Dear LORD Jesus, please capture my heart for Thee!
THOSE WHO WILL BE IN HEAVEN will be those who dared to daily seek God, to pray sincere prayers on earth as they loosed (let go of) of their lives from their own control over into the hands of the Holy God they chose to trust and fully rely upon.
“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend (submit) my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” Luke 23:46
You are going to one day give “up the ghost” and go to be with God as you cry with Jesus “Father, into thy hands I commend (submit) my spirit.”
What does this really mean? Well, you are giving GOD the preference, the reigns/reign in and of your life on this earth. You are preferring Him above your sinful broken self. You are declaring with John the Baptist – “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
Enduring to the end means truly abandoning our lives in this fleeting sinful world to a loving merciful enabling victorious LORD and God (1 Corinthians 15:10, 57-58).
No matter what you may face in this brief life, God is going to be with you, to power you through it all with His divine influence in and on your heart and His divine empowerment in your life. His grace truly is more than “sufficient” in all things! (2 Corinthians 12:7-12)
“And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: 23 Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. 24 But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:22-24
God’s Love for Us
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. …19 We love him, because he first loved us.”1 John 4:9-10, 19
“1 John 4:9
In this was manifested the love of God – The mission of Jesus Christ was the fullest proof that God could give, or that man could receive, of his infinite love to the world.
That we might live through him – The whole world was sentenced to death because of sin; and every individual was dead in trespasses and sins; and Jesus came to die in the stead of the world, and to quicken every believer, that all might live to him who died for them and rose again. This is another strong allusion to Jhn_3:16: God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life; where the reader is requested to see the note on Jhn_3:16.” Believer’s Bible Commentary
“1 John 4:10
Not that we loved God – And that he was thereby induced to give his Son to be a propitiation for our sins. No: we were enemies to God, and yet Christ died for our ungodly souls. (See Rom_5:6-11, and the notes there.) So it was God’s love, not our merit, that induced him to devise means that his banished might not be expelled from him.” Believer’s Bible Commentary
“1 John 4:19
We love him because he first loved us – This is the foundation of our love to God.
1. We love him because we find he has loved us.
2. We love him from a sense of obligation and gratitude.
3. We love him from the influence of his own love; from his love shed abroad in our hearts, our love to him proceeds. It is the seed whence our love springs.” Believer’s Bible Commentary
The “Everlasting Love” of God
“The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” Jeremiah 31:3
In John 3:30 notice that by divine design first it says “HE must increase” and then, secondly, only thereafter it says “I must decrease.” So we must yield to His initiating call for us to let Him increase and we correspondingly decrease as we are giving preference to the LORD. We are saying “Jesus, You reign in this life you created and died to save unto Yourself!”
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
The LORD is the Creator and then the initiator and enabler. Paul says that it was the grace of God that labored in him.
“But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10
…. He is the first and the last right?
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8
ALL, every life came from Christ, including ours – yours and mine. We are His creation.
“1:8 There is a change of speaker. The Lord Jesus introduces Himself as the Alpha and the Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet), the Beginning and the End. He spans time and eternity, and exhausts the vocabulary of excellence. He is the source and goal of creation, and it is He who began and will end the divine program in the world. He is and was and is to come, eternal in His being and the Almighty in power.” Believer’s Bible Commentary
Dying to self is not to be approached as a work of the flesh but rather a surrender – as a falling into the LORD. Without Christ we can do nothing, right? Right (John 15:5).
“3:30 The entire object of John’s ministry is summarized in this verse. He labored ceaselessly to point men and women to the Lord, and to make them realize His true worth. In doing this, John realized that he must keep himself in the background. For a servant of Christ to seek to attract attention to himself is really a form of disloyalty.
Note the three “musts” in this chapter: for the Sinner (Jhn_3:7); for the Savior (Jhn_3:14); and for the Saint (3:30).” Believer’s Bible Commentary
“He must increase, but I must decrease: John the Baptist understood it was good for him to become less visible and known, for Jesus to become more visible and known. In even larger aspects, this should be the motto of every Christian, especially leaders among God’s people. Jesus should become greater and more visible, and the servant should become less and less visible.” David Guzik
“John 3:30
He must increase – His present success is but the beginning of a most glorious and universal spread of righteousness, peace, truth, and good will among men.
I must decrease – My baptism and teaching, as pointing out the coming Messiah, must cease; because the Messiah is now come, and has entered publicly on the work of his glorious ministry.” Adam Clarke
Jesus, I am crucified with You. Thank You for anointing my life to be dead and buried and raised up in Your grace and power! In Jesus’ name. amen!
Of John 3:30, Crystal Dixon writes:
“This is one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible. It is a few, powerful words, spoken by a humble friend and servant of Jesus.
John the Baptist was different than most in appearance and habits. But he was also somewhat different from many other Christ followers, then and now. John knew Jesus was the Messiah. John the Baptist also realized he had been anointed by God to tell others about Jesus. He was to tell others to follow Jesus, not him. In order to do that, John had to decrease; he had to humble himself as a servant, telling others to follow someone else rather than his own ministry. That was the only way to accomplish the work he had been called to do. The presence and identity (The Light) of Jesus had to increase. John had to decrease. This is why John said He must increase, I must decrease.
It’s Not About Us: Like John the Baptist, we must remember it is about Jesus. We must trust Him. And, we must be bold in love toward others, and in our service for Him; asking the Holy Spirit to guide us each moment of the day so that all we do, honors and glorifies God. The presence and identity (The Light) of Jesus must increase. He must increase, I must decrease.”
Beloved of God, going downward today, surrendering afresh is the key to your Savior raising you upward …. into His bless-ed victory – and HE sure will, as you go down, He will raise you up (James 4:10). This is the divine economy which is a cross economy as we read about and are assured of throughout His bless-ed Word. Romans 6 has your fuel, your fix, and your flourishing. Today is your day to “taste and see that the LORD is good”! (Psalms 34)
Cry out, declare now with the beloved John the Baptist:
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
Here’s a treasury of cross truth for you – Camping on the Cross !
There are so very many hurting people saints.
YOUR PRAYER: Father, please forgive, change, prepare me…. and use me, Your vessel, to reach those who are without You. Right now, You must increase but I must decrease. 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 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’ (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.
“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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