Don't let your mind dwell on yourself

(Excerpt from- Steps to Christ)

'Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be,

 "Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine.
 I lay all my plans at Thy feet.
Use me today in Thy service.
 Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee."

This is a daily matter.

Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate.

Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ.

A life in Christ is a life of restfulness. There may be no ecstasy of feeling, but there should be an abiding, peaceful trust. 

YOUR HOPE IS NOT IN YOURSELF; IT IS IN CHRIST.

Your weakness is united to His strength, your ignorance to His wisdom, your frailty to His enduring might.

So you are not to look to yourself, NOT TO LET THE MIND DWELL UPON SELF, BUT LOOK TO CHRIST. LET THE MIND DWELL UPON HIS LOVE, UPON THE BEAUTY, THE PERFECTION, OF HIS CHARACTER. CHRIST IN HIS SELF-DENIAL, CHRIST IN HIS HUMILATION, CHRIST IN HIS PURITY AND HOLINESS, CHRIST IN HIS MATCHLESS LOVE-- THIS IS THE SUBJECT FOR THE SOUL'S CONTEMPLATION.

It is by loving Him, copying Him, depending wholly upon Him, that you are to be transformed into His likeness.

Jesus says, "Abide in Me."

(((Joh_15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. ))))

These words convey the idea of rest, stability, confidence. Again He invites, "Come unto Me, . . . and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. The words of the psalmist express the same thought: "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him." And Isaiah gives the assurance, "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." Psalm 37:7; Isaiah 30:15. This rest is not found in inactivity; for in the Saviour's invitation the promise of rest is united with the call to labor: "Take My yoke upon you: . . . and ye shall find rest." Matthew 11:29. The heart that rests most fully upon Christ will be most earnest and active in labor for Him.

WHEN THE MIND DWELLS UPON SELF, IT IS TURNED AWAY FROM CHRIST, THE SOURCE OF STRENGTH AND LIFE.

Hence it is Satan's constant effort to keep the attention diverted from the Saviour and thus prevent the union and communion of the soul with Christ.

The pleasures of the world, life's cares and perplexities and sorrows, the faults of others, or your own faults and imperfections--to any or all of these he will seek to divert the mind.

Do not be misled by his devices. Many who are really conscientious, and who desire to live for God, he too often leads to dwell upon their own faults and weaknesses, and thus by separating them from Christ he hopes to gain the victory.

We should not make self the center and indulge anxiety and fear as to whether we shall be saved.

All this turns the soul away from the Source of our strength.

Commit the keeping of your soul to God, and trust in Him.

Talk and think of Jesus.

Let self be lost in Him.

Put away all doubt; dismiss your fears.

Say with the apostle Paul, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20. Rest in God. He is able to keep that which you have committed to Him. If you will leave yourself in His hands, He will bring you off more than conqueror through Him that has loved you.

When Christ took human nature upon Him, He bound humanity to Himself by a tie of love that can never be broken by any power save the choice of man himself.

Satan will constantly present allurements to induce us to break this tie--to choose to separate ourselves from Christ. Here is where we need to watch, to strive, to pray, that nothing may entice us to choose another master; for we are always free to do this.

But let us keep our eyes fixed upon Christ, and He will preserve us. Looking unto Jesus, we are safe. Nothing can pluck us out of His hand. In constantly beholding Him, we "are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18.

It was thus that the early disciples gained their likeness to the dear Saviour. When those disciples heard the words of Jesus, they felt their need of Him. They sought, they found, they followed Him. They were with Him in the house, at the table, in the closet, in the field. They were with Him as pupils with a teacher, daily receiving from His lips lessons of holy truth. They looked to Him, as servants to their master, to learn their duty. Those disciples were men "subject to like passions as we are." James 5:17. They had the same battle with sin to fight. They needed the same grace, in order to live a holy life.

Even John, the beloved disciple, the one who most fully reflected the likeness of the Saviour, did not naturally possess that loveliness of character. He was not only self-assertive and ambitious for honor, but impetuous, and resentful under injuries. But as the character of the Divine One was manifested to him, he saw his own deficiency and was humbled by the knowledge. The strength and patience, the power and tenderness, the majesty and meekness, that he beheld in the daily life of the Son of God, filled his soul with admiration and love. Day by day his heart was drawn out toward Christ, until he lost sight of self in love for his Master. His resentful, ambitious temper was yielded to the molding power of Christ. The regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit renewed his heart. The power of the love of Christ wrought a transformation of character. This is the sure result of union with Jesus. When Christ abides in the heart, the whole nature is transformed. Christ's Spirit, His love, softens the heart, subdues the soul, and raises the thoughts and desires toward God and heaven.

When Christ ascended to heaven, the sense of His presence was still with His followers. It was a personal presence, full of love and light. Jesus, the Saviour, who had walked and talked and prayed with them, who had spoken hope and comfort to their hearts, had, while the message of peace was still upon His lips, been taken up from them into heaven, and the tones of His voice had come back to them, as the cloud of angels received Him--"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matthew 28:20. He had ascended to heaven in the form of humanity. They knew that He was before the throne of God, their Friend and Saviour still; that His sympathies were unchanged; that He was still identified with suffering humanity. He was presenting before God the merits of His own precious blood, showing His wounded hands and feet, in remembrance of the price He had paid for His redeemed. They knew that He had ascended to heaven to prepare places for them, and that He would come again and take them to Himself.

