I Have Found That

I have found that those with a grateful heart life a much better quality of life. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

There are Those Times

There are those times that come along,
When things just don’t go right,
When fairness seems to slip away,
And wrong things fill our sight.

Sometimes it’s hard for us to see,
Beyond the hurt we feel.
It’s hard to see the blessings too,
And know that they are real.

Because the heavy loads you have
Weigh more at times like these,
I ask if I may carry too,
And offer with a “Please?”

I want to make a difference though,
To bring a smile this day,
And maybe if by writing this,
A smile will come your way.

So hold your chin up strong and proud,
‘Cause it’s the thing to do,
And know that I’ll be standing near,
Because I love you!

Your best friend

Jesus

~James O’Brien

“Christ Much and Christ More”

 Have you ever thought what it would be like if you could not die? How terrible it would be if your body had wasted away with a terrible disease and you could not die. I have conducted many funerals when loved ones have reluctantly said the deceased was better off because he was no longer suffering.

On the other hand, Francis Bacon echoed the attitude of many when he said, “men fear death as children fear the dark.” Apart from an intimate love relationship with Jesus Christ no man is prepared for his encounter with death.

Moreover, death for the believer in Christ is presented in the Bible as an improvement over the very best in this life. How wonderful it would be if Jesus came for us on the very best day this life could offer when everything is going great. It would not be a terrible tragedy. The Apostle Paul’s life was full and he could write, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain” (Philippians 2:21 NET).

Paul did not say his death would be “better by far” because he wanted to escape this life. The death of the Christian is never portrayed as an escape or improvement on the worst of life.

The heartbeat of Paul’s life was Christ. “For to me to live is Christ and to die is better yet.” Christ was everything to Him.

H. C. G. Moule with keen insight said, “Life and death . . . look to him like two immense blessings, of which he knows not which is the better. On either side of the veil, Jesus Christ is all things to him.” The only difference will be that “on the other side” everything Paul longed for in this life “in Christ” will be more perfectly realized there.

The apostle’s desire was to “depart” and be with Christ. He had tasted the delights of God’s righteousness and longed for freedom from evil that he would never have in this life on the earth. He would know perfect freedom.

For the Christian death will be freedom from all sin, pain, suffering, persecution, cares, etc.

I am sure the apostle Paul had in mind that this freedom would mean that finally he would be like Christ in His perfect righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8). Crowned with His righteousness! It is not our self-righteousness, but our being clothed in righteousness that Christ imputes to us (2 Cor. 5:21).

We will know him as he is known. Every spiritual truth that has puzzled us in this life will be clearly revealed to us in Christ. In that day we will know as he knows (1 Cor. 13:12).

But the blessed thought, most precious of all is we will be with him. Every born again believer will be with Christ. Yes, we know him and he is with us in our present life, but oh the fullness of our knowledge of him and his wonderful, glorious presence when we are with him clothed and crowned with his righteousness!

The Psalmist said, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15 NASB).

For the unbeliever death is an eternal separation from a righteous, loving God. It is something to be feared and dreaded. However, for the believer death is just the opposite; it is also precious to the believer just as it is to God. There will be no separation from him.

Moule says it well. For Paul it was a dilemma “between Christ and Christ, Christ much and Christ more, Christ by faith and Christ by sight.” And that is our dilemma, too.

As you read these words is it true of you? Do you long to be like Christ? Do you long to see Him in all His gory? Do you earnestly desire to be perfect as he is perfect?

The apostle John said, “And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure” (1 John 3:3 NET).

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

You Will Always

For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. 2 Corinthians 7:10 The Holy Bible, The New Living Translation

The last sentence pierced my heart with great sorrow.

I know someone who is suffering greatly mentally, physically and spiritually every day.

All of her life she has been a user and abuser. She loved to cause fights. She just used and abused men and women. Now, she is old and her body is all broken down and she needs help.

Jesus sent His servant home to take care of her and she did nothing but abuse him and laugh about it.

Now, she is in constant pain.

Godly men and women have tried to get her to repent and stop it but she refuses to even admit her wicked deeds. I know the Lord has spoken to her in dreams and in sermons.

Again she just ignores Him as she did the others.

Jesus’ patience has run out for her.

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. Romans 1:18–20The Holy Bible, The New Living Translation

A catastrophe will strike you suddenly,  one for which you are not prepared. Isaiah 47:11 The Holy Bible, The New Living Translation

About three years ago her health took a nose dive and she has been suffering every day.

Yet, she still, refuses to repent.

Her son feels no sympathy for her because she showed no sympathy towards him and indeed made jokes about his suffering which she caused.

Warning: be careful of the seeds you sow tomorrow because you will indeed be eating the harvest of them.

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Galatians 6:7 The Holy Bible, The New Living Translation

Prayer: Thank you Jehovah Ghmolah ( The God of Recompense. Ezekiel 7:9 ) for paying back the wicked for the vile deeds which they delighted in causing the innocent to suffer. I praise You in the name of The Supreme Judge, Jesus Christ. Amen

May you have a grateful heart towards He who has given so much to you. indeovi vas ( may you live with Jesus in Latin )

Seleh- stop and think about it.

This photo and article @ Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah 2023 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it but it may not be sold without authors consent

It is the Courage To

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” Winston Churchill

Christian Perfection (I)

How good does a person have to be in order to be saved? Perhaps we can best answer that question by asking, how perfect is God?

Jesus said, “You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

The LORD God told the children of Israel, “You shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2; cf. Deut. 18:13).

The Hebrew word tam or tamim means to be “without defect” or “without blemish.” The Hebrew sacrifices had to be “without blemish,” spotless and entirely without defect (Exodus 12:5; 29:1; 1 Pet. 1:19; Eph. 5:27). Another word shalem means “whole” or “complete.” That which is without defect or blemish is complete.

God’s righteous standard never changes because He does not change. God is the perfect standard or He would not be God.

Jesus used the word “perfect” (teleioi from telos) meaning end, goal, limit. It is the absolute standard of our heavenly Father. Such a person is perfect or fully developed “in a moral sense.” Therefore, in the moral realm it means “blameless.”

Jesus is the perfect example of that divine standard (1 Peter 2:21-25).

The word “holy” in Leviticus 19:2 gives us the reason for the sacrifices under the Mosaic law. God is holy and man is a sinner. Sin separates man from God. The source of our sanctification is “the LORD who sanctifies you” (20:8). The meaning is to set apart or separate.

God’s standard for man is complete, perfect, moral rectitude. To be acceptable to God every human being must be as blameless and sinless as Jesus Christ.

That standard of righteousness creates a moral and spiritual crisis for all mankind. The Bible tells us we have all sinned and fall short of such moral perfection. “There is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God’s standard is a clean heart and it is evident from studying the Sermon on the Mount that no one can live up to its demands (cf. Matt. 5:20-25, 27). The center of our personality condemns us. Jesus said, “Out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornicators, thefts, false witnesses, slanders,” etc. (15:18-20). It is the heart that has to be changed (2 Cor. 5:17).

I have a problem. I am a sinner. But my problem is even greater than I ever imagined. “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Our sinning can be illustrated by an archer shooting his arrows from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Central America, at the North Pole. He will miss it every time. It will always fall short. No one will ever get to heaven by his or her own efforts because we miss God’s perfect standard.

God never lowers His standards to accommodate sinful man. His absolute holiness is the standard. He will not accept half-way or half-hearted obedience. God is infinite in His perfections.  Jesus is saying in Matthew 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  We are to be “brought to completion, full-grown, lacking in nothing.”

How can that be since what has been written describes me?  Great!  Because that is why Jesus Christ went to the cross and died as a sacrifice for sin.  “The wages of sin is death,” and Jesus died your death on the cross.  Based on the atoning sacrificial death of Jesus Christ as our substitute, God can now save us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.  God credits to our account the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.  God dealt in full with our penalty by sending Christ to the cross to die for us.  When we believed on Christ, God the Father and Judge declared us acquitted based on the saving work of Christ.

Every Christian struggles with holiness in his life, and all of us will until we see Jesus Christ face to face (Phil. 3:12-16).

God makes us holy by changing us from the inside out (2 Cor. 3:18).  It is a progressive sanctification, not a once-for all sinless perfection before we die.

The ultimate goal of the believer is to live in harmony with Matthew 5:48, and “to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.”

We will be established “unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (I Thess. 3:13).

It is to those who strive to attain the goal that the victory is assured.  We will reach the ideal goal of perfection when we see Jesus in glory.  It will be the perfect gift to the believer (Psa. 17:15); Phil. 1:6; 3:12; II Tim. 4:7, 8; Rev. 21:27; 7:14).

May you have a grateful heart towards He who has given so much to you.

indeovi vas ( may you live with Jesus in Latin )

Seleh- stop and think about it.

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

My Cat is Like Me.

We love Him because He loved us first. 1 John 4:19 The Holy Bible, The New Life Version

This morning Poppa explained to me the similarities between my cat and me.

He enjoys being with me like I enjoy being with Poppa.

When he gets sick I am very concerned and give him the best care possible just like Poppa is concerned when I am mentally or spiritually sick and He does everything He can to cure me.

