 1:11-14 are powerful verses unveiling “our greatest needs” met and fulfilled in and through Christ alone! It says: “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise pf His glory.”

YOUR GREATEST NEED? To be reconciled to Holy God through Christ! To be forgiven because of His shed blood! To come into oneness with God through Christ, His ambassador and reconciler! To be made a part of the Holy Family as sons and daughters birthed by the Spirit of God! To understand and make yourself available to others as His messenger! To see the significance of being joined with the choir of angels and fellow family members singing in the heart daily the “Hallelujah Chorus” as a “born-again” song-bird of Saving Faith!

BY: J. Farrell Fisher, July 30, 2014

It’s really amazing when you come to John 8 and read about Jesus talking to those who “believed in Him.” Verses 31-48 says, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be made free?’”

Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you.

I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” They answered and said to Jesus, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.

But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father – God.”

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from [or ‘out-of’] God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell you the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words. Therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

Then the Jews answered Him and said to Him, “Do we not say rightly that You are a Samaritan and have a demon?”

“Liberty in Christ – A License to Sin?” You do understand that in a lot of churches across America today, and, yes, even the world, there are those who publicly teach and believe that “Christians” can’t do anything but sin until they get to heaven!

I just pray you hear Jesus for yourself saying, “I assure you that everyone who sins is a slave of sin.” He does sin and he keeps on sinning, he does sin and he keeps on sinning, he does sin and he keeps on sinning – that’s the nature of a man who has fallen away from God!

In 2 Peter 2 Peter has been illuminating “the danger of false teachers” as we read verses 12-22: “But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption,

and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.

They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; [Numbers 22]; but he was rebuked for his iniquity; a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of 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.’”

John 8:34? Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.”

Would you dare consider slavery and bondage to a government that spurns God Almighty? And yet, the majority of our world is enslaved to godless governments! Would you dare even look at or examine ‘religious traditions’ that have no relevance to revealed truth? Just think about those unreservedly committed to an Old Testament tradition that has already been fulfilled in the Resurrected Life of Christ!

Has ‘self-righteousness’ played a role in the bondage and slavery of men to themselves and what their ‘flesh’ dictates? Have you ever considered, thought about, entertained, dealt with the demonic bondage you’ve been a part of your whole life up until now? If you didn’t know it, Satan owns you and comes after you every day to fulfill his godless purposes!

In Job 1:6-22 we read: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” So Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”

And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house; and a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided them and took them away – indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!” While he was still speaking another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshipped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

You do realize, you know, that every individual without the Lord and Savior in their hearts and minds, belongs to Satan and the powers of darkness – they are enslaved, they’re bound with spiritual chains they can’t even see, and are imprisoned by him in a “slavish” state obeying the dictates of their ‘lord’ and ‘master’!

What about the real bondage and slavery to unbelief of the historic Christ and His able-ness to forgive you, set you free, and fulfill God’s eternal destiny of your life? Enslaved to godless governments, enslaved, yes, even to some religious traditions, to ‘self-righteousness,’ to demonic bondage: what did Jesus say in Mark 4:15? “The seed that fell on the hard path represents those who hear the message, but SATAN COMES AT ONCE AND TAKES IT AWAY FROM THEM.” Bondage then – bondage now!

In I Timothy 5:15 Paul spoke of some “professors” who had no true possession of the title deed of their lives to place in Jesus’ hands: “For some have already turned aside after Satan.”

In Isaiah 61:1-3 the prophet informs us of Sovereign God’s eternal plan as he speaks of the Coming Messiah: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Do you truly understand ‘liberty’ or ‘freedom’? Without a doubt it is the liberty and freedom to totally ignore God and make a mess of your life and surroundings with a sad eternal consequence or the liberty and freedom to let God in Christ Jesus to have His way in your life forever!

I found William Cowper’s statement to be so fundamentally true. He said: “To die for the truth is not to die merely for one’s faith or one’s country; it is to die for the world. Their blood shed is shed in confirmation of the noblest claim – the claim TO FEED UPON IMMORTAL TRUTH, TO WALK WITH GOD, AND BE DIVINELY FREE.”

And if you didn’t know, Satanic freedom is greater bondage and enslavement! But, (John 8:36), “So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.”

Liberty or liberated or liberation or freedom – tremendous words for every man regardless of his residence or rank! That relates to personal liberty, national liberty, or even marital liberty in the sense that mates don’t enslave but free a partner to become highest in God’s determination for a husband or a wife.

Liberty or freedom is best understood as a person who has truly been in bondage in his/her past but who now is no longer in the chains of relationships but free and certainly able to respond to God for every choice that one makes.

Liberty or freedom is clearly revealed as the defense of the freedom of discovery of who God intends that man/woman to be and intends for that man/woman to do what honors God the most through his/her life, even at the point of suffering, or sacrifice, or the choice of death to himself/herself in every circumstance or situation.

But you ask: “What is liberty?” It is the eternal license of Heaven to honor God in submission and obedience. Bondage comes when the sin nature reigns, disobedience is the constant of one’s life, and a phony license of satisfying one’s ‘flesh’ is a constant and even favored by the fallen majority.

I’m telling you without hesitation: one of the most God-honoring things a man can do is to shed his own blood in behalf of divine truth, in behalf of the all-out commitment to walk with God, and to exemplify freedom even as one is crucified for the faith!

Liberty in Christ overrules, let’s say, ‘freedom in America to determine one’s destiny’; there are literally millions in our nation who experience degrees of political freedom but are in total bondage concerning their sin natures and rebellion towards the God who made them, lost them,, and bought them with a price!

