The characteristics of the modern Christian pulpit!

J. C. Ryle

"John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him: You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath! Produce fruit in keeping with repentance!" Luke 3:7-8

Well would it be for the Church of Christ, if it possessed more plain-speaking ministers like John the Baptist.
  A morbid dislike to strong language;
  an excessive fear of giving offence;
  a constant flinching from directness and plain speaking — 
are, unhappily, too much the characteristics of the modern Christian pulpit!

Uncharitable language is no doubt always to be deprecated. But there is no 'charity' in flattering unconverted people — by abstaining from any mention of their vices, or in applying smooth names to their damnable sins!

There are two texts which are too much forgotten by Christian preachers. In one it is written, "Woe unto you — when all men shall speak well of you!" (Luke 6:26)

In the other it is written, "Obviously, I'm not trying to be a people pleaser! No, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please people — I would not be Christ's servant." (Galatians 1:10)

Why is Salvation by Faith?

Thomas Watson

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9

"Jesus said to the woman—Your faith has saved
you; go in peace." Luke 7:50

Why is salvation by faith?

To exclude all glorying in the creature. Faith is a
humble grace. If salvation were by repentance or 
works, a man would say, "It is my righteousness
which has saved me!" But if it is of faith, where is
boasting? Faith fetches all from Christ—and gives
all the glory to Christ!

God's believing people are a humble people.
"Be clothed with humility." God's people shrink into
nothing in their own thoughts. David cries out, "I am
a worm, and not a man!" Though a saint, though a
king—yet a worm! When Moses' face shined, he
covered it with a veil. When God's people shine most
in grace—they are covered with the veil of humility.
Abraham the father of the faithful, confesses, "I am
nothing but dust and ashes." "God resists the proud."
Surely, God will not take to be with Himself in glory,
such as whom He resists.

God's believing people are a willing people.
Though they cannot serve God perfectly—they serve
Him willingly. They do not grudge God a little time
spent in His worship. They do not murmur at sufferings.
They will go through a sea and a wilderness—if God calls.
"Your people shall be a willing people." This spontaneity
and willingness is from the attractive power of God's
Spirit. The Spirit does not force—but sweetly draws the
will. This willingness makes all our services acceptable.
God sometimes accepts of willingness without the
work—but never the work without willingness.

God's believing people are a consecrated people.
They have "holiness to the Lord" written upon them.
"You are a holy people to the Lord your God." God's
people are separated from the world—and sanctified
by the Spirit. The priests under the law were not only
to wash in the laver—but were arrayed with glorious
apparel. This was typical, to show that God's people
are not only washed from gross sins—but adorned
with holiness of life. They bear not only God's name
—but His image! Holiness is God's stamp; if He does
not see this stamp upon us, He will not own us for
His believing people.

The Godly Person Weeps!

by Thomas Watson

Christ calls His spouse His "dove" (Song 2:14).
The dove is a weeping creature. Grace dissolves
and liquefies the soul, causing a spiritual thaw.
The sorrow of the heart runs out at the eye.

A godly heart grieves that it is not more holy.
It troubles him that he falls short of the rule
and standard which God has set. "I should",
he says, "love the Lord with all my heart.
But how defective my love is! How far short
I come of what I should be, no, of what I
might have been!"

A godly man sometimes weeps out of the
sense of God's love. Gold is the finest and
most solid of all the metals, yet it is soonest
melted in the fire. Gracious hearts, which
are golden hearts, are the soonest melted
into tears by the fire of God's love.

I once knew a holy man, who was walking
in his garden and shedding plenty of tears
when a friend came on him accidentally
and asked him why he wept. He broke
forth into this passionate expression:
"Oh, the love of Christ, the love of Christ!"
Thus we have seen the cloud melted into
water by the sunbeams.

A godly person weeps because the sins he
commits are in some sense worse than the
sins of other men. The sin of a justified
person is very odious, because it is a sin
of unkindness.

Peter's denying of Christ was a sin against love.
Christ had enrolled him among the apostles.
He had taken him up into the Mount and
shown him the glory of heaven in a vision.
Yet after all this mercy, it was base
ingratitude that he should deny Christ.
This made him go out and "weep bitterly."
He baptized himself, as it were, in his own tears.

