Making it Personal

Video Talk

 

Now, I am not really going to write anything here on this one much at all. I just felt the prompting of the Holy Spirit to make a video where I share a little bit about me and my background and who I am and where I am from, and a little bit about my family, just so that those who view these videos have a little more idea of who I am and where I am coming from. So there will be no synopsis on this one.

 

If you want to hear it, you can watch the video. Some of you who have been following me for some time may not feel the need, but those who are following me on YouTube are new to me because I have not been doing the videos that long.

 

Anyway, that is all I have to say on this subject in writing other than to thank all of you who are reading these devotions and/or who are watching the videos. This is what my Lord called me to do, and so this is why I do what I do, for the glory and praise of God, and in his power and strength and wisdom.

 

And I will tell you the same thing I told those who will watch this video. If you ever have questions of me, feel free to ask, and I will do my best to answer. Also, if you have any Scriptures or topics you would like me to cover, I will pray about it, and if the Lord wants me to do that, I will, for everything goes through him, for if he is not in it, it is pointless.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3q0ZtOciRk

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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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Help and Support from Our Lord

Psalms 20:1-3 ESV

 

“May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble!

    May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

May he send you help from the sanctuary

    and give you support from Zion!

May he remember all your offerings

    and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! Selah”

 

“The day of trouble” may be one thing for one person, while it may be something else for another person. For we each have our own troubles. But we have some which we share in common, too, if we are followers of Jesus Christ. For if we are truly walking in obedience to our Lord, in holiness and in righteousness, and not in sin, and if we are daily dying to sin and denying self, and especially if we are sharing the truth of the gospel with others, we are going to have enemies. We are going to have opposition.

 

Now, the Scriptures do speak of the Lord watching over us and of him protecting us from evil, but this does not mean that we will not be hated and persecuted for righteousness’ sake. The Scriptures teach that we will. And this doesn’t mean that we won’t have troubles and trials and tribulations to test our faith. We will. The Bible says so. So, our Lord does not always deliver us physically out of our difficulties, but he does deliver us through them, and he does protect us, if we let him, from yielding to evil desires.

 

Now, our Lord does indeed send us help if we ask for it sincerely, and if we are following him with our lives. Many people pray for his help, but they ask with wrong motives and selfish motives. And they do not walk in obedience to him, and they do not bow the knee to him, but they see him more like a doting grandfather or a genie in the sky there to grant their every request. And some of them will then get angry with God when he doesn’t give them what they want, as though God somehow owes it to them, but he doesn’t.

 

But he will remember our offerings to him, but not the burnt sacrifices of the Old Covenant, but our lives given to him as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable (pleasing) to God (Romans 12:1-2). And he will remember our obedience, and our service to him, and our denying self and dying to sin daily – all of which can only happen because of God’s grace to us, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, because of God’s love and him persuading us to believe in Jesus, and only as empowered by God, and not of our own doing (Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Luke 9:23-26; Titus 2:11-14).

 

And so he will send us help, and he will give us support so that we can do the works which he prepared in advance that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10). For he doesn’t give us a bunch of commands to follow and then not supply us with what we need in order to follow them. And he doesn’t give us assignments and then just expect us to figure it out for ourselves. If he assigns us something to do, he is going to equip us with what we need to do it, and so we should rely on him to give us what we need.

 

Psalms 20:6-8 ESV

 

“Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;

    he will answer him from his holy heaven

    with the saving might of his right hand.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,

    but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

They collapse and fall,

    but we rise and stand upright.”

 

Now the word “saves” can be in the context of our salvation from sin, or it can be in the context of saving us from some trouble or hardship or some consequence of something. For to “save” is to deliver, and it is to rescue. And sometimes we are saved from situations, and sometimes we are delivered through situations so that they do not negatively affect us and so that we do not get disheartened and discouraged. And our Lord does this by providing us with what we need to endure and to persevere.

