This next "quote" is from remembrance only, and I do not even know who to attribute it to. Perhaps one of the readers is familier with it and can inform me. But with that disclaimer firmly stated, the truth of its point can clearly be a deep insight into the actual condition of our hearts.

Here is the background for this amzingly revealing quote.

There was a man, an unsaved man, who had lived an exceedingly wicked and selfish life, filled with earthly pleasures rather than seeking God and His will...His forgiveness.

He eventually became ill and was dying and called for the preacher to come and pray for him, that he might find repentance. The preacher came, but it was obvious he had other things to do, and his heart was not in it, and his prayers were dry, lifeless and formal.

The man stopped him in the middle of his prayers, and asked him if he truly believed in heaven and hell. The preacher said indeed he did. The man continued "and you believe that hell is a place of eternal tormant, filled with pain and suffering and seperation from God forever and ever?"

The preacher said he did indeed believe as the man had stated.

The man, shaking in his pain and confusion, and in his frustration at the preacher who so calmly seemed to be ushering him into the next life fully unprepared for what was waiting for him, then said:

"If hell is real, as you say you believe it to be, and the pain and misery beyond what we can even imagine, and the length of hell is forever, without end, without hope, with no reprieve, tho all of England was strewn with shards of broken glass, if I believed as you say you do, I would crawl across it on my hands and knees, just to be able to save even one sould from entering therein."

Dear brothers and sisters, this quote should indeed be a wakeup call for us as to how things are really going in our walk with God. Ultimately, the church has one purpose, the sharing of the good news of the gospel of Christ with the lost. If we have left our first love, we also are found to be lacking heart for his will, that we be the vessels that spread that good news.

This "test" is not shared to condemn, not in the least. It is a wake-up call for us to thoroughly examine our walks in light of the truth that we are indeed in the last days, and many of us have even members of our own families...spouses, children, parents, friends and relatives, who will be bound for an eternity without God unless someone intervene on theor behalf. The hour is late, the need is great. I pray we lay down foolish things that occupy our lives but leave our hearts empty, and run our race as if there is but one prize, and we are determined to be the one to win it.

May God bless you in your hunger for more of Him. He indeed has what we are searching for.

Gideon

Without the Promises, What Do We Have to Offer Those Bound By Sin?

I say this in love, even though it is blunt truth. I fear that the gospel as commonly preached in our churches has nothing to offer the drug addict, the prostitute, the sex addict, or the soul addicted to alcohol. NOTHING. We cannot offer them deliverance, for if we have not been delivered ourselves from the sin in our own lives, we have nothing to give, for the principle of God is still "Such as I have, give I thee."

We cannot even truly offer them friendship or Christian fellowship, even if they say the sinner's prayer, even if they repent of their sin. They will still, after all, remain bound to their sins as we are to ours, yet most of ours are "socially acceptable"...whereas theirs are not. Be honest here. If a saved former addict struggles with his sin like we struggle with ours, and if they show up one Sundays unbathed, high and wasted, falling again into the sin that binds them, do you really think they will remain welcome in our midst? I doubt it sincerely. Their sins are simply not "acceptable ones" as ours are.If we ourselves do not serve a God who can set free from sin in our own lives and our sins are "small", what hope do we have to give someone who needs an answer and needs it yesterday to a sin that is decimating their lives?

Is stopping sinning simply a choice? If it is, then what is our excuse for continuing on in our own pet sins? And if it is not, we best be on our knees seeking the answer, and not falling into a contentment without godliness. That, friends, is dangerous ground indeed.If we believe that holiness is simply a matter of choosing to obey, then we simply do not understand the power of sin and the weakness of the flesh of man. Choice is not enough. The power of God must be on display.

Simply put, it takes God Himself to break the chains wrapped tightly around a man's soul. How I long for us to see this, holiness, as our greatest need, and His even greater supply. God help us to become a church full of delivered saints, who can testify openly, proudly and loudly, that Jesus is able to "save to the uttermost them that come to the Father by Him".We all have our religious form, our doctriones of belief, but it is a scary thing to think we may be those He had in mind when He said that there would be those in the last days who would have a form of godliness but yet in our actions, deny the power of it in our lives. Do we serve a God able to deliver us from us, or one simply able to forgive? How strong is our God? Fellow believers, please do not take this as a putdown, for it is not. It is but a loving call for us to examine our very foundations of what we believe about Jesus and His purpose in our lives. The early church was not made up primarily of "religious folk", but social outcasts and vile sinners who found a loving God who delighted in setting people free from their sins that bound them. Delivered saints are excited saints, and this excitement spread the gospel around the known world like wildfire. Saints who have been forgiven much love much.

Could this be the reason why we seem to have such little true love for our Lord, becasue we do not see ourselves as needing much forgiveness...just enough to cover our "little sins"? Perhaps this explains why we see the church basically shifting members much like musical chairs, with plenty of new members, but they are just replacing those that moved in due to boredom themselves. I am afraid we have plenty of smoke, but no fire.God has not changed, nor has His purpose for us. he wantsot change us into the image of His son. he wants to make us holy...in thought and in action.Thus we have a huge decision to make. It falls on our shoulders to either walk on in an acceptance of defeat, an acceptance that we are "just human" and to tell God in effect, "I am not hungry for real liberty, for I am satisfied in simply being forgiven and going to church".... or to cry out to God in a loud unified voice to deliver us from the sins that bind us, large and small, and to show us the secret to tapping into the power of godliness.

