Not of the Will of Humans

John 1:1-5 ESV

 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

 

Jesus Christ, the Word (Logos) was in the beginning with God and he was/is God. All things were made through him, i.e., he is our creator God. Jesus is life and the giver of life. And he is the Light – the way, the truth, and the life. And he is righteousness, holiness, purity, and faithfulness.

 

Jesus Christ and his truth and righteousness shine (radiate) in the darkness (in this sinful world). Jesus Christ came into this world and took on human flesh, so he was the light in the darkness when he lived on this earth, and what he taught was light (truth, righteousness) in the darkness, too.

 

But humans love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil, so they will not come into the light, and thus they remain in the darkness. Not all people do, obviously, but many do. Many refuse to believe the truth and so be saved.

 

For, the darkness is opposed to the light, and it can lead people to reject the light in favor of the darkness. But the darkness cannot overpower the light. For Jesus conquered that darkness in his death and in his resurrection. He overcame Satan, hell, death, and sin via his sacrifice.

 

John 1:9-13 ESV

 

“The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

 

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. But not many believed in him in truth. Many people, including members of his own family and community and faith, and the rulers of the temple of God, did not receive him. They did not put their faith and trust in him to be Lord of their lives.

 

And that is still true today. Even many who profess faith in Jesus Christ do not receive him in his fulness into their lives. They receive a false concept of him, and a false faith in him, which are the creations of man, not of God. They receive a man-made gospel which opposes the true light.

 

They claim themselves to be children of God, but it is of the will of the flesh, and of the will of humans, not of the will of God. For they create their own gospel which appeals to human flesh and which allows the flesh to live and to thrive and to still have its way.

 

But genuine faith in Jesus Christ results in us dying with Christ to sin and being raised with Christ to newness of life in him (not like the old life), and us living to Christ and to his righteousness, empowered by the Spirit of God who now lives within us (1 Pet 2:24).

 

When we genuinely believe in Jesus with God-persuaded faith, our old self is crucified with Christ in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we will be no longer enslaved to sin, but so we will now be slaves of God and of his righteousness (Rom 6:1-23; Eph 4:17-24).

 

We can’t just pray a prayer or make some profession of faith and then go on living in sin. For, the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk (in conduct, in practice) according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh (Rom 8:1-17).

 

For, if we walk (in practice) in sin, according to the flesh, we will die in our sins. We will not have eternal life with God. For we will all reap what we sow. If we sow to please the flesh, from the flesh we will reap destruction. But if we sow to please the Spirit, we will reap eternal life (Gal 6:7-8; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 8:1-17).

 

So, belief in Jesus and receiving him are not according to the will of the flesh or the will of humans. To believe in Jesus and to receive him is to receive him and his truth and his righteousness into our lives and to apply them to our lives in the power of God’s Spirit, according to God’s will, not our will.

 

So, if we want to be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God and be born of God’s Spirit and to be children of God, then we have to do it God’s way, not our way. And his way means we die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness in his power (Rom 6:1-23; Eph 4:17-24).

 

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 My Mother's Womb

Psalms 139:1-6 ESV

 

“O Lord, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

    you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

    and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before,

    and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

    it is high; I cannot attain it.”

 

For those who are not living for the Lord, who are living in secret sin, this may not be a very comforting thought. But for those of us who are walking by faith in Jesus Christ, and who have no secret sins, this is comforting. It is comforting to know that our Lord knows all about us.

 

I find it comforting to know that my Lord is with me and in me all the time. And he knows me inside and out. He knows me better than I know myself. And when I doubt myself, I can turn to him to help me to understand what is going on inside of me so that I know if I need to change something.

 

For, he discerns our thoughts from afar. He knows what we are going to think, what we are going to do, and what we are going to say before we do. And that is good, because we can pray and ask him to prompt us if we are about to do or to say the wrong thing.

