Setting the Goal

Having goals are good, they provide vision and motivation to accomplish worthwhile things in our lives. Many people wander about most of their lives without goals and achieve nothing because they lack vision. The scripture says that "without vision the people perish".
Recently I was reflecting on the day that I surrendered my life to Christ and the pastors wife from the church that I began to attend gave me a embroidered and framed wall hanging that said " What we are is God's gift to us, What we become is our gift to God". I don't know whatever happened to that but over the years with moves and such it is just gone. Never the less as I remembered that gift and the saying I thought to myself "what a lovely thought and a great goal". I was brought up short very quickly in my thinking by the Holy Spirit. While it seems a lovely thought and a lofty goal to do something great with my life and consider it my gift to God it is just simply not scriptural and puts the emphasis in the wrong place.

First of all most of us come to God an absolute mess. The devil has had his way with us and made us his child and we are full of his ways. This is not God's gift to us, we are sin saturated and the bible says that the "wages of sin is death" so here we are bound for hell and death and God reaches down in His mercy and snatches us from certain destruction and we dare say the our condition at that time is God's gift to us? No, certainly not. The rest of the above scripture is "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord".
More important is the emphasis on what I do with my life that is supposed to be my gift to Him and this is where most people miss the mark. Careful study of scripture along with time spent with God will reveal that we actually can do nothing for Him, it is just the reverse. He does it all for us and then rewards us for allowing Him to do it. If I focus on what I'm going to do or think I am doing for God then I can compare myself and my accomplishments with others and can either be prideful or depressed, neither position is acceptable to God. The goal and purpose of a true disciple of Christ is to bring glory to the Father. If I accomplish something I bring glory to myself but if I am helpless and He uses me and equips me to accomplish something that I could not otherwise do then "Who gets the glory"?

How helpless are we really? Matthew 6:27 (New King James Version)
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? other versions say "or add one hour to your life"?

One of the most difficult tasks that the Lord has with His people is to separate them from pride, arrogance and self sufficiency. We must remember that if we were so good at living life then how come we came to Him in such a mess. There's only one way that we will accomplish anything that we will get credit in heaven for and that is by total surrender and just allow Him to do what He wants with us. I suggest that for deeper understanding on this issue that you read my blog in the archives titled
"Abiding in the Vine" http://acts2216.blogspot.com/2010/03/abiding-in-vine.html

Ephesians 2:10 (New King James Version)
10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Until I came to understand this scripture I often wondered why I had to go through so much hell before God revealed Himself to me in a way that I could accept His gift of life. There had been lots of history before that time, any of which could have been the catalyst but no it just didn't happen. Finally I came to realize that He actually had a purpose for my life and certain things planned for me to do and none of that could happen until I went through certain experiences and was positioned where and when He wanted me. Also because of all the failures that I had experienced it was easier for me to appreciate what God was doing with my life and the changes He brought about. I cannot claim to understand all that God does because I am only human and cannot see the future and actually understand only a little of the past but I have come to trust Him fully and to know that whatever happens it is for the best and that some life somewhere will be affected in a positive way by it. With that comes perfect peace and no amount of earthly possessions can give that to me and what's more, I am assured of a place in eternity where I no longer have to count the days I have left to accomplish anything before I am to weak or sickly to even care. Praise God for His mercy, compassion and gift of eternal life.

Bless you all and may you come to have a greater appreciation of Him this Christmas season.

john Martin
justjohn@eoni.com

A New Covenant

What I am going to write about here is going to be and has always been a controversial topic. I do not write to tell anyone what to think but rather to lay out for you the holy scriptures that you may know what they say and make up your own mind. When the apostle Paul was writing about controversial issues he said; Romans 14 (New King James Version)

Romans 14
The Law of Liberty
1 Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. 4 Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.
5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord;[a] and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and rose[b] and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. The key verse above is "let each be fully convinced in his own mind". The important thing is to know what you believe and why you believe it and what is the source of your belief. I think most Christian's believe whatever they are told in church or it may be that they have a very verbal and highly opinionated friend and that is their source. How many can read the bible and get anything out of it? Understanding scripture is a gift from God, not something bestowed in a seminary and it is given to those who diligently seek Him. So, my goal is to encourage pursuit of truth in order that you may receive and enjoy all that God has in store for you and that you may be able to share it with others.

A covenant is an binding agreement between two or more parties that grants certain rights and benefits to those parties who agree to it. It is usually the more prominent or powerful of the two parties that extends the offer of covenant and because of this factor can also determine the outcome depending on the responses of the parties involved including revising the terms if need be to make it more workable. Now I will ask a question; does it not stand to reason that if the extending party says to the the beneficiary, "this covenant is not working particularly well so I going to give you a better one" that the terms of the new one would not only contain all the good parts of the old covenant but have additional features that were actually better than the old?

This is the question that has been in my mind for some time now and I believe it is time to address the subject because in my 34 years as a Christian I have not heard a single person do so. I would first ask this question of the teachers and pastors; since the whole of the Christian faith rests on the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures why are you afraid to teach them fully and in truth?

The Bible is divided into two parts, the first being called the Old Testament (testament means covenant or agreement) and the second part is called the New Testament or New Covenant. The first mention of Covenant is in Genesis 6:18 where God makes a covenant with Noah, telling him that if he will build an ark that He will save him and his family when the flood comes upon the earth. This first covenant establishes a pattern that never changes because it is God and God never changes. The pattern is that in order to receive the benefits of the covenant the beneficiary must keep all the requirements (this is known as OBEDIENCE). Now every requirement of God mentioned in the old testament can be considered part of the Old Covenant. Theologians might try to take it all apart and say well this part or that part doesn't apply but God made covenants with Noah, Abraham and the Israelite People but they were all in the lineage of Noah. Suffice it to say that any requirement of God found in the Old Testament books was part of the old covenant and was replaced by a new and better covenant.


HEBREWS 8:6-13 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 9 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds[b] I will remember no more.”[c]
13 In that He says, “A new covenant, ” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Please note that verse 6 states that Jesus is Mediator of a better covenant established on better promises than those of the old covenant. And this is the crux of my concern. If today's People of God have a better covenant than the old testament People of God then why are they worse off than the people of old? Let's examine some of the benefits of the old covenant and see if today's Christian is enjoying this kind of life.

Deuteronomy 28 (New King James Version)

Deuteronomy 28
Blessings on Obedience
1 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 “The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
8 “The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
9 “The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 10 Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them.

Exodus 15:26 (New King James Version)
26 and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.”


Deuteronomy 7:15 (New King James Version)
15 And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.

