The Lord Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords.                  He has risen from the dead and He is Lord.                 Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

New - * The Grace of God in Christ *  - on 29 December 2011

Where text is underlined CLICK on the word to read more detail.

Thoughts from Cherith.

I  had been reading the Bible, the book of First Kings, and reflecting on the story of Elijah.  

I found him to be a very interesting personality, and soon it felt as though I almost knew him and loved him.  He was a man of great integrity.  He had spiritual energy and great vision.  He put his entire personality into the work of the Lord, and was a dedicated servant of God.  The story of Elijah is filled with the miraculous - from the very beginning to the very end.  

The first thing he did was to cause a lengthy drought, and his last, was  ascending into the heavens in a whirlwind and a chariot of fire.  

Elijah was part of God's purpose in the Northern kingdom of Israel.  

Where he prophesied, was already lost, to Assyrian conquest.  

To study Elijah and to get to know him,  is to love him, and  to just praise God for the wonderful record that He has given us in His Word.  This man was raised up to fulfill God's special purpose in this world, at a specific time.  He was born during the dispensation of the Law.  

The Law teaches us the awesome holiness of God,  

the exceeding sinfulness of sin,  

and the necessity of obedience,  

the universality of man's failure,  

and the marvel of God's grace  in providing the way of approach to Himself, through typical blood sacrifice, that looked forward to the Saviour  -  the spotless Lamb of God.

The Lord Jesus was born into this world to bear away our sin.  

The purpose of each dispensation is to place man under a specific rule of conduct, but such stewardship, is not a "condition" of salvation.  

In every past dispensation, unregenerate man has failed.   

He has failed in this present dispensation, and he will fail in the future.  

We live in the dispensation of grace, called the Day of Christ.

The Day of Christ, or the age of grace, comes to an end when the Day of the Lord begins.

Salvation has been, and will continue to be, available to mankind by God's grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

My own testimony:

When I was about five years old, during a Billy Graham film called  "The Prodigal,"  I felt a  moving  of the Holy Spirit  deep within my heart.  I remember feeling very tearful at first, but as we left the City Hall in Cape Town, a very fine black lady told my mother (whose hand I was holding very tightly because of the crowds) that her little girl wanted to ask the Lord Jesus to come into her heart.  I was so thankful to her, because it was the very truth that I was unable to utter.  After that, a great sense of happiness came into my life.  A  joy  which I am quite unable to express.  At home, things went on the same as before.  I was brought up in a Christian home.  My Mom was a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and she exercised great faith in the Lord Jesus Christ her entire life.  I do praise God for His goodness to me,  in allowing me to have such a mother.  

I attended Sunday school and enjoyed it very much.  I had very dedicated and loving teachers who taught me most of the stories in the Bible, and also to memorize many different verses of Scripture and sing many different choruses that are the greatest blessing in my life to this day. When ever I am feeling down or lonely or sad or in trouble or even very happy, I am able to think of a special verse that I can quote to myself, or a chorus or a hymn that I can sing. Memory is a very wonderful blessing that we have received from God our Abba Father.

I used to love the story of Moses when I was little, and my Mom told me that whenever she asked me what story she could read to me, I would ask her to tell me about Moses.  I loved Moses from a very young age, and even to this day, I love Moses.  There is so very much that we can learn from this great man of God.  He spent forty years in the desert, and God held him very close to Himself. Moses learned so much in God's school of training, and I learned very early in my life, that God chastises those who are His own.  He trains us best in the School of Hard Knocks.  It is through suffering that the Lord Jesus Christ, although He is the Son of God - though He is God Himself - was made complete through His death on the cross.   His virgin birth does not save us.  His teaching  does not  save us.  His miracles do not  save  us, and neither does His example of a perfect life here on earth,  save  us.  

It is His death upon the cross that saves us.

He reached completeness by dying on the cross.  

He took on our humanity, bore our shame, endured  the cross and shed every drop of His precious blood, for us.

This was made very real to me at twelve years old,  when my father was murdered.  It happened at about six thirty in the evening,  while he was on his way home from work.  He was going through the subway at the railway station,  when three men approached him and stabbed him twenty one times. 

The final stab wound was through his heart,  and he died in a pool of blood at the bottom of the stairs, on his knees, praying.  

