Humility Before God Is Trusting & Giving God Credit

In the World, we hear people say "I'm only human." Before God, this is not humlity, but contempt. It is the same as saying that God cannot guide me away from falling short of the mark. He would much rather hear, by His strength and might I can do all all things. See the difference? One credits fallen man where the other credits a Risen Savior.

The Sign of Holiness, The Blood of the Lamb

Many try to give the impression of holiness before God. If any man could do this, wouldn't Jesus who was not born into sin? Even for Jesus, holiness was more than not sinning as much as your neighbor. It was His costly obedience to the Father and the laying down of His life for His friends. The stain on the Cross is the mark of His holiness before God. Now, who among us considers ourself holy? Holiness, like salvation cannot be achieved in the flesh. It too, must be given to us by the Son.

The Power of the word "Alone" in the Gospel

When I received Jesus as my Savior, it was when I recognized that my redemption was based on His finished work on the Cross alone. This mean that it is apart from a contribution from me or anyone else. One might say, should I read the Bible? Of course you should, but salvation is apart from that. It is Christ's work on the Cross alone that provides that. But what about my prayer life? You should pray, but praying will not bring salvation because that is a work of Christ alone apart from your sacred acts. If I go to church, will I go to heaven. No, but many who are saved go to church, but that will not insure salvation because the work of Christ alone is what brings salvation. So what then can I do? You can come in faith realizing your sinful plight and receive the Holy Spirit who that Son gives to those who accept His finish work alone as their only hope for eternal life.

We are called to be "in the World", but not "of the world"

Followers of Jesus are consecrated (set apart) for His service. Christ's role is to make us holy (sanctification) as He is holy. His business is in the world and so should ours be. Jesus' prayer is that we be involved in evangelization of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but protected from the Evil One. Spiritual power can not be saved up for later, it is a now event. Opportunities given to you by the Master are meant to be accepted cheerfully because they may not be offered to the unfaithful later. It is like manna from heaven, it is only good for that Day.

Preaching Christ Crucified

The Church often speaks of the effects of the Cross instead of preaching Christ crucified. It is more politically correct to speak of sanctification, spiritual giftedness, even salvation rather than the tradgedy of the Cross. Spiritual power begins with the Cross. It captures the Mind of God when we witness Him offer up His Son in sacrifice. From this emulates all of the power of the universe. To change the hearts of the people, they need to hear over and over again the Cross and from that God will release His power.

The Agony of God

"It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe... we preach Christ Crucified (1 Cor. 21, 23)." The gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who believe it is the power of God. This is the gospel, God laid down His life so that we may have eternal life. When one considers the circumstances and the things to which we spend time worrying about, when compared to the eternal blessing showered on us through the blood of Christ, these things seem rather small. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible writes and you shall be saved and thy house. One could go from the Indian Reservations to the nation of India, to Afganistan to Haiti and one could not find among these peoples a greater message of hope than in found in the gospel.

False Humility

It comes as no surprise that anything that is false isn't a good attribute. The Bible teaches us to depend of God and not on ourself, leading to humility attributing all success to God. The problem occurs when God uses someone and later that person thinks or says "I guess I was expecting too much of myself." This is failure to realize that you were expecting nothing from yourself and everything from God. When you later reflect on a prior high point and say it is too much, then you are in essence saying that you no longer look to God, but to yourself. God demands recognition for all that He does and failure to point to Him as your strength results in spiritual bankruptcy.

Do not worry about the cares of this world

It is the small things of this world that can do damage to our souls. We agonize over the trivial concerns and leave the eternal cares untouched. Also, do not justify yourself to others. The Master never did, He left the impressions of people untouched. Instead, bond to the work of the Lord. Be about His business and be useful to Him and He will by no means leave you uncared for.

The Forgiveness of Sins Resulting in a Thankful Heart

God is God forever and in eternity. The Father is perfect in every way, yet we come seeking forgiveness of sins. There are many who believe that there is more than one way to salvation. The means for forgiveness of sins and the path to righteousness is only one: the Cross of Christ. He who believes in Him shall be saved and thy house the Bible reads. The path is a narrow one. This is not because it is difficult, but because there is only one path to reconcile our self with a Holy God. Simple faith, that of a child, is the means to our receiving forgiveness of sins and eternal life. For sure, all will receive eternal life, but some to everlasting righteousness and others to everlasting contempt. Jesus says "I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but by Me.

Being Convicted of Your Sin

To say that God is love therefore He forgives sin is not being convicted of your sin. To be convicted of sin means a brokenness about ones self to fully realize you deserve no forgiveness. It is as David said, " Against You only have I sinned." We cannot approach the Throne of God for forgiveness without the New Nature offered to us in Jesus Christ. The miracle is this: Sinners receive the righteousness of Christ when they receive Him as Savior. It is on the righteousness of Christ that God forgives, not on a basis of love alone.

If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed

The essence of the argument is not to substitute Savior for Son. The Savior sets us free from sin and death. But it is the Son to allows our mortal self to be free. This is not by way of discipline. It is up to us to take every thought captive to our Lord Jesus Christ. Where individuality lives, submission to Christ is missing. We must give up our right to our self so that our spirit is free to serve God.

At Any Cost, Dear Lord, Down Any Road

The incarnational work of Jesus is shown through our act of obedience. Sometimes we think that we need to do a spectacular work to be noticed by God. But by a small act of obedience, we show our trust in the Risen Lord and are seen by Him. The goal of the Christian Life is a relationship with Christ and the evidence of that relationship is our obedience to Him.

Hidden in Christ

In our life, we should not seek to be an avenue for signs & wonders. That's what Jesus and the Apostles did. In our life, we should be hidden in Christ, that is, humbly submitting to Him in secret. Christ will honor that decision. He says that His power is perfected in weakness and He chooses to weak and the humble in heart to do His will, not the one who works for the approval of men.