Divine freedom, spiritual liberty, is so far superior to one’s political freedom. In fact, for a true believer, a loving smile will even be extended to his executioner as his head is chopped off! That’s true freedom and heavenly liberty!

What did Isaiah say, again, in Isaiah 61:1? “He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed.”

Alexander Maclaren, in his “Expositions of Holy Scripture,” [Vol.10, John 1-10, p.349], said: “But when once you get to understand the depths of your own need, and the depths of your brother’s need, then nothing less than the Christ who died to solve the problem, insoluble else, of how to emancipate the soul and the world from the tyranny of sin, will be enough for you.”

John 8:36, “So of the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.” In Romans 6:15-18 we read: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slave whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that THOUGH YOU WERE SLAVES OF SIN, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. AND HAVING BEEN SET FREE FROM SIN, you became slaves of righteousness.”

There’s no greater word in the English language than the word “free” – and there’s no greater man on earth than the man who spends his life for the freedom of others. That’s Jesus!

Governmental bondage is for those who see no significance to the Godly-rule whose leadership is spiritual freedom that cares about, commits to, and continually seeks after setting captives free! And I firmly believe eternal honor is given to those who expend their lives to free others from the chains of civil bondage and are committed to seeing that men are possessing and enjoying God-given rights. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and blessing is not intended to be a USA only principle!

The chains of religious superstitions and demonic philosophies are violations of the very nature and character of God Himself! There are dark and deadly influences that will overshadow, shut down, oppress, and even enslave sincere but unsuspecting souls who are not rooted and grounded in God’s Holy Word!

The bondage of carnal desires and instinctive, fleshly, sin-anointed inclinations are abundant taking one further downward than he/she already is, blackening the heart more, corrupting the mind unmercifully, rotting one more and more with the bad fruit of a deadly spiritual virus and disease, enslaving one more and more and more with the devil’s yoke of bondage.

But have you also become aware of the “time-bomb” of self-reformation and self-improvement and self-adulation as one promotes himself/herself? Transformation is God’s business –‘flesh’ improvement is the devil’s corner of our world! “Born again” is Jesus’ miracle of grace and mercy – acceptance by an unbelieving world is Satan’s push through you of his prominence and perversions.

Also, what about chained to the hurts and pains of the past? And one refuses to deal with it, expose it, forgive it, and find reconciliation where needed? Some just blame God and never consider that the pain of their past was a ‘masterpiece’ of the devil himself! The devil is a ‘master-strategist’ and he knows how to capture, deceive, and embitter folks, certainly promoting unforgiveness and promoting ‘self-protection’ against what pains you, not realizing or knowing that exposure of past hurts can be Heaven’s help in holy healing!

Far more and deeper darkness and greater bondage is one’s, yes, ignorance of his/her spiritual death before God! It’s clear: Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…!” But how many do you know who would laugh at you because you quote them God’s Truth, and then pass you off as a religious ‘freak’? Others know their spiritual depravity, their present awareness of “guilty before God,” and sense for themselves a spirit of hopelessness – “God’s love can’t be that extreme and unlimited to forgive me!” Here’s the Truth:

I John 1:5-10, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

Again, John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.” The Son? That’s the Son of God! That’s Emmanuel, ‘God with us’! That’s Jesus, King of kings and Lord of lords, who willingly chose the Cross for Himself for our Redemption and our Release!

There’s no true freedom apart from Christ Jesus! The highest intellectual, the most brilliant scholar, is destined for the emptiness of divine recognition without Christ as Lord and Savior of his life! Self-effort righteousness is vain, slaps God in the face, and is a curse upon one’s life while Sovereign-implanted righteousness in Christ is one’s saving grace, Masterful mercy, and eternal likeness, liberty, and the loving stamp of God’s approval and our God-like identification!

Do you even understand your redemption and freedom and liberty was planned by God even before the world was created? In Revelation 13:8 we read, “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the LAMB SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.”

There’s several vital Truths I want to emphasize before I close this message. 1.YOUR SALVATION SOVEREIGNLY PLANNED, PERSONALLY IMPLEMENTED, AND WILLINGLY CHOSEN BY JESUS, THE LAMB OF GOD! Isaiah 53:4-10 tells us, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgressions of My people He was stricken. And they made His grave with the wicked – but with the rich at His death, because He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in in His mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”

2. YOUR SALVATION SACRIFICIALLY PURCHASED! In I Peter 1:18-24 we read, “KNOWING that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.’”

Listen to Spurgeon!! [Spurgeon’s Sermons, Memorial Library, Vol.8, p.201]: “You go free (clear of your sin debt) because He bore your burden (your sin-burden and guilt) for you. See Him bear His agony – ‘crushed beneath the millstone of the law, till all His head, His hair, His garments bloody be.’ See Him yonder, dragged to Pilate’s hall, bound, whipped like a common felon, scourged like a murderer, and dragged away by hell-hounds through the streets, fastened by those cruel fetters which went through His flesh to the accursed wood! See Him yielding up His liberty to the dungeon of death! There the Mighty One sleeps in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb. Dearly did He purchase with His own bondage the liberty which He so freely gives.”

3. YOUR SALVATION SWEETLY PRESENTED! In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus, Lord and Savior, speaks to us ALL: “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.”

Jesus doesn’t come to you with a big stick but with open arms! He doesn’t come in anger but with mercy and grace! He doesn’t come in an accusatory tone but with holy admiration and heavenly love. He sees us as slaves to the world’s darkness and offers us His Eternal Light, He sees us imprisoned in the chains of sin and death and offers us forgiveness, freedom, and a forever relationship.

He comes to us and knocks on our hearts’ door because the truth is, no man has ever sought God on his own merit but only because of the Master’s mercy! That man in the deepest darkness of a hellish existence, alienated and separated from God is offered an open door to Heaven, an eternal relationship with the Son of Light, and, yes, given a mission responsibility of touching the unworthy around you with God’s Calvary love!

4. YOUR SALVATION IS A PRESENT POSSESSION! There’s an interesting verse that David gives us when in Psalm 27:4 he said, “The one thing I ask of the Lord – the thing I seek most – is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in His Temple.”

But a new day has dawned, a new event has occurred, a new residence has been established by God – and your redeemed, regenerated, re-made, restored to eternal intent body, has actually become the Temple of the Lord, His earthly dwelling place, His, yes, desired residence on this earth – and it’s IN YOU as a redeemed son or daughter of God!

Examine I Corinthians 3:16-17! “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.”

Do you receive God’s Eternal Truth? Do you walk in it? Does Holy Scripture guide your life? Listen to 2 Corinthians 6:16-18! “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD! As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’ Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.” In Ephesians 2:22 Paul reminds us, “in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” Does the “building inspector” put His ‘OK’ on your life?

5. YOUR SALVATION IS A PERFECT PARDON! I love what Paul wrote to us and the Philippian church when he said in Philippians 1:6, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Do you understand, live by, grasp the truth every day that Holy God is, does, and will complete His good work in you, and that, really, His perfect pardon inspires YOU more and more to honor and bless the Holy One who has touched you with His grace and mercy and called you: ‘another son, another daughter, just like My Eternal Son, Jesus Christ’?

In Matthew 18:3 Jesus clearly said: “I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

“A perfect pardon”? That’s as a baby, a growing infant, a maturing child is totally dependent upon his parents, so our perfect pardon is our Lord and Savior overseeing our lives of faith as we grow and mature in Him – we’re birthed in the Kingdom as if we’ve already finished the race – He sees us as “complete in Christ” lacking nothing!

A hardened, godless heart, encountering Christ and surrendering to His Lordship and His Salvation as the promised Messiah and Savior, finds a new heart of total tenderness and love, like a stony heart that now beats with the heart-beat of Christ every moment since the moment of his divine conversion!

It was John Keats, in his “Letter to J.H. Reynolds,” who said: “There is an awful warmth about my heart like a load of immortality.” That’s so amazing, so true, and so encouraging and uplifting!

Hear the Word! “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY!” What does the Holy Word say to us? “If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” Maybe these newly composed words will encourage and inspire you: “Free from bondage because Christ paid the price, Free from the devil because our Lord broke his chains, Free to live victoriously because it’s King Jesus who reigns…

From God’s throne grace reigns, and Jesus shed His blood and there is remission; Because He paid the price of sin and death, there’s no condemnation – He’s given us a perfecting salvation…

His glorious calling will never be amended because Jesus’ sacrifice was holily attended – blood shed, LIFE DIED, but in God’s power our Lord was resurrected…

Self-effort is vain and always the same, but Jesus in His sacrifice glorified God’s Name; though troubled by the Cross He never saw it as His loss, but lifted up, He drank the cup of suffering and death to cloth us in God’s amazing grace.”

In John 11:25-26 Jesus told Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

There are such blessed, inspired, heart-warming words that Peter wrote in I Peter 1:3-6! “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade way, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials…”

Follow Alexander Maclaren’s words in his “Exposition of Holy Scriptures”: [John 1-14, pps. 349-350], “And, brethren, just as the ignoring of the fact of sin makes the real understanding of Christ and His word impossible, so it makes the real reception of Him for ourselves impossible. Many men are brought near to Jesus by other roads; thank God for it! There are a thousand ways to the Cross, but it is the Cross that we must clasp, if any in true sense we are to clasp Christ. And there is all the difference between the superficial, partial, and easy-going profession of Christianity which is so common among us today, and the life-and-death clutching and clinging to Him which comes when, and only when, a man feels that the tyrant whom he served as a slave is close behind him, and that his only chance of freedom is to hold fast by the horns of the altar of the sanctuary, and to cleave to the Christ in whom, and in whom alone, we are free indeed.”

I Corinthians 15:31, “I die daily” – Is that your testimony? 2 Corinthians 1:9, “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead…”

What did Paul tell us in Galatians 5:1? “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again in a yoke of bondage.”

Many years ago Samuel Francis Smith wrote the song, “America”. One of the verses says: “Long may our land be bright With freedom’s holy light; Protect us by Your might, Great God, our King.”

FREEDOM! It’s “the pearl of great price” given to us by Christ alone through His shed blood at the Cross – and through the Cross, we’re set free to be free to choose daily to live only in and through His Resurrection Life and Hope!

A SENSE OF

URGENCY

By J. Farrell Fisher

October 4, 2014

Recently I sent to my dear friend, Dr. Bill Anderson, former classmate at Baylor University and teammate on Baylor’s “Golden Bears” football team that beat Number 2 in the nation, Tennessee, in the Sugar Bowl in 1957, a message that I had prepared on “The Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ”! Bill’s last pastorate was, I believe, 26 years leading Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater, Florida.

I had received word from a dear friend that a mutual friend of ours had shared that he didn’t believe in the virgin birth of Christ and didn’t think it was necessary for one to have a relationship with God. I prepared the message on the virgin birth and sent it to Bill. He E-mailed back, “As you know, large segments of Christendom are giving up the doctrine. I’ve often heard that 85% of all writing theologians don’t accept the doctrine as biblically stated; I think the number is higher. I have a manuscript in which I exegeted every passage in the New Testament which relates to eternal punishment – at least 148 – there are several other questionable ones – but can’t get it published. Publisher told me to write on how to get to heaven, without really trying, and it’d sell! Bill”.

