BY: J. FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 31, 2017

It was written by an anonymous writer in “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” edited and compiled by Frank S. Mead and published by the Fleming H. Revell company, Westwood, New Jersey, with its author saying: “The ship’s place is in the sea, but God pity the ship when the sea gets into it. The Christian’s place is in the world, but God pity the Christian if the world gets the best of him.”

The brother of Jesus, James, in his letter, (James 4:4), wrote: “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God?”, saying in Verse 8, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded,” with a rallying from ‘fleshly defeat’ to “raised to spiritual victory” by “humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

Some believers fail to understand Christ’s calling them to Himself is the call to abandon living for the pleasures of a fallen world and called to be, in the world but not of it, Christ’s “ambassadors”, His “point-men and point-women” who shine the Redeemed Light of the Eternal, True Light, yes, Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior Himself!

Brother James said in James 4:13-17, Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall do this or that.” But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to him who knows to do good [Extending Christ’s Life, expressing His love, proving His power?] and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

Did Jesus say in Acts 1:8b, “…and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”? Is repentance and remission of sins to be preached in Jesus’ name to all nations? AND YOU ARE TO BE WITNESSES OF THIS? (Luke 24:47-48).

In Christ Jesus there is the only message of Eternal Hope! God reigns in death, over death, in the gift of repentance toward Him and faith in Christ’s shed blood to wash away our sins, give us a new heart, commissioning us to be His witnesses; God reigns through Christ and YOUR redeemed life in a “new unveiling” of Eternal Life and Eternal Hope and Eternal Power; God gives a gracious Word: “and, lo, I am with you always…”, with us, the redeemed, the re-born, the rescued, the reservoir of Holy Presence, and we’re commissioned with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Christ Jesus having told about us “in Him” in John 3:12-21!! It says:

“If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him (trusts in, relies upon, adheres to) should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

For God did not send His Son into the world TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, BUT THAT THE WORLD THROUGH HIM MIGHT BE SAVED. 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. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he WHO DOES THE TRUTH comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Lifted up, and crucified with Christ? Lifted up, raised from spiritual death into eternal Life? Lifted up, the old man nailed to the Cross and the “new man” filled with Resurrection Presence? Lifted up, and the past buried and eternal destiny resurrected in the power of God? Lifted up, a meaningless, ‘fleshly life’ nailed in ‘death’, but “spiritual life” new and eternal in Jesus?

Yet around you are those who are “grasping to their world” and letting the Resurrected Christ pass by with no concern at all about “spiritual life now or for eternity”, not realizing that even in unbelief they do have a forever existence but only on Satan’s turf and Satan’s terms!

A colliding world of unbelief? An eternal world of discontent! A world of snared souls bound to the powers of darkness! A despairing world, centered forever in the deepest, most sorrowful, misery of fleshly spirit that has no remedy, no hope, no relief from the engagement with, oneness with, sorrowing unbelievers, sick minds and hearts, crazed disciplinarians called ‘demons’, and then, forever, the belittling, laughing, and enjoyment of Satan seeing the unredeemed with tears of sorrow that will never be washed away!

A colliding world of unbelief? A forever center of ‘unrest’, an eternal weary world with no relief, The Holy Judge’s constant verdict of “Guilty”, sentenced to an ‘eternal life term’ under Satan’s administration and his dangerous demons; if you’re ‘friends of this world’ without any consideration of God’s Kingdom, you’ll have to bid ‘farewell’ to the eternal blessing of, ‘ yes’, “living in the Presence of the King of kings and Lord of lords”! A colliding world with God is a ‘proud’ world of self-indulgence!

A colliding world of unbelief? Who knows how long it took for Holy God to speak our known world into existence without any ‘fleshly presence’(one spoken word, one year, a century, a million years? It doesn’t matter now, but the one thing Sovereign God was concerned about was, He didn’t want a world population of human beings without the “free will” of choosing to live under His loving authority or under their own “fleshly determination” to be birthed amazingly in the Spirit as “temples of Holy Presence” in Christ’s resurrected presence or not! “Christ in you the hope of glory!”

