Category: Are You In Need of Cleansing?

⁵ And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord.” ⁶ Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go to battle against Ramoth-gilead, or shall I refrain?” And they said, “Go up, for the Lord will give it into the hand of the king.” ⁷ But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire?” ⁸ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say so.” ~ 1 Kings 22:5-8

¹⁵ The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. ~ Proverbs 12:15

³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ~ 2 Timothy 4:3-4

I was recently reading the comments on a Christian video attempting to explain the Stone Age. There was one atheist in the comment section commenting and calling all these Christians dumb. What I found interesting was that if the Christian gave him evidence he couldn’t refute, he didn’t respond to the comment. He’d only attack, degrade, and argue with someone that he believed knew less than him. He never engaged with anyone bringing facts into the conversation that has now shifted to the possibility of a worldwide flood.

This is the tactic many non-believers use. They’ll go for Christians that they don’t think know as much as they do, and they’ll attack them. They’ll debate, argue, and engage with them so that they can show others, “Look, look. Look how dumb this religion is. Look how dumb its followers are. They don’t know anything and can’t even defend their own beliefs.” All while actively ignoring the one who can defend. The one who knows more than they do.

When you avoid someone because you know they’ll prove you wrong, and only go for the weak, it is intellectual cowardice. Deep down you know you’re wrong. Deep down you know that you cannot defend these beliefs against actual facts and evidence. So, you have to protect it. You have to beat down the weak to make yourself feel strong in your beliefs and stance.

This way leads to death. This way leads to destruction because your beliefs, opinions, and ideologies have become your god. It’s something you have to protect and keep safe at all times because it defines you. It’s the god you made with your own hands. With your own mind. So, you can’t let it go. You can’t let it be destroyed by Truth. So, you avoid Truth to keep it safe.

We should never run from Truth to keep our god safe. Our God should always lead us in the ways of Truth because the one True God is the Truth. He is the Spirit of Truth.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Put Your god On Trial.

¹³ For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. ~ Romans 2:13-14

It’s not those who merely hear. It’s not those who only listen. It’s those who, after hearing, obey. They are the ones who will be justified. The word “justified” carries rich legal, relational, and future weight in Paul’s thought. It primarily means “to declare righteous,” “to acquit,” or “to vindicate.” It is a courtroom term. God acts as Judge and issues a verdict of right standing. Paul is not saying here that God has transformed us into righteous people on the inside; he is saying God declares us righteous before Him.

That distinction matters. You can sit in church every Sunday and Wednesday. You can hear hundreds of sermons and teachings. But if the Word never moves from the ear canal into the heart and into actual obedience, you remain unchanged—and the verdict of “righteous” does not rest on mere hearing.

At some point the teaching must become practice. If it doesn’t, there is no real change. Jonathan Edwards put it plainly: “The salvation that does not change me will not save me.” A simple way to move from hearing to doing is to ask two questions after every sermon, every Bible reading, every time the LORD speaks:

“What are You saying to me, LORD?” “What is one concrete way I can and will obey this today?”

And keep inviting God to search you:

Search me, O God, and know my heart today. See if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. Help me to overcome evil with good. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. ~ Psalms 37:5

Sounds simple, yet it’s very profound. It’s much deeper than just a casual prayer or a momentary surrender. It’s a deliberate, life-changing act of placing the direction of our lives—our hopes, our dreams, our struggles, and our plans, along with our daily steps—into His hands. It means letting go of the steering wheel of life and allowing God to take the lead—easier said than done.

When we commit our way to Him, we are saying, “LORD, have Your way in my life. Do with my life as You will. Let Your Will be done in my life.” We choose to trust that His path is better than the one we have mapped out for ourselves. We are inviting Him to lead us toward the victories He has prepared—victories that may look different from what we expected, yet prove far richer than anything we could accomplish alone.

Trust is the constant companion of commitment. It is impossible to fully commit to someone you do not fully trust. The verse does not stop at just handing over our plans. It calls for us to forsake our own instincts and ideas, and to fully lean on the One who sees all and knows all. Trusting God means resting in His character even when the road ahead is unclear, and believing that He will make the right decisions for our best eternal interests. It means believing that He is both willing and able to bring to fruition everything we have placed in His care. We will believe as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1:12, …for I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.

Listen, what we entrust to God does not just vanish into silence. He takes our surrendered desires and works them according to His good and perfect wisdom and timing.

This is the beautiful exchange at the heart of the verse: we give Him our total obedience, and He works everything to our good. Not always in the manner or moment we prefer, but always in the way that leads to true flourishing. It is a win-win situation. We are freed from the exhausting burden of self-reliance, and God receives all the glory as He fulfills His purposes through our yielded lives.

Perhaps today you stand at a crossroads—facing a decision, carrying a long-held hope, or wrestling with uncertainty. Hear the gentle call of Psalm 37:5. Commit your way. Trust Him. Then watch with expectancy as He begins to unfold what only He can accomplish.

