Greetings In Christ

It's truly amazing how wonderful the greetings were from Paul to others in Christ. Seriously, it's not something we see, or hear of today. We say it was something everyone did back then- it was something done in the old days. Truthfully people did have different customs here and there and well, yes, everywhere. We can read old letters from our own country back in the 1700's 1800's and the wording is very strange to us. Here back in the first century AD of course things aren't going to sound like a letter we might write and read today and yet it's amazing to be able to read the inspired word of God and imagine how things were and things might be again someday.
Imagine sitting down to write a letter and beginning it with- , a follower of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to fellow believers, faithful in Christ, grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, I give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.
It's powerful isn't it? So full of good will, so full of admiration, of adoration towards God, towards Jesus.
Here's Paul writing to those at Colosse, and to all of us really as God inspired this written word to be-
Colossians{1:1} Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother, {1:2} To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. {1:3} We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,{1:4} Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,
I think it's wonderful, so wonderful to be greeted in this way and to greet others with the love of Jesus, with the grace of Jesus, in all truth.
This isn't a very long study today, unfortunately, but may God be with us all, grace to us all through God, through our Lord Jesus as we seek Him, to know Him, to live our lives in Him now and always.
Amen.

Well Armored

Ephesians
{6:10} Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
{6:11} Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
{6:12} For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places. ]
{6:13} Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
{6:14} Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
{6:15} And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace
{6:16} Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
{6:17} And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
{6:18} Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints
{6:19} And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel
{6:20} For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

*******

Be strong in the Lord.

Not be strong of yourself.

Be strong in the power of *HIS* might.

Not be strong of your own might, your own accord.

Thank God that we don't have to be strong in and of ourselves, that we don't have to rely on our own might as we are trying to be strong *for* the Lord. We have to be strong *in* the Lord. We can't take any glory to ourselves. We can't save ourselves, we can't be strong in our own might or we'll fail miserably.

God has armor and it's available to us all. The armor isn't made of leather, or even chain mail, it's not made of a super fine mesh, it's not Kevlar, this armor of God's is made of all that any Christian will ever need to combat the invisible forces of evil that can attack and steal us from our salvation. These dark forces want our eternal life. God's armor will protect our eternal life.

The biggest threat to our eternal life is invisible- principalities, power, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness.

Sounds so horror movie of the week, doesn't it?

I love that we can take the imagery of real armor and use that to realize what sort of armor we need for our very real, spiritual battle.

Loins girt in truth.
Breastplate of righteousness.
Boots of the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Shield of faith.
Helmet of salvation.
Sword of Spirit- word of God.
Praying always.

Truth, righteousness, gospel of peace, faith, salvation, Spirit-word of God, prayer.

We're not left defenseless.

We're not left on our own without armor, without protection.

Unfortunately it's a lot simpler to grab a pair of boots and shove them on our feet and to cover ourselves with Kevlar clothing, pick up a metal shield, put on a protective helmet and yes, heft up that metal sword and wave it about, than it is to put on the Spiritual armor available to us. Seriously. You'd think, hey, invisible armor, weightless, available all day everyday what is better than that? Nothing! Right? Nothing. And yet the Spiritual armor is something so many choose not to use. Can't see it, it's not there. Can't see it, why use it. Can't see it, hey it takes work to *think* about the spiritual, so much easy to just put on a metal jacket.

Truth. Righteousness. Gospel of peace. Faith. Salvation. Spirit-word of God. Praying.

That wickedness we fight would have us to believe we can't have any of those things- that we can't have the truth, we can't be righteous, that the gospel of peace belongs to the disciples, that faith is something elusive, salvation well, salvation is just a myth and who can ever really have the Spirit of God in them? Prayer, now here is something a lot of people are familiar with. Prayer. Yet those wicked spirits, the evil principalities would have us believe that even our prayers go unheard.

This armor is heart armor, spiritual armor that protects our eternal life not our physical life. We have to realize that we live in a spiritual world. If we can't admit that we live in a spiritual world then we really do have no hope. People often say there has to be more to life than this, meaning the existence they currently have, and they're right. The spiritual world is huge, so much larger than the physical. There is so much more than this.

We can have eternal life it's ours for the asking by the Grace of Jesus Christ. We can live in the spiritual world. It's only if we do live in the spiritual world that we can live and have more to life than what we have now, than what this world offers.

