We Proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord

2 Corinthians 4:1-2 ESV

 

“Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.”

 

We have all been given the ministry of reconciliation if, indeed, we are truly born again of God by God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, and thus we have been crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we have been resurrected with Christ to newness of life in him to be lived for his praise and glory.

 

And to reconcile means to change and to exchange. And it has to do with us, by God’s grace, being changed (transformed) of the Spirit of God via dying with him to sin, via being reborn of his Spirit, and now being given new lives in Christ, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

 

So, this has to do with us changing from being enemies of God to now being in intimate fellowship with him. We were turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, by God’s Spirit, so that we could receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those sanctified by faith in Jesus.

 

And now, by God’s grace, we share his message of reconciliation with the world around us so that they can also be reconciled to God, by his grace, through God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ. For, they, too, can be turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

 

Therefore, we don’t teach what is false. We don’t twist the Scriptures to our advantage to appease human flesh and to pacify people in their sin. We don’t dilute the gospel to make it more acceptable to the world so that the world will not be offended by our gospel, either.

 

Instead, by God’s grace, and in his strength, we teach what is true to the best of our understanding. And we make it our practice to teach the Scriptures in their proper context so that we don’t mishandle the word of truth, and so that we present the truth plainly so that all can understand.

 

For, the goal of what we share from God’s Word is to show the way to release from our bondage to sin and to new lives in Christ Jesus which are to be lived for his praise and glory. And it is to encourage the body of Christ in their walks of obedient faith in Jesus Christ, too. All for the glory of God.

 

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 ESV

 

“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

 

If something is veiled, it is masked, cloaked, disguised, concealed, obscured or hidden. We don’t hide the truth from people, or certainly we should not, but to those who are perishing in their sins, it is hidden. They don’t see it. They don’t comprehend it, for they are blinded to the truth.

 

For, Satan has blinded their minds so that they don’t see the light of the gospel for what it is. But a very sad reality about all of this is that many people who profess faith in Jesus Christ are among those whose minds are blinded so that they cannot (or will not) see the truth.

 

And many of them know the truth. Many of them have professed faith in Jesus Christ for many years, and they have read their Bibles, and they have heard the Word of God preached at a time when the truth was still being preached (and still is, in some cases).

 

But they have seared their own consciences through rejecting Jesus Christ’s words to them, by ignoring the truth they know, and by going their own way, instead, doing the very things they know to be wrong while resisting God’s Spirit by refusing to do what they know is right.

 

2 Corinthians 4:5-6 ESV

 

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

 

If we are teaching the truth of the gospel of our salvation to others, it is not for our own glory, but for the glory of God. In fact, we will not have a huge following. We will not be voted most popular. And people will not be getting in line to be our best friends, either.

 

We may or may not have a few encouragers, from time to time, and we can’t do what we do for the accolades of other humans, either. For those who take God seriously, who take his word to heart, and who are teaching the whole counsel of God, their path is usually a lonely road.

 

For what is popular is to feed people lies that make them feel good about themselves in their sin. What is popular is to tell people that they don’t have to surrender their lives to Jesus, that they don’t have to obey the Lord, and that they don’t have to forsake their sinful lifestyles.

 

It is not popular to tell people that they must forsake their sins, that they must die with Christ to sin, and that now they must live to Christ and to his righteousness, and they must walk (in conduct) according to the Spirit and no longer according to their flesh (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24).

 

So, if we are going to be ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we may need to be prepared to be hated, rejected, abandoned, ignored, falsely accused, gossiped about, ostracized, and kicked out of “church” fellowships, too, for being people of “strong convictions.”

 

But we do what we do out of love and obedience to our Lord and out of love and concern for our fellow humans, and for those who claim to be our brothers and sisters in Christ. So, we let the light of the gospel shine forth so that people can have their blinded eyes opened to the truth.

 

For, we are not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance, for this is the desire of God’s heart, and his heart and his desires are now to be ours. So, we share the truth of the gospel so that people will be released from their chains of sin and walk in fellowship with Jesus Christ in freedom from sin and in purity of devotion to him.

 

The Lord’s Anointed  

 

An Original Work / December 16, 2011

Based off Isaiah 61

 

The Spirit of the Sov’reign Lord on me;

Anointed to preach the Good News;

Sent me to bind up the brokenhearted;

Proclaim freedom for the captives.

He sent me to preach release for pris’ners

Who are walking in sin’s darkness;

Proclaim God’s grace to all men who’ll listen;

And tell them about God’s judgments;

Comfort all who mourn;

Give crowns of beauty;

Oil of gladness and thanksgiving.

 

They will be called oaks of God’s righteousness,

A planting of our Savior, God,

For the display of our Lord’s splendor, and

They will rebuild God’s holy church.

God will renew them, and will restore them,

And you’ll be called priests of the Lord.

You will be ministers of our God, and

You will rejoice in salvation.

The Lord loves justice;

He is faithful to

Reward those who are seeking Him.

 

I delight greatly in the Lord;

My soul rejoices in my Savior, God.

He has clothed me with His salvation,

And in a robe of His righteousness.

He has given me priestly garments to wear,

As the bride of Jesus Christ.

As the garden of our Lord and Savior,

He causes us to grow in Him.

He makes righteousness,

Praise, and thanksgiving

Spring up before all the nations.

 

https://vimeo.com/114836524

If Only I May Finish

How Do We Live?

Acts 20:17-21 ESV

 

“Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them:

 

“’You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.’”

 

How we live matters. What we say matters. How we say it matters. For, as followers of Jesus Christ, and as his body, we are his representatives on this earth. So, we are to represent him well. We are to show forth his love and compassion, and we are to speak the truth in love to others, too.

 

For, if we are His, by faith in him, then God’s Spirit lives in us. We are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. So, it is the life of Christ that is to shine forth from our lives and not our flesh. For, as the body of Christ, we are to be his hands, his feet, and his mouth on this earth.

 

It is easy to get caught up in the ways of this world and to speak their language and to talk about all the same things they talk about. For, we live among them, and we are still flesh and blood, and we still have the propensity to sin against God. But we must resist being like the world.

 

Instead, we are to speak the very words of God to the people of the world. We are to share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we must turn from our sins (repent), and we must turn our lives over to Jesus Christ, and we must now follow him in obedience to his ways (Eph 4:17-24).

 

And this must be who we are no matter who we are with or what day of the week it is. We are to represent Jesus with our lives 24/7. His passion must be our passion. What concerns him should concern us. What he would be speaking if he were here should be what we are speaking, too.

 

Afflictions Await Us

Acts 20:22-24 ESV

 

“And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

 

If we are true disciples of Jesus Christ, afflictions await us, too, wherever we go. For, if we are his representatives, we will be treated like he was. The world will not receive us as its own, but will hate us and persecute us, and this includes that the worldly flesh-driven “church” will hate us, too.

 

For, if we are following Jesus Christ wholeheartedly, and our lives are surrendered to him to go where he sends us, and to do what he has called us to do, and to say whatever it is he would have us say, which will be speaking the truth of the gospel, we are not going to be well liked.

 

For some of us, the persecution will come in the form of verbal attacks, or people trying to trick us, to try to trip us up with our words, or it will be via rejection, abandonment, false accusations, and people ignoring us or not wanting anything to do with us, because we are an offense to them.

 

For others of us, the persecution will come in more physical forms of physical abuse, beatings, false imprisonments, threats against our lives, and death. It can also be that we might lose our jobs or not be able to buy or sell unless we compromise our faith and practices.

 

But we should not count our lives on this earth as something to hold on to, especially to the point to where we will turn away from Jesus in order to be accepted by humans. But we should have as our goal to live the life of Jesus on this earth and to finish the work he has assigned for us to do.

 

Innocent of the Blood

Acts 20:25-28 ESV

 

“And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”

 

As followers of Jesus Christ, we were not put here on this earth to serve ourselves, but to serve our Lord and other humans in ministering God’s love and grace to all, and in declaring to them the gospel of our salvation, i.e., the whole counsel of God, the fulness of his love and grace.

 

This is the reason that Jesus died for us, that we might no longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us. For, he died that we might die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness, and that we might glorify him with our lives (1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:19-20; 2 Co 5:15).

 

We are to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth in living the life of Jesus and in doing and saying the kinds of things that he did and said. And we are to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light so that others may know him, too.

 

For, our Lord chose that his gospel should go forth through us in order that the people of the world might hear the message of deliverance from slavery to sin, and of the empowerment of the Spirit of God to us to walk in holiness and godliness, living lives which are pleasing to God.

 

For, the message of the gospel is that we must, by faith in Jesus Christ, die with Christ to sin, be reborn of the Spirit of God, and walk (conduct our lives) now according to (in agreement with) the Spirit of God and no longer according to our flesh, for the praise of God’s glory.

 

Fierce Wolves Have Come

Acts 20:29-32 ESV

 

“I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”

 

Nonetheless, there are many people these days, who call themselves followers of Jesus, who are not committed to his service, who feel as though they do not have to submit to his Lordship, or obey his commands, or leave their lives of sin behind them to go where he sends them.

