Don't Be So Hard On Yourself

Have you ever done some things that you thought you will never do or say some things you thought you would never say, and the moment it happen, you felt remorseful and condenmed, because you knew that the act that was committed you could not take back? How did you deal with it, did you walk around in condemnation and disbelief because you couldn't believe you done what had happen? What about forgiving yourself and asking for forgiveness and forgiving others. Don't be so hard on yourself, everyone makes mistakes, if this was a perfect world we would not need Jesus. Rememeber, we do not have a High priest who cannot smypathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrew 4:15-16, New King James).

Spiritual Death vs. Spiritual Life

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." (Roman 5:12). The picture is as if Death is standing outside a closed door and man's sin is throwing the door open and allowing Death to come in to the human. This is not Physical Death, but it does have reference to another kind of Death which Pauls speaks about constrasting Spiritual Death and Spiritual Life.

Spiritual death is the Nature of the Devil and Spiritual Life is the Nature of God; out of Spiritual Death come hatred, jealousy, murder, and out of the Nature of God come love, forgiveness and peace. We can understand the prevalence and power of sin in the world today. We many legislate all we please, but until we change the Nature of Man, sin will grow and flourish; we may stop it here or there, but it will spring up elsewhere. The only hope of the human is a new Nature. Spiritual Death, then, is the Nature that lies behind all sinned committed. Man commits Sin, because his Nature produces that kind of conduct. Spiritual Death made Man mortal, only Spiritual Life can make him immortal.

Logos Word verses Rhema Word

Jesus is the "Logos", the "Word," the personal manisfestation of God in the flesh (Matt 1:23). Rhema denotes "that which is spoken. The significance however of rhema as distinct from logos is that "to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" Eph. 6:17, here the reference is not to the whole Bible as such, but to the individual scripture which the Spirit brings to our rememberance for use in time of need, a prerequisite being the regular storing of the mind with Scripture.

Faith is Present

Where the Word of God is spoken, faith is present. Faith is the energy that is in the Word that gives it the ability to bring itself to past in your life.

Let's look at the word spoken in Abraham's life. "As is it written, I have made you a father of many nations according to what was spoken. "So shall your descendents be. And not being weak in faith, he did not waiver at the promise (the spoken word) of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was also able to perform (Roman 4:17-21). When God spoke these words to Abraham the reality of this truth did not come to past until many years later. "Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace so that the promise (the spoken word) might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (Roman 4:16).

The Faith Walk

Have you ever wondered why God put faith as a requirement for receiving from Him? It seem unnatural. It has made blessings seem unattainable. It seems to put them just beyond our reach. Remember man was created in God's image (Genesis 1:26), a spirit being. We were created to walk with God, who is a Spirit (John 4:24). It is the faith realm. It is the realm of the one "Who calleth those things that be not as though they were" (Romans 4:17). When man died spiritually, he became alienated from God. He ceased to live in the spirit. He became separated from God's ability and began to walk in the flesh. According to Roman 8:5-7, "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God." It is this mind that lives according to the five senses. Living by faith is living in the realm of the Spirit. Are you recieving from God by faith or by your own ability through the five senses?

Was God Fair in His Dealings with the Human Race?

Man is ever accusing God of injustice in His dealings with the human race, and has declared that He had no right to create man in the face of the fact that He knew man would fall. Man questions God's right to judge the human race and to execute sentence based the crime that was committed. Can God justify himself in the face of these accusations? Has God a right to send one man to Hell and another to Heaven? Has God, as Judge, a right to execute the sentence that has been shown in scripture upon those who reject Christ?

If God can save one human being who rejects Jesus Christ as a personal Savior, then He could have saved the whole human race, because there is no difference. If the whole world could have been saved apart from Christ, then God sending Jesus to Hell is the most hideous crime ever committed in the Universe. Man's sin is but child's play in comparison to the unthinkable crime of sending the Holy, innocent Son of God into Hell as our sin Substitute, if it were not necessary. If this be true, then every man who rejects Jesus must legally go to Hell regardless of God's feelings, and every man who accepts Jesus must legally go to Heaven. God stand acquitted in that He did not leave man after the sin that was committed without the means of salvation. This give God a right to sit as Judge on the great White Throne and it seals man's lips forever.

Faith's Real Rest

There are 3 powerful words that describe the condition of the believer who is taking advantage of his privileges in Christ Jesus--rest, peace, and joy. These three words are the fruit of full grown faith. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27). This peace didn't belong to the Jews under the first covenant. The only peace they new would be a national peace, but with the New Creation, it is a peace of the heart, a peace of mind, a peace in his physical body. Sickness is called disease, broken peace, broken rest, broken joy.

Isaiah 26:3 is a prophecy of the church, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee".