Heart Condition

Romans 10:9 "That if thou halt confess with thy mounth the Lord Jesus,and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead,thou shalt be saved".

The relationship with God that is of salvation is a matter of the heart, and here in this 10th chapter of Romans it is revealed how a man can be saved from sin and death and be made the righteousness of God. The righteousness and salvation of God is right before man,it lies within his heart and only need be confessed with his mouth.

The gospel demands that man only believes and confesses that Jesus has both died for his sins and have been raised from the dead, for him to have everlasting life with the Father.All that man desires,perfect peace, righteousness,and salvation, are found in mans mouth and in his heart.Man only needs to do three simple things to be saved from sin, death and hell, and enter into the rest of the Lord.Man must confess with his mouth the Lord Jesus.He must confess that Jesus Christ is theLord from heaven,the only begotten of the Father.He must believe in his heart. Believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. He must believe that Jesus died for man,and was raised from death because he perfectly satisfied God's demand for justice.God was perfectly satisfied with Jesus dying for the sins of man,taking the sins of mankind,and his punishment upon His back, therefore God raised Him from the dead.Man must believe with the heart,and then confess with the mouth as you can't confess that which you don't believe.

When we believe with our hearts that Jesus is the Christ who accepted for all mankind the wage paid by sin,God takes that faith and counts it as righteousness.Then the man confesses Christ unto salvation, that is he is saved by openly confessing Christ,no man can deny Christ and be saved by Him.

A Love I Can See

John 12:3 "Then took Mary a pound of ointment of Spikenard,very costly,and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair:and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment".

There are many who profess a love for God but it can barley seen if at all in their worship or service to Him.Love is an action word and when one loves another, you should be able to see evidence of that love in the actions of the one doing the loving."For God so loved the world that He gave".......

Here we have a love that can be seen,a love shown by Mary who loves the Lord with her whole being. Here she is sacrificing all that she is and has ,as out of a pure heart she expresses a repentant love.Mary had critized and accused Jesus of neglecting her family when He didn't come sooner to save Lazarus, and here she is now repenting of her sins.Her love is sacrificial and costly, in fact it says very costly. Mary is here taking her most precious possession and giving it to the Lord.Her love was a believing love as she believed that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah, the resurrection and the life,and simply put ,Mary is anointing Jesus to show how deeplyshe loved Him and believed Him to be the anointed one of God.He was her Savior,Lord and King.He had done so much for her and her family that she wanted Him to know how much she  appreciated and loved Him.

What is it that we do to show our love and faith to Christ?Imagine how difficult it was for Mary to do what she did in the presence of so many men.She set aside pride and embarrassment in order to show her Love for her Savior.She gave her best possession to the Lord,and publicly showed her love for Christ for all to witness.Have you given Christ your best possession,your life?Is your love for Christ on public display for all to witness? Is yours a love that can be seen?

  

Refusing to Compromise

Daniel 1:8a " But Daniel proposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat nor with the wine which he drank:"

There are many who started this journey on fire for the Lord only to find themselves in a position of compromise.In an effort to fit in, to be politically correct, or for prestige,prosperity and/or power they have given into the temptaions,will and desires of this world.They have compromised their message, their walk and what they once believed in favor of the joys,toys,treasure and false pleasures of this world.They have eaten of the kings meat and drank of his wine.

In our story today,we see 4 who refuse to compromise,they refuse to eat the Kings meat or to drink his wine.We who profess Christ have to be careful that we don't swallow that which the world tries to feed us.We must continue to feed on the truth of God's word,and walk in His spirit,even if it means to stand alone.We can't succome to the doctrine or spirit of this world and continue to profess to be a child of God.The world is enemy to the ways of God.The world's food allows us to live anykind of way that we want.It say" it's your thing do what you want to do", the world is about "me ,myself and I".The world is selfish,selfrighteous,and self serving.The worlds spirit is one of greed and is uncaring.But we who profess to be children of God, must esteem others higher than ourself; We must be willing to lay down our life for a friend.We must bless others with that which God blesses us with, and live in a way that leads a lost world to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

In these times of the self claimed, self named and the self fame, there is much compromise.Our religious practices has gotten further and further from the word of God.We have allowed the world to dictate what a Christian is and what type of behavior is acceptable to God.The bible says" Jesus Christ the same yesterday,today and forever" which tells me God's word  has not and will not change.So I ask have you compromised? 

Commitment For Life

Joshua 24:24"And the people said unto Joshua, The Lord God will we serve, and his voice will we obey."

Joshua didn't sigh in relief when the Israelites responded to his challenge to serve the Lord and him only.Instead, he questioned them to say,"Do you really mean what you say?"He wanted them to make a conscious decision for God,and he even presented the alternatives so they could make a clear choice. He wanted them to understand this was a commitment for life,and for to them to now the consequences of failing to follow through on their commitment.

This was wise on Joshua's part. Sometimes people are made to feel that choosing God is simple and easy, so they choose to serve Him,but then wonder if they knew what they were doing.Or they choose to follow God,but then don't think much about it. They allow their days just to flow without a focus on serving Him.There is more to serving God than spending a couple of hours in a church house on Sunday morning.Those who haven't chosen to serve God, need to hear Joshua's challenge."This day", right now is the time to choose to follow Him.See this is a serious lifetime commitment, that involves putting Him in charge of your life.Even if we have already chosen to serve God, we choose everyday whether we will honor that commitment in the things we do and say.It is through a heart felt conviction that we will cleanse ourselves of the things in life that might distract us from our committment to God.God has lead us through life and with his shepherd's rod, he has pulled us out of ruts and fought off the enemy.

