“YOUR LIFE IS HIDDEN WITH CHRIST!”

Colossians 3:1-4                                   (ESV)

“1 If then you have been raised with CHRIST, seek the things that are above, where CHRIST is, seated at the right hand of GOD.

2 SET YOUR MINDS on things that are above, NOT ON THINGS THAT ARE ON EARTH.

3 For you have died, and “YOUR LIFE IS HIDDEN WITH CHRIST” in GOD.

4 When CHRIST WHO is your life appears, then you also will appear with HIM in glory.”

Going through a “haunted house” always irritates me, for I know someone is just trying to scare me with illusions, but my natural man is usually convinced by the unseen!  After exiting, laughter and relief are abundant as the danger has revealed itself to be an illusion, something that is NOT TRUTH!

Allowing THINGS THAT ARE ON EARTH to capture my mind is a weakness that I have that is almost shameful.  Having been DELIVERED from the valley of the shadow of death certainly more times than I deserve is something that I often let slip into a blank space in my mind.  Often I write about GOD having a Plan, but when HE starts moving things to accomplish HIS Plan in my life, I began to squeal with discomfort, all the while knowing that HE IS IN CONTROL, and I am NOT!  

If you SET YOUR MINDS on things that are above, why would you be worried about the THINGS THAT ARE ON EARTH?  But when the note is due at the bank, when a test at the doctors office raises concern, or when there is more month than there is money, keeping YOUR MINDS on things above can be a challenge!  

We must realize that “YOUR LIFE IS HIDDEN WITH CHRIST”, therefore HE is guiding us, much like GOD went before the Israelites crossing the Red Sea!  In Exodus 14:19 it is written “Then the ANGEL OF GOD WHO was going before the host of Israel MOVED and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud MOVED FROM BEFORE THEM and STOOD BEHIND THEM,”. The children of Israel were protected by their CREATOR just like we are when “YOUR LIFE IS HIDDEN WITH CHRIST”, despite their crying when the Egyptians made their presence known.  

Pledging to never do that again is easy.  When our enemy makes his presence known it can be almost reflexive to begin crying about our position in life.  OUR MINDS should be SET on things that are above, not on what the enemy trying to scare us with.  “YOUR LIFE IS HIDDEN WITH CHRIST” is not a ploy, rather a protection against anything that the enemy wants to do to you.  If he wants to scare you, he has to go through CHRIST, for “YOUR LIFE IS HIDDEN WITH CHRIST”!!!

“THE WAY IS HARD!”

Matthew 7:14-15                                  (ESV)

“13 "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and THE WAY IS EASY that leads to DESTRUCTION, and those who enter by it are many.

14 For the gate is narrow and “THE WAY IS HARD” that leads to LIFE, and THOSE WHO FIND IT ARE FEW.”

The WORD OF GOD is ANYTHING but a list of rules and regulations that we Believers have drawn up to agitate those who are not CHOSEN to suffer for CHRIST.  As a matter of fact, observing the wickedness of “this world” causes me sadness and a certain amount of grief knowing that SO MANY people are going to experience an eternity of punishment of HOLY and RIGHTEOUS GOD!  

The verses of Scripture above plainly states that “THE WAY IS HARD” that leads to LIFE!  Since “this world” is not our home, we should rejoice in the HOPE of our eternal destination, PROMISED by the CREATOR HIMSELF (John 14:1-6).  We cannot allow FEAR and DOUBT to infiltrate our minds, for HE holds our future in HIS HANDS!  JESUS says in John 10:18 “No one takes it (MY LIFE) from ME, but I lay it down of MY OWN accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from MY FATHER." The WAY that GOD assigned JESUS included dying on a cruel cross!  We have to be willing to take up our own cross for HIS GLORY! 

The verses of Scripture above also plainly states that “THE WAY IS EASY” that leads to DESTRUCTION!  Those who will experience DESTRUCTION ARE MANY!  SEEing these people operate in their own limited wisdom and abilities, one has to realize how Blessed we are to have our EYES OPENED, to be able to SEE the Spiritual Warfare that is happening in front of our eyes (2 Kings 6:17)!  We cannot change other people’s vision, only the HOLY SPIRIT of GOD can perform that MIRACLE!  Their temporary EASY life will be rewarded with ETERNAL JUDGEMENT!  

“THE WAY IS HARD” will only last for a season!  Like the story of Moses in Hebrews 11:23-31, we might have to experience “THE WAY IS HARD”, but the reward will be OUT OF THIS WORLD!  

