How does a person get to heaven?

How does a person get to heaven?
If you ask most people this question, they will say something like, "If you do more good things than bad things, God will probably let you into heaven." The above thinking will reserve your place in hell. You need FAITH IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS. There are no good deeds that you can do on your own that will erase the sins that you have committed. Jesus SHED BLOOD for you sins. He came to save you from the GUILT of past sins and the POWER of sin over your life. You are about to read the most important information that you will ever read. It is called the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The word "gospel" means "message"*. The gospel is God's message to mankind. If you will yield to the gospel, you will be reconciled to God and you will escape eternal damnation in hell and the lake of fire. Besides all of this, you will have abudant life right now as you walk with the Creator of the universe--in spite of all the woes the world will throw at you. If you are full of doubts, ask Jesus to help you to understand and to be willing to be saved.

*many say the word gospel means, "good news" but in actuality it is only good news for those who receive it with singleness of heart. To others it is the stench of death...eternal death. Revelation 14:6-7 tells us the message of the everlasting gospel--"Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and WORSHIP HIM that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." There is only one way to do this--through the blood of Jesus Christ. REPENT ye and BELIEVE the gospel!
The Bible says that nobody is good enough to get into heaven. Each one of us has broken God's commandments--not one person is excepted. You have personally lied and committed other sins.

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

[L]et God be true, but every man a liar...( Romans 3:4)


I don't care how much "good" stuff you do, you still can't go to heaven. You are dead in tresspasses and sins. Your good deeds do not commend you to God in any way. You've ignored Him chosing to live life the way YOU see fit.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)

According to the above verse, we still come up short even when we try to do good deeds BECAUSE we are not doing them under God's authority. We do them cause WE think they are good. We ignore what God says.

"But I never killed anybody and I'm not a dope addict!" You're still a spiritual crook. You have broken the GREATEST COMMANDMENT IN THE BIBLE and you are as guilty as a harlot, a whoremonger, a killer, a thief and a liar. What is the greatest commandment?

Matthew 22:36-38 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, and with ALL thy soul, and with ALL thy mind. THIS is the first and great commandment.

It doesn't take much thinking to know that the unregenerate man has broken this commandment every day of his miserable life. Ungrateful, unthankful to the God that hath provided life to his carcass.

For those stuck on their "good" deeds like hellbound papists (who go about to establish their OWN righteousness instead of hearkening to the Bible,) if we could earn our way into heaven, Jesus died for nothing!

I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Galatians 2:21)

God is Holy. We are sinful. By His very nature, God cannot have fellowship with us sinners. There is no amount of "good" that we can do to make up for our crimes against God. They must be punished. And the wages are DEATH. Somebody has to DIE. Oh, you'll die physically, sin requires that. But you've got a choice about dying spiritually...


We deserve the death penalty. This includes both physical death (the casket) and spiritual death (when the soul is separated from God and cast into hell).
[T]he wages of sin is death...(Romans 6:23)


God doesn't want to remain your enemy and He does not want you to go to hell.
As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die... (Ezekiel 33:11)

The Lord is...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9)


In spite of your wickedness and rebellion, God loved you enough to send His ONLY BEGOTTEN Son to die for your sins. The Bible says, "... thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people FROM their sins." (Matt 1:21). Jesus did not die so that you could keep sinning and go to heaven. He came to save you from the GUILT and the POWER of sin. Jesus DESTROYED the works of the devil on calvary (I John 3:8). When you are unsaved, sin hath dominion over you. Sin is your boss and you can't do anything BUT sin. You are under the wrath of a holy and just God. Murderers, thieves, fornicators, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, rebels, and all other spiritual lepers will not inherit the kingdom. The blood of Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. That means the blood took away the guilt of the sins we've committed AND it has ushered us into a Father child relationship with the Lord. Through the blood of Jesus, we are to serve sin no more.
Again, the Father sent His only begotten Son, Jesus who is God, to die in your place. Remember that the wages of sin is death--that is why He died, to pay YOUR wages. The Lord Jesus Christ was your substitutionary sacrifice. The world's greatest love story is summed up in the following verse--

For God so loved the world, that he gave his ONLY BEGOTTEN Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

Jesus said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) How can you show more love than giving your very life for someone else's life? You can't. What is more amazing is that Jesus died for us WHEN WE WERE HIS ENEMIES! I mean vile, wicked, pitiful, wretched, unclean, unholy, ungodly, prideful, spiritually leperous.

Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

...Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6)

The love of God for you was demonstrated on that cross 2,000 years ago! God ain't hateful, He is loving. He gave His Son for you even though you are dead in tresspasses and sins.

Ephesians 2:1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
2:3 Among whom also we ALL had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.



Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth to (1) save you from the GUILT and POWER of your sins and (2) RECONCILE you unto God. Through faith in the blood of Jesus you will escape the wrath to come and joyfully look forward to heaven--and you'll live an overcoming life. God will be your Father instead of your enemy--but only through the blood of Jesus.
..the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (I John 1:7)

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)


After His death, the Lord's body laid in the grave three days, but praise be to God, it did not remain there. On the third day Jesus arose from the dead and was seen by over 500 people (I Corin 15:6) before He went back to heaven.
Please remember that Jesus was not some victim or just a baby in a manger--He was and is the eternal God and Savior who came to earth and gave His own blood for your sins. After He accomplished this tremendous feat, He rose from the dead like He said He would:

"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again..." (John 10:17-18)

...Christ died for our sins...and he was buried, and...he rose again the third day... (I Corinthians 15:3-4)


Are you ready to repent of your sins? To repent means to forsake your evil ways and listen to God. All your life you've been your own authority concerning what is right and what is wrong. You've made your own decisions while ignoring what the Lord says in His holy word, the Bible. You've served yourself and not God. To repent means that you turn to GOD AND THE BIBLE AS YOUR AUTHORITY. It means you can say, "Lord everything you say in the Bible is right. If my feelings contradict the Bible I AM WRONG. Lord I want to live under YOUR AUTHORITY, not my own."
And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to REPENT. (Acts 17:30)

...TURN TO GOD, AND DO WORKS MEET FOR REPENTANCE. (Acts 26:20)

Repentance ain't lip service. Are you prepared to live for the Lord? Jesus said this--

"And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:27)

Determine that you are sick of living under your own authority. You've lived the way YOU wanted to. You lived without regard for God's precepts. Understand in your mind that you've lived in sin and in the ways of death. Think it through. Determine that you want God to be your Father and not your enemy. Decide that you WANT the Lord and His ways. Satan ain't doing nothing but kicking your hind parts up and down the street. He will leave you destroyed. God will lift you up if you submit yourself to Him.

Friend, you have a choice to make,


keep on pursuing Satan and the fleeting pleasures of sin; or,
humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Further the kingdom of God with power from above. In due time, He will lift you up to places you never experienced--much less knew they existed.

The Holy Bible is the word of God. It is the only way that we know about the Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible, God testifies that Jesus Christ died for your sins and was buried; and that He rose from the dead on the third day. You must believe and confess this in order to be saved.
[I]f thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, THOU SHALT BE SAVED. (Romans 10:9)

