(05/03/2016) They Shall Not Be Mentioned

The discussion continues, today, that sin must be personal for Christian believers just as Jesus dying upon the cross must be personal.  Alertness and greater awareness are required, not “baggage”, pride, or self-promotion.  The work of a believer is less in the line of self-improvement and more in agreement with becoming ripe for harvest as those the Lord will gather from the earth.  Attitudes, behavior, and transgressions from ones past are not to be used as accusations and obstacles to new life and the building of trust within the body of believers.  While operations to heal will go forth from the Holy Spirit that downplay and erase the disgrace, embarrassment, and pain once experienced through sin, strength also is imparted that permits those born again to adopt sacred purpose, take charge of themselves in their new lives, and serve as true champions against the things that once corrupted and defrauded them.  Believers need not fear to look back upon the past, for thereby they realize, though the Savior was invisible, Christ was with them all the time.  The Father, the Son and the Spirit were present, however, not to interfere with, or overthrow their integrity as persons, hinder their individual development, and frustrate their necessary exercise of will.


THE GOLDEN ARROW:  Yet say ye, Why? doth not the son bear the iniquity of the father? When the son hath done that which is lawful and right, and hath kept all my statutes, and hath done them, he shall surely live.  The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son:  the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.  But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.  All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him:  in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live.  Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD:  and not that he should return from his ways, and live?  But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned:  in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.  (Ezekiel 18:  19-24, KJV)

 
THE DOUBLE DAGGER:  A Dry Thirsty Land (05/01/2016); Sin Turned To Goals (05/02/2016); Forgiveness and The Cross (04/04/2016); The Old Self Crucified? (04/03/2016); Repentance and New Life? (12/30/2015); The Process of Forgiveness? (10/21/2015)


THE BATTLE AXE:  Sin Must Be Personal (04/29/2016)—As surely as we are to remember Jesus dying upon the cross for our redemption, Christian believers also ought remember that errors and sin are still threatening to overwhelm them with destruction.  Embracing Christ as Savior, believers become able to view their life experience as one of continuous growth, rather than a series of disruptive episodes.  For this reason, many mature believers in Christ are convinced that, joined to sacred knowledge and practice, the truth of our experience of sin, the flesh, and the world can be made part of our arsenal against evil and wickedness.  Admonition, counsel, guidance, instruction and warning are understood as having more power when grounded in authentic life experience, rather than parables, speculation, theory, or “the leaven of the Pharisees.”  There are young people, desiring genuineness and sincerity, who prefer to endure affliction and negative experiences that permit them a sense of life having true substance, and is not “fake”, false, and full of illusion.  Such  youth often mistake the meaning of “freedom” to be “do as you please,” so they turn away from the self-esteem, self-respect and self-restraint that are the marks of full self-control, mastery, and maturity.  Instead of believing that becoming adult means there must be misery, unhappiness, violence, and wretchedness, adults and young people alike are encouraged to see, the ministry of Jesus Christ has been carried out to remove the shackles of disbelief, ignorance, and uncertainty regarding the things of GOD.  Those who follow the Lord, do so on a path that leads to a lasting freedom without the dangers and unwanted risk of having past burdens restored, and old wounds reopened.  Consider again the following from the Scriptures:   

(1.)  Deuteronomy 9:  7, King James Version (KJV):  7 Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness:  from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.

(2.)  Proverbs 28:  13, KJV:  13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

(3.)  James 1:  23-25, KJV:  23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:  24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.  25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

(4.)  Psalms 119:  59-60, KJV:  I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.  60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep they commandments.

(5.)  Psalms 119:  67, KJV:  67 Before I was afflicted I went astray:  but now have I kept thy word.

(6.)  Psalms 119:  75-76, KJV:  75 I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.  76 Let, I pray thee, they merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to thy word unto thy servant.

(7.)  2nd Peter 1:  5-10, KJV:  5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;  6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;  7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.  8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  9 But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.  10 Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure:  for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

There is far more to be said, understood, and spiritually taken in.  (For example, (8.)  Philippians 3:  12-14, KJV:  12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect:  but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.  13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended:  but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,  14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.)  Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful.  Be it unto you according to your faith.

THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC