ISDAMan
03-09-01, 10:47 PM
Friday Night Sermon -- Online Bible Study
From: www.NailScarred.net (http://www.NailScarred.net?sciforums.com)<HR>
Something Old, Something New
Part 11 Of A Study In 2 Corinthians
Before we start, I’d like to request that you pray for some people in need. A man, we’ll call him “Jim”, has run off to another country to be with a woman he met on the internet and left his wife and three daughters and the ministry God placed him in behind. Pray that God would bring him consequence that would once again fix his sights upon the Lord. Also, the Tynes family is in real need. They have serious familial structure and discipline needs. There is a constant heavy barrage of satanic attacks especially involving their children. There are also financial needs but, the spiritual burden is the greatest. I thank you all!!!
Having had several days to look back upon the past few FNS's, and also having been under some great preaching from a visiting pastor, Brother Carl Sexton of Gateway Free Will Baptist Church, a wonderful man of God, I've realized that I want to take a quick look back just two FNS's ago. This won't take long. We've still got this FNS to get to. It's just that what God gave him, to start out a revival in our Church, is something we just ever so softly glanced over the other day. It has to do with the matter of forgiveness. We took a look at a fantastic lesson from Paul in forgiving our fellow man. Only, I didn't go into the aspect with you of how God sees and acts upon forgiveness.
KJV
Book: Genesis Chapter: 35 ,Verses: 1-15
1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
7 And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
8 But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.
14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.
NLT
Book: Genesis Chapter: 35 ,Verses: 1-15
1 God said to Jacob, "Now move on to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to worship me – the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother, Esau."
2 So Jacob told everyone in his household, "Destroy your idols, wash yourselves, and put on clean clothing.
3 We are now going to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress. He has stayed with me wherever I have gone."
4 So they gave Jacob all their idols and their earrings, and he buried them beneath the tree near Shechem.
5 When they set out again, terror from God came over the people in all the towns of that area, and no one attacked them.
6 Finally, they arrived at Luz (now called Bethel) in Canaan.
7 Jacob built an altar there and named it El-bethel, because God had appeared to him there at Bethel when he was fleeing from Esau.
8 Soon after this, Rebekah's old nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried beneath the oak tree in the valley below Bethel. Ever since, the tree has been called the "Oak of Weeping."
9 God appeared to Jacob once again when he arrived at Bethel after traveling from Paddan-aram. God blessed him
10 and said, "Your name is no longer Jacob; you will now be called Israel."
11 Then God said, "I am God Almighty. Multiply and fill the earth! Become a great nation, even many nations. Kings will be among your descendants!
12 And I will pass on to you the land I gave to Abraham and Isaac. Yes, I will give it to you and your descendants."
13 Then God went up from the place where he had spoken to Jacob.
14 Jacob set up a stone pillar to mark the place where God had spoken to him. He then poured wine over it as an offering to God and anointed the pillar with olive oil.
15 Jacob called the place Bethel – "house of God" – because God had spoken to him there.
To give you a quick backdrop on what just happened before we came in where we did, everything just went completely wrong in Jacob's life. All the years of sin and living apart from God and leading his family in directions apart from God have just caught up with him. No doubt the man was in a tizzy. Both his priorities and the priorities of his family were all messed up and going in different directions (none of them in the direction of God). He's worried about his image and his boys are running around measuring out justice far exceeding the crime. In the midst of all the confusion, in steps the Master of order that can, in an instant, in any situation, bring peace to any who would trust in Him.
Notice, if you will, this from Proverbs 19:19
KJV
A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.
NLT
Short-tempered people must pay their own penalty. If you rescue them once, you will have to do it again.
NIV
A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.
When did God step in? He stepped in at the very same point in which He stepped in your life, in my life, and in the life of every Christian. He stepped in when there was a price ready to be paid that no man could stand to pay. That's when most people who call themselves a friend to you, and even, in many cases, your family will step out on you! Not God!!! God says, so to speak, "I've got you covered! Stick with me and you'll go far kid." He's the kind of friend that sticks closer than a brother.
God waited ever so patiently for the day when Jacob's sins would catch up to him, not so He could mock him, but, so Jacob could have clear sight of which way to go. Jacob was blinded by success as far as the eye could see, trapped in his own little world and, just as it always does, it took loss to clear his vision. His future prospects for flourishing in that land plummeted on the spot! That man was face to face with loss and devastation. In comes the God of the Universe! "Remember ME!?!?!", He points out in just straightforward fashion. God sent him back to the last point where Jacob got it right so they could get started again. Not even one infinitesimally small portion of a second did God spend on giving Jacob a tongue-lashing. God said, "Get back!" Jacob repented and obeyed. He was restored and God took him forward. That's just flat out how it was.
