The Cleansing Power of Confession!

Christ said if you so much as lust in your heart you have committed adultery. One does not have to do the act to be called an adulterous by God, it only has to be in the heart. 

The act just proves what was in the heart that no one could see. So, do we divorce someone for what is in the heart? No, and we do not divorce them for their acts either. We remain committed to them with the prayer that they will repent. 

Many people have committed adultery without ever doing the act, just as Christ Himself said based on their heart. 

I am convinced there is not one person alive today who could claim they never pondered someone other than their spouse for a minute longer than they should. 

Come on now brothers and sisters, raise your hand if you have never lusted after someone in your entire life! What? No hands going up?

If anyone told me they have never done it then I would not believe them. 

Matthew 5:27-28 "27 You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. "

By the way, if you have lusted in your heart after someone don't be foolish enough to go and tell them. Confess only to God because He is the only One Who knew. And be wise never to tell anyone else, people cannot be trusted with these secrets. 

Someone might want to confess generically to their close friends without details and names, but to confess who and what is not wise when it was not public. 

If you have committed the act that is a different matter, then you will need help from the brethren to restore you. For the act, one must confess to one another and be restored. Please never confess to a jealous person who may use your sins against you later or someone who is likely to beat you down further when you are repentant. 

I recall a woman who went to her brother to confess the sin of adultery, not because he knew about it but because she thought accountability was a good thing. Sadly this brother used it to demean and beat her down to make her feel smaller than she already felt. She was weeping and broken over her sin. The brother harshly with anger in his voice asked her why she did it. She had no answer except that sin is pleasurable for a season. 

Asking a broken sinner "why" is a way of beating them down even more. All sin is pleasurable, we know why we do things that is not the issue. The issue is confession and repentance, a desire to turn away from the sin. 

The woman who had confessed would never go to confess anything to this brother again, it did not help her, it only hurt her further when she was already repentant. And, sadly it seriously damaged the relationship.

James 5:16
"16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

Galatians 6:1-2 "1 Brothers, if someone is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him with a spirit of gentleness. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. 2 Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.…"
Notice that when someone is repentant those who are helping do not help by another and worse beat-down. They are forgiven and restored. 

When a sinner repents and is weeping over their sin our response ought to be to weep with them in their pain. And, rejoice too that they are being restored. This is the heart of authentic born again believers. 

May the Lord give us compassion for the broken and repenting sinner. So much so that we feel what they feel and desire to restore them to once again walk in holiness.
There are those who are so prideful that they do not believe in forgiveness for sin, or at least the sins of others that they think they have not committed. These people don't confess their sin to anyone, in fact they pretend they have no sin about anything. 

The sin of pride was the very sin that got the devil thrown out of heaven. This is the pride in the heart of one who loves to see others fail and takes advantage of that fall to elevate themselves as superior. 

May the Lord give us the right heart when we seek to restore a repentant brother or sister. 

Psalm 32:5
5 I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”;
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.
Hallelujah, cleansing comes when there is confession, and it comes completely and quickly!

Dependence on the Holy Spirit is the Key to Everything

Most people who mock our decision to follow Christ do so because they are convicted by it. They lack confidence in their own beliefs but want to hang onto them. So to build themselves up and validate their own belief they must tear down the other person who is confident. The narcissist's aim is to devalue others to be superior to them as well as causing doubt in their target. 

When we are confident in the Lord we will not be affected by the tricks of the narcissists. If we are secure in Christ we become sorry for and pity those who cannot stand alone in confidence. Believers who are confident in Christ do not need others to validate them.
Believers are confident just as Noah was when he built an ark in obedience to God. He did not need the validation of anyone else except God. 

When we are new in the faith we feel hurt when others demean us for our stand for Christ. As we grow in holiness and strong in the promises of the Bible we lose that sense of hurt from the tactics of others who wish to diminish us. 

Over time we become strong and so confident in Christ that we develop pity for those who live a superficial Christianity or are not born again. 

James 1:2-8
2 Consider it all joy, my brethren when you encounter various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 

4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

As born again believers our confidence is in Christ alone, not in any preacher, not in a writer of a book, not in anyone famous or prestigious, but in Christ alone. 

No one can teach and train us better than Jesus Christ Who lives in us. 

John 16:13-14 "13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"

When we obey God's Word His way what we do will always glorify the father and reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to everyone around us. 

This is the purpose of depending on the Lord, that He might be glorified. And, remember just because rebellious people do not respond to our obedience with joy, they may even become angry, this is not evidence that we did not obey God. 

Many people will accuse us unjustly refusing to see that God worked in us to do His will, this is on the person who rejects God's word, not on us. 

