We can become blind

2Pe 3:16  As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

2Pe 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

People WREST the scriptures to their OWN destruction all the time.  Rather than LOVING God and LOVING others they are self seeking.  People can take a child's funny, loving story and twist it until it becomes something awful if they want to.  People can and will do a lot of things, and if they are self-serving that's all they will get from the Word of God more self-serving.  The unlearned, the unstable will take the scriptures and read them with truth-blind eyes. With hearts closed, the understanding is closed.  God's word will NOT be understood by anyone that seeks to understand God's word for self serving reasons, for reasons contrary to God and His love.

We who are blessed with understanding can also become blind.  We aren't guaranteed spiritual sight endlessly any more than we are guaranteed eternal life because we accept Christ once and then no more.  We can have sight, and lose sight.  We have to BEWARE that the wicked will led us into their darkness, into their blindness.  We NEED to GROW in GRACE. We need to GROW in KNOWLEDGE of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST. To GOD be the GLORY now and forever!

If we are NOT growing in grace, if we are NOT growing in knowledge of our SAVIOR then we are in danger of growing away from our God.

We've discussed growing in grace and knowledge of our Savior before, not too long ago, but it bears discussing over and over.

Are we growing in grace-----

-----are we becoming more about love towards others in all our actions?  Or are we stagnant- being who we are and unneedful of change, of growth? Do we stubbornly insist upon remaining who we are because we are unable to be loving as we know we should? Do we want to blame our inability to submit to God, to allow Him to work in us, on our just being who we are?  Do we choose to LIMIT God's ability to change us, to love in us based on our own belief we are who we are- end of story?

This is a war, and war often means fighting the seemingly same battles over and over and over. We don't stop fighting those same battles, we know who the winner is and we fight for the winner knowing we will win the battles through HIS victory. 

We must GROW.

GROW.

By His grace, we will GROW, in HIM we will GROW.  All in HIS LOVE!

Amen.

We choose what to believe

God doesn't deny us eternal life, we deny ourselves eternal life.  God doesn't force us to love Him, we must choose to love Him.

Our history shows that many of our world's leaders demand the love of those around them even when they know demanding that love doesn't make it love at all.  A lot of people in power and money strive for love but never fully trust the love they are getting is real and not just given out of greed.  We all want love. We want someone to care for us and our wellbeing. We have this idea of what love is and we know how often and how much we've not been given, or given that love. We KNOW ourselves and our SELFISHNESS. We know the amazing gift of someone revealing love in unprovoked kindness. There is SO much we do know about ourselves as human beings and we also know that those who live with God cover the same broad spectrum as those who choose to live without God.

Without God you can be kind or cruel.

With God you can be kind or cruel.

Without God you can love or hate.

With God you can love or hate.

You can be a spiteful, selfish, greedy, hurtful Christian and you can be that because you are allowed to call yourself by any name you choose, it doesn't make you a true follower of Christ.  The world is FILLED with people who claim to be things they aren't.  The world is FILLED with incredibly FLAWED human beings and try as they might NO natural born human being has EVER been able to fix the flaws. Some even believe we have to remain flawed endlessly, infinitely into infinity flawed. Some believe that babies need to be born with diseases, sicknesses, deformities- and they say they have to be because humans are flawed and there is no fixing them.

This world is so INCREDIBLY full of diseases, sicknesses, and just when we believe we've cured one another evil rears its ugly head.

This is the world, this is the life that people say there are answers to and perhaps in a billion years things will somehow be fixed and people will live in harmony and there will be no illnesses etc. and no one will have to go through the pain-filled lives we have all had to go through.

These people believe this is all there is to life - this existence we experience and then it is over. These people live without faith, without hope that there exists an end to all pain in their lifetimes.  And God allows them to live this way.  But they don't believe in God. I do believe in God. I believe in hope. I believe in faith. I believe there is so much more than what we experience here and now and I HAVE to believe this because to not believe makes this life senseless, choosing to live in constant pain - emotionally, mentally, physically- and to promote that kind of existence for the future endlessly is truly senseless.

