Might you choose to pray as did the apostles? – “Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).
Not only should we ask God to “Increase our faith” but also to teach us to be faithful to Him. God will bless those who are faithful to Him – those who are loyal and serve Him obediently through thick or thin, in riches or poverty, through sunshine or rain.
“Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.” Psalms 101:6
Does this verse above remind us of the words of 2 Chronicles 16:9?
WHO desires God’s gaze upon them?
I do!
“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9
Christ is Our only Riches!
The sum total of the riches
we truly have
is Christ.
All else is phantom, passing.
A mere figment.
WHAT is in our hand today was given to us by our LORD, to whom we shall give account (Romans 14:12). It is from our LORD that we will hear either …
“Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matthew 25:23
or to the unfaithful He shall declare…..
“Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:” Matthew 25:41
When we use this time, talents, and treasures that He gave, for His glory, He increases that which we are made ruler over, and the eternal rewards stack up. Read Jesus’ parable of the talents recorded in Matthew 25.
“His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” Matthew 25:23
Rewards in eternity are going to be based upon our faithfulness to God in this life. Whew! See Matthew 6:19-21. There’s an “account” exclusively in your name in Heaven beloved.
“Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. 15 Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only. 16 For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity. 17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to YOUR ACCOUNT. 18 But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God. 19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:14-19
Did you notice that GOD just told you that your have an “ACCOUNT” waiting to be filled in His heavenly domain? – “your account.”
Paul spoke in terms of helping Christ’s saints fill that reward coffer, to lay up their treasure in Heaven, which shall never stop giving. Only those dividends are treasures for you for all eternity. Paul was blessed to receive the needed help and yet he didn’t just want their money, he desired them to be vested in that which is eternal, the kingdom of our LORD Jesus which will be the only kingdom standing when all the others are soon vanquished! This is exactly what our LORD taught in Matthew 6:19-21; Luke 12, 16, etc..
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. … 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Matthew 6:19-21, 24
How much of your temporary earthly gold are you investing into eternal treasure?
“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” Daniel 2:44
When the smoke clears Christ’s everlasting kingdom will be the only kingdom standing! This should quicken us further to live today for our LORD’s glory – to go afresh to Him in thanksgiving and repentance, asking Him to imbue your innermost man with His holy fear and to grant you to have a heart of flesh and to help you love Him more (John 3:30)!
With our eternity with the everlasting God (whose we are) in view, it’s much easier to walk through “the sufferings of this present time” (Romans 8:18).
“Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” Philippians 4:11-12
We are blessed today to abide in Christ, to view the end of our earthly life as the beginning of an eternity with the Almighty Jesus Christ and the Father. The inaugural celebration at the marriage supper of the Lamb is at the door saints (Matthew 22; Revelation 19).
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.” 2 Timothy 4:6-8
Someone may be thinking…. “Okay, got it but what do I do? What can I personally do?” As your mere brother in Christ, I’d answer that by saying: Begin in prayer, fresh surrender, asking God to bless His children around you. Begin a list of those you are lifting in prayer each morning in your time with God. Then, get involved with those doing Jesus’ Great Commission. Here, go read this: Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-20 KJB.
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Psalms 90:12
Your Prayer to God: (Would you dare lift your heart and hands to Heaven today and say something like) “Jesus, I am not my own. I am all Yours – bought with the price of Your very and precious blood. Do in me as Thou will dear LORD. I love You LORD Jesus. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Abiding
“Buried with Him by Baptism into Death” [podcast]

“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3
Every person “hid with Christ in God” is saved and under divine grace, saved by Christ.
Everyone not “hid with Christ in God” is going away in judgment (Colossians 3:3; Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:19-21, 24). When we are “hid with Christ in God,” we are safe, secure, and under the blessings of His divine grace instead of His condemnation.
“Of the doctrine of baptisms” Hebrews 6:2
Baptized into Jesus Christ and Baptized into His Death
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” Romans 6:3
Jesus defeated death, hell, sin, and satan by dying (Hebrews 2:14)…. whereby He was then resurrected and redemption was completed. Redemption culminated, was finalized in the resurrection of Christ.
