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We live in a time that people have no problem accusing others of wrongdoing! They can easily draw a judgment on a situation and claim that they know in their heart who is telling the truth. We should be discerning, and the Lord has given us the spiritual gift of discernment to help us distinguish good from evil. However, the problem comes when we use our spiritual gifts to make accusations that impact other people’s lives.

We cannot go outside of the boundary of God’s ways and use our spiritual gifts to short-cut God’s process of determining the guilt or innocence of someone. Furthermore, the more strongly we feel about a person or a subject matter, the less likely we are hearing God accurately!

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Exodus 20:16

The above scripture is one of God’s Ten Commandments that tells us not to bear false witness. There are a couple of major issues with bearing false witness. First of all, God cares very much about someone’s life and reputation, and He does not want us to engage in evil activities by stealing, killing, and destroying someone’s reputation. That kind of behavior is demonic and has no place among God’s people. We all may have opinions about a certain situation, but it is not necessary to share it or try to influence others when we do not have the objective facts to back it up.

Secondly, Jesus called us to be His witnesses. We are to share the gospel with others and tell them about what the Lord has done in our lives. If we are false witnesses against our neighbors, we lose credibility when we want to share Truth with others. People will not trust us because they have seen us destroying and stealing others’ reputation. 

Thirdly, being falsely accused is very hurtful. If you have ever been falsely accused of evil, you know how damaging those remarks are. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves. Therefore, if we don’t like to be falsely accused of wrongdoing, we should also treat others how we want to be treated and not give it room in our lives. 

No one wants to be the subject of false accusation.  We all need to restrain ourselves and tame our tongue from jumping into conclusions and bearing a false witness. We can pray that God would expose and reveal the truth. We can also decide not to engage in conversations that can ensnare us in gossip and backbiting.

The Bible has many scriptures about the use of tongue, and it gives us instrunctions about the improper use of tongue and the blessing of using our tongue appropriately.

See how great a forest a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.  Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh. James 3:7-12

The Bible confirms that our tongue is not easily tamed and that it is easier to tame unruly animals than it is to rein in the tongue. Furthermore, the tongue is very two-faced; it can speak on spiritual matters and at other times speak evil things. The tongue has the potential to burn people and relationships if it remains untamed!

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. Psalm 10:7

Nowadays, people have developed unbridled tongues and are not ashamed to use profanity and cursing among themselves or on social media. The movies are full of profanities and many are made with R rating, which gives them the freedom to use cursing as often as possible. Unfortunately, many young people are not bothered by bad language, and they think that it is just a form of expression.

I was a substitute teacher in a freshman class a couple of weeks ago, and the book they were using had profanities in it including one used in conjunction with the name of Jesus. This was very disturbing to me and since the teacher wasn’t there, I sent her an email explaining my concern to her. I told her that we already have enough profanity in our culture and the school should be there to set the standard and the code of conduct for what is appropriate language in society.  She disagreed with my views. She explained that we live in a pluralistic society, and what is unacceptable to some maybe acceptable to others. Furthermore, the educators had decided the literary benefits of this book outweigh the negative affect of profanities!

This is the culture we live in and our children are not protected from it. People have become boastful and proud, and they don’t seem to have a regard for God or respect for people. We live in dangerous times and our tongue could create a hostile and volatile environment resulting in division and breakdown of our communities and society. 

It is important to be vigilant with our tongue and not allow any unwholesome words to come out of it. As believers, we have other ways of dealing with our frustration and anger. We can go to the Lord and pray about them and cast our cares on Him. It is not necessary to spew out evil in the name of being real or the need for venting. Let’s be mindful of our tongue this week and ask the Lord to give us self-control to not use it in a harmful and evil way. 

I had the privilege of sharing a message titled, “Position of Humility” with the women at my church a couple of weeks ago. Below, you will find the audio recording of the message. The message is about 50 minutes. 

There are a couple of moments when there is a bit of silence in the audio. I wrote a couple of things on the white board as follows:

After the fall, Adam and Eve’s relationship was severed causing shame. In addition, their relationship to one another broke down leading to blame.

Shame= I am defective

Blame= You are defective

Towards the end of the audio, I showed two puzzles as shown below.

Below is the message:

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
But you would not,
And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift! Isaiah 30:15-16

The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord. Proverbs 21:31

In the above scriptures, God told the Jewish people that horses were not a strategy for their deliverance because the enemy would have more swift horses. In our day and age, the swift horses would be relying on our education, ingenuity, expertise, or relationships to be the answer for our deliverance. In the proper balance, there is nothing wrong with those things, but when they take the place of relying on the Lord for deliverance, they are a cheap and ineffective substitute!

It’s difficult to be quiet, rest in God, and not have a plan. We live in a culture that everyone is expected to have a plan for their lives. Parents strategize for the kids’s future early in life. We begin asking them what they want to do in life when they are very young. By the time they are in junior high or high school, we ask them about the major they want to pursue in college and what they want to be when they grow up. Children are pressured to come up with an answer, so the adults would leave them alone! Or else, they might feel like losers with no plan or goal in life.  In some ways, as parents, we don’t want them to have any down time. We are programmed to think that successful people are expected to know what they want to do and go after it with full force and speed! 

