Archive for the ‘the gospel’ Category
Posted by appolus on October 21, 2020
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
Oftentimes we find ourselves troubled on every side. Many times we are perplexed. Many of us have been persecuted, perhaps not in the sense of living in a hostile country, but maybe within the confines of our own families. We have been thrown down and trampled on . Often dying it seems by our many troubles. All of these things and more are the things that would destroy most, but in you they have caused the life of Christ to spring up from the darkness of your situations. An abundance of grace has been poured out upon your life that speaks to the glory of God and the love of the Father for His children. He established you and gave you grace and purpose before time began.
When we have been troubled on every side we can testify that we have been rescued from distress. When we have been weighed down with the perplexities of life, the Lord Himself pulls us up from the valleys of despair.In the midst of our persecutions and feelings of isolation we have discovered that we are not alone. When we have been thrown down and trampled on, the Lord Himself has saved us from being destroyed.
In all of these things we do not faint, we rise up by the power of the Holy Spirit. The outer man may be in the process of perishing but our inner man is renewed daily by the glory of God and the amazement of a dying world. The world sees that out of the darkness of our situations that God Himself has commanded light to shine forth. You may not be able to fully articulate the Roman road to salvation but the world does see that out of you, out of your many trials, your sorrows, your afflictions and your infirmities, there shines forth the light of Christ Himself. Be encouraged saints, you are a mighty witness for Christ.
Perhaps the world will never know your story, but the Lord knows and the mouths of the principalities and powers are closed by the testimony of God in you, your hope and your glory. God spoke into Gideon’s life and He called him a mighty man of valor, although at the point of which He spoke it to him nothing could be further from the truth. Yet the key was “God spoke.’ And even although Gideon would complain that he was the weakest man from the weakest clan in all the land, that meant nothing to God. You see, its never the man or the woman, its always God. If He is with you brothers and sister, then He can achieve whatever He desire through you , not because of you, but because of Him, the one who speaks and the one who calls. He equips the ones He calls. Your job is to keep on standing, keep on moving, one step at a time, one day at a time, getting up and then getting up again and again and again. And even in this, He empowers us to rise up when we decide to get up. Rise up today brothers and sisters and put one foot in front of the other.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on October 15, 2020
Psa 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
In the Lord Jesus we find true love and forgiveness. Not as the world forgives, for His forgiveness is untainted by human imperfection. In 1 Cor 13 we discover that true love keeps no record of wrongs. I first heard that at a wedding I was attending. I was not saved and I was drunk. I heard the minister read this out and thought what a load of nonsense. One can maybe forgive but never forget. That was what i thought until many years later I myself became the recipient of such love and forgiveness. It took me years to fully realize the magnificent truth of this. Raised in the Catholic tradition of punishment and penance and purgatory, the notion that the Lord had not only forgiven me, but had now cast my sin into a sea of forgetfulness never again to be dredged up was transformative. The tyrannical forces of guilt and shame were dealt with head on.
The antidote to shame and guilt is an intimate confession to a holy and loving God. Then when that is done we must believe that when the Lord forgives us He keeps no record of our wrongs. He casts them into a bottomless sea. The problem is that we judge and gauge the Lord our God by our own standards. But of course His ways are not our ways. He is higher than we. His love is beyond the grasp of the mortal mind of man and can only be grasped by the inspiration of the Spirit.
Encounter God and touch infinite beauty and love. Encounter God and stand in a place of inexpressible awe and majesty. When we grasp something of His vastness, then we are able to grasp the fact that not only has He forgiven us, but that He never keeps a record of our wrongs. They are cast into a sea where it is impossible to plumb its depth. The chains of guilt and shame that for so long have imprisoned men are broken asunder by the love and mercy of God that we encounter before the throne. Today is the day for your encounter. This is the day for your chains to be broken.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Posted by appolus on October 1, 2020
I see judgement whether we turn to the left or right ( not meaning that in a political sense although it may fit) If Trump is reelected the forces of anarchy will intensify and cities will burn. If Biden is elected there will be a sharp rise in aggressive political acts against the Christian community and of course abortion will not only go on unabated but children who somehow manage to survive an abortion will be left to die on a table in the corner of a room. Now, perhaps that is our end, the end of a society that has highly flawed notions of what freedom actually is. There is the freedom wrought for us on bloody Calvary, and then there is everything else.
The freedom that man gives, man can take away. The freedom that God gives though His sacrifice, no power that exists can touch. No man can make me less free. No political party can make me less free. No principality or power can degrade my freedom in any way. I may be in a jail cell but I will be free. I may even be martyred for the cause of Christ but I shall be free indeed. In fact, the more the devil rages, the more I plunge the depths of freedom. We saints must remember that and stand upon that. Dark days lie ahead, but above every dark cloud there is a piercing and perpetual blue sky.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 3 Comments »
Posted by appolus on September 27, 2020
Gideon was a mighty man of valor. Yet long before he would prove himself on a battle-field he first had to first tear down the altars of his fathers. In order to fulfill the role God has for any of us we must rise up, and go up and tear down the altars, the high places that have been erected for the worship of all things ungodly. A country that raises up an altar on the high places to wickedness shall not stand. Whether it takes one year or five hundred years, it will fall. America raised up a high place of worship, that high place is called abortion. Of all the possible sins that any secular nation can indulge itself in, infanticide will bring that country to its knees.
