Righteousness! This is the only currency of Heaven and the only thing that spends there and here for the believer.
As we watch the stock market plummet these past few days in this, the end of February 2020, I can’t help but think that wealth can come and wealth can go here on earth…which is what God has told us. But the wealth of Heaven is forever.
A good steward in the Kingdom of God stores up treasures in Heaven where moth and rust cannot destroy. But how do we store up treasures in Heaven? The Bible tells us that also…our righteous acts and obedience to the Spirit of God, expressed through the word of God!
When we abide in Christ, obey Him, we then can produce fruit for the Kingdom of God. This is our currency from God and it is spendable here on earth but it is also spendable in Heaven when we arrive there. Will we arrive with nothing stored up for us or with great treasures? It’s our choice. That’s what is so great. It is our choice.
What am I doing with what God has given to me? Have I hoarded it for myself, feasting sumptuously and forgetting others? It’ll all vanish one day. Am I pouring out what He has given to me to glorify His name and to feed and bless others…using all the gifts He has poured out to me? Then it is stored up in Heaven for me.
Righteousness spends in the kingdom of God here and then. It is incorruptible currency and God is the One who controls the economy.
Whatever you have today, whatever you do today, do in His name, for His glory and with His Spirit guiding you, and you are storing up treasure in Heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy.
Build your wealth today. Walk in righteousness, loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself, and live like a king here and now.
Even if all my possessions are taken from me here, there are eternal riches that nothing can touch of I walk with Jesus Christ and serve Him alone. Thank You Lord!!
We know that all things in Him are “yes” and in Him “Amen”. But what is the caviat? In Him! Is it in Him? Then it is Yes!
Amen!
It seems that there are conflicting sentiments in the body of believers about the all-important and life-giving truth of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the very heart of God. If that is true then it ought to be the very heart of the believer too. We see this all through out the word.Forgiveness is freeing and nurturing and spiritual food for the forgiver even more than for the one who receives so much by being forgiven. And we all need forgiveness, right?
It is the unique quality of followers of Christ. The parable of the wicked servant is a picture of who we do not want to be. The servant was forgiven tremendous debt by his master. He was over joyed but when it came time for him to pass on that forgiveness to his debtors, he would not. This is what made him the most despicable of servants. He was a taker and not a giver…a hypocrite.
But is there occasion where a believer is not to forgive? Is there something that must happen first in order for the one who needs forgiveness to be forgiven? Yes!
” Take heed to yourselves. If your brother trespasses against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him” (Luke 17:3) “And if he trespasses against you 7 times a day, and 7 times a day turns again to you and says I repent, you shall forgive him” (Luke 17:4).
So there is a qualification for forgiving others. They must repent. Now is there anything wrong with forgiving even if they do not repent? Of course not! Forgiveness brings joy and peace and is the heart of God. But is there occasion to retain one’s sin against him? Yes. But the aim is so the person WILL repent. It is not to exact vengeance. God says vengeance is His and not ours. He repays.
So Jesus sent His disciples out and breathed on them to receive the Holy Spirit. Then look ” Whose soever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins you retain they are retained” (John 20:23).
Now this is an example of the obligation of believers to act as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. The reason for retaining ones sins against them (and we have the authority to do it if we are disciples of Christ…not just believers but disciples (mature and fruit bearing believers). Why? It is in order to help other believers caught up in sinful ways to grow and change; to repent and become more like Christ. It is exactly what a good parent would do for the child he loves who has been disobedient and refuses to admit it and correct it. The parent who provides no consequences for sin and bad behavior will encourage the child in the bad behavior. This is exactly what we see here. What happens to the child whose parent never corrected rightly? The world will correct him and then it is a very painful thing to watch. The world is not so loving as the parent. Best for correction to be done in-house. I’m quoting, in paraphrase, pastor Chuck Swindoll, in a sermon about disciplining our children.
Now elsewhere in the Bible it simply says that if we do not forgive then we will not be forgiven. But we have to put that in context with the whole word on the subject. When we do we see that this obviously is referring to one with a spirit of unforgiveness and that even when the offender is sorry and repents, they still won’t forgive. And forgiving someone does not necessarily mean buddy buddy friendship now. It just means that we have remitted the sin against them in our hearts and really do hope and long for their mending.
Now the reason this authority is given to the mature, or spiritual believer only (you can do your research on that and will see this conclusion in the word) is because the immature believer will assert his own interests and not God’s. He will probably act vengefully and this has NOT been given to man. Only God can do that in all holiness.