It’s interesting that Jesus chose to ride on a donkey in His triumphant entry to Jerusalem. Although, He was proclaiming to be the King of the Jews, yet He did not operate like an earthly king. He did not seek to have swift horses and warriors to fight for Him. His plan and method declared that His deliverance and His strength was not coming from natural means, but it was tied to His relationship to the Lord!  If it were up to His disciples, He probably would have ridden on swift horses because they did not fully understand what the His Kingdom was about. Nevertheless, Jesus was not pressured by the opposition, and neither was He influenced by His companions. He always made time to meet with the Lord and quiet Himself before Him, so He could be available to hear God’s instructions and allow the Lord to be the source of His strength and deliverance. 

Our carnal nature is a like a wild horse, and it is only tamed through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is no wonder that we all have a hard time to be quiet and rest! We will be restless until we give the reins of our lives to the Lord and surrender our will and our opinions at the Cross. In the above scriptures, the Lord is telling us that there are times that no plan or preparation would give us the answers we are looking for. The deliverance will come from Him when we return to him, be quiet, and be confident as children of the Most High!

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
But you would not,
And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift! Isaiah 30:15-16

In the last devotional, I shared that God spoke to the Jewish people about returning to Him and resting in Him to be saved from the hands of the Assyrians. He told them that this should be their strategy for deliverance. However, the Jewish people did not want to have anything to do with that kind of strategy. These people were fearful of the Assyrians. They were too anxious to relax and be still. Consequently, they looked to Egyptians for support and help to protect them during this time. Although the Egyptians may have had natural strength, they were not Godly people and the Jewish people had to compromise their own beliefs to rely on pagan people.

Egypt is a symbol of past bondage and our carnal strength. We all have had our own versions of Egypt that we had to flee from in order to experience the freedom that Jesus bought for us. When things are going well spiritually, most of us don’t want to return to Egypt. However, under the pressure of life and circumstances, we begin to look back to our natural strength and reasoning to solve problems.

In our points of desperation, we may replace one version of Egypt to an updated version of another form of Egypt. Our addiction to bad relationships in the past, may have changed faces. Now, we have relationships with Godly people, but we still have ungodly expectations from them. We may have forsaken a demanding career as a form of identity, but we now found a demanding ministry or hobby that makes us feel needed and important. The pattern is that we are looking for carnal means as an answer to the dilemmas of life!

Have you been able to make time to be quiet and rest in the Lord? Where are you looking for your deliverance from your situation? As the weekend approaches, it is a good time to carve out sometime and settle down your heart and mind before the Lord! Take time to be quiet and rest in His presence. We don’t have to have all the answers, but we can look to the One who does! The Lord is our deliverer!

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel:

“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
But you would not,
And you said, “No, for we will flee on horses”—
Therefore you shall flee!
And, “We will ride on swift horses”—
Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift! Isaiah 30:15-16

In the first devotional in this series I shared a few scriptures that could point to the fact that a born again believer has eternal security. In the second devotional and this current one, I have been sharing scriptures  that show enteral security is not guaranteed.  There are conditions that can lead someone to be in the danger of losing their eternal life.

For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.  For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. 2 Peter 2:20-21

It is dangerous for people to come to know Jesus as their Savior and then to walk away from Him. Each believer is accountable to the precious treasure and revelation that he/she has received. God invested in these individuals, and then they turn their back on His truth.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” Revelation 21:7-8

Christians are called to live an overcoming life and not to give in to the passions of carnality. A Christian will, most likely, sin again after salvation, but if they choose to have a lifestyle of sin and are unrepentant, they are on a dangerous eternal path and can face eternal judgment someday! In reality, they have chosen to align their lives with the devil and his lies rather than living a life that reflects Jesus! 

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. Revelation 3:5

Through the blood of Jesus, God gives each person the grace to overcome sin. The person who chooses not to be defiled, will be acknowledged by Jesus before the Father. In addition, the Lord prepares white garments for those whose lives are dedicated to God.

The above scripture infers that those who do not overcome, do not receive the white garments, and their name can blotted out of the book of Life. Jesus will not acknowledge these individuals before the Father. 

The scriptures I shared in these last three devotionals point to the fact that God remains the same and His standard for a living and loving relationship with Him does not change. On the other hand, man gets comfortable, proud, and presumptuous, and, in the process, he walks away from God and begins to live life according to his own pleasures and desires. All the while, he assumes that he is still in a relationship with God. When a person chooses to ignore God’s ways, they basically have chosen to dishonor the covenant they made with God and begin an idolatrous and adulterous life. They are the ones who choose to walk away from the covenant. The good new is that all of us have the opportunity to repent, allow God to restore our relationship with Him, and begin to walk in the ways that please the Lord. 

I shared in the last devotional that the issue of enteral security is a subject that is often neglected in teaching and informing God’s people. Many people believe in eternal security and defend their position with various scriptures, which I shared some of them in the last devotional. In these next two devotionals, I am going to share a few scriptures that point to the fact that eternal security is not guaranteed, and there are conditions that might cause someone to lose eternal life.

