A curse devouring the earth

The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away, the haughty people of the earth languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore has the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.    Isaiah 24:4 thru 6

A good strong conscience or a seared conscience?

How do you tell the difference, and who decides?

I’m referring to the Miss USA controversy.

What if the whole ‘christian’ culture weighing in on the issue have themselves, to some degree or another, a defiled conscience : a redefined conscience, one that has undergone some readjustment or downgrading?

Would Carrie strut her stuff in her skimpy bikini before the Throne of God? Would she feel any shame at all about doing that?

And some of her critics and supporters actually make a money making business out of their ‘ministries’, or are hired and salaried spokesmen for God, which is criminal activity before the Throne of God.

So, for both things to happen, they must not be living in relationship to Jesus of Nazareth, the God of the Bible.

Hold your head up…

… if you’re walking with Jesus with a pure conscience. Not in a proud way, but in the knowledge that Christ has justified you therefore you will never allow any person, or their demons, to intimidate you.

We should be able to look anyone square in the eye. We should be able to walk into any situation with confidence : not above people, but not beneath them either. We are more than conquerors thru Him who loved us, therefore we should walk and live in the world as more than conquerors, never apologizing for our faith; never timid or intimidated.

When depression comes..

… , and it will from time to time, don’t seek relief from it. Rather, seek to be found believing. If we are occupied with believing Jesus, rather than seeking relief and comfort, He will comfort us : it will be the real comfort of the Holy Spirit, which is obtained by faith. Any other comfort is a false comfort. If we seek our own comfort we get a false comfort, if anything at all. The comfort or help / paracletos of the Holy Spirit always results in deliverance. There is no other way or deliverance other than by faith,  Eph. 6:16.

None of us are immune from being oppressed by the enemy, and from particular seasons of it. Jesus wants us to continue trusting and believing Him IN the trial, and He is glorified and His glory is revealed in us; in fact, that a person can trust Jesus while going thru depression IS the glory of God.

Jesus is ALL. For His saints it only really matters that He is alive and He is faithful; our sufferings for righteousness don’t really matter too much to us bcos our eyes are on Jesus. His grace IS sufficient.

Our faith is precious to Him and that matters more than how we feel. He knows how we feel. We should be more aware of trusting Him than aware of seeking relief from our suffering.

Jesus earned our Salvation

For he that is entered into His rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Hebrews 4:1o

God worked and God rested from His work. Jesus worked, earned our Salvation, and He accomplished that work, and has entered into rest from His work, and is seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling. He is no longer working,  He has sat down, but He  IS ruling.

Accordingly, His people do enter into His rest : they don’t work, but they DO rule. They are not working, as in earning; they are ruling, as in a place of authority. Jesus Christ earned our Salvation on the cross, and we live by His authority over sin, the devil and the world. The Christian life is about authority, not about earning anything. It’s about being seated, by His placement, together IN  Christ now at His Father’s right hand, and not about trying to ascend up from this earth. God put us there, IN Christ, in a place we could never reach.

But we would be wrong to think that entering His rest means we are on some sort of spiritual vacation.

In Christ Jesus we have His Conqueror’s and Victor’s authority over sin, the devil and the world.

Preach the forgiveness of sins

Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Acts 13:38,39

This is the heart of the gospel message and the elementary truth which separates the true Gospel from the religions of the world : the forgiveness of sins.

When we preach the forgiveness of sins we are preaching the certainty of anyone obtaining their forgiveness from God thru faith in His Son.

Forgiveness is  something one person extends to another, and the forgiveness of God is extended to the one who truly believes only on the basis of the death of His Son, as the propitiation for our sins. Forgiveness, therefore, is so definite, so absolute, with nothing vague about it, bcos it is God Himself who is extending it, not man earning it or generating it within himself. What i mean is that forgiveness is something acutely personal, between persons, and not a force, power or principle.

The forgiveness of God is a great wonder to me and the source of  deep inner joy, peace and confidence. That He has forgiven me all my sins, which are many, is a truth that i ponder much on, with thankfulness.

Do you know that God has personally forgiven you all your sins, thru the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ? If so, tell the world that they can be forgiven thru faith in Christ Jesus : wonderful and complete forgiveness is still available.

Do you really want to know Jesus?

…and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death…

May this be the supreme desire of our heart, our occupation, and our most preeminent prayer:

Father, that I may know Christ Jesus my LORD.

LORD Jesus, that I may know you.

A note on the LORD’s Prayer

LORD, teach us how to pray.  

Jesus’ response, the LORD’s Prayer, is essentially a glimpse into the Father’s heart. We have to see it that way, and not as a mechanical  how to  manual on prayer.

It means : THESE are the things which are in the heart of the Father.  Teach us how to pray?  You mean, you want to know what is in the Father’s heart, so that you can pray according to His heart, and according to His order.

Then, the LORD’s prayer becomes a journey into the heart of the Father, and we willingly and joyfully AGREE with His heart’s desires and will, and pray, on earth as it is in heaven..

