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Me and My Big Mouth


If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless . James 1:26

This is a tough topic.  I want to tell you a story.  Before I do, though, I want to say something from my heart.  

The subject of controlling the tongue is difficult for me.  My passions run very deep.  When I experience a thing, I tend to experience it all the way down to my toes, and deep in my soul.  I am only just now learning the discipline of the tongue.  I am not like Christ in this regard.  I am swift to speak, and slow to listen.  So, my writing about this topic is from fresh experience.  I am guilty of the very thing that I despise about religious people. Religious people lack self-control. They do not allow  God guide their tongue in love and wisdom, instead of in haste, which leads to harm.  I cannot throw stones when I am as guilty as those who do not belong to God.  If I am to grow to be like Christ, I must submit my passions and my tongue to His lordship.  It is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that a person can overcome the evil the tongue can generate.  If we are to be like Christ, and want to tell others we are the Children of God, then we must be willing to submit even our favorite sin to God.  This i snot something we can do for ourselves.

For all those whose bodies lay on the ground in my quest for self righteousness, please forgive me for being a fool.  God is not interested in my self-righteousness.  He is interested in me having His righteousness.

“A tale bearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.” Proverbs 11:13

I know a man who used to live one county away from where I live.  He had a walk with the Lord, but life got in the way, and he didn’t submit to the will of God, and he did things his own way.  The end result is, he sinned against his own family.  He knew after the fact that he had sinned.  He called it sin.  He confessed this sin.  He grieved for his sin.

The people who he knew, who were sincere in their faith, who went to church, who prayed, who tithed, who spoke often of the love of God, and His grace, who were worship leaders and preachers and deacons, these people shunned him, and hated him because they genuinely loved his family, and hated what he had done.  He wanted to talk to someone, anyone, about this, and how to return to God, to seek forgiveness, to know the joy of fellowship.  He couldn’t find any one in his town who would help him, and counsel him, and lead him back to the grace of God.  He became the target of their hate, instead.  This didn’t need to happen.  But it happened because one of the fellowship could not wait to spread this juicy bit of gossip to the other believers, who also loved this man’s family.

In their fervor to be supportive of this man’s family, the spoke curses on this man, they openly held him in contempt.  They advised his wife to abandon him.  The pronounced he was not worthy of their fellowship.

Eventually, because of the loose tongues of two of his wife’s relatives, the entire community had heard about it.  The story was repeated with all the vileness of the sin glorified, and with all the righteousness as if they were God.

This man felt alone and hopeless, by this time.  No one would befriend him.  He found a couple of Christian men he thought he could befriend, but eventually, the wagging tongues of the “faithful” reached these men’s ears, and they decided it would be best to not be friends after all.

By this time, he felt that, if so many Christians were condemning him, then so must God be condemning him.   he wondered how he will ever return to God, if he is being so rejected by people who represent Him.

His hopes were raised, one day, when he found someone who would actually pray with him.  He finally had made a friend.  But before two days had passed, this new friend had his ears bent by one of the Christians who hated him.  That new friend told him that he was no longer welcome to come see him.

Rejected again by Christians, he believed he was beyond redemption.  He took up drinking with a commitment.  He knew this, too, was wrong, but he felt that he was too far gone from God to be redeemed.  After all, most of the Christians he knew were telling him that.

He gave up.  He withdrew his heart completely.  People would not hire him anymore, so he kept having to go from job to job.  He would be at a job for a while, but, eventually, his employer heard about what a terrible man he was, and found a way to let him go.  By this time, the sin he had committed had been embellished.  Over time, it took on the landscape of more than what had actually happened.  He heard many terrible things that were being said about him.  The hate the Christians showed him merely amplified with every retelling of this sin, that, by this time, had happened Severn years ago.  It grew like a cancer.

Every now and then, he would try to talk to these believers about what to do to return.  Their contempt had grown to the point that they told him he would be better off dead.  these people kept trying to break up the marriage.  They kept telling him he needs to get out-of-town, and never return. They were speaking death into his life, and into his marriage.  It got so that, they damage they were doing was far worse than the damage he had done in the first place.  These people wouldn’t leave his wife alone about it, and continuously discouraged her attempts to heal her home.  They almost caved in to the wagging tongues of these people, but somehow, they continued to work through all the noise and despair these people were encouraging in his wife.

Today, they are healed, and healing.  But it was not because of any effort of the believers who kept wagging their tongues, keeping the pain stirred up.  The were actually not happy that she had the strength and courage to work at this relationship with him.  All they wanted was vengeance.  All they wanted was their sense of justice.  And they wouldn’t let up on her, even though healing had begun in her home.

I got to watch all this, and I had several long talks with this man.  He was in a very dark place.  His wife was torn between taking the advice of this fellowship of Christians, or standing her ground and continue to fight for a promise she believed in .  The spoke death to her, but her faith in God spoke life.  She persevered through all the darkness and difficulty, and saw God do a wondrous work in this man’s life.  Yes they still spoke death.  He drew near to the Lord, and let the Lord deal with him and his sin.  Yet they spoke death.  They preached about a grace they did not practice.  they spoke about a love they refused to show.  They spoke about forgiveness, but didn’t forgive what they had already condemned.

Today, this man is becoming a powerful Christian.  he has given his heart, Mind, Soul, Strength to the Living God.  he often asks me what it will take before these other believers will stop gossiping about him, and start rejoicing that he is genuinely saved, and that God is working a wonder in his life.

I told him I had no idea.  It is hard to tell with people who love to hate, and love to spread death with their mouths.  I told him that, all he could do was keep obeying God, and stop worrying about all these well-intentioned dragons.  This is hard.  I even wanted to hate these people, but I don’t.  I love them.  I could see that this man loved them too, with a deep abiding love.  Only God could do this to a man like him.

I felt a searing pain in my own heart.  How many times has my tongue led me to cause harm?  How often have I been so self-righteous that all I could speak is distension and hate?  I cannot throw stones at those Christians who continuously showed such a lack of understanding of the will of God.  How often had I been so in love with my opinion that I didn’t take the time to see what God and His word had to say about it?  When did I forget that, for the grace of God, there go I.  I get religious just like everyone else, on occasion.  It is only when I am sensitive to the will and voice of God, that I remember that He showed me love and mercy and grace when I least deserved it.  I could easily plead that “That is just how I am!”.  But that is no excuse to the Living God.  We are born with a personality and a character.  Our character reflects who we live for.  Our character is expressed through our personality.  When the Holy Spirit comes in to you, He will replace your Character with God’s, as you submit to Him.  We are created in His image (We look like him) and in His likeness (We were supposed to act like him).  When sin became our inheritance, we lost God’s character and traded it for a cheap imitation.  When we believed in Jesus Christ as both Savior and Lord, then the Spirit of God moved in to make us in the likeness of Jesus, as we allow him to.  You will receive the Character of God, expressed in your unique personality.  And your personality becomes under control by the discipline of the Spirit of God.

