Living 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. 

Our bodies are LIVING sacrifices. I know I've talked about this before but I can't help but come back around to it time and time again because there is a message here that I have to learn.

A sacrifice is the giving up of something. You can sacrifice your time- you're giving up your time- time you'd rather spend doing something other than what you are doing. You can sacrifice your money- give money away that you'd rather keep. You can sacrifice any of your possessions- give them up. When the Israelis of old were asked to bring sacrifices they brought animals. But no longer, no sacrificial animals were desired. However, if we present our bodies as LIVING sacrifices - this is what God desires. If we sacrifice our lives to God we are giving Him access to all of us, all our actions, all our everything. To do this we can't be conformed to this world and this world WANTS conformers.

You might think this world is filled with rebels and non-conformers but if you truly look closer at things even the rebels and non-conformers quickly desire conformers to THEIR views no longer allowing them to be non-conformers, but rather non-conformer conformers. If God is our conformer he does so by transforming us in our minds, renewing our minds and our minds are renewed in this way-

Joh 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 

Joh 3:6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

Joh 3:7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 

We need to be born of the Spirit. Our mind is renewed by the Holy Spirit.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast. 

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them

We are God's workmanship, we are CREATED in CHRIST JESUS unto good works. TRULY when any good comes from us it is by the grace of our LORD and SAVIOR.

We must present ourselves living sacrifices, willing to be alive to CHRIST and HIS will, not our own. We present ourselves to God alive for Him to use by the Holy Spirit. We die to self so we live for Him. How are we to live for Him? We need to do what the Holy Spirit leads us to do. We need to comprehend in the word of God, what He'd have us do. We aren’t stupid. We can say we don't know what to do, but in truth we do. We are told.

Remember this--

Mat 25:42  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: 

Mat 25:43  I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. 

Mat 25:44  Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? 

Mat 25:45  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. 

We KNOW what Christ would have us do. If we are waiting to get a hand written noted from God, a detailed list of instructions, then we will wait forever because GOD ALREADY GAVE US THE NOTE and the DETAILS! If we want our name at the top we are being stupid! Seriously, stupid! We need to wake up to the truth, the WORD of God and seek the truth. We need to pray for the Holy Spirit to guide us as we set out to do what we are led to do through the word of God.

May God help us- transform us. May we TRULY be LIVING SACRIFICES to GOD!

All through Jesus Christ our LORD and SAVIOR, now and forever!!!!!!!

The Goodness of God- We should not despise.

The goodness of God leads us to repentance.

God forbears with us.

God is longsuffering towards us.

What do we do, we despise the riches of His goodness.

We beg for more. We plead for so much because we believe that so much will make us happy, make us satisfied, make us content. We claim we just want the bare minimum of necessities but when that is what we get we still despise the goodness of God, why?  Because the goodness of God leads us to repentance, not to any creature comforts, not to even necessities for this life if they would lead us from God. As bizarre as it may seem, some people are stripped of everything so they can be given the one thing that means more than anything at all- Jesus Christ our Lord and His love and all that is entailed in His amazing, unfathomable love. Still, others are given so much because that is what it will take for them to be led to our Lord. We don't know what, we don't know why, we can only TRUST. We have to believe that God's wisdom which is past our finding out, is such that no matter our LOT in life, He will lead us in the way we need to go. Help us BELIEVE, LORD, help us believe!

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 

Rom 11:34  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? 

Rom 11:35  Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 

Rom 11:36  For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. 

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Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 

Eph 3:16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man

Col 2:2  That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; 

Col 2:3  In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 

Col 2:4  And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. 

Loving Unrighteousness.

Blinded to truth because-- we don't want truth.  If you're reading this then the chances are you may be seeking the truth of our Lord and Savior and His salvation. However you may have just stumbled across this message and are reading it out of curiosity, with no thought for the truth of the matter. Truth is offered to all, but not all desire truth. Why wouldn't a person want the truth?

2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 

Having pleasure in unrighteousness.

Pleasure seekers, this is a term coined by society and accepted by society. Who doesn't want pleasure in their life? Isn't pleasure something we are taught to seek out. We are told to find pleasure where we can because life is hard.  And the truth is, the majority of unrighteousness can be pleasurable. If truth interferes in the things we find pleasurable, the chances are we may turn from the truth so we can keep our pleasures.

