GOD DOESN'T TREAT US ACCORDING TO OUR HOLINESS.....

[joaniemarie]

God our Father now treats us according to His Son's holiness. When God looks at us, He sees Jesus righteousness. We are in Him and He is in us. "I in them... they in Me"

Just think of how this changes every thing we were ever taught humanly speaking. When we accepted this truth by grace through faith when we first got saved we were stunned! The joy of knowing the salvation of our souls is a FREE gift GIVEN by God through the sacrifice of His only Son Jesus changed everything. We didn't have to wonder anymore if we did enough for God. Jesus did it all for us!!!

My sins are forgiven my guilt is all gone.... SAAAAAAAAAVED I'M SAAAAVED I'M SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF THE CRUCIFIED ONE"

But then as we progress in our Christian lives we are presented with many truths the Bible teaches and some things we were not taught. Some things we learned were not 100% correct. So as some of us progressed we soon got bogged down by working to keep our salvation and or to keep God happy so we could keep our salvation or keep God pleased with us. We learned songs like..

Have I Done My Best For Jesus?
I wonder have I done my best for Jesus, Who died upon the cruel tree: To think of His great sacrifice at Calvary., I know my Lord expects the best from me...
How many are the lost that I have lifted? How many are the chained I've helped to free" I wonder have I done my best for Jesus, when He has done so much for me?.....

The hours I have wasted are so many....

The hours I've spent for Christ so few....

because of all my lack of love for Jesus,

I wonder if His heart is breaking too....

While these songs are meant to motivate., and maybe for some Christians they have. But for me they caused me to look at myself with all my weaknesses and failures and not Jesus for the ability to love and serve. Instead I focused on my lack of love and my abundant weaknesses and inabilities

not on Christ's ability and strength and victories. When we are looking to Jesus., He gives strength and power., looking to self brings defeat and failure.

Stuck going no where in faith. Just condemned and contained by yet another worldly version of God who gives according to how well I could give back to Him.

But in truth., faith is what pleases God in Christ. As a matter of fact., without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. He wants us to see Jesus as our Way through life the same as our Way through to eternal life. Jesus paved the way for us to go through life today while in this body. He left us with His Holy Spirit to show us how to have success in our walk today while still here on earth. How can we do our best for Jesus? By first accepting the love of God IN His Son Jesus and then knowing we are fully accepted in the Beloved and
By following His Holy Spirit who He left for us. Not by looking to ourselves.

We are no longer under circumstances but over them IN Him. He won the battle and we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. But how many of us are living a "victorious" life? Or have the JOY of the Lord? The JOY of the Lord is our strength. This is not a side note verse... this is a meaningful important verse. I've noticed many works oriented people on CC lately. They teach the opposite of confidence in Christ but more about putting confidence ourselves and in our approval rating with God. How many hoops can a believer jump through as he lives this earthly life before God puts up a score card higher than a 3?

 

[joaniemarie]

I want to say to them We have a 100% approval rating with our Father God now. Just like when the prodigal son came back to the Father., The Dad saw the son coming from far off and He hiked up His robes and came running to meet His dirty soiled disgusting son. That is how the Father loves us. We are not perfect in our selves but we are perfect in Jesus and that is how God sees us.

Some of us couldn't see a Holy God doing that kind of running down the road hiking up His robes. It would change the "Thee-ests" and "Thouests" concepts so instilled in us about a Holy God. Our opinions of a Holy God who sits on the throne on High looking down on His creation listening to only Old English prayers because that shows true reverence and respect. But Jesus changed us before our heavenly Father who looks upon us with love and grace. Then teaches us how to love Him and others that way.

 

[BenFTW]

That concept is in the artwork (below my post, the signature). You'll notice the person's reflection is Jesus and the Lord too has His own reflection in the mirror.

 

[Grace777x70]

Religion makes righteousness and holiness the end goal of Christianity but the reality is that the gospel of the grace of God in Christ has righteousness and holiness as the starting point for the true Christian life.

We are new creations in Him. He is our righteousness and our sanctification - we are joined as one spirit with the Lord forever.

The understanding of this union with the Lord entails the setting of our minds on things above and our union with the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

In reality “walking in the Spirit” is living on earth with the awareness that you are not from here anymore and you live in and from the realm from which you came. The heavenly realm.

As Jesus said, “You are no longer from below (Earth) but now you are from above (Heaven).” Born from above - with a new heart - created in righteousness and holiness. Eph. 4:24

This is how our mind can set itself on things above and how we can look at the unseen. This is how the new world within us by union with Jesus is experienced personally and manifested visibly for others to see. This is how we "put on Christ". This is how we can continually bask in God’s love and grace for us in all situations of life that come to us.

To be sure, a person who lives with the awareness that they are not from here anymore will make godly choices but those choices arise from a new insight and a new life deep within and not a mere mental choice to do what is right.

For we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God. Col. 3:3

We are to be "alive" to our true selves in Christ. As we learn to behold the glory/goodness of the Lord as in a mirror - the Holy Spirit transforms us to reflect outwardly in our behavior and life what has already happened in the new man in Christ.

We participate in this with Him for it is God who is at work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Phil. 2:13

This is the inheritance of the saints available now to be enjoyed because of the Door who is Jesus. This understanding is what “walking in the Spirit” is all about. This is the glad news of the Kingdom of God!

 

[joaniemarie]

That concept is in the artwork (below my post, the signature). You'll notice the person's reflection is Jesus and the Lord too has His own reflection in the mirror.

It is an extremely bold thing to do Ben when a person has not done it before. To actually believe that God sees us with the righteousness of Christ and wants us to look at ourselves that way too. But it is the only way we will be able get through when assaulted with human emotion and reason as us humans are used to living. We live by our own wits and our own worked for value.

At first., it can be hard to keep believing God's love has nothing to do with our worthiness. Especially when the reality of life here comes in it's usual familiarity. But that is why we are supposed to be being transformed by the renewing of our minds on a usual basis so we can begin to think differently than we always have. We can have it down one day but because it's a spiritual truth it is attacked by our old manner of living and thinking and snatched away unless we hold on by grace through faith.

I think that is why so many believers have not stepped over to the 100% full acceptance of themselves in Christ. The enemy is right there to steal the truth away. It does seem like a total impossibility to ever come to the knowledge of the truth for any one of us. But many believers have because Jesus left us His Holy Spirit. So faith comes and stayed because of the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts.

 

[Johnny_B]

Ephesians 1:4-6, 5:25-27 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved......25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."

He does it from before the foundation of the world to the regeneration of the foundation of the world. We are holy, blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, He presents us to Himself in splendor, not ours, His. Many people say that believing in election causes people to be unholy or sinful, that's not what the Scriptures say.

 

[joaniemarie]

Ephesians 1:4-6, 5:25-27 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved......25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish."

He does it from before the foundation of the world to the regeneration of the foundation of the world. We are holy, blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, He presents us to Himself in splendor, not ours, His. Many people say that believing in election causes people to be unholy or sinful, that's not what the Scriptures say.

I've never understood election and how it all works ., but still believe it is true because it's in the Bible and many of His ways are far beyond our finding out at least on this side of heaven. We may not even understand it later after we get to heaven but His ways are far more loving than our ways could ever be so we can trust Him to do all things well on our behalf and everyone else's.

I would say this election business falls under the category of a phrase one of the members here on CC says a lot... "we have come upon God in the act of being Himself"

We will be given the things we need to know., but many of the things we are asked to receive and believe from God are done by faith. That's how God has worked it out. But think of it., we humans get on air planes and we don't understand how the avionics work. How many of us know how this giant conglomeration of metal can fly through the air? Yet millions of people use airplanes every day.

It's sweet rest to receive by faith the love of God in Christ. Without that unshakable knowledge., all the promises for sure would not be possible for me to accept while still here on planet earth. Even though they were handed to me as an inheritance after I got saved. Lot's of Christians can easily say they are worms in need of a Savior. But how many believers have received that kind of love for their daily lives and receive His many promises while here today the same way they received salvation?

We Christians have missed out on many promises that Jesus died to give us because we still believe we are to work instead of rest in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. I'm coming to see that many of the reasons so many well known Christians are blessed as they are., not perfect yet blessed is because they are well aware they are not perfect., but they also know Jesus IS perfect and they were given His imputed righteous standing and goodness as a gift to use every day. So they go a head and use it and God blesses them even more for believing He loves them and has good not evil for them all the days of their lives.

