Time is Running Out

Time is now running out for some

For to the Lord they will not come

But they continue in their sins

And when confronted, they just grin

Not serious ‘bout their walks of faith

For faith not real, but it is fake

Take not the gospel true to form

And so to God they not conform

They want forgiveness, escape hell

But on their sins they daily dwell

They want to heaven they be bound

But from their sins not turn around

To obey God, they will not do

For they’re convinced they not have to

That works for them, not sins escape

While they continue faith to fake

But God’s word does to them condemn

Their attitudes and daily sins

Their blatancy, of God ignore

While not their sins do they abhor

A sentence, then, of death does wait

For those who’ll not walk through God’s gate

For sin they love, will not relent

Obeying God not their intent

But truth be told, God has a plan

Trust in His word, on Him depend,

Repent of sin, obey your Lord,

And faith in Christ you’ll be on board

An Original Work / February 28, 2025

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Paul's Sound Words

 

Do Not Be Ashamed of The Truth

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” (2 Timothy 1:8-12 NASB1995)

So, what is the testimony of our Lord Jesus that we are not to be ashamed of? Well, Jesus said 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 living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God.

He also said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God the Father. For many are going to stand before the Lord on the day of judgment, calling him, “Lord,” proclaiming what they did in his name, and he is going to say, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” Why? Because they went their own way and they did not obey the Lord Jesus.

But this is not what is being popularly taught today as the gospel of Christ. Many are teaching a godless gospel message which makes no requirements for death to sin and walks of obedience to his commands, but which is based on lip service only and on Scriptures willfully taught out of context to teach the opposite of what Jesus taught in Luke 9:23-26 and in Matthew 7:21-23. And they confuse the works God has for us to walk in with fleshly works.

But verse 10 of Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” And in Titus 2:11-14 we read that the grace of God is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for Jesus. For Jesus Christ “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”

So, yes, it is true that Jesus saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our own works, the works of our flesh, but according to his own purpose and grace. But his grace teaches us that we must deny self, die daily to sin, and follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands. And it teaches us that it is the ones DOING the will of God who will enter the kingdom of heaven. And it teaches us that we must renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and now live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.

And this is the gospel message that Paul taught, too. For he taught that by faith in Jesus Christ “our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin,” so we should “not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,” and we “are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness” which results in sanctification, and the outcome is eternal life (see Romans 6:1-23).

All of the above is the gospel message that the apostle Paul taught, and of which he was not ashamed. He did not teach that we could make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and now be assured heaven when we die regardless of how we live. He taught that if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not walks of obedience to our Lord, that we will not inherit eternal life with God. There will be hell to pay. And this is the gospel that we should be believing and proclaiming and be not ashamed of, too.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 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; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

For Our Nation  

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

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

Do Not Be Ashamed of The Truth

An Original Work / February 28, 2025

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Do Not Give in To Fear

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

“I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you, even as I recall your tears, so that I may be filled with joy. For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well. For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:1-7 NASB1995)

When we follow Jesus Christ with our lives, it can get lonely, at times, and we may face many hardships and persecutions and rejections, and we may be tempted to retreat in fear. And perhaps that is where Timothy was. For Satan will be against us, and he will want to destroy us and to get us to give up the fight and to run away. So he will use all kinds of weapons of spiritual warfare against us with the intention to get us to quit; to desert; to give up.

Now I had a grandmother like Timothy’s. Her name was Jennie. But she died when I was 2 years old, so I never got to know her. I didn’t know anything about her, really, until 52 years after her death, when I gained possession of her journals. And as I began to read her journals I began to weep, because she was so much like me, or I was so much like her, and I really was not like the rest of my family, not in those ways. I just really connected with her.

She was a woman of very strong faith who prayed much and believed much in the Lord, and she journaled her experiences like I journaled mine, and I even sounded like her, using the same phrases and the same favorite Scripture verses, and with similar heart burdens for the church. And she acted on what she said she believed, and she ministered to the poor and needy and prayed with them and for them. She had a very strong faith.

And the faith that I have in Jesus reminds me a lot of her faith, as she expressed it in her journals, and as I heard about her from other family members, although not much did they tell me. But I did not know her personally, so all I can go by is what she wrote in her journals. But from what I read, I greatly connected with her faith which appeared to be so much like mine, so I do feel that I am a part of her in that way.

From what I have heard, she was the oddball in the family, and so she was not well received nor well liked and accepted by all. So, I assume that she did face some opposition and rejection, even from her own family members. But I loved her heart for Jesus and for the church and for the people of the world, and I loved how she prayed with great passion and compassion, and how she expressed her faith, the things I am aware of, anyway.

And because I had and I have a very sincere faith in the Lord Jesus, a lot of which is expressed in writing, for to this I have been called of God, I faced a lot of opposition and rejection and persecution over my lifetime. And truthfully, there was a short period of time when I did retreat, and I did give up the fight, for it was overwhelming for me, and I had not much support or encouragement at all, but that was wrong of me to quit.

But praise Jesus, he brought me back, and later on he called me to this ministry of writing, and that is where I have been ever since then. And I have faced even more rejection and persecution and opposition, but the Lord has given me the strength to endure, even through many tears, at times. And I closed that door to my former life where, for a period of time I did retreat, and I have never gone back – all praise and glory to God alone!!

So I get this what Paul said to Timothy to encourage him in his walk of faith and obedience to the Lord. For if we are in earnest in our walks of faith and obedience to the Lord, and we are doing what he says we are to do, and if we are taking the truth of the gospel to the church and to the world, at a time when so many lies and liars are being believed, instead, we will be persecuted, rejected, and cast aside even by fellow professers of faith.

So we need to be encouraged, and we need to encourage others to remain strong in their faith and in walks of obedience to the Lord despite all opposition, rejections, and persecutions. For Satan’s goal it is to destroy us, but God’s purpose is to give us strength and purpose and meaning to life, to live the lives he has called us to live for his glory and for the salvation of human lives from slavery to sin and to walks of obedience to our Lord.

So this is an encouragement to all of us who profess the name of Jesus to walk the walk of faith in our Lord, in obedience to his commands, in doing what he has called all of us to do, and to serve him in the “body parts” (within the church, the body of believers in Jesus Christ) to which he has assigned us, and in the areas of giftedness he has provided for us and that he will equip us to fulfill, in his power. And we are not to fear opposition.

For we are living in a time period when the character of God/Christ, and of his church (his body), and of his gospel message are being altered to appease human flesh and to not offend the ungodly of this world. And so not many are teaching that faith in Jesus Christ requires that we die with Christ to sin and that we now walk in obedience to his commands, by his grace, in his power. And if we do not, that we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 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; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

If we are one of the few who is teaching the gospel in the same manner in which Jesus taught it, and that his New Testament apostles taught it, in the appropriate context, we should be prepared to face much opposition and to be rejected and cast aside even by pastors of “churches” because they were warned about people like us, i.e. “people with strong convictions,” and so they will encourage us to go somewhere else where we will be “a better fit.”

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:16-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; John 17:14; 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; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

For Our Nation  

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

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

Do Not Give in To Fear

An Original Work / February 28, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

He Restores My Soul

“The Lord is my shepherd,

I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside quiet waters.

He restores my soul;

He guides me in the paths of righteousness

For His name’s sake.

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I fear no evil, for You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You have anointed my head with oil;

My cup overflows.

Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,

And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalms 23:1-6 NASB1995)

When we believe in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, we enter into a union, a spiritual marriage contract, an intimate relationship with him that is like no other. And we give up our “single” lives to become his and his alone. He becomes our spiritual husband, our betrothed, and we Christians become his bride who are waiting for his return when he will take his faithful ones to be with him, when we get to be with our Lord for eternity. 

Our relationship with him is to parallel the relationship of a husband and a wife who love each other and who are committed to one another. Thus, by God-persuaded faith in him we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we now walk in faithful obedience to our Lord in holy living, in the power of God. We no longer live like we are single, doing our own thing. For our lives now belong to him to love and to serve and to obey him, our husband.

Now we follow Jesus Christ with our lives as the sheep follow their shepherd. And we let him lead us in the way that we ought to go. And he guides us in the paths of righteousness and holiness and godly living, and not according to the sinful patterns of the world we live in. He shows us the right way, and so we follow him in surrender to his will and in obedience to his commands. We may not do this perfectly all the time, but we must follow his lead.

Now, as his followers, if we are truly following him in walks of obedience and in surrender to his will, and we have put our lives of sin behind us, Satan, who is our enemy, is going to try to get us back on his side. He is going to try to trip us up, and he will lie to us, and he will try to convince us that God did not say that we must obey him and that we must die with him to sin. But we must rebuke his lies with the truth of God’s word taught in context.

And if Satan cannot get us to go his way, and to follow his lies, then he will find other ways in which to “take us out,” for his goal is to get us back on his side and away from following Jesus Christ with our lives. So if we refuse him, and we obey our Lord, then he will fight against us, and he will persecute us, and he will afflict us and send other people to hate, reject, mistreat, and persecute us, and even to falsely accuse us of what we did not do.

But through all of that our Lord will be with us if we are with him, and if we are following him and not the ways of this sinful world. And he will give us the strength and the wisdom that we need to combat the lies of the enemy, and to stand strong on the truth of God’s word, even if it means losing a lot of friends, and friends and family turning against us because of our seriousness of walks of faith and obedience to our Lord and to his will.

So, we have no reason to fear the enemy and what he/they may do to us. For no matter what comes our way, we can be strong in the Lord and in his strength when we daily put on the armor of God which he supplied for us to live the Christian life and to not give way to the enemy (Ephesians 6:10-20). So we need not to fear any evil, for our Lord is with us, and his hands will guide us each step of the way, if we yield control of our lives over to him.

But, if we profess faith in Jesus Christ, yet we continue to live like we are “single” and not married to him, and so we continue in sin, and not in walks of obedience to our Lord (Owner-Master Husband), then we don’t have these promises nor these protections from the enemy. We are on our own if we do not surrender our lives to the Lord Jesus to do his will. And salvation from sin and eternal life with God are not ours to claim if we refuse him.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 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; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

Full Release  

An Original Work / April 15, 2012

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

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 

He Restores My Soul

An Original Work / February 27, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Full Release

Full Release  

 

An Original Work / April 15, 2012

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

 

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

Some Boast in Chariots

“Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;

He will answer him from His holy heaven

With the saving strength of His right hand.

Some boast in chariots and some in horses,

But we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.

They have bowed down and fallen,

But we have risen and stood upright. Save, O Lord;

May the King answer us in the day we call.” (Psalms 20:6-9 NASB1995)

Jesus Christ is to be our Only Lord and Savior and King. We are to have no other king, and no other savior but the Lord, and Him alone! So please do not be looking to any humans, no matter who they are, to be the ones to save you, as a people, and you, as the nations of this world, out of the mess that our world is presently in. Do not put your trust in “princes” who cannot save, which includes kings and queens and presidents and chancellors, et al. And don’t put your trust in your military, either, for they are not our heroes.

