Who Can Approach God

Who Can Approach God?

Psalm 24:3,4
3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
Psalms 24:3-4 (KJV)
    As we start this new year let us note that our life is to be a constant worship to God and as we are constantly approaching God’s throne we must always do so with a pure heart that does not drive our hands and feet to do evil as well as having a proud attitude or are full of lies.
6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world? 7 For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner? 8 And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just. 9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known: 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes. 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Romans 3:6-26 (KJV)
    We all fall into this category of having been vile, full of anger, full of bitterness, devoid of truth, and without God.  This being said, we all know that God has offered Himself as a way to get back to Him.  When we trust God for His saving power to keep us from falling (Jude 24,25) our old human nature will have no effect on us because we have been implanted with the Spirit of God.  This does not mean that we won’t be tempted to bring the old human nature back from the dead, but that truly trusting God’s saving power will give us the strength we need to remain a child of God. (John 10:28,29)
    Jesus Christ; who came to earth as a baby, then died, rose again, then ascended to His Father in Heaven,  will return to earth one day to claim His Church that is purely washed from their sins.  I want this to be an encouragement to you to not let down your guard because the devil’s attacks are real and if we allow the fiery darts to penetrate our souls we will become numb to the things of God.  Be alert, watch for the enemy of your souls the devil.

29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. 

Isaiah 40:29-31 (KJV)

The Devil Unleashed

 
 -2 Thessalonians 2:1-12
    The spirit of the devils is alive and well.  Evil and darkness prevails over much of the land.  The devil is all about deceiving the world, and he has been successful to a large degree.
    Christianity is no longer sacred.  The devil has made inroads into the church and has defiled it.  Wickedness seems to prevail throughout the church.  Even though Satan has seemingly taken control of the church, the power of God is still able to withstand him, if we just lay hold of it.  Many people appear to be religious by setting up a law to pace their actions, but their hearts are far from God.  Their laws have become their god, and the law can never save them.
    The church holds up men, ideas, and things as high or higher than the gospel.  We canonize them (in effect, worship them and their ideas); and as we read the Word of God we already have our minds made up as to what it is saying to us, so we are not truly reading to learn.
    Men and women following the desires of their heart will always result in tragedy.  People are always looking for something new and exciting, whether from God or from Satan.  If exciting things drive you,  trouble lies at the door.  You will not be able to keep up with it.  Consider the fashions, health kicks, new ideas in the church And men claiming their ideas are good.  Everything must be from the inspired and finished Word of God.
    Deceived and uprooted from faith in God, the urgency to stand up like a man and fight is more than ever.  Satan’s attacks will be only warded off by counter-attacking with the sword of the Spirit.  People would rather believe a lie than the truth, because truth hurts… our pride.  We must be driven by the Holy Spirit.  God has caused His law to be written on our hearts.
We find his ‘credentials’ in Isaiah 14:12-14.
Pride is a vice that describes Satan’s character.  Satan rears up his ugly head in each one of us.  Our sinful nature manifest is Satan’s character coming through.  Satan’s initial sin was pride and it is still coming through loud and clear.  Pride destroyed him, and it will destroy you.

Attack Stage 1

       -Luke 10:18/Revelation 12:8,9

Satan is very clearly God’s enemy and could not abide in Heaven with God.  Holiness alone is worthy of the presence of God.  Satan having tasted the glories of Heaven, revolted against the Almighty King; and was cast out, banished forever.

Attack Stage 2

The devil has been cast out of Heaven, with no hope of returning, but now he prepares for attack stage two.  The battle in Heaven has been fought, and he lost, but now he will focus on me and on you.  The idea of Satan is to sabotage God, the Almighty King and His wonderful work of creation.

       -Romans 8:22

The world was a perfect environment when it was created by God, but now that Adam, who was the forerunner of all mankind, sinned; the world has since been handed over to the power of Satan.  We now have nothing but pain.  Catastrophes abound, and though God sometimes gets the blame for these;  he is not the cause.

       -James 1:13/Galatians 1:4

Satan would utterly destroy any sign of God’s greatness, if he could, but God allows him a little destruction at a time.

This fight is between God and Satan… we are no match for Satan.  We are pawns in this fight, but we have the power to say who moves us.  Our battleground is like a chessboard that the devil keeps trying to control you side.  He will advance his imps toward you while turning the board about to catch you in the open.  -Jeremiah 17:17- Our only hope is Jesus Christ, He alone can trump the moves of the devil.

Attack Stage 3

The devil has now moved into the third stage of his attack.  This attack includes stage two and adds eroding the foundations of the world.  Through evolution, he has destroyed the knowledge that the world was created.  He has also destroyed the morals of our society by the belief that we are intelligent animals, therefore our actions become animalistic as we seek to be top monkey.  The idea of denying a creator cancels any responsibility towards Him for our actions, thus resulting in chaos for the world.

       

The Curse of Mankind

    Satan doomed the entire human race with a single blow, and now attempts to drive them into deeper sin and destruction.

    Till the time of Christ, mankind, when trying to please God, focused on works; which included a six-hundred page documentary of applications to God’s Laws and yearly sacrifices because no one was able to maintain the highest level of obedience to these laws.

    Jesus Christ has now come, and we now enjoy being vindicated with Him in spite of our past sins.  His death on the cross has paid for our ransom from the hand of the devil and we are now freed from the bondage of sin.

 We are at war, a holy war that does not involve human enemies.

    -Genesis 3:15-

    Adam and Eve faced this enemy and came up short.  Our early father and mother conceded defeat and paid dearly for their defeat as all men after them have.  They have paved the way for all men to be deceived by their arch-enemy, Satan. 

     Instead of man’s heart being inherently good like many try to teach us today, Adam and Eve’s defeat points out that even in a good environment their hearts had a potential for wickedness and destruction built into them and us, and because of their defeat we are all doomed to inadequacy in our  potential to sin has not changed and this is the cause of the latest sweep of attacks on us as Christians.  The change that we have seen in our lives is that we have access to the power of God to keep us from yielding to sin.  Christ has now opened the way for all people to come to Him through faith.

     The value of a person who has been a Christian but has turned back to Satan is in that Satan has delivered yet another blow to God’s majestic realms.  God will never be destroyed by Satan, but will reign on in spite of the blows dealt by Satan.  This battle we face is not between us and Satan, but rather between Satan and God.  We as humans are avenues for Satan to get revenge.

    God can and will give us the roadblock so Satan can not use us against Him; if we allow Him to help us!  This is available to us through Jesus’ blood which paid for our ransom.  The march of Truth will go on forever.

     2 Timothy 4:7,8- “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing.”

    Keep fighting for the Lord!  The minute you give up, you have lost.  When the devil sifts you like wheat, stand firm and you will come out like gold.

     Be vigilant for God, stand up to the devil in the power of God.  Satan can only destroy you if you let him, so let your light shine from the sword of truth and blast the darkness away.

   As I ponder these thoughts from 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 I am cautioned as to how easy it is to lose our way.

The Christmas Tree

A babe in a manger that was the Son of God, came for one purpose alone.  Jesus Christ's sole purpose for coming to earth was to sacrifice Himself as the perfect Lamb upon the altar of the cross.  Those few years later namely 33 found Himself stretched upon that cruel tree.  As the Light of the world ebbed away darkness spread over the entire world.  The first Christmas tree stood bearing that true Light bringing to mankind salvation and re-instating man's chance for fellowship with God.

God Bless Us Every One!
Merry Christmas

What's in a name?

• Isaiah 7:14  "Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel."

       A careful search from heaven finds a young maiden that God should choose to indwell in this special way.  This choice was not necessarily for her looks but rather for her integrity and her desire to do what is right. 

      What is in a name?  This prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 was given approximately 700 years before that great event of the birth of Jesus Christ, yet names the child Immanuel which by definition is "God with us".  Not only did this refer to God being on earth with us in the form of Jesus Christ during His life and ministry; but also refers to His tabernacling in our hearts.  This tabernacle experience truly allows for His shekinah glory (Exodus 34:5) to shine through our lives.  The words "shekinah glory" means the presence of the glory of God.
      The journey we are on requires a presence that is greater than our own to make it through.  We need Immanuel or "God with us" in our lives.  The things we face can be depressing, overwhelming, unnerving or whatever other words fit in there for you; but if we have Jesus Christ, God our Savior, in our hearts we do not have to let our circumstances overshadow our faith in God.

Merry Christmas