"True, Indeed!"

 "For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." (John 17:8 KJV)

  "So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father's one and only Son." (John 1:14 NLT)

 Good morning! Today I chose to be focused on Jesus, not the world; because this crazy life is starting to bring me down: so, I instead, make it my passion to look up, thanking the Lord for all of His wonderful blessing and the grace He continues to give, even though I really don't deserve it! 

 The verse before, John 1:14, is one that there has been some disagreement on, within the church. It was brought to my attention back in the early 90's, as I was sharing something that I received, but was cut short from presenting it, because it was not well received. It somewhat goes hand-in-hand with the message from the other day, regarding the portion of Scripture from Isaiah 53:1, "Who has believed our report? To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm?" 

 The verse that I am talking about says, "Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:13 KJV) The assumption is, man's will, and whether or not we have that ability to cause any sort of change, just by our obedience, and, or, by changing our mind, heart, or desires. In other words: When we are born again, did we have any sort of power to make it happen? 

 I have heard it said, "If someone can talk you into accepting Christ as your Savior, then someone else can talk you out of it." That may be the closest thing I can think of that makes sense of the statement by which I was cut short from sharing! It is God that changes our hearts; we have no desire to do any such thing, nor can we pretend to do so! You might think that you can, by fooling yourself, practicing the art of kindness and composure; but the first time you are seriously tested, you going to fail and be discouraged; thinking God's power didn't work! 

 This is something that must be realized as God's work, not ours. When we believe that God has done it all, then we can accept the failure to comply is 100% ours alone, God's work is never undone! That's what makes it possible for our salvation to be sure, because we had nothing to do with getting it, therefore, we have nothing to do with losing it: free means that it was freely given! 

 It might seem inconceivable, but the point is very clear: We just need to believe that it is True, then God takes care of the rest! By the way, we actually don't enter into His rest, until we are resting in His powerful arm! The world cannot understand it, nor receive it; the "Who" is you, and once you believe, you are made into the "Whom"...

"I have thought deeply about all that goes on here under the sun, where people have the power to hurt each other. I have seen the wicked people buried with honor. Yet they were the very ones who frequented the Temple and are now praised in the same city where they committed their crimes! This, too, is meaningless. When a crime is not punished quickly, people feel it is safe to do wrong. But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows. And this is all meaningless in our world. In this life, good people are often treated as though they are wicked, and wicked people are often treated as though they were good. This is so meaningless!" (Ecclesiastes 8:9-14 NLT)