If You Don’t Fight Lust

 Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Peter 2:11)

When I confronted a man about the adultery he was living in, I tried to understand his situation, and I pled with him to return to his wife. Then I said, “You know, Jesus says that if you don’t fight this sin with the kind of seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye, you will go to hell and suffer there forever.”

As a professing Christian, he looked at me in utter disbelief, as though he had never heard anything like this in his life, and said, “You mean you think a person can lose his salvation?”

So, I have learned again and again from firsthand experience that there are many professing Christians who have a view of salvation that disconnects it from real life, and that nullifies the threats of the Bible, and that puts the sinning person who claims to be a Christian beyond the reach of biblical warnings. I believe this view of the Christian life is comforting thousands who are on the broad way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).

Jesus said, if you don’t fight lust, you won’t go to heaven. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). The point is not that true Christians always succeed in every battle. The issue is that we resolve to fight, not that we succeed flawlessly. We don’t make peace with sin. We make war.

The stakes are much higher than whether the world is blown up by a thousand long-range missiles, or terrorists bomb your city, or global warming melts the ice caps, or AIDS sweeps the nations. All these calamities can kill only the body. But if we don’t fight lust, we lose our souls. Forever.

Peter says the passions of the flesh wage war against our souls (1 Peter 2:11). The stakes in this war are infinitely higher than in any threat of world war or terrorism. The apostle Paul listed “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,” then said it is “on account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5–6). And the wrath of God is immeasurably more fearful than the wrath of all the nations of the world put together.

May God give us grace to take our souls and others’ souls seriously and keep up the fight.

WHEN GOD SEEMS FAR AWAY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY JULY 26, 2021.

SUBJECT : WHEN GOD SEEMS FAR AWAY!

Memory verse: "If He goes by me, I do not see Him; if He moves past, I do not perceive Him.” (Job 9 vs 11.)

READ: Job 23 vs 8 - 12:

23:8: Look, I go forward, but He is not there. And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; 23:9: When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. 

23:10: But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

23:11: My foot has held fast to His steps; I have I kept His way and not turned aside.

23:12: I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

INTIMATION: 

There are times when God seems far away, and you eventually feels abandoned. You may have been working in righteousness, and obedience to God, but still nothing seems to work for you. Worst still, you may look around you and see the wicked and unrighteous prospering. People may even be asking you, “Where is your God.” When God seems distant, you may feel that He is angry with you or is disciplining you for some sin. Though it is a fact that sin does disconnect us from intimate fellowship with God because it grieves His Spirit and quench our fellowship with Him. By our disobedience, conflict with others, busyness, friendship with the world, and other sins we we grieve His Spirit. 

But quite often this feeling of abandonment or estrangement from God has nothing to do with sin. It is a test of faith, and is obvious we all must face this test. In such situations, will you continue to love, trust, obey, and worship God, even when you have no sense of His presence or visible evidence of His work in your life? That is the test, and just the right thing to do!

The most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God. They look for a feeling, and if it happens, they conclude that they have worshiped. This is very wrong! In fact, God often removes our feelings so we won't depend on them. Seeking a feeling, even the feeling of closeness to Christ, is not worship. When you are a baby Christian, God gives you a lot of confirming emotions and often answers the most immature, self-centered prayers, so you'll know He exists. But as you grow in faith, He will wean you of these dependencies. 

God's omnipresence and the manifestation of His presence are two different things. One is a fact, the other is often a feeling. God is always present, even when you are unaware of Him, and His presence is too profound to be measured by mere emotion. Of course, God wants you to sense His presence, but He is more concerned that you trust Him than that you feel Him. Faith, not feelings, pleases God. 

The situations that will stretch your faith most will be those times when life falls apart and God is nowhere to be found. This happened to Job. On a single day he lost everything—his family, his business, his health, and everything he owned. Most discouraging, for thirty-seven chapters in the Book of Job God said nothing! The realization of the fact that God, at some points in our lives, tests us with His deliberate silence to observe our commitment and trust in Him, gave Job hope when he could not feel God's presence in his life. He said, "Look, I go forward, but He is not there. And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold." (Job 23 vs 8 - 10.) What a great and awesome faith!

