Saturday, March 31, 2012

Love Much

Luk 7:47 -

Wherefore I say unto thee
Her sins
which are many
are forgiven
for she loved much
but to whom little is forgiven
the same loveth little

Remember this verse-

1Jn 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

The more we LOVE, genuinely love, the more we KNOW God.
The more we LOVE, genuinely love, the more our sins are forgiven us.

LOVE truly is the real answer.

I know we hear that formerly popular song- 'All you need is love, love is all you need.' And in truth it really is all we need because GOD is LOVE. So in essence we are saying all we need is God, God is all we need, and THIS is truth!

What gets in our way of being able to love? Our selfishness, our self-centeredness, our self-admiration.

Is there any wonder Jesus said this--

Mat 23:11 But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

How many people out there believe they are more important than others? Aren't we being taught from a very young age that we have to put ourselves first because others will only walk all over us if we don't? How many people that you know ASPIRE to be servants to others?

Luk 9:48 ... he that is least among you all, the same shall be great.

Servant- least among us- these are NOT things we are taught to desire. We are taught that the last one chosen, the least desired is the outcast, the worst of the worst. How many people are thrilled not to be that LAST person chosen when others are picking sides? We are taught NOT to want to be the least, the last, the servant, that these are the things we are to despise not desire.

When we are treated like servants we become appalled and disgruntled, even upset and angry, we want to lash out at those treating us like servants, we want to tell them to do it themselves whatever it is, we don't like to be unappreciated which is what we are taught servants are. Even then something inside us rebels at having to do for others what we believe they can do themselves, or should do themselves. We pride ourselves at being able to tell others we're not going to do whatever it is, that they should just do it themselves, we are not their slaves. Yet the truth of the matter is… the REAL HONEST truth is… it is a BLESSING on us to be able to serve- yes, to be able to serve even those who could in all reality very well do for themselves. Every time we serve we are given an opportunity to receive a blessing. I say given an opportunity because we can destroy that opportunity by not RECEIVING it, but rejecting it and letting a spirit of discord rise up in us wiping away any blessing.

I was raised to believe that there were things I had to do- chores and such, whether I liked it or not. I wasn't raised to believe I received a blessing in doing those sorts of things. I, very unfortunately did NOT raise my children to believe in the blessing of serving even in the most minor of things. I taught that they owe the family something- and had to contribute to the over all well being of a semi-well ordered household. They did things because they OWE a debt, they are being well cared for and in exchange for that they should pull their own weight. And now that they're older children I've switched from that to the- you ought to help out because you're an adult and legally you are capable of being out on your own- of having to take care of yourself. Because you're living here and not paying any rent/bills etc you ought to do the things you are told. Again, I haven't really stressed the blessing they can get from serving. Would it make a difference? Would it change the fact they still have to do things they'd rather not, that they have to pull themselves away from their own activities? No. It wouldn't change that.

In my own life as I try- all by the grace and mercy of God, through the Holy Spirit- to alter the awful way I begrudgingly do things that need doing, I hope to make this 'serving is a blessing' a reality. It won't be easy, because the other way is so engrained in me- in fact from my youth.

The least the greatest?
The servant the greatest?
The one who loves most- forgiven most?
The greater sinner who loves is forgiven more than a lesser sinner who loves less?

These are TRUTHS!
These are God's truths!

Love others as GOD would want us to love them.

If we LOVE much, we will be forgiven much and I don't know about you, but there is so much I need to be forgiven for, so much.

Please LORD help me to love!
Please LORD help me to obtain a blessing through serving.

All through YOU!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Sabbath - a WEEKLY reminder of God's love for us!

Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Why?

Why bless a day?

Why make a day holy?

Did days exist before the first day?

The first day.
The second day.
The third day.
The fourth day.
The fifth day.
The sixth day.
The seventh day.

There was NO eighth day of creation- all had been created.

God stopped creating on the sixth day. When that sixth day was over creation now existed. From nothing, from a void, from an emptiness came all of creation by God's wondrous power.

God did it all in six days and added an extra day in instituting a day of rest after such an amazing act.

Could God have created everything in one day? In one hour? In one minute? One heartbeat?

Yes.

The thing is, God was creating a future with the needs of His creatures in mind. The creation process was for OUR edification, it was done as it was for US.

The creation process at our very beginning mirrors so much of life in general. You've heard all about the circle of life, God's circle of life wasn't supposed to include our deaths. Yet there was still a circle of life going on and it's mirrored in creation. That cycle, that circle was instituted in creation. God told Adam and Eve the were to eat of all the trees bearing fruit- save one tree. God told Adam he was to tend to the garden- all before sin entered our world.

Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Gen 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

Gen 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

What happens when you eat a piece of fruit? Does that particular piece of fruit exist any longer? No. There was to be a constant consuming of the fruit and the replenishing of that fruit through that cycle our God brought into existence. God created us with the need to eat. God created us with needs and intended all of those needs be met in all that He gave us. Living as we do in such horrific sin- we can scarcely imagine having all we need - living in a beautiful garden. We can't begin to believe that we could be happy existing in a garden without any of the trappings of our sin filled society, without modern day conveniences. We imagine it to be like camping, but even our best days of camping are still encumbered by sin and the toil that exists in being a sinner- separated from God.

We were changed when we sinned.
Instantly Adam and Eve noticed the difference. It didn't take a minute, an hour, a day for the effects to begin- they were instantaneous.
Sin altered them.
That separation was immediately felt.
Their lives were forever changed in that moment. They were soon cast out of the garden and knowing pain, heartache, shame became real to them- just as we know these things.

You know who God told our first parents to be fruitful and multiply?
Well remember when God added this part after they sinned--

Gen 3:16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

In SORROW would she multiply. It wasn't meant to be PAINFUL, it wasn't meant to be SORROWFUL. Being fruitful and multiplying was to be a glorious, wondrous thing, without a hint of sorrow involved.

Yes, a lot changed when sin took over.

So while we might not be able to fully imagine living happily in a garden it's because we are imagining doing so as sinners filled with all the trials and tribulations that possess sinners.

God created days and did so with a purpose.

The seven day weekly cycle is the only one that has worked and survived for humanity. God instituted that cycle.

What was begun during creation was REINFORCED when God gave His written MORAL LAW to man. A law that needed to be memorialized in stone to a people who had been held captive for four hundred years and as we all know time has a way of changing things. This was something God never, ever wanted changed not ONE jot not ONE tittle!

Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

And reinforced yet again--

Exo 16:15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat.
Exo 16:16 This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents.
Exo 16:17 And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
Exo 16:18 And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating.
Exo 16:19 And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning.
Exo 16:20 Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them.
Exo 16:21 And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted.
Exo 16:22 And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
Exo 16:23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
Exo 16:24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
Exo 16:25 And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.
Exo 16:26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.

The six day work week and the seventh day rest.

This was God's intended design from the beginning, even before sin. Adam in the garden of Eden would work six days and on the seventh day of the week he rested- GOD instituted this amazing day way back at our very beginning and it's a memorial to HIM, our CREATOR.

The cycle given at the beginning still exists for us right NOW.

Our Creator wanted us to NEVER forget our beginning. To forget is to sin because to forget is to deny God, to deny our Creator and if we deny our God, our Creator, we have no hope of being blessed by Him. We have to believe that He is first and foremost.

Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

What an AMAZING blessing it is to have this WEEKLY reminder of God's love for us!

