What if We Deny Him?

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for:

“If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he also will deny us;

if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:8-13 ESV)

In the book of Genesis we read the story of Joseph whose brothers sold him into slavery because they were jealous of him and of his favor with their father. But the Lord had plans for Joseph that his brothers had no knowledge of. For God sent Joseph to Egypt ahead of a famine to prepare the way for the Lord to rescue his people from a famine (Genesis 37:1-Genesis 50:26). And when his brothers finally realized that this was Joseph, they begged his forgiveness. And this was Joseph’s response to his brothers:

“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Genesis 50:20 ESV)

Sometimes God allows evil to come into our lives, not speaking here of the kind where we are tempted to do evil and so we succumb to the evil and therefore we sin against the Lord, but evil done against us. And he allows evil people to do evil against us because he has planned a greater good as the result, such as what Paul gave testimony about in his own life many times. For because Paul was imprisoned for preaching the gospel, the gospel of Christ spread and many more people were saved from their sins.

And I have shared my own testimony of how the Lord took me through one difficult situation after another after another to get me ready for this ministry to which he called me 20 years ago. And I have shared how I came up against one pastor after another who mistreated and persecuted me for my walk of faith in the Lord, and how that lead to the Lord sending me to the internet where he could use me to share his gospel message and to warn of deceptive forces of evil lurking about and of false gospels being taught.

When we are going through these times of difficulty where we are being mistreated and persecuted for our walks of faith in the Lord, we may not always understand what is happening to us and why, especially if we have not yet reached that maturity level in our lives where we understand that God allows us to suffer for the sake of righteousness in order to make us into the people that he wants us to be so that he can use us in other people’s lives to help them to know Christ and to grow to maturity in him.

So, it is good for us to seek the Lord’s face during these difficult times, not just for our own comfort, but to learn the reason for our suffering and what God has planned for our lives as a result of all the things that he has taken us through. For, if we are willing, the Lord will show us his plan and his purpose for it all, and he will lead us in the way that he would have for us to go as a result of all the things we have suffered. And he will use us in other people’s lives for their good because of what we suffered in advance.

“Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” Amen!

And now here Paul laid out for us some elemental truths of the gospel message. The first one is that if we have died with him, we will also live with him. For Jesus Christ died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and now live for him and for his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living. But if we choose to hold on to our old lives of sin, we will lose them for eternity. Yet if we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, then we have the hope of eternal life with God.

[1 Peter 2:24; Romans 6:1-23; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; Luke 9:23-26]

The second is that if we endure, we will also reign with him. And the New Testament Scriptures have much to say to us on this subject. For we cannot just make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and now all our sins are forgiven, and now heaven is guaranteed us when we die, but regardless of how we live. We have to walk in obedience to our Lord and not in sin if we want to have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. And we must continue in these walks of faith until the very end to have life in Him.

[Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-12; Rom 11:17-24; 1 Co 15:2; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb 3:6,14-15; 2 Pet 1:5-11; 2 Pet 2:20-22; 1 Jn 2:24-25] 

The third is that if we deny him, he also will deny us. And we deny him, not just with our lips, but by how we live our lives. In fact, we can profess him with our lips but by our actions deny him. And that is still denying him. For we can honor him with our lips while our hearts are far from him, and we can worship him in vain. And we can be ashamed of his words, not just by our refusal to speak the truth of the gospel to others, but by our refusal to live the truth of the gospel. And he will deny us when he returns one day.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 10:32-33; Matt 15:7-9; Luke 9:23-26; 2 Timothy 2:11-13; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Titus 1:15-16; 2 Peter 2:1-3; Jude 1:3-4]

The fourth is that if we are faithless, that he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. And we must be very careful here that we do not misinterpret these words. For he is not faithful to us if we are not faithful to him. And we have to know here, too, that all of God’s promises have conditions and stipulations and warnings to go with them. So he is faithful to those promises and to the conditions which he stipulated for those promises to be fulfilled. And he is faithful to fulfill his warnings to us, too.

