Category Archives: Faith

Faith

Surprised by Giving


I heard a great message today by Michael Yousef.  http://www.leadingtheway.org/  “Surely Not Me … And Definitely Not Them

It is definitely worth a listen.  You can read my babbling later.

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”  Heb 13:2

Grace is SufficientThe really nice thing that is coming out of my circumstances is, God is using my circumstances to pare me down to what I really believe, to seek that which I do not understand (About God), and to test the things I claim I believe.

One of the big tests and refining fires of God is to see if what I say I believe is: A. Godly (Is there a genuine Biblical basis for what I claim?), B. Not just in my head…”knowledge puffeth up.”  Does this belief actually live in my heart. Does it walk, or just talk? C. Where this knowledge is weak, that I get opportunities to apply it in the “real” world.  Nothing defines you better than your circumstances and opportunities those circumstances offer, to be like Jesus.  In my weakness to obey, God is my strength to be obedient.  That is when it lives in my heart.

I find the answers to:

Do I live the commands of Jesus Christ, to love the Lord my God with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul and my strength, and do I actually love my neighbor as much as I love myself?

Do I have the strength of character to take my eyes off my circumstances and look the Lord straight in the eyes?  Do I have the courage to live out my love and faith in the midst of my circumstances?

I read in the Bible:  “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”  Luke 6:38 KJV

Here is a conviction that is being driven into my soul.  That verse says that I am to give.  It is an active tense verse that calls for immediacy of action.  It begs a large question of me.  Am I ever ready, and ever-present in my observation of life that I am waiting for the opportunity to give?   If I give, am I being genuine in my love toward that person, or am I doing it out of “religious obligation”?  When I give, have I already begun adding to my ledger the anticipation of getting something in return?

Why do I give?

My prayer is that God use the Holy Spirit to make me into the very character and likeness (I know, that was redundant), of Jesus Christ.  He gave for two reasons:  1. Obedience, and 2. Love of God, and Love of Mankind.  His LOVE is what led to His obedience.  It was not a religious obligation, it was a genuine act of grace and love and mercy.  He gave what He was rich in.  He gave sacrificially.

Here is the big point God is trying to bore into my very thick skull.  Give out of love.  Give what you have.  Jesus Himself did not have a home.  He lived off the kindness of strangers, sinners, and the disciples.  But what He did have, he gave even unto death.

Now comes the hard part.  Being unemployed means not having the goodies I had when I was employed.  And there may come a day soon, that I will be homeless.  My Debtors are calling daily, some are suing, and, even though I have over 100 applications out there, I am getting crickets.

Here is WHY I am sharing this intimate detail with you:  Those are my circumstances.  I can tell you exactly what I would have done in my Pre-Christian life.  I would have panicked, paced the floor, gotten angry and taken it out on my loved ones, and generally would have made an ass of myself.

What God is teaching me in these circumstances is that, He is able to carry me, and continue to change my character into the character of Christ.

So now comes the test.

Do I get so involved in how unlucky I am, how I am a loser because I am unemployed, because I cannot even buy my family the very basics of life?  Am I so wrapped up in my apparently overwhelming circumstances that I forget that I am being made into the image of Christ?

This morning, while the Spirit of God was showing me these things, He asked me, am I willing to give as Christ gave?  Of course, in my best legalistic, and Hyper-Calvinist voice, I reminded the Spirit, I have NOTHING!  What can I give?  I have to beg for just the basics of life!

It was then he reminded me that I belong to God.  I belong because of the Salvation that I have accepted in Jesus Christ.  God is teaching me, through my circumstances, that I can give to others even though I have “nothing”. What I do have is a lot of time and my body.

I have a heart that God has healed.  I have a mind and heart for the downtrodden, that I never knew existed.  I have eyes that can see the differences between a taker and a person in genuine need.  When I see opportunities, do I respond with the Love of Christ, or do I keep my head down, my eyes averted, and focus on my own problems.  Are MY circumstances more important that the Love of God?

Am I afraid to trust God that, when I approach a stranger, my giving will be a blessing from God?, That HE will be my courage, and my blessing? That it is HIs desire that I be just like His Son? Do I trust God that He will empower me and make me able?

Jesus becomes manifest in our lives when we obey Him, out of Love, and desire to be like Him.  It is not a duty.  It is not a forced obligation.  It is an external expression of the Love of Christ being revealed in my heart.  It becomes a gift from Christ when I give it to a person who happens to need a smile, a kind word, or a blessing.

My sins were very many.  Do I love others with the same gratitude and joy that I love God for my forgiveness?

I have hands:  I can open a door with a smile and a “God Bless You”.  I can carry a package for someone, while I show love to that someone.

I have a heart:  The Spirit of God will reveal to me the ones He wants me to touch, and when I am in doubt, I will touch anyway.  Love and Grace and Mercy are more fresh and delightful when given with reckless abandon.  It doesn’t mean you are stupid for going where no one else will go.  It means you trust God to carry you because you are giving away the love God has shown you.

I have feet:  I can walk however far it takes to help someone.

I have the Love of Christ:  He said He has not come into the world to judge the world, but to save it.  Do I look on the helpless, the needy, the lost, the ones who are lost in their circumstances, just to judge them unfit for my love, my mercy, my grace, my gift?  Or do I see an opportunity to share the Joy, love, mercy, and grace God has shown me?

“Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”  Luke 7:47 NKJV  The words of Jesus

Is my heart so hardened by my circumstances, or my “Religious Wisdom”,  that I cannot see that it is my arrogance God is trying to cure?  My sense of self-righteousness is broken on the rocks of those in need.  My heart is being molded into the Character of Christ when I step out of my circumstances and learn to give, even out of my need.

“Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.”  Luke 7:44-46 NKJV  – The Words of Jesus

Am I really willing to do for others what I say I am willing to do for Jesus?

I can push a shopping cart that an elderly person is struggling with.  I can put a shopping cart away for a soccer mom who is harried by her circumstances.  I don’t know what God is doing in her life, but maybe, just maybe, my act of kindness will be that one act that God uses to help her turn a corner.

We do not know what we are doing when we are urged to show kindness to a stranger.  That stranger may be at a breaking point that my kindness will heal.  This is a gift from God, and not of my own doing.  A smile is medicine.  A hug is security to someone so lost in their circumstances that they believe they are alone.  Giving will soften a hard heart, both mine and theirs.  Love has turned my cynicism into a willingness to believe that Jesus’ love will be translated to another person when I demonstrate it.

Am I willing to give love to the unlovely?  Am I willing to give my time for someone I cannot even stand being around?  It is easy for me to help people I love, or even like.  It takes Christ in me to help me to love my enemies, pray for those who spitefully use me.  It takes the courage only Love of Christ in you generates to kneel down and give water to someone who may be out to ruin you.  Doing this in love is a blessing to them, and will soften their heart.  Given for any other reason is poison.

My friend from England, an Engineer, used to tell me that I am such a jack-ass that I kick the door down, shoot everyone in the room, THEN try to determine who the bad guy is.  He was right.  Now, can God turn that behavior into someone who is willing to open the door, and give to everyone in the room, despite who is worthy of the gift?  Yes.  He can, He does and He will.

Do I wait for the Big moments.  Do I want to be Moses, and be known as the friend of God?  Do I want the lime light?  Do I want the return on the gift instead of being willing to give out of my need?

I know myself well enough to know that I am always looking for the big moments.  God will fill me with His love, grace and mercy, but my understanding of its significance is revealed in my behavior.  Is there enough evidence to convict me of being like Jesus?

I praise God that I lost my job, if learning these things is what it takes to make me aware of the power and love of God.

My Prayer:  My Heavenly Father. I praise your name.  I glory in your mercy and grace.  I pray, Lord, that you take all of us “Religious Bigots” and turn us into the very image of Christ.  This especially applies to me.  I am grateful you are turning my lip service into a real walk.  I confess that I only had a head knowledge of you, before these circumstances.  I glory that you love me enough to discipline me.  I am grateful that, instead of casting me aside as completely lost, you sought me out to redeem me.

Glory to God.  I praise your name.  You are the helper of the hopeless, and the defender of the weak.  You are my Lord.   Jesus is my Savior and my Lord.  Thank you for turning my heart of stone into a heart that loves.  Keep me constantly in your eyes, and deliver me from my own foolishness.

I pray because I am bought with the price of Jesus’ blood, and am redeemed by His sacrifice.

Amen

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”  I Cor 6: 19 – 20

Jesus did not come into the world to make bad people good.  He came here to make dead people live.

Let’s be about it!

I love you,

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

Does Jesus Know Me?


“He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” John 10:3 HCSB

Welcome Home!

Welcome Home!

Have I Misunderstood Jesus?

I owe a debt of gratitude to the book, “My Utmost for His Highest”, for this lesson.  I recommend his works for the serious disciple.

The nice thing about being disciplined by God is, I have learned that it is possible to know all about doctrine and still not know Jesus.  It took 20 years for me to actually meet Him.

My soul is in danger when my knowledge of doctrine out paces my intimate relationship with Jesus.  If I were at the empty tomb, would I weep with Mary?  Doctrine didn’t matter a hill of beans to Mary.  Any Religious Bigot, full of doctrine, could have made an idiot of Mary.  But what the Religious Bigot could not make fun of where she was concerned; Jesus had cast 7 demons out of her.  Still, Jesus’ blessings were nothing compared to Jesus Himself.

Mary stood there, looking at Jesus, at the empty tomb, and didn’t recognize him.  The second she heard His voice, she knew that she had had intimate dealings with the one who spoke.

She said, “Master!”

Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and observe My hands.

Reach out your hand and put it into My side.

Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer.”

John 20:27

Thomas had stubbornly doubted.  He would not believe unless he saw it for himself.  I am convinced Thomas was from Missouri.

I have to ask myself this question:  Am I doubting something about Jesus?  Have I missed the experience that others testify about, but have not had? Am I like Thomas in that, unless I have that personal touch, I will not believe?  “Except I shall see…, I will not believe.”

We don’t know when Jesus’ touch will come, or how it will come; but when it does come, His touch is precious beyond description.  Then I fall on my knees and say, as Thomas said, “My Lord and my God!”  And that is exactly what happened to me.

Have I, like Peter, selfishly denied Him?  Is He my Lord only when it is convenient?  Peter denied Jesus with oaths and curses.  After the Resurrection, however, Jesus appeared to Peter alone.  Jesus restored him in private.  After that, Jesus restored Peter in front of the disciples…”Lord, Thou knowest I love Thee.”  In my past, I found it expedient to deny Christ in order to further my career.  And that caused a deep hurt in my soul.  Then His touch came.  “Thous knowest that I love Thee!”

Do I really have a personal history with Jesus?

The proof of my discipleship is that I have an intimate connection with Jesus.  I have knowledge of Jesus which nothing can shake.  It is not a doctrine.  It is not something I can learn at Seminary.  It is a relationship more intimate than that shared between a Husband and his wife.  He knows me.  And I know Him.  At last.

I remember what Jesus Christ healed me of when He touched me.  I remember where I was.  I can tell you the date and time it happened.  Where others had written me off, He had forgiven me and redeemed me.  And I can still hear His voice when he told me He loves me.  Nothing can take that away.

