JUNE 23

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES

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Isaiah 57:15

“For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble, And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

Psalm 71:20

“You, who have shown me great and severe troubles, shall revive me again, and bring me up again from the depths of the earth.”

Exodus 33:16

“ For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”

John 16:7-11

 “Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  of sin, because they do not believe in Me;  of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more;  of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

John 1:9

“That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.”

2 Corinthians 6:17

“Therefore ‘Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.’”

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We are reading a book by Corrie ten Boom, with daily recordings she made to broadcast over Trans World Radio.  Her Dutch family  sheltered Jews during the Nazi invasion of Holland.  As a result, she, her sister Betsy and their father were taken to concentration camps in Germany. The Lord did many miracles to allow both Corrie and Betsy to bring the Gospel to the other women in their camp.   Their father was murdered in an extermination camp and Betsy was sick, dying just two weeks before Corrie and the rest were freed.  After her freedom, Corrie traveled the world, telling everyone even in remote areas, about salvation through Christ, besides radio and writing many books.  This one is entitled, “Not I, but Christ.”

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A STEP TOWARD REVIVAL

The evangelist Gypsy Smith was asked one day, “What can I do so that a revival will take place in my church?”  the answer was “Go into your room and take a piece of chalk; draw a circle on the floor and kneel down in the middle of it.  Then pray:  “Lord, bring revival to my church, and begin in the middle of this circle.”  That was to the point, wasn’t it?  But Gypsy smith was right.

God’s will is our sanctification.  The Lord Jesus clearly said that we must be born again in order to become a child of God and that we must take our sins to the Lord.

Everybody can become a child of God because that which was done at the cross was complete and for anyone who will believe.  All we need to do is to say yes to Jesus from our heart, and then He performs the miracle, making us children of God.  This is the beginning.  Then we are set apart, in a wonderful way, in Jesus’ army.

Another word for set apart is sanctified.  A sanctified person has found grace in God’s eyes and God goes with him.  How great that is!  We will not be alone anymore, whatever may happen.  Therefore we can understand that an unsanctified Christian is out of God’s will ~ a concern for God.

You must understand that you are not responsible for what you are initially but for what you continue to be.  Falling into the water does not necessarily mean that you drown, but if you stay underwater you probably will.

Purification, or sanctification, is a matter of serious truth.  There is no room for compromise.  Somebody once said,:  “My finger is quite dirty but it is pointing to Jesus.”  This can be the beginning, but it should not remain so.  When you point to Jesus and go to Him, He wants to cleanse that dirty finger thoroughly.  A pickpocket once said:  “I became a Christian.  In the past I stole fifty or sixty watches every week, but I don’t do that anymore.  Now I only steal five or six.”

Well, that won’t work.  Perhaps you shake your head or you laugh at that pickpocket, but are you and I often not just like him?  No, we don’t steal, we don’t deceive ~ we just dodge taxes a little bit.  If you do it cleverly, that is all right, isn’t it?  No, that is not all right.  Nothing like this is all right.

Now, it is possible to live a clean and holy life, because the Lord is with us.  An unconfessed sin, be it ever so small, a sin of which you did not repent, is very much alive.  Please understand that in the Bible we have an answer for our sins, and that is a very wonderful thing!  So often  we think, especially if we are regular churchgoers, that we know what we should do.

I’ll never forget a girl in Brazil who told me she was full of doubts:  “I once said yes to Jesus, and I thought that then I became a child of God.  But I must confess that I no longer believe the Bible.  I no longer believe that God exists.  In fact, I don’t believe anything any more.”

Then I read to her from the Bible that the Lord Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

“Of sin, because they believe not on Me.”   Not to believe in the Lord Jesus is the first sin, a sin bringing forth many more sins  after a while she said:  “Oh, I suddenly see it!  I have actually committed that sin, the sin of doubting!”

Then I asked her:  “Do you know what to do with sin?”

“Yes, of course.  I read my Bible.”

“Will you do it then?”  First John 1:9 says:

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”

“Yes, I will.”  She folded her hands and said:  “Lord, will You help me not to doubt any more?”
But that is not asking forgiveness.   That is not the answer to sin!  First of all we must ask forgiveness and be cleansed, and then we can ask the Lord to help us.  She saw it and humbled herself.  She said:  “Lord, I committed a great sin.  I doubted You and everything the Bible says.  Will You forgive me?”  As soon as she said this, she was forgiven.

Then  I said to her:  “Now you can pray that other prayer.  First comes confession, then trust that the Lord will put His strong hand on your weak hand.”

First Peter 1:17-19 says:

“And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear;  knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,  but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

What a serious matter sanctification is.  We were bought with the blood of Christ, a very high price.  You, who are a Christian, who act as if you belonged to yourself…..don’t forget you lost every right on Golgotha.  We were bought lock, stock, and barrel.  Jesus paid the price.  Did you give the price’s value?  If you and I do not completely give ourselves to the Lord, we do not give Him the value for which He paid on the cross.  The price is high, but it was paid.

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Thank You, Lord, that You did this,  Will You listen to those who are now saying:  “I know that You have a right to me because You loved me enough to die on the cross for me.  I surrender to You completely”  Thank You, Lord Jesus.  Amen

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