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Sojourners What are our expectations as sojourners here? Imprisonment, torture, persecution. We are headed for the most oppressive government ever determined to control its citizens, restricting religious freedoms, and discriminating against believers simply because of their allegiance to Jesus. How are we to endure such suffering in this world and remain faithful witnesses to our country? Faithful endurance in the face of hostility, by reminding us to rest in the salvation God has accomplished for us. Remaining faithful to fulfill the mission God has called us to. Trace Jesus’ steps marked with suffering, and stand in the grace that God has given us. God “chose” us out of this world to be a people for His own possession. We are secure in the hand of the triune God, no matter what we may face in this world. It was planned from eternity past by His foreknowledge and His forelove. Believe that God marked you out! We will ratify the covenant. And even if we die, we will yet live again. And because of this living hope, we don’t have to fear death. In Christ, we already claim our eternal inheritance. We must see that each trial we endure, strengthens and purifies our faith. As we rest in God’s salvation for us in Christ, as sojourners, we are also humbled by the reality that we live in the privileged time of the promised fulfillments of Jesus. And we think on the subsequent glories that are to be ours. Though we have hope for the better times, this is the privileged time of testimony. So, let us humble ourselves, and no matter what we face in this world, rest in the purpose that what God is accomplishing, is us. He is preparing our minds to encounter the events determined to finish His work. And we, being sober-minded, are to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Oh, that we see his face in every hardship, every trial, because we know there is no difficulty, no test, no pain, no sorrow, no affliction, no disease, no loss, that can separate us from the love God has for us in His own Son, Jesus. The Father planned it; the Son accomplished it; the Spirit applied it, as it was determined by the Triune God in counsel. To fulfill His purpose, God gave us laws that would distinguish us from our worldly neighbors in their worship, in their government, in their sexual ethic, even in their clothing and diet. It is this relationship between God and His people, where we promise to be God’s display nation on this earth. Not even the angels could be this. We are exiles throughout the world, being led by Jesus on a second exodus to our eternal, imperishable inheritance in the new heavens and new earth. We are to call all peoples everywhere to consider Christ, that they be caught up to meet the Lord in the air lest when he returns in wrath to judge the world, they be caught up in his judgment. We need each other Our sojourn here is not to be in isolation. We need each other. We are to practice loving one another, forgiving one another, encouraging one another and exhorting one another. The time is soon coming whereby each will have to stand alone. Our standing must be so firmly planted in the life of Jesus, that entrusting our souls to the faithful creator means that we also must trust Him when He saves our enemies and makes them our brothers. This too is standing firm in the grace of God. Thankfully, we will face difficult situations and decisions in this hostile world, and Christ has given us his learned shepherds made available to us. Seek their counsel in the reasoning for truth in every word of God. They are a grace from God, and we are to stand firm in such grace. As sojourners, our suffering is not unique. It’s not unique to our time in history, and it’s not unique to our geographical location. All that the enemy can do, is only briefly. After just a little while, it is over. Nothing compares to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us. As long as we have breath, brothers and sisters…we proclaim who our God is! Sojourners have a test of faith that outweighs sin. Christ sojourned here in the fulness of faith. He was burdened with the weight of the world’s sin, yet he trusted God to the cross. Abraham sojourned by faith going to that far country, while trusting God in offering his son as a sacrifice. The hebrew men thinking it not careful to speak truth for God by faith entering the fiery furnace, trusting God. And Daniel, while beholding the trial of his friends trusting to his faith, in knowing that God was with them. Sojourners have no conflict with cultural demands regardless of the consequences. We are in a country that is associated with strong nationalistic tendencies. We are to offer a word that speaks to the disordered relationship between God and country. We are called to love God. The opponents of God seek to entrap us by obligation to the word, to serve those God set as masters. We have no betrayal of faith in affirming the authority of God when man violates the basic principles of God’s truth. In such circumstances, they are no longer servants for good, and we no longer owe them our loyalty or service. God placed us in this nation as a symbol to be a sign. This nation is nothing more and nothing less than the way man organizes our common life together. Sojourners commend what we can accomplish together, but we are serious about the commitments we have to our God. Far too often, the nation of men becomes an idol that asks for our complete devotion. We have an obligation to remind people of this danger, but this can be a hard message to offer in today’s hyper-patriotic world. This is not a challenge from which we can or should run. We are now in a season of dismaying darkness that awaits a lamp of guidance and assurance. The world is at a failed end. The word of God meets us in awesome inscrutability. We must have a daily rendezvous with God. We need to understand our identity. I am one of the people of God, elect from every nation, yet one in all the earth having a mystic, sweet communion with those whom God has taken to Himself. Our clarity will be unmistakable. Either we are the servants of God, or we are servants of ourselves. Either we listen to and hear God’s Word, or we are deaf to God’s Word. Either we are gathering to God, or we will be scurrying from the falling mountains. That distinction runs throughout the whole of the bible and throughout the whole of the world. There are all kinds of divisions in this world. But the great division is the division that exists between those who by grace are members of God’s family, and those who remain outside of God’s family. But God is such a seeking God and a gracious God, that He makes overtures to people who find Him even when they’re not looking for Him! Remember the Edomites, our brothers, and the Egyptians, who hosted us. These can be added to the final generation. Deep roots? Sojourners don’t put down deep roots in the places where they reside because they know they will soon move on. True believers don’t pour their hearts and passions into things that won’t last. The wise of the elect are the ones who live every day with the word packed in mind, ready to move on when God directs, and eager to guide others to prepare to vacate this world when our Father calls. Sojourners will be those who are in continual separation from any faction that is not fully found in the truth. Not quite belonging will be their understanding to embrace with greater zeal the truth of every word of God. Sojourners for Christ will so reason with the word of God, as to attain knowledge concerning the mystery of humanity and becoming sons and daughters of God, as did Jesus as we were once flawed vessels. It is Jesus in the life that mediates the conflict between being human and becoming like him. Our faith will be extended through every encounter with conflict. Our desert will be in the ultimate purpose of suffering for Christ. We know that God is love; means that He will do everything to help us love Him. Everything to change us into His likeness. He knows well how infinitely longing is our heart to be with Him. He suffers more in love than we do, suffers all the heartache of seeing those whom He called not come. Scripture speaks to us as strangers and sojourners, by means of signs and wonders that foretell and bring the coming of Christ. Unusual phenomenon will happen in many places on a daily basis. The people of this country will become the most virulent terrorist group ever in history. America will be the scene of constant conflict. And the inserting factor that will drive the constant tension, will be from those who were once familiar with us. Is it not reasonable to think that any separation that God allows now, is a sign that our destination is nearing its end. As sojourners, our view of the kingdom does not warrant our disregard for the signs among us. We must recognize the purpose of every event as bringing Christ to gathering his chosen elect. We are to reason every event with its causative connection to the word of God. It was by reading every event that Christ was able to discern the coming consequences that he would encounter. We are to build up righteousness and justice and peace. That is the blessedness of our purpose, and that is our striving. And we are to attempt to accomplish this by impressing upon the minds of others that present truth about the coming bitterness in the world, while encouraging them in the complete victory of Christ. We as sojourners, are to be the clearest sign in the last time to make others aware of the calling of God. We will be of God’s service to call others out of the world even while the greatest apostacy will take place in the sphere of the church. God must distinguish sharply those who rejected truth, from those who are His. All will have to face this question…when truth was brought to you, where did you stand? The sojourners intensity of bible study will cause them to hear Christ’s footsteps in these signs. Hear prayerfully, be watchful, be faithful and strong in the Lord. God’s view of the sojourners’ journey closely aligns with how God’s relationship with Abraham was guarded. Our faith also must prompt us to live as strangers in this foreign country. The status of God’s people as sojourners and strangers, is built into the very fabric of our relationship with God. This is reasoned in the depth of the counsel to the final of the seven churches. Many who have professed Christ, have reached a degree of comfort and prosperity and fail to empathize with the people of God who will suffer the affliction, rather than enjoy the pleasures of the world. As people of faith, we inherit the same faith as the people listed in Hebrews. We are in a country neither by origin nor by rule, conquest or economics. Current events line us with 1st Peter, chapter 2. We are here as ambassadors, assigned for a short term, representing our Savior. We have infinite needs; we have needs that are impossible for the world to fill. As God’s chosen people our souls crave spiritual, eternal and heavenly things. We belong to Christ. And though we will be “forced” to the wilderness in the very short future, we will have the peace of solitude that comes through faith. Jesus has the sword that severs families, nations, communities, even churches. It is inevitable. We should not want it any other way. And because of this, there are some important duties laid upon us. Since salvation, by its very nature is a separation, we need to maintain a sense of that separation. Because our Savior is holy, so are we to be. God expects us to be witnesses of His grace, and that means leaving a door open for communication with the inhabitants of the land. But be not consumed by this world. We will abide in obedience as far as it is right. But our lives should conform to the laws of the country where we are not sojourners and strangers. And by this many will be converted. Esther 3:8; 8:8,17 God’s sojourners are drawing closer and closer like stones hewed for the building of His temple in heaven...fellow saints, fellow citizens, and fellow heirs.

