The Apostles' Power - Cost of Discipleship Pt 115

Chapter 22 - The Apostles

Mat 10:1  And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Mat 10:2  Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Mat 10:3  Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
Mat 10:4  Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.

Bonhoeffer- 'The prayer has been heard.  The Father has revealed his will to the Son.  Jesus calls his twelve disciples and sends them into the harvest. He makes them his "apostles," his messengers and fellow-workers.  "And gave them power," for the power is all-important. It is not a word or a doctrine they received, but effective power, without which the work could not be done.  They need a power stronger than that of the prince of this world, the devil. The disciples know the devil's power well enough, although it is his cleverest trick to deny his power and to pretend that he does not exist. It is just this supreme cunning of his that must be countered: he must be brought to light, and overcome through the power of the Christ. In this work the apostles stand by the side of Christ himself, and help him to do his work. So Jesus imparts to them a share in the highest gift he possesses, his power over unclean spirits, and over the devil who has taken possession of the human race. In virtue of this commission the disciples have become like Christ. They do the works of Christ.'

Mar 6:7  And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits

Mat_10:1  And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

Luk_9:1  Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.

The twelve disciples are called to Jesus's side.  Jesus then gave them POWER. This power was NOT for a single selfish act, not for a single moment of glory of their own.  The POWER came from JESUS, and it was to HIM all the glory would go. The disciples KNEW they had absolutely NO POWER of their own, NONE! If they for a moment even thought, they, through their own manufactured power were doing any of the miracles they would have instantly lost the power. The power only exists for them to use because of their connection with CHRIST, and that connection was SELFLESS. They gave up everything to follow Him. We wonder at the idea of giving up our cherished life for Christ and convince ourselves that it is the LAST thing we have to do, why? Because we cannot stand the thought that we have to GIVE up anything, especially the things that bring us comfort and ease, the things that are our life as we know it. Change it up, for Christ? That's old time stuff, that's for the original disciples, not the modern disciples.  We TALK ourselves out of self denial. We make a case for why WE are not supposed to carry any cross at all.  The disciples did their part, they weren't all just sitting around bored out of their minds just waiting for something to come along. They had families, they had lives, busy lives. Their call to follow Jesus was special, was amazing, was something we can only imagine and yet, we are called too! 

The disciples were given power by Jesus and He knew they would NOT abuse the power. They were not to use it for ANY selfish gain whatsoever, but rather to ONLY help others!

They were to have power over the unclean spirits that were filling the lives of people, keeping them captive to Satan and by any means. The power over those unclean spirits was to DRIVE them out of those they were infecting! The power was to set the evil spirit filled captives free, free from all that would keep them from truly following Christ should they choose to do so. Not a single person would be able to say they were held captive by an evil spirit so they couldn't follow Christ. He FREES those who desire to be free to follow HIM, to follow the TRUTH!

The disciples were given power to heal ALL manner of sickness and disease.  Just imagine! We come across sick people all the time, our families are filled with them. From the young to the old the sick are endless. Just imagine being given the power of Jesus to heal ALL manner of sickness, all manner of disease! Your family members, your friends, strangers, all of them, you could heal them all, but NOT you, the POWER OF JESUS working through YOU! The power given to you by Jesus who KNEW it would not be misused, that it would not corrupt you, that you would give all glory to the giver of the power!

We abuse so much of our lives in NOT giving the glory to God where it belongs!  Any thing good in us comes from GOD! We possess no goodness of our own, yet we imagine we do so that we do not have to give glory to God, but keep the glory for ourselves.

Please LORD, help us to give you all the glory for all!  We know you are the Giver of power to those who are YOURS, wholly YOURS.   We aren't asking for power, the disciples did NOT ask for power. They received of Christ what He chose to GIVE to them.  Lord, we only ask You to give to us what you will, and for us to recognize the gifts You've given us, and for us to USE all that you would have us use for YOUR GLORY no matter what that power is- great or tiny, all for YOU and YOURS!

All by YOUR LOVE! YOUR MERCY! YOUR HOLY SPIRIT, the COMFORTER YOU WOULD GIVE TO US WHO LOVE YOU, and our love for you is because YOU love us!