Jesus waits with open arms for those that want life. The choice is yours. If you're sick of being alienated from God, if you're tired of what this wicked and perverse world has to offer, if you want Jesus Christ as Lord of your life, if you want to be reconciled unto your Creator, if you want to go to heaven, if you want to escape hell -- put your faith in the One who can do something about it! Do you believe that Jesus Christ died for you? Do you believe that He rose from the dead? Do you repent of your sins? Do you want to follow Jesus?
If so, REPENT and talk to the Lord in prayer in your own words right now. Don't put off making a decision for Jesus, tomorrow may be too late. Some people don't know how to pray. Praying is just talking to the Lord. If you want to be saved, repent and pray--you can say something like, "Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and I want to be saved. I repent of my sins, every one. I don't want to do evil anymore, I want to do righteousness through the blood of Jesus. I'm asking you to please forgive me of my sins against you. I want a new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be everything that You created me to be. I believe that Jesus shed His blood and died for me so that I could be saved from my sins. I believe that He rose from the dead on the third day. I want to be your child. Thank you for being merciful to me, a sinner. Thank you Lord Jesus for saving my soul from sin. Please fill me with your precious, Holy Spirit so that I can live a righteous, self-denying life for you. I'm giving you myself. Please show me what you want me to do. In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen."

If you have placed your faith in Jesus, praise God, you are a Christian. Now begins your new life of freedom and obedience to the Lord. Now you need to (1) start reading the Bible (Authorized King James Version of 1611--begin with the gospels) and (2) you need to get yourself into a Bible-believing church that uses the King James Bible so you can get baptized and discipled in the way of Christ.

Please see the section on the new life for more information. If you've gotten saved through this witness, please e-mail me at tracy@jesus-is-lord.com so that we can rejoice together.




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Warning!!!

Once you get saved, the devil will try to make sure that you encounter false doctrine. Your faith is tender and you will be prone to believe anything people tell you about the Bible (that's why you need to read it for yourself everyday). If you have any questions, please write me and I will direct you to the appropriate scriptures. Please heed these warnings:

1. Don't let anybody tell you that you have to "speak in tongues" to show that you are saved. These people take one or two passages out of context and make false doctrine out of them.

2. Don't let anyone tell you that water baptism saves you. If you are saved, you WILL get baptized out of obedience. Saved people are children of obedience (Heb 5:9). The gospel and baptism are separate--I Cor 1:17. You are baptized in order to outwardly identify with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and to symbolically show the washing away of sins. So if you are trusting in your baptism to save you, you are wrong. An unrepentant sinner will go down a dry sinner and come out a wet sinner.

1 Peter 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
3. Don't let anybody tell you that you're going to hell if you don't go to church on Saturday--Colossians 2:16, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.




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If you have not trusted Christ, I hope that you won't continue to reject His offer of life. You are in a dangerous position. John 3:36 says, "...he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." You will not make it into heaven on your own "good merits" or by your own conception of Who and What God should be like. He always has His way--the choice is yours to accept or reject.

Read More

Victory Over Sin

Victory Over Sin
Today, March 13, 2001, the Lord gave me this update to this page...The following verses are all you really need to overcome sin. They say in essence, "Seek out righteousness and you WILL depart from evil." Start serving the Lord and let go of anything that is not of Him.

Proverbs 16:6 BY MERCY AND TRUTH iniquity is purged: and BY THE FEAR OF THE LORD men depart from evil.
REPENT and call upon the mercy of the Lord. Tell Him that you need Holy Ghost intervention. Tell the Lord you want to know Jesus Christ in His fullness and that you want to be holy. If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord WILL NOT hear thee.

Psalms 34:14 Depart from evil, and DO GOOD; SEEK PEACE, AND PURSUE IT.

Psalms 37:27 Depart from evil, and DO GOOD; AND DWELL FOR EVERMORE.

"But I just can't do it!"

Proverbs 13:19 The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul: but it is abomination to fools to depart from evil.



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There are many professing Christians that write to us with recurring sin problems, especially lust. I've had readers tell me that they despair of life because they can't seem to overcome sin. They feel that they are slaves to the sin and it causes them to do things that are almost frightening. Jesus came to deliver from the GUILT of sin and the POWER of sin. When a person has recurring sin, the fault does not lie in the power of God, it lies in the disobedient person that refuses to do His will.