This was a terrible shock to me as I had just spoken to him on the phone at five o clock.  Why would God allow such a terrible thing to happen to our family?  I can clearly remember how my mother took my sister's hand and mine, and asked us to sing  "The Lord is my Shepherd."  

We knew it by heart, as it was one of her favorite hymns.  She was devastated,  and yet she remained calm.  She had an inner strength that night that has remained with me throughout the years,  especially when I miss her and just long to hear her voice.  She went home to be with her precious Lord on the 4th January 1993. 

The Lord's my Shepherd  (1).    The Lord's my Shepherd  (2).

The Lord's my Shepherd, I'll not want;
He makes me down to lie
In pastures green; he leadeth me
The quiet waters by.

My soul he doth restore again;
And me to walk doth make
Within the paths of righteousness,
E'en for his own name's sake.

Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale,
Yet will I fear none ill,
For thou art with me; and thy rod
And staff me comfort still.

My table thou hast furnished
In presence of my foes;
My head thou dost with oil anoint,
And my cup overflows.

Goodness and mercy all my life
Shall surely follow me:
And in God's house for evermore
My dwelling place shall be.

Amen!

Needless to say,  life became very difficult for us.  My Dad had no pension fund and the company he worked for,  paid him ten days salary as he died on the tenth of the month.  I was in Standard Five and My Mom was forty six years old.  She had not worked for over twenty years and so you can imagine how difficult it was for her to find a job without any training or experience.  The only experience that she had was housework - and housework was not too highly thought of in those days.

After she had had several disappointments, and had become quite desperate, our great God,  who always,  ALWAYS  goes ahead of us, prepared a job for her at the Red Cross Children's Hospital as a Housekeeper.  She really loved her job and she remained in it until she was sixty five years old,  receiving a pension on her retirement. All this was because of our great God's great mercy and His marvelous grace that abounds towards us. He sure did supply her every single need in Christ Jesus.

We worship,  honor and adore a most wonderful God!  He is truly the King of kings and the Lord of lords!  In the earlier years of her life, my Mom had asked The Lord if she could work in a hospital and so this was for her, a very great blessing indeed, and she was greatly loved at the Red Cross Hospital. 

The Lord God was good to us, just as His Word says.  

His Word says, that before they call, "I will answer them."  

He has promised to be a Father to the fatherless, and a husband to the widows. This is proven in our lives.  

God never leaves us, nor ever forsakes us, no matter how alone we may feel and no matter how far we may run from Him.  Once we belong to Him, He will always out run us, and He will bring us back to Himself. We can be very sure of that fact because He never loses a single sheep that belongs to Him. Once we are truly born-from-above we can never be unborn-from-above. 

Oh how wonderful our living God is!  

He is ALL goodness and ALL mercy.  

His great  mercy is ever present.  

Goodness and mercy are just like two sheep dogs that  follow  us all the days of our lives. 

The Bible teaches us that once we accept Christ Jesus as our very own personal Saviour,  He,  by His Holy Spirit,  whom He freely gives us, baptizes us into His very own body.  His body,  of true believers,  the church, which will one day become His bride.  

We are His own special possession and He places His seal of ownership upon all whom He has called.   

Ephesians 1:5-14  "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.  To the praise and glory of His grace, through which He hath made us accepted in the Beloved; 

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, In which He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself; 

That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in ONE all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him;  

In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. 

That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ; In whom ye also trusted, after ye heard the Word of  truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.  Who is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory." 

NO ONE CAN EVER PLUCK US OUT OF HIS HAND.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT CAN EVER SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD. 

The love that Jesus had for me
To suffer on the cruel tree
That I a ransomed soul might be
Is more than tongue can tell!

Chorus:
His love is more than tongue can tell!
His love is more than tongue can tell!
The love that Jesus had for me
Is more than tongue can tell!

The bitter sorrow that He bore
And O, the crown of thorns He wore
That I might live for evermore
Is more than tongue can tell

The peace I have in Him, my Lord
Who pleads before the throne of God
The merits of His precious blood
Is more than tongue can tell!

The joy that comes when He is near
The rest He gives so free from fear
The hope in Him, so bright and clear
Is more than tongue can tell!

Thanks: Believers Hymn Book. signet.com

Amen!

The Lord Jesus very softly calls us to  come  to Him for salvation and when we  respond,   He overwhelms us with His gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit becomes our constant Comforter,  and He takes the Word of God and guides us into all Truth.

John 16:13   "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come."