Make no mistake. God still takes great delight in delivering us from our fleshly nature, and by doing so, setting us free from the sins that so easily beset us. Our God has promised us freedom from that old nature, freedom to abide in Him in victory all day, every day. He offers us a "new creation" whereby He sups with us daily, and through the abiding experience, causes us to walk in His statutes, giving us not only the desire to be holy, but the power to be as well.If we are to offer hope to the lost, shackled and chained to their sins, we must first ask our Lord to remove the shackles from our own souls, and believe that it is God's will that we walk in the free indeed that Christ offers us. May our faith rise to apprehand that for which we were apprehended.

THE LONELY WALK OF FAITH

The walk of faith can be a lonely walk. Few it seems, seek it out or hunger for real righteousness.I do not know why some seem destined for this type of walk, other than God is calling them to pray for His church. Perhaps you can identify with Paul like I seem to, where he said he has continual heaviness in his heart for his countrymen, the Jews.

In my humble opinion, we are in the time spoken of by the prophets where "the meat and drink offering has been cut off, yea even joy and gladness from the house of the Lord."

Especially in western churches, we seem to fit the description of the Laodecian church spoken of in Revelation. Many may debate whether we are Laodecia or not, but does it really matter, if by our actions and attitudes, we are still just like them?I have seen something however, that I have not seen for the past four decades. I see more and more, His people, here a little, there a little, becoming dissatisfied with "the religion of Christianity", church denominations, church activities, nice tidy doctrines, nice Sunday services, a walk with God without cost, hearts that act like they are satisifed but are starving spiritually on the inside. I believe we are in the time of the parable of the virgins where all the virgins slept, wheat and tares alike. And the faint echoes of "The bridegroom cometh" can be heard faintly if we are listen closely enough...and the cry is getting louder.

More and more, I see various saints questioning "Is this all there is? Get saved? Be good? Go to church? Is that all there really is to being a Christian? More and more, I see people hungering for the bridegroom Himself, longing for him, hating the sin that has bound them and the unbelief in His delivering power from it.

To those who identify with what I describe here, I pray that you do not lose heart in this lonely time, for it is coming to an end. Seek out those who are being roused from the slumber that has caused all of us to "walk as in a dream", as opposed to realizing that as people called by His name, we are called to be part of God's army fighting the "good fight of faith", and that it is the fight of our lives, and, in truth, our one purpose on earth... to reflect the glory of God so that others may too come to the light.

At stake are the souls of our children, our parents, our spouses, our friends and the millions who have been deceived by the enemy. As well, at stake our our own eternal souls, for many will come in that day convinced that they are right with God but who have lived to themselves and their pleasures and not realized that we are not our own, we have been bought with a price.

To say Jesus is Lord is to acknowledge Him as full owner, with total authority over our hearts, our minds, our lives. Paul told us "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Now it is high time that we wake out of sleep and put on the armour of light, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.

Our Lord is coming...and coming soon. He is not coming for a half asleep bride who cares not that she is still laden with sins, with worldliness, with lack of care for the souls of those around her. He is coming for a bride without spot or wrinkle and that is what He will find.

To those who would scoff at this admonition and defend their lifestyle choices that refelct their hopes, their dreams, their goals, their choices, and have not sought Gdo alone as their reward, let us fear...truly fear... that we do not become like the man with the one talent spoken of in Luke 19. This man lived for himself, not for the glory of God and made no increase with the gift of sonship he had been given. Make no mistake here. That man lost what He had clearly been given by the good master.

Let us not be like those that draw back from God, that rebuild what He destroyed, our old selfish nature. To those who have been taught that they can reap the benefits of heaven and yet love their own life and not lose it for His sake, I counsel you to read the last verse of the parable of the talents:

"And bring those, mine enemies, before Me who would not have me to reign over them and slay them before me."

The sobering weight of this scripture flies in the face of the modern gospel of a god that seemingly winks at sin, but there will be a day we will face the truth of its veracity whether we like it or not.

As the scripture admonishes us:

"Behold therefore the goodness and the severity of God. On them which fell, severity, but towards thou goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."

Bruce

Someone once asked me as I share about this life of total victory if I am saying that since I became a Christian I have never sinned? How I wish that were the case! I have been a Christian since 1970 when I was 20...39 years to be exact. For the first 38, I not only sinned, but my flesh was not "pleasant flesh"...I was not one who could make a fair show in the flesh. My sins were addictive, gross, looked down upon and although I went to severe extremes to try to stop, yet in the end, all was for nought. I found satan's ball and chain still wrapped tightly to my ankle, and the chain was not a long one before it would snap taught if I strayed too close to Jesus, just to remind me that he still "had" me.

Last year in September, I broke and in tears of humility and full brokenness, I told the Lord that I simply could not do what He asked of me. His commandments were too high, too hard, my flesh too rebellious, my self control too lacking and that unless I had a miracle from His own hand, I was destined to spend the rest of my earthly existence in Romans 7 and then eternity outside of His presence. Why? Because I still accepted as foundational truth that "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord", that "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Frankly, I judged myself as guilty and that my heart was anything but pure.

What happened next was simply a miracle. I will not get into details in this post, but I came away from my eye opening encounter with an understanding from God Himself of how to walk in victory and why the church as a whole is languishing in the doldrums of religion rather than walking in the "free indeed" that our Lord promised us.

I think one of the key problems many have here is a misunderstanding of what is "walking above sin". If this is misunderstood, all sorts of error and resistance creeps in.

1. It is not "perfection". It is having the flesh defeated, rendered totally inoperable, so that we can then truly enter into the lifelong process of being changed into his image without hindrance from our rebellious nature. You do not "glow". You do not float 4" above the ground. You simply find that when you are tempted, you can resist...every time.

2. Temptation is NOT sin. Giving into it is.

3. Walking in full victory does not mean you may not get angry, or react when you see a beautiful woman. It does mean however that you will not stay in your anger as your adrenaline wears off or harbor unforgiveness to one who wrongs you. It means you will not progress to lust but choose willingly to simply acknowledge she was beautiful, and move on, with no "mind gymnastics".