Friends Jesus is the ONLY begotten Son and is ontologically related to God the Father unlike any other being. He is our friend. He is divine with the same divinity as the one God and Father, and the Holy Spirit, the life-creating Spirit, and he is also really human, like you and I in the flesh, but not by conception and without the inherited nature given to us. He is therefore perfectly, completely, totally divine and perfectly and totally, completely human. Thanks be to God, that Jesus really is human, that God really became a man. He who is divine has become now human, a truly masculine human being, without ceasing to be divine. He is the man Jesus. He is one Person in two natures, out of and in two natures. He is the divine Son of God who becomes human, a real human being. Do not compromise his real humanity. The reality of the Incarnation is a change. He who is infinite became finite. He who is uncreated took the form of a creature. He who is boundless has become circumscribed. He who had no flesh has become flesh. He who is invisible has become visible. He whom we could not touch, we can now touch, we can smell, we can taste, we can see. And from all eternity, we might say from God’s perspective, the Son of God somehow for God was always divine and human, because there’s no time for God. We can’t even envision what it was before he was incarnate, even as Michael. That’s hidden from our full understanding. But this we know…he who is our Lord and God and Master has become, in his humanity, our Friend and our Brother. So, we affirm again and again the real humanity of Jesus. We want to think a little bit about this word “friend,” that God is our Friend, and he is not our enemy. He is not hostile to us. He’s not our adversary. He is the one who is our Friend, and the friend is the one who’s always there. The friend is the one that we can trust. If you have a really good friend, that friend will be your friend even when you sin against that friend, even when you offend him. Somehow, that’s even how friendship is tested. If people are truly friends, wisdom speaks about what a true friend is…well, a true friend is there all the time, no matter what. A friend is one who does not betray. A friend is the one that you can tell anything to, and it won’t break the friendship. A friend is the one that can be perfectly trusted not to do harm, not to retaliate, not to be vindictive, not to do vengeance, not to be offended. a friend does not retaliate Oh, yeah, friends get angry with each other, but they follow the scripture and don’t sin. And truth between friends is that binding commitment to not put loyalty above the truth. We are servants of God and servants of Christ, and in that service we become friends. My wife, my son, my spiritual family…these are friends. I belong to them, because friendship is a form of mutual belonging. We belong to one another. We are members, one of another. That’s what constitutes our love, our friendship. Bound to one another, but in freedom. And in this freedom there is the obedience to God. Peter betrayed Christ. But Jesus tested Peter’s friendship. Study the three verses, fifteen through seventeen of chapter twenty one of John. Research each instance of the term love as exchanged between Jesus and Peter. Note the times referenced refer to “love” and the times reference is made to “friend”. So to be a friend is very important. Jesus calls us his friend because all things that he has heard of his Father he has made known unto us. What could admit and advance us to the dignity of being a friend of Jesus. As to the secret will of God, there are many things which we must be content not to know; but, as to the revealed will of God, Jesus Christ has faithfully handed to us what he received of the Father. The words that he speaks unto us are not of himself: but of the Father that dwelleth in him. Jesus says that it is God that doeth the works. The relational element to being a friend of Jesus is critical: we are Jesus’ friends who first and foremost remain in his presence. And it is precisely this connection that renders friendship and labor as the key to also being a servant of Christ. the world is a "labor of love" Understand the foundation of a godly friendship. The Father involves the Son in the founding and sustaining of the world. What is new is the revelation of why   the Father chose to include the Son, rather than simply creating by Himself. It was an act of love. The Father shows His love for the Son by placing all things in his hands, beginning with the act of creation. The world is a “labor of love” in the fullest sense of the word. Work must be something more wonderful than we usually give it credit for, if adding to someone’s work is an act of love. Let’s understand this deeper. The Word took on human flesh. And then there’s an other process, human flesh was filled with God’s spirit. Jesus did, just as we do, receive God’s Spirit through a form of birth. Birth is a process that occurs in the flesh. When we become truly spiritual, we do not slough off the flesh and enter some immaterial state. Instead, we are more perfectly born…born “from above”, into a state of union of Spirit and flesh, like Jesus himself. Jesus says that those born from above will come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God. Hear how this shows important ethical implications for work. There was the woman at the well. She has direct discussion of human labor. a well Let’s draw deeply to taste it. We are familiar with the woman’s inability to move from the everyday work of drawing water to Jesus’ pronouncements on the life-giving power of his word. And we are acquainted when the crowds repeatedly show an inability to transcend everyday concerns and address the spiritual aspects of life. They do not see how Jesus can offer them his body as bread. They think they know where he is from, Nazareth, but they fail to see where he is really from: heaven; and they are equally ignorant as to where he is going. How is this relevant for thinking about work. The story of the woman surely tells us that physical water alone cannot confer on us eternal life. Jesus did not come to free us from work. Remember the work the Father handed over to the Son…Jesus made the water in the well, and he made it good. If he then uses that water to illustrate the dynamics of the Spirit’s work in the hearts of would-be worshippers, that could be seen as an ennoblement of the water. This led to the woman going to the city to bring a gathering to Jesus. She worked. And what of the fields ripened for harvest. That this is necessary work ,  and the occasion for it very urgent and pressing. Jesus’ heart was as much upon the fruits of his gospel as the hearts of others were upon the fruits of the earth; and to this he would lead the thoughts of his disciples. Remember, this was after the woman left her waterpot and the disciples were concerned with Jesus being hungry. He wanted the disciples to see the people's forwardness to hear the word as a great excitement to work in diligence and liveliness in preaching the word of truth. This was profitable and advantageous work, which they themselves would be gainers by. Christ has undertaken to pay those well whom he employs in his work. There is a present reward in our service for Christ, and doing his work is its own wages. Those who work for Christ gain fruit. This fruit is gathered gain fruit for Christ unto life eternal and the worker shall both save himself and those that hear him. If the faithful servant save his own soul, that is fruit abounding to his account, it is fruit gathered to life eternal; and if, over and above this, he be instrumental to save the souls of others too, there is fruit gathered. Souls gathered to Christ are fruit, good fruit, the fruit that Christ seeks for. It is gathered for Christ; it is gathered to life eternal. This is the comfort of faithful workers, that their work has a tendency to the eternal salvation of precious souls. They have joy knowing that Jesus sows and they reap and rejoice together. Note, first, though God is to have all the glory of the success of the work, yet faithful workers may take the comfort of it. We share in the joy of harvest, though the profits belong to the Master. The word says we simply enter into the labor that others began. Such as that testimony of the woman at the well. God’s work means the comprehensive restoration or completion of the work God had done in the beginning. Whatever work we do as Christ’s followers is filled with the glory of God, because Christ has already worked the fields to prepare them for us. The redemptive work of Christ after the fall is of a kind with his creative productive work from the beginning of time. Likewise, the redemptive work of his friends is in the same sphere typified by their testimony, our reaping his harvest. Sabbath work God keeps the creation going even on the Sabbath, and therefore Jesus, who shares the divine identity, is permitted to do the same. Jesus is almost certainly not alone in arguing that God is at work on the Sabbath, for our good. This in no way deduces the propriety or impropriety of our doing work on the Sabbath. We may be doing God’s work, but we do not share the divine identity with God as does Christ. Work that maintains and redeems the creation and contributes to closer relationships with God and people is appropriate for the Sabbath. Whether any particular work fulfills this description must be discerned by the person(s) involved. As we work in faith to restore what has been broken, we call people to remember the goodness of the creator God. As we work in faith to develop the capacities of the creation, we call people to reflect on the goodness of humanity’s God-given dominion over the world. The work of redemption and the work of creation, done in faith, both shout out our trust in the God who is, and who was, and who is to come.

The Weight Consider the effect of hate in an individual. It takes away a person’s satisfaction with himself. It shows frailty. It threatens them with everlasting torments for their self-exaltation. Moral weakness, selfishness and greed…just a fleeting shadow. Enmity against God is the principle from whence all acts of sin flow. Why would the chief of the disciples deny knowing Christ? There were two main reasons why Peter denied Jesus: weakness and fear. The weakness born of human frailty. The world hated Jesus, and Peter found that he was not prepared to face the ridicule and persecution that Jesus was suffering. Jesus had warned Simon Peter that a test of faith was coming. He was put in the same predicament as Job. The accuser wanted to shake Peter’s faith so forcefully that he would fall, proving that God’s faithful servant was lacking. Peter was unaware that he had been sifted. It was not just Peter who was in danger, though. The word for “you” in the verse is plural and italicized. Jesus was speaking to the whole of his election. The enemy wants to shake us apart. God’s purpose is that the violent sifting would remove all impurities that cling to the heart. Jesus’ interceding prayer and questioning are to strengthen us all. It takes faith in the wisdom and mind of Christ to see things as they are, else we see them as we are. Our true faith and perseverance are revealed not in a walk of sinless perfection but in repentance and restoration. That is why hatred is self deception about other people. Think about how propaganda is so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to foster friendly feelings. When men deceive others they may know it, but when they deceive themselves, they know it not. People have a conspicuous tendency to rationalize their questionable actions and attitudes. For instance, when they are vengeful and envious and hate-filled, they often think it is only just resentment of the injuries they have suffered. They deny responsibility for their moral defects and transgressions. Hatred demonstrates no devotedness of heart to God; no exercise of any love to God. Those that hate do not realize that He is so holy a God as He is. They do not realize that God has such a hatred of sin as indeed He has. They seek to find such a hatred against that god which they have formed, to suit themselves. But what they fail to reason is that whatever piety and moral behavior that continues in the world is thanks to God’s restraining hand, which is holding back human iniquity from creating a hell on earth at this time. There is no innate human goodness in the world today, there are divine limitations on human evil. the world The open expression of human hostility to God in this world is the result of sin itself showing human hatred in open display. In a sense, their opposition to God prevents people from being conscious of any hatred. While at the same time, some people’s belief in future judgment has done a great deal to restrain human enmity from breaking out into public view. But surrounding influences have loosened the restraint upon the wickedness of the world. The ultimate proof of this hostility was the murder of God’s Son. As then, there are too many in this nation that are imbruing their hands in his blood through the showing of hatred. On top of that, the fury, the rage, the choler narrative shows them carrying the murder out with the utmost malice and cruelty against other human beings. Human hatred has a powerful noetic effect. Man, when opposed to reason in any aspect, is carnally a miserably darkened and blind creature and his blindness chiefly consists in two things; his ignorance of God in His divine excellency and next to that, man is most ignorant of himself. As a result, hatred grows as a fallen person or a falling person refuses to see the truth of the plainest thing in the world because sin bids him to shut his eyes. shut his eyes Willful sinners tend to believe what they want to believe, often without even any pretense of rationality. This is the ruination of human reasoning...a great tragedy in the human story. Now overborne by the power of strong preconceptions and evil inclinations, human reasoning has been seriously corrupted and perverted. This is observed in the way that people are so sudden and thoughtless in the judgments which they pass upon things. God’s purpose so counters this human perversity in His calling to election those whom He knows are of faith. These know that biblical belief is eminently and exceptionally reasonable. The power of faith today in the word of God sustains us. Sin, in the beginning appeared in the form of disobedience. Sin now assumes the very substance of hatred and it infects and perverts practically everything that people do. Many professing believers derive their thinking on hatred from trends in contemporary academia and the mass media. Despite being God’s special creation, human to human violence exceeds what can be found among animals. Hatred gives rise to much self deception about the presence or absence of real faith in God. Let’s call this spiritual numbness. Spiritual numbness is when you stop hearing God, stop hearing from God, stop being open to God, and stop being honest with God. Where there is spiritual numbness, there is spiritual blockage. Hate historical roots is toxic no matter what the motivation. And to abandon historical roots is apparently a bridge too far. Thus, hatred is taught to the children as though it is an heirloom of humanity . We are in the most dramatic moments for the people of God. There is a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives. One is how to love in the face of hate. The other is to hate the fact that we are to love even our enemy. Another is being troubled by a deep antipathy to hatred. There are times when seeing self as God’s love sees us is a difficult if not near impossible task. There are times when seeing others as love sees them is a difficult and nearly impossible task. Faith is that which sustains us in the darkness, carrying us through hate and into love. Humanity is likewise facing a darkness that is shadowed by a brokenness based on the false superiority of one group over another. We are never to become hateful ourselves towards those who espouse such behavior. We are to make lovingness a habit. Kindness, compassion, listening, learning that accepts the plurality and diversity of others and is content with complexity and difference. Hatred denies God’s creation. A loving heart and mind of Christ are to be open to the diversity that is the nature of the world and the nature of who we are. Hatred pulls us back into an imagined world that bleeds all the colors out of the rainbow and leaves only a grey sameness and conformity, a world that will collapse into itself. hatred bleeds all the colors out of the rainbow Two poisons begin their work within the person that explodes outward in a hateful behavior. These are “malice” and “envy”. It is an attitude of wickedness as an evil habit of one’s mind. Malice describes a vicious intention and expresses the desire to hurt another and rejoices in it! Envy is resenting someone who has some excellence that is wanted. Without question a vicious, virulent spirit of hatred is on the loose in this country. Because hate is not a reaction to a particular slight, but a reaction to bad character revealed in a history of bad action, this country’s state of affairs accompanies a situation where circumstances have a past and a present effect on its consequences. These particular circumstances are the consequence of a myriad of previous situations and present influences of such extreme hatred, and are so striking that discriminant power against another desires that they cease to exist. There are those who thrive on the joy of hate. But there is hope. Greater is He that is within us… If God would show us why there is so much evil and hate, then we would be able more fully to know Him and thank Him and trust Him and love Him and join Him in His purposes for the world. The bible teaches that God governs the world with all-embracing, all-pervading, meticulous providence. Nothing lies outside the rule of God. He allows all He does to establish His purposes. God’s allowance is always owing to a purpose. We ask for a biblical vision of why God allows hate. This kind of world exists because God planned a history of redemption before the world existed. And then according to that plan, God permitted that sin enter the world. This allowance was according to plan, and that plan was so that there could be a history of merciful redemption from sin. God has a people being made manifest that He called with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Hate exists because of sin. God ordained that there be sin. It is not sin to will that sin be. That’s a heavy statement. It is not sin for God to will that sin happen. Some are coming to faith through Jesus Christ and his work on the cross because in eternity past God gave grace to us. God subjected the natural world to futility in hope. We are in a drama of the horrors of sin. This is a signpost to show how outrageous sin and hatred against God is. signpost Hate is rejecting God’s wisdom, God’s love. There is a present vanity to which the creature, by reason of the sin of man, is made subject. The immense hatred is what the creation has waited upon for the revealing of the sons of God. God designed this hope in this hate-filled world. This is our purpose for hastening the day of God. The bible tells us that the world hates us…it hates Jesus, and it hates God. The reason this world of evil and hatred exists is so that we who are the chosen of Jesus would be able to experience and display the profound, God-honoring reality that Christ is more precious than everything we can lose in this world. And we show this by our love by not murmuring or complaining or seeking vengeance, but rather resting in him and trusting in him and treasuring him. Love is better than hate. And our love for God and for our brothers and sisters is to be so powerful as to render our hate for sin just as powerful as our love to hate sin will do what the love of God did for the world…as Jesus died for our sins, that love will cause hate to cease. This is the true path of love that leads to the joy of heaven. Hate is permitted so that the greatest act of love in the history of the world could happen - that is, so that Christ could perfect a people who would love as he loves. If there was no hate we could not exemplify the character of Jesus Christ to the world. There’s no other way that godly love could be shown so fully. God has not wasted the sufferings and the hate of this world. He planned it to fall on his Son, and He purposed it to come to its full and to its end in our day. What does reason say…for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. God had predestined this.Christ was not hated by accident. This is not just a chance of history, just a turning of the world’s affairs, a people possessed with violent hate. This had been planned since before the foundation of the world. This is central to the reason for all existence. The Son of God bore the suffering and the hate of the world in order to lift sin from all who would trust him and bring them into everlasting joy, glorifying God for His power and wisdom and grace and love. That’s the reason this kind of world exists. Be made strong in this. Thousands will not rise to life from their sleep this night. And God would have done nobody any wrong. Hatred is just the forerunner of the calamity that is coming. We sorrow in hope. As we are hated for Christ’s sake, we will rejoice. Our faith must not be periodic…it must be perpetual. We are not to sequence life. Because Jesus was the satisfying sacrifice, we can be the satisfying righteousness of God in him. When hate dies love lives. When enmity is emptied from the heart, faith fills the void. Ours is an eternal arrangement with God. God chooses His people in such a way that there is no connotation of deserving in the presence of God. All recognition is to Christ for our faith. He is the determined and purposed cause. It is faith that is going to mark us. That will be our insignia. We get to wear that likeness. And we don’t deserve any of it. A moment of pause. In the hate the world shows us they will see our love reflected. It matters not how deep their hate…our love goes deeper. We understand that it is sin that drives hate. In our love we are caused to cosmic destiny rise to our cosmic destiny. This is built on our discipline of never forgetting, never daring let ourselves forget, our shared belonging to God. Hate is as vicious and pointed as the murderous violence human beings are capable of directing at one another, or as ambient and slow-seething as the deadly disregard for the creation of God’s universe of non-human lives with which we share this fragile creation. Hate is a message of saying that we do not know where we belong. They, those, them, who hate are their own. They have not considered eternity. They do not know God. Those of today are destined to die twice. Them who stood and hated His cross, thrice. The truth is, hate is natural…but love is supernatural…for God is love. Hate’s origin is founded in fear. Satan fears us. He knows we are God’s better thing to bring perfection to every faithful one. We are to exhibit the God-kind of love that wins over hatred, that speaks blessings instead of cursing, that offers life instead of death, and hope instead of despair. And there are fellow beings who hate us because we are chosen of God. In too many people fear creates hate and that brings violence. Every time with intended or unintended consequence. Hate, anger, rage is a right…love is our responsibility.

the weight If we are made for heaven, the desire for our proper place will be already in us, but not yet attached to the true object. If a transtemporal, relating to time, transfinite, surpassing the finite, if this good is our real destiny, then any other good on which we fix must be in some degree untrue, must bear at best only a symbolical relation to what will truly satisfy. In scriptural terms, only the far- off country in the end of heaven must be our desire. We have betrayed ourselves. Self-love is a deluding, maddening influence operating to keep fallen human beings from a real apprehension of how bad we are. Human self-love at the fall is what brought us into a relationship with sin. Can anything be added to the conception of being with Christ? God hath wisely and mercifully so ordered things in this world that love in one thing is a restraint to self-love in another thing. In other words, concerns about others well-being prevent people from indulging all their self-centered, destructive desires. For it must be true, that he who has God and everything else has no more than he who has God only. What is it that so relegated humanity to disobedience to the word of God. The simple answer is hate. Hate is invoked as the essence of human evil. But there is yet still a further fallenness to humanity. It is hatred. Hatred is the exact opposite of love. Hate is more often used when referring to an ill feeling in a general way. Hatred is more to describe a very strong considered or preemptive action for the loathing against a particular kind of person. Hatred can be one sided or two sided, but there remains the opportunity for love. Why was enmity purposed. Because it exposes the sinful pride that inspires hatred toward divine truths that offend it. Too many are scarcely willing to allow anything that is true to be above their comprehension, and therefore, are very ready to question the truth of things that are so. Thus, self pridefulness accounts for the existence of strong opposition to notions such as the truth of the nature of Christ and other doctrines that exceed human ability to comprehend. This self pride makes people hard to correct or teach: they won’t hearken to instructions and counsels of others: they’re too wise to be taught. Enmity’s intenseness is mutual, between two, no opportunity for love. Genuine love for God produces hatred for those things that offend God, and this holy hatred is the necessary evidence of real god-like love. God has placed a special manner of people in a country that is filled with a myriad of tragedies and senseless and detestable moments of ever myriad of tragedies disheartening current affairs.  This country is fairly clear of its feelings with regards to diversities of people. A level of hatred most of us are repulsed by has been unleashed in America. When you see irrational anger without any logical reason or justification for it, there is usually an extraordinarily strong evil spirit behind it. This evil anti-Christ spirit is in manifestation all over the world. The question and the answer are the same…why. What can be the basis for showing such disdain and aggression toward a non-aggressive people. It’s the american psyche. And now, what is mainstream here has made the United States the leading exporter of hate. Hate is an action. Hate takes time. Hate takes energy. It even demands sacrifices. People who hate sacrifice rational thinking, lose their values, reduce self-esteem. These have a great emotional and spiritual void. And worse, they deplete the spirit of others. And here’s the unpleasant discovery – America has proven to be a racial gathering, not a nation of common ideas and beliefs. America-loathing and works to destroy the country from within, far exceed the creedal tenets of profession of faith and symbolic representation of a system of civility. America is ripe for conflict. American inequality is typical of the country’s America history and sapping of its soul. Americans hate each other. God is about to dissolve this bestial nation. Why did God purpose this place? Because He has a perfect plan. Salvation presupposes sin; restoration presupposes a fall. So, it's reasonable to infer that God's primary purpose in allowing this designated country is to showcase His glory both in the original creation and also in His powerful and merciful restoration of that creation from its rebellion and corruption as a moronically, hypocritically, and self-delusioned, self- claimed practicing christian nation. This is a country of filthy rags. It is being condemned to show that it is not a truth based country. So, if there’s any doubt in mind about God’s stance on what is happening in this nation, allow His word to remove all doubt. God is a loving and compassionate God, and He hates sin, and He hates hatred. God tested this nation with every single ethnic group on earth - every nation, every person. The existence of evil and wickedness in this world pose a serious challenge to faith. Evil is not simply the absence of good but enmity toward the good, especially as seen in God Himself. Prominent in our study is sin’s tendency to deform the power of reason to apprehend truth in relation to God. Furthermore, along with inflicting harm on fellow human beings, sin has infected humanity to such a degree that it aims ultimately at the murder of God Himself. Because God is all knowing, and the God who is love, He must have a truly holy purpose for allowing such an adverse thing to His nature to exist in the world. God’s purpose surely cannot be in conflict with His plan. The problem of evil, of hatred poses a challenge to our faith. We see the intended to be good hearted people experience the ravages of violence and hateful acts. Something is dreadfully wrong with this world. A fully grown male stabbing a six year aged child 26 times to death. Why? Hatred for the child’s nationality. It is estimated that 95 percent of the indigenous populations in the Americas were killed during the years following European colonization, amounting to Hanging an estimated 20 million people. Consider a request in 1967 to examine a law that encouraged the hanging of black people. The U.S. Congress decided to allow the law to remain in force. Why? Hatred. The establishment of American institutions of education, finance, law enforcement, judicial courts, housing authorities, employment, leveraged to advantage a specific group. Why? Hatred. Hate is the essence of depravity. What would it look like for God to have a morally sufficient reason for allowing evil? For God’s plan to finish He must allow hatred and evil to exist. He cannot at this time eliminate the evil and suffering in the world without also getting rid of morally significant free will. We might wonder why God would choose to risk populating His new creation with free creatures if He knew there was a chance that human immorality could foul the whole thing up. Because free will, though it makes evil and hatred possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of creatures that worked like machines would hardly be worth creating. The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other…and for that we must be free. This is why in the kingdom there is only truth. Of course, God knew what would happen if we used our freedom the wrong way: apparently He thought it worth the risk. To create creatures capable of moral good, therefore, he must create creatures capable of moral evil; and he cannot leave these creatures free to perform evil and at the same time prevent them from doing so…the fact that these free creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither against God’s omnipotence nor against His goodness; for He could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only by removing the possibility of moral good. In God, love and hate, good and evil could co-exist because God has a morally sufficient reason for allowing them. God’s morally sufficient reason is to do with humans being granted morally significant free will and with the greater goods this freedom makes possible. We are unfinished and in the midst of being made all that God intended us to be. The long maturing process is to make us into a distinguishable likeness capable of reasoning and responsibility, but we must now, as individuals, go through a process of “spiritualization” during which children of God we become “children of God.”  Reckoning with the hatred and the suffering and travails of this life are part of the divine plan of soul-making. A world full of suffering, trials and temptations is more conducive to the process of soul-making than a world full of constant pleasure and the complete absence of pain. The judgment that is implicitly being invoked here is that one who has attained to goodness by meeting and eventually mastering temptations, loving rather than hating, enduring suffering by rightly making responsible choices in concrete situations, is good in a richer and more valuable sense than would be one created from the beginning in a state of innocence and virtue. That is an ethically reasonable judgment…that human goodness building up by faith through personal histories of moral effort has a value in the eyes of the Creator which justifies even the long travail of the soul-making process.

The Measure We are chosen for God’s possession. We are the whosoevers who believe in Jesus. Our chosenness is the result of God’s love. And God did not say that He loved a portion of the world, He said for He so loved the world, all nations, all lands. God loves all. So, it is faith that is the determination of those chosen. With that we must understand the term “all” in the promise and the patience of God. God works in a way that brings all of His people to Himself. God’s election of His people is sovereign and unconditional. We must have the faith to know that God foreknew those who would come to faith whom He would choose to come to divine election to salvation. God has chosen His from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. Election is rooted in God’s sovereign initiative, not in human responses. The word reveals that election is by grace alone apart from anything that we might achieve. Election is effectual in achieving God’s purposes thus ensuring perseverance and ultimately climaxes in glorification. Also, the divine election demands restoration of spiritual Israel and shows the calling of God to be irrevocable. Our faith is in this election in the assurance of the calling. This divine election should provoke humility and obedience and gracious love. Faith must remind us of our utter dependence on the grace of God for deliverance from sin and give us greater confidence in our witnessing to others the truths of God in the three angels messages. It is this faith that God knows that assures Him that our relationship with Christ is inseverable. Our faith is understood to be intensely personal and seen as extremely private in that God has given the measure to every man. "Every" refers to individuals without exception. This faith is superimposed in the lives of every person who receives the breath of God. But know that faith development is by the word of God. Faith makes distinct two expresions; the inward expression of the spirit working in the life and the outward expression of the spirit working by love for others. Faith’s attitude is shown by the degree of acceptance of every word of God. This attitude is based upon a studied learning of the meaning of the Hebrew texts as purposed, designed, and intended by every word. Faith to God’s chosen is so fundamental that none of us can live in peace for very long without it. It is so universal that when we move beneath the characters and principled patterns that express it, faith is recognizably the same phenomenon that we read in Hebrews, yet it is so infinitely varied that each person's faith is unique. It is the coming together in this uniqueness of individual faith that brings us to be one in “the Them” . Our faith is so focused as to its supreme trust in an exalted magnifical God, having a singular loyalty to the principle of being and to the source and center of all value and power, Jesus Christ, that we can see and know the ultimate environment of our life in Christ. Faith organizes the power of the knower’s mind by which we find order and shape our thoughts, words, and deeds. Faith deposits in our minds and hearts the worth of all to God in regard to self and others. Faith has this quality of mystery concerning Christ; it is perplexing, because we are internal to it, compassed by God as with a shield. shield Love provides an excellent overview of faith’s journey. It’s the underlying of our composition generated from our attachments and commitments to the supraordinate personality of Jesus. Our spiritual being is a function of faith. This is that regard which has power to unify our experiences of the life of Jesus. This is where we observe the endowing of all the relationships, contexts, and patterns of life, past, present, and future, with significance. Faith is the guiding principle that serves as both the source and the target of our spirituality. Devotion to our growth in spirituality can be seen as a measure of greater ability of understanding one's faith as shown through our consummatory behavior. It is possible for one to have faith but not do faith. It is the theological adherence to every truth in the word that renders the spirituality of a person as the indicator of the depth of faith. The acts of spirituality far outpace the ability to articulate faith. Faith grounds us as individuals, and our spirituality is to be characterized by constant change. In other words, there is not a threshold that one can or should attain with either faith or spirituality. Faith pleases God because this is the way that we are of Christ, the author and finisher of our faith, that through him we come to God. Hold this as the primary truth, that God is most influential upon us; and then believe that it is our business to come to Him. But there is only one way of coming to Him, and we must have faith to use that way. He that died and lives for ever saith, “I am the way. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” He that cometh to God must believe in God as he is revealed, and must come to God as God reveals the way of approach; and this is an exertion of faith. The faith of Christ is the only way through which we can reach beyond ourselves toward Him. This coming is essential and exclusive to the chosen of God. This is our response of obedience to His invitation. This is genuine faith, accepting His His invitation personal calling, having a centrality of focus on the true and living God alone. The words of our faith declare that God is. Genuinely coming to God says with our actions that “YOU ARE”, and we believe it even though we do not see Him with our fleshly eyes. To believe that God is, or that He exists, is only the entrance into a faith relationship with Him. This faith must grow to rest upon the fact that God not only exists, but He is everything that He says He was, is, and shall forever be. Only on this level of growth can our faith rest in the truth that God is whatever He says He is to us personally and that the vast resources of who He is has been promised and made available to all who come to Him through faith in the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. Faith not only embraces the fact that “GOD IS” in His existence, but “GOD IS” in His presence with us. Our faith must rest on the reality of His personal presence in us that He will never forsake us. Faith is so important that it is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we are saved from eternal separation from God and that we are enabled to live this life victoriously. God knows the thoughts He has toward us. He has an expected end for His chosen people. God has a beautiful plan that He wants us to fulfill, but that purpose He has for us is something that is so vital, so vast that we cannot do it without God. That's why God asks us to trust Him - so we can do all that we are to do through and in Him. He knows that without the power of the Holy Spirit guiding us and the work of Christ motivating us, we will never be able to live faith to its fullness. And to live faith is to always be overcoming. To live faith is the conviction that produces righteous works. It is being convinced of the confidence that God has in our absolute submission to His will. Living faith is the revelation of the word of God reflecting His living in us. Living faith motivates conduct in agreement with God's purpose. There is a time when the testing of faith will be by the word of God. The hearts will be exposed to see whether we truly believe every word of God or is there something that is valued more. God finds pleasure in seeing us choose Him above all. Standing in faith proves to be one of the most firm ways to express to God how much we love Him. There is no other way that we honor God best than by means of our faith. It is a calamity to be commended in error because of family or friendship for it may prevent our becoming really commendable. What reason can we offer for missing the end of our creation. We shall not escape trial, for even the highest qualities must be tested, yet we shall find great peace in being the means for good to God. Our faith will rebuke and stimulate; will convince and invite. Our faith will teach transgressors God’s way, and sinners shall be converted unto Him. God's way Without faith it is impossible to please God. The word does not say it is difficult, or so needful that without it success is barely possible; but, point- blank, the word declares it to be “impossible.” When the Holy Spirit says that a thing is impossible, it is so, in a very absolute sense. We cannot please God by any invention of our own, however clever, nor by any opinion or belief of our own, however ardent; since infallible inspiration declares that, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Without faith how would we commune with God. Without the eye of faith we have no reasoning with God in those sacred truths concerning eternal things which only faith can perceive. Without faith, the man himself is not pleasing to God. Want of faith in one word of God will create variance on many points. The desire to come to God, the way to come to God, the power to come to God, the actual coming to God - these are all gifts of sovereign grace. Coming to God, however feebly gifts we come, and seeking Him, however much else we miss, must be well- pleasing in His sight; for it is the result of His own purpose and election which we are in Christ Jesus before the world began. But all this hangs upon faith. And faith says that what God would have me do I will do it in happily in fellowship with others, or alone by myself, as the case may be; but do it I must. Given the absolute reality of God being God and God's fullness being found in Christ, this is what faith has to be. This is the end of the argument. This is the bottom of the reasoning. We should say it like this: what pleases God is that our hearts and minds display God's being. That we display God's existence and His excellence. That we display how real He is and how rewarding He is. This is what pleases God, and this is faith. In Him we are assured of everything we hope for, convinced of all things to be seen. Though He is the great unseen God who exists absolutely and does not depend on us in the least, we have His substance as us in Jesus Christ. Faith is vulnerable. Be wary of the subtle encroachments of the world and sin and error. Vigilance and endurance are crucial for the soul. The spiritual nature of faith and the vitality of faith is rooted in what God is like, not what we are like. If we would have our faith be strong, we must have the mind of Christ. And God's existence and fullness will be wonderfully displayed in our life.

There is an interesting and convicting illustration of both a stronger form of mutual affection in association and accountability that passes the natural relationship. The carnal mind cannot learn this, and it is one of the hardest things for the worldly to comprehend. It is a spiritual truth spoken from inspiration that is intent upon bringing forth a more effective reasoning with God between two human relationships. Discernment can see the connections to life that this principle contains. Proverbs 27:17 Hear first the acknowledgment that the one becomes sharper with the presence of the other. The interaction of the two is worthwhile only when truth is loved and the desire to improve not self-centered. This interaction creates a spark that when blown upon by the Holy Spirit becomes a fire for God. It is God’s people questioning, encouraging, counseling, and challenging each other. We strengthen our faith and improve our characters. Even our attitude and outward expressions show a faithful countenance in God. Proverbs 27:5, 6 Hear how man’s best friend loved those he came to save presents truth in love. If we know this concept to be true, we are able to receive the counsel of one who has a godly appreciation of heart for our interest. Matthew 23:13-39 We can choose to rub off the hard edges. There are times when sharpening conversations can come across as harsh, mean, or judgmental. But if there is peace and love motivating the care between two, let others observe. Emotion must be vacant in our accountability. Iron sharpening iron requires a level of accountability or a personal inclination guided by the spirit of God to allow significant others to come close enough into our lives so as to see the vulnerability. The principle of accountability is our consent for another to come close in helpful and real conversations that grow out of growing and loving in Christlikeness for the truth is this…that both irons become better for the service of God from the presence of that which truly sharpens. Hebrews 4:12 God can and will use the “iron sharpening iron” process for His people to help us in our walk for Him. But, most certainly God will use the convicting power of His Holy Spirit and the word of God to rebuke us of the sinful and harmful practices that we hold on to in our lives. And the most needed tool for the sharpening is the Word of God. Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble. Imagine reading the bible as a matter-of-fact document in a neutral tone. Now, imagine reading the word of God with a subjective tone that describes approaches, judgments, or beliefs. The details are likely to include experiences, senses, thoughts, and comprehension. The subjective is personal, commanding a higher level of expression. Tone reflects both the attitude and the purpose of reasoning together. The word of God is given us that we might reason with Him. The word informs us of truth and convinces us of obedience. Spiritually mature followers of Christ hear truth and the tone carries the consideration and appreciation for God’s mindfulness in our growth. Words of truth and enthusiastic tones give shape and life to solidifying peace and compassion between the irons as character is merited. God never just points out weaknesses without providing a solution. God’s word will help us to go on living “in righteousness.” It is with the strongest of earnestness that we never dull the word of God with human passion. We are to exhort one another into a closer walk with our Lord. But our walk must stay us in the Word of God where our loving and gracious heavenly Father gives us truth strategies that we may be overcomers. As the body of Christ, the people of God, we remember that part of our job is to sharpen other brothers and sisters in Christ so that the flame in their hearts, put there by the Holy Spirit, continues to burn. And hopefully it will not be able to be contained in their lives. But in this emotionally centered world this is viewed as “hard sayings”. Fear replaces caring concern to speak truth into each others’ lives. Fear of fiery deliberation keeps those who say they are of God from being as though they are. Some are not familiar with the scenario whereby the Holy Spirit produces fire in the bones. SOP - Whenever the message of truth comes home to souls with special power, Satan stirs up his agents to start a dispute over some minor question. Thus he seeks to attract attention from the real issue. Whenever a good work is begun, there are cavilers ready to enter into dispute over forms or technicalities, to draw minds away from the living realities. When it appears that God is about to work in a special manner for His people, let them not be enticed into a controversy that will work only ruin of souls. The questions that most concern us are, Do I believe with saving faith on the Son of God? Is my life in harmony with the divine law? “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.” “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” John 3:36; 1 John 2:3. {DA 396.3} Let’s examine further depths of querying points affecting God’s wisdom of iron sharpening iron. Please note how many irons are mentioned. Right and wrong can be debated. Left and right can be reversed. Yea and nay are discernible. Black and white are shades. Divine timing…is it right or wrong to take a life, is left and right the same in every direction, can yea and nay answer the same question, can black be white in monochrome? Divine timing is a determinant for righteousness. Everything good happens in divine timing. It is before human awareness. It is when human injection or non- spiritual influence is favored. When divine timing is trusted and believed it can make a huge difference. It takes spiritual practice to trust more in divine timing than in what you think or feel. Because what you think or feel is of you. There is always a lesson that can be learned from everything. And to do the right thing at the wrong time may cause a stumbling or even a complete fall. God does not let any thing happen that does not first go through Him. Not through “a you”, but Him. There are many who think when things are not going as they think they should interfere. Their perception may be 100% on, but their timing may not allow the sharpening to take place. Know the signs of divine timing. Patience allows things to come to fruition. Now understand, please do not use divine timing for spiritual bypassing. If you use any reference to you as cause for your injection then you divert the time. If you are not an iron…wait on the Lord. Any action taken must be inspired so as to be void of private interpretation. Know that in the iron sharpening the iron is needed force and heat. And certainly know that it is the refiner that wields the force and the spirit the heat. Know that the refiner uses one as the hammer to smooth out the rough texture of resistance of the other. The only way to sharpen an iron is to use an iron with a different edge or texture, and that is an important point. Although believers often emphasize the “like iron” part of this verse as meaning two similarly strong believers, this verse does not promote uniformity. The iron that sharpens iron must be wielded by the same refiner yet different in function. Desire that God encourages you to surround yourself with strong believers who can sharpen you, as well as those who are different enough to shape you by means of friction. That is to say, we need friends whose wisdom, whose willingness to say difficult things, or whose different perspectives will provide the grit with which God can remove dull edges. This may mean exposing ourselves to differing manner of voices. Everyone in the camp can’t some cannot see what motivates the affection coming from other tents. In some cases it may take a “tribe”. Be patient, allow the process to do its work. Let God choose how much friction is needed to do that in my life that I will be a “tool” that is fit for His use. If all iron is alike wherein is the sharpening made possible? Surrounding ourselves with godly people who serve in our lives both as encouragers and correctors is a good thing. They may be used to sharpen our lives by faithfully helping us see some of the rough areas that are not yet as well-honed as God wants them to be. When we have one or more of these people in our life, we ought to thank God that He has seen fit to bring them to us to help sharpen us into tools that fit for God’s purposes. May we be as strong as iron in our faith and yet different enough to be a sanctifying friend in the life. May we be of a mutual action giving advantage to one another. May our functioning be as a two-edged sword for God.

