GOD'S WORD TO ME--"Contend For The Faith!"

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

GOD'S WORD TO ME

(Jude 3, 5-7)

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints . . . Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.  And angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day--just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire."

Though these are difficult verses to read, the Lord is speaking to my heart about America.  My heart has been burdened for many months now regarding two great evils in our country, and both of them stem from the sin of sexual immorality--abortion and homosexuality.  I need not state my opinion on these because, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, I align myself to my Lord and His opinion.  

But today He is speaking to my heart about my complacency and the complacency of most of my brothers and sisters in Christ.  While I know what I believe, and I am ready to stand with my fellow believers and discuss the sin that is so prevalent in our country, I don't know that I want to "contend for the faith."  Loving the sinner, but hating the sin quietly is my typical mode of operation.  Maybe it is yours, as well.

So today, I am challenged to pray many more prayers of repentance, for my own complacency, yes, but also for our collective complacency as a nation.  I will be praying repentant prayers for the Body of Christ, too.  We are all responsible, in part, for the downfall of this great nation, as we have continually turned a blind eye to the sin in our own camp.

It is time for sorrowful, heart-felt, repentance, my dear brothers and sisters.  Will you join me? 

Choose Your Path: Complacency or Vengeance

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

"Think back now to the Tabernacle we studied a few chapters back.  Do you remember the courts and their purposes?  If you have been hanging around in the Outer Court, comfortable enough in your salvation and baptism, yet oblivious to the victory over sin that God is calling you to, it is time for you to take a step into the Inner Court of obedience.  Are you already in the Inner court, enjoying the Holy Spirit's company and the Word of God, but still living in cyclical sin?  Then it's time for you to put shoe leather on the soles of your spiritual walking shoes!  It's time to take some serious vengeance on your sin!  Are you willing now for your heart to be laid bare before you and the Lord, so that the idols and sin can be removed?  If you are not willing, you will not be able to grow any closer to God than you currently are.  Are you satisfied with that, and satisfied with living your 'small g' god-driven life?

God sent Israel to war!  This will be no less a battle for us, and it will likely last for our entire life.  Will God find you obedient to this call, or will you take the easiest, most flesh-pleasing way out?  The first will lead yo to victory and intimacy with God; the other will eventually defeat you and keep you from drawing near to God.  The choice, ultimately, is yours.  Choose wisely.  Choose to take full vengeance on your sin.  The alternative is only  foolishness, and ultimately it reveals your complacency.  Consider these wise words that speak of this kind of complacency in your Christian walk.

Complacency is a blight that saps energy, dulls attitudes, and cases a drain on the brain.  The first symptom is satisfaction with things as they are.  The second is rejection of thins as the might be.  'Good enough' becomes today's watchword and tomorrow's standard.  Complacency makes people fear the unknown, mistrust the untried, and abhor the new.  Like water, complacent people follow the easiest course--downhill.   They draw false strength from looking back."

What path have you chosen?  Do you need to change your course?

Your spiritual journey is made up of countless choices between your flesh and the Spirit who dwells inside of you. The valley of decision is often a bloody battlefield. But the Spirit CAN win each battle if you are surrendered to Him.

(Quoted from Chapter 7, "Taking Full Vengeance" from Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory by Cheryl Gnagey)

Finding Spiritual Healing

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

                                                                                    

                                                                                     

Today I want to introduce to you my book, Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory.  The message of this book is the inspiration of this blog.  If you haven't listened to the video, please do.  It will give you an overview of the precepts found in Spiritual Healing.

You might find yourself wondering why you, as a believer in Jesus Christ, have need for further spiritual healing.  The answer lies in understanding that when you first believed in Christ, the penalty of your sin was removed.  You no longer would be held accountable for the wickedness of your heart and flesh.  But I am convinced that it didn't take you much longer than it did me to realize that the practice of sin was still very much a part of your life.  You were still quite capable of sinning.  This is why you and I need a spiritual healing of our sin-filled hearts.  We need to learn how to overcome our sinful tendencies.  We all need to discover the way to gain victory over our flesh and sin life.

