Who do you obey?

Who to you yield yourself to?

Many will instantly reply, "No one. I am my own master, I yield to none."

They are lying to themselves. We are not our own masters. We are not without influence from forces greater than ourselves. Why do people insist that there are no outside forces, no spiritual forces in our lives.  People lie to themselves all the time, and believe their own lies.

We have a Creator. To believe otherwise is ludicrous. To think we just happened to emerge from some strange soupy goo of dna is foolish. Why haven't new humans continued to form that way? What stops them? Why isn't there more goo with lots of new creatures constantly? There are a million questions to be asked because it so outrageous a claim.

We have a Creator. We have a Master and our Master has an adversary and His adversary is automatically the adversary of all who lay claim to their Master and do not deny Him.

If you believe in GOD- then you HAVE to believe in His adversary.
If you believe in God's adversary then you believe that same adversary is your adversary.

So asking again- who do you yield yourselves to?
Who do you obey?

Truly we need to know who we are obeying.  It is easy to say we obey Christ, but do we?  Who are we yielding ourselves to? The thing about this question is… it can't be answered just once. This question is something we need to answer all the time, all through the day. When we stop asking ourselves this question we have to ask ourselves why. If we realize that we aren't yielding to God in all things then we need to repent, we need to ask for forgiveness, we need to recognize our wretchedness and with sincerity cry out for a clean heart, a renewed heart.

Please Lord, please let us examine ourselves, let us work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

Please…    ALL through Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR!  Please.

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Rom 6:17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

Servant or Son?

Gal 4:1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; 

Gal 4:2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. 

Gal 4:3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: 

Gal 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 

Gal 4:5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 

Gal 4:6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 

Gal 4:7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Servants or Sons?

A servant in this context is one who has no wealth or prestige of his/her own. A servant is one working under a master.  And not ALL masters are cruel and evil, contrary to how a lot of people long to believe. As soon as they hear servant and master they imagine the servant's humanity being abused, that none should be a servant to another.  We know logically there are kind, caring, generous masters to servants and so in the context of these verses we are going along that vein. Why? Because the comparison of a child, an heir to the master's position, as being a servant as long as they are not of age is truth. Yet, that heir will grow and one day he will no longer be a servant. We too are heirs of salvation and we are no longer servants.  So who are we no longer servants to?

Rom_6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 

Rom 6:17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 

Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 

We are servants of sin, of Satan if we are NOT heirs of God.

Are you a servant of Satan or a son of God?

There are ONLY two choices.

People want a million choices! People want as many choices as possible. When you limit the choices it makes things a lot more difficult for a person to choose. We don't want yes or no, we want a lot of maybes.

Truly you have to be a servant of Satan or a son of God, so which is it?

With God there is life eternal, with Satan there is no life at all, non-existence.

Satan doesn't want to make any sons, none will ever be equal to him. Yet so many people love to delude themselves that Satan isn't so bad, in fact many don't believe he is real, let alone influencing their lives in any way at all. The influence of Satan is so incredibly great that he's deceived all but those who truly love God in all truth.

Mat_24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

More on this tomorrow by the grace and will of our loving LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!

Trust - in the LORD.

Jer 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

How often are we told we need to trust in each other? That trusting in each other is a good thing.

Yet God tells us differently.

Psa_118:8  It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.

Psa_118:9  It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.

People will say to you- "Don't you trust me?"  And you are left to either say, "Yes.", "No.", or "Maybe." If you say , "Yes." then the person asking is satisfied, happy even, that you believe in them. If you say, "No." or "Maybe." then the person asking isn't quite so happy any more. People want you to believe them, they want you to trust them, and yet often times various situations will arise that keep people from following through on their word. Very legitimate excuses arise for a broken trust so that we don't call it a broken trust at all. We accept the excuses because not to makes us seem unable to forgive, and not very understanding at all.

