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Life is Your Church!
Commit Yourself to Living a Joy Filled Life Based in Truth
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Welcome to Life is Your Church!
Not many people realize that loving God is as simple as living a moral life based on His Word.

In Matthew 19:16, Jesus was asked what must be done to inherit eternal life. His answer: “If you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”


John 6:28, "Then they said to him, "What must we do to perform the works of God?" Jesus answered them,
"This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.
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The way you live your life is your worship.
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As Christians we are all part of the body of Christ regardless of what faith based traditions we keep.
 
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Articles / Blog Posts
icon-1Will You Enjoy Heaven?
Most people wonder if they will enjoy Heaven. Even mainstream publishers such as The BLAZE have written about it. In fact those who enjoyed the BLAZE ARTICLE on Heaven as good as it is I think they could have expounded upon their message. For example, I think they could have explained more clearly that nobody after death is denied the loves and joys they have developed in this life. The Bible in reference to Heaven speaks of different jobs of higher and lower esteem; it speaks of Heaven's government structure and of houses and cities and even says that it is” beyond what we could ask for or even think of.” In other words, you definitely will want to live there and experience its joys and our life here is used in developing our loves in preparation of an eternal life, that will be much like the ones we are living now but lived in the most amazing environment we can possibly imagine. As the article states the question we all need to ask is where will our loves take us after death and what type of life do we need to live to enter heavenly societies as described by God. The Bible is actually fairly clear on this and says if we love God with all of our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves we will be saved and all other commandments are covered by doing this.

 


So, does loving God or believing in God just mean acknowledging Christ as God? Doesn't this alone save us? Doesn't Romans 9:10 confirm this in its simple declaration that: "If you declare your belief with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Let’s see what Christ himself taught about the saving power of love toward him and belief in him as Lord and Savior. 2 Cor 7:14 says, “when my people humble themselves—the ones who are called by my name—and pray, seek me, and turn away from their evil practices, I myself will listen from Heaven, I will pardon their sins…,” John 14:23 says Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will go to them and make our home with them.” Luke 12:14 states, "The servant who knows his Lord’s will, but makes not himself ready, nor does his will, shall be beaten with many stripes..." John 8:21,24,51 says, "I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you shall die in your sins; If anyone shall keep my word, he shall never see death." Again, this passage shows that believing in Christ and the word is attributed to keeping the Word not just thinking it’s true or divinely inspired. So, as we can see above, he says people who believe Christ is God their Savior i.e. “the ones who are called by my name” must turn away from their evil practices before he will pardon their sins. In addition, it says to love God you must “do what I say” not just believe it is the right thing to do. Belief without the action of doing what is taught is to deny Christ and is called being unrighteous. This is why James 2:20 says “Do you want proof, you foolish person, that faith without actions is worthless?” 1 Cor 6:9 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor adulterers, nor prostitutes, ... shall be saved. “ James here isn't saying that the "unrighteous" that won't be saved are only those committing certain sins such as prostitution because we know through the Word that "all sins lead to death." No James is telling us that if we are smart enough to understand that the sins, he listed disqualify you from salvation that we need to look at ourselves and realize that the sins we are doing, and not fighting against, will lead to the same result. In John 3:19 Jesus said, “The light is come into the world, but men have loved the darkness more than the light; for their works were evil. Likewise in John 12:46 Jesus proclaimed, “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in Me may not abide in the darkness.” In modern English abide means, to act in accordance with, and darkness as shown in John 3:19 is equated to evil works so in modern language Jesus said, “I have come a light into the world, that whosoever believes in Me may not act in accordance with evil works i.e. sin. We therefore cannot declare we believe in Christ if we do not shun sin /evil works allowing our lives to be reformed by the Lord into doing good works. To declare that just a mental belief is all that is required without a change in our behavior and thought processes is not in accordance with scripture. Jesus confirms this in John 3:3 "Verily, verily, I say to you. Except a man be begotten anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." More clearly Christ is saying, "Unless you allow the Lord to change your heart and have a new way of living that shuns sin and loves good works you shall not be saved." Faith / belief must be accompanied with good works which is the fruit of true faith, or it is not a saving faith. Clowe states, "It is said in the church that faith is from the Lord; but be it known that faith, which is from charity, i.e. lived faith, is from the Lord, but not faith which is separated from charity; for this latter faith is from man's own and is called "persuasive faith" which is not a saving faith. A man is able to know whether the faith in him is from the Lord or from himself; one which is affected by truths merely for the sake of a reputation for learning, in order that he may gain honors or wealth and not for the sake of changing his life, is in persuasive faith, which is from himself and not from the Lord which such a man's life denies." Mat 10:33 “But whoever denies me before others, I will disown before my Father in Heaven.” To deny is to dismiss. How do you dismiss Christ before others? You do what he says you shouldn’t. You openly dismiss his values and teachings in the example you set in your daily life. Titus 1:16 describes Christians that act contrary to what they profess to believe as follows, "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good." God says doing good is a requirement of salvation because it is the "fruit" of a life of Christianity. Bearing "good fruit" is the only evidence Christ says you can use to identify a true Christian from a false one. Mat 7:19 states, "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." "Fruit", is symbolism for moral and godly thoughts and actions based on Christ's teachings. With Christians who are being regenerated the truths of faith that are with him are compared to leaves because the leaves receive light just as we receive light or truth from the Lord by his word which we then use to produce fruit i.e. changes in our life to reflect what we have learned which are the goods of charity. Salvation is therefore not granted to those who just profess Christian beliefs but is only granted to those who THINK and DO what they say they believe. Christ spoke especially harshly against religious hypocrites i.e., those who intentionally project a life they know they aren't living in thought or action. This of course is not the same as those who are trying to live their beliefs, who confess their struggles, weaknesses, unholy thoughts, and addictions etc. and sometimes fail during temptation. The good news is that the Bible says some of you WERE living / thinking as stated above but because of the power of the Lord you turned from these ways of life and are now brothers in Christ. In Luke 8:21; Matt 12:48-49 and Mark 3:33-35 it's documented that, “Jesus stretched forth his hands toward his disciples and said, my mother and my brothers, are those who hear the Word of God and do it.” James 1:12 says "Blessed are those who endure when they are tested. When they pass the test, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." Or stated another way, "Blessed are those who do not think or act in unrighteousness when facing temptation to do so. When someone lives their life by thinking and acting with righteousness when presented with the opportunity to think or act in a contrary manner it is they who will receive salvation in Heaven as promised to those who love the Lord. Matt. 25:46 states, "And they (who live in unrighteousness) shall go away into eternal punisment, but the righteous into eternal life." Again, loving him is living a life according to his commandments and teachings and not just believing that the Lord was God and that he taught these principles. If belief was all you needed the sexually immoral that believed in Christ would be saved. Paul taught people not to be deceived into believing this in Cor 6:9. What might deceive someone into believing even active sex workers can be saved? Teaching faith alone saves! But those who receive God's blessings are not those who hear the Word and believe it but those who hear the Word and keep it. Ths is exatly what Jesus says in Luke 11:27, "But Jesus said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it."

 


2 Peter 2:18 warned of Churches that would rise up under false teachings, such as the corrupted teaching of faith we see today, that would promise freedom to sin i.e. that faith was all you needed. “With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice the ones who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to corruption. For a man is a slave to whatever has overcome him. If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through their knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first.” The condition is worse because they no longer seek to overcome sin as they are taught that eternal life is a gift for faith through grace alone. But biblical teaching rejects this lie because even the demons in Hell believe in God: James 2:19 states, “You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.” True faith does not belong to those who believe that they have faith of themselves, and thus are wise from themselves; but to those who believe they have faith and wisdom from the Lord, for to these are faith and wisdom given because they ascribe nothing of truth and good to themselves, still less believe that they have merit through the truths and goods they possess; and less still that they are justified thereby; but only by ascribing them to the Lord; thus all things to His grace and mercy. So how have so many Minister's been deceived to preach that "faith alone saves" when the passages of the Bible are so clear: Matt 16:27 "The Son of man is going to come, and then He will render to everyone according to his deeds (thoughts, actions, works)"; Rev 2:26; "He that overcomes his sins, and keeps my works to the end, to him will I give power..."Rev 20:12 "I saw the books opened, and everyone was judged according to his works" and Rom 2:6; 2 Cor 5:10 "For we must all appear before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body" or Romans 2:6 "On the day of judgement God renders to everyone according to his works." The works being judged are the thoughts and actions of your life because they are in keeping with his life. More simply, good or bad is credited to anyone according to what kind of intention is behind his acts according to his understanding of them. Most churches teach that "no one can fulfill the law because if you break one commandment you break them all" and justify their stance that "not to sin" is impossible and salvation is therefore by grace alone. What they don't understand is the passage being referenced is teaching that if someone acts against one commandment on purpose, they will have no problem acting against other commandments on purpose because they deny that it is sin and therefore make nothing of religion. Clearly, someone who is an adulterer is not automatically a thief or a murderer etc. but he is not doing these other things because of civil law and to protect his reputation not because of his love for the Lord. Similarly, those who do love the Lord, if they are willing and with understanding of the commandments, keep from doing one bad thing because it is a sin, they will keep all the commandments. Those that live a godly life this way, even if they believe faith alone saves, will still see salvation for the life lived. For as soon as someone intentionally keeps from committing an evil he desires to do, because he knows it is a sin, the Lord keeps him to the intention of abstaining from the others. Yes, everyone sins but those who do so willingly are not the same as those who are earnestly trying to avoid sin and in a moment are overcome by a bodily urge etc. and fail. One's sins will be covered by the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross and the other's sins will not. The apostle Paul stated in Romans 7:19 "For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing..." which makes it clear that there is a belief and active life of avoiding sin present in the life whose sins will be covered by Christ." Paul clarified this in Heb 10:26, "If we sin willfully after we have received the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for your sins." Therefore, any minister that teaches no struggle against sin is required is deceiving you. The reality is the Lord can't enter you until you have stopped willingly sinning and it is only by the power of Jesus Christ after he enters you that you will truly overcome any sin. Paul says in Romans 6, "If we have been freed from sin by coming into Christ, why would we want to be entangled back into that yoke of bondage?" This shows that resisting of any sin does finally result in its being removed by Christ. If we then on our own accord willfully decide to resume a life of sin after having been cleansed of it through Christ, his sacrifice no longer will cover us as seen in Heb 10:26 above. Rev Clowe explained the process of the removal of sin as follows," The more we abstain from what is evil, the more we will and intend what is good, because evil and good are opposites. Evil comes from Hell and good comes from Heaven. Therefore, the more Hell- that is, evil-is removed, the closer we get to Heaven and the more we focus on good." Clowe explains, "The truth of the above becomes obvious when we see eight of the Ten Commandments in this way. For example: (1) The less we worship other gods, the more we worship the true God. (2) The less we take the name of God in vain, the more we love the things that come from God. (3) The less we want to kill and to act based on hatred or revenge, the more we want what is good for our neighbor. (4) The less we want to commit adultery or satisfy impure lusts, the more we want to find or live faithfully with a spouse. (5) The less we want to steal, the more we aim to be honest. (6) The less we want to testify falsely, the more we want to think and speak what is true. (7) and (8) The less we covet what our neighbors have, the more we want our neighbors to be doing well with what they have. From this it becomes clear that the Ten Commandments contain everything about how to love God and our neighbor." Therefore, Paul says, "Those who love others have fulfilled the law. You are not to commit adultery, you are not to kill, you are not to steal, you are not to be a false witness, you are not to covet things, and if anything else is commanded, it is included in this saying: You are to love your neighbor as yourself." Goodwill does no evil to our neighbor. Therefore, the fulfillment of the law is goodwill. (Romans 13:8,9,10) From this we can see that we are not commanded to do things that directly relate to goodwill; instead, we are commanded not to do things that are opposite of goodwill. As explained, the more we abstain from evils because they are sins, the more we want the goodness that relates to goodwill. There is a love of intending and doing good and there is a love of and intending and doing evil. These two loves are opposite of each other. The second is a hellish love and the first is a heavenly one. God does not want you to have unrighteous loves because when you pass you will not find those loves in Heaven. For example, if you love pornography, which Christ says is adultery, you will love adultery when you die. There is no adultery in heavenly societies so you will naturally choose a hellish society if this is one of your greatest loves unless you put off this love after death because of greater heavenly ones. The Bible says our loves will be tested after death: 1 Cor 3:13 “But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. “Notice it does not say your faith will be tested but your works. Fire in the Bible is just another word for "a love" which if unrighteous leads to temptation. We know that after death the Thief on the Cross will be with Christ in Paradise and that from 1 Cor 3:13 he will be tested to see if his internal will is righteous or unrighteous i.e. if his works have any value. The reason this is needed is that only works done through faith in Christ can withstand such temptation. This is the gift that is available through God’s grace. When you overcome an evil because of the Word of God it is actually Christ who has helped you overcome even though you feel it was done on your own accord. If you did not do a particular sin in this world, simply because you didn’t want to look bad to other people or to appear like you were a Christian for respect etc. God is saying that when “these works” are tested after death all who refrained from sin for any other reason than "it is a sin" will fail when tested. Their WORK has no value.

