How to live in this world

Give up ungodliness and worldly lusts.

Grace.

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

Tit 2:12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

Tit 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Tit 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

This is truth. Do you want to know HOW you are to live right now in this world?  We are told-

Deny ungodliness.

Deny worldly lusts.

Live soberly.

Live righteously.

Live godly.

Look for that blessed hope.

Look for the glorious appearing of the GREAT GOD and OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.

Our Savior - gave himself for us.  Why? To REDEEM us from ALL INIQUITY, to PURIFY to himself a PECULIAR people- ZEALOUS of good works.

There we are told what to do, how to live, now the question is, do we live this way?

Do you live looking the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ?

Seriously, do you LIVE LOOKING for this?  I'm not talking about living with the belief that Jesus is coming again, in a back of your mind type of way. You know what I'm talking about. We have a lot of things we believe in but they aren't necessarily things we are actively LOOKING for.  When you are looking for something that's an activity. If I'm looking for an upcoming event, I'm thinking about it, I'm not forgetting about it until it's mentioned.  If it's something I'm looking for and then time passes and I forget about it, I'm no longer looking for it but rather I've forgotten about it.  We have to think about this stuff and in this way because this is the way we are told to LIVE.  We should LIVE looking for our Savior to return. In living and looking for our Savior to return we are doing so with THOUGHTS of this event taking place, with the HOPE that this event will take place, it is ON our minds and in our hearts. 

Just last night at Bible Study we were discussing Christ's return in connection with how desperately we all want Him to return and how the wickedness of this world has us constantly praying for our Lord to return soon.  We KNOW there is no worldly cure to the wickedness of this world, it doesn't exist.  Dictatorship does not do away with our societies ills, monarchies do not do away with the horrors that people inflict upon each other, and neither do democracies.   There is NO worldly answer to be found to the question that people are constantly asking- how to fix this wicked world, how to make this world a better place to live in.  We might be able to temporarily fix various bits and pieces, but it seems that often those bits and pieces that get fix end up breaking again.  For every advance there seems to be several steps back.  People are clamoring to find peace in this world, yet peace will ONLY be achieved in the NEW world after our SAVIOR returns and a thousand years in heaven passes.  We truly need to let the wickedness that exists all around us in so many ways, sadly even within ourselves, to have us longing for the cure to it all- the return of our blessed Savior, Jesus Christ our LORD.

Eternal life- is eternal love, love without end.

Act 20:32  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

The word of HIS grace- is able to build us up with the intention of giving us an inheritance.

Have you ever received an inheritance?

Some people have, others haven't, but no matter whether you have or haven't received an earthly inheritance we can ALL receive a heavenly inheritance.

Usually to receive an earthly inheritance someone must die, parents,  grandparents, spouses as a rule.  To receive our heavenly inheritance our Savior died and because of His sacrifice He's made His inheritance available to everyone.

As with some earthly inheritances there are conditions that must be met. Soandso will receive their inheritance upon reaching the age 25, or once Soandso has completed college they will receive their inheritance. There are many various conditions people place upon the reception of inheritances, some silly, some serious, some easy, some not quite so easy and yes, sometime people place what appear to be impossible conditions towards the receiving of an inheritances.  Did our Savior place any conditions upon our being able to gain our inheritance from Him? Yes. I say yes because we are not guaranteed an inheritance simply by being born, we just aren't though some would dispute that. The truth of the matter is that we cannot receive our heavenly inheritance unless--

-- we believe.

And another truth, there are many who choose not to believe.

Joh_6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

1Jn_5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

We must comprehend that we receive the full inheritance upon the return of our Savior to gather us up to Him.  Those who have died sanctified will rise from their graves upon our Savior's return for them. Those who are still alive who are sanctified will rise from the earth to meet their Lord in the air. 1 Thess. 4:16-18

This is truth.

The word of God's grace is ABLE to build us up and give us an inheritance among us who are sanctified- made Holy by our Savior.

The word of God is the word of grace. This one eternal theme central to the entire Bible.

From the beginning to the end eternal life through the grace of God is what it is ALL about.

Eternal life- is eternal love, love without end.

Grace Reconciles

Grace.

Our Savior - God in the flesh gave us life never intending we should lose that life, never wanting us to lose our life.

When we chose to disobey God we did so KNOWING the result would be death. We were TOLD the outcome of disobedience.

Still, our Creator did not want us to die. He did not want us to have eternal death, eternal nothingness, never to be again.

For this to happen we would need to comprehend what exactly our Creator is, and what He expects from us.

