Choices, Choices, Choices

1 John 2:12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.  13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.

I write unto you babes in Christ because you must know your sins are forgiven.  I write unto you father’s in the faith because you have known the Torah and the grace of God and you knew the Lord when He came.  I write unto you young men, because with all your strength and passions and zest for life you have overcome the temptations of Satan and have embraced the Lord of Hosts and have used your great strength in His service.

In every generation there is a temptation, a blessing and a fulfilled need in your life.  God’s love is absolutely awesome and full of power and ability to both keep us and change us.  We must understand and embrace each generation so they might fulfill their purpose in Christ Jesus.  Far too many have either failed to fulfill their purpose or have become a pale shadow of that purpose.  In many churches we do not acknowledge the call of our children until they are in their late twenties or even thirties.  I am not talking about the cute praise dancing or children’s choir.  I am talking about actual ministry where we teach them God’s Word daily and prepare them for life in Christ.  How can we reduce their ministry before God to a ‘seen but not heard’ status when Christ Himself preached and taught the Sanhedrin at the age of twelve. 

At my age I am supposed to be the voice of reason and wisdom.  My experiences are supposed to be available to the youth so they do not choose the wrong paths but my other  purpose is to encourage them to venture out in ever increasing acts of faith and ministry.  My job is not to hold them back from growing up in Christ until they become frustrated and abandon their faith or the ministry before they even begin.  When I was a young man of 21 or 22, Apostle Sims had me prophesy to seasoned ministers.  I should have begun even earlier but that is when I came to the Lord.  He never held us back and afforded us opportunities to minister whenever possible.  Because of this we knew we were immature in some areas (nothing like having a seasoned prophet say, “Keep at it son, you’ll get it one day.) but bit by bit we were ushered into responsibility and purpose. 

1 John 2:14 I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

A child raised in a godly and loving home has a deeper understanding of God than any abused and wounded child.  Frederick Douglas once said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”  It is wonderful to win the abused and beaten of the world to the Lord but how much better to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of His love.  When they have been raised in love and grace they will truly understand their heavenly Father. 

Fathers who love God have learned who He is through years of experience and love.  They know His moods and desires.  We can speak a word of truth that will change the course of lives because we truly have learned to know the Father.  Father’s provide continuity as God our Father is the truly continuous one.  He is forever and will never change.  We have (supposedly) come to know Him and are passing that along to our children.  Once again this scripture says that the young men are strong.  They have their vitality and power and they are full of life.  They have overcome the evil one by strength of character and the DUNAMIS power of God.  They are no longer children who are tossed to and fro.  They are young vibrant adults who have overcome the enemy through their knowledge of God’s Word and are ready to join the community of believers in that fight.

1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

I have often watched groups like the Sierra club and Earth First who would love to kill off three quarters of the human race in order to protect this planet.  My earthly father always told me to leave a place cleaner and better than I found it.  I have no problem with conservation and protecting what God has given us but at the same time I recognize that this Earth will one day burn up in flames and violence and there will be a new heaven and a new earth.  This planet like everything and everyone on it, is subject to the bondage of decay (Romans 8:21).  The truth is, the Earth was created for man; not the other way around.

The word for WORLD is kosmos and means the orderly arrangement of all things.  Why should God have any problem with the orderly arrangement that He set in motion in the first place.  Perhaps the answer is that we have become infatuated with the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever (Romans 1:25).  God will not allow anyone or anything receive more worship than He does, certainly not the planet He created to be our home.  Many nations on Earth are cursed because they have removed God from His rightful place and have exchanged Him for trees and mountains and four legged animals.  They worship nature or an idea or a purpose above the very God who gave us minds able to comprehend these ideas.

Whoever loves this world we live on more than those who live on it has already left God and His purpose for this planet.  His purpose was that you might have more abundant eternal life through His son, Christ Jesus.  Elizabeth Falls in Africa are absolutely beautiful.  The Grand Canyon in Nevada is awe inspiring.  When you look upon this Earth that God has created for us you can’t help but see His love for beauty and joy in creation.  The golden oil rich sands of Arabia are filled with strife and war.  They have enough wealth to meet any need and turn the Middle East into a flourishing garden but God’s judgment against them keeps them bickering and battling because they have left their first love.  The beauty of North Korea is tainted by suspicion, poverty and distrust because they have left their first love.  South Korea is a shining light of Christian love and a vibrant economy.  The only difference between them is God’s love and grace. 

There are good and terrible reasons to carefully watch every corner of the earth but only one perfect one.  God said, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” 

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

I was at a department store the other day looking for a Birthday Card.  In one particular section the cards were all about being proud of who you are.  As I read one after the other I realize  that my simple desire to choose a HAPPY birthday greeting was being changed and twisted by the spirit of pride.  As Christians we are supposed to be aware that whatever we are is because of God’s grace and love.  I can be proud of my God and be happy and blessed that He chose me but what RIGHT or REASON do I have to be proud of this bag of bones I call flesh?

The verse above says that lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and pride of life is ALL that is in the world.  That means that when a preacher sounds like a motivational speaker and tells you how you deserve happiness and you are a terrific person, he has allowed the spirit of the world to enter his message and corrupt it.  The truth is that God has promised you more abundant life and to make you more like the Him each day because of HIS love and HIS grace and HIS mercy. 

GOD has much to be proud of. 

Lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh can be about that new car, new home or expensive watch just as it might refer to your desire for sexual fulfillment.  You may be tall or short, thin or fat, smart or not so smart, but all those attributes reflect who you are in God and are not anything YOU have provided.  I have Attention Deficit Disorder or ADD.  I have often wondered why God ‘made me thus.’  I’m not a genius but I do have a reasonably comfortable IQ.  As for looks, as long as I am comfortable with them I can look in the mirror and say, “You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-18).”  I am precious in God’s eyes.  That Psalm I just quoted ends by saying, “marvelous are your works Lord.”  I didn’t make myself.  God did.  Should I be proud that I was made black, white or brown, male or female when I had nothing to do with it? 

