Gideons300

Just a note on keith. He was a radical christina, and in my mind, the conscience of the church for years. See if you can find a few of his songs that showed this..... Asleep in the Light, The Sheep and the Goats, and So You Want to Go Back to Egypt? You can still get copies of his tracts from Last Days Ministries, run by Melody Green, his wife. The man inspired many. I was one. Bruce

"The prophets give false prophecies, and the priests rule with an iron hand. Worse yet, my people like it that way! But what will you do when the end comes?" Jeremiah 5:31 We are told clearly that our enemy goes about as a roaring lion, seeking to devour us, and we are told to resist Him steadfast in the faith, and that our shield of faith will quench all the fiery arrows he throws at us. We are told to not be ignorant of his devices, and that his true power lies in deception and the twisting of half trusths into full error. Yet, as we look at God's bride today, we have been robbed of things Christ died to give us and more amazingly, the deception is so great that we fight for the half truths of decption we have been fed by the liar of all liars, rather than against the one who lies to us, for when he lies, he is simply speaking his native language. We not only allow ourselves to be robbed, but we have asked the enemy to make himself comfortable and to join us for milk and cookies after the pot luck supper. God has clearly told us that we have the right to put off our flesh by faith, and that is we are in Christ, we are not any longer in the flesh, but in the spirit. We are told that sin shall not have dominion over us. We are told there is but one profitable path for us to take as children of God, for us to be found walking in our new creature, where our flesh and the lusts of that flesh that bring forth sin have been put off. Yet, who has believed this report? All this is to be a product of our believing it, accepting it as truth, and this is the good fight of faith we have been told to wage. This is the faith we are told to earnestly contend for. Yet, for many, the shield of faith is found gathering dust, not arrows, and the sword, the word of God that we are told is profitable for instruction in righteousness, is not even revered as His truth for us any longer. Yet God has said that He honors His word, even above His name. How the mighty have fallen. Like Samson was found blinded and grinding corn for our enemy, the mighty bride of the book of Acts now bakes him cookies. The robber has robbed us for generations, played havoc with our walks, our families, our children, kept us hounded by condemnation, led us into worldliness and secret sin that dishonors the one who died for us and as the scrpiture says.... and yet, most amazingly, His people love to have it so. No longer. Is it not high time we awoke to righteousness and put on strength? Shall not we trust our God to roll up His sleeves and show himself strong on our behalf? Is it not called for that we compare what we believe as Christianity to the word of God and let His word rule, no matter what it requires us to change? It is time we let satan know who we are...we are the people of the Almighty God and we come in His name, with His authority and our own testimony of our God's ability to deliver and set free indeed. Our weak Christian walks may seem to have sufficed thus far as we walk towards Heaven, but the skies now are sunny and the waters calm compared to what is coming soon. God tells us though, to not stick our heads in the sand like spiritual ostriches, thinking these times of peace will continue forever simply because we want to them to. He asks us, "What will we do in the end?" If we cannot walk in victory and overcome the world in fair weather, how can we even hope to do so when the cost will be our necks? The answer is "We cannot". Saints, it is time we exposed the lies and girded ourselves again with truth...TRUTH! His word is truth, and until we wrap oursleves with it, arm ourselves with it, we continue to offer satan a place in us he has no right to. We must yield ourselves to God as those not in the flesh, but as those who are alive from the dead, victorious, powerful, with swords and shields of warriors of God. True victory, and in the end, our very souls, depend on it. Blessings, Bruce

Mayt I ask for what purpose this question is asked? I get the feeling I am a deer heading into a big pile of free corn but there are these funny little stands up in the trees. Bruce

John 15 v 9 - 14: "Just as my Father has loved Me, I too have loved you; so stay in My love. If you keep my commands, you will stay in My love - just as I have kept My Father's commands and stay in His love. I have said this to you so that My joy may be in you, and your joy be complete. This is My command; that you keep on loving each other just as I have loved you. No one has greater love than a person who lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you." Yeshua Here is what I have found true in my past life. All the words you share are true indeed, yet there is a problem, or at least there was for me. Romans 7. The things I wanted to do (obey) I often did not do, and the the things I did not want to do (disobey) I ended up doing. I searched and searched for an answer to this dilemma and found in the vast expanse of modern Christianity, this issue is swept under the rug for the most part. Few talk about it, other than to bemoan our weakness, and then self assure ourselves all is forgiven anyway. What eventually seems to happen is people stop striving for victory at all, and unbelief creeps in, assuring us we will never walk in the victory I see so clearly promised by a multitude of scriptures. God in His mercy finally led me to Ezekiel 36, where He prophesies to us the new covenant and its benefits. In vs. 26, He says "...and I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my statutes". Praise God! Our lord promises to bring us to the point of obedience. Romans 7 weas for those still serving God in their effort, under the spirit of the law (7:1) and disobedience was still the result, even when we wanted to obey! But thank God, He says that he will bring us obedient hearts by dwelling in us. Loving others as we love ourselves is simply not a choice. We will run out of steam and revert to self preservation and self pleasuring. We must have a new heart on the matter. We need a new man. And bless God, He provides it to any and all who will receive it from Him by faith. I love how God finished off His promise of the new covenant. He said this: "I shall yet be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them." What an amazing God we serve. To any who long to love others in a deeper way, a way that does not tire or wear out, God has an answer for you, the blessing of putting off your old selfish man by faith alone. Seek Him for it. Tell Him you need it if you are to truly walk as the obedient child you desire deep within you to be. He will not disappoint. As a matter of fact, we are told in the word that His eyes search to and fro across the whole earth, seeking those on whose behalf He can show Himself strong. God is not looking for strong Christians, he is looking for saints who know their weakness and seek Him to live in them and to love through them so that they can finally do the things that before, they simply had no strength to do. As Paul reminded the Ephesians "Nothing profits but a new creature." Blessings, Bruce

