Willfully Continuing in Sin

Jeremiah 18:11-15 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

 

11 Now therefore, tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘Behold, I am planning a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, and correct your ways and deeds.’ 12But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

 

13Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“Inquire among the nations:

Who has ever heard things like these?

Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing.

14Does the snow of Lebanon

ever leave its rocky slopes?

Or do its cool waters flowing from a distance

ever run dry?

15Yet My people have forgotten Me.

They burn incense to worthless idols

that make them stumble in their ways,

leaving the ancient roads

to walk on rutted bypaths

instead of on the highway.”

 

The Church at Large

 

All throughout the New Testament and in certain places in the Old Testament we have warnings with regard to the events of the last days before the return of Christ. We are told of the kinds of things which we should expect to be taking place. And I believe we are seeing many of those already taking place in our present age. I believe the church at large, which has gone the ways of the world, is presently under the judgment of God and that God is sending His messengers to call them to repent of sin and to obey God.

 

But so much of what is called “church” is not the biblical body of Christ in service to the Lord, but they are these institutions of human making which are being marketed to the world. And in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings, so many of them have altered and diluted the gospel message to make it less offensive and more appealing to human flesh. And they have turned their gatherings into showcases in order to attract the world to their gatherings. But this is not of God!

 

Called of God

 

And if you are one of God’s messengers, called of God to take the truth of His Word to the people, and to call His wayward ones to repentance and to obedience to God’s commands, you might find yourself being rejected and cast aside by many who call themselves Christians, and who attend these institutional market-driven “churches,” because so many of them have rejected the biblical gospel in favor of a friendlier “gospel” which does not require them to repent of their sins and to obey God’s commands.

 

But even many who profess faith in Jesus Christ, who accept that God calls us to repentance and to obedience to His commands, they will teach or will acknowledge that these are recommended, but that they are optional, and that they are not required for salvation and for eternal life with God. But that is a lie from hell! For not everyone who calls Jesus “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven but only those who are DOING (obeying) the will of God the Father who is in heaven (see Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26).

 

They’ve Forgotten God

 

And when this says that God’s people have forgotten Him, it isn’t that they are no longer aware of Him or of His presence, but that they have chosen their own paths, and they have chosen to reject God’s commands. And sadly this is where many professers of faith in Jesus Christ are today, giving lip service to God, but while following after the idols of this world. Many of them do so because they have believed the lie that they don’t have to repent of sin, nor obey God, and that they can still inherit eternal life with God.

 

So they feel at liberty to chart their own course, and to walk their own path, and to continue in deliberate and habitual sin against God all the while claiming Jesus as their Lord and Savior and heaven as their eternal destiny. For they may be those who attend these gatherings of what are called “churches,” which are being led of human flesh and not of God, and which teach that we don’t have to obey God nor repent of sin as required of God. So God is calling them to repentance and to obey Him and His commands.

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

 

Willfully Continuing in Sin

An Original Work / October 26, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

The Train 

 

An Original Work / July 17, 2011

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

The train is coming down the tracks.

It captures all who in faith lack.

The engine is controlled by man;

Leads each captive to ruin.

 

The cars, they are God’s holy church,

Which follows men who are on the search

To trap the church in their own snare;

For Christ they do not care.

 

The track, it leads to God’s judgment

For those who are not repentant,

But follow, each his own stubborn way,

And Jesus they do not obey.

 

So God is calling to His bride

To turn from sin and in Christ abide;

Stop placing their trust solely in man;

Trust Christ for His forgiveness.

 

https://vimeo.com/113676228

Wayward Children

Wayward children, wandering souls,

Thoughtless people, varying roles,

Walk in darkness, seeing no light,

For from Jesus, taken their flight.

Have no mercy, walking in sin,

Self-indulgent, drinking their gin,

All about them, not about God,

But the many wear a façade.

Put a mask on, others impress,

Think they’re being such a success,

But they’re not, for time they do waste,

For the real world they will not face.

Live in dream world, taking up time,

They see their world truly sublime,

Entertainment, all about self,

Put the Bible up on a shelf.

Time is ticking, it’s ticking by,

But to their sins they will not die,

Walk with purpose, they will not go,

For the Savior they do not know.

God is calling, repent of sin,

Accept Jesus living within,

Make Him Lord now, Lord of your life,

Give up idols, to sin now die.

