One to bring salvation

Rom 5:17  For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

One to bring destruction.

One to bring salvation.

Individually we live our lives yet we are surrounded by others. All of us from the closest of our friends to the farthest stranger are offspring of God.  From those we call great among us, to those we call the worst among us, are offspring of God. From the brightest to the least bright, from the richest to the poorest we are all offspring of God. We were created by God and given the opportunity to belong to God- heart and spirit. 

Any parent knows that you can give birth or father a child but that doesn't mean you control that child's life from start to finish. What become clear truly is how unique an individual that child is from the get go. The personality starts shining through right away. From two incredibly shy parents a very outgoing and rambunctious child can be born and vice versa. As children of God we are also born with our own spiritual personalities. We can choose to remain a part of God's family or we can leave that family. We can destroy our spiritual connection to God. Just as human children can disown their parents, we can disown our God. We choose.

What we didn't choose was to bring sin into humanity. Yet we were BLESSED with life. BLESSED with the chance to belong to God spiritually. BLESSED to be pilgrims and strangers upon earth to have to opportunity to be reunited with our Creator through the power of our Redeemer.

Our God has redeemed us through the sacrifice of God the begotten Son, God in the flesh, God who suffered sin's worst assault. Before you start naming all the terrible atrocities that our Savior did not suffer, the ultimate assault He alone did suffer.  That assault was the complete and utter separation from His Father in a way we cannot and have not ever experienced- HE alone could take that experience as a complete innocent and suffer the eternal death.

Yes, He suffered the eternal death, the second death, the complete nothingness without any hope from the Father but still Jesus' faith did NOT falter to an end.  The words- "Why hast thou forsaken me.", were spoken in agony, but He did not give in to the temptation to sin. He held fast to the truth which is we must believe WHOLLY in God to be SAVED by HIM because we cannot save ourselves, we just can't. Jesus could NOT save Himself, if He had saved Himself He would have sinned, and He did NOT sin.

One man SAVED us, He is our example. We must depend wholly upon God through the gift of His Son's sacrifice, making salvation available to us.

Please, Father, help us be YOURS. Help us CHOOSE to be YOURS. We would be YOURS!  Please, Father, through the Son's sacrifice may we be YOURS. Forgive us! Save us! Love us always and forever!

Amen.

We are the offspring of God

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

The beginning and the end.

Which is.

Which was.

Which is to come.

The Almighty.

Remember this--

Act 17:22  Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

Act 17:23  For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

Act 17:24  God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

Act 17:25  Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

Act 17:26  And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

Act 17:27  That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

Act 17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Act 17:29  Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.

Act 17:30  And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

Act 17:31  Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

The UNKNOWN GOD.

There was more than the gods manufactured by man and they knew it, deep down people knew this to be true.  Covering all bases they couldn't leave the UNKNOWN God out.  They didn't dare because they KNEW there was more. 

Our God, our Father, our Creator -  the ALPHA and the OMEGA, the Beginning and the End. He is our All in All, we need NO OTHER.

We know that we need no other. 

We are the OFFSPRING of God.

More tomorrow by the grace of our God!

In His love!

We choose whether or not we remain God's.

"I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing."-- Joh_15:5.

So many would instantly argue that we can do everything apart from Jesus, that they don't even believe in Him and yet they do whatever they please.  It's true, I couldn't dispute their being alive and functioning, how could I?

The truth is, except a man abide in Christ every single thing they do means nothing. You can do all you like but apart from the Savior it's meaningless.

Again the outcry comes- how dare I call someone's life meaningless just because they don't believe in the Savior and abide in Him.

It's true though.

