ᙘᙍᒪᓿᙍᐻᙍ

יהוה-God is Holy and is the very essence of Love, Truth and Justice.  He loves everyone who believes that Jesus is The Son of God(65), killed so we can truly live, and wants to have a real relationship with those who are seeking Him out(69).  We can relate to Him through His Word which is the text of The Bible(75, 58), and the focused attention of prayer(67).  He is the ultimate Dad(36), and wants His kids, who are the apex of His creation to know and appreciate Him(84, 88).

He shows no pretense and puts no obstacles in your way(31, 19).  He doesn't immediately and fully show Himself to us because that would preoccupy us with self-preservation instead of a  desire to be close to Him and freely experience His sincere friendship and immeasurable love(28).  We, as the human beings He designed, would all end up separated from Him because our worship would only be out of fear of punishment from such a powerful, resplendent and glorious being(13, 61).  Instead, He created us in an environment that allows for the uncontrolled experience and expression of love.  His hiddenness teaches us about humility and trust(84), but He has openly revealed Himself to the world in the life of Jesus of Nazareth and the inspired manuscripts that make up The Bible.

Everything that He has created works to maximize our understanding and enjoyment of Him, but we tend to behave much like a herd of goats which focus on the visible/material or their fears, and do not understand that their supremely patient Shepherd makes decisions that will help them all to prosper and be productive(10).  If we can overcome 'me' through denying and cross-carrying, we will meet the real and better us that He desires.

He doesn't want to punish or control you, but to fill you with His Spirit(16) and include you as part of His family(34, 36).  You can't work for His favor or earn His love(84, 18).  It is an immensely valuable gift, not a business transaction.  He has already done His part, and He is also the catalyst making it possible for you to gracefully accomplish yours.  All you must do is recognize that you are helpless without Him, having dispensed with the pretense of having control of your life(52).  He will accept anyone who is humble and spiritually poor, showing contrition for the state of humanity instead of personal pride(84).  He is not interested in your knowledge so much as your true love.  It is the most important command of scripture(1).  Just commit to Him with everything He has given you(1) and let Him lead you through your life journey(76, 52).

He has chosen everyone who believes this.  You are no less valuable than anyone else to Him and all of us together have failed(5, 43).  We are unable to do anything to make ourselves acceptable because our desires are twisted and depraved(12, 64) and we would rather be our own god(11).   His integrity means that a perfect and costly justice must be applied- and it was, to Jesus, Himself.  Just as our acts of 'good' cannot save us, our personal acts of evil are not what have brought us under condemnation- they have only confirmed it repeatedly.  He doesn't want to shame us through condemnation(34), but convict us to change and be absolved(16).

Evil is not something that God created, but is a corruption of the things God created that causes them to rot and die.  The original sin of the first human, Adam, infected us all(52, 11) with an attitude of defiance and hostility, and left a stain on humanity that must be removed(7, 64).  We do not enter the world as neutral, innocent beings(91, 11), and God does not owe us anything.  We are all born enslaved and selfish(54, 55).  God made us with His own beautiful image in our soul, but Adam thought there was a better one offered.  He broke fellowship with God and marked us all with death, and any one of us would have done the exact same thing(5, 11).  Now that image has been marred so that it is almost unrecognizable and we foolishly try to replace the lost fellowship and identity with created objects or experiences or other people(who are in the same exact predicament).

Sin(which means to miss the mark) is not simply breaking rules, but choosing a dark path(10, 43) in thoughts, words, deeds or motives in opposition to God and others.  Everything you do has an impact on the other people around you; people are either loved or they are used- they are built up by your actions or are torn down some more.  D.A. Carson says, "Sin is social; although it is first and foremost defiance of God, there is no sin that does not touch the lives of others."  Whether it's through epigenetics or lack of love, you are not alone in your sin(49).  Our debt is infinite and should make our relationship with Him personal and enduring because of the infinite and irresistable grace He first provided(84, 66).  Our life of service and worship should ultimately be about the glory that is due Him(16, 52).

Our body will still desire sin even after we have His Spirit in us(52, 43), but our new master will not let us fight it alone and His work in us is not merely cerebral.  If we truly want to change, we will(16).  The Gospel is explosively powerful against the intense pressures of selfishness and depravity in this world(3).  Anyone can be purified and put on a more beautiful path, and Jesus knows precisely what is necessary.

