Remove My Guilt

 

REMOVE MY GUILT

Psalm 25:11

For the sake of Your name, O LORD, remove my guilt, because it is great.

Psalm 19:13 Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed of great transgression. Psalm 79:9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name; deliver us and atone for our sins, for the sake of Your name. Psalm 143:11 For the sake of Your name, O LORD, revive me. In Your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble. Romans 5:16-17 Again, the gift is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment that followed one sin brought condemnation, but the gift that followed many trespasses brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Romans 10:8-10 But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved.

I believe that Jesus Christ Is LORD, that God raised Him from the dead. In my heart I believe and am justified; with my mouth I confess that Jesus Christ Is LORD, and God saves me.

It is both that easy and that hard; simple and difficult. God calls everyone to salvation:

John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

(where it says "world" put your name, because you have born into this world)

Romans 8:29

For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

Predestination just means God had a plan all set up before we were even born that would allow us to become His sons and daughters. It does not mean that God knows ahead of time who will be saved and who will not.

How cool is that?

Ephesians 1:4-5

But the one who loves God is known by God. He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will.

1 Corinthians 8:3

But the one who loves God is known by God.

Do you love God? Do you believe that Jesus Christ Is LORD? There is no later, there is only Now, only Today:

2 Corinthians 6:2

For He says: "In the acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." Behold, now is the time of favor; behold, now is the day of salvation.

If you have not yet accepted Christ as LORD, now is the time to make that decision. Tomorrow is not promised.

2 Peter 3:9-11

The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar, the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and its works will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to conduct yourselves in holiness and godliness.

James 4:14

You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

Psalm 39:5

You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah.

Come, now is the time.

Taught In The Way

 

GOOd MORning

Psalm 25:8

Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He teaches sinners in the Way.

John 14:5-6

5. “Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?”

6. Jesus answered, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." 

Isaiah 30:20-21

20. The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him. 

21. And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the Way. Walk in it.”

Put Away Your Sword, Peter

 As "Christian" rises against "Christian" in our day and age, I am reminded of the verses in John 18:10-11, where Peter draws his dagger out and slices off the ear of the high priest's servant, but Jesus gently tells him to put his sword away. 

"Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?"

We are not to rise up against those who come against us with the weapons of this world, but with the Sword of the Lord: the Word of God. Hate is not our weapon, Love is. Darkness surrounds us, but the Light of God's Love, Jesus Christ, is to shine out from each Christian into the darkness, piercing it, causing the darkness, the hate, to flee from the presence of the Light. 

Let us be that Christian, the Christ-follower, who allows Christ Jesus to lead.

Guide Me Teach Me

 GUIDE ME, TEACH ME

Psalm 25:5

Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; all day long I wait for You.  

WAIT: Collect/Bind Together; to Expect

Both (1) a collective wait, when God's people gather together and wait for His presence to manifest itself and (2) an expectation of the Lord God's arrival. 

Not only are we asking for God to walk with us, but to walk with us knowingly, with certainty in His Truth, His Salvation, Himself. Knowing that He will and does because His Word tells us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. We are not on our own: we can have God be with us, in us, leading us to salvation in Him. All day long.

Installation of Prayer For Leadership

 1 Timothy 2:1-6

First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone—

for kings and all those in authority—so that we may lead tranquil and quiet lives in all godliness and dignity.

This is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 

who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 

who gave Himself as a ransom for all—the testimony that was given at just the right time.

We are praying not only for quality leadership, but for godly leadership. 

Yonder

 

Do you know where Yonder is? Did you know such a location exists in the Bible, too? In the KJV of the Bible Yonder is mentioned at least six times. It basically means a place where a person or thing currently is not. A distance within view.

Genesis 22:5 "And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." Here in Genesis 'yonder' means to move ahead and up, because Abraham and Isaac went ahead into the land of Moriah and up a mountain God chose (verse 2). 

