Do you embrace the promises?

Heb_11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

1Pe_2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul

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Strangers and pilgrims. 

The promises. Persuaded of the promises. Embraced the promises.

What promises?

1Jn 2:25  And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.

2Pe_1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Heb 4:1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Heb 8:6  But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

Heb 8:7  For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.

Heb 8:8  For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

Heb 8:9  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

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

Heb 8:11  And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

Heb 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

We've been promised eternal life.

Yesterday we talked about the fact we gave up our rights to this world making all who would belong to God and the Savior God, strangers and pilgrims upon the earth.  Every stranger and every pilgrim has received a promise of eternal life, the very thing that was given up upon sinning.  Eternal life.  There is NO greater promise.

Do we embrace the promises, are we persuaded of the promises? Truly are we seeking our eternal home? Is our eternal reward a reality to us. 

We are told to store our treasures in heaven, not upon earth. What treasure but those that are eternal can be stored in heaven? No temporal treasure can reside in heaven, not a single one.  Yet our treasures are supposed to be kept there.  So tell me right now… please… what treasures of yours are stored in heaven, and please, if the first thing you think of is your loved ones then you haven't been reading my blogs or visited the website or anything because the truth is, our loved ones are sleeping the long sleep in death and will NOT rise to meet the Lord in the air until He returns for us all, this is Biblical truth. No one has a loved one, other than their SAVIOR and the FATHER GOD, in heaven.  So again, I ask, what treasures do you have in heaven?

More on this tomorrow by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!

Amen.

Are you a pilgrim?

Pilgrims.

Strangers.

We are born upon this earth and we call this earth our home. Yet it isn't home to those who do not want to belong to its ruler. The ruler being- Satan.

We are quick to believe the earth belongs to God alone, but the truth is, Satan took possession of the earth from the human beings created to inhabit it, in the garden of Eden when they abdicated their ownership by choosing to disobey God.

Do you remember reading the history of our beginnings? We were created in a most gorgeous garden, brought to life in the presence of our Creators, all in love.  We were told we were caretakers of everything we saw and we could eat freely of all we saw, save fruit from ONE tree.  This tree, this testing tree, this singular condition upon our existence.  When we chose to disobey and eat the fruit of that tree we made the decision to change allegiance from our Creators to the created fallen one who tempted us to disobey. Satan lied to seduce us from our guardianship, our caretaking of the garden of our creation.  Satan knew that there would be grave changes one he caused the created human beings to disobey God as he himself had disobeyed God. 

The earth changed, human beings changed- losing their one-ship with their Creators. No longer under the protection of the Creators  human beings were taken out of the garden, forbidden from the garden and the tree of life.  Thrust from the only place they knew they were pilgrims, and strangers upon the earth.  They would remain… we would remain strangers and pilgrims until the earth is made new.

Right now we are strangers and pilgrims IF we are looking for a new land, a new home with our Creators, our Redeemer.

If we are NOT looking for a new land, a new home then we are not strangers and we are not pilgrims upon this earth and we really need to be.

Heb_11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

1Pe_2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul

Do we understand this?   Do we have the comprehension we need? 

Are you a stranger?

 Are you a pilgrim?

By the grace of God, by the forgiveness of our Savior may we comprehend and in comprehending CHOOSE to abstain from EVERYTHING that keeps us from following our God and His will.

Please Father, please. Daily we are shown our weakness, hourly we are exposed to our unrighteousness. Please BE our righteousness for us, be our strength we can but submit to YOU in all things. Help us to be all You would have us be.

All by YOUR LOVE!

Amen.

What wars against us?

Truth-

 We must be taught to deny self as we embrace Christ!

1Pe 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul

What wars against us?

How do our fleshy lusts war against us?

How do our fleshly lusts keep us from Christ?  Can they?  Sure they can when we choose our lusts over Christ and Christ's commands.

It is Christ's commands that reveal to us His love.

2Jn_1:6  And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.

This is love-  that we walk after his commandments.

1Jn_5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

We know the commandments the moral commandments of God, we know them, or if we don't we must study them, know them by heart! Each one of those ten moral commandments revealed GOD to us. 