Because we could never deserve such unsurpassed and unconditional love(65) on our own and because He will do whatever is necessary for His children(84, 47), God sent a form of Himself, Jesus(The Christ), to live as and die for us(80, 9) and provide hope in a cure for our condition(15, 60).  It's almost like being told by a doctor that you were, at any moment and without any doubt about to die, but that he was going to freely give you one of his own organs so that you would live.  Serving God is more like a physician's order than an employer's.  He did not offer this privilege to the angels(who surpass us in every way, including intellect) and he did not make us to remain in our current faulty state.  Jesus shines to reveal the dirt and blood on our hands and remove it(11).

Now, to honor the breath that He gave us(58) in the presence of our redeemer(83), we are personally compelled(in the tradition of those who first suffered and died for the privilege) to make His character and presence scrupulously known to this provisional world(39, 74).  It is not a private practice.  He deserves to be worshiped by all of humanity and all people will have that opportunity(7).  We are currently, as Trip Lee says, in the waiting room(51).  This temporary place means we are protected from instant destruction and thoroughly prepared for the inconcievable new experiences we will have in our perfect freedom to come.  Before we can take our place in God's Kingdom, we must prepare ourselvers by caring for our brothers and sisters(1, 15).

Some of us will devote ourselves as soon as Jesus has courted us and others will never yield to Him.  We will either try to build our own empire, chasing material things, or seek the real and endless fulfillment of a life with Christ Jesus(52).  There is hope for the future.  Soon, He will fix all that is defective and broken and polluted from our legacy of sin, restoring His creation to it's intended, incorruptible state(77, 11).  When that happens, He will be fully seen in all His glory and power and there will be no more constraints on us such as what comes with having a physical body and being exposed to the noxious influence of evil(17, 54).

ꋖꍩꈼ ^ ꍩꈼꁲꀰꈼꋊꌚ

'I AM' is sovereign and supreme over His creation.  He is not made of the stuff that He made the universe out of, nor is He subject to anything.  He is the loving, personal authority with the wisdom and ability to create life on this planet using a design language we can understand and then sustain it's journey through time and space.  We are a tiny part of it with a big purpose.  In the words of John Piper, "God made man small and the universe big to say something about Himself."  Despite attempts by some to alienate Him with pagan fables and humanist origin stories, our 'introductory' life on earth will soon lead us face-to-face with this beautiful Creator.

੮૯ς੮ɿɱ૦Ոע

What is the meaning of life, human morality and purpose/destiny?  Isn't there more than just what i know?  Does Truth need our help or approval?

 There is plenty of confusion to deal with today, but it is incoherent to think of one's self as the center of everything or believe that there is no such thing as exclusive truth.  Many versions of truth that we have been presented with do not make any sense when you begin to dig deep and explore the full ends of their basic tenets.  Some have even used ideas or sections of The Bible, corrupting them in order to make it more palatable for those who are not really interested in the truth.  They only serve to try to confuse and obscure the real, original ideas of scripture.

Maybe what you have been taught does not line up with your experiences and Jesus is not who you thought He was.  He is bigger than our ego's.   He reveals Himself as He chooses, and no imposter even compares.  Men and the gods they have created are cruel, changeable and impersonal.  Jesus is the same now as He was at creation, and gave His life for those He loves to repair the damage we did there and restore us to His family.  It was an unmistakable event in history and He carefully  regenerates us now.

He doesn't just tell us we must be holy and pure, but actively makes us that way as we daily surrender to Him and invite Him to defeat the evil in us.  That's what makes me press on boldly even though i regularly see the rancid corruption that is present inside me.  It involves a commitment to sincere, consistent study and a change in the priorities and goals for your life.

You simply ask God to reveal His Truth for you and then maintain a constant and patient focus on Him, applying the principles you find in The Bible to your own life and relationships.  If one is blind, it does not mean that there is no light.  You can hear His call and no one who has answered Him has ever regretted it.
 

I want to give testimony to what The Living, Sovereign God has done in my life.  My hope is for you to follow Christ Jesus to see for yourself!  He gives us hope and meaning, and makes us clean. There is no excuse.

How do you know that God is real?

