God be Merciful to Those Who're Sinners

Psalms 86:11-13 ESV

 

“Teach me your way, O Lord,

    that I may walk in your truth;

    unite my heart to fear your name.

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,

    and I will glorify your name forever.

For great is your steadfast love toward me;

    you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.”

 

The Way of the Lord

 

What is the way of the Lord? It is the way of righteousness and of holiness, of moral purity and devotion to the Lord. It is the way of honesty and integrity, and the way of love and kindness. It is a walk of faithfulness and of obedience to the Lord in the power of God’s Spirit.

 

And by the Spirit the way of the Lord is also the putting to death the deeds of the flesh, and not letting them reign in our lives any longer. And it is the surrendering of our lives to the Lordship of Christ, willing to do whatever he commands of us, for we love him and we desire to please him.

 

We need the Lord to teach us his ways so that we may walk in his truth. And his ways are taught to us throughout the Scriptures, both in the Old and in the New Testaments, although we are not under the Old Covenant liturgical, ceremonial, sacrificial and purification laws the Jews of old had to follow.

 

And if we are in Christ, through God-given faith in Jesus Christ, we have the Holy Spirit of God living within us teaching us the ways of the Lord, too – counseling, encouraging, urging, convicting, leading and guiding us in the ways of the Lord and in the truth of God’s Word. So, we must listen to him.

 

And if we desire the Lord to unite our hearts to fear his name, then we need to understand what it means to walk in the fear of the Lord, for it involves total surrender to him as Lord of our lives, and it involves us forsaking our sins and following him in obedience to his ways.

 

And the reason that any of this is even possible in our lives is because of what Jesus Christ, God the Son, did for us in dying on that cross and in being resurrected from the dead on our behalf so that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness.

 

Psalms 86:14-17 ESV

 

“O God, insolent men have risen up against me;

    a band of ruthless men seeks my life,

    and they do not set you before them.

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,

    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Turn to me and be gracious to me;

    give your strength to your servant,

    and save the son of your maidservant.

Show me a sign of your favor,

    that those who hate me may see and be put to shame

    because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.”

 

Strength to Your Servant

 

Who are these insolent people today who are rising up against the saints of the Lord? They are those who do not walk in the fear of the Lord but who walk by the flesh, who are disrespectful and dishonoring to the Lord Jesus and to his gospel. And so they are opposing the Lord’s servants.

 

They are those who are living by the desires of their sinful flesh, engaging in all manner of evil, who commit adultery against their spouses, who abuse their children, who cheat their companies out of fair work, and who hate and murder and steal and slander in order to get their own way.

 

Some of them are pastors of church congregations. Some of them are heads of governments or they are other prominent people of enormous influence and power over the people. Others are just husbands and wives and fathers and mothers and just ordinary people of little influence at all.

 

And they are people who need to repent of their sins and to turn to the Lord and to surrender their lives to Jesus Christ and to follow him in his ways and in his truth, but who are now unwilling and resistant and stubborn and prideful, and so they keep on in their sins in opposing the Lord.

 

And those of us who may be subjected to their hatred and to their abuses and to their insolence can find hope and healing in the Lord Jesus, and we can find strength and courage to keep on following the Lord despite all opposition against us, and despite the ill treatment against us.

 

And this is because we understand that God is fully sovereign over all that he has made, and that he has a plan and a purpose for our lives, and so he allows us to be hated and mistreated and to go through times of difficulty, for he is preparing us and strengthening us for what is yet to come.

 

And when the wicked see the hand of God upon our lives, even while we go through these times of trials and tribulations, if we are responding in a godly manner and in trusting the Lord through it all, it will be a witness and a testimony to them of the goodness of God in our lives.

 

And part of our response to those who hate and mistreat us is to love them in return, to pray for them, to do good to them, and to speak words to them that will be for their benefit spiritually, emotionally, and/or physically, that will be for their good (as defined by God) to help and not to hurt them.

 

And what we should be praying for them is for their salvation from sin, for the Lord to draw them to himself, or back to himself if they are those who had believed but had since wandered off and back into sin. For they need the Lord and they need his healing mercies in their lives.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

This is a secular song about a man praying to God for the life and safety of a young man who was like a son to him that he might have known if he had not first rejected him. He had now come to his senses and realized that this young man was the love of his daughter and now he wanted to spare his life.

 

So, this is not an exact fit here, but the Lord keeps putting this song in my head, because it is also about praying for the Lord to spare someone’s life and to bring him home safely, which we can take to mean on a spiritual level that God will save him from his sins and bring him home to faith in Jesus.

 

Bring Him Home

 

By Alain Boublil / Claude Michel Schonberg / Herbert Kretzmer

 

God on high

Hear my prayer

In my need

You have always been there

 

He's like the son I might have known

If God had granted me a son.

Let him be

Let him live

If I die, let me die

Bring him home.

So Walk in Christ Jesus

Colossians 2:1-7 ESV

 

“For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

 

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.”

 

The Institutional Church

 

In America, in the modern-day institutional (state) church, which is not the true church, but which is most widely called and accepted as “church,” we have a conglomerate of those of genuine faith in Jesus, and those whose faith is a false faith, and the people of the world (those making no profession of faith), and the government, and big business, all mixed in together.

 

For the conglomerate has elements of all. Most of these institutional (state) churches teach some truths from the Bible, which is the Word of God. But they also teach lies, usually taken from Scriptures pulled from their context and twisted to say something they don’t say. And some teach humanistic philosophy and psychology and some teachings from other religions, too.

