God's Plan for Our Lives

Background

The Israelites of Jeremiah’s time were sinning greatly against God. They were dishonest, liars, rebellious, idolatrous, adulterous, sexually immoral, senseless, stubborn, wicked, self-indulgent and treacherous people who did not honor God but who rejected the Lord and his commandments, and who gave themselves up to idols (other gods) to serve them, instead. And they were those who were listening to false teachers and accepting their lies.

So God sent his prophet Jeremiah to them to call them to repentance, to call them to return to the Lord and to put away their false gods, and then to be faithful to the Lord. They were to put away the deeds of the flesh, and to set themselves apart for the Lord. They were to wash their hearts from sin, that they may be saved, for their sinful thoughts were ever with them. They were skilled at making sin their practice, but not at walking in obedience to God.

Since they did not repent of their wickedness, but they continued in their sins, and not in obedience to the Lord, the Lord cast his judgment upon them, which he had warned them about, and he sent them into captivity in Babylon for a predetermined period of 70 years. But they had false prophets among them who were lying to them, and who were telling them that they would not have to be in captivity for 70 years, so this was God’s response:

“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares the Lord.

“For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord..” (Jeremiah 29:8-14 NASB1995).

Today

And this is the issue we are being faced with today. But a “dream” doesn’t have to be just something which takes place while we are sleeping, but it can be something we create in our own minds or others create in their own minds which is of their own way of thinking or philosophizing, or believing, or whatever. It can be something totally made up, invented in the minds of other people, which can include scheming and willful deceiving. And this is our parallel situation today, which we have happening in America.

We have such false teachers among us today who are leading God’s people, his church, to believe the lies and not the truth, to believe that God will not judge them, and that he will not discipline them for their acts of rebellion against him, and for their idolatry and sinful addictions, and for their lack of faithful obedience to his commands. And they are feeding the people these lies, and so many people are believing the lies, thinking that they can live however they want and that they will not be judged by God. Not true!

Our situation today is that we have so many different substitutes (replacements) now for the truth of the gospel which are permeating the church and the world, and the gospel. Rather than it being one solid “one way to heaven” definite truth, it is being taught more like a smorgasbord with a wide range of truth to choose from and to take into your minds and hearts. There seems to be no definite right or wrong, but that people can kind of choose their own interpretation of right and wrong, instead.

So, this is not at all unlike the situation in Jeremiah’s day where God had to bring judgment on his people in order to discipline them so that they would repent of their wicked deeds and now surrender their lives to the Lord in full submission to him as their only Lord. For there are so many false teachers and teachings and gospel messages now, and the masses appear to be being gravitated to the lies, and are being discouraged away from the truth of what the gospel teaches (in context). 

So, what I believe on this is that God is indeed bringing judgment on this nation, and particularly on the leaders of this nation, both politically and spiritually speaking. And I believe that is what we are seeing take place before our eyes right now. And the purpose, I believe, is the same purpose as what God had in Jeremiah’s day in judging the people of God, for the same reasons, because of their idolatry, sexual immorality, adultery, self-indulgence, and their refusal to make God their only Lord (Master).

And I believe, as well, that this judgment of God on my nation, at present, is for the same purpose as God’s judgment on his people of old, to bring all who will to genuine repentance, to deny self, to die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and to walk in obedience to the Lord and to his commands. For the plans God has for our welfare, future, and hope, is that we submit to his Lordship, that we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, that we now follow in his ways, that we obey his commands, and that we no longer walk in sin.

And then we have the hope of salvation from sin and eternal life with God, not as a means of doing “good deeds” to try to earn our own salvation, but as a heart and love response to God (Jesus is God) who died to deliver us out of our slavery to sin so that we will now serve him in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living. For this is his plan for us. This is for our welfare, for our good, that we no longer walk in sin but now in walks of obedience to our Lord in holy living. For then we have eternal life in God.

[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]

How Deep the Father’s Love for Us  

By Stuart Townend

How deep the Father's love for us 

How vast beyond all measure 

That He should give His only Son 

And make a wretch His treasure 

How great the pain of searing loss 

The Father turns His face away 

As wounds which mar the Chosen One 

Bring many sons to glory 

Behold the man upon the cross 

My sin upon His shoulder 

Ashamed I hear my mocking voice 

Call out among the scoffers 

It was my sin that held Him there 

Until it was accomplished 

His dying breath has brought me life 

I know that it is finished 

I will not boast in anything 

No gifts, no power, no wisdom 

But I will boast in Jesus Christ 

His death and resurrection 

Why should I gain from His reward 

I cannot give an answer 

But this I know with all my heart 

His wounds have paid my ransom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV2zMZ-nZ7k 

Caution: This link may contain ads

God’s Plan for Our Lives

An Original Work / February 24, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

The Wise Woman Builds Her House

“The wise woman builds her house,

But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.

He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord,

But he who is devious in his ways despises Him.

In the mouth of the foolish is a rod for his back,

But the lips of the wise will protect them.” (Proverbs 14:1-3 NASB1995)

When we believe in Jesus Christ with biblical faith, we die with Christ to our old lives of living in sin and for self, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin, but now as servants of the Lord Jesus, in walks of obedience to his commands, by his grace, in his power. So we are not to let sin reign any longer in our bodies to make us obey its desires, for if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if obedience is what we obey, it leads to righteousness, and its end is eternal life with Jesus Christ, our Lord (see Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26; Acts 26:18).

When the wise woman builds her house, from a spiritual point of view, she believes the teachings of the Scriptures, taught in their appropriate context, and she puts the Word of God into practice in her daily life, by the Spirit. Her life is surrendered to the Lord Jesus, to do his will, and she follows the Lord wherever he leads her in whatever he has called her to do, as his servant and messenger. Yet, this does not make her perfect in every way, for she is still clay in the hands of The Potter, being molded by God into the likeness of character of Jesus Christ, by God’s grace, in his power.

But she is a follower of Jesus Christ who is ready and willing to do God’s will and to fulfill his purpose for her life, under his guidance and direction, in his power. She is a student of the Scriptures who studies them in their appropriate context and who makes it her practice to test everything and everyone against the teachings of the Scriptures (in context) to make certain that she is believing and living the truth of God’s Word, and that she is not being deceived by the enemy of her souls who uses other human beings to do his bidding in spreading lies which are contrary to God’s Word.

She who teaches the Scriptures to others is careful and diligent to make certain that what she is teaching as truth is the truth, according to the Scriptures, and that she is teaching them in the correct context, in the same way in which Jesus taught them and that his New Testament apostles taught them. This is not to say that she never gets anything wrong, but that she is diligent in her pursuit of truth under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and as a serious student of the Scriptures, making sure, as much as possible, that what she is teaching others is the absolute truth and not the lies of Satan.

On the other hand, the person who is foolish goes more by her feelings, and she lets her emotions rule her heart and what she does and what she says instead of submitting to the will of God and building her house with spiritual wisdom, which comes from God. So she ends up tearing down the truth of the Scriptures to justify her own lifestyle, rather than to listen to the teachings of the Scriptures, and to follow them, instead. For she is being ruled by the flesh, and not by the Spirit, and according to her fleshly appetite, and not in accord with God’s Word. And God is not her LORD.

The encouragement for all of us here, whether we are male or female, is to make certain that our spiritual houses, our individual lives, are being built on the Lord and on the truth of the Scriptures, in their proper context, and as Jesus taught them, and as the New Testament apostles taught them (in full context). For Scriptures are being taught out of context much these days, and they are being interpreted in ways which are not in agreement with the context in which they were placed in the Scriptures. But how we live matters for eternity, because Jesus died so we’d die to sin and obey his commands.

[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]

Walking in The Light  

An Original Work / November 16, 2011

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Based off 1 John 1-2

When I lift up my voice, and

Sing praise unto God,

I will fellowship with my

Lord and Savior, King.

In Him there is no darkness.

He is in the light of truth.

If we walk in His light,

From sin He purifies. 

If we repent of our sins,

He’ll forgive us now,

When we humble ourselves, and

Before Jesus bow.

The man who says, “I know Him,”

But does not obey His truth,

There is no truth in him.

In darkness still he’s found.

Do not love the world of sin,

For it is hell bound.

If you follow the world, you’ll

Not in Christ be found.

The world and its desires 

Will not last; they’ll expire.

The one who does God’s will,

Receives eternal life.

See that what you have heard from

Christ remains in you.

Then, you’ll remain in Christ, and

In His Father, too.

This is what He promised us –

His eternal life with God.

So, continue in Him, and

You’ll receive a crown.

https://vimeo.com/114160122

The Wise Woman Builds Her House

An Original Work / February 23, 2025 

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Cast Your Cares on Jesus

Cast Your Cares on Jesus

Cast ye all your cares on HIM.

Don’t let your faith ever dim.

Don’t let Satan “get your goat.”

You can grab him by the throat.

Don’t let his lies take you out.

Don’t let him cause you to doubt.

Trust in God, His every Word,

Truth believe, which you have heard.

Trust in man we should not do.

Faith in God we should renew.

Words of man may not be true.

Test them always, through and through.

Much deception, lies do tell.

Spin their webs and cast their spells.

Teach the Scriptures, not in truth,

For their mission is uncouth.

Satan wants us to rebel,

Let him cast on us his spell,

For the truth he does not tell,

Wants all people in his hell.

Test what you hear, in God’s Word,

CONTEXT, CONTEXT, you have heard,

That is truth we need to know

So in truth our lives will grow.

Satan mixes truth with lies,

Twisting Scriptures is his prize,

Hopes that we’ll not realize,

That he travels in disguise.

So be students of The Word,

Do not listen to absurd.

Read the Scriptures, read them well,

In their context, your hearts dwell.

An Original Work / February 23, 2025  

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Is Our Salvation Conditional Upon Our Obedience?

“And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.’” (Luke 9:23-26 NASB1995)

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB1995)

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:11-14 NASB1995)

“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin…

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?...

“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:5-7,12-16,20-23 NASB1995)

[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]

Where I believe many people are “missing the boat” is when it comes to the meaning of salvation being by grace through faith alone. Yes, we are not saved by our own fleshly “good works” of our own doing, of our human nature. But if you read the above passages of Scripture it becomes quite clear that faith which is genuine results in the good works that God has for us to do, as his workmanship, and that our salvation and eternal life with God hinge on whether or not we do those good works, which include us dying with him to sin and us walking in obedience to his commands.

For, if we are going to come after Christ we must deny self, die daily to sin, and follow our Lord in obedience. And the grace of God is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives, while we wait for our Lord’s return. But if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to our Lord, we don’t have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God. And more than not, “struggling” with sin means regularly (as a pattern of behavior) deliberately choosing to commit the same sins over again, usually, but not always, in the area of sexual sin.

So this idea of “by grace through faith alone” is generally used in a sense to not teach the critical nature of death to sin and obedience to God as required of God for us to have genuine salvation from sin and eternal life with God. This is one of the reasons verse 10 of Ephesians 2 is rarely included with verses 8-9, which then gives a half-truth message which makes it then not true in entirety. For this is a key passage for those teaching that no works are required of us and that they don’t matter for eternity. But they do!

Biblical salvation is contingent on us obeying the Lord and us forsaking our sins. We don’t have assurance of salvation from sin if we are walking in disobedience to the Lord and in addictive sin. All throughout these Scriptures noted and quoted above, and many more, we are taught that genuine faith results in obedience to our Lord and the forsaking of our sin, but if sin is what we obey, and not obedience to God, in practice, we do not have the promise of salvation nor of eternal life with God. So obedience to our Lord is very much a condition for salvation (see noted and quoted verses above).

But this is not us doing “good deeds” to earn our salvation. This is walking in the salvation that our Lord provided, but which has conditions to be met by us for us to receive that salvation and that eternal life with God. These are not my words. Read the Scriptures. They say it loud and clear. If we profess faith in Jesus but sin is what we practice, and if obedience to God is not what we practice, we don’t know God, we are not in fellowship with God, but we are of the devil, and we will face the wrath of God, not his love and grace.

And read 1 John 1:9 in its full context, and study what that word “confess” means in the Greek. It means to align with and to agree with God, not just that we sinned, but regarding the result of that sin, too, if we do not repent and obey our Lord in life practice. “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Action words are all throughout these Scriptures. Action words are used to describe what it means to have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. Faith, which is biblical, = obedience. Disobedience = unbelief. The problem is that this is not being taught much at all, but most everyone is being fed the idea that how they live will not impact their salvation or their eternal life. And Scriptures are being taught out of context, and key Scriptures are being ignored and left out when they are in context. Yes, we will not be perfect, but if sin is our habit, and not obedience to God, then we are not promised salvation or eternal life with God. We are promised the opposite.

Is Our Salvation Conditional Upon Our Obedience?

An Original Work / February 23, 2025 / Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

A Truthful Witness Saves Lives

 

Walking in Uprightness

Proverbs 14 Select Verses NASB1995

2  He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord,

But he who is devious in his ways despises Him.

5  A trustworthy witness will not lie,

But a false witness utters lies.

8  The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way,

But the foolishness of fools is deceit.

9  Fools mock at sin,

But among the upright there is good will.

12 There is a way which seems right to a man,

But its end is the way of death.

22 Will they not go astray who devise evil?

But kindness and truth will be to those who devise good.

What we read here in Proverbs 14 describes for us what someone looks like who is a Christian, i.e. a true follower of Jesus Christ, and what someone looks like who is not a Christian, i.e. not a true follower of Christ, even if that person professes that he is a Christian who believes in Jesus Christ. For faith in Jesus Christ is not demonstrated by lip service only but by our actions, by how we live, by how we conduct our lives on a daily basis.

Now some non-Christians are fairly nice people who live moral lives and do good to others, and they are not nefarious in their actions towards others. But they still do not believe in Jesus, and so they are still dead in their sins, and so they do not have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For we are not saved from our sins on the basis of our own good works, of our own flesh, and of our own doing. We are saved by grace, through faith in Jesus.

But many professing Christians and non-Christians alike fit the description here of people who are nefarious in their actions toward others. They are people who are devious and manipulative, and can be charming. They are skilled at telling lies, deceitful in nature, and foolish in their behaviors. And so they mock at sin, i.e. they don’t take their sins seriously and will have many excuses for their addictive sin patterns if they are caught in their sin.

So, even though some of these people described above profess faith in Jesus Christ, and for many different reasons, they truly despise the Lord, which is evidenced by their sinful and addictive and immoral behaviors. And when this says that there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he doesn’t know right from wrong, but that he chooses the way of sin and not the way of godliness.

For there are many professing Christians who know the right way but they have chosen to listen to teachers who are altering the truth of the gospel, and who are teaching the Scriptures deliberately out of context for the whole purpose to deceive and to lead people to continue in their sin and to think that God is okay with that. So they adopt this altered gospel because it lets them continue in addictive sin, believing they are in a “safe” zone.

So, are all real Christians living in absolute sinless perfection? No, most likely not (see 1 John 2:1-2). But God does not require that we do so. Where God “draws the line in the sand” has to do with people on one side of the line who make sin their deliberate and habitual practice, and obedience to God and living righteously are not their practice (habit, life pattern), and on the other side are those whose practice is to obey God and to not live in sin.

So a true Christian is going to be someone who takes God and his word seriously and whose practice is to obey the Lord and his commands and to not make sin his practice, to not deliberately and habitually continue in sin and not in walks of holiness and righteousness. It all comes down to our life choices. Do we willfully ignore our Lord’s commands in order to do what we know is wrong? And then do we keep going back to that same wrong?

Or do we willfully listen to our Lord, and then do as he commands, because we love him, and because we want to obey him? The godly pursue righteousness and holy living and walks of obedience to our Lord, and they make it their practice to deny self and to die to sin daily and to do what pleases the Lord. Their lives are surrendered to the Lord to doing his will, and their desire is for the Lord to serve him with their lives, and not self.

Those who are truly following the Lord with their lives are truth tellers, too. They will not deliberately nor habitually lie to people. And they should be those who are spreading the truth of the gospel of our salvation to the world around them, because that is what God requires of all of us that we be his witnesses, and that we make disciples of Christ of people all over the world, and that we shine as lights for the truth so others will be drawn to the light.

For Jesus Christ taught that if anyone would come after him that he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and walk in obedience to our Lord, in his power, then we have salvation from sin and eternal life with God, provided we stay the course (Luke 9:23-26).

[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]

Only Hope

By Jonathan Foreman

There's a song that's inside

Of my soul..

Sing to me of the plans

That you have for me over again

I give you my destiny

I'm giving you all of me

I want your symphony

Singing in all that I am

At the top of my lungs

I'm giving it my all

So, I lay my head back down

And I lift my hands and pray

To be only yours I pray

To be only yours 

I know now you're my only hope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gnS7ZEbEqU

Caution: This link may contain ads

Walking in Uprightness

An Original Work / February 23, 2025

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

In the Safety for Which he Longs

“Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases to be,

For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.

They speak falsehood to one another;

With flattering lips and with a double heart they speak.

May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,

The tongue that speaks great things;

Who have said, ‘With our tongue we will prevail;

Our lips are our own; who is lord over us?’

‘Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy,

Now I will arise,’ says the Lord; ‘I will set him in the safety for which he longs.’” (Psalms 12:1-5 NASB1995)

This was a Psalm of David, so God’s words to David here are not necessarily God’s words to us, unless we have this promise from the Lord in the New Testament. But the New Testament does speak much on this subject of the godly and the ungodly, and of the wicked and the righteous, and of the faithful and the unfaithful, and of liars and truth tellers, and of evildoers who conquer, and of the afflicted who are persecuted by the evildoers.

Now I know that evil has existed ever since the angel Lucifer rebelled against God, because he wanted to be like God, i.e. he wanted to have the power and authority of God, even above God and his authority, so not to be like him in heart, mind, and character. And so God cast him out of his heaven, along with a third of the angels who also rebelled against God. This is my understanding based upon the following few Bible verses: 

[Isaiah 14:12-15; Luke 10:18; Revelation 9:1; Revelation 12:3-17]

And we have all been born into sin ever since the first man Adam sinned against God by disobeying God’s command to him and to his wife Eve. Now we are all born with sin natures, in the image of Adam, the first man God created, and the first man to sin against God. And we cannot be made righteous nor be approved by God unless we, by faith in Christ, die with him to sin and now walk with him in obedience to his commands in holy living.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 3:9-26; Romans 5:12-19; Romans 6:1-23; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22,42-49; Ephesians 2:8-10]

So, when we speak of evil people in this world today, who are godless, it isn’t as though this is a new thing. But the Scriptures do teach us that in these last days before the return of Christ that evil will increase, and I believe we are seeing that in our day and time. And I believe we are drawing much closer to this rule of the beast (of Revelation 13) who has been conquering nations and people and Christians, I believe for some time now.

For what I believe we are seeing today is more of an acceptance and a tolerance of evil, even within “the church” (or what is falsely called “church”). And the gospel is widely being diluted and altered to appease human flesh and to facilitate “Christians” continuing in deliberate and habitual sin, only now without conscience. For the goal is to attract the world to their gatherings, so they do not want to offend the world with the truth.

So, we have a whole lot of professers of faith in Jesus Christ whose lives have not drastically changed course, but who are still living in sin, still doing what their flesh dictates, and still deliberately and habitually sinning against the Lord while people are telling them not to feel guilty but to just “claim who you are in Christ.” But we are not “in Christ” unless we die with him to sin and we now walk by faith according to his commands in holy living.

But since we now live in a day and time when sin addiction is being coddled and tolerated and even approved, in some cases, even by “the church,” and the gospel is being diluted, in order to not teach death to sin and obedience to God as part of faith which saves, and when sinners are being encouraged to not feel guilty for their sin, it does appear that “the godly ceases to be,” and that “the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.”

Lies are easily tolerated today, because of this big push to say to people what makes them feel good, not necessarily what is for their good. So they flatter one another, and yes, with double hearts, because they are wanting the acceptance of other humans, and for other humans to like them, rather than to speak truth to the people that they need to hear, being willing to be hated and persecuted, instead. So Christianity is on a massive decline.

We may have a lot of people giving lip service to the Lord, but so many of them now are believing a diluted and altered gospel message which does not require of them death to sin and walks of obedience to the Lord. Or else they just make these optional. But God doesn’t make them optional. His word teaches that we must die to sin and walk in obedience to our Lord, and that if we do not, in practice, we will not inherit eternal life with God.

[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 so we have David’s prayer here that God would cut off all the flattering lips of those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” 

And God’s answer back to David was that he would arise, and he would set the godly, who are being afflicted by the evildoers, “in the safety for which he longs.” And God may promise any of us that, too, but the New Testament promises us much persecution, and that many of us will be martyred for our walks of faith. But then we will be with our Lord in the safety for which we long, which is being with our Lord for eternity, and no longer suffering.

What a Day That Will Be  

By Jim Hill

There is coming a day,

When no heart aches shall come,

No more clouds in the sky,

No more tears to dim the eye,

All is peace forever more,

On that happy golden shore,

What a day, glorious day that will be.

There'll be no sorrow there,

No more burdens to bear,

No more sickness, no pain,

No more parting over there;

And forever I will be,

With the One who died for me,

What a day, glorious day that will be.

What a day that will be,

When my Jesus I shall see,

And I look upon His face,

The One who saved me by His grace;

When He takes me by the hand,

And leads me through the Promised Land,

What a day, glorious day that will be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elxlLEp0FQ0   

Caution: This link may contain ads

In the Safety for Which he Longs

An Original Work / February 22, 2025

Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love