Death By Temptation

James 1:14-15 "but every man is tempted,when he is drawn away of his own lust,and enticed.Then when lust hath concieved,it bringeth forth sin:and sin,when it is finished,bringeth forth death."

God wants to live among His people,but sometimes we don't want Him around.(let us be honest)See sometimes do to our fallen nature their are lust and desire we chose to surround ourselves in, that keeps God on the outside of our lives.Sin doesn't rush in and over take us,it is first a simple suggestion,then it becomes a strong imagination,then a delight,then it is accepted.In other words, sin at first does not necessarily appear disgusting to us.In fact sin frequently fascinates us and appeals to our fallen nature. Unless we immediately flee from it, we can easily slip into the darkness of sin.We must reconize it for what it is, a rebillion against God.

Despite God's faithfulness to His people,time and time again, we turn away from him and worship and serve the Idols we have built in our lives.We reject God and embrace the lust of the flesh and the worldly desires that appeal to our carnal nature.Though the Idols and the packaging of sin may appear different than it did to the Israelites,its basic nature is still the same.Sin can hide itself so that it becomes so beautiful to look at, so wonderful to touch, and so sweet to taste, yet the end there of is still death. Idols today are still made of wood,stone,and metal, but we call them houses, cars ,money, and the biggest Idol is the god we've made out of flesh, ourself.As the writer of Hebrews said, its always tempting to "enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season". In many forms and guises, sin still allures and entices us and charms us to do its bidding, by offering to satisfy desires that are pleasurable to us, but violate God's truth and commandments.

Once sin has won one victory in our lives, it will be even more persistent in securing greater victories. Therefore, we give it power over our lives every time we surrender to it, until sin no longer has to hide its true hideous nature.But by then we are already firmly locked in its grip.Let us not dabble in sin and slip into darkness.But if we find yourself in the darkness of sin ,remember Jesus the light of the world, will save you from the grips of sin.

The Way Back!

Isaiah 55:7 "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord,and He will have mercy upon him".

Here we have the great chapter of gospel invitation.How free! How full! How plain and pressing are the calls to receive grace! Yet the necessity of repentance,in its most practical form is a must.We must turn from our sinful ways back to God, its insisted upon.The Gospel provisions are presented freely(vs.1,2). The Savior is provided and proclaimed(vs.3,4).Salvation is promised to Him(vs.5).We are encouraged to seek and find the Lord (vs.6).But the call to conversion follows close after,and is intended to be the necessary inference from all that preceded it.We must return to God: he mercy make it imperative.

The Holy nature of God will not allow Him to pardon those who continue in their wickedness.The very nature of the gospel is not  a proclamation of tolerance for sin,but the deliverance from it.It contains no single promise of forgiveness to the one who goes on in his iniquity.Jesus died to save us from sin not to save us in sin.Conversion always goes with salvation.Sin must be punished or else virtue will perish. The well being of the sinner himself requires that he should quit sin,or suffer the penalty.The work of the Holy Spirit would be of non effect as He is a Sanctifier.The character of heaven requires that a sinner's nature be renewed,and his life purged, in order to enter the holy place where God, and holy angels and perfected saints abide."Except ye be converted, and become as little children,ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven"(Matt.18:3).

Jesus died to accept for us the wage paid by sin.When we accept His death as our own, we must die to the old life and walk in the new life provided by Christ.It is by, and with His power that we can walk in the spirit as not to give into the flesh.But when we do stumble and fall along the way we have an advocate who tells us to confess our sins and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

He Had To Die!

2 Corinthians 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us,who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him".

Jesus Christ death;the message is unbelievable,a message of redemption,that is a substitution for sin. This is one of the great verses proclaiming the unbelievable love of God.It is impossible for man to grasp the fact that God made Christ to be sin for us,yet that is exactly what the scripture says.He who knew no sin made to be sin,for the sole that sinneth shall surley die,so for man to live He had to die.

Why was this act necessary? Because man needs more than just righteousness to stand perfect before God.To stand righteous before God is not enough,for man has already sinned.Man already stands guilty of breaking God's law, and the judgement and condemnation of death has already taken effect upon man. So the condemnation and judgement of sin had to be taken care of. God did this by laying all the sins of man upon Christ,all the guilt and condemnation of sin,God placed it all on Christ and let Him bear it all Himself.God's purpose for this was that we through Christ death, might be made righteousness of God in Christ.When a person believes in Jesus Christ,I mean really believes,God takes that man's faith and He counts it as righteousness.The man is not righteous,but God considers the man's faith in Christ as righteousness.God does this because he loves man so much,so much that he sent His only begotten Son to die that we might have a right to life.Jesus secured righteousness for man.He came into the world to die for man.He came and arose from death and thus conquered death for man,thus His resurrected life could stand for the resurrected life of the believer.

The truth is this God loves His Son Jesus Christ so much, that He honors any man who honors His son by believing in Him and believing Him.When we sincerly trust Christ,God takes that faith and counts it as righteousness,thus He judges us , and treats us,as though we are innocent.We are not innocent,us and God both knows this,but God counts us as innocent because of our faith in Jesus Christ.To God we have died with Christ and rose a new creation.So He had to die in order for us to have life.

Dangers Of A spiritual Drought

Isaiah 5:6b "I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it".

Rain is essential for growth of seed and fruit, and its withdrawal for a length of time a terrible temporal judgement,especially in hot climates.The spiritual rain of the Holy Spirit's influence essential to a spiritual life,in its beginning,growth, ripening, and perfecting.What does it mean when the spirit doesn't rain down; ministers preach with no power;assemblies gathered, but the Lord is not in the mist; the word read ,but there is no application to the heart.Formality of prayer kept up ,bit there is no pleading with God.The Holy Ghost restrained and grieved.This is the case of any church or person if sin is tolerated after warning.The clouds which are ordained to rain are commanded by God not to.

