Correctness

CORRECTNESS
Dirk Schnarr - 1/19/2008

Brothers and Sisters,

Many years ago, shortly after I was first saved, I became aware of certain things in my life and my relationship with the Lord. It did not take me too long before I “knew” I was right about many things. I would teach, I would correct, I would do many things and would listen to no one because I knew the Truth.

Well, God being Who He is, allowed me to fall on my face so that I would then begin to trust in Him in the manner HE desired. So, after about 15 years, I began to understand that I had to be right about what I believed. I just knew that whatever it was that I believed truly had to be correct. So I set out to make sure that I was RIGHT!

I studied and read and studied some more. I prayed and asked God to show me His truth and then read other authors and writings. I knew so many of the differing theologies and doctrines. I could keep up with the best of the Theologians, using their language and terms. My kids hated me, my wife would say, “I am so tired of you analyzing everything TO DEATH.”, people avoided me, I was hard, unbending, and I KNEW I was right.

How wrong I was.

So, after several more years I came to a place where I found out I was NOT right; that I was absolutely wrong, even though many of the doctrines I held may have been scripturally correct in man’s sight. But just because I thought those ideas were correct, did not make them so!

I found I was relying on myself and not on the Lord. I was using man’s ideas to explain how God operates instead of just believing God and trusting in Him.

Today, He has completely changed my life. I understand that I am not right. ONLY JESUS is correct. Now He will indeed make us right, but ONLY as we submit to Him. If we attempt to get correct doctrine by studying, reading authors, scrutinizing various theologies, investigating commentaries and all other such things, we are NOT relying on the Lord but rather we are relying on ourselves and what we can accomplish.

This is not how we are to live as Christians. We are to implicitly TRUST the Lord in every way and in every circumstance. HE will lead us into His truth, we cannot find it out in our strength. Only the Lord KNOWS the truth, mankind does not. No doctrine of man, no religion, no ideology, no theology, nothing that man has designed is true and good.

Brothers and Sisters, this does not mean that some of these doctrines, theologies, ideas, etc do not contain some truth. But just because there is some truth in them DOES NOT MAKE THEM TRUE in God’s sight. We can go to many of the worlds religions and find some scriptural truth in them. Confucianism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Mormonism, Muslim, and there are so many more that all have some true things in what they teach, yet that does not make those religions TRUE!

But man will be man. He wants to be in control. Let us look to the beginning and see what God did not want us to have when He created Adam and Eve.

Click here to continue reading

Finding the 'Paths of Righteousness'

There is a way we are called to walk; and no substitute path will work.

God set forth this challenge to the people in Deuteronomy 5:33, Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall possess. And He never rescinded it, nor did He change His mind. There are conditions that we must meet, in order to reap the rewards.

Jeremiah 7:23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. Again, the requirement of receiving the promise is Obedience. This obedience is an absolute, not an abstract. It is complying with what God said, not what we think should be sufficient.

Psalms 23:3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. God created man for HIS PLEASURE, not the other way around. If we would find the paths of righteousness, we will do so only by willingly accepting God’s ways. And bear in mind, that God’s ways are not man’s ways. [Isaiah 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.] God’s way is to radically change us from what we are, to what He desires us to be, and He does this by means of the crucifixion of our flesh. Proverbs 8:20 I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment:

Revelation 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

We are engaged in an unprecedented spiritual struggle in this hour… one that is doing incredible damage throughout the Body of Christ… even as it goes unrecognized. The enemies’ assault against believers is methodical and vicious. There is only one avenue by which we come under assault, that avenue is our FLESH. It is astounding how ignorant we as believers are regarding the real enemy of our soul. We ‘think’ that we are being wise and doing God ‘service’ when we attempt to engage in ‘spiritual warfare;’ when we focus on trying to figure out what is of God and what is counterfeit; when we build up doctrinal walls of defense by which we judge one another; all the while failing to even come close to doing any damage to the enemy… while inflicting great harm within the Body of Christ. How so? Because we are operating according to… our carnal understanding, motivated by our fleshly desires to be righteous, and rather than being a part of the solution we only succeed in adding to the already rampant confusion found throughout Christendom. Romans 1:25 Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen (so be it).

We are just as guilty of ignoring all of Jesus’ commandments to us, substituting our own wisdom, our own knowledge, our own interpretations according to our own desires. We do this by operating from a self-pleasing position, rather than seeking to please God. The entire world is man-centered, not God-centered. Our flesh, is utterly blind to the things of God, except as they are construed to serve the flesh. All that 2000 years of religion has succeeded in doing is designing a God that will satisfy our flesh. You will never find God within the narrow confines of the multitude of religions man has created. The One True God, The I AM, cannot be contained, cannot be manipulated, cannot be appeased… according to religious creeds, doctrines, or rituals. Ignorantly, we refuse to embrace and obey God’s truth… in exchange for a kinder, more acceptable, watered-down version that is completely satisfied with half-hearted effort and commitment on our part, which amounts to disobedience for the sake of self-preservation. If we are thinking and living this way, we have already embraced a lie, calling itself truth.

Jesus said in John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

What is the Truth that Jesus is speaking of here? In the prior verses he stated:

…I am not of this world

…I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him

…I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

…And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

…If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

If we reject His Words, fail to keep His Commandments, do what seems right in our own eyes… then how can we possibly still imagine that we are His disciples… that we are holding the TRUTH, unless we are deceived? Could it be that we cannot hear ourselves, or see ourselves, except through a veil of deception? If we are doing what is pleasing to ourselves, then we are not doing what is pleasing to the Father. If we are speaking our own words, then we are not speaking His Words. “…If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” If we would continue in Jesus’ words, then we will experience the death of our flesh. Our flesh, with all of its lusts and desires, is of the world. It is impossible to keep Jesus’ commandments from our flesh. There have always been those who manage to clean up the outside of the cup… Jesus called them ‘white-washed sepulchers, full of dead men’s bones.’