How do you praise God when you don't understand what's happening in your life and God is silent? How do you stay connected in a crisis without communication? How do you keep your eyes on Jesus when they're full of tears? You do what Job did: "Then Job arose,......and fell to the ground and worshiped. And He said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong." (Job 1 vs 20 - 22.)

Job didn't hide his overwhelming grief. He had not lost his faith in God; instead, his emotions showed that he was human and that he loved his family. God created our emotions, and it is not sinful or inappropriate to express them as Job did. Even the Lord Jesus expressed His when He wept (John 11 vs 35). 

If you have experienced a deep loss, a disappointment, or a heartbreak, admit your feelings to yourself and others, and grieve. Job had lost his possessions and family, but he reacted rightly toward God by acknowledging God's sovereign authority over everything God had given him. Job proved that people can love God for who He is, not for what He gives. In the unfortunate circumstances Job worshiped the Lord, blessed His name, and never sinned nor charged God with any wrong! This should be the believers’ attitude or reaction in such situations as Job’s—when God seems far away.

Prayer: Abba Father, forever Yours I am and Yours I want to be. Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vine; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. Do to me, and with as it is pleasing to You, in Jesus’ Name I prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

What It Means to Love Money

 The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. (1 Timothy 6:10)

What did Paul mean when he wrote this? He couldn’t have meant that money is always on your mind when you sin. A lot of sin happens when we are not thinking about money.

My suggestion is this: He meant that all the evils in the world come from a certain kind of heart, namely, the kind of heart that loves money.

So what does it mean to love money? It doesn’t mean to admire the green paper or the copper coins or the silver shekels. To know what it means to love money, you have to ask, What is money? I would answer that question like this: Money is simply a symbol that stands for human resources. Money stands for what you can get from man — other human beings — instead of God.

God deals in the currency of grace, not money: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1). Money is the currency of human resources. So, the heart that loves money is a heart that pins its hopes, and pursues its pleasures, and puts its trust in what human resources can offer.

So, the love of money is virtually the same as faith in money — belief (trust, confidence, assurance) that money will meet your needs and make you happy.

Love of money is the alternative to faith in God’s future grace. It is faith in future human resources — the kind of thing you can obtain or secure with money. Therefore the love of money, or trust in money, is the underside of unbelief in the promises of God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. . . . You cannot serve God and money.”

You can’t trust in God and in money at the same time. Belief in one is unbelief in the other. A heart that loves money — that banks on money for happiness — is not banking on all that God is for us in Jesus as the satisfaction of our souls.

ANOINTED FOR THE ALTERCATION BY BISHOP TD JAKES

 

Satan’s Strategy and Your Defense

 

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith. (1 Peter 5:8–9)

The two great enemies of our souls are sin and Satan. And sin is the worst enemy, because the only way that Satan can destroy us is by getting us to sin, and keeping us from repenting. The only thing that damns us is unforgiven sin. Not Satan.

God may give him leash enough to rough us up, the way he did Job, or even to kill us, the way he did the saints in Smyrna (Revelation 2:10); but Satan cannot condemn us or rob us of eternal life. The only way he can do us ultimate harm is by influencing us to sin, and keep us from repentance. Which is exactly what he aims to do.

So, Satan’s main business is to advocate, promote, assist, titillate, and confirm our bent to sinning. And to keep us from faith and repentance.

We see this in Ephesians 2:1–2: “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked . . . according to the prince of the power of the air” (NASB). Sinning “accords” with Satan’s power in the world. When he brings about moral evil, it is through sin. When we sin, we move in his sphere. We come into accord with him. When we sin, we give place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27).

The only thing that will condemn us at the judgment day is unforgiven sin — not sickness or afflictions or persecutions or intimidations or apparitions or nightmares. Satan knows this. Therefore, his great focus is not primarily on how to scare Christians with weird phenomena (though there’s plenty of that), but on how to corrupt Christians with worthless fads and evil thoughts.

Satan wants to catch us at a time when our faith is not firm, when it is vulnerable. It makes sense that the very thing Satan wants to destroy would also be the means of our resisting his efforts. That’s why Peter says, “Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:9). It is also why Paul says that the “shield of faith” can “extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).

The way to thwart the devil is to strengthen the very thing he is trying most to destroy — your faith.