God still calls us to follow Him by accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.Once we have made that commitment, we must still choose to keep our lives free of those things that can keep us from feeling the joy of his presence, or that divert our attention away from a single-minded devotion to him. This is a commitment for Life.

I'll Pray For You

Colossians 1:9 "For this cause we also since the day we heard it,do not cease to pray for you,and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;"(read vs.9-11)

Prayer,the single most powerful weapon the believer has in this war on sin.The sad things is many have no ideal what it is to pray for.The world has us believing we need the things of this world and thus we spend our time praying for these things.The bible tells us Our Father in heaven know we have need of these things and to"take no thought" for them.Our prayers need to be for the things which will allow us to seek first the kingdom of God and His will for our lives.So here Paul tells us what we should pray for:

The first great request is to know God's will.He prays that we are filled with the knowledge of God's will.It is not enough just to know God's will,but we are to be filled with the knowledge of God's will.The will of God is essiential to our very being.There should be nothing flowing in or out of us which is not the will of God.This includes the whole scope of our life,everything we do and every moment that we do it.The will of God must invole in what we say,where we go, what we think,and who we associate with.Simply stated we are to live and move and have our every being in the will of God.God has willed a life that he wants us to live.We are to learn about that life and be filled with the knowledge of that life.

The second great request is to  walk worthy of Christ.This is the critical point in the believers life and this point should be hammered home over and over again.Knowing something and having the ability to do something are very important.We must pray for the wisdom to put what we know into practice,to live the life we talk about.We are to live out the will of God.Knowing the will of God is useless unless we are going to live the will of God,we must committ our lives to this.The will of God is to control our behavior as much as it did the behavior of Christ.

The third great request is for the power of God.God's power is absolute essential for the believer.How can we walk worthy of Christ without the power to walk worthy.It is through and with the power of God that we are able to live the will of God.Only God's power can make us acceptable,can conquer death,and infuse enough strength to endure to the end and walk worthy along the journey. Let us now pray that we be filled with the knowledge of God's will and the wisdom and power to fulfill it.

Salvation;It's In The Word

Acts 19:20 "So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed".

The word Of God; the power of God unto salvation.If we just once again trust in this word like the saints of old did what a wonderful world we would live in.In these times God's word is so badly needed yet we seem to share everything but the truth and purity of God's word.We agree and disagree with it as it relates to us and what we are doing or trying to do. If it goes against our agenda's we don't want anything to do with that part and will de-friend and remove people from our sights because we're convicted by God's word.How can we lead the lost to Christ when we who profess Christ can't follow one another to his truths.We must continue to share God's word and  we will see the Word of God grow and prevail. 

The gospel is the same as it ever was,God hasn't changed.There are still sinners in the world, the sins that need to be overcome are the same, and the Holy Spirit is just as mighty to convict and renew,but we have changed how we share this good news.We must understand it is a blessed time in the soul,a blessed time in the family,a blessed time in the congragation and in the country when the word of God grows mightily and prevails in the hearts of the people.But Faith comes by hearing,and hearing the word of God.But to many are sharing their books, motivies,ideals and philosophies over the truth of God's word, thus giving birth to so many faithless christians.It is a blessed time when the open sinner is seen leaving his sinful ways and seeking the salvation of the Lord.When men are seen giving up their unholy gains, and changed their lives to follow the word ,will and way of God.When the leaven of the gospel begins to work, there will be no need of  arguments to prove how unworthy it is for a christian to turn to the amusement of the books of the world or those who proclaim the messages of said books.

The grace of the gospel produces a new taste,it alters everything about us,our friends, our pursuits,and even that which we find entertaining.Is the word of God growing amoung us?If not why not?It is a living seed and it should grow,and will grow unless it is hindered or wrapped with the imagination of man.There is no other power in our ministry which will equal that which is produced when one hears the truth of God's word.If you plant it, it will grow;"So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed". It won't come back void! 

All Souls Matter

Hebrews 5:2"Who can have compassion on the ignorant,and on them that are out of the way;for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity".

Those who are ignorant of the salvation of the Lord should not be met with scorn,nor fault-finding,nor neglect,for they need compassion.We should lay ourselves out to bear with such for their good.A disciple who has been taught all that he knows by a gracious Savior should have compassion on the "ignorant". A wanderer who has been found should have compassion on those who are still out there lost and wondering.A priest should have compassion on all with whom he is one flesh and blood,and assuredly our Lord,who is our great High Priest,has abundant compassion upon the ignorant for He died that all might be saved.

What is this ignorance?It is moral and spiritual,and it deals with eternal things.It leaves the ignorant strangers to themselves,as they know not their own ignorance.They are unaware of their heart's depravity. They are unconscience to their actual sin or that they even need saving, for they have no ideal that they are lost.They are unaware of the danger they are in,unable to know what is truly good,and they don't know the way of salvation as they choose the other way,the broad way.This leaves them without knowledge of who Jesus is,not knowing his work,his person,his power, his character or his readiness to save them. They are strangers to the Holy Spirit, ignorant to regeneration, cannot comprehend the truths of the bible or the things the spirit teaches,and thus he is a lost,wondering aimlessly through life.

But the Lord's compassion toward the ignorant is shown,by offering to teach them,and willing to receive them as disciples.By instructing them little by little,teaching them the same thing over and over with patience and in unconditional love.By never despising them even through their rebellious nature.By never casting them off by tiring of their stupidity.To such a compassionate Lord let us labor among the ignorant and never cease to pity and pray for them.Jesus shed his blood for all mankind,and at one time we were the wayward,and the ignorant, what if God had given up on us?What if those who prayed for us had given up.The lame sheep belong to the Lord also.