Walk with Jesus every day,

Read your Bible, bow to Him, pray,

Love the people with sincere love,

Life surrender to Him above.

An Original Work / February 9, 2024

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

“These people honor me with their lips,

    but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain;

    their teachings are merely human rules.”

(Matthew 15:8-9 NIV)

Your Trust in God? Or in Man?

The Ones Who Trust in Humans

 

Jeremiah 17:5-6 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

 

This is what the LORD says:

“5Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind,

who makes mere flesh his strength

and turns his heart from the LORD.

6He will be like a shrub in the desert;

he will not see when prosperity comes.

He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,

in a salt land where no one lives.”

 

Now, this is not saying that we should go around distrusting everyone, but that we should not trust in humans to be our gods, our saviors, and the ones to lead us in the right ways and on the correct paths. We should not believe everything any one particular human says, but we are to test the spirits against the teachings of the Scriptures, taught in their correct biblical context, to see which ones are telling us the truth. For not everyone tells the truth, even if they are pastors or Bible teachers or elders of “churches.”

 

We are not to rely on human flesh in place of our dependence on God alone. We are not to be followers of man, but followers of God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. We are not to put humans and what they tell us above God and what His Word teaches us, although this is what so many professing “Christians” are doing today. For so many are believing the lies and they are rejecting the truths taught by Jesus Christ and by His New Testament apostles. And so they are relying on a false gospel as their hope.

 

Basically, we are not to believe everything we are told by pastors, elders, missionaries, evangelists, “Christian” authors, politicians, political parties, the news media (all sorts), and our government heads, etc. just because “so and so” said it. Lies and liars abound most everywhere we look these days. And we should not repost other people’s writings unless we are certain that what they are telling us is the truth, and that what they are saying about Christianity agrees with what the Scriptures teach in the right context.

 

So many professing Christians, though, are followers of other humans rather than being followers of God. And they are believing the lies taught by other humans without testing to see if what they are being told is, in fact, the truth. Therefore, it appears that the majority of those professing faith in Jesus Christ here in the USA are following after a false gospel of salvation, for they are being taught that they don’t have to obey God’s commands and that they don’t have to repent of their sins, and so they continue in sin.

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

 

The Ones Who Trust in The Lord

 

Jeremiah 17:7-8 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

 

“7But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,

whose confidence is in Him.

8He is like a tree planted by the waters

that sends out its roots toward the stream.

It does not fear when the heat comes,

and its leaves are always green.

It does not worry in a year of drought,

nor does it cease to produce fruit.”

 

So, what does it look like to trust in the Lord? It means to believe what His Word teaches us, but only as taught in the correct biblical context. For so many lies are now being taught by taking Scriptures out of context and by making them say what they do not say if taught in the proper biblical context. So many liars who are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” are leading the masses astray to believe they do not have to obey God and they do not have to put sin to death in their lives. And they are leading them straight to hell.

 

So, don’t rely on quick, short, simplified messages which may or may not be telling you the truth. I know it is easier to read what is short, and it takes more time to read what is longer, but shorter is not always better. Often it is not good at all, and it can be purposefully deceptive, but not always. But more and more it seems to be in the majority. And longer is not always better, either, if what is being taught is still lies. So we need to be discerning people who study the Scriptures and who walk in obedience to our Lord.

 

For if our trust is genuinely in the Lord, and not in human flesh, we will be those who have, by faith in Jesus Christ, denied self, died to sin, and who are presently and actively walking (in conduct, in practice) in obedience to our Lord’s commands. We will be followers of Christ and not of man. Our trust will be solely in God and we will not be looking to other humans to be our “saviors.” We will be those who listen for His voice and who follow Him in doing whatever it is He has for us to do, as His followers who love Him.

 

And we will be at peace even in the storms of life, as a matter of life practice. And this is not to say that we will never be frightened over anything or that we will always be at peace, but that when we are afraid we will turn to the Lord for our comfort and our peace and for His direction in what we are to do, and in how we are to respond, and we will rest in Him and not let fear overtake us. For Satan is going to try to make us afraid. We have to not give in to him. We must let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts instead.

 

Your Trust in God? Or in Man?

An Original Work / October 25, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

The Peace of Christ 

 

Based off of Colossians 3:1-17; Ephesians 5:19-20

An Original Work / October 31, 2011

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

Let the word of Christ dwell in you,

As you teach with all wisdom,

Teaching one another to not

Think on earthly things;

Think instead on things above,

Where Christ sits with God, in love,

Saving us from all of our sins,

Cleansing us; made new within.

