Death to life.

Have you passed from death to life?

1Jn 3:13  Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you.

1Jn 3:14  We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

1Jn 3:16  Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

1Jn 3:17  But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

1Jn 3:18  My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

TRUTH!

Have you passed from death to life?

We can know that we have passed from death to life because we LOVE our fellow man!

I'm not talking about LIKING the bad things others do. I'm not talking about enjoying being with others. I'm not talking about interacting with people other than comprehending a REAL need of another and filling that need out of love.

This is the LOVE of God. 

If God's love for us was based upon His liking what we do, well we'd have been destroyed long, long ago.  Just as we KNOW God does not like when we sin, we don't like when we sin, or others sin, how can we like it?! How can we like when others hurt us and do wrong to us? We, as Christ's, do not like when we are overcome by temptation.   We don't HAVE to like other's sinning -hurting themselves, or hurting others, hurting God in each case.

So liking others is NOT Loving them! It's not!

We have to be willing to LAY down our lives for those we might not even like- this is LOVE.

We have to be willing to HELP others in any way we can even those we do not like.

If we see someone in need and ignore them, we aren't loving them.

IF we choose to NOT love others, then we are choosing death for ourselves.

We must LOVE with the LOVE of GOD, not our own misguided concepts of love.

Please God, please Father, HELP us to love with YOUR LOVE.

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

Amen.

All, every single human being has the potential to be Christ's and we must never forget this!

To believe or not believe- this is our choice, a choice none can make for us.

1Jn 5:10  He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

1Jn 5:11  And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

1Jn 5:12  He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

1Jn 5:13  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

God has given to us ETERNAL LIFE.

ETERNAL LIFE is IN HIS SON.

If WE HAVE the SON- WE HAVE LIFE.

We KNOW WE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

WE BELIEVE on the NAME of the SON OF GOD.

A gift whose value we can never measure- eternal life.

What do you imagine eternal life to be? Another plane of existence similar to how we live now only without sin? Can we truly imagine life without sin?

No lies, not one.

No hate, not any.

No self serving, not a bit.

That last one there… that's the one we have to look at more closely.  No self serving. Imagine, because most of us have to with it not being anything close to a reality for us, imagine putting others first ALWAYS and this being a joy!

Satan wants to destroy us through selfishness and he's mostly succeeded because MOST people consider themselves first before any and all interaction with others.

How do I feel today?  How do I feel about this or that? What do I want to accomplish today? How will that affect me? Does this make me feel good or bad?

And even if we plan on doing things for others, or to accomplish future plans for others these are our plans and if they get interrupted these goals we fashion for ourselves all the time, we feel disturbed, sometimes even upset.  We get upset in our desire to do for others, and that upset is because things aren't going as we plan, as we want them to so we can help.  We focus on ourselves. 

To focus elsewhere is alien to us. How can I care about another more than myself?

Even parents will find themselves being selfish and we call this NORMAL. We normalize everything so we don't have to recognize anything as a fault within us and seek refining through grace and forgiveness. 

We'd rather normalize our faults to pacify our self-serving than face the truth that all of our selfishness is wrong.

Do we have real needs that have to be met? Yes. But we've turned wants into needs and call it good.

We will be destroyed with self serving if we aren't careful. Satan will lull us into his deceptive ways if we give in to him. We need to forever be asking for the Holy Spirit to guide us in ALL things. We have to acknowledge God in ALL our ways so we can be directed by Him. 

Things we often call self-loathing could in fact be Holy Spirit conviction turned by Satan into something to despise rather than to be thankful for. We try to rid ourselves of self-loathing, but what replaces it is self-worship that we label self-acceptance. We should ONLY accept our Savior's worth! We are nothing without our SAVIOR and should always be nothing without our Savior!  In Christ we are sons and daughters of God! Of ourselves we are NOTHING. And I believe we need constant reminding of this.  Perhaps we are in a refining process in a lot of the self-loathing- hating the sin in us, feeling the flesh rule when with our minds we would serve Christ.  And we have to accept in that moment- CHRIST'S WORTH as being enough, because we have none to offer!

Never WILLFULLY accept the sins that would so EASILY beset us. Always strive against sin! Find HOPE in CHRIST, not in ourselves!  Never use Christ as an excuse to sin-  to not love God, to not love others as God would have us. Praise God when we are able to recognize our worthlessness without Him! Recognize and praise God when we comprehend Christ is our worth!

Satan would forever lead us to despair, to hopelessness and he'll use our self loathing to accomplish that if he can. We need to KNOW that Christ is our eternal life, we do not fashion our own life, our own hope, our own worth in any way!  We are dependent upon CHRIST and His promises!  CHRIST in us alone gives us worth!  And the possibility of Christ in ALL gives all around us worth!  Christ loves all and would have ALL be His! WE in turn must love all as if they are all Christ's because we have no way of knowing if even the worst of the worst, most hateful person is one God is allowing to be refined in another way for Him. If the early Christians hated Paul as He persecuted them, they were hating one who would be God's. They didn't hate him, they may have feared being persecuted but they had to love even those who persecuted them- these were the words of CHRIST whom they followed, whom they believed in. 

All, every single human being has the potential to be Christ's and we must never forget this!

We believe and we know, and one day they too may believe an know it isn't our right to decide they will never believe or know Jesus Christ, that is never our right.

May we forever believe in Christ, through Christ! He is our eternal life!

Now and forever, AMEN!

Are we trying to get God to bend to our will?

A Pharisee of the highest order.

Act_26:5  Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

Born a Jew.  Blameless in his religion.

Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

How many people of ALL religions right NOW upon our earth are persecuting Christ followers because they believe their own religion demands they do this?

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

Act 9:2  And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

How many people curse Christ followers and wish them all dead? If various reports in the news and such are to be believed…  a  lot.

There are A LOT of zealous people who believe whole heartedly in their religion just as Paul believed in His and Paul was CHOSEN by God, visited by a risen SAVIOR! 

We cannot forget it was a Christ-follower PERSECUTOR that Jesus chose personally to be one of His greatest apostles. 

Gal_1:1  Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)

Just how incredibly SHOCKING it had to be for one who so zealously persecuted Christ followers to comprehend that he had NOT been doing the will of God in his persecutions.  That NONE who were persecuting them were doing God's will. They THOUGHT they were doing the will of God, they truly believed they were doing the will of God. They weren't persecuting people for the pleasure of it, they weren't hunting them down, they weren't killing them for the joy of it. They - at least Paul- was only happy in the belief he was doing God's will. He would have kept on zealously persecuting all Christ followers and His heart was pure of the guilt of it because He truly BELIEVED it was God's will He was doing and THAT is why our Savior chose Paul, because He KNEW all Paul truly wanted to do was the will of GOD. When shown the error of his ways Paul quickly changed! Paul wasted NO time in doing a complete turn around all because His hearts desire was GOD'S WILL, not his own!  Had he found joy in the hurting and killing of people he could not have been used by God at all. If Paul had been zealous for the sake of being zealous, he couldn't have been used by God.  God's true Will- THIS IS WHAT PAUL DESIRED. 

Often we will be shown by our God the error of our ways and it is up to us to choose God's will over our own, over even a way of life that has been ours since birth. 

God's WILL.

Is this our desire?

Or are we trying to get God to bend to our will?

People do that all the time. They want God to yield to their sinful desires so they can claim to worship and honor Him and His will but all the while indulge in their own lusts.  People want their lusts to be God's will. People want God to be accepting of ALL things in us because we are born the way we are- flawed with very horrendous flaws.  Rather than believe we can be born with flaws we would have God allowing these flaws mean His acceptance of them.  We don't want to accept that SIN has created these flaws. To accept that our flaws from birth are sin created- their origin being sin- would mean we need to seek forgiveness for them and we don't want to do that. We want to believe that God accepts our sins and we do not need to ask forgiveness for what He accepts. 

Originally created to be perfect in God's love, we became born of sinful parents. We inherited the tendencies to sin and sin and sin. The personal sin tendency you have doesn't matter- your tendencies may be completely different from mine-  what matters is they are sin.  We've come to believe that children can inherit addictive tendencies from their parents- drs, scientists, specialists of all sorts in various studies have said children of alcoholics are more likely to become alcoholics and we believe them.  A lot of our sinful tendencies do seem to be passed on down the line, but not all of them. We all have sin tendencies unique to us as individuals.  You might have a, b, c, d, e, f and g sin tendencies while I might have b, d, f, I, k, m sin tendencies. There can be overlaps or completely different tendencies.  I may have a dozen and you may only have two.  What I'm saying is we are truly all born with the tendencies towards sin. In what people say is my dna I might be programed with a desire for excessive amounts of physical lust, just because that is in MY genetic make up doesn't make it any less of a sin if I act upon that lust.  By saying it's in my blood we are trying to EXCUSE our sinful ways and make them acceptable, we do it ALL the time.