There is historical basis for Jesus and The Bible to be sure, but the real evidence is in the heart.  Because of the desire He nurtured in me to know Him and seeking to learn about Him by reading the instructions that He gave us in The Bible, i have experienced His love and power in many ways.  When i pray, i feel His presence and know that He is listening. When i have a problem, He reassures me. My life is not suddenly perfect because of Him and there is no ritual or magic formula, but He reveals Himself in ways that are gentle yet powerful.

He warns us not to worship idols such as our stuff, money, sexuality, or career and says He made us in His own image, like children. We were not made to be owners/consumers, but stewards of all He has provided for us. He is asking us to worship Him only, without having any tangible or visible representation(it is reasonable), which makes it harder to pretend to love Him.

He deserves all the adoration we can assemble as He is infinitely perfect and magnificent. He is a consuming fire which nothing can resist, but created us in conditions where we had the opportunity to. If we ignore His teaching and behave like stubborn children, we will only have ourselves to blame.

He has already made it readily apparent from all He has made that He is exactly who He says He is. If He can design and sustain such intricate and complex information systems such as this massive universe as well as give the tiniest things we can see a beauty that only we can appreciate, surely He can be trusted with my life.

It is arrogant to expect God to do anything for us or to reveal Himself to us without offering Him our full and constant attention based solely on who He is. He has provided our next breath and all that we need to live.

When we are focused on Him, the things we see and experience throughout the day are not as important. We become less self-absorbed and more attuned to what His Holy Spirit is showing us. He is everywhere, all the time, and doesn't miss anything.

His Art(daily captured for us by the folks at APOD), helps to remind us that there is a much greater perspective than just what we see here.
Shouldn't we persistently give Him the love and admiration here and now that we would give Him if He were visible to the world in all His magnificence? He doesn't want us to be afraid of Him, but respect and admire Him.

Faith is knowing that i am not the center of everything and trusting what He has promised us in His Word(The Bible). It has credibility, unlike much of what we see and hear otherwise. There is so much dishonesty and evil that it makes the real truth and love of God even more obvious.

Even if everyone and everything around me tells me that God's love is a lie and there is no justice, nothing can change it.  I am a believer because i believe what He says and am actively listening to what He is saying rather than everything and everyone else.

What kind of background do you come from?

I grew up in Pentecostal/Holiness type churches that didn't really have useful Christian teaching.   I only had the example of a grandmother who always displayed mercy, purity and peacemaking.  I suffered severe mental health issues at a time when no one knew much about them.  My parents verbally abused me for it.  My teachers were convinced that punishment was the solution.  My experience in the US Air Force was very unhealthy and i received maximum discipline and minimum clinical insight.  I failed so much that it seemed as though i was not going to survive.  A personality disorder is an excuse for the AF and soldiers to abandon and deride you.  Even Christians would not help, since males are expected to behave a certain way and not need any emotional support.  It seems that many believe people with emotional or mental disorders cannot be discipled.

It was during this time that God introduced me to my best friend and wife.  I had prayed for such a companion for a long time and when i met her finally, it was tremendous. God created marriage and love, so He would know better than anyone how to love and what love really is.  I have found His example helpful and there is no finer groom than Jesus.  Megan and i have been married since 1997, and it has been worth all the challenges and struggles to find that i have a friend that i know and trust.  It still takes a lot of patience, but because of true commitment and learning to love like Jesus, we have a satisfying relationship.  God made us capable of making some fantastic mess, but He shows how sovereign and supreme He really is through it and pours out His love on us in the process.

What is the single greatest event in your life so far that has influenced your relationship with Jesus Christ?

 

Elijah James Chavis, July 13th-September 30th, 2005

One of our babies, Elijah, was born and seemed very healthy at first. It was soon apparent though that something was wrong with him and our lives began to change forever.

Up to that point, we both believed that God was real and active, but that was pretty much the extent of our concern with Him. We found ourselves desperately reaching for answers about why this was happening to our children and what could be done about it. I started to pray a lot and tried to reassure my wife and myself that Elijah would come out of this and be O.K. But he only got worse and we were growing weary from driving back and forth between hospitals and work and anything that would take our minds off of the pain. It got to a point where we had to make the decision to allow him to die, because his condition was so bad that there was nothing else that could be done and he was suffering. That was rough. He was swollen and discolored, had myriad tubes and gadgets, and we could rarely hold him. Nothing could have prepared us for the end of 2005. He was born on July 13th and died in our arms on the afternoon of September 30th. We wanted to give up. We were destroyed. We felt no hope for the future. We wanted to blame God, blame ourselves, escape the pain, refuse to go on.