My brothers and sisters; When you are in doubt, or too tired to keep moving, or have fear, or need His assurance, start with where you were, and what He did,  when He first came to you.

Praise Him for His love for you, that He chose to save you.

Turn to Him…you will hear His voice.  Fear will vanish.  Peace will come.  And rest will happen.

Lets Be About It.

I Love You

David Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

The Adventures of Sammy Snardfarkle – Chapter 1


IMG_0599

Chapter One

He lived on a medium sized working ranch, that also was a farm. The oldest of 10, two brothers and 7 sisters, and, of course himself, Sammy took most of the responsibility of the farm. He remembered the day it happened.

His father was a Navy man, and was always off to sea, doing something exciting. He knew this because, every time his Dad packed up his duffel-bag to go away, Sammy would ask him:

“Dad, where are you going now?”

Dad: “Out to sea again, Sammy.”

Sammy: “Do you have to go?”

Dad: “Yes, I have a duty. And I am needed… ‘somewhere’.”

Sammy: “Is that ‘somewhere’ very special?”

Dad: “I am sure that where I am going is both special and exciting. Most Places I go are.”

His dad made every sea adventure sound exciting.

Sammy: “Be safe, Dad.”

Dad: “I will, son.” His Dad stopped packing and looked at the floor for a second. Then he squatted down and took Sammy by the shoulders and looked him in the eye. Sammy thought he saw pain in his dad’s eye, even if it was just a brief second.

Then Sammy’s Dad said: “While I am gone, I want you to take care of Mom and your brothers and sisters. Make sure the horses, cattle and sheep are fed. Don’t forget, it’s almost harvest time. There will be plenty of work to keep all of you busy. And tell your sisters to feed the chickens and gather the eggs every day. Can you do this for me, Son?”

“Yes, Dad, I can.” Sammy said. His dad was always going away, but he always returned. He didn’t understand why his Dad was acting all different, this time. It was just another adventure.

Sammy asked his Dad, “What’s it like, being on the ocean?”

His dad was not expecting this question, but he said, “Well, Sam, it’s nothing like anything you have ever known. It makes you feel as if you are free, and it makes you feel as if you are very small. The ocean is powerful, and it’s soothing. There’s lots of silence, sometimes, then there are mighty storms and loud wind. When it’s like that, a man determines what he believes is true about himself. The sea can be a harsh mistress, but can also be a great teacher. I hope, someday, you will find time to learn these things, son.”

Then his Dad did something he never did before he left for an adventure.  He grabbed Sammy and hugged him, and kissed him, and held him really tight, and said, “I love you, Sam.”   His Dad had a lot of strong muscles, and Sammy was afraid he was never going to breathe again. His Dad’s part of the Navy was named after some aquatic animal…guppy, froggies, or seals, or some such. He never really understood that part, but it made sense, cause his Dad said they do a LOT of swimming.

Then Sammy did what he never has done before, either; He hugged his dad back, kissed him, and said, “I love you, too, Dad.” Then his Dad got up quickly, grabbed his duffel-bag, and left. Dad was off on a great adventure.

Sam learned a lot from his dad, when his dad was home from adventuring. First thing he learned to do, before he could walk, was to swim. His Dad always told him, “Water is your friend, Sam. Never be afraid of water.” He also learned other things, like; How to hunt, how to camp out, how to make food out of almost everything on the land. How to make medicines, how to ride a horse and rope.

Sammy especially loved it when his Dad took him way off to the edge of the land, where there was an empty, dried out pond, and they got in the middle of the dried out pond, where it was lower than all the rest of the land. It was there that his Dad taught him how to shoot almost every kind of weapon he could imagine. He learned how to use a knife, and even learned how to throw almost any kind of knife at a target, and hit the target. He even learned how to make a blow gun, a cross-bow, and his own bow and arrow set, complete with a quiver for carrying arrows.

It was their secret.

His Dad made him promise that he would NEVER tell his mom or siblings. Sammy always kept that promise. He also promised that, when it was time, he would take his brothers and sisters and teach them everything his Dad had taught him. Sammy promised. Sammy ALWAYS kept his promises. His Dad taught him that. “If a man gives his word, he must keep that word. You only get one reputation, so don’t ruin it.”

His Dad was always telling him, “Son, when you get really tired, or afraid, or just plain ‘don’t want to’s”, remember, you always have 10% more in you than you believe you do. You just have to reach for it and use it. Never quit. Never give up.

Never “ring out”, whatever that meant.

Sammy’s favorite books were “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis. He liked them because he felt they were true to life, full of adventure, and they gave him hope that, one day, he would get to go on his own adventures, like what happened in Narnia, and what his Dad did.  There even used to be a king in their land who was called “Aslan”.  But that was probably a few thousand years ago.  No one had ever seen him again, after he left, one day.  Sammy just figured the guy got tired of being king, and went on his own adventure.

I guess this is where I mention that, just like Narnia, but without all the sense of being a fairy tale, Sammy’s world was the same. Animals and people lived together, and could talk to each other. Sammy and his family were all Dogs, of the Beagle variety. Sam was exceptionally tall for a beagle, just like his dad. When he walked on just his back legs, Sammy was almost as tall as a teen-aged human boy.

Sammy, at the ripe age of 15, was older than his siblings by about 5 years. His mom always called him “Big Sweety”, because Sammy was big for his age. Sammy called his Mom, “Momma Sweety”. It was their favorite names for each other. But when his mom had to scold him, it usually started with, “Samuel Thaddeus Snardfarkle!…” That was when he knew he was in really big trouble.  He promised his Dad, that, while Dad was away, he would be the “Man of the House”, what ever that meant.  I usually meant more chores than his brothers and sisters had.  But Momma Sweety was always there, by his side, helping with the really tough chores.

One day, while Sammy was driving the tractor down to the South part of their land, to pull stumps, he saw an official looking car drive all the way up their drive way (About 2 miles of caleche. Caleche is not ordinary dirt. It is hardened Calcium Carbonate.  It is hard and dry, most of the time.  It also powders to a fine talcum when it gets really dry, and you ride your car over it a lot. And when it rains, it turns into the most difficult mud you can imagine. Sometimes, when it rained, you could get your car stuck in it.)

Sammy watched the car drive slowly. His keen eye could see that the people riding in the car wore Navy uniforms. He turned the tractor around, and drove as fast as that tractor could go. Which was not really fast, but faster than he could jog.

By the time he got near the house, stopped the tractor, and ran the rest of the way to his house, the car had gone, leaving a large dust cloud of fine caleche powder in the breeze. He saw his Mom sitting on the porch, in the swing, holding a letter. She was crying really hard.  When she saw Sammy come up to her, she grabbed him and held him, and cried and cried, and cried.

Sammy managed to pry the letter out of his Mom’s hand. It was from the Department of the Navy. It had all kinds of flowery language on it, but the bottom line was, his Dad had died on his adventure. They said they were “Sorry for your loss.”

Sammy was 15 when this happened. And it hit him that his Dad was never coming home, and now, he had to be the Dad. He was scared. He held on to his mother and cried, too.

And he started looking for that extra 10%.

He knew he would need it.

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

FEAR NOT


False Evidence Appearing Real

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

― Frank Herbert, Dune

Common sense tells me that the world is full of fright and fear.  We have endless war, we have a disastrous economy, and eventually, we wake up to discover that the people we voted into office, and the people who run things all over the world have only one desire:  Our Destruction.  And that those who they do not destroy, they intend to enslave.

In combat training, the biggest thing a soldier has to learn is to keep fear from locking his brain into immobilization.  Nothing makes life as real and scary as having a bunch of people you don’t know shoot at you.  That is why soldiers are put through an almost interminable set of training methods that break that fear.  You learn to step into a different place in your mind where fear may still present itself, but it is no more a bother to you than a gnat trying to hijack a freight train.  You learn to acknowledge the fear (It keeps you alive), but not to let that fear rule your heart.

When I fought in the Martial Arts, and faced an opponent that, from all visual signals, could mop the floor with my face, I used this as an opportunity to fall back on my training.  Part of that training was the comfort of knowing that I know all the skills and techniques that my worthy opponent knows.  I just have to tell fear to go sit in the corner while I fall into combinations I understand, that my opponent doesn’t. I can honestly say that I have lost as many fights as I have won.  Most of the fights I lost were because I let fear confuse me to the point that I forgot my training.

Those two examples describe having to face extreme fear.  Then there is the daily “Worry”, “Anger”, “Anxiety”, and basic hand wringing we all experience.  Trust me, these fears seem to me, at least, much more difficult to face than combat or Tournament Fighting.  Even Street Fighting has a basic set of rules, and I always fall back on my training. The Fear is real, but does not rule me.  And when I am able to work beyond the fear, fear loses all power over me.

Having recently joined God‘s army, I am learning a new set of skills to help me face my fears.  These skills exist to help me face the same fears I was facing anyway, but using a different set of techniques.

Fear is the prime motivator in the secular world.  Fear motivates greed, lust, power, and preservation.  The fear of losing is what drives this world.  The fact that fear is the prime motivator of secular life is an indication of a severe psychosis in our world.

We fear losing our homes, our status, not being able to pay our bills, not getting the respect from our spouses or children in the manner we think they should show.  We wonder what to do when we have overspent our limit on our credit cards.  But we use those cards because we want to maintain a lifestyle that is not maintainable otherwise.   Life becomes about things, and the things become our masters, and our masters are afraid of loss.

We are fearful of the punishment of a society that will think you are a failure of you do not march in the same lock-step manner it marches.  The biggest fear we have is the conflict over the loss of our uniqueness while trying to conform to an unforgiving world that demands you follow it’s rules.  And it rules by fear.  The World punishes, without mercy, anyone who cannot keep up.

The worst part is, the world insists that you achieve through debt.  The world wants to loan you what you already have, and charge you interest for it.  We are a debtor society who are about to see the final bill come due. The world wants you to think that there is no escaping this system.

Anyone who tries working outside the boundaries of this debtor system will be punished.  Just try to buy, sell or rent or get a job with a poor credit rating.  The credit system tells the world just how much you are able to play its game of slavery.  This system makes life more expensive than it really.  The fear of not keeping up, and the fear of losing all your status and stuff, drives you like a slave into deeper debt.

You will never be free as long as you wish to play this game.  You will be punished by this system.  There is seldom any real reward or freedom in this system.  What reward you receive is a bribe to keep you in the game.  Any freedom you have is an illusion used to make you happy you are in debt up to your eyeballs.

In the mean time, fear keeps gnawing at you because you are falling behind.  You fear the ultimate rejection of this system, and fear the punishment it will bring.  This wold only has illusions of love and joy and freedom.  And these are also tools that are driven by fear…fear of loss.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.  I John 4:18

Knowing that “The Lord disciplines the ones He loves…”, I have learned that I must be taken to the point of surrender.

  It is not at all what I am trained to do in the secular world.  It is not what is taught if you want to succeed on the world’s terms.  And surrender is one of the very top “bad words” in the military.  In the worlds way, there is only move forward, don’t hesitate, be decisive, rely on your strength, knowledge and courage.  And it is brutal.  You have to kill your opponent in order to win.  You get to keep all the spoils of that killing.

In God’s army, the very first thing a warrior has to learn to do is surrender; Not to fear, not to the enemy, but to the sovereignty of the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Surrender to the way and will of the Lord is the very first lesson in God’s boot camp.

It is Jesus who said this:

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.  “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?  “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?  “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.   “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much ore clothe you? You of little faith!  “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’  “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”  Mat 6:24-33 NASB

I have prayed for this faith.  I have asked to know the Love of God.  But I had never had it vigorously tested until recently.  I am faced daily with the hard questions:  “Is this nonsense?”,   “Am I INSANE?”,  “Shouldn’t I just take matters into my own hands?”, “Is it true that God will supply all my needs, or is it true what the world says, that God will only go so far with me and I have to do the rest on my own.”

The hardest battles I have to face today is the uncertainty of not knowing outcomes, but learning to put my trust completely in God, who loves me.  I am learning that God is in control of ALL the outcomes.  The game is rigged in God’s favor.

I have to surrender all my doubt to Him.  I have to place all my trust in Him.  I have to surrender my pride, and my own resourcefulness, so that God will fill me with His faith, His love and His provision for my life.

The conundrum is that, left to my own strength, I cannot do any of these things.  Even in my surrender, I need God to work in me, via the Holy Spirit, to assure me that surrender is the first step to victory.

These past 5 months have been a real trial.  God has used it to teach me that He is in control.  He breaks my pride, and drowns my arrogance.  He shows me that His love, for Him and for Others, is the cure to fear.  He shows me that He is all my provision, that defeat is not what God has in store for me.  But for me to walk into the victory He has planned for me, I have to get out of His way.

I now know that, when things get real, and I want to fear, the thing that will defeat me is NOT the circumstance I am in.  What will defeat me is my fear of the circumstance I am in.  It is FEAR that defeats us.  Fear is unbelief.  It is anticipating a punishment that doesn’t exist.  Fear is its own punishment.  Fear is the willful disregard of the evidence of the love God has for me.

Fear made Peter sink into the sea when Christ was willing Him to walk on the water.  I am defeated when I lose sight of faith and love.  Faith that God has my back, no matter how ugly things look.  Love is from God.  When the light of the love of God resides in me, fear runs away, like a roach who has been exposed.  God’s love never leaves.  It is my perception of His love that changes, based on my faith and trust in Him.  But His love never goes away.  I just have to look at Him, instead of the waves of circumstance.

I affirm and avow that it is God who is sustaining me through my trials.  It is God who proves He is more powerful than any thing the World can throw at me.  It is God who shows me daily that, no weapon formed against me will prosper.  It is God who embraces me in His arms when I want to fear.  He does not judge me for being afraid, He loves me because He has become my first resort.  His love makes my fear vanish.

Where the World judges me as not fit for them, God has said I am perfect for Him.  I am redeemed through the Blood of Christ.  In God’s eyes, I am complete.  He is teaching me that, as my heart exchanges its attitudes for Godly values, I know that I can trust God to deliver me from anything that I face.

He may not make all my problems disappear, but He will be there to walk me through it.  He will be there to be my strength when I want to faint from fear.  He will carry me, He will sustain me.  I have learned that, no matter what, God is my provision.

All this is true because I have accepted the free gift of Salvation from death.  I accept that Jesus Christ IS the only begotten Son of God, and that Jesus took on all my sin and died for them in my place.  I know and confess that Jesus had the power to raise Himself from the dead, and that the Lord Jesus, having demonstrated that power, has proven that, if I will follow Him, I too will know the power of God.

When Jesus becomes my Savior and Lord, I see that the Love of God resides in me.  And I see that, as I submit to God, through the Holy Spirit, my heart will be transformed from doubt, fear, anger, selfishness, lust, and my will,  and into a vessel that carries all the character and power of Jesus.

From God’s point of view, Armageddon has already happened, and Jesus is already on the throne of this world.  But from my perspective, that is in the future.  Even though all things are complete and finished from God’s point of view, I still have to experience time and life on this planet.  During that time, as I live this life, I have to learn that the only way THIS warrior will win is by surrendering – To the Love of God.

“Perfect Love casts out ALL fear.”

“God is Love.”

Let’s be about it.

I love you

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Standard
Faith

Revealed Truth, or Religious Bigotry?


Holy Pottery‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.  ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.  ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’  Jeremiah 29:11-14 NASB

I have not written in the last few days.  I had to ask myself some hard questions.  One of those questions was:  “Am I showing the truth, or being a religious bigot?”

An opportunity to answer this question presented itself, today.  So, now I can tell you what I have learned.  I am not going to bore you with my testimony.  Let my current life be my testimony.  And I am a work in progress.  But over these past two weeks, I have been struggling with how dogmatic my writing sounds.

I am by God‘s grace, and training, a researcher, and an analyst.  I am very good at it too.  I will not bore you with this, either.  I say it so I can tell you this:

The difference between a researcher and a religious bigot is, the religious bigot will not accept that any other point of view, other than his own, is true.  He will be so dug in that he cannot, and will not, even entertain conversation that will allow a different point of view.

The Religious Bigot believes that his answer, even if it contradicts hard evidence, or Jesus Himself, is actually the correct one.  And the contradiction against Christ does not present a mental conundrum to him, either.  The religious bigot will plot the curve then try to find data that supports it, or will bend the existing data to force it to agree with it.  He has the answer before he knows the question.  In his heart, he has cut out several things Christ has had to say about Himself, Salvation, and what it really means to follow Him.

A researcher will look at as much evidence he can find.  He will weigh the evidence.  He will let the evidence speak for itself. He will suspend his biases in order to see if something is hidden in the data that he would otherwise not choose to see.  Even if that data represents a major threat to his understanding of things, he will look.  If the shock doesn’t kill him, he will adapt to that truth.  He knows the difference between a truth and an opinion of a truth, even in his own mental frame-work.

I have spent, literally, all my life researching and studying as many religions as I could find.  I even attended many of their religious meetings in order to get a better understanding of them.

All my research has driven me back to some very basic truths.  This has shown me the difference between what you call a fundamentalist and what I call a fundamentalist.   A fundamentalist, in any religion, has boiled his faith down to things that are the bottom line of his faith.  The American definition of a fundamentalist is actually the definition of a religious bigot.

Here was the hard part.  There is only so much the human mind can comprehend when it comes to spiritual matters.  There comes a time when you must rely on faith and hope.

In Christianity, I have discovered that, the gift of Faith comes from God alone.  And when I rely on it, I am shown things that have been right in front of me all along, but did not have “The Third Eye” opened to it, yet.

Being a researcher, I am open to every possible interpretation of any event that you can imagine.  I know that, if I have the truth, nothing can remove it from my heart.  However interesting and entertaining that journey into another viewpoint is, I can test it against the baseline of revealed truth, and know it for what it is.

Am I dogmatic?  Absolutely.  What I have been writing about all this time is directly from the scriptures.  There is no room for my opinion of it, or my interpretation of it.  It is the truth as Jesus and the Apostles, and God have revealed it in the scriptures.

As a researcher, I want to hear other views.  I am not afraid of differing opinions, or what others think is revealed truth.  I can do this without my ego being attached to it because I have learned, in my return to Christ that “Truth is its own witness, and Time is the Judge of all truths.”

I am dogmatic over the things I have delved into, and have seen for myself are true.  There are things that are true that I could never discuss in a church or over a pulpit.  I have learned the hard way that, even though it is the truth, most people cannot fathom that it is true.  I have discovered that, even things that are mentioned in the Bible are outright rejected by most American Christians.

But what I know, I must write about..  What I write about are truths as revealed in Scripture, and how God has applied it to my life, and my wife’s life.  We are in total agreement over these things.  We arrived at this over very different routs. She is my partner and my love, and we walk together in our calling.

WHAT THIS BOILS DOWN TO

It is a heart condition that will keep us from growing to be like Christ.

When you are saved, spiritually, you are complete.  The Holy Spirit marks you as being a child of the Living God because of your faith, IN YOUR HEART, that Jesus Christ is who he said he is, and did what he said he will do.  Your faith was born in your heart, after God placed the seed of faith in you.

Spiritually, you are complete.  There is nothing lacking in you spiritually.

The reason you were not raptured when you were saved, is so that that spirit can take over your heart.

Here is a good explanation of this:

THE CONDITION OF THE HUMAN HEART

In Scripture, the heart is the seat of indwelling sin as well as its subject. It is from the heart that indwelling sin springs in a person’s experience. Indeed, sin has invaded as an enemy and now possesses the very throne of God himself. So says the preacher:

Ecclesiastes 9:3 This is the unfortunate thing about everything that happens on earth: the same fate awaits everyone; The hearts of all people are full of evil, and there is madness in their hearts during their lives—then they die.

This is a very good description of the heart.  When you are saved, you are complete in the eyes of GOd.  This is because the Holy Spirit now dwells in you.  However,  “When he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world, and show where right and wrong and judgment lie. He will convict them of wrong…”  John 16:8 (NEB).  (Click the link, you will find a very well written article that covers this topic in-depth).

Being complete in the spirit is why you are saved.  But the heart has to be Cleaned out of all its old habits.  It is the heart that contains all our sin, impulses, evil and wayward living.  If you really want to grow to be like Jesus, you cannot stay content being complete in the spirit, you will want God to do His heart surgery on you.  Even if you know it might hurt.

I strongly recommend this book if you want a complete study of why this cleaning is part of the Grace of God:

“Grace: The Power To Change”, by Dr. James B. Richards, 1993 ISBN: 0-924748-07-9  Look it up at your favorite book dealer.  CDB carries it.

So, if I am a dogmatic about anything, I am dogmatic about the lessons I have had to learn, by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in my life.  It is hard work, and it comes only as we are willing to submit to these changes. It is a work I was never willing to do myself.  But the Spirit of God compels me to submit to a work only He can do in me.

The fact that I am willing to change according to the will of God proves I am not being a religious bigot.  I am very open to any change the Spirit of God needs to make in me so that I will end up being just like Christ, my Lord.  I am willing to sacrifice anything and everything I love and hold dear, if it is what God needs me to do, if it will mean I get to be like Jesus.  That especially includes all the hidden matters of my heart.

You must be willing to have your heart changed.  Eventually the Spirit of God will tire of you quenching it.  If, in your wisdom (Translates to Arrogance),  you want to delude yourself into thinking that you do not need to change your heart, fine.  My invitation is only to those who, like me, have  discovered the Lordship of Christ.  Jesus is more than a Savior.  In order to understand the Lordship of Christ, a Christian must be teachable, and allow the Holy Spirit, not your opinion, to be the teacher.

Lets Be About It.

I love you,

David Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

Rest in the Lord


424586_472625946153436_1301156474_n

This is dedicated to the original Christian blogger – Oswald Chambers.

This morning I opened my copy of “My Utmost For His Highest“.  It the classic edition of Chamber’s Daily Devotional.  The Classic Edition is how Chambers actually wrote in his devotional diary.  It is not modernized or watered down.  Back in his day, one was allowed to call things exactly as they saw them, and were ready to face whatever consequences they faced for speaking out.  And the listener had the right to not be offended.

I am always pleasantly surprised to discover that today’s entry just so happens to be an issue I am wrestling with at the very moment.