This article is not for the unbeliever--without Jesus Christ, that person is helpless and hellbound--they need to go to How to Get Eternal Life. If you are a professing believer and you keep sinnin' with abandon, you need to take a good look at yourself and determine if you are in the faith. "Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates?" If you are found in the faith you need to call on Jesus and make the necessary sacrifices in order to be free from sin. Sin shall have no reign over the mortal body of those who are led by the Spirit of Christ.

This article is for the Christian who has recurring sin in his life and wants it out! Your sin does not have to be lust though this one of the biggest ones people write here about. Your problem could be submission to your husband, loving your wife the way Christ loved the church, licentiousness/lasciviousness/uncleanness/pornography, obeying your parents, rock music, disobedience, etc. ALL Christians need to turn off the hell-I-vision. It is sin and it evil affects every one of 'em.

What I'd like to do here is give very practical (Biblical) ways that you can overcome sin--if you will follow these guidelines, you will overcome through the blood of the Lamb. At the end of some points is a "Practical Application" that you can use as you strive for the victory. We need to get off the rat wheels of self-absorption and start serving the Lord of a truth.

Point Number 1: When you sin, you do it because you want to.

One more time--when you sin, you do it because you want to. "The devil made me do it," is a fallacy. The only thing that Satan can do is tempt you in order to draw out the lusts that are already resident within your wicked human heart. Jeremiah 17:9 says:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jesus himself talked about the heart in Matthew 15:19:
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.
You need to ask Jesus to search your inward parts and purge them from all evil. Even then, you must remember that your flesh will always war against the Spirit for control of your mind (Gal 5:17, James 4:5). I have the same hands that I did when I was a hellbound sinner. But, hallelujah, they don't do the same works because I now MORTIFY the deeds of the body. I've got that Holy Ghost power. He convicts me of sin and unrighteousness and I do what He tells me to do. I do not obey the flesh and the lusts thereof. You get Holy Ghost power by reading the Bible, obeying it, praying and fasting. Paul said, I keep under my body and BRING IT INTO SUBJECTION.

Someone may say to me, "But I hate my sin, I don't do it on purpose." Well, I don't believe you. Let me break it down like this...You hate burning the skin off of your hand don't you? You really hate it. As a result you do not go put your hand on a burnin' hot stove. If you truly hate something you do not do it. You HATE having your hand burnt off so you don't put it in fire. When it comes to your sin whether lust, gluttony of food, etc. you DON'T hate it. Stop lying. When you lie on top of it you are adding iniquity to iniquity. You may feel guilty about your sin but you do not hate it. Just admit that you enjoy it because if you didn't you wouldn't do it. The Bible says that there is pleasure in sin, for a season--and it is an exceeding short season.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: You need to say this out loud:

"Dear Lord, I LIKE to ________________________ (fill in the blank with your sin). This is sin Lord. I willingly do it because I like it. Father, I feel so guilty when I do this but I keep doing it over and over again anyway. I have insincerely prayed for this sin to cease. Please forgive me in accordance with 1 John 1:9."
Point Number 2: Every single time that you are tempted to sin, you have a decision to make.
What decisions are set in front of you?

"I am going to do it."
"I am not going to do it".
The decision rests with you alone. No person and no devil MAKES you to sin. No one puts a gun to your head. You need to admit that you sin of your own evil volition. Your own lust leads you to commit sin. Lust is not just speaking of whoredom--it's any depraved affection, evil propensity or unlawful carnal desire. It is to have an eager desire for the gratification of carnal appetites. Lust can also be irregular or inordinate desires (see Webster's 1828 dictionary).

James 1:13-15 is very instructive concerning how temptation turns into actual sin. Man takes his own silly, evil self into sin. Temptation is not sin, sucumbing to it is. The following are good points from James chapter 1:

God does not tempt you!
James 1:13, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:


You are tempted by your own LUST. The temptation comes and YOU keep your eyes fixed on it and your lust draws you deep into it. You are enticed.
James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.


