Tag Archives: Grace

Faith, Observations

Unrelentingly Relentless


Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. I COR 9:24 ESV

Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith  Hebrews 12:1-11

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Do Not Grow Weary

3Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

re·lent·less

riˈlentləs/adjective

adjective: relentless

1.

oppressively constant; incessant.

“the relentless heat of the desert”

synonyms:

persistent, continuing, constant, continual, continuous, nonstop, never-ending, unabating, interminable, incessant, unceasing, endless, unending, unremitting, unrelenting, unrelieved;

 

To Find My Path of Unrelenting Relentlessness, I first Had To Relent

Part of dying to my old self meant putting away my old self-habits.  I know that the only way to do that, and make it stick, is through the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  And THAT has to be what I call “Heart Surgery”.  For the change to keep, my Heart Beliefs HAVE to align and harmonize with the Spirit of the Living God.  From there, whatever characteristics I stored in my mind are overwritten with the Character of Christ.  When that happens, my body follows.

To relent is to soften your position on certain fast held beliefs.  To relent is similar to repent, which is to change your mind.  The difference is, I must be willing to soften my unrelentingly relentless stance on a wrong belief, it is when I am unrepentantly unrelentless that a character other than that of Christ is revealed in me.

This is why it is written:  Ezekiel 36:29 NIV – ‘“I’m going to give you a new heart, and I’m going to give you a new spirit within all of your deepest parts. I’ll remove that rock-hard heart of yours and replace it with one that’s sensitive to me.”   Before I can learn to relent, I have to submit to the Heart Surgery of the Holy Spirit, and be recreated, which is where II Corinthians 5:17 is revealed in you: “Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come”

As a new creation, with a new Spirit and a heart sensitive to the voice of God, you can be remade into the image of Christ.  There are dangers in this, though.  The Spirit of God is gentle, and will never force its will on you without your consent.  You can ignore it, you can deny it, you can do whatever you want.  If you are willing to relent, then you will be changed, gently, without condemnation, and grow to be more like Christ.

WHAT AM I WILLING TO BE RELENTLESS ABOUT.

At Cates Control Solutions, Relentless is defined as follows:  “RELENTLESS: We will not back down from our pursuit of excellence in every aspect of our business.”

So I wondered where that is found in scripture.  Here is an example – Philippians 4:8“Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable — if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise — dwell on these things.”

In order to pursue excellence, I must relent on my attitude that “Good Enough is Good Enough.”  I must find where EXCELLENCE is taught in the Bible, and I must let the Spirit of God write these things on my heart.

Excellence, like any other Core Value, is as meaningful as you will allow it to be, and is only as effective as it is written on my heart.  It is my hard-earned experience that I cannot fake this value of the relentless pursuit of Excellence.

Click the word EXCELLENCE, to see what the Bible has to say about Excellence.

Frankly, left to my own devices, Good Enough is Good Enough for me.  It is not in my carnal nature to want excellence, or to pursue excellence.  This can only come from a changed heart.  It is not just for the sake of Cates Control Solutions that I chase, unrelentingly, after Excellence.  It is first, and foremost because the Spirit of the Living God is pursuing excellence in me.

“RELENTLESS” and all the other Core Values becomes real, not because it is a rule at the office.  It stops being mere words when the Spirit of God is allowed to turn my heart of stone into a heart that is sensitive to the will of God.  If I approach all of the Cates Core Values this way, then it will not matter of this is posted on our wall, or the back of my business card.  I will not have to be reminded by the “Thought Police” to pursue this, either.  It will simply manifest itself as the natural outcome of my unrelentingly relentless pursuit of the Character of Christ.

My Prayer:  Dearest God, My Father, I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord, My Savior, and my Brother, that I relent in my stiff-necked will, and turn toward your voice, and become unrelentingly obsessed with all the things you say are excellent.  I know all the qualities exist in the Person and Likeness of Christ.  Lead me, Dear God, to be just like your son.  – AMEN

Now, Let’s Be About It!

I love you in the name of Jesus Christ.

David G. Perkins

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Faith, Observations

The Looking Glass


In my dreams. Photo by E. Tom Hussey

In my dreams. Photo by E. Tom Hussey

JAMES 1:23-24 – For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

We interrupt this series on values to bring you this message.

I Corinthians 15:49 – Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

A few days ago, I was talking to a friend about how our perception of ourselves affects what we believe is true about ourselves.  For example, I have this self-image of me from when I was in peak athletic condition.

In my minds mirror, I see me as still being fit, muscular, coordinated, strong, with real strength, not bottled strength.  In my minds mirror, I still have long, curly blackish/brown hair, full of waves and curls.  In my mind’s eye, I am still wearing 32 inch waist pants.

What the mirror in my mind ells me.

What the mirror in my mind tells me.

The mind can be a tricky thing, and can lead me to many false assumptions based on what I think is true.  Often, my warped ego guides me to many fallacies and false assumptions.

The other day, I did something I honestly RARELY ever do.  I looked at myself in the mirror.  My first impression was, “Hey!  That’s my Dad!  I thought I buried HIM in 2005!”  But when I moved, so did the man in the mirror.  Then it dawned on my conscious mind, and my ego mind, that is not my dad, but ME!!

It was then I realized why I don’t look in mirrors.  I am not that guy my ego told me I am.  I am the very image of my Dad.

IN THE BEGINNING

When God created us, we were made in the image of God, meaning we looked like he looks.  We were also made in the likeness of God, meaning we used to act as He acted because we saw what he did.

AFTER THE FALL

After the fall, we lost touch with God, and lost what was His likeness.  We were not able to return to our glorified state.  No work we could expend any effort on would make us righteous in God’s eyes, even though we became self-righteous in our own eyes.  The ego can really fool a person.

THEN CAME JESUS

Yes, Jesus is the Son of God.  God said so rather loudly at Jesus’ baptism.  But it was the Son of Man that faced temptation.  It was the Son of Man that asked God to take away the cup.  It was the Son of Man that faced God’s wrath.  It was the Son of Man that rose from the dead to prove he is the Son of God, too.

The Image of Christ

We are asked to be like Christ, but we, on our own are not capable.  The best we can do is try, but we eventually fail.  But the scripture says we need to become like Christ.  Peter was the first person to prove that, if you don’t keep your eyes on Christ, you will fail in your effort to be just like Jesus.  The labor into the rest of Christ likeness was that all Peter had to do was keep his eyes, and faith, on Jesus, and he would have walked on the water, by faith, as he was already doing.

In the Garden of Eden, the wind and waves Adam and Eve faced was the lie that doing something else will make you just like God.  They then doubted they were already like God.  They took their eyes off the facts, and the truth, and considered a lie, and a false premise based on circumstances.  Forbidden Fruit.

THE EXCHANGE

If you will consider this, instead, and accept it as fact, instead of believing what you think you apparently see, you will learn that you are already like Christ, if you have accepted His death and resurrection.  When Jesus became all your sin, you received, in exchange, all that Jesus is.

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

II Corinthians 3:18

It is all a matter of what we focus on.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8  

Just like Jesus died of our sins, voluntarily, we are able to die to ourselves, voluntarily, as we labor into the rest of accepting that, all that Jesus was, we inherited when He arose from the dead.  When we keep our understanding on this truth, when we comprehend this exchange, and when we accept it in faith, no matter what we think we look like, you will look to God, like His Son, Jesus, and you will eventually appear to others to have the likeness of Christ, too.

After all, that is why you weren’t raptured the second you believed.  You are the only Jesus people will see.  When they see Jesus in you, they will want to know what happened to make you this way.

We are transformed in to the image of Christ

We are transformed in to the image of Christ

Let’s Be About It!

I love you in the Name of Jesus

David G. Perkins

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Faith, Observations

What Were You Looking For?


what-we-see-depends-mainly-on-what-we-look-for

Philippians 4:8-9 ESV

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”   Galatians 5:22-23 ESV

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING!

When I was a teenager, my Dad decided it was time for me to learn how to fly one of his several airplanes.  Considering my driving history, I thought he surely had a screw loose, somewhere.  By time I was 16, I had already totaled a few cars.  Still, I do love to fly, and had always wanted to fly right seat with my Dad on his adventures.

Our airport was the municipal airport in Plainview, Texas.  At over 3300 feet, altitude, the airport has a whole lot of sky to fling your airplane into.  Dad made sure the wind was relatively calm before he would let me take off.  The high plains are very windy much of the time.  There is a saying in Lubbock, Texas (45 miles south of Plainview), that if the wind ever stopped blowing, everyone would fall down.  Wind is a fact of life, there, and you adjust your walking by leaning into the wind.

Taking off into the wind made flying that much more fun, as I had to generate less lift with the engine.  Flying in the wind, however is a challenge.  This is where the word attitude comes in.  In flight, your attitude is the approach you have to take to flying in the wind, ESPECIALLY when you are landing an airplane.  Landing an airplane on a calm day was challenging enough for me, but landing in high wind was a contest between me and the wind to see who will master my aircraft.  This is when attitude becomes everything.

When nature threw strong wind at me, I had to turn the airplane into the wind on approach to the landing strip.  This is called “Crabbing”.  I am approaching a runway almost sideways, and at the last-minute, I correct my attitude so I can land moving in the right direction.  Another factor in landing attitude is that I could approach the runway only in a narrowly defined angle.  This is called the “Glide Path” .   As you approach the runway, you will see a group of lights.  If my glide path is too low, I will see three or more yellow lights.  If my glide path is too high, I will see red lights, if my glide path is correct for the landing approach, I will see green lights.

Maintaining the right attitude for landing is everything, too.  I am already crabbing in to the runway because of a wind situation, and I also must keep my approach angle right.  If I am yellow on approach, I will not land on the runway.  If I am red, I will land too far in on the runway to keep from overshooting.  I must crab in on a green light.

While I am worried about those two aspects of attitude, I also have to make sure my wings are as level as I can keep them on approach, and that my nose is not too high, or too low.  So, there are possibly 4 parts of attitude I must pay attention to when I am landing.  Overdoing or under-doing any part can mean a bad landing.  Bad landings can complicate your life in ways you don’t need.  It was all about attitude.

 

“WELL, THE METAPHOR IS OBVIOUS, ISN’T IT?”

I hope so.

At CATES (Where I work), one of the twelve principles we live by is: “ATTITUDE – We choose to be positive”.   If you want to approach a subject and land on it with successful outcomes, it helps if your attitude is positive.  Being positive makes all the difference in the world.  It is fairly clear, after over 8000 years of examination, that God has given us the ability to affect the outcomes of every aspect of our lives, simply by determining what we believe is true about it.  Our beliefs change every aspect of our life.  If you believe things will always go wrong, then you will experience that outcome.  If your approach to your fellow-man is negative, then you will reap the benefit of your view of others, and have no genuine friends.

Attitude is one of the very first things the Lord had to really work with me on.  I was a negative and pessimistic individual, whose attitude was reinforced by the outcomes of my life.  My assumption was that I was right because everything always turned out exactly as I thought they would.  God showed me that attitude is a choice.  How I choose to approach anything will directly affect the outcomes.  Attitude is a choice.  It is a habit.  It comes from the heart.  It becomes positive when you learn to look at the world differently.

 

“HOW DID YOU DO IT?”

I’m glad you asked. I didn’t.

My attitude about life, work, love, marriage, co-workers, clientele, family, or anything didn’t change until I fully understood what the finished work of the cross gave me.  When I accepted that Jesus BECAME all sin for all time, and took on the wrath of God in our place, and in exchange, God poured on us all the benefits of being His child, an heir to the throne, a member of God’s family, a love beyond measure, and total forgiveness for all my sin, I finally understood what it felt like to see the world and people the way God does.

I learned to love because God loved me enough to bury my sin with Jesus, and raise my dead soul into a new life.  I had been born in the spirit.  Where I was dead, Jesus’s resurrection gave me life in Him.  The Spirit of God cleansed me and changed my attitude. I began thinking new thoughts.,  I loved for the first time.  I saw people as my brother or sister.  While I am aware of my and others continuing failures, I felt only love for them, and chose to show grace and mercy.  It was easy to do this because this was what God showed me.