Perhaps as one going to battle each and ever day we need to remember to put on our armor. We wouldn't go out into a physical battle without armor on, without protective gear. You see our soldiers all the time all decked out in their protective gear, a lot of times they even have to sleep in it I've read. They wouldn't dream of taking off the protective gear and going out into the battle field. Yet here we are in a spiritual warfare where the battle is for our eternal lives and we think nothing of living unprotected. We think nothing of getting up and going about our day to day business without once thinking about Jesus, without once thinking about the truth in Jesus, the gospel that brings us peace, the faith, salvation, the Spirit, or praying.

Make no mistake we are in a war, all of us and we so need to be well armored.

Each day, each time we think about it, we should make sure we're protected shouldn't we? How? Through prayer, through acknowledging the truth, the gospel, by claiming Jesus in our lives, His righteousness, His peace.

May God help us all.

Amen.

“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. 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.”- 1 John 2:15-16

We are members one of another

Ephesians
{4:25} Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
{4:26} Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath
{4:27} Neither give place to the devil.
{4:28} Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with [his] hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
{4:29} Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. {4:30} And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
{4:31} Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice
{4:32} And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

'For we are members one of another'

Member one of another.

The human race. Humanity. Mankind. We are all basically the same. Strip away the outer trappings *all* the outer trappings and our basic needs are all the same aren't they?

We all need to eat, drink, eliminate waste, stay warm or cool, breath air, be healthy enough to keep our bodies alive. If we as the race of human beings have all our basic needs in common physically it stands to reason that our basic spiritual needs are the same as well. Basic spiritual needs in that we all need to worship and honor our creator and accept the grace of our redeemer if we want our spiritual need met.

I can already hear the arguing that everyone has different spiritual needs and I'm sorry, but I don't believe that.

Equally as human beings we have needs, we were made that way, created that way.

We were made to worship our creator, our redeemer and yet just as we've twisted our basic physical needs we've twisted our spiritual needs.

We are members one of another.

No matter the diversities that exist in us, you liking mushrooms me not, me liking raisin bread you not, no matter what we are all basically the same. We are. We have something in common one with another no matter how horrible or how wonderful we are. The sweetest person alive has much in common with the most evil person alive. Man was never meant to strive for supremacy and to divide into a higher and lower class, never. We were never to esteem another better than ourselves, or others better than us. True equality in basic decency, in life was the way it was to be.


We are members one of another.

Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another -- don't lie-- the truth, we all deserve the truth and nothing less. We are all the same in our basic humanity, all of us, and none of us needs to lie to another because it's like lying to ourselves. The lies hurt us, every lie reflects on us, all lies spring from one source- the father of lies, Satan.

Be not angry.
Sin not.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.
Give no place to the devil.
Steal not.
Work as you are able and help those who aren't.
Speak that which will uplift, not tear down.
Minister grace to those you speak to.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit of God seals us to be redeemed.
Put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and all malice.
Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving-

Even as GOD for CHRIST'S sake hath FORGIVEN YOU.

*
Heh, we say that our actions don't matter, that there are no do's and do not's, that we just have to believe and nothing else matters, all the time forgetting that our faith, our belief changes us naturally through the Holy Spirit. We can grieve that Holy Spirit. Our choices, our actions reveal our beliefs.

A complete pacifist who believes that any fighting is wrong will not reveal his pacisfism if he goes and brawls on the street, no one will mistake that person as a pacifist. Words only mean so much, it's our actions that reveal who we are. I can claim to be a follower of Christ but if my actions are not Christ-like am I truly a Christian? We are giving many examples of what it means to be a Christian. The greatest and the truest is simply following Christ, striving to be as Christ was and is.