We can get caught up in the world, caught up in the cares of this life, but EVERY SABBATH our God wants us to be brought back into remembrance of who is in charge of our lives. God wants us to remember His amazing love fully realized in the sacrifice of His sinless Son, Jesus Christ. EVERY SABBATH is a chance for renewal. Honestly, God put the word REMEMBER on this commandment for a reason. It doesn't take long for the world to get it's evil clutches into our lives, not long at all. But if EVERY SABBATH we are drawn back into a renewed FAITH the world has less and less of a chance to sink it's clutches in so deep we are drawn away from our God, our Savior, and this God intended. We would forever be reminded of our origins, of our dependent status, of our being LOVED so perfectly that Satan could not keep us from HIM.

All in HIS LOVE!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

This world will pass away- God's will abides forever

1Jn 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
1Jn 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

ALL that is in the world-

Lust of the flesh.
Lust of the eyes.
Pride of life.

ALL THAT IS OF THE WORLD!
All that is NOT of the FATHER.

Lust of the flesh- so much is lust of the flesh so much more than just sex.

Sex is a HUGE part of the flesh and lust. A HUGE part. You can't live in our world today and not know how overwhelmingly corrupted the WHOLE world is by sex. All the horrors of sex slavery, of pedophilia, of homosexuality, of fornication, of teen sex, of meaningless sex, of sexual diseases, of adultery, pornography, of well, you know, you have to know that sex is something that CONSUMES our world. There isn't a single society, a single country, a single place that is exempt from the horrors of the lust of the flesh in sex. In every single household- I'M NOT EXAGERATING! As much as people want to scoff and not believe it's true, it is so incredibly sad that there are very, very, very few households that haven't been touched by the horrors of the lust of the flesh.

How often we hear of the extreme horrors of the sexual perversions filling our world- and just recently I read an article where a very old man confessed to a younger man that the horrors of our perverted sexual world have existed for years- only as a former police officer of many years ago- they were NOT allowed to reveal the horrors to the public because the powers that be thought it would do more harm than good.

These perversions aren't new. We can read of ancient perversions and shake our heads but just because our day and age hides their perversions rather than exposes them, doesn't mean they don't exist, they do in numbers beyond imagining.

Sex is a powerful, powerful thing. Sex can be a good thing it really can but the potential for it to get out of control is so great that we were TOLD it is better NOT to marry, NOT to even go down that road if we can help it. But our LORD knew and knows that some wouldn't be able to contain that powerful force.

1Co 7:8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I.
1Co 7:9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

The lusts of the flesh the obvious - sex, but there are other fleshy lusts- there is a perverted appetite, a love of filth, a warped desire to adorn the flesh outwardly, etc. there are many, many lusts of the flesh and ALL of them are not of GOD.

People might argue that we need lust- but passion and lust are two different things and we do need passion. Lust is a pervert passion.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes- NOT OF GOD!

The pride of life- NOT OF GOD!

We cannot LOVE this WORLD!

WE ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD!

Yet this world will do everything to suck us in and keep us all caught up in its snares, everything!

We have to recognize the FIGHT we are in, the WAR we are ALL IN. We have to believe this is a war, our lives are all caught up in this spiritual battle. Every single person! We have to choose the side we fight on. We have to choose to forsake this WORLD and it's lusts if we desire to be God's.

We choose, and it is a REAL choice we must make.

1Jn 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

All the LUSTS will pass away!
But HE that DOETH the WILL OF GOD ABIDES FOREVER!

We choose!

All by HIS GRACE AND LOVE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, OUR GOD, OUR LOVE.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

He writes unto us

1Jn 2:12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
1Jn 2:13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
1Jn 2:14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

Little children.
Fathers.
Young men.

Little children- sins are forgiven for the for the name of Jesus.
Fathers- you have known Him from the beginning.
Young men- have overcome the wicked one.

Little children- you have known the Father.
Fathers- you have known Him from the beginning.
Young men- you are strong and have the word of God in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

The word of our Lord is being given to us all.
None of us is left out.

Those who will listen, those who LOVE GOD will be able to hear, they will be able to comprehend His LOVE.

Those who will NOT be God's, those who do not want to be God's- all the little children, all the fathers, all the young men- will NOT be God's.

We will be forgiven for HIS name's sake.
We will know HIM from the beginning.
We will overcome the wicked one.
We will have the word of God in us.
We will know Him.
We will be strong.
We will overcome.

We will be HIS.

The word of God is written for us to learn from-- we must understand that God WANTS us to read what He writes for us. This isn't a book meant for a select time- it was never intended to be. This is a book that is everlasting in it's knowledge of our God of His LOVE.

So many people want to pick it all apart and not take it as a whole.
So many people want to destroy the word of God, to make His love perverted, something to abhor.

The word of God is filled with LOVE, and a love we can truly see in all that's done.

An exacting REAL love beyond anything we can fully comprehend.

We are given His word, we HAVE to read His word and let the Holy Spirit give us the understanding we need.

All by HIS GRACE.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Darkness is past, true light now shines

1Jn 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

The DARKNESS is past.
The TRUE LIGHT NOW SHINETH.

What darkness?
What did our Savior accomplish at calvary?
He was the PROMISED seed from the beginning. Right after our first parents sinned and separated us from God, our Savior was a spoken promise to our first parents. Our Savior was ready to step in before Creation, ready in the event we fell. That spoken promise was fully realized after 4000 or so years! 4000 years in darkness. 4000 years with Satan trying everything in his power to stop the Promised Seed from coming. Truly 4000 years of darkness.

When our Savior was born a LIGHT was brought into the world that lived in darkness. A world that lived with a Promise as yet unfulfilled. A world that hung in the balance, it's hope of salvation unrealized. Satan fought hard to stop it and he continued to try and stop it. After the birth of our Savior took place Satan working through Herod ordered all infants in Bethlehem to be killed!

Mat 2:13 And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

Mat 2:16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.

Satan worked through many, many people, filling them with his evil, manipulating them to try everything to destroy the seed line of God's promised One. Once the LIGHT was shining in the world Satan tried to destroy that Light and He succeeded- only it happened under God's PLAN, not Satan's.

The LIGHT shined brilliantly in the world, brilliantly!

The TRUE LIGHT came to SHINE in the world brining the message of the kingdom- the gospel of salvation through our SAVIOR!

The darkness was past. The obscurity of what was promised was no longer there as the promised was fulfilled.

As always an unfulfilled promise lives within the realm of un-fulfillment- in darkness.
Light shines on fulfilled promises, they are realized, they are brought to life.

Our Savior was brought to life, the promise of Salvation at hand!

Our Savior emphasized the truth of the commandments we were given, the moral law. Our Savior told us that we were to LOVE God and to LOVE our fellowman.

1Jn 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

This is TRUTH. If we say we are in the LIGHT of Jesus and HATE others then we are in DARKNESS!

1Jn 2:10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

We must LOVE others!

1Jn 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

Darkness equals HATING others.
Walking in darkness is walking, living and HATING others.
Walking in darkness is BLINDING.
Living in hatred of others is blinding, darkness complete and utter darkness fills us and we cannot see there is NO possible way of seeing because that hatred allows NO light to enter, none.

By the GRACE of God may we WALK IN LIGHT, in the LIGHT OF OUR SAVIOR who dispels ALL DARKNESS!

Love conquers hate!

It truly is all about LOVE! Real, real genuine LOVE.

In His LOVE always!!!!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Commandment we've had from the beginning

1Jn 2:7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.

NO new commandment unto you.
An OLD commandment.
A commandment you had from the BEGINNING.
The WORD ye have heard from the beginning.

I'm sorry but anyone who says the moral commandments, the ten great commandments given by God were first introduced at Sinai by Moses well they're WRONG. Those many, many years before Moses those laws were in effect. These laws are STILL in effect. Writing them down for a people who were being CALLED out of a 400 year life of slavery was necessary but they weren't brand new.