There is a most dreary subject and a mournful theme approaching. It is referred to as the last days. As great as were the woes of our Redeemer, with sacred patience he endured and as severe will be our last days, we must enter agonizingly into our expiring suffering with this hope; that God will bring us through our Gethsemane experience. Our sorrow will birth in travail and sow in tears. But, oh how the double reflection of our sorrow will know the recompense and the fellowship in its finishing. Sorrow Our sorrowing will be expressed very emphatically in our peculiarity. A bitter cup is forthcoming. And in the singularly harmony of our character there will be one quality predominated…our faith. Excessive weight will press upon our spirit. We will be warriors in black armor. Search yourself…what burdens have you to bear? The subject of our sorrows will be our Jesus and he will be the comfort in the tossing that compasses us. No greater tribute can be shown for God than to accept affliction for His glory. In all our attitudes in knowing the consolation of Jesus, we will be a people of sorrow valuing reproach more than pleasure. We will walk wearily in the fullness of our woes as our characters emit the sweetest perfume, for there is no better balm, no surer remedy than the life that bled on that tree. In Christ our griefs are light that brighten the shadow of death. For in our mourning we are in communion with him who has known affliction. We will not stray but will keep our sorrow close, knowing there is everything important in it. We are the last to keep the Sabbath holy in time. Angels will camp around us as men hide their faces in contempt. We are a mystery of godliness…some better thing. Our place of highness in the heaven is assured as we humblingly take our place as the lowliest of the least. We remember Jesus Christ, the real and substantial God. We must have a sorrow that is absent from sin differing in no respect from that of our human Savior save that he was never defiled by sin. There is no greater sorrow than when there is no admixture of sin. If our sorrowing is of God, then sin must become the source of wretchedness to us. Jesus was made in our likeness that we may regard his humanity in its perfectness and think on him in that aspect honoring him in our sorrow. This condescending participation in our nature brings our Jesus very near to us in relationship and this matchless man, suffering in sorrow, and sorrowing in suffering, found joy in God’s redemption of us. Our eyes are wet with tears of sorrow, tears of pity, tears of thankfulness as we gaze into that deep gash in his side. That wound shows us his heart for us and how he was so excited with compassion in making amends for us with his Father, our Father. I know in our sorrow we tremble, and in our mourning we abound in weakness, but in this we touch his sympathy for we are in his presence and we can ask for no greater place to be. We are always beneath his eye. And as the Father looked upon him, the Father was also looking upon us. Don’t look at self, look at the cross. Our groaning is not in vain, neither will it be long. Our sorrow is going to rack us in much pang. We will experience a sufficient hell as long as we are among the wicked. Their shameful deeds of vice seize us with dismay today. But know that you are not alone; Jesus is a fellow- feeling who in every season comforts beyond mortal endurance. In our sorrow we know his sorrow was greater. In our grieving we know his grief was surpassing. In our repining we know he fainted not. Jesus could see sin where we cannot see it and feel its heinousness as we cannot feel it. In this last day, assuredly, we can bear poverty, slander, contempt, bodily pain, sorrow or death itself, because Jesus Christ our Lord has borne it. By his humiliation it shall become pleasure to sorrow for his sake. For this cause, we surrender our life to Christ. He enables us to bear our sorrows. Our sorrow deepens even further with the painful sensitiveness of the evil of sin, for sin deserves sorrow, as we graciously offer tenderness towards the sorrows of others. In this last day the descending spirit of the people will show us as women and men most miserable. Our sorrow will not be a common thing as we are moved to sympathy in love for others in grief who are saddened by the effects of sin. Many, many will forsake us, but our sorrow will not leave us till our Lord comes. Be ready! Our sorrow grows as we actively struggle to obey. Our sorrow grows as we passively sit still and cry not. Our sorrow grows as we weep in memory the times we failed to witness for God. Our bitterest sorrow will be connected with the work. We are sent of God to announce His love and His truth and the people will reject this offered advantage. We will teach and hearts will be hardened…we sorrow. We will do God’s good and they will hate us…we sorrow. We will sacrifice for them and they will transact our demise…we sorrow. We see the midnight of trouble and prepare for the winepress; crowning sorrow in this life. Lastly we say, here are we, servants to the man of sorrows having not just hurt, but a profound sadness because the world rejoices. John 16:20 The prophecy of approaching sorrow is sure, the word about a subsequent joy is even more certain. Out of the sorrow of our souls we will be satisfied.

You have to have reasoning faith. And then even greater faith to encourage others to accept this truth that they may be free. Justification makes us free from the guilt of sin. Sanctification makes us free from the bondage of corruption. Reasoning makes us free from invalid assumptions. Free from spiritual enemies. Free from prejudices, mistakes, and false notions, which entangle the soul. Free to be restored to the government of God. The mind, by admitting the truth of Christ in the light and power, is vastly enlarged, and has scope and compass given it, is greatly elevated and raised above things of sense, and never acts with so true a liberty as when it acts with truth acquired through reasoning faith with every word of God. Those who accept every truth of God have the freest reasonings that are guided by faith, and those are people of free thought, whose thoughts are captivated and brought into obedience to Christ. Reasoning faith preserves truth! the Truth Consider the wisdom afforded by viewing all things by faith. It affects how we interact with others. It shapes our understanding of the past, the present, and tomorrow. We reason in our faith to make full commitment to God, trusting wholeheartedly to every experience He places us in. We become united with His chosen because of this committed faith in the truth. This union is a physical substance that serves as evidence of the ultimately unverifiable. By faith we are disposed to ascend in allegiance to the Lord and to His cause and purpose. And the wonderful aspect of such a proposition is this…this faith we can have in others. Our experiences will be in physical reality and spiritual reality. Where there is difference of opinion or even controversy, the core foundational faith in the word of God will remove all arbitrariness. Take a moment to reason with this truth. There is this collection of sixty-six separate writings by a variety of authors upon which a determined people place reasoned faith…why?...because they believe in God and know that this collection is the revealed word of God for mankind. It records the dealings of God with humanity and the reactions, the responses of humanity to the revelation received. Here is what gives faith its power – it is the work of our reasoning and will, but also with the intervention of the Holy Spirit specifically granted, supported, and gratuitously offered by God. God expects us to reason with, to investigate, to study with intense scrutiny and debate every word. The problem with most is that they know not how to reason with God. For certain we hear the words written, but God ain’t through talking yet. He has more of Himself to reveal to us. The Holy Spirit has much to say that He hears from God. God gave counsel to a woman messenger. He has stars who are commanded to bring light to the world. Our faith is heavily impacted by written words. God actually specifically asks people throughout scripture to write things down. We move from truth discovery writing things by hand... through writing. There's a fascinating connection between our brains and written words. Writing things by hand actually boosts our memory. Words written in agreement with scripture, instruct and awaken and delight and transform people into obedient worshipers of Christ. Writing must become an instrument in the hand and under the power of the Holy Spirit. It's like God thought of this stuff before making us. The word of God engages both faith and reason. Every other aspect of our life on earth is different from our interaction with the Divine. When we come to reason with God we are connecting with a concept that we were purposed to bring pleasure to. God-given light of reason to our minds is to establish truth that is free from internal contradictions. Reasoning faith renders the regular avenues of intellectual attainment and marginal things that may dominate the mind as pale in comparison to the pursuit of divine revelation. God’s invitation to reason is for proclamation of truth which may be independent of what any of us think. Yet, with reasoning faith, appropriate response is instructed by the Holy Spirit. When we come to understand this reasoning faith we come to God not attempting to penetrate His height, for in no way can our understanding compare. We come by faith seeking to understand to the extent He purposes in His truth. And His truth, we both believe, and love. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. {Isaiah 1:18} Reasoning faith deepens our experience, our learning, our knowledge, when presented with situations in that we are able to draw upon foundational principles that intertwine both in a beneficial way. Some knowledge can only be arrived at by reason, and some only by faith. We must understand the balance. Do you need a reason to believe in God or do you know by faith that He is God? Reason makes certain assumptions; faith is coherent with presentiment. What comes after is supported by what has come before. Reasoning faith is a condition for arriving at a fully comprehensive, coherent, consistent, and true principle. There is an important relationship between reason and faith. Neither can exist separate from one another. God says come to reason and with that invitation must be faith in God. Reasoning faith shores up our strength of testimony. Faith informed by external belief and reasonable evidence is powerful. Jesus speaks of empowered faith when he says, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” Reason and faith have each been considered to be sources of justification for conscientious belief. Reason properly employed and faith properly understood, will never produce contradictory or competing claims. God’s true people possess a domain of thought rightly governed by faith, asserting that all meaningful and truthful statements and ideas are accessible to thorough examination by reasoning. How powerful becomes the mind when reasoning faith is the source of development for every thought. Faith and reason are both sources from the authority of God upon which beliefs can rest. Reason intellectual, moral, visual, or spiritual is understood as the principles for a structured procedure of inquiry, whether intellectual, moral, visual, or spiritual. Faith involves a stance toward an assertion that is not, at least presently, demonstrable by occasion. So, faith is a kind of attitude of trust or assent. As such, it is ordinarily understood to involve an act of will or a commitment on