Be not angry - anger blinds us to compassion and understanding, anger can lead to so many things and most of them are no good at all. Out of anger a lot of evil acts are committed. Out of anger people regret more their actions so much more. We're familiar with the criminal state of temporary insanity where anger causes us to commit many, many evils. Anger can cause us to sin. Prisons are filled with people who otherwise would never have hurt anyone did so out of anger. Anger is a dangerous thing, very dangerous.
Sin not- Anger causing sin flourishes, is it no wonder we are told not to be angry.
Let not the sun go down upon your wrath- You've heard the secret to marriage long married couples tend to spout and a common secret is not going to be angry. The basis could be a bit Biblical, mmm? Let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Resolve any conflicts right away, don't wait and let them simmer. Often is we embrace anger it grows inside us, eats at us, changes us, consumes us and our actions, our lives start to resolve around that anger.
Give no place to the devil- the devil will gladly use our anger against us in any way He can. He'll take a minor annoyance and encourage it to grow, a spark flare to a flame and the flame to an inferno. We can't make it easy on the devil. He has so many ways to get to us, so many that we're basically inviting the devil to have his way with us when we embrace anger in our lives and don't resolve our wraths before night falls each and every day.
Steal not- taking that which isn't yours is always wrong.
Work as you are able and help those who aren't- labor is good, working is a good thing, helping those who can't work is a good thing as well.
Speak that which will uplift, not tear down- when we talk to others doing so in a away that will uplift them and help them is much, much better than saying anything that will upset them, bring them down to despair is wrong to speak. Words are powerful, very powerful, we have to be careful not to use them in a way that will bring harm.
Minister grace to those you speak to- The grace of Jesus Christ is something we need to share now and always, if we can speak of the grace of God we should.
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God- Grieving someone is doing things that bring them sorrow, right? How can we bring the Holy Spirit sorrow? By choosing to live in a way that is un-Christ-like, by choosing evil over good.
The Holy Spirit of God seals us to be redeemed- The Holy Spirit seals us. The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our Redemption. The Holy Spirit is the bit of promise given to us for our future life with Christ.
Put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and all malice- bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking and malice only harm us, they harm us and if we allow them to live in us then they'll eat away at us and they will grieve the Holy Spirit. As we give place to evil things, we give place to the devil and that's the last thing we want in our lives, the devil alive and well and the Holy Spirit Grieved!
Be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving- We must forgive, to not forgive is to encourage discontent, anger and we know where that will lead. We must forgive not because ANY deserve forgiveness, but because--

Even as GOD for CHRIST'S sake hath FORGIVEN YOU-- Because Christ has forgiven US.

May God help us to walk as Christ walked, live as Christ lived. May the Holy Spirit be alive and well in us now and always, never grieved. May forgiveness rise in us for others for no other reason that we are forgiven.

In Christ.

Amen.

For ye were sometimes darkness

Ephesians{5:8} For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light{5:9} (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) {5:10} Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
You were sometimes darkness.
We're all sinners. We all embraced darkness to some extent. Some more than others. But you know what. Whether you are or were in darkness just a little while, or whether you were in darkness for years and years, the darkness is just as black, no sin is gray, it doesn't exist in varying shades going from black to white. We are in darkness or in light.
Think about it. If I am darkness for a half an hour, and you are darkness for a minute, we are both the same in that we were darkness.
Sin is like that. We tend to place degrees on sin. Big sin, little sin, acceptable sin, unacceptable sin, sins that skirt the line between acceptable and unacceptable.
Does it really matter?
Sin's darkness in us condemns us whether we are in darkness for many years or just a day. Whether our sin was as dark as murder or just a murderous thought. It's all darkness, all sin.
For ye were sometimes darkness.
The darkness that we are doesn't have to be overwhelming, it could be something as simple as a single bad act, if that bad act is horrific enough it can weigh as heavily upon you as a million bad acts, or maybe a lot of little sins we think don't way heavy are heavier than a lot of giant sins. Sin is sin is sin...is sin.
Satan wants us to be darkness, children of darkness, he wants us to love darkness rather than light. We look at blatent sinners and can't understand how they can love being children of darkness and yet we don't realize the sins we cling to, though different, fill us with darkness too.
We have to be light in the Lord. Children of light.
We were all sometimes darkness. All of us. But asking Jesus to be our Savior, asking Jesus to forgive us we are asking Him to make us children of light, his children. We need to walk as children of light. The darkness will try to drag us down every opportunity it gets. The darkness will tell us that we'll never be *good* enough to be children of light. We have to cling to Jesus and His righteousness, He is the light and if we cling to Him trusting in Him to save us from the darkness we are His children.
Sin is a horrible, horrible thing. Sin separates us from God. God made a way for us to be forgiven. We can't forgive ourselves, we can't save ourselves, we have to cling to the One who can save us and become His children.
Satan would have our sinfulness weigh us down and steal all hope from us. Satan will try to convince us that we're too sinful to ever be saved. Satan will bring to mind all the evil we've ever done when we were 'sometimes darkness', and he doesn't want us to be light in the Lord. Satan will try hard as he can to convince us that its impossible to be light in the Lord, to walk as children of light. We have to admit that we were sometimes darkness, admit it, don't deny it not even to ourselves, don't try to excuse it away, we have to recognize that the dark we were, and the dark that still tries to drag us down is a darkness that the light of Christ can destroy. The power of Christ to turn darkness to light is found in the sacrfice He made for us. He died because of the hold the dark has on us. He died to bring light to us. His light, not ours. We are only light IN the Lord, not of ourselves. We can only hope to be light in the LORD. We can't be light of ourselves, we can't. We can recognize that the dark would only have us embrace the dark, that the dark hates the light, and choose to be light in the Lord, through His grace, not because we are light of ourselves, we'll never be LIGHT enough of ourselves, NEVER. Only in Christ are we children of light. If we hope to walk in the light all on our own we're going to be very disappointed, very, very disappointed.
Ephesians{5:8} For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light{5:9} (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) {5:10} Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and all righteousness and truth!
Walking in the light of the Lord, being children of light we will produce fruit from that walk- that fruit is from the Spirit who comes to us from Christ and enables us to be His children to walk in that light, and the fruit is recognized in all goodness, all righteousness, and all truth. Proving what is acceptable to the Lord.
Glory be to God that we don't have to live in darkness, that we don't have to be dark, that we can choose to be children of light in Christ. We have to walk as we are children of light, no matter how much Satan beats at us trying to wear us down, to depress us, to get us down into the dumps so far we don't think we can ever climb out. Satan will tell us we CAN'T walk as children of light, that we're not good enough, we're not LIGHT enough, and you know what...
... he's right.
WE can't, not on our own. Thank God for Jesus Christ our Savior, we don't have to try to walk as children of light on our own, we can't. When Satan tries to convince us the dark is better, that we can't be children of light we have to cling to Jesus, cling to our Lord, trust in our Lord and walk AS children of light anyway, no matter what Satan is doing to discourage us. We have to admit we are no good, that yes, we've done horrible things, that we've walk in the dark but no longer. Through Christ we are going to walk as children of light in Christ, not alone, not of our own accord, our sins are forgiven and Christ is our Lord and Savior through Him and only through Him will the Spirit dwell in us and the fruit of the Spirit exist.
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”- Isaiah 1:18