As they met together after the ascension they were eager to present their requests to the Father in the name of Jesus. In solemn awe they bowed in prayer, repeating the assurance, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." John 16:23, 24. They extended the hand of faith higher and higher with the mighty argument, "It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." Romans 8:34. And Pentecost brought them the presence of the Comforter, of whom  Christ had said, He "shall be in you." And He had further said, "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you." John 14:17; 16:7. Henceforth through the Spirit, Christ was to abide continually in the hearts of His children. Their union with Him was closer than when He was personally with them. The light, and love, and power of the indwelling Christ shone out through them, so that men, beholding, "marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." Acts 4:13.

All that Christ was to the disciples, He desires to be to His children today; for in that last prayer, with the little band of disciples gathered about Him, He said, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word." John 17:20.
Jesus prayed for us, and He asked that we might be one with Him, even as He is one with the Father. What a union is this! The Saviour has said of Himself, "The Son can do nothing of Himself;" "the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." John 5:19; 14:10. Then if Christ is dwelling in our hearts, He will work in us "both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Philippians 2:13. We shall work as He worked; we shall manifest the same spirit. And thus, loving Him and abiding in Him, we shall "grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." Ephesians 4:15.'

Steps to Christ - E.G. White

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My thoughts-

I believe I've put this up before, if so, it's worth reading again and again.

Do we spend enough time contemplating Jesus?

What exactly do we spend our time doing?

We have to ask ourselves these questions because if we don't then we're letting ourselves be blinded, to be deceived and that's how Satan wants us.

These don't have to be easy questions, they don't have to be questions you want to hear or want to answer. Asking tough questions is needed, wake up calls are needed.

So answer the questions.

Do we, do you, spend enough time contemplating Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior?

What exactly do we, do you  spend time doing?

The answers are important. If you find yourself making excuses rather than giving a heart felt honest reply, then keep asking yourself the question and force yourself to answer with total honesty.

If you answer that you don't spend enough time contemplating Jesus, then what do you think must be done? Obviously, spend more time with Jesus, right? Seriously, if you've come to this conclusion then you really, really should heed the voice of the Holy Spirit, and the admonitions we find in the Lord's word.  We need to behold our Savior. We need to abide in Him. He must be in our lives!  Not on the outside of our lives peeking in from time to  time but a REAL part of our lives, an ACTIVE part of our lives.

If we honestly gave an assessment of what we spend our time doing, can we truly say that Christ is with us in all those things we do? He should be, shouldn't He? And if we can't imagine Christ with us doing those things with us, should we be doing them?

I know, believe me, I know that in the world we live in a world with television and such, it's hard to imagine our Savior sitting down watching television, isn't it? What about His reading the books we read? Doing the things we do?

Lord, please help us. Help us live our lives with YOU in them, in all things.  IF there are things in our lives that aren't what they should be, please Lord, help us get the victory over them. Please, Lord, please, let us be willing to sacrifice all to You, as You sacrificed all for us. 

Help us, Lord.

Save us!

Through Your love!  By Your mercy and grace!

Lord, help us in this sin sick dying world

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

We talked about some of this yesterday- the fact that we have to YIELD ourselves to become instruments of unrighteousness to sin.  We also have to YIELD ourselves to God, to be instruments of righteousness. 

There are two choices. 

We yield, there is NO neutral ground, there is NO non-yielding.   We will yield either to one or the other- to God or to Satan, to Righteousness or to Sin.

When we are NOT yielding to Christ, we are yielding to Satan- we choose.

Sin will NOT have dominion over us, why? Because we are no longer under the law-  and what does that mean? We are under grace. To be under the law alone means to have no hope.

You see-- it's like this--

The law says we are guilty of sinning.
The law says the punishment for our sinning is death.
Only grace can save us from that death.

If we do not put ourselves under grace, then we have no hope at all.

Sin will NOT have dominion over us because we aren't lost in a well of hopelessness having only our death to look forward to. We have to live with the hope that is found in Christ, who alone has the power to save us. Christ saves us - we do NOT save ourselves! We yield our lives to Christ. We make the conscious choice to yield, it must be conscious, it must be on purpose.

Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Right away we are told that knowing we are not under the law does not mean we should sin!  We can't hold up the law, the ten moral commandments and yell, see, we no longer have to follow these, because it is a lie.

Sin is the transgression of the law.

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

If you yield yourself to be a servant of sin, then you are yielding yourself to transgressing the law.

If you yield yourself to be a servant of righteousness, then you are yielding yourself to keeping the law by the grace of Christ.

Yielding ourselves SERVANTS to obey.

We have two masters to choose from, only two.

We choose.

The choices we make have consequences.

Sinning isn't something that is done without our knowledge.

We know we will face CONSTANT temptations to sin, to pretend otherwise is to fool ourselves.  We also know what sins we are vulnerable towards. Satan will do all he can to entice us. He'll stop at NOTHING to make us believe that our sins are not sins at all.