Psa 11:5  The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that LOVETH VIOLENCE his soul hateth. 

Psa 50:16  But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? 

Psa 50:17  Seeing thou HATEST INSTRUCTION, and CASTEST MY WORD BEHIND THEE. 

Psa 50:18  When thou SAWEST A THIEF, then THOU CONSENTEDST WITH HIM, and hast been PARTAKERS WITH ADULTERERS. 

Psa 50:19  Thou givest thy MOUTH TO EVIL, and thy TONGUE FRAMETH DECEIT. 

Psa 50:20  Thou sittest and SPEAKEST AGAINST THY BROTHER; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. 

Psa 50:21  These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. 

Psa 52:3  Thou LOVEST EVIL MORE THAN GOOD AND LYING RATHER THAN TO SPEAK RIGHTEOUSNESS. Selah. 

Psa 52:4  Thou lovest all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue. 

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and MEN LOVED DARKNESS RATHER THAN LIGHT BECAUSE THEIR DEEDS WERE EVIL. 

Joh 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 

Joh 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 

Rom 1:22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 

Rom 1:23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 

Rom 1:24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 

Rom 1:25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 

Rom 1:26  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 

Rom 1:27  And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 

Rom 1:28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 

Rom 1:29  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 

Rom 1:30  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 

Rom 1:31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 

Rom 1:32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. 

Rom 2:8  But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 

Rom 8:8  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 

Rom 12:9  Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 

2Pe 2:13  And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; 

2Pe 2:14  Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: 

2Pe 2:15  Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness

3Jn 1:11  Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. 

When we do not want truth, we need to ask ourselves why. When others do not want truth we can comprehend why, God tells us why.

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Rom 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 

Rom 11:6  And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. 

Rom 11:7  What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded 

Rom 11:8  (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. 

Rom 11:9  And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: 

Rom 11:10  Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. 

The rest were blinded. WE are allowed to remain blind because we DESIRE blindness. God does not take a truthseeker and blind him to the truth, but God will allow one who loves  unrighteousness and all that entails to be blinded. If God is allowing blindness, it is because it is desired. If we, want to be among the elect remnant of God we need to desire the truth and to desire it above all else. If we note the unrighteousness in ourselves and desire to keep that righteousness, then we are inviting deception and seeking to be blinded to the truth.  We can't allow ourselves to pretend we want truth, when secretly we only want unrighteousness, God knows our hearts.  If we want truth it will be given to us and once we have the truth, we will tend to stand out from others because unrighteousness has become acceptable and we will not join ourselves to the unrighteous that is now called good.

Isa_5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

We live in a world of evil and yet we can't asked to be taken out of this world, but rather that we are kept from evil.

Joh 17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 

May this prayer of Jesus for us to the Heavenly Father be granted! May we be kept from the evil.

All in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, now and forever!

A Remnant.

Rom 11:1  I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 

Rom 11:2  God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, 

Rom 11:3  Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. 

Rom 11:4  But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. 

Rom 11:5  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 

Elijah- a prophet of God spoke to God and said that the enemies of God had killed all the other prophets of His, that He was alone, the last, the only prophet left and his life was at stake. This was the perception Elijah had from his point of view. Yes, prophets had been slain--

1Ki 18:4  For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water.) 

--but Elijah had no way of knowing how many prophets God had alive at any given time. Still, because he was frightened for his own life, he sent a plea to God. He told God he alone was left and his enemy sought to kill him, the last one.  God's reply wasn't what Elijah expected. Go had reserved seven thousand men who did not worship Baal.  Seven thousand! Here he was thinking he was alone in his dedication, his faith, his love of God, but he was far from alone. Seven thousand men served God, that was a whole lot of people serving God.  Paul, speaking of the Israelites- those stemming from the bloodline of Abraham- used this example to point out right then and there that there was ALSO a people, a remnant left of those of Abraham's bloodline who belonged to God through the grace of Jesus Christ.  It might seems as if the whole of Israelites other than the few such as Paul, himself and the other apostles, that there were very few who believed in Jesus, and salvation found in Him, but there were many more.

We truly need to remember God's ways are not our ways, God's thoughts are not our thoughts.

Isa_55:9  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

According to the election of grace there were a remnant left that belonged to God.

While people might want to doubt there are any believing in the truth of the Savior unto salvation, because this world is so awful and it is so hard to walk in the Spirit-- God has a people reserved, a remnant that belong to Him. We can only hope and pray that we are among those of the remnant.  We long to belong to God!