The above benefits are all part of what was considered an inferior covenant and yet I don't know of a single person today who wouldn't like to enjoy the promised benefits listed. In brief they are:
Freedom from all sickness and disease. Protection from all enemies. All your children born healthy and free from any defects whatsoever. Plant something in the ground and it will always produce a perfect crop and you don't have to worry about early or late frosts that could kill it. If you have animals they will be healthy and their offspring will be healthy and many times your cow may have twins instead of just one. If your sow has 15 piglets not a one will die but all will survive and mature to go on to reproduce themselves. Your horse will not go lame and have to be put down and you won't be bothered by flies and mosquitoes. You will never have to go to the bank and borrow in order to obtain what you need, instead you will have so much that you can lend to your neighbors. Wives, good news for you too, If you are making bread it will always turn out perfectly delicious and beautiful to behold (blessed shall be your basket and kneading bowl). If a jealous neighbor wants to take some of your abundance away from you and goes out and gets a bunch of his friends together and comes and storms your property he will be forced to flee from you seven different directions in utter confusion and you and yours will not suffer so much as a scrape or bruise. You decide to start a business, success is guaranteed.
Men you could rejoice because the wife could never claim to have a headache nor could she claim to be too tired because she spent her whole day trying to keep the children out of trouble or from hurting themselves because they just didn't get hurt and what is more she had two or three nurses to care for them.
The people of God were looked up to, not down on.

Now do you see any of this today under the so called New and Improved Covenant?
If you can answer yes please let me know and provide proof and I will retract every word. Instead I see Christians everywhere loosing their homes, jobs and their health in alarming numbers but I do not hear anyone addressing the issue and telling them why it is happening. For the answer we must always refer to scripture because any other answer is false. God is not man, therefore cannot lie. His Word is true and has stood the test of time and will not change because God does not change.

There is but one reason that the promises of the covenant are not experienced and that is the lack of compliance on the part of the beneficiary. The beneficiary has two options, Obedience or Disobedience and since they are exact opposites so are the results and here are the scriptures to verify what I am saying.




Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (New King James Version)

Curses on Disobedience

15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 “The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. 29 And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
30 “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. 33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 “The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.
38 “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. 42 Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
45 “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. 46 And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.
47 “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. 49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. 51 And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
52 “They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you. 53 You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. 54 The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, 55 so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. 56 The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse[a] to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, 57 her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.
58 “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, 59 then the LORD will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. 60 Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the LORD bring upon you until you are destroyed. 62 You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God. 63 And it shall be, that just as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.
64 “Then the LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. 65 And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. 67 In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.
68 “And the LORD will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.

Please note that the verses containing the curses are 4 times longer than the blessings. It seems to me that compliance is more beneficial by far.

Now I know that many will tell me that Jesus has delivered us from the curse and they would be right but there's a problem in taking that line alone. There is still the matter of compliance. God doesn't change, He's always demands compliance and the only thing that has changed is the means to compliance. Under the old covenant it was entirely up to the individual to obey and when they sinned they had to take a bull or a goat or if they were very poor, a dove, and take it to the priest and he would sacrifice it and the blood of that animal would be a covering for their sin.

Under the new covenant we have Jesus making His dwelling place within us by the Holy Spirit and literally giving us the power for compliance. So why are we still not experiencing the benefits of the covenant? Let's face it, Christians are not experiencing the lesser benefits of the old covenant much less the better ones of the new covenant.
Not only were the blessings of the old covenant incentive for obedience but the penalty for sin could be a pretty strong incentive as well and therein lies some of the differences between the old and new covenants. Under the old if you committed adultery you could and in most cases were put to death by stoning. Under the new a person who committs adultery can find forgiveness if they are truly repentant because Jesus shed His blood in order that we would not have to shed ours. However many if not most of todays christians think only of the forgiveness aspect and not of the results of the sin because there is still a price to pay and it will indeed come in many forms because God does not wink at sin and Jesus didn't come and die on the cross so that we could freely sin but rather that we could be set free from the very power of sin over our lives. He said "to them that believed on His Name gave He power to become the sons of God". There's only one way to become a son of God and that is through obedience. I have said this many times that obedience is not an option but a commandment but is also a command that He Himself will fulfill in you if your lifes goal and concentration is on seeking relationship with Him above all else. Jesus told a story (parable) about a man who discovered in a field a great pearl of high value, keeping it a secret he went and sold every possession that he had and bought the field with the proceeds. This was told to illustrate the value of turning to Jesus, not a half hearted "well I believe He was the Son of God" but a hearty pursuit to the degree that you are willing to sacrifice everything that you have to obtain this one gift that is greater than anything the world has to offer and that never stops giving. Might I mention that one of the priceless benefits is Peace, peace beyond anything you can imagine. I know people who have every earthly possession and have total free will because they can decide exactly what they are going to do on any given day but have no peace. There's just some things that money cannot buy.

So the question remains; is sickness, disease, accidents, loss of jobs, homes and other unfortunate losses among christians the result of sin and disobedience?
I am not really trying to answer the question for anyone but rather to draw you to the scripture to decide for yourself. The idea that it is not the problem does not go back very far. There is a book titled "The Light and the Glory" written about the early days of the colonists and all the facts written there were taken from the libraries of Yale and other prestigous universities. Whenever there was severe storms that threatened the lives of the colonists or sickness or death other than death from natural causes such as advanced age, the pastors called the people to prayer and fasting and demanded repentance for whatever sin may have been among them and always the result was that the problem vanished.
Scripture also links sin and sicknessJames 5:13-16 13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses[e] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. 1 Corinthians 11:27-30 27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood[d] of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner[e] eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30 For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep.
Many tend to think that this has to do with thinking about Jesus physical body in the grave or coming out of the grave or in some other manner but in reality in has to do with His Body the Church. Any show of disrespect of the true followers of Jesus is a direct show of disrespect to God and Christ and will receive the same punishment.

In closing I want to point out that God never punishes us because He wants to hurt us but rather that He wants to encourage our obendience so that He can bless us. This shouldn't be hard to understand, any good parent would rather give love and gifts to their children than spank them but they know that if they do not correct their bad behavour when they are young that someone else in their lifetime will have to and it may be the courts. What joy it brings to a parents heart when their child in obedient and loving, it is so much fun to give them the desires of their heart and watch their delight in receiving. Such is OUR GOD only more so than you can conceive in your heart.

Be blessed and be a blessing.
John Martin
email justjohn@eoni.com

Grace upon Grace

We often hear the song "Amazing Grace" and are touched by it. Even marginal and unbelievers are attracted by it. At one time it was at the top of the charts done by bagpipes. Grace can perhaps best be defined as "unmerited favor" receiving something that you did nothing to earn or deserve and that is very much the truth of the matter but does not define it's depth. Very few people understand enough about grace to fully appreciate the vastness of what it really means and how it can affect a life. If we fully understood grace and walked in it's fullness we would have no problem loving God to the extent that He asks of us. Jesus said that we should love God so lavishly that by comparison our love for our family would seem like hate. Luke 14:26 (New King James Version)
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.




