The Righteous Life

Wednesday, October 31, 2012, 8:11 a.m. – the Lord woke me about an hour ago with the song “Living Sacrifices” playing in my mind, and then he woke me now with this song:

Nothing but the Blood / Robert Lowry

What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Nothing can for sin atone,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

Naught of good that I have done,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

This is all my hope and peace,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus;

This is all my righteousness,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh! precious is the flow

That makes me white as snow;

No other fount I know,

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read James 1:19-27 (NIV 1984):

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

Quick to Listen

It is difficult to read this passage of scripture without coming under conviction, even a little bit, because I think most all of us have to consciously put this into practice on a daily basis, though I am certain that less chatty people manage this art of being a good listener a whole lot better, though being quiet does not necessarily equal being a good listener. The quiet person might just have his or her mind elsewhere. Yet, we need to make the conscious effort to ask questions and to listen to what others have to share about their lives.

We also need to be careful not to interrupt others in order to interject our own thoughts, but to listen quietly and attentively to what they are saying. We need to consciously make sure we are not hearing others talk all the while we are thinking about what we want to say, and while we are just waiting for the opportunity to interject our thoughts. And, we need to hear people out, even if they have an opinion different from ours, unless they are being irreverent, crass or mean-spirited in their approach. As well, we should never listen to just a few words someone says and then assume the meaning or what the person is really saying. We can make wrong assumptions and then make wrong decisions based upon those faulty assumptions.

Slow to Anger

We should not only be quick to listen and slow to speak, but we should also be slow to become angry. Now, Ephesians 4:26-27 says: “’In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” So, it is possible to be angry, but to not sin in our anger. So, how does this compute with what we read here in James 1? I believe that anger is a God-given emotion to signal us that something is wrong and that we need to do something about it. The emotion itself is not sinful, yet the heart attitude behind the anger could be sinful, and the action that follows the emotion of anger can also be sinful, though not all anger is based in or results in sinful behavior.

For instance, we might learn about someone taking advantage of and/or abusing a minor child, or taking advantage of someone who is innocent and/or helpless in some way. We should feel anger, or at least we should feel some anguish of heart at such an injustice. God hates sin. He gets angry (see Hebrews 3:10, 17). Jesus got angry (righteous indignation) with the money changers in the temple who had turned his Father’s house, which was supposed to be a house of prayer, into a marketplace (see John 2:15). He used a whip to drive them out of the temple and he overturned their tables and scattered their coins. Jesus got angry with the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, their self-righteousness, and for taking advantage of the people, all in the name of God and religion, and he had some strong words of rebuke for them. He also warned the people not to be like the Pharisees and to guard against their false teaching. Yet, in all this, God/Jesus did not sin.

It is also possible to become angry due to selfishness, unforgiveness, and/or a bitter root that has grown in our hearts, etc. We sometimes get angry because things don’t go the way we think they should, or because we have to wait in line a few extra minutes, or because someone cuts in front of us in traffic, because we feel our rights have been violated in some way. We get angry at the smallest of things sometimes that are so inconsequential in relation to eternity and things of true value. Some of this is learned. Some of it is just habit. Some of it is because we have unresolved bitterness or unforgiveness in our hearts, but most of it is rooted in pure selfishness, without thought for others (see James 4:1-3).

Yet, whether our anger comes from righteous indignation at seeing injustice prevail, or our anger is rooted in bitterness and pure selfish desire, it is still possible to sin in our anger by how we choose to respond to this emotion, which serves to warn us that something is wrong and needs to be changed. I believe the slowness to anger is not necessarily speaking of the initial emotion, which we may have no control over, but the slowness is the wisdom we choose to exercise when we feel the emotion of anger and we choose to not react immediately but to take time to be holy, i.e. to take time before the Lord in prayer first. In this time of prayer we should seek God’s face to see what needs changed – our attitudes, unforgiveness, or selfishness, or perhaps we need to take some kind of affirmative action to help those who are less fortunate than us or to assist the disadvantaged or the helpless.

I believe, thus, that when James said that “man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires,” that he is speaking of anger which is a result of sinful attitudes and selfish desire, and/or anger displayed in all kinds of fits of rage, brawling, slander, murder, revenge and the like. When we feel the emotion of anger within us beginning to rise, we thus need to be quick to seek God’s face, to inquire of the Lord as to why we are feeling such anger, and then to pray for wisdom to take the appropriate action to resolve whatever issues contributed to our feeling of anger. We should be slow to allow ourselves to let the anger get the best of us and we should be quick to deal with the anger before it turns to sin, or to address whatever sinful attitudes surfaced in the process of us feeling anger.

All Moral Filth

Wow! This is a broad subject. The word “all” means everything, nothing excluded. We may work hard at avoiding certain internet sites, stores with obvious displays of nudity, certain magazine racks, particular relationships, or specific locales where we might be more tempted toward participating in immorality, yet we may be more casual about watching TV shows, movies, or listening to certain music or playing particular video games, thinking “no big deal.” Yet, Satan is the great deceiver and he excels in subtle ways in which he slips immoral and suggestive material into the news, music, movies, and TV shows, et al. We think they are not so bad, but would you accept just a little bit of poop in your brownie?

When God says “all,” he means the whole kit and caboodle, i.e. the whole lot of it, nothing held back. We are to throw off everything that hinders our walks of faith and obedience to Christ, and the sin that so easily entangles us (see Hebrews 12). We cannot afford to play with sin. This can even include “Christian” music if the videos or the voices of the singers have a sensual tone to them. Many “Christian” artists are even posed sensually for their albums. This can even include “worship” services where people are dressed sensually and are performing on stage using sensual body language and singing in sensual tones. If it stirs you or tempts you sensually in any way, then run from it. We need to be so wise and discerning about this! The evil that is so prevalent is not just in the marketplace. It is everywhere, including in many of our churches.