Please LORD, help us, keep us, know us, bless us, help us to be selfless, not selfish, all through YOU!

Glory to YOU God!
Praise to YOU God!
Thanksgiving to YOU god!

Jesus - in ALL points tempted like we are!

Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

Php 2:6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

Php 2:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

Php 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

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.

When Jesus took on our human sinful flesh, He took it on in such a way to prove IF it were even possible, at all, whatsoever, for sinful man to obey God's commands.

If God's commands were too hard, too impossible to obey, then Jesus WOULD have consented to sin with His mind, just as all of us have consented to sin with our minds, joining our natural sinful flesh nature to sinning willfully.  But Jesus NEVER consented to sin with his mind, not once! Jesus proved that through a connection with GOD the Father it is possible for man to NOT consent to sin in the mind, even when His flesh nature cries out towards sin. 

Our trouble lies in our believing that of our OWN ACCORD, separate from God, we should be able to not consent to sin with our minds. We want OUR minds to have that power, but truthfully it is ONLY GOD who has the power to keep our minds, IF we consent to allow HIM to use His power in us.  Christ consented to GOD, and God through His own power kept Christ from sinning.

There was no reason for Christ Jesus to take on flesh and become a man if He were NOT going to be ABLE to prove to the toughest of judges, the most critical of challengers, that what He was doing proved that-- God's laws and mankind's obeying them-- was POSSIBLE.  For NOT sinning is NOT breaking the laws of God. When Jesus lived a life of perfection, never consenting to breaking a single commandment of His Father's, commandments they had agreed upon as one in their creation, He proved the righteousness of God and God's laws.

Is it any wonder Christ's mind must be in us for us to live?!

Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus

What mind was in Christ Jesus?

A mind that NEVER consented to sin, but trusted in His Father for all things!!!!!!!

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Joh 6:38  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

Jesus consented to the FATHER and the FATHER only, and this alone gave Him victory over every flesh tendency to sin. He NEVER consented with His mind to sin, not a single time though He felt the pull of the flesh temptations even more so than we ever will, He literally, truly knows the strength of every temptation we face.  You might say there's no way He could, but He does, He does.  Our temptations might come in different forms but the force of them throughout all ages has never altered.

Jesus proved that through perfect obedience to God's will, a will that is perfectly JUST,  it is possible NOT to sin. MANKIND chooses to sin by keeping themselves from God.

We consent with our minds to sin because we choose NOT to rely upon GOD.

Eve first sinned by choosing to no longer rely upon God's word, His command.  Otherwise where did she sin? The act of sin was and is choosing not to rely upon God's love, but believing rather that somehow, someway we can live separate from our CREATOR to our own good. 

We didn't and don't understand that it is ONLY by remaining connected to our CREATOR that we can be the CREATURES He intended for us to be in HIM.  We were not created to be separate from God, but we were created in His image to be part of Him. God truly is LOVE and when we abandon God we abandon true love and substitute something else for it, a self serving love, believing we can somehow bring about a life that serves us at our pleasure, our goodness, our love.

How many of us STOP loving when we are abused? We reserve our love for only that which serves us selfishly.  You holler we should never be abused.  True, that is how it was intended to be, no abuse ever. But the ability to abuse and hurt others came about when man turned away from God's selfless love, to serve themselves. 

So when we choose to despise others we are choosing to serve ourselves, whether we want to believe this or not, it is true. Even when we cry out our despising is justified, we are serving ourselves.   The truth is we absolutely must HATE SIN, but at the same moment, absolutely LOVE the sinner, because the sinner truly is a VICTIM of sin- even if a willing victim, they are a victim of sin and were NEVER intended to be so by God, never! And we must LOVE all of those who are GOD'S which are ALL, because we have NO RIGHT to judge who belongs to God and who does not. We can NEVER put ourselves in God's place, never! 

Jesus came and revealed we are to love all, and this is why.  From the greatest of sinners to the least of them, He came and died for, offering to stand in their place, to forgive them, to give them of Himself all they need to be once more united with God. 