It is only through a deep and thorough understanding of grace that the fullness of the love of God is revealed and when we can really understand His love then loving Him though we cannot see Him becomes natural. It is an interesting phenomenon that the bulk of life actually occurs in our mind rather than in our outer activities. Therefore it is vital that our mind be right and in tune with reality to the fullest to experience life to the fullest.Ephesians 3:17-19 (New King James Version)
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

When you are filled with the fullness of God then life becomes very different and I don't mean that you become ultra religious either. I mean your living out of your life takes a very different path. A study of the life of Jesus reveals a very regular kind of person who really loved the people around Him and was actually a major irritation to the religious elite. He didn't fall into the traps set by man but was faithful to God under all circumstances. When He needed something it was often provided supernaturally. Some would say that it was He who did it and they would only be half right because Jesus said that He only did what the Father was doing. It is said and rightly so that Jesus was totally man and totally God and that is fact but He humbled Himself to the man side and never exercised His powers apart from the Fathers leading. What I am getting at here is that when we walk in the fullness of God as the scripture above says we can then our life should and will be just like the life of Jesus. When we need something it can and will be provided supernaturally.
One time Jesus needed some money to pay a tax, so he told Peter to go down to the lake and go fishing and the first fish on his hook would have a coin in it's mouth that would cover the tax. Now I cannot promise that you are going to pay your taxes with money you find in a fishes mouth but I can promise that if you have a need that He will provide it in ways that will astound you, providing that you are walking in harmony and full understanding of what grace has done and is yet doing for you.

If I never do another thing in my life but can help people attain to the fullness of what God has purposed and provided for them then I will be satisfied.
It is not enough to know something but one must experience it and then it belongs to them and becomes part of their life so if you want to live the kind of life that I'm talking about here then you must seek to experience it and there is but one way to do that. You must diligently seek the ONE who rewards those who diligently seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6 (New King James Version)
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Notice it says that "without faith it is impossible to please Him" and you say well I try to have faith but just can't seem to get a hold on it. Well that is where your mistake is. You don't try to get a hold on faith, rather you get a hold on God. Seek after Him and He will give you faith for faith is simply knowing someone to the point that you believe what they say and trust them fully.
Ephesians 2:8-10 (New King James Version)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Please note that the above verse says that you are saved by faith but that faith didn't come from you but was a gift from God. That is the very beginning of the grace that I am talking about, Grace upon Grace. If you didn't receive the first touch of grace then you could not possibly believe enough to receive the second touch of grace that wipes out your past evil deeds and makes you clean and acceptable to God. But that is as far as most people go in their understanding of grace. Often they don't even realize that it was God who made it possible in the first place but they accept the premise that His grace wipes out the stain of sin. However because their understanding is limited they then continue to sin and expect that grace will take care of everything and they are bound for heaven but that is not so because the scripture states that "without holiness no man shall see God".

There is a third aspect of grace that is understood and received by a relative few Christians. All throughout the New Testament we can read the commands of Jesus and at times they can discourage us because we feel we just can't measure up and when we look at other Christians around us we can see that they have the same struggles so we accept the premise that these commands are ideals that are unobtainable and to make matters worse we begin to believe the lie that it's okay not to measure up because God only see's us through the blood of Jesus anyway. It's just not true folks, Yes the blood of Jesus wipes out all confessed sin but that is only the beginning of grace. The real fullness of grace is that He Himself will perform in you all the commandments that He requires of you leaving us all with no excuse for not becoming pure and holy in reality.Ephesians 5:25-28 (New King James Version)
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

If this scripture is true and I know it is then it rules out the idea that we are already perfect in God's eyes because He see's us through the blood of Jesus. This verse says that He is in the process of sanctifying us and cleansing us by washing us with His word. Now here's the stickler, you are responsible to get His word into you and I don't mean by reading Old Testament stories that are interesting but rather filling your heart and mind with the words of Jesus and the teachings of the Apostles from the New Testament. The Old Testament is a book of history and shows us that God does not change but the New Testament is God's New Deal with mankind and if you ever hope to attain to the promises it holds then you must get it into you heart and be ready to live it out. There is not a single requirement written there that He is not ready to perform in you and for you if only you will lay down your other life and take up His. He must become your priority and I can testify that few are willing to do that but what a life they are missing out on.

You may say that you just don't have the motivation. God knows that and all you need to do is ask for the motivation.Matthew 7:7-8 (New King James Version)

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
My guess is that few have even considered this scripture in this context. Usually it is applied to asking for something physical such as a better job or a new car or for the salvation of a relative but it's greatest promise is to meet your heart's cry for a closer walk with God. You may tell me that "I've already tried that and it didn't work" and my answer would be , God always tests us and proves us. He already knows what is in our heart and motives but He tests us in order to show it to US. If you have tried and didn't receive that answer it is most likely because it didn't matter that much and you didn't persevere. God's word is true "ALWAYS" and if it fails we can be sure that the problem is with us not with God's honesty. He would never deny a sincere request for a closer walk with Himself since that is what He demands of us, but He does not accept lukewarmness.Jeremiah 29:12-14 (King James Version)

12Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

13And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

So I bring this session to a close with this one admonition. Seek God with all your heart and leave everything else up to Him and you will find joy beyond your greatest imagination. You say you just don't have time, I know better. I don't know of a single home that does not have a television and a telephone in it as well as a plethora of other entertainment devices and none of them suffer as much dis-use as the bible. Some try to spend time with God at the end of the day but they are just too tired for it to even penetrate their consciousness. When you go to work in the morning do you see the boss for your orders or do you just go out and do whatever and then check in with him at the end of the day only to find out that everything you did was just the opposite of what he wanted of you. Your job wouldn't last very long at that rate. You just cannot imagine how close and personal God will get with you until you make that a priority. Here is my favorite bible verse. 2 Peter 1:3 (New King James Version)
3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
Here again is scripture that is rarely understood for what it is saying but it says in a nutshell and very few words the very things that I have written thousands of words trying to get across to my readers and it is this " God has given us everythingwe could ever need to live a good life and to fulfill all His righteous requirements but that it is obtained by our "knowledge of Him". That simply means really knowing God and the only way to get that is through passionate pursuit. Amen

john Martin
email justjohn@eoni.com

If you agree or even disagree I welcome you comments and I will answer every question.

What is true Righteousness?

I think we can all recognize the disease of "self righteousness" since it tends to be rather nauseating when you encounter it. I remember well about 32 years ago I was still pretty fresh in my relationship with God and was still busy looking down on others who didn't measure up in my opinion. I was talking with a very prominent citizen of the community and we were discussing business. I had a business of my own and in course of converstion about business practices and accounting proceedures I mentioned that I was very careful not to even use a postage stamp belonging to the business for personal use. Near the end of our conversation he said to me "you might not be so self righteous when you have to put a kid through college". That statement stuck in my mind and really began to bother me until I finally figured out what he was driving at. I won't try to guess whether he was suggesting that it might be okay to deduct something off your taxes that was for personal use but I got the point that I was being very self righteous in my thinking and in the way I presented myself, painting myself better than others simply by the rules that I was keeping. Putting my trust in my own behaviour rather than in the Only One Who ever was perfect. It is often said by observers when someone turns to God or begins going to church and changes their behaviour that "so and so has got religion". Friends, that is just what it is in so many cases. A person gets a stroke of conscience and starts going to church thinking that if they just change their bahavior and give a little in the offering plate that they will go to heaven. Then there's the guy like me who has a very dramatic conversion but gets very prideful and arrogant about it so much that he gives off a putrid odor of pride. I can assure you that neither one of them stand much chance getting into heaven because they both are depending on their own righteousness to get them there. Thus is the purpose of this article, to explore and explain the true righteousness which is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

First of all, what is righteousness? It can best be defined as "right standing with God". That means being in right relationship with Him. I'm sure many others could define it better using theological terms that nobody could understand but I think that the simpler we can keep it the better chance we have of obtaining it.

Way back thousands of years ago a man named Abram was called out by God to leave his country and go to a place he didn't know and for some reason he chose to obey. God made promises to him and scripture says "he believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness". That seems simple enough. Many people today say they believe God but lack righteousness to the point of being an embarresment to the name of Christianity, so what is lacking?
The simple answer is that their belief is but skin deep. Whenever anything goes wrong (which is the only time they think of God) they run to their pastor or a trusted friend and ask them to pray about their situation. They have never tranacted business with God for themselves so they really know nothing about Him or whether they can expect anything from Him nor do they think they have any influence with Him.
This reveals a lack of understanding and without understanding true belief is impossible. Understanding does not come through somebody teaching you some facts but only through personal experience. You may learn from what others say about me but you will never be sure you can trust me until you do business with me and gain personal experience and that involves a certain amount of risk. You must take a chance that others have not told you the truth and find out for yourself.
It is not really any different with God. He has given us lots of evidence of His goodness but we will never know for sure until we take the leap and risk it all.

He will test you until you stand firm. Eventually Abrams name was changed by God to Abraham and after many years he was given a son miraculously but when that son was 13 years of age God asked Abraham to take his son to a certain mountain and sacrifice him. By this time Abraham had transacted so much business with God that he obeyed, believing that if he did that God would raise his son from the dead. As it turned out God did not require him to kill his son but provided a ram as a substitute.

I know this story is not new to most of my readers but I tell it because we are talking about believing God to the point that the believing is the atainment of righteousness. It is not the doing of anything that is pleasing to God but the seeking to know Him intimately that is pleasing and results in belief that is accounted as righteousness. Now here's a glitch, and may even seem contradictory.
Your believing anything is of no value of it'self and will not save you because it is already done. Jesus has done it all and all credit goes to Him. Can you imagine for just a minute that someone can become prideful because he believes better than someone else? It's not only possible but happens all the time and that persons belief is of little if any value to him because he is trusting in his belief rather than in Christ who allowed him to believe in the first place. Scripture will verify my statement and here it is. Philippians 1:29 (New King James Version)
29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. According to this scripture you could not believe unless He permitted it. You think you chose to accept the Lord? John 15:16 (New King James Version)
16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. It is all His doing. Want to have an amazing life? Humble yourself, accept the fact that you can't do anything to save yourself, accept the fact that everything He requires of you He will fulfill if only you will seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 (New King James Version)
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. But how do I get faith to please God? I simply believe. But how do I believe? It has been granted to you not only to believe in Him but to suffer for His name sake. Note again that it is something that is given to you not something that you can earn. As I have written in previous blogs, the secret to attaining all that God has for you is to ask. If you are lax in spending time with Him then ask Him to give you the desire to pursue Him. If you are lacking time to do so then ask Him for time and He will do it. Christ didn't just come and die on the cross to save us and then go away and say there I've saved you now let's see how you handle it, just work it out for yourself. No He's ever present and and fully committed to you until you are safe in heaven with Him but His desire is that you do well and bring Him glory just as He sought to glorify the Father. Nothing will increase your faith (believing)like asking to be enabled to glorify Him in all things and having Him do it. This should encompass your whole life not just that which seems spiritual or religous because these things should not be seperable. You have but one life and that is Christ.Colossians 3:4 (New King James Version)
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
I am a very busy man and am involved in many pursuits and I could say that I am too busy to write but I know that I am called to do so and I trust the Lord to work that out and He does it. I woke up at 2:45 am today and so wide awake that it made no sense to lay there any longer so here I am writing. This happens over and over again. The amazing thing about it is that I do not miss the sleep nor do I feel any lack of energy as the day wears on. Whatever you need from Him to please Him He will provide so what is holding you back? We must get our thinking straight if we are to have God's best for our lives and the lives of those around us that He wants to bless.

One more thing about self righteousness. There are some who set themselves apart as special because they worship on a special day which is different from everyone else.
This is very dangerous for them and here's why:Galatians 5
Christian Liberty
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,[a] and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. 2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. 3 And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. 4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Here he is talking about circumcision which was a law therefor he is also refering to any law that a person attempts to keep. Keeping the old moses law of worshiping on the 7th day is no different than attempting to keep any other law but causes the keeper to try to justify themselves because they get no benefit from Christ's sacrifice.Romans 3:20 (New King James Version)
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.


Galatians 2:16 (New King James Version)
16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

So be careful not to fall into such a trap. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. (John 8:36)

There's a big difference between believing and knowing.
May you come to know Him intimately and then and only then will you have perfect peace and true righteousness.
John Martin
email justjohn@eoni.com

Is Speaking in Tongues for Every Christian?

To that question I can say a resounding Yes Yes and again Yes. I don't care what the nay sayers say I can prove it by the scriptures and believe me friend that my opinion is worth nothing if it is not based on God's Holy Word.

The question that always troubles me is why would anyone who claims to love God and want to live for Him reject the very things of God that He gives to make victorious living not only possible but very rewarding. Jesus said "I have come that you might have life and that more abundantly". What did He mean by abundant life? Some think it involves more stuff, the prosperity preachers say it is more money, just send me some of yours and God will send you a truck full of cash. If that is what you are looking for in Christianity you will be bitterly disappointed I can assure you.

To receive God's best your heart has to be right and that includes your motives. The bible condemns "selfish ambition" which means "what can I get out of it".
But when your heart and motives are set on the things of God and His purposes He will tax the very elements of the universe to bless you and your efforts for Him.