When we do NOT keep those commandments then we are not abstaining from our fleshly lusts and there is a war against us and this war is over our eternal life. When we give into our fleshly lusts we are choosing to war against GOD and God's love. We choose Satan's way. 

When we know to do good and choose not to do good we are accountable for that action, that choice.

Jas_4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

If we harm others in any way we are not doing God's will, we are not following God's commands. When we choose to NOT do good we are choosing to sin, to break a commandment, to not love God.

We are told to ABSTAIN from anything that would war against us! And Everything that wars against us is everything that would keep us from CHRIST, and breaking any of His commandments would keep us from Him.

Don't we have enough sins of ignorance, sins that are unplanned that to sin willfully is tragic? To choose NOT to abstain when we can choose to abstain is also tragic.

1Pe 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul

Our natural lusts, the fleshly temptations, our lustful tendencies  will keep us at war. This is a BATTLE beyond any outward enemy in the flesh.  We battle SELF and Satan encourages that self within us to be the worst it can be.

Please FATHER, please keep us in YOU. Help us to do as You command us to do, and abstain from fleshly lusts so we may LOVE You in keeping ALL Your commandments! Please. Forgive us. Please Father, forgive us! Help  us! Save us! Keep us from Evil!

All in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ our  Lord. 

We must be taught to deny self as we embrace Christ!

From January 3, 2015-

'Php 2:5  For think this within you, which mind was also in Christ Jesus,

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

Php 2:7  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men

Php 2:8  and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross. (LITV)

Christ put HIMSELF into the form of a slave! We are to be like Christ, and if HE took on the form of a slave, shouldn't we? Don't we need to?  We are BOUGHT and the price we are bought with is the Blood of Christ! He bought us with His life!'

1Co_6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

We BELONG TO GOD when we CHOOSE to belong to God. 

We get to CHOOSE our Master.  Unlike those forced into Slavery we CHOOSE slavery.  WE choose to be bought, to be owned, to be Christ's.

Our Master requires us to give up our self-sufficiency, the  hardest thing we'll ever do.

Do we care if our actions are acceptable to Christ?

So many want to do anything they can, anything they desire, not denying themselves anything at all. If they feel inclined to do something they do it. If they don't want to do something, they don't, and they call it their right. We call it our right. Yet throughout the Word of God there are numerous examples of living uprightly, living by denying flesh desires that would keep us from God.  Were all flesh desires denied. NO. And they aren't all to be denied. Yet ANYTHING that would keep us from our Walk with God, anything that would steal us from God, ANYTHING THAT WOULD interfere with our spiritual walk with God - HAS to be denied!  How do we know what we should deny? I think it is a very personal knowledge that we are given when we seek God with all our heart, leaning NOT unto our own understanding. We need to pray for guidance, pray for understanding, study to know! God's word gives us the ANSWERS.

Do some people take things to extreme? Maybe to our understanding, but maybe not to theirs. They have their own walk with God. They have to answer to God for what they are called to do or not do.  I say this thinking of John the Baptist. John was called to live very roughly- in camel skins and eating honey and locusts while in the desert, but were others called to follow that walk? No, not all others. Some might be called to such a walk, but not all. Some are allowed to drink wine, and eat fine food, and have very fine linen, they are called to that in their walk with God. Some are called to great hardship, others to lives of earthly luxury, but each to their own walk according to the Word of the Lord.  There are basic actions in the Moral Commandments of God that ALL rich or poor must obey by the grace of God, but in all the material aspects of our lives, in all the day to day existing we are called to do beyond the initial born again moment, we have to find our path in God's word, in God's love, through prayer, through meditation, through the love of our God and by the grace of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ now and forever! We must be taught to deny self as we embrace Christ!

More tomorrow by our Savior's will, by the Father's will, through the Holy Spirit!

Amen.

Form of a slave...

A little bit from Jan. 2, 2015...

‘What is evil?

In a nutshell, evil is selfishness, self-centeredness, evil is self-indulgence, evil is self.

We are to abstain from anything that would keep us centered on ourselves!

How can that be? How would we live at all if we weren't concerned for our own well-being- feeding, bathing, clothing ourselves?  All these things are necessary just because we exist, right? So how can they be evil?  They can be perverted. There is an acceptable indulgence of self so that the needs of living are taken care of, but beyond that shouldn't our center be on God and others, and off of ourselves?

