Spiritual Barrenness

One of the cries of spiritually dissatisfied people is: "No one understands me." "No one understands the frustration I am feeling on the inside that all do not feel right." Their cry is not one of self-pity, as is often said by the pious pulpit-teers...it is an honest realization and admission that their spiritual lives are lived in frustration and quiet desperation that they can conceal no longer.

They sense that there is so much more to a relationship with Christ than the ritual status quo and they seek for an understanding heart and ear, but there is none. They long to break free from their mundane image projection of having it all together by smiling faces doing the do's and not doing the don'ts mentality confirmation...while the real person remains unknown and subdued. The desire to be authentic overwhelms them, but is stifled by the realization that further misunderstanding and rejection will be the result if their questioning continues.

People are tired of the facade and realize they are imprisoned and isolated while surrounded by those who claim to know, care for, and love them.  Many have reconciled themselves to a lifetime of spiritual barrenness and frustration of mundane rituals. Deceived by the deception that the exterior facade and the inner person are one and the same, they try to comfort themselves in their deception.

- Glenn Regular

The Goodness of God

“It is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.”

If people understood how good God is, would they turn from their selfish ways to Him?

However, God has been so slandered, bad mouthed and portrayed as revengeful by the denominated religionists, most people in religious deception as well as the people of the world do not know Him for the good God He is.

The biggest reason for God not being known for Who He is, is due to the religionist misuse and abuse of the Bible by their man-oriented interpretations of it that leads to the acceptance, misuse and abuse of the Law. This has caused disrespect and damage to God's image. The Law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). The Law though accurate was incomplete. And if misunderstood and misapplied, it gives a wrong understanding of God and the work of Christ in redemption.

Jesus was the perfect representation of God (Heb. 1:3). If we have seen Him, then we have seen the Father (John 14:9). He did exactly what He saw His Father do (John 5:19). Jesus showed us that God is love (1 John 4:8).

All the Law was  contained in one commandment...LOVE...Still the religionist constantly accused Him of breaking the Law, yet He never did even though He went contrary to the Law. Why? Because LOVE fulfills and superceeds the do’s and don’ts of the Law. The commandment to LOVE is far better than the Law and fulfills the Law and love becomes the reason for doing good and not the fear of punishment for breaking the Law.

Jesus is the only One who ever truly kept the Law. But the mercy and grace Jesus extended toward people was radically different from the "eye for eye" and "tooth for tooth" of the Mosaic Law that religionists today mix with Grace and renders the Gospel that is preached a “false gospel.”

Jesus forgave the adulterous woman whom the Law condemned to death (John 8:1-11). Jesus ate and fellowshipped with publicans and sinners, which the religionists of His day wouldn't do (Matt. 9:11). Jesus touched the untouchable (Matt. 8:3) and loved the unlovable (Luke 8:2) that the religionists shunned. Jesus showed people grace and mercy, which the Law didn't do nor could do.

A wrong understanding of the purpose of the Law leads to a misunderstanding of the Bible and damaged the nature of God. Most people believe God gave the Law to show us what we needed to do to gain and maintain relationship with Him. But the Law was never intended to bring us into relationship or maintain our relationship with our loving and graceful Father. It was intended to show us our sin and our inability to gain or maintain our relationship with God by our own strivings. It was given to show us how self-righteous we were so we would give up our self-effort working. It was to turn us from self-righteousness to a Christ's righteousness (Rom. 10:3-4).

When the Law is understood for what its purpose was, it is good (1 Tim. 1:8). But when people are taught that God's favor, acceptance and blessings are dependent upon religious performances, that nullifies the Grace that Jesus died to give us. Religion has taught that we have to fulfill the demands of the Law in order for God to love us and that is a bunch of hogwash!

God extended forgiveness, mercy and grace even before the Law came...for example, God protected the first murderer. (Gen. 4:15), instead of killing him as the Law later prescribed (Lev. 24:17). Abraham married his half-sister, which the Law forbids and was punishable by death (Lev. 18:9). Jacob married two sisters, which the Law condemned and was punishable by death (Lev. 18:18). Yet Abraham and Jacob became two great patriarchs of the Old Testament, why, because God wasn't imputing man's sins unto him even at that time (Rom. 5:13).