“THE WORLD HATES YOU!”

John 15:18-25                                                             (ESV)

“18 "If “THE WORLD HATES YOU”, know that it has hated ME before it hated you.

19 IF YOU WERE OF THE WORLD, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I CHOSE YOU out of the world, therefore “THE WORLD HATES YOU”.

20 Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' IF THEY PERSECUTED ME, THEY WILL ALSO PERSECUTE YOU. If they kept MY Word, they will also keep yours.

21 But all these things they will do to you on account of MY name, because they do not know HIM WHO sent ME.

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23 Whoever hates ME hates MY FATHER also.

24 If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both ME and MY FATHER.

25 But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: 'They hated me without a cause.'”

HATE is a word that I have always been advised to avoid.  After all, GOD IS LOVE (1 John 4:8) and we are to reflect GOD in everything we do.  But GOD also HATES!  Proverbs 6:16-19 says “There are six things that the LORD HATES, seven that are an abomination to HIM: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers”.  Likewise, we should HATE to break the heart of GOD!

The word HATE is defined as “to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest:”.  We should have an extreme aversion to doing things that are an offense to our CREATOR, the ONE WHO has CHOSEN us!  The reason “THE WORLD HATES YOU” is because ALMIGHTY GOD has CHOSEN US to be different than them, to be SET APART from them.  They HATED HIM when HE explained that doing what THEY WANTED was NOT pleasing to GOD, and “THE WORLD HATES YOU” because we are part of JESUS!  

There is MUCH discussion about Romans 13 and submitting to those in authority.  But in Acts 4:18-21 Peter and John replied to those who instructed them to “not to speak or teach at all in the name of JESUS” by saying "Whether it is right in the sight of GOD to listen to you rather than to GOD, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard."  

Serving GOD IS SURE to cost us more than our tithes and offerings.  When “THE WORLD HATES YOU”, it cannot SEE that you are simply being obedient to a HOLY GOD, for the veil over their EYES has not been removed.  It might be that GOD will use my persecution to open the EYES of someone who HE will use to suffer for HIS NAME?  

GREAT GOD IN HEAVEN, cause me to be so focused on following YOU that I will obey, even when “THE WORLD HATES ME”, especially because I am following YOU!

“PROVIDED WE SUFFER!”

Romans 8:12-17                                     (ESV)

“12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the SPIRIT you put to death the deeds of the body, YOU WILL LIVE.

14 For all who are led by the SPIRIT of GOD are sons of GOD.

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the SPIRIT of adoption as sons, by WHOM we cry, "ABBA! FATHER!"

16 The SPIRIT HIMSELF bears witness with our spirit that we are children of GOD 

17 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.”

It seems that everybody has a desire to be healthy, wealthy and wise.  However we don’t eat and exercise to remain healthy, we spend with reckless abandon to remain saddled with debt, and we refuse to search the correct Book (HOLY BIBLE) for wisdom!  On the other hand, it is difficult to find anyone with a desire to SUFFER!  When a person is terminally ill, their doctors usually say that they will make certain they DON’T SUFFER!  Most will do whatever is necessary to avoid SUFFERING, because hopefully they have a choice.  

In Acts 9:16 THE LORD says to Ananias “For I will show him how much he (Saul) must SUFFER for the sake of MY name."  The writer of the book of Romans, Apostle Paul (formerly Saul), then writes “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.”  We can be “heirs of GOD and fellow heirs with CHRIST, “PROVIDED WE SUFFER” with HIM!  

Is Paul out of his mind when writing this letter to the Church of Rome?  “PROVIDED WE SUFFER” surely isn’t a recruiting tool to increase the army of GOD?  Yet Paul lets us know that our journey isn’t going to be a bed of roses as we reflect CHRIST in “this world”!  “The enemy” will cause obstacles to obstruct your path every chance he has, for CHRIST lives in you, and he is opposed to JESUS and everything good.  

History (HIS STORY) tells that the Apostle Paul was beheaded in Rome, where the church was located that the Epistle was written for.  In America, martyrdom hasn’t been an issue for many years.  But the time may be coming when the we have the opportunity to prove our love for the SAVIOR.  Will I have the boldness and conviction to live for HIM, die for HIM, SUFFER FOR HIM???  As the LAST DAYS are nearing, we will BE SAVED, “PROVIDED WE SUFFER” with JESUS!!!

PRINCE OF PEACE!

COVID-19 

Racial Tensions 

Unbalanced Budgets 

Political Disunity 

Government Intrusions

......and on and on!!!