No wonder so few will be known by our Savior when He returns. We are a world filled with self indulgence, self centeredness, selfishness.  We come first simply because we exist, and others may come (before us) only as it suits our selfishness to put them there.’

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Jan. 3, 2015

Renouncing SELF.

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.

Mar_8:34  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Luk_9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Let him deny himself.  

What exactly is this saying?  A renunciation of self? A doing away with self? How do you deny yourself?  We know that we can deny ourselves *things*. I can deny myself a chocolate sundae and that means I’m denying myself….something.  But what does it truly mean to deny ourselves beyond denying ourselves *things*?

If we deny ourselves aren’t we truly giving ourselves up? Aren’t we giving up supposed ownership of ourselves? If I deny myself I am deny myself of having self-sufficiency. I am denying myself of having possession of myself.  How can we give up possession of ourselves?  

We know how it is possible to do this literally in the physical world between each other, don’t we? We can offer ourselves as a slave to someone allowing them to make all our decisions for us, allowing them to direct our lives in every detail. We can allow them to tell us what to do (and we have to do it no matter what it is). We can allow them to tell us everything- when to sleep, eat, drink, use the bathroom, bathe, talk, see, hear, touch, taste.  To be a slave, as only slaves could probably tell us, can be - but doesn’t have to be - horrific.  What do I mean by that? All slavery is horrific, right?  Not necessarily.  A case in point is the slaves who are treated like family, only they are owned by another and have to answer to another. A slave owner can be loving, kind, compassionate, inspiring in many ways. After the civil war there were many tales of slaves being lost by not being owned, of slaves wanting to be slaves because suddenly they were denied the security they had, the protection, the love, the care from their compassionate owners.  No, I am NOT saying it was like that even in the majority of cases, in fact the opposite is most likely true- slavery was awful for the majority.  However, there are cases of generations of slaves (not necessarily here in the United States solely but throughout history around the world) where one generation after another were slaves and were content in their lot, never abused, never harmed as what we would imagine a typical slave had to endure.

Why am I touting the positive side of slavery? Because of this--

1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

We are bought if we are Christ’s. We are BOUGHT by HIM.  He is our MASTER we are HIS SLAVES.  And we are NOT slaves in a bad sense, but WILLINGLY slaves, desiring Him to be our owner, to be our master.

In fact read this--

Php 2:5  For think this within you, which mind was also in Christ Jesus,

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

Php 2:7  but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, having become in the likeness of men

Php 2:8  and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, having become obedient until death, even the death of a cross. (LITV)

Our Savior took the form of a slave when He became human.  

Our Savior- a slave!

We are to be slaves of Christ and we are to be His slaves in the best sense ever!

Yet Satan would twist everything around and most people just hearing that we are to be slaves of Christ would rebel against the suggestion.

Slavery is truly horrific and anyone FORCED into slavery is a victim, a tragic victim! No one should EVER be forced into slavery, no one!

And Christ would NEVER force any one into slavery, NEVER! We are invited into this form of slavery. Christ put HIMSELF into the form of a slave! We are to be like Christ, and if HE took on the form of a slave, shouldn't we? Don't we need to?  We are BOUGHT and the price we are bought with is the Blood of Christ! He bought us with His life!

More on all this tomorrow by the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST!

Amen!

Abstain from fleshly lusts

ABSTAIN. 1 Peter 2:11

DENY YOURSELF. Luke 9:23

PUT OFF.  Ephesians 4:22-24

We find it a great hardship when we are told to abstain from food eight hours before a medical test. Deprivation in order to have some procedure done, from the testing of blood to surgery. Deprivation why? We are told it's because the 'fasting' bloodwork reveals differences from the non-fasting bloodwork. We are told we must have an empty stomach  to lessen the chances of vomiting during surgery. We are told to deprive ourselves for our own good.  We generally listen,  with perhaps a few liberties such as a sip of water, a swallow of coffee, or some such and even as we take that liberty we know we could be endangering ourselves by our action- according to doctors/surgeons and all the history they have to draw on that led them to the conclusions fasting is better for certain things.  We listen because we want to be safe. We want the correct blood work done in order to show the results untampered with in order to determine if we need various medicines to help us should our blood work reveal things that aren't so good. We want to keep from vomiting during surgery and after surgery, we don't want to choke, we don't want to injure ourselves from the forceful throes of vomiting.  We are protecting ourselves. We are abstaining to protect ourselves.  We only feel a mild irritation that things have to be this way, that we have to abstain because we know it is what it is and we can't change anything. 

