GOD needs to come first now, or He sure will NOT come first in eternity.

' Let us live and die with God. Sufferings will be sweet and pleasant while we are with Him. Without Him, the greatest pleasures will be a cruel punishment to us. May He be blessed by all.

Let us often consider that our only business in this life is to please God, that perhaps all besides is but folly and vanity'

The above quotes are from -  Practice the Presence of God - Brother Lawerence

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Let us LIVE with God.

Let us DIE with God.

Suffering sweet?

Suffering pleasant?

Without God-  are our greatest pleasures- cruel punishments?

Is our only business right now in this life to PLEASE God?

Is ALL besides pleasing God- folly and vanity?

Seriously, let's ASK ourselves these questions. We should have NO trouble asking ourselves, no trouble examining ourselves as deeply as possible in order to determine where we in our relationship with God.

Do you believe that without God the greatest pleasures will be cruel punishment?

We love our pleasures, we often live for our pleasures whatever they may be. When something interferes with our pleasures we tend to get irked don't we? You're going to sit down and relax but something comes up, don't you groan a bit? You've waited all day to watch your favorite television show and something else calls you away from it, again, don't you groan, even inwardly? You've spent weeks setting up a special date night and again there is interference even a natural- no fault interference like illness, aren't you filled with disappointment?  I'm not saying we shouldn't be disappointed, but honestly we do not like our PLEASURES interfered with. Yet, WITHOUT God those pleasures are NOT good, they are in fact, Satan disguised trickery that hide completely that those very pleasures are cruel punishments.  Pleasures that weigh us down heavily and we don't even recognize it.  Asked to give up our pleasures we shrink from that and start making up excuses as to why they are good and God would understand.  If we EVER have to ask ourselves or rather try to convince ourselves that God will understand our special circumstances we better take several very good long hard looks at ourselves and figure out why we are trying to believe God will understand. Are we really saying God will excuse us, that we have special circumstances, that our case is different.  If we have to do these things then we REALLY need to ask ourselves if our pleasures mean more to us than God does. 

GOD needs to come first now, or He sure will NOT come first in eternity.

In ALL we do God needs to be there!

In every job, every pleasure, in everything. If you need to keep God separated from any part of your life then you are NOT living for GOD at all, but Satan in disguise. You are worshipping the god of self if you have to keep GOD the Father out of any part of your life.

God DOES understand all our circumstances and HE LOVES US and will make it possible for us to LOVE and WORSHIP HIM in all things when this is our desire, to submit to His will, to have faith in Him.

It's no wonder so few will be alive when Christ returns, because so few want God in their life completely. So few believe worshipping and loving God, living for Him is the greatest pleasure.

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

Now and forever, amen!

Yes, we must live in this world, but we must live FOR another world.

'That the end we ought to propose to ourselves is to become, in this life, the most perfect worshippers of GOD we can possibly be, as we hope to be through all eternity.

That the greater perfection a soul aspires after, the more dependent it is upon Divine grace.'

The above quotes are from -  Practice the Presence of God - Brother Lawerence

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Yesterday we studied the truth that we need to truly live for our Heaven Home and we need to live for it RIGHT NOW. We can't wait until we are dying to give up all our cherished vices. We can't wait until we truly believe that Christ's second coming is imminent, to stop living for this world.  No, we can't take ourselves out of this world and our God can't take us out of this world.

Jesus prayed to our Heavenly Father-

Joh 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world…

We are NOT going to be taken out of this world, we have to live in this world filled with evil, filled with sin, filled with temptation, filled with lusts, filled with all that would keep us separated from our Father God, our Creator, from love.  And I'm not going to bother with the WHYS, we know why. We know that mankind chose sin over love and we, like it or not, understand it or not, inherited this world through them. We also inherited a chance for REDEMPTION.  One was not without the other- EVER, NOT EVER!  When sin separated God and man- a way for redemption was created, in fact it was IMPLEMENTED because it had been created before mankind existed.  REDEMPTION.

Yes, we must live in this world, but we must live FOR another world.

We have to take stock of our lives and continuously ask ourselves if we are seeking to become the most perfect worshippers of God that we can be, because this is our END GAME. Being PERFECT WORSHIPPERS of GOD is our END, our ETERNITY!  If you do NOT want to be a perfect worshipper of God, then you are NOT seeking heaven as your home.  If you WANT to be this perfect worshipper of God BUT find yourself failing over and over, find that Satan is trying to convince you that you don't want this at all, it's because he seeks to have you rely on your feelings of desire as the want and not the knowledge beyond the feeling as the want.  Our failing is our flesh nature, our succeeding is our submission to God.  When we fail, we FALL before the THRONE and seek forgiveness.