Do what it Says

I love Ephesians 4, because it is just so practical. If we want to get rid of all the moral filth in our lives, we need to replace the evil with the good; the unrighteous with the righteous, or else it will be so easy to go right back to where we were before. We have to become someone or something else. This is what it means to believe in Jesus. It means to die to our old way of living for sin and self, to be transformed in heart and mind by the power and working of the Holy Spirit in our lives in giving us new lives (new birth) in Christ Jesus, our Lord, and we need to put on our new selves, created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness (see Eph. 4:17-24). So, if we have been taking in moral filth, even a little bit, and we want to now get rid of it “all,” then we need to replace it with something else. The “something else” is the word of God planted in us and lived out through us in obedience to Jesus Christ.

It is so easy to get caught up in “having devotions,” so that we can check that off our list for the day, or in order to ease a guilty conscience or some kind of feeling of obligation, and yet not really connect with God at all, because we were not really listening, and/or because we didn’t intentionally listen with the object of obeying what we read. We just did it because we knew we were supposed to. Some people approach church gatherings in the same way. They go out of a feeling of obligation, habit, or out of some sense of it making them feel good, or because it is the time they have with their friends, yet they either don’t really listen to the word being preached or they forget what they heard immediately as soon as they walk out the door, so it never takes root in their lives.

We can even go to Bible college or spend hours studying scripture or even teaching scripture and still not really listen to it attentively to hear God speak to our hearts, or certainly not with the object of obeying what we hear. Yet, all the church sermons, private devotions, Bible studies or Biblical education in the world means nothing if we do not put into practice what we hear and read. Yet, we need to make sure what we are putting into practice is indeed the word of God and not the words (teachings) of men. It is really pointless to go through the exercise of listening to or reading the word if we do not follow through in obedience. The ones who are blessed by God are those who look intently into the truths of scripture, into the person of Jesus Christ, and into the true meaning of the gospel of Jesus Christ and our salvation, which gives us freedom from slavery to sin; who don’t forget what they have read or heard, but who do what God says. May we all be doers of the word, and not listeners only!

Living Sacrifices / An Original Work / September 14, 2012

Based off Romans 12:1-2; 6:11-14 NIV

Oh, holy ones, I counsel you,

In view of God’s mercy,

To give yourselves to God in love

As living offerings,

Pleasing to God, holy in love.

This is your true worship.

Do not conform to worldly lives.

Let God transform you today.

Then you’ll be able to

Test and approve of what

God’s will is – His pleasing

And perfect will.

Oh, holy ones, I counsel you –

Offer yourselves unto God.

Oh, holy ones, I counsel you –

Do not be conceited.

Humble yourselves before your God.

Do not be self-righteous.

The strength you have to live in love

Comes from your Lord God, so

Live your new lives in pow’r of God.

Be changed in heart, mind and will.

Do this because of what

Christ did for you when

He died on the cross to save

The world from sin.

Oh, holy ones, I counsel you –

Humble yourselves before God.

Oh, holy ones, I counsel you –

Count yourselves dead to sin,

But be alive to God in Christ.

Do not let sin reign in

Your earthly lives so you

Obey its evil desires.

Offer yourselves unto your God

As those who’ve been born again.

For sin shall no longer be

Your lord and master.

Give of yourselves to God

For righteousness.

Oh, holy ones, I counsel you –

Be alive to God in Christ.

http://youtu.be/FmosWzVnAVk

Standing the Test

Tuesday, October 30, 2012, 5:58 a.m. – the Lord woke me with this song in mind:

The Old Rugged Cross / George Bennard

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

The emblem of suff’ring and shame;

And I love that old cross where the dearest and best

For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Oh, that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,

Has a wondrous attraction for me;

For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above

To bear it to dark Calvary.

In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,

A wondrous beauty I see,

For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,

To pardon and sanctify me.

To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;

Its shame and reproach gladly bear;

Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,

Where His glory forever I’ll share.

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,

Till my trophies at last I lay down;

I will cling to the old rugged cross,

And exchange it some day for a crown.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read James 1:1-18 (NIV 1984):

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations:

Greetings.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower. For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way, the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Pure Joy

When I read this passage of scripture this morning, I could not help but think of all the people along the east coast of the U.S. who are suffering in the wake of “Hurricane Sandy,” and the havoc she wreaked. That would be a real trial to suffer loss of family members and friends, houses, land, and businesses, etc., and/or the discomfort of being displaced. When we consider the turmoil that many of these people are in right now, it makes many of our daily inconveniences and minor trials pale by comparison, though many people throughout our nation and world are suffering equally as much, or are much worse off even than these who have, and who are weathering this storm and its outcome.

Yet, no matter what kind of trial we may presently be facing, or we may yet face in the near future, we are to consider them joy. That’s a tall order, isn’t it? I think we so easily get disgruntled, impatient, and frustrated with life’s circumstances when things don’t go the way we think they should. We need to be reminded to consider them joy, and to act accordingly. I believe it helps when we can get our circumstances in the appropriate context or perspective. Sometimes we just need to step back and look at how good we really have it, or certainly we need to acknowledge the sovereignty of God in our lives, and in all that comes into our lives, and learn to accept whatever he brings our way, knowing that he will work it all out for good in our lives.

