Our We Prostitutes With The Gospel?

"And as for you birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were youwashed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.

And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you in your blood 'Live!' (this is repeated) I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed , and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.

When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you (the garment of his veil which fills the temple) and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became my bride. Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wristst and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. THus you were adorned with my gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor athat I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord God.

But you trusted in your beauty and played the the whore because of your renown and lavished your whorings on any passerby; your beauty became his. You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore. The like has never been, nor ever shall be. You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore. And you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil an dmy incense before them.

Also my bread that I gave you, I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey, you set befor them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God. And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered tehm up as an offering by fire them? And in all your aboninations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood. (Christian brothers and sisters, remember this verse, because I fear that our "christian institutions" our "christian philosophies" have done the same. Have we forgotten the nakedness with which we were saved from. Were we saved from nakedness to stay naked? Or to cloth ourselves with his garments of righteousness?)

And after all your wickedness you built yourself a vaulted chamber and made yourself a lofty place in every square.

At the head of every streed you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring.

You also played the whore with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your whorings, to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You plyed the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you plyaed the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of CHaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.

How lovesick is your heart, declares the Lord God, because you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen prostitute. . . Yet you were not a prostitute, because you did not want payment. Adultrous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side with your whorings. So you were different from other women in your whorings. No one solicited you to play the whore, and you gave payment, while no payment was given to you; therefor you were different. Worse.

. . . You have committed more abominations than all else. Even though you were my bride. (italics added)

Has the church whored around, giving herself to the nations of the world? Have we taken the ways of the world and declared tehm ours. Stop the whoring! Turn back to God

To Take Up Your Cross!

The cross of Christ is not a trial or tribulation that we must endure, but a neccessity and a gift. The simple call to "Take up our cross and follow Jesus" is as important as teh call to "take up My yoke, for My burden is light." We are to both, take up our crosses, which mean suffering and rejection by the world, and to take up His yoke which means freedom from our burdens.

How is this possible? To carry his yoke which is light and carry the cross which was too heavy for Christ to even bare up the mountain to its resting place. Is it possible there is some hidden connection between the two?

I think it is commonly mistaken that you can have His yoke without the cost of the cross. And perhaps there are those who boast in their own afflictions and severe rigidity to the law who take up His cross pharisitically and without his yoke, thus doing it in their own mere humanistic endeavor.

But truly, you can not have the one without the other. To take up the cross we must take up the suffering and rejection of Christ, without the weight and power of the world. We cannot take up His cross any other way. We must believe and know that there is nothing but Christ in this. You must understand the henous nature we acted and still act against God and realize the suffering and rejection it took to spare you. Then we may begin to see the complex connection between the cross and the yoke. Understanding the wickedness of the human heart and the liberty God offers "through" his Son causes a man to both want to bare the cross he deserved and rejoice in the salvation he didn't.

The Enemy of Costly Grace

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace.

Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks' wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and teh consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church's inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap? . . .

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before.

Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentenced. . . Dietrich Bonhoefer "The Cost of Discipleship: Chapter 1 page 1

What's Wrong?

This video was well done. I think Paul Washer would have been disgusted with how many picture there are of him. But the video is really about his heart.

Matt 3:2, Mark 1:15, Luke 13:3, Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19

These are some verses that require us to repent. Since in repentence their is belief and in belief there is repentence.

Oh Lord, that you would turn me and my brothers and sisters from our sin. Bring down repentence to us. Bring down faith to us.

Lord, Help Me Know My Ways

Lyrics:

Lord, how long will you look on?
Save my soul from it's slow decay.
For the mire has been too deep for too long,
When was the last time I gave you all my praise?
Have you swallowed me in shame?

Chorus
Lord, help me know my ways,
And the measure of my days.
Deliver me faithfully,
Consume me all the way, oh Lord.

Hear my prayer, oh Lord
Give ear to my cry.
Hold back my tears,
Return to me delight.
Put me on a rock
Set my feet on high.
Then a new song I'll sing
From dawn until night.
Patiently you wait for me.

This song's lyrics are a compilation of Psalms 35, 39, 40, and 46.

Download the full version at http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=695038&T=1660

Titled, "Lord, Help Me Know My Ways"