 

Now, we are not to look to other humans to be our “saviors.” We are not to look to governments and pastors and people of prominence or of influence to rescue us from the ills of our society. And we are not to look to our soldiers to be our heroes, either. We, as followers of Christ, are to look to him alone to save us from what ails us, and to save us, as a people, from the evils of our world and of our nations, and from the evil people who are plotting against us both on the homefront, and from afar.

 

For the plans of man (flesh) will fail eventually. They will collapse and fall. And even if it appears as though they have been successful, and even if it appears that we have failed, in the eyes of the world, we can rest assured that those who stand against the Lord will not succeed in the end, and those who are standing with the Lord, in walks of obedience to him, and in walks of righteousness and holiness, will gain the victory. And we will be rewarded in the end with eternal life with God in his heavenly kingdom.

 

Stand by Me

 

By Ben E. King

 

The former work, a spiritual, “Stand by Me, Father,” off of which this song is partially based, was partially based off Psalms 46:2-3

 

When the night has come

And the land is dark

And the moon is the only light we'll see

No, I won't be afraid

Oh, I won't be afraid

Just as long as you stand

Stand by me

 

If the sky that we look upon

Should tumble and fall

Or the mountain should crumble to the sea

I won't cry, I won't cry

No, I won't shed a tear

Just as long as you stand

Stand by me

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwZNL7QVJjE

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Sharing in Our Sufferings

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 ESV

 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.”

 

Well, the first way in which our Lord demonstrated his mercies to us was by dying on a cross, taking upon himself all our sins, nailing them to the cross with him, so that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. For Jesus died on that cross, not just to forgive us our sins, and not just to give us the hope of eternal life with him in heaven, but to deliver us out of our slavery (bondage, addiction) to sin so that we can walk righteously before him in his power and strength and wisdom.

 

And then his mercies are unending to us who have forsaken our lives of sin to follow him in obedience in walks of holiness and righteousness, by the grace of God. And one of the ways in which he demonstrates his mercies to us is in giving us comfort in our afflictions. But this word “comfort” is not just about what we may think of as comfort, but the word also has as its meaning “exhortation, warning, encouragement,” “a call (urging),” “a personal exhortation,” “an intimate call,” and “a holy urging,” which is used of the Lord directly motivating and inspiring believers to carry out his plan.

 

For example, during Job’s time of suffering, the Lord didn’t come alongside him and say all kinds of nice and comforting words to Job. And he didn’t immediately remove him from his suffering. He let him suffer for a long while, and not because Job had done anything wrong, for Job was a righteous man who loved God. But Job’s faith was definitely being put to the test, and Job was being taught by the Lord during this time, and he was learning more about the Lord than he knew before.

 

And then there is the example of Paul. Numerous times Paul was mistreated and falsely accused of wrongdoing, and falsely imprisoned, and beaten, and at least one time he was left for dead, but he survived. In fact, at one point, he and Timothy were so utterly burdened beyond their own strength that they despaired of life itself. They felt they had received the sentence of death. (I have felt that way more than once.) But, he said, “That was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

 

So, our Lord does not always comfort us in our afflictions with soothing feel-good words to make us feel better. And he doesn’t always immediately deliver us from our suffering, either, for sometimes the suffering is allowed in our lives so we will grow in our walks of faith in Jesus Christ, and learn perseverance, and learn humility and reliance upon the Lord, and to teach us things we need to learn, and to change us to be more like Jesus, etc.

 

So, when we comfort others in their affliction with the same comfort we received from the Lord, it may be that we will share with them some of the things the Lord taught us during our times of suffering, which could indeed have to do with humbling us and getting us to change some of our attitudes or actions, and to make us more like Jesus. So our words to others may not be perceived as “comforting” in the sense that many people think of as comfort, but they may be in a biblical sense, which is for their good.

 

So, when Paul said that if he and Timothy are afflicted, it is for the Christians’ comfort and salvation, then why salvation? Because salvation is not a one-time deal that takes place and then we are good to go to heaven when we die. Biblical salvation is progressive, and it will not be complete until Jesus returns and he takes his true bride to be with him for eternity.. but on the condition that we walk in obedience to his commands, and that we not walk in sin, and that holiness and righteousness are our practice, and that we continue in these walks of faith to the very end.

