Feeling the pain of sin

Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Pro 3:11  My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
Pro 3:12  For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

Pro 15:32  He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul: but he that heareth reproof getteth understanding.

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Heb 12:5  And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:
Heb 12:6  For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?
Heb 12:10  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

REPENT -  to change one's mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's past sins
- to think differently or afterwards that is reconsider (morally to feel compunction): - repent.


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Be zealous and REPENT.
Be zealous and change your mind for the better.
Be zealous and abhor your past sins.
Be zealous and feel compunction- morally feel the sting of your conscience.

We like to appease our conscience NOT  feel its sting.
We don't want to feel any sting at all. We talk away our sins rather than face them. We'd rather not even call them sins, we break them down and call them faults so they don't appear to be too sinful. We label them problems not sins, we call them character defects not sins. We put all sorts of names on them so we don't say we have a SIN PROBLEM. Having a sin problem would mean recognizing that sin for what it really and truly is.  Evil.  And we do NOT want to think of ourselves as evil, we'd much rather HIDE behind false labels so we can appease our conscience. 

The sting of our conscience.

Feeling the PAIN of our sinning.

Comprehending that our sins separate us from God, that our sins unrepentant  will lead to our eternal death is something that we need to do! We can't expect to live our lives any ol' way we want to- filled with problems that are there just because we are who we are- and then expect not to have to face any consequences for the SINS we've covered up.

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By the grace of God more on this tomorrow.

All through HIS LOVE!

May we all face up to our SINs so we can REPENT, so we can feel the pain of those sins and then seek forgiveness from our SAVIOR, our LORD JESUS CHRIST!

Our deeds - good and evil

Our deeds have consequences.

We know this in a very real way through experience, right? 

Some people who seem to have 'all the luck' as we call it, don't seem to reap the just rewards of their actions- they get away with things they really never should. And it isn't lucky at all for people to get away with doing bad things because that doesn't alleviate any of the guilt they've acquired through their deeds. Getting away with bad things is never good, not in any way.

Our good actions don't always receive accolades but they shouldn't, right? If we do good in order to get rewards from others it turns those good deeds into selfish deeds and therefore they automatically become evil deeds. So doing good things doesn't necessarily make you good either.

We will get the reward of our deeds so to think that your actions have no eternal consequences would make these verses of the Bible lies and NO verse of the Bible is a lie.

God-

Rom 2:6  Who will render to every man according to his deeds:
Rom 2:7  To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:
Rom 2:8  But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath,
Rom 2:9  Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;
Rom 2:10  But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile

(Evil doers-Contentious-Disobeying the truth-Obeying unrighteousness)
Their reward- indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish.

(Patient continuance in well doing-seeking for glory and honor and immortality- eternal life-working good)
Their reward- glory, honor, and peace.

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How can we ever imagine the choices we make in our lives do not matter.
The way we live our lives matters!
The choices we make matter eternally.

Evil doers- are contentious.
Evil doers- disobey the truth.
Evil doers- obey Unrighteousness.

con·ten·tious 
    /k?n'tenCH?s/
    Adjective
    1. Causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial.
    2. Involving heated argument.

And this ties in with my own personal upset this past week and how bad it is to be contentious, how our tongues are truly evil.

We know that disobeying the truth is bad.
We know that obeying Unrighteousness is bad.
But how many people truly comprehend to be contentious is evil?

We shrug off those who are contentious. We wave it away in ourselves and label it part of who we are and if others don't like it, tough. We say it's us and that's all there is to it. We've allowed being contentious to be acceptable. We expect our spouses to deal with it, and by that we mean just accept it and be quiet. We expect our children to put up with it, we are the parents after all. We want our friends to like us and understand we're allowed to have really bad days and who cares if they are more often than not.  Being contentious has become an art form for some. People have made television shows all around contention, the more contention the better.  In society today a lot of contention is expected if you want to stand up for yourself and be heard. We pat people on the back and reward them for their contention. We say controversy is good, heated arguments necessary to work through things. Often we don't care if others are being contentious as long as it's not us, but even as we don't care we are accepting it in others and not truly understanding that it is a real evil.

Satan has duped so many into accepting sin as being normal, as being fine and all part of who we are. Because so many are sinful and accepting of sin the world has HAD to deem is normal or else they'd be admitting to their own sinfulness and they'd much rather not do that.

We live in a world fill with sin so do we really expect the world to confess, repent, and seek forgiveness?  It won't. The world will ONLY get worse and as it gets worse more and more sins will be labeled normal and acceptable and more and more people who CHOOSE to follow Christ and HIS ways will be labeled strange and abnormal.

Contention-a sin, not acceptable!
Contention-evil, punishable by eternal death.

Our deeds do matter! Our deeds often reveal our sins.

No, being good will NOT save you. Being Christ's WILL save you.

Through Christ we must be-

Patient continuing in well doing-seeking for glory and honor and immortality- eternal life-working good.

If we see in ourselves our evilness we MUST repent, we MUST confess, and we MUST seek forgiveness, and we MUST choose Christ and His ways over and over again, never accept sin as normal no matter how familiar it is to us and acceptable to the world.

HELP US LORD, SAVE US, KEEP US IN YOU, THROUGH YOU, FOR YOU!

ALL IN YOUR LOVE ALWAYS!

If any man offend NOT in word- the same is a PERFECT man.

Jas_3:2  For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

If any man offend NOT in word- the same is a PERFECT man.

Offend not in word.

Have you ever offended anyone? It's safe to say that you are probably lying, or allowing yourself to be deceived if you answer no to that question. We offend others- intentionally or unintentionally it happens. We say the wrong thing, we say something we'd love to take back the moment it slips from between our lips. We hurt people with our words, sometimes irreparably so.

Jas 3:5  Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
Jas 3:6  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
Jas 3:7  For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
Jas 3:8  But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

Our tongues- are like fire. 
Our tongues - are a world of sin.
Our tongues -defiles our whole bodies.
Our tongues- are not able to be tamed.
Out tongues- are unruly.
Our tongues- are FULL of deadly poison.

Is it any wonder no Man is able to tame the tongue.

Why don't we realize how wicked our tongues are? 

Deadly poison.  It doesn't get much clearer than that, does it?

DEADLY POISON.

No, we aren't snakes, we aren't filled with a venom that can be milked from our fangs. The deadly poison is laced in the words we choose to speak.  Words can kill.

That old 'sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me', is a LIE.  The hurt that comes from the very poisonous tongue has broken many a person, causing more anguish than any broken bone ever could.

Deadly poison. 

Think about it, really, really think about it. You have a deadly, poisonous tongue and it can cause all manner of pain all the way to point of killing someone.

We all have this weapon, all except those who are mute of course, but I'm not sure I've even ever met a mute person. Obviously being mute isn't commonplace. Having the ability to speak however is very commonplace. And if we have the ability to speak then we have the ability to fill others with our poisoned words.

After yesterday's upset, and today's reading of this verse-

Jas_3:2  For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

- I can't stop thinking about the ability we have to offend in word.

We are given this verse, these words of great wisdom-

1Pe_3:10  For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile

Refrain our tongues from EVIL.
Refrain our lips so they don't speak deception.

Just how incredibly important it is for us to LEARN to refrain our tongues from evil?
If we would LOVE LIFE and SEE GOOD DAYS we have to do this!

Can we tame our tongues? No. But NOTHING is impossible with God.  We must learn to submit ourselves to God, yielding ourselves to HIM, allowing HIM to work in us through the HOLY SPIRIT.

We truly need more awareness of ourselves- more examining  of ourselves with the desire to comprehend how much about us is so far from being that perfect man. When we comprehend our state it is only then we can speak to our God and tell Him that we recognize our weakness and are in need of His strength.  I say it is only then we can speak to God because we can flap our lips all we want giving lip service to God, but it's only when there is real conviction that we are truly able to sincerely repent, seeking forgiveness and God hears us.  God knows the sincerity of every one. God knows the truth about everyone. We can't hide ourselves or ANYTHING about ourselves from God.

The poison filled tongue we all possess must be surrendered to God so that we do not kill with our tongues. We mustn't kill and we mustn't be killed by our own tongues. Very few get prosecuted for the evil they do with their tongues.  But there are people killing the hopes of others daily, hourly, minutely, just by using their tongues- their words ending lives.