To believe we just came into being haphazardly make no sense at all.

What makes sense to me, doesn't have to make sense to you.  We've been created with the ability to make our own choices, to choose to believe or not to believe. I would NEVER force my beliefs on another, not ever. Any who would force their beliefs on others is not a follower of the Gods I believe in. 

My Gods are God the Father, God the Begotten Son of the Father, and God the Holy Spirit.  Three God who agree as One.

My Gods have given me hope, faith, love in a future free of all that bring heartache and pain now.

Am I delusional? No. But others may choose to believe I am and they're allowed to believe that, I won't try to stop them or convince them otherwise.

We all have to choose what things we believe in, every single one of us chooses even if it's the choice not to believe in anything.

I'm going to keep on praying, keep on hoping, keep on worshiping my Gods all by their grace and mercy, their love, their power.  And if choosing to do this harms no one at all, I hope I'm allowed to continue to believe as I choose. I hope you'll find the love I have found in my Gods, I hope and pray that you all choose eternal life in them.

Joh_14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

1Jn_5:12  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

Joh_3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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. 

His Love, Our Love

Exo_20:6  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

Keep God's commandments.

Joh_14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Why do we believe God's commandments from the Old Testament are contrary to Christ's commandments from the New Testament?

God the Father and God the Son have always been.  God the Son was NEVER not with God the Father.  God the Father did NOT birth God the Son. The Son was God with God until He was declared God the Son.  They have NEVER disagreed with one another, NEVER! Christ did NOT come to earth to tell us that His Father's commandments were wrong and no longer to be kept.  Christ came to earth and revealed the LOVE in each commandment.  The LOVE, HIS LOVE.

Every single one of the TEN commandments is a revelation of God's love.

Yet we view them as restrictive commands that needed to be done away with, why?

Love.

Exo 20:3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (( (We need no other god than our Creator, our Redeemer.))))

Exo 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Exo 20:5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

Exo 20:6  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.  (((We need no *things* to worship, we worship our Creator, our Redeemer.))))

Exo 20:7  Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.  (((We need never use our God's name needlessly. He is holy! He is LOVE!))))

Exo 20:8  Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Exo 20:9  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

Exo 20:10  But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (((We need to forever remember our Creator, our Redeemer.))))

Exo 20:12  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.  (((We need to honor our parents- they gave us life in order for us to love.))))

Exo 20:13  Thou shalt not kill.  (((We should not end anyone's ability to know love, to know God.))))

Exo 20:14  Thou shalt not commit adultery. (((We need not take anyone that is committed to another and we need not break our commitment to anyone.))))

Exo 20:15  Thou shalt not steal. (((We need not take what isn't ours.))))

Exo 20:16  Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.  (((We need not lie about anyone.))))

Exo 20:17  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. (((We need not desire anything that isn't ours.))))

What of those ten commandments is worth doing away with?  Should we not love our Creator, our Redeemer? Should we not keep away from things that would take our love for our Creator, our Redeemer away? Should we not keep from regarding our Creator and Redeemer senselessly? Should we not set aside time for our God, our Creator, our Redeemer? Should we not honor our parents? Should we not keep from taking another's life? Should we not keep from breaking our commitments or the commitments of others? Should we not keep from taking things that don't belong to us? Should we not keep from lying about others? Should we not keep from desiring the things that belong to others to our detriment? 

Tell me, please, which of these is wrong? Which of these should no longer be kept?

Surely the ceremonials laws that pointed to our Savior's sacrifice could be easily done away with once you accept that He fulfilled those laws, but the moral law? What of it did Jesus come to tell us was wrong? How could laws given out of love, laws we are told this about--

Exo_20:6  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

And this--

Joh_14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

-- how could they be something wrong, something bad, something no longer needed?  How? Why? 

Truly, why would it be necessary to no longer need to follow commandments of love?

We love with His love.

He's revealed His love to us in many, many ways.  Why do we want to do away with love's revelation in those commandments because we want to put ourselves first? We would rather put self first and self gets in the way. 

When we tell someone we love them, what exactly do we mean?