Has anyone every broken your trust? Probably more than one person and probably more than one person you love. A parent, a spouse, a friend, a child all of these can't help but break our trust because our very imperfect life forces it to happen. I'm sure most of us, if not all of us have broken the trust of others. You may want to say that you haven't, and you may want to force yourself to believe that, but in truth circumstances will not allow any person not inflicted by mental impairment to be perfectly trustworthy from birth to death. They may try, and only extenuating circumstances interfere with their ability to do so, who knows, I sure don't.

What I do know is this-  God tells us to trust in HIM, not in others. God wants us to LOVE each other, but put our TRUST in HIM.  God alone will NEVER break our trust- the trust we place in Him for life eternal through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  No matter how wonderful and sincere our intentions to each other are, Satan will always try to interfere causing us to break a trust no matter how little the matter is, no matter how tiny the trust broken. It could be something as simple as telling someone you'll be on time to dinner and not being on time. You may have forgotten which is perfectly understandable, believe me, I am big time forgetful. However, even though you forget out of innocence it is still a trust broken- unintentionally, understandably but there it is… a tiny trust broken.  We must put our trust in CHRIST, we must put our trust in GOD, we have to put our trust in the HOLY SPIRIT, and realize that by not trusting in man we are not loving them any less. 

We have to LOVE in spite of not being able to trust wholly.

Should we not trust in others at all? No, we need to believe what people say, but at the same time acknowledge to ourselves that people no matter who- are infallible and we shouldn't let this truth destroy our spiritual life, our walk with Christ, our belief in His love. It's not just the tiny trusts broken, but the huge trusts broken that can destroy our spiritual life is Satan has his way. If we BELIEVE that we can't trust in man but TRUST IN GOD ALWAYS, that is a protection, a spiritual protection God will give us.

There are people I can say I trust, and what I trust is that to the best of their ability they will always do what's best for me, they will always love me, they will always act in ways to reveal that love. I trust them, but by the grace and mercy of God, I will always trust in God first and foremost.  And if any of these people break the trust I've placed in them- truly I must not let it destroy my Spiritual life- or my belief in them and the hope they can find in Christ. I must put the heartache and disappointment I feel - however great it may be- on Satan because it is Satan who causes all the broken trust in the world. And Satan will use anyone He can, deceiving them, abusing them at their weakest to hurt all that he can in any way that he can.

Some might say that God lets them down, that God lets a lot of people down all the time, but that's not true.  Our idea of what is best for us is nothing like God's idea, He sees the end from the beginning we only see through that glass very, very darkly.

1Co 13:12  For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 

1Co 13:13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Please, Lord, please bless us and keep us in Jesus Christ our LORD now and forever! Help us to place our trust in YOU always! 

We are all wretched.

We are all unclean in the eyes of God. All OUR righteousnesses are as filthy rags.  Yet we try to imagine we are clean, and we are righteous. What a dangerous thing we do when we strive for righteousness in our self. When we tally up our day and see our failures, when we go further and look back upon our lives and try our best to number our good deeds hoping they will outweigh the bad, we are counting upon our own righteousness.  No, we are not to be evil and lay claim to Christ's righteousness. We must count any good thing that springs from us as being of Christ and glorify HIS name, not our own.

We are truly wretched. Paul, an apostle of Christ's called himself wretched and if one who is called by Christ Himself and is given all power through the Holy Spirit to perform miracles, to proclaim the gospel far and wide and lead many to salvation through Christ, if he is wretched how much more wretched are we?

We go about our day to day lives scarcely recognized as Christ followers because we blend in so well with those who aren't. We proclaim Christ in our own ways, yet we need to proclaim Him in His way. We fear to offend, we fear to appear a fool, we utilize our Christianity in such a way that it becomes tailormade to suit us, rather than wear God's armor as He intended.

Can Christ truly walk everywhere you walk each day? Can Christ truly be beside you in every conversation?