Especially in the times in which we now live, if we are at all spiritually discerning as to the times, we should recognize the signs of these last days before our Savior’s return. And please do not put your trust in any particular person or news site to tell you the truth, for lies and liars abound, and the news media lies to us, even if they might tell some of the truth, and so do pastors and politicians and actors, etc. For deception is all over the place now, especially with AI and the ability to make anything look real.

We get deceived, though, when we make men our “gods” and when we look to them for truth and for answers instead of looking only to God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. We get deceived when we put our trust in any particular human source and we convince ourselves that they have the truth, and others don’t. One of the biggest deceptions today is to teach us that only certain things are truth and if we hear anything else, we are to call it “conspiracy theory,” because they don’t want the people hearing the truth.

Now I am not suggesting that everything called “conspiracy theory” is, indeed, the truth, but that we, the people, are being trained when we hear certain things to shut them out and to disregard them as lies when, in fact, they may be the truth. This is happening in the church, as well, where they are calling the true gospel “works salvation” and while they are teaching an altered gospel message out of context which they are convincing people is the truth. And it appears the multitudes are believing the lie and not truth.

So, as people of God, who profess Jesus as Lord and as Savior of our lives, we should be looking only to God and to his word for truth, and we should be relying on the Spirit living within us to point us to all truth. Now the Lord may lead us to read other people’s writings on various topics, but we must read everything with spiritual discernment, praying for the Lord to show us what is truth and what are lies. But for this to work we must be walking in fellowship with the Lord in obedience to him and no longer in deliberate sin.

For if our minds are cluttered with the chatter of the world and of worldly minds and attitudes and belief systems, we are not going to hear clearly that inner voice which warns us against the lies and the liars and which leads us to what is truth. But all of us should be in the habit of not putting our trust in any one particular person or group of people or political party, but we must evaluate all that we hear and read in prayer and in the study of the Scriptures and with willing hearts and minds to unbelieve lies we believe.

With regard to salvation from sin, the Lord saves those who bow the knee to him in humble surrender to him as Lord of their lives, who willingly submit themselves to dying with Christ to sin and walking in obedience to his commands, in practice, by God’s grace, through faith, in the power of God. For if we profess faith in Christ, but then we continue living sinful lifestyles in direct opposition to the Lord and in defiance of his commands, and so we do not obey him, in practice, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 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; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

And with regard to the Lord saving us from our enemies, in the New Testament we are taught that if we follow Jesus with our lives that we will have enemies, and that we will be hated and persecuted as he was. And some of us they will put in prison, and they will beat us, and they will try all manner of evil against us to get us to renounce our faith in the Lord Jesus, and some of us they will put to death because we would not deny our Lord. But he will keep us from falling if we will remain steadfast in faith in him.

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:16-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; John 17:14; 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; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

The Rock of My Heart

Lyricist: Bassford, Matthew W.; Psalm 73

Composer: Schales, Glenda Barnhart

My Lord, I need nothing beside You;

Without You, I could not have stood.

Your promise is my hope and my refuge;

Your nearness, my strength and my good.

When I was distressed and embittered,

By things I could not understand,

Your presence was continually with me;

You always took hold of my hand.

I know that Your counsel will guide me

In wisdom, devotion, and love,

And afterward You’ll call me to glory

To dwell in Your presence above.

My heart may be broken within me;

My earthly strength may depart.

But You are my portion forever,

You are the Rock of my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9SQe7t748Q

Caution: This link may contain ads

Some Boast in Chariots

An Original Work / February 27, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

In The Day of Trouble

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

May the name of the God of Jacob set you securely on high!

May He send you help from the sanctuary

And support you from Zion!

May He remember all your meal offerings

And find your burnt offering acceptable! Selah.

May He grant you your heart’s desire

And fulfill all your counsel!

We will sing for joy over your victory,

And in the name of our God we will set up our banners.

May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.” (Psalms 20:1-5 NASB1995)

 

As human beings, we are going to have days of trouble and hardships. And as followers of Jesus Christ we will have trials and tribulations to test our faith to help us to grow to maturity in Christ and to be stronger in our faith and in our determination to follow our Lord in walks of obedience to his commands. And we will have persecutions and afflictions, but out of them we should learn more to depend upon the Lord and on his strength.

 

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:16-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; John 17:14; 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; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

 

Now we should pray all the time, and I don’t mean that we should be praying 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24/7), but that we should always be in an attitude of prayer in open communication with our Lord so that, at any given moment, we can hear from him, and we can speak to him, and we can call out to him in our times of difficulty and trials and persecutions, and he will hear us and he will answer if we call on him in faith without doubting.

 

But we need to pray according to the will of God, and if we don’t know his will in any given situation, we should pray and ask him to show us his will, or we should pray as Jesus prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.” And we should learn to accept whatever God’s will is for us in any given situation, for sometimes he will be silent, and other times he will say, “wait,” “trust me,” “be patient.” And other times, “Just keep praying.”

 

Now the Lord will never refuse to deliver us out of our addiction to sin if we are honest and sincere in our desire to be delivered. He may allow us to go through trials, like he did with Job, and he may say “No” to delivering us from an affliction, because he wants to humble us, like he did with Paul. But we know it is God’s will to deliver us from bondage to sin, and to empower us to live holy lives, for his praise and glory, in his power, strength, and wisdom, and that we live to please him in all that we are and do and say.

 

For that purpose Jesus sacrificed his life for us on that cross, and God the Father raised him from the dead, and he ascended back to heaven, and he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell his followers, to help us to do just that. He died on that cross to rescue us from our slavery to sin so that we will now serve him with our lives in walks of obedience to his commands. And if we are willing, humble, and obedient, he will help us to do that, too.

