Thank God For Our Sanctification! Part 6

If you recall last time we looked at:

Thank God for working into us the Nature of Jesus – Part 5

"This is the will of God, even your sanctification." 1 Thessalonians 4:3

      "It is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me; is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the Atonement? Am I willing to let Jesus be made sanctification to me, and to let the life of Jesus be manifested in my mortal flesh? Beware of saying—‘Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.’ You are not, stop longing and make it a matter of transaction— 'Nothing in my hands I bring.' Receive Jesus Christ to be made sanctification to you in implicit faith, and the great marvel of the Atonement will be made real in you. ...

      "My attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness), holiness based on agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation; and also on the amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me.... No wonder Paul says nothing is 'able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'

     "Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God and it is done only through the superb Atonement of Christ. Never put the effect as the cause. The effect in me is obedience and service and prayer, and is the outcome of speechless thanks and adoration for the marvelous sanctification wrought out in me because of the Atonement."

Next time we will examine:

Thank God for the Pressure of His Hand – Part 7

TIPPING POINT

      It’s time for all the so called true Republican Conservative Candidates running for President of the greatest nation on earth to stop all their in-fighting, and seriously begin addressing how to get our nation turned around, headed back toward the prosperous country we all once knew and loved. Of course to do this we know all true Christians, Conservatives, and Independent voters must make a concerted stand against the ‘Liberal Progressive Destructive Machine’. We must make our current President (Barack Obama), a one term President, plus take the majority of the Senate.

    The US Banking Systems, Federal Reserve, and Federal Government Politician Elites have squandered the money of our Children and Grandchildren by creating a National Debt that is unsustainable, which threatens to destroy the very fabric of our nation. Statistics indicate that the total current US Debt if added and divided equally, each family would owe more than $683,000? Well we should all just write a check and sent it to Uncle Sam to pay off our share!!!  

     The freedom and Prosperity of America is being stolen, and the majority of people in America have their heads buried in the sand. Folks: Wake up, Stand-up and pray!

Thank God for working into us The Nature of Jesus – Part 5

If you recall the last time we looked at:

Thank God we belong to Him – Part 4

"Ought not Christ to have suffered these things (means the Bible predicted His Sufferings, which should have been obvious to His followers and would have been had they only devoted time and attention to the Word of God), and to enter into His glory?" (Proclaims that the Bible does outline the coming Kingdom of Glory, hence the “Triumphant Messiah;” however, it must be preceded by the mission of “Suffering Messiah.”) Luke 24:26 (Blue is scripture – Red are notes)

      "Our Lord’s Cross is the gateway into His life: His Resurrection means that He has power now to convey His life to me. When I am born again from above, I receive from the risen Lord His very life. Our Lord’s Resurrection destiny is to bring 'many sons unto glory.’...  His resurrection means for us that we are raised to His risen life, not to our old life. One day we shall have a body like unto His glorious body, but we can know now the efficacy of His resurrection and walk in newness of life. 'I would know Him in the power of His resurrection.’... Thank God it is gloriously and majestically true that the Holy Spirit can work in us the very nature of Jesus if we will obey Him."

Next time we will look at:

Thank God for our Sanctification – Part 6

Ministry Note - (Measuring Viewership)

I have been publishing the Straight Ministry Blog for 7 months now, and find it difficult to measure viewership. I need to know if the blog has been or is a blessing to you. I spend a considerable amount of time writing these articles and publishing this blog.  I would surly appreciate some feedback.

The best way to let me know is to provide a short comment in the appropriate (comment) section at the bottom of each printed blog article (whether devotion or any other Ministry Article – Information).

Presently the blog only shows 6 members (Followers) who have joined the membership of the blog. I encourage you to become a member today.

Thank you for your consideration.

Ron & Peggy

Thank God we belong to Him – Part 4

If you recall the last time we looked at:

Thank God for Difficulties – Part 3

What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19

       "There is no such thing as a private life—‘a world within the world’—for a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ’s sufferings. God breaks up the private life of His saints, and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and for Himself on the other.

       "No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves, we are called into the fellowship of the Gospel, and things happen which have nothing to do with us; God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have his way, if you do not, instead of being of the slightest use to God in His Redemptive work in the world, you will be a hindrance....

