The Ungrateful Dead

     Psalm 6:5

For in death there is no remembrance of You;

     In the grave who will give You thanks?

    Unthankful. Ungrateful. Unknowing. Uncaring. Ungodly. 

    Death has a sting, and that sting is sin [1 Corinthians 15:55,56]. Sin corrupts. Sin destroys. Sin separates. Sin devours. Sin enslaves. Sin gives birth to death [James 1:15]. Death traps and ensnares the unwary soul, drawing it down into the grave where it no more has any hope of escape. Death is eternal separation from God and all the good things which God has in store for the soul that is in Christ.

    Galatians 5:19-21

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 

   

    Psalm 115:17

The dead praise not The LORD, neither any that go down into silence.

    Isaiah 38:18

For the grave cannot praise You, death can not celebrate You: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Your Truth. 

    Neither the grave, nor death have a voice to praise God with. Nor can their inhabitants, those who have died without the salvation of God upon their souls. 

    And who will go down into the Pit? The decaying. The souls who die without the robe of righteousness covering them. Those without Eternal Life giving them life in life. Those who have no hope of the first resurrection. The pit is the grave, that shallow trench in the ground into which the casket is lowered. It is the urn of ashes, the memory pendants and the natural burials. 

    The Pit is dark and darklit for a false light casts no shadows but reveals darksome and loathsome darkness. It is a place of despair [Job 9:31]. It is the darkest of the depths [Psalm 88:6]. The Pit is the grave and it is death. It is a place of abandonment, forsakenness, aloneness. It is a place without Light, without Love, without Hope, without Peace, without Knowledge, and without God. 

    Ecclesiastes 9:5,6

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.

    The dead without Christ remember nothing and know nothing. Though we have the parable Jesus tells us of The Rich Man and The Beggar [Luke 16:19-31], it is a warning to the living to believe the gospel message of salvation which The Teacher had been teaching to those who followed Him. 

    Our emotions and our thoughts are our souls. How we love and how we think cease when our soul dies. The soul that does not know Jesus in life will not know Jesus in death. They neither love nor hate nor envy anyone any more. They knew not the love of God in life and are now dead forever: twice. 

    Revelation 21:8

But to the cowardly (faithless) and unbelieving (untrustworthy) and abominable (detestable) and murderers (willful, intentional life-takers) and sexually immoral (all who habitually violate God’s moral order in matters of sexuality) and sorcerers (deliberate rebellion: an idolatrous attempt to secure power apart from the living God; magicians; [Isaiah 47:9-13; Micah 5:12]) and idolaters (pagan worship and misplaced trust [Ephesians 5:5]) and all liars (evidence of persistent unbelief, truth-twisters, speaking out of their own heart and not by The Spirit of God, charismatic and persuasive, yet not Spirit-filled nor Spirit-led [Jeremiah 23:16; Genesis 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:3,5]), their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.

    The ungrateful dead do not believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. And they never will. They refuse to see that their destination is their own fault. 

    John 3:18

"Whosoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whosoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in The Name of The Only Begotten Son of God."

    John 5:24

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My Word and believes in Him Who sent Me has everlasting Life, and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death into Life."

    Matthew 13:40-42

"As the weeds are collected and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

    Some of these ungrateful dead will be in the church but not of it. They think themselves safe because they merely attend or are members of a church, but not every church is God's house. Nor are they sanctuaries in which to seek The Lord in, nor honor Him with their hearts, only their lips move but there is no love for God, no worship to and of God. 

    The ungrateful dead are weeds who were hidden in the wheat. Though these weeds will be gathered with the wheat, they will also be separated from the wheat, and thrown into the firepit. The weeds are the wolves which threaten the sanctity of the church. These wolves preach false doctrines that do not align with The Truth of God's Word. The darkness of their hearts spills out of their mouths vile deceit and wickedness in their attempts to lead God's sheep astray.

    With whom will you align yourself? With the ungrateful dead who deny God and His Christ? Or will you believe that Jesus Christ Is Lord and let Him save you from condemnation? Your choice. I can pray that you make the right decision, but I can't make your decision for you. 

    

    

No Revival Without A Death

 2 Kings 13:21

So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. 

    Scattered throughout the Bible are references where we see that several people have died and someone is there to speak life back into their bodies, or, as here, the mere touch of an anointed dead person speaks life to another dead person. Only God can do that. 

    In Matthew 27:52-53, after Jesus rose from the dead, all the dead saints rose, entered Jerusalem and spoke  with many people. How cool is that? Totally freak a body out! And by this event, we see that every saint from then on who dies before Christ's second return, only dies in body. The spirit of life is ongoing and the soul enters heaven. 