The Preaching of the Word of God- Foolishness?

Rom 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

Hearing the word of God will increase our faith. Seriously. We pray for faith, we pray to believe, we want more faith and yet we ignore the very thing that can ignite the faith within us- the Word of God.

The precious word of God. The powerful word of God. If it were not so powerful would Satan have tried so hard to rid the world of it? And when he failed at that endeavor and the word of God spread far and wide, many believed and so what did he do next? When Satan realized there was no hiding God's word from people he changed tactics and made it readily available to the masses in the most advance societies in the world. Once it became readily available it began to lose its appeal as a forbidden book. People not only have one but several Bibles in a single home and yet they lay largely unutilized. In some countries where it is still illegal to own the Bible, people hide them, they sneak bits and pieces of them and live in fear of being found out. Most of us can't imagine that. Is there a single person who has access to a computer and has somehow been able to find this Bible study in a country that forbids Bibles? If so, may God bless them with a very special blessing increasing their faith a hundredfold. We need to hear the word, and our faith needs to be increased.

I doubt very highly anyone who isn't interested in God and faith is reading this right now, yet we need the knowledge of them too don't we?

1Co 1:18  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 

The word of God is FOOLISHNESS to those who perish. The word of God is the preaching of the cross, it is the message of salvation, it is grace through the sacrifice of our Savior, it is the knowledge gained through the truth. We find the truth in the word of God, yet those who do NOT care about the word of God are among those who will perish.
 

If you do NOT care for the word of God, if you care but do not read the word of God even though you care about it, how will you truly grow in faith? Faith comes by the word of God. If you don't care if you perish or not, you probably aren't even reading this. 

1Co 1:19  For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 

1Co 1:20  Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 

1Co 1:21  For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. 

It pleased God --- by the foolishness of preaching -- to save them that believe.

The foolishness of preaching.   The word of God given to people. So many people have access to the word of God, so few have any excuse not to hear the word of God.

1Co 1:22  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 

1Co 1:23  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 

1Co 1:24  But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

The word of God is CHRIST CRUCIFIED- CHRIST the POWER of GOD, the WISDOM of God.

What an amazing treasure we have at our fingertips! Please Lord, please help us to seek Your Word, the Word of GOD. 

Believe with our hearts, confess with our mouth- Jesus Christ.

Rom 10:8  But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 

Rom 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 

Rom 10:10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

Rom 10:11  For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 

BELIEVE.

The word is in our MOUTHS, we CONFESS, we are NOT ashamed.

The word is in our HEARTS, faith is in our HEARTS,  we believe with our HEARTS.

If what comes out of our mouth is from our hearts then we must CONFESS Jesus Christ as our LORD and SAVIOR. Our Lord- He rules over us. Our Savior- He saves us. We need to be ruled by Christ Jesus, we need to be saved by Christ Jesus. We have no righteousness of our own, but if we believe in our hearts of the righteousness of our Savior, we are believing unto our salvation. 

Christ is the end of the law- for us who believe.

Rom 10:1  Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. 

Rom 10:2  For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 

Rom 10:3  For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. 

Rom 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. 

Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.

Remember we talked about there being many laws? The people Israel, God's chosen were used to a lot of ceremonial laws, their lives revolved around these laws. Their way to God as through these laws and they knew nothing else. They didn't want their ceremonies taken away, they didn't want their way to God taken from them and they were too spiritually blind to take the leap of faith necessary to believe that Jesus Christ was in fact the way to God the Father. Christ as their sacrifice, Christ, the Son of God the Father, His death was the ULTIMATE sacrifice. Instead of placing their faith in the death of an animal upon which they'd place their sins through the rituals of the Priests, they were being told they'd have to place their faith on the death of God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. They were being told the Priests were no longer necessary to go between them and God, Jesus would stand before God for them and they had to believe this! Faith in Christ as their righteousness.

Today we need to do the same, we need to place our faith in Christ and no other.

Our lives are dependent upon our Savior's love, His grace, His mercy.

Christ is my righteousness.

Christ is your righteousness.

Christ Jesus our Lord He is our law and IN Him, THROUGH Him, the law is kept perfectly.

Believing.

Joh 6:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Believing.

Faith.

We believe- Help Our Unbelief!  -- My prayer!