“I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards.”
Ecclesiastes 2:4
Solomon the wisest of kings, decides to use his fabulous resources to set himself up in a comfortable life and have pleasures and comforts to support his psyche. He is going to investigate to see if they satisfy him and bring him a sense of wholeness and fulfilment as a person.
He built a city, numerous houses and palace, vineyards and places of entertainment. He took to himself many wives and spared himself no good thing. He even built the temple in Jerusalem to the glory of God and for the exaltation of the people of God.
He must have given jobs to many people and helped his people in the process of building the great works. It would have taken significant time and effort to build all his designs, but he did so, and we today still cannot work out all his inventions and devices for the building and upkeep of his great cities, buildings and gardens.
It is hard to imagine the heights and majesty of the opulence at that time. Great blessing ensued from the hand of Solomon. What is was like for him to live that way, we can only guess. There must have been much enjoyment, but much stress also. Solomon would have seen a lot of futility in this period of his life, and much heartache, brought on by the complexity of his family situation, and he was to find that the things of this life do not satisfy us. This is why we have this record of his life and thought processes in the Holy Scripture.
Error was brought into his realm by the wives he married and brought in from other cultures and belief systems. All this would have infiltrated into the household and the wider nation as well. Solomon brought blessing but also cursing because he was a fallen person, just like everyone else. He was wise, but he also entertained folly.
There was plenty of things for enjoyment, as in the vineyards. Solomon spared himself nothing but lived a life of plenty with opulent pleasures and entertainments. He had a life to be jealous of and surpassed by no one else. Servants to wait on him, and no difficulty that couldn’t be overcome with the riches he possessed. He could have anything he wanted and more. At this point he is having a good time and enjoying all his projects and things that riches and his influence could buy. He is reaping the reward of the wisdom, which has made him famous and a sought after counsellor for the rich and famous. Queens and kings come to visit him. His people bring insoluble problems, which he is able to decipher and find answers to. His reputation is monumental and his fame spreads far and wide.
And yet, it all did not satisfy him. His life became empty and full of the deepest sorrow. Depression and apathy dogged his footsteps and there was no one to comfort or counsel him. He is lost in his own mind and earthly riches. It takes him eleven chapters of his life to uncover the reason for the futility. We need the Lord. Without the Creator there is no point in any of it.
This is the outcome of Solomon’s magnificent life, which he lived and recorded for us, for our benefit. This was his ministry to us. This was his sacrifice – to live the emptiest of his days, so we could learn from his mighty wisdom. We thank God for this His servant and learn the lessons well.
“Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist—denying the Father and the Son.”
1 John 2:22
An antichrist is someone who does not recognise the Lord Jesus, who He is or what He has done to save sinful people. There are many like this. They are automatically liars, for the truth about Jesus is not in their minds and hearts and Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life, does not dwell in them by His Spirit.
If the Son is denied, then the Father is also denied. We cannot deny our God and Creator without serious consequences for us as individual people, and also for our collective groups. To deny God means we have no God, or a false God. To deny God and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is to be an antichrist. No such person has a place in the everlasting kingdom. It is debatable if such a person could ever come into the kingdom at all. If we reject the gospel of grace and refuse the provision God has made for our souls, then there is nothing left for us, but a fiery day of indignation from God.
It is then a short walk to agnosticism and atheism, which completely denies the Lord and the heart atrophies and becomes hard. It is a most dreadful state it be in and ends in apathy and total unbelief.
The Lord Jesus, the Beloved Son the the Living God, has come into the world to make the sacrifice of Himself for the sake of rescuing people He made who hate Him and don’t want Him, so that they would not have to suffer the consequences of their own sinfulness. He has died in the cruel cross to lay the penalty that they deserve, so that they can go free and be free from the wrath of God, which is coming. Sin will be dealt with and either we face the wrath on our own, or we are hidden in the death of Christ, and sheltered from the coming doom. Why would anyone think they can face this alone? It is utter folly.
“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good.”