Bruce, thank you for posting this. I am wondering tho is if folks truly understand the biblical concept of love. I think most think in terms of the 'love' they see and experience everyday, instead of the powerful love that God says that He IS! A love that hates evil by it's very nature, for instance...as I have recently been TOLD that God's nature is much MORE then love because HE judges and deals heavily with sin and etc......yet, the two - dealing with sin and loving - ARE very compatable, and not seperate at all. When I love someone I do not want them harmed by evil. I also want the very best for them...and therefore do not want them tangling with sin and it's destruction. Also, true agape love displaces evil...as light displaces darkness. It also sacrifices itself for another. It comes from heaven, therefore it is powerful and so it IS NOT the fluffy, powerless love we see here on earth. Therefore, I think people have to realize that when they read about God's love or loving others in scripture that THIS love is a far-cry from the love they are automatically thinking of. Blessings to you... You have much wisdom, Miss Jenny. You are correct. Sadly, if we are existing still in our flesh, we think thru that flesh and judge by the flesh. We are told to put off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of our mind and to put on the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness. Yet how many try to renew their minds without first putting off the old nature which is totally contrary to God working thru us, and teaching us real truth. Love is the very essence of our Christian faith, but it is far from just ooey-gooey feelings. It is submission to His will, totally trusting that His will for us is "that good and perfect and acceptable will of God". It is putting full faith in His promises to us, no matter how far fetched they are to our human reasoning. We do not serve a God of the natural, but of the supernatural, and all His promises in Christ are yea and amen. We can take them to the bank, write checks on them regardless of what we see and feel, and know that God is not a man that He should lie. How do we truly show our love to our Father? We TRUST Him with our lives, and in that trust, fully, 100% submit to His will, whatever it may be. How can we do that? Because we KNOW He loves us and would never give us anything that was not perfect for us to make us full of joy in Him. You posts are much appreciated. Blessings, Bruce

In the book of Acts, the early Christians, filled with the spirit, were so filled with love for one another that they shared all things common. Those that had plenty had nothing left over. Those that had little saw no lack. Is it any wonder that this type of love caused the church to blaze thru the known world, "turning the world upside down" as one non- Christian exclaimed in Acts? We would be hard pressed to see anything like that anywhere in our Western Christianity today. This commandment to love others as we love ourselves is not easy, most would agree. I will go a step further. I believe in truth it is not just hard, it is impossible, unless a man or woman gets free from their fleshly nature. But there is the rub. How many truly want to be free of it? Many say they do, but it is the most valuable asset in our collection of pearls, self-rule, that must be sold in order to truly possess and be possessed by the one who is the pearl of great price. With the defeat of the flesh goes our "right" to self-rule, self-will, , leaning on our own strength and determination to follow after God, which will never be enough, especially as the cost for following the Lord increases as times get bad, In these last days, God is revealing that when we say "Lord, Lord", we use the word correctly, as someone how is not his own but as someone 100% submitted to the will of the loving master, the one who bought him with a price.This is Christianity with a cost, something almost unheard of in our Christianity today. This is also the pathway to walking "free indeed", free to love one another with our entire hearts, not just with the remnanants of what is left over after we finish loving ourselves. This is the "being saved to the uttermost" that we as His body so desperately need to walk in to prove to a disbelieving world that our God truly reigns. Make no mistake, the challenge before us is.... Can a man walk in the new nature as Christ promised? Can a man be brought to a place, a dwelling place, an abiding, where he is no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit, all day, every day? Paul told the Ephesians "Nothing profits but a new creature" but how we do not want to believe that. Our God has promised that our shield of faith would quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. He promised that we would be given a way of escape in every temptation. He promised that sin would not have dominion over us. He told us clearly that we are not in the flesh, that we are dead to it, and we are now to yield ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, not as those trying to die. Why is it we hear so few hunger after this type of victory? To not know how to walk here is forgivable and understandable, as few teach this "being saved to the uttermost". But not to even hunger after truly defeating the old nature, content to simply "do the best we can" when we all know for a fact that we put far less than our best effort into becoming holy....that is the problem I see we need to address if love is to ever rule as God wills in our lives. We can talk about love all we want, but until we talk about how to lose our old nature, it is simply nice sounding words, with no power to back them up. Jude told us to "earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints". If we are to "turn the world upside down" again as the early saints did, if we are to love as they loved one another, the answer is contending for the faith that "it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me". May God help lead us to do so. Blessings, Bruce