A culture of death promotes death. The blood of the innocents prime the pumps from the lower depths of hell. And from that gross dark place there pours forth the most vile evil, eventually drowning mankind it its own wickedness. Gideon had to discover from God that he was a mighty man of valor. Then he had to act upon it. God is raising up a generation of Gideons and it begins by tearing down the altars that have been erected to worship ancient evil deities.
Moloch is among them and has been raised up. His flag flies over many of the capitals of the world. Only the light of Christ shining forth from His children can counter the gross darkness that has covered the land. Stand fast saints. For the source of all light is at the door. The prayers from an army of saints marching on its knees will rise up to heavens throne room and God will rend the heavens and come down and in His presence they will stand on that evil day.
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Posted by appolus on September 20, 2020
So this is not to be construed as a political post and I will not indulge anyone in a back and forth over one political party or another. The death of RBG and the timing of it is high octane fuel on an already burning inferno. This country was already being torn apart by division and just when you think it cannot get worse, then it does.
A country under judgement looks something like this. The cries of the innocents shout out from a blood soaked land. The fall out from this death will expose completely the fault lines and the hypocrisies on both sides of the political divide. Make no mistake, the supernatural forces of Moloch will rage. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.
The Lord gave me a word from Lamentations chapter four last May. One of the most serious words He has ever given me, you can read it below. The issue in Lamentations was the slaughter of the children by the mothers. For years they had worshiped Moloch and when their backs were to the wall and they were under siege, the cooked and ate their own children.
What low state must a people arrive at when they will rejoice at their ability to murder their own children? The world is locked down in a pandemic, fear stalks the streets, violence and divisions of people are at the breaking point. Saints, God is speaking. Everything that can be shaken is being shaken. Draw close to your Lord and know that He is the Master of your soul and no matter what you see unfold, He is in charge.
When the Hebrew children defied the powers that be and declared that no matter what, they would never bow down to the gods of this world, all hell broke loose and in its fury the fires of destruction were intensified seven times. We are entering into that time, the fires of hells fury is just about to be intensified. We must be willing to stand and make the same declaration as the Hebrew children. Even if we die in the fires we shall never bow down to the gods of this world. Stand fast saints.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 6 Comments »
Posted by appolus on September 18, 2020
Rev 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven:
A door opened in heaven!! What is this, what can it mean? If such a door existed and we had access to it should we not find it and walk through it? Just a few sentences earlier we hear about the door;Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.(Rev 3:20) There is, it seems, a door that we as children of God can open, and when that door is opened we can sit down with the Lord at His banqueting table, glory to God. Again a few sentences before that we hear Jesus say I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.(Rev 3:8)
This open door to glory, this door to heaven, this access to the throne room belongs to the child of God. The ability to come before the Father and bow down and cry out Abba uniquely belongs to the enduring overcoming child of the living God. No man can shut this door, no power on earth can shut this door, Satan himself cannot shut this door. It has been given by the hand of God to His child and no one can rob him of it.
This is the glories of walking with the Lord with an open heart, to walk in His presence and according to His ways. This is the promise of Jesus to His faithful followers, that no matter what happens, no matter how dark the hour , no matter how fierce the opposition, the saints can walk in the glories of God and have access to His throne and to His presence and that He would keep them from the hour of temptation.
Now that word keep is better translated guard. To the loving Church who does not deny the name of Jesus and keeps His word, He guards them from that hour of temptation that is coming upon the world. Temptation loses its power for those who draw near to Jesus. To draw near to Jesus we must have an open door in our hearts, our hearts must be open to His glories and then we shall have the power to stand fast and let no man steal our crown.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the deeper life, the gospel, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on September 16, 2020
Five years ago, boy how time flies, my sister who was only 52, died. She died on Aug 29th but was not buried for over two weeks, so this week five years ago, she was buried. It was a terrible loss for me personally and for our family. Elaine had an aneurysm at the age of 39. To say the next 13 years was a hell would be no understatement. We often overuse the phrase “we would not wish this upon our worse enemies,’ but in Elaine’s case this was all too true. Yet near the end of her time she came to know Jesus in a quite remarkable way. I still have the old recording on my answerphone the night she called me up to tell me she just gave her life to Jesus. And then again the next day to affirm what she had did the night before.
“Frank, I need you to call me tomorrow, for I gave my life to the Lord. I have forgiven Joe (her ex husband whom she despised) I have asked Jesus to be with me and help me though these days. I am so sorry for all these sins I have committed and I said Lord I need your help, I cannot do it without you. I need you to make me a new person. I just keep crying out to Jesus. I know He is with me. I am fully committed to Him. I want to be healed and become a new person.” The next day she left this message on my phone……..
