Dead to the World

One thing that we hope to properly explain, but will continue to communicate constantly is the true way that we have found to victory and freedom in Christ. We've explained what water baptism is, we have tried to explain who is saved and how to know if you are saved or not, we've also attempted to show a few things that might be taking place in the mind of one whom is either not saved, or one that is miserably saved.

For those that might fit into one of the two aforementioned categories, we would like to explain what happens at your initial salvation experience. We taught why Christ was baptized in water and why, (to recap we'll simply state): He did that not because He needed righteousness to be fulfilled in Him or on His behalf, but for us. By that act He was simply identifying with His own creation in stating that He had come to this earth to die for our sins and be raised again, that we might be able to attain an overcoming life here on earth and eternal life in Heaven with Him.

Many Christians get really confused about whether they were actually saved or not and wonder why sin still takes place in their lives after they are saved. Before one is saved, there is surely some consciousness of sin, but most likely there is little remorse for sin and the desire to do God's will is virtually non-existent within the heart of a sinner. In the heart of a Christian that is miserably saved, they may have the desire to live a holy life unto the Lord, but are totally clueless as to how to do so.

I actually heard the testimony today of this guy that used to be in the heavy metal band called Korn. This guy was a heavy drug user, had a daughter with this woman (I don't know if they were married or if it was his girlfriend, makes no difference), but the mother of their child had recently overdosed on drugs. The little girl was now in her dad's care, and he was not in good shape either. He was still using drugs, and somehow he heard a sermon preached somewhere. He got home with his daughter, put her in front of the tv, and went to the other room to do some drugs. He was hooked on crystal meth, and before he began to sniff this line he had just made, he looked up and said something to the effect of, "God, if you're really real and what that preacher said is true, then help me stop doing these drugs. I want to be a better father to my little girl and I need your help." The man basically somewhere over a short amount of time gave his heart and life to Jesus and was wonderfully saved. AFter he got saved, he was still using. A lot of people would love to state that he wasn't really saved if he was using drugs, (understand we are not advocating drug use as normal Christian behavior), but as this man began his journey with the Lord, he realized right away two very important things: the first one, was that he didn't have to get all cleaned up just to be able to approach God. then second, he realized that even though he now knew the things that he was doing was wrong, he didn't rely upon himself to stop doing them, instead he accepted in his heart that he needed the Lord's help to stop, asked for help, and let the Holy Spirit come in and give him the strength to stop using. What he didn't know, (and I marvalled about as I listened to his story), was that he learned something about the Christian walk that so many of us that have served Him for years have never known or are just now understanding and that is: The Holy Spirit does the Work, not us!

Paul uses a scripture: Galatians 6:14 that states, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world." What the apostle is saying here is that when he received Christ into his heart, God did away with the desire for him to do the things that the world was doing, loving the things that the world loves. In Christ, he is (as well all are), a new creation in Christ Jesus. Sometimes it takes a while for the understanding in our minds to catch up with what has happened in our hearts. When you received Christ, you died. And God implanted a new desire into your heart to serve and live for Him and not yourself. God wipes the slate clean for ALL of your sins, (past, present, and all of the ones that you will commit in the future).

A lot of people refute people that preach this sort of message because they believe that it will cause people to go and sin more because they think that it gives them a license to sin now, knowing that God will forgive them when they ask for it. The truth is, when you sin (not if, but when), and you ask God for forgiveness, He is faithful and just to forgive us or all of our iniquities. Does this mean that we should go sin freely, knowing He'll forgive them, God forbid! Bottom line, if we have the desire to sin, and when you sin, if it doesn't bother you when you do it in the least, then you might want to begin to seek salvation. Truly saved people will have the desire in their hearts not to sin. The problem is, a lot of folks will try so hard not to sin, that they will in fact sin even more, rather than trusting that since they are saved, they are the Righteousness of God In Christ Jesus and when God looks at them, He loves them and isn't ready to send down fire to burn them up.

If we can begin to understand that our God is a loving God, He is not waiting for us to mess up so He can punish us, but rather, He desires that we live up to who He sees us to be (which is His Son or Daughter), then we will begin to act like it. God's not sitting on His Heavenly Throne in Heaven looking down at us and shaking His Head in disappointment when we slip and fall, rather He is the One trying continually to shower us with His Love and let us know how loved we are.