 

And he can also reveal to us what is in our hearts, and our motives behind what we do and say, which we might not always see ourselves. For, it is out of our hearts that our mouths speak, so if we aren’t saying the right things, he can help us see what is in our hearts that needs to go.

 

Psalms 139:13-16 ESV

 

“For you formed my inward parts;

    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

    my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

    the days that were formed for me,

    when as yet there was none of them.”

 

When I was growing up as a child, many years ago, I was abused by my father and emotionally neglected by my mother who took good care of us physically, i.e., she made certain we had food to eat and clothes to wear, etc. But I was not told I was loved and I was not hugged in a pure way.

 

I believed in Jesus early on in my life, but the abuses and neglects in my childhood distorted my thinking on who Jesus was. I knew he loved me, and that was awesome, and I knew he was there to comfort me with his love when I was abused and neglected, and that was wonderful.

 

But I didn’t understand his sovereignty over my life. I thought I did, but in reality I didn’t, for I had this unconscious belief that Jesus was limited in power and that he could do nothing to rescue me from the abuses and neglect of my childhood. So, I thought humans and Satan still had power over me beyond my ability and God’s ability to do anything about it.

 

When I understood what this passage says, though, it brought much stability of mind and heart and much comfort to me, though I know that may seem odd. For, I had to accept that God is the one who placed me in the womb of my mother, and in the home of my parents, fully knowing what would happen to me. He allowed me to be abused and neglected.

 

So, why would he do that? Why would a God of love, grace and mercy place me in the womb of a woman who would hand me over to a father who would end up severely abusing me in many different ways, and who would then not be there for me emotionally when I was hurting?

 

“In your book were written, every one of them,

    the days that were formed for me,

    when as yet there was none of them.”

 

God had a plan and a purpose for my life. And the abuses and the neglects and the rejections and mistreatment didn’t end with my parents, either. I was to have a lifetime of facing such treatment, and there were sometimes when I just gave up and gave in and surrendered to sin and not to God.

 

Until… I fully accepted God’s sovereignty over my life and I believed that through him I had the power to fight off the enemy of my soul, and that I could stand strong against any force coming against me without caving no matter how severe the opposition or persecution against me.

 

And you know what? God had a plan and a purpose for all of that in my life, to make me who I am today, so that he could use me in the way that he is using me in standing strong against the forces of evil, and exposing the fruitless deeds of darkness, and proclaiming the truth in opposition to the lies. He made me strong through it all so that I would stand strong on his word against all attacks against his word, for so many are deceived.

 

Psalms 139:23-24 ESV

 

“Search me, O God, and know my heart!

    Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

    and lead me in the way everlasting!”

 

If we are not careful, and if we are not grounded in the word of God, taught to us, or read by us in context, we might be easily deceived by all the messages being thrown at us today from so many different sources. For there are so many messages coming at us daily.

 

For, we live in an information age. We live in an age when we are continuously connected to other people and to the media via the internet and cell phones and all that those and television offer to us, especially in America, on a daily basis.

 

So, we need to step back from those, and pray about the things we are taking into our minds and hearts on a daily basis. And we need to ask the Lord to search our minds and hearts to see if there is any grievous ways in us, and to show us what is bad for us and what is good for us.

 

And then we need to let him lead us in the right way. For many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ have gotten off track, and they are following the ways of the world and of the flesh and not of God, because they are being led by all the messages they are hearing and reading in other places.

 

We need to be people of discernment who are listening to the Lord, who are not accepting everything we hear from preachers or government leaders or memes on social media, or from prominent people in society as a whole. We need to be those who test what we hear in prayer so that we are following the Lord with our lives, and so we aren’t going the way of the world.

 

Only Hope

 

By Jonathan Foreman

 

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

 

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours

I know now you're my only hope

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the singers nor of all their music

He Will Swallow Up

Isaiah 25:6-9 ESV

 

“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

    a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

    of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

And he will swallow up on this mountain

    the covering that is cast over all peoples,

    the veil that is spread over all nations.