What's God's take on this forgiveness thing and the restoration of backslidden Christians? It's what it was before the Christian was ever backslidden. Do what He had already given you to do and He'll move you forward. Reverence Him how He has already taught you to reverence Him and He'll then be open to meet the desires of your heart.
So, if you're treading paths away from God, even if they be only short paths or a step here or there, GET BACK! Do what you were supposed to be doing and Love God how you know you are supposed to be Loving Him so that you can get back to going where God has been sending you all along.
Furthermore, I challenge you, and I'm going to do the same thing, to make a list. On this list, you will name every person, and not their offense, which you know for 100% certain, you have not forgiven. You can work on a less than 100% list later. In some totally random fashion, pick one of those names and forgive that person of any debt. Be it money, time, property, respect, or anything at all, forgive that person completely so that you acknowledge to God that this person owes you NOTHING! Pray over this person and be dedicated to God to the freeing of this person's debt. Spend no less time than one week per person while selecting a new person from the list regularly.
For all you lawyers out there. You can forget being able to beat this one on a technicality. Even if the person you are forgiving is unrepentant, forgive them anyway. Even if the person is still in aggression against you, forgive them anyway. I'll tell you just one way that I can back this up from the Bible (though there are many). This time, I'll choose a less obvious source.
Matthew 5: 27-28, KJV
27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
The applicable lesson from this selection of Jesus' teaching is subtle and easy to grasp all at the same time. It's what happens in your heart that brings about what happens in your flesh. If you are ever going to put it into action in the real world, it has to first go through your heart. The other person's cooperation is not required. Now, in your heart, will you desire Peace or will you desire Payment? Will you commit to righteousness in your heart so that it may be loosed in Heaven and in Earth?
This just hit my e-mail as I typed the previous sentence to you.
Proverbs 16:7, NIV
When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.
I add to it, this.
Mark 11:23-26, KJV
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
If you really want to, you can forgive. Best of all, there's no questioning the fact that forgiveness IS in the will of God!<HR>Now, I want you to know, as we get into this weeks FNS that I'm talking to me just as much as I'm talking to you in these things. The need for God's truth and to be subject to it most certainly does not bypass me. I aim to be as truthful to you and as open with you as I can be. It's been a while since we had a Spiritual Warfare FNS and God made sure to remind me just in time for where we are at in the study. My friends, Brothers and Sisters, we are going back to Boot Camp.
KJV
2 Corinthians Chapter: 3
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
NLT
2 Corinthians Chapter: 3
1 Are we beginning again to tell you how good we are? Some people need to bring letters of recommendation with them or ask you to write letters of recommendation for them.
2 But the only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves! Your lives are a letter written in our hearts, and everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you.
3 Clearly, you are a letter from Christ prepared by us. It is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on stone, but on human hearts.
4 We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ.
5 It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success come from God.
6 He is the one who has enabled us to represent his new covenant. This is a covenant, not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old way ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives life.
7 That old system of law etched in stone led to death, yet it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses' face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away.
8 Shouldn't we expect far greater glory when the Holy Spirit is giving life?
9 If the old covenant, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new covenant, which makes us right with God!
10 In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new covenant.
11 So if the old covenant, which has been set aside, was full of glory, then the new covenant, which remains forever, has far greater glory.
12 Since this new covenant gives us such confidence, we can be very bold.
13 We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory fading away.
14 But the people's minds were hardened, and even to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, a veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.
15 Yes, even today when they read Moses' writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, then the veil is taken away.
17 Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, he gives freedom.
18 And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.
I'm going to say all this at the risk of sounding like I'm pushing for performance based Christianity. I assure you, however, I am not. Keep in mind, always, that the importance is not in what we do. The importance is in whom we do it for. The Power comes from the God that sent us! We ought to do it for Jesus! Why? The only reason why is because He loved us and set us free to be conformed to His likeness.