“Frank, it’s Elaine, I know the Lord is with me. I got up this morning and saw a lovely part of a rainbow (prior to Elaine getting saved, the blinds were literally shut 24 hours a day, she could not stand the light) and it was surrounded by thundery gray skies. The Lord said He would help me every step of the way and I look forward to see what He is going to do.” All of this was said through tears and sobbing. All of this after decades of Elaine hearing the Gospel from my mother, myself and others and she was very stubbornly resistant to it. None of us knew at that time she had less than two years to live, in fact two days after this she had another brain bleed, 13 years after the first one. The Lord’s timing is so impeccable. Thank you Jesus. I wrote this poem below the day that she died and the next one a few months after that.
A poem for my sister
When my heart is overwhelmed
And grief comes flooding in
I lift my eyes to higher ground
Where there is no pain or sin
Yet deep within my heart
Amidst the savage waves
There is a calm repose
That’s with me all my days
I lift my eyes amidst this storm
That’s raging all around
He lifts me up above the waves
To stand on higher ground
And in the light of glory
That pierces every night
I catch a glimpse of majesty
And what a glorious sight
I see my sister dancing there
Amidst the saintly throng
Hands raised in heavenly splendor
And singing a heavenly song
The night has passed, the dawn has broke
There’s no tears to be found
For those who’ve left this world behind
For heavens higher ground.
I wrote this next poem based on the last thing my sister said on this earth. She was lying on her death bed and holding my mum’s hand. She called her mam. She was unconscious but awoke for a moment and said ” mam,” and then slipped away as my mom held her hand. This is quite a Scottish poem so my fellow Scots will probably understand it better. (Whiskey was the name of our cat growing up and chip was our wee dog)
Mam
Take my hand mam
It’s time for me to leave
Why so sad mam
I see those tears upon your sleeve
Don’t cry for me mam
This life has not been good to me
Yet in just a moment’s time
I’ll finally be free
I remember ally bally
And sitting on your knee
I remember Whiteside’s flowers
And being late for tea
I remember summers long ago
And swimming in the dam
Fires on Kilgreggan’s beach
But most of all my mam
I remember daddy kissing you
Me jumping on his back
I remember wee chip standing there
And whiskey getting whacked
I was young them mam, you know
I could never guess what lay ahead of me
Just as well, don’t you think mam
That the future’s something we cannot see
I lie here now I see your face
My hand in yours a warm embrace
He’s coming now, the Lord for me
And with Him forever I will be
Goodbye mam it’s time to go
I loved you always, this you know
Take my hand and lay it down
For I’ve exchanged it for a crown
Close your eyes and think of me
Tighter mam, now can you see?
I’m beautiful, He’s made me whole
He’s replaced everything the locusts stole
Mam, we’ll meet again one day
When you come to the end of the narrow way
And together we’ll dance and praise and sing
The glories of our risen King.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the gospel, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
Posted by appolus on September 14, 2020
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.(Joh 14:6)
There are many earth shattering moments when Jesus spoke. Moments and words that changed everything. This scripture is among the most profound truth ever written. This is why in the end of end days it will become the most infamous of all Scriptures. This will be banned and become illegal to share in our life time. It will be deemed as hate speech and once that occurs, almost all of what Jesus spoke will be considered detrimental to the spiritual health of the population at large. His words will then be cherry picked and the rest will simply not be spoken of.
Let us affirm this truth. Jesus is the only way to heaven and every other road leads directly to hell, whether that be the Islamic road or the Judaic road or the Hindu road or the Buddhist road. The only way to God is through His son Jesus. He is the way. And in the depths of that meaning we are shown that it is not good enough to say that you are His or that you believe in Him, there must be fruits of your salvation. We will know a saint by the way that he or she walks. In the days of the inquisitions, many saints were identified for persecution because it was said of then that they lived “exemplary,” lives.
This is the way of Christ. We live and we strive to live as He did and taught. The truth is the word of God. It is not open for debate among saints, starting with the above Scripture. Jesus is the Truth and Jesus is the word made flesh and we stand upon it, even with our very lives. It burns at the center of our souls, it is a fire in our bones and flames upon our lips. The truth spoken in love scorches a Godless earth. To the ungodly it is a fire that must be extinguished.
Finally He is the life and no man truly follows Him without having His life in Him. His life in us is joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. It is peace when all around us is turmoil. It is joy even in the depths of despair. It is love when we should hate. It is self control and meekness. It is a giving of ourselves and a crucified life. In all of this we are long suffering and the very least those around us will say is that we are good people. And so saint even in these ever darkening days let us stand upon the fundamental truth of our Lord and never waver even as the inevitable assaults come flooding in. He is true and let all men be liars.
