Just sharing.

[beensetfree]

A true story:

Several years ago a young woman I know was involved in a rocky marriage and sought solace in the arms of a man who offered her an even worse future. Her marriage eventually ended; and by the grace of God, she also came to her senses and dumped the man she was having an affair with. She now has a good life and I am proud of how far she has come in a few short years, but back when she was so “in love” with a so unsuitable companion, I wrote the following poem for her.

After the “Feelings….”

I know how you feel; I have felt that way too;
But I can promise, it’s a feeling you’ll rue.

Someday you will long to feel safe and secure
And think of these “feelings” as something to cure.

The seeds you are planting will grow to be weeds,
Blooming in the fertile soil of your needs.

Redemption will come, but you won’t be the same;
Years will be needed to restore your good name.

And you will in vain wish the moment away
When you let your feelings lead you astray.

It feels inexorable as “need” pushes you:
But a need is not comparable to love that is true.

It’s a hard thing to fight; I’ve been tempted too;
And believe me, I have sympathy for you;

So I offer you my prayers–you’ll need them I know–
That some day you’ll see that your lover must go.

And now that I think about it, I guess this is a story about an answered prayer.

 

[beensetfree]

Deliverance from Him
For he will deliver the needy who cry out,
the afflicted who have no one to help.

He will take pity on the weak
and the needy and save the needy from death.

Psalm 72:12,13 NIV

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Sing unto the LORD,
praise ye the LORD:
for he hath delivered the soul
of the poor from the hand of evildoers.

Jeremiah 20:13 KJV

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For the LORD has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His habitation.

This is My resting place forever;
Here I will dwell, for I have desired it.

I will abundantly bless her provision;
I will satisfy her needy with bread.

Psalm 132:13-15 NASB

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Thanks be unto God for His wonderful gift:
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God
is the object of our faith; the only faith
that saves is faith in Him.

 

[beensetfree]

“O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face ... because we have sinned against thee.”

Daniel 9:8

A deep sense and clear sight of sin, its heinousness, and the punishment which it deserves, should make us lie low before the throne. We have sinned as Christians. Alas! that it should be so. Favoured as we have been, we have yet been ungrateful: privileged beyond most, we have not brought forth fruit in proportion. Who is there, although he may long have been engaged in the Christian warfare, that will not blush when he looks back upon the past?

As for our days before we were regenerated, may they be forgiven and forgotten; but since then, though we have not sinned as before, yet we have sinned against light and against love—light which has really penetrated our minds, and love in which we have rejoiced. Oh, the atrocity of the sin of a pardoned soul! An unpardoned sinner sins cheaply compared with the sin of one of God's own elect ones, who has had communion with Christ and leaned his head upon Jesus’ bosom. Look at David! Many will talk of his sin, but I pray you look at his repentance, and hear his broken bones, as each one of them moans out its dolorous confession! Mark his tears, as they fall upon the ground, and the deep sighs with which he accompanies the softened music of his harp! We have erred: let us, therefore, seek the spirit of penitence.

Look, again, at Peter! We speak much of Peter's denying his Master. Remember, it is written, “He wept bitterly.” Have we no denials of our Lord to be lamented with tears? Alas! these sins of ours, before and after conversion, would consign us to the place of inextinguishable fire if it were not for the sovereign mercy which has made us to differ, snatching us like brands from the burning. My soul, bow down under a sense of thy natural sinfulness, and worship thy God. Admire the grace which saves thee—the mercy which spares thee—the love which pardons thee!

 

[beensetfree]

How Not To Present The Gospel



What are some of the worst ways to present the gospel? What is the biblical method?

Let Jesus Come into Your Heart
Imagine a young mother hearing her young son rummaging through the kitchen drawer and when she comes in, she screams because the young boy is standing there with a long knife pointed at his chest ready to plunge the knife into his heart. She grabs the knife and cries out, “What are you doing?” The young boy said, “I wanted to let Jesus into my heart.” The young boy had gone into the kitchen after he asked his mother about Jesus and how he could to go to heaven. She had told him to “Just let Jesus into your heart.” A young child might have a hard time understand this presentation, and besides, it’s unbiblical and could have cost her son his life.

Jesus Loves You
Yes, Jesus loves you but He is also asking you to repent. The saying “the universal fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man” is not in the Bible. Whoever is not of Christ is not a child of the Father. To simply walk up to people and proclaim, “Jesus loves you” never mentions the need for the Savior because of the wrath of God. It is written, “God is love” but what may be God’s greatest attribute is that He is holy. In fact, the only attribute of God that is mentioned three times is that He is “Holy, Holy, Holy.” In Jewish literature, to repeat something two times is to give it great emphasis, but to say it three times is to stress it to the highest degree. Telling someone who is not saved that Jesus loves them may bring them to say, “Well, my children love me too…and so does my wife, and my…” Can you imagine Paul going up to the Pharisees, the tax collectors or even the Greeks and saying “Jesus loves you?”


I’ve Accepted Jesus
I have seen so many of these signs that ask us to Accept Jesus” or asking, “Will you accept Jesus today,” but does Jesus need our acceptance? I would be more concerned about Jesus accepting me! To “accept Jesus” is like saying, “If I have too, I guess I will accept Jesus,” as if He needs us to accept Him. No, it is we who desperately need Him! If you’re going to “accept” something, accept the fact that you and I are sinners and we needed saving. Our sins have separated us from a holy God, so for me, I didn’t accept Him, but I pleaded with Him for forgiveness and repented of my sins. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we are to accept Jesus.

Give Your Heart to Jesus
Not loving this one either. To ask someone to, “Give your heart to Jesus,” is to offer God something that He doesn’t want. He wants all of you, heart included, but to offer a heart that still has a sinful nature, is to offer Him something far short of what He wants. I know it’s a common expression to say, “I gave my heart to Jesus,” but that expression doesn’t mean anything to someone who is not saved, so to ask, “Have you given your heart to Jesus” doesn’t make sense because the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and only God can really know it (Jer 17:9). Jesus never asked anyone, “Let me into your heart.”


The Sinner’s Prayer
God alone saves, so even repeating a sinner’s prayer may not save them. God grants repentance, and then that person trusts in Christ. That’s how they’re saved. They see their sinfulness and the need for Christ, and are compelled to pray for forgiveness. A canned or “Follow after me” prayer is a manmade formula. That’s like saying everyone who came forward and filled out a “decision card” were saved when the turned in their paperwork. Coming forward at services, repeating a sinner’s prayer, or filling out a decision card doesn’t save a soul; God alone does (Acts 4:12). God may use those as a means to save some, but they are not in themselves able to save. If you are repeating a sinners prayer or even filling out a decision card (neither are biblical), you may be giving someone false assurance or creating a pseudo conversion. It’s very easy to unknowing create tares among the wheat when the right gospel is not presented and people come to Christ for the wrong reasons. When the Jailer asked, “what I must do to be saved,” (Acts 16:30), Paul didn’t say, “Well, here fill out this decision card,” or “walk down the aisle,” or “repeat the sinner’s prayer.” No, the Apostle Paul said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).


The Real Gospel
Can we get rid of these church signs which say, “Come to Jesus,” “Jesus needs you,” or “Need Jesus?” Yes, we need Jesus, but tell them why (John 3:18). We love to read John 3:16 about God’s great love, but neglect the following verses, which are linked, and where John writes, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already” (John 3:18). I don’t see that on church signs. Why? Because this is such a seeker sensitive time we live in and the soft-sell, easy believism draws nice crowds but just doesn’t work, and God alone knows how many are there for the wrong reason and may not be saved, and most importantly, not even know it!

People so often come to Christ for the wrong reason, so until we tell people the bad news that if they step out of this life without Christ as their Lord and Savior, they’re going straight to hell because their sins have only earned them eternal death (Rom 6:23). The lost need to know that they are separated from a Holy God by their sins and they need to repent (Isaiah 59:2), and that only Jesus can become sin for them and through Him alone can they be seen as having His righteousness (2 Cor 5:21), but also that ever one of us fall infinitely short of God’s standard (Rom 3:23), and that none of us are not without sin (1 John 1:8, 10). If they don’t know that, then they may never see the need for repenting or even know what repentance is. It is the wrath of God that makes God’s mercy relevant. God’s righteous wrath makes the good news of God’s mercy and forgiveness like water for a dying man in the desert.

Conclusion
You cannot present the gospel without mention repentance. That’s why “John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 3:1-2). Peter pierced the conscience of those who were witnesses of and responsible for Jesus’ being crucified, and he told them all, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38). Jesus preached the necessity of repentance, saying, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15), not, “Let me into your heart” or “Will you accept Me?” Even though repentance is granted by God (2nd Tim 2:25), you cannot separate turning from sin (repentance) from having faith in Christ. You cannot turn to God without turning from sin. In fact, conversion cannot occur apart from the presence of both repentance and faith. Only a brokenness or conviction of sin can ready the fallow soil for the seed of the Word of God. Only when the soil’s broken up can the seed take root.