Numbers 16:37 "Speak unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, that he take up the censers out of the burning, and scatter thou the fire yonder; for they are hallowed." Yonder, away from the camp. A man named Korah, along with several of his cohorts and 250 mighty men rose up against Moses' authority and refused to follow him; nor did they want to listen to the words God was giving him to speak. 

After Moses directed folks to stand away from the tents where Korah, Dathan and Abiram lived with their families, God caused the earth under them to open up and swallow all of the these three men and their dwelling places and their wives and families. But the 250 warriors who offered the incense to God were consumed by fire from God. But the firepans, the censers, were not destroyed by God's fire because these pans had been offered to God. The fire in them had to be scattered outside the encampment because it was unholy, but the pans themselves were holy. (Read Numbers 16).

Numbers 32:19 "For we will not inherit with them on yonder side Jordan, or forward; because our inheritance is fallen to us on this side Jordan eastward." Two tribes chose not to cross the river Jordan and settle; they chose to settle on the eastern side of Jordan. They would go and fight with the other tribes for the land which God had given them and then return to the land which they had chosen for themselves. Here 'yonder' is to cross over and move forward. (Read Numbers 32). 

2 Kings 4:26 "So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite:" Here in 2 Kings 4:26 'yonder' is some distance away: close enough to recognize a person but far enough away that one cannot have a conversation with up close and personal. (Read 2 Kings 4)

Matthew 17:20 "And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."

Matthew 26:36 "Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder." 

Therefore, we can conclude that Yonder is a place we are not but will be. Yonder is a destination. Yes, I know where Yonder is. I'm headed there now.

The Clothes Make The Man - Part Two

  

We have heard it said, "It's what's inside that counts". This is certainly true of the Christian man or woman. Now that we are saved, how does what's inside us become Christ-like? 

Galatians 5:16 "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." 

In order to walk in the Spirit of God, we need the Spirit of God within us and upon us, that we may hear God more clearly, that is, with understanding, gaining knowledge and applying Wisdom to our lives on a daily basis. 

It is true that we can change ourselves, but only to a certain degree of change. It is God who changes the heart by His divine power. It is God who leads us by His Holy Spirit with His divine power. It is God who saves the souls of mankind by the blood of His only begotten Son Jesus Christ by His divine power. It is God who resurrects us to everlasting life through the death of our flesh, changing us from a fleshly being to an eternal being by His divine power. 

Now is the time to allow God's Holy Spirit into your life, changing you and I from clay to spirit. For the Word of God tells us that those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth, for God Is Spirit. John 4:23-24 "But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

It is very simple to receive the Holy Spirit of God into our lives. All we have to do is believe God that when we ask His Holy Spirit to come upon us, we will receive His Holy Spirit. Of course, the Spirit only rests upon the believer; therefore, we must be saved by believing on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. We must repent of our sins, the unrighteous things we have done and said and thought. 

We read in Acts 2 how the faithful believers, men and women, gathered for fellowship and prayer in an upper room of a house. They were there for 50 days waiting on God to send His blessed Holy Spirit who would give them the power to share the gospel. And arrive He did. Sound of a mighty wind. Flames of Fire. The Spirit could be heard (wind) and seen (flames) by the believers who were waiting for His arrival. How awesome is that! 

When contemplating the trinity, what do you think of? There is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Are you smiling? Are tears making their way down your cheeks as your eyes blur? The unsaved and unfilled have only an inkling but no understanding of the things of God. Believe. Be saved. Be filled. Be holy. 

It is the Spirit of God who makes us holy. It is the Spirit of God who creates within us a clean heart. Psalm 51:9-11 "Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me." (this was David's prayer)

Repentance + Renewal + Restoration = Forgiven & Filled

 O Lord God, I confess my sins before You. Wash me clean and make me holy. As King David said, 'Renew a right spirit within me', too. Draw me close to You. May Your Holy Spirit remain within me. Your Strength is what I need to obey Your Word. Fill me with Your Love and Your Truth that I may walk in Your Spirit and gain strength every day of my life. As I pray Your Word over my life and the lives of they whom I pray for, may Your Name be glorified and Your kingdom advanced. In Jesus' Name, His beautiful Holy Name, Amen. 

 

Escapism Isn't

 2 Timothy 3:1-5 

1. But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come. 
2. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money , boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 
3. unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good,
4. traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 
5. having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!

Anything or anyone that captivates a person's attention away from the Word of God is destructive to a person. The word captive can be used as both a noun: 

• A prisoner
• A person who is enslaved or dominated

and an adjective:

• Made or held prisoner
• Kept in confinement or restraint
• Enslaved by love, beauty, etc.

Captive, therefore, means:

• To attract and hold the attention thereof
• To enchant
• To capture, to subjugate (to bring under complete control, to master, to conquer; to make subservient, enslave

     You may say that every decade has its problems and you would be half right. But it has been centuries since Jesus went back to heaven to prepare a place for us and His return is always imminent.           Therefore, since He left people have been living in the last days. These last days are the days leading up to His return. Even the last hour. 

1 John 2:17-18 "The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever. Little children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen, whereby we know that it is the last hour."

     We need to recognize that what separates us from God now will be the very thing that separates us from God then: sin. Everything named in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 is sin; these things separate a person from a right relationship with God. 

     We see the results of such sins even more so as the counting of days ends and the counting of hours before Christ's return draws near. All of these sins have kept people away from God's presence, have kept people away from prayer with Him, have kept people away. Period. 

We are made aware of this immediately: 

• Terrible Times will come: difficult days, dangerous days, furious days; days of weakness and reduced strength
• Lovers of Themselves: self-loving, selfish
• Lovers of Money: avaricious, greedy, covetousness
• Boastful: one who gives one's self airs in a loud and flaunting way
• Arrogant: proud, disdainful, haughty
• Abusive: blasphemous, slanderous, evil-speaking
• Disobedient to their parents: who will not be persuaded, contumacious: willfully and obstinately disobedient, stubbornly perverse or rebellious
• Ungrateful: ungraceful, unthankful, unpleasing
• Unholy: wicked, profane
• Unloving: devoid of affection, hardhearted towards kindred
• Unforgiving: without libation (without truce, without covenant); implacable (unable to please or placate, unyielding)
• Slanderous: accusing falsely, unjustly criticizing to malign and condemn, accuser, backbiter; malicious, false, defamatory statement or report; calumny: a false and malicious statement designed to injure the reputation of someone or something
• Without self-control: powerless, impotent, lacking self-control, inclined to excess: without self-discipline nor self-restraint; unable to have power over one's self
• Brutal: not tame, fierce, savage
• Without love of good: not loving that which is good; a hater of that which is good; someone who is hostile to the things of God
• Traitorous: betrayer; treacherous: faithlessness, untrustworthy, unreliable; perfidious: deliberately faithless, deceitful
• Reckless: headlong: hasty, without deliberation (careful consideration before decision); impulsive, rash
• Conceited: foolish; having a cloudy (muddled) mindset-moral blindness resulting from poor judgment which brings further loss of spiritual perception; having an exceptionally favorable opinion of one's abilities, appearance, etc.
• Lovers of pleasure: strong desire, sensuous pleasure that is pleasing only to self, self-gratification; the satiation of bodily desires at the expense of others. Rather then Lovers of God: God-loving, friend of God
• Having a form of godliness but denying Its power: external appearance, resemblance, looks like the real thing but isn't

     Escaping from God's presence now is escaping from God's presence in eternity. Whether the choice is made to believe or not, it is still a personal choice that each of us makes. There is no one to blame but us.

     When we recognize ourselves, our actions in any one of these descriptions, we must turn to God, repent of our wicked ways and seek His forgiveness, which He will surely give to the repentant heart. His Word will enter into us and begin to change us into the person we were created to be. His Spirit will mold us and transform us by God's power. 

     Nothing we can do will change us. Nothing we say will transform us from sinners to sinners saved by grace except belief in the Name of Jesus Christ, the Living Word of God. 

