Archive for the ‘Daily devotional’ Category
Posted by appolus on July 23, 2021
Psa 3:3Β But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
The context of this psalm is that David is fleeing from his own son. David is not a young man anymore. In his lifetime, David has seen much trouble. And one would think that when you get to a certain age and have battled many battles that you get to retire into your dotage and leave all your troubles behind. If you are reading this and have lived long enough, you will know this not to be true. David cries out to God that he is surrounded by those who trouble him. They rise up against him, even from his own family and would seek to do him harm. He is mocked for his troubles and people say out loud that there is no help for him from God, surely God must have abandoned him.
They are all wrong of course. David would indeed once again flee just as he had fled from Saul but it is a very different, older, wiser David. He acknowledges God in the midst of his troubles. He testifies that God is a shield to Him, the glory and the lifter of his head. He lays down and sleeps. He awakes with the morning and he is sustained. He says that even if ten thousand people set themselves against him, he will not be afraid for his faith is in a God who hears him.
Maybe you had thought all your troubles were behind you? Maybe you have fought many battles in this life and thought that they were also behind you? Yet here you are, in the middle of maybe one of the greatest battles of your whole life. Sleep is a luxury that you know little of.Β You wonder if God has abandoned you. You have cried until there is no tears left to cry, as David once did. And you know people whisper and wonder “where is his/her God.” I want to assure you today that “from His holy hill,” the Lord has heard your cry.
He is a shield for you. You stand because of Him. He has picked you up more times than you care to remember. He is the glory of your life. His glory and His majesty lies at the very core of who you are. He is the lifter of your head, He has lifted it a thousand times and He will lift it again. You will lie down and sleep, even this night for you are lying down in the very palm of His hand. It will not go well, in the end, for those who oppress you and would see you fall. Remember this saint, and it is more costly than any earthly treasure, His blessing is upon you. Stand strong in the Lord today, for great is your reward in heaven.
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Posted by appolus on July 20, 2021
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.Β
That is a wonderful promise. God is our “very present,” help. This word present means in the translation, to appear. In another context we would say of someone “he presented himself to her.” It means to make yourself known, to step forward so to speak. And remember saints, He is not just a present help, he is a very present help. When we add the word “very,’ it is intended to intensify the subject. And so we see that in times of trouble, God presents Himself to us by His manifest presence. He manifests Himself to us in very tangible ways which leaves us in no doubt that He is with us.
When we realize He is with us in our very present circumstances, then our fears are allleviated. Our circumstances may not have changed, but when our Lord has presents Himself to us and manifests His presence to us then we know we will stand. Imagine the three Hebrew Children in the fire and suddenly there is a fourth. Imagine Daniel in the Lions den and the presence of God enters. Imagine Paul and Silas in the dark dungeon and the manifest presence of God rains down.
I know a woman who was crying out to God as she stood on the beach contemplating a terrible set of circumstances and feeling alone and not being able to sense the presence or the promise of God. The waves were coming in and rolling back out literally and figuratively and suddenly before her feet appeared a cross in the sand, created by some drift material. One minute it was not there, the wave rolls out, and God speaks to her heart and it profoundly moves her to “know,” that God has heard her cry and that He is with her in her struggle.
Brothers and sisters, if the whole world is crumbling underneath your feet. And the mountains are tumbling and falling down all around you. And you find yourself surrounded by troubled waters. Hold on, for when God moves, when God speaks, right there in the midst of it all, then peace shall flow like a river, directly into your troubles and will make that troubled heart glad. Be still and know that He is God, He is your refuge and your strength.
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Posted by appolus on July 19, 2021
Psa 91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
Saints, the Lord has set His love upon you. Therefore He shall deliver you. He will raise you up to the high and holy places because you know Him. This is where He dwells with the humble and the contrite. This is where He revives your spirit and and revives your heart. You shall call upon the Lord and He will answer you. He will be with you in the midst of trouble and He will deliver you. He will satisfy all of your needs, He sees what you lack, He sees into the depths of your soul. He is your refuge and your fortress and in Him you shall trust.