Charitow it isn't a particular thing or person etc - it's just that with my time with the Lord He IS showing me that this is a hard commandment to follow because of our sense of falling back into fleshliness....the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and because we are comfortable in the weaker side of ourselves, because it's easier and "safe", familiar, we then do not obey what we should be obeying hence loving one another in Spirit AND in truth...not just lip service - In the book of Acts, the early Christians, filled with the spirit, were so filled with love for one another that they shared all things common. Those that had plenty had nothing left over. Those that had little saw no lack. Is it any wonder that this type of love caused the church to blaze thru the known world, "turning the world upside down" as one non- Christian exclaimed in Acts? We would be hard pressed to see anything like that anywhere in our Western Christianity today. I agree with you...this commandment to love others as we love ourselves is not easy, and as I said previously, I believe in truth it is impossible, unless a man or woman gets free from their fleshly nature. But there is the rub. How many truly want to be free of it? Many say they do, but it is the most valuable of our pearl collection that must be sold in order to truly possess and be possessed by the one who is the pearl of great price. With the defeat of the flesh goes self rule, self will, and when we say "Lord, Lord", we use the word correctly, as someone how is not his own speaks to His loving master. This is Christianity with a cost, something almost unheard of in our Christianity today. Make no mistake, the challenge before us is.... Can a man walk in the new nature as Christ promised, where he is no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit? Paul told the Ephesians "Nothing profits but a new creature" but how we do not want to believe that. Our God has promised that our shield of faith would quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. He promised that we would be given a way of escape in every temptation. He promised that sin would not have dominion over us. He told us clearly that we are not in the flesh, that we are dead to it, and we are now to yield oyrselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, not as those trying to die. Why is it we hear so few hunger after this type of victory. To not know how to walk here is forgivable and understandable, as few teach being saved to the uttermost. But not to even hunger after truly defeating the old nature, content to simply "do the best we can" when we all know for a fact that we put far less than our best effort into becoming holy....that is the problem I see we need to address. We can talk about love all we want, but until we talk about how to lose our old nature, it is simply nice sounding words, with no power to back them up. Jude told us to earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints. If we are to "turn the world upside down" again as the early saints did, if we are to love as they loved one another, the answer is contending for the faith that "it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me".

we put on the new nature when we are saved! I would love to agree with you and in theory, perhaps I can, but how few truly believe it, and thus, it does not profit them. How many are still battling their flesh when we are told clearly that we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwells in us. What is our testimony of ourselves. Do we believe we are light in the Lord or are we sinners battling to do good and to "become" light. Either we are in the flesh or in the spirit, we cannot be both. How many are experiencing the victory our shiuled of faith gives us, quenching every arrow? How many are finding the God does indeed give them a way of escape in every temptation? Those are promises to our new nature. Sadly, most are still laboring to "become" new and finding out even after 20 or 30 years that they are still as fleshly as they always were. just perhaps a bit more religious in their fleshliness. Blessing, Bruce

I am going to throw a monkey wrench in this very excellent post. What is posted is true....but.... (don't you hate that?) The fact is it is not hard to love others as we love ourselves, it is impossible. We are simply wired to self love, self preservation, thoughts of self pleasure, due to our adamic nature. God does indeed will us to love like this, but there is a catch. We cannot get there from here. We must figure out how to get out of our flesh in order to do so. Then, we need to experience the love of God and the full understanding of the forgiveness we really needed to be brought to becoming sons and daughters of His. The word says "He who is forgiven much, loves much". Does that mean we nood to do really bad things tin order to love more? LOL, no. We need to finally see how bad our flesh really is in reality in God's eyes. We oftentimes think that we are good people who have made a few mistakes and God forgave them thru Christ. No wonder we have a hard time loving. Until we see that our "righteousness" is really a filthy rag in God's eyes, that there is none righteous, none "good", we cannot truly appreciate what a miracle God did in saving us. It is only when we ourselves are being loved fully by God and walking in that abiding nature that we then can even begin to love our fellow man, saved or not, as we love ourselves. As Christians, we mistakenly hold up the ideal and we think we are to imitate, to duplicate it. How foolish we can be. Our only hope is to be possessed by that love ourselves and let the overflow of His love in us love the unlovely through us. As Paul said: "I no longer live but Christ now lives in me and the life that I now life, I live by the faith of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 There is but one way, putting on the new nature. Paul said in Ephesians 6" "Nothing profits but a new creature." How I pray we finally see the deep truth hidden here. Blessings, Bruce

Excellent post!

Fraught, you are absolutely right. But sadly, many continue in this for years, long after being new Christians. If we could but see that God is not impressed with our goodness, nor our righteousness, and frankly not at all surprised by the failures our flesh bring to the table. There is no point in running nor in hiding. Where shall we run where God is not there? He simply wants us to admit that we are in need of a new nature because He has one for each of us, a nature we are to put on by faith, not be works or our own efforts. If any readers have recognized themselves in this description as one who has a form but no power, do not despair. Simply come to him and tell Him you know you need His power in order to change, and that you are well aware that in you dwells no good thing. To your amazement, you will see Jesus smiling through your tears. Blessings, Bruce