We are NOT supposed to be separated from God.

Gen_17:7  And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

1Ti_2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

A covenant was needed between God and mankind.

A Mediator was needed between God and mankind.

Why?

You don't need a covenant or a mediator if you are not trying to reconcile and establish something.

God wanted to establish the best kind of relationship He could with fallen mankind through His covenant until such a time the Mediator would come with a perfect covenant that would rejoin mankind with God permanently.

Though we sinned and we are guilty, God still wanted us to comprehend the depths of His love for us. He could forgive us. He would make the greatest sacrifice ever to pay that penalty for our transgressions, for our disobedience. God the Son would become one of us and die.  What more could ANYONE ask of Him?

Reconciled to God, fallen man is reconciled by the grace of God.

We can do NOTHING to deserve eternal life, nothing at all. We can only accept the grace of our God.

Please, Father, help us to accept the grace of God, please.

Grow

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  (2Pe_3:18)

Grow in grace.

Grow in knowledge.

We understand how to grow in knowledge because we are constantly learning throughout our lives. Sure, you might get to a point where you've stopped any real schooling but you keep on learning through daily life experience. That saying- 'You learn something new everyday.' - isn't that far off because though we may not recognize the learning all the time, we are learning new things constantly. If we actively want to grow in knowledge we seek it out. If there is something we want to know we look it up online and gain the knowledge.  We GROW in knowledge.

So how do we grow in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?  We need a source to learn from and that source is the WORD given to us by God- the Holy Bible.  We need the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We need to pray.  There are active sources for us to use to gain this knowledge.

How do we grow in grace?

Are the two connected? Do we grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord together through His Word? 

Grace is-

2Co_12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

The grace we grow in- is Christ's grace.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God

Webster's-

'Grace

GRACE, n

2. Appropriately, the free unmerited love and favor of God, the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from him.

And if by grace,then it is no more of works. Rom 11.

3. Favorable influence of God; divine influence or the influence of the spirit, in renewing the heart and restraining from sin.

My grace is sufficient for thee. 2 Cor 12.

4. The application of Christ's righteousness to the sinner.

Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Rom 5.

5. A state of reconciliation to God. Rom 5:2.

6. Virtuous or religious affection or disposition, as a liberal disposition, faith, meekness, humility, patience, &c. proceeding from divine influence.

7. Spiritual instruction, improvement and edification. Eph 4:29.

8. Apostleship, or the qualifications of an apostle. Eph 3:8.

9. Eternal life; final salvation. 1 Pet 1:13.'

Grace. We must learn more of grace because we are told to GROW in grace.

To study grace and to study Christ Jesus our Lord is to grow in knowledge of them and this is essential to us.

The comprehension of what Christ is to us, what His grace is to us is something amazing.  We definitely need to study this so much more so we can truly grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior!

All through HIS love.

Amen.

I need grace

Heb 13:9  Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace

Established with grace.

And by grace we are saved. Eph_2:8 

Jesus- full of grace and truth. Joh_1:14

Justified freely by His grace. Rom_3:24

1Co_3:10  According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

Tit_2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men

Phm_1:25  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen

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.

Grace.

We survive by His grace. We need His grace. We cannot live without His grace.

Please, LORD, please we need Your grace.

More and more my own wickedness is revealed to me and I would despair of ever being Yours except You died for me, to save me because I could not save myself. Please, Father, forgive me, please. I need Your grace, Lord Jesus, I need Your grace.

What work could we do to pay for disobeying God?

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

NO man can boast they've attain eternal life on their own merit, through their own works. NO man can say they've been good enough to warrant eternal life.  The good works of man- every single one of those good works is not capable of deserving eternal life. The stain of sin which separates us from God is NOT removed by our works. We cannot work off our sins, we cannot pay the debt for them, it's impossible.

What work could we do to pay for disobeying God?

Have you ever done something so awful to someone else that you know there is nothing you can do to ever make up for it? You can ask for forgiveness and you can do everything you can to atone- give them things, never do that thing again, etc, but deep down you know that you can't make up for the hurt you caused, you just can't.  On the other hand, has anyone ever hurt you so deeply you've found it very hard to forgive them? You do forgive them, but the pain of that hurt remains and it's an effort to forgive them because it's a forgiveness that has to be extended over and over, not a one time forgiveness and all it well.  We know the difficulty that is involved in forgiving, and being forgiven.  Without the grace of God it really is impossible for both- being able to forgive and being forgiven by others.

We are God's workmanship, we are created in Christ Jesus, created to good works. 