You read that right.

Satan disguises our sins as not being sins so that we feel no need to repent, no need to ask for forgiveness.  Once Satan has done this and we've allowed ourselves to be deceived then there is little hope for us because not recognizing our need to seek forgiveness leaves us vulnerable.

We HAVE to pray that our eyes are open, that our spiritual eyes are wide open and able to recognize all the sin that affects us.  By the grace of God we will NOT be blind to our own sins.  By the grace of God we will submit ourselves, our lives to Christ and allow Him to work in us, to use us as His instruments for His righteousness.

Maybe I'm going on and on a bit about all this but it's truth and I fear we don't want to confront the sin in our lives, we'd much rather sugar coat it, paint it in a false covering of unrighteousness. We want to be deceived so we don't have to carry any sort of cross, or deny ourselves anything.

We can't imagine living a life as we truly believe our Savior would have us live, can we? Yet we must never give up! Never stop HOPING in HIM.

Please Lord, help us!  Please Lord,  save us!  We do believe, help our unbelief! Be the LORD of our lives! In this sad, sin sick, dying world filled with Satan's evil everywhere we turn, please, be the LORD of our lives, be our all in all! Please!

Do not yield to unrighteousness

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Let's take a look at this closely- 

We are told NOT to YIELD ourselves, our members.

In order NOT to yield something you have to be in possession of something that has the possibility of yielding. 

We have the ability to CHOOSE.  That ability becomes compromised when we entertain sin. It's like adding oil to a very squeaky clean wheel that without the oil has a lot of resistance, in fact it's almost impossible to move that wheel without oil. You add a little oil and it moves a tiny bit, you add more and more oil and soon that wheel is turning smoothly, easily.  In most cases we want the wheels we oil to move, but in this case we want it never to move in the slightest. Choosing to give into a temptation is the oil dripping onto the wheel.  Each time we yield to sin oil drips, drips, drips. Soon that sin wheel is turning faster and faster until it seems as if it will never stop and our lives depend upon that wheel turning, that sin being committed.

That ability to yield is ours. 

God's word says … neither yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.

Don't allow our bodies to be used to commit anything that is unrighteous that leads to sin. Instruments- things that are used.  When you have an instrument it's something that can be used for a purpose. No instrument exist that does not serve a purpose. Why have an instrument that cannot be used? It would be pointless to have an instrument that you couldn't use. So if we allow our members (our hands, feet, anything that we consist of) to be used for unrighteousness we are accountable for that because we have CHOSEN to yield, we make the conscious choice to yield.

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

… but YIELD yourselves to GOD.

As one who is alive from the dead.   Imagine that… someone who is as good as dead is alive once more, someone is given a second chance at life, how would it feel to be that person? We all know the stories we've seen on tv, in movies, or read in books- some fiction, some not fiction-  that show the incredible new zest for life people have after such an experience.   And we are to YIELD ourselves to GOD with that sort of zest for life, because truthfully we have been given a new life in Christ when we accept Him and choose to give our lives to him, our old life being dead and gone and rising to new life in Christ.

Our entire lives- our bodies, our minds, need to be yielded to God. Instruments of righteousness to God, we must choose to use ourselves for God, to allow Him to use us for HIS righteousness. Not to become righteous on our own, we have no righteousness apart from God.

When we sin- we yield.
We all face temptation on a constant basis.
Facing temptation will never end.
We will never reach a day where we can say- today I will not be tempted, today I will not have to face a single temptation, not even a tiny one, today is temptation-to-sin free day.

Sinning is not being tempted, but letting that temptation  become lust and that lust is sin.

Jas 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Sinning is a process.  Sometimes that process happens so fast we barely blink and it's been done. Other times we contemplate sinning for a long time.  The temptations vary and are endless.

By Christ alone we can be forgiven when we sin and repent, seeking forgiveness.
By Christ alone can we keep from sinning.
We yield ourselves to Christ.
We recognize that we are Christ's servants.

By the grace of God more on this tomorrow…

All through His love, His righteousness!

Faith does the impossible

'Practical Illustrations of Deliverance From Bondage Pt. 2…

'Again, if we have yielded ourselves to be servants of God, we are His servants, or in other words, are instruments of righteousness in His hands.

Read Rom.6:13-16.

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

 We are not inert, lifeless, senseless instruments, such as the agriculturist uses, which have no voice as to how they shall be used, but living, intelligent instruments, who are permitted to choose their occupation. Nevertheless, the term "instrument" signifies a tool, -- something that is entirely under the control of the artisan.

The difference between us and the tools of the mechanic is that we can choose who shall use us, and at what kind of service we shall be employed; but having made the choice, and yielded ourselves into the hands of the workman, we are to be as completely in his hands as is the tool that has no voice as to how it shall be used.

When we yield to God, we are to be in His hands as clay in the hands of the potter, that He may do with us a He pleases. Our volition lies in choosing whether or not we will let Him work in us that which is good.

This idea of being instruments in the hands of God is a wonderful aid to the victory of faith when it is once fully grasped.

