Difference between Civilization and Savagery

"The first table of the law was designed, by keeping men in the worship of the one God and Father, to unite them in one family and lift them ever higher and higher, into the realization of all possible joy and peace. 

The second table of the law was written by the same finger, and came from the heart of the same loving Father. It is simply His statement of the few brief principles which underlie all possible family unity and happiness in the relation of man with man.

But if the vast difference between civilization and savagery is due to the outward observance of the letter of that law, even that observance being forced upon the minority, 

Q: what can be said of the possible joy in that ideal state where all, of their own free will, keep not the letter only but also the spirit of the law ?

It was through Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit was given to us, to write the law, not merely in the letter, and on tables of stone, but in the spirit, and on the fleshly tables of the heart. In all this God had not only His own pleasure but the happiness of His children in view.

"Thou shalt not covet,"(Exodus 20:17) forbids the cherishing of the first germ of the desire that leads to all evil and all misery." 

George Fifield

Battle of Self

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:23

"In self-defense, the only thing that can be employed is force. 

In self-surrender, the only thing that can be employed is love. 

In self-preservation, by self-defense, through the employment of force, force meets force, and this means only war. 

In self-sacrifice, by self-surrender, thru love, force is met by love, and this means only peace.

Self-preservation, then, means only war; 

while self-sacrifice means only peace. 

But war means only death. 

Self-preservation, then, meaning only war, means only death; while self-sacrifice, meaning only peace, means only life. 

Self-preservation being the first law of nature, nature then means only death; while self-sacrifice being the first law of grace, grace means only life. 

But death only is the wages of sin; nature, then, meaning only death, it is so only because nature means sin; while life, being only the reward of righteousness; grace, meaning only life, it is so only because grace means righteousness. 

Sin and righteousness, nature and grace, are directly opposite and antagonistic elements." 

A.T. Jones

SANCTIFICATION Full Circle: The TAMED HEART -- The Law & Beatitudes

If ye love Me, 

keep My commandments.

John 14:15

The LAW: The TAMED HEART

Thou shalt/Thou shalt not/Remember...
Exodus 20:2,3,8

Ye are the light of the world. 

A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 

Matthew 5:13

The BEATITUDES: The TAMED HEART

Blessed are the poor in spirit:/Blessed are they that mourn:/Blessed are the meek:/Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness:/Blessed are the merciful:/Blessed are the pure in heart:/Blessed are the peacemakers:/Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake:/Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.
Matthew 5:3-11

Are You a Half baked Christian?

"Israel was as a cake not turned, half burnt and half dough, none of it fit for use; a mixture of idolatry and of the worship of Jehovah. There were tokens of approaching ruin, as grey hairs are of old age, but they noticed them not."
Matthew Henry

They are all adulterers, 

as an oven heated by the baker, 

who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, 

until it be leavened. 

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, 

whiles they lie in wait: 

their baker sleepeth all the night; 

in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; 

all their kings are fallen: 

there is none among them that calleth unto Me.

Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; 

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

...gray hairs are here and there upon him,

 yet he knoweth not.

Hosea 7:4,6-9

Some Questions

I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, 

and the praises of the Lord, 

according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us. 

Isaiah 63:7

"Q: And canst thou not do this? 

Q: Are there no mercies which thou hast experienced? 

Q: What though thou art gloomy now, canst thou forget that blessed hour when Jesus met thee, and said, "Come unto Me"? 

Q: Canst thou not remember that rapturous moment when He snapped thy fetters, dashed thy chains to the earth, and said, "I came to break thy bonds and set thee free"? 

Q: Or if the love of thine espousals be forgotten, there must surely be some precious milestone along the road of life not quite grown over with moss, on which thou canst read a happy memorial of His mercy towards thee? 

Arise, go to the river of thine experience, 

and pull up a few bulrushes, 

and plait them into an ark, 

wherein thine infant-faith may float safely on the stream. 

Forget not what thy God has done for thee; turn over the book of thy remembrance, and consider the days of old. 