The sins of the godly go nearest to God's heart.

The sins of the wicked anger the Lord.
The godly man's sins grieve Him.

The sins of the wicked pierce Christ's side.
The sins of the godly wound his heart.

The unkindness of a spouse goes
nearest to the heart of her husband.

How far from being godly are those who
scarcely ever shed a tear for sin! If they
lose a near relation, they weep, but
though they are in danger of losing God
and their souls, they do not weep. How
few know what it is to be in an agony
for sin or what a broken heart means!

Their eyes are not like the "fishpools in
Heshbon", full of water (Song 7:4), but
rather like the mountains of Gilboa, which
had no dew upon them (2 Sam. 1:21).

Others, if they sometimes shed a tear,
are still never the better. They go on in
wickedness, and do not drown their sins
in their tears. Let us strive for this divine
characteristic: to be weepers.

This is "a repentance not to be repented of"
(2 Cor. 7:10). It is reported of Mr. Bradford, the
martyr, the he was of a melting spirit; he
seldom sat down to his meal but some tears
trickled down his cheeks.

There are two lavers to wash away sin:
blood and tears. The blood of Christ washes
away the guilt of sin; tears wash away the filth.

Repenting tears are precious.

God puts them in His bottle (Psalm. 56:8).

Repenting tears are beautifying.
A tear in the eye adorns more than a ring of
the finger. Oil makes the face shine. (Ps. 104:15).

Repenting tears make the heart shine.

Repenting tears are comforting.
A sinner's mirth turns to melancholy.

A saint's mourning turns to music.

Repentance may be compared to myrrh,
which though it is bitter to the taste,
is comforting to the spirits.

Repentance may be bitter to the fleshy part,
but, it is most refreshing to the spiritual.
Wax that melts is fit for the seal. A melting
soul is fit to take the stamp of all heavenly
blessing. Let us give Christ the water of our
tears and He will give us the wine of His Blood.

Holy Grace

Now, I know my fellow evangelicals will rush to protest that it is the cross of Jesus Christ alone that opens the way to heaven for any person. No amount of personal righteousness could ever suffice. I believe this. It is grace alone—the unmerited and undeserved forgiveness of God—that opens the way for any of us to know God, let alone come into his kingdom. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Thank God for that.

However, you also find in Jesus and throughout the scriptures a pretty serious call to a holy life.

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14)

For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. (1 Thessalonians 4:7)

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14–16)

In fact, one of the most stunning things about Jesus is how such a gracious, kind, patient, and forgiving man holds—without so much as wavering—such a high standard of holiness. On the one hand, we have the beautiful story of a woman caught in the act of adultery—and how horrifying and humiliating would that be? The mob drags her before Jesus, ready to stone her (they actually did this sort of thing, and not that long ago; it still happens in some Muslim countries today).

It is brilliant, and poignant. The town square is now deserted; only the woman and Jesus remain. She is probably wrapped in nothing but a bed sheet and her shame. He rescues her from a terrible death, and then forgives her. It feels as if the scene could not be more powerfully reported. What more could be said? But wait, Jesus has one last word for her:

“Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”

Yes, grace reigns in the Kingdom of God. But right there alongside it is an unflinching call to holiness. Go and sin no more.

Courtesy of  Ransomed Heart

http://ransomedheart.com

Trust and Patience - Free Christian Kindles

For My New Year's Resolution!

I pray that  the Lord would help all of us to learn to forgive when we are rejected, misunderstood and let down, by believers and unbelievers alike. Christ went through it and we are not above the Master. So may we learn to live in His shadow as we follow His footsteps. - All of you and none of me, my Lord & Saviour!

To find out why this short prayer, read January 1 post)

This is an excerpt from the new uploaded Kindle " Trust & Patience" by J. C. Philpot 

Download the FREE  Kindle "Trust and Patience" HERE 

The Patient Submission of the soul

The PATIENT SUBMISSION of the soul to the Lord's righteous dealings, and the reasons why it thus submits– "I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause, and executes judgment for me."

The Lord will bring our secret sins to light, and set them in the light of his countenance. And O, what a day and hour is that when the Lord summons up dead and buried sins like so many gaunt spectres, brings them to mind and memory, and lays them with weight and power upon the conscience. Men conceal their sins, not only from others but from themselves– they are not willing to have them brought forth and laid upon their conscience, so as to feel true repentance and godly sorrow for them. They think repentance is so bitter a thing, and that true sorrow for sin is attended with such guilt and distress, that they are glad to escape such bitter feelings and such a fiery furnace.