If mankind could choose to bear a boy or girl, if we develop this scientific ability, then we will begin to believe we are gods.  In many countries those parents would chose to have nothing but boys because a girl is looked down upon.  In twenty years those boys will look around for their soul mates and find nothing because of their parent’s short sighted prejudices.  We neuter men and masculinize women and wonder why they choose themselves to love.  A masculine man and feminine man make a family together and since they cannot bear children they adopt on of the many left without families because of wars or famine.  This so called love is borne out of deliberate disobedience to God.  The women who find each other say, “We are women, we can bear children.”  They go to a fertility clinic and purchase seed or find a good male friend who is willing to ‘help them out’ and get them pregnant and call this love, yet another deliberate disobedience to God.

As a man I may find thousands of women attractive.  I have no emotional attachment to any of them, but if my wife and I have NOT maintained a healthy emotional, spiritual and loving relationship with one another, that very attractiveness can become lust of the eyes or lust of the flesh.  It is this vital and necessary love, both agape and phileo, that allows us to marry and nurture and raise a family together when age and time cause the eros of the relationship to fade.  God has forbidden certain relationships for our own good.  Like accepted relationships they may contain selfless love, friendship love and passionate love but they are nonetheless forbidden. 

God has said, “These are my rules.  I do not make them because they are unimportant or of no consequence but because they are important and have grave consequences.  The consequences may be hidden to you but trust ME, I know best.  Your obedience may not always be the most pleasurable choice at first, but eventually your flesh will come into agreement with your spirit and My Spirit.” 

You ask yourself why you should deny yourself these passions, these relationships?  Verse 17.

1 John 2:17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

God has not said that you cannot have passion or comfort or love.  He has not denied you any GOOD thing; He is simply the one who determines what is good and holy and right.  You do not have to obey Him.  The word abideth above (meno) means to stand, to remain, to endure, to maintain.  The word ever (alon) means world without end, eternal, beyond time.  We know that those who disobey and forsake God are doomed to spend eternity in Hell and we know that there is a great gulf fixed so no one may enter and bring comfort to those suffering in Hell (Luke 16:24-26).  We also know that Hell will be cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15). 

Salvation is not difficult.  Jesus said, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:30).”  There ARE things we are denied in Christ and if we press toward that mark then the grace of God is sufficient.  If we choose to disobey God and fulfill our ungodly passions then it is no more grace but a fearful looking forward to judgment (Hebrews 10:19-31 ^read).  This scripture refutes those scandalous lying people who say that God’s grace is provided to keep us safe even when we choose to deliberately disobey God’s Word and still try and call ourselves Christian. 

For you who choose to deny yourself in order to obey God and cherish His life giving Spirit, there is eternal life.  For you who do not…

Choose life beloved.

Life and Light in Him!

1 John 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Matthew 12:37 says, “By YOUR words you shall be justified and by YOUR words you will be condemned.”  One is not allowed to remain silent about your stand with regards to God.  If you belong to Him you MUST say so.  If you belong to another (though there are no others) you must make this verbal commitment.  One is not allowed to remain like neutral like Switzerland.  God requires a commitment on your part. 

Joshua 24:15 says, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.”  He actually made it even more clear.  “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  They answered and said, “God forbid we should serve other gods.”  I will say that they did manage to keep God’s commandments all the days that Joshua led them.  They continued to fight for God successfully and lost no battles until after his death when they began to forget.

Verse six above says we ought to walk even as Jesus walked.  Jesus could never be accused of being a “forgetful hearer.”  He obeyed God’s Word because He was God’s Word.  In God’s miraculous grace, Christ is able to dwell in us and we in Him.  In God’s economy we are expected to walk as He walked, talk as He talked and even to do greater things than He did because He stands before the Father making intercession for us and funneling that eternal power through us into the world.  We are the conduit God has chosen to bring His Word to all the world.

1 John 2:7 Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.  8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

These two verses can be confusing to some.  First John says he writes no new commandment and then says he writes a new commandment.  Jeremiah 31:31 says, “Behold, the days come saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”  This is repeated in Hebrews 8:8 and explained further in that chapter.  In Hebrews 12:24 it says that Jesus is the mediator of that new covenant. 

In the law there is a high priest who makes intercession and offers sacrifices for the people according to the law through the sacrifice of animals.  It was an imperfect answer for an age old dilemma of a Holy God who wanted to make a path into His presence for an unholy mankind.  God instituted this sacrifice well before the giving of the law when He killed animals to provide skins for Adam and Eve.  Scripture after scripture says we must be clothed in righteousness in order to stand in God’s presence.  God provided this first example by clothing Adam and Eve in and through the sacrifice of animals.  When Moses came God codified (wrote into law) the various sacrifices.

Thousands of years later God sent His son in the same flesh worn by the rest of mankind except without sin.  According to scripture sin is introduced to the unborn child through the father’s seed.  God worked around this problem by making Mary pregnant by spirit and not man.  It is interesting how we have discovered through science that a woman does not provide the blood of the child, in fact her reproductive processes are designed to keep the child’s blood completely separate from her own blood.  Nutrients pass between them but blood does not.  When Jesus was born He was born without the sin passed down through the male lines from Adam.  Joseph’s legal position as her espoused made Jesus a Jew but Mary’s position opened the way for Him to be King.

When Christ first died and rose again many Priests came forward to become Christians.  Soon after the chief priests put a stop to this and through threats, lies and intimidation began a split that ended with two separate religions, Christianity, the new and vibrant faith that would join much of the world’s gentiles, and Judaism, which remained as insular and isolated as ever.  Because of their offensive declarations against Jesus (ignorantly calling the Holy Spirit Beelzebub), God blinded their eyes against the truth until the time of the Gentiles was fulfilled.

This is the spiritual and political arena that John was writing to.  Every chapter of the 66 books of our Bible tell of Jesus.  Both old and new testaments clearly broadcast His name and message to those who had ears to hear.  On the one hand he explains, there is no new commandment to write about.  This is true since everything that might be known of Christ may be known through the Old Testament, except for a few revelations that explain some formerly unknown attributes of Jesus. 

