Are you depraved?

By default, the main goal of all humans is the love of self; as soon as a baby is born into the world the first thing he or she does is cry for attention; it is as if a new born human being is already complaining about being here. While everyone around rejoices in the event of life; the baby human cries and screams; no one else does but him or her. Yeah, I know, that sounds mean and heartless but it is the crude reality.

We human beings are so tragically dependent, that in the absence of a feeding hand and a holding arm, we would not last very long in this fallen world; so the cries of little humans are necessary for survival; they are programmed into the genes, is the "cry for attention" gene, and it is the provision of an Almighty and wise creator; everybody has one of those genes, we grow up to worship it; if you don't believe that is true, look at yourself in the mirror and ask the question: am I a depraved individual?

Back in 1985, Mexico City was hit by a humongous earthquake; 8.1 in the Richter scale, and there were tens of thousands of people buried by falling buildings, squashed and killed by tons and tons of concrete, glass and twisted re-bar; some areas of the city looked like the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. One of the buildings that was destroyed was a hospital, the city's General Hospital one of the many that fell down, in which rescue workers found a couple dozen babies that had survived the catastrophe.

To the amazement of everyone involved in the rescue, the babies were all fine, and they were found because some of the workers could hear their cries for food; they were rescued after almost 2 weeks after the shake. That was a real miracle; the majority had just a few scratches or wounds, nothing was broken, they were only very hungry. People called them "miracle babies". That was amazing.

It later turned out that some babies had lung damage from the dust, and a few died in other hospitals. The joy turned into sadness for a lot of people; it was all tragic. I was born in that city back in 1959, when another earthquake hit the city; the big news that year were not that I was born to grace this world with my presence; but that the Angel of Independence fell down to the ground; the angel is a bronze sculpture covered with 24k gold (see the picture above) that sits on top of an obelisk, about 90 or more feet up in the air, it is beautiful, at the base there is a huge lion being led by a small boy, it reminds me of Isa 65:25 ; but that day, it was as if the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air, said "this city is mine, away with the angel, give me Alex"; he had me for about thirty years, and then Jesus rescued me from the rubble of my life in 1989.

I was such an ugly baby that my father used to joke around and say that I looked like Benito Juarez, if you don't know who Benito Juarez is, just Google it, you'll know what he meant; my brothers used to say that I looked like a new born crow; they say I sounded like a raven when I cried. I think it is funny now, but I used to cry when they jerked me around with their cruel jokes; my little self-centered heart was devastated; sometimes I still think I look like a crow, mainly in the morning when I first wake up, usually in pain. Maybe that's why chicks dig me, the ugly ones that is, I don't know.

We humans are tragically selfish and self-centered; our tiny little worlds collide with each other's, and there is no rest from the toil of sin and calamity; no rest. Unless God rescues us from the rubble and the massive weight of our transgressions, we would consume under the pressure and weight of our iniquities; it is because of His great mercy and compassion that it doesn't happen (Lam 3:22).

The moment people think they are some kind of wonderful, is the moment that they render scripture as a big lie; we either admit and believe that we are depraved without measure, and that we need to be rescued from our iniquity, or we make God a liar; this is how Isaiah says it: Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. See also 1John 1:10 and Rom 1:18-19.

He does not hear; Isaiah says, because there is a wall of separation. The wall is so massive and impenetrable that no earthquake could possibly bring it down; it is only in the hands of Christ to demolish it by hitting it with His cross, there is no other way to do it, and there is no one else who can do it; there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved, Acts 4:12.

The church is not hearing that we are depraved, the doctrine of total depravity is not being preached and taught; what we hear from some pulpits is that we are special and that God loves us, and that He wants to be your friend and your "business partner" so you can be successful in life, "He will give you everything you need, come as you are", they say; but even though some of those statements are true, they do not reflect the reality of how God the Almighty sees sin, and transgression and law braking. Make no mistake, if you come as you are, you are not going to get anything from Him except wrath, see Romans one again...

Yes we are special because we are His chosen people and we have been set apart from the world (Eph 1:4); yes God loves us and He sent His Son to die for us (Eph 1:7), etc, it's all scriptural, but don't even think for a moment that God is pleased with someone who hates Him and who continually sins, in fact God is angry with the wicked on a daily basis, Psa 7:11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day. That means He is angry all the time; there is not a single moment in time when the children of wrath are not under condemnation; those who rely on their own righteousness are doomed.

Sometimes I go back and read some of the older posts in this blog; and I fear that I sound like a broken record, but that is something I can't help, I just write what is on my mind, the rest is just, well, history.

There is a guy, I think he is in China, who once in a while posts a comment, he did recently; I don't really know who he is, and I assume that he is my brother because he actually seems to agree with what I say; and you know what? That is very encouraging to me since sometimes I feel like I'm talking to the wall; but I am convinced that as long as this blog stays up, God will use it to bring the truth to people; at the same time I fear that sometimes I might not be saying the truth, or misrepresenting God and His character, and that really scares me. I don't want to confuse anybody or give the wrong impression about my Lord and My King; then on the other hand, God doesn't need me to say anything, He does not need me for anything, He is able to do what He wants with or without me.

Anyway; getting back to my babbling, you and I are depraved. Man, that sounds awful, but it is the truth; the truth is what God says is truth, and His word is truth, and His word says that we are depraved, how do you dispute that? In fact, such is the extent of our depravity that we think we are not depraved, we have such high thoughts and opinions about ourselves, it's pathetic. We are depraved and blind at the same time; we think we are luminaries in the center of our tiny universes, we think we shine like the sun until we look at the glory of God, then we become as a smoking flax, and darker than a shadow.

I know a few brothers that really think they are something; you can't even have a real conversation with these people, they are so self righteous. In order to have anything in common and have fellowship with them you have to put on the holy mask and pretend that you stand at their level of sanctity; your language has to be sprinkled with sanctimonious christianeese phrases, if you ask them anything in favor they'll tell you: "I'll pray about that brother"; whatever man, be warm, and be filled. Some of them flat out refuse, they pretend to be honest by telling things like "I hate moving", or "I have to work that day, I'm not sure but I'll let you know"; or if by plain conviction they come to help you move, they grumble and complain, at the end of the day they want to take your stuff in covetousness, or they just don't call you to "let you know". I'm ranting.

I'm not getting sarcastic, am I? But what is the deal? The deal is egotistical self-centered depravity, the depravity of the human heart. We all have one of those and it sucks big time. It is the leech crying out 'more, more'; it is never satisfied.

We need to wake up to the crude reality that the best we can ever come up with is nothing but filthy rags before God (Isa 64:6); just like Job says it: Job 10:15 If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look on my affliction. That is what we, (I should say 'I', it is only me probably), should exclaim and proclaim 'woe to me!' I need to be constantly reminded of this fact, as soon as I contemplate the glory of my King, I doubtless proclaim 'woe to me' (Isaiah 6:5); that is every day, by the way.

There are some that, at one point in time in their walk, will think that they have finally conquered the flesh; their deception is so big and so overtaking that they think that they can live a single day without sinning; yeah I think it is possible not to sin with actions and words for 24 hours, in fact the convents and monasteries around the world are filled with people who accomplish this everyday; but the heart remains the same; so no matter what we don't do, we still have the heart problem; that is where the sin dwells and defiles the individual:

Mar 7:18-23 And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?" And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."