 

[beensetfree]

On His Side
The LORD will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.

Deuteronomy 28:7 NIV

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That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

Luke 1:74,75 KJV

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"No weapon that is formed
against you will prosper;
And every tongue that accuses
you in judgment you will condemn.

This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD,
And their vindication is from Me," declares the LORD.

Isaiah 54:17 NASB

__________________

Thanks be unto God for His wonderful gift:
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God
is the object of our faith; the only faith
that saves is faith in Him.

 

[beensetfree]

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

Psalm 27:1

“The Lord is my light and my salvation.” Here is personal interest, “my light,” “my salvation;” the soul is assured of it, and therefore declares it boldly. Into the soul at the new birth divine light is poured as the precursor of salvation; where there is not enough light to reveal our own darkness and to make us long for the Lord Jesus, there is no evidence of salvation. After conversion our God is our joy, comfort, guide, teacher, and in every sense our light: he is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Note, it is not said merely that the Lord gives light, but that he is light; nor that he gives salvation, but that he is salvation; he, then, who by faith has laid hold upon God, has all covenant blessings in his possession.

This being made sure as a fact, the argument drawn from it is put in the form of a question, “Whom shall I fear?” A question which is its own answer. The powers of darkness are not to be feared, for the Lord, our light, destroys them; and the damnation of hell is not to be dreaded by us, for the Lord is our salvation. This is a very different challenge from that of boastful Goliath, for it rests, not upon the conceited vigour of an arm of flesh, but upon the real power of the omnipotent I AM. “The Lord is the strength of my life.”

Here is a third glowing epithet, to show that the writer's hope was fastened with a threefold cord which could not be broken. We may well accumulate terms of praise where the Lord lavishes deeds of grace. Our life derives all its strength from God; and if he deigns to make us strong, we cannot be weakened by all the machinations of the adversary. “Of whom shall I be afraid?” The bold question looks into the future as well as the present. “If God be for us,” who can be against us, either now or in time to come?

 

[beensetfree]

A Lifetime of Marriage

You’re “in love” with each other and you think that’s the key

For having a marriage that’s the way it should be.

Well, that’s just the start of a lifetime together—

You’ll need more than love to get through stormy weather.

You can’t build a house by tearing it down;

You can’t keep a spouse by wearing a frown.

Whoever you marry, there are better and worse—

So just take the advice that’s contained in this verse.

Some days will bring heartache, others distress;

But you can’t simply “wash your hands” of the mess.

Marriage requires that when things go awry

You give the relationship “just one more” try.

Stick it out, suck it up, make one more new start;

A lifetime of living involves more than your heart.

Every day of your life, you must start anew,

Putting aside all you’ve had to go through,

Until comes a day when you look back at the life

You spent together as husband and wife,

Knowing your marriage grew strong through the years

You endured all that heartache, anger and tears

And knowing the goal was well worth the pain

And that you’d be willing to do it again.

 

[beensetfree]

Let Us Humble Ourselves
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.

Isaiah 5:20,21 NIV

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Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.

Galatians 6:1-3 KJV

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For it is not he who commends himself that is approved,
but he whom the Lord commends.

2 Corinthians 10:18 NASB

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Thanks be unto God for His wonderful gift:
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God
is the object of our faith; the only faith
that saves is faith in Him.

 

[beensetfree]

“Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it.”

Numbers 21:17

Famous was the well of Beer in the wilderness, because it was the subject of a promise: “That is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” The people needed water, and it was promised by their gracious God. We need fresh supplies of heavenly grace, and in the covenant the Lord has pledged himself to give all we require. The well next became the cause of a song. Before the water gushed forth, cheerful faith prompted the people to sing; and as they saw the crystal fount bubbling up, the music grew yet more joyous.

In like manner, we who believe the promise of God should rejoice in the prospect of divine revivals in our souls, and as we experience them our holy joy should overflow. Are we thirsting? Let us not murmur, but sing. Spiritual thirst is bitter to bear, but we need not bear it—the promise indicates a well; let us be of good heart, and look for it. Moreover, the well was the centre of prayer. “Spring up, O well.” What God has engaged to give, we must enquire after, or we manifest that we have neither desire nor faith.