JESUS THE WAY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JULY 25, 2021.

SUBJECT: JESUS THE WAY! 

Memory verse: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14 vs 6.)

READ: John 14 vs 7 - 11:

14:7: If you had known Me, you should have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.

14:8: Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.

14:9: Jesus said to Him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

14:10: Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak of My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

14:11: Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

INTIMATION:

God has preordained our pathways. God, from the beginning, has set each of us apart for a particular purpose or purposes, and particular ways to function respectively. Identifying the preordained pathway for you ensures your leading a glorious, victorious, pleasurable, joyous, and stress-free life, as predetermined by God—our Loving Father. Since God has preplanned all things concerning us, it is therefore given, and realistic that all keys to our preordained pathways are with Him. God, in His infinite wisdom, mercy, unparalleled love, and faithfulness sent us His Son to help us identify our predetermined pathways through the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him who fills all in all. 

In our memory verse, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life...." Three principal things are in Him; ‘the way,’ ‘the truth,’ and ‘the life.’ Therefore, outside of Jesus you are in the wrong way, you can’t discover the truth, and you have no life. Jesus, as the way, is our path to the Father. He is one with the Father, and the same with the Father. He is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1 vs 15) and the exact representation of God. Jesus is not only equal to God (Philippians 2 vs 6), He is God (John 10 vs 30 & 38). 

As the truth, He is the reality of all God’s promises. He not only reflects God, but He reveals God to us (John 1 vs 18; 14 vs 9). Jesus said these of Himself, "Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner." "I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgement is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me." "....When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as the Father taught Me, I speak these things" (John 5 vs 19, 30 & 8 vs 28).

As the Life, He joins His divine life to ours, both now and eternally. He is supreme over all creation (Colossians 1 vs 15), and has all priority and authority. He came from heaven, not the dust of the earth (First Corinthians 15 vs 47), and He is Lord over all (Romans 9 vs 5; 10 vs 11 - 13). He is, in truth, the only living way to the Father.

Following Jesus is knowing the way of the Father. No one has seen the Father, and no one can see Him. But Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father to us. Observing the ways of Jesus is tantamount to observing the ways of the Father, because He is the same with the Father. Everything you need is in Him, and without Him you can do nothing (John 15 vs 5).

Now Jesus has come, and has gone back to the Father, to come again for the final union in marriage with His people—‘the marriage of the Lamb’ (Revelation 19 vs 7 & 9). While He is away, He has left with us the instructions on what to do, and also has given us an Helper, just to help us to occupy until He comes (Luke 19 vs 13). The instructions are in the Holy Book—the Bible, and our Helper is the Holy Spirit. Outside of these two, you will never discover the way.

The Book of instruction—the Bible—tells us that the starting point is embracing Jesus and declaring Him as Savior and Lord of your life. When you do this, He will help you to ensure that all other things would fall in pleasant places if you follow His instructions (Psalm 16 vs 6). Therefore, today if you hear His voice do not harden your heart. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11 vs 28.)

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for the gift of Your only begotten Son Jesus Christ, who gave His life for me on the cross to pay the wages of my sin. I wholeheartedly declare Jesus as my Lord and personal Savior. O Lord, reveal to me the predetermined pathway for my effective functioning according to Your will for my life, in Jesus Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

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Jesus Keeps His Sheep

 

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31–32)

Though Peter, in fact, failed miserably, by denying Jesus three times, the prayer of Jesus preserved him from utter ruin. He was brought to bitter weeping and restored to the joy and boldness that showed itself in Peter’s message at Pentecost. Jesus is interceding for us today in the same way that our faith might not fail. Paul says this in Romans 8:34.

Jesus promised that his sheep would be preserved and never perish. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27–28).

The reason for this is that God works to preserve the faith of the sheep. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

We are not left to ourselves to fight the fight of faith. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

You have the assurance of God’s word that, if you are his child, he will “equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 13:21).

Our endurance in faith and joy is finally and decisively in the hands of God. Yes, we must fight. But this very fight is what God works in us. And he most certainly will do it, for, as it says in Romans 8:30, “Those whom he justified he also glorified.” The glorification of God’s justified children is as good as done.

He will lose none of those he has brought to faith and justified.