One of the repeated experiences Jesus dealt with concerning His disciples was their fear and unbelief.  Circumstances in my life, these last 6 months, have given me a new perspective on these items.  Rather than try to give you, the informed reader, my interpolation of what Chambers wrote, I am going to give it to you word for word, just as Chambers wrote it in his diary.  It was written in the British language as used during WWI, England.  Any spacing was added by me so that this can be digested in bite-sized paragraphs.  Chambers could pack a LOT into a sentence.  It is a skill I pray fervently for.

I want to thank my Christian Brother, Rick Mansfield, for giving me this special edition copy after I was saved.  God bless you Rick.  I love you.

Published by permission of DODD MEAD & Company, INC.

Copyright, 1935, by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc.  Copy right renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd.  ISBN-0-916441-42-3

p.225

August 12th

THE THEOLOGY OF REST

“Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?”  Matthew viii. 26 RV

When we are in fear, we can do nothing less than pray to God, but our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His Name should have an understanding confidence in Him.  God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the reliable ones.

Our trust is in God up to a certain point, then we go back to the elementary panic prayers of those who do not know God. We get to our wits’ end, showing that we have not the slightest confidence in Him and His government of the world;  He seems to be asleep, and we see nothing but breakers ahead.

“O ye of little faith!”  What a pang must have shot through the disciples – ‘Missed it again!’  And what a pang will go through us when we suddenly realize that we might have produced downright joy in the heart of Jesus by remaining absolutely confident in Him, no matter what was ahead.

There are stages in life when there is no storm, so crisis, when we do our human best;  it is when a crisis arises that we instantly reveal upon whom we rely.  If we have been learning to worship God  and to trust Him, the crisis will reveal that we go to the breaking point and not break in our confidence in Him.

We have been talking a great deal about sanctification – what is it all going to amount to?  It should work out into rest in God which means oneness with God, a oneness which will make us not only blameless in His sight, but a deep joy to Him.

Let’s be about it!

Love always,

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

Eternity In Your Heart


Earth and Star

This is blog 1 for August 12th, 2013.  Blog 2 will follow.  It will be along the lines of the message I have been given to share.

For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.  Isaiah 57:15

Why do I write?  Whom is my message for?  Is it really MY message?  How do I have the right to say the things I say?   This is not my “normal daily” post, that will follow this one.  This post is an editorial based on my understanding what I have been called to do.  Normally, I am indifferent to the hostility, and not too concerned over all the indifference.  I knew this was coming before I started blogging.

Hostility can mean I hit a nerve.  Whether I hit that nerve in a good way or a bad one is usually revealed in the emails I get. If I discern that I was misunderstood, I make amends as quickly as possible.  If I discover otherwise, I let it alone.  Only a fool grabs a dog by its ears.

Indifference is something I have no control over.  Only God Himself can cure that.

So why do I write?  Is it to get attention?  No.  Is it to gain popularity? I have never enjoyed a huge amount of popularity. But I understand the importance of what I have been given to say.  The message I have is unpopular, and the target audience is so narrow, I expect nothing much in return.

So, why do I write, and to whom do I write it?

I write to those brothers and sisters who have eternity in their hearts.  They are either in the process of understanding salvation, or were once aware of their salvation.  The fire burns, however small, in their hearts.  They know something is missing.  They know that the life they are now living is not what they set out to live.  They understand that what they are doing is not what they thought it would be.

I write to them because I have lived that life, and am sharing everything I have come to understand in the process of coming home.  If you already have your pet religion, and “God in the Box”, then this message was never intended to be for you.  You are still welcome to read it, but it is not for you.

To you who have this song of Heaven still echoing somewhere in your heart and soul, I am writing.  You once understood the joy of salvation, or you are about to understand the joy of salvation.  You are far away from that joy.  You have done things that you hope never, EVER make the light of day.  The burden of your wanderings are so great, you have given up any hope of being allowed to return to God.  And even when you think you want to go home, you have, somehow, convinced yourself that there is no way you can ever return to God.

I get that.  I have been there.  I have despaired to the point that I wanted to die and get it over with.  And just as I had given up completely, God stepped in and showed me something.  And that something is what I am writing to you.

YOU ARE SAVED:

You understand that there is sin in your life.  You understand that sin separates you from God.  You understand that if you die in this sin, you will also experience the death of your soul.  You understand that God loved Humanity so much, He sent Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, to take your place, die on the cross, and absorb ALL the wrath of God, so you do not have to.  You confess that Jesus rose Himself from the dead to prove He has power over life and death.   If you have made this confession, or do make this confession, then you are saved.  There is no power in existence that can take that away from you.  No person or religion has the right or ability to condemn you for what you have done.  In God’s eyes, you are complete.  You cannot even take yourself from God’s hands.  His gifts are without repentance.

YOU KNOW THERE IS MORE:

You ask yourself why, if I am saved, do I keep sinning, and have no peace, and don’t like where my life has taken me?  Why does God hate me?  Why cannot I find peace.  You know there is more to your life than the lies you bought at the expense of your heart, at the expense of your family, your friends, and everything else you held dear. Most of the time, you even doubt there is even a God who really cares.

But the fact that you ask yourself this, that you wrestle with this, that you cannot find peace in your current circumstances means that the conscience God has given you is uneasy with where you are now.  It is the proof that you belong to God.

I can say this, because I just left that place.

You still have Eternity in your heart.  That eternity was given to you by God.  You are his beloved child.  And that Eternity is calling you home.  Not to leave this earthly plane, but to return to His embrace.  He is waiting for you.  And when he sees you turn around, HE will rush to you and take you up in His arms.  He is longing with all His might to show you that He has always been there, that He loves you, that your life is only beginning when you come home.  The chains you are in are there only by your will, not his.  His love breaks all chains.  His mercy redeems any loss you have known.  His Grace has covered everything you have been doing.  When He looks at you, He sees the blood of Christ.  The only thing keeping you from God is you.  It is simply your will.  He has never gone away from you.

It is to you that I write.  I can because I have come home, and have not looked back.  Any losses I have known are replaced with His love and forgiveness.  I no longer fear.  I no longer am angry.  I no longer despair of my sin.  I have come home.  This is what God is urging you to do.  Come home.

THERE IS WORK TO DO:

After you return, God will heal your wounds, show you things that you have not been able to see on your own.  Wisdom will be your love, and understanding will become your companion.  God will show you that you could never have even been saved had it not been for His will at work in you.  And now that you are home, and healing, God will show you the exact same thing He has shown me.

There is a final harvest coming all over the world.  There are millions of people who are lost and have no idea that they do not have to be.  In your environment, if you are willing and have a submitted heart, God will take your old character out, and replace it with the character of Jesus Christ.  You may be the “only Jesus” people around you see.  But the reason you have the longings you do, is because you feel the call of God to bring you Home to be made into a disciple of Jesus Christ.

This call is for anyone who is saved. Many will respond.  Not many will be chosen.  All are saved, but few are willing to go through what it takes to be a disciple.  The secret of this success lay not in your ability, not in your intelligence, and not in any religion, or religious point of view.   There is only the point of view God has revealed in the Scriptures.  There is only the point of view as revealed by Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

You are the one to whom I write.  I write to you because I can attest that this is real. Is is sweet.  It is amazing.  It is also hard and defies any human logic and common sense.  The really hard part is, there is no room for compromise where Christ is concerned.  This is why you will meet resistance as you change into the image of Christ.  You will have to do battle with your own understanding of things, you own ego, your own common sense, and any religious point of view you vaguely remember following.

Jesus did not come here to start a religion.  He came here to save your soul.  Now He needs people to follow Him to complete the upcoming  revival. There are many souls and not much time.

YOU WILL KNOW:

You will know if what I am telling you is true or not.  You will know because, lately, God has been sending witnesses who show you some of this, or that, and in pieces, you are putting this puzzle together.  You will know I am speaking the truth by how your soul reacts to it.  Even if your mind rejects it now, even if this message sounds judgmental or intolerant, you will know in your soul I am describing you.  Come home, for Christ’s sake.

You will know if this message is not for you, too.  You will know because it trips up your understanding of God.  It messes with your religion.  Because you would rather judge the messenger than listen to the message.  But the message I write is true.  I am not writing to anyone who cannot receive it.

I don’t know who you are, but God does.  I don’t have a religion to support, I don’t have any pep talks to make you feel better about being selfish.  I have no ‘affirmations” that will give you immediate blessings of health or wealth.  All I even have is my salvation.  I have chosen to come home.  I am one beggar telling another beggar where I found food, water, and a place to rest.

WHY IS IT HARD?:

It is hard because:

1.  You will have to allow God to humble you.

2.  You will have to be willing to surrender everything you have and know in order to follow Him.

3.  You will have to go through the experience of being shown how God is in charge of everything that happens, and that He has your best interest in mind, no matter what experiences you will go through.

4.  You will have to face the fact that, when you really start telling the truth, no one wants to hear it, and you will lose friends (But gain even better ones), and you will probably be laughed at a LOT because of the changes that God is making in you.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?:

1. Peace

2. Love

3. Mercy

4. Grace

5. Patience

6. Joy

7. Courage

8. Rewards in heaven.

Being saved means you get to go there when you die.  Rewards are based on your willingness to submit to be made into the image of Christ and obey Him in all things.  The gain you will have will be given to you when you get there.  Any blessing you get while still here will be for the growth of God’s Kingdom.  God is not interested in growing YOUR church.  He is interested in growing the number of the fellowship of believers.

I am writing this to you because it is currently what Sandy and I are going through.  I can write this because I have been where you are.

Come home.

I love you.

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

It’s Not a Popularity Contest


Not ashamed of the GospelBrothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame the strong.  God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world — what is viewed as nothing — to bring to nothing what is viewed as something, so that no one can boast in His presence.  I Corinthians 1: 26-29

Down the street from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is, I think, a Mobile Station.  I have not been there in about 21 years, so my memory may be a bit off.  That gas station was pretty popular with a few of my friends.  I asked one of those friends why he liked that station so much.  It looked a bit dumpy, and the prices weren’t any different from anyone elses’.  My friend, also named David, told me to just go and get a tank of gas, I’ll find out.

Eventually, I did.

Back then, we still had the option of full service or self service.  I chose self service.  While I was fueling up my car, this ragged looking guy walks up and offers to clean my windshield.  I told him I had it, but thank you.  He looked at his feet for a minute, then insisted he wash my windshield.  The areas surrounding the Seminary, at that time, were known for having less than savory individuals.  I didn’t want any complications, so I let him.

As he cleaned my windshield, I could hear him mumbling under his breath.  I assumed, by his ragged dress and missing teeth, and mumbling, that he might be going through the DT’s.  Getting off booze can be very hard.

I watched him like a hawk.  I wasn’t sure what this crazy guy might do next.  But he WAS doing a beautiful job on my windshield, rear windows, side windows, headlights, and anything else he could find to shine.  The owner of the gas station just sat there and watched.  I wasn’t sure what was going on, and I sure didn’t want any trouble.   After I paid for my gas, I decided I might give him a couple of dollars, even though I was concerned that this poor lost soul would just take it and get some cheap wine and get drunk again.

As I handed him the money, I said in my best preacher voice, “Here you go Mister, and may God bless you.”  The old guy looked at me and grinned a real toothless grin.  He said, “your’e one of them seminary boys.”  It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.  He wasn’t copping an attitude at me, either.  He was just looking at me as if I were the unfortunate one.  I saw genuine pity and love in his eyes.  I was confused.  I looked at the station owner.  He was just sitting there grinning at me.