     What is our defense against God's judgment on sin except Jesus Christ? 

    What is our hope and expectation of God except His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world? 

     The Lord Is My Hope and My Salvation. Is He yours?

     Now is the time to get on our knees and pray. Don't fret about the words coming out of your mouth. God wants to hear our hearts not our words.

The Clothes Make the Man - Part One

 I am one of those people who hears God in the middle of the night. There was a time before this time when I could write down what He was saying without leaving the comforts of my bed, for I kept a notebook and a pen near to hand. But over the last few years my beautiful penmanship has dwindled to an incomprehensible scrawl. Now I must either type it all up in here or forego the treasure of hearing God's voice. So I'm in here on the computer typing my treasures up.

As I began to fall asleep the Spirit began to stir my spirit. Mark Twain said "Clothes make the man", meaning how a person dresses determines his level of influence. Another quote I have heard is that "Man makes the clothes", meaning it is who you are on the inside that determines your actions on the outside. Both are right. 

In the sphere of Christianity it is Whom we are clothed with that determines our destiny. Romans 13:14 "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Romans 12 and 13 deal with Christian conduct, how we are to behave ourselves now that we are Christians; ending with Romans 13:14, reminding us to display outwardly the change which Christ has wrought inwardly. 

Galatians 3:27-29 tells us that having been baptized into Christ we are to put on Christ, because what once divided us in the world has no place in the body of Christ. 

Ephesians 4:24 "Put on the new man which God created in righteousness and true holiness."

Galatians 5:16 "This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

We see, then, that we are clothed in the righteousness of God, Jesus Christ, through faith in the Word of God. We are also clothed in holiness through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, clothes not only make the man, or woman, but the changed man or woman is evidenced outwardly by what is happening inwardly. It is nothing we can do of ourselves either. Eventually, the facade  would deteriorate and who we really are would be self-evident to all. 

Only the divine power of God can change a person permanently. Only the divine power of God can eradicate who a person once was to become the person God knows them to be. 

 

 

Come, Worship the Lord

 In The Beauty of Holiness 

Psalm 29:2
Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

 

As the wise men did who came to see the Baby King, who first actions on entering His home were to kneel before Him and worship Him. And, yes, being fully God and fully man, I believe Jesus knew why they were kneeling. 

The English word worship comes from the Hebraic word shachah (shaw-khaw') which means to bow down, to kneel, to prostrate one's self to. It is used 172 times in the Old Testament. One of these verses mirrors the verse given today: Psalm 96:9 "O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth."

So, I asked the Lord for a Word for this new year and I got more than I asked for.

Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.

Stand. See. Ask. It is this word ASK that is important. For when we ask a question, we expect to be given an answer. Many times it is not the answer we want so we ignore the answer given. But God says to LISTEN.

LISTEN as defined by dictionary.com

We are to Ask God, Hear  God's answer(s), and follow God's directions. That's LISTENING.

Waiting to hear from God also requires Listening for that still small voice. It is not enough to Listen for God's voice if we don't know what God's voice sounds like. And how do we know God's voice? Open our Bibles and spend time with Him in the Word He has written. Seek His face in prayer time with Him. After all it takes at least two people to have a genuine conversation. When it comes to prayer, the other person must be GOD; otherwise we're just talking to ourselves. 

The universe does not answer prayer. Sending your requests out into 'the universe' isn't going to do you any good. Neither Allah nor Buddha nor any other created god can hear you, answer you, love you nor die to save you. Only GOD. 

Therefore, we should turn to God in prayer. Not just seeking what He has for us in the day we are given, but seeking His face in all its glory and drawing near to Him just to be with Him. 

When we are in a romantic relationship with another person, do we separate ourselves from each other? Do we speak to others but not each other? That's not a relationship, that's not even a friendship. God desires our nearness, which is why He draws near to us. He is ever reaching out for close companionship with His people. 

Let us draw near to God at the foot of the cross and the empty grave. For it is here that we begin to hear His voice more clearly.