 



Imagine that you are placed in such a paradise where every desire known to man is available where you know that there will be no consequence for anything you do and nobody will ever find out. Put yourself there now. Put an attractive stranger in a private romantic setting with you that wants to sleep with you or see stacks of money next to you on a window sill where nobody is looking. What would you do if you knew nobody would ever find out and that there was no punishment or consequence coming if you slept with that stranger or took that money? Those are the kinds of temptations that we will face after death. Only if we have practiced turning from those temptations here on Earth, with God’s help, through the study of his Word will we pass those tests after death because it is Christ IN US that will help us succeed and not our own efforts. Jesus alerts us to why we may fail these spiritual tests in Matt 7:24-27 where he warns, “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, and DOES them, I will liken him to a WISE MAN who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who HEARS these sayings of mine, and does NOT DO THEM, will be like a FOOLISH MAN who built his house on the sand; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” So if you aren’t applying his teachings now you definitely won’t be applying them after death. However if you believe in the Lord and put the Ten Commandments into action by abstaining from evil, goodwill is the result. On our own none of us can abstain from evils because they are sins or do good things that are good before God. Thankfully, the more we abstain from evils because they are sins, the more we do good things from the Lord instead of from ourselves.

 



The second thing The BLAZE article could have clarified is that loving God does not mean spending every waking second thinking of God. As the Bible teaches if you live a moral life based on his Word then you are loving God. When you perform your business honestly and are faithful to your wife in mind and body these are all acts of what God considers charity because they are the result of goodness of faith in the Lord and are considered part of loving God. In an essence, the article is correct that every act and thought is God specific because all of your actions and thoughts are based on his teachings which show you have dedicated your life to his will and not your own. A Christian mind that has been honed like this truly does love God and his neighbor as proven out by the life lived and when given the same temptations and more after death your spiritual self will act in the same manner as you have here on Earth. It is these servants to the Word of God that will hear the praise of the Lord as expressed in the Parable of the Talents in Luke 19:17 "Well done, my good servant!' his master replied. 'Because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities.” The Lord commends the servant, as “good and faithful” i.e. good, in the will, or heart and thought, and faithful in the understanding, and in the conduct. "Well done," is the approval of the Lord, communicated to the man's conscience. The man, by being faithful to the teachings “his talents” in the few things seen in this world, develops a disposition to love good. And then the spiritual part of his mind is opened, and he obtains control over the many passions and thoughts of his natural mind i.e. his “talents are multiplied” because knowledge, properly put to good use, makes more knowledge.

 



The late Rev. Clowe explained that the natural idea is, that a Man, though in humble circumstances, in this world, shall be exalted, in the next world, to a position of honor and power. But the spiritual sense rises high above this selfish idea and shows that, in regeneration, the man shall be exalted into a state of mind in which he shall have power over himself, i.e., his will controlling his external behavior which are his thought and works. This is a far greater promise being made in this parable which is that if you overcome this life’s temptations using the knowledge “talents” God has provided in his Word you are being promised HIS will and therefore success in overcoming evil in this life and even the greater promise of being acceptable to God on the day of judgement when you meet your eternal Master and your works are tested as to whether they are from faith or from oneself.