There’s a quote of Herrick Johnson in the “Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations,” (p.475) that says: “Buying, possessing, accumulating, this is not worldliness. – But doing this in the love of it, with no love to God paramount – doing it so that thoughts of God and eternity are an intrusion – doing it so that one’s spirit is SECULARIZED in doing it – this is worldliness.” And around you walk many ‘secularists’ who are not interested in God’s holiness or the possibility of their own holiness, but only interested in “my fleshly world I truly love indulging in!”

There is no true, enduring, life-change in one’s love of his/her world if it doesn’t open the mind’s and heart’s door of the need to be reconciled to the God who created the world and is ready and willing to take ‘flesh’ by repentance toward Him and faith in His Son’s holy work at the Cross and empty tomb and “birth” a “new life” in and through the Holy Spirit! No awareness of His great love for you personally – no “new creation Life in and through His Spirit”; No understanding of His unending singing of His song of mercy and grace – no reality of “born again, born the second time, born of the Spirit”; No sensitivity to His ‘knock’ on your heart’s door – no opening by you in true repentance and trust in His forgiveness; no ‘feather-bed’ of the ‘gift of redemptive faith’, no resurrection from spiritual death to His ‘gift’ of eternal life in Christ alone!

Christ Jesus was, and still is, the Savior of the world through “blood redemption”, rejected by men who despise Him, deny Him, and seek to silence any who proclaim Him, but His Resurrection Life still walks in our world today, and true believers are at His feet faithfully worshipping, morning, noon, and night!

I pray that you’ve already discerned in your journey of true faith that though the “colliding world of unbelief” still exists around you, YOU WILL BE A PORTION OF HIS ARMY OF FAITH INTENT ON PROCLAIMING, UNVEILING HIS CONQUERING WILL!

In Matthew 20:17-28 the Lord Jesus spoke to the twelve disciples as He began to make His way to Jerusalem, knowing what would soon take place. Christ Jesus said: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; (the religious leaders of the Judeo system!), and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the Gentiles to MOCK and to SCOURGE and to CRUCIFY. And the third day He will rise again.”

Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. And Jesus said to her, “What do you wish?” She said to Him, “Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.” [At least this mother KNEW the reality of the establishment of THE ETERNAL KINGDOM OF CHRIST JESUS!!].

But Jesus answered and said, “You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They said to Him, “We are able.” So Jesus said to them, “You will indeed drink My cup (Are YOU presently ‘drinking of His cup’ taking the sentence of death unto yourself DAILY that His Resurrection Life may be MANIFESTED IN YOUR MORTAL FLESH?), and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not mine to give, but it is those for whom it is prepared by My Father.”

And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – JUST AS the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

What about our “modern world”, and especially as it relates to “disciples of Christ” in the midst of much societal unbelief and disregard for His Holy Word? There are “street gangs” out to destroy faith, mercy, and love, rather than “strong men” of humble faith, loyalty, and service to others! There are the “intellectually superior” who know nothing about God’s mercy and grace! And, sadly, there are the “religiously deceived and spiritually un-birthed” who know nothing about “Spirit- conviction, Spirit-birthing, and Spirit-anointing”, absent of the Spirit’s delight in submissive servants honoring Christ Jesus in their daily walks, ministries, intercessions, and “rest” in the Resurrected Christ’s presence within them!

It was an amazing statement that William Shakespeare made in his writing, “Henry V111”, (Act 111, sc.2,l.456), when he said, “Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, He would not in my age have left me naked to my enemies.” Our unveiled awareness of our sin is when, having professed faith in Christ, we look within but see “no servant-grace or spirit” but only compromised lives walking both sides of the street! That, my friends, IS spiritual disaster, not flesh-promotion in the Spirit-realm!

BUT, THERE IS, BY GOD’S GRACE AND MERCY, HIS “CONQUERING WILL”! What a thrilling revelation in Romans 6:15-18 when Paul wrote: “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 slaves 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 (Did YOU?)) became slaves of righteousness.”

Are YOU “under grace”? Have you “presented yourself to Christ as a ‘slave’ to obey” or an independent unbeliever ‘doing as you damn well please’? Do you know to whom you are loyal? To Satan or the Savior? Is your ‘life-style’ Hell-bound or Heaven-oriented? Are you “free from sin” or still a slave to your old sin-nature – it IS NOT BOTH WAYS!!

There are powerful enlightening Verses in 1 John 1:6-2:2; John wrote: “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice (or walk in) 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. (Living in sin is evidence one is not living in and through Christ Jesus!).

