Repentance: Turning from Darkness to Light

The old man of the flesh raises his ugly head at times we least expect him to attack us. Even Jonathan Edwards, often hailed as America’s greatest preacher, after having delivered an inspired message calling thousands back to God, had to battle his own ego by lying prostrate on the floor. Sanctification is setting our heart before God according to his purpose, not ours, and to allow God to work within us to will and to do of his good pleasure when we delight ourselves in him. To set ourselves apart from this world we must remind ourselves that without him we are empty jars of clay… we are earthen vessels molded by the master to allow his light to shine in us and through us.

People are divided into four categories of after having heard the gospel of God. The first category is those who reject of the message. The second category is those who come forward but lack assurance. The third is those who think they are saved but they are not. The fourth category is those who know whom they have believed and are persuaded that he is able to keep that which he’s committed unto them against the day of judgement. Repentance is the key to entering into the fourth category. Repentance is to turn from myself and unto God. In “The Narrow Way” William Nichols says that when Paul spoke to the Greeks on Mars Hill he warned them, “unless you repent, you will perish according to the judgement of the righteous judge.” Repentance begins with seeing and understanding the significance of the fork in the road of life. It is the personal recognition of the wickedness of the fallen nature of our own heart. Repentance means to turn around and to change direction… to change our mind from our own will to see, to seek, and to follow his will, not ours. The voice that convicts us is the “hound of heaven” who relentlessly pursues us and will never leave us or forsake us. Isaiah 55:7 says, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Repentance is to change priority from the life of my flesh to his life in the spirit. To repent is to right the wrongs that we have done, our cleansing is forgiveness according to the payment of our debt of sin by our Savior Jesus Christ. When we repented and confessed unto salvation, He who was without sin became the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him.

The story of the Prodigal Son is the story of repentance. When like the prodigal son, the the pig pen of this world shakes us from the delusion of self… when we “come to ourself” and realize that in my soul dwelleth no good thing, when we reach the bottom and there is no where to go but up, this is the point of changing direction. Repentance is forsaking the pig pen of this world and turning our eyes upon Jesus. Repentance is to do an about-face… it is the inflection point when we turn from the selfishness of sin and unto the righteousness of God in Christ.

There are three questions that lead to repentance:
1. Are you willing to turn away from all your sin and willfully pursue the righteousness of Christ instead?
2. Are you willing to give up the right to run your own life and submit to the authority of Jesus Christ?
3. Are you willing to be obedient to Jesus Christ and to become his follower forever?

If the answer to these three questions is “yes,” the final question is: When you heard these three questions, did these three questions sound like a burden or did they sound like being set free from the bondage of sin? When the student is ready for the answers, the teacher will come. When the time is ready, true repentance turns from sin and toward God, begging for forgiveness from sin. The moment of conviction is the point of inflection. It only takes one moment in time to turn a life around… Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth become strangely dim… in the light of his glorious grace.

Romans 2:4 says that It is the righteousness, kindness and goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sin and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Godly repentance brings us to the righteousness of God through the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Oh blessed is the flow,
That makes me white as snow,
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus…

May God richly bless you.

Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Ablaze with Passion

If the resurrection is true, then the word of God is truth. If the word of God is truth, my challenge is to align the purpose of my life according to the word of truth. Men often think that they can rest in their own accomplishments and their own laurels. However, our life is not our own… that which endures is that which counts, not for this moment, but for eternity. Only Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life… without him there is no life. God doesn’t want your promises and your praise… he wants your heart and your life demonstrated by obedience to his word. In the midst of the crisis, God expects his men to rise to the occasion. EM Bounds in “A Fiery Church” says that God expects us to be on fire, white hot with zeal about our God given faith. According to John Wesley, If you set yourself ablaze for Jesus Christ, men will gather from miles around to watch you burn. In Revelation 3, the Laodiceans were neither hot nor cold. They were tepid, lukewarm and ineffective… a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. However, the effectual, fervent, white hot and passionate prayer of a righteous man availeth much. A fiery soul is the soul who conquers in the day of the spiritual battle and besieges the strongholds of evil with unshaken zeal.