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

So, if we are afflicted for others’ comfort and salvation, that would appear to indicate that our suffering (affliction) and our comfort from the Lord encourage and exhort others to walk in holiness and righteousness, and not in sin, but in walks of obedience to our Lord. For what we learn from our suffering and our trials and tribulations we can then pass on to others so that hopefully they will learn those lessons, too, and so that they will be encouraged to follow the Lord in obedience and to forsake their sins.

 

Also, when Paul talked about the believers patiently enduring and sharing in the same types of suffering as what the apostles were experiencing, and that resulting in them also sharing in the same comfort they received from the Lord, he was indicating that the other believers were suffering for the sake of righteousness, and for the sake of the truth of the gospel of Christ, and for the sake of the name of Jesus, too. And so they were receiving similar comfort from the Lord, which was for their spiritual growth in their walks of faith, and to help them to persevere and to not give up.

 

But there is another comfort involved here, too, and that is when we suffer for the sake of righteousness, and for Jesus’ sake, and for the sake of the gospel, we receive comfort from our Lord that our suffering is not for naught. Good is going to come from it, and some people’s lives are going to be changed for the good, and for eternal purposes, because of what we suffered. And there will be people in heaven who are there because we dared to tell them the truth despite the ill treatment we received in return.

 

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13]

 

Praise the “I AM!”

 

An Original Work / February 24, 2012

 

Jesus, my Savior, full of compassion,

Glorious in power, mighty in strength;

Gracious Redeemer, mighty deliv’rer,

My heart adores Him. Praise to His name!

Perfect salvation my Lord provided

When He died for my sins on a tree;

Crucified my sins; conquered in vict’ry,

When He arose, so I could be free!

 

I am so thankful for His forgiveness;

Grateful that He chose to pardon me,

Giving me new life full in His Spirit,

So I can serve Him; His servant be!

Walking in daily fellowship with Him,

Obeying Him whate’er He commands;

Forsaking my sins, living in freedom,

I will endure with Him to the end!

 

He gives me peace and calm reassurance

In times of sorrow, or in distress.

His grace is sure, and oh, how sufficient

To meet me in my need for sweet rest.

Oh, how I love You, Jesus, my Savior.

My heart longs for You where’er I am.

Your word is precious; speaks to my spirit;

Brings comfort, healing. Praise the “I AM!”

 

https://vimeo.com/125736554

Holy and Acceptable to God

Video Talk

 

Romans 12:1-2 ESV

 

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

 

When we believe in Jesus Christ with God-given faith, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Romans 6:1-23; Ephesians 4:17-24). Our old self is crucified with Christ in death to sin in order that sin might be brought to nothing so that we will no longer be enslaved to sin but to God and to his righteousness.

 

So, because of what Jesus Christ did for us on that cross in taking upon himself the sins of the world, and in putting our sins to death with him so that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness (1 Peter 2:24), we are to present our bodies to God as living sacrifices to him, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship of God. So, sin is to no longer be what we practice, but righteousness is to be our practice.

 

Now, sacrificing our lives to Jesus Christ to be his possession is what should have taken place when we believed in him to be Lord and Savior of our lives. But this is an ongoing process in our lives of dying to sin and living to God and to his righteousness, in walks of obedience to our Lord (Luke 9:23-26). It is not something we do once, and now we are good to go. And this is why we are encouraged continuously in the New Testament to put sin to death.

 

Now, some people are teaching that if we have made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ that our Lord is now pleased with us no matter what we do. That is not biblical. Many Scriptures teach us what we must do in order to please God and in order to be acceptable to him, and they teach us that if we do not do those things, but that we do the opposite, that we are not acceptable to God, and so we are not in relationship with God/Christ.

 

Now, when we give our lives to the Lord as living sacrifices to him, to be his possession, and to do what he says to do, this is our spiritual worship of him. Thus, going through the motions of worship, like in singing praise and worship songs, may or may not be accompanied by true worship of God. For if we are living to please the flesh, in sinful practices, and if we are not walking in holiness and righteousness, in obedience to our Lord, in practice, then we are not truly worshiping our Lord Jesus (God).

