The Enemy Is Us

Have you ever had a moment in which you just saw yourself, I mean who you were before you came to Christ? Paul minces no words, when in Galatians 5:19-21 he says, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,  envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." I want to be real blunt here, who of us thinks we can just stop this flood of wickedness? He tells us in 3 little words that this is only a sampling! He concludes this litany of lasciviousness by saying, "...and such like..." This is what lurks in the heart of men and women, boys and girls no matter what our background or upbringing. Jeremiah just lays it out when he says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?" (17:9) In other words, none of us can know the depth of wickedness in our own hearts. Why am I saying this? Because the days we live in are evil. They are evil because man is evil. There is only one way to stem this tide of evil, and that has already been done a little over 2,000 years ago outside Jerusalem. Jesus Christ said in Luke 19:10, "...for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” You and I were surely lost. But He has done what we could never do. Paul said in Romans 5:6-8: "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." When our hearts were still full of what Paul sums up by "..and such like" Jesus died for us and rose again to do what Paul told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." He didn't say that we're striving to make them new, he said they are new! That is who we are now in Christ! How do we then overcome the flesh? Paul says in Galatians 5:16, " I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." In other words, remember who you are! John said, "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1 Jn.5:4) I just wanted to share this today because I needed it, I hope it helped you too. Look to HIM, not yourself. May the Lord bless you.

2 Sides

Hadn't posted in awhile, and I just wanted to share something neat that the Lord helped me see from His Word while trying to help someone see the magnificence of our God's grace in Christ! Our salvation is like a coin, which of course has 2 sides. It is mighty hard to slice a coin in two, and separate the heads from the tails, but even if you could, you can't do that with God's eternal salvation in Christ! The "tails" side is our sins all being forgiven in Him because of His finished work on the cross FOR US! I just love Paul's joyful proclamation in Acts 13:38-39: "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."
BUT, the "heads" side of our salvation in Christ is one that many if not most believers are either unaware of or have forgotten, and that is that Christ's righteousness is given to us as a gift! Paul again says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new...For He [The Father] hath made Him [The Son] to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." Ain't that wonderful! (Pardon the bad grammar!) Once we believe in Christ and His finished work for us on Calvary, we have this as a forever gift that He will never take back! Wow, I know it's late, but I just had to share that wonderful news with you! No wonder they call it the Gospel, and Paul says we better guard it with our lives! (Gal.1:6-9). God Bless you all real good, and sleep well!

The Beauty of God

And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. (Rev.4:3-5)
Wow! How tremendous! It is almost impossible to even comment on such amazing truths, taking a brief look at the worship around God’s Throne, illustrated with such God-inspired words, so we’ll just seek to glean some of these glorious truths for our spiritual edification as we think of our Savior's death and resurrection for us that makes it all possible.

It seems these awesome colors are representative of the glory of God!
And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. (v.3)

This makes us also think of Ezekiel's awesome vision of God's glory!

As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake. (Ezk.1:28)
As magnificent as this is, Ezekiel’s response is appropriate and understandable, rather like John's to the glorified Savior!
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I Am the First and the Last… (Rev.1:17)
In this same John’s response to seeing the glorified Lord Jesus, we understand it being much like Ezekiel’s or any who would encounter the awesome God! Yet notice the Lord’s gracious response to His servant! Fear not! Only the child of God in Christ receives this loving command due to His salvation in our life! The next verse in that text also sheds light on our understanding the Lord’s meaning in our text in Revelation 4!
I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I Am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Rev.1:18)
Isn’t it wonderful the beauty of our Savior, even in His awesome power and glory! There is no need to try and debate who the elders are, yet one thing is certain, as high-ranking as they seem to be, and as blessed as they are, they are most definitely subordinate to the One and Only God on the Throne of His universe! This represents and pictures a wondrous truth that is more and more dear to us the darker and more troubled our world becomes, as we remember this truth remains and will always be, God is on the Throne in His Heaven, ruling and loving His own! He knows what He is doing, He is always and only good and we can trust Him! He loves His own, and He has made it possible for any and everyone to be His own through simple faith in His Son’s shed blood for us! God couldn't complete His written Word to us without sending out one final invitation!
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. (Rev.22:17)
This text also, as we touched on earlier, reminds us of the overwhelming, awe-inspiring and breathtaking beauty of our God! David said it so well:
One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in His temple. (Ps.27:4)
No matter how ugly and twisted sin turns this world-system, yet God’s glorious beauty is untouched and unchangeable! Paul calls our God the incorruptible God! Though all else may be corrupted, not our holy, beautiful God! Praise the Lord!
In closing, we’re reminded of God’s matchless grace, in that though the thundering represented deserved judgment to come on those who rejected our Savior, yet the elders round His Throne remind us that they, as we, though once sinners and enemies, received His redemption and are His beloved sons and daughters, saved from the wrath to come! The psalmist put it beautifully:
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. (Ps.91:1)
And it is all because of Jesus!