We lost our jobs, our house and our minds. We spent months hashing out our emotions and i became an alcoholic and someone my family would not want around anymore. God, however, was not content to let me destroy myself and my family.

Because Jesus became my living water, He overcame my addiction.  None of the positive changes in my life since would have been possible without the events of 2005 happening the way they did, and God's intervention in our, then, self-absorbed life.

Because God is compassionate, we take encouragement in knowing that we will see Elijah and the others again soon in the way we were supposed to live before The Fall, with no suffering and no death. (See  2 Sam. 12:13-23; Deut. 1:31-39; Job 3:11-19)

God's goodness, love and justice are defined by His own being, not by our perception of it or Him. We cannot know the beauty and magnitude of His being except through the pain and darkness.

There are so many competing ideas about God and varying world-views. How do you know you are doing it right?

I read and study The Bible(which stands out from other 'holy books' as self-evident and has a reliable history and purpose focusing on Jesus) and use it as my measure for living. I no longer have to feel my way around in the dark. The people that Jesus entrusted His message to were not a large group of egalitarians nor a single individual.  His goal was deliberate.  No other belief provides the hope and confidence that one in Christ does, and the realness is experienced through applying it.  You will not know if you only listen to your own voice, influenced by the depravity and selfish pride that is common to us all.

I've been to lots of different kinds of churches since i was a kid, but many seemed more like social clubs or inspirational meetings than real-life applicators. Emphasis was usually put on appearances or emotional experience, rather than the heart change that makes you the man or woman that you were intended to be.  You must have trusted relationships where you can be open and receive help.

I have met a lot of people i would call 'good', but my standard is useless. Merely having a religion just requires you to earn or perform but does not change your heart, so there will be lots of 'good' people who will have chosen permanent separation from God because they did not want to know the real Jesus Christ.

He was The Son Of God Himself wrapped in a mortal body for a time as an example for us and sacrificed Himself for us. Following Jesus is not being religious, it is recognizing who He is and devoting your life to bringing Him glory. If we belong to Him and remain in (communion with) Him, we allow ourselves to be broken like the bread(His body) and poured out like the wine(His blood) so that His glory is seen and His good purposes are realized. His followers are not perfect, but that is no excuse to take advantage of the grace He has given. It isn't complicated but it does require a genuine commitment.

What are some issues that you see today that are particularly important to you?


People are going to unintentionally let me down or willfully hurt me sometimes.   I am going to do the same because i am nowhere near perfect yet and must continue the struggle to conform to the example of Christ despite my sinful nature.  If God did not have mercy on us, we would have long ago become monsters and there would be no good left in the world anywhere, like in the time of Noah.  It would be easy to focus on the faults of others while minimizing my own, but openly confessing my sin makes it less likely to continue and gives us the conviction to change.  Avoiding trusting relationships or repaying evil with evil will only lead to more misery instead of peace.

We are all messed up somehow, but bearing with each other helps us all get the best out of this short and frequently painful life. If we can forgive and love no matter what someone does or says, it will improve the lives of everyone but especially the person doing the forgiving. The happiest people are those who focus on the well-being of others and show unconditional love for them, rather than being self-centered.

We were not meant to live life alone or figure it out on our own.   Men need the fraternal fellowship and push to overcome that they only get in tough experiences with other men, some of whom are older and wiser.  This is how real character is created and mutual trust is gained.  There will always be fighting as long as everyone is so proud of themselves, but at times it will stop because someone chose to love and help instead.   That compassion for other human beings has a legacy that transcends our mortal life and is felt in places we do not comprehend.  It is incoherent to begin a relationship but not value it more than your own inconstant desires.   These relationships will be the measure of our life when it is over.  It won't matter what they thought, but rather what we chose.

I strive to follow the example of Christ in being that loving and forgiving to my family and all those that i meet in my daily life. Sometimes it takes some time to really forgive, but nothing can bring us greater pleasure and satisfaction than being able to reveal the love that Christ has shown us. No one deserves it, but we are required to show it to everyone.

