You Are Not Your Own

     “Do you not know that … you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). There is no such thing as a private life, or a place to hide in this world, for a man or woman who is intimately aware of and shares in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. God divides the private life of His saints and makes it a highway for the world on 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 intimacy with the gospel, and things happen that appear to have nothing to do with us. But God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have His way. If you refuse, you will be of no value to God in His redemptive work in the world, but will be a hindrance and a stumbling block.

    

     The first thing God does is get us grounded on strong reality and truth. He does this until our cares for ourselves individually have been brought into submission to His way for the purpose of His redemption. Why shouldn’t we experience heartbreak? Through those doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son. Most of us collapse at the first grip of pain. We sit down at the door of God’s purpose and enter a slow death through self-pity. And all the so-called Christian sympathy of others helps us to our deathbed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, as if to say, “Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.” If God can accomplish His purposes in this world through a broken heart, then why not thank Him for breaking yours?

Afflictions Warning

Please note: Affliction is full of warnings. It has many voices and these of the most various kinds. It speaks counsel, it speaks rebuke, it speaks affection. ...

1. Affliction says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world [referring to the world system, not the people of the world] the love of the Father is not in him." (I John 2:15).

2. Affliction says, "Take heed and beware of covetousness" (Luke 12:15). Riches cannot help, neither earthly comfort avail us in the hour of grief. They cannot dry up tears, nor reunite broken bonds. ... It is then we find that we need a "treasure in the heaven that fails not."...

3. Affliction says, "abstain from all appearance of evil" (I Thess. 5:22). "Hate even the garments spotted by the flesh."... It is not merely abstain from evil, but from all appearance of evil. Suffering teaches us to shrink from sin -- even from the remotest and most indirect connection with it. It says, "Oh, do not that abominable thing which I hate!"

4 Affliction says, "Do not grumble against one another." (James 5:9). Let there be no halfhearted affection in the family of God. Let there be no envy, no jealousy, no misunderstandings among the brethren. Why should we be less than friends who are both fellow-sufferers and fellow-soldiers here? ... Yet oftentimes it needs affliction to teach us this, to remove our jealousies, and to draw us together as brethren in sympathy and love.

5. Affliction says, "Keep yourselves from idols" (I John 5:21). If there be one remaining idol, break it in pieces and spare it not. Nothing is so fruitful a cause of suffering as idolatry. Nothing so forcibly displays the vanity of our idols as suffering. ...

Church of the living God! Be warned. Please not yourself, even as Jesus pleased not Himself. Live for Him, not for yourself, for Him, not for the world. Walk worthy of your name and calling, worthy of Him who bought you as His bride, worthy of your everlasting inheritance.

Miss Liberty

     I’ll never forget the first time I saw in person the Statue of Liberty in the New York harbor. As a young soldier at the time, it really made me proud to be an American. Yes, there is something special about “Miss Liberty” that evokes a strong feeling of the meaning of freedom. But let me draw your attention to another symbol which stands as a visual reminder of the real central truth of freedom and liberty that being the Cross of Jesus.
     Our freedom in the United States symbolized by Miss Liberty is rapidly eroding away causing one to conclude that those freedoms we as Americans have cherished so many years are not eternal. The only sure eternal symbol is the Cross pointing to the sacrifice and finished work of Jesus which makes available life and freedom to every person who believes and accepts Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God who died on the cross for them.
     Therefore, this 4^th of July let up ponder our freedom and work together by demanding smaller government intervention in our lives, and do our part to help restore liberty and freedom to our great nation. Trust God and pray.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

    You’ve no doubt heard that old saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

     Faith is like that. Since it can’t be seen, visible results of it prove its existence. You can’t see love, but you can see the results of it. If you tell your spouse you love them, but that’s all you ever do is tell them, do you think they really believe you. What if you never lifted a hand to help them, and never showed your love in visible ways? What if you never said a kind word, but all you ever did was criticize, abuse, and generally mistreat them? Do you think that saying “I love you” would make them believe you. No way! It takes action (works) along with belief (faith) to complete love.

     I can believe (Faith) a tree is a peach tree all day long, but if it never produces (Works) a peach, how do I know it’s a peach tree. Maybe it just looks like one, and even if it were, what good would it be. They are not big enough for a shade tree. Listen: Without fruit, a tree is not a fruit tree. It’s the fruit that makes it a fruit tree, not the tree barren of any fruit.

     Folks, pray that God will show you how to manifest your faith in Him, into works that give evidence of your faith. Become a fruit bearing Child of God!