Month: November 2022

“A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.”

Song of Solomon 4:12

In this metaphor, which has reference to the inner life of a believer, we have very plainly the idea of secrecy.

It is a spring shut up: just as there were springs in the East, over which an edifice was built,

so that none could reach them save those who knew the secret entrance;

so is the heart of a believer when it is renewed by grace:

there is a mysterious life within which no human skill can touch.

It is a secret which no other man knoweth;

nay,

which the very man who is the possessor of it cannot tell to his neighbour.

The text includes not only secrecy, but separation.

It is not the common spring, of which every passer-by may drink,

it is one kept and preserved from all others;

it is a fountain bearing a particular mark—a king’s royal seal,

so that all can perceive that it is not a common fountain,

but a fountain owned by a proprietor, and placed specially by itself alone.

So is it with the spiritual life.

The chosen of God were separated in the eternal decree;

they were separated by God in the day of redemption;

and they are separated by the possession of a life which others have not;

and it is impossible for them to feel at home with the world,

or to delight in its pleasures.

There is also the idea of sacredness.

The spring shut up is preserved for the use of some special person:

and such is the Christian’s heart.

It is a spring kept for Jesus.

Every Christian should feel that he has God’s seal upon him—and he should be able to say with

Paul, “From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

Another idea is prominent—it is that of security.

Oh! how sure and safe is the inner life of the believer!

If all the powers of earth and hell could combine against it, that immortal principle must still exist,

for he who gave it pledged his life for its preservation.

And who “is he that shall harm you,” when God is your protector?

A Prayer to Love Our Enemies By Lynette Kittle

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” – Matthew 5:44

Have you ever been hated? If so, you’re in good company because Jesus was perfect, yet He had those who hated Him to the extent of wanting Him dead. More concern should be if the world loves us because it’s a sign we most likely aren’t living our lives for God. As John 15:19 explains, it’s better to be hated by the world than loved. “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

Most often enemies come not by our choice and usually there isn’t anything we can do to change their attitude towards us. It’s birthed within their hearts and has to be extracted from the inside out. Sadly, it’s sometimes come from within our own families who hate us because of our faith in Jesus Christ (Matthew 10:36).

In these situations, how do we forgive those who hate us, much less love them? Often we say we forgive yet we don’t feel it and we certainly don’t feel love for them. So what do we do in these circumstances? How do we get past unforgiving and loveless feelings?

It seems the call to love our enemies is misunderstood because the secular world has reduced love down to a feeling. But real love goes much deeper and often isn’t a warm, fuzzy feeling. Real love is expressed through actions, which really are louder than words. Genuine love bypasses emotions and chooses to pray, do good, give, and even sacrifice for those who hate us. So if void of forgiving and loving feelings, how do we love our enemies with actions? Following are four ways to begin.

1. Pray for our enemies. As Matthew 5:44 urges, loving our enemies begins with prayer.

2. Do good for our enemies. Good may just start by not talking badly about them to others, along with making no effort to harm them in return. Like Luke 6:27 encourages, “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” 

3. Give to our enemies. Although they may not want us to give to them, even so, our responsibility is only to give. If they refuse or discard what we offer, we’ve have fulfilled our part. Proverbs 25:21 urges, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.”

4. Sacrifice for our enemies. Being kind and generous to someone who hates us is living sacrificially, it’s risky knowing if we receive anything in return it most likely will be more rejection and disdain from them.

Yet Luke 6:35, encourages, “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”

“The Lord’s portion is his people.”

Deuteronomy 32:9

How are they his?

By his own sovereign choice.

He chose them, and set his love upon them.

This he did altogether apart from any goodness in them at the time, or any goodness which he foresaw in them.

He had mercy on whom he would have mercy,

and ordained a chosen company unto eternal life;

thus, therefore, are they his by his unconstrained election.

They are not only his by choice, but by purchase.

He has bought and paid for them to the utmost farthing,

hence about his title there can be no dispute.

Not with corruptible things, as with silver and gold,

but with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,

the Lord’s portion has been fully redeemed.

There is no mortgage on his estate;

no suits can be raised by opposing claimants,

the price was paid in open court, and the Church is the Lord’s freehold forever.

See the blood-mark upon all the chosen, invisible to human eye, but known to Christ, for “the Lord knoweth them that are his”;

he forgetteth none of those whom he has redeemed from among men;

he counts the sheep for whom he laid down his life,

and remembers well the Church for which he gave himself.