If after reading the words of Jesus; the One who would not commit to man since He knew what was in man (John 2:25); and of Jeremiah (Jer 17:9); and of Paul (Rom. 8:7), etc, you still think that you have a little isle of righteousness inside of you, and that you can be pleasing to God by acting holy and righteous (apart from His working in you to will and to perform of His good pleasure); then I think that you are more depraved than you really think you are; and as The King of Kings says "you are still without understanding".

Going back to the knowledge of the nature of man, the lack thereof is rampant. Even in the pastoral setting is getting to the point of blasphemy; when I hear that due to the need of money to pay the bills of the church, the pastor and the people who are supposed to keep him accountable to the word of God; are resorting to creating "evangelical" seminars, that is, a class about how to bring people to the knowledge of Christ, so the church grows in numbers and therefore in financial resources; it makes me want to puke.

Their thinking goes like this: "we need money, people have money, so we need to bring people and then we will get more tithes and offerings, and we will be able to pay the bills; so let's go out there and evangelize the neighborhood and bring people to the knowledge of Christ, so that we can get more of their money; so we are going to teach you how to preach the "good news" so that you will be equipped to bring money,ehem, I mean, people. And by the way; if you are in ministry in this church, it is mandatory that you attend this class". Do you think for an instant that God is pleased with that kind of approach? I think it is offensive, it is blasphemous, and idolatrous. It is totally depraved thinking.

That is the 'business-like' approach to the good news that Jesus gave His life to save sinners from their depravity, and from the wrath of a Holy God who is angry with the wicked everyday. It is the multi-level marketing technique, you tell two, and those two tell other two each, and so on, until it multiplies until we have the church packed with people and of course, with money. Ok, let me cry out loud and vomit for a few minutes and I'll tell you know what I think about that. Incredible.

So what is wrong with that picture? In the eyes of the world, it is a good idea; ultimately it is people who have the money and it circulates throughout the pockets and wallets of the world, it is just good business sense; in fact this is exactly what network marketing does, and that is exactly what makes it problematic.

To start with, no one except our Almighty Creator and Ruler can save souls; no one can come to Him except through the Son, and no one can come to the Son except it is given unto him by The Father; that is not my idea but God's idea:

Mat 11:27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

It is on those two verses of scripture (there are more of course) that you can base your certitude that God saves whomever He chooses to save; it is all under His definite and absolute control; The Father chooses one before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), then He draws him to the Son (John 6:44), and the Son then reveals The Father to whomever He has chosen; it is beautiful, and awesome, and glorious.

So the moment that Christian people start thinking like pagans (maybe they have never stopped thinking like pagans), and making assumptions that they can bring people to Jesus, they err; but the moment these people think that they can bring others to the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ for the sake of gain, even to pay the bills, they blaspheme; I hope they carry an electrical ground at all times, there is a lightning storm coming their way. This is the point Jude makes: Jude 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

The pride, the arrogance, and the depravity of the human heart is amazingly deceitful; the natural mind thinks it can solve problems that only God Almighty can solve, such as paying the bills. The above not only applies to the organized church, but also to the individual Christian. I'm not saying that one should not work to pay the bills and at the same time trust in God for the supply, what I'm saying is that we cannot, should not, exploit the gospel for any type of financial gain; the gospel is free and it will remain free of charge, even though the cost is immeasurable because the Blood of Christ is more precious than any human mind can ever imagine or understand.

The drop that overflows the bucket is when a so called 'pastor' comes in the way of Balaam and tries to take the worship leader of a church away, this by offering him money; a year's salary up front; when I heard that, I almost vomited; this guy should not be a pastor of anything but goats. Money, greed, covetousness, idolatry, blasphemy, heresy, and everything that I can name that is opposed to godliness comes to my mind when I hear these kind of things are happening in the church.

What, do you think is wrong for a worship leader to be on staff, and get paid? Not at all; the worker is worthy of his wages, Paul is clear on that; but when this is done for the sake of personal gain it is demonic; straight from the pit of hell, that is what Jude calls the error of Balaam. I could elaborate and keep going on for hours about this kind of stuff; it is all sickening, and to me it is uttermost offensive to the Lord, I hope you see my point.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? That is Jeremiah 17:9. No human being on the planet and in all the history of humankind has come or can ever come to the knowledge of the depravity of the heart to it's full extent; that is what Jeremiah is saying, no one knows how deep and how far we have fallen, only God knows, it is a scary thought to be left there; this is what the gospel is all about, it is a rescue operation.

Eutychus and I had a conversation about this last night, people say: 'you're drowning in the middle of the ocean and God is throwing you a life saver, all you have to do is grab it and be saved', as if God was waiting for you to take action; but the true gospel says: 'you are dead at the bottom of the ocean, pulled down by the immense weight of your sin and depravity, and God sent His Son to dive in and pull you out, and give you mouth to mouth resuscitation and life, and He died doing that'. No life savers were used in the process; God doesn't need them, He does the work Himself, if there is any life saver at all, it is the cross of Jesus, period.

Okay, I am done for today; but there is a question that remains to be answered, every morning as you look at yourself in the mirror, do you see the face of a depraved individual; or do you see the face of someone who is righteous?

Have a nice day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

The letter

What would you write to someone who you know is to be murdered for holding on to the doctrines of grace?  Here is one short letter from such a man, he knows five brothers are to be martyred soon for not renouncing that salvation is the sovereign work of God alone:

We who are here shall do our duty in praying that He would glorify Himself more and more by your constancy, and that He may, by the comfort of His Spirit, sweeten and endear all that is bitter to the flesh, and so absorb your spirits in Himself, that in contemplating that heavenly crown, you may be ready without regret to leave all that belongs to this world.

Now, at this present hour, necessity itself exhorts you more than ever to turn your whole mind heavenward. As yet, we know not what will be the event. But, since it appears as though God would use your blood to seal His truth, there is nothing better for you than to prepare yourselves for that end, beseeching Him so to subdue you to His good pleasure, that nothing may hinder you from following whithersoever He shall call. . . . Since it pleases Him to employ you to the death in maintaining His quarrel, He will strengthen your hands in the fight and will not suffer a single drop of your blood to be shed in vain.

Your humble brother, John Calvin

A letter from John Calvin to five young Frenchmen about to be
martyred in 1553 for carrying the gospel into France.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

He alone

John 6:18-20 The sea began to be stirred up because a strong wind was blowing. Then, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and drawing near to the boat; and they were frightened. But He said to them, "I am; do not be afraid."

I remember the first time I read that account in the book of John I was completely blown away by that; twenty years ago I was reading in my office and came down to the front of the store I was managing, I looked at the attendant there and asked, almost screaming: "did you know Jesus walked on water"!? She probably thought I was crazy by the look in her eyes; but I wasn't crazy, I had just experienced a supernatural event, God in human form, the Almighty Son of the Living God had just reached down from heaven and touched my mind and my heart, and every single fiber in my being; He did it by walking on the sea.

I believed every single word I read; in fact I believe even more now after all this time than back then. I was a hungry baby in Christ yearning for the milk of the Word of God; for God Himself; now I am just a toddler seeking to fill my emptiness with some solid steak and potatoes; and He never disappoints me; I'm hungry and He knows I can't cook.

How can a man describe the greatness, and the splendor and the majesty of the King? How can I do that? What kind of words are there to use that would do justice to His holiness, and His power, and His everything? ....See? There are no words; every possible term I find, I find useless; there are no words, only tears get close sometimes but they are not loud enough.

I still believe. The reality of God has become the only reality worth living; He is the only thought worth thinking, the only drink worth drinking, the only meat worth eating; and the only goal that is worth pursuing; everything else is a waste of life and time; everything else diminishes His glory, it's vanity.

Jesus fed five thousand men, plus women and children; about twenty thousand people, the teachers say; and He fed them from five loaves of barley bread and two fish. I can either believe that or not, I can think that every person sitting there on the grass of that hill ate a tiny little grain of bread and a tiny little cell of a fish and was satisfied with it, or I can believe that every person there had more than enough to be stuffed with big chunks of bread and fish; it doesn't matter really, they were all satisfied and the left overs were twelve baskets full; there was more than enough, so much even to satisfy the dogs too.

I can see that in either case, whether He satisfied their hunger with one grain of bread and fish, or with a big piece of bread and fish, it is a miracle both ways. The amazing part of this story is the servanthood of Jesus; John 6:11 Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. As much as they wanted? I must think about that; I just ate a big piece of bread and some fish, and I want more, can I have some more? No problem, here, have some more; and you, you want some more? Sure, here.

Jesus the Son of God is serving the multitudes but they are ignorant of who it is that feeds them, this is He who is the Servant of all (Isa 53:11), and He is still serving all, even those who hate Him, yeah even the ones who blaspheme His name, He serves them by giving them life and making the sun rise over their heads. He serves the universe by upholding it by the word of His power (Heb 1:3); giving thanks unto the Father before doing anything; later on John refers to the place where lunch was served by Royalty not as "the place where He fed the five thousand" but as " the place where they ate the bread after the Lord had given thanks"; it is a subtle but important point, I almost missed it; the Lord had given thanks, you can draw your own conclusions.

How many times did Jesus break that bread and fish? Five thousand times? Twenty thousand times? Twenty five thousand? He kept on braking that bread and that fish until all the people were stuffed and could eat no more; this was no common fish sandwich; it was made better than gourmet food; this was heavenly food. A miracle is taking place right before everyone's eyes and all they can think about is "I'm still hungry, can I have some more?"

The people tried to make Jesus King later on in the story; but I ask myself what happened to the boy with the fish and the bread? What was he doing with the bread and the fish in that crowd? Was he trying to make some money? Was he on his way home and got sidetracked by the crowd? Were his parents part of the crowd? Were they looking for him? Was he just following Jesus? Who was this boy? John doesn't say who he was or where he came from, but Jesus knew him, He knew the boy was there, in fact He arraigned for that to happen. He knows me, and you.

John says that Jesus asked Phillip 'where are we going to buy bread for all these people'? "We need a lot of money to do that" Phillip said, but Jesus asked this to test him for he knew what He was about to do; isn't that peculiar? What kind of test was this? A test of faith? Why did He ask Phillip and not Peter, or John, or James? This is the same Phillip that Jesus looked for; John 1:43 The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, "Follow Me." Jesus came to this world to look for special people, His chosen ones; He looks for them, He purposed to go into Mexico City and found me; He does that all the time, in all places, at all times, and He uses those whom He finds to bring others to Himself.

The night falls and Jesus meets the disciples on the water, 'do not be afraid, I AM'; that is what He said when they saw Him walking towards the boat, I AM. For sure He is I AM; YHWH in the flesh, walking on the water as if on grass, as if on a carpet, I don't think He even got wet; and what happens when He gets in the boat? The boat was immediately where they were going, at the other side of the sea, just like that, no more rowing, no more toil, no more struggle, no more waves, and raging wind; no more explanations, it's another miracle.

That's the way I see this life sometimes, it's a struggle, I'm rowing, getting nowhere, I get scared, worried, anxious, and He searches me out, He comes into my boat, this little tiny spec of dust floating in the universe; He stills the storm in my mind; and then one day just like that boat, I will be there; this life is the storm that suddenly gets furious, but everything is cool because He is with me in my little boat.

John is making me think, he is making me ponder and wonder; he mentions the walk on the water in the middle of chapter 6, a chapter that is dedicated to bread; and then he doesn't mention it again in the whole chapter or the rest of the book, it is very interesting, but it is indeed part of the message; Jesus is the Bread of Life, and He is the ocean tamer. Do you sometimes doubt that He is going to bring you to the other side, like me? If you do, it is alright; He has the absolute control over everything that happens, all the events and all that ever comes to pass is in His Sovereign control, and your doubts are under His mighty hand also.

But there is more; now the crowd is seeking Him to make Him the King, but He is already the King and they don't see it; He brings them down to reality: John 6:26-27 Jesus answered them and said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal."

'You want Me because of the sandwiches'; He says, food is what is in their mind, the bread and the fish and the filling of their stomachs; 'hey we don't want to think about God and about how awesome He is, and about how rotten we are, we want free tacos and some entertainment, hey Jesus why don't you do another miracle so that we believe, we don't think feeding a crowd with crumbs is big enough sign....oh, we need to work? Ok, what kind of work do you want us to do? It's about lunch time and we're getting hungry again'. It sounds like some churches today; 'where are the doughnuts and the big screen tv?

John 6:29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."

You can't work for God; there is no action, no deed, not thought, no attitude, no motive; there is nothing in you, and there is nothing you can do except believe; and that my dear starving friend, is the work of God; it is exclusive to God alone, your belief is not something in you, you can't find it in your wicked heart and you will not find it eating chimichangas, and it will never be an act of your intellect, it is a spiritual work, and only God can do spiritual works.

John 6:30-31 So they said to Him, "What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? "Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.'"

They still don't get it, they want signs, they want wonders, and miracles, and a burrito to be comfortable, they want to be amused and they want to be fed; that is the natural man, he is the center of his own tiny universe, all the planets and the sun turn around him; his-self is what matters, he wants his mind to be at peace and he wants to be entertained, he wants to have fun, and he wants to be satisfied; in his puny worm-like mind God is only there to provide for his insatiable thirst and hunger and to cater to his depravity, he wants to fill his mind with amazing events, to be distracted from the painful and inescapable reality of having accountability to his Creator, and from the fear of death and hell. 'Do something for us and then we might believe'; as if they could obtain faith by their own strength. On top of that they throw the manna issue on His face; such is the arrogance of the heart.

Your miracle is not enough Jesus, our fathers ate for fourty years, breakfast, lunch and dinner; not just lunch; plus it was Moses who made it happen; you need to come up with something better than just feeding five thousand men, don't you know that Israel was a big crowd? Moses fed hundreds of thousands three times a day for fourty years, lunch is not enough miracle; now show us, what can you do? Make some t-bones rain down from the sky; we think you are a big Gennie; should we rub your tummy? These guys are out of control; they are almost mocking Him; or maybe not, but that is the way I see it...

So what does the King of Heaven say? John 6:32-33 Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. "For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world."

But these people still don't get it; they are totally in the flesh, they can't understand what Jesus is talking about; they think they are going to get fed now without having to move a finger; yeah, that would be nice; let's just sit on the grass again, and make it rain Jesus, make it rain food from heaven; now we're talking, we want that kind of bread, bread from heaven, ummm, delicious; angel's food, that should do for a season; or at least until we get bored with it, which won't be too long...maybe we will believe after we eat, or maybe not....

"It wasn't Moses who gave you bread out of heaven but My Father"; He is basically saying, look you got it all wrong; and you are blind, I am talking about bread that gives eternal life and you keep on thinking about your body. But is it not that the way we are without the Spirit of God?

But our Heavenly King is about to bring it all down, He is about to throw a bucket of iced water on their faces, with love and everything if you like; He is wise, He is awesome, and He is powerful, and He is talking about truths that are eternal; He is talking about Himself and His Father and how He gave His life to save some; even today people completely miss what He is saying, they read the words of God and keep on thinking about how to pay the bills or about the next big show on TV; and about "I'm hungry, a cheeseburger sounds good just about now, is that spot light on me? I think I'm important".

John 6:34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, always give us this bread."

What? Did they now turn spiritual and see the truth? Did they finally get it? Not at all; they are still thinking about bread from heaven; they still want to sit down and take it easy while the Creator of the Universe spoon-feeds them manna; in their minds they have found the king that will finally set them free from oppression and the Romans, they call their sloth "freedom", just like today; Jesus is just a "useful person". But the bucket is getting filled with icy water and chunks of fire.

John 6:35-40 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. "But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. "This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."

It is finally time for the bucket to start hitting their faces and their egotism; 'I AM the bread of life', not the bread you're thinking, it is Me, open your eyes, you're looking at it, you're looking at real life, eternal life, I am the only One who can satisfy your hunger and thirst, I'm the only One who can appease your craving for drugs and alcohol, and sex, and money and the things this world offers, and you see Me and don't believe; why is that? Because, He explains, 'all that the Father gives Me will come to Me'; and 'I came to do His will', and what is His will? The Father's will is that He, Jesus, will not lose a single one of those whom the Father gave Him. The bucket is flowing now...it's cold as reality.

John 6:41-42 Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven." They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does He now say, 'I have come down out of heaven'?"

First they were in agreement, 'hey we don't have to work anymore, He is going to feed us, He is finally going to make it rain food', and now they're grumbling, it's typical of the human heart; they grumbled; He told them that He is God already in chapter five and they tried to stone Him, and they still wonder, but the bucket is still flowing and it is about to spill it's last big icy chunks of fire and cold truth...

John 6:43-51 Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. 44 "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 "It is written in the prophets, 'AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. 46 "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.
47 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
48 "I am the bread of life.
49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
50 "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is My flesh."

Everyone of those statements deserves a verse number, did you notice that? God is in control even of the verse numbers in the bible; but that is besides the point, "no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him"; and that really means 'no one'. That is what grace is all about; that is what it means to come to Jesus, to believe in Him, to be 'drawn' by the Father unto His Son; drawn by the powerful exertion of God's mighty strength, by the magnificent work of His Spirit in the heart of men and women and children all over the world; and only those who are drawn to Jesus come to Jesus; they have been taught by God...

This completely destroys the argument that it is in men to draw close to God and to seek Him; it is impossible to come to Him and to believe in Christ unless God does the work in the heart and in the mind; and as I said in other posts, this kind of thing is all over the bible and people don't see it; today people are blinded by pride and arrogance, and even the teachers and preachers that are supposed to explain to the lay man what the word says, are blind and arrogant in sustaining that it is within the power of the human heart to believe in God in a saving way. They sustain and proclaim human self-determination and the power of the will, but where is this power when it is in fact God Himself who is drawing people to Jesus Christ? This power to believe is nowhere to be found except in God the Father working in the egos of His elect people.

Grace is nothing else but God working, God saving, God transforming, God regenerating, God sustaining, God sanctifying, God glorifying; it is to Him alone to whom glory and power and renown are to be ascribed, and to no one else. God is not waiting for any one to come to Him, no one can come to Him, that is what Jesus is saying here; He is not knocking and waiting at the door, He comes in whenever He wants and He is the one who opens the door from the inside, He alone has the key, period.

Jesus is the one who makes the crowd follow Him, He alone leads them to a hill with grass, and He alone is the one who makes them sit down, He alone has the plan, He alone is the one who brings the boy with the bread and the fish, He alone gives thanks, He alone multiplies it, He alone brakes it and passes it around, He alone gives the order to gather the fragments, He alone goes by Himself to pray, He alone gives the order to His disciples to cross the sea, He alone causes the storm and stills the storm, He alone can walk on water, He alone sustains that boat floating, He alone takes them to the other side, He alone is the supplier of bread, He alone is the bread, and He alone is eternal life. He alone is God, and God alone can do whatever He pleases whenever He pleases.

The bucket is never empty; it has flowed throughout thousands of years, and only those who are chosen are awakened by the truth and the fire of God's Spirit.

I need to go pack....


http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Faith...

Faith; either you have it or you don't.

I'm going through the book of Numbers and I'm having fun with it; I'm not trying to be irreverent to the Word of God, but it is fun to see how God is amazingly faithful to His promises.

One of the things I have noticed in this book is that God is faithful; no matter what the children of Israel do, He continues to sustain their lives, He continues to bless them with food, and water, and rainment; and the most amazing thing; He blesses them with His presence; He guides the with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

My limited 21 year long experience with the Lord of Heaven and earth; the Almighty King of Kings, (I love all the awesome titles God has, don't you?), is one of faithfulness, and mercy and amazing grace. Every morning, every single day, I taste and see that He is good; very, very good; words cannot describe the extent of His mercy, His grace, and His love; the more I walk with Him, the more I see how depraved I am, how unworthy and undeserving of Him listening to my cries for mercy; I am a man of unclean lips, I live in the midst of people of unclean lips; but He does not listen to me because of anything in me or because my prayers are spiritual or because they are special or because of the words I use; how could that be if I'm a man of unclean lips? He listens to my voice and my thoughts when I call on Him because of Jesus; nothing more.

Every morning I wake up in pain; to tell you the truth, sometimes I can hardly make it to the toilet; and when I finally come back to reality after three cups of coffee and a pill, I am amazed that I still believe. Now, that is supernatural. Faith is a supernatural gift.

The first mention of faith in my KJV is in the book of Deuteronomy; Deut. 32:20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

Froward here means perverse; they were a perverse generation, they had no faith; so my question is: if faith is a gift from God (Eph 2:8-9), does this mean that they were given no faith? My Galatian friends will tell me that they had faith, but they just did not make a commitment to believe and follow the Lord, so they perished because their lack of commitment; but I really don't think that is the case; it doesn't make sense from what I can see.

Faith is a divine gift; no man or woman has ever have faith in God on their own. You can have faith that the light will turn on when you flip the switch, or that your chair is going to stop your body from going all the way down to the floor if you sit on it; you can have faith in the force of gravity and believe that when you jump off a three story building you will hit the ground, and you better believe that you might die if you do that; that kind of faith is a natural ability given to man. But faith in God is a completely different matter; is a different kind of faith that only God can give; the bible is clear about it.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but here I go again with the same verses of scripture: Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (NASB). Just these verses alone prove that faith is a gift from God; I can base my whole theology on these verses alone, it is obvious but I can add some more to the list for example:

Psa 146:5-10 How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, Who made heaven and earth, The sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free. The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; The LORD raises up those who are bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous; The LORD protects the strangers; He supports the fatherless and the widow, But He thwarts the way of the wicked. The LORD will reign forever, Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the LORD!

Now you may say that I'm taking things out of context if you don't see what I see; but think about it; does God need faith? No He doesn't; why doesn't He need faith? Because He is the author and finisher of it: Heb 12:1-2 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The point is that when the scripture says Who keeps faith forever, it means that He is the One who is guarding your faith; that is what the original words means, to guard. So God is the one who is guarding your faith because your faith is a divine treasure that He gave you in the first place; if He left it up to you to guard your faith you would fail miserably and would stop believing as soon as you encounter the trials and tribulations that all people of faith inevitably encounter.

Sometimes I trip out when I hear people say things like 'the Lord believes in you'; as if He didn't know if you could live life in a certain way; it's amazing all the misconceptions people have about God, but anyway....that is the subject for another trip through my brain.

How can God give the command to Joshua to exterminate whole cities? They went into the towns that the children of Israel were supposed to conquer and possess, and there killed everything that moved; men, women, and children, yea even babies; Joshua was given direct command and he did it, without wavering.

By this time, YHWH's renown is so great that when Joshua sends spies to Jericho and are helped by Rahab the prostitute; this is what she says: "Joshua 2:8-13 Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof, and said to the men, "I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land have melted away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath. Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father's household, and give me a pledge of truth, and spare my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters, with all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death."

“Our hearts did melt ... for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath” She Knew that she was going to die if she didn't trust these guys and helped them. Where did her faith come from? And where did this terror that fell over the population come from?Her name is even quoted by James, and the writer of Hebrews as an example of faith, see: James 2:25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? and Heb 11:31 By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

What kind of works is James talking about? They could not be the works of the law since the law was given to Moses and Israel and not to any other nation, and the least the Canaanites. James says she was justified by works, and that means the actions proceeding from genuine faith, which in all cases is given by God alone.

Joshua 6:21-22 They utterly destroyed everything in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the harlot's house and bring the woman and all she has out of there, as you have sworn to her."

Did her faith save Rahab? No, God saved her through the faith He gave her; I don't see any other way; she was a prostitute and was not even part of the nation of Israel, she was a gentile, separated from the promises and the covenants. In fact she was so full of faith that she is even part of the genealogy of the Messiah, read the first chapter of Matthew if you don't believe it. Going back to my the point that I was trying to make; Joshua destroyed everyone, man and woman, young and old, the ox, the sheep and the donkey. Those were the instructions and that is what he did. What happened to those people, the inhabitants of Jericho? Was God not able to save them? How can that be if He is the one who ordered their destruction in the first place?

"Well, that was the old testament"; really? What about the Aztecs and the Mayas, and the Incas, and the Toltecs, and the Chichimecas? What about the American Indians? They never had a chance to hear the gospel. But let's not go that far; back in the old testament, what about the people of Egypt? What about the ones who drowned trying to cross the Red Sea? And what about the first born of Egypt that were slaughtered by the Angel of The Lord? What about today, even as we speak, there are thousands of people dying everyday that have never heard the gospel. You can argue all you want but the thing is clear; God did not save them, He destroyed them; or if it sounds better in your ears, He allowed them to perish.

God reigns in a way that is so big, and so infinitely wise, that our tiny little brains would go into shock if He showed us how He does things; personally I don't have to have an answer for everything I used to question; or for all possible questions this wicked heart can come up with; who cares. My God is in the heavens and He does whatever He pleases and I must shut it.

I think I am running the risk of going off on a tangential excursion; so I must return to the topic which at first prompted me to put my fingers on this keyboard, and which is faith, either you have it or you don't have it; that is, the kind of faith that is divine in nature and that only our King can dispossess us from and which, even though many doubts may assail our minds often, He will not revoke or take away.

Believing is not enough, as James puts it, even the devils believe and they shake in fear, which makes the matter obvious, that this faith which we possess by the operation of the Holy Spirit of God is not something that we can just get out of our own nature; but that by necessity must spring up from the Spirit of Christ which has been given unto us by Him.

Now just for kicks I'm going to quote from one of my favorite Johns, Calvin:

Faith is the special gift of God
in both ways, - in purifying the mind so as to give it a relish for

divine truth, and afterwards in establishing it therein.
For the Spirit does not merely originate faith, but gradually increases it,
until by its means he conducts us into the heavenly kingdom.
"That good thing which was committed unto thee," says Paul, "keep by the

Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us," (2 Tim. 1: 14.) In what sense Paul

says, (Gal. 3: 2,) that the Spirit is given by the hearing of faith,

may be easily explained. If there were only a single gift of the

Spirit, he who is the author and cause of faith could not without

absurdity be said to be its effect; but after celebrating the gifts

with which God adorns his church, and by successive additions of

faith leads it to perfection, there is nothing strange in his

ascribing to faith the very gifts which faith prepares us for

receiving. It seems to some paradoxical, when it is said that none

can believe Christ save those to whom it is given; but this is

partly because they do not observe how recondite and sublime

heavenly wisdom is, or how dull the mind of man in discerning divine

mysteries, and partly because they pay no regard to that firm and
stable constancy of heart which is the chief part of faith.

Now did that make any sense? Of course it did. Here we have one the most influential individuals of all time, he is up there with Luther and Augustine, and what is he saying, that faith is a gift, a divine gift; but it really doesn't matter what any body thinks or says, what matters is what God says in His word; but there are many out there that do not believe that the bible is the word of God, even when they say they do, they don't; and then those who really do, do not pay attention to what it says.

Psa 146:5-7 How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, Who made heaven and earth, The sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; Who executes justice for the oppressed; Who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free.

God; YHWH; The Almighty, is He who keeps faith forever, David says, and He is the one who gives food to the hungry and sets prisoners free; He sets you free from the law of sin and death when He puts His Spirit in you and gives you faith; He justifies you by the faith He gave you, and the Spirit of Christ applies His atonement to you, all at a great price: the precious blood of Jesus the Son of God. It's beautiful.

The children of Israel had already reached the promised land, they were about to enter it, and what happened? They rebelled against God by their unbelief and disobedience, only Joshua and Caleb believed but they rest of the spies did not, they actually aroused the people to stone these guys; then the Lord shows up and says: Num 14:11-12 The LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people spurn Me? And how long will they not believe in Me, despite all the signs which I have performed in their midst? "I will smite them with pestilence and dispossess them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they."

Was that a rhetorical question? "How long will they not believe?" God is saying this to Moses, He is about to destroy the whole nation and make a new one out of Moses; but Moses intercedes for the people and reminds God (as if He needed to be reminded of anything) that He is a compassionate and merciful God; and Moses says that if the people die then the Lord will get a bad name, wow, think about that man, to Moses the honor and renown of God are even more important than the people, as it almost appears to be, but he cares for these huge nation, about 2 million people. The interesting part of this part of the story is how God says that everybody will die in the wilderness because of their unbelief except Joshua and Caleb, in fact God says that Joshua has a different spirit: Num 14:24 "But My servant Caleb, because he has had a different spirit and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land which he entered, and his descendants shall take possession of it.

What kind of spirit did Joshua have? He believed God while the people did not. Where did his faith come from? From the same person from whom Rahab's faith came from: YHWH. Was He not able to give them faith? Think about it; all they have done is to not believe, to grumble and complain, and now it's getting worse, they were about to enter into their rest and God sends them to wander around in the desert for another 40 years until everyone above 20 years old at the time is dead; the only logical conclusion in my mind is that these people did not have faith because God did not give them faith; I don't see any other option.

Just as in the story of Lazarus and the rich man; the rich guy is in hell and asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers about this place of torment: Luke 16:27-31 "And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers--in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "But Abraham *said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Imagine that; the children of Israel had Moses face to face; saw the miracles and the wonders of God in Egypt and still didn't believe; and Abraham is saying that even if a man rises from the dead they will still not believe. Why? How is it that people do not believe even when they see someone come back from the death?

My number one John favorite; the apostle whom Jesus loved; says this in his gospel: John 12:37-41 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?" For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, "HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM." These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.

This is the same case scenario that the people of Israel were in in the book of Numbers, and Exodus, and Leviticus, etc.; they saw the miracles and the signs and the wonders and their heart remained hard as a stone, they were enemies of God by nature; they could not indeed be subject to His law, they were people in whom there was no faith.

Here is Isaiah seeing a vision of the Throne Of God; he has become undone at the sight of the glory of God; at the sight of His Holiness; he has just pronounced a woe unto himself when he realized how filthy he really was; he had a personality crisis, his lips were dirty, he was all dirty, unholy; but God cleanses him: Isa 6:6-10 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven." Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.' "Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed."

I'm done; faith is a gift from God and there is nothing you can do to get it; either God gives it to you, or He doesn't; either you have it or you don't.

I need a ham sandwich.


http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Save me...

If God does not save me; no one can save me. If God does not cleanse me; no one can cleanse me; if God does not heal me, no one can; and if He does not sustain my life no one else can. To be powerless is the ideal state of a child of God in this world.

I can't make the earth turn on its axis; or make the sun rise in the morning; I can't display the stars in the sky at night, or make the comets run through the heavens; I lift up my eyes to the dark sky and what do I see? The same stars that were there last night are there tonight, they are there every night, blinking at me; as The Lord asked Isaiah; who created all these? He who calls out the starry host one by one and knows them all by name; it is because of His great power and mighty strength that not one of them is missing.

The Lord God; the King of Heaven and earth; my God is a mighty warrior, and He has fought this war for me, His love and His standard of victory waves over my head; He will stop the floods, He will shake the ground, His feet will melt the mountains and split the valleys in two; His voice will make everyone tremble in fear; but as for me, I will cry out and trust in Him; He is my rock and my fortress, my strong tower; my tower of power; my pillar of fire; my city of refuge.

Our God reigns; my God does whatever He pleases in heaven and on earth; the oceans obey His voice, they stay within their limits; they follow the voice of His command, and He gives life to whom He pleases. Our God reigns and He is amazing, in awe do I trust Him, and my heart bows before Him; He is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and full of compassion, as a father pities His children, so the Lord has mercy upon me, He remembers that I am dust.

Oh that I might dwell in His courts forever, may I delight in the beauty of His holiness, and may He cleanse my lips and save me.

There is nothing more to say.


http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Are you Justified?

One more time I get reminded of the lack of doctrinal understanding that is pervasive through the church today; and when I say the church, I mean the members as individual components, the bricks of the house that God is building, namely us; the brethren and the sisterhood; the hands and the feet and the fingers and the legs; all because we don't know where our Head is; the mouth speaks things that the Head is not intending to say; it comes out transversed.

Who knows what this guy is talking about? He says one thing and we understand another; just like Eutychus says, we speak a different language....yeah maybe, maybe you need to get off the wine and you could probably understand what I'm talking about; I'm just saying...

I am not at all hung up on doctrine; but I think that if doctrine is not correctly understood, it minimizes the work of our Saviour; people take it the wrong way, or better said people don't understand, and therefore the pains and the carnality of the flesh abide.

It is amazing how simple this doctrine is, and at the same time how complicated men make it to be; the surprising thing is that people who think they understand, or who say they do; show by their words and actions that indeed they do not understand at all. The deceitfulness of the heart, and of sin, is so inbred in the human heart and in the mind, and pride so prevalent, that it clouds the light; it is like a curtain covering the window of the soul.

Works of righteousness and of love; are necessary for the expression of faith; of necessity they are the evidence that a man has been justified, and obedience is crucial; this is obvious from the word of God; we cannot claim to be justified by faith without the evidence being redundantly evident. The problem is that the focus constantly changes from the object of faith to the evidence of faith; that is where the misunderstanding lies in. Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:20-21 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

There is clear distinction between the commandments of men and those of Jesus; Jesus commandments are simple; Love God with all you heart, soul, and strength; and love others as yourself. Mat 22:37-40 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The second is like it; it is basically the same, as you love your neighbor you are loving God; it is the same essence, agape.

On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." These commandments are impossible to do on our own strength; but that is what justification achieves for us among other things, this is because to love God as God must be loved, with perfect love, we need to be righteous in the first place, only that way is it possible for a man to love God with the love that He gives, which is the only kind of love that is acceptable to Him; agape.

This exercise of godliness is basically the exertion of God's love being reflected back to Himself from a righteousness that belongs to Him, and that has been imputed unto us by Jesus Christ's obedience and atonement; it is only in this righteousness that obedience is possible to fulfill this commandment. When God the Father looks at me, He sees the righteousness and obedience of Christ; Jesus has covered me with His righteousness, His obedience included, and He is the mirror that reflects His glory to the Father.

To love God with all our heart, and our soul, and our heart is impossible for the natural man; for the man outside of the covenant, the new covenant; but that is the standard that has been set for us all; the unattainable standard of the righteousness of God; who can love God this way? And how do we show love if not by actions and works of love and righteousness; starting with the thoughts? It is impossible.

Mark 10:27 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God."

The previous scripture is Jesus speaking about how it is so hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of God; He says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich guy to enter His kingdom; but this has nothing to do with obedience, it has to do with the condition of the heart; this young rich ruler that just came to see Him claimed he was obedient to all the commandments; but he was an idolater; he placed more worth on his possessions than in keeping the commandments, and on God, and that was the issue.

If you want to say that the young ruler did not want to obey Jesus and that is why he didn't get saved, then I'm sorry but I think you're off on a trip; read the story again and see for yourself; but this is just another indication that the mind set on works is all about thinking that there is always something you must do to be pleasing to God, but there is nothing you can do to be pleasing to Him; it all has to be done for you by Christ.

John 15:9-12 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

How is Jesus loved by the Father? By keeping His commandments. Notice here how Jesus condenses, or summarizes all the Father's commandments into a single one; that is the cause of the joy that is full; this is the joy of Jesus, He kept His Father's commandments; it is a joyful thing to know that Jesus was obedient to keep all the commandments and that now only one commandment abides; to love God with all that you are, and to love one another; and that is the joy that He has given us.

For the justified, there is no way out of love; you can't help but love; that is if you belong to Christ and if you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. If you read Ephesians chapter one you will discover that it is God the Father the one who chose you before the foundation of the world; He predestined you to adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself; so that once you have been adopted as a child of God you share all the qualities and characteristics of the Son, you bear the mark of the family; which is holiness. It is important to know and understand that when I say 'share the characteristics and qualities of the Son', I'm not saying that we are as divine as He is, even though we partake of the divine nature though His promises (2Pe 1:4) we are still who we are: sinners saved by grace; what I'm saying is that there is an exchange of righteousness for sin, and sin for righteousness, and this has been executed through imputation and by His atoning death; His death and resurrection is what validated our acceptance before God, as I say somewhere else; when Paul says that we have been accepted in the beloved; that is what justification achieves also, acceptance to God through Jesus.

1Corinthians 14:37 "If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord". Do you think yourself to be a spiritual man? Then you must acknowledge Paul's writings as inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore to be God's thoughts and instructions, His commandments.

Col 2:20-23 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.

There is a great difference between the commandments of God and the commandments of men; the commandments of men are usually negative commandments, as in 'touch not', handle not', 'taste not'; men usually want other men to do what they say, or to not do what they say not to do; they will tell you to not do something with the view of denying yourself in neglect of the body or your appetites, but this, says Paul, doesn't help in the satisfying of the flesh, in other words the flesh still craves for that which is prohibited, it is all false humility; but the commandments of Jesus are most of the time positive, love one another, love God with all your heart, abide in Me, be of good cheer, and so on.

Saying this I will get misinterpreted for sure; but I don't care, I am making a point; of course there is a negative commandment from our Savior: do not fear, and there might be others, like 'do not be like the scribes and Pharisees'; but the point is that He condensed the whole law and the prophets in two commandments: love God first and then your neighbor as yourself; and these He has fulfilled for us; that is what has been imputed unto us through His death and resurrection, through His atonement.

Love your neighbor as yourself; what He is saying is that we already love ourselves the way we should love others, so it shouldn't be so hard to do, but in reality, the flesh is self-centered and deceitful, we love ourselves so much that we by nature don't care about others, so the only way to love others is by picking up a cross and nailing yourself to it, to die. This is to die voluntarily, just as Jesus said He loved us, how did He love us? By keeping His Father's commandments, and then dying on that cross to atone for us; which was one of the commandments given by His Father; His death was an act of obedience.

See, keeping the commandments of the whole law was not enough to justify us, otherwise He would have not died by laying His life down on His own accord; but He needed to die, in fact that is the only reason He became a man, to die. Becoming a human being was the only possible way in the universe for the Son of God; Immanuel, The Great I am, to taste death, otherwise it would be impossible for God to experience death in Himself; His death and resurrection accomplish our justification; this is deeper than our tiny little brains can ever understand. But we don't need to understand this, we need to be in awe.

The righteousness that has been imputed unto us in justification includes the obedience of Christ; people think that His righteousness was enough for us to have a right standing with God, and it is, but this righteousness must be defined by obedience; that is how righteousness is defined, in the perfect obedience of Christ.

That is what being justified implies; take a look at Paul's writings; for example these:
Philippians 2:3-13 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

First of all; we see the obedience of Christ in His humiliation; from being God in glory to becoming a man; that alone is a mind boggling act; there is the necessity for the mediator between us and God must be God Himself in the Person of the Son; it would not work any other way since all men are fallen and are born into sin, so then after becoming a man, He was obedient and became a slave; the usual translation for duolos is bond-servant, but that really doesn't carry the full weight of the word as if you say slave; being the King He became a slave, this is another mind boggling statement because we really don't understand what it is to be a King like Jesus; that image goes beyond our modern understanding of Kingship.

Do you remember Isaiah when in chapter six of his book he sees the Lord seated on the throne? The train of His robe filled the temple with glory, he says, Jesus is this kind of King; infinitely majestic and grand, what Isaiah saw was the King of Heaven high and lifted up; filling the whole universe with His glory; what a sight!! There these angelic beings, the seraphim, are even covering their eyes and feet because the cannot look straight into the Holiness of God; all they can do is cry to each other: Holy, Holy, Holy!! No one else but the Son of God, the King of Glory can seat on that throne; this is our Majestic King who became a man; and then He was obedient to the point of death, the most shameful and cruel form of punishment known in the world at that time. For this reason God exalted Him above everyone and everything, and gave Him the name that is above every name; what is the name that is above every name? There is only one name that is above all, and it is not Jesus, the name above all others is YHWH; the ineffable name of God. But that is just my trip, you can ignore me if you like.

Second of all; Paul says, have this attitude which was also in Christ Jesus and so on; this is where the rubber meets the road, as they say; this is the vital test of the justified, humility; and what is this humility? To consider others better than yourself, that was the attitude which was also in Christ, and this my dear friends is what requires a change of the mind, which in all cases is impossible for those who are not walking in the Spirit. This is the never ending story of the inner war between the Spirit and the flesh, note that the Spirit is not your own, it is God Himself working in you; and you must willfully and obediently yield to Him; which is also impossible if you are not His slave and don't abide in His word.

John 15:5-7 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

John 15:16-17 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that ye love one another.

Jesus chose you, and He has ordained that you should go and bear fruit; there is no escape from that reality; you will bear fruit; He will win. That word there,'appointed, or ordained'; means exactly that, He will make it happen.

In a careful study of obedience; the bible many times relates obedience with faith; in a sense, obedience equals believing in regards to the gospel; do that on your own and see for yourself; for example; Rom 6:17-18 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness; a slave does what he is told, period. You were obedient here means you believed, doesn't it? And this; Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? And this; Gal 5:7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? Obey the truth? Believe the truth? Which is it?

Here is another one; 2Th 1:8-10 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day. Here is one more; 1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Those who do not obey are contrasted with those who do not believe; that is my point, do you see what I'm talking about? Believing means obeying in these texts, what else can it be? And this believing and obeying is what has been granted to us; it can be no other way, but the modern Galatian will tell you that it is not so; that you still need to try; try what? It is been done already, it is accomplished by the work of Christ, and "trying" will only minimize the work of Jesus.

1Jn 2:3-6 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. And this is precisely what I was saying about being obedient; if you abide in His word, you will know Him, and you will walk in a manner that is pleasing to Him, you have no choice.

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

1Jn 3:21-24 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

Now do you see what is happening here? Jesus says that the commandment are to Love God with all your soul, heart and strength; and to love your neighbor as yourself; but John, 'the disciple who Jesus loved', says the commandments are to believe in the name of the Son of God and to love one another; nothing trippy about it since believing in Jesus is basically loving God, right? But then, he says that those who keep His commandments abide in Him, and how do they do that? By the Spirit whom He has given us; so it is all His work, I hope you can see that through the nebula of pride that usually clouds the eyes of the heart.

1Jn 5:2-5 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

The whole thing is beautiful, and pride-destroying. Justification by faith alone in Christ alone means that you have been justified by the faith God gave you; and in this justification you have been imputed with His righteousness and obedience; you no longer have to perform for God; you no longer have to try to do anything; your standing before God Almighty is that of a just man; you are now a slave to righteousness and your King is pleased with you because of His Son.

So the final question is: are you justified? Do you understand who you are in Christ?


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It just happened....

I just killed a huge mosquito; it was so big that I had to write about it, I actually changed its name to mosquitote it was so big......is it bad to kill insects? If it's wrong to kill and squash spiders and mosquitoes, and ants, and flies and cucarachas; why can't I stop doing it? If it is okay to kill them, is it wrong to do it with pleasure? Would it be better if I did it in disgust? Ooh my goodness!! There's another one!! Is it mosquitote season? What am I gonna do? Oh my.....I will have nightmares tonight.

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Tell me that I'm wrong....

Jesus is infinitely awesome; I have been thinking about Him most of the day, and the more I think about Him, the more I want to think about Him; it's beautiful. I am not boasting at all that I am some kind of super saint or that I came from some holy place somewhere in the mountains or the desert; not at all; I'm not saying either that I can do this on my own and I purposefully decided to think about Him as much as I have; on the contrary, He made it happen; and that is what I call grace, sovereign grace. That's the reason I'm saying that Jesus is infinitely awesome.

I have a bible on the dinning table; and it's already open, so every time I sit down to eat, which is at least a couple of times per day; my eyes go to the book automatically; this way I'm feeding my flesh and my spirit at the same time; the same way, I have a bible on my coffee table in the living room, I have more than one in the garage, I have one on my little table in the backyard for the morning coffee so it is the first thing that enters my eyes every day, I have one right next to my pillow so it is the last thing that enters my brain through my eyes before I pass out; I have 32 different versions of the Word of God in my laptop and the same amount in my main computer in my bedroom, and I have several of them in my cell phone; I cannot escape it, no matter where I am or where I go.....but again; this didn't happen because I wanted it that way, yes for sure I made the decision to open the bible and set it on the table (and in all the other places I mentioned) so I can read it when I eat, when I wake up and when I go to sleep; Jesus is the one who gave me the desire to place all these bibles everywhere; and He is the one who set my finances the way they are because I can't afford cable television (I could probably spend the money on it and eat less, I guess), so I don't watch TV, otherwise I would probably be watching the tube while I eat; so it is a blessing to not be able to watch television. Little by little I've lost interest on the tube of lies.

