With Whom He is Pleased

Luke 2:8-12 ESV

 

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’”

 

Jesus Christ is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He was with God in the beginning and all things that were made were made through him. He is our creator God. He is the one who formed us in the wombs of our mothers. He is life, he is the creator of life, and he is the giver of life – both physical life and spiritual life which is by faith in him.

 

Although he was God he left his throne in heaven, he humbled himself, he came to the earth, and he was born as a baby to a human mother, conceived of the Holy Spirit. When he lived on this earth he was fully human and fully God. He was God incarnate (in human form) (John 1; Php 2:5-11).

 

During his years of ministry on the earth he healed the sick and afflicted, raised the dead, delivered people from demons, fed the hungry, and he comforted the sorrowful. He also preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal life with God. He confronted sin in sinful humans, he called them to repentance, to faith in him, and to obedience to him, as well.

 

He was loved by some but hated by many. Although he had large followings, at times, the crowds didn’t all follow him in truth. They were mainly looking to have their sicknesses healed and their bellies filled or else they wanted to see miracles performed. But they were not interested in taking up their crosses daily (daily dying to sin and to self) and following Jesus in walks of obedience to his commands. The majority deserted him when they realized the cost of following him, because it was too hard.

 

The religious rulers in the Temple of God were mostly all opposed to him. They did not like him at all. They were jealous of him, too, and they were threatened by him, worried that they might lose their own positions of power if he gained popularity among the people. So, they were all the time harassing him, looking for ways to trip him up with his words so that they would have cause to accuse him of wrongdoing.

 

Eventually they plotted his death and they arranged for him to be crucified on a cross (a tree) as though he were a common criminal, even though he had done no wrong but only good, but because they hated him and so they wanted him dead. They didn’t like it that he claimed to be God, and that he confronted them in their own hypocrisies, and that he didn’t do things like they did. He didn’t conform to their traditions.

 

But this was always in God’s plan for Jesus. For, it was announced to the shepherds that the baby who was born was their Savior, Christ the Lord. It is why Jesus came to the earth. It is the reason he was born as a baby and that he grew up to be a man and to have the ministry that he did on the earth up until the time that they crucified him on that cross. He was born to die for our sins so that we would be delivered from our slavery to sin.

 

Luke 2:13-14 ESV

 

"And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

 

“’Glory to God in the highest,

    and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’”

 

And God’s plan for our salvation from sin from the very beginning was that we would be set free from our bondage to sin and that we would walk in holiness and righteousness, living lives which are pleasing to our Lord. And it does not please Jesus if all we do is give lip service to him, i.e. if all we do is profess faith in him but we never honor him as Lord (owner-master) of our lives, and if we never forsake our sins and we never obey his commands.

 

We are to find out what pleases the Lord and we are to make it our goal to please him. We are to live lives worthy of the Lord, pleasing him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work. We are not to try to please people but God. We are to live in ways that are pleasing to the Lord. We are to keep his commands, do good to others, and not get entangled in civilian affairs – all of these are pleasing to Him. But without faith it is impossible to please him.

 

And faith in Jesus is not some mere acknowledgment of who he is and of what he did for us in dying on that cross for our sins, nor is it just words we repeat after someone else or some one-time decision we make in our lives to “receive Jesus into our hearts.” It is not just accepting his grace and forgiveness upon ourselves or only some verbal confession of him as Lord.

 

True faith in Jesus Christ is of God, it is gifted to us by God, it is authored and perfected by Jesus Christ, and it is God persuading us as to his holiness and righteousness, of our sinfulness, of our need to be saved from our bondage to sin, and of our need to repent of our sins, to be changed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God, and to walk in obedience to his commands. And it results in us doing exactly that, too, or it isn’t true faith.

 

The peace of God (peace with God) comes only to those with whom God is pleased. And the Scriptures teach that 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. And they teach that those who are in the flesh cannot please God for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.

 

So, please understand what this is teaching here, for this isn’t just a story of the historical record of Jesus’ birth, but this is the message of our Savior and of his salvation which he gives to those with whom the Lord is pleased. And the Scriptures teach that if we conduct our lives in sin, deliberately and habitually doing what we know is sinful, that we will not have forgiveness of sins, and we will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

So, read the Scriptures for yourself, but read them in context, prayerfully, seeking the Lord and his truth in all honesty and purity of heart. And inquire of him with regard to what pleases him and to what doesn’t please him, but not by some standard you may have learned from another human or from an author of best selling Christian books. Learn from the Scriptures how to live in order to please God.