John tells us in… 1 John 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Jesus promised us in John 14:17 that even as the Father did not send Him here alone, so our Lord would give us the Comforter… Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

We have only two options in this world. Either we are living and operating by the power of the Spirit… or by the power of our own flesh.

2 John 1:6-11 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. [In verse 5, we see what this commandment is; ‘…but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another.’]

For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

We cannot walk in the strength of our own understanding, and walk in the Spirit at the same time, for the two are not compatible. Galatians 5:16-17 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Our intentions may be noble, but our finest efforts will be ineffectual at best. If we would ‘walk in the paths of righteousness’… it will be ‘for his name’s sake’… and not for our own reputation. 1 Peter 4:6 For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. We have the choice before us… which pathway will we choose? Will we follow the path of conformity and least resistance to appease the world and preserve our flesh, or will we be obedient and follow Christ? Will we remain dead in our flesh… or alive unto God by His Spirit within our hearts?

Matthew 7:12-14 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Self sits confidently enthroned in the hearts and minds of the multitudes today, including believers. Leaders and laymen alike, turn to seeker friendly methods and purpose-driven ideologies in an attempt to build their numbers as evidence of their righteousness before a Holy God … totally blinded to the reality that these are the ways of the world, and completely contrary to the Spirit. Jesus plainly said ‘few there be that find it.’ He also said in John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. And in Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Rest assured, we too can find that narrow path that leads to righteousness. And just as assuredly know that when we do, we too will pass through the judgment necessary to bring us into conformity to His Will in our every thought and action.

Amen & Amen

Cathy Morris

1/27/2009

Related Articles:

Flesh Under Fire

On Judgment

Examine Yourselves

Meet The Only God There Is

CHARLES SPURGEON: MEET THE ONLY GOD THERE IS

From the Charles Spurgeon devotional At the Master’s Feet for January 20. Using the Sword of the Spirit Spurgeon slices through the mystic mist of the mush god of contemporary Christendom:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7-8, KJV)

And we now declare that the God of Holy Scripture is a God of inflexible justice, He is not the God Whom some of you adore. You adore a god who winks at great sins; you believe in a god who calls your crimes peccadillos and little faults. Some of you worship a god who does not punish sin but who is so weakly merciful, and mercilessly weak, that he passes by transgressions and iniquity and never enacts a punishment.

You believe in a god who, if man sins, does not demand punishment for his offense. You think that a few good works of your own will pacify him, that he is so weak a ruler that a few good words uttered before him in prayer will win sufficient merit to reverse the sentence, if indeed you think he ever passes a sentence at all. Your god is no God; he is as much a false god of the Greeks or of ancient Nineveh.

The God of Scripture is one who is inflexibly severe in justice and will by no means clear the guilty. “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked” (Nahum 1:3, KJV). The God of Scripture is a Ruler who, when His subjects rebel, marks their crime and never forgives them until He has punished it, either upon them or upon their Substitute.

"What Made You Like That?"

"What Made You Like That?"

This question was put to a friend by her five year old granddaughter who could not understand why her Grandma didn't follow the tradition of Christmas. The child sympathetically asked her Grandma, "What made you like that?" ... as though there must be something wrong with her that needed to be fixed. This started me thinking that we could all ask ourselves the same question, regarding how we interact with and treat other believers and the world at large. The way we respond, and in many instances attack, gives grounds for many of them to ask us the same thing. We might do well to take an honest look at our behavior ... and see it through anothers eyes. Are we really being as 'Christ-like' and 'Spirit led' as we imagine ourselves to be? Or are we so convinced of our own 'righteousness' and 'infallibility' that we never even consider the possibility that we could be in error ourselves? (Gasp!)

Often times, if the truth be know, what we call 'being right!' is nothing more than the fact that 'our particular point-of-view,' is different from anothers. It's amazing how quickly everyone becomes an authoritarian in matters of scriptural interpretation. When someone sees things differently from our understanding, we feel justified in charging forward with all the self-righteous bravado we can muster. What comes from that is never even remotely 'Christ-like' or 'Spirit led' ... it is 'flesh,' pure and simple. The sad part is, this conduct 'tears-down' far more than it 'builds-up.' We can very easily convince ourselves that we are warning of 'hidden dangers' or 'false teaching,' without taking into consideration that the way we choose to go about doing this... reveals far more about our own level of spiritual maturity and understanding than we care to realize. And all the while ... the world is watching. Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" John 13:35. If we were to go by this standard alone, few of us would even qualify to be called Jesus' disciples, because there is very little demonstration of 'loving one another' being evidenced in the world today... especially among those who call themselves 'believers.'

We are so divided up into our different denominational camps and mind-sets, that we are hard pressed to show love to those within our own chosen belief system, let alone those with opposing teachings. Jesus instructed us in how to conduct ourselves when disputes arise... "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass (to miss the mark, err) against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican" Matthew 18:15-17.

He also commanded us that we love one another... "This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you" John 15:12. Did you notice that there are no escape clauses in this commandment? The apostles repeated this requirement throughout the New Testament.

"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently"1 Peter 1:22.

"Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil" 1 Peter 3:8-12.

"With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" Ephesians 4:2-3.

"Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" Ephesians 4:29-32.

We know that we are living in the 'last days'.. that 'apostasy' is rampant throughout the Church world ... that the love of many has 'waxed cold.' This knowledge should stir us to 'ask, seek and knock' even more fervently, lest we too, fall short. "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you" Philippians 3:15. And we can be confident ... "But when we [fall short and] are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined and chastened, so that we may not [finally] be condemned [to eternal punishment along] with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:32), because "... whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" Hebrews 12:6. Today, far too many have taken upon themselves the role of fault finder, nit-picker extraordinaire, to judge their brethren, passing out both verdict and sentence, without ever bothering to give the accused a hearing. This medium of the Internet allows for excessive boldness... that might be a little more tempered if the dishing out were face to face.