4. We never "arrive" so that we have no need of keeping our bodies under. We depend on Jesus the same as a new born Christian. Without Him, we can do nothing. But...ahhh.. with Him, we can do all things!

5. Walking above sin is not obeying any list of rules anymore. Rather, it is not offending the spirit that leads us. A man might come to Christ and be a three pack a day smoker, and to him, it may not be sin, and yet to another who has been convicted that it is wrong, a single cigarette may be sin. As the new Christian matures however, what in the beginning may not be sin for him may indeed find the spirit saying, ok, it is time to stop now. If he rebels, then it is sin. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

6. Perhaps the biggest misconception is that it is "US" oriented. It is not us who stop sinning...it is Christ who is able to keep us from falling. How easy it is for us to judge after man's ability, for our salvation itself has eroded into a test of self effort and self denial. We cannot ever gain the victory, but we can be lifted up into a place of total victory. How we need to get our eyes of of us, and our inabilities, and onto Jesus, who can "save to the uttemost them that come to the Father by Him."

Once you get a full handle on what it is not, then the question stops being "Can I walk above sin?" but "How strong is our God?". Can God do in us what we cannot? Of course. And thank God, it is God's will for us, absolutely, for our God has said "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification." The key is....HOW?

I was shown this a year ago...that we have begun our walk with God by faith alone for our salvation, but then, somehow, we have been taught that it falls back on us, onto our own shoulders, to "clean ourselves up out of gratitude." So we go back unto the law, which is self effort in the flesh, to try to kill the flesh and it fails...every time. The law will do what the law is supposed to...make us guilty before God.

There is but one way...faith in His promises. WE must, as Paul exhorts us to do, "reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God." We must put off our old nature, the flesh, by faith, and again, by faith, put on the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness. It is the only way to victory...to "free indeed".

This is no mental ascent thing. This must become a real transaction to us in the spirit, with a stake driven deep in the soiul of our heart that this truth is OUR truth and we possess it now. This truth, that we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God is the armor of Ephesians 6. This is how we stand against the wiles of the devil.

How often, we say be believe the Bible, but in truth, unbelif still grips our hearts. Frankly, most of the time we do not believe them to be true in reality, and thus, they never become truth in reality for us.

This is the good fight of faith we are called to wage. The question is, will we? We have a God waiting to show Himself strong. Shall we not find again the God who can "cause us to will and to do of His good pleasure

I apologize for missing a few days here, as I have just been enjoying a week with the birth of my 10th grandchild. Now, back to the wonderful promises of God.

How often, we think that to walk victoriously in this life, we MUST keep our eyes on Jesus. Yet, the sad truth of most of our walks is this. We do not keep our eyes on Jesus, do we? So we fall. But what if the burden fell on Him to keep us, rather than visa versa? :)

Many have assumed Romans 7 was Paul's experience. It was not, but it was indeed Saul's experience. It was as it says in the first verses of Romans 7, the experience of a man under the law, not under the power of grace thru faith in a God who can keep us from falling.

There is a wonderful chapter in the old testament... Ezekiel 37..where God Himself clarifies to us what He expected the new covenant to do in our lives...straight from His mouth so that no misinterpretation would be possible.

In it, God says this...that because the weak link in the old covenant was that we "continued not in His covenant to do it", he would make a new covenant to correct this fatal flaw...us.

He would "cause us" to walk in obedience to Him! How few have seen this, or experienced a salvation like this, but regardless of the fact that there may be millions who say it is not possible, our God cannot lie.

God finishes off this amazing discourse with this amazing statement, a statement we will get to know well in the next few years.....

"I shall yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them."

Sadly, over the centuries since the book of Acts, our Christianity has de-evolved into a religion of self effort...i.e. the law, and Romans 7 is the result. But God is about to lead all who hunger and thirst after righteousness...in their lives... into a walk of abiding in the vine where "all things are possible to him that believeth."

Consider for a moment the term "self control". Is it not central to our thoughts of walking pleasing to God? How much it is needed...desperately...in the lives of saints! Yet, how few there are who possess it, and even to those who do, it is a "white knuckle" type of deliverance at best, certainly not thew easy yoke God promised it to be for us.

Ahhh...then go to the list of the fruits of the spirit, the results of abiding in Christ. Love, joy, peace...that beautiful full list of promised benefits that God has given to those who would simply learn to abide in His Son. Look at the last one..... self control.

Does your Bible say like mine that "it is God that causes us to will and to do of His good pleasure?" And if we find we are not walking there, in that blessed easy yoke of faith in our God to keep us from falling, then let us, as God suggested we do, inquire of Him to "do it for us"!

Hope this at least starts some gears turning, LOL.

God bless.

bruce

Does the preaching of full victory in Christ promote disillusionment?

How few there are who are willing to take the words of our Lord and believe them as is, that He indeed has promised to set us from from our fleshly nature, and from the sins that so easily beset our lower nature. Many argue that to lift up a standard of holiness as our goal, our very reason to be Christians, to be changed in the image of our Lord in this life, promotes disillusionment. If we were talking politics, I agree, idealism is not realistic, and can leave many disillusioned.

But we are not. We are talking about the God of the Universe who has made many clear and undisputable promises to us, promises that we see unfulfilled in the lives of most believers, and instead of us searching for how to attain them, what we have done is to lower the expectations of the scriptures to fit what we experience. Once we started doing that, and unbelief made its way to our pulpits, faith in God was changed to "idealism" and the reality that we taught Christians to expect from God in their daily walks became failure and struggle, the Romans chapter 7 experience. That, I believe, is the root of the disillusionment so evident in the church today.