If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. -- John 14:23, NIV
In the past year plus that we have been together, who among us can stand up in the presence of God and rightly say, "______ is a letter from Christ prepared me?!?!" Who here will one day see a soul in Heaven because of service to God in just this past year? I'm not talking about over the span of your whole life. I'm talking about just the past year. I'm not just talking about being there for the harvest of getting down on your knees with a person as they except Christ. I'm talking about also being there to plant the seed or tend the crops after they've been planted. Now, before you answer too quickly because it seems that you can recall mentioning God's name before a meal at a public restaurant, or telling a co-worker that you love Jesus, or serving God in some way in the past year, I want you to know something. The very second commandment God gave the Israelites was to not worship any other god. I present to you, as we know from many occasions in the Bible, worshiping a god of your own fabrication in order to worship the one true God of the universe is idolatry. I'm guilty of it. You're guilty of it. When we were doing the things we claimed we were doing for God, were we doing it for the God of the Bible or for the god we wanted to believe exists? Are we preaching and teaching what God would have or are we following what some comity at our church has voted for and ordained as the will of God? Are we doing good works because God has freed us in His love for us to work like we are supposed to work or, are we doing what we expect a good Christian should do and just going with the flow? If you are following the latter in any of these, you follow your own self-righteous way. You do no good work unto God. God doesn't recognize any of our good works that are not powered by Christ. Nothing we can do compares to the good work He sends us to do. All the while that we do what we expect should be done, just so we fit in with the crowd, His work goes undone. Once more, you are either FOR God or you are AGAINST God. There's no middle of the road! If the Good works you do don't stem from and go back to God, guess whom you're working for!!! What was the best good, the agape good, gets pushed aside. In case you have a hard time believing all this, I can prove it from the Bible!
Matthew 7:21-27, KJV
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
The freeing Glory of God is everlasting for the true Christian. It’s not only like the OT days when just the priest could go before God. Has this Glory spread through you? Have you ever held it back from use? We have the greatest story in the world and the most needed cure to ever exist. What keeps us from marching onward into the world and declaring the Glory of the Lord all over the world? What is that legacy? Who are those letters? What kind of smell do we cast off behind us as we are going? Come back next week and we will explore this and more in great detail. We are no longer limited to being able to carry and share only one year's worth of Grace as we go, which is how it was before Christ. We have already been made the victors of eternity. What we have to share is Forever and we cannot loose!!!
Christian website of the week: GUIDELINES INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY (http://www.guidelines.org?www.nailscarred.net-ChristianSiteOfTheWeek[/url)<HR>Pray for me too,
ISDAMan
From: www.NailScarred.net (http://www.NailScarred.net?sciforums.com)<HR>
Something Old, Something New
Part 11 Of A Study In 2 Corinthians
Before we start, I’d like to request that you pray for some people in need. A man, we’ll call him “Jim”, has run off to another country to be with a woman he met on the internet and left his wife and three daughters and the ministry God placed him in behind. Pray that God would bring him consequence that would once again fix his sights upon the Lord. Also, the Tynes family is in real need. They have serious familial structure and discipline needs. There is a constant heavy barrage of satanic attacks especially involving their children. There are also financial needs but, the spiritual burden is the greatest. I thank you all!!!
Having had several days to look back upon the past few FNS's, and also having been under some great preaching from a visiting pastor, Brother Carl Sexton of Gateway Free Will Baptist Church, a wonderful man of God, I've realized that I want to take a quick look back just two FNS's ago. This won't take long. We've still got this FNS to get to. It's just that what God gave him, to start out a revival in our Church, is something we just ever so softly glanced over the other day. It has to do with the matter of forgiveness. We took a look at a fantastic lesson from Paul in forgiving our fellow man. Only, I didn't go into the aspect with you of how God sees and acts upon forgiveness.
KJV
Book: Genesis Chapter: 35 ,Verses: 1-15
1 And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
5 And they journeyed: and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob.
6 So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
7 And he built there an altar, and called the place Elbethel: because there God appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his brother.
8 But Deborah Rebekah's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak: and the name of it was called Allonbachuth.
9 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.
14 And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone: and he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon.
15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel.
NLT
Book: Genesis Chapter: 35 ,Verses: 1-15
1 God said to Jacob, "Now move on to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to worship me – the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother, Esau."
2 So Jacob told everyone in his household, "Destroy your idols, wash yourselves, and put on clean clothing.
3 We are now going to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress. He has stayed with me wherever I have gone."
4 So they gave Jacob all their idols and their earrings, and he buried them beneath the tree near Shechem.
5 When they set out again, terror from God came over the people in all the towns of that area, and no one attacked them.
6 Finally, they arrived at Luz (now called Bethel) in Canaan.
7 Jacob built an altar there and named it El-bethel, because God had appeared to him there at Bethel when he was fleeing from Esau.
8 Soon after this, Rebekah's old nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried beneath the oak tree in the valley below Bethel. Ever since, the tree has been called the "Oak of Weeping."
9 God appeared to Jacob once again when he arrived at Bethel after traveling from Paddan-aram. God blessed him
10 and said, "Your name is no longer Jacob; you will now be called Israel."