So, frankly, I didn’t change my attitude.  Experience has taught me that, I can fake a good attitude only so long, but whatever is hidden in my heart will become manifest over time.  On my own strength I do not love long, I show no mercy or grace, and my attitude is very rotten.  Since I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, I am able to be like Christ and love, show grace and mercy, and look for opportunities to give with a positive attitude.

 

GUARD YOUR THOUGHTS

 

I cannot, by my own strength, maintain this loving attitude.  Only when I guard my thoughts am I able to be filled with this powerful love.  I can break my connection to God simply by going back to my old way of thinking and behaving.  God leaves this up to me.  The way I maintain a good attitude is by staying in the word, praying continuously, and submitting to Gods love and will.  It is only by the continual renewing of my mind that I can be a blessing instead of a curse. I am confident in Christ enough that I know I am weak, but Christ in me is infinitely strong.  If I catch the old self trying to assert his attitude and beliefs, all I have to do is remember that my old self died with Christ, and my new self, the child of God, is who lives through Christ.

Attitude is a choice.  When the blowing wind of earthly things challenges my attitude, when the weight of the world wants to crush me, when my co-workers decide to be peevish and negative, when a thoughtless and selfish humanity threatens to ruin my day, I simply remember who I am in Christ, and ask the Spirit of the Living God to sustain me so I can be a witness to all the things that would otherwise drag me down.  A simple choice of attitude can turn things around, and your witness can cause others to want to know where you have this strength of character.  Then you can tell them why you are joyful in the face of adversity, and strong when temptation desires your soul.

Think on the good things of God continuously, and you will see the world in a very different lite.

It is all a choice, a labor into the rest of the finished work of Christ.

You will always get what you are looking for.

Let’s be about it

I love you all,

David G. Perkins

PS – Click HERE to see how the Bible addresses ATTITUDE.

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Faith

Thank You God


Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:2 HCSB

1:2 χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ

GRACE – χάρις – Transliteration: charis  Pronunciation: khä’-rēs   Part of Speech: feminine noun

Outline of Biblical Usage
GRACE:  a free gift.  God’s ability.  grace is that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech good will, loving-kindness, favour of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues, what is due to grace, the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace, the token or proof of grace, benefit, a gift, bounty,thanks, (for benefits, services, favours), recompense, reward
PEACE – εἰρήνη – Transliteration: eirēnē   Pronunciation: ā-rā’-nā   Part of Speech: feminine noun

Outline of Biblical Usage
a state of national tranquillity, exemption from the rage and havoc of war
peace between individuals, i.e. harmony, concord, security, safety, prosperity, felicity, (because peace and harmony make and keep things safe and prosperous), of the Messiah’s peace, the way that leads to peace (salvation)
of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is, the blessed state of devout and upright men after death
from – ἀπό Transliteration: apo   Pronunciation: ä-po’   Part of Speech: preposition

Outline of Biblical Usage (In the context of this sentence):
of origin
of the place whence anything is, comes, befalls, is taken
of origin of a cause

Dear God,

How do I tell others what a magnificent thing you have done in me?

Where a cauldron of angry fire once lived deep in me, now exists a calm peace, a tranquility that can come only from you. God, you have seen me struggle for decades with my overwhelmingly sinful nature, yet, in a day, in a single hour, your gift of love was poured into my heart, and I now know peace, love, joy, harmony, the stillness of soul only you can bring.

The first thing your word taught me is that you are not angry at me, but that you love me infinitely.  You proved this when You sent Jesus.

This changed me.

Where I was unable to change, your gift of love to me made me able to receive. In receiving, I became a new creation. There was no self to repair once I understood that, because Jesus died, my self died with Him. The “Me” that used to be no longer exists. The echo of memories are only a dim note, drowned out by your beauty, grace and love.

When I understood that, when Christ rose from the dead, so did I; This new man was born the day I understood that I have a new life in the risen Christ.

What words or actions can you lead me to that will help others know that you can change them, just as you have changed me?

There are those who knew me before this change, and they know me now that I have changed. Let your love so shine in my soul that they will understand that this is real, and it is all because of You, Lord God. Because of Jesus’s sacrifice, the sinless one who became all sin and shame, I, a terribly sinful one, full of darkness and corruption, became holy and acceptable to you. I accepted this free gift of your grace. Not that I can brag or draw attention to me, but that, because of the wonderful thing you have done in me will lead others to the cross of Christ.

I know people will only believe what they only want to believe, there is nothing I can do about them. But, Lord, even with them, let the light of your love and grace be so full and alive in me that even they will see, and have to choose whom they will believe.

What joy and wonder you have written on my heart, Dear God. Thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Thank you for the great exchange that makes me wholly acceptable to you, dear God. I have all the promise living in me, and all sin is forgiven and destroyed. Your mighty work defeated all the darkness in the universe.

All we have to do is accept this free gift.

Dearest God,

Make me an instrument of the Gospel of Peace. Let my life be the grace and love that was Jesus’ life. No matter where I go, no matter what I do, let me always remember what you have done for me.

I love you, Dear God, because of the life of Jesus that is now abiding in me. I am complete, and lack nothing. You prove to me daily that you are all my provision. Where I was homeless, I now have a home. Where I was unemployed, I now have a job. Where I was penniless, you have provided all I need.

The greatest thing, though, you have given me, Lord, is eternal life. So, I ask, Dear Lord, that you take my life and make it your instrument of the Gospel of Peace.

I thank you and praise you, God, because of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.

ROMANS 12:1 – Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship. HCSB

Let’s be about it.

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Because of Christ, I AM


This entry is  a long one, folks.  Go get some coffee, or a soda, or the beverage of your choice…and maybe a snack.  I will wait right here for you.

I dedicate this post to the following individuals, without whom, I would not have given up my old religion, and embraced the gift of Grace, provided by Jesus’ sacrifice on my behalf.

My beautiful and Godly wife, who introduced me to my ignorance, and walked me back to the Cross.

Glenda Dowd who shared Dr. Jim Richards, “Grace: The Power To Change” with my wife, who in turn used this book to open my eyes.

To Casey Merseal, who always makes me think.

i-am1

[And I pray] that the participation in and sharing of your faith may produce and promote full recognition and appreciation and understanding and precise knowledge of every good [thing] that is ours in [our identification with] Christ Jesus[and unto His glory].  Philemon verse 6. Amplified Bible

Recently, a post appeared on my FB page.  It was from an organization called “The Ministry of Second Timothy“.  Here is a quote from the very first paragraph:

“YES, THE CURSE ON AMERICA APPLIES TO YOU TOO: AS
THE LAW HAS NOT YET BEEN FULFILLED BY CHRIST.
BY DEIRDRE”

The author of this blog went on to say:

“…any natural man observing this fact who considers themselves someone who acknowledges truth, will find it hard to rebut the spiritual fact that Deuteronomy 28:43-44 and Deuteronomy 28:49-51 (below) are currently in effect REGARDLESS OF WHAT PAUL THE APOSTLE SAID IN GALATIANS 3:13; so if you count yourself among the smart, you better start listening to what JESUS SAID and forget the lies of Paul the Apostle!

The author further said:

“JESUS clearly said that He did not come to destroy the law, yet those who exalt Paul over Jesus, still claim that Jesus has already destroyed the law and therefore the Old Testament does not apply. This is a lie and those who worship the words of Paul are devil worshippers.

So it does not matter that Paul said that Jesus has already redeemed us (past tense) from the curse of the law. We have not yet been redeemed because Jesus is still fulfilling the law – so we are still under the law! Please don’t be foolish – listen to Jesus! 

JESUS SAYS:
17 “DO NOT THINK THAT I CAME TO DESTROY THE LAW OR THE PROPHETS. I DID NOT COME TO DESTROY BUT TO FULFILL. “

The most interesting thing the author said after that was:

“JESUS IS STILL FULFILLING THE LAW IN THIS YEAR 2013; IN FACT HE JUST WOKE ME UP THIS MORNING AND SAID “RISE AND COMPLETE MY WORK!” THEN ONE OF HIS ANGELS PLACED A SONG IN ME WHICH I WILL SHARE AT ANOTHER TIME, BUT THE CHORUS IS SUNG LIKE THIS:
MY FATHER SAID “RISE” AND COMPLETE HIS WORK. COMPLETE HIS WORK. COMPLETE HIS WORK.
MY FATHER SAID “RISE” AND COMPLETE HIS WORK. COMPLETE HIS WORK. COMPLETE HIS WORK.
SO I KNOW FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE WITH GOD THAT ALL HAS NOT YET BEEN FULFILLED, BECAUSE I AM A WORKING ON A PROCESS THAT JESUS TASKED ME TO COMPLETE – A PROCESS MODEL “FOR HOW TO CREATE SOMETHING FROM NOTHING.” WHICH SHALL BE USED FOR MANKIND TO EXTEND OUR SCIENCE SO THAT WE HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY TO HEAL THE WORLD.”

I am compelled to address this.

Firstly, Timothy was a disciple of Paul (Said blog is called, “The Ministry of Second Timothy”).  Here is something Peter had to say about this:

“And consider that the long-suffering of our Lord [His slowness in avenging wrongs and judging the world] is salvation (that which is conducive to the soul’s safety), even as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the spiritual insight given him,  Speaking of this as he does in all of his letters. There are some things in those [epistles of Paul] that are difficult to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist and misconstrue to their own utter destruction, just as [they distort and misinterpret] the rest of the Scriptures.  Let me warn you therefore, beloved, that knowing these things beforehand, you should be on your guard, lest you be carried away by the error of lawless and wicked [persons and] fall from your own [present] firm condition [your own steadfastness of mind].”  2 Peter 3:15-17 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
If Paul was a disciple of Satan, then Peter endorsed a child of Satan as being one of their own (The fellowship of the Apostles).
Jesus hung on the cross.  John, the beloved apostle, recorded the following:
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished (ended), said in fulfillment of the Scripture, I thirst. [Ps. 69:21.]   A vessel (jar) full of sour wine (vinegar) was placed there, so they put a sponge soaked in the sour wine on [a stalk, reed of] hyssop, and held it to [His] mouth.  When Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, It is finished!  And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”  John 19:28-30 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Jesus did not only die for our sin, he became all sin and was judged by the Living God for it.  Jesus did this in our place because we are not able to do it for ourselves, and God loves us too much to let all of Humanity’s souls perish.
Because of the fall of Adam, all humans inherited a dead spirit  We are born already spiritually dead.  Jesus had this to say about that:
“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.  For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him.  He who believes in Him [who clings to, trusts in, relies on Him] is not judged [he who trusts in Him never comes up for judgment; for him there is no rejection, no condemnation–he incurs no damnation]; but he who does not believe (cleave to, rely on, trust in Him) is judged already [he has already been convicted and has already received his sentence] because he has not believed in and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God. [He is condemned for refusing to let his trust rest in Christ‘s name.]”  John 3:16-18 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Christ and Christ alone is our salvation.  What He finished on the cross is the burden of the Law.
It is written:
“Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.  [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].”  Colossians 2:14-15
What Christ finished on the cross is also stated in the book of Romans:
It is written:

“But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.  Therefore, since we are now justified (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ’s blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin’s dominion) through His [resurrection] life.” Romans 5:8-10 AMPLIFIED BIBLE

Christ not only put finished to the demands of the Law, but he also freed us from the burden of the law.  The law existed only to show mankind that there is nothing we can do on our own strength to be righteous before the Living God.
Because we are saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, we can now say with confidence that we belong to the kingdom of Heaven.  When we learn to walk in the freedom that this grace from God brings, we will be able to draw others to the same saving grace.  This is why we weren’t raptured the second we believed and were baptized.
Walking in the freedom of grace is not a license to sin.  Knowing what this freedom means will draw you to walk in the likeness of Christ.  You will discover that the short-lived pleasures sin brought you will fade into oblivion.  This will be true because you have a new spirit in you.
It is written:
“A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.”  Ezekiel 36:26-27  AMPLIFIED BIBLE
That Spirit delights in the presence of God.  The freedom from the influence of sin is amazing, it is lovely, it is beautiful, and it is light.  You will never know true freedom unless you understand what Christ’s death on the cross bought you.
The alluring draw of the Spirit of God will lead you to walk after Christ.  It will be effortless.  Being Human, we will still fall into error, on occasion, but we no longer have to fear the punishment of God.  Jesus finished everything when he finished it on the cross.
God is not mad at you.  He is not mad at the unrepentant sinner, He loves them.  The myth that God is mad at you is a religious construct used by people who want to control you, and have the desire to be the dispenser of the will of God.
The delusion that there is anything else to add to the finished work of Christ implies that Christ was not actually able to finish what He started.  Mohammed made the same mistake.  That mistake brought us “The Religion of Peace”.  There is no work that needs to be accomplished outside of what Christ said we need to do.
It is written:
 And when they saw Him, they fell down and worshiped Him; but some doubted.
Jesus approached and, breaking the silence, said to them, ‘All authority (all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.  Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you all the days (perpetually, uniformly, and on every occasion), to the [very] close and consummation of the age.’ Amen (so let it be).”  Matthew 18:17-20  AMPLIFIED BIBLE
WHAT WE ARE BECAUSE OF THE FINISHED WORK OF JESUS CHRIST
I am using the following material with permission.  Below is a summary written by Dr. Jim Richards.  This summary tells us what the finished work of Christ has purchased and given us.

Because of the Finished work of Christ:

I AM:

A son of God and an heir of God

It is written:

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For [the Spirit which] you have now received [is] not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption [the Spirit producing sonship] in [the bliss of] which we cry, Abba (Father)! Father!  The Spirit Himself [thus] testifies together with our own spirit, [assuring us] that we are children of God.  And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.”  Romans 8:14-17 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Full of the Holy Spirit
It is written:
“But you are not living the life of the flesh, you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. But if anyone does not possess the [Holy] Spirit of Christ, he is none of His [he does not belong to Christ, is not truly a child of God]. [Rom. 8:14.]  But if Christ lives in you, [then although] your [natural] body is dead by reason of in and guilt, the spirit is alive because of [the] righteousness [that He imputes to you].  And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you.”    Romans 8:9-11 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Free from sin
It is written:
“Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.”  Romans 6:11 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
and
“ For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy].  What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God’s favor and mercy? Certainly not!  Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?  But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed.  And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).”  Romans 6:14-18 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
A new creation
It is written:
“Therefore if any person is [in-grafted]  in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!”  II Corinthians 5:17 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
More than a conqueror
It is written:
“Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?  Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter. [Ps. 44:22.]  Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.  For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:35-39 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
The righteousness of God in Christ
It is Written:
“For our sake He made Christ [virtually] to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in and through Him we might become [endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of] the righteousness of God [what we ought to be, approved and acceptable and in right relationship with Him, by His goodness].”  
II Corinthians 5:21 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Crucified with Christ
It is written:
“For I through the Law [under the operation of the curse of the Law] have [in Christ’s death for me] myself died to the Law and all the Law’s demands upon me, so that I may [henceforth] live to and for God.  I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.  [Therefore, I do not treat God’s gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose]; I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the grace (unmerited favor) of God. For if justification (righteousness, acquittal from guilt) comes through [observing the ritual of] the Law, then Christ (the Messiah) died groundlessly and to no purpose and in vain. [His death was then wholly superfluous.]”  Galatians 2:19-21 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Justified by faith in Christ
It is written:
” Yet we know that a man is justified or reckoned righteous and n right standing with God not by works of the Law, but [only] through faith and[absolute] reliance on and adherence to and trust in Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). [Therefore] even we [ourselves] have believed on Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law [for we cannot be justified by any observance of the ritual of the Law given by Moses], because by keeping legal rituals and by works no human being can ever be justified (declared righteous and put in right standing with God). [Ps. 143:2.]”  Galatians 2:16  AMPLIFIED BIBLE
God’s workmanship
It is written:
“For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].”  Ephesians 2:10 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Hid in Christ
It is written:
“IF THEN you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [Ps. 110:1.]  And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth.  For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God.”  Colossians 3:1-3 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Saved by Grace

It is written:

“For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God;  Not because of works [not the fulfillment of the Law’s demands], lest any man should boast. [It is not the result of what anyone can possibly do, so no one can pride himself in it or take glory to himself.]”
Ephesians 2:8-9 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
Accepted in the Beloved
It is written:

“For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]–[So that we might be] to the praise and the commendation of His glorious grace (favor and mercy), which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”  Ephesians 1:5&6 AMPLIFIED BIBLE

At peace with God
It is written:
“THEREFORE, SINCE we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).”  Romans 5:1 AMPLIFIED BIBLE
So, you see, all the above states what the thesis of Paul was, and what was accomplished when Christ nailed the Law to the cross, became sin on our behalf.  We can boldly say, “It is finished” with Christ.
The Judaizers of Paul’s day attacked Paul in the same manner that the Judaizers of today attack Paul and anyone who will put stock in Paul’s writings.  We do not worship Paul.  We worship the Living God because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.  That is the same Jesus Christ that appeared to Paul on Paul’s journey to Damascus.
Paul was chosen by Jesus.  Paul was endorsed by Peter and James and John.
The message is clear.  Jesus does not need anyone to complete the finished work.  It is finished.  No self-appointed messiah can stand before the Living God and demand that His children must obey the Law that Jesus already fulfilled, and still lay claim to the finished work of Christ.  It is by grace alone we are saved.  No one can claim before the Living God that Jesus failed to complete the finished work, the work of promise that was foretold in the Law and the Prophets.  God did not appoint you to be the Messiah Part II.
Christ’s work is finished.
Let me encourage you, brothers and sisters, to cling to the finished work of Christ.  It is the only path to Salvation and freedom from sin.  Nothing you can do either by the Law or of your own effort will ever make you righteous.  You cannot save yourself.  If you could, Jesus died in vain.
We who know this message of Grace, who are hidden in Christ, who drink deep of the Gospel of Grace offered by Jesus Christ, we few must take to the world, not being absorbed by the will of the world, but to show the light of the Grace that lives in you because of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Let’s be about it.
I love you
David G. Perkins
sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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Faith, Observations

Transition States: Saving Grace is Sustaining Grace – Revisited


Grace is Sufficient

 

This blog was originally posted on October 31, 2013.  I mention that I was homeless in this blog.  That has changed.  I and my family are no longer homeless.  I am now employed.  The job I have is probably the very best job I have had in over 25 years.  (Truthfully, nothing compares to full time ministry, IF you are actually serving the Lord, and not your own desires).

Since writing this blog, and getting employed, I am met with new challenges as a baby believer.  It is easy to take one’s eyes off Jesus when the cares of work and living confront you.  As I re-read this blog, I was reminded how strong my faith was when I wrote it.  Life was much harder then.  The difference between then and now is, then I was keeping my eyes continually focused on Christ and His finished work.  Re-reading this blog has reminded me that I need to remember, “The main thing is to always keep the main thing, the main thing.”

I hope this blog reminds you, my fellow struggling traveler, that there are much more important issues than what you think you are facing.  Keeping your eyes on Jesus will sustain you.  

You have all my love and prayer, whoever you are.  DGP  Romans 8:28 

The other day, I decided to turn off the auto-delete feature in my email program.  Suddenly, my inbox was stuffed to exploding with e-mails suggesting that if I ingest a little blue pill, my wife would suddenly be a happy person, or that my auto insurance was inadequate for me, AND that my house needs new siding.  I found that one delightful, as it is very difficult to side a homeless man’s house.

Buried in the midst of that deluge of magnificent offers was a question sent from one of the roughly 20 million alert readers of my blog.  She asked this question:  “Is Saving Grace the same as Sustaining Grace?”.

That is a very good question.

The short answer is:  YES!

If you are busy, or need to run, go ahead, I just answered that question, but if you need me to fill that answer out a bit, read at your own risk, the best answer I could come up with.  CAVEAT LECTOR:  Have your own Bible available, and never take my word, or anyone else’s word for anything.  Read the Bible and see if what I am saying is true, or not.  If it is not, please let me know BEFORE you unsubscribe to this incredibly stimulating and popular blog.  And that would leave just me and my mom as subscribers.

The long answer is:

I have to make certain assumptions of the person who asked me this question.  Here is the list of assumptions I am making.

YOU BELIEVE:

There IS a God.

That God is the SAME God mentioned throughout the Bible (Christian).

God sent His Son into a sinful world.

His Son, Jesus, did for us Humans what we could not do for ourselves.  Jesus made the broken bridge of communion with God whole again so we can have fellowship with God, and live in eternity with God in Heaven.

Jesus accomplished this feat by being nailed to the cross.  When He did that, he nailed the Law on the cross with him.  The Law led to the awareness of sin.  Jesus, who committed no sin, became all sin.  When Jesus became all sin, he was cut off from the Father: “About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Elí, Elí, lemá sabachtháni?” that is (Aramaic), “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

When Jesus died, He descended into Hell and received the full wrath of God.  Jesus paid the full price for every type of sin that ever existed, does exist, and will exist.  He purchased your freedom when He gave up His life.  But God did not intend for Jesus to stay there.  While Jesus was in Hell, He remembered the promises of God, and spoke them, that God will not leave Him in Hell, nor forsake Him, and that He will commune with God again, and will sit on the throne of the Heavens.  Jesus confessed all this while he was in sin and receiving the full wrath of God.  And God sent the Spirit, His own Holy Spirit and brought Jesus back to life.

Jesus rose from the dead to prove that He has the authority to be called the Son of God, and that He has full authority over life and death.

Jesus became every sin imaginable and conquered it in Hell.  He rose again and gave gifts to all who will accept them.  Here is a list of the things Jesus gave us through His resurrection:

  • Rom. 6:4-8 We were crucified with him, died with him, buried with him and united with him in his death.
  • Rom. 6:5, 8 We will (Do live) live with him, united with him in his resurrection.
  • Rom. 8:17 We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
  • Rom. 8:17 If we share in his sufferings, we will also share in his glory.
  • Gal. 2:20 We have been crucified with Christ, and he lives in us.
  • Eph. 2:5-6 God made us alive with Christ, God raised us up with Christ, and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.
  • Col. 2:12 We have been buried with him in baptism.
  • Col. 2:12-13 God raised us and made us alive with Christ, through faith.
  • Col. 2:20 We died with Christ to the basic principles of this world.
  • Col. 3:1 We have been raised with Christ.
  • Col. 3:3 Our life is now hidden with Christ in God.
  • Col. 3:4 When Christ appears, we will appear with him in glory.
  • 1 Thess. 5:10 He died for us so that we may live together with him.
  • 2 Tim. 2:11 If we died with him, we will also live with him.
  • 2 Tim. 2:12 If we endure, we will also reign with him.

When you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you were born again.  When you were baptized, you were crucified with Him.  When you came up out of the water, you were raised again with Christ.  You are now a resurrected being.  We were dead in our sin, but because Christ became all our sin and died for them on our behalf, and we accepted this free gift, we are now new creations (II Corinthians 5:17).

Look at the list above again.  Look them up in your Bibles.  These are not theoretical constructs.  These statements are the absolute truth.

The same Grace that gave you a new life IS the same grace that sustains that new life.

THEN WHY DOES MY LIFE BLOW CHUNKS?

This happens to almost every believer who is not exposed to the truth.  You were not exposed to this truth because most people don’t know enough to tell you this truth.  Religion and religious tradition do not share this truth for fear of losing control over you.

You were saved, and life seemed sparkly and good.  God answered every prayer you prayed.  His presence was felt everywhere you went, and the meanings of the words in scripture were finally making sense to you.  But then, life happened, and your joy dimmed to a cold ember, and you no longer felt God’s wonderful presence.

When this happened, you were probably told that that is all part of growing up.  That God coddled you while you were a baby Christian, but it is now time to grow up and handle things yourself.

You were never informed that the same Grace that saved you will sustain you forever to the day you arrive in Heaven and meet Jesus face to face.

It is all about how you look at things.

If you go back to worldly thinking to solve your problems, you will get the same results that you got before you were saved.  You now have the Mind of Christ.  You have His Holy Spirit in you.  You are God’s righteousness already.  You are complete in every way possible in the spirit.  The difficulty comes in when you forget this fact, and return to your old way of thinking and handling problems.  If it didn’t work the first thousand times you did it, why do you think it will suddenly change?

