The Struggle
“Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“’My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.’” (Hebrews 12:3-6 ESV)
When Jesus Christ died on that cross, taking upon himself the sins of the entire world, he put our sins to death with him in order that, by faith in him, we will die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands. For Jesus Christ died on that cross to deliver us out of our slavery to sin so what we will obey his commands and live for him, and not just to forgive us our sins, and not so that we can go on living in sin now guilt free. (Romans 6:1-23; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 9:23-26)
We are, thus, as followers of Jesus Christ, to throw off those weights of sin so that we can run with endurance the Christian race that God has set before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus and not on the flesh (Hebrews 12:1-2). And we must resist the devil and flee temptation to sin. And we must accept the Lord’s discipline in our lives and his chastisements of us as that of a loving parent who wants to keep us from doing evil and to train us to do what is good and righteous and godly and morally pure and upright.
For Discipline
“It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:7-11 ESV)
In what ways does our Lord discipline us so that we share in his holiness? He corrects us when we are going the wrong way. And he may allow sickness or injury or rejection or mistreatment to come into our lives to humble us and to discipline us in the ways of the Lord so that we follow in his pathways, and so that we do not stray from him and go our own way, instead. And just because we are disciplined, it doesn’t mean we have necessarily done something wrong, for discipline is also training in righteousness.
But those lacking in this discipline continue on in their sins because they are resistant to such discipline and will not accept it in their lives. For they are still lord over their own lives, charting their own course, living according to their own sinful and selfish desires. And so they leave a trail of sin behind them rather than a trail of self-discipline and walks of holiness and righteousness and obedience to our Lord, in practice. For they live for self and for the flesh and not for the glory of God, doing what pleases him.
So, for the ones who are disciplined by the Lord, and who accept that discipline, and who grow to maturity in Christ because of it, they share in Christ’s holiness and yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness, because they have been trained by such disciplines in godliness and in holy living. But the ones who reject the disciplines of the Lord and choose to go their own way, instead, end up continuing on a path of sin and thus are regarded by God as illegitimate children of God, giving lip service, but not in action and truth.
Lift Your Drooping Hands
“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” (Hebrews 12:12-13 ESV)
Drooping hands are those which are limp, slumped, sinking, slouching, or lounging (idling, lazing, loafing). And hands are what we do to do work, so they represent our deeds (works). So if someone has drooping hands, this is someone who is being slothful, lazy, and idle, who is not living under the disciplines of the Lord but who is living for self and for self-pleasure. And it could be that they find the disciplines of God too painful, so they give up. It is just easier for them to yield to sin than to resist it and flee it.
When I think of knees I think of prayer but also of bowing the knee to the Lord in humble submission and in obedience to him and to his commands. So if our knees are weak, then our submission to God and to his will and purposes for our lives is also weak (limp, shaky, flimsy, insubstantial). We are not those who are living in surrender of our lives to the will of God, but we are those who live by our emotions and what makes us feel good, because that is easier than enduring the disciplines of the Lord Jesus.
So, if that is where we are, the counsel for us then is to stop being lazy and slothful and to stop resisting the Lord and his disciplines in our lives, and to now obey the Lord and his commands, in practice, and to walk in holiness and righteousness and in godly living in the power of God, doing the will of God. And we are to now surrender our lives to the Lord and to submit to his will for our lives and to do what he says we are to do as his followers. And we are now to live holy lives pleasing to our Lord.
Teach Them
An Original Work / May 24, 2012
Based off various scriptures
Open up the blinded eyes of
Those who walk in sin’s darkness.
Turn them to the light of Christ
And to His righteousness.
Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.
Turn them to the peace of Christ,
So they may receive forgiveness
And eternal life.
Teach them to put off their old selves
And their former way of life,
And to put on their new self,
Reborn to be like Christ;
To not copy worldly customs;
Be transformed in life and mind;
Obey freely His word in them,
Pleasing unto God.
Teach them how to love their neighbors
Truly as they love themselves;
Be a witness; share the gospel;
Satan’s lies dispel;
Comfort all who mourn in sadness;
Share Christ’s love and joy today.
Do this through your life and witness
For your Lord always.
https://vimeo.com/125485489
Sin should not be master of our lives.
Sin should not o’er take us, in us thrive.
Christ should have dominion in us now,
As we come to know Him, humbly bow.
Let His Word instruct us in His ways.
Let us follow Him from day to day.
Conquerors in Jesus be us now,
Victory in Jesus we avow.
Come before our Lord, we humbly pray
To be His and His alone each day.
Fellowshipping with Him now in fact,
Now our all surrendering intact.
Walk in holiness and righteousness.
Of our sins to Him we must confess.
Doing what we know to be His will,
Love of God within us He will fill.
An Original Work / September 24, 2022
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)
Hebrews 12 follows directly after Hebrews 11 which is regarded as the faith chapter of the Bible. For it describes men and women of faith in Bible times who obeyed the Lord and who pleased the Lord, perhaps over a lifetime, or perhaps in specific situations, or perhaps at the very last minute before they died. But by faith they did what pleased the Lord, and that brought glory to God, and it was according to his will and purpose for their lives. I believe they are this cloud of witnesses who testify to us regarding our faith.
So, by faith in Jesus Christ, if our faith is genuine God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in him, we are crucified with him in death to sin, and we are raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to God and to his righteousness. For if sin is still what we obey, and not God’s commandments, it will lead to death, not to life eternal with God. And Jesus said we are to deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience if we want to save our lives for eternity and not lose them.
So the Christian life is a life of daily dying to sin, by the Spirit, daily putting to death the deeds of the flesh, laying aside every hindrance to our walks of obedience to the Lord, and laying aside all sin which clings so closely. This sin can end up being our patterns of behavior if we are not diligent about dying daily to sin and putting on Christ and his righteousness. But so many who profess faith in Jesus Christ are still walking in sin, and not in walks of obedience to the Lord, because they are being taught they don’t have to.
So before it mentions here that we must lay aside sin which clings so closely, it instructs us to lay aside every weight, every encumbrance (hindrance) to our walks of obedience to God. And that can include whatever is stored up in our hearts, for it is out of the heart that comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander. These are what defile a person. And these need to be removed from our lives via repentance and submission to God, and via obedience to his commands.
But those sinful behaviors may be rooted in what is stored up in our hearts – such things as hatred, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, unforgiveness, anger, and anything else that may keep us trapped in sin. For what we believe in our hearts and minds, and what we hold in our hearts, comes out in our attitudes, words, and actions. So first our hearts must be cleansed of all bitterness, resentment, pride, and unforgiveness, etc. so that the sin which clings so closely will have no root to pull from, so we’ll be free.
