Behold
Rev. {1:18} I [am] he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
*Christ has the keys of hell and of death, Christ was dead and is alive for evermore. Christ lives! No other went through what He went through. Christ, our Savior. No other has the power over death, not one, no other has the power over the grave. Truly Christ died for us and lives for us, loving us more than we can ever imagine.
{3:8} I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast
kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
*Christ knows our works. Christ has set before us an open door, a door no one can shut the door that Christ has opened for those who have kept His word and not denied His name. All glory to God! There is a door no man can shut for those who love Jesus, because those who love Him keep His words and would not deny Him.
{3:11} Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown
*Hold fast to what we have in Christ, hold fast so that NO one takes our reward of a crown. Hold fast! If we tell someone to hold on we are telling them to hope. If I tell someone to hold on I'll be there in a bit they have that hope that I'm there in a bit. If that someone thinks I'm taking to long they might just leave and not wait for me. If we don't hold fast to the hope we have in Christ's return then we give up that hope of eternal life. We don't know how long it will be. Many have held fast their entire lives some living right close to a hundred years or more and while we term that a long, long, long time to wait, in the scheme of eternity 100 years is nothing. We have to hold fast to what we have, and what we have is hope in Christ, faith in Christ. We don't want anyone stealing our crown, our place in eternal life because we give up hoping. Hold fast!
{3:20}
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
*Christ is right there wanting us with Him. If we hear His voice and we open our hearts to Him, He will come in and sup with us, and us with Him. It's a beautiful thing to think on, Christ knocking on our door, a door only we can open. That's our place in the scheme of things- opening the door to let Christ in. The door is open by faith. We let Christ in our hearts through faith, through the hope, through the belief we have in Him. Once we believe we will reap the rewards of that belief and we will be partakers of all Christ has to offer us. Such amazing love.
{16:15}
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed [is] he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
*If we watch, no thief can steal from us. If we don't watch anything can be stolen. We know that Christ is coming at a time that we don't expect Him, that there is no date we can mark on any calendar in existence that we can look at and know that is the day Christ is returning. Christ's return will be like a thief's in unexpectedness and yet we are told to watch for His return. People set up alarms, they buy guard dogs, they even hire security people to watch their belongings so no thief steals from them. We can't hire anyone to watch for Christ for us. We have to watch for ourselves. We have to be ready. We have to watch the signs of the times, watch our own lives, watch and keep our garments, keep Christ's righteousness about us. We can't turn our backs and leave off watching or we will lose all we have- we will lose our chance at eternal life.
{21:5} And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and
faithful.
*All things made new, how marvelous does that sound? We look at our world, our lives and we see the decay, we see the constant efforts to keep things from deterioration. We know first hand what it is to watch things go from being new to being old and to know that Christ will make all things new is just amazing. It's a wonderful hope, a wonderful promise that is true and faithful, something we can believe in with all our heart.
{22:7} Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
*Christ will return. We are bless when we take to heart the things He has told us in His word. If we keep our hope in His word to us we are blessed. To keep the sayings of His words, to keep His sayings of the prophecy in His word means we believe what is told to us, we have faith in what we've read, of what we've been told will come to pass.
{22:12} And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward [is] with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.
*Our reward will be according to our work. Our work is our hope in Christ. If we place our hope anywhere else, in anything else we might think we're able to do then our reward will not be very good. What reward do we have to give ourselves? None. We have no reward to give to ourselves so we can't place our hope in ourselves. Our hope has to be in Christ and Christ alone and our reward will come from Christ.
May God bless and keep us as we hope in Him, as we invite Christ into our hearts to live forever. By the mercy and grace of Christ we live, He is our hope, our rewarder, our love for eternity.
Amen.
*******
7/2/10
******* (Song)
My Eyes Are Dry
By Keith Green
My eyes are dry, my faith is old,
My heart is hard, my prayers are cold,
And I know how I ought to be,
Alive to you, and dead to me.
Oh what can be done, for an old heart like mine,
Soften it up, with oil and wine.
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love,
Please wash me anew, in the wine of Your blood.
My eyes are dry, my faith is old,
My heart is hard, my prayers are cold,
And I know how I ought to be,
Alive to you, and dead to me.
Oh what can be done, for an old heart like mine,
Soften it up, with oil and wine.