If you want to live the walk of Christ, you have to make Him your Lord of life, too.  When you commit to do that, you must teach your heart what the scriptures declare about you (See the list above).  The Spirit of God will help you write these truths on your heart.  As you read the scriptures, and pray, you will get revelation on how to change your heart to what Jesus has said is true of you.  To walk after Christ is to rest in His completed work.  You are a co-heir to the very throne of Heaven.  You are God’s beloved child. You are no longer guilty of any sin.  And the Spirit of God will change your mind about sin so that whatever sin you struggle with will become less important than your desire to walk after Christ.

If you are saved by the grace of God, you will also live in it, if you chose to.  It really is that simple.  It is all in what you chose to believe is true as regards what Jesus accomplished on the cross and his resurrection.

This is not a license to sin, either.  Grace is God’s ability to make you righteous in Christ.  Jesus’s righteousness in now YOUR righteousness.  You are righteous and holy before God.  Your desire for God will grow and your desire for sin will diminish.

It is also not about giving up anything, but learning how to enjoy the things God invented without perverting it as the world has done.

Change your heart, and your life will change.  It all depends on what you focus on.  Remember that it is written: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” Matt. 6:33

I became a Christian on October 27, 1986.  And for a while, life in Christ was amazing.  Then the world got in the way and I went back to my old way of thinking about it.  I did this because I was told that that is how it is when you become a Christian.

I was never taught that God’s saving grace IS God’s sustaining Grace.  Grace is from God, and is permanent once you have accepted Jesus as your lord and savior.

If all you wanted was the fire insurance and not the walk, fine.  But your life will be as miserable as it was before you were saved, and probably more so, as you are now a child of God refusing to learn from Him.

To be sustained in Grace (God’s ability), you have to learn to see the world and all things as God sees them.  You have to believe that what Christ accomplished at his death and resurrection is permanent, not just a one time deal.

I am new at this whole grace experience.  It took me 26 years to finally see that being a Christian didn’t work out for me simply because of what I believed was true about God.

God is not mad at you, he is not out to get you or punish you.  You are His beloved Child whom he loves.  Jesus already took on God’s wrath in Hell.  You no longer have to fear God.  He is now your real father.  And He loves you.

 When you slide back into your worldly view of things, you reject the gift Christ gave His life to give you.  (See the list above).  You are telling Christ that His grace is not good enough for you and that you need to take the wheel from here.

But if you really want to experience the sustaining grace, you need to make Jesus your Lord, too, and trust that what He has done for you is real, is now, and is permanent.  The Spirit of God will honor that faith and teach you how to manifest all the gifts of God in the material world.  THIS is, after all, why you were not raptured when you first believed.  We are to exist as Christ existed, and lead all men to salvation.

Like I said before, the difference between a victorious life in Christ and going back to your old life is all in what you believe to be true about the Grace of God.  It is always in you.  It is always with you.  Even when you sin, God’s love for you never departs from you, and your salvation is not taken away.  The ones who fall from grace are the ones who think works righteousness will please God and make him love you.  You are already loved by God and He finds absolutely no fault in you.  This is all because you have accepted what Jesus did for you.

I may be new to this whole Grace thing.  I was raised in a very legalistic tradition by the Southern Baptists.  I went to a Southern Baptist Seminary.  But like Paul, I count all that as so much “dung” (Insert your own preferred aphorism here).  Compared to the amazing Grace of God and the truth that it reveals to my heart, nothing else matters.  The changes this has made in my life has been so powerful that many people have commented on what a completely different human I am.  That is also true.  My old self died when Jesus died.  My new self rose, righteous before God, when Jesus arose from the dead.  I simply needed to understand what all that meant.

So, yes, the sustaining Grace of God is the exact same thing as the grace that saved you.  One happened in a single point of time, and the other is just the same grace walking through time sustaining you, if you will accept the truth of the Scriptures.

Change your mind and change your life.  God’s grace is really all you need to walk in the likeness of Christ.  If you received Him as your savior and want to experience His sustaining Grace, then change what you believe about being saved.

Let’s be about it.

I love you,

David G. Perkins

Sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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Faith

Our Position in Christ: When Trouble Comes Knocking


Forgiven“One of the great inhibitors to our boldness is the responses that people in our lives give.

Although God is merciful and ready to forgive, people are not.

We cannot let the responses of people affect our honesty before and our trust in the Lord.

Though people may reject us, God does not.”

Richards, James (2001-12-01). Grace: The Power To Change (Kindle Locations 542-544). Whitaker House. Kindle Edition.

THE WORLD

When the world says I am a loser, I am too old to be part of what they are doing, or too fat, or overqualified, or under-qualified, or whatever excuse the world offers because I am not in my 20’s or 30’s and that is all they are looking for, it is easy for me to get discouraged.

When old friends or family know that I am a new creation in Christ, and say they have forgiven my past, but still treat me as if I am still that same old self, or they are so in love with their opinions and assumptions of me that the facts and evidence do not count for anything, it is easy for me to get discouraged.

MY MIND

Discouragement temps my mind to resort to old beliefs, to old habits, to old methods of acknowledging to opinions of the World and Family.  I find it refreshing that because I am a new creation, I have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:16 – For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.  KJV

Romans 12:2 – 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. KJV

When I rest in the Lord, I find what His mind desires for me.  When I find that He desires the fruit of the spirit of God, then I am able to rest in Him and walk after Him.  Then I am not discouraged, or angry, or disappointed.  My temptation to be my old self literally vanishes.  I find that instead of discouragement and anger, I have joy and peace.  I see the Grace and Mercy He purchased on my behalf, and receive it, and am filled with it, and understand how Godless and Religious people have missed it.  It is impossible for me to resort to my old self when I pray for these circumstances.  I have tested the claims of the scriptures, and find that they are true.  They are true because I have placed my faith in the Grace of God and His mercy.

Because of the Hope He has given me, my mind calms down, and I can wait on Him to see what he has already set in motion for me.  His ability to keep me focused on His will makes it possible for me to Wait on Him:

“O rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him, and He shall give thee thy heart’s desires.  Commit thy way unto Him, and trust in Him; and fret not they self because of evil doers.”

If I try by my own strength to follow the will of God, I become a law unto myself, and forgo the Grace (Ability) of God.  Then I have to try to do everything right, even though all my effort will never be enough to please God or get me saved, or change me into the likeness of Christ.  If I fail in any single thing by my own effort, then I have failed completely.

There was only One who lived a sinless life, and who walked in the will of God.  Jesus’s promise to us is that, when we accept Jesus Christ as Savior, WE will have the same ability as God poured into Christ.

ABIDING IN HIM (The Mind of Christ)

There is a verse in the Bible that talks about ABIDING.: 1 John 2:6 – “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”

The Greek definition of the word walk could more accurately be translated into this phrase: rest in the Lord so HE will cause you to walk.  If I try to walk on my own strength, the best I can do is produce what is NOT the will of God for my life.  I know this because I just spent the last 20 years doing that very thing.

It is because Jesus rested in the will of God that He was able to know and do the things He did: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him (God the Father) who sent Me.” John 6:38 NASB  Parenthesis added by me.

Our position is one of rest in Christ, who set the example by resting in God and His will.  When we do that, life becomes clearer and simpler.  By resting in Him, a very intimate relationship in the Greek language, we get to know Him and His thoughts and His will.  This intimacy causes our love and dependence on Him to grow geometrically.  After doing His will in your life, sin and temptation become apparent for what they are:  Death and Destruction.

God has placed a new desire in my heart.  It is become apparent that I cannot, nor do I want to, return to the world I left behind.  All having my way has gained me is loss and destruction.  Now I am beginning to see glimmers of what God wants for me, and I can wait on Him because Christ did the same.  Christ makes me able to rest in Him.  Christ makes me able to walk after Him because HE is my motivation and ability and power.

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?

I tell you all this because I know you are human, and go through the same temptations.  Believe me when I tell you that the gift of God’s grace (ability, will, mind, power) comes as you surrender yourself to it.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace

In Christ there is rest.  In my own will there is the sweat of my brow that leads to failure.  I know that my present circumstances is not the judgement of God on me, but simply the logical and natural consequences of living by my own will instead of trusting God.

God is with you if you are going through this, too, if you believe in His Son.  His Mercy has forgiven you and His grace sustains you.  Rest in Him, give whatever it is you are going through to Him.  He will show you a better way than any way you can come up for yourself.  I know this, too, is a fact.

You are His beloved.  You are an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven.  He is longing to help you if you will rest in Him.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 NASB

PRAYER:  I thank you Lord for this opportunity to share this topic with my brothers and sisters who are going through the storm of doubt, frustration, disappointment and anger.  Because you have delivered me from these things, I desire to share this with anyone who will listen, and I pray you pour your Holy Spirit on those who read this message and take it to heart.  I love you God, that you have sent Jesus Christ who died for our sin, and in our resting in Him, we are led to the green pastures and clear water that is your will for us.  Reveal to each of us your will for our lives.  I pray this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. AMEN

Let’s be about it!

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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Growing In Christ – Dealing With Your Past


English: Broken Heart symbol

English: Broken Heart symbol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This tome is written to men and women who, like me, strayed from the Love of God and the Joy of Salvation, and lived a life that you’d rather forget ever happened.  I am writing this to you.  I am writing this from a lesson I am going through as we speak.

I want to try to prepare you that this is coming.  I knew in my heart of hearts that, eventually, the Lord will deal with this issue in my life, but was still blindsided by the intensity of it.  Not every act of obedience will bring immediate joy, but it will eventually lead you to a joy that you will never understand until you grow in Christ.

God’s discipline is a good thing, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the time.  Remember, God disciplines the ones He loves. When He disciplines you, it is in love, not wrath.  Jesus already took on the wrath of your sin.  What God is doing is a gift of the Holy Spirit, so that you will grow to be like Christ in all things.

The hard work of the walk is, after redemption, you still have to deal with the mess you made in the wake of your fallen state.  You will have to deal with the forgiveness and contempt you hold for yourself.  You will have to deal with the anger and unforgiveness of others.  You will get to learn what grace feels like when others forgive you, and mean it from their hearts.

God wants to take you from where you are positionally in Him, forgiven and complete, to where His view of you in Christ is materially obvious to others, so that, when you live, you will live in the image of Jesus Christ.  There are still lost souls out there who need to know that it is possible to get from where they are to where God is.

First, I need to define some very real truths:

1.  Accusation is from Satan.  When the enemy (Satan, the World, etc) decides to point out your flaws, you will feel condemned, unworthy of the love of God, and basically, despair.  The accusations of Satan are like tormenting fires.  His accusations are arrows that hit you and burn you.  The goal of Satan is to get your eyes off the work the Spirit of God is doing in your heart.  The goal of Satan is to get you to take your eyes off Jesus.  The goal of Satan is that you forget the joy of your salvation.

2.  God is Love.  God, in His love of you, disciplines you.  He does not condemn.  Your condemnation was taken care of on the Cross of Christ.  If you have accepted the Salvation of Jesus Christ, then your sin is forgiven.  The Bible makes it clear that there is no longer any condemnation for those who are in Jesus Christ.  You are not going to Hell.  You are saved.  Nothing can take that away from you.

3. We have to grow up, sometime.  God insists you grow up in all ways to be like His Son, Jesus Christ.  You were not raptured the second you believed because God intends to use you in His service.  He wants to make you into something beautiful so that others will be drawn to the saving glory of Jesus Christ.  He will not allow you to be comfortable in your old habits.  However, this, too is optional.  You will grow into Christ likeness only as you are willing to grow, and eager to surrender your old ways to His new ways.

THE SUBJECT AT HAND

The groundwork is laid, and I hope you got it.  I am deeply sorry if I have done an inadequate job of not making the above clear.  But if this is you, you will know it.  If this is not for you, please pray for the person that is going through this.

A: The Unforgiveness and contempt you hold for yourself.

This is a tough one.  The more tender-hearted you become, the more you realize what a large swath of pain and confusion and anger you have left in your wake.  This is, perhaps, the strongest shock to your system you will face.  This is where you have to learn some important lessons.

LESSON 1:  You are Forgiven. 

Where did your salvation come from?  It came from the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the cross.  The perfect human took on all our imperfections and our sin and was nailed to the Cross and died for them.  In His dying, Jesus absorbed and accepted all the complete wrath of God.  “For the wages of sin is death.”  And Jesus paid that wage for you.  When you realized that you were in sin, and you were led to the Cross of Christ, and confessed your sin, you immediately felt the forgiveness of God, and His cleansing Breath (Ruach Ha’Kodesh – The Holy Spirit) enter you and cleanse you of the stain of your sin.  You are forgiven.