We desire our WILLS be done, not God's will and God knows this! We can't hide it from God!

Paul desired God's will be done, NOT HIS own will. PAUL warred against his sin tendencies, Paul fought in the war and we are ALL call to fight this fight- this very personal fight! You cannot war anyone else's personal battle against their own sin tendencies.  We are NOT to judge, we are to LOVE and let GOD reveal the sin. We have to reveal God's LOVE in meeting the NEEDS of all when we recognize there is a need to be met.  

If we are called to a path that asks us to sacrifice all personal pleasure, if we are called to a path that askes us to give up the sins that so easily beset us, that is what we are called to. 

Every single one of us with our own personal sins are called to forsake them by God.  You might think your personal sin is a harder one to give up, a greater sacrifice to make, but only God knows the depths of agony people go through as they fight in this spiritual war against the flesh. We are not to judge anyone's eternal life, not a single person's!  We are to LOVE.

Please God - YOUR WILL BE DONE!

In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

Amen.

Tempted to faint

Will Christ Find Faith On Earth? (Our Savior's Question)

Luk 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

Luk 18:2  Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

Luk 18:3  And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

Luk 18:4  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

Luk 18:5  Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

Luk 18:6  And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

Luk 18:7  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Faith on earth.

God's elect cry day and night to Him.  God hears them!  They might not want to believe He does because their prayers on not answered as they desire, but by faith they MUST believe.

Faith that God hears.

How often are we bothered by what we call nagging? Maybe not so much between adults, though there is that running joke about husbands and their nagging wives. As parents we most likely have all been confronted with nagging children.  The nagging takes place because someone - a child, a wife, anyone - wants something and they aren't getting it readily enough, so they keep asking. They might ask once a day, once an hour, once a minute (children really nagging). The continual asking is bothersome just as the unjust judge in the parable said- the widow was troubling him because she kept coming to him- so he answered her request.   This as a PARABLE is not telling us to bug people, but rather to pray without ceasing, pray and not give up praying, pray in faith that eventually the praying will be profitable no matter how long it seems to take.

Christ asks- Shall God find faith on earth when He comes to avenge those who are His from those who are Satan's? 

By His GRACE He will!  We must NOT FAINT, though OBVIOUSLY we will be tempted to do so.

Our lives are not measured by what we possess

What is your most favorite possession?

Most of us own things, most of have possessions. In fact some of us are very protective of the things we own. What are you most protective of? What is the one thing you don't want to live without?  Look around you wherever you are. Look at the things you own. Maybe you're in your home and everything you see is yours and you see a lot of things. Maybe you're in an internet café and the only possessions you have are your clothes. Maybe you're in someone else's home and you can see a lot of possessions but very few are yours. We have things. Yet answer me this one simple question- is there ANYTHING you own worth more than eternal life?

Luk 12:15  And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

So many people love to reveal to others all the things they own. The more expensive, the nicer, the more they want to show them off. They want others to see that they are successful and they measure that success in their possessions and their ability to have numerous and expensive possessions. On the other side of the coin, people tend to view themselves as failures when they don't have possessions, or the ability to obtain them.

Our lives do NOT consist in owning a lot of things, or owning expensive things. We are STEWARDS of all we possess and in our possessions we cannot find eternal life, not in a single one. 

We need to BEWARE of coveting THINGS, any and all things!

Coveting the smallest of things is just as bad as coveting the biggest of things.

Our LIVES are not measured by what we possess, but by who we possess. 

Christ can live in us!

Col_1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory

Christ in us is the HOPE of glory.

Christ is all we need!

All by HIS GRACE!

Total Surrender

Joh 13:13  Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

Joh 13:14  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet.

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.

Jesus said HAPPY are we when we SERVE OTHERS, NOT SELF.

Rom_14:22  Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.

FAITH before GOD. Being able to NOT condemn ourselves before GOD in the things we do- these are those who are HAPPY.

Jas 5:10  Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

Jas 5:11  Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

Enduring suffering, enduring affliction as all who are God's will do, WE count them as happy because they DID endure to the end, keeping their faith in God so that when the resurrection comes they will rise to meet their Christ in the air! Yes, we say they are happy because they ENDURED this life and all it's hardships. They did NOT go about their own business concerned primarily with their own happiness, they desired God's will above their own.

1Pe_3:14  But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled

SUFFERING for righteousness sake-- this is HAPPINESS!  Not giving into self serving sin!