We are not created to evil.  Our Savior would have us be His fully, wholly, lovingly and in being His live as He lived and lives- Loving others, Loving God the Father.  LOVING outwardly, not inwardly, not selfishly. It is through HIS GRACE we are saved, It is through HIS GRACE we have hope.  By HIS GIFT, HIS SACRIFICE we are HIS as a choice we make to accept Him and all He's done for us. Please, Father, please, we would belong to YOU through the grace of our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ, always!

Amen.

Choice not attraction

Love...

is...a...choice.

Love goes far beyond feelings, yet people have made it all about feelings.  We went from learning to choose to love, to finding attraction to someone - love.  When we are attracted to someone for many various reasons we call that love versus being matched to someone and choosing to love them.  People who call attraction love miss the meaning of love because attraction can fade away, sometimes quickly other times slowly.  When we base our love on attraction we run into the dilemma of finding a lot of others attractive because we find the same traits in various people.  If you're prone to finding a blonde person attractive you may see several blonde people attractive to you. If you find blue eyes attractive the same thing and so on.  It's NOT that we can stop from finding various attributes and traits attractive, but we can stop calling that love.  We can choose to recognize that love is something MUCH more than the attractions we feel towards others.

Love is a choice, truly it is. We make the choice believe in God. We make a choice to care for one another. We make a choice to forgive others. We make these choices, so many choices and they are made daily, hourly, minutely and often without our truly paying attention to the majority of them. Our choices can become habits and sometimes the choices we make which are bad ones, become bad habits. 

Some call being in love illogical and something of pure fiction.  And you know what, the thing people call love can be that way, it really can.

Choosing to care for someone, to join your life to theirs and share in their life's journey is love. Choosing to do that for someone you're not attracted to in superficial ways is love as well. That *being* in love aspect does NOT mean you truly love. 

Some people are great at *being* in love, but not great at loving.

God is love. God chose to create us, chose to love us in caring for us in a way far beyond our full comprehension.

The way God cares for us is so much more than the superficial caring we tend to call caring. God's caring goes to the eternal level and if YOU believe in ETERNITY, then you understand the reality of the true depths of God's love.

When we live a single lifetime of say 70 years, that is NOTHING compared to eternity, absolutely a true drop in the largest of oceans.  Yet we tend to measure our life in the here and now and what we can get out of this life whether it be of love or not of love. We stop caring about God and others and turn to caring about ourselves first. We choose to love some but not all, we pick and choose those we are attracted to and give them the thing we call love while shutting out others that we aren't attracted to.

Love is so much more than the twisted warped thing we call love today, so much more.

Gal_5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith

1Jn_4:8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

1Jn_4:10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1Jn_4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Truth, this is truth.

Please, Father, please teach us to love as You love, live in us through the Spirit enabling us to love.  To know You and be KNOWN by You.

Your Will Be DONE.

In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ our Lord, now and forever!

Amen.

We are to love outside of ourselves- love God, love Others

Eph 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, 

Eph 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. 

Eph 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. 

Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 

Eph 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord

Walk circumspectly.

Definition: cir·cum·spect - thinking carefully about possible risks before doing or saying something

To walk circumspectly means we are living our lives aware of our actions, aware that there are consequences to our actions.  We are to be wise, not fools. A wise person is aware of the eternal view, not the temporal view. While we are not to WORRY about tomorrow, we are to be AWARE.  Worry and aware are two different things. You can know something as a fact without worrying about it. We can know that things look hopeless and choose not to worry about it by comprehending that the worst possible outcome of tomorrow does NOT take from us the promise of eternal life.

To walk circumspectly, wisely, we choose to use our time in such a way that promotes the eternal life to come. We live KNOWING that eternal life is a REALITY for us. We don't live our lives as if here and now is all there is to it and nothing matters but our seeking to get as much pleasure out of this life as possible. We comprehend that the days we live in are evil, THEY ARE.

Satan will stop at NOTHING to promote his agenda, and that agenda includes capturing as many people in his snares as he can and keeping them from eternal life. THIS IS SATAN'S AGENDA! Our days are FILLED with things that are meant to take eternal life from us. You don't get any more evil than preventing someone from attaining eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We need to truly understand what the will of the Lord is- do you know what it is?

Joh_6:40  And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day

1Jn 3:23  And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.

1Jn 3:24  And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

The will of God - to BELIEVE and out of that belief we obtain the SPIRIT and through the SPIRIT we keep His commandments to love.