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love,
Please wash me anew, in the wine of Your blood.
*******
That song really touches a place in my heart. The truth is we need to be alive to Christ and dead to ourselves. Alive to the will of God and dead to the will of self.
Jesus said… 'Joh 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. '
Jesus was seeking NOT His own will.
Jesus was seeking the will of His FATHER.
We must seek the will of the Father as well. How can we seek the will of God?
Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
The conclusion of the whole matter…. God's Will.
Fear God. God's Will.
Keep God's commandments. God's Will.
Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
The will of God… hearing Jesus, believing in God.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The will of God- non-conformity to the world, this selfish, selfish world.
The will of God- transformation by the renewing of our minds.
Eph 6:6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart
Eph 6:7 With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men
The will of God- servants of Christ from the heart.
The will of God- doing service as to the LORD…. not to self, NOT doing service for the praise of our fellow man, taking NO glory upon ourselves! All glory to God!
1Th 4:1 Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more.
1Th 4:2 For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:
1Th 4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;
1Th 4:5 Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:
Fornication-
G4202
p???e?´a
porneia
por-ni'-ah
From G4203; harlotry (including adultery and incest); figuratively idolatry: - fornication.
Concupiscence-
G1939
e?p???µ?´a
epithumia
ep-ee-thoo-mee'-ah
From G1937; a longing (especially for what is forbidden): - concupiscence, desire, lust (after).
The will of God- abstain from idolatry, from lusts of the flesh, not desiring things of the worldly, not desiring things the ungodly desire.
We know that self is held up as the great standard for the world.
Self gain
Self glory
Self satisfaction
Self love,
Self knowledge
Self achievement
Self understanding
Self glorification
Self pleasure
Self rights
Self preservation
Self…self… self…SELF! The majority of evil committed in our world stems from self. The majority of sin is committed because of self.
The SABBATH is a unique opportunity to die to self. I'm being convicted in this more and more. The Sabbath was made for us. The Sabbath, a weekly reminder of God and not self, God's will, not our will, God's desires, not our desires. Some say it's contradictory - that if the Sabbath was made for us we ought to be able to all things pleasing to ourselves , God would want us to have all the fun we can because we are told there are six other days to work in and work isn't fun (for the majority anyway). God would have us turn from selfish gain and seek Him fully on the Sabbath without any distractions. God would have us worship Him on the Sabbath knowing that it is only by the grace of God that we live.
As the song above says…
'I know how I ought to be… alive to You and dead to me'
God please bless us this Sabbath as we seek to be alive to YOU and dead to self. Setting aside all that would keep our minds stayed upon ourselves. May all we do be for Your glory, Your honor, Your worship, Your praise. As the blessings of life surround us- and maybe that blessing is solely found in the promise of You and eternal life with You and not anything of this world- as the blessings surround us let us thank You for Your unfathomable love for us.
By Your mercy and grace in the righteousness of our Savior, all glory to You God, all glory to You!
Amen
7/2/11
Praying as Daniel
prayed. Can we do this? Can we
understand the fullness of our unworthiness? We do not deserve God's love. We
are wretched sinners and if anyone shakes their head to this and denies it, all
the more reason for them to fall to their knees and pray for enlightenment to
man's state before God. Too often people focus on their self-worth, they'll
even say that God loves them and that makes THEM worthy.
God loves us all- sinner
and saint - but He does hate the sin we commit.
'For
God so loved the world…'
It's Christ's
worth that matters not our own.
God loves us and that love gave us Christ Jesus.
We find worth only as HE is worthy. Our dependence upon the Lord is all
we are called to, not to dependence upon ourselves. If we are good at all it is
Christ in us that is good. Our
good actions will not mean a thing. Sinners have a lot of good actions. The
stereotype for a sinner is someone
committing outward acts of evil. But I think it's safe to say that there are
many, many, many sinners that don't seemingly sin at all.
In fact we are all sinners aren't we? That person we look up to as an
example of one leading a Christian life- that person is a sinner too. That
pastor we listen to who speaks amazingly, that singer singing such a heart felt,
touching, life changing song, they are sinners. We aren't to look to each other for an
example in holiness because we will forever be disappointed. We have to look to
our Savior and in Him alone we find the PERFECT example, in Him alone we find
forgiveness.
Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of
the glory of God
Only Jesus is
sinless. Only Jesus has worth. By
His grace we are forgiven. Only because of HIS worth are we saved. If we had to
rely upon our own worth we'd have nothing to rely on. Only by faith in HIM, in
HIS worth are we saved. If we wait to be transformed into one worthy, we'll
forever be waiting. We must learn dependence now because without that
dependence upon Christ we will never be His, fully His.
Daniel prayed
earnestly.
'And I prayed
unto the LORD my God, and made my confession,'
Daniel made his
confession - to who? The LORD his God.
The confession--
'and said, O
Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that
love him, and to them that keep his commandments'
Obey and
live. Disobey and die.
Mankind was created and given this command.
A simple command really.
That choice given to the first parents is given to every one of us-
daily, hourly, minutely. We might be quick to say that we would never had taken
that bite from the forbidden fruit, but in truth we don't really know what we'd
have done, do we? God keeps the
covenant and gives mercy to those who love Him, and to those who keep His
commandments. This is truth. Love and obey.
'We have sinned,
and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by
departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments'
We are
sinners. ALL are sinners. ALL have
committed iniquity. ALL have done
wickedly. ALL have rebelled. ALL have departed from God's precepts. All have
departed from God's judgments.
When we sin we do all that.
The sin we've committed isn't just a non-consequential act, harming only
us, but it's wicked. That little tiny sin is WICKED. That little tiny sin is
REBELLION. That little tiny sin is us DEPARTING from God's precepts, and God's
judgments. That one bite, that one tiny, delicate bite that barely took the
tiniest nibble from the fruit,
that first touch of teeth piercing the flesh of the fruit, the touch of
lips pressed briefly against the pleasing fruit, that was WICKEDNESS, REBELLION,
DISOBEYING. It was a tiny sin- in
our perception. It wasn't murder. Yet it was the worst of all sins- the
first. And that's all it took. God
didn't give us three strikes and we're out. God didn't need to give us three
strikes. One strike was
enough. Introducing sin, that
first inclination to disobey God was all that was necessary to bring the flood
of sin into the world, to put SELF first, to put SELF before God came in that
tiniest of seemingly harmlessness of sins. We CANNOT let Satan deceive us into
believing the tiny sins don't matter.
We HAVE sinned and whether small or great any sin at all is wicked, is
rebelling, is leaving God's precepts, leaving God's judgment.
We are guilty.
'Neither have we
hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings,
our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.'
Prophets warned-
Jeremiah, Daniel couldn't help but recall Jeremiah's prophesying because
Daniel's own captivity was proof of Jeremiah's prophecy coming to pass. Daniel KNEW that God's people chose NOT
to listen to God's prophets.
Daniel knew that God's prophets had spoke to all- warning all from
greatest to the least in the land and still they chose not to heed the prophets.
'O Lord,
righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this
day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all
Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither
thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed
against thee.
O Lord, to us
belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers,
because we have sinned against thee.'
We deserve to be
confused, to be shamed because of our guilt!
'To the Lord our
God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him'
God alone can
give mercy and forgiveness-
even though we have rebelled.
God can STILL forgive! God's mercy can STILL be felt.
We are sinners and God alone has the power of mercy and forgiveness, it
is HIS to give or not give. But no where else is mercy of forgiveness found, no
where.
'Neither have we
obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before
us by his servants the prophets.
Yea, all Israel
have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy
voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in
the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
And he hath
confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that
judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath
not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
As it is written
in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer
before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand
thy truth.'
Even when the
results of the sinning was made manifest and the punishment begun- there was NO
turning from the sinning- no prayer- no REAL sincere prayer of repentance being
prayed. There was no TURNING from the sin, no forgiveness sought- no
forgiveness given. No
understanding God's truth because of the refusal to truly repent.
'Therefore hath
the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is
righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.'
No blaming God
for what transpires as a result of sinning. The guilt lies with the SINNER! God is righteous in ALL His works! We are the ones who refuse to obey Him.
Too many want to blame God. Too many want to point at the innocent ones affected
by the wrath of God and then blame God. Too many do NOT want to take any
responsibility for the innocent ones affected by their sinning and their
forefathers sinning. It's easier for people to blame God than themselves.
