Deny Ourselves, Truly, Deny Ourselves

Luk_9:23  And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

DENY OURSELVES if we would follow our SAVIOR.

I've studied this before and I'll study it again and again, and again. Why? Because I need to.

Just today I had a bit of a self-revelation. My selfishness is WORSE than I ever imagined.  I grew up self focused in a bad way. Maybe a lot of us do. We tend to take the stings of bullying to the heart as children and because we are too young to make sense of things as an adult can we internalize this and it shapes our self-view. We, as children, tend to believe what the bullies say- even it it's not true. And the bullies don't have to be strangers- some of us have family members who bully us, people who are supposed to love us and watch out for us. Anyway, I 'm not going to talk about bullying or make excuses, I'm just trying to comprehend the origin of my extreme selfishness or at least the part of it I was enlightened about today.  I focus on myself and my appearance way too much. And while you might say we all do, I say… you could be right, I don't know I just know me- a little bit anyway. I let my appearance govern my life. I don't want attention from anyone because I believe the attention will be negative, because I see only negative.  So, I look at myself and concentrate on myself and my flaws and they consume me. THIS IS SELFISHNESS. I am self focused! Far from denying myself- I look at myself and hold myself up to the standards of the world.  I am flawed, extremely flawed. I live my life constantly wanting to fix some of these flaws so much so it's a daily desire and a daily failing, and when it's not a daily failing it's a daily self chastisement for the self congratulating for not failing. Such a vicious circle and it revolves around me which it shouldn't. 

As Christ followers we are to DENY OURSELVES- and we are to LOVE GOD and LOVE OTHERS, not develop some warped self-love that we justify by saying something like we can't love others unless we love ourselves. The truth is, we are to TREAT  others- LOVE others- as WE DESIRE to be loved.  We are not to love ourselves in the way so many think we should. We are lovable ONLY through CHRIST'S love not some love we manufacture.

We truly do need to deny ourselves and ALL that means. We can't keep focusing on ourselves- our feelings, our looks, our everything and start FOCUSING on GOD and OTHERS. The time we spend wrapped up in self goes beyond being stingy with our money, or our time, or our services.  Please God, help me to deny myself DAILY and put YOU FIRST, and put OTHERS FIRST. Please, LORD through the HOLY SPIRIT and by the grace and mercy of Your Son, Jesus Christ our LORD now and forever.

Amen.

War a Good Warfare

2Co 10:3  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

2Co 10:4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

2Co 10:5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ

The weapons of our warfare.

Weapons- not physical.

Weapons- mighty through God- mighty enough to pull down strong holds.

Weapons- not physical.

Weapons- that can cast down imaginations.

Weapons- that can cast down every high that that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

Weapons- that can bring into captivity EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of Christ.

2Co 6:7  By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left

Armor of righteousness.

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Yield unto God.

Instruments of righteousness unto God.

Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Armor of light.

Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints

1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

Breastplate of FAITH and LOVE.

Helmet the HOPE of SALVATION.

1Ti 1:18  This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare

War a good warfare.

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

We are - EARTHERN VESSELS.

The POWER is GOD'S NOT US.

1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

I can't tell you how faith stands- I have NO wisdom to do so. It's in God's power that faith stands not ours.

1Pe 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

1Pe 1:23  Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

1Pe 1:24  For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

1Pe 1:25  But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

Obeying the TRUTH THROUGH the SPIRIT- to UNFEIGNED LOVE of others.

Born again by the WORD of GOD.

Man withers away, God is forever and only though God do we have hope found in the gospel of truth.

Truly we do NOT war after the flesh.  The spiritual warfare is the true fight.

May God bless us and keep us IN HIM as we war!

Help us, keep us, know us!

By YOUR GRACE!

There are sacrifices to be made

Psa 51:6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 

Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

Psa 51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 

Psa 51:9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 

Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 

Psa 51:11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 

Psa 51:12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 

Psa 51:13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 

Psa 51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 

Psa 51:15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 

Psa 51:16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 

Psa 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

*******

Mar 12:33  And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Heb 13:16  But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

1Pe 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

*******

There ARE sacrifices to be made… BY US.

This is truth!

Our bodies are a LIVING sacrifice. We are NOT to be conformed to the world. Our minds are to be RENEWED.

We are to DO GOOD.

We are to COMMUNICATE.

These are SACRIFICES we are to make.

SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES.

When we are told that sacrifices ended with Christ's, blood sacrifices did end.  Blood sacrifices are NOT what our God wants.

God wants us to sacrifice SELFISHNESS!

How do we do this?

Speaking from personal experience my own selfishness is a HUGE, GIGANTIC obstacle, a demon clinging to me that I can't seem to shed. Every time I turn around there it is shaming me.  So how we do this I'm not entirely sure. I need to study and pray more about this because as I submit this to Christ and ask Him to do for me what I cannot, I can ONLY HOPE this is what I need to do.  There is a song with lyrics that say 'rid me of myself' and this is my prayer, rid me of myself!

More tomorrow by the grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ our Righteousness now and forever! He is all we cannot be!