Jesus declared... "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again" Matthew 7:2. "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned" Matthew 12:36-37. This information alone should give us pause in our rush to pass judgment on others. We all have a full time job judging our own hearts and motives, without thinking that we can pass judgment on the heart of someone else. In Revelation 2:23, Jesus said that "I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works."

Presently, we do not have all knowledge, our understanding is still in the process of being renewed, as we surrender to the working of the Holy Spirit... "For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity" 1 Corinthians 13:9-13. We do know that we are called to grow up in Christ. We are called 'to walk by faith,' 'to judge by the Spirit,' (which does not mean that we get to call our opinion 'the spirit of God'). And yes, we are called to 'love one another.' That's a pretty tall order, and one that we are incapable of filling in our own strength. Thank God, we don't have to try to accomplish anything from our own understanding or ability, because... "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" Philippians 4:13.

So as we walk through each day, let us first and foremost, judge our own hearts. "If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" 1 Peter 4:11.

And bear in mind, the world is watching. Our neighbors, our co-workers, our family, everyone we encounter throughout our day are watching how we conduct ourselves. And you can be sure that many of them are wondering... "What made you like that?"
Let's pray that they are asking because they see the reflection of Christ in all that we say and do, and not because we have a critical, judgmental spirit. Walking in love is a tough order to fill, but it is our duty as followers of Christ. We need to remember that we are 'God's workmanship.' "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" Ephesians 2:10. Like James and John in the 9th Chapter of Luke, we can be just as guilty of operating from a well-intentioned but wrong attitude, and deserving of the Lord's rebuke. "But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of" Luke 9:55.

We had better judge our own hearts, what spirit are we operating from, because there is no question that others will be doing plenty of judging of all that we say and do. And pay strict attention to the manner in which we handle the Word of God, taking heed to Paul's warning found here... "According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon" (1 Corinthians 3:10), let us take heed as to how we are building. Do we feel the need to respond in like manner when others come against us? Do we resort to self-defense, self-justification, in support of 'our position?' If so, then maybe we need to do some 'self-examination' of just how dead to 'self' we are. I would hope that we can at least acknowledge that we seldom see ourselves as others see us. As believers, we are representatives of Christ in this world. We should consider that others will hear our words, see our actions, and ask the question, 'what made them like that?' Are they seeing and hearing a reflection of the Son of God in all that we say and do, or not?

"Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you" 2 Corinthians 13:11.

Amen & Amen

Cathy Morris
1/17/2009

Related Articles

Our Words

On Judgment

Patience

Putting The Flesh To The Test

To Be Right, We Must Think Right - A.W. Tozer

To Be Right, We Must Think Right

What we think about when we are free to think about what we will - that is what we are or will soon become. The Bible has a great deal to say about our thoughts; current evangelicalism has practically nothing to say about them. The reason the Bible says so much is that our thoughts are so vitally important to us; the reason evangelicalism says so little is that we are over-reacting from the "thought" cults, such as New Thought, Unity, Christian Science and their like. These cults make our thoughts to be very nearly everything and we counter by making them very nearly nothing. Both positions are wrong.

Our voluntary thoughts not only reveal what we are, they predict what we will become. Except for that conduct which springs from our basic natural instincts, all conscious behavior is preceded by and arises out of our thoughts. The will can become a servant of the thoughts, and to a large degree even our emotions follow our thinking. "The more I think about it the madder I get" is the way the average man states it, and in so doing not only reports accurately on his own mental processes but pays as well an unconscious tribute to the power of thought. Thinking stirs feeling and feeling triggers action. That is the way we are made and we may as well accept it.

The Psalms and Prophets contain numerous references to the power of right thinking to raise religious feeling and incite to right conduct. "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies." "While I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue." Over and over the Old Testament writers exhort us to get quiet and think about high and holy things as a preliminary to amendment of life or a good deed or a courageous act.

The Old Testament is not alone in its respect for the God-given power of human thought. Christ taught that men defile themselves by evil thinking and even went so far as to equate a thought with an act: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart," Paul recited a list of shining virtues and commanded, "Think on these things."

Continue reading here

A.W. Tozer

Born After Midnight - Chapter 10

Chicago,IL

1959

The Book of the Covenant

The Book of the Covenant
Chapter 12 from The Two Covenants

"And Moses took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient. And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words" Exodus 24:7, 8; comp. Hebrews 9:18-20.

HERE is a new aspect in which to regard God's blessed Book. Before Moses sprinkled the blood, he read the Book of the Covenant, and obtained the people's acceptance of it. And when he had sprinkled it, he said, "Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made concerning all these words." The Book contained all the conditions of the Covenant; only through the Book could they know all that God asked of them, and all that they might ask of Him. Let us consider what new light may be thrown both upon the Covenant and upon the Book, by the one thought, that the Bible is the Book of the Covenant.

The very first thought suggested will be this, that in nothing will the spirit of our life and experience, as it lives either in the Old or the New Covenant, be more manifest than in our dealings with the Book. The Old had a book as well as the New. Our Bible contains both. The New was enfolded in the Old; the Old is unfolded in the New. It is possible to read the Old in the spirit of the New; it is possible to read the New as well as the Old in the spirit of the Old.

What this spirit of the Old is, we cannot see so clearly anywhere as just in Israel when the Covenant was made. They were at once ready to promise: "All that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient." There was so little sense of their own sinfulness, or of the holiness and glory of God, that with perfect self-confidence they considered themselves able to undertake to keep the Covenant. They understood little of the meaning of that blood with which they were sprinkled, or of that death and redemption of which it was the symbol. In their own strength, in the power of the flesh, they were ready to engage to serve God. It is just the spirit in which many Christians regard the Bible; as a system of laws, a course of instruction to direct us in the way God would have us go. All He asks of us is, that we should do our utmost in seeking to fulfil them; more we cannot do; this we are sincerely ready to do. They know little or nothing of what the death means through which the Covenant is established, or what the life from the dead is through which alone a man can walk in covenant with the God of heaven.