1Pe_4:14  If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

REPROACHED for Christ- this is HAPPINESS. SERVING our SAVIOR!

Php_4:11  Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Being content in CHRIST no matter what STATE we find ourselves in! 

1Ti_6:8  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

Food and raiment- NOT RICHES- NOT personal pleasure- these things should make us content.

Heb_13:5  Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Content with what we have NOT coveting what we don't, this is what we should be.

Do you see the BIG picture here? We are to be happy in CHRIST our SAVIOR, NOT the things of this world. Yet we SCREAM that we deserve to be happy in so many things that aren't of Christ at all. We want happiness anyway we can find it and we'll do all sorts of things in search of that happiness. We'll live in the sins that give us happiness until we are so fully entrenched in self, that we never look to Christ.  Or, we'll tell ourselves Christ WANTS us to be happy. CHRIST wants us to do things that make us happy, He doesn't want us sad and we justify our self-serving desires.  I've done it! I know what I'm talking about! We convince ourselves that we must do the things we are tempted to do simply because they are our temptations and we are weak and can't help ourselves.  It's true, we can't save ourselves, but we sure shouldn't tell ourselves that we have to give into our temptations. We need to fight against our temptations and by fighting we must SURRENDER to Christ! We must surrender SELF to Christ!

We can't ask Christ to take all of us but this little piece that we want to cling to because we get pleasure from it no matter how fleeting that pleasure may be.

We must ask Christ to take ALL of us! To help us surrender ALL every last bit of who we are to Christ.

We must REPENT!

We must CONFESS!

We must SEEK FORGIVENESS!

And our desire has to be a total surrender to God's will.

We must desire our will be what God wills- ALWAYS in ALL things!

We must COME out of BABYLON- who holds all the temptations we could ever face.

Rev 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 

Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 

Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 

Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities

PLEASE FATHER we do NOT WANT to be partakers of the sins of Babylon! We do not want to receive the plagues of Babylon!  PLEASE save us from ourselves!

In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Sin interferes with self-serving so we no longer all it sin

'For her sins have reached unto heaven'

We live in a world that does NOT want to believe there are sins. Seriously, we do.  We live in a world where OTHER people are sinners, the really BAD people are the sinners. This world is a mess because of the awful people in it. This world is a mess because of the sinners, not us. I've got news for everybody…

Not only DOES sin exist, but we are ALL sinners and ALL of us fall short.

Rom_3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God

SINS are very real. And to the naysayers concerning the validity of sin as a reality we live in, I pray your eyes are opened before it's too late, because there will come a -TOO LATE.

Rev 18:1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 

Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 

Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 

Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities

We must come out of the sin acceptance people have sank down into like a very warm comforter on the coldest of nights. People have wrapped sin around them and they nurture it, they don't abhor it at all. They REFUSE to call sin- sin! 

Sin interferes with self serving.  Sin is a huge hindrance to self serving and people do not like ANYTHING interfering with their ability to serve themselves whatever it is they desire.  Heterosexuals hate not being able to satisfy their lusts with fornication, with self-gratification, with adultery.  Homosexuals hate not being able to satisfy their lusts with the same- only with the same sex. People hate not being able to live with the MANY various defects we are born with and there are numerous defects in all forms, physical, mental, emotional. We are FLAWED from birth because we cannot be this ideal person in all ways we know deep down we were INTENDED upon creation to be. Even the person who seems to have it ALL together in all ways is lying to themselves and other and if they believe they have it all and are perfect without any flaws that in itself is a flaw. People do not want to be told they cannot indulge their birth given flaws. They were given these flaws by birth, they are natural flaws they had no hand in creating on their own so why shouldn't they be able to make the best of them- enjoy them because being happy, finding pleasure, finding joy, these are the things we are told are our rights. We tell ourselves these are our rights- happiness. But is it our right to find happiness for ourselves? Is it? Really? Is this the message of our Savior? No. We are to SACRIFICE ourselves for others, for God. This is TRUTH, and it's a TRUTH the majority of people do not want to believe, they REFUSE to believe it and when it is told to them, they ridicule those with the message. They ridicule them and hold fast to believing they know best and those saying these things are stupid and fools. They believe lies to serve their self serving.

God help us please, help us to choose YOU over ourselves! Please God, help us! We would serve YOU and others, not ourselves!

Please, Father, bless us! Keep us in YOU heavenly Father, all by the mercy and grace of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Amen.