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Posted by appolus on September 13, 2020
Sometimes I forget that I am a fighter. Every now and then the gross darkness comes in and I forget who I am for a moment, for a day, for a week. Then I remember. I look back and I remember. I remember battles. I remember being battered black and blue. I see the war torn terrain. I see the smoke and the mist and the darkness and I see the hand that reached down to me. From heaven itself. My God who rules supreme over every battle. My Lord Jesus, tried and true warrior who has rode through every battle and stood right there, back to back. I remember that and as I do the light comes flooding back. The darkness retreats. Don’t forget who you are today saint. Jesus has your back. In Him you are more than a conqueror. You will endure, you will prevail, you will overcome. Somebody need to hear that today. He sees you
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on September 7, 2020
Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith, what an incredible word. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Think about that for a moment. Things hoped for has no substance in this material world. Yet it forms the foundation upon which we stand. It exists in a realm we cannot see. Yet in the depths of our heart and the heights of our spirit we know it to be true. By this understanding we know that the Word of God Himself framed this world and every star in the night sky. The things that are seen was not made by what can be seen. It is only by faith that this can be known.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen. Think about that for a moment. It is a totally otherworldly statement. In this material world in which we dwell, evidence consists entirely of things seen. Yet in the Kingdom of God and the hearts of men, the evidence of things unseen is the entire basis for our existence. We believe in the unseen world. We believe in the unseen God. We believe in the unseen heaven and we also believe in an unseen hell.
This knowing that has been given to us, is the evidence of the things to come. The evidence of things not seen, that sentence absolutely runs counter to everything man is and knows. There in enmity between the heads of men and the hearts of the saints and never the twain can meet. There is a vast gulf between the two and it is impassable. The man who follows his head can only believe in what he can see. He will say “show me.” The man who follows the dictates of his heart and the leading of the Spirit will simply say, “I believe.”
Only by knowing God can these truths be known. It is in this realm of the knowing that we exist as saints. We walk in that realm. This is walking in the Spirit. We know what cannot be known. We know beyond the knowledge of man. There is an old song called “He lives.” The chorus goes like this…..He lives , He lives, Christ Jesus lives today He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way He lives , He lives , salvation to impart, You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.
Ask me how I know He lives. You see He lives inside of me. He walks with me as the old song says. He talks with me. Faith may be the evidence of things unseen by this world but I have saw the Lord high and lifted up. I have knelt before the throne of God and all His glory filled the temple and it filled my heart and it filled my very soul. I have sat at His feel and He has taught me. I have cried out in the night watches and He has wiped away my tears. I was dead in the valley of dry bones and He raised me up. He gave me a new heart and He breathed His very life into me.
Yes, I trust Him and my hope is in Him but my hope is not like the hope of this world. My very hope has substance even although you cannot see it. My hope is Christ Himself, the Christ that dwells within my heart. The Christ that raised me from the dead. The Christ who whispers in my ear. The Christ that conquered every fear. The Christ who showed me how to die and the Christ who taught me how to fly. He is my sunrise in the morning and He is the sunset of my life. The beginning and the end and everything in between.
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, Daily devotional, Devotions, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, The presence of God, the remnant, the state of the church, theology, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Posted by appolus on September 5, 2020
There is an old French phrase that is centuries old, it is “Rage Millitaire.” In essence it means a passion for taking up arms. Something that sweeps through a country or region and men take up arms and rise up with an uncontrollable rage. This was said of pre-revolutionary America. I would like to suggest that there is a Rage Millitair rising in the west. There is a rising passion for violence in the populous. It will not end well.
Right now it manifests itself in political violence, yet there is a very strong undercurrent that is the primary motivation for the uprising. The genuine saint is in the cross-hairs. The bowels of hell are readying themselves for war. Every now and then in human history hell’s fury gushes forth and and swamps humanity. It takes blood to prime the blood lust. The blood of the innocents, countless millions of dead infants, ripped from their mothers wombs, have whetted the appetites of an ancient evil.
A German woman was interviewed in the 60s. She had been a Nazi in pre-war Germany and attended all of Hitlers rallies. She was asked why she had followed something so overtly evil. She was at a loss for an explanation but as the interviewer waited, she finally said something very profound. She said “there was something in the atmosphere and we all breathed it in.” I would like to suggest that right now there is something in the atmosphere and the world is breathing it in. The hordes of hell are massing and the the devil himself has charged the atmosphere, that old serpent and power of the air.
Let there be no mistake. The targets for this coming tsunami are the saints. Right now the targets are political and the causes of division and hatred are based on race and class. Yet the undercurrent around the Western world flows violently towards and against genuine Christianity and anyone who will stand upon its pillars of truth. Hate laws are being crafted in many of the Western countries and the crime is “to incite.”
If your views run counter to the politically correct narrative of this day, then these laws will be aimed at you. You are inciting an enraged world. The world and its ruler has lost its patience with dissent and free speech. Speak Biblical truth and they will come knocking on your door. There will be no room in this world for those who follow Jesus. They will be deemed enemies of the people. They will be hated by the religious, the political and the man in the street.
