Just Call Upon Christ

Psalm 145:18-21
"18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him;...
He will also hear their cry and will save them.

20 The Lord keeps all who love Him,
But all the wicked He will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord,
And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever."

Fully Trusting Christ!

My Bible reading tonight while spending time with the Lord impacted me deeply as I pondered the need of many believers today who wrestle with much oppression from the powers of darkness, whether it be relationships, illness, emotional distress or anything else that attempts to discourage those who belong to Christ.

Psalm 144:5-11
"5 Bow Your heavens, O Lord, and come down;
Touch the mountains, that they may smoke.

6 Flash forth lightning and scatter them;
Send out Your arrows and confuse them.
7 Stretch forth Your hand from on high;
Rescue me and deliver me out of great waters,
Out of the hand of aliens
8 Whose mouths speak deceit,
And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
9 I will sing a new song to You, O God;
Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,
10 Who gives salvation to kings,
Who rescues David His servant from the evil sword.
11 Rescue me and deliver me out of the hand of aliens,
Whose mouth speaks deceit And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood."

What Does Difficulty Say About You?

When our response to difficulties is to run from God and avoid prayer and His Word, that is an indication of our heart condition. A heart that loves the Lord, follows hard after Him when things are normal, will be a heart that runs even harder after Christ when difficult things arise.

Character Revealed

"Difficult situations don't build character they reveal it." (Don't know who said it)

Romans 5:3-5 – “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Galatians 5:22-23 – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

After Holiness or Pretense?

Ungoldy pretenders will tell you what you want to hear and then treat you with contempt covertly so that there is plausible deniability. Their actions are designed to fain concern, but their attitude and actions show their disdain.

 

This is the way pretenders treat God, they set forth a persona that demonstrates they are Christians, but in their private lives they care little about holiness or seeking God for truth.

Matthew 15:3-11...
"3 He answered and said to them, “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?
4 For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’
5 But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”—
6 then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.
7 Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying:
8 ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.
9 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ”
10 When He had called the multitude to Himself, He said to them, “Hear and understand:
11 Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.”

We are running into more of these people every day, they have a form of religion but do not love God, their religion is based on elevating self not becoming holy and submissive to Christ.

2 Timothy 3:5 "holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these."

What are we going to be, one who desires holiness and to be changed by Christ, or one who likes pretending, to impress people while negating those who attempt to challenge us to greater holiness?

The Holy Spirit is Our Teacher

Bible colleges were a human, man made idea. God never commanded, that any Christian colleges be established. Mankind is always thinking they can do things better than God can and that individual Christians can't possibly hear from the Holy Spirit.

The sad reality is that most people who claim to be Christian, will not listen to anyone on spiritual matters, who is not from one of these institutions.

1 John 2:27 "As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him."

John 14:26 ""But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you."

We can see what happens when man attempts to help God, most of these institutions are in error on many things, because of the traditions of man.

Mark 7:8 ""Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men."

The man or woman who depends completely on the Holy Spirit may seek counsel from other godly people, but they will not rush to others for the wisdom they seek, they will first rush to God in prayer and He will direct that godly person who will come alongside to help in the understanding.

When we place education of men above the work of the Holy Spirit, we fall into the realm of apostasy, and that is exactly what has happened over the years. Many evils have been accepted because the institutions have inculcated human and cultural thinking into their teachings in an effort to be politically correct and socially accepted.

Romans 12:2 "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Good Deeds Done In Silence

The Believer Loves To Obey

The narcissist (arrogant insolent) has a deep need to be continually validated by others, but don’t want to get too close to anyone.  They demand attention, but don’t have any inclination to validate others, unless the validation of others makes those listening like the narc.  They seek supply for their ego, companionship is not for mutual bonding and love, but for one person to receive, and that would be the narcissist.

Even using manipulative lies and intimidation when anyone asks for attention from them. The only time they supply attention to anyone else is if it elevates them in some way or they see that their target is moving away from them.  This is a description of the narcissist (arrogant insolent) who will do good works for no other reason except to appear superior to others and feel good about them self, further elevation of soul.

Isaiah 64:6 “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

The only way good works can be valid in the eyes of God is if they are selfless and in obedience to the Holy Spirit that lives in a believer.

We see lots of useless “good works” in the unsaved world, they say things like “I love doing this, it makes ME feel so good.”  The subject of their language is not the poor and needy but their own enjoyment of the act.  I cringe every time I hear a testimony like this, it flies in the face of the Scripture that expressly instructs us to do our good deeds in secret.

There is a difference between sharing your joy with another brother in Christ, quite another to use every opportunity for giving, to bring self-exaltation.

Those who love the Lord have no concern about whether they will feel good about it, they often have a sense of joy for having obeyed God, but they do not discuss what they are doing, if it comes up, brought up by someone else, their response is always in terms of the need of others. Those who are deeply connected by the Holy Spirit are openly happy at the joy of another believer.  A narcissist does not engage in the joy of others but negates their accomplishments and works because the attention is not on them personally.

The narcissist is only happy when he is getting all the attention, it is an affront to their happiness when someone else gets attention for doing well.

When we feel excited about giving and brag about it, then perhaps we would not do it if it was hard for us or gave us a bad feeling.  Narcissists never do good deeds to obey God, there is always a catch, the catch being a form of self-aggrandizement.

Matthew 6:1-6
“1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
3 But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”

To every believer, if we seek the Lord with all our heart, He will hear our prayers, instruct us in our actions and we will feel driven to obey, but never driven to make sure others know.  Our joy comes from the Lord, obedience to Him and His working in the lives of those we serve.