They are also his by conquest.

What a battle he had in us before we would be won!

How long he laid siege to our hearts!

How often he sent us terms of capitulation!

but we barred our gates,

and fenced our walls against him.

Do we not remember that glorious hour when he carried our hearts by storm?

When he placed his cross against the wall,

and scaled our ramparts, planting on our strongholds the blood-red flag of his omnipotent mercy?

Yes, we are, indeed, the conquered captives of his omnipotent love.

Thus chosen, purchased, and subdued, the rights of our divine possessor are inalienable:

we rejoice that we never can be our own;

and we desire, day by day, to do his will, and to show forth his glory.

Borrowed

This writing is borrowed from someone else

Man to man, it’s going to cost you.

“Then he said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.

If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.

But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it” Luke 9:23-24, NLT.

Man to man, it will cost you everything to follow Jesus.

He will say stand for Me.

Love those that purposely hurt you.

Forgive when you don’t feel like it.

Humble yourself to His timing and surrender to His will.

It will cost you when this company wants you to work for them, but God tells you to work for another.

It will cost you when you see this vocation pays so much better, but God says, do what I called you to do where there appears to be no money.

She may be beautiful, but God says to look at the heart and not the outward appearance only–not her.

There is no telling where Jesus will tell you to follow him to.

You may give up everything, but like Jesus, that’s not your end.

Yes, Jesus died, but He rose. Jesus died, but He lives and reigns.

You will live and reign also.

You may give up what you like, but you will end up with what you love.

You may give up your way, but you’ll find God’s way to be much better, for Jesus says His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

You may let her go, but He blesses you with a godly woman fit for you—beautiful inside and outside.

The reward is what the devil doesn’t want you to consider.

Consider the cost and always pursue to remember the reward that will come from it.

Prayer: Father, I praise You. You are a good God! Thank you for challenging me to follow you, Jesus, no matter the cost.

I don’t want it just to sound good, but that I walk in it.

May I always consider the reward and keep it before me.

No matter what I give up, You will always cause me to receive far greater than I can imagine in my life.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

This is borrowed from someone else!

“Underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Deuteronomy 33:27

God—the eternal God—is himself our support at all times, and especially when we are sinking in deep trouble.

There are seasons when the Christian sinks very low in humiliation.

Under a deep sense of his great sinfulness, he is humbled before God till he scarcely knows how to pray,

because he appears, in his own sight, so worthless.

Well, child of God, remember that when thou art at thy worst and lowest, yet “underneath” thee “are everlasting arms.”

Sin may drag thee ever so low, but Christ’s great atonement is still under all.

You may have descended into the deeps, but you cannot have fallen so low as “the uttermost;” and to the uttermost he saves.

Again, the Christian sometimes sinks very deeply in sore trial from without.

Every earthly prop is cut away.

What then?

Still underneath him are “the everlasting arms.”

He cannot fall so deep in distress and affliction but what the covenant grace of an ever-faithful God will still encircle him.

The Christian may be sinking under trouble from within through fierce conflict,

but even then he cannot be brought so low as to be beyond the reach of the “everlasting arms”—they are underneath him;

and, while thus sustained, all Satan’s efforts to harm him avail nothing.

This assurance of support is a comfort to any weary but earnest worker in the service of God.

It implies a promise of strength for each day,

grace for each need,

and power for each duty.

And, further, when death comes, the promise shall still hold good.

When we stand in the midst of Jordan, we shall be able to say with David,

“I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.”

We shall descend into the grave, but we shall go no lower,

for the eternal arms prevent our further fall.

All through life, and at its close, we shall be upheld by the “everlasting arms”—arms that neither flag nor lose their strength, for “the everlasting God fainteth not, neither is weary.”

This is just the first writing of my thoughts of Judas making it to HEAVEN. I will expound on my thoughts and details in the next Blog Post!!

I honestly believe these two scriptures prove that without a doubt that Judas is in HEAVEN. God woke me up at 2:30 and my Bible reading took me directly to Matthew and when I read this, I could not believe that I had missed read this verse so many times. 

A feeling of refreshing joy flowed over me as I read this repeatedly.

Brother what all are we missing in the Holy Word of God, and we read it every day??

Luke 22:28-30

Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.

Matthew 27:2-4 And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us

“So walk ye in him.”

Colossians 2:6

If we have received Christ himself in our inmost hearts, our new life will manifest its intimate acquaintance with him by a walk of faith in him.

Walking implies action. Our religion is not to be confined to our closet; we must carry out into practical effect that which we believe.

If a man walks in Christ, then he so acts as Christ would act; for Christ being in him,

his hope,

his love,

his joy,

his life,

he is the reflex of the image of Jesus; and men say of that man,

“He is like his Master; he lives like Jesus Christ.

“Walking signifies progress. “So walk ye in him”; proceed from grace to grace, run forward until you reach the uttermost degree of knowledge that a man can attain concerning our Beloved.

Walking implies continuance. There must be a perpetual abiding in Christ.

How many Christians think that in the morning and evening they ought to come into the company of Jesus, and may then give their hearts to the world all the day:

but this is poor living; we should always be with him, treading in his steps and doing his will.

Walking also implies habit. When we speak of a man’s walk and conversation, we mean his habits, the constant tenor of his life.

Now, if we sometimes enjoy Christ, and then forget him; sometimes call him ours, and anon lose our hold, that is not a habit; we do not walk in him.

We must keep to him,

cling to him,

never let him go,

but live and have our being in him.

“As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord,

so walk ye in him”;

persevere in the same way in which ye have begun,

and, as at the first Christ Jesus was the trust of your faith,

the source of your life,

the principle of your action,

and the joy of your spirit,

so let him be the same till life’s end;

the same when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, and enter into the joy and the rest which remain for the people of God.

O Holy Spirit, enable us to obey this heavenly precept.

“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.”

Isaiah 49:16

No doubt a part of the wonder which is concentrated in the word “Behold,” is excited by the unbelieving lamentation of the preceding sentence.

Zion said, “The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me.”

How amazed the divine mind seems to be at this wicked unbelief!

What can be more astounding than the unfounded doubts and fears of God’s favoured people?

The Lord’s loving word of rebuke should make us blush;

he cries,

“How can I have forgotten thee, when I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands?

How darest thou doubt my constant remembrance,

when the memorial is set upon my very flesh?”

O unbelief, how strange a marvel thou art!

We know not which most to wonder at, the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of his people.

He keeps his promise a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt him.

He never faileth;

he is never a dry well;

he is never as a setting sun,

a passing meteor,

or a melting vapour;

and yet we are as continually vexed with anxieties,

molested with suspicions,

and disturbed with fears, as if our God were the mirage of the desert.

“Behold,” is a word intended to excite admiration.

Here, indeed, we have a theme for marvelling.

Heaven and earth may well be astonished that rebels should obtain so great a nearness to the heart of infinite love as to be written upon the palms of his hands.

“I have graven thee.”

It does not say, “Thy name.”

The name is there, but that is not all: “I have graven thee.”

See the fulness of this!

I have graven thy person,

thine image,

thy case,

thy circumstances,

thy sins,

thy temptations,

thy weaknesses,

thy wants,

thy works;

I have graven thee,

everything about thee,

all that concerns thee;

I have put thee altogether there.

Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee when he has graven thee upon his own palms?

“For my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

2 Corinthians 12:9

A primary qualification for serving God with any amount of success, and for doing God’s work well and triumphantly, is a sense of our own weakness. 

When God’s warrior marches forth to battle, strong in his own might, when he boasts, “I know that I shall conquer, my own right arm and my conquering sword shall get unto me the victory,” defeat is not far distant.

 God will not go forth with that man who marches in his own strength. 

They who go forth to fight, boasting of their prowess, shall return with their gay banners trailed in the dust, and their armor stained with disgrace.

He who reckoneth on victory thus has reckoned wrongly, for “it is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” 

 Those who serve God must serve him in his own way, and in his strength, or he will never accept their service. That which man doth, unaided by divine strength, God can never own.

 The mere fruits of the earth he casteth away; he will only reap that corn, the seed of which was sown from heaven, watered by grace, and ripened by the sun of divine love. 

God will empty out all that thou hast before he will put his own into thee; he will first clean out thy granaries before he will fill them with the finest of the wheat. 

The river of God is full of water; but not one drop of it flows from earthly springs. 

God will have no strength used in his battles but the strength which he himself imparts. 

Are you mourning over your own weakness? 

Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness before the Lord will give thee victory. 

Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up.

“When I am weak then am I strong,

Grace is my shield and Christ my song.”