And the New Testament Scriptures are filled with his promises with their stipulations, and with his warnings to us if we do not meet those requirements. For if we profess to be in fellowship with God, but while we walk (in conduct) in darkness (sin), we are liars. And if we claim that we know God but while we walk (in conduct) NOT in obedience to his commandments (New Covenant), we are liars. For whoever practices righteousness is righteous, but whoever practices sin is of the devil.

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

Songs in the Night  

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.

You, my Savior, I now adore.

Hope in heaven awaiting me,

Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,

And I’m bound for heaven.

Jesus set me free from

All my sin, I say.

I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:

Overcame death, my vict’ry won!

Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!

I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!

My sin is but hist’ry!

I am free to please Him

With my life today.

I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me

A new life bought at Calvary.

Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.

Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;

Through my Lord, I’m able

To sit at His table;

Fellowship with Him.

I will thank Him always!

https://vimeo.com/379484387

A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” (2 Timothy 2:1-7 ESV)

In chapter 1 of 2 Timothy, Paul wrote to Timothy to encourage him with regard to his faith and calling in the Lord Jesus, and to encourage him to “fan into flame the gift of God” within him, and to not give way to fear. And I am assuming it was fear of other humans who may have been opposing him or ridiculing him, perhaps because of his youth. So Paul encouraged him to not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, and to not fear suffering for the sake of the gospel. But he was to follow the pattern of the sound teaching he heard from Paul, who received those words from the Lord.

Now, we can apply these same words to our lives, for all of us who believe in Jesus Christ with genuine faith have been called of God to his service, and to spread the message of the gospel to the people of the world, and to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of the body of believers in Jesus Christ. We have all been given the Holy Spirit to live within us to empower us in our walks of faith and to teach us the ways of the Lord. And we have all been given gifts of the Spirit which we are to put into practice, by the Spirit, for the encouragement and spiritual growth of the body of Christ, the church.

And we are not to be afraid of what other humans will say about us or think about us or if they attack us and ridicule us or make light of what we are doing in our walks of obedience to the Lord, in his service. But we must persevere in walking with the Lord and in following in his footsteps and in serving him with our lives and in sharing the truth of the gospel with others. But we can only do this in the strength and power of the Spirit of God alive within us giving us the courage and the confidence to keep on speaking the truth of God’s word to the people, regardless of how we are treated by them.

And then we are to be those who are helping others to grow in their walks of faith in obedience to the Lord and to his commands. We should pray that the Lord will lead us to his faithful servants who we can encourage and help to grow in their understanding of the teachings of the Scriptures and in how to apply the truths of the Scriptures to our daily lives, and who we can help to increase their understanding of the message of the gospel, the whole counsel of God, and to guide them in discerning biblical error and false gospel messages which are spreading like wildfire, so they obey the truth.

And we who are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ are regarded by God as his spiritual soldiers who are in his spiritual army fighting off the attacks of the enemy of our souls under the guidance and direction and empowerment of our commanding officer, Jesus Christ/God (see Ephesians 6:10-20). So we are not to get caught up in the trappings of the world and the things that the world has to offer us which are opposed to Jesus Christ and to his will and purpose for our lives, and which are opposed to the truth of his gospel message. But we are to make it our aim to please Jesus in all things.

Now, we live in a day and time when so much of what are called “churches” are really businesses of human origin following after human-based marketing schemes and tricks and goals in order to attract the ungodly of this world to come to their gatherings. And so rather than preach biblical repentance (dying with Christ to sin) and walks of obedience to our Lord in holy living, as the outgrowth of our salvation, which is evidence of genuine faith in the Lord, so many are diluting the gospel to make it more acceptable to the ungodly so that they will want to come to their “church services.”

But that is not the gospel that Jesus taught, and it is not what Paul and the other NT apostles taught as the gospel of our salvation. While so many people today are claiming that no works are required of us at all, they don’t read Ephesians 2:10 which follows right after Ephesians 2:8-9, and which says that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for Good Works which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them. And here Paul tells us that it is us who obey God’s rules (his commands) who will win this battle and who will receive the crown, and who will not end up in hell.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

My Heart’s Desire  

An Original Work / June 29, 2013

Based off Romans 10:1-21; Luke 9:23-26; Ephesians 4:17-24

Loved Ones, Oh, my heart’s desire

Is that you might come to Jesus.

Many appear zealous for God,

But they do not trust in Him.

They have not submitted to the One

Who saved them from their sins;

Not forsaken their sins,

Nor have they obeyed their King.

The word of the Lord is near you:

The word of faith we’re proclaiming:

That you must confess your faith

In Jesus as your Lord and King:

Believe in Him as your Lord, 

And follow Him where’er He leads.

Share the gospel; be a witness,

And meet others’ needs.

Beautiful are the feet of those

Who bring the good news of Jesus:

Anyone who would come to Him

Must deny himself today;

Die to sin and self, and

Let the Spirit transform you in heart;

Put on your new self in Jesus,

Yielding to the cross. 

https://vimeo.com/115643303

They Turned Away From Us

“You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.”

If you have ever experienced what Paul related to us here, then you can identify with him from personal experience. For being a follower of Jesus Christ, and being a minister of the gospel, which we are all supposed to be, will get you rejected and abandoned and cast aside even by people of your own family, your closest friends, others within the gatherings of the church, and by pastors and elders of church congregations, too, who are not following the Lord with wholehearted devotion, and whose lives are not totally surrendered to Jesus Christ to doing his will, but who are still worldly.

And what Paul was speaking about, and what I am speaking about has to do with us having our lives totally surrendered to the Lord Jesus in absolute commitment to serving him with our lives full time in service to him in doing whatever it is he has called us to do. And that doesn’t mean we are engaged in Christian service full-time like I am, or like some pastors and missionaries are, but that we are all to be serving the Lord with our lives full-time, and we should always be on-call for whenever the Lord has something he wants us to do. And we should be ready always to answer that call with “Yes!”

And this is about speaking the truth of the gospel and the truth of God’s word to the people, and not all just the happy-happy stuff, but the hard stuff, too, which there is a bunch of! And so that opens us up wide to being hated and rejected, even by others who call themselves Christians, but whose lives are not surrendered to following the Lord Jesus with their lives, or who are not mature in their walks of faith, or who are being deceived by the lies of the enemies of God.

For so many of them are being fed lies and not the truth, and so they are accepting the lies as though they are the truth, while they are rejecting the truth as though it is the lie. They may be believing half-truths, but half-truths are still lies if they are delivered in a way intended to deceive and to lead the people astray to a false gospel. And many people are being duped by master deceivers and manipulators into accepting the lies as the truth because the lies sound good, but the truth is hard to accept (example: “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” John 6:60).

So, don’t get disheartened, and don’t get discouraged if you are following the Lord in obedience and in surrender to his will and so you are being rejected and cast aside and lambasted (condemned, scolded, attacked) because you take God and his word seriously, and you take his calling upon your life seriously, and so you are doing what his word teaches that we all should be doing. But keep on in doing what God has called you to do in ministering his word to the people of this world. For people need to hear the truth, and not many are teaching the truth these days.

I know that when the Lord first called me to this ministry 20 years ago that I did not have much support or encouragement from anyone, and I had many who turned against me, and so I had to choose between the acceptance of human beings and the acceptance and the will and purpose of God for my life. That day I died to self and to self-will that I might follow my Lord in obedience to his will and purpose for my life, even if it meant that I had no encouragement from anyone. And I didn’t have much encouragement at all for a very long time, and I did have a lot of opposition.

But one day I cried it all out to the Lord, and I appealed to him on the basis that when he walked this earth that he had at least 11 disciples who were in support of him, although some were a little flaky sometimes, and that even Paul, when he was in prison, had people who visited him and who encouraged him. And so I prayed and begged God to please give me some encouragers, for this was very hard!! And he did, little by little, and now I have more than a few, and I cannot tell you what a blessing that has been to me and what joy that brings to my heart. But I know full well that my dependency must remain in the Lord and not in humans who may fail me.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

You Loved Me

An Original Work / December 3, 2019

A song based off the poem by the same name @ Original Works

Music and lyrics by Sue Love @ Original Works & Tosin Iyawo Ogaga

Vocals by Tosin Iyawo Ogaga & Sue Love

When I was lonely and afflicted,

You were there to pick me up.

You took me in Your arms,

And You held me tenderly.

Your love embraced me.

Your grace sustained me.

When my heart cried out to You

In my fear and my despair,

You never turned away,

But You let me know You loved me.

Your grace forgave me.

You did not shame me.

Then, when I answered the call,

“Here, Lord, send me.”

You sent me to where I must be.

Your mercy held me, did not fail me.

All this, You had planned, to use me.

And, when all trials and scorn

Came to test me.

You gave me all that I would need.

You strengthened me so I’d not fail You.

Your kindness blessed me, it touched me.

And, when I needed the church 

To lift up me,

To hearten me so I’d not fail,

You blessed me with folks who would love me.

Their presence with me, Your praise hailed!

And, when I walked through the valley

Of the shadow of the death,

And tears flowed from my eyes,

Still Your kindness was there for me.

Your touch, it healed me.

For I believed You.

When now I think about the ways,

Of the many, many ways

That You in Your great love

Show me that You’ll always care for me,

My heart, it thanks You,

And gladness fills me, fills me.

Bring Them Home

They are wand’ring far from home,

From the Lord their souls do roam.

Looking not to God above,

Trusting not in Jesus’ love.

Trusting in themselves alone,

Spending time on their Smart Phones

Doing what their flesh desires,

And do not what God requires.

Looking to the flesh of man,

Not on God’s grace do they stand.

Stand on intellect and flesh,

With the world they truly mesh.

Walking not by faith in Christ,

Taking God’s word now by heist,

They pervert the Word of God,

And on God’s grace they do trod.

They care not what God’s Word says,

They prefer the lies, instead.

They’re not instruments of grace,

Not see Jesus face to face.

They profess their faith in God,

To their idols, though, do nod.

God is calling to repent, 

From their idols to relent.

But so many do not hear.

They put fingers in their ears.

Will not listen to the truth,

And can be now so uncouth.

So we pray to God above,

That they will respond to love,

Will repent of all their sins,

And obey the Lord and win.

An Original Work / January 29, 2022

Suffering for the Gospel

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. 

“But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” (2 Timothy 1:8-14 ESV)

As believers in Jesus Christ, we must also be his followers who follow him in obedience to his commands and who follow in his footsteps, and who go wherever he sends us in doing whatever he has called us to do. For he has a calling for each and every one of us which we must follow. He has a plan and a purpose for every one of our lives. It is to die with him to sin and to walk in obedience to his commands. And it is to share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, doing and saying the kinds of things he did and said.

For we were not placed on this earth so that after we profess his name we should go about our own business, still doing whatever it is that we want to do without regard for our Lord and for what he wants us to do, as his followers. But we should be seeking his face and his will for our lives, and we should be sharing the truth of the gospel with the people of the world wherever we are so that they can forsake their sins and surrender their lives to Christ Jesus to follow in his ways and to obey his commands, too.

For Jesus Christ called us to a holy calling, and to be holy is to be separate (unlike, different) from the world because we are in the process of being conformed to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ. And that means that our bodies (our lives) are to be surrendered to Christ as living sacrifices to him, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship of God. And no longer are we to be conformed to the ways of this sinful world, but we are to be transformed of the Spirit of God in heart and mind in order to walk in newness of life in him in obedience to his commands (Romans 12:1-2).

Now not one of us is saved from our sins and promised heaven as our eternal destiny based on our own merit or because of our own good works. For not one of us is righteous in our own flesh, and all of us were born into this world with sin natures, separate from God, so we all come up short in our own flesh of attaining God’s divine approval and his righteousness. It is only by the grace of God that any of us are offered the chance to believe in Jesus and to die with him to sin and to now walk in his holiness and righteousness in obedience to his commands. So all the glory goes to God!

Yet, we must all choose to believe in Jesus, and we must all cooperate with him in his work of grace in our lives in the putting of our sins to death so that we can now walk in his holiness and righteousness and in obedience to his commands. For all throughout the New Testament we read that we must die with Christ to sin, and we must forsake our sins and say “No!” to sin, and we must put off living sinful lifestyles and put on Christ and his love and righteousness and walk in obedience to his commands, in his power.

But when we obey the Lord, and we submit to his will and purposes for our lives, and we go where he sends us, and we do whatever it is he calls and equips us to do, we will be rejected, hated, mistreated, forsaken, forgotten, and persecuted for the sake of his name, as he was treated. But we are to be willing to be treated in such a manner in order to follow him in obedience, and in order to take the message of the gospel to the people of the world.

And the message of the gospel is that Jesus Christ died on that cross that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He died that we might now live for him and no longer for ourselves. He shed his blood for us to buy us back for God (to redeem us) out of our slavery to sin so that we will now honor and serve him with our lives. For by faith in him we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to righteousness. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to death, but obedience to God ends in eternal life.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

All The Way My Savior Leads Me

Lyrics by Frances J Crosby, pub. 1875

Music by Robert Lowry, pub. 1875

All the way my Savior leads me,

What have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt His tender mercy,

Who through life has been my Guide?

Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,

Here by faith in Him to dwell!

For I know, whate’er befall me,

Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me,

Cheers each winding path I tread,

Gives me grace for every trial,

Feeds me with the living Bread.

Though my weary steps may falter

And my soul athirst may be,

Gushing from the Rock before me,

Lo! A spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me,

Oh, the fullness of His love!

Perfect rest to me is promised

In my Father’s house above.

When my spirit, clothed immortal,

Wings its flight to realms of day

This my song through endless ages:

Jesus led me all the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWdmZGik1Jw

Caution: This link may contain ads

The Heart of Man

“Some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat?’” Jesus knew their hearts, so he replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” Ouch! He called them hypocrites, and then told them that Isaiah was right when he prophesied about them: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”

Then, Jesus called the crowd over to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him unclean, but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him unclean.” And the disciples were concerned that Jesus had offended the Pharisees, but Jesus was not the least bit concerned about whether or not his words offended the self-righteous, prideful and hypocritical religious leaders who were leading people astray by their strict adherence to things that did not affect the heart of man, and while they neglected the true matters of the heart. 

For Jesus Christ is concerned about our hearts, and he wants us to have our hearts purified and to be made clean by the power of his Holy Spirit within us. So he is calling out to us to turn from our sins and to turn to him to follow him in obedience to his commands. This is the way of love, and it is the way of salvation. (see Matthew 15:1-20; Mark 7:1-23)

The Heart of Man  

An Original Work / April 4, 2012

Based off Matt. 15:1-20; Mk. 7:1-23

Listen to me ev’ryone and

Understand this teaching of Christ:

Why do you break the commands 

Of God for the sake of tradition?

When you follow the ways of man,

And don’t obey the words of Christ,

You nullify the words of God,

And you hold to the ways of man. 

What comes out of a man’s mouth is

What makes him unclean and dirty.

The things that come out of the mouth

Come from the heart, from within him.

The heart of man is so sinful;

From his nature, out comes evil:

Lying, cursing, greed and malice,

Lust and lewdness, deceit, slander.

Jesus calls us to obey him;

Turn from our sins; follow His ways.

Yet, his people honor him with their lips, 

but their hearts not with Him.

Their worship of God is in vain.

Their teachings are rules taught by man.

Jesus calls us; gently leads us 

To return and follow His truth. 

https://vimeo.com/125490002 

Keep Persevering

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

“I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:1-7 ESV)

We who are called of God to serve him with our lives are still human beings. We bleed. We cry. We get hurt. We mourn. We grieve. We go through trials and tribulations to test our faith. And we need encouragement. For we aren’t always strong. We get tired. We get discouraged and disheartened. We feel lonely. We have days when we have no strength or energy, especially the older that we get. We get forgetful. And we have enemies. We have people who are against us and what we do, even among those professing faith in Jesus Christ. And so it helps to know that there are people praying for us.

I never knew either of my grandmothers. My father’s mother died when he was only 4 years old in the flu epidemic of 1918. My mother’s mother died in 1952 when I was only 2 years old, so I have no memory of her. But in 2004 I came into possession of my grandmother’s (my mother’s mother’s) journals, and that was God sent. As soon as I began reading her journals I immediately connected with her in ways I never connected with any of my other family members. I really felt as though I belonged to her.

She wrote so much like I write, and she expressed herself in many of the same ways in which I express myself. She said the same phrases that I say, and she had the same heart for the Lord as I have. And we had many of the same favorite Bible verses that we quoted. But she was much more of a prayer warrior than I am, and she visited people in their homes and prayed with them, and I think she even took food to them sometimes. But we shared the same passion for God and for his word and for ministry.

Even back then she was seeing the condition of the church as in great need of revival and she was burdened for the spiritual condition of the church, as was A.W. Tozer who wrote back in the 1940’s about some of the things that a lot of us were not even aware of until the past 10-20 years, some of which many people are still not aware. And there was this one thing that my grandmother kept quoting that I was not familiar with, and so I finally looked it up, and it turned out that it was a passage of Scripture:

“Then the Lord replied: ’Write down the revelation and make it plain on tablets so that a herald may run with it. For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.’” (Habakkuk 2:2-3 NIV’84)

Then this passage of Scripture kept showing up in other places and I knew that God had a message for me through it. And eventually that became God’s calling on my life to write down what he teaches me from his word each day on a tablet (my computer) and to place these writings on the internet (the herald) so that the herald could “Run With It” (the name of my blog). But the Lord took me through so many trials and tribulations in my life to prepare me for this moment so that I would answer his call.

And I understand why the apostle Paul wrote to encourage Timothy and to remind him to fan into flame the gift of God within him, and why he told him that God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control. And that is because when we answer God’s call on our lives with “Yes, Lord!”, that is when the enemy begins to fiercely attack and to try to discourage us and to make us afraid in hopes that we will back down and run away. But the Lord had prepared me for this moment all my life. 

I knew there was no turning back, not anymore. This was it! For this very purpose I was created of God for this moment in history to share with people what the Lord was teaching me from his word each day for their encouragement and instruction and spiritual growth and wisdom and discernment. For these are very trying times in which we now live, and there is so much confusion and lies and distortions of truth and things being altered, and liars and lies and tricks and deceptions now abound!

So I was to fan into flame the gift of God within me unlike any other time in my life. And I was to stay the course no matter what – no matter what others said about me or did to me or said to me. For this is a critical time in our history when people need to hear the truth and they need to be made aware of the many lies which are spreading in the name of truth. And so I am committed to the Lord and to his calling upon my life no matter what happens to me or how many hate or reject me or want nothing to do with me. And if they think me odd, that’s ok. People need to hear the truth.

And the truth, with regard to the gospel of our salvation, is that Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and now live to him and to his righteousness, in surrender to his will, in walks of obedience to his commands, and in holy living, to the glory and praise of God. But if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to the Lord, we will die in our sins and we will not inherit eternal life with God regardless of what our lips profess. So please take this to heart.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Songs in the Night  

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.

You, my Savior, I now adore.

Hope in heaven awaiting me,

Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,

And I’m bound for heaven.

Jesus set me free from

All my sin, I say.

I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:

Overcame death, my vict’ry won!

Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!

I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!

My sin is but hist’ry!

I am free to please Him

With my life today.

I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me

A new life bought at Calvary.

Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.

Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;

Through my Lord, I’m able

To sit at His table;

Fellowship with Him.

I will thank Him always!

https://vimeo.com/379484387