Remember when Cain murdered Abel? Cain knew IMMEDIATELY it was wrong to murder. Cain didn't believe he'd done nothing wrong, that is was okay to murder, he KNEW instantly.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God's only verbal warning command to them and committed the first sins- they KNEW instantly they'd done wrong.

There is a right and wrong that existed from the beginning and it is summed fully up in the ten commandments. Jesus renewed the truth of the ten commandments when He walked the earth. They are fully realized in these two commandments- LOVE GOD and LOVE MAN.

The newness of commandments is in the doing away of the ceremonial commandments, doing away with that which isn't in the MORAL LAW.

NEVER would there EVER be a reason for God to do away with His moral law, NEVER! It was established in the beginning and will always exist, always and forever!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, there will NEVER be a time to disobey any of the ten commandments, NEVER. Never will any single one of the ten moral laws be obsolete, never! We will forever be instructed to LOVE GOD and LOVE EACH OTHER.

When our Savior returns we will be filled with this love forever and ever and ever, a love we cling to now all by the grace and mercy of our LORD and SAVIOR. Our Lord and Savior make it possible for us to LOVE, we could NEVER love without them, NEVER.

In the beginning, during, and at the end, on to eternity God's love written in His law will forever be realized.

Please Lord, please help us to realize the eternity of your commandments, the love of your law, help us!

All in YOUR amazing LOVE!

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Jesus is our role model

1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1Jn 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Jesus is our ROLE MODEL.
Jesus in the One we need to emulate.
Jesus is the One we need to follow and NO other.

If we say we BELONG to Jesus we need to live as Jesus lived.

Jesus did NOT call all the people He came in contact with to be PHYSICAL followers of Him. He did call ALL to be His spiritual followers, but He did not tell every person He healed to give up everything and follow Him. He did not tell every person that listened to Him that they needed to leave their homes, their jobs, their families and go with Him. Jesus gave many, many lessons to those He knew would never leave their families, their homes, their jobs.

When we are told to walk as He walked, we are being told to live the spiritual life He led, to live the moral life that He did, to live the self-less life that He gave us as an example, to live connected fully with the Father. Anyone who actually believes that walking as Christ walked means PRETENDING (with great delusion) to be Christ is far off the mark. We are to live towards our spiritual life, not our carnal life.

If we are abiding in our Savior we are living a life PLEASING TO GOD.

Our Savior lived a life PLEASING to God.
Our Savior lived a life fully dependent upon God.
Our Savior did NOTHING in and of Himself.
Our Savior did GOD'S WILL, not His own.

You wonder how could the two wills be opposed?

Luk 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

This is how our Savior lived His life.

He felt His humanity every bit as much as we do.
He didn't WANT to suffer. He didn't WANT to be betrayed. He didn't WANT to be tortured, to be ridiculed. He didn't WANT to be murdered. He KNEW what was going to happen and He did NOT want to go through it all. He wanted His CUP- the bitter dregs of what lay ahead to be taken away from Him so He wouldn't have to drink it, so He wouldn't have to endure all the pain, all the unspeakable agony. But more than facing all that torture HE didn't want His OWN will to be done, He wanted His FATHER'S WILL to be done.

We have to WANT God's will to be done over our own will.

The two wills- man and God's will war against each other because sin separated us from the natural desire for God's will to be done in us.

Jesus revealed His humanity in this statement- NOT MY WILL. Not what He wanted, not what He desired and YES, He did WANT something contrary to the will of God, HE DID, He said it HIMSELF!

NOT MY WILL.

To say those words meant that His will was contrary to the Father's will or else He never would have had to say those words at all.

NOT MY WILL.

BUT THINE BE DONE.

This is HOW we must live. We must submit to the WILL of God, not to our own will which is contrary to God's.

If we are to walk even as Christ's walked then we have to comprehend that our Savior's humanity was as real as ours is. That He faced the same temptations we face- only probably worse. He did. Too many people want to believe that He was above even the idea of temptation, that it was impossible to tempt Him because He couldn't be tempted. Tempting someone that can't be tempted is pointless. Jesus WAS TEMPTED and the possibility for Him to give in to temptation existed! He could ONLY be victorious over sin if it were a real possibility for Him to sin.

He CHOSE to follow God's will, not HIS OWN.

This is what we must do as we fight this Spiritual war. We have to understand that we are in a constant battle of wills ours against God's, with Satan urging us on to follow our own will.

Satan starts teaching us at a very young age that our own desires, that our own will is more important than anything else. That abiding in only ourselves and walking after only our own ways is what's best for us. Satan teaches us that to deprive ourselves is a bad, bad thing, totally unnecessary. Satan teaches us that to be served is better than to serve. Satan teaches us that resenting others is a good thing, a natural thing, an expected thing, that to receive a reward for our service is expected.

Jesus teaches us this--

Luk 6:34 And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to

If we do for others because we are hoping receive in kind we are doing it for the wrong reasons yet we are told that is exactly what we are to expect. You do this for someone and they are obligated to repay in kind. We grow up on this stuff!

Being the servant is NOT something we are encourage towards especially here in the United States.

Yet we MUST be servants.

Our Savior was a SERVANT!

And our SAVIOR told us that if we want to be first we must be last!

Such contrary teachings to our society.

Looking out for number one is how we are raised and that number one is always self. This is completely contrary to our Savior's desire for us. We are to look out for God, for others, NOT OURSELVES! Yet it's become so ingrained in us that we call it second nature, is it any wonder we find it so incredibly hard to walk as Christ walked? We've been living lives completely contrary to God's will, taught to do so, encouraged to do so.

May God help us all!

Our only hope is the RIGHTEOUSNESS of Christ!
Our only hope it the MERCY, the GRACE, the FORGIVENESS of our SAVIOR!

Our only hope is found in HIM and not in us.

May HIS WILL, may GOD'S WILL be done in us!

All through HIS LOVE!

Friday, March 23, 2012

The love of God perfected

1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

Keeping the word of God PERFECTS US in GOD'S LOVE.

Do we want to know that we know HIM? Then keep His commandments.

Do we want to have the LOVE of GOD perfected in us? Then keep His commands.

We CAN know we are in Him and NOT fooled into believing we are when we really aren't.

Does this mean you'll be perfect? No. It means you'll be forgiven, fully forgiven, fully covered in HIS love.

So what happens when you realize that you are coveting daily- breaking a commandment of our Savior's? Does this mean you are NOT in God's love, that you don't know God? Absolutely NOT.

Contradictory? It might appear so but the truth is in the heart.

Was Paul loved by God? Did Paul know God, did he know that He knew God? YES.

This same Paul spoke these words--

Rom 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

Rom 7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

*

So tell me, did Paul know the EXACT same struggle that we today are facing?

We would KEEP the law of God the spiritual law that is His MORAL law as He has commanded us- this spiritual law will be written upon our hearts and we will keep it fully in our changed flesh when our Savior returns to give us new life. That new flesh we are given will no longer be carnal but changed into a spiritual nature no longer corrupted by sin.

We have to KNOW this--

FOR I DELIGHT IN THE LAW OF GOD AFTER THE INWARD MAN.

This delight in the law of God is a spiritual delight. This delight in the law makes us feel the stinging pain of conscience when we see ourselves sinning. The deep need to repent, to ask for forgiveness to seek to be free from the propensity towards the sins we cherish, the sins we enjoy- that our carnal nature exalts in making us slaves to those sins, making us believe we cannot be happy without those sins, that our lives would be deprived of a need if we have to give up something we find so convenient, so pleasurable, so normal, natural, so status quo, so conformed to the world that we can't imagine our lives at all without the sins whatever they may be.