 

Most of the ones I have been a part of also teach government worship via the pledge (vow) of allegiance (loyalty, fidelity) to the US government with hand over heart, and via the singing of patriotic (worship of government) songs, and via the honoring of our military as our heroes and as our saviors who are making us free and who are keeping us safe.

 

They have also turned the gatherings of the church into marketplaces where they are marketing “the church” to the people of the world. So, they have altered the way they “do church” in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world, in order to grow “their churches.” So many are entertaining the world with jokes and comedy routines, and with great sounding bands, and with motivational speaking and talks (many don’t call them “sermons”).

 

And since the people of the world are their “target audience,” most have also altered the gospel of Jesus Christ to make it more attractive and acceptable to the flesh of man (of humans). So, they removed from the gospel God’s requirements of repentance, obedience, and submission to Christ as Lord, and many are teaching that we don’t have to repent of our sins and that we don’t have to obey the Lord, for they call that “works-based salvation.”

 

And this is largely the condition of today’s institutional (state) church in the USA which is where most people calling themselves Christians in America go to be taught the Scriptures and to fellowship with other Christians and to sing “praise and worship” songs and to socialize with others in their communities. This is where they also get involved in various activities and ministries and community events, some of which minister to the people of their communities via food and clothing drives to help the poor of the world.

 

They all vary on how much they do in each of these areas, i.e. some are still more biblical in their teachings, while others are way more sociable and community oriented, while others are huge on marketing, while others not so much, so they aren’t all the same. But what they have in common is that most all are partnered with the government via the 501c3, and most all are more controlled by humans than by God, and most are fairly worldly.

 

The Adulterated Gospel

 

Also, another thing most have in common is the diluting of the gospel of Jesus Christ. For most are teaching that all we have to do is pray a prayer to receive Christ and then we are good to go. Our sins are all forgiven (past, present, and future), our salvation is complete, and heaven is our eternal destiny guaranteed, no matter how we live from this moment forward or how much we engage in deliberate and habitual sin.

 

I find that very few are teaching faith in Jesus and salvation as a process of sanctification in our lives that will not be complete until Jesus returns and he takes us to be with him for eternity, which is also when our marriage to Christ will then be consummated. Most are not teaching that we must walk (in conduct, in practice) according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh if we want to be saved from our sins and to have eternal life with God.

 

But if you read the Scriptures, especially the New Testament where the gospel is taught, and you read Matthew to Revelation word for word, in context, and with hearts and minds willing and eager to hear from the Lord, you can’t miss it that the Scriptures teach that how we live matters for eternity and that how we walk (in conduct) determines whether or not our faith in Jesus is genuine saving faith that will result in eternal life with God.

 

But so many of them are not willing to see this. They are not willing to consider that what they call “church” is not the church, the body of Christ, or that Jesus Christ is truly not the head of their “churches,” or that what is being done in their gatherings, and what is being taught to them is largely not biblical, in most cases, especially with regards to the teaching of the gospel of Christ as he taught it, and as his NT apostles taught it.

 

The Worldly Church

 

Thus, it is largely indistinguishable between the church and the world, for those professing faith in Jesus Christ are largely not living much different from those making no profession of faith in Jesus. Their conversations, the things that they do, the places that they go, the things that they watch, the things that they listen to and that they are entertained by, and that they share on social media, etc. mimic those same things that the unsaved are engaged in and share. And I am speaking of worldly and ungodly things here.

 

And so the church at large in America today does resemble the description of the church in Laodicea as described for us in Revelation chapter three. And so I do struggle in prayer over this, and I do weep over this, and I do pray for blinded eyes to be opened, and for revival, and for people to see the truth and the lies so that they can distinguish between them, and so they are not deceived, and so they don’t end up in hell on the promise of heaven.

 

And so it is my prayer, also, that you would not be deceived by clever enchanters who are smooth tongued and who know how to manipulate the truth and the people to their advantage. For there are hordes of these charlatans who are wolves in sheep’s clothing speaking in the pulpits or on the stages of a great number of these institutional churches who are leading the people astray by the masses.

 

And I pray that the Lord Jesus would bring home to God all those who have wandered off from the true faith and all those who are yet to believe in Jesus with genuine faith, even if it is at the last minute before some of them die. For many professers of faith in Jesus are still living in habitual and deliberate sin against God and against other humans, and even against their spouses and children and other family members and their fellow Christians, etc.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

Although the lyrics to this song (following) are not an exact fit for this passage of Scripture, I believe the theme here is that we should be mourning over the spiritual condition of today’s church, especially in light of the teachings of Scripture with regard to the judgments to come, and that we should be praying for God to save all those who are now lost and who are living in rebellion against the Lord, that the Lord would bring them home to Jesus, for that is their only hope of salvation and of eternal life with God.

 

Bring Him Home

 

By Alain Boublil / Claude Michel Schonberg / Herbert Kretzmer

 

God on high

Hear my prayer

In my need

You have always been there

 

He's like the son I might have known

If God had granted me a son.

Let him be

Let him live

If I die, let me die

Bring him home.

Are You Lonely and Afflicted?

Psalms 25:8-10 ESV

 

“Good and upright is the Lord;

    therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

He leads the humble in what is right,

    and teaches the humble his way.

All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,

    for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”

 

When I was around the age of 7, I was at summer camp and we were having our time of Bible teaching, and I was listening intently to what the preacher said. My heart was heavy. So, I cried out to the Lord in my suffering and I repented of my sins and I trusted in him to be my Lord and Savior that day. And my heart’s desire was then to follow him in obedience wherever he led me.