 

Now, if we are walking by the faith God provided, and we are living to please our Lord, in his power, he will grant our heart’s desire because his desire has now become our desire. He is not going to grant selfish and sinful and worldly desires so that we can continue to live to the flesh and not to God. Our will now must align with his will and purpose for our lives, and we must be living to obey him, and we must pray to know and to do his will.

 

And the best way to know his will is for us to be serious students of the Scriptures (read in a reliable translation, studied in the appropriate context) who not only read them, but who make it our practice to put what we are learning into practice in our daily lives, by the grace of God, in the power of God at work within us. And context is very critical because so many people are teaching the Scriptures out of context and are misinterpreting them.

 

And if we make Bible study our practice, we should learn that Jesus died to free us from our addiction to sin so that we will now serve him with our lives in walks of obedience to his commands. But, if we refuse to die to sin and to obey his commands, and so we continue to live in sin and not in walks of obedience to God, then no matter what we profess with our lips, we will not have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God in heaven.

 

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 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; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

 

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

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

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

 

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

 

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

 

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

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

 

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

 

Caution: This link may contain ads

 

In The Day of Trouble

An Original Work / February 27, 2025

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

More Will Be Given

 

Confusing Times

Confusing times with ins and outs

Are causing many folks to doubt

What they have always held as truth

From times now past when they were youth.

Emotions raging high these days

With many angry, others praise,

With life now changing every day,

Not knowing what will go or stay.

So much is now up in the air,

With many living in despair,

Not knowing what the future holds,

Especially for the weak and old.

The trusted ones cause now to doubt

If they’re sincere in what they flaunt,

If they will hold to what professed,

If they’re sincere in what confessed.

For there are changes every day,

Some disappoint, while others sway,

While some confuse, raise doubts and fears,

Cause some to rage, bring others tears.

So, what to do? How do we deal

With what is fake and what is real?

How to adjust to the unknown,

Not knowing if the truth be shown?

The only remedy I know

Is trust in God, make Him your own,

Trust in His will, believe His truth,

And let the Lord your fears now soothe.

Believe His Word, trust in His care,

Let Him now make you so aware

Of where we are in history now,

So to The Beast you do not bow.

An Original Work / February 26, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Our Deadly Enemies Who Surround Us

“I have called upon You, for You will answer me, O God;

Incline Your ear to me, hear my speech.

Wondrously show Your lovingkindness,

O Savior of those who take refuge at Your right hand

From those who rise up against them.

Keep me as the apple of the eye;

Hide me in the shadow of Your wings

From the wicked who despoil me,

My deadly enemies who surround me.

They have closed their unfeeling heart,

With their mouth they speak proudly.

They have now surrounded us in our steps;

They set their eyes to cast us down to the ground.

He is like a lion that is eager to tear,

And as a young lion lurking in hiding places.” (Psalms 17:6-12 NASB1995)

I believe that we are living in the last days before the return of Christ, and that much of what was prophesied in the Scriptures regarding these last days is presently taking place. I don’t know exactly where we are in that process, but I do believe the signs are quite evident that the time is drawing near when “The Beast” of Revelation 13 will absolutely rule the entire world and we will be forced to bow to the beast or pay the penalty, even death.

I am of the belief that “Babylon,” which is described in the Scriptures as a physical location, is the USA government, or our nation, as a whole, but more specifically those in power who have influence and power in the entire world, so perhaps more localized to Washington D.C. and/or to New York City, New York, where we have the United Nations headquarters, our major banking industry, the Stock Market, and the One World Tower.

If you are a person who relies on the “mainstream media” in the USA to tell you the truth about what is going on in the world, please stop! We cannot trust the media to tell us the truth, not even what they call “the alternative media,” although I do find a little more truth there. We must be discerning people who pray to the Lord for guidance and direction in discerning truth from lies so that we don’t end up believing the lies and not the truth.

I also do not believe that there is a political right and left here in America but that they are two sides of the same whole, each playing their individual parts to keep us divided and fighting against one another so that we do not see who the real enemy is and what they are doing to bring us into this rule of “the beast.” And I believe that the de facto government of the USA is not who we see sitting in the White House, well, at least not up until now, but they are the powerful elite of this world of the “Beast New World Order.”

But what I also believe about what is presently taking place in the American government is that this is not something that just came about. For if you understand our national symbols and their meanings, you will see that this was the plan all along that a small group of the elite of the world (the all seeing eye in the pyramid hovering over the rest of us) would rule over the rest of us, and that they would do away with the middle class, and it will now be us, the people, all at the same level, under their (oligarchy) rule.

So, those who are presently rising up against us, the people of the world, are the super wealthy and powerful people of this world, although perhaps not all of them. We are surrounded by deadly enemies whose goal is not to do for us what is for our good, but for their good pleasure. And many of these enemies are within our own gates, of our own nations. And I do believe that they are surrounding us with the intention of bringing us all into submission to “the beast.” And I believe that the signs are there.

And there are other people writing about this, too, just not in the mainstream media. For me, the Lord began opening up my eyes to much of this beginning in 2004 as he began showing me things through his word and how they related to our present reality. And he had me reading all sorts of articles back when the internet was more open and less controlled, when more information was available and not so much was censored. And since then more and more evidence of what is taking place has been unfolding.