And instead of trying to "burn out for Jesus" They rest in Jesus and are actually doing the work at hand with ease., and not with stress and sweat. While other Christians are working till they burn out and some are even dying early because they work so hard instead of resting in Christ. Much like a hamster on a wheel trying hard to be worthy but never able to make it or keep it when they thought they did make it.

 

[resurrection33]

God our Father now treats us according to His Son's holiness. When God looks at us, He sees Jesus righteousness. We are in Him and He is in us. "I in them... they in Me"

Just think of how this changes every thing we were ever taught humanly speaking. When we accepted this truth by grace through faith when we first got saved we were stunned! The joy of knowing the salvation of our souls is a FREE gift GIVEN by God through the sacrifice of His only Son Jesus changed everything. We didn't have to wonder anymore if we did enough for God. Jesus did it all for us!!!

My sins are forgiven my guilt is all gone.... SAAAAAAAAAVED I'M SAAAAVED I'M SAVED BY THE BLOOD OF THE CRUCIFIED ONE"

But then as we progress in our Christian lives we are presented with many truths the Bible teaches and some things we were not taught. Some things we learned were not 100% correct. So as some of us progressed we soon got bogged down by working to keep our salvation and or to keep God happy so we could keep our salvation or keep God pleased with us. We learned songs like..

Have I Done My Best For Jesus?
I wonder have I done my best for Jesus, Who died upon the cruel tree: To think of His great sacrifice at Calvary., I know my Lord expects the best from me...
How many are the lost that I have lifted? How many are the chained I've helped to free" I wonder have I done my best for Jesus, when He has done so much for me?.....

The hours I have wasted are so many....

The hours I've spent for Christ so few....

because of all my lack of love for Jesus,

I wonder if His heart is breaking too....

While these songs are meant to motivate., and maybe for some Christians they have. But for me they caused me to look at myself with all my weaknesses and failures and not Jesus for the ability to love and serve. Instead I focused on my lack of love and my abundant weaknesses and inabilities

not on Christ's ability and strength and victories. When we are looking to Jesus., He gives strength and power., looking to self brings defeat and failure.

Stuck going no where in faith. Just condemned and contained by yet another worldly version of God who gives according to how well I could give back to Him.

But in truth., faith is what pleases God in Christ. As a matter of fact., without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. He wants us to see Jesus as our Way through life the same as our Way through to eternal life. Jesus paved the way for us to go through life today while in this body. He left us with His Holy Spirit to show us how to have success in our walk today while still here on earth. How can we do our best for Jesus? By first accepting the love of God IN His Son Jesus and then knowing we are fully accepted in the Beloved and
By following His Holy Spirit who He left for us. Not by looking to ourselves.

We are no longer under circumstances but over them IN Him. He won the battle and we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. But how many of us are living a "victorious" life? Or have the JOY of the Lord? The JOY of the Lord is our strength. This is not a side note verse... this is a meaningful important verse. I've noticed many works oriented people on CC lately. They teach the opposite of confidence in Christ but more about putting confidence ourselves and in our approval rating with God. How many hoops can a believer jump through as he lives this earthly life before God puts up a score card higher than a 3?

When we live righteous lives, we encounter far less trouble than we otherwise would.

 

[Issachar92]

Where does it say that God only sees us as Jesus? Whats the point of the multiple warnings and exhortations to avoid evil and do good, if everyone looks like Jesus already?

 

[joaniemarie]

Where does it say that God only sees us as Jesus? Whats the point of the multiple warnings and exhortations to avoid evil and do good, if everyone looks like Jesus already?

Good question Issachar...,

2 Cor. 5:21 For He (God) make Him (Jesus Christ) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (Jesus Christ)

Righteousness is not about us doing the "list" of righteous things. We became "righteous" because of what Jesus did for us when we believed. Jesus gave us His righteousness and that gift put us in the place of righteousness when we received Jesus as our Savior. We became born again in Christ's righteousness. Then our old man born in sin and in Adam died. It's been called the great "exchange" Under Adam we were counted as sinners. In Christ we are counted as sons.

Romans 11:6 [SUP]6 [/SUP]But if it is by grace [God’s unmerited favor], it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace [it would not be a gift but a reward for works].

Either we are depending on our own righteousness or the righteousness only Jesus can give. In Jesus or in Adam?

Colossians 2:13

[SUP]13 [/SUP]When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (worldliness, manner of life), God made you alive together with Christ, having [freely] forgiven us all our sins, [SUP]14 [/SUP]having canceled out the [SUP][a][/SUP]certificate of debt consisting of [SUP][b][/SUP]legal demands [which were in force] against us and which were hostile to us. And this certificate He has set aside and completely removed by nailing it to the cross.

Gal.3:13
[SUP]13 [/SUP]Christ purchased our freedom and redeemed us from the curse of the Law and its condemnation by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs [crucified] on a tree (cross)”

[SUP]. Heb10:10

[/SUP]And in accordance with this will [of God] we [who believe in the message of salvation] have been sanctified [that is, set apart as holy for God and His purposes] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed) once for all.

Romans 4:6 [SUP]6 [/SUP]And in this same way David speaks of the blessing on the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

Romans 6:14
[SUP]14 [/SUP]For sin will no longer be a master over you, since you are not under Law [as slaves], but under [unmerited] grace [as recipients of God’s favor and mercy].


More to finish this in answer to your specific question of how God sees us in Christ. Am heading to work. later!

 

[Mailbyfaith]

Jesus said if you would be my disciple you must deny yourself take up your cross and follow Me. Yes we are saved by grace and God's unconditional loving gift to each and everyone who will receive him. Nonetheless, Jesus wants his bride to be spotless and blameless.
by the power of the Holy Spirit we can live a life without sin. If we do stumble and fall, Jesus said that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
The book of Revelation tells us that Christians are to overcome the devil by the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony and loving not our lives more than death.
That means applying the blood of Jesus Christ to our lives. Speaking the word of truth to keep the enemy away from us and protect us from all his fiery darts. Lastly, We must love Not our lives more than death. That means denying our flesh and the worldly things it wants. We are then to replace our fleshly desires with seeking the Holy Spirit and his will for our lives.
we walk in victory when Step-by-step we live a life worthy of the Great sacrifice our precious Savior made for us on the cross of Calvary.
The Holy Spirit gives us power to be victorious. We must pray without ceasing

 

[Sagart]

God the Father does not have the blood of Jesus in His eyes blinding Him to who we really are and the lives that we are living moment by moment, and day by day. He sees what Jesus did for us on the cross, and He see what we are doing with it. When He sees that we are misbehaving, He chastens us; when He see that we are struggling, He strengthens us; when he see that we are doing well, he blesses us and encourages us to continue to do well.

 

[Mailbyfaith]

I don't think we disagree. God is not blinded by anything. He sees our struggles but most of all He sees our hearts. He loves us so very much.
We have a responsibility to choose life every single day. When we don't choose life and stumble and fall he is there to forgive us and to help us live a victorious Christian life.
Years ago we sang a song "there is power in the blood." Wonderworking power in the blood of the lamb! Indeed there is! The blood of Jesus Christ protects us ,comforts us, heals us and all because of the choice Jesus made to shed his precious blood to pardon our sin.
Oh the power in the blood of Jesus Christ applied to the Christian life!
Praise his holy name !!

 

[joaniemarie]

I'm sorry to have not gotten back sooner. I'm in the process of moving. Many of those posts above are about what you can do for Jesus and in so your doing., God will be happy? Maybe it's not as overt as it seems to me but I read you believers as saying you must make sure you do for God so you are sacrificing and working and doing and being all you can be. That it's your job to make sure you do this every day.

And what are these words "God is not blinded by Jesus blood" Good heavens!!!! That just struck me. Because of Jesus God is ABLE to LOOK and SEE us with 100% eyes wide open with the payment paid in full stamped on us. His holy righteous pure eyes can see us now. His holy just and right standard has been fully met now so we can go before the Father as the bride in white "apparel" . We are IN the Beloved now because of Jesus.

How can anyone have or take anything from God without that mindset? How can anyone receive anything from Jesus unless they know He paved the way and made the way? If we don't see ourselves as righteous because of Jesus we can't go before God with a clear conscience.

Did you know that when Jesus talked to the disciples and said that whoever comes after Him must take up their cross and follow Him.. was not a condition for us? Did you know that was for those disciples before Jesus went to the cross and died and rose again and sent His Holy Spirit?

I know many believe that carrying a cross is a condition. But to rightly interpret this we have to see Jesus has taken our burdens and He has carried them all the way to the cross. When we go through this life, He is going first before us and we are following with our arms free of heavy crosses. It isn't about us dragging a huge cross as we follow. That is a horrible way to live the Christian life because you are seeing Jesus is a head and you are dragging your burdens along behind Him.

"Days are filled with sorrow care... nights are lowly and drear....Burdens are lifted at Calvary.... Jesus is very near". Our days are not to be filled with sorrow and care., and nights are not to be lonely or lowly and drear.... Because burdens ARE lifted at Calvary and Jesus is VERY near and here. Jesus is our Good Shepherd who goes before us the sheep.

And He promises to bring us beside the still waters and to the green pastures TODAY. When He sets a table before us in the presence of our enemies it's for us TODAY. Our enemies are the world, the flesh and the devil. And they will not be there in heaven.

He is setting the table now and wants us to "sup with Him" by faith. These burdens so many believers have needs to be dumped at the side of the road. But the mindset that so many Christians have is to hold on to the burdens for Jesus as if that is some kind of present to Him. NOOO. Why does the church teach this? We should be learning how to dump our burdens every day and follow Jesus instead. His "burden" is easy and light. Our crosses are hard and heavy and confusing.

If we are taught this as Christians to hold tight to these burdens and we refuse to let the proper teaching of grace through faith come into our hearts, God will not force us believers to let go of our old burdens of life along with our old mind sets. It is actually on our part a refusal to believe what Jesus did for us by actually promising He will take those burdens and rid us of them. That is the main reason so many of us are a mess in life.

Instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to teach our spirit man., many of us Christians try to have our flesh learn how to be spiritual. That never works! If we do that we will live lives of turmoil and dread and failure even though we were never meant to live that way anymore because Jesus made a way of escape for us.


Being "spiritual" can't happen by the flesh. It takes being shown how to grow in our spirit man. Only then will our flesh follow suit because we are dumping the old manner of living and instead walking in the Spirit where there is freedom and love, power and a sound mind.

 

[Mailbyfaith]

Only one comment to Joaniemarie's great comments. Jesus expects us to repent of our sin and lead a life pleasing to Him. Sin is not a burden to be given to Jesus. It is a snare that the enemy plans for us and we need to ask the Lords help to keep us from the temptation.
When I said that we have a responsibility to choose life every day I meant we need to take Jesus command to be holy seriously. It is NOT a suggestion. It is a choice on our part.
Jesus requires obedience and is more than happy to help us obey when we ask Him to empower us with His grace and self control.
With His help we CAN obey Him and be holy even as He is holy.
Hope this clarifies my last comment.

 

[joaniemarie]

Only one comment to Joaniemarie's great comments. Jesus expects us to repent of our sin and lead a life pleasing to Him. Sin is not a burden to be given to Jesus. It is a snare that the enemy plans for us and we need to ask the Lords help to keep us from the temptation.
When I said that we have a responsibility to choose life every day I meant we need to take Jesus command to be holy seriously. It is NOT a suggestion. It is a choice on our part.
Jesus requires obedience and is more than happy to help us obey when we ask Him to empower us with His grace and self control.
With His help we CAN obey Him and be holy even as He is holy.
Hope this clarifies my last comment.

Hello mailbyfaith., Very much agree with you that those are the goals 100%

It's the "how too" do those things and walk in them and think about them that I'm speaking about., wanting to discuss and do enjoy to discuss here on CC.

But also find the greatest opposition for here as well. Sort of the same opposition I had in my mind in the beginning of learning about His grace being sufficient in our weaknesses. In order to be on track towards the goal of the high calling of God I've discovered it's by grace through faith just as it was for when we first got saved.

I'm actually just learning about "rest" (only been about 5years) and so while reading the many posts on CC I've discovered how easy it is to fall back into old ways of thinking that working for God is the high calling instead of resting in Him. Frustrating the grace of God in fact.

