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NEVER enthrone your own study or supposed knowledge of God. Subjective. Pride. You know nothing outside of Christ! Becoming and remaining humble, teachable, pliable, and correctible are proof you are known of God (Matthew 18:3-4; Ecclesiastes 4:13).

May God tenderize the hearts of His men today (Ezekiel 36:24-26).

Can the LORD still touch our hearts? Is there a tear when He touches?

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23

No person who names Jesus as LORD should even begin to be satisfied till their heart is that “heart of flesh,” soft and sensitive to the LORD and others. This happens at regeneration and God ordains us to walk in it (Ezekiel 36:24-26).

YOUR PRAYER: Holy Father, do it in me, do Your deep work. Break me Jesus, please. I love You my LORD. Take away the hardened places in my heart and replace them with “an heart of flesh” that is humble, convicted, pliable, innocent, and teachable. In Jesus’ name, I ask You dear Father. I love You Jesus.

“Yes! We need to let God break us to see there is nothing good in us. That leads to humility and the fear of God! Karen

“We pray earnestly, O God, that we may not be found among those with hardened hearts, no longer able to hear Thy voice.” AW Tozer

We can simply, and should ask our heavenly Father to grant us to have a heart of flesh and to remove all the stones, the stony places. Let it be dear Father in the name of Jesus!

THERE’S only one reason God’s Word would not be rocking your whole world today – a hard heart! But GOD has a cure for that! He has the only solution – and that is to replace it with “an heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:24-26)! Cry out to JESUS! IF you will REACH, He will RESCUE! There’s not one person reading this that doesn’t need a softer, more pliable heart – which God alone can provide when we cry out to Him with sincere heart! Now!

“Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” Jeremiah 4:4 

“O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?” Jeremiah 4:14

It’s so very important to stop our life, to repent truly before and to our Maker, receiving Jesus as the Savior and Lord of our life before it’s too late. Those who push God away instead of getting right with Him suffer hardness of heart which may be the point of no return. The Bible calls it being seared in conscience (1 Timothy 4:2; Hebrews 3:12-15). | Fresh Start with God

All hardened hearts are going to Hell – because a heart can only be hard by way of sin. When God forgives and restores, that includes taking away the stony places and granting that humble, repentant soul an heart of flesh! God is so good!

What takes the heart away from God? Sin!

“Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.” Hosea 4:11 

Anyone not fighting the good fight of faith, choosing to seek the face of the LORD for His overcoming and a pure heart, is hardened in heart, becoming seared in conscience as with a hot iron, and backslidden (1 Timothy 4:1-3; 6:12). Such a person is in desperate need of a touch from God to which he must respond in true repentance and as he does, the “times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the LORD” (Acts 3:19). Heavenly Father, please let the restoration begin. May the LORD touch each of those who name the name of Jesus as their LORD and Savior, causing us to turn from our wicked ways and to “depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19). May Jesus begin His work afresh this hour – the work of taking away the stony places of our hearts and granting us hearts of flesh as He promised to those who are born again and seek Him (Ezekiel 36:24-26).

Every heart made by the LORD repentant and pliable, an heart of flesh, will be with Him now and forever!

“For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land (picture of salvation).  25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:24-26

This is a picture of salvation in Christ where He cleanses us from “filthiness” and all idolatry, gives us His Holy Spirit, and takes away the stony heart and replaces it with “an heart of flesh.”

Paramount to knowing and walking with Jesus, is being possessed by “an heart of flesh” which God greatly aggrandizes. The opposite of “an heart of flesh” is a hardened, stony heart which God will not work in without our true repentance.

Is the soil of your heart parched? Is it dry and hardened?

“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. 8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” Jeremiah 17:5-10

Fallen Man is Deceitful in Heart

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9

Scripture tells us that our own heart is wicked and also that the LORD reveals “the thoughts of his heart” to us in and through His written Word (Jeremiah 17:9; Psalms 33:11).

The counsel (written Word) of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” Psalms 33:11
 
In the above statement the LORD equates His “counsel” to “the thoughts of his heart.” Wow!

So which shall we follow?

“He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” Proverbs 28:26

“For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” Jeremiah 4:3-4

Jesus speaks of the only heart soil that will be in glory and He uses the term “an HONEST and GOOD heart.”

“But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). Honesty goes a long way with God!

God is able saints…..Jacob was a deceiver and Peter had much falsity in him just as all of us …. God is able. I love to cry out to the LORD and ask Him to make me absolutely authentic to the core and to remove every trace of iniquity from my being, in Jesus’ name! (Psalms 51; 139:23-24)

“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12

God specializes in restoration. He loves to build those places in our hearts and lives that are/were “ruined,” “desolate.”

“Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.” Ezekiel 36:36 

HOW do Our Hearts become Hardened?

It is a sin to serve self daily and not the Savior. Idolatry.

If you are not living in fervent fellowship with Jesus today, you are backslidden. You are living in sin. It doesn’t matter if you think you are saved or not. The fact is, that if you aren’t seeking the face of the LORD daily, diligently, you are reverting back to type – the sinful nature of the flesh.

God’s Word informs us that our hearts become hardened “through the deceitfulness of sin.” ….

“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” Hebrews 3:12-15

The condition of men’s hearts are of extreme importance in the eyes of God.

