Psa 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins

Psa 19:12  Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Psa 19:13  Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
Psa 19:14  Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

We've been talking about obedience and prayer this past week or so and truly how many seem to believe they can live a blatant life of disobedience and still call upon God.

What do I mean by disobedience? It's not what I mean that matters, it's what God means.

What is God's standard and don't you dare say He hasn't one. Don't get up on your high horses and declare that Jesus did away with all the obeying stuff and put love in its place. Don't tell me that Jesus loved sinners, He went to the sinners and hung out with them so obviously we aren't to be concerned with not being a sinner.   I'm asking you not to tell me all that stuff because it's the stuff of lies. All that nonsense has been propagated by Satan and all those he uses as his minions in order to deceive. Satan wants you to be among the many who cry out to Jesus- Lord! Lord! Didn't I serve You!  And Satan will rejoice when he hears the Savior tell you to get away from Him, that He doesn't know You.

So while you are clinging to the belief that disobedience is the way to go, putting your own idea of what God wants from you in place of the moral laws He created Himself, thinking about the Jesus who walked among the sinners coming back and saying to sinners- 'Get away from me'.  You don't want to think about that Jesus, do you?!  Those are HIS WORDs, that is HIS PROPHECY!  That is Him saying 'Get away!'  It's not Him saying, 'Come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.' Not any more.  The time for people to come to Him and find HIS rest is past, they've either accepted Him and live for Him truly without guile, or they've rejected Him- even those who profess His name and profess love for Him --if it is not in truth and without guile they will be rejected.

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.
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?

Are you reading Jesus' words? Are you? How do you equate this with the idea that Jesus doesn't care if you obey? He says plainly-  'He that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.'   This is OBEDIENCE!

WHY can't people understand?! WHY must they choose blindness over the truth?! Why do they serve a false God believing they serve the true? Why will they have to cry out that they prophesized in His name, that they cast out devils in His name, that they did many wonderful things in His name never realizing that the One whose name they used never knew them. Why did He never know them? Because they weren't doing the WILL of the FATHER IN HEAVEN, but their own misguided will.

Psa 19:12  Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Psa 19:13  Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
Psa 19:14  Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

Can we understand our errors and cleanse ourselves from secret faults? No, we need the understanding and cleansing that our Savior offers us. We need our God to keep us from presumptuous sinning so that it doesn't rule over us! Only when we have God keeping us from this sinning will we be upright and innocent from the great transgression.  We need our words, and our hearts, our every thought to be acceptable in the sight of our God, He is our STRENGTH, He is our REDEEMER!

God will cleanse us, God will make obedience possible because it is not of our own accord. What is of our own accord is the willingness to yield to Him and allow Him to work in us showing us the ways He would have us walk in.  He wants us to go and sin no more every time He forgives us. He never wants us to go and sin some more every time He forgives us.

And if we are to go and sin no more- He is telling us we should keep His moral laws- because- SIN is a TRANSGRESSION of the LAW, the MORAL LAW! So sinning no more means keeping His law. He wants us to Keep His moral laws! He wants us to go and NO longer break His laws.

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

May we THROUGH the power of our Risen LORD live our lives in obedience to His Father's will!  May HE KNOW US in that Day!

Please LORD, know us undeserving ones, us who are desperate to know and do YOUR will, through YOU and YOUR power!

Please LORD.

Thank YOU!

Not everyone...only those who do the will of the Father

'True praying, be it remembered, is not mere sentiment, nor poetry, nor eloquent utterance. Nor does it consist of saying in honeyed cadences, "Lord, Lord." Prayer is not a mere form of words; it is not just calling upon a Name. Prayer is obedience. It is founded on the adamantine rock of obedience to God. Only those who obey have the right to pray. Behind the praying must be the doing; and it is the constant doing of God's will in daily life which gives prayer its potency, as our Lord plainly taught:

"Not every one which 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. Many will say unto Me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name have cast out devils? And in Thy Name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that worketh iniquity."