Those few revelations, such as the brass serpent in the wilderness, were only understood and explained in the New Testament.  Over all however, the Old Testament was the only scripture the disciples of Christ had to teach from until the New Testament was written and collected into one interconnected book.  The New Testament makes understanding our Lord and His message easier, but it was not absolutely necessary.  With proper prayerful insight a diligent and studious man can discover Jesus within the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament.

This is why Paul said in verse seven that there was no new commandment but in verse eight that he was indeed writing a new commandment.  The new commandment hinted at in verse eight was foretold and almost completely revealed in the Torah.  That truth had been hidden for thousands of years but was now revealed in Christ.  Jesus brought the light of the glorious gospel, and the age of darkness brought on by man’s ignorance and lack of knowledge is erased by the light of truth in Christ.

1 John 2:9 He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.

LOVE.  Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”  Matthew 22:37 repeats it with some clarification, “And he said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  The word for might in Hebrew is mod which means vehemence.  Vehemence is from a French word that means to put forth with violence, passion and forcefulness.  In other words, you must put everything you have into it.  The Greek word that replaced might in the Hebrew is dianona and though it loosely means mind, it really means the passion, strength and forcefulness of someone whose mind is made up and leads him in one powerful direction.

I have often sung a song that goes, “My mind is made up; I’m on my way up, I’m gonna hold my head up.  Goin’ on with the Lord!”  Job 23:13 speaking of God and His Word says, “But he is in one mind, and who can turn Him?  And what His soul desires, even that he doeth.”  God is of one mind though He be a triune God.  He has sent His Word and that Word WILL NOT CHANGE no matter how much some on earth may wish it.  David said, “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psalm 119:11).  Man’s desire is to move God to change so His Word might be more comfortable to follow.  God has no interest, no reason, no desire and no purpose in changing His immutable word. 

Malachi 3:6 says, “I am the Lord thy God, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”  There are two ideas present here.  In idea one, God’s plan and purpose will continue and all who accept His Word as sacrosanct, holy and unchangeable will not be consumed and destroyed.  Idea two is that whosoever changes God’s Word, even to the least jot or tittle will be consumed and destroyed.  I thought John made it quite clear in Revelation 22:18-19, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” 

I wanted to establish that God will not put up with anyone changing His words.  There are others as well of course, but you get the idea.  This means that God’s first commandment is that you should love the Lord with all that is in you.  The second (also found in Matthew 22) is – v39 “…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  A brother ought to be closer than a neighbor.  1 John 3:15-16 says, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a MURDERER: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 

You know those two people in church that you can’t stand, sister (Smith) and brother (Jones)?  Tell me, how do you feel about sister (Smith) now?  What about brother (Jones)?  Do they still get on your nerves?  Do you still refuse to speak to them and talk about them behind their backs?  Did you know the reason sister (Smith) acts the way she does is because she was abused by her father?  …or that brother (Jones) is the way he is because he has a learning disability that he’s ashamed of and you are both smart and educated?  These are just examples I pulled out of the air of course but you get the idea.  There are ALWAYS reasons behind bad behavior and while someone may treat you badly because of those reasons, they may still LOVE you and pray for you.  That means that if you hate them for their behavior but in spite of their behavior they love you and pray for you, they will be saved and YOU will NOT.

1 John 2:10 He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.

The word used here for love is agapao.  This word does not say they are your good friend and you enjoy spending time with them.  There are plenty of difficult people in the Body of Christ.  That is not your problem, it’s God’s.  He is working on them.  You need not wish to marry or be near these people either, but you do have to love them.  You MUST want the best for them and desire God’s divine purpose to be fulfilled in their lives.  You must pray for them and ask God to deliver them from their pain and sorrows.  This is the commandment of AGAPAO and if you do this you will not stumble out of frustration and anger toward your brother. 

Frustration and anger toward others is caused by ignorance.  Racism, sexism, hatred and war are all caused by ignorance.  We are ignorant of God’s purpose and ignorant of the motivations of others.  Even if you understand what motivates the other person, if you cannot find it within yourself and your relationship with God to love that person and seek God’s face for their well being, you are not perfected in love.  While you were a filthy sinner, Christ died for your salvation (Romans 5:6-8).  I have already explained how your best, your absolute best behavior is a filthy, bloody rag to God so how can you expect others who have not yet been delivered or changed by the power of God to live perfectly toward you?

If you hate, you have already stumbled.  If you do not forgive, you are fallen on your face.  If you rejoice in difficult people because of the challenge of praying for them to be delivered and you shout in triumph when you see them begin to change, then you have fulfilled this scripture.  When you rejoice in watching the redeeming work of the Holy Spirit and God’s Word in the life of a former sinner, then you will truly walk in the light. 

1 John 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

In the verse above I explained what our requirements are for the difficult people among us.  I have seen far too many ‘saints’ of God in church who have all but cursed other ‘saints’ of God because of their behavior.  I might expect this behavior from Christian babies, but when should we expect those babies to grow up?  A baby’s eyesight is terrible.  They can’t really focus yet and can only recognize colors and vague shapes.  As they get older, they learn to control their eye muscles and can focus on and track objects more effectively.  Far too many Christians see like those babies after years of life in church.  This is completely unacceptable. 

When Matthew 6:22 says that the light of our body is the eye it means that the light which flows into the body of Christ is the eye of the body of Christ; your ability to discern and understand those around you so you might love and treasure them by that knowledge.  Jesus Himself said, “If your eye be evil, your whole body is in darkness.”  How grievous it must be for Jesus when a large portion of the eyes of HIS body wallow in darkness and are totally unsuitable for service to God.  If you hate your brother you are in darkness.  A spiritually blind man cannot do the works of God because there is no light within Him and Christ came that we might have life and light.

Christ is our head and the head of our body.  How horrible if we bring darkness into His body and refuse to overcome our blindness and ignorance for the sake of the kingdom.  People are usually not blind and ignorant because they do not understand or cannot comprehend the scripture.  People are usually blind and ignorant because they choose to be and do not want to submit their anger and rage to God.  They believe that their desire is more important than God’s.  This is one of the greatest problems in the world today.  People want what they want and if they cannot justify it in Christ and His Word then they expect the rest of the world to simply change that word until it fits their will, their desire. 