The tongue has the power to heal, and the power to destroy.  The way it is used reveals who our master really is.  Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy.  But Christ gives us life. love, mercy and joy.  Those who have been touched by this love do not see the importance of gossip.  They only desire to be like their Lord, Jesus Christ.

“Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”  Proverbs 12:18  KJV

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Rest


“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 1:6 NASB

Vocabulary Words:

confident – πείθω – peitho -reflexively or passively to assent (to evidence or authority), to rely (by inward certainty) – Sometimes a legal term that assesses the evidence and assents to the assertion that the evidence has presented. ALSO: You know you can trust this because you have seen that everything else has been trustworthy.

began – ἐνάρχομαι – en-ar’-khom-ahee – to commence on. Picture an action that had a starting place in time and space, and that action continues to apply itself endlessly over time. It had a start, and will not stop until all conditions are met.

good – ἀγαθός – ag-ath-os’ – A primary word; “good” (in any sense, often as noun): – benefit, good (-s, things), well. Beneficial.

work – ἔργον – er’-gon – From ἔργω ergo¯ (a primary but obsolete word; to work); toil (as an effort or occupation); by implication an act: – deed, doing, labor, work.

perfect – ἐπιτελέω – ep-ee-tel-eh’-o – to fulfill further (or completely), that is, execute; by implication to terminate, undergo: – accomplish, do, finish, (make) (perfect), perform (X -ance). It is contract and engineering language. Start building, keep building, complete building. It is not built completely until it is perfected.

Two More Definitions:

Strong Language: Not coarse. Spoken with authority. Often direct. Not mincing words. Word usage that is intended to make one think. It is the language of the Teacher to the student. Plain Speaking. Getting to the heart of the matter. Meat, as opposed to milk.

Weak Language: Imprecise, Sugar coated and sweet; words that dilute the meaning or intent of the lesson that needs learning. Words for words sake, or words that weaken the intent of the lesson. Words that remove, rather than reinforce the need to actually apply it for learning, or being, or doing. It is the language of people who would rather play church than follow Christ. All milk, 2% or less milk fat, and sweetened to make it easier to swallow.

I had driven half way home, the day I lost my job at the Military base. I knew what God as asking me to do. While I look for work, WRITE. I had openly and consciously given my life to Christ as Lord a few years earlier. He was no longer “just my savior”.

I have a LOT of rough edges. I asked God what about those rough edges.

“Are you giving your entire life to me?” He asked.

“Yes, Lord, I am. ”, I replied.

“Because if you are not willing to give me 100%, we will be back where we started.”, He commented, but with gentleness and grace.

My courage and confidence in God increased when He asked me that. Coming from anyone else, I might have argued about work load, scheduling, time off, benefits, etc. When He asked me that, though, I felt compelled to throw my self into this hair, hat and all. I had tried doing it my way for way too long. I did not like the results.

I needed God to do this for me. I told God, “Lord, I want to be the very image of Christ, in every way possible. I want to live for Christ, now. I am done living this miserable life.”

“OK! That is what I needed to hear from you.”, He beamed. THAT felt good. This feels real. It didn’t have that half-hearted commitment thing going on in my heart. I could feel my roots already starting to go deep.

I had already been around the barn a million times with Him over what He had asked me to do, so I didn’t want to do THAT again. I am to write something EVERY DAY! Period.

It was my habit, in the past to run ahead of God. Most of it was sheer excitement to be doing something. But when I did that, I did it on my own power, my own way. God doesn’t do the division of labor, thing. You either want to be like Christ, or you don’t. You will submit to Jesus as Lord, or you won’t.

And that is where I had questions.

“Lord,” I asked, “I am not exactly like Jesus, you know. I mean, ask any Christian you happen to see, ‘Who’s the best Christian? It wouldn’t be me’.”

I swear, I heard Him chuckle. “No, Dave, it wouldn’t. Not this minute. And not immediately.”

“Well, God, WHAT DO I DO???”, I asked, mostly out of impatience, and mostly because I knew just how depraved I had become of these last two decades.

“I thought you’d never ask.” He said with a smile. (Frankly, I was not used to anyone being this nice to me, and it was GOOD!)

“Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.  And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.  Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him.” Psalms 37:4-7a KJV

“REST?!?!?!”, “WAIT PATIENTLY?”, “REALLY?!?!?!?”, “God, you may not have noticed this, but I am REALLY in need of a LOT of repair, and you want me to REST?” I screeched.

“David, way back in 1987, when you first came to me, what was the very first thing I asked you to do?”, he gently asked me.

“Um…er…Let’s see…boy, that was a long time ago.” I stalled

“Uh HUM!”, He replied.

“OH! I remember, You told me to rest.”, I cowered and sorta whispered.

“Yes, David, I told you to rest. And since that is where we left off, that is where we will continue. While you obey me, you will rest in me. Learn the word. Learn to pray and praise. THAT is when I will affect the changes in you so that you will be just like Jesus. You cannot do this for your self, and you cannot do it by your self. Only I can do this thing in you.”, God instructed.

Resting was hard at first. But I want to be like Christ. I want my life to have an eternal, and holy consequence while I am still alive. For once in my life, I obeyed. I obeyed because I consciously chose to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. And Jesus died for my sin, and He rose again on the third day, to prove He has the authority to grant me eternal life, and I asked God to make me the reflection of Christ.

I no longer felt any doubt that this is what God intends to do in me. I knew then that God intends to do this in ALL the humans who accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.

It began in 1987. That was the point in time that I made the decision. I wandered in a wilderness of my own making for 20+ years. But the grace of God watched over me, and in His mercy, He carried me through that wilderness. And now, I have returned to Him, to home, where my heart has always wanted to be.

Then I understood this:

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” – Php 2:13 – KJV

Last time, I tried to run ahead of God and take care of becoming like Jesus on my own. Well, THAT didn’t work out so well. But because my heart has genuinely surrendered to Christ as Savior AND Lord, the Spirit of God is able to work in me, and to open my eyes, so that I can see that resting is exactly what I am to do. Changing my life to be a reflection of Jesus is GOD’S work, through the Holy Spirit. Anytime I try to take over and do it myself, I mess things up.

While I pursue obedience to what He has given me to do (WRITE!), HE will affect in me the changes HE sees I need in order to be like Jesus. I simply cannot do it. It is God who does all the heavy lifting, not me.

“David.”

“Yes, God?”

“When you feel the temptation to take over, remember Carrie Underwood’s song, “Jesus Take the Wheel.”, OK?

“Yes Sir. THAT will not be a problem, it is a great song that brings tears to me eyes, sung by a great singer who is easy on my eyes.”

I swear I felt Him Gibbs Slap the back of my head.  (That actually works on me.)

“That is the FIRST THING we will work on, mister.”

“Yes Sir, I am sorry.”

“Next time, keep your eyes on me.  I will empower you to do this, but it is still your choice.  I prefer obedience rather than sacrifice.”