Here is a great example: Jesus was on His way to go die for your sins, for my sins, and on His way there, He stopped in a town to preach to them that He had come to save them from their sins so that they could be God's children. But the town would not receive Him or His message. Two of the disciples asked Jesus if they could pray that God would send down fire to burn them up like Elijah did in the old covenant. Jesus rebuked the two and told them that they didn't know what spirit that they were of in desiring to do such a thing. Instead, He continued to Jerusalem to die for the sins of the whole world (including the town that wouldn't receive His message), in hopes that they would hear of what He had done for them after the fact and accept Him then. That is the kind of God that we serve folks.

We hope to continue to share with our readers the love and devotedness of our Savior to us, in hopes that it will build you up and help you become what it is that God sees you as, and not what you or the world sees you as. God bless you and yours! We love you much!

Awake from Sleep

When we are born again, we should have seen some amazing changes occurring in our lives. We started out a rank sinner, then we came to Christ. It's as though, the day that we got saved, we woke up a miserable wretch and somewhere in the midst of that very day God smiled upon us and we went to bed a New Creature. This is the initial Salvation experience. We should then find ourselves enjoying tastes that we never enjoyed, we should see colors we never noticed before, our life has become more meaningful, our day is less about us and more about the One Whom has saved us. These are great observations, but dearly Beloved, this is not ALL that has occurred in your Christian walk.

There are ups and downs, test and trials that occur along the way. There are days that you feel like you are God's highly favored child, and others that you wonder if He really exists despite the miracle in salvation that you have experienced. All are good and natural reactions to such changes and challenges in life.

The title of this blog is one that should have been prefaced with more explanation, for the reader may be thinking that the subject is about our initial salvation experience and not so much about our walk with Christ on a daily basis. Life as a Christian can become very confusing, but fortunately we have the answers readily available to us to help in our time of need.

In observing church people for years, I have noticed several different approaches to the Christian life. Some are saved, go to bed that night and arise the next morning and every morning after that exactly the same as they were the day that they got saved. (I doubt the salvation of such folks, for He changes lives and we are to never be the same after an encounter with the One that invented intimacy)! Then there are those that instantly go to work for the Lord, making every effort to earn what was given to them freely, (these go in the category of "miserably saved"), for in all their working and toiling they have forsaken the rest Christ paid for. Lastly, there are the precious few that are changed forever from that the moment they receive Christ, ever resting and growing in Him and His Likeness daily, while trusting Him to provide their needs, knowing He has atoned for their sins (past, present, and future), and are perfumed with His Love.

Of the first mentioned, I've never been. However the second group I was accustomed to and actually lived for many years, always failing and never satisfied with my daily conduct while sharing with others that there was somehow hope in the work we could produce to please our Dear Savior. But when I made it to the end of myself, I was faced to meet the blood sacrifice of my Beloved and found that "in Him" existed everything that I could ever need or dare to present to a Holy and Just God.

i never saw myself as God saw me. My daily life was an endless circle of wake up, fail, repent, fail fail, repent, plead and cry, repent, fail fail fail, want to die and kill myself, hopelessness, fail fail fail fail, and so on....

I knew there HAD to be more Jesus died for than this, for I was realizing that there should be more victory to experience, although I thought that the victory would only come by my right living. When God finally showed me that it wasn't in my behavior, but in the fact that I one day years ago had received Him into my heart as my Lord and Savior, I began to realize that what He saw when He looked at me wasn't me at all. It wasn't even me covered in His Blood as I had pictured, for He is the "Lamb that TAKES AWAY the sin of the world," not the one who covers it up...that's what bulls and goats were for in the Old Covenant. I had to receive the fact that when I received Him in my heart, I died. I died and He became the one alive IN ME.

One way to know if you are saved is if you are horrified by your own sin. If you've received Christ and you are carrying around the weight of your own failures, you are saved, you are just miserably saved. We can't earn what Christ did for us, we have to simply believe that what He has done is enough. Once we are able to see that He did it all and we grasp what all was accomplished in that Heavenly Transaction, while also seeing ourselves how God see us, which is perfect and in His Son then we are better equipped to live a life victoriously in Christ.

Paul's message was constantly to edify the church and to continue to explain to them who they are In Christ, that they might not have the focus on themselves, but rather on the answer to themselves.

King David said, "As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Your Likeness." If David could look to the One that He would later be in, the same One in Whom we ARE IN, then He could picture himself to look like the Christ to come. Christ has come into our lives and hearts, and the more we seem that we are Alive unto Him, and seen by God in His Image and not in our own sinful image, the sooner we will have the victory over our sin. We're not advocating that it is a matter of imagining yourself in a way that we are not, but rather that we would grow to KNOW that we are DEAD and He is ALIVE, bringing us along for the ride. We'll talk more about this in blogs to come.....

Hunger & Thirst after Righteousness (Part 2)

In continuation of our last blog, we would like to pick up where we left off:

Now that we have assessed that Christ is the Perfect One, of Whom holds all Righteousness and right standing in the sight of a Holy God, then we are able to receive Him and what He offers us, and begin to walk in that blessing He has so graciously provided for us.

When we receive Christ, we inherit God's Righteousness "in Christ." Well, allow us to try it from this angle:
We are taken up out of the body of the Fallen and Sinful Adam (who we are before we are saved), and baptized INTO the "Last Adam," which is Christ Jesus (and in the moment that we receive Christ, we are placed into the safe position of "In Christ"). We are saved from our "old man," and placed into the "new man," which is the Perfect and Righteous Christ Jesus. What we had before was filthy rags, and by evidencing faith in the One that took our punishment for sin, we receive His "robe of righteousness."

We're going to share some scriptures here, because we feel that it is imperative that the reader see first hand that the Bible shows us that we receive Christ's Righteousness AT salvation and not sometime just down the road, or after we have finally lived holy enough to have earned it, but at the INSTANT that we receive Christ as our Lord and Saviour.

Isa 45:8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it. 

God poured down His Righteousness when He sent His Son down to live the perfect life He did to give to those who will believe. He brought forth salvation when we, died to our old self with Christ and believed on what He did for us. He let Righteousness "spring up together," when we were raised in the newness of life WITH and IN CHRIST JESUS. 

Rom 4:25

Who (Christ Jesus) was  delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

Isa 46:12-13

Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that [are] far from righteousness:  I bring near my righteousness (Christ's); it shall not be far off, and my salvation (it's as close as the mention of the name of Jesus), shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in (Us) Zion for Israel my glory.

These are just a couple, you can read these others at your leisure: Isa 51:5, 56:1, & 61:10.

Arthur Pink writes on this subject and states that Righteousness is synonymous with salvation. We found that to be an interesting observation because in modern churches the opposite message is being taught. Many if not most pulpits are proclaiming double-sided messages to their laity: in one breath they state that no matter what you have done in your life and no matter how bad it was, come to the altar and give your heart to the Lord and Jesus will save you; in the next breath they say that now that you have done that Jesus has made you "the righteousness of God in Christ" (which is correct), but now we must maintain such a standing on our own. This is a travesty for those who know not any better than to try such an impossible feat, for it sends them straight into a vicious cycle of work keeping and rule making which will always result in Christian failure.

The reason that Christians fail and continue to abide in that failure is because they are not abiding truly in what it is that the Lord has freely provided for mankind. If we can use this poor analogy, God gives us a car and with the car He provides us with the key to start the car, in order that we might be able to drive the car up the hill. The car is our life, the key is Jesus Christ, the hill is our journey to Heaven's gate. If we choose to push the car up the hill while the key stays unturned in the ignition, the attempts that we make will be strainuous and nearly if not completely impossible for us, because we are not using what has been given to us in the proper way. The most ideal way to get up the hill is in the car with the key turned in the ignition and the car in overdrive. Other than turning the key and putting the car in drive, our work is effortless, such is the Christian walk when we use what God has created for us in order that we might have an "easy yoke and a light burden," for our journey is meant for us to be able to "travel lightly." God's Word says that His people perish because of a lack of knowledge. Ignorance is not bliss in this present world, for the way of the transgressor is hard and any other way than Jesus Christ and Him Crucified will simply not bring forth fruit unto God. If we don't bring forth fruit unto God, than our labour is in vain.