People don't want to believe that the innocent blood spilled under the various
punishments enacted by God are the fault of anyone but God. They want God to be
a fictional persona who doesn't hold any accountable, who won't allow any
innocents to perish. The truth
is, our actions bring about results that affect all.
Adam and Eve's sin brought about the death of their second son. Abel was innocent in that he fully
obeyed God, yet he was allowed to die.
Many are the innocent youth too young to even be accountable, many are
those who have sincerely accepted Christ as their Savior and they died in that
forgiven state, yet they did die and some in very torturous ways- ways we call
inhumane. Their deaths, their
agonies, their abuse isn't God's fault- it's a result of sin.
'And now, O Lord
our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a
mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we
have done wickedly.
O Lord, according
to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned
away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for
the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach
to all that are about us.'
According to
God's righteousness!
According to
God!
God forgives, God
leads out of captivity, God's anger and fury can subside by HIS
righteousness. For the sake of
having a people that are His, sinners though they are, the need for God's anger
and fury to be turned away is desperately desired, and here Daniel is pleading
for that very thing. As we need to plead.
Dan 9:17 Now therefore, O our God, hear the
prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon
thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake.
Hear the
prayer.
Hear the
supplication.
Cause Thy face to
shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for Your sake.
'O my God,
incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and
the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications
before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.'
Incline Thine
ear!
Open Thine
eyes!
Behold our
desolations!
Not for OUR
righteousness.
FOR THY GREAT
MERCIES!
'O Lord, hear; O
Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God:
for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.'
Lord hear!
Lord forgive!
Lord harken!
Lord do not
defer!
God for YOUR
name!
God for YOU!
God for YOUR
righteousness!
This is our
prayer too, Lord! This is our supplication! For Your righteousness Lord! For
Your people- people called by Your name! For Your city, the heavenly new
Jerusalem! Please LORD! We are sinners, we are in need of Your mercy, Your
forgiveness, help us Lord to understand Your will, Your word, Your prophecies
for us. Open our eyes, open our understanding! By Your righteousness, by Your
grace!
This is our
prayer!
We need
understanding.
We are to watch,
and we need to know what we are to watch for. It does a watchmen no good to
watch if he hasn't a clue what He is to watch for, right?
Jesus would have us watch and pray. Jesus gave us many a sign to watch
for. Jesus gave us prophecies that had yet to be fulfilled- to watch for. If we
close our eyes and ears to all this and just hope God will understand that we
love Him and that's enough, then are we truly loving Him by refusing to study to
shew ourselves approved unto God…
2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth.
…rightly dividing
the word of truth! No need to be
ashamed at all. But we should be
ashamed, just as Daniel prayed-
'O Lord, to us
belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers,
because we have sinned against thee.'
Confusion of
face-shame! Shame belonged to the people - kings, princes, fathers- shame
belongs to us for sinning against God and we DARE not add to that shame by
refusing to study God's word.
We can spend a
lifetime studying the soothing
words of the Bible, we could. We
could soothe our consciences with the Bible and study only that which pleases
our ears. But is that what we are supposed to do?
Pick bits and pieces that suit us?
No. We are to study as God would have us study. We are to study as the
Holy Spirit guides us. We are told
to WATCH and PRAY and the Bible tells us what to watch and how to pray. If we neglect the parts we don't want
to hear because they take a bit of mental wrestling to truly understand we are
only hurting ourselves. This is the meat of the Bible, the meat we have to chew
and chew before we swallow. This isn't the milk of a newborn we are forever
wanting to suckle on because then we don't have to chew, this is the meat.
Chewing meat takes a lot more effort than merely sucking and swallowing. And everyone who has ever chewed meat
knows that some meat is tender but other meat is tough and the tough meat takes
even more effort to chew. The meat
of the Bible needs to be eaten by us, because we cannot allow ourselves to
remain babes not if we are wanting to follow God's will. God wants us to get to
the meat and no longer be fed milk.
By the grace and
mercy of our Savior we will feast on His word and by the Holy Spirit's
enlightenment may our understanding be opened and may we full see what we are
to watch for as the time of the end grows closer and closer and ever
closer.
In the most
amazing love of our Savior now and forever!!!!
Amen.