Unto the praise of His glory!

Ephesians
{1:12} That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
{1:13} In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise
{1:14} Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

**

You trusted...

...after you heard the word of truth.

You trusted...

...after you heard the gospel of your salvation.

You trusted...

...after you believed you were sealed with the holy spirit of promise, our inheritance until redeemed.


Praise be the glory of God, of Salvation in Christ Jesus.

**

Do you believe?

I have to believe that this life isn't all there is to living.

I have to believe that death was never intended.

A silly thought but have you ever seen an underwater television special? The beauty that exists under the sea is absolutely amazing, comparable to the beauty we can find on dry land, some would say even more spectacular.

Who creates a work of beauty only to hide it?

An eccentric perhaps. Someone shy? Someone unable to show it off for other reasons. Alright those are good answers and there are probably many, many hidden works of beauty the majority of people will never see for various reasons, but who creates something on the scale of beauty that exists beneath the vast seas and only does so to hide it from the majority of people? It's not like hiding it from the public and charging admission to see the beauty is a consideration. Making money off the beautiful sight isn't possible for its creator.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is why would God create the magnificence seas with their underwater treasures only to make them inaccessible to man unless they create artificial means of breathing underwater?

I really don't believe God intended for the oceans to be off limits to us. Seriously, I don't. It makes so little sense.

What if... before sin entered the world and death by sin, man was able to naturally breath underwater?

No, I'm not getting all science fiction, spacey on you, I'm just supposing something. I'm not imagining we had gills and flippers or anything. Before death was a reality, then nothing could kill a person, right? If death did not exist then there was no way to die.

Satan didn't take Eve to the ocean and tempt her with the beauty under the water to drown her. He didn't entice her to climb a mountain and jump off so she'd die when she hit the ground. He didn't trap a lion in a pit and lead Eve to fall in it to be devoured. Satan didn't try anything physical in the way that we know people can die to kill Eve. Death didn't exist. No one could die. The access to the tree of life provided a means for people to partake of an eternal life giving fruit. That eternal life meant just that- no death. It didn't mean that Adam and Eve had to sit around in a sterile environment protected from wild beasties or kept from exploring the wonders of creation. They had access to the earth and all that was created in that earth. Adam was charged with naming the animals, I'm sure he didn't go up to a cage and peer in at a lion and say, mmmm...okay you're a lion. The lion was free roaming, not caged, there was no need to fear any animal at all.

