Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!

Psalm 133:1

In case you didn’t know, let me give you a little background on myself…

I grew up in the south.  Which means I grew up knowing to go to church. My great grandparents went, my grandparents went, my parents went, my friends went, and their parents and grandparents went… my first memories of church are going with my Papaw Harris and Mamaw Lola. Then I remember going with my parents, then I remember we quite going. After that I remember going occasionally, popping in and out, and attending different churches with friends.

I say all this, to say, I never was in a church long enough to get a church mentality or learn the church lingo…

I remember when I wholly surrendered my life to Christ almost twelve years ago at the age of 24, that when I looked in the church bulletin I didn’t know that I could come to church on Sunday nights. The bulletin said “Discipleship Training” and I thought that was for the Pastors and Sunday School teachers only.

I don’t think I knew that I could come to “discipleship training” until someone specifically invited me to come. I was extremely intimidated by the “church” stuff.

I just this past Tuesday found out what an “RA” is, still don’t know what “GA” stands for, and really have no clue what a “WMU” is…

The December that I surrendered my life to Christ, I was invited to participate in a Precept study. I was already reading through the whole Bible… it was in this commitment to read the whole thing that I realized that I had no clue who God really was and that I didn’t have a relationship with Him, but I wanted to… and after committing my life to Him and then digging into His Word through Precept Upon Precept studies, I just became so stinkin’ excited about Him and over Him and for Him that I just could not contain myself.

So I just jumped right into all things of the church… anything anyone would allow me to participate in… any thing that allowed me to talk to people about God and His Word, because I was, and still am, so excited over Him. I looked for any opportunity to tell people about Him and still do.

My husband and I were attending a Baptist church, and we still attend that same church, but I was not in “the church” long enough before then to get a “Baptist” mindset, or a “Charismatic” mindset, or a “church of where-ever” mindset. I was just now getting a “crazy in love with Jesus” mindset. I loved Jesus and His Word and His church and wanted everyone else too.

So to this very day I don’t get the “church wars”

I don’t.

I never will.

As far as I can tell in the Word of God… we are supposed to be on the same team… a part of the same kingdom… reaching people for the same Jesus with the same gospel.

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.  

Philippians 2:1-3

As a matter of fact, what I read in the Scriptures is that we are commanded to be united…

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

John 17:22-23

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Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Ephesians 4:1-6

So forgive me if I look at you in disbelief and mouth opened dumbfoundedness when I hear that you think another church is competition… forgive me if I get angry with you when you have to put down another body of believers in order to promote yours… because I think its sad and childish and in absolute rebellion to the Word of God… and I in no way see how God could bless that attitude.

We are in the last days and souls around us are being devoured by the spiritual forces of darkness and the powers of hell… our nation is falling deeper and deeper under the authority of this darkness and  I can’t help but find it sad that so many of the churches in it are so busy hiding their “light” from other churches that they can’t join them to fight the darkness together.

I am just foolish enough to believe that I can actually learn from other believers who might see things a little differently than me… I am just foolish enough to believe that God is sovereign and I don’t have to recruit church members from other churches, if God wants them to come to my church He will send them… much like He sent me. Besides, if they are not coming because God sent them, then they are not going to be a benefit to the body anyway.

How much more could the church, the true church, accomplish in our communities if we pooled our resources together to reach the lost and strengthen the saved? If we met together as a team instead of competitors? How much brighter would the light be to our community if we all pointed it in the same place at the same time?

Last night I stayed up until midnight watching the History Channel recaps of 9/11. I realized they were showing things and sharing things in these interviews that I had never heard or either never paid attention to before… so I couldn’t help but watch. I remember that day so very well. I remember that when I saw the second plane fly into the second tower, my heart stopped, and I said out loud, this is not an accident, we are under attack…  

From that day on to this day, I have never entered any public venue with the same carefreeness that I did before 9/11. I do not enter a ball field, a school, a church, a concert, a museum, an airport, a plant site, a government building, a hotel… nothing that contains more than a hundred people at a time, without checking my surroundings, scanning the faces, and making a plan as to what I would do if in that moment this building was targeted and attacked.

As I watched the last of the History Channel recap, Condaleeza Rice closed the interview with, for those is authority on September 11th, every day after that was September the 12th. How right she was… but this statement is not just true for those in authority that day in Washington, but it is true for every American that experienced and understood the full implications of it. Our country was changed forever that day. 

We simply were not prepared as a nation for this type of attack… it never occurred to us as a people, nor as a government… I mean, good grief, we were the land of the free and the home of the brave. People came to our country to escape terror, not to inflict it. Right?

I remember in the interviews, Rumsfeld shared how all of our nations defense missiles and radars were pointed outward for defense from an external attack… it had never occurred to our defense teams to prepare to be able to attack and defend our nation from an internal “civilian” attack.