But the Lord will and does bring forth out of the heart of his people all their secret sins, visibly arrays before their eyes the iniquities they have committed in times gone by– transgressions of their infancy, childhood, youth, and manhood; of heart, and lip, and life. So Job found it– "For you write bitter things against me, and bring up all the sins of my youth." (Job 13:26.) And thus Moses the man of God testified, "You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance." (Psalm. 90:8.) Now though painful, this is necessary to true and sincere repentance. The great Searcher of hearts must lay it bare before sin is felt, or confession made.

There is a covering transgressions, as Adam, by hiding iniquity in the bosom (Job 31:33), as well as rolling it like a sweet morsel under the tongue; but "God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil," (Eccl. 12:14); and then "the morsel which you have eaten shall you vomit up" (Prov. 23:8), and loathe both it and yourself. But though the Lord sets his people's sins in the light of his countenance, and brings them to bear with weight and power upon their conscience, and thus for a time at least lets them sink and fall into distress and grief, he will support them under the heavy load, that they may not altogether be crushed by it.

I do think, and here I must express my opinion, that if there is one single grace more overlooked than another in the church of God at the present day, it is the grace of repentance. Though it lies at the very threshold of vital godliness, though it was one main element in the gospel that Paul preached, for he "testified both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21), yet how it is passed by. Men speak of faith, hope, and love; but repentance, contrition, godly sorrow for sin, how much this part of God's work upon the soul is passed by. But the Lord will not pass it by. Books may pass it by; men may pass it by; ministers may pass it by; but the Lord will not pass it by. He will bring out these secret sins and set them in the light of his countenance; and when he lays them upon the sinner's conscience, he will make him feel what an evil and bitter thing it is to have sinned against the Lord.

The Key To The Missionary Message - Oswald Chambers

The key to the missionary and all those who are called to preach, evangelize, share and teach any kind of group that God has called you to minister to, all has to be grounded in repentance, remission of sins and Christ Himself is the propitiation for our sins. There is a depth to these few words that grip your soul and open heaven when you truly get hold of this message. God spent more time with me on the subject of repentance than He spent on the subject of Holiness. I understood later on, the importance of it all in my life and the life of other Christians.

It is sad to see how people who professed to be Christians are fighting over whether the true Salvation called for repentance or not. Just the fact there is disagreement over repentance tells you how bad we massacred God’s idea of Salvation to implement our own. If you recall, in one of my posts on faith I shared with you about the family that I know in the background and one of them went for communion with a grudge, hatred, and anger in the heart. What I did not tell you is that the whole family does not believe that repentance is needed in Salvation. We cannot separate the two and when true Salvation enters your heart, you can be sure, repentance will not be far off.

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The truth is, without the gift of repentance in your heart there is a chain reaction in your so called Christian life and one of them is that you will never have a spiritual relationship with God let alone spiritual growth. Without repentance you live the kind of Salvation like a woman with false pregnancy, clinically termed pseudocyesis, which is the belief that you are expecting a baby when in reality you are not carrying a child. God has taught me how Salvation and repentance are two links that are attached together and they carry the weight of everything else that accompany Salvation, such as brokenness, holiness, sanctification, etc. He taught me that as long as you do not know what true repentance means, there is no true belief in your heart, there is no humility, no need to surrender, and there will never be boldness that comes from God either. One of the reasons He took God so long to teach me about repentance it is because He needed to teach me how they all relate together. And before He even taught me about the numerous pastors out there who were not called or prepared by Him (hence the Gospel with no repentance being preached) and the avalanche of Christian following this kind of teaching, He made sure I could see the forest in my own eyes first before seeing others planks.

Before my wilderness, I had evangelism training, and I used to love telling people how they needed God. And yes I learned to tell them that Christ died for their sins, salvation is free so that no one can boast etc. If you ever get involved in evangelism you know the drill and we all have those verses written down to invite people to Christ. While I was content with myself and all the work I was involved in, after I learned the right way from God, I lost my man made boldness and could not say a word to anyone about Salvation until God felt it was time to give me the gift of boldness. Imagine, I was a Christian for seven years, yet I knew nothing of repentance and I had no idea that I needed it. Through my wilderness time, during the brokenness process and before regeneration and holiness, God had to deal with my repentance first.

