Mercy of God - His lovingkindness is upon all those who love and fear Him!

MARRIAGE VOWS – MAKING AND BREAKING THEM [RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD 19]

February 22, 2016 by jesusislord Leave a Comment

Beloved,

Are God’s marriage vows in the New Covenant record anywhere to be found? Are there any marriage ceremonies there, too, with examples? And is there any indication of how a spouse can leave or divorce a physically violent mate?

No, no, and no.

But why not? Doesn’t the Bible have everything pertaining to life and godliness?

Well, if you have followed western Bible teaching exclusively, you’re in for a big surprise. And a huge deficit in understanding the heart of God.

For the Word of God in the written form is an ancient Mideast document and thousands of years old. It is high context too meaning God used the absolute minimum to communicate to the people of that day, and not in our current time.

So, if you rely mainly on the previously mentioned modern and low context ‘we-tell-you everything’ western information, most likely you’ll be seduced in part by the multitude of false teaching that has invaded the globe in these last days.

We must turn to the Old Testament for our marriage vows. They reside there, and only there. All Scripture, all of it, is inspired. At Paul’s time when he penned those words that Scripture he mentioned was the Old Covenant. As we know, there’s over 300 direct quotes in the New Testament from the Old Testament. We must not jettison this.

Some think all the Old Testament applies, while some think none applies. There is a third alternative that we think is correct and illustrated the heart and mind of God. We here at Walk Worthy subscribe to the fact that if the New Covenant does not negate, modify, or amplify the Old Testament, it is still in effect as originally written.

In the case of marriage vows, they are missing in the New Testament. Therefore, we look to the earlier record of the Older Testament. And there we find what we need!

Our Lord writes many of His commands, and His laws, for the lowest creature and social status. So, then we know that this guidance applies to all other greater situations. In the case of oxen, we see God making provision for the lowest by commanding us we must “not muzzle the ox while he is threshing.”

Paul uses this to illustrate we need to financially support those who work hard at preaching and teaching, etc. for God is “not concerned about oxen, is he?” No, sir, not like He is with His human creatures.

The Old Testament Marriage Vows Are For Today

In the Old Testament, God commands a free man taking a second wife who is also a slave, a very low social status person, that he must provide her sufficient food, clothing, and sex. Like what? Like his first and primary wife!

And if he fails to do so consistently, that slave wife may leave without any financial obligation on her part due to his neglect which amounts to abuse of that wife made in the image of God.

In this passage we see this stated in no uncertain terms.

Exodus 21:10-11 “If he takes to himself another woman, he may not reduce her food, her clothing, or her conjugal rights. If he will not do these three things for her, then she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money…”

In ancient marriage contracts, as in more modern ones, we can see that these three minimums of food, clothing, and sex are to be observed for the vows to remain intact. In modern times, we may even hear folks say, “love, honor, and obey,” or “love and cherish,” etc. To love like God Himself is to protect and provide.

This is part and parcel of good Biblical interpretation, or hermeneutics. The first part is the exegesis, or the ‘then and there.’ Only then can we understand what the Lord God was conveying to His original audience. Second, we turn to hermeneutics which is the ‘here and now.’ Does the passage and doctrine in view have modern application? Is it to be modified? Or is it negated for these times?

Make sure you closely muse on the ways of using proper interpretation, or Biblical hermeneutics here.

All covenants are contracts. All covenants, save that with Abraham that God made with Himself, can be broken. Never by God, but often by human beings made in His image. God divorced Israel for her repeated marital unfaithfulness. God is a divorced Person.

Jeremiah 3:7-8 “I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also…”

There are some who insist that God is still the rightful ‘husband’ of Israel since the 14^th verse of Jeremiah 3 uses the same Hebrew word as husband, or baal. But a careful and honest look renders the NASB the best translation as ‘master,’ not ‘husband.’ God did save a small remnant for Himself back then but they are also part of the new bride which certainly includes His beloved Gentile believers in the Old Testament.

In Hosea 2, God declares that Israel too is not His “wife” any longer. He did not give her a writ of divorce as He did Judah, but the marriage is broken.

Hosea 2:2 “Contend with your mother, contend, For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; And let her put away her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts…”

Of course, now He is betrothed to the New Testament bride, His body. But in order to endure to the end, be approved, and not erased from the Book of Life, we must obey His commandments consistently, which are not burdensome. We are saints, never sinners.

Broken Marriage Vows

Most modern Christians will agree as a minimum that Jesus Christ allowed divorce for repeated sexual sin. Some will also agree that Paul allowed divorce too for desertion in 1 Corinthians 7.

But, again, if the NT doesn’t speak to marriage vows, then the OT is the key to the minimums in the vows in the sight of the Almighty who created marriage for His pleasure and His kingdom. So then, if those minimums are not being met, the spouse who is the victim is free to leave, and divorce the other party.

These marriage minimums (food, clothing, and sex) if not provided by each spouse for the other party on a consistent and loving basis, then the vows are broken in the sight of God. Maybe not in the eyes of the civil authorities, but certainly in God’s.

Anything in the marriage that consistently is withheld (like emotional support) or thrust upon the spouse (emotional and verbal abuse and/or neglect) above the minimums also negates the vows, i.e. breaks them. This includes consistent disrespect and dishonor, especially towards the husband.

Also, let’s say a perpetrator in the marriage repeatedly pulls a gun and shoots at the spouse. So far, the victim has not been killed. But wouldn’t any sane person, Christian or not, watching this dastardly spectacle insist the victim separate and eventually divorce this perpetrator?

Of course…

But ironically, and foolishly, some churches refuse to acknowledge the obvious and tell the victimized spouse to return to the abusive perpetrator. The spouse then is killed…or maimed for life.

Jesus Taught Only On No-Fault Divorce in the New Testament

“But,” the legalist protests, “they can’t separate or divorce since Jesus didn’t say that in the New Testament!” The Word also doesn’t say directly that we should not get high on marijuana.

Do you now see the dilemma, the conundrum, in this silly, and dangerous, position?

Jesus never intended to give a teaching, a whole doctrine, on marriage and divorce. Remember the Bible is high context and only the very minimums are given, and only in the OT at that for marriage and divorce.

Jesus was only answering a direct question from the religious leaders of the day. Their question centered around their specific brand of no-fault divorce they had concocted to satisfy their lecherous appetites to put away their wives for any infraction. They labeled it “for any cause.” He said a resounding ‘no’ to this insult of God’s laws, and set them straight about the sanctity of marriage.

David Instone-Brewer has performed a minor miracle in publishing the best works on the planet regarding divorce and remarriage. He also states that emotional abuse, physical attacks or neglect, including sexual starvation, or anything perpetrated on the other spouse are all grounds for divorce if the offended is not repentant and actually changes their ways for good.

Brother David has written, “The Biblical grounds for divorce are sexual faithfulness, material support (food & clothing) and emotional support (love). These are the minimum grounds – anything worse is certainly a ground for divorce, and attempted murder is certainly a failure to support.”

Remarriage under many circumstances, but not all, is a natural thing in the economy of God. You must try to reconcile if the reason for your separation or divorce is unbiblical. In our example above, the slave wife victim can “go out” just like when God gave unfaithful Israel a ‘certificate of divorce.’ But in Israel’s case, there is no remarriage since there is only one God! God is now remarried to the Israel of God so proclaims the NT.

God’s Marital Mercy For Our Times

And therein lies God’s clue to remarriage with the certificate of divorce allowing the remarriage.

Several years ago, a close brother came after me to rail about this teaching claiming the early church fathers proclaimed ‘no remarriage.’ Well, these gents were also wrong on many other vital doctrines.