As he said these words I thought about the church in America.

Our nation was founded by believers who were fleeing external persecution. Men and women from nations around the world heard of the freedom that existed in our nation and these men and women fled to our shores for safety and refuge. Here inside the borders of this great land, though not a perfect nation, not a perfect people, there was light- and there was freedom- and there was peace- and there was always hope.

We were free to worship our God with no fear of external attack. There would be no worries of beatings, imprisonment, or death… not even a real concern of shunning from the community if you named the name of Jesus and professed Him as your Lord and the Only Way to the Father.

We were protected from external attacks and so we lived… and then one day it seems that we didn’t just live… we went on about our own lives. The “church” changed. In our lack of concern of an external persecution we seemed to lose all need to pay attention to our inward condition. We forgot that we have an enemy within.

The attack on the American church is not an external attack… it is an inward attack. Individually within our own hearts and minds and also within the walls of our corporate congregations. The enemy has snuck in undetected, slithering right on in… and so many are not prepared.

  Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Jude 1:3-4

Across our nation we have church buildings full of professing Christians who base their theology on catch phrases instead of Scripture, who stand on traditions of men instead of the authority of the Word, who trust more in man’s imagination than God’s divine inspiration. Professing believers who are not prepared to stand… because they have built their house on the sand.

Within the walls of our congregation we find believers that are under attack within our own hearts and minds. We fight and suffer from depression, oppression, and suppression. All internal battles that cannot be defeated from any external weapon of man’s invention.

for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

2 Corinthians 10:4-6

Are you prepared?

Are you aware of the schemes of the enemy within?

Are you on the look out?

Do you have your defense missiles and radar pointed inward so that you might examine and guard your own heart and mind as well as guarding the church that is in your house of worship?

Do you have a plan?

Are you prepared to protect and to serve the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ?

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. 

Colossians 2:8

Are you prepared to make war with your own flesh, with your own sin, with your own ignorance?

Are you prepared to fight the lies of this world, of demons, even the lies of your own heart with the only weapon that wins, the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God?

in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:16-17

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For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

Hebrews 4:12

Are not two sparrows sold for a cent?

And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

Matthew 10:29

Do you realize the power and the gift of assurance that is found in the words of this verse… this simple quote from the lips of our Savior about a couple of little birds?

I don’t know where you are in your walk with the Lord… I don’t even know if you even have one… if you don’t, I hope that maybe the path that I am on might intrigue you enough to join me for a while… I have, I think at least, over three years of my journey recorded on this site.

It’s funny, some posts are silly, some post have caught me in a moment of readiness to extend abundant grace to the greatest of sinful man, some have caught me in a moment of ready to drop the hammer down and tell everyone who refuses to obey Christ to suck it so I can just move on… some posts have my triumphs and victories… some post hold my pity parties…

I have considered before going through and changing the wording of some of my more “harsher” post, my husband nicely described them  once as “controversial” as he compared another girl’s blog to mine… but as I considered this re-wording, I decided… nope.

This is the dichotomy of the human spirit, at the very least, MY human spirit, and it is my journey of faith. The mountains and the valleys and the moments by the streams… it is what it is… and to go back and change the wording… in order to change the spirit and emotion in which it was written would remove the reality of the moment and memory.

All that said… to say… the most amazing journey that my God has me on is the one into the beauty of His sovereignty.

I cannot begin to express the release of life’s burdens that come when we begin to realize that God is indeed GOD!

The more we come to understand the scope of His salvation and the sovereignty of our God, the ability for man, for circumstances, for tragedy, for health, for death, for anything at all to shake you becomes less and less. These things become absolutely impotent in the face of an omnipotent God.

When I hear my Jesus speak to my spirit and say…

   Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.

Matthew 10:28-31

I think of all the things that can kill this body… an evil man deceived and held in bondage by the kingdom of darkness and serving the powers of hell, an appearing out of no where accident, a sickness in this weak flesh of ours as cancer, or simply the process of aging itself, as sin has its effect on this temporary body that is fit only for death. I think of all these things when my Jesus says, Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul … 

Not one these things has the ability to kill my soul! NOT ONE!

Not one of these has the ability to steal my soul from the hand of my God. NOT ONE!

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:37-39

Not one of these things has the ability to kill my soul and not one of these things has the ability to take from me the purpose and plan of God for my life.

For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,

Isaiah 46:9-10

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For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:6

There is great peace in knowing that God is GOD.

There is great assurance in knowing that God is GOD.

There is great confidence in knowing that God is GOD.

I have no need ever to fear any device of man, any defect of this flesh, any demonic threat because my God is GOD!

No one can snatch me from His hand and no one and no thing can take my life… I belong to Him. I am His. So whatever comes into my life or comes against my life has not the power to triumph over me… for if God is for me… WHO CAN BE AGAINST ME!