But other hindrances, which are also rooted in what is stored up in our hearts, are physical things such as computers, smartphones, certain movies, TV shows, music, games, social media, videos, cartoons, or certain preachers’ sermons, if what they are teaching is cheap grace and not biblical grace. Most of these things are not evil in themselves. The evil can be both in the content we are taking in as well as the hold these things have on our thinking and behaving and attitudes, and how they hinder our obedience.
Those are the things that lead us down a path of sin, and that is why I believe we need to deal with those things first if we want to have victory over sin. For if we are still taking in the garbage of the world into our minds and hearts, well, as the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.” We cannot have victory over addictive sinful behaviors if we are feeding our minds and hearts and souls with the junk and the filth of this sinful world. And we cannot serve God with our lives if our time is spent pleasing self, instead.
And if we are not truly looking to Jesus Christ – past all the junk of the world, and past all the hindrances that might tempt us to stray, and past all the persecutions and rejections and opposition we will face when we do obey the Lord – fixing our eyes (minds, hearts) on him, blocking out all temptations, persecutions and hindrances to our obedience, we are bound to trip and fall and fail. Our minds and our hearts have to stay focused on Jesus Christ in this world filled with all sorts of evil, or we won’t survive!
For Jesus is the one who gave his life up for us on that cross so that we might die with him to sin and now live to him and to his righteousness. And we can only do that if our lives are surrendered to him in submission to him as Lord in dying with him to sin and now living to his righteousness in his power at work within us, as we cooperate fully with his work of grace. And he is the author and perfecter of the faith which comes from him, which is not of our own doing or thinking or reasoning, but is biblical faith.
[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18]
So, when Jesus Christ died on that cross for our sins, it was not just to forgive us of our sins, and it was not just to give us the hope of heaven when we die, provided that we forsake our sins and walk in obedience to his commands. But he died so that we will die to sin and walk in obedience to his commands in holy living, doing what pleases him, and doing what he has called all of us who believe in him to do. For if we do not obey him, but we keep on in our sinful practices, we will not have eternal life with Jesus Christ.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
When I’m with You
An Original Work / April 22, 2011
When I’m with You, Lord, hear my cries.
Soon I’ll be with You by Your side.
Harken to me; Lord, hear my plea
When I’m with You and You’re with me
Precious Savior, Lord, and my friend,
Life with You has no final end.
I’ll reign with You eternally
When I’m with You and You’re with me.
Father, God, my only desire.
Your word is in me like a fire.
I’ll sing Your praise all of my days
When I’m with You and You’re with me.
https://vimeo.com/116211724
"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." ~ Hebrews 4:14-16
There is nothing more special to me than my time with the Lord each day at his feet, learning from him, hearing him speak his words to my heart, and then, in loving response to him, going out and obeying Him and what he taught me through His word, including sharing with other people what He taught me, for their encouragement, and as my witness for Him.
I want nothing more than to please my Lord in all I do, to walk with him, serve him, obey him, worship and adore him, live for him, and be his hands and feet in taking his love and his gospel to those who need to know him, or who need to know him better. And, one day soon (imminently), I will get to be with him in person forever and ever. I do look forward to that day, yet I also enjoy my time with him each day while I am still on the face of this earth. I love you, Jesus!
When I’m with You
An Original Work / April 22, 2011
When I’m with You, Lord, hear my cries.
Soon I’ll be with You by Your side.
Harken to me; Lord, hear my plea
When I’m with You and You’re with me
Precious Savior, Lord, and my friend,
Life with You has no final end.
I’ll reign with You eternally
When I’m with You and You’re with me.
Father, God, my only desire.
Your word is in me like a fire.
I’ll sing Your praise all of my days
When I’m with You and You’re with me.
https://vimeo.com/116211724
“As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good. If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed. Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.” (2 Thessalonians 3:13-15 ESV)
Doing Good
What good are we to be doing as followers of Christ? How should the good that we do be different from the good that the people of the world do? For there are many non-Christians who are good deed doers and who do good things for the people of this world, sometimes to the point of putting Christians to shame who are busy feeding their own flesh and who are just entertaining themselves without thought to the needs of the body of Christ and to the needs of the people of the world. “Can I get a witness?”
Now there will be some overlaps here, for both Christians and non-Christians might be charitable, and might give freely of their time and money and possessions to help others in need, and/or to contribute to charitable organizations which are at least purportedly helping those in need (not all of them are legitimate nor do they all do what they say they do). Christian or non-Christian can show kindness and gentleness and thoughtfulness for others and they can love their families and others in ways which are good.
But there is a good that Christians must do that non-Christians cannot do because this is done in the power of the Holy Spirit living within us, and it is for the praise and glory of God, and it is a spiritual good which is of God who is good. And this has to do with us denying self, dying daily to sin, and following our Lord in obedience to his commands (New Covenant). And it has to do with the surrender of our wills to the will of God for our lives and following him in holy living and in doing what he has called us to do.
If Anyone Does Not Obey
But not everyone who calls himself a brother or a sister in Christ has denied self, is dying daily to sin, and is following the Lord in obedience to his commands, in practice, though not necessarily in absolute sinless perfection (see 1 John 2:1-2). But lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for habitual, deliberate, and premeditated sin against the Lord Jesus and against other humans. For the Scriptures teach us that if sin is what we obey, and is what we practice, that we will not inherit eternal life with God.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
So, there are many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ, at least here in America, who are still living in sin, still making sin their practice. But many of them are hiding their sin behind closed doors or in a corner of a room where no one can see what they are looking at or doing. But God knows! But some sin can be seen by others, and others can see, to a point, whether or not a professing Christian is actually living the Christian life or not by his/her practices. For faith is doing the will of God. Faith is obedience to God.
So, the instruction here is, if you have clear evidence that someone professing faith in Jesus Christ is not obeying the Lord and his commands, but they are living in opposition to the Lord’s commands, in practice, well first of all I believe you should try to speak with that person (male to male and female to female, unless a family member). And you should give them the opportunity to repent. But if they continue on living in sin, and not in obedience to the Lord, we are supposed to not fellowship with them.
[2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; 1 Corinthians 5:9-13]
But the purpose of this is not to be mean or hateful or unforgiving. The purpose is to shame them to the point to where hopefully they will repent of their sins and will then walk in obedience to the Lord. But it appears to me that this has to be something done collectively as the body of Christ for it to have that effect. But in our culture today, most likely the person will just “attend church” someplace else where they will be accepted just as they are and where no one will get in their face about any sin in their lives.
“Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.” (2 Thessalonians 3:16 ESV
Teach Them
An Original Work / May 24, 2012
Based off various scriptures
Open up the blinded eyes of
Those who walk in sin’s darkness.
Turn them to the light of Christ
And to His righteousness.
Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.
Turn them to the peace of Christ,
So they may receive forgiveness
And eternal life.
Teach them to put off their old selves
And their former way of life,
And to put on their new self,
Reborn to be like Christ;
To not copy worldly customs;
Be transformed in life and mind;
Obey freely His word in them,
Pleasing unto God.