 



We know from the "parable of the talents" one servant buried the talent he was given and returned it to his Master upon his return. Another way of saying this was that the servant, (man who professed his Christianity) studied the Word and believed it to be true but did not apply it to the way he thought or lived his life. Upon his death he presented his knowledge of the Word to the Lord and said Lord, here is all of your Word that I have learned during my life, I offer to you what you gave me and tell you that I believe it to be true! To which the Lord will reply, "You are a wicked and slothful servant!" As the parable states: “ But he who had received one, went and dug in the earth, and hid his lord's money.” i.e., one who has knowledge of scripture, without love of scripture and good works, does not put his knowledge to practical good use to turn from evil. To dig, or search into the earth, means to study, to investigate, to try to get at the facts of knowledge, as facts. To hide the talent is to make no use of it. The earth represents our natural mind, to hide the talent in the earth, is to immerse our knowledge in the things of our outward, sensuous life; to use them for low and external motives, such as mere pleasure, or reputation, or selfish influence. Then, though we have the form of truth, in our knowledge, we have neither its spirit nor its use. We may have a kind of outward faith, but it will be "faith alone," without love, and without good fruits. And "by their fruits ye shall know them." So we should heed Jesus declaration in John 14:21 "Whoever keeps My commandments and does them, he is the one who loves Me, and I will love him and make My home with him. But surely whoever does not love Me does not keep My commandments." Clowe additionally explains, “Truth can be learned and stored in our memory, but if we do not agree with it and act on it, it does not become living truth. On the other hand, if it is drawn from our memory and embedded in our will by intellectual activity, that is, if we intentionally make following the commandments part of our habits and activities, then it becomes living truth i.e., truth that we believe, truth that is implanted in our will which becomes faith when acted upon which is also called charity or good works. This is accomplished by the Lord when we stop doing evil." Clowe summarized God's declaration this way, "For it is faith that saves, since faith cannot do other than perform works of charity, which charity is what living by Christs' teachings is called, without which it is like a tree without fruit, bearing nothing but leaves. These good works or fruit are called the "Fruit of the Spirit" because it is Chrit's mind in us that is the source of these works. But when merit or righteousness is placed in the works themselves there is then no faith in them, for it is not faith to believe that man can merit salvation of himself or make himself righteous by his works. When merit infects a man's faith it leads him to the evil of the love of himself. The evil of the love of self is not, as it commonly appears, the external manifestation of pride, but it is hatred against the neighbor, and hence a desire of revenge and the delight of cruelty toward those he believes to be in evil, for evil desires to punish evil while good desires forgiveness as taught in Gal 6:1-2 "Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." Taking merit in works manifests the interior mind of the love of self and its exterior manifestation is the contempt of others in comparison to oneself of which external pride may or may not be apparent. When, therefore, the faith is of such a character, and is such in the works that man declares merit, it then condemns man, for the man himself and thus the love of self and injustice are in the works." He added, "Who cannot see from reason alone that sins cannot be taken away from a man except by actual repentance, which consists in his seeing his sins, imploring the Lord's help, and desisting from them? To see, believe, and teach otherwise, is not from the Word, nor from sound reason, but from cupidity and a depraved will, which are proper to man, and from this comes the debasement of his intelligence." He explained, “Sins are continually being forgiven man by the Lord, for He is mercy itself; but sins adhere to the man, however much he may suppose that they have been forgiven, nor are they removed from him except through a life according to the commands of faith. So far as he lives according to these commands, so far his sins are removed; and as far as they are removed from his active thoughts and life, is as far as they have been forgiven. For by the Lord man is withheld from evil, and is held in good; and he is able to be withheld from evil in the other life, as in the life of the body, by the degree to which he has resisted evil; and he is able to be held in good then, as in the life of the body, to the degree that he has done what is good from affection. This shows what the forgiveness of sins is, and whence it is. He who believes that sins are forgiven, as in a pardon for ongoing unrighteousness, or in any other way, is much mistaken."