In the same way, God calls us to die downward with Christ so that He can raise us upward into His victory…. letting go and letting God, not a striving or struggle but rather a surrender, we are to let Christ consume us, as we surrender (John 3:30).
“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” Luke 23:46
Are we willing to declare today to declare with our LORD Jesus that we are submitting our spirit into His holy hands?
“death is swallowed up in victory” – death results in God raising us upward, into His full victory, ultimately into final, eternal victory, glory with the Father, Son, and the saints of the ages.
We can be sure, completely confident that as we die downward and are buried with Christ, God is going to raise us up into His victory God’s answer to death and burial is resurrection.
The resurrection is the victory and in order to experience His resurrection life, we must be dead and buried and ultimately raised up into eternal glory with Him.
“Thou fool, that which thou sowest (plant downward) is not quickened (made alive), except it die:” 1 Corinthians 15:36
“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:54
Romans 6
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
v3 – “baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death”
v4 – “buried with him by baptism into death”
v5 – “his death … his resurrection”
Notice that death and buried, being immersed into the death and burial of Christ must of necessity precede, must come before the resurrection we experience with Christ through the daily cross life.
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4
When He saves us we are baptized with Him “into his death” …. “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20)
“When a person is saved, he is baptized into Christ Jesus in the sense that he is identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. This is not the same as the baptism in (or of) the Spirit, though both occur simultaneously. The latter baptism places the believer in the body of Christ (1Co_12:13); it is not a baptism into death. The baptism into Christ means that in the reckoning of God, the believer has died with Christ and has risen with Him.
When Paul speaks of baptism here, he is thinking both of our spiritual identification with Christ and of its portrayal in water baptism. But as the argument advances, he seems to shift his emphasis in a special way to water baptism as he reminds his readers how they were “buried” and “planted together” in the “likeness” of Christ’s death.
The NT never contemplates the abnormal situation of an unbaptized believer. It assumes that those who are converted submit to baptism right away. Thus our Lord could speak of faith and baptism in the same breath: “he who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mrk_16:16). Though baptism is not a requirement for salvation, it should be the invariable public sign of it.” Believer’s Bible Commentary
Baptized into the body of Christ
“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:13
“1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit are we all baptized, etc. – As the body of man, though composed of many members, is informed and influenced by one soul; so the Church of Christ, which is his body, though composed of many members, is informed and influenced by one Spirit, the Holy Ghost; actuating and working by his spiritual body, as the human soul does in the body of man.
To drink into one Spirit – We are to understand being made partakers of the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost agreeably to the words of our Lord, Jhn_7:37, etc.: If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink: this he spake of the Spirit which they that believed on him should receive.
On this verse there is a great profusion of various readings, which may be found in Griesbach, but cannot be conveniently noticed here.” Adam Clarke
“Baptism is more than just getting wet! When we go down into the water it signifies we are now dead and buried and our “life is hid with Christ in God.” Col 3:3. Coming up out of the water is our resurrection life! We are then raised up into newness of life! Our old man is crucified and we no longer serve sin but we have a new Master! Jesus Christ is the new Master of our lives! We now serve God and not sin. And should be bearing fruit of rightness and holiness! Romans 6. When we embrace the crucified life we are given overflowing rivers of new life! New life is breathed into us. Walking in the flesh only makes our soul sick with sin! And sin kills and destroys! (Romans 6:23). Rotting us from the inside out! But the way of the cross brings life to our flesh! (Proverbs 3:8, 4:22). Our flesh meaning our whole spirit, soul and body. 1 Thessalonians 5:23. We cannot be a whole person until we are completely given over to the Lord! And this can only happen through the cross. When we are dead and buried and raised up in the newness of life Jesus offers us! Then the joy of the Lord will fill our hearts!” Karen Cochran
What some don’t realize is that just because they were saved in the past in no way means they are still in Christ. This is why we read things like this throughout Scripture:
“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Corinthians 13:5
We must judge ourselves against God’s Word.