      "The first thing God does with us is to get us based on rugged Reality until we do not care what becomes of us individually as long as He gets His way for the purpose of His Redemption. Why shouldn’t we go through heartbreaks? Through these doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son.

      "Most of us fall and collapse at the first grip of pain; we sit down on the threshold of God’s purpose and die away of self-pity, and all so-called Christian sympathy will aid us to our death-bed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, and says—‘Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.’

       "If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart."

Next Time we will look at:

Thank God for working into us the Nature of Jesus – Part 5

Thank God for Difficulties – Part 3

If you recall the last time we looked at

2. Thank God for His strength in our weakness!

“Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: 14) Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it”. Matthews 7:13-14

      "If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?

       "God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practiced. The crisis will reveal whether we have been practicing or not.

       "If we obey the Spirit of God and practice in our physical life what God has put in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand by us. Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! ... Jesus is bringing many 'sons unto glory,' and God will not shield us from the requirements of a son. ...  It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things."

Next Time we will look at:

4. Thank God we belong to Him!

In Everything Give Thanks – Part 2

 "Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."   1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

      Only by His wonderful grace can we see from His perspective, rejoice always, and continually give thanks. Only by His life in us can we walk in humility and live together in the victory of His cross.  Only by His Spirit in us can we obey His Word and follow His ways. Therefore we can thank Him -- not only for the sunny days and happy moments -- but even more for those things that show us our need and draw us closer to Him:

If you recall the last time we looked at
 1. Thank God For Salvation.

Today we look at:

2. Thank God for His strength in our weakness! 

"All my fresh springs shall be in You." Psalm 87:7

     "Our Lord never patches up our natural virtues; He remakes the whole man on the inside. ... The life God plants in us develop its own virtues, not the virtues of Adam but of Jesus Christ. Watch how God will wither up your confidence in natural virtues after sanctification, and in any power you have, until you learn to draw your life from the reservoir of the resurrection life of Jesus.

     "Thank God if you are going through a drying-up experience! The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be. We will cling to the natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us into contact with the life of Jesus Christ which can never be described in terms of the natural virtues.

      "It is the saddest thing to see people in the service of God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them, depending on what they have by the accident of heredity. God does not build up our natural virtues and transfigure them, because our natural virtues can never come anywhere near what Jesus Christ wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. But as we bring every bit of our bodily life into harmony with the new life which God has put in us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that are characteristic of the Lord Jesus."

Next Time we will look at:

3. Thank God for difficulties!

In Everything Give Thanks

"Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."   1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

        

Only by His wonderful grace can we see from His perspective, rejoice always, and continually give thanks. Only by His life in us can we walk in humility and live together in the victory of His cross.  Only by His Spirit in us can we obey His Word and follow His ways. Therefore we can thank Him -- not only for the sunny days and happy moments -- but even more for those things that show us our need and draw us closer to Him:

1. Thank God for our Salvation

"By the grace of God I am what I am His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain."

1 Corinthians 15: 10

      "The way we continually talk about our own inability is an insult to the Creator. ... Get into the habit of examining in the sight of God the things that sound humble before men, and you will be amazed at how staggeringly impertinent they are. ‘Oh, I shouldn’t like to say I am sanctified; I’m not a saint.’ Say that before God; and it means—‘No, Lord, it is impossible for You to save and sanctify me; there are chances I have not had; so many imperfections in my brain and body; no, Lord, it isn’t possible.’ That may sound wonderfully humble before men, but before God it is an attitude of defiance.

      "Again, the things that sound humble before God may sound the opposite before men. To say—‘Thank God, I know I am saved and sanctified,’ is in the sight of God the acme of humility, it means you have so completely abandoned yourself to God that you know He is true. Never bother your head as to whether what you say sounds humble before men or not, but always be humble before God, and let Him be all in all."

Next Time we will look at:

2. Thanking God for His Strength in our Weakness!

On The National Front

National Debt – We have all been lied to.  For decades, the leaders of both major political parties have promised us that they can fix our current system and that they can get our national debt under control. 