Paul was a wretched man. We are wretched as well. And as we strive- as Paul did- to do God's will we do so by laying claim to CHRIST'S righteousness first and foremost. We ask God to look to Christ for righteousness because we have none of our own. We will continue to fight and fail, and never, by the grace of God will we give up our fighting, always seeking Christ as being our ONLY Victory!

We can never afford to forget where our Hope lies, never!

Let us not hope in ourselves, let us discard all hope we have in ourselves and put all our hope in Christ.

Please, Lord, we know we are wretched, that we are filthy, that we are prone to evil in all its many forms- blatant and not so blatant. Please, Lord, we would have you be our Hope, our Righteousness, our Goodness, keep us from any evil and all evil that would keep us from You! Save us from ourselves, our wretched, wretched selves.

All through Jesus Christ our Savior, our Lord, our King, our Advocate with the Father now and forever!

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rag

Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. 

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience

Tit 3:3  For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith

Spiritual Endurance Against Satan's Whip.

Do good.

Seek peace.

Refrain from evil speaking.

Speak no lies.

Be compassionate.

Pity those needing pity.

Be courteous.

Don't return evil for the evil done to you.

Love others.

Love life.

See good days.

Being a Christ follower is a very active pursuit, not something for those who cannot strive to do His will. Being a Christ follower isn't a pursuit in inactivity.

1Pe 3:8 Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: 

1Pe 3:9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. 

1Pe 3:10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: 

1Pe 3:11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. 

1Pe 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil

We are told what to THINK-

Php_4:8  Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

Think on truth.

Think on honesty.

Think on the just.

Think on the pure.

Think on the lovely.

Think on things of good report.

Think on the virtuous.

Think on the praiseworthy things.

So why do we insist on allowing our thoughts to run rampant steering us towards things that aren't good, things that aren't pure or lovely, or truthful, or honest, or of good report and virtuous and not praiseworthy at all?  Satan will guide our thoughts if we let him. We need to pick up the SWORD of the SPIRIT - the WORD of GOD and use it against Satan and his attacking our minds, our thoughts! We need to delve into the Word of God! We need to study the truth and all things our Savior would have us know. We have to sometimes force ourselves to do what we know we should do rather than succumb to the apathy of Satan who wants to keep us from God's Word. If you don't FEEL like studying, reading, or thinking on the things we are told to think on, you need to PRAY PRAY PRAY! Not that the feeling changes because being a Christian isn't about FEELING. We need to pray earnestly for the will to open God's word. We need to pray to choose God over self. We are sinners,  sin-sick sinners who have been battered and beaten spiritually bloody until we have almost no desire at all to fight the good fight, to run the race. We are Satan scarred and he loves nothing more than to ply his evil whip across our spiritual backs so that we cry out for him to stop, giving in to his demands that we keep away from the very thing that can help us endure the pain.  God's word may not free us from the pain we are in, the agony we writhe under, we don't need to ask for release from the pain but rather that we can endure all pain until the end. We can't be taken out of this world, but we can ask to be kept from the evil of this world. If our Savior suffered, if His apostles suffered, if all the men and women of God throughout His word suffered, we cannot ask to be kept from suffering. We ask for endurance as we cling to the hope, the promise given to all that we will one day- when our Savior returns- be united fully with Him and no longer in this world gone so horrifically wrong.

Help us, Savior! Help us! We need YOU and YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS! Our hope is in YOU, not in ourselves, please! We believe, help our unbelief!

All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and forever!

Obey- Christ Commands

Often we ask ourselves how people can put up with those who aren't very nice to them. We all know about bosses who are very unkind and downright mean and often cruel to those that work under them. We believe that those who are treated unfairly need to speak up for themselves and not put up with abuse by authority. However, most people can't afford to lose their jobs by speaking up against the abuse. Most people have to live under the authority of bosses. Most people have to live under the authority of others in one way or another, answering to people who are higher up. When we are led to believe we shouldn't have to have anyone in authority above us we are fueled with resentment and that is the last thing we need to be fueled with. The Word of God has this to say--

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: 

Eph 6:8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. 