Being right with God is NOT having a life of ease, but rather an understanding that HE knows better in all things and we trust Him in all things no matter how awful, no matter how horrific.  As sin and it's evil results rage all around us on every side, abusing us in all the ways it possibly can, we can KNOW that the evil has an end in CHRIST'S VICTORY! Suffer it all to be so now, but there is an end in CHRIST'S LOVE.  He never consented to sin with His mind and He won the VICTORY for US! THROUGH HIM ALONE WE LIVE, WE LOVE!  We ask for forgiveness for all, praying they seek God, that they seek forgiveness in CHRIST and cling to HIM, seeking HIM to LIVE IN THEM, for HIM to LIVE IN US, that through HIM we live, we love! 

All by HIS GRACE!

Christ says- "Pray ye..." Cost of Discipleship Pt 114

Section III  The Messengers

Chapter 21 -  The Harvest

Mat 9:35  And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Mat 9:36  But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.
Mat 9:37  Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Mat 9:38  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Bonhoeffer -  'The Good Shepherd protects his sheep against the wolf, and instead of fleeing he gives his life for the sheep. He knows them all by name and loves them. He knows their distress and their weakness. He heals the wounded, gives drink to the thirsty, sets upright the falling, and leads them gently, not sternly, to pasture. He leads them on the right way. He seeks the one lost sheep, and brings it back to the fold. But the bad shepherds lord it over the flock by force, forgetting their charges and pursuing their own interests. Jesus is looking for good shepherds, and there are none to be found.

The prospect grips his heart, and his divine pity goes out to this erring flock, these multitudes who surge around him. From the human point of view everything looks hopeless, but Jesus sees things with different eyes. Instead of the people maltreated, wretched and poor, he sees the ripe harvest field of God. "The harvest is great." It is ripe enough to be gathered into the barns. The hour has come for these poor and wretched folk to be fetched home to the kingdom of God. Jesus beholds the promise of God descending on the multitudes where the scribes and zealots saw only a field trampled down, burnt and ravaged. Jesus sees the fields waving with corn and ripe for the kingdom of God. The harvest is great, but only Jesus in his mercy can see it.'

'No man dare presume to come forward and offer himself on his own initiative, not even the disciples themselves. Their duty is to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers at the right moment, for the time is ripe.'

*******
My thoughts-

'Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that HE will send forth laborers into his harvest.'

'The harvest truly is plenteous.'

We must PRAY!

We must pray and asked the LORD over all the harvest, over the entire harvest, over all those that would be HIS; that He, the LORD, will SEND laborers into HIS harvest.

Bonhoeffer mentions that NO MAN dares to presume to be the laborer sent, yet we know God WILL send laborers. Our focus however cannot and should not be on whether we are sent. We can't do that, we get all caught up in 'who is the greatest'.  Maybe not in the exact same sense that the disciples had, but it's the same principle. When we focus on our standing, our place among God's chosen we are focusing on the WRONG thing! When we focus on whether or not we are among the laborers that God will send to work among His chosen, we are NOT focusing on God, or the harvest, but just ourselves.

We have to keep our minds OFF ourselves, to the point of DENYING ourselves.

Mat_16:24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

DENY HIMSELF.  NOT focus on himself.  But rather come after CHRIST. Picking up OUR cross, something we can only truly do when we deny ourselves, and THEN we can follow CHRIST.

It is our duty to PRAY. 

There is constant reference to our praying.  We must pray and Jesus tells us here a 'particular' thing to pray for.   Pray that He, the LORD, will send forth laborers into the Lord's harvest.  Pray that HE sends, not pray that we put ourselves out in the harvest.

Do you imagine the harvest is as plentiful today as it was two thousand years ago, or rather in the time of Jesus life upon earth prior to the cross?

Some might argue that there is no harvest to speak of, but ONLY CHRIST knows what His harvest consists of now in our day and age. If there is ONE bit of His harvest yet to be in need of a laborer, then HE will provide that laborer.  He is the Shepherd that does indeed go after a single sheep gone astray.

All by HIS GRACE, through HIS LOVE! May we pray, may we be HIS!