We are to be FILLED with the Spirit- not with artificially contrived things that make us feel differently than we do without them, making us feel less pain from the evil around us.  We need to be FILLED with the Spirit. We keep the commandments to LOVE GOD and LOVE OTHERS and this is what we are to be filled with- NOT any commandment that tells us to love ourselves first. I can't find that one anywhere. We are to LOVE outside of ourselves in order to be filled with the Spirit of love.  This is the will of God.

Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs- in our hearts!

This is how we are to live! The inward man inside each and every one of us needs to glorify God in song! It's amazing what music, what singing, what songs can do for us.

Just recently they're proving the power of song with Alzheimer's patients.  Truly there is power in singing, in music, in psalms, in hymns and we don't have to do it publically to reap the benefits, we can do it in our hearts!

The life of a Christ believing person, is the life of one who believes in loving others not self, it is a life of singing inwardly.

Will the Christ believer have a perfect life? NO, a thousand times NO! Will the Christ believer be promised life free from heartache, pain, agony, torture and so on? NO, a thousand times NO! Believing in God and His begotten son Jesus Christ is not a hope to live a good life here on earth now, it's just not. If anything it almost guarantees you are HARDER life now- more pain, more agony, more torture, more heartache because Satan stops at NOTHING to inflict all the pain he can upon Christ believers. Our HOPE is an ETERNAL HOPE, and ETERNAL LOVE.

Please, Father, bless us with Your Son, help us, keep us from evil and increase our faith in the sacrifice made for us.  Help us to love outside of ourselves- selflessly.

Please give us the Spirit, Father. We need the Spirit!

All in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior now and always!

Amen.

Through the veil, through the flesh

Through the veil.

Through the flesh.

We don't ordinarily think of the flesh as a veil do we? Why would we. We envision veils as see thru contraptions pulled over our faces mostly during wedding ceremonies and such. Or perhaps we think of the veils that other faiths and cultures wear to cover their women folk and so on. When we are discussing the Temple Veil we are discussing something definitely not see thru. 

In fact no one was allowed in there other than the High Priest on the Day of Atonement.

Lev 16:2  And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come NOT AT ALL TIMES into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.

Lev 16:12  And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:

Lev 16:13  And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not

Heb 9:6  Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

Heb 9:7  But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people

Through the veil.

Through the flesh.

The veil signified separation more than concealment for the sake of hiding something. Everyone knew what lie behind the veil, it wasn't a secret. 

Reread Lev 16:2- Aaron is told not to come at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat which is upon the ark… why? Because he'd DIE if he did. God would appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat, God would appear there within the veil!  Again in Leviticus we read that a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord (((the altar of incense)))) were to be brought into the most holy place so that a cloud of incense would cover the mercy seat- why? So he didn't die!

The veil separated GOD from the people, yet signified His presence among them. He could be there, but not it such a way that there was NOTHING separating Him from the people.

What separated God from His people?

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:

Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.

SINS separate us from GOD!

You have to remember when Adam and Eve were put out of the Garden of Eden and the presence of God, right? You remember how they hid themselves from Him after they sinned? Sin caused the separation!

The veil in the temple signified that separation, there was a wall put up between man and God, and that wall, that veil became a veil of flesh that made the way to God possible! No longer a separating veil, this veil was the device by which entering into the presence of God was possible!

Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh

Jesus is the WAY.  Jesus is the bridge that unites us one side to the other. Jesus is that ladder which does away with the space between us and God.

We have to USE the Veil, we have to get on that Bridge, we have to climb upon the Ladder, we cannot reach God on our OWN it's IMPOSSIBLE!

We must accept the Way offered to us in order to reach God. We must accept the sacrifice our Savior made on our behalf and believe in Him and His ability to save us, to keep us in Him, to bring us to God through HIS righteousness. Please, Lord, please know us! Save us through You! Thank you! All praise, all glory, all honor unto YOU! Always!

Amen!

The Veil

Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh

Through the veil.

The veil.

Mat_27:51  And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent

Heb_9:3  And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all

Exo_26:33  And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.

Exo_30:6  And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.

Lev_4:17  And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, even before the vail.

Lev_16:15  Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat

*******

A veil separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place in the temple upon the earth, a temple built after the pattern shown, the pattern taken from the heavenly temple.

A heavenly temple.

That veil which separated the two compartments, the veil in figure Christ's flesh.  We enter into the Most Holy Place through Christ our Savior and no other way.

Before Christ, entering in through the veil was only done by the High Priest. 

Through the sacrifice of Christ that separation was done away with.