The abundant life that Jesus promised can best be defined as an "abundance of living". I never met a truly born again Christian who didn't want to do something for God, sometimes to the point of such passion that he was depressed if he didn't think that he was producing something for the kingdom of God. That is what love does to you. Now my point here is that you need not go looking for something to do for God or go pushing your faith on another person hoping that you can get them to believe. If you will commit yourself to Him and spend sufficient time in private with Him in study of His word and in prayer and accept the gifts that He offers then He will send people to you who are hungry to hear about Him. The scripture says that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draw him. That means that your efforts of persuasion are useless unless God is already preparing that person and has arranged an encounter between you and him. This can get very exciting because you know it's God and not you. Your own efforts will always frustrate you but when God is involved the results can be astounding. Your life can become a whirlwind of opportunity and blessing and miracles. Perhaps this is a good place and time to share just one of those miracles that happened to me and I know was a miracle because it was virtually impossible but happened anyway.
It was winter 1976 and I lived in an old two story farmhouse on upper prairie creek just east of the town of Joseph Oregon. The house was old and had no insulation and set on a block foundation most of which was open to the currents that blew across the fields. The house was heated by a single free standing oil stove in the middle of the dinning room and that was the only warm spot in the whole house. This was our first winter in eastern Oregon and only a couple months after we had given our lives to Christ and received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. There came a cold front out of the north that caused temperatures to drop at night to 28 below zero and during the day came up about 40 degrees. Never above freezing for two weeks straight. The very first night of the temperature plunge every pipe in our house froze solid and when we got up in the morning there wasn't a single drop of water from any source. To make matters worse all the pipes were under the house in the open where the frigid winds would keep them frozen. I have no idea what the previous occupants did in the past. When we moved into the house it had not been occupied for several years and no one told us of the winter problems we would encounter.
Anyway I went around the house and turned on every tap and the shower and the wash tub in the laundry room and opened all the cupboard doors under sinks and then we set down to eat breakfast. I said a simple prayer over our meal and as I was giving thanks I simply said "Lord our pipes are all frozen and I have no idea how we can ever get them thawed out, could you help us"? Mind you it was still -24 degrees outside. I had not even opened my eyes yet when water began to gush from every faucet, the toilet began to fill as did the automatic washer and the shower running full stream. Do not ask me how, I just report the facts. Even more amazing is the fact that though the cold snap continued for two more weeks we never had a frozen pipe again. That was a personal blessing and now I will share another experience to illustrate what I mean about the Spirit bringing people to you instead of you going out and pursuing them. The real work is done in private in your prayer closet where you are prepared by Him for His service, it is much more rewarding, less frustrating and much more effective.
I had an upholstery shop on main street in Joseph, Oregon and I worked there 5 days a week and lots of people simply stopped in to visit which I enjoyed very much. One day a middle aged woman that I had never seen before came in the door and looked me right in the eye and said "I believe the Lord has told me that you have a word for me" Needless to say I was dumbfounded. Not wanting to disappoint her by telling her I had nothing to say, I asked her name and she told me and gave me a bit of her history and where she was living and as she was doing this I suddenly knew why she was there and what I had to say to her. She was being drawn in by a religious cult that I had extensive personal experience with and could share my knowledge with her, which I did. I then began to explain the true gospel to her and she on the spot wanted to pray and surrender her life to Christ. We prayed together and she was filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Several years later I received a letter from her telling me again what a blessing that day had been to her and her family.
That is only one of so many encounters that border on the miraculous that I could write a whole book.
It seems that I may have gotten away from the main topic of this article but I cannot help putting down what comes to mind because I think it is all part of the same package of Amazing Grace, the Gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
My original point is that speaking in tongues is for every born again Christian and is part of the package of abundant living that Jesus promised to His followers.
The key word here is "followers". Many are following something other than Christ though they give lip service to Him their hearts are devoted to something else and in many cases it is their pastor and his opinions. Follow hard after Jesus and you will never be deceived.

4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me[a] in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

In the passage above Jesus is telling them that the "promise of the Father" is the baptism in the Holy Spirit and verse 8 says that power comes with the Holy Spirit.
God gives power to every believer John 1:12 (King James Version)

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Please note; there is no power and there is no Christian apart from the Holy Spirit.

Remember that I said that the Holy Spirit is the true Gift? Acts 2:38 (King James Version)

38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.And to whom is the gift given? Read again the passage above, every one of you who repents and is baptized. Now some will tell you that it is true but he meant only those who were present at Pentecost because it was the beginning of the church and they needed this extra power to get started. but now read the very next verse.39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” That is an all inclusive statement, not only to those present but to their children, there were even babies present and the statement would include their children and by extension their children's children and if that leaves any doubt it includes those who are far off in terms of distance and time and if that's not enough then he adds "as many as the Lord our God will call". Answer this question you teachers, has God stopped calling people to Himself?????????? Just asking this question makes my blood boil. To think that people are paying pastors and teachers great salaries to stand in the pulpits every Sunday and lie to them. Omission of truth is the same as lying.

Let's go on to let the scriptures prove what I am saying. The real issue I started on was can every Christian speak in tongues as apposed to exercising the Gift of Tongues?

Mark 16:17 (King James Version)

17And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;


Acts 2:4 (New King James Version)
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.


Acts 10:46 (New King James Version)
46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God.
Then Peter answered,


Acts 19:6 (New King James Version)
6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied


The scriptures above are all the passages from the book of Acts that deal with people being filled with the Holy Spirit except one and I want to deal with it separately.
9 But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, 10 to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the great power of God.” 11 And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time. 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. 13 Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done.

14 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20 But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! 21 You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. 22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.”

This is the account of Simon the sourcerer who was converted when he heard the gospel of Christ. Please note that he was astonished and amazed by the miracles that he was witnessing. Then Peter and John come down and began to lay hands on the people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and when Simon witnesses the results he wants to buy that power. When he saw miracles of healing he did not ask to buy the power for healing so how were the people responding to the Holy Spirit that made him want to buy that power? Though it does not say that they spoke in tongues and prophesied the implication is clear that there was a lot of commotion that raised a great deal of interest. Remember that it was on the day of pentecost that 120 people were speaking in tongues that drew a crowd and caused 3000 people to be converted in one day. It seems that some people will grasp at the smallest straw in their determination not to believe.

Now I want to deal with another issue that is often raised and that is that many claim that we receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit at conversion and that is all there is to it. Again I say they are wrong and the scripture proves it.
Acts 8:14-17 14 Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, 15 who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

It says here that they had been baptized in the name of Jesus but the Holy Spirit didn't come on them until the apostles laid hands on them. Case closed.

One final note: Most teachers and preachers who do not believe that the Holy Spirit baptism and the gifts are for today quote a scripture from 1 Corinthians 13
Vs.8-10 8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

First they say that when the perfect comes that which is in part will be done away. They say the "PERFECT" was and is the written word of God. Here's the problem with that interpretation; The passage above says that prophesies are "in part" as well as tongues and knowledge" and when the perfect comes those things which are in part will be done away. Tell me this, "has knowledge been done away"? On the contrary knowledge is on the increase, matter of fact knowledge has doubled over and over again in the last generation. It took a great increase of knowledge to go from the Wright brothers 120 foot flight at Kitty Hawk to the flight to the moon and to put a space probe on Mars. Their arguments are so feeble that I cannot figure out how anyone can swallow it but they do to their own loss as well as the loss to the good that could be accomplished for the kingdom of God.
I will deal with another herasy in my next blog.
May God bless you and give you understanding and make you useful for His purposes.
john Martin
email justjohn@eoni.com

Speaking in other tongues vs. the Gift of Tongues

In my previous article I promised we would explore the highly controversial topic of Tongues. Tongues simply refers to "other languages". Listen when you are in a strange place among people of different origins and you will hear them speaking what may seem to be utter gibberish and if they were to listen to you speaking in English you would seem to be speaking gibberish as well. Yet the bible says that no language is without meaning but if it is not understood the speaker is a barbarian to the hearer. The main reason that there is so much controversy surrounding tongues is lack of understanding what is intended by the scriptures and the proper use of God's gifts to us. It seems these days that much of what God has given to us is either being ignored or misused or abused. Again I must ask "where are the teachers who understand the scriptures and can explain them"?