Also, God allows or brings trials into our lives to test and to prove our faith, and to develop perseverance within us, which leads us to spiritual maturity and completeness in Christ. I can attest to that from personal experience over and over again. The more trials I face, the stronger I become in my resolve to obey my Lord Jesus in all ways, and to follow him wherever he leads me. Trials make us or break us. They make us better or bitter. If we respond correctly to our trials, and we fall on our knees before Jesus, seeking his face, calling out to him for answers, and we humble ourselves before God, and we are willing to be taught and to learn what our Lord Jesus wants us to learn through our trials, instead of trying to wiggle our way out of them, then we can mature in Christ and become the people of God who will have a strong testimony and witness for Jesus Christ in this fallen world.

Wisdom

Doubt is the direct opposite of faith. If we waver in unbelief, perhaps going back and forth between trusting God in our circumstances and thinking we have to manage them ourselves, then we will be like the waves of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. This is a pretty vivid picture for us with all the pictures and videos of Hurricane “Superstorm” Sandy playing out before us on TV and the internet right now.

So, if we are praying for wisdom, we should believe that God will give us the wisdom, and we should believe God when he speaks to our hearts and he tells us what to do. If we are going to call on him in prayer, seeking his face, and we are going to ask him what to do in our circumstances or lives in general, then we had better be prepared to step out in faith and to do whatever it is he asks of us, for his glory. So many people ask, but if they don’t like the answer, then they do nothing or they go the opposite direction or they do it the way they want anyway. If we are going to ask for wisdom, we need to be willing and ready to obey.

Temptation

Not only will we face various kinds of trials that test our faith in this life, but we will all be accosted with numerous temptations to sin against God. God may bring trials into our lives, and he may even allow us to go through a period of great temptation, but he is not our tempter. He does not try to trick us into sinning and then give the smack down when we do sin. Satan does that. Yet Satan cannot succeed in getting us to sin if we are not already predisposed to sin. It is our own evil desires within us that lead us into temptation. So, we cannot resist the temptations of Satan if we are entertaining sin in our minds and hearts in any form or fashion. It is amazing to me the many subtle ways in which we are trapped by sin because we didn’t have on our spiritual armor, because we were allowing sinful thoughts and attitudes to slowly and subtly creep into our lives.

I am going to cite for you some examples of what I am talking about here. If you watch some news stations, notice how they seem to focus on stories involving sexual deviant behavior. They will even show nudity or will overplay the situation so that you are constantly being bombarded with sexual images while they act shocked at it all. Or, take commercials for instance. Sexual images or sensuality is central to much of advertising, and much of it is subtle. So, we put up with the commercials in order to see the movie or TV show we want to watch, or the football game or whatever, but we don’t realize the thoughts and images that are daily being planted in our minds. This is one of the reasons my husband and I decided to get rid of our TV now 4 years ago, and we don’t miss it at all.

And, then there are the TV shows and movies, music, video games and internet sites which have sensual or sexual content to them. We know all about justifying the watching of these for the overall benefit of the entertainment value, but it is not worth it, and we are feeding the wrong kinds of messages into our minds that counteract the spiritual armor of God. I have focused this discussion here on sexual or sensual content in our media and entertainment choices, but there are also messages of disobedience to parents, dishonoring and disrespecting of authority or of the elderly, women, children, etc.; lying, cheating, stealing, homosexuality, etc. that are pervasive in our society and in our media, and in our entertainment choices. We will fail to resist the temptations of Satan against us if we fail to remove from our lives all images and input that glorifies, promotes or makes light of sin.

Good Gifts

We are saved by grace, and this not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8-9). Yet, the scriptures are clear that true grace delivers us out of bondage to sin. Only a false (diluted) grace allows the sinner to go on living a sinful lifestyle after he has made a profession of faith. A false grace invites you to “believe” without really defining Biblically what it means to believe. It invites you to “ask Jesus into your heart,” without explanation of what that entails, either, and it teaches that obedience to Christ is not required and that God is pleased with you no matter what you do.

Yet Jesus’ invitation to follow him is an invitation to death to self and sin and to follow him in obedience, without reservation, and in total abandonment to him and to his will for our lives. This is true grace, because it sets us free! So, do not be deceived by these false teachers who teach you a grace absent of the cross of Christ in your lives. Desire gives birth to sin, and sin gives birth to death (eternal damnation). Jesus Christ, on the other hand, came to set us free from slavery to sin. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, not through a bunch of lies and deceptions of men meant to scratch itching ears.

May we all call on God in truth, in humility of heart and mind, and be willing to submit ourselves to the will of the Father in heaven.

Father God / Jennifer Love Moss / Mark Bradley

Oh, God above,

I’m falling down before you.

There’s something I just

Can’t get off my mind.

It seems so long

Since I’ve come to you.

Do you remember

This child that once adored you?

Can you forgive me

Now that I’ve ignored you?

How can I now come before you?

Will you hear me when I cry?

Father God, hear my prayer.

Father God, I want to know your will.

Help me, Lord, I need you now.

I don’t know what to do.

Show me the way.

Oh, precious Lord,

Do not remain in silence.

I need your help.

There is no other way.

I can’t go on living life for me.

All my decisions

are falling to the ground.

I’m empty handed

And feeling so alone.

I want to be still and know you,

But I feel so far away.

Father God, hear my prayer.

Father God, I want to know your will.

Help me, Lord, I need you now.

I don’t know what to do.

Show me the way.

Oh, God above,

I’m falling down before you.

Song MP3: https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs2/home/songs/father-god 

Live Honorably

Monday, October 29, 2012, 7:09 a.m. – the Lord woke me this morning with this song playing in my mind:

My Jesus, I Love Thee / William R. Featherstone / Adoniram J. Gordon

My Jesus, I love Thee, I know Thou art mine;

for Thee all the follies of sin I resign. 

My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art Thou;

if ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. 

I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me,

and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;

I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow;

if ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. 

I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,

And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;

And say, when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,

If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.

In mansions of glory and endless delight;

I'll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright;

I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;

if ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, 'tis now. 

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Hebrews 13:1-21 (NIV 1984):

Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you;

    never will I forsake you.”

So we say with confidence,

“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.

    What can man do to me?”

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings…

Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.

May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Be Content

To be content means to be satisfied and joyful in our life’s circumstances, whether in good times or in bad times. It is a willingness to accept the situations of our lives, whether they are negative or positive, as in the providence of God, and that he will work them all out for our good. Contentment also focuses away from self and our selfish wills and desires, and it looks to how we can please God and serve and obey him.

If we have truly learned to be content with where God has us, and with our circumstances, and if we are truly trusting in His providential care, then we won’t be hungering and thirsting after the things of this world and the lusts of our flesh to satisfy the longings of our hearts and minds. We will, instead, hunger and thirst for righteousness, and we will look to God to meet all of our needs, instead of trying to satisfy what we think are our needs through our own self efforts, especially those efforts that take advantage of others.

Then, we will be in a better frame of mind to hear from God and to receive his instructions on how we are to live godly lives, pleasing to him.

Our Leaders

There are many kinds of leaders in our churches today – some good and some bad; some who preach the true gospel, and others who preach a diluted (false) gospel of men. We should imitate only the faith of those who are true to God’s word, who live exemplary lives, and who do not dilute the gospel. I grew up under the preaching of a man who I believe lived what he preached, and who preached the solid word of God. He wasn’t perfect, but he was/is a man of God.

We need to be spiritually discerning and test everything we hear to see whether or not it is of God. The sad reality in our churches today is that many are preaching a Jesus other than the Jesus of the Bible, and a different gospel than the one preached in God’s word, and yet so many professing Christians are putting up with it easily enough (see 2 Co. 11:4, 20). We need to not rely on men to tell us the truth, but we need to seek out the truth in God’s word through careful study and prayer for understanding, so we can discern truth from error. Then we will not be in danger of being carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.

So, if anyone tells you that all you have to do is pray a prayer to “receive Christ,” that you now have your ticket into heaven and no one can take it away, and/or that God is pleased with you no matter what you do, don’t believe him. Read the word of God, in particular the New Testament, from beginning to end, chapter by chapter (in context) and see what God’s word teaches. Ephesians 4:17-24 and Luke 9:23-25 alone tell the truth of the gospel. The truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we must forsake (die to; run away from) our lives of sin, we must be transformed in heart and mind by the power and working of the Holy Spirit within us, and we must turn to walk in faithful obedience to Jesus Christ, putting on his holiness and righteousness. We must find out what pleases the Lord and live holy lives pleasing to him (see Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 5:10; 1 John 3:22).

We are to obey our leaders and submit to their authority with these Biblical exceptions:

1)    I will not deny my Lord Jesus Christ and his authority over my head by bowing to another god, to the gods of men, or to men as gods. God is and always will be the number one authority in my life.

2)    I will not stop speaking in the name of Jesus Christ, nor will I stop sharing the truth of the full gospel message of Jesus Christ - His truth, His word, and His messages, i.e. I will not stop speaking of the things I have seen and have heard from Him.

3)    I will not comply with sin: I will not agree to sin against God in any way. I will not go against his commands and his teachings in scripture, i.e. I will not disobey His word to me as is applicable to my life under the New Covenant, and as is in complete agreement with God’s divine character and will for my life.

So, we should obey our leaders (church and government), and we should submit to their authority unless they ask us to disobey God and his words. Yet, we should not fear them or what they might do to us if we choose to follow these Biblical exceptions in obedience to God, and are persecuted or even martyred for our faith and testimony for Jesus Christ, because God will be with us through it all. He will never leave us or forsake us. Amen!

Clear Conscience

What does it mean to have a clear conscience? It means, as far as we know, we are not holding on to any sins, unforgiveness, lies, deceptions, etc., but we have been honest and forthright in all our dealings with people, we are walking in obedience to Christ to the best of our knowledge, and we are presently living holy and honorable lives pleasing to him. This is where we should all be living, and if we are not, then we need to get right with God today.

God will equip us with everything we need for doing his will, and he will work in us what is pleasing to him if we will cooperate with that work. He has made the way out for us from underneath temptation to sin. He died on the cross and shed his own blood so that we could be set free from the power and control of sin over our lives. He conquered death, hell, Satan and sin when he rose victoriously from the grave. We have a new master now – Jesus Christ! Sin shall no longer be our master so that we obey its evil desires. But God is now our only master! All glory, honor and praise be unto him! Great things He has done! Amen!

Father God / Jennifer Love Moss / Mark Bradley

Oh, God above,

I’m falling down before you.

There’s something I just

Can’t get off my mind.

It seems so long

Since I’ve come to you.

Do you remember

This child that once adored you?

Can you forgive me

Now that I’ve ignored you?

How can I now come before you?

Will you hear me when I cry?

Father God, hear my prayer.

Father God, I want to know your will.

Help me, Lord, I need you now.

I don’t know what to do.

Show me the way.

Oh, precious Lord,

Do not remain in silence.

I need your help.

There is no other way.

I can’t go on living life for me.

All my decisions

are falling to the ground.

I’m empty handed

And feeling so alone.

I want to be still and know you,

But I feel so far away.

Father God, hear my prayer.

Father God, I want to know your will.

Help me, Lord, I need you now.

I don’t know what to do.

Show me the way.

Oh, God above,

I’m falling down before you.