With all the chaos and calamity going on, a reasonable person would think that the Prince of PEACE might be given a chance???  Isaiah 9:6

“THE JEWS PLOTTED TO KILL HIM!”

Acts 9:1-3                                           (ESV)

“1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the LORD, went to the high priest

2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the WAY, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a LIGHT from heaven shone around him. 

23 When many days had passed, “THE JEWS PLOTTED TO KILL HIM”,

24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates DAY and NIGHT in order TO KILL HIM,

25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.”

After we leave “this world”, we continue to live through the legacy we leave in everyone we come in contact with. Our children , grandchildren, family and friends, even our enemies have the chance of exhibiting traits that are passed on by knowing us.  My maternal great-grandparents, my maternal grandparents, my mother all passed down traits that were engrafted into my life, helping form the personality I have today.  While it is true that the Brain Hemorrhage “changed” me, some say dramatically, the core person has been the same since January 08, 1978 when JESUS began the transformation process that continues to this day.  

In Acts 9:1 Saul was “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the LORD”!  As little as 23 verses later in the chapter, Saul was being targeted by “the Jews” to be murdered because he was radically transformed and saved by JESUS!  He was the same person who WAS killing Believers, now he was being sought by “the Jews” to be silenced because of his testimony for CHRIST!  

We ALL are going to make an exodus from “this world”.  This is definitely NOT the end of our roads.  Some of us are going to hear from our CREATOR “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy LORD”, while many others will hear “I never knew you: depart from ME, ye that work iniquity.”  Imagine the ONE WHO spoke these worlds into existence declaring that HE never knew you!  Evidently some people believe that there is plenty of time for them to decide to yield to the MASTER???  

No one knows when, how, nor where their end will arrive.  “THE JEWS PLOTTED TO KILL HIM” (Saul), but he escaped their evil intentions.  According to the CDC, 2,813,503 people die every year in the United States.   That is a little over 7,700 people in America every day that don’t make it.  When is your day coming???  Have you prepared for the JUDGEMENT?  “THE JEWS PLOTTED TO KILL HIM”, but Saul became Paul, one of the greatest servants ever recorded.  What will your legacy be???

“THE MAN WHO LAY WITH HER SHALL DIE!”

Deuteronomy 22:25-27                                         (ESV)

“25 "But if in the open country a man meets a young woman who is betrothed, and the man seizes her and lies with her, then only “THE MAN WHO LAY WITH HER SHALL DIE”.

26 But you shall do nothing to the young woman; she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor,

27 because he met her in the open country, and though the betrothed young woman cried for help there was no one to rescue her.”

There are those who say that the Old Testament was done away with when JESUS entered the scene.  But JESUS HIMSELF says in Matthew 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them BUT TO FULFILL THEM!”  

The love I have for my grandchildren is indescribable!  Imagining someone kidnapping and abusing them brings shame for me.  I am NOT GOD, but the imagined recompense for hurting those who GOD Created takes me to a place that I prefer not to visit!  Scripture relates that “the man seizes her and lies with her, then only “THE MAN WHO LAY WITH HER SHALL DIE”!  

Deuteronomy is part of that Law that JESUS WILL FULFILL!  The ONE WHO spoke these worlds into existence WILL one day judge every work that mankind has performed!  The Judgment for sin is DEATH, and this DEATH that is spoken about isn’t a great final happening, but an ETERNAL separation from GOD!  

GOD is a merciful GOD, but HIS chief attribute is HOLINESS!  One definition of Holiness is “The state or character of being holy or sinless; purity of moral character; perfect freedom from all evil; sanctity.”  GOD has it in HIS AUTHORITY to FORGIVE upon a REPENTANCE of sin, not just an apology!  But abusing children, NO MATTER the platform, calls for “THE MAN WHO LAY WITH HER SHALL DIE”!  

Make no mistake, GOD ALMIGHTY has the final say, and when HE says “DEPART FROM ME, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:40), forgiveness will then be TOO LATE!  When Scripture states “THE MAN WHO LAY WITH HER SHALL DIE” might experience “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”, unless they REPENT!!!

“WE CANNOT BUT SPEAK!”

Acts 4:13-22                                        (ESV)

“13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, COMMON MEN, they were astonished. And they recognized that THEY HAD BEEN WITH JESUS.

14 But seeing the man who was healed standing beside them, THEY HAD NOTHING TO SAY IN OPPOSITION.

15 But when they had commanded them to leave the council, they conferred with one another,

16 saying, "What shall we do with these men? For that a notable sign has been performed through them is evident to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

17 But in order that it may spread no further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name."

18 So they called them and charged them not to SPEAK or TEACH AT ALL  in the name of JESUS.

19 But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in the sight of GOD to listen to you rather than to GOD, you must judge,

20 for “WE CANNOT BUT SPEAK” of what we have SEEN and HEARD."

21 And when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because of the people, FOR ALL WERE PRAISING GOD FOR WHAT HAD HAPPENED.

22 For the man on whom this sign of healing was performed was more than FORTY YEARS OLD.”

Most people have days that they remember for monumental events that occurred in their lives.   The day they were married, the day of their children being born, when a parent graduates to their eternal reward, something that they remember as being special to them.   

Tomorrow, July 25, is such a time for me.  The day in question is not one that stands out in my memory though.  You see, 13 years ago I was in a drug induced coma, and I don’t remember ANYTHING about the ordeal.  Reading my medical records is the only account that I have had, and they are more reliable as my memory fades at times!  

On July 24, 2007 records indicate that I was given an ENORMOUS amount of medication for hypertension.  Then in the early morning hours of July 25 it is recorded that my blood pressure plummeted!  There is no written explanation for the sudden drop in my blood pressure, but GOD is not required to explain to mortals the acts HE performs.  

There is NO EXPLANATION for what Peter and John experienced when they were used to heal  the man lame from birth!  When they were questioned about what happened, Peter and John said, “WE CANNOT BUT SPEAK” of what we have SEEN and HEARD!”  GOD had miraculously healed the lame man from birth  (he was over 40 years old) and they were forever changed because of it!  Scripture says “FOR ALL WERE PRAISING GOD FOR WHAT HAD HAPPENED”!! 

Some may grow weary of hearing of the things that happened in this COMMON MAN’S life in 2007, but “WE CANNOT BUT SPEAK” about what GOD has done for me!  When I researched that Brain Hemorrhages were 80% fatal in 2007, I wept.  When I read the letter that GOD had me write BACK IN 2002 supporting the Neurologist coming to the hospital where I would go five years later and be used to save my life, I wept!  To SEE that GOD has/had everything Planned continues to make me weep!  “WE CANNOT BUT SPEAK” about HIS Mercy and Goodness, not just in my life, but to ALL who will slow down and SEE HIS works revealed!!!  

“THE FOUNDER AND PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH!”

Hebrews 12:1-3                                      (ESV)

“1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

2 looking to JESUS, “THE FOUNDER AND PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH”, WHO for the joy that was set before HIM endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of GOD.

3 Consider HIM WHO ENDURED from sinners such HOSTILITY against HIMSELF, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.”

The example of being a mirror, simply reflecting the Glory of CHRIST, has often been used by this writer to illustrate that we are CHOSEN BY OUR CREATOR to display HIS LOVE, MERCY and GRACE to anyone who will see!  This passage of Scripture reminds us that “we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses” who are seeing the testimony that we give, whether it be a good message or a not so good one!  

Our FAITH is NOT something of our own doing (Ephesians 2:8-10).  We were CHOSEN by GOD before we were ever born to perform what HIS PLAN is for our lives.  The same JESUS we worship and adore is “THE FOUNDER AND PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH”, not only drawing us to THE FATHER (John 6:44), but “perfecting” our FAITH in HIM while a cloud of witnesses observes!  It’s not just about growing us in HIM, but making sure that others witness the Glory of CHRIST by our trials, tribulations, and maturation process to which we are exposed.  

“THE FOUNDER AND PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH” is what our lives should be all about, not living our best life now!  We are simply broken mirrors that reflect HIS beauty from every prism that that results from HIM restoring our shattered selves.  Proverbs 19:21 says it very well, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but IT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE LORD THAT WILL STAND”!  Since HE is “THE FOUNDER AND PERFECTER OF OUR FAITH”, HIS will should be what we all are striving for, shouldn’t it???

“FEAR NOT, STAND FIRM!”

Exodus 14:10-13                                   (ESV)

“10 When PHARAOH DREW  NEAR, THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL LIFTED UP THEIR EYES, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and THEY FEARED GREATLY. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.

11 They said to Moses, "Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?

12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: 'Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians'? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."

13 And Moses said to the people, "”FEAR NOT, STAND FIRM”, and SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD, which HE will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.”