I told the crazy man that, “Yes, I go to the Seminary.”  He wanted to know what I was learning there.  I tried to go easy on him, but, in my perverse ego, I wanted to impress this obviously homeless man in a way that he would ask me about Jesus.

I regaled him with the best the seminary taught me.

He told me that I should feel good that I have learned so may things.  Then he started asking me all kinds of questions about the scriptures.  Questions I thought I knew the answers to, but discovered I didn’t.  He was very graceful with me as he told me that it is OK to fill my head with all “them idears” about things, but it is useless if I want to really help people.

After that, I got an old fashioned schooling on the scriptures.  He tied all the prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament to the fulfillment in the New Testament.  He showed me how it is possible that the son of God can be God and Man simultaneously.  And if I hadn’t already been saved, I would have gotten on my knees right then and confessed all my sin again.

It turns out that this guy DID used to be an alcoholic.  He was also illiterate.  He did not complete elementary school.  He was considered “Stupid” by the Public Schools.  Back in His day, teachers were allowed to call things just as they saw them.

He told me he couldn’t read or write, or drive, or hold down a job.  The gas station owner gave this guy money for cleaning windows, changing oil, etc.

I asked him how he knew so much about the Scriptures.  He said he had memorized the entire Bible just by listening to it on tape.  And the more He listened, the more he understood.  And the more he understood, the more God revealed.  He was saved by hearing the word.

I made several trips to that station during that semester.  It was usually when I went for a jog or bike riding.  I would stop there and listen to him talk.

I learned so much from him.  I almost went back to the Seminary Registrars office to ask for a refund.  What I was learning from Him was exactly why I went to seminary.

I judged this man out of his appearance.  I could tell just by the way he behaved that he was uneducated, slightly crazy, and homeless.  What I didn’t know was, he was one of Jesus own disciples.  I was embarrassed at myself for the way I treated him, and by the way I had judged him.  I was supposed to be the Bible Scholar.  But I learned more from the Scriptures that semester than I did at Seminary.

He was gentle, humble, had a great sense of humor, and did not consider his earthly circumstances anything to be ashamed of.  He actually felt sorry for all us preachers who don’t understand the value of being willing to give up everything  just to follow Christ.

That stung a bit.  In fact, even though he was being loving and gentle and kind to me (It was obvious I was the ignorant one in the crowd), some of his words to me stung.  Especially when he said he doubts many of the students at the seminary would follow Jesus if it meant being a laughingstock, or being absolutely broke, or having to lose everything we owned just for the sake of the gospel.

He was not trying to be mean or judgmental, he was just describing to me what he clearly saw, that I didn’t see.  He was not trying to condemn me, or scold me.  He was attempting to get me to see things the way Christ saw things.  All that man knew was the Word of God.  And he actually lived it every day.

This man was not popular, and was considered a bit crazy.  But He embodied the fact that “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

All He was doing was telling me what the word said.  He was not giving his opinion of the word, either.  He made it clear that he wouldn’t do that.  But for every question I had, he knew where to find the answer in the word of God.  It was obvious that he was a chosen one.

So, here’s the deal.  It isn’t about how popular you are, or how many people “Like” you on FB, or on your blog.  It isn’t about making people “Warm and Fuzzy”.   It isn’t about “Telling others what to do”, either.  It is simply about knowing the word, and being just like Jesus.  That is exactly what this man did.  He had absolute faith in God, absolutely knew and understood the word, and, just like Jesus, gave us what we needed to hear in order to teach us, convict us, and lead us to a better understanding of what it means to be saved.

This is a lesson I have had difficulty learning.  My ego is putting up a fight with my calling.  I want to get “Liked” on FB, I want to be popular.  I want to have a million “Friends”.

Locally, a relationship is what it takes to get people to see what it means to be a Christian.  But I cannot have a cup of coffee with everyone on this planet.  I have a love for people that I never knew was possible.  It is Christ who put that in me.

My calling , for now, is to write.  I am to write about what I learned as I come back to Christ.  Much of what I write is uncomfortable even for me.  But, just as this crazy old homeless man tried to drive through my thick skull, it isn’t about being popular.  It is about telling the truth.  Those who have an ear for the truth will hear it.  Those who just want their ears tickled, or want to make God in an image that is not God, will be disappointed.

I have to remember, it is not about me.  I have to get out of the way.  It is about the message.

That message is that God loved you so much that He gave us Jesus to die for our sin.  Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God.  He took on our sin, all of it.  He took on our sickness, all of it, he took on the wrath and judgement of God, all of it, so we will not have to at the day of judgement.

If you have accepted this free gift, you are saved.  If you believe with all your heart that Jesus died for your sin, and confess with your mouth that He rose again on the third day to prove he is lord of death and life, then you are saved.

Furthermore, if you want to follow Christ, you must die to yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Him.

This is not warm and fuzzy.  You will become unpopular as you tell this message to people.  You will lose friends.  You will get fewer and fewer likes on FaceBook.  Your words will offend people.

I am not telling you what to do.  If it were up to me, things would be different.  But there is a reason it is called Discipleship.  In God’s army, the first thing a warrior learns is to surrender to the will of God, through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

You cannot serve God and yourself.  You have to be willing to give up all of yourself and be remade into the image of Christ.  Daily.

God gave us common sense.  It is good for dealing with life in the natural.  But common sense never discovered God.  If it could, Jesus would never had to come here and die.  The things of God are understood by the supernatural work of God, because of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.  If you are trying common sense to make sense of the Bible, you have missed more than half of what Christ has said.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.“ Matt. 16:24 NASB

Let’s Be About It.

David

Standard
Faith

So Was Jesus


Endure“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Hebrews 4:14-16 NASB

I Prayed to God:  I confess…

…I am tempted to lust

God Answered me:

:So Was Jesus

….I am tempted to steal

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to lie

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to covet my neighbor’s wife, car, home, children, bank account, way of life.

:So was Jesus

…I am tempted to Murder

:So was Jesus

…I am tempted to blaspheme

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to bear false witness

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to never forgive, never forget, and hope that my enemy suffer greatly

:So Was Jesus

…I am tempted to get jealous and envious

:So Was Jesus

See…the covenant written long before the creation of the earth, before the angelic wars, before Lucifer fell from Grace is, “The Wages of Sin is Death”.  God will not tolerate sin in His kingdom. Sin is what ever I do that separates me from God.  I discovered there is nothing I can possibly do to cover my own sin…it lays me naked before God.   I need a cover because I am ashamed at being cold and naked in front of God. My best efforts at covering myself are transparent and useless.

God created me in His own image, and in his likeness.  I look like Him, and I am supposed to have His character.  I don’t.

I want to do God’s will and be pure before Him. I already know that I have nothing that will satisfy God in this regard, but, If it were possible, I am tempted to give everything I have, own, or can offer, everything that is me if it means saving me, or any other Human God created.

God answered me

:So Was Jesus  – And that is what counts.

 

Let’s Be About It

I Love You

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent
Standard
Faith

How Do I Say Thank-You?


For all the friends who prayed for Sandy and I. Thank you. Early this AM, we were scheduled for cut off. By time Sandy picked me up from where I was all night, our electrical balance was zero. Prayer definitely changes things.

In my hyper-Calvinist view point, I saw prayer in this regard as a practical thing to tame the fearful heart, and calm an intemperate mind. I felt that, after prayer, I had to “Gird my loins” and do whatever form of soul selling I needed to do to get this bill paid.

By the grace of God, Sandy and I saw your prayers being answered. Strangers we only met yesterday intervened and worked things out with the utility company. Our debt is mostly gone, and what is left over will be distributed over a two month period as an addendum to the bill.

I am telling you these personal details for the following reasons:

1. I asked for your prayers. I have learned to be accountable in all things, great and small, through this, so I wanted to tell you, your prayers released a Grace on my family.

2. Like I said, I come from a Hyper-Calvinist world. We are an arrogant lot, knowing the scriptures well, but not understanding them where it applies to practical and real faith. The Mustard seed kind. God is changing my heart daily, and my faith in the more “Mysterious” aspects of prayer and faith needed this lesson. Consider it “Boot camp” for the soul.

3. I have been unemployed since April. That means NO income. But God has demonstrated His grace, mostly in the miraculous, and sometimes through people who give out of their own need. And sometimes through strangers.

4. Lessons Learned: Arrogance has no place with God, neither does pride. If I have been anything over these last 30 years, I have been very prideful and arrogant. I needed this. Really trusting God is defined in moments like these. It preaches real good when all your stuff is lined up, and things aren’t very desperate. But I have an understanding of a kind of Grace I never knew existed. This is, afterall, why, 2 years ago, I began to return to God. I needed to see that He loves even the most fallen and wayward child.

5. Intercession works. And it is one of our first responsibilities as Christians. Instead of clucking my tongue at people who are fallen or having a very difficult life, I have to understand that I am not God, and have no right to judge them. I have to understand that they may be crossing my path for a reason. The same reason God stood back to see what Hezekiah would do. This is why intersession needs to come before rash behavior. When I intercede for someone, I get a clear picture from God, via the Holy Spirit, how to address what I have seen.

6. This makes me excited to see what God will do next over our House, and other bills. I hate what my family is going through due to my unemployment, but I love what God is building through this experience.

Thank you. I pray God’s blessings for all of you a thousand times over.

And ten-thousand blessings for that person who we never knew before.

In Jesus’ Name. I love you.

Let’s Be About It!

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

The Advocate


“…It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” Romans 8:34 KJV

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Romans 8:26 KJV

Have I taken into account that Christ intercedes on my behalf?  Do I take into account that the Holy Spirit interceded on my behalf when I had no idea how to pray?  They do this when we belong to Jesus Christ, when we begin to get off track, or need His supernatural help.  This is a comfort to me (A strengthening, or fortifying knowledge), giving me the strength to bear up, even when I fail.  The second I sin, Jesus intercedes on my behalf.  And when I have no idea how to pray, the Spirit of God prays for me in heavenly languages.

Have I asked to be like Christ?  Then why do I bear bitterness and anger when I see other Christians act less like Christ?  Do I also express  judgement when I see a non-Christian sin?  Do I go to God and say, as the Pharisee did: “God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.” Luke 18:11  Do I count that person’s sin as a justification to show others just how righteous I am?  When I see that someone who has confessed Jesus Christ stumble, do I cluck my tongue at them, shake my head, and decide that person is not really saved?

Have I judged other Christians for condemning me when I was in the throes of sin? I have done this and worse.  But I have prayed to be like Christ.  And God will have nothing less than that from me, as I am His child, and He intends to remake me into the image of Christ.

The heart of Christ is to intercede on our behalf, continually, before God.  To this day, Jesus is confessing me before God as I am confessing Him before men.  The Spirit of God, in His mercy and grace, reminds me that I have asked to be transformed into the image of Christ.  He shows me how I look when I stand in the place of Jesus and judge others for their shortcomings.  This type of pernicious meanness has no place in the Kingdom  of God, and no place in the hearts of those who will genuinely follow Christ.

I will submit my heart to intercede on behalf of the very people I judged.  I will confess to the Lord that I have attempted to do His job FOR Him.  And I will pray ardently for the saved and the unsaved.