This evening let us ask that the Scripture we have read, and our devotional exercises, may not be an empty formality, but a channel of grace to our souls. O that God the Holy Spirit would work in us with all his mighty power, filling us with all the fulness of God. Lastly, the well was the object of effort. “The nobles of the people digged it with their staves.” The Lord would have us active in obtaining grace. Our staves are ill adapted for digging in the sand, but we must use them to the utmost of our ability. Prayer must not be neglected; the assembling of ourselves together must not be forsaken; ordinances must not be slighted. The Lord will give us his peace most plenteously, but not in a way of idleness. Let us, then, bestir ourselves to seek him in whom are all our fresh springs.

 

[beensetfree]

A Valuable Service

Once there was a man who traveled all his life; and as he traveled, he served a valuable purpose in the world.

The man was very poor. He had no land; he had no money; he didn’t even have shoes. All he had was a pair of tattered trousers and the contents of their pockets, a ragged shirt and an old cloak. The cloak was his coat and his blanket; on warm days when he needed neither coat nor blanket, it was his pillow when he lay down to sleep.

On his bare feet, he walked over meadows and cobblestones, through streams and over hills. He walked when the cobblestones were so hot they blistered the soles of his feet and when the weather was so cold it turned his toes blue and he had to stop along the way and build a fire. Then he would wrap himself in his cloak and sleep alongside the fire until it burned low and the cold woke him up once more.

You may be wondering how this man, who owned nothing at all, did not starve to death. He was not a beggar. He never asked for a thing. While he was willing to work, it was not often that he was offered a job to do. And yet he ate at least one full meal a day and sometimes as many as three.

The secret was in the man’s demeanor. When he came upon anyone else on the roads he traveled, he always said a cheerful “Hello,” smiled broadly and tipped an imaginary hat. When the fellow traveler smiled, he would smile once more and say cheerfully, “I must be on my way to find my supper.”

Invariably, the passerby would say, “Where do you plan to dine?” And the man would reply cheerfully, “I will dine in a castle on the provender of a king.”

Fully intrigued, the travelers he met nearly always stopped in their tracks to survey this strange, poverty stricken, cheerful individual. Of course, they had to ask, “Where is this castle where you will dine?”

The man would look around and survey the world around him. He would point out the wild flowers surrounding them, the clouds in the sky and the way the sun lit up the roadway and cast shadows from the trees. “Sir, (or Ma’am)” he would say, “God has given me this veritable castle. I spend my days in nature’s beautiful castle, I dine here and I sleep here. There is no grander castle.”

Of course the scoffing stranger would say, “But what will you eat?”

Whereupon the man would say, “The birds do not sow or reap and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. I am sure he will also provide my feast. Yonder is a tree where I can gather nuts. And there is a stream nearby where I dare say I can catch a fish or two.”

At this, he would turn the pocket of his trousers inside out and produce a single fish hook wrapped carefully in a long string, which served dual purposes to prevent the fish hook from puncturing his leg and to be used as a fishing line when necessary. However, it was seldom necessary, because by now the stranger he had encountered was drawing his own lunch from his basket or coins from his pocket. After he had pressed these upon the poor traveler, he went on his way, shaking his head and feeling very good about himself.

Making other people feel good about themselves was the service the poor man provided and he did it very well.

 

[beensetfree]

His Return Is Soon!
Knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."

For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

2 Peter 3:3-8 NKJV

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Be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 KJV

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Thanks be unto God for His wonderful gift:
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God
is the object of our faith; the only faith
that saves is faith in Him.

 

[beensetfree]

“I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse.”

Song of Solomon 5:1

The heart of the believer is Christ's garden. He bought it with his precious blood, and he enters it and claims it as his own. A garden implies separation. It is not the open common; it is not a wilderness; it is walled around, or hedged in. Would that we could see the wall of separation between the church and the world made broader and stronger. It makes one sad to hear Christians saying, “Well, there is no harm in this; there is no harm in that,” thus getting as near to the world as possible. Grace is at a low ebb in that soul which can even raise the question of how far it may go in worldly conformity.

A garden is a place of beauty, it far surpasses the wild uncultivated lands. The genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life than the best moralist, because Christ's garden ought to produce the best flowers in all the world. Even the best is poor compared with Christ's deservings; let us not put him off with withering and dwarf plants. The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place which Jesus calls his own.

The garden is a place of growth. The saints are not to remain undeveloped, always mere buds and blossoms. We should grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the Husbandman, and the Holy Spirit the dew from above. A garden is a place of retirement. So the Lord Jesus Christ would have us reserve our souls as a place in which he can manifest himself, as he doth not unto the world.

O that Christians were more retired, that they kept their hearts more closely shut up for Christ! We often worry and trouble ourselves, like Martha, with much serving, so that we have not the room for Christ that Mary had, and do not sit at his feet as we should. The Lord grant the sweet showers of his grace to water his garden this day.