Once you are enticed, your flesh yearns for the object of your lust and finally yields to the temptation. That is when sin occurs. Everytime you give in, you are stabbing yourself spiritually. Our hearts get hard when we sin. We don't want to talk to the Lord or read the Bible.
James 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: You need to...

Realize that when temptation to sin comes your way you have a choice to make. You are not helpless. Jesus died to redeem you from the curse! There is victory in Jesus! Don't keep sinning and then asking God to deliver you. It is up to you to say, "No!" when the sin comes your way. We are going to talk about some things to decrease the number of times you are tempted as well as how to get out of those times you are about to sucumb. You can pray something like this--
"Father God, I am so weak and gutless and disobedient. Please forgive me. Please help me to stop going as an ox to the slaughter when it comes to sin. Even a simple bird will not fly into trap that it can see. In the past, I haven't had the sense of a bird. I see a trap and keep on walking right into it. A wild animal has more sense than I have had. I've been ridiculous, please drive this point home to me Lord. In Jesus' name, Amen."

Point Number 3: Ask God's blessing on everything you do.
This is an extremely important point. Get in the habit of asking God's blessing on the different activities in your life. When you feel tempted to sin, say out loud, "Lord, be THOU exalted" and then take the proper course of action. You need to say that OUT LOUD. Many times your flesh will tell you not to say it because you want to do the evil, but if you are a Christian and you say this OUT LOUD I do not see how you can go ahead and sin.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: You need to pray...

"Father God, please give me remembrance to ask your blessing on ALL that I do. If I cannot ask your blessing on it, it is SIN. Please convict me. Please increase my desire to do Thy will, O God. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Point Number 4: If you enjoy the same things that the world does, you are going to yield fruit just like theirs.
Do you watch hellivision? Do you go to see all the latest the movies? Do you watch HBO and R-rated hellywood trash? Do you believe everything that the 6 o'clock newsman tells you? If so, then you are putting dung into your mind. Is it any wonder you have no self-control?

I'm going to make it personal here. This is for the wives. Do you still continue in the "independent spirit" that you learned from the world? The Bible word for that spirit is REBELLION and it is as the sin of WITCHCRAFT (I Sam 15:23). Rebellious wives are witches working their sorcery. Do you think that every decision in your marriage is subject to YOUR approval? I've got news for you, the Bible says you are a helpmeet to your husband. He is your protector who will probably consult you, but the final decision is up to him. When you argue with your husband and try to run the house, you are in rebellion to the word of God. This is worldly, sensual, devilish. Forget about women's bondage...er, women's lib and return to God's way.

Christian Reader, know ye not that friendship with the world is enmity with God? If you are worldly you are a friend of the world. And whosoever will be a friend of the world is the ENEMY of God. If you are totally at one with this world, I suggest you check out our article entitled, "Who are You?".

When we think like this old wicked world, our minds are alienated from Christ. The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The battle here is NOT really over your particular sin. The battle is for YOUR MIND. There are all kinds of minds in the scriptures. Where are you in this list?

There are pure minds:
II Peter 3:1...your pure minds...


There are corrupt minds:

I Timothy 6:5 and II Timothy 3:8... men of corrupt minds...

II Corinthians11:3 But I fear, lest by any means...your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.


There are weary and faint minds
Hebrews 12:3 ...lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds...


There are minds kept by God:
Philippians 4:7 ...the peace of God...shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.


There are blind minds
II Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. (see also II Cor 3:14)


There are minds that have been made evil affected by wicked men.
Acts 14:2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.

But how do I change my mind?