Please Lord, say you know me

Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
Mat 7:25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
Mat 7:26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
Mat 7:27  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Mat 7:28  And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
Mat 7:29  For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Chapter 20 - The Conclusion

Bonhoeffer-'We have listened to the sermon on the mount and perhaps have understood it. But who has heard it aright? Jesus gives the answer at the end. He does not allow his hearers to go away and make of his sayings what they will, picking and choosing from them whatever they find helpful, and testing them to see if they work. He does not give them free rein to misuse his word with their mercenary hands, but gives it to them on condition that it retains exclusive power over them. Humanly speaking, we could understand and interpret the Sermon on the Mount in a thousand different ways. Jesus knows only one possibility: simple surrender and obedience, not interpreting it or applying it, but doing and obeying it. That is the only way to hear his word. But again he does not mean that it is to be discussed as an ideal, he really means us to get on with it.

The word, whose claim we recognize, this word which issues from his saying " I have known thee," this word which sets us at once to work and obedience, is the rock on which to build our house. The only proper response to this word which Jesus brings with him from eternity is simply to do it. Jesus has spoken: His is the word, ours the obedience. Only in the doing of it does the word of Jesus retain its honour, might and power among us. Now the storm can rage over the house, but it cannot shatter that union with him, which his word has created.

There is only one other possibility, that of failing to do it. It is impossible to want to do it and yet not do it. To deal with the word of Jesus otherwise than by doing it is to give him the lie. It is to deny the Sermon on the Mount and to say No to his word. If we start asking question, posing problems, and offering interpretations, we are not doing his word. Once again shades of the rich young man and the lawyer of Luke 10 are raising their heads. However vehemently we assert our faith, and fundamental recognition of his word, Jesus still calls it "not-doing." But the word which we fail to do is no rock to build a house on. There can then be no union with Jesus. He has never known us. That is why as soon as the hurricane begins we lose the word, and find that we have never really believed it. The word we had was not Christ's, but a word we had wrested from him and made our own by reflecting on it instead of doing it. So our house crashes in ruins, because it is not founded on the word of Jesus Christ.

"The multitudes were astonished…" What had happened? The Son of God had spoken. He had taken the judgment of the world into his own hands. And his disciples were standing at his side.'

My thoughts--

I feel at a loss for words because this is all truth, the plain, unadulterated truth of CHRIST'S WORD.

I could copy it again, word for word, but what would that do?

Either we DO as our God tells us to do, or we don't, and we can make all the excuses in the world we want for not obeying God in the smallest to the largest thing we know He is asking of us, because He does ask us individually to obey Him.  One man's test isn't the same as the next man's. Your personal temptations aren't the same as the next person's, but they are ALL the same temptation to NOT obey God in some way.

Eve sinned in NOT obeying God. We ALL sin in NOT obeying God.

LORD help us to LOVE YOU, help us to OBEY YOU in ALL THINGS, not just in the things we find easy, but in every little aspect of our lives help us to OBEY, to LOVE YOU as YOU LOVE.  LIVE in US LORD so we may LOVE. Help us to surrender to you!

Know us, Lord. Cost of Discipleship Pt 112

Chapter 19 - The Great Divide

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Bonhoeffer- ' Confessor and doer are separated from one another. And now the division is carried to its furthest extent. Only those are now speaking who have survived the test so far. They are numbered among the doers, but they appeal no to their confession, but to the deeds they have done. They have performed deeds in the name of Jesus. They know that confession does not justify, and so they have gone and made the name of Jesus great among the people by their deeds. Now they appear before Jesus and tell him what they have done.

