This our success....

A new heart.

A new spirit.

We are to be receptacles of ALL that will enable us to be God's.

This include receiving a new heart and a new spirit.

Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

A car engine does not produce oil, you must add oil to that engine. Take all the oil out of the car and you're left with a hunk of useless metal that might be good for spare parts, or a non-moving, eventually rusting and empty shell that could be used for all sorts of things other than what it was intended to be used for. 

There is no doubt in my mind a person could find many uses for a non-moving vehicle. Some could make art sculptures from it. The less fortunate might even convert it to a tiny living space to keep them out of the elements. While we have all probably seen rotting cars as eyesores filling up the yards of people who have refused to have them towed away to a yard full of useless cars, that doesn't mean that's all the non-working car is good for.

Sometimes someone will come along and take a disgusting piece of metal garbage once called a car and they'll painstakingly and lovingly as a hobby restore that car to working condition. In order for that car to ever work again though, oil will have to be reintroduced to it and flow freely to all the place it is needed to keep the engine running smoothly.

Like this attempt at an analogy between the car and the oil it must have in order to work, we, to belong to God, must have His Spirit within us and it's a constant in filling of the Spirit, a constant renewal, just like oil must be checked and replenished in a car.  No, the analogy isn't perfectly matched but you get what I'm saying.

Us human beings can live every day of our lives without the Spirit, but we are just living, breathing, empty husks, we are dead cars turned into something else. We seemingly work but we are NOT working for the purpose we were created to work for.

How many of us have become husks and don't even know that's what we are, and frankly, don't even care?  A shiny well polished, painted and decorated car turned into a fancy restaurant booth has certainly made its new use special and comely, even coveted perhaps by those who would dine in it, but for all that it's serving a new reinvented purpose it is NOT being used for what it had been created to be used for.  Us human beings may be special, lovely, amazing husks of intended human beings, but unless we are being made new, unless we are being given the Spirit of God, we are not living as we were intended to live. 

The lowliest of people living in rags, barely surviving on crumbs and the good will of others, if filled with God's Spirit are living their lives as they were created to live it, more so than the wealthiest person living without the Spirit of God. The measure of success we measure with ia NOT the measure of success God measures with.  We measure success so differently that it's hard for us to truly imagine any thing else. To say a poor, homeless widow is closer to God than the Pastor of a mega church seems ludicrous but it's closer to being true than anyone really wants to admit.

How do we measure our success as human beings? It truly does depend on whether or not you are living contently as an empty husk void of God's Spirit, or seeking to be made new and given a new heart, and a new spirit.  Empty husks strive for material success and look at the world with the same standard, labelling successes those who have money enough to afford a good home, car, etc, etc, etc.  We don't call those struggling to make ends meet a success, we label them inferior.

God wants to give us a new heart and a new spirit--

Eze 36:26  A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

Eze 36:27  And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

This is our success-- being given a new heart, and a new spirit. 

This is our success- having God's spirit within us causing us to walk in God's ways.

We do not find success on our own, not spiritual success, not true success as the human beings we were created to be.

Don't we need the stony hearts taken out of us?

2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

2Co 3:4  And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

2Co 3:5  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God

Our sufficiency truly is of GOD and GOD ALONE.

In His GRACE! In His LOVE ALWAYS!

Amen!!!!

This world is Un-fixable by human might and power.

Zec 4:6  ... Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Might and power- two things people wield to gain control of other people and situations. Those who gain might and power and get others with might and power to follow them are often people of great influence over others and they've won wars throughout history this way. They've won wars, leadership positions, marriages, you name it, the earthly treasures are at their fingertips. Is it any wonder people are often lustful for such power- for riches, power and might?  People want to live their lives comfortably  without excessive worry. People want to have their needs taken care of and to throw in a little extra for comfort.  People here in the western world live lives of extreme ease compared to those who suffer, and scrounge just to survive.  We know this, but it doesn't stop our excessive desire for comfort, for material security and ease.  We believe that money will take care of all that worry for security and ease, and I'd be lying to say money doesn't offer a certain degree of assurance that our earthly needs are taken care of.

Might and power give riches and security on an earthly physical level and people seek this often above everything else.

'Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.' 

Yes, might and power have done many things but ultimately it truly is only BY the Spirit of the Lord that we have the greatest success in life- and that success is the  assurance of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Nothing else, no matter what it is, matters if we forfeit eternal life. This is truth.

You can have ALL the might and power the world has to offer and it will NOT give you eternal life.

Even with all the might and power the world has to offer there is one thing you still have to do, you have to live in this world KNOWING all your might and power cannot bring  peace to everyone in the world. All your might, power, influence, money cannot rid the world of evil and all it's affects.

This world is UNFIXABLE by human might and power.