While I was elated when God gave me the gift of boldness, but I had a sharp pain in my heart because as I compared my man made boldness that I possessed in my arrogance and the one given to me by God that was grounded in humility, Agape love and also because I could see I was spiritually bankrupt without Him, my heart was weeping. I did more harm than good in sharing the Gospel because man helped forge a path for me to create my own footprint. One thing I used to love doing was without having God’s righteous judgement in my heart, I pinpointed which group was wrong and of course MY group was right. I had no idea that not only God put all of us in the same basket, but it was not how God goes about it. I was shocked to find out how all Churches are God’s Church but no Church is God’s Church. While each one of us is fighting about which group is right and we are so adamant about building “A BUILDING” for God, He is at work gathering His own Church.

Oswald Chambers said “the missionary’s message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of that revelation.”  Well, you do not get immersed in the truth of that revelation without having experienced the gift of repentance coming directly from God. This truth will be your breakfast, your dinner, your supper, your snack, the water you bathe in, the water you drink, the life you live and the walk you walk etc. Yet, you are never saturated enough. When God brought the gift of repentance in my heart where I came face to face with my own bankruptcy and who He is, I bowed down and wept for weeks. With true repentance in your heart, you know and compute that there is a God and it is not you.

There is a song by By Caroline Bonnett & Sue Rinaldi called “ I will follow you to the cross and lay myself down” I recall singing this song for hours because I was in need of God to saturate and purify me with what I found through the gift of repentance. The truth is, most Christians live life completely disconnected from God? Before the gift of repentance I had no idea that my life was disconnected. I still remember my lack of victory over sin and I had no idea what the victorious life was about. I was tired of being in love with God for a few days and be my own self for a few months like a yo-yo. It turns out all of it is anchored in the gift of repentance. Through this gift, my eyes opened to what the word of God means by “victory over sin”, and I found out “my daily life, Christ, the Holy Spirit, God, and the cross are one in the same”. All of the sudden I found out that I have been living a life disconnected from Him, and at the same time I knew how to connect the dot and the circle was formed because all the links were in place.

Until you learn true repentance from God, Salvation will be that disconnected thing you acquire piece by piece and you decide which piece is important to you. Another thing God taught me is that every one of us true Christian is a missionary working with Him. The day that He taught me about being on mission with Him, I woke up like a crazy person on a mission. I could not do anything except getting in the car and drove miles away where I bypassed the same store chain and I landed exactly where He wanted me to go. As I walked through the doors of this store, I found the book sitting right there and it was in the bin because they did not have more of it so they reduced the price. It was right before the wilderness got really bad and I still had my car. The book is called on mission with God written by Henry Blackaby.  God not only talked to me through the book, He wrote things in there just for me. Like an idiot I had no idea these things were written just for me, I sent email to my Bible study group telling them the pages where I learned all that I learned. God taught me from this book for a whole month so that I could understand and cooperate with Him in the work He was about to do in me. Later on, I wanted to revisit certain things that I read, I opened the book and strangely I could not certain things that I knew I learned from the book. I went back to my email to see which pages I referenced before. To make a long story short, when I talked to a friend who is kind of sampling Christianity and not interested in making a commitment to God yet, surprisingly the person said to me “sometimes, God writes things just for us and it is just another way of teaching us His word.” Suddenly, I felt like God talked to me through a donkey.

God has taught me so much about repentance that I could write a book on it, but the truth is God has not directed me there yet and I sense that most Christians are not ready to digest what I have learned. But the good news is, whether you are a pastor who has never acquired the gift of repentance or whether you are a Christian who has managed to butcher what you have received from Him, no matter where you are at, there is hope, there is forgiveness, and there is life in Him. Satan has done a great job with Adam and Eve in taking away and adding to the word of God until they lost their position and died spiritually. Even in your spiritual blindness you know something is wrong in your relationship with Him, and often time what we do, we learned to shut up the spirit with verses about God’s love and goodness to keep us exactly where we are, which is really, “nowhere.” Those verses that we are claiming at the wrong time in our lives help us to ignore this little nagging voice that is so deep down inside. You should know the reason the voice is almost unrecognizable and so faint, it is because your lamp is running out of fuel. There is time to go to Him and beg Him to bring repentance in your heart, beg Him to teach you how to turn around and make your life about Him.  Pray and never cease to pray until He answers you. Stop taking this life for granted and stop shutting His voice down. Pray for God to lead you in a path that is pleasing to Him, pray that He opens your heart to the truth, and pray that He would help you to drop everything that you think you know at His feet and to give you a blank mind to start over with Him. Most of all, pray that He gives you the proper attitude toward Him. Pray that He would put His humility in your heart, pray that He would teach you how to get rid of all fear to take up your cross and follow Him. Pray that you learn to heed to His word while there is time. Pray that you stop being scared of the word “surrender” and pray that He drills in your heart a need to go forward in confidence, because we serve a high priest who has been there too. PRAY, PRAY, AND PRAY.

I will follow You to the cross (Lay myself down)

By Caroline Bonnett / Sue Rinaldi

I WILL FOLLOW YOU TO THE CROSS,
And lay myself down, lay myself down.
I will follow You to the cross
And lay myself down, lay myself down.

Rid me of these dirty clothes,
Cleanse me from all this pollution.
I choose to walk in purity,
Oh, purify me, purify me.

Kiss me with Your healing touch,
Take me to the heat of the fire;
Bathe me in Your liquid love,
Oh, saturate me, saturate me.

Humbly I stand, humbly I kneel,
Humbly I fall at Your throne.
With a craving for You
That no words can describe:

Saturate me, saturate me;
Saturate me, saturate me;
Purify me, purify me;
Purify me, purify me;
Purify me, purify me

Oswald Chambers Message of October 15

http://utmost.org/

The Peril of Unbelief

Hebrews 3:12-19 “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.  We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.  As has just been said:

“Today, if you hear his voice,

    do not harden your hearts

    as you did in the rebellion.

 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness?  And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?  So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”

 These verses mentioned above are about the peril of unbelief. Unbelief and doubt lead the way when we refuse to be persuaded, we refuse to comply with and we withhold belief. We wilfully reject Him and His Word because we lack confidence in Him. We live with unbelief in our hearts more than we think. Yet, most of us are not wiser about something so important in our walk with God, and it can rob us of this life in Him. When we live with unbelief in our hearts, it is like having a silent cancer ravaging your body, yet you are completely unaware of it all. And yes, this is a strong comparison but, sadly it is a reality. This week-end I had an unexpected visit of a Protestant lady whom I met about thirty five years ago. When I met her, I was a teenager and she was presented to me by my friend as the lady he was going to marry. I remember I did not like this woman just because she was a protestant and to me protestant meant “bible thumping”. We kept contact mainly over the phone because each one of us lives in a different Province. So, since I became a Christian about 15 years ago, I never had the opportunity to sit down with her and talk about our faith.

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It was so sad and disappointing to talk to her this week-end. This lady is plagued by unbelief right up to her eyeballs. Yet, in her ignorance and spiritual darkness, she has learned the Bible by heart and she actually remembered verses that I could never remember. Sadly, she is pleased with herself and her progress with God. In the meantime when I looked at her all I could see was spiritual darkness and sin. ( I will not take the time here to explain why what I said about her spiritual darkness and sin is simply what God calls righteous judgement).  Spiritual darkness plagues us when there is unbelief in the heart. It is the direct result of knowing what must be done, but we choose to be disobedient because it suits us. In this lady’s case she simply does not believe in the need to go further with God as long as one said the sinner’s prayer and keep up with your church attendance and some dead works. That’s her definition of Salvation.

 A few years ago, when the Holy Spirit wanted to teach me what the Scriptures means in Hebrews 3:14 “For we have become partakers of Christ, IF we hold fast the beginning of your assurance firm until the end” It was hard for me to see that through my own free will, I could choose to live in my unbelief. I could choose to sin and disobey God and step out of His divine nature. Unless the Spirit shows us the devastating effect this has on us spiritually, we have no idea how unbelief and its effects affect profoundly our walk with Him.

