The Flesh of our Savior

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
1Jn 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
1Jn 4:3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Let's take a look at the verses containing the word 'flesh' for a bit--

Mat 16:17  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for FLESH and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

Mat 24:22  And except those days should be shortened, there should no FLESH be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.

Mat 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the FLESH is weak.

Luk 3:6  And all FLESH shall see the salvation of God.

Luk 24:39  Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not FLESH and bones, as ye see me have.

Joh 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Joh 1:13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the FLESH, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Joh 1:14  And the Word was made  FLESH, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

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.

Rom 1:3  Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the FLESH

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the FLESH, but after the Spirit.

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.
Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the FLESH cannot please God.
Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the FLESH, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Rom 8:10  And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Rom 8:12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the FLESH, to live after the FLESH.
Rom 8:13  For if ye live after the FLESH, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Rom 8:15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Rom 8:16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Rom 8:17  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

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 Flesh.

Our Savior was FLESH and BLOOD. He gave us the example of His FLESH and BLOOD so we could NOT doubt the reality of what He was composed of. Not that He wanted us to really physically eat His skin and drink His real blood- it is symbolic and the symbol is the REALITY of what our SAVIOR came to earth as- FLESH, like our flesh.

Flesh such as the seed of David inherited, flesh that felt the FULL pull of temptation.

Our Savior inherited that same FLESH. He COULD have sinned! Think about it, make it REAL to you.

Our Savior COULD HAVE SINNED!

It sounds almost wrong to say it, to think it, to believe that it could have happened.

If we believe that it wasn't possible we take away the FLESH of our Savior and give Him only the status of God. We take away the fact that He COULD be tempted. Why would Satan try to tempt Him if it were IMPOSSIBLE for our Savior to sin? He wouldn't have, there would have been NO point at all whatsoever. To conquer you have to have had the ability to fail, not succeed or it is not conquering. And our Savior conquered death- the ultimate result of sin eternal non-existence, the second death.


More on this tomorrow, all by the grace of God, all through HIS LOVE!

Try the spirits

1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
1Jn 4:2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:
1Jn 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

We've discussed this a little bit before- the word- 'antichrist'.

The modern word for anti- is against, but the word used to mean- in place of.

The word antichrist means 'in place of Christ'.

The spirit of antichrist- the spirit of that which tries to take the place of our true Savior.

When we think of our Savior coming in the flesh- people generally don't have too much objection to this fact. However people start to differ and become uncomfortable when they begin to discuss the flesh of our Savior.

Some believe that our Savior came in flesh but such flesh that it was essentially impossible for Him to sin. They believe His nature was different from ours. And in believing that- it's all but impossible for them to believe this--

Heb 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

For our Savior to be tempted in ALL points like WE are would mean that He had to have the same propensity, the same flesh as we have or else He could NEVER be tempted like WE are in our sinful flesh.

This is the flesh issue that will divide so many.

The flesh our Savior came in.

Some just think about skin, and yes, Jesus came in skin like we have. To those who are just thinking of flesh as skin there is no issue- and of course those who don't believe our Savior really existed are 'against' Christ. Do you see where semantics can play a HUGE part in things? There is TRUTH in words and there are lies. People fill the words with lies and misdirection and then expect truth to be found, but how can people find it when it's shrouded in darkness?

We cannot believe EVERY spirit.
We have to TRY the spirits.
Some will be of God, others of Satan.
Those spirits, those prophets that are of God must confess that Jesus is come in the flesh.

The flesh of our humanity.

More on this tomorrow by the grace of God!

God's will first, our will last, the very last.

1Jn 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
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.

In keeping our Lord's commandments- dwelling in our Savior- and our Savior dwelling in us- loving one another-believing in Jesus Christ the Son of the Father- we KNOW HE abides in us- and we will receive whatever we ask.

