Oh, Lord, Save Your People

A Cry for Help

Psalms 28:1-3 ESV

 

“To you, O Lord, I call;

    my rock, be not deaf to me,

lest, if you be silent to me,

    I become like those who go down to the pit.

Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy,

    when I cry to you for help,

when I lift up my hands

    toward your most holy sanctuary.

 

“Do not drag me off with the wicked,

    with the workers of evil,

who speak peace with their neighbors

    while evil is in their hearts.”

 

The Lord is giving me an interesting picture here. He is letting me see this person crying for help as a personification of the word of God. For, the word of God is under attack. It is being assaulted. It is being raped by the wicked whose goal it is to destroy or to deplete the pure milk of the word of God.

 

And many men who are supposed to be men of the gospel and heads of churches and of Christian households are standing by just watching it happen. They are mostly doing nothing to stop it from taking place, for they are busy with their movies, their games, their marketing schemes, their smart phones, or with entertaining themselves, or with their own agendas.

 

And so evil and wicked people in positions of authority throughout the world have been able to loot the Scriptures and to rob them of the purity of the word so that they can teach a different gospel which is of the flesh of man, for it appeases and appeals to human flesh.

 

Now, the word of God is still intact. At least in America we can still have Bibles in our homes and we can read the Scriptures in their fulness on the internet in many languages and in differing translations. But it is the presentation of the word of God coming from the mouths of preachers and evangelists and ministers of the gospel which is adulterating the pure word.

 

But the word is under attack from government officials, too, who want us to break down everything which divides us as a people and for us to build bridges of compromise with others who believe different from us. For their goal is to bring the whole world into unity with one another into a one world government and into a one world religion.

 

But it isn’t just the word which is under attack. Those of us who are still holding to the truths of Scripture as taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles are also under attack, and we are being accused of teaching “works-based salvation” and of being self-righteous, legalistic, unsympathetic, harsh, unloving, and unkind.

 

My Strength and My Shield

Psalms 28:6-9 ESV

 

“Blessed be the Lord!

    For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.

The Lord is my strength and my shield;

    in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;

my heart exults,

    and with my song I give thanks to him.

 

“The Lord is the strength of his people;

    he is the saving refuge of his anointed.

Oh, save your people and bless your heritage!

    Be their shepherd and carry them forever.”

 

Pleas for Mercy

 

So, we are crying out to the Lord for him to give us his strength, courage, and wisdom to keep speaking the truth against all attacks and against all opposition. For we need to know how to answer people who oppose us who are also opposing the pure unadulterated gospel of our salvation.

 

It is hard, too, because so many preachers who are respected among the people are teaching an adulterated gospel which is depleting the pure milk of the word in favor of a gospel which appeals to human flesh. But they mix their lies in with the truth, and they do this smoothly and cleverly so that many Christians don’t see the deception staring them right in the face.

 

And since they are so highly respected, Christians tend to just accept what they say without question and without checking out what they are teaching against the Scriptures in context. But some of these preachers are very skillful at deception and at the twisting of the Scriptures to make what they are teaching sound like truth when, in fact, what they are teaching are lies.

 

And please know here that the “pure milk of the word” is not a watered down gospel or a half-truth gospel. “Milk” is not synonymous with “diluted.” It is speaking of the purity of the Scriptures that we are to hunger for like a baby hungers for her mother’s breast milk. It is the necessary sustenance we need to live holy lives and to grow up into salvation (1 Pet 2:2).

 

So, this prayer here for God to save his people, in this scenario being presented here, is for their salvation spiritually, for them to be rescued from the lies and from the deceptions and to have their eyes opened to the truth so that they don’t fall into the devil’s trap and end up wandering away from their pure devotion to the Lord to follow after a diluted gospel.

 

For this diluted (adulterated) gospel is telling people that they can believe in Jesus and have their sins forgiven and be guaranteed a home in heaven when they die but that they don’t have to forsake their sins or walk in obedience to the Lord or submit to him as Lord. Some teach obedience as optional while others teach against it, calling it “works-based salvation.”

 

A Song of Salvation

 

So, then the Lord put a song in my head called “Do You Hear the People Sing?” It is from the play called “Les Misérables.” It is about a revolution, a fight against oppression and slavery and a fight for freedom. But the Lord was helping me to see this in a spiritual sense, that we need to join this spiritual army and fight against slavery to sin and for freedom from sin.

 

The picture he is giving me is of Christians singing that they will not be enslaved to sin again, and who are calling more people to stand with them and to be strong and join with them in the fight for the truth which will give the people the knowledge of how to be free from bondage to sin and how to walk in holiness and righteousness in the power of God.

 

We need to be part of this spiritual army singing at the top of our lungs the message of the pure word of God which teaches us about how we can be free from slavery (addiction) to sin and how we can live holy lives pleasing to God, and how we can now be slaves of righteousness in the power of God’s Holy Spirit now living within us who are free.