Life upon creation was unlike anything we can truly imagine. We know that it was impossible for Adam and Eve to die, the concept of death only existed in that they were told not to eat of the fruit of a single tree or they would die.

Do you think it's unfair that death didn't exist so they had nothing to really make it real to them, this thing called death? No. It wasn't unfair. They were given everything and one restriction, one test if you will to see if they would obey their creator. If they loved their creator and trusted Him enough to take Him at His word. If they would have faith in their creator. They didn't know what death was in the sense they'd seen anything die, they were asked to trust, to believe in their Creator, to believe in God by faith through love. Much the same as we are asked to believe, to have faith in our Creator that by the sacrifice of His only Son, through His grace we are going to receive eternal life. Trusting, believing, loving for no other reason that our Creator, the one who willed us into existence demands it of us for our own good, but does not force it upon us.

Imagine if you will, being able to walk under the sea and interact with the beauty and bountiful life that exists under water. You can probably imagine it more if you've been deep sea diving, but imagine not needing any breathing apparatus to enjoy the wonders that live in the seas. It's really incomprehensible that it would be possible, but without death why wouldn't it have been? And why would God create such wonders for no one to see?

Yes, I sit here and I can't honestly believe that life was meant to be the way it is here and now. That everything was created by accident and this life is all there is to our existence and when it's over we're simply non-existent any longer.


**

You trusted...

...after you heard the word of truth.

You trusted...

...after you heard the gospel of your salvation.

You trusted...

...after you believed you were sealed with the holy spirit of promise, our inheritance until redeemed.


Praise be the glory of God, of Salvation in Christ Jesus.

**

We are each responsible to succeed where Adam and Eve failed. We are each asked to believe, to trust, to have faith in the salvation offered to us through Jesus Christ. As the were asked to trust in God and not partake of the fruit of one tree, we are asked to trust in God and to partake of salvation through Christ, believing in God and His word, His promise. Eve believed Satan when he told her that God lied to them and was hiding something from them, today Satan tries to convince us that there is no eternal life for us, that this life is all we have and if we do believe there might be something that it's too hard to obtain, or he tries the other approach that everyone is guaranteed eternal life no matter what they believe, automatically we all go to heaven and live happily ever after because we're good enough. There are many, many deceptions Satan has put in place to get us to give up our right to redemption through Jesus' sacrifice, to give up on the promises offered. And you know what? He wouldn't try so hard if there really was no eternal life. A life he knows that he'll never partake of, that his plan to deceive and reign in place of God will never happen. He's a loser who wants to take as many down with him as possible, to deny Christ as many believers as he can.

**

When you say if *you'd* been Adam or Eve *you* would have NEVER have fallen for Satan's deception, well, *you* do have that opportunity, the same one in a different format to prove that you believe in God, that you trust in God, that eternal life through the grace of Jesus is real and something to cling to for the promise of redemption to come. You make the choice every day, and sometimes often throughout the day, just as Adam and Eve lived with the forbidden fruit day in and day out making the choice to not go near it, to not partake of it, we have to make a choice. You can start up with excuses about how much harder it is for us and all that, but in the end it's a matter of choice for every single human being.

**

Ephesians
{1:12} That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
{1:13} In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise
{1:14} Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

**

All glory and praise to God our Father, to Jesus Christ His Son, the word of Truth, the gospel of Salvation, seal us with the Holy Spirit of promise, prepare us for that day of redemption, all power, glory, honor, praise, all love to our Father, by the grace of the Son, through the promise of the Spirit.

Amen.

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”- Joshua 24:15

Simplicity in Truth

Is the truth of Christ in you?

We've been talking of truth and lies. Truth and falsehoods. Truth and untruth. They are complete opposites and there are no gray areas in between. Gray areas we love to find and wallow in, gray areas that are soothing to the conscience and yet not holding too much pressure upon us. Gray areas exist all through our lives and in some aspects they are very necessary. How horrible it would be if we left no room in life for individual circumstances to matter. We see movies on tv all the time where there is that beginning- introducing the problem, the middle spent making the problem more realized, capturing the emotions through adversity- and then the ultimate end where the problem is resolved or not and sometimes were left feeling cheated by endings. Gray areas give us the black and white in startling contrast and then say lets see if we can't make this more acceptable, not too dark, not too light. Fortunately God deals in black and white and not grays. We don't have to live in murky gray areas, we can live in truth or in lies. We choose.

