Jesus is the author of eternal salvation unto all who obey him.

Luk 11:23  He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.

Luk 9:49  And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us.

Luk 9:50  And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us.

Jesus KNEW there would be those who would be AGAINST Him.

Satan was and is against Jesus.

There are many people against Jesus.   Being against Jesus is outright choosing eternal death. 

We choose!  Jesus does NOT force us to follow Him, He does not force us to be for Him.  I would NEVER force anyone to choose Jesus. As soon as someone forces another person to choose who they will follow, they are stripping them of their right to choose on their own, and that's something God gives to them the right o choose on their own.

You will NOT automatically be given eternal life. Eternal life is not a birth right. There is an AUTHOR of eternal life.

Heb 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him

Jesus is the author of eternal salvation unto all who obey him.

NOT, Jesus is the author of eternal salvation and gives it to everyone who is born.  People want to believe that after they die they will move on to that eternal existence in spirit form. It's a lie. People who believe this say Jesus died and rose so they must die and rise too. But what they forget is Jesus died and remained in the grave. Jesus did NOT ascend into heaven upon death! Why?! Why did He remain in the grave after dying? After His spirit- His breath left Him, after the spear was thrust in His side and He was lowered to the ground lifeless, after He was placed in His death shroud and put in the tomb, after the stone was rolled in front of the tomb opening, why did He not ascend to heaven?!

Joh 20:17  Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

This was AFTER He lay in the tomb, long after He'd breathed His last breath that He spoke these words.

Why?

More on this tomorrow… by the GRACE of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD!

Amen.

Troubled about many things

Luk 10:38  Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.

Luk 10:39  And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.

Luk 10:40  But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.

Luk 10:41  And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:

Luk 10:42  But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

We get caught up in good things, needful things so much so we often lose sight of what's truly important. We begin to believe that we are doing God's work when in truth He wants us to LISTEN to Him, not satisfy our desire to be thought highly of by others.  For in truth wasn't Martha desiring the approval of her ability to be hospitable to those guests in their house? She wanted to be a good hostess, a good provider, a good cook, baker.  Martha was CUMBERED about with MUCH SERVING. She wanted to serve not from a place of humbleness but from a different place inside her. A place that is caught up in things not conducive to treasures she could lay up in heaven, the only treasures we can possess which can never be taken from us.

Jesus told Martha-  'Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.'

Are we careful and troubled about many things? 

Martha INVITED Jesus into her house!  She wasn't barged in upon, she wasn't forced to serve Jesus. Martha invited Him willingly, she wanted Him in her house, but perhaps she wanted the notoriety of having Him there.  No, she wasn't said to be a bad person, but rather careful and troubled about things.  She did want Jesus in her house, she did want to serve Him but she wanted Him to notice her hard work for Him. She was careful about serving Him, about being a good provider. She was troubled that she wasn't doing enough. She wanted help so she could do better. She wanted her sister to stop sitting about and help. But her sister wasn't just sitting about she was learning, she was listening, she was taking in eternal truths and not concerned with the temporal things. 

Are we so caught up in temporal things we neglect the eternal? We have to ask ourselves this and do it often because Satan will change tactics and trick us as often as he can to keep us from God. Satan will make us believe we are doing God's work when in truth we are doing work that separates us from God by filling us with pride in our own works.

Please Lord, we would be like Mary and seek the eternal, not be troubled about many things, help us, bless us, keep us in you!

All through the power of our Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen. 

How do you worship God?

Satan to Jesus-

Mat_4:9  ….. All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Mat_4:10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

Fall down. Where was Satan asking Jesus to fall down? Before him, right? Satan wanted Jesus in subjection to Him. Isn't that was falling down symbolizes? Submission.  If I were to fall down before someone in a very deliberate manner...if I prostrate myself before someone why, what could I possibly be doing that for? It's a strange thing to do, yes?  In our modern world it is a VERY strange thing to do. Most of our dignitaries today shake hands as a sign of respect to each other. When meeting a dignitary, as a rule, we just do NOT fall down before them.  In some cultures people do bow to one another, they curtsey, the lower their eyes, there are different signs of respect we give. We do not submit ourselves to these people though.  We do NOT give over our lives to these people.  We do not worship them. Satan told Jesus to fall down AND worship him.  What exactly was Satan asking Jesus to do by falling down and worshipping him?  He wanted Jesus to submit to Himself to him. He wanted Jesus to show him honor, glory, adoration as a superior being.  Is it any wonder we are to ONLY worship God and no other. If we worship any other we are giving them God's rightful place.  No other created us! No other loves us!  A lot of others will pretend they love us and even created us, there are many deceptive gods out there.  Only God created us and those who do not believe this will one day very sadly realize their lack of faith destroyed them.  