Psalm 14:1
There is no good in this world outside of Christ and the atoning sacrifice He made for our sakes. There is no understanding or wisdom apart for the knowledge and purity of the Living God, and all else is corrupt. It is a very serious state to be in, and the way back is very difficult and maybe impossible. If we trample on the blood of Christ, there is no hope for us but to face that terrible day alone before God to face our fate and suffer the eternal death of our souls. We will be separated from all that is good, loving, kind, and merciful and will live in the darkness we have chosen. This warning goes out from John, both to us to repent and believe, but also to warn against the unbelieving mindset that has infiltrated this world and is polluting human hearts away from God forever.
We should fly to the love of the Saviour. He is our only refuge and hope and those strong and loving arms are held out, even in these days, for all who come and put their trust and hope in Him. Christ is willing to forgive everything and welcome us into His family as His one beloved people. Is really is folly to refuse Him and refuse the offer of mercy in the gospel call. We cling to our sin and it will shipwreck our lives and take us down in to murky depths of the realms of the antichrists.
The Spirit of the age is being set up for the last final push of evil that will sweep through out world at the end time. Someone will rise up to coordinate this whole campaign against the Lord and His anointed Saviour. He is called in the Scripture, the Antichrist, and his spirit is in all who refuse God. We either belong to God or to the spirit of the Antichrist. It has always been this way in every generation, for no one knows the day or the time when the Lord shall return. Then it will be too late to turn and repent, so when you hear His voice speaking into your conscience about your situation and need, you must come to Him and not put it off to some other time.
God does not always strive in the minds and hearts of people. He calls us and we must come and not procrastinate and insult His good offer of mercy. To deny this offer and therefore render it a lie, is to call God a liar and no truth is in us. We remain destitute, blind and under wrath. This is coming from the loving disciple, it is a ministry of warning against folly and unbelief. Will we remain in such a state? Will we bow our knees to the holy One and admit our fault and repent? It is the only suitable response to our Saviour and Lord.
A liar leads many astray and closes the door of mercy on the souls of the people around them, and causes many to stumble. It is not good to be this person, this is another aspect of the Antichrist spirit that lead many away from God to the destruction of their souls and the souls of those who associate with them. Liars generate lies and other liars. Our enemy, Satan, is called the Father of lies and he is. It is easy to see how he is behind all of this. He is bent on destroying the creations and the humans that God loves and wants to rescue.
The question is, will we believe him, or believe God. We embrace lies or truth.
“The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
John 1:14
There is no other Saviour, there is no other God and no other provision for our souls. Everything outside of Christ is falsehood and unbelief. When we look at Him with the believing eye of faith, we see who He is, the Lord of glory and full of grace and truth. Fixing our eyes on Him is the pathway to grace and truth, for all who believe.
“For you are great, and do wondrous things. You are God alone. Teach me your way, Lord. I will walk in your truth. Make my heart undivided to fear your name. I will praise you, Lord my God, with my whole heart. I will glorify your name forevermore. For your loving kindness is great toward me. You have delivered my soul from the lowest hell.”
“But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.”
1 John 2:20
We know the truth because it is set before us in the Book of Books, the Holy Scripture, the Word of God, the Bible. There is no anointing without the knowledge of this book. It is a personal knowledge, just like our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. The more you know this truth and the deeper you delve into its blessedness, the greater your anointing. This is for every Christian and not just a favoured few. God has no favourites. Those who love Him, are loved by Him. And we love Him because He loved us first. What a Saviour we possess.!
This anointing comes from the faith of believing that we have exercised when we come to Him. It comes from the renewed heart and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He comes to live in us when we believe and stays forever. We cannot walk a single step along the Christian pathway without His love and power and the renewed mind of Christ in us.
This is the beginning of the anointing and it only grows as we persevere in our Christian lives and walk more closely with God.
When a new king was chosen, the anointing oil was used to sanctify him to the service of the Lord.
“Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil….. You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and whatever touches them will be holy.”
Exodus 30:25 and 29
It was used to sanctify the priests and the implements in God’s tabernacle as sacred to the Lord. It ran down Aaron’s beard to the collar of his clothes. Aaron was set apart for God, as is every sinful person who comes to Him in repentance and faith.
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe.”
Psalm 133:1-2
The oil of joy has anointed Christ and set Christ above His companions, for He has loved righteousness and hated wickedness. We can clearly see this in the record of His life as He carried out the will of hIs Father, right to the cross at Calvary. He was the archetypal obedient servant and our example and inspiration. This is the glory of Christ and we His people, are His eternal reward. He is our leader and our Lord and is the everlasting anointed One and beloved by all who have been forgiven.
“You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.”
Psalm 45:7
The oil of joy has set the Christian apart to serve the Lord and proclaim the joyful message of the salvation of the Lord. This is our remit and our task in this fallen world, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and bind up all those who are cast down about their sin and failure. The message of Christ is the only message of life and peace and the only lighted way out of the darkness of false religion and despair.
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…”
Isaiah 61:1
The oil of joy is poured out before the Lord as a sacrifice of praise. The effect of it and the glory of it fills everything it touches. Mary so loved the Lord that she anointed Him with everything she possessed to holier Him and show her true love for Him. Jesus honoured her and knew her motivation for doing such an extravagant thing to Him. Nothing is too good for Him and we hold back nothing from the anointing of our Saviour with all our lives, as holy sacrifices of praise and worship.
“Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”
John 12:3
The Spirit of the Lord rested on our Lord Jesus Christ as He walked this Earth in holiness and proclaimed the year of the Lord’s favour. As He proclaimed the good news, so do we. We have the continual anointing of the Holy Spirit as we walk as obedient servants, proclaim this good news and are daily filled with the presence of God, the gracious Holy Spirit.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:18-19
“You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured on me.”
Psalm 92:10
This is the testimony of every Christian person. It is the Lord who lifts us out of the filth of this world and the corruptions of death that we are born into, and gives us new life in Christ. He exalts us to His glory, and makes us His people, pouring on the finely refined oil of the Holy Spirit who alone brings life and peace.
We continually seek the truth of God, that we might know him better and follow Him more closely, so that the oil of gladness of poured out in our lives, that others might see and smell the fragrance of our truly Beloved and seek Him for themselves.
“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—for your love is more delightful than wine. Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out…”
Temptation is subtle and we can’t handle it. It seems so plausible and we can justify ourselves for every possible angle, but if it isn’t right, it will never be right. It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are or who is involved, it is just wrong. Your mind will not agree that it is wrong, and neither will your will, but your feelings and your conscience will tell you so.
You should agree with them. Feelings are there for a purposes and God is so kind to give them to us. If you have strong feelings you should thank him, as they will be a great help to you. When we sin, we are hurting our dearest friend. He is insulted that you need wrong stuff to keep you happy, and that you are dissatisfied with your lot in life. We are really saying that Jesus our Lord and God, is not enough for us. We are telling Him that He is actually not all we need, but we need all the other things in life that we have in order to be validated as people, and counted as significant.
It is really our human pride behind it all, because we somehow think we have special privileges and our situation is different from other people. It is called foolishness. It is foolish to disobey the Lord, and although some situations may be difficult to work out, we have the single command to guide us…
“Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”
Matthew 22:37
This is really all we need to know. Is the way I think, speak and act loving God? Is my heart, soul and mind dedicated to the Lord, and surrendered to Him alone?
Jesus said if we love Him, we must keep His commandments. We must keep ourselves in the love of God and in close fellowship with Him. The Scriptures are there to guide us in this, so we need to know them and be able to bring them to mind when we need them. We have Christian teaching to help us to understand and a whole plethora of books to read, that Christian people have written for our benefit. We have the indwelling voice of conscience to guide us, if we have kept it pure and righteous. We have the Holy Spirit within to teach us, lead us, bear with us and forgive us when we go wrong, but we must not grieve Him away from us by deliberate sin. All these helps are available to us, and it is wise to build up our faith by any means that we are able.
Perhaps we think we have found a grey area, that is a debatable point, and we try to get discussion going about the rights and workings of certain issues. Perhaps we have heard some one say it is an ok thing to think or do, but somehow, it still bothers us. Who should we listen to? If we are involved in something that is troubling our conscience, then surely that is a sign that it might not be a good idea to think or do! If we are not involved with reading our Bible and praying for others, perhaps our faith is going cold and we need to examine our Iives and thought patterns.
If God is holy, and we are sinful, who is speaking to us when we feel bad about something. Surely our consciences are not more sensitive than God. God is perfect, and He requires perfection. Our prayer should be for a sensitive conscience that feels the coming on of sin and can even side step a temptation and the usual onslaught of temptations that follow on.
God promise us help in that He will provide a way of escape for us from the temptation, but so often we don’t see the way out and we cave in so easily to the temptation, because we really want it. Once we do so, it is easier to give in the next time and the next time, and then we are stuck in a habit that is hard to break out of. God has promise he for us then too, in that His strength is able to deliver us from all evil, but we must want to be delivered. Our will is the key. Do I want my own way, or God’s way? This is the basic choice. Do I want to please God and enjoy his close fellowship, or do I want my own way?
If you feel bad about something, stop justifying yourself and stop doing the wrong. If you are a Christian you have the power God to help you to stop and change and become more holy in his sight. Your conscience is right and your reasoning is faulty. Justifying sin is a really bad idea. Who wants to pass up the right to walk with God and be useful to Him? Only someone who does not love God or His ways.
The Christian, and in fact every human being, has a virulent enemy who will stop at nothing to bring your spiritual life to a stand still and ruin your testimony and service for God. Don’t let him. Pray against temptation and recognise its onslaught and practice holy living and valuing the things that God values. As we study the word of God more and more, we get to know what God requires and our understanding and wisdom grows and we can become more like the saviour we love.
Our most vulnerable time is when we are feeling good about ourselves and we think we are doing ok and we can manage. We think we deserve certain things and we relax our guard. The enemy and also our sinful propensities are right there at our shoulder and temptation lurks. We must stay humble and be ever sensitive to our Saviour and what he did for us on the cross. Sins have caused Him such pain and we need to stay away from them. We should be hating them and anything that caused Him to suffer.
What if we are tempted about a real and justifiable need? What if I have a need but have not the means or opportunity to meet that need? Is it ok to find a way that might not be quite ideal? This is difficult and we find it quite easy to justify what we want to do. God says He will supply all our needs according to His riches. Either He will take away the need, or, more likely, He will give us the strength to cope with it and we will become stronger in faith and love. If we keep to the command of loving God, we will keep the commandments and our pathway will remain righteous.
Love for our Lord Jesus is our motivating factor, but not a spiritual blackmail, as some are wont to met out. To have to do something because you are told to “love Jesus” can actually leading us to do things for the wrong reason. We succumb to social pressure and we are not truly honest with ourselves, and the facing up is actually sidestepped and the issues not deal with.
Our walk with God is personal and we must be honest with ourselves about what we want and face our problems and temptations in the power of the Spirit within. The Holy Spirit will help us to be over-comers and how good that will feel.!! Learning too reason with yourself is a highly skilled spiritual exercise, and every Christian is commanded to examine themselves and make sure they are truly walking in faith. As we examine ourselves we can become aware of our weaknesses and failings, and can do something about them. To just walk on without thinking, does not benefit us and we cannot grow without this skill.
As we face our temptations, difficulties and failures, we can confess them to the Lord and He will freely pardon us. This will give us strength for the next time we face a difficulty and an encouragement when we will fall and fail. It will also cause us to praise our glorious Lord, who is so patient and kind and who will turn our rottenness to beauty and our failures to victory.
“Don’t love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.”
1 John 2:15
This is a clear directive from the Lord. We are to live as Jesus did. We are to have no hold on this world at all. We are to be taken up with Christ and to seek Him always and to be like Him in His character and mindset.
It is very difficult to be this way- it always has been and always will be. This world militates against us; our enemy tempts us and our own sinful selves drag us away from Christ and into the arms of an unloving world. It is a mindset rather than a series of rules or behaviours. It is a spiritual trap to be avoided by those who love the Lord Jesus with an unending love.
The human heart, naturally, wants certain things out of life and is bent on getting them. This is our problem, and we do it so naturally that we cannot see the problem, which is why God spells it our for us here. We are not to love this world or its ways, or the things that it can give us, but to love our Saviour and be like Him. Naturally, the heart is selfish and conceited and wants these things and thinks it deserves these things. Others may tell us so, and compound us in our selfishness and lack of humility before the Lord. The worldliness has infiltrated everything we do and say and good counsel is almost impossible to come by.
It is too easy to dupe yourself in to thinking you need certain things to make you happy and to live in this world. We accumulate wealth and possessions and they give us a sense of security and belonging. But there is no security outside of Christ and no belonging in this world for the Christian. We do not belong, and this world will never satisfy the renewed and redeemed soul. Do we believe this, or do we search for more significance in this life? Many pierce themselves through with many sorrows because they are searching for applause and recognition and want he things that money can buy. We actually need very little and God has promised to supply our needs, yet we go about earning and fretting about what we want and strive to have. It is the covetousness of the human heart that is behind so much pain and sorrow in this vain world.
We work to live, yet possess so many things we dont need. We sacrifice relationships and people on the altar of progress and to find self-worth, and end up with faulty families and lost souls. If we persist in world orientated ways, we cannot think we belong to Christ, but are still hard wired into this world’s systems and desires.
Our desires are wholly worldly. We are not primarily concerned about our eternal souls, but about what we can have and do. Spiritual desires are far down our list of priorities, and we do not seek the Lord like we should. We want to look good and appear good to other people and we cloak it in the garb of spiritual witness and think God is pleased. God requires utter honesty with ourselves, so that we see our sin and face up to it.
Motives are contaminated. Going to church has become a social practice and a place to get a thrill of some kind. We do not worship the Lord, and and we are not fed properly from the Word, so we become dependant on the system and not on the Lord. Our personal relationship with Christ is non-existent and we have no power or Spirit to overcome the depths of our depravity.
Sin has its hold on us and continues to do so, and we cannot break free because of the distractions of this world and all that it is. The church has become part of the world system and has been rendered impotent by the influx of worldly ways. I am not speaking of music styles or even the false doctrines that are presented, but the mindset of dependence and social control that has infiltrated the minds of those who say they are seeking God. We are still dependant on money and not the Lord. We still seek recognition for us and ours, and not the love for the person of Christ. There is little humility and the putting down of sinful self, for the sake of either Christ or others. We protect our social standing by learned procedures of social etiquette, rather than the purity of Christian fellowship and communion with each other and Christ.
To be taken seriously we need to have the trappings of this world’s system, so that people will accept us and listen to us. We need education, a proper career, a plan for or lives so that we can develop ourselves, we definitely need money to buy the things we need, so that other will take us seriously and so that we fit in with nice people, who will be friendly to us and accept us into their groups. We need the people around us and the groups we frequent, to validate our lives and let us know we are ok.
What of to was all stripped away, as one day it will be? What would be left for you? What do you have now in terms of ability, success and possessions that will last in the fire of testing at the end of the age?
“….each man’s work will be revealed. For the Day will declare it, because it is revealed in fire; and the fire itself will test what sort of work each man’s work is.”
1 Corinthians 3:13
The only things that will last is your spiritual life is Christ and the character you have fostered to become, like Him. Only the work you have done for His sake and have sacrificed for him is going to last. It will be our whole lives that are put under the scrutiny of God, and what will survive those flames? It is a very sobering thought that we are just not good enough and our motives have become contaminated with the mindset of this striving and stressing world.
“But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, without love of good, traitorous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!”
1 Timothy 3:1-5
This situation os with us now, big time….
“You, however, have observed my teaching, my conduct, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my perseverance, my persecutions, and the sufferings that came upon me…. all who desire to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
“But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and firmly believed, since you know from whom you have learned them…. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.”
1 Timothy 3:10-17 (abridged)
It is possible to turn away for the world and all that it holds over us. There is only one way, the way of Christ. Jesus lived in the constant fellowship with the Father, and was constantly in prayer with Him. There were no other distractions and no other love. His obedience was perfect and His humility was astounding. This is our pattern for our lives. Only the Word of God can teach us these things. There is no other voice we can rely on, especially in these sinful and godless days.
The situation is dire, but the remedy is simple. I confess my fault and turn away. Do I really need all the things I say I need? If I do, I am caught up in this world and have become reliant on its things for my support. Perhaps we need to do some careful and prayerful culling… not of things, but of our thoughts and desires and wants. It is painful for we are yet sinful and our fleshly desires are still hot.
But we are not alone. If we really are followers of Christ, the mind of Christ will be in us and will direct us to what we should do and not do. To trust in him is life and peace. Everything else is periphery and unnecessary. God will show us what to do and how to do it. If mistakes have been made, He is able to fix anything and save anyone, when they come in faith and humility. To have His mind in us is life and power and love. If we are to grow in grace, this is the only way and is the way to life and peace.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.”
“I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.”
1 John 2:12
The way John writes is very heartfelt. He is such a loving disciple of the Lord Jesus and the record we have of him shows a very loving and soft-hearted person. It is easy to become hardened by the deceitfulness of life and to become cynical about people. Everyone needs people around them and a supportive family. If these things are not in our lives, then the Lord will take us up.
“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”
Psalm 27:10
Despite the hardships of life and the disappointments he faced, John remained faithful to the Lord, and served Him to the very end. The end of John’s life was remote and alone, banished to the Isle of Patmos, where he lived out his days with astounding visions of the Lord Jesus, which we have recorded for us in the book of Revelation. This book of 1 John is full of love and teaches us about what true love is.
In this verse, John focuses on the Christians new in the faith, and unsure about their faith and position in the family of Christ. He calls them affectionately, “little children.” Perhaps some would say this is patronising and belittling, but it is full of feeling for those who might be struggling in their young Christian lives.
What would be the one thing a Christian would be concerned about in their lives? Surely it is the issue of the forgiveness of sins. If we love the Lord, we will be concerned about being sure we are forgiven. This is the mindset of a true Christian. There is no salvation without the Lord and His forgiveness for our moral disease that we so carelessly live for. In our unconcerned state, we live as we please, but when God is speaking into our lives, we become concerned about our sin and begin to realise our state before God. To be forgiven becomes our chief concern and we start to seek God and how we can find this forgiveness.
The message of the death and resurrection of Jesus comes to us. Someone tells us, or we read it and we realise this is the answer to the problem of our sin. We realise or need to confess our sin to Him and trust in what He has done for us. God is working in our hearts and softening our hearts to come to Him.
Becoming sick of sin is very important. Turning away for it and confessing it to the Lord, is the only way to forgiveness. Nothing we can do can pay for it, and we come to God in repentance to receive a change of heart and mind and this new life called eternal life. It is a simple and child-like thing to do. It is simply putting out hope and faith in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross. It is a personal encounter with the Lord and it changes us forever. Some call it conversion, or being saved for sin.
We cannot be saved any other way.
“Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”
Acts 2:38-39
To be concerned about your sin, is a spiritually healthy place to be. We will not seek the Lord without it. It is the way to life and peace and the way to the heavenly home that is prepared for all those who have walked this road.
If you are young in faith, you may have concerns about your assurance of faith and salvation. John is writing here, to assure those young in the faith, that they are safe and saved, because their sins are forgiven, for His names sake. The bedrock of our faith is Jesus Himself and the only and that can save.
“There is salvation in none other, for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, by which we must be saved!”
Acts 4:12
This is a narrow road to walk, but it is safe and sound because of the company. We rest our faith in our precious Lord Jesus and no one else, certainly not ourselves. Jesus will never let us down or let us float away off course and be lost, He will always bring us back to Himself, if we should wander away. He will always bring us assurance and strengthen our faith by His mighty power. He will order the circumstances of our lives to make us strong Christians and full of faith, love and hope.
Courage comes when we believe the Word and rest upon it.
“Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for God, the LORD, is my strength and song; and he has become my salvation.” Therefore, with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation. In that day you will say, “Give thanks to the LORD! Call on his name. Declare his doings among the peoples. Proclaim that his name is exalted!”
Isaiah 12:2-4
As we rest in the Lord and His promises, we find peace of mind and heart, and our assurance grows as our faith grows. Our sins are forgiven because we trust in him. This pleases the Lord….
Thought processes is a collection of some of the posts for Daughters of the Kingdom site. They focus on the mind and how we are body mind and soul and also how we relate to each other.
How we treat our minds is important, as well as keeping body and soul health.
You can purchase this as a Kindle ebook or as a hard copy book, from the Amazon store.
“He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the darkness even until now. He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him. But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the darkness, and doesn’t know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.”