The key to living a successful life in Christ and above sin, is to understand God's Grace through the Message of the Cross. Our desire and goal is to continue to provide information that will help edify and lead Christians in the "plain path" with are the "paths of righteousness," Christ's Righteousness that is given freely to us by His Sacrifice for us, simply by our evidencing faith in that act.

Hunger & Thirst after Righteousness

In Matt 5:6, Jesus states the forth beatitude which is, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."

The first thing that we must be able to establish in order to actually "hunger and thirst after righteousness," is to realize that we have no true righteousness within our own sinful and fallen selves. This is one of the greatest and most difficult obstacles for both sinners and struggling believers, because pride keeps our minds thinking that the answer in which we seek exists within our own substance and nothing could be further from the truth.

The Bible says the following about the unredeemed and those that lack the revelation of Salvation's Transaction:

Rom 3:11-12 "There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one."

Isa 64:6 "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." ("filthy rags" here are actually viewed by the Hebrew, which is the language that the old testament is written in, as the monthly rags that women throw away, we mention this because that is how our own righteousness is viewed compared to the perfection of our Lord's.)

Jer 17:9 "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Yeah, I can see THAT on a plaque in someone's living room!)

These are not things that we like to read or hear, simply because they are not very encouraging, but in order that we might reach for the solution to our sin problem, we must first be able to come to the painful conclusion that within ourselves, we lack the true and ultimate solution to those things which ale us. When one has come to the place of acceptance of this fact, they have now taken the first step to victory!

Unfortunately, we don't reach this revelation easily and it is usually only when we have totally exhausted every effort and all of our reserves, back up plans and depleted whatever sources of help we may have formerly had, can we then reach higher for the Answer and Way up. My husband always says, "One thing you can always be assured of when you hit rock bottom in your life....it's solid down there!" But my response is always, "Yes, and then we can finally look up to see our solution."

What if we served a God that made impossible demands for us, who commanded us to do that which we do not have the ability to do by ourselves? (We do.) What if we tried to do all that He asked us to do, because we really thought that we could, and we failed, as a result we would suffer eternal damnation? Isn't that unfair? The answer is yes, that would be unfair. The reason we said that we DO serve a God that commands that which we cannot perform ourselves, is because God demands total and complete perfection from us. In case anyone hasn't noticed, if you have ever attempted this feat, one might have realized that they couldn't even last an entire day of "right living," let alone a full lifetime. So why would He ask us to do that then? We first had to be able to see that there is a standard in which to live by. Without being told we shouldn't do this or that, we would do it not believing it was wrong! That would mean that we were sinful with no consciousness of our actually BEING sinful. Then, once we look into the mirror and see the "smudge of dirt on our face," after trying to rub the mirror to get it off, we would finally assess that the smudge is not the mirror's fault, but rather with us. Once we see it is us that is the problem, we are able to see that there is a need to seek the way in which to have it removed. That is where Christ comes in.

We would love to continue further with our explanation of this, but feel the need to continue in the next blog for the sake of the readers.

to be continued.....


p.s. Melissa Goodwin, if you still read these blogs, if you could comment on this blog and let me know that your address is still the same as it was the last time we spoke, I would like to send you something for your youngest daughter. I just want to be sure that the address that I have is still correct before I send it. Thanks and God bless. Love you! -H-

Water Baptism

Churches teach all sort of doctrine to their laity, most in error because of a lack of knowledge. When I was young, I would go spend the summers with my Nannymama and she went to a church of Christ assembly. Nothing against that denomination, but they told me that if I wanted to be saved, that I needed to be baptized in water. I think I wanted to have this Jesus that they spoke of...sort of, but I knew not WHO He really was. I don't really think that they really knew much of Him either, but I'm sure they were just teaching me all that they KNEW to do to get to Christ at the time. I decided to be baptized in water, I think I may have been about 10 or 11 at the time. I went under the water, they said some stuff, I came up out of the water. Some ladies nearby were crying at what had just happened, I couldn't understand why they were crying simply because I didn't even know what had just happened. Needless to say, I went on about my life as usual after that.

Was I saved, or no? The truth is, no, I was not saved and I know that because I remember specifically when I received Christ into my heart and life, and He changed me instantly...I was 24 years old when this happened. I tell this story to set us up for the true search of what saves us if it's not water baptism.

It's said that we should be immersed in water, because "even Christ was immersed in water." Let's go the instance where Christ was baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist. Matt 3:11, John the Baptist says, "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentence: but He that comes after me is Mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." He states right here that there is yet another baptism to be baptized with, other than in water. So then, why was Christ immersed in water? He certainly was not a sinner and needed not to repent of anything, for He WAS HOLINESS and utter PERFECTION!

In verses 14-15, John tells Jesus that he needs to be baptized of Jesus, not the other way around. Then Jesus tells him, "suffer it to be so now: for thus it becomes us to fulfill all righteousness." And the Bible says that John did as He asked him to. Why?

The best way that we know how to describe this to the reader is to say, when we get married in our culture, we use wedding rings to show outwardly as a constant reminder to us and our spouse that we have entered into this covenant. It also is a witness to others around us that we are taken, we belong to someone and are not single and allowed to be married to another. Jesus did this, not because He was a sinner, for He was the ONLY perfect One to walk this earth, but in this act, He showed us that He is married to us, the sinner.

When one is baptized in water, they start out a sinner. When they go underneath the water, it's to symbolize a death that takes place, they are showing that THEY are dying. We even have to hold our breath in order to do this, and until we come out of the womb of our mother, we are not able to breath in the water sac we have been formed in. The rising out of the water symbolizes our newness of life, being married to Christ. When Christ Himself was baptized in the Jordan River, by this action, He was stating that He would come to earth to be identified with us the sinner. In doing His immersion, He was going to die for us, in his rising out of the water, that He would be the Resurrection and the Life we would walk in upon our conversion.

It's not the dunking in water that saves us, it is Christ that saves us. All water baptism is, is the symbol, like a wedding ring for the outward showing of something that has inwardly taken place in our lives. It's not the water that cleanses us from our sins, if that were the case then we wouldn't need Christ at all and He would have died in vain. He told the woman at the well that when she would come to Him, she would never thirst again. He is the one that cleanses us and gives us the refreshing drink inside of us, that will sustain us through this life on earth. The outward cleansing comes after we drink of Him, He starts from the inside out, not the outside in. So, when you come to Christ, He will cleanse and sanctify you (1 Cor 6:11, Jn 4:13) which means to set you aside for His use now and not your own. What do we thirst for, but righteousness in the sight of a Holy God, (Matt 5:6), in which He says that when we hunger and thirst for righteousness we will be filled. And as we continue to abide in what He has done for us, He changes things in our hearts that will eventually cause the sins we have outwardly to fall away from our lives. One day, we will decide to let go of this sin or that thing, not because it is right verses what is wrong, but because we want more of Him and don't need it anymore.

We hope this aids in a greater knowledge of what Christ has done for us and how we should view water baptism.

Who is Saved?

In being in regular church assemblies for years, we have seen a lot of different types of churches, people from all walks of life, many sinners and many saints. An often vocalized question that runs through the minds, (mainly of "church people") is, "Are they saved?"

Wouldn't it be wonderful if when someone gets saved, God would just automatically give you a sign to let people know that you are saved? What if it were like a red hat would supernaturally appear on your head, or a white bracelet on your wrist, better yet, how about a little golden halo over your head that followed you everywhere you went. But since it doesn't happen that way, people often wonder if so and so is saved, perhaps they even wonder if they themselves are saved. We stated the last part here, because a lot of people "get saved" in church when they are kids, but never really live for Christ and later on in life wonder if they are in fact saved or not. I guess they wonder these things because there is really no "fruit" that is shown from their being grafted into the True Vine.

The first thing we want to share is who Jesus was and what He died for. A lot of people have heard that Jesus was the Son of God, that He died for their sins, and that is the extent of what they actually know of the place we call Calvary and the thing we call the Cross of Christ. There actually is much more than that to it all, and it takes just simply believing to get saved while often times we need more of an explanation so that we can have a personal understanding and experience to fully grasp what has happened.

In a nutshell, Jesus was born of a virgin: Because God needed to come to earth to save humanity from their sin. Since no human being could be sinless after the fall in the Garden, He needed a representative man to come here like we have to live a perfect life and die perfect in exchange for our sin.

Jesus was born of a virgin because the Holy Spirit overshadowed a virgin woman named Mary, making her pregnant. In today's science we learn that the blood type is determined not by the mother of the child, but by the father. God is the Heavenly Father that supernaturally impregnated Mary, that way the baby that would come forth would be totally sinless and without man's tainted blood.

Then we should know that Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life. The Jews would every year take a lamb that was perfect, spotless and without blemish and would kill it, pour it's blood out upon the altar as a sacrifice to cover sins for mankind for that year. They did this because it was to typify the One that would be to come to save us all. John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the "Lamb of God who takes AWAY the sin of the world." Meaning, there would be no more need of any more lambs, He WAS the Final Sacrifice for all sins, (John 1:29).

Who did Jesus die for? Whosoever will believe that He died to pay the price for their sins.

Who then is reconciled to God? Reconciled means "to change or even better to exchange." The whole world is reconciled by the sacrifice of Christ! (Rom 5:10, 1 Cor 6:10-12) So for those whom aren't even sure if they are actually saved or not, no fear, He died for all because all were dead in sin. He died for you, He died for me, everyone you can think of, He died for them. Are they all saved, no, but they all have the chance to be saved.

We need to realize that it matters not to God if we are liars, haters, idolators, jealous, homosexual, straight, young, old, slaves or free, the truth is that we can all safely say that "He died for me."

How do you receive what He did into your heart? Simply Believe! Ac 19:4, Rom 4:24). In fact the only ones that will not make it into Heaven are those that DO NOT believe on Him and receive what He has done on their behalf. God can't accept anything else other than His Son. Adam was once His son, but lost that standing when He sinned. Now, with Jesus being our representative man, we just put our faith in Him and what He did for us, and instantly God sees us as His Son. When God looks at us, He doesn't see us, He sees Christ! In that moment we are "washed, purified, and justified" in the sight of God! (1 Cor 6:11).

We hope to be able to elaborate on these teachings. We try not to write too much in one, since it is a daily devotional, although we have much more in our hearts that we burn to share on these subjects.

Condemnation

This is something that people struggle with on a constant basis, both saved and unsaved. Sadly enough, the Church isn't supposed to live under condemnation in their lives, but the truth is that the Church is in pretty bad shape. The blame can be left to the pulpits possibly, although we all like to blame the devil for such things. It's not the devil's fault either, for he is simply doing the job that God assigned him.

After the Fall of Man in Genesis chapter 3, God assigns the punishments for sin, the serpent's (satan's) was to "eat the dust of the ground all of the days of his life." One might ask, what does that mean? What is man made from but the dust of the ground, (Gen 2:7, 3:19). In all fairness to the devil, he's doing what he is supposed to be doing.

Some may view this to be a cruel act on God's part, for if He were loving, He wouldn't allow the devil to temp, condemn, harm and cause pain to God's creation, right? When God created man, He created him perfectly, to live forever in a sinless state. He also gave man free will to make the choice to eat from what God had provided, or to eat that which would bring forth the knowledge of good and to know sin by experience. Unfortunately we didn't all individually make that fatal decision, Adam made that for us and on our behalf, for in his loins existed all of the human race. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12) Then we are also greeted with the good news that though death came by one, so did life come by One, and that is Christ Jesus (verse 17).

What does this have to do with condemnation? Sinful man is already condemned by his sinful activity, (John 3:18). So the first thing one needs to ask, is am I saved? If you have received Christ into your heart and life, you shouldn't be condemned anymore, for by the simple act of receiving Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you have accepted what God sent to fix our mistake. To answer the question about God being cruel, no He is not, rather He is Just. If He were not just, He would have simply left us on our own to live in the sinful state we were in. Sin is digressive, meaning it just gets worse and worse through the passing of time. When Adam died, He lived almost 1000 years, because of how perfect he began as, but sin has taken it's toll. Now the average life expectancy of man is less than 70 years.

If you have received Christ into your heart, and you are still living a life of condemnation it is because you have been falsely accused. Satan's job is to slander, accuse falsely and trick. Who does he trick, God? No, His Children. If we don't know who we are "in Christ," than Satan is able to stand before God and accuse us, finding every fault that we have within our lives.

Often times, we hear voices that tell us how we have failed, how God is mad at us, doesn't love us, has forgotten about us, ect...that is not a voice from our Heavenly Father, it's most definitely the "accuser of the brethren."

How do we overcome it? We need to know who we are "In Christ," than once we have received Christ in our hearts, God sees us as perfect in His sight. Are there things that need to change in our lives, yes, because although we died with Christ when He died on Calvary, we still have tendencies that don't speak of Christ, but rather of the old us. Our job is to continue to "believe on Him" that saved us, and let Him do the cleaning up along the journey to Heaven.

Grace is Resting in the Cross

As I sat down to study today, I was amazed at what the Lord began to show me. My original intent was to study some things on covenants, because I have been meditating on "covenant" lately. I was actually surprised and intrigued as I began to search out the first one that came up on my internet search.

The first covenant that God made with man was with Noah. (Gen 6:18)

If we back up to Genesis 6:8-9 and read, God says, "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God."

Let's analyze this scripture:

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Why and How? He tells us in the next verse when he mentions the "generations of Noah." The majority of Genesis chapter 5 is dedicated to tracing the generations of Noah, why would God go to all of the trouble to have Moses record all of these names? If we go backwards through chapter 5 we can trace Noah back to Seth, who was the third son of Adam and Eve. What does Seth have to do with the Grace of God being given to Noah?

"Seth" means "Compensation." Some synonyms for compensate are: atonement, reward, settlement, profit, recompense, benefit, and reckon.

Because Noah was a man who had his faith in the blood sacrifice and was looking for the One to come that would bring atonement for sin, He found Grace in the eyes of the Lord. Since he had found Grace in God's sight, he was seen as a "just man and perfect."

Are we perfect? Certainly not, while on our own! But once a person receives Christ into their heart, they are then seen in the eyes of God as though they have the Righteousness of God "in Christ," and since God can only except perfection, which Christ was, then we are seen the same. We are justified by the blood of Christ (His sacrifice that He made for us on Calvary), and we are seen in His eyes as perfect. God's Grace is Him overlooking our many faults, while still seeing us as "in Christ," and not by our own worthless merit.

Often times we think that we have to work for our salvation or work in order to be in "right standing" with God, but the truth is, Jesus did all of that for us! The Word of God says that His people perish because of a lack of knowledge. We often times feel like we have to work, work, work and then we can enter into His "rest" as the scripture states in Hebrews. Heb 4:11 "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest..." the word, "labour" does not mean what we might think that it means. It means to hasten or give diligence, not to "work."

If we read Genesis 5:29, we can replace Noah's name with the word, "Rest" and it would allow us to see how we are to handle our "working" for the Lord: "And he called his name "Rest," saying, this same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed."

This curse was pronounced after the fall of man, but God also gave us a blessing to counteract this curse, His name is Jesus Christ.

In Genesis 3:19 God gives Adam his punishment for sinning against Him when He says, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground.." So everything that man works for under the curse is going to come by the sweat of his brow.

Let's look forward towards Calvary where Jesus did the work for us, so that we don't have to: Lk 22:44, remember where Jesus is in the garden praying before He is offered up? The Word says that He prayed and "His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Here the Lord is showing us that through the Blood of His Cross would come redemption from the curse we received. Through what Christ did at the Cross, we are restored back to the perfect, just, and state of rest that we were once in before the fall in the garden ever occurred.

God didn't mean for this walk to be as difficult as we make it. If you have received Christ into your heart, don't try to work for what He gave you freely, just rest in what He has done on your behalf. Through Christ, we not longer owe God a debt, His Son already paid it for us.