We are to SERVE God. In worshiping God we are serving Him.

How many times in the Bible do we read about people and other gods, worshipping idols and false gods, bowing down to them, sacrificing to these strange gods? A  lot, we read about it a lot. Worship is choosing to serve, to honor, to glorify what you are worshipping. There is no sense in saying you worship something if you have nothing to do with that something, right?  How ludicrous would it be to say I worship pizza, but I never eat it, never have anything to do with it. Would that make any sense at all? Where is the worship?  Worship is an activity, it's not a word void of meaning.  If I worship pizza I would love it, I would eat it, I would talk about it, everyone would know of this love for pizza if I truly worshipped pizza. If I worship the ground someone walks upon as the saying goes, what am I doing? I'm adoring that person, yes?

Do we worship God, really worship Him? Do we set time aside for Him specifically? Do we adore Him? How do we reveal our adoration? How do we serve Him?  We need to think about these things.

Our God commands us to set aside a full day in which we are to REST from all our own comings and goings so we can focus on the realization that the day set aside has been made holy, has been blessed by the God we are to worship, the God who created us. We MUST never forget we are CREATURES.  We are creatures and our Creator created us out of love.

How do you worship God?

How should we worship God?

In song? In prayer? In writing? In praying? In contemplation?  How?

By the grace of God may we WORSHIP Him as He would have us worship Him, teaching us to worshipping Him as we should.

Please Father, teach us.

In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ and the love you both have for us. Please let the Holy Spirit guide us in worship of You!

Amen.

What manner of spirit are you?

What manner of spirit are you?

Luk 9:51  And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,

Luk 9:52  And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.

Luk 9:53  And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

Luk 9:54  And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?

Luk 9:55  But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

Luk 9:56  For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

Our Savior REBUKED His disciples when they asked Him if they should command fire to come down from heaven and consume the Samaritans because they wouldn't make themselves ready for Jesus, they knew Jesus wanted to go on to Jerusalem so why would they bother to honor Him? Was that worthy of rebuke? Yes, but not DEATH! Our Savior did NOT want death even for His worst enemies, let alone those who were too lazy to honor Him because they were not in His final destination.  Our Savior REBUKED His disciples-

Ye know NOT what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is NOT come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

His disciples were closest to Jesus and here He was teaching them that their spirit was NOT His! They had a different spirit in them contrary to Jesus' spirit.  He told them they didn't know what their OWN spirit was.  Jesus knew their spirit was NOT His and if not His He knew the only other spirit it could be- Satan's.   Jesus wanted His disciples to have HIS spirit, not satan's. Jesus revealed His spirit in all that He did including this-

For the Son of Man is NOT come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

Jesus did not want to destroy anyone, and if we are HIS we must not want to destroy anyone either.  The spirit of destruction when you have the chance to reveal the spirit of Christ and salvation through Him, is not Christ's way. Only when all probation is up and every human being has had a chance to choose salvation or no salvation will Christ allow all evil to be destroyed and NOT before then.

We need to know what manner of spirit we have.

Please heavenly Father, please help us to have YOUR SPIRIT in us! We don't want the spirit of destruction. All in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Worship Believe

Jer 29:13  And ye shall SEEK ME, and FIND ME, when ye shall SEARCH FOR ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART.

Searching for something with all your heart.  What does this mean to you? What do you do when you search for something in general, without your heart being involved? 

If you search for a pair of socks chances are you're going to find them in your sock drawer or the laundry, or maybe even a store. You know where to look for what you're searching. If you search for something less tangible like love, happiness, and the like there is no store to buy those things at, they don't reside in a drawer or a washing machine.  How do you search for love?  You seek another person with whom you're compatible and you choose to love. You commit to that person. We fall out of love with people when we no longer commit to them.  Is it any wonder our Savior told us to love our enemies? He knew that love is a choice and we can choose to love those that despitefully use us, even the loved ones that hurt us the most sometimes.