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 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. 2:1-2, “My little children, these things I write to you, SO THAT YOU MAY NOT SIN. And, (per chance), if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.”

Sin has been forgiven for every man, past, present, or future! Does that mean all are no longer accountable for sin’s penalty? Absolutely! But it doesn’t mean every forgiven man is a true disciple! Forgiveness has opened the door for one to choose ‘Life in The Spirit’ where Christ Himself chooses to reside, if a forgiven man desires to be the Holy Temple of His Resurrected Presence! Don’t be deceived: billions have been forgiven but, “Few there be who become vessels through which Christ chooses to be Himself in them and through them! Christ Jesus IS the Lamb of God that took away the sin and guilt of all fallen humanity, but that doesn’t mean all men, now forgiven, choose to be the ‘vessel’ in which the Resurrected Christ chooses to be Himself”!

What did we see in 1 John 1:7? “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.”

Hear Oswald Chambers! (“My Utmost For His Highest”, p.268). “To mistake conscious freedom from sin for deliverance from sin by the Atonement is a great error. No man knows what sin is until he is born again. Sin is what Jesus Christ faced on Calvary. The evidence that I am delivered from sin is that I KNOW THE REAL NATURE OF SIN IN ME. It takes the last reach of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, that is, the IMPARTATION OF HIS ABSOLUTE PERFECTION (abiding in you!), to make a man know what sin is.” So true! As a result, are you “walking in the light as He is in the light?” And, if you truly know liberty and freedom from the power of sin in your old man, if Christ in you is the hope of glory, does that include “no longer servants of sin, but servants of my Lord and Savior, free from the bondage, burden, and belittling of one’s enemy, Satan, till accusing you of less than you are in Christ”? “Rise Up, Men of God, have done with Satan’s slurs and mockings, and daily rejoice in your “new man citizenship in the eternal Kingdom of Christ Jesus, Emmanuel, “God in flesh”!!”Amen?

” HEAR ME!

You (”In Christ”) are the salt of the earth; but, if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under the foot of men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.(Are you SET on Calvary’s hill and Christ’s empty tomb?) Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a basket (a church building?), but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all that are in the house (of human civilization?). Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Dare I tell you? Believe I will!! “The ‘Eternal Morning Light” never has a day it doesn’t dawn – bright or cloudy or stormy or rainy – Jesus, the Eternal Morning Light still shines – Are YOU in the ‘darkness’ or do you and yours ‘Radiate’ the Eternal Light WHO IS CHRIST JESUS?

Are YOU “Fear-filled OR Fearless in the Faith?”

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, SEPTEMBER 6-7, 2017

An anonymous writer many, many years ago wrote, “Many things in the Bible I cannot understand; many things in the Bible I only think I understand; but there are many things in the Bible I cannot misunderstand.” But, sadly, for some who clearly understand, they choose to live apart from the historic, personal blessing of the Word of God. It is not anything less than the “Holy Bible, the Holy Word of God, the Holy Scriptures”, anointed, appointed, applying to every soul in every corner of our world – and without it, men perish because of the chosen lack of the meat, the milk, and the bread of life!

I, at first, found it a little hilarious, then I calmed down and wanted to weep when I read somewhere at some time in the past, “Satan has no fear of one’s Bible who allows the dust to remain on it!” Can YOU, even a ‘believer’, sincerely believe you can live the “overcoming life in Christ” apart from His Word? Consider the nations of our world! Where would they be today if the Word of God did not have its rightful place as the constitution and declaration of nations that honor Holy God?

Would you think it is the true foundation of a God-honoring life? Would you dare think that in the ‘ship of your life’s journey on the calm or stormy seas of life’ that His compass of the Word is essential and not sinking in life’s storms? I tell you, whether America or India or England or Nairobi, Kenya, if a nation down-grades, ignores, or lessens the Word of God, the Bible, the Sacred Constitution, that nation begins to sink into the deep waters of fleshly stupidity!

It was Thomas Carlyle, in his writing years ago entitled “Heroes and Hero-Worship; The Hero as Man of letters”, who wrote: “What built St. Paul’s Cathedral? Look at the heart of the matter, it was that divine Hebrew Book, – the word partly of the man Moses, an outlaw tending his Midianitish herds, four thousand years ago, in the wilderness of Sinai! It is the strangest of things, yet nothing is truer.” Oh, how true!