    But what about this thing called revival here? What is that? It's not like we die physically. No, we die a spiritual death. We give our hearts to Jesus Christ when we believe on His Name for our salvation. We surrender our lives to God's service after we believe on The Only Name under heaven for our salvation. 

    Revival happens when the old nature we lived in for so long is dead and the life of Christ within us takes the reins, directing our steps through the power of God's Holy Spirit. And when this revival takes place, a chorus of hallelujahs leaps from our hearts into our mouths and is instantly sung or shouted out loud from our lips. What an Amazing Grace God has given the sinner who repents! 

    To be revived is to give life where there was none. That's what Jesus does, when a person believes that HE IS LORD. Lord of Life. Lord of All. LORD OF LORDS. 

    That thief on the cross may not have had the opportunity to turn his life around, but he did have the opportunity to believe that the Man next to him was, indeed, Christ The Lord, because that is how he addressed Him in Luke 23:39-43. On his cross, his revival was both spiritual and physical, because after he believed Christ and received forgiveness (pardoned), his old nature died and his new nature was born. And, if he did not die soon after that experience, then the Roman soldiers would have broken his legs to hasten his physical death: John 19:32. 

    Jesus is Life! He tells us this throughout the Book of John: John 3:16/John 5:24/John 6:35/John 14:6. Romans 6:23 emphasizes the difference between life and life eternal: "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

    1 John 5:11-12 "And this is that Testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. / Whoever has The Son has life; whoever does not have The Son of God does not have life." 

    It is The Spirit of God that gives life: Romans 8:11 "And if The Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you." We need The Holy Spirit of God living in us, not only to guide us (mentor, disciple us), but to give us life after death. It is absolutely necessary to have God's Holy Spirit living in us to bring us into the living, holy presence of God in heaven after we die. In this verse we see that all three Persons in the trinity are not only real, but work together to bring new life to every believer. 

    If you need a revival, then you need to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. No one can make you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. No one can force you to become a Christian. No one can demand that you follow the rules in their religious dogma to become saved. Only you have the power of choice, free will, to surrender your hearts to Jesus Christ and your lives to the flow of God's Holy Spirit in your lives: directing your steps in God's Word and helping you to fill your minds with The Word of God. 

    But remember this: without Christ Jesus living in us through The Holy Spirit of God, we are not going to make heaven our home after we die. Why would anyone choose to go to hell, when hell wasn't even created for people? Is it such a hard decision to become a Christian? Yes, yes it is. It's a decision that will change the course of our lives when we believe. It's a decision that will affect our decision-making. If our faith in Christ's Name is real, then the people closest to us are going to see a remarkable change in us. And maybe, just maybe, they will want what we have: A close personal intimate relationship with our Lord and King Jesus Christ. 

    Lord, Send a revival. And let it begin in me. 

I NEED YOU NOW - Matt Redman

    

    

A Crucified Life - - Is A Repentant Life

 

2 Corinthians 7:10

For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There is no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No.

Worldly (in this context): ungodly, alienated from God and hostile to the cause of Christ

From the Greek word 'kosmos' (pronounced kos'-mos)

Sorrow: pain, distress, grief, emotional pain that weighs on a person

From the Greek word 'lupé' (pronounced loo'-pay)

    Being sorry and apologizing for that offense which we say we are sorry for is not godly sorrow. 

    We can regret the words we have said but we cannot take them back. The damage has been done and cannot be undone. Remorse is not godly sorrow. 

    Though a person may change on the outside, and believe themselves to be fine, better or good enough, but have not repented of the sin they have committed, there is no forgiveness, no salvation, no real change in the heart. 

    Repentance activates God's forgiveness and makes it possible for God to change the repenter's heart. It is impossible to change ourselves by ourselves. We need God to change our hearts by the blood of His Lamb, His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, Who became sin for us and died on the cross so we wouldn't have to die and pay the penalty for our sins.

    Hebrews 9:22

In fact under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness [neither release from sin and its guilt, nor cancellation of the merited punishment].

     1 John 2:2

And He [that same Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins [the atoning sacrifice that holds back the wrath of God that would otherwise be directed at us because of our sinful nature—our worldliness, our lifestyle]; and not for ours alone, but also for [the sins of all believers throughout] the whole world.

    Romans 3:25

God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.

 INTO GRACE   

The Secret Place - Phil Wickham

The More I Seek You - Kari Jobe

Jesus Have It All - Jeremy Riddle

I Need You - Jessie Harris

Run To The Father - Cody Carnes

Jesus Messiah - Chris Tomlin

Washed By The Blood - CityAlight

At The Cross - Chris Tomlin

Thank You Jesus For The Blood - Charity Gayle