I admonished him to put those incorrect ancient writings away and ask God to show him why God created the certificate of divorce in the first place and its use in the kingdom.

Well, I’m still waiting for his response years and years later. And he keeps teaching that victims cannot divorce except for adultery and never, ever remarry. I warned him about the bondage he was placing on his audience, and the victims. It fell on deaf ears.

Eventually, I was forced to obey the Lord and not cast my pearls before swine. And I tearfully had to turn him over to Satan after a first and second warning about his stonewalling.

Our brother the apostle Paul stated we should marry and not burn with sexual desire, and women should get married, have children and keep house. If we wrongfully refuse those victims the relief that God does, what will God do with us in return when we cause others in these situations to stumble?

God is exceedingly merciful. He knows that life is difficult, to say the least. Marriage is a gift from His heart, and one in which we learn of Him too. But when humans ignore His ways and abuse the other in this sacred and holy institution, He has made allowances for the victim.

And so should we when the situation demands we do so! May all of us who are married provide food, clothing, and sex to our spouse in a gracious and loving way. And these are the bare minimums that our Lord and Savior expects.

And commands. Let us please Him in all respects!

Colossians 1:9-12 For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.

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View marriage, divorce, and remarriage resources here.

Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.

Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,

Marc

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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!

Marc and Walk Worthy are supported in part by the body of Jesus Christ. Please consider donating on a regular basis:

www.WalkWorthy.org/donate

You may view our Archives here: RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD – ARCHIVES; Complete Archives. May our Father richly bless you with His grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in order to walk worthy of His name.

Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.

Marc White, Director, Walk Worthy Ministries, www.WalkWorthy.org

FORGIVING HER SISTER’S MURDERER, FACE TO FACE [AT THE BATTLE FRONT 131]

October 26, 2015 by jesusislord Leave a Comment

Nancy and Richard Langert – the victims

Brothers and sisters,

In this faith walk with Almighty God, there are times that leave one speechless in the midst of the incredulity of God’s grace. This article is one of those times.

There are several reasons why this particularly hits home to me. First and foremost, our dear Lord years ago opened up wide door service to dozens of men in the jail and prison system Florida, the third largest state in America. Second, I grew up in the actual city of Chicago but I’m familiar with the high school that David Biro attended in an affluent Chicago suburb. Lastly, the depths of God’s loving grace never cease to amaze me in the power of His Holy Spirit.

This is a tale also of demonic infestation and control. Most western Christians never see it in that vain. But full deliverance from demon oppression should be the goal.

May we all fully be ministers of reconciliation. For His glory and His kingdom.

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Reconciler – By Morgan Lee / May 21, 2015, Christianity Today

Attorney Jeanne Bishop has helped thousands of clients make amends for their crimes. Now she’s helping the man who killed her sister make amends for his…

On April 7, 1990, David Biro broke into the affluent suburban Chicago home of Nancy and Richard Langert armed with a glass cutter and a revolver. When the Langerts returned home that night, Biro, then 16, was waiting. He rejected the couple’s attempts to negotiate, which likely included money; police discovered $500 in cash abandoned at the scene. Biro shot Richard in the head and Nancy, who was pregnant, three times. He left her bleeding in the couple’s basement.

“It was Palm Sunday,” remembers Jeanne Bishop, Nancy’s sister. Bishop was at choir rehearsal at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago. “The secretary came and said, ‘You have a phone call.’

“I said, ‘Can you take a message?’

“She said, ‘No, you need to come with me.’ ”

Bishop immediately thought of her elderly father. But it was his voice she heard over the phone: “Nancy and Richard have been killed.”

An image of a truck crushing the couple’s compact car on the expressway flashed through Bishop’s mind.

“What do you mean, killed?” she said.

“Somebody killed them.”

A week later, Bishop learned the details of her younger sister’s last moments. Nancy had remained alive for roughly 10 minutes after Biro shot her in the elbow, back, and abdomen. Before she died, she crawled over to her husband’s body and used her own blood to draw a heart and the letter U.