What is your mission statement? What’s your goal in other people’s lives? For what are you passionate? Love is kindled in the flame and passion for our Lord. Therefore quench not the holy spirit. For we have this treasure of the holy spirit in an earthen vessel that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. To fan the flame of the spirit of God in Christ in us, we must link with likeminded men who walk in the light as he is the light. You are most like those with whom you associate. Who are your three and who are your twelve? With whom are you your best… I’m here because you make me want to be a better man. For our fellowship is with our Father, his son Christ Jesus, and one with another in the household of faith. We associate with our Band of Brothers so that we can run the race and choke in the dust of those in hot pursuit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Passion is the soul of prayer. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Prayer is energized by the holy spirit as we set our affections on things above. Our culture says that man is basically good. However, according to Romans 3, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Righteousness can only be evaluated according to God’s righteous standard of his Word. Jesus Christ is the Word of God revealed. Our righteousness is not in our flesh, but only in him. Without Christ, we are men of unclean lips. Jesus Christ who was without sin became the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. In him we live and move and have our being.

Jesus said unless you have the meekness of a little child, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. When the rich young ruler said, “what must I do to be saved?” Jesus said, “you’re still lacking something even though you keep the law of the law of the ten commandments… you must sell all your goods, give the proceeds to the poor, and come and follow me.” You cannot serve two masters. Jesus understood that the rich young ruler lived for his riches and his possessions. He had another god than the one true God. The first and great commandment is “Thou shalt have no other goods before me.”

Every moment is a moment of decision. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Every moment is a “come to Jesus” moment. Disappointment is the result of missing our divine appointment to walk in fellowship with him.

Ye are slaves to whom ye obey. There is a difference between a regular slave and a bond-slave. A regular slave is bound by the law to serve his master by obligation. However, a bond-slave serves his master by the bond of love. Why do you do what you do? Is it because of the law of obligation… is it because you fear the consequences? If this is the motivation then you are a slave to the flesh and the spirit of fear. However, there is no fear in love for perfect love casteth out fear, for fear has torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. To serve the Lord from a heart of love, we must take up our cross and follow him. Love is not a fleeting feeling. Love requires deliberate, intentional, and purposeful action. Do you say that you believe the first and great commandment to love God above all? Jesus said, in that ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me. Therefore, be ye kindly affectioned one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you. God has set us within the body of Christ as members in particular, harmoniously fitted together to serve one another to the building up of the body in love. Jesus said, a new commandment have I given you, that ye love one another.

God commands us to delight ourselves in the Lord. When our delight is his delight, only then he will give us the desires of our heart. When our passion and good pleasure is aligned with God’s, then it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of his good pleasure. Therefore, according to First Thessalonians 5, Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you. Quench not the spirit… set yourself ablaze with the power of the holy spirit… let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

May God richly bless you,
Your brother in Christ,

Michael

What’s good about Good Friday?

Why is it called Good Friday? In England it’s called Good Friday because the greatest good was done on this day… he who knew no sin became the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.

We live in a world that rejects the truth that there is evil in this world… They call good evil and evil good. The sin nature that we inherited from Adam wants to keep in control. Pride refuses to bow the knee in humility before God. The doctrine of the devil says that there is no need for God. You can make it on your own. However, those who think they deserve their “just desserts” are in for a rude awakening… for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

To understand the righteousness we have in Christ, we must first have an understanding of the darkness of the world and of our own selfish fallen nature. Like the prodigal son, we must turn from the pig pen of this world to “arise and go unto my father.” When we realize the depth of the depravity of life without God, only then can we turn back to him.

Sin separates us from God. Sin is to miss the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We must first be able to see the mark in order to aim at the mark. Those who are blinded by the carnal nature, are unable to see the spiritual mark of God, the mark of fellowship with him. Jesus came to open the eyes of those born spiritually blind. For the natural man understandeth not the things of the spirit for they are spiritually discerned. God uses the pain and tribulation of this world in order to show us that in our own power we cannot overcome the world. To come to Christ, there is a hard way and an easy way. Either we may come to Jesus on our knees voluntarily or we may come involuntarily when he allows this world to bring us to our knees through the suffering of shame, guilt, and pain.

It’s easy to justify sin… Jesus, quoting from Isaiah said, “In vain do they worship me; they draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” God doesn’t want your words or your works… he wants your heart. The requirement for coming to the throne if grace is a broken and a contrite heart. A prideful heart cannot approach God. Either we come to him with a humble heart or we will be humiliated, our heart shattered by the depravity of this world. When we turn from the world, arise and go unto our father, He’ll pick up the threads of our broken hearts and weave them together again.