The political class in Jerusalem hated the Pharisee. The Pharisee hated the Sadducee. The Romans hated all of them. Yet in the end, they all found common cause in hating Jesus. It was prudent for them all to come together and kill Jesus for the sake of the nation, for the sake of their institutions, for their own survival. It will be prudent for the world to get rid of genuine Christianity. We are a thorn in their flesh. We are manifestation of their conscience. We are a living reminder that they live in sin and darkness. We who are bearers of the light cause much anguish to those who dwell in darkness.
Yet in all of this we are more than conquerors in Christ. Just as He overcame we too shall overcome. We must ready ourselves for what lies ahead. We ready ourselves by taking up our crosses daily. As we do that we shall be fully established in the reality that nothing can separate us from the love of God. The sufferings of this present time and the times to shortly come upon us are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. We hold this glory in earthen vessels and when we are broken this glory, the glory of God pours forth. So if we are broken for Christ’s sake by the dark powers of this world then light pours forth.
The whole of creation is groaning and travailing in pain right now. It is ready to give birth to something very evil before the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. The first born of Christ groan as well, we groan for the coming of the blessed hope. The Spirit of God groans for us in holy intercession. And we know this, if God is for us, who can be against us? If tribulation or distress or persecution come against us, if all day long we are led as lambs to the slaughter, still nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
In all of these things we are more than conquerors in Christ our Lord and I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities or 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 8:31-39)
Posted in Christian, christian living, Christianity, church of scotland, end times, Jesus, pentecostal, revival, the crucified life, the deeper life, the gospel, the persectuted church, the remnant, the state of the church, theology | 1 Comment »
Posted by appolus on September 3, 2020
Whatever the day brings oh Lord, then you should be right in the midst of it. Whatever the day brings, whether its a day of war, then we should war in you. If it is a day to mourn then we should mourn in you. If it is a day to love then we should love by the power of you oh Lord. Whatever the day brings then we should bring you right into the center of it. Forget about yesterday. It is done. Pay no heed to tomorrow for you oh child of God do not know if you will see tomorrow. Tomorrow does not belong to you, it belongs to the Lord. What you do have is today, this day. Lord let this day be your day and let us walk with you in this day.
Let us throw of fear brothers and sisters it is not of God and does not belong in your day. Let us throw of worry and anxiety as the Lord commanded us to, it does not belong in this day, only the Lord belongs in this day. The God of all creation. The God who laid the foundations of the earth and set the stars in the heavens. The God who feeds every sparrow and who clothes the common fields of the earth in more glory and splendor than even Solomon was ever clothed.
Saints, imagine the revolution that would take place in your life if you lived only for this day. Imagine that fear and anxiety was banished from your day, that your day was taken up with seeking first the Lord your God and His kingdom and His righteousness. Imagine the power as you threw of the shackles of yesterday. Imagine the glory as you threw of the tyranny of tomorrow which may never come. Imagine the absolute adventure of a single day with God having no thought for tomorrow. This is walking with God brothers and sisters.
This is Kingdom living. This is walking in the Spirit. It is your promise. Jesus said take no thought for tomorrow, Jesus said be anxious for nothing, Jesus said not to worry about the things the gentiles worry about. He said all that to clear the decks. Wont you clear the decks today saints? Will you not live in obedience to your Lord and your God? You do that today, you take God at His word, you be obedient to His commands and your whole life will be revolutionized.
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Posted by appolus on August 27, 2020
As I was walking this morning and praying I was telling the Lord that I was wearied of the flesh in all of its many manifestations. This daily fight can be very tiring and I was sharing with the Lord how lovely it would be when it was all over. As I rounded the corner on the path, I heard two different bird noises. I knew what they were, I had heard them before. One was a bird in distress and the other was a hawk screetching. Although I could not see what was going on, I have seen it before. The hawk undoubtedly had caught the small bird and the small bird was making very distressed noises, as were his little buddies all around him. The hawk would be unmoved by these noises and would never lose his grip on his little prisoner.
As I pictured this in my mind the Holy Spirit spoke to me, He said “Something has to die so that something can live.” It just seemed so profound to me because of the image in my mind of the hawk and its prey. Yet, this concept is fundamental to all of humanity. Every time we eat something, something had to die. It had to die that we may live. Dying and living, in that order, it is what sustains us. It is elemental.
As I walked on and pondered this, I thought about a show Angie and I watch on National Geographic. It is called “Alone.” The basic premise of the show is that they take ten people and scatter them in a rough wilderness area, and they have to survive for 100 days. This year the location was just 250 miles from the Arctic circle. A brutal place with limited resources. What actually happens is that they slowly begin to starve to death. When they do catch something, like a fish or a rabbit, they are so overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness that they often embrace the catch that they have just killed and weep. This is life and death and they know it. It seems to be a very spiritual experience, small c of course.