At this point Jesus reveals to his disciples the possibility of a demonic faith which produces wonderful works quite indistinguishable from the works of the true disciples, works of charity, miracles, perhaps even of personal sanctification, but which is nevertheless a denial of Jesus and of the life of discipleship. This is just what St Paul means in 1 Cor. 13, when he says that it is possible to preach, to prophesy, to have all knowledge, and even faith so as to remove mountains, and all this without love, that is to say without Christ, without the Holy Spirit. More than this, St. Paul must even reckon with the possibility that the very works of Christian charity, giving away one's goods, and even martyrdom, may be done without love, without Christ, without the Holy Spirit. Without love: that is to say, in all this activity the activity of discipleship is absent, namely that activity the doer of which is in the last resort, none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Here is the most serious, the most incredibly satanic possibility in the Church, the followers must ask by what ultimate criterion Jesus will accept or reject them. Who will pass the test, and who will not? The answer lies in the words of Jesus to the last of the rejected: "I have never known you." Here we are at last, here is the secret we have been waiting for since the Sermon on the Mount begun. Here is the crucial question-- has Jesus known us or not? First came the division between Church and world, then the division within the Church, and then the final division on the last day. There is nothing left for us to cling to, not even our confession or our obedience. There is only his word: "I have known thee," which is his eternal word and call. The end of the Sermon on the Mount echoes the beginning. The word of the last judgment is foreshadowed in the call to discipleship. But from beginning to end it is always his word and his call, his alone. If we follow Christ, cling to his word, and let everything else go, it will see us through the day of judgment His word is his grace.'

My thoughts-  Demonic faith. Satanic possibility.  While calling on the name of Jesus- demons are busy at work to deceive.

I read this the other day- '1Ch 21:1  And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel. '

How?  How was this possible? David was God's chosen, David was close to God, following His ways, listening to Him.  Yet SATAN provoked David. How?  How do you provoke someone to do something? Surely Satan wasn't walking about having conversations with David. Do you suppose he was whispering in David's ear? Do you suppose he was in David's thoughts encouraging Him to do this thing that God did not want him to do? Maybe he was playing on David's weaknesses, exploiting David's desire, taking it beyond temptation and into sin.  We know that Satan works hard, but just how hard is he working at us and in what manner? If we chalk our BAD days up to life, we aren't naming the name of the one provoking us, are we?

Surely you've been provoked by someone before to do something you didn't want to do, yet, because of the provocation you succumb to their encouraging you.  Just how many people are in prisons today because they've succumb to provocation, probably a lot of them.  We know how to provoke others too, don't we? You tease them, you wear away at their resolve, you bug them, bother them, you entice them in any way you can.  Satan PROVOKED David.  

Satanic provocation is REAL now as it was real when Satan whispered to David, getting him to do something that was wrong, something David knew was wrong, something David knew God would not want him to do. It's REAL, Satan is alive and well and living to deceive, living to provoke, living to attack each and everyone of us in any way He can. Satan WANTS to DECEIVE US!  Satan wants us to believe we are right with God, that we have nothing to worry about at all, we are doing the works of God- right?

Mat 7:22  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Bonhoeffer- ' If we follow Christ, cling to his word, and let everything else go, it will see us through the day of judgment His word is his grace.'

This is truth, and we MUST know His word. 

Satan has done his best to keep the word of God from people and he's used many different tactics to do so. He's taken the word and made it scarce, and he's allowed it to be prolific and both of his plans have served him very, very well.

Cling to Christ's word, we must cling to Christ's word! His TRUTH! HIM! We cannot trust in ANYTHING we are able to do! We don't know if it comes from ourselves or from somewhere else, but unless it comes from our SAVIOR we know nothing.  We must KNOW our Savior more than anything else, trust in Christ, not in ourselves for anything at all!

All in HIM! He is our LIFE! We are His disciples, truly His disciples.  When Satan would have us believe that following ANYONE so exclusively is wrong, we must TRUST, we must BELIEVE, we must have CHRIST as our ALL IN ALL.

Is it any wonder there will be so few truly Christ's?

Satan has deceived all but Christ's very elect, and to be Christ's very elect we must be His fully, totally devoted to Our SAVIOR.

Please LORD through Your Holy Spirit let us be YOURS wholly YOURS!

He that doesth the will of the Father - Cost of Discipleship Pt 111

Chapter 19 - The Great Divide

Mat 7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Bonhoeffer - 'The separation which the call of Jesus creates goes deeper still. After the division between Church and world, between nominal Christians and real ones, the division now enters into the very heart of the confessional body. St. Paul says:

1Co 12:3 ' ...no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.'