Do you sense a time of great urgency for STANDING FOR TRUTH as you see the world around you, yes, promoting deceptions? Of late our Lord has been impressing upon me “A Sense of Urgency.” All across this world of ours, what happens politically, economically, socially, spiritually, and morally becomes a rallying cry in my bones, “We don’t have long!”

And that “sense of urgency” increases in its intensity each day. Webster, in his 1828 Dictionary, defines “urgency” as: “pressure, pressing with necessity; as the urgency of want or distress, violent or vehement.”

It would help us to have a taste of Hezekiah’s medicine. One day he’s healthy – the next he’s mortally ill. [2 Kings 20]. And God sent Isaiah the prophet: “Thus says the Lord, ‘SET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER, FOR YOU SHALL DIE AND NOT LIVE.” Is it time for you to set YOUR life in order, your family, your nation, your church? Some men never consider the urgency bound up in this earthly life. They think they’ll never die and if they do it’s just a grave they face, it’s all over, believing there’s nothing to follow.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in his Psalm of Life, wrote: “Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal!” In Psalm 39:4-5 David wrote, ‘LORD, MAKE ME TO KNOW MY END, AND WHAT IS THE EXTENT OF MY DAYS. Let me know how transient I am…Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in Your sight. Surely every man at his best is a mere breath.”

Shakespeare, in Macbeth (Act V, sc 5,l.26) wrote: “LIFE…is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” How sad is that? Charles Wesley, who wrote his “Letter to John Wesley” said, “I desire to have both heaven and hell ever in my eye, while I stand on this isthmus of life, between two boundless oceans.”

Look with me at Ephesians 5:15-16, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, ‘redeeming the times,’ because the days are evil.” THE TIMES? Look at the, yes, Holy Scriptures!!

Genesis 38:12, “time of mourning,” Psalm 21:9, “time of anger,” Psalm 102:13, “a time to be gracious,” Proverbs 25:13, “time of harvest,” Isaiah 49:8, ‘Thus says, the Lord, ‘In a Favorable TIME, I have answered you…”, Jeremiah 14:19, “a time of healing,” Jeremiah 15:11, “a time of disaster,” Jeremiah 30:7, “time of Jacob’s distress or trouble,” Jeremiah 51:6, “this is the Lord’s time of vengeance,” Ezekial 30:3, “a time of doom for the nations,” Ezekial 35:5, “the time of their calamity,” “the time of the punishment of the end,” Daniel 11:24, “a time of tranquility,” Hosea 10:12, “time to seek the Lord,” Romans 8:18, “the sufferings of this present time,” 2 Corinthians 6:2, “the acceptable time,” 2 Timothy 4:6, “the time of my departure,” I Peter 1:17, “the time of your stay upon the earth,” I Peter 5:6, “the proper time,” Revelation 2:21, “time to repent,” Psalm 9:9, “times of trouble,” Daniel 9:25, “times of distress,” Matthew 16:3, “the signs of the times,” Acts 17:30, “times of ignorance,” Ephesians 1:10, “fullness of the times,” 2 Timothy 3:1, “difficult times coming.”

Are you and I ‘time’ or ‘times conscious? Are we aware of the days – their number, destiny, signs, opportunities, wisdom? In I Chronicles 12:32 it speaks of the “men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…” Deuteronomy 32:29 tells us, “Would that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would discern their future (or latter end!).” In Deuteronomy 28 we come to the end of the blessings and curses chapter, and for those who refuse the wisdom of God, reject the biblical pathways to blessing, renounce the discernment of the times, verse 66 tells us: “So your life shall hang in doubt before you: and you shall be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life.”

Notice, there is assurance of life, of blessing, and of a future. It’s why we read in Ecclesiastes 7:17, “…WHY SHOULD YOU DIE BEFORE YOUR TIME?” Or, why should you die before you’ve really begun to live? And in Deuteronomy 32:35 our Lord talks about the unwise: “In due time their foot will slip; for the day of their calamity is near, and the impending things are hastening upon them.” Then in verses 46-47 Moses said, “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe – all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”

Do you remember Paul before Felix and his wife Drusilla in Acts 24? He preached faith in Christ Jesus – ( righteousness, self-control, and judgment to come)!! Verse 25 says, “And Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time, I will summon you.” There’s no evidence he ever did! He didn’t make the most of his opportunity, he didn’t sense the urgency of the moment – he didn’t understand the life or death preciousness or peril!

In Acts 26:28-29 Paul shared with King Agrippa “words of sober truth.” Paul discerns Agrippa even believed the prophets as Agrippa said to him, “In a short time, Paul, if I let you, you will persuade me to become a Christian.” But he pushes Paul away, goes back to the business of being a king, and misses the King of kings!

Jude 18 tells us, “In the last time there shall be MOCKERS, following after their own ungodly lusts…Verse 20, “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, Verse 21, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life!!”

CONSIDER CAREFULLY, FIRST, A SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SERIOUSNESS OF OUR ONENESS AND OUR WALK IN CHRIST: Ephesians 5:15 says, “Therefore, be careful how you walk…” The Amplified translates it: “Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise – sensible, intelligent people – MAKING THE MOST OF THE TIME – BUYING UP EACH OPPORTUNITY – BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL.”

“Be careful how you walk?” Why? I Timothy 4:1 says, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons…” Paul had said earlier in I Timothy 1:19, “Holding faith and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck…”

Peter discerned and was led also to sense spiritual urgency and even danger! In 2 Peter 3:17 he wrote, “You therefore, beloved, knowing beforehand, be on your guard LEST, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall away from your own steadfastness.”