I don't always display the joy that comes from having Christ.  I don't stay the same but keep pressing forward, still desperately and consistently in need of God’s grace and his power for change.  Sometimes i feel like i will fail at everything and there is no use, but He tells me that is a lie every time and that i should trust Him.  He is capable of anything, which includes making me a better man than i was yesterday, and i don't run from His discipline. I'm still here because i have more work to do in bringing Him glory and serving my community.

Yahweh Journal is a reminder and study tool firstly for me, before i ever hope in it's message being read by others.  I need to hold fast to these truths, preaching to my own soul as well as making Him known to others.  Half of the planet still doesn't know about Jesus and there are a lot of people that could use some loving friendship and a helping hand today.

Being a follower of Christ will not make your life perfect. There will always be struggles to overcome, and we must strive to do it gracefully rather than trying to demand something of God. As much as it hurts, we must do what is required to further God's purposes for our life and those around us. If you face those circumstances with your focus on Him, it will make His glory apparent to those around you and strengthen your bond with Him.

Suffering makes us a potent example of Christ to those around us as we travel hard roads with joy despite and endure pain for the sake of others.   In the end, it will be glorious and perfect.  Prayer helps us deal with it in the meantime, and He does love every one of us.  He wouldn't be God if we could fit His agenda in our head.

Though He does provide rest, He didn't command us to lie down in green pastures and be spiritually lazy or use our study time as a retreat to personal enjoyment.  His Word is a sword and He said 'Go'. We should be applying what we read instead of focusing on what Jesus can do for me.  We are His body and must function as one. I don't know everything, but God continues to give me wisdom and guidance for every area of my life.

He has kept all of His promises and never fails me.  I trust Him and will continue to listen.  I won't stop speaking what is true.

Comment from my wonderful wife, Megan:

I've come to realize that after all the loss and hardships we've experienced together as a couple, the only way we survived was by surrendering to God's perfect will and purpose for us. I admit that during those experiences, i wanted to turn away from him. I constantly asked him "Why?"  But i soon found that God was the only one who could completely understand what we were going through and the only one that could comfort us. He was the only one who could light our way out of the darkness. He brought us peace. He even knew the answer to my "Why?" Although i have not received the answer to every question, i have come to accept His will and purpose for our lives.

He really loves us and knows us more personally than we will ever know each other. I understand now that my "Why's" were simply an agonizing part of the loss. I had to let them go so we could both heal and find peace in God's purpose. I could not question God any longer. I could only trust Him and thank him every day for the experiences we've had that have brought us closer to each other and to Him. I feel blessed to have had this experience because it helps me overcome the hardships i face today and the pain i will feel tomorrow. I know God will be there for me.

ʎpnʇS

ALIVE!  Even if you don't read so well, there are many important ways for God's Word to reach you.  Bibleresources.org provides a very good introduction to Bible Study and use of helps.  Bible Hub has just about any kind of resource you could want for studying The Bible, including lexicons, dictionaries, maps, translations and a huge search of Christian resources.  Bryan College has links to manuscripts and other in-depth materials.  There is even a Thesaurus, which is a very cool tool when you're not sure what you're looking for or it may be described differently in different passages.  Biblia also has many resources and translations to choose

from.  BibleGateway has an easy to use topical search and passage lookup in many different versions which can be viewed side by side for comparison.  If English is not your native language, try Bible.is.  Enduring Word has a Spanish Commentary.  Also check out this multilingual search and World Translations of The Bible(such as Russian, Hindi, South Korean, Somali, Arab Sharif, Dinka Rek, Nahuatl Huasteca, Inupiaq, or Samoan).

ΞИCФЦЯДGΞD

Do you feel encouraged?  It's difficult in such a broken and unjust world where evil seems to flourish.  Sometimes we feel like we will never measure up or we should 'be better' or that God just 'doesn't have a place for me', and Facebook and other social media is not helping.  John Meinen says, "Shame is not the same thing as guilt.  Guilt is the right response to moral failure: 'I made a mistake.  I am sorry.'  Shame, on the other hand, personalizes that guilt.  It’s not ‘I made a mistake’ but ‘I am a mistake.’"  Our lives rarely take the course we imagined or hoped for, and it's so easy for our self-evaluation to drift towards pride or self-hate.  We tend to lean too far into feeling or intellectualism, rather than being truly involved in change.  A Life in Christ produces abundant, high-quality fruits due to the perfect love and careful pruning of The Father and training by The Holy Spirit.  Every day is another opportunity for change, where His mercy and grace is fresh.