LESSON 2:  Forgive Yourself.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9

It is hard to look at the destruction our pre-Christian lives left behind.  And if you took the time and diligence, as I did, to make a thorough mess, there will be more to face and deal with.  Sometimes you just have to take things one at a time.  Sometimes, you will have to face it over and over.

Sometimes Satan, the World, and others, will not let you forget what you have done.  This feeds the fire of your unforgiveness of yourself   Here you have to cling to the truth that God has forgiven you.  He has cast your sin as far away from Himself as the East is from the West.  God has chosen to forget your sin.  When God sees you, He sees His beloved Child, covered in the blood of Christ, who died for that very sin you are beating yourself up over.  When others want to rehearse your sin, when YOU want to rehearse that sin, you have to return to what you know.

You know that you are forgiven.

WHAT ABOUT THE PAIN?

The grief you feel is the grief God felt when you did all that destruction.  It is actually healthy.  Before you were saved, you may have felt a bit guilty, or not.  You probably went along justifying your actions, like I did.  Eventually, you built up a wall around yourself so that other’s couldn’t bother your conscience.   The thing about walls, while they effectively keep others out, they also keep you imprisoned in your own world.  You become unapproachable, unteachable, unassailable, and unwelcome.

There will be some measure of pain when this wall is torn down.  The reason you feel this pain is because you finally have a conscience.  Embrace the pain, and take it to God.  Don’t deny the pain you feel.  It is normal.  It is what remorse is supposed to feel like.  You feel remorse because God intends to grow you up, and teach you how to deal with your messes.  Learn from this remorse, and see what God wants you to do with it.

The Evangelism of today teaches something quite different.  It teaches you that you can just walk away from all your past without a second thought of the harm you have done to others.  This is an ungodly teaching.  Modern Evangelism teaches that there is no need to repent of sin, or regret your sin, that that is an unhealthy emotion that is bad for your self-esteem.

The Good news of being a Child of God is, you are no longer the sinful you.  It stops being about you.  It starts being about being remade into the image of Christ.  In that rebuilding process, you will find freedom and joy.   To assume there is nothing to go back and make right is one of the most self-indulgent things you can ever believe.

The pain of seeing, finally, what you have done to others is healthy.  It is so that you will be able to see outside of your own self-interest and see what others had to endure because of your sin.  This pain is actually the road to your freedom, as it drives you to obey God and make things as right as you possibly can.  How rich and joyful is the Grace of God, and His mercy.  What a sense of freedom you will know when you obey God, and do His will.

Part of the pain is that the old self just doesn’t want to die, and the new self doesn’t need all that baggage your old self left at the door.  The New Self, the new creation, has to deal with this.  The new self can deal with it because Christ makes you able.  In Him is your strength.  You can do all things through Christ.

You will have to deal with the anger and/OR unforgiveness of others.

This is where you get to have YOUR grace and mercy tested.  WHere it is at all possible, find the people you caused harm to, find the people you lied to, the people you used, the people you led into sin.  Confess what you have done.  Seek their forgiveness.

What you will discover:

1.  Some people have already forgotten it.

2. Some people remember it, but don’t care.

3. Some people remember it and forgive you anyway.

4. Some people remember and will not forgive you.

5. Some people remember it, will not forgive you, and want you to suffer for it.

6. Some will say they forgive, but the anger that shows in their eyes tell you other wise.

I can go on and on, here.  I know about this because in my efforts to make restitution, I have faced everything from happy tears to death threats.  And I am not making that up.  I have tried my best to exclude exaggeration in my discourse, unless I am trying to emphasize a very obvious point.

SO WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THESE PEOPLE?

To those who have genuinely forgiven you, and have shared the fellowship of Joy in the Lord, you have gained a brother.

To those who forgot, you still seek forgiveness, but don’t rehearse the issue.  Let it go.

To those who say they have forgiven you, but the look in their eyes tells you otherwise, all you can do is ask their forgiveness.  You probably have given them a good reason to write you off, but you cannot beat yourself up over it anymore.  You can pray for them.  Their anger is their poison.  Your prayers are the antidote.  Leave it at God’s feet.

This is especially hard when you encounter this attitude with people you genuinely love, and want to have fellowship with.  Some hurts never heal.  Some people will never like you, or accept you.  That is the hard part.  But you need to take it to God.  And you need to leave it with God.

HERE’S THE GOOD STUFF:  You will get to learn what grace feels like when others forgive you, and mean it from their hearts.

This is definitely the good stuff.  How sweet it feels when a brother genuinely forgives you and shows it.  It is a wonderful thing to gain a brother.  It is good that you have a new friend in Christ.

Being shown Grace is powerful.  It is the genuine reflection of Christ in others.  It teaches you that Grace is obtainable.  It teaches you that you can do the same thing.  Grace is a gift, and when you receive it, and you give it, it multiplies.

How sweet are the tears that forgiveness brings.  How deep is the laughter and joy when you are clean of this sin.

This is what really makes it worth it, from a human stand point.

Being shown grace does wonders for you.  It gives you hope, and teaches you that YOU TOO can be Christ like.  A living example of a brother showing the character of Christ is good medicine.

It is true that some people are just plain weary of dealing with you.  But it is a genuine joy when you encounter real grace.

SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET:

Now that you have reconciled with Christ, all the skeletons get to come out of the closet.  As scary as this sounds, this is a good thing.  God will take your past and turn it into a blessing.  If you have told God you want Him to make you into the image of Christ, and into His Character, then all the closets, both obvious and secret, will eventually have to be dealt with.

Don’t be afraid of the skeletons.  They are dead.  If you are in Christ Jesus, you are a new creation.  Let love have her perfect work.

Let’s Be About It.

I Love You

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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Tools in My Tool Box


“Knowledge makes [one] arrogant, but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know;  but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.”  I Corinthians 8: 1-3 NASB

Impress

Seminary did, for me, exactly what it was supposed to do.  It provided knowledge for me to put in my tool box, labeled, “Ministry”.  Many of my friends in Ruston, Louisiana tried to warn me against going to Seminary.  The biggest and loudest argument I heard was, “Seminary will destroy your faith.”  Nothing can destroy what God has given you, and if your faith was so easily destroyed, it must not have been real faith in the real God.

Now, since I have been there (No I did not graduate. Circumstances happened in my personal life, and I dropped out to take care of that.  I have not returned, even though I would love to.  It is not time).  I can tell you about knowledge, faith, and Love, and many, many, more things.

At Seminary, I was taught about Love.  I learned how to find it in all its richness in the Bible.  I learned about the 4 loves.  I learned when and why each love is applied.  I learned how much more powerful a word it is in Greek and Hebrew than it is in English.  I also learned about faith, giving, mercy, grace

I also learned about Adult Education.  I LOVE TO TEACH.  It is one of my two passions, vocationally.  I am also learning to love writing, even though I am a novice at that.   I learned about what all the Philosophers, worldly and spiritual had to say about live, love, and the pursuit of happiness.

I suppose that, based on all the stuff I learned at Seminary, I could regale you with a veritable plethora of my Religious, psychological, educational, and scriptural knowledge.

It is only recently that I have learned that these are merely tools in my tool box.  I could have a bazillion tools in my tool box, but if I don’t know when and why and how to use them, they are all dead weights.  Carrying them just makes me hot, tired, sweaty, and arrogant (Look how BIG mine is!!)

Then it hit me:

“If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”  I Corinthians 13:2 NASB

My knowledge is either a stone around my neck, or a fragrant gift of incense from God.  It either carries the weight of Law, which has proven not to save any human soul, or it carries the redeeming Love of God.

Knowledge is good to have, but only in one circumstance.  If it was given by God to further His kingdom.  Yes, knowing Veterinary Science is a gift from God.  One of the most Godly men I have known was a veterinarian, serving in Egypt with farmers.  He built churches, and helped with his knowledge to reach people who would have not known Jesus otherwise.

Knowledge tends to be at enmity with God.  We think knowing a bunch of stuff, especially a bunch of stuff about the Bible makes us Christian.  Satan knows the Bible better than almost any of us, but he is far from Christ.

Going to a 6 weeks bible study that covers the word GRACE is not the same as understanding the Grace God showed you through your salvation.  One is just knowledge, the other is experience.

Reading all about the word Love is nothing more than noise, unless you have experienced the Love of God.

I may memorize entire books of the Bible, and it is useless knowledge that I will distort to support my own theology.

The only way I can make use of the tools in my tool box is through the direct and meaningful revelation in my heart.  If only my mind understands these things, then I am basically useless.  But if I know them because God has revealed them to my heart, then I have powerful tools that are energized by the Spirit of God.

Look:  I can come across a person with a flat tire, stop and offer a tire jack.  But if neither one of us really understands the tire jack, we are both useless, even in the face of the tool.

Or what if I see that person with the flat, and just stop long enough to show them my tire jack, but I am not willing or able to show that person how to use it by example?  Again, nothing is accomplished.

What if I yell at that person, “If you only had a tire jack, you wouldn’t be in this spot!”.  But I am not willing to show that person that I can use it for them, and teach them where to get one, and how to use it, for themselves?  Again, I have useless knowledge.

If I will stop, and share my tire jack, and show them how to use it, and then GIVE THEM MY TIRE JACK, I have been generous in my grace and knowledge.  You don’t even have to give them your tire jack, you may just need to make them aware that there are tire jacks, and show them where you got one, WHILE you are helping that person.

Knowledge is no good if I don’t know how to use it.  Or WHY I am using it.  Nothing God gives us is intended to be our little secret.  He expects that, as He has blessed you, you will, out of the love that dwells in you, give without hesitation, the gift you have been given.  He promises that, if you give away what He has given you, He will give you more.  You cannot out give God, if it is done in Love.

So, what will I do with all my knowledge if I am not willing to know Christ, the Savior and Lord who died for me?  I might as well throw it away.  At best I will use it to glorify myself, or I will use it to punish someone else.

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, Philippians 3:8 NASB

I would rather unlearn everything I know than live a life that does not reflect the Love Christ has shown me.  Being found worthy of Christ is much more important than all our credentials and training and knowledge.

Knowing Christ, and having Love for Him is more than anything any knowledge will give you.  And it is the key that unlocks the real knowledge of Heavenly things.  It is THIS knowledge that reveals the Love of God in us.  It is THIS knowledge that teaches me that Jesus is much more than my savior.  It is a love that compels me to want to walk after Christ, as my Lord, too.

My Prayer:  Dear God, I think you for your persistent Spirit.  I think you that, as painful as it may sometimes be, you are willing to remove from me anything that is not a reflection of Christ in me.  I thank you that you give eternal life to those who are dead.  I praise you that, where I was once dead, you have raised me from that death.  Lord, teach me that knowing you is more important than anything else I can know.   AMEN

Let’s be about it!

I Love You

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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
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Amazing Grace


I promise I will return to a more inspirational dialogue with you.  But before I can, there are several terms I plan to give light to so that you and I will both know what I am talking about when I say it.

I grew up in the deep south.  When I was a young lad (A very long time ago), I watched my sister and other girls go through the agony of charm school.  The social graces were taken very seriously in the south.   Grace was taught as one of the “Christian Virtues”.

There are many Christian virtues.  Grace, Love, Hope, Mercy, Forgiveness, compassion, gifts, blessings.  All of which are one form or another of Grace.  We are to grow to be like Christ in all ways, including these graces.  It is not something we can do for ourselves, either.  It always begins with a submitted and wiling heart.  It calls for true discipleship, and commitment.  This is not something that comes naturally to people.

For example.  There are several phrases used by Southern ladies that, on the surface, sound very graceful.  One of them is “God Bless You!”  That sounds graceful, right?  You have to know “Southern Ladies Code (SLC)”.  SLC is an entirely different language, but it uses the exact same words as the Bible uses.  When I was a kid, if a Southern Woman was dealing with someone she thought was difficult to deal with, she would tell that person, “God Bless You.”  It would sound genuine, it would be given in a vocal inflection that you thought was genuine, too.  But behind all that acting, the Lady in question was actually saying, “Oh my GOd!  You are just too stupid to actually be alive!”, or some variation on that theme.  And when the other Ladies heard this, the recipient would see them smiling and nodding at you.  They were not blessing you either.  They were just agreeing with the Spokeswoman of that blessing.