Seeing God At Work

One of the surest ways of spiritually maturity is being able to see the hand of God in the small events of life. God does not raise us to be a fanatic, because Jesus never was. What He raises us to be is faithful in all our ways and to know the sure sign of His leading in our life. Humility before God and faithfulness to his leading is His design for our lives.

It is our faith from which salvation springs

Whenever we feel upset, mad, or depressed, we should recall the sacrifice of the Son of Man who loved us and laid down His life for us. Sparing us from the gates of Hell, He gave us the wisdom of God and the righteousness of our Savior. This will take care of a bad day in a hurry. Our joy then should be complete, trusting in Him who gives us new life.

Sanctification that follows salvation

When you are born again of the Spirit of God, the Spirit takes residence in you so that you become a new creation. This frees us from all kinds of sins so long as we are in the light, as Christ was in the light. This means that we must abide in Him and He in us to make our transformation complete. It is also the grounds for our testimony that once we were lost but now are found - once blind, but now we see.

Drink the Cup the Father Gives You

God tests us by our obedience. He doesn't seek future obedience, but obedience today. We sometimes question whether something is of God. We try to "reason" what He is doing. This is the last thing we should do since God is not reasonable, He is God. Therefore, if He offers a cup for you to drink which is sweet, drink it with grace. If He offeres a bitter cup, drink it in communion with Him so that He can identify you as one of His own.

The Key to being useful to God: Abondon one's own plans

Even the good plans we make for ourself when it comes to our own strategy to serve God are a hinderance when they block God from using you as he sees fit. Unless called by God, our plans are apt to end in ruin. Once called by God it is he that fulfills the plan. For this reason, our surrender to God is the key to being useful in service to him.

Preach the Word

We are useful to Jesus when we proclaim his gospel. Have you ever noticed that among the Trinity, glory in not pointed to the Holy Spirit. We read how the Holy Spirit edified the Father and the Son, but we really do not see the Spirit exalted. This is because the Spirit functions to point to the Father and to the Son. In the same way, when we preach the gospel, we are pointing to our Redeemer Jesus Christ and giving him the credit for our salvation. The words that we preach are sacred because they are Christ's gospel and point to him so that others too may come to faith.

Uttering the unspeakable in the temple of the Lord

In the New Testament, Jesus cleansed the temple declaring it to be a "house of prayer." Since Pentacost, the believer's body is the temple of the Spirit of God. We are charged to keep it holy in our conscious life. But the Spirit of God prays in our behalf when we don't have the words to utter. The Spirit of God speaks in our behalf uttering what is for us the unspeakable words to build up the believer to the Father. This is the Word of the Lord.

Making the best of your circumstances

As a child of God, He directs your whole life from your birth to your death including today, the day we live in the present. Never think things are not as they should be. Instead, ask yourself by the spirit, what is God intending for me here. Whenever you direct your present efforts to His glory that is the intercession of the saints. That's why God saved you. He saved you for His purpose. Now that purpose may seem small to you, but it is everything to God. So make the best of your circumstances, because you are where you are by the knowledge of God.

When Your Belief Becomes Personal

We confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, but for our belief to be personal, we call on Him in a personal crisis. We must believe that Jesus is who He says He is and He can do what He says He can do without a backup plan for our life. Do you believe this, Jesus asks? You who have little faith. Whatever you ask of the Father in My name He will do. Do you believe this? Faith is only as good as the object of our faith who is Christ Jesus, the eternal Son of God. Amen.

We are to be partakers in Christ's suffering

Jesus suffered according to the will of God. He suffered for the Jew and alien alike. His offer of the gospel was to all, not only to those who were his followers. In the same way, if we are to be like Jesus, we too must not shun suffering, because we are His workmanship and instruments of His divine journey. Count it all as joy when you are chosen not only as recipients of grace but also granters of mercy.

The Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who believe, it is the power of God

One reason some fail to respond to the gospel, is because they are afraid they cannot pull off the Christian life. They're right, they cannot in their own flesh. Our flesh is at war with our spiritual life and our sin nature always "reasons" why it should not believe. It is a comfort to know that the responsibility for the Christian life is the role of the Holy Spirit of God, not our fleshly selves. But what we can do is agree with God and with Christ concerning Christ's redemptive work and accept the fact that Christ alone can rid me of my sin problem and nature. Agreeing with the gospel is a huge step, because it takes the action out of the physical realm into the spiritual one where the battle is really fought. In the end we will emerge victorious because our results do not depend on us but on God.

When Jesus says "for My sake."

In the World, we consider the idea of "give and take" to be fair. This is not true to the followers of Jesus. Jesus wants EVERYTHING to be for His sake. This is a giving up of what you want for what He wants EVERYTIME. Is this fair? I think so. If we were being ordered to serve Him it would be one thing. But Jesus says "for My sake" and for the sake of the gospel, do this. It is a motivation based on loyal love (agape) instead of on any requirements of faith.

Love of Self vs Love of Jesus

Jesus exhorts believers to obedience, but doe not require it. Salvation is a free gift of God, but discipleship is costly. To be a disciple, Jesus states you must give up your right to Yourself and give it to Him. Whoever wants to be a disciple must pick his cross and carry it through obedience. My brother in Christ may still go to heaven based on his trust in Christ for eternal life. But only the disciple will help build the kingdom this side of heaven.

Enter Into Fellowship With Me, Arise & Shine

The gateway to fellowship with the Father is the same gateway that He provided His Son which is the way of the Cross. Pain and suffering are not the mark of losers, but the mark of those who have been called by God to enter into fellowship with Him by way of the Son. Count it all as joy when God knows you by name and has called you into His marvelous Light.