GraceNTheTruth@ COX.NET~OUR ASSURANCES UNDER GRACE

*~GROWTH FOR SERVICE~*
*By M. Stanford*
"My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be 
formed in you" (Gal. 4:19).

A ministry of life, whether it be at the kitchen sink, or from the First 
Church pulpit, must flow from the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. That 
life must be developed in and shared through the growing believer, by 
the Holy Spirit. We are to rest in Him for spiritual growth, and He will 
work through us for spiritual service.

"He, whom the Lord cannot trust with the faithful care of his own 
vineyard, will not be trusted with the tending of God's Vineyard of 
living, immortal souls. How shall we face the Owner of the Vineyard, if 
we have neglected our own lives; if we have not entered into that which 
God has shown us; if we must say, when He asks us about the lack of 
fruit and the neglect which is so sadly evident: 'Lord, I was so busy 
tending Thy Vineyard, that my own vineyard I have not kept' (S.S. 1:6)." 
- C.H.MacI.

"Our Lord is more concerned for a testimony than for a work. We need to 
get clear on that. A good deal of confusion comes in when you begin to 
think of things in the light of a work. When you get a lot of people 
leaving their employment to go into 'the work,' all kinds of 
complications arise. It is not that we aren't to serve the Lord, but in 
the first place it is not the work the Lord is after, it is a testimony, 
it is a light, a living flame."

"That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful 
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col. 1:10).

*"May God, Whose grace is irresistible and *
*all sufficient, be glorified!" *

*THE CHRISTIAN' S GREATEST NEED. *
*PART SIX 
*"THAT I MAY KNOW HIM." *
*
This is henceforth the Christian' s great object. Nothing but this aim to 
get to know Christ (for this is the word used here, in Phil. 3:10).

As verse 9 contained the explanation of the words "found in him," so 
this verse (10) contains the explanation of how and why we are to get to 
know Christ.

We are henceforth no longer to know Him after the. flesh, but to get to 
know Him as risen; the head of the New Creation in resurrection (2 Cor. 
5:16,17).

For this is how this knowledge is explained: "that I may get to know him 
and the power of his resurrection" . Not to know merely the historical 
fact of his resurrection, but the "power" of it: i.e., what its wondrous 
power has done for us. But how can we get to know this "power" ? Ah! only 
by experiencing "the fellowship of His sufferings" : by learning that 
when He, the Head of the Body, suffered, all the members of that Body 
suffered in mysterious and blessed "fellowship with Him". Thus shall we 
get to know how we were "made conformable to Him in His death". Only 
when we have thus learned that we suffered when He suffered, and died 
when He died, can we begin to learn how we have risen also with Christ; 
and "get to know the power of His resurrection" .

How few of us know what this "power" is, as it takes us out of the old 
creation and sets us in the new creation, where "all things are of God" 
(2 Cor. 5:17).

This then is our object, to get to know all that Christ is made unto us 
in resurrection power.

How startling must these words have been as they fell upon the ears of 
Greeks (for this is the first city Paul set his foot in Europe). They 
had been brought up on the great motto of Solon, the wisest of the seven 
wise men of Greece. His motto was supposed by them to embody in itself 
the essence of all wisdom; and it consisted of only two words, which 
were carved over the entrance to the schools and colleges of Greece:

* (gnosthe seauton), *
*"KNOW THYSELF" *
*
But yet, how foolish are those words. For how can one know anything of 
himself by considering himself? If he looks at others, then he can see 
how different he is from them; and how much better or worse he may be 
than they.

But it is only when we compare ourself with Christ, who is the wisdom 
and glory of God, that we learn, what we really are; and how far short 
we come of that glory (Rom. 3:23). It is only as we see ourselves in 
"the Balance of the Sanctuary," or by the side of the plumbline of that 
Perfection, that we see, and get to know, our absolutely lost and ruined 
condition. Hence this new motto was thundered from heaven into the ears 
of those who sought to know themselves-- -

*"THAT I MAY GET TO KNOW HIM." *
*
Yes, this is our one object. This it is that will have the mighty 
transforming power over our lives. Every moment spent in seeking to know 
ourselves is a moment lost: and not only lost, but used to keep us from 
the one thing that alone can accomplish our object and teach us 
ourselves. Trying to know ourselves, we not only fail in the attempt, 
but we cease to learn Christ, which alone teaches us to know ourselves.

And yet, how many are spending their lives in this vain search? Running 
hither and thither to hear this man and that man. And, being constantly 
directed to this self-occupation, self-surrender, and self-examination, 
they are only led into trouble; or, into a joy which lasts only while 
the excitement is kept up.

Oh! to be occupied with Christ; to have Him for our object; and His 
resurrection power for our lives.

This we shall have; and have increasingly as we get to know Christ.

Again. What was it that led the heathen world into all its darkness, 
corruption, and sin? Just this: "they did not like to retain God in 
their knowledge. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 
and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of 
corruptible man" (Rom. 1: 22, 28).

Like people today who, ignorant of God as He has revealed Himself in His 
Word, make their god, some with their own hands, or out of their own 
heads, vainly imagining He is what they think He is, and worshipping, 
like the heathen, "the unknown God," such an one as themselves.

What was it that led Israel astray and brought upon them all their 
sorrows and sufferings? Isaiah opens with the Divine indictment, which 
gathers up in the briefest form the one great cause which
lay at the root of all:
*
*"The ox knoweth his owner,*
* And the ass his master's crib;*
* But Israel doth NOT KNOW,*
* My People doth not consider." *
*
See how the Lord Jesus confirms this in Luke xix:42-44, as He weeps over 
Jerusalem. All is summed up in the opening and closing words:
*
* "IF THOU HADST KNOWN! *
*even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy 
peace."

And then, turning to the reason for that judgment, He adds: "Because 
thou KNEWEST NOT the day, of thy visitation."

And what is to be the acme of Israel's glory in the day of her restoration?

Ah! then it shall come to pass that "they shall no more teach every man 
his neighbour saying, Know
the LORD: for they shall all KNOW ME, from the least of them unto the 
greatest of them, saith the Lord"(Jer. 31:34).

And what shall be Creation' s glory; and the peace and joy of the whole 
earth? This sums up all:

"The earth shall be full of the KNOWLEDGE OF GOD,
As the waters cover the sea" (lsa. 11:9)

And what is the secret of our being able to glory only in the Lord, and 
to enjoy His blessing in this the day of our visitation? It is given in 
Jer. ix:23, 24:
"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Neither let the mighty man glory in his might,
Let not the rich man glory in his riches:
But let him that glorieth, glory in this,
THAT HE UNDERSTANDETH AND
KNOWETH ME."

We are thus brought round, and brought back to the one great duty, which 
should henceforth absorb our hearts and minds, and fill our days and 
years; viz., to be instant in our study of the Word of God, which is 
given to us with the one great, express, commanding purpose---the 
revelation of Himself, in order that we may
*
*GET TO KNOW HIM.

*THE CHRISTIAN' S GREATEST NEED. *
*PART FIVE*
Take another illustration. Here is a friend in great difficulties; and 
we have a plan that will lift him right out of them, and set him on his 
feet again. He, meantime, comes to us and to borrow some small sum that 
will only give temporary relief, and leave him to struggle on still with 
his difficulties. He limits our power. His poor thoughts cannot rise to 
the extent of what we are able to do exceeding abundantly. If we answer 
his prayer, and grant him his request, and lend him what he asks, how 
small will be his blessing. Why does he not "ask or think" more "worthy" 
of our ability and love? Because he does not know us well enough! That 
is the secret, and that is why he is not delivered. He thinks he knows 
better than we do; and measures our willingness to give by his poor 
power to ask.

Oh to know the love, and power, and wisdom of our God. What a revolution 
it would make in our prayers, as well as in our lives.

But look again at another effect of this knowledge of God as applied to 
missionary work. What is the work of the missionary? He offers himself 
and is accepted. He is trained for his service, and he learns the 
particular language. The moment at length arrives when he is able to 
speak that language, and the opportunity comes to speak. Now, what is he 
going to say? What is the first thing that must come out from his opened 
lips? Is it not to explain his God to that heathen man or woman? Is it 
not to show how far the living God is above all their ideas? Is it not 
to tell how God has revealed Himself in His Word? and to explain that 
revelation, and to minister that Word.

We thus see how a true knowledge of God lies at the threshold of all 
missionary work. How can a man explain God unless he knows God? and how 
can God be known apart from His Word? Hence the supreme necessity of so 
studying that Word that we may not only enjoy but be able to speak of 
Him of Whom that Word is sent to testify.

So far we have spoken only of a knowledge of God---the Father. But it is 
also of the greatest importance that we should have a true knowledge of 
Christ.

This is the Christian' s one object, as well as his greatest need.

This is set forth with remarkable clearness and force in Phil. 3.

In the ninth verse we have our standing in Christ expressed in the words

*"FOUND IN HIM." *
*
This is explained as not having our own righteousness, but that which is 
through the faith of Christ; "the righteousness which is of God by faith".

Clothed in this righteousness, nothing of self is seen by God. Like the 
stones in the Temple, they were covered over first with cedar-wood; and 
the cedar-wood was covered over with gold. Then it is added, "there was 
no stone seen". These words are not necessary either for the grammar, or 
for the sense; for how could the stone be seen if thus doubly covered 
up? No! the words are graciously added to emphasize the anti type, and 
to impress upon us the blessed fact that, when covered with Christ's 
righteousness there is nothing of self seen in our standing before God. 
We are already "in the heavenlies, in Christ" ; and are comely in all His 
comeliness, perfect in all His perfection, accepted in all His merit, 
righteous as He is righteousness; yea, holy as He is holy, and loved as 
He is beloved. All this is included in those words, "found in Him".

And being thus "found in Him" for our standing, we have in verses 20, 21 
our hope; which, is to be

*
*"LIKE HIM" *
*
in resurrection and ascension glory at His coming. Hence "we look for 
the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that 
it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the 
working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself" .

This is our "blessed hope". We have referred to it here, and not in the 
order in which it stands in this chapter, in order to show what it is 
that lies between the two---the beginning and the end of our Christian 
course. What is it that is to fill the place between these two? What is 
to occupy our hearts from the moment when we were in Christ, who is our 
life, to the moment when we shall be like Christ, who shall be our 
glory? What is the one object that is to ever fill our hearts and occupy 
our minds?
*
*Rest means to trust Jesus Christ as our Life-Source, *
*depending on Him to empower our actions*
* with His strength and direction.

*THE CHRISTIAN' S GREATEST NEED. *
*PART THREE
*ONLY FROM HIS WORD. *
There, and there alone can we Get to know Him. There alone shall we 
learn the fulness of the Spirit's prayer for us in Eph. 1:17; and the 
blessed practical outcome of it in Col. 1:9,10.

No man has this knowledge of God intuitively. No minister can even help 
in imparting it, except in and by the ministry of that Word. His own 
thoughts are valueless. Only so far as he enables us to understand that 
Word can he be of any assistance to us. He may be mistaken himself, and 
very easily be a hindrance instead of a help. God has revealed Himself 
in His written Word, the Scriptures of truth; and in the Living Word, 
His Son, Jesus Christ. And it is by the Communicated Word revealed in 
our hearts by the Holy Ghost that we begin thus to get to know Him, whom 
to know is Life Eternal.

This is the one great reason why the written Word is given to us. It is 
not given merely as a book of general information, or of reference; but 
it is given to make known the invisible God.

Why do we read it? Why do we open it at all? What is, or ought to be, 
our object in reading it?

