Fruit in works

How the pilgrim preforms with this leg, the time we are given on earth, will determine our eternal destinies. We have all been given an allotted stint to work it out and then it will end. Death will swallow us up, but for the Christian, death is not something we fear, but rather it will be the putting off of our corruptible bodies. It will be a time of absolute bliss where mortality will take on immortality. Has this thought resonated deep enough to change the way we live? Our journeys here on earth, the trickery of what we believe to be important, education, monies, status and the like are nothing but decoys to shift our attention off what really matters, finding the will of God for our lives and then approaching the storerooms of grace to help us overcome; “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16) - In other words, latching onto that which is available to the Christian to help us through the trial of life. Victory in this area of our lives will help us store treasures in heaven, which is the timeless leg of our journey. The place we will live out eternity, and make no mistake, there will most certainly be positions for the faithful that will carry greater authority; “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:29-30)  - You see, rewards in heaven have nothing to do with our worldly achievements, those recompenses play out in this life and then God's judgment which will determine our standings into eternity. And so the Lord makes it very clear “many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Regardless of our age and where we stand up until now with our efforts. It is never too late to cry out to Jesus, repent and realign our rudders. It takes a resolves to be about the will of God. We must action it with intent and then only are we to look for grace to overcome. Many make the mistake of waiting for God’s intervention in their lives without any wilful intent from their side. Because God is sovereign we are tricked and believe that we must leave it all up to him.  We will never have anything to boast about, "boasting has been excluded". Without God’s involvement in our lives we would never change, but because of it we must change. Study the scriptures and it will soon be clear to all that we must play our parts in this beautiful relationship. Moses is a great example; “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;” (Hebrews 11:24-25) - God tells us to lay up treasures in heaven and not to worry about the lavish life that food and clothing offers. His will first and then the rest will fall into place. Sadly the systems of the world are set up to deceive and they all play into the hands of the enemy and billions have swallowed it up at the expense of their eternal outcome. Let us be reminded that all kinds of evil encompasses the love of money. Even Satan tried to tempt the Lord Jesus with it, or rather what it achieves, he offered our Saviour the worlds and all their authority, all he had to do was sell His soul for it and pay Satan homage. The more we have, the greater the pomp. Here is the warning; “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6: 10) – Beware of the trap of its craving, if not kept in check, it will bring nothing but misery.

Our commitment to faith relinquishes our control onto another…

“In Christ there are no dead and sapless branches, faith is not an idle grace; wherever it is, it brings forth fruit in works.” (Matthew Henry) – Abraham packed up and left everything behind. An action with intent to God’s instruction. He now wears the title “THE FATHER OF FAITH!” 

Now hear the voice of our beloved Saviour; “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  (Matthew 6: 19-21) - This is an instruction we can chose to make our own with intent or we can carry on just like we did yesterday. But of this I am certain, it will affect our eternal vocations.

“In Christ there are no dead and sapless branches, faith is not an idle grace; wherever it is, it brings forth fruit in works.” (Matthew Henry) – How many dead branches have we left unattended in our lives? All we need to do is seek out God’s face with commitment and the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth, exposing the dross of our lives and once we see those areas as they are, we can then action our wills to find grace to navigate the deceptions and the pressures of life. “If God is for us who can be against us?” That does not mean that we will not have an onslaught from the enemy, but it does mean that we are on the winning side and have nothing to fear. Our focus needs to shift onto our hope, which is eternal and not temporal, but until that penny drops nothing in our lives will truly change.

A day is coming where the Christian will receive their glorified bodies, wow! What a day that will be. However, until then, our daily walks are on show and like James says, “faith without works is dead.”

Father please help your children find the resolve to be about your will and our eternal reward, help us find the intent to want to action your production above all else and then help us find the grace to implement that which is require of us, bringing you the glory.

Revival is not a term that is used for the unsaved, but rather the saved, it is an action that God injects into a believers life to wake them from their slumber. Gideon Mpeni brings a clear understanding on the topic of revival and I recommend his insight for all as the Christian of today is in desperate need of revival.  