11 Then God said, "I am God Almighty. Multiply and fill the earth! Become a great nation, even many nations. Kings will be among your descendants!
12 And I will pass on to you the land I gave to Abraham and Isaac. Yes, I will give it to you and your descendants."
13 Then God went up from the place where he had spoken to Jacob.
14 Jacob set up a stone pillar to mark the place where God had spoken to him. He then poured wine over it as an offering to God and anointed the pillar with olive oil.
15 Jacob called the place Bethel – "house of God" – because God had spoken to him there.
To give you a quick backdrop on what just happened before we came in where we did, everything just went completely wrong in Jacob's life. All the years of sin and living apart from God and leading his family in directions apart from God have just caught up with him. No doubt the man was in a tizzy. Both his priorities and the priorities of his family were all messed up and going in different directions (none of them in the direction of God). He's worried about his image and his boys are running around measuring out justice far exceeding the crime. In the midst of all the confusion, in steps the Master of order that can, in an instant, in any situation, bring peace to any who would trust in Him.
Notice, if you will, this from Proverbs 19:19
KJV
A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment: for if thou deliver him, yet thou must do it again.
NLT
Short-tempered people must pay their own penalty. If you rescue them once, you will have to do it again.
NIV
A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.
When did God step in? He stepped in at the very same point in which He stepped in your life, in my life, and in the life of every Christian. He stepped in when there was a price ready to be paid that no man could stand to pay. That's when most people who call themselves a friend to you, and even, in many cases, your family will step out on you! Not God!!! God says, so to speak, "I've got you covered! Stick with me and you'll go far kid." He's the kind of friend that sticks closer than a brother.
God waited ever so patiently for the day when Jacob's sins would catch up to him, not so He could mock him, but, so Jacob could have clear sight of which way to go. Jacob was blinded by success as far as the eye could see, trapped in his own little world and, just as it always does, it took loss to clear his vision. His future prospects for flourishing in that land plummeted on the spot! That man was face to face with loss and devastation. In comes the God of the Universe! "Remember ME!?!?!", He points out in just straightforward fashion. God sent him back to the last point where Jacob got it right so they could get started again. Not even one infinitesimally small portion of a second did God spend on giving Jacob a tongue-lashing. God said, "Get back!" Jacob repented and obeyed. He was restored and God took him forward. That's just flat out how it was.
What's God's take on this forgiveness thing and the restoration of backslidden Christians? It's what it was before the Christian was ever backslidden. Do what He had already given you to do and He'll move you forward. Reverence Him how He has already taught you to reverence Him and He'll then be open to meet the desires of your heart.
So, if you're treading paths away from God, even if they be only short paths or a step here or there, GET BACK! Do what you were supposed to be doing and Love God how you know you are supposed to be Loving Him so that you can get back to going where God has been sending you all along.
Furthermore, I challenge you, and I'm going to do the same thing, to make a list. On this list, you will name every person, and not their offense, which you know for 100% certain, you have not forgiven. You can work on a less than 100% list later. In some totally random fashion, pick one of those names and forgive that person of any debt. Be it money, time, property, respect, or anything at all, forgive that person completely so that you acknowledge to God that this person owes you NOTHING! Pray over this person and be dedicated to God to the freeing of this person's debt. Spend no less time than one week per person while selecting a new person from the list regularly.
For all you lawyers out there. You can forget being able to beat this one on a technicality. Even if the person you are forgiving is unrepentant, forgive them anyway. Even if the person is still in aggression against you, forgive them anyway. I'll tell you just one way that I can back this up from the Bible (though there are many). This time, I'll choose a less obvious source.
Matthew 5: 27-28, KJV
27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
The applicable lesson from this selection of Jesus' teaching is subtle and easy to grasp all at the same time. It's what happens in your heart that brings about what happens in your flesh. If you are ever going to put it into action in the real world, it has to first go through your heart. The other person's cooperation is not required. Now, in your heart, will you desire Peace or will you desire Payment? Will you commit to righteousness in your heart so that it may be loosed in Heaven and in Earth?
This just hit my e-mail as I typed the previous sentence to you.
Proverbs 16:7, NIV
When a man's ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.
I add to it, this.
Mark 11:23-26, KJV
23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
If you really want to, you can forgive. Best of all, there's no questioning the fact that forgiveness IS in the will of God!<HR>Now, I want you to know, as we get into this weeks FNS that I'm talking to me just as much as I'm talking to you in these things. The need for God's truth and to be subject to it most certainly does not bypass me. I aim to be as truthful to you and as open with you as I can be. It's been a while since we had a Spiritual Warfare FNS and God made sure to remind me just in time for where we are at in the study. My friends, Brothers and Sisters, we are going back to Boot Camp.