We mean we wish them no harm in any way, we wish them no ill will, we hope they'll be happy, we want them to know the love of God and have eternal life through Jesus Christ.  Wait, that might not be what you mean, but it is what I mean. I love them with the love of God, the love that Christ Jesus makes possible for me to love with. My love is so imperfect, I can't love with my love, I have to love with the love of God all by HIS grace and mercy. He, along with His only begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, are pure love we must recognize this and choose to allow them to live in us doing for us what we cannot do.

In the name of the Son, Jesus Christ our Savior!

Amen.

We must live His love

Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 

Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 

Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 

Rom 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 

Rom 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him

*******

Our old man is crucified with Christ.

That old man is dead

In death we are freed from sin-  truly you can no longer sin once you are dead.

If we are dead with Christ- if our old man of sin is crucified with Christ we MUST live with Him.

Newness of life.

This is truth. I have to ask this- is JESUS REAL TO YOU?!

Do you have a REAL relationship with JESUS? 

Do you WALK in NEWNESS of LIFE with JESUS?

What's a relationship with Jesus entail? What's a new life with Jesus mean?

We must live His love.

We must forgive to be forgiven.

We must have no guile.

To do all that we must let HIM do it all in US.

We must CHOOSE Christ.

We must be crucified with Him and we must live with Him.   Self dies, serving sin dies, so we can  live in HIM!

Please LORD save us, help us live in YOU in newness of LIFE!

All in YOUR love!

Spiritual Sustenance

This is the WILL of GOD-

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Joh 6:36  But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.

Joh 6:37  All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

Joh 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 

Joh 6:39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. 

Joh 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word

Everyone who believes in the Savior, Jesus Christ, only begotten Son of God- God in flesh-- the Sustainer of our spiritual life in all ways - will have EVERLASTING LIFE- raised in the last day!  Raised from the grave, or raised from the earth- raised to meet our Savior in the air!

1Th_4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

This is the will of God that we LIVE in CHRIST.

Is it any wonder our Savior would tell us He must be our sustainer?  Is it any wonder our Savior would enact an example of that sustaining for us to follow? 

Jesus is our LIFE!

Every single time we enact the example He left for us to follow we are doing so, admitting to our need of a SAVIOR, our need of a LIFE GIVER, our need to be SAVED by HIM and not ourselves!

We are our NOT own sustainers.

We cannot keep ourselves alive by ourselves physically or spiritually. We must have OUTSIDE sustenance.  The food and drink we consume keeps us alive physically. We must consume something outside ourselves to live! No one disputes this fact, no one. There is not a single person alive who lives without consuming sustenance outside of themselves. Yes, some people are kept alive by being giving intravenous nutrients, but those liquid nutrients are outside of themselves.  And JUST as we can only live physically by consuming outside sustenance, we can ONLY live spiritually by consuming outside sustenance- a spiritual sustenance outside of ourselves!

SPIRITUAL SUSTENANCE!

Spiritual sustenance for our spiritual life.  Why would our Savior want us to have HIS ACTUAL FLESH, He wants us to have His SPIRITUAL flesh, His SPIRITUAL blood!  The bread and the wine are SYMBOLS of the SPIRITUAL, they are not turned into PHYSICAL forms of the actual FLESH and actual BLOOD of our Savior, not in any way!

The SYMBOLIC RITUAL is for our SPIRITUAL LIFE. 

2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Heb_11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

We must be sustained by Jesus Christ our LORD!

When we partake of the symbolic ritual for our spiritual life we are recognizing our SPIRITUAL life, we are recognizing WALKING in the Spirit!  We are making an outward symbolic show of a way of living! This is a LIFE symbol! A Spiritual Life symbol!  We are asking to walk in the Spirit, in the NEWNESS of life!

Rom_6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

We are proclaiming our new life symbolically!

Is it any wonder we should NOT enact this symbolic ritual lightly? If we don't recognize the importance of the ritual of what it's truly symbolic of and what it means to us as we proclaim our new lives then we are making an EMPTY gesture that means absolutely nothing! 

More on this tomorrow by the mercy and grace of our LORD and SAVIOR, Jesus Christ!