Brothers and sisters, these are marvelous promises from our heavenly Father. They are realized to their greatest depths in the midst of your troubles. His grace is sufficient for you. So when the waters threaten to overwhelm you, His grace raises you up to higher ground. When the fires threaten to consume you, He stands right there in the midst of the flames with you and rivers of grace surrounds you and keeps you. As the Royal priesthood enters into the darkest period of all mankind, then the world will see the greatest expression of light it has ever seen. Because of the darkness of their hearts they must try and consume the light that you bear, but this only produces more light.
The author of anarchy and chaos is on the march around the world and death follows after him. The horses of the apocalypse are riding with all their might through the night. Hell follows after them. A thousand shall fall at your side, ten thousand shall fall at your right hand, but you shall stand. The great falling away will sweep millions away in its mighty current, but you shall stand and the promises of God will dwell richly in your heart. Do not fear saint, for you have made the Lord your God your dwelling place, and in this dwelling place, in this secret place that no eye can see, you will find refuge under the shadow of the Almighty. And having done all, stand.
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Posted by appolus on July 17, 2021
The bedrock of Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possession. It is not “decisions for Christ,” but a sense of absolute futility. “I cannot begin to do it.” Then, says Jesus, you are blessed. It takes us a long while to believe we are poor, but that is the entrance. The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works. (Oswald Chambers)
Oh how this flies in the face of almost everything we think we know. We spend a lot of time and energy engaged in sophistry. We feel the pull of one camp or another. Our preconceived notions are the high places of our spirits. We make virtues out of words and ideas and notions. We promote and defend what we call virtues and in the end it is all Babylon. It is is either “Jesus said,” or its merely vacuous noise. Cultures are mere reflections of ungodly people. All cultures. We have not been called to appease cultures. We stand as an expression of the Lord Jesus Christ to a dying world. Christ in us should shine a light into the darkness of this dying world.
This knowledge of this kind of poverty comes from encounter. “Who can understand his errors? (Psalm 19:12) There is a light that illuminates the heavens. God set it in its tabernacle. And there is a light that illuminates the hearts of men. God set that light upon a hill upon a cross. It has shone out like a beacon down through the ages. The revelation of our own personal poverty, commonly known as “the end of myself,’ is the beginning of Jesus. I have crossed the frontier and been swallowed up by the landscape of the Kingdom of God when I journeyed to the end of myself. Isaiah cries out “woe is me for I am undone.” And he is swallowed up by fire on his lips and majesty. It sets his course. Who will cry out “oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?”
The carnal mind is death. So much of our speech is carnal. The camps within the camps within the camps. Each pushing and pulling and all the while being blind to our own personal poverty that is wrapped up in the high places of our preconceived notions. Its all death and it is all wretched. Yet, if you are privy to revelation and you can see your own poverty and the coals of fire are bought forth burning the dross away, then the spirit is refined and finds life and peace. And that very life and peace shall quicken your mortal bodies, empowered by the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God bears witness that we are the children of God. We are the sons and daughters of the living God, a royal priesthood, very much apart from and above the sophistry and the noise of this world and all its ways. We are joint-heirs with Christ and we shall suffer as our Lord suffered for His own cause and we shall bless those who curse us and do good to those whose aim is that we should stumble. For we know that the sufferings of our day cannot be compared to the glory that is to come. It’s is for Christ’s sake we gladly suffer. For righteousness sake. If God is for us brothers and sisters, who can be be against us? For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:38-39)
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Posted by appolus on July 16, 2021
Psa 19:1Β To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
The Lord turns the whole of the heavens into a tabernacle for the sun. It rises out of the darkness and brings light. Our God brought light into the darkness. When we were without form, when all was void and dark the Lord commanded that there be light and He lit up the universe. There was nothing hidden from its heat and He created it so that nothing would live without its light.
The heavens testify to His glory. The earth testifies to His glory. It shouts it out so loudly that one only has to look up to see the glory of God. The law of the Lord is perfect, the testimony of the Lord is sure, the statutes of the Lord are right, the commandments ofΒ the Lord are pure. The fear of the Lord is clean, the judgments of the Lord are true. He converts the soul, He makes wise the simple, He causes the heart to rejoice, He enlightens the eyes of those who see, He endures forever, He is true and righteous altogether.