You know how poison works? There are many answers to that question. Some poisons work very slowly, others very quickly. It's the same for our words, the poison of our tongues can work slowly or quickly. You can strike out with your tongue and the poison it inflicts on others can be slow acting or very quick acting.  Only by the grace of God may we keep from poisoning others and poisoning ourselves.

Please Lord bless us, help us to be YOURS wholly YOURS.  Tame our tongues LORD, help us to refrain our tongues from evil. The desire is within us LORD to be YOURS and all that means. Help us, keep us, save us!

Please.

Love worketh no ill to his neighbor

Loving.
Rom 13:10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
Love is the fulfilling of the law.
We are to LOVE.
It sounds easy enough but it really isn't, not when you truly comprehend what it means to LOVE.
We have to go over it again, I have to go over it again. I've had a really rough night filled with irritation that I allowed to cause me to react far from what I imagine loving is supposed to be.
Co 13:1  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
1Co 13:2  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
1Co 13:4  Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
1Co 13:5  Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
1Co 13:6  Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
1Co 13:7  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
1Co 13:8  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
1Co 13:9  For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
1Co 13:10  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
1Co 13:11  When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1Co 13:13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
Suffers long!  It doesn't get upset easily! It isn't mean! It doesn't envy! It doesn't make itself important! It's not unseemly! It doesn't rejoice in sin! It rejoices in TRUTH.
I read this and I make myself sick at how unloving I am.
Mean and nasty that's how I've been described just tonight.  I don't WANT to be mean and nasty! Why is it soooo easy to be this way towards those who are closest to you?!
It was just a card game but my 'I WANT TO WIN' demon rises up in me and I succumb to it.
I just told my hubby that I will try by best not to be nasty next week at our weekly card game with my mother, God help me. 
Maybe that is the first step here, hopefully, prayerfully. Recognizing it not just internally but outwardly.  I don't WANT to react with meanest.  I'm not yelling, it's mostly my attitude. It's just not nice at all when I play games.
The easy solution would be NOT to play cards, but my mother enjoys this time with us, a lot! And I want to spend this time with her. She's not young and having her over for dinner and cards allows us to spend a lot more time with each other than we would otherwise.  Are there other things we could do? Yes, but any game would bring this out in me. Could we just sit around? Yes, but would just sitting around give us the same time, the same interaction. It's not all bad. We've been doing this for a long time now. Some days are better than others, I'm not always nasty, by the GRACE of GOD, thank GOD! We enjoy ourselves and there's a fine line between the fun competitive edge and it slipping over into nastiness. 
This is a confession, this blog today, and anyone reading it I hope and pray you will pray for me! I want to be LOVING, I want to LOVE as my God would have me LOVE.  I want to fulfilled God's LAW and love others as I know He wants me too!
Please LORD, help me!
More tomorrow by the grace of God.

Our Savior will do all that we cannot do

We live our lives day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year and we have our memories of how we've lived.  No, we don't have memories of every single day or our lives- at least most of us don't. We don't even have memories of every month and sadly not every year.  We have memories of events and situations that take place during our lives that affect us in profound ways- either for our good or to our detriment.  Right now you can probably recall past happy events as well as past tragic events.  You can recall past charity and past sins.

What we can't know is our future.

We can plan events, plan our next day but we never quite know how it's going to turn out. I may know I'll be doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, cooking dinner, going to the store, and I may know I'll be interacting with my husband, my children, and various strangers I'll meet at along the way, but I have no clue about any of the details of those interactions. I don't know what words I'll speak, I don't know what emotions will be taking place between us.

What I do know is that I will CHOOSE how I behave.

No, I'm not perfect by any means and I know that there are a lot of things that influence my emotions and those emotions influence my interactions. I understand what it's like to have my behavior affected by feeling under the weather and it's easy to use that as an excuse for poor behavior. It's hard to be loving- long suffering, kind, generous, caring- when you aren't feeling well. We are called to be loving- always- and we fail constantly.

In the spur of the moment our behavior can change. We may start out with the intention of everything  being loving and the next moment we find our anger firing up, our long suffering turning to very short suffering, our turning the other cheek to wanting to lash out. 

It is Satan's pleasure to get us to succumb to our UNLOVING side.  Satan enjoys getting us all riled up so that we show very little love.  Satan knows that if he can get us to be unloving we are NOT living the life our Savior desires us to live.

We ARE to live a certain way and ANYONE who believes otherwise just hasn't read their Bible.

We ARE told how to behave. We ARE told what the qualities are of a person striving to live as Christ would have them live. We have so much information so we KNOW when our behavior is acceptable and when it isn't.  We know when we are being loving and when we are not being loving and any time we are NOT loving we are sinning. 

Any time we are sinning we need to ask for forgiveness and Satan does NOT want us asking for forgiveness!  Satan would much rather have us making excuses for ourselves than face up to the truth. We are helpless without our God. We are constant sinners and our ONLY hope is CHRIST and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS! 

Christ knew how hard it would be for us to love, but He did NOT tell us that it would be okay not to love.

I know I've probably used the following verses hundreds of times in my various blogs but it is so incredibly relevant.

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We are delivered ONLY by JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD and we MUST THANK GOD FOR HIM!

We cannot SAVE ourselves this is a fact. What is also a fact is that we cannot decide NOT to love as God would have us love simply because we know we will fall short of the mark.  We have to strive, we have to examine and prove ourselves, we have to do ALL we are ABLE to do and TRUST our SAVIOR to do all that we cannot do. HE will put HIS righteousness in for ours. He will NOT put HIS righteousness in for ours if we are willful sinners, sinning without any care in the world. If we will not strive, if we will not shoot for the mark, if we will not run the race, if we will not examine or prove ourselves, if we choose to rest on our laurels, we are NOT following the will of our God, we are NOT loving GOD.

LOVE.

You know as a parent- or if you've not been a parent you can imagine or relate this another way- but you know as a parent that when you ask your child to do a task you know will be difficult for them that there is a very good possibility that your child might not be able to complete the task. You also know that if it's a task that MUST be finished that you will have to step in and help out or even take over completely.  You do NOT fault your child when they do all they can do.  You understand they have limitations. God KNOWS our limitations. God KNOWS that we cannot save ourselves. God KNOWS that all our striving, racing, examining, proving of ourselves will NOT SAVE us.  God also knows that in all that striving, racing, and so on that we are doing His will to the best of our ability to love as He commands us to love. We have to have FAITH that our HEAVENLY FATHER will do all He promises. He will SAVE US. He will do all that we CANNOT do.

We must love, we must listen to our God, not Satan who will do everything he can to keep us from loving or even desiring to love in the least little way.

Please God bless us! Help us! Save us! Love us!  All through YOUR SON!

Please LORD, all in YOU!

Living Love as He Lived Love

God's Law-  Go on, read it. Read the SPIRITUAL- MORAL LAW OF GOD.  And as you are reading ask yourself why God would do away with each of these laws. Find reasons why He would take any one or all of these spiritual laws away.

Exo 20:1  And God spake all these words, saying,

Exo 20:2  I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Exo 20:3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Is there a reason to do away with this law of having no other gods before God?

Exo 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
Exo 20:5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
Exo 20:6  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Again, is there any reason God would suddenly say it's fine to make and bow down to graven images, worshipping them?

Exo 20:7  Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Surely God has no reason to destroy this law. I can't imagine His deciding it's fine for us to take His name in vain.

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

I cannot comprehend why God would not want us to remember the day He created for us back during Creation Week, and in remembrance worship HIM on the day He Blessed and made Holy.

Exo 20:12  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

God no longer wants us to honor our father and mothers, why?

Exo 20:13  Thou shalt not kill.

It's okay to kill now?

Exo 20:14  Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Go ahead and commit adultery?

Exo 20:15  Thou shalt not steal.

Fine, steal, it's okay?

Exo 20:16  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Lie all you want, it's harmless now?

Exo 20:17  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Desire the things that don't belong to you, nothing wrong with that, right?

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If you're like me it seems ludicrous to truly believe that God would EVER destroy His OWN moral, spiritual laws!

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The LAWS all precede MOSES.

Remember this--

1Jn_3:4  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

And remember this--

Rom_5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned

When did Adam sin, before or after Moses?  Dumb question, right? We know that Adam was the first man created, so obviously LONG before Moses, Adam sinned. And, if Adam sinned he TRANSGRESSED the LAW of GOD. If Adam transgress the Law of God, what law was He transgressing? What law had been given already?

Gen 2:16  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
Gen 2:17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

When this command was broken this is what happened-

They chose the Serpent over God. (First Commandment broken.)
They disobeyed their parent. (Fifth Commandment broken.)
The stole fruit that didn't belong to them. (Eighth Commandment broken.)

Then Cain murdered Abel. (Sixth Commandment broken.)
Cain lied to God about Abel. (Ninth Commandment broken.)

People worshipping idols- (Second Commandment broken.)
Gen 35:1  And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
Gen 35:2  Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
Gen 35:3  And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
Gen 35:4  And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.

Stopped from committing adultery- (Seventh Commandment.)
Gen 20:5  Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
Gen 20:6  And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
Gen 20:7  Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

Before the law on Sinai- (Fourth Commandment)
Exo 16:22  And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.
Exo 16:23  And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.
Exo 16:24  And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein.
Exo 16:25  And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field.
Exo 16:26  Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
Exo 16:27  And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.
Exo 16:28  And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
Exo 16:29  See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Exo 16:30  So the people rested on the seventh day.

And please tell me how could the entire world save Noah and his family be destroyed because of their wickedness if there were NO LAWS TO BREAK?

Gen_6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

By what standard was this understood? 

The law given at Sinai was a written declaration of a KNOWN law.  There was nothing new about the Ten Commandments given to Moses and God's chosen people. There were NO shockers in that list. There was nothing that hadn't been heard and known. People from the BEGINNING understood there were MORAL LAWS of GOD that could NOT be broken without consequence.

Am I harping on the laws? You could say that if you are foolishly denying their validity.  Earlier this week we talked about the law revealing God's love to us. This is something we DARE NOT overlook. Satan wants us to overlook this, he desperately wants us to forget that LOVE wrote the commandments, LOVE created the commandments from the beginning.

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people

God's laws PUT into our minds.
God's laws WRITTEN in our hearts!

What exactly is being put in our minds and written in our hearts?  God's laws!

No longer do we need the ceremonial aspect of the law given to Moses and kept by all that were God's chosen right up to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Our Savior took the place of all the sacrifices needed. It was and is through faith in our LORD JESUS CHRIST that we find forgiveness and atonement when we've sinned, when we've broken the laws of God. When we've failed to LOVE as dictated in HIS moral law, the law that is put into our minds and written in our hearts!

Sinning is all about failing to love.

We fail to love when we fail to keep our God's Commandments.

Remember this…

Mat 5:21  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment
Mat 5:22  But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment

Was this Jesus doing away with the commandment … thou shalt not kill?  NO! He amplified the commandment. HE EXPLAINED THE LOVE BEHIND THE COMMANDMENT! 

Love dictates that we do NOT act against others unjustly.  It's not enough simple NOT to kill someone. We are NOT to treat anyone unjustly even in our thoughts!

Our Savior knew that sin- failing to love others begins in our minds, in our very thoughts.  Those Ten Commandments were GUIDELINES for us.

A pure love has only GOD and no other god.
A pure love does not worship false gods of our own creation.
A pure love does not speak of God without reverence.
A pure love keeps the special seventh day rest given so we would never forget our Creator.
A pure love honors parents.
A pure love does not kill.
A pure love does not join with any other than the one that is theirs.
A pure love does not steal.
A pure love does not lie about others.
A pure love does not desire the things that belong to others.

Honoring, keeping, refraining from, these are all actions that encompass our loving others.

If we have NO love but try to keep these commandments we will fail with every single one! You can't keep the commandments without love, it's impossible!

Our Savior lived His entire life fulfilling what it means to truly keep the Commandments. All the things He talked about, He LIVED! He did not tell us not to get angry unjustly and then Himself get angry unjustly. He did not tell us to love one another without He, Himself loving others.  He did not tell us loves suffers long, without His own long suffering. He did not tell us to turn the other cheek without turning His own!  He expects NOTHING of us that He didn't expect from Himself.

We are told it won't be easy, and it won't be. If you think you can change yourself into this being that loves others and God perfectly - instantaneously- you'll be in for a huge disappointment. First of all, it's CHRIST and the HOLY SPIRIT, who will enact the changes in us. Secondly, it's not like knocking ourselves over the head horribly and waking up a changed person, it's a work in progress within us as we EXAMINE ourselves, as we PROVE ourselves, as we learn to submit ourselves to our God, and give up all that it means to be self centered in exchange for being God centered, living love as He lived love.

All by HIS GRACE, in HIS AMAZING LOVE!

All through HIM! He succeeds where we can only ever fail!

In Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever. Amen!

Examine Yourself, Prove Yourself

2Jn 1:2  For the truth's sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever.

The TRUTH'S sake- which DWELLS IN US.

Remember what we studied yesterday?

Joh 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.

The TRUTH dwells in us through the SPIRIT of TRUTH.

2Jn 1:4  I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father.
2Jn 1:5  And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.
2Jn 1:6  And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

WE Walk in the TRUTH.
JESUS IS THE TRUTH.

There is NO NEW commandment!
The commandment from the beginning has always been to LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
If we WALK in TRUTH, we are WALKING after HIS COMMANDMENTS, and if we are WALKING after His commandments we are WALKING in LOVE.

People don't want to see that it's all connected, they'd much rather hear words that are pleasing to their ears, soothing to their conscience. They do NOT want to truly believe that we are to be something different than what we are. People love to believe that they can indulge themselves, living after their flesh nature simply because they HAVE a flesh nature! Denying themselves is NOT something anyone wants to believe is true.  Putting aside SELF and all that means isn't what we want to hear!

We are put out when we have to deny ourselves.

People are constantly looking for ways to indulge self and have Christ but the two do NOT go together! When we get to a place where we are comfortable with indulging ourselves and believing in our Savior we have allowed ourselves to be deceived.    We need to examine ourselves….

2Co 13:5  EXAMINE YOURSELVES, whether ye be in the faith; PROVE your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

2Co 13:6  But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.
2Co 13:7  Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.
2Co 13:8  For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
2Co 13:9  For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.

Here is an excerpt from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Bible- 2 Corinthians 13:1-6--

'If therefore they could prove themselves not to be reprobates, not to be rejected of Christ, he trusted they would know that he was not a reprobate (2Co_13:6), not disowned by Christ. What the apostle here says of the duty of the Corinthians to examine themselves, etc., with the particular view already mentioned, is applicable to the great duty of all who call themselves Christians, to examine themselves concerning their spiritual state. We should examine whether we be in the faith, because it is a matter in which we may be easily deceived, and wherein a deceit is highly dangerous: we are therefore concerned to prove our own selves, to put the question to our own souls, whether Christ be in us, or not; and Christ is in us, except we be reprobates: so that either we are true Christians or we are great cheats; and what a reproachful thing is it for a man not to know himself, not to know his own mind!

TRUTH!

We have to EXAMINE OURSELVES!

2Co 13:8  For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

The SPIRIT of TRUTH is in US!

If we do NOT have this SPIRIT of TRUTH we have to know it, NOT be deceived! 

RIGHT this moment EXAMINE YOURSELF! Is CHRIST in you? Are you LIVING HIS TRUTH? Or are you cheating yourself?

Do you agree with CHRIST and all HIS TRUTH? Do you LOVE CHRIST?  Do you keep HIS COMMANDMENTS? Do YOU LOVE as HE LOVES?

We have to examine ourselves, prove ourselves, comprehend that it is up to US to do this and up to CHRIST to FIX US. WE have to recognize our need to be FIXED, understanding that we need to fall at the feet of CHRIST and beg His forgiveness for our sins, for our evils, for our transgressions, for our selfishness, for our desire to deceive ourselves, to live in deception that allows us to indulge ourselves with SELFISHNESS and all that is against our God. 

We need CHRIST in US! And Christ will not be in us if we are filled with self and all that entails. Please LORD help us to recognize all that is in us that would keep us from having YOU IN US and then to seek YOU and YOUR forgiveness! Help us, Lord, help us!

More tomorrow all by the GRACE of our GOD!

IN HIS LOVE!