This self-confident spirit in Israel is explained by what had happened just previously. When God had come down on Mount Sinai in thunderings and lightnings to give the law, they were greatly afraid. They said to Moses: "Let not God speak with us, lest we die; speak thou with us, and we will hear." They thought it was simply a matter of hearing and knowing; they could for certain obey. They knew not that it is only the presence, and the fear, and the nearness, and the power of God humbling us and making us afraid, that can conquer the power of sin and give the power to obey. It is so much easier to receive the instruction from man, and live, than to wait and hear the voice of God and die to all our own strength and goodness. It is no otherwise that many Christians seek to serve God without ever seeking to live in daily contact with Him, and without the faith that it is only His presence can keep from sin. Their religion is a matter of outward instruction from man: the waiting to hear God's voice that they may obey Him, the death to the flesh and the world that comes with a close walk with God, are unknown. They may be faithful and diligent in the study of their Bible, in reading or hearing Bible teaching; to have as much as possible of that intercourse with the Covenant God Himself which makes the Christian life possible--this they do not seek.

If you would be delivered from all this, learn ever to read the Book of the New Covenant in the New Covenant Spirit. One of the very first articles of the New Covenant has reference to this matter. When God says, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, He engages that the words of His Holy Book shall no longer be mere outward teaching, but that what they command shall be our very disposition and delight, wrought in us as a birth and a life by the Holy Spirit. Every word of the New Covenant then becomes a Divine assurance of what may be obtained by the Holy Spirit's working. The soul learns to see that the letter killeth, that the flesh profiteth nothing. The study, and knowledge of, the delight in, Bible words and thoughts, cannot profit, except as the Holy Spirit is waited on to make them life. The acceptance of Holy Scripture in the letter, the reception of it in the human understanding, is seen to be as fruitless as was Israel's at Sinai. But as the Word of God, spoken by the Living God through the Spirit into the heart that waits on Him, it is found to be quick and powerful. It then is a word that worketh effectually in them that believe, giving within the heart the actual possession of the very grace of which the Word has spoken.

The New Covenant is a ministration of the Spirit (see Chap. 7). All its teaching is meant to be teaching by the Holy Spirit. The two most remarkable chapters in the Bible on the preaching of the gospel are those in which Paul expounds the secret of this teaching (1 Cor. 2; 2 Cor. 3.). Every minister ought to see whether he can pass his examination in them. They tell us that in the New Covenant the Holy Spirit is everything. It is the Holy Spirit entering the heart, writing, revealing, impressing upon it God's law and truth, that alone works true obedience. No excellency of speech or human wisdom can in the least profit: God must reveal by His Holy Spirit to preacher and hearer the things He hath prepared for us. What is true of the preacher is equally true of the hearer. One of the great reasons that so many Christians never come out of the Old Covenant, never even know that they are in it, and have to come out of it, is that there is so much head knowledge, without the power of the Spirit in the heart being waited for. It is only when preachers and hearers and readers believe that the Book of the New Covenant needs the Spirit of the New Covenant, to explain and apply it, that the Word of God can do its work.

Learn the double lesson. What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. The Bible is the Book of the New Covenant. And the Holy Spirit is the only minister of what belongs to the Covenant. Expect not to understand or profit by thy Bible knowledge without seeking continually the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Beware lest thy earnest Bible study, thy excellent books, or thy beloved teachers take the place of the Holy Spirit! Pray daily, and perseveringly, and believingly for His teaching. He will write the Word in thy heart.

The Bible is the Book of the New Covenant. Ask the Holy Spirit specially to reveal to thee the New Covenant in it. It is inconceivable what loss the Church of our day is suffering because so few believers truly live as its heirs, in the true knowledge and enjoyment of its promises. Ask God, in humble faith, to give thee in all thy Bible reading, the spirit of wisdom and revelation, enlightened eyes of thine heart, to know what the promises are which the Covenant reveals; and what the Divine security in Jesus, the Surety of the Covenant, that every promise will be fulfilled in thee in Divine power; and what the intimate fellowship to which it admits thee with the God of the Covenant. The ministration of the Spirit, humbly waited for and listened to, will make the Book of the Covenant shine with new light--even the light of God's countenance and a full salvation.

All this applies specially to the knowledge of what actually the New Covenant is meant to work. Amid all we hear, and read, and understand of the different promises of the New Covenant, it is quite possible that we never yet have had that heavenly vision of it as a whole, that with its overmastering power compels acceptance. Just hear once again what it really is. True obedience, and fellowship with God, for which man was created, which sin broke off, which the law demanded, but could not work, which God's own Son came from heaven to restore in our lives, is now brought within our reach and offered us. Our Father tells us in the Book of the New Covenant that He now expects us to live in full and unbroken obedience and communion with Him. He tells us that by the mighty power of His Son and Spirit He Himself will work this in us: everything has been arranged for it. He tells us that such a life of unbroken obedience is possible because Christ, as the Mediator, will live in us and enable us each moment to live in Him. He tells us that all He wants is simply the surrender of faith, the yielding ourselves to Him to do His work. Oh! let us look, and see this holy life, with all its powers and blessings, coming down from God in heaven, in the Son and His Spirit. Let us believe that the Holy Spirit can give us a vision of it, as a prepared Gift, to be bestowed in living power, and take possession of us. Let us look upward and look inward, in the faith of the Son and the Spirit, and God will show us that every word written in the Book of the Covenant is not only true, but that it can be made spirit and truth within us, and in our daily life. This can indeed be.

Andrew Murray - 1898

Just how does our knowledge, our wisdom, our understanding, our life compare with what this man of God set forth over 100 years ago? May we have ears to hear, hearts to obey, and the courage to place our fear in the right camp.

The Law Written In The Heart

The Law written in the Heart
Notes from Chapter 4 of 'The Two Covenants'
by Andrew Murray

THE thought of the law written in the heart sometimes causes difficulty and discouragement, because believers do not see or feel in themselves anything corresponding to it. An illustration may help to remove the difficulty. There are fluids by which you can write so that nothing is visible, either at once or later, unless the writing be exposed to the sun or the action of some chemical. The writing is there, but one who is ignorant of the process cannot think it is there, and knows not how to make it readable. The faith of a man who is in the secret believes in it though he see it not.