When the Lord our God is acknowledged, His attributes are revealed to us. And we are rich in His mercy. The things of God are desired more than all the riches of this world. They are sweeter than honey on my lips. They feed the very depths of my soul. I am alive and dwell in the heat that comes from His unadulterated light. This light illuminates any darkness that dwells within me, how could I have known without this Light? Let me never presume upon the riches and the mercies of my God. Let my proud heart remain humbled by His majesty.
Out of the abundance of our mouths let the heart speak. Let that abundance be formed in the meditations of my heart as my thoughts are towards you. Let the words that flow from my mouth glorify you my Lord and be acceptable in your sight. And may I find strength oh Lord, your strength and your assistance as I seek to serve you all the days of my life.
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Posted by appolus on July 13, 2021
Mat 6:34Β Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Imagine brothers and sisters, if we simply took the Lord at His word and obeyed that command. After describing all the things the “gentiles do,” He told us not to do them. We have not to worry what we shall wear. We are not to worry what we shall eat. He is talking about life in general. We often quote that we cannot serve two masters, and we have in mind God and “mammon.” And yet, that was only a part of it.
Jesus goes on to talk about what ails most of us and He begins with a “therefore,” meaning given everything I have just said do not do ………….the rest of the chapter. For if you do, you are assuredly trying to serve two masters. If you are taken up with worries about tomorrow then this is self-serving. You cannot serve yourself and serve God. You cannot be taken up with worries about tomorrow and seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. It is not possible. Something has to give.
The thing about being your own master, you are a tyrant. Your feelings are tyrannical. Your heart is deceitfully wicked. A beautiful woman can look in a mirror and see something ugly looking back. A good man can look in the mirror and and see a vile worm. Remember saints, the light of the body is in the eye. If the eye has a single focus on God, then your whole body will be full of light. If your focus is on the things of this world then it cannot be on God, you cannot possibly be seeking God and His righteousness. It is time to take Jesus at His word. Focus on God and not tomorrow, only then will you be able to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and walk in that Kingdom and in that righteousness.
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Posted by appolus on July 11, 2021
2 Cor 12:9 Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
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What drives us deeper into the arms of our Lord and plunges us into the depths of the Father’s heart? Not the delights of this world and its so called blessings but rather when the darkness comes and touches us. We discover that the light pierces the darkness and is as a lamp unto our feet.
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Can someone who is so hopelessly lost do anything other that cry out when he is found!! When the waters of life overcome him and he is to drown and the hand of God reaches down and pulls him up. What joy, what glory! The closer the saint is to death the closer he is to life and that more abundant.
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When he is stripped down and left naked and emaciated by this world and he is redeemed from the market place and his nakedness is covered, what absolute joy in the depths of ones soul! When by the power of God we can kiss the rod that strikes us and love the one who bears it then we know, then we absolutely know, that the power of Christ rests upon us.
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Posted by appolus on July 8, 2021
Rom 12:20Β Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.Β
John Bunyan said “let us learn like Christians to kiss the rod, and love it………many of our graces are kept alive by those very things that are the death to other men’s soul.” Speaking for myself, I can imagine, perhaps, on my best day, kissing the rod, but loving it? It is just as well it is not my best efforts that empowers me to truly love my enemy. To walk in such a way, empowered by the Spirit of God, is to know that we have truly turned the corner on this world and see only the Kingdom perspective.
You simply cannot be walking in the world and be dictated to in anyway by the flesh if we are to kiss the rod that wounds us and greater still, love the unrepentant one who wields that very rod. Yet Bunyan would argue that many of the graces we enjoy and walk in are empowered by the very testing of our souls by the cruel actions of our enemies. Outside of the Spirit of God the actions of such cruel enemies engender rage, hatred and revenge and leave the soul embittered and dying. So to one it means death and to another, life. Shall we live brothers and sisters or shall we die? Our chains were broken and our fetters loosed on the cross, let us cling to that very cross and say with Christ “forgive them Father for they know not what they do.”
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Posted by appolus on July 7, 2021
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isa 55:8-9)
The context of these well known verses comes in the verses prior. It is an appeal to the wicked to repent and He will “abundantly pardon.” Imagine that, God calls you to repentance with a promise of an abundant pardon. It is hard for us to imagine that in our earthly minds. If someone consistently sinned against us, over weeks and months and years, decades even, it can be almost impossible to think that we could so forgive them as to never even give all the previous crimes against us a second thought. To have the slate so wiped clean as to be brand new. This is miraculous. We could, in and of ourselves, never do this.