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Running With The Footmen Saints, here is our dilemma. God says to his Bride-to-be: If you have run with the footmen and they have wearied you, what the heck are you going to do when the horsemen arrive, and if in the land of peace, you have no victory, how will you survive when the evil overruns its banks?? Jeremiah 12:5 Please do not be offended by my paraphrasing..it does mean what it says...really! Listen, we have been saved as brothers and sisters in the Lord in a time of little persecution or cost in becoming a Child of God. Yet, even so, for the most part, our struggles in gaining victory have kept us defeated and not mounting up with wings of eagles, where we walk and do not get weary, and where we run and do not faint. We also know perilous times are coming, soon, and that it is highly possible that in our lifetime, it will cost us our lives to profess His name. So God warns us.... "Listen", He says. "Do not be fooled into thinking that somehow, miraculously, you will somehow find victory in tough times that you could not find in good ones. The truth is rather that it will be far harder!" Most Christians I know, myself included, have had this "progressive" theory about victory, that each year we walk, it gets better, easier, the things of this world hold less sway and we walk more and more with our eyes set on heavenly things. The sad fact is that in my life, like most I know, the opposite has been true and thay our constant failings finally have led us into a peace treaty so-to-speak with Satan, whereby we said in essence "If you don't bother me, I won't bother you." We then settled into a fake victory stance, a play-like type of walk where are mantra becomes "We are only human", and somehow excusing our failures to walk pleasing to Him every day, all the day because of our humanity instead of believing that "I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me." Listen, dear brothers and sisters, tough times are coming...very tough. Not just physically. There is coming a spiritual wasteland and many will be made shipwreck. Now is the time to get oil in our lamps, not then. Do not be fooled into thinking that persecution will somehow do for us what God's grace could not...make us get serious about our walk with Him and figure out how to gain the victory He has promised, a victory by the way that unless we find and hide ourselves in, we have no hope of enduring until the end. There is no miraculous cure to be found in hard times. If we do not discover the secret to victorious living now (and there is one), then what in the heck will we do when evil is absolutely rampant and we are threatened with not being able to buy or sell, or hold a job, or get medical treatment for our children, unless we bow the knee to satan? This warning of God is for us, today, in the 21st Century church. It is high time we really became transparent with God and ourselves. If we have not yet discovered how to walk above sin in our lives, if our unruly flesh still seems to dominate us, then we had better hit our knees and ask God for the answer. There is one you know.....for God has promised that he is able to keep us from falling, and that we can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. How? Listen, it is NOT try harder! That is the problem, not the answer. We must believe in HIS goodness to keep us from Satan's power. And why can we not believe? Because we have not yet realzed that we cannot walk the walk He desires of us, unless He walks it in us! Our problem is not that we are too weak. It is that we have not yet been made weak enough. It is only a humbled and broken and contrite heart that can exercise the faith God asks of us. Have you yet realized your ineptness at walking the walk? Have you finally agreed with God that in you (your flesh) dwells no good thing? That all your efforts to keep His commandments, try as you might, seem to end in abject failure? If you have, praise God, that is the hard step, painful but absolutely necessary. The second is a gift...believe that what you cannot do in you, He can do, and WILL do, if we but believe. He has promised it. Hear what god says in Ezekiel 36:23 concerning the result of the old covenant...i.e. written laws, and what the new covenant will do for us. Ezekiel 36:22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. 23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. 31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations. 32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. 33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. 34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. 35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. 36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. 37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock. 38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD. Let hungry hearts lift up the God that can keep us from falling. That shield of faith in HIS work is promised to quench all the fiery darts. The horsemen are coming...I can, like you, feel the rumblings of their hooves on the earth. Run into Him, and He will keep you until that day. That is His promise and our God does not lie. Faithful is he who calleth you who also shall DO IT! Praise God!

Brackish- even the word conjures up yucky images. What is it? It is the waters where a river of fresh water empties into salt water and the result is water that is neither fresh nor salty. It has become brackish. Is this not what the modern day church has evolved into? A brackish form of Christianity? Part grace, part law. Part faith, part working for wages, as if God owes us when we walk in the way we feel we ought. Part living for the next world, yet at the same time, seeking for the security and pleasures this world has to offer. No wonder God told the Laodecians that if they continued in their deception and blindness, He would be forced to spew them out of His mouth. In real life, here is the problem. Fresh water fish do not thrive in brackish waters. Neither do salt water fish. It becomes like salt that has lost its savor...good for nothing but to be cast underfoot. Jesus told us some amazing truths in Matthew 12: "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit." James remembered this lesson well when he taught in James: "Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic." James 3:11-15 I posted a post on unity versus union and stated in it that until we come into union with God, we cannot walk in unity with one another. Yet how hard it is for most of us to believe that, to accept that we have not the power to live holy, loving lives without learning to abide in weakness in the God of all strength. If we would but step back and look at how we interact as His body, and admit what we do not want to admit, that by and large, we do not love our neighbor as ourselves. We bite at our brothers, rather than take to lowest spot in humility and so honor Christ. We have strife, divisions, seditions and heresies and yet do we blsuh for this? No, it is business as usual. Brothers, we have a brackish Christianity, a form with no power, a slight healing only, enough to get us out of Egypt but not enough to get us into the Promised land of rest from our own efforts. Are we free as Christ promised He would make us? If not, why not? Have we experienced being "saved to the uttermost"? Brackish Christianity will not get us there. Here is what I feel is on the horizon. You may judge for yourself. God loves us far too much to let us continue on in this lukewarm, compromising, world loving, brother-against-brother Christianity. He is about to shake everything that can be shaken, so that one thing remains- those things that are of HIM. We as His children can do the thing that pleases our God, acknowledge our brackishness, our divided hearts, our lack of love for any like we love ourselves, including God Himself,or God can bring us to our knees involuntarily. He simply loves us too much to not do so if it is found needed. Some may say a God of love would not do such a thing to His own children. I would answer that God has done this exact thing with His people Israel an innumerable number of times, who like us had wandering hearts, compromising with the world,with their hearts not cold, not hot but simply lukewarm.....brackish. I pray we examine whether or not we truly be in the faith, or whether or not we are simply walking out a form, devoid of a faith in our God as a God who has any ability at all to work in our lives other than to bless us with forgiveness. Oh, our modern Christianity uses the right words. But it changes not who we truly are on the inside. Heck, even the outside of our cups are not clean, let alone our insides. Fleshly Christians. Captive saints. Compromised believers. When will we finally "make our tree good"? We best learn quickly as to how such a miracle is brouight about in our lives, for the distant rumble of coming shakings reverberate on the horizon, and frankly, many are not ready to endure to the end, so severe will the shakings be. The world as we know it today will seem like a dream from another time in a few short years. All is fixing to be altered and it is inevitable. We can continue to hide our heads in the sand and prentend all is well with our souls when in truth we are empty and defeated, or we can finally be honest with ourselves and admit to the low state to which we have arrived. The only question remaining for us whether or not we will be found serving only Him. Multitudes are on the fence right now. It is where brackish Christianity camps. But on that day, the fence will be empty, and all will be on one side or the other. We have entered the valley of decision, where we decide with heart wrenching self examination whether or not we will voluntarily lose our lives to gain His. Do we hate our old man? Do we see it as vile, or as simply "being human", which we reason among oursleves is not even a sin, is it?? Make no mistake, Those who try to save their life will lose it. Those who voluntarily lay all on the later of God to be consumed by His love and purpose will find the life that has so far eluded them. Yes, there is a great falling away coming. But there is also a grand awakening of many of the virgins of Christ and the church, long dormant and divided, is about to put on strength. Amen. Blessings, Bruce