 

And, as followers of Christ, we are not to be conformed to the teachings, philosophies, attitudes, thinking, speaking, and behaving of the ungodly of this world. We are not to act like, think like, and speak just like the world to where it is barely distinguishable between the church and the world. But we are to be different because we are being conformed to the likeness of Christ, because now we are discerning “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

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

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Wordless Book Song

 

Child Evangelism Fellowship

 

My heart was dark with sin

until the Savior came in.

His precious blood I know

has washed me white as snow.

And in God's Word I'm told

I'll walk the street of gold.

To grow in Christ every day,

I read my Bible and pray.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FIQ8gb3iUw

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In Perfect Harmony

Colossians 3:12-13 ESV

 

“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

 

These instructions are for Christians, for those who have died with Christ to sin, and who have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer according to the flesh, but now according to the Spirit (Colossians 3:1-4; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Ephesians 4:17-24; Titus 2:11-14).

 

So, after Paul told the Christians all the things they must put off (put to death), such things as sexual immorality, impurity, evil desire, idolatry, malice, slander, and lying, etc. (Colossians 3:5-11), then he told them the things they must put on in place of the things that they must put off. And this is where today’s passage of Scripture begins.

 

So, this list is the opposite of the previous list. So, instead of sinning against God and against other humans via such things as sexual immorality, adultery, lust, malice, lying, unfaithfulness, and slander, now we are to be compassionate, kind, humble, meek and patient. And we are to forgive those who we believe have sinned against us. But forgiveness is not permission to keep sinning, but it says, “Go and sin no more.”

 

Colossians 3:14-15 ESV

 

“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”

 

Now, this “love” being spoken of here is not human love which is based in our emotions and/or in the one we are loving, but this love centers in moral preference and it is based in the one who is love, who is God Almighty. And it means to prefer what God prefers, which is what is holy, righteous, godly, upright, morally pure, honest, faithful, and the like.

 

So, this is why we must put on this love above all else because we cannot forsake our sins and be kind and compassionate to others unless we are putting on the love of God, and unless we are walking in that love. For human love comes and goes, just like our feelings do, and human love can be fickle and based in our feelings while the love that comes from God is steadfast and pure and it does what is right despite how we feel.

 

And what is the peace of Christ? It is not absence of conflict with others, because if we are truly following Jesus with our lives, we are going to be opposed by others who disagree with us. And Jesus faced that a bunch! But it is an inner peace that exists within us despite all that is going on all around us. It is the peace in knowing that we are in the center of God’s will, doing what he has called us to do, despite our surroundings.

 

So, if we are letting this peace rule in our hearts, then we are not going to let our circumstances unsettle us or take us out. We will not be those who are tossed back and forth by every wind of doctrine coming from the mouths of those who are conniving, cunning, and crafty in their deceitful schemes. And we will not be ruled by our emotions. But we will do what is right and godly and morally pure despite our surroundings.

 

Colossians 3:16-17 ESV

 

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

 

I believe this is something which is not practiced much at all in the church in America. Instead we hear such things as, “Stay in your own lane,” and “Don’t try to tell people the gospel unless you have befriended them for at least two years.” And now we are being told that we just need to go around blessing people and being nice and that we are not to be negative or say anything which might sound judgmental or that might offend someone.

 

And then we are being trained that the preacher/pastor is to do all the preaching/pastoring, and that we are all to be taught by him. And so there is not much of the body life going on in many places called “church” here in America, because it doesn’t fit in with their marketing schemes for how to grow their churches (mostly businesses), and for how to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings.

 

But the Lord designed the body of Christ (his church) to where we each have a part in the building up of the body of Christ to maturity in Christ, and in exhorting one another so that we are not hardened by sin’s deceitfulness, and so that we speak the truth in love, one to the other, so that we are not led astray by deceitful workmen whose job it is to lead people astray.