It’s a good place to be, resting in the sovereignty of God, knowing that you wake up each day to live in obedience to Him… come what may… knowing that God is for you… I have no desire to carry the burden of sin, rebellion, disobedience, unforgiveness, fear… I have carried that burden before and it is too heavy for me. I prefer the cross of my Christ… and whatever might come with it… because I know in HIM and though HIM and for HIM I will be more than a conquerer.

Have you discovered this for yourself precious one?

Have you come to know and to grasp and to receive and walk in the knowledge of the sovereignty of our Creator?

Every October our church puts on an eight scene walk through drama called The Judgment Seat, this year our theme has received a lot of criticism, because it’s a little different than usual. I myself have pondered it, and wrestled with it, seeking God concerning it, wondering if we should change it, adjust it in some way…  but today after my remembrance of the sovereignty of God I am beginning to see the purpose behind this theme.

We want you, precious one, to understand that no matter what, GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME , IN HIS TIME, JUST IN TIME, WHY, BECAUSE THAT’S HIS NATURE.

He is sovereign, and all things, ALL THINGS, work together for good, for those who love HIM and are the called according to HIS PURPOSE.

But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.

Matthew 9:16-17

I read this quote of my Lord this morning as I studied in the book of Matthew. Jesus is addressing the disciples of John when He says these words. They are asking Him about fasting… the disciples of John are wondering why they and the Pharisees fast, but the disciples of Jesus do not fast.

Here we see three different types of religion.

1) We see the Pharisees who use religion to control and fast for a show.

2) We see the disciples of an earthly man who use religion as a means of morality and a path to an inner peace and do good things and help others, those who fast to affirm that they are more than just this world and are not controlled by the things and present leaders of this world… yet this is not enough to save.

It happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus, and found some disciples. He said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said to him, “No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” And they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. 

Acts 19:1-6

3) Then we see the disciples of Jesus who at this time have no need to fast, because they are presently walking in physical daily fellowship with the One that fasting is meant to bring them into fellowship and communion with…

Precious ones, there will be no fasting in glory… and at the time these disciples where walking with Glory.

However, that will not last… a day is coming when these disciples of Jesus Christ will fast as well.

Jesus explains this to the disciples of John with two illustrations… a patch of new cloth on an old garment always pulls away from the garment and makes the tear worse and new wine in an old wineskin always burst.

Here are my thoughts beloved…

At that time the disciples of Jesus were all good and satisfied. Jesus was right there with them. He was teaching them face to face, eye to eye, heart to heart. He was healing the sick and raising the dead and casting out demons right before their eyes… they had no reason to fast.

One day they would.

One day soon.

One day Jesus would have to leave. He would go to the cross to die for them because of their sin… to the grave to pay for them because they owed a debt that only He could cover… and to glory to keep them because He loved them and they belonged to Him.

He would go, but His disciples would remain.

They would remain, but they would receive an unshrunk patch of His Spirit to put on their old garment of flesh and they would receive the new wine of His life in the old wine skin of their flesh.

As they continued in this world as new creations in jars of clay, that new patch would begin to pull further and further away from that old garment. The Spirit just has nothing in common with this old flesh. Therefore each day of walking in the Spirit would force the tearing away from this flesh a little more and more. This tearing would come with days of great anguish, days of embarrassing exposure, days of faith failure, days of doubt, disappointment, discouragement, and demonic attack…

Yet, our Savior will not leave us exposed as the patch of the Spirit tears away from us the old garment of this flesh. As this new patch of the Spirit on this old garment of flesh begins to pull away, we find that our Lord clothes us in Himself… in His own robe of righteousness.

Yes, it can be quite fearful and painful… and this is when I believe Jesus says… yes, His disciples will fast.

Likewise, as they, as we, continue in this world as new creations in jars of clay filled with the new wine of His life in this old wineskin of flesh… we find this old wine skin of flesh just can’t hold this new wine of His life contained. We find that it begins to leak out of us and pour out onto others. As a matter of fact, this new wine of His life should be pouring out of us as an ever flowing fountain of Life for others to drink…

 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. 

Philippians 2:16-17

However, this pouring out, this bursting of the old wineskin of our flesh, that allows the wine of His life to be poured out, can leave us empty and drained and weak….

This is when the disciples of Jesus will need to fast.

Oh but beloved, as more and more of the wine of His life is poured in us and out of us we discover this old wineskin just can’t hold it and one day it is going to full fledge burst from this new wine and be destroyed. Then our God is going to give us a new wineskin into which to pour the wine of His life and both the wine and the wineskin will be preserved.

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality.

1 Corinthians 15:51-53

So dear one have you need to fast because you are being pulled away and poured out?

If you fast why, do you fast?