 

For our enemy and his many hordes are speaking loudly and strongly telling people that freedom means freedom from the guilt of sin while they continue living in sin, and that salvation means being forgiven our sins so we can go to heaven when we die but while we continue to live in slavery to sin. And that is not freedom! That is bondage, and it is a false hope of salvation.

 

So, we need to put our hope and trust solely in God and not in humans who lie to us. And we need to study the Scriptures in context and obey our Lord’s commands which are to us who believe in Jesus. And we need to walk in the freedom our Lord provided and preach the true gospel so that many more people will be saved from their slavery to sin.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Rom 12:1-2; Jas 1:22-25; 1 Pet 2:9; Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8]

 

YOU RAISE ME UP  

 

Brendan Graham / Rolf Lovland

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary
When troubles come and my heart burdened be
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders
You raise me up to more than I can be.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oni0tO_HN30

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Wounds of a Friend or Kisses of an Enemy?

A Haughty Spirit

Proverbs 27:1-2 ESV

 

“Do not boast about tomorrow,

    for you do not know what a day may bring.

Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;

    a stranger, and not your own lips.”

 

We read in Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” If we as humans get overconfident about our own accomplishments or our own plans and what we want to do or plan to do, and/or if we get high and mighty about our own cleverness, especially if it involves plotting an evil course, thinking how smart we are that we pulled this or that off, then we need to watch out. God is still in control.

 

No human being can outsmart God. We, as humans, may be able to fool other people, but we can’t fool God, and we can’t out resource God, either. He still trumps all. Yes, he allows evil to exist, and yes he allows some evil plots to be carried out, for he gives humans free will to choose him or not. But just because you have gotten away with such and such doesn’t mean that you always will. One day your evil deeds will catch up with you.

 

Kisses of an Enemy

Proverbs 27:5-6 ESV

 

“Better is open rebuke

    than hidden love.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend;

    profuse are the kisses of an enemy.”

 

Open rebuke, if done in love, is honest and it cares more about the other person and his welfare than it cares about if that other person likes him in return. Hidden love is not love at all. It is deception. It is a pretense of love, but it cares more about self than it does about others, and it will even fake love and affection when true love does not exist.

 

But we live in a culture where “hidden love” is more widely accepted and where “open rebuke” is frowned upon, because they mistake superficial niceties for love when they may, indeed, be hate in disguise. And they confuse lust with love and sensuality and romanticism with love, but they are not love. For love prefers what God prefers, which is what is holy.

 

Today’s modern gospel frowns on open rebuke while it embraces “hidden love” and the “kisses of an enemy.” For, it is all centered in self and in what makes the flesh feel good. They call it love but it is really hate, for it will knowingly send someone to hell on the promise of heaven when they die, for they twist the Scriptures to make them appealing to human flesh.

 

True love, and true kindness will never lie to people, though, but will tell people the truth they need to hear, even if those who are the bearers of the truth are rejected in return. But it is better to be told the truth than lies, for the truth is what sets us free, but it is lies which keep us in darkness. So, those who speak the truth in love are the ones who really care about you.

 

Those Who Stray from Home

Proverbs 27:8, 12, 19-20 ESV

 

“Like a bird that strays from its nest

    is a man who strays from his home…

The prudent sees danger and hides himself,

    but the simple go on and suffer for it…

As in water face reflects face,

    so the heart of man reflects the man.

Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied,

    and never satisfied are the eyes of man.”

 

I am sad to say that adultery is almost routine in the lives of many professers of faith in Jesus Christ. For, they have bought into a cheap grace gospel message which tells them that Jesus forgave their sins, so now heaven is guaranteed when they die, therefore how much or how often they sin no longer matters to God. In fact, some say God can’t see when you sin.

 

And this goes back to the previous section, too, about the kisses of an enemy and the open rebuke of a friend. The cheap grace gospel is more like the kisses of the enemy and the true gospel is more like the wounds of a friend. Read the Bible! Read it word for word in context. It does not teach what many people are trying to convince you that it teaches.

 

But, since so many people are being convinced that they are forgiven their sins on a mere confession of Christ as Lord, and they are being told that forgiveness means their sins no longer matter to God, they feel they have the liberty to keep on in their sinful practices without guilt and without the fear of punishment. And so they keep on living in sin.

 

Sexual immorality appears to be high on the list of acceptable sins, too. Many people professing faith in Jesus Christ regularly engage in some type of lustful or provocative or seductive form of sexual immorality, whether it is all in the mind, or whether it is being acted out via what someone watches on the internet or on TV or reads in books or listens to in stories or in music, or whether it is acted out in literal physical acts of adultery, etc.

 

And this also goes back to the first section of this writing about pride, haughty spirits, self-boasting, and self-praise, etc. Pride will lead people to do things they ought not to do because they have this sense that they are beyond the law and that they can do whatever they want to do, convinced that they won’t get caught just because they haven’t so far.