The relationship between death and life is so elemental to humanity, this notion that something has to die in order for something to live lies at the root of who we are. If Christ is to live in me then something has to die. There are no ways around, something has to die. I have to die, my flesh has to die so that Christ in me shall be manifested to the world. I have to d3crease so that He may increase. Jesus, of course, is the perfect example of this. In order for us to live then He had to die. Without His death we would not live. In John chapter six Jesus teaches that we must eat His Body and drink His Blood.
Jesus is the Living bread that came down from heaven. In order for us to partake of the this food and this drink then Jesus had to die. Something has to die so something can live. Jesus had to die so that we could live eternally. Now my flesh has to die, with all of the distress that accompanies that and all of the noise that I sometime make in the process. My cross taken up daily is the means that has been prepared for me by the one who bore the ultimate cross. An instrument of death that produces life. Lord, may I take up this cross daily so that something dies daily and from this death comes life.
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Posted by appolus on August 25, 2020
Consider what Wayne Jacobsen says in his book “Finding Church.” In comparing meetings to gatherings he says “What’s the difference? Am I just splitting hairs here? I realize the terms can be used synonymously, but I’m not doing so. A gathering brings people together to celebrate relationship. It is heavy on conversation, often multiple conversations, because people are nor forced to follow an agenda. Meetings, on the other hand, bring people together to accomplish a task even if that task is to perform some ritual. They demand conformity and people have to cooperate for them to work. Relationships are not critical, which is why you can attend meetings for years, even small ones, and not get to know or care for others in the group….. success is measured not by the size of the group but by the quality of relationships.”
I could not agree more with this brother on that subject. For years, decades, centuries, people have sat together in meetings and had no idea who their neighbor was. Yet, gatherings promote true and genuine fellowship. People are starving for true and genuine fellowship. They desperately need to be edified in relationship. Rather than one more teaching they simply need to be heard and to be able to share what the Lord has and does through them. I am not speaking here of novices or babes in Christ, I am speaking of true and genuine saints who have been on the road for years and decades. God is raising up a last days people who long for and desire true and genuine fellowship that is bathed in love for one for Jesus and for one another.
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Posted by appolus on August 5, 2020
In the very first verse of Titus we see that Paul is a servant of God and an apostle. He is these things by his faith in God, just as all who know God are His according to His grace through faith. Yet Paul also adds “and the acknowledging of truth,” to faith. We know that “if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,” then you are saved. (Rom 10:9) So, acknowledging the truth is a vital part of who are are in Christ. Truth is foundational to all that we are. It is by knowing the truth that we are set free. Jesus is the way and the truth and the life.
Now on the other side of this equation are principalities and powers. They are the opposite of truth, the opposite of freedom for they serve their master the devil who is the father of lies. Truth dwells in the kingdom of light and lies dwell in the kingdom of darkness, each has its own realm. I would argue that as the Lord’s return draws near, then the intensity of each kingdom increases. We live in a day and age where it seems that truth lies broken in the streets. Lies and deceptions have mounted an all out campaign and seem to be gaining the upper hand around the world. The world for the most part have rejected truth in favor of the lie.
To acknowledge truth is to not only proclaim it but also to live it. What we say, what we share, what we teach must be recognized in us. The Greek word for acknowledge is Epignosis. Nosis meaning knowledge and epig meaning precice, or to recognize. You see actual truth lived out is absolute and recognizable. If we are to proclaim and acknowledge the truth of God then it must be recognizable first in us and be readily apparent. Now I would argue that genuine saints know and understand this and strive towards that end, the living out of the faith that they proclaim.
Yet in Titus we see two distinct groups. It is not the saved and the unsaved, rather it is the saved and the ones who profess to be saved. In Titus 1:15-16 we see these two groups described. There is the pure and then there is the defiled. “To the pure all things are pure but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure;but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him.”
So we see a battle being set up here between two groups. One group is a a denier of God’s truth, and the other group are acknowledgers of God’s truth in life and in deed and in word. Even today we see so many professing Christians deny the truth found in the word of God. They are ashamed of what the Word teaches on many of the so called social issues of the day. These would include issues such as homosexuality and transgenderism and Biblical truths such as Adam and Eve and the creation account of Genesis. To the defiled nothing is pure. That word defiled means contaminated or tainted. The word to them is tainted, it is a mixture. So, they take what they like and they reject what they do not. To the saint, the Word of God is pure. It is untainted and is not contaminated with error. It is infallible.
So how would you know what group you belong to? Surely no one would put themselves in the category of the defiled? Well in Titus we see some of the marks of the younger men and the older men that mark them in the group of the pure. These marks are as follows 1.Sober.2.Reverent.3.Temporate.4.Sound in faith.5.Walking in love and patience.6.Integrity.7.Incorruptible.8.Sound speech. These are the marks laid out in chapter two for the pure of the Lord. In verse 14 of the same chapter we see that the Lord had come, not only to deliver us from “every lawless deed,’ He also came to “purify for Himself His own special people.” These are the pure, they are zealous and in the process of being purified they will become, with every passing season, more and more like the points mentioned in 1-8.