Yet it is at this precise point, at the point of our failure, that we have a choice. Do we simply lower the standard of "Without Holiness no man shall see the Lord", and settle for a walk without power, where we just do our best and trust the forgiveness of God to make up the difference, or do we, on our knees, fall before our God and seek for an answer from heaven that has eluded us, an answer that can set us "free indeed" as He has promised us?

Any truly honest saint will have to admit that the church is not the same as it was almost 2000 years ago. 120 men, filled with God's spirit, turned the entire known world upside down in one generation. There was but two words for the lives of the early saints... sold out.

No Christian TV stations, no radio, no tract ministries, no church buildings, no printing presses, no internet, no bookstores, just hearts on fire. Why were they on fire? They had been set free, free from their old nature that had enslaved them. And because of that, they were ON FIRE.

Some worrry about this "idealism" in Christianity being dangerous because people will be hurt. Do we not think that what we have gotten people to accept as the expected result of following the Lord now, that true fredom is impossible in this life, has sucked the wind out of the sails of millions of hearts, millions of Christian marriages, millions of teen-agers who figure "Why bother? It doesn't work anyway."?

With all my heart, I believe it is not unwavering faith that has caused this, but the lack of faith that is at the root of the problem. We have the weight of the success of the walk on our shoulders, and the result we now have come to expect is failure. Do we fall on our knees in brokenness and seek God to stretch forthj His hand and fulfill His promises to us. No, we simply lower the standards so we do not stand in the place of failure. Instead of holding up the shield of faith that says "I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me", we adopt as our Christian mantra "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven." Borthers and sisters, may God help eachof us,to find the walk where we are promised to "mount up with wings of eagles, you will run and not be weary, and walk and not faint."

Ultimately, we will be held accountable for one thing and one thing only.... how did we respond to the words of God? Words of God not believed will be to our shame on the final day. Dark days are coming, days we can not even imagine. We will need more than church services and pats on the back that all will work out all right if we just hang on. We need to equip the saints to fight, and if we give them the weapons and armour God has prepared for us, they will, for the first time, be truly able to begin fighting for others, when they see satan truly defeated in their own hearts.

Please understand, walking in the new man where the flesh is defeated so that sin doesn't reign any more in our bodies does not mean we are "perfect" in the sense we commonly think. We have not "arrived". There is much to do, many changes that need to occur, much fruit to produce, as we now truly begin the journey to be changed into the image of Christ. When Paul said he had not yet attained, it was to Christ-likeness. But this same Paul said in no uncertain terms, "I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me." The apostle Paul did not struggle with sin, but indeed showed others how to defeat it. "Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ." May God give us 10,000 ministers of fire who can make that same statement.

The disillusionment that young people have in serving God where Christlikeness is the goal comes not from serving God thru the promises, for the promises are to those who worketh not. No, the disillusionment comes from serving God the way we have been taught, thru self effort, I.e. the law. It must cause failure, and disillusionment.... but not with the gospel but with ourselves and our abilities.

Yet, it is at this exact point that we must then re-focus a man's eyes on our saviour and tell them about the covenant that does not leave one defeated, but does in them what they cannot do, defeat the fleshly nature, the covenant of grace.

This covenant was not to simply forgive us (but thank God it does!). It was given to empower us the way the old could not, by the spirit of God abiding in our heart, causing us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

I hope and pray I am not coming across as a haughty know-it-all. I am the least of the least and for 38 years of serving Him, some in a pastor's roll, I was the chief of sinners and I was FULL of disillusionment. It was in sheer desperation that I finally broke in my stubborn self confidence and fell at our master's feet and He, in His infinte mercy, led me to see that His promises were to lead each of us to the walk we longed for, and that if we would but believe them, they held the key to an overcoming life, a life of victory, a heart that does not bring dishonor to His name, without the constant battle going on of Romans 7.

Brothers and sisters, that was over a year ago now. For one straight year, God has kept me. This walk I speak of is not something we "achieve". There is no possibility of pride here, no room for boasting...NONE. It is a gift we receive when we are fully broken of all confidence in our flesh, and have nowhere else to turn.

I know this is long, but bare with me just a minute longer. I truly want you to see this, so that you might have your doubts eliminated and you can fully understand what God is wanting to give us all, so that in real truth, the church can finally become the bride without spot or wrinkle.

In Ezeliel 38, God gives us one of the few glimpses in the old testament to the coming new covenant. He prefaces this with an explanation as to why He offers us a new and living way. Why was it? Because we, His people, had blasphemed His holy name whereever we have gone, professing to the world that "WE ARE THE PEOPLE OF THE LORD", boasting that if the world looks at us, they see the full abilities of God to change and mold a man into His Son's image. Ouch. Our pride has blinded us to the truth that self effort Christianity is a failure, and in our own religious spirit, we offer something to the world they do not want....and who can blame them?

God continued. I am going to do something to change this, i am going to bring in a better covenant, but know this, my people, I am NOT doing this for your sake. I do this for my own Holy name's sake. I will sancitify you, I will pour clean water upon you, and in place of your pride and disobedience and secret sins, I am going to cause you to walk in my statutes. I will give you obedient hearts. My church, a place of lifelessness and desolation, a place mocked by the world, shall again be turned into the garden of Eden, and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall be santified IN YOU in their midst.

But God was not finished in this amazing discourse, a discourse about us...today. In Ezekiel 36:37, God speaks to us, to the present day church, to the heart of every true believer who can look at our failures, our religiousity, and the sin that grips our hearts and admit that what God is saying is truly describing us. God says this:

"I shall yet be inquired of by the House of Israel to do it for them"

This, my friends, is the mesage God has put on my heart. Our God IS able. He IS the God who is able to keep us from falling and present us faultless before His presence, the God who "will cause us to will and to do of His good pleasure".