Heavenly Father, help me to submit my complete will to You. Help me to commit all my ways to You, that You might have full and complete control in my life and so lead me into paths of righteousness for Your Name’s sake, in Jesus’ Name, I pray, amen.

¹⁵ And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy. ~ 2 Chronicles 36:15-16

The LORD God sent warnings to the people of Israel over and over and over again by His messengers. Why? Because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place, which is the Temple. The people had abandoned God and were serving false gods. Still, God kept warning them to turn back to Him, because they were His people and His inheritance and He was jealous for them. And if they did not turn from idolatry and back to serving the One True God, then judgment would fall on them. But here’s the thing: God does not take pleasure in the death of the sinner, nor is it His delight to render just judgment. He would rather forgive than punish. But His people refused to turn back to Him. In fact, they mocked the messengers that He sent, and by doing so they despised His words of warning. They scoffed at the messengers and jeered at them as they poked fun and laughed them to scorn. This did not sit well with God. It actually awakened the wrath of the LORD against them until there was no remedy left for them.

The same pattern operates in the individual life, the family, the Church, and our modern society. Make no mistake, our God has patience with us, but there comes a time when His patience will run out, and there will be no remedy left. It’s not that He is cruel or unjust. He keeps saying, “Stop! Don’t do that! Quit it! Return to Me!” But when His warnings go unheeded, and His messengers are mocked, God takes that personally. If He has to continue sending warnings every single day with no change, then there will come a final warning, and God will act in judgment. There will eventually come a time when He will say, “Enough is enough.” Then there will remain no remedy but only the dreadful expectation of judgment. So may the LORD keep our hearts soft, our ears open, and our wills ready to turn while the day of mercy is still called “today.”

Heavenly Father, please guide my heart that I might hear Your voice, and when I hear, that I might obey Your commands. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, amen.

²⁰ how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, ²¹ testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ Acts 20:20-21

Paul has come down to the end of his ministry. His race is almost run, and the work the LORD had given him was almost complete. He is making his final pilgrimage to Jerusalem, hopefully in time for Pentecost. On his way, he meets with the elders of the church in Ephesus and tells them to remember the kind of life he had lived among them, and also to remember how he taught boldly and without holding anything back from them. Then he basically tells them: This is the bottom line of the Gospel: repentance toward God and faith toward our LORD Jesus Christ; that is the whole foundation that our faith and religion is built on.

Repentance toward God simply means that we must turn away from the things that displease our God, and make a 180° turn toward Him. Then we must continue to follow faith in our LORD Jesus. Now what does that mean? It means that we follow the teaching and preaching of Jesus of Nazareth—the Author and Finisher of our faith.

Repentance is not an option; it is a requirement. Here is what C.S. Lewis said about repentance:

Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms… realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor—that is the only way out of our ‘hole.’ This process of surrender—this movement full speed astern—is what Christians call repentance.

Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing a part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death…

Remember, this repentance… is not something God demands of you before He will take you back and which He could let you off if He chose: it is simply a description of what going back to Him is like. If you ask God to take you back without it, you are really asking Him to let you go back without going back. It cannot happen.

We were God’s enemies before the death and resurrection of our LORD Jesus; now we are sons and daughters if we come to Him in repentance. We must lay down our arms in total surrender to Him, turn around, and go in the opposite direction. Not back to what we used to do, or where we came from, but on a new path, for the old is passed away and the new has come. We must follow the new path that leads us back to God.

I encourage you today, whatever you’re holding back, release it and let Jesus’ words clean up your life, and let God’s Holy Spirit come and fill your life.

Heavenly Father, with a humble heart I come to You, reaching out in faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, asking You to renew a right spirit within me. Give me a wise heart to serve You and clean hands to lift up to You in worship. In Jesus’ Name I pray, amen.

³⁵ Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” ~ John 6:35

Throughout Scripture, bread is essential to the human diet. In fact, it’s compared to the very Word of God. Jesus Himself even refers to Himself as the Bread of Life. Bread is seen as a life-giving food, yet today the bread we eat isn’t good for us. It has no nutritional value. In fact, it has a lot of harmful additives to it. It really made me think. Bread is a really good example of how the enemy distorts the good things God has for us so that it can be harmful to our souls.

This is why Paul warned the Corinthian Church that even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). We’re all used to the bread that we buy in stores. It tastes good to us. We crave it. And the moment we taste what actual bread should taste like, we immediately don’t like it. We’ve become so accustomed to bread that is bad for you, that the bread that is actually good for you, we don’t want. It tastes bad to us.

Satan does the same thing with Scripture. He manipulates Scripture until the Truth no longer tastes good to us. Until it no longer satisfies our cravings, and we want our ears tickled. We want our sin justified. We want death instead of life. This is why we are told to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. We are like computers, and our mind is the hard drive. Our mind needs to be wiped of certain procedures in order to move forward. In order to gain new understanding. In order to grow in Christ.

Just like detoxing your body and cleansing yourself of all of those additives, preservatives, etc. will help curb your appetite for them, so will cleansing your mind, eyes, and ears of sin curb your appetite for it. What we fill ourselves with will be what we crave. What we push into our system will be what’s on our mind. It will become our abundance. Therefore, beware of the Devil’s schemes. Pay attention to the bread you’re being served. Is it from God or is it of this world?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Check Your Bread.