God said, “I am the Lord thy God and I change NOT! 

Neither should WE!

Love and Judging

1 John 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

How can we respond to a scripture like this?  Whoever keeps God’s word, in Him is the love of God perfected:  and because of this we know that WE are in HIM.  Why?  Because we can only keep God’s Word by FAITH.  Right after Jesus fed the five thousand and he needed time to refill His Spirit by solitary prayer, he sent His disciples on ahead in a boat (Matthew 14:16-32).  There was a rough sea and the wind was against them when Jesus came upon the disciples WALKING ON WATER.  Here they had experienced two miracles, they had seen God multiply seed sown (the bread and fishes), and they had seen Jesus walking upon the surface of the water. 

If you wonder why this was so incredible consider Genesis 1:6 where God divided the waters from the waters.  Jesus showed Himself the Lord of the Waters.

Instead of accepting this awe inspiring occurrence the disciples cried out in fear.  Remember, the opposite of love is not hate; it is fear.  Fear drives Muslim terrorists to attack and murder entire villages of Christians or Jews.  Fear drove the KKK to murder freed slaves and make their lives miserable.  Fear prevents a woman from submitting herself to her godly (important part) husband in the face of her contemporaries criticism.  Fear makes sinners run from or curse Christians (often with good reason).  Fear means you have little love of God in your soul and fear means you have little faith.

We can overcome fear and exercise our faith.  Exercising our bodies means we get sore and stiff until we build them up.  Exercising faith means we might get wet like Peter did when he stepped out of the boat and walked on water to Jesus until the crashing waves frightened him.  He had faith but in the process of building it up he stumbled and began to sink.  Give the man credit; he had the presence of mind to cry out, “Lord, Save me!”  Jesus answer was not, “I have you!”  His answer was, “O you of small faith, why did you doubt?” 

It is good that we love God.  It is good that we take steps of faith even if we occasionally get wet.  What often grieves God is when we lash out against those who are different than we are or serve Him in a different administration.  It might be because you are young and immature or because you have been hurt over the years.  Whatever the reason it is clear when we react in fear or anger that we are not made perfect in love.  Over and over I hear people say, “God is going to get you!”  Beloved, we’re not in THAT chapter of history right now.  We are in the dispensation of GRACE! 

We won’t follow scripture closely because we are afraid to.  That is a lack of love.  We aren’t willing surrender our will and we try to find verses that let us get away with lifestyle decisions and other actions.  That is a lack of love.  Your level of love is DIRECTLY linked to your level of obedience to His scripture.  Over and over I hear people tell me, “We are not under the law!”  My answer is that YOU do not appear to be under ANYTHING or ANYONE.  If you were under God you would submit to Him.  It is certain that America as a whole is NOT one nation under God.  I’d be satisfied if we Christians were one people under God. 

One last point that God has been hammering at me lately is insisting I speak into your hearts.  I spend a fair amount of time on Facebook trying to keep track on how some of the people I know are doing.  Lately there seems to be a powerful movement of finger pointers and judges of ministries.  The Word God gave me in this is that He is our judge, NOT YOU.  When you are judging you are not loving and praying.  When you are judging you are pointing a finger right back at yourself and God will make sure that your standards of life are just as high as you are requiring of others.  He might not judge you for sexual sin when your sin is pride though.  He will judge any sin for any sin.  Is that what you want? 

The first verse He gave me is Romans 14:4:  “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?  To his own master he standeth or falleth.  Yea, he shall be raised up because God is able to make him stand.”  By your words of malice you have already condemned yourselves of the sins of judging, backbiting, whispering, malignity, etc.  The second word He gave me was Matthew 7:1-2.  I’ll let you look those up.  The third was Psalm 105:15, 1 Chronicles 16:22,  “Touch not my anointed ministers and do not harm my prophets.”  When you put your mouths upon a minister you do not agree with or even one who has stumbled and been caught in sin; you will surely be judged by God.  God destroyed the very nations HE called to punish Israel.  Israel needed to be punished and God chose His instrument to do so but the nations who carried out that task were utterly destroyed for touching God’s anointed and sinning people.  Think about that.

I guess what I am saying is to keep your mouth closed and your knees busy in prayer.  Many of you need to repent and ask God to forgive you for your OPINION.  Personally whenever I get afflicted by Satan and start speaking against someone, I get down on my knees and beg God for His forgiveness. 

There are ways to help correct someone in sin.  Scripture says, “Ye who are spiritual (that leaves a bunch of us out) restore such a one in a spirit of MEEKNESS.”  It also says to take two or three (I suggest three) witnesses let every word be established and if that person is a danger to God’s house then you must still meekly and humbly speak to him in love and grace.

Take care beloved.  Do not allow Satan to drive you into error and pride.  Do something gracious for that person you have been looking funny at.  Pray for them and keep their sin private.  If God feels they are ignoring His many warnings and decides to go public with their sin, don’t you be the public address system He uses.  It might cost more than you want to pay.

No Lie?

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

This verse accurately says, “My infant, unlearned babies, I am writing all these things to you so you will not miss the mark of the high calling of God (Philippians 3:14).  If it so happens that you do miss the mark, the target of God that you should be aiming for with all your heart, you and I have an advocate, a paraclete, someone who will take hold of your life and walk along beside and help turn you in the right direction.  This paraclete will guide you into perfect communion and union with the Father in Heaven.  Some of His is names are Jesus, Jehovah is Salvation, and the Christ.  He is anointed by the Father, empowered with all the power of the Godhead; the righteous one who is holy in an absolute and perfect way.  He is as perfect as God the Father and the Father in Heaven WILL ABSOLUTELY receive His petition on YOUR behalf as if it comes directly from the Father Himself.