You know, even without being what one considers 'Godly' people live with a sense of right and wrong, a sense of fairness. People know when they do wrong, when they're not fair and yes they can be thrilled when they *get away* with being unfair, but they still know that it's unfair. They still have that sense of right and wrong, of truth and untruth. It's not just society which weighs us with strictures, it's humanity. It's being human. It's being humans answerable to a higher power, being accountable to God.

Is the truth of Christ in you?

Paul had the truth of Christ in him.

2 Corinthians
{11:1} Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.

**
Here Paul is asking people to bear with him in his folly, not just asking for himself but ... 'would to God' they bear with him in his folly and not only in his folly but bear with him, period.

2 Corinthians
{11:2} For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

**
He was jealous with a GODLY jealousy. God's jealousy exists in that there is only one true God, one true Creator, one true Redeemer. No other Gods before God, none, not one and it's not a boasting thing, it's not a selfish claim, it's love, it's from love, it is love. God is love so completely that love doesn't exist without God, it just doesn't, not real love. Every bit of love we can feel we can feel because of God, and the love we know beyond feeling is of God. Love is of God.

Here Paul is saying he's jealous over the people with a Godly jealousy because he's espoused them to one husband, that he wants to present them as a virgin to Christ.

Think about it, it's a perfect analogy. One who is promised to another in the sacred bond of marriage is to be a virgin, to be solely for the one promised. Yes, it's very hard in this day and age in the culture I live in to recognize such a thing because remaining a virgin is something so foreign to most people. It's trivial, it's something that means little. Living in a culture of selfishness where denying self is frowned upon, or putting on airs is frowned upon, the majority of people are no longer virgins upon the marriage bed.

The church, the people of God are the bride of Christ, a bride espoused to Jesus who will come one day to claim His espoused virgin for the marriage when man and God by His grace live as one.

With so many seducing spirits about, with so many different claims to the *truth*, its easy to see how people can be seduced away by one other than their true partner.

Paul tells it like it is...

2 Corinthians
{11:3} But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

**
Beguiled by subtlety, corrupted from simplicity in Christ.

Such amazing words.

Corrupted from simplicity in Christ.

It doesn't take much to be seduced away when an expert in beguiling is working at you.

The simplicity in Christ. The Truth. His Truth. For by grace we are save through faith. The Truth. Simple truth, uncomplicated. Living in that truth. Living day to day knowing that by the grace of Christ we are save, by the grace of Christ we live.

The beguiling seducing spirits that would have us no longer espoused virgins waiting for our groom, but drawn away into untruth, into lies is very, very real. Real back then when Paul wrote this and real today as we read it.

2 Corinthians
{11:4} For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Preaches another Jesus. People do that all the time. They preach another Jesus complicating Him up in their beguiling ways. But make no mistake- the do preach Jesus, just not the truth in Him. Where are Jesus' statement of beliefs so that you may join Him? Where are Jesus' rules and regulations? Where are Jesus' sticky fingers trying to reach into your pockets constantly? Where?

Yes, the simplicity in Christ is all caught up in the beguiling ways of false teachings of Christ. False, so close to the true the deception is hardly noticeable- subtlety, the same subtlety that Satan used on Eve.

2 Corinthians
{11:5} For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
{11:6} But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.
{11:7} Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
{11:8} I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.
{11:9} And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia
supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself.

**
Paul wasn't claiming to be the best one to preach as he was. He was claiming honesty. He was claiming to preach the gospel of God freely. Robbing other churches in that he was drawing people from other churches and accepting the offerings of those he drew away so that he could continue to preach, to do the service appointed to him. He didn't take from them, he was supplied by others, he wasn't a burden at all to those he was preaching to.

2 Corinthians
{11:10} As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

The truth of Christ is in him.

No man could stop him from proclaiming this, the truth of Christ!

Why?

2 Corinthians
{11:11} Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.

God knoweth why, God knows, God understands the love he has for Christ, for the truth of Christ which he could not stop from preaching to others out of that love.

2 Corinthians
{11:12} But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.

The simplicity of Christ, the Truth of Christ. As long as we are true to that Truth of Christ and the Truth of Christ is in us, no one will have an occasion to speak otherwise. However that subtly is at work, and working hard...

