Tuesday, February 25, 2025
Be Careful Who You Follow
“Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: ‘The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them.’” (Matthew 23:1-3 NASB1995)
Sometimes we may have good rulers, and other times we may have bad rulers. In fact, we may have a long string of bad rulers who, in truth, care nothing for the people but only for themselves and what they can get out of it. And it doesn’t matter if they are on the right or on the left politically, for it is all the same, i.e. they all work for the same people, for the ruling class of the world, i.e. for the global elite who are the ones running the world.
So, just because someone is in a position of rule and authority, either in the government, or in the church, that is no promise that the individual in charge has our best interest at heart, and that they are not working for themselves, for what they can gain from it, regardless of how it impacts us, the people. So this is why we are instructed in the Scriptures to test everyone to see what they are made out of, for not all are who they say.
And this was the case when Jesus lived on the earth. Many of the religious rulers within the temple and the synagogues were not godly and moral people looking out for the people underneath them. Even though they made an outward showing of “righteousness,” inwardly, and in practice, they were not good people, but they were bad people doing bad things. They were not working for the people but for themselves and for their own selfish gain.
Pharisees Character Traits
The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were skilled at hypocrisy. Jesus described them in this way (based off Matthew 23:1-39):
• They do not practice what they preach
• They do their deeds to be seen by others
• They love places of honor; they love attention
• They lead people to hell on the promise of heaven
• They profess one thing but live the opposite
• They adhere to religious rituals but not to God’s righteousness
• They appear clean (righteous) outwardly but inwardly are evil
• They are full of wicked deeds, greed, hypocrisy and self-indulgence
• They persecute those who are truly righteous in God’s sight
So, even though we, as citizens of nations, must adhere to the laws of the land, and we must obey our governing authorities, God sets limits on what we must obey and not obey. We do not have to obey anything that is sinful and that is contrary to the will and purpose of God for our lives. We do not have to compromise faith and biblical convictions in order to obey governing authorities. Obedience to God has to be in first place always.
And if we have leaders who are professing faith in Jesus Christ, no matter if they are in the church, or in the government, but they are not setting good role models for us to follow, but the opposite of that, we need to be wise and discerning about that. And I see nothing in the Scriptures that demands that we remain in a church fellowship where the leaders are not following the Scriptures, but where they are teaching lies, and where they are immoral.
In fact, I believe the Scriptures teach the opposite of that, that we are to come out of “Babylon,” and we are not to be in fellowship with the ungodly and with those who are teaching that we can live however we want and still be saved from our sins, and still have eternal life with God, for those are lies. We should remove ourselves from such influences as that, and we should fellowship with those who are living godly lives in obedience to God.
[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5; Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
https://vimeo.com/379406352
Be Careful Who You Follow
An Original Work / February 25, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
The Greatest Commandment
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40 NASB1995)
To love like this is to prefer what God prefers, to choose his choices, and to obey them in his power. It means we are actively doing what the Lord prefers by his power and under his direction. And what God prefers is all that is holy, righteous, godly, upright, morally pure, honest, faithful, and obedient to him and to his commands, by the grace of God, by God-persuaded faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is of God, and which is not of human flesh.
So, if we love God, in truth, and in righteousness, then we will submit to him as Lord (Owner-Master) of our lives. We will surrender our wills to the will of the Father, and we will follow him wherever he leads us in doing whatever he commands us to do, as his followers (his servants, his disciples). We will, thus, die with him to sin, and be raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but to God and to his righteousness.
And the Scriptures teach that if we love God that we will obey him, but if we do not obey him, in practice, we do not love him, and we do not know him, and we are not in fellowship with him, and we do not have eternal life in him. For to love involves action on our part. It is doing to/for God and to/for others what is loving, as God defines love, not as human flesh often defines love. It is doing for others what is for their good, even if they don’t see it.
So this kind of love is not just feelings and emotions, which tend to fluctuate depending upon our circumstances and on the one we are loving. We love even if we are hated and mistreated and lied about, in return. For that is how Jesus loved the people of the earth when he lived on the earth, and that is how he loved all of us when he went to that cross to take upon himself the sins of the entire world so that, by faith in him, we will die with him to sin.