 

[Rom 8:8; 2 Co 5:9; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:10; Col 1:9-11; 1 Thes 2:4; 1 Thes 4:1; 2 Tim 2:4; Heb 11:6; Heb 13:6; 1 Jn 3:22; 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 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 2 Pet 1:1]

 

Oh Lord, You're Beautiful 

 

Keith Green

 

Oh Lord, you're beautiful,

Your face is all I seek,

For when your eyes are on this child,

Your grace abounds to me.

 

I want to take your word and shine it all around.

But first help me just to live it Lord.

And when I'm doing well, help me to never seek a crown.

For my reward is giving glory to you.

 

Oh Lord, please light the fire,

That once burned bright and clear.

Replace the lamp of my first love,

That burns with Holy fear.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtzCD_8KbjI

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Put These Things Into Practice

Philippians 4:4-7 ESV

 

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

 

Let Peace Rule

 

To rejoice in the Lord always is to always be glad for God’s grace to us, to delight in his grace, in his favor towards us in sending Jesus Christ to the earth to die on a cross for our sins and to be resurrected from the dead so that we might have new life in him, free from the control of sin and Satan, free from our slavery to sin, and free to live for him and his righteousness.

 

And we are to let our reasonableness (our gentleness) be known to everyone. This has to do with fairness, with what is equitable and just. It is to let our sensibleness, our wisdom, our honesty, our fair-mindedness known to all, not in a sense of bragging, but by our actions, by how we treat other people kindly, free from self-interest and prejudice or favoritism.

 

We are not to be anxious or fearful about anything. We are not to “go to pieces” over things over which we have no control, fretting and worrying about this or that or what is going to happen if this takes place, etc. And in today’s world this is a real challenge because fearmongering appears to be in the news daily as a normal part of our daily diet of information.

 

This doesn’t mean we ignore real danger or that we become nonchalant about things that are serious matters. We don’t run from reality and escape into a fantasy world as a way to cope with everything going on all around us, either. But we need to test everything, for not everything that is being introduced into our minds each day is healthful or true. Much is not true.

 

So, when we are being daily bombarded with all sorts of information in the news media and via our political and church leaders, and via social media, we need to take it all to the Lord in prayer. We need to ask first if what we are hearing is true, and then we need to pray for wisdom in how to respond to what we are hearing. And then we need to trust the Lord and commit everything into his hands and trust in his sovereignty and in his grace.

 

And then the peace will come. For, Satan is on the all out attack because he wants to make us afraid. He wants us doubting God’s all sufficiency for our lives. He wants us fearing every person, every breath we breathe, every contact with other people, everything. For he wants us to take matters into our own hands.

 

And he wants us making decisions based on fear and not on faith. He wants us not trusting God but trusting humans and human remedies instead. But God is still God. So, we need to trust him in all things.

 

Philippians 4:8-9 ESV

 

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

 

Think About These Things

 

Our minds are always thinking about something, aren’t they? My mind is usually thinking about something unless I am very tired. I remember when I was a lot younger that I had a close friend who said to me one day, “Hon, you make me tired all over just watching you think.” Someone else said something like that to me recently. I don’t remember who. But the older I have gotten the slower my mind is.

 

Anyway, we need to be thoughtful and careful about the kinds of things we are taking into our minds on a daily basis because whatever goes into our minds on a regular basis will usually come out in our attitudes, speaking, and behaviors. And I am not talking here about obviously bad stuff, for some bad stuff is cloaked as good stuff, and so it can be very deceptive. So, we need to be very discerning about what our minds consume each day.

 

So, if we are to think on the right kinds of things then we need to be taking the right kinds of things into our minds daily, and we need to be rejecting everything that is not healthful, that is not beneficial, and that is morally bad for us to be inputting into our minds. And this can include just stuff that is worthless and wasteful – just junk, mindless stuff that is a waste of time.

 

We, as followers of Jesus, need to be bathing our minds on the word of the Lord and then we need to be obeying the word. We should be listening to music that is uplifting, encouraging, and spiritually beneficial or at least that is not detrimental to our walks of faith in Jesus Christ. The same with things that we view. We should evaluate everything we take in our minds against this passage of Scripture.

 

But just because something is true doesn’t mean it is healthful for us. There are a lot of things which are true but they are not the kinds of things we should be consuming. What we should be feeding into our minds should be things that help us in our walks of faith or that do not deter from nor oppose our walks of faith. And they should be things which are morally pure and spiritually edifying and which give honor to God.

 

Lastly, the things we have learned of God, of the Spirit of God, as we study the Scriptures in their context, and as we prayerfully consider what is being taught us in the Scriptures, these are the things we are to put into practice in our lives. These are the things which should define us because we are living what we say we believe, and we are not practicing things that are sinful.