But to retain an offender’s sin against them (if we are spiritual in Christ…the immature do not have that ability, God won’t hear it) is a very beneficial thing for the offender. We can actually see the hand of God pressing down upon the offender with Fatherly discipline and it is a result of the prayers and petitions of the disciples who would die for the sheep if it were necessary…but at the moment must retain their sin against them for their own good.
May we all get to the point where forgiveness is something so welled up inside of us that it is a burden when we know that the forgiveness we long to give is not right at the moment . May we be so forgiving that the abundance of it in our hearts has to be restrained in some rare and unusual circumstances…all for the lifting up and purifying of the church, the body of Christ.
Food for thought…
Love, C
Some will say, but I celebrate His resurrection! That’s good. Did Jesus ever say to celebrate His resurrection? No, not by itself. There is no resurrection without a death.
Jesus only said, “do this (the Passover feast, eating His flesh and drinking His blood, with the bread and wine, in remembrance of Me… Proclaiming My death till I return” 1 Corinthians 23-26.
Easter is not in the word of God. Where the King James says “Easter” the actual word is “Pascal”…Passover.
The disciples, the first church, kept the Passover feast. They kept it on the 14th of Nisan. There was no such thing as an Easter day or season until corruption set in, and contempt for the Jews replaced the feast given by God. This was to celebrate Jesus’ entire work on the cross, and still more work to come, bringing all things to completion.
Easter is a pagan feast and season, and its presence has gotten in the way of the church recognizing the true work of Christ on the actual day…Passover.
The word of God says, “Christ is our Passover, sacrificed for us…therefore let us keep the feast…” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
1Corinthians 11:27 has a curious warning: anyone who does this (celebrating His death and resurrection) in an unworthy manner is guilty of His blood. That should make the reader pause at the very least…consider and know at best.
Are we to be told what holy day to celebrate? No we have freedom. Paul says not to let anyone press us to keep any day, or sabbath. Why? Because faith is not a matter of a day…Neither Passover nor a sabbath rest day. But there is a caviat to that freedom…be sure you are correct before God in what you freely decide.
How can we be sure we are correct? God’s word is the only way. That’s why we have it. Traditions of man will lead you into a ditch. Emotions and sentiment will lead you into a ditch. Such is Easter. The word of God will lead you to truth and to righteousness.
The resurrection is right there in the Passover feast, for Jesus was raised on the third day which was the 17th of Nisan, the feast of first fruits. This day is right in the center of the Passover celebration which was a week. The death and resurrection are eternally linked. God thought it so important to remember and to celebrate, that He gave us the exact days without possibility of error. The church hasn’t erred, the church has gone astray…after idols…Easter with all its masking and deception.
Jesus is our Passover, sacrificed for us…therefore let us keep the feast…
Be careful in the thing that you allow as a believer, Paul said.
What did he mean? Let’s look. This section of Romans teaches us that we need to be diligent and thoughtful in the things we allow, and don’t allow as a believer, into our lives, and into our doctrine.
Paul says that we need to avoid people who argue with us contrary to the doctrine we know to be right by what God has taught us through His word.
He has admonished us not to take part in silly back and forth over words, haggling, trying to convince. Instead, he says to remove yourself from such.
We saw Jesus saying same thing and it was also over doctrine. He said to leave them alone. They are blind and they lead the blind and both will fall into a ditch.
He doesn’t say to argue or even to persuade here. Now we are always to reason, but when we see there is no reasoning with someone…depart.
If we don’t depart, then we risk corrupting ourselves. We are admonished by Paul here in Romans 14 to make our determination about what we allow, whether it’s about a holy day, a potential idol, an activity or a doctrine we hold…and be sure about it. We are to be sure about it before God. And not to be sure about what we think but about what God has said. We had better know what He has said. We are to be as the Bereans and filter everything through the entirety of His word. He guides perfectly if our motives are pure. If our motives are not pure, then we will follow a crooked path, just as our motive is crooked.
Wow. My own church allows yoga classes at the church. It allows women to teach men in a church setting. It allows crosses and candles as implements for rituals. It is very relaxed about clinging to ways of this world. It is slack concerning doctrine.
Why am I there? They do preach the gospel and in my city there is no other church I have found that does.
I have admonished leadership every single time I see one of these offenses, but to no avail. But how scary for that are in leadership. They are slack with what they allow, and Paul says what is coming to those who do such things.
Be careful as a believer in what you allow. Are you allowing a slack mind about homosexuality in society? Abortion? Drunkenness and frivolity? Ungodly business deals and practices? Be very careful, God warns.
“Happy is the man who doesn’t condemn himself with the things he allows” ( Romans 14:22). That’s word for word.
tThank You Lord Jesus for this word today! Amen and bless your name!
Cheryl
How do we know the word of God is perfect and true? Because of fulfilled prophecy. It has predicted events to absolute perfection from the beginning of time and now in our day, 95 percent of prophetic word has been perfectly fulfilled. So in our day, we have less excuse than in any other day to not confess that yes, the word of God is true and perfect. We have seen it proved by seeing prophecy fulfilled to the letter. Abraham didn’t have that privilege. David did not. Yet they had more faith than the world today. The more the Bible has proved itself, the less mankind believes. Why? Because wickedness is greater and greater as we wait His return.
Come quickly Lord Jesus!
Amen
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. Did you know that? It’s true. It is an established fact.
A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Did you know that? It’s true… also an established fact.
Paul elaborated what Jesus said to us. In Romans, Paul says that an unrighteous person will bear fruit unto death. That is…bad fruit. A person who is not saved , or even, not sanctified, follows earthy ways. These are ways of the old man. They are compromising ways. They are ways that skirt the law, that skirt perfect ways. They are bad fruit. God will not honor them and they are ways of death.
A righteous person will only bear good fruit. In other words, righteous fruit…all godliness. This person is saved and sanctified. Not only do they bear good fruit but they absolutely are unable to bear bad fruit. They are not able to commit ways of unrighteousness. They only commit ways of righteousness. John elaborates on this truth. He says a man who has the seed of Christ in him cannot sin…bear fruit of unrighteousness, death. God won’t permit it. Not for long.
Sin unto death will happen. God won’t allow it.
But a sanctified person, a good tree, wants only to bear good fruit…fruit of righteousness. They are totally adverse to even the slightest unrighteousness. They only do what Christ does.
What is the result? Good fruit. Also…extreme persecution at every turn. This person is constantly having to put their foot down on the side of right and everything on this earth is against right. If it is not for Jesus, it is against Him. And Jesus is never, ever, ever for unrighteousness…even in the tiniest degree.
We can look at a life to see. What surrounds them? Is it life, joy, peace, right-doing, right- thinking? Right thinking is in strict compliance with God’s word. This person then is a good fruit bearer.
Is it confusion, misery, griping, criticism, meanness, compromise, rudeness, selfishness, anger, discontent? This is all bad fruit. It is fruit unto death, or the fruit of death. They are corrupt. They do not prefer righteousness. They are striving and frustrated. They are thankless and joyless. They are unkind, mean, trouble-makers. They can only produce bad, rotten fruit. Nothing works for them.
A tree is known by its fruit. What are you? What do you want to be? Doesn’t everyone want to produce fruit into righteousness? Then follow Him. Don’t go your own way. It’s the hard way. Trouble will come against you, but He is there to help. Do you want peace? Follow righteousness. Righteousness and Peace have kissed.
In the Lord Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
If we have been planted in the likeness of Jesus’ death, only then can we also be raised as He was in His resurrection. This is what Paul said in Romans 6:5
When I am freshly saved or born again, same thing, I am in a future certainty, raised with Him. He will resurrect all who believe. But when?
In this spot as in countless others in the word, we see that Jesus had do die in order to be resurrected. So do we. But we are talking about “planted in His likeness”. The old man has to be planted if he wants to be raised. He has to die like Jesus if he wants to be raised new like Jesus.
A believer has to be planted ( meaning the seed dies and is planted in the ground) in order to be raised new.
How many believers are walking around unplanted? A lot. Most. They won’t be raptured if they are alive when the rapture comes. They will have to be planted in death as He was before that can happen. So they will be resurrected, but only after they endure the wrath of the Lamb during the last 3.5 years, which will plant them. They will be beheaded and be planted, then resurrected after the second coming of Christ.
Those believers who walk in their old ways and remain in old habits won’t hear His call at the rapture. You have to be planted in the likeness of His death to be raised up.
All those that died before then a physical death will rise up in the resurrection at the rapture. They were literally planted in death.
But Romans 12 tells us that God desires a living sacrifice of believers. That means we die while alive and are planted in death while alive. We submit and are changed.
There is no wonder that the things which are hard to understand in the word are kept from the disobedient. Their disobedience blinds them. They cannot hear.
They have spent their time bolstering the flesh rather than dying to self. They cling only to doctrines that build-up the flesh, and reject the doctrine of slaying the old man. They therefore can’t be “planted with Him in His death” because the old man won’t die.
Have mercy on us Lord.
Amen.
In verse 20, we see that before Paul says that those who will be purged from all iniquity (meaning sin) will be sanctified, he tells us that in a great house (the house of God perhaps?) there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth. Isn’t this verse telling us along with many others that in God’s family are those who have been purged of sin and those who haven’t yet? I think so. Now look: The believer is to purge himself. It is up to us to be righteous by purging our sin. We have to kill it, remember.
Then the next group to be caught up with christ at the rapture ( remember we who are alive will not precede those who are dead in Christ) will be those who did die to self rule while alive ( the sanctified, the righteous or the overcomers). I believe that only the overcomers will be raptured.
Then the unthinkable happens I believe. The saved, but still serving self at the time of His catching us up, will be cast into the great tribulation with the unbelievers (Rev. 2&3). They are saved and will be sanctified, but because they refused to do it while they had the chance, they will be martyred during the great tribulation for their faith. They are the beheaded saints. They refused to purify their own hearts, they were double- minded, so now He will do it. We must be pure in heart to see God.
I know that 144,000 Jews are taken to a safe place until Christ comes, but the others who were saved but not sanctified before Christ catches up the church will have to have to experience a death like every other believer ever has in order to be sanctified, or considered righteous or holy (“We must through much tribulation enter the Kingdom of God” ; Acts 14). The flesh must be killed one way or another to be purified. And since these saved but not sanctified believers are alive at the rapture…a very peculiar group…they must now enter the great tribulation to die. Death frees us from sin. Again, blessed are the dead who die on the Lord. This means that those who were not sanctified but died a physical death before the rapture are blessed indeed. But so are the beheaded saints. They will also die in the Lord. This group is more accountable than any group in history because they were flooded with truth and still snubbed it by remaining double-minded. They will have lost so many rewards in Heaven; so many because they loved their lives and would not lose them. They did not desire righteousness. They would not learn righteousness while they had the chance, so now they will. He will do it.
It doesn’t appear so. We see when He cast the legion of demons out of a man in Gadarenes the man was so happy and elated that he begged Jesus if he could go with Him to the next town proclaiming the good news with Him. Jesus said, no.
Instead, the man was instructed to stay where he was and tell his family and those around him, what Jesus has done for him. And the Bible says that’s what he did. It’s the same today.
There is a period a maturing that needs to take place before a believer can go harvesting with Jesus. Also, demon possession can only happen with the permission of the heart it possesses. There is something here. And this man didn’t have just a demon but thousands.
Remember that in God’s house (His family) there are vessels of honor and of dishonor. All are saved, yes, but which ones had propensity for idols and which did not?
We have to be fit for the work of harvesting. Jesus said unless we abide in Him we cannot produce any fruit (harvest). He doesn’t say we aren’t saved.
There are different types of sin. Just because the man longed to go with Jesus into the harvest, doesn’t mean he was suited for it.
God sends apostles. They are fit. The Biblical definition for an apostle is a follower who is obedient and who has seen Jesus, either when He was here before the ascension or in a dream or vision as Paul did.
An apostle is sent because they obey. Because they obey, they know doctrine, whether it is of God or not. They discern. Because they obey and know doctrine they do not follow false doctrine. Because they don’t follow false doctrine they can speak solid truth, un-compromised. They can go into the harvest and gather.
How long will we have to stay back once we’ve received Life eternal?
Bless His perfect and holy name!
Amen.
God. Yes. Knowing Him in Christ. Yes. But these are given. Love. Absolutely.
Today however, the thought came into my head that this waiting period my husband and I are in, trying to decide where we go next, not only in homes but also professions, is the most valuable thing, it is.
We have always gone from one waiting period to the next. It’s always very difficult but I have to say that it does get easier with all the practice we’ve had, now 25 years as children of God.
But the waiting on God and the requirement of doing so as His children, is the most valuable thing there is…after salvation. The things it accomplishes in the spirit is almost in articulable. That can’t be a real word but it’s what I mean. It’s like the “word” routinous. It’s not a word but it should be. How else do you describe one who is predisposed to routine? My daughter made that one up.