   He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

    and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

    for the Lord has spoken.

It will be said on that day,

    ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.

    This is the Lord; we have waited for him;

    let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’”

 

Rejoice in His Salvation

 

When I read this, what immediately came to mind is Calvary. Jesus Christ died on a cross on that hill called Calvary to bring us salvation from our slavery (bondage, addiction) to sin and to promise eternal life with God to those of us who are believing in him.

 

Sin was the covering that was cast over all peoples, and over all the nations, that was deceiving their minds. When Jesus died, he who knew no sin became sin for us. Thus, when he died, our sins died with him. And he died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness.

 

When Jesus died on that cross, and he was buried, and he rose from the grave, he conquered Satan, sin, and death on our behalf. He did this, not just so we would be forgiven of our sin and go to heaven when we die, but so that we would no longer live under the control of sin and Satan. Amen!

 

What that means for us who believe in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded faith is that we are now free from our slavery to sin, and we are empowered of God’s Spirit to resist Satan and to flee temptation and to walk (in conduct) according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

 

What this also means for us is we now have God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, living within us, encouraging, strengthening, counseling, comforting, correcting, and instructing us in the way that we should go, and empowering us to live holy and godly lives, pleasing to God.

 

And one day when we die or when he returns to take us to be with him forever, whichever comes first, we who have continued in him and in his word and who have continued to walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh, will be with him forever.

 

And the Lord will wipe away all the tears from our eyes, and sorrow and sickness and pain and sin will be no more. Yet, all who do evil as their practice will not be there. Those who continued to live in sin will not inherit eternal life with God but they will die in their sins.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-32; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Col 1:21-23; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Col 3:5-11; Tit 2:11-14; Rev 21]

 

The Veil That is Spread

 

Nonetheless, there is a veil that is being spread across the USA, and across the world, which is blinding many people’s eyes from seeing the truth of the gospel, even the minds of many who profess to believe in Jesus Christ.

 

It is a false gospel, which is a half-truth gospel (a lie), which is a cheapened, diluted, and altered version of the true gospel of our salvation. And it is replacing (supplanting) the true gospel of grace in the hearts of many who have fallen prey to its deception.

 

It is having such a powerful influence over the minds of so many people that they are being deceived into believing the lies and rejecting the truth. They have turned light for darkness and darkness for light so that they are convinced that the truth is a lie and that the lie is the truth.

 

Some people call this “easy believism,” for it is the broad road leading to destruction disguised as the true path of salvation. It is “easy” because it makes no requirements of its adherents other than some profession of faith in Jesus. They are not required to repent of (turn from) their sins, or to obey the Lord, or to submit to his Lordship over their lives.

 

So, what it does is it gives its adherents free license to continue living in sin while promising them salvation from sin and eternal life with God. It relaxes God’s standards of righteousness and holiness to where they are becoming non-existent in their thinking.

 

But this didn’t happen just by accident. For this false gospel to be so widely accepted by people across the globe and across multiple church denominations, it had to have come from people in positions high up in the government and in church denominations which they then passed down.

 

Basically, this false gospel is a precursor to the one world religion. For, the way that they teach it anyone can be saved and have eternal life with God if they just say they believe in Jesus or if they just accept the concept of God’s grace as providing us eternal life with God.

 

But the gospel as Jesus taught it and as his New Testament apostles taught it demands death to sin and living to righteousness in the power of God’s Spirit living within us. For, it teaches us that if we walk according to the flesh, we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

And it teaches that if we die with Christ to sin (daily) and if we walk in obedience to his commands (New Covenant), and if we are slaves of righteousness and not slaves of sin, and if we continue in him and in his word, and in the true faith until the end, then we have eternal life with God.

 

[See the same Scriptures noted above.]

 

Only Hope

 

By Jonathan Foreman

 

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

 

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours

I know now you're my only hope

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the singers nor of all their music

O Lord, My God

Isaiah 25:1 ESV

“O Lord, you are my God;

    I will exalt you; I will praise your name,

for you have done wonderful things,

    plans formed of old, faithful and sure.”

