Saved Again!

What in the world kind of heresy is this guy promoting, you ask? Before you deblog me, or take me off your list, please hear me out. I certainly do NOT mean that I or anybody else for that matter has lost their salvation & then regained it! The Holy Spirit has gone out of His Way to make it clear that salvation is eternal. Also, if it were possible to lose it, of course it is not, but for the sake of argument, if it was, then the Bible is also clear that it could never be regained. But all this is for other times. What I mean here, is that the Lord delivered me (saved!) from a very real spiritual battle recently, & this is not the first time He's done this in my life, hence the title! I won't go into the details here, but let's just say that 1 peter 5:8 was in play. I truly felt like I was being swallowed up in fear & dread, the enemy seemingly trying to destroy my faith. Then, a verse I had not thought of in awhile popped into my head, & it was just what I needed! Almost like the Father was right there, & said, "Here is what you need." Of course, I heard no voice, just His word from Isaiah right then when I desperately needed it! In case you are wondering, that verse, or the portion that came to my mind was this: "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a standard against him." Then, my mind went over to Rev.12 & the picture of Satan & the woman there, & the flood out of his mouth designed to swallow her up, & the earth helping her by swallowing it up! Again, the contexts of these texts are for another time, but no doubt, the text He brought to my mind just when I needed it fit my situation to a "T" like we say down here in NC! God is so good! He should have thrown me out years ago, but because He is good & faithful & magnificently merciful & gracious, He has not done so (Jn.6:37). I just had to "say so" about my Redeemer's work in my life! (Ps.107:2) How about you?

In Praise of My Savior

I just wanted to post a few lines to do as the great text in Psalm 107:2 says, "Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy..." I'm "saying so" right here & now! My Savior certainly is patient & kind with me, not giving up on me but rather completing that good work that He began in me the day He saved me! There is nothing good in my flesh, but neither is there in any son of Adam on this green earth! (Ro.7:18). But thankfully our wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ, has shed His precious sinless blood so that we can have eternal salvation & can be washed perfectly clean in an absolutely holy God's searching eyes! There is no doubt that we who are simply trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ & His death on the cross will one day be in glory with Him forever. But, we will be there, not because of anything we have done, but because of what HE has done! (Ti.3:4-7). I just had to post a few lines in praise of my wonderful Savior Jesus Christ because His love is more wonderful than anything in Heaven or earth. If you have come to believe in Him as your Savior, why don't you drop by & just share a few words from your redeemed heart in praise of your Savior as well! I'll be delighted to listen, but far more importantly, so will He. May the Lord bless you.

Remember..........

I am thankful that this is Memorial Day, a day set aside that we especially remember our fallen heroes who have made it possible for us to sit here in the freedoms we have, to write posts like this, & for you to read them. These were men & women of integrity who loved freedom themselves & were willing to die for it. I cannot even imagine the bravery & character that would cause someone to do that. I thank God for them, I really do, & I know you do too.

Now, that being said, let me say that there is a FAR MORE important remembering that we ought to do, we who are saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ from sin & the hell I know I deserve! Paul said it to Timothy, "REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel..." (2 Ti.2:8, NASB; Emphasis Added)

As much integrity & character as these brave men & women posessed, it is only fading leaves compared to the perfect holiness that our Lord Jesus possesses! He is holiness, light & Life! One of my favorite verses, John 17:3, says it so well. Jesus Himself says, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."

So, today as we enjoy remembering our fallen heroes who bought our freedom to worship & assemble & speak what we believe, freedoms, by the way, that can be lost, let's thank our God & remember Jesus Christ, who bought our freedom from sin & hell, freedoms that cannot be lost. And, by the way again, if you know Him, praise God! If not, then right now, if you realize your need, believe in Him Who died in your place, taking the penalty that our sins earned us before a holy God & then you can praise Him as your Savior too. May the Lord bless you all.

Christ is Everything!

I don't know any one particular reason why I wanted to make this post except to publicly express how wonderful it is to have the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior & my very Life! When I look at myself I become very discouraged because I see a sinner who is not really getting much better, but when I look away from myself & see my magnificent Savior, I get joyful again! Some would say that we shouldn't cling to experiences, but though I do not cling to experiences themselves, I get a sense of deep joy when I think on just how my gracious Lord Jesus has blessed my life so many times, & still does.
I may not be blogging as much in the near future, I am just "blogged out" for the time being. I need to spend more time with my wonderful Savior anyway, so I just want to close out this post with a quote from one of my favorite writers, Horatius Bonar. He said, "I am not satisfied with my faith," says one. No, of course you aren't; nor will you ever be; at least I hope not! The Bible does not say, "Therefore being satisfied with our faith we have peace with God;" it says, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God."...Now then, there is but one thing with which Almighty God is satisfied –entirely satisfied –and that is the Person and work of His Son. It is with Christ that we must be satisfied, not with ourselves, nor anything about us! When we cease from ALL our labors, and ALL our righteousness, and ENTER INTO HIS REST, pardon and peace will come without delay." Pardon my grammar, but ain't that great!! It makes me think of our theme song for this blog, "Hallelujah, ’tis done! I believe on the Son; I am saved by the blood of the crucified One." May the Lord bless you all!

The Sense of Sin

Hey y'all. I just had a thought cross my mind & I wanted to discuss it with you. My wife & I were just discussing a movie that came out a few years ago, & actually this could fit the description of likely 99.9% of all Hollywood offerings in the last 20 or more years. But the main character didn't know who his dad was & his Mom was rather a so-called "free spirit." This of course was portrayed as positive, & sin was seen as a non-existent concept. Keep that thought.

OK, now just recently I was chatting with a very cordial, but adamant, unbeliever. But there's a catch to this person. He used to be evangelical Christian! Unfortunately I fear his number is legion. Anyway, as we chatted, one thing he made clear was that he saw no need to be saved from sin. He was comfortable in his life of unbelief. Unfortunately we were not able to chat long. I hope we can chat more soon. But the point in this post (yes, there actually IS one!) is that these two incidents I believe are intimately related. I recall my own conversion to Christ was largely due to a tremendous sense of sinfulness hanging over me, & in me. It separated me from God, & it seemed to be suffocating. Thankfully soon thereafter I trusted Christ! Matthew 11:28 became gloriously true in my own life! As I've stated before, though I can't pinpoint an actual exact moment that I trusted Christ, I do know that there was that time, because though I'm still FAR from what I ought or even want to be, I still know that Christ is my Savior because I have believed in Him, actually I have grabbed onto Him as a drowning man grabs onto a lifeboat!

Anyway, back to my original point, whatever the factors were that led this man to become comfortable in his unbelief, in my mind anyway, a large part of it almost had to be the influence Hollywood has played in making sin seem irrelevant at least, & nonexistent at most. I know the ultimate source behind it all is Satan (Ep.6:12), but Hollywood is certainly a favorite tool of his. Now, I also take a large part of the blame along with the church as a whole. Yet the ultimate responsibility for the lost person is the lost himself. Oh well, I've started to ramble, & that is my sign to sign off! May the Lord bless you all.

Grace For Me, Law For You

The Gospel is Good News!! The Great News of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ, the very Son of God Himself, has died for my sin & yours as well, & this being true, He offers us eternal salvation on the sole basis of our belief in Him for that salvation! But, you may also be aware, that there are many who, though they themselves may very well have understood that & received this most wonderful of all gifts freely, yet for whatever reason, the most likely being that it is sinful human nature, they will not offer you this same opportunity! Instead, they add other oppressive requirements, such as turning from all sin, or at least a promise to do so, or maybe a full surrender of every area of your life BEFORE you can be saved by receiving this gift! And dear reader, may I come clean with you? I have been guilty of this same terrible offense myself. I have freely received this most wonderful of all gifts, but there was a time when I also made some of these same requirements for others to receive it. I no longer do, thank God, but I have in the past.
This Good Friday that traditionally has been celebrated by the church as the day Jesus died on the cross for us, let's once again focus on this greatest of all gift-Givers, & His greatest of all gifts that has ever been given to mankind & if you have not received it as of yet but would like to, know that God is at your side waiting to give it freely to you if you will but take it by faith! Don't get me wrong, there will be requirements in order to follow this greatest Person in all time & eternity as your Lord, but you can only begin to do this after you have received His gift of life & His Spirit who comes to indwell you at the moment of faith in Christ! Read John 3:16-18 as well as Revelation 22:17, God's final invitation to you in the Bible, & believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!! May the Lord bless you today & every day!

I Don't Know!

No, I haven't become an agnostic! But I am compelled to write a brief note here concerning something that at one time in my life was absolutely earthshaking, & I'm not even sure that fully explains the importance it carried in my mind at that time. It was literally a matter of life & death to me. The issue I refer to is knowing the exact time that I was born again. There was a time in my young Christian life in which I had heard that unless a person knows the exact time he or she was saved, that it is very likely the person is not saved! For whatever reason, I uncritically accepted it at that time as truth & feverishly tried to delve into my past (what a waste of time!) to figure out the exact moment so I could have assurance! Talk about a total waste of time & energy, but I spent years, yes I said years, trying to do just that. It literally spent much of my spiritual as well as physical energy. Then, I heard of some very well-known Christians say that they could not point to an exact time, & for a brief moment I experienced a euphoric relief! But, whether it was ingrained habit, or just my rabid introspective nature, I went back to hunting down that elusive exact moment! Then not too long ago, I ran across the teaching ministry of a dear brother who is with the Lord now. His name is Chester, or as he was known, Chet, McCalley. Great Bible expositor. He founded & pastored a Bible Church in Kansas City for nearly or maybe it was over 40 years before his Homegoing. There is a great web site for his teachings in audio format, http://www.wordoftruth.net/. He made a statement that really hit home for me. In a lesson on some Bible truth, I forget what it was now, he made the off-hand statement that he had absolutely no idea when he was born again, & then he made an even more startling statement! He said he was very thankful that he did not know! I thought, "I sure would like to know why you are glad!" Then he told us! I hope any of you fellow strugglers who may be dealing with this will hear what he said next. His reasoning was that he thought if he did have an idea, he would make a "shrine" out of that time, & never move on with the Lord. That is not his exact words, but it is the jist of what he said. It reminds me of the bronze snake Moses had put on the pole for the bitten Israelites to look at in faith & be healed back in Numbers 21 that the people of Israel in later times had made an idol out of & worshipped it! Nehushtan good king Hezekiah called it & then summarily destroyed it! I am not sure but I do think I know my heart well enough that if I did know the exact time, I may almost worship it as well, & never really live in the present & look to the future while walking daily with Christ. I still don't do that anywhere near as much as I would like, but I am learning to trust God with the exact time & just rejoice in His salvation through Christ & hopefully tell as many about it as possible.

Before I end this post, may I say that if you do know the exact date & time, then praise the Lord! You have a great gift as well, & there is certainly nothing wrong with that! Every soul is unique & we have our own needs that God is certainly aware of & sensitive to. He knows how to get our attention & what we need. I just wanted to make that clear before I concluded.

OK, this short note turned into a long one, but I just wanted to share that in case anyone else may be going through something similar. If not, then I guess the Lord knew I just needed to get it off my chest! May the Lord bless you all!

The 1949 Ford

This post is obviously a little different than most for me. Actually it is a lot different. But, don't run off on me yet! I do plan to bring all this around to a spiritual concept in time. But for now consider this. General Motors & Chrysler are in dire straits financially, especially GM from what I read & hear. GM is said to be in its worst shape in 75 years...75 years! Part of the problem may very well be that these companies are just not producing automobiles that are worth what folk have to pay for them. Let's now go back to 1949. The year my Mom & Dad were married! (Obviously I don't remember it!) Ford was about to go bankrupt. Their post-WW2 cars & trucks (1946-1948) were pretty much the same-old, same-old & folk were just tired of them & weren't buying them. Then came the 1949 Ford. An all-new design, & one that I still say was way ahead of its time, just like Chuck Jones' animation in cartoons! All of a sudden, Ford was back in business! They were producing a car once again that people wanted. So, they sold like hotcakes. My point is that if GM is to survive, & I really would like for them to, my heart still skips a beat whenever I see a 1957 Bel-Air, they need to do the same thing Ford did in 1949, start making a product that folks want to buy once again, one that is at least in enough people's minds worth the purchase price.
Now, to move this up to a spiritual plane. Jesus said to let our light so shine that folk would see it & glorify our Father in Heaven (Mt.5:16). But before that He said we are the salt of the earth, & one thing salt does is to create thirst. Our lives ought to create a thirst in folks for the Living Water that we have & offer! We are not offering them a life of drudgery & pain, & that if they sweat & work hard enough, they might make it. We are offering them eternal life as a gift, bought & paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. Revelation 22:17!
We are offering the very Best in Heaven & earth, time & eternity! But, if we do not let Him shine through us, then as He said, we are like the salt that loses its saltness, it's only good to be thrown out & trampled on, like Jesus implied in John 15:6.
Oh well, this post may be a big disjointed mess, but it was like Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street when young Marvin was being used by a shifty so-called psychiatrist for his selfish ends, & Kris said to Marvin, Something just popped into my head & I'm going to SAY it! May the Lord bless you all.

What Can Suffering Do?

A tremendous little-known OT Minor Prophet, Zephaniah, has made an amazing statement concerning suffering, & it is in the context of the future Great Tribulation to come on the earth, before Christ's glorious Millennial Reign! In chapter 3, verse 12 of his prophecy, Zephaniah prophesies, "I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the LORD."
Have you ever faced the question, often posed by those outside of the Faith, of why God allows some to have all or more than they need, while seeminly He allows others to suffer terribly without His apparent care? Some have actually used this seeming inequity of life to blame God & walk away from Him rather than to trust Him as the righteous Judge of all the earth to do right. This verse may have at least a partial answer for this tough question. Certainly we will not adequately answer this question on this humble blog! But I believe we can gain some valuable insight into it through this great Bible text. What if one actually did suffer the loss of everything he had in this world, but it caused him to finally see his need of a Savior, & he trusted in Christ? Certainly this is a worthy trade, though it is not a trade at all! Paul helps us to see the truth of this when he says, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ..." (Phil.3:7f, NKJV, emphasis added)
Granted, suffering does not cause everyone to turn to Christ in faith, but it does for some! I suppose finally we must say along with Paul again, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Ro.11:33) Some may still try to use the suffering in the world as an excuse to run from God & deny Him now, but it could actually turn out to be our friend if we allow it to draw us nearer to Him. Nothing could be better than to be nearer to Him. Thoughts?