Yet, out thoughts are not His thoughts. His ways are so much higher than our ways. In our own power it would be beyond our ability to grasp. You might as well throw punches at the moon. Yet we do not stand by our own power. Those who know Jesus stand by the power of God, by His Spirit. Now, if the Lord our God offers such an abundant pardon to the wicked what does He offer to His children? “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.” An abundant pardon leads to an abundant life. You may think that you have blown it with God but His thoughts are higher than your thoughts saint. If you have been hiding behind the tree with some fig leaves, it’s time to emerge from there and to stand before God.
The rain that falls from heaven falls also upon your head. And the snow that falls from heaven and waters the earth waters you too oh child of God. It causes the buds to bloom and the seed to come forth and gives bread to the hungry and water to the thirsty. This is the Word of God and it does not return to Him void. It speaks life to you and prospers your soul. You shall go forth from here with joy and His peace shall lead you as the mountains and the hills break forth in praise and worship and the trees of the field shall clap their hands in wonder at His ways. A word to one of His children today.
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Posted by appolus on July 5, 2021
2Pe 1:2Β Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
Grace and peace, multiplied to us adds up to an abundant life in Christ. Multiplied by many factors. In the very next verse we see that we have everything that we need to to live this abundant life, it is through the knowledge of God. The word is Epignosis, to acknowledge God in all of your ways. When we acknowledge God in everything, recognize Him in every part of our lives and seek Him first and His righteousness then we shall live in Godliness, Godliness meaning a continual awareness of Him which leads to holiness.
The enemy of our soul knows well that if saints begin to walk in Godliness then this is a tremendous threat to his kingdom here on earth. So, he must distract us. That is one part of the struggle. Life itself is the the other and may even be the greatest distraction of all. How many plates do you have spinning in your life saint? All of them demand your attention. All of them are a distraction away from this Godliness that walks hand in hand with a multiplied peace.
Our marriages, our children, our parents, our careers, even our walk with the Lord can be tyrannical distractions and we run to and fro, exhausting ourselves trying to keep these things altogether. And in the end many of the plates fall and break despite our valiant efforts. They have to be surrendered and vanquished. We cannot hold onto them and walk in the abundant life of grace and peace if we do not surrender all these things into the hands of God. We must commit our very lives, our soul, into His hands and that includes everything that occupies our hearts and minds and souls.
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Posted by appolus on July 2, 2021
1Pe 4:19Β Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
How is it that the saints of old and the martyrs were so able to withstand the sufferings they endured for the cause of Christ? How could Paul and Silas sing praises to God at the midnight hour in the depths of a dungeon having been scourged to within an inch of their lives? How could Stephen have a vision of God’s glory in the midst of being so cruelly stoned stoned? In order to stone Stephen unencumbered, those wicked men laid down their coats at the feet of Saul. They laid down their coats and they picked up their stones.
When we lay down our lives, when we commit our very souls into the hand of God, then we are free to pick up His glory. When the very essence of who we are is given over to God, committed into His hands then we find a tremendous freedom in this, its called the Spirit of glory. It falls upon the unencumbered soul. It strengthens the inner man. Our “outer garments,’ the cares of this world are cast aside and we are filled to overflowing. So much so that we can sing songs of glory in the midnight hour of our trials. We can praise the living God as we are cruelly treated by man, so much so that we can love our tormentors.
Are you suffering today saint? Have you cast off your outer garments? Have you committed your very soul into the hand of God? When you deliver this into His hand, He delivers you from the torment of your circumstances. He shuts the lions mouth and He stands with you in the midst of the fire in a very real way, it is His manifest presence. It will lift the hands that hang down. It will feed the hungry soul. It will quench the thirst of those in drought. So, suffering saint, while outwardly you may be perishing, there awaits for you a crown of glory in the kingdom to come. This presence is you exceeding great reward.