As believers you and I now have the opportunity to choose how we will live.  And there are only two real choices.  Either we will live in the comfort of the status quo, ignoring the sins we commit on a regular basis, thus, becoming complacent in the sin lifestyle.  We will profess Christ as our Savior, living solely in the expectation of salvation in Christ (our "ticket to Heaven").  The only other choice would be to press into our relationship with Christ and press through the temptation to sin, on to the abundant life in Christ where we will walk in obedience to the Spirit's whispers, overcoming what used to be the constant sinful tendency of our flesh.

After walking in my belief for the last 37 year, I am convicted of the sin that remains in my life.  Are you?  Is it possible that God is preparing this generation to rise up against our own fleshly wills and surrender to Him, so that we might be a light to this lost world?  Our hearts are where this battle rages--in the very home of the the Holy Spirit.  He has a job to do in our hearts.  It is to transform our hearts and lives into the very image of Christ.  But we constantly prevent Him from building a pure home for Himself in us because we refuse to surrender to the work He is designed to do in us.  

Are you passionately seeking a transformation of your heart?  Do you want to experience Spiritual Healing?  It is available to you, but only through the Spirit.  If you sense that the Spirit is speaking to you right now, and your heart is racing in anticipation of the life that lies just beyond the veil of your flesh, you might well be on a pathway to the holy and pure life that is yours in Christ.

Would you like further instruction on this topic?  Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory is available on this blog.  Look for the "Buy Now" button and purchase a copy today!  Say good-by to your complacent walk and fix your eyes on the journey to victory!

Comfort Vs. Surrender

Pin It Originally: How To Add a Pinterest (Pin it) Button to your Blog/Website http://cs-doon.blogspot.com/#ixzz1ryXJUBEC

Many battles had been won; it was time for Israel to take full possession of their homeland. It was parceled off to each of the 12 tribes. God had done what He said He would do--He brought them to a secure land and equipped them to take it. He was utterly faithful, but Israel was not. They did not take it all, leaving God's land polluted. What is polluting your heart? Does He have full possession of it?

The consequences of not taking all of the land would be disastrous for Israel.  Because they chose to "relax" once they received their land, instead of driving out the Canaanites, they would fall prey to the spirit of the land.  They did not conquer it all, so their victory would be short lived.  Though God had given them everything they needed to reach this summit, they sat down in the easy chair and were quite content to dwell with the pagan people in the land.  They shared with the Canaanites what had been promised to them alone.

Don't we do the same thing?  We have been given entrance into the Kingdom of God, and the moment we come through the Door, we sit down in our comfortable salvation.  We enter into comfortable and enjoyable ministry, and we take on an attitude that is comfortable saying, "I am so grateful that I have Jesus in my heart."  

In the life of every believer there will be a moment of true heart reckoning.  Our attitude and mindset must come to the place where we ask, "Is the Holy Spirit 'comfortable' dwelling in my sinful heart?"  If you are like me, you have become comfortable hiding your sin within the walls of your heart, the very walls that contain the Holy Spirit.  This is the battle between our flesh and the Spirit.  We walk more often in our flesh, completely ignoring the Spirit's counsel.  Just like Israel was given the tools to overcome every sinful group of people in their land, we too have been given "everything we need for life and godliness."  We can dispossess the sin in us by daily putting our flesh to death.  How?  By that "everything" we have been given!  Our "everything" is the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  They are enough to overcome every sin in our life.  But in order for them to be operative in us, there is one thing that God will require of us.  He requires our surrender to Him.  Without our surrender we will continue to walk in our flesh, not overcoming and dispossessing sin from our lives.  We truly are like the Israelites when we walk in this manner.

God's ways are not our ways.  In order for us to gain victory in our spiritual lives, cleaning out what God does not want in our hearts and lives, we must surrender.  Are you ready to surrender to Him ALL of your heart?  Leaving sin inside your heart reveals complacency with your sin.  Make today a day of booting out something that God says must go!