Fellowshipping & Praise the Lord with Doc329 (23)

[doc329]

Psalms 39:5-7
You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.
We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing. We heap up wealth, not knowing who will spend it.
And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?
My only hope is in you.

 

[doc329]

One day a two-story house caught on fire. The family was making its way out of the house when the smallest boy became terrified,
tore away from his mother, and ran back upstairs. Suddenly, he appeared at a smoke-filled window crying hysterically.
Standing outside, his father shouted, "Jump, son, jump! I will catch you."
The boy cried, "But daddy, I can't see you."
"I know," his father called. "But I can see you."

That's really all that matters in threatening situations, isn't it?
To know that our heavenly Father loves us and is more than able to help us.

 

[doc329]

God has made Himself known to all men by the things of His creation.
Though men know He exists and might infer that it was their duty to worship Him only, they glorify Him not as God,
but ascribe deity to the most contemptible of creatures and give themselves over to vile affections.
Those who dishonor Him, will be given up eventually to dishonor themselves.

 

[doc329]

The hearing of the Word of God is a necessary means through which comes the faith which appropriates salvation.
However, the word does not, in and of itself, produce faith. It is only when joined with the power of the Holy Spirit that the Word of God has the power to graciously open our eyes, ears and heart to the gospel.

You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.
1 Peter 1:23-25

 

[doc329]

The Christian should always live his life here below with a daily and holy urgency. Wasn't this true of Jesus Christ?
Read again the Gospel stories; how little time Christ had to himself. Take the Gospel of Mark, the word ''immediately'' keeps on cropping up. Jesus performs a miracle here and then immediately He is called upon to do something else.
He goes preaching a sermon and immediately is called upon to go somewhere else. He hadn't a moment to Himself.

So much was that the case that His own family one day found Him preaching and He was so busy He hadn't even time to eat.
His family said He was beside Himself. In other words, they said this Son of ours, this Young Man, this Jesus of Nazareth is preaching all the time, working all the time
The explanation, however, is that our Lord is a perfect example to us all of what we may call holy urgency. That is the way we are to live. "He that walks with Christ," said someone, "must needs run at full pace." Like a father walking briskly with a little child at his side, the father is walking but the son has to run to keep up with his father, so we with Christ.
If you will walk with Christ, you will find yourself running full speed to keep up with Him because He is such a perfect example of how we should be in urgency.

 

[doc329]

The true Christian's hope of eternal life and a glorious inheritance through the precious sacrifice and resurrection of Christ,
is a hope that quickens him to service, supports him in every trial of faith and conducts him in a way of holiness to heaven.

 

[doc329]

Christ,
He who has reconciled us to God by His blood and made us meet to partake of eternal happiness is none other than the Creator and Lord
of all, manifested in human form.
As Lord of glorious power, He is able to furnish us for every good work and to fortify us by His grace against every evil.
The ground of our hope is Christ in the Word, but the evidence of our hope is Christ in the heart working mightily by His Holy Spirit.

Jesus was the visible representation of the visible God, born before anything was created.
Creation was bound up with Him as its secret, and by Him, all things earthly, angelic, celestial and infernal were created and do exist.
It pleased the Father that all divine perfections should be summed up in Him. Such a One redeemed us and is Head of the Body, the Church.

 

[doc329]

Justification by faith
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:10

I am not saved by believing; I realize I am saved by believing. It is not repentance that saves me; repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause—‘It is my obedience that puts me right with God, my consecration.’ Never! I am put right with God because prior to all, Christ died.

When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals I can accept, instantly the stupendous Atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God, and by the supernatural miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because I am sorry for my sin, not because I have repented, but because of what Jesus has done. The spirit of God brings it with a breaking, all-over light, and I know, though I do not know how, that I am saved.

The salvation of God does not stand on human logic, it stands on the sacrificial Death of Jesus. We can be born again because of the Atonement of Our Lord. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures, not by their repentance or their belief, but by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus which is prior to all experience.
The impregnable safety of justification and sanctification is God Himself. We are not to work out these things ourselves; they have been worked out by the Atonement:
The supernatural becomes natural by the miracle of God; there is the realization of what Jesus Christ has already done—“It is finished.”

 

[doc329]

How Much Time Do You Have?"
God's Word actually tells us to number our "days," though, that we might gain a heart of wisdom Psalm 90:12

It's interesting how we measure time, and how it seems to "slip away" from us. We are challenged by well-meaning folks to "manage our time well and wisely."
Since time is a created thing, our authority and ability to manage it is quite limited, at best. We are stewards, given or allotted a measure of time, and we are to be diligent in our use of time.
I prefer the term "invest" over "spend" when it comes to time.
One of the keys to using what time the Lord has given to you is "to understand and to know the Lord Who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for God delights in these things" Jer 9:23-24.

God goes on to say, "Behold, days are coming that I will punish ...." We are taught in Scripture times and in ways about "the day of the Lord."
So what's in your day? What are your goals and objectives to reach them?