Saints, it is time we throw off our cloak of religion and put on the cloak of real manifest righteousness. This simple walk of faith will change everything as we know it. I for one am ready for the sleeping giant called the church to arise and put on strength. My prayer is that you are too.

In Him

Bruce

The deceptive simplicity of faith.....

The deceptive simplicity of faith? How so?

As we in the church struggle for answers as to how to walk victoriously in this present evil world, amd search for a secret to restore the church out of the wilderness of religion and into the promised land of relationship, how we have combed thru the debris left by our broken and defeated lives to seek for an answer. Surely, Jesus could not have intended the church that was started with a roar in the book of Acts to go out with a 1000 whimpers of churches built on every corner yet with none walking in victory. Could he?

Is the answer more diligence? Speaking in tongues? Renouncing worldliness? Turning off our TV's? Bible study? Fasting? Prayer? Unity? Foot washing? Hail Marys... or possibly a combination of all of the above?

We have been left exhausted in our search and remain empty handed. Many have resigned themselves to eeking out a living, holding onto a feeble belief in the Christian faith, and convinced that this is all there is to the Christian walk, and that God must have had a great marketing company, because for all the hoopla, Christianity is really, after all, just another religion of self effort.

Others, the stubborn seeking ones, press on, convinced in their heart there is more and determined to find it. It is hiding somewhere, and so they weave together exotic theories using obscure scriptures, taking words out of contect to support their particular theory as to how to walk in victory.

Saints, today, we in the church have been like worn-out, bedraggled gold miners, holes in our pants, shoes rotted from panning day after day in the wet mud of the riverbeds to try to find a speck of gold here, a miniscule nugget there, and every day we climb over a field of boulders to pan once more for truth in the river of God.

We need to stop, stop our search and look closely, very closely at what we have become, and ask ourselves deep inside if the God we serve would make the walk so impossibly hard that literally no one can walk it? If "it is the Father's good pleasure to give us the kingdom", is this all there is? Church services, dry as day old toast, defeat instead of victory, prayer closets that echo they are so silent of God's voice? Christian lives that from outward appearance look not one iota different from those who know not the savior? Is this what He died for? Is this the church He envisioned as He was nailed to that tree?

No, the answer from my lips will be 1000 times... NO! There is more, and MUCH more. Brothers, we are fixing to enter dark days, the times that try the souls of men, and we need for more than we possess today to endure what is coming our way. To hide from this truth, to deny our laodecian state, may buy us a few more days of ignorant bliss, but in the end, it will cost many their very souls for it is, lest we forget, "he that endureth to the end that shall be saved.

So we grab our pans and start searching again, all to no avail. Look closely, brothers in the Lord, sisters in the Lord. The boulders we have climbed over to do our measley panning for small nuggets of truth are boulders...of solid gold.

Do you remember the story of Naamun? Respected soldier, used to people doing as he ordered, no questions asked. Yet Naamun had a problem....leprosy. He had a disease for which there was no cure. All His authority did nothing to prevent the onslaught of this disease. He was told there was a prophet used mightily by God who could heal him, and as he was down to his last hope, he took his man-servant and went to see the prophet.

He arrived at the dwelling and instead of an audience with the prophet of God, he was simply instructed through Elijah's servant to go dip in the Jordan 7 times and he would be healed. Naamun was wroth, humiliated, that first of all, the prophet Elijah would not even honor him by seeing him face to face, and secondly, that he had the nerve to give him such a ridiculous cure. The Jordan was a filthy, muddy river, and Naamum was no one to be trifled with.

But Naamuns man-servant was wise and told him "Master, if the prophet of God had told you something hard to accomplish, would you not have done anyting in your power to do it so that you might be healed? Yet, he has made a very simple request of you. What have you got to lose?

Naamun, swallowing his pride, humbled himself and went to the river, took off His robe and entered the muddy waters, dipping once....twice...feeling more ridiculous each time he went under the water, each time looking at his white infected flesh as he came out of the water again....until that last dip. When He came up out of the water, Naamun was whole and his disease and death sentence was gone.

How much we are like this Naamun! Filled with pride, yet infected with the leprosy of sin that continues to flow like a fountain out of our hearts, we come to the Father for instructions. Shall we fast 40 days? Shall we give all we own to the poor? Shall we memorize the entire new testament and even read through the entire book of Leviticus without falling asleep? :)

What has God asked us to do to rid ourselves of the disease of sin, to free us to serve God in holiness and true righteousness? He has asked us one thing, and one thing only. Humble ourselves, yield all to him and believe His amazing promises to us.

God has told us "You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God."

God has promised "Sin shall not have dominion over you."

God has promised that "the shield of faith shall quench ALL the fiery darts fo the wicked one"

God has promised us that "with every temptation, He would make a way of escape."

These nuggets of truth, nay, BOULDERS of truth have laids in our path for years, decades, centuries, and in these last days, He is awakening His people to the truth that can set us free. We need to realize that these simple truths of God were not just meant for plaques to adorn our homes, but to be engraved on the walls of our hearts.

Let us not be like those who continue to think they can do it on their own if they just try a little harder, and say " We shall run with the swift", for God answers "Therefore those that pursue you shall be swift."

Let us be those that in humility, admit we have missed the mark of walking victorious over the world, the flesh and the devil, and as obedient children and with child-like faith, humbly begin dipping in the muddy waters of the Jordan for complete healing, for His promises are yea and amen and we have a God who cannot lie.

Jesus, set us free indeed!