Is it for show before men, like the Pharisees?

Is it to prove to yourself and others that you are not controlled by your flesh or the things of this world?

Is it because you are being pulled away a little more each day from this old flesh by the newness of the Spirit and the Life of your Savior and sometimes it flat out hurts and wearies your soul and you need to be reminded of the joy of your salvation and come and be still at the feet of your Lord and be restored?

The Unless… series continues here… kind of.

The men said to her, “We shall be free from this oath to you which you have made us swear, unless, when we come into the land, you tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window through which you let us down, and gather to yourself into the house your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father’s household.

Joshua 2:17-18

The context of this verse is the day that the generation of Joshua would take the Promised Land… well part of it anyway. They never were obedient long enough to obtain it all… that is for a day yet to come… yet coming quickly. Israel spies were sent into the city to scope out the scene. The word got out that they were in town and they were needing a place to hide.

Rahab, a harlot of the city, had heard about the God of these men. She had heard about what happened in Egypt. She had heard about the Amorites. She had heard and she was responding. She not only was responding she was taking action… she was grasping hold of these men and was saying… you want my help, tell me about your God. She reminds me of Jacob as he grasped hold of the angel of the Lord and said I will not let you go until you bless me!

However these men were not the angel of the Lord… they could not be sure of this woman’s motive, her allegiance, her confidence, or her heart. So they attached a way out this oath. She would have to hang this scarlet cord in her window so that they would know she she believed them. Grace was offered her… but there was something she needed to do in response to that grace.

When God made the call to flood the earth in order to destroy those who had so corrupted it… He offered grace to Noah. Destruction was coming. That was a fact, however, God let Noah in on its coming. Not only did He bring Noah knowledge of its coming, He informed him of a way to be delivered through the destruction… but Noah had to do something. Noah had to respond to the extended grace… the unmerited favor of God.

God did not owe Noah a thing… he was a man born in sin like the rest of us… we see the effects of it right after he got off the ark and was found drunk and naked. Yet God offered him grace anyway.

However, had Noah not built the ark… he would have perished with the rest of mankind, his family with him. Just knowing about the judgement to come… just knowing about the way to be saved… just knowing was not enough. Response was required. Obedience was required. Noah had to put his God given knowledge and grace into action.

Likewise Rahab had been given knowledge that the city would be destroyed. She had also been offered grace, a way to be saved in the midst of the destruction. Had Rahab not have taken these men at their word, had she not hung the scarlet thread in the window, she would have perished with the rest of the city, her family with her.

Jumping straight into a New Testament “unless” by the mouth of Jesus Himself…

“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 5:20

The Pharisees had all the knowledge of the Scriptures. The Pharisees all knew the words of God that taught of the coming of the kingdom of heaven. They knew the Scriptures, since childhood, that were given to them to lead them to salvation. They also knew the coming destruction of this earth, as it has clearly been revealed to us through the prophets of old…

and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:15

…but just knowing is not enough.

But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;

Matthew 3:7-8

God continues to tell us that the days of this world are about to end. Destruction is coming. God’s wrath will one day fall on this world. He will indeed stand and defeat the powers of hell and the spiritual forces of darkness. This epic battle is between Him and the evil one and the evil one is going down… in this battle the heavens and the earth will not survive… all will perish including all of mankind that remains.

However, God has given us knowledge of His coming wrath, though He owes us nothing. He has given us knowledge and He has told us what we must do to be saved from it. Not only has He told us what to do… He did all that was needed for it. He has doubly extended His grace to us in this day. He has sent His Son to earth to die on a cross for our sin, that we might be saved in Him… and all He asks is that we take Him at His Word and believe.

Yet here is the kicker.

Real belief is always followed by obedience to that which you believe… not just immediate obedience, but continued obedience.

Foreigners pretend obedience to me;
As soon as they hear, they obey me.
“Foreigners lose heart,
And come trembling out of their fortresses.

2 Samuel 22:45-46

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Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him,

And their time of punishment would be forever.

Psalm 81:15

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And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven

Colossians 1:21-23

So what should knowledge + grace = ?

Knowledge + Grace should = Obedience, which always leads to Salvation.

So Knowledge + Grace + Obedience = Salvation

We see this through Noah, through Rahab, and we see it in the words of our Christ over and over again… but just think, beloved, Noah had to build an ark for he and his household to be saved… Rahab had to hang a scarlet cord for her and her household to be saved… all we have to do is believe.

And he called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas, and after he brought them out, he said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

 Acts 16:29-31

Take some time today to read through Matthew 7:7-27. It’s a hard word, but it is solid and true. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather prefer that I get “real” with my Jesus on this side of eternity… Ask Him to reveal to you the condition of your heart, the condition of your mind, the condition of your soul.

Ask and seek and you will find… He promised.