It IS a “serious walk”! Because of our call, not to ease and comfort, but to ‘commitment’ and a ‘cross’! What did Paul say in Romans 8:18? “For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.” If Paul knew he had to die daily, it’s just an option to you without any real significance?

It IS a “serious walk” because our call IS a call to alertness and not to apathy! Luke 21:36 tells us, “But keep on the alert at all times.” And true believers keep on the alert through prayer and the Word! Luke 18:1 says, “that at all times they ought to pray.” And in Romans 15:4 we read, “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of scriptures we might have hope.”

It IS a “serious walk” because our call is a call to duty in a spiritual and invisible war! What does Ephesians 6:12 tell us? “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

It IS a “serious walk” because our call is the calling of hope in Christ and not in ourselves! In 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Paul wrote, “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

It IS a “serious walk” because our call is a call into the test of our faith! In Hebrews 10:35-36 we read, “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”

CONSIDER SECOND THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF RAMPAGING FLOODS OF EARTHLY, NATURAL, AND DEMONIC ‘wisdom” IN OPPOSITION TO THE “WISDOM OF GOD”! Follow carefully James 3:13-17, “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom…

But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic…

For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

CONSIDER THIRD THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SINISTER IMPACT OF THE WORLD’S DAYS! In Ephesians 5:15-16 we read, “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” The spiritual father nature in Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, had him write to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:13, “But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

I changed Romans 6:19 just a ‘fraction’ for emphasis, “…if you present your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness [it will lead] to more lawlessness, when God intends your members to be slaves of righteousness!”

There must be in you as a true disciple of Christ Jesus, one with Him, in Him, through Him, and we are to be those disciples who take the full armor of God and, yes, “we resist in the evil day”! We stand firm and faithful and full of the Holy Ghost, fighting the good fight of faith!

CONSIDER FOURTH THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SPIRITUAL SICKNESS OF FALLEN MANKIND WHO ARE WITHOUT CHRIST AS LORD AND SAVIOR! It was the psalmist who said, “No man cares for my soul,” and I wonder if the fallen world, separated from God, is saying the same thing today!

What does Isaiah 59:2 tell us? “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear.” I don’t know how any prodigal, wayward, wandering, lost, alienated child of God could read Luke 15:14 and not know there is hope in a Loving, Caring Father-God! “And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want,” but some wayward sons are satisfied in their spiritual destitution!

Paul wrote the Thessalonians, I Thessalonians 4:13, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them who are already asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” But, in Christ, we ARE “children of the hope”, and God calls us to reach out with His “Life-Preserver”!! His name is Jesus!

I remember reading a news article many years ago about a child in Louisville, Kentucky, who had been on a ‘liver-transplant list” for a long time. One became available at a much-needed time, but Louisville was hit with a massive snow storm. There was two feet of snow and the temperature had dipped to 22 below zero. The call came the morning of the storm, but the airport had been closed. The deadline for the little boy was only hours away. What happened? Hundreds and hundreds of people went out to clean the runway so the child could be flown out, yes, to an available liver!

CONSIDER FIFTH A SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SOBERNESS OF DIVINE JUDGMENT! Oh, look carefully at Isaiah 26:7-10! The prophet tells us, “The way of the just is uprightness; O Most Upright, You weigh the path of the just. Yes, in the way of Your judgments, O Lord, we have waited for You; the desire of our soul is for Your name and for the remembrance of You. With my soul I have desired You in the night, yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; for when Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord.”

How SAD is that?!? Yet our Lord has unveiled Himself every single day since this world was created! Why then do men not “see” the righteousness of God and desire it? Because they love darkness rather than Light, untruths rather than Truth, turmoil rather than the peace that passes all understanding – lost men “crucify” Jesus over and over! And they must learn: Hebrews 9:27, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes the judgment!”

There are so many, many lives that we meet every day whose lives hand over the entrance to Hell by one solitary thread, and the thread is old and rotten! Hell IS REAL! It was prepared by God for the devil and his angels, but it also became a place for godless, Christ-less lives! It’s “where the worm dies not and the fire is not quenched”!! If you’re without Christ, you need only one whiff of the smoke and stench of Hell!

Jude 14-15 tells us “…Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment on all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

Was Simon Peter alert to “divine judgment”? In 2 Peter 2:9-10 he tells us: “then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries.”

Do you have “a sense of urgency because you know the seriousness of divine judgment”?

CONSIDER SIXTH THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE OF THE SHORTNESS OR BREVITY OF LIFE! What did James tells us? James 4:14, “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

In Job 7:6 we read, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle [or a Singer sewing machine!].” Have you ever heard someone say, “I have plenty of time!” But the next day, they’re gone!

The psalmist told us, Psalms 39:5, “Indeed, You [God] have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor.” They don’t have long – then their eternal days are ushered in!

LASTLY, CONSIDER THE SENSE OF URGENCY BECAUSE GOD”S KINGDOM HAS DRAWN NEAR! Matthew 3:2 says, “Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand…it draws near.”

I’m telling you, “Gabriel has God’s trumpet to his lips, and he’s about to blow!! Plus, Psalm 34:7 tells us, “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them.” Delivered to Jesus or delivered to the devil and his angels? Psalm 34:22 then tells us, “The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.”

I’m sure John 3:16 is in your memory-box, but what about John 3:18-19? “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

The most awesome, awful, seek deed on earth? Rejecting the love of God expressed in the crucifixion of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ!