I appreciate all John’s writings above those of other New Testament writers because he is someone who appreciates the sublime, higher than the heaven above knowledge of our true God and Savior.  He also writes to newborn Christians so they will not see Jesus as just some ‘guy,’ some natural man who lived a good life.  John makes it clear as glass – or the streets of gold – that Jesus is God who happens to be the Son of God also.  In the original Hebrew the name of God, Elohim, is a plural name.  Deuteronomy 6:4 says, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:”  In Hebrew it says, “Hear, O Israel:  Yahweh our Elohim is one Yahweh.”  The unpronounceable and perfect NAME, our ETERNAL LORD who is GODS (plural) is ONE Eternal Lord.  The word for ONE here is ehad (eh haad).  It is the same word used for Adam and Eve when the scripture says they were ONE flesh.

Adam and Eve were two individuals who were one FLESH.  They were created out of one and when married were ONE.  God is much more one even though He is also plural.  His thoughts are perfect and there is NEVER any argument between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  They are three distinct entities and yet they are ONE in all things where Adam and Eve were only one in flesh.  Because of this, Jesus is as holy, powerful, righteous, authoritative and eternal as the Father or the Holy Spirit.  He simply has a RESPONSIBILITY to justify all those who believe and trust in His Name that His Father does not have.  His Father demands perfect holiness and Jesus through His blood sacrifice and resurrection provides it.

Perhaps you know all this.  It is basic to the doctrine of salvation.  Perhaps you do not; there are plenty of churches in America and around the world today that think Jesus was some old guy who died two thousand years ago and they still call themselves Christians.  In John 20:28, Thomas set the record clear when he said to Jesus, “My Lord (supreme master) and my God (divine heavenly king).  He knew and identified the risen savior as Almighty God.  For you to be born again you MUST believe that Jesus is God, Eternal in the Heavenlies and one with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  You cannot believe that He is just some guy because Christ’s only use as a Savior was His sacrifice.  It is against God’s law to sacrifice human beings in general so Christ had to be more than merely human.

1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Propitiation is an interesting word that means he paid your sin debt so God would not send you to Hell for it.  There is no purgatory or place where you will work off your sin debt.  We are filthy, sinful human beings and all of our righteousness is as disgusting as a used menstrual cloth (Isaiah 64:6).  Sorry but that is the actual picture painted by the Hebrew.  What a terrible vivid image of the best you can possibly be.  Women in this condition weren’t even allowed out into public until a week after their flow stopped and they had taken a ceremonial cleansing bath.  That is your greatest level of holiness apart from Christ’s sacrifice.

Let me say this one more time so we have clarity, “YOU CANNOT LIVE OR BE HOLY ENOUGH TO GET INTO HEAVEN.  YOUR BEST IS DISGUSTING AND DRAWS FLIES.”  Jesus called Satan, “Beelzebub” and said, “If Satan drives out Satan it is a divided kingdom (Mark 3:22-26).  The term He used was Beelzebub which means, “Lord of the Flies.”  He could have said that Satan is the lord of HUMAN RIGHTEOUSNESS.  Hmmm.  Nope, that’s not any better.

Some people believe that Jesus has already saved the whole world because the verse says, “…and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.”  This is an inaccurate interpretation.  The best way to describe the work of Jesus here is if you commit a crime and it requires the death penalty.  Your father can’t bear to lose a child so he goes to the authorities and takes responsibility for your crime.  The warden enters your cell with a notice of release.  It has two stipulations.  The first is that you sign the release to accept it.  The second is that you strive to obey the law to honor your father’s sacrifice. 

Perhaps you love your worldly father too much to let him die for you.  In our case Jesus has already died and been reborn so that is not an issue.  The second part is one that causes many to either stumble or declare it to be too much effort.  You must signify that you have truly accepted Jesus into your heart and that He is now your Lord and Savior.  This is done by obedience to His Word.

1 John 2:3 And hereby we do KNOW that we KNOW him, if we keep his commandments.

The Greek word for know is ginosko and is also an idiom for the sexual intercourse between a man and a woman.  The problematic issue here is that in these days of sexual ‘looseness’ a man and a woman may bypass the spiritual and emotional bond of holy marriage that is designed to make our sexuality a celebration of the bond rather than some sweaty moment of passion and shame.  God’s way REQUIRES the bond of marriage to get someone out of their clothing and into each others bodies and hearts.  We have cheapened and reduced that celebration from a blending of agape, phileo and eros love into simple animal magnetism.  Without agape, phileo and eros intertwined with a marriage VOW there is no marriage and our relationship bears NO resemblance to a true relationship with God. 

If we truly know (ginosko) God in all the subtle nuances of that word; then we will also know His voice and be filled with the joy and intimate understanding of His moods and desire for us.  That complete love relationship will change the obedience of His commandments from the onerous and difficult requirement of slaves seeking to avoid a penalty of death, to a joyous opportunity to please and fulfill our blessed heavenly lover. 

Jesus is our husband (our true mate), our husbandman (shepherd and nurturer of our souls) and our beloved.  It is for Him that we keep the lamp of our soul lit and waiting for His coming.  He has gone away from our physical presence in the Hebrew fashion to prepare a place for us to dwell.  When it says in John 14:2 that there are many mansions in His Father’s house and that he goes to prepare a place for us (John 14:3), He means it as a bridegroom preparing for His bride. 

The Greek word in verse 3 above for commandment is the same as in verse 4 below, entole and means a commandment, precept and injunction.  Commandments are something one is ordered to do without specifying the authority of the one issuing the commandment.  Their orders may be founded upon might and power or true legal authority.  In God’s case it is both.  A precept is something you learn to do and has become a part of who and what you are.  An injunction is an authoritative command, in this case based upon the moral, spiritual and legal authority of God who is the creator of all and Savior, purchaser of your eternal soul.  God’s PERSONAL measure of how well we know Him is by how well we keep His commandments.

Christians often rail against the burden of keeping the law of God and we somehow take Peter’s admonition to kill and eat (Acts 10:13-36) to mean that there are no ‘laws’ of God we are required to obey.  This does not agree with the understanding that Jesus had to obey all the law of Moses to be ‘without sin (Hebrews 4:15).’  It isn’t so much the laws of washing, eating and touching but the laws of love, forgiveness and assistance that God is passionate about.  The laws of washing, eating and touching were ordained to ensure we understood that God is Holy and you had to be holy to live (and not die horribly and eternally) in His presence. 