 


Just as faith alone will not save you everyone must understand that works alone will not save you either i.e. just not sinning will not lead you through regeneration. Works that are found acceptable to God are the result of true faith and love which by God's grace result in his works appearing in you. So does his grace mean that you can simply ask for forgiveness for sins you are committing and continue to commit? In Mat 6:9-13 the Lord instructs us to pray for him “to forgive us our trespasses (sins) as we forgive those that trespass (sin) against us” and as instructed in Galatians we are to gently bring our brothers and sisters in Christ out of the sins we are forgiving them of. By telling us to forgive as he does, and instructing us how we are to forgive, he shows us how he forgives. It is clear the Lord requires us to come out of sin in the process of being forgiven. The Lord would never tell us we had to keep bearing the harm of someone we have instructed to cease causing us harm. Neither can we expect the Lord to accept us if we keep willingly doing sin against his instruction no to do so. This is why Christ in the Lord’s Prayer teaches forgiveness of a sin against him is handled no differently than what we require when we forgive others of a sin against us. This daily prayer he gave us was meant to keep this important concept front and center in our mind. Once your pray for forgiveness for a sin, have faith God will subdue it, and resist it long enough he will eventually remove it from you and the resulting good works you do are from him not you. You may not take claim to these good works that are performed as a result of faith. Ephesians 2:8-21 states that: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." The truth is that no good done by any human comes from the person themselves. All good comes from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even Christ before he put off his human body by glorifying it, through the resisting of temptation to the last temptation on the cross, said," Why do you call me good? Only the Father in Heaven is Good." Before Christ took the reins of Heaven his body was still of human origin and only the Eternal Father which was his soul was good. All good actions were therefore only to be credited to God the Father and not to his bodily human. After his resurrection Jesus' body was glorified and became holy and God the Father and Jesus became One God in human form. From his holy body his spirit flows to our soul which with our body make one human made in God's perfect image. His holy spirit flowing into us is only activated through faith and love and therefore the works we do flow from his spirit and not from our own human body. No man is good and no works from man alone are good. Any good we do is truly a gift of grace from our Lord granted to those who believe and have faith in God's Word. Titus 2:11-12 clarifies that God's grace leads us to live upright lives free from habitual sin, " For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say, "No to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age." So if Christ who performed more good works than any person in history says that his works were not his own how can we claim any good works we do as our own? Clowe explains, “When a man loves much, in quality, as well as in quantity, he rises into a higher spiritual character, because he repudiates the sins of his past life; and he hates the evils which took form in those sins. As he lives himself out of evil, and into good, through God's grace, the sins of his past life do not adhere to him. They are no longer a part of him because he no longer cherishes the evils which produced such sins. “Love is the fulfilling of the law,” because love keeps the law, and thus comes under the protection of the law.” He further states, “The law is fulfilled, or filled full of life, to him who lives by it. Christ gives the example of the sexually immoral woman who decided to change her life after she was about to be stoned. Because of the woman’s fulness of love to the Lord, the Lord said, “her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.” For, by the strength of her love, and according to its quality, she entered a new life of which the Lord acknowledged her choice when he told her “Now go and sin no more.” In her present state of heart, she would not again commit such sins. Sins are the outward expression and embodiment of evil affections and false thoughts. Thus, our sins remain with us, as long as our character remains the same. But when our character changes, which happens when we resist temptation, we outgrow our false beliefs and foolish loves and replace them with righteous loves, thoughts and actions based on the truth of God’s Word.” Understanding this relationship between faith and love is crucial to understanding "saving faith." We know Christ said that If you gave all your goods to the poor, and yet had not love, it would amount to nothing. Good works alone do not save. A saving faith is therefore of love and love without good works cannot exist. Likewise, faith without good works is no faith at all, being more an act of intuition or the intellect, for to believe in faith without good works is to believe in faith without love. We must therefore use truths learned in the Word and confirmed by our will through action to fight contradictory falsities and evil in our physical body and active life.


Clowe states, " A conflict then arises because the internal man is reformed by means of truths; and from truths he sees what is evil and false, which evil and falsity are still in the external or natural man; consequently disagreement first springs up between the new will, which is above, and the old will, which is below; and as the disagreement is between the two wills, it is also between their delights; for the flesh, it is well known, is opposed to the spirit and the spirit to the flesh, and the flesh with its lusts must be subdued before the spirit can act and man become new. Man, however, is not sensible of this conflict except as in himself, and as remorse of conscience; and yet it is the Lord and the devil (that is, Hell) that are fighting in man, and they are fighting for dominion