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 57)

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When we call upon the name of the Lord, when we say- 'Lord, Lord,'  we are praying to Him. We cannot talk to God without calling it prayer. Any conversation we have with the Lord is prayer. Whether or not it is true prayer, sincere prayer is between the Lord and the one praying.  We have to take to heart what our Savior is telling us though. We have to listen to Him as He speaks.  When He plainly tells us that 'NOT EVERYONE WHICH SAITH UNTO ME, LORD, LORD, SHALL ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN'  Jesus is telling us plainly that NOT everyone who prays to Him will be HIS. He doesn't leave it there though, He goes on to tell us who of those who say Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven…

'HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN'

Those who DO the will of the Father God.  Those who OBEY!

If we are praying to our Lord and not obeying our Lord we will not BE our Lord's. He will ONLY know those who DO- His will.

His will is to love and love is God and God gives us a moral code of LOVE to follow.  Our Savior lived the moral code, our Savior magnified the moral code.  His life is our example, if we live our lives as He lived we will be doing God's will, and we will be following His moral code fully.

He that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven…

Do we do God's will? Do we?

Shouldn't we?

Please, LORD, please help us to do Your will in all things!

Bless us, help us, keep us, save us! By Your grace! Through Your righteousness, your love.

We walk before God

'In the instance of King Hezekiah, it was a potent plea which changed God's decree that he should die and not live. The stricken ruler called upon God to remember how that he had walked before Him in truth, and with a perfect heart. With God, this counted. He hearkened to the petition, and, as a result, death found his approach to Hezekiah barred for fifteen years.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 56)

Isa 38:1  In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
Isa 38:2  Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
Isa 38:3  And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
Isa 38:4  Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
Isa 38:5  Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
Isa 38:6  And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city.
Isa 38:7  And this shall be a sign unto thee from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he hath spoken;
Isa 38:8  Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.

Hezekiah DID pray, and we are talking about prayer. Told by a prophet of God that he was going to die, telling him to get his affairs in order, Hezekiah did not do what he was told. Instead of setting his house in order he turned away from everyone and faced a wall, and then he prayed. Remember, Hezekiah was SICK, very, very sick and that sickness was going to kill him. In his sickness he turned from everyone and prayed.  His words….

REMEMBER,  O LORD…

He was asking the Lord to remember, God does not forget.  He was reminding God, wanting Him to remember…

...HOW HE WALKED BEFORE HIM IN TRUTH, WITH A PERFECT HEART, DOING WHAT IS GOOD IN GOD'S EYES.

Can we say the same to God?

Are we walking before God in truth?
Are we walking before God with a perfect heart?
Are we doing what is good in God's eyes?

Can we, like Hezekiah, pray that prayer? Can we? And if we cannot, we have to ask ourselves why not?

No, we are NOT perfect and we will not be perfect, only our SAVIOR is perfect and He and He alone will forever be perfect and ANY perfection we reflect is HIS. We are told to be perfect as God is Perfect…

Mat_5:48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

We cannot ignore what God wants from us. We must be devoted to Him and devoted to a life pleasing to HIM!

We must walk in GOD'S TRUTH, we must walk with a PERFECT HEART, and we must be doing what is GOOD in GOD'S EYES.

ALL through HIS grace, HIS LOVE!

Spirit of Obediece

'Prayer puts into those who sincerely pray a spirit of obedience, for the spirit of disobedience is not of God and belongs not to God's praying hosts.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 55)

Gal 5:7  Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Gal 5:8  This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you

When we don't obey the truth we are not honoring God, we are not God's.

Read the following...

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

When we DO NOT OBEY the truth we are obeying UNRIGHTEOUSNESS!

Tribulation and anguish waits for those who do evil!

Those who work good will have glory, honor, and peace.

How can we say our obedience doesn't matter? How?

'Prayer puts into those who sincerely pray a spirit of obedience, for the spirit of disobedience is not of God and belongs not to God's praying hosts.'