Amen.

Our Journey to an Earth Made New

Isa 11:6  The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.

Isa 11:7  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

Isa 11:8  And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.

Isa 11:9  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

We are strangers and pilgrims here upon the Earth. We may have been born upon the Earth, but our home is heavenly. The Earth upon which we all have been born, all except Adam and Eve, is a corrupt Earth. This world is twisted and stained by sin.

Most of all we see was NOT how God intended things to be. The workings of man, plant, animal, minerals etc are all touched by the sin that entered the world. There was a ripple of change through all the earth when sin was first committed. The light of God's righteousness that clothed the first human pair was removed but that wasn't the only change.   Just as instantaneously the world and all that in it was called into being over the course of six days, things were instantaneously altered to accommodate the corrupt world.

We have to realize that we went from beings formed to live eternally, to beings given a life span- a beginning and an end. The world around the first sinners was completely changed.  The lion we read about in the above verse was not created to eat flesh, but was changed.  While it's extremely hard for us to imagine a world where a lion was never a predator, we have to realize the truth that the lion was NOT created a predator but changed as a result of man's sinning. The lion will again one day not be a predator, just as every single creature that is known to be deadly or pain inducing by any means will have that changed about them and they will once again be changed to the creatures they were intended to be.

Sin's evidence is all around us in many ways. In every instance of selfishness whether it is being expressed through anger, tears, joy, ecstasy  and the entire spectrum between the two-is evidence of sin. Every single pain we feel whether the pain of childbirth, or the pain of torture, or the tiny prick of a pin- they are all a result of sin. We were not meant to feel pain.  Every anxious thought, every worry, every bit of confusion we experience is a result of sin's entrance into our world. Sin is the origin of all the evil on Earth.

When we fail to recognize that this world is sin sickened and we live among all the sin sickness we fail to comprehend that there is something MUCH better promised to us! We are promised a sin-free world, a NEW EARTH!

In science fiction movies we've seen people set out on a mission to find a better planet to live upon as earth dies and all its people are in jeopardy- there quite a few of these types of movies.  The truth is we are all on a JOURNEY- not out into outer space on a space ship, but on this sin sick earth. We are journeying towards an earth made new! We aren't searching the dark depths of outer space for a worthy planet, but rather we are searching this dark earth for a Savior and the good news is- He's been found! We are now awaiting His return, trusting that the many, many years we have been here waiting for His return have been for a perfect reason, in His perfect plan, and one day we will comprehend it all.  So while we are stuck on this ship orbiting the perfect planet, awaiting the command to descend, we must live our lives as the Savior has instructed us to do so.

There are those who would have us give up all hope. There are those who call us fools for our beliefs. There are those who believe they have a better plan to follow.  There are well intentioned, very wonderful, very kind-hearted people who would have us believe that good is evil and evil is good. We must hold fast to the truth found in the Creator, the Redeemer- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit's- word to us.  The truth revealed to us as God's laws are written upon our hearts!

Heb 8:10  For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people

People will hardened their hearts and God will allow this as their right to choose. People will desire blindness and God will allow this as well. People will not want to hear and God will allow them to be deaf.  Choosing self over God we choose to allow ourselves to be led astray by any means necessary to that end. 

Please Father in heaven, please write Your laws upon my heart. Please, let me forever and always choose You over myself. Please Father, I would inherit the new earth promised all through the hope I have in Your Son, Jesus Christ who died so I could live and have that hope.  Please Father, know me and let me know You as You will. Forgive me and help me to forgive others as You would have be forgive them- as You forgive. Guide me every day, Father, please, let Your will be done in our lives. And tonight Father, I ask a special blessing upon Kurt and His family as they mourn the loss of their beloved father, Sal. Please Father, lead them to You and help them to be held by You. Please Father, a special, special blessing for Norma during all of this as she suffers her own torments on top of this tragedy.

Thank you, Father!   In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord!

Amen!

The ministration of righteousness

2Co 3:9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

Truly when the moral ten commandments were given they were given as a blessing to God's people. God who rescued His people from SLAVERY through miraculous means, truly miraculous means. God who revealed His love for those who would be His, revealed His glory to them.  The ten moral laws meant to be a standard, meant to be a revelation of God's love to be kept out of love for Him, to reveal OUR willingness to understand His love, were truly a part of the ministration of condemnation.   The moral ten commandments reveal the truth of our inability to obey perfectly.  We might go through our entire lives never murdering anyone, never committing adultery, never stealing, never putting another before God, etc, but we will never go through our entire lives without breaking at least one of those commandments whichever it may be. Some of us will go through life breaking many of the commandments unfortunately.   The fact is the law was kept only perfectly and completely by one human being and that human being was Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, God in the flesh, God who divested Himself of His divinity to become fully and wholly human. When the law was kept perfectly by Jesus Christ, God with us, His grace became fully and wholly available to all who choose to believe in His grace, His ability to save us.  It is Christ's righteousness and the ministration of Christ's righteousness that exceeds in glory.  The revelation of the love of God given in the ten moral laws reveal the glory of God, the revelation of the love of God given in the sacrifice of our Savior reveals the exceeding glory in the love of the law.  God is love, and if we love God we keep His commandments because we realize they too are the revelation of love. When we fail to see the love in the law we fail to see the glory of God. All too often we truly fail to see the love in the law and instead we just see restrictions, we just see our own failures. And we need to see our failures to see His glory. He is our GOD, He is our EVERYTHING, He is  all we need.