Teach them how to love their neighbors
Truly as they love themselves;
Be a witness; share the gospel;
Satan’s lies dispel;
Comfort all who mourn in sadness;
Share Christ’s love and joy today.
Do this through your life and witness
For your Lord always.
https://vimeo.com/125485489
“Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.” (2 Thessalonians 3:6-12 ESV)
Evidently there were people in Thessalonica who professed faith in Jesus Christ who were lazy, idol, and slothful, who did not work to earn their own living, but who fed off of others and their generosity. We have people like that still today, even within the gatherings of the church, who are capable physically of holding down a job, but who take advantage of others and their kind hearts, and who use others to get what they want, sometimes to use the money not wisely, and sometimes to feed sinful addictions. Sadly so.
But then we have a different situation in our world today where we have such things as social security (NOT welfare) and retirement accounts which people work for many years and pay into these retirement packages so that when they get to be elderly that they can retire and not have to continue to work to earn money, though some still do because these retirement systems are not enough to pay all their bills. So they earned the money which is then paid out to them in increments when they retire. This is not wrong.
However, there are many Christians who get into their retirement years who then become lazy, idol, and slothful. They don’t have to work for money, for they already earned their living, but they have this idea that retirement means they can just do whatever they want, and so they sink into lifestyles of laziness to where they spend their days just entertaining themselves. But as Christians we are to be working for the Lord, and our lives are to be surrendered to him to do his will, so we should be busy about the Kingdom.
God did not call us to his service so that we would sit around just giving pleasure to ourselves. He called us with a holy calling, and we are to work for him in doing what he has called all of us to do. So we should be busy doing the work of the Lord in ministering to the people of God, and to the people of the world, and in sharing the message of the gospel of our salvation and whatever else the Lord has for us to do to show his love to other people and to spread his gospel throughout the world.
But there we need to be cautious, for many people get into ministries where they feed the hungry, which is a good thing, but it is not good if we are feeding those capable of earning a living who are idle and who are taking advantage of others while they feed their own fleshly appetites. And I believe that is the caution here. It is good to have compassion, but compassion can be misdirected sometimes. As the saying goes, sometimes we need to teach people how to fish instead of just supplying the fish.
And Paul and Silas and Timothy here set the example for us in how we ought to conduct our lives in so many different areas. We are not to be idle. We are not to take advantage of others. And I know that times are hard right now and some people are having difficulty finding jobs while I see lots of signs up in places of employment where they are looking to hire workers. But I think there is some crooked stuff going on there high up, so not everything is as it appears on a surface level. Just saying that some people can’t find work.
So we must be discerning people, for there are people everywhere asking for money. Especially, we must pray before giving money to any charitable organization, for they are not all on the up-and-up, and sometimes the money never gets to the people, or most of it goes to administration fees and very little gets to the people. Sadly there is so much deception these days that we must pray through everything, especially when it comes to contributing to what is being advertised as legitimate needs of others.
And if we have retirement money, and we don’t need to have a job to pay our bills, at least for now, then we should do volunteer work under the direction and leading of the Lord. Even if we are somewhat handicapped, as I am, we can still do something. I can’t do a whole lot physically, and even my brain is not as sharp as it was when I was a lot younger, but I am able to write, and so that is what God has called me to do. And he has something that he wants all of us to do, and it isn’t to just entertain ourselves.
[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Gal 6:1; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:11-27; Eph 6:10-20; Php 2:1-8; Col 1:9; Col 3:12-16; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; Jas 5:19-20; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]
Songs in the Night
An Original Work / December 18, 2013
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84
Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.
I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!
Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.
I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!
Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.
Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!
https://vimeo.com/379484387
So you say you go to church
Fellowship you do not search
Walking with Christ not your thing
Offerings to Christ not bring
Live your life the way you want
Though religion you do flaunt
Follow idols, that’s your gig
True commitments, not so big
Selfishness it rules your life
Sinful practices, they are rife
Wasting time on what’s just trash
Not consider God to ask
Hypocrite, that’s who you are
You will not get very far
Time is ticking, going by
While your sins from God you hide
He’s not blinded to your plight
Knows you’ve given up the fight
Knows you’ve given into sin
Knows you’re losing, not to win
If surrender to Him do
He’ll forgive you, through and through,
Give you new life to begin
If you give up all for Him
“You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” Matthew 15:7-9 ESV
An Original Work / June 24, 2023
“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 ESV)
When we believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in him, we die with Christ to sin that we might live to him and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to the Lord and in surrender to his will and purposes for our lives. And when we do that, we automatically become an enemy of Satan and of all who serve him with their lives. But we can also become enemies of all who profess faith in Jesus Christ but who are living worldly lives, some of them still in slavery to sin. And we’ll be persecuted.
This is especially true if we are those who take the word of God seriously, who are walking in obedience to his commands in holy living, and who are sharing the truth of the gospel of our salvation with the people of this world. And the people of the world include all those professing faith in Jesus Christ, some of whom are not of genuine faith. For not everyone has genuine God-provided and God-persuaded faith in the Lord, but their faith is of the flesh and they define it themselves so that they can live however they want and not in walks of surrender to God in obedience to his commands.
So those who are wicked and evil are all who are living in sin against the Lord Jesus, who willfully, deliberately, habitually, and premeditatedly choose to do what they know is evil and that will hurt others, but for their own sinful pleasure, and sometimes out of hate and spite against those who are living righteously and who are following the Lord in obedience. And sadly, this includes many who profess faith in Jesus Christ, even some of those in positions of spiritual authority over the church, who are still living in sin.
So the evil and wicked people we need delivered from so that we can share the truth of the gospel with the people of the world may be members of our own households or other family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and others professing faith in Jesus Christ, and pastors and elders of what are called “churches.” For not all have genuine biblical faith in Jesus Christ, even if they profess to believe in Jesus. And “delivered” may not be physical, but it may be about overcoming the opposition in our own emotions.
I know that for me, the opposition that I have come up against as I have been following the Lord in obedience to his commands has pretty much all come from others who profess faith in Jesus Christ, including from pastors and elders of “church” congregations. And this was not due to any wrong on my part or due to lack of submission to authority. I submitted to every authority unless they required that I sin against the Lord, which some of them did. And then I had to come out from underneath their authority for their authority was not biblical but of the flesh and of marketing schemes.
Anyway, since so much of what is called “church” today are businesses created in the minds of human beings following marketing goals and schemes for how to grow their “churches,” they are following the marketing goals of businesspeople rather than the leadership of the Holy Spirit and the truth of the Scriptures to guide them in how to conduct “church.” And so most of them, it seems, have also altered the gospel message to make it more attractive and acceptable to the ungodly and to human flesh.
So if you, like me, are following the Lord wholeheartedly, and you are following what the Scriptures teach, and not the marketing plans of these institutions of human origin, you may find that many “church people” will not be supportive of you and may even oppose you or will cast you aside as though you are worthless because you don’t fit in with their marketing schemes and goals for how to grow their “churches,” and because you are still holding to the truth of the gospel and not the altered version.