Our Lord in His Most Holy Word tells us to ABSTAIN from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.

Definitions:

Fleshy lusts-

G4559 sarkikos,  pertaining to flesh, that is, (by extension) bodily, temporal, or (by implication) animal, unregenerate: - carnal, fleshly.

G1939 epithumia, a longing (especially for what is forbidden): - concupiscence, desire, lust (after).

These flesh fueled cravings that WAR against us, what are they? If they're things we desire then how are they warring against us? 

We know the flesh is at war with the spirit, right?

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.

Again, if we want to do things, why are they wrong things? 

What sort of flesh desiring things are contrary to the Spirit?

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Rom 7:18  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.

Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

Evil. What flesh desiring things are evil?

What is evil?

In a nutshell, evil is selfishness, self-centeredness, evil is self-indulgence, evil is self.

We are to abstain from anything that would keep us centered on ourselves!

How can that be? How would we live at all if we weren't concerned for our own well-being- feeding, bathing, clothing ourselves?  All these things are necessary just because we exist, right? So how can they be evil?  They can be perverted. There is an acceptable indulgence of self so that the needs of living are taken care of, but beyond that shouldn't our centered be on God and others and off of ourselves?

No wonder so few will be known by our Savior when He returns. We are a world filled with self indulgence, self centeredness, selfishness.  We come first simply because we exist, and others may come first only as it suits our selfishness to put them there.

More tomorrow by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR Jesus Christ- the PERFECTLY SELFLESS ONE!

Amen!

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1 Peter 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul

Luke 9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

Ephesians  4:22-24 Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 

War against the soul

Decisions. We have to make constant decisions throughout our lives.  Daily decisions. We choose whether or not to 'feed' the old man or the new man.  When we are born again in Christ there is NO magical transformation that takes away all our flesh ruled tendencies. The deceitful lusts that war against the us will do just that… WAR.

1Pe 2:11  Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul

Put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Eph 4:22-24.

Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 13:14.

We have to choose to put on the LORD JESUS CHRIST.  We have to choose to put off the former ways.  We have to choose to be renewed in the spirit of our minds. 

Choices, so many choices. Our old nature doesn't disappear, as much as we want it to. We are in a war, a real war even if it's not a war in the flesh alone but in spirit as well. The war of our mind… no wonder we have to be RENEWED in the spirit of our minds.  Our minds NEED constant renewing! Our minds are under constant assault! We need to put off the old man! We need to put off the corruption in us! The lusts in us are deceitful, trying to convince us that they are GOOD. We talked a little about this the other day.  The calling of evil, good and good, evil.  The deceit in us is overwhelming so we must cling to CHRIST! We must CHOOSE to abstain from anything that would keep us from Christ!  We have to CHOOSE CHRIST constantly throughout our day. 

It is a choice and we CAN'T forget it! We can't let ourselves be so caught up in our selves we fail to see Christ in everything! When we shut Christ out because we don't *feel* Him, or we are too caught up in anger, or wrong doing, or even doing good selfishly, we are not putting on Christ.

So often it is revealed to me as I'm in the throes of flesh passions that war against the spirit that I am NOT putting on Christ, and what I need to do is STOP right then and put on Christ, not let the deceitful flesh lusts rule in me.

It's true, this is what I need to do and CAN do only by the grace and mercy, the love of my Savior, through the Holy Spirit that He has sent to me.

This is TRUTH!

We have to choose Christ and Christ's way, not our own, not Satan's way.

Please Father, please renew the spirit of our minds! We need this renewal CONSTANTLY, daily! 

You are our RIGHTEOUSNESS! You are our HOLINESS! You are our SAVIOR! Please, save us from ourselves and all that would keep us from being Yours! Please!

All by Your love and grace, your mercy, by Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, always!