I tell you, for humanity’s sake in the known world, just as our known world cannot exist without the sun or the moon, neither can it sustain itself apart from the Holy Word of God! Yet, how many do you personally know who only tacitly assent to just own a Bible but not be owned, fed, nurtured daily by its contents? At the same time, how many do you know who only talk about what the Bible has to say about ‘how do I go to heaven’ but not, “How does heaven come down to earth to me?” Didn’t Jesus teach us to pray, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” but far too many want a ‘pass’ on earth apart from Kingdom Living, and shred the divine will of Father-God for their earthly lives, yes, missing out on what Eternal Heaven has in store ON EARTH IN A YIELDED HEART AND MIND TO THE HOLY WORD OF GOD?!?

The Holy Word of God historically, from century to century, country to country, day to day, home to home, life to life has not died, cannot die, will not die, even if depraved minds try to deny it or twist it, even if Satanic influences deny it, even if deranged national leaders deny it, even if false prophets try to mix it with their imitation ‘salt and light’, even if compromising preachers want to tone it down, even if Hollywood wants to try and trash it – the Word of God never wavers, wilts, or wanders from the very mind and heart of Holy God, from the lips of King Jesus, or from the anointing of the Holy Spirit who still guides mankind into all Truth if they let Him!

Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said: “Good and holy men, and the best and wisest of mankind, and kingly spirits of history, enthroned in the hearts of mighty nations, have borne witness to the Bible’s influences, have declared it to be beyond compare the most perfect instrument of humanity.” So true! YOU MUST NEVER buy the lie that the Holy Word is not essential to your daily life!

I wrote a few words as I sought to bring this message to fruition! Simple, but I pray, spiritually profound, convicting, and instructing, yes, to the “saving of your soul”! By JFF: “The Word, the Word, the glorious sacred Word, spoken by God to men of earthly sod, to turn them in the path where Holy God treads!

The Word, the Word, the Word, so Spirit-anointed, intended for the life-change of men sovereignly appointed. Man doesn’t live by bread alone, he lives through the Savior whose blood does atone as the historical Word declares.

The Word, the Word, the Word for Divine intent, its glory shines with God’s hand-print; Inspired by the Spirit, spoken by the Lord, proclaimed by His saints, telling us “In Him” and His Word, it releases and restrains, as Holy God trains.

The Word, the Word, God’s Holy Word, unveils Light to every dark age, unveiling His heart on every page; God’s hand, God’s heart, God’s precious words of truth, inflamed, engraved, stamped on the open heart to the man who has no desire from God to depart.

The Word, the Spirit, and the man whom God has touched, opens his eyes, tunes his ears, and willfully turns him, never from God to depart. Trained by the Spirit, guided in all truth, the repentant man learns the “True Root”.

The Word, the Spirit, in heavenly anointing, freely wills the true heart’s appointing, not “me and my best”, but Jesus and His “rest” through which one lives eternally blest!

The Word, the Spirit, in God’s glad guidance, the Word, the Spirit in God’s illumination, is like the bright sun on a world’s dark side, telling mankind, “roll over and return by God’s Word-tide”, receiving Truth for your salvation!

Man’s word, his spirit, who departed from God, he’s sure his wit will carry him through on earth’s sod, but soon by “his flesh”, by the choices he makes, by the devil’s temptations, he denies revelation, and settles for less when before him was God’s best!

The world around us, like Adam and Eve, tempted by Satan, “You will not die!”, and death they chose rather than the Christ who would ‘arise’; “we choose life at its best”, but with no eternal “rest”, even of God’s Truth they then began to detest!

But then comes the Word, the Living Word, the Savior who willingly breaks “the bread of Life”, that man in his need may understand Seed, and sow his life in repentance and faith, recognizing Jesus as his only need!

“I come to Jesus, I’ll sit at His Table, I’ll follow my Master as long as He calls, I have no desire to be enslaved with those who from Him fall. He is my Savior, He is my Lord, His Word His plenteous provision is Heaven’s sharpened sword!

Jesus guards me, He guides me, and Him I will not betray, because Jesus my Lord is the Truth and the Way. I’ll follow His lead and live by His Word, so blessedly assured His Word is His sword! It guards me, it guides me, it will not betray me, I am assured it constantly will sway me and save me.

“Search the Scriptures, for in them you find life, ‘rest in His Word’, be relieved of all strife; it may come against you, but His Word never leaves you, for, yes, in them you DO find Life; Life eternal, Life daily blessed, Life in the Word, the gift of His love!”

Do you remember Christ Jesus responding to Satan AFTER “being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan?” (Matthew 4:1-4). And Jesus responded in Matthew 4:4, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by (physical) bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

It was the ‘spiritual father’, the Apostle Paul, who said to his young ‘spiritual son in the faith’, Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable (Dare I say “essential”, “necessary”, your daily “must have” in spiritual sustenance?) for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Yet many, even most, ‘feed’ on flesh, feeding on worldly ‘wisdom’ most of which shuns the Eternal Word of God, feeding on the ‘temporary’ and not the eternal, feeding on ‘self-promotion’ rather than the Savior’s perfect and perfecting Word, feeding on mental philosophies void of transforming, life-changing, perfecting of the mind, will, and emotions of men in the true wisdom of Holy God, feeding on the ‘vainness’ of “fleshly best” and not the never-fading “Victory” in Jesus, the Living Word, ‘living’ (?) IN the ‘wisdoms’ of the “faithless and perverse generations” that ‘blinds’ even more, ‘deceives’ even more, and, sadly hinders the needy from even hearing the eternal, life-changing, mood-swinging, eternal-life-purpose-changing from flesh to Spirit, from temporary to Eternal, and from ‘me’, ‘us’, to Him, Jesus, our “All” that He desires to be in All!

When the truth of the Word of God is neglected in nations, families, schools, lives, even, yes, some churches, the morality of God-given Life, the meaning of a Christ-impacted Life, and the mission of His Presence in us and through us as a society falls away toward decay and, yes, the safety of a society becomes darkened, and leaves a society bankrupt of the awesome authority of the power of the Spirit through God’s real, revealed, and redemptive work!

Again, Matthew 4:4, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by (physical) bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Are there those who will ‘surface-read’ the Word for the broadening of their ‘brilliance’ without a shred of evidence of “brokenness” about their separation from God? Of course! In fact, in John 5:39-40, Jesus spoke to the ‘proud Pharisees’, saying, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. BUT you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” HOLY SCRIPTURE UNVEILS THE ONLY ONE THROUGH WHOM ETERNAL, BLESSED, ABIDING, OVERCOMING LIFE COMES – AND THAT’S CHRIST JESUS – NOT YOUR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP, NOT YOUR BEST EFFORT, NOT YOUR FLESHLY, PHILOSOPHICAL INSIGHT, BUT HIS INDWELLING THROUGH TRUE REPENTANCE AND FAITH ONLY IN HIS FINISHED WORK OF BLOOD SHED AT THE CROSS, HIS DYING, AND HIS RESURRECTION PRESENCE KNOCKING AT YOUR HEART’S DOOR, DESIRING TO COME IN TO YOU AND ABIDE WITH YOU!

I was a missionary teacher, preacher, evangelist for twenty-five years across India mostly, but also other Asian and African nations, and that which made me want to be there, trip after trip, was the awesome hunger and passion for more and more of the Word in their lives! And the “blessed” ministries, pastors, churches there? Those whose foundation WAS and IS the Word of God and the Spirit of God who “guides into ALL truth”!

I challenge YOU, STUDY BIBLICAL HISTORY, STUDY “TO SHOW YOURSELVES APPROVED UNTO GOD, WORKMEN WHO NEED NOT BE ASHAMED,” STUDY TO LEARN TO BE THOROUGHLY FINISHED WITH YOURSELF, DAILY TAKING THE SENTENCE OF DEATH TO YOURSELF, THAT THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST MAY BE MANIFESTED AND UNVEILED THROUGH YOUR MORTAL FLESH!’ Man does not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD that proceeds out of the mind and heart of God.” He’s not willing that any should “perish”, but that all, exposed to and convicted by His Word, discover “new Life in Christ” that never dies – but around you, you’ll witness the ‘Wordless disciples’ who were never equipped to live by “the Life of Another”, or equipped to daily partake of the ‘bread’, the ‘honey’, the ‘meat’, yes, the “Life” that IS the Word of God!