So, in my case, the Lord encouraged me to come out of “Babylon” and to not partner with the “ungodly” and to not participate in this turning of God’s church into a marketplace to be marketed to the people of the world. And he sent me out into the world on the internet where I have had the freedom in some places to share the truth of the gospel of Christ, at least for now, though I know that is due to change in the not so far off future, I believe. And that is what this is about, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, and it is not being honored in much of what’s called church.
[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5]
So if you are being hindered from being able to serve the Lord in the calling that you have received from him, because you are in a “church” environment where the gospel is being altered to appease human flesh, and where the focus is on entertaining the people of the world in order to “draw in large crowds of people into your gatherings,” and where marketing books are the true “bible” that they are following in place of the Scriptures, then I pray that you may be delivered from all that and that you will have the freedom to share the truth of the gospel and to follow God where he leads you.
The Battle for Truth
An Original Work / May 18, 2013
Based off Malachi 1-4
Truth is marching, truth is marching.
I love you. Honor me.
Tell the truth. You’ll be free.
Sing My praise all your days.
I will give all you need.
Truth is marching, truth is marching.
Turn from sin; cleansed within.
Stand in awe of My Name.
Teach what’s true. Walk in peace.
Follow Christ, in His ways.
Truth is marching, truth is marching.
Show to God faithfulness.
Do not be adult’rous.
Do not shed shallow tears.
Do not be insincere.
Truth is marching, truth is marching.
I have sent messengers,
Who have giv’n my address.
They call for repentance,
And they warn of judgment.
Truth is marching, truth is marching.
I, the Lord, do not change,
So return – blessings gain:
Healing comes; joyfulness;
Freedom from your distress.
https://vimeo.com/117023801
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." ~ John 15:5-8
What does it mean to “remain” in Christ? Other Scriptures tell us that we must continue in Christ, endure to the end, persist, persevere, and keep on, etc. It means to last throughout a period of time. It means to keep going and to not stop. It means to survive, especially when faced with difficulties. And it means to not give up, to not back down, to not run away, and to not get lazy, complacent, or indifferent.
Yet, it is more than just hanging in there even in the toughest of times. It involves active involvement in the life of Christ being lived out in and through our lives for his purposes and for his glory. This means that we must cooperate fully with God’s work of grace in our lives, and we must yield our wills to his will, and we must willingly choose to walk daily in his ways and in his truth.
What Blessed Communion
An Original Work / July 11, 2011
Oh, what sweet and blessed communion
With our Lord is ours to share
When we sit at Jesus’ table,
Share His cup and eat the bread.
Sit at His feet, hear what He says,
Listen to each word He speaks;
Harken to obey His teachings;
Meet with Him throughout the week.
Oh, what grace he gives unto us
When we come to Him in faith;
Believe in His precious promise;
Free from our sins; saved by grace.
Turn from our sins; turn to our God;
Commit all our ways to Him.
Choose to live for Him each moment;
Daily cleansing us from sin.
Oh, what love He has for us that
He would die a cruel death,
So that we could be forgiven
Of our sins and live instead.
Walk with Jesus; serve Him only
As our Lord, God, priest and King.
Abide with Him; His word in us;
Bearing fruit, our offering.
https://vimeo.com/126493940
“But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 ESV)
These words were penned by the apostle Paul, as he was carried along by the Holy Spirit. But the letter is from Paul, Silas, and Timothy, and to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And at least this section of the letter was for the purpose to encourage the church, the body of Christ, the body of believers in Jesus Christ who were of genuine God-persuaded and God-gifted faith in the Lord Jesus.
Paul stated that the Christians were chosen of God from the beginning to be saved, and the Scriptures bear that out that those who are of genuine faith in the Lord Jesus were chosen by God even before the creation of the world to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. And that last phrase there is critical to our understanding of what true salvation from sin really is. For it is not generated by our own flesh.
And this salvation is not what is commonly being taught today. For we who believe in Jesus with God-provided faith in him were predestined to be conformed the likeness of Jesus Christ. And we were saved and called to a holy calling, by God’s grace, and to be holy is to be separate (different) from the world because we are being made to be like Jesus. And we are to be obedient to God, no longer conformed to the passions of our sinful flesh.
[Jer 1:1-19; Psalms 139:13-16; Acts 26:18; Rom 1:6-7,18-23; Rom 6:15-21; Rom 8:28-29; 1 Co 1:9; 1 Co 12:1-31; Gal 5:13; Eph 1:3-4; 1 Thess 4:1-8; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 10:26-31; 1 Pet 1:14-16; 1 Pet 2:9; 2 Pet 1:3]
So, this salvation does not come about by us giving lip service to the Lord and claiming faith in him and in what he did for us on that cross. It is persuaded of God and is gifted to us by God, as is the faith to believe in Christ, and not one of us can be saved by our own human effort. For our faith and salvation are not of the flesh of man, not of our own doing, but we are saved from our sins only because the Father drew us to himself.
[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44]
Now let me go back to that highlighted phrase. We are saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. And sanctification is a process of the Spirit in making us holy, different from the world, because we are now being conformed to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ. But this involves our cooperation with the Spirit’s work of salvation and sanctification in our hearts and minds, resulting in godly behavior.
And we are saved through belief in the truth. And this is where it gets sticky, for “the truth” that so many are teaching today is not the truth that Jesus taught and that his NT apostles taught. It is partially the truth, but which dilutes and alters that truth to make it more acceptable and appeasing to human flesh and less offensive to the ungodly of the world. So they teach that you can profess faith, but still continue in sin, and still be saved.
But Jesus taught that if anyone would come after him that he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to (save) our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self (lose our lives), die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience to his commands, in practice, then we have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God (Luke 9:23-26).
For we are called to faith in Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel that Jesus taught and that his NT apostles taught, as taught in the appropriate biblical context. And they taught that, by faith in Jesus Christ, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness, and that constitutes genuine salvation.
Now when Paul said, “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us,” these were not human traditions passed down to us by our ancestors from generation to generation. These were biblical instructions of God, given to the apostles, and then handed down from the apostles to the people, which then have been handed down to us from generation to generation. We are to hold firm to the teachings for us of the apostles.
But let me add a word of caution here. So many people today are teaching the Scriptures out of context. They pull certain verses out of context and then they twist them to make them say what they don’t teach if taught in context, and believe me when I say that is absolutely deliberate! At least it is deliberate by those who initiated the teachings of these Scriptures out of context, but it is negligent for teachers to not teach them in context.
And please know that the grace of God is not free license for us to continue living in sin. God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” “which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-10)
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Songs in the Night
An Original Work / December 18, 2013
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84
Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.
I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!
Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.
I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!
Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.
Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!
https://vimeo.com/379484387
“Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time.