Do we read a portion that someone else has selected for us? Do we read 
that portion because we have promised someone we would do so? Or do we 
open it, and sit down before it with the one dominant object to find out 
God; to discover His mind; to get to know His will.

Those who are not thus engaged make their own god out of their own 
thoughts and imaginations. They have to fall back on what they think 
their god likes!

Thousands make their gods with their hands, out of wood, or stone, or 
bread. Thousands more make him out of their own heads. But, being 
ignorant of God's Word, they are alike ignorant of the God Who has there 
revealed Himself.

See the power of this truth as it is applied to what is called "Public 
Worship" or "Divine Service" . How many still worship "the unknown God"; 
and serve themselves; and do what is pleasing in their own eyes, 
studying only their own tastes! Ignorant of that great rubrick, John 
4:24, "God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him MUST worship Him in 
spirit and in truth" (i.e., truly in spirit), they talk of the kind of 
service they prefer, and say, "I don't like that at all"; or, "I do like 
that so much"; as though "places of worship," so-called, were opened 
merely for persons to go in and do what pleases themselves, forgetful of 
that word "MUST," which dominates the whole sphere of what we call worship.

Worship "must" be only with the spirit. We cannot worship God-who is a 
Spirit-with our eyes, by looking on at what is being done. We cannot 
worship God with our noses, by smelling incense, whether ceremonially or 
otherwise used. We cannot worship God with our ears, by listening to 
music, however well it may be "rendered" ;. No! worship cannot be with any 
of our senses; or by all of them put together. It must be spiritual, and 
not sensual. The worshippers must be spiritual worshippers, for "the 
Father seeketh such to worship Him" (John 4:23).

How many of such worshippers frequent our churches and chapels? How many 
are still worshipping "the unknown God" (Acts 17:23) ?

Is it possible that, if the true God were known the great, the High and 
Holy God, who dwelleth not in temples made with hands; the God who 
inhabiteth eternity; the God in whose sight the very heavens are not 
clean, and who chargeth His angels with folly---is it possible, we ask, 
that any who know Him could imagine, for one moment, that He "seeks" or 
could be pleased with, or accept, or regard a congregation turning the 
Bible into "a book of the words," and listening, for example, to a girl 
singing a solo, getting as high a note as she can, and holding it out as 
long as she can! Is THAT what The Great and Infinite God is seeking? Is 
that the occupation of the heart with Himself which He says He "MUST" 
have? No indeed! and the greater the ignorance of God, the deeper and 
more degraded will become the accompaniments of what is called "Public 
Worship" .

Consider further, the effect of this great truth on our daily life. What 
rest and peace it brings. Look at its influence on our prayers. What is 
prayer for? Why are we told so often to pray? Why? Because prayer is 
intended to humble us by putting us into the place of helplessness and 
dependence. Prayer is meant to put us with our faces in the dust before 
the Mighty God.

*THE CHRISTIAN' S GREATEST NEED*
*PART TWO
*If we really knew Him, and believed that He knows better than we do 
what is good for us, there would be no effort whatever, but only a 
blessed irrepressible desire for His will.

Before we proceed further to consider some other of the practical 
effects of this knowledge, let us notice the fact that there are two 
words in the original for this knowledge of God. Two verbs which mean to 
know. As these are used sometimes in the very same verse, it is very 
important that we should carefully distinguish that which the Holy 
Spirit has so especially emphasized. There are, indeed, six Greek words 
which are translated to know, but these two are the most common.

1. The one, (oida), means to know without learning or effort; and 
refers to what we know intuitively, or as a matter of fact or history.
2. The other, (ginosko), means to get to know; by effort, or 
experience, or learning.

This difference will be clearly seen, if we examine one or two passages:

John 13:7. "What I do thou knowest (oida) not now." This is the 
former of these two words, and tells us that Peter had no intuitive 
knowledge of what the Lord was doing; and had no means of knowing. It 
was impossible. The Lord, however, goes on to say, "but thou shalt know 
(i.e., get to know) hereafter." Peter would learn, and find out, by 
experience and revelation, what the Lord was then doing.

John 8:55. "Ye have not known him (i.e., gotten to know him. (No. 2 
ginosko) of these two words); but I know him (No.1 eido); and if I 
should say I know (No.1 eido) him not, I shall be a liar like unto you; 
but I know him (No.1 eido)." Here the Lord declares His immanent 
knowledge of the Father; and declares that those whom He was addressing, 
not only had no such innate knowledge of God, but had not even attained 
to that knowledge.

1 John 5:20. "We know (No.1 eido, i.e., we know as a historical fact, 
without learning it) that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an 
understanding, that we may know (i.e., get to 'know, No. 2 ginosko) him 
that is true."

Here the truth is taught that, before anyone can get to know God, he 
must have a spiritual under-standing imparted to him. With this agrees 1 
Cor. 2:14. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of 
God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he get to know 
(ginosko) them." Why not? Because "they are spiritually discerned." The 
natural man has no means of getting to know spiritual things. A 
spiritual understanding must first be "given" to him. Then he is able 
not only to discern, but to love and delight in the revelation of 
spiritual things, and to get to know Him, "the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ whom he hath sent." "This is life eternal" (John 17:3).

The importance of getting to know God is thus again wondrously 
emphasized as our one great need. This knowledge is not only the basis 
of trust in God; not only the foundation of Christian faith; but of 
Christian life. Practical Christian life and walk will be in direct 
proportion to our knowledge of God. Look at Cot 1:9,10, where we have 
the practical outcome of the prayer in Eph. 1:17. In Eph. 1:17 we have 
the prayer itself. In Col. 1:9,10, we have it applied for our correction 
and instruction. Carefully weigh the words. "For this cause, we also, 
since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to 
desire" ---Desire what? "that ye might be filled with the knowledge (the 
noun from (No.2, ginosko i.e., acquired knowledge) of his will in all 
wisdom and spiritual understanding. " Why? For what purpose? To what end? 
"THAT YE MAY WALK WORTHY OF THE LORD UNTO ALL PLEASING, being fruitful 
in every good work, and increasing in THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD."

Then, to walk worthy of the Lord, I must know Him? Exactly so. If I 
would please Him in all things I must know what will please Him. Is this 
all that is required? All that I have to do? Yes, this is all. Then I 
have not to rush hither and thither; from Convention to Convention? No, 
I have to sit down before God's Word, and get to know Him through that. 
There is no other way of getting to know Him. And He has given us His 
Word, and revealed Himself therein, on purpose that we may study it and 
find out what it is that pleases Him; what it is He loves; what it is He 
hates; what it is He does. To get to know His wisdom, His will, His 
infinite love, His almighty power, His faithfulness, His holiness, His 
righteousness, His truth, His goodness and mercy, His long-suffering, 
His gentleness, His care, and all the innumerable attributes of our 
great and glorious God.

See how this knowledge is absolutely necessary, if we would please God.

We cannot please any of our friends unless we know what they are pleased 
with. If we would make a present to one of them, we naturally think, or 
try to find out, what it is he or she needs or would be pleased to have. 
If we are receiving a guest, we naturally try to remember or find out 
what pleases him in food or drink, in occupation or recreation. If we 
cannot find this out, then we have to guess at it, and we may or may not 
succeed in our effort to please. We may take the greatest trouble and 
pains, and yet, after all, we may arrange for or provide the very thing 
which is most disliked.

It is even so with our God. How are we to find out the things that 
please Him? How are we to discover the things He approves?

*THE CHRISTIAN' S GREATEST NEED.*
*PART ONE 
There is one thing that the Christian needs more than he needs any other 
thing. One thing on which all others rest; and on which all others turn.

It is certain from the Word of God, and also from our own experience, 
that "we know not what we should pray for as we ought". But "the Spirit 
Himself helpeth our infirmities" (Rom. 8.26). He knoweth what we should 
pray for. He knoweth what we need. He maketh intercession. for us and in 
us. He teacheth us how to pray, and in Eph. 1:17, we have His prayer set 
forth in these words:
"that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may 
give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in
*THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM." *
*
This, then, must be our greatest need: A true knowledge of God.

If the Holy Spirit thus puts it before all other things, it must be 
because it is more important than any other thing; yea, than all others 
put together.

This, it is, that lies at the foundation of the Christian Faith; at the 
threshold of Christian life.
It is the essence of all trust.

We cannot trust a person if we do not know him. At least, it is safer 
for us not to do so; and as a rule we do not.

But on the other hand, when we know a person thoroughly well, we cannot 
help trusting him. No effort to trust is required when we perfectly know 
a person. The difficulty then is, not to trust.

Why, then, do we not thus trust God? Is not the answer clear? It is 
because we do not know Him!

Thus we see how this knowledge of God is our greatest need; the very 
first step of our Christian course. Our trust will ever be in proportion 
to our knowledge.

If we knew, for example a billionth part of God's infinite wisdom, we 
should see our own to be such utter folly, that we should not merely be 
"willing" for His will, but we should desire it. It would be our 
greatest happiness for Him to do and arrange all for us. We should say, 
'Lord, I am so foolish 'and ignorant; I know nothing, and can do 
nothing; 'I can see only this present moment; I know nothing 'of 
to-morrow. But Thou canst see the end from 'the beginning. Thy wisdom is 
infinite, and thy 'love is infinite; for, our Saviour and Lord could 
'say 'of us to Thee, as Thy beloved Son-- "Thou hast 'loved them, as 
thou has loved me" (John 17:23). 'Do, then, Thine own will. This is my 
desire, the 'desire of my heart. This is what I long for above 'all things.'

This is far beyond being "willing" . We may be willing for a thing, 
because we cannot help it. It may be even a low form of Christian 
fatalism. A Mahommedan may be thus resigned to the will of his god.

But what we are speaking of is far, far beyond the modern gospel of 
holiness; far in advance of merely being "willing" .

Those who are in the still lower condition; not "willing, " but "willing 
to be made willing," do not see that this condition arises from not 
knowing God; not knowing how infinite is His love, how vast is His 
wisdom, how blessed and how sweet is His will. If they did but know 
something of this, they would yearn for His will. It would be the one 
great earnest desire and longing of their hearts for Him to do exactly 
what is pleasing in His own sight, in us, and for us, and through us.

Not knowing this secret, Christians, everywhere, are striving and 
labouring to be "willing" by looking at themselves; and by some definite 
"act of faith" to do something of themselves. Instead of
thinking of His wisdom and His love, they are thinking of themselves and 
of their "surrender&quo t;.

But this is labour in vain. Even if it should seem to accomplish 
something, it is only like tying paper flowers on a plant. They may look 
natural and fair; but they have no scent, and no life; no fruit, and no 
seed. It is an artificial, fictitious attempt to produce that which, if 
they did but know God, would come of itself, without an effort: yea, the 
effort would be to stop or hinder the mighty power of a true knowledge 
of God.

The trouble with us is, if we prove our hearts to their depth, that, at 
the bottom, we think we know better. We would not say it for the world, 
we would hardly admit it to ourselves. But there it is; and the 
difficulty of being "made willing" is the proof of it.

GraceNTheTruth@COX.NET

BLESSED ASSURANCE*
*By Judy*

"…Yet I am not ashamed, because I KNOW Whom I have believed, and am 
persuaded that He IS ABLE to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that 
day" (2 Timothy 1: 12).

The song, "Blessed Assurance" has words that ring like bells through my 
spirit and soul; how awesome is our God, that He is able to bring this 
heart such joy and such peace amid the tumultuous world about me! I 
praise His holy name!