 

So all of us Christians, whose faith is genuine, and who are walking in obedience to our Lord, and not in sin, are to be letting the word of Christ dwell in us richly so that we are living it, and so that we are teaching and admonishing one another in our walks of faith in Jesus Christ. And we teach each other by singing spiritual songs to one another, too. And this is about us singing to each other songs with biblical messages to encourage one another in our walks of faith. And I believe this is why the Lord Jesus includes a song in every one of these devotions he has me write.

 

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6] 

 

And whatever we do, in word or deed, should all be done to the glory and praise of God, and in the name of Jesus, and for the spiritual benefit of all who are reading, listening, or watching (observing), giving thanks to God the Father through Jesus Christ. But this doesn’t make us perfect people, for not one of us will be absolutely perfect in these flesh bodies. But we should strive toward perfection in Christ by following our Lord in obedience and in surrender to his will and in walks of holiness and righteousness.

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

Full Release  

 

An Original Work / April 15, 2012

 

Walking daily with my Savior

brings me joy.

Loving Father; precious Jesus;

He’s my Savior and my Lord.

Gently leads me; follow Him.

I’ve invited Him within.

Now abiding in His presence,

oh, what peace.

From my self-life

He has brought me,

By His mercy, full release.

 

Hope and comfort,

peace and safety Jesus brings

When I daily bow before Him;

Obey freely; do His will.

Follow Him where’er He leads.

Listen to Him; His words heed.

Now obeying his words fully,

oh, what love

That He gives me

through salvation,

By His Spirit, from above.

 

Loving Father; precious Jesus,

He’s my friend.

With my Savior, by His Spirit,

I will endure to the end.

Share the gospel, tell what’s true.

Witness daily; His will do.

Tell the world of how their Savior

bled and died.

On a cruel cross He suffered

So that we might be alive.

 

https://vimeo.com/115169203

Unwilling to Listen to God

Isaiah 30:8-11 ESV

 

“And now, go, write it before them on a tablet

    and inscribe it in a book,

that it may be for the time to come

    as a witness forever.

For they are a rebellious people,

    lying children,

children unwilling to hear

    the instruction of the Lord;

who say to the seers, ‘Do not see,’

    and to the prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us what is right;

speak to us smooth things,

    prophesy illusions,

leave the way, turn aside from the path,

    let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.’”

 

Many people today in America are professing faith in Jesus Christ, but not in truth, and not in righteousness, for they are following after the lies of other humans who are telling them that a mere profession of faith in Jesus Christ once in their lives is enough to secure them salvation from sin, forgiveness of all sin (past, present, and future), and heaven as their eternal destiny, done deal, and that nothing more is required of them.

 

And so those who are promoting the lies, and then those who receive and who follow the lies, who then also end up promoting the lies, end up being unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD. For they are being programmed to reject any teaching that has to do with repentance, obedience, or works, even if they are the works of God he prepared in advance that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

 

And so they close their eyes and ears to the truth, and they stubbornly hold on to the lies, even if you show them what the Scriptures teach. For they have been so indoctrinated with the lies and with shutting out anything that is contrary to those lies, that they will only accept feel good messages which make them feel good about themselves, even while many of them (not all) are steeped in deliberate and habitual sin.

 

So, they do say to those who are sharing the truth of the gospel to stop teaching what is negative and which makes them feel bad, and to only speak to them smooth things and illusions which make them feel good about themselves even in their sin. So, they embrace the lies which tell them that all they have to do is profess or confess Jesus as Lord, or all they have to do is just acknowledge who Jesus is and what he did on that cross, or all they have to do is repeat some words after someone else, or all they have to do is just to receive (accept) God’s grace or his affection, and they are good.

 

So, they don’t want to hear the truth, for they want to believe the lies. And so they don’t want us speaking the truth about the way that is right, and so they accuse us of being negative and judgmental and hyper religious and legalistic and those who are teaching works salvation. And so if we are speaking the truth of the gospel, the whole counsel of God, in America today, we are going to be largely rejected and cast aside and ostracized, and we are not going to have many people who want to be with us.