And that was lesson one. It was not all that difficult. I saw how it affected God when I sin, and when He corrected me about it, He didn’t do what Satan does; accuse me. He simply showed me how it looks in His eyes. And I didn’t like what I saw. I give that part of my self to Him. He took the wheel.

The more I rest in Him, and obey what He has given me to do, the more things He is able to deal with in my life. When we obey, His love grown in our heart. His power and authority grows in us. There are some temptations I am really in love with, but God is able to break that bond and free me from them. They are fading into insignificance.

Now, all I want to do is follow Jesus. I give my life totally to Him. As I obey, as I seek the Lord with all my heart, the more He reveals to me: Of His will for me, of His character, of His Grace, Mercy and Love. The terrible anger I used to carry around, that was part of my life from when I turned 17, is gone. It is gone. And I don’t miss it.

Dear reader. God wants to do this in your life, too. When you surrender to Him, HE will change your heart, and you will welcome the change. He does this because it is his STRONG desire to give you all the Holy Gifts of Heaven, so that, while you are still here on Earth, you will be the image of Christ. You just may be the only Jesus some lost soul will see. Rest in Him. Receive His gifts.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning”. – Jas 1:17 KJV

Let’s be about it.

I Love you.

Your Servant,

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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WHAT are you THINKING???


I needed steel toed boots when I researched this one. I’ll wait here while you get yours. (You can get a good pair at Orchelin’s).

This is dedicated to Cynthia and Sandy…Yes, I finally understand.

Unless otherwise stated, scripture quotes are from the Holman Bible, as shown on the following web site: https://www.bible.com/

WHAT WAS I THINKING???

Proverbs 23:7a – For as he thinks within himself, so he is. NASB

It seems like this is a lifelong pursuit. Sometimes I approached this with Herculean effort, and sometimes I petered out before I even tried.

My thoughts were toxic. They were why I was continually failing at anything I tried. On the outside, I put on the bravado if “Charles in Charge“, but on the inside I was not so in charge.

At my very best, I have very little self-control, and the things I think eventually sneak out and come to life in the manifest world. I tried self-help books, I tried “The Secret” (It is an empty gun when God’s will is not the target). I tried therapy (And have sent many a therapist to mental wards…it only takes a little peek into my mind to drive any rational human in sane), and I tried the usual self-affirming tricks you learn in NLP classes (Look it up. It is the major tool used by advertisement agencies, the Press and the White House to get you to do whatever it is they want.). Nothing could affect a permanent change in my heart.

After repeatedly running out of gas in the self-help aisle, and seeing as I am now genuinely interested in doing whatever it is that Jesus wants me to do, I had to do a lot of digging.

Here is what I learned:

Matthew 24:34 – Brood of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. – Jesus

I prayed for God to change my heart and thinking. I came to this point after decades of being my own worst enemy.

When I read Matt. 24:34, I was floored. The reason I was floored like a mop was, the fruit of my mouth was only evil and negative, and mostly filth. I could cuss with the best of any Drill Sergeant. I said whatever came to my mind, and it was mostly filth and hate.

I especially had trouble with this the harder I tried to be “Religious”.

James 1:6 – If anyone thinks he is religious without controlling his tongue, then his religion is useless and he deceives himself.

Uh Oh. I realized I was not being a servant to the Lord, but being a RELIGIOUS person. See, a religious person can fake Christianity (Or any other religion) really well, but like the man said, “Anyone can stand on their head for a couple of weeks. Let’s see what happens when it gets tough.”

I don’t know about you but I hate religion. I hate when people, including myself, try to be all pious and “holy”, and pretend to be righteous, when even Ray Charles can see that, when you run out of steam, you show that you are a fake. I HATE that.

James 1: 5-7 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him.

On my own, I have a foolish heart. I am not known for my “King Solomon-like” wisdom. When I realized that, I surrendered again to the Lordship of Christ, who works in me His will for my life. You cannot fake this, either. It is either faith, based on Jesus’s free gift of Salvation, and your desire to serve him as He is the Lord, or it isn’t. It has to be genuine. So, I confessed that I am a self-righteous fool, who only plays at being a Christian, but I fail at it. I confessed that My heart is full of dark, squiggly, slimy evil, and asked God to shine the light of His love and Grace in my heart. (You shoulda seen the roaches run for cover when THAT happened! They hate the light. You can run, but you can’t hide! Bwa Haa haaaa!)

I Samuel 16:7b – Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”

This is where you have to go into this whole thing aware of what you are asking. If you have given your life to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, The Spirit of God will come in and look around, and until He gets your heart redecorated to look like HIS heart, there has to be some turning away from your own ways. God does amazing Heart Surgery.

Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the ideas and thoughts of the heart.

So, if you are going to dedicate your life to Jesus, and that is what it really means to be a Christian, then the first place God is going to deal with you is your thoughts, your attitude, your sin, and your failures. He HAS to change the intent of your heart. Human intent is at war with God’s will for Humans. We are having WAY too much fun being the “Master of our domain.”

But if you have genuinely given your heart to Jesus Christ, you will not be able to help it, but to ask Jesus to change you and your heart until you are the very reflection of Him. Until this happens, the Holy Spirit will work to teach you, to convict you, to lead you to repentance, as you serve, and grow to be just like Christ.

Now, if you are like I was, a complete and total Jack-Ass, then you are in for some rough times. Trust me on this one. But don’t despair, God has all the time in the Universe to deal with you. The sooner you submit, the easier it will go. Don’t be like I was, don’t be a Jack-Ass.

Jeremiah 23:29 – “Is not My word like fire” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “and like a hammer that pulverizes rock? <==(I think He was referring to my thick skull, there.

THIS IS NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH ON YOUR OWN!

I tried. Remember I said that a minute ago? I gave it over 20 years, and I failed every time. It is God, and God alone who changes you.

Philippians 2:13 For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.

You don’t have the will unless God gives it to you. You don’t have the desire to change, unless God calls you to the changes. If you try to do it on your own strength, power, and “wisdom”, then you are A: A fool, and B: BEING RELIGIOUS!!!

Stop it, and trust God. He loves you and has nothing but good plans for you if you submit.

Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

God will change your heart, and your thinking and your intent so that you will become just like Jesus. HE does this by HIS OWN power.

So, getting back to where I was earlier:

Proverbs 18:21 – Life and death are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Jesus says, “Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.”

Man, was I in a fix. Nothing good was coming out of my mouth, so that meant the intentions of my heart were not in God’s control. I gave control of my heart to God. And when I did, we did the laundry. My thoughts changed. My attitudes changed. My INTENTIONS changed. And they all changed and are still changing to the point that I can just begin to see the image of Christ in my heart.

Along with a heart of submission, there is one thing I have to do in participation with God in this change:

Proverbs 4:23 – “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.”

I have a list of things I need to watch out for. It is the usual things that will get a human in trouble, the lust of the eye, the lust of the heart, and the pride of life. Like Paul said, if it weren’t for these things, there’d be no sin.