IF I am not truly seeking the face of the LORD, engaging daily in the life-giving abiding relationship He desires, I am simply going through religious motions, have a hardened heart, and a mere “form of godliness” (1 Chronicles 16:11; Psalms 27:4, 8; Philippians 3:10; 2 Timothy 3:5).  Seeking God 

“God renovates us from the inside out, he isn’t an exterior decorator..that would be like putting pearls on swine. God looks on the heart: therefore that is where the sinner must start to cry out from for mercy and salvation from their own wickedness. Praise and worship come after that he creates in us a pure heart. (Matt. 7:6; Ps. 51:1-10; Ezek. 36:26)” Jon Crane

“The LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

“But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

The LORD spoke this to Samuel His servant, who like most of us, are prone to view things from a physical perspective instead of a divine perspective. Jesse had some very handsome, strong sons and yet they were passed over. When it was time to anoint a new king among God’s people, David, still young and raw, yet obediently serving the LORD out of a pure heart, was chosen. David was the youngest son of Jesse. See 1 Samuel 17.

God told His servant Samuel to not look on the outer man but rather observe how He judges, qualifies men – by their hearts. We should never judge things by the flawed whims of sinful men but rather through the lens of God’s Word which informs us that the LORD looks on the hearts of men, not the outward appearance of things. To see things as God sees them, we must have purified, cleansed, pure hearts.

Memory Verse:

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8

Sinful religious men appraise themselves and others by the outward, by what things look like on the outside. Such a man is deceived into thinking that the vain show of church attendance, charitable works, giving, etc., make him pleasing to God. No. Through the hand of the beloved Paul, the Holy Spirit puts His divine finger on such that we see being played out today among many who profess to know Christ who have but a mere “form of godliness, but denying the power (authority) thereof: from such turn away” (2 Timothy 3:5). This passage seems to indicate that many professing believers deny Christ the power of authority over their lives. This would mean they are not submitted to the lordship of Christ in the daily cross but rather have a mere outward religion, making a fair show among mere men.

“For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” John 12:43

“And rend (open) your heart, and not your garments (outer form of godliness), and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.” Joel 2:13 

“The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” Psalms 34:18

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Psalms 51:17

Our Daily Walk with Jesus is Vital to a Pure, Pliable Heart!

Sister Debbie shares:

“‘Seek’ the Lord came through as a recurring theme while reading the Word as the Lord led to various Scriptures. This particular theme had come to my attention a few days ago – and was highlighted again today. Have determined to set myself to seek Him and look up the related Scriptures and write them down. I think I’ve known for awhile that this would be a season dedicated to seeking the Lord – seeking His face, when it all started with 1 Chronicles 16:11 ‘Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.'”

The recipe for a hardened, calloused heart is simply neglecting to seek the face of the LORD continually.

Only God can purify our hearts and He does this as we seek His face.

“Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.” 1 Chronicles 16:11

So, you aren’t perfect? Join the club! And, yet we serve the only One who is divine perfection and who is working in us “both to will and to do of his good pleasure” – as we work out our “own salvation with fear and trembling.”

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:  … Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Philippians 1:6; 2:12-13

Being corrected is “the way of life” and not just here and there, not just once in a while. Have you noticed this?

Are you in God’s Word daily? If so His Word will light His way for your life and you will continue to learn of Jesus through His blessed reproofs, corrections, chastisements.

“For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:” Proverbs 6:23

We ALL have the same iniquities which are evil and if not daily crucified with Christ, if we are not full of the Holy Ghost daily, the fruit of the Holy Spirit will not be present (1 Corinthians 9:27). And the works of the flesh will be in full operation (Galatians 5:19-23). This is why rising up early to spend quality moments with Jesus are so very foundational, so essential and such a blessing! God is working in the lives of all who truly put Him first in their lives (Philippians 1:6; 2:12-13).

PRAYER: Holy Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, please melt and grant this heart You gave to be truly a heart of flesh, pliable, teachable, and full of Your love. Please remove the stony places that came by way of my sin and pour into my heart the oil of Your Holy Ghost dear LORD. In the name of Jesus, Father, please do this now!

Fresh Start with God

MESSAGE RECEIVED:
“Can God make it so a believer doesn’t feel Him in them any more as a test to seek after Him? I think that might be the case for me :)”
 
REPLY:
I have been exactly where you are. Exactly.
I simply moved toward and not away from the LORD
And He made it so I had no feelings of His love at first
But then…..He broke through…. sin had put my heart into a place of hardness so that I couldn’t sense Him.

Act 17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

“For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Psalms 30:5

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Abiding

GOD is Greater than all Sin [podcast]


“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)” Romans 5:17

GOD is greater than all sin.

“Through Jesus we now have an abundance of grace and His gift of righteousness reining over our lives instead of sin and death brought to His through Adam’s sin! Hallelujah.” Karen Cochran

So if God is greater than all sin, WHY do some Christians still struggle with sin?

Great question

“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Mark 10:27

Our sin is never God’s fault but always our own fault.

“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:13-15

It’s only possible to overcome sin by way of Christ and Christ mandates us, you be crucified with Him (Luke 9:23-24; Romans 6; Galatians 2:20, etc.).

Jesus requires surrender to overcome (John 3:30). As long as there is sin, there is Satan – he has foothold in our lives. Satan is giving place, has control over anyone who has not repent, is not walking with Jesus, abiding in Christ, in the crucified life.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

When we “Submit … to God” Satan must then “flee” from us because he has no more legal right to us – because to “Submit” is to repent and confess all sin.

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 5  And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. 6  Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” 1 John 3:4-6

Instead of denying the Bible truth of a bent toward sin, we must deny self, take up the cross and follow Jesus. As we do we are empowered by His grace, His divine ability, enablement to live fruitfully to His eternal glory.

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from ALL iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 15  These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” Titus 2:11-15

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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 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.
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’ (Colossians 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, as 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, which is why we read verses 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 now 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.

It really is true that Jesus “saved a wretch like me” when He mercifully saved me.

“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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