The defiled have no such ambition. In the end they serve themselves. In the end they belong to the world. The purification by the Lord for His saints, the refining fire of this process produces fruit. There is also a process that the defiled go through and by it we see their “fruits.” As the world presses in and demands compromise, as the pressure mounts on those who merely profess to know Jesus, we see them, slowly at first, begin to deny Jesus. Each step of the process is their attempt to keep their place in the world. Whatever has to be denied and given up in order to stay in the good graces of the world is denied. They reject the grace of God in favor of the good graces of the world.
It is a great tragedy. For many started out being redeemed “from every lawless deed.” Yet, they made that the end of it when it fact it was just the beginning. They wanted nothing to do with being purified by the Lord. It would be like being delivered from Egypt but dying in the desert. Grumblers and unthankfull in heart, disobedient deniers of God’s truth which precludes them from ever entering into the promised land. Rather than unashamedly acknowledging the truth of God by their lives and by their words and abiding in the Word, they run after the favor of the world. They are adulterers, fornicators, seeking pleasure and place in the world at the expense of the one true Living God.
Yet dear saint take heart, God has indeed purified for Himself His own special people. As the days tick down on the prophetic clock each group will become more apparent. The defiled will become more defiled, but praise God the pure will shine out all the more in the darkness of a sin sick world. Gold, purified in the refiners fire. Impurities burned away and removed with every passing season and trial. Shining brilliantly against the black velvet backdrop of our own personal Calvaries as we take up our crosses daily and die to this world. Purified by suffering. How frustrating it must be to an enemy that the more he comes against the saints, the more purified they become. Shining like a beacon to a lost and dying world. A witness, a martyr for the cause of Christ. Glorifying the Living God whether we live or whether we die.
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Posted by appolus on July 20, 2020
Dan 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Daniel speaks of a time when the saints will be worn down. I believe the process of the saints being worn down has already begun. Times have been changed and wrong has become right and truth, at best, is relative. This is wearing the saints out as they struggle to come to terms with these fast changing circumstances. There has been a blitzkrieg so to speak in the realms of the spirit. Compromise and unrighteousness has surrounded the saints. We are an obstacle that at some point will have to be removed if the enemy is to have total dominance. More laws will be changed and we will witness more compromise by Christendom
Now we know we are called to gird our loins with truth. Satan has furiously assaulted truth in our day. Truth has become anything you need it to be, it has become relative. Of course truth is absolute, but that is no longer accepted. We are called to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Righteous living and holiness has become something of a quaint notion in our day. Between the word of faith and the prosperity gospel, cheap grace and hyper grace, actual holy living has become something deemed as a work when of course it is one of the fruits of genuine salvation.
Our feet are to be shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. Our hearts must be right and this keeps us ever ready to walk in the peace that comes from the truth of the Gospel which has set us free. It also keeps us ever ready to share the gospel with others. Satan has done a great job in quieting the saint when it comes to the Gospel of truth. We are constantly afraid of offending someone. The bold notion that there is but one way to heaven, through the Lord Jesus Christ and that all other paths and religions lead to hell has become all but illegal and in fact it has become unacceptable in so many arenas of public life.
The shield of faith is one of our most important parts of our armor. It protects us from the fiery darts of the enemy. Yet in the last several decades we have seen movements like the word of faith literally destroy the meaning of the word faith. The essence of faith is trusting in God despite our circumstances, yet Satan has turned that truth on its head by teaching that our circumstances are the results of our faith or lack thereof. So, when trials come, rather than people trusting in God they begin to despair and the fiery darts of the enemy find their mark.
Last we have the Word of God which is the sword. We can say with great certainty that the enemy has fought this for countless centuries but in recent decades has made enormous strides in taking the sword out of the hands of those who oppose him. We are an illiterate generation. This lack of knowledge is killing us. So it is clear, in order to stand in the coming evil day we must rediscover the armor of God and wear it at all times. Cry out to God today saints, have Him help you put on the armor. It will save your eternal life.
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Posted by appolus on July 14, 2020
As I was walking and praying the other day the Holy Spirit laid this thought upon my heart. “Unless we understand the culpability of man we are not qualified to speak to the grace of God.There is an intimate connection between guilt and grace. It is when we realize the depths of our sin and rebellion against a holy God that the power of unmerited favor is truly realized.”
I went on to write about this as I felt led by the Spirit. Oftentimes I read a few books at a time. Picking up one, laying down the other and sometimes just laying them down altogether fro months and just read the Word. A good brother of mine had given me a small book by Art Katz entitled ” The holocaust:Where was God.” A heavy title for sure and a heavy subject. Today I picked up the book and read a couple of pages. Here is what jumped out at me.