I am bursting with love for my Jesus. He has given me assurance of 
eternal life and oh how glorious that will be. I am a joint heir with 
Jesus, God’s Son because of the cross of Calvary. Jesus purchased my 
salvation; I am filled with His Spirit and I am washed clean in His 
blood. His blood; what wonderful POWER there is in His blood, power to 
break chains of slavery, to forgive ALL my sin, to heal every cell in my 
body, and to protect me. Hallelujah!

Awake, you who sleep; arise from the dead and Christ will give you 
light. It is high time to awaken out of sleep; for now our salvation is 
nearer than when we first believed (Ephesians 5:13-20). Therefore let us 
not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober, putting on the 
breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation 
(Romans 13:11-14; 1 Thessalonians 5:4-9). Gird up the loins of your 
mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be 
brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Be of good courage, 
and let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. Watch 
and pray; stand fast in the faith, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

"Arise and shine for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is 
risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and deep 
darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you and His glory will 
be seen upon you (Isaiah 60: 1-3).

"An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone 
around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do 
not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all 
the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He 
is Christ the Lord. This shall be a sign to you: You will find a baby 
wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.' Suddenly a great company of 
the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His 
favor rests" (Luke 2: 9-14; John 17).

As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have 
life in Himself. As the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, 
even so the Son gives life to whom He will. He who has the Son has life; 
he who does not have the Son of God does not have life (1 John 5: 11, 
12). Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift (2 Corinthians 9:15)!

"Make a JOYFUL SHOUT to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with 
gladness; come before His presence with singing. Enter into His gates 
with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, 
and bless His name" (Psalm 100: 1- 4). "For unto us a Child is born, 
unto us a Son is given; and the government will be on His shoulder. And 
HIS NAME will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting 
Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9: 6; Luke 1: 46, 47). Hallelujah!!

"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you 
faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God 
our Savior, who alone is wise, be GLORY and MAJESTY, DOMINION and POWER, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord, before ALL ages, NOW and FOREVERMORE! 
Amen" (Jude 24, 25).

My question this week: "Do you have the assurance of eternal life?"
In Jesus' Name,
Judy

*Without Jesus Christ Life is impossible *
* John Christopher*
*
*Love The Truth*

*I love the truth. *
*I hate a lie.*
*Living a lie, we will die.*
*Jesus gave us the word of God.*
*The word of God is truth.*
*The word of God has set us free.*
*I was once blind, now I see.*
*For the grace of God has saved us.*
*I praise the Lord for this grace he hath set us free.*
*Jesus is the truth and the light.*
*He gave us life. *
*His Glory is so Bright.*
*For the Glory goes to Jesus Christ.*
*Let's not let be taken away.*

*In His grace and love, Paris*

*THAT I MAY KNOW HIM*
*By the late Charles W. Wages*
*
The most important person in all the universe to know is the Lord Jesus 
Christ!

We, as human beings, like to know important persons. We like to obtain 
their autographs, watch them perform, and to say, I know that person. We 
are impressed and often time overwhelmed by the presence and person of 
an individual.

Shouldn' t we desire to personally know the God of glory? The One who 
created this planet, earth? Shouldn' t we desire to know the One who 
loves us more than anyone else? The One who loved us enough to die for 
us? This person is the Lord Jesus the God who came down from glory to 
save us from our sin and give us a new life. Yes, we all need to know 
Him as our personal Saviour and Lord. The Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 
1:12:

For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep 
that which I have committed unto Him against that day.

We like to let others know that we know important persons. When this is 
done just for a show it is called name-dropping. But, oh, how we need to 
know Him and to make Him known to a lost and perishing world. What the 
whole world needs is love. Who the whole world needs to know is the Lord 
Jesus Christ!

We can make Him known by worshipping Him, following Him, obeying Him, 
and living daily for Him. A real Christian should know a whole lot about 
the Lord and His Word, the Bible. In this manner, we can make Him known 
to others. The Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 4:6:

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may 
know how ye ought to answer every man.

Then in Ephesians 6:19 Paul wrote:

And (pray) for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open 
my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.

How wonderful to know Him and make Him known!

* THOUGHT FOR NEXT WEEK*
Lord Jesus, my indwelling Savior, please express Your life in and 
through me. May there be no area of my life that is just me doing my 
best or me fulfilling my will. Also, Lord, be my strength, enabling me 
to share these great realities with others, in Your mighty name, 
Amen Phil. 2:13

*INITIAL PREPARATION *
*By Miles Stanfor
"Saul armed David with his armor .... And David said unto Saul, I cannot 
go with these; for I have not tested them" (I Sam. 17:38, 39).

Years of preparation are worth a moment of truth! Rest assured that once 
we are developed and trained by the Holy Spirit, the work where unto He 
has called us will be ready and waiting (Acts 13:2). "Our Lord must have 
an instrument which He has formed in the fire and to which He has given 
peculiar knowledge of Himself."

"The greater the knowledge committed to a servant, the more necessary 
and important it is that he should be much alone with God about it, in 
order that he may realize the nature and effect of it on himself before 
he undertakes to make it known to others.

"It rebukes the haste and readiness with which many now enter the 
ministry, attempting to impress others with a measure of the truth which 
they have not proved for themselves. Surely the servant should ever be 
able to say: 'I believed, and therefore have I spoken' (II Cor. 4:13). 
It is better to lose time as to work in preparation for service than to 
lose time in repairing one's mistakes in undertaking a work for which 
one is not yet qualified."

"A servant' s discipline must always be in advance of the service 
prepared for him. He cannot lead beyond the point to which he himself 
has been led. But when the depth and reality of the truth has been 
established in his own soul, he is made the channel of it."

"I have found that many a thing which I had presented in an extreme way 
because I was sure of it, I put forth in a simpler and a more real way 
when I had touched it in my own experience."
- J. B. S.

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you" (I John 1:3).

*LIFE-GIVING CRUCIFIXION *
*By Miles Stanford*
"Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty with which Christ hath made us 
free" (Gal. 5:1).

First, the believer understands that he has a right to be free in the 
Lord Jesus because of the finished work of the Cross; then he sees that 
same work of the Cross as his means to be free.

'When we truly hate ourselves, we are prepared to rejoice in the blessed 
fact that we have been crucified with the Lord Jesus - that sin in the 
flesh was condemned (not forgiven) when He died unto sin, that our whole 
history as in the flesh closed before the Father in His Son's death ~and 
that this is our title to be free. I have now a righteous title to have 
done with myself because I have died unto sin in the Lord Jesus' death.

"To prepare me for this I learn the necessity for death in my own 
experience, but the death of the Lord Jesus is my title to be free. It 
is by the appropriation of His death that I reach liberty and newness of 
life; that death has severed me from all that I was as in fallen Adam. 
'I have been crucified with Christ.' I am free from myself, and free to 
have the One who is my, Christian life before me." -C.A.C.

"The Lord Jesus will make it His business to keep us alive and fruitful, 
if we will make it our business to rely upon Him. There must be no 
carnal, straining, no natural effort; we do not have to keep ourselves 
alive. Every fear to go down into daily death, every clinging to that 
which belongs to us, every grasp on our own personal position or 
ministry, will only hinder the manifestation of His life. It is to be 
life out of death. Even when our trust in Him brings us into the most 
helpless and impossible situations, we may rest assured that all will be 
well, for He is indeed the God of resurrection. " -H.F.

"For ye died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3)

*THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK*

*The great mistake made by most of the Lord's people*
* is In hoping to discover in themselves that which is to be found in 
Christ alone.*
*-Martin Luther*

What's Behind Our Moral Decline?
by Pastor C. R. Stam

One does not have to be a prude to conclude that our country is 
suffering a serious moral decline. Our rulers and law enforcement 
agencies seem powerless to cope with it. Campaigns to check it seem 
vain. J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI warned us again and again that the 
alarming rate of this downward trend would spell ruin for America if not 
checked soon. But what most people fail to realize is that behind this 
moral decline there is a spiritual decline. America has departed from 
God and His Word.

Paul's letter to the Romans tells us how the heathen got that way.Rom. 
1:21,22 says: "When they knew God they glorified Him not as God,neither 
were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish 
heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they became fools," 
and the verses that follow tell how God finally had to "give them up" to 
"uncleanness&q uot; and "vile affections" --all because "they did not like 
[wish] to retain God in their knowledge" (Ver. 28).

St. Paul further describes them in Eph. 4:17-19, as walking "in the 
vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated 
from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of 
the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling [conscience] have 
given themselves over to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with 
greediness." This, sad to say, is an accurate description of increasing 
numbers in America today. They are throwing off restraint and going 
after uncleanness" with greediness."

But this is not liberty, it is enslavement. It is not a sign of 
strength, but of weakness. It does not indicate superior intelligence, 
but grossest ignorance, and is the result of alienation from God.

How much better off are those who have come to know God through Christ! 
Of these the Apostle says:

"And you, who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked 
works, yet now hath He reconciled, in the body of His flesh, through 
death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His 
sight" (Col. 1:21,22).

THOUGHT TO PONDER

Encourage others to recognize America' s Need to bless God

Dear Saints,
As Americans, we can bless God. And as a nation, we must bless God. 
Those two truths are why + + We Are Told To "Bless God".

Fifteen times in the King James Version of the Holy Bible, God's 
people are told to "bless the Lord." The Message, a modern translation 
of the Bible that was first published in 1993, contains 21 verses with 
the words "bless God." Most of them are in the book of Psalms, 
including: "O you, his people - bless God!" (Ps. 68:35).

"America Bless God, + + Celebrate The True Source Of Our Prosperity

SEATED IN HEAVEN*
* by C. R. Stam*

God sees every believer in Christ as already in heaven. See what 
the Bible says about this:

"BUT GOD, WHO IS RICH IN MERCY, FOR HIS GREAT LOVE WHEREWITH HE LOVED US,
"EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD IN SINS, HATH QUICKENED US TOGETHER WITH CHRIST 
(BY GRACE YE ARE SAVED),
"AND HATH RAISED US UP TOGETHER AND MADE US SIT TOGETHER IN HEAVENLY
PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS:
"THAT IN THE AGES TO COME HE MIGHT SHOW THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS 
GRACE IN HIS KINDNESS TOWARD US THROUGH CHRIST JESUS" (Eph. 2:4-7).

Most sincere believers, poorly taught in the Word, are concerned about 
getting to heaven, but as far as God is concerned they are already 
there. They have been "made accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6). God has 
given them a position "in Christ."

We are well aware that most of God's people know little about this 
experientially, but God says that as far as He is concerned, they are 
already in heaven, and this is what matters. As Christ took our place on 
Calvary' s cross, God now sees us in Christ, at His own right hand, the 
place of favor and honor. This is why the Apostle Paul says to believers 
in Christ:

"IF YE THEN BE RISEN WITH CHRIST, SEEK THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE ABOVE, 
WHERE CHRIST SITTETH ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD.
"SET YOUR AFFECTION ON THINGS ABOVE, NOT ON THINGS ON THE EARTH.
"FOR YE ARE DEAD, AND YOUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD" (Col. 3:1-3).

And all this by the free grace of God:

"WHO HATH SAVED US, AND CALLED US WITH AN HOLY CALLING, NOT ACCORDING TO 
OUR WORKS, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS OWN PURPOSE AND GRACE, WHICH WAS GIVEN 
US IN CHRIST JESUS BEFORE THE WORLD BEGAN" (II Tim. 1:9).

Our hearts go out to those of our readers who have not yet received this 
"gift of the grace of God." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou 
shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31).
"KNOWN UNTO GOD ARE ALL HIS WAYS" *

*He knows from the beginning! *
*He moves forward to a purposed*
* point and a glorious goal. *
*Man often fails to finish what he begins,*
* but God never begins what He does not finish *

*THE VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY*
*by C. R. Stam 
"From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to 
make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus" 
(II Tim. 3:15).

Timothy was a fortunate young man. His father was not a believer in 
Christ, but his godly mother made up for this lack as, day after day, 
from his earliest childhood, she taught him the Word of God. As a result 
he came to know Christ at an early age and later became St. Paul's 
faithful co-worker and close associate in making known the wonderful 
"good news of the grace of God."

In his very last letter the great Apostle Paul recalls Timothy' s 
"unfeigned faith... which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy 
mother Eunice" (II Tim. 1:5).

If only we had more such mothers and grandmothers today, with husbands 
to help them! If only our American children were not set adrift on a 
restless sea of human speculation, but were taught the eternal truths of 
God's Word, the Bible!

We all need to "know the Holy Scriptures," not only because they teach 
reverence for God and build moral character, but most of all because 
they "are able to make [us] wise unto salvation through faith... in 
Christ Jesus."

The theme of the Bible, the Old Testament as well as New, is the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the riches of whose saving grace are unfolded to us in the 
Epistles of Paul, the chief of sinners saved by grace. It was to Paul 
that God committed the preaching of the cross of Christ. He it is who 
tells us about the riches that flow from Calvary. He it is who tells us, 
by divine inspiration that:

"...WE HAVE REDEMPTION THROUGH [CHRIST' S] BLOOD, THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS 
ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GRACE" (Eph. 1:7).

"THAT IN THE AGES TO COME HE MIGHT SHOW THE EXCEEDING RICHES OF HIS 
GRACE IN HIS KINDNESS TOWARD US THROUGH CHRIST JESUS" (Eph. 2:7)
*When I was young I was sure of everything;*
* in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times,*
* I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; *
* at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has 
revealed to me.*
* 
John Wesley *

*THE DOCTRINE OF ASSURANCE*
*By Pastor Robert Hanna*

*

Scripture Reading: Titus 2:13

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye 
have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The 
Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children 
of God" (Romans 8:14-16). This declaration alone should provide the 
believer with unqualified assurance of his salvation. Our apostle tells 
us, "After that ye believed, YE WERE SEALED with that Holy Spirit of 
promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of 
the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 
1:13b,14). The transaction is completed, our position certain. We are 
sealed by the Holy Spirit Himself.

The Apostle Paul's declaration of his own confidence should be echoed by 
every child of God. "I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that 
He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that 
day" (2 Timothy 1:12b). He fervently prayed for the saints, "That their 
hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all 
riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of 
the mystery of God" (Colossians 2:2). He affirms our certain expectation 
of eternally dwelling in glory, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid 
with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then 
shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Colossians 3:3, 4). "These 
things have I written unto you that who believe on the Name of the Son 
of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life" (I John 5: 13).

Lord Jesus, You are my indwelling treasure. When pressures, 
perplexities, persecutions, or catastrophes come our way, teach us to 
trust in You. When others ask how we are sustained through these 
difficulties, remind us to give all glory and honor to You. In Your 
name I pray, Amen.

The EXCEEDING GREATNESS of GOD'S POWER
PART TWO OF THREE

God was ever well pleased with His Son; when He was Jesus of Nazareth in 
the midst of His people, and since He has raised Him from the dead and 
seated Him at His own right hand in the super-heavenlies. God manifested 
His great power in the act of the resurrection and exaltation of His 
Son. God manifests that same great power, to save from the penalty of 
sin, any and every sinner who believes this Divine gospel.

There is absolutely no saving message for anyone in the sinless life and 
holy example of the Son of God, apart from His death and resurrection. 
The penalty of sin is death. How could the sinner escape that death 
penalty by trying to live like Jesus lived? There would be no death 
penalty in such a struggle; but there would be utter failure; and 
eternal death after the futile struggle. It is the privilege of redeemed 
sinners to know Christ in the power of His resurrection; but not until 
they have escaped the death penalty by identification with Christ, 
"baptized into His death" (Rom. 6:3).

If the same exceeding great power that God manifested in raising Christ 
from death to the super-heavenlies is available for the believer to 
enable him to have power over sin, it would seem that the believer' s 
defeat could only be the result of his failure to appropriate and apply 
that exceeding great power. If such exceeding great power is available 
for the believer, then the believer should be delivered from the power 
of sin.

ACCOMPLISHED BY GOD'S POWER

"How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" 
(Rom.6:2). The believer is baptized into the death of Christ, and having 
been crucified with Him he is raised to walk in newness of life 
(Rom.6:4). "Sin shall not have dominion over you" (Rom. 6:14). "Let not 
sin reign in your mortal body" (Rom. 6:12).

>From these, and many other verses, it seems that victory is provided 
for the believer in Christ and that victory is expected of the believer 
in Christ. The believer is identified with Christ in death. Christ died 
unto sin.

"For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (CoI. 
3:3)."If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are 
above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col. 3:1). What 
things are where Christ is? Not a thing that has to do with sin. A very 
high standard? It couldn't be higher. It is the "super- heavenlies" 
standard. It is the Christ standard. The things which are where Christ 
is are the things which are in Christ. And the believer is in Christ. 
The believer is raised with Christ. The believer is seated with Christ 
in the heavenlies (Eph. 2:6). Because the exceeding great power God used 
to accomplish the resurrection of Christ is to us-ward who believe, the 
believer is exhorted to manifest that resurrection power in his life.

It is one thing to be kept by the power of God through faith unto that 
glorious salvation at the coming of the Lord; it is another thing today 
by day live in resurrection power.

Wise people realize how little
they know and how much
they need the great wisdom of God.
Joe Stowell

____Freedom's Warning____

We're taking back our country
From those who've been trying to botch it up again

And we're here to tell you
That we don't like it one bit

So if you choose to be on the wrong side
Prepare to be taken aback
John Christopher

*The EXCEEDING GREATNESS of GOD'S POWER *
*PART THREE OF THREE*
*

As believers we fail to measure up to God's standard, but we have no 
Divine authority to lower the standard to the level of our failures. 
When we would do good, evil is present. The flesh lusteth against the 
Spirit and we may not do the things that we should. But the exceeding 
great power of God is available.

*
*APPROPRIATION AND APPLICATION *
*
Believers are exhorted to pray without ceasing (I Thess. 5:7). Quite a 
big order for one who has many other duties. But it is God's order. And 
the principle is always, "Be it unto you according to your faith. "

The believer is exhorted to study, to present, to resist, to let, to 
hope, to overcome, to live, to watch, to be vigilant and sober, to seek. 
Then there are many negative exhortations.

He is to put on the whole armour of God. He is to witness and work. He 
is to walk in the Spirit and make no provisions for the flesh. He is to 
yield himself to God and his members as instruments of righteousness. He 
is to put on the new man and to put off the old man. There is to be no 
let-up and no let-down; no unoccupied moments; no surrender to Satan or 
self; no compromise; but constant abiding in Christ, in fellowship and 
communion, yielded every moment to the Holy Spirit, saying with Paul, "I 
can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13).

The believer is instructed to abstain from all appearance of evil 
(IThess. 5:22). He is exhorted to keep himself unspotted from the world. 
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1 John 
2:15). In fact, there are several hundred admonitions, injunctions, 
orders, warnings, beseechings and rules for his Christian conduct.

Such is the price of victory. Paul practiced what he preached. How are 
we getting along? Our sufficiency is of God!

God may not have done everything I want Him to do for me. Yet, He 
really deserves my constant gratitude. What of you? Do you realize that 
you ought to thank God always? Do you always thank Him?

1Th 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in 
Christ Jesus concerning you.

He's a Marine, 63 and tired and an actor on CSI! Wait till you read
by: "Paris" gracenthetruth
 * Dear believers in Christ,
*This was such a good article and written by a responsible actor. And I 
believe that every true American should read this and take it to heart. 
Many of you wiil not bothered to read it, but it is your loss.
I love you in Christ, and Christ loves you even more. Paris
------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
*Actor on "CSI" , the coroner*

Robert A. Hall is an actor. He plays the coroner on CSI if you
watch that show. He also is a Marine Vietnam War veteran, but
does not mention that he had his legs blown off in that war.
This should be required reading for every man, woman and child
in the United States of America .
*

"I' m 63 and I'm Tired"* /by Robert A. Hall/
*
I'm 63*. Except for one semester in college when jobs were
scarce and a six-month period when I was between jobs, but
job-hunting every day, I've worked hard since I was 18. Despite
some health challenges, I still put in 50-hour weeks, and
haven't called in sick in seven or eight years. I make a good
salary, but I didn't inherit my job or my income, and I worked
to get where I am. Given the economy, there's no retirement in
sight, and I'm tired. Very tired.
*
I'm tired* of being told that I have to "spread the wealth" to
people who don't have my work ethic. I'm tired of being told the
government will take the money I earned, by force if necessary,
and give it to people too lazy to earn it.
*
I'm tired* of being told that I have to pay more taxes to "keep
people in their homes." Sure, if they lost their jobs or got
sick, I'm willing to help. But if they bought Mc Mansions at
three times the price of our paid-off, $250,000 condo, on
one-third of my salary, then let the left-wing Congress-critters
who passed Fannie and Freddie and the Community Reinvestment Act
that created the bubble use their own money to help them.
*
I'm tired* of being told how bad America is by left-wing
millionaires like Michael Moore, George Soros and Hollywood
Entertainers who live in luxury because of the opportunities
America provided to them. In thirty years, if they get their
way, the United States will have:

1. the economy of Zimbabwe ,

2. the freedom of the press of China

3. the crime and violence of Mexico ,

4. the tolerance for Christian people of Iran

5. the freedom of speech of Venezuela ..
*
I'm tired* of being told that Islam is a "Religion of Peace,"
when every day I can read stories of Muslim men killing their
sisters, wives and daughters for their family "honor" ; of
Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering
Christian and Jews because they aren't "believers&quo t;; of Muslims
burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape
victims to death for "adultery" ;; of Muslims mutilating the
genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the
Qur'an and Sharia’s law tells them to.
*
I'm tired* of being told that "race doesn't matter" in the
post-racial world of Obama, when it's all that matters in
affirmative action jobs, lower college admission and graduation
standards for minorities (harming them the most), government
contract set-asides, tolerance for the ghetto culture of
violence and fatherless children that hurts minorities more than
anyone, and in the appointment of U.S. Senators from Illinois.
*
I think* it's very cool that we have a black president and that
a black child is doing her homework at the desk where Lincoln
wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. I just wish the black
president was Condi Rice, or someone who believes more in
freedom and the individual and less arrogantly in an all-knowing
government.
*
I'm tired* of being told that out of "tolerance for other
cultures" we must not complain when Saudi Arabia uses the money
we pay for their oil to fund mosques and madras Islamic schools
to preach hate in America, while no American group is allowed to
fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia to
teach love and tolerance.
*
I'm tired* of being told I must lower my living standard to
fight global warming, which no one is allowed to debate. My wife
and I live in a two-bedroom apartment and carpool together five
miles to our jobs. We also own a three-bedroom condo where our
daughter and granddaughter live. Our carbon footprint is about
5% of Al Gore's, and if you're greener than Gore, you're green
enough.
*
I'm tired* of being told that drug addicts have a disease, and I
must help support and treat them, and pay for the damage they
do. Did a giant germ rush out of a dark alley, grab them, and
stuff white powder up their noses while they tried to fight it
off? I don't think gay people choose to be gay, but I #@*# sure
think druggies chose to take drugs. And I'm tired of harassment
from "cool" people treating me like a freak when I tell them I
never tried marijuana.
*
I'm tired* of illegal aliens being called "undocumented
workers," especially those who aren't working, but living on
welfare or crime. What's next? Calling drug dealers,
"Undocumented Pharmacists" ? And, no, I'm not against Hispanics.
Most of them are Catholic, and it's been a few hundred years
since Catholics wanted to kill me for my religion.. I'm willing
to fast track citizenship for any Hispanic who can speak
English, doesn't have a criminal record and who is
self-supporting without family on welfare, or who serves
honorably for three years in our military. Those are the kind of
citizens we need.
*
I'm tired* of the trashing of our military by latte liberals and
journalists, who would never wear the uniform of the Republic
themselves, or let their entitlement- handicapped kids near a
recruiting station. They and their kids can sit at home, never
having to make split-second decisions under life and death
circumstances, and bad mouth better people than themselves. Do
bad things happen in war? You bet. Do our troops sometimes
misbehave? Sure. Does this compare with the atrocities that were
the policy of our enemies for the last fifty years and still
are? Not even close. So here's a deal for those folks. I'll let
myself be subjected to all the humiliation and abuse that was
heaped on terrorists at Abu Ghraib or Gitmo, while the critics
of our military can be subject to captivity by the Muslims, who
tortured and beheaded Daniel Pearl in Pakistan, or the Muslims
who tortured and murdered Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins in
Lebanon, or the Muslims who ran the blood-spattered Al Qaeda
torture rooms our troops found in Iraq, or the Muslims who cut
off the heads of schoolgirls in Indonesia because the girls were
Christian -- then we'll compare notes. Bri tish and American
soldiers are the only troops in history that civilians came to
for help and handouts, instead of hiding from in fear.
*
I'm tired* of people telling me that their party has a corner on
virtue and the other party has a corner on corruption. Read the
papers; bums are bipartisan. And I'm tired of people telling me
we need bipartisanship. I live in Illinois , where the "Illinois
Combine" of Democrats has looted the public treasury for years.
Not to mention the tax cheats in Obama's cabinet.
*
I'm tired* of hearing wealthy athletes, entertainers and
politicians of both parties talking about "innocent" ; mistakes,
"stupid" mistakes or "youthful" ; mistakes, when all of us know
they think their only mistake was getting caught.
*
Speaking of poor, I'm tired *of people with a sense of
entitlement who have air-conditioned homes, color TVs and two
cars called poor. The majority of Americans didn't have that in
1970, but we didn't know we were "poor." The poverty pimps have
to keep changing the definition of poor to keep the dollars
flowing.
*
I'm real tired* of people, rich or poor, who don't take
responsibility for their lives and actions. I'm tired of hearing
them blame the government, or discrimination or big-whatever for
their problems.
*
Yes, I'm tired, b*ut I'm also glad to be 63, mostly because I'm
not going to have to see the world these people are making. I'm
just sorry for my granddaughter.
*/
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam veteran who served five terms
in the Massachusetts State Senate./**/
There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of
us sends it on!/*

THE GOD OF PEACE*
*By John D. LaVier*

The name God of Peace is used three times in the New Testament 
Scriptures: Romans 16:20, Philippians 4:9, and Hebrews 13:20. This name 
stands in contrast to God as He revealed Himself to Israel in the Old 
Testament. There He is many times called the Lord of Hosts. This is a 
warriors name. He is the Lord of the fighting armies and over and over 
again He fought on behalf of His people.

This name stands also in vivid contrast to the worlds past, which has 
known little of peace. From the very beginning of mans history upon the 
earth, even until the present moment, it has been a continued story of 
nation being pitted against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Strong 
nations and mighty empires have appeared upon the scene, flourished for 
a season, and then vanished away. They have fallen by two causes: (1) an 
inner decay of pride, envy, greed and lust, and (2) a strong enemy from 
without that warred against them and won.

As one reviews the worlds past history, as well as the present, when our 
armies are at war in Iraq, the Israelis and Palestinians killing each 
other, and the terrorists doing their dastardly work everywhere, the 
question arises: Shall this condition continue always, with nations 
rising, shining, sinning, sinking? It is then the name God of Peace 
comes to mind as the prophecy of a better day. God wants peace and in 
His own day and way He shall bring peace to the world.

Back in the days of the now defunct League of Nations, when many were 
congratulating themselves on the fact they had outlawed war, it was my 
privilege as a young man to speak in a certain denominational church. 
The subject assigned was World Peace. I was brash enough to tell them 
that in spite of mans rosy dreams and schemes, there would be no real 
peace until the Prince of Peace returned to rule and reign. At the close 
the pastor publicly took me to task, asserting that it was the duty of 
Christians to work for peace and brotherhood among men. He said: We pray 
Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven and when we thus pray we 
are praying for peace on earth. Later I called his attention to the 
three words just prior to the words he had just quoted. Those three 
words are: Thy kingdom come! Thank God, that kingdom is coming! Then 
Gods will shall be done in earth, and not before. Then the God of Peace 
shall send the Prince of Peace and He will usher in an era of universal 
tranquility. Then men shall beat their swords into plowshares and their 
spears into pruning hooks, and they shall learn war no more.

The blessed name God of Peace stands also in contrast to Satan, who is 
the real god of war. For six thousand years this arch-criminal has 
instigated war and strife among the nations. Satan wants war and God 
wants peace, but the question of who shall win is never in doubt. It may 
seem that Satan is having his way but he has nigh well run his 
malevolent course. Listen to what the apostle says in Romans 16:20, And 
the God of Peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The God of 
Peace shall bring war against Satan, and then Satan will be shut up and 
sealed under lock and key, so that he can no longer deceive and seduce 
the nations of the world. Israel and the nations will then enjoy peace, 
when Satan is imprisoned and Christ enthroned.

Meanwhile, the believer may enjoy peace even in a world where there is 
no peace. The God of Peace sent His Son to die on Calvary and He made 
peace by the blood of His Cross. Then we read in Hebrews 13:20 that the 
God of Peace brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus. Christ Himself 
becomes the believers peace. Then as we entrust our all to Him we have 
the Peace of God which passeth all understanding garrisoning our hearts 
and minds. And. too, we have the blessed promise: And the God of Peace 
shall be with you.

*~VICTORY IS OURS~*

*Victory is ours*
*when in the Savior we abide*
*we can claim His every promise,*
*as in His great love, we hide.*

*Walking in victory*
*is a blessing for God's own,*
*He will walk beside us,*
*until the day, He calls us home.*

*There is no trial too great*
*or problem God cannot solve,*
*In the Blessed Savior,*
*our whole life should revolve.*

*So hold on to every promise*
*and walk daily in the light of His love,*
*You'll be blessed abundantly,*
*by heaven's holy Dove.*

*Blessings In Christ,*
*Jo Ann Kelly © *

THE GRACE OF GOD IS CONTINUAL IN THE LIFE OF THE BELIEVER WHEN IN CHRIST.
*GraceNTheTruth@ COX.NET*

*The EXCEEDING GREATNESS of GOD'S POWER *
*PART ONE OF THRE

What is the measure of God's power toward believers?
What can be accomplished in the believer by that power?
How can the believer appropriate and apply that power?

THE MEASURE OF GOD'S POWER TO US-WARD

"The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what 
is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His 
inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of His 
power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty 
power, Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and 
set Him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all 
principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And 
hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all 
things to the church" (Eph 1:18-22).

Such is the measure of God's power to the believer in the matter of 
salvation; salvation from sin. Something more than human power is needed 
to save the sinner from sin. Divine power is needed. And the very best 
news that any human being ever heard is, that Divine power is available. 
The news that there is power that will save from the power of sin is 
good news, or "the gospel." Every human being is utterly helpless to 
deal with sin. But the majority of sinners are more interested in being 
delivered from some of their sinful habits than they are in being saved 
from the penalty of sin. To be saved from the penalty of sin means to be 
saved from the wages of sin; which is death (Rom. 6:23).

God demands death for sin. Unless the sinner finds and appropriates the 
Divine remedy for sin, the death penalty is certain; it is fixed by the 
holy Judge. Apart from Divine merciful intervention, the sinner's doom 
is inevitable; Divine judgment is inescapable. So far as man is 
concerned he can do nothing to deliver himself from the presence of sin, 
from the power of sin, or from the penalty of sin. So far as God is 
concerned His very character demands justice. The question is, how can 
the helpless, powerless sinner escape justice at the hands of the God 
against whom he has sinned? There must be death for sin. Must each 
sinner die for himself? Is it justice for the innocent to suffer for the 
guilty? The world says, "No."

God's Word declares that "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the 
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Pet 3:18). Then 
this question, "has the Holy Judge the right to be the sinner's 
Saviour?" Can He act as Judge and Saviour and be both just and merciful? 
The world says, "true justice knows no mercy." But the Just One, who has 
accomplished the redemption whereby man can be brought to God, was both 
God and man. The Offended One was delivered for our offenses. He 
satisfied His own justice by becoming the God-man and receiving the 
wages of sin; death.

The Lord of Glory was crucified; put to death in the flesh, but made 
alive in the Spirit. Christ died for our sins: He was buried and was 
raised again on the third day. He dealt with sin, which He put away by 
the sacrifice of Himself. Then He abolished death and hath brought life 
and incorruptibility to light in the gospel. In this redemptive work 
Christ proved His Deity, vindicated and satisfied Divine righteousness 
and justice; and fulfilled His word: "I lay down my life, that I might 
take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I 
have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" John 
10:17-18). It must be admitted that such power is Divine power.

*It is one thing to be kept by the power of God through faith
unto that glorious salvation till the coming of the Lord.
It is another thing to live day by day in the resurrection power.

A Body Prepared by God
Part 3 of 3
By Gregg Bing

While Israel was God’s earthly people, the church, the body of Christ, 
is God’s heavenly people. The sphere of its blessings is “in the 
heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 1:3). Its position is seated 
together “in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). Even God’s 
eternal purpose for this body is focused in heavenly places.

“To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known 
by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 
according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus 
our Lord.” (Eph. 3:10-11)

The church, the body of Christ, has been sanctified and cleansed by God 
through the death of Christ that He might “present it to Himself a 
glorious church” (Eph. 5:27). We must remember that this church is not 
an man-made organization, but a living organism, created by God and 
composed of individual believers. Before the church can be presented to 
God “a glorious church,” the individual members must be glorious as 
well. This cannot take place as long as we dwell in bodies of flesh, 
bodies cursed by sin and still possessing a sin nature. This leads us to 
consider another special body, the one God has prepared for believers.

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have 
a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our 
habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we 
shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being 
burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that 
mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for 
this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 
So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the 
body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We 
are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and 
to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:1-9)

Our earthly bodies are referred to as a tent, a temporary dwelling 
place, but when these bodies are destroyed, we know, from God’s Word, 
that there is a new body God has prepared for us. Paul refers to it as a 
building or a house, for it is a permanent dwelling place, eternal in 
the heavens. We can be confident of this because God has given the Holy 
Spirit to dwell within us (1 Cor. 6:19-20). The presence of the Spirit 
is God’s guarantee to us that He will one day come for His church and 
fulfill His promise to give us new bodies.