This hinders spiritual growth as their is no conviction or conversion as these are brought about by the spirit.There is no restoration of the backslider,withered plants are not revived when there is no rain.No refreshing of the weary,as strength and comfort comes by the dew of heaven.No spiritual activities,as the congregation moves about like people sleep walking.Everything suffers when there is a spiritual drought.This happens when the soul experiences no benifit under the word.When the person feels glutted with a false gospel and grows weary of the truth, causing one to neglect  the hearing of the truth.It can be prevented let us confess our sins to God as he might have with held his grace from us;let us come humbly, and look alone to Jesus, for he shall come down like rain,and let us use that blessing more diligently when it comes that we may bring forth fruit unto God. 

God's grace can save souls without any preaching: but all the preaching in the world cannot save souls without God's grace.The hearer sometimes complains that there is no food for his soul; when the truth is that there is no soul for the food.Without the raining of the spirit, their can be no produced fruit in the church.Let us pray for rain.

Attorney for The Accused

Romans 8:34" Who is he that condemneth?It is Christ that died,yea rather,that is risen again,who is at the right hand of God,who also maketh intercession for us".

The key to solving the problem of sin is the help we receive through Jesus Christ.Jesus came not only to make possible the forgivness of the past,but to help us conquer the stronghold of sins, the entrenched habits that are so difficult to dislodge from our lives.Jesus is our merciful High Priest in heaven,who is interceding with the Father on our behalf.Jesus is ever ready to help us gain the victory over sin:"And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.Who is he who overcomes the world,but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God"? The Apostle John, while acknowledging our human weakness, encourages us not to give in to sin."I am Writing these things to you so that you may not sin.But if any one does sin,we have an advocate with the Father,Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins,and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Jesus died to save us from sin not to save us in sin, by his mercy we are forgiven the sins we have commited and will commite, but his grace gives us the strength to not give in to sin and the wiles of the evil one, as it allows us to walk in his spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh.This should give us every reason for encouragement in our daily struggle against sin.After all Christ has experienced the same temptations and fully understands our plight.For our High Priest is one who can sympathize with our weakness,as he has been tried and tempted by the same enemy who attacks us, yet without sin,and he has been given power over all flesh.There fore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness,so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

How do we get that help?Jesus said " ask and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it will be opened". He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him,Jesus Christ our great intercessor and the Attorney for the accused.



I'LL Pray for You;

Ephesians 3:14,16 "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, That he would grant you according to the riches of His glory,to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man".(read 3:14-21 for full impact of the prayer).

This is the great prayer of Paul for the church and the believer.It is probably the second most important prayer in the Bible.Because of it's importance, it should be prayed by believers daily.

This prayer  was not a prayer of begging for worldly gifts.It wasn't a prayer of tattling, it was a prayer to uplift,strengthen,save,enlighten and to aid in the growth of the church.The prayer first requested strength and power for the inner man, the spirit man,the new man from the new birth,requesting God's presence and power in our lives.The prayer requested for Christ to dwell in the hearts of man by faith.That means to have rule and reign in our hearts.Dwell means a permanent living arrangement.So the prayer is asking that Christ ,takes up permanent residence,settles in,and lives in the hearts of all believers.It is the presence of Christ that motivates us to follow Christ.He then prays that we be rooted and grounded in love the same love God has for us.He prays that we have understanding of all spiritual things.That we might fully grasp God's perfect plan of salvation, and the part we the church must play in that plan.Understanding God's perfect will for our life ,not the will we have chosen,but that which he has chosen for us. He prays that we know the love of Jesus which surpasses all understanding and knowledge.It is utterly impossible for man to grasp and experience the love of Christ, to know it in it's full measure,but we should pray and ask God to help us learn more about it everyday.

Prayer should be to lift up the name of Jesus;to stand in the gap for the lost and unsaved, while strengthening and uplifting the believer,while asking for strength to continue in the work we have been called to do.Jesus said "take no thought" for what we should wear, eat etc. He said our Father knows we have need of these things,so let us pray for the strengthening of the Church and other believers that God might get the glory throughout all ages. 

I Gave You My Son.

1John 5:11" And this is the record,that God hath given to us eternal life,and this life is in his Son."

John declared that our faith in Christ is the victory that overcomes the sinful influences of the world.And then,as if to test his readers' comprehension of that statement, he asked, Who overcomes the world?John immediately answered his own question:only the one who believes that Jesus is God's Son.

No other agent or formula defeats the sinful influences we face. Only Jesus faced them all and overcame them all.It is only when we acknowledge our own helplessness and place our confidence in the sufficiency of Christ's victory that we have victory over sin.We may try other means,such as will power,accountability, support groups, human thought, or philosophy, rituals,or routines, disgust for the sin, or shame and guilt. We may even find that some of those things offer limited success in helping us curb certain behaviors or keep them in check temporarily.But it is only through faith in Christ, and a total surrender to Him, that we can be tuned in to his will,our mind can comprehend His thoughts, and our actions become joyful acts of worship.

If we are believing in and relying on anything but Christ's victory to overcome sin ,our efforts are doomed.It is good for us to examine ourselves periodically to be sure that our faith is not misplaced. What a relief it is to know that the hard part of overcomming sinful influences has been done for us by Jesus' life, death ,and resurrection.To remain in His victory,we need only to hold confidently to God's provisions for us in Christ.Faith in Christ includes an understanding of who he is and a complete reliance upon him for salvation and an overcoming lifestyle.Through this kind of faith believers experience victory over the sinful influences of this world, and thus walk worthy of the name by which we are called;Christians, or to be Christ like............