1 John 2:9-11
The key question in this section of the chapter is…
What does it mean to hate your brother or sister?
The Bible dictionary defines hate as…
“Hate derives from a strong dislike or ill will toward persons or things. As an emotional attitude, a person may oppose, detest, or despise contact with a thing or a person. Love and hatred often stand opposed. Wisdom says, there is “a time to love and a time to hate” ( Eccl 3:8 ). In the biblical record, every being may express or experience hate….. Hatred proves to be a tangible measurement of evil in the world. Its ugliness may extend in any direction. Any aversion of humans to others expresses hatred.”
Hatred is feelings of aversion towards someone. We shouldn’t have this generally speaking, and to dislike someone for no real or good reason, is not the mindset of the Christian person. It is a mindless kind of emotion that grips the heart and mind and turns bad feeling towards other people. It can come upon anyone and can be because of ill that has happened to a person, or because they experience something they disapprove of or dislike. God tells us not to hate….
What if someone does something so awful to you, something that severely damages you in some way and never admits their fault or repents or makes recompense? What if it provokes in us a strong sense of anger and even rage, at the injustice and offence that has been caused to us? At what point do we give up anger and totally forgive that person, and accept them back into life again?
Are there situations I can forgive, but things cannot revert back to the situation before? Friendships that are remade, but the intimacy is gone. Promises broken that cannot be mended. Differences of opinion that cannot be agreed upon, problems that cannot be solved…yet to put a stop to feelings and actions of hate…
The answer is probably yes to all these, but what is the mindset of the Christian who has been wronged woefully, and is struggling with strong anger and feelings of ill will. Some problems go on for a long time and are never addressed and then one day, it all may will blow up and the whole cascade of grief will fall down. Or, there will be a moment of sinful response to end the feelings between two people. Or, a situation will develop and there will be an act of wrong done, that cannot be put right. The ultimate hate crime against a person, is murder and this is so final and so hard to forgive and move on from, yet as Christians we have the power within to do so, although it will take time and much heartache.
We cannot change circumstances or the thoughts and feelings of another person, we are only responsible for our own. I may have to deal with my feelings and learn to live with them, for the rest on my life. Sin always brings terrible consequences and we all suffer in some ways from the fallout of our sin. However, God says if we confess our wrong and turn from it and repent, He will forgive us, straight away and never bring it up again. This is God’s response, and similarly for the godly person who reacts in this way.
If someone wrongs us badly, it helps to remember that we have also wronged them, or at least other people in similar situations. We might think is wasn’t so bad as what they have done to us, but the principle still stands. It will take time to deal with our emotions in cases of extreme trauma, but we will always be working toward that end. Forgiveness and peace.
What if the person is not sorry, and never repents or offers us any regret or sorrow about what the have done?
There are people who God is angry with all the time. God is angry with the wicked, who refuse Him and hate Him and continue in sin and disobedience. God’s wrath abides in the ungodly who continue in their ungodly ways, even when they are warned. There will be people who will never repent and never find peace with God. This is a serious topic and causes a lot of heartache and distress to many…
We are not God.
God is love and has also wrath towards all wickedness. He holds the two seeming extremes in perfect balance. He never makes mistakes and is the perfect judge, for He is perfect and the upholder of all righteousness. He hates sin with a perfect hatred, because of what it does to His creation and people. Sin has ruined our world and ruined us, but we just don’t realise how deep that truth goes. We are so contaminated, we are not in the position to judge. The fact is we have to trust God in His judgments.
“The men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before The Lord. Abraham drew near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it? Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Genesis 18:22-25
God is holy, and He will carry out His holy will in the perfections of His judgments. Our position is far from that state, and we are never in a position to judge. Similarly with vengeance. Vengeance belongs to God for these same reasons. Our remit is to set aside our anger, rage and malice and leave it all with the righteous judgment of God. This is our faith.
We can be so angry we think we hate the person, but when the anger dies down, and we deal with it, we can see more clearly and cope better with what has happened. Our emotions get the better of us and we do not make sound judgments about situations. We leave them with God, who works out all things in conformity with His will. He also works out all things for the good of his people and for the salvation of His elect people. We rest on Him.
This is the only workable answer to anger. We cannot cope with these strong emotions, and work out the judgment, so we leave it in the hands of hIm to take away all hate and ill will, even for those who have hurt us and damaged us badly and irreparably. God can fix anything and turn anything around and make an irreparable human situation glorious for the sake of His glory and our eternal good. To lay hold on this fact and exercise our faith in God to work out the entire situation, is life and peace. We don’t need the anger any more. We find hate subsides and our heart returns to the soft heart of love, we are required to have.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:34-35
We cannot say we love God and hate others. This is discussed further on in this beautiful book of 1 John. Just remember how Jesus loved you and gave Himself for you when you hated Him and was His enemy, for no reason. No one can surpass that love and no one can quench that love that Jesus has for His people. So if He can love unlovely us, surely we can do the same for other sinful people just like us.
In this world, not everything can be made right, and situations cannot always be resolved, but we can live and love in peace and the security of knowing that God is in control and His love conquers all hatred.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love. By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, we also ought to love one another.”
1 John 4:7-11
Consider how God cares for ignoble us..
“Because you have made the LORD your dwelling— my refuge, the Most High— no evil will befall you, no plague will approach your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and cobra; you will trample on the young lion and the serpent.”
Psalm 91:9-12
Surely there is no love like the love of Jesus and His care for us, once His avowed enemies… in our heart we know we must not hate, but love and reach out to the evil-doer, and be prepared to forgive and help them. This is God’s way….
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
“So, I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.”
Ecclesiastes 2:17
The realisation of the futility of life, both for the wise person and the fool, and that the same fate waits for them both at the end of life, causes the teacher to feel a sense of apathy. Solomon has reached chapter two and he is already in this dangerous state.
There is no point in trying any more. The teacher comes to hate life and it’s pointlessness. The whole deal of life and it’s work, labour, suffering, folly, conceit and pride – it starts to make the teacher sick. Solomon is sick of his life, because he has seen it’s futility and the lack of meaning in what he is doing.
It feel like this in our day, too. God has been forgotten in our culture and has been organised out of everything, but it has left us with a huge gap in our collective psyche and the pointlessness of life without justice or meaning is not lost on people. Apathy takes hold and people start to live for the moment and just to get what they can out of what they are doing, The depths of meaning are lost, and we are trivialised and become trivial.
We become expendable and loose our eternal value in our eyes and the eyes of society in general. This is very dangerous for the human culture and mindset. We trivialise everything, humour becomes a refuge, and death is common and acceptable. We are seeing the death of a culture and the death of the honour and dignity of the human psyche and soul. Our minds are being warped and turned against ourselves.
Humans have an enemy who we don’t believe in anymore, and he is making hay with us and dragging precious people down to perdition. People, are being duped and culture is being used to do it. We are asleep on our feet and even enjoying it. Eternity had gone from our hearts and we are hardened. There is no respect anymore and even children turn against godly parents to avoid the thought of God or any reminder that they must turn.
We are trapped on a treadmill. Get up, eat, work, work, work, eat, sleep, get up again. Solomon could see it in his own life, even though he has such privileges and resources to distract his mind, yet the purposelessness of it all made him sick – so sick that he hated his life. Suicide was on the cards. There was absolutely no point in continuing the agony. Everything he did was just chasing the wind. People were passing shadows, work was tedious, all had become boring and pointless. Solomon knew he was in trouble, and fortunately he knew what to do about it. He was wise…
We turn to the end of the book, in chapter twelve.
“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come, and the years come near when you will say, ‘I find no pleasure in them’”
Ecclesiastes 12:1
It take eleven chapters for Solomon to get to this conclusion. He has gone through all this for our sake, so that we can be wise and follow his teaching, which is the Holy Word of God.
Life is all and always pointless without the Lord. If we forget Him, we will loose it all, even in this life. We can become so hardened that we reject the gospel, the message of hope and forgiveness and the way to eternal life. This is the danger. There is no other salvation except through the gospel of God. Atheism follows on after this milestone in our thinking and there is no way back from this point. It is so serious.
Why get to the end of life and find only pain and apathy? Remember the Lord. Remember His love and what He is calling you to do – to put your trust in Him and find His forgiveness and delight, and eternal significance.
Daughters of the Kingdom 