"But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him" (1 John 2:27). 

This ministry of the Holy Spirit is very important.

We have the Holy Spirit to teach us, Christian friend, and He alone can open the Word of God to us.

The Lord Jesus wants to guide us into all truth. 

The Bible is a miracle Book.

The Spirit takes the things of Christ and makes them real to us. He convicts us of our sins and assures us    

1 John 1:9  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

In this world, we get pretty dirty as we walk along  life's pathway. We meet different kinds of people - some who build us up in the faith, and encourage and inspire us, and others who break us down, or  much worse flatter us.  Then there are those who are constantly involved in our lives that hate the truth and will not receive it. With their snide remarks, they can make us bitter.

I have struggled with a "little root of bitterness"  in my own life.  It has been a constant struggle and I have learned that the only way to overcome it, is to apply the grace of God. I have to ask the Lord Jesus, continually, for more grace - grace to endure the consequences of the sin, I am called to go through, to overcome that bitterness towards the person, who sexually abused me as a child. It is this "little root of bitterness" that is sin that can lead to great discouragement. I have to cling to the Lord Jesus all day long especially seeing as the one who abused me still will not acknowledge what he did and sits in a church pew week by week boasting to my face that there is no condemnation to him because he is in Christ.

He Giveth More Grace.  (This is another favorite of my Mom.)

Annie Johnson Flint  1866  -  1932.

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials he multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

Amen!

PRIDE ALWAYS GOES BEFORE A FALL.

Satan is wise, very wise, much wiser that you or I and he is also wise in his own eyes.

Not even the archangel Michael, Jude tells us, would bring a railing accusation against the Devil, but he simply said, 

"… The Lord rebuke thee" (Jude 9). 

This is a spirit that we need to manifest today, a spirit of humility, in the sense that we are to  

turn all the evil that happens to us over to the Lord.

We are no match for the devil. There are times when I hear a Christian talk about the devil, ridiculing him and calling him names, that I cringe. I have to say that Michael the archangel would not do that, and if Michael, exalted as he is, would not do that, how can little man on earth do that. 

We need to be careful of what we say to Satan though we ought not to fear him because he cannot

touch those who are in Christ Jesus.

Satan knows our weaknesses and he knows exactly what will cause us to stumble. He loves to use  flattery. He is constantly walking around, seeking whom he may devour. Once we fall into sin, he laughs at us and is so happy when  guilt  prevents us from praising God.  

Satan loves music, he is the prince of music. Music began with him and he uses it to make liars of all God's dear ignorant children.  We sing these wonderful worship songs and then before long,  we fall into temptation because we do not do what we have claimed to do in the songs we have sung. We allow  sin to creep into our hearts.  We become  bitter towards those who continually ill treat us, those who treat us with hostility and tell stories about us that are not true -  twisting our words to suit themselves,  and when we share our blessings with them, they despise our joy.  This does hurt us, and hurt leads to anger.

The Lord Jesus was sad, without being bitter,  when He told Peter that he would deny Him, and that he would deny Him three times.  But Peter was bitter, very bitter in his heart when he denied the Lord Jesus.   

Peter became angry, so much so,  that when he was asked if he was with the Lord Jesus, he began to curse and say that he never even knew the man.  

Peter's heart must have been broken to see what was happening to the Lord Jesus, and that Judas had betrayed Him. Peter had, no doubt, respected Judas. Judas had been one of them, and had been chosen by the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus had washed his feet. 

For him to have done such a treacherous thing as to betray the Lord Jesus, must have caused the disciples much pain and much anger towards him. 

I do believe that anyone who loves the Lord Jesus will feel angry and have bitter resentment  towards those who would hurt Him or those who belong to Him. When we harm a child of God it is as though what we do we do it unto Him because that child of God is in Him. That is the reason we do not ever take revenge.

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished" (2 Peter 2:9).

We are to turn our case over to the Lord. 

The minute that we try to get revenge we are taking God’s place, because 

"… Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" (Romans 12:19). 

If we try to get revenge, we depart from our walk of faith. 

However, walking by faith does not mean that we are a Mr. Milquetoast whom everyone can push around and treat any way they please. Rather, it means that we can say,

"Well, brother, you have mistreated me, you have done this to me, but I am going to turn you over to the Lord." 

Paul said this concerning a brother who had mistreated him.