 

But, we need to get the truth of the gospel out to the people, because far too many are following after a false image of Christ and a false gospel message. And they are being lied to, and they are being promised heaven as their eternal home, but while many of them remain trapped in sin, and so they are headed to hell, instead. But if they are sincere, and if they are just being duped, then they shouldn’t close their ears to the truth, but they should want to know and to obey the truth.

 

And the truth of the gospel is that Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. And Jesus said if we would come after him that we must deny self, take up our cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. And by faith in Jesus Christ we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. So sin is not to be our practice, for if sin is what we obey, it will lead to death, not to life everlasting. Righteousness should be our practice.

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

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

Light the Candles

Light the candles, smell them burning,

While the gospel, men are churning,

And the hearts of men not turning

From their sins. And God not learning.

Religious practice is their cover.

Sinful lifestyles, they’re not over.

Godless idols are their lover.

Righteousness is not their mover.

Wickedness is what is leading,

While they go on now deceiving,

And the lies they’re now believing.

And their sins they are not grieving.

Women, now, you are included,

Which you might now have concluded,

Some of you, too, are deluded, 

So your sin you’ve not eluded.

Jesus Christ is now your answer,

For He should be your commander,

Suffered, died, and he is risen,

So to free you from your prison.

Turn from your sin, follow Jesus,

For from sin our Lord does free us.

Walk with Jesus, serve him daily,

Worship Him, in truth, not vaguely.

An Original Work / February 27, 2023

Choose the Good Portion

Luke 10:38-42 ESV

 

“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’”

 

The message here is not teaching against serving, but it is teaching priorities. Now, do we have to work? Yes! Even if we don’t work for pay, we have daily chores to do, and we need to spend time with other people. So, what was the issue here? They had the Lord in their home, and Mary chose to sit at his feet and to listen to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with serving, and that is all she could focus on, and so she totally missed that Mary had chosen the better thing, at that moment.

 

And I say, “At that moment,” because the women could not just sit at Jesus’ feet all day and night. They had to get rest, and they had work they had to do. But there is a time for this and a time for that, and we need to make time spent with Jesus, sitting at his feet, and listening to his teaching, top priority. And if you are a stay-at-home mother of young children, you have to plan your times with the Lord around your scheduled time with your children. Or if you have a paying job, you have to plan time with the Lord around your work schedule. But Jesus must never get neglected!

 

We should never give Jesus Christ just a passing “Hi,” or a passing glance. We should never cheat on our times with the Lord in order to spend time with things which are less critical. Now, the laundry still has to be done, and we have to eat at some point, and so there are things which need to happen, but if we have to choose between eating and spending time with the Lord because we only have one slot of free time, then we should choose the Lord over food. Because it is critical that we have time with the Lord each day, drinking in his word, and learning from him.

 

And time with the Lord should be time spent with him in prayer and in seeking his face in the studying of the Scriptures. Devotions written by other people should never replace time spent in the pure word of the Lord. And we should not just spend 5 or 10 minutes with the Lord, but we should give him quality time, even if it means skipping a meal or losing one hour of sleep. And then we shouldn’t just walk away and forget what we learned, but we should be in the practice of applying to our lives what we learn from Him.

 

Now, time spent with the Lord, too, is not to be confined to just a specific hour of each day, but we should have open communication between us and the Lord all day and night to where we can talk with the Lord and he can talk with us any time of day and night, regardless of what else we are doing. So we don’t have a “quiet time” and then that’s it until the next “quiet time.” We should be listening for our Lord throughout the day while we are working and doing our chores and/or taking care of children, etc.

 

And we should be responding to the Lord in obedience throughout the day and night, too. For he might get you up in the night when it is quiet and free from distractions in order to speak to you, or in order to have you pray, or in order to write something, perhaps to another Christian to encourage that person in his or her walk of faith. Now, if you are female, and you are married, I say you shouldn’t have private communications with other men unless they are your family, and the same applies for married men, that they should not be having private conversations with other females.

