The Way

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Nov 24, 2019
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#1
Thank God for the renewing by the Holy Spirit and for a new way of life today - in the Holy Spirit.

And thank God for His covenant of love. As Daniel said, "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands." Jesus, our Lord, stated it thus: "Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and manifest Myself to him."

Jesus Christ is the source of eternal salvation of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, as it is written. So thank God for the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, because without this, the sanctified life He requires would be impossible. The Kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Yes, we are told to live in the Holy Spirit.

When Jude commands us to "keep ourselves in the love of God", thank God, we know the Way! Our bodies are living sacrifices today.

"Yet you still have a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes, and they shall walk with Me in white, because they are worthy and deserving. Thus shall he who conquers (is victorious) be clad in white garments, and I will not erase or blot out his name from the Book of Life; I will acknowledge him [as Mine] and I will confess his name openly before My Father and before His angels." Rev.3:4,5 Amp.

Let us heed God and make every effort to make our calling and election sure today. Let's keep ourselves in the love of God. I wish for no one's name to be blotted out of the Book of Life. Jesus Christ is Savior and He is also Lord. His disciples abide in His Word and do not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But their delight is in the Word of the Lord and on His Word they meditate day and night.

Consequently, they are like trees planted by streams of water, yielding their fruit in season, whose leaves do not wither. Whatever they do prospers. Amen. So be it Lord.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#2
Thank God for the renewing by the Holy Spirit and for a new way of life today - in the Holy Spirit.

And thank God for His covenant of love. As Daniel said, "O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands." Jesus, our Lord, stated it thus: "Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and manifest Myself to him."

Jesus Christ is the source of eternal salvation of eternal salvation for all who obey Him, as it is written. So thank God for the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, because without this, the sanctified life He requires would be impossible. The Kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Yes, we are told to live in the Holy Spirit.

When Jude commands us to "keep ourselves in the love of God", thank God, we know the Way! Our bodies are living sacrifices today.

"Yet you still have a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes, and they shall walk with Me in white, because they are worthy and deserving. Thus shall he who conquers (is victorious) be clad in white garments, and I will not erase or blot out his name from the Book of Life; I will acknowledge him [as Mine] and I will confess his name openly before My Father and before His angels." Rev.3:4,5 Amp.

Let us heed God and make every effort to make our calling and election sure today. Let's keep ourselves in the love of God. I wish for no one's name to be blotted out of the Book of Life. Jesus Christ is Savior and He is also Lord. His disciples abide in His Word and do not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But their delight is in the Word of the Lord and on His Word they meditate day and night.

Consequently, they are like trees planted by streams of water, yielding their fruit in season, whose leaves do not wither. Whatever they do prospers. Amen. So be it Lord.
Just had a great time of seeking the Lord with my family. My wife and I, along with our 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter spend time before the day gets going in praise, in the Word and in prayer. We began it before the children came and it's the culture of our home. We are led to do it again in the evenings. It was my way of life before I was married. It's just one of the many evidences of the grace of God in my life. It's not an external set of rules but it's something He writes on our hearts - to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. He has always faithfully added everything unto us that the pagans run after.

We are Heaven's ambassadors here in this foreign land which Adam handed over so long ago. But the Kingdom of God will come and His will will be done on Earth just as it is in Heaven. I'm grateful for the Kingdom of God today. It's not a set of rules. It is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; yet the Kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. I'm grateful for the government of Jesus Christ over and in my life today. To have repented, been baptized in water, baptized with the Holy Spirit and to have Him within me today to lead me and for me to listen to His voice. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#3
Just had a great time of seeking the Lord with my family. My wife and I, along with our 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter spend time before the day gets going in praise, in the Word and in prayer. We began it before the children came and it's the culture of our home. We are led to do it again in the evenings. It was my way of life before I was married. It's just one of the many evidences of the grace of God in my life. It's not an external set of rules but it's something He writes on our hearts - to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. He has always faithfully added everything unto us that the pagans run after.

We are Heaven's ambassadors here in this foreign land which Adam handed over so long ago. But the Kingdom of God will come and His will will be done on Earth just as it is in Heaven. I'm grateful for the Kingdom of God today. It's not a set of rules. It is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; yet the Kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. I'm grateful for the government of Jesus Christ over and in my life today. To have repented, been baptized in water, baptized with the Holy Spirit and to have Him within me today to lead me and for me to listen to His voice. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.
EDITED:
Just had a great time of seeking the Lord with my family. My wife and I, along with our 8 year old son and 5 year old daughter spend time before the day gets going in praise, in the Word and in prayer. It's a practice we had before the children came and it's a part of the culture of our home. We are normally led to do it again in the evenings. It was my way of life before I was married. It's just one of the many evidences of the grace of God in my life. It's not an external set of rules but it's something He writes on our hearts - to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness. He has always faithfully added everything unto us that the world runs after.

All of us who have been born of God are to be Heaven's ambassadors here in this foreign land which Adam handed over so long ago. But the Kingdom of God will come and His will will be done on Earth just as it is in Heaven. I'm grateful for the Kingdom of God today. It's not a set of rules. It is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; yes, the Kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. I'm grateful for the government of Jesus Christ over and in my life today. To have repented, been baptized in water, baptized with the Holy Spirit and to have Him within me today to lead me and for me to listen to His voice is marvelous. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#4
This morning, before we come together as a family to seek the Lord, the Scripture working within me is Jesus' statement, "According to your faith will it be done to you." He stated it to the 2 blind men, as recorded in Mt. 9:29. That's not always a positive statement to us. We see in Mk. 6:5,6 when Jesus came to His hometown that, "He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith."