Every man is a slave… either he is a slave to his sin nature, or he is a slave to his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus came to set the sinner free. Without him, every man is captive to his fallen carnal nature. Only through Christ’s redeeming work, can we be set free from the bondage of sin. Without Christ we have no choice… we are held captive to sin against our wills. The only way to escape the bondage of sin, is through God’s eternal plan of redemption… Jesus Christ. Only when we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe that God has raised him from the dead can we be set free from the bondage of sin. “Confessing Jesus as Lord” means to make him my master and myself his slave. Release from the slavery of this world is to change Lordships: Make me a captive Lord, and then I shall be free…

Good Friday was the day that the price for my sin was paid in full. Worthy is the Lamb of God. It’s not about the price, rather, it’s about value. How much did God value your eternal life? Value is measured by the worth of the payment… We were dead in trespasses and sin. We were weighed in the balance and found wanting. We could not reconcile the scales of the debt of our transgressions. However on Good Friday, He who was without sin, became the full payment to redeem us from our debt of sin. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.

May God richly bless you as we celebrate our redemption through death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Your brother in Christ,

Michael

God is in the business of changing men’s lives. Change is wrapped up in the the spiritual truths of salvation, repentance, and transformation. For it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. When we accepted salvation in Christ, God created within us a new creation… his gift of holy spirit. Therefore, behold old things are passed away, all things are become new. When God changes us, it doesn’t look like the changes that the world inflicts upon us…. the world puts us through mental, emotional and physical changes, sort of like a Waring blender. However transformation in Christ means to put off the old man of the flesh and put on the new man of the spirit. Jesus said, any man that follows me must take up his cross and follow me… for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. As we turn to him and away from the world and as we turn from sin and unto the righteousness in Christ, we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the lord are changed from the glory of the flesh to the glory of the spirit.

In Romans chapter 7, Paul laments, “in the flesh… I do I don’t do what I want to do, but what I don’t want to do, that I do… O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver from this dead body?” However, in the very next chapter, Romans 8, the scripture says we’re doing better than we deserve: There is therefore no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. For the spirit of life in Christ hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.

Ambition is from the word “ambivalence.” It means to be torn between conflicting desires: to walk according to the flesh or according to the spirit. James 1:8 says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. ” Therefore turn your eyes upon Jesus and the things of the world will become strangely dim in the light of his glorious grace. Galatians 6:8 says, He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he who soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Walking in the spirit of God in Christ strikes a fine balance between living in both reason and passion according to the spirit. When we set our affections on things above… when we delight ourselves in the Lord, when make his desire our desire, when we align our heart with his heart, only then will he give us the desires of our heart.

God uses the path of death to lead us to the fork in the road. He uses addiction, self centeredness, strife, contention, bitterness, envy, discouragement, and disappointment to get us to the point that we need to take the alternate path. This is the definition of repentance. Repentance means to turn from the pride of self, to surrender the right to my self and my carnal desires and to turn my eyes upon Jesus. The point of repentance is the inflection point: to change direction. To turn away from the wretched man that I am and toward the one who is faithful and just to forgive our sins. For God sent not his son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Did we in our own strength confide our battle would be loosing, were not the right man on our side, the an of God’s own Choosing. Doth ask who that may be? Christ Jesus it is he, and he must win the battle. The “come to Jesus” moments in life are precious moments where we turn from darkness unto the light.

Every moment of this life is a moment of decision. We have been given the ability to choose our direction moment by moment. God always gives us the choice to choose either life or death… life is only through Christ. Each moment is a “come to Jesus moment.” Therefore, come to Jesus… and live!

May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,

Michael

No Time for Business as Usual

In the midst of a crisis, we respond as we have been trained. These are the days that try men’s hearts. Crisis situations are characterized by an attack causing acute pain in the midst of an emotionally significant event or life changing situation. In a crisis situation there is a distinct possibility of an undesirable outcome. A crisis is a situation that has reached critical mass. Today there is a crisis in our culture where the politically correct call evil good and good evil. When the crisis comes, God expects his men to respond as they have been trained as disciples of Christ. The Adversary’s goal is to take the culture captive and hold it against its will.

Business as usual is to carry out normal activities as if there is no crisis. However, a crisis requires immediate corrective action. William Bennet writes that men in our culture have been marginalized and relegated to a position of dishonor and insignificance in our politically correct culture. The danger is that men aspire to succeed in things that do not matter in the light of eternity. According to George Gallop in “The Search for Faith in America,” never before has the gospel of Christ made such inroads yet at the same time making so little affect in the lives of men…. with no requirement that men repent, turn around, and turn from their wicked ways. A time when men think they are in the light yet living in the dark. This was the same situation in Leviticus chapter 33. The people came before God and listened to the word of God and the songs of praise and worship, but did not put them into practice.