 

Let the peace of Christ rule your hearts,

As you sing songs unto Him;

Speak to one another with psalms,

Hymns, and spir’tual songs;

Always giving thanks to God,

In the name of Christ, His Son,

Who gave His life up for us all,

And gave us eternal life.

 

Let the love of Christ within you

Rule in your hearts; grace within,

Purifying you from your sin,

Make you whole within.

Forgive as the Lord forgave.

Show His kindness ev’ry day.

In word or deed, whate’er you do,

Glory give to Jesus Christ.

 

https://vimeo.com/125863950

The Pure in Heart

Jeremiah 17:9-10 ESV

 

“The heart is deceitful above all things,

    and desperately sick;

    who can understand it?

‘I the Lord search the heart

    and test the mind,

to give every man according to his ways,

    according to the fruit of his deeds.’”

 

I sometimes hear other people and some pastors quote Jeremiah 17:9, and they apply it to all people, including to Christians, and that always bothers me. Why? Because, as Christians we should have hearts which are now surrendered to God. Our hearts shouldn’t be deceitful and desperately sick (wicked). Now I would agree that our fleshly hearts are like this before we have changed hearts, and prior to the Spirit living within us. But shouldn’t we now have changed hearts, renewed of the Spirit of God?

 

For, we read in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” And we read in Matthew 6:20-21 that we are to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven.. for where our treasure is, there our heart will be also. And in Matthew 12:34-35 we read, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.”

 

And in Matthew 22:37 we read, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” But how can we do that if we all have deceitful and wicked hearts? And in Luke 8:15 we read, “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” So, some people have honest and good hearts.

 

And in John 7:38 we read, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” And in Acts 2:46 we read about “glad and generous hearts.” And in Acts 4:32 we read, “Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul,” and that was a heart surrendered to God. And in Acts 13:22 we read, “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.”

 

And in Acts 15:9 we read, “having cleansed their hearts by faith.” And in Romans 5:5 we read, “because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” So, we can, by faith in Jesus, have cleansed and pure hearts. And in Romans 6:17 we read, “have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.” So, we can have obedient hearts to God.

 

And in Romans 10:1 we read, “My heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.” And 2 Corinthians 4:6 says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” In Galatians 4:6 we read, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”

 

And Ephesians 3:17 says, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love.” And Ephesians 6:6 says, “not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.” And in Colossians 3:15, “compassionate hearts.” We read in 2 Thessalonians 3:5, “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”

 

And in 1 Timothy 1:5, “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” And in 2 Timothy 2:22 we read, “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” So, if we believe in Jesus Christ with God-given faith in him, we can have pure hearts, good and honest hearts, and we can love God with our whole heart.

 

We can have glad and generous hearts, and hearts which are surrendered to Jesus Christ, and we can be people after God’s own heart, and have cleansed hearts, and hearts filled with the love of God. And we can have obedient hearts and hearts which desire good for others. We can have hearts filled with the light of truth, and Spirit-filled hearts, hearts that are committed to doing the will of God, compassionate hearts, and hearts which are directed to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.

 

So, yes, in our sin nature, we have deceitful and wicked hearts. But once we have been transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and our hearts have been cleansed and made new by God-given faith in Jesus Christ, and God is living within our hearts, by faith in him, our hearts shouldn’t be deceitful and desperately wicked. Now they should be pure, honest, good, moral, upright, godly, generous, and hearts filled with the love of God.

 

But this doesn’t mean that everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ has a pure, honest, upright, and godly heart committed to obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ. This comes through us daily dying to sin and to self and us daily surrendering our hearts to the Lord and walking in His ways and in His truth. But it is the Lord who tests our hearts, and He will give to each one of us according to our ways (see Romans 2:6-8; Galatians 6:7-8).

 

So, just know that not all of us have deceitful and desperately wicked hearts, not if our hearts have been cleansed and renewed of the Holy Spirit. But we still live in flesh bodies, and so we still have the ability to return to wicked and deceitful hearts if we cease to surrender our hearts to the Lord, and if we stop obeying the Lord, in practice, and if we go back to living in sin and for self. So, we need to guard our hearts so we keep having pure hearts.

