No boasting

 Stop boasting, you didn't SAVE yourself!

There is so much talk about doing things for ourselves. Stand up for yourself, take care of yourself, do it yourself, take pride in yourself  and all these are supposed to be good things, great things in fact. Being independent and in need of no one is a great thing, right?  Even Paul said he took care of his own needs-

2Th 3:8  Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you

Act 20:33  I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel.

Act 20:34  Yea, ye yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.

So it is a good thing to do for yourself and if possible for others, no one should say it isn't a good thing.   What I am saying is we cannot get so caught up in doing for ourselves that we start boasting of our ability to save ourselves.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

First of all our very existence is by God's design.  We can take no credit for our existence. If you say you can because you choose not to end your existence, I'll say you have the existence to choose to end or not because of God and God alone gave you that existence.   When we choose to be saved, to recognize we need saving we choose to be saved through faith in Christ Jesus' ability to save us. We do not ever choose to save ourselves, we choose to be saved by another. We recognize that we CANNOT, absolutely CANNOT save ourselves. 

After we choose salvation by Christ Jesus our Lord, we are entering a way of life that means CONSTANT choosing to be saved by Jesus.  Jesus taught us to pray a DAILY prayer for DAILY sustenance, for God's will DAILY.  Daily we choose to surrender our will to God, to have faith that Jesus will indeed save us through HIS GRACE.  As we go about our daily living we recognize all that we do is in His workmanship.  We are required to live as He would have us live, in the good works that He Himself lived in. He was our example, His earthly life was our example, and He spent His life serving God and serving others in all things.  Yes, He made sure to eat, to tend to His own needs as necessary but He also gave of himself sacrificing His time, His energy, and ultimately He sacrificed His life for us.

We have hope in Jesus, not in ourselves, not in our own good works.  If we are blessed to be able to do any good works in Jesus Christ, all glory goes to Him for making it possible for us to do those good works.  If I am able to do a good work for someone, it is only because my Creator, my Savior made it possible for me to do that good work.

This doesn't mean Satan won't use our doing good works to trap us because He will. He's subtle and he'll do all in his power to get us caught up in doing good works so that we may boast of those good works, as if we on our own are responsible for the good works.  One of Satan's tricks is making us feel unappreciated, making us feel taken advantage of. Another trick is making us feel excessive happiness in working good, which can lead us to self adoration, boasting in our self. We don't do good to be happy, to feel good. We CHOOSE to do good because it is the right thing to do, the thing our Savior would have us do.  Our life is a life made up of choices, constant choices. We must use our Savior as our guide as we make each choice. By HIS GRACE and HIS GRACE alone may we make the choices we need to make to be His, fully, wholly, surrendered to Him, the author of Salvation.

In His name, always!

Amen.

Understand with our hearts

Mat_13:15  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

How many people do not want to hear the truth of Salvation?

How many people do not want to see the truth of Salvation?

How many people do not want their hearts understanding Salvation?

How many people do not want to be converted and healed?

Seriously. How many people choose to live spiritually deaf, blind, and heartless?

The choice is purposefully made, deliberately decided because they lack any faith at all.  They'll call themselves the enlightened. They'll call themselves intelligent.  They'll say they don't need faith, that faith is for the weak minded. 

Being converted from unrepentant sinner to repented sinner to some is undesirable. Some do not even want to admit they sin at all.  No one will be forced into conversion. People must CHOOSE to be converted.  People must want their hearts to understand, they must want to ear and see truth and in wanting this they desire healing and healing is found in conversion.

Act 3:19  Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Act 3:20  And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

Act 3:21  Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Repent- choose to recognize yourself as a sinner in need of repenting, in need of forgiveness. Our sins need to be blotted out and by the grace of our LORD they will be blotted out.  Our encouraged sins thickly coated in the selfishness that binds all sin must be confessed, and repented of so we can be HEALED.  Healed of our selfishness, just imagine that.