In my life, I have seen the Lord's standards for us for 23 years as I have been studying, reading, listening to His Word and fellowshipping with Him through it. I know what He requires. My failure to live that life, to whatever degree - I have seen its effects. I know His pronouncements of judgement, and to an extent, I know Him. As I see failures to hold the Master's hand and be led by Him, I see Him limited as He was in His hometown, in my life.

I've seen the possibilities of a man fully surrendered to God. And, yes, He's done glorious things in my life - innumerable. A life on eagle's wings, as it were, is where I am meant to go. The faith to "walk as Jesus did." Anyone who believes in Him will do what He was doing and even greater things than those. I've been converted and become like a little child; I know He means exactly what He says. That with Him all things are possible, and all things are possible with Him who believes. And God knows the world needs to see it.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#5
This morning, before we come together as a family to seek the Lord, the Scripture working within me is Jesus' statement, "According to your faith will it be done to you." He stated it to the 2 blind men, as recorded in Mt. 9:29. That's not always a positive statement to us. We see in Mk. 6:5,6 when Jesus came to His hometown that, "He could not do any miracles there, except lay His hands on a few sick people and heal them. And He was amazed at their lack of faith."

In my life, I have seen the Lord's standards for us for 23 years as I have been studying, reading, listening to His Word and fellowshipping with Him through it. I know what He requires. My failure to live that life, to whatever degree - I have seen its effects. I know His pronouncements of judgement, and to an extent, I know Him. As I see failures to hold the Master's hand and be led by Him, I see Him limited as He was in His hometown, in my life.

I've seen the possibilities of a man fully surrendered to God. And, yes, He's done glorious things in my life - innumerable. A life on eagle's wings, as it were, is where I am meant to go. The faith to "walk as Jesus did." Anyone who believes in Him will do what He was doing and even greater things than those. I've been converted and become like a little child; I know He means exactly what He says. That with Him all things are possible, and all things are possible with Him who believes. And God knows the world needs to see it.
[I posted this earlier today on "Share your Godly marriage success testimony" in Testimonies:]
My wife and I were both raised in church and met there when I was 14 and she was 16. We dated when I was a freshman in college, then went our separate ways. She was twice divorced, no children and was very much a "modern woman", short hair, loved dogs and was never going to be submissive to a man. She was in debt and had no peace whatsoever.

Due to my career path, I moved back home after college and stayed there until the age of 30. God moved mightily in my life and my twenties were spent getting to know Him, His Word and learning to live with Him as my Head. Through Classmates.com, I got back in touch with her, we began dating. My career had begun to take off and I moved in with her. According to the Bible, we were married. We have been together ever since.

I got her out of debt and began teaching her about the Kingdom of God and the Good News of it, which she accepted. We had both left the Christian church long before. She repented and was baptized and the Lord began to show her many things that changed her life. We live according to the Scriptures and as the Holy Spirit leads with no reference to modern religion since it has strayed so far from the Word of God.

The Lord has blessed us with 2 beautiful children and the grace of God is visible in their lives. We seek God corporately in the home and my wife works with me in my career so we are home each day. The children are in school and at the top of their classes. We live in line, by the grace of God, with this chart we have written in our dining room; it is a chart of the "Descending Chain of Authority of the Kingdom of God." Beginning with God's throne, it goes from the Father, to Jesus Christ, to the Holy Spirit, to the father, to the mother, to the children, to our dog. And we strive to keep that line in tact and unbroken in our home and the result is peace.

So our family is countercultural in this 21st century in this country but the grace of God is on us. I'm the head of my wife just as Jesus is the Head of His true church. I love her as He loves His bride and we are in a covenant together and all that both of us has belongs to the other. We don't argue, we just have peace. Jesus calls the shots for us. We have harmony.

We have had to reject most everything people have told us about how things would be when we got married and we've just had to stand on the Bible. I am a picture of Jesus Christ and she is a picture of the true Church. The union of the 2 produces fruit and the Kingdom of God increases. We reaffirm the exchange of the Cross and the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ each morning as we eat His flesh and drink His blood. I confess what He has done for us and He is faithful to all He has said. Acts 2:38 is written above our front door because of what it says in Deuteronomy 6 and because God's Spirit led us to put it their.

We are a peculiar people - ambassadors of a foreign land, our home country - Heaven. Glory to God.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#6
From Smith Wigglesworth this morning: “Pure love to Jesus is death to self on all lines, body, soul and spirit.”

Amen. He has promised to love those who love Him.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#7
The Three Legs of the Stool
In this life with Him, He has taught me 3 things through His Word, by His Spirit, which He desires coming from us at all times: We are to pray without ceasing, we are to extol Him at all times - "His praises will always be upon my lips", and we are to meditate on His Word day and night; Psalm 119 should be our attitude toward His Word. At one point the psalmist says that he pants for God's Word!

As I teach my family, my desire is to be able to make beautiful music, as it were, with the Scriptures much in the same way a classically trained, highly proficient violinist makes with a violin. What I mean by that is that the Lord prompts a Scripture within us, and that is like one string beneath our fingers. Then, the Lord gives another which harmonizes beautifully with the first. And then another. And before long, a glorious tune that our spirit's rise to begins to flow and we glorify God.

