Sin's Slow Deadly Poison.

Serpents everywhere biting people, killing people - why? Because the people sinned against God. God gave the enslaved freedom, yet the enslaved were so filled with their mistrust, they could only think of the comforts of their slavery. Is it strange to believe there were/are comforts in slavery? Even right now at this very moment there are people caught up in the comforts of their slavery. It's not that they want to have a master over them forcing them to do their bidding no matter how laborious. They don't enjoy the whip, or chains, the restrictions on their ability to do as they please in all phases of their lives. They despise the abuse heaped upon themselves day after day and they do long to be free of the anguish of slavery. However, given an opportunity to leave a lot don't readily jump at the chance when it means suddenly having to fend completely for themselves. Yes, they are abused but they are also fed and clothed. Now on their own they have to find a way to provide for their own needs something their tortured, enslaved mindset can scarcely fathom. The fear of freedom can be overwhelming. Some would rather die than face that fear, others will leap at the chance to embrace that fear for their freedom.  God's chosen people, the descendants from Abraham were enslaved and now given their freedom. Out on their own, some began to believe they marched to certain death from deprivation of the necessities to life. They started to long to return to their enslavement - the comforts of slavery- rather than die free.

Even after all God had done to obtain their freedom, they still doubted His protection, they doubted His ability to provide for them. They were choosing death over living for God and the promises offered to them by God and that choice became quite literal for many. The serpents came. Deadly venomous serpents began striking out at person, after person and each bite brought the preferred slavery to death over the hardships of life.

Finally the people had enough losses of loved ones and the fear of their own demise. They turned to Moses, God's chosen liberator, and begged him to do something to stop the serpents from killing them all.  They took their minds off themselves and sought a redeemer, someone to save them. They realized they couldn't depend on themselves to keep safe, they needed outside help. They needed a supernatural power to stop them from dying. So…

Joh 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 

Joh 3:15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 

Moses was told by God what to do (Numbers 21:8,9) he lifted up the brass serpent on the pole and when anyone was bitten by a serpent all they needed to do was look upon that brass serpent and they lived.  Prior to the brass serpent every single bitten person died. Only those bitten who looked upon the brass serpent lived.

The Son of man, Jesus Christ just like that brass serpent had to be lifted up for all to look upon. Today almost 2000 years after Jesus was hung upon the cross He is still lifted up for ALL to look upon.

We can remain enslaved to sin and all its many, many comforts, or we can look to the lifted Christ and find freedom from sin's slavery.

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 

Joh 3:18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 

Joh 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 

Joh 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. 

Men loved darkness rather than light- why? Because their deeds were evil.

Those who embrace the evil hate light because they don't want their evil exposed for what it is. They want to call their evil a good thing, a right thing, it pleases them and brings them mental, physical, emotional pleasure to commit the evil. They believe they have a right to the evil and the evil can't be all that bad because it's what pleases them, and why shouldn't they be pleased on any level they choose? Why should they deprive themselves of any evil, they live for themselves and believe others should too.

There is so much evil in the world that is called good, so much. We don't want to believe things we do are evil so we convince ourselves they are good and along the way we have turned our backs on the God of truth, and serve the god of deception carefully disguised as the true God.

We need to look to the lifted Jesus Christ our Savior and seek only His truth. WE need to allow the Holy Spirit to convict us on any point in our lives that is a disguised evil. We need to throw ourselves as the foot of the cross and reach for the salvation found only through Christ.

This prison planet we are living on has a myriad of evil traps set up around every corner of our lives. Our hope must forever be before us, the hope of salvation, of a new life. With this hope of a new life we need to live with our eyes set only on the cross where Jesus our Savior died and then rose from that death to a newness of life so that we too may live in newness of life- newness of hope, that same Jesus will return for us and free us from this prison planet.

We have a liberator, we have a path to freedom, we will be set free right now and that hope of a future life without any of sin's stain will keep us free in the knowledge that sin will not win.

Please, Lord give us the newness of life through the Holy Spirit so we may live completely for You in Your truth. Protect us, keep us from ALL evil. Convict our hearts so that we may never be deceived and give us all we need to be wholly Yours now and forever!!!!!!!