This deviation was understood among “polite society”, but was, none the less, a hypocrisy of the phrase.  You were, in fact being judged and cursed, but ever so politely.  It was a mockery of what Jesus would have done had he actually been present.

The reason for this hypocrisy is that, unless the living God, in the form of the Holy Spirit builds Christ-like character in you, the very best you can hope for is a convincing act that imitates, but is not the same as, genuine Godly character.

Since we are relearning what it REALLY takes to be a Christian, and we want to see a huge revival in our land, and we need to understand what the difference between cheap grace and real grace is, I have left the rest of this page with as many definitions as I can find on this topic.

There will not be a test, not from me.  But the test of your faith will be received based on whether you are genuinely saved, or just playing church.  Genuine Christ-likeness calls for a total sacrifice of our wills, and desires, to be made in the image of Christ.

Source Materials: http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/charis.html and http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/Dictionary/viewTopic.cfm?type=getTopic&topic=Grace

Grace:

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by GRACE ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his GRACE in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by GRACE are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:4-9)

In Jam 4:6, “But He giveth more grace” (Greek, “a greater grace,” RV, marg.), the statement is to be taken in connection with the preceding verse, which contains two remonstrating, rhetorical questions, “Think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain?” and “Doth the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) which He made to dwell in us long unto envying?” (see the RV). The implied answer to each is “it cannot be so.” Accordingly, if those who are acting so flagrantly, as if it were so, will listen to the Scripture instead of letting it speak in vain, and will act so that the Holy Spirit may have His way within, God will give even “a greater grace,” namely, all that follows from humbleness and from turning away from the world. 

The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon

Strong’s Number:   5485

Original Word: cariß – from (5463)

Transliterated Word: Charis

Phonetic Spelling: khar’-ece

Parts of Speech: Noun Feminine

Definition: grace –

that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech, good will, loving-kindness, favor.

of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.

what is due to grace

the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace

the token or proof of grace, benefit

a gift of grace

benefit, bounty

thanks, (for benefits, services, favours), recompense, reward

NAS Word Usage – Total: 156

blessing 1, concession 1, credit 3, favor 11, gift 1, grace 122, gracious 2, gracious work 3, gratitude 1, thank 3, thankfulness 2, thanks 6

Greek lexicon based on Thayer’s and Smith’s Bible Dictionary plus others; this is keyed to the large Kittel and the “Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.” These files are public domain.

Bibliography Information

Thayer and Smith. “Greek Lexicon entry for Charis”. “The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon”. . 1999.
For an even more complex and lengthy definition of the Word Grace, see this reference:

Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

1

Strong’s Number: g5485

Greek: charis

Grace:

has various uses,

(a) objective, that which bestows or occasions pleasure, delight, or causes favorable regard; it is applied, e.g., to beauty, or gracefulness of person,Luk 2:40; act, 2Cr 8:6, or speech, Luk 4:22, RV, “words of grace” (AV, “gracious words”); Col 4:6;

(b) subjective,

(1) on the part of the bestower, the friendly disposition from which the kindly act proceeds, graciousness, loving-kindness, goodwill generally, e.g., Act 7:10; especially with reference to the Divine favor or “grace,” e.g., Act 14:26; in this respect there is stress on its freeness and universality, its spontaneous character, as in the case of God’s redemptive mercy, and the pleasure or joy He designs for the recipient; thus it is set in contrast with debt, Rom 4:4, 16, with works, Rom 11:6, and with law, Jhn 1:17; see also, e.g., Rom 6:14, 15; Gal 5:4;

(2) on the part of the receiver, a sense of the favor bestowed, a feeling of gratitude, e.g., Rom 6:17 (“thanks”); in this respect it sometimes signifies “to be thankful,” e.g., Luk 17:9 (“doth he thank the servant?” lit., “hath he thanks to”); 1Ti 1:12;

(c) in another objective sense, the effect of “grace,” the spiritual state of those who have experienced its exercise, whether

(1) a state of “grace,” e.g., Rom 5:2; 1Pe 5:12; 2Pe 3:18, or

(2) a proof thereof in practical effects, deeds of “grace,” e.g., 1Cr 16:3, RV, “bounty” (AV, “liberality”); 2Cr 8:6, 19 (in 2Cr 9:8 it means the sum of earthly blessings); the power and equipment for ministry, e.g.,Rom 1:5; 12:6; 15:15; 1Cr 3:10; Gal 2:9; Eph 3:2, 7.

To be in favor with is to find “grace” with, e.g., Act 2:47; hence it appears in this sense at the beginning and the end of several Epistles, where the writer desires “grace” from God for the readers, e.g., Rom 1:7; 1Cr 1:3; in this respect it is connected with the imperative mood of the word chairo, “to rejoice,” a mode of greeting among Greeks, e.g., Act 15:23; Jam 1:1 (marg.);2Jo 1:10, 11, RV, “greeting” (AV, “God speed”).

The fact that “grace” is received both from God the Father, 2Cr 1:12, and from Christ, Gal 1:6; Rom 5:15 (where both are mentioned), is a testimony to the deity of Christ. See also 2Th 1:12, where the phrase “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” is to be taken with each of the preceding clauses, “in you,” “and ye in Him.”

In Jam 4:6, “But He giveth more grace” (Greek, “a greater grace,” RV, marg.), the statement is to be taken in connection with the preceding verse, which contains two remonstrating, rhetorical questions, “Think ye that the Scripture speaketh in vain?” and “Doth the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) which He made to dwell in us long unto envying?” (see the RV). The implied answer to each is “it cannot be so.” Accordingly, if those who are acting so flagrantly, as if it were so, will listen to the Scripture instead of letting it speak in vain, and will act so that the Holy Spirit may have His way within, God will give even “a greater grace,” namely, all that follows from humbleness and from turning away from the world.

See BENEFIT, BOUNTY, LIBERALITY, THANK.

Note: The corresponding verb charitoo, “to endue with Divine favor or grace,” is used in Luk 1:28, “highly favored” (marg., “endued with grace”) and Eph 1:6, AV, “hath made . . . accepted;” RV, “freely bestowed” (marg., “enduced.”).

For an even more comprehensive understanding of all the uses of Grace in the bible, see this link: http://www.blueletterbible.org/search/Dictionary/viewTopic.cfm?type=getTopic&topic=Grace

 

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Alright, people, this is  a LONG one.  Go get something to drink, and maybe a snack.

“He saved us —not by works of righteousness that we had done,  but according to His mercy—  through the washing of regeneration  and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3:5 HOL

Leaving the Military Base for good didn’t really come as a surprise to me.  I actually knew I would be leaving last November, 2012.   What I didn’t know then is the manner I would be leaving it.   Sometimes God has to give you a nudge to get your attention.

Here’s the deal.  I realized what had gone wrong with my walk with God, some 20 years ago.  I was doing it all on my own effort.  I had fallen for a cheap grace;  I knew in my heart that the call God placed on my heart a long time ago (1986 or 7), was the kind of call that means committing myself to that call.

Here is what I mean by that:  At the on-set, I knew that what God had called me to was the kind of thing that takes total commitment.  It was the type of calling that I could not, and would not do on my own.  Not having the patience to grow up, I took matters in my own hands, ran WAY ahead of God’s will for me, and attempted to do it all on my own.  My walk WAS pretty effective at first, but after a while, I grew fatigued.  When I grew fatigued, and because I was doing this ahead of the will of God, I didn’t have the power to sustain what I was doing.

Instead of going back to where I should have been, and taking the time to grow up, and finding the time and wherewithal to go through the disciplines of spiritual growth,  I gave up on God, and I gave up on everything else that relates to Christ.

I learned a few things over these last several years about that.  One thing I learned was that I had to get back to the very basics.  I had to be re-grounded.   In 2007, I began searching for God, again.  I didn’t know, at that time, that I had not left His hands.  It just felt that way.  The loneliness and desolation I felt was an isolation of my own creation.  I learned this from being a daddy.  Sometimes, you just have to let your kid alone with their thoughts, let them be mad at you, and let them struggle with the issue at hand.  Eventually, if you have been doing your job as a parent, that kid will come back, and peace will be made between you.  Hopefully, we both learned wisdom in that process.

God, however, does not need to learn anything.  So, if I had a problem with God, Christ, religion, etc, then it was not God that was wrong, it was my perception, or understanding of God that got in the way.  God is not going to let us play with strange fire, any more than you will let your child play in the middle of the Highway at rush hour.

It took me from 2007 to the present to learn what I am going to share with you.  And this is fundamental to understanding what it means to be a Christian.

Salvation is a work of God.

Humans are not capable of saving themselves.  Humans do not think they need saving. Despite of the ever present hole we feel in our heart that tells us something is missing, that something is wrong, it does’t occur to us that we are separated from God.  Nothing fills that hole either.  Trust me, I have tried.  There is not enough adventure to satisfy that missing piece.   There isn’t enough sex, food, money, material belongings, or vacations that can touch that hole in our soul.  Still, we go out of our way to fill it, thinking that the next adventure will do the trick.  We become objective junkies of whatever it is we pursue to fill that hole; yet nothing satisfies.

Somehow, someway, because it is not God’s will that anyone should perish, you hear the gospel message.  You learn that we are sinful creatures.  You learn that your best efforts will never please God.  You learn that the wages of sin is death.  But, while you were still enemies of God, He sent Jesus as His only begotten Son, to die in your place for that sin.  And if you believe in your heart that Jesus did this for you, and if you confess with your mouth that his resurrection was proof that he has the right and authority to bring the dead to life, then you are saved.

Before, you were already dead because of sin.  Now, you have eternal life  because of Christ Jesus.

You didn’t do this by your own power.  You were going along, pursuing anything that would fill that hole in your soul.  It was God that drew you to the right place at the right time.   There really was NOTHING AT ALL you could have done on your own to get to this place. (Titus 3:5).  God draws us to Himself.  Humans have no desire to be there.  All we know is that something is missing, and it takes God to show you what it is.

What you received is faith, so that you can believe.  That too is a gift from God, and not something you already have (Ephesians 2:1-5, 8).   And here is where I get back on track.

REAL faith , saving faith, is neither defective or short-lived.  REAL FAITH endures forever (Phil 1:6 & Hebrews 11).  God gave you that gift of real faith.  It never dies if it is real.

I had to ask myself a LOT of questions at this point.  I will cut to the chase, though and go to the answers.  The questions are self evident.

There is a gospel being taught in America. This gospel is NOT being taught anywhere else.  Friends of mine, from all around the world, have talked to me about this gospel.

My friends live in a world where merely mentioning Jesus Christ in public is the death penalty.  Or, they may go to jail.  It is risky business being a believer in those countries.   The Faith and Grace and commitment they have is genuine, real, forever, and powerful.  It gets tested every moment of every day.

My friends talk to me about our cheap grace.

American churches have gotten to the point that they teach that, all you have to do is give some sort of mental assent to the fact  that Jesus lived, and you are saved.  There is no need to see a change in your daily life.  You can go on and do whatever it was that you were doing.

American churches have stopped teaching that it is sin that separates us from eternity, and fellowship with God.   It is this cheap grace that has allowed the Roman Catholic Church to say to the Moslems, your path to God is equal to our path to God.  After all, there is plenty in the Koran and the Hadith that teaches that the historical Jesus existed.  By the logic of cheap grace, that makes the Moslems Christians, and the Christians Moslems.

Cheap grace teaches that it is not necessary to do anything other than give some mental assent to Jesus.  That you are saved if you do this.  But this is NOT what the scriptures teach.  (I recommend two outstanding books by John MacArthur, “The Gospel According to Jesus“,  and “FAITH WORKS – The Gospel According to the Apostles” for a really deep discussion on this topic).

Where I went wrong in my earlier walk was that I only acknowledged God, and only acknowledged Jesus, and decided I had better get busy “doing” what “Christians” do.  And it fell flat on its face.  Because I did not have a complete understanding of the effective work of God in my life, I was not able to sustain a relationship with God.

If you are simply going around acknowledging that Jesus existed, then, you are not saved.  SATAN knew Jesus existed, and HE is not saved either.  There is coming, in our lifetime, a falling away from the Church.  That will happen when those who say they belong to Christ are given a choice to serve Christ, or serve something that will cause less stress in their life.  Humans always chose the easy path.  It takes the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord, and the faith that God gave you to stand up to the pressure.  Those who live by cheap grace will discover that they are willing to sell their soul than acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Lord and the Savior.

The closest I ever got to what my friends overseas face was right after I was saved.  I was with one of my Moslem friends.  He had bought a new gun, and he wanted me to go shooting with him.  I took my gun, and we went.  I couldn’t shut up about Jesus.  He pointed his gun at my temple and said that if I mention Jesus again, he will kill me.  I mentioned Jesus.  He pulled the trigger, and the gun jammed.  God always protects children and fools.  It is foolish to commit yourself completely to Jesus as your lord.  It takes time, effort, and gets in the way of all your fun.  But if you are saved, you will know in your heart that serving God is better than anything else you could possibly ever want to do.  There is no cheap grace when you are on the firing line.  Another Moslem threatened to storm in to my home, tie me up, rape my wife in front of me, cut her throat, and then see if I will still be a Christian.  This is is actually what they do overseas to Christians.  I told him that neither my wife, or I will ever denounce our faith.  Fortunately, another friend from Lebanon stopped that guy.

In Ephesians 2:10, we learn that we are saved and fully justified BEFORE our faith ever produces a single righteous work.  It is never the other way around.  You are incapable of doing ANYTHING righteous until after you are saved and fully justified.  Then you cannot produce on your own, but only produce by the will of the Holy Spirit working in you.

This gets us to the Object of our Salvation.  The object of faith.  The object in our faith is first, last, and always Jesus Christ HIMSELF.  A creed, acknowledgment, or some sort of promise is NOT salvation.  Faith in Jesus Christ as Lord AND Savior IS salvation.  It is impossible to separate the two; Lordship and Salvation.   It is impossible to please God without it, either.  You can go and do all the works you want, but if it was not driven by the Holy Spirit, out of your love for Jesus Christ, you just wasted your time thinking that you have curried favor with God.

FAITH involves a personal commitment to Christ.  (II Corinthians 5:15).  Merely acknowledging that Christ exists is not being saved.  Going to a church does not mean you will be saved, either.  Being a deacon or a Sunday school teacher does not mean you are saved.  Saved people will do these things, but we know that it is because the Lord has driven us to do it, and we have responded out of our love of Christ to get it done.  We acknowledge that we do not have the power to do this on our own, but that God gives us the power to do it.

Works will happen if you are committed to Christ as your lord.  If you have given your being to serve Christ.  Works, however do not make you saved.

Now, here is where I get LOTS of lovely email.  Go ahead and write.  I love hearing from you.

All true believers follow Jesus.

“My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me.  I give them eternal life, and they will never perish — ever! No one will snatch them out of My hand.” John 3:27-28

Simply acknowledging Jesus doesn’t get you saved.  To repent because of your sin IS to have a change of heart.  Faith and Repentance are concurrent. (Acts 2:38; 17:30; 20:21; 2 Peter 3:9)  You do not see the need to repent until God has drawn you in, and until you receive the faith to see the need for repentance.  The two happen at the same time.  So check if you have ever repented.  That is your first clue.

Repentance is not a work, either.  It is an act of GRACE.  It is by the grace of God that you are drawn to Jesus.  It is by the grace of god that you realize the weight of your sin against God.  It is an act of Grace that you are able to see what Jesus did on your behalf to take away your sin.  It is an act of the grace of God that led you to repent, to turn around and follow Christ.

You will hear Jesus’s voice IF this is what has happened to you, and in you.  You WILL follow Jesus Christ out of your love for him.  Salvation is an act of Grace, and committing to Christ is not something you can do on your own, but only through the Grace of God.  (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25)

Repentance will change your heart.  Repentance will change the way you behave. Repentance will change your priorities.  Repentance will lead you to a strong desire to please the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Repentance, genuine repentance, means you will no longer desire to do the things you used to do.  (Luke 3:8, Acts 26:18-20).  Repentance is turning from sin. (Acts 3:19;  Luke 24:47).

SALVATION IS NOT JUST A TICKET TO HEAVEN!

We read in Romans 6:23 that eternal life is the “gift of God”.  This gift also includes everything that it means to be a Christian.  It means to stop what you are doing and serve Him.  It includes every aspect of your life.  It includes all that is considered godly.  (2 Peter 1:3;  Romans 6:23; Romans 8:32)

Everything I have written above pertains to the struggle I went through from 2007 to now.  I knew that my days were numbered at the Base, long before it happened.  I knew this because I finally understood that I cannot merely acknowledge the historical fact of Jesus, and give only head knowledge for what he did.  I needed Christ to become completely and irreversibly part of my very being.

I also knew, the minute I understood all of the above, that this will call for a change in my life.  A radical change.  God brought me to faith.  There was noting I could do or read that would do it for me.  Only God.  I had to face my sin and depravity and see what that looks like to God.  It is a state of being that deserves God’s judgement of death.  But, in His mercy, he bestowed on me the faith to see that Jesus died on the cross for me, and the faith to accept that, because Christ has risen from the dead, I too will have eternal life if I believe in Him.

I knew that this will take a commitment.  Anyone who knows me well knows my passions run deep, and when I commit, I really commit.  But this commitment is not one of my own doing.  It has deeper passions, a stronger love than I have ever imagined, and a purpose that makes all my former plans and schemes look meaningless.  And the real evidence that this change is real, is the evidence of real change in my life.

The people who have taken the time to get to know me, have seen this change.  It is not fake.  I do not have to pretend to love or care.  I do not have to try to love Christ, I simply LOVE Christ, and I desire with all my heart to follow him.  I hear his voice.

I knew I would have to accept whatever change God brings to my life.  But I knew for sure, my old life was over and done with.

Cheap grace does not bring you to this point.  Cheap salvation cannot create in you the desire to follow Jesus.  Cheap grace does not change you like the real Grace God bestows on you.  Cheap grace says it is OK to keep on sinning, and you don’t really have to change anything about yourself to be saved.

Real salvation teaches you that, as long as you are human, you will still sin, but you will not pursue sin.  You will hear Jesus’ voice and you will follow him.  And when you do sin, you will feel its weight on your soul, and the interference it brings to your relationship with God.  And you will repent of that sin.  The JOY of your salvation will be restored.  Real salvation means that it will be your hearts desire to please God, and follow Christ wherever he leads you.

I am unemployed in the sense that I have not had an income since April 10th, 2013.  But that does not mean I do not work.  I witness for Christ because I love Him.  I write about the things of God because I am called to do this, and I LOVE doing this.  This is not labor.  Earthly labor saps you of your strength.  Obedience out of Love for Jesus gives you more strength, more joy, more grace, more courage, more love.

I have been writing a lot about the Church.  I have been accused of being an angry Christian.  Of that, I am guilty.  I am angry that we have sold our birthright for a cheap or alien gospel.  We are the only country on earth that has people who think they are Christians simply because they go to church, or give some kind of mental assent to the fact of the historical Jesus.  We have let other forces, spiritual forces, take over every aspect of our lives because we have been deceived into believing we are saved, when the evidence of salvation simply does not exist.

I was one of those “Cheap Grace” Christians.  Except for one thing.  I actually read the Bible.  I have seen that what the Bible says is not what is taught in our Churches.  Real salvation means a changed life.

I knew when I realized this, that the only answer for me was to surrender it ALL to His will.  I have no idea where this will lead, but I do know I am obeying.

My challenge to you is to have the stones to examine your life, like I had to examine mine.  See if your life is one that pleases God.  See if your life is one of submission to Jesus Christ as Savior AND Lord.  You either genuinely believe, or you don’t.  You are genuinely saved or you aren’t, and the fruit of your walk will be the evidence of it, and it will exist, not because YOU did it, but because, when you submitted to Jesus, HE brought forth fruit out of your walk.

Want salvation?  Let’s do what my friends overseas risk their lives for everyday.  Get real salvation.  Get real.

Now, go be about it.

I love you.

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Faith

With God, All Things Are Possible


If you read yesterday’s blog, you discovered that I was driving home and working out how I will explain to my family that I was no longer employed.  And that being dismissed from a Military base looks really bad on your resume.  And I didn’t know what to do.  God gave me an assignment.  I am to write something every day and post it.

So, there I was, driving home, screwing up the courage to tell my wife and daughter that I had lost my job at the Base.

I felt that God had clearly given me an assignment.  Write something every day.  He knows me very well.  He knows that if I just sit around between job applications, and twiddle my thumbs, my mind will go into all kinds of fear and condemnation.  I am my own worst enemy sometimes, and I am worse than the Accuser when it comes to my flaws.

I also know that, if this was going to work, I need to be honest with myself and God. After all, there is no such thing as a secret when you deal with God.  (It’s in His job description: Must Be All Knowing, All Seeing, and All Powerful).

It is a good thing God is patient.  Anyone who has dealt with me, knows that you have to bring to the table a great deal of patience.

God is Good. All the time.

I wanted to go over a few things in this contract.  Just to be clear.   I started with Article 1, the first clause: I (David G. Perkins A.K.A. Sammy Snardfarkle)  am to serve God by writing something every day.   I am to keep looking for a job.  But when I am not looking for work, I am to keep writing.  So, I asked God if I had this part down, as in , I wanted to make sure I wasn’t interpreting something into HIS word that suited my world view.  (That is really a no-no in God’s kingdom).

I received assurance that is exactly what I am to do.  Start simply, and we can go from there.  See, there is this trust issue.  I have proven myself untrustworthy to God before. And it isn’t that He doesn’t trust His decisions, it’s that He wants to help me develop the patience for Love to refine me.

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4

God has a plan for me.  And He will do with me what He will in His time, according to His agenda. And he will refine me as we go about accomplishing this agenda.

I had a huge problem on my mind, and I wanted to get it off my chest.  Something seemed illogical, here.  Anyone who knows me knows, I will sometimes argue till I am blue in the face.  I will argue with a tree stump, just to try to convince the tree stump it is actually a banana.  (I have lost most of those arguments. But, if you are ever in Brownwood, Texas, and you see a tree stump not acting all stumpish, it is because it actually thinks it is a banana.  Just give it a wide berth, and it will not trip you up).

I have flaws.  I don’t mean just one, or two.  Ask any local Christian you find here, and they will be happy to regale you with a complete database and cross index of every flaw I have.  It is ordered, both by topic, and numerically.  I have actually been the happy recipient of this index, and I must say, it is extensive, and thorough.  The unabridged edition is available at one of my relatives homes, but you will have to cover the printing and shipping costs, yourself.

I asked God about all these flaws that I am aware of, and that I have been cheerfully reminded of by His children.  This is where God had to start the refining process in me.

He let me know, CLEARLY, that Satan is the accuser, and Satan’s children behave like their father.  He let me know that His children are covered by His grace, and any flaws they have are His responsibility.  Then He told me to decide, will I be an accuser, or will I be like Him, and demonstrate Grace and Mercy to all, because I will to be like Christ, who is the rightful Head of all things?

That made me stop and think.  I confess I needed a LOT of His help on this one.

So I asked about this Grace thing.  He reminded me it is something I definitely need, and need to give, because as I give it, I will have more of it.  He explained that, in God’s economy, God pays compounded interest on everything you give away.  You are not allowed to put it in your spiritual piggy bank and keep it all to yourself.  If you do that, what little you have will be taken away and given to someone who knows how to use it wisely.

God then reminded me of this scripture:

“But this man (Jesus), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God…For by one offering He hath perfected them that are sanctified” Hebrews 10:12-14 KJV

So, I asked God this…”What about all my sin and flaws?”  He asked me, is there any sin you have tried to hide from me?  I thought about going back to that old, “Thou Knowest, O Lord” thing, but I had a feeling God was not in the mood for my sarcasm.  So, I told Him:  As my sin becomes apparent to me, I confess it to you, I repent of it, and I leave it at your feet, just as you have asked me to do.

He let me know that is right.