It seems to me many Christians today are not walking in power but rather are found hanging on by their fingernails, feeling like they must be the only ones who feel as they do, that they are "different". Every step is struggle for them, and no matter how much they try, they cannot seem to get the hang of walking with even a semblance of even normalcy, let alone victory. To you, dear saints, this post is dedicated to you. May my words greatly encourage you. You feel a failure, and labor under a continual cloud of condemnation, correct? Yet, unknown yet to you, you are blessed, for unlike many who walk on in blindness, making a fair show in their flesh, quite pleased with their accomplishments in their Christian walks, you accept in yourself what they do not see as the same truth in themselves, that one cannot please God no matter how hard one seems to try, if that effort is not powered by faith but rather by a deep hidden self confidence. Outside of God doing it in you, for you, walking victoriously in Christ seems a virtual impossible dream. We have cursed our weakness and the sins that so easily sway and beset us. We identify closely with Romans 7, where the battle rages and defeat is so often the end of our attempts at resisting satan. No matter how much we try to feed our white dg inside us, our black dog comes out like superdog. Sound familiar? The first step out of the walk of defeat that has been our home for so long is to acknowledge it to God. Can I tell you a secret? He is not surprised or disappointed in you for your failure! He made us! He knows that because of the fall of Adam, all flesh is as grass! He knows that in our flesh, our old man, nothing good dwells. Most havce yet to learn this most paramount lesson. He knows too how we want to do good and yet do not. He knows how we want to avoid the secret sins that so easily seem to capture us, yet fall at even the smallest temptation. Listen! That heart PLEASES Him! If you have done step one, failed miserably and know it, and come to the end of hope in yourself, with no remaining confidence that somehow, you will do better if you just try harder. You know that is a lie, that given 100 more opportunities, you will fail in all of them. Congratulations, you have gone through the hard part! You are very very close to victory, far closer than most. This "revelation" that we need an absolute miracle to be able to truly walk as Christ desires has been hidden from the wise and from the strong among us, but to us who seem to have been satan's cannon fodder for so long, bemoaning our weakness, is it not quite easy to admit that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags in God's eyes? Blessed are you! Why? Because our amazing God has designed a salvation that is hidden from the wise and strong and the self confident and revealed to the weak, to the addict, to the sinners, to those who long for freedom but who have NO strength. "and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength." 2 Chronicles 14:11 May I now share with you the next step on your pathway to freedom? You long for it, you know you cannot achieve it, now you must see that God wants to give it to you freely thru faith in His goodness alone! God asks two things of us, to yield fully to let Him work in us what we cannot, and to believe His amazing promises that he will change in us what we cannot, that he will loberate our captive souls from bondage to the flesh! In your weakness, in your defeat, in your brokenness, God asks you to do something that is totally contrary to normal thinking. He asks for you to claim as yours something you know you do not possess. He asks you to believe that He can and will do for you what you cannot. He asks you to reckon yourself dead to sin (Romans 6:6), to believe your flesh has been dealt with by the death of Christ, and then he asks that you yield yourself to Him as one alive from the dead (Romans 6:13), not as a failure trying to die to self. If I may relate my own personal experience, I was a failure of failures. I was at the bottom of the class in failure school, LOL. No exaggeration. Bound to heavy and disgusting secret sin, God led me to read Romans 6:6 two years ago, and in an instant, the spirit opened my eyes. I finally saw it....I had never reckoned myself dead to sin, but instead tried in my effort to die to it...and failed for 36 years. Talk about a slow learner. So what did I do? Like any crazy and totally desperate person, I decided to put God to the test, to obey what Paul asked me to do, to believe I was a new man and that I was no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit. So I spoke the words out loud, confessing my freedom that Christ died to give me, and I mena LOUD, so that the devil could hear me, my God could hear me, and most importantly, I could hear me! I suspect my heighbors could hear me too! What happened next was nothing short of a miracle. Faith, long a dead dormant seed in my heart, sprouted again, faith in the God of all comfort, the God who wants to be a Father to me, not my judge, faith in the God who has promised to "cause me" to walk in obedience (Ezekiel 36:26), faith in the God who guaranteed that our shield of faith would quench ALL the fiery darts of the wicked one, faith in the God who assures us that in EVERY temptation he will make a way of escape so that sin will NOT have dominion over, no, not for one minute longer. My eyes were finally off of me and my abilities (ok, ok, my LACK of abilities! LOL) and back on the God who can and will "save us to the uttermost", the God who always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus. It has now been 25 months of joy and victory as my confidence in Him grows stronger every single day, as I put on the "new man" God has provided in Christ. Please do not misunderstand, when I say God delivers us from sin, I am talking willful disobedience, not character flaws that God promises to fix as we learn to abide in Him. But when temptauion now comes, my white dog is indeed a pit bull and my black dog the Toco bell chihauhau. With that freedom, condemnation slso is gone, a thing of the past, replaced by a gentle and patient accepting Father who challenges me to go further, deeper in my trust in Him. The word of God, which before seemed dead to me, is now alive with Him, and I have fallen in love with one particular scripture that means so much to me now. "Wherefore are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that be these, we might be partakers of the divine nature" 2 Peter 1:4 Begin to read the word and search out these promises for they are stepping stones up to heaven and to becoming changed into the image of Christ. Here is a good one to start with.... "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 I pray you are encouraged. Blessings, Bruce