In His mercy, God is more than capable of perfecting us if we will surrender ourselves daily to Him.  Trying to be good enough or a perfectionist will not work as we cannot prove ourselves to God or buy His love.  Head knowledge won't cut it.  Only Faith in Him will cause us to repent and move forward.  We must simply keep going while looking to Him for help, and He knows it isn't easy.  Lysa TerKeurst has said,"Take heart.  We don't have to have all the answers.  We just have to stay connected to The One who does."  She goes on,"God is still very much at work.  Even in the silence.  Even in the unknown.  Even when you can't see anything on the horizon."

When God awakens us, it brings us into a more sensitive reality with substantially greater sorrow and joy.  Things are at once made harder and yet better and there is rest.  Trying to simply follow rules causes us to focus on ourselves instead of God.  God is in no way arbitrary, so His methods will lead to truly good things for the benefit of all.  He gives us freedom to experience more joy and changes our hearts through the experience of His love and discipline.  We must be impressed by His character.  Through the choices we make as new creatures growing in faith and understanding, we can become more pure.  Sometimes that requires a change in direction or surroundings, but it definitely takes commitment to see things through.  If we are stuck in a repetitive sin, we may have to address a greater problem and make sure that we are not making excuses or giving our self special concessions.

Success in general usually comes down to choosing the pain of discipline(delaying or denying gratification) over the ease of distraction, and your personal reliability affects the success of those around you too.  Our body is His temple and our purpose is for His delight and increasing glory so, while our path takes us through all kinds of challenges, He promises to provide exactly what we will require.  Though often He will give us relief, some of us will experience things that we will not recover from until we see His face, but to have any more or less than what we have been given would be ruinous.

As John Piper has said, “When things are going bad that does not mean God has stopped doing good.  It means He is shifting things around to get them in place for more good, if you will go on loving Him.”  Without suffering, we could hardly expect to find greater intimacy with our Creator or each other.  It would only grow our shallowness and pride, or at best give us over to habitual complaining and contempt.  Jesus suffered greatly on our behalf, more than anyone ever has.  Pain and persecution strengthens our bond with Him as we realize the depth of our identity in Christ and it gives us greater resolve for His purposes because we find meaning in some of the most ordinary day-to-day experiences.  Loss reveals our feelings and values, and wolves change rivers.  A life of overcoming self and sacrificing for the benefit of others makes us whole and effectual members of God's family.  Our patience in suffering helps others endure with patience.  We discover that the people around us are worth helping (even the thankless), we value our time together and find our reason for living.  Cory Richards, upon almost reaching the peak of Hkakabo Razi said, "The most growth we experience comes from darkness because when you're stripped that bare, that raw, you can only be honest with yourself."

We should willingly pour ourselves out for the sake of others, because no matter what happens to our body, we will be perfectly resurrected with Christ! Paul said that if he lost everything and still had Christ, he was content and no matter what happened he could find joy in knowing that Christ's message was being heard by and strengthened in those around him, advancing God's perfect plan. This is from a man who went to incredible lengths to try to stop the spread of The Gospel initially, persecuting anyone who claimed Jesus.  If God would have just squashed Paul rather than being patient and using him, we would not know that such a profound transformation was possible.  We won't often know why things happen like they do, but faith will carry us if we trust Jesus enough to wait for His answers.  God was merciful to Paul through all that he suffered for The Gospel, even providing the help of a physician and friend in Luke for much of Paul's ministry.