Now, this is not a teaching of biblical doctrine, so you do not have to accept what I am sharing with you as truth. There are plenty of Scriptures, though, which describe for us what these last days should look like, and if we study them, in context, in the context of these last days, and we pray for spiritual discernment, I believe the Lord will open our eyes to see what is really going down and where all this present reality is really headed. But we have to be willing to have our eyes opened to the truth and not be stuck in our ways.

But let me add this. Like I said, we must interpret the Scriptures in their proper context, so if they are talking about these last days, they are speaking of the Messianic age. Therefore, the temple is not now a physical building but it is the church, which is a spiritual building, which is made up of people of faith in Jesus Christ. And Jerusalem is spiritual Jerusalem, not the physical city, and we are of her. And the nations are trampling on us whose faith in Jesus is biblical faith, and the nations include the Jewish nation.

So if the antichrist is setting himself up in the temple, he is doing this in the church, and that has definitely been happening for quite some time. And there is not one physical location for this, for the church is the body of believers in Jesus Christ and we are all over the world. And I can vouch for the fact that the church in America has definitely largely come under the influence of this “beast” by diluting and altering the character of God/Christ, his church, and the gospel of our salvation, to appease human flesh.

So please understand that just because someone calls himself a “Christian,” or he publicly declares faith in Jesus Christ, or he raises his hands in the air and sways to the music of the “Christian” songs, it does not mean he is a true follower of Jesus Christ and that he is a worshiper of the One True and Only God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. And this is why we are taught to test the spirits, and they have to do more than just give lip service to the Lord, but their lifestyles and practices must align with the Scriptures.

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:16-25,34-39; Matthew 24:1-51; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; 1 John 2:18-25; Jude 1:17-23; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 2 Peter 3:1-18; 1 Timothy 4:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

The Rock of My Heart

Lyricist: Bassford, Matthew W.; Psalm 73

Composer: Schales, Glenda Barnhart

My Lord, I need nothing beside You;

Without You, I could not have stood.

Your promise is my hope and my refuge;

Your nearness, my strength and my good.

When I was distressed and embittered,

By things I could not understand,

Your presence was continually with me;

You always took hold of my hand.

I know that Your counsel will guide me

In wisdom, devotion, and love,

And afterward You’ll call me to glory

To dwell in Your presence above.

My heart may be broken within me;

My earthly strength may depart.

But You are my portion forever,

You are the Rock of my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9SQe7t748Q

Caution: This link may contain ads

Our Deadly Enemies Who Surround Us

An Original Work / February 26, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

What We Are Going Through

What we are going through right now, as a people, and as world nations, isn't about political right vs left, or left vs right, but this is about them, the world powers that be, vs us, the people of the world. If you are a Christian (or not), you can read about it in Revelation 13, Matthew 24, 1 John 2, Jude 1, 2 Peter 2, 2 Peter 3, 1 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy 3, Revelation 6, Revelation 7, Revelation 11, Revelation 12, and Revelation 14. So don't attack one another. Love one another. And follow the example of Jesus Christ.

That We Might Live Through Him

 

Who are The Faithful in Christ Jesus?

“Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 24:45-51 NASB1995)

It appears to me, from what I have observed over my lifetime, and from what I have read and watched and listened to, and from what I have experienced in my relationships and contacts with other people, that at least here in America, the vast majority of those calling themselves Christians do not take something like this seriously. They believe that they are saved from their sins, and that heaven is guaranteed them when they die, based on a profession of faith they once made in Jesus, so no worries.

It appears to me that the vast majority of them, as far as I can tell, are believing a gospel message that does not require death to sin and walks of obedience to the Lord for them to have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For they call that “works salvation.” But is it? Well, Jesus said 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 he does not, but he continues living in sin, then he does not have eternal life with God.

And I think the confusion often comes into play because people are listening to other people and are not studying the Scriptures for themselves, in full context. And so they are getting wrong impressions of what salvation is all about, and what it means to “believe” in Jesus, and what God’s grace is all about, too. Are we saved by our own fleshly works? NO! We are not! Not one of us can be approved by God via our own merit. But our salvation involves us dying to sin and now obeying our Lord, in practice, by God’s grace.

We can’t even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father draws us to Christ, i.e. unless he persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to die with him to sin and to walk in obedience to his commands, in his power. Even the faith to believe does not come from ourselves, but is a gift of God. And since faith is persuasion of God, and God persuades us to die to sin and to obey his commands, then genuine faith in Jesus will result in us dying to sin and obeying our Lord.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; Acts 26:18]

And God’s grace is what sent Jesus Christ to that cross, to put our sins to death with him, so that by faith in him we will now die to sin, not just once, but daily (Luke 9:23-26), and so that we will walk in obedience to his commands in holy living (Romans 6:1-23). And the grace of God, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce (say “NO!” to) ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s soon return (Titus 2:11-14).

All throughout the New Testament writings we are taught that how we live matters for eternity. And this is not works salvation. This is the message of the gospel taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles, that genuine faith in the Lord Jesus will result in us dying with him to sin and now walking in obedience to his commands, in practice, not necessarily in absolute sinless perfection. But if sin is what we practice, and not obedience, we do not have genuine faith in the Lord resulting in salvation and eternal life with God.

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

And that is the message being taught here in Matthew 24, that it is the faithful in Christ Jesus, who are putting sin to death in their lives, by the grace of God, and who are walking in obedience to his commands, in the power of God, who are watching and waiting for our Lord’s return, who have that hope and that promise of eternal life with God. But those who do not take God and his commands seriously, and so they continue to walk in sin, and not in obedience to the Lord, they will face the wrath of God, instead.

For Our Nation  

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

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

Who are The Faithful in Christ Jesus

An Original Work / February 25, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Without Delay

Lies and liars, they abound,

Some are serious,

Some are clowns,

Some of renown.

Trust not their words, they not stick,

Some like to trick,

Some like to pick,

Some hard as brick.

Twists and turns are in their words,

Some are absurd,

Some are unheard,

Some from a nerd.

Their intention to deceive

Some who believe,

Some who receive

From those who thieve.

Do be careful what you hear,

Your Lord is near,

He will not steer

In ways unclear.

We must follow in Christ’s ways,

Without delay,

So we remain

In Christ today.

An Original Work / February 25, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Be On The Alert!

 

Be Careful Who You Follow

“Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: ‘The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.’” (Matthew 23:1-3 NASB1995)

Sometimes we may have good rulers, and other times we may have bad rulers. In fact, we may have a long string of bad rulers who, in truth, care nothing for the people but only for themselves and what they can get out of it. And it doesn’t matter if they are on the right or on the left politically, for it is all the same, i.e. they all work for the same people, for the ruling class of the world, i.e. for the global elite who are the ones running the world.

So, just because someone is in a position of rule and authority, either in the government, or in the church, that is no promise that the individual in charge has our best interest at heart, and that they are not working for themselves, for what they can gain from it, regardless of how it impacts us, the people. So this is why we are instructed in the Scriptures to test everyone to see what they are made out of, for not all are who they say.

And this was the case when Jesus lived on the earth. Many of the religious rulers within the temple and the synagogues were not godly and moral people looking out for the people underneath them. Even though they made an outward showing of “righteousness,” inwardly, and in practice, they were not good people, but they were bad people doing bad things. They were not working for the people but for themselves and for their own selfish gain.

Pharisees Character Traits

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were skilled at hypocrisy. Jesus described them in this way (based off Matthew 23:1-39):

• They do not practice what they preach

• They do their deeds to be seen by others

• They love places of honor; they love attention

• They lead people to hell on the promise of heaven

• They profess one thing but live the opposite

• They adhere to religious rituals but not to God’s righteousness

• They appear clean (righteous) outwardly but inwardly are evil

• They are full of wicked deeds, greed, hypocrisy and self-indulgence

• They persecute those who are truly righteous in God’s sight

So, even though we, as citizens of nations, must adhere to the laws of the land, and we must obey our governing authorities, God sets limits on what we must obey and not obey. We do not have to obey anything that is sinful and that is contrary to the will and purpose of God for our lives. We do not have to compromise faith and biblical convictions in order to obey governing authorities. Obedience to God has to be in first place always.

And if we have leaders who are professing faith in Jesus Christ, no matter if they are in the church, or in the government, but they are not setting good role models for us to follow, but the opposite of that, we need to be wise and discerning about that. And I see nothing in the Scriptures that demands that we remain in a church fellowship where the leaders are not following the Scriptures, but where they are teaching lies, and where they are immoral.

In fact, I believe the Scriptures teach the opposite of that, that we are to come out of “Babylon,” and we are not to be in fellowship with the ungodly and with those who are teaching that we can live however we want and still be saved from our sins, and still have eternal life with God, for those are lies. We should remove ourselves from such influences as that, and we should fellowship with those who are living godly lives in obedience to God.

[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; Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

For Our Nation  

An Original Work / September 11, 2012

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

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

Be Careful Who You Follow

An Original Work / February 25, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

The Greatest Commandment

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40 NASB1995)

To love like this is to prefer what God prefers, to choose his choices, and to obey them in his power. It means we are actively doing what the Lord prefers by his power and under his direction. And what God prefers is all that is holy, righteous, godly, upright, morally pure, honest, faithful, and obedient to him and to his commands, by the grace of God, by God-persuaded faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is of God, and which is not of human flesh.

So, if we love God, in truth, and in righteousness, then we will submit to him as Lord (Owner-Master) of our lives. We will surrender our wills to the will of the Father, and we will follow him wherever he leads us in doing whatever he commands us to do, as his followers (his servants, his disciples). We will, thus, die with him to sin, and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but to God and to his righteousness.

And the Scriptures teach that if we love God that we will obey him, but if we do not obey him, in practice, we do not love him, and we do not know him, and we are not in fellowship with him, and we do not have eternal life in him. For to love involves action on our part. It is doing to/for God and to/for others what is loving, as God defines love, not as human flesh often defines love. It is doing for others what is for their good, even if they don’t see it.

So this kind of love is not just feelings and emotions, which tend to fluctuate depending upon our circumstances and on the one we are loving. We love even if we are hated and mistreated and lied about, in return. For that is how Jesus loved the people of the earth when he lived on the earth, and that is how he loved all of us when he went to that cross to take upon himself the sins of the entire world so that, by faith in him, we will die with him to sin.

Does this mean that God demands of us absolute sinless perfection? No (1 John 2:1-2). But lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord Jesus. We can’t just say, “Well, nobody is perfect,” and then go on living by the flesh and not by the Spirit. Might we fail at some point? We might, because we are human. But deliberate and habitual sin, in rebellion against God, is not the same.

And why do I dwell on this subject? Because God’s word does, all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jesus dwelt on this subject, as did Paul and the other New Testament apostles. Why? Because we are humans, and as humans we might have a tendency to drift back into living by the flesh and not in walks of obedience to our Lord. And that is why we are instructed to exhort one another so we are not deceived by sin’s traps.

And another main reason is the same reason as did Paul continue to go back to this subject over again, because so many liars and deceivers and false teachers were convincing the Christians that they did not have to obey God and that they did not have to forsake their sins, which is where we are today. So many professing Christians are buying into a distorted gospel message which is convincing them that obedience is not required of them.