THROUGH CHRIST we lose that separation between us and God.

ONLY through Christ is it possible.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of God!

Through the blood of our Savior Jesus Christ, always!

Amen

One to bring salvation

Rom 5:17  For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

One to bring destruction.

One to bring salvation.

Individually we live our lives yet we are surrounded by others. All of us from the closest of our friends to the farthest stranger are offspring of God.  From those we call great among us, to those we call the worst among us, are offspring of God. From the brightest to the least bright, from the richest to the poorest we are all offspring of God. We were created by God and given the opportunity to belong to God- heart and spirit. 

Any parent knows that you can give birth or father a child but that doesn't mean you control that child's life from start to finish. What become clear truly is how unique an individual that child is from the get go. The personality starts shining through right away. From two incredibly shy parents a very outgoing and rambunctious child can be born and vice versa. As children of God we are also born with our own spiritual personalities. We can choose to remain a part of God's family or we can leave that family. We can destroy our spiritual connection to God. Just as human children can disown their parents, we can disown our God. We choose.

What we didn't choose was to bring sin into humanity. Yet we were BLESSED with life. BLESSED with the chance to belong to God spiritually. BLESSED to be pilgrims and strangers upon earth to have to opportunity to be reunited with our Creator through the power of our Redeemer.

Our God has redeemed us through the sacrifice of God the begotten Son, God in the flesh, God who suffered sin's worst assault. Before you start naming all the terrible atrocities that our Savior did not suffer, the ultimate assault He alone did suffer.  That assault was the complete and utter separation from His Father in a way we cannot and have not ever experienced- HE alone could take that experience as a complete innocent and suffer the eternal death.

Yes, He suffered the eternal death, the second death, the complete nothingness without any hope from the Father but still Jesus' faith did NOT falter to an end.  The words- "Why hast thou forsaken me.", were spoken in agony, but He did not give in to the temptation to sin. He held fast to the truth which is we must believe WHOLLY in God to be SAVED by HIM because we cannot save ourselves, we just can't. Jesus could NOT save Himself, if He had saved Himself He would have sinned, and He did NOT sin.

One man SAVED us, He is our example. We must depend wholly upon God through the gift of His Son's sacrifice, making salvation available to us.

Please, Father, help us be YOURS. Help us CHOOSE to be YOURS. We would be YOURS!  Please, Father, through the Son's sacrifice may we be YOURS. Forgive us! Save us! Love us always and forever!

Amen.

We are the offspring of God

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

The beginning and the end.

Which is.

Which was.

Which is to come.

The Almighty.

Remember this--

Act 17:22  Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

Act 17:23  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

Act 17:24  God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

Act 17:25  Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

Act 17:26  And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Act 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

Act 17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Act 17:29  Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.

Act 17:30  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Act 17:31  Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

The UNKNOWN GOD.

There was more than the gods manufactured by man and they knew it, deep down people knew this to be true.  Covering all bases they couldn't leave the UNKNOWN God out.  They didn't dare because they KNEW there was more. 

Our God, our Father, our Creator -  the ALPHA and the OMEGA, the Beginning and the End. He is our All in All, we need NO OTHER.

We know that we need no other. 

We are the OFFSPRING of God.

More tomorrow by the grace of our God!

In His love!

We choose whether or not we remain God's.

"I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing."-- Joh_15:5.

So many would instantly argue that we can do everything apart from Jesus, that they don't even believe in Him and yet they do whatever they please.  It's true, I couldn't dispute their being alive and functioning, how could I?

The truth is, except a man abide in Christ every single thing they do means nothing. You can do all you like but apart from the Savior it's meaningless.

Again the outcry comes- how dare I call someone's life meaningless just because they don't believe in the Savior and abide in Him.

It's true though.

Let's look at this for a moment. What gives our lives meaning?  As a whole of humanity what gives our lives meaning? How can the baby born into extreme poverty, living on the street as a toddler, barely surviving, growing up into a horrendous life of pain and tragedy find meaning in their life outside of the agony on so many levels? A person who has a nice life who isn't born into tragedy can find meaning in doing good and such, but the person who has very little good in their life, and I mean that sincerely, can find very little meaning to their life outside of pain.  So understanding the two extremes of life just by being born, what gives meaning, real meaning to both? It isn't things, it isn't material possessions, it isn't anything money can buy. It could be the tiny things, it could be other people who make life bearable. Ultimately in a life where you cannot get out from under the tortured life, where can you find hope? Not in the world you are living in, not in the life you've been forced to survive in. Can you still choose not to believe in God if you are born to such tragedy? Yes. Some would say it's easier not to believe when you are born into such horrific straits. Yet others would say you have more reason to believe because you need to hope in something better than this awful world.