Relating to the Person personally

God made us in His image : persons, to the end that we would relate to Him as a Person. Therefore everything which relates to the Person is PERSONAL, and relates personally. Not legal and legally, nor mechanical/technical – that is, a utilitarian relationship – relating to God only as a vendor of things, no matter how good those things are, and no matter how ‘good’  one’s  intentions are. It’s impossible for God to relate to man on those terms, therefore it’s also impossible for man to relate to God on those terms, even if he thinks he does relate to God on those terms, in reality, he doesn’t, bcos God does not reciprocate or fellowship on the wrong terms.

We cannot spiritually, from our heart/spirit, relate to any ‘thing’ other than His Person, and here we draw the dividing line between the relationship we have with Him, in Christ, as dear children, and all idolatry – every manifestation of it, whether subtle or overt.

Any part of the course of our life, any motivation, which does not relate to and honor the Person, is idolatrous by nature. All religious dead works spring from a denial of the Person of Christ Jesus and His Father.

Strivings in the flesh and dead works of the flesh – you name it,  are the result of not honoring the Father and the Son as a Person/s   :  Indicative of this is ‘prayerlessness’ –  too busy to pray,  and that’s idolatry : something other than the Person is calling the shots and determining your life, namely, YOU.

Seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Value a person today

Pause to consider their worth before God. Try and understand what Jesus thinks about them – where they stand before Him ; considering your own self as well, that is, it may be easy to acknowledge our own worth before the Father, but a little harder to equally acknowledge the worth of others, and this Godly appreciation of others hinges on the strength and depth of our relationship and common-union with Christ Jesus our LORD.

Consider the road they’ve travelled, being mindful of the road you’ve travelled, out of sin and darkness and into His marvellous Light : stand in their shoes for a moment.

Jesus Christ is UNIQUE

..and His people, His Body, also have a share IN HIS uniqueness  : as He is unique, so are His people, in relation to the world : He is Holy and we are His holy people in Him, which means something totally OTHER than this world, and to what we once were in the world.

But we must never try and be different to try and prove anything – things which our LORD Jesus did not do and attitudes/postures which He did not have.

We live and die unto the LORD

For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself : For whether we live, we live unto the LORD : and whether we die, we die unto the LORD : Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the LORD’s.   Romans 14:7-8

Let this truth settle every matter and resolve every tension or anxiety within you. Live unto the LORD, and not unto yourself or your flesh. Let it resolve every outstanding issue you might have with other brothers and sisters in Christ : at the least, every matter will be resolved IN you, for how can they be resolved outside of you if they’re not first resolved IN you?

 Note the context of these verses:  How to relate with brethren who have differing convictions concerning things which are non-essential to salvation ; things which accompany salvation.

Our personal happiness or the glory of God – which gospel ?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2609149243719622443

The second half contains a profound talk from Paris Reidhead concerning the difference between false humanistic ‘çhristianity’ and a true relationship to Jesus Christ.  The first brother is Campbell, who was in the Hebrides Revival.

Be REAL

GOD is REAL, heaven and hell is real, THEREFORE it behooves US TO BE REAL, to GET REAL, concerning Jesus, while we can, while we have this brief opportunity.

This is the time we remember…

..  Jesus’  death and…         NO! 

As often as you partake of the bread and the wine you proclaim Jesus’ death until He comes;  ALWAYS remembering His sacrifice.

Why set up a parallel religion to Judaism – they having the Passover, we having Easter?

Maybe we don’t partake of the Table of the LORD as often as the early church did bcos His death, His cross, is not at the forefront of our minds, together, corporately.

BUT, it’s gotta be IN the Spirit, and not a scheduled day on the calendar. The answer is not to make a law concerning it, yet, it’s absence reveals an underlying  spiritual poverty.

Hallelujah

The LORD God omnipotent reigns.

The LORD is round about His people forever

Psalm 125

They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever. For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.

Psalm 34:7  The angel of the LORD camps round about them that fear Him, and delivers them.

 

We are your people forever, LORD. You are round about us, you have camped with us, we are the apple of your eye, Father. We are conscious of  you with us, not conscious of ourselves; we want to always refer and defer to you LORD and not ourselves.

In Oz

Sheela and i are in Australia for the next 2 weeks, so may not be posting as much. Please keep us and our family in India in prayer.

What does Jesus say about you?

We need to know. If you don’t know, why not ask Him?
When He tells you what HE thinks about you it really lifts you up and strengthens you, and refocuses you on the way forward.

What a hole!

David in a hole. Nothing so precious as a hole in the ground… an old song goes. But the water that flows into the hole and is stored there IS precious. This gaping hole appeared on our land one morning to our amazement. There’s a new highway being built just near us and one day i saw them excavating gravel nearby so i went over to them and asked, Want some free gravel? Yup, and next day they were at our place digging us a dam, for free, with the added condition that they make a gravel road on our property.

Many times we had stood on that patch of land and thought it would be good to make a dam there for water and for fish farming, but the cost was astronomical, for us, but we did ask the Father for it anyway.

They dug it at night, and when we got up in the morning we were amazed to see the huge crater that had emerged on our land. Even the animals gathered with us at the edge of the crater to see the sight. They were quite surprised. The work has stopped but should resume soon.