It is even thus with the new heart. God has put His law into it, "Blessed are the people in whose heart is God's law." But it is there invisibly. He that takes God's promise in faith, knows that it is in his own heart. As long. as there is not clear faith on this point, all attempts to find it, or to fulfil that law, will be vain. But when by a simple faith the promise is held fast, the first step is taken to realise it. The soul is then prepared to receive instruction as to what the writing of the law in the heart means. It means, first, that God has implanted in the new heart a love of God's law, and a readiness to do all His will. You may not feel this disposition there, but it is there. God has put it there. Believe this, and be assured that there is in you a Divine nature that says--and you therefore do not hesitate to say it--"I delight to do Thy will, O God!" In the name of God, and in faith, say it.

This writing of the law means, further, that in planting this principle in you, God has taken all that you know of God's will already, and inspired that new heart with the readiness to obey it. It may as yet be written there with invisible writing, and you are not conscious of it. That does not matter. You have here to deal with a Divine and hidden work of the Holy Spirit. Be not afraid to say: Oh, how love I Thy law! God has put the love of it into your heart, the new heart. He has taken away the stony heart; it is by the new heart you have to live.

The next thing implied in this writing of the law, is that you have accepted all God's will, even what you do not yet know, as the delight of your heart. In giving yourself up to God, you gave yourself wholly to His will. That was the one condition of your entering the Covenant; Covenant grace will now provide for teaching you to know, and strengthening you to do, all your Father would have you do.

The whole life in the New Covenant is a life of faith. Faith accepts every promise of the Covenant, is certain that it is being fulfilled, looks confidently to the God of the Covenant to do His work. Faith believes implicitly in the new heart, with the law written in it, because it believes in the promise, and in the God who gave and fulfils the promise.

It may be well to add here that the same truth holds good of all the promises concerning the new heart--they must be accepted and acted on by faith. When we read of "the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit," of "Christ dwelling in the heart," of "a clean heart," of "loving each other with a clean heart fervently," of "God establishing our heart unblamable in holiness," we must; with the eye of faith, regard these spiritual realities as actually and in very deed existing within us. In His hidden unseen way God is working them there. Not by sight or feeling, but by faith in the Living God and His Word, we know they are as the power for the dispositions and inclinations of the new heart. In this faith we are to act, knowing that we have the power to love, to obey, to be holy. The New Covenant gives us a God who works all in us; faith in Him gives us the assurance, above and beyond all feeling, that this God is doing His blessed work.

And if the question be asked what we are to think of all there is within us that contradicts this faith, let us remember what Scripture teaches us of it. We sometimes speak of an old and a new heart. Scripture does not do so. It speaks of the old, the stony, heart, being taken away--the heart, with its will, disposition, affections, being made new with a Divine newness. This new heart is placed in the midst of what Scripture calls the flesh, in which there dwelleth no good thing. We shall find it a great advantage to adhere as closely as possible to Scripture language. It will greatly help our faith even to use the very words God by His Holy Spirit has used to teach us. And it will greatly clear our view for knowing what to think of the sin that remains in us if we think of it and deal with it in the light of God's truth. Every evil desire and affection comes from the flesh, man's sinful natural life. It owes its power greatly to our ignorance of its nature, and our trusting to its help and strength to cast out its evil.

I have already pointed out how sinful flesh and religious flesh is one, and how all failure in religion is owing to a secret trust in ourselves. As we accept and make use of what God says of the flesh, we shall see in it the source of all evil in us; we shall say of its temptations: "It is no more I, but sin that dwelleth in me"; we shall maintain our integrity as we maintain a good conscience that condemns us for nothing knowingly done against God's will; and we shall be strong in the faith of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in the new heart, so to strengthen that we need not and "shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh."

I conclude with an extract of an address by Rev. F. Webster, at Keswick last year, in confirmation of what I have just said:

"Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." 'Make no provision for the flesh.' The flesh is there, you know. To deny or ignore the existence of an enemy is to give him a great chance against you; and the flesh is in the believer to the very end, a force of evil to be reckoned with continually, an evil force inside a man, and yet, thank God, a force which can be so dealt with by the power of God, that it shall have no power to defile the heart or deflect the will. The flesh is in you, but your heart may be kept clean moment by moment in spite of the existence of evil in your fallen nature. Every avenue, every opening that leads into the heart, every thought and desire and purpose and imagination of your being, may be closed against the flesh, so that there shall be no opening to come in and defile the heart or deflect the will from the will of God.

"You say, that is a very high standard. But it is the Word of God. There is to be no secret sympathy with sin. Although the flesh is there, you are to make it no excuse for sins. You are not to say, I am naturally irritable, anxious, jealous, and I cannot help letting these things crop up; they come from within. Yes, they come from within, but then there need be no provision, no opening in your heart for these things to enter. Your heart can be barricaded with an impassable barrier against these things. 'No provision for the flesh.' Not merely the front door barred and bolted so that you do not invite them to come in, but the side and back door closed too. You may be so Christ-possessed and Christ-enclosed that you shall positively hate everything that is of the flesh.

'Make no provision for the flesh.' The only way to do so is to 'put on the Lord Jesus Christ.'
I spoke of the heart being so barricaded that there should be no entrance to it, that the flesh should never be able to defile it or deflect the will from the will of God. How can that be done? By putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. It has been such a blessing to me just to learn that one secret, just to learn the positive side of deliverance--putting on the Lord Jesus Christ."

Letter To The Children Of The World

1-21-07
Dear Friend,

I feel compelled to share some thoughts with you based on my own life’s experiences and based on eternal truth.

You see, I spent many years of my life in the "fast lane", {I’ll spare you the sordid details for now}, actually off and on from the time I was about 19 or 20 years old, up until I was 46 years old. I am now 52 years old.

The great lie imbedded in this world’s thought processes would lead us to believe that
if we fill up our life with sensual pleasures, other experiences and perceived successes, family and other relationships, accumulation of riches and wealth, recognition from others, careers, and any other tangible or intangible offering of this world including solitude or simplicity of life, then we will surely find a deep and lasting sense of peace and fulfillment. But nothing could be further from the truth. No matter how complex or simple our experiences, how stimulating our relationships, how rewarding our family life, how much wealth we end up with whether ill gotten or by honest gain, how much we are honored and acclaimed, and no matter the simplicity or solitude of the life we have found or developed, whether through our own efforts or by shear “good fortune,” when we look inside ourselves in honest self-examination, we will still be empty and void and restless. If you could fast forward your life after having filled it will all the desires and cravings of your body and your mind, even to the extreme of gaining the whole world with all of its riches, all of its sensual experiences, and all of its honor and acclaim, I can promise you that you would still have an emptiness deep within your eternal soul that would not be fulfilled and would keep you restless and unsatisfied, and perpetually seeking for “more.”

For our own eternal welfare we must understand something very important that hardly anyone seems to know or will share with others about life. See, the human race was created by a loving God who wanted to have fellowship with the children He created. And that fellowship was to be a spiritual relationship in which God would share His very own nature of self-less love with His creation through the part of our being that is spirit, which in turn would keep our bodies {the physical part of us} and souls {our mind, our will and our emotions are part of our soul} under God’s dominion. And that nature of God's love contains a very special quality of life! So special in fact that it meets all the demands of our soul and spirit, as deep and mysterious as those needs are.

But the parents of the human race, Adam and Eve, choose to separate themselves from God's life of love through disobedience to their Creator. They were deceived by our spiritual enemy, Satan, who beguiled them, meaning he purposely tricked and misled them into choosing to be the god of their own life by telling them that it was a better way to live. But it was all a lie. And so by making the choice to partake of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," the "human opinion tree," man began to choose for himself individually what would be the best way for him to live. And the rest is history as they say. The evidence of how that choice was based on a lie is all around us. Look at all the suffering, corruption and all other injustices in the world, all hostility, envy, strife, greed, all unrest, frustration, boredom, worry, fear, anxiety, loneliness, and depression. It is all the consequence of believing that first lie that was introduced into the world by Satan who was representing himself as an agent of “enlightenment.” He is still working in this world and often operates through false teachers as an “angel of light,” mixing some truth with his lies. He wants us to believe that God does not really mean what He says to us in His written word, the Bible, and through the Holy Spirit’s operation in our conscience, and that it is okay to live by the lust {desires} of the flesh, the lust {desires} of the eyes, and by the self-elevating “pride of life,” as long as we don’t take them to extremes. And tragically, most people are still choosing to operate their lives under the influence and dominion of that lie.

And as a result of mankind making the choice to step out into self-will and begin directing his own life, a perfectly just and righteous God had to withdraw His spiritual life from the human race and mankind began to experience spiritual death. Everyone born into this world since the parents of the human race fell into a self-centered way of life is now born with an emptiness deep within their inner being. It is missing the presence of God. And almost all of the human race spends their days on this earth seeking for something to fill that emptiness, even though most of them don't even realize that is what they are doing. But there is NOTHING in this world that can satisfy that deep inner emptiness – NO RICHES, NO FAME, NO RELATIONSHIP WITH ANOTHER HUMAN BEING and NOTHING ELSE this world system has to offer its children.

There is only one way to be totally and eternally fulfilled. That is by coming back into a right relationship with God the Father through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. And that begins by acknowledging that we are sinners {live by our own will fulfilling our own desires}, genuine repentance {turning from pleasing self to pleasing God} which is a change of heart and mind toward God and a turning away from our rebellion against God’s ways, and looking to Jesus Christ’s shed blood that He shed on the cross for forgiveness of our sins and for our rebellion against God’s plans for us, then consciously choosing to step out and follow Jesus Christ wherever that may lead or whatever that may mean to our “self” life, which then allows the Holy Spirit of God to begin the process of emptying us of our “self-willed,” “self-seeking,” and “self-sufficient” existence so He can ultimately fill us with the love of Christ, a self-denying love that pours itself out for the good of others with no concern for itself because it knows that its heavenly Father will keep it fulfilled with His spiritual life, no matter the circumstances of life we may find ourselves in. But we must yield to His way of life by giving our consent each step of the way because God will not force Himself on anyone. He wants a family of children who will follow Him voluntarily out of love for Him. A family that recognizes the beauty of His ways and commandments and who will follow in the steps of His son Jesus, who when He walked on this earth, demonstrated in a human body how God’s children are to live – a family of dependent {no longer independent and self-sufficient} and obedient children!

I am happy to report that this spiritual life is available to you and everyone else in this world who will follow God's plan. We now have the opportunity to enter back into the spiritual life that Adam and Eve turned away from in their deception. And I can tell you from experience that it is a place of abundant spiritual blessing, fruitfulness, peace, joy and fulfillment, even in the manifold trials and unpleasant circumstances inherent in this present world system.

I can also promise you from personal experience, and that after drinking heartily from this world's pleasures for most of my adult life, that in full surrender to God the Creator of all life, I have only traded trash for true treasure – the life of God in the soul of man – not as a theology or a theory or a wishful longing for, but as a PRESENT AND CONCIOUS REALITY! And it is a treasure that will last throughout eternity, with no end! I pray that you too will step out and follow my Lord – Jesus Christ!

God's love to me, and now in me, compels me to spend the rest of my life helping anyone in the human race who will listen to the truth, who feels the need of, and who sees the value of following God in His prescribed way of total abandonment, to find that glorious spiritual life. If you are interested in knowing God, which will demand a full surrender of your will to the will of God, I will be thrilled to share more truth with you! My e-mail address is jmbs99@comcast.net. Also, I would like to invite you to visit the website http://www.authenticchristianity.net/ to listen to the audio lessons as well as read some of the material there.

