don't pass by the love of God

"Now you Pharisees make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but your inward part is full of greed and wickedness. Foolish ones! Did not He who made the outside make the inside also? But rather give alms of such things as you have; then indeed all things are clean to you." Luke 11:39-41


The literal translation of that last part is: "give that which is within as your alms."


Christ doesn't want our works alone. He wants us, first, to put our faith in Him. He wants us to lay out all of our sin, our hurt, our pain, our shame, our pride, everything we hold inside of ourselves, and lay it down at His feet. He can handle it, He wants to handle it. He wants to help bear your heavy burdens and replace your shame with joy. 


The next verse goes on to say:


"But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs and pass by justice and the love of God."


We in our flesh spend years and years hearing the Truth over and over and with our noses in the air replying, "I am a good person." We think we are in no need of penitence. In our pride, and arrogance we pass by the LOVE OF GOD! We are all sinners, and have fallen short of the glory of God, but there is hope because of Jesus' sacrifice.


Do we ever realize what it is that we are missing out on? 


As I continually write, nothing in this world will satisfy us like the love of God will. Our good works alone do not offer us remission of sins. Our faith in Christ and His labor of love for each of us is what is needed. 


The Lord loves you, Reader. He died for your weighty sins so that you may live. Do not wait;


"...confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Romans 10:9-10


I pray the weight of God's glory will bring all of us to our knees. Grace is where we can live, and grace is freedom for our prisoned souls. 


In the Love of Christ Alone, Jess

The Eye

"The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light." Luke 11:34-36

I studied this for two days, and I was encouraged by MacArthur's description of this:

"The problem was their perception, not a lack o light. They did not need a sign, they needed hearts to believe the GREAT display of divine power they had already seen." [Emphasis added].

Lord, help me to have eyes to see the great, mighty, divine display of power that I have already seen. You display Your power ALL around us, every single day we have even one breath in our bodies You display your power over our lives.

"A pantheists god is a passive god, but omnipresent God is Beauty who demands [emphasis added] worship, passion and the sacrifice of. Life, for He owns it." One thousand gifts.

He created our lives, all that we see. He alone gives and takes away. We are to praise Him in both instances. When we are looking toward the Bright Shining of the Lamp, our eyes cannot help but be opened and fill our bodies with HIS light!

Give Him worship today!

Updated-- Victorious Jesus: Today's Blog

I can only post a short one since yesterday's blog took me a while to write today, lol. But I will probably update this tonight to be able to elaborate on the joy and power I found in these verses.

"But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils." Luke 11:22

I looked this verse up in my McArthur Study Bible and it says:

"When a demon is defeated by the power of Christ, the soul vacated by the power of darkness is taken over by Christ."

Praise be to God! The man that verse 22 is speaking of is Jesus! Triumphant, strong, mighty, victorious Jesus! He has over come the power of darkness in our lives and shows us how to walk in light! 

Like I said, I am still studying and meditating on these verses. I want to find more on verses 24-26 before I post on them, but I am blessed that our God has done the work! It is finished and we no longer have to be bound to sin. 

When we accept Jesus into our hearts as our Savior and turn from sin, we are made free! 

He is always faithful, Folks. 

If we trust Him, seek His word and know it, and keep it in our hearts, He is faithful to teach us, grow us, change us, open our eyes, change our hearts, draw our hearts toward Heaven and give so so so much joy! He can quench the unquenchable thirst and make you to never hunger! An amazing God we serve! 

More tonight!

In Christ's unfailing love, Jessie

[p.s.] enjoy this song that has encouraged me and given a right perspective to me today!

Here is my update for verses 24-26! We are hopeless without Jesus! MacArthur says about these verses: 


 "This is the description of someone who attempts moral reform without ever being indewlt by the Holy Spirit. Reform apart from regeneration is never effective & eventually reverts back to prereform behaviors." 


 He is our saving grace, Jesus is! He is the one who can clean house, purify us from our sins, but not leave our house empty and hungry! He gives life! 


 Be blessed today if you know Him, and if you don't, give your life to Him today. His gift of salvation is free, it brings true reform, and the joy inexpressable will blow your mind!


 Nothing, NOTHING in this world will satisfy your thirsty, thirsty soul like Jesus promises to! NOTHING IN THIS WORLD! 


Love, Jess xo

A Post Intended for Yesterday

"I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs." Luke 11:8

   First, I encourage you to read Luke 11 [click the link to read the chapter] for yourself. All the gospels, really!They have been such a major blessing to me! I am currently meditating on Luke 11:5-13 and Luke 11:16-26. 
It is cool because in the beginning of Luke, Jesus teaches us how to pray [vs. 2-4].  Then He goes on to teach a parable to teach us how often to pray. 

   As you all know, I often have spoken about how I have trouble getting up in the dark, cold, early mornings of the winter days we've had to spend time in prayer and reading God's word. I have to confess that the Lord has been repeating to me that 630a is the time He wants me to get up, and He's been repeating it for months, but I have been ignoring it. Making excuses that I'm way too tired because I stay up late. I can't because I'm cold. I knew in my heart those were all lies. The verse in James 4:17 kept coming to my mind, over and over and over again. The Lord was calling me to partake in His goodness and my flesh wanted to have nothing to do with. I wrestled daily with the Lord in my thoughts and prayers. He reminded me the treasure that awaited me in His presence. Yet, I still ignored.
   Praise the Lord for being patient as I rebelled. I will never grow spiritually if I never seek the One who has the power to change my wretched heart. So I talked with a friend [check out her blog], and we are working together to be obedient to the Lord's calling in spending sweet time with Him. 
Two days into the early morning wake up calls, we pray for one another and our time in the word, we both have been abundantly blessed by the Lord's response!
   I told her today, how awesome my time yesterday was. By the verses I read in Luke 11:5-13 the Lord was just confirming that this time is right where He has been calling me to for the months I have been rebelling. And now, how could I ever want to NOT spend time with Him?! His word is living and it is ALREADY changing me. I am overjoyed and blessed that His mercies are new every morning, for His love, and His patience with me as I fought with my flesh and against the Lord. I was definitely in sin because I knew what He wanted and I basically went the other way. But Praise Him still for His forgiveness and His grace upon my life. 
   So, Readers, I encourage you to dig into God's word and let it change you. Search for Him and His goodness in the pages. Do not miss out because of your flesh. He has power over it and He offers it to you. 

   Be encouraged today that He loves you and He is selfish for you. We all want love and to be loved, but we all are. Let the Savior of the world into your heart today, let Him reign there, and there will be victory! 


Love, Jess xo

[p.s] enjoy a song that encouraged me yesterday :]