For, notice, what an instrument will do depends entirely upon the person in whose hands it is.

Here, for instance, is a die. It is innocent enough in itself, yet it may be used for the basest purposes, as well as for that which is useful. If it be in the hands of a bad character, it may be used in making counterfeit coin. It certainly will not be used for any good purpose. But if it be in the hands of an upright, virtuous man, it cannot possibly do any harm. Likewise, when we were the servants of Satan, we did no good (Rom. 6:20),  (((Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. ))))but now that we have yielded ourselves into the hands of God, we know that there is no unrighteousness in Him, and so an instrument in His hands cannot be used for an evil purpose. The yielding to God must be as complete as it was formerly to Satan, for the apostle says:

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh; for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Rom. 6:19.

The whole secret of overcoming, then, lies in first wholly yielding to God with a sincere desire to do His will; next, in knowing that in our yielding He accepts us as His servants; and then, in retaining that submission to Him and leaving ourselves in His hands.

 Often victory can be gained only by repeating again and again, “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid; thou hast loosed my bonds.”

This is simply an emphatic way of saying, “O Lord, I have yielded myself into Thy hands as an instrument of righteousness; let Thy will be done, and not the dictates of the flesh.”

But when we can realize the force of that scripture and feel indeed that we are servants of God, immediately will come the thought, “Well, if I am indeed an instrument in the hands of God, He cannot use me to do evil with, nor can he permit me to do evil as long as I remain in His hands. He must keep me if I am kept from evil, because I cannot keep myself.

But He wants to keep me from evil, for He has shown His desire, and also His power to fulfill His desire in giving Himself for me.

Therefore I shall be kept from this evil.”

 All these thoughts may pass through the mind instantly, and then with them must necessarily come a feeling of gladness that we shall be kept from the dreaded evil. That gladness naturally finds expression in thanksgiving to God, and while we are thanking God the enemy retires with his temptation, and the peace of God fills the heart.

Then we find that the joy in believing far outweighs all the joy that comes from indulgence in sin.

All this is a demonstration of Paul's words, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:31. To “make void” the law is not to abolish it, for no man can abolish the law of God, yet the Psalmist says that it has been made void. Ps. 119:126. To make void the law of God is something more than to claim that it is of no consequence; it is to show by the life that it is considered of no consequence. A man makes the law of God void when he allows it to have no power in his life. In short, to make void the law of God is to break it; but the law itself remains the same whether it is kept or not. Making it void affects only the individual.

Therefore, when the apostle says that we do not make void the law of God by faith, but that, on the contrary, we establish it, he means that faith does not lead to violation of the law but to obedience.

No, we should not say that faith leads to obedience, but that faith itself obeys.

Faith establishes the law in the heart.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for.”

 If the thing hoped for be righteousness, faith establishes it. Instead of faith leading to antinomianism, it is the only thing that is contrary to antinomianism. It matters not how much a person boasts in the law of God; if he rejects or ignores implicit faith in Christ, he is in no better state than the man who directly assails the law.

The man of faith is the only one who truly honors the law of God. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6); with it, all things are possible (Mark 9:23).

Yes, faith does the impossible, and it is just that which God requires us to do.

When Joshua said to Israel, “Ye cannot serve the Lord,” he told the truth, yet it was a fact that God required them to serve Him. It is not within any man's power to do righteousness, even though he wants to (Gal. 5:17)(((Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. )))); therefore, it is a mistake to say that all God wants is for us to do the best we can. He who does no better than that will not do the works of God. No. He must do better than he can do. He must do that which only the power of God working through him can do. It is impossible for a man to walk on water, yet Peter did it when he exercised faith in Jesus.

Since all power in heaven and in earth is in the hands of Christ and this power is at our disposal, even Christ Himself coming to dwell in the heart by faith, there is no room for finding fault with God for requiring us to do the impossible; for “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Luke 18:27. Therefore we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Heb. 13:6.

Then “who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril, or sword?” “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Rom. 8:35, 37. “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(((Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ))))

Christ and His Righteousness -  E. J. Waggoner

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(((Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ))))

Christ's love for us is absolute.  We should never question God's love for us. Those who desire to question the love of God toward mankind should rather ask  this-- whether or not THEY love God.

The criteria people have for God to prove His love is a very selfish one. Give me everything I believe will make me happy and content in life and then I'll believe you love me. The opposite is true as well, if you give me only heartache, pain, and defeat I will believe you don't love me. Forget all about the end game- it's here and now that matters most. The end game calls for me to have FAITH, believing in something unseen, in something unknown.  The end game is asking me to endure all sorts of evil directed at me now, while still believing the end game that is unseen. We're asked to believe that you can control everything, and then to believe that when you choose not to control the evil raining down on us that you are loving and caring, what is that?

Again I say, Christ's love for us is absolute.

There is no doubting the love of God- He has more than proven His love for us. He has revealed the entire plan of salvation to us- we've seen the beginning, witnessed throughout history, the middle, and the end will follow right on through to all that He has revealed. We aren't left in the dark to know how it all will end for us. We know the outcome of life, the end game has been revealed. We have spoilers.  We aren't left to wander aimlessly under the impression that we can't know what the future holds. We have been told. We have been given this gift of foretelling.

