The Lord! The Lord has done this!
My soul is at home while my body sucks dust.
Where your treasure is, so your heart will be also.
I am a citizen of heaven proclaiming the unseen.
Considered a fool among men, my lips stammer His Glory.
I have seen with my blindness a promise of He who cannot lie.
And my hands reach out frantically to touch the feet of The Righteous One!
No longer do I belong to this world of foolishness and sin.
I am His!
The Lord! The Lord has done this!
By His Grace.
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When I am gone from this Place of Testing. There will be a few left here who will miss me. That is the case for most all people. And I think of what I would like to leave them with (as a last and lasting thought). It needs to be said that Jesus is able to lead anyone into a life worth living. Hope is the only thing men have to lean on in both times of trouble and times of prosperity or peace. This hope, if it is founded firm in the Lord Jesus, will carry anyone through anything. This is my last word to leave with the ones who continue on in this Place of Testing. Remember how I lived among you. I stumbled and clawed my way through this place. But in the end I found, or more accurately said: was shown) the Lord Jesus. This is how you should search your way through. Listen to Him. Do what He says you should do. He will lead the willing. And remember, cowards have no part in the kingdom of God. Strengthen yourself for His sake! Eat what you’re given. And share what you can. Be His. This will be enough.
By His Grace.
You have heard that nothing corrupt will ever enter eternity with the Lord. I know I’ve mentioned it a time or two. And you’ve noticed how corrupt you are, I hope. Now there’s a problem here, ya think? It’s a problem we all struggle with. You’ll be cruising along just fine one day and, all of a sudden, you realize you’re pondering or doing something you KNOW the Lord will not allow entrance into Heaven. It’s one thing to ask for forgiveness from the Lord and believe you have received it. But what will you do next time? Is there a place a man can live where he commits these wicked things less and less? I can testify that there is such a place. And though I don’t know how Jesus will deal with you personally over these issues, I know of a clue to learning how to obey Him more often.
When you were a child you learned how to do many wicked things. You learned early how to lie. It was, at first, a way of keeping out of trouble. But remember, there was also a time when you had no clue how to lie. So you learned how to be wicked so you could do what you wanted and get away with it. From that moment on lies became a tool in your tool box. And you’ll notice that through out every day lies still come to mind. You might not play them out. But they’re still hangin around.
The key to transforming your mind from wickedness to purity is called learning. Think of the things you used to do as a child. How many things have you forgotten how to do? Like crawling through the grass. Adults don’t do that much. But children love it. How did you come to forget how to enjoy that? The answer is, you stopped doing it. You learned to lie the same way. You stopped living in innocence. It’s our practise that leads to who we become. If I practise playing guitar, I get better at it. If I stop playing guitar for a year or two I hardly even think of it anymore. It’s not that I can’t remember if I pick it up again. But I will have to learn all over again how to get pretty good at it. Practise.
Be innocent of what is evil and wise about what is good. But how do we become innocent of what is evil if we have lived evil lives? How do you forget what is evil if that is all you’ve been all your life? The Lord’s reply is amazingly simple. “Practise doing what is good and you will forget what is evil. Just as when you begin to practice what is evil you forget what is good.” (As I heard Him whisper to me one day)
Peter put it this way: As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy because I am Holy.’” (1 Peter 1: 14)
But the Apostle Paul pens the words like this: “. . . but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.” (Romans 16:19)
Learn from the Lord by listening to the Word of God in the Bible. Learn from the Lord by listening to His leading in your conscience. Learn to listen to His voice of guidance from the Holy Spirit within you (if, indeed, you are a Christian). For if you are not a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, it will do you no good to practice what is good; for you are still bound by the father of lies. Only in Jesus can we hope to find help in our attempts to become holy and practice what is good. Before Jesus within us, we can only play like children at accomplishing the holiness God the Father demands. The power to please God comes from an intimate relationship with Jesus. And we have heard that those who practise evil will never enter God’s peace. Practise!
By His Grace.
It has often been said, “Christ Alone”. And in the meaning of the usual, this indicates that no other belief or work will accomplish the Father’s will in our salvation. But there is another understanding for “Christ Alone”.
Leaders and those who comment on the current state of affairs in this world are so very perplexed at what they are doing and witnessing. Something is happening but they are pressed beyond their understanding to grasp the speed and vicious nature of these happenings. The answers they are looking for are in the hand of Jesus. They think and think, ponder and ponder, to find the truth of these things. But they are missing the very key to their understanding. Jesus is in control! Christ Alone is King.
By His Grace.
You’ve heard of people who say they are “Called by God” to do something. But did you know every man and woman has a “Calling”? Well, Yea! The first calling you’re called to do is accept Jesus, God’s Son. Some have termed it “Believe” in God’s Son. And, certainly, there’s nothing wrong with that term. But do people today understand the meaning of “Believe”? Likely not. Words and their real meaning aren’t very well applied these days.
When we’re called to “Believe” it means, not only to understand that Jesus is the Son of God, but to put everything you are and own under His ownership. After you’ve done that, everything you are and everything you own belongs to Him. He has the exclusive right to do with you and your belongings as He sees fit. This is what “Believing in the Son of God, Jesus, means. I’d bet you’ve been told or understood it differently.
The second “Calling” has to do with those who have given themselves to the leadership of Jesus. And this calling is what most people associate with the word “Calling”. Once He has accepted you as His disciple (student and servant), He will have certain tasks for you to accomplish for His Father’s Will. Now, it might be that He will call you into a ministry or something rather obviously “Jesus”. But it might also be that He will allow you to keep many of the current trappings you now possess. Dunno.
But regardless your “calling” from the Lord of Glory, the calling is a full time and continuous situation. You no longer belong to yourself, regardless what you want to believe. He can’t lie and He doesn’t take His calling back. People might throw away the arrangement between Jesus and themselves. But Jesus does not. You will be held accountable for whatever task He has given you to do.
He has said that the “Wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear it’s sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit”. This calling He has placed upon you will be such that you will not know what, exactly, He wants you to do next. This is by design, lest anyone boast that they know the “Way” (Another misunderstood word). You’ll need to submit yourself to His leading every second of every day if you want to know His will according to your “Calling”.
I just thought I’d clarify a few items regarding what it takes to be a Christian.
By His Grace.
We: Live, Die, Face Judgment. Jesus or die twice.
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