Signing off

Tyrone

The voice of Jesus

(Matthew 5:19) “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

 

With my head in a spin this morning I am earnestly seeking out a particular truth and my commitment to the will of God in my life. To what degree am I taking the call of God upon my life seriously? All it takes to jolt us into action is for a faithful brother to share a particular truth, even if that message may not be a popular one. Thank you brother, you know who you are. The truth of God’s Word has cut deep and it’s this that I need to examine with honesty. The teachings of the Lord Jesus known to most as “the sermon on the mount” has left me wanting. Read Matthew 5, 6 and 7, but do yourself a favour and remove any preconceived ideas your may have with that chunk of scripture and ask God to reveal His truth behind it all. Do not look left or right, just come as you are and stand naked in front of a full length mirror and let the Spirit of God lead you into all truth. If we lack wisdom, all we need to do, is ask God for it and He will obliged, just as long as we ask in faith.

 

I am persuaded that although we have been sanctified by the blood of the Lamb and the work of our beloved Saviour is finished, His work is done and He has received His glorified body but we await ours, our race is not yet finished. 

 

Because of His achievements we cannot now rest on our laurels and sit back and still allow sin to dominate our lives. We are new creatures in Christ and we have been born again of His Spirit. The question we need to answer, is that an obvious truth in our lives. The deeds of our lives, what do they look like. In particular, the secret society of what we do behind closed doors is what I bring into question. God sees it all and yet we believe that we will get away with so much because others do not see what we know to be true about ourselves. The life of the criminal substantiates the point. Why would a murderer dispose of a body if they didn’t believe they would get away with it? The heart of a man, the inner core to our being is tainted with sinful intention; “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “ (Jeremiah 17:9) – The King James translation translates like this; “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”  The word “sick” and “wicked” is use to explain the depths of deceitfulness we are willing to travel in order to get away with sin. It is who we are. Until we arrive at such an understanding about ourselves we will never breach the need for the grace of God in our lives to live lives like Job and Daniel. Thank you father God for the eye salve you have given me to see a truth about myself, now please help me find the grace to overcome. The complete work of the cross is to get people to shift their intent from a need to quench their own passions onto the will of God.

 

In the beginning God's will for Adam and Eve was not to eat from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. They ignored His command and where banished from the garden. There are two very interesting points we must not miss, both deception and wilful sin will result in the same outcome, banishment! Although the serpent deceived Eve it did not excuse her and for this reason - “deception” - I do not permit a woman to teach nor usurp authority over a man. See Timothy chapter 2.  To my beloved sisters in Christ do not be sucked in by the voices out there, which cry, it’s now the time for women to usurp authority over all and to hell with the order of God. Find grace to overcome, we all have our cross to bear and this is a hurdle you now need to navigate, I am praying for you. Adam knew what Eve had done was wrong and yet he ate what was on offer. James makes this very clear to men; “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. “ (James 3:1)  - God will judge the teacher with a greater strictness and it a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The Bible warns us, what we should be on the lookout for and a lot of that is about false teaches and false teachings. 1 Timothy chap 1, 6 - 2 Peter 2:1- and then Jude 1:4

 

False teachings of any kind are always shrouded with selfish gain. It always looks to make allowance for sin in one form or another and there is never an exception. It gives the individual a pass to indulge in quenching a sinful desire and the list is vast. But until we own our sin in its entirety we will always be half baked Christians. And I realise we cannot achieve this objective without the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. For revival to happen we need to see ourselves clearly in the mirror, God help us is my earnest prayer. We will never lay our lives down for other if this truth isn’t address correctly. And we will never accomplish this without the grace of God in our lives, so everything hinges on us finding grace to overcome. But in order to seek out God’s grace we must stop excusing our sinful behavioural patterns as a right to our existence.

 

This is what the Lord addresses…

·        Murder - our anger is like murder

·        Adultery - Lust of any form and what we expose our eyes too.

·        Divorce – the grounds for it

·        Oaths – to swear falsely

·        Revenge – We must go the extra mile in the opposite direction

·        Enemies - we must love them

These are the topics that have been addressed by our Lord and Saviour, read those chapters with an absolute willingness to be found wanting, the old adage, if the shoe fits wear it. It is not our responsibility to expose the sins of others as that only sets us up to excuse ourselves. The Holy Spirit is the one who does a perfect work. I am convinced that until we acknowledge our need for change in our lives, nothing will change. But if we see ourselves for who we are, repentance will follow and then we will be in a position to seek out God’s grace to overcome. Repentance does or should not only happen the day we are saved. Ongoing or daily sanctification must be our priority.