“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:31-32
Prayer: Father please penetrate my heart with Your holy conviction, granting true repentance and obedience. LORD, I want to be dead and buried with You. I am crucified with Christ and I know You are raising me up and will ultimately raise me up with You into eternal glory… I am not planted together in the likeness of His death and burial and I know You are raising me up into the victory. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Articles
Is Romans 7 Before or After Paul’s Salvation?

“The truth is that while Christ dwells in the believer’s new nature, He has strong competition from the believer’s old nature. The warfare between the old and the new goes on continually in most believers.” AW Tozer
The law of God is “holy, and just, and good.” (Romans 7:12)
The holy law of God and the depraved nature of fallen mankind could not be further apart – the righteousness of God inherent in His law vs the “old man,” the iniquitous fallen nature of mankind (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9).
Nothing but a caustic reaction, explosion could be the result of the 2 colliding (Romans 7). One or the other must reign.
“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Galatians 5:17
In what tense did the great apostle speak in when addressing this “old man” that wars against the Spirit in us?
“O WRETCHed man that I am! (presently) who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24
Paul’s flesh was and our flesh is a constant reminder of the ever momentary need for the cross, burial, and resurrection grace of Jesus (Romans 6:3-10; 8:11; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20, etc.). Read Romans chapters 6-7 each morning this week.
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Romans 7:18
No, the apostle wasn’t admitting to living in sin but rather that that “old man” – the flesh – was present and must be crucified with Christ daily. Is that not exactly what Jesus taught?
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his CROSS DAILY, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9:23-24
I believe Romans 7 applies to both before and after one is saved …. Because if the saved person departs from the daily cross walk, that same “old man” will take center stage. “O wretch man that I AM (present)” (Romans 7:18) ….. we are born again children of God, saints of the Most High and yet that potential to evil, that “old man” must be crucified and “put off” by the daily cross so the “new man” can reign with Christ in this life and eternity. What Paul calls the “old man” must be “put off” and so we can conclude that there IS an “old man” to be “put off” otherwise no such instruction would have been given. We are not to deny the “old man” – the sinful bent – but rather to crucify it (Romans 6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9).
Charles Pray writes: “So many want to hide their sins, especially those who like to appear Holy on the outside while inside they are dark, unholy ministers of the flesh. They have become a product of their own desires. Dear Lord, please bring them back to their first Love–Jesus! Amen.”
Saints, we cannot possibly begin to appreciate this “so great salvation” that is Christ until we understand how lost, helpless, and alienated we were in our sin (Ephesians 2:1-10; Hebrews 2:3). We must study to understand the biblical doctrine of inherent sin, fallen mankind, and the holiness of God …. in order to begin to be able to appreciate the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.
What to “Put Off” and What to “Put On”
“That ye put off concerning the former conversation THE OLD MAN, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on THE NEW MAN, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24
“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off THE OLD MAN with his deeds; 10 And have put on THE NEW MAN, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” Colossians 3:9-10
“When we embrace the crucified life we are given overflowing rivers of new life! New life is breathed into us. Walking in the flesh only makes our soul sick with sin! And sin kills and destroys! (Romans 6:23). Rotting us from the inside out! But the way of the cross brings life to our flesh! (Proverbs 3:8, 4:22). Our flesh meaning our whole spirit, soul and body. 1 Thessalonians 5:23. We cannot be a whole person until we are completely given over to the Lord! And this can only happen through the cross. When we are dead and buried and raised up in the newness of life Jesus offers us, then the joy of the Lord will fill our hearts!” Karen Cochran
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Articles
What Does it Mean to Follow Christ? [podcast]

“Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” Jude 3
THE LORD is calling for an immediate release of the WHOLE counsel of HIS WORD!
DO you have a 20/20 vision? Read Acts 20:20 and get it!
Just like fake news TV, wolves only give you a small part of the whole story – in order to manipulate you! Half truths kill!
YOU know when you are right with God when you are running TO the cross message and not AWAY from it! “Enemies of the cross” of Christ “mind earthly things” and not the things the LORD commanded (Philippians 3:18-19).
The cross is a dethroning, unseating of self and the enthroning of Christ!
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