2 Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
I've had young people ask, "How do I know the will of the Lord?" There is only one way--the Bible. You need to read it everyday and read it diligently. It will make you holy. You must listen to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. If the Holy Ghost is telling you that something is wrong, don't override Him and do it anyway.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: You need to say this out loud:

"Lord I need a change of mind. I've been letting my mind wander and meditate on evil things. I have not read your word like I should and I have not obeyed like I should. As a result, my life seems out of control in some areas. I hereby confess that the Bible is true and that I will discipline myself to read it and obey it continually. Please increase my desire for Thee. In Jesus' name, Amen."
Point Number 5: Get rid all things that cause you temptation.
Jesus said if thine eye offend thee pluck it out! In other words, remove from you that which causes you to offend. Here are some examples:


If you are an internet porno junkie and cannot resist going to porno--get rid of the internet and the computer if necessary 'cause you can' t handle it.

If you can't stop watching hellivision, get rid of it! I ain't gonna kill you. In an amazingly short period of time you won't long for it and it'll make you sick when you do see the trash on there. We have a tv used exclusively for Christian videos. There is a blank blue screen so I don't see trash. There is a whole other world outside of hellivision. These are dark days. The harvest is plenteous and we need laborers, not couch potatoes.

If you have debts, don't go to the mall shopping. Take the attitude that every paycheck belongs to your creditors--because it does. The Bible says that the borrower is servant to the lender. You are a slave workin' for your redemption.

If you "love" heavy metal (I cannot quite understand this one for a Christian), destroy all your CDs, t-shirts, and posters. And if you look like a freak, get yourself in order.

If you keep fornicating, young woman, get rid of the harlot clothing and get some modest clothing. If you're a young man, stop pouring out your whoredoms on loose foolish women.

If you can't seem to stop eating everything in sight, say "No!" to the chow. Don't go buying junk food so you can stuff your face. If you are obese, you shouldn't be eating dessert until you've gotten yourself under control.

If you are a rebellious wife, keep your mouth shut and be grateful for what you've got.
This is about temperance, discipline, and mortification. This is possible, joyous (!), when we make up our MINDS to do things the holy way. Get rid of the temptation. If the problem is inanimate like books, etc. burn 'em up like the people of Acts 19 did their curious arts!

Point Number 6: If temptation comes upon you suddenly, you still have choices.

If we avoid those things/people that tempt us, we will have achieved a huge measure of success. But even when temptation is in our face we don't have to just dumbly sit there and go into the trap. You can:

Ask King Jesus to exalt Himself and His doctrine in the situation. This should really cool off that lust and it should make you afraid to do evil--if you know the Lord of a truth.
Pray
PHYSICALLY LEAVE THE ROOM AND GO AROUND OTHER PEOPLE
CALL SOMEBODY
QUOTE SCRIPTURE out loud (you need to have verses memorized)
REBUKE THE DEVIL in the name of Jesus
Listen to your favorite praise and worship hymns.
Point Number 7: Fill up your life by (1) sharing the gospel and (2) using your spiritual gifts.

The Christian life is not about warming a pew bench on Sundays, it is about serving the Lord. Because many professing Christians DON'T serve the Lord, they have a lot of idle time on their hands and they fill up their time like the world does. This is unacceptable to the Lord. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. We have an article on spiritual gifts and the characteristics of people that have various gifts.

Point Number 8: We have the victory through Jesus Christ.

Never forget that our Lord and Master Jesus Christ is powerful! If He could raise the dead, make the deaf to hear, heal the blind man and the leper--He can handle our needs.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: You need to say this out loud:

"Lord Jesus, I know that you CAN DO ANYTHING and that I have the victory through your blood, I am sorry for my spiritual slothfulness and lack of discipline."
MEDITATION VERSES: I Corinthians 15:57 and I John 5:4

Point Number 9: We must discipline ourselves.

Jesus said that if we want to be His disciples we must deny ourselves:

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself...
By the Holy Ghost, Paul said that we are to keep under our bodies and BRING THEM into subjection.

1 Corinthians 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
I will give you an example of denying ourselves and keeping under our bodies. One summer I was at home and all of a sudden a huge urge to watch hellivision came over me. Then all of a sudden it was like the Lord said to me, "Don't watch it". So then WITH MY MOUTH I said, "I am NOT going to watch tv". Then I went about my day praising and worshipping the Lord. What a day of praise that was! In retrospect, I can see that that was a turning point in my life. I am determined that NOTHING will have any power over me except The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost.