 

Pride also says, “I am not going to have anyone else telling me what I can and cannot do,” and so that leads to stupidity, which then leads to sinful acts which then tend to build one upon another. For, the flesh is never satisfied, so it is always craving for more excitement, more enticement, more to stimulate and to invigorate their flesh.

 

So, it steps over a boundary, and when it doesn’t get caught, it has a sense of cockiness that it (pride) can step over even more boundaries and not get caught, and this leads many people down horrible paths of degradation to where they end up doing the unthinkable just so that they can get that emotional high which they mistakenly call “love.”

 

So, this is why faithful are the wounds of a friend who is willing to risk all to tell you the truth about your sin in hopes that you will stop with the stupidity being led by pride, and that you will say “NO!” to the flesh and “YES!” to God and to his righteousness.

 

But sadly enough, those friends often get trampled on and they get accused falsely of being hateful when they have given of themselves in the ultimate of genuine love to see another go free.

 

Broken Cord

 

An Original Work / August 29, 2018

 

Your bond is broken

With your Lord and Savior

And, your testimony is

Separate from Him.

 

Your words not matching

Your actions today.

Repent of your sin and

Bow down and pray.

 

Live what you testify

In truth always.

 

Purity’s lacking in

Your life and witness,

For you profess one thing,

But other you do.

 

Not moral, spiritual.

Still of the flesh.

Not living in truth to

What you confess.

 

Lying about it

Puts you in a mess.

 

Living a lie is your practice,

‘tis true of you.

Masquerade righteousness –

None of it true.

 

Your heart is not given

To your Lord God.

Because of how you live,

You are a fraud.

 

Turn from your sin and

Give your life to God.

 

https://vimeo.com/287303934

Are We Sober-Minded Christians?

1 Peter 1:13-16 ESV

 

“Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”

 

For those of us who are in Christ Jesus by genuine faith in him, we need to prepare our minds for action. What kind of action? Well, the Christian life is a walk of faith in Jesus Christ whereby we daily die with Christ to sin and to self, and we walk in obedience to his commands in holiness and righteousness in the power of God’s Spirit who now dwells within us.

 

Also, as followers of Jesus, we are in a spiritual battle against our enemy Satan and all those who work for him or who serve his purposes. So daily we must put on (apply to our lives) the spiritual armor which God has supplied us for fighting off the enemy of our souls, for resisting him so that we can walk in purity of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 6:10-20).

 

And the Lord Jesus didn’t die on that cross just to forgive us our sins so that one day when we die we will go to heaven. Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. And as his followers we are to be sharing the love and grace of Jesus with others. We are to be telling them the truth of the gospel of our salvation.

 

So, we need to be students of the Scriptures so that we know the truth when Satan throws his lies at us, so we can combat his lies with the truth, and so that we can walk in that truth and resist his lies. But we have to get that truth from the Scriptures and not from other humans who may or may not be telling us the truth. And we must read the Scriptures in their context.

 

But it is not enough just to know what the Scriptures teach so that we can fight off Satan’s lies. We must be those who are living what the Scriptures teach to those who profess faith in Jesus Christ. We must not be those who are hearers only of The Word, but we must be doers of the word. We must walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands in his power and strength.

 

We must take God/Jesus at his word, and we must take our walks of faith in him seriously. We can’t have a casual relationship with Jesus. He demands that we deny self and daily die with him to sin and that we follow him in obedience. He is to now be our Lord (owner-master) and we are to be his servants who do his bidding. Our lives are to be pleasing to him.

 

And setting our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us when Jesus Christ returns one day is not just about longing for his return or looking forward to our future home with him in heaven where he dwells. It is about walking in that grace while we still live on the earth. And that grace instructs us to say “No!” to sin daily and to say “Yes!” to the Lord and his commands.

 

While we wait for our Lord’s return we are to be walking in obedience to our Lord’s instructions to us. And we are not to be conformed to fleshly passions and desires as we were before we believed in Jesus Christ. For, Jesus died on that cross to deliver us from our slavery to sin so that we would now be slaves of our Lord Jesus and his righteousness.

 

Therefore, we are to be holy in all of our conduct (actions, behaviors, thinking, and speaking). And to be holy is to be separate (unlike, different) from the world and the sinful pleasures of this world. We are not to be like the ungodly, but we are to live lives which are committed to walking in righteousness and to no longer making sin our practice.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15; Tit 2:11-14; Rom 12:1-2; Jas 1:22-25; 1 Pet 2:9; Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20]

 

1 Peter 1:17-19 ESV

 

“And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

 

God is going to judge each one of us according to our deeds (our actions, our works), and that includes all of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ. If we sow to please the flesh, from the flesh we will reap destruction. But if we sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit we will reap eternal life. If we walk according to the Spirit we have life, but if according to our flesh, then death.