²⁷ Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned? ²⁸ Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared? ~ Proverbs 6:27-28

In an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, SpongeBob and Patrick were playing with fishing hooks, even though SpongeBob said that Mr. Krabs had told him not to play with hooks or even be around them. With the influence of Patrick, the pair would ride the hooks almost to the surface before they jumped off and floated gently back down to Bikini Bottom. It seemed innocent enough to them—they were having fun. They did not realize that the hooks were attached to fishing lines, which were attached to fishing poles, which were in the hands of fishermen in a boat.

When Mr. Krabs arrived and found them playing on the fishing hooks, he scolded them and explained that if they were caught by the hooks, they would be put into a can of tuna and mixed with mayonnaise, which completely freaked the two out. He told them that the hooks look fun and harmless, but they lead to destruction.

We are sometimes just like those two simple sea creatures, SpongeBob and Patrick, not seeing the dangers of sin. Jesus, through His Word, has warned us not to play with sin, just like Mr. Krabs warned SpongeBob. Sin is deceitful and will suck you in even before you know what is going on. And when sin is finished, it brings forth death. In the words of Mr. Krabs, “Worse! You end up vacuum-packed in a can of tuna, with nothing to look forward to but the smell of mayonnaise.”

For us, if we continue in sin, we have nothing to look forward to but the dreadful expectation of judgment and an eternity of punishment and torment in a lake of fire. Christ died that whosoever believes in Him, and will live for Him, will never perish, but have eternal life. So, be careful of the hooks, and watch out for the enemy’s lure and bait. Heavenly Father, I ask you to watch over me and to protect me. Help me see the enemy’s plans, tricks, and gimmicks. But help us to live for You that we will hear, “Well done, My good and faithful servant, now enter into the joy of your LORD.” In Jesus’ Name I pray, amen.

⁴³ For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, ⁴⁴ for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. ⁴⁵ The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. ~ Luke 6:43-45

I saw a short of a woman walking through a store with a shopping cart, recording how all the shelves were locked, with products requiring worker assistance to access them. What caught my attention, and everyone else watching, was that the woman said, “How are you supposed to shop …?” except she stuttered on shop and almost said steal instead. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Things that come out of our mouth don’t just come out of nowhere; they come out of the abundance in our heart.

The abundance of our heart, we can try to hide and keep secret from others, but sooner or later, our own lips will tell on us. Our subconscious will speak what our conscious tries to keep hidden. The abundance of your heart is the desires you give into. The things you think about. The actions and decisions you make. The things you condone verbally and in your heart. These are things that define you. The things that define you are the things that fill your heart. They are your fruit, and that is how you are known by both man and God.

We all have skeletons in our closet, but they don’t have to be the abundance within us. We bring ourselves before the LORD daily and have Him search us. Have Him show us what needs to be removed so that we might replace the darkness with light. So that our abundance might be light and our subconscious might speak good and not evil.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Watch How You Fill Yourself.

[20] For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. [21] For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. [22] What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.” ~ 2 Peter 2:20-22

So many people are under the impression that Yahweh and Allah are the same person. That both are the God of the Bible. I recently saw a video of a Muslim Imam teaching that those who commit the most horrid of sins ( sexual abuse, porn, adultery, drunkenness, etc.), but pray to Allah are better in Allah’s eyes than those who do none of those things, but do not pray to Allah. This statement really disturbed me. So, what you’re saying is that Allah doesn’t care about our actions. He doesn’t care about how we represent him. All he cares about is whether or not we are praying to him. Whether or not he’s getting recognition and praise, regardless of who is doing it. This is a big key difference between Yahweh and Allah.

See, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob demanded His followers to change for the better. To become more like Him. To go as far as to crucify the flesh and all of its desires. To be about our Father in Heaven’s business, and not our own. Throughout Scripture, the LORD condemned the people for simply praying, sacrificing, and bringing offerings, but their actions were wicked. He went as far as to say the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to him. Their offerings and sacrifices are evil in the sight of the LORD. Why? Because the LORD is a good and sovereign God, and sin is displeasing to Him. He does not make excuses for, defend, overlook, or allow sin to dwell with Him.

Wickedness is a stench in the nostrils of the LORD. Therefore, He made a way for us to be saved. To be redeemed. To be taken out of the wickedness and cleansed from all unrighteousness so that we might dwell with Him. Praise, prayers, sacrifices, offerings are all meaningless to God unless we live for Him. And if we dare to enter His presence, then we must make sure we are living a life pleasing to Him.

Today is the National Day of Prayer. It’s the day we are encouraged to pray a personal prayer of repentance and to pray for the return of righteousness in the culture. We don’t serve a god like other gods. He is a Holy and Sovereign God demanding more than lip service from us. Today, let our prayers not be in vain. Let our actions be pleasing to Him, so that our prayers might be heard by Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Know The Difference.