Imagine a life of selfless serving.  It's all but impossible, and the only hope we have of it not being an impossibility is being healed by our Savior. WE cannot heal ourselves, but we must choose to let our Savior heal us. And we will be healed, and like a lot of healing there is pain before the healing is complete.

Please, Father in heaven, please we choose to be healed by YOU through the Holy Spirit by the grace of Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior!

We repent! We confess! We bow before You knowing that we are helpless to save ourselves, we can only truth in Your mercy! Please, Father, have mercy upon us, we would be YOURS now and forever!

Forgive us!

Love us!

By YOUR GRACE! All honor, glory, and power to YOU, our God, our King!

Flaws within us

Act 3:19  Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Act 3:20  And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

Act 3:21  Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

First- we need to recognize that we are sinners. To recognize that we are sinners we must comprehend that we know deep down (if not any where on the surface at this time) that we fall short of a standard we instinctively wish we could achieve.  Have you any regrets? If there is no such thing as sinning, there should be no such thing as regret.  Regret comes from wishing we hadn't or had done something we did or didn't do.  That understanding of regret points out to us that there are flaws within us. If there are flaws within us then there is a certain standard we are holding ourselves to that reveals those flaws, those things that keep us from being people who are truly unselfish, who are truly loving of others.  Seriously, we all know there are problems with ourselves, and some of the most arrogant, conceited, self-absorbed people can find faults in others can't they? Faults in those who are not more like they are. Faults that they are less than what they should be.  Faults that make them seem to be liars, hypocrites, selfish, flawed.  I've never really known a person yet who hasn't found fault in others, and honestly- themselves. People KNOW they are flawed, they really do and all the self help, self absorption, self therapy they can muster will mostly just be them trying to justify their flaws so they don't have to feel the natural guilt of those flaws. People will don many different facades with the intention of burying the guilt and they'll even lie to themselves over and over until they believe their own lies just so they do not have to face the real truth of their guilt.

To repent is to recognize the sin in ourselves and despise that sin, that weakness, that flaw within ourselves and TRULY try to keep from succumbing to the temptations leading us to sin. We even need to hate that we've grown to love some of the sin in our lives. To simply just accept that sin without despising it is to not truly repent. If we need to cry out daily as we seek to repent over and over with a heart desperate to be made clean, then that is what we need to do rather than embrace the sin that has become a part of our lives. We must not call our sins good, just as we must not call the good- sin.

We need to repent and in repenting be converted.

Converted from what?  From one who chooses sin to one who chooses not to sin. Converted from one who doesn't believe in God's forgiveness, to one who believes.  Converted from selfishness, to unselfishness. 

Mat_13:15  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

All by the grace of our LORD!

When do the dead rise?

No resurrection of the dead?  Is this a lie?  YES, it's a LIE. There IS a resurrection of the dead. Listen to what we are told.

1Co 15:12-23  Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:  And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.   If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

There you go, the dead DO rise.

Now, we have to ask ourselves a few questions about all this.

WHEN are the dead resurrected?

We have to ask this question because most people that I personally know, believe the dead are resurrected immediately upon death. And not only that, they believe that resurrection is in the spirit form of the dead person. Then they believe that spirit form flies away to heaven to live with God and all the other spirit forms resurrected. So if most people believe in a spirit form resurrection what point is there to have a physical resurrection?  And this begs more questions still. How can a person sleep in death if they aren't even in their own bodies? They'd be a sleeping shell of nothingness, and why raise an empty husk. How could you wake up an empty husk?  And more importantly who would want to be returned to physical form after living in spirit form since they'd died?  Sleep implies what?  That you are STILL a part of the body.  Those ashes, that dust your body has returned to after decaying or cremation is still a part of the body you once were. After all, what was Adam created from? Dust, clay, dirt, he was formed out of the very thing we ultimately return to after dying.

