Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.  I Peter 1:23

You are born again. You have important decisions to make in your life.  You have prayed and asked God to help you make right decisions.  There are multiple opportunities being presented to you.  Which choice do you make?  Which opportunity is right?

Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart.  Psalm 37:4   (He will place His desires within you as you delight in Him.)

• How do I delight myself in the Lord?  How do you learn of Him?

These (the scriptures) are they which testify of me….

• How do I walk in the Spirit and realize God’s desires within me?

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly……..

• How do I keep from sinning?

Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.

• How do I keep my heart clean so God will continue to hear me?

Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 

• How do I make the right decision? 

Delight yourself in the Lord, walk in the Spirit, hide God’s word in your heart, wash yourself in the water of the written word, and then,……. do what you desire.*

• What if I all the choices that are available to me are good and desirable choices?  How do I decide which one ?

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.  Proverbs 3:5&6

This means that if you and I bring God into our decision making by trusting Him  completely and acknowledging Him in all our ways, then even when we lift our foot to take a step, not knowing for sure where to put it back down, He will direct us.

*I am hesitant to make lists of things to help spiritually because I think many of us just check off the items and then expect God’s blessing.  The things listed in the paragraph above are a way of life, not a one time emergency procedure.    

I must also caution you to be honest with yourself and God.  You can feign spirituality by doing a list of items in order to convince yourself of God’s will in a matter that you have already decided.

Measure everything by this rule; the Holy Spirit will never lead you contrary to Scripture.

 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly….

Teach Me Thy Way, O Lord

“Teach me Thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.” Psalm 27:11

Teach me Thy way, O Lord, Teach me Thy way!

Thy guiding grace afford, Teach me Thy way!

Help me to walk aright, More by faith, less by sight;

Lead me with heavenly light, Teach me Thy way!

When I am sad at heart, Teach me Thy way!

When earthly joys depart, Teach me Thy way!

In hours of loneliness, In times of dire distress,

In failure or success, Teach me Thy way!

When doubts and fears arise, Teach me Thy way!

When storms o’er spread the skies, Teach me Thy way!

Shine through the cloud and rain, Through sorrow, toil, and pain;

Make Thou my pathway plain, Teach me Thy way!

Long as my life shall last, Teach me Thy way!

Where e’er my lot be cast, Teach me Thy way!

Until the race is won, until the journeys done,

Until the crown is won, Teach me Thy way!

Words and Music by B. Mansell Ramsey, 1849 – 1923

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.  Psalm 119:105

The Scriptures indicate that the following acts of Christ were performed only one time.  Why?  Because the Father was satisfied with the Son’s work.  It was perfect and complete.  We can add nothing to it. This is the New Covenant.

By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.  And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: But this man, because he continueth ever (lives forever), hath an unchangeable priesthood.  Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.

For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.  Hebrews 7:21 – 27

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.  Hebrews 9:11 & 12

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.  Hebrews 9:24 – 28

By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.  And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.  For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.  Hebrews 10:10 – 14

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened (made alive) by the Spirit:  I Peter 3:18

Are you still living under the Old Covenant?

American Christians are not unlike the Jews of New Testament times. The Jews were not looking for the Prince of Peace.  They were looking for a political deliverer on a white horse.  They were looking for someone who could deliver them from the power of Rome as Moses delivered them from Egypt.

Contemporary American Christians are also looking for a political deliverer on a white horse.  Someone who will reinstate biblical Christianity to its rightful place of respect and authority.  Someone who will load the courts with conservative and God fearing judges and someone on whose coat tails the conservative political machinery will thrive.  

I personally don’t think that is going to happen and here is why. Our government is a government for the people and by the people. The people are corrupt.* 

It is not big business, special interests, the rich, or even big government that is to blame for our present condition.  It is the people who have elected our leaders, their values, and the policies they bring with them.  The American people are to blame.  We have what we have because we are proud, self centered, and lovers of pleasure more than we are lovers of God. 