When we are plagued by unbelief and we are not even aware of it because we have done such a great job at forgetting why we did not want to follow Him to begin with, we take God and His Salvation for granted.  Yet, with our selective memory and selective amnesia, we are under the impression that all is well. I will never forget this vision as long as God grants me to keep it in my repertoire. When God showed me how easy it is for us to step out of His divine nature, He also showed me how important it is to make things right with Him right away, so that we can reattach ourselves to Him, spiritually speaking. The difference is like breathing pure oxygen and breathing polluted air. I was intrigued to see how easy we get used to breathing polluted air without thinking about it twice. After a while it becomes normal to us. But spiritually speaking, what seems normal to us in the flesh is pure suicide to our spirit.

I already talked about this vision with God in one of my previous posts where I explained as we stop being partakers of His divine nature, we exchange a mansion for a house made of cardboard on the streets. Often times we are told after a sin, all we have to do is to ask for forgiveness and all is well. While it is true when we sin God has made provision for us to simply ask for forgiveness as many times as we want and as long as we are living on this earth, we will be washed in His blood and reunited with Him again. But, on the other hands He has given us many verses in the Bible that give us the other side of the coin. We cannot remain in known sins and expect God to close His eyes just because we ask for forgiveness. This lady I mentioned above is a perfect example. After so many years of Christianity, she has rationalized why she does not need to go further with God. That is a known sin, unbelief and disobedience to God’s word. If God was alright with it like she thinks, then all would be well the Holy Spirit would have bypassed all her sins and resistance, and make sure she grew spiritually. When you look at it this way, you can see it for yourself that we cannot fool God.

We cannot act like the ostrich, stick our head in the sands and think that all is well because God is good and God is love. Even when we have managed to grieve the Holy Spirit and we lost all communication with Him, in our dull consciences and hard hearts we still know there is something wrong. God has given us numerous Bible verses that if we do not ignore them, we will know that all is not well. Why do you think God provides verses like Hebrews 3:12-19? Why are we told to live diligently? Why are we told to examine ourselves? Why are we warned not to grieve the Spirit?  And if you still do not believe, then you need to read the book of revelation and read the warning to the Churches. God was not talking to the buildings or just the leaders but to all of us who make up the Church.

Another thing I want to mention about living in our unbelief is that it eats away our spiritual life. As Christians, we need to understand how important repentance is in our lives. We are not allowed to keep going on while being ignorant of something that makes the difference between life and death. This lady that I talked about earlier, while she has been eating the bread of Christ, reading her bible and worshiping to the best of her ability but the proof is in the pudding. Why is it she has not grown spiritually and she is as blind as someone who is still living in the kingdom of darkness?

I recalled God showing me when we are separated from Him, at the beginning, it feels like our spirit is dying for pure air. It does not take long to feel like we can do without that precious air and suddenly we are back to the life in the flesh and loving it in our ignorance. In fact, slowly we forget how precious this life in Him used to be as we settle for the natural life. So, how do I translate this vision into a practical life? I live this life while putting into practice those warnings. I am always examining myself to make sure that I am not fighting God to have my ways. I am constantly examining myself in light of God’s Word I am always mindful of the life I live while making sure I live it to glorify Him. I am also mindful of how I live each moment for Him and in accordance with the Holy Spirit’s leading.

I am mindful of how surrendered I am to Him on a daily basis. Etc. But, one very important step that I practice religiously and I refuse to get by without, is to examine myself when I ask God for forgiveness.  I need to examine my heart to see if I am just taking Him for granted while there are things in my life that I do not want to do. While I know God loves me immensely, I know He showered me with His grace, I know I am saved, and I know God is good but, none of these things have ever been a reason for me not to heed to the numerous warnings found in the Bible. In fact, I am able to give heed to those warnings because He is in my life, because He is good, because He is just, gracious and love me, etc.

  

While we cannot see the new birth, but being able to heed to His word, obey and walk with Him, these things are proof that we have indeed been born again. So,  brothers and sisters give heed to the word of God (all of it)  and learn from the Israelites. We were given their examples because God does not want us to repeat the same mistakes. The peril of unbelief we find in Hebrews 3:12-19 was not written for unbelievers but for us believers. Take your head out of the sands, it never worked with God and He is not going to start with you.

Hebrews 4:1-2 “Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. ² For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed”