◄ ►

Christendom Deluded

Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My Name, claiming I am the Christ, and will deceive many. (Matthew 24:4,5 NIV)

A word about the religious, for the same thing holds good here adapted by the Deceiver to the realm in which he is working, the type of people with whom he is dealing, the religious. Yes, religiously deceived, to put it in another way, deceived by their very religiousness, and that is a strong and a mighty delusion. There is power in that delusion that seems so often to defy every kind of attempt to deal with it. Deceived by religiousness. What more can be expected than the recognition of the fact of God and the giving to God of reverence, acknowledgment, and recognition: of taking active interest in things which relate to God, attending religious services, and being very busy in religious activities and interests, and finding your chief interest in religious things and the religious realm? What more can be expected? What is the matter with that?

Be patient, bear with me if I say with very great emphasis: that may be one colossal delusion. So often that very thing obscures one fundamental thing, a true and living relationship with God. e must be born again, and religion very often obscures that issue. Oh, religion is no argument for salvation. Religion can be found in the darkest places of the earth. Universally there is religion; depraved and very low in many places, but universally there is the consciousness of standing in relationship to some supreme object of worship, demanding worship; and then men's minds or imaginations get to work to give some kind of expression to that consciousness, of that supreme object of worship, and the imagination produces that sometimes out of a tree, a stone, or in the heavenly bodies; somehow it is expressed, but it is the thing that is there, behind all the forms of expression which is universal. All the highly civilized forms of that brought into the realm of Christendom are only the same thing developed. It does not say that Christendom more intelligent, civilized, educated interpretation of God, even though it gets its ideas from the Bible, is salvation. It may be a mighty delusion and very often is.

See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Take careful heed to do the commandment and the law … to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. § Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. § Abstain from every form of evil.

While the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight a cry was heard: “Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!” Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble. § Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.

Eph. 5:15.16;  Josh. 22:5;  Col. 4:5,6;  1 Thess. 5:22;  Matt. 25:5,6;   Matt. 25:13;  2 Peter 1:10;  Luke 12:37

Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.

If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well. § “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” … “I am willing; be cleansed.” § Faith as a mustard seed.

Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. § Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

First the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. § Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. § The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. § Run in such a way that you may obtain it.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day.

Rev. 3:11;  Matt. 9:21;  Matt. 8:2,3;  Matt. 17:20;  Heb. 10:35;  Phil. 2:12,13;  Mark 4:28;  Hos. 6:3;  Matt. 11:12;  1 Cor. 9:24;  2 Tim. 4:7,8

Undivided Attention

Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God" (Deut. 8:11).

Our Father would be free to favor us with far more of His riches in Christ Jesus if we would keep more in mind that grace is unmerited favor - so that "He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy" (Rom. 9:23).

"It seems so natural, when one is surrounded with blessings, and thus sensible of being an object of divine favor, that the eye is turned from God to oneself; for when God is before one, self gets no place, though there be the deepest awareness of His favor.

"Hence it is the saint who is the object of the greatest favor who needs to be on his guard, that he allow not his eye to rest on himself where the favors are sent, but on God from whom they come. If his eye turns to himself because of the favor, then the favor has been the means of turning his heart from God to a mere gift of His."

"If there be a growing up into the measure of the stature of Christ, there must be a conscious refusal of that which would tend to revive or invigorate the old nature. The saint is not only a new creature to grow into the likeness of the Lord Jesus, but he has to watch and beware lest the things he has to do with should in any way minister to another will in him, which would divert him from God to himself. Self is the circle and center of man's mind in his fallen state; but when Christ is formed in the soul, God is the center and source of everything." -J.B.S.

"For we . . . worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Phil. 3:3).

The Dayspring Dawning - Song Of Zacharias (3)

What Suffering