God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world...

But that the world, through Him, might be saved.

How do I get saved, Lord? is the question. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved... Now that I am saved, when will sanctification hit my tongue. Conviction strikes my language. How can I love God and, still be so swift to use His name in vain? I don't know. It seems that many, who preach so strongly of the importance of the control of the tongue, are preaching from a history of parental controls. We often jump hard on the one whose tongue is given to cursing and struggles at the altar in confession, because of bad habits. I hear people jump on the new creation of God, in men, who have not learned the discipline of self control in the use of their tongues. It is the devil and maybe you are not a Christian if you are still struggling in this area. Many had diligent mothers who washed their mouths out with soap, early and the habit was eradicated. We cannot relate to one whose habit is to use the name of God and other words as a release from the stressers.
I have to say that, I would leave a church, were I a man, if the preacher jumped on that too frequently, without also instructing on the identification of God, in anger and what are the uses, good and evil of anger in our lives. If I preach that a man must control his mouth, that means blessing instead of cursing. That means instructions on the positive side of what we should be saying and doing and being. Not for show, or because people are watching. "I want to look, like a Christian, so I keep my tongue from evil?" That is humanism. "Lord, cleanse my tongue and my life for Your glory." That is Christian. We get it very confused. We use the Word of God as a battering rod against fledgling believers to try to "keep the behavior of the Saints consistent." In this post-Church era, we will be struggling with the behavior consistency, if we are a New Testament Church. There will be some who grew up in Christian homes and know how to behave". That doesn't make them a Christian. And there will be those who love Jesus with all their hearts and carry the tongue of cussing to their graves. God is a deliverer. But, to some this will be a thorn in the flesh.




Ninevites and Sodomites and Gommorrites, rising in the judgements may mean that there will be a post-church era, that allows cultures to rise to unheard of levels of depravity. But, Like a flood, God raises a standard against it. I believe we have seen the salvation of the Ninevites and the Sodomites and were sleeping and condemning while God was moving by His Spirit. May we not miss what God is doing now, for telling God, what we think He should be doing.

Bless the Lord, Oh my soul

Psalm 103:20 Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. 21 Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. 22 Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

Find a place in your soul to Bless the Lord!Be as the angels that do what He says because He says it. Be as the ministers who seek to find ways to please Him beyond the specific Word of His reference. Or as the works of His creation who act in syncopation with the schedule of His will. Find a place in your soul to bless the Lord. I wanted to think that Mr. Moon was staying up this morning to bless me, but I know that he is really just doing the bidding of his creator. I must find, in my duties and in my leisure a way to bless the Lord.

Proverbs 5:22

"His own iniquities shall take the wicked and he shall be held with the cords of his own sins." The foolishness that binds the heart of a child will and can become chains, if not loosened from them. We watch this happen in our own hearts and it is sad, but sadder, to a parent, when we see it in our children. Christ can free us from our chains of our own molding, true. But the picture of the hellbound sinner walking through eternity with chains clanging is exemplified in this verse. The chains begin in life and will bind us through eternity, if not reproved and disciplined. So much more enjoyment and freedom there is for the child who has learned early to discipline his own behavior rightly. Christ is ever standing to save and deliver, but the ministry of parenting is to loose the bonds of folly that would become chains on their souls.

The Ministry of Mighty Arms?

I do remember a letter that was given to me on the day of my baby's funeral. It was from Pastor Martin. Though, there is little that is clear about that day, his letter is clear and his letter assisted me through life to appreciate the ministry of the mighty arms of men around me.
He was absent, because of some providence, but his dear wife, Marilyn held me in her arms and apologized for his absence. In the letter, he bid me to see him as hugging me there at the cemetary.
So many strong men were around to represent the mighty arms of God, that also seemed absent in my distress. I could, as it were, reason from the lesser to the greater in that sorrow. If I could imagine that Pastor Martin were there, when it was Marilyn, I could imagine that God were here, though He too felt so gone. I was comforted by that.
I do bid Godly men to use their might to represent God well on earth, and especially in grief.

Proverbs 8---Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

verse 22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

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I always think of Wisdom, in Chapter 8 of proverbs as the apprentice of the Lord. A sitting student, learning and taking notes of the workings, by which God does all His holy will.

I have changed my mind and think of her,now as a dutiful wife, learning her Lord and rearing His children and giving them the instructions of their father. The woman of bondage, I think,{as Hagar was} often despised by the children, but dutiful in her labors. She has no idea where her offspring will go or what they will do, but her children are taught of the Lord. Wisdom is the principle thing, therefore get wisdom, don't despise her!

The Purchase Price of Redemption is the Purchase of the Love of the Brethren!

When we are not in Christ, we cannot love brethren with a pure love.

Blest be the tie that binds...Our hearts in Christian love,
The fellowship of kindred hearts is like to that above.

The taste of heaven on earth is the purchase of brotherly love, by the blood of Jesus.

We have nurtured our hearts in the world so long that we don't appreciate the deliverance of God from the imaginations of our own hearts that are always evil, and continually.
How wickedly we would use and abuse oneanother, were it not for the instruction of God and the institution of Christian love in the Church. We can love oneanother in the family and we can love the brethren with a more pure love. We can reprove oneanother and correct one another, in love, because of the Blood of a perfect Savior.

He instructs us to be living in the love of Christ with one another. Sisters and Brothers who are from different backgrounds, but have one Father in Heaven, who teaches us how to love oneanother, in family and in the church and in the community. God give us grace to live and love, in the tie that binds us, The Blood of Jesus.

Seek the Lord.

Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.

A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.

Proverbs 18:1 and 2

Desire and love are the digging place for the human dogged determination. Solomon points this out so succinctly. Like a dog, after a bone, when we love a subject, we search it out and find the smallest detail of it. In contrast, Solomon, through the Holy Spirit directs us, that a fool is only interested in revealing himself to others, it is as though his nose for truth is pressed against his own heart.



























This is what I am doing and this is what I am thinking and this is what I want etc. The rod of correction was fashioned by God to take our noses out of our own bosoms and place them in the dirt of truth to uncover the gems and precious things that He has hidden there. Would to God, that we would search Him out, with dogged determination.