Sincerely,


Joe

Breaking of the Outer Man & the Release of the Spirit

Breaking of the Outer Man and the Release of the Spirit
By Watchman Nee

Excerpts from Chapters 3 and 6
"Things in the Hands"

[Quote] God has to break the outer man before He can use the inner man. He has to break our love before He can use our love to love the brothers. If the outer man is not broken, we are still doing our own things, taking our own way, and loving our own preferences. God must first break our outer man before He can use our "broken" love to love the brothers and before our love can be expanded. Once the outer man is broken, the inner man is released. The inner man must love, but it must love through the outer man. If the outer man has things in its hands, the inner man will have nothing to work through.

Continue reading here

Deceitful Hearts - Part 2

Deceitful Hearts
Part 2

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings" Jeremiah 17:9-10.

We are living in the last days, and the deceitfulness of the heart is manifested by the way we treat others... and the words that come out of our mouths. I am speaking here of those who consider themselves believers, who have ministries and teach from the Word of God. There is a separating work taking place right now... that is sobering and fearful in its scope and ramifications. And many of those being separated do not even realize that it is happening... to them. Their focus is on the 'enemy'... rather than on GOD. They are so caught up in the 'work' they are doing for the LORD, that they do not recognize that they themselves have fallen into error.

Their teachings are full of mixture. The eyes of their understanding have received some truth, but rather than wait for the Lord to give them understanding on the rest, they have turned to their own understanding. And this, they present as being revealed by the Holy Spirit, when it is nothing more than the vain imaginings of their own hearts, and the rehashed traditions and doctrines of men.

"Do not be deceived and deluded and misled; God will not allow Himself to be sneered at (scorned, disdained, or mocked by mere pretensions or professions, or by His precepts being set aside.) [He inevitably deludes himself who attempts to delude God.] For whatever a man sows, that and that only is what he will reap" Galatians 6:7.

The weight of responsibility on teachers is enormous, because they will be held accountable for the guidance they give to others. But individually we all carry the same responsibility, in how we handle the Word of God as He reveals it within our own hearts by His Holy Spirit.

Being eloquent, convincing, and articulate are not the qualities that God is looking for in His mouthpieces. These attributes may be valuable assets in making our way through this world, they may help us to impress other people with our knowledge, but they are not the qualities that God requires. The attributes that God is searching for in us are these: obedience, humility and holiness.

"If ye love me, keep my commandments" John 14:15.

"But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" 1 Peter 3:4.

"Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy" 1 Peter 1:16.

click here to continue reading

Also, here is an edifying paper written by the late Steve Bray that I just received...

Create In Me A Clean Heart

In addition, I just found an old book by Andrew Murray, The Two Covenants, which I have just started reading, here is an excerpt that also fits in with our need and desire to be cleansed from within:

The great lack of our religion is – we need more of God. We accept salvation as His gift, and we do not know that the only object of salvation, its chief blessing, is to fit us for, and bring us back to, that close intercourse with God for which we were created, and in which our glory in eternity will be found. All that God has ever done for His people in making a covenant was always to bring them to Himself as their chief, their only good, to teach them to trust in Him, to delight in Him, to be one with Him. It cannot be otherwise. If God indeed be nothing but a very fountain of goodness and glory, of beauty and blessedness, the more we can have of His presence, the more we conform to His will, the more we are engaged in His service, the more we have Him ruling and working all in us, the more truly happy shall we be. If God indeed be thereby Owner and Author of life and strength, of holiness and happiness, and can alone give and work it in us, the more we trust Him, and depend and wait on Him, the stronger and the holier and the happier we shall be. And that only is a true and good religious life, which brings us every day nearer to this God, which makes us give up everything to have more of Him. No obedience can be too strict, no dependence too absolute, no submission too complete, no confidence too implicit, to a soul that is learning to count God Himself its chief good, its exceeding joy.

In entering into covenant with us, God's one object is to draw us to Himself, to render us entirely dependent upon Himself, and so to bring us into the right position and disposition in which He can fill us with Himself, His love, and His blessedness. Let us undertake our study of the New Covenant, in which, if we are believers, God is at this moment living and walking with us, with the honest purpose and surrender, at any price, to know what God wishes to be to us, to do in us, and to have us be and do to Him. The New Covenant may become to us one of the windows of heaven through which we see into the face, into the very heart, of God.

Deceitful Hearts - Part 1

Deceitful Hearts...

Part 1

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” Jeremiah 17:9-10.

In today’s world, at least here in the West, we are often confronted with what seems like ‘choice overload.’ From the annoying infomercials try to sell us products we don’t need or want, to the TV adds trying to convince us what kind of home we should live in, car we should drive, clothes we should wear, food we should eat, school we should attend, drugs we should take, workout program we should follow…. we are continually bombarded with attractive presentations of things that, according to the advertising executives, are considered to be part of the ‘American Dream.’ This materialistic world-view has infiltrated the church in America as well. Leaders today are suave, sophisticated, attractive, and eloquent speakers. They possess admirable administrative qualities, surrounding themselves with equally talented people to carry out their programs and further their agenda’s… and the people love to have it so.

“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” Jeremiah 5:31.

“And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness” Ezekiel 33:31.

We have become so immersed in the ways of the world that we don’t even consider that our methods and attitudes could be anything but pleasing… to the God we claim to be serving. We expect our ‘religion’ to be a source of ‘comfort’ in our hectic lives. We like to hear that ‘God only wants the best for you,’ ‘you are going to rule and reign with Christ,’ as if we can just make it up as we go… picking and choosing the parts of scriptures that we like, while disregarding the conditions and requirements we may find offensive to our sensibilities. We fail to take into consideration that salvation through the shed blood of Christ Jesus is not God’s ‘quick fix’ to make our spirituality more convenient.

“O Lord [pleads Jeremiah in the name of the people], I know that [the determination of] the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man [even in a strong man or in a man at his best] to direct his [own] steps” Jeremiah 10:23.