{11:13} For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
{11:14} And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
{11:15} Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

*
Satan himself is transform into an angel of light.
No marvel.
No great thing that HIS Satan’s ministers are transformed into ministers of righteousness.

Deception! Deceived! Beguiled! Betrayed!

We shouldn't be shocked at all to realize that Satan works so closely to the truth with just enough deception that he and his followers appear to be ministers of righteousness.

We're not fooled by outright unsophisticated counterfeits.

Only those counterfeits so close to the truth it's all but undetectable that they're are counterfeit are the ones that fool us.

People counterfeit money and stores and such go to special lengths to see they aren't deceived. Ever see a cashier hold up your money to the light? They're checking for the seemingly hidden shadings and such that are embedded in the money, shadings that are hard for counterfeits to duplicate. The cashier doesn't want to be fooled and given worthless monies.

We need to hold up our lives, our beliefs to the Truth of Christ! It's so easy to be deceived, so easy to be fooled and we aren't a 50 or 100 dollars when the deception is uncovered, but out eternal life. Make no mistake, we are accountable to hold our beliefs up to the Truth in Christ. That amazing simplicity in Christ. Don't follow anyone or anything blindly, measure it to the bright and shining truth in Christ.

By the Grace of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ may none of us be deceived by any of Satan's ministers, seemingly ministers of righteousness.

In His Name, by His Mercy and Grace

Amen.

Bewitched into not obeying the truth

Galatians
{3:1} O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?
{3:2} This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
{3:3} Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
{3:4} Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
{3:5} He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? {3:6} Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

**

Who has bewitched you?

Bewitched

Dict. bewitch (bî-wîch´) verb, transitive
bewitched, bewitching, bewitches
1. To place under one's power by or as if by magic; cast a spell over.
2. To captivate completely; entrance.

Clearly it would take bewitching to keep these people from obeying the truth.

Jesus Christ was with these people, crucified among them. These people received the Spirit.

Do you see what this is saying?

These people had, they received past tense, the Spirit. These people have been bewitched. These people no longer obey the truth. Having had Jesus Christ crucified before them they were now getting caught up in the works of the law.

Foolish people, people who started out in the Spirit now believe that they can save themselves through works of the flesh.

These people suffered! Suffered for their faith through the Spirit and now it would all be in vain if they turned from the truth.

Those ministering the Spirit to them- working miracles, are they doing it by works of the law or by the hearing of faith?

Abraham believed, Abraham had faith and it was the faith that was counted to him for righteousness, not his works. His faith. His belief.

The truth.

What is the truth?

It is obviously something that we can choose to obey or not obey.

The truth, Christ crucified, Christ our risen Savior, Christ sender of the Comforter, Christ who told us to wait for the Spirit, that He'd send the Spirit to us.

John
{14:15} If ye love me, keep my commandments.
{14:16} And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
{14:17} Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
{14:18} I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

John
{14:25} These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.
{14:26} But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
{14:27} Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid.

John
{15:26} But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me

John
{16:7} Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
{16:8} And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment
{16:9} Of sin, because they believe not on me;
{16:10} Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
{16:11} Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
{16:12} I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
{16:13} Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
{16:14} He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
{16:15} All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

**
The Spirit of Truth.

Being bewitched not to obey the truth, scary business.

If anyone says to you that you are saved if you do this, or do that, and they don't say that you are saved by the grace of God, by the sacrifice of His One and only Son Jesus Christ, you can't believe them, you just can't. You can't accept that you are saved by the grace of Jesus and then go on to think that your salvation is based on your works, that what you do saves you, that you save yourself by your actions. It's always and only Jesus who saves, by the grace of Jesus we are saved, we live with the Spirit of truth He sends to us and we become followers of Jesus, any good work that follows as a result is only through His grace, by His grace, all glory goes to God for any good that comes from us. We can take no glory to ourselves. We glorify our sweet Savior, all merciful, all loving.

Our faith is counted righteousness, not our works. Our faith is needed. Eph. {2:8}’For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: {2:9} Not of works, lest any man should boast.’

The truth is Jesus. The truth is we are saved by grace not of works and we can't ever forget that, not ever.

We can't let ourselves be bewitched into not obeying the truth.

Let us keep the truth ever before us- for by grace we are saved through faith, by the grace of God, by the grace and mercy of our Savior, through faith in Jesus we are saved. Through faith in Jesus we receive the Spirit of truth. Through faith, through Jesus forever and for always.

Amen.