The fourteenth chapter of Exodus has a wealth of lessons for me.  The deliverance from the Egyptian army, at the time the most powerful known to man, was unheard of, especially by a people who were not known to man as being warriors.  Even though Moses told the Israelites and Pharaoh that GOD was going to bring them out of captivity in Exodus 6, over 400 years of the Egyptian way of life had forged Israel’s EYES onto the present and not what GOD was capable of!

When the EYES of Israel saw that the Egyptians were approaching, THEY FEARED GREATLY!  Their FAITH was about to be strengthened, but it was going to happen through experience, not because they were CHOSEN!  GOD had already demonstrated that HIS CHOSEN people were special to HIM, but the Israelites couldn’t SEE that because they were focusing on the approaching enemy.  Moses instructed the Israelites to “FEAR NOT, STAND FIRM”, but they could only SEE the Egyptian army closing in on them.  What GOD had Promised them no longer was important, for the enemy was near!

Is my FAITH any stronger than the Israelites?  Even though GOD has given me a clear indication of what HE is going to do, I STILL get my EYES on the enemy approaching.  The ONE WHO spoke everything that was made into existence wants to SHINE HIS LIGHT through me, and I want to FEAR GREATLY!  

Growing FAITH is NOT for the weak in SPIRIT.  Maturing to the point where GOD uses you for HIS GLORY can be a painful experience!  When GOD has to cut away the unbelief and worldliness and replace the old self with the NEW MAN it more than likely will be an uncomfortable feeling, even devastating!  The Israelites had GREAT FEAR when the Egyptian army made their presence known.  Will I do the same?  ALMIGHTY GOD says that we should “FEAR NOT, STAND FIRM”, and SEE THE SALVATION OF THE LORD!  How we respond will determine our Spiritual Maturity!!!

“FATHER IS SEEKING SUCH PEOPLE!”

John 4:16-26                                         (ESV)

“16 JESUS said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."

17 The woman answered HIM, "I have no husband." JESUS said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband';

18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true."

19 The woman said to HIM, "Sir, I PERCEIVE that YOU are a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."

21 JESUS said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.

22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.

23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the FATHER in spirit and truth, for the “FATHER IS SEEKING SUCH PEOPLE” to worship HIM.

24 GOD is spirit, and those who worship HIM must worship in spirit and truth."

25 The woman said to HIM, "I know that Messiah is coming (HE WHO is called CHRIST). When HE comes, HE will tell us all things."

26 JESUS said to her, "I WHO speak to you am HE."”

A friend was speaking about an illness that they had and said to another friend that if there wasn’t such a big deal made over the illness that they wouldn’t have thought anything about it, that the illness was just part of getting older.  This statement got me to thinking, do we make as big of a deal about our own sin as we do about other people’s sin?  Or do we just think that our sin is just part of being a normal human, an imperfect person in an imperfect world?  

The woman at the well in the passage of Scripture above was imperfect.  According to JESUS, she already had five husbands and the one she was currently with wasn’t even married to her!  She was a LOT worse than me, for I have only been married to one woman in my life.  But how I perceive (or view) sin may not be as CRITICAL when the sin is mine as when it is someone else’s?  The word “perceive” is defined as “to recognize, discern, envision, or understand”.  Could it be that the reality is that we attempt to ignore is that OUR SIN while the sins of others we push them to the front of our memory?  

The “FATHER IS SEEKING SUCH PEOPLE” who will worship HIM, not identify the sins of other people.  Our inability to live our lives HOLY and acceptable to GOD is beyond our capabilities, for we are born into sin!  The ONLY HOPE available for mankind is to be BORN AGAIN by the SPIRIT OF GOD, allowing the sacrifice of JESUS CHRIST to be IMPUTED for our transgressions.  

Just like my friend said that their illness might have been ignored had there not been such an uproar about it, OUR SIN needs to have the same uproar!  But mainly, the “FATHER IS SEEKING SUCH PEOPLE” who will PERCEIVE and recognize that JESUS paid their sin debt that we had and IMPUTED HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS into our accounts so we could live forever with HIM!  No, I am not perfect, I have ugly sin that I don’t like talking about!  But “THE FATHER IS SEEKING SUCH PEOPLE” who will recognize that JESUS CHRIST is the ONLY WAY to worship GOD!  

“THEY BECAME FOOLS!”

Romans 1:18-23                                 (ESV)

“18 For THE WRATH OF GOD is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

19 For what can be known about GOD is plain to them, because GOD has shown it to them.

20 For HIS invisible attributes, namely, HIS ETERNAL POWER and DIVINE NATURE, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. SO THEY ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE.