Amen!

Imprisoned Yet Given New Life.

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 

All things are newly spiritual in Christ. We are raised from hopelessness, to hope. Our walk in the newness of life is one of hope. We have an advocate, we have someone fighting on our behalf.

The prisoners on this planet who choose to remain imprisoned even after they are offered freedom- live under a death sentence and they are controlled by the warden running this planet- Satan. We are surrounded by the unredeemed prisoners and as such, our lives will be far from easy. We must holdfast to the newness of life we are given- a newness we renew every single day of our new spiritual life.

This is truth-

Joh_3:3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Joh 3:4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

Joh_3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

1Pe_1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

BORN AGAIN.

As soon as Jesus uttered those words, the very wise Nicodemus asked the logical question all of us would have needed to ask, right?

How? We can't very well go into our mother's womb again and be born. 

Do you think perhaps Nicodemus may have said that with a hint of amusement? Seriously. He was an old man and here he was being told that he needed to be born again. The very idea of having to enter his mother's womb a second time was laughable. Jesus wasn't laughing though, Jesus was telling Nicodemus a very important truth. In fact, this truth was so important Jesus told him that without being born again there is NO entering the kingdom of God.

Now Nicodemus was fully listening to these strange words, this strange concept.

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

Joh_3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

A man must be born of water.

A man must be born of the Spirit.

Without this new birth it would be impossible for the man to go into God's kingdom.

Flesh is flesh, every human being most obviously is born of flesh, no man is born without flesh. Once a man exists in the flesh that birth of the flesh is over- no turning back. Being born of the Spirit is a whole other matter. There are going to be millions and millions of people who have never been born of the Spirit.

Jesus went on to tell Nicodemus not to be surprised by His telling him that he needed to be born again and He explained.

Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 

You can hear the wind but just like the wind you really don't know where it is coming from ultimately and you can't tell where it is going to go.  Imagine yourself on a sailboat out to sea and you can't even see land any longer only water. You've no method other than the sail to move your boat and there is absolutely no wind at all whatsoever, not even a tiny breeze. There you are, stuck at a complete stand still. You need to head in a certain direction to get where you are going but you can't. You wait…one day…two days…three days… where is the wind?! Why is there no wind?!  This isn't an unreality, this is truth, this happens. Wind does not always blow. There have been many times I've been working outside in the sweltering heat, sweat pouring off me, and I long for a breeze. I comprehend the state of being surrounded by absolutely no wind.  As the boat in the middle of the sea is stranded, as I perspire relentlessly in the heat, the wind is desired and we may even be praying for the wind to appear. Where do we think that wind needs to come from? Can it be on its way? Will it appear out of nowhere in a great gust? Will we have a storm of wind so powerful it will knock us over, tip the boat on its side?  Wind is a marvelous thing and unpredictable.  Yes, the scientist may tell us all about wind… the sun, air pressure, molecules and so on and so forth. They can make predictions about wind force in storms and even measure the force of hurricane and tornado winds. The mystery is still there, they too are subject to sweating on a hot day and longing for a breeze. 

Joh 3:8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 

You hear the wind, but even with all scientific knowledge you can't absolutely predict when it will come and when it will go. You will have guesses as a meteorologist, but absolutes are not going to happen. You will have theories and computations, and some might be spot on, but not all of them. No one can predict with certainty the actions of the wind. Often they'll be more fierce than expected, or less severe that is the nature of the wind.

When we are BORN of the SPIRIT it isn't a birth like a child. You know when a child is about to be born, you can generally tell the mother is very pregnant. Again, this isn't an always situation, but the majority of time births are expected and known about before they occur. Our Spiritual birth is not something that can be known, we aren't inside our pregnant mother when this birth happens. The Spirit is given to us, the new life we must have in Christ is given to us in such a way that it could happen at any time without any prior expectation of it occurring. You can hope for this Spirit birth, want this Spirit birth, and you can wait for it expectantly- but ultimately the Spirit like the wind, will go where it wills.

More on this tomorrow…all by the grace and will, the love of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. And yes, all through the Holy Spirit!

God help us all!