 

And many of them are teaching those lies to others who are then believing the lies, and who are following that teaching as though it is the gospel. But it is a false gospel, for it requires no dying with Christ to sin or living to Christ and to his righteousness.

 

Instead, it glories in the flesh, and it makes provisions for the flesh to still reign in people’s lives. And they call that “grace,” but that is a “cheap grace.” For God’s grace delivers us from our slavery to sin and it empowers us to live godly and holy lives to the praise and glory of God.

 

God’s grace, which brings salvation, trains us to say “No!” to ungodliness and fleshly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. For, his grace puts our sin to death with Christ so that we can live to Christ and to his righteousness (Tit 2:11-14).

 

Please understand here that it is not grace if it leaves you still in slavery to sin, because that leads to death, not to life eternal. So, if we live to please the flesh, from the flesh we will reap destruction. But if we live to please the Spirit, from the Spirit we will reap eternal life (Gal 6:7-8).

 

The Great Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Francis Foster, 1915

Music by Samuel W. Beazley, 1915

 

How I love the great Redeemer

Who is doing so much for me;

With what joy I tell the story

Of the love that makes men free.

Till my earthly life is ended,

I will send songs above,

Then beside the crystal sea

More and more my soul shall be

Praising Jesus and His love.

 

He has purchased my redemption,

Rolled my burden of sin away,

And is walking on beside me,

Growing dearer day by day.

That is why I sing His praises,

That is why joy is mine,

That is why forevermore

On the everlasting shore

I shall sing of love divine.

 

Glory be to Him forever!

Endless praises to Christ the Lamb!

He has filled my life with sunshine,

He has made me what I am.

Oh, that everyone would know Him,

Oh, that all would adore!

Oh, that all would trust the love

Of the mighty Friend above

And be His forevermore.

 

He is everything to me, to me,

He is everything to me,

And everything shall always be;

I will never cease to raise

A song of gladness in His praise;

Here, and in the world above,

My soul shall sing of saving love;

Life and light and joy is He,

The precious Friend who died for me.

 

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

Caution: This link may contain ads

The Floods Have Lifted Up

Our Lord Reigns Supreme

Psalms 93:1-2 ESV

 

“The Lord reigns; he is robed in majesty;

    the Lord is robed; he has put on strength as his belt.

Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved.

Your throne is established from of old;

    you are from everlasting.”

 

Jesus Christ, our Lord, is the King of the whole world. He is fully sovereign and in control over all that He has made. Nothing escapes his notice. And nothing can thwart his purposes. His purposes will stand for he will make them stand. Although it may appear the enemy is gaining ground, God still is King. His will and his purpose will be accomplished. Amen!

 

They Lift up Their Roaring

Psalms 93:3 ESV

 

“The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

    the floods have lifted up their voice;

    the floods lift up their roaring.”

 

Our Lord has enemies. All who are opposed to Jesus Christ and to his Lordship over all that he has made, and who are opposed to his gospel, in the way he taught it, are his enemies. And they are like floods which lift up their heads against the Lord, and which raise their voices against him.

 

And they are roaring against the Lord and his gospel and his messengers. They are rebelling against the Lord’s commands and his moral standards for our lives, and thus they are altering his gospel to make it more acceptable and agreeable to human flesh.

 

So, what we have now is a flood of people professing faith in Jesus Christ who are being promised heaven as their eternal destiny who are living no different from those who make no profession of faith in Jesus, or even worse, because they believe their salvation frees them of the guilt of sin.

 

Thus, many of them are living in sexual immorality and idolatry while claiming that Jesus set them free. But they see their freedom as license to continue making sin their practice. For they see their salvation as merely forgiveness for their sins, but not as deliverance from their sinful practices.

 

Thus, since they feel as though they don’t have to obey the Lord, and that nothing is required of them, and since they believe they can have an intimate relationship with God while they deliberately and habitually are making sin their practice, they have no fear of God.

 

So, for many of them, their eyes are full of adultery. They never stop sinning. It doesn’t mean that they are constantly committing sinful acts, but that they never died with Christ to sin. They never let him put an end to sin in their lives. And so, they continue sinning as a matter of course.

 

And some of them seduce others to sin by teaching them that nothing is required of them – no repentance, no obedience, and no submission to Christ as Lord. Or else they twist the Scriptures in such a way that they lead people into sin while making them believe they are obeying God.

 

Since so much of today’s market-driven church has bought into this lie, sin is running rampant in a large majority of congregations, and especially sexually immorality is high on the list of the sins being committed regularly because there are no checks and balances to prevent this.

 

And if they can’t convince us to join them in their debauchery, they will attack us, or they will try to shame us into submission, or they will try to shame us into backing down from sharing the truth of the gospel, telling us that we are offending people and making them feel bad.

 

Mightier than the Waves

Psalms 93:4-5 ESV

 

“Mightier than the thunders of many waters,

    mightier than the waves of the sea,

    the Lord on high is mighty!

Your decrees are very trustworthy;

    holiness befits your house,

    O Lord, forevermore.”

 

But praise the Lord, He is mightier than all their tricks and all their schemes to try to bring us down and to try to get us to compromise and to give up and to give in and to join them. He is mightier than all their threats or all their fearmongering or attempts to try to confuse us.

 

And he will give us all the strength that we need to stand strong in our faith and on the word of God (in context), and on God’s standards, and to not give into intimidation to back off or to back away from living the life and from talking the life that God has designed for us all to live.

 

So, we are never to commit sexual immorality. We are never to view porn or sexually charged movies, or to fantasize about sex with other people. And we are not to lust after others or dream of romantic relationships with other people. And we are not to self-gratify, either.

 

We are never to engage ourselves in intimate and private conversations with others behind the backs of our spouses, either. And it goes without saying that we are to never have sexual relationships with anyone with whom we are not married. We are to be faithful to our spouses in all ways.

 

For, it is God’s will that we be sanctified. It is God’s will that we be made holy and that we live separate (unlike, different) from the ways of this sinful world. It is God’s will that we die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness for his glory and praise.

 

For, if we continue living in sin deliberately, habitually, and premeditatedly, making sin our practice, and we willfully choose not to submit to the Lord and to obey his commands and to leave our sinful lifestyles behind us, we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life with God.

 

So, if you are living in sexual immorality, or any sin, and if you are holding on to that sin, and you won’t let it go, but you are claiming that you are a believer in Jesus Christ and that heaven is what awaits you, please take this to heart. The Bible says you will not inherit eternal life.

 

Please know that Jesus Christ gave his life up on that cross for your freedom from your slavery (addiction) to sin. He died to set you free so that you can now be his possession and so that you can now live for him and for his glory and praise. You just have to yield control of your life over to him.

 

[Read: Heb 13:4; 2 Pet 2:13-19; 1 Co 5:1-2; 1 Co 6:13-20; Eph 5:3; 1 Thess 4:3-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8]

 

The Great Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Francis Foster, 1915

Music by Samuel W. Beazley, 1915

 

How I love the great Redeemer

Who is doing so much for me;

With what joy I tell the story

Of the love that makes men free.

Till my earthly life is ended,

I will send songs above,

Then beside the crystal sea

More and more my soul shall be

Praising Jesus and His love.

 

He has purchased my redemption,

Rolled my burden of sin away,

And is walking on beside me,

Growing dearer day by day.

That is why I sing His praises,

That is why joy is mine,

That is why forevermore

On the everlasting shore

I shall sing of love divine.

 

Glory be to Him forever!

Endless praises to Christ the Lamb!

He has filled my life with sunshine,

He has made me what I am.

Oh, that everyone would know Him,

Oh, that all would adore!

Oh, that all would trust the love

Of the mighty Friend above

And be His forevermore.

 

He is everything to me, to me,

He is everything to me,

And everything shall always be;

I will never cease to raise

A song of gladness in His praise;

Here, and in the world above,

My soul shall sing of saving love;

Life and light and joy is He,

The precious Friend who died for me.

 

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

Caution: This link may contain ads

 

Whoever Does What is True

God-persuaded Faith

John 3:16 ESV

 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” KJB

 

This love that God has for the people of the world is divine love which prefers what God prefers, which has to do with God’s will and purpose for our lives, and with what is holy, pure, moral, godly, upright, and righteous. And he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

 

And repentance is like doing a U-turn in the middle of a road. You were going one direction, but now you turned around, and now you are going the opposite direction of what you were before. For, it has to do with us forsaking our lives of sin to follow Jesus Christ in obedience to his will.

 

So, this pure love of God, which gives preference (the choice of his will) to all that is holy and righteous, gave (as a gift) his ONLY begotten Son to us, i.e., his one-of-a-kind Son who was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of a woman, in order to free us from our bondage to sin and to free us to walk in his righteousness and holiness (Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17).

 

He gave us Jesus on that cross to die for our sins so that everyone believing (present tense, not past tense) in Him should not perish (die in their sins), but should have life eternal, which is new life in Christ Jesus our Lord to be lived to God and to his righteousness, for his praise and glory.

 

And “believing” is not some words we say or some acknowledgment we make of Jesus and what he did for us. It is not a one-time (past) event in our lives, either. For, we are saved (past), we are being saved (present), and we will be saved (future) when Jesus returns, provided we are truly in him by genuine faith with him and we endure with him to the end.

 

Believing is present tense, and it means to be persuaded, and in this case, by God. For we can’t even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father first draws us to Christ. And this faith is not of ourselves, but it is a gift of God, and Jesus Christ is both the founder and the perfecter of our faith (Jn 6:44; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2).

 

So, if our faith comes from God, and we can’t even believe in Jesus unless God the Father draws us to him, and if it is a gift of God, and not of ourselves, and if Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith, and if faith means to be persuaded of God, then that faith is going to align with God’s will and purpose for our lives, and it will submit to his will.

 

So, if we believe in Jesus Christ with this kind of faith, we are going to bow to him as Lord (Master), and we are going to leave our lives of sin behind us to follow him in obedience to his will for our lives. This is what it means to have faith, which must be continuous faith (1 Jn 2:3-6; Col 1:21-23).

 

So We Might be Saved

John 3:17-18 ESV

 

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

 

Okay, right off the bat, this is NOT saying that God will not condemn people or that Jesus never spoke words of condemnation when he lived on this earth. Jesus spoke often of the cost of being one of his disciples, and that if we did not take up our cross daily and follow (obey) him that we will die in our sins. We will not inherit eternal life (Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58, etc.).

 

So, what this is saying is that Jesus’ purpose in coming the first time to the earth was for the salvation of human lives. But when he returns, he will judge the people of the earth, and he will condemn all those who refused to submit to him as Lord and who denied him as Lord of their lives.

 

And, again, “believing” is present tense, and it is not some verbal acknowledgment of him or some intellectual assent to who he is and/or to what he did for us in dying on the cross for our sins. This believing in him means we are persuaded of him as to his holiness and of his will and purpose for our lives, and if persuaded, we will submit to that purpose.

 

Even though the time of judgment has not yet come, still for those who are believing in him with God-persuaded faith, which dies with Christ to sin and lives to Christ and to his righteousness, they are not condemned. But all who are not believing in him (present tense) are condemned already.

 

But that can change. If you are not believing in Jesus now, and thus you are not living in submission to his will for your life, repent now and obey him.

 

So We Might be Saved

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.”

 

And here we have further evidence of what it means to be believing in Jesus Christ with God-persuaded faith in him. Those who love him, and who are believing in him with genuine faith, have come into the light. And how are we described? As those who “DO” what is true. Faith is doing the will of God.

 

For, although we are not saved by our own good works, done in our own flesh, of our own will, not the will of God, it doesn’t mean our faith is absent of works, but they are the works of God which he planned in advance that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10; Php 2:12-13; Col 1:9-14; Jas 2:17).

 

For, those who love the darkness (sin), and so they continue living in their sin, and thus they will not come into the light, are not in the light. They are not believing in Jesus Christ. For, they will not give up their sins because they love them too much. Their works are evil.

 

So, this is the verdict. If we continue living in deliberate, habitual, and often premeditated sin against God, we are going to die in our sins no matter what we profess with our lips. For 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. So, sow to please the Spirit, not the flesh.

 

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

 

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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Standing on the Truth

Its Full Effect

James 1:2-4 ESV

 

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

 

So, your faith was challenged at some point, maybe many times, and so you prayed for wisdom, and God gave you that wisdom. And you followed that wisdom. And all seemed to be going well. But then your faith was brought into question again. And you were challenged again to give answer.

 

And I am not speaking here of the faith that is necessary for us to have salvation from our slavery to sin and new lives in Christ Jesus, which are to be lived to his righteousness. But I am speaking of the day-to-day kind of faith that it takes to endure particular circumstances and challenges.

 

It is that strength of character and confidence in the Lord in how he has led us in the past and is leading us now so that we don’t crack under pressure to back down from what we know is God’s truth just because we are being challenged again in those same areas.

 

I believe it is a good idea to keep a journal of those times, and of what the Lord has taught you so that when Satan attacks or when other humans challenge your faith, you can answer back with the same truth the Lord gave you before, for his truth has not changed.

 

Some of these challenges can come through people cherry picking Scriptures they like to make their point while they ignore other Scriptures on the same subject which present different aspects of the same whole.

 

For example, the Scriptures teach obeying the authorities, but they also give exceptions to that obedience, too, when those demanding loyalty and obedience to them are also asking that we disobey God, like in the case of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and the apostles.

 

There are people who will try to pressure and to shame you into blind obedience to any authority figure, and this is where you need to know that there are exceptions, and that they involve us disobeying human authority in order to obey the Lord. For, we never submit to what is sinful.

 

Ask in Faith Without Wavering

James 1:5-8 ESV

 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

 

Therefore, if you have prayed for wisdom, and God has given you that wisdom, and it is biblical wisdom and counsel, and not just some emotional decision you made in the flesh but then claimed it was from God, then you should stand on that wisdom and not waver back and forth in opinion.

 

I have seen people pray for wisdom, and God give them wisdom, but then I watched them go back and forth like on a teeter-totter vacillating between listening to the Lord and heeding his counsel, or continuing in the way they were already going, which wasn’t working.

 

Or they are like those who look in the mirror and walk away and forget what they look like, i.e., they ask God for wisdom, and he gives it to them, but then they walk away and completely forget what he had shown them. And so, they keep repeating the same errors of judgment.

 

Thus, there is not much point in us praying and asking God for wisdom if we have no intention of doing what he says, or if we habitually walk away and forget what we look like. We should believe him, that if we ask, that he will answer, and then when he answers, we need to do what he says.

 

For, if we don’t, then the Scriptures say we are double-minded, trying to go God’s way and our own way at the same time, and that will never work. That is kind of like trying to go left and go right at the same time. It is impossible. We have to choose the direction we want to go. We can’t have it both ways.

 

When I was a child, I used to play on a teeter-totter (seesaw). You sit on one end and another person sits on the other end, and one goes up and the other goes down, then the other goes up and the first one goes down. And it has become synonymous with wavering between opinions.

 

And if that is what describes our lives, then we will never receive anything from the Lord no matter how much we seek God’s counsel, because we are unstable in all our ways, flittering from this to that to this to that.

 

Remain Steadfast

James 1:9 ESV

 

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.”

 

One of Satan’s greatest weapons against us is to try to instill within us doubt so that we will teeter-totter back and forth between opinion and so that we won’t stand on anything. But we are of no use to God if this is where we are. He can’t use us because he can’t depend on us.

 

If we are going to be used of God in his service, we must be people of commitment to the Lord who are steadfast in faith and in practice, and who don’t keep going back and forth on what we believe.

 

Now I am not saying that those who are new in the faith are going to be solid on everything from the start. I am still learning. Years after I believed in Jesus, I had to unlearn some things I learned wrong. And this mainly came through reading the Bible book by book and verse by verse.

 

What I discovered is that some of what I had been taught was taught from Scriptures taken out of context, and once I realized the context, I realized that what I had learned was wrong, and so I had to correct my wrong thinking and believing to what was correct.

 

So, this is not saying we are going to be perfect in knowledge, but that once we have sought the Lord for understanding, and he has given us that understanding, that we shouldn’t keep going back and forth. We need to take a stand on the truth, and then remain steadfast to that truth.

 

So, when Satan throws his angry darts at you to try to get you to waver in faith and to doubt God then you need to come back at him with the Sword of the Spirit and the belt of truth. But make certain first that what you are believing is the truth and that you don’t quench the Holy Spirit, instead.

 

The Great Redeemer

 

Lyrics by Francis Foster, 1915

Music by Samuel W. Beazley, 1915

 

How I love the great Redeemer

Who is doing so much for me;

With what joy I tell the story

Of the love that makes men free.

Till my earthly life is ended,

I will send songs above,

Then beside the crystal sea

More and more my soul shall be

Praising Jesus and His love.

 

He has purchased my redemption,

Rolled my burden of sin away,

And is walking on beside me,

Growing dearer day by day.

That is why I sing His praises,

That is why joy is mine,

That is why forevermore

On the everlasting shore

I shall sing of love divine.

 

Glory be to Him forever!

Endless praises to Christ the Lamb!

He has filled my life with sunshine,

He has made me what I am.

Oh, that everyone would know Him,

Oh, that all would adore!

Oh, that all would trust the love

Of the mighty Friend above

And be His forevermore.

 

He is everything to me, to me,

He is everything to me,

And everything shall always be;

I will never cease to raise

A song of gladness in His praise;

Here, and in the world above,

My soul shall sing of saving love;

Life and light and joy is He,

The precious Friend who died for me.

 

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

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Don't Forget What You Look Like

Able to Save Your Souls

James 1:19-21 ESV

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

Jesus said that his sheep listen (adhere; pay attention) to him, he knows them, and they follow (obey) him. So, if we want to follow Jesus Christ with our lives, we have to listen to what he says, and then we have to do what he says to do (Jn 10:27).

People oftentimes will get angry over things because they didn’t really pay attention to what was being said. They weren’t good listeners, and they jumped to conclusions before they heard everything that was said. Or else they already had their minds made up.

Sometimes it is because they are holding on to sin in their lives and so they are feeling guilty, or they just don’t want to be reminded that what they are doing is wrong. So, when they hear a message that confronts them in their sins, they will get angry.

But as followers of Jesus Christ, we should have died with Christ to sin, and we should have been reborn of the Spirit of God to newness of life in him, and we should no longer be under the control of sin. And now we should be walking (in practice) according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

And daily we should, by the Spirit, be putting to death the misdeeds of the body, and we should be walking in holiness and righteousness, in submission to the Lordship of Christ over our lives, and in his power and strength. And we should be walking in obedience to the Word of God.

For, our salvation from sin depends on us dying with Christ to sin and us living to Christ, and to his righteousness, and us no longer living to please our flesh as a matter of habit (practice). For, if we make sin our practice, we will die in our sins. We won’t inherit eternal life with God.

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

Be Doers of the Word

James 1:22-25 ESV

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”

There is a difference between hearing and listening. We can hear the Word of God taught with our physical ears, and yet shut it right out at the same time. Listening, on the other hand, involves us paying close attention to and considering what is being said, and it has to do with us heeding (obeying, following) what is being said, too.

But we are not to be those who hear the Word taught but who do nothing to apply the word to our daily lives. We can have all kinds of book smarts, and have memorized Scriptures, and perhaps have even gone to Bible college, but if what we learned was not applied to our lives, it was useless.

Now, some things that we hear and learn are useless to begin with, and they shouldn’t be applied to our lives, because what is being taught is not the truth, for it is the adulterated, not the pure word of God. So, we need to make certain that what we are hearing is the truth, so we don’t end up obeying the lies, instead.

But if what we are hearing is the pure word of God, taught in its proper context, and tested against the teachings of the Word under the New Covenant to make certain it is truth, then we need to pay attention to what is being taught, and we need to do what it says, not ignore it.

So, what is the “perfect law”? It is the gospel of Jesus Christ – the gospel taught by Jesus Christ and by his New Testament apostles, in context, in entirety, not a half-truth diluted and adulterated gospel created in the minds of humans who wanted to excuse away their sinful practices.

For, the perfect law is also the law of liberty. And what is that? It has to do with our deliverance from our slavery to sin. And it has to do with our freedom to now walk according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh because we are now free from the control of sin over our lives.

So, we are to persevere in this perfect law, which is the law of liberty. And we are to not be hearers only of the Word of God, but we are to be those who do what it teaches, who put the word into practice in our daily lives. And if we do this, we will be blessed of God in our doing.

Religion that is Worthless

James 1:26-27 ESV

“If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

There is a lot of stuff out there called “religion,” or called “church,” or “faith,” which is worthless. For, it is man-made, and it does not conform to God’s moral standards or to his righteousness, but it makes up its own standards, or lack thereof, and it charts its own course, not of God.

The whole point of what is being said here is that our faith, if it is genuine, will produce results in keeping with repentance and righteousness and love for others. This is not saying that all of us must visit orphans and widows. God has gifted us and equipped us and called us all in different ways.

But it is saying that we should be unselfish people who care about others who are in need, and who do not turn away from those who are needy while we feed our own flesh and then claim how righteous we are. But God will put the people in our paths to whom he wants us to minister. We just have to listen and obey.

Basically, an orphan or a widow are considered people who can’t care for themselves, at least that was the case in this culture at this time. So, this is about helping the helpless whoever they are, as God places them in our paths, and he leads us in how to help them.

We are also to bridle our tongues so that we don’t speak evil, but good, and we are to keep ourselves unstained from the world. If we do not do this, but we are still living by the flesh, doing what the world does, and the words we are speaking (in practice) also are not honoring to God, but to our flesh, then our religion is worthless.

For, we are called to be God’s holy people, living lives separate from the world and unto God, being not hearers only of the Word, but being those who are doing what our Lord says. We are to be his sheep who listen to him and who follow him and who do what he says for the praise of his glory, and for his honor. For, he is our Shepherd who gave his life for us to be free.

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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Let God's Will be Done

Romans 12:9-13 ESV

 

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”

 

This word “love” means to prefer (to choose) what God prefers (his choices). And what he prefers (chooses) is what is holy, righteous, good, pure, moral, upright, godly, faithful, honest, and unadulterated. But we are not to fake it. We are not to be hypocritical. But we are to love sincerely.

 

For, when we love sincerely, that love comes from a pure heart, with the right motives, thinking of what is best for others. It is not selfish or self-motivated, thinking of how we can make others think that we are wonderful so that they will like us. Some people do this.

