Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
Psalms 143:10 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.143.10.KJV
Category: Salvation
With God all is possible
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Matthew 19:26 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/mat.19.26.KJV
God said…
At the beginning of Creation, God spoke almost everything into existence. I say “almost everything” because when God created mankind, He did so with His hands. He didn’t just speak mankind into existence. He said “Let Us make mankind in our image”; the man was created on the sixth day and God said that everything was very good. In chapter two God rested on the seventh day after all of His work in creating everything. The Lord caused a mist to water the ground and He formed mankind from the ground and breathed into him and gave him Life. Then God placed him into the Garden to keep it, with the exception of one tree the man could eat of any tree in the Garden.
God created a helper for Adam which he named Woman because she was taken from man. God used a rib to create Woman and yet we don’t value women as much as we should, even today. But…God does! There are many others in the world who are not valued today, not just women. Unborn children are not seen as much more than a group of cells rather than the miracle that they are whether they are wanted by their mother or not. People who believe in a different Savior are looked down upon because they have faith in their Savior rather than in someone else’s idea of a savior.
In many ways, our world chooses to ignore what “God says” and choose to follow their own ideas and ways. Many people seem to be unwilling to acknowledge God at all, whether by His Word or by the Truth contained in it. Yet, the laws by which most of our laws are based on actually come from the Bible! Yes, the words are arranged differently or they may phrase the law as being different but the laws which God gave to Moses are still the basis for most of mankind’s own laws regardless of how you phrase those laws.
When God says something in His Word, whether it is a commandment or a precept, it still carries His Wisdom and His intent with it. It doesn’t matter whether we like the law or the precept or not. Truth and laws are not things which are open to interpretation or opinion. A law is a law and agreeing with it or not doesn’t change it. Truth is the truth whether you want it to be so or not, especially when it is a Truth from God’s Word! God said it and that settles it.
Whether you believe in His Word or have a different opinion of His Word doesn’t change His Word or the effect of it in your life or in the lives of everyone around you. Just as your idea or belief about gravity does nothing to change it, God’s Word is immutable whether we like what it says or not.
I will do a new thing…
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:19 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.43.19.KJV
The Lord is my Healer and Savior!
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Jeremiah 17:14 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/jer.17.14.KJV
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
2 Timothy 4:2-4 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/2ti.4.2-4.KJV
Both of these have come to pass, even today the prophecy from 2 Timothy is coming to pass but many don’t see it that way. Some people seem to think that if a preacher is preaching from the Bible then his sermon is from God’s Word. That is usually true but not all of the time. Many sermons are put together by a program on a computer or even come from the preacher’s own “wisdom” with a verse or two of Scripture thrown in to make it sound like it should. These are the sermons which don’t tell us of our sins and weaknesses but they do tell us how good we are.
God doesn’t see us that way unless we are saved by the blood of Jesus the Christ! Our “goodness” isn’t part of the equation unless it is imparted to us through Jesus by our salvation through His blood. If you are not saved by your belief in Jesus and your acceptance of His sacrifice for your sins then your so-called “righteousness” is as filthy rags in the sight of God!
We cannot claim salvation on our own merit or the works which we may do!
You and I cannot just decide to get saved one day, it is God’s Spirit which touches us and brings us to the point of knowing that we need Him that causes us to seek Him out and confess our sins, asking that Jesus cleanse us and make us in His likeness. Although many people seem to think that they have that much control over their experience of salvation, it just isn’t true! It is God Who calls to your Spirit, your soul and brings you under conviction to know that you need Him. At that point each of us is given an amount of faith to truly believe that Jesus can save us, so we do and He does!
Some people tend to feel this touch in their lives, whether at a church or from a sermon on TV, and they do feel a need for Jesus in their life…but Satan whispers in their ear before they walk down and speak to the preacher. Then they will either grip the pew in front of them and refuse to accept Jesus or they may even walk out of the service altogether. They don’t want to give up on their comfortable, sinful life.
Even though prior to Christ changing our hearts and our minds we didn’t want to quit our sinful life either. Why? Because until Jesus and the Holy Spirit reveals your sins and what those sins will cost you in eternity, we don’t think that we need Him at all. Let’s face it, all of us who are Christians now were sinners at some point in time. I hear so much talk about “hypocrite churches” because there are people in there who used to do this or that!
We have ALL done this or that at one time or another!
Own your past life and leave it in the past so you can walk in the newness of Life with Christ into eternity!