Let's look at this for a moment. What gives our lives meaning?  As a whole of humanity what gives our lives meaning? How can the baby born into extreme poverty, living on the street as a toddler, barely surviving, growing up into a horrendous life of pain and tragedy find meaning in their life outside of the agony on so many levels? A person who has a nice life who isn't born into tragedy can find meaning in doing good and such, but the person who has very little good in their life, and I mean that sincerely, can find very little meaning to their life outside of pain.  So understanding the two extremes of life just by being born, what gives meaning, real meaning to both? It isn't things, it isn't material possessions, it isn't anything money can buy. It could be the tiny things, it could be other people who make life bearable. Ultimately in a life where you cannot get out from under the tortured life, where can you find hope? Not in the world you are living in, not in the life you've been forced to survive in. Can you still choose not to believe in God if you are born to such tragedy? Yes. Some would say it's easier not to believe when you are born into such horrific straits. Yet others would say you have more reason to believe because you need to hope in something better than this awful world.

Without our Savior it truly is all meaningless.

It is our Savior who gives us meaning. Living in our Savior gives us the hope of ETERNAL LIFE, hope of the life with NO PAIN!  This is the life we are meant to have, the life offered to us THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, and no other.

If we do not abide in Christ we are the living dead. You can call me crazy that is your right. You don't have to believe, that is also your right.

"I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing."-- Joh_15:5.

Without our Savior all the things we do truly are meaningless.

The breath of life given to us all by God makes us God's. We choose whether or not we remain God's. If we remain God's we will have life eternal. We are the branch abiding in the Vine.  We are living branches in the living vine. If we decide that we don't want any part of the Vine, eventually we will die off.

Please, Father, please let us LIVE in You and bear the fruit that YOU will have us bear, all through YOU because You are the VINE, You give us life and You give it abundantly. No matter what our existence is here and now, please BLESS us to be YOURS in whatever circumstances we find ourselves, please, Father, please, keep us in YOU no matter what! Please!

All in the name of our Savior, Your Son, Jesus Christ our LORD!

Amen!

'To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.'

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Rom 8:5  For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Jesus condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus was God in flesh. Jesus divested Himself of His God power after He agreed to enter into humanity through the flesh and the Spirit in the womb of a human being. The power He had to work miracles was from His Father. The power He gave to His disciples to work miracles was from God the Father. God the Father sent God the Son to be born of flesh and Spirit.  It was because He became one of us that He could in fact condemn sin in the flesh. God the Father did condemn sin from the beginning of it's existence, yet to be able to prove to humanity that sin could be conquered in the flesh- flesh had to conquer sin. Flesh with the same ability to sin as our flesh.  A God defeating sin would have NO bearing on us. But a God who became FLESH, weak flesh with the propensity towards sin, ABLE to be tempted, that God did and does have a bearing on us.  Christ did for us what we could NOT do! Don't we get that?!  So many want to believe that He could NOT sin, and used His own power to keep from sinning. So many want Him to be SUPER MAN in the sense that He could NOT sin, but that's a lie.  He COULD sin! But HE DID NOT. He WAS tempted, and we ALL know what it means to be tempted towards sin. Most people also know what it means to succumb to temptation.  Jesus did NOT succumb to temptation but surrendered to His Father's will, seeking NOT His own way.

We seek our own ways, our own very selfish ways and we sin.

We have to CHOOSE not to walk after our flesh but after the Spirit. We have to choose God OVER self, Spirit OVER flesh! We will face temptations CONSTANTLY, sometimes non-stop one after the other over and over and over and OVER. And through the Spirit may we choose to live by the Spirit rather than our flesh, through our SAVIOR.

If we choose to seek things of the flesh, minding them then we are of the flesh! We HAVE to choose the SPIRIT.

If we choose to be CARNALLY minded we are choosing to die eternally. If we choose to be spiritually minded we will have life and peace eternally!

WE CHOOSE!

Living through the Spirit we are choosing LOVE, and to LOVE GOD and to LOVE OTHERS. WE choose to LOVE, not hate. We choose the things of LOVE, the things of the Spirit!

We may falter and fail time and again, but as long as we constantly seek to live in the Spirit, through the Spirit, all by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST we will live in love.

We can't fix the world, we can only live our lives loving as our Savior wills us to love, to live.  He is the power, He is the SAVIOR, He is all in all, He is everything.

All though HIS LOVE, His righteousness, all in HIM our loving Savior!