 

My parents took us to church gatherings every Sunday morning and evening and every Wednesday evening, and for all special meetings, too. And my church fellowship taught on holiness, righteousness, obedience, submission to the Lord as God, and on sanctification and moral purity, etc. But my dad was an abuser to our mother and to all of us kids. And most, if not all of us were afraid of him and his wrath.

 

Yet, my parents were legalists who taught us that Sunday was the Lord’s day and that we had to stay dressed up all day and we could not play on that day, and that we could not go to movies or play with playing cards (the kinds with Aces, Diamonds, etc.), or dance, or smoke, or drink, etc. And if we put any object on top of a physical Bible, my dad yelled at us that we were somehow doing something evil, all the while he was doing the most evil.

 

So, when I trusted the Lord to be my Savior, I wanted to have a faith in Jesus that was real, that was genuine, that was consistent, and that was not legalistic and hypocritical. For I witnessed so much hypocrisy in my home. And so I began to read my Bible and to pray and to find out the ways of the Lord that I might walk in them, but it was definitely a process, for I had much going against me. But the Lord led me in the right way.

 

Psalms 25:16-18 ESV

 

“Turn to me and be gracious to me,

    for I am lonely and afflicted.

The troubles of my heart are enlarged;

    bring me out of my distresses.

Consider my affliction and my trouble,

    and forgive all my sins.”

 

When I was 22 years old I left the home of my parents and I married my husband, who was the love of my life next to the Lord. But it was not a fairytale romance or marriage. He had his issues and I had mine, and I thought we were working them through, but there was a lot that I did not know about my husband that I did not learn until many years later. And so I went through a lot of heartache, and I cried out to the Lord much in my times when I was hurting deeply.

 

If you are interested in reading my testimony, I will include a link to it at the end of this, for I don’t want to focus on the details here but only to say that I went through much more suffering, and that I cried out to the Lord much in my loneliness and affliction, and he did indeed bring me out of my distress. And when I let my circumstances get to me, and when I caved to the flesh during a short period of time, he did consider my affliction and my trouble, and he did forgive all my sins when I repented of them in truth.

 

Psalms 25:19-21 ESV

 

“Consider how many are my foes,

    and with what violent hatred they hate me.

Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!

    Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

May integrity and uprightness preserve me,

    for I wait for you.”

 

But it wasn’t just my upbringing, and it wasn’t just my marriage that caused me much trouble, heartache, loneliness, affliction and distress, but I also faced a lot of rejection and mistreatment by the church, by pastors and elders, and by others who professed faith in Jesus Christ who judged me unfairly.

 

Now if it was because of sin in my life that they opposed me or that they attacked me or came against me or rejected me, I would understand that, but it wasn’t. In fact, during those times when I was sinning against the Lord, because I was trying to escape all the pain I was suffering, which only then caused more pain, they left me alone.

 

It was mostly when I was walking closely with the Lord or when I was trying to get back on my feet to walk as I once walked that they came against me and that they accused me falsely of things that I did not do and they misjudged me and they attacked me without cause. And some of this is because so much of the church has gone the way of the world and they have altered the gospel to make it more acceptable to human flesh that they opposed me, because they were opposing the truth of the gospel.

 

Now, I will hear people say that the problem must be me. Why? Are all people who are abused treated thus because they are the problem? No! That is a horrible way to treat people who are suffering injustices at the hands of their opposition. Was Jesus the problem? Was Paul the problem? Was John the Baptist or the prophets before him or the other apostles or Christians in foreign nations where they are being persecuted, are they the problem?

 

Abuse is real! Persecution is real! And the Scriptures teach us that if we are following Jesus Christ with our lives, and if we are doing and saying the kinds of things that Jesus did and said that we will be treated as he was. And who were Jesus’ biggest opponents and persecutors? The equivalent of pastors and elders today. And they were the people of God, so equivalent to other Christians today. And they were his own people and people of his own family, so equivalent to our own people and to who our families are today.

 

So, if you are committed to following Jesus Christ with your life and to living in integrity, with honor, in obedience to your Lord, in honesty, and not in hypocrisy, and if you feel what God feels, and you are passionate about what he is passionate about, and if you are doing what the word teaches, and if you are fulfilling your God-given commission (assignment), then don’t be surprised if the very people who are supposed to love you turn against you.

 

But, if we are faithful to our Lord, and if are steadfast in love, and if we are walking in obedience to his commands, and we are doing the assignment he has given us to do, then we need to rest in him. We need to trust in his sovereignty over our lives, and we need to go to him for love and support, for help, and for healing, and not let other humans discourage and dishearten us, for that is what the enemy wants. He wants to defeat us!

 

Now, I hope that this encouraged someone here today who can perhaps identify with my life and some of the things that the Lord, in his sovereignty, allowed me to endure. I hope you will know that you are not alone, and that good can come out of your suffering. For God had a plan for my life and he has a plan for your life, too. For me he planned that I would be here writing what I am writing now for your encouragement. Let him heal you and let him show you what he has for you, too.

 

The following poem/song began as a poem, and then a friend who lives in another country from me felt led of the Lord to write music for part of the poem. So, she sent me what she had written, so we ended up collaborating on this song. She sang part and I sang part and we sang together in part. And this song is personal to me, for it does represent my testimony, and the Lord did give me encouragers, too, but not always. I went for long periods of time without human encouragement, so when I had it, I felt very grateful.

 

You Loved Me

 

An Original Work / December 3, 2019

A song based off the poem by the same name

 

When I was lonely and afflicted,

You were there to pick me up.