There will be people who say we must have done something wrong because someone got angry. They hated the prophets, crucified Christ, and came against the truth of God's Word, they are speaking of themselves when they accuse us of wrongdoing. 

This has been one of the devil's favorite tactics all down through history, to accuse others of doing what the devil is doing and the others are not. It creates frustration in those who are righteous, if we remember this we can avoid being baited into wrong behavior. 

Ignore the arrow of the devil and the people he uses, bless those who curse you when you must be in their presence but remove yourselves if you can get away. 

Romans 16:17
"Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them."

Proverbs 1:15
"My son, do not walk in the way with them.
Keep your feet from their path,"

Those who are contentious and will not listen to the truth will infect us with their rebellion if we keep them as friends. 

1 Corinthians 15:33-34 " 33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Sober up as you ought, and stop sinning; for some of you are ignorant of God. I say this to your shame.…"

Make your close companions those who love the Lord as much as you do. Come out from among those who do not love Christ. 

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 "…16 What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.” 17 “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”…"

Hallelujah!!!! May the Lord lead you in everything that you might glorify Him. This is not based on the responses of others but on the leading of the Holy Spirit.

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Confess Quickly to be Cleansed

Christians ought to care more about how we do life more than what we get out of it. If we get what we want the wrong way then we can expect problems. 

God cares about the way we accomplish things, not just getting things done. 

John 14:6 "6 Jesus *said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

There is only one way to the Father and that is through Jesus Christ. Just as there is only one way to follow Christ, His way.

John 14:15 "15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. "
Notice something about this passage? It doesn't say its a command to keep His commandments, God says it is the way you walk all the time. You do not have to be commanded to do what you do naturally.
When our nature is changed inito a new creation we no longer think the same way we did before. It is God's heart we seek and His ways.

John 14:21
"Whoever has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him."

God will only reveal Himself, His heart to those who want Him. 

1 John 2:3
"By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments."

Our nature must be changed by Christ, it is not something we do to ourselves, we desire it and Christ does it. 

2 John 1:6
"And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love."

Ephesians 2:10 "10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them."

This change and this walk are not in appearances only, it is an entire character change from the inside out. When our character is Christlike then our walk will also be such. 

Matthew 15:17-19 "…17“Do you not yet realize that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then is eliminated? 18But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man. 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.…"

A born again believer does not have to work hard to live an obedient life, they just do as easily as they breathe, it comes naturally to want to do the right thing. 

New believers at times will walk in fear and try real hard, it is when we do naturally and immediately what we should without having to analyze it that we walk in maturity. 

I recall a story of a Chrsitian woman who was driving a car in a parking lot. She accidently backed into a fence and knocked over a portion of the fence. She looked at her friend who was with her and didn't know what to do. She thought about not telling the owners and then she turned to her friend and asked what she should do. Her friend was a more mature Christian, she told her without hesitation that she should tell the owner apologizing and take whatever comes.

The less mature woman took the advice of the believer and told the owners of the shop that she had knocked over a portion of the fence. A lesson was learned that day, trusting Christ was better than running in fear from our responsibilities. 

The owner of the shop and fence smiled with a kind look on her face and said, "that's alright people do that all the time, no need to pay for it, we will just put it back up easily." 

The more mature Chrsitian asked the less mature believer if she felt better for having told on herself. The answer came back, "yes, now I don't have to feel guilty over it, its all fixed.

God made His principles to fix relationships and resolve probllems the right way. If we follow Him we might have someone rude to us but we will be free of guilt. In this case no one was rude and there was no guilt for hiding it. 

Hallelujah.....God wins again!!!!!! 

It is surprising how many people think refusing to admit our flaws or mess ups will be better, in the long run it is never better. Handling things quickly and honestly has far reaching blessings.

Proverbs 28:13
"Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy."

James 5:16
"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working."

Proverbs 16:18
"Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
The longer we wait to confess sin the more bitter we become on the inside. The more we deny our guilt the worse our character becomes. This happens because in order to justify the sin we must make up lies in our mind why it was alright to sin or that we did not sin at all when clearly we did. 

Those who want to grow in holiness and learn deeply the heart of God must confess sin quickly to be cleansed of it. 

The joyful life is the one that easily confesses quickly and grows in love because of it.

God Puts in Leaders and Takes Them Out

If you know that God puts men in office and takes them out as the Bible says, then he will use our vote for his purposes, even a wicked man. 

Romans 13:1 "13 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except [b]from God, and those which exist are established by God."

Obama was placed in office by God, I believe to punish us. Now he is doing the same thing with Trump only using Trump's bombastism to make the liberals lose control of their senses making them crazy so they will riot. 

The liberals have been showing their true colors in their blatant display of murderous rage.
I am pondering the idea that Trump knows that he is rattling their cages and likes that they are coming unglued. He feels like it makes him powerful but it will have the opposite effect. He will be less powerful as the raging of the liberals causes more revolt throughout the land. There may even be a civil war when the conservatives can no longer stand the threats of the liberals and they may rise up to meet them. 

I know all this sounds strange but I have seen many narcissists who have operated this way, Trump is no different. No one becomes a billionaire without walking over people while using massive doses of manipulation, intimidation and flattery to gain control over people. And, no one all of a sudden becomes a Christian overnight because they are running for office. 

These men will claim they are Christian, even Obama did, so did the Bush'es. This is the cultural Christianity that uses god-phrases to make us believe they are spiritual but have placed more trust in government and the voters than in God. They are going for that missing block of voters that have not been voting. By their verbiage they can make this group of people believe they are completely on their side, sucking in those who lack discnerment. Evangelicals are still looking for an earthly savior, instead of reflecting godliness for the sake of winning others to the Lord. 

The politicians god is their own belly, their power, their popularity, not Jesus Christ. We know this by the way they are so accepting of every religion as though they are all equal to Christ. 

Sadly the United States is like Israel was back in the day when God was their leader but they wanted a king like all the other nations. America clamored after prosperity and freedom, these two things have been the god of the people. They were and are more concerned about these things than they are obeying God.

This country has been using God like a puppet to get what they want for a very long time. He has been assigned by the people to do their bidding, making them comfortable and rich while they shout "don't judge' or "God knows my heart" when their sin grows exponentially out of control or they are confronted with scripture to expose it. 

NO, God is not going to save America, He is punishing us right now but instead of repenting we are whinning and complaining at the same time fighting to defend our sin.
All I hear a lot of is "look how much good Trump is doing", oh ya, does it matter that he is not an example of righteousness to follow or that he is using God for his gain? 

One last thought, I am interested in the debates because I believe they are going to be a hoot. I am a citizen of heaven watching a play on earth over who will rule a wicked nation. Things are heating up, there are mysteries to be pondered and two people on stage duking it out without any idea what the country really needs, that is a show of repentance and need for righteousness. 

Sorry if this offends those who are counting on someone to save our country. I don't care if we get a wall or lower taxes or better schools, these things might be good if Chrsit were in it, but the politicians idea of good is not mine nor is it God's. 

Jesus Christ did not come to be a leader of Israel when He came the first time. He didn't come to find a leader for the nation of Israel, He came to bring the good news of the gospel to the lost. 

This is also the example we should take to heart, we are not hear to establish a kingdom on earth, we are here to bring the gospel and lives as example of the righteousness of Christ. That is our mission. 

Hallelujah!

Circumstances Do Not Determine Truth!

Circumstances do not determine God's truth. We could make every excuse in the book for disobeying God but He tells us to obey even if it means trials for us. The trials teach us things, they make us stronger and they glorify God.

James 1:2-8 

"2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways."

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The Hitler Spirit Continues Today!

There are those who think there will never be another Hitler in the world who will do what he had done. His legacy has been 6 million murdered Jews as well as those who were retarded and infirmed in some way that made them, in his mind, useless to society. Adding the 6 million Jews and all the others it has been estimated that he murdered more than 12 million people. 

Think again if you think there has not been another Hitler! Think about this, there have been thousands of Hitlers in our country since the Roe V Wade decision in 1973 that declared preborn babies as non-persons allowing their parents in collusion with doctors to brutally take their lives. 

What has been happening in the past 47 years is far worse than anything the other Hitler did. We are only talking about the United States in this discussion, it is embellished exponentially when we consider the entire world also doing this monstrous deed. 

There have been one in 5 people murdered in our country alone since 1973. The entire population of California, Washington and Oregon would be the same number of abortions that have occurred in the last 47 years. Imagine if a Hitler came along and said everyone in these three states must be killed.

Lets take an easy accounting; Hitler= about 12 million, Abortions in the United States; about 62 million. 50 million more people than Hitler and few people bad an eye at this. 

AND YOU THINK HITLER WAS WORSE THAN THE NUMBER OF THOSE MURDER BY ABORTION?

There have been 200,000 deaths in the United States accounted to the COVID19 virus in just the past few months, a virus that none of us did to ourselves and no one had control over. The media is all over this news about COVID19, constantly ranting every day about those who have died from it but not one word about the 4000 babies a day that are brutally murdered by doctors at the bidding of their mothers. 