This is, after all, what my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is doing for me.

Let us take up our crosses and follow Him.

I love you,

Let’s be about it.

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

By the Will of God


Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Romans 3:23-24 tells us, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

We inherited our sin nature through Adam and Eve.  Since then, before we were saved, all our desire has been to satisfy the desires of our own heart.  The Bible clearly shows that there is nothing we can do, produce, or say, or think that will be pleasing to God:  “For all of us have become like one who is unclean,  And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”  Is 64:6   When we come to the startling discovery that there is nothing we can do to be considered right before God, we feel a sense of loss.  We ask ourselves, “What must I do to be saved?”

The fact that we have come to this point is proof that God has already begun His saving work in you.  Before you asked yourself this question, you lived a life where it would not occur to you to even consider God or His will for you.  But the second we are made aware that there is something missing, and there is nothing you can do about it, you ask again, “What must I do to be saved?” 

In Ephesians 2:8-9 we read, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Here is when you learned that to cover the sin that separates us from God, Jesus, out of obedience to the will of God, gave His life in the place of yours (All of Humanity).  What did this mean?  Jesus obeyed God and became the one who took on all our sin, had it nailed to the cross, and accepted complete separation of God, and consumed all God’s wrath.  Jesus did this out of His Love for God, and in obedience to the will of God.

He became a Gift to us, from the Living God.  God does not desire that anyone should perish.  Jesus told Nicodemus in the garden, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should have everlasting life.” John 3:16.  He took this one step farther in the very next verses:  “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” John 3:17-19 KJV

So, if you have accepted this gift of God, you are saved.  What this means is, now that you are saved, God sees you as saved.  All the attributes of Salvation are at work in you.  You are complete in God’s eyes.  When He looks at you, He sees that the blood of Christ has covered you.  You are no longer condemned.

IT THAT ALL?

Positionally, you are complete in God.  He sees you as saved.  You have eternal life.  But what now?  Can I go on acting like I used to act before I was saved?  Yes, you can.  But that will negate any testimony you could have about Jesus.  One sure clue of your salvation is that you will want to know more about the one who saved you.  If you ignore that urge, two things can happen.  One is, you will fall right back into that sinful life Jesus died for.  Or you will become a legalistic individual who tries to live the Christian life by your own will and power.  Neither of these things is a thing God can bless.

“for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”  Phillipians 2:13

If you still feel the attraction toward our Savior, you will begin to feel in your heart the same power that drew you to Christ in the first place.  When you tell God you want to be just like Jesus, you are telling Him that that finished work He sees in you positionally, you want the Holy Spirit to make manifest in the life you live on Earth.  If this is your desire, then you will discover that you cannot fake the Character of Christ for very long.  You will fail if you try to do this on your own.  It is not the nature of the flesh to do this.  You could stomp your foot and tell everyone “God loves me the way I am.” or “This is just how I am, and God loves me. ” or “I am saved, I am going to Heaven.  God doesn’t expect me to change.”   Yet, you ASKED God to make you into the Character of God, not you own character.

YOU CANNOT HAVE IT BOTH WAYS

We are either depending on our ability or God’s ability.  There is no in between.  Jesus wants all of you, or none of you.  He said he would rather be hot or cold, but He will spit out luke-warm.  Are you saved?  If you met the conditions for salvation, yes.  From God’s point of view, are you complete?  Yes.  But that is just the position you hold because of the Blood of Jesus Christ.  There is nothing about you personally that He will accept outside of you being made in the image of His Son.

“For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.  If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.  If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.” I Corinthians 3:12

The people of Corinth were saved.  The saved ones of Corinth did something that brought their salvation to no effect.  They returned to their old lifestyles, and behaved no differently than they did before they were saved.

“Falling from Grace is not losing the born again experience.  Falling from grace is when you leave the realm of God’s ability.  It is when you attempt to have righteousness by your performance”  Dr. James B. Richards.  Impact Ministries, Publication Department.  3300 N. Broad Place, Huntsville, Alabama 35805

This is the assertion that you either can do it all on your own, or you don’t need to be transformed into the image of Christ.

There are a lot of people who complain about the “Hyper-Grace Movement”.  This movement teaches that all your sin in forgiven from the past, in the present, and in the future.  That God already knew you were going to sin, and He has already chosen to overlook it.  This is scripturaly inaccurate.   I can flesh this one out later.  These same people are the ones who think that because they have had a salvation experience, there is nothing else that they need to do to please God.  The end result is the exact same as the Hyper-Grace Movement.  This same thought teaches, by implication, that you do not have to change a thing about yourself because you are already saved.  This, too is a doctrinal error, and is offered by people who either do not really know the scriptures, or have chosen to accept only the things of scripture that please them.

If you are still alive, and you are saved, the Spirit of God will not be content leaving you unchanged.  He will call you and call you to be transformed in to the very image of the character of Christ.  To refuse to give any part of yourself, and ultimately, all of your self, in every aspect, in every way, is to tell God that you either don’t trust Him to complete in you His perfect work, or you are telling God you are already perfect, and there is nothing about you that needs growing up to be like Christ.

Your fall from grace comes when you are called to be like Christ, but do not sacrifice your will and self to allow the Spirit of God to change you.  When Christ said that many are called and few are chosen, he was not talking about your salvation.  If you are saved, you are saved.  Nothing can change that.  The chosen are the ones who allowed the Spirit of God to work in them so that they can obey Christ when He said:  “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. Luke 9:23 NASB

If you are content to be saved, but not effective in a call, just continue doing what you are doing.  But you need to know, the complications that exist in your life exist because you have chosen to try to make Christ into your image that let the Spirit of God transform you into the likeness of Christ.  Grace is not cheap.  It cost Jesus His life.  The ones He chooses are the ones who lay down their very lives, all aspects of it, and walk in the Grace of God through Jesus Christ.  It is all an act of Grace.

I can say all of this because I have just survived 20 years being saved, but not allowing the Spirit of God to work out my flawed character and make my character into the image of Christ.  My life used to be a living Hell because God allowed me to be my own master.  I could not be Godly and be myself at the same time.  Today, Christ is healing the wounds, and is turning what is positionally true in God’s eyes in to a child of God, made in the image of Christ.  This is not something I can do for myself.  It is simply allowing God to get me out of my own way so the Spirit of God can recreate me.  My desire is that God use me to witness to the lost and the fallen.  And I no longer want things done my way.  I only want things His way.

If He is calling you, allow Him to remake your character into something He can choose to follow Him.

It is all a choice.

I love you

Let’s Be About It!

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Standard
Faith

Let this Mind be in You….


Mustard SeedTherefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Jesus, Matthew 6:25

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. – King David, Psalm 35:25

Sandy and I have been looking at our lives very carefully over these past several months. We have both realized that, what we are doing defies all common sense. Outward appearances declare that what we are doing is irresponsible. What my flesh is telling me to do, and what we both know that God has told both of us, has nothing to do with the rationalizations of common sense.

WHAT IS THE MIND OF CHRIST?

Where faith is concerned, Jesus sums up my common sense carefulness as infidelity. If Sandy and I have the presence of the Holy Spirit living in us, He will take our circumstances and say, “Now where does God come in in this situation?” He will ask that of everything we do. “Where does God (His will, His Spirit, His Grace, His Mercy, the Likeness of Christ) come in in this thing I am doing?”

The Spirit of God will always press this point on us until we learn to make Him our first consideration. Before April, I would have been a “Charles In Charge” person, and relied on my own wits, and sing “I did it my way!”.

Now that Sandy and I have given over our entire lives to Christ, we are being tested to see where the areas are that we insist are left to our own Common Sense.

Every time we put other things first, there is confusion. We cannot serve two masters. Either my selfish idolatry will rule in my soul, or the Living God will lead me to be like Christ. Sandy and I are learning that we cannot have it both ways. God is not the author of confusion. And as we learn this, we become more at peace, knowing that God is in control of all our circumstances.

HERE IS THE HARD PART

Sandy and I have recently been shown, both individually, and as a couple (We discovered we had BOTH been shown the exact same thing that we are to do.), a “vision” of what we are supposed to do, and where we are supposed to be doing it. Being the “Charles In Charge” person I am, I immediately started doing a situational analysis of what we were shown. I looked at the logistics and tactics needed to accomplish this mission.

When the Spirit of God saw what I was doing, He gently corrected me and said I need to give this to God, as it is His assignment for us.

He reminded me that I am to “Take no thought…”. The pressure of my forethought was not my job. He gently and lovingly has shown Sandy and I that it is not only wrong to worry, but it is a form of infidelity, because our worry was saying, in effect, “I don’t think God can look after the practical details of our lives.” And it is the practical details that worry every human on this planet.

We began to notice what Jesus said would choke the word He puts in us. It wasn’t the Devil. No, it was the cares of the world. The little worries are the weeds that choke out the word in us. We get overwhelmed by the weeds, and forget His promise.

Infidelity to the promise of God is when we say, “I will not trust where I cannot see.” The cure for infidelity is obedience to the Spirit. This, too, is not something we can do on our own power. It is a work of God in a submitted heart.

Jesus told us to pick up our crosses daily, and follow Him. It is a call to commit acts of reckless abandon. He will lead the way, and prepare the way, and set a table before us, even in the presence of our enemies.

My Prayer:  My Heavenly Father, I confess that I am tempted to rush ahead and take matters in my own hand. I confess that, many times I do not have the faith that You will provide, and I attempt to make what You promised my own work. Please forgive me this infidelity. I am a child. I need you to teach me that, in all things, I can trust you, that You will perform and fulfill all that You have promised to do in my life. I love you, God. I adore you for the sacrifice of Jesus on my behalf. I ask that you keep Sandy and I, always steadfast in our Love for You, and keep our faith in You. There is no other way to be pleasing to you, except that we allow You to make us into the very image of Jesus. – AMEN

My brothers and sisters, lets hear the word of the Lord, and write it on our hearts, and trust that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the Day of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.

I LOVE YOU!

Let’s be about it!

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

Hearing The Holy Spirit, or Not…It’s A Choice!


God is there for you

“If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not bring death, he should ask, and God will give life to him — to those who commit sin that doesn’t bring death. There is sin that brings death. I am not saying he should pray about that.” 1 John 5:16 HCSB

What is this sin that brings death? This death is the death of your soul.  NO eternal life for this one. Jesus said:

“Because of this, I tell you, people will be forgiven every sin and blasphemy, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. ”   Matt. 12:31 HCSB

Here is why I am writing about this.  It is an issue I have to fight daily, sometimes minute by minute.  I have submitted it to the Lord God, and He is dealing with me.  And this is a tough one.

HEARING THE HOLY SPIRIT, OR HYPOCRISY…IT’S A CHOICE!

This is an issue that hit me by surprise.  Having been the recipient of hypocrisy over these last 11 years, you’d think I would not have trouble recognizing it in myself.  But alas, and alack, here I am struggling with this.

If I am not paying attention to the way the Holy Spirit is working in me, I am in danger of becoming a spiritual hypocrite.  I have prayed to God that I should be remade in the image of Christ Jesus, My Lord.  And this is a work the Spirit of God has begun in me.  Sometimes, He deals with several issues at once, but the issues I refuse to hand over willingly, He confronts in me, when I chose to rebel against His work in me.