Don't Miss It!

Saturday, October 27, 2012, 2:27 a.m. – the Lord woke me with the song “For Our Nation,” followed by “Amazing Grace” playing in my mind.

Amazing Grace / John Newton

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found

Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,

And Grace my fears relieved.

How precious did that Grace appear

The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares

I have already come.

'Tis Grace hath brought me safe thus far

And Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.

His Word my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years

Bright shining as the sun,

We've no less days to sing God's praise

Than when we'd first begun.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Hebrews 12:14-29 (NIV 1984):

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Be Holy

We are to make every effort to live in peace with all men, but never at the sacrifice of morals, our beliefs, the teachings of scripture (under the New Covenant) or our obedience to Jesus Christ. In other words, we are not called to be men pleasers but God pleasers. We should follow the example of Jesus Christ, doing what he did, and saying the same things he said, as well as exercising the same love and compassion as he demonstrated on a daily basis. Then we will understand what this means to live in peace with all men.

We are also to make every effort to be holy. We are made holy in Christ Jesus at the moment we accept Jesus Christ’s invitation to make him Lord (boss) and Savior (from slavery to sin) of our lives, yet we are also being made holy until the day Jesus Christ returns. The effort on our part is to cooperate daily with God in the Holy Spirit’s work of conforming us to the image of Christ. God will never force his will upon us. We must daily choose to deny ourselves and to take up our cross (die daily to sin and self) and follow Jesus Christ in obedience and surrender to his will for our lives. “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.” We need to take this to heart!

Don’t Miss It!

We are to see to it that no one misses the grace of God. The grace of God was shown to us by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins so that we could be free from slavery to sin and so we could be free to live holy lives pleasing to God. So many people miss this, because they think God’s grace overlooks sin or that it saves us just so we can go to heaven one day, but a true understanding of God’s grace realizes that the reality of the grace is that it sets us free from bondage to sin in this life, and makes us slaves of righteousness. You will miss the grace of God if you think that praying a prayer gets you a ticket into heaven but that coming to Christ costs you nothing. It costs you your life! Jesus said if we hold on to our old lives of living to please ourselves (our lives of sin), we will lose them for eternity, but if we willingly die to our old way of living according to the flesh, for the sake of Jesus Christ and his gospel, we will live with him for eternity.

The Heavenly Jerusalem

We, as believers in Jesus Christ, have been blessed beyond our human comprehension. We did have to live under the Old Covenant relationship between God and man with all of its rules and regulations, but we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, which is a spiritual city, not a physical one. Under the Old Covenant, the people of God had to follow all kinds of ceremonial and cleansing rituals and regulations (see the book of Leviticus). They worshiped God at a physical temple. They had to go through human priests for the atonement of their sins. And, they relied on the prophets to speak God’s words to them.

Nonetheless, under the New Covenant relationship between God and man, the temple of God is within the lives of those who trust Jesus Christ to be their Lord (boss) and Savior (from slavery to sin) of their lives. We can worship God in spirit and in truth 24/7 without having to go to a physical building of any kind. We have the word of God printed for us (in America, especially), and readily available for anyone to read who wants to read it, as well as we have the Holy Spirit within us speaking God’s truths to our hearts. The Holy City is now a spiritual city, the true church. It is a city without walls. We can meet with God’s church anywhere at any time. The church is not a building or an institution of men, but it is a spiritual entity comprised of those who are true followers of Jesus Christ. Even if the institutional church incorporated underneath the U.S. government, and meeting in buildings built by men, was to suffer great destruction, the true church would still survive and thrive, though it may suffer great persecution and loss of human life.

Our Redeemer and Judge

Yet, just because we are not underneath the Old Covenant rules and regulations, and we may not think God still judges men in the way he did in Old Testament times, we should not think that our relationship with Jesus Christ is absent of rules and regulations or that Jesus Christ requires nothing of us, or that he will no longer judge us. He demands our very lives in total surrender and commitment to him to walk with him in holiness and to obey his commands. He is still the judge of all men. So, we should see to it that we don’t refuse him who speaks to us. This is not speaking of just refusing to accept his invitation for salvation, but we are not to refuse to obey him, thinking that now that we are under grace that we don’t have to turn from our sins, or that we don’t have to obey God. We do! Scriptures make that quite clear! God is still a holy God, and he still demands honor, respect and obedience.

God will judge us. He will judge nations and people and his church (see Rev. 2-3). He will shake this earth, and he has done so, in order to get our attention and to get us to honor him as our holy God, to bow the knee, to humble ourselves before God, to repent of our sins, and to walk with him in holiness and in righteousness. Yet, we should never count on surviving the judgments of God, or that we will be given another chance. God is still a God of grace, and he does give us many opportunities to turn to him, yet we never know if we have tomorrow, so we should follow him today while we still have today.

For Our Nation / An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Trust Him with your life today.

Make Him your Lord and your Savior.

Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.

He will forgive you of your sin;

Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.

On our knees to God we’re praying,

Seeking God to give us answers

That are only found in Him.

God is sovereign over all things.

Nothing from His mind escaping.

He has all things under His command,

And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: we’re believing

In our Lord, and interceding

For our nation and its people

To obey their God today.

He is our hope for our future.

For our wounds He offers suture.

He is all we need for this life.

Trust Him with your life today.

New Video and Recording: http://youtu.be/_XQkomPFz4Y

For Our Nation

“It is better to take refuge in the Lord

    than to trust in man.

It is better to take refuge in the Lord

    than to trust in princes” (Ps. 118:8-9).

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Ps. 20:7).

“Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods” (Ps. 40:4).

“Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save” (Ps. 146:3).

“Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD” (Is. 31:1).

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:17-24).

For Our Nation / An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Trust Him with your life today.

Make Him your Lord and your Savior.

Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.

He will forgive you of your sin;

Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.

On our knees to God we’re praying,

Seeking God to give us answers

That are only found in Him.

God is sovereign over all things.

Nothing from His mind escaping.

He has all things under His command,

And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling

You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: we’re believing

In our Lord, and interceding

For our nation and its people

To obey their God today.

He is our hope for our future.

For our wounds He offers suture.

He is all we need for this life.

Trust Him with your life today.

New Video and Recording: http://youtu.be/_XQkomPFz4Y

Untangled

Friday, October 26, 2012, 2:46 a.m. – the Lord woke me with the song “Victory in Jesus” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Hebrews 12:1-3, 12-13 (NIV 1984):

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart…

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Therefore… since…

“Therefore” means “consequently” or “because of” a particular situation, in this case what was stated previously in chapter eleven, our response should be such and such. In other words, because of the testimony and life witness and inspirational examples of those heroes of the faith listed in chapter eleven of Hebrews, which serve to strengthen our faith, we should be encouraged to follow the Lord Jesus in throwing off everything that hinders our faith, and the sin, in general, or any specific sins that tend to trip us up, so that we can run with perseverance the race of the Christian life marked out for us.

When we read about these people from the Old and New Testaments, we learn that they were ordinary people just like us with weaknesses and strengths, and subject to temptations of the flesh, just as we are. They did not have anything we don’t have. For those of us in Christ Jesus, we actually have something greater than what many of them had. We have the presence of our holy God living within us, empowering and strengthening us moment by moment and day by day.

In America, we also have the written word of God in our language in multiple translations and readily available for anyone who wants a Bible. We have the gospel preached in church buildings, in tents, on the radio, on TV, on the internet, and we can Google all kinds of Bible studies on particular scriptures or topics of interest. We have oodles of support groups and Christian discussion sites and social networks. We have Christian radio and TV stations that play gospel music and we have gospel music readily available on CDs or on the internet to where we can be blessed by inspiring, hopeful and encouraging songs, as much as we want. We are very blessed here in America with such easy access to scriptural teachings which can help inspire and encourage us in our walk of faith with Jesus Christ. So, we should be encouraged all the more to live holy lives of inspiring faith, such as what we see in these examples for us from Hebrews 11.

What Hinders

So, because of these inspiring examples for us and all the other things listed here that we have readily available for us in America at our fingertips; we should throw off everything that hinders our walk of faith. To me, one of the biggest hindrances to faith is fear, as fear and faith are polar opposites. Faith believes in what we cannot see with our physical eyes or touch with our hands. Fear casts doubts on our faith and fills our minds with all kinds of “what ifs.”

The Lord has given me a recent experience which has greatly tested and strengthened my faith. He called me to go to another city to record a song professionally and then he allowed me to get a bad cough which hindered my ability to sing. So, I had two choices before me: 1) Believe that God is who he says he is and that he will do what he said he would do, or 2) Go by my feelings and flesh and allow all the “what ifs” to crowd my mind and to keep me from stepping out in faith. I chose to walk by faith and not by sight, and the Lord took over and gave me a stronger voice than I have had in many years.

Other hindrances to walking by faith are laziness, apathy, busyness, preoccupation with self, with selfish desires, with entertainment, and with the patterns and ways of this world. Basically, self and faith are also polar opposites. Faith requires death to self – to selfish and sinful desires, to our reputations, to having it our way, and even to being liked by everyone. When we walk by faith, we may be hated by many. We have to be prepared to be hated, rejected, despised, mocked, ridiculed and severely persecuted or even killed for our faith.

Besetting Sin

When you think of being entangled by something, what comes to your mind? This morning I had a couple of tea bags in a pitcher of hot water and when I tried to stir the tea, the strings from the tea bags became entangled around the spoon to where I could not remove the spoon at all until I untangled the strings around it. I have a problem with hangers, with necklaces and with the vacuum cleaner cord getting entangled and I admit I have trouble figuring out how to untangle them and it tests my patience. I am not mechanically gifted and untangling things does not come easy to me, so I “get” this image of being entangled by something. It is frustrating, it is complicated, it is difficult to get the entanglement loose, and it does hinder our ability to do our tasks (work) until the mess is finally untangled. The entanglement weighs you down and holds you down until you are able to liberate it.

That is what sin does to us. That is why, outside of faith in Christ Jesus, we are considered as slaves (in bondage; entanglement) to sin. It is also possible to have come to faith in Jesus Christ and after having been set free, to have gotten entangled in sin all over again – been there, done that! And, that is the most miserable place to be ever! I never want to go back! Jesus Christ set me free, and in the power and strength of the Spirit of God within me, I plan to remain actively free. I don’t want to ever get entangled by sin again.

We cannot run the race (the walk of faith) of the Christian life if we are weighed down by fear, apathy, spiritual laziness, or if we are entangled by sin, because fear, self and sin are polar opposites of faith and the sin, self and fear cancel out faith. Contrary to what a lot of people believe, we can’t live in faith and still walk in darkness (in a sinful lifestyle). Sin, self and fear strangle the life right out of our faith so that they render our faith nonexistent. So, if we want to live the life God has marked out (assigned) for us to live as followers of Jesus Christ, then we need to throw off everything in our life that stands opposed to faith. This includes our entertainment choices, friendships, business partnerships, career choices, and the things we take into our eyes and minds and ears every day by choice, etc. And, we need to measure these things against God’s word and against we know is God’s will for our lives, and we need to rid our lives of everything that will hinder our walk of faith.

Fix our Eyes on Jesus

If we desire to obey Jesus Christ with our lives and to have this walk of faith that he so desires from each and every one of us, we must submit to our heavenly Father in all things, and we must recognize our total dependence upon God to supply us with all that we need. We cannot live a life of faith in our own strength and willpower or with our own resources. Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit and is a working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives and is not something we can just muster up on our own. We can only operate in faith when we operate in the power of the Holy Spirit within us, and the Holy Spirit will not do his work through us if we are not first of all yielded to his control, which we cannot be if we are still being controlled by the flesh. This does not mean we have to be perfect, but we do have to be in tune with God and with his will and purposes for our lives, we have to be listening to his voice speaking to us, and obedience to Christ should be a daily practice in our lives.

First we must get rid of anything in our lives that hinders our walk of faith, and then we must be focused on Jesus Christ. We cannot be focused on Jesus Christ if we spend little time listening to and obeying him and if we spend the majority of our time just doing what pleases ourselves. We have to be daily in the word, listening, and obeying what it says. And, we have to not be filling our lives and minds with a bunch of garbage from this sinful world, which only serves to negate what good we are taking into our minds. To fix our eyes on Jesus means to concentrate our attention, minds and hearts on what Jesus Christ has for us, and to rid our minds and hearts of all that stands in the way of that.

Jesus Christ set the perfect example for us to follow. He stayed focused on what was the ultimate purpose and goal of his life on this earth – to die for our sins so we could be free from the entanglement of (slavery to) sin. Because he was focused on the joy of our salvation, he was able to endure all the mistreatment and the crucifixion, knowing that the end result would be worth all he had to suffer for you and for me.

When we choose to walk by faith and not by sight, and we choose to walk a life of faithful obedience to Jesus Christ, we will be hated by many, including by many within our churches who are following the ways of men more than they are the ways of God. We will be strongly opposed, in some cases, and may suffer much unjust treatment, even sometimes at the hands of our church leadership. Yet, when we are going through such treatment due to our walk of faith, we are to keep in mind that Jesus Christ endured much opposition from sinful men, so he knows what we are going through, and he will help us through this, so we should not grow weary or lose heart when things don’t go the way we had hoped.

Strengthen what is Weak

So, we need to strengthen our weak knees (by going against what we fear), and make level paths for our feet (by removing those hindrances and sins of entanglement), not only so we can walk the walk of faith, but so we can be used of God in the lives of others, too, so that they can experience spiritual healing, as well. Our walk of faith is not just for the benefit of our own relationship between us and Jesus Christ alone, but we are to be lights for the gospel and shine his light of truth and love to the world around us. When we follow the truth of the gospel, and we forsake our lives of sin, and we choose to accept God’s gift of grace and of faith in our lives, and we appropriate his grace and gift of faith in our lives that he has so graciously given to us, then we can know the victory that is ours in Christ Jesus to overcome any and all hindrances, obstacles and opposing forces against our faith, and we can know and experience, too, what it truly means to be untangled from the entanglement of sin, and that is the best place to be ever! Jesus set me free! I am free indeed!!

Victory in Jesus / Eugene M. Bartlett

I heard an old, old story,

How a Savior came from glory,

How He gave His life on Calvary

To save a wretch like me;

I heard about His groaning,

Of His precious blood's atoning,

Then I repented of my sins

And won the victory.

I heard about His healing,

Of His cleansing pow'r revealing.

How He made the lame to walk again

And caused the blind to see;

And then I cried, "Dear Jesus,

Come and heal my broken spirit,"

And somehow Jesus came and bro't

To me the victory.

I heard about a mansion

He has built for me in glory.

And I heard about the streets of gold

Beyond the crystal sea;

About the angels singing,

And the old redemption story,

And some sweet day I'll sing up there

The song of victory.

O victory in Jesus,

My Savior, forever.

He sought me and bought me

With His redeeming blood;

He loved me ere I knew Him

And all my love is due Him,

He plunged me to victory,

Beneath the cleansing flood.

By Faith

Thursday, October 25, 2012, 4:00 a.m. – the Lord woke me this morning with the song “Jesus, I am Resting, Resting” playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Hebrews 11 (quoting selected verses in the NIV 1984):

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death…

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

We Do Not See

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” This, I believe, is speaking mainly of our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and of our hope of eternal life with God in heaven, yet faith in God does not stop at our initial decision to believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, and to make him Lord (boss) of our lives. We live out our faith each and every day by the things we do, say and think, in response to the promises of God, and to what we say we believe. In other words, our faith is proved genuine by what we do. And, that is exemplified for us here in the “Faith Chapter” of the Bible.

The Lord is presently giving me a real life example of this in my own life. A little over a month ago a music producer wrote to me on a professional network called “LinkedIn.” The Lord had given me over 100 songs to write in the past year and a half, plus he has had me sharing what he teaches me from my quiet times with him each day on the Internet, for over six years. I had joined this LinkedIn network a few months ago, and had posted some examples from my blog and from the songs the Lord has given to me to write. The music producer looked at them and then asked me to consider taking the songs to the next level. My first response to him was “No.”

He wrote back and asked me to pray about it, so I did, and the Lord immediately responded to me with an old hymn by A. B. Simpson: “To the regions beyond I must go, I must go, where the story has never been told. To the millions who never have heard of his love, I must tell the sweet story of old.” So, I knew he was sending me “to the regions beyond” with the gospel. As well, he gave me this message from another song, “God will make a way where there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see. He will make a way for me… And He will do something new today” (by Don Moen). Then he spoke to me through the scripture: “With man” (this means me) “this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” So, I knew I was to go, that God would work in ways I could not see, and that he would do something that was impossible with man, but not impossible with God.

So, I began the process of selecting a song(s) to record and to send to the producer, to work with the producer on selecting the best arrangement for the song which I believe the Lord chose for this project, and then practicing the song and my breathing. I am 62 years old and I had not done much singing for a while prior to the Lord giving me songs to write, and my voice was already not at “professional quality,” and was in and out. Then, two weeks ago I got this really bad cough from sinus drainage (allergy related, I believe), so I prayed about that and the Lord answered back that against all hope Abraham believed and became the father of many nations, and “hope that is seen is no hope at all, but if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait patiently for it.” This is the meaning of faith as described in Hebrews 11. It believes God for what we cannot see with human eyes, and it acts upon that belief by following him in obedience and by surrendering to his will, sight unseen!

When we Get There

So, here it is the morning that I am scheduled to record the song with the producer, and I still am coughing and my voice has not returned, yet I am following the Lord in obedience and am going completely on faith. The Lord has not promised me he will give me a voice, though. He just told me to go, and that he would make a way for the impossible to happen. So, I am resting in him to do far beyond I could possibly imagine and that he will gain the glory through whatever he chooses to do through this. The thing for me is that I have to be willing to have no voice and to be thought a fool for even coming here to begin with. Yet, think about all these examples in Hebrews 11. Many of them were considered nuts. I am sure Noah was thought crazy for building the ark, but not just him. Many who have trusted God by faith have been considered “loony” by the world. Yet, the Lord reminded me of one of the verses in the song “The Regions Beyond:”

To the hardest of places He calls me to go,

 Never thinking of comfort or ease;

 The world may pronounce me a dreamer, a fool,

 Enough if the Master I please.

Amen!

Rick and I are in the process of reading a book called “Not a Fan” by Kyle Idleman. The last section of the book is titled “Following Jesus – Wherever, Whenever, Whatever.” I’ve got the “wherever,” because we are there, I believe, and the “whenever” appears to be at 10:00 a.m. this morning, but I don’t know yet what the “whatever” is going to be, which is the point. When God says “Go,” we need to be willing to go wherever he sends us, whenever he decides we should go, and to whatever he calls us to do, which we may not see ahead of time and we may not see completely even in our lifetimes, as was also true of these men and women of faith. Abraham, “when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance,” packed up his bags, “obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” This is the meaning of faith. We don’t have to have any guarantees ahead of time other than to know we are in the will of God and that he will provide all we need for our journey, and that he will gain the glory through it all. We don’t have to have a five page business plan to know exactly what we are supposed to do when we get there. We just go, and we trust God that he will do exactly what he had planned all along. To God be the glory!

Our Salvation

So, how does this apply to our faith in Jesus Christ to save us from sins? Well, first of all we must believe God is who he says he is and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that he did leave his home in heaven, came to earth, took on human flesh, suffered as we suffer; that he was tempted in all the ways we are tempted, yet without sin; that he was crucified on a cross for our sins; that he took upon himself the sins of the entire world, crucified and buried them with him, and that he rose from the dead, triumphing over death, hell, Satan and sin; that he ascended into heaven; and that one day he is coming back to judge the world and to receive his bride, the true church, to be with him forever.

Yet, we must do more than just believe all of that with our minds. Notice how all the people of faith listed in this chapter, and throughout the Bible, believed God and they acted upon what they believed through obedience. Noah did not just stand there and say “I believe, God, that you can do this,” but he obeyed God and built the ark, and he worked on it for 100 years before the rains came. Wow! Can you imagine? Abraham obeyed and went even though he didn’t know where he was going. By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months. “By faith Moses refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward... he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.”

So, when we come to Jesus Christ by faith, and we invite him into our lives to be our Lord and Savior (from sin), we turn away from our lives of sin, and we turn to God to follow Jesus Christ with our lives, to go wherever he leads us, and to do whatever he commands. This is how we show that our faith is genuine. If we truly believe Jesus Christ died so that we could be free from slavery to sin, then that faith should be acted out by us repenting of our sins, and by us turning to follow Jesus Christ in obedience and surrender to his will. And, we willingly place our lives into the hands of the Master and we trust him with the results. This is what it means to believe, and today I am taking yet another step of faith in trusting God to do what he said he would do, sight unseen, and believe He will get the glory through it all. I rest in Him!

Jesus, I am Resting, Resting / Jean Sophia Pigott / 1845-1882

Jesus, I am resting, resting,

In the joy of what Thou art;

I am finding out the greatness

Of Thy loving heart.

Thou hast bid me gaze upon Thee,

And Thy beauty fills my soul,

For by Thy transforming power,

Thou hast made me whole.

O, how great Thy loving kindness,

Vaster, broader than the sea!

O, how marvelous Thy goodness,

Lavished all on me!

Yes, I rest in Thee, Belovèd,

Know what wealth of grace is Thine,

Know Thy certainty of promise,

And have made it mine.

Simply trusting Thee, Lord Jesus,

I behold Thee as Thou art,

And Thy love, so pure, so changeless,

Satisfies my heart;

Satisfies its deepest longings,

Meets, supplies its every need,

Compasseth me round with blessings:

Thine is love indeed!

Ever lift Thy face upon me

As I work and wait for Thee;

Resting ‘neath Thy smile, Lord Jesus,

Earth’s dark shadows flee.

Brightness of my Father’s glory,

Sunshine of my Father’s face,

Keep me ever trusting, resting,

Fill me with Thy grace.

Jesus, I am resting, resting,

In the joy of what Thou art;

I am finding out the greatness

Of Thy loving heart.