 

In other words, we don’t “get saved” and then heaven is guaranteed us as our eternal destiny regardless of how we live our lives while we are still on this earth. Faith in Jesus Christ is present tense, not just past tense, and our salvation is ongoing and will not be complete until Jesus returns for us, his bride, and he takes us to be with him.

 

And this is why so much of what is taught about our salvation and eternal life with God is conditional on our obedience to our Lord and to us forsaking our sinful practices. If we walk in the light as he is in the light the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. If by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh we will live. But if we are walking in sin, in darkness, in deliberate and habitual sin, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

Therefore, we are to conduct our lives on this earth in the fear of God. And to fear God is to treat him with honor, dignity, respect, reverence, and obedience. And it is to take him and his word seriously and to apply it to our daily lives, i.e., it is to walk in the truth. It is to actively be doing what God’s word teaches we must do as his followers, in his power and strength.

 

For, Jesus Christ died on that cross to deliver us from our bondage to sin so that we would now be slaves of his righteousness. So, we should be living our lives on this earth accordingly. We are no longer to live as we did before we believed in Jesus, if indeed our faith in him is God-given (genuine) faith and not that which is generated from our own sinful flesh (false faith).

 

For, Jesus shed his blood for us on that cross to buy us back for God (to redeem us) so we would no longer be slaves of sin but so we would now honor God with our lives (with our bodies). And we who profess faith in Jesus Christ are to live our lives on this earth as though we believe that, for our actions are evidence of what we truly believe.

 

[Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; 1 Co 6:9-10; 19-20; 2 Co 5:10; Rom 2:6-8; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:26-27; Matt 7:21-23]

 

Praise You in This Storm  

 

Mark Hall and Bernie Herms

I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth
I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohYhdqXg6is

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Testing the Genuineness of Our Faith

1 Peter 1:6-9 ESV

 

“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

 

Various Trials

 

What kinds of trials are you presently being called upon to endure for the sake of the name of Jesus and for the sake of his gospel and/or for the testing of the genuineness of your faith in Jesus Christ? They can be little trials or medium size ones or humongous ones, for they are all still trials which test our faith.

 

There are trials that many of us may all be going through right now which share commonality with others, and then we may have trials which are specific to just us, that are unique to our specific situations, even if, in a general sense, they may be similar in nature to the trials of others.

 

On a large scale, the world, as a whole (pretty much) has been going through about 20 months of a world crisis which has had many different variations to it, and which has had multiple viewpoints expressed as to the source of it and as to the solution for how to resolve it. And it does seem to be a moving target, and so there is much confusion about it.

 

The crisis situation, no matter how we got there, or no matter who did what when and where is still a crisis situation we are all sharing together. We may be sharing it at all different levels of severity both in the crisis situation itself and in the recommended or even forced solutions, but we are all in this together in one way or another, and we are all suffering in some way from it.

 

As we are being called upon to go through this together, in one way or another, we all have decisions we have to make regarding what is for our own good and the good of our own families, and not everyone is going to come to the same conclusions, and that may generate conflict among people, so that is another trial in itself.

 

All this has had its economic impact on people’s lives, and some people have lost their homes and their incomes and their careers as a result of the crisis itself or as a result of the decisions they have made for themselves and for their families in response to some of the recommended or even forced solutions. And that is definitely a trial that will test the faith of believers in Jesus Christ.

 

And then there have been people who have become ill and/or who have died as a result of the crisis. And then there have been people with adverse reactions to some of the solutions being offered or forced, also resulting in illness, injury, and some reported deaths. And so this is also a trial which is testing the faith of believers in Jesus Christ as they seek God to know what is right for them and for their families.

 

At a Crossroads

 

We, as the people of this world, and we, as followers of Jesus Christ appear to be at a crossroads right now in the world and in the direction that things appear to be headed, but not everyone agrees on that, either. Not even all Christians agree on the direction we are headed and what we are to do about it as followers of Jesus Christ.

 

This is a lot like that song that never ends but it just keeps going on and on with more verses being added regularly to extend it. Things just keep changing and it appears that there is no end in sight, for first it was one thing and then another and we really don’t know from one day to the next what it will be today and if today will be different from tomorrow.

 

So, this is one of those humongous trials which is trying the faith of those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, and it will either prove their faith (our faith) to be genuine or it will expose it as a fraud. But hopefully those who see that their faith was not genuine faith which saves will then realize what must happen for them to have genuine faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Genuine Faith in Jesus

 

And hopefully those who have come to that realization will surrender their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ in dying with Christ to sin and in living to Christ and to his righteousness in the power of God. For, our faith is not just words. It is action. It is putting into practice what we say we believe.

 

We must walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. We must not practice sin, but righteousness must be what we practice. We must walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands and not live in willful disobedience in deliberate and habitual sin. For, to love God is to obey him, and it is to forsake our sins and to submit to his Lordship over our lives.

 

For, our salvation will not be complete until Jesus returns. The outcome of our faith is the salvation of our souls, and faith is divine persuasion as to God’s will for our lives. So, we must walk in the light as he is in the light, and we must be saying “No!” to ungodliness and fleshly lusts, and we must be living self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return.

 

This is not saying that we will be perfect or that we will never sin, but the Scriptures teach that if sin is our practice, our habit, our “go to” on a consistent and habitual basis, being engaged in sin deliberately, and knowingly defying the Lord and refusing to obey him, then we will not inherit eternal life with God no matter what we confess with our lips.

 

So, let the trials of your life teach you what the Lord wants you to learn. Let him show you if your faith is genuine or not or if you need pruning and purifying in particular areas of your life. Then surrender it all to the Lord, seek his counsel, and then obey him in whatever he shows you. But just know he is not going to show you something contrary to his word.

 

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

 

Praise You in This Storm  

 

Mark Hall and Bernie Herms

I was sure by now, God You would have reached down
and wiped our tears away,
stepped in and saved the day.
But once again, I say amen
and it's still raining
as the thunder rolls
I barely hear You whisper through the rain,
"I'm with you"
and as Your mercy falls
I raise my hands and praise
the God who gives and takes away.

And I'll praise you in this storm
and I will lift my hands
for You are who You are
no matter where I am
and every tear I've cried
You hold in your hand
You never left my side
and though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

I lift my eyes unto the hills
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohYhdqXg6is

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Don't Play Games with God

No Longer Walk That Way!

Ephesians 4:17-19 ESV

 

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

 

We live in a day and time in America where such teachings as this are being largely ignored. Many men (and some women) are teaching a half-truth (lie) gospel, instead, in order to appease the sinful flesh of human beings. For they are teaching a belief in Jesus Christ which denies him as Lord, and which refuses to forsake one’s sins to follow Jesus in obedience.

 

Therefore, they are not teaching that we must no longer walk as the ungodly do and that we must not give ourselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. Some of them are even rebuking such teaching by calling it “works-based salvation” and they are encouraging their adherents to reject any teaching that says we must obey Jesus and forsake our sins.

 

Others are not so blatant, but they are more subtle, but the result is still the same, which is a large number of people professing faith in Jesus Christ who are convinced that they are going to heaven when they die but who are continuing to live in deliberate and habitual sin against God, for they are convinced all their sins are forgiven so their sin no longer matters to God.

 

Now there are some people who will espouse the true gospel at times, and then at other times they will proclaim the cheap grace gospel when it suits their purposes. They are those who, like the Pharisees, put on a show of righteousness on the outside while they hide all their sins inside. So, they will try to find ways around their sins to excuse them away.

 

But since they refuse to obey the truth, they don’t insist on obedience to God to any of their adherents. So, their “converts” become twice as much sons (or daughters) of hell as they are, for they have not humbled themselves before God in surrender of their lives to Jesus Christ in true repentance and in obedience to our Lord and to his commands (New Covenant).

 

And the way in which they are able to lead so many people astray is that they distort the truth. They twist it, and they misquote Scriptures out of their context to make them say what they don’t say if quoted in context. On a surface read or listen, what they say may sound biblical, but on a closer examination it becomes apparent that what they are teaching is a lie, or what they are teaching in no way resembles God’s true message of grace.

 

So, this is a very strong encouragement which also serves as a warning to not walk (conduct our lives) as the ungodly do in living in sin, in making sin our practice, for if we do, we will be alienated from the life of God. For, those who walk (in practice) in sin, according to the flesh, will die in their sins. They will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

And if you keep repeating the same exact sins over and over again, deliberately, habitually, cyclically, and premeditatedly, in direct defiance and disobedience to God, knowing that is what you are doing, then according to Scripture you do not know God, you do not love God, and he does not know you, and one day, unless you truly repent, you are going to hear God say, “Depart from me you worker of iniquity! I never knew you!”

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; 1 Co 6:9-10; 2 Co 5:10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23]

 

The Truth in Jesus Christ

Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV

 

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

 

If you were taught the truth that is in Christ Jesus, which not many are being taught these days, especially in America where I live, you would have learned that genuine faith in Jesus Christ results in dying with Christ to sin and living to Christ and to his righteousness. You would have learned that Jesus died on that cross that you might no longer live for self but for Him.

 

You would have learned that you can’t even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father first draws you to Christ, and that faith comes from God, and that Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith, and that our faith is a gift from God and is not from ourselves. And you might have learned that faith means “divine persuasion” as to God’s will for our lives.

 

So, perhaps you would have understood that faith which comes from God is going to align itself with God’s will and purpose for your life. And you should have been taught that God’s will for us is that we forsake our lifestyles of sin to follow him in obedience to his ways and to his truth. Jesus taught this when he said if we are to come after him that we must deny self and take up our cross daily and follow him (Lu 9:23-26).

 

Jesus and his apostles did not teach the modernized version of the gospel that is largely being taught today. They taught death to sin and living to righteousness and walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands as required aspects of genuine faith and for salvation from sin and for eternal life with God.