If Paul seems larger-than-life, consider these words by Henry Venn:

"I prove this by a most decisive instance.  St. Paul appears more like an angel than a man - a very flame of love to Christ and the souls of men - in labours more abundant than any of the Apostles - in affection to the saints so tender, that he compares his concern for them to that which a mother feels for her own child at the breast.  He appeals unto God, as well as to the Church, how holily, how justly, how unblameably he had walked.  And had he chosen to put himself off for better than he was, how easily might he have deceived the Churches, and led them to think that he had no plague in his own heart to lament and bewail - no conflict with manifold corruptions - nothing, at least, similar to what you and I, my honoured friends, so often, to our shame and grief, feel moving within!  But this man of God (the first, many suppose, of the fallen race) will not suffer such deception, respecting his own character, to be entertained.   Behold!  He opens a window into his own heart.  He owns to all the Churches, that, not withstanding, he had once been a murderer of the members of Christ - notwithstanding the grace he had received - his constant preaching of humility - and his having been admitted into the third heaven - he owns he needed (lest he should perish by exalting himself above measure) - he owns he needed (what in mercy was given him) a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet him.  What strength of depravity is here!  What evil, mixed with the most shining excellencies!  What cause for Paul to say, 'Oh, wretched man that I am!  Who should deliver me from the body of this death?'  Here the Apostle, the first of men, is sick with our malady.  We stand together on a level, as fallen lost sinners; equally in need of redemption of Christ, and the robe of his righteousness".

Often we think much more or less of ourselves than we ought, when we should just think of ourselves less.  Those who know Jesus and have His Spirit in them are outfitted with tools for offense(The Word & Spirit, prayer/fasting) and defense(faith/promises, love/community, Truth, Righteousness, News of Peace, Adoption into God's Family).  We have been made instruments of His justice.  Though death runs rampant, your city is worth saving.

Although we are often subjected to the influence of evil spirits, they must obey God in the end.  There is no contest, Christ has already won.  At best, they can only usurp authority and entice people's minds.  We take evil seriously but do not fear it.  That means we obey God when He moves us into scary situations and love and pray for those we come in contact with.  People are not our enemy.  God gave his own Son to suffer more than we could ever make anyone suffer for what they have done to us; and since it isn't about us, we should endeavor to show them The Way.  They are merely used by the enemy, as were we, and God made every one for great things.  If we are not diligent, we could again be deceived.  The focus must remain on Christ.

He always embraces us as we obey Him completely and really trust the only One who knows all and is sovereign over all.  The angels can see a lot more than we and yet they must wait to see what God will do next also.  As you pray, keep in mind that His answers can be different than what you might expect.

໐ຖē ๖໐໓ฯ

In Acts 2:42-47, Luke describes the first meeting of believers after they received The Holy Spirit and what they did as 'The Body' or 'Fellowship Of Believers'.  We find in Paul's writings, a model for The Church which is not based on a particular time or place and certainly not in need of emergent concepts or cultural amendments.  It should be a serious matter to a person considering committing to or leaving a particular fellowship, because we are called to love and serve all believers especially.  The way people generally choose a church today, while uniting those with common interests and experiences, actually causes them to be more divided from the larger body of believers in their community and the world.  Modern Christianity suffers under what Lesslie Newbiggin called an 'advanced case of syncretism'.  He also said, "We need the witness of Christians of other cultures to correct our culturally conditioned understanding of Scripture."  We seem to easily forget that Jesus was born in the east.

Sectarian movements and 350 years of denominational and general Christian dominance in America have had a bad influence on the larger ministry and mission.  There have been obstacles to the growth of The Church and misplaced passions.  Many modern churches are treated like a business.  This has contributed to a lack of accountability in The Body and misuse of God's Word.  The focus has generally been more on us than God and politics over personal holiness.  Are you prepared to obey God in a hostile environment or sacrifice your security for others?

William Paley commented, "From the widely disproportionate effects which attend the preaching of modern missionaries of Christianity, compared with what followed the ministry of Christ and his apostles under circumstances either alike, or not so unlike as to account for the difference, a conclusion is fairly drawn in support of what our histories deliver concerning them, viz. that they possessed means of conviction which we have not; that they had proofs to appeal to which we want."

The modern Americanized Church looks quite different from that which Jesus founded and has increasingly focused on exciting atmosphere or practices rooted in traditions which have little to do with conforming to the example of Christ and applying The Truth found throughout The Bible.  Since churches are made of people, none will be perfect but 'called out people' do not blend in with the rest of society and it is apparent when someone is trying to conform to Christ.  Casual visitors should feel uncomfortable despite being welcomed.  We must be careful to learn from the ones criticized in Revelation as we are not immune to these same pervasive attitudes.