Our view of sin must be changed to walk in all of God's promises

Paul Washer HeartCry Presentation Clip


I think in the church today, we have a real problem in how we have come to view sin in our lives. We most often view sin as specific acts against right and good, acts of wrong, acts of evil. When we get saved, we think of God as forgiving us of these acts of wrong, whatever they may be. Most of us were not bank robbers, or pedophiles, or rapists, murderers, etc., we were just average people who may have had lust issues, or anger problems or were jealous, or who drank a little, or who occasionally misstated things on tax returns, LOL. Right? Unfortunately, that is not what the word of God teaches us about the nature of man.

When Adam and Eve fell by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was that disobedience of theirs not just a small (relatively speaking) sin as we view sin? It was just disobedience, an act we have done 1000 times over, correct? Yet the punishment that God meted out was pain, labor by the sweat of our brows our entire lives, banishment from the kingdom where were would be kept by God and enjoying the pleasures of the garden of Eden, and more importantly, the presence of God, and ultimately death. Was God overreacting?

We judge this sin as small, like most of ours. In that small act of disobedience, God, who sees far more clearly than our limited minds can, saw it differently. He knew clearly that hidden in that fruit we ate was the seed of rebellion, the seed of independence from God with the idea that we by ourselves could discern right and wrong, good and evil. The fruit of that tree indeed made us think we are gods, able to make our own decisions, run our own lives.

Yet what did the fruit yield up to mankind? It planted a seed in the heart of all men...ALL men... a seed of rebellion to the authority and protection and love of God and from that one act of disobedience, all the murder, wars, starvation, child abuse, pain, tears, loneliness, suicides, depression, hatred, sexual sins sprang forth. From that one "innocent" act.

What we fail to understand is that when we are saved, we are asked to fully 100% bow the knee to God and submit ourselves to him as total authority over our lives. We give up all rights to ourselves. We are His. When the Bible says we become God's servants, that word actually means slave. We look at that and recoil, as the rebellion in our hearts screams out, I will not be slave to any! I will run my own life. I will do it MY way, thank you. I can be a "good" Christian and still do it my way. I can if I try hard enough.

No, you can't, nor can I , nor can anyone born of a woman, for the seed from that tree passed down to us. We all, in our walk with Christ must indeed come to a point like the prodigal son, who told the father after being fully broken of His rebellion, "It is better to be a servant (slave) to my Father than to do things my way, for the end of my way is death and tears and sadness." It is when he "came to himself" as it is described in the parable of the prodigal son, that he finally gained the full approval of God and began to enjoy the fruits of sonship.

If we could but have the veil pulled back just a little and see what God offers us if we will fully submit to him...lock, stock, and barrel. Everything. it is a radical move that results in radical Christianity, joyful Christianity, a place of safety, a place of true rest, offering the walk that most of us have sought our entire walks, but have never found up till now.

It is only when a man breaks inside and acknowledges, not that he is a sinner, but that he indeed is SIN, depraved and rebellious to the authority of God, that God not only is willing to forgive, but to give all of us new natures a nature like that of Adam and Eve before the fall.

Let us remember there is none good save God. None. All have gone out of the way. All still have the fruit of that rebellion to God in their hearts, doing it their way.

God sees that rebellion and hates it for it has caused all the pain and heartache in humankind's history.This is why Jesus came, to set us free from our "me" nature, our flesh as it is called in Romans.

Sadly, many Christians do not see the depth of their sinful nature. They confess individual acts of sin, but their fallen nature is not confessed or submitted to God to kill. Therefore, their entire lives remain a fountain of sin that cannot be stopped up, and that is a shame, when God has offered us total freedom from our old selves. We simply do not see the need for it, as we are still running our own lives.

What is truly the saddest about this blindness to the depths of our depravity as long as we stay in the lower nature, as "carnal" Christians, is that Jesus made an amazing statement.

"He who is forgiven much, loves much."

As long as we see ourselves as "good" people and when we slip up we confess the individual sin away, we never come to the conclusion that our nature is totally depraved, and therefore we cannot be filled with the full love of God and cannot love much.

As long as we continue to run our own show as owners of our own selves, whether we want to admit it or not, our core flesh remains in rebellion to the authority of God, who has purchased us and who owns us. The result is that we play into satan's hands, perhaps saved, but totally unable to be truly fruitful in our knowledge of Him. Like the prodigal, how many end up living their Christian walks out in the hog trough, even though we are sons....sons of God!

I pray God's mercy rain on all. In ourselves, in our lower natures, We ALL have fallen short of the mark, and will continue to until we figure out how to get fully free of the fleshly nature.

How desperately this new nature is needed in these last days for us to find the power and strength to truly serve him. It is available...we simply need to see our desperate need for it. Until we stop seeing ourselves as "good" people, "good" sinners saved by grace, and realize that as long as we do not fully submit ourselves back under the authority of Christ, we will walk carnal and defeated lives.

He owns us, brothers and sisters and wants only to do us good, giving us joy, peace, power, safety. His perfect will for us is not to be feared!

Let us grab hold fully again of a God who can truly set us free as He promises, free from sin, free from the world, free from the power of the devil, free from failure and defeat, free to abide in Him all day, every day! He has called us to put on our cast off by faith our old nature, and reckon it dead and by faith, put on our new nature, a nature that walks the Christian walk as an easy yoke, where He promises to "cause us" to walk in His statutes.. Shall we disappoint Him?

As A Man Thinketh in His Heart....

In attempting to truly apprehend the amazing promises God has made to you, one of the clearest lessons as to the "HOW" of all this is found in the wisdom of Proverbs 23:7 where it is explained that as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

How important we understand the truth of the proverb! How many of the promises are directly related to who we believe we really are inside.