 

And they taught that if we continue making sin our practice that we are going to die in our sins because we refused to die with Christ to our sins. For, God always taught faith as obedience and disobedience as unbelief, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament (See Hebrews 3).

 

So, if you have not yet done so, by faith in Jesus Christ put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. Don’t continue living in sin, making excuses for why you are still living under the control of sin and for why you are not walking in holiness and in righteousness. But in the power of God, walk in freedom from bondage to sin and now walk according to the Spirit, by the Spirit.

 

And don’t be a Pharisee. Don’t make a show of righteousness on the outside while you sin in secret when you think no one else can see. God sees. And he does care. And his word is truth, and he will do what he said he would do if you continue to make sin your practice. So don’t play games with God.

 

Seven Woes  

 

An Original Work / May 31, 2012

Based off Matthew 23

 

Woe to you, teachers of the law;

Hypocrites, you keep men from God.

You refuse to obey the truth,

Nor will you permit others to.

You travel o’er land and sea

To win a single convert to you.

When he becomes one

You make him twice as much

A “son of hell” as you are.

 

Woe to you, blind guides of mankind.

You distort the words of your God.

By your practices you declare

Your oaths mean nothing, though you swear.

You give a tenth of your spices,

But you neglect justice, mercy.

When you focus your

Time and talents on

What is external, you miss out.

 

Woe to you, who appear so clean,

When inside you are crass and mean.

You work hard to look so upright,

While you hide all your sins inside.

You deceive yourselves when you think

You would not have done what others

Did to God’s messengers

And prophets of old,

For you will do much the same.

You’re to blame.

 

https://vimeo.com/125489388

They Seek the Life of the Upright

Proverbs 29:10-11 ESV

 

“Bloodthirsty men hate one who is blameless

    and seek the life of the upright.

A fool gives full vent to his spirit,

    but a wise man quietly holds it back.”

 

Seeking someone’s life doesn’t necessarily mean desiring the literal death of someone. Our lives can be destroyed in so many different ways. One of those ways is if we are convinced that we need to compromise our faith with the world and with the flesh and to back down from sharing the truth of the gospel so as to make it more appealing and acceptable to the world.

 

For, those who hate the godly and the righteous are not just looking to putting an end to our physical lives, but they are looking to putting an end to our witness for Jesus Christ and for his gospel message (the whole counsel of God). So, they will try to convince us that we are wrong and that the majority is right and that we need to be more like the majority.

 

For, they want us to be more fleshly. They want us to blend in with the culture and to immerse ourselves in our culture so that we can connect with the people of the world. In fact, they will counsel us to find creative ways to connect with the people of the world and to build bridges (compromises) with people who don’t believe what we do, and for the sake of unity.

 

They will try to convince us that we are too serious about our faith and about God and that we need to lighten up more and to just have fun and hang out and joke and tease and just watch movies and play games and be like “normal” people. For they might think we are weird if our lives are truly sold out to Jesus Christ to doing his will for our lives.

 

Those who desire for us to be more worldly and to be less spiritual are usually those who are giving full vent to their spirits, who are following after their fleshly appetites and who are looking to serve and to please themselves without regard for God or for who they hurt in the process. And so they want us to be more like them, but we must not yield.

 

Proverbs 29:16 ESV

 

“When the wicked increase, transgression increases,

    but the righteous will look upon their downfall.”

 

The church, at least here in America, has largely gone the way of the world and it is now indistinguishable between the church and the world, for the most part, because they talk the same lingo, watch and participate in the same stuff, and they have the same mindset as the world. They have, thus, lost their saltiness and they have hidden their lights under a bushel.

 

Because the church has become so much like the world, and since they have largely diluted the gospel message to make it more acceptable to human flesh, many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are still living in sin. They are still enslaved to sin, deliberately continuing in habitual and premeditated sin against God while claiming Jesus as their Savior.

 

Thus, the church, overall, has lost its witness for Jesus Christ. Few who call themselves Christians are living holy lives devoted to Jesus Christ in submission to his will and are being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. And many are living in sin. So, wickedness and transgressions have increased and there are few voices out there speaking out against sin and in favor of righteous living. And this is why our world is where it is at.

 

Proverbs 29:18-19 ESV

 

“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint,

    but blessed is he who keeps the law.

By mere words a servant is not disciplined,

    for though he understands, he will not respond.”

 

Exactly! This is the present situation in the church in America, as a general rule, but does not apply to every congregation. We no longer seem to have godly men in our pulpits who are preaching and who are living, in practice, the full gospel of Jesus Christ (the whole counsel of God). Far too many preachers today have compromised with the world to please the world.