But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:15

Our God has forgiven our sins, and the high price of that forgiveness was Jesus being sacrificed on the cross for us! Therefore, He has the right to expect us to forgive others. Sometimes we encourage people to forgive, so they don’t have to carry the load of hurt and resentment. However, we neglect to tell them that God requires us to forgive! If we want the mercies of the Lord in our lives, God expects us to be generous and merciful with our forgiveness toward others.

And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. Matthew 10:22

“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.  But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:32-33

The Lord expects us to withstand tribulation and to be courageous enough to confess His name even if costs us something.

And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more. Luke 12:47-48

If you read the entire passage, Jesus is telling a parable about a master allowing his property to be stewarded by his servant. The servant took advantage of the fact that the master was gone, and neglected his responsibilities. As Christians, we are accountable to what we know our responsibilities to be. Some take pride in having various versions of the Bible and/or attending various Bible studies, but they can neglect obedience.

The above scripture tells us that the more we know, the more accountable we are in obeying His word and stewarding our knowledge. We need to shy away from being sloppy with our obedience or doing it only when someone is watching us. The Lord sees everything we do when no one is watching, and he knows if we have been faithful to what we know.  I don’t think we can make the excuse for our lack of faithfulness by pointing at others around us who are lackadaisical with their obedience. If we claim to have a personal relationship with God, then we are also personally accountable to His convictions and unction to do right!

In the next devotional, I will share a few more more sobering scriptures that are critical concerning the issue of eternal security. 

Eternal security is an important subject, but we don’t hear much teaching or preaching on this significant issue. The reason could be because it makes people uncomfortable, or it might sound religious. However, in the absence of those discussions, many believe that Christians have eternal security, but live their lives according to their own ideas and pleasures.

People on both sides of isle use scriptures to support their position on this eternal security. Today, I will share scriptures that advocates of eternal security use. In the next devotional, I will share scriptures that point the fact that eternal security is not guaranteed unconditionally.

What is eternal security? Some call it, “Once saved always saved!” It has to do with the belief that once a person has prayed a prayer of salvation, they are saved and will go to heaven regardless of how they live their lives. Those who believe that we have eternal security would point to the following scriptures to support their views:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.  I and My Father are one.” John 10:27b-30

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2Corinthians 5:17

This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. John 6:39

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies….38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:33 and 38-39

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,  having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,  to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6

The above scriptures speak of God’s faithfulness and His power in regards to our eternal security. We can conclude the following from the above scriptures: First, it is God’s heart for people to come to salvation. Second, Jesus has paid the price for the justification of our sins, and His blood is sufficient to buy eternal life for us. Third, we become a new creation through salvation, are born again, and sealed with the Holy Spirit. Fourth, God adopted us and accepted us through the work of Jesus on the Cross. Fifth, Jesus has taken personal responsibility to be our Good Shepherd and to lead and guide us in life. He watches over His sheep, and the enemy does not have the power to snatch them out of His hands. Sixth, God’s love has no bounds, and the devil, death, or any other situation cannot separate us from the love of God. His love is unchanging.  

The above scriptures show that as far as God is concerned, He is faithful, and He has the power to lead and guide us through life protected from attacks of the enemy.

Hebrews 11 recounts the lives of the heroes of the faith who testify to the above scriptures. God led them through difficult and impossible situations, but He ushered them to their eternal home. When we submit ourselves to God, He is able to keep that which we have entrusted Him.

I will continue with this subject in the next devotional. 

When believers experience vexation for long periods of time, they can feel stuck and not know what they should do. As I shared in part II of this devotional, we need to reclaim our identity in Christ and not allow people or the circumstances define who we are. In addition, we need to regain hope!

Regaining Hope

Then Job answered and said, How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?

These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. Job 19:1-3 (KJV)

Job was vexed in his soul as his friends continued to throw their fiery darts at him. Not only he had to go through the pain of losses, but he also had to listen to his friends condemning him for everything that was going wrong in Job’s life. Their words broke him down!

Chapter 19 of the book of Job continues with Job recounting his multitude of struggles and the fact that even his friends had turned against him. However, Job suddenly shifted his focus from speaking about his predicament to asserting his confidence in God!

Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book!
That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever!
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! Job 19:23-27

Job did not waver in his faith and believed God was  is his redeemer! This was so important to him that he ensured his declaration of God was written down and never forgotten. Job had the expectation and the hope that when it was all said and done, he was going to stand before a holy God and see Him face to face!  He knew that all his issues, as painful as they were, someday were going to come to an end, and he was going to receive the most important thing, which was his redemption from this broken world.

Job looked to God when he was vexed by all kinds of circumstances, and he knew that the Lord ultimately would come through for him. In time, God restored Job’s life, and he regained much of what he had lost earlier. 

Today, if you feel vexed by the circumstances of life, find scriptures that declare your victory and give you hope for your future. Exercise your faith by declaring what God says about you and your circumstances. Don’t let weariness shake your identity or cause you to give up on hope! Recognize that the enemy comes to steal and kill your hope, but hope is a gift that God gives in abundance. Below is a powerful scripture on hope to meditate on:

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13