Jesus stated that whoever believes in Him from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. This He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to the time He said this, the Spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. Looking back to the "3 legs", it is not humanly possible to do those things through our days and nights. But, with God all things are possible, and if we believe that our God desires, even requires these things, we begin to look at another command in the Scriptures as not being extra credit: "Be filled with the Holy Spirit." It is not a luxury nor is it something from a bygone era.

There is always an outflow for the one filled with the Spirit and it is through his mouth. To "lay my finger across another string", we see the beautiful Song of Songs coming in here, where the beauty of the Bride of Christ is exhibited and the passionate love they have for one another is on display. In chapter 4 verse 12 we see Him testifying of her, "You are a garden locked up, My sister, My bride; you are a spring enclosed, a sealed fountain." ("garden" in Hebrew is "sword" showing that we are to be filled with His Word; that each of us is to be as it were, a "dwelling place of the Testimony". And God's Word cannot truly be separated from His Spirit.) In verse 15 the Beloved states, "You are a garden fountain, a well of flowing water streaming down from Lebanon."

In all 4 Gospels, John the Baptist states why Jesus came: To baptize us with the Holy Spirit. [See Mt.3:11, Mk.1:8, Lk.3:16 & Jn.1:33.] Don't let the error of religion past keep you from experiencing why Jesus came. As it states in Thessalonians, "He died for us, so that whether awake or asleep, we would live together with Him." The Father and the Son are in Heaven right now, but we are to fellowship with them now. How? The Holy Spirit is on Earth. If you need to be filled, seek Him. He has testified that He will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. Be born of water and the Spirit and may the rivers of living waters come to flow from within us.

"Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, it shall become in Him a well of water, gushing up to eternal life." His water is His Word. Remember I said the Word and Spirit of God cannot be separated? Listen to His Word. Study it. Read it. Get it inside. Meditate on it. The Word "meditate", such as we see in Psalm 1, in the Hebrew is primarily an utterance. It means to murmur, to ponder, imagine, meditate, study, speak, talk, utter, mutter, roar.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#8
Rivers of Living Water

"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." Jn.7:38,39

"The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit." Jn.1:33

Having believed and been regenerated, born of water and the Spirit, made righteous and therefore doing right (1 John3:4-10) we live by faith, by the Spirit. "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Gal.5:25 Jesus Christ is Head over all things for His true church. All things. Being His disciples, we deny ourselves today. Our lives are not about what we want, think or feel. We have laid them down. We are Kingdom citizens and the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit.

We heed the Holy Spirit's warning: "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion." Hb.3:15. Everything that happened to Israel under the Old Covenant is a warning to us under the New, 1Cor.10. As Jesus' sheep, we hear His voice. Abiding in Him, we walk as He did. He did nothing on His own initiative.

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. Hearken diligently unto His voice. Choose life today, not death; blessing, not cursing. All Scripture is God breathed and useful to us today.

Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen. Is the living water flowing from your innermost being today?
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#9
Demolishing Strongholds

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:4,5

There are powerful strongholds set up throughout and over organized religion. I often state that Jesus did not come to start Christianity. Many users on this site are under these powerful spiritual forces. I came against some of them today, responding to an OP of a thread, as follows......

Most sentences I write contain Scripture. Genesis-Revelation. The Gospel of the Kingdom. The one Jesus preached. The one through the lens of which He spoke to the 7 churches. Apparently, He would never talk to you like that. Zero chance you would ever be vomited out of His mouth due to the spider's web you clothe yourself with. Unlike Ephesus, you could never have your lampstand removed! You have already overcome! And so God's Word to you falls on deaf ears, deaf like the cobra in Ps.58. No matter how skillfully we may preach to you, you will not heed.

Your sweet Jesus would never cast you on a bed of suffering, would He? Nor kill Ananias and Sapphira. Continuing through the Revelation churches, He doesn't say to you He knows your deeds and has not found them complete. Perhaps, unlike the few in Sardis, you have soiled your clothes so that you will not walk with Him in white; Perhaps you, too, are unworthy. (O, but this can't apply to you!) You don't have to obey His command to Philadelphia, "Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown." Impossible in your fantasy!

You, in the majority, you are rich! You have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But He is standing at the door and knocking, still.

There is no fear of God before your eyes. You have taken away the key to knowledge. The Bible you use has more carve-outs than a piece of legislation moved from the House to the Senate. "Well, James was written to the Diaspora, so that's really not to us," "Jesus was talking mainly to the Pharisees, not so much to us," "Paul was talking to the Corinthians but the manifestations of the Spirit are not for us," "Well, the Old Covenant was to the Jews, so..", "The olive tree in Romans 11, that means something else." "Acts isn't for doctrine."

"If anyone takes away from this Book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this Book." Another warning false doctrine allows you to ignore. Can't happen to you! So you go on saying what doesn't apply, taking away from the Book. Foolishness.

Disciples of Jesus Christ open the Bible and the Holy Spirit applies it to today, such as what David said to Saul, "Out of the wicked comes wickedness." Yes. Good, down to earth definition. That's why Jesus said we couldn't go on in sin. You go on in them and pretend you are righteous contrary to what God says. And your incessant name calling belies your uncircumcised heart, when the covenant is circumcision, now, of the heart. Go check a Bible, don't check religion or with humans.