 

But back to the point I was making, our times with our Lord should be top priority in our lives. And they should be important enough to us to make sacrifices necessary in order to spend quality and quantity time with the Lord. And our time with the Lord is not to be limited to just one hour a day, but we should have open communication between us and the Lord to where he can speak to us anytime of day or night, regardless of what else we are doing. And these times with the Lord are to be precious to us and not seen as a drudgery. So, we are to be like Mary in her desire to hear from Jesus.

 

Full Release  

 

An Original Work / April 15, 2012

 

Walking daily with my Savior

brings me joy.

Loving Father; precious Jesus;

He’s my Savior and my Lord.

Gently leads me; follow Him.

I’ve invited Him within.

Now abiding in His presence,

oh, what peace.

From my self-life

He has brought me,

By His mercy, full release.

 

Hope and comfort,

peace and safety Jesus brings

When I daily bow before Him;

Obey freely; do His will.

Follow Him where’er He leads.

Listen to Him; His words heed.

Now obeying his words fully,

oh, what love

That He gives me

through salvation,

By His Spirit, from above.

 

Loving Father; precious Jesus,

He’s my friend.

With my Savior, by His Spirit,

I will endure to the end.

Share the gospel, tell what’s true.

Witness daily; His will do.

Tell the world of how their Savior

bled and died.

On a cruel cross He suffered

So that we might be alive.

 

https://vimeo.com/115169203

You Reap What You Sow

Galatians 6:7-8 ESV

 

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

 

In America, in our day and time, many people are being deceived into believing that they can make a one-time profession of faith in Jesus Christ and that it will secure them salvation from sin, forgiveness of all sin (past, present, and future), and that it will guarantee them heaven when they die, done deal, nothing else required. But that is not what the Scriptures teach, as you can see by these verses above and by these Scriptures below:

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of Jesus we lose our lives, i.e. we die with him to sin and we live to him and to his righteousness, then we have eternal life. And he also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

 

And Paul taught that if we walk by the flesh, and not by the Spirit, and that if we obey sin, and we do not obey our Lord, and if we practice sexual immorality, and sensuality, and lying, cheating, stealing, and idolatry, and the like, that we will not inherit eternal life with God, but we will die in our sins, and heaven will not be our eternal destiny. Wrath and fury will be. For, again, we all are going to be judged by God by our works, and we are all going to reap what we sow in this life.

 

So, if we sow to the flesh, and if how we live is of the flesh and not of the Spirit, which is shown by our attitudes, words, and behaviors, then we will reap corruption (death, destruction), not eternal life. But if we sow to the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord, and we leave our lives of sin behind us, and sin is not what we practice, but righteousness and holiness are what we practice, then we will reap eternal life with God. So, please take this seriously so that you are not deceived and fall short of the glory of God.

 

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

Caution: This link may contain ads

 

Praise the “I AM!”

 

An Original Work / February 24, 2012

 

Jesus, my Savior, full of compassion,

Glorious in power, mighty in strength;

Gracious Redeemer, mighty deliv’rer,

My heart adores Him. Praise to His name!

Perfect salvation my Lord provided

When He died for my sins on a tree;

Crucified my sins; conquered in vict’ry,

When He arose, so I could be free!

 

I am so thankful for His forgiveness;

Grateful that He chose to pardon me,

Giving me new life full in His Spirit,

So I can serve Him; His servant be!

Walking in daily fellowship with Him,

Obeying Him whate’er He commands;

Forsaking my sins, living in freedom,

I will endure with Him to the end!

 

He gives me peace and calm reassurance

In times of sorrow, or in distress.

His grace is sure, and oh, how sufficient

To meet me in my need for sweet rest.

Oh, how I love You, Jesus, my Savior.

My heart longs for You where’er I am.

Your word is precious; speaks to my spirit;

Brings comfort, healing. Praise the “I AM!”

 

https://vimeo.com/125736554

According to Each Person's Deeds

1 Peter 1:13 ESV

 

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

 

You know, I don’t know how people can read the Scriptures and miss this. This kind of teaching is all throughout the teachings of Jesus and of the apostles. I don’t know how people can come up with a doctrine like that which is presently permeating the church in America. How can they say that we can make a one-time profession/confession of Jesus Christ that secures us salvation from sin and eternal life with God and then not teach holy living and obedience to the Lord Jesus? And some are opposing obedience to God.