First of all when speaking in tongues is brought up the first thing that comes to mind is someone in church babbling away in a language that no one can understand and causing some people to be frightened enough or offended enough never to return. Usually when this occurs it is a misuse of a gift. To understand why I say this we must examine the gift itself. There are two entirely separate aspects of tongues that few know about or understand. On the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was given the entire 120 disciple present were speaking in different languages they had not learned and the crowd that gathered were amazed because they recognised these languages as their own and knew that these disciples could not have naturally been able to speak those languages. This was a multiple exercise of the Gift of Tongues that is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 among the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit. The purpose at the time was that the Holy Spirit was speaking to the hearts of the witnesses and convincing them that something supernatural was taking place which really got their attention and caused them to listen when Peter stood up to speak to them. This is example number one that if speaking out loud in tongues does not accomplish a specific purpose it probably was not prompted by God in the first place.
God is not honored by foolish outbursts. When the bible uses the term "gift of tongues" it is referring to a one time bestowing of an unknown language to accomplish a particular task and will always achieve it's purpose. On the other hand there are references to praying in the Spirit or speaking in a tongue that is for every believer. We must remember that God is not a respecter of persons and does not give one person more tools to live a holy life than another, He is truly the "equal opportunity boss".Jude 1:20 (New King James Version)
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
The scriptures are written for all people for all times and the only scriptures that are not for all Christians are addressed clearly to either a person by name or by office, such as pastor or teacher. Therefor the the admonition to pray in the Holy Spirit is for all Christians not just for those who have been given the "gift of tongues". So from this point forward I will refer to speaking in tongues or praying in tongues as that ability that is available to every christian to communicate with God on a supernatural level, whereas the Gift of Tongues is a one time dispensation given to a Spirit Filled believer to accomplish a given purpose determined by God.
Important to know is that one must experience the first before he can experience the second. In other words a believer must receive the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues first before he can expect to ever exercise the Gift of Tongues in church or a given ministry.

Another point that I can add from personal experience
is that when exercising the Gift of Tongues the language will be different than what the user is accustomed to hearing when he speaks or prays in tongues in private. That is how I know if I have heard from the Holy Spirit or not. There are times when I felt that I was to pray for someone in person for healing or some other serious problem and often I will also pray in tongues. Without fail if I have heard from the Spirit the language will be different and the need will be met but on occasion I have erred and let my own heart of compassion lead me to think I was supposed to pray for that person and had nothing happen and always my prayer language would be what I was used to hearing in private. It can be embarrassing but that is one of the ways we learn to recognize God's voice over the thoughts of our own mind.

The scriptures say that the Spirit distributes severally as He wills.
1 Corinthians 12:11 (King James Version)
But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. This not only means that you can be given the ability to speak in multiple languages but that when baptised in the Holy Spirit you can be given any of the gifts at any time the Holy Spirit deems needful to accomplish God's purposes. Here is a critical point to understand. Some people having received the Holy Spirit will say "I have received the gift of healing" or "I have received the gift of discerning of spirits" or one of the other 9 gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. This is in error because the true Gift is the Gift of the Holy Spirit and the 9 actions listed are "enablements" and are distributed as the Holy Spirit wills. He can give you the gift of knowledge but it is one time for a specific reason and next may be the working of miracles but that is why people go to crusades where healing ministry is going on and some people get healed and others do not. It is the decision of the Holy Spirit every time and when man says "I have the gift of healing" and people come to be healed and it's not happening all the time then to save face they begin to resort to fakery or lay the blame on the sick person by saying they just didn't have enough faith. Ok, enough on that I am getting away from the primary topic and that is speaking in tongues as in your privat life.

The result of my personal experiences is that I don't care if I ever heard tongues spoken in church whether there was in interpreter or not. I cannot say that I have ever been blessed or encouraged by such an experience and that is because it is so little understood that it is almost always out of order or simply not God inspired in the first place.

On the other hand I am writing this article because I want to emphasise the awesome benefit that speaking in tongues in private is to our spiritual life and awareness of a personal God.1 Corinthians 14:14-15 (New King James Version)
14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. 15 What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding.


1 Corinthians 14:4 (New King James Version)
4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church.


Ephesians 6:18 (New King James Version)
18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—


Jude 1:20 (New King James Version)

20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

Christian who have not received the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidense of speaking in tongues can only try to conjure up in their mind what the scripture means when it says "pray or praying in the Holy Spirit". It does not mean setting your mind into a serious mode and praying with fervency but praying with words you do not understand and that are provided by the Holy Spirit. You may wonder why God woould have us pray when we can't understand the words. The best answer I can come up with is that my mind is polluted and when I pray in tongues and my understanding is disconnected then I am praying the perfect prayer that is in accordance with the will of God and it will receive an answer always. How do I know this? The more I do it the better life gets. Also Romans 8:26-27 tells us what is happening. Romans 8:26-27 (New King James Version)
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us[a] with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
This has gotten rather long so I will stop here and continue in a new article. I will address the argument that I often hear that tongues are not for every christian.

Please pray that God will give you understanding because if you don't get your confirmation from Him you are always subject to error. God honors those who humble themselves and those whose pride tell them they can understand for themselves will be humbled by Him.1 Peter 5:5b-6 “ God resists the proud,
But gives grace to the humble.”[a]

6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time

John Martin
Email justjohn@eoni.com

The Holy Spirit, the Christians Source of Power.

Everyone is familiar with the term "the Trinity" but few could tell you anything about it. It is called the God Head, the Three in One and many other terms. The purpose of my writing today is not to get into the doctrine of the Trinity nor nor to define it for it must be accepted by faith. To simplify it for myself I tend to think of God as an indefinable complexity beyond human capacity to understand and therefore not to spend a great deal of time pondering what is too complex for this simple mind. Scripture says there is One God and yet He is spoken of as 3 therefore I think that He has revealed Himself in 3 of His multiple and complex personalities and manifestations. I will go no further than that. However I have had much experience with the third person of the Trinity known as the Holy Spirit and I can assure you He is real and He is vital to genuine Christianity. The scripture says that no one can even say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. He is that vital, you cannot even open your mouth to proclaim Jesus unless He permits it.