KJV
2 Corinthians Chapter: 3
1 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?
2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:
3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.
11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.
12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
NLT
2 Corinthians Chapter: 3
1 Are we beginning again to tell you how good we are? Some people need to bring letters of recommendation with them or ask you to write letters of recommendation for them.
2 But the only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves! Your lives are a letter written in our hearts, and everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you.
3 Clearly, you are a letter from Christ prepared by us. It is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on stone, but on human hearts.
4 We are confident of all this because of our great trust in God through Christ.
5 It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success come from God.
6 He is the one who has enabled us to represent his new covenant. This is a covenant, not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old way ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives life.
7 That old system of law etched in stone led to death, yet it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses' face. For his face shone with the glory of God, even though the brightness was already fading away.
8 Shouldn't we expect far greater glory when the Holy Spirit is giving life?
9 If the old covenant, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new covenant, which makes us right with God!
10 In fact, that first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new covenant.
11 So if the old covenant, which has been set aside, was full of glory, then the new covenant, which remains forever, has far greater glory.
12 Since this new covenant gives us such confidence, we can be very bold.
13 We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so the people of Israel would not see the glory fading away.
14 But the people's minds were hardened, and even to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, a veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.
15 Yes, even today when they read Moses' writings, their hearts are covered with that veil, and they do not understand.
16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, then the veil is taken away.
17 Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, he gives freedom.
18 And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.
I'm going to say all this at the risk of sounding like I'm pushing for performance based Christianity. I assure you, however, I am not. Keep in mind, always, that the importance is not in what we do. The importance is in whom we do it for. The Power comes from the God that sent us! We ought to do it for Jesus! Why? The only reason why is because He loved us and set us free to be conformed to His likeness.
If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. -- John 14:23, NIV
In the past year plus that we have been together, who among us can stand up in the presence of God and rightly say, "______ is a letter from Christ prepared me?!?!" Who here will one day see a soul in Heaven because of service to God in just this past year? I'm not talking about over the span of your whole life. I'm talking about just the past year. I'm not just talking about being there for the harvest of getting down on your knees with a person as they except Christ. I'm talking about also being there to plant the seed or tend the crops after they've been planted. Now, before you answer too quickly because it seems that you can recall mentioning God's name before a meal at a public restaurant, or telling a co-worker that you love Jesus, or serving God in some way in the past year, I want you to know something. The very second commandment God gave the Israelites was to not worship any other god. I present to you, as we know from many occasions in the Bible, worshiping a god of your own fabrication in order to worship the one true God of the universe is idolatry. I'm guilty of it. You're guilty of it. When we were doing the things we claimed we were doing for God, were we doing it for the God of the Bible or for the god we wanted to believe exists? Are we preaching and teaching what God would have or are we following what some comity at our church has voted for and ordained as the will of God? Are we doing good works because God has freed us in His love for us to work like we are supposed to work or, are we doing what we expect a good Christian should do and just going with the flow? If you are following the latter in any of these, you follow your own self-righteous way. You do no good work unto God. God doesn't recognize any of our good works that are not powered by Christ. Nothing we can do compares to the good work He sends us to do. All the while that we do what we expect should be done, just so we fit in with the crowd, His work goes undone. Once more, you are either FOR God or you are AGAINST God. There's no middle of the road! If the Good works you do don't stem from and go back to God, guess whom you're working for!!! What was the best good, the agape good, gets pushed aside. In case you have a hard time believing all this, I can prove it from the Bible!
Matthew 7:21-27, KJV
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
The freeing Glory of God is everlasting for the true Christian. It’s not only like the OT days when just the priest could go before God. Has this Glory spread through you? Have you ever held it back from use? We have the greatest story in the world and the most needed cure to ever exist. What keeps us from marching onward into the world and declaring the Glory of the Lord all over the world? What is that legacy? Who are those letters? What kind of smell do we cast off behind us as we are going? Come back next week and we will explore this and more in great detail. We are no longer limited to being able to carry and share only one year's worth of Grace as we go, which is how it was before Christ. We have already been made the victors of eternity. What we have to share is Forever and we cannot loose!!!
Christian website of the week: GUIDELINES INTERNATIONAL MINISTRY (http://www.guidelines.org?www.nailscarred.net-ChristianSiteOfTheWeek[/url)<HR>Pray for me too,
ISDAMan