When He Comes

Have you ever thought of what it will be like when Jesus returns, and we're in His blessed presence? I know that I almost always think of the fact that I'll see those wonderful Hands with nail-pierces in them, that paid such a dear price for my salvation all because of His great love for me. We who have come to Him as He invites us to, and has given us glorious rest from the tyrannical burden of our sin, we know that it will be a joy beyond description and even the possibility of full expression now when we see Him! We'll run to Him, and rejoice in seeing our Best Friend! I know this because we have Scriptural proof of it. Peter, who sinned as much as any of us, yet he came to know Christ, and even after he had denied his Savior so terribly, as we often do, when he realized Jesus was on the shore after His resurrection, what did he do? Did he run away from Jesus in shame and fear because he had failed his Savior so badly? Let's let the Scripture speak for itself on it. "But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Then Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any food?” They answered Him, “No.”  And He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast, and now they were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish. Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment (for he had removed it), and plunged into the sea." (Jn.21:4-7) Peter ran to his Savior! Not long after this, the Lord Jesus in His loving way, allowed Peter to express publicly his genuine love, imperfect as it was, for his Savior, and then He told him to feed His sheep, which he did through his 2 great epistles. Our sins are gone, as the great old hymn sings with joyous abandon, and we need to do as Psalm 107:2 says, let those of us who are redeemed by the Lord, say so!!I'm saying so right now. Maybe you want to as well, then go for it! May the Lord bless you.

Repentance

Have you ever wondered if you had "done it right" when you trusted in Christ for your eternal salvation? I will admit to having had doubts and fears to run through my mind over this issue in the past. But a friend and brother in Christ as well as a fellow blogger has helped me see that faith doesn't look inward at itself, but upward to Christ and beholds Him. In sharing the Gospel with someone, a certain person seemed to have trusted Christ, but later he began to have these doubts and fears as to whether he had "done it right" or not. The main issue in his mind was that this was eternity in question, and it better be right! He was right in that he understood the importance of the matter, but there was something that he was missing, something very important. This person understood that God loved him. He understood that God had done everything to make His gift of salvation available to him, and anyone that wanted it, but the one thing he was terribly unsure of was how to get it. I asked him if he wanted to be saved, and he desperately did. I asked him to think logically about it for a moment, and he did. I said that God being God, knew that he wanted desperately to be saved. Also, I asked him if it made any sense that the God of love who had gone to the great lengths He had to make salvation available to him, would then say, "I'm sorry, but you didn't do it just right when you received My gift of salvation, so you can't have it." He agrees that it would make no sense whatsoever, and it seemed that it was at this point that the "light" came on and he rejoiced in his salvation! The beautiful thing is that God has done it all, and therefore it is out of our hands, except to just accept that it is ours through Christ. I offer that this is true Biblical repentance unto salvation. This dear soul changed his mind, realized who God really was, he already knew he was a sinner and needed Christ, and now he had received what Christ had already done for him! Folks, this is really Good News! God bless you all.

Christmas Grace

Don't really have much in the way of anything prepared to say, just that my heart is so thankful for our Savior who came to earth 2,000 plus years ago to that cave, basically as I understand it, to take on sinless Human Flesh so as to not only save us from our sins, but to identify with us.(Heb.4:14-16). It simply amazes me to think that we can just talk to the God of the universe & know that not only does He hear us, He cares! He also answers us, maybe not always in the way we'd like, or at the time we think He ought, yet His answers are always best & at the perfect time & way we most need it. I have friends tonight who are going through trials that just about are ready to pull them under, yet God's grace is sufficient for them. So it is with you & me. I just want to say, a very Blessed CHRISTmas to you & yours, whatever may be your situation. Remember, Jesus Christ cares, He went to the cross & suffered for you & me in ways we'll possibly never understand yet He did it because He loved you & me so much that He could not let us go to hell without His giving it all so we could have eternal life if we'll just trust Him. OK, I'm gonna stop for tonight & just say Merry CHRISTmas.

God's Grace

We hear a lot about God's grace, & we write a lot about it, & this is good. But it seems we don't always see it in action like we should. I am one of the worst in this, I am pretty good at talking about it but not as good at living it. One of the sweetest verses in the Word of God on this subject of the grace of God is Ephesians 2:7, in which God says that in the endless ages to come He will show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us as believers through Christ Jesus! In other words, God's grace will be on open display all throughout eternity just because we're in Heaven as trophies of His grace! Sometimes we may wonder when we go through hard times how they could ever be used for His glory, or even less, our good? I think of Job in the Bible, & I am just now beginning to see God's abundant grace in this Book like I never have before. Job went through unspeakable suffering, & it was not because of any sin in his life, even though his legalistic friends tried to pin that on him. In fact, God doesn't come right out & tell us in so many words just what caused all Job's suffering except that He allowed it. Yet, at the end of the Book, in Job's response to God, I believe we do see at least part of the reason God allowed the horrendous suffering He did in Job's life. That reason makes all of what he suffered worth it all. In Job 42:5, he says to God, "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You." In other words, I have heard quite a bit of men's opinions of You, from these so-called friends of mine & others, but now I know You in a much more personal way through this suffering." What could be better than to know God better? Paul longed for this type of knowledge of God in Philippians 3:10, & he was glad to suffer, even if it meant his death, to get that deeper knowledge. Jesus said that eternal life is to know God & Jesus who God sent.
Recently God in His grace helped us see at least some of why He allowed a tough time in our life awhile ago, & it ended up being so we could experience His grace in a deeper way. Was it worth it? No doubt! Praise the Lord.