Is Jesus Christ truly our Lord (owner-master)? Is our desire for him to do his will? Does he truly have dominion over our thoughts, our words, and our deeds? Is he the one directing all our steps? And are we following (obeying) him every step of the way? 

Is he the only one we worship? Is he the only one we bow down to, to whom we give our hearts in full surrender and devotion? Do we obey him above all else? Does he have our complete allegiance (loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity)? Or do we have other “gods” before him?

Do we know what the Scriptures teach about worship of God? In Romans 12 we read that we are to give our lives to God/Jesus as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, which is our acceptable worship of him. Jesus is to have total ownership over our lives.

And what does it mean to exalt him? Can that be in lip service only? No! We can sing all kinds of “Praise and Worship” songs with hands raised in the air, swaying back and forth, and not be worshipping or exalting the Lord at all. For true praise of God is shown by how we live.

It’s absolutely true that our Lord God has done many wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful, and sure, such as giving us his Son as a sacrifice for our sins so that we can be delivered from our slavery to sin and so that we can now be slaves of his righteousness (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17).

Thus, to truly make him our God and Lord, and for us to give him our true worship and praise, we must submit to his plans for our lives. We must surrender our lives to him in full obedience, die with him to sin, and live to him and to his righteousness in his power (Eph 4:17-24; Tit 2:11-14).

Only Hope

By Jonathan Foreman

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours 

I know now you're my only hope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the singers nor of all their music

A Few Things Against

Revelation 2:13-15 ESV

 

“I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”

 

Satan’s Throne

 

Satan’s throne is the earth, although certainly there are some places which are predominantly more evil than others depending on the influences of Satan in those specific areas. It is where Satan has his dominion, although God is still sovereign over all that he has made, so Satan has no dominion unless God allows it and he sets limits on it.

 

Even though the earth is Satan’s throne, still there are believers in Jesus Christ on the earth who are following the Lord Jesus Christ wholeheartedly. They are in the minority (the few who enter through the narrow gate), not the majority (the many who enter through the wide gate to destruction).

 

These followers of Jesus Christ hold fast to the name of Jesus, they do not deny him with their lips or with their lifestyles, but they remain steadfast in their faith in Christ Jesus even in the face of severe opposition, rejection, and persecution.

 

You Have Some There

 

Not everyone who professes the name of Jesus is genuinely a follower of Jesus Christ. Not everyone who genuinely believes in Jesus is now living in wholehearted devotion to Jesus Christ. And not everyone who regularly gathers with the church is living a godly and pure life.

 

In America presently, it appears that the vast majority of the church (or what is called church) is not living in wholehearted devotion to Jesus Christ but is living carnal lives in direct disobedience to the Lord and to the teachings of Scripture. And that is of grave concern.

 

They are following after smooth-tongued preachers who are telling them what their itching ears want to hear. And they are believing in a diluted and adulterated gospel which is not the gospel at all because it gives its adherents free license to continue living in sin without guilt or remorse.

 

Much of what is being taught in the name of Jesus is not from Jesus Christ at all, but is taken out of context, and is twisted to make it say something it doesn’t say in context. For, the purpose is to deceive, to manipulate, and to lead people away from Jesus and toward continuing in sin guilt free.

 

So, what is largely being taught is that we can acknowledge Jesus or say some words or profess to believe in him and heaven is guaranteed us when we die regardless of how we live our lives on this earth. Or else they are teaching people to not repent, to not obey and to not submit to Christ.

 

So, many people who call themselves Christians are living in sexual immorality, in sin in general, and they are addicted to their sins of choice. Their flesh has become their god instead of God being their God, as well as their addiction is their idol whom they serve, and not God who made them.