Bonhoeffer continued- 'It is impossible to surrender our lives to Jesus or call Him Lord of our own free will. St. Paul is deliberately reckoning with the possibility that men may call Jesus Lord without the Holy Spirit, that is, without having received the call. It was harder to understand this in days when it brought no earthly gain to be a Christian and when Christianity was a  dangerous profession.

Mat_7:21  Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Bonhoeffer continued- 'Lord, Lord" is the Church's confession of faith. But not everyone who makes this confession will enter the kingdom of heaven. The dividing line will run right through the confessing Church. Even if we make the confession of faith, it gives us no title to any special claim upon Jesus. We can never appeal to our confession or be saved simply on the ground that we have made it. Neither is the fact that we are members of a Church which has a right confession a claim to God's favor. To think thus is to fall into the sin of Israel, which thought the grace of God's call gave it a special privilege in his sight. That would be a sin against God's gracious call. God will not ask us in that day whether we were good Protestants, but whether we have done his will. We shall be asked the same question as everybody else. The Church is marked off from the world not by a special privilege, but by the gracious election and calling of God.  "say" and "do"-- this does not mean the ordinary contrast between word and deed, but two different relations between  man and God. - the man who says "Lord, Lord"-- means the man who puts forward a claim on the ground that he has said-- the doer-- is the man of humble obedience. The first is the one who justifies himself through his confession, and the second, the doer, the obedient man who builds his life on the grace of God. Here a man's speaking denotes self-righteousness, his doing is a token of grace, to which there can be no other response save that of humble and obedient service. The man who says, "Lord, Lord" has either called himself to Jesus without the Holy Spirit, or else he has made out of the call of Jesus a personal privilege. But our doer of the will of God is called and endued with grace, he obeys and follows. He understand his call not as his right, but as an act of God's judgment and grace, as the will of God, which alone he must obey. The grace of Jesus is a demand upon the doer, and so his doing becomes the true humility, the right faith, and the right confession of the grace of God who calls.'

My thoughts-

TRUTH- 'God will not ask us in that day whether we were good Protestants, but whether we have done his will. We shall be asked the same question as everybody else.'

Do we do His will?
You ask, "What is God's will?"  So you may do it, but the truth is, we know God's will, He tells us His will over and over in His word. We want some task, something we can complete, but the truth of the matter is, it is our entire life that is used to do God's will. It's not something we do once and then we relax into some sort of selfish reverie of peace. God's will IS our life under His love!  God's will is our LIFE in HIM, us living our lives devoted to HIS love, which is all for our benefit.

Because Satan has devoted so much time and effort to confuse love into some selfish attainment, so few can truly understand what love really is. That love is - - NEVER getting, but ALWAYS giving-- isn't something we are taught. We twist love into believing that if someone loves us they give us certain things. They... GIVE... Us;  when the truth is,  LOVE will want to GIVE more than RECEIVE. Our being able to GIVE, is love.  Yet Satan has truly twisted things so that we really believe that others don't love us when they don't give us the things we want and I'm not talking simply material things, but things in all forms- attention, affection, etc.  We place a price on love.  Give me enough of this, enough of that, and I'll believe you love me. But when you stop giving I'll start believing your love for me isn't what it used to be. Satan's deceptions run very, very, very deep.

God's will.

Do we truly do God's will? Do we love?

' The first is the one who justifies himself through his confession, and the second, the doer, the obedient man who builds his life on the grace of God.'

' But our doer of the will of God is called and endued with grace, he obeys and follows.'

'The grace of Jesus is a demand upon the doer, and so his doing becomes the true humility, the right faith, and the right confession of the grace of God who calls.'

By the grace of our LORD always!

More tomorrow...

By our fruits... Cost of Discipleship Pt 110

Chapter 19 - The Great Divide

'In such times as these, Jesus requires his disciples to distinguish between appearance and reality, between themselves and pseudo-Christians. They will then rise above all inquisitive examination of others, but they will need a sincere determination to recognize the verdict of God when it comes. At any moment the nominal Christians may be separated from the real ones. We may even find that we are nominal Christians ourselves. Here is a challenge to closer fellowship with Jesus and to a more loyal discipleship. The bad tree is cut down and cast into the fire. All its display of finery proves ultimately to be of no avail.'

Mat 7:19  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

My thoughts-

Distinguishing between appearance and reality. 

Sometime appearance really can be very, very deceiving.  The outward Christian can be the inward devil, yet no one knows but perhaps them. Even then, we love to deceive ourselves.  We quickly turn a blind eye to our shortcomings giving them labels such as-  'Can't help it. Just the way it is. Oh well, that's life. I'll never be perfect. It always has to be something. If it's not one thing, it's another.'  And on and on it goes.

We are scared to truly look at ourselves because we know that even our hearts are deceitful.

Jer 17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jer 17:10  I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

Again- the FRUIT of his doings.

The fruit truly is the OUTCOME of a tree/plant, it's the END product.  And like fruit trees and such, year after year they are bearing their fruit. We must have fruit, the end product of our actions. We are constantly producing fruit as well. That's why Jesus says- 'By their fruits ye shall know them.'   We KNOW people by their actions and what those actions bring forth.  Some fruit takes a long time to be produce, others are very prolific but the final produce is what matters.

If you've ever planted a garden and had a bad season where your plants simply refused to produce much fruit, and that it produced was of low quality, then you know that there are NO guarantees on the fruit that will come forth.

So many variables can affect fruit production, and just like fruit trees and their produce, our lives are affected by many variables as well.

We have to comprehend that JESUS holds up the standard and HE promises us all the help we'll ever need to live for Him, to live in Him.  Jesus isn't going to ask us to do or not do anything that isn't possible to do or not do, through HIM.

If we look at ourselves we will NEVER ever find ourselves capable of bearing proper good fruit for Him.  We CANNOT do  the necessary work. We have to submit to allowing the power of Christ to live in us, to work in us. 

We have to put all our hope in HIM.

However…  we cannot ignore all that He says and believe we are submitting to Him, that is self-deception!

We cannot constantly produce rotten fruit and believe we are submitted to Him.

Christ will WORK in us, but we have to allow Him to do so.

We have to KNOW HIM, and be KNOWN by HIM.

If we KNOW CHRIST then we know that His will is just, that the fruit He calls for us to produce through Him is LOVE and all the results of love.  If your ways are selfish, if your ways are covetous, if your ways are evil and of the WORLD then you have to know they are NOT GOD'S WAY!

This is truth-

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Pro 3:7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.


In ALL our ways we HAVE to acknowledge GOD!  Not just in a few ways we think are good. In ALL OUR WAYS we must acknowledge GOD and only then can He direct our ways! We have to reverence the LORD, we have to fear the LORD, we have to TRUST wholly in HIM, not ourselves, not our ways!

2Co 13:4  For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
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.

Everything through CHRIST!

Examine ourselves!
Prove ourselves!

We have to look at ourselves, we can't ignore ourselves and just do as we please without any consideration for our SAVIOR. If we are examining and proving ourselves and we come up very short of the mark, we have to REPENT, we have to seek FORGIVENESS, we have to go to our SAVIOR - HE SAVES US! We do NOT save ourselves. HE will save us IF we let HIM! Truly let Him and do not hold back trying to run our own lives the way we desire, in sync with the world and its ways. If we want to live as the world, and be as the world, we have to comprehend that makes us a part of WORLD and not of GOD. If we want to live as God would have us live, and be what God would have us be, we likewise have to comprehend that we can be GOD'S.   We cannot have BOTH!  When we seek to compromise then we are clinging to the world and that evil will stain us and keep us from giving our heart fully to God.

Please LORD, help us be FULLY, WHOLLY YOURS!

WE want to bear good fruit through YOU and only through YOU! We don't want to be as the world! We want to be YOURS! Help us to submit to YOU in ALL THINGS, not just pick and choose where we will submit.  PLEASE LORD, save us as only YOU can save!  Save us from ourselves, from all the evil that would cling to us. Cleanse our hearts! Clean us as ONLY YOU CAN CLEAN US!

All through YOUR LOVE ALWAYS!