 

The first thing this passage is teaching is progressive salvation. We are saved (past). We are being saved (present active). And we will be saved (future) when Jesus Christ returns and he takes his bride to be with him for eternity, on the condition that we walk no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit, and we do not make sin our practice, but obedience to Christ and righteousness are what we practice, steadfast to the end.

 

[Matt 24:9-14; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-24; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-12; Rom 11:17-24; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb 3:6,14-15; 2 Pet 1:5-11; 2 Pet 2:20-22; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

For this is why we need to prepare our minds for action, and why we need to be sober-minded (serious-minded) about God and his word, so that we can set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us who love God at the revelation of Jesus Christ, when he returns for us, his bride. And it is why we must be obedient children, and why we must not be conformed to the passions of our flesh and our past life. And this is why we must be holy in all our conduct. For we are all going to be judged by our deeds.

 

For if we do not walk in the fear of the Lord, and if we are not serious-minded about our relationships with Jesus Christ and about the teachings of the Scriptures and about obedience to our Lord’s commands (New Covenant), and if we are not living holy lives but we take God and his grace for granted, and so we continue in deliberate and habitual sin and in living our lives the way we want, then we don’t have the hope of eternal life with God nor do we have the guarantee of heaven when we die.

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Pet 1:17-21; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

So, we need to be people of God who take God and his word seriously and who do not just cherry pick the Scriptures that make us feel good while we ignore the bulk of the Scriptures in the New Testament which tell us God’s requirements of us in the way of holy living if we are to be assured of eternal life with God and heaven as our eternal destiny. For Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will of God the Father (Matthew 7:21-23).

 

So, we have to obey our Lord. There is no wiggle room out of that one. And we have to walk in righteousness and holiness and not in sin. No wiggle room on that one, either. Righteousness and obedience to our Lord must be our practice, and sin must not be our practice if we are going to inherit eternal life with God. It doesn’t mean we will never sin, but we should never use lack of perfection or “everyone sins” as an excuse for deliberate and habitual sin. For not everyone walks in sin and not in obedience to Christ.

 

So if we are to be holy in all our conduct, that means that we are to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are being conformed to the likeness of Christ, in our conduct (words, actions, and attitudes). And so we are no longer to be conformed to the sinful passions of the flesh as we were before we believed in Jesus. And we must take seriously that we are all going to be judged according to our deeds (Romans 2:6-8) and that a mere profession of faith in Jesus is not going to secure heaven for us.

 

For Jesus Christ did not die that painful death on that cross just to forgive us our sins and so that we can go to heaven when we die. He died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. And he died to deliver us from our slavery (addiction) to sin and to empower us to live godly and holy lives in obedience to him. He died to transform us and to turn us from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so we can receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:24; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Acts 26:18).

 

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

 

Praise the “I AM!”

 

An Original Work / February 24, 2012

 

Jesus, my Savior, full of compassion,

Glorious in power, mighty in strength;

Gracious Redeemer, mighty deliv’rer,

My heart adores Him. Praise to His name!

Perfect salvation my Lord provided

When He died for my sins on a tree;

Crucified my sins; conquered in vict’ry,

When He arose, so I could be free!

 

I am so thankful for His forgiveness;

Grateful that He chose to pardon me,

Giving me new life full in His Spirit,

So I can serve Him; His servant be!

Walking in daily fellowship with Him,

Obeying Him whate’er He commands;

Forsaking my sins, living in freedom,

I will endure with Him to the end!

 

He gives me peace and calm reassurance

In times of sorrow, or in distress.

His grace is sure, and oh, how sufficient

To meet me in my need for sweet rest.

Oh, how I love You, Jesus, my Savior.

My heart longs for You where’er I am.

Your word is precious; speaks to my spirit;

Brings comfort, healing. Praise the “I AM!”

 

https://vimeo.com/125736554