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“Endeavouring (working hard) to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:3

Can we be honest for a moment?

Have you ever wanted God to just rip your tongue out?

CAN YOU RELATE to this? …… As Christ’s followers and therefore members of His one body, we all have sinned and have and perhaps still say things we shouldn’t which wound others.

“The words of a talebearer are as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” Proverbs 18:8

Words can seriously wound.

Word are containers of something or the other and when those capsules are filled with hatred, they wound the object they are directed towards.

Sticks and stones will break my bones but words could never hurt me? Wrong!

Evil words spoken against us create “wounds” in us. They “go down into the innermost parts of the belly.” In other words they are deeply embedded and hurt us and can be the source of a “root of bitterness.”  So, they must be dealt with.

“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” Hebrews 12:15

When there is unresolved strife/conflict between members of Christ’s body, there is a “schism” which means to cause a split or gap, or divide.

“That there should be no schism (divide, division) in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.” 1 Corinthians 12:25

Grudges and strife also cause an un-readiness for Christ’s soon return:

“Be patient therefore (endure), brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth (remnant body of Christ), and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 8 Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. 9 Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.” James 5:7-9

So, when we say something we shouldn’t have and it has wounded another, it’s our responsibility to go to that person and make things right in order to bring healing in that person’s heart/life.

Is such healing not a privilege to display our own gratitude for how God so loved us that He brought healing and wholeness to our relationship with Him by sending His only begotten Son. Is the healing we can help facilitate in the lives of His saints not a blessing?

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalms 19:14

So, may the LORD bless us to humble ourselves and esteem others above ourselves just as Christ esteemed us above Himself by coming from eternal glory as God to redeem us (Philippians 2:3-5).

Is this part of what Jesus was addressing when He said:

“Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Matthew 5:23-24

First, Christ teaches us here that we should not bother to pray to the Father in His name if we have an outstanding offense with another member of His family. You know, having to go to the person(s) we have wounded is hard isn’t it? And perhaps that pain becomes a motivating factor in leading us to lay down our lives and see God tame this most “unruly” member of our bodies (James 3:8). “Unruly” in the Greek means unrestrained and this is exactly why our lives must be submitted from our hearts to our LORD perpetually.

Helping the Healing

God just wants us to clear an offenses we have committed up by admitting and making amends (James 3:2).

“Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! 2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.” Luke 17:1-2

Clearing up the wounds – “offences” – we have created in others by our own offense of them is our personal responsibility.

We must not leave a trail of broken hearts beloved. Jesus came to heal hearts and not to wound them.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Luke 4:18

“He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Psalms 147:3

The Hebrew word for “heart” is leb and means the center (source), the middle. The heart of man is the reservoir from which our words flow. Those words we speak – gracious and otherwise – are coming out of our hearts and so we must keep our hearts before our LORD so that He can keep them pure. That is, He who said “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

The Psalmist knew well the temptations of the tongue and therefore prayed this following prayer we would do so well to offer to the LORD every day:

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalms 19:14

It is also highly recommended that you memorize this following verse:

“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying (building), that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” Ephesians 4:29

“If we can’t say something good, perhaps we shouldn’t say anything at all” is not a bad saying.

The Bible speaks about those who have nothing good to say about anyone or anything:

“He that hath a froward heart findeth no good: and he that hath a perverse tongue falleth into mischief.” Proverbs 17:20

Clearing Things Up

Making messes is something we’ve all done. If we don’t clear things up that we have caused in the lives of others, that wound remains in them. We must love our neighbor as ourselves, right? Yes, and even our enemies! (Matthew 5:44) Would we like others to do to us what we have done to them? The Golden Rule Life.

Otherwise, if we don’t clear things us, that wound we have caused remains in the hearts of those things we have spoken off the mark things to, will fester, and someday in the future explode. Things will get real ugly at that point.

In light of this, it is critical to obey the LORD and to make amends for the wounds we have created in the hearts and lives of others. Great healing in each person involved will result in our simply doing what is right.

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalms 133:1

The things we have done or said to hurt others cannot and must not be swept under the rug or they will be a time bomb. I know this by personal experience because I have wounded people with my words and actions and then tried to ignore what I had done. Yet, ultimately it came back to haunt because God wanted me to deal with it and so I had to apologize to that person and help bring healing to their heart.