'That the greater perfection a soul aspires after, the more dependent it is upon Divine grace.'

If you are dependent upon someone for something that means you are counting of them in some way. If you grow MORE dependent upon someone, you are counting on them even more. If you are completely dependent upon someone, you are counting on them for EVERYTHING. 

When we strive against sin, truly aspiring after the perfection of our Savior to have Christ in us, to be perfect worshippers of God, then we have to realize that we are going to grow more and more dependent upon DIVINE GRACE!

Please Father, please teach us to be Yours now in this world, for Your world to come! Please!

More tomorrow by Your grace and love.

All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior!

AMEN!

Eternity starts here...now

'That the end we ought to propose to ourselves is to become, in this life, the most perfect worshippers of GOD we can possibly be, as we hope to be through all eternity.'

The above is a quote from -  Practice the Presence of God - Brother Lawerence

My thoughts--

In truth do WE truly hope to be perfect worshippers of God through all eternity? Do we?

Eternity in Heaven…

Heaven is the HOME of God.

Heaven is the HOME of Jesus Christ.

Heaven is the HOME of the Holy Spirit.

Heaven is the HOME of God's Angels.

Heaven is the HOME of the Saints of God who have been taken to heaven ahead of the majority of people who will be raised from the graves when Christ returns for them.

Heaven is the HOME we are PROMISED in the Gospel of Salvation that our Savior came to preach to us.

Heaven is the HOME where our treasures are, treasures that belong to us because we are going to go to heaven.

Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Mat 5:12  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven…

Rev 22:12  And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

Luk 14:14 … for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

Heb 9:15  And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1Pe_1:4  To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you

Are we LIVING for eternity with God in our Heavenly home?  Right NOW are we living with that blessed HOPE? Are we truly hoping to be the most perfect worshippers of God we can be here and now? Are we?! And if we AREN'T we need to ask ourselves WHY NOT?!   Why aren't we striving to be perfect worshippers of God?  God told us that we living in these last days would be LUKEWARM. Isn't it lukewarmness that keeps us from striving to be perfect worshippers of God here and now?

'That the end we ought to propose to ourselves is to become, in this life, the most perfect worshippers of GOD we can possibly be, as we hope to be through all eternity'

What we should be hoping to become as Christ followers in this life truly is to be the MOST PERFECT worshippers of GOD we can possibly be- AS WE HOPE TO BE through all eternity!

This is why we are CHRIST followers in the first place, isn't it?! To become one with our God, our Creator, our Redeemer and live with Him forever, isn't this our HOPE?   And if this is truly our real hope then we need to be living HERE and NOW towards that end, don't we? We need to be living for ETERNITY- NOW, not waiting to live for eternity in eternity, by then it will be too late.

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

Amen!

God in ALL we do

'That we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of GOD, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed. That we should not wonder if, in the beginning, we often failed in our endeavours, but that at last we should gain a habit, which will naturally produce its acts in us, without our care, and to our exceeding great delight.'  (Brother Lawrence-Practice the Presence of God)

Not weary in doing little things.

God doesn't regard the greatness of the work, BUT THE LOVE with which it is PERFORMED.

In the beginning we often FAIL in our endeavors- but at LAST we should GAIN HABIT.

Words of wisdom? Do they follow God's Holy Word?

1Co 10:31  Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Col 3:17  And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Col 3:23  And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men

The word of the Lord.

WHATEVER we do-  tell me, what does that 'whatever' include? Are we to take it to mean truly 'whatever' as in all things, everything we do? I think it does. Because when we do ANYTHING that we can't do in the name of our Lord Jesus, and we can't give thanks to God and the Father by him, are we doing God's will? Isn't God supposed to be in all we do? Isn't God supposed to be our END goal? Isn't God, communion with God, being a part of God's life, God's world, God's existence our LONGING? When we are instructed to do whatever we do as unto the Lord and NOT men, that means all the LOVE we have for God, the LOVE God gives to us we are to give to ALL others as if we were giving that LOVE to God!