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for 
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body 
that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working 
by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.” (Phil. 3:20-21)

When Christ comes in the air to catch His church up into glory, He will 
transform our lowly bodies (literally “bodies of humiliation”) and will 
conform them to His glorious body (literally “the body of His glory”). 
What a tremendous display of the power of this One who is “able even to 
subdue all things to Himself.” Paul told the Colossians believers: “When 
Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in 
glory” (Col. 3:4). Some believe the expression “in glory” refers to a 
place, that is heaven, but it really describes the condition of our new 
glorified bodies. What a wonderful and glorious hope is ours, as we wait 
for God to clothe us with these new bodies from heaven. It should 
encourage us to respond as Paul exhorted the Corinthians.

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in 
vain in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 15:58)

Our Purpose and Mission

The ministry of "Grace and The Truth" has the purpose of 
encouragingChristia ns to believe what God says.

We are dedicated to helping Christians to a fuller knowledge of Him,and 
the Grace of God. Until we all come into the Unity, Ephesians 4:13"Till 
we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge ofthe Son of 
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature ofthe fulness 
of Christ:"

OUR COMMISSION IN THE AGE OF GRACE IS:

2Co 5:16-21 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: 
yea,though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know 
we[him] no more. Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a 
newcreature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are 
becomenew. And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to 
himself byJesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry 
ofreconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconcilingtheworld 
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; andhathcommitted 
unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then weare ambassadors for 
Christ, as though God did beseech [you] byus: we pray [you] in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God. Forhehathmade him [to be] sin for us, 
who knew no sin; that we might bemade the righteousness of God in him.

GraceNTheTruth@COX.NET

*~THE VALUE OF HARD PLACES~*
*Part Two of Three*
*Trials Teach us to Know the Resources of God *

Trials help us, to know the resources of God. It is only in difficult 
circumstances that we learn to know His all-sufficiency. Israel at the 
Red Sea must first stand still and behold the salvation of God (Ex. 
14:10-14). So He tells them that the reason He led them through the 
wilderness, and exposed them to a situation where there were no natural 
supplies of any kind, was to teach them that He was adequate for every 
need, and that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). God becomes real 
to us up to the measure of our sense of need He meets. So every 
difficult situation is just a vessel for Him to fill and an occasion for 
Him to show Himself in His infinite wisdom, power, and grace. The 
Apostle tells us that he was exposed to every sort of difficulty in 
order that the power of Christ might rest upon him according to his 
needs, and therefore he welcomed each new situation as another occasion 
for Him to say. "My grace is sufficient for Thee" (2 Cor. 12: 7-10).

Beloved, are we thus proving and finding Him equal to all the conditions 
of our lives and glorying in being able to tell the world that our God 
shall supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus?
*Trials Teach us Faith*

Trials teach us faith. Trial is the fruitful soil of trust. Difficulties 
are the divine incentives which demand and develop our confidence in the 
divine faithfulness and love. The eagle can only teach her young to fly 
by tearing up her nest and hurling them out in midair, where, thrown 
upon their own resources, they must either fly or fall. Then it is that 
they must learn the undeveloped power in their little pinions, and as 
they strike out upon the air in desperate struggles, they find the 
secret of a new life and gradually learn to beat their way through the 
pathless firmament and fly upon the wings of the wind and in the face of 
the sun.

So God teaches His children to use the wings of faith by stirring up 
their nests, taking away their props, and flinging them out often-times 
into an abyss of helplessness, where they must either sink or learn to 
trust and throw themselves upon the seeming void, to find that God is 
there beneath them like the supporting wing which the eagle stretches 
forth beneath her faint and struggling brood.

It is so easy for us to lean upon the things that we can see, and feel 
that it is an entirely new experience for us to stand alone and walk 
with the unseen God as Peter walked upon the sea. But it is the lesson 
we must learn if our souls are ever to dwell in God's eternal calm where 
faith must be our only sense, and God be our all in all.

Very gently does He suit the test to our feeble strength and lead us on 
as we are able for more and more. Are we thus trusting Him in life's 
hard places and growing strong as we endure hardness as good soldiers of 
Jesus Christ?
*Trials Teach us to Pray *
Trials teach us to pray and constrain us to be much alone with God. They 
drove Jacob to his knees at the fords of Jabbok (Gen. 32:23-30). They 
taught the Psalmist to find "the secret place of the most High" (Ps. 
91). They made the life of Paul one ceaseless dependence upon the 
presence of his Lord, and they have inspired as well as sustained the 
divine communion which we have learned to prove as the supreme resource 
and solution of our lives.

It is very humbling that it should be true that God must press His 
children to His breast by suffering and need, but it is, alas, too often 
the case that ease and comfort lead us to, at least, a partial 
independence of Him, and our most spiritual seasons and the times that 
have brought God most near to us have been the times of which we could 
say, "Thou hast known my soul in adversities. "

*THOUGHT TO PONDER
*Freedom In Trusting God

God can be trusted no matter what. We should have an attitude of 
complete faith, for this pleases God.

God as our trust because He is not a man that He can lie. He is the God 
of integrity, the only One who can be relied upon at all times. "It is 
better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man" (Psalm 
118:8). We are let down so many times because we place our trust in man 
when God is the only One who is faithful. "If we are faithless, he will 
remain faithful" (II Timothy 2:13, NIV). Let go and place all of your 
trust in God; He will never fail you. "Let us hold fast the profession 
of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)" 
(Hebrews 10:23).

*A Body Prepared by God
Part 2 of 3
By Gregg Bing*

The child born to Mary was conceived of the Holy Spirit. God prepared a 
body for His Son and placed it in her womb. His name was to be JESUS, 
which means "Jehovah saves," for He would "save His people from their 
sins." The Lord Jesus was born of a virgin. Joseph was not His father, 
otherwise the sinful blood of Adam would have flowed through His veins, 
just as it does through ours. If He was to offer Himself as a sacrifice 
for sinful men, His blood must be without spot and without blemish. 
Thus, His name was also called Immanuel, for this Holy Child was very 
"God with us."

Mary also was told that she was to bring a Child into the world. Being a 
virgin, she questioned how this could be.

"Then Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I do not know a 
man?' And the angel answered and said to her, 'The Holy Spirit will come 
upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, 
also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God." 
(Luke 1:34-35)

The Holy Spirit came upon her and the power of the Highest overshadowed 
her, forming the body of this Holy One in her womb. Thus He was called 
the "Son of God." In this special body, prepared by God, the Lord Jesus 
Christ Himself

"... bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to 
sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed." (1 
Pet. 2:24)

When we come to the writings of the Apostle Paul, we find still another 
body prepared by God—the church, the body of Christ. Paul mentions this 
body in his early epistles written during the Acts period.

"For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of 
that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one 
Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, 
whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit." 
(1 Cor. 12:12-13).

Later, when Paul fully revealed the truth of the mystery, we find how 
this joint body of Jew and Gentile was prepared and created by God 
through the cross of Christ.

"For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down 
the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, 
that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to 
create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that 
He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, 
thereby putting to death the enmity."

Under the law, God dealt exclusively with the nation of Israel. The 
Gentile nations were "far off" from Israel "having no hope and without 
God in the world" (Eph. 2:12). God had a wonderful purpose for Israel in 
the earth, for God chose them to be "a people for Himself, a special 
treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth" (Deut. 7:6). 
God's purpose for Israel has not been fully accomplished, and, in fact, 
it is currently postponed, but God will one day fulfill all His promises 
to this nation.

When Israel rejected God, killing God's prophets under the law, 
crucifying God's Son, and then resisting and refusing the testimony of 
the Holy Spirit during the Acts period, God set this nation aside and 
called out a new body of believers—the church the body of Christ. The 
church is a new man, a new body created in Christ from both Jew and 
Gentile. God broke down the middle wall of separation between them, 
which was contained in the ordinances of the law, and reconciled them 
both (Jew and Gentile) to God in one body through the cross.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

God does not give His grace as He gives His sunshine - pouring it out 
on all alike. He discriminates in spiritual blessings. He gives strength 
according to our need. His eye is ever on us in tender, watchful love, 
and what we need He supplies.
 J. R. Miller

*A Body Prepared by God *
Part 1 of 3
*By Gregg Bing*

The human body is simply amazing. As medical science has advanced over 
the years, this fact has become more and more evident. We are often in 
awe of the tremendous strides men have made in their discoveries about 
human disease, the development of new medications, and the technological 
improvements in medical and surgical treatments, including such 
wonderful improvements in open heart surgery, MRI and CT scans, laser 
surgery, and the list goes on and on. Recently, the announcement was 
made that medical scientists have even been able to grow organs in the 
lab to be used for transplants.

As wonderful as all this seems to us, man's knowledge still pales in 
comparison to that of the God who created us in the first place. We must 
remember that God prepared and formed man's body in the very beginning.

"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed 
into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." 
(Gen. 2:7)

The human body, as God formed and prepared it, was perfect in it design. 
Though man's body has been cursed by the entrance of sin into the world, 
the human body remains a testimony to the existence of an all powerful 
and all knowing God. All the systems of the body (skeletal, muscular, 
nervous, respiratory, circulatory, etc.) work together to provide for 
and sustain human life. The Psalmist David expressed great wonder at the 
body God had given him with these words:

"For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. I 
will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are 
Your works, and that my soul knows very well." (Psalm 139:13-14)

There is another special body that was prepared by God; we read about it 
in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10. The first four verses declare that 
the animal sacrifices offered under the Mosaic law could never make 
those who brought them perfect. These sacrifices had to be offered 
continually year by year to cover sins, for they could not truly purify 
and cleanse man's conscience from sin. It was simply "not possible that 
the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins." Sins had to be dealt 
with in another way.

"Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: 'Sacrifice and 
offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me. In 
burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, 
Behold, I have come—In the volume of the book it is written of Me—To do 
Your will, O God.' Previously saying, 'Sacrifice and offering, burnt 
offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in 
them' (which are offered according to the law), then He said, 'Behold, I 
have come to do Your will, O God.' He takes away the first that He may 
establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the 
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Heb. 10:5-10)

God had no pleasure in animal sacrifices and offerings for they could 
not satisfy His holy and righteous requirements, therefore He sent His 
only Son into the world to offer Himself as a "once for all" sacrifice 
for our sins. In order to accomplish this, God the Son had to have a 
body of flesh and blood—a body that had to be especially prepared by 
God. Matthew records how this took place.

"Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was 
betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child 
of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not 
wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away 
secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of 
the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do 
not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived 
in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you 
shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.' 
So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the 
Lord through the prophet, saying: 'Behold, the virgin shall be with 
child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which is 
translated, 'God with us.'" (Matt. 1:18-23)

* Our Purpose and Mission

The ministry of "Grace and The Truth" has the purpose of encouraging 
Christians to believe what God says.

Message "CHRIST" Rom. 16:25, Col. 1:28
Material "All Scripture, 2 Tim. 3:16, 17
Method "Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth, 2 Tim. 2:15
Mission "To Make All See" Eph. 3:9

"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by 
the blood of Christ." Eph.2:13.