In Christ we are made holy through His sacrifice and our acceptance of it.  That is the first step in our marriage to Jesus.  He died to fulfill the requirements of that marriage.  Once the Holy Spirit was birthed in our hearts and we have become born again, the commandments of touch not, taste not and handle not have been removed.  This has not however changed our responsibility to observe the Sabbath and keep it holy or to love our neighbor.  We are still responsible to give and be good stewards of all that God gives us.  We are also responsible to keep the relationship between ourselves and God hot, passionate and intimate.  If that sounds very much like marriage…uh…yeah. 

Jesus completely destroyed many of the unwritten and written (Talmudic & Mishnah) laws priests and rabbis have come up with over the years but He managed to obey ALL the true laws of God.  There are commandments of men (usually designed to combat what they saw as spiritual degradation over time) and there are commandments of God for all men.  The violence, anger, hatred and disrespect for all others that we see in the Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria is mostly based in a desire to see God’s word more closely followed and a strong feeling of fear of apostasy and missing God.  Sadly they have chosen a religion that advocates violence and rage to combat these things rather than love, grace and mercy. 

Our faith is not so and for this reason when we see promoters of hate like those who picket homosexual funerals or prophets who no longer walk in grace and love but in fear and accusation, it is distressing and troubling.  Ours faith is based upon a relationship with our heavenly Father and our Lord and Husband Jesus.  Scripture is our friend and lover, not our club and jailer.  We are expected to love those who speak against us or against God, not to curse them and seek God’s judgment over them.  That is not why Christ died.  Christ sent John to draw men to repentance and then He came personally to lead them into truth, salvation and life.

1 John 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

You can see why a failure to keep God’s commandments makes us a liar.  The only way to show God (Jesus) our love and acceptance of His role as Savior, Lord and Lover is to live in His house according to His rules and directions.  This is the true gospel and reason it is called the GOOD NEWS.  Rather than being difficult and troublesome, God’s commandments are to help us stand rested and not be broken under the weight of the world’s lies (Matthew 11:28-30).  Marriages end every day because one or both partners have hardened their hearts against the other.  Jesus is the perfect husband and we have no excuse for saying, “I will not abide by your house rules.” 

The last part of this verse says that the disobedient one is a liar living without the truth.  This presupposes that the disobedient one is trying to justify themselves by saying, “It’s not my fault.  I tried to live for God.  It’s just too hard.”  Really?  If Matthew 11:28-30 is correct and God’s yoke is easy then how can it be too hard?  The only way I can think of is if we are presently living for Satan, the father of lies, and we have not given our whole heart to Jesus, the Son of Light and Truth (Psalm 43:3).  If this is the case then we have become the home wreckers. The spouse (Christ’s church) is at fault; not God.  I do know that if we fast and pray and ask God to take our evil desires and wickedness from us HE WILL.  I promise!

I Have No Sin!

1 John Chapter 1

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

Genesis 1:1 speaks directly about Jesus.  It says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  In doing this He, the creative force of the universe created something that was able to be touched and handled.  Centuries later God created a body for Himself and installed His living Word into it.  This word grew and matured like a child knowing no good or bad (Isaiah 7:14-16) until He became a mature man and was able to fully connect to and obey the spirit of God’s Word within Him.  He was subject to all the temptations, fears and passions that we are and yet through the Holy Spirit was able to remain above it all and without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

John is trying in his own unique way to describe the Son of God, Jesus the Christ (John 1:1-17).  He is trying to explain the inexplicable fact that Jesus is Lord of the Earth, that He is God and that He is also man.  John could not hold or handle the Father or Holy Spirit who is as the wind, but he could handle Jesus the man who stated that if you have seen me, touched me, and heard me, then you have seen and touched and heard the Father (John 14:6-11).

He wrote this because he knew that future generations would doubt even the existence in history of Jesus, much less that He was the Son of God and the Lord of all.  We try so hard to tell ourselves that Jesus is not any of the things the Bible says He is.  We twist scripture and corrupt its meaning while trying to swallow a lie that there is no God.  Many believe that the men and women of Jesus’ day are less intelligent because they are less technologically advanced. 

Really?

How is it that the great pyramid in Egypt is so perfectly placed and built that our own modern construction techniques would be unable to match it using computers and lasers?  The fitment of stones in that pyramid are closer and more accurately placed than the protective heat tiles on our space shuttle.  Perhaps that is why the space shuttle blew up and the pyramid still stands after several thousand years of attack by thieves, weather and wars.

Science has gone from studying and seeking the truth, whatever it might be, to trying to prove religion to be false.  It is obvious that if anthropologists, psychologist and all the other ‘ologists were to discover the truth that God is real they would hide it under a manure pit to cover their error.  These men who wrote our scripture always kept the understanding that the law came from Moses but grace and truth came from Jesus Christ.  To have deliberately lied or attempt to deceive never occurred to the men who brought us our Bible.  Their Lord was the Lord of truth and they could do no less.

2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

The life of was manifested, made obvious and apparent to Jesus’ disciples.  He was not ordinary and lived and ministered in such a manner that His disciples were forced to believe.  I think I may be a lot like Philip.  He wanted proof of who Christ was and what He was and Jesus mildly rebuked him saying, “Have I been so long with you Philip that you do not know me or know that if you know me you know the Father (John 14:8-11)?  Later we learn of Thomas who said, “Except I place my finger in the hole in his hands and feet or the hole in His side I will not believe (John 20:24-29).”

Peter, Paul, Mark, Luke and the rest all wrote that we might have clear and understandable doctrine.  John wrote that we might believe and believing we might accept that true doctrine and not keep watering it down to uselessness through unbelief.  He fought against legalists, spiritists, humanists and others who tried to twist the doctrine of Christ for their own purposes.  In his gospel, three epistles and the book of Revelation he battled tirelessly against the tyranny of the doubting scholar.