Too often we want to hate, to dislike, to annoy, to give pain, to retaliate to harm as we are driven to do by many worldly influences around us. There is spiritual wickedness in high places and it will attack us spiritually at every opportunity.

We take on small seemingly thankless tasks and often that spiritual wickedness will make us seem put upon, degraded, used by others in having to do a myriad of small tasks. But there is GREATNESS, spiritual GREATNESS in the most seemingly degrading, low level, disgusting even, task if it is done for the LOVE of God!  We are NOT doing menial tasks for others, not really, but for God. In ALL we do we are doing for GOD.  We haven't be taught to believe this truth. Satan will go to great lengths to keep us from this comprehension, and especially from making it a reality so that we begin to recognize it in all we do.

When we have ingrained in our lifestyle certain ways of thinking it's hard to retrain ourselves.  God will help us! The Holy Spirit will help us! We must practice this in our actions. Whenever we find ourselves feeling those awful feelings and thinking those awful thoughts and recognize them for what they are we need to pray and seek to change our thoughts to God, knowing what we are doing for others or even ourselves is truly for GOD.

Please LORD, please, we need to live for YOU in ALL we do!

Please!

Help us!

By Your mercy, Your grace, Your LOVE!

Always!

Amen.

There is no part time God, only full time.

Gal 1:10  For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

Eph 6:5  Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;

Eph 6:6  Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

Eph 6:7  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men

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First and foremost we must seek to PLEASE GOD.

For what are our fellow men but creatures of God?  None of mankind will ever usurp God's place as our Heavenly Father, our Creator. None will ever be as pleased by our obedience, our service, our actions towards them as God is by our submission, our service to Him. God gives us the necessary compassion, the necessary components whatever they may be in order for us to do any good towards others. It is by the power of God we can please our fellow man and if we do so in accordance to the will of God, we are pleasing God first in our service to others. If our pleasing our fellow man is done in ways God would not approve of, if our pleasing our fellow man is done to further our own bloated egos, to pin another feather in our caps, then it will NOT PLEASE GOD.

We are to please God if we are to be servants of Christ.  All Christ did was pleasing to the Father.

We are to live onto Christ knowing that in whatever situation we find ourselves- working for others or working for ourselves- we are accountable to Christ, accountable to live for Him first and foremost.  While you work for another your service is NOT just to them, but answerable to God. As you bend over backwards to please a boss, are you doing it to receive ego stroking brownie points? Are you doing it so you can pat yourself on the back, stroking your own ego when your boss won't? Or are you doing the job to the best of your ability going above and beyond what might be expected of you because you wish to please God, knowing doing your best is pleasing to God?

The jobs we do - all of them - the ones we are paid for, the ones we aren't paid for, the ones we do because no one else is doing them, the thankless tasks we take on day after day, are we doing them to the BEST of our ability knowing that would please God? Is God is so REAL to us that we comprehend that He is there as we scrub the floor, as we clean a toilet, as we pick up laundry and dog droppings, and clean cat boxes.  God in us- is an all the time happening not something we can choose to stop while we go about the mundane tasks of life. God can't just be in us when we sit down and choose to think of Him. God can't be with us only when we enter a church, or kneel in our own homes to pray, or simply bow our heads. God CANNOT be a part time God in our lives! God is a FULL TIME, twenty-four hours, seven days a week God in our lives and that means He is with us in ALL our actions, every single one of them.   If you find yourself needing to shield God's eyes from something you're prone to do, you need to ask yourself if you truly love God.  Seriously!  Loving God is a REAL living, breathing, very active thing we do. If you need to put God in a corner, or tell God to cover His eyes and ears, you need to rethink your relationship with God. 

Whenever any of our actions are such we know they are displeasing to God, we have to ask for forgiveness and ask for Him to take away our desire, our inclinations to do things not pleasing to Him.  We can't ignore our failings hoping they'll be overlooked, or assuming they'll be overlooked, we have to actively seek pardon for them. Constantly we will be shown how utterly impossible it is for us to save ourselves and we need this constant reminder, but not by our excusing our willful sins, accepting them and even encouraging them because we've convinced ourselves we need that reminder.  We are ever to seek repentance, ever to seek to rid ourselves of our sins- those that so EASILY beset us.

Do we live to please God?

Eph 6:6…    doing the will of God from the heart;

Eph 6:7  With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men

Doing the will of God from the heart… ALWAYS as a way of LIFE!

With good will doing service … AS TO THE LORD… not to men.

We live for GOD not for others and as stated at the beginning of this writing, any living we do for others must be for God as well, for it is by God we exist at all.

May He bless us all and keep us in Him ever drawing us closer to Him in His LOVE, His MERCY, His GRACE and FORGIVENESS always!

Amen!

Repairer of the Breach

1Pe 1:20  Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

Jesus foreordained.

Some use this as an occasion to say the God planned our failure.

Do men who have safeguards, plan tragedies?  No. They have safeguards in place because the possibility exists for tragedy to occur.

Before mankind was created with the very real possibility they'd separate themselves from God- believing they could live without their Creator and Sustainer- a plan was put in motion for the worst case scenario.  If man chose to separate themselves from their Creator and Sustainer, they would have an opportunity to comprehend their wrongdoing and submit to a Redeemer who would offer them a way to once more be one with their Creator and Sustainer.

Before the foundation of the world our Savior was in place and then when it was time- He was manifested for mankind.

1Pe 1:21  Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

God raised the Son, Jesus Christ a God in His own right, from the dead. God the Father gave the Son glory and now our FAITH and HOPE is in God. Our faith and hope for redemption.

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:

We obey the truth through the SPIRIT and the LOVE that is unfeigned in us is GOD'S love through the SPIRIT not some sort of love we try to manufacture on our own to claim we LOVE others of our own accord. The love we must love others with is God's love, His love for all mankind.  The pure heart is Christ's pure heart, through the Spirit we receive Christ's love in us, Christ in us! It's HIS love!

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 in US, not us in us. Our reuniting with God, our oneness with God is what it is all about. Repairing the breach so that we are NO longer separated from God. Christ alone repairs this breach! And when the oneness through Christ by the Holy Spirit is in us we have the love of God in us and that love alone is capable of loving others unfeigned.  We allow Christ to repair the breach! We comprehend that once the breach is repaired it allows God in us! And with God in us, we love with His love. He loves through us!

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.

Truth.

We are born again with a spiritual seed which is incorruptible and that birth is the birth of the Christ in us, the birth of the breach being repaired through Christ. The word of God -  lives and abides forever. 

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.

Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Joh 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

All of our flesh is as grass, all mankind's glory is like a flower of grass.  The grass as we all know withers and flowers fall away.  All things of flesh wither and fade. The word of the Lord endures forever- it never withers and never fades.   This is the gospel we must comprehend.

Christ in us- our hope of glory- His glory in us, we have no glory of our own, none.

All in HIS amazing, wondrous love, His mercy and grace!

Amen!

People can tell you how JESUS can save you, but they cannot save you.

1Pe 1:18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

1Pe 1:19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot

We are NOT saved by words! We are saved by THE WORD.

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Joh 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.

Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

We were saved by the PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST.

The traditions and vain conversations we have received from many, haven't we? The Christian religion is FILLED with traditions that are not Biblical. Vain conversations- we can talk until we are blue in the face and it'll mean nothing, we can't be redeemed from our traditions and our inane chatter by anything BUT the BLOOD OF CHRIST.  We can't buy our way out of our sins.  We can't use traditions, we can't use pretty speeches, we have to accept the PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST. 

To equate the precious blood of Christ with a LAMB without blemish and without spot is equating Him with a PERFECT sacrifice. 

The people of God were given a sacrificial system and the Lambs that were slain, that were sacrificed for their sins were something they were completely familiar with. 

The Savior as a Lamb without blemish and without spot is our ONLY HOPE.

Do not believe ANYONE who tells you that you can redeem yourself by paying for it, I don't care who they are! If anyone offers to forgive you of your sins in order for You to gain salvation- they are LIARS!  Only the SAVIOR can forgive us and offer Salvation to us! No other! Not a single other person can redeem us!

People can tell you how JESUS can save you, but they cannot save you.

People can forgive you for the wrong you've done to them, but they can't forgive you to redeem you.

People can tell you how JESUS will forgive you, but if they TRY to tell you that their forgiving you gives you salvation, they are lying to you.  No one can ABSOLVE you of the penalty of sin. No one can take away any punishment you deserve for the sins you've committed. You can't WORK off your sins!

The LAMB of God, the PERFECT LAMB of GOD- JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, OUR SAVIOR, He alone can save us through His blood, His sacrifice. 

By HIS grace may we be forgiven, may we be saved!