The LORD have mercy on us and may He “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.” (Psalms 141:3)

The moral of the story is that we cannot imagine that the wounds we have created in the lives of others are not going to come back at some point to haunt us. That is, if we don’t make amends for what we have done. Isn’t that what our King was teaching us in Matthew 5:23-24.

God is not going to bless our lives unless we are willing to sincerely admit our sins, repent and confess them, and make amends (restitution) with anyone we’ve harmed (Proverbs 28:13). In the divine economy, there’s no such thing as being right with God when you’ve done another person wrong, haven’t repented, and haven’t made amends for what you’ve done. Such a person will be outside of the will and blessings of God until he makes things right with God and man (Matthew 5:23-24; 7:12; 22:37-39).

The LORD requires that His people “examine” and “judge” themselves.

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

Examine and honestly judge yourself and amend your ways or God will judge you.

“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

When we attempt to cover/hide our sins, all of His spiritual progress, momentum and divine favor ceases in our lives. Here’s a very important memory verse which teaches just this:

“He that covereth (tries to hide) his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13

Again, I know this by personally trying to hide my sins from Him. Such is a futile, impossible undertaking and will always come back to haunt. Praise God for 1 John 1:9, amen?

At that, let’s read James 3:

“My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
3 Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
4 Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
7 For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
8 But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
9 Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
11 Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
12 Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
13 Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
14 But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
15 This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

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Abiding

“If God be For Us Who can be Against Us?” [podcast] 


WHO is God truly “with”?

“And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and IF YE SEEK HIM, he will be found of you; but IF ye forsake him, he will forsake you.” 2 Chronicles 15:2

What happens when one of His children deny Him?

It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: 12 if we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us: 13 if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.” 2 Timothy 2:11-13

Those who reject Him shall be rejected by Him. OSAS/eternal security is a fairy tale espoused by the moral cowards who refuse to serve God on HIS stated terms – repentance, faith, true worship, obedience, holiness, the crucified life, etc.

“And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. 15  Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.” Matthew 10:14-15

Persecution and the Disciple of Jesus

1 Peter 4

“But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.

8  And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

9  Use hospitality one to another without grudging.

10  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

11  If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”

Suffering as a Christian

12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

14  If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.

16  Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

18  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

19  Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.”

Romans 8

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

God’s Everlasting Love

31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“Romans 8:29: For whom he did foreknow, etc. – “In this and the following verse the apostle shows how our calling is an argument that all things work together to advance our eternal happiness, by showing the several steps which the wisdom and goodness of God have settled, in order to complete our salvation. In order to this he first gives us, in this verse, the foundation and finishing, or the beginning and end, of the scheme of our redemption: For whom God did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. To foreknow, here signifies to design before, or at the first forming of the scheme; to bestow the favor and privilege of being God’s people upon any set of men, Rom_11:2. This is the foundation or first step of our salvation; namely, the purpose and grace of God, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began, 2Ti_1:9. Then, he knew or favored us; for in this sense the word to know is taken in a great variety of places, both in the Old and New Testaments. And as he knew the Gentiles then, when the scheme was laid, and before any part of it was executed, consequently, in reference to the execution of this scheme, he foreknew us. This is the first step of our salvation, and the end or finishing of it is our conformity to the Son of God in eternal glory, Rom_8:17, which includes and supposes our moral conformity to him. When God knew us, at the forming of the Gospel scheme; or, when he intended to bestow on us the privilege of being his people; he then destinated or designed us to be conformed to the image of his Son; and, as he destinated or determined us then to this very high honor and happiness, he pre-destinated, fore-ordained, or pre-determined us to it. Thus we are to understand the foundation and finishing of the scheme of our salvation. The foundation is the foreknowledge, or gracious purpose of God; the finishing is our being joint heirs with Christ. Now, our calling or invitation (see on Rom_8:28 (note)) stands in connection with both these.” Adam Clarke

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Apostasy

The Book of Jude Narrated [podcast]


The Book of Jude:

Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. 12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. 16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.

17 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18 how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. 19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the  Spirit. 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. 22 And of some have compassion, making a difference: 23 and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to  present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. 

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Abiding

The Song of Moses: God’s Favor upon His People [podcast]


“And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended.” Deuteronomy 31:30

Everything we read of the children of Israel was pointing to Christ and to His perfect salvation He would later come and accomplish and bestow upon His beloved people, the body of Christ which is “the Israel of God.” (Galatians 6:16)  And so this song is written to us (Romans 15:4;  Corinthians 10:11).

At the end of his days, at the end of the 5 books he penned, God gives us through Moses a summation of His salvation work among His beloved people.

“He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. 11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him. 13  He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;  14  Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.” Deuteronomy 32:10-14

“32:10-14 The birth and childhood of the nation of Israel are described in verse 10. After the Exodus from Egypt, God guided, instructed, and preserved His people with the love of a mother eagle (v. 11). There was no foreign god who had a part in Israel’s preservation. Why then should the nation turn to idolatry and ascribe the goodness of Jehovah to another? Beginning in verse 13, the song is prophetic. He brought them into the blessings of the Promised Land.” Believer’s Bible Commentary

“Deuteronomy 32:10
a    [He found him in a desert land …] The sevenfold preservation of Israel:
1.    God found (literally, sustained) him in the wilderness (Deu_32:10).
2.    He led him around (Deu_32:10-12).
3.    He instructed him (Deu_32:10).
4.    He kept him as the apple (pupil) of His eye.
5.    He preserved him from idolatry (Deu_32:12).
6.    He exalted him among the nations (Deu_32:13).
7.    He gave him material prosperity (Deu_32:13-14).
b    [apple of his eye] Hebrew: ’iyshown (H380), the dark pupil of the eye; the hole, gate, or door of the eye (Psa_17:8; Pro_7:2)” Dake

“Deuteronomy 31:30-32:14
MOSES’ SONG: THE LORD’S FAVOR UPON ISRAEL
The song of Moses, like the fabled song of the swan, was his last and sweetest. It is probably the noblest ode in the whole compass of the Bible, and is the source from which subsequent singers derived suggestions for their noblest outbursts. The marginal references prove how deeply it dyed the national sentiment.

It excels in the names and designations of the Almighty. He is the Rock: Deu_31:4; Deu_31:15; Deu_31:18; Deu_31:30; Jehovah: Deu_31:6; Father: Deu_31:6; the Most High: Deu_31:8; God: El, the strong, Deu_31:15, etc. What a study are the names of God, scattered through the Bible! Each was coined to meet some need of the human soul. What the rocks of the desert are to its shifting sands God is amid the changes of this mortal existence.

This earlier part of the song is very tender. We are God’s portion; the apple of His eye; as young eaglets, whom the mother-bird is carefully teaching to fly, the favored recipients of God’s richest gifts, Deu_31:13, etc.” FB Meyer

Notice the descriptive language, the metaphors—how the LORD illustrates how He loves, protects, and provides for His people. In Scripture, the LORD uses imagery to communicate truth.

“Moses’ song and what our LORD reveals in this message, is such a beautiful picture of God finding us in our hopeless, miserable, and lost state. He pulls us out of the miry clay and gives us His supply of grace. He then clothes us with His righteousness, seating us in heavenly places in Christ and surrounding us with His care and protection. God’s love and goodness to us.” Karen Cochran

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High

shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will

say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my

God; in him will I trust. 3 Surely he shall deliver thee

from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome

pestilence. 4 He shall cover thee with his feathers,

and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall

be thy shield and buckler.” Psalms 91:1-4

Read Psalm 91 often so this truth permeates you. Here the LORD uses the imagery of His “winged fowl” creation (Genesis 1:21). GOD made this very creature/bird for the express purpose of showing us how much He loves us and how He comforts, cares and provides for, guides, and protects His own (Psalms 91:1).

“The Song of Moses is recorded in Deuteronomy 32 of the King James Version (KJV), spanning verses 1 through 43. It is a prophetic poem given by Moses to the children of Israel just before his death, serving as a witness and a reminder of God’s faithfulness and Israel’s potential turning away.”

Prayer: Father, please grant that I know and understand You more and more. I love You LORD. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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