You took me in Your arms,

And You held me tenderly.

 

Your love embraced me.

Your grace sustained me.

 

When my heart cried out to You

In my fear and my despair,

You never turned away,

But You let me know You loved me.

 

Your grace forgave me.

You did not shame me.

 

Then, when I answered the call,

“Here, Lord, send me.”

You sent me to where I must be.

Your mercy held me, did not fail me.

All this, You had planned, to use me.

 

And, when all trials and scorn

Came to test me.

You gave me all that I would need.

You strengthened me so I’d not fail You.

Your kindness blessed me, it touched me.

 

And, when I needed the church

To lift up me,

To hearten me so I’d not fail,

You blessed me with folks who would love me.

Their presence with me, Your praise hailed!

 

And, when I walked through the valley

Of the shadow of the death,

And tears flowed from my eyes,

Still Your kindness was there for me.

 

Your touch, it healed me.

For I believed You.

 

When now I think about the ways,

Of the many, many ways

That You in Your great love

Show me that You’ll always care for me,

 

My heart, it thanks You,

And gladness fills me, fills me.

 

https://vimeo.com/377807796

 

Oh, I promised that I would include a link to my testimony which the Lord gave me to write four years ago in the form of a book. My husband wrote the forward for the book, so he approved me writing that. You can download the whole book for free if you are interested:

 

https://walkingwounded.blog/i-married-my-dad/

Taken Captive by Empty Deceit

 Colossians 2:8 ESV

 

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

 

Other than speaking of individuals who are liars and deceivers, who love to manipulate, trick, and trap others, there are two main areas where people are now being taken captive by empty deceit. One is via the government, big business, and the media, which are all in cahoots together, and the other is via the institutional church which is in cahoots with the government and the world and big business. One is considered secular and the other religious, but both can be and are being extremely deceptive.

 

Government Deception

 

When I was growing up as a child, both in school and in the institutional church I was being taught government worship. We were instructed to put hand over heart and to recite the Pledge of Allegiance to our government. And a pledge is a vow, and allegiance is fidelity, so we were vowing our fidelity to the US government with hand over heart. And then we were taught to sing patriotic songs of worship to the government and to honor our military as our heroes and as our saviors who were keeping us safe.

 

Since I was being taught to do these things at church gatherings as well as at school, I saw them as good things. And so I trusted my government, and I believed the things that they told me, and I trusted the news media that what they were telling me was the truth. I assumed that the news was really the news, and I never considered that any of it might be contrived. I easily bought into the whole “hanging chads” thing in the 2000 presidential election, too, for I didn’t know any better. I was duped!

 

It wasn’t until I was 54 years old, in 2004, that my eyes began to be opened to the truth of what is really going on in the world and in the church, though I had been seeing some of the deception in the church for some time, but not to this extent until around this time period. It was in November of 2004 when the Lord began speaking to me about these things and he began leading me to do research on our government and on specific groups associated with our political leaders and with the US government.

 

Since that time, I have never looked at our government, the news media, or the institutional church in quite the same light as I did before. For now my eyes were being opened to the truth. And the Lord led me to read all sorts of documents about the history of our nation, which doesn’t all agree with what it written in our school history books, and I was learning how we were founded more on a mixture of religious beliefs rather than just on Christianity, and how that free masonry, which is a religion, was and is a big part of the founding of our nation, which is also seen in our symbols.

 

I also learned about the Satanic symbols in the layout of our capital, and about how so many of our nation’s statues and buildings were modeled after Greek, Roman, and Egyptian gods and goddesses and their temples. And I learned about the symbols in our national emblems and what they all mean, and about what our nation was really founded upon and for what purpose, and the purpose was not to worship the one true God. Certainly Christianity did play a huge role in the founding of America, but there was a lot of Satanic and foreign religions’ beliefs and practices thrown into the mix.

 

Then the Lord began teaching me about the Elite of the world, the shadow government (the de facto government of the USA), the Bilderbergs, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, CEOs of corporations, NATO, the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, the Federal Reserve, the Jewish nation, and the US government, and so much more, and how they were all tied in together, and how they were all part of the “beast system.” And all this involved many years of research. And none of this was I ever aware of before 2004. I was blinded to so much before then.

 

Then I began to learn about our nation’s involvements militarily in other nations and how the US and their military are the world’s worst terrorists, and how our nation founded, equipped, trained, and financed so many of these terrorist groups that our nation is supposedly going after in order to protect us and our freedoms. And I learned how we are the primary military arm of this beast system which is conquering and has conquered the nations of the world, and now including our own, and how all of this is fulfilling what it talks about in Revelation 13, especially.

 

So, the bottom line here is that I learned that the US government is not what it portends to be and that it is working to bring in this rule of the beast, this New World One World global totalitarian government, and how our government heads (most of them) have betrayed us, and lied to us, and manipulated and tricked us into believing their lies.

 

And I think with the global events of the past two years that many more people have had their eyes opened to the truth, too, which is a good thing, so that fewer people are now falling for the deceptions, and many more are questioning what their leaders have been telling them.

 

Church Deception

 

Now this one I talk about much, but church deception is closely tied in with government deception, for most of this is coming from Satan and is coming through those who are of this beast system, for they are out to destroy Christians and their faith, and they are out to destroy Jesus Christ and his gospel. And their goal is to deceive many into thinking that they have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, that their sins are forgiven, and that heaven is guaranteed them when they die, while they leave them still bound in their sins and on their way to hell. And Satan is laughing, but God will judge all.