If God came back tomorrow and judgement day occurred and He said the words "Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity", then based on Acts 3, where Peter says: "Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts 3:28 then why is it that our hearts do not tremble? The entire message of the gospel is that God came to delived us from sin, not just its penalties. Yet we have forged a Christianity that promises much, but delivers little. We are told that sin shall not have dominion over us, that we will be set free indeed, that we are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwells in us. We are told that with every temptation, we will be given a way of escape, and that our shield of faith will quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. We are given precious promises they we are made more than conquorers, can do all things thru Christ who strengthens us, are new creatures in Christ with old things passed away, and that we are now light in the Lord. Yet what do we see? A body that has let unbelief root so deeply, that we somehow transform these promises to mean the exact opposite of what they clearly tell us, as we have forged a Christianity that offers a contentment that does not involve godliness or holiness. Why is it that no one stands up and says "What is wrong here?" Why is it that individual hearts do not cry out for the glorious liberty of the children of God? Where are the saints who so hunger after the presence of the Lord, knowing that Christ came to set them free from their sins, not in them, that they beat their breasts, saying "God, be merciful to me! Sin still has me!"? What exactly is being "saved to the uttermost" ? Is it a walk where defeat and depression are the norm, where religion and attempts at good works are substituted for a real relationship with a very real Jesus? Or is it actually being able to overcome satan by the blood of the lamb and the word of OUR testimony and walk with our flesh "put off" as we walk in the new man. Paul wrote the Galatians and said: "Nothing profits but a new creature." Galatians 6:15 What shall we do about this? What is the one thing most needful in this late hour? "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Ephesians 4:17-24 Brothers and sisters, my fear here is that if we stay on our present course, the vast majority of believers will walk into judgement day unprepared. May these scriptures challenge us and then enlighten us. God's salvation is a salvation from the sinful nature that plagues us, that brings His church into bondage, making us modern day Samsons, once powerful yet now found grinding corn for our enemy. Listen, all who truly hunger after more. We are destined for liberty but until we mix the truth with faith, it will not profit us. Is it not time we put on the armor God has provided us and stopped agreeing with our enemy. Samson became a hero of faith listed in Hebrews 11 because in the end, He cried out to God to use Him one more time and restore God's power to overcome to him. God heard his cry and turned a blind broken man into the very power of God. It is our turn now. What shall our response be? Blessings, Bruce

As someone who is older than dirt as well, I can understand your dilemma. Here is what I feel is the answer. We as believers want to repent for certain sins we have committed in our lives, but in truth, we have never gotten tothe root of the issue, which is possessing and living in our fallen natures. We continue to not belioeve we are new creatures in Christ and stand fast in that faith, having put off the old man. Instead, we so oftern remain in our old nature, repenting of the sins it commits, but never come to the understanding that it is repentance for our old nature itself that we must come to. We must see that apart from putting on the new man, we cannot stop sinning, but are a veratble fountain of sin that never will cease. Our repentance is complete when we see that in us dwells no good thing, that we cannot obey without Him in us, living in us, guiding us by the spirit that we allow to reign in our wills and or lives. Until we see we are sin, not just committers of speicific acts of sin, we cannot enter into the new creature and truly walk away from the old nature by faith. I hope this helps somewhat. Bruce

A precious brother here asked me today what one scripture best stands out to me as a representation of the message I feel God has for us as His children in this late hour. This was my response. I pray it blesses. "Your question is an intriguing one and one God gave me an answer to give you before I finished reading the sentence. "Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." John 6:28-29 How we have misunderstood what God desires to do in us, to set us free from our lower nature, to undo the results of the fall of Adam, to empower us to become sons of God and live like sons. My fear is that we have evolved to having a form of godliness but our lives, our hearts are denying the power of godliness, God in us overcoming all satan throws against us. What is one of our biggest obstacles to believing Jesus can do this in us? Numbers, sheer numbers of Christians who not only do not live in this liberty, but actually will fight to defend sin continuing on us, when Jesus made it clear in John 8 that He came to set us free from committing sins. We take comfort in the fact that millions cannot be wrong when there are just a few voices raised up saying that what we cannot do, God indeed can do and in fact has done! How we need to re-read the story of the children of Israel brought to the banks of the Jordan and the promised land of rest, 617,000 souls perished in the wilderness, 40 years of wanderings, always moving, always "making progress" and yet never coming to the point of believing. Two souls, Joshua and Caleb believed. Two souls of that multitude entered into rest, having ceased from their own labors, even as God did from His. God is not a God of the majority. He is simply a God looking for those on whose behalf he can show Himself strong. But I am convinced that God is bringing this truth back to His body and a move of God on the entire body is afoot. I just happen to be one of the weird ones who are going against the grain but there will be many more coming, sharing the good news to the weak and the broken, those hungering for liberty, that our God is able. How we have made walking in God a war of human effort, of our strength, our resolve, our determination, our self control. We have failed to see what the law of commandments must teach us, that unless we clothe ourselves with Christ and believe that He can do in us what we can never do, we will fail at holiness in our efforts, and woe to us if we stay in that unbelief. It has no bearing on what church we belong to, Catholic or Portestant. God is looking for believing children, people who will honor him with their faith in His abilities to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before Him on that day. We all have error at some point in our beliefs, but the one area we cannot be confused about is that God desires to free us from our sins, not just forgive us for them. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Can we do this? Heck, no! But ahhh, our God can do exceedlingly above and beyond all that we ask or think. Ands with what power will he accomplish this miracle? The same power with which He raised Jesus from the grave! "Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." Ephesians 1:15-20 Jesus asked a question once, and I feel the angst with which He asked it... "When the son of man returns, will He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8 What did Jude mean when he exhorted: "Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not." Jude 1:3-5 What is this faith that the early saints had that even Jude saw was slipping from the experience of the early Christians? Faith in Jesus dying and resurrecting is wonderful and a doorway into grace, but we have failed to see we are to live by faith, overcome satan by faith, walk in the glorious liberty of the children of God by faith. Our entire salvation is to be a testament to our inabilities to do anything without Him, and our abilities to do everything with Him living in us and our looking to Him to overcome in us, causing us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Be blessed, my forum friends.... Bruce