 

[beensetfree]

Expect a Miracle

Wherever I go, I carry a small gray stone. It’s in my purse all day, tucked under my pillow each night. And on it are painted three simple words: Expect a miracle. I did expect one, and against all odds, that’s exactly what I was given.

A year ago, when I first had bloating and pains in my pelvis and lower abdomen, I passed it off as side effects from the estrogen I was taking for menopause. But driving home one day, the pains got so wrenching I nearly crashed my car.

This can’t be normal! I thought in fear. I’m a nurse, so I raced to my medical books as soon a I got home. Almost as if I were directed, I picked one from the shelf and opened straight to the page on ovarian cancer. A chill raced down my spine as I read the symptoms, bloating, pain, frequent urination…I had every one.

“We’ll have to run some tests,” my doctor said after examining me. “But it could be ovarian cancer.” Driving home, I felt so scared I could barely breathe. And when I walked in the door, my husband, Rich, took one look at me, and hugged me close. “We just need to pray,” he told me.

But my test results were terrifying: I had a large tumor, and a blood test that indicated the possible presence of ovarian cancer read 462, normal is 30. I’m going to die! I wept.

That night, I forced myself to stay calm as I told our two teenage daughters that I had cancer. But when I saw the fear in their eyes, my heart nearly broke in two. So I wouldn’t burden them with my fear, I said I had to run to the store and slipped out to my car, tears coursing down my cheeks.

In my mind, I pictured all the faces I loved: Rich, the girls, our five other children through previous marriages, parents, friends…

Oh, God, please don’t take my life, I pleaded. I still have so much to live for.

“Don’t do this alone,” my priest told me when I cried to him. “Let others help you.” And the next day, all those faces I pictured the night before were in my home, surrounding me with their love.

Their love carried me through my surgery to remove the tumor, along with my fallopian tubes and ovaries. But I was far from out of danger. “You still have only a 15 percent chance of making it,” once doctor told me. “Your only hope is chemotherapy.”

Half crazed with fear, I began making frantic bargains: if you heal me, God, I’ll be a better wife, a better mom, a better person. Just give me a second chance.

I had six chemo treatments, one every three weeks. Sometimes I thought I wouldn’t make it through them, they made me so weak and sick. But when I most needed a boost, a friend would show up with dinner or drop by to take the girls out.

Folks even organized fund-raisers to help us pay my medical bills!

Bouyed by so much love, I knew I owed it to others, and to myself, to stay optimistic. So I read books on healing and listened to tapes that helped me visualize getting well. I’m not giving in, I’d think. Rich was my strength whenever I felt afraid, praying with me and holding me. My daughters stayed positive, too. Lindsay, 14, and Sarah, 16, refused to believe I would die. “You’re going to be all right, Mom,” they’d say.

But after my last treatment, I faced a terrifying moment of truth. Doctors were going to take 100 biopsies, one in ever place they feared the cancer might have spread.

“To be honest, we don’t expect to find you’re cancer-free,” they warned. And if the chemo hadn’t destroyed the cancer cells, my chances for survival were slim.
I could feel terror creeping into every fiber of my being. I can’t give up hope now, I thought fiercely. So before leaving for the hospital, I opened the drawer where I kept a good-luck symbol a friend had given me, a small, hand-painted rock.

Expect a miracle, I read, then slipped the stone in my purse. The stone was still in my purse the next day, when I opened my eyes after surgery to find a pretty woman with dark hair and a white dress leaning over my hospital bed.

She must be a nurse, I thought. But she had no pills in her hand, no blood pressure monitor to hook up. Instead, she looked at me kindly and asked, “Are you the one who’s looking for a miracle?”

Confused, I stammered, “Yes.” But how did she know? I wondered. Then, before the question left my lips, she’d vanished.

The next morning, the woman in white was beside me once again. In her hand was a plaque that read: Miracles Happen Every Day. “Is this what you’re looking for?” she asked gently.

Tears sprang to my eyes, but before I could say a word, once again she was gone. As I gazed at the plaque she’d given me, I felt a funny tingly sensation throughout my body…

“Dawn,” Rich said as I groggily opened my eyes, “the results of the biopsies are in. They were negative, each and every one!” I’ll never know whether the woman was a nurse, or an angel. but it doesn’t matter. She came to let me know that hopes are never foolish, prayers never wasted.