 

For they are teaching a false gospel which is an altered half-truth (lie) gospel which is telling people they can believe in Jesus and be guaranteed heaven when they die but that they don’t have to repent of their sins, and they don’t have to obey the Lord, and they don’t have to submit to his Lordship, for they call all of that works-based salvation. And so that gives them carte blanche to continue in deliberate and habitual and often premeditated sin against the Lord and against other people while they lie and deceive to cover up their secret sins hoping that no one will know what they are doing.

 

For Satan’s goal is to get all of us to reject biblical Jesus and the biblical gospel so that we don’t end up in heaven one day but so we end up joining him in hell while thinking that heaven is our eternal destiny. And he wants us buying into the lies of our government heads and the lies that the media spreads and the lies being told by CEOs of corporations, because he wants us to reject all that is of God, and all that is truthful, and he wants us falling into his traps so that we end up on his side and not on the side of God, and not on the side of truth and righteousness.

 

Now, with regard to the government, that took at least 10 years of daily research to learn all of that, so I am not going to be able to prove my case here with documentation. So, all I can do is ask that you take this to the Lord in prayer, and that you sincerely ask the Lord to show you all lies that you are believing, and that he will show you the truth that is in contrast to all of the lies that you have been believing. Just pray that the Lord will open your eyes in all areas of possible deception so that you don’t end up following pied pipers to your deaths thinking that you are on the right track.

 

With regard to the gospel and our salvation, I will always supply you with plenty of biblical references for you to look up so that you can see that what I am telling you is what the Scriptures teach, in context. So, please check them out. I am not asking any of you to believe me on anything just because I said it. Do the homework yourselves and let the Holy Spirit of God lead you into all truth. But the truth of the gospel is that Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. For he died to deliver us from our slavery to sin and to make us slaves of God and of his righteousness, instead.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

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.

 

https://vimeo.com/379406352

Opportunity for the Flesh?

Called to Freedom

Galatians 5:13-15 ESV

 

“For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.”

 

Not one of us is saved by human effort and by man-made religion, whether that falls on the side of legalism or it falls on the side of libertinism. Both are just two sides of the same whole which is man-made religion which is of the flesh of humans and not of God. Thus, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are not to be followers of man-made religion.

 

Whatever God has freed us from we are not to return to. He freed the Jews from having to obey all the old ceremonial, liturgical, sacrificial, and purification laws of the Old Covenant, and neither do we have to obey those. He freed all of us from our slavery (bondage, addiction) to sin, and he freed us to become slaves (bondservants) of him and of his righteousness.

 

So, we are neither to try to earn our salvation through human effort nor are we to continue in deliberate and habitual sin once Jesus sets us free. Therefore, those who believe that Jesus delivered them from sin, they should in no way return to living under the control of that sin. But they should now live as servants of Christ and of his righteousness.

 

So, as those who have been set free from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, we are to love and serve one another. For the law is fulfilled in one word (or phrase): “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And such love as this prefers what God prefers, and it chooses his choices, and it obeys them in his power, and so it prefers (chooses) what is holy, righteous, morally pure, honest, faithful, trustworthy, submissive, obedient, and repentant.

 

Therefore, if we are loving others with this love, which prefers to live through Christ and to obey his will, we will not sin against them. We will not cheat on, lie to, be hateful toward, commit adultery against, steal from, slander, gossip about, betray, and be abusive to others who we are supposed to love, at least not or especially not intentionally, habitually, and premeditatedly.

 

Walk by the Spirit

Galatians 5:16-18 ESV

 

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”

 

Our walk is how we live our lives day in and day out. It is our conduct and our habits, but it also includes our thinking, attitudes, values and beliefs. So, if we walk by the Spirit, thus the Spirit of God will be influencing and guiding and directing our thinking, attitudes, values, beliefs, conduct and our practices, so that we will be united with God in heart and mind.

 

Thus, we will be living in moral purity, and we will be honest people, people of integrity, people who do not say one thing and live another. We will not have divided hearts, but we will be of one heart and mind with our Lord Jesus, desiring to do his will, and following him in his ways and in his truth, and we will be living holy lives, pleasing to God.

 

We will be singing the same song that Jesus sings, speaking his words, giving out his messages, sharing the gospel as he taught it, and living and teaching repentance, obedience, and submission to Christ as Lord. We will not be altering the gospel message to make it more palatable to human flesh and to the people of the world, but we will speak the truth in love.

 

If this is how we walk (conduct our lives), by the Spirit, then we will not be gratifying the sinful cravings of the flesh, but we will be walking in holiness and righteousness. But many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are not walking by the Spirit, and thus they are gratifying the sinful cravings of the flesh, for they shut the Spirit out so that they can do what their flesh desires. So even though they profess to be free, they are still enslaved to sin and to giving in to the cravings of their flesh.

 

The Works of the Flesh

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV

 

“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

 

Sadly, many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are living just like this, for they are intoxicated to sin, living in self-indulgence and for sinful pleasure. Although they profess faith in Jesus Christ, they are not united with Christ in faith nor in heart and mind, for they are still living for self and not for the Lord. Their hearts are divided because they are not willing to yield control of their lives over to the Lord.

 

They may give lip service to the Lord, sometimes speaking the truth, but not from a sincere heart, for they are double-minded, pretending allegiance to Jesus Christ when their true allegiance is to their own sinful flesh. They may even claim to believe in the true gospel but by their own practices they reveal that they are living the cheap grace gospel.