God's wrath was released against sin when the Law came to Moses (Rom. 4:15). God smote people with leprosy (Num. 12:10 and 2 Chr. 26:19-20) and plagues because they did not keep the law (Deut. 28:15-68). And the religionist still believe He does the same today.

The sin issue is settled as far as God is concerned. It is man inspired by the devil that keeps it a issue and hinders the Community of the Redeemed from reaching its rightful potential within the Community of Humanity. If people would but understand that, it would change a world of religious confusion.

- Glenn Regular

What is Your God Like?

Some people who name the name of Christ and claim to be His followers say that tsunamis, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes and terrorism is God's way of punishing cities and its people for their sin. Then they use these disasters they accuse God of bringing to raise money to help alleviate the people's adverse circumstance and perchance gain some of the people that flock to the segregated buildings to join their membership. Some have gone so far as to say that if God doesn't bring judgement on United States of America because of Obama, He will not be a JUST God. The audacity of such people bewilders me!

I must be deluded and dunmmified...I was under the impression that God's remedy for sin was Jesus...the Cross...and His resurrection...not causing catastrophic disasters that kill men, women and children that He created because of His love and sent His only begotten Son to die for, and as they believe, the majority that God killed in the disaster are gone to eternal punishment in an everlasting hell. Wow! What a loving and caring God they believe in. and what "Good News Gospel" they preach. Then they wonder why the people that they have fear-mongered to come out to "Church" by such teaching, to appease the wrathful, revengeful and hateful God, during such events, do not stay long enough to sign their membership forms. They fail to understand that they are driving people away from God by presenting Him has such a monster.

 To accuse God of using natural disasters to judge cities and nations for their sinning, collaborates their believing that Christ's work on the cross was insufficient, incomplete and unfinished as a remedy for sin and man needs to do the doings in order to help Him finish it. You know what, if God did such cowardly acts I would believe the same way.

But I thank God that Christ's work on the cross was sufficient...complete...and lovingly finished, there is NOTHING left for man to do regarding his salvation or the maintaining of it, in fact there is no sinning that man can do to make God love him less than He loves the people who accuse Him of being so cowardly...yes, he still loves these poor misguided souls that accuse Him of such ungodly acts.

God completely dealt with the sin issues through Jesus, though sin as destructive ramification...sin does not lead to a smiting on the head with a holy stick by a revengeful God. Believe it or not...GOD IS DONE WITH SIN, SIN IS NO LONGER AN ISSUE WITH GOD! 1 Peter 4:1 confirms that GOD IS DONE WITH SIN, Is. 53:5 confirms that the PUNISHMENT that brought us peace was upon Him.

God's remedy for sin is NOT natural disasters, terrorism or the killing of people...It is Jesus, His cross and resurrection!

JESUS IS NOT IN THE PUNISHMENT OR KILLING BUSINESS...NEITHER IS GOD! GOD ID A GOOD GOD...WHETHER HIS ACCUSERS BELIEVE IT OR NOT!

Self Righteousness

Self -righteousness is just another name for self-sufficiency. It is a horrible trait for a number of reasons. First, it is always a lie. Nobody is that righteous, and hardly anybody is that sufficient. Second it requires a mask. And if we wear that mask long enough, it will make us phony and empty. Third, it will cause others to label us “hypocrites.” If people don’t know us, it will cause them to either run in the opposite direction or become as sick as we are. But more important than anything else, self-righteousness will kill any hope we have of ever being free, forgiven, and able to live in some kind of reasonable peace with ourselves.

Being and Doing

This is a divine vocation into which you have been redeemed, as "His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that you should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10) can only be fulfilled in the energy and power of the One who indwells you now by His Spirit, as He walked once only in the energy and power of the Father who indwelt Him through the Spirit. Of Himself He said, "I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:19), and of you He says, in John 15:5, "Without me you can do nothing."

How much can you do without Him? Nothing!

It is amazing how busy you can be doing nothing! Did you ever find that out? "The flesh ­ everything that you do apart from Him ­ "profiteth nothing" (John 6:63), and there is always the awful possibility, if you do not discover this principle, that you may spend a lifetime in the service of Jesus Christ doing nothing! You would not be the first, and you would not be the last ­ but that, above everything else, we must seek to avoid!

So you discover that the life which you possess as a born-again Christian is of Him, and it is to Him, and every moment that you are here on earth it must be throughHim ­ of Him, through Him, to Him all things! "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1).

The Lord Jesus Christ claims the use of your body, your whole being, your complete personality so that as you give yourself to Him through the eternal Spirit, He may give Himself to you through the eternal Spirit, that all your activity as a human being on earth may be His activity in and through you; that every step you take, every word you speak, everything you do, everything you are, may be an expression of the Son of God, in you as man.

If it is of Him and through Him and to Him, where do you come in? You do not! That is just where you go out! That is what Paul meant when he said, "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). The only Person whom God credits with the right to live in you is Jesus Christ; so reckon yourself to be dead to all that you are apart from what He is, and alive unto God only in all that you are because of what He is (Romans 6:1 1).

It is for you to BE ­ it is for Him to DO! Rest fully available to the Saving Life of Christ.

- Major Ian Thomas

A Prayer for the New Year 2015

A Prayer for a New Year

We have come to the final day of 2015 and are at the cusp of a new year. I find it only appropriate to close the year with prayer—prayer that thanks God for the year that was, and prayer that looks with joy and expectation to the year that will be. Here is my prayer:

My Good and Gracious Father,

You have brought me safely through another year. This was a year in which I saw and experienced so much of your goodness. You were good when you gave, and you were good when you took away; you were good when the sun shined upon me and you were good when the night fell around me. You were only, ever good.

In your Word you give the sure promise that you have loved me since before the foundation of the world. That love was always with me and held me fast through another year. You led me in each step I took. You led me around the wilderness to the places of cool rest and quiet. You led me through dark valleys to the joy beyond. You were there even in times when I wandered and went astray. There was nowhere I could go that was beyond your love, beyond your reach, beyond your care and compassion. You are so good and I am so grateful.

Father, I trust and I believe that your love and your kindness will be my theme in the year ahead. I entrust the future to you and I do it with joy and with confidence. I do it with sure hope that you already know each step I will take and that you will be with me to direct each one of them.

If you have appointed trials and tribulation, I know that you will guide and comfort me through them all. If I have to pass through persecution or times of deep temptation, I can have full confidence that you will never leave me nor forsake me. If this is to be the year you call me home, I can receive that with joy, knowing that I will rejoice to be in your presence at last. If this is the year that Christ returns—Please, may it be the year that Christ returns!—, then I will join with all Creation in rejoicing and praising your name.

But if you grant me length of days, and if you grant me health and safety through the year ahead, it is my prayer and my deep desire that I would live them all in your service and to your glory. Please grant me a grace that guides, sustains and sanctifies me every day and every hour, that in this new year I would not live a moment apart from you. Let me rely on your Spirit to supply every word

I need to speak, to direct my every step, to prosper all I do, to build up my faith, and to grant me the heartfelt desire to display your glory, to advance your kingdom, and to declare your gospel.

Whatever may come in the year ahead, I pray that you would glorify yourself through me. In times of joy or sadness, in times of security or trial, in times of peace or temptation, make yourself known and make yourself great through me.

I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Behold I Make All Things New

“There are children of God who need this text, ‘Behold, I make all things new,’ whose sigh is that they so soon grow dull and weary in the ways of God, and therefore they need daily renewing. After a few months a vigorous young Christian will begin to cool down; and those who have been long in the ways of God find that final perseverance must be a miracle if ever it is to be accomplished, for naturally they tire and faint.

Well, now, dear friends, why do you and I ever get stale and flat? Why, it is because we get away from him who says, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ The straight way to a perpetual newness and freshness of holy youth is to go to Christ again, just as we did at the first. A better thing still is never to leave him, but to stand for ever at the cross-foot delighting yourself in his all-sufficient sacrifice.
They that are full of the joy of the Lord never find life grow weary. Getting near to Christ, you will partake in his joy, and that joy shall be your strength, your freshness, the newness of your life. God grant us to drink of the eternal founts, that we may for ever overflow.”

— Charles Spurgeon