Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 2 Timothy 2:22.
We have no time to lose. We know not how soon our probation may close. Eternity stretches before us. The curtain is about to be lifted. Christ is soon to come. The angels of God are seeking to attract us from ourselves and from earthly things. Let them not labor in vain. When Jesus rises up in the most holy place, lays off His mediatorial robes, and clothes Himself with the garments of vengeance, the mandate will go forth, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still…. And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”
A storm is coming, relentless in its fury. Are we prepared to meet it? We need not say, The perils of the last days are soon to come upon us. Already they have come. We need now the sword of the Lord to cut to the very soul and marrow of fleshly lusts, appetites, and passions. Minds that have been given up to loose thought need to change…. The thoughts must be centered upon God. Now is the time to put forth earnest effort to overcome the natural tendencies of the carnal, heart. Our efforts, our self-denial, our perseverance, must be proportionate to the infinite value of the object of which we are in pursuit. Only by overcoming as Christ overcame shall we win the crown of life….
We must turn away from a thousand topics that invite attention. There are matters that consume time and arouse inquiry, but end in nothing. The highest interests demand the close attention and energy that are too often given to comparatively insignificant things.—Testimonies for the Church 8:314-316.
With God at Dawn p. 113
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Prayer Requests
—-I need prayer for my nephew Jared, age 31. He’s in ICU with a stroke. Outcome now good. Sherry
—-A dear client’s family has asked for prayers. Please she has surgery in the morning. Sandi
—-Please pray for the abdominal pain from after a procedure I had done at a doctor’s office and that I will regain my health back soon! Evelyn
—-Please pray for Tony who has stage 4 cancer. Therese
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Dear Friends,
When Ronnie Jay was a baby, we lived less than five miles from the Atlantic Ocean, so we spent a lot of our free time there. In the evenings after the majority of the people had left the beach, we would eat our supper while sitting on the sand and gazing out over the water. It was so peaceful.
Once Ronnie Jay learned how to walk, however, the peaceful times were gone. He showed no fear of that immense body of water and would get away from us whenever we were not watching him. Off he would go toward the incoming waves, just as fast as his little legs would carry him. Those waves would grab him and roll him over and over and push him toward the shore by the time we were able to catch up to him. Always frightened of his little game, I would grab him out of the water, give him a little spank, tell him “no,” futilely try to explain the dangers to my one year old boy, and carry him back to where we had been sitting. Over and over again this process was repeated.
One day something happened when he was two years old that cured him of his little game. Our church often went to an area of the beach where no sunbathers went. From the parking lot to the ocean was about a mile walk, so the beach usually was deserted. It was nice to walk along the water’s edge with our friends and view the handiwork of God even though a cold March wind was blowing that day. As we got to the beach, Ronnie Jay wanted out of his stroller. It was too cool for his little game of “let the waves tumble me about and scare Mommy half to death.” I warned my son that it was too cold to go near the water and made him hold my hand.
As I got involved talking to my friends and looking for shells and sharks’ teeth, Ronnie Jay saw his chance to escape. Before I realized it, he had slipped his hand out of mine and headed straight for the water. I headed after him, but he was a fast runner. Into the cold water he plunged. I grabbed my dripping boy up into my arms with thoughts of his re-catching the pneumonia he had had three months before and ran as fast as I could to the car. The cold March wind seemed even colder now that we were both wet. Now, I’ve never been able to run very fast, but that day not even Ron could keep up with me. Adrenaline had set in. I knew that a warm blanket was in that car and Ronnie Jay needed to be wrapped up in it to keep him from getting sick. He must have gotten cold enough that day to decide that his little game was not fun any more, because that was the last time he ever played it.
How often we toy with sin, just as Ronnie Jay toyed with the waves. Our little “sin games” seem to be innocent and fun, that we do not realize the danger we are in. Even when warned of the consequences of our sinful indulgence, how often we run right back into the sin just as my son ran into the waves of the Atlantic. How often we do as Peter describes, “The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:22 Over and over we play with our darling sin until we one day find ourself held firmly in its grasp. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jer 17:9 “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” “the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” Isa 64:6;1:6
How much we need a Strong Deliverer, Who will snatch us up out of the waves of sin, remove our filthy, sin-stained garments, and clothe us with His Own Robe of Righteousness. Praise God! We have such a Deliverer! He “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever.” Gal 1:4, 5 Our Dear Saviour promises, “I will put my laws into [your heart], and in [your mind] will I write them; And [your] sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Heb 10:16, 17 Precious promises! Loving Redeemer!
May we always serve the Lord with our whole heart and strength and being and no longer toy with the pleasures of sin is my prayer.
Rose
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rosesdevotional/~3/QPWOfg2K0xU/flee-from-lusts.html
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