I can testify this day that after 34 years as a Christian that without the baptism in the Holy Spirit I would not be serving God. I would have dropped out long ago.
It is the Holy Spirit that brings life to your belief and motivates you to continue and press into Christ. Jesus spoke of Him as the Helper and the Comforter and He is both and so much more. As Christians we need HELP and we need COMFORT. The road to heaven is a narrow and rocky path and many things will need to be removed from your life to prepare you to live in the presence of a Holy God and His saints in perfect harmony of eternity and no one can endure the journey without the working of the Holy Spirit through His "helping" and His "comforting".

In the Gospel of John Jesus taught about the coming of the Holy Spirit. One day He was talking with a Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. He asked her for a drink of water and she said that Jews didn't even speak with Samaritans so why is He asking her for water. His reply was that if she had a clue who He was that she would be asking Him for living water.John 4:10-15 (New King James Version)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

In this passage He does not use the term Holy Spirit but we know that He is speaking of the Holy Spirit as living water because of another passage where He speaks of the Spirit as water as a life giving force.

John 7:37-39 (New King James Version)

37 On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing[a] in Him would receive; for the Holy[b] Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
In both passages Jesus is inviting believers to come and drink water that He is offering but with very different results. In the first passage He is offering living water that becomes a well that provides eternal life. Now consider what a well is. It is a static source of water that must be drawn out. One who is thirsty must use a bucket on a rope and let it down into the water and bring it back up and drink it to get a benefit from it, hence the beneficiary must be directly involved and it benefits him only.

The second passage speaks of water in a very different term as a river. Consider a river and it's action. A river is not static, it is in motion and is an unstopable force. A river has a destination and that is the ocean. Eventually every river reaches the ocean though it flow through many different banks and channels it will always reach it's destination. The power of a river is enormous, you can build a dam and back it up into a great reservour but if you don't provide an outlet it will simply overflow or go around the obstacle. Also a river provides life giving benefits wherever it flows. It may flow through a barren desert but there will be lush foliage on it's banks and people can draw from it to irrigate their crops. Even when it is in flood mode there are benefits because it brings silt that makes rich new topsoil.

Now most churches today have rejected this aspect of the Holy Spirit known as the Baptism in the Holy Spirit because of the seemingly uncontrolable aspect of it. Man wants control but God says "if you want My best you cannot be in control, you must surrender control to Me". In order to justify their actions the theologians have twisted scripture to say that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit was only to get the early church going and it was no longer needed after we received the written Word (the New Testament scriptures). It is simply not so and can be proven by the scriptures themselves. Now my purpose today is not to argue the point nor to prove the validity but rather to explain His ministry for those who hunger for more of God.

It is taught that every Christian receives the Holy Spirit at conversion and that is not true and here's the reason why. Conversion is not salvation. Conversion is the result of someone convincing you about certain facts that cause you to decide to go to church and live a certain way but never transact business with God whereby you surrender your entire being to Him and His purposes. Salvation comes when you confess you are hopelessly corrupt and can do nothing to save yourself and throw yourself entirely on God's mercy and ask Him to save you. The result is markedly different because at this point you will truly understand what is means to be 'born again" because that is what it will feel like, as though you are not even the same person. It is the Holy Spirit entering your heart that causes you to be born again and that is the living water that Jesus promised that would become a well springing up into everlasting life. But it is still just a personal experience where your name is now written down in the Lambs Book of Life. Now comes the journey and you are going to need a lot of help, not just to get there but to bear some fruit along the way and you cannot do that on your own. You must ask for the baptism in the Holy Spirit and here are the scriptures.

Luke 11:10-13 (New King James Version)
10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread[a] from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Let me show you the progression according to the scripture. We know that on the night that Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane that he left Peter, James and John and went a distance away to pray by Himself and before leaving them He told them to watch and pray but when He returned He found them sleeping. He admonished them and repeated the instruction and went off again and prayed in such agony that He actually sweat blood, yet on His return He found them sleeping again despite His distress. This is a good example of normal human weakness. However let, see what happens when they are Born Again. This occurs on the evening of the day of Jesus ressurrection.
19 Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled,[c] for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
21 So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Though the disciples had spent 3 years in close company with Jesus they were still without a spiritual connection. When Jesus breathed on them and said "receive the Holy Spirit I believe He came into them just as He does when a person today repents and totally surrenders his life to the Savour.
Theologians look at it differently and many say that Jesus was instructing them to receive the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost which was still in the future but I believe the evidence shows otherwise and here's why; In the Garden they couldn't stay awake and when Jesus was arrested they all fled and in the court of the High Priest when Jesus was being abused someone asked Peter 3 times if he was a disciple of Jesus and he denied it and I'm sure it was simply from fright that he too would be arrested and tortured. However the scripture above shows Jesus on the evening of ressurection day coming to the disciples and breathing on them and telling them to receive the Holy Spirit. 40 days later He is with them on the Mount of Olives and tells them to wait in the city and do not leave until they receive the promise of the Father. Then He is taken up into heaven. They then enter the city and gather together in an upper room and pray together for 10 days before the Spirit comes down in visible form as a mighty wind and tongues of fire upon their heads. It was the staying power of the first manifestation of the Spirit in their life that gave them the ability and will to wait 10 days when previously they could not even spend one hour in prayer when it was obvious that their friend and teacher was in a battle for His life. But that is not the end of the story because on that day timid Peter stood up and gave a sermon that cause 3000 people to be saved and after that he performed many miracles and the power of the Spirit was so great on him that his very shadow falling on the sick caused them to be healed.

I must ask why would anyone want to reject such power when it is still available to us as believers? As I have stated before, a good part of it is the issue of control and the desire to keep it for ourselves. Another major issue is that of speaking in other tongues. Many consider it to be foolish gibberish and sometimes it is but let's examine it carefully and I will do that in the next blog.

Saved to the Uttermost

Hebrews 7:25 (New King James Version)
25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

There is so very little understanding of the amazing work of grace that God has wrought through Jesus Christ. Many tend to think that because we are sinners that Christ died to pay for our sin so that we could go on sinning without penalty as long as at some point we are sorry for it. Often the choice is made to enter into a sinful situation knowing that later we will feel sorry and repentant and that God will forgive us and all will be well again. This is very short sighted and definitely erroneous thinking for a number of reasons. First of all we were redeemed in order that we might bring glory to God and be a light to those who are in darkness. How much damage is done to the cause of Christ when a Christian sins and is exposed. Just as much harm occurs when His deeds remain in darkness because there are eyes everywhere including in the spiritual realm and the battle in the spiritual realm is just as fierce as it is in the visible. Sooner or later every evil deed will be exposed. The goal of our instruction as stated in;

1 Timothy 1:5 (New American Standard Bible)

But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

How can we say we have a good conscience when we are knowingly sinning? Christ came and sacrificed Himself to completely deliver us from the power of sin. Please take note of these words. "THE POWER OF SIN, NOT THE DESIRE TO SIN". As long as there is a breath in this body there will be the desire to sin. It is the very nature of mankind and the result of the law. Parents know that all it takes is to tell your child not to do something and that is the very thing that they are going to do. The command "NO" in itself creates the desire to do. So what is the cure for our sinful tendencies? Surrender in total helplessness to the working of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. What do I mean when I say surrender totally? We must come to the realization that we are helpless and weak beyond hope. This is humbling and most people want to feel strong and in control and to be able to say "I have victory" for it makes the flesh feel good. But please note, this makes us prideful and does not give glory to God but draws attention to ourselves and makes others uncomfortable around us because they know that we think we are better than them.