---Go back, then, a little way to the choice mercies of yesterday, and though all may be dark now, light up the lamps of the past, they shall glitter through the darkness, and thou shalt trust in the Lord till the day break and the shadows flee away." 

Charles Spurgeon

Post #21,000

Remembering mine affliction and my misery, 

the wormwood and the gall.

My soul hath them still in remembrance, 

and is humbled in me.

This I recall to my mind, 

therefore have I hope.
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, 

because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: 

great is Thy faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:10-23

Who Do You Say He Was?

"Jesus’ birth provoked many responses.

-- The shepherds sought Him out after the angels’ announcement, 

--and Simeon and Anna recognized Him and praised God in the temple. 

--The wise men traveled from a distant land to worship Him, 

--and Herod sought to murder Him.

Today, there are many people who want to recognize Jesus as 

--a political reformer, 

--a moral person, 

--an insightful philosopher, 

--or a righteous prophet. 

*However, any description of Jesus that does not include that He is the Son of God who became incarnate to die for sinners and be resurrected falls disastrously short.

Paul exhorts us all to “examine [ourselves], to see whether [we] are in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5)." 

AIG

3 inquiries of the economy of Grace

"If there is no salvation from sin before death, I expect to be lost. Here, then, to make the whole subject plain as possible, in the light in which it is apprehended by my own mind, I will make three inquiries. 

I. Has God, in the economy of His grace, made provision to save His

people from their sins? 

II. If such provision has been made, can Christians avail themselves of it in this life? 

III. In what way may the provisions of God's grace become available, to save His people from their sins? 

I find it said to Joseph, by the angel, in relation to the promised Messiah. Mat. 1:21. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus:" (i.e., Savior) "for He shall save his people from their sins." 

For this very purpose, then, He is my Savior, to save me from my sins; and this is just the Savior that I need. 

When John the Baptist pointed out Christ, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 

This is what I need, 

a Savior to take away my sins." 

Charles Fitch

Our Human State

"This is my case. 

Christ has died for my sins. 

The government of God is ready to set me free-but who shall save me from "an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God?" (Heb. 3:12) 

 With such a heart, 

influenced by the temptations of the devil, 

and the allurements of a sinful world, 

I am just as sure (left to myself) 

to sin eternally, as Satan is, 

and must take up my abode with him forever.

It avails me nothing that Christ has atoned for my sins, if I am then cast on my own resources. 

Holy beings fell before the wiles of that subtle tempter, who, like a roaring lion, seeks to devour me, and my evil heart will surely make me a willing prey. 

I am eternally damned 

unless I can find a Savior from sin." 

Charles Fitch

Your measuring line is false

"Too often we compare ourselves among ourselves:

Thy measuring line is false;

it is not the standard of the sanctuary."

Charles Spurgeon

I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:6

Observation of Jeremiah 2:9

Your own wickedness shall correct you, 

and your backslidings shall reprove you:

know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, 

that you have forsaken the Lord your God, 

and that My fear is not in you, 

says the Lord God of hosts.

Jeremiah 2:9

Formula for Weeds

The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about,

 the weeds were wrapped about my head.

 Jonah 2:5

 Imbibing on the Ways of the World = 

the Weeds of the World choking the Heart

When Jesus took the Commandments into the Heart

"In the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (Matthew 5–7) Jesus takes the commandments inside the heart; for example, 

---we are required not merely not to murder, but not to be angry, 

---and not merely not to commit adultery, but not to lust (see Ezekiel 11:19, ‘I will give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes.’.

---We are told, if someone strikes us on the right cheek, to turn to

him also the left. Jesus tells us to love our enemies and those who hate and persecute us, and in this way He makes it clear that the love commandment is not based on reciprocity (Matt 5:43–48; Luke 6:27–36). 