When the Holy Ghost is trying to tell you something will you listen to Him or Satan? If the answer is Satan then you can fully expect that he will be whoopin' up on your hind parts all up and down the street.

Point Number 10: Memorize Scripture.

Spend time memorizing passages of scripture that speak to you. Psalm 1 is an excellent start. It only has six verses. Once you truly internalize it, you will feel the power as you recite it out loud. Fill your life up with the things of Christ.

Point Number 11: Go to church.

Attend all church meetings and functions

Point Number 12: Fast.

See our article on fasting.

Conclusion.

There is only one reason we exist, to exalt the name of Jesus Christ and His doctrine. This life is not about you in any respect. It is about Jesus. When a man truly gets ahold of this, he has stepped into a whole other spiritual realm...you will feel peace, purpose, understanding, wisdom and knowledge. Your life will truly be hid in Christ. Not just in word, but in fact.

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God don't need us, we need Him

"God don't need us, we need Him."

Most people, including professing Christians, have a wrong idea about the Lord God. Back in 1991, my grandmother told me something that I will never forget. She said, "Tracy, God don't need us, we need Him." I took instruction from this simple statement. God is good to us, but He don' t need us. We need to understand that.
Acts 17:24-25, God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, AS THOUGH HE NEEDED ANY THING, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.
Man is vain--

One man thinks he does God a favor by getting saved.

Another man thinks he hurts God or diminishes His power by blasphemying or rejecting Him.

Both are wrong. Let's look at the breakdown. Find your category below--
Job 35:7, If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?
Job 35:6, If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?

The righteous do not increase the power of God and the wicked do not take away from the power of God. God has existed from eternity past without my love and He will continue enthroned in power and glory and might long after the vilest blasphemer is rotting in hell. God will be God forever regardless of what a man does or does not do. He is self-sustained in no way relying on man. We can help or hurt a man like us but we can't help or hurt God.

Jesus, Who is God, did not need the testimony of man. Let us take instruction from the gospel of John. When the Lord Jesus was in Jerusalem at the passover in the feast day, many people believed in His name when they saw His miracles. But look at the last part of the passage --

But Jesus did not commit himself unto them,
because he knew all men,
And NEEDED NOT THAT ANY SHOULD TESTIFY OF MAN:
for he knew what was in man.
John 2:23-25

Jesus did not, and does not, need man. When an unregenerate, hellbound man speaks evil of Jesus it don't mean nothing.

Some of us think that we are doing God a favor by going to church or reading the Bible. We even think we are doing God a favor by acknowledging Him as the Lord of our lives. No, my friends, we ain't doing Him no favor, WE ARE DOING OURSELVES A FAVOR! God don't need us, we need Him! Let us reason together and truly understand this thing.

As my mother would say, "God is God all by Himself". God created the heavens, the earth and the sea and all that dwell therein. God created Pluto and Saturn and Jupiter and the Sun. God created light and scattered the darkness, God made the swift cheetah and the delicate butterfly. God made the evaporation system. God made the industrious beaver and the tiniest micro-organisms. God made the food chain. God made the gorgeous diamonds and rubies. God made you and God made me. God does not need our oblations or anything else from our dusty frames. I see Buddhists give their statue gods cigarettes, coffee, fruit and cakes--their god can't even light the cigarette. They light it and stick it in the little pot. Their god needs them. Why? Because they created him. He's small. He's no saviour. He's false. But the TRUE God don't need you or me for one single thing. Let us understand this thing.