“For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 ESV)
We live in a day and time in this world of ours when I believe we are seeing these things now revealed before our very eyes in real time. Are we living in a time of massive rebellion against our Lord and against law and order and against what is morally pure, upright, godly, honest, faithful, and obedient to our Lord and to his commands? Absolutely! If you don’t see that this is where we are, and you are a Christian, please pray and ask the Lord to open your eyes to see what all is going on in the world and in our nations.
Now please understand what this is saying here. The coming of this lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.. So if you are one who is just playing “Christian” but you are not on fire for the Lord and dedicated to serving him with your life, you may be among the deluded.
The ones you may think are godly and on your side and telling you the truth may be exactly the ones serving Satan and lying to you and deceiving you into believing their lies. The ones you are convinced are the ones coming to “save you” may be the ones truly coming to destroy you. That is what deception does. That is what a strong delusion does. It convinces you that the lies are the truth and the truth is the lie and the good guys are the bad guys and the bad people are the good people. So pray for open eyes!
And don’t look to other human beings to solve your problems or to save your nations from what ails them. For what ails this world and the people who live in it is sin. And sin is running rampant in our day and time so that we now live as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah and the days of Noah. And the only Savior that this world has is Jesus Christ. So we need to be looking to him and calling on his name and following him in obedience to his commands if we want to escape being deceived and going to hell.
For even though the lawless one opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God, he is going to come by the activity of Satan with false signs and wonders and with wicked deception, and so he may disguise himself as an angel of light and a servant of righteousness and a follower of Jesus Christ in order to draw you to himself so that you will believe him, and so that you will put your faith in him to save you.
And then realize that the temple of God has not been a physical building ever since Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. Jesus is that temple and all his followers (in truth and in righteousness) are his temple, which is the church, the body of Christ. And Satan’s lawless one has already set himself up to be worshiped as though he is God, and has seated himself already in the temple of God, the church, via the 501c3 corporation status of “the church” under the state. Now most “churches” are businesses.
And all he has to do is to put on a false persona that he is indeed a Christian and many Christians are following him as though he is of God when really he is of Satan. And this evil spirit has infiltrated these gatherings of “the church” for some time now and have convinced most to dilute and alter the gospel to make it more attractive to the world, and to pattern their gatherings after the world to attract the world to their gatherings in order to blend the world in with Christianity so that they are partnered as one.
The Holy Spirit is still constraining this lawless one to a point, but he has been let loose on the church for some time now, I believe, under disguise, because so much of what is called “church”, which includes professing Christians, has rejected the working of the Holy Spirit in their lives and in their churches to make room for the ungodly and in order to market their gatherings to the ungodly so that the ungodly will want to attend their gatherings, feel at home there, and come back for more worldly “church.”
So, it is “the church” who is pushing the Holy Spirit out of the way in order to make way for the lawless one so that their gatherings will attract the people of the world so that their numbers and their businesses will grow. And so many of these market-driven churches are shutting out the Holy Spirit and any who take God and his word seriously, for they are being warned about people like us who have “strong convictions” that they should invite us to go somewhere else where we will be “a better fit.”
And so we have all these gatherings of “Christians” which are called “churches” which have become houses of entertainment to attract the world, which are following marketing schemes and tricks and goals for how to “draw in large crowds” of people from the world into their gatherings. So they alter and dilute the character of Christ’s church, his body, and himself, and the character of his gospel to make them more acceptable to human flesh and to the people of the world. The lawless one is on the throne!
So, please pray that the Lord will open your eyes to see all the deception and all the lies and the liars in the government, in the news media, on social media, and within the gatherings of the church so that you don’t end up following after the lies and not the truth, and so you don’t end up in hell and not in heaven because you refused to love the truth and so be saved, and because you did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
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
Sincerity of faith, what does that look like? –
Believing in Jesus, doing what He says.
Looking in your mirror, what do you look like?
Walking with Jesus Christ? Or spiritually dead?
From your sins repented? Or still live in sin?
Walking in obedience? Saying “No!” to sin?
Walking the narrow road? Or on the broad way?
Doing things the right way? Or doing your thing?
What does your life look like? Pleasing Jesus now?
Or choose you your own way? Not to Jesus bow?
Jesus died for your sin, so you would repent,
So you’d walk in His way, now in righteousness.
If you want His heaven, have your sins forgiven,
You must turn from your sin, walk in obedience.
No more time for playing. Sin is not a game.
Let Him change your life now, never be the same.
An Original Work / September 12, 2022
“Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.” (2 Thessalonians 1:1-4 ESV)
This is a picture of what the church and its leadership should look like. We who profess faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior should be those who are walking by faith in Jesus Christ in obedience to his commands in holy living, and no longer in sin. And we should be growing to maturity in Christ in our walks of faith, and not be stagnant, and not be those who are going backwards and who are falling back into sin and into worldly desires.
And we should be those for whom God’s love is growing in us to where we are now loving God and the people of God and the people of the world more and more like Jesus and according to the Scriptures. For this is agape love which prefers to live through Christ, choosing his choices, and obeying them in his power. This love prefers what God prefers which is what is holy, godly, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient to his commands.
And the leadership of our churches should be those who are honoring and encouraging those who are living holy, morally pure, honest, upright, and godly lives to the glory of God and in obedience to his commands in steadfastness of faith. When they see a believer in Jesus dedicated to the Lord and to his service who is ministering to the body of Christ and who is sharing the truth of God’s word, they should be praising the Lord for that.
“This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.” (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 ESV)
Sadly, in our day and time, it appears that the truly righteous in God’s sight are being treated with disdain while those who are still walking in sin are often those who are being honored and lifted up. For it has become a badge to wear if you profess faith in Jesus Christ while you still walk in sin. But if you literally are one who is not walking in sin and who is following the Lord in obedience, then they often will chide you as being overly religious.
I am not saying it is this way in all cases, but it does appear that it is in the majority. The gospel has been so altered and diluted to appease human flesh, and to not offend the ungodly, that holy living is not something much honored, but those who confess that they are still “struggling” (regularly giving in to sin) are often the ones honored, instead. It is like everything is being turned upside down these days, flip-flopping good and evil.
And so those who are living righteously, in obedience to the Lord, who are walking in his ways and in his truth and righteousness, are the persecuted, even within some (or many) of the gatherings of what are called “churches.” For we take God and his word seriously, and because we are following the Lord in obedience, and because we are speaking the truth in love to the people of the world and to our fellow professers of faith in Jesus Christ.
But those of us who follow our Lord in obedience to his commands in holy living, and who are not walking in sin, are considered by God worthy of (fitting to) the kingdom of God. We will inherit eternal life with God if we remain steadfast in such faith until the very end. But those who are still walking in sin, and not in obedience to our Lord, will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, even if they do profess his name with their lips.