 

As far as salvation is concerned, they are missing in action. They are “no-shows.” They are deserters of the true faith, forsaking the right way to follow after the sinful cravings of their flesh. Again, they may put on a show of righteousness, but it is a show, which is only for the purpose to try to mislead and to distract and to deceive and to hide what they are doing in secret when no other human can see. But God always sees!

 

Even though they may know the truth, that those who practice such things will not inherit eternal life, they ignore those warnings, and they convince themselves that God’s grace will cover all their sins. And so they tell themselves that certainly God will not punish them, and that he will still give them his salvation, even though they, by their actions, have rejected his salvation which delivers us from our slavery to sin and which empowers us to live godly and holy lives in the power of God.

 

Yet not one of us is worthy or deserving of God’s grace. We have all sinned and have come up short of attaining God’s divine approval. There is nothing we can do in our own flesh to be good enough for God and for his heaven. It is only by God’s grace, through God-given faith, that any of us can be saved from our sins and to have eternal life with God. So this isn’t about trying in our flesh to earn our own salvation.

 

But this is about living out the salvation that has already been provided for us, by God’s grace, and in his strength and power. This is about us yielding to Holy Spirit control and us allowing God to work his work of grace and heart transformation in our lives and us cooperating with him in his work of sanctification and us not resisting him. So, please don’t resist him!

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

I Am Not Worthy the Least of His Favors

 

By Beatrice Bush Bixler

 

I am not worthy the least of His favor,

But Jesus left heaven for me;

The Word became flesh and He died as my Savior,

Forsaken on dark Calvary.

 

I am not worthy the least of His favor,

But "In the beloved" I stand;

Now I'm an heir with my wonderful Savior,

And all things are mine at His hand.

 

I am not worthy the least of His favor,

But He is preparing a place

Where I shall dwell with my glorified Savior,

Forever to look on His face.

 

I am not worthy this dull tongue repeats it

I am not worthy this heart gladly beats it

Jesus left heaven to die in my place

What mercy, what love and what grace!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Z2ZAV58Pc

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Were You Taught the Truth?

So, we just finished reading in Ephesians 4:11-16 about the body of Christ, and how we, the body, need to be equipped for the work of the ministry so that we can encourage one another within the body of Christ toward spiritual maturity and walks of obedience, in submission to Jesus Christ as Lord.

 

And one of the reasons why this is so important, this mutual encouragement within the body of Christ, is so that we are not deceived, and so that we are not led astray by those who are cunning, deceitful, crafty, and scheming, who are not teaching the true gospel of our salvation, but who are teaching an altered gospel which removes God’s requirements for repentance, obedience, and submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

 

So, we are encouraged to be those who are speaking the truth in love to one another so that we will all grow up together to maturity in Christ. And this is only possible as we all work together, and as each part does its work. For if we are not all being given the opportunity to use our gifts and to fulfill our callings within the body of Christ, then the body is not working properly, and then we can’t grow together, and the body can’t build itself up in love.

 

Ephesians 4:17-19 ESV

 

“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”

 

And, again, we all need to be ministering to one another and encouraging one another in our walks of faith so that none of us goes back to living like we did before, and so none of us continues in living like we did before without a change of heart, mind, and behavior.

 

And this is what we need to be saying to one another, for not many Christians are teaching this anymore. We need to be exhorting one another that we must NO LONGER walk (in conduct, in practice) like the ungodly, like we did before we believed in Jesus. We must not harden our hearts against the commands of God and then become callous and thus give ourselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

 

Now, I am definitely not saying that we are not to take personal responsibility for our own actions. We are. And I am not saying that we can blame the church if we end up continuing in sin or if we return to walking in sin and according to the flesh. We can’t! But we live in a fallen world, and we still live in flesh bodies, and there are so many things out there to tempt us, and sometimes we need brothers and sisters to help hold up our arms, figuratively speaking, so that we will win the battle instead of losing it.

 

Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV

 

“But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

 

I like it that this is not assuming that everyone who professes the name of Jesus has actually been taught the truth, especially in our day and time when the lies abound and when the majority of those professing faith in Jesus Christ are following those lies and are not following the truth. So, I like it that it then lays out the truth for us very plainly.

 

We should not have learned that in Christ that we can continue living in habitual and deliberate sin against the Lord and that God’s grace covers it all. We should not have learned that we can just pray a prayer and now we are congratulated that we are part of God’s family and now heaven is guaranteed us when we die and nothing can ever take it away from us.

 

What we should have learned, if we were taught the truth, is that we are to put off the old self, which belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. For by faith in Jesus Christ we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, of God’s Spirit, and we are raised with Christ to newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. And we are now to live in freedom from slavery to sin and as slaves of God’s righteousness.

 

This is what it means to believe in Jesus – a belief that comes from the Lord and is perfected by Jesus Christ and is gifted to us by God, and thus it submits to Christ as Lord, and forsakes sin, and follows Jesus in obedience. For Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, and that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us.

 

So, it isn’t just that we are to cease from living for sinful pleasures, but that we are to be renewed in our minds, in our way of thinking and believing, of God’s Spirit, and that we are now to live the new lives we have been given by God via faith in Jesus Christ. We are to put this “new self” into practice in our daily lives, by God’s grace, and in his power and strength. And we are to live holy and righteous lives, in purity of devotion to our Lord, now free from bondage to sin and now empowered of God’s Spirit to live godly lives.