“To have a view of God that exempts the judgement of God as being a central facet of God’s character and way, is to have a warped view of God. To know Him as He in fact is, in both His severity and His goodness, is to know Him in truth. And to know Him as “that,” God is to be saved by Him out of extremity and calamity of our fallen nature. To know God as Judge is therefore one of the eminent prerequisites for the true knowledge of Him. God is indivisible, and we cannot parcel Him out and enjoy certain of His attributes to the exclusion of others. The consequence of an inadequate faith and an inadequate knowledge of God is tragic beyond all describing. What are His mercies but for His judgements? And what are His judgements rightly understood but for His mercies? To see God in His acts as both the God of judgment and the God of restoration is to begin to catch a glimpse of God and His fullness.” ( Art Katz)
Brother Artz said so much in this paragraph.It is worth reading it a few times over and ponder the truth of what he is sharing. To truly know God is to know the fullness of God. We live in a generation whose favorite saying is “don’t judge me.” Now they may say it to Christians but for sure this extends to God. They are simply not interested in God or His word or His people who would draw any kind of lines in the sand when it comes to sin. This sentiment is rising into a rage because we live in the days of the great falling away. The Lord Jesus is coming back soon and the rebellion is intensifying.
This generation will bend their knee to God or they will have their knees bent for them. They may reject a God who judges but that in no way changes the goodness or the severity of God. He is a holy and righteous God, a God of both justice and of mercy. It is a dangerous thing to trifle with God for He is high and lifted up and His glory fills the temple.
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Posted by appolus on July 12, 2020
The picture above is a picture of a door I installed. It meant removing the old door and the frame, and replacing it with the one that you see. If you look at the top right hand side of the door, you will see there is a space of about nearly an inch, now look at the bottom, no space. Now, the door is hung level and plumb, but the trim is the problem. Look at the space between the trim of the window and the trim of the door, it is equal. This hides the fact that the window is almost an inch of the plumb in just a few feet. If I had made the trim of the door plumb, as it should be, then it would have been instantly noticeable that something was not right.
You see, I had a choice to make. I could do it correctly which would have made the work that I did look off the level and off the plumb, or I could hide it my matching the existing work. Only the trained eye will now notice that the work that I did was not plumb. This is often done with kitchen cabinets when the ceiling is not quite level. You measure down an equal size from one side to the other and snap a line and that forms the top line of your cabinets. No one will ever know that your cabinets are not level.
It occurred to me that we often bend what we say in order to make it fit in with the world. In order to not stand out so much, we take our measurements from the world as our plumb line and it leads to everything being off the level. We do that so that everything will look right, nothing stands out too much. I think it is one of the great tragedies of the age, that we use anything other than the Word of God as our plumb line.
Rather, we use sentiment and humanism to guide and measure our words to a world that is completely off the level and plumb. This simply leads to more things being off the level. Our lives and our words need to be measured exactly by the word of God which is perfectly level and plumb. Anything else is simply pandering to a lost and dying world no matter how good it looks or sounds.
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Posted by appolus on July 10, 2020
Psa 84:10 For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.
When David left the Ark with Obed -Edom, it was reported that all that pertained to his house was blessed of the Lord. Our modern day prosperity teachers would convince us that God enriched Obed-Edom but Jewish history shows that Obed-Edom’s family were enriched by the birth of many children in the short time the Ark was there. Women of the household giving birth to multiple babies. There was life in the house of Obed-Edom and that more abundantly. The presence of God gives us life and that more abundantly.
Life in God, life in the Spirit, the overcoming power of God that comes from walking in His Spirit. Obed-Edom would later be found as a guard of the Temple treasure and involved in the worship in the temple. It seems he followed the Ark, he followed the presence of God and dwelt there as a door-keeper. Have you been touched by His presence? Would one day in His presence be better than a thousand elsewhere? Will you follow Him where He leads? Has the presence of God taken hold of your life?
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Posted by appolus on July 8, 2020
Rom 1:5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
Imagine you are crossing a great river. The world is on one side and you are headed toward the other side, the heavenly side. Each time you are obedient, each time you turn your back on sin, another stepping stone appears before you and you move forward towards your goal. One step at a time on the road to glory. It is by obedience that we make forward progress towards a deeper walk with Him and we overcome.
Now, there are two main categories of obedience. One is a legalistic obedience and the other is glorified obedience. Brokenness, submission, surrender and love must be the building blocks of our obedience. If we simply try to be obedient without first taking these steps, revealed to us through the word and a revelation of it, we will discover that there is an obedience that binds us in chains and the weight of these chains will drag us down and drown us. Yet, obedience born out of love and a desire to please the one that we love frees us and fulfills us and propels us on.
Glorified obedience, one motivated by love and awe of a righteous holy God and a revelation of Calvary is like the watering of a tree. There can be no fruit produced unless that tree is watered by the living waters of obedience. Striving to be obedient without the fruits of brokenness will lead to a desert landscape in which nothing can live. The motivations of our heart, the seat of our affections that sets our eyes upon Jesus and the Holiness of God takes us from glory to glory.
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A Call To The Remnant 