Are you aware of ‘good’ homes of human society where “the daily bread” of spiritual-life sustenance is never on the table? Are you aware of ‘good’, fleshly efforts of parent daily rendered, but the Holy Word is a sacred book collecting “dust” on a wooden table when God intended it to be imparted in every heart and mind?

Paul became so frustrated with his people’s blind avoidance of the True, Life-Changing Word! He said, in Romans 11:2, “Do you not know what the Scripture says…?” And, sadly, many today DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE WORD SAYS, even though it is merciful God wooing them to, “Come home!”

Paul later said, in Romans 11, that even the ‘religious Jews and the pagan Gentiles could be “grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again”, “if they do not continue in unbelief”, or in neglect, or consider that it’s good to have a Bible around but “feed daily, three times a day, like I do for my body? I don’t have the time nor the interest to invest in Word-study – I’m saved!” Really?

David F. Nygren, in the old “Watchman Examiner”, wrote: “If all the neglected Bibles were dusted simultaneously, we would have a record dust storm and the sun would go into eclipse for a whole week.” Will the ‘history’ of your spiritual pilgrimage ‘celebrate’ your devotion to the Word of God, OR, will it ‘shame’ you?

Oh, and then, there’s Shakespeare, in “Richard 111”, (Act 1, sc.3,l.334), who wrote: “But the I sigh; and, with a piece of Scripture, Tell them that God bids us to do good for evil; And thus I clothe my naked villany With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ, And seem a saint when most I play the devil.” (Of course, “WE DON’T HAVE TO BE CONCERNED ABOUT THAT ATTITUDE TOWARD THE WORD OF GOD IN OUR MODERN-DAY, DO WE?”).

Is it your ‘devotion’ through the Word, OR is it God’s devotion and intent of His Word THROUGH YOU? Are you “born again by the Word of God” having its rightful place of being yielded to it in your mind, heart, and will, submitting yourself daily to, yes, its commands? Didn’t Peter tell us in 1 Peter 2:2, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word of God, that you MAY GROW THEREBY, IF INDEED you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” If there is no ‘divine sustenance’ daily in your life, it would be like a mother in the flesh birthing a child but ignoring the necessary milk the baby needs! How cruel! And, I say, to ignore the Word of God in your maturing process as a professing disciple is to promote pre-maturing and maturing processes as unnecessary in “growing up” or “maturing in the Faith” to spiritual manhood!

A man of the Word, a woman of the Word, a preacher of the Word, is evidence of the reality of being “born again by the written and Living Word of God” and evidence one understands the absolute need day by day to come to His Word that one may be matured, missioned, and becoming Mastered in obedience to Christ Jesus! In John 6:27 Jesus said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.” It’s His call for all disciples to “trust the Word”, treat it faithfully as your necessary ‘food’ to remain strong in the faith, and to faithfully “Preach the Word, testify to the Word, share the Word, proclaim the Word,” because as Peter once said to Jesus, “You have the words of eternal life”!

It was Voltaire who once said, “If we would destroy the Christian religion, we must first of all destroy man’s belief in the Bible.” But the sad truth? If one wants to “destroy” his own ‘faith-walk’ through life, just ignore the Word! IS “THE WORD OF GOD” PERSONAL AND OF NECESSITY TO YOUR WALK OF FAITH AND OBEDIENCE? How does one know what Christ would have him/her to be or to do, if the Word of God is willfully chosen to be ignored?

E.O.Sellers wrote the old hymn “Your Word Have I Hid In My Heart.” It says: “You Word is a lamp to my feet, A light to my path always; To guide and to save me from sin, And show me the heavenly way.

Forever, O Lord, is Your Word Established and fixed on high; Your faithfulness unto all men, Abideth forever nigh.

At morning, at noon, and at night I ever will give You praise; For You are My portion, O Lord, And shall be through all my days!

Through Him whom Your Word was foretold, The Savior and Morning Star, Salvation and peace have been brought To those who have strayed afar.

Your Word have I hid in my heart That I might not sin against Thee, That I might not sin against Thee, That I might not sin, Your Word have I hid in my heart.”

Really? Is that true of YOU? I challenge you: Five chapters from the Old Testament, Five chapters from the New Testament, every day, until you meet Him around the Throne with all true believers and steadfast disciples in hungering and thirsting for the Word of God, even still, in Heaven itself! AMEN?