David Biro – age 16

No Division

Six months after the murders, the police arrested Biro. An honors student at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, Biro had once been admitted to a psychiatric hospital for trying to poison his family. He had bragged to his friends about the Langert murders.

In 1991, shortly after Biro was sentenced to life in prison without parole, Bishop had already decided that she needed to forgive him.

“If you look at the Gospels, you see Jesus over and over again saying, ‘You have to forgive because you have been forgiven,’ ” said Bishop, a lifelong Christian, citing the parable of the unforgiving debtor (Matt. 18:21–35).

But because Biro was permanently behind bars, Bishop thought she could move on without ever informing him that she had forgiven him in her heart. She thought she would never have to say his name aloud.

“I had built this wall that was convenient for me,” Bishop told CT. “I thought, ‘Because you haven’t apologized to me, that absolves me of the responsibility of reaching out to you.’ ”

Then, in 2012, Bishop read Forgiveness: Christian Reflection. It contained an essay by J. Randall O’Brien, the president of Carson-Newman University, a Baptist school in Tennessee. “No Christian is ever in the position of privilege, wronged one or wrongdoer, where he or she is excused from the responsibility of working for reconciliation,” he wrote.

Bishop disagreed—so much so that she arranged a meeting with O’Brien to challenge him. O’Brien reminded her that Jesus prayed for his own murderers from the cross.

“I felt my heart, hard and rigid, cracking open,” said Bishop. “I had always made a divide between Nancy’s killer and me. Him: bad murderer. Me: innocent victims’ family member. The truth was, there was no division between us before God—we were both flawed and fallen.”

“Wouldn’t it be amazing,” O’Brien told her, “if God used you to bring this man into relationship, if he joined you in heaven one day?”

After their meeting, Bishop began to pray for Biro, saying his name aloud for the first time. In January 2013, she made contact with Biro through a letter, asking if she could visit him.

One week later, Biro—who had never admitted to the murders, far less shown remorse—wrote back. In the course of 15 pages, he confessed to the crime for the first time and accepted her offer to meet.

Image processed by CodeCarvings Piczard ### FREE Community Edition ### on 2015-05-19 06:33:53Z | http://piczard.com | http://codecarvings.com

Jeanne Bishop – the sister

Pardoned

The day before Bishop first made the 100-mile drive to Pontiac Correctional Center, she had coffee with an 83-year-old man who had been making the same journey every other week since 1991.

Nicholas Biro, David’s father, gave her handwritten directions to the prison, including a tip for a nearby McDonald’s if she wanted a beverage before entering the jail. He also gave her two quarters, explaining that she’d need them for the locker at prison to hold her car keys.

When Bishop first sat across from David Biro in prison, Bishop did not find the person she’d expected. “I’d turned him into a monster. I’d mythologized him as a thing called a murderer. He’s a 40-year-old man.”

In their first meeting, Biro didn’t explain how someone raised in a loving, well-to-do home could take “a magnum revolver and put it to the back of a grown man’s head. But he did admit to the crimes.” He recounted the details of April 7, 1990, as Bishop asked questions.

Since then, Bishop has returned to meet with Biro 15 times. Before each visit, she prays on the drive that she will be able to communicate that “he’s loved and valuable and that God has a purpose for him.”

“The more I get to know you, the worse I feel about what I did,” Biro told her recently.

“What I wanted for him before was to rot in prison and suffer, and that would make him sorry,” said Bishop. “But what made him sorry is to experience the unconditional love of God and the forgiveness of his victims’ family member.”

Bishop believes that all who are sentenced as teenagers should have a chance at some point while in prison for a comprehensive review. But it’s likely that Biro will spend his life in prison. While the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that juvenile mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole were unconstitutional, the judge at Biro’s trial gave him a discretionary life sentence, which remains constitutional. A governor could pardon him, but that’s unlikely given the severity of the crime.

David Biro at 40

“To say to a person who commits this crime at age 16 or 17, ‘We know that you need to be locked up forever for us to be safe,’ is contrary to what we read when we open up the Bible,” said Bishop. There, “we see stories of people who killed and were restored, starting with Moses and David and later Saul, who became the apostle Paul.”

Bishop doesn’t sugarcoat Biro’s murder of her sister, brother-in-law, and their unborn child. She calls it “horrific, heinous, and merciless.” In a new book, Change of Heart (Westminster John Knox Press), she goes into detail about what happened. “I want people to understand that I’m not forgiving him because it wasn’t so bad.”

Facing the gravity of the situation, in fact, is what allows Bishop to keep making the treks to Pontiac.

“It’s not okay what you did, but I am not going to hate you. I am not going to wish evil on you,” said Bishop. “I am going to wish the opposite. I am going to wish that you will be redeemed.”

Morgan Lee is CT’s editorial resident and lives in Chicago.

You can read the original article here.

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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.

Your friend and brother in fighting the good fight,

Marc

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Saints, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!

Marc and Walk Worthy are supported in part by the body of Jesus Christ. Please consider donating on a regular basis:

www.WalkWorthy.org/donate

You may view our Archives here: AT THE BATTLE FRONT – ARCHIVES; Complete Archives. May our Father richly bless you with His grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in order to walk worthy of His name.

Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.

Marc White, Director, Walk Worthy Ministries, www.WalkWorthy.org

BOTH THE WRATH & LOVE OF GOD ABIDES ON YOU, DEAR FRIEND [DEAR FRIEND 1]

October 10, 2015 by jesusislord Leave a Comment

You already know the Truth. You do. And so does everyone else.

Some have become deceived about it, but some are downright rebellious. I wonder which one you are. Do you know? It’s life and death, for sure.

But, you may quizzically inquire, what is this truth I know that you are speaking about here? What possibly can it have to do with a God’s wrath and love. It makes no sense.

At first…

But upon closer inspection we peel away our self-inflicted ignorance, deception, and rebellion to clearly see this truth we knew years ago even as a child. And then, we can see the God of the universe and His emotions that rightly cause Him to unleash His unbridled fury, His wrath, upon His human creatures who refuse to act on His greatest act of love.

What will you do, then, about this most gruesome fact in your life? Would you not indeed desire…even crave…the reason why? And the knowledge of any solution known to assuage this personal destruction? Or will you just stop here and quit?

Where were you & what did you feel?

Most everyone has witnessed the jets that flew into the World Trade Towers on September 11^th. Most people don’t know this but the men responsible for that despicable act thought they were doing God a favor. No joke.

Do you remember where you were that day in September? What you felt when you saw that on the TV screen? Do you remember the raw emotion at that moment?

So, those men thought they were doing a holy act for God Almighty, but we know better don’t wait. Or do we? What makes their act with those jets wrong?

Well, you might say, it’s wrong to murder all those unsuspecting people in the name of your belief. And you’d be right to say that.

But why is it right? What makes their actions wrong?

The act of murder is against the law. Where does the law come from? How do we know for certain that this is a good law?

It’s because there is a Lawgiver. And He is very specific about His laws. As a matter of fact, the Holy Scriptures proclaim that this God in His love has written His law on the heart of every person who has been born and that He created. Even a young child instinctively knows that murder is not right in any society or culture. And so do we as grown adults.

Why did they do it then?

But then why do grown adults like the men with those jets forget the law that’s on their heart and proceed to murder thousands of people? It’s because they have killed their conscience and convinced themselves that their actions were appropriate. They are deceived. When people are deceived, they don’t know that there deceived. And that’s a huge, huge problem.

Moving forward then, if murder is wrong in the eyes of the Lawgiver, then what else does He say is wrong in His eyes?