**We are dedicated to helping Christians to a fuller knowledge of Him, 
and the Grace of God. Until we all come into the Unity, Ephesians 4:13 
"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fullness of Christ:"

We are wiling to help you on this journey just give us a call, 1 623 
546 8866, Paris

Would you like to help this ministry? Consider trying to get one other 
person to subscribe to the GRACE DAILY INSPIRATIONAL. This worldwide 
ministry asks for no funds and is sent to glorify our precious Lord and 
Savior, Jesus Christ, AND TO HELP YOU TO GROW IN GRACE AND KNOWLEDGE
*GraceNTheTruth@COX.NET*      
 WEB SITE
Grace And The Truth
www.graceandthetruth.com

~THE VALUE OF HARD PLACES~*
*Part Two of Three
*Trials Teach us to Know the Resources of God *
*
Trials help us, to know the resources of God. It is only in difficult 
circumstances that we learn to know His all-sufficiency. Israel at the 
Red Sea must first stand still and behold the salvation of God (Ex. 
14:10-14). So He tells them that the reason He led them through the 
wilderness, and exposed them to a situation where there were no natural 
supplies of any kind, was to teach them that He was adequate for every 
need, and that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). God becomes real 
to us up to the measure of our sense of need He meets. So every 
difficult situation is just a vessel for Him to fill and an occasion for 
Him to show Himself in His infinite wisdom, power, and grace. The 
Apostle tells us that he was exposed to every sort of difficulty in 
order that the power of Christ might rest upon him according to his 
needs, and therefore he welcomed each new situation as another occasion 
for Him to say. "My grace is sufficient for Thee" (2 Cor. 12: 7-10).

Beloved, are we thus proving and finding Him equal to all the conditions 
of our lives and glorying in being able to tell the world that our God 
shall supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus?

*
*Trials Teach us Faith*
Trials teach us faith. Trial is the fruitful soil of trust. Difficulties 
are the divine incentives which demand and develop our confidence in the 
divine faithfulness and love. The eagle can only teach her young to fly 
by tearing up her nest and hurling them out in midair, where, thrown 
upon their own resources, they must either fly or fall. Then it is that 
they must learn the undeveloped power in their little pinions, and as 
they strike out upon the air in desperate struggles, they find the 
secret of a new life and gradually learn to beat their way through the 
pathless firmament and fly upon the wings of the wind and in the face of 
the sun.

So God teaches His children to use the wings of faith by stirring up 
their nests, taking away their props, and flinging them out often-times 
into an abyss of helplessness, where they must either sink or learn to 
trust and throw themselves upon the seeming void, to find that God is 
there beneath them like the supporting wing which the eagle stretches 
forth beneath her faint and struggling brood.

It is so easy for us to lean upon the things that we can see, and feel 
that it is an entirely new experience for us to stand alone and walk 
with the unseen God as Peter walked upon the sea. But it is the lesson 
we must learn if our souls are ever to dwell in God's eternal calm where 
faith must be our only sense, and God be our all in all.

Very gently does He suit the test to our feeble strength and lead us on 
as we are able for more and more. Are we thus trusting Him in life's 
hard places and growing strong as we endure hardness as good soldiers of 
Jesus Christ?

*
*Trials Teach us to Pray 
Trials teach us to pray and constrain us to be much alone with God. They 
drove Jacob to his knees at the fords of Jabbok (Gen. 32:23-30). They 
taught the Psalmist to find "the secret place of the most High" (Ps. 
91). They made the life of Paul one ceaseless dependence upon the 
presence of his Lord, and they have inspired as well as sustained the 
divine communion which we have learned to prove as the supreme resource 
and solution of our lives.

It is very humbling that it should be true that God must press His 
children to His breast by suffering and need, but it is, alas, too often 
the case that ease and comfort lead us to, at least, a partial 
independence of Him, and our most spiritual seasons and the times that 
have brought God most near to us have been the times of which we could 
say, "Thou hast known my soul in adversities. "

*THOUGHT TO PONDER
*Freedom In Trusting God

God can be trusted no matter what. We should have an attitude of 
complete faith, for this pleases God.

God as our trust because He is not a man that He can lie. He is the God 
of integrity, the only One who can be relied upon at all times. "It is 
better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man" (Psalm 
118:8). We are let down so many times because we place our trust in man 
when God is the only One who is faithful. "If we are faithless, he will 
remain faithful" (II Timothy 2:13, NIV). Let go and place all of your 
trust in God; He will never fail you. "Let us hold fast the profession 
of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised)" 
(Hebrews 10:23).

*~THE VALUE OF HARD PLACES~ *
*Part Three of Three *
Trials Teach us Love *

Trials teach us to love, and when God wants to soften and refine our 
spirit and answer our prayers for patience and love, He has to let the 
discipline of ill-treatment, injustice, and often the severest wrong 
compel us to go to Him for the love that "beareth all things," that 
"endureth all things" (1 Cor. 13:7). Of course, we find out first that 
we have not the love adequate for the test, and as the Holy Spirit 
convicts us of our sins, He leads us to the source of strength; then, as 
we gradually learn the humbling lesson, He leads us on from day to day 
in deeper testing and sweeter refining until we can thank Him for the 
fire that brought us more of His Spirit's grace and His own overcoming 
love.

*
*Trials Teach us Patience *
*

Trials teach us patience. It is a thorough school to learn to endure, 
and patience is the crowning grace of the Christian life. When it has 
its perfect work, then we become "perfect and entire, wanting nothing" 
(James 1:4). Often therefore, the crowning lesson of the spiritual life 
is learned in the school of suffering.

*
*Trials Teach us Courage *
*

Trials teach us courage. They take away the fear of suffering, the dread 
of pain, as we experience God's sustaining grace and enable us to put on 
His strength and courage and rise above the power of fear until we 
welcome the conflict and stand with scars of the conflict and victory as 
good soldiers of Jesus Christ.

*
*Trials Make us Patterns *
*

Trials make us patterns and object lessons for the help of others and 
for the glory of God, showing to the world what Christ can do for His 
children, and what Christ-filled lives can accomplish where others fail. 
God wants us to be living epistles of Christ (2 Cor. 3:3) unto the 
world, to angels and to men, showing to them in our example that Christ 
can keep in every situation, and that the power of His grace is 
practical, supernatural, and adapted to every human life.

*
*Trials Fit us to Help Others *
*

Trials fit us to help others by the lessons we have learned in our own 
experience. (2 Cor. 1:3, 4). The callous and immature heart is little 
qualified to comfort, counsel, and bless a suffering world. God has to 
burn in us first what we are to give out to our fellows. The painful 
ordeal of a real experience qualifies us to comfort, strengthen, and 
encourage the souls to whom He has to send us, and to whom we can say, 
"I have been there, and I can tell you from the depths of my own 
experience that 'my God shall supply all your need according to his 
riches in glory by Christ Jesus'" (Phil. 4:19)
*IF WE WOULD SEE OURSELVES AS GOD SEES US, *
*IN ALL THE PERFECTIONS OF THE BELOVED IN WHOM *
*WE HAVE BEEN ENGRACED SO FULLY AND IN WHOM WE ARE LOVED SO DEEPLY,*
* WE WOULD BE REFLECTING MORE OF WHAT WE HAVE BEEN MADE TO BE IN CHRIST.*
* *
*GOD CONSIDERS US OF UNIQUE WORTH AND VALUE,*
* SEES US "IN CHRIST," "ACCEPTED IN THE ONE ALWAYS BELOVED," *
*WITH ALL THE ACCEPTABLENESS OF CHRIST HIMSELF,*
* WITHOUT BLEMISH AND WITHOUT SPOT. *
*Keith McDonald*

THE VALUE OF HARD PLACES~
Part One of Three
Trials are valuable in revealing to us ourselves and showing us our 
insufficiencies and failures. They are God's great blasting processes in 
the work of spiritual excavation, which is necessary for the work of 
building up the life and character. We never know what graces and 
qualities we possess until the test comes, and then the faith and 
courage that glowed with such a flame in the moment of enthusiasm and 
inspiration finds its true level, and the soul is thrown back in its 
nothingness and helplessness upon Christ alone, to find in Him its all 
in all.

This was the meaning of Jacob's trials, to bring him to the end of self. 
This was the purpose of Job's afflictions, to slay his self-righteous 
confidence. This was the blessing that came from Peter's fall, that it 
broke his pride and self-sufficiency and sent him forth to lean upon his 
Lord and find his strength outside himself in Christ alone. This is why 
the Lord still tries you, to convince you thoroughly that your estimate 
of your own strength is utterly false and. exaggerated and to bring you 
to that place where it will be truly "Not I, but Christ liveth in me" 
(Gal. 2:20) .

*
*Trials Make Christ Real
Trials make Christ real, just as real as the trouble is. They are God's 
heavenly messengers to communicate His grace and blessing to our souls 
and make them stand out in relief in our lives, so everybody can see it 
and feel it.

God cuts and burns His messages into human lives until Christ becomes to 
us as real as the tears we have shed, the fears under which we have 
trembled, the sorrows that were ready to over-whelm us, and the 
difficulties which rose like mountains before us, so that the sweetest 
memories of our lives are the hard places which have become stepping 
stones and monuments of divine and heavenly things.


*Trials are Occasions for Victory

Trials win for us eternal crowns. They become occasions for victory and 
rewards which will never pass away. When history is forgotten and the 
records of time are obliterated, when the solar system has vanished 
away, and new heavens and new earth are sweeping in the orbits of 
immensity, the eternal results of these trials will shine in our lives 
as we share with God Himself the new heavens and the new earth, and the 
glories of the coming age for which all things are now preparing.

Beloved, shall we seek to profit from our sorrows? Shall we win a crown? 
Shall we get out of the things that are happening to us today all that 
Christ has for us? Shall we be "more than conquerors through him that 
loved us"? (Rom. 8:37). And shall we endure hardness as good soldiers of 
Jesus Christ? If so, we shall someday hear Him say to us: "Well done, 
thou good and faithful servant; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

*SEVEN MARKS OF A BIBLE CHRISTIAN*
*By John LaVier
1. Gods people are a SAVED people.

Theirs is not a hope-so salvation, but a know-so salvation. They know on 
the authority of Gods own Holy Word. These things have I written unto 
you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye 
have eternal life (1 John 5:13). Having believed, they are saved from 
sin. They are saved from the wages of sin, which is death. They are 
saved from the lake of fire, and the blackness of darkness forever. They 
are saved, not by their own works, but by God, Who hath SAVED us, and 
called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but 
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ 
Jesus before the world began (2 Tim. 1:9).

2. Gods people are a SANCTIFIED people.

But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved 
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation 
through SANCTIFICATION of the Spirit and belief of the truth (2 Thess. 
2:13). Like the Corinthians, they were sinners of the deepest dye, yet 
now it may be said of them: But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, 
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of 
our God (1 Cor. 6:11). Sanctification is that work of the Holy Spirit by 
which the believer, even before he is conscious of his justification, is 
set apart to God. It is based upon the redemptive work of Christ. By the 
which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus 
Christ once for all (Heb. 10:10). Christ Himself becomes the believers 
sanctification. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made 
unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 
Cor. 1:30).

3. Gods people are a SEPARATED people.

Just as God of old put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel 
(Exo. 11:7), so there is today a difference between the people of God 
and the people of the world. Jesus said, If ye were of the world, the 
world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I 
have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you (John 
15:19). The separation is to be manifested by Gods people, for the Lords 
command is, Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye SEPARATE, 
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you 
(2 Cor. 6:17). Though in the world, Gods people are not of the world, 
and they are to walk in separation from the evil that surrounds them.

4. Gods people are a SPIRITUAL people.

Paul wrote, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the SPIRIT, if so be 
that the SPIRIT of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the SPIRIT 
of Christ, he is none of his (Rom. 8:9). All of Gods people are indwelt 
by the Spirit, and their bodies are temples of the Holy Ghost. They are 
taught by the Spirit (John 14:26), they are led by the Spirit (Rom. 
8:14), and they are empowered by the Spirit (Acts 1:8). They should all 
be filled with the Spirit (Eph. 5:18) and manifest the fruit of the 
Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, 
meekness, temperance (Gal. 5:22-23).