Everything Jesus taught is about what we do. Faith in Him brings about a life lived righteously - His righteousness lived out. We are buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would live a new life. A life lived, not according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit. Humanly impossible. Possible with God. It's His Word. Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we would follow in His steps: He committed no sins neither was deceit found in His mouth. And He was meek.

You think because 1 line is written in Hebrews that you are therefore holy. That would be hilarious if it weren't tragic. 82 verses in that one book alone are warnings to Spirit baptized believers... today. Stop hardening your heart through falsehood.

Between the 2 of us today, why is it only I that cannot lean on my own understanding and direct my own footsteps? (You know these are Scriptures, right?) Why do I have to wait upon Him all the day, but you get to continue holding on to your life? And why, when I speak of the Kingdom of God like this, in God's own Words, is it alien to you? Ah, a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all.

Unlike those who belong to Christ, you don't have to crucify the sinful nature, do you? Surely God will crush the heads of His enemies, the hairy crowns of those who go on in their sins. That's why we had to have our sins taken away, part of the meaning of which is that ungodliness gets removed from within us. The new life we come in to is the Sabbath-rest for the people of God. No longer 1 day out of 7, we have ceased from our own works as God did from His. Now, the Holy Spirit is to call the shots in our life and we have to diligently hearken unto the voice of the Lord our God because we live on every Word that proceeds out of His mouth. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control grow.

Jesus went to Lazarus when the Father said to go. Being under authority like that, as the centurion had said, is why He had the authority to raise Lazarus. The Christian church in this country, and most others, doesn't have the power to blow the fuzz off a peach because this Gospel of the Kingdom is not the one they have heard or accepted. And so the glory departed, again. (That's in Ezekiel.) A Christian publication stated long ago that the greatest tragedy in a person's life is to have lost the presence of God and never even noticed. Corporately, that's what occurred. Elvis left the building. The world beholds the church standing there naked (Laodicea) claiming to be clothed when Jesus said that anyone who had faith in Him would do what He was doing (speaking directly of His miracles.) You all claim you have faith in Him. But you can't do anything. Nevertheless, these signs follow them that believe. Rebuild Jesus' Church. Yeah, that's exactly what needs to happen and I won't go among these ruins pretending, acting like the building is fine. That's the definition of a hypocrite - an actor.

Isaiah 61:4 and following will occur. These ancient ruins will be rebuilt. Scripture cannot be broken.

I could continue to flow through the Scriptures because of the annointing but that's enough for now. Hopefully it's not pearls before the swine again because anyone who speaks in opposition or in hostility to, or unfavorable about the Spirit and what He says will not be forgiven, just like we won't be forgiven if we don't forgive others. Nevertheless, I continue to enjoy the Lord Jesus' blessing which comes from several on this site who reject my name as evil because of the Son of Man. So, thank you. Sincerely, it has
been a blessing.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#10
Resurrection Life
I have to share with you something which occurred to me yesterday. Generally, I do 15 minutes in the sauna each day and it's about 200 degrees. Yesterday, it was 218. Before I sauna, I lift weights for 50 minutes or so. While I lift, I listen to the Bible and to help keep me focused I take my old Ryrie Study Bible from 1995 which I keep with my water on a ledge. When I get a drink, I find the spot I'm listening to. So, I'm a little peculiar in that way.

There is an older gentleman, a retired truck driver, that I've talked to some over the past couple of years whose granddaughter died 2 months ago. He told me in the sauna a few weeks ago. I gave him my condolences but I didn't have the liberty to ask him more about it at the time. Yesterday, after 15 minutes, he came in to the sauna and I was supposed to ask him about her. I didn't hesitate, though my body wanted out of that small, hot box.

Well, he opened up wide. Told me the whole story. She was 13 and had a very curable cancer but a condition on top of it that was fatal. She was in and out of UVA hospital and in the final months wanted to live with this gentleman and his ex-wife (a little odd, I know.) She was a "church girl", to use his words and the staff at the hospital was amazed at her faith as she would go through treatments. She passed, as I said, and at her celebration of life service there were 800 attendees with standing room only. Her faith had touched many people and several lives were changed by her faith and the grace of God so evident in her life. Among the attendees were 8 doctors and 13 nurses.

He related how hard her mother is taking this and how she is struggling and how it is not fair in the least that a parent should ever have their child pass before them. Then he told me of being in her hospital room as she died. At this point, he looked me dead in the eye and said, "I would not have believed this unless I had seen it with my own eyes," and he related to me that moments before she died, her body changed. All the inflammation, discoloration and all the visible effects of diseases that had wracked the young body went away and then a smile came across her face and her body died.

Well, the Holy Spirit in me reacted like unborn John the Baptist at the entrance of the mother of his Lord in to the house of Elizabeth! I related how I've heard this hospital scene he described repeated and how she was seeing Jesus for the first time and how it was because another mother had to loose her child, the fruit of which he had seen with his own eyes. If Mary had not lost her child, he would have truly lost his granddaughter and he had seen the evidence with his own eyes that she was not really dead. She is with her Lord. And he had seen that Jesus isn't dead either, for if he was, there would have been no change in that little girl's body. Nor would lives have been changed through her struggle, nor would she have had the faith she did.

I shared with him about a mother and a father who lost their precious girl earlier this year. A precious life who had a similar, very powerful testimony, and how lives had been changed. I shared with him several evidences many of us experienced this year that she is still alive too. Powerful evidences. And how, as her body was expiring, she too had seen Jesus, sat straight up, put her arms out and smiled. Then her body fell back dead, but she was alive and hurting no more. Quite the opposite! He confessed he believed all this was true. I also told him of others who have physically expired in the same sort of fashion and how some family members in the room, after witnessing such events, have been converted and become believers in Jesus Christ as well.

I told him we would be praying as a family for his daughter and he said he would pray for the parents of the girl we know. And then, though not a church goer at all, he bowed his head and began to pray in the name of Jesus Christ to our heavenly father! By this point, sweat is still draining off me, I have the door open several inches cause I'm thoroughly, physically drained. During all this time, which was 30 minutes on top of the 15 I initially spent in the sauna, several people have witnessed what was going on between us. And the grandfather continued to interceded for the parents of the girl I know and closes with thanking Jesus.

With that, he raised his head and told me how much I meant to him and how much better he felt and he wished me a Merry Christmas and I lumbered back to the locker room, physically exhausted but spiritually excited. Lord willing, his granddaughter gave her life that he would be able to keep his eternally.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#11
Last Adam, Second Man

Jesus Christ, Head of a new race of men

Good morning from my study and happy 1st day of the week to you! I have been going through old journals from '99-'01. It was early days for me, then. 3/4/96 is when the Lord originally drew me to seek Him and I began to see the Gospel of the Kingdom, the one that Jesus preached. Despite having gone to "church" my whole life, I had never heard it.

One of the things I ran across was a teaching about the Monarch butterfly. It was the subject of a recent time of family devotions and it was one of those lessons that was especially impactful. Children's eyes get big and your wife says it was especially good. But the monarch, and its circle of life was one of the parables the Lord used as an illustration of the Good News of the Kingdom as I was first coming to understand. The Monarch does not lean on its own understanding and we are to be a kingdom of priests. Monarch, kingdom. The butterfly is miraculous. They are born in the U.S. or Canada and they find a tiny stand of trees in Mexico. Look at the size of our brains. I could in no way, shape or form do that. And their grace as they fly and how casual they seem.

The Lord used other examples in those years: a spider and the perfection of its web. The soaring of a vulture and its skill. But I am created in God's own image. And He showed me how a man could soar - as Jesus. I remember, after He performed a miracle, recorded in Mt. 9 I believe. It doesn't conclude with "They praised God who had given such authority unto Jesus," but rather, "They glorified God who had given such authority unto men." Jesus is the pattern son.

Yesterday, the Lord brought a teaching from 1 Cor.15 back to mind. It was about Jesus being the last Adam, and the second man. We are born in Adam and we are crucified with Christ, joined with Him through baptism. We come up in to a new life, the Way Jesus walked in. We are to be godly, like God. The safety here is that we are to always be under His authority. He purchased us and "in Him we live, and move and have our being." Jesus Christ is our Head. We worship Him in spirit and in truth. Our spiritual act of worship is the presentation of our bodies to Him today and that's how the Monarch does it.

It doesn't have its own agenda. It doesn't lean on its own understanding. What you see it doing, that's God. What you saw Jesus doing, that's God. It is to be the same with us and that does take faith!

When His Kingdom comes, His will is done, on Earth just as it is in Heaven. In my life, in my home. "Thy Kingdom, Thy government, Thy governing come!" That is what we seek first today and His righteousness. Like all those birds and butterflies, how much more will he provided for us today. Those monarchs plant none of those flowers that are there all along its route. It is led. It drinks. It dwells in satisfaction.

"The fear of the Lord is life itself. Filled with it we will abide in satisfaction and not be visited with evil". "Happy is he who feareth alway." "He has shown you, O man what is right; and what does the Lord require of you today? To act justly, to love righteousness and to walk humbly with your God." There has never been a proud Monarch. He is King of kings. Jesus Christ is our King and we are a kingdom of priests. Amen.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#12
My Conversion
"The soul who sins is the one who will die." It's always been this way. Back when I was a "good Christian" in my pew, without a vital relationship with Jesus Christ, I knew I was going to heaven. As with many of you, there was no question.

But then, one day, the Lord (which is something I didn't know Him as) sovereignly gave me a passionate thirst for His Word. Since 1996, I have studied it, listened to it throughout the day, and spoken it out loud. By 1999, still without the baptisms, I had seen clearly, from cover to cover that we can't go on sinning and that my Christian religion was a sham. And everything I did certainly wasn't done to His glory or in His name. The revelation was so obvious, I was suicidal, and I had it planned out.

But God transformed my life. The specific sin that was compulsive for me had become demonic - I had no control over my actions. I was addicted and every addiction grows out of a frustration. But I was delivered, praise the Lord. Once I was free, the 3 elders didn't ask me if I needed a tissue, they asked if I needed a towel! My life was transformed. Now, no longer compelled, the Lord ministered to me what was written, just accepting things like Romans 6 just the way it is written. The word translated in our Bibles "forgiveness" is the Greek word "aphesis". It actually means freedom. And when you understand Jesus' view on sin, He came to set us free from its control not to simply forgive us. The word "forgive" occurs over and over again in the book of Leviticus. We were slaves. We had to keep coming back to Him for forgiveness. Now, however, we have the Way of holiness Isaiah spoke of (chapter 35); the Way in which Jesus walked.

So, I was baptized in water (again) and I got way more than wet this time. I was powerfully changed just for taking God at His Word and not limiting Him by my tiny mind or by "the herd." I was baptized with the Holy Spirit, and among other things, I can clearly hear His voice, just like you see happen in the Bible! And then I got the wilderness experience, growing up, going on to maturity in a life lived by, through and in the Holy Spirit. Learning to live humbly and not from "under the sun." He humbled me, causing me to hunger then feeding me with manna, which neither I nor my fathers had know, to teach me that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Jesus said that He is the real manna that the father sent. Like Paul was worried about in 2 Cor.11:3,4, there is a different Jesus, gospel and spirit. I had previously come up in them. In my previous religious life, Jesus didn't require me to deny my soul. I lived based on what I thought, wanted and felt; what Isaiah called "light fires and provide for yourselves flaming torches.." in chapter 50:10,11. The 2 ways are repeated endlessly and in countless different manners of saying it throughout the Bible: the way of the soul vs. the Way of the Spirit. All of us today are either "soulish" (northern European languages have a word for that: it gets translated in our Bibles as "natural") or spiritual. One of the 2 is how we live. And it is intensely down to earth and practical. In fact, it's why my temple is healthy. Jesus bought it. I submit to Jesus. He leads me. And being in His Word all the time, it is health to all my flesh. He bore our diseases and sicknesses on the cross. And the preaching of this Gospel of the Kingdom was always accompanied by healing. To have to type that in the passed tense is tragic beyond measure.

The soul who sins is the one who will die. I adore Ezekiel 18. I teach it as "the great aphesis chapter of the Bible." Appearing to His disciples after His resurrection, Jesus took the disciples throughout all of the Old Testament showing Himself to them, and we see the Gospel here as well. Getting "a new heart and a new spirit" is New Covenant. The chapter shows a life turned around and God promises to remember none of the offenses such a one committed previously. The Bible is supernatural. The New Covenant is supernatural. Our bodies are living sacrifices today and our minds get renewed, so that we are able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will. Today if you will hear His voice, don't harden your hearts as they did in the wilderness.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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What True Salvation (and Faith) Does
Salvation cannot be earned. Being saved, having experienced the baptisms - Jesus came to baptize us with His Spirit, as it is written - we go on to perfection, maturity, completeness, which is well beyond sin. We don't go on to perfection to be saved, no, we go on to perfection because we are saved.

In all this, we keep ourselves in the love of God, as it is written. It's false to think there is salvation outside the love of God. The church at Laodicea was a prime example of the complacency coming from false doctrine, which is how I grew up. I was heaven bound! But I didn't realize I was naked, blind, and poor. Like many, I confessed Jesus had saved me, but I was a slave to sin, doing the works of the devil while my pastor told me I was righteous with Christ's righteousness. I lived according to the sinful nature but knew nothing of living according to the Spirit, see Romans 8.

The letters to the churches apply to us today. He knows our deeds and He will give to everyone according to His conduct and as his deeds deserve. Faith changes us. It takes us from Satan's kingdom, which we are all born in, to God's where Jesus is our King. Selfishly wanting Him as Savior but not as Lord leads to hell. But a disciple of Jesus isn't selfish. He denies himself. He has lost his life; he has lost everything, as Jesus said.

Paul said, "If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead." Eternal life is through faith in Jesus. Well, other things happen in the life of those who believe. Having repented and been baptized, rivers of living water flow from their innermost being. You have eternal life? Then John 7:37-39 is working in you and through you as well.

Believing in Jesus, we are born of God and those who are born of God have been set free from sin. They are not slaves to it anymore because of grace. A slave does not have a permanent place in the household. Everyone who names the name of the Lord must abstain from unrighteousness.

If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer, as it written. "But if I had beheld sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." So, we see awesome fruit from the one who really believes. And they fear God, too, since that endures forever. We kiss the Son, lest He be angry and we be destroyed in our own way. For His anger can flare up in a moment, but blessed are all who take refuge in Him, Psalm 2. Yes, so faith is to stay right there next to Him. To abide, not stray. The life of faith is as a distance race, not a static position; a race run out of love, 1 Cor.9.

The world doesn't believe because it sees people who claim to have faith, who claim to be righteous, doing the same things it does. A people for whom Jesus isn't King - walking in their own way today. That's not the Kingdom of God. By faith, we are to live today as Jesus did. He is the pattern Son. And we are to do His works. So be it, Lord.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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Actually Following Jesus

The Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with all who love Him and obey His commands, chose us to be born of water and the Spirit, and thus, enter His Kingdom. We had to be born again. (Dan.9:4, Jn.3:5,7)

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with all of us who have been born of the Spirit. (Jn.3:8) The Headship of Jesus Christ over us today is made effective through the Holy Spirit. We diligently hearken unto His voice to observe and do all that He commands us this day all these blessings come upon us and overtake us (Dt.28). Yes, today we choose Him. We choose life, not death. Blessing, not cursing.

We choose life, so that we and our children may live and that we may love the Lord our God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him, Dt.30:19,20. That's what the life of faith is. For the Lord is our life! Amen, He certainly is. We address as the Father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, so we conduct ourselves in fear today due to the extremely high price paid for us: the blood of the only begotten of the Father, 1 Peter1:17-19.

Another of the myriad ways that the Lord God has of putting it is this, as recorded in Jn10:27-29: v.27 My sheep hear My voice; I know them, and they follow Me. v.28 I give then eternal life; and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. v. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch then out of My Father's hand.

Here is a stronghold that needs demolishing in the hearts and minds of millions of religious people: We DO NOT have John 10:28 & 29 WITHOUT John 10:27. It's an illegal claim. If we want Him as Savior we have to have Him as Lord. I bypassed verse 27 all my life in reality. As a respectable Christian I would have told you I did it, but I really didn't even know what it meant. I had NOT, in reality, returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul. I held on to my soul. My life was my own. I was not yet, in reality, crucified with Christ. I did MY will. I wasn't in the Kingdom of God. I was in religion. As for sin? I liked it, but afterwards it made me feel bad. The other god I had before Him, was me, just like everyone else in the pew. Our tongues laid hold of heaven, though, like our father the devil.

Jesus is spoken of as "Savior" 24 or 28 times in the New Testament, depending on translation. He is spoken of as "Lord" 300 times. There's a pretty good read on the Divine perspective of the matter. By my math, for every time Jesus is spoken of as "Savior" He is spoken of as "Lord" about 12 times. Contrast that with fallen, religious minds. Growing up in church, I would have taken Him as Savior a thousand times, and Lord, maybe twice? And I was a "good", young man. I mean, really good by the standards of my Christian brothers and sisters.

Jesus Christ is King today for His Kingdom citizens. We worship Him in spirit and in Truth today. We hear His voice and we cannot afford to harden our hearts as Israel did and their bodies were laid waste in the wilderness. All that happened to them is a VERY real warning to us, 1 Cor.10. That's why the 2nd (of 5) parenthetical warning from Hebrews, warnings to Spirit baptized believers, is so important to us all. Hebrews 3:7-4:13.

4:11 "Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience." That had no bearing on my Christianity growing up, just as it has no bearing for many of you. I was still in darkness, though I had "accepted Jesus in my heart." (Where is that in the Bible again?)

He who has ears to hear, let him hear today. Glory to God. Learn to live this way: Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. We're all born fallen and having fallen short of His glory. Jesus came to turn all that around so that all things no longer had to be "vanity of vanities" for us. So that we could live from above the sun, instead of "under the sun" (see Ecclesiastes), and mount up with wings as eagles! O, how the world needs to see this! A manifestation of the sons of God. The distinction between the righteous and the wicked; between those who serve God and those who don't, Malachi 3:18.

"Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy." Rev.22:11

Read the last 2 chapters of the Bible. It's all about conduct. Jesus came to reform our conduct, to purify our hearts (only the pure in heart will see Him), baptize us with His Spirit so that we could do the will of God today, instead of the will of Satan that we were all born doing. If we've been made righteous, we do what is right, as John said. We obey Scripture. We live in the Holy Spirit. Read the whole Bible - it's all about conduct. True salvation is so radical. The ax gets laid to the root of the tree.

Ironically, and bitterly so, most Christians don't want to hear the Good News of the Kingdom of God. But they say they believe the Gospel. I will not sit in the seat of mockers.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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Blamelessness Through Grace
Seeking First His Kingdom & His Righteousness

What genuine washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit does is awesome! "The Lord God is a sun and a shield; He gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from him whose walk is blameless." Ps.84:11

If we walk in His light, by His Word and in His Spirit, He keeps His sheep safe. After all, "No harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked are filled with trouble." Pr.12:21. Thank God Almighty and our Lord Jesus Christ for a better covenant, enacted on better promises through which we are not only be forgiven, but set free! For, "Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness" as David said.

Grace and glory. Let's peek at what grace is not intended to do. "Though grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and regard not the majesty of the Lord. O Lord, Your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame; let the fire reserved for Your enemies consume them." Isaiah 26:10,11 (It's amazing how much Isaiah talks about the New Covenant.)

Glory is one of the facets of the exchange of the cross. He bore our shame, that we would have His glory; they are opposites. In His "high priestly prayer" He offered, which we have recorded in John 17 (and which hasn't been remotely answered in 2,000 years), He says, "I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one. (As I related yesterday, we grieve and lament over the present state of "the church".)

"Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her, that He would sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He would present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, buy that she should be holy and without blemish." Eph.5:25-27 Of course, that's not how we behold her generally today. We behold what Isaiah foretold, "they go on doing evil", and why Christ has not returned. Millions of people pretending they are righteous, pretending they have faith, when it's a mirage. We see antichrist and a harlot. Thank God for the exceptions!

Peter spoke of the day of the Lord in 2 Peter 3. In verse 11 he states, "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." This reminds me of Jesus' statement to Sardis, where He promises to not blot out from the Book of Life the names of those walking in righteousness and holiness and who overcome (sin and the world). Just as His statement to not blot out names from His book is meaningless if it can't happen, so also the Holy Spirit's statement through Peter that the church was to speed the return of Christ though living holy and godly lives means that the church also has the ability to delay His return, and that's what has occurred. That is another of the countless ways we see the damage false doctrines have done to the whole of creation. People living unrighteous, unholy lives - living lives not by faith but by sight, claiming they are righteous and holy. It is satanic.