“To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 ESV)
Now this is the kind of prayer that our spiritual leaders should have for their people who are walking in obedience to the Lord. For the Christian faith is a walk of faith which is supposed to last until we die or until Jesus returns to take his faithful bride to be with him for eternity. So we have to keep on in these walks of faith, which require walks of obedience to our Lord, and that we no longer walk in sin. And God requires works of us, which he prepared in advance that we should walk in them, as his workmanship.
[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; John 15:1-11; 1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Corinthians 9:8; Galatians 5:6; Ephesians 2:10; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:9-14; 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12; 2 Timothy 2:21; Titus 2:11-14; Titus 3:8; James 2:17; 1 John 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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“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’
“Jesus replied: ‘”Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’” ~ Matthew 22:34-40 NIV
Jesus summarized the commands of God into two commands. If we truly love God in this way, and if we truly love our neighbors as ourselves, we will honor God in all that we do, and we will do no harm to our neighbors. Our hearts’ desire will be to please God and to show his love to others, yet not by human standards, but by God’s standards.
So many people think that love caters to selfishness and that it only does and says pleasant things which make people feel warm and fuzzy all over. But that is not a true picture of love. Yes, love does what is kind, thoughtful, caring, compassionate, etc., but love sometimes has to be tough love, too, and it must speak the truth in love, and confront sin, call for repentance, warn of judgment, and tell the truth about what it really means to love God and to obey his commands.
God’s Great Commands
An Original Work / July 10, 2011
Based off of Matthew 22:34-40
Loving God and loving others
Are the Lord God’s great commands.
On these rest all of the others;
Live by them and you’ll not fail.
Be a witness, share the gospel,
Be a light in this dark world.
Share the love of Jesus always
To a world who has not heard.
Serving others; be like Jesus;
Wash their feet and pray with them.
Be a healer; mend their hurts and
Show them how to turn from sin.
Be a living example of
How to live for Jesus Christ,
Walking with Him in His footsteps,
Leading others to new life.
Give to God and give to others
Of yourselves in ev’ry way.
Obey your Lord, do His bidding;
Bow your knees and humbly pray.
Pray for others to know Jesus.
Tell how they can be set free
Of their sins and live for Jesus;
Walk with Him eternally.
https://vimeo.com/127355075
“The Lord is my portion;
I promise to keep your words.
I entreat your favor with all my heart;
be gracious to me according to your promise.
When I think on my ways,
I turn my feet to your testimonies;
I hasten and do not delay
to keep your commandments.
Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me,
I do not forget your law.
At midnight I rise to praise you,
because of your righteous rules.
I am a companion of all who fear you,
of those who keep your precepts.
The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love;
teach me your statutes!” (Psalms 119:57-64 ESV)
If the Lord is your portion, he is your inheritance, your source of security, your all sufficiency, your Lord (Owner-Master), your Savior (from bondage to sin), and your all-in-all. He is the love of your life, your husband, your Father, your brother, your friend, and your companion. For the Lord is God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. So he is your counselor, guide, teacher, encourager, and helper, too, who teaches you God’s ways.
And if the Lord is our portion, then we are those who want to obey his commands, but not “want” in the sense of just saying we want to obey him, but in the sense of we will make obedience to our Lord our practice, our lifestyle, our habit. And we should be those who are thinking on the ways of the Lord every day, throughout the day, who then turn our feet (our walks of faith and obedience) to obey our Lord’s New Covenant commandments.
We should not be people who put off obeying the Lord, who neglect the commands of the Lord, who become lazy and slothful, and who go after the things of this world and of the flesh rather than us chasing after the Lord and his commands, with the full intent to obey them and to put them into practice in our daily lives. Even if the Lord gets us up at midnight to obey him in some way, we should do that and not resist him.
Even if we have enemies surrounding us, treating us as their prey, who are the wicked who are against us and our walks of faith and obedience to our Lord, we should not give in to them out of fear. We should not forget the Lord and his commandments. But we must obey them, even if it means being hated and rejected and cast aside as worthless, even by family members, friends, neighbors, and others who profess faith in Jesus Christ, including some pastors who are worldly and not godly, but of the flesh.
So, we should then seek out others who can say that this passage of Scripture describes their commitment to the Lord, though perhaps not in absolute perfection. I am not absolutely perfect in every way. But I am walking in obedience to my Lord and not in sin. And all of us should be dedicated to our Lord and to his service and to walking in obedience to his commands in holy living and no longer in sin. These are our companions.
We who are described here, who love the Lord Jesus, who are following him in obedience to his commands in holy living, are those who can claim God’s promises. Again, this is not saying we are perfect people or that we may never sin (see 1 John 2:1-2), but that we are those who are honoring Jesus Christ with our lives and who take God and his word to heart to obey it in his power. We are the ones who can claim the promises of the Lord.
For the Scriptures are clear that if we walk in sin, in deliberate and habitual sin against God and against our fellow humans, we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God unless we turn from our sins to now follow Jesus Christ in walks of obedience to his commands and in holy living. For Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness in obedience to his commands.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Video Talk
https://youtu.be/E5j1FNiu_70
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Teach Them
An Original Work / May 24, 2012
Based off various scriptures
Open up the blinded eyes of
Those who walk in sin’s darkness.
Turn them to the light of Christ
And to His righteousness.
Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.
Turn them to the peace of Christ,
So they may receive forgiveness
And eternal life.
Teach them to put off their old selves
And their former way of life,
And to put on their new self,
Reborn to be like Christ;
To not copy worldly customs;
Be transformed in life and mind;
Obey freely His word in them,
Pleasing unto God.
Teach them how to love their neighbors
Truly as they love themselves;
Be a witness; share the gospel;
Satan’s lies dispel;
Comfort all who mourn in sadness;
Share Christ’s love and joy today.
Do this through your life and witness
For your Lord always.
https://vimeo.com/125485489
“Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commandments!
His offspring will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
who conducts his affairs with justice.
For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever;
his horn is exalted in honor.” (Psalms 112:1-9 ESV)
What does it mean to “fear the Lord”? It means to give the Lord God Jesus Christ our undivided heart, loyalty, attention, affection, faithfulness and obedience to him and to his commandments (New Covenant). It also means to be in reverent awe of his holiness and righteousness and to give him our reverence and honor and respect. It also means to take God and his word seriously, to believe him, including not only his promises but all his warnings, too, and to respond appropriately as though all this is true.
Now it doesn’t mean that we do this all the time with the upmost of absolute perfection, but it does mean that obedience to our Lord, and submission to him as Lord, and surrender of our lives to do his will, and the forsaking of our sins is what we live by, what we practice. We are people who walk in the fear of the Lord and who are following him wherever he leads us and who are living to please our Lord with our lives and no longer to live for the pleasures of the flesh and of this wicked world that we live in.