So, who exactly are we? Are we, as satan would have us accept as true, simply "sinners saved by grace"? Are we "only human", allowing ourselves much latitude in our conduct because of our excuse of weakness due to our fleshly nature?

No, my friend, here we must be really careful and not ignorant of satan's devices. Here is where he trips us up, and keeps us playing his game, on his playing field of the flesh. If he succeeds here, he will have his way with us, no matter how hard we may resist.

So who are we, we who have accepted the Lord and been washed by His blood? What do the scriptures say? Paul addressed the church of Corinth and told them exactly who they were in Christ. After describing the works of our old nature, he plainly tells them:

"...and such were some of you. But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God."

1 Cornithians 6:11

Notice the power of Paul's words, driving home the point of who were are in Christ. The past is gone. We were dead in our sins, captive to our fleshly nature. No more. Our testimony is now present tense of who we are NOW. We are washed. We are sanctified. We are justified. We are new creations in Christ. We are NOW light in the Lord.

Yet one would argue, but how can this be and sin still dominate you at every turn? Because this truth has not been mixed with faith, and as a result, we who have been set free still labor for the hard taskmaster instead of enjoying the glorious libery of the children of God.

This is a great example of how the promises of God work in us, becoming stepping stones to the partaking of Christs very nature. Believe that you receive it, and you shall have it. Is this not God's way of faith?

Do I stretch this verse to mean something it was not meant to mean? Are there other scriptures that tell us the same thing? Yes, indeed there are. Listen closely to Paul's words to the Colossians church:

"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God"

Colossians 3:1-3

Notice how two distinct times, Paul drives us back to the truth of who we are. We are risen with Him. We are dead, and our life is hid with Him. It is these truths and these truths alone, that can enable us to stand against the allure of the world and all its trappings and firmly resist satans manifold temptations. If we believe we are still worldly by nature, weak in our flesh, simply "trying our best to obey", our experience will be Romans 7 and the failure of wanting to do right but doing wrong and wanting not to fall to worldliness, but falling anyway.

How important it is to believe in our hearts what God has said about us! Do not judge by outer appearances. Do not examine yourself for weaknesses and sins for by doing so, you already have accepted the lies of your enemy. We are told to examine ourselves in the scriptures, but for what? One thing and one alone.

"Examine yourself, whether you be in the faith."

2 Corinthians 13:5

If you fall while holding onto this newly found weapon that finally succeeds in shutting the mouth of the accuser of the brethren, do not examine yourself for the weakness in you that allowed it to happen. It happened for one reason and one reason only. Wavering faith! Get up, dust yourself off, and simply repent of the unbelief, the doubting of the truth that God has made you new, that old things are passed away. Stand again, grab hold firmly onto the truth of the promises of God and again, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free!. And if you fall again...and again? It makes no matter. Determine in your heart that the promises are true. Determine in your heart that there is but one way to please God and that is by believing in those promises. If you fall fifty times, get up fifty times and believe the good news, for if you fall back into self effort and doubt, , you will be again entangled in the law and self effort, and in the end, you will indeed be "only human" for as we have seen today...

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

I

The Promises- Not Automatic

One thing I have learned about the many promises of God is that they are not automatic. If you are a Christian, it does not mean that what God promises you is yours. Oh, in theory, yes, but in practical, everyday, live-it-out Christianity, the promises of God are to be apprehended by His people. Why is this? Why does God not just dump the full benefits of walking in Him on our heads so that we immediately walk in all His goodness and strength?

The reason is simple. God dwells in our hearts by faith. In His wisdom, He has thus ordained that the promises of God are to be obtained by the same faith, and each promise is like a step on a stairway to having the fullness of God dwell in our hearts. God wants us to GROW in faith, for it is only as our faith becomes strong that we can stand and not be moved by this world. It is only by faith that we can overcome the wicked one. This is what God meant when he said through Paul to grow from faith...to faith.

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

Hebrews 11:13

Hebrews 11 is one of the greatest chapters in all the Bible. It is the faith chapter. In it, God gives us examples down thru history of those that pleased God....by faith! What is amazing about them and the faith they had in God, was that they had no Bible to lean on, and the promises were known to be for a far off time, ans that in their lives, they would not see the benefits. Yet they still clung to the promises God has...clung to them! How it puts me to shame for the walk in my life, ignoring the promises, or finding other things to infatuate me rather than doing what these saints of old did, for in their walks, by embracing the promises by faith, they pleased God.

Is that not the ultimate purpose of our lives on earth, to learn how to please our master? Was this not the walk Jesus showed us, always doing that which was pleasing to the Father? Let us therefore learn from these old saints and the faith they had to hold onto the promises of God. Saints, the promises were to US! We are the beneficiaries of the promises that the saints of old only dreamed of. And how was it they pleased God so? What set them apart?

1. "...having seen them..." Beloved, the first thing we must do is see them, to make ourselves aware of the mighty things our God has indeed promised us. We will not find them out watching TV, or shopping at the mall, or reading a romance novel. They are hidden in His word, and if we are to ever make true progress in God, partaking in the divine nature, the first thing we must do is set our affections on things above.

2. ....were persuaded of them..." How important is it to not just see the promises, for as we have seen, what good does it do us to see them if we do not figure out how to walk in them? We must be persuaded of them. We must set our hearts before God and seach them out in plain sight of our Father so that we can see the tremendous need for the promises of God. How often we get satisfied with our walks, and yet come short of the glory of God! We must, by our need, and our hunger to please God, be persuaded that our God, who cannot lie, has given us these amazing promises to walk out...in this life.