 

Revelation 2:16-17 ESV

 

“Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

 

So, the Lord is calling out to his idolatrous and adulterous church today to repent of her sins and to return to her Lord with wholehearted devotion. He is calling her to leave her sins behind her to follow him in faithful obedience to his word, to his will, and to his ways.

 

For, Jesus didn’t die on that cross just to pay the penalty of our sin, or just so he can forgive us our sins, and just so we can escape hell and go to heaven when we die. He died to set us free from our slavery (addictions) to sin so that we might now be slaves (bondservants) of his righteousness.

 

Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, not so we could continue living in sin guilt free and without remorse. He died that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us (1 Pet 2:24; 2 Co 5:15, 21; 1 Co 6:19-20).

 

So, we must walk (in practice, in conduct) according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh if we want to be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9).

 

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

You Shall Talk of Them

 Deuteronomy 6:1-3 ESV

“Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.”

This isn’t just Old Testament teaching. Yes, we are not under the Old Covenant. Yes, we don’t have to obey all those old ceremonial and purification laws that the Jews of old had to obey. But we still have to obey our Lord’s commandments to us which are repeated in the New Testament.

God’s grace to us is not free license to continue living in sin. So, we should not continue in sin now that we are under grace. For, how can those of us who have died to sin continue to live in it? For our old self was crucified with Christ in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin but to righteousness (Rom 6:1-23).

We aren’t free from having to obey our Lord’s commandments (New Covenant) just because we are under grace. For, love for God is to obey his commands. We know that we have come to know Christ, in fact, if we keep (obey) his commandments. If we say we know him but we don’t keep his commandments (in practice), we are liars (Jn 14:23-24; 1 Jn 2:3-6).

Also, the New Testament teaches the fear of the Lord. We are to walk in the fear of the Lord. We are to honor and glorify God with how we live our lives. We are to show him reverence and respect by doing what he says. Jesus is to be Lord (owner-master) of our lives, and we are to live for him.

By faith in Jesus Christ, we die with Christ to sin that we might live to Christ and to his righteousness. We forsake our former lives of living for sin and self, and we are changed in heart and mind away from sin to living for our Lord and his will for our lives. And now we conduct our lives according to the Spirit of God and we no longer walk (in practice) by our flesh.

[Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; Tit 2:11-14]

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Love for God in this respect is taught also in the New Testament under the New Covenant. Jesus summed up the prophets and the law into two commandments. The first one has to do with loving God in this way, and the second has to do with loving our neighbors as ourselves (Matt 22:37-40).

So, if we love God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our might, we are going to serve the Lord as though he truly is our Lord and master, we will surrender our lives to him, we will leave our lives of sin behind us, and we will follow him in obedience to his commands.

Also, if we love our neighbors as ourselves with the love of God which is within us then we won’t sin against our neighbors (all other people). We won’t lie to, cheat on, steal from, commit adultery against, slander or otherwise do them willful harm. 

But we will be kind to others. We will pray for them, do good to them, and do for them and say to them what will be beneficial (healthful) to them spiritually. We will treat them as Jesus treated the people on this earth when he lived on the earth.

So, this also means that we will speak to them the words of Jesus and of his New Testament apostles. We will counsel people in the right way, and we will share with them the truth of the gospel, and we will expose the fruitless deeds of darkness for what they are, and we will warn of judgment and call people to repentance and to obedient faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

When we are on social media or anywhere on the internet where we have a presence and a voice, we should be sharing Jesus Christ. Our conversations should reflect our love for him and our walks of faith in Christ. We should talk about the things he talked about with full conviction of spirit that what we are sharing we are also living.

And when we are with our family members and our friends and our fellow Christians, our conversations should reflect Christ and should be representative of the kinds of things he talked about. We should be sharing with them the word of God and what it teaches if we genuinely believe what we say we believe. 

For, if the word of God is truly what is on our hearts, then it should also be on our lips consistently. For, don’t we talk about the things which are on our hearts? Don’t we talk about the things which concern us or which we care about or which are part of our daily lives? So, shouldn’t the word of God be what we talk about daily, too?