In the Old Testament God warned us… “Take heed to yourselves, lest your [minds and] hearts be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, And the Lord's anger be kindled against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the land will not yield its fruit, and you perish quickly off the good land which the Lord gives you” Deuteronomy 11:16-17.

Jesus warned us… “Even so, when you see these things taking place, understand and know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Truly I tell you, this generation (those living at that definite period of time) will not perish and pass away until all has taken place. The sky and the earth (the universe, the world) will pass away, but My words will not pass away. But take heed to yourselves and be on your guard, lest your hearts be overburdened and depressed (weighed down) with the giddiness and headache and nausea of self-indulgence, drunkenness, and worldly worries and cares pertaining to [the business of] this life, and [lest] that day come upon you suddenly like a trap or a noose; For it will come upon all who live upon the face of the entire earth. Keep awake then and watch at all times [be discreet, attentive, and ready], praying that you may have the full strength and ability and be accounted worthy to escape all these things [taken together] that will take place, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man” Luke 21:31-36.

Paul warned us…. “Therefore let anyone who thinks he stands [who feels sure that he has a steadfast mind and is standing firm], take heed lest he fall [into sin]” 1 Corinthians 10:12.

The Psalmist exhorts….
“BLESSED (HAPPY, fortunate, prosperous, and enviable) is the man who walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly [following their advice, their plans and purposes], nor stands [submissive and inactive] in the path where sinners walk, nor sits down [to relax and rest] where the scornful [and the mockers] gather. But his delight and desire are in the law of the Lord, and on His law (the precepts, the instructions, the teachings of God) he habitually meditates (ponders and studies) by day and by night” Psalms 1:1-2.

“Hold up my goings in thy paths, [that] my footsteps slip not” Psalms 17:5.

“The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way” Psalms 37:23.

“Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope” Psalms 119:116.

“Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually” Psalms 119:117.

“Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit” Psalms 32:2.

In Mark 7:21-23, Jesus said…. “For from within, [that is] out of the hearts of men, come base and wicked thoughts, sexual immorality, stealing, murder, adultery, coveting (a greedy desire to have more wealth), dangerous and destructive wickedness, deceit; unrestrained (indecent) conduct; an evil eye (envy), slander (evil speaking, malicious misrepresentation, abusiveness), pride (the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man), foolishness (folly, lack of sense, recklessness, thoughtlessness). All these evil [purposes and desires] come from within, and they make the man unclean and render him unhallowed.”

We are all very adept at coming up with all of these unseemly qualities all on our own. We do not need any help from the devil or demonic spirits… we are capable of creating our own evil, after all, we have all partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

It is our own heart that needs cleansing. It is our own mind that needs to be renewed… “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word”… Why?
“That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” Ephesians 5:26-27.

Jesus also tells us… “Even so, when you see these things taking place, understand and know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Truly I tell you, this generation (those living at that definite period of time) will not perish and pass away until all has taken place. The sky and the earth (the universe, the world) will pass away, but My words will not pass away. But take heed to yourselves and be on your guard, lest your hearts be overburdened and depressed (weighed down) with the giddiness and headache and nausea of self-indulgence, drunkenness, and worldly worries and cares pertaining to [the business of] this life, and [lest] that day come upon you suddenly like a trap or a noose; For it will come upon all who live upon the face of the entire earth. Keep awake then and watch at all times [be discreet, attentive, and ready], praying that you may have the full strength and ability and be accounted worthy to escape all these things [taken together] that will take place, and to stand in the presence of the Son of Man” Luke 21:31-36.

Paul warned us in Philippians 2:12 “Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” Peter admonishes us in 1 Peter 4:18 “And if the righteous scarcely (with much difficulty; with much work) be saved (deliver or protect; make whole), where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

“Remind [the people] of these facts and [solemnly] charge them in the presence of the Lord to avoid petty controversy over words, which does no good but upsets and undermines the faith of the hearers. Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth. But avoid all empty (vain, useless, idle) talk, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness” 2 Timothy 2:14-16.

“If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work” 2 Timothy 2:21.

“Indeed all who delight in piety and are determined to live a devoted and godly life in Christ Jesus will meet with persecution [will be made to suffer because of their religious stand]. But wicked men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and leading astray others and being deceived and led astray themselves. But as for you, continue to hold to the things that you have learned and of which you are convinced, knowing from whom you learned [them], and how from your childhood you have had a knowledge of and been acquainted with the sacred Writings, which are able to instruct you and give you the understanding for salvation which comes through faith in Christ Jesus [through the leaning of the entire human personality on God in Christ Jesus in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness]. Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose, and action), That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” 2 Timothy 3:12-17.

“THE PLANS of the mind and orderly thinking belong to man, but from the Lord comes the [wise] answer of the tongue. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits (the thoughts and intents of the heart). Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed. The Lord has made everything [to accommodate itself and contribute] to its own end and His own purpose--even the wicked [are fitted for their role] for the day of calamity and evil. Everyone proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful, and exceedingly offensive to the Lord; be assured [I pledge it] they will not go unpunished. By mercy and love, truth and fidelity [to God and man--not by sacrificial offerings], iniquity is purged out of the heart, and by the reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord men depart from and avoid evil. When a man's ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him” Proverbs 16:1-7.

We may have started out with…

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]? I the Lord search the mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings” Jeremiah 17:9-10.

…but we don’t have to remain that way!

“But you did not so learn Christ! Assuming that you have really heard Him and been taught by Him, as [all] Truth is in Jesus [embodied and personified in Him], strip yourselves of your former nature [put off and discard your old unrenewed self] which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lusts and desires that spring from delusion; and be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind [having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude], and put on the new nature (the regenerate self) created in God's image, [Godlike] in true righteousness and holiness” Ephesians 4:20-24.

Thank you Lord Jesus, for being the Way, the Truth and the Life!
Amen & Amen

Cathy Morris
1/02/2009