May I offer what helped put me out of the land of unbelief where I had lived in defeat for four decades? Two years ago, addicted to pornography and despairing for life, I broke before God and told Him His way was too high, too hard, and although it may be possible for the strong Christians that surrounded me, it was impossible for me. I had run out of faith that I could be any different, ever, and had no more ideas as to how to be the Christian I so longed to be. I hated my sin and thus hated myself and was beyond consoling. I say this is all humility, but God visited me in this broken state and told me He was well pleased with me. Weeping, incredulous, confused, I had so wanted to hear those words from our Lord and now I heard them, when I was at my lowest, not victorious, but defeated by the enemy. "What? How could you be pleased with me? I am a failure. I cannot walk as you ask. I cannot control my old nature and my flesh succumbs to temptation at every chance it gets." He then, with incredible patience, explained to me that He knew from the first day I had accepted Him that I could not walk the walk as He desires, that nothing I did suprised Him. But he was pleased with me because I had finally come to realize it myself, that in me dwelt no good thing, that all my righteousness was as filthy rags, that I had no strength. And why was this important? Because the new covenant is one of faith in His goodness, and not a measure of mine. Faith can truly come alive in us when we have no other option but to believe, when all hope in ourselves is exhausted. I had reached that point. I was ready to believe.....to ONLY believe. God then led me to Romans 6:6 and asked me if I had ever obeyed this exhortation. I opened my bible and read: "Reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God" I had not, yet in an instant, I knew what He was telling me. The pathway I had missed was in believing Him and His promises. Right there, broken and crying, I spoke outloud, for satan to hear, for my preciousl Lord to hear and most importantly for ME to hear, that I was dead to sin, a new creature in Him and that old things were passed away. I no longer lived but He lived in me and that my shield of faith, my trust in my God, would indeed quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. That was the beginning of an amazing journey for me that has now lasted 24 months. THat night faith came alive in my heart, the unsprouted seeds received water and began to grow. I have found God to be a God who cannot lie and one who can be trusted with our very lives. I pray my failure that forced be to look to Him to be saved from myself is a help for you to find the same peace and victory thatGod has granted me. It is not to the "good" or the strong or to the wise among us, but the hungry and broken, the ones who know they need a great physician, those crazy enough to come expecting with simple child-like faith, believing their father would never lie to them. "unto Him who is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before His presence with great joy, to Him be glory and honor and power forever." God bless. I am praying. Bruce

Ooooo - may I borrow that? (To share with others?) You beat me to it , Neb Great analogy! Gideon, can you expand on "character flaws?" I will certainly be glad to try. Under the old covenant, the law of commandments, the rules and standards of the law were our measuring rod, and anything that came short of the standard was sin. No wonder it was the ministry of condemnation, for to truly keep the law as God intended it, it required a pure heart, which we as fallen man did not possess. But we are released from the law by the coming of the new covenant, the law of the spirit of grace. Under this covenant, we are first justified from all the sins committed under the first covenant. Sadly, I believe, we as sons and daughters of God have been taught that this is the extent of the help offered under the new and so we walk in forgiveness but not freedom from the power of the sins we hate. Over time, what is the result of walking this path? We sin, again and again, where ever our particulat weakness is found. We ask forgiveness every time we fall, but after a time, our faith is eroded in the Lord we love and we find we are serving a God who truly is limited as to being able to save us from our sins, and can only save us in them. We are left trying to "improve", to "be good", yet in truth, we are trying to do so under the very same covenant that we failed under previously, the law. Why, because the power to obey under the old covenant is self effort. It is onloy when we rely by faith in the power of God to be our strength for obedience that we have discovered the blessing fully of the covenant of the spirit of life. As I said, sin under the law is transgression of the law, and minsters condemnation. But under the new covenant, all has changed. We are justified and have been declared righteous, new creatures in Christ, andare told that our old man, our flesh has been crucified with Him. Correct? But, and this is a big but, all these truths are to be taken by faith, trusting in thge amazing promises of God that he has given to us. Two great examples are the two in the OP, a way of escape in every temptation and a shield of faith that will quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And what happens if we do not believe? We remove ourselves from the fire, for Christ dwells in our hearts how? By faith! Out of the fire, we are but clay, earthen vessels, and satan can indeed cause us to fall. But if we abide in him, and stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free, we find amazingly that Christ keeps us form falling...every time, just as He promised. So what is sin now? It is whatsoever is not of faith! Our part in the old was to obey. But in the new, praise God, obedience is a promise, not a requirement! How we have missed that. Look in Ezekiel 36, where God promises us the new covenant. What does He say? In vs. 26, he says: "I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes." Ezekiel 36:26 Consider self control. Under the old, self control is an absolute necessity of obedience, is it not? Yet, under the new, it is now listed as one fo the fruits of abiding in the vine! Praise God! So, to your question on character flaws. Let's say you are driving to work. A rude impatient driver rides your tail and then speeds around you, then suddenly swerves in fronto of you. You get angry and use a few words, inappropriate words, for him. Have you sinned? Under the old covenant, absolutley. But under the new, you have not. You have simply reacted as a human being. You were impatient and angry. Character flaws...parts of you not yet changed into the image of God. Now, your blood pressure returns to normal and the spirit of God deals with you, lighly chastening you. You obey the spirit, believing still you are a new creature in Christ and that Christ now lives in you. You release the anger instead of reacting as you normally would and say "O God, make me more like you. Let your character flow deeper into me as I remain in your fire." And in doing so, your bar of iron glows even brighter. I hope this helps in some small way. A word of note. I realize this is new to many as it was to me two years ago, when God delivered me miraculously from the bondage of pornography after decades of defeat. May I testify that what God promises, He means, every single promise, and it has been our unbelief that limited God working in us. IN Ezekiel 36 again, after promising us that He would indeed cause us to obey by living inside us through Hos spirit, He finished by saying this: "I shall yet be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." Ezekiel 36:37