Today I’m 49 and cancer-free. And each time I hug my daughters, share a quiet moment with Rich or just watch autumn leaves scuttle across the sidewalk, I remember again that every new day is a blessing, a new chance to expect a miracle.

 

[beensetfree]

Obedience - Key to Blessing
If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment

Job 36:11 NIV

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For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

Romans 2:13 KJV

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O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.

Hear, O Israel!

The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.

Deuteronomy 6:3-6 NASB

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And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother."

Matthew 12:49,50 RSV

__________________

Thanks be unto God for His wonderful gift:
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God
is the object of our faith; the only faith
that saves is faith in Him.

 

[beensetfree]

“My Beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.”

Song of Solomon 2:16, 17

Surely if there be a happy verse in the Bible it is this—“My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” So peaceful, so full of assurance, so overrunning with happiness and contentment is it, that it might well have been written by the same hand which penned the twenty-third Psalm. Yet though the prospect is exceeding fair and lovely—earth cannot show its superior—it is not entirely a sunlit landscape. There is a cloud in the sky which casts a shadow over the scene. Listen, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away.”

There is a word, too, about the “mountains of Bether,” or, “the mountains of division,” and to our love, anything like division is bitterness. Beloved, this may be your present state of mind; you do not doubt your salvation; you know that Christ is yours, but you are not feasting with him. You understand your vital interest in him, so that you have no shadow of a doubt of your being his, and of his being yours, but still his left hand is not under your head, nor doth his right hand embrace you. A shade of sadness is cast over your heart, perhaps by affliction, certainly by the temporary absence of your Lord, so even while exclaiming, “I am his,” you are forced to take to your knees, and to pray, “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved.”

“Where is he?” asks the soul. And the answer comes, “He feedeth among the lilies.” If we would find Christ, we must get into communion with his people, we must come to the ordinances with his saints. Oh, for an evening glimpse of him! Oh, to sup with him to-night!

 

[Psalm23]

Hello Bro Psalm23...thank you for your kind words but you were the one who inspired me to do this by your posts. Keep well brother and blessings to you.

Pray for me Bro Beensetfree that I can revive my posting at the Today's Scripture Reading. I know to post such messages is not a joking matter and we need the power of Holy Spirit to guide us, to encourage us and more importantly to inspire us. It's very time-consuming but very fruitful both for the writer and the readers.
Pray that I can revive my posting. I have family and work commitment but that should not be an excuse.

I pray that God can forgive me.

[Note: Some of your messages are so inspiring that I copied and pasted on word documents for me to read again.]

God Bless
Psalm23

 

[beensetfree]

Three Things Believers Should Know



Although there are more than three things a believer should know, what are three distinct traits should Christians should possess?

Assurance
The Apostle John wrote in 1st John 5:13, “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” John was interested in helping people believe in the Son of God so that they would be saved but to know that they were saved. He wrote as if it was something “knowable,” and it is. We can know that we have eternal life because “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:16-17), so it is God’s will that we have assurance about our standing before God.

It should be a know-so and not a hope-so belief. Jesus cried out, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me” (John 12:44), which of course is the Father, so there is the Holy Spirit that witnesses to our spirit, that we have believed in Jesus Christ and are the children of God, and since we believe in Jesus, obviously we belief in the One Who sent Him (the Father). The point is, we can know that we are saved, so having an assurance of our salvation is not only possible, it is commanded.

Christ-followers are told that even if they die, they will live again (John 11:25-26), but for those believers who are living in sin, most will not have the joy of their assurance because they are grieving and quenching the Spirit by their sinning. Sin has a way of hardening our hearts, which is all the more reason to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13). Sin is sneaky…it slowly desensitizes the believer, even deceiving them into thinking, “Well, at least I’m not like so and so,” and when you begin to trust in your own righteousness, look out! A fall is coming. It’s not others we are to compare ourselves too (2nd Cor 10:12). Our standard is Jesus Christ.



Sinning Less
If a believer claims to have no sin, then they are disagreeing with Scripture and with God (1st John 1:8, 10) because the context of this chapter is referring to believers, but even after a person is saved, they will still sin, in time, they will sin less…and less, but never reaching sinless-ness this side of the kingdom, but on the other hand, “let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1st John 3:7-8). If you practice something, that means you are doing it fairly often, and if you practice it often enough, you might get good at it (even sinning!), so practicing sin means an ongoing participation in sinful activities, and if you’re practicing it, you must be enjoying it. It isn’t just an occasional falling into temptation which leads into sin that John is writing about.