All right now, let us consider some of the answers to these questions raised.  If I fall asleep right now you would expect me to wake up in a few hours or so. When I wake up you will expect me to be aware of the things that happened prior to my falling asleep wouldn't you?  Let's pretend I come home from shopping, put the groceries away, do a bit of housework, cook dinner, sit down to eat dinner with you, talk with you about your day, relax after cleaning up after dinner, then decide to take a nap.  When I wake up a few hours later would you expect me to know what I did before falling asleep? Would you expect me to still retain the memories of our earlier conversation about our days? Would you expect me to remember what we had for dinner?   The answers to those question are yes, yes, and yes.  You would not expect me to fall asleep and leave my body in some spirit form and fly around willy nilly.  You expect me to sleep and NOT know what you are doing while I’m sleeping.  Furthering our pretense, while I was sleeping you made a few phone calls, a next door neighbor dropped by, and you watched a television show.  Should I, who was sleeping, know that you did any of those things? No.  While I may in fact have a dream while I'm sleeping, you do NOT expect me to be awake and sleeping at the same time.

We are told specifically how the resurrection of the dead takes place, let's review--

1Co 15:20  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

Christ is risen from the dead- the FIRSTFRUIT of…..  THEM THAT SLEPT.

EVERY MAN in HIS OWN ORDER!

Christ.

The FIRSTFRUITS.

THEY THAT ARE CHRIST'S AT HIS COMING!

Exactly who were the firstfruits  that were raised after Christ…

Mat 27:50  Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.

Mat 27:51  And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

Mat 27:52  And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,

Mat 27:53  And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

Did you read that? Read it again…  many BODIES of the saints which slept (IN THE GRAVE- DEATH IS A SLEEP) arose. They came out of the GRAVES after his resurrection and WENT into the holy city and appeared unto many.

Jesus DID NOT call spirit forms out of graves or pull spirit forms of people from heaven.  Jesus raised BODIES! These newly resurrected from the dead appeared to MANY.  These were the FIRSTFRUITS resurrected from death.  The dead resurrected.

And we are told that the REST of the DEAD will NOT be raised until when?

At Christ's second coming.

And believe me, Christ will not be commanding spirits to return to bodies we have NOTHING of that in the Bible, nothing at all! We are told the dead sleep right now.  And from what we have already established of sleep, those sleeping aside from perhaps a dream, know NOTHING of what is going on with those who are still awake.  The next thing all those who are Christ's, who have died will know is being woken up by Christ Himself and rising from their graves in their body form (changed as we are told) to meet Christ in the air!

1Co 15:52  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

1Co 15:53  For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

1Co 15:54  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

The dead in their corrupted bodies will be raised incorruptible!  Just as Adam was formed of the dust of the ground, those who have returned to that dust will be given back a form of incorruptible flesh as they are resurrected, as they wake up from death's sleep.

There is a wonderful comfort in believing our loved ones are sleeping in mind and body, and not flying off to heaven where they can look down upon us and see all our trials, tribulations, our heartaches, our sinning, our sufferings.  What person truly wants their dead loved ones to watch them and know how they suffer? The dead loved one is sleeping and is spared from any more suffering.  Because if you try to tell me that the dead loved one is watching me suffer and is happy about my suffering I'll tell you that you have to be crazy. And seriously, why would ANY of us want our dead loved ones to suffer any more than they had to in this world while they were alive?

Thank You, heavenly Father, thank You for the knowledge, the comprehension, the truth of Your love for us revealed in even our death.  We would sleep in Christ, we would be raised incorruptible when Christ returns, or if we are blessed to be alive at Christ's return we would be found in Him and changed to immortality as we rise to meet Him in the air!  Thank You!

In the name of our Savior, our Lord, the First Resurrected, Jesus Christ our LORD forever and ever, amen!

After the chastening...

Spiritual Fruit.

Php 1:11  Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. 