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

A bar of iron laid in the blacksmith's fire glows red, yet when it is removed, In itself, it is just a bar of iron, but in the presence of the fire, it glows with the nature of the fire itself. And if it abides in the fire, will it ever lose its glow? Of course I am not saying that in me there is no sin. But there is no sin in Him and I am in Him, as you are. Can Christ not do for us what we cannot do for ourselves? Think for a minute about two scriptural promises. 1) "He will not allow you to be tempted above that which you are able to bear, but will, with every temptation, make a way of excape, that you might be able to bear it." 2) Above all, take the shield of faith, that you might be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. If these promises are true, and they must be, for our God cannot lie, how else are we to take these but that we can walk every day victorious over sin? How is holiness possible if we are still willingly sinning? God has told us that sin shall not have dominion over us. Jesus said in John 8 that we would be free indeed, and if you read what He was referring to, it was freed from committing sins. How does one reckon himself dead to sin and yet not believe it is possible to walk there? Understand, I am not talking about "character flaws" for these are changed by us abiding in the vine, with the prunings and nurturement of the spirit within us. I am talking about the sin that is rebellion, choosing our own will rather than God's,where we are tempted to do wrong, know full well what God wants us to do, and yet we do otherwise. This is sin, for whatsover is not of faith is sin. What really is "being saved to the uttermost"? What is "the glorious liberty of the children of God"? Is it what we see in our modern Christianity, where sin, depression, divorce, worldliness, compromise, love for other things has reduced Christianity to much talk but little power, to a religion, rather than a relationship whereby we abide in Him all the day long, every day of our lives? What is the cause of this? Is it not unbelief that our God can and will do exactly as He has promised us? And what will bring the body of Christ to be without spot or wrinkle but a faith that pleases Him, that says to Him: "Lord, you have said you sent your Son to save me from my sins, to turn me from my iniquities. I believe you Lord, help thou my unbelief. Do not let me limit you any longer in what you can and will do for me in my life. Cause me to will and to do of your good pleasure. Amen." Blessings, Gideon

How common today is the misunderstanding, or sadly, in some cases, outright unbelief, in the fact that when we died with Christ, "Our old man was crucified with Him, and likewise, as Christ was raised to newness of life, so were we." It is, without a doubt, the major cause of the decline of the church into a religious institution rather than the power packed church that spread the gospel over the entire known world in one generation. Unbelief is not a weakness, but a sin and God calls it "an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." How satan has subtly thrown us back on our own efforts to try to "die to self". What a huge difference there is between "keeping our body under" by faith in His promises and trying to make our body go under by our efforts, our strength, our self control, especially if, in our hearts, we believe it is not even possible! This error is no small thing and inevitably puts us back under the law, which depended on self effort to become holy. The result is death, not life. It ends not in the faith filled confession of Paul that says "I can do all things thru Christ that strengthens me" , but the sad confession of unbelief, cloaked in a false robe of humility, that we are "only human" and "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven". How "holy" and logical that mantra sounds, but it drips with the venom of the enemy. How we need to re-read the story of Abraham. What shall we learn as part of His seed and why he was chosen to be the father of many nations, and why he was considered one of the main heroes of faith: "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; 21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. 22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." Romans 4:20-22 Have we forgotten that this is the only way to please God? The only way to truly glorify God? Faith in his incredible promises to us! "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." 2 Peter 1:4 Are we found staring at the impotence we find in ourselves to free us from the grip of sin, or are our eyes firmly fixed on the God who can "save us to the uttermost" and bring us by His efforts, not ours, into "the glorious liberty of the children of God." God has said clearly that He came to set us free from sin's grip, not just its guilt. (John 8). Are we pressing toward this goal, believing God that we are His workmanship so that nothing is impossible to us, or have we sat down in unbelief, content to be forgiven and not even caring that we are not yet victorious over the lusts that come with our old nature? If so, it is a dangerous place to be found. Lest we forget: "They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and the lusts thereof." Galatians 5:24 The question before each of us remains: "Believeth thou that I can do this?" Blessings, Gideon