 

Let the grace of our God play a major role in our lives bringing Him the glory He alone deserves. Help your children Father, we need you now more than ever. The apathy we clutch is deafening. To God be the glory now and forever more, Amen!

 

Signing off

 

Tyrone

Visions, dreams and sound doctrine part 3

This will be the final post of visions, dreams and sound doctrine. From the outset forgive me for its word count, but this is a topic of great relevance, with so many voices out there. This is by far the longest post ever uploaded. The reason behind this, I have decided to bring in another perspective on the topic and so I felt it would be prudent to have Gideon’s input on the subject. He is the pastor at Florida Baptist Church. This then is a joint post with intertwined thoughts from both of us. If you want to dissect this topic accurately it would be good to read it with an open Bible. There are many references to scripture but not all have been captured in their entirety due space constraints.    

Now that we had a foundation laid concerning sound doctrine and what we must be on the lookout for, which I covered in part 1 and 2, let’s now explore dreams, prophecy and visions.

Again it would be prudent to establish a fundamental truth concerning this, not to say that dreams have totally run their course, but to swallow them up would be foolish.

The difference between a vision and an apparition is that a vision is not an actual manifestation but something that occurs in the mind. An apparition is a physical manifestation of the spiritual object. A vision is not an actual appearance of something, where an apparition is. However, an actual object that exists spiritually can appear in the form of a vision that is not seen by others. Apparitions, on the other hand, are often seen by more than one person at a time.

A vision is a "Visual” experience of any kind. The term is sometimes used of dreams with no thought of supernatural revelation (see literal renderings of Job 20:8 cf. 7:14; Isaiah 29:7), but usually refers to the extraordinary religious experience of a prophet.

There are many accounts of visions in the Bible. Here are a few.

·         "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah," (Isaiah 1:1).

·         "Now it came about in the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was by the river Chebar among the exiles, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God," (Ezekiel 1:1).

·         "Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord," (Acts 9:10).

·         "About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!" (Acts 10:3).

·         "A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us," (Acts 16:9).

Different people have seen visions in the Bible.

·   Abraham, after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great," (Genesis 15:1).

·        Jacob, "God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am," (Genesis 46:2).

·    Paul, "A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us,'" (Acts 16:9).

·     Ananias, "Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord," (Acts 9:10).

·     Cornelius, "About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, “Cornelius!” (Acts 10:3).

There are visions of different things.

·     The Lord, "After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, 'Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great,'" (Gen. 15:1).  See also, Gen.46:2; Num. 24:4; Isaiah 6:1).

·     The Future, "“As for me, Daniel, my spirit was distressed within me, and the visions in my mind kept alarming me. 16 “I approached one of those who were standing by and began asking him the exact meaning of all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of these things: 17 ‘These great beasts, which are four in number, are four kings who will arise from the earth," (Daniel 7:15-17).

• A man, "A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us," (Acts 16:9).
• An angel, "For this very night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me," (Acts 27:23).

DREAMS

Dreams can sometimes fascinate believers. From the visions Daniel experienced in the Old Testament (Daniel 7) to Peter’s dream about clean and unclean animals (Acts 10:9-16) it seems as though dreams lace almost all the books of Scripture.

Even in the modern context, it seems as though believers have come to Christ through seeing Jesus in a dream

What are some examples of dreams throughout Scripture? What does the Bible have to say about dreams explicitly and does God still speak to us through dreams? And how much stock should Christians place in dreams today?

We cannot dive into every instance of dreams in Scripture. However, I will highlight a few instances of dreams and why they matter:

Joseph (Old Testament): You cannot discuss Joseph from Genesis without diving into dreams. Granted, most of the time he spent interpreting dreams (Genesis 41), but he did have a dream of his own before he entered Egypt (Genesis 37). These dreams hinted that Joseph’s family would “bow to him” in the future. This comes to fruition when they come to him for food during a great famine. In essence, the dream had a purpose to foretell the future

Daniel (Old Testament): Like Joseph, he often interprets dreams rather than has them, but in Daniel 7 he witnesses a terrifying dream of four beasts. Theologians have attributed each beast to a certain kingdom (Babylon, Medo-Persians, Greeks, and Romans/End Kingdom). The dreams served to show events and kingdoms to come.