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Posted by appolus on June 30, 2021
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;
Only that which flows from an uninterrupted gaze on the Lord Jesus is real. Everything else is the shadow of the object. Granted, the shadow of the Lord is more powerful than all that can be seen, and one can even enjoy the heat from the sun in the shadow. Yet the glow from the face of Moses was not the glow of a man who stood in the shadows. I believe that the Lord can pour out his unadulterated light if it is not diffused by the efforts of self appointed middle men or intermediaries.
Can it be that simple? Can we simply come into His presence and be changed? Does everything begin and end with the Lord Jesus? How does one continue to look to Jesus? It is a conscious act of the will to take our eyes off our circumstances and cast them upon Jesus. This is the great battle of our lives, not our circumstances. Our circumstances can simply be doors that if walked through leads directly into His presence. It is in that place, looking unto Jesus, that we are changed. Trust is the key that opens the door. To trust in God is to walk through the opened door of our circumstances into the throne room of God.
There are two Kingdoms. The kingdom of the world and the Kingdom of God. One is seen and affected by our senses and circumstances. The other is unseen and if walked in, relegates our circumstances to mere opportunities to go deeper into its depths. Now these two kingdoms compete for our attentions. You must cry out to God every day to bind up the reality of the kingdom of this world and to loose the reality of the Kingdom of God in your life. Cry out to God to give you eyes to see what He sees and how He sees it. Can you imagine the prospect of every situation you face being an opportunity to grow in grace and power? This is the Kingdom reality, will you walk in it today?
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Posted by appolus on June 27, 2021
2Co 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere.
Every triumph we have we have in Christ. He is our victory and in Him we have victory. If we overcome it is because He overcame. If we love it is because He first loved us. If we forgive it is because we are forgiven by Him. When we weep, we know that He wept first. And when we give comfort to others it is because we ourselves were first comforted by Him. Every good thing, every triumph we have we have in Christ. This is why He leads us in a triumphal procession. And as we follow Him in victory then the world gets to witness the knowledge of Him and His victory over hell and sin and death.
They get to see how He broke every chain and how He healed our broken hearts. Every obstacle removed. They see a new creature in Christ who in Him has taken captive that which had formerly held us captive. We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. You see that phrase “in Christ.” This is the key to everything. We must be found “in Him.” Paul suffered the loss of all things to be found “in Him.” And when we are found in Him, then and only then is the fragrance of His beauty and glory and majesty and knowledge spread abroad in the hearts of man everywhere.
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Posted by appolus on June 24, 2021
Eze 47:3 And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.
There is a river that flows from heaven itself. It flows through our hearts and beckons us to come deeper. This river is spoken of in many places in Scriptures. It is the presence of God and it brings us deeper into the heart of the Almighty. There are trees on either side of this river and their roots are directly connected to the river and they are perpetually green, evergreen trees for the healing of the people and the nations. The river itself brings healing everywhere it goes. To be walking in the Spirit is to be swimming in the river of life.
As we see in Ezekiel 47, the Lord brings us to through the waters. Always the Lord, compelling His children to come deeper into Him. Not ankle deep, not knee deep or even waist deep but fully immersed in a river so vast that it cannot be crossed, it can only be swum in. We must give ourselves to the river, let go and give way to the current of the Holy Spirit. Whether you are ankle deep, knee deep or even waist deep, you are still standing on your own two feet. In many respects you are still in charge. Yet to give ourselves completely to the river we are no longer standing.
When we are fully given to our Lord. When we are yielded to the depths and the power of this vast river, the power of the Holy Spirit, only then can we truly be led. All resistance is gone in its depths. It is carrying you towards the sea, the vastness of God Himself. Ever closer, ever deeper into the Father’s heart. And the Lord says to to you “come, I will bring you through the waters into the deep.” “Seek me with your whole heart and I shall be found and you shall be rewarded for your diligence, I am your exceeding great reward.”
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Posted by appolus on June 17, 2021
Isa 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
I give you my rags, you give me wedding garments. I give you ashes, you give me beauty. I give you dry bones, you give me flesh. I give you sadness, you give me joy. I give you a spirit of heaviness, you give me a spirit of praise. I give you my failures, you give me a way ahead. I give you my temptations, you give me a way of escape. I give you my anxiety, you give me a peace that surpasses understanding.