3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

One of Satan’s most foul lies is to move true Christian faiths to attack one another over petty doctrinal squabbles.  It’s bad enough that there are false ‘Christian’ cults all over the world but it is even worse that the true faiths cannot get along because someone does not view your pet spiritual purpose with the same passion you do.  They forget that God has promised to distribute spiritual gifts as HE wills and that ministries can be totally different than yours while still upholding the basic doctrines of our gospel (1 Corinthians 12:11). 

There is a reason that some cried, “I am of Apollos!” and others cried, “I am of Paul (1 Corinthians 1:12, 3:4)!”  Apollos and Paul were totally different in terms of temperament and style of ministry.  There are churches I have been in that were vibrant Bible believing churches and yet I did not care for the tone and tempo of the service or the preaching of the pastor.  I have entered others and felt immediately at home like slipping on old comfortable shoes.  Both services were dynamic and honored God.  Only one reached out to me specifically.  This is a great truth about the body of Christ.  We have hands and feet, ears and teeth, legs and arms.  Each of these ministries are very different but they are also all vital and powerful (1 Corinthians 12:14-18). 

As long as your fellowship with the Lord God is unimpeded and fulfills His purpose for your life; no man or woman can speak against it…though many will try anyway.

4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

Consider that John is writing this so your joy may be full.  He’s not specifically writing so your faith might grow or your wallet might be filled; but so your joy may be full.  It should fill us with joy to learn that God is real and Christ died for your sins and rose again to become our great high priest.  It should fill us with joy to learn that God abides in us and we in Him.  We worry so much about the burdens of life and success that we forget the eternal responsibilities God has placed upon us.  Love the Lord and He will set you free and keep you full of joy.

5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

John has taken 4 verses to explain that they have seen, walked, talked and touched Jesus the Son of God so that you will understand that when you hear the verses that follow you will know they are eyewitnesses and not merely someone repeating a message.  Jesus said, “Thomas, you believe because you have seen, touched and talked with me after my death and resurrection; blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believed (John 20:29).  In our generation we are those who have not seen and there is a special blessing to us for following our spirit and not our flesh but God has still left eyewitness accounts so we can know their experience. 

Having said all that, John states, “God is LIGHT and in Him is NO darkness at all.  There are no lies in God, only love and the faith it produces.  Satan on the other hand is the father of lies and all darkness.  If Christ and the Father are in us we are light and not darkness.  That light directs us to obey God in all things; even those things that require faith rather than feelings to follow.  If I want to buy the sports car because I can afford it and I love driving them but God says to buy the 4 wheel drive truck, I should buy the 4 wheel drive truck.  When I find myself in the midst of a storm that would drown a little sports car I can plow right on through IF I have been obedient.

6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

This scripture is difficult for many modern Christians who FEEL God would never send them to Hell for disobedience.  Walking in darkness when you have the light of God at your disposal is sin.  It might feel good to your flesh and have a false light that tickles your emotions but it is not the true light of God.  If we have fellowship with God we will walk in the light.  If we have fellowship with God we will make LIGHT choices and not DARK ones no matter how good they might feel to our flesh.  We cannot declare ourselves to be Christians; cannot declare ourselves to be walking in the light if we do not obey God’s Word.  If we do not obey then we do not WALK IN TRUTH and are LIARS.

Many are screaming right now, “But it feels good to me!  God’s way is uncomfortable to me.  I want to do it this way!  Surely God’s mercy and grace are sufficient.  Scripture says so!”  God’s mercy and grace are sufficient when you stumble through weakness.  God does not appear to consider DELIBERATE DISOBEDIENCE a weakness.  He seems to consider it to be walking in darkness with the purpose of walking in darkness.  When you fall into sin, scripture says a righteous man will get up seven times and continue on God’s path.  If you choose to walk on a path of darkness you have chosen not to get back up and have begun to walk a path of darkness for flesh sake, for sin’s sake, for darkness’ sake.

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

Notice our fellowship comes from walking in the light of the Gospel as Jesus walks in the light of His person which just happens to be the Gospel made flesh.  Because He died willingly for our sins we are forgiven.  Because He rose from the dead and lives eternal in the heavenlies we have a sacrifice that never stops cleansing us from sin.  When you sacrifice a lamb for your sins it cleanses you up to the point where the lamb died.  After that you immediately begin to store up wrath.  I knew a Jewish man who said that the only day of the year he felt clean was on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. 

In our case our Yom Kippur happens day by day, moment by moment, instant by instant.  When Christ has cleansed us and we show this by walking in the light of His Gospel, His redeeming power is a constant flow of grace and mercy in our lives.  We will also have fellowship one with another through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.  I live in what is called, “The South,” right next to the Great Dismal Swamp where Harriet Tubman used to sneak escaped slaves to the north 150 years ago.  There is still a lot of tension and disharmony in this area even now between blacks and whites. 

Christ died for black Americans.  Christ died for white Americans.  He died for Muslim Pakistanis and Hindu Indians also.  Jesus has no problem with your skin color or religious past.  He is only interested in your current life and future.  I presently attend a church that is primarily African American.  I enjoy the services and the tenor of the worship and praise.  If I liked a more staid church that sings the Old Rugged Cross slowly and prays quietly, God would meet me there.  He isn’t interested in our color or former faith.  He told us to subdue the earth so the country you live in isn’t the problem either.  What God wants is that all who name the name of Jesus over their lives would also embrace our brethren of other cultures, races and temperaments.  If I am more willing to accept someone who lives in sin rather than someone who loves other races, I am not walking in the light of Christ’s glorious gospel.

8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Scripture says that if the blind leads the blind both will fall in the ditch (Matthew 15:14, Luke 6:39).  Have you ever watched the so called beautiful people in action?  They kiss each other on the cheek and say, “You are awesome, you are beautiful.”  Neither one speaks of the terror and pain they hide within their hearts.  Luke 8:17 says that nothing is hidden that will not be brought out and spread abroad.  Your sin will not remain hidden so it is far better to deal with it when God brings it to your mind.  Whenever we cry aloud, “There is no sin in me!” we are liars and have managed to deceive even ourselves.  How foolish to walk around filled with self delusion and pain rather than to have our crippled lives made straight.