Joseph (New Testament):

Joseph, Jesus’ father, sees an angel in a dream who warns him to flee to Egypt before Herod can take the life of his son (Matthew 2:13). This dream served as a warning.

Pontius Pilate’s wife (New Testament):

When Jesus stands at trial with Pontius Pilate, his wife warns Pilate against having anything to do with him, because she knows of his innocence (Matthew 27:19). The dream informed her about the true nature of Jesus.

AS SEEN

All the dreams in Scripture and the meaning behind them. Dreams often employ symbolism to teach a lesson, divulge elements of the future, or help us discover more about God.

TO US THEN

I know that many will now be looking to the book of acts to say, “But hang on”; “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;” (Acts 2:17)  - It is obvious that in the last days this will happen but never at the expense of God’s Word. Can you conclude with any certainty that we are in the last days? God is not the author of confusion, when a dream, vision or prophecy contradicts God’s Word it is obviously a false message. The ones that are not as obvious to discern, we then wait and see if they come to pass. If not, they are false and we must not give the one who speaks to much attention. “You need not be afraid of him.” Although most dream references in Scripture refer to certain dreams God has given to a certain person (see above), Scripture does mention a few things about dreams:

• Acts 2:17:  In the End Times, many believers will see dreams. Although it doesn’t specify what exactly they’d see, one can infer it might be a vision of Heaven, Christ, or of the future.
• Eccl.5:7: This verse seems to warn against placing too much hope in dreams. “Much dreaming . . . (is) meaningless.” Therefore, we shouldn’t dwell too much on dreams, and instead, turn to Scripture to hear God’s messages to us.
• Jer. 29:8: This verse warns us against placing our faith in the dreams of others. Sometimes false prophets will speak about dreams that did not take place to sway God’s people. Christians have to be careful whenever anyone speaks about a dream and should test everything said about that dream against Scripture.

If you take a look at the frequency of dreams in the Bible, most occur in the Old Testament. Since most who lived in the Old Testament had limited access to God’s word, or in the case of those who lived before the time of Moses, God used dreams and visions as a way to communicate His messages to people. The Bible does mention believers having dreams in the last days, but those dreams should never usurp Scripture in terms of authority.

God may place a dream in a Christian’s life to warn them about a future event, show a symbol that is important for that believer’s life, or to convey a certain message. Whenever a Christian encounters such a dream, they should test the spirits by opening the Bible and reading what it has to say about the subject of that dream.

Furthermore, although dreams may fascinate us, Christians should not envy other Christians who have dreams. Dreams don’t have a greater authority than Scripture, and most believers have God’s words right at their fingertips.

If people are experiencing visions and dreams today, it may fulfil what Scripture says about this happening more frequently in the Last Days. However, ultimately, it shows us God is still speaking to those unreached by Scripture.

Amidst all this we have been called to test the spirits; “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1) – The context of this chapter teaches us that every spirit which denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is the spirit of antichrist (a deliberate opponent to the message of the true gospel, an enemy of the cross).

There are many ministries, churches and cults that are thriving on dreams and vision. This is not new, we see it from the Old Testament (Jer. 23:16-32) and Paul dealt with the same issues in the Church in Colossian (Col.2:16-23). The trend we are seeing in the Church today, it’s easy to uncover and obvious to pick out as we examine them against the Bible.

However the not so evident deceiver is the one who dresses in sheep’s clothing but are in fact ravenous wolves. Remember to remove emotion from the analysis, do not be caught out by the hype of their productions.

Jeremiah singles out these types of individuals (Jerimiah 23:1-2, 9) –

 (Deuteronomy 18:20-22) – We also understand that God chose a time and a season whereby he used prophets in a mighty way to get His message out. The Old Testament if full of their dealings with the children of Israel.

The writer of Hebrews now brings in a truth that we must digest and cherish above all else; “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1)

There was a time prior to the finished work of the cross where prophet played a major time in the lives of God’s people, that time has passed, we now have the written Word of God that fuels our feet and the direction in which we (the Christian) walk.