However, the Spirit of the LORD alone has guaranteed us HOPE for a world made new. This world will only be made new AFTER all evil is destroyed and that is something mankind can never do, destroy evil. It can barely contain a tiny portion of the evil that exists, and that containment is only achieved by the creation of an even more evil place- concentrated evil with just tiny bits of supposed non-evil to control the evil.  No, mankind cannot and NEVER will be able to rid the world of evil, it's an impossibility. Mankind has no control over the spiritual realm beyond choosing to believe in God over Evil. Once we choose the spiritual side we wish to be on, the battle ensues and our choice must be renewed daily as it is tested, tried, and tormented. 

The battle has been WON.

It's which side YOU choose to be on that remains.

Satan will stop at nothing to bring you to his side, and God stopped at NOTHING to bring you to His- sacrificing His only begotten Son for us.

Will we through the Spirit choose God? Or will we choose Satan?

Not by might.

Not by power.

But by God's Spirit!

Amen!

Constant Spiritual Assault

Cares of this world.

Deceitfulness of riches.

The Lust of other things.

Enduring for a time, then giving up.

Affliction, persecution arising.

Satan instantly distracting.

Who among us can say we aren't susceptible to such as these?

Constantly we are bombarded by things that would steal the Word of God from us!

CONSTANT SPIRITUAL ASSAULT, this is the life of one who belongs to Christ Jesus, our Savior.

Our Savior would have His WORD of truth go to all! 

Yet as soon as His word touches the heart and the conversion begins Satan is right there doing all he can to stop that conversion. Satan does NOT want a single person to be converted, not a single one.

In the world of eternal life there is not ONE single person who is more important to God than another.  Likewise, there is not a single person on earth that is more important to Satan than another.  God and Satan want all of us, a single person is the same to them as any other person as far as eternal importance.  It is only US here on earth, us human beings who place more importance upon one person than another.

Before you start talking about God's prophets- His chosen- realize this- those who are His chosen are those who chose to belong to Him, their hearts belonged to God, not to themselves, by their choice. None were FORCED to be His. 

To Satan the richest person is a notch in his belt just the same as the poorest if they choose to be his, not God's.

To God, the richest and the poorest doesn't matter, their choosing to be His is all that matters.

You and I will face ALL manner of situations and each one will be geared towards luring us from God.   As long as we keep living, learning, loving the truth the Word of God, through all those situations, we will remain God's. It's when we are drawn away from the Word of God that we falter, and fall.

Please FATHER, keep us in YOUR WORD OF TRUTH letting NOTHING draw us away, not a single thing!  All through our SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD.

Mar 4:3  Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

Mar 4:4  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

Mar 4:5  And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:

Mar 4:6  But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

Mar 4:7  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

Mar 4:8  And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.

Mar 4:9  And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Mar 4:10  And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.

Mar 4:11  And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

Mar 4:12  That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.

Mar 4:13  And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?

Mar 4:14  The sower soweth the word.

Mar 4:15  And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.

Mar 4:16  And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;

Mar 4:17  And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.

Mar 4:18  And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,

Mar 4:19  And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

Mar 4:20  And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

*******

Overwhelmed Spirit

Psa 143:4  Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

Such emotion.  Being God's is NOT easy.  Being God's means opening up yourself as fair game to Satan and all his evil followers- angels and humans.  Being God's paints a spiritual target all over us so that there isn't an inch of us unmarked for all to see that we belong to God.  When we are so spiritually marked you can just imagine how much unwanted attention is focused on us by the evil ones who want to keep us from Christ.  Is it any wonder that one who belongs to God can cry out with David-  My spirit is overwhelmed within me, my heart desolate.

Being a Christian does NOT mean you are guaranteed any sort of happiness, as far as earthly happiness is concerned. Can we as Christians be content and consoled with the promise we are given? We truly are living on a promise for future peace, future happiness.  Here and now we are almost guaranteed a hard life of constant, non-stop spiritual attack.  We aren't promised any lulls in the attacks either, the evil spiritual entities do not ever grow tired of their work. Our only safety is found in our Savior who overcame so we through Him can overcome.

When we are overwhelmed, when our hearts feel desolate, we can still cling tightly to the hope we can only find in Jesus.  Everything around us can fall apart, but we still need to cling to our Savior and the hope He died to ensure we'd have.  The future hope this is our aim, this is the goal we long for, this is the prize we are running our Christian race towards. Many who run races train long and hard, some train years and years for a single race with the aim to win that race. We, as Christians have to run in this spiritual race with the aim to win the race, and the race does not end until our Savior returns, or we enter the long sleep.  Truly it is a race, a long, long, long race we enter when we become Christians.

Are you spiritually overwhelmed?

Is your heart desolate within you?

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

1Pe 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

1Pe 5:10  But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.

1Pe 5:11  To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Amen.

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!