---Finally, when He is asked ‘Who is my neighbor?’, He tells the story (Luke 10) of a Samaritan (traditional enemies of the Jews) who met a wounded Jew he did not know by the side of the road, was moved with compassion, and went out of his way to meet his needs; Jesus commends the Samaritan for being ‘neighbor’ to the wounded traveler.

The theme of self-sacrifice is clearest in the part of the narrative that deals with Jesus' death.....but one central theme is that Jesus died on our behalf, an innocent man on behalf of the guilty. 

Jesus describes the paradigm of loving our neighbors as the willingness to die for them. This theme is connected with our relationship to God, which we violate by disobedience, but which is restored by God's forgiveness through redemption."

JohnHare/SEP

The Valley of Decision

And rend your heart, and not your garments,
and turn unto the LORD your God:
for He is gracious and merciful, ......
---I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked;
---but that the wicked turn from his way and live:
turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways;
Q: for why will ye die.....
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision:
for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
---For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Joel 2:13/3:14/Romans 6:23

Rose of Roses from the Garden of God

I am come into My garden,...

So shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth:
--it shall not return unto Me void,
--but it shall accomplish that which I please,
--and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
I am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener.

I am the rose of Sharon.
.....Yea, He is altogether lovely.....
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden;
and there He put the man whom He had formed.

Song of Solomon 5:1/2:1/5:16/John 15:1 NIV/Genesis 2:8

Ephesians 2:1-3 under a microscope

As for you, 

you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 

in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world 

according to the prince of the power of the air, 

the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 

---All of us also lived among them at one time, 

gratifying the cravings of our flesh

and following its desires and thoughts. 

Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 

Ephesians 2:1-3

 “Dead in your trespasses and sins.” 

---These were your grave clothes. 

---You were wrapped up in them. 

 ---Nay, this was your sarcophagus. 

---You were shut up in it, as in a great stone coffin.

Trespasses, παραπτωμασι, may signify the slightest deviation from the line and rule of moral equity, as well as any flagrant offense; Sins, αμαρτιαις, may probably mean here habitual transgression; sinning knowingly and daringly.

.... the Ephesians had not sinned casually, or now and then, but continually; it was their continual employment; they walked in trespasses and sins: and this was not a solitary case, all the nations of the earth acted in the same way; it was the course of this world, κατα τον αιωνα του κοσμου τουτου, according to the life, mode of living, or successive ages of this world....Satan is termed prince of the power of the air.

You were once no better than the workshop of the devil. 

He is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, 

as the smith works in his forge. 

When you hear foul language, when you see bad actions, these are the sparks coming out of the chimney that let you know who is at work within, down below. What a dreadful thing it is — a man dead to all that is good, but alive through the indwelling of the devil that is within him. “The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”

The mind was darkened by the lusts of the flesh. It was not the will of

God that was done by us, but the will of the flesh and of the mind. Here we see that the fallen, apostate nature produces the fruits of unrighteousness. The bad tree produces bad fruit.

By fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, men contract that filthiness of flesh and spirit from which the apostle exhorts Christians to cleanse themselves.... All men, being naturally children of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath: God is angry with the wicked.

Observed, 

1. Unregenerate souls are dead in trespasses and sins. 

2. A state of sin is a state of conformity to this world.

3. We are by nature bond-slaves to sin and Satan--- the prince of the power of the air."

Matthew Henry/Adam Clarke/Charles Spurgeon 

Getting Practical About Wisdom

He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: 

and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.

Proverbs 16:20

 

"WISDOM is man's true strength; and, under its guidance, he best

accomplishes the ends of his being. 

--Wisely handling the matter of life gives to man the richest enjoyment, 

--and presents the noblest occupation for his powers; hence by it he finds good in the fullest sense. 

 

--Without wisdom, man is as the wild colt, running hither and thither, wasting strength which might be profitably employed. 

--Wisdom is the compass by which man is to steer across the trackless waste of life; without it he is a derelict vessel, the sport of winds and waves. 

 

The pilgrim will sorely wound his feet among the briers of the wood of life if he do not pick his steps with the utmost caution. 