Amen!

May we believe

They say- follow the rules and you'll succeed.

You find it impossible to follow all the rules.

A system is set up that offers you a way to atone for breaking the rules.

The system points to a time when no system will be needed to make the atonement, but rather a person will take over and all, even those who are not born into the rule followers, will be able to ask this person to make that atonement for them.

When that person takes over, do you need to stop following the rules?

Did the person take over the atoning process so you could break the rules?

Were the rules completely done away with because that person took the place of the atoning sacrifice?

Why do so many believe this is exactly what happened?

Yes, it is impossible for us to keep the rules as we should because we are imperfect. Yet that doesn't do away with the rules. If the rules disappeared then love disappears because those rules exist because of love. The rules are ALL made from love and concern love. There isn't a single rule that can be separated from love.

If you choose to not love, you choose to break the rules willfully. 

Many will keep a lot of the rules naturally because they do want love to rule over the hate and sin in their lives. But many will break the rules as they seek to stop loving and start self serving.

The heart of the rule breaking is selfishness the opposing force of love.

Jesus came and lived of life of serving others in many ways. Jesus did not serve Himself first in anything.  

No wonder the self servers who wanted Jesus to become their leader in self serving were so quick to turn against Him when He wouldn’t give in to their self serving ways.  How easy it is for us to turn on Jesus when our own self serving ways are not met, even when we believe our ways aren't self serving- say we are praying for another's healing and it doesn't come to pass. Our idea of what's best for someone is often what's best for ourselves- we serve self.  The passing of an infant, the tragic death of a young child  who are we to say these are not blessings for the children that we can't comprehend because all we feel is the anguish, the loss we are left with. We can't know the whys and wherefores, we can't see the end from the beginning, but in all things shouldn't we pray God's will be done and accept that because we have faith that HE who DOES know the end from the beginning is working His will from love in a way we can't begin to fathom. ALL the pain and suffering is temporary to eternity. We must believe that in the eternity to come all those who suffer innocently will be rewarded beyond our ability to comprehend.  To be able to ask one who suffered horrifically now if it was worth it once they are secure in the eternity of love, you KNOW they will say it was, even if it is the most horrendous abuse we can imagine.  We don't understand and it pains us to witness the horrors, but we must have faith that through it all there is purpose, there is meaning, there is a reward, there is eternity.   We must not serve ourselves in believing in our own idea of what would be a better plan, a better way. We must believe in God's plan in His way, He created us in His image, not to be tortured but to be able to receive and give love.

Jesus died so we could live.

Jesus did NOT die so we could live without the rules, without love's guidelines.

Jesus died so we could comprehend the rules He lived perfectly He lived for us to reveal to us that it is possible to live with the rules and the rules are NOT grievous.

1Jn 5:1  Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

1Jn 5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

1Jn 5:5  Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

1Jn 5:6  This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

1Jn 5:7  For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

1Jn 5:8  And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

1Jn 5:9  If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.

1Jn 5:10  He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

1Jn 5:11  And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

1Jn 5:12  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

1Jn 5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Rom 3:24  Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Rom 3:25  Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Rom 3:26  To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Rom 3:27  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Rom 3:28  Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Rom 3:29  Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

Rom 3:30  Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

Rom 3:31  Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

May we believe.

May we follow and love the commandments of love, trusting in our Savior to save us because we know that it is possible through HIM for those commandments of love to be kept fully, wholly.  Only in Him is there hope.

Please, Father, bless us with the HOPE of eternal life in Jesus Christ, in our being able THROUGH HIS POWER, through the HOLY SPIRIT, we are able to live the life of love You designed us to live.

All in the name of our Savior, Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord!

Amen.