When we search for love we can find it, if we choose to live love. If you're looking for happiness, again, your definition of happiness depends on what makes you happy and God's word tells us about happiness-

Pro_3:13  Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

Joh 13:15  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

Joh 13:16  Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

Joh 13:17  If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

If we count happiness in sinful things, we don't know true happiness at all.

But we are talking about searching for God with all our heart and how we do that.

We pray- we communicate with God. He is REAL, and we must know that He is real, live as He is real. He needs us to communicate with Him.  If we are searching for Him with all our hearts then we will talk to Him as we search. We will do ALL we can to live as He would have us live and HE tells us in His word how that is. 

Our whole duty is to believe in God, this is our WORK-

Joh_6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

How can you WORSHIP God without believing in Him, fully, wholly believe in Him? And if you do believe in Him, you must worship Him- you must make that belief REAL!

And that belief will be real if you LIVE in Him- truly worshipping Him constantly, not just once in awhile.  Worshipping God by BEING with GOD- having God with you in ALL YOU DO! Seriously, with ALL YOU DO.

Please, Father in Heave, help us WORSHIP You, seeking You with ALL our hearts, Believing in You fully! Your righteousness, not ours!

All in the name of Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ!

Amen.

Searching for God With All Our Hearts- This Is Worship

Worship-  How do you give God your attention?

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, SAITH THE LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

Jer 29:12  Then shall ye CALL UPON ME, and ye shall go and PRAY UNTO ME, and I will hearken unto you.

Jer 29:13  And ye shall SEEK ME, and FIND ME, when ye shall SEARCH FOR ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART.

We must call upon God.

We must pray unto God.

We must seek God and find Him by SEARCH for GOD with ALL OUR HEART.

As I asked yesterday, can you worship something without giving it your attention? The answer is a resounding NO!

If we are searching for God with all our heart then we are a most assuredly giving God our attention- this is a form of WORSHIP.

We've been duped into thinking that worship is spending time simply listening to someone speak about God for an hour. We actually call it the Worship Hour.  And I'm NOT saying it's NOT worship, it very well could be true worship, but if that's ALL the attention we're giving God- an hour of worship- then we are NOT really worshipping Him at all, we're pretending and most likely deceiving ourselves into believing it's acceptable. It's not acceptable.

How often should you worship God? Should you truly only worship for a single hour every week?

Mat_2:2  Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

The three wise men from the east who came to see the newly born Savior went to WORSHIP Him. Did they wait for the worship hour? No. And I'm not being facetious, I mean it. The Jewish people worshipped at the temple on the Sabbath weekly. It's quite possible that some people only worshipped then- like the worship hour today, I don't know.  I do know they set the ENTIRE day aside for God, a FULL day to honor Him and going to the temple or synagogues to hear the word of God was only a small part of that day of worship.  Going back to the wise men, they didn't wait for the Sabbath, and they didn't wait for a worship hour, they went to the Savior expressly to worship Him and worship Him they did. They gave Him their FULL attention! They honored Him!

More tomorrow on this, by the grace of our GOD!

 In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Do you give God attention?

Jealous for our own good.

Exo 34:14  For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

God WANTS us. And why wouldn't He, He CREATED US. We are the WORKS of HIS hands and no others.

We understand on a human level what it means to be jealous over something we've created. We do not want others to take credit for our creations. Worse still, we don't want others to take something we love, truly love and destroy it.  Satan destroys us human being, that is his greatest purpose, to destroy God's creations.  God wants us! God is jealous for us! God does NOT want us to worship any other god, NOT because He wants to deprive us of a single thing! He wants to SAVE US!

We are to WORSHIP no other god but GOD.  We are to give God our ALLIGENCE, our LOVE, our ATTENTION.  Can you worship something without giving it attention?

Seriously, can you worship something- anything, without giving it attention?

No.

If you worship something or someone you give it time and quite frankly, a lot of it or you lie. 

You can lie to others, you can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to God.

Is your worship real? Or do you mouth the words? Do you play act your worship?

Do you give God attention?

By the grace of God may we truly give God attention- may we truly worship God and NO OTHERS!

All in the name of our Savior- Jesus Christ!

Amen.