 

--He who is in a wilderness infested with robber bands must handle matters wisely if he would journey safely. 

--If, trained by the Great Teacher, we follow where He leads, we shall find good, even while in this dark abode; there are celestial fruits to be gathered this side of Eden's bowers, and songs of paradise to be sung amid the groves of earth. 

 

Q: But where shall this wisdom be found? 

A: Let us listen to the voice of the Lord, for He hath declared the secret; He hath revealed to the sons of men wherein true wisdom lieth, and we have it in the text, "Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he." 

--Lord, in this sweet eventide walk with me in the garden, and teach me the wisdom of faith." 

Charles Spurgeon

Changing Deserts Into Gardens

 He will make her wilderness like Eden.

Isaiah 51:3

 

"METHINKS, I see in vision a howling wilderness, a great and

terrible desert, like to the Sahara. 

--I perceive nothing in it to relieve the eye, all around I am wearied with a vision of hot and arid sand, strewn with ten thousand bleaching skeletons of wretched men who have expired in anguish, having lost their way in the pitiless waste. 

--What an appalling sight! How horrible! a sea of sand without a bound, and without an oasis, a cheerless graveyard for a race forlorn! But behold and wonder! 

--Upon a sudden, upspringing from the scorching sand I see a plant of renown; and as it grows it buds, the bud expands—it is a rose, and as the fragrance of those flowers is diffused the wilderness is transformed into a fruitful field, and all around it blossoms exceedingly, the glory of Lebanon is given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. 

--Call it not Sahara, call it Paradise. Speak not of it any longer as the valley of deathshade, for where the skeletons lay bleaching in the sun, behold a resurrection is proclaimed, and up spring the dead, a mighty army, full of life immortal. 

----Jesus is that plant of renown, and His presence makes all things new. —you are now a prince unto God, though once an orphan, cast away. O prize exceedingly the matchless power and grace which changes deserts into gardens, and makes the barren heart to sing for joy."

Charles Spurgeon

Longing for Fresh Flowers Planted

 The voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Genesis 3:8

 

"MY soul, now that the cool of the day has come, retire awhile and hearken to the voice of thy God. He is always ready to speak with thee when thou art prepared to hear. 

---If there be any slowness to commune it is not on His part, but altogether on thine own, for He stands at the door and knocks, and if His people will but open He rejoices to enter. 

 

Q: But in what state is my heart, which is my Lord's garden? 

May I venture to hope that it is 

well trimmed and watered, 

and is bringing forth fruit fit for Him? 

 

---Come, therefore, O Lord, my God, my soul invites Thee earnestly, and waits for Thee eagerly. 

 

Come to me, O Jesus, my well-beloved, and plant fresh flowers in

my garden, such as I see blooming in such perfection in Thy matchless character! 

Come, O my Father, who art the Husbandman, and deal with me in Thy tenderness and prudence! 

Come, O Holy Spirit, and bedew my whole nature, as the herbs are now moistened with the evening dews. 

---O that God would speak to me. 

Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth! 

 

Sweet is the cool twilight, when every star seems like the eye of heaven, and the cool wind is as the breath of celestial love." Charles Spurgeon

Love Must Feed on Love

 We love Him because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19

"THERE is no light in the planet but that which proceedeth from the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but that which cometh from the Lord Jesus himself. 

---From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God, all our love to God must spring.---

This must ever be a great and certain truth, that we love Him for no

other reason than because He first loved us. 

 

Cold admiration, when studying the works of God, anyone may have, but the warmth of love can only be kindled in the heart by God's Spirit. 

 

Love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed abroad in the heart: 

but after it is thus divinely born, 

it must be divinely nourished.

 

Love is an exotic; it is not a plant which will flourish naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above. 

 

Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but that which could be drawn from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither. 

 

As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly bread. 

It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by manna from on high. 

----Love must feed on love----

The very soul and life of our love to God is His love to us." Charles Spurgeon