And it means that we love the word of the Lord and our desire is truly to follow what it teaches us who believe in Jesus Christ in truth and in righteousness. For the Bible teaches that it is not those who merely give lip service to the Lord who are righteous in his sight, but they are all who are walking righteously, for whom righteousness is their practice. And righteousness is God’s judicial approval, his divine approval which refers to what is deemed right by the Lord, what is approved in His eyes.
So righteousness has to do with how we live. It is not just a status or a position for those who are in Christ by genuine faith in him. But it is our lifestyle. It is only by the grace of God and because of what Jesus did for us on that cross that any of us are righteous in the sight of God, but God regards the righteous as those who are living upright, godly, morally pure, honest, and faithful lives in Christ Jesus in obedience to his commands. And the unrighteous are those still walking in sin and disobedience to God.
So, the righteous, i.e. those who walk in the fear of the Lord, are blessed of God. And those who are truly righteous in the sight of the Lord are those who are living for him steadfast in faith and in practice, who conduct their lives in honesty and uprightness in obedience to the Lord, and who are faithful in ministry and in ministering to the needs of the saints of God and who minister God’s love and grace to the people of the world as led by the Lord and as empowered by God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
So, we are not afraid of what other humans might do to us or say to us or about us to others. That doesn’t mean that we don’t get hurt by other humans. For we are feeling people. But we are not controlled by fear. And what others do or say about us does not dictate what we do or say under the direction of the Holy Spirit to the church and to the people of the world. And if we are truly following the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are going to be hated, rejected, falsely accused, and cast aside as unwanted.
“The wicked man sees it and is angry;
he gnashes his teeth and melts away;
the desire of the wicked will perish!” (Psalms 112:10 ESV)
But the enemy of our souls hates it when we serve the Lord Jesus with our lives, and when we walk in the ways of the Lord and not in sin. And he hates it when we speak truth to the people of the church and of the world where he has been spreading his lies. For he wants everyone believing his lies so that they are not genuinely saved from their sins and so that they will join him in hell thinking that they are going to heaven. So he will do all within his power to try to destroy us and to silence us. But we must not give in to him.
Now Satan has humans who do his dirty work, too, and who serve him in trying to destroy the servants of the Lord. And these humans may be pastors or elders of “churches,” or they may be family members or spouses, or they may be other professing Christians or friends or neighbors. And they may disguise themselves as servants of righteousness hoping that we will trust them and believe them but while they secretly work against us behind our backs, and while they may be working to destroy us, in reality.
For they will often present one image outwardly while secretly they are doing and speaking and living the opposite. But they may be truly malicious, morally unclean, unfaithful, sinfully wicked, hateful, spiteful, liars, and manipulators, while they smooth-talk you into believing that they are the opposite of that. And so some of them will fake Christianity to try to deceive Christians with their lies. And this is because they truly hate the righteous, and they are angry with them and gnash their teeth at them in secret.
Now, according to the Scriptures, those who live righteously by genuine God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ will have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. But those who live wickedly in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, and against other humans, even if they profess faith in Jesus Christ, will not have salvation from sin, and they will not inherit eternal life with God. And it is because disobedience to our Lord and to his commands, if in practice, is unbelief, and belief is obedience.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Songs in the Night
An Original Work / December 18, 2013
“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84
Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.
I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!
Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.
I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!
Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.
Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!
https://vimeo.com/379484387
The wedding bells, they rang that day,
All was well, a special day.
Bride and groom had waited long
Now to each other to belong.
She walked that aisle with smile on face,
She was at her special place,
Groom awaiting down the aisle,
To see his bride’s welcoming smile.
Now they were married, all alone,
They had left their parents’ homes.
Time together, now they’d share,
And to each other burdens bear.
But as we know, no perfect mate
Does exist. The fruit we ate.
All born sinners, without God,
Not giving God a single nod.
The sparkle in each other’s eyes
Sometimes will begin to die.
Time is passing by and by,
And so emotions go bye-bye.
If they’re not careful, time may lead
One find other wants to feed.
Couple then begin to part,
No longer feel love in their hearts.
Marriage takes work, not come easy,
Marriage not always so breezy.
Feelings come and feelings go.
Can’t trust feelings. God to know!
God is love, and love’s not feelings.
Love is doing, feelings fleeting.
Work together, don’t give up.
God and pure love is enough.
An Original Work / June 30, 2022
“And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, ‘Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.’” (Matthew 19:3-9 ESV)
Laying the Trap
Have you ever noticed before that some people who are guilty of living in deliberate and habitual sin, but who profess faith in God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit – will use trickery as a means to try to justify their own unlawful actions? And this trickery may be aimed at those who are telling the truth which they don’t want to hear. For they figure if they can get the truth teller in a trap, they can justify their own sinful choices.
The Pharisees, who appeared righteous on the outside, but inwardly were filled up with all sorts of evil, were continuously after Jesus Christ to try to find a way to trip him up with his words in order to accuse him of wrongdoing, and probably also as a way to justify or to coverup their own evil deeds. But Jesus was too wise for them and he always knew when they were trying to lay a trap for him, and so he would answer accordingly.
And he sets the example for us in being wise and discerning to see when other people are trying to lay traps for us to fall into so that they will have cause, they believe, to accuse us of wrong but also to justify their own evil deeds. The phrase describing this maneuver is they will try to “bait you” into a discussion where they feel that they can gain the upper ground. And so if we are wise we will recognize this maneuver and we won’t be trapped.
The Topic
The topic of discussion that the Pharisees wanted Jesus to engage in with them was that of marriage and divorce. Now, these were men who were grounded in the Scriptures, so they knew and taught the Scriptures. But they didn’t know Jesus, in reality, and so they thought they could test him, not knowing that he was the author of the Scriptures. But since he knew them well, they were not able to trap him as they had hoped.
Now, whether or not it was their intention just to try to trap Jesus with his words or whether they had other motivations such as wanting to divorce their wives, I don’t believe this tells us. But God does not approve of divorce except in the case of divorcing a marital partner because of adultery. That God permits. Now the Scriptures do not teach that we must divorce in the case of adultery, but that we are free to divorce under those circumstances.
But God’s design for marriage was that when the man and the woman unite in marriage that they should become one flesh, and that they should remain as such. The man was to leave his parents and now cleave (like glue) to his wife. And so the husband and wife are to treat one another as though they are one body, and there should be a mutual love, honor, and respect between them as two who have become one, to stay united forever.
Sadly, not too many people approach marriage that way, or even if they did in the beginning, it doesn’t last long before one or the other or both untie the knot that bound them together as man and wife and they wander off in other directions and soon the marriage begins to fall apart. And so some people will claim that they just “fell out of love” with the other, which would mean that the love they had was based in the flesh and so it didn’t last.
And so there is a very high divorce rate, even among “Christian” couples and their marriages, because one or both decided that they didn’t love the other enough to stay, and so one or both of them decided to leave, perhaps because that person already had someone else or just wanted to be single again. But as Christians we should try to work through our difficulties and work together to grow together in Christ. Sadly, that doesn’t always work.