Galatians 5:24 – Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

My desire is to serve Christ and Christ alone. This is not a decision you can make on your own, and it is not something you can fake. It is either real, or it is not. But total submission to Christ IS what being a Christian means. We are still here after we believed so we can live a life that reflects Jesus Christ, so that others will be led to eternal life through Christ. That is why you are still on this planet (IF you are, indeed, a Christian.)

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.

That verse speaks for itself. But this takes discipline. Thinking on these things has changed my attitude and my heart. It has made me more sensitive to the urgings of the Lord. It has made me more willing to show Grace and Mercy to those who need it. It has made it possible for me to see the difference between Godly behavior, and no so godly behavior. All this is true because it is the Holy Spirit working in me to effect these changes.

Philippians 4:6-7 – Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses every thought, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Don’t worry about ANYTHING. This is a tough one, but when you allow God to change the intent of your heart, and you “think on these things”, you learn you CAN take EVERYTHING to God, with a grateful heart. And I promise you, I am a witness to this personally, The Peace of God, which passes every thought, WILL guard your hearts and minds IN JESUS CHRIST.

God will guard your heart and mind. It begins when you are genuinely IN Jesus Christ, and it ends because you are IN Jesus Christ.

SO, WHAT IS YOUR POINT???

I am glad you asked. The whole point of getting your mind right is so that the Mind of Christ will be in you. When the mind of Christ is in you, you will have the intentions of Christ, and not your own selfish ones. When you have the intent of Christ in you, you will bear good fruit.

Galatians 5:22-23 – But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.

When you bear good spiritual fruit, you will be like Jesus, and you will be able to be living proof that Jesus Christ is Lord, and you will be able to lead others to Jesus Christ.

So, watch your mouth. Give your whole heart to Jesus Christ and stop being religious.

You will be effective as Jesus’s disciple when you have let the Holy Spirit do heart surgery on you.

Now, let’s be about it!

I love you

David G. Perkins

sammy.snardfarkle@gmail.com

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Go Ye Therefore….


This is not a plea for a job, OK?  This is just me…I don’t know, getting things off my chest.

I heard another ‘No’ today on yet another job application.  It get’s frustrating.  I have gotten so discouraged.  Here I am, intelligent, capable, WILLING, and not too proud to work.  It seems that, when you are dismissed from a Military base, you pretty much are dismissed from a great many opportunities.  I make no excuses.  I was rightfully dismissed.  Besides, the whole story would get more than me in trouble, so I am content to be in this position.

In my frustration, I decided to go for a walk.  That didn’t help.  I got home,.  I was still  grumpy, because taking a walk didn’t help.  Besides, my conscience was bothering me.  I am learning how to write.  How to blog, how to journal, etc.  They only writing I had ever done in my life was poetry, and seminary papers.  And that, my friend was a very long time ago.

The day I got fired from the base, I felt disoriented.  This is all I had been doing for the last two years.  And this work was good, and I am good at it.  As you surely know, by now, I have recently returned to the Lord.  So, I prayed.  I prayed HARD.  What was I going to tell my wife…my daughter?  Why was this happening?  I had worked hard for my credentials.  Now they were worthless.

As I prayed, I felt a strong sense of calm overcome me.  That kept me from going into a panic.  I slowed the car down (It is a 2 hour commute from the Base to Home).  I didn’t realize I had been speeding.

By time I slowed the car down, I was actually so calm, I could actually smile.  (That, in itself was rare for me).  You hear about those “Charismatic Weirdo’s” who say they heard from God.  I always rolled my eyes at that.  I had to take all that eye rolling back.  I mean, really, when you roll your eyes at God, HE could very well roll them right back at you, and you wouldn’t enjoy it.

I heard from God.  I didn’t take the time to make sure I was not becoming a “Charismatic Weirdo”, or anything like that.  I mean, I was really busy HEARING from God.  It was the most wonderful, calming experience I had ever had.

He asked me what I’d rather do.  I told Him, “You Know, O Lord!”

Sound familiar?  What was that that Ezekiel said to God when God asked Zeke, ‘Do you think I can take these bones and bring them back to life?”  or some thing like that.  And Ezekiel, being the courageous one of God, said, “God Knows!”.  He was hedging His bet.  It wasn’t that Ezekiel DIDN’T think God couldn’t raise the bones in the desert back to life, it was just that, well, what if it is a trick question?  Zeke knew God was testing him.  But Zeke wasn’t sure he had studied hard enough for the test.  So he said, “Thou knowest, O Lord” or something like that.  Turns out, God raised the bones and made a legion of soldiers.  That be a LOT of soldiers.  Zeke suddenly realized the point.  God can do what ever he pleases.  And it pleases God to have Ezekiel serve Him. Where I come from, that is called a HUGE object lesson.

So, when God asked ME, “What would you rather do, Dave?”  and I said “Thou Knowest, O Lord”, I swear I could see him glare at me like my third grade teacher did when I hit her with a huge spit wad.  (I got out of a beating by telling her I just wanted to get her attention so I could tell her she was beautiful…I am going to burn in HELL, I KNOW!)

It was a cop out.  I wasn’t used to the Almighty riding along in my car, and asking me questions, OK?!?

But I did get a chance to stop and think.  Thank God God is merciful and abundant in Grace, too.  I figured I was going to be the worlds largest Chicken Wing, or something like that.

I listed off several things.  I used to play French Horn.  But He said, you can practice at home, but no.  Well, I used to play piano.  Same answer.  We went like this for about 60 miles.  I gotta say, God is also very patient.  My nick name isn’t Jack Ass for nothing, you know…go ask my ex wife and my curent wife.  I got tired of playing this game.  And I asked God to just tell me what it is HE wants me to do, and I will do it.

He asked me if I still had that old fire in the belly for writing.  I looked askance at the empty passengers seat, and said, “You’re kidding, RIGHT?”  I am sure that is why the trucker that saw me do this sped way the heck up.  What would YOU think?

He said, “David, you want to serve me?”  I said “Thou Knowest, O Lord!”, but then repented and said very affirmatively, “I’d rather serve you than be the richest man on the planet”, or something like that.  There were a string of affirmations going on at the time.  I mean, I hadn’t even acknowledges there is a God for 20 YEARS.  And I really wanted to return to God’s fold, and serve.  There is nothing better in this life than serving God.

He told me to write.  Every day.  Put it in a blog.  You can only imagine what I thought about that.  I have read my writing, it bored hell out of me.  So, I was wondering if boring hell out of people was His way of getting people to run toward the scriptures, which are infinitely less boring than my writing.  (Believe me, on this, I have read the Bible too).

He told me that, while HE finds the right place for me to work, I need to keep myself busy writing.  He said he plans on using that gift as it develops.  I asked min if he had ever looked at my writer’s portfolio?  He looked askance at me…well, at least the empty passenger seat looked askance at me.

He said he would let me know what to write, and when.  I have to say, that so far, he has done just that.

My last two blogs concerned Who Is The Church.  I told God, Look, I can’t just go around shooting my mouth off like that, and not walk it, too!!!  he let me know He will take care of that, but for now, keep writing.

Here’s the deal.  I am not trying to be some great writer of great expose.  I am just doing what I have been told.  My hearts desire is, yes, to be good at writing, and writing about the things of God.  And my burning desire is to be part of the next revival that needs to break out over the land.  This planet is using the biggest steam shovel it can just to dig a hole to Hell.

I thought about what Jesus said to the Disciples just as He was about to ascent back into Heaven.

And Jesus came up to them and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given unto Me in Heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matt. 28:18-20

And that is my hearts desire.  To obey.  But I know that God is right.  I have been away for 20 years, and there is a trust issue.  If I am faithful in this little thing of writing every day, He will be faithful to bless me for obeying.

I have been given a commission.  You have also been given a commission.  You do not need anyone’s permission to obey.  Trust me when I tell you, your family will think you are crazy.  Especially when you tell them that you had a chat with the Almighty.  Take Jesus, for an example.  Here he was, running around Israel, raising people from the dead, healing the sick, and telling everyone, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”  And his very own family told people Jesus was crazy.  That is your Bible Drill for the day.  Find where that is written in the Gospels).

Until the day God calls me to higher things, I will obey.  Even when I don’t feel like obeying, like today.  I was discouraged.  I didn’t even know what I was going to write about.  But as I got to the library, God showed me what to say.

Just imagine what He has to say to you, if you’ll listen.

The world is dying, out there.  Let’s be about it.

I love you.

David G. Perkins

 

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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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Forgiveness, the Test of Authenticity


“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil [souls][humans]. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.  Luke 6: 35 – 37 NASB

Also, do not take seriously all words which are spoken, so that you will not hear your servant cursing you. For you also have realized that you likewise have many times cursed others.. Eccl 7:21 – 22 NASB

SCRIPTURES COPIED FROM:  http://www.blueletterbible.org/

THIS ONE IS PERSONAL.  I HAVE CHOSEN TO EXPOSE MYSELF IN THIS REGARD SIMPLY BECAUSE MOST OF THE PEOPLE WHO KNOW ME ALREADY KNOW MUCH THESE EVENTS.  I AM NOT LOOKING FOR YOUR PITY.  I WANT TO USE THIS VERY PERSONAL EVENT TO SHOW YOU HOW I FIRST LEARNED FORGIVENESS.

IT IS TO THEM, THE WELL INTENTIONED DRAGONS, THAT I DEDICATE THIS INSTALLMENT ON FORGIVENESS.  I REALLY LOVE YOU, HONESTLY, COMPLETELY. AND IN THE NAME OF JESUS, I LOVE YOU.

I am going to share with you a special case under the heading of Forgiveness.  It is a case that I struggle with.  To forgive and to be forgiven.  This is about accepting God‘s forgiveness, yet dealing with the unforgiving souls who insist that you are still damaged goods, in spite of what God has done.  In a later installment (Which I have not decided if I will post) I will deal with an extreme case of hatred, and where forgiveness comes into the picture.

20 years ago, God told me that my first marriage was going to end.  I knew a week before it happened that it was coming.  God let me know in no uncertain terms that, if I will cling to Him during this storm, He would sustain me, restore me, and make me stronger in the Lord than I could imagine.  The clouds were in the sky, but the storm had not hit, yet.

Although I could see this storm coming, I had not prepared my heart for the intensity of the storm.  And it was intense.  The year leading up to this storm, I had really begun to stray from God, through various acts of self righteousness.  I had become a Pharisee of the first order.  God had given me the privilege of seeing Moslems come to Christ in my ministry.  God had given me the privilege of seeing witches, satanists, and gang members come to the Lord.  He used me as His pen to draw the picture of salvation.  But in my pride and arrogance, I felt I could take it from there, and pretty much excluded God from His work in me.  I had stopped bible reading and prayer.   I began to allow the little foxes of sin and pride into my garden.  Eventually, I was screwing up my life, and didn’t understand it was my fault.

Then the storm hit.

My heart was not prepared for it, even though God had let me know in very clear terms it was coming.  The right thing for me to do would have been to repent of my sin, humble myself before the Lord, seek His forgiveness, and cling to Him for all I was worth.  But because I didn’t heed God’s warning, I was not able to withstand the unbearable intensity of losing my wife.

Even then I had the opportunity to repent and turn to God.  I failed that test, too.  I was letting my confusion, frustration and anger do my thinking.  I was allowed to have my way, and I was left to my own devices.  And I fell into even more sin than I could imagine was possible.

I left behind a trail of destruction.

Later on, I met my current wife.  I was still damaged goods.  The day I met her, the very instant I saw her, I had a vision of things to come.  I saw us married, and I saw my child.  I actually saw Hannah, years before she was born.  (There is more to that, and remind me to tell it to you).

What I saw scared me so badly, I ran away from her and hid for 6 weeks.  Anyone who knows me knows I don’t back down from anything.  But THIS vision truly horrified me.  See, I knew deep in my soul that I had not done business with God.  I had a lot of repentance to do.  I had a lot of forgiveness to seek and give.  I was seriously damaged goods.

Eventually, I screwed up my courage and called her, and we dated and eventually got married.  A year later, Hannah was born.

But I still lived in rebellion to God.  By this time, I genuinely began to crave that sweet relationship with God, but I wanted that relationship on my terms.  I didn’t want to go through the very hard time of repentance.  And I had some repenting to do.

Eventually, I let sin get the best of me again.  It was one of the big ones, and it caused a great deal of hurt in my marriage.

The details are none of your business.  But I sinned.  And I never sin in half measures.

The damage was bad.  Family on both side of the fence let me know in no uncertain terms what a schmuck I was.  Some even told me I would be better off dead.  Some cursed me to my face, and spared no expense telling everyone and everything that would listen what an incredible sin I had committed.  It affected my ability to make friends, it affected my ability to get a job (I live in a small town).  I was given the scarlet letter.  In the view of these well meaning dragons, I was irredeemable, and there will be no forgiveness to be had.  People told me to my face that they want me to leave, go away, never return, to do my wife a favor and disappear.  I genuinely got to see the dark side of the children of God.

Eventually, people I had never known would confront me about this sin. I learned that, not only do religious people love to hate, but they love to gossip, too.

I had begun to crave the presence of God in my life, and I wanted so bad to have a prayer partner.  While I was at work, one day, the guy that delivers our welding gases drove up.  He was very nice, very friendly.  Somehow, we began to talk about God.  I told him that I had fallen out of fellowship with God, and want to know the presence of God in my life.  He prayed with me and for me.  He told me I can come by his work-place anytime I wanted to pray with him.  He gave me his phone number.  I was so overjoyed, I actually started crying right there, in front of my co-workers.  I actually had someone to talk to, who wanted to work with me on the return to God.

A week later, I needed to go to that guys’ work place to buy an additional bottle of acetylene gas.  While my order was being filled, I went to that guy.  Instead of shaking my hand, I was met with a great deal of hostility.  It turned out that he was also a prayer partner with one of the well intentioned dragons who told me my family would be better off if I were dead.  I saw genuine hate in this man’s eyes.  He let me know what that well intentioned dragon had told him.  I was devastated that in an instant, a person I just met, who would pray with me, would turn on me with such vengeance.

My wife had a heart attack.

While she was in surgery, and I was waiting in the waiting room, I was told that one of my wife’s friends wanted to talk to me.  I got her phone number, and after I got home, late that night, I called her. It started out alright.  I wanted things to go well, as I have always admired this person.  I mean I genuinely loved this person.  The conversation suddenly turned ugly.  She let me know that there is no way that healing in my relationship with my wife would happen.  That this friend had been trying with all her might to get my wife to leave me and move in with her.  I was, once again, informed that the local world would be better off if I just went away.

I think it was this turn of events, my wife having a heart attack, her friends and relatives continually letting me know that it would be best if I just went away, seeing the dark hearts of Christians who couldn’t forgive, that I knew then I was genuinely lost to God.

I wrote in another installment on Forgiveness how to return to a forgiven state, and how to forgive.  The above events in my life are where I had to learn this process.

1. I turned to God.  I had to get back to the fundamentals of the faith, here.  I confessed that I know there is a God.  I confessed that I know that this God is THE creator, the great I AM of Scripture, the one who created us Humans.  I confessed that man fell from God just as I had fallen from God.  I confessed that God gave His only begotten Son to die for the sins I have committed, so I will not have to face God’s wrath, but have eternal life in Jesus Christ.  Then I confessed my anger.

I was angry at me.  A Lot.

I was angry at Christians who could not offer a healing hand, but offered only condemnation.  I was angry, angry, angry.  It was a deep and abiding anger that burned hot.  This was the hardest thing for me to face.  My anger.  God showed me how my anger does not further the Kingdom of God.

Until I could learn to place that at the feet of God, and let Him take it out of my heart, there would be no further progress in my restoration to Him.  Period.  This kind of anger has no place in the Kingdom, and I cannot return to the service of God if I insist on being angry.  It took from around 2007 to 2012 to work through that.  But God did His wonderful work in me, and helped me be rid of that hate and anger.  It is gone, now.  It is a distant echo.  God has shown me what I need to learn from it, and has healed me.  The lesson I learned here is, I cannot turn to people for help.  I must first turn to God.  People will be too married to their opinions and agenda to be able to help.  And I learned that that, too, is OK.  We are all human, and have things to work out with God.  It is not my place to judge them, or be angry with them.

2. BE WILLING.  I was in love with my anger.  It was all that drove me.  I had forgotten that there is more power in a whisper of God’s love than there is an a ton of anger and hate.  So this was a hard one foe me.  Here were people speaking death into my life, into my marriage, and “In the name of the Lord” letting me know just how irredeemable I was.  I was hurt, disappointed, angry, and these feelings had become so familiar, and so normal to me, that letting go of them was worse than having surgery with out pain killers.  (That happened to me once, it was awful).

But, Just as Jesus prayed in the garden, the night before His arrest, “Not my will, but thine.”  It took a lot of work for me to be willing to give up my anger.  I loved having an excuse to throw tantrums.  But God wanted to turn me into a man of God, not a child of the world.  I had to be willing to release that anger, hostility, rage, and resentment of all those well meaning dragons.  And, with the power of God’s grace, I did, and do, and will.  I willed that my will align with God’s will.  Not for their snakes, but mine.  My attitude had no place in God’s will for my life.  If I want to truly return to Him, I had to let go  of anger.  And the more my will aligned with God’s desire for my life, the more anger diminished, until it was only a memory.  And I was surprised by the intense JOY that replaced the anger.  Obedience to God brings joy, even when you think your world is going to hell.  I understood grace.  I felt mercy.  From there, it was a simple thing to let go of my hurt and anger, and forgive all the well intentioned dragons.  It is easier to accept those Christians who speak death in my life.  They honestly think they are doing the right thing.  How often had I thought that about my anger and hurt.  I get it.  We are all saved, but we are all incomplete.  We are all having to grow.  Now I am able to understand what Jesus meant when he prayed on the cross, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

I AM FREE!.  I AM FREE!  I AM FREE!!!  Free to dive deep into the word of God, free to love.  Free to pray for those who hate me.  Free to serve God.  Free to pray with my wife, who has forgiven me my sin.  What a joy it is to be married to the most incredible woman in the world.  I could search all my life and not find a woman as wonderful and great as she is.

I have given up “my right” to anger and hate, and unforgiveness.  For the first time in 20 years, I feel free, loving, forgiven, and I feel hope.  I feel JOY.  I can dance with King David and sing that the Lord my God, the Living God, has restored my soul.

It doesn’t matter one whit what people will say to you, about you, against you.  There is NOTHING on this earth you can do about it EXCEPT FORGIVE THEM.  Then you can let it go, and you will find you actually really love these well intentioned dragons.  REALLY love them and care about them.

The are just as fallen as you are.  You need to worry about your own walk in the Lord. Even if you have to do what I did and return to the fundamentals and grow from there.

I have not ever felt this freedom before.  EVER.  What a glorious God we serve.  What a powerful God he is that he can root out my sin and hold me close, and tell me he loves me.  It no longer matters who else loves me, not now that I know where I stand with God.

Listen, people who have their minds made up about you will only change when God deals with them.  Not a minute sooner.  You may raise people from the dead, right before their eyes, and they might still speak death into your life.  It is OK, the religious of Jesus’s day did the same thing.

Now, go, sit at God’s feet, and do business with the Lord.  I can tell you, as one who has come out of that bath, it is good, it is joy, it is clean.  God is GREAT.  And I thank God for this freedom.

I really want to hear from you if you need prayer.  I don’t care what evil you have done, I will not turn you away.  I can do this because it is what God has done for me.

I genuinely love you in the Name of Jesus, and because of God’s great love in my heart.

Now, go be about it.

David G. Perkins.

 

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The Jewels in Your Crown: Forgiveness Part 1


And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. EPH 4:32 KJV

Definitions: 
kind – χρηστός – chrestos – good, be ye good…., gracious, be ye gracious…., easy, take it easy on each other.
tenderhearted – εὔσπλαγχνος – eusplagchnos, – pitiful, tender-hearted.  Have pity. The Greek workd picture here is a picture of it coming from your guts.  The Greeks felt that strong emotion, passion and genuine emotion came from your guts.  Have pity flowing out of you.  Have tenderheartedness flow from you. 
forgiving – χαρίζομαι – charizomai – to grant as a favor, that is, gratuitously (freely, undeservedly), in kindness (see def above), pardon or rescue: – deliver, (frankly) forgive, (freely) give, grant.
Keep on becoming kind to each other. Have pity, and favor, and grace, however undeservedly, forgive even as God forgave you for the sake of Christ.
A few years ago, a brother in the Lord told me he forgave me.   He had been very angry with me.   Somehow I was not convinced that he meant it, but I accepted the effort, as I love this person, and want to grow in the Lord with him.   Later on, I went to his property to help him with an electrical problem.   I did the work, shook his hand, and left.  That evening, someone else told me that the whole time I was there, he was bad mouthing me to anyone who would listen, and that he had been bad mouthing me all over town.   As I suspected, I knew that that brother was still angry with me.

Forgiveness isn’t easy.

I am not talking about whether I forgive him, because I honestly do.   I honestly love this person.  I am telling you something that I would normally not consider any of your business in order to illustrate a point.

Forgiveness is not easy.

The root of unforgiveness is anger.
The root of anger is fear.

Anger is a chain that binds you to sin.  Sometimes we get angry with others over things we know we ourselves are tempted to do.  Sometimes we get angry for a genuine wrong committed.  Sometimes we get angry because we are afraid.  We know in our heads that perfect love casts out all fear.  But how do we get that into our heart?  How do we let go of Anger?

It is a process.
Some people do not even know they harbor unforgiveness.  They remain slaves to the unforgiveness.  Unforgiveness will stop you from growing spiritually.  Eventually, the poison of unforgiveness will consume you untill you become heard hearted and bitter.  It will rot your bones.
So a decent definition of Anger that leads to unforgiveness is that Anger is a strong feeling of INTENSE displeasure or indignation or hostility as a result of a real or imagined threat (fear), or insult (pride), or frustration (impatience), or injustice toward yourself or someone who is very important to you.
Forgiveness is the willful giving up of that rage, displeasure, indignation, hostility, threat, insult and frustration.  You give up the “right to get even”.
Unforgiveness is a deliberate refusal to forgive.  It is the belief that you have the right to hold a grudge because: Someone has got to pay!,  He has hurt me. , She lied to me. , She said I was this or that.,  She didn’t say “HI” to me yesterday.,  He is two faced.,  He lies about his faith by saying one thing and doing another.
However, saying you forgive, and experiencing it are two different things.
Forgiveness says, “I give up my right to pay you back.”
Look at the book of Mark 11:25 –
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in Heaven may forgive you your tresspasses.  But if you do not fogive, neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your tresspasses.  Mark 11:25
 
Until we can forgive, we have to lay down our progress, our gifts to god, our growth in the Spirit of God, our effectiveness to demonstrate grace, love and mercy.
 
What are the obstacles to Forgiveness?  There may be many, but they can be reduced, by thoughtful analysis to 4 things:
1.  YOUR WILL – It ias to be your WILL and Desire to forgive.  Unwillingness and not wanting to forgive are deliberate acts.  You have to do this on purpose.
2.  PRIDE – The arrogance of pride gives you the self righteous attitude that says, He or She should come to me to ASK for forgiveness.  I shouldn’t have to go to them.  Or if you are the one who needs forgiveness, you say to yourself, “Sure it bothers me that this happened, but I don’t think I did any harm, and besides, I was right when I did it.”
3.  REHEARSING – This one is something every humand being does.  This takes real discipline to overcome, and can be overcome by a lot of prayer, and realization of just how much GOd has forgiven you.   The more you go over it in your mind, the farther from grace you get.  You rehearse in your mind and heart the wrongs or offenses done against you.  This will only strengthen the chains that bind you, and will eventually become a poison that turns into a well spring of bitterness.  The Joy of the Lord evades you.  happiness becomes a memory.  Anger becomes your reputation.  You get stuck right where you are in your spiritual growth.  Eventually, you become content with stunted growth, or your heart becomes so hard that you no longer desire a working relationship with God.
4.  FEAR – Wether you are the one who needs to forgive, or needs forgiveness, FEAR can stop you dead, too.  Maybe you are afraid you will be taken advantage of by the person that you need to do business with.  Maybe you have a fear of being rejected.  Perhaps you are afraid of rejection.  These fears are real, and it is possible that these things will happen.   But you have to have the courage to face this fear and do the right thing.  THere is nothing you can do to control the reactions of others.  You can only obey God, and leave the rest to him.  This is letting go of fear.
Dealing with these 4 things above will give you FREEDOM from the enslavement of Anger and Fear.  It will free you from the spirit and heartlessness of Unforgiveness.  The flow of living water will return to you, and you will know the joy of your salvation again.
Sometimes forgiveness is stalled by the following things:
Friendly but bad advice.  Your brothers and sisters in the lord love you, and they mean well, but they are just as human and fallible as you are.  They will tell you, “Well, if I were you, I’d…”, or “He needs to suffer…”  “Why don’t you just leave him, he is not good for you…”, or “Buddy, we need to go have a talk with him ‘in love’ and straighten him out”
Have you been told this?  Have you said it to others.  Friends mean well.  You should always be glad of the number of friends you have.  But you MUST ask yourself, “Is this FRIENDLY advice GODLY advice?”  Do nothing that will contradict the nature of God, or reflect poorly on your walk with God.  Taking matters in your hands, with the heart felt endorsement of your friends, is till wrong.
PARTIAL FORGIVENESS.  
Maybe he or she did several little things, or one big and several little ones, or some combination like that.  Do you list them (rehearse) and say, “Well, I can forgive that, but not this, and I can forgive those, but not these!”?  Partial forgiveness is just like partial obedience.  Partial forgiveness IS unforgiveness.  Partial obedience is DISOBEDIENCE.  Don’t take half measures when God showed His love for you by going all the way to the cross for your sins.
MAKE EXCUSES. This little fox is a sly one.
This is what some people do to avoide genuine forgiveness.  They might say things like, “THey probably didn’t mean that.”, or. “It was probably a mistake.”.  If you use excuses to justify someone elses wrong, not only are you deluding yourself, and setting yourself up for more of the same, but you short circuit your ability to discern between right and wrong, and you stop the other person’s chance of learning from his mistakes.  Forgiveness is just as much an act of love, as it is an act of grace.  When you love the unlovely, it pours coals on his heart, and will ultimately lead him to repentance. This is the same behavior you hear about when you read the testimony of the battered woman.  She made excuses for the batterer.  Forgiveness is not for sissies.
Unforgiveness puts you in danger of the judgement of God.  “But if you do not forgive  neither will your Father which is in Heaven forgive your trespasses ”  Mark 11:25  
 
You risk your growth in the Lord.  You risk having God stop dealing with you until you have done business with those who you need to forgive, or who you need to seek forgiveness from.
Forgiveness sets you free.  It cleanses your soul.  It teaches you about Godly love in a way that no other action will.  You will become like Jesus Christ the more you obey.
I will finish this up in part 2, at least this part of the facet on the gem that is Forgiveness.  There is more, and it is not all fire and brimstone.  Hang in there.  It gets better.
OH!  And yes it is a process.  How long does it take until you can come clean and forgive?  I don’t know.  Sometimes it takes a long time.  It took me a very long time to forgive someone I used to know.  The hurt was deep, and God had to do a work in me.  With that brother who said he forgave me, but didn’t, I am good with that, and I forgive his dishonesty, and his gossip.  I am free of the harm he has done.  I love this person and would take a bullet for him without hesitation.
I have to keep in mind this verse: Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee: For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others. Ecc 7:21-22See you next time for Part 2 of this facet on Forgiveness.
I love you
David Perkins

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The Ethics of Hell


[NOTE: I have kept a copy of this article preserved and encrypted in the event that it is somehow altered by a person or persons other than me.]

“Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness. I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work. “Ecc 3:16 -17

THE SETTING:

Ray Charles can see that the Government of the United States has abandoned all that is holy, moral, legal and right. Oftentimes, I stand in stupefied wonder that “We the People” have let this happen.

The condition we are in today didn’t happen overnight, either. I remember vividly, in the 1960’s, when God was being kicked out of school. Today, there is a concerted and overt effort to remove Christianity from the common arena.

What dumbfounds me is that:

A: What passes for a representative republic openly demonstrates, with great pride, every effort it can to destroy all that was considered good, all that was considered right, all that is constitutional, all references to the Living God, and His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

B: What passes for government today openly calls Christians, and tea party members “terrorists” while giving a free pass to the people who want to kill us.

And

C: We are tolerating this behavior.

MY REACTION

I have no doubt you are aware of the same things I am.  This has been a real struggle for me. I was raised in the South where being an American is just as important as being a Christian. In fact, a lack of patriotism usually meant that your neighbors will question your salvation.

I was raised to believe that we are a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. That the Constitution IS the baseline by which all laws are measured, and no law will exist that takes away from the constitution, in any form, shape or deed.

I was raised to believe it is honorable to die for your country, that the flag will not be desecrated under ANY circumstances, and that this nation exists because of the Living God.

Now that we have kicked God out of our lives, our nation has fallen to a very dark place.

So, my gut reaction is to be angry at the Government. My gut reaction, my real heartfelt reaction, is to take matters in my own hands. That is my gut reaction. I have this reaction because, in the 1980’s I swore an oath that includes this phrase:

“I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God.” 

That oath keep crashing against the shores of my conscience, and I am overwhelmed with the desire to keep that oath.

There’s just one problem with that…..

THE ETHICS OF HELL

“The thief (Lucifer, Satan) comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I (Jesus) came that they (you and me) may have life and have it abundantly.” Joh 10:10

This part took me a while to see.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am very patriotic, that I am very willing to risk my life for my oath, that I have been harboring deep hatred and resentment in both the government for all of its blatant display of corruption, and a nation that tolerates it.

But I took my anger to God.

And I prayed.

And prayed.

All this time, God listened to me rant and rave. My anger had been kindled, I wanted to pour out MY wrath on these people.

This is when God reminded me of the ethics of hell.

The enemy of God doesn’t care where fear, anger, confusion, distrust, and treachery comes from, AS LONG AS IT IS THERE. I might feel perfectly righteous being angry, but my anger tempts me to run into sin, and not wait on the Lord. No other patriot would blame me for my feelings, either.

This scripture came to my mind: “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” Pro 25:28

Anyone of us can justify our patriotism. We can even look down our noses at anyone who doesn’t feel the same hatred and indignation of our corrupted government.

God showed me that my anger is misdirected and I was sinning in my heart by the things I imagined should be done to fix our government.

The ethics of hell means that you will be tempted to sin, and you will be able to justify it in ways that hardly anyone else could condemn.

My willingness to lose self control opened a chink in my armor. My anger was not God’s anger. My desires for action were not Gods desires for me. And no matter how well I could justify my attitude, all I did was open a door that allowed the enemy to breach the walls of my heart. And thoughts of evil piled on top of thoughts of evil, until all I became was an animal waiting to be unleashed to his prey.

Satan does not care how much you read the bible, pray, sing in the choir, as long as you are willing to be angry and sin. As long as you give harbor to fear and confusion, as long as you take your eyes off Christ, and look at the waves you are walking on.

Satan is the author of confusion. Satan speaks death in to everything he touches. Satan divides. Satan destroys. And he is especially happy when he can distract Christians away from God. Satan knows that if we ever stop being willing to sin, if we ever approach God and confirm God’s will on our lives, and if we ever remember that our first call is Love, then Satan loses this skirmish.

MY RESPONSE

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” Isa 1:18

“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good”. – Rom 12:17 – 21

After praying, and God pointing out that my fleshly response will not please Him, I asked, “Then what should I do?”

God laid it on my heart that my anger does not serve the kingdom. That taking matters in my own hands is not the will of God. God reminded me of my calling, and the fundamentals of all of our calling. Those of us who seek the Lord with all our hearts, who know that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God, and have accepted that free gift of salvation, know deep down that God’s ways are not our ways.

It is the ethics of Hell that demands you take matters in to your own hands. It is the Ethics of Heaven that reminds us:

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Eph 6:12

In God’s army, our battles always begins on our knees before Him. We are to listen to Him, and obey whatever he leads us to do, no matter how contrary it may be to our human reasoning. The mightiest weapons we have in God’s army is prayer and praise.

God reminded me of the battle in II Chronicles 20 (A good read), where the battle was not won with swords, but with praise. This is where we become the most effective in the service of God’s army. Praise and prayer will bring the changes we need in our nation. Unrighteous anger just adds to the overwhelming noise that exists on this planet. But prayer and praise are inhabited by the Living God.

Knowing this, then, here is what I did.

I prayed for the Salvation of Obama. I prayed to God, and the more I prayed, the more it made sense to love my enemy. I prayed for the House and the Senate, as well as the Judiciary. I prayed that the Spirit of God descend on them, and everyone in Washington D.C. that they will be convicted of their sin and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That the powers that be have the courage to face the consequences of their actions, and to confess to the Lord, who will be faithful to forgive them.

I prayed this prayer, and it was one of the hardest things to do to say that I genuinely love Obama and care about his eternal soul.

It is not my place to attack anyone in the government. Not even in my prayers. As a warrior of God’s army, my battle begins with me getting out of the way of the will of God, and praying for my enemies in a way that is pleasing to God.

It is the will of God that no man should perish.

But for the most part, I needed help from the Holy Spirit to teach me how to pray for people that I so sincerely despise. It is written:

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Rom 8:26

and

“For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside.” 1Co 5:12-13a

Do I want my sense of vengeance, or do I want revival in the land? I want revival.

Revival will begin when I pray that God forgive my attitude, and when I ask God to fill me with HIS desire for our nation. If we pray for the tyrants who rule over us, we will see a revival in our nation. But this revival must first begin when we, as warriors to God, start the battle on our knees.

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