It is natural to believe that first and fore most God wants us to work for Him. That our work for Him is what brings the glory and honor to Him from us. That our sacrificing and sweating work along with our bruised knees in prayer cause Him to be happy. I thought this way for years. And even fall back into that mind set if not careful.

Our hard work is not what brings the glory and honor to God in the way honoring the Son's hard work does. And in fact the doing that matters only comes when it's done in the power of the Holy Spirit and not the power of the will of the flesh. It's hard to see because the works of the flesh can look the same as the works of the Spirit when we are working Christians. Like being unselfish. We can give all we have but do it for the wrong reasons. Outwardly this looks the same to people and even ourselves because we are after all being unselfish.

There are lot's of good Christians in churches and in missionary journey's working tirelessly and doing the "work of the Lord." But many are doing this in their own power and believing that work will be honoring to God. And that is why God will say well done you good and faithful servant.

When actually., the one who does it by the Spirit will let the Holy Spirit show them how to walk in that same work and cause it to be fruitful. One Christian can do the job by the stress and sweat of his brow while the other can do it stress free and in a healthy sweat that gives more ability causing the Christian to be even healthier. It's health to the flesh and bones as well as the spirit.

 

[joaniemarie]

Just to clarify., this working/walking in the spirit is about leaning on the grace of God instead of the hard work we sacrifice to do with all our might. It actually sounds very lazy not to serve God that way. But "burning out" for Jesus is what we were taught and it didn't work. What happened is we were totally burned out and some died early due to the stress and emotional train wrecks it caused in people's lives.

When leaning on anything but the grace of God in Christ., we will be human train wrecks for trying to do spiritual things by our human abilities.

 

[Mailbyfaith]

I totally agree with Joaniemarie's last post.
I have been reading a lot of Smith Wigglesworth's writings lately which confirm much of what she talked about in serving the Lord by The power of His grace.
The "how to" can be seen in the book of Acts. Jesus friends totally and completely depended on the power of the Holy spirit to accomplish the purposes of the Lord.
Smith Wigglesworth stresses the great importance of prayer and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us so that we don't waste time on fleshly "good looking" "good works".
In my own walk, I find that the more obedient I am to what I know in my spirit the Lord wants me to do or NOT do causes me to hear his voice more clearly.
Best of all, I find a sense of peace and real spiritual joy when I am seeking his purpose in my life.
Once again I go back to The book of Revelation where the Lord tells us that we overcome the devil by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony and loving not our lives more than death.

The "how to" is :

Verbally applying the blood of Jesus Christ by faith to the temptations the enemy uses to try to ensnare me. Also applying the blood of Jesus over me for protection and blessing in things that are beyond my control.

The word of my testimony is in SPEAKING the particular scriptures that apply over my daily walk. ( this takes searching the scriptures to find those that apply to my spiritual needs)
In the fact this is taking the sword of God's Word to do battle with the enemy. Ephesians 6

Loving not my life more than death entails saying NO to the things that my flesh wants to say think or do that do not please Jesus.

The last "how to" is the most difficult.
It demands a choice moment by moment of every day. I cannot make those choices without the grace of Jesus who loves me and wants to help me say yes to Him and no to the world and what my flesh wants.

In doing these things each day ,
I walk by faith and walk in the grace of what our Lord wants for my life.
Daily he shows me what he wants me to DO.
When I am successful at this I do not find myself wasting time doing things that do not please Jesus.
It is ONLY by his grace and favor that I can do this. Jesus said we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

 

[willybob]

it amazes me how much some seem to love their sin more than God, even to the point of preaching false doctrines so others may be like them, the blind leading the blind I would suppose.....

 

[willybob]

it amazes me how much some seem to love their sin more than God, even to the point of preaching false doctrines so others may be like them, the blind leading the blind I would suppose.....

They have made God into a Bozo the clown character who doesn't see the sins of sinners? What could be farther from the truth? Scripture says the eyes of the Lord go throughout the whole earth convicting men of their sin 24/7....It is absolutely amazing the false doctrines man will invent to hold hands with Satan/sin and still inherit the kingdom. Truly mind boggling indeed.