Conclusion

Christians should consult Scripture any time they encounter a vivid dream that seems to have a meaning or authority greater than the regular dreams most of us experience each night. The day of reckoning is not far away, let us hold the penned Words of God in the Bible as our priority. Without the grace of God in our lives we would all lose our way. Thank you Jesus for your input in our lives. Gives us ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches is my heartfelt prayer.

In the articles circulating around which talks about Muslims who have seen Jesus in dreams, those dreams occur because they mostly do not have access to God’s word or have not read Scripture for themselves. Dreams form a temporary bridge for them to encounter God.

Let us cling to the finished work of the cross as we embrace our Saviour with outstretched arms as we trust Him to get us home.

Signing off

A joint post by

Tyrone Arthur and Gideon Mpeni

The called

“The called” a very interesting consideration…

Before we consider the aspect behind “the called” we need to regard who is the one that calls? Firstly we must understand the authority behind any call. Does the caller have the right to call? Do we view the call of God as the final authority or not?

I remember as a student, when the teacher called a body of pupils most responded rapidly to that call, whilst others didn’t give it the same attention. However, when the teacher called addressing a body of pupils, it was up to the recipients to react. Those who responded well where never singled out, but the rebel always took flack. Why? They never regarded the call as a priority. They would rather face discipline, projecting what they believed to be a cool persona. 

Many will find themselves in hell as they reject the offer on hand, the message of the Gospel has gone out to all; “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) – Sadly, we know that not all will respond favourably. Therefore, some of what has been penned in the Bible gives the believer insight to the mystery behind God’s call, all we need to do is reconnoitre God's call.

With that in mind let us unpack what it means to be called by God, the general call has gone out to all, but to the ones that respond positively to the message of the Gospel we can class as those who have been “effectually called”. The ones who have truly been born again and saved from their sin. Those who see their sin for what it is and have jumped to God for the rescue, in and through the finished work of the cross. I am convinced that this group of people will arrive safely. The grace of God will get then home. And yes! Every single one of them. God has willed it and so it will come to pass, period! The only question we need to work out is where we fit in. Are we “the called” or have we just been caught up by the hype of fabricated Christianity? With a message that promises wealth and prosperity, which is all about satisfying the cravings of the flesh. That message isn’t blatantly unpacked like that, but one doesn’t have to dig very deep to uncover the motivation behind such preachers and churches. For them it’s all about self-gratification. The true Gospel message is all about repentance.

True Christianity look like this; cast your eyes upon Jesus and then look for grace to lay your lives down for others, it's full of acts of selflessness. The complete opposite. To what extent do we need to give of ourselves? Even to death? Yes! It’s these individuals that I refer to as the ones who have responded to the “Effectual call” of God in their lives. Have they made mistakes along the way? Too many to number, but repentance is high on their priority list. The beauty of God’s patience in so many lives is clear to see and I am certainly amongst that number. I will forever be indebted to my Redeemer's love, thank you Lord Jesus for your work in my life.  

Let us consider Covid 19, the coronavirus has the world in a spin, people all around the globe now fear death as it knocks at the door for all. But did you know that God has so will the virus, an act of mercy. How so? One may ask. I need you to reflect on your lives and remember the times you found yourself calling out to God, was it not a time of helplessness. I vividly recall a time in my life, prior to salvation where I earnestly ask God to keep me alive and I wowed I would change my behaviour, I didn’t, even though God spared me. Covid is a virus that should get people to look inwardly and seek forgiveness for their sins. It's the mercy of God affording people the opportunity to reflect.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”  (Romans 8:28) – It is obvious then that Covid is working out for our good, for those who love God and those who have been called by Him. But for those who do not love God and those who have not responded auspiciously to God’s call, those who have heard the “general call” of God but pushed it aside. Covid is certainly not working out for their good and what will follow will be no different.

Believer, child of God be encouraged; “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”  (Romans 8:29-30)

The day is coming when we will receive our glorified bodies and what a day that will be. Regardless of the trial of life and the voices out there. We must remain faithful to our God and stay the course, come what may, and all because we love God and we have been called by Him. Some of us may even face death because of our faith, but remember this; “if God is for us who can be against us?”