 

The Pure in Heart

An Original Work / Originally posted on July 2, 2023

Reposted on October 25, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

My Sheep 

 

Based off John 10:1-18 NIV

An Original Work / June 24, 2012 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

My sheep hear me. They know me.

They listen to my voice and obey.

I call them and lead them.

They know my voice, so they follow me.

They will never follow strangers.

They will run away from them.

The voice of a stranger they know not;

They do not follow him.

 

So, I tell you the truth that

I am the gate, so you enter in.

Whoever does enter

Will find forgiveness and will be saved.

Nonetheless whoever enters

Not by the gate; other way,

He is the thief and a robber.

Listen not, the sheep to him.

 

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,

Who laid his own life down for the sheep.

I know them. They know me.

They will live with me eternally.

The thief only comes to steal and

Kill and to destroy the church.

I have come to give you life that

You may have it to the full…

 

They know my voice, so they follow me.

 

https://vimeo.com/114938263

It's Passing Away

The world as we know it is passing away.

Corrosion, corruption have come here to stay.

The lies and deceptions are plain as can be.

They capture the multitudes; few are now free.

They kill and they trick and they lie through their teeth.

They think they’re above, but they’re really beneath.

So many believe them, who fall for their tricks.

They give them their loyalties, to them affix.

They get so convinced that they cling to the lies.

They don’t use good judgment, so they are not wise.

They fall for the platitudes, all the smooth talk.

When presented with truth, then to that they balk.

So, what is the answer to all that’s afloat?

It’s Jesus who separates sheep from the goats.

Believe Him and His word, do all that He speaks,

Believe not the messengers whose lies they sneak.

An Original Work / February 4, 2024

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

The Prophets are Prophesying Lies

Jeremiah 14:13-15 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

 

13“Ah, Lord GOD!” I replied, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”

 

14“The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds.

 

15Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!

 

They Spread Lies

 

When I read this, what immediately came to mind is the false teachers of a false gospel of salvation who are spreading lies to the people today. For they are telling them that God does not require of them that they repent of their sins and that they obey God’s commandments. For they are calling that “works salvation.” And they are telling them that all that God requires is that they confess Him as Lord and believe in His death and resurrection and now all their sins are forgiven and heaven is guaranteed them when they die.

 

In essence, they are telling them that they will not have to suffer anything, but that all will go well for them, even though they love to wander and they have not restrained themselves from doing what is evil in the sight of God. Even though their iniquities are great, they are being told that God will not punish them for their sins because they “prayed the prayer to receive Christ.” And so they are assured salvation from all sin and heaven as their eternal destiny, even though sin is still their practice and not obedience.

 

The Delusions of Their Minds

 

We have so many pastors, elders, preachers, evangelists, and missionaries today who are teaching the people a false gospel narrative in place of the true gospel message. But even though they prophesy in the name of the Lord, what they are teaching as “the gospel” is an altered and diluted false (half-truth) gospel message which does not require death to sin and obedience to God as necessary components of believing faith, even though that is what Jesus and His New Testament apostles taught as the gospel.

 

But this false gospel message is not coming from just a handful of false prophets and preachers, but it appears to be widely accepted across the USA, where I live, regardless of church denomination affiliation. Even those who do teach the importance of repentance and obedience to God often teach them as recommended but not as required, so more like they are optional. Far too many preachers of “the gospel” are feeding the people lies from hell which are keeping many of them still walking in sinful practices.

 

But God Will Judge the Ungodly

 

And who are the “ungodly”? They are not just the people who make no professions of faith in Jesus Christ, but they are all who make sin their practice, their habit, deliberately and habitually, and who do not obey God and His commands as a matter of life practice. The Scriptures teach that if sin is our practice, and not obedience to God’s commands, we will not inherit eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls Him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God (Matthew 7:21-23).

 

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in Him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (Romans 6:1-23).

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

 

So, repent of your sins and obey God and His commands today in life practice while you still have today, for we are not promised tomorrow.

 

The Prophets are Prophesying Lies

An Original Work / October 24, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

The Ransom

 

An Original Work / September 8, 2011

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

Jesus paid the ransom so we’d be forgiven;

Purified from our sin so we’d be set free.

Crucified on a tree; took on Him our sin.

Buried our sin with Him; rose in victory.

Jesus calls us to Him; asks that we flee from sin;

Obey His commandments; live eternally.