When one is called to be a ‘saint’ and settles into selfish sinfulness and unbelief, only Hell, the Devil and his demons, and multitudes of unbelievers will be one’s eternal companions with every day dark, then darker, sick then sicker, sinful and more sinful, hellish and more hellish – but you’re a true believer, and you’re not accountable for them?

APRIL 24-25, 2019

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER

I BEGIN WITH POWERFUL, CONVICTING WORDS FROM JEREMIAH 9:3-6 AS THE PROPHET OF GOD WAS INSPIRED TO WRITE THE FOLLOWING, HAVING HEARD GOD SPEAK!! AND HE’S TALKING ABOUT “SPIRITUAL ADULTERERS”!! “THEY BEND THEIR TONGUES FOR LIES: THEY ARE NOT VALIANT FOR THE TRUTH UPON THE EARTH; FOR THEY PROCEED FROM EVIL TO EVIL, AND THEY KNOW NOT ME, SAYS THE LORD.TAKE YOU HEED EVERY ONE OF HIS NEIGHBOR, AND TRUST YOU NOT IN ANY BROTHER; FOR EVERY BROTHER WILL UTTERLY SUPPLANT, AND EVERY NEIGHBOR WILL WALK WITH SLANDERS. AND THEY WILL DECEIVE EVERY ONE HIS NEIGHBOR, AND WILL NOT SPEAK THE TRUTH: THEY HAVE TAUGHT THEIR TONGUE TO SPEAK LIES, AND WEARY THEMSELVES TO COMMIT INIQUITY. YOUR HABITATION IS IN THE MIDST OF DECEIT; THROUGH DECEIT THEY REFUSE TO KNOW ME, SAYS THE LORD”

THE RANDOM HOUSE COLLEGE DICTIONARY IN 1975 DEFINES DECEIT AS FOLLOWS: “THE ACT OR PRACTICE OF DECEIVING; FRAUD,CHEATING…AN ACT OR SCHEME INTENDED TO DECEIVE; A LIFESTYLE OF BEING DECEITFUL; FALSENESS; DECEIT,GUILE, HYPOCRISY, DUPLICITY,FRAUD,TRICKERY,…THE INTENTIONAL (LIFESTYLE) OF CONCEALMENT OR PERVERSION OF TRUTH FOR THE PURPOSE OF MISLEADING..”!

DID IT SAY, “A LIFESTYLE OF BEING DECEITFUL”? THE WORLD, YOUR OLD SIN NATURE, AND SATAN HIMSELF ARE EQUIPPING FORCES TO KEEP YOU SEPARATED AND ALIENATED FROM HOLY, LOVING, MERCIFUL, CARING GOD. THE “WISDOM” THAT GRANTS AND GIVES NO PLACE FOR GOD IS SPIRITUAL DARKNESS EVEN UNDER THE SUNSHINE THAT STAYS BRIGHT! THIS IS WHY IN 1 CORINTHIANS 2:14,AND VERSE 16, WE READ: “BUT THE NATURAL MAN RECEIVES NOT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD; FOR THEY ARE FOOLISHNESS UNTO HIM; NEITHER CAN HE KNOW THEM, BECAUSE THEY “SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED”!”

VERSE 16b THEN SAYS, HAVING ASKED IN 16a, “FOR WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE (GOD) MAY INSTRUCT HIM?”, FOLLOWING WITH VERSE 16B,”BUT WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST!”…THE BIRTHING OF ALL HUMANITY BY GOD WAS GOD’S ISSUANCE OF ‘FREE-WILL’ FOR EVERY BIRTHED ONE IN THE WORLD WHO IS GIVEN THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE: THEMSELVES AS THEIR OWN MASTER, SAVIOR, AND LORD AS THEY SEE FIT, OR CONVICTED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, THEY REPENT OF THEIR SINFUL BENT, ASKING FOR SOVEREIGN BLESSING IN AND THROUGH CHRIST’S CRUCIFIXION, RESURRECTION, AND ETERNAL RULE ON THE THRONE OF GOD AND AVAILABLE FOR THE LIFE, HEART, AND DESIRE OF ONE WILLING TO BE THE SERVANT OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST,AND-UPON CONVERSION, THEY THEN DISCOVER CHRIST INDWELLS THEM TO BE THEIR SERVANT!

AGAIN, POWERFUL WORDS FROM PAUL IN 1 CORINTHIANS 3:16-17! THIS IS TO PROFESSING BELIEVERS, TO PRETENDING CHURCHES, TO ‘IMITATION’ GOVERNING STATES OR NATIONS! “KNOW YOU NOT THAT YOU ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, AND THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU? IF ANY MAN DEFILE THE TEMPLE OF GOD,(HIM,THEM,IT!),HIM,THEM,IT SHALL GOD DESTROY; FOR THE TEMPLE OF GOD IS HOLY, WHICH TEMPLE YOU ARE.”

HAVE I HIGHLIGHTED ENOUGH “THE DECEPTION OF FALLEN WORLD CULTURES” FOR YOU? THEN, I WANT TO SHIFT GEARS AND TURN TO: “THE TRUTH THAT HOLY GOD LOVES US”! LOOK AT MALACHI 4:1-2! “FOR, BEHOLD, THE DAY COMES, THAT SHALL BURN AS A OVEN; AND ALL THE PROUD, YES, AND ALL THAT DO WICKEDLY, SHALL BE STUBBLE; AND THE DAY THAT COMES SHALL BURN THEM UP, SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS, THAT IT SHALL LEAVE THEM NEITHER ROOT NOT BRANCH. “BUT UNTO YOU THAT FEAR MY NAME SHALL ‘THE SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS’ ARISES WITH HEALING IN HIS WINGS; AND YOU SHALL GO FORTH, AND GROW UP AS CALVES OF A STALL.”