Jesus, during an urgent time in Matthew 26 just before his crucifixion, asked his disciples to watch while he prayed. Jesus prayed, “If it be possible, allow this cup to be passed from me, nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” Though he had asked his disciples three times to watch and pray, he found them sleeping in the crisis of the spiritual battle.

The story of Noah is the warning about the flood of God’s judgement. The Ark was a symbol of God’s way of deliverance. However, the people disregarded God’s way of salvation and perished in the face of the flood of the judgement of God. They performed their business as usual and did not understand the urgency of the crisis situation. The times are similar today. The warning signs are all around us as the culture is imploding into the darkness of political correctness. Jesus himself cried over Jerusalem… he lamented that only if Jerusalem had known the things that God had meant for peace. He came to minister unto his own… the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Jesus had said, my peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid.

A disciplined soldier performs as he has been trained in the crisis of the battle. The freedom and the joy in the midst of the crisis is to turn your eyes upon Jesus and not on the things of the world. The training of a disciple is to walk in fellowship with Christ. A disciple is a disciplined follower, walking in his master’s footsteps. The disciple’s heart’s desire is to “eat his master’s dust”… to walk in the dust of the Rabi. Casual Christians are casualties of war in the crisis of the spiritual battle. A disciple is disciplined to follow his commander in chief intentionally, deliberately, purposefully and whole heartedly. Therefore set your affections on things above, not on the things of the world. Our battle cry is David’s battle cry when he confronted Goliath: “Who art thou to defy the armies of the Living God.”

We have not been called to “business as usual.” Jesus has called us to watch and pray. Though Peter, James, and John fell asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were empowered by the holy spirit. The spirit is the power of God in manifestation. We have this same power as men of God. Therefore be strong in the Lord in the power of his might. For it is God which worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure. When we live in the light as he is in the light, we shall have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. God has called us to be his photomultipliers: Therefore, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven.

In the midst of the crisis of the spiritual battle, God has called his men for such a time as this…

May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good.

The devil is never loyal to his own. Those who are captivated by the enemy will come to nought. The spirit of evil is to steal, to kill and to destroy. Evil destroys and eats its own. Evil will ultimately implode upon itself… Therefore be not overcome evil, but overcome evil with good. God has called his men to stand in the gap against the evil of this world. We have been called to stand amidst the darkness of the world in the righteousness of Christ. Men in whom the spirit of the Lord resides are God’s fingers in the dike, holding back the evil of this world.

God is loyal to his men in the spiritual battle. He will never leave us or forsake us. According to EM Bounds, humility is the essence and the vitality of prayer. Pride and vanity cannot pray. Our selfish sin nature has an aversion to prayer. Our flesh will remind us that we are unworthy to enter into the presence of God. The sin in our heart reminds us of our unworthiness. However, the Word says, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give thee rest. Our rest is not in the righteousness of the flesh but in the spirit of God in Christ in us. In him we live and move and have our being. We must remember who we are in Christ and whose we are in Christ In order to find rest and peace in him. When we align our hearts with his heart and acknowledge our righteousness in Christ, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

We are bombarded by incessant incoming bombs… fiery darts launched by the adversary in the spiritual warfare. These laser guided bombs target our weaknesses in the flesh. The paradox is not to fight back in my own power but in the power of the holy spirit. Therefore we must take up the shield of faith that we may be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and dominions of spiritual wickedness in high places.

Humility is a rare quality… the world loves humility because it’s rare and refreshing. Pride goeth before the fall. Vanity cannot pray. Humble thy heart therefore under the mighty hand of God. He hath showed thee O Man, what is good. And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Humility is the first response to the holy spirit. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ… who humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even unto the death of the cross.

According to Psalm 31 David prayed, “my times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.”

