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Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are proved right when Your speak and justified when You judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Surely Your desire truth in the inner parts; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

Create in me a pure heart O God, and re new a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will turn back to You. Save me from blood guilt O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O LORD, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

In Your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight You; then bulls will be offered on Your alter.

Soli Deo Gloria

Make Me An Instrument

LORD, make me and instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we recieve;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life;

Amen.

 - St. Francis of Assisi

Soli Deo Gloria

Obey His Commandments

Do I love you LORD? The gravest question any of us face is whether we do or do not love the LORD. ~AW Tozer

“Why O LORD do You make us wander from Your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere You?” - Isaiah 63:17

“Our LORD told His disciples that love and obedience were organically united, that the keeping of His sayings would prove that we loved Him and the failure or refusal to keep them would prove that we did not.” – AW Tozer

“If you love Me, you will obey what I command.” – John 14:15

“Unfortunately we have opposing us the lusts of the flesh, the attractions of the world and the temptations of the devil. These complicate our lives and require us to make determined moral decisions on the side of Christ and His commandments.” – AW Tozer

“Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.” - John 14:21

What about you? When is the last time you really asked yourself: “Do I love God?” “But God demonstrates His own love toward us in this: that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8 Do you love Him enough to die for Him? More importantly, do you love Him enough to live for Him? If you don’t love Christ enough to work toward making every thought and action captive to His commandments, do you really love Him at all?

“The Christian cannot be certain of the reality and depth of his love until he comes face to face with the commandments of Christ and is forced to decide what to do about them. So the final test of love is obedience. Not sweet emotions, not willingness to sacrifice, not zeal, but obedience to the commandments of Christ.” – AW Tozer

“¹⁵If you love Me, you will obey what I command…. ²¹Whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him…²³If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and We will make our home with him. ²⁴He who does not love Me will not obey My teaching.” ~John 14:15,21,23,24

Soli Deo Gloria

Saved TO Something

“For a long generation we have been holding the letter of truth while at the same time we have been moving away from it in spirit because we have been preoccupied with what we are save from rather than what we have been saved TO.” - AW Tozer

“…For the past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes. Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.”   - Isaiah 65:16-17

“The Christian is saved from his past sins. With these he simply has nothing more to do; they are among the things to be forgotten as the night is forgotten at the dawning of the day.” - AW Tozer

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.”                     - 2 Corinthians5:17

I think too often we spend our time trying to ‘not sin’, when really all we need to do is focus on glorifying God. I know it sounds cheesy, but we need to think positively, not negatively. It is always easier to accomplish something you want to do than to keep yourself from doing something wrong. We are saved to glorify God, not just from sin.

“We are called to things that exist in truth, to positive things, and it is as we become occupied with these that health comes to the soul. Spiritual life cannot feed on negatives.” - AW Tozer

“Exodus – Webster’s definition: ‘a mass departure’ – The mass departure of the Israelites out of Egypt into the Promised Land. Out of somewhere into somewhere. They didn’t simply leave Egypt. They were headed somewhere – toward the Promised Land. God never directs us just to move out of something or somewhere. He always directs us to move out of somewhere in order that we might move into somewhere else.”  - Gen. Clay Buckingham

EDIT:  Sitting in Huston this afternoon/evening I was reminded through my reading of a verse that is really the best illustration of what I am trying to relate here.

"...Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." - Ephisian 4:22-24

Put off your old self - set it aside, forget about it.  Be made new, put on the new self to be like God - not to avoid sin and condemnation, but to be like God.