Keep Your Eyes On Him

     "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy (1 Peter 2:9-10)."      The day Christ removes the veil from your eyes and takes out your heart of stone, you are forever changed; a new creation, never again the same. You begin to see things in a different way and you look at people differently because you have the Spirit of the living God inside of you. His grace is so marvelous and it is for all who will receive it. None of us deserve it, yet, in His great love, He sought after us and drew us to Himself. This grace has nothing to do with us or anything that we have done, this grace is solely based on the finished work of Jesus Christ our Lord. In Christ, He has adopted us into His fami...

     "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, said Jesus, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life (John 9:3)."      By nature, we are all selfish. We want things instantly. We don't want to wait. We want our own way and when we don't get it, we get frustrated. But God has called us who are His to live differently. He created us for Himself and for His glory. To live like this, we must die to ourselves; we must die to our selfish desires and our way of doing things. This. Is. Hard. We fight not only against our flesh, but also against the world and satan. To fight on your own is impossible-it simply cannot be done. The only way to live an unselfish life giving God the glory is to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.       When God first called you out of darkness and into His light, He immediately filled you with His Spirit. No one can change that. No one can take His Spirit from you and the Lor...

     "As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man (Proverbs 27:19)."      "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45)."      A person can only put up a front for so long. Eventually, what is really in their heart will come out. There are many who profess to know Christ. They may be active in the church, they may have participated in baptism, they may have gone to the altar many times to pray and do many good works, yet they are dead. Knowing Christ is not simply knowing about Him. It is not going to church every Sunday nor is it doing good works for Him. These things are a byproduct of knowing Him and each one is a good thing, however, if there hasn't been a heart change, they are nothing more than a set of rules and regulations or a check off of a "to-do...

     "A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense (Proverbs 19:11)."      "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him (Luke 17:3-4)."      "Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you (Colossians 3:13)."      Forgiveness is not natural for us to give. When someone hurts you deeply, you want to lash out at them and hurt them the way they have hurt you. You want them to pay for what they have done. Without the Holy Spirit, you will do just that, and the seed of bitterness will begin to grow within you. The bitterness will lead to resentment and eventually hatred. The enemy would love nothing more for you to fall into that trap. He also knows that if you don't forgive, your heart will gr...