May the peace of our great Father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob be with you all and may we cling to our Saviour with all our might. God bless you and keep you, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone

Visions, dreams and sound doctrine - part 2

Part 2

Christians have been called to suffer with Christ and it’s not a senseless instruction. There is a specific reason why we need to suffer. Think of it like this, when the body is struck with a fever, how do we get it to break? Well, one on the ways we do it is to sweat it out. The body is place under pressure and works against the fever and if all goes as planned, eventually the fever breaks through perspiration. In like manner, when we walk in the Spirit we deprive our carnal desire of their lustful wants. The process God has implemented for the Christian to walk worthily is a painful process and it’s only when we shun our responsibilities as Christians, when we fail to arm our minds with truth that we remain babes in Christ, or worse, do not even belong to the household of God. We obviously cannot earn our salvation, which in itself is a gift from God. Positionally we are saved by grace through faith and that is a gift from God, not according to works (our efforts) least anyone boasts. Boasting has been excluded. However, sadly for so many, we like to live with this banner as a declaration to our lives. Because we are covered by the grace of God, which we always will be, excusing sin as our right, is a default weakness, and therefore we don’t pay it the due benevolence we should. I confess, I lived here for a long time, because I could never understand why I still struggled with temptation if I was a new creature in Christ. This was my bout, and therefore I decided to live with one foot in church and the other in the world. But God who is rich in mercy has opened my eyes to see a little clearer. Once we are saved, we must understand the call God has placed upon our lives, we need to be refined through the process of suffering, which in turn helps us understand what our Saviour went through on our behalf. Look at this verse; “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” (Romans 8:17) - Without this process in our lives we live lives of lasciviousness and our example is tainted with hypocrisy. Our beloved brother Paul exhorts us like this; “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:1-4)

The only way for us to kill off the acts of sin in our lives is through the “sweat of sufferings”. How is this then achieved? “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8: 5-8)

All we need to ask ourselves is how do we process and deal with the sin in our lives, no one is immune. We will only put off this body when we die or are raptured and until then we need to arm ourselves with this mind-set - pay careful attention to Peter’s instruction; “Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God.” (1 Peter 4:1)  - But I thought Christ said “it is finished?” He did! And it is. Positionally the true born again believer, the one whom God has saved, the one who has not come to Christ for selfish gain, is covered by the finished work of the cross. Because of this truth in our lives we now look to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice unto God, which is our spiritual worship”. We do not run with the world, we have a new understanding. It’s now about the will of God and not our selfish ambitions and lustful wants. Not to say that we do not fight against them, the war is fierce and at times we give in to the craving of our flesh, we all sin. But we do not live nonchalantly, giving them a free pass. If we do, then we need to check our birth certificates. Have they been stamped with the blood of Christ, or has someone creped in and deceived us, is the ink fake? I am fully aware of the deceitfulness of sin and the way it tricks us into believing lies. It’s only the goodness of God that rescues us from such a predicament. Praise His name, Amen!

As the clock winds down and the day of the Lord Jesus’ return quickens, the surge from the enemy will increase and deception will surround us. (See 1 Timothy chapter 4:1-5) Therefore we need to value the warnings found in scripture, and I am reminded and now remind you that it’s for our benefit; ​ “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”  (2 Timothy 4:1-4) – Notice Paul’s instruction to Timothy, “reprove, rebuke and exhort”. In other words reprove (criticise the error), rebuke (bring the inaccuracy to the surface and correct it) and exhort (encourage). What would be the point in encouraging each other if we remain in error? And the two of the three directives is about exposing the mistake. There seems to be two thirds of his attention addressing the error and only one third deals with encouragement. It is obvious that waves of people will wander off to suit their own passions, not enduring wholesome teachings from the Word of God. The only question we need to ask, where do we fit in and what is required from me to seek out God’s grace for my life to bring Him the glory, He alone so richly deserves?

Hopefully I will be able to tackle dreams and vision with my next post. Foundationally, I felt the need to unpack the truths I’ve discussed in these two posts. Without an awareness to our surroundings we often trustingly eat whatever is placed in front of us.

It is never a pleasant thing to expose error, but if God exposes it and then reveals it to us, who are we to shirk our responsibility in highlighting what He has declared through His Apostles so that we remain faithful to Him.

Father God apply a special portion of your grace to the reader and the one that is offended by what I have penned. You are the One who has it in His power to be merciful, be merciful! I love you Father God and I thank you for my beloved Saviour, Jesus Christ my Lord.

To God be the glory now and forever more…

Signing off

Tyrone