 

God our Father loves us, which is why He gave us

His Son to die for us on a cruel tree.

God created us to walk in fellowship

With Him daily trusting in His righteousness.

He has a plan for us to abide in His grace;

Be transformed in our hearts; live for Him always.

 

Won’t you trust in Jesus? Be your Lord and Master?

He wants to forgive you, give you victory

Over sin and yourself, Jesus set you free.

Daily walking with Him, live victoriously.

Invite Him in your heart. He’ll give you a new start.

Your old life behind you, a new creature be.

 

https://vimeo.com/125864288

The Ways of The Nations

Jeremiah 10:1-7 BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

 

1 Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2This is what the LORD says:

“Do not learn the ways of the nations

or be terrified by the signs in the heavens,

though the nations themselves are terrified by them.

3For the customs of the peoples are worthless;

they cut down a tree from the forest;

it is shaped with a chisel

by the hands of a craftsman.

4They adorn it with silver and gold

and fasten it with hammer and nails,

so that it will not totter.

 

5Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch,

their idols cannot speak.

They must be carried

because they cannot walk.

Do not fear them, for they can do no harm,

and neither can they do any good.”

 

6There is none like You, O LORD.

You are great, and Your name is mighty in power.

7Who would not fear You, O King of nations?

This is Your due.

For among all the wise men of the nations,

and in all their kingdoms,

there is none like You.

 

The Nations

 

In the world we live in there are multiple independent (or seemingly independent) nations (countries). But this isn’t just about the ways of different cultures in various physical nations throughout the world. This is about the world and worldliness and worldly customs and practices. We, as the people of God, are not to adopt worldly and ungodly ways into our lives which are contrary to the will and purpose of God for our lives. We are to be unlike the world as we are being conformed to the image of Christ Jesus.

 

But we live in a time and age where the world and worldliness are shouting out at us every day, inviting us to join them via the internet, television, radio, smart phones, lap top computers, marketing, and artificial intelligence (AI). Since the ministry God has given to me requires that I be on the internet daily, because this is where I share what I am learning from the Lord each day during my times with Him, I can’t miss seeing all the advertising and news stories, etc. calling out to be noticed and believed.

 

Wisdom and Discernment

 

So, it takes wisdom and discernment from God to help us to navigate through all of this so that we do not get captivated by worldliness and idolatry and worldly ways and practices which are against God and against His teachings, and against His will and purpose for our lives. And this does not require that we live in caves in the woods separate from all humanity. We are to live in the world but we are not to adopt worldly and ungodly ways which are contrary to the will of God, i.e. which engage in sinful practices.

 

Idolatry

 

And this is speaking of idolatry, i.e. the worship of what is not God, which can be anyone or anything we raise up above God and to which (or whom) we give our loyalties and devotion above God or in place of God. This is speaking of spiritual adultery. For when we believe in Jesus Christ, we enter into a spiritual marriage relationship with Him. He becomes our husband and we (male and female) become His bride. And we are now to be faithful to our Lord in following Him in the ways which He would have us to go.

 

And this is speaking about “lip service” only versus true worship of God as our only Lord (God). For many profess faith in Jesus Christ, but many are not following the Lord in obedience to His commands in godly and moral living. Far too many professing Christians are living ungodly and worldly lives which are contrary to God and to His commands. And way too much of what are called “churches” are pacifying them in their sins and are refusing to call people to repentance and to obedience to God’s commands.

 

The Gospel

 

Yet by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in Him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

 

For God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for Jesus’ return. For it is not the one who claims he is “in Christ” who is “in Christ,” but it is the one who has denied self, died with Christ to sin, and who is now walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in practice, and no longer in sin. We have the hope and the promise of eternal life with God in heaven (see Titus 2:11-14; 1 John 1-3).

 

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:1-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

 

So, if you have been living in idolatry and in adultery against the Lord, I pray you will repent of your sins today, turn to God, and follow Him in obedience.

 

The Ways of The Nations

An Original Work / October 24, 2026

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

As the Deer

 

By Martin J. Nystrom

Based off Psalm 42:1

 

As the deer panteth for the water

So my soul longeth after You

You alone are my heart's desire

And I long to worship You

 

You alone are my strength, my shield

To You alone may my spirit yield

You alone are my heart's desire

And I long to worship You

 

[A Prayer of Devotion to God Alone]