21 For although they knew GOD, they did not honor HIM as GOD or give thanks to HIM, but they became futile in their thinking, and THEIR FOOLISH HEARTS WERE DARKENED.

22 CLAIMING TO BE WISE, “THEY BECAME FOOLS”,

23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal GOD for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. “

Let’s say that a person does EVERYTHING that is suggested trying to avoid getting COVID-19, yet STILL contracts the disease.  Another goes to parties and refuses to follow the “guidelines” for COVID-19 mitigation, and they never get the virus?  Would it be fair to say that a HIGHER POWER could possibly be controlling things, that the LIGHT from HIS ETERNAL POWER and DIVINE NATURE has been darkened a tad, much like when JESUS was on the cross?  My speculations would imagine that “the enemy” and all his hosts were temporarily feeling pretty cocky?  That is until Sunday morning when the tomb was vacated?!?!?

There is knowledge, and then there is WISDOM!  Knowledge comes from what is taught by books and teachers. WISDOM comes from GOD (Proverbs 2:6)!  We can learn knowledge until we have more letters in front and behind our names than anyone else, but that knowledge will not do any good at THE JUDGMENT!  WISDOM, on the other hand, is granted by GOD to the humble (James 1-5).  The arrogant (or proud) is on their own!  Proverbs 16:5 says “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; BE ASSURED, he will not go unpunished.”

Mankind has educated themselves to a point where they believe they have everything figured out.  Romans 1:26-27 says “For this reason GOD gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error”.  There are literally millions of children being sold into sex slavery and the media turns a deaf ear to this.  If WISDOM were rampant in society, would we allow this practice to flourish?  

“CLAIMING TO BE WISE, “THEY BECAME FOOLS” needs to be shouted from every pulpit, lectern, and assembly hall!  COVID-19 does not have the world in its grips, sin does!  2 Timothy 3:1-9 proclaims that in the “last days” some people will be VERY BAD!  GOD’S mercy is vast, therefore I am forgiven, but HIS mercy will not be extended forever!  One day soon, JESUS CHRIST WILL RETURN and those who claimed to be wise and “did it their way” will stand before HIM with nothing but their earthly accomplishments, which will all burn up!  Then they shall realize that “THEY BECAME FOOLS” and their eternity is in the lake of fire!!!

“I HAVE CHOSEN YOU!”

Isaiah 41:8-10                                       (ESV)

“8 But you, Israel, MY servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; 

9 you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, "You are MY servant, “I HAVE CHOSEN YOU” and not cast you off"; 

10 fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your GOD; I WILL STRENGTHEN YOU, I WILL HELP YOU, I WILL UPHOLD YOU WITH MY RIGHTEOUS RIGHT HAND.”

The atrocities committed against a person, or group of persons, are sometimes hard to describe, and definitely need to be learned from so that they prevent similar issues in the future. Unless we learn (by performing differently than those before us), we are doomed to continue living in the failures of our ancestry.  

A very personal experience that GOD continues to teach me with happened when I was engaged to be married to the woman GOD had chosen to be my helpmeet.  A brief time of “indecision” was presented to me causing me to put our engagement on hold for a week or so.  You see, the man who fathered me was married at least five times.  He was known to not be very faithful.  The thought of being just like him was something that I definitely didn’t want to be, so I had to convince myself that I was NOT my father!  Although he had fathered me, the Holy Spirit lived inside of me and HE was able to steer me away from those bad decisions.  My wife and I have been married almost 37 years, and I thank GOD that HE orchestrated our meeting, marriage, and eternity!

It appears that everyone has an idea for “racial reconciliation”, in other words, fixing the problem between different races, cultures, and actions!  We who have been CHOSEN are a NEW CREATION (2 Corinthians 5:17), a race created by THE CREATOR HIMSELF, JESUS!  HE revealed to me that HE was able to cause me to live for HIM, even though I WAS (old self) formerly of the flesh!  PLEASE, do NOT misunderstand, it is not because I was so righteous that I was able to avoid some of the bad choices others make!  It is because “I HAVE CHOSEN YOU” to be different than “this world”!  

Being the same as everyone else is something that is “natural” for mankind.  Being SEPARATE from “this world” is what 2 Corinthians 6:17 is instructing us to be.  When we are CHOSEN, we become a NEW CREATION, SEPARATE from “this world”, to be a LIGHT in a dark world!  The old has passed away, and the NEW CREATION is made to live!  When “I HAVE CHOSEN YOU”, HE MAKES ALL THINGS NEW, even old wounds!!!

“THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER!”

Exodus 3:13-15                                     (ESV)

“13 Then Moses said to GOD, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The GOD of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is HIS name?' what shall I say to them?"

14 GOD said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And HE said, "Say this to the people of Israel: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

15 GOD also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel: 'The LORD, the GOD of your fathers, the GOD of Abraham, the GOD of Isaac, and the GOD of Jacob, has sent me to you.'  “THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER”, AND THIS I AM TO BE REMEMBERED THROUGHOUT ALL GENERATIONS!”

The Spiritual maturation process of Moses might be considered one of the most painful in all of Scripture.  He began as a Jew who had to flee  because he killed an Egyptian for beating a fellow Hebrew.  After arriving in Midian, Moses had to be shown that GOD IS IN CONTROL, not just of people who Believe in HIM, but also the non-believer......even the Pharaoh of Egypt!  Moses was taught, in a sometimes painful experience, that “I AM WHO I AM” was not to be challenged!  Moses had to learn, through experience, that GOD IS GOD and he was not!  

Just hearing that “THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER” was easy to hear, but Believing that ALMIGHTY GOD is “I AM WHO I AM” took 40 years tending sheep!  Then, after all he had gone through, Moses still had lessons that had to be experienced.  GOD told WHO HE was, but Moses didn’t accept the FACT about the Sovereignty, the Omnipotence, and the Omniscience of GOD until GOD proved HIS power to Moses through the trials that he experienced.  GOD didn’t have to pass a test, but Moses had to fully know WHO was going to deliver him at the Red Sea long before the Red Sea was in front of the Israelites.   

Learning from experience isn’t always the most pleasant of things.  The tendency is to question why GOD is allowing us to suffer (in our eyes) through what we see as “difficulties”, when HE ultimately might be preparing us for our own Red Sea where HIS NAME IS GLORIFIED (Exodus14:31)!  

Had Moses remembered “THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER”, there might not have been as much FEAR on the banks of the Red Sea?  “I AM WHO I AM” was guiding Israel and HE has never NOT kept HIS PROMISES!  In Exodus 3:8b GOD promises Moses that HE WILL DELIVER the nation of Israel to “... a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites”.  Moses had been given THE PROMISE, but the pressures of getting TO the Promised Land might have affected his memory?  

We must keep our EYES on the PROMISES OF GOD and NOT on the difficulties surrounding us.  When “I AM WHO I AM” says “THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER”, we must never forget that, despite our trials, GOD IS GOD and we are not!    

“WHAT IS MAN?”

Psalms 8:1-5                                       (ESV)

“1 O LORD, our LORD, how majestic is YOUR name in all the earth! YOU have set your glory above the heavens. 

2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, YOU have established strength because of YOUR foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. 

3 When I look at YOUR heavens, the work of YOUR fingers, the moon and the stars, which YOU have set in place, 

4 “WHAT IS MAN” that YOU are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? 

5 Yet YOU have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.”

Watching people who actually believe what they are fed by a television screen is quite laughable, but also disheartening at the same time!  We have digressed into a people who are controlled by whatever we are told, even if the people telling us things are not trustworthy.  What used to be one hour of national then local “news” when I was a child has morphed into 24/7 channels of propaganda driven opinions that are based on anything and everything except facts!  What drives people to believe such fabrications is ultimately nothing short of SIN and “the great deceiver”!

Although I am no longer on the spinning carousel that “this world” would have us to participate in, SEEing the effects of its disinformation on millions of people with their proverbial “heads in the sand” makes one wonder what happened to our world?  

Yet GOD loved us so much that HE sent HIS only SON (John 3:16! to provide a way of Salvation, IF WE ONLY BELIEVE!  And how do we thank HIM for the sacrifice of JESUS?  We don’t even seek WISDOM FROM GOD, instead we rely on a television screen to tell us what we should eat, where and when we should go, how we should dress, and on and on!  

“WHAT IS MAN” was asked in a very different perspective in the Scriptures above.  “WHAT IS MAN” meant we were so Blessed to have a CREATOR concerned with us that HE gave us a mind to think with, and all we do with that mind is think about ourselves!  Shouldn’t our CREATOR be the ONE we call out to when we are in turmoil?  