People say that's crazy talk, God won't give us whatever we want no matter what. The TRUTH is, God WILL give us whatsoever we ask IF we are abiding in Him because whatever we ask for will be ONLY that which is good and right in HIS eyes. Abiding in Him truly, we will NOT ask for anything that God will not grant us. If we are asking for things and God is not giving them to us- we have to look at our lives, look at our abiding in Christ. Are we keeping His commandments? Are we doing the things that are pleasing in His sight? Are we believing on the name of God's Son- Jesus Christ? Are we LOVING one another?

Seriously, we NEED To examine our lives. We expect so much from God. We expect Him to do for us and us do nothing. Why? Because we cannot do ANYTHING to give us salvation, but that doesn't mean we have NOTHING to give, that nothing is expected of us in our lives. We are expected to have FAITH. We are expected to let that FAITH be REAL in our lives. That REAL faith will alter our life. We STOP living solely for self and desire to live for God. We desire to want to PLEASE God even knowing that nothing we do will give us salvation- that salvation is an unwarranted, amazing gift bestowed upon us by our loving FATHER and loving SON, through the HOLY SPIRIT.

Faith will have us love, love will give us faith, and through it all we will find out, we will discover the love of our God's commandments, the love of LOVING others, the LOVE of believing. We will ONLY- by the grace of God- desire and live for the things of God and God WILL give us whatsoever we ask of Him.

This isn't a get rich quick scheme, or an instantaneous healing act that we must have even if we desperately need money, or healing, or even both. There can be NO schemes, just truth, just love, just belief. You see we will first ask that God's will be done and it will. The will of God may include that we face some very, very difficult trials for reasons God alone will know. God's will first, our will last, the very last.

All in His love, all by His Spirit!

Our heart- condemns or condemns not

1Jn 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1Jn 3:21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

God is greater than our heart.
Our heart will either condemn us or not condemn us.

Remember this--

1Jn 3:17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
1Jn 3:19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him

IF we love we are not condemned.

We know if we love. We know if we don't love.

When our heart condemns us- it is condemning us because we don't love- we are not loving in action as God would have us love one another, and we cannot assure our hearts before God.

And GOD knows our heart better than we do. We cannot hide our hearts from God. That is why this is my prayer-

Psa 51:9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Psa 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Psa 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Create in me a CLEAN heart.

I need God to create in me a CLEAN heart, a heart that doesn't condemn me.

I long to have confidence towards God.

Putting my confidence anywhere else will only offer a false security if it offers any.

1Jn 3:20 For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
1Jn 3:21 Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

We have to comprehend the reality that nothing we are is hid from God. He knows the good, the bad, and the ugly, as well as the beautiful that is in us. He knows whether we long to be His. He knows our hearts and HE can CREATE in us a CLEAN heart. The heart of filth we possess can be cleaned. It's not irreparably stained, not if we believe in our Savior who died to be able to cleanse our hearts.

We must believe that our God will clean our hearts, we must have this faith in God, it's only with this faith in God that our heart won't condemn us. As long as we place our hope within ourselves we will never have a clean heart. We can try to wash our own heart over and over again, we can scrub at it, throw all the mental, emotion bleach we want onto our own filthy heart and it will forever remain stained. There isn't a SINGLE thing we can do to clean our own heart. We cannot do it, just as there are some things only a dry cleaner can get out, ONLY God can cleanse our heart. Our heart cleaner- God. We must go to Him and only Him and stop trying to scrub the filth from our own heart.

We must live our lives as we have been told in God's word to live it and trust in our God to save us.

We do have an Advocate with the Father and when we feel the weight of transgressions heavy upon us we have to go to our Advocate and seek forgiveness, seeking to be cleansed by the only One who can clean us.

Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Our confidence must be in GOD, only then our heart will not condemn us.

The verse reads- if our hearts condemns us not THEN we have confidence towards God- and that is a FACT. Our hearts will condemn us if we have no confidence towards God. And God knows whether we submit to Him or not, He knows.

God knows- He is greater than our own conscience, greater than our heart- and He knows.

All by HIS grace! May we be cleansed by Him and our hearts have confidence towards Him.

All by HIS LOVE!

Assure our hearts before Him

1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
1Jn 3:19 And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.

Hereby we KNOW that we are of the truth.
Hereby we KNOW that we are of our Savior.

If we love actively.

It's easy to say- I love you.

I know some people might say it's not easy at all and that's true for some people but others find it easy to say. I know about three, four, maybe five years ago suddenly it became important for me to tell the people I love that I love them. Maybe it was one of those thing I read- who knows- but I never wanted to regret NOT telling those I love that I love them. So it began, and at first it wasn't as easy to do but now- now it's easy to do and yet now it almost seems as if it's become more habit when in truth it's not, at least not for me. Believe it or not before I say those words I have that momentary thought about saying it and why- wanting the person I'm saying it to, to know that I love them and if that's the last time I see them then they'll remember, or I'll remember that it wasn't something that went unsaid.

So when I say it is easy to say I love you it is, and many might say it without truly meaning it, without any action behind it.

Every single person I've told I love you- at least over the last few years or so- I really hope that if the action of love has been needed that I've acted out of love and not just spoke those words to them.

I'm not a very demonstrative person, not at all. And I fight satan all the time as He encourages my selfishness, being selfless doesn't come easy to me and I hate that about myself. So these verses really hit home with me. I want to, I need to love in deed and in truth, in action and in Christ and I pray to God that He make this possible in me. What seems impossible to me, isn't impossible to God.

Luk 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

I want to know I'm of the truth. I want to assure my heart before my Savior all by loving not in my words- not by just saying the words- but in action, in my interaction with those I love, and to all as we are to love our fellowman. Please Lord, help me to truly LOVE all by YOUR grace and mercy.

All through You Lord, all through YOU.

In Action and In Christ

1Jn 3:17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

Loving others.

If we love others we will care for them. If we see another in need we and turn our backs on them we are NOT loving others. If we consider our OWN needs first- we are not loving others.

It's so incredibly hard to put others first to the point of us having nothing.

There was a popular television show episode that depicted a man who was giving away his money and lots of it. He was giving and giving and giving until his family left him because he was no longer seemingly concerned with providing them with all the things they wanted etc. Well he fell ill and the physician in charge of his case decided his giving was due to a medical problem not because he was actually caring and giving. This show went on and made it just that- they found a tumor in his brain that pressed on a certain part that made him this overly caring man, willing to lay down his life to save another- literally. What the show wanted to get across is that people are NOT like that, they aren't selfless, they have to be sick to be so. And you know what- with the way people are today- it's sadly true.

Even in my own life I have this huge war going on- the battle between what I KNOW is right and what I would rather do. The battle between wanting to help others, but not wanting to destitute myself looms large in me. Is this selfishness? I fear it is. EVEN with little things- things that are asked of me- I find myself resenting them and this is the FLESH battle within. As soon as I start resenting I recognize that it's wrong and by the grace of God sometimes I can take the chastising and that feeling goes away, others times it's not such a quick release from the battle.

This flesh battle is REAL, so incredibly real. Saying 'flesh' battle almost makes it sound physical but more often than not the flesh battle isn't a battle of tangible flesh but of spirit- emotional, mental- and the flesh war is a battle of flesh DESIRES against spiritual TRUTHS.

Flesh desires warring against spiritual truths- this is our battle.

So when the conflict rages within us we have to expect it and NOT give into the despair satan wants to make us feel. If he can get us to live in despair then he has won us, taken us from our Savior. We have to FIGHT! And oh what a fight it is! Such a fight! A fight we will have until our Savior returns or until our life is over and we are sleeping in the grave.

We will NOT get to a place we are outside of the battle and if we do we have to worry, really worry.