 

But we can’t do this in our flesh. We can’t just “try” to not do bad things and to “try” to do good things. That is not a life transformed by the Spirit of God. We must surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and let him be Lord (owner-master) of our lives. We must follow the Lord Jesus in obedience, as we are being led by God’s Spirit and empowered by God to live holy lives pleasing to God. And we must walk by the Spirit and not according to the flesh, or we will not have eternal life with God.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

 

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

 

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

 

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg

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Carried About by Every Wind of Doctrine

Ephesians 4:11-16 ESV

 

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

 

“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

 

Gifts and Ministries of the Spirit

 

I believe I am to focus my attention here on the equipping of the saints, so I am not going to enter into a discussion on whether or not prophets and apostles still exist within the church today. But I will say that I don’t believe that we are to add to Scripture words that we want to say are equal with Scripture, i.e. in saying that Christians have to obey our words, nor are we to take away words from the Scriptures just because we don’t like what they say. But we are to hold fast to the purity of the Scriptures, in context.

 

Now, with that said, I will also say that I believe that all the gifts of the Spirit are alive and well within the church today, even though most groups of people calling themselves “the church” in America don’t all agree with that. And many of them have decided which gifts no longer exist and which ones do.

 

But, let me add a word of caution here. The gifts must be done under biblical guidelines, for there are far too many abuses of the gifts today, which is one of the reasons I believe many have forsaken the use of the gifts.

 

But the way church is being done in America, for the most part, it looks nothing at all like the New Testament models of church. And since most of them are denying the gifts and workings of the Holy Spirit, the body is mostly all head (human leadership, not Jesus Christ) and the other parts are mostly missing or dysfunctional or they are minions.

 

And largely this is because the gatherings of the church have been turned into businesses of men which are run like businesses and which are being marketed to the world, and so what is being called “church” is not really the church at all, but they are businesses, and the body of Christ is suffering.

 

To Equip the Saints

 

Okay, so the point here is that God has gifted all of us who are his by genuine faith in him with specific gifts and ministries, and we are not all gifted in the same way and we don’t all serve in the same ministries or roles within the church. And not everyone is appointed to lead and to shepherd and to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, but some are, but many of them are not doing their job at all. For they are too busy building their earthly kingdoms by following marketing schemes on how to “grow” their “churches,” i.e. their businesses, and so the body of Christ is suffering.

 

For, each of us has been given gifts by the Spirit to be operated in the Spirit and not in the flesh. And each one of us has been assigned a specific body part, our role (are of ministry) within the universal body of Christ, which is appointed by God, and not by humans. And even though we are all different parts, together we form one body, and we are all to work together for the building up (encouragement, exhortation, urging) of the body of Christ to maturity in Christ. For this is God’s design for his body, the church.

 

But since so much of what is now being called “church” is not really the church, although some of the true church gathers together with them, they are not really operating as God designed. And so the saints are not being equipped for spiritual ministry within the body of Christ according to their spiritual gifts and callings of God, but rather they are being assigned specific roles according to business models and marketing schemes and humanistic philosophy on how to “build” God’s “church.”

 

[Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-21; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13]

 

By Every Wind of Doctrine

 

But we need each other! The body is not to have just one voice doing all the teaching. Some of us have been gifted with the gift of teaching, and/or with the gift of prophecy (sharing the truths of God’s word in practical ways that can be applied to our lives and to our world and to the church today), or with words of wisdom, knowledge, and discernment, or with faith, etc.

 

And we are each to share what the Lord gives us to share. Plus we are all to work together for encouragement and strengthening and maturity of the body of Christ so that none of us will be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

 

And we are to be doing all of this in working together as one body, exhorting one another daily, until we all reach maturity in Christ, so that none of us will remain immature and be easily tossed back and forth and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

 

For many are they who are of such nature who are standing in the pulpits of what is being called “church” who are leading the people astray from the truth and to follow a false gospel created in the minds of humans in order to appease the sinful flesh and to turn NO ONE from his sins.

 

For the truth of the gospel as Jesus taught it, and as the New Testament apostles taught it, and which is written down for us to read in the Scriptures, is largely being smothered, suppressed, stifled, lessened, muted, and altered in order to be more acceptable to human flesh and to the worldly-minded. And those who are promoting this cheap grace gospel substitute are in large numbers everywhere spreading their lies which are permeating the church of today in America and which are deceiving people by the masses.

 

And not only are they teaching that we can believe in Jesus, be forgiven our sins, and be guaranteed heaven as our eternal destiny regardless of how we live our lives on this earth, but they are speaking out against the true gospel, they are lying to the people, and they are telling them that the true gospel is a lie and that the lie is the truth, and that they don’t have to submit to the Lordship of Christ nor obey his commands nor forsake their sinful practices, and that he will still receive them into his heaven.

 

And since this is so massive, and so widely spread, and since they are coming out in full force to oppose and to discredit the true gospel, the truth of the gospel is being silenced, censored, and put to disrepute, and so the masses are not listening to the truth but to the lies.

 

But, if we were all doing our job, and if we were all working together as one body in helping one another to maturity in Christ and to walks of purity and obedience to our Lord, then there would be a whole lot more voices speaking the truth and more people would be able to hear the gospel and to turn from their sins and to follow Jesus in obedience. And the church would be walking in purity of devotion to the Lord and not living in impurity and in disobedience to their Lord, and revival would break out in our nation.

 

Speaking the Truth in Love

 

The thing of it is here is that so many people today professing faith in Jesus Christ have bought into the lies and into the business model for how to do church and into remaining silent in not sharing the truth of the gospel. For they are being brainwashed into staying in their own lane and to not saying anything that would offend anyone or that would make them feel uncomfortable or judged, as though this is a righteous thing to do this and to not share the gospel.