Proverbs says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” The “Keep is the innermost chamber of the medieval castle. This is where the treasure of the kingdom was kept. When the castle was under attack, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men, kept the King and Queen protected inside the “keep.” Likewise, the heart is the innermost chamber of the soul… it is God’s dwelling place, his Holy of Holies. To guard our hearts we must guard the gates of our minds… We must guard our eye-gate, our ear-gate, our taste-gate, and our feeeling-gate. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Moderation according to the word, is self control. Humility is power under control. A wise man once said that a million wild horses cannot drag me away. For power to be effective, it must be harnessed, guided, and controlled. Harnessing the power of God only comes with humility. I must give up the right to myself… Jesus said in Matthew 16:25, For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. The requirement for salvation is to turn from myself and my own pride and unto Christ. Therefore, set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth… Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth shall grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.

In the trials of our life, our prayer should be, Lord what are you teaching me through this trial? O Lord, mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still. In the white-hot crucible of life, with the onslaught of fiery darts in the heat of the battle and the transforming pressure of this life, my prayer is, “Lord, mold me and make me after thy will… while I am malleable, that I may not be conformed to this world’s mold, but that I may be transformed by the renewing of my mind… that I may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Pride prevents us from acknowledging that we need help. Pride says, “I can make it on my own.” Humility says, in myself I can do nothing. Prayer is the response of a humble heart. Prayer is aligning my heart with Gods heart. Humility says, delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give the desires of thine heart. Only then can God work within you to will and to do of his good pleasure… when our delight is his delight and when our good pleasure is his good pleasure.

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Humility

Humility is not to think of myself above others. It is having a spirit of submission and deference and to honor others above myself. Humility is to think of myself as a servant of others, to know and understand Jesus’ message that “in that ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” This is the attitude of Jesus Christ himself, who made himself of no reputation and was made in the likeness of men. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even unto the death of the cross.

Paul, like Jesus, saw himself not as a leader of men, but as a slave, and a servant of those whom God had called him to minister. As a bond slave of Jesus Christ our greatest blessing is serving our master from the bond of love. Jesus said, he that is chiefest among you must be servant and slave of all. A slave does nothing except that which his master commands. His heart’s desire is to do his master’s will… Not my will but thine be done… thy wish is my command.

After Jesus had been in the desert fasting for forty days, he was tempted by the devil. The adversary confronts men of God at their weakest point. Humility to God is the key to resisting the devil. According to E.M. Bounds, humility retreats from public gaze and never exalts itself in the eyes of others… there is no self praise in humility, but humility prefers to praise others… humility is characterized by a modest heart, a heart that lives to serve others and in so doing, to serve his master… Blessed are they who humble themselves. According to Matthew 5:3, Blessed are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Lord opposes the proud but gives grace unto the humble. Why is God opposed to pride and those who are boastful in themselves? A proud heart is the motivation that caused satan himself to fall, having been lifted up with pride. This was how the adversary deceived Eve in the garden of Eden… His lie to her appealed to her pride: “Ye shall be as God, knowing good from evil.”

In God’s presence, Isaiah saw his own shortcomings and was humbled when confronted with the holiness of God. He said I am a man of unclean lips… Isaiah 6:3

Humility is the prerequisite to entering into the presence of God. The Pharisee thought that God would hear him for his boasting and his eloquence of speech. However, God resisteth the proud and gives grace to the humble. The Pharisee prayed, “God I’m thankful that I’m better than those sinners over there.” However, The tax gather, hated by the world, prayed “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” Whose prayer did God hear? Humility is the requirement before God can hear my prayer. Therefore, Lord, humble my heart under the mighty hand of God… Not my will, but thine be done.

Humility is required before repentance. I must first turn from myself in order to turn unto God. The wisdom of the Word is the opposite of the wisdom of this world. The goal of life is not self aggrandizement… it is not the profit motive to enrich myself at the expense of living for him in whom I live and move and have my being. Competition and winning in the eyes of the world is the exact opposite of victory in the eyes of God. Victory is only in Christ… to be not overcome of evil, but to overcome evil with good. Victory is to glory in him and not in my own vain glory. The essence of love is to think no evil… to rejoice not in iniquity, but to rejoice in the truth.

To change a culture, we as men of God must humble our hearts and submit ourselves under the mighty hand of God. As a band of brothers, we must walk hand in hand with our Lord Jesus Christ, whose hand was pierced by the nails of my sin and iniquity… Wherefore God has exhaulted him, He having paid the price for your sin and mine. He who knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice for us, that we who were dead in trespasses and sins may be made the righteousness of God in him.

Humility is to humble myself… The sacrifice unto the Lord is a broken and a contrite spirit. O Lord, Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am broken, yielded and still.

May God richly bless you,
Your brother in Christ,
Michael