HAVE YOU WITNESSED LATELY LIVES AROUND YOU LIKE ‘CALVES OF A STALL’, ALIVE, WELL, JOYFUL, JUMPING, KICKING THEIR HEELS, BECAUSE SALVATION IN AND THROUGH CHRIST DELIGHTS THEM,EVEN HILARIOUSLY,AMAZINGLY,JOYFULLY UPLIFTING THEM EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY?

I TELL YOU, IT’S FAR MORE THAN JUST A “CHRISTMAS SONG” BECAUSE ISAAC WATTS AND GEORGE HANDEL “KNEW” THE BLESSING OF GOD’S AWESOME MERCY AND GRACIOUS GRACE! THE SONG IS IN THE HYMNAL, THE BROADMAN HYMNAL, FROM THE BROADMAN PRESS, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, PUBLISHED IN 1940! IT SAYS: “JOY TO THE WORLD! THE LORD HAS COME; LET EARTH RECEIVE HER KING; LET EVERY HEART PREPARE HIM ROOM, AND HEAVEN AND NATURE SING…

JOY TO THE EARTH! THE SAVIOR REIGNS; LET MEN THEIR SONGS EMPLOY; WHILE FIELDS AND FLOODS, ROCKS, HILLS AND PLAINS REPEAT THE SOUNDING JOY.

NO MORE LET SINS AND SORROWS GROW, NOR THORNS INFEST THE GROUND; HE COMES TO MAKE HIS BLESSINGS FLOW FAR AS THE CURSE IS FOUND.

HE RULES THE WORLD WITH TRUTH AND GRACE, AND MAKES THE NATIONS PROVE THE GLORIES OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND WONDERS OF HIS LOVE.”

IN LUKE 19:10 JESUS SAID, “FOR THE SON OF MAN IS COME TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT WHICH WAS LOST.” BIRTHED FLESHLY INTO THE WORLD EVERY CHILD IS BIRTHED IN ‘FLESH’, BIRTHED WITH AN INHERITED SIN-NATURE, BIRTHED ABSENT OF THE PRESENCE OF THE RESURRECTED CHRIST, HIS LOVING FATHER, AND HIS FRUITFUL HOLY SPIRIT, DEFINED BY GOD AS LOST, ALIENATED, SEPARATED, IN NEED OF BEING BORN SPIRITUALLY BY GRACE AND FAITH WITH A FREE PASS INTO KINGDOM OF GOD LIVING!

DOES CHRIST JESUS HAVE ENEMIES? YET AT THE SAME TIME DOES HE ALSO HAVE CO-LABORERS, BIRTHED TO BE SOLDIERS OF CHRIST IN THE ARMY OF THE FAITHFUL? HE DOES HAVE ENEMIES, WARRIORS AGAINST HIM, BUT HE ALSO HAS FAITHFUL SOLDIERS THAT BEAR HIS CROSS AND FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH! IN REVELATION 17:14, IT SPEAKS OF HIS ENEMIES, THEN HIS OWN CO-WARRIORS! “THESE SHALL MAKE WAR WITH THE LAMB, AND THE LAMB SHALL OVERCOME THEM; FOR HE IS LORD OF LORDS, AND KING OF KINGS; AND THEY THAT ARE WITH HIM ARE “CALLED,” “CHOSEN,” AND ARE “THE FAITHFUL”!

THIS IS WHY SABINE BARING-GOULD AND ARTHUR SULLIVAN WERE INSPIRED TO WRITE THE HYMN PUBLISHED IN “THE BROADMAN PRESS” IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, IN 1940(P46).IT SAYS: “ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS,MARCHING AS TO WAR, WITH THE CROSS OF JESUS GOING ON BEFORE! CHRIST, THE ROYAL MASTER, LEADS AGAINST THE FOE; FORWARD INTO BATTLE, SEE, HIS BANNERS GO!

AT THE SIGN OF TRIUMPH SATAN’S HOST DOES FLEE; ON THEN,YOU CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, ON TO VICTORY! HELL’S FOUDATIONS QUIVER AT THE SHOUT OF PRAISE; BROTHERS, LIFT YOUR VOICES, LOUD YOUR ANTHEMS RAISE!

LIKE A MIGHTY ARMY MOVES THE CHURCH OF GOD; BROTHERS, WE ARE TREADING WHERE THE (SAVIOR) AND THE SAINTS HAVE TROD; WE ARE NOT DIVIDED; ALL ONE BODY WE, ONE IN HOPE AND DOCTRINE, ONE IN CHARITY.

ONWARD,THEN,YOU PEOPLE, JOIN OUR HAPPY THRONG,BLEND WITH OURS YOUR VOICES IN THE TRIUMPH SONG; GLORY, LAUD, AND HONOR, UNTO CHRIST THE KING; THIS THRO’ COUNTLESS AGES MEN AND ANGELS SING.

ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, MARCHING AS TO WAR, WITH THE CROSS OF JESUS GOING ON BEFORE!” (ARE “YOU” A SOLDIER OF THE ARMY OF CHRIST INVADING A WORLD OF UNBELIEF AROUND YOU? OR DO YOU “SLEEP” IN YOUR BARRACK BED DEAD TO,YES, THE GREAT NEED SPIRITUALLY OF THOSE WHO NEED TO BE AWAKENED AND CONFRONTED WITH CHRIST’S PRESENCE KNOCKING ON THEIR HEARTS’ DOORS SAYING, “OPEN YOUR HEART’S DOOR, AND I, KING JESUS, WILL COME IN ESTABLISHING MY THRONE IN YOU TO REIGN THROUGH YOU”?