So when we think about our problems and sinful condition we need to be thinking about Christ and His ministry to us through the Holy Spirit for the answers. Let's look at some scriptures but before we do let me make a comparison. I am using a computer to accomplish not only this task but a number of tasks related to my making a living. However I know very little about what the computer is capable of doing since I have never taken a course. I am self taught and I barely know enough to type a simple letter and send an email and I can edit photographs and put an ad on eBay. Every once in a while someone is watching me doing something on the computer and says "why don't you try this?" and presto I have a new helpful tool at my disposal that reduces my time spent and also my frustration level. The real shame is that I sometimes have to pay someone to correct problems on my computer that I could do myself if only I would take the time to study some of the help books that I have setting around. I could take this illustration to much greater lengths but I hope you get the point. We get out of something according to the same measure we put into it. A person who has really studied computers can make a great living off those who are unwilling to study for themselves.

In the same manner person who is willing to put a lot of effort into learning and knowing God and His Son Jesus is going to be able to receive all that He has provided for His own. It just doesn't come automatically and the reason for that is that He wants us to know Him intimately because that is the only way we will ever trust Him fully and and that is the very best description of FAITH. You cannot possibly have mountain moving faith if you do not have a deep and abiding personal knowledge and trust in Jesus to do everything He has promised to do for His chosen ones. Many tell me that they do know Him and trust Him and yet they have terrible struggles with sinful thoughts and actions so I have to say to them "No you do not yet know Him as you need to". I am not saying that it is their fault nor making an accusation for it is the fault of the pastors and teachers that they have looked to for leadership who are only giving them enough to keep them dependent. The apostle Paul admonished the Hebrews (5:13) that they should already be teachers but he found they were so ignorant that they needed to go back on a diet of milk because they weren't ready for meat. It is the job of teachers to teach the people how to study scriptures for themselves and make sure they understand them and to emphasize how important it is to hear from the Holy Spirit for yourself and they simply are not doing that.

Let's continue with the topic of receiving God's perfect life to replace this very flawed and imperfect life of ours. The secret is found in weakness. That runs so contrary to human logic. We think we must be strong and be over-comers but the result is always the same, either we fail miserably or we have some success and become unbearably proud and either one is an abomination to God. Fail and you bring shame to the name of Christ, become proud and you will turn people away from Christ with your "holier than thou attitude".

Psalm 34:18 (New King James Version)

18 The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite (humble) spirit.

The word "Contrite" means Humble. A broken heart means that you know just how bad you really are and are helpless to do anything about it. God loves to scoop you up in His big arms and hold you when you come to Him with this attitude.
Any parent can relate to what I am saying; consider your toddler child and how helpless they can be and how lovable they are and how much you love to do things for them and help them and comfort them when they are hurt or frightened. But just wait until they are in their teens and know it all and yet you know that they really know nothing about real life and left to their own devices will get into much trouble. Because of their arrogance there is little you can do for them but pray they will grow out of their insanity before they destroy their future before it begins. It is little different in the spiritual realm. We are all infants and totally incapable of knowing anything much less doing anything right because God's ways and thoughts are not the ways of man.
Isaiah 55:9 (New King James Version)
9 “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Jesus totally baffled the people of His day and we read about it now and think that we understand and can't figure out why they couldn't back then but I can assure you that if you were to spend time with Him today you would find Him just as baffling as they did. We just aren't wired to heavenly thinking and that is why we need to give Him total control if we want to live a life that is pleasing to Him. He has promised to direct it in every detail if you will let Him but it takes time to develop that "ear to hear".
Psalm 51:17 (New King James Version)

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.

Isaiah 57:15 (New King James Version)
15 For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

“ I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

No living man knew the Lord better than the apostle Paul but here's what he had to say; 2 Corinthians 12:10 (New King James Version)
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Lest you think he is only speaking about physical weakness here is another one that is more to the point;1 Timothy 1:15 (New King James Version)
15 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. This he is saying near the end of his life, whereas the scripture below is what he says at the early part of his ministry before he really has spent a lot of time with the Lord and knows Him intimately;

2 Corinthians 11:5 (New King James Version)

5 For I consider that I am not at all inferior to the most eminent apostles. Sounds a bit arrogant doesn't it?

But with the passing of time and experience he writes to the Hebrews:Hebrews 11:33-34 (New King James Version)
33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Pay special attention to the part that says that "out of weakness they were made strong". When that arrogant teenager comes to the parent in tears and says "I have been so foolish and made so many mistakes and don't know what to do, Please help me" does not the good parent respond with love and compassion and is he not willing to spend much time with the child guiding him in the right direction. I must declare that at some point the comparison breaks down because God wants us to always remain dependent on Him though with the passage of time as we get to know God's heart we will be able to do many things without asking because we will have been trained by Him and His Spirit within us will provide and check if we start off in a wrong direction and we will heed the check.

So back once again to the sinful nature and our thought life. I have said before that "WE STRUGGLE WITH SIN TO THE SAME DEGREE THAT WE FLIRT WITH IT". We can compare our minds with our car and wind. When you are in your car and there is a wind and you open the door the wind comes in and begins to stir up whatever is laying around loose in the car, however if someone opens a door on the other side the result is like a tornado and you lose control of everything. Our brain is the same way, thoughts come randomly and without invitation just like the wind. We can then close the door on them and reject them just like shutting the car door to keep out the wind, or we can invite them in for a while and make friends with them and have a party. By doing so we are opening the door of our heart and letting those thoughts in there where they will take up permanent residence and be there to haunt and condemn you, creating a tornado effect just as two open doors of the car.

There is a huge difference between having a mental tendency to something and indulging in it. the entire 7Th chapter of Romans is addressing this issue. Many people think that the apostle Paul wrote this letter to show that we would always sin but that is not true. He wrote it to explain that this flesh is always corrupt and would never change but followed it with chapter 8 to explain that a life with the Spirit Christ would set us free from having to give in to the power of the flesh.
It is simply a matter of who you decide to give control to. Hence the title of this blog. Saved to the Uttermost means that you have given Him control at all times. You think that is not possible? Yes it is more possible than you think because that is His total purpose with mankind and the goal of redemption and He will do it but you must ask Him to do it and be willing to cooperate. It is a process whereby you learn what is'Romans 11:33 (New King James Version)
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

Ephesians 3:17-19 (New King James Version)
17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

The only power that we have we must exercise to the utmost and that is the power to seek Him with all of our heart.Jeremiah 29:13 (New King James Version)
13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.



God bless you and give you the desire to pursue Him like never before. It's worth it.
john Martin
email: justjohn@eoni.com