Again, in the holy Scriptures, this God states that if we’re angry with a person unjustifiably that this is murder in His eyes. What, you say? Everybody gets angry with people now and then, and that’s unreasonable of any deity to expect that perfection. Well, yes and no.

Yes, in that we all get angry unjustifiably at times. No, that it’s unreasonable of God that He should make a law against this inconsiderate murder.

You see, dear friend, the problem with human beings is that they don’t see their offense other than horizontally or with the other person. In God’s eyes, the Lawgiver, their offense is first and foremost with Him vertically!

As a matter of fact, it plainly states that the wrath of God, His unmitigated and furious anger, abides on all those who refuse His loving and gracious forgiveness in repentance and surrender toward Him. Moreover, the Bible states that people who refuse to acknowledge his right to their lives are storing up wrath for the day of wrath when God is finally revealed in flaming fire with his angels to deal out retribution to those who do not know and those who do not obey the gospel.

Is God unreasonable, then?

But, you protest, I’m a good person and not like those who fly jets into buildings and murder innocent human beings. Well, your unrighteous anger is murder, remember? How many times just this year have you murdered some dear person created in God’s image with your sinful anger?

You can’t put your sins on one part of a balanced scale with your good deeds on the other hoping the good will outweigh the bad. That, dear friend, makes you God.

But why is this such a huge thing to the Almighty? Sin, our countless and limitless errors in life, are a heinous offense since He is flawless. But, then, you say rightly that the Christians proclaim that God is love. How is that so in this case?

In this love from heaven itself He graciously and miraculously initiates the rescue of our souls from Himself…the source of the wrath that abides on our life.

He sends the payment for all…all…these heinous sins of yours. The ultimate cosmic incomprehensible sacrifice of the ages for all time. Once for all sinners.

What sacrifice ever could qualify?

Do you have a favorite child? Or a favorite niece or nephew? Or a favorite child that is close to you in your neighborhood? Think about the love and care that you have for that young person. Muse on the fact that you would want to protect and provide in every way for them.

Now imagine terrible and despicable men come and take that child from you. In the rebellion and scoffing for their hatred toward you, they lash out at the child by torturing and murdering this little one. How do you feel? What would you feel like doing to those men? And why do you feel that justice is served from this retribution?

Now it’s your turn. You know by the things that have been created all around you that there is a God and He is loving in what He is made. You are without excuse in that you know this fact by all the creation that’s around you.

But you are in rebellion against all this because you want your way. You want to do what you want to do and have nothing of the Spirit of God within you at this time. You think nothing of pleasing him and everything of pleasing yourself. You do not seek after God, nor have any interest in the things that interest Him. Consequently, His wrath abides on you for your sin.

But in His gracious mercy and lovingkindness, he provides a payment, a justification, for the sins of the world. And that includes you, dear friend, all the self-centered and narcissistic things you’ve done since you were a little child up until now. Thousands and thousands of transgressions.

Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of the world, left the hallowed and holy perfect halls of heaven become an abode on the earth and become the perfect sacrifice for God the Father, the Lamb of God. The religious leaders of the day turned him over to the civil authorities for torture and murder. And death on a cruel Roman cross. It’s all true, beloved.

It says in the Holy Scriptures that He has already forgiven everybody based on that act some 2000 years ago. But repentance, surrender and continued obedience are the requirements for him to accept you into his kingdom and to live in his heart by his Holy Spirit.

One doesn’t repent and surrender because of what God will do for you, but because of what God wants to get out of you through a holy life. You don’t come to Jesus because He’ll do you good. You Come to Him and surrender because it’s the only way God the Father can get any glory out of any human being.

Jesus Christ is the Friend of sinners, and God the father did love the world so much that He sent His only begotten son. And through that we can now live a life to him instead of to our former lost in selfish self’s. This is all true.