Grace and glory. Grace radically changes people, making the most unrighteous sinner, such as we see in the 1st of 3 sections of Psalm 18, to be rescued from defeated life, transforming him into the man in the 2nd section who boldly states: "The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight." His conscience has been cleansed and he has been released from the power of sin over his life and he is no longer even informed of them [see Hebrews 10:2 in the greek.] Glory. Doxa in the greek. The presence of God that impacts the senses. Stephen possessed it that day before the Sanhedrin when they saw his face as the face of an angel. Grace takes us from sin to righteousness, then holiness, the result of which is eternal life and from the shame that accompanied the sin to glory. That does take faith!

"To the faithful you show Yourself faithful, to the blameless you show Yourself blameless, to the pure you show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself perverse (Heb.)." Ps.18:25,26

"No good thing does He withhold from him whose walk is blameless." Average modern Western Christians are so like Jobs friends. God testified that he was blameless but they went on and on about how he surely had sinned. But Job saw Jesus and spoke of Him twice. His faith, God's own shield of victory (Ps.18:35) is how he did it. In the original language we see that Jesus said to His disciples, "Have God's faith." The righteous live by it and by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Meditate on His Word night and day. Love Him with all your heart. Jesus is the Word of God.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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New Birth

From wickedness to righteousness
Thank God for the new birth! For He is not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with Him the wicked cannot dwell. The arrogant cannot stand in His presence; He hates all who do wrong. He destroys those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors. But I, by His great love will come into His house; in fear will I bow down toward His holy temple.

Lead me, O Lord, in Your righteousness because of my enemies - make straight Your way before me. Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with destruction. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongue they speak deceit. Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against You.

But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love Your name may rejoice in You. For surely, O Lord, You bless the righteous; You surround them with You favor as with a shield. Psalm 5:4-12

But let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. (Rev.22:11,20b)
 
Nov 24, 2019
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Servants of Jesus

We did not choose Him but He chose us, not based on deeds we had done. He saved us by the washing and regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. He has made us to become His servants now by His choice.

Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.

But suppose the servant says to himself, "My master is taking a long time in coming", and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not award of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.

That servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. Luke 12:42-48

He knows our deeds and He has told us whom we should fear. To him who overcomes, He will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God, Rev.2:7b. Everyone who hears the words of the Master and puts them into practice, is like the wise man who built his house on the rock, Mt.7:24 That is the house that will not fall.

It's a life saver to be in the Word of God without doctrinal prejudice - to just be a disciple and drink from the water He gives us - perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 2Cor.7:1 I haven't broken the tape yet. Run in such a way as to get the prize (1Cor.9:24b) for not everyone who says to Him "Lord, Lord" on that day will enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt.7:21w/1Cor.12:3). A disciple lets Him be the Judge.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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A Chaste Virgin

I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 1Cor.11:2
"I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people - not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. 'Expel the wicked man from among you.'" (Deuteronomy 17:7;19:19;21:21;22:21;22:21,24;24:7)....

"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers no male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God." 1 Corinthians 5:9-13; 6:9-11

The Holy Spirit through Paul. No longer interested in Talmud, religious traditions, be they Jewish or Christian, he is interested in changed people IN REALITY - people who have been brought from sin to sanctification by the grace and power of God. Circumcision is of the heart in this everlasting covenant. Anyone whose heart is uncircumcised will be cut of from his people; he has broken the covenant.

"He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God." Romans 2:28,29

I am interested in the church being presented to Christ as a pure virgin. That's what Paul was so extremely concerned with. False doctrines, by which people pretend they are "pure virgins", are in league with Satan's purposes in the earth.
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#19
The New Jerusalem

.... and its citizens and their conduct

The Lord God Almighty has regenerated us to be a kingdom of priests and we are looking for a new heaven and a new earth. The Holy City, the New Jerusalem, will come down out of heaven from God and He will make everything new!

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty He will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and God will be his God, and he will be God's son. But the fearful, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers*, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur, Rev.21:6-8.

Nothing impure will ever enter the Holy City, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, buy only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life, v. 27. The time is near! Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy.

"Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers*, the idolaters**, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood, Rev.22:11-15.

I warn everyone who hears the words of prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book, v.18,19.

God shows no partiality. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they - and only they - shall see God. I adore what genuine faith in Jesus Christ produces in us - what reverence, what godly fear. Our minds are renewed so that we can test and approve what God's will is; His good, pleasing and perfect will.

*Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 1 John 3:15
**Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. Colossians 3:5-7
 
Nov 24, 2019
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#20
Money

This gem was a part of our family bible study this morning:

"For the love of money is a root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have been led astray and have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves through with many acute [mental] pangs.

But as for you man of God, flee from all these things; aim at and pursue righteousness (right standing with God and true goodness), godliness (which is the loving fear of God and being Christlike), faith, love, steadfastness (patience), and gentleness of heart. Fight the good fight of the faith; lay hold of the eternal life to which you were summoned and [for which] you confessed the good confession [of faith] before many witnesses." 1 Timothy 6:10-12 Amplified

A few days ago we were in Luke 12:15, "And He said to them, Guard yourselves and keep free from all covetousness (the immoderate desire for wealth, the greedy longing to have more); for a man's life does not consist in and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance or that which is over and above his needs."

Money is just one issue among hundreds that has caused countless numbers to "wander from the faith" in this deeply materialistic society. In the world and of it. We are not saved by works. Being saved, however, we are to live differently, as strangers and aliens - as Christ Himself. Citizens of our home country and only ambassadors of that Kingdom here. To God be the glory.