He is very difficult at times, especially with his food, just like I am difficult at time with Poppa when He is trying to spiritually feed me.

Sometimes he ignores me and wants nothing to do with me just like on very rare occasions I do not want to be with Poppa.

Sometimes he refuses to listen to me when he is doing something that I know will hurt him and then comes crying to me to comfort him when he pays the price just like I do with Poppa when He tries to warn me when I am heading for disaster and I refuse to listen to Him. Then, when it is time to pay the price I go running to Poppa for comfort just like he jumps into my arms and cries when disaster strikes.

I pray I can be almost as good of a care giver to the comfort animals Poppa has blessed us with as He is with me. Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah

Prayer: Thank you Jesus Pyrrand God my friend ( John 15:14 ) for blessing me with such a special furry friend and for showing me how I emulate him in our relationship. It is in Your ( my bestest friend ) name I praise You. Amen

May you have a grateful heart towards He who has given so much to you. indeovi vas ( may you live with Jesus in Latin )

Seleh- stop and think about it. This photo and article @ Joseph- Anthony a son of Jehovah 2023

Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it but it may not be sold without authors consent

The Carnal Mind and a New Mind

George Whitfield, the eighteenth century evangelist, was correct when he said, “If the unregenerate man could enter heaven, he would be so unhappy in heaven, that he would ask God to let him run down to hell for shelter.”

How could the enemies of God sit down at the banquet of the Lamb of God?

Universalism wants us to bury our heads in the sand.

The carnal mind is enmity against God all the time.  So why would such a person ever want to be in God’s holy presence?  It is against everything God is for in His universe.  It sets the world system and all it teaches in opposition to the LORD God.

The carnal mind is a “depraved spirit that is set on those things which are not proper” (Romans 1:28).  How would you know one if you saw it?  Romans 1:29-32 says, “Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

It is a dreadful picture of human depravity.  The apostle then declared, “Therefore you have no excuse, every one of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things” (Romans 2:1-2).

There is a day coming when “God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (v. 16).  It is not because we do not deserve it.  The Bible testifies that we are all guilty.  “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds” (Romans 2:5-6).

After a detailed presentation of our sins against us in Romans chapter three, the apostle Paul concludes, “But glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God” (Romans 2:10-11).  “You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?” (Romans 2:23).

How many of us have not wished in the depths of our hearts, “Would to God these sins were not forbidden!”  Spurgeon asked, “Who among us has not been so foolish as to desire that there were no God?”

But neither solution makes the problem go away.  We still stand guilty before God.  “Every carnal mind in the world is at enmity against God.”

The carnal mind declares that by our very nature we are the child of evil.  What part of man was affected by the fall?  The entire man, every part of him – every power, every passion is at enmity with God.  You may say, “Oh, Wil, I am not really that bad.”  God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things.”  It is desperately wicked.

Why would any carnal person want to be in the holy presence of a righteous God? It would mean to be guilty and condemned twenty-four hours a day. We would never be able to escape His holy, hot wrath.  Our sense of guilt would always be a state of awareness.

The only solution to the desperate plight of man is to have a new mind and a new heart.  If we have not experienced a change of heart, our carnal mind will always be at enmity against God.

Our thoughts, our decisions, our behaviors all testify that we deserve God’s holy wrath.  Every person born into this world deserves God’s wrath and damnation.

Because we are guilty sinners, God must provide the solution.  Since the carnal mind is at enmity with God, salvation cannot be by any merit on our part.  It must be by God’s grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.  If we are at enmity with God, what merit can we have?  How can we deserve anything from the person we hate?  Therefore, God must step in and rescue us by His grace.

The Spirit of God must lay His hand on you and renew your heart or there is no chance of your entering into heaven.

Jesus Christ can make peace through His blood.  If the Spirit of God has convinced you of your sin as you read this, you can become a new creature, a new person, with a new heart if you will ask Jesus Christ to be your Savior.

By our physical birth we are at enmity with God, but by the new birth we are made His friend.  Our nature must be changed if we are to enter into God’s holy presence.  Here is the most precious promise for every sinner to believe.  “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).

SELAH! Pause – reflect- just think of that!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006 Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author’s written consent.

It is so Sure and Certain That

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. It is so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” — Martin Luther

Exercises We do Not Need in Our Daily Life

Wading through paperwork

~ Running around in circles

~ Pushing your luck

~ Spinning your wheels

~ Adding fuel to the fire

~ Beating your head against the wall

~ Climbing the walls

~ Beating your own drum

~ Dragging your heels

~ Jumping to conclusions

~ Grasping at straws

~ Fishing for compliments

~ Throwing your weight around

~ Passing the buck

Jumping on the bandwagon