Positionally, God sees me as complete in Christ.  I am still alive and on Earth, and am being made into the image of Christ over time.  I will be actually complete when my life is joined to Christ in fact.

But the danger of my hypocrisy comes when I see other Christians failing, and the Spirit of God makes me aware of it, and instead of interceding on their behalf, I turn my discernment into criticism of them.

This revelation was not made to me by any acuity of mind, but by the insistent and immediate penetration of the Holy Spirit.  If I fail to pay attention to the SOURCE of this revelation, I turn into a gossiping critic of that person instead of remembering that God said: “…he should ask, and God will give life to him — to those who commit sin that doesn’t bring death. “

I have to really be careful that I don’t play the hypocrite by spending all my time trying to get everyone else right before I worship God myself.

The subtle burden that the Holy Spirit places on all Christians is this discernment concerning other souls.  God reveals things to us, concerning other souls, saved and unsaved, so that we can take their burden of sin before the throne room of God, and intercede on their behalf.   This is where the mind of Christ is revealed in us.  As we intercede for others, in the way Christ would plead for them, God says He will give us “…life for them that sin, not unto death.”

I am not bringing God into touch with my mind.  I am bringing my mind into submission to the Holy Spirit to the point that God is able to convey His mind to me about the person I am interceding for.

I used to work with an Engineer who was from England.  He used to call me his “Flaming  Jackass!”.  He knew that I would kick the door down, shoot everyone in the room, and THEN try to discern who is innocent.

God has made MAJOR changes in me since then.  So, even today, when I see someone, ANYONE who is knowingly or unknowingly in sin, The Spirit of God calls to my heart to step into the throne room and intercede on behalf of that person.  It is important that I give all my fleshly will to Christ so that He can remove it and replace it with His character.  This is all part of the process.

DOES Jesus see the travail of His soul in me?  Jesus cannot unless I am SO identified with Him, that I am wakened to the realization that I need HIS view about the people who I pray for.  This takes the sacrifice of the flesh.  I have to be willing to suspend my desire to judge someone, and allow the Holy Spirit to show me how Jesus sees them.

My Prayer:  My Dear and Holy God, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, My Lord and Savior, that Jesus will be overjoyed with me as an intercessor on behalf of those who He shows me need His touch and forgiveness of sin.  Teach me not to Judge, making me a hypocrite, but teach me to show your grace and mercy, just as you showed me when I was swimming in sin.  AMEN

PS – The last 11 years of my life served as a living opportunity for other Christians to practice this.  Dear God, I pray that you forgive me my attitude, knowing they failed, teach me to see them the way YOU see them.  Teach me to intercede in Love on their behalf.  Take away my hypocrisy by filling me with Your Spirit, and teaching me your Love, Grace and Mercy. AMEN

I love you

Let’s Be About It!

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

COME HOME: Do You Like Apples?


  • ἀφίημιaphie¯mi

    af-ee’-ay-mee

    an intensive form of εἶμι eimi (to go)); to send forth, in various applications: – cry, forgive, forsake, lay aside, leave, let (alone, be, go, have), omit, put (send) away, remit, suffer, yield up.

Remember when you knew you were saved?  Jesus Christ had genuinely and truly become your savior.  You believed in your heart that John 3:16 – 17 is absolutely true:  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” – KJV

What a great feeling that was.  You were clean.  You knew you had been forgiven.  You understood that, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, you are forgiven and have eternal life.   You actually felt the burden of your sin lift from your shoulders.  And that is exactly what happened to you.  But something happened between THEN and NOW.

Chapters that need unpublished

After a while, you had quit praying, going to church, and reading the word.  All the joy you had was gone.  Since then, your life has not been what you would say was a shining example of salvation at work.    The things that you have done since have been nothing short of a betrayal of Jesus.  If you were to mention Jesus at all, it would be to say it as an expletive.

I want to tell you something.  I can tell you about this because I have been in this place, just like you are, right now.  I know things look dark.  All your former Christian associates have stopped having anything to do with you.  If you were to tell anyone that you are a Christian, there would be no compelling evidence to prove it.

Here is what I want to tell you, from the very mouth of Jesus:  “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.‘ John 6:36-39

You may have forgotten about Jesus, but HE has never forgotten about you.  This is WHY you still feel the loss of His fellowship.  No matter how dark things look now, you have NEVER been removed from Jesus, because God has given YOU to Jesus as a GIFT.  And God’s gifts are without repentance :

God has not repented that He has given you to Jesus.  You could never have come to the understanding of the saving Grace of God through Jesus, unless, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God had drawn you to this understanding.

Later, in the same book of John, Jesus said this about you:   “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”  John 6:64-65 KJV   And when you understood, you believed in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God, who died for the remission of ALL sin, and you confessed with your mouth that Jesus rose from the dead.  This understanding is why you have eternal life.

So why, after all this time, do you burn in your heart this much?  Why, now, after all this time, do you suddenly find all you want to do is come home?  It is because the Spirit of God is luring you home.  You have a call on your life, and you are chosen to answer that call.  This is the influence of Jesus Christ as Lord.  He wants you to serve Him.  From here, all you have to do is return.  You will have some repentance to do.  You will have to try to mend a few fences.  But the most remarkable thing is, when you come home, your life will begin to change.  You can still sin as much as you did before you came home, but, the truth is, you aren’t going to want to.  The more of yourself you give to Jesus, the more you become remade in His image.  After that, all you will want to do is serve Him.

From God’s point of view, HE chose you.  He drew you to His Son, Jesus.  You are His gift to His Son.  Nothing you have done since your salvation can remove you from His hand.  You are eternally His.

The reason you hear His call now is, He loves you, and wants you to know that you have done nothing that can take away your salvation.

Come Home

You are saved.

HOW DO YOU LIKE THOSE APPLES???

Forgiven

I love you in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

 

Standard
Faith

Come Home


Welcome Home!

All ye who are weary, come home.

For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Romans 8:38-39 HCSB

Wherever I have wandered, wherever I have strayed, I found no place or thing that could extinguish the memory of the day I was saved.  Jesus Christ had become my Lord and Savior on October 28th, 1986, at 7:30 PM CST.  For a while, after that, I walked in my salvation and told others how Jesus Christ will lead them to salvation.  I was warned in advance that an event would happen that, if I stood under the shelter of the Almighty, I would be carried through that event, and made stronger.  I failed that test.  From there I fell.

I fell hard.  I lost hope, and from there, I refused to follow Christ.  The ensuing 20 years was a hell I never want to live through again.

I know I have told this to you several times.  Here is why I am telling it to you again.  Try as I might, I couldn’t forget God.  I could not forget the joy of His fellowship.  No amount of drink, adrenalin inducing activity, or women, could erase the call God had placed on my life.

I discovered that, in the end, there was no power in all of creation that could extinguish that sweet touch of the Love of God.  The flame of my devotion had dwindled to a small ember, but the ember never went out.  I couldn’t put it out, no matter what I did.

I also discovered that ember was the abiding love of God, through Jesus Christ.  Even in the depths of my depravity, I could hear the still small voice calling me home.  I longed for a return to Grace, not understanding that it was grace sustaining me, and keeping me tethered to God.

Where I was the only barrier keeping me from coming home, the Spirit of God was the wind that kept the ember burning bright, calling me to come home.  What a sweet agony it was to hear the voice of the Lord calling me to return to Him.  Where I thought it was impossible to return, He was telling me it was simple.  All I had to do was be still, and listen to Him forgive me, and heal all my sin and hurt and pain.

I came Home.

I know for a fact that one of the readers of this Blog is going through the same thing.  You remember the sweet fellowship of Jesus.  You remember singing His praises.  Somehow, you have let the cares of the world, and the desires of the flesh come between you and Him.  The Apostle Paul wrote that, if it weren’t for the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, there would be no sin.  You and I can testify to that truth, because we have drunk deep of these three things.

Know this, there is noting you can possibly do that will take you away from Him and His love for you.  How do you get home?  Go back to what you know.  “God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son that, whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting Life.”  John 3:16.   Start there.  And be still.  Listen to the voice of the Lord.  He will wash you with His Love and mercy.  His grace has sustained you, even though you have strayed very far away.  When you be still and know that He is God, you will discover, all you have done is wander across the palm of the hand of the Almighty.  He never, ever, let you out of His sight.  He never abandoned you.  He never stopped loving you, no matter what you did.

Be still and accept His healing power.

When Jesus said, on the cross, “It is finished!”, He was declaring that all sin ever committed, all sin being committed, and all sin that will be committed has been put to death through His death on the cross.  God poured His wrath on His own Son, and Jesus accepted that judgement, on your behalf.  You are free from this burden.  

When you come home, you will not find a vengeful God waiting to stomp you in to the dirt.  Christ does not have to die twice for you.  The work on the cross was completed at His death.  And your eternal life was secured when He rose again from the death.  He is Lord over all life and death.

At one point in time, you accepted Jesus as your Savior, the deal was done.  Your salvation was sealed.  Nothing can remove you from God.  Not even you.  When Jesus said, “It is Finished”, God saw you as already complete.

Life as you know it, is a continuing process of making you into the image of Christ.  When we wandered, that process was interrupted.  He is waiting for you right where the process stopped, so that He can heal you and continue making you into the image of Christ.

Come home.

Yahweh, if You considered sins, Lord, who could stand?

But with You there is forgiveness,
so that You may be revered.  Psalm 130: 3-4 HCSB
Standard
Faith

An Opinion


USA-Map-NAVYd

“Today Americans would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order; tomorrow they will be grateful. This is especially true if they were told there was an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead with world leaders to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by their world government.”

by:
Henry Kissinger
(1923- ) Former US Secretary of State
Source:
Speaking at Evian, France, May 21, 1992. Bilderburgers meeting. Unbeknownst to Kissinger, his speech was taped by a Swiss delegate to the meeting.


Here is your opportunity to say I have donned the proverbial “Tin Foil Hat“.

If you haven’t noticed, the world is changing rapidly.  What was not true a year ago, has become true today.  We see all the conspiracy nuts are actually turning out to be right, all along.  To our astonishment, we are no longer laughing at them for all their dire prognostications.

I spent a great deal of time, over the last 20 years doing a particular type of research.  Occasionally, that research took me into the “tin-foil hat” arena.  The stuff they said usually made me laugh.  I thought they were contributing to all the fear porn already being spewed all over the internet (A.K.A. inner-tube).

So, why have I joined them?  It is the same reason I have been writing you all along.  The Living God is calling some of you to be His witnesses.  He is calling some of you, just like he is calling me, to be remade into the image of Christ.  What is about to come, and soon, means that there will be a need for men and women so grounded in the Scripture, so filled with the Spirit of God, so willing to give up everything, that they become the only Jesus a condemned world will see before the Son of Perdition is revealed.

The map above was drawn up by the Navy.  It illustrates what the USA will look like when the Cascadia fault and the New Madrid fault finally gives way.  Much of the USA will be subsumed into an abyss.  The USA will be divided into three parts.  Stan Deyo (http://standeyo.com/) has been talking to anyone who will listen for over a decade about this very subject.

The interesting thing is, that what will trigger the New Madrid will be a huge disaster, but not a natural one.  I have “seen” this, and today, I received confirmation of this.  Through the auspices of the Federal Government, and a few other foreign interests, the State of Louisiana has bought in to a lie that they are cleaning up the BP oil spill.