 

[doc329]

In spite of the horror that is coming, Jesus promises that he will not leave these people who are loving and following him alone. "In fact," he says, "I am not leaving you alone at all -- I am coming to you. True... the world will not see me, but you will see me. Not only that, but because I survive death, you will survive death also. Because I live, you also will live."

​

This is the hope that goes beyond all hope. No matter whatever may happen, no experience and no power can ever take away the hope we have in Christ. The bottom line of Christian faith is that even death can not separate us from the love of Christ.​

If we keep his commandments, if we care for each other the way he cares for us... we shall never be without hope.

​

All of this may not make sense in the world out there. Some of the people you work with might think you are bonkers for loving people who don't love you back. Jesus was on top of this very thing. "The world," he said, "Can not receive this Helper -- the Spirit of Truth." Of course, people don't "get it"... the "Helper" isn't there to help understand. "The world," Jesus said, "Can not receive the Spirit of truth

 

[doc329]

We are like to Him with whom there is no past or future, with whom a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day, when we do our work in the great present, leaving both past and future to Him to whom they are ever present, and fearing nothing, because He is in our future as much as He is in our past, as much as, and far more than we can feel Him to be, in our present.
Partakers thus of the divine nature, resting in that perfect All-in-all in whom our nature is eternal too, we walk without fear, full of hope and courage and strength to do His will, waiting for the endless good which He is always giving as fast as He can get us able to take it in.

 

[doc329]

Most followers of Christ live a "non-toxic" brand of Christianity.
That is, their "Christian" lifestyle tends to be easy, upbeat, convenient, and compatible.
Their lives exhibit little, if any, self-sacrifice, discipline, humility, an otherworldly outlook, a zeal for souls, or a fear, as well as, love for God.
There is little guilt and no punishment, and the payoff in heaven is virtually certain.

 

[doc329]

Since we are justified only by faith in Christ Jesus, not by the
righteousness of the law, let us not again stand in fear of and bondage to
legal ordinances.
While our salvation is settled by the work of Christ, the conflict of sin which still wars in the believer's members,
may be settled by yieldedness to the Holy Spirit, Who is present in the believer to subdue the fleshly nature and to bear heavenly fruit through our lives.
To "fall from grace" is to fall back on legal ordinances and mix law and grace.
One who is fallen from grace is not a believer who has lost his salvation by failure to do good works,
but one who is doing good works and trusting in them as a means of salvation and sanctification.

 

[doc329]

Psalm 31:14-19
But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, And from those who persecute me. Make Your face shine upon Your servant; Save me for Your mercies' sake.
Do not let me be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called upon You; Let the wicked be ashamed; Let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence, Which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous. Oh, how great is Your goodness, Which You have laid up for those who fear You, Which You have prepared for those who trust in You In the presence of the sons of men!

 

[doc329]

Father, I have moments of deep unrest - moments when I know not what to ask by reason of the excess of my wants. I have in these hours no words, no conscious prayers.
My cry seems purely worldly; I want only the wings of a dove that I may flee away. Yet all the time you have accepted my unrest as a prayer.
You have interpreted its cry for a dove’s wings as a cry for Thee, You have received the nameless longings of my heart as the intercessions of Thy Spirit.
They are not yet the intercessions of my spirit; I know not what I ask. But you know what I ask, O my God. You know the name of that need which lies beneath my speechless groan. You know that, because I am made in your image, I can find rest only in what gives rest to Thee; therefore you have counted my unrest unto me for righteousness, and called my groaning Thy Spirit’s prayer. Amen

 

[blueanjel]

Hello Doc, long time no see. So glad to see you are still working hard In His Service.

Love you doc.

 

[doc329]

“The kingdom of heaven”—what is it? The kingdom of heaven is God’s kingdom! It is the exercise of His almighty power, in accordance with His good and gracious will, over the entire universe as well as within the individual hearts of those He has chosen to be His children.

It is, therefore, both seen and predictable—the sun rose this morning and will set this evening. It is also unseen and unpredictable—we are constantly and delightfully surprised by the fruits of faith that individuals produce as moved by the Holy Spirit!

 

[doc329]

Is certain of what it is not seen by the human eye, yet is visible, through faith's eyes.
People of faith we have such eyes. They are not only for the seasoned saints.
When God gave us this precious gift of faith, it included the ability to have an eternal perspective.
Granted too many Christians have allowed this ability to atrophy from lack of use.
They say to that we have to deal with the real world.

Don't you see? That is exactly what faith does!
It allows us to see the eternal rather than the temporary; the real rather than the fleeting.
This is why Paul admonishes us to " fix our eyes not on what is seem, but what is unseen. For what is seen in temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
(2 Corinthians 4:18)

 

[doc329]

2 Corinthians 5:20
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us;
we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

 

[doc329]

It is required that they live according to the precepts of the Gospel, that they be not accounted disorderly persons devoid of the divine love and hope which they profess. If Christ is allowed to direct our love upon Himself, it will rectify all our affections toward men and keep us in the attitude of expectation of His momentary coming.

Patient waiting for Christ is to be joined with the love of God. The hope of His return is the great incentive to a busy life and a life of loving deeds to others.