Month: May 2021

“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John‬ ‭8:31-32‬ ‭KJV‬‬. Jesus did not say “If you once believe then everything will be fine and Heaven is guaranteed”. No, He made it very plain that we must continue in His Word! We must continue following Him all the way! He said in Matthew 24:13, “He that endures to the end, he shall be saved”. We should know from God’s Word that true saving faith is a continuing activity, which results in following Jesus, everyday, all the way through this life. It is tragic that so many, in and out of churches, are resting in past religious experiences and professions of belief, even as they are living sinful and selfish lives, with no interest in following Christ. And this continued following is also the means by which we are able to discern truth. We know the truth of our own relationship with Jesus because He has set us free from following the world to follow Him. Let us be clear about what God’s Word says, it is not those who begin, but only those who continue following Jesus and His words who will be saved.

“Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John‬ ‭8:12‬ ‭KJV‬‬. When Jesus calls us to follow Him, He means for that experience to be much more than simply a trip to Heaven. When we truly follow Him, we are following the One Who is the True Light. He is the One Whom darkness flees from. So for a person to follow Jesus means that they will not walk in spiritual darkness. And yet, as clear as this is, religion today has not only made it acceptable to walk in darkness, but actually says that Christians walk in the darkness of sin. What a tragedy it is that religion has tried to reduce the Light of Christ to where it cannot keep us from darkness! But the truth is, all that truly follow Christ walk in His Light. We don’t have to walk in sin’s darkness anymore! We don’t have to walk in the darkness of defeat, discouragement and despair! Thank God, there is such glorious Light radiating from Jesus, that for all who follow Him, it will dispel the darkness in our hearts and lives. So if we find ourselves walking in darkness, we should be honest enough to ask, “Who or what am I following?” By God’s grace, let us follow Jesus the Only True Light.

“I will never forget Thy precepts: For with them Thou hast quickened me.” Psalm‬ ‭119:93‬ ‭KJV‬‬. The psalmist had such a deep love and appreciation for God’s Word because he knew what it had done in his own heart and soul. The Word of God had brought him spiritual life! Time after time the Word had revived his weary soul, cheered his discouraged mind, and lifted his spirit to new life. He had experienced what James would later write (James 1:18) “He begat us with the Word of Truth”. And when he experienced it’s life giving power, he vowed never to forget it. That means that he kept it before his eyes and his thoughts. He read it often and meditated on it day and night. What a difference it would make in lives today, if more people would truly experience the life giving power of God’s Word! What power it has when we hide it in our hearts,  keep it before our minds and endeavor to obey it with all of our heart. By God’s grace, let us determine, never to forget God’s precious Word. In all we do, in every decision we make, remember what God says.

“For ever, O LORD, Thy Word is settled in heaven.” Psalm‬ ‭119:89‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In these recent generations religious men have been trying to constantly change the Word of God. Few are the ones who aim at accurate translations, but many are the interpretations and opinions of men. And what is so obvious, is that every new version seems to further water down the message in some way. They strive to make things easier for fleshly minded religious people. The modern church tries to adapt God’s Holy Word to fit worldly minded people. But may God help us to understand, His Word is forever settled in Heaven! The true Word of God will never change. But the question for us is, will we allow God’s Word to get settled in our hearts and minds? Will we open our souls to ‘This saith the Lord’? We need to quit searching for modern versions that read more like a newspaper or magazine, and get back to God’s Word that causes us to elevate our minds to a higher plane! If we are looking for some easier way, the devil will always provide it, even in religion. For us to be truly settled in our faith and in our lives, we must let God’s Word get settled in us. We must align our lives with it’s teaching and not try to adapt it to suit us. We should learn to cherish it and love it, then strive to obey it and live it for God’s glory.

“And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity…” Jeremiah‬ ‭29:13-14‬ ‭KJV‬‬. God spoke these words long ago to Old Testament Israel when they were in Babylonian captivity. They were there because they had ‘played’ religion for so long. They would not wholly follow the Lord. They went on being religious but were not sincere and wholehearted. And yet even there, God gives them this promise and hope! Today, it seems most people in religion are held captive by something. In some way, they are bound and cannot get free. And certainly the list is long of things that bind the soul and body. But the main reason is still, because people do not seek God with all their heart. They may join a church, make religious profession, even give money, but they never fully let go of their old life with it’s selfish and sinful ways. But this blessed promise still stands for us today! If we seek God with all of our heart, and follow Jesus wholeheartedly, we will find Him and experience His soul liberating power exactly as He promised. He is still able to break the chains of sin and set our souls free, so we can follow Him. He is still willing to open the doors of the prison house for every humble and honest soul.

“Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” Psalm‬ ‭55:22‬ ‭KJV‬‬. These words remind us of many wonderful things about our gracious Lord. First, that we are able to come to Him and bring the burdens that weigh us down. He tells us that He is our Burden Bearer. We can have the confidence that He is well able to handle every burden we carry. Then, as we do this, He holds us up and sustains us, because He knows our need of His strength. He knows how our burdens sap our feeble energies and that we were never designed to carry these burdens alone. Also, He holds us so securely that nothing can move us from that blessed refuge we find in Him. But let us realize, that all of these great blessings begin with us, being willing to humble ourselves and turn loose of our burdens and trust Him to do what we cannot! We must cast our burdens on Him. We must do as the songwriter wrote so long ago, ‘Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there’. One verse of that song says: “When your enemies assail and your heart begins to fail, Don’t forget that God in Heaven answers prayer; He will make a way for you and will lead you safely through—Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.”

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: But the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭34:19‬ ‭KJV‬‬. When people do not know God’s Word, and they rely only on man’s word, they are usually surprised to discover that the Christian life is difficult. In most places today, the Gospel is presented in the opposite way. It is often held out as a ‘cure all’ for the problems of human life. But when we get in to God’s Word and become serious about living for God, then we will discover that afflictions, difficulties and persecution are all normal to the true child of God. As a soldier going into battle, struggle is something we should expect and prepare for. That is because we are going contrary to this fallen world. There are forces of evil that war against our soul. But the good news is, we are promised deliverance from all of those things! God never said we would not have battles, but He does promise victory in the conflict! He never said that life would be easy or free of suffering, but He did say that one day it will all be over, and complete deliverance will be ours. We should thank God, that through Jesus Christ, we have the promise of full and complete deliverance.

“So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: For I trust in Thy word.”Psalm‬ ‭119:42‬ ‭KJV. The psalmist felt what it was to be reproached for his faith in God. As we are beginning to experience more and more in our day, he knew the mockery that evil men directed towards him. But what kept him steady and able to give an answer was his unwavering trust in God’s Word. Today, the church desperately needs to get back to this kind of unshakable trust in God’s Word. We are in a time when God’s Word is under attack. Worldly religious men are trying to water it down and change it to suit their evil ways. But our answer to the world will never be from our own wisdom or from what religious men say. Our answer should always be “Thus saith the Lord!” We don’t live the way we do because it makes sense to ungodly people. Rather, we do it because God’s Word tells us how to live and we trust wholeheartedly in His Word. We don’t stand for the truth of the Word because it is popular or convenient, but because God, Who cannot lie, spoke it. We don’t pick certain passages and ignore others, because it is all spoken by God, Whom we love and desire to honor. Let us be among those faithful few, who will trust in all that God says. As the song says, let us get ‘Back to the Blessed Old Bible’.

“But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” John‬ ‭3:21‬ ‭KJV‬‬. In this great passage Jesus is talking to Nicodemus about the New Birth and believing in Him, Who is the only Way. He concludes this brief discourse with these words in verse 21. These words speak to us about what True Belief in Christ is. Understanding what it means to truly believe in Christ is perhaps the greatest error of this religious age. True belief (which is saving faith) is a life changing choice which puts us on the path of truth. It leads us closer and closer to Christ Who is the True Light. As we are drawn to Him, by the power of His life within us, more and more of His light shines upon our lives. His light and truth reveal to us, not only what, but why we are doing the things we do. He brings every hidden thing in us to light. And true believers do not pull back, because we desire that all we do and all that we are, be clear and clean in God’s eyes. So let us be honest in asking ourselves “Is my life coming more and more to the Light of Christ? Is my desire that God sees all of my deeds and know that they are pure in His eyes, because they come from His life within?” May God help us to know, that nothing less is true belief.

“This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.”
‭Titus‬ ‭3:8‬ ‭KJV‬‬. We live in a religious culture that constantly criticizes the idea of ‘good works’ being preached or emphasized. There has been such an imbalance in the presentation of the Gospel that most today have little idea that “faith without good works is dead” (James 2:20), it is not genuine faith. And certainly we need to make the distinction, that there is no salvation by good works. No one can do enough or become good enough to earn salvation. But Paul makes it clear in this passage, he is admonishing those who have already believed, those who have placed saving faith in Jesus Christ. And for them, he says to “constantly affirm (continually remind) believers to maintain a life good works.” So as much as we should praise God for the gift of His grace, we also should realize that grace teaches us and leads us into a life of consistent godliness and good works. In Matthew 5:16 Jesus said that others should “…see your good works and glorify your Father Which is in Heaven”. Let us do good and prove the reality of God’s grace in our hearts.