Too many would have us believe that the law - the moral ten commandments were done away with as if they were no longer important- they fail to see the love in that law, the law our Savior kept.

Logic tells us that to sin or be a sinner we must be doing something. If there is no defining sin then no one sins and we know that isn't true. We know there is a great wrongness in our world and that wrongness comes from somewhere. We know that the word of God defines sin the transgression of the law.  The law was defined clearly for us in the ten moral commandments given by God to His people so they'd know what they were doing, how they were transgressing by not keeping that law.

When the Savior came- He came and kept the law perfectly and He did so while showing His love.  If you believe in Christ then you must believe in the laws He kept perfectly. You must believe He revealed their LOVE perfectly.

1Jn_3:4  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

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

Mat_5:17  Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

Jesus came to prove the law was GOOD, not to DESTROY the law. Clearly He would have told us if He was abolishing or changing the moral law of God. He told those who were keeping the law that they were doing good!  He told people to go and sin no more and what is sinning? Transgressing the law. If Jesus were doing away with the law then there would be no sin to do no more.

The glory of the law of condemnation was amazing but our Savior KEEPING that law perfectly was exceedingly glorious!

May God bless us, and keep us IN HIM in the love of HIM who kept the LAW perfectly.  All in His glorious love!

Amen.

The letter kills, the Spirit gives life

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

2Co 3:6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life

The letter kills.  Truly the commandments without grace offer only death to us.  The grace of God is found in sacrifice- in the old testament an animal sacrifice was made, in the new testament our Savior's sacrifice was made.  Christ is the true sacrifice the ultimate sacrifice that ALL the former sacrifices pointed towards.

The LETTER of the law reveals our sin.  The LETTER of the law reveals God's love.  These are TRUTHS.

Without the revelation of our sin we cannot seek forgiveness.  The law reveals the reasons we are separated from God- the sins that separate us from God. The law reveals our inability to reunite ourselves to God. The law reveals we need a SAVIOR to reunite us. The law reveals perfection, a perfection we cannot attain in our sinful selves.

The Spirit gives us life.  Our Savior gives us life through the Spirit! Our hope is in the Spirit.  We cannot have eternal life without the Spirit. We can put on some façade of being able to keep all the commandments and pat ourselves on the back each day we have a 'good' day and do everything we believe God would have us do. We can pretend all we want that it is US who saves us, but it's living a LIE.

If we believe that keeping the commandments saves us then we are LOST. If we believe the our Savior's sacrifice saves us, then we have life.  We will keep the commandments out of LOVE for our Savior, not because we believe the commandments will save us, they won't.  We do for love what we know love desires.  Will we be able to keep the law? No, but if our spirit is willing even though our flesh is weak we must with our mind desire to keep the law of love in the spirit that it was given and revealed to us by our SAVIOR.

Please Father, please keep us in YOU, in the love of our SAVIOR! 

By Your GRACE and MERCY, YOUR LOVE!

Amen.

Our days have evil in them

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Our days have evil in them. 

This word evil from Matt. 6:34- definition-

G2549

kakia

kak-ee'-ah

From G2556; badness, that is, (subjectively) depravity, or (actively) malignity, or (passively) trouble: - evil, malice (-iousness), naughtiness, wickedness.

Badness.

Depravity.

Malignity.

Trouble.

Malice.

Naughtiness.

Wickedness.

Mat 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Each day has its own evils.  We don't like to think about the day having evils but it does and lots of them. While we worry about the future we forget we are in a war surrounded by evils that would take from us our Savior.  Those evils chips away at our faith, and when we lose faith we have no hope and without hope we have no life with our Savior.

We have to submit to our Savior, to the Holy Spirit who will give us all we need to be faithful to our God.

Each day has enough evils without borrowing them from the future, seriously every day has its troubles. We can't know that today's troubles will not be resolved. While we're busy worrying about the future we are worrying about unknown troubles, unknown evils.  There is truly enough to worry about in each day. We don't even know if we'll have life tomorrow, none of us knows. 

Do we believe there is enough evil in one day? 

We should.

And should we take one day at a time? 

Yes, we should.

But… there are things in life that need planning, I know I can't live without planning. There are dr. appts already schedule in June and it's only May. There are deadlines for things that are months away.  Taking one day at a time doesn't mean you stop making plans and having deadlines, it means each day is going to have it's evils, and we shouldn't borrow on the evils of tomorrow because they may or may not exist then and worrying about them will not change things.

My husband has this sort of living down pat, he's been this way all his life and as a worrier I find it strange and incomprehensible.  But God would have us comprehend and by our LORD'S grace and through Him I hope this will be possible.

All in HIS love!

Amen.