Grateful for God’s Grace

I'm just thankful today for the undeserved grace that the Lord has allowed me to be a partaker of for the past thirty one years plus. And I'm thankful that I understand that there is a cost in following after Jesus in truth and in reality, and that he has made me able to pay that price. I've been around this holy way a while now, and I have learned why Jesus said in regard to true salvation, meaning immortality and eternal life with him: "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" (Mat. 7:14). Some people never get past the first step, and that is to simply do what Abraham did when God called him: "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee... So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him" (Gen. 12:1,4). I've seen many who received the blessed holy Ghost in their life, and were never willing to let their old friends, and even families, go. Do you know what happened with them? That's correct, they never got to first base in God. They fell off the wagon before much time at all had elapsed. The truth is, if you move on into the leading of the Spirit after receiving it, you won't have to tell anybody to go away. They are going to scatter like bugs when the lights come on because they don't want to be around the light. Jesus addressed this issue when he spoke with the believing Pharisee, Nicodemus: "For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved" (Jn. 3:20). If you receive the light of God's Spirit into your life, and keep that light shining, no one will want to be around you unless they are attracted to the light. It's just that simple. It is an unbreakable rule. So if someone doesn't let old friends go after beginning their journey in God, it can only be because they have chosen to go back into darkness themselves. But if one gets past that hurdle, they have but barely begun. The real price to pay is the one that Jesus, and the faithful before and after him have payed: "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (Jn. 1:11). It was God's own people, who were in covenant with him, that rejected his Son when he sent him. And it was God's own people who rejected, persecuted, and killed the prophets before him (Mat. 23:34.35). Not only so, but it was men who had been baptized with the holy Ghost into the body of Christ that subverted the congregations that the apostle Paul established (Acts 15:1,24; II Cor. 11:4,13-15,23; I Jn. 2:19; II Pet. 2:20-22). You see, the real test is when your brethren, who should understand and follow after God's Spirit, resist you for the sake of YOU walking after the Spirit, and speaking the truth thereby. That is where you find out whether you love the honor of men, or "the honor that comes from God only" (Jn. 5:44).

There were many when Jesus was here who believed that he was the Messiah, but did not commit themselves to him for fear of being cast out of the synagogues (Jn. 12:42). But for those who love God more than anyone else, as we are commanded to do, they are in one mind with the apostle Paul; who said, "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ" (Philip. 3:7,8). These are those who fulfill the saying of Jesus, regarding this matter: "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake" (Lk. 6:22). And let's understand here, that the word "hate" simply means "not preferred." So it is truly a great blessing to be disesteemed and preferred over by those in the body of Christ who will not hear or obey the true word of God, when that word is in you. For Jesus went on to say, "Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did THEIR fathers unto the PROPHETS" (LK. 6:23). And he made no confusion here about who would be doing what to who. And the prophet Isaiah made no confusion about this very same issue when the holy Ghost moved him to write the following: "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word; Your BRETHREN that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed" (Isa. 66:5). So it is evident that those among God's people who reject the faithful, will ALWAYS believe that THEY themselves are the faithful, and that those being rejected are the villains; as the wise apostle alluded to: "Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?" (Gal. 4:16) And that sounds something like what Jesus once said to his brethren of Israel: "I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you" (Jn. 8:37). This is the price that the apostle Paul was referring to when he said, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us" (II Tim. 2:12). And again, paying this price of rejection by their brethren was his reference in the following saying as well: "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" (Philip. 3:10,11). In conclusion my friend, I hope that you can see by these last two scripture references, that unless we do pay this price and "endure till the end," we cannot be saved (Mat. 24:12,13). Amen.