 

When we love sincerely with this love which prefers what God prefers, we will hate (abhor, despise) evil of all kinds, which includes immorality, lying, cheating, abusing, gossiping, deceiving, course joking and lewd comments, etc. We don’t abhor just the kinds of evil which make the news headlines.

 

And we are to hold fast (cling) to what is good, which is what is good (wholesome, moral, upright) in the eyes of God, not in the eyes of mankind. So, we shouldn’t be listening to or viewing what is immoral or wicked, or which gives glory to adultery, theft, hatred, and getting even with others.

 

In our walks of faith in Jesus Christ, we are to be surrendered to our Lord and committed to following him wherever he leads us. He is to be our life, and what we do should flow from our relationship with him and not from our flesh. We are to serve him always, not just when it is convenient for us.

 

And when we go through trials and tribulations which try our faith, we are to remain steadfast in our faith and hope and not waver due to our circumstances. Instead of letting the difficulties in this life to get us down, we are to be constant in prayer and in trusting the Lord with our lives.

 

And we are to continue in loving one another by what we do, and not just by what we say, although doing can be in speaking the truth to people, too, which is for their deliverance from sin and for their release from bondage so that they can walk in newness of life in Christ in holiness and righteousness.

 

Romans 12:14-16 ESV

 

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.”

 

As long as we are following Jesus Christ wholeheartedly with our lives, and we are doing and saying the kinds of things he did and said, and as long as we stand fast on the word of God and the gospel of our salvation, and we don’t waver, we will be hated, and we will be persecuted.

 

For our enemy Satan hates the truth. He hates righteousness and holiness. And he hates obedience to God/Jesus Christ. For, his goal is to deceive us into believing his lies so that we will follow him and his minions, instead. For, he wants us captive to him and to sin, not to Christ.

 

Thus, he is the one behind the cheap grace gospel, for it requires no repentance, no obedience to Christ, and no surrender of our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It leaves its adherents still in bondage to their sin and still headed to hell while promising them heaven when they die.

 

And since so many people today are believing in this cheap grace gospel, they will be opposed to you if you stand on the truth of the gospel. And you will be accused of being self-righteous, intolerant, unloving, hateful, legalistic, and of teaching works-based salvation.

 

But we are not to return “tit-for-tat.” We are to return hate with love. And we are to continue loving others with Christ’s love, even to those who do us wrong and who speak evil against us. But living in harmony with one another should never involve compromise of faith or morality.

 

Romans 12:17-21 ESV

 

“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ To the contrary, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

 

We are to forgive those who do us wrong, and we are not to try to get even or wish for them to have to pay for the wrong that they did. We should care about their lives, though, and we should pray for them to know the Lord and to be delivered from their bondage to sin and to walk in holiness.

 

If others treat us with hate, we are to treat them with love. If they do us harm, we are to do good to them in return. We are to care about their needs, and as the Lord leads, we are to help meet those needs, if we are able. But the point here is really that we do good to those who hate us.

 

And we are not to let evil or evil people get to us or affect us and how we act. But we are to resist all evil and cling to what is good. And we are to overcome evil by not letting it upset us or take us out, and by us not yielding to the evil itself so we don’t do what is evil.

 

Instead, we are to overcome evil with good, and this involves not just doing good to others who have treated us badly, but this involves resisting temptation to do evil and putting off all evil by replacing evil with what is good. So, if we are tempted to do what is wrong, we do good, instead.

 

In all of this, we are to be putting away all evil from our lives, and we are to be living for the Lord, and for his glory and praise, by doing what he desires and requires of us as we yield control of our lives over to the Lord. And in this way he will get all the glory for what he accomplishes in our lives.

 

Praise the Lord

 

Lyrics by John Kempthorne (1775-1838),

Music by Lowell Mason (1841)

 

Based on Psalm 148:1-2

 

Praise the Lord! ye heav'ns adore him;

Praise him angels, in the height;

Sun and moon, rejoice before him;

Praise him, all ye stars of light.

 

Praise the Lord! for he has spoken;

Worlds his mighty voice obeyed;

Laws which never shall be broken

For their guidance he has made.

 

Praise the Lord! for he is glorious;

Never shall his promise fail;

God has made his saints victorious;

Sin and death shall not prevail.

 

Praise the God of our salvation!

Hosts on high his pow'r proclaim;

Heav'n, and earth, and all creation,

Laud and magnify his name.

 

Worship, honor, glory, blessing,

Lord, we offer unto thee;

Young and old, thy praise expressing,

In glad homage bend the knee.

 

All the saints in heav'n adore thee,

We would bow before thy throne;

As thine angels serve before thee,

So on earth thy will be done.

 

Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah!

Amen, Amen, Amen.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu0LGJEcLRU

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