The Fruit of Tough Love:


I am taken back when I begin to think about the Christlike Character that is going to be required to demonstrate true love in the days to come. That's because real love is no longer recognized as love, but is seen as hatred, intolerance, and narrow mindedness. Why? Because our country and culture has turned away from biblical principles of righteousness and justice which are the very things that sustain life and civilized living. It's crazy that this is even possible but we're there, and the bible says in Isaiah 5:20: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” We are living in the days when evil is being paraded around as "good", and the good is being shut out as "hate speech", "intolerant", "shameful" and "politically incorrect." The examples are everywhere. BUT there is good news in all this. God is alive and he is Good and Just and Righteous. The amazing thing about the Living God is that He is the one who demonstrates eternal love both in his mercy and his justice. 

"A boy or girl who grows up in the home knowing that they are loved will not despise discipline." unknown

I am impacted after reading that quote because our society and social system are in a moral crisis.  I personally do not despise discipline when it comes upon me. Even though it is not fun I do not despise it. I know I need it desperately. This is because I was really loved by my parents before and after they gave me a good loving wack when I was in the wrong. But mostly it is because God loves me and I know it. Because his Word is amazing and true. Do you think the people in this country are ready for a good loving wack? Do you think the people in this country despise discipline? Do you believe the majority of people in this country feel genuinely loved? Do people in this country believe in Jesus Christ as co-Equal with the Heavenly Father, as Creator of Heaven and Earth, as the only Savior of the world, as the only way to get to heaven for all people?


20If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot^a love God whom he has not seen. 21And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:20.


People don't know Love or how to love until they come to know the love of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Once we know God's love we will not despise his discipline, and we will be able to love people properly because we will see people properly.

Bend Low and Break that Stiff Necked Self!

One of the gifts that Jesus Christ brings to those who humble themselves before him is Peace. Jesus said that the peace he gives is not of this world:"I am leaving you a gift-peace of mind and heart- And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don't be troubled or afraid." John 14: 27. When I place my trust in Jesus Christ I am literally depending on him to be my Peace because there is no other place where peace can be found. He was the Peace Offering. In order to place my trust in Jesus and receive his peace I must become humble and broken before him. I must renounce my self and bend low at the foot of the cross.

"THERE IS SALVATION IN NO ONE ELSE! GOD HAS GIVEN NO OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN BY WHICH WE MUST BE SAVED" THE APOSTLE PETER : IN ACTS 4:12

Christians, Today is the day of your testing

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?m=t&s=929111718380

A Rest for the People of God

7Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,“Today, if you hear his voice,8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,on the day of testing in the wilderness,9 where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years.10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;they have not known my ways.’11 As I swore in my wrath,‘They shall not enter my rest.’”12Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15As it is said,“Today, if you hear his voice,do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”16For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. 

2 Peter 2:20

20For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

I took some notes recently on a message by Tim Conway that was convicting to hear. All I can say is that God is faithful and he is in complete control over each and every soul...giving everyone a faithful opportunity to come to him and trust him with a saving faith, and to get right with him before he returns. 

The "Promised Land/Heaven"...AKA..."Being with Jesus Forever" is worth every worldly humiliation and willful surrender of the flesh so as to conform to the true standard of God. Today, I notice that there are so many different standards that have been raised among the "Christians" on what it means to live right before God....and it is confusing! But life really changes for the better when we begin to learn what the standard of God is, and come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit to live by his standard. When I get away from doing what the Bible says my life spins out of control and out of the will of God, but I begin to see the vast differences between God's standards and man's when I read and hear the WORD of God.  To a follower of Jesus, living for him is serious business and it is the most incredible life, but it is the most challenging life at the same time . It is challenging because we must strive and agonize to continually live obediently and to "be holy as Jesus is holy" in a fallen world and in a fallen nature. That's what he calls his followers to do...to be obedient and to live holy... all the time. That is the serious standard of it all: to never take sin lightly within me or reduce/justify my sin as ok, or to ignore it as if it is not a big deal. All these things are easy to do if I am not striving to trust in the Lord.

To lessen the standard of God is dangerous. As a Christian, I know that Jesus Christ died for my sins, rose from the dead and is alive and active through the Bible and his Holy Spirit in my life. I know that he forgives me every time that I come to him and sincerely repent and turn away from doing or thinking in ways that are below his standard. But if I don't continue striving and I give into the world and start conforming to the world, and don't listen to the Holy Spirit's conviction it shows whether I have faith or not. I am saved by faith through Grace. God's grace is enough for me and I am thankful that he has planted in me a faith that will respond to the Holy Spirits conviction and the caring accountability of friends and family in my life. God gave this message to me so that I can re-standardize some things in my life with him, my marriage, and my family. The message is linked above if you want to listen to it. 

As a friend if you are a Christian and are sincerely wanting to live by the standard of God, and are dealing with anything where you choose sin more then obedience to Jesus Christ I encourage you to listen to these messages. God has been faithfully drawing near to me as I draw near to him.

Christians, Today is the Day of Your Testing Notes:

• What is saving faith that agonizes to enter the narrow gate? This is everything. 
• Faith & Striving are the same. 
• Strive not to fall into the same disobedient unbelief that was found at Massah and Meribah in Exodus 17:1-7.
• Strive by faith to stay in the faith.
• This faith is connected to the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12 shows us the character of God's Word
• Faith that agonizes exists because of the character of God's Word
• God's Word confronts us with the same choices- Hebrews 4:7
• Do I have deaf ears like those who didn't have faith to strive?
• Today the Word of God is the same as it was in the past
• God does not bring me to his rest if I do not strive or agonize, labor diligently and trust him.
• I will not enter God's rest if I do not trust Jesus with an agonizing faith- Hebrews 4:11
• The Word of God makes layers of falsehood and hypocrisy come off my inner life.
• The Word of God goes deep and unveils if there is faith driving the thoughts and actions. It reveals my whole man.
• I am to strive and cling to the promises of God.
• My time, money, behaviors are driven by choices and I must strive to trust Christ and follow the  Word of God.
• When all the layers are removed by the Word of God do I have agonizing faith?
• Strive to have the Word laying me open and exposing my life bare because unbelief will kill me.
• If I find unbelieving choices in my soul throw it away and repent immediately.
• Bring everything about me into the light...strive and agonize into the light, because it moves, stirs and lives.
• The Word of God is my very life or it is nothing to me at all....If it is not my life I am dead. 
• Pay attention to what I have heard about Christ and seek his love. 
• God's word shines in the deepest places with promise not condemnation.
• Psalm 95 bounds up my future.
• Do not conform to the World. Conform to the Word of God
• Hank strive to Christ in times of discouragement nothing else. Strive into prayer, love and the Holy Bible alone. Simply believe your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

How Can You Love Others If You Can't Love Your Wife:

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?m=t&s=213112338493

Do You Have Wisdom to See the End of Your Path: 

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?m=t&s=929111725541

Strive to Enter His Rest

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?m=t&s=1128112381610