A spirit of obedience is something we truly need! If we are SINCERELY praying then we will receive a spirit of obedience!  If we aren't praying in sincerity we cannot expect to have a spirit of obedience, a desire to obey rather than disobey.  We must PRAY, we must obey.

By the grace of God may we obey, and pray to obey.

Why can we ever imagine God would have us disobey, ever?

Please, Lord, help us!

In YOUR LOVE!

We cannot accept our sinning

'Obedience to God counts tremendously in the realm of prayer. This fact cannot be emphasized too much or too often. To plead for a religious faith which tolerates sinning, is to cut the ground from under the feet of effectual praying. To excuse sinning by the plea that obedience to God is not possible to unregenerate men, is to discount the character of the new birth, and to place men where effective praying is not possible. At one time Jesus broke out with a very pertinent and personal question, striking right to the core of disobedience, when He said: "Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say?" Luke 6:46

He who would pray, must obey. He who would get anything out of his prayers, must be in perfect harmony with God. Prayer puts into those who sincerely pray a spirit of obedience, for the spirit of disobedience is not of God and belongs not to God's praying hosts.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 54)

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Luk 6:47  Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
Luk 6:48  He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.
Luk 6:49  But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.

Jesus ASKS us WHY we are calling Him Lord, Lord when we are NOT doing the things He says!

Then Jesus goes on to say those who hear what He says and then do what He says that, that person is protected against the storms because they are founded upon HIM- the Rock.

Jesus doesn't stop there, He goes on to say that those who do not do what He says are not protected against storms.

So why, I have to ask something I've asked a lot of times, why do we imagine that we do NOT have to do what Jesus says? WHY?!

Truly, as E.M. Bounds wrote-

'To plead for a religious faith which tolerates sinning, is to cut the ground from under the feet of effectual praying'

-we CANNOT tolerate sinning!   We cannot excuse our sinning!  We cannot ACCEPT our sinning!  We cannot be among those who say we cannot obey! To do that is to say we do not want to be among God's saints.

Read this--

Rev_14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

HERE are those KEEPING the COMMANDMENTS of GOD and the FAITH of JESUS!

They are obeying! Here are those who are obeying!

Why would we be told such a thing if such a thing were impossible? We wouldn't be! God would never tell us that there will be saints who keep His commandments if there can't be saints who keep the commandments.  The sooner we BELIEVE it is possible through CHRIST to keep the commandments, the better. The sooner we can truly be obedient to OUR God, our Savior!

By God's grace may we be HIS, may we OBEY as He would have us OBEY, may we hear and do what He says so that we may truly be HIS as this life of a storm beats as us daily.

All in HIS GRACE! All in HIS LOVE!

Jesus said- Before Abraham was, I am

"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."

To this great deliverance may be added another:
"If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love, even as I have kept my
Father's commandments, and abide in His love." Joh_15:10

"The Christian's trade," says Luther, "is prayer." But the Christian has another trade to learn, before he proceeds to learn the secrets of the trade of prayer. He must learn well the trade of perfect obedience to the Father's will. Obedience follows love, and prayer follows obedience. The business of real observance of God's commandments inseparably accompanies the business of real praying.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 53)

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IF you keep Christ's commandments….

Are you reading this?  IF you keep Christ's commandments you WILL abide in His LOVE.

Jesus KEPT His Father's commandments and abides in His Father's love.

Does this mean then if Jesus did NOT keep His Father's commandments He would not have abided in His love?

That's exactly what it means.

To be SINLESS- Jesus could not have broken a single commandment given by His Father. The same commandments that JESUS gave, Jesus was there as the moral law was given. Jesus did NOT contest a single commandment given by His Father and HE COULD HAVE, HE WAS THERE!

Joh 8:58  Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Jesus fully agreed with the moral law, the only law put into the ark of the covenant.

Romans 7:7, 12 -- I had not known sin, but by the, law, the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Wherefore the law is holy.

Note - The law that contains the commandment - "Thou shalt not covet" - is the Ten Commandment law. This law Paul declares to be holy.