For it takes two people to make a marriage work, and if one is not willing to try to make it work, then it will fail. But many, because of their hardness of hearts and their fleshly desires to do what they want to do despite how it injures spouse and children, will choose divorce. And some end up in a divorce because of the choice of their marital partner and not by their own choosing. But divorce is not to be the “go to” when things get bad.
For we are to love even our enemies. And no matter how badly we are treated by others we are to forgive those who do evil against us, and we are to pray for them and do good to them and speak truth to them for their good, in love. So, if your marriage is not going well, pray to the Lord to show you what you can do to make things better. And pray for your spouse, and show love to him/her, and let the Lord lead you in what to do.
Teach Them
An Original Work / May 24, 2012
Based off various scriptures
Open up the blinded eyes of
Those who walk in sin’s darkness.
Turn them to the light of Christ
And to His righteousness.
Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.
Turn them to the peace of Christ,
So they may receive forgiveness
And eternal life.
Teach them to put off their old selves
And their former way of life,
And to put on their new self,
Reborn to be like Christ;
To not copy worldly customs;
Be transformed in life and mind;
Obey freely His word in them,
Pleasing unto God.
Teach them how to love their neighbors
Truly as they love themselves;
Be a witness; share the gospel;
Satan’s lies dispel;
Comfort all who mourn in sadness;
Share Christ’s love and joy today.
Do this through your life and witness
For your Lord always.
https://vimeo.com/125485489
When the Lord Jesus gave me this song to write, on October 17, 2016, he had been taking me through a trial with bed bugs. I had never had bed bugs before. I didn’t think I would ever get them, either, so this definitely took me by surprise. Yet, through this trial the Lord was rearranging my priorities, and he was purifying my heart to make me more like Jesus.
He, as well, was teaching me to rest in him through this. We had had the bugs nearly 2 weeks, at this point, but the Lord had not yet seen fit to deliver us from them. Instead, he was encouraging me to find my strength in him, to rest in him, to not fret, and to let him work in my life what he wanted to do, and for the praise of his glory, and for my good.
The next morning (10/18/16), when we woke up, there was a brown recluse (poisonous) spider on our kitchen sink. The day before that I saw a flea on my desk, and my husband found a dead tick on our bathroom floor. Although the flea and the tick were no big deal, combined with the bed bugs and the poisonous spider, I felt like there was a bug convention going on in our apartment right then. I believed I was being tested, and that the Lord was preparing me for even greater trials yet to come.
In all things, I was learning more and more to rest in Jesus, and to not be afraid, no matter what may come my way. All glory to God!
And this day, May 10, 2018, while we were out of town trying to help our daughter and son-in-law finish their new house so that they could move out of her in-laws’ house, I picked up a different kind of bug, probably from my grandchildren who have runny noses and coughs. And, then I was down in bed with a sore throat, stuffy sinuses and a cough. And, yet I knew that God was in control, and he allowed all of this for his purposes in my life. Amen!
When I Am Afraid
An Original Work / October 17, 2016
Based off Psalms 56-57
When I am afraid, Lord, I will trust in You.
Your Word, Lord, I praise. I yield my life to You.
Enemies pursue me, slandering Your Name.
Lord, have mercy. I trust in You. Hear my cry today.
Lord, I love Your Word. It comforts me today,
As I look to you, and bow my head and pray.
You are Christ, my Lord. You saved me from my sin,
That I may walk, Lord before You, purified within.
Steadfast is my heart, O God, I sing of You.
I will praise You, Lord. To You, I will be true.
Oh, how great Your love. Your faithfulness endue.
Be exalted, God of heaven. Glory be to You.
https://vimeo.com/187821104
“I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“’Death is swallowed up in victory.’
‘O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?’
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:50-57 ESV)
When this says here that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” it is speaking not only of the fact that our physical bodies on this earth are not what are going to heaven, if we are true followers of Christ, but that if we are still of the flesh, not physically speaking, but spiritually speaking, and so we are still walking in sin and not in holiness and obedience to the Lord, we cannot and we will not inherit the kingdom of God (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23; Romans 6:1-23; Galatians 5:16-21; 1 John 3:4-10).
Now when Christians’ physical bodies die, and physically they are no longer with us, the Scriptures speak of them as being in a state of sleep. But when Jesus Christ returns for his faithful ones, those of us who have been faithful in service to our Lord, who have walked in obedience to his commands, not necessarily perfectly, but consistently and habitually, whether we are asleep (dead physically) or awake (alive), we will all be changed and we will all now have glorified bodies, not like the bodies that we have on this earth.
We who are now alive physically will no longer be in these flesh bodies, these bodies which were born into this world with sin natures in the image of Adam, and which go through sufferings and trials and difficulties and temptations and persecutions, etc. We will no longer be in pain physically and emotionally. And whatever difficulties we may now be facing in this life will all be gone. They will disappear. They will be no more. Praise Jesus! But the victory is ours now, not just when we die or when Jesus returns.
For there is both a physical and a spiritual aspect to what this is talking about. For if we are without genuine faith in Jesus Christ whereby we are crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but to God, then spiritually speaking we are dead. We are dead in our sins, and heaven will not be our eternal destiny, even if we profess faith in Jesus Christ with our lips. For Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24).
And the victory being spoken of here is not just victory over sin so that we can have eternal life with God, but it is victory over all of life’s obstacles that the devil puts in our paths to try to trip us up, and to try to get us to be afraid, and to try to get us to give up and to stop serving the Lord, and to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and to stop sharing the truth of the gospel of our salvation. For he will try all sorts of methods to try to discourage us and to make us afraid so that we will retreat.
But we must remain faithful to our Lord despite all the persecutions and rejections and betrayals and false accusations. And we must keep moving forward despite the obstacles thrown in our pathways. Even knowing that what awaits us ahead could be more of the same, or worse, we must keep moving forward. We must keep obeying the Lord and sharing the truth of the gospel so that many will come to know the Lord Jesus, and so that they will be saved from their sins and have eternal life with God, too.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
A Believer’s Prayer
An Original Work / July 31, 2012
With my whole heart, Lord, I pray
To be Yours, and Yours always.
Lead me in Your truth today.
May I love You, and obey.
Lead me in Your righteousness.
When I sin, may I confess;
Bow before You when I pray;
Live for You and You always.
Love You, Jesus, You’re my friend.
Life with You will never end.
You are with me through each day,
Giving love and peace always.
You will ne’er abandon me.
From my sin You set me free.
You died on that cruel tree,
So I’d live eternally.
Soon You’re coming back for me;
From this world to set me free;
Live with You eternally.
Oh, what joy that brings to me.
I will walk with You in white;
A pure bride, I’ve been made right
By the blood of Jesus Christ;
Pardoned by His sacrifice.
https://vimeo.com/114796263