He has begun a work in you shall complete it
Gifts of the Spirit
In Galatians 5:22 Paul writes this: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.
If each of us who are living as Christians has these fruits which are evident in our speech and in our lives every day then others will see them and know that we belong to Christ. So, how can we show these fruits to others? Notice the very first one is love, without this in your heart which Jesus placed there because He loved you and me first none of the other fruits will grow in your life at all.
The second fruit is joy and it is expressed not by being happy all of the time but by knowing the joy of being loved by God! Knowing this there is nothing in this world which can get to you and get you down. Oh, there will be days and sometimes weeks when something or someone will get you down but if you will start your day with a prayer and thank God for another day to serve Him then He will lift you up!
God will not allow you to have a really bad day if you start it with Him first! Just as the Feast of Firstfruits blesses the rest of the harvest when we bring our “firstfruits” to God, beginning the day with Him does the very same thing. Thank Him for another day to serve when you wake up, or soon after, and the rest of the day will be blessed. Does this mean that nothing will go wrong if you do this daily? No, it is not a guarantee of a perfect day every day, but it is a step in the right direction.
Peace and patience come with the other gifts and fruits but never, ever pray for patience! You will learn the lesson but you will not enjoy it. The peace which we know through Christ is the peace which we have knowing that our future in eternity is sealed! Kindness is a fruit which goes along with love and patience and all of the other fruits which the Spirit gives to each of us when we are made into “new creations in Christ“. Of course, even as believers, we are still at war with our “old nature which has passed away“, even though it (our old nature) is conquered in Christ it still is used by Satan to try to make us stumble and fall and doubt our salvation.
All of the fruits of the spirit are available to us but every believer will not show all of them. Some will have one or two, some will show all of them as they mature in their salvation through prayer and learning from God’s Word. Just as God gives us gifts through His Spirit, He also gives us our fruits of His Spirit so that others can see that we belong to Him and want what we have. So, if you are a child of God, seek out your gifts and your fruit and give some away to others. Amen
In the last days…
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/2ti.3.1-5.KJV
Serve Him with gladness!
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Psalms 2:11 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.2.11.KJV
Walking with Jesus
Each of us who answer His call has to learn how to do this. The Lord does give us an idea of how to do it, but it’s up to us to figure it out. It does take reading His Word and learning from it and this is a lifetime process. Some people think that going to church gives them the key to heaven or maybe reading the Bible gives them a special place in heaven. Those actions have no real bearing on your eternity although they do help you to be the person that you are supposed to be in Jesus Christ those actions do NOT save you!
Faith in Jesus and believing in His atonement for your life, your sins and all of the words and things which you have done or said in this life. The Holy Spirit comes to live in your heart and you become a new creation from that moment on. We become more like Him by turning away from our sinful lives and truly following Him daily. God called you to be His and it is His call on your life which allows you to be saved because He gives you the faith and the grace to become His child…but only if you answer that call by accepting it and moving toward Him and away from your old life.
But…what if I don’t want to give up my old life?
Then it is likely that you won’t accept Jesus’ call on your life! It is a sad position to be in from an eternal standpoint. If you have felt His touch in your heart and you know that you are a sinner and you need Jesus as your Savior, yet you love your sins and your “regular” life more than you feel the need of salvation…it is very possible that you will just walk away from Him. What would’ve happened to the church if the disciples had turn away from Jesus? There wouldn’t be a church today.
Could Jesus have found other disciples? Of course, He could have but it would’ve been very different from the ministry which He had with the original disciples. People are very different and shepherds or other disciples would have learned from Him in different ways from the 12 which He chose. Even His betrayer would’ve been different, but God knew which men would follow Him and the ones who did were the disciples which were needed.
God knows our hearts and our usefulness to Him, not because He forces us to be His disciples because gratitude and love cannot be forced in any way! We serve God because He loves us and because we love Him in return for everything that Jesus did for us. But, our life with Jesus brings with it a responsibility, and that responsibility is to grow in our faith and our spiritual strength as we go through this life with Him.
Reading the Bible and praying for the Spirit to teach us the meaning of it as we read is part of our life and our walk with Him. It is not really an option and it gives us the ability to resist the temptations and the “fiery darts” which are sent our way as we live in service to Him. If you don’t grow and learn from Him in your daily walk with Him and in reading His Word, then you will be overcome at some point when temptation or trials come your way.