I give you lies, you give me truth. I give you my ambitions, you give me satisfaction. I give you past hurts, you give me reconciliation. I give you my wounds, you bind them up and they are healed. I give you my perversions, you give me purity. I give you my heart and my soul and all that is within me holding nothing back. These are the things that I give you Lord, these are the things that I bring to the altar.
There is the presence of God, and then there is the manifest presence of God. To experience the manifest presence of God we must be willing to be transparent before the throne of Grace. What will you give the Lord today? What will you bring to Him? Are you willing to lay down every obstacle? Are you willing to empty yourself before His throne in humility? We know that the Lord draws near to the humble. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will raise you up.
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Posted by appolus on June 16, 2021
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
The freedom to do what is right, towers above the prison and the chains of commandments. One is initiated by love, the other is enforced by the whip. Holiness comes from freedom and freedom comes from love . And this love inspires and draws us and compels us to honor and respect and obey our Father in heaven. His love is the very air that we breathe. The air before His throne is rarified air and if we cannot breathe this air then we die. The impetus for us to follow the commands that are written upon our heart is love. It is more powerful than the commands that were written upon tablets of stone. Those who would sin without conviction and use some kind of legal fiction (cheap grace) to excuse or justify their actions simply do not have the laws of God written upon their hearts.
The grace of God is such a beautiful and dynamic and fundamental part of our relationship with the Lord. It is never a license to sin, God forbid. It is the very opposite for those who know Jesus. When we sin there is a separation between ourselves and the one that we love. We cry with David “restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.” The blood bought heart can never be at peace when there is any kind of distance between it and his Lord. Love compels us to humble ourselves, broken and contrite, and come before our Lord in confession so that we may once again walk in the beauty and closeness of His presence and holiness.
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Posted by appolus on June 9, 2021
Php 3:14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul was always moving forward. He never lived in the past. Whether it was failures or victories he did not let them hold him back or move him to think he had arrived. He did not βcount himself to have apprehended.β Apprehended what? Why salvation of course. He did not consider in his mind that he had βarrived.β This is not to say that he did not have eternal assurance, he certainly did. Yet, he did not stand upon that as a reason to sit back and coast. God forbid, he was always pushing forward, precept upon precept, glory upon glory ever coming into the likeness of Jesus.
Now how does that apply to you and me? There is a temptation to think that because you have been saved then that is it. Or there is the equal temptation to think because you have messed up then you are finished. You would be wrong on both counts. The Lord here in this portion of Scripture is telling us to forget what has already happened. He is assuming in this Scripture that you have come before Him and asked for forgiveness and you found grace and mercy. That sin is now as far as the east is from the west and has been cast into a sea of forgiveness, never again to be remembered by the Lord. He will not cast it up, only we humans do that.
Now He is urging us to reach forward to the things that lie ahead. A journey is only completed when the pilgrim keeps in front of his mind his final destination. He cannot take up residence somewhere. He cannot camp there, he must get up and get on with the journey if he is to find his way home. Camping on a particular situation or putting down roots in a place that you know is not right will come between you and the Lord. Press forward saint in your narrow path of sanctification that is your high calling. Jesus is your high calling. We have been called to be like Jesus. This is the mark. Push on saint. Win that prize, run this race like someone who desires to actually win the race. God bless you as you make your way home.
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Posted by appolus on June 6, 2021
Col 2:15Β And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
When we suffer for His sake brothers and sisters and rejoice in the midst of it, then we disarm principalities and powers. We “prove,β to that old ancient liar that this is exactly what he is and we do it all by the indwelling power of the risen Christ. He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. His perfect love demonstrated through us casts out all fear and makes a public spectacle of principalities and powers.
It diametrically opposes their lie that force must be met with force, that evil must be rendered for evil for good to triumph. Jesus overcame them on the cross and He cried out to His Father to forgive His enemies. The first martyr Stephen cries out even as He was being cruelly stoned, that this would not be held against the ones stoning Him. This is the power of God that breaks ancients chains of evil and establishes the witness of Christ to the world and to the principalities and powers.Can you
You have been called to this brothers and sisters and it is a high and noble calling. It is a calling that requires our old man and woman to die. For in the flesh we are no different from anyone else in the world. We would simply be frail creatures who could laugh when the going is good, who could be happy when in the midst of prosperous circumstances and who could praise God as long as He “blesses” us. Yet in this higher ground that we have been called to we praise God not only from the mountaintops but from the lowest valley’s. We praise God whether we walk as free men on this earth or enchained with fetters of iron.