Without our Savior it truly is all meaningless.

It is our Savior who gives us meaning. Living in our Savior gives us the hope of ETERNAL LIFE, hope of the life with NO PAIN!  This is the life we are meant to have, the life offered to us THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, and no other.

If we do not abide in Christ we are the living dead. You can call me crazy that is your right. You don't have to believe, that is also your right.

"I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing."-- Joh_15:5.

Without our Savior all the things we do truly are meaningless.

The breath of life given to us all by God makes us God's. We choose whether or not we remain God's. If we remain God's we will have life eternal. We are the branch abiding in the Vine.  We are living branches in the living vine. If we decide that we don't want any part of the Vine, eventually we will die off.

Please, Father, please let us LIVE in You and bear the fruit that YOU will have us bear, all through YOU because You are the VINE, You give us life and You give it abundantly. No matter what our existence is here and now, please BLESS us to be YOURS in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, please, Father, please, keep us in YOU no matter what! Please!

All in the name of our Savior, Your Son, Jesus Christ our LORD!

Amen!

'To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.'

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Rom 8:5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus was God in flesh. Jesus divested Himself of His God power after He agreed to enter into humanity through the flesh and the Spirit in the womb of a human being. The power He had to work miracles was from His Father. The power He gave to His disciples to work miracles was from God the Father. God the Father sent God the Son to be born of flesh and Spirit.  It was because He became one of us that He could in fact condemn sin in the flesh. God the Father did condemn sin from the beginning of it's existence, yet to be able to prove to humanity that sin could be conquered in the flesh- flesh had to conquer sin. Flesh with the same ability to sin as our flesh.  A God defeating sin would have NO bearing on us. But a God who became FLESH, weak flesh with the propensity towards sin, ABLE to be tempted, that God did and does have a bearing on us.  Christ did for us what we could NOT do! Don't we get that?!  So many want to believe that He could NOT sin, and used His own power to keep from sinning. So many want Him to be SUPER MAN in the sense that He could NOT sin, but that's a lie.  He COULD sin! But HE DID NOT. He WAS tempted, and we ALL know what it means to be tempted towards sin. Most people also know what it means to succumb to temptation.  Jesus did NOT succumb to temptation but surrendered to His Father's will, seeking NOT His own way.

We seek our own ways, our own very selfish ways and we sin.

We have to CHOOSE not to walk after our flesh but after the Spirit. We have to choose God OVER self, Spirit OVER flesh! We will face temptations CONSTANTLY, sometimes non-stop one after the other over and over and over and OVER. And through the Spirit may we choose to live by the Spirit rather than our flesh, through our SAVIOR.

If we choose to seek things of the flesh, minding them then we are of the flesh! We HAVE to choose the SPIRIT.

If we choose to be CARNALLY minded we are choosing to die eternally. If we choose to be spiritually minded we will have life and peace eternally!

WE CHOOSE!

Living through the Spirit we are choosing LOVE, and to LOVE GOD and to LOVE OTHERS. WE choose to LOVE, not hate. We choose the things of LOVE, the things of the Spirit!

We may falter and fail time and again, but as long as we constantly seek to live in the Spirit, through the Spirit, all by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST we will live in love.

We can't fix the world, we can only live our lives loving as our Savior wills us to love, to live.  He is the power, He is the SAVIOR, He is all in all, He is everything.

All though HIS LOVE, His righteousness, all in HIM our loving Savior!

Amen!

May we believe

They say- follow the rules and you'll succeed.

You find it impossible to follow all the rules.

A system is set up that offers you a way to atone for breaking the rules.

The system points to a time when no system will be needed to make the atonement, but rather a person will take over and all, even those who are not born into the rule followers, will be able to ask this person to make that atonement for them.

When that person takes over, do you need to stop following the rules?

Did the person take over the atoning process so you could break the rules?

Were the rules completely done away with because that person took the place of the atoning sacrifice?

Why do so many believe this is exactly what happened?

Yes, it is impossible for us to keep the rules as we should because we are imperfect. Yet that doesn't do away with the rules. If the rules disappeared then love disappears because those rules exist because of love. The rules are ALL made from love and concern love. There isn't a single rule that can be separated from love.

If you choose to not love, you choose to break the rules willfully. 

Many will keep a lot of the rules naturally because they do want love to rule over the hate and sin in their lives. But many will break the rules as they seek to stop loving and start self serving.

The heart of the rule breaking is selfishness the opposing force of love.

Jesus came and lived of life of serving others in many ways. Jesus did not serve Himself first in anything.  

No wonder the self servers who wanted Jesus to become their leader in self serving were so quick to turn against Him when He wouldn’t give in to their self serving ways.  How easy it is for us to turn on Jesus when our own self serving ways are not met, even when we believe our ways aren't self serving- say we are praying for another's healing and it doesn't come to pass. Our idea of what's best for someone is often what's best for ourselves- we serve self.  The passing of an infant, the tragic death of a young child  who are we to say these are not blessings for the children that we can't comprehend because all we feel is the anguish, the loss we are left with. We can't know the whys and wherefores, we can't see the end from the beginning, but in all things shouldn't we pray God's will be done and accept that because we have faith that HE who DOES know the end from the beginning is working His will from love in a way we can't begin to fathom. ALL the pain and suffering is temporary to eternity. We must believe that in the eternity to come all those who suffer innocently will be rewarded beyond our ability to comprehend.  To be able to ask one who suffered horrifically now if it was worth it once they are secure in the eternity of love, you KNOW they will say it was, even if it is the most horrendous abuse we can imagine.  We don't understand and it pains us to witness the horrors, but we must have faith that through it all there is purpose, there is meaning, there is a reward, there is eternity.   We must not serve ourselves in believing in our own idea of what would be a better plan, a better way. We must believe in God's plan in His way, He created us in His image, not to be tortured but to be able to receive and give love.

Jesus died so we could live.

Jesus did NOT die so we could live without the rules, without love's guidelines.

Jesus died so we could comprehend the rules He lived perfectly He lived for us to reveal to us that it is possible to live with the rules and the rules are NOT grievous.

1Jn 5:1  Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

1Jn 5:5  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

1Jn 5:6  This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

1Jn 5:7  For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

1Jn 5:8  And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

1Jn 5:9  If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.

1Jn 5:10  He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

1Jn 5:11  And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

1Jn 5:12  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

1Jn 5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Rom 3:24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Rom 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Rom 3:26  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Rom 3:27  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Rom 3:28  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Rom 3:29  Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

Rom 3:30  Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

Rom 3:31  Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

May we believe.

May we follow and love the commandments of love, trusting in our Savior to save us because we know that it is possible through HIM for those commandments of love to be kept fully, wholly.  Only in Him is there hope.

Please, Father, bless us with the HOPE of eternal life in Jesus Christ, in our being able THROUGH HIS POWER, through the HOLY SPIRIT, we are able to live the life of love You designed us to live.

All in the name of our Savior, Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Amen.

Choose

Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Only grace saves us. The law cannot save us. The law reveals our inability to save ourselves. All we can do is choose to be saved by another, or not.  That's right, we get to choose. You're NEVER forced to be saved not even close. You won't be cajoled, you won't be coerced, you will not be tricked. You are invited, you are entreated, you are asked, but never in a intrusive forceful way.  You might say that there are PEOPLE who have tried to force you into believing, and I wouldn't dispute with you over that. People will try all sorts of things in all sorts of ways, but other than revealing the truth and letting others decide for themselves Christ does not advocate more. He tells His disciples to go and preach, but to do the following when not wanted--

Luk 9:2  And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

Luk 9:5  And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.

He did not say stay and try to convince them, and force them to receive you.  More than once Paul in his many, many journeys was run out of town.

Forcing the truth on someone, or TRYING to force the truth on someone is ludicrous.  If you succeed in forcing the truth on someone it would be false in their hearts through your force. The force makes it something against their will.

That's why any religious fanatics or organizations which orders people to believe in their religion is crazy, because they cannot force the heart even if they can force lying words of acceptance to their beliefs. And any religion whose God wants to just hear words and not have heart conviction is a very screwed up religion. No true God would care about lying words of conversion forced from someone. That God would appear to be in it solely for the numbers game and not true, freely given love at all.  Force is an attribute of Satan, not God.

Yes, God is a consuming fire.

Yes, God will judge all.

Yes, God is love and all who are not of God are not love.

Our CREATOR loves us.

Our CREATOR has a right to us and yet He allows us to CHOOSE whether or not we will belong to Him, willingly, lovingly. 

Our CREATOR the giver of our breath of life has the right to that breath, it belongs to Him.

Why would our CREATOR want to allow any of us to live in a world of pain, sorrow, sin, anguish, depravity, selfishness, heartache, and that's what we'd be asking Him to let us do if we choose to NOT be His and still want to live eternally. We'd be asking God to let us live a life of horror, of sin forever and ever and NO Creator, NO LOVING CREATOR would want that for His creatures.  His offering eternal life on the condition that we make the choice to LOVE HIM and OTHERS and HATE SIN (even though our flesh longs for it), is LOVE. We don't have to choose SIN, and DEATH eternal. We make the choice.

Two paths.

Love and Sin.

If we choose the path of sin no matter the reason, we've condemned ourselves to eternal death, to eventual nothingness, to being no more.

We choose.

The law reveals love, but the law doesn't save us, only Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God sacrificed for us, our Creator/Redeemer taking on flesh and suffering, dying in the flesh- He alone has the right to save whom He will.

We choose life or death.

We are all given a choice.

By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, may we choose life in HIM, by HIM!

AMEN.

Let nothing keep us from love

"Lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus."-- Heb_12:1-2.

Lay aside EVERY weight. 

Weight weighs us down and in the Spiritual sense the weight that can drag us down spiritually is sin, right?  The sin that EASILY besets us.  We know don't we? We know our sins. We can't pretend they don't exist in our lives. We can't gloss over the sins, and we can't ignore them- they don't go away. Our sins must be confessed. Our sins must be repented of.  Our sins must be laid aside. We must GIVE up our cherished sins. 

The other day we talked about sins being the breaking of God's laws, this is truth.

We sin when we do not love God.

We sin when we do not love others.

We sin when we put self first before God and others.

Whatever keeps us from loving God and loving others makes up the weight that we must lay aside. We have to LAY ASIDE all that would keep us from loving God and others, do we?! 

Whenever we find ourselves thinking unloving thoughts, about to commit unloving acts, we need to seek God and the strength He can provide us through the Holy Spirit. We have to seek forgiveness. We have to choose to lay aside the sins that EASILY beset us. 

And… we must do this as we run this race of life with PATIENCE, looking to JESUS.

We cannot take our eyes off of our SAVIOR, He is our HOPE, truly our ONLY HOPE. 

Please FATHER, please help us to examine our lives constantly as we run this race we are in, and in examining our lives let us comprehend the sins that are weighing us down spiritually threatening to destroy us.  We need to live for our SAVIOR, for the Love that HE HAS for us, for the SACRIFICE He's made for us!  Please teach us to set aside anything that would keep us from following YOUR will!

Please!  Without You we are nothing, nothing.

All in YOUR LOVE!

A conditional clause-

If we can believe.

Isn't that the truth of the matter? Our being able to believe.

It is easier for some people to believe in outright lies than the ultimate of truths.

Mar 9:23  Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

If.

What a word,  'If'.

If-  (Definition)-

'introducing a conditional clause.
synonyms: on (the) condition that, provided (that), providing (that), presuming (that), supposing (that), assuming (that), as long as, given that, in the event that
"if the rain holds out, we can walk"

*******

A conditional clause-

Providing that- you can believe.
Presuming that- you can believe.
Supposing that- you can believe.
Assuming that- you can believe.
As long as- you can believe.
Given that- you can believe.
In the event that- you can believe.

ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.

Now people will be quick to jump on this and say it's crazy and therefore unbelievable but isn't the fact that they do not believe null and void the entire thing? Believing.

What do you LOSE by believing?

People will say they DO believe and then turn around and say they stopped believing when their believing did not give them their desired outcome. They'll say they look at this world and know that believing warrants nothing so they'd just assume not believe.

The problem with all this is that the belief we need to have ultimately is in something that has already occurred and therefore truth, and therefore a fact. Again there are many dissenters to this even though history has proven over and over its truth. Yes, they'll say the opposite, that history has proven that it isn't true. And once more we are left HAVING to have faith.

We have to believe that our Savior died for us to have eternal life- NOT so we have a good life here and now.  Jesus' entire message had it's core centered at ETERNAL LIFE.

If you choose NOT To believe in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, then you choose to believe that this life and all its horrors are all there is. Make the best of what life throws at you and that's is that. If you're lucky you'll be born into a happy, healthy existence, if you're just unlucky from birth you'll be born into poverty, pain, and sickness.  If all it is- is luck, truly there is little point to everything. Knowing that from the best life to the worst life here and now on this earth each person has the hope of eternal life, is a blessing! Yet so many do not want to believe this because Satan has worked hard to blind them.

PLEASE LORD, please Help us ALL believe! Help our UNBELIEF! WE BELIEVE!

In the name of our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ always and forever and ever… AMEN.