What Is Your Will In Christ?

"But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words."  1 Thessalonians 4-18 (NKJV) These are my own thoughts regarding my own experience and belief regarding the passing of someone that I love very deeply. I use the current tense because I believe that our God created us to be...

"For it is written: “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us shall give account of himself to God." Romans 14:11-12 (NKJV) The Apostle Paul spoke truthfully and for those of us who believe God, there's no question that we'll stand before Him to answer for the lives that we've lived here. For those who don't believe and scoff at the idea that they'll be called to account before the God who created everything - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, their inheritance will be the terror of fools who have chosen their own lot of horror for eternity. We can contend for them while they live momentarily, but when their flesh passes, so will their opportunity to change course. Repentance and acceptance of Christ now is their only hope. For those of us who claim to follow Christ and believe God, the rubber of reality hits the road of truth when we begin to force ourselves to consider factually...

"Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O Lord, You preserve man and beast. How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light."   Psalm 36:5-9 (NKJV) It seems inconceivable to some worldly minds that a person can find real peace and contentment in the middle of such craziness in the world around us, but the distinction that they may not yet recognize is that the craziness in the world belongs to man and man's perspective alone ... and the peace and contentment to be found ... flow from the God who created him.  "My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my...

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:12-13 (NKJ) It's not my goal here to be offensive, but instead productively provocative toward faithful, believing, conduct worthy of my brothers and sisters in Christ- toward a more perfect reflection of Christ in us as we're in submission and obedience to Him.  I have a certain concern for at least part of a generation that has been taught that by saying a few words they are now saved. If you've studied the scriptures for yourself, my hope for you is that you realize that there's more required than a simple verbal confession. True belief comes first or the confession is hollow and our continued belief ...

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1:3-8 (NKJV) If we know and remember the truth as God has established and laid it out for us ...

"Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows."   1 Timothy 6:6-10 (NKJV) It seems as though there are greater numbers of people going through life unsettled these days. Humanity has a habit of placing increasing demands and pressures on itself and I don't think that's what God had in mind for any of us. I believe that God intends and expects that He will be and is our primary focus. Still, there's so much to do and so much we have to do just to get by from one day to the next according to society and the l...

“Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; Seek justice, rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Isaiah 1 16-20 (NKJV) My self, knowing Him as He's allowed, I don't believe that God desires to be anything other than the loving, generous, and kind Spirit that He's declared to us in the whole of His word and is. If we've truly studied the whole of what He's made available to us and we've submitted earnestly to the Holy Spirit to make Him known to us, we have begun to know Him ... and He is always a...

"Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.""   Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NKJV) There are those hard times that come at us as followers of Christ that strip away something that we've come to rely on as a stable part of our life here. Those times can be a good thing when it comes to stripping away  something  that has inhibited our drawing nearer to Christ or has stymied our growth as His followers. Even so, those occasions may hurt initially, but at some point we may likely be able to look back with gratitude and recognize how the Lord has used these things to prosper us in His eternal economy and change us further into His likeness. There are other hard times that come tho...

"The Lord knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish; And the enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away."   Psalm 37:18-20 (NKJV) How is it that we, the redeemed, dishonored by even the slightest of our own choices and motives in error, and born into the rebellious household of mankind, become willing captives and heirs of Christ, freed of sin to revel in His glory? It seems scandalous to us if well thought out, but as followers of Christ we know that the justice of it lies in the depth of His sacrifice.   If taken by ourselves and measured against God who created us, God against whom we have, even if by our own thoughts, rebelled, we would have no real, distinguishable, value. Yet He assigns us a value of the highest order- a value worthy of His own terrible and ...

"He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”  Psalm 91:1-2  (NKJV) Whatever's happening in the world needs to take a back seat to whatever the Lord is doing in our own lives. We could easily become overwhelmed with concern about what's going on "out there" when the most consequential happenings to us are those taking place in the relationship that we claim to hold most dear - the one between us and the Lord our God. "Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday."  Psal...

"Who among you will give ear to this?  Who will listen and hear for the time to come?  Who gave Jacob for plunder, and Israel to the robbers?  Was it not the Lord,  He against whom we have sinned?  For they would not walk in His ways, n or were they obedient to His law.  Therefore He has poured on him the fury of His anger a nd the strength of battle;  It has set him on fire all around, y et he did not know;  And it burned him, y et he did not take it to heart."  Isaiah 42:23-25 (NKJV) So much history given to learn from, yet so many refuse to learn. The insolence and outright evil occurring in so many places these days is astounding and the rise to designate the followers of Christ as the public enemy increases steadily, seemingly without any true alarm- even in nations that once claimed to embrace God by majority. There's a drive to remove and rewrite the past to eliminate so many things that were learned from actual hard lessons of histor...