And it's Satan's aim to get us to not believe what we've been told, to not believe in the One who has revealed the future to us, to doubt.

How often do we do things with the expectation of being rewarded for our effort?

We go to our jobs with the expectation that we are earning money for that effort.  Most people would stop working if they were not being paid to do so. You go to school with the expectation of gaining knowledge to enable you to live life as an informed human being. You go to a school of higher learning to gain even more knowledge - how frustrating it is when you enter into something with an expectation of a rewarding outcome and it never materializes.  We do the same with our relationships with others, don't we? We become friends with people with the hopes there will be mutually beneficial consideration for one another. We marry in the hopes of having a life long companion.  It's truthful to say then that we spend a lot of our lives with expectations.  When those expectations are unrealized we are filled with disappointment.  However, when those expectations are met, any hard work, any sacrifice we've made towards that expectation is deemed worth it, at least most times. You'll find some parents who have sacrificed everything for their children and are rewarded by their children succeeding in ways they only dreamed and hoped for. Some people suffer through a lot to make a success for themselves and then turn around and say it was ALL worth it, everything they endured.

If people can feel this way about success that is fleeting, if they can feel this sort of emotion towards things that will never endure for death is everyone's promise, then how much more should people be willing to endure to obtain eternal life?

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, nothing, but we can separate ourselves. We can take our love from Him.

We are asked to believe.

We are promised a life we can never fully imagine, it's too wondrous for our minds to entirely comprehend.

Yet there are many people willing to simply throw it all away because they choose not to believe for some misguided reason, thinking it benefits them in this life not to believe.  Fools.

Nothing can separate us from Christ if we believe in Him, nothing!

Satan will truly throw everything he has in his spiritual arsenal at us, and he will never give up, he will never sleep, he will never let an opportunity pass by to get us on his side of eternity- which is the side of limited existence, not unending existence.

Under a constant barrage of spiritual evil we only have hope in clinging to Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, our God, our High Priest, our King.

Truly we are servants to the one we choose to obey.  And if we are not obeying Christ then we are obeying Satan, there is no other option, it's one or the other and one offers love the other evil. While a person might wrongly believe they are choosing their own side by not picking a side, whenever we choose our own side we are in effect saying we are our own creator, and when we say that we are choosing the side of the one who wants you to believe that you are your own creator.

All of it has been explained in the Word of God.

Please Lord, let us be Your servants! We choose You even if that means suffering beyond our wildest imaginings. You are our ALL in ALL.

You can't shut off Satan's surveillance.

Truth. Faith is the substance of THINGS HOPED FOR. Faith is the evidence of THINGS NOT SEEN. (Heb.11:1)

Can we see our victory over sin? Can we? Aren't we all too often prone to listening to the unseen evil seducer who tries to convince us that there is no hope in us, we who are constant sinners, constant rebels, constantly doing that which we don't want to- WANT to- do?

That's right- we don't WANT to...want sin.  We find ourselves wanting sin and because we have that want of it, we in turn are led to believe that we have no hope against something we find ourselves wanting. Because we tell ourselves (listening to the evil seducer of mankind) that the wanting to sin proves that we aren't God's, because if we wanted to be God's we wouldn't even want to sin.  He yells at us that we are evil, pure evil, we are hopelessly caught up in our evil ways. The web of desire is so strong, the snare so tight we have little hope of ever getting free.  He makes the cycle a vicious one and truly it is a cycle. We sin, we feel guilty, we ask for forgiveness, we sin again, we feel guilty, we ask for forgiveness… we sin...we sin...we sin… the guilt grows and all the while Satan is right there whispering to us that we are too entrenched in our sinful ways to ever hope we can be God's. He wants us to DESPAIR of ever being Christ's, of ever believing that we, as sinners, can truly be forgiven.  Satan wants us to believe that we must attain some measure of righteousness all on our own, only then when we've managed to lose our wanting to sin can we be Christ's. Satan is a tempter, he knows our every weakness and he will exploit every single one of them. He wants us to believe that even the act of being tempted is SIN!  He does! He wants us to believe that being tempted is SIN, as if Jesus when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness could ever have been guilty!  Was Jesus hungry when Satan tempted Him to change that stone into bread? We know He'd been fasting, so was He hungry? Did He desire to eat?  Tell me this… would it have been a temptation at all if Jesus wasn't hungry?  To tempt the man who has just consumed a five course meal- with a plateful of food would have very little affect, right? But to tempt a starving man with a plateful of food would be a REAL temptation!  A TEMPTATION. Satan wants us to believe that every single temptation we face is really us sinning. But the truth is, the temptation IS NOT the sin! The sin comes when we are drawn away by the temptation.  Satan will NOT stop tempting us! He tempted Christ while He was hanging on the cross!

Luk 23:35  And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
Luk 23:36  And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,
Luk 23:37  And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.

Save thyself.

Could He have saved Himself?

Betrayed into the hands of the soldiers--

Mat 26:50  And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.
Mat 26:51  And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear.
Mat 26:52  Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Mat 26:53  Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?

Yes, He could have saved Himself.

He didn't …

Mat 26:54  But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
Mat 26:55  In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me.
Mat 26:56  But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

We will be tempted, that won't go away. Temptation to sin will never disappear and just when you think you've conquered a sin it will return and bite you even harder, or another temptation will rise up different from the one you've managed to subdue by the grace of God.

We have to own up to this! We have to get it straight in our heads! We have to realize that we will always be tempted and we are tempted if it's something we don't want in some fashion.

Satan truly is the enemy with super eavesdropping spy abilities. He's watching our every move and looking for the tiniest of signals that might indicate he can use something to tempt us to sin. He won't stop. You can't shut off Satan's surveillance.  

Remember this…

Joh_17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

As long as we are in this world we are going to be subjected to Satan's surveillance, his scrutiny. Jesus prayed that we should be kept by God the Father from evil. 

Going back to what I started out to say, 'Can we see our victory over sin? Can we?'  Our victory only comes by our faith in Christ to redeem us. Our victory only comes to us UNSEEN. Our victory only comes to us by being HOPED FOR.

If we expect to see ourselves perfect in this world, without even the slightest temptation, we will be lost as time goes by and we are caught up in temptation believing that even the temptation itself is sin. If we expect to despair, to live without true hope, without real hope in Christ to save us, then we are lost.

We won't SEE our faith- it's UNSEEN!

1Jn_5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

1Co_15:57  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our faith, our belief in our LORD JESUS CHRIST! Believing! Hoping!


*******

'Deliverance from bondage'   -  Christ and His Righteousness-  E. G. Waggoner-


'Practical Illustrations of Deliverance From Bondage  Pt 1….



Now let us take some illustrations of THE POWER OF FAITH TO DELIVER FROM BONDAGE. We will quote Luke 13:10-17:



And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in nowise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath-day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath-day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? and ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.



We may pass by the carping of the hypocritical ruler, to consider the miracle. The woman was bound; WE THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH, HAVE BEEN ALL OUR LIFE-TIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE. Satan had bound the woman; Satan has also set snares for our feet and has brought us into captivity. She could in nowise lift up herself; our iniquities have taken hold of us, so that we are not able to look up. Ps. 40:12. With a word and a touch Jesus set the woman free from her infirmities; we have the same merciful High Priest now in the heavens, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and the same word will deliver us from evil.



Psa 40:12  For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.



For what purpose were the miracles of healing recorded, which were performed by Jesus? John tells us. It was not simply to show that He can heal disease but to show His power over sin. See Matt. 9:2-8.



Mat 9:2  And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

Mat 9:3  And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

Mat 9:4  And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

Mat 9:5  For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

Mat 9:6  But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

Mat 9:7  And he arose, and departed to his house.

Mat 9:8  But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.



But John says:



And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John 20:30, 31.



So we see that they are recorded simply as object lessons of Christ's love, of His willingness to relieve, and of His power over the works of Satan, no matter whether in the body or in the soul. One more miracle must suffice in this connection. It is the one recorded in the third chapter of Acts. I shall not quote the entire account but ask the reader to follow it carefully with his Bible.



Peter and John saw at the gate of the temple a man over forty years old, who had been lame from his birth. He had never walked. He was begging, and Peter felt prompted by the Spirit to give him something better than silver or gold. Said he, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.” Verses 6-8.



This notable miracle on one whom all had seen caused a wonderful excitement among the people, and when Peter saw their astonishment, he proceeded to tell how the wonder had been performed, saying:



Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus; whom ye delivered up,...and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And HIS NAME THROUGH FAITH IN HIS NAME HATH MADE THIS MAN STRONG, whom ye see and know; yea, THE FAITH WHICH IS BY HIM hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Verses 12-16.



Now make the application. “The man was lame from his mother's womb,” unable to help himself. He would gladly have walked, but he could not. We likewise can all say, with David, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin  did my mother conceive me." Ps 51:5 As a consequence, we are by nature so weak that we cannot do the things that we would. As each year of the man's life increased his inability to walk, by increasing the weight of his body while his limbs grew no stronger, so the repeated practice of sin, as we grow older, strengthens its power over us. It was an utter impossibility for that man to walk; yet the Name of Christ through faith in it gave him perfect soundness and freedom from his infirmity. So we, THROUGH THE FAITH WHICH IS BY HIM, MAY BE MADE WHOLE, and enabled to do the thing which hitherto has been impossible. For the things with are IMPOSSIBLE with man are possible with God. He is the Creator. "To them that have no might He increaseth strength." One of the wonders of faith, as shown in the cases of the ancient worthies, is that they "out of weakness were made strong."



By these instances we have seen how God delivers from bondage those who trust in Him. Now let us consider the knowledge of how freedom is maintained.



We have seen that we by nature are all servants of sin and Satan, and that as soon as we submit to Christ, we become loosed from Satan's power.

Says Paul: "know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. 6:16.

So we become the servants of Christ. Indeed, the very act of loosing us from the power of sin, in answer to our faith, proves God's acceptance of us as His servants.

We become, indeed, the bond-servants of Christ; but he who is the Lord's servant is a free man, for we are called unto liberty (Gal. 5:13) and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. 3:17)

 (((Gal 5:13  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. ))))

(((2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ))))

And now comes the conflict again.

Satan is NOT disposed to give up his slave so readily. He comes, armed with the lash of fierce temptation, to drive us again to his service.

We know by sad experience that he is more powerful than we are, and that unaided we cannot resist him.

But we dread his power, and cry for help.

Then we call to mind that WE ARE NOT Satan's servants any longer.

We have submitted ourselves to God, and therefore He accepted us as his servants.

So we can say with the Psalmist, "O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds." Ps 116:16.

But the fact that God has loosed the bonds that Satan had thrown around us-- AND HE HAS DONE THIS IF WE BELIEVE THAT HE HAS -- is evidence that God will protect us, for He cares for His own, and we have the assurance that He that has begun a good work in us "will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil 1:6. And in this confidence we are strong to resist.

Christ and His Righteousness -  E. G. Waggoner

*******

Our faith, our belief in our LORD JESUS CHRIST! Believing! Hoping!

Deliverance From Bondage

'Practical Illustrations of Deliverance From Bondage  Pt 1….

Now let us take some illustrations of the power of faith to deliver from bondage. We will quote Luke 13:10-17:

And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in nowise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath-day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath-day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? and ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

We may pass by the carping of the hypocritical ruler, to consider the miracle. The woman was bound; we, through fear of death, have been all our life-time subject to bondage. Satan had bound the woman; Satan has also set snares for our feet and has brought us into captivity. She could in nowise lift up herself; our iniquities have taken hold of us, so that we are not able to look up. Ps. 40:12. With a word and a touch Jesus set the woman free from her infirmities; we have the same merciful High Priest now in the heavens, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and the same word will deliver us from evil.

Psa 40:12  For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.

For what purpose were the miracles of healing recorded, which were performed by Jesus? John tells us. It was not simply to show that He can heal disease but to show His power over sin. See Matt. 9:2-8.

Mat 9:2  And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

Mat 9:3  And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

Mat 9:4  And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

Mat 9:5  For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

Mat 9:6  But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

Mat 9:7  And he arose, and departed to his house.

Mat 9:8  But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

But John says:

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John 20:30, 31.

So we see that they are recorded simply as object lessons of Christ's love, of His willingness to relieve, and of His power over the works of Satan, no matter whether in the body or in the soul. One more miracle must suffice in this connection. It is the one recorded in the third chapter of Acts. I shall not quote the entire account but ask the reader to follow it carefully with his Bible.

Peter and John saw at the gate of the temple a man over forty years old, who had been lame from his birth. He had never walked. He was begging, and Peter felt prompted by the Spirit to give him something better than silver or gold. Said he, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.” Verses 6-8.

This notable miracle on one whom all had seen caused a wonderful excitement among the people, and when Peter saw their astonishment, he proceeded to tell how the wonder had been performed, saying:

Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus; whom ye delivered up,...and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Verses 12-16.

Now make the application. “The man was lame from his mother's womb,” unable to help himself. He would gladly have walked, but he could not. We likewise can all say, with David, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin  did my mother conceive me." Ps 51:5 As a consequence, we are by nature so weak that we cannot do the things that we would. As each year of the man's life increased his inability to walk, by increasing the weight of his body while his limbs grew no stronger, so the repeated practice of sin, as we grow older, strengthens its power over us. It was an utter impossibility for that man to walk; yet the Name of Christ through faith in it gave him perfect soundness and freedom from his infirmity. So we, through the faith which is by Him, may be made whole, and enabled to do the thing which hitherto has been impossible. For the things with are impossible with man are possible with God. He is the Creator. "To them that have no might He increaseth strength." One of the wonders of faith, as shown in the cases of the ancient worthies, is that they "out of weakness were made strong."

By these instances we have seen how God delivers from bondage those who trust in Him. Now let us consider the knowledge of how freedom is maintained.

We have seen that we by nature are all servants of sin and Satan, and that as soon as we submit to Christ, we become loosed from Satan's power. Says Paul: "know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. 6:16. So we become the servants of Christ. Indeed, the very act of loosing us from the power of sin, in answer to our faith, proves God's acceptance of us as His servants. We become, indeed, the bond-servants of Christ; but he who is the Lord's servant is a free man, for we are called unto liberty (Gal. 5:13) and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. 3:17)

And now comes the conflict again. Satan is not disposed to give up his slave so readily. He comes, armed with the lash of fierce temptation, to drive us again to his service. We know by sad experience that he is more powerful than we are, and that unaided we cannot resist him. But we dread his power, and cry for help. Then we call to mind that we are not Satan's servants any longer. We have submitted ourselves to God, and therefore He accepted us as his servants. So we can say with the Psalmist, "O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds." Ps 116:16. But the fact that God has loosed the bonds that Satan had thrown around us- and He has done this if we believe that He has-- is evidence that God will protect us, for He cares for His own, and we have the assurance that He that has begun a good work in us "will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil 1:6. And in this confidence we are strong to resist.

Christ and His Righteousness -  E. G. Waggoner

*******

Not spared the ravages of our spiritual war

'Bond Servants and Freemen

The power of faith in bringing victory may be shown by another line of Scripture texts, which are exceedingly practical. In the first place, let it be understood that the sinner is a slave. Christ said, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” John 8:34. Paul also says, putting himself in the place of an unrenewed man, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Rom. 7:14. A man who is sold is a slave; therefore, the man who is sold under sin is the slave of sin. Peter brings to view the same fact, when, speaking of corrupt, false teachers, he says, “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” 2 Peter 2:19.

The prominent characteristic of the slave is that he cannot do as he pleases, but is bound to perform the will of another, no matter how irksome it may be. Paul thus proves the truth of his saying that he, as a carnal man, was the slave of sin. “For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” Rom. 7:15, 17-19.

The fact that sin controls proves that a man is a slave, and although everyone that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin, the slavery becomes unendurable when the sinner has had a glimpse of freedom and longs for it, yet cannot break the chains which bind him to sin. The impossibility for the unrenewed man to do even the good that he would like to do has been shown already from Rom. 8:7, 8 and Gal. 5:17.

(((Rom 8:7  because the mind of the flesh is enmity towards God; for it is not being subjected to the Law of God, for neither can it be.
Rom 8:8  And those being in the flesh are not able to please God.

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another; lest whatever you may will, these things you do))))

How many people have in their own experience proved the truth of these scriptures. How many have resolved and resolved again and yet their sincerest resolutions have proved in the face of temptation as weak as water. They had no might, and they did not know what to do, and, unfortunately, their eyes were not upon God so much as upon themselves and the enemy. Their experience was one of constant struggle against sin, it is true, but of constant defeat as well.

Call you this a true Christian experience? There are some who imagine that it is. Why, then, did the apostle, in the anguish of his soul, cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom. 7:24. Is a true Christian experiencing a body of death so terrible that the soul is constrained to cry for deliverance? Nay, verily.

Again, who is it that, in answer to this earnest appeal, reveals himself as a deliverer? Says the apostle, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In another place he says of Christ:

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage. Heb. 2:14, 15.

Again, Christ thus proclaims His own mission: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Isa. 61:1.

What this bondage and captivity are has already been shown. It is the bondage of sin--the slavery of being compelled to sin, even against the will, by the power of inherited and acquired evil propensities and habits. Does Christ deliver from a true Christian experience? No, indeed. Then the bondage of sin, of which the apostle complains in the seventh of Romans, is not the experience of a child of God, but of the servant of sin. It is to deliver men from this captivity that Christ came, not to deliver us, during this life, from warfare and struggles, but from defeat; to enable us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, so that we could give thanks unto the Father “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,” through whose blood we have redemption.

How is this deliverance effected? By the Son of God. Says Christ, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:31, 32, 36. This freedom comes to everyone that believeth, for to them that believe on His name, He gives the “power to become the sons of God.” The freedom from condemnation comes to them who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1), and we put on Christ by faith (Gal. 3:26, 27). It is by faith that Christ dwells in our hearts.

(((Gal 3:26  for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27  For as many as were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ. ))))

--Christ and His Righteousness  E.G. Waggoner

*******

My thoughts-

Read this again--  ' It is to deliver men from this captivity that Christ came, not to deliver us, during this life, from warfare and struggles, but from defeat; to enable us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, so that we could give thanks unto the Father “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,” through whose blood we have redemption'

We are NOT going to be delivered during THIS life from WARFARE and STRUGGLES.

We are actually admonished to put on ARMOR.  Why would we be told to put on armor if we were in no need of it? If we weren't going to be in a war there would be no need for armor.  If we weren't going to fight why give us a sword? If we weren't going to have to be protected, why have a helmet on, why bother with a shield, or a breastplate, and who needs to have our loins girt and our feet shod with special footwear? We would have NO need of any armor at all if this life was supposed to be carefree and easy. 

We are to deny self, we are to take up our crosses.  What sort of cross? A real wooden cross? Do we all need to have one of those to carry around?  This life is a fight! This life is WAR.  So to think that we would have an easy life, sin free and carefree is to have our thoughts askew.

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

Be strong in ourselves?  NO.
Be strong in the LORD? YES!
Be strong in our own power, by our own will? NO.
Be strong in the power of the LORD and His will? YES!

Truth.
Righteousness.
Peace.
Faith.
Salvation.
Spirit (Word of God).
Praying in the Spirit.

That's our armor right there.  That is what we fight with in this spiritual war.  

Are you warring? Are you fighting? Are you struggling constantly?

You can NEVER be defeated as long as you claim Christ Jesus as your Savior. 

You can be beaten black and blue (spiritually bruised and bloody within an inch of your spiritual life), but you cannot be killed spiritually as long as you accept Christ as your Savior- He keeps you spiritually alive!

We make a grave error if we believe that we aren't supposed to be in a war, a real war, a very real spiritual war.

We are NOT going to be delivered from the spiritual war, not in this life.  But we can be clothed with spiritual armor- Christ's armor.