When I read Psalm 50 I think of my grandmother's statement. God don't even need the smallest thing from me. He said in Psalm 50:

"If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
"For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

"I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

"Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

"I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds." Psalm 50:12, 10, 11, 13, 9

God wouldn't even ask me for a sandwich if He were hungry. He don't need me for the most minute thing. God don't need me--YET He stretches out His beautiful hand to me through His only begotten Son sacrificed for me. This leads me to meditate on Psalm 8:4--

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
I literally cried when I got a hold of this verse. It is amazing to me that the Lord God is even mindful of this dusty frame. Why would He even bother to think about me? Why would He leave His glory to die on a Roman cross for me while I was yet a vile, wicked sinner who rejected Him? Why?

...for love.

This brings us to why God made us in the first place:

Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
God made us for His pleasure, not because He needed us. He made man in all good intention and kindness--

"My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.
"The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and equity, and did turn many away from iniquity."

THE LORD GOD ALMIGHTY

Malachi 2:5-6

God hasn't changed, He still wants the pleasure of our fellowship and love. He made us in His very own image. Love of all loves! Lovingly crafted in His own image. He made countless worlds for our pleasure. But that was not good enough for us. For some of us, it still ain't good enough.

Despite what God has done for us, we reject Him. We live without regard for His statutes, commandments, precepts, and laws. We want Him to stay out of our affairs so that we can do what we want. We're lawless, rebellious! Rape, murder, suicide, despair, loneliness, etc. are not God's fault! They are the fruits of doing things our own way! Man's way! Don't blame God for the evil that men do, don't dare. Put the blame where it belongs--on man. Man ain't good. Man is evil.

James 1:13-17 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his OWN lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth DEATH. Do not err, my beloved brethren. EVERY GOOD GIFT AND EVERY PERFECT GIFT IS FROM ABOVE, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
If you are a scoffer, I would ask something of thee,

The last time you lied, did God make you lie or did you lie because you wanted to?
Of course, you lied because you wanted to. According to the Bible, lying is a crime just like murder--you are no different from the man who kills--just like you, he did it 'cause he wanted to. It is silly to blame all the world's evils on God--which is exactly what wicked people do. Men kill and plunder and steal and backbite because they want to--just like we lie because we want to. We are all a bunch of criminals in need of forgiveness.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23
For those of you who blame everything on the devil, you can forget the lie that says, "The devil made me do it." Satan can't make you do nothing. He's not that powerful. He can only draw on the lusts already resident within the wicked human heart. We sin because we want to--Satan can only tempt you.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Mark 7:21-23, For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, [t]hefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: [a]ll these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

Some man may say to me, "If God made us in His image, then why do we have the capacity to do evil?" Let us first understand part of what it means that we are made in the image of God:

We are tri-partite: body, spirit, mind.
We can create: with our hands, with our minds.
We can reproduce: ourselves through procreation.
We have dominion: over the earth. We subdue plants, animals, etc.
We can CHOOSE: even making decisions concerning good and evil.
In making us in His image, choice is one of the attributes God wired us with. The very first man and woman chose evil and the curse of their sin continues with us today. Why do we do evil? 'Cause we choose to.

Romans 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
This begs the question, "Given our wretchedness, why hasn't God totally destroyed this ol' wicked world?" God in His sovereignty knew that there would be those of us who would want what He wants--a loving, beautiful relationship. He hasn't destroyed us

...because of love.

God knew that there would be a woman named Tracy who would want Him and desire Him. He knew a man, a boy, a girl would want to rejoice in His love. Yea, He allows this wicked world to continue until the harvest is complete and the last saint gets saved. There will be no abortions--everyone that is to be born again will be born. Not one of God's children will slip through the cracks and be lost. And when the harvest is finally complete, this room, this computer, those trees, that lake, those flowers, this universe will be destroyed and remade. And in eternity, the righteous will dwell with God. But the unbelieving, and abominable and those reprobate in every good work will be cast out into the lake of fire which burneth with fire and brimstone.

We need to be begging God to be saved. But alas! We often act like we do God a favor by turning to Him. He don't need us, we need Him. When a man gets a hold of this concept, he will truly see.

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