 

And when we walk the walk and not just talk it, the God of peace will be with us in all that we do in obedient heart response to what he says.

 

Breath Of Heaven (Mary's Song)

 

Songwriters: Amy Lee Grant / Chris Eaton

 

I have traveled many moonless nights

Cold and weary with a babe inside

And I wonder what I've done

Holy father you have come

And chosen me now to carry your son

 

I am waiting in a silent prayer

I am frightened by the load I bear

In a world as cold as stone

Must I walk this path alone?

Be with me now

Be with me now

 

Breath of heaven

Hold me together

Be forever near me

Breath of heaven

Breath of heaven

Lighten my darkness

Pour over me your holiness

For you are holy

Breath of heaven

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6VGVXjGLBQ

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So, Has He Chosen You?

The Chosen of God

1 Thessalonians 1:4-7

 

“For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.”

 

Those who are God’s chosen are the elect of God, those God predestined to be his before he even laid the foundations of the earth. But then the Scriptures also teach that we must believe in him. And the Bible teaches that God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. And Jesus died once for all, not just for a few.

 

Nonetheless, not one of us can come to faith in Jesus Christ unless the Father first draws us to Christ, unless he first persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness and of our sinfulness, and of what he did for us on that cross, and of our need to repent of our sins, and to be reborn of the Spirit of God, and to walk in newness of life in him in obedience to his commands.

 

Even the faith to believe in Jesus is a gift of God, but one we must appropriate to our lives. For Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith, and this is not of ourselves lest we should boast. Therefore, those who believe in Jesus do not do so of their own flesh, but of the Spirit, and thus they will die with Christ to sin and live to him and to his righteousness.

 

So, we have to be chosen of God to become one of his. And we have to be drawn to Jesus Christ via God the Father or we can’t come to faith in Jesus Christ. And our salvation and our faith are of God, and not of ourselves. And yet we are commanded to believe on him. And the message of the gospel is to go out to everyone.

 

[Rom 8:1-29; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Eph 1:3-4; Jn 1:12; Jn 5:24; Rom 1:18-32; Mk 1:15; 2 Pet 3:9; 1 Jn 2:2; Jn 3:16; Heb 10:10; 2 Co 5:15; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 2 Pet 1:1; Lu 9:23-26; Eph 4:17-24; Rom 6:1-23]

 

Your Faith in God

1 Thessalonians 1:8-10

 

“For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”

 

Being chosen of God does not mean he does it all and we sit back and do nothing. For faith involves action to show that it is genuine faith. They received the word, they became imitators of the apostles and of the Lord, they became an example to other believers, they spread the word of the gospel, they turned from their idols to God, and they served the living and the true God – all actions proving that their faith was genuine.

 

So, just because God chooses some of us, and just because he gifts us with the faith to believe in Jesus Christ, it doesn’t mean nothing is required of us. The New Testament is filled with instructions to those professing faith in Jesus Christ. And the Lord empowers those who are his to do what he commands us to do, too, so that it isn’t us doing it in our flesh, but it is God working in us as we cooperate and join in with him in that work.

 

For, Jesus said that if anyone would come after him he must deny self, take up his cross daily (daily die with Christ to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. He said if we save our lives (if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self) that we will lose them for eternity. But if we lose our lives for the sake of Jesus (if we daily die with Christ to sin), we will have life eternal.

 

And Paul taught the same. He said that through faith in Jesus Christ we die with Christ to sin. He said our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin, so that sin would no longer have dominion over us, but so we would now become slaves of God and of his righteousness.

 

And he taught that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who WALK (in conduct, in practice) not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, which to do so is death. And if our minds are set on the flesh, we are hostile to God, for we do not submit to God’s law, and therefore we cannot please God.

 

And if we sow to please our flesh, from the flesh we will reap destruction, but if we sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit we will reap eternal life. So, it is critical to our salvation and to our eternal life with God that we sow to please the Spirit and not the flesh, that we walk according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, and that we die daily with Christ to sin and to self and that we follow our Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands.

 

And Paul taught that we are to no longer live like we did when we were among the ungodly, giving ourselves up to sensuality and greedy to practice every kind of impurity. He said that the truth that is in Christ Jesus is “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” (See Eph 4:17-24).

 

So, again, chosen of God does not mean you can live however you want and still have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. Who or who is not chosen should be evidenced by how we live our lives. Now, I am not saying that one who is chosen can never fail God, but that there should be evidence, as Paul described in the beginning of this letter, that one is chosen of God. And that is evidenced by our actions which are a result of God’s work of grace in our lives and of our partnership with him in his work.

 

All glory, praise, and honor to God and to God alone! Great things He has done!

 

Angels We Have Heard on High

 

By Anonymous

 

Angels we have heard on high

Sweetly singing o'er the plains

And the mountains in reply

Echo back their joyous strains

 

Shepherds, why this jubilee?

Why your joyous strains prolong?

Say what may the tidings be

Which inspire your heavenly song?

 

Come to Bethlehem and see

Him whose birth the angels sing,

Come, adore on bended knee,

Christ the Lord, the newborn King.

 

Gloria, in excelsis Deo

Gloria, in excelsis Deo

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAgc3mLweYw

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(Matt and Savannah Shaw, father-daughter duet)

Our Faith is Being Tested

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 ESV

 

“We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

Testing of Faith

 

A week ago today I walked out to my car, I put some things inside the front seat, and then I stood on the driveway next to the passenger side of the vehicle. I was just standing there when all of a sudden my right knee buckled on me in severe pain. I could not move. I could not walk. All I could do was to sit down inside the car and wait for my husband to arrive.

 

Two days later I was able to walk using a walker. I was able to put weight on the leg without the knee buckling again. The pain level did subside enough to where I can now walk with aid, but I am in more pain than I have been in a very long time. And 13 years ago the Lord led me to stop taking prescription or over-the-counter medicines for pain or for sickness.

 

I began immediately to pray for healing, for my Lord is my great physician. He is my healer. He has gotten me through the past 13 years without the aid of pharmaceuticals for pain. I have prayed through every pain, and I only use natural means for managing pain, such as heat, ice, diet, and exercise. But he didn’t heal me immediately. And I am still in pain a week later.

 

But what the Lord did do was to let me know that his grace is sufficient to meet my every need, that he is enough for me. Over and over again he has put songs in my head about his grace and his help and his all sufficiency. And he has led me to read blogs written by other writers whose messages were also about God’s grace being enough.

 

So, I am trusting the Lord each step of the way in knowing what to do and how to do it, and I am walking totally by faith in this one. Now, have I struggled? Yes! I have not doubted God, but I have cried plenty of tears, and I have asked him a lot of questions about what I should do or not do, and I have spoken honestly with him about things I don’t understand.

 

On the Heels

 

Now, this trial comes on the heels of another trial I have been going through. This past August we discovered that we had a mice infestation in our apartment. Mice leave their urine and feces all over the place, but in places hidden, not generally out in the open, so it took us a while to find them all and to clean them up and to patch the holes to keep them from coming back into our apartment (my husband did most all the work).

 

But during this process I was breathing in their urine and feces and I could feel it in my lungs and it was impacting my ability to breathe. I already had breathing issues. And then I got very sick. I knew I was getting sick from breathing their stuff into my lungs. I had extreme fatigue, fever (slight), muscle aches, headaches, dizziness, stomach upset, shortness of breath, coughing, and a sore throat (this one not listed as one of the symptoms).

 

I was very sick for about 8 weeks, but I still have the fatigue, the dizziness (another reason for using the walker), the shortness of breath, the coughing, and the muscle aches in my left hip, both shoulders, and now in my right knee, too (I have had bad knees for 50+ years but never like this before). So, I was in a weakened condition physically already when my right knee gave way. But God is good! He has been carrying me through it all.

 

All during this illness with the mice, which was a huge trial, too, I had to keep reminding myself that God is in control. He is still on the throne. He is still completely sovereign over all things. And that means he has control over the mice, too, and he allowed them to get into our apartment and to infect me with their virus, and so he allowed me to get sick, and this was also a time of testing my faith, and I cried plenty of tears over that, too.

 

But these aren’t the only trials I am going through. I have others which are not on a physical level but more on an emotional level. As one who is called of God to carry the gospel to the regions beyond and to expose the fruitless deeds of darkness for what they are, I get opposed, rejected, ignored, ostracized, mocked, and falsely accused sometimes, but I also get encouraged by the Lord and by some fellow believers in Jesus Christ.

 

The Battle

 

If you are a fellow follower of Jesus Christ you are probably going through your own set of trials right now, for Satan is on the rampage. He is out to destroy the church and to obliterate the gospel and to rid this world of all who are committed to following Jesus Christ with their lives. And he has done a bunch of this already.

 

For so much of today’s church, at least here in America, has compromised the message of the gospel in order to appeal to human flesh and to the ungodly of this world. And they have turned the gatherings of the church into businesses which they are marketing to the world. So many of them have kicked the Holy Spirit out of their gatherings, and they have replaced the Holy Spirit with marketing books. And they have replaced the Scriptures with books written by humans which don’t follow the Scriptures in purity.

 

Most are not teaching on sin, repentance, obedience, submission, holiness, righteousness, judgment, and the end result of lives surrendered to following after their fleshly appetites. But they are feeding people with lies, and with feel-good messages, and with false promises, and false hopes of salvation and eternal life with God with no fear of God in their lives. For they are not requiring repentance, obedience, or submission to Christ as Lord.

 

And they are telling people that they don’t have to do anything but “believe,” but then they don’t really teach what it means to believe in Jesus. For belief and obedience are synonymous. And disobedience is synonymous with unbelief ((1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; 1 Jn 2:3-6; Rom 6:16; Jn 14:23-24; Rom 8:1-17).

 

And you know what? If you have been paying attention at all to what is going on in the world with any amount of discernment you have to realize that life on this earth has changed. We aren’t going back. We are seeing all kinds of indications that we are living in these last days before the return of Christ and we are moving ever more closely to this rule of the beast (Rev 13). If you don’t see this, ask the Lord to show you the truth, okay?

 

Anyway, one day we are going to be in a situation where we are going to have to choose loyalty to Jesus Christ over all else, which should be where we are now, and it may cost us our lives or our ability to buy and to sell, or it may cause us severe pain and suffering, and we have to decide now that when that time comes that we are going to choose Jesus and not the easy way out. And we have to do that now, not just then.

 

So, I believe our Lord gives us these times of testing to try our faith to see if we will be able to stand the test or if we will cave to pressure and take the easy way out. Believe me, I wanted the pain gone. I don’t enjoy suffering. But I know that I must not bend on this issue of drugs. And this is making me stronger for a time when the tests will get even harder. For, if we don’t get ready now, we will not be able to stand when it gets much worse.

 

Okay, so going back to the passage. Our faith involves work, not our own fleshly works trying to earn favor with God, but the works God assigns us to do, which may be simple things like eat less and exercise more, etc. And love is obedience to the Lord so it involves labor. And steadfastness of hope involves standing strong on what we believe and not yielding to compromise.

 

So, choose this day who you are going to serve. The flesh? Or the Spirit? You can’t have it both ways. And following the Spirit is going to involve trials and tribulations which will try our faith, but these are to make us strong so that we can endure, and so that we can keep on in following Jesus with our lives. For they teach us to rely on God and not on ourselves.

 

Oh Lord, You're Beautiful  

 

Keith Green

 

Oh Lord, you're beautiful,

Your face is all I seek,

For when your eyes are on this child,

Your grace abounds to me.

 

I want to take your word and shine it all around.

But first help me just to live it Lord.

And when I'm doing well, help me to never seek a crown.

For my reward is giving glory to you.

 

Oh Lord, please light the fire,

That once burned bright and clear.

Replace the lamp of my first love,

That burns with Holy fear.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtzCD_8KbjI

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Faith Apart from Works is Dead

James 2:14-17 ESV

 

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

 

Many people today are teaching a faith that is more like an emotional experience than it has anything to do with a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. For, they are just looking for something to make them feel good inside and perhaps to ease their own guilty consciences when they know they are doing wrong. For, they want a Savior who does everything for them and who expects nothing in return.

 

The “love” that they feel for God/Jesus is often also based on emotion and how he makes them feel, or it is based on what he does for them or they think he is doing for them. So, it isn’t biblical love, for according to Scripture to love God is to obey him, and if we don’t obey him we don’t love him, and we don’t know him, and he doesn’t know us (1 Jn 2:3-6; Jn 14:23-24).

 

For, biblical love is not based on our feelings but it is what we do. If I tell my husband that I love him but I don’t show love to him by what I do, then those are just empty words, especially if I was one who was doing the opposite, i.e. if instead of demonstrating genuine love via my actions that what I demonstrated was hate to him via sinning against him.

 

In both the Old Testament and in the New Testament God has always defined faith by obedience. If we obey him we love him and we know him and he knows us. For we are slaves of the one whom we obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness. For God sees obedience as faith and disobedience as unbelief (1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; 1 Jn 2:3-6; Rom 6:16; Jn 14:23-24; Rom 8:1-17).

 

Also, a lot of people these days are teaching that works are not involved in our salvation at all. Yes, it is true that we are not saved by our own good works done in our flesh. We can do nothing to earn or to deserve our own salvation. It is only by God’s grace through faith that any of us are saved, and even the faith to believe in Jesus is a gift from God and not of ourselves.

 

But we are saved to do the works of righteousness that God prepared in advance that we should walk in them. We are to always be abounding in the work of the Lord. And in obedience to our Lord we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Eph 2:10; 1 Co 15:58; Php 2:12-13).

 

And we are to walk in a manner fully pleasing to the Lord, and we are to say “No!” to sin and “Yes” to God as a matter of habit, and we are to live godly, upright, and self-controlled lives while we wait for his return, which is what his grace instructs us to do (Col 1:9-14; Tit 2:11-14; Rom 6; Rom 8).

 

As well, we are going to be judged by our works. And if we are self-seeking and we do not obey the truth but we obey unrighteousness, heaven will not be our destiny, but there will be wrath and fury. And if sin is what we practice and righteousness is not our practice, we will not inherit eternal life.

 

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

 

James 2:18-19 ESV

 

“But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”

 

There are a lot of people who think that the Apostle Paul and the Apostle James taught what was opposite of each other, but no, they didn’t. Paul taught equally that faith and works go together. For Paul said if we are slaves to sin it ends in or leads to death but if we are slaves to obedience that it leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life.

 

It was Paul who said we must walk no longer according to the flesh but according to the Spirit and that if we walk according to the flesh that we will not have eternal life with God. It was Paul who said that if sin is what we practice that we will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. He is the one who said 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.

 

Paul taught a gospel of salvation that taught a faith that involved obedience to our Lord and that if we did not walk in obedience to our Lord that we did not have eternal life with God. We learn all throughout Paul’s teachings, which were God’s God-breathed words to us, that faith and the works of the Spirit (not of the flesh) that God prepared in advance for us to do go hand-in-hand. So, we can’t just say we “believe” in Jesus. We must walk in obedience to his commands or we don’t have eternal life with God.

 

James 2:20-24 ESV

 

“Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

 

The New Testament does teach that Abraham believed God and he was considered righteous. But it also teaches us that we must repent of our sins and obey our Lord and that we must love others and not hate if we want to have eternal life with God. And it teaches that if righteousness is our practice then we are righteous.

 

So, we have to read the whole of the New Testament, in context, and then compare Scripture with Scripture. James was not alone in what he taught here. Paul taught the same, perhaps in just different wording. We can’t “believe” in Jesus and not have a change of heart and conduct. If we say we believe in Jesus but then we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, then we don’t have genuine faith, and we don’t have eternal life.

 

Love for God is action. It is what we do, not what we feel. We show him we love him when we obey him and we do what he said. So, faith is obedience. It is not keeping a bunch of liturgical and ceremonial laws which have no impact on the heart, but it is surrendering our lives to Jesus Christ, dying with him to sin daily, and walking in obedience to his commands.

 

[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 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Gal 6:7-8]

 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

 

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

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

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

 

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

 

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

 

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

 

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

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

 

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

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Your High Places for Sin

Jeremiah 17:1-4 ESV

 

“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

 

I live in the USA (America). My nation is a wealthy nation which proclaims to be one nation under the one true God. Many people throughout the years have referred to America as a Christian nation, but is it? Can a physical nation of people even be called “Christian”?

 

Well, according to the Scriptures, the only Christian nation is the true church, the body of Christ, comprised of all who have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, no matter where they live in the world, because this is a spiritual nation, not a physical nation.

 

For, “the church” is not a physical place. You don’t “go to church,” in reality, for we are the church. You go to gatherings of the church provided the people you are gathering with are all genuine followers of Jesus Christ, although it is possible for non-Christians to gather with the church.

 

Okay, so what are some of the “high places for sin” for Christians in America? I believe they primarily are these gatherings of what is called church, and which includes the body of Christ, but which is a mixture of people from the world and those who have professed faith in Jesus. For, this mixture is a partnership between the true church, in part, and the world (the ungodly).

 

Because the church, a large percentage of the body of Christ, has partnered with the world, with the government, and with big business, they are now marketing the gatherings of the church to the world via patterning their gatherings after the likes and dislikes of the people of the world. And so these gatherings are not about pleasing God but they are about pleasing human beings.

 

And since they are trying to attract the people of the world (the ungodly) to their gatherings, not only have they altered their gatherings to appeal to the world, but they have also altered the gospel message to make it more palatable to the ungodly and to the flesh of humans. And they have kicked out the Holy Spirit from their gatherings to follow the ways of man, and they have removed from the gospel God’s requirements for holiness, godliness, repentance, submission to Christ as Lord and obedience to his commands.

 

So, now “Christians” feel at liberty to live like they did before they believed in Jesus. They think they have the freedom to keep on making sin their practice and that they will not be condemned. And so sin is running rampant in the gatherings of the church. Sexual deviancy and immorality, incest, homosexuality, adultery, lying, cheating, stealing and all sorts of immoral behaviors are now prevalent among those who say they are Christians.

 

Jeremiah 17:5-6 ESV

 

“Thus says the Lord:

‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man

    and makes flesh his strength,

    whose heart turns away from the Lord.

He is like a shrub in the desert,

    and shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,

    in an uninhabited salt land.’”

 

But we are not to put our trust in man (in other humans). We are not to be following preachers and pastors and famous TV evangelists and writers of “Christian” books, and authors of “Christian” devotions. We aren’t supposed to be trying to build the church the way a secular business would build up its business with appealing to the desires of their customer base.

 

God is not pleased with these earthly and worldly temples supposedly of God which are of man and of human flesh. And just remember that God doesn’t live in brick and mortar buildings built with human hands. No physical building or human-based organization is “God’s house.” We who believe in Jesus with genuine faith in Christ are his only house. We are his temple.

 

And the only book and author we are to be following is the Bible, for God is its author. It is not a “Bible study” if we are studying a book written by someone claiming to be a pastor or a Christian author. We need to study the Scriptures in context and let the Holy Spirit be our teacher. For many of these humans are introducing teachings into the church which are not of God and which are contrary to his will, and which oppose truth and righteousness. And many of them include teachings from other religions.

 

Jeremiah 17:7-8 ESV

 

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

    whose trust is the Lord.

He is like a tree planted by water,

    that sends out its roots by the stream,

and does not fear when heat comes,

    for its leaves remain green,

and is not anxious in the year of drought,

    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

 

So, our trust is to be in the Lord Jesus and not other humans, many of whom are teaching what is false and who are leading many people astray. Many of them are teaching a cheap grace gospel which requires no repentance, no obedience, and no submission to God, and so the “believer” does not have a heart change but he continues in addiction to sin.

 

Trust in man, especially if it is not tested against the Scriptures, in context, is never a good idea. Too many people are being led astray to what is false. So, we need to put our trust solely in the Lord and in his word, and we need to be bathing our minds on the Scriptures, in context, and then doing what they teach us to do so that we follow in the ways of righteousness.

 

For, Jesus said that if anyone would come after him that he must deny self, take up his cross daily (daily die with Christ to sin and to self) and follow (walk in obedience to) Jesus. He said if we save our lives (hold on to living in sin, making sin our practice), we will lose them for eternity. But if we lose our lives for his sake (daily die with him to sin), we will have life eternal.

 

Jeremiah 17:9-10 ESV

 

“The heart is deceitful above all things,

    and desperately sick;

    who can understand it?

‘I the Lord search the heart

    and test the mind,

to give every man according to his ways,

    according to the fruit of his deeds.’”

 

The human heart, the one controlled by the flesh, is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Anytime that we listen to our flesh, and we follow what our flesh desires, we are headed in the wrong direction. But God can change our hearts and our minds to be conformed to the likeness of Jesus Christ so that we have hearts which desire what our Lord desires.

 

When we believe in Jesus with genuine faith we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, we are born anew of the Spirit of God, and we are raised with Christ to newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Our old self died with Christ that we might no longer live our lives in slavery to sin but in slavery to Christ and to his righteousness.

 

Jesus didn’t die just to deliver us from the punishment of sin and to promise us heaven when we die. He died to free us from our addiction to sin so we would now live to him and to his righteousness. He came to change our hearts and to make them new and to put within us a desire for him and for his righteousness so that we would now follow in his ways and in his truth.

 

And yes, we are all going to be judged according to the fruit of our deeds. The New Testament teaches that, too. 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 sin is what we practice, we will die in our sins. But if righteousness is what we practice, we have eternal life.

 

[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 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]

 

Mary, Did You Know?

 

Songwriters: Greene Lee Rufus / Lowry Mark Alan

 

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy

Has come to make you new?

This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you

 

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Is Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy

Would one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy

Is heaven's perfect Lamb?

That sleeping child you're

Holding is the great, I Am

 

Mary, did you know?

 

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

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Love the Light and Hate the Darkness

John 3:19-21 ESV

 

“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

 

People Love the Darkness

 

The next saddest thing about this is that the people who love the darkness aren’t just those who make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Many of them profess Jesus as their Savior, they believe they are saved, that their sins are forgiven, and that heaven awaits them when they die, but while they hate the light and love the darkness.

 

Many, in fact, are blatantly pronouncing that all they have to do is confess faith in Jesus Christ and Jesus does it all for them and that nothing is required of them, and so they can sin as much as they want, for they believe all their sins are covered and so they won’t be judged by their sins. And they teach that repentance, obedience, and submission to Christ as Lord is trying to earn your own salvation, and so feel they don’t have to do any of that.

 

Now, they aren’t all so bold as to say this outright. Many of them superficially still adhere to the true gospel but while they live as though they believe in the cheap grace gospel. So, they will put on a show of righteousness on the outside to make people think that they are living righteously while they secretly engage in all manner of evil.

 

The point is, with the cheap grace gospel permeating the modern church of today, at least here in America, and pastors of churches teaching their people that a mere profession of faith is all they need to secure them heaven when they die, many are either falling away from the true faith or they are not even coming to genuine faith in Jesus Christ to begin with.

 

And with the modern church becoming so worldly, and so patterning their church gatherings after the ways of the world in order to attract the world, many who profess faith in Jesus Christ are living worldly and fleshly lives to where it is indistinguishable between the church and the world anymore.

 

And then with all this modern technology in the hands of pretty much all adults and teenagers and many young children, sexual immorality is running rampant in the gatherings of the church. For, children through adults can get to pornographic images and sexually charged movies and videos and to a whole world of immorality and evil that I probably don’t even know about with a finger touch on an instrument that they can put in their pockets.

 

They Hate the Light

 

Even though some of them will profess outwardly to love the light, they don’t in practice. They may go to their church gatherings and sing their praise and worship songs, or their hymns, and then listen to the sermon (or not), and go through the motions of their religion, and they may even be pastors or on church staff and still be living in deliberate habitual sin.

 

It is epidemic today to have people who call themselves Christians live no differently from those who do not call themselves Christians. There is no fear of God in their lives, no honor, respect, submission nor obedience to Jesus as Lord (owner-master) of their lives. For they are of this mindset that since their salvation is a free gift that it requires nothing of them.

 

And “the light” has now become taboo, and it is being called “darkness,” while “darkness” is being called “light.” So, if you “believe” in Jesus but you continue in deliberate and habitual sin they will say that you are righteous because Jesus made you righteous. But if you surrender your lives to Jesus, forsake your sins, walk in obedience to his commands, they then say you are trying to earn your own salvation and that that is evil.

 

But the light consists of all that is good and righteous and pure and holy. The light is Jesus and it is the gospel and it is righteousness and truth. And so they create in their minds this false jesus and this false gospel to appease their consciences when they decide to continue walking in the darkness. And they don’t want to come into the light because it will expose their evil deeds.

 

They don’t want to let go of their sins, but they want to hold on to them, so they create a god in their minds who will conform to their image and who will not require that they conform to his likeness. They create a god in their minds who doesn’t even see when they sin but who only sees Jesus when he looks at them, and who will never judge them for their wickedness.

 

But ignoring the truth never changes the truth. Just because they want to live in a fantasy world and not in reality doesn’t mean that reality ceases to exist. God is going to judge us all by what we did in this life, by our deeds. So, if we sow to please the flesh, it will end in destruction, but if we sow to please the Spirit, that will end in eternal life with God.

 

[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 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]

 

Whoever Does What is True

 

Now, thank the Lord, not everyone who professes his name is living a lie. There is a remnant who have not bowed the knee to the enemy and who are remaining faithful to the Lord. They are teaching and they are living the true gospel of our salvation which teaches that Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness.

 

Yet, those who are serious about their walks of faith and who are spreading the truth of the gospel, and who are exposing the lies, are coming under fire. They are being attacked because they are following Jesus wholeheartedly with their lives and because they are teaching that we must die with Christ to sin and walk in obedience to his commands.

 

Footprints of Jesus

 

Lyrics by Mary B. Slade, pub. 1871

Music by Asa B. Everett

 

Sweetly, Lord, have we heard Thee calling,

Come, follow Me!

And we see where Thy footprints falling

Lead us to Thee.

 

Though they lead o’er the cold, dark mountains,

Seeking His sheep;

Or along by Siloam’s fountains,

Helping the weak.

 

If they lead through the temple holy,

Preaching the Word;

Or in homes of the poor and lowly,

Serving the Lord.

 

If Thy way and its sorrows bearing,

We go again,

Up the slope of the hillside, bearing

Our cross of pain.

 

Then, at last, when on high He sees us,

Our journey done,

We will rest where the steps of Jesus

End at His throne.

 

Footprints of Jesus,

That make the pathway glow;

We will follow the steps of Jesus

Where’er they go.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug0g048Nqes

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