"Alexander, the coppersmith did me much evil; the Lord reward him according to his works" (2 Timothy 4:14). 

The Lord will take care of him, I've turned him over to the Lord, 

Judas must have been very bitter to have betrayed the Lord Jesus. He wanted the Lord Jesus to be the King right then and when Jesus took the lowly path,  Judas was  not happy, and so he decided to  betray the Lord Jesus with a false kiss.  

Judas' own bitterness led him to take his own life.

We must repent and ask  God to remove all the bitterness from our hearts. We cannot do it in our own strength, we must trust Christ, who works all things, concerning us, according to His marvelous grace, for our good when we love Him and seek to be obedient to Him in His Word. 

Ephesians 1:11-12   "In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,  that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory."

Is there no other way open, Lord,

Except through sorrow, pain, and loss,

To stamp Christ’s likeness on my soul—

No other way except the cross?

And then a voice stills all my soul

As stilled the waves of Galilee,

"Can’st thou not bear the furnace heat

If midst the flames I walk with thee?

"I bore the cross. I know its weight.

I drank the cup I hold for thee.

Can’st thou not follow where I lead?

I’ll give thee strength. Lean hard on Me."

—Author unknown

Romans 8:28-30  "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified."

God has graciously allowed us the most wonderful gift of memory and of feelings. Good feelings and bad feelings.  The feeling of bitterness, as the writer to the Hebrews says, 

Hebrews 12:15  "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and by it many be defiled;" 

When we become afraid of people,  we learn to compromise and not to tell the whole truth about the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the only way of salvation.

He is the only Saviour of this world but when He comes again He will come as the judge of all the earth.

"For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:14)   

2 Corinthians 5:9-11   "Wherefore, we labour that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences." 

We are accepted in the Beloved. 

Apostle Paul makes this clear to the Ephesians, 

"Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, To the praise of the glory of His grace, through which He hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:5–6). 

Being accepted in Christ is my standing before God. 

God sees me in Christ, and He is made unto me all that I need: wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (see 1 Corinthians 1:30). 

He is my perfection. 

God sees me in Christ, and I am complete in Him.

We cannot add anything to completeness. When a person has 100 percent, that person has all of it. 

All genuine believers have Christ, we are accepted in Him. This is our standing before God.

To be accepted of Him is a different thing. 

This has to do with our state and refers to the way we live our lives. 

Do we live for Christ? 

Or are we so ambitious to be accepted of Him that we, crawl over other believers to get to the top. 

We ought not to do that.

Ephesians 6:14-15  "Stand, Therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod  with the preparation of the gospel of peace." 

We are to recognize that when we tell the true gospel of our Lord  Jesus Christ, that He came into this world to die so that He would be able to save sinners and call believers to true repentance through the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives, that people will hate us for they hate to hear the truth. They do not want to acknowledge their sin and therefore it will lead to hostility and ill treatment.  

The natural man hates the truth and therefore he covers his sin with lies and he deceives many, even himself as he does not want his sin to be known.

This is what caused the people to turn  bitter  towards the Lord Jesus when He was on this earth.  

They hated Him for speaking the truth about Himself.  

THEY PUT THE LORD JESUS TO DEATH BECAUSE HE CLAIMED TO BE GOD.

THEY HATED HIM BECAUSE HE TOLD THEM THAT HE ALONE IS  THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND  THE LIFE  AND  THAT NO ONE COULD COME TO THE FATHER,  EXCEPT THROUGH HIM.

They hated Him because He warned them about hell. The Lord Jesus had the most to say about hell when He was here on this earth.

They hated Him because He warned them about a lost eternity.

They hated Him because He told them they were to repent of their sin.

When we do His will and fulfill his purpose here on this earth the natural man and the so called believer who is puffed up with pride will hate us also for the servant of the Lord is no greater than their Master.

Our Lord Jesus warned us in John 13:16  

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than He that sent him."

The crowd that followed Jesus and actually physically saw the miracles that He performed, and listened to His teachings, who waved palm branches, shouting as He entered Jerusalem,  

"Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel, that cometh in the name of the Lord" 

were the same ones, who a few days later, shouted, 

"Crucify Him, Crucify Him!"

This page updated:  6-11-2010.

OTHER PAGES I  have written.

The Grace of God in Christ 29 December 2011

What If God Breaks Up Your Nest? 29 November 2011

The Silver Cord 27 October 2011