As the 2012 election approaches, they are making all kinds of wild promises once again.  Well you know what?  It is all a giant sham.  The United States has gotten into so much debt that I believe there will be no coming back from this.  The current system is irretrievably broken.

30 years ago the U.S. debt was a horrific crisis that was completely and totally out of control.  If we would have dealt with it back then maybe we could have done something about it.  But now it is 15 times larger, and we are adding more than a trillion dollars to the debt every single year

 It wasn't good enough just to squander all of our own money.  We had to squander the money of our children and our grandchildren as well. We have stolen the future of America, and the majority of people in America have their heads buried in the sand. All of this so-called prosperity that we see all around us is just an illusion.  It is a false prosperity that has been purchased by the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world.

If you added up all forms of debt in the United States and divided it up equally then every single family in the country would owe more than $683,000? Well we should all just write a check and sent it to Uncle Sam to pay off our debt!!!

The U.S. debt crisis threatens to destroy everything that our forefathers built. What would happen if the federal government suddenly adopted a balanced budget? Well 1.3 trillion dollars a year would be sucked right out of the economy and we would be looking at an "economic readjustment" that would be mind blowing.

Enjoy this false prosperity while you can, because it is not going to last.

Real or Counterfeit?

Is your belief system Real or Counterfeit? Do you attempt to Blend Truth and Myth by putting on some type counterfeit (false) Armor and call it a True Gospel? Please understand the better the counterfeit, the more deceptive is its power. Unfortunately some Christians and Churches across our country are doing just that. Please examine the following:

God’s Armor

A summary of the True Gospel

Made up of Six Parts.

1.      The Belt of Truth -- The vital truth about God and His plan for redemption.

2.      The Breastplate of Righteousness -- The truth about our need for the cross and God's righteousness.

3.      The Sandals of Peace -- The gracious gift of the Prince of Peace to those who walk in His Truth and Righteousness.

4.      The Shield of Faith -- Putting all our trust in the sovereign power and love of our King and His Word.

5.      The Helmet of Salvation -- Keeping our eyes fixed on the hope of His victory today and forever.

6.      The Sword of the Spirit -- His Word, hidden in our hearts, and wielded against any enemy to peace that might come against us.

     These parts become all the more significant in light of the fact that Jesus, at various times, identified Himself before His disciples as:

·        Truth

·        Righteousness

·        Prince of Peace

·        Our Salvation and

·        The Living Word

     So when you "put on" God's armor, you "clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ." (Romans 13:12-14). Examine these entire 3 verses: 12) “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 13) Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. 14) But put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. . 

     Jesus becomes your hiding place and your shelter in the storm. You can count on His Victory, for He not only covers you as a Shield, He also fills you with His Life.

A BUSHEL OR CUP

James 4:2 states: “You lust, and have not (meaning such a person is not looking to God, but rather operating form self-will): you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain (the word “kill” refers to destroying the reputation of another in order to gain advantage, and to do so by slander, etc.): you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. (This refers to Believers who little seek the Lord for anything, but rather depend upon: other sources that are irregular to say the least!)

James 4:3 states: “You ask, and receive not (and there is a reason), because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts. (Such a person is not asking in the Will of God, but rather from his or her own selfish desires.)

     “Many Christians pray for a bushel, but carry a cup.”  I read this on a sign in front of a church.

      

     In John 16:23 the bible states: “And in that day you shall ask Me nothing (meaning; will not ask Me Personally, as you now do). Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My Name (according to what He did at the Cross, and our Faith in that Finished Work), He will give it you (in other words He places us in direct relationship with the Father, enjoying the same access as He Himself enjoys).

     Listen: It’s obvious that God never intended for His children to lack anything. Jesus said so. Why then do we have prayers that seem to go unanswered? WHAT GIVES?

     Well there is one thing that we seem to forget. Jesus said in John 5:30 “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” Could it be that all our “needs and wants” are not in the will of the Father? We have a bad habit of doing what we want, and then asking God to bless it. God loves us to much to let us get by with that. With loving hands He nudges us back into His will. Whether it’s soft or had nudging depends on us, not Him.

    

     God wants to bless us by the bushel, but most of us only carry a cup.