the part of the believer. Faith involves a belief that makes either an implicit or explicit reference to a transcendent source. The basis for a person’s faith usually is understood to come from the authority of revelation. And revelation is either direct or by infusion based on the testimony of an other. Reasoning faith comes from the fact that the revelation or set of revelations on which most beliefs are based, is usually described and interpreted in sacred pronouncements, either in an oral principle or undisputed writings, backed by divine authority. God tells us to reason. We are to have a good reason for what we believe, and we are to be ready always to share that testimony with other people. So, we attempt to show unbelievers that our belief in the scriptures is reasonable, justified, and logically and spiritually sound. But what of those who read the words and are not able to understand? Are they to live by reason or by faith? Are they supposed to rely upon their intellect, drawing rational conclusions, rejecting those things that don’t make sense? Or are they to accept the teachings of scripture without regard to logic and reason, even if it does not make any sense? If God says it, that’s it! Faith is not believing what you don’t know. Faith is strongly warranted confidence. It is not wishful thinking. It’s a confident expectation: the kind of confidence we have through reasoning with the truths of scripture. Biblical faith is the act of believing in something unseen for which we do have a good reason. Every word that God has ever spoken has been demonstrated. Reason is a means given us that allows us to draw conclusions and inferences from other information, such as the information God has given us in His Word. We reason from the principles of God’s word. You believe you are saved by faith…what’s your reason? In reasoning faith our unquestionable starting point must be with God’s word and not what we think. In order to reason about anything we must have faith that there are laws of common sense which correctly prescribe the correct chain of reasoning chain of reasoning. Since laws of logic cannot be observed with the senses, our confidence in them is a type of faith. Laws are an expression of the self- consistent nature of God. We should not conclude from this that we can think exactly as God thinks; after all, He is infinite and we are finite, He knows all things, and we must learn of things. Nonetheless, we are able to line up our thinking with God’s nature and God’s word. That is why we have the Holy Spirit. That we do not distort the truth. The bible makes sense. And that is a good reason for our faith. We study the bible to show ourselves approved of God. There is a difficulty about disagreeing with God. He is the source from which all our reasoning power comes. We could not be right and He wrong any more than the sky could fall. When any argue against Him they are arguing against the very power that makes them able to argue at all: it is like cutting off the branch cutting off the branch you are sitting on you are sitting on. Faith holds on to things our reason has accepted as truth, in spite of our lack of understanding. The battle is between faith and reason on one side; and emotion and opinion on the other. Faith comes before reason and then reason allows faith to grow. Faith enables a believer to understand further truths that could not be discovered through reason alone. Both faith and reason lead us to the one Truth who is God. Reasoning faith is the extension of spiritual dialogue. God’s people commit to dialogue to show the worth of revelation. All expressions of truth as manifested in the word of God are to foster authentic, good, and mutual enhancement in the unity of the faith. The united endeavor of reasoning faith will enable people to come to the full measure of their humanity created in the image and likeness of God, renewed even more marvelously, after sin, in Christ, and called and purposed to shine forth in the light of the Spirit. God’s people are challenged to be a community whose members discover truth by ardent development of faith and by rigorous exercise of reason. In this challenge important questions are considered. And so God counsels us to plead together, putting Him in remembrance that we may be justified. Christ is looking for faith. His Father wants us to reason with Him! When we give Him sound, spiritual reasons for our requests, He can gauge very accurately our growth in grace, knowledge, and faith. He can see if we are still carnal and self-centered, or if we are showing love for our brethren. Let us reason faithfully with God according to His will.

God made our minds for knowledge & understanding God made us for Himself. He made our minds for gaining knowledge and understanding that we might avoid ignorance. Faith is a powerful force in the life of the believer. It is an experienced and mysterious inclination of the mind. Where faith touches the behavior of the adherent, though the effects are profound, it is difficult to articulate. Now know this by reasoning faith. All things that are possible and all things that are impossible have been determined by counsel. And in that truth, nothing of God can change. Every change that occurs is determined and the change is for our reasoning that our faith may be that of Christ Jesus. This is the priceless truth of the sovereignty of God. From the beginning we not import something that does not come from the word of God. This matter is far too serious, and touches on so many painful realities, that we dare not trust ourselves here to come up with truth without being told by God Himself. God says “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me.” So the issue in this writing is the uniqueness of God among all the beings of the ever creation. He is the highest all by Himself. No one is like Him. The issue is what it means to be God. When something is happening, or something is being said or thought, and God responds, “I am God!”, the point He is making is this: you’re acting like you don’t know what it means for me to be God. Reasoning faith is that of God. It’s at the heart of His God-ness. It is He who says, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure”. God knows what these doings will be, long before they are done. All of our reasoning faith must be in His foreknowledge. And the way He declares His foreknowledge is by declaring His fore-counsel and His fore- purposing. Which means that the reason God knows there will be a change in anything is because He plans the change and accomplishes it. He purposes them and He performs them and He takes responsibility. By the sovereignty of God: God has the rightful authority, the freedom, the wisdom, and the power to bring about everything that He intends to happen. And God purposes it therefore, everything He intends to come about, does come about. Which means, God plans and governs all things. When God says “I change not”, that which is a change is His determined purpose already known. Even a repenting of what He thought to do is not a change to Him. But it is the change purposed for us to know Him better by faith as we reason with His purpose for doing it. Now, if that seems too complicated, so that you don’t think I am expressing a private opinion of my own, search and reason with other scripture purporting change to see if they were determined in counsel. You ready?…faith in a God who says He changes not where the word says He is a Spirit and yet a body of flesh was prepared Him. Now you have to have a consecrated attitude, divine giftedness, a humble mindset, to accept this strongly transformative miracle. It is by reasoning that God affirms my faith. I believe that God, from all eternity, in order to display the full extent of His glory for the eternal and ever- increasing satisfaction of all who love Him, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His will, freely and unchangeably ordain and foreknow whatever comes to pass. I believe that God upholds and governs all things — from galaxies to subatomic particles, from the forces of nature to the movements politicians of nations, and from the public plans of politicians to the secret acts of solitary persons — all in accord with His eternal, all-wise purposes to glorify Himself, yet in such a way that He never compromises truth, nor ever condemns a person unjustly; but that His ordaining and governing all things is compatible with the moral accountability of all persons created in His image. I believe that God’s election is an unconditional act of free grace which was given through His Son Christ Jesus before the world began. By this act God chose, before the foundation of the world, those who would be delivered from bondage to sin and brought to repentance and saving faith in His Son Christ Jesus. These are His called to election by and for His purpose. As we reason, we may be overwhelmed at the extent of God’s sovereignty because it is higher than our understanding. But by faith we will praise His power and grace, and bow with glad submission to the absolute will of God. We will see in the sovereignty of God our only hope for life in our deadness, our only hope for answers to our prayers, our only hope for success in our personal witness, our only hope for meaning in our suffering. And we will know insistantly that there is a better hope. God has given us a will. How we use it makes our eternal difference. The divine providence orders and directs those things which to us are perfectly casual and unexpected. Nothing comes to pass by chance, nor is an event determined by a blind fortune, but every thing by the will and counsel of God. What we have, neither eye nor hand in God is intimately concerned in and with. Think about when we make solemn appeals to God for the deciding of a matter of the moment which could not otherwise be at all, or not so well decided, God must be eyed in it, by prayer, that it may be disposed rightly and by consenting, and accepting in it when it is arranged, being satisfied that the hand of God is in it, and that hand directed by His infinite wisdom. All the disposals of providence concerning our affairs we must look upon to be the directing of our lot, the determining of what we referred to God, and we must be reconciled to them accordingly. There are no events so small that God does not rule for His purposes. Let there be no man-exalting illusion as though we are the decisive cause for a purpose. God removes and sets up kings God alone will have that supreme role. He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He changes events as they were determined to be changed for purpose. And for our understanding of His purposes He calls us to come to reason with Him, and for this reason, God gifted us with the measure of faith. I pray that we know this: we will never be sovereign, but we will be governed. When the nations came to do their absolute worst, namely the murder of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, they had not slipped out of God’s control, but were doing His sweetest bidding at their worst moment. The worst sin that ever happened was in God’s determined purposed plan, and by that sin, sin died. There may have been a thousand horrible things in our life. But if today we are moved to treasure Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can write over every one of those horrors the words “what was thought evil against me; God meant it unto good” . Our reasoning faith is real. We stand in awe of the sovereign authority and freedom and wisdom and power of God. We never trifle with life as though it were a small or light affair. We know we are not our own. We are calm in these days of great upheaval because faith belongs to God, and by reason of His love He has given us of this faith.

There is no salvation, no eternal life, without obedience! Life was brought to light through obedience to the faith. Understand what obedience to the faith is. The faith of Christ is the law of trusting fully in what he has done. He is the end of the law. Obedience to the law prepares us to receive the promises by faith in Jesus Christ. Without it, no sanctification can take place, for we, through the Spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Righteousness brings hope, but it is impossible to be righteous in any other way than through obedience to the faith, because the righteous shall live by faith. In Christ we receive both grace and truth, which God is able to give because by faith, we are crucified with Christ and we live as Christ lives in us. The faith of Christ is revealed to us in our human spirit and consciousness. The faith of Christ has its roots in God Himself. It is in perfect harmony with God’s reasoning, purpose, and His plans. And it is according to this faith that we are confident of God’s performance of work in us. We must believe and obey what the Spirit speaks to us and convicts us of in our inner being and in our conscience. This is what the bible calls obedience to the faith. God tells us there is this revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began. That mystery is the faith in the gospel, in the word. This thing has its roots in eternity before sin began. This is why we are told that faith comes by roots hearing and hearing by the word of God. Such a faith gives us a greater sense of strength and firmness about the word: its roots go back into eternity in the mind of God. The mystery made known through the prophetic writings in the old testament are revealed and explained in the new testament. And hearing this word prepares God’s people for the coming of Jesus. All designed to produce obedience of faith. The bible says we are justified by faith. We have peace with God through Jesus. This is a reality actually. In the court of God we are either justified or condemned. If He justifies us, it means that He has found in our favor and declared us to be just. We are found not guilty. Surprise! The indictment against all of us is that we are unrighteous. “None is righteous, no not one”. The indictment is true. The omniscient judge considers all factors and declares that we are not guilty as charged, but are in fact righteous, though everybody in the court knows that in our behavior and our attitudes we are sinners. How can this be? How can God justify the ungodly and be a just judge? God knows that we trust in Jesus alone as the ground and basis of our justification, not in anything we are, or do, or are helped to do, by God. Through this faith in Jesus alone, we are united to Christ so that we are in him. No condemnation. The key thing: we the key thing are in Christ Jesus. In Christ we are justified. Through faith we are united to Christ, and united to Christ we are justified. And being found in Christ, in the righteousness of Christ, or the obedience of Christ, or the righteousness of God in Christ, his righteousness is imputed to us. It is counted as ours. In other words, when God declares that we are righteous, there is a real basis for it in the righteousness of Christ. It’s not a pretense. It’s one thing to be forgiven when we are unrighteous. It is glorious and costly. It cost God the life of His Son. But it is another thing — an even more amazing thing — for God to say that the unrighteous are righteous. If forgiving the unrighteous is astonishing, calling the unrighteous righteous is gloriously divine. This is how grace can reign in us. This is what brings us closer to obedience to the faith. But our obedience is not the ground or the basis of our justification. Faith alone unites us to Christ, and Christ alone is the ground of our justification. Our obedience is the fruit of that faith. The faith that justifies is the kind of faith that, by the Holy Spirit, changes us. Thoughts, affections, and behaviors change. A new mind of obedience grows. And the reality of justifying faith is made manifest. Faith goes beyond what we can perceive with our physical senses, so it does not work by the rules of science. Faith allows us to believe that the invisible God can do what is physically impossible. In that sense, faith is built and grows on a spiritual plane, not a scientific one. That does not mean that observation is not a part of what the powerful Creator does. In fact, there is no contradiction or conflict between godly faith and true science. Since God Science is the study of God's creation is the Creator of all things, science is simply the study of His creation. We understand that the initial seed of faith is a gift of God and faith is the fruit that comes from using God’s Holy Spirit. And so, Jesus tells us to believe the gospel. But please do not think that our belief is some sort of achievement or virtue. That’s an expression of human pride. Obedience of faith is for the sake of Jesus’ name as it brings glory to God. Faith is the main thing and obedience is the consequence of faith. But faith and obedience are distinct. The bible says our faith is spoken of throughout the whole world and our obedience is come abroad unto all men. Everything about our faith and our obedience is entirely by what Jesus did for us. We lay our righteousness on the ground before him as filthy rags in order to come to him as his subjects so that we can benefit from the merits of his obedience. Ongoing obedience is the outworking of our salvation. It is not a subsequent thing; it is faith in its concrete expression. The obedience of faith is a trusting submission to Jesus the Lord, bowing the knee to him at the start and going on bowing the knee to him thereafter. The faith that God looks for in His people is the faith that exceeds the mental assent to the truthfulness of who Jesus is and what He did for us on the cross. Obedience comes from faith, and faith is made the substance of the truth and the evidence of the beauty and worth of Jesus in the gospel. Therefore, faith is the root of all Christ-exalting obedience, not just the fruit. Faith demands commitment at the level of our heart, but obedience demands commitment at the level of our doings. Faith requires us to have a deep conviction that God will keep His promises and do what He says He will do. Faith is greater than obedience. Genuine faith can only be demonstrated by obedient action. If we truly trust in God and His Word and promises, then we will fully obey Him. Anyone can say they have faith, but the people who actually live by faith will act in obedience to God no matter where God leads them. The faith which pleases God, is an obedient faith. “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven”—this contains a warning all need to WARNING! ponder. The bible stresses man’s faith is unto salvation. The watchword of the Reformation was, “the just shall live by his faith.” But all of this recognizes that the expression of faith by the mouth must be joined with obedience to the divine command. There are individuals who stoutly affirm their belief in the bible “from cover to cover,” but whose “faith” is lettered, not worded, and this spiritually belies the lives they live. There is this principle we find in the scriptures, that profession of faith must be associated with obedience of mind and will. We only too often demand of God that we see the ending before we obey. Obedient faith trusts in God to bring about the consequences according to His purpose. We trust the One who gives the call, confident that He would not lead us astray. Abraham was told to go…he went. This same Abraham was later confronted with a greater crisis. God had given him a son in his old age. The covenant promises were wrapped up in the boy, and the father’s love for this child was overwhelming. But one day God told him to take the boy and go to a distant mountain, there to offer him as a sacrifice. a distant mountain “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest”—with every word there was a deeper thrust into Abraham’s heart. Surely in circumstances such as this he would have been justified in temporizing, in asking questions, in offering an alternative. None of this took place. Abraham obeyed without question, leaving early the next morning on his sad pilgrimage. But coupled with his forthright obedience there was also a sublime faith. “God will provide,” he told the questioning boy. Nevertheless, how sorely was that faith tested and how marvelous the will to obey. The altar was prepared, the son bound, the knife raised. As far as God was concerned, Abraham did offer up his son, and because of that faith, coupled with unswerving obedience, God renewed his covenant promises -“for I know that thou fearest God”. Sin came into the world because of disobedience and continues today, causing world chaos and our own personal predicaments. God has commanded us to love one another, but we disobey Him. He has commanded us as individual believers, to go into all the world and teach the gospel, but this is a secondary interest, not a consuming one, with most of us. At the personal level we believers often live in disobedience to God’s specific calls on us. We rationalize His commands and equivocate in our reactions to them so that with our lips we draw near, but in our hearts...we are far from Him. There are times when God does demand of us blind obedience, when our faith should impel us to courses of action the end result of which we cannot foresee; but where there is faith combined with obedience there is also rich blessing. The entire question of obedience is closely coupled with our prayer lives. Only too often we pray for guidance with the mental reservation that if we like the prospects we will go ahead. What a travesty on true faith! We cannot fool God. He knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. He knows those reservations and often refuses to hear because we are actually putting Him to a test of our own devising. Never forget, the prayer of faith includes a willingness to obey, and this is not always easy. It is a lesson hard to learn but one we must not evade. Even our Lord, we are told, divested himself of his inherent rights as the Son and “learned obedience by the things which he suffered”. God does not exact obedience as a tyrant; He calls for it as an evidence of the reality of our faith. On the one hand, this is His rightful due; on the other, it is a demonstration for all to see that our faith is in the assurance of promises. Unquestionably God expects of us a faith which believes and an obedience which complies without question.

Let me emphatically emphasize the tone set in this writing. The faith we must have is purposed for the elimination of the enemy. It must be of a holy expectancy; it must be deaf to doubt; it must be deaf to discouragment; it must be blind to impossibility; it knows nothing, but triumph in God. The power of faith can make something completely impossible, possible. Faith is the spiritual weapon God gives the violent to display spiritual agressiveness in bringing down every stronghold of unbelief and every demonic obstacle in its path. As the Lord is our strength, and as the Lord is a man of war, as His election, we are to be always in a readiness to revenge all disobedience. God is preparing a people for the kingdom of heaven. Overcoming sin will not be a peaceful venture. The faithful who obtained a good report strove for a place in the kingdom. It is not a breach of truth that we will bring many to holiness. But we must have strength, and vigor, and earnestness of desire and endeavor, as those who follow Christ’s ministry. By faith we must strive to deny self, to frame our temper, to alter our mind…there are hard sufferings to be undergone. We must run, and wrestle, and fight, and be in an agony   to Fight! make our calling and election sure. Our faith must be of such a holy claim that it thrust us into the purposes of God. It is going to take a spiritual force to stand against the enemy and advance the truths of God into the darkness of this world to reach the ones desiring to know Jesus. We cannot relent, else souls will be lost. It takes strong and faithful ones to forcefully push past their flesh, to forcefully push into the darkness with the light of God, to forcefully push into the spirit realm through prayer and fasting, worship, and the Word of God. We must pray more, love greater, and be wiser. We are to speak faith words, show prophetic actions under the influence of the Holy Spirit. We are fighting for the kingdom of God. We need the discernment of the Holy Spirit. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but that is what it will look like on the surface. Let us not fall into the trap of seeing it through natural eyes. We know how to see through our spiritual eyes and fight a spiritual battle with spiritual weapons. We win, because, as Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the   violent take it by force.” God gives us the faith to withstand the world’s violence. Our faith is not some religious theory. It is a dominant force and not a dormant force . Faith is the bond of a living union with Jesus Christ, and so the obedience of faith arises out of union with Him. The life that we live is by faith in the Son of God. Unquestioning obedience to the principles and commandments of God is a matter of trust. Our faith must be more than a moment, even more than just a decision…our faith must be life. We have some tight places to go before the Lord is through with this last day people and the world in this final moment of time. Whatever God requires is right, though we may not know the reason until His determined time. The obedience of faith is very different from the obedience of works. The obedience of works is an effort that we find within ourselves. If we treat obedience as something we do first and then all joy in Jesus follows, we will have turned obedience into a work of the law, or a legal external performance that has in it no Christ-exalting worth and therefore will not result in true enjoyment of Jesus. But the obedience of faith arises from our living bond with Christ. Obedience of faith is about pursuing in the power of Christ now; its an obedience that will be complete by the grace of Christ. Obedience comes from faith, and faith is a seeing and savoring of the truth and worth of Jesus. For the child of God, obedience is not an option. It is a command, and when we are confronted with a command, we have two choices: to obey, or to disobey. There is no third choice. Faith is that conquering force by which we overcome. Our faith is to be authoritative and assertive. Reasoning in truth is with authority, having no fear because we speak knowing that we are backed by the power in Jesus Christ. Faith is the factor of our life. Faith believes that God exists and that He is a Reward rewarder. Now ponder this for a moment as we come to know our God more deeply. There is something about the nature of God’s existence and how He rewards us with manifestations of His presence that makes this obvious. It does not need an argument. It belongs to the very essence of what it means to be God that God should be pleased by these two things. God exists absolutely. He did not come into being and will never go out of being. He absolutely is. Therefore, He is pleased when this absolute existence is known and embraced. He is pleased when what He is, is reflected in our lives. We were created for God’s pleasure, and without faith it is impossible to please God. Only with faith will our obedience be pleasing to God. The nature of faith and the vitality of faith is rooted in what God is like. The more we know what God is like, the more conformed to His greatness will be our faith. We will be more and more assured of things hoped for and more and more convinced of things unseen. And God's existence and fullness will be wonderfully displayed in our life. Faith can be measured through obedience. Obedience is the visible expression of invisible faith . Obedient faith is necessary to keep God’s commandments fully. Doing God’s will is obedience. No matter how long Sunday has been observed, it is a distorted doctrine which is not found in the bible. Obedient faith rejects this and keeps the Sabbath. This is the duty of those who obey God’s word. Faith and obedience are inseparable, and faith can be proven through obedience. If a man is confident in his faith, he obeys God’s word. Obedience…what a blessing it would be if we were all exercised to it by the Holy Spirit! Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. {James 2:18} How fully should we be restored if we were perfect in it! If all the world would obey the Lord, what a heaven on earth there would be! Perfect obedience to God would mean love among men, justice to all classes, and peace in every land. Our will brings disbelief, envy, malice, war; but the Lord's will would bring us love, joy, rest, harmony. Obedience…let us pray for it for ourselves and others! God’s people mourn disobedience with many tears and sighs. Faith is the fountain, the foundation, and the fosterer of obedience. Men obey not God till they believe him. We teach faith in order that men may be brought to obedience. To disbelieve is to disobey. One of the first signs of practical obedience is found in the obedience of the mind, the reasoning, the understanding, and the heart; and this is expressed in believing the word of Christ, trusting to his work, and resting in his salvation. Faith is the morning star of obedience. If we would work the work of God, we must believe on Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. The attainment of perfect obedience would mean salvation. We regard sanctification, or perfect obedience, as the great design for which the Savior died. It is for this that we are chosen: we are "elect unto holiness." We know nothing of election to continue in sin. It is for this that we have been called. Obedience is the grand object of the work of grace in the hearts of the chosen and called: being conformed to the likeness of the Son of God, with whom the Father is well pleased. The obedience of faith springs from a principle within, and not from heart's warmest passion compulsion without. It is sustained by the mind's soberest reasoning and the heart's warmest passion. We reason with ourself that we ought to obey our Redeemer, our Father, our God; and, at the same time, the love of Christ constrains us so to do, and so what argument suggests, affection performs. A sense of great obligation, an apprehension of the fitness of obedience, and spiritual renewal of heart, work an obedience which becomes essential to the sanctified soul. Hence, it is not relaxed in the time of temptation, nor destroyed in the hour of sufferings. Life has no trial which can turn the gracious soul from its passion for obedience; and death itself cannot but enable it to render an obedience which shall be as peaceful as it will be complete. We must seek after stronger faith that we may render true obedience. That is the product of our faith. Obedience, such as God can accept, is wrought in us by the Spirit of the Lord, through our believing in the truth, and love, and grace of our God in Christ Jesus. The greater the faith, the greater the manifestation of obedience. There is the kind of faith which produces obedience; and there is the kind of obedience which faith produces; and then there is the kind of life which comes out of this faith and performs. obedience. When we have faith in God then our belief in His sovereignty establishes His right to command obedience. This loyalty of our mind is based on faith, and is a chief prompter to obedience. Cultivate always this cultivate always this sentiment sentiment. God is not such a one as ourselves. So, it is by faith that we are allowed to accommodate a holy familiarity with the rightness of all that God says and do. This, to us, is the kind of faith which shows obedience is lord of the understanding. We believe in God beyond all our belief in anything else, and everything else. Let truth be tinctured with the glory of God, and we value it beyond worth; but if God and eternity be not there, we will leave these trifles to those who choose them. We must have a paramount faith in God, or else the will of God will not be a paramount law to us. Obedience is for the present tense: it must be prompt, or it is nothing. Providence is God's business, obedience is ours. What comes out of our life's course must remain with the Lord; to obey is our sole concern. Obedient faith is the way to eternal life…it is eternal life revealing itself. There is no salvation, no eternal life, without obedience! Life was brought to light through obedience to the faith. Understand what obedience to the faith is. The faith of Christ is the law of trusting fully in what he has done. He is the end of the law. Obedience to the law prepares us to receive the promises by faith in Jesus Christ. Without it, no sanctification can take place, for we, through the Spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Righteousness brings hope, but it is impossible to be righteous in any other way than through obedience to the faith, because the righteous shall live by faith. In Christ we receive both grace and truth, which God is able to give because by faith, we are crucified with Christ and we live as Christ lives in us. The faith of Christ is revealed to us in our human spirit and consciousness. The faith of Christ has its roots in God Himself. It is in perfect harmony with God’s reasoning, purpose, and His plans. And it is according to this faith that we are confident of God’s performance of work in us. We must believe and obey what the Spirit speaks to us and convicts us of in our inner being and in our conscience. This is what the bible calls obedience to the faith.

Truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth. God has a people who refuse to engage in any unright, to pretend reality is something other than what it is. We are not willing to hold back truth to preserve people’s feelings. We look to Jesus. He loved people very much, and we are to love people too much, to withhold the truth from them when it is He that offers it. To not speak truth is a price that is too high to pay for our relationship with God. We have a deep sorrow that so many people are offended by reality, but reality is not going to change simply because someone pretends that it is different from how it actually is. It’s a delusion when someone feels or believes something enough, to think it must be true. People talk about “their truth”, but that is a contradiction in terms. Truth is Truth. If you don’t like the truth, it will not change for you simply because you are offended by it. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 2 Corinthians 13:8 There is always a time and place to speak truth. There is always a time, a place to put truth out there. Some hold back telling truth, so as not to contradict anyone for fear of losing that person. That is most selfish in the most arrogant form. If something is said, meaning it to be the truth and another think it wrong, they should feel free to comment, with respect to proper social etiquette - taking their turn, and giving the other person their turn to talk – that’s called reasoning. If however, someone does not want to discuss a certain topic, they should not bring it up. If they choose to bring it up, they shouldn’t be offended that someone else corrects them with facts. It’s not right to bring up a topic that you don’t want to discuss, and then get annoyed at others for responding to it. If one chooses to walk away as a result, then that is their choice, and if they choose to not reason for truth, then allow them to have their delusion. At the end of the day, we are concerned about the standard of our own life, and of following Christ. The pressure exuded by worldly standards is enormous to compromise the truth in order to get along, to present the truth less boldly, or to remain silent altogether. It takes a boldness and confidence to attend the order of God’s Word. This confidence and boldness must not be rooted in our own abilities. If we speak boldly because we have put our trust in our own intellect or speaking skills, then we have not proclaimed God’s Word with a holy confidence but with self-importance. Our boldness must arise from a firm commitment to the truth of God’s Word. Those who preach and teach confidently in the manner that God approves of, are those who humbly admit that they themselves are heralds of the Lord, bearing His unchanging message that is not only for those being taught but also for the teacher. Outward adorning is fleeting Reason is sufficient to know truth, in fact, reason is the most reliable means of attaining knowledge. But what about such things as beauty, morals, and matters of the spirit? Most have inherited the belief that such things are at best matters of opinion; they are subjective matters having to do only with the individual’s experiences and tastes. Outward adorning is fleeting. We observe the integrity of the upright guiding them. We know that the natural man cannot receive the things of the spirit of God, he has no discernment. The question is, “can we have knowledgeable confidence in the truth of the faith”? Reason and revelation are the only truly reliable sources of knowledge. Reason is the authority. We start with God, the supreme arbiter of truth. Knowledge is to be objective, certain, and dispassionate - not subject to personal feelings. We come to know that faith is fundamental, even to doubt. For even doubt must rest upon belief. Because one doubts something because it conflicts with something else one already believes. And if that something else is doubted, it too, conflicts with something believed. To doubt everything is to learn nothing. In order to learn something, we must believe something. This is how truth of faith doesn’t rest on the fragility of human reason, although it is through our minds that we recognize faith’s truth. It rests on the faithfulness of God who has made Himself known to us. Our assurance comes from the combination of reasoning, knowing, believing, and following the One who is truth, and is evidenced by the revelation of His working out all things. We conclude that our faith is held as truth because of the certainty of the word, which is the correspondence of reality. Truth is the product of the creative activity of God. If this be our faith, then we intend our words to reflect what really is the case. And because truth is accessible, we reason to know that spiritual beliefs based upon the word of God correspond with reality. Conflicting truths must be rejected also, for if truth is that which conforms to reality and reality itself cannot be contradictory, truth cannot be either. Either it is raining outside the window or it’s not. It can’t be doing both at the same time in the same location. Either Jesus could have saved himself as he saved others, or he couldn’t. It was precisely because he came to save others that he could not save himself! To descend from the cross was not indeed a physical impossibility, but it was a moral and spiritual impossibility for the One sent to save us. Likewise, either God Am or He ain’t. As God as He is, He can’t be both. Our beliefs must go beyond   our own perspectives to reflections of reality itself. This is therefore a faith commitment. We have reason to know what the truth is, especially because the One who knows Explanation of Reality about it perfectly tells us. The construct of language will not change what is truth. While a change of terminology might change the attitude about something, it doesn’t change that something itself. We don’t change the nature of something simply by changing the words we use for it. We confidently rest on the faith we hold as describing the way things really are. There is no reason in principle to assume we can’t know ultimate realities just because of our human limitations. It is arbitrary to simply decide God cannot reveal truth to us because of our limitations. We have been met by the One who created the "story" of the world and is able to put the pieces together into a coherent whole. His is the one true explanation of reality. God’s people are not trapped behind opinions. In Christ we have direct contact with revelation. And thus, we do not "impose" truth on others. Truth is knowable and sharable by and with those who study to show themselves approved of God. God gives us each our own story of life’s situations. We respond that we have a story that puts all the pieces together, a story which is coherent and consistent, and which matches the nature of the purposes for service for humanity. In response to all things, we look to Jesus, a historical Person who The story is coherent and consistent has revealed to us more than our reason is capable of discovering on its own. In response to hate we look to Jesus the Creator of all and the final Word who has revealed to us ultimate truth. In him we find truth in its fullest sense, as the One who is real and trustworthy and who speaks. In him, by him, and through him, we can have confidence in our faith. This is why God instructs His last day people to write! The truth and certainty of God’s purposes are ratified by the word and promise of God, and ordered to be committed to writing, as matter of perpetual record. Words given to you from God, are for the support and comfort of the faithful. To provoke faith in our struggle. God has given to mankind such a high degree of autonomy and freedom, that if we choose to continue down a path of death and destruction, He will let us go, even though it pains Him greatly, and even though He does everything possible to warn us about where such paths lead. God instructs His last day people to write! A time such as never was, is the conclusion to a time of intense personal crisis for people on earth. Especially for the people of God. Some are going to defect from the faith. The challenges to our faith will seem even more formidable than they did when we were unrepentant. But the answers to those challenges will be even more convincing than they were when we knew nothing could separate us from the love of God. When asked for the reason of our hope, in a sense, we are supposed to apologize for our faith. This has nothing to do with being sorry for our beliefs. But rather, we are to contend for the faith with sound arguments for our beliefs as well as responding to the tough questions others raise about our faith. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Jude 1:3 The truth is going to cut. Make no apologies for truth. We need the Word of God, the wisdom of God, and the counsel of God in all places and in all circumstances. There is no place that it is inappropriate to use or allude to God’s Word. It is in fact wicked to deny anyone the freedom to read, speak of, or use the Word of God in any context. The Word of God is at times meant to cut away thoughts and concepts that oppose the will or way of God. It is essential to allow the harsh words, the ones that seem to go straight to the heart of conviction, to do their work. The sharp scalpel is used to cut out the God's scalpel corrects cancer or the sharp scalpel is used to correct the alignment of the eye. If one is healthy in the word of God then it will not cut, it will correct. The Lord will bring harsh truth that may cut us. We should be thankful that He has shown us such grace and love. If we do this, we will see the fruit of righteousness abounding in our souls and healing is not far away. We will learn the difference of pain which is caused by disease and that which is produced in the process of healing. Self-righteousness brings division within the body of Christ. Believers should never apologize for believing, quoting, or affirming the Word of God. No, not ever or in any situation. Why should anyone ever apologize for acknowledging God or for using His wisdom? Rather, we should boldly speak of, read, and reference the Word of God, and our total dependence on His all powerful Word. As we move deeper and deeper into hostile spiritual territory in the last day, the spiritual needs of those around us are going to become more and more apparent. As we become more and more capable of sharing our faith with others, we will be more and more inclined to do so, enabling us to be used in a greater way by God. We'll be in a better place when we pray, when we read, and study the scriptures; when we wrestle with our self problems allowing God to preserve us. Let’s get our priorities straight. There are only two eternal things on this earth…God’s people and God's Word. Everything else will ultimately be burned up.