We are called to be PILGRIMS, to be STRANGERS walking in a strange land not to be natives to the land, not people at home and content in this world, not seeking to plant our roots deep in this worldly sin stained soil. Heaven is our HOME. Heaven is where our Savior has prepared a place for us! Heaven is the place sought for by all of those who would be God's. This world is NOT our home! Is it any wonder Satan does every thing in His power to get us to believe differently?

1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

God's word tells us to LOVE.
God's word tells us to have FAITH.
God's word tells us we have an ADVOCATE with the FATHER.
God's word tells us that when we fall to the carnal flesh we have a SAVIOR and it's to HIM we must go, HE has the righteousness we need, we do not possess it.
We must keep God's commandments and He commands that we LOVE HIM, and LOVE EACH OTHER.

More on this tomorrow ALL by the grace and mercy of our SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!

In HIS LOVE.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

We can know if we know Him- this is how...

1Jn 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

Do you wonder if you know God?

Many people do.

How can we know if we know Him?

We KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS!

He tells us how we know if we know Him, we do not have to wonder.

Are we keeping HIS commandments?

If we are NOT keeping His commandments we do NOT KNOW HIM.

We might think we know Him, but we don't if we are not keeping the commandments He's given to us.

All of the commandments our Savior has given to us are enveloped fully in His MORAL law. That law was put into the heart of mankind upon their creation and when man sinned they cut themselves off from the source of love that put the law of love into their hearts.

Once man was cut off from that source a WAY had to immediately be put into action for man to obtain the love of the law in their hearts again. The separating breach had to be mended and that was done in this promise…

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The heel that was to be bruised was our SAVIOR'S.

This promise was put into action the MOMENT God confronted mankind and Satan in that garden. In truth read this…

Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began

BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN!

The plan was in place before the world began! The promise we given before mankind existed. Knowing the risk they were taking in creating human beings, flesh and spirit mingled, they realized all the pros and cons and knowing there was that possibility of sinning and separating themselves from God through the urging of the corrupt one-- our Creators had a plan.

Yes, before the world began the plan was there ready to put into action.

When heartbreakingly it became necessary to do so, the plan was enacted and it's STILL being carried out and until our Savior returns and we are united with HIM in eternity it will be unfolding. The completion of the plan will be when we are inhabiting the new heavens and new earth with our God, with our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

The commandments we must keep are commandments of love all encompassed in the moral law of our ten commandments and summed up by our Savior in this verse…

Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
Mat 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

LOVE GOD.
LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS.

1Jn 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

We must love this is our Savior's commandment to us.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

For the sins of the whole world

1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Our Savior is THE propitiation-

-the one who appeases-

for our sins.

Our Savior stands between us and God the Father.

Our Savior stands between us and the wrath of God the Father.

Our Savior is our Advocate, our Mediator, our Propitiation for our sins and NOT just a few people, not just for special people, not for a select few but HE is the ONLY ONE who can stand as the propitiation for our sins and the SINS of the whole world.

THE WHOLE WORLD.

Our world could not be saved, our world could not exist without Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior intervening.

So many people believe that our world exists on its own. They believe the world came into existence by chance not design. They believe the world will exist forever unless we human and our ways destroy it. They believe that all the natural disasters exist for reasons that are easily comprehended and every single planet has it's own natural issues all existing by mere chance.

This world was not accidentally created perfect and then slowly started to fall apart. This world was not created a mess and then put itself together magically.

This world was created PERFECTLY by a PERFECT GOD filled with love we scarcely can comprehend. This perfect world was perfect in all its ways as were the inhabitants created to fill this world. ONLY after sin entered the world did it become corrupted. Only after the unimaginable chaos of the worldwide flood did this world develop the awful problems that plague it through so many natural disasters. Our God's wrath could have destroyed this earth in an instant and yet the compassion that flows from the LOVE He is didn't allow Him to do that. There was a WAY made for the world to be reconciled to Him.

Rom 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

The sins of the WHOLE WORLD CAN BE FORGIVEN. The possibility is there, it exists. Sadly, so tragically, heartbreakingly all the sins won't be forgiven because so many don't believe they even have a need to seek forgiveness. The unforgiven sins will be punished fully, every single one. Those who do NOT accept what our Savior has done for us, shedding His innocent blood to cover our sins, to wipe them away completely, so that we are truly and fully RIGHTEOUS in HIM with HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, those who do not accept this will perish eternally they will no longer exist in any way at all ever. They have to answer for their own sins they have no mediator, no advocate, no one to stand between them and the awesome LOVE of God.

Please LORD help us to seek salvation, to seek the gospel of the kingdom in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, His righteousness. Please…please.

In Your LOVE.

Monday, March 19, 2012

An Advocate

1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

We should NOT sin.
Anyone who thinks it's okay to sin is deceived.
Anyone who thinks there is any sin no matter how small that doesn't need to be forgiven is gravely mistaken.
We cannot commit even the tiniest of deliberate sins and expect that we are forgiven.
Any sin that we are aware of MUST be forgiven and in order for that sin to be forgiven we have to ASK for it to be forgiven.

We are NOT to sin.

However…

IF ANY MAN SIN we do have and ADVOCATE with the FATHER, and JESUS CHRIST the RIGHTEOUS.

We have an ADVOCATE!

We don't have to pay for this Advocate.
When you need an advocate in worldly matters you more often than not must pay for them or go unrepresented by anyone but yourself.

Have you ever had to represent yourself in court? I have and it's not easy, especially when you have a judge ignoring all your attempts to follow things to the legal level of the law, the judges I've had to deal with have taken offense at my audacity to even try to think I might know something of the law. They say over and over that I should get a lawyer, get a lawyer, hire a lawyer, get someone to represent you. But when you just CAN'T afford to hire representation then you only have yourself to rely upon and the mercy of the court which isn't all that understanding. They want those who have gone to school and studied to speak with them, not someone ignorant of all that learning. Judges, lawyers, and those they represent.

Spiritually we have a judge, spiritually we have an advocate, and spiritually we exist as those who will be judged and those who have a need for an advocate because in this spiritual trial we cannot survive representing ourselves. We need someone to advocate for us. In fact we need someone to actually TAKE OUR PLACE, someone willing to STAND IN for us, someone willing to ACCEPT our punishment because we are GUILTY!

We cannot plead our case, we are GUILTY.
We can only stand before the judge and admit our guilt and pray that our Advocate Jesus Christ our Savior will stand in our place and take our guilt. He's already served the sentence and it was the death penalty. A God- taking on flesh and dying an innocent man.

Only by the grace of our Savior will we live and no other way at all whatsoever.

If we do sin we must confess our sins and repent of them, seeking forgiveness in our God, our ADVOCATE, this is our only hope.

By His LOVE always!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Walk in light

1Jn 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
1Jn 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jn 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Joh 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Joh 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

God is light.
There is NO darkness in God at all.

When we live in darkness we are living in ignorance.
There is NO blindness with God- He sees all and knows all.

If we say we are living in Christ and then do the works of darkness we are LIARS.

We cannot do the works of darkness and say we are Christ's.

Yes, we are all sinners and sinners who seek to be with Christ, sinners who seek Christ's forgiveness. We need to repent and that repentance means giving up the sin. If we don't give up the sin then we have to repent and seek forgiveness over and over again. We cannot keep sinful things in our lives willingly and not repent of them even if that means repenting constantly. Some will tell you that you can't repent constantly, that you aren't truly seeking forgiveness and repenting if you commit the sin again, but that is Satan trying to lead us into despair. We have to constantly seek the Light and to walk in that Light. We cannot allow ourselves to walk in darkness with no hope of light, we just can't. This isn't a free pass to sin and get by, not at all. God knows our hearts and knows whether or not we are truly repenting. He knows whether or not we truly want Him to lead our lives, to be the LOVE of our lives, HE knows our HEARTS and He alone can give a clean heart.