And they are also being taught that God does not demand of them that they die with him to sin and that they now live godly and moral and pure and honest and faithful lives to God. And they are being convinced that no matter how much they sin that they will not be judged by God for their sins and that they will still get to enter into God’s heaven. So they are being lied to by the masses, and this requires biblical rebuttals to the many lies.

Why? Because we love God and we love other humans, and we want what God wants for all of us, that we die with him to sin and now walk in obedience to his commands, and because we don’t want to see anyone end up in hell, especially on the basis of believing a lie. And so we tell them the truth because we love them, even if they hate and misjudge and speak evil of us in return. And the truth is that we must die to sin and obey our Lord, in practice, or we will not see heaven. Not my words! Read the following:

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

The Lord’s My Shepherd

Lyrics by Francis Rous (1579-1659)

Music by Jessie Seymour Irvine (1836-1887) 

The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want;

  He makes me down to lie

In pastures green; He leadeth me

  The quiet waters by.

My soul He doth restore again,

  And me to walk doth make

Within the paths of righteousness,

  E’en for His own name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale,

  Yet will I fear no ill;

For Thou art with me, and Thy rod

  And staff me comfort still.

My table Thou hast furnished

  In presence of my foes;

My head Thou dost with oil anoint,

  And my cup overflows.

Goodness and mercy all my life

  Shall surely follow me,

And in God’s house forevermore

  My dwelling-place shall be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTHr9UcvWko 

Caution: this link may contain ads

The Greatest Commandment

An Original Work / February 25, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Do You Ever Question God?

Do you ever wonder why 

God does the things He does?

Do you ever question wisdom

Coming up from heaven above?

Do you ever ask the Lord,

“Why do you do the things you do?”

Do you trust in Him completely,

Trust He’s thought this through and through?

Do you know no greater wisdom

Than the wisdom of God’s love?

Do you trust Him with your life

And believe that He is love?

Or you complain to Him instead,

Think He needs to think again,

Cause what’s happening in the world

To you does not make sense?

Well, the Bible tells us so 

That God’s perfect in His mind.

No lies in Him be found,

So to doubt Him, there’s no ground.

He is perfect in His wisdom,

Perfect in all that He does,

Has a perfect plan in mind,

So we give Him our applause.

Does not mean we’re gonna like it,

That it will not test our faith,

That we’ll fully comprehend it,

But it will, will be our fate.

But the Lord, He has His reasons,

To work all things for our good,

So He disciplines in love

Those who rest beneath His hood.

An Original Work / February 24, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

The Righteous Versus The Self-Righteous

 

I Have Set the Lord Continually Before Me

“I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;

Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.

I have set the Lord continually before me;

Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;

My flesh also will dwell securely.

For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;

Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.

You will make known to me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” (Psalms 16:7-11 NASB1995)

As believers in Jesus Christ, we are to be in close fellowship with God, in a personal and close walk of faith in him whereby we long to be with him and to do his will and to serve him with our lives and to obey his commands. For Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross that we might die with him to sin and now live for him and for his righteousness, in obedience to his will and to his purpose for our lives. He should be our very best friend.

Having time with our Lord each day in his word, listening to him speak truth to our hearts, should not be a drudgery, and it should not be just something we do as a matter of routine or of religious practice with it having no real impact on our lives. This time spent with the Lord should be something we look forward to, like getting together with our very best friend, and it should not be something that only lasts for a few minutes per day.

For the psalmist said that he set the Lord before him continually, and we should, as well. We should think of our relationship with the Lord as a marriage, which is what it is supposed to be, but a union that is so close, and so personal, that he is always there with us throughout the day, and throughout the night, and we should have 24/7 open communication with our Lord just like he is sitting right beside us wherever we are.

And we should have open hearts and ears to hear from him anytime throughout the day or the night when he wants to teach us something, or when he has a task that he wants us to do, or something he wants us to say. And he might even get us up in the middle of the night to pray for someone or to write something or to speak to us about something going on in our lives and to give us his counsel in the matter, and we should listen to him.

Especially when we are going through difficult times we need that assurance that our Lord is always with us, if truly we are in him by genuine faith in him. And that requires that we die with him to sin and now live for him and for his righteousness in walks of surrender to him and in obedience to his commands. This is not saying that we will be absolutely perfect in every way, but that we should be growing in him, doing his will, serving his purposes.

Sin should no longer be our “go to,” i.e. our practice, our habit. For by the grace of God, by God-persuaded faith in the Lord, we should have died with him to sin, and we should now be walking in obedience to his commands. For this is the reason for which Jesus gave his life up for us on that cross. But this is not something we do in our own power and strength and wisdom, but only in the power of God as we surrender to his will and purpose.

And then we can have the assurance of our salvation from sin and of eternal life with God because our lives are surrendered to the Lord, and he has saved us by his grace, and he is now transforming us and conforming us to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, by his grace. For the Lord makes known to us the path that we must take, as his followers, and he promises us that he will empower us to do his will, if we are willing and obedient.

And that path of life that we are to take, which he has made known to us, is not a path that is determined nor ruled by self and by the flesh. For us it means full surrender to the Lord to do his will, denial of self, dying to sin, and walking in obedience to his commands – all and only by his grace, by God-persuaded faith in him, and in his power and wisdom, and not in our own fleshly strength nor by our own way of thinking. He must be KING!

And when our lives are committed to the Lord, to doing his will, to obeying his commands, and to walking in his ways and in his truth, there is no greater joy and no greater peace than that, even if it means a life of persecution and suffering for the sake of our Lord and for the sake of his gospel message. For we love our Lord, and our heart’s desire is now to serve him and to do his will. And so we want to please him in all that we do.

[Romans 8:8; 2 Corinthians 5:9; Galatians 6:8; Ephesians 5:10; Colossians 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 2 Timothy 2:4; Hebrews 11:6; Hebrews 13:6; 1 John 3:22]

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 

Caution: This link may contain ads

I Have Set the Lord Continually Before Me

An Original Work / February 24, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Are You Trusting in a Lie?

Then came the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, saying, “Send to all the exiles, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite, “Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, although I did not send him, and he has made you trust in a lie,” therefore thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants; he will not have anyone living among this people, and he will not see the good that I am about to do to My people,” declares the Lord, “because he has preached rebellion against the Lord.”’” (Jeremiah 29:30-32 NASB1995)

The Israelites were in captivity in Babylon, under the judgment of God, for a 70 year period of time, because of their rebellion against the Lord and due to their failure to respond to his calls to them to repent of their wicked ways and to now follow him in obedience to his commands. But they had false prophets prophesying lies to them, telling them that they would not have to be in captivity for 70 years, so the Lord said to them to not listen to the lies.

And we have a similar or parallel situation going on in our world today, and perhaps centered more in America right now, but perhaps the whole world. I live in America (USA), so that is what I know best. So I mostly speak from that vantage point, although these truths speak to all people all across the globe. So, what is our situation today? It is similar to their situation talked about in the book of Jeremiah where the people were rebelling against God.

The people who professed God as their God were living in rebellion against the Lord and against his commands, and they were engaged in idolatry, adultery, sexual immorality, lying, cheating, stubbornness, self-indulgence, and the like. They did not honor God as their Lord (Master), and they were living in disobedience to his commands. And they were listening to false teachers, and they were accepting their lies instead of the words of God.

And so it is today, at least here in America, it is. For the gospel message taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles has been and is being altered and diluted and willfully misrepresented in order to deceive the people into believing that they can continue living in their sins, and in disobedience to the Lord’s commands, but that God will not judge them for their deliberate and habitual acts of rebellion against the Lord.

Does God’s grace cover our sins? Yes, if we are repentant and obedient to the Lord, in practice, and if we are not deliberately and habitually sinning against the Lord and against our fellow humans. Does this mean we must be perfect in every way? No, it doesn’t, but it does mean that sin should not be what we practice, but obedience to our Lord should be what we practice, if we are true followers of Jesus Christ. We should want to do his will.

So, what if we have been following the Lord with our lives, but then we fall back into sin, does he cut us off? If we read the Scriptures carefully we will see where the apostles regularly spoke to the Christians about some of their sinful practices, and where they counseled them to forsake their sins and to walk with the Lord in obedience, but where they also warned them that if they continued in their sins and not in obedience that they would be cut off.

So, when is the cut off point? I believe it is when Jesus returns to judge and to take his faithful ones to be with him for eternity. This is when we will all be judged by the Lord according to our deeds. If we are those who are walking in obedience to our Lord, in practice, and who are not walking in deliberate and habitual sin, then we have the hope of eternal life with God. For those who have chosen the path of sin, and not of obedience to God, even if they profess Christ as Savior, they will not inherit eternal life.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

And why is it important to talk about this? Because we have so many liars these days convincing the people that they can make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ but that how they live will not impact their eternal security. They are lying to them that God will not judge them, and so many feel a freedom to continue in deliberate and habitual sin, without conscience, convinced that all sins are forgiven and heaven is guaranteed to them.

And if we do not tell them the truth, they may end up in hell, and not in heaven, but on the promise and hope of heaven fed to them by the liars who were convincing them that God would not judge them for their sins. But this isn’t just about that final judgment where we are assigned heaven or hell, but this is about our world today. In the book of Revelation we have letters written to the churches warning most of them against walking in sin.

5 of the 7 are told that they must repent of their sins and obey God or that God would send some type of judgment upon them. And this is followed by the declarations of the judgments of God of these last days before the return of Christ on those who have disobeyed the Lord and who did not bow to him as Lord, but who continued in their sins and did not repent when God called them to repent and to warn them of impending judgment.

I am of the belief that we are in these final days before the return of Christ and that God is presently judging the people of my nation who have not bowed the knee to him in surrender of their lives to him but who have continued in their sins and in disobedience in rebellion against the Lord and against his commands. I believe he is presently judging his adulterous church here in America for believing the lies and not the truth.

Although we are going through difficult times now, and I believe it is only going to get worse, this is for our good, I believe, to bring all of us to our knees in humble surrender to our Lord in obedience to his commands and in the forsaking of our sins before we face that final day of judgment and our eternal destiny is determined according to whether or not we obeyed the Lord and whether or not we forsook our sinful practices. For faith = obedience.

The Rock of My Heart

Lyricist: Bassford, Matthew W.; Psalm 73

Composer: Schales, Glenda Barnhart

My Lord, I need nothing beside You;

Without You, I could not have stood.

Your promise is my hope and my refuge;

Your nearness, my strength and my good.

When I was distressed and embittered,

By things I could not understand,

Your presence was continually with me;

You always took hold of my hand.

I know that Your counsel will guide me

In wisdom, devotion, and love,

And afterward You’ll call me to glory

To dwell in Your presence above.

My heart may be broken within me;

My earthly strength may depart.

But You are my portion forever,

You are the Rock of my heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9SQe7t748Q

Caution: This link may contain ads

Are You Trusting in a Lie?

An Original Work / February 24, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love