 

The vast majority of preachers and pastors appear to be teaching a diluted flesh-driven gospel which is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. It may have the appearance of being the true gospel, but it is a half-truth (lie) gospel which does not teach dying with Christ to sin and living to him and to his righteousness as part of believing faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Instead, they are teaching that we can believe in Jesus and that we can have our sins forgiven and that we can be guaranteed heaven when we die, but it does not necessitate us dying with Christ to sin or walking in obedience to his commands. And so its adherents are continuing to live in sin, believing that Jesus died merely to forgive their sins. And thus they feel they have the freedom to continue in sin, only now guilt free.

 

Proverbs 29:25 ESV

 

“The fear of man lays a snare,

    but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.”

 

Many people have compromised their faith out of fear of man, because they don’t have the fear of God in them. They have been strong-armed into compromise by messages which tell them that if they are following Jesus in obedience and in submission to his will that they are following a false gospel of works, or that they are being self-righteous and judgmental.

 

They are being convinced that teachings on repentance, obedience, and submission to Christ as Lord are legalistic and to be discarded in favor of messages they say are on “grace,” which then permits them to continue living in their sin without guilt and without the fear of punishment. They are, thus, making the life of sin sound more righteous than the life of holiness.

 

But they are leading many people straight to hell on the promise of heaven when they die, because what they are telling them is a lie from hell. For, if we want to follow Jesus we must deny self, die with him to sin daily, and walk with him in obedience to his commands. We must no longer live in sin, for if we do, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

So, don’t build your doctrine of salvation on the teachings of humans, many of whom are out there to deceive and to get us to be more like the world and not like Jesus. Jesus didn’t die for us on that cross so we would blend in with and compromise with the world and with sin. It is God’s will that we live holy lives separate (unlike, different) from the world.

 

And don’t live your life according to the teachings of humans, either, for there are many false teachers out there, many of whom are widely respected in the Christian community, too, but who are teaching a social gospel which will easily blend in with a one world religion, for it has nothing to do with the true gospel but with unifying with the world.

 

So, read your Bibles word for word in context. Particularly read the New Testament, for we are not under the Old Covenant, but under the New. Read the Epistles to the churches wherein we get our instructions on holy living and we receive warnings against false teaching, too.

 

And know what the Scriptures teach (in context) so that you don’t end up before God one day and hear him say, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of iniquity.” For, the Scriptures teach that if we live in sin, we will die in our sins because we refused to die to our sins.

 

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

 

Draw Me Close To You  

 

Donnie McClurkin

 

Draw me close to You

Never let me go

I lay it all down again

To hear You say that I'm Your friend

 

You are my desire

And no one else will do

'Cause nothing else can take Your place

To feel the warmth of Your embrace

 

Help me find a way

Bring me back to You

Bring me back, oh Jesus

 

You're all I want

You're all I've ever needed

You're all I want

Help me know You are near

 

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

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Don't Be Wishy-Washy

Matthew 5:13 ESV

 

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.”

 

If something is salty, it is sharp, clear, well-defined, definite, clear-cut, distinct, precise, and in focus.

 

Hebrews 4:12 ESV: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

 

It is not wishy-washy, light, and fluffy feel-good stuff which leaves people feeling good about themselves and perhaps feeling as though they did something religious or that they connected with God (or a god), but which never pierces to the division of the soul and spirit, never discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 

A Reminder This Morning

 

The Lord Jesus reminded me this morning of Rick Warren. So, I did a search on my documents to see what I had previously written about him. Some of the documents were missing, but others were not, and there were several previous writings about him and about his purpose driven ministry. One of them, in particular, stood out to me which you can read here (1).

 

Anyway, I wanted to see what was current with Rick Warren, so I googled his name and it brought up his website (PastorRick.com). And so I read 3 of his most recent devotionals (9/30, 9/29, 9/28), which were very telling, but consistent with who he is and where he has been headed all along.

 

In a total of 3 devotions, Jesus’ name was only mentioned once. Mostly Rick Warren just said “God.” He said, “The apostle Paul’s life goal—even toward the very end when he was dying alone—was for other people know about Jesus.” But then Rick Warren didn’t talk about Jesus, and he didn’t help us to know Jesus. What he talked about was mainly ourselves.

 

He quoted a passage from 2 Timothy 4:16-17 where Paul said, “But the Lord stood with me and gave me strength so that I might preach the Good News in its entirety..” But then Pastor Warren didn’t preach the “Good News” and especially not in its entirety (the whole counsel of God).

 

Then, he said that Paul “focused on others because he knew everyone needed to hear about God’s love.” He said, “He looked at what he could do to help others. It kept him from being lonely, even when he was alone.” Wow! Pastor Warren then went on to talk about loneliness and how we need to “build bridges of connection to others.”

 

He mentions praying to God for help in connecting with others, and then he gave an example prayer: “Father, help me be a friend to people who need a friend.” He talked more on loneliness and then said we need to look for creative ways to connect with others.