Heb_12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Eph 5:9  (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 

Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Fruits of God's grace.

Fruits are the life we live.  Spiritual fruits are what we long to produce as those who are branches on the Vine of Christ Jesus our Lord.

These Spiritual fruits are comprised of goodness, righteousness, truth, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, meekness, and temperance.

The people who possess these fruits as a result of their life with Christ are truly BLESSED.

My only hope remains in my Savior, He and He alone can help me to produce spiritual fruit, of my own I can produce none. The Spirit in me must do it, I feel so very far from bearing spiritual fruit.

Love.

Joy.

Peace.

Longsuffering.

Gentleness.

Goodness.

Faith.

Meekness.

Temperance.

I need to be chastened severely if that's what it takes for me to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness.  Not only do I need to be chastened, I need to LEARN from that chastening experience. It does us NO good to be chastened only to revert to the very thing that caused our chastening in the first place. We are NOT exercised by the chastening if we succumb readily to our old ways. It's a fight, a fight to yield to our Savior. It's a battle to wage if we are to be God's.  Satan will NEVER stop trying to make us his, never, not for a moment. And if we are standing in our Spiritual armor given to us by the Holy Spirit, we will prevail against Satan through the GRACE of our SAVIOR. 

We would be loving!

We would be joyful!

We would be peaceful!

We would be longsuffering!

We would be gentle!

We would be good!

We would be faithful!

We would be meek!

We would be temperate!

Please, Father, we would yield the fruits of YOUR righteousness! Please live in us! Please chasten us in everyway necessary so we would learn from it and be all YOU would have us be, with You making it possible.

Joh_17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one

Please, Father, please.

Through the give and mercy of our LORD Jesus Christ!

Amen.

Released from demon possession...

Luk 8:35  Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

Imagine.

A lunatic, a known lunatic...

Mar 5:2  And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

Mar 5:3  Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

Mar 5:4  Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

Mar 5:5  And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

This man, this lunatic, this insane, naked, crazy man after encountering Jesus - is clothed and calm- in his right mind.  Surely all the visages of his life of insanity weren't instantly erased, he was recognizable as the same crazy person who dwelled among the tombs. A man who was bound in chains by people, a man who was feared by people, a true monstrosity that many knew enough to stay away from or risk life and limb. A man whose crying night and day, whose cutting of his own flesh with stones, a man in mental and emotional, as well as physical, agony and yet helpless to change.   No others could change him, and he certainly couldn't change himself.

Now we need to IMAGINE this REALITY,  not as some fabled monster story told to scare people, not some fantasy tale meant to incite mystery and excitement. We need to comprehend that Jesus rid the man of DEMONS, demons possessing him, controlling him, abusing him. Why was that man filled with demons? I have no clue. But we do know he was and people tried their best to get him under control over the years without any success. The man possessed strength beyond human ability, the demons in him able to break chains.  The man was FREED of this possession and instantly calm. He was still recognizable to the people but he'd been changed severely.

What did it mean to have a MAN who could release another man from demon possession? Yes, the Jewish people knew about exorcising demons, they had exorcists, they comprehended demon possession. Yet here comes a man, an ordinary man who had no intense learning in the temple, he wasn't a man of priestly lineage.  He wasn't a scribe, he wasn't a priest as the Jewish people- His people- knew the priests to be, yet he was casting our demons!  He had POWER, power that only those of God were supposed to have. His power was extraordinary beyond anything that  anyone had ever seen. They hadn't seen it before but they knew the stories, the true stories of their historical ancestors, men and women of God that had walked with God in His power performing powerful acts by His grace. They had historical figures to believe in but here and now there was a man of God unlike any before and he was working miracles such as they never imagined possible. 

Do WE believe in a miracle working God? Is Jesus just a historical figure we look to in the past without expecting anything more? Our Savior came with a message, the message of salvation, of eternal life. Our Savior want s us to live in Him and let Him live in us, working through us by the Holy Spirit as a REALITY, not some unrealistic fantasy. God wants us to produce fruit and the only way to do that is by living in Him, really, living in Him.

Please Father! We would live in YOU and YOU in us! Please Father! Please bear fruit through us!  Help us to know You as a reality, to know Your power as a reality!

Please.  All by the grace and mercy of our Savior, our Lord, Jesus Christ, now and forever.

Amen.

The Vine

Can we continue our existence without our Savior?

The answer is… yes, BUT only if you choose to want to exist without Him and only desire to live whatever few days you have until the Lord returns, or you enter the long sleep which will only end in your permanent death, and ultimately your non-existence.

The world is FULL of people who choose to deny Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You wouldn't have to go far in a poll of the people living around you to find one who will say and believe that Jesus Christ is nothing. Either He's a fabricated lie for the weak to grasp, a fable made up by men to control people, He's an ordinary man that was very charismatic,  He was a prophet, but no Son of God, and the list goes on.  Full, the world is FULL of people believing this way.  

When we realize that we are NOT forced to believe in Jesus Christ, but can choose to do so, we are taking a stand for something a lot of people reject.  Don't get me wrong, a lot of people also do believe but more do not, than do. Billions may claim belief, but billions more will deny.

Choosing to believe isn't enough though, because Jesus is going to say to MANY when He returns to bring those who are His home with Him,  that HE DOES NOT KNOW THEM. 

Shocking? It should be! You choose to make a stand and believe in Jesus Christ only to find out He doesn't know you and you are not going to heaven where He's prepared a place for those who are His. 

How can we know- He knows us?

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

We have to LIVE IN CHRIST. LIVE IN CHRIST! 

Every breath we take must belong to Him. Every thought we think must belong to Him. There is NOTHING in our lives we can hide from our Savior, not a single thing and we mustn't even try to hide anything!  And when we realize that we don't set Jesus aside and pick Him up when we pray, or worship for an hour or two, we know that He is everything!  How can He know anyone who chooses to believe in Him and love Him at their own convenience?

Can a single branch come into existence without a vine?  People will say that a branch can be broken off a vine and still live and thrive, only to grow into a vine all it's own and that's true, however a branch needs to EXIST first to be broken off.

With JESUS being our vine and we being the branches upon the vine we are safest abiding in HIM. We dare not risk being lopped off and grafted back on, because NO branch grown on it's own after being broken from the vine will ever be a part of the vine again easily, if ever.  This analogy can be taken in many different directions but what our Savior is telling us is that we have to LIVE in HIM if we will bear any fruit. WITHOUT our SAVIOR WE CAN DO NOTHING that truly matters. If we are not bringing glory to God but to ourselves or others, it's empty, it's void of real meaning no matter how it appears on the outside.

All the humanitarian efforts by any one, done outside of Christ are facades even if they appear to be marvelous.  Those who deny God and yet seem to be the kindest, best, big-hearted people are mere puppets of Satan to deceive, to steal eternity.  And my just saying this could have many outraged because to them it proves God is not a God of love when He doesn't accept all without exception no matter who they believe in or if they believe in anyone.  The thing is, God will accept those who have FAITH in HIM, but how can He force Himself on those who have no faith and desire no faith in Him?  He will force NO ONE!

We can be a branch on the Vine, we can abide in the Vine and produce fruit, fruit the Vine allows us to produce.  Fruit ONLY survives on the vine. If you take the fruit off the vine before it is fully fruit, if you pluck the flower that will turn into the fruit, it will never be fruit.  We must remain upon the Vine that is Christ and live in HIM in all things so we through HIM will produce what He needs us to produce for Him.

Please, Father, please bless us in YOU. Help us to be branches upon the Vine that is Christ and through the Spirit produce the fruit You desire.

Bless us, keep us, forgive us, love us, know us!

All through Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior!

Amen.