But that left the problem of all my flaws.  So I asked about all that. He let me know that all humans have flaws. It is part of being fallen. But God, in his Grace, looks at me and sees the blood of His Son, and those flaws are hidden by that blood. So, being true to my nature, I argued, “But those pesky flaws are still there, aren’t they?”

God is Patient. God is Good. His Grace and Mercy endures forever:  All the Time.

He pointed out that, yes, those flaws are there, but I do not need to worry about them. He explained that, since I actually belong to Him, through Jesus Christ, the flaws I still have are not counted against me, and that, as long as I am pursuing the will of God, and I become more like Christ, then the flaws will, by the nature and power of God, be removed.  It is the work of the Holy Spirit, who doesn’t accuse you, but, through Grace and Mercy shows you how unimportant your flaws are, and that it is safe to let them go, so you CAN be more like Jesus.

I thought that had to be the best answer I had heard all day (I was still stinging from losing my job).

Then I asked him, what if I sin again, will you overlook that, too? He let me know that sin occurs when I stop and play with my flaws. Ever hear the saying, “If you play with that, you’ll go blind.”? In order to stop and play with your flaws, you have to stop looking at Christ, who is your goal.  You become blind to the things of God, when you play with your flaws.

When you sin, you inevitably stop in your growth, until you deal with that sin.  When you sin, you have to confess that sin, repent of it, and leave it at God’s feet.  Grace covers all your flaws.  Sin is a stopping point in your growth.  You cannot go around sinning just because you belong to God.  If you did, then you will eventually separate yourself from His fellowship (Again, as in my case).

God is Good.  All the time.  His Grace and Mercies endure forever.

Because I wanted to make sure I had this right, I asked God,

“SO, Jesus’ Blood Covers my flaws.”

(Did I mention God is PATIENT??)

He said “Yes”.

I said, “If I pay too much attention to my flaws, and not to the finished work of Christ, I am more likely to sin?”

He said, “Yes”

I asked, “If I sin, it is because I am fond of one of my flaws to the point that I give it more importance than I do my walk with Christ?”

He said , “Yes. And that is also a form of Idolatry, when you put anything as being more important than Me.”

I asked, “You, or Christ?”

God is ever patient.  He protects children and fools with His patience.

He said, “We are one. If you have seen Jesus, you have seen Me.”

I had to gulp at that, because, as I have mentioned before, I have a LOT of flaws, and some of them are my favorite flaws.  I confess I belong to God because of the Blood of Jesus Christ.  He IS the Son of the Living God.  He died for all my sin.  He rose again to prove He IS who He said He is.  If I have seen Christ, then I have seen God.

I asked Him, “What do I do?” I was still burdened by my flaws.

He said, “Follow Jesus, to be like Him. It is not something you can do on your own power, it is something that I empower you to do by the Holy Spirit, who now lives in you.” “If you will to follow, I will to lead you.” “If you do this, and as you do this, your flaws will become less important. When they come less important, they die of malnutrition, and fall off.  By the time you reach the likeness of Jesus, you will be flawless.” “In the mean time, my Grace covers those flaws. When I look at you, I see my Beloved Son, who died for you.”

That was profound. I actually wept at the thought of the choice God made on my behalf. This can be a problem if you are careening down I-50 at nearly 100 miles per hour. Not that I would know anything about THAT….it’s just something I heard.

In His eyes, I am flawless. It doesn’t matter what my accusers say after all. I am His because I confess that Jesus is the only Begotten Son of God, and that Jesus died for my sin, and rose again from death to life. This makes me God’s own child.

But to make sure I don’t misunderstand, I asked God, “When I sin, and I don’t confess, what does that mean? “

He said, “You have placed a stumbling block in your own way. You will need to bring that stumbling block to me, and I will lead you to repentance, to confession, and delivery. I will remove that stumbling block. But if you leave that stumbling block in your way, you will eventually be tied to that place where you sinned, and will not be able to pursue Jesus with a pure heart. It will be where your growth stops. This is where my Mercy comes into play. I will not judge you immediately for this sin. I will be patient and wait for you to confess it, so we can move forward, where my Grace is already at work. “

I was speechless (Yes, God is STILL in the miracle-working business!).

I confessed to God that I am weak, and am in love with some of my flaws. I asked him how I can ever follow him, being so flawed.

He reminded me: “With God, all things are possible.”

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Faith

The Grace of God – Part II


Editorial View Point:

Someone asked me why my posts are SO long.  There is a specific group I am targeting.  They like the information I provide.  If you are not one of them, I am grateful that you work your way through my posts.  I am working at developing several styles to convey Biblical truths.   I suppose I could give you those “FB” style one liners, or even a daily devotional style of writing.  And I am working on that.  But when the subject is as important as the one below, I would rather include something that will bore you, the educated Christian, than leave out information that someone seriously desiring to hear God might miss.  For that, I make no apologies.  I simply write about what I, myself, had to go through to understand the difference between a religion and a relationship to God.

INTRODUCTION:

I had a very interesting, and fulfilling,  conversation with a brother in the lord, last night (Thank-You, Casey).

The subject was over what I had written in my post,  “The Grace of God”.  That post dealt with how Satan tries to trip you up, and how God carries you through this experience.  My brother, Casey, correctly pointed out the dangers of the belief that God’s grace is like a giant bandage to all sins you will commit.  That you may mistakenly fall under the same error that the Romans did, that it is OK if you sin because God has already covered that sin.

The Grace of God – Part II will cover this case.  This post is also in two parts.  In Part A, I will cover what God does with your sin if you are an unbeliever, and how he offers us hope through Christ.  This part is the cornerstone of what it means to belong to God through Jesus Christ.

The second part of this post deals with what to do about sin AFTER you are saved, and what the believer should do about specific sins.  Thank you for reading it all the way through, and please, leave a comment.  I am very interested in your opinions.

Part A

SIN and sins – Or what was the whole Jesus thing for, in the first place?

In my post, “The Grace of God”, I described what happened in the first place to separate Humans from the face to face presence of God.  We were given free will, because God didn’t make a bunch of robots.  The Angels have free will, which is why we had the wars of the angels in the first place.  God gave Humans free will because he literally wants only people who want to hang out with him to be with him.  The down side of our having this free will is, we bought the lie that Satan gave us, and ended up just as condemned as Satan.  Satan’s eternal abode will be Hell.  This is the second death.  SIN brought real death, real decay, and real evil into this Earth.  The eternal covenant God has with ALL of his creation is that God will not tolerate Sin in His presence.  It isn’t like he is allergic to it.  It is more like, God is HOLY and will only have HOLINESS around His home, which is in the highest heaven.  SIN = death.  GOD is life.  You can look at world history to see how all that turned out.

We are born separated from God.  While you are an unaccountable child, you live in a kind of grace.  When you reach the age of accountability,then all bets are off.

So, now is the right time to ask “WHO really needs salvation, anyway?”

Short Answer:  Humans.

All the World Guilty

…as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
Romans 3:10 – 12 NASB
and
“…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”  Romans 3:23 NASB
You can be “good”, you can give to every charity you can imagine, you can live in a way that the worst thing you ever did was steal one extra cookie when you were 4.  But, SIN, still lives in you.  You know this is true when you ask yourself, how much do I hate, how angry do I get over things, how many times have I coveted, how many times have I told a lie, how many times have I heard about someone getting killed, and thought to myself , “That bastard deserved it!”.  These are evidences of SIN.    The Bible makes it crystal clear that all Humans are born in sin, and live a life separated from God.  You can feel it in your heart.  Like something is missing, or you get a serious longing in your heart for a love that you cannot define.  You spend your entire life trying to fill that gap in your heart, and never reach it.  You turn to drugs, alcohol, sex, or whatever, but nothing can fill that hole that exists, that yearning for peace that you crave.  You can feel it.
We are all born separated from God.

So, now is the right time to ask “WHY do we really need salvation?”

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23 NASB
and
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ” John 3:16 NASB
Because original SIN separated Humans from God for all eternity.  God loves you, but His own law is “For the wages of SIN is death”.  The only way Humans can receive forgiveness was that a PERFECT Human had to voluntarily and willingly die in your place for your sin.  After the fall of all mankind in the garden of Eden, there were no perfect Humans.  God is all-powerful and sovereign.  In His own might, HE came to earth in the form of a man.  His name was Yeshua (Jesus).  Jesus voluntarily filled the will of God the Father, and died in your place for all the SIN in the world.  He did this out of His enormous love for you.  Jesus rose himself from death in order to prove He had the Authority to call himself the “Son of God”.   You need salvation because you are born in sin.  You receive eternal life with God if you accept this FREE GIFT of Jesus dying in your place.  You have the hope of eternal life after your body dies.  Jesus proved this by His resurrection from the dead.
JESUS IS HOW GOD PROVIDED SALVATION
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”  Romans 5:8 NASB

How Do We Receive this Salvation??

“…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”  Romans 10:9-10 NASB

and

 “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13

When you believe in your heart that Jesus died in your place for your sin, and confess with your mouth (Say it out loud),  you are saved from eternal death.  You have been rejoined to fellowship with the Living God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  The Holy Spirit will come to you, and will guide you.  You have peace with God, now.   You are no longer His enemy, as Satan still is, but you are now, eternally, God’s own beloved child.

Our Victory in Christ

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 5:1 NASB

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

You have admitted that your SIN separates you from God.  You understand that as a sinner, you deserved eternal separation from God (This is the second death).  You believe that Jesus Christ died in your place, on the cross, to free you from the curse of SIN and death (The second death).  You have repented by turning from your old life of sin to a new life in Christ.  And you have received, through FAITH in Jesus Christ, His free gift of Salvation.

OK, But what about all the sin I keep committing???

I am glad you asked.  I will tell you.  Jesus promised you that He will send the Holy Spirit to you.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “ John 14:16 NASB (Words of Jesus are in red).

and

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  John 14:21 NASB

and

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.  He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”   “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  John 14:23-26 NASB

Once you are sealed in forgiveness by the Blood of Jesus Christ, you will not be able to be removed from His hand.  But you will still be able to be tempted by your old habits, and by Satan.  As long as you are on this Earth, that is how it is.  We are called to be IN the Earth, not OF the Earth.  We are still here after we were saved so that we can tell others how it is we have eternal life, how it is we have such joy in our hearts, how it is that we suddenly are at peace.

Now that you are saved, God’s grace covers all your sin, past, present and future.  THAT IS TRUE!  There is a heresy being taught today, that was being taught in the Apostle Paul’s day.  The heresy teaches that you can sin, and it will be covered by God’s grace, so don’t worry about it.  This doctrine is a religious point of view that God never allowed for.

The truth of the matter is that God’s grace covered all your sin from the foundation of the world.  But that is not a license to sin, in order that God’s grace can be demonstrated:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? ” Romans 6:1 NASB

and

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. ” Galatians 2:20 NASB

and

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”  John 14:20

and

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. “ John 15:4-5 NASB

The evidence of your salvation will be revealed in your life.  If you abide in Christ, you will grow to be like Christ.  Yes, because you are human, you will slip and fall, occasionally.  That is why Jesus promised you the Holy Spirit, so that when you trip up, the Spirit of God will LOVINGLY convict you, and you will be led to repent, and you will have learned from that lesson, and will grow to be like Christ.

Any unconfessed sin is a barrier YOU place between YOU and God.  Has God covered it?  In his sovereignty and foreknowledge of you, he knew you would sin.  In His grace, he allows that sin.  In His mercy, He forgives that sin.  But it is not a license to continue in sin.  Jesus pointed out that if you continue to live in sin, you are not His.  If you ABIDE (A word that means to move in with, or literally “Pitch your Tent”, establish your dwelling with), then you have willingly given up YOUR own way to pursue the way of Christ.  We are to become like Christ.  This takes a daily effort.  This takes you intentionally laying aside YOUR will in the pursuit of the will of God for you.

God’s grace is not a license to sin.  It is the covering God gives you so that when the Spirit of God convicts you, you will be able to go to God and confess, and repent, and be restored.  If you are intending to be like Christ, and His Spirit has filled you, then you will not WANT to sin.

Let’s put it this way:  If you are still living a life of sin, chances are you have either never been saved, or you have intentionally chosen NOT to walk in a life to be like Christ.

Grace is not a license to sin, it is your opportunity to repent when you do.

Go and sin no more.

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