Yes, “WHAT IS MAN” that he thinks he is wise enough to make decisions on his own, WITHOUT THE LORD directing us?  We are swiftly heading to the JUDGEMENT DAY, and then we will realize exactly “WHAT IS MAN”!  Dustin Benge, provost of Union School of Theology in South Wales, recently tweeted “Psalm 2 is a stunning picture of how puny our wisdom, intellect, and plans are in the eyes of the sovereign of the universe”.  Which causes me to ask, “WHAT IS MAN” with our puny wisdom, intellect, and plans in the eyes of THE SOVEREIGN OF THE UNIVERSE???

“THE WORD OF OUR GOD WILL STAND FOREVER!”

Isaiah 40:6-8                                        (ESV)
“6 A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" ALL FLESH IS GRASS, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The GRASS WITHERS, THE FLOWER FADES WHEN THE BREATH OF THE LORD BLOWS ON IT; SURELY THE PEOPLE ARE GRASS.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but “THE WORD OF OUR GOD WILL STAND FOREVER.”


fact
/fakt/

noun
1. a thing that is known or proved to be TRUE.


Somebody asked recently on social media about “fact checkers”, and who checks the “fact checkers”?  A “fact” can only be proven to be TRUE compared with an ABSOLUTE UNCHANGING AUTHORITY.  Time and surroundings can not change TRUTH, if it is absolute.  If it WAS TRUE in the past, it MUST still BE TRUE today, or it was an imposter!

One might argue that it takes a male AND a female to have a child.  But the Luke 1:35 says “And the angel answered her, "The HOLY SPIRIT will come upon you, and the power of the MOST HIGH will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called Holy-the SON of GOD.”  One might say, that isn’t possible!  Well two verses later Scripture records in Luke 1:37 “For NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!”  NOTHING means NO-THING!

Since so-called “facts” tend to change with the weather these days, mankind has to understand that the ONLY TRUTH is JESUS!  John 14:6 says “JESUS said to him, "I am the way, and the TRUTH, and the life. No one comes to the FATHER except through ME.”  HE is TRUTH!  HE never CHANGES!  “THE WORD OF OUR GOD WILL STAND FOREVER!”  Anything and everything else is subject to change!  When MIRACLES happen (as they very often do), GOD has CHANGED man’s facts!

Our earthly bodies WILL fade away!  That is a FACT!  GOD provided an exception through HIS SON!  With the MIRACLE OF IMPUTATION, the righteousness of JESUS is transferred to me and all who Believe in HIM, and our sinfulness was put on the shoulders of JESUS on Calvary!  Only GOD could have orchestrated this MIRACLE!  Mountains can be moved, sick people can be healed, lives are changed, but “THE WORD OF OUR GOD WILL STAND FOREVER”!!!

“WE ARE ONE!”

John 17:22-24                                    (ESV)

“22 The GLORY that YOU have given ME I have given to them, that they may be one even as “WE ARE ONE”,

23 I in them and YOU in ME, that they may become perfectly ONE, so that the world may know that YOU sent ME and loved them even as YOU loved ME.

24 FATHER, I desire that they also, whom YOU have given ME, may be with ME where I am, to see MY glory that YOU have given ME because YOU loved ME before the foundation of the world.”

John 17:23 is often referred to by me to remind me and others that JESUS lives in me , and every other Believer.  So many are walking around defeated when they supposedly have THE CREATOR of the universes living inside of them.  How could anyone, especially one who writes about HIM daily, not live in total and complete victory?  

In the previous verse JESUS prays to the FATHER, “The GLORY that YOU have given ME I have given to them, that they may be one even as WE are ONE”!  JESUS CONFIRMS that as GOD is in HIM, HE is in us!  The same SPIRIT that spoke the worlds into existence declares that we who are CHOSEN be indwelled by HIM....and I have to be reminded of that???

Verse 24 clearly states that JESUS wants us to BE WITH HIM to see “MY glory that YOU have given ME”!  JESUS wants me to abide with HIM for eternity in PEACE and HARMONY forever and ever!  HE wants me to experience life to the fullest, not in health, wealth and prosperity, but in KNOWING my position in HIM!  

We ALL have desires and dreams, things that we would like to accomplish, with our lives.   JESUS wants us to grow into the knowledge and realization that “WE ARE ONE” with HE and the FATHER, thusly Glorifying HIMSELF!  There is NO WAY that I could ever be justified to enter eternity with JESUS, accept by GOD’s CHOOSING!  HIS unmerited LOVE, GRACE and MERCY is where my HOPE lies that “WE ARE ONE”!