5. Gods people are a SEALED people.

The believer is instructed, And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, 
whereby ye are SEALED unto the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). Then in 
Ephesians 1:13, In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of 
truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that ye 
believed, ye were SEALED with that Holy Spirit of promise. The words 
after that ye believed are in the Greek only one word pisteusantes, 
which means believing. Simultaneously with their believing the gospel, 
Gods people are sealed. First, the seal signifies a finished 
transaction. The work of our redemption has been completed. Jesus cried, 
It is finished (John 19:30). The seal also signifies ownership. What? 
know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in 
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought 
with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, 
which are Gods (1 Cor. 6:19-20). They belong to God. His seal is upon 
them. Finally, the seal signifies security. They are sealed unto the day 
of redemption. There will be a safe delivery of Gods purchased 
possession at the end of the line. They are safe and secure in Christ. 
Sealed in Him so that all the legions of hell cannot touch them.

6. Gods people are a SEATED people.

The Lord Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat 
down on the right hand of God (Heb. 10:12). Those who have trusted Him 
and are resting in His finished and all-perfect work, are also seated 
with Him. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he 
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together 
with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us SIT together in 
heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4-6). The saved are, in very 
truth, a heavenly people. Their names are written in heaven (Luke 
10:20). Their citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). Their home is in 
heaven (2 Cor. 5:1). Their blessings are in heaven (Eph. 1:3). Their 
inheritance is in heaven (1 Pet. 1:4). They are seated in heaven. As 
members of the Body, they are there with the Head, seated at the Fathers 
right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and 
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only 
in this world, but also in that which is to come.

7. Gods people are a SATISFIED people.

The prophet asked, Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not 
bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? (Isa. 55:2) Many 
there are today who are giving all their time and attention to the 
things of earth; seeking satisfaction in that which satisfieth not. How 
happy are those who have found Him Who alone can satisfy. Oh that men 
would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to 
the children of men! For he SATISFIETH the longing soul, and filleth the 
hungry soul with goodness (Psa. 107:8-9). Lasting joy, and peace, and 
satisfaction is to be found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. He satisfies. 
Daily, hourly, moment by moment, He satisfies. All through lifes 
journey, He satisfies, and when Gods children close their eyes to this 
earthly scene, and open them in the realms of endless glory Ah! then, 
their satisfaction will be complete. As for me, I will behold thy face 
in righteousness: I shall be SATISFIED, when I awake, with thy likeness 
(Psa. 17:15).

O Glorious Lord, what a good reminder this is of the desperate condition 
I was in when You justified me. I was not merely needy; I was 
spiritually dead. I thank You for burying that old life with Jesus in 
His tomb. I praise You for raising me with Christ to a new life. I 
rejoice in the radical nature of Your saving grace. Lord, by the power 
of the resurrection, lead me in the reality of newness of life, in Jesus 
name, Amen.

*GraceNTheTruth@COX.NET*

NOT ASHAMED*
*By ROBERT E. HANNA, Pastor*
* *
*Scripture Reading: Psalms 119:6; II Timothy 2:15

God's Holy Word and man's proper reaction to it are unchangeable. God 
speaks with total and unquestionable authority; it is man's 
responsibility to receive, accept and obey. This principle is constant 
and perpetual. God's manner of dealing with His people may change in 
accordance with His plan and purpose - but His Word remains steadfast 
and unalterable. Our acceptance should be unquestioning and without 
reservation. The psalmist expresses well this state of mind:

"Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. O that my ways 
were directed to keep thy statutes! Then shall I not be ashamed, when I 
have respect unto all thy commandments" (Psalms 119:4-6). The Word of 
God may be expressed with severity, it may be delivered reproachfully, 
or tenderly, or lovingly. It may be indicative of anger, or of wrath, of 
sorrow or of disappointment, or of indignation. But it will consistently 
be without deviation or flaw. It will be inflexible and irrevocable. 
Whatever the tone, it is to be received unconditionally and devotedly.

In rightly dividing the Word of Truth we must be ever mindful of the 
dispensational boundaries: who is speaking? to whom? with what intent? 
in what setting? But, just as importantly, it must be constantly born in 
mind that God's Word is of itself unalterable.

Today, in this dispensation of the grace of God, our appropriate 
attitude is not different from that of the psalmist. Our apostle enjoins 
us, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not 
to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth."

*CHOSEN, CREATED, COMPLETE*
*By John D. LaVier*
These three words tell us of what is ours in Christ, and they should be 
unspeakably precious to every child of God. If we would meditate upon 
them, and gain some insight of the wonders wrapped up in them, surely 
our lives would become much more fragrant and fruitful.

CHOSEN The first is found in Ephesians 1:4: "According as He hath 
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world." Not only was this 
true of those to whom Paul wrote, but it is equally true of every member 
of the Body of Christ. "But we are bound to give thanks always to God 
for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the 
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit 
and belief of the truth" (2 Thess. 2:13). How thankful we should be that 
it is God who has done the choosing. Men change their minds, and often, 
because of imperfect knowledge, they later regret some choice that they 
have made, but the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

Precious thought! Chosen by God in the ageless past; long, long before 
we were born. He who knows the end from the beginning, and to whom the 
future is as clear as the present, saw us then and chose us in Christ 
and ordained us to eternal life. Not because of any goodness in 
ourselves, for we had none. It was all "according to the good pleasure 
of His will" (Eph. 1:5), and "according to the riches of His grace" 
(Eph. 1:7). "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not 
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which 
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began" (2 Tim. 1:9).

When an athlete prepares to high jump, he takes a long start, and we can 
imagine something of the great purpose that God has for us when we see 
how He began to choose us for it so long ago.

CREATED Next, in Ephesians 2:10 we see that "we are His workmanship, 
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained 
that we should walk in them." Notice how in these passages the practical 
side is kept in view. "Chosen ... that we should be holy and without 
blame." "Created ... unto good works," or as we have in Ephesians 4:24, 
"Created in righteousness and true holiness." Surely our calling and 
conduct should closely correspond.

We have not only been chosen in Christ, but we have been created in 
Christ. "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creation: old 
things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 
5:17). We are out of Adam, the old creation, and into Christ, the new 
creation. What a mighty change! What a glorious transformation!

Creation is the work of God. It is He who, by His word, brought the 
universe into being; and He who, having chosen us, one day spake the 
same life giving words and light broke upon our darkened souls. "For 
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in 
our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). We could not create ourselves. 
God is the Great Creator; salvation is of the Lord.

COMPLETE Finally, in Colossians 2:10, it is written, "And ye are 
complete in Him." Note the "ye are." It is not "ye can be complete in 
Him," nor even "ye shall be complete in Him," but "ye are complete in 
Him, who is the head of all principality and power." We are perfect and 
entire, wanting nothing. We are filled full. Nothing can be added that 
can make our standing before God any more perfect or acceptable than it 
already is, for we stand before God in all the perfections of His own 
Blessed and Beloved and Perfect Son, The Lord Jesus Christ.

*Complete in Thee! No work of mine*
*May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine;*
*Thy blood hath pardon, bought for me,*
*And I am now complete in Thee.*

*Dear Savior, when before Thy bar*
*All tribes and tongues assembled are,*
*Among Thy chosen will I be,*
*At thy right hand--complete in Thee.*

Chosen, Created, Complete; but all in Christ. We are forever linked to 
Him, and every blessing that we have and enjoy flows from Him. We have 
nothing in ourselves, but we have everything in Him, so let us magnify 
the Lord and exalt His Name together; not by lip alone, but by life; by 
works as well as words.

*THOUGHT FOR THIS WEEK *
*
Jesus is the end product of evangelism-- -His Life indwelling you is 
exactly what God had in mind when He sent His Son to redeem you and to 
reconcile you to a holy God. He sent us His Son not just to get you and 
me out of hell and into heaven, but to get the God of heaven into you 
and me, so that Christ living in our hearts might be our hope of 
bringing God again out into the open where He can be seen, to His glory! 
Galatians 2:20

*BAPTIZED INTO-FILLED WITH *
*By Miles Stanford *

"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on 
Christ" (Gal. 3:27).

The Holy Spirit baptizes us into the Lord Jesus, and fills us with Him.

"The one spiritual baptism positions the believer 'in Christ' (Rom. 
6:3,4; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12), and into His Body (1 Cor. 12:13). Since 
this position in the Lord Jesus is unchangeable, and eternal, the 
baptizing work of the Spirit is not repeatable. One 'in Christ' 
positionally, can never again through all eternity be 'out of Christ' 
positionally, as that position depends wholly upon the efficacy of the 
finished redemptive work of the Son, and does not hinge upon human merit 
or faithfulness.

"The filling with the Spirit, on the other hand, is repeatable (Acts 
2:4; 4:8,31; 9:17), and is, in fact, a continuous process, as it 
conditions mutable experience, and has nothing whatever to do with 
immutable position. Christian position is effected by the baptism of the 
Spirit at the moment of the new birth. Christian experience is affected 
by the filling with the Holy Spirit. One effects our position, the other 
affects our condition." -M.U.

"The Holy Spirit gives a living knowledge; His light is the light of 
life; He is the 'Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.' We see the Father and 
the Son as seeing us. When we behold them by the ministry of the Spirit, 
it is as beholding us with infinite love, and bestowing upon us the 
blessings of grace. We know because we are known. 'Thou Father, Thou 
Son, seest me' is the immediate consciousness of the soul, when there is 
spiritual perception of the Father. In other words, love, petition, 
listening to the Father's voice, receiving the love and peace of the 
Lord Jesus, fellowship, are invoked in this knowledge." -A.S.

"The communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Cor. 13:14).


Should this Inspirational be a blessing and encouragement to you, why 
not send to a friend, coworker or, to your loved one. The Word of God is 
so needed in our troubled USA. We are loosing a great many of our 
privileges the founding fathers of our great county have protected us by 
the Constitution of America, there is no country in the world as great 
as America. Let's stand up and take back our roots.

*GraceNTheTruth@COX.NET*

GLORIOUS CONSUMMATION*
by C. R. Stam
In Eph. 1:9,10 Paul makes a statement regarding the mystery which has 
baffled many students of the Word:

"Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His 
good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself:

"That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might 
gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, 
and which are on earth; even in Him."

This will be the glorious consummation of the mystery but we, 
of the dispensation of grace, are to show men and angels that true 
oneness is to be found only in Christ (Eph.3:9-11) .

The world knows nothing of this perfect oneness and, indeed, the Church 
does not experience it -- except in Christ. There is no true oneness 
anywhere -- in the world or in the Church -- except in Christ. We might 
illustrate this by two members of the body: our two arms. They hang from 
opposite sides of the body yet work together as one. But wherein lies 
their oneness? The answer is: In the head. It is the head which makes my 
arms and hands operate as one, and so our oneness as members of Christ's 
Body, is in Christ, the Head. It is the recognition of Christ as our 
Head, then, and this alone, that can make us one, experientially. Thus 
the Apostle says:

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).

Soon enough the Lord will take us out of this world and all 
those events will transpire which will finally bring in "the fulness of 
[the] times," when all in heaven and earth will be "gathered together in 
one... in Christ" ! "What a day of rejoicing that will be"!


Dear faithful Lord, I long to live by faith more and more as each day 
dawns. I see that this is the only way I can access Your glorious grace. 
Lord, I need Your grace constantly. No other resource will suffice. Too 
often I am striving by my best performance. What weariness and failure 
always results. Show me the areas of my life where I am not trusting in 
You, that I might look to You anew. In Your gracious name I pray, Amen