First, the bad news…then the good

But this good news, the gospel, makes no sense in less you know you’ve been rescued from the bad news: the wrath of God abides on you because of your heinous and despicable acts toward God your whole life.

Remember the unrighteous anger being the same as murder? How many hundreds of times have you been on righteously angry, and thus murder the person who received this anger?

Do you see? Do you see your heinous crime against a holy and just God? That is the only way that you can escape and love Him as He desires, and as He deserves.

You must, indeed, count the cost before you join His kingdom through His grace. You cannot enter by any good deeds or works. That makes you God of how good you need to be, like trying to be balancing good versus evil deeds on a scale. The Scriptures plainly state that there is no one that is good and no one that seeks after God.

God draws all of mankind one soul at a time to Himself for them to make this all important surrender to Him. Few there be that find it because of the deep seated rebellion in the hearts of unsaved men and women across the world.

Jesus Christ states that he did not come to bring a peace on the world, but a sword! He abruptly stated that a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. That if we weren’t willing to deny ourselves completely, to become as a dead person and then resurrected, to suffer torture and murder during this process, we shouldn’t even begin. He states that many will come to Him in the day of judgment and claim they did many religious things and even in His name!

And He will say to them: I never knew you, depart from Me all you who practice lawlessness. These are probably the most stunning words in the entire Word of God.

So then, God the Father in his unfathomable love initiates the rescue against Himself by sending His son. What amazing grace.

The Holy Bible speaks to God’s creatures

There’s none righteous in the eyes of God. But God’s rich mercy saves us. We repent, take up our cross daily, and follow the Lord Jesus. We die with Him, we’re buried with Him, we’re resurrected with Him, and sit with Him at the Throne of God!

Romans 3:10-18 (quoting Psalm 14.1-3) as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

Ephesians 2:4-10 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Luke 11:13 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

Luke 14:27-33 “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it? “Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’

Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions…

John 12:24-25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Luke 9:23-25 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?

Romans 6:1-14 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me…

Colossians 2:9-14 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Now what?

You know the truth because He has written it on your heart that He exists, that He’s created everything you see, and that that you are a sinner condemned to hell and the lake of fire because of your rebellion your entire life.

You know the truth now that He is made provision for this terrible sin against him by sending His own son to live a perfect life and to be the perfect sacrifice to assuage His terrible wrath against you and mankind.

What will you do now? For you already know the Truth, and the whole Truth.

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If you wish to contact Marc, the author, email him here.

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See here the short video of the wrenching sacrifice of a father who gives his son to save others from death.

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See here the humanism that destroys millions, and how to escape.

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John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Romans 1:18-20 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Romans 2:4-8 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.

Romans 5:6-10 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Ephesians 5:5-6 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Hebrews 3:7-11 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS, WHERE YOUR FATHERS TRIED Me BY TESTING Me, AND SAW MY WORKS FOR FORTY YEARS.

“THEREFORE I WAS ANGRY WITH THIS GENERATION, AND SAID, ‘THEY ALWAYS GO ASTRAY IN THEIR HEART, AND THEY DID NOT KNOW MY WAYS’; AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, ‘THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.'”

1 Thessalonians 1:10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God has not destined us (the true and obedient believers) for wrath, but for obtaining salvation (being salvaged) through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Ephesians 2:1-10 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Revelation 6:15-17 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

Revelation 19:11-16 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.

And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

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Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your heart’s thoughts in an honorable fashion.

Your friend in fighting the good fight,

Marc

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To those saints following Christ, we’re one day closer to Home, and Him! Love Him wholeheartedly!

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You may view our Archives here: GIVING AN ACCOUNT – ARCHIVES; Complete Archives. May our Father richly bless you with His grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord, in order to walk worthy of His name.

Please comment on this post right below. Feel free to write and proclaim your leadings in the Spirit in an honorable fashion.

Marc White, Director, Walk Worthy Ministries, www.WalkWorthy.org