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Don’t be like the self-righteous Pharisee in Luke 18:11-14, pointing at the sinners and criminals around him and praying in his delusion of holiness and piety.  It is far better to be like the Tax Collector and simply beg for God’s mercy while acknowledging your sins.  Jesus Himself said, “This tax collector went home justified while the Pharisee did not.”  A fool thinks he can hide his sins from our Lord while a wise man repents and throws himself on the chief cornerstone.  He arises broken but cleansed, humbled but purified.  Pride makes a terrible scrub brush.  It is too smooth and well oiled to get the dirt off.

AMP 10 If we say (claim) we have not sinned, we contradict His Word and make Him out to be false and a liar, and His Word is not in us [the divine message of the Gospel is not in our hearts

It says repeatedly in the book of Judges, “And every man did what was right in his own eyes.”  What an indictment against their level of obedience to God.  There would have never been any judges had they not constantly been cast into tribulation for their sins.  God’s Word NEVER FAILS (Matthew 24:35).  Never.  The greatest sin in the modern church today is to lightly esteem the integrity of God’s scripture.  John says in his gospel, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  Jesus is the embodiment of God’s Word. 

Scripture has substance and life all its own and when we reduce all of it to mere allegory and cute story we reduce the very nature of God and the power and authority of Christ.  By our very disbelief we fail to submit to God and when we fail to submit, we find it impossible to obtain God’s power and blessings over our lives.  God’s Word says, “Be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath (James 1:19).  We instead have quick tempers, lightning tongues and an inability to quietly listen until we know the heart of the matter.  When this happens we cause those angry lost sinners to stumble because they see someone just like they are.

While we were yet in our sin, CHRIST DIED FOR US (Romans 5:8).  If He was as a lamb, dumb before its shearers (Isaiah 53:7) then why do we think we need to be so quick to defend our sacred…?  No…our profane honor.  The term Christian means that we are to be Christ like.  When someone sees us they should see Jesus.  The only ones Jesus verbally attacked were the religious leaders of the day who said, “We see and understand God.”  Jesus healed the blind and ignorant.  He punished those who should have known better because they knew the Word of God; people like us, the saints of God.   

Do you still say, “I have no sin?”

It’s Right Because it Is!

 

James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

God is the Father of LIGHTS.  Think about it.  He’s not just talking about Jesus because it is plural…light(S).  We are lights in the world and to be those lights we should have every good and perfect gift that we need to accomplish God’s will.  In part two of this scripture, there is NO changing or even a SHADOW of changing in God.  How often have you changed your mind because it was just too hard to do right?  Whatever is in shadow is in darkness.  Darkness comes from Satan.  When God says to move forward but fear, doubt and lies makes you turn away then you have experienced a SHADOW of turning.  Rather than being defeated by shadows, use every one of those good and perfect gifts God has assigned you and kick the backside of any shadows.

18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Everything contained in the Bible was placed there by God’s will.  Never doubt this fact.  The Bible is alive and filled with the Spirit.  The Words are alive and accomplish whatever God requires.  Angels were created servants of God but we are different.  We are the created children of God.  We were first born of the flesh and then born again of the spirit.  First, man was; and now, second, the spirit makes us alive spiritually.  Our preaching and teaching and moving in the gifts will create new births and on and on.  As long as we believe that scripture is alive and honor it as God’s Word, people will continue to be born again.

19 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

My entire purpose today was to get right here.

I was once in the United States Air Force.  I loved God, but I was dedicated to my country too.  These days my love for God has grown and I continue to pray for my nation, specifically its leadership, to follow the tenets of God’s Word.  The first thing Paul says here is, “Be swift to hear.”  A more blunt way of saying this would be, “Shut up and listen.”  Stop pouring words that make no scriptural sense out of your mouth.  Listen to preaching and teaching until the words that exit your mouth are words of life and faith. 

Anger, frustration, wrath, these are things we humans do not deal well with.  Rather than loving more than we hate, we allow negative feelings to push us into negative actions and we fail to be children of light.  How awful to be damaged by a child of light who is in darkness. 

A man comes and murders your saved mother.  He curses you and God and is arrested.  God impresses that man to contact you from jail and asks you to come speak to him.  You go thinking how angry you are but curious why he might want you to talk to him.  When you get there he begins to laugh at you for believing in God and what good did it do for you and your mother to believe now that she is dead. 

How would you feel?  What would you do?  What would you say?  Would you blow it?

I expect these responses  in advance since I know Satan is evil and the father of lies.  If that person begins to mock me about my mother and her being dead I immediately realize, she is not dead.  She is in glory with God.  He has only destroyed her shell and except for a time gap, I will be with her fairly soon and forever.  Since she is not dead and better off than I am, it allows me to consider the poor lost tortured man before me.  What kind of pain does it take to lash out so?  How badly was he abused as a child?  What might help him reach out to God for forgiveness and healing?

Because I know this man as a lost soul and know my mother as a saved soul my choices are clear.  What might save and deliver him from Satan’s clutches?  If Satan has deprived me of several years with my mother on earth, I need to try and deprive him of this man’s company in hell.  I can no longer be filled with rage because there is no reason for it.  If I die I gain so threats to me don’t work.  He did my mother a favor without knowing it.  She is filled with joy in God’s presence.  My only response is to get this poor deluded lost soul saved so he does not suffer in hell.

This would be more difficult if my mom wasn’t saved.  That would cause me significant grief.  In that case I would need to understand that Satan has ended one future and I don’t want him to get away with ending another.  It becomes a war where we wrestle not against murdered and murderer but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places.  He could no more have stopped himself from this crime than to flap his arms and fly.  He was caught and trapped and only God can set him free.

I don’t say this is an easy lesson, but please understand that no matter who needs our help, it is to OUR advantage to give it.  It honors God and it honors Christ’s sacrifice.  As the Marines say, “Semper Fi”  Always faithful.

Win one for the KING!