Eph 6:9 And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

Servants need to be obedient to all who are in authority over them. We need to be obedient not with resentment- eyeservice, menpleasing otherwise known as being two-faced.  We need to be obedient in truth as we need to be obedient to Christ. Christ wants us to be obedient towards those over us just as if we were being obedient to Him.

We need to be obedient even when our bosses, even when those in authority over us are not being Christ-like at all. In a world ruled by Christ- the masters would be fair and - unthreatening, but this is not a perfect world at all. Does not living in a world ruled by Christ mean we aren't to be obedient to our bosses, to those who have authority over us? No. We are to live for Christ in ANY situation we find ourselves. I know there will be those who argue against this bringing up one scenario after another where a person should disobey our Savior's word, but the heart of His word must be obeyed. I'm not advocating being abused in any way, it's wrong but we know this is true…

Mat 5:43  Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 

Mat 5:44  But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 

Love our enemies.

Bless them that curse us.

Do good to them that hate us.

Pray for them which despitefully use us.

Pray for them which persecute us.

Enemies, cursed, hated, despised, persecuted….  so many people live every day facing these things. 

May God help us all, may God help us as we ALL strive to live for Christ, revealing Christ in us with the hope that all who are abusers may come to know Christ as their Savior as well!

All by the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, now and forever!

Fathers

Message to Fathers-

Too often fathers believe provoking their children is acceptable. They don't care if their children get angry with them, why should they, they're the adult and the child needs to be in subjection to them. A lot of times men feel this way because they were raised that way, they see that way portrayed by others and want to follow suit. Yet our God tells us not to provoke our children to wrath, to anger. We aren't supposed to encourage their discouragement. We aren't toughening our children when we treat them in a way God does not approve. Fathers are supposed to bring their children up in the LORD. The Lord will admonish our children through His word, through His teachings.

Eph 6:4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Col 3:21  Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

Fathers can't start too early when teaching their children the holy scriptures. We place so much emphasis on teaching worldly ways yet very little on teaching the holy scriptures and why is this? Because the world does not want our children to know truth, they do not want our children raised with the Lord.  We hold off on teaching the Holy Word of God until we think they are old enough but even infants hearing the Word can only be influenced for the good.

2Ti 3:15  And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 

A father is to exhort, comfort, and charge their children to know the Lord, to live to the Lord.

1Th 2:11  As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children

When a father loves his children he corrects them and this doesn't mean he does so in a way that can be termed abusive.

Pro 3:12  For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. 

How many of you as adults have only praise for the way you were raised? I'm not saying all have praise because some of you have probably been abused in many ways leading you to despise your father, your parents. But there are those of us who can only say, Praise God, for the parents we had as children. Our parents weren't necessarily easy on us, a lot of us can remember spankings and punishing, time outs, groundings, and even a lot of harsh words. We remember our acting out being punished, we remember our correction and today we are thankful for it. We may have been filled with angst as we lived through the punishments, but they taught us and we know our parents punished us out of love. We can say our parents did the best they knew how to do. 

Heb 12:7  If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 

Heb 12:8  But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 

Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 

Heb 12:10  For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 

Heb 12:11  Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. 

God deals with us adults as still being His children.

We must teach our children of the Heavenly Father's love, of His chastising, of His admonishing even as we living in this harsh world today must do our best to raise our children by guiding them in love towards God.

Fathers search the scriptures and as you fulfil the role that you've been given to raise children, remember they are the Lord's, not simple yours. They are gifts God has given you.

Is it always easy to raise children? No. Sometimes it's incredibly hard to raise children, but we can't forget that some of us have been incredibly hard for God to raise, yes?

May God bless all fathers, all mothers, as they seek to raise their children unto God!

All through Jesus Christ our Lord, our Savior!