Please Lord, help us to endure, help us fight the battle by choosing to be with YOU, choosing to abide in YOU. We have to seek forgiveness always. It is YOUR righteousness we have to live in, not our own. Help us LORD. Help us to give LORD. Help us to love others MORE than ourselves. Help us LORD because we are immersed in selfishness, drowning in self, choosing ourselves over others, please…help us.

1Jn 3:17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?
1Jn 3:18 My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

In DEED and in TRUTH.

In DEED- in actions.

In TRUTH- in CHRIST!

Because HE laid down HIS life for us

1Jn 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

WE ought to LAY down our lives for others.

If we are commanded to lay down our lives for others- something so HUGE- does it stand to reason that we are to lay down our lives for others as we live? Seriously. Are we to allow others to dictate to us how we should live- for them? Is it WRONG for them to ask us to do for them? Should we feel put upon and deny them what they ask of us?

Our Savior went about doing good. Our Savior helped so many people in any way He could, even to the point of wearing Himself out time and time again. Our Savior did NOT contribute to ANY sin! Our Savior did NOT help anyone sin! Our Savior helped, He healed and told those He healed to go and SIN NO MORE.

When others are asking for our help- asking for us to do good UNTO them, if we refuse then we are NOT living in Christ, we are NOT abiding in our Savior!

We really do have to lay down our SELF all the way up to the point of death- to do good unto others. Our Savior taught us this and yet we live in a world where there is so much selfishness, so much pain, so much heartache all caused by others hurting others.

I read something today that broke my heart- men/boys sexually attacking a mentally challenged young girl only 17, and her mother saying they've been doing so since she was 12. My heart broke, it broke. This world is so sick, so filled with people who have no love for each other, no love at all whatsoever. The thing they try to call love is nothing like the love of our SAVIOR which is ALL about loving others and loving the One who CREATED us. The words of our Savior--

Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

-- is so TRUE! Never more true, never. We've never had this many people living in this world at one time- not ever and it's growing more populated daily. With more people there is so much more hatred, more sin, more ungodliness, so much more SELF LOVE, and a lot less love for others.

We are to LAY DOWN OUR LIVES FOR OTHERS if the need arises, as CHRIST laid down HIS life for all of US.

And if we are to DIE for others, give up our very life to save another, then how can we NOT give all we can to others as long as we live? How do we STOP when it comes to giving while living, and yet try to convince ourselves that we would lay down our lives for others if need be? What kind of self deception is that? We choose to hold back while we live- not giving- not loving others fully as our Savior would have us if we really abide in Him and love HIM, and if we hold back we are NOT HIS! We will NOT be found in HIM.

It doesn't matter if you feel inclined to help- what matters is helping. Seriously. Satan would have us so caught up in our feelings that we *FEEL* that we should *FEEL* like giving, only then are we truly giving. That if we hold the LEAST bit of feeling of resentment then it ruins everything. We HAVE to realize, we really, really have to realize that we are made of FLESH and we are fighting that FLESH, we fight daily, hourly, minutely against our own flesh being that isn't inclined towards the spiritual life we must live. As we fight we'll have SATAN whispering in our ear that we are NOT God's, and we are not HIS because we don't *FEEL* inclined to be loving towards others.

We have to set our FEELINGS aside and CHOOSE to LOVE regardless of those feelings.

We choose to love and we choose to give, to lay down our lives, and to live for loving others as our Savior did. This is a CHOICE we make.

So while Satan might be whispering his evilness to us trying to get us to despair because we don't fit the mold that we imagine we should as loving Christians, we have ignore him and CHOOSE to not living by feelings, but through FAITH. Faith tells us that we can have HOPE, not in ourselves but in our GOD, in HIS ability to LOVE.

Please LORD, help us choose to love and in choosing to love- live to love others all the way up to the point of laying down our lives if we need to. Please LORD, through YOU! Through YOUR LOVE ALWAYS!