Does this mean that God demands of us absolute sinless perfection? No (1 John 2:1-2). But lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord Jesus. We can’t just say, “Well, nobody is perfect,” and then go on living by the flesh and not by the Spirit. Might we fail at some point? We might, because we are human. But deliberate and habitual sin, in rebellion against God, is not the same.
And why do I dwell on this subject? Because God’s word does, all throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. Jesus dwelt on this subject, as did Paul and the other New Testament apostles. Why? Because we are humans, and as humans we might have a tendency to drift back into living by the flesh and not in walks of obedience to our Lord. And that is why we are instructed to exhort one another so we are not deceived by sin’s traps.
And another main reason is the same reason as did Paul continue to go back to this subject over again, because so many liars and deceivers and false teachers were convincing the Christians that they did not have to obey God and that they did not have to forsake their sins, which is where we are today. So many professing Christians are buying into a distorted gospel message which is convincing them that obedience is not required of them.
And they are also being taught that God does not demand of them that they die with him to sin and that they now live godly and moral and pure and honest and faithful lives to God. And they are being convinced that no matter how much they sin that they will not be judged by God for their sins and that they will still get to enter into God’s heaven. So they are being lied to by the masses, and this requires biblical rebuttals to the many lies.
Why? Because we love God and we love other humans, and we want what God wants for all of us, that we die with him to sin and now walk in obedience to his commands, and because we don’t want to see anyone end up in hell, especially on the basis of believing a lie. And so we tell them the truth because we love them, even if they hate and misjudge and speak evil of us in return. And the truth is that we must die to sin and obey our Lord, in practice, or we will not see heaven. Not my words! Read the following:
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
The Lord’s My Shepherd
Lyrics by Francis Rous (1579-1659)
Music by Jessie Seymour Irvine (1836-1887)
The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want;
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; He leadeth me
The quiet waters by.
My soul He doth restore again,
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E’en for His own name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk in death’s dark vale,
Yet will I fear no ill;
For Thou art with me, and Thy rod
And staff me comfort still.
My table Thou hast furnished
In presence of my foes;
My head Thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup overflows.
Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me,
And in God’s house forevermore
My dwelling-place shall be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTHr9UcvWko
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The Greatest Commandment
An Original Work / February 25, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Monday, February 24, 2025
Do You Ever Question God?
Do you ever wonder why
God does the things He does?
Do you ever question wisdom
Coming up from heaven above?
Do you ever ask the Lord,
“Why do you do the things you do?”
Do you trust in Him completely,
Trust He’s thought this through and through?
Do you know no greater wisdom
Than the wisdom of God’s love?
Do you trust Him with your life
And believe that He is love?
Or you complain to Him instead,
Think He needs to think again,
Cause what’s happening in the world
To you does not make sense?
Well, the Bible tells us so
That God’s perfect in His mind.
No lies in Him be found,
So to doubt Him, there’s no ground.
He is perfect in His wisdom,
Perfect in all that He does,
Has a perfect plan in mind,
So we give Him our applause.
Does not mean we’re gonna like it,
That it will not test our faith,
That we’ll fully comprehend it,
But it will, will be our fate.
But the Lord, He has His reasons,
To work all things for our good,
So He disciplines in love
Those who rest beneath His hood.
An Original Work / February 24, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
I Have Set the Lord Continually Before Me
“I will bless the Lord who has counseled me;
Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.
I have set the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices;
My flesh also will dwell securely.
For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.
You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” (Psalms 16:7-11 NASB1995)
As believers in Jesus Christ, we are to be in close fellowship with God, in a personal and close walk of faith in him whereby we long to be with him and to do his will and to serve him with our lives and to obey his commands. For Jesus Christ gave his life up for us on that cross that we might die with him to sin and now live for him and for his righteousness, in obedience to his will and to his purpose for our lives. He should be our very best friend.
Having time with our Lord each day in his word, listening to him speak truth to our hearts, should not be a drudgery, and it should not be just something we do as a matter of routine or of religious practice with it having no real impact on our lives. This time spent with the Lord should be something we look forward to, like getting together with our very best friend, and it should not be something that only lasts for a few minutes per day.
For the psalmist said that he set the Lord before him continually, and we should, as well. We should think of our relationship with the Lord as a marriage, which is what it is supposed to be, but a union that is so close, and so personal, that he is always there with us throughout the day, and throughout the night, and we should have 24/7 open communication with our Lord just like he is sitting right beside us wherever we are.
And we should have open hearts and ears to hear from him anytime throughout the day or the night when he wants to teach us something, or when he has a task that he wants us to do, or something he wants us to say. And he might even get us up in the middle of the night to pray for someone or to write something or to speak to us about something going on in our lives and to give us his counsel in the matter, and we should listen to him.
Especially when we are going through difficult times we need that assurance that our Lord is always with us, if truly we are in him by genuine faith in him. And that requires that we die with him to sin and now live for him and for his righteousness in walks of surrender to him and in obedience to his commands. This is not saying that we will be absolutely perfect in every way, but that we should be growing in him, doing his will, serving his purposes.
Sin should no longer be our “go to,” i.e. our practice, our habit. For by the grace of God, by God-persuaded faith in the Lord, we should have died with him to sin, and we should now be walking in obedience to his commands. For this is the reason for which Jesus gave his life up for us on that cross. But this is not something we do in our own power and strength and wisdom, but only in the power of God as we surrender to his will and purpose.
And then we can have the assurance of our salvation from sin and of eternal life with God because our lives are surrendered to the Lord, and he has saved us by his grace, and he is now transforming us and conforming us to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, by his grace. For the Lord makes known to us the path that we must take, as his followers, and he promises us that he will empower us to do his will, if we are willing and obedient.
And that path of life that we are to take, which he has made known to us, is not a path that is determined nor ruled by self and by the flesh. For us it means full surrender to the Lord to do his will, denial of self, dying to sin, and walking in obedience to his commands – all and only by his grace, by God-persuaded faith in him, and in his power and wisdom, and not in our own fleshly strength nor by our own way of thinking. He must be KING!
And when our lives are committed to the Lord, to doing his will, to obeying his commands, and to walking in his ways and in his truth, there is no greater joy and no greater peace than that, even if it means a life of persecution and suffering for the sake of our Lord and for the sake of his gospel message. For we love our Lord, and our heart’s desire is now to serve him and to do his will. And so we want to please him in all that we do.
[Romans 8:8; 2 Corinthians 5:9; Galatians 6:8; Ephesians 5:10; Colossians 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 2 Timothy 2:4; Hebrews 11:6; Hebrews 13:6; 1 John 3:22]
Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer
Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897
Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.
Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.
O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.
O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.
Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg
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I Have Set the Lord Continually Before Me
An Original Work / February 24, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Are You Trusting in a Lie?
Then came the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, saying, “Send to all the exiles, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite, “Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, although I did not send him, and he has made you trust in a lie,” therefore thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants; he will not have anyone living among this people, and he will not see the good that I am about to do to My people,” declares the Lord, “because he has preached rebellion against the Lord.”’” (Jeremiah 29:30-32 NASB1995)
The Israelites were in captivity in Babylon, under the judgment of God, for a 70 year period of time, because of their rebellion against the Lord and due to their failure to respond to his calls to them to repent of their wicked ways and to now follow him in obedience to his commands. But they had false prophets prophesying lies to them, telling them that they would not have to be in captivity for 70 years, so the Lord said to them to not listen to the lies.
And we have a similar or parallel situation going on in our world today, and perhaps centered more in America right now, but perhaps the whole world. I live in America (USA), so that is what I know best. So I mostly speak from that vantage point, although these truths speak to all people all across the globe. So, what is our situation today? It is similar to their situation talked about in the book of Jeremiah where the people were rebelling against God.
The people who professed God as their God were living in rebellion against the Lord and against his commands, and they were engaged in idolatry, adultery, sexual immorality, lying, cheating, stubbornness, self-indulgence, and the like. They did not honor God as their Lord (Master), and they were living in disobedience to his commands. And they were listening to false teachers, and they were accepting their lies instead of the words of God.
And so it is today, at least here in America, it is. For the gospel message taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles has been and is being altered and diluted and willfully misrepresented in order to deceive the people into believing that they can continue living in their sins, and in disobedience to the Lord’s commands, but that God will not judge them for their deliberate and habitual acts of rebellion against the Lord.
Does God’s grace cover our sins? Yes, if we are repentant and obedient to the Lord, in practice, and if we are not deliberately and habitually sinning against the Lord and against our fellow humans. Does this mean we must be perfect in every way? No, it doesn’t, but it does mean that sin should not be what we practice, but obedience to our Lord should be what we practice, if we are true followers of Jesus Christ. We should want to do his will.
So, what if we have been following the Lord with our lives, but then we fall back into sin, does he cut us off? If we read the Scriptures carefully we will see where the apostles regularly spoke to the Christians about some of their sinful practices, and where they counseled them to forsake their sins and to walk with the Lord in obedience, but where they also warned them that if they continued in their sins and not in obedience that they would be cut off.
So, when is the cut off point? I believe it is when Jesus returns to judge and to take his faithful ones to be with him for eternity. This is when we will all be judged by the Lord according to our deeds. If we are those who are walking in obedience to our Lord, in practice, and who are not walking in deliberate and habitual sin, then we have the hope of eternal life with God. For those who have chosen the path of sin, and not of obedience to God, even if they profess Christ as Savior, they will not inherit eternal life.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-21; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
And why is it important to talk about this? Because we have so many liars these days convincing the people that they can make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ but that how they live will not impact their eternal security. They are lying to them that God will not judge them, and so many feel a freedom to continue in deliberate and habitual sin, without conscience, convinced that all sins are forgiven and heaven is guaranteed to them.
And if we do not tell them the truth, they may end up in hell, and not in heaven, but on the promise and hope of heaven fed to them by the liars who were convincing them that God would not judge them for their sins. But this isn’t just about that final judgment where we are assigned heaven or hell, but this is about our world today. In the book of Revelation we have letters written to the churches warning most of them against walking in sin.
5 of the 7 are told that they must repent of their sins and obey God or that God would send some type of judgment upon them. And this is followed by the declarations of the judgments of God of these last days before the return of Christ on those who have disobeyed the Lord and who did not bow to him as Lord, but who continued in their sins and did not repent when God called them to repent and to warn them of impending judgment.
I am of the belief that we are in these final days before the return of Christ and that God is presently judging the people of my nation who have not bowed the knee to him in surrender of their lives to him but who have continued in their sins and in disobedience in rebellion against the Lord and against his commands. I believe he is presently judging his adulterous church here in America for believing the lies and not the truth.
Although we are going through difficult times now, and I believe it is only going to get worse, this is for our good, I believe, to bring all of us to our knees in humble surrender to our Lord in obedience to his commands and in the forsaking of our sins before we face that final day of judgment and our eternal destiny is determined according to whether or not we obeyed the Lord and whether or not we forsook our sinful practices. For faith = obedience.
The Rock of My Heart
Lyricist: Bassford, Matthew W.; Psalm 73
Composer: Schales, Glenda Barnhart
My Lord, I need nothing beside You;
Without You, I could not have stood.
Your promise is my hope and my refuge;
Your nearness, my strength and my good.
When I was distressed and embittered,
By things I could not understand,
Your presence was continually with me;
You always took hold of my hand.
I know that Your counsel will guide me
In wisdom, devotion, and love,
And afterward You’ll call me to glory
To dwell in Your presence above.
My heart may be broken within me;
My earthly strength may depart.
But You are my portion forever,
You are the Rock of my heart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9SQe7t748Q
Caution: This link may contain ads
Are You Trusting in a Lie?
An Original Work / February 24, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
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