On the other side, I don't think cable TV is worth the expense, there is really not very much being broadcasted that interests me; I really don't know what is being transmitted anymore because I haven't watched that particular screen in a very long time, I guess 9 months is a very long time; but that is pretty much irrelevant to what I was thinking, I don't want to spend time talking about TV unless I start to rail it, anyway...Jesus put me in this position; it is all His doing.

Ok, I was reading the book of Acts in the ESV Study Bible; which is very cool; and there is a very interesting little chart about the sovereignty of God in salvation; the chart has 15 different verses in which is evident that God reigns, and that He is the author and finisher of salvation.

Acts 2:22-24 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know--this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Did you see that? God delivered Jesus to be killed. It says that He was crucified by the hands of lawless men, but the Father delivered Him according to His plan and foreknowledge; and Jesus willingly laid down His life. This totally destroys the notion that God foreknew that you would have faith so He chose you based on your choice; if you don't see that and still want to argue, you are on your own. When some pastors say that God foreknew you were going to make a choice for Him and that He predestined you based on that future choice; they make the work of God your work; this robs God of His glory, but as you can see in this verse that is not the case.

Act 2:39-41 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Who is doing the saving here, are they saving themselves really? Or is God doing the saving by calling them to Himself? It is obvious, but even if you want to say they did it; who added the three thousand souls to them? We'll see how it is that these men and women 'received' his word, just be patient. Plus it is very cool that my children are included in the promise; what a blessing.

Act 2:46-47 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Just in case it wasn't clear; here Dr. Luke makes it forceful and is very specific 'The Lord added to their number those who were being saved'; it is obvious that the Lord is doing the saving and He is adding people to their number, is it not? Man never makes the choice to be chosen.

Act 3:14-19 But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name--by faith in his name--has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. "And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled.
Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.....

The faith in His name...the faith that is through Jesus has given this man....faith is the power of God, remember 1Peter 1:5? God does save and gives faith to those He calls; God foretold and fulfilled; is His action in the scheme of history; when God says that something is going to happen it happens; the prophets were not merely making assumptions or projections as contingencies, they were affirming what God would do. And He did it; which makes another point about God declaring an event to come to pass infallibly; God's decrees are eternal and fixed in the history of the universe; when God foreknows something He is decreeing it will happen; His foreknowledge makes the event certain to happen.

Act 4:27-28 "For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose predestined to occur.

God works through men to accomplish His purposes; and His predestination is everywhere; in fact you were predestined to read this blog; I was predestined to write whatever I am writing now, and it is happening for the glory of His grace.

Act 5:14-16 And all the more believers in the Lord, multitudes of men and women, were constantly added to their number, to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and pallets, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

Such was the extent and power of their faith, that they even believed that Peter's shadow would heal the sick;it is obvious that as verse 12 says, signs and wonders were performed by the hands of the apostles to validate the fact that the gospel message was indeed of divine origin. It is not clear if people actually received healing by being overshadowed by Peter as he walked by; but the context seems to indicate that it was so. This reminds me of that woman who believed that if she touched the hem of Jesus' garment as He walked by, she would be healed; and she did; did her faith heal her? Jesus said it did, but it wasn't her faith but the object of her faith through her faith.

Could this be the fulfillment of Jesus' words to His disciples? John 14:12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. And remember Paul's story? Act 19:12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

There is always a risk of people believing that things have power to heal or to do some supernatural work; and the naive and ignorant are always the prey of those who ruthlessly fleece the flock by taking advantage of their sufferings. I remember watching a guy on TV who called himself a Christian, it was actually one of those name-it and claim-it heretics on the TBN Trinity Broadcasting Network ; asking people to send him money in exchange for a vial of 'holy' water that would heal their diseases.; when I saw that, it really made me angry that people would actually sent this guy their money; same kind of racket the temple traders had going on in Jerusalem when Jesus overturned their tables and kicked them all out.

Act 5:29-32 But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. "He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. "And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him."

Act 11:17-18 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?" When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life."

In both places the action of God is to give, to grant repentance; repentance is a change in the mind; to think differently, to ponder in a different way. How is this worked out in the mind? If the mind is by nature opposed to the law of God, and it is not in subjection to it, indeed it cannot be (see Romans 8), how is it possible that men repent? How do they change their minds? In this case it is God who is changing their minds; it is the operation of the Holy Spirit in the mind, in the heart; a dead man in sin cannot think on his own, he cannot see the truth of his condition; of necessity he needs a new mind and only God can give it to him; God creates a new heart and then the new heart thinks new thoughts, it is not possible any other way; and it is in the way that The Lord is sovereign over the thoughts of man. Pro 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

Act 13:47-48 For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, "'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'" And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

God has appointed some to life; it is evident that He has not appointed everybody to eternal life since not everybody is saved; this is what we can observe in daily experience and also from the word of God, as in Revelation 19:20 And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

Is God The Almighty unable to accomplish His desires? Our God reigns in the heavens and in all the earth; He does whatever He pleases; and it is obvious that those who end up in the lake of fire are not there because God could not save them; they rebelled against God and hardened their hearts against Jesus and the gospel so God let them have what they wanted, no life. He chooses whom to save and whom to leave in their corruption; that is what the bible teaches and it is very clear to me.

Act 15:7-9 And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith.

Peter is clear; God made a choice among them that by his mouth the gentiles would hear the word of God, the gospel, and believe; it is by grace through faith that we are saved, and the proof is the Holy Spirit in the believer; bringing the faith by which their hearts are cleansed. What is the heart cleansed form? Sin, and iniquity and transgression, and law breaking; this is the circumcision of the heart, this is the new birth; and this is the cleansing agent, faith; the faith that God produces in the heart and in the mind, the faith that is being used to keep us until the last day of our miserable lives, the day when Jesus Christ will be revealed either by death in this body or by His coming to us; a glorious day.

Act 16:13-14 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

When you hear the gospel and you think is true, it is not yourself that is seeing this on your own volition; God has opened your heart to receive the message as the truth, just as He did with Lydia, He is the one who allows you to see that you are a sinner and that you need a savior; He is in absolute control of your status either for death or for life.

The hardness of man's heart is such that sometimes it takes several years to finally realize that God is sovereign; we believe it in our minds, intellectually, but it really doesn't register until God, at the appointed time, opens your eyes and lets you see it; that is the work of God, the work of the Spirit; the triune God works in you. Therein lies His amazing gentleness and compassion for us wretched worms.

The mystery that has been hidden for ages has finally been revealed to the saints; God has revealed this to His people using His people and for His glory; the mystery is no longer a mystery for those who have been called, it is wide open for all to see; that I consider to be His grace. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for all those who believe; and those who believe are those who have been called; and the called are those who have been predestined, and the predestined are those who have been chosen.

Col 1:27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is our hope of glory; Christ in us; do you have hope? Do you hope that one day, when you least think it, you will see the King? Do you hope that you will see Him as He is? I do.

Joe 2:32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.

The Lord calls and you respond; there is no resistance, there are no objections, no ifs, no buts, no nothing; when He calls you you have no options; He is the only possible choice you can make; your free will has been obliterated; you now have a real choice that you really want to make; the inclination of your heart has become a godly desire and you now see Christ as the only possible way to keep on living; you have been born again by the word of God which abides forever.

1Pe 1:20-25 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Tell me that I'm wrong.....or tell me that God reigns....


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