 

But we need to be those who are speaking the truth in love, for the sake of the spiritual growth and maturing of the body of Christ and for the salvation and eternal life of those who do not have genuine faith in Jesus Christ and who are, thus, not on their way to heaven, but on their way to hell. So, don’t let them silence you or convince you that you should not talk about Jesus or that you should not share his gospel.

 

Be bold! Be brave! Speak the truth in love for that is the most loving and kind thing you can ever do for anyone. And all of this is to the praise and glory of God, whose will for us is that we die with him to sin and that we live to him and to his righteousness. For, if you continue in deliberate and habitual sin, you will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

We Will Glorify

 

By Twila Paris

 

We will glorify the King of kings

We will glorify the Lamb

We will glorify the Lord of lords

Who is the great I am

 

Lord Jehovah reigns in majesty

We will bow before His throne

We will worship Him in righteousness

We will worship Him alone

 

He is Lord of Heaven, Lord of Earth

He is Lord of all who live

He is Lord above the universe

All praise to Him we give

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4skT9ndv6ng

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Created in Christ Jesus for Good Works

Ephesians 2:1-3 ESV

 

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

 

This letter to the Ephesian church is addressed to the faithful saints in Christ Jesus. The meaning of saint is one who is holy, set apart by and for God, and set apart (unlike, different) from the world because we are being conformed to the likeness of Christ Jesus, our Lord. And faithful means reliable, trustworthy, and persuaded of God – persuaded as to our sinfulness and of our need to repent and to follow Jesus Christ with our lives.

 

We who are in Christ Jesus by God’s grace, through God-given faith in Jesus Christ – which results in us being crucified with Christ in death to sin so that we might live to God and to his righteousness – were (past) dead in our sins in which we once (past) walked (in conduct, in practice). We were (past) following the course (path, way) of this world (of the ungodly), and we were (past) following Satan (the devil), the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (of unbelief).

 

So, what this means is that we should no longer be walking (in conduct, in practice) in deliberate and habitual sin. We should no longer be following after the ways of this sinful world, doing what the ungodly do. And we should no longer be following Satan, who is the spirit at work in the disobedient (the unbelievers, the ungodly). So, if we are still doing these things, then according to Scripture we don’t know God, and we will die in our sins, and we will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

For, we all once (past, not present) lived (walked) in the passions of our flesh, meaning we are not presently conducting our lives habitually according to our sinful passions. We once (past, not present) were carrying out the desires of the body (our flesh) and of the mind, and we were (past) by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

 

So, if we are in Christ, by genuine faith in Him, we should no longer be living in the passions of our sinful flesh or carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind. So, if we are continuing in this way, then we are still by nature children of wrath like the rest of humans and heaven is not our final home.

 

Ephesians 2:4-7 ESV

 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

 

It is true that we do not have to clean up our lives first in order to come to faith in Jesus Christ. But this idea that has sprung out of that which says that Jesus takes us just the way we are is a misrepresentation of what this is saying. For this says that when we were dead in our trespasses that God made us alive together with Christ. So this means that we are now alive and not dead, so this means that we aren’t still who we were doing the same things as we did before.

 

For in order for God to make us alive together with Christ he first of all crucified us with Christ in death to sin so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin but so that we would now become slaves of God and of his righteousness. Then he gave us new lives in Christ free from the power and control of sin over our lives. And now he empowers us to live godly and holy lives for his praise and glory. For this is why he died for us that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness.

 

[Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 2 Pet 1:1; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Col 1:21-23; Php 2:12-13]

 

Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV

 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

 

Many people are quoting and teaching verses 8-9 out of context and they are teaching that God does it all and that nothing is required of us other than to “believe,” which is not really explained much at all. And they are teaching that, since it is by God’s grace that we have been saved, through faith, and it is not a result of works, that we are to do no works at all, which often means no submission to Christ as Lord, no forsaking of our sins, and no following Jesus in obedience, for they call that “works-based salvation.”

 

But this is out of context, for go back to the beginning. Our lives of living for sin and for self and for the sinful pleasures of the flesh and according to the ways of this sinful world, and according to the ways of Satan are to be past if we are true and faithful saints of God and followers of Jesus Christ. So, that indicates that we indeed are submitting our lives to Christ to follow in his ways, that we indeed repented of our sins, and that we are now following Jesus in obedience to his commands.

 

But it is true that it is by God’s grace that we are saved through faith. And this (our salvation and our faith) is not our own doing; it is the gift of God – both our salvation and our faith. And our salvation and our faith are not the result of our own fleshly works, which are of our own doing. But this also means that since God is the giver of salvation and our faith, and neither are of our own doing, that our salvation and our faith will both be according to God’s divine nature, his character, and his will for our lives.

 

So, since our salvation and even the faith to believe in Jesus come from God, and not from ourselves, we will surrender our lives to Jesus, and we will forsake our lives of sin, and we will follow Jesus in obedience to his commands, for this is the will of God for our lives. And according to Scripture, these are required of God for our salvation and for our eternal life with God. For if we continue in sin, we will not be saved from our sins and we will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

And then notice verse 10 which follows directly after verses 8-9. It says that we are now God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. But they are the works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk (in conduct, in practice) in them. So, works are required, it is just that they are not our fleshly works of our own doing, but they are the works of God, of his doing, which he had planned that we should do in obedience and in submission to him, in his power and strength.

 

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

 

Words by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907

Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Thou art the potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Search me and try me, Master, today!

Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,

As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Wounded and weary, help me I pray!

Power, all power, surely is Thine!

Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

 

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Hold o'er my being absolute sway.

Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see

Christ only, always, living in me!

 

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