A woman who was instrumental in making the killing of babies easily available, paid for by the government, has died and she is being praised by the media and every feminist woman in America.
AND YOU THINK THERE HAS NEVER BEEN ANOTHER HISLTER.? THERE HAVE BEEN MANY HITLERS, 

THOUSANDS OF THEM, the doctors, the mothers and people like Ginsberg who ruled over this nation for many years fighting for the right to kill babies. 

These monstrous numbers only apply to the United States, imagine the entire world doing the same thing!

And you think that God should bless America? Even if the entire country repented God would still have to punish this nation for all these deaths, not to mention for all the other monstrous sins that occur every day.

Our leaders are corrupt, every single one of them! A nation does not become this corrupt without compromising men who claim goodness but will not stand strong. These politicians know if they stood strong they would be voted out, what must this say about the voting population? It tells us that the country as a whole is wicked, monstrous, and godless, having a form of religion but living for pleasure and prosperity according to the imaginations of their own hearts rather than by the love of God. 

There can be no love of God when there is no love for humanity. There is no love for humanity when a culture encourages their young to murder their babies, live in shack up relationships and divorce and remarriage as often as they change their clothes. 

Those who think God is going to save America or has sent someone to save it are living in a dilution. That dilution is that if we just vote the right way all the hearts of the people will suddenly become righteous and stop their evil deeds. NOT!

Jeremiah 11:13-14 "…13 Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah; the altars of shame you have set up—the altars to burn incense to Baal—are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’ 14 As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to Me in their time of disaster."

Anyone who thinks this country can be turned around by the right politician or the clever business man has their head in the sand ignoring all the sin and corruption that dwells in most hearts. They ignore their own wrong attitudes and fight against correction when shown the words of the Bible, God's Words, the very essence of Christ. 

To declare a person a "non-person" simply because they are inconvenient is the height of arrogance and a enormously monstrous attitude. 

The Supreme court of our land did this in the Dread Scott decision in 1857, declaring that blacks were non-persons because they were slaves. They did this with babies in 1973, declaring that babies could be killed because they were unseen. and a blob inside their mothers.
This is what monsters do, they change the verbiage to sound as though they are doing nothing wrong in order to justify the evil done by those who wish to use others. In the case of slavery subjugating people to work for them. In the case of abortion the babies become terribly inconvenient when the couple who conceived them only wanted the pleasure of sex but not the result or responsibility of it.
In the case of Dread Scott, the slave owners wanted the pleasure of owning slaves that could gain them great wealth but they didn't want the burden of considering them in their decisions. They wanted to use them like animals without any restrictions on how they were treated.

The Dread Scott decision and the Roe v Wade decision were exactly the same. In one case the human beings being abused and oppressed were adults and small children. In the case of abortion the human beings are the most helpless members of our society, the preborn babies. 

It is only evil men who can make laws such as these but just as evil for righteous men to allow them to continue. 

Why have we not seen an "Emancipation Proclamation " declared by the previous pro-life presidents? I think its a good question!

It was the "Imancipation Proclomatioin" of Abraham Lincoln that ended slavery. Why can we not do this today? I believe the reason is that every so called "pro-life" president will not openly and swiftly declare preborn babies as human beings protected by thee constitution of the United States.

These politicians all walk on egg shells hoping to win the next election if they remain silent on this issue, but when they are elected a second term they still do not do the bold and godly thing. 

Rightousness by increments is cowardess in my opinion. 

James 4:17
"So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."

Isaiah 1:17
"Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause."

Perhaps those politicians or business men who claim to want to do right ought to pay more attention to the principles of God. They don't because they know they will be persecuted, it would get in the way of winning the next election, or getting the next conservative elected when they lose office. 

Sometimes I get so tired of the rhetoric and the foolishness of slow thinking and spineless leaders who poke their finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing, making sure they have as little opposition as possible. I am convinced these weak kneed leaders do not really believe what they say or they would go for broke, speak truth and be willing and ready to take their lumps as they stand for rightouesnoess. 

For many years I heard over and over again, "we have to take baby steps getting a little here and a little there" in order to push forward in the cause. Balderdash, we have been saying this for 50 years and things are getting worse. Things are not getting better with this strategy, they are getting worse. 

What's that saying; "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result." 

Matthew 5:10-12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Its time we stop "playing politics" stop "playing Christian" and just stand up for righteousness from God's word where ever we are, leaving the result to God. We are not responsible for the results we are responsible to do what pleases God. If that fails it is not our fault but the fault of those who will not listen, they will be held accountable for their own response. We are held accountable for whether or not we stood for truth. 

Luke 16:13
"No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

We cannot serve God and a rebelliuos people at the same time.

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