The blood of our Savior will truly CLEANSE us from ALL SIN.

We can't believe we have no sin, we can't deceive ourselves- NOT if the TRUTH is in us. We must confess our sins, we must realize that OUR LORD is faithful to us and WILL forgive us and HE will CLEANSE us from ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS!

If we pretend we have NO sin, then we call our LORD a liar and His truth, His word is NOT in us.

We have to remember always that God is LIGHT, God is LIFE. God will shine HIS TRUTH into our IGNORANCE, so that our IGNORANCE will not kill us.

We need to comprehend the LIGHT of God, the TRUTH because if we don't we will live in darkness and believe me, Satan loves to surround us in his darkness masquerading it as light.

2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

If our arch enemy can transform himself into an angel of light we have to seek only the TRUTH and live in that TRUTH of God's so we are NOT deceived!

All through HIS GRACE!
All through HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!
All through HIS LOVE!

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Fellowship with the Father and the Son

1Jn 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
1Jn 1:2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

That which was from beginning.
That which was heard.
That which was seen with their eyes.
That which they looked upon.
That which their hands touched.
The WORD of life.

How do you touch words?

You don't, not really.

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.

In beginning the WORD existed.
The WORD existed WITH GOD.
The WORD also was a GOD.
God with God in beginning.

The first word spoken was spoken by our Savior- He is the Word.
All things were made by our Savior.

Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

God with God, God the Father with God the Word creating our world, bringing us into existence.

God the Word with God throughout eternity no beginning, no end, ever existing. The Word gave us existence and the Word offers us salvation. The Creator, the Redeemer.

Some were witness to the miracle of the Word made flesh. They were blessed, able to see Him, touch Him, hear Him. These brought the message to us who would exist thousands of years later that through faith we would believe without seeing, without touching, without hearing.

1Jn 1:3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1Jn 1:4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

We also may have FELLOWSHIP with those who lived thousands of years ago and this fellowship is possible through faith in the Father and with the Word made flesh, the God who became the Son and lived among us.

We are told that this fellowship is possible, this amazing fellowship with our eternal Gods and we must believe it because only in believing will our joy truly be full.

When our hope is in eternity and things eternal and not focused on here and now, we can have that joy because NOTHING can take away that joy, that hope, nothing!

As our existence here might seem unbearable - we suffer truly suffer- we can still lay hold of the hope that is found in our God the Father and our God the Son- our Savior. Eternity can be real through faith in our Lord. Satan would blind us to eternity, or make it so that eternity is something impossible to obtain, but the real truth is that eternity must be our hope, our truth because eternity exists in our Savior!

Remaining steadfast

2Pe 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2Pe 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

Our only protection comes when we grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

If we are growing in grace, if we are growing in the knowledge of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST then we are much less likely to fall from our steadfastness.

When we are steadfast we are holding onto our faith looking forward to the coming of our Lord, looking forward to our heavenly home where our treasures are kept, looking forward to a new heavens and a new earth where there is no more sin. When we are steadfast we are fighting the good fight and it is a fight, a daily fight.

Just because life isn't going smoothly and everything is going just right doesn't mean you are lost. It is Satan who would have us give in to despair because he knows once we begin to despair then we lose hope. Despair pushes hope aside and tells us we will never be what we know God would have us to be. In truth, God would have us be His throughout all the trials and tribulations we face. As we are put into the fires of refining our God wants us to suffer through all that we must and holdfast to HIM knowing those fires, knowing that suffering is not going to last forever but is temporary. We have to fight, we have to make choices and we have to seek our Lord with all our heart, mind, and soul.

Satan would have us believe that we will never give up the sins we cherish, the sins that we believe are a part of our nature. Satan wants us to believe that we are too stained to be God's, too filthy to have hope. We have to fight the despair that Satan tempts us with and hang on to our Lord's promises. We won't see the sealing placed upon us, but God and His holy angels will. Satan would have us believe it's impossible, completely and utterly impossible to be God's in this world of sin, but it's NOT, nothing is impossible with God, nothing.

Mat 19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

Only with God are we saved and we must cling to Him and His saving grace praying all the while that the fires of refining do the work they are meant to do in us.

Please Lord, please help us to grow in grace!
Please Lord, please help us to grow in knowledge of YOU!
Please Lord, please help us NOT to lose our steadfastness but remain FOREVER in YOU, our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Longsuffering

2Pe 3:15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2Pe 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

The longsuffering of our LORD IS SALVATION.

This is the truth.

Without our Lord's longsuffering we would have NO hope at all whatsoever!

Only by HIS grace, by HIS mercy, by HIS longsuffering do we live in HIS love.

A person who exhibits longsuffering is counted amazing aren't they? Or do many count them as fools? Throughout history we've had many examples of people who have been rash in their actions, unable to suffer long with anything at all contrary to their desires. Patience is in short supply when it comes to enduring something that calls for suffering. No one wants to be the one who suffers, and on the other side of the coin no one wants to be the one who has to endure the suffering of others. I say no one as if that's truth, but in our world it's far from true. Some actually enjoy the suffering of others and they are far from the love of God, caught in Satan's snare.

Our LORD is long suffering. Our LORD endures the awfulness that is our world so far from the truth, so far from all that He is, love. To look upon the horrific stain of sin spread far and wide, deep and long is something that causes our LORD pain! How could it not? How? Seriously, when we as humans look at various projects and life happenings of our own that have gone bad it breaks our hearts, yes? How many parents who have tried their hardest to raise good children have had the heart break of watching them go bad? How many children have had to watch their parents go bad? Seriously, this is the world we live in and on such a tiny level we get to experience what it means to suffer. Our Father in heaven He suffers! Our Savior in heaven, He suffers! They suffer as they watch throughout time since the beginning of mankind the horrors of sin invading a world that was never meant to be touched by the vile taint of Satan.

Our God is long suffering, allowing US right now who live to be have the precious gift of life, this opportunity to belong to HIM and live with HIM in eternity in a world that will be new and forever without sin.

2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Hard to understand?
They who are unlearned and unstable wrest?

This is truth.

When we try to put our OWN truths into God's no longer accepting HIS truths then we are confused, we are lost. We have to accept GOD'S TRUTHS! When we get lost in His word then we need to fall on our knees and pray for Him to guide us, to lead us in the right path, His path, His truths!

Do we have to comprehend everything? No. The SECRET things belong to God.

Deu 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

We can't expect to comprehend everything, we have to trust, we have to have faith in our God that He is LOVE, pure LOVE.

2Pe 3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
2Pe 3:18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of our loving GOD.

Amen.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Look for such things

2Pe 3:14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

We look for such things.

The things of HEAVEN.

We look for a new heaven and a new earth, don't we? Seriously, don't we?

We face so many obstacle every single day. All too often we imagine ourselves taken out of the situation and tell ourselves things would be different if only this or that, but the truth is, those same obstacles will follow us everywhere because the obstacle s and how we handle them is in internal spiritual battle. We cannot be asked to be taken out of the world - Jesus did not even ask that for us. We cannot be asked to be exempted from all of life's many, many problems.

Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Jesus prayed that we should be KEPT from evil, not that we wouldn't have temptations and trials. Jesus knew that we would have to live in a corrupt world and He did not say that to stay in Him we must hide in the mountains away from all temptation. Our Lord did not tell us to be isolated, to become hermits, to hide away. The battle is an internal one, a SPIRITUAL war fought within our minds, our hearts.

We MUST enhance the SPIRITUAL and put down the FLESH parts of our lives. We have to do this! And we can ONLY do this through the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR.

We MUST look for the coming of our LORD- this is WHY our SAVIOR LIVED and DIED! He lived and died to give us life eternal IN HIM in a new world, in a new heavens and a new earth. If we aren't living towards that new heavens and new earth then we aren't living in CHRIST our Lord and Savior.

Do we wake up with joy, knowing we are one day closer to our eternity with out Savior? We should, we really, really should. Through our Lord's righteousness we are saved by His amazing love, His amazing grace, His amazing forgiveness.

2Pe 3:14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

We must be diligent so that we may be found in our Savior in PEACE, without spot, and blameless.

We can only be found in Him that way if we have hope firmly planted in Him.

His peace, His love will fill us, must fill us, must make us blameless.

Please Lord Help us, help us grow spiritually as we die more and more to our flesh, PLEASE.

All in YOU.

Monday, March 12, 2012

The Choice is Ours

2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
2Pe 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

As a thief.
A thief strikes unexpectedly- at least to the one he steals from. If you've ever been robbed you know how it feels, how awful it is to discover things missing, to find yourself no longer in possession of things you owned and never expected not to own. It's a shock.

The day of the LORD will be a shock.
There isn't going to be any grand rapture and then a waiting period for others to come to Jesus, that's a wicked lie and it lulls many into waiting, into holding off on their acceptance of the Lord because they don't want to repent of their wicked ways. Just imagine how many people have watched the 'Left Behind' series or read the books and are now filled with the belief that there will be a NOTICE, our God will give the world a special notice that they really can't ignore and that notice will be people disappearing. As those people wait for the NOTICE they aren't concerning themselves with truly walking with God now because they'll get a second chance and they definitely won't be able to ignore that when it comes. It's a LIE. A great big, ugly, deceptive lie of Satan's.

The day of the LORD will be a shock, it will be UNEXPECTED and at that point it's MUCH too late to decide to give your heart to Jesus.

The word of God tells us to WATCH so it doesn't come as a thief in the night to those who are His.

Mat 24:43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.

Mat 25:13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

Mar 13:36 Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
Mar 13:37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

Luk 21:35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Luk 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

We are admonished to WATCH. If we are watching then we are not taken by surprise. If we are watching vigilantly a thief won't rob us. People set up security systems about their houses and businesses, they put up surveillance equipment all with the hope of warding off would-be thieves knowing a thief is less likely to strike when they know they are being watched.

2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

The heavens shall pass away- our atmosphere as we know it will cease to exist.
There will be a GREAT noise.
Things will begin to melt with the heat.
The earth, the things of the earth will be burned.

What a vivid picture we are given. No one will be left alive on the earth. All those who are Christ's as His coming will be taken to heaven as the earth below them burns.

2Pe 3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,
2Pe 3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

So KNOWING all this will happen- what sort of people should we be?

We should be in HOLY conversations and GODLINESS!

We should be LOOKING FOR and HASTING unto the coming of that day, the day of GOD.

It will happen!

The atmosphere will be gone and the earth will be destroyed by fire.

This isn't a possibility, this is a REALITY.
This isn't one scenario in many, it is the ONLY scenario.

The one thing we have left up to us is where we figure in this picture. We will either be God's and spared, or not be God's and condemned.

The choice is OURS.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

God is long suffering

2Pe 3:8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Be NOT ignorant of this ONE thing.
ONE DAY is with the LORD -
-as a THOUSAND YEARS.
And
A THOUSAND YEARS-
-as ONE DAY.

We cannot allow ourselves to imagine God on our time, He does NOT live in time as we know it.
A thousand years to us who live a measly 70-80 years, some more some less, is a long, long, long time! The number of people who have lived during the almost 6000 years earth has existed is in the billions more? And yet a thousand years to our God is as ONE DAY.

Time is NOT measured by God as it is by us, it just isn't and we cannot allow ourselves to forget this. When we pull God down into our time we try to put our humanity onto Him and that's impossible!

We might be tempted to say that God is taking TOO long to make good on His promise of our Savior's return but that wouldn't be true at all. There is no such thing as taking TOO long with our Savior. When we say God is taking too long we are doubting Him, we are doubting His goodness, we are doubting His love for us.

The Lord might seem slack to us who have witnessed the history of millions pass by over the last 2000 years living without seeing His return. We know that many, many generations have lived and died without witnessing the long awaited return and we have the fear that we too will live and die without witnessing the coming of our Savior- it's a very real possibility. We see the signs, but many have seen the signs. We cannot count God as being slack concerning the promise of His return.

God waits because He is LONG SUFFERING.

If God weren't long suffering then He would have ended things long, long ago.

God doesn't want us to perish.

God wants us ALL to realize our need to repent and in repenting, seek forgiveness and accept Him as our Lord and Savior! God wants us all saved in His love, His amazing love!

Please Lord, please help us to come to repentance in You, all in You.

Help us to please accept You Lord, and accept that all things done in Your time are done at the right time.

Please Lord, bless us to that acceptance all in YOU, in YOUR love!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Scoffers, unbelievers

Scoffers.

Unbelievers.

2Pe 3:1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2Pe 3:2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour

2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

2Pe 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

He promised to come, so where is He? These are the words so many say. They accept Jesus as their Savior and all His promises are very real to them. Then the wait begins. They place God's time table upon their own and are looking for Jesus' return, all the signs seemingly pointing to it's imminent happening and yet … nothing. How easy it is to simply give up. How easy it is to say that since all the patriarchs, all the prophets, all the apostles have died nothing has changed it's the same ol, day in and day out as it has always been. And because everything is always the same and has been this way forever, why should we believe that He will really come for us?

Unbelievers.

Scoffers.

Our world is filled with them and you don't have to go far to find them- simply bring up a web browser and search the various news sites for religious articles- you'll find many, many scoffers especially in the comment sections where people get to add their opinions.

Unbelievers.

2Pe 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2Pe 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2Pe 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

WILLINGLY IGNORANT.

Our earth's composition tells us that a great flood occurred where everything was turned upside-down, the lush vegetation was buried under the debris that reformed the earth's surface as land. That lush vegetation became the coal people go hundreds of feet, thousands of feet…

'The deepest mine in the world is TauTona in Carletonville, South Africa at 3.9 kilometers (2.4 miles)'

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...2.4 miles deep underground to mine. The violent upheaval of our earth under the forces of the great flood our God allowed to reign have been forgotten. People explain away everything with their own brands of logic. People scoff at the truth and any seeming proof of the truth. People do NOT want to believe the word of God because if they truly believe then they know that God has everything in His power. While we are allowed to see signs, while we are allowed to believe and should believe in the coming of our Savior, we might not be allowed to live to the end of earth as we know it and the return of our Savior. Just because we are NOT allowed to witness His return does NOT mean it will not happen as it is suppose to, as God wills. We can scoff if we want to, the Lord will NEVER force us to remain faithful, it will forever have to be our choice to believe.

We are told in the last days there will come scoffers, walking after their own lusts, those who even dare to scoff at the second coming of our Lord and Savior. People who believe everything is as it was since the beginning of all things. These people choose NOT to believe.

Our earth is kept in store - RESERVED for fire, RESERVED for the day of judgment, RESERVED for perdition of UNGODLY men, the utter destruction of all ungodly! Every scoffer of the last days will find a place in the end by being destroyed. People don't have to believe, NO ONE has to believe, the truth will come to pass whether a single person alive on earth believes in it.

We are warned. We are given the opportunity to know the truth. Whether we avail ourselves of the truth, of the opportunities is solely up to us.

We can allow the word of God to go UNREAD. We can allow ourselves to completely ignore the word of God. We don't HAVE to be mindful of the words spoken, we can be oblivious to them. But if we choose to ignore, if we choose to be UNMINDFUL then we can't expect that God will be mindful of us, can we?

We are given instructions! We are told what to do and if we ignore the instructions we absolutely cannot expect to be counted among those who truly are following God, who truly LOVE God.

In our own experience we find it hard to believe a person can love us when they completely and totally ignore us day after day and only occasionally acknowledge us. If you lived with someone who totally ignored you- I mean really and totally ignored you- a person you could speak to but they simply went about their business as if they didn't hear you, as if you weren't even there. If you placed yourself in front of them and they merely maneuvered themselves until they got around you, or you stopped trying to get in their path, and never once spoke to you, would you call that LOVE?

A lot of people claim their spouses ignore them, but in truth most people mean that they are occasionally ignored, or not given the amount of attention they want- they don't mean they are treated as if they are well and truly invisible. The wives that receive grunts of acknowledgment from their husbands are still receiving affirmation of their presence- they are totally being ignored.

I'm not saying some people don't experience that sort of icy cold reception and live in that sort of situation, but it'd be very, very rare and in truth- if a person did live in that sort of existence they wouldn't stay in it very long. People are divorced in droves for far less than being totally and completely ignored.

Yet so many people expect God to save them when they barely acknowledge Him, let alone give Him the attention He requires of those who truly love Him.

We expect those who love us to give us attention, right? Maybe not fall over their own feet trying to give us attention, but to acknowledge us when we seek to be noticed, to even on occasion seek us out for a conversation. We expect people who love us to care for us through their actions. It we do not care for a relationship with God by our actions how can we expect that we even have a real relationship with Him? Yet many people do just that. They expect God to know them and account them worthy simply because they acknowledged Him at some point in their lives. Yet if we applied that to each other we'd be called crazy. If we expected a mere acquaintance who we have no real relationship with to love us we'd be deemed nuts. Yet that's what a lot of people expect from God. Is it any wonder God is going to say that He never knew them? It's because He really doesn't know them! They didn't form a relationship with God. Remember- devils believe in God- it's NOT enough to simply believe and not form a real, living, loving relationship with God.

We will be accounted among the scoffers, the unbelievers, the lust followers, among those who question the validity of Christ's second coming if we do not have a real relationship with our Savior, a relationship we are told to have. We have to be mindful of the words given to us by GOD.

All by HIS grace, HIS love, HIS mercy, HIS forgiveness, HIS righteousness!

All through HIM in all THINGS!

Amen!

Friday, March 9, 2012

Mindful of the words

2Pe 3:1 This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2Pe 3:2 That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour

The words of the holy prophets- the words of the apostles of the LORD and SAVIOR.

We are given these words for a reason. We are to be MINDFUL of the words spoken to us by those called of God to give them to us. Much is made over who wrote what, who used a scribe and who wrote their own words but ultimately we have to ask ourselves if we have faith in God. If we have faith in God then we have to have faith that He has given to us His holy word, all that we need to be mindful of.

Some followers of Christ have a cherished passage of the Bible, a snippet they've managed to obtain that they cling to. Some have only had the opportunity to hear- not to read the word of God for themselves. And yet God has given them ALL they need in what He offers to them and what they cherish of His word.

All too often we are given the book we call the Bible, a collection of the works of the Prophets and the Apostles- and it sits unopened, not cherished at all. Is it a complete collection of all the prophets and everything the Apostles ever wrote? No. But what we have is what God gives to us and we should cherish what we've been allowed to have. We should be MINDFUL of the words we are privileged to have, the words spoken by prophets, by apostles, my holy men of God who wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

2Pe 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts

Scoffers.
Def-
From G1702; a derider, that is, (by implication) a false teacher: - mocker, scoffer.

An unbeliever, right? A scoffer is one who doesn't believe. If I scoff at your beliefs, I'm not believing them, right?

Unbelievers.

Walking after their own lusts.

We have so many lusts in our lives. You mention the word lust and people tend to instantly think things of a sexual nature, but lusts do not pertain only to sexual aspects of our lives. You can lust after power, after money, after food, etcetera. When we walk after our own lusts we are living to our flesh nature, not our spiritual nature.

In the last days scoffers will live for their own lusts- unconcerned with others, unconcerned with being selfless but rather growing more and more selfish.

How much of our happiness is dependent upon things going our way? How much of our happiness is conditioned upon our selfish desires being met? How often we perceive our happiness being contingent upon selfish gain even going so far as to trick ourselves into believing our selfish desires are not really selfish at all but rather normal expectations from life. When we convinced ourselves that our desires are natural, normal, expected, common to all then we set ourselves up, trapping ourselves in a corner because then we've conditioned our happiness upon those accepted expectations. So naturally when we don't obtain those things we believe we are unlucky, unblessed, failures at even the most basic expectations out of life.

Jesus had it so right when He said this--

Mat 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
Mat 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
Mat 6:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

We have to set aside EVERY single expectation of the offerings in this world! Because those expectations can so easily become selfish lusts that we seek instead of seeking heavenly things. Instead of putting our treasures in heaven we've placed them on earth and they are ALL corruptible, they are ALL in danger of being taken from us. Only our heavenly treasures are secure.

We cannot be scoffers, walking after our own lusts, we simply cannot be those who are scoffing because they will NOT be saved, because they are NOT truly Gods.

More tomorrow by the grace of our Lord and Savior.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Allure to the lusts of the flesh

2Pe 2:15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
2Pe 2:16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.

The story of Balaam-

Num 22:20 And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.
Num 22:21 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.
Num 22:22 And GOD'S ANGER WAS KINDLED BECAUSE HE WENTand the angel of the LORD stood in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
Num 22:23 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.
Num 22:24 But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.
Num 22:25 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again.
Num 22:26 And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left.
Num 22:27 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
Num 22:28 And the LORD OPENED THE MOUTH OF THE ASS, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?
Num 22:29 And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
Num 22:30 And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
Num 22:31 Then the LORD OPENED THE EYES OF BALAAM AND HE SAW THE ANGEL OF THE LORD STANDING IN THE WAY and his sword drawn in his hand: and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face.
Num 22:32 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because THY WAY IS PERVERSE BEFORE ME
Num 22:33 And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.
Num 22:34 And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.
Num 22:35 And the angel of the LORD said unto Balaam, Go with the men: but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
Num 22:36 And when Balak heard that Balaam was come, he went out to meet him unto a city of Moab, which is in the border of Arnon, which is in the utmost coast.
Num 22:37 And Balak said unto Balaam, Did I not earnestly send unto thee to call thee? wherefore camest thou not unto me? am I not able indeed to promote thee to honour?
Num 22:38 And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to say any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.
Num 22:39 And Balaam went with Balak, and they came unto Kirjathhuzoth.
Num 22:40 And Balak offered oxen and sheep, and sent to Balaam, and to the princes that were with him.
Num 22:41 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost part of the people.

2Pe 2:15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
2Pe 2:16 But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man's voice forbad the madness of the prophet.

The way of Balaam- rebellion against God.
Balaam REBUKED for his SIN.
The MADNESS of the prophet- the dumb ass PROTECTED Balaam, God put an ANGEL with a sword in the way of Balaam as Balaam disobeyed. Balaam was REBUKED for his iniquity! So many disobey! WE all disobey! It is only by the grace of God that we have any hope at all.

2Pe 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.

Wells- holding NO WATER.
Clouds- carried with a TEMPEST.

Empty, weightless beings, mindless, thoughtless, GODLESS people!

2Pe 2:18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.

There IS AN ESCAPE!

JESUS CHRIST our Lord and Savior is and always has been our ESCAPE!

2Pe 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

Those who CHOOSE God are God's and saved by God, promised freedom IN GOD.
Those who do not choose God serve Satan- they are servants of corruption.

2Pe 2:20 For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.

AND IF after people escape the corruption they return to it and are overcome by it- they lose all hope, all faith and in their lost state they are worse off than ever having known salvation and then rejected it!

2Pe 2:21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.

Better NOT to have known the ways of God, the ways of HIS righteousness.
Once we know the ways of Christ's righteousness we are completely lost if we do NOT follow those ways. We CANNOT turn from the HOLY COMMANDMENTS delivered to us! If we turn from them we are lost, lost, lost!

2Pe 2:22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

The dog, the sow… they are mindless animals and we too are like mindless animals when we refuse the ways of our LORD, the spiritual ways and go instead after the flesh.

We CANNOT live for the flesh!
We must live for GOD!

Please LORD help us to LIVE for YOU and not ourselves, not for our flesh natures, not for our flesh lusts!


Help us Lord! Please!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Walking after the flesh

2Pe 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
2Pe 2:10 But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

Those who WALK - those who LIVE after the flesh. These are the people who are NOT living for their spiritual life, the life that Jesus lived for. Jesus did NOT live for the flesh. Jesus preached the coming of the kingdom of heaven- His gift of salvation to mankind. Jesus taught WE are to live for the kingdom of heaven just as He lived. We are NOT to live to our flesh even though we are prone to do so, even though the natural man has to fight against what is natural to him. We are to CHOOSE our Savior over all.

Those who choose the flesh will live to their lusts that are unclean- filthy with sin. They will despise any control over themselves thinking they have to answer to NO ONE, not even the common laws of the land. They presume much, they are guided only by themselves, they are NOT afraid to speak evil of glory, of goodness, of honor, of praise, of worship. They WILL speak evil of all that is Godly and they fear NO retribution.

There are many, many people who do this, so very, very many. It's a tragedy, it's heartbreaking, it's appalling. So very many people are living only to the flesh without any thought at all of things Godly, of things spiritual.

2Pe 2:11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

Angels- GREATER IN POWER.
Angels-GREATER IN MIGHT.

Angels don't bring railing accusations why?
God knows all that we do, every last action we commit, every last thought we think, God KNOWS.

2Pe 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

These evil ones only deserve to be taken and kill, yet they are allowed to live and they speak EVIL of things they can't even understand. The evil will UTTERLY perish in their OWN CORRUPTION! The evil are NOT kill without reason. Their own corruption will kill them. Those who CHOOSE self over GOD will die because they are choosing flesh over spirit.

2Pe 2:13 And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

They think it pleasing to riot.
They are filled with their own deception even as they feast with us!

2Pe 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

They are filled with betrayal.
They cannot stop sinning!
They trick those who are weak.
They are overflowing with covetousness, selfishness in all they do!

2Pe 2:15 Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness

They are LOST!
They have gone astray!
They follow EVIL ways.
They LOVE the results of their unrighteousness!

Balaam-

Balaam (Hebrew: בִּלְעָם, Standard Bilʻam Tiberian Bilʻām) is a diviner in the Torah, his story occurring towards the end of the Book of Numbers. The etymology of his name is uncertain, and discussed below. Every ancient reference to Balaam considers him a non-Israelite, a prophet, and the son of Beor, though Beor is not so clearly identified. Though other sources describe the apparently positive blessings he delivers upon the Israelites, he is reviled as a "wicked man" [1] in the major story concerning him. Balaam attempted to curse God's people. He failed all three tries, each time producing blessings, not curses (Numbers 22-24). Balaam's error and the source of his wickedness came not from the curses he never delivered on, but from sabotaging the Israelites as they entered the Promised Land. According to Numbers 31:16 and St. John (Revelation 2:14), Balaam returned to King Balak and informed the king on how to get the Israelites to curse themselves by enticing them with prostitutes and unclean food sacrificed to idols. The Israelites fell into transgression due to these traps and YHVH sent a deadly plague to them as a result (Numbers 31:16).

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Following after the way of Balaam- WHO LOVE UNRIGHTEOUSNESS!

More on this tomorrow…. all by the grace of God.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Lord delivers the godly out of temptations

2Pe 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment--

Angels that sinned.
Angels cast into the grave.
Angels delivered into chains of darkness- the darkness of the grave.
Angels reserved in that grave of darkness until they are judged.

Angels.

Angels - beings created before mankind.
Mankind in fact was created a little LOWER than the angels.

Psa 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Psa 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

Heb 2:6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Heb 2:7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands

Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Angels, made higher than man.
Angels who have no ties to flesh even if they can appear in what seems like flesh.
Angels who also were created with the power of choice.

1/3 of the angels decided to no longer love their maker and as a result they were cast from heaven.
Some of the angels sinned horrifically and these angels were bound to the darkness of the grave until- judgment.

God is NOT sparing the angels that sin against Him, why in the world would we even imagine that He would spare us who sin against Him?

2Pe 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly

God created a wonderful world and man sinned, yet God did NOT destroy man because of their rebellion. God gave mankind a chance and mankind took that chance and threw it away letting evil grow and grow unchecked until it filled the earth and only EIGHT people were saved, Noah a lone preacher of righteousness in a world of sin. God did NOT spare mankind then and He will NOT spare it again.

2Pe 2:6 And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;
2Pe 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
2Pe 2:8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

And mankind being allowed to live and not being destroyed completely multiplied and again sin reigned and there was a city so exceedingly sinfilled that God had to destroy it- Sodom and Gomorrah. Only LOT and his two daughters were spared, his wife perishing because her heart was back in the city of sin. Lot- righteous- lived among the evil ones and day after day he was tortured mentally, emotionally by their evil. God did NOT spare that city. Yet we believe that we will ALL be spared.

2Pe 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished

This IS truth!

The LORD delivers the GODLY OUT of TEMPTATIONS.
The LORD reserves the UNJUST UNTO THE DAY O JUDGEMENTS to be punished.

The unjust humans and the unjust angels are all being reserved to receive their punishments.

We have HOPE in our SAVIOR.
We have HOPE knowing that the LORD DELIVERS the GODLY OUT of TEMPTATIONS!

Please Lord, deliver US! Please Lord, please!

Monday, March 5, 2012

The false among us

2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2Pe 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
2Pe 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

There are FALSE prophets.

To every truth there is a lie.
To every teller of truth there is a liar.
To every genuine prophet there is a false prophet.

False prophets telling false prophecies.

These false prophets and false teachers are everywhere and they're spreading their untruths- their DAMNABLE heresies! They are denying the LORD that brought the news of salvation to them! They are bringing destruction upon themselves and all who follow them.

MANY will follow their PERNICIOUS ways.

Definitions of pernicious-

1. causing insidious harm or ruin; ruinous; injurious; hurtful: pernicious teachings; a pernicious lie.
2.
deadly; fatal: a pernicious disease.
3.
Obsolete . evil; wicked.

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Evil- wicked ways- many are going to follow these false prophets, these false teachers. What these people think they are hearing is truth but it will only be lies! People feeding lies to others lies that will cost them their eternal life. Will the fooled people be held accountable? Yes. Because we have a way to the truth! The truth is available to all who seek it! Those who let themselves be deceived will not be as guilty as the deceivers but the punishment for all sin is death. That lake of fire where all sinners will burn -will burn hotter and longer for some more than others. We are guilty of letting ourselves be deceived by others, we MUST seek the truth! We have to find the truth! We must listen to God's true prophets! We must listen to true prophecies!

No one wants to be deceived, yet Satan's deceivers lie so subtly many will be deceived, all but the VERY ELECT.

I pray to our LOVING MERCIFUL GOD that we are among those who are the ELECT!

Please LORD don't let us be among the deceived. Let us listen to your prophets, your TRUE prophets.

In Your amazing LOVE!

Amen.