We praise God for better or for worse. We praise God in sickness and in health, we praise God whether rich or poor. We who love our spouses know that this is our commitment to them, we who love God know that His calling is on another level altogether. The marriage of the flesh is one thing and it is noble, the marriage of the spirit is high and lifted up and it is holy. We are one flesh in our marriages, we are one spirit in Jesus and when we walk according to that spirit we walk in power and in love and with a perfect peace that triumphs over principalities and powers for all the world to see. Your light is the life that draws the world to Jesus.
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Posted by appolus on June 6, 2021
It is a beautiful thing when you begin to realize that you are God’s work. When we discover that we need only to yield to the hammer and the chisel, give way to the potters hands. The only thing that holds us back is our resistance. It is our dreams that hold us back. Our desires, our ambitions. They may all be perfectly fine dreams and desires, but not for us saints. In the end it is about walking with God and that being the desire of our heart, to be like Enoch who was like Adam, prior to the fall.
The world is full of smoke and mirrors. It is full of expectations. And for the most part,Β even the most beautiful expectations are tyrannical. They compete with God and God is jealous. To know God fully we have to give ourselves to Him fully. He stands with open arms, we need only cast everything else aside and walk deeper into His heart.
For God’s children, it all comes down to time. this is our most valuable commodity, and it is typically right here where we “rob” God. Where we choose “other lovers.” God is jealous for our time, for our thoughts. If I were a great artist and somehow deemed to paint you and told you that it would take many sessions to complete but in the end it would be a masterpiece and would be shown in the finest art galleries all over the world, would you show up for your sessions? Would you be easily distracted and forget about your appointments with this famous painter? And if you did forget about them, then in the end your painting would simply be incomplete. The Artist awaits, where are you?
For those who give themselves fully into the Masters hand, for His will and for His good pleasure, they become something beautiful, something marvelous. We were not much at all to start with but somehow, with limited materials, the God of all creation has crafted something outstanding. He has taken ashes and out of that He has created His own personal work of art, you. Has He finished His work in you? Are you missing your appointments? Give Him your most valuable asset, give Him your time?
Do not get distracted by the shiny objects of this world. Do not get distracted by your husband. Do not get distracted by your wife, by your family or your work. You must love Him more than all of these things otherwise you are not worthy to be His disciple, you will be an unfinished piece of work on the shelf. God wants to display His work. You are His work, His witness, His light, Christ in you the hope of glory!
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Posted by appolus on June 4, 2021
It is of the LORDβS mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. (Lam 3:22-24)
Notice this verse from Lamentations 3. It is a very grave chapter where the afflicted are overcome with fears and are surrounded by troubles. Yet right here in the middle of the chapter we see our great hope. Indeed the Lordβs compassion never fails, His mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness. We have hope because He is our Lord. There is a tyranny of yesterday and fear for tomorrow and they are chains which are designed to drag us down.
Oftentimes the older we get the heavier the chains are because many are our yesterdays and fewer are our tomorrows. Yet, praise the Lord the antidote to these fears and these tyrannies is the now. We serve God today and we are assured that His mercies are new every morning. It is the enemy that reminds us of our yesterdays, it is the enemy that sows fears in our heart for tomorrow. And why? He wants to rob you of today. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not guaranteed. All we truly have is now. Live and walk in the Lord today and forget yesterday and care not for the morrow for Christ is in you today. Today is the day of our salvation.
If the enemy has stolen from you yesterday, do not allow him to take tomorrow as well. Awake each day and give glory to God. Our circumstances may not change but we will. Arise with the sun tomorrow morning and know that the Lord Himself directs the tides, makes the moon to rise and the sun to set. He holds it all in His hand and remember this more than anything, He holds you in His hand. You are His servant for His purposes and you are called to rise every day and seek the Lord and serve the Lord. In this is peace and from this peace springs joy and that joy, the joy of the Lord is our strength for a brand new day.
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A Call To The Remnant 