Jesus kept the commandments and those commandments are the same we should keep they are HIS.  Loving God and loving our fellow man are summed up in the ten moral commandments.

To ever imagine the ten moral laws were done away with is foolishness, there could be NO sin without them because sin is the breaking of those laws!

Is it any wonder that we need to OBEY? We do! We need to live by the moral law our God has given to us to live by. When we fail we do need to repent and seek forgiveness, but we must NEVER imagine we should disobey that law, NEVER.

By the GRACE of our LORD we are able to keep HIS LAW through HIM!

All in HIS LOVE!

We receive because we obey and seek to please God, not ourselves

'John gives the reason for answered prayer in the passage previously quoted: "And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things which are pleasing in His sight." 1Jn_3:22

Seeing that the keeping of God's commandments is here set forth as the reason why He  answers prayer, it is to be reasonably assumed that we can keep God's commandments, can do those things which are pleasing to Him. Would God make the keeping of His commandments a condition of effectual prayer, think you, if He knew we could not keep His statutes? Surely, surely not!

Obedience can ask with boldness at the Throne of grace, and those who exercise it are the only ones who can ask, after that fashion. The disobedient folk are timid in their approach and hesitant in their supplication. They are halted by reason of their wrongdoing. The requesting yet obedient child comes into the presence of his father with confidence and boldness. His very consciousness of obedience gives him courage and frees him from the dread born of disobedience.'

Quoted from- 'THE NECESSITY OF PRAYER  By E.M. BOUNDS' (Excerpt 52)

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Yet as I read the above I can't help but continue to think of my constant failure to keep God's commandments. They are SO much more than rigorous duties.  They are so much more than the mere keeping from thievery,  from the taking of another's life, from the letter of the law so to speak. Jesus came and revealed that the intents of hearts are the truth of God's commandments. Our thoughts, those we dwell upon and feed, are just as evil as the act committed. Refraining from physical adultery while indulging in mental adultery is evil. Fantasizing about murder is just as bad as murder. No sin should be entertained, not even in our thoughts.

Thoughts do creep in that we would rather not have and they must immediately be thrust out, not indulged! Even if they continue to come back over and over we have to fight against them, it is a spiritual war!

So when I read the above I really can't help but think on the constant fight I'm battling and oftentimes failing at. It's a FOREVER need of FORGIVENESS, something I don't think we can ever forget. To say we obey the commandments of God and therefore can come with confidence to Him in prayer, is truth. I didn't write this…

 "And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things which are pleasing in His sight." 1Jn_3:22

E.M. Bounds did not write that. GOD wrote that! Our actions matter! Our obedience matters! How can we divorce the two?  We kneel at the throne of grace and we seek to obey, we don't kneel at the throne of grace and then go our way and sin willfully! We struggle, we war, we fight against all that would keep us from obeying our God. And when I say we struggle, we war, we fight I mean we do so, spiritually we are at war! No, we aren't to physically war with others that would keep us from obeying, but spiritually war against all that would stop us from keeping God's commandments and doing that which is pleasing in HIS SIGHT.

We must obey and the commandments tell us to love and all that means! We are to love GOD, and love each other and when we disobey this and fail in our love towards God or our fellow man then we need to seek forgiveness and that is obeying. We need to repent- to give up doing that wrong, truly give it up even if that means giving it up every single day as we war. We cannot hold onto any sin - we cannot hold onto any failure to love God or our fellow man- we must seek forgiveness and find love and forgiveness through our Savior. Even if we must pray for forgiveness for loving- cherishing any sin- for loving sin, we need to repent and pray for it, pray to come to despise the sinful thing we love.

Satan has warped us in many, many ways and will not stop his work upon us. Thank God, Jesus Christ has the victory over him and that victory is ours!

Please, LORD, keep us in You. Forgive us, help us as we seek to keep Your commandments and do those things which are please in Your sight.

All in YOUR LOVE!