Amen!

Never hunger, never thirst- spiritually

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

*******

Jesus is the BREAD of LIFE.

What life?  Can Jesus promise us to never hunger or thirst right now? We all get thirsty and we all get hungry so this can't be the case.

Joh_6:31  Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Joh_6:32  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.

Joh_6:33  For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

Joh_6:34  Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

Joh 6:53  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

Joh 6:54  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

Joh 6:55  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

Joh 6:56  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

Joh 6:57  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

Joh 6:58  This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

Joh 6:60  Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

Joh 6:61  When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?

Joh 6:62  What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Joh 7:37  In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Joh 7:39  (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Luk 22:15  And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:

Luk 22:16  For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

Luk 22:17  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:

Luk 22:18  For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.

Luk 22:19  And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

Luk 22:20  Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

Luk 22:21  But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.

*******

Out of Jesus' belly shall flow rivers of living water.  Is this literal? No. In fact He goes on to say- 'spake he of the Spirit'.

Jesus told thousands of His followers that his flesh and  blood were life. He told them they had to eat His flesh and drink His blood.  His disciples told Him it was hard to understand.   And He answered saying this--

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The words that I speak-- are SPIRIT and they are LIFE.

Jesus did NOT take His REAL flesh and blood and make His disciples eat of it! NEVER!

He took BREAD and WINE and used them as symbols because HE knew mankind would need these symbols. He did NOT make the bread and wine His flesh and blood- He said they are SPIRIT and they are LIFE.  Just as living water did NOT flow from His belly - the SPIRIT- He spoke of the SPIRIT.

These are spiritual words, this is a spiritual message!

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

He is the bread and the wine- we shall not SPIRITUALLY go hungry, we will not SPIRITUALLY be thirsty.

When we symbolically eat bread and drink wine in the ritual Jesus gave us to specifically remember HIM, it wasn't with the intention of us believing we are physically eating and drinking Him, He never intended that, never.  He wanted us to focus on the SPIRITUAL life we must have with HIM, not the FLESH!

More on this tomorrow by the grace of GOD.

All in HIS LOVE!

The Prize

Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Pressing towards the mark-  FOR the prize of the high calling of GOD IN CHRIST JESUS.

The prize.

How often have we sought prizes?  We've grown up playing games with prizes as the reward. We've watched tv programs all geared towards winning prizes.  We go through our lives with various situations with prizes as something fun to receive for games we play.  We even have a huge multi-million, maybe even billion dollar olympics game that is played every four years a summer and winter game that involves many prizes- gold, silver, and bronze.  

Prizes.

When we are born we are automatically a part of the 'RACE', with the 'PRIZE' as our goal.

The RACE- is our lives and the choices we make.

Heb_12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us 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

The RACE that is set before us is our life.  The PRIZE if the RACE is won is ETERNAL LIFE. If the RACE is lost there is NO PRIZE- no ETERNAL LIFE.

Do we PRESS on toward the mark for the PRIZE of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus?

Do we have the PRIZE in mind as we live each and every day of our lives in this race of life?

Is our PRIZE a heavenly prize or are we waiting for earthly prizes? Are we all caught up in earthly rewards?  What price do we pay when we set our sights on earthly treasures, earthly hopes?  Time and time again people get crushed emotionally, mentally and sometimes physically all because their hopes are set solely on earthly rewards.  We are NOT promised ANY earthly treasure! We are only promised that our needs will be met enough to allow us the hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Not that our needs will be met so we don't suffer any hardship. Some are called to suffer great hardship beyond are imaginations, others are called to suffer in a whole different way- the way without material hardships but with the hardship of being attached to those material things. We know that it's harder for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get to heaven. These are TRUTHS!

May our PRIZE be the heavenly prize, the eternal prize of salvation through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!  Please, Father, we would run this life race and be YOURS, guide us to YOU, lead us to YOU through all the horrors that would keep us from You, even the horrors that are disguised as the best things this world has to offer. Help us Father, help our unbelief, help our failure, we would be YOURS through YOU!

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

Amen.