The Apostle Paul describes some of these sins as “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:19-21). Clearly, whoever is continually practicing these things is not inheriting the kingdom of God (1st Cor 6:9-10). This is not my opinion. It is what God’s Word says. It’s possible for the prodigal to fall into the pig pen, but the prodigal doesn’t stay in the pig pen. The pigs do and they love it. A believer can be in the pig pen, but a true believer’s conscience will trouble them to the point that they can’t enjoy it as much. Eventually, the prodigal gets out of the pig pen.

Practicing Righteousness
The Bible teaches that we are the righteousness of Christ, and He Who knew no sin became sin for us (2nd Cor 5:17), so our righteousness comes from outside of ourselves; it comes directly from God after we’ve trusted in Christ. We become new creations in Jesus Christ (2nd Cor 5:17), and new creations will do new things, and they’ll stop doing some of the old things they did because they know they’re wrong, so, “everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him” (1st John 2:29b). They practice righteousness, not sinless-ness, but “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God” (1st John 3:9), and so “it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (1st John 3:10).

Whoever continually practices sin will not inherit the kingdom and all who practice righteousness will enter the kingdom. It’s not an inherent righteousness but a new heart that gives them the desire to obey and this comes only by the power of the Holy Spirit. When we believe in Christ, we receive eternal life (John 3:16), just as Abraham believed God, and that was accounted to Him as righteous. That’s because Abraham practiced righteousness by obeying God’s commands (Gen 12:4; 15:6). Just as Jesus always desired to do the will of the Father, so should the children of God live to please the will of the Father, and the will of the Father is to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, and trust in Him, and of course, obey what He commands. Obedience is practicing righteousness, although obedience is not the source of that righteousness.

Conclusion
This is not intended to be a diagnostic tool to be used on others or whoever’s sitting next to you, as you elbow them in the side, and say, “Hey, that’s you!” This is only intended to give the believer assurance and it to be used as a self-diagnostic tool, spiritually speaking. We are commanded to examine ourselves to see if we are or are not in the faith (2nd Cor 13:5), and if we are in the faith, we will be doing what Jesus commands us to do (Matt 25:34-39), but if some are not doing anything for Him (Matt 25:40-46), then some will be ashamed at His appearing for failing to do what He commanded us to do (Matt 28:18-20; John 13:34-35; James 1:27, etc.). The Apostle John writes, “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming” (1st John 28). If you don’t abide in Him, it’s not only a little something you can do for Him, but a great big nothing (John 15:5)!

 

[beensetfree]

Pleasing the Lord
Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1 John 3:21-23 NIV

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Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

2 Corinthians 5:9,10 NASB

__________________

For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God's approval. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.

1 Peter 2:19-21 RSV

__________________

Thanks be unto God for His wonderful gift:
Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God
is the object of our faith; the only faith
that saves is faith in Him.

 

[beensetfree]

“Straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.”

Mark 1:18

When they heard the call of Jesus, Simon and Andrew obeyed at once without demur. If we would always, punctually and with resolute zeal, put in practice what we hear upon the spot, or at the first fit occasion, our attendance at the means of grace, and our reading of good books, could not fail to enrich us spiritually. He will not lose his loaf who has taken care at once to eat it, neither can he be deprived of the benefit of the doctrine who has already acted upon it.

Most readers and hearers become moved so far as to purpose to amend; but, alas! the proposal is a blossom which has not been knit, and therefore no fruit comes of it; they wait, they waver, and then they forget, till, like the ponds in nights of frost, when the sun shines by day, they are only thawed in time to be frozen again. That fatal to-morrow is blood-red with the murder of fair resolutions; it is the slaughter-house of the innocents. We are very concerned that our little book of “Evening Readings” should not be fruitless, and therefore we pray that readers may not be readers only, but doers, of the word.

The practice of truth is the most profitable reading of it. Should the reader be impressed with any duty while perusing these pages, let him hasten to fulfil it before the holy glow has departed from his soul, and let him leave his nets, and all that he has, sooner than be found rebellious to the Master's call. Do not give place to the devil by delay! Haste while opportunity and quickening are in happy conjunction. Do not be caught in your own nets, but break the meshes of worldliness, and away where glory calls you.

Happy is the writer who shall meet with readers resolved to carry out his teachings: his harvest shall be a hundredfold, and his Master shall have great honour. Would to God that such might be our reward upon these brief meditations and hurried hints. Grant it, O Lord, unto thy servant!

 

[beensetfree]

The Book Of Jonah: The Reluctant Prophet


The Book of Jonah shows us how we can’t run from the will of God any more than we can run from God Himself.