But it can’t be just talk. We must live it, too. For binding (securing) it on our hands is like binding it on our deeds (works). And binding (affixing) it on our foreheads is like binding it on our minds, our thinking, and our believing. The word of God should be what we think, what we say and what we do.

Only Hope

By Jonathan Foreman

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours 

I know now you're my only hope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the singers nor of all their music

To the One Who Conquers

Revelation 2:2-4 ESV

 

“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”

 

The Lord knows our works, and he judges us by our works, too. For, it is our works which attest to the genuineness of our faith. It is our works that attest to the love and devotion we have for our Lord, too. They are what reveal if we are living to please God or if we are living to please the flesh (Gal 6:7-8).

 

But our works also reveal if what we are doing is out of religious performance or a sense of moral obligation or out of a sense of duty to “do the right thing,” yet that what we are doing may be lacking in genuine love for our Lord and lacking in true surrender to him with our lives.

 

For, we can do a lot of the right things and yet our devotional lives and our surrender to our Lord and our commitments to him and to his service may be severely lacking. We may be doing a lot of the right things just out of habit while our intimate relationships with our Lord are suffering.

 

Sometimes when people have been Christians for a while they may slack off in times spent with the Lord in prayer and in personal times of reading the word of God and getting from it what the Lord has for them for their daily lives to strengthen them in their walks of faith.

 

But the life of a believer in Jesus Christ is to be sold out to Jesus Christ 100%. It doesn’t mean we are perfect or that we never sin, but that we are not to have one foot in the world and one in heaven. And we are definitely not to be walking in sin while we refuse to obey our Lord.

 

For, to love the Lord is to obey him. It is to do what he commands us to do. It is to go wherever he sends us and to say whatever he commands us to say. It is not to do these things just by habit out of religious performance, but this has to do with an intimate and personal walk of faith in Jesus.

 

Jesus should be in our minds and in our hearts all throughout the day and night and he should be on our tongues daily. It deeply concerns me that so many who profess the name of Jesus will talk about just about anything but Jesus. They will be passionate about talking about politics, movies, games, and the like, but will shy away from talking about the Lord.

 

Revelation 2:5 ESV

 

“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.”

 

So, if this is where you are, going through the motions of religious performance or doing some of the right things while neglecting your intimate walk of faith in Jesus Christ, then this is a call to repent (to turn away from) your sin and to return to following Jesus as your first love.

 

And the works that this is speaking of are the ones taught us in the New Testament, mainly that we should forsake our former lives of living for sin and self, that we should daily die with Christ to sin, and that we should walk in obedience to his instructions to us in the New Testament.

 

But most of all, from which all else flows, is that Jesus Christ is to truly be Lord (owner-master) of our lives. He is to be King of our lives. He is to be the one directing our paths, and we should be following him in his footsteps every step of the way.

 

And what’s our lampstand? Well, in Revelation the lampstands were the churches. So, collectively this could be saying that he will remove whatever congregation we are apart of from its place of influence in the world if this is the situation of the vast majority of the church.

 

However you might interpret this, God is saying that if we do not repent of our sins, especially the ones which are obvious and that he points out to us, that we will face some type of divine judgment and discipline at his hands.

 

For many it will be that they will not inherit eternal life with God, for they are still walking in their sins and they are refusing to repent and to obey the Lord. While for others it will be some type of divine discipline in order to get their attention and to get them to repent and to return to the Lord.

 

Revelation 2:6-7 ESV

 

“Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

 

Whatever message God has for us in this, we need to have ears to hear what he is saying to us, and we need to not put our hands up to our ears and stubbornly refuse to hear his voice. For, it is those who overcome sin and the devil and the flesh who will inherit eternal life with God.

 

[Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; Gal 6:7-8]

 

Only Hope

 

By Jonathan Foreman

 

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

 

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours

I know now you're my only hope

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads

Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the singers nor of all their music