3. "and embraced them..." Now it must become personal. It does us no good to simply believe. We are told that the devils believe! We must believe for us! We must grab hold of the promises of God with the full realization, that as a son of God, walking in the promises of God is our birthright. Let us draw near unto the Father, and embrace the promises as ours, because of the tremendous need for them in our hearts, in our walks.

4. "...and confessed that..." This last point is so critical to our everyday walk. The saints of old could only confess one thing, that they were strangers and pilgrims in this life. Oh, how we need to learn this secret again! But unlike them, who simply saw the promises afar off on the horizon, we, brothers and sisters, are the heirs of those precious promises. How much do we need to learn, that you can see them, be persuaded of them, embraced them, and yet if, at this last step you falter, all will be in vain. We must confess them as ours... There is but one way to advance in the kingdom. Everything must be appropriated by faith. From our initial forgiveness and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord, to overcoming the wicked one in the end, and everything in between, until it becomes MY promise, personally given to me by God Himself, it lies dormant still.

"and the overcame him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony."

Revelation 19

As we begin unfolding the promises of God, finding out the amazing things He has told us that we simply, up till now, have been ignorant of, let us not forget to follow through with our search for His nature imprinted on our souls. Let us boldly declare that all that he has is OURS- our birthright, and it is God's please to give it to those who will believe for them.

His Promises are MY promises because I am His child.

They are deserved, not because of my actions, but because of my birthright.

Free Indeed!

Good morning, guys. I am going to start with an amazing promise that Jesus Himself spoke to us.

"If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

John 8:32


What a word from the mouth of God! He promised to make us free. And yet, how easily we have heard that scripture, over and over, and the meaning of it is lost on us, and does not even get us excited. Some would say..."well, ok. So I am free? I was forgiven and I am free from the consequences of my sins. So many can look at that scripture and see a promise not for this life but for the afterlife, freedom in Heaven. They simply fail to read the rest of the promise...

"They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."

John 8:33-35

Stop for a minute. Think. Let the words of this last scripture roll around in your brain until they penetrate your heart. The freedom that Jesus offers us is NOT just freedom from the penalty of our sins when we arrive in Heaven. Jesus is promising us victory over sin itself...now...in this life.

Interesting, huh? Think on that today, and if you find an excitement, even a small gurgle of expectation bubbling inside you, where before there was none, that, friends is the effect of an exceeding great and precious promise. But there are mamy, many more. Stay tuned....
I hope your day is blessed.





Bruce

Welcome to My Blog

Welcome to my blog. The title should give you some idea of the content. If you are a Christian, you will hopefully be familiar with the words, written by the Apostle Peter:

"Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature..."

2 Peter 1:4

Here, in this simple verse, is hidden one of the most important truths a Christian can possess, a key to unlocking the shackles of failure, sin and the fleshly carnal nature that seem to enslave the churches today, both corporately and individually. This blog will be controversial. Many will not like the truths it reveals, Many others will scoff or doubt, but I make you a solemn promise, here on the first day of the blog, that if you will press through the crowd of doubters who would attempt to keep you joyless and defeated in your walk with Christ, you will experience a walk you have only dreamed of, a walk of victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.

Even now, I can see the raised eyebrows and doubts creeping in. I am used to it, trust me. LOL. But it makes no matter.... the promises of God are still yea and amen, surer than the sun will rise tomorrow morning. In this blog site, I hope to simply be used of our great God to open up truths in His word that have been hidden from so many eyes, and as you will see, hidden in plain sight!. They do not have to be twisted, nor woven into complicated doctrinal theory. You do not have to be smart, nor religious. As a matter of fact, more often than not, those can often times be more of a hindrance than a benefit.

In EGAPP, We will wade boldly into the promises of God, one by one. His promises are not meant to only be crocheted on pillows, or printed exquisitely on beautiful plaques and sold in Christian bookstores. His promises are given to us to be walked in! One by one, as we dsicover why Peter called them the "exceeding great and precious" promises, a brand new perspective on God and what He offers us freely, will be born.

He has forgiven us, yes, and that is a blessed thing. But how often we have started out our journey full of love ablaze, and after years of serving Him, we find ourselves with not enough heat to even keep ourselves warm, let alone be of any real help to others? Too often.

There is more, dear brother and sister in Christ. Far more! Exceeding great promises. This is our heritage as children of God in this life! Make no mistake, this is not some nice little religious blog, it is a revolution in the making, a radical overthrowing of the enemy of your soul.

Make no mistake. There is a cost here. As the saying goes..."it may be free, but it ain't cheap". But to those of you who are desperate for an answer, hungry for more of Jesus and less of you, you are about to be blessed beyond imagination.

Now how can I make such a bold and almost "arrogant" statement? It is simple. Read the second part of the above scripture....

" ...that through these, you might be partakers of the divine nature....."

If I am honest, I must admit that even I can scarcely take it in. What is the purpose of God giving us the promises? Victory? Yes! Defeating secret sins and lusts that plague our walks? Absolutely! But lest we come short of why we were saved to begin with, why God even called us. the purpose of our salvation is clear...for God to fill us with Himself and fill us FULL.

Welcome again to EGAPP, a blog like no other. In the days and weeks to come, we will not only learn about what God has promised us, but why up till now we have not enjoyed those promises. We will learn how apply them and how to make them the sure mercies of David, eliminating the roller coaster, three steps forward- two steps back walk so many are familiar with. We will explore the new covenant of God, for it indeed IS the covenant of promise, and the old covenant, the law of commandments, and how it has robbed us our our victory up till now.

If you have any comments or questions, I welcome them. As the saying goes, the only bad question is an unanswered one. May God richly bless you and may the results for all here be that we experience what Jesus had in mind when he said we would be FREE INDEED!

Bruce



For questions, simply e-mail me at bgreer2626@yahoo.com