Jonah’s Calling
Jonah, whose very name means called, was called by God to witness to the great city-state of Nineveh, but that’s the last thing Jonah wanted to do because Nineveh was a longtime enemy of the Jews, so it’s not surprising that when God called Jonah to witness to Nineveh, he tried to escape on a ship headed for Tarshish, which was the opposite direction of where God wanted him to go. That’s when God sent or literally, “hurled” a great storm at the ship so that it appeared the ship would be destroyed (Jonah 1:4). The men were desperate and began throwing their goods overboard to prevent the ship from sinking, but the storm only grew worse, so Jonah’s disobedience caused the men to lose much of their merchandize (Jonah 1:5), and in similar fashion, Christians can hurt others, including non-believers, by their disobedience to God. When the crew cast lots to find out who was responsible, the lot fell on Jonah, but the men already knew that Jonah had “fled from the presence of the Lord”, because he told them, so “the men were exceedingly afraid” (Jonah 1:10) of Jonah’s God.

Jonah and the Great Fish
Jonah told the men on the ship that he was the reason for the storm and that if they tossed him overboard, they would be saved, but ending Jonah’s life was the last thing the ship’s crew wanted to do, perhaps because they knew about his God and feared throwing him into the sea, so the men started rowing harder to save the ship, but it was to no avail (Jonah 1:13). Finally, they took Jonah up and “cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging” (Jonah 1:15), so then the men on the ship understood Who the One, True God was and so it’s not surprising that “the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD, and made vows” (Jonah 1:16). Even through Jonah’s terrible witness for God, this still caused the unbelievers to know Who the real God was. Jonah basically wanted to die since they if they had thrown him into the sea, he knew he wouldn’t survive, but the point is, Jonah would rather die than obey God’s will and witness to Nineveh, but “the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah” (John 1:17), so that not only would he not drown, he would be delivered to a place where he could go to directly to Nineveh

Jonah’s Second Calling
Jesus spoke about His being in the grave for three days and nights, saying “just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Mat 12:4), so Jonah was “cut off” from the land of the living (Jonah 2:6), just as Jesus was, but then Jonah “remembered the Lord; and [his] prayer came to [God]” (Jonah 2:7) and “the LORD spoke to the fish and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10), and at a place where he go to Nineveh. That’s when “the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time” in commanding him to preach to Nineveh. Jonah did as he was told and warned, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4), and to Jonah’s consternation, “the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them” (Jonah 3:5). When even the king humbled himself before others (John 3:7), “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way”(John 3:10) and spared that great city and all their occupants.

Jonah’s Unjust Anger
After Jonah had seen the great city-state of Nineveh repent, he was greatly angered, and told God, that he knew God was “a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Jonah 4:2), so Jonah, instead of celebrating that Nineveh had repented and was saved, told God to take my “life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:3). Jonah would rather die than to see his enemies saved. Then Jonah sat and waited to see if the city would be destroyed (Jonah 4:5) and God caused a great gourd to grow over him for shade from the hot sun, and Jonah rejoiced over this gourd, but the next morning, the gourd died and Jonah was angry about the gourd, meaning he lost his comforting shade.

Jonah was angrier that one gourd died than the thousands of souls in Nineveh that would have perished. In other words, Jonah thought more of himself and his own comfort than he did the thousands of people in Nineveh, so God asked Jonah, “should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than 120,000 persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left” (John 4:11), meaning there were that many infants and young children who couldn’t possibly have known how to repent (“cannot discern between their right hand and their left”), so God’s great mercy on a great city which didn’t deserve it, is symbolic of God’s great mercy for us, who similarly didn’t deserve it.

The Apostle Paul makes this clear in writing, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:6-8), and even “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Rom5:10).

Conclusion
Instead of thinking, “How could Jonah be like that?” let’s ask ourselves, how are we like Jonah and reluctant to witness to those we might think could never be saved or those who have persecuted us? Who in their right mind would have witnessed to Saul, who before he became Paul, was obsessed with destroying the church? I doubt anyone thought that Saul would have ever been saved, but God can change the human heart (Prov 21:1; 2nd Cor 5:17) and made a Saul into a Paul. The point is, God’s desire that Nineveh repented shows that He doesn’t desire anyone to perish apart from faith in God.

The Apostle Peter shows that God doesn’t just want to save the Jews but all people from all nations, writing, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2nd Pet 3:9), and “all” can only mean one thing in this context; whoever believes in Him, Jew, Greek, male, female, slave or free, will be saved.