ARE “YOU” A CHILD OF THE KING? DOES KING JESUS REIGN IN YOU AND THROUGH YOU EXPRESSING HIS LOVE, EXTENDING HIS MERCY, AND PROVING HIS POWER? HATTIE E.BEULL, IN THE SAME HYMNAL, HAD HER SONG PUBLISHED,(P.47), THAT SAYS, THIRD STANZA, “I ONCE WAS AN OUTCAST STRANGER ON EARTH, A SINNER BY CHOICE, AND AN ALIEN BY BIRTH; BUT I’VE BEEN ADOPTED, MY NAME’S WRITTEN DOWN, AND HEIR TO A MANSION, A ROBE, AND A CROWN.

I’M A CHILD OF THE KING, A CHILD OF THE KING: WITH JESUS MY SAVIOR I’M A CHILD OF THE KING.”

DARE I TELL YOU? I BELIEVE I WILL! “TOO MANY ‘PROFESSING’ CHURCHES AND ‘BELIEVERS’(?) DEGRADE THE TRUE CHRISTIAN FAITH “AND” CHRIST BY ‘PROFESSING’ WITHOUT ALLOWING HIS POSSESSING FREELY HIS RELEASE, HIS GIFT AND GIFTS, HIS ETERNAL LONGING TO BE HIMSELF IN THEM, BUT THE ‘FUTILE, FATAL, FLIPPANT BELIEVERS’ LIVE EXPRESSING HEAD KNOWLEDGE WITHOUT HIS HOLY PRESENCE IN HUMAN HEARTS EXTENDING HIS LIFE, EXPRESSING HIS LOVE, AND PROVING HIS POWER! WILL YOU LET JESUS BE JESUS IN YOU? AGAIN, JEREMIAH 9:3-6 PLUS VERSES 7-9!!

“THEY BEND THEIR TONGUES LIKE THEIR BOW (AND ARROW) FOR LIES: BUT (ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?), BUT THEY ARE NOT VALIANT FOR THE TRUTH UPON THE EARTH; FOR THEY PROCEED FROM EVIL TO EVIL, AND THEY KNOW NOT ME,SAYS THE LORD.TAKE HEED EVERY ONE OF HIS NEIGHBOR,AND TRUST NOT IN ANY BROTHER; FOR EVERY BROTHER WILL UTTERLY SUPPLANT, AND EVERY NEIGHBOR WILL WALK WITH SLANDERS.

AND THEY WILL DECEIVE EVERY ONE HIS NEIGHBOR, AND WILL NOT SPEAK THE TRUTH; THEY HAVE TAUGHT THEIR TONGUE TO SPEAK LIES, AND WEARY THEMSELVES IN COMMITTING INIQUITY.YOUR HABITATION IS IN THE MIDST OF DECEIT; THROUGH DECEIT THEY REFUSE TO KNOW ME,SAYS THE LORD.

VERSES 7-9 FOLLOWS SAYING:THEREFORE,THUS SAYS THE LORD OF HOSTS, BEHOLD, I WILL MELT THEM, AND TEST THEM; FOR HOW SHALL I DO (OR DEAL) WITH THE DAUGHTER OF MY PEOPLE? THEIR TONGUE IS AS AN ARROW SHOT OUT; IT SPEAKS DECEIT; ONE SPEAKS PEACEABLY TO HIS NEIGHBOR, BUT IN HEART HE LAYS IN WAIT. SHALL I VISIT THEM FOR THESE THINGS?SAYS THE LORD: SHALL NOT MY SOUL BE AVENGED ON SUCH A NATION (OR SUCH A PEOPLE, OR SUCH ‘PROFESSORS’ WITHOUT ANY DESIRE TO BE POSSESSED, OWNED, AND POURED OUT TO SPIRITUALLY ‘THIRSTY’ PEOPLE, FOR SOME WITH ONLY HEAD KNOWLEDGE), BUT VOID OF A “NEW-BORN”, ETERNALLY TRANSFORMED, IGNITED WITH THE “FIRE” OF HIS RESURRECTED PRESENCE REIGNING IN AND THROUGH YOU, BY BEING “GUIDED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, TAUGHT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND EMPOWERED TO BE HIS HEAVENLY WITNESS”!

WHY NOT LET: “JESUS, BE JESUS IN ME; NO LONGER ME BUT THEE; RESURRECTION POWER, FILL ME THIS HOUR; JESUS, BE JESUS IN ME!”? WILL “YOU”?AND THAT WILL BE “THE DAY” IN YOU,IN AND THROUGH YOU, IN WHICH “YOU” ALLOW HIM TO EXTEND HIS LIFE, EXPRESS HIS LOVE, AND PROVE HIS POWER! THE OLD HYMN, “ALL HAIL THE POWER”,SAYS: “ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS’ NAME!LET ANGELS PROSTRATE FALL; BRING FORTH THE ROYAL DIADEM, AND CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL.

YOU CHOSEN SEED OF A NATION’S RACE, YOU RANSOMED FROM THE “FALL”, HAIL HIM WHO SAVES YOU BY HIS GRACE, CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL.

LET EVERY KINDRED, EVERY TRIBE, ON THIS TERRESTRIAL BALL, TO HIM ALL MAJESTY ASCRIBE, AND CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL.

O THAT WITH YONDER SACRED THRONG WE AT HIS FEET MAY FALL; WE’LL JOIN THE EVERLASTING SONG, AND CROWN HIM LORD OF ALL.” DOES CHRIST JESUS LIVE AND REIGN THROUGH YOU THIS VERY DAY, THIS VERY HOUR, THIS VERY MOMENT?

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