There is only one way to change the American people and that is by bringing them one by one to Jesus Christ, teaching them to walk in the Spirit and discipling them to obey the written Word.  

We must start by examining ourselves to see whether or not we are in the faith.  Before we speak anything to anyone, we must see God’s power exhibited privately within ourselves giving victory over our own thoughts, desires and motives…..and then we must stay out of God’s way.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (II Corinthians 5:17).

•  *I understand that corrupt is a harsh word, but the Scriptures say that the plowing of the wicked is sin and that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  Man without the Saviour is corrupt.  Romans chapters one and two condemn the natural man, the moral man and the religious man altogether.
• A few years ago I surveyed several rural towns in our area of the Midwest.  Seventy five to eighty percent of those who were asked if they would go to heaven when they died responded positively.
• When asked why they should enter heaven, those same individuals replied within the categories of either because of what I am or because of what I’ve done.
• It is because of what we are that we are alienated from God.  It is because of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done that we can become the beneficiaries of salvation and call ourselves Christian.  (John 1:12 &13; 3:16; 10:9 and 14:6)
• The degree of corruption within our population, due to being unregenerate, is much higher than the polls and surveys would have you think.  Churches are not preaching the written Word and “Christians” are not holding the churches accountable to the written Word.   Most “Christians” are just doing what is right in their own eyes.

Ezekiel’s message from God to Jerusalem:

As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters.

Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. Ezekiel 16:48-50

In Him (Christ), you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.  Ephesians 1:13&14 NKJV

In these verses the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Holy Spirit of promise.  When Christ spoke to His disciples (John 14:1-6), He was preparing them for His departure after His work (death, burial & resurrection) was finished and His promises to them were as follows:   

If you love me, keep my commandments,  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you (John 14:15 & 16 NKJV).

What a wonderful promise Christ makes to His disciples!  The Father will send the Helper, who will be with them forever.  The Helper from God comes to stay.  

Messiah Jesus calls the Helper the Spirit of truth.  The Lord is identifying this Helper with Himself because in John 14:6 Jesus declares: I am the way, the truth, and the life.  In John 17:17 the Lord identifies the Scriptures with Himself and with the Helper when He prays as follows: Sanctify them (His disciples) by Your truth. Thy word is truth.

The Spirit of truth is not available to the world.  The world cannot receive Him, because in order to receive the Spirit of truth one must receive  the Messiah.  The world does not see Him nor does the world know Him.  The preaching of the cross is foolishness to the world, but to us who believe it is the power of God unto salvation.

Christ also promises his disciples that this Helper will not only be with them, but He will be in them.  In John 14:26 the Lord identifies the Helper as the Holy Spirit, who will teach them all things and will bring to remembrance all that Christ said to them.  In John 15:26 the promised Helper who comes from the Father will testify of Jesus Christ.

In John 16:5-15 the Holy Spirit of promise will not come unless the Lord Jesus goes away.  When the Holy Spirit does come He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.  He will guide believers into all truth.  The Holy Spirit will tell of things to come.  He will glorify the Lord Jesus.  The Holy Spirit will take the things of Christ and teach them to His disciples.  He does all this through the word of God, of which He is the author.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost  (II  Peter 1:21).

All scripture is given by inspiration of God (God breathed), and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect (complete), throughly furnished unto all good works  (II Timothy 3:16). 

Note:  Remember, God the Holy Spirit will never lead you contrary to Scripture.  If He did, He would be a liar, but God cannot lie.  

If you are being taught doctrine that is contrary to Scripture, you are being taught either the traditions of men or the doctrine of demons or both.  

Doctrine that is contrary to the clear teachings of Scripture is not the doctrine of God.

Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world  (I John 4:1).

When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  Mark2:17

When Messiah Jesus first came to this world, He came meek and lowly, and riding upon a colt, the foal of an ass.  God slipped into this world quietly, leaving His glory behind, and became one of us, only without sin.

He came to be the one time perfect sacrifice for our sins.  He displayed His credentials and ultimately rose again from the dead after laying down His life as the Lamb of God.  When He ascended bodily into heaven, His disciples received the promise that He would return in like manner as they had seen Him go.

Israel missed Messiah’s first coming.  Four hundred silent years before Messiah’s birth, God withdrew His presence from the most Holy place in the temple.  Ichabod,  the glory has departed, described the temple that was now devoid of God’s presence.  The entire nation had become apostate.  Tribe by tribe Israel had turned their hearts from God’s Law.  They were still spiritually blind as a nation when Messiah Jesus appeared.

The Messiah’s second coming will not be the same as His first coming.  When He comes back to earth, He will return as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.  He will come to save Israel.  Israel will face annihilation by her enemies during a time called the Tribulation Period.  

The first half of the Tribulation Period will be peaceful.  The false Messiah who has brought world peace will rebuild the temple.  The false and apostate religions whose holy places lie in Jerusalem will join hands together and declare the peace that so many have sought before them.  There will be a peace but not a lasting one.

At the mid-point of the Tribulation Period, the false Messiah will turn on Israel to destroy her.   Israel will have no allies, no one to help her and none to deliver her, none except the Lion of the tribe of Judah.  At a point near the end of the Tribulation Period, Israel as a nation will repent and call on Messiah Jesus for deliverance and He will come………He will come quickly.

Messiah Jesus speaking during His earthly ministry:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.  Luke 13:34 & 35

Note:  The seven year Tribulation Period will start after an event called The Rapture.  The Rapture is when all true Christian believers are removed from this world in the twinkling of an eye. This event is next on the calendar and it can happen at any time.

Are you a true Christian believer?

Thy nakedness (sin) shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.  Isaiah 47:3

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  Matthew 10:28

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.  Hebrews 10:31

Without the righteousness of Christ, no one will get out alive.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

Have you ever thought of how much the concept of time limits our thinking?  Time is finite.   One day it will end.  We live and move within the boundaries of time.  We are limited in our thinking by it’s boundaries.

God is a spirit.  He is eternal.  He has no beginning and no end.  We are His creation.  We exist at His good pleasure.  He makes the rules.  He lives inside and outside of time.  He is not limited by the boundaries of time.

One of the names for God is “I Am”.  When Moses asked God who he should say had sent him, God replied; tell them “I Am” has sent you.  Jesus told the Pharisees; before Abraham was, I Am.  

What does this mean?  It means that God is always in the present. With Him there is no past or future.  He is not limited or confined by time.  He can stand on the outside of time and view the whole as one. He is time’s creator and one day He will bring it to an end.

We limit God in our thinking by defining Him as we define ourselves, within time where sin is the norm.  With God, sin is not the norm.  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8 & 9).

God is sinless.  He is without sin, that is His nature.  Sinful man cannot enter into God’s presence without being destroyed.  

When God dwelt among His people as recorded in the Old Testament, provision was made yearly for the people’s sin.  Once a year the high priest would enter into the holy of holies where God’s presence was manifested by His shekinah glory.  

The high priest would bring the blood of the sacrifice to sprinkle on the mercy seat between the two cherubim on the Ark of the Covenant.  This was the blood of the atonement.  The mercy seat was the meeting place between God and man (Exodus 25:22) when the blood of the proper sacrifice was sprinkled upon it.

God spelled out in His law detailed instructions for the sacrificial animal.  This sacrifice was a picture of God’s provision for our sins. (It pointed to the cross of Calvary where God’s only begotten Son would lay down His life for the sins of mankind and then take it up again.)  If the high priest were careless with this sacrifice for the people or the sacrifice for his own personal sin, God would reject it.  

For Christ has not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others;

For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.  

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.  Hebrews 9:24-28