Choose

Rom 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

Only grace saves us. The law cannot save us. The law reveals our inability to save ourselves. All we can do is choose to be saved by another, or not.  That's right, we get to choose. You're NEVER forced to be saved not even close. You won't be cajoled, you won't be coerced, you will not be tricked. You are invited, you are entreated, you are asked, but never in a intrusive forceful way.  You might say that there are PEOPLE who have tried to force you into believing, and I wouldn't dispute with you over that. People will try all sorts of things in all sorts of ways, but other than revealing the truth and letting others decide for themselves Christ does not advocate more. He tells His disciples to go and preach, but to do the following when not wanted--

Luk 9:2  And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

Luk 9:5  And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.

He did not say stay and try to convince them, and force them to receive you.  More than once Paul in his many, many journeys was run out of town.

Forcing the truth on someone, or TRYING to force the truth on someone is ludicrous.  If you succeed in forcing the truth on someone it would be false in their hearts through your force. The force makes it something against their will.

That's why any religious fanatics or organizations which orders people to believe in their religion is crazy, because they cannot force the heart even if they can force lying words of acceptance to their beliefs. And any religion whose God wants to just hear words and not have heart conviction is a very screwed up religion. No true God would care about lying words of conversion forced from someone. That God would appear to be in it solely for the numbers game and not true, freely given love at all.  Force is an attribute of Satan, not God.

Yes, God is a consuming fire.

Yes, God will judge all.

Yes, God is love and all who are not of God are not love.

Our CREATOR loves us.

Our CREATOR has a right to us and yet He allows us to CHOOSE whether or not we will belong to Him, willingly, lovingly. 

Our CREATOR the giver of our breath of life has the right to that breath, it belongs to Him.

Why would our CREATOR want to allow any of us to live in a world of pain, sorrow, sin, anguish, depravity, selfishness, heartache, and that's what we'd be asking Him to let us do if we choose to NOT be His and still want to live eternally. We'd be asking God to let us live a life of horror, of sin forever and ever and NO Creator, NO LOVING CREATOR would want that for His creatures.  His offering eternal life on the condition that we make the choice to LOVE HIM and OTHERS and HATE SIN (even though our flesh longs for it), is LOVE. We don't have to choose SIN, and DEATH eternal. We make the choice.

Two paths.

Love and Sin.

If we choose the path of sin no matter the reason, we've condemned ourselves to eternal death, to eventual nothingness, to being no more.

We choose.

The law reveals love, but the law doesn't save us, only Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God sacrificed for us, our Creator/Redeemer taking on flesh and suffering, dying in the flesh- He alone has the right to save whom He will.

We choose life or death.

We are all given a choice.

By the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, may we choose life in HIM, by HIM!

AMEN.

Let nothing keep us from love

"Lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus."-- Heb_12:1-2.

Lay aside EVERY weight. 

Weight weighs us down and in the Spiritual sense the weight that can drag us down spiritually is sin, right?  The sin that EASILY besets us.  We know don't we? We know our sins. We can't pretend they don't exist in our lives. We can't gloss over the sins, and we can't ignore them- they don't go away. Our sins must be confessed. Our sins must be repented of.  Our sins must be laid aside. We must GIVE up our cherished sins. 

The other day we talked about sins being the breaking of God's laws, this is truth.

We sin when we do not love God.

We sin when we do not love others.

We sin when we put self first before God and others.

Whatever keeps us from loving God and loving others makes up the weight that we must lay aside. We have to LAY ASIDE all that would keep us from loving God and others, do we?! 

Whenever we find ourselves thinking unloving thoughts, about to commit unloving acts, we need to seek God and the strength He can provide us through the Holy Spirit. We have to seek forgiveness. We have to choose to lay aside the sins that EASILY beset us. 

And… we must do this as we run this race of life with PATIENCE, looking to JESUS.

We cannot take our eyes off of our SAVIOR, He is our HOPE, truly our ONLY HOPE. 

Please FATHER, please help us to examine our lives constantly as we run this race we are in, and in examining our lives let us comprehend the sins that are weighing us down spiritually threatening to destroy us.  We need to live for our SAVIOR, for the Love that HE HAS for us, for the SACRIFICE He's made for us!  Please teach us to set aside anything that would keep us from following YOUR will!

Please!  Without You we are nothing, nothing.

All in YOUR LOVE!