What they are doing, actually, is every day of the week, pouring a cleaning solvent in to the gaping sinkhole that will dissolve a large salt pillar, that is plugging a huge Methane pocket, that is also preventing the ocean from undercutting the earth under the very area where the New Madrid fault line originates.  The Map above shows what will be left of the USA when they succeed.  This will happen soon.  Most of us will witness this disaster with our own eyes.  I am not the first person you may have heard this from, but I am telling you now.  It is coming.

The quote above has to do with Kissinger showing his cards.

Ronald Reagan spoke at the UN some time ago, while he was president,  (Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZP1Cfpy945c&t=0, and Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QJt6KHIX0-Q).  He spoke about the theoretical possibility of an Attack from Space that would unite all peoples of the earth.

This is the invasion Kissinger was alluding to.

Although this information has been available to the public, again, only the “Tin Foil Hat” crowd has paid any attention to it.  Here is why I mention it today.  Here in this NASA release: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/news/mag-portals.html is the article that describes the discover of magnetic portals.  One such portal connects the sun to the earth.  What this means is, particles can travel the vast distance between the Sun and Earth instantaneously.  It has always been a mystery why, when certain particles are detected leaving the sun, they are simultaneously detected on Earth.  All kinds of ignorant theories were tossed about.  But it boiled down to PORTALS.  Guess which book, quoted by Jesus Himself, but removed from the canon of acceptable scripture talks about these portals?  The Book of Enoch (For a ripping good translation, see this one:  http://www.forbiddengate.com/BookOfEnoch.pdf.

Here is the bottom line on this.  There will be a staged invasion from space.  The portals will be part of the explanation of how “They” got to us.  The fear this will cause will lead everyone who can be deceived to call on the world governments to rescue them.  This is going to be part of the great deception.  This, too, is coming very soon.

Along with these two things, the “Natural Disaster” that will subsume much of the USA, the fake invasion and the portals being opened in space (You probably already cannot believe what I am telling you, so it will probably be futility on my part to tell you that what WILL be coming through those portals will make the “Space Invaders” look like your favorite Aunt.)…Like I said,

Along with these two events, will be a civil war, and total economic collapse.  You have already learned, if you have been reading the news, that the Federal Government has been funding the people who want to go to war with “Whitey”.  It is OUR government that is trying to foment this civil war.  They need things to go very bad here so they can release the UN troops who have been filling up our Military Bases since these last several months.The further use of these foreign troops will be that, according to Kerry, Obama will be signing the UN Global Gun Ban during the Summer Recess.  This will give the UN the right to send foreign troops into the USA to confiscate our weapons.  (Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/03/lawmakers-urge-obama-to-reject-un-arms-treaty-as-it-opens-for-signature/)

These are only a very FEW of the things the world government is going to do in order to bring about a chaos that they create so they can introduce their own version of a “New World Order”  (Read it Here: http://www.rawstory.com/news/2008/Henry_Kissinger_Obama_should_act_to_0106.html  and HERE: http://www.wnd.com/2009/01/85442/)

All these disasters are being planned and executed by people who have given their lives to serve a fallen angel named Lucifer.  These individuals believe it is Lucifer who should be King of all Creation.  The last time Lucifer tried this, God told him to go to Hell.   History WILL repeat itself.  With the same results.  Except this time it is permanent.

God has allowed all this history and recent activity to exist, that is, He has with held his judgement on us so that some of us may be saved.  That includes you.  He doesn’t want to see you die and be cast in to Hell with Lucifer.  He loves you enough that He sent His own son to die for your sin on the cross.  Jesus is our savior.  Believe in Him, and you will not die.  He has proven to be the Lord over Life and Death by raising Himself from the dead, and has promised all of His followers that THEY TOO will be raised from the dead (You will not have to suffer God’s judgement, your soul will live in eternity with Him, in Heaven).

The battle is always for the Human soul.  The world, and those who rule it now only want you to die.  They call you “Useless Eaters”  Here are some interesting quotes for you:

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
Dr. Henry Kissinger New York Times, Oct. 28, 1973

Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world, because the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries”.
Dr. Henry Kissinger

“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac,” and “The elderly are useless eaters”
Dr. Henry Kissinger

“World population needs to be decreased by 50%”
Dr. Henry Kissinger

“We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis and the nations will accept the New World Order.”
David Rockefeller

So, here is why my blog exists.  I am to write something every day.  That is my obedience to a call.  Most of the time, I pray for several hours before I know what to write.  Today, I have been praying for several weeks (Approximately 13) before writing about this.

My blog exists to tell some of you who struggle with the return to your salvation, what I had to go through to find my way home, to God.  My hope and belief is that it will stimulate in you the same call to return to Christ.  Secondarily, but equally important, I write so that some will be saved.  I don’t know who they are, but based on all the hate mail and death threats, I am guessing someone is being affected by this.

Some have accused me of being a legalist.  This is not so, and it is not worth arguing over.  Grace and its efficacy is my message.  You can read into my blogs whatever you wish.  I am always glad to discuss it with you, even when you threaten to kill me for it.  But you will only get out of anything and anyone what you want, based on the filters you wear to see and hear.

But the Spirit of the Living God is the same.  He draws all people to him.  All are invited, few are chosen.

Here are the few that are chosen:

Luke 9:23

English Standard Version (ESV)

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

The only Jesus the world will see, during and after the afore-mentioned disasters are the people who are willing to do what Jesus asked us to do.

We need Jesus.  Our land is already condemned for kicking God out of everything.  The reason you, Christian, are still alive is to obey Christ.  This i snot a statement of legalism.  You and I are totally incapable of doing this.  Our flesh rebels at the thought of it.

It is by Grace that you are saved, and not by any work you can perform.  And it is by the loving Gentle leading of the Holy Spirit that the Saved are taught that Jesus is also Lord, and is to be followed.

Can you be saved?  Yes.  The difference between the called and the chosen is best summed up in the words of Jesus:

“Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6 19-20

And the Apostle Paul’s words:  For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.  Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.  I Corinthians 3:11-17

And from Romans 12

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

If Jesus Christ is your Savior, and really is, in your Heart, you are saved.  You will be raptured.  Noting can remove you from God’s hand.  But the time of the Gentiles is rapidly closing, and we need Men and Women of God. Take up your cross and follow Jesus.

It is to these brothers and sisters that I write.  If that is not you, then I hope you simply gain from what God has shown me, and enjoy the rest of your lives.

Let’s Be About It!

I Love you,

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

While I am waiting, yielded and still.


Holy Pottery

Jesus said “God is Spirit.”  Jesus said that if we abide in Him, He will abide in us.  Jesus said He is the vine, we are the branches.  The branch that does not produce good fruit will be cut off the vine, and cast into the fire.  Jesus said that the branch that produces good fruit, He will prune, that it may produce even more good fruit.

The difficulty with all this spiritual stuff is, my intellect cannot accomplish all this abiding.  I have over 200 hours of college, and a 3.78 GPA.  I can program in many languages.  I can solve problems that most people stare at and wonder over.  God has given me a unique gift of intellect, so much so that many of the engineers I have worked with have asked me to look at a problem after they have exhausted their ideas and theories.  My intellect, as good a gift of God as it is,  is good for scientific inquiry, but not for spiritual growth.

For 20 years, I have asked God to restore me and make me like Jesus, but abiding in Him remained as dark a mystery to me as the Swahili language.  I just couldn’t figure it out.

Spiritual matters are spiritually discerned.  It takes the mind of a child, trusting every word that comes from his father.  The things Christ teaches, I have learned, can only be obtained and understood through obedience.

I have learned that if I am still ignorant of the ways of Christ, it is because there is still something He is showing me to do, that I will not do.  I have learned an amazing amount of information over these last 20 years, and discover, I am still an intellectual child.  But that is only because of my ignorance of a subject.  If I have spiritual darkness in my life, it is because I have no intention of obeying Him in that area.  It really is that simple.

I disobeyed God for well over 20 years, yet I had the nerve to wonder why I am not growing spiritually.  Self-satisfaction is idolatry.   I have to learn that, my satisfaction comes through allowing the Spirit of God to turn me into the living image of Christ Himself.  The more I resisted the very fundamentals of the faith, the more times I had to go around the mountain.

A point came in my life where I had been around that mountain one too many times.  I could not move forward, and I could not move backward.  I wanted Christ, or I wanted to stop living.  Then, in a still small voice, He said, “Be still, and know I am God.”  All I had to do was be still.  It didn’t make sense to my mind, but my heart was hungry and thirsty for the things of Christ.  In my weakness, He became my strength.  In my blindness of Him, He opened my eyes to see His glory.

My heart begged for His love, and it was given abundantly.  My soul begged for His forgiveness, and He called me “My Beloved Son.”  He said to rest, so I rested.  He put me in a place where all I can do is rest in Him.  And in my weakness, I can see that He is becoming my strength.

All I had to do was be still, and obey.

It started simply.  And as I obeyed the simple things, He began to reveal to me all kinds of truths that eluded me.  The brokenness of my heart, and the death of my intellectual arrogance were the first things He accomplished in me.

All I had to do was be still, and obey.

He said for me to read His word.  I was so hungry that, when I read it, I cried for all the wonder and fullness His word brought to my empty soul.  He sat next to me and made it make sense.  My eyes were opened to His will.  It was to “Be Still.”

All I had to do was be still, and obey.

Now I find that there is no life I would rather live than to give my life in service to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  He raised me from the dead.  He breathed the life of His Spirit in me.  He showed me how to see things the way He does.  He taught me how to love, and I mean genuinely love.  Considering how dark the darkness was in my soul, His light hurt at first.  But as I grew into it, and started setting root, I found an entire universe of truth and love that no amount of intellectual prowess can fathom.  Our minds are infinitely limited by our pride, selfishness, and arrogance.

All I had to do was be still, and obey.

I am just a baby in Christ.  What I thought was Christianity is just a shell of sugar-coated half-truths, that bring me closer to my own selfish desires, than to the will of the Living God.  Soon, I will be allowed to walk after Him.  Soon, I will be more than His disciple.  Until then, I have much to learn.  And more growing to do than I understand.

All I have to do is be still, and obey.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.

Mold me and make me after Thy will,

While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Search me and try me, Master, today!

Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,

As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!

Power, all power, surely is Thine!

Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!

Hold o’er my being absolute sway!

Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see

Christ only, always, living in me.

George C. Stebbins, 1907

Go back

Your message has been sent

Standard
Faith

Sufficient


And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  II Corinthians 12:9 NASB

The truth is, Jesus never needed anything from me.

In the very beginning, all creation was created through Jesus.

After facing a terrible scourging, Jesus carried His cross to Golgotha where He spent several agonizing hours on that cross.  He took on all of our sin and faced the complete wrath of God over it. Jesus descended into Hell to release the prisoners.  He took the keys of Hell and Death from Satan.  After doing all that, He raised Himself from the dead, just to prove to all of creation that He has power over life and death.

Jesus did all this on His own.

If I genuinely want to be like Him, there is not one whit I can bring to Him.  By His grace, and through my weakness, all I have to do is get out of His way, and let Him empower me to be Just like Him.

Standard