 

[Quotes taken from “Empathy Is an Antidotes to Loneliness” 9/30/2021]

 

But, then there is more. Next he quoted from Habakkuk 2:2 (GNT): “Write down clearly on tablets what I reveal to you, so that it can be read at a glance” (I don’t recommend this translation). So, then Pastor Warren suggested that if we want to hear God speak to us that we should ask Him what he wants to say to us and then write down God’s responses.

 

Then he talked about journaling our prayers and writing down the lessons we have learned. And then he talked about the Psalms and how David meditated on the Torah and then he wrote down his thoughts and they’re called psalms. He suggested that David, in many of the Psalms, started by writing his feelings and then ended up writing down what God said.

 

[Taken from “Try Writing Down Your Prayers” 9/29/2021]

 

And in this third one Pastor Warren quoted from Psalm 119:18 (GNT) “Open my eyes, so that I may see the wonderful truths in your law." And then he named several people mentioned in the Bible who received visions from God. And he went on to talk about “visual thinkers” vs those who are not.

 

And then he asked, “How do you get God’s vision if you’re not a visual thinker?” He mentioned reading our Bible and praying and afterwards asking God some questions to see if there is anything God wants to say to us. And then he quoted James 1:5 about asking God for wisdom, which he said stated that God won’t correct us for asking. But he left off this part:

 

“But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (vv. 6-8).

 

Pastor Warren did say this about God’s word: “Every answer to every problem you have is in that book. But you’ve got to read it, study it, memorize it, and meditate on it as you seek God’s vision—for your life or even just for today.”

 

[Taken from “Open Your Eyes to God’s Vision” 9/28/2021]

 

What’s the Takeaway?

 

So, what is the takeaway from all of this? Well, for one, Pastor Warren quoted Scriptures out of their context and/or he used them out of their context or in an incomplete thought which could possibly be misleading. Or else the Scriptures quoted were not really discussed, but he used them as a springboard to teach what he wanted to teach.

 

Even though some of the Scriptures he quoted mentioned preaching the Good News in its entirety (the whole counsel of God), or looking into the wonderful truths in God’s law, and even though he said Paul’s goal in life was for other people to know about Jesus, Pastor Warren didn’t teach the “Good News,” nor did he look intently into God’s commandments, nor did he help people to know about Jesus.

 

Although he did mention reading the Bible and praying and seeking God’s wisdom and counsel, and he did say that every answer to every problem we have is in the Bible, and even though he mentioned “God’s love,” he mainly focused on humanistic solutions, such as “building bridges to others.”

 

Do you know what “building bridges” means? To build bridges means to cross over all barriers that stand between people groups, which means we have to compromise our faith and convictions and not try to win people over to the true gospel, for the true gospel truly does divide (saved and unsaved, those bound for heaven and those bound for hell, those still trapped in their sins and those walking in freedom from slavery to sin).

 

And he mentioned that Paul looked at what he could do to help others and that it kept him from being lonely, which is not true to the Scriptures, and how we should ask God to help us be a friend to people who need a friend, and how we should look for creative ways of connecting with others, which is also not biblical. And then he implied that God is the second way to get God's vision but the first is if we are "visual thinkers."

 

But we are to be the salt of the earth. The messages we speak are to be clear, well-defined, definite, in focus and biblical. They are not to be mixed with the world and with humanistic philosophy or so generalized that no piercing to the division of the soul and of the spirit takes place, and to where there is no discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 

If all we do is give out feel good messages which tickle itching ears, then we have lost our saltiness, and what we talk about has no eternal value. If we mention “the gospel,” but we don’t ever teach the gospel, or if we mention looking into God’s commandments, but then we don’t talk about his commandments, or if we mention making it our life goal for people to know about Jesus, but then we don’t teach them about Jesus, what good is it?

 

Or, if we give them a generic “Read your Bible and pray,” and then tell them that the Bible has all the answers to life’s problems, and so we tell them to ask God what he wants to say to them, but we don’t give any direction on how to do this or demonstrate how to do this, what good is it? Especially if we are then coupling this with humanistic philosophy, what valuable purpose does it serve? Are we even concerned if they even know Jesus first?

 

So, don't be wishy-washy. Be definite, precise, and in focus when you teach or share the Scriptures. Teach the Scriptures in their context and make them practical to our lives today, but not in a worldly way, and not in a way that mixes God's word with the culture and with humanistic philosophy and worldly thinking. Be true to the word of God and you won't lose your saltiness, and God will speak through you to human hearts.

 

Draw Me Close To You  

 

Donnie McClurkin

 

Draw me close to You

Never let me go

I lay it all down again

To hear You say that I'm Your friend

 

You are my desire

And no one else will do

'Cause nothing else can take Your place

To feel the warmth of Your embrace

 

Help me find a way

Bring me back to You

Bring me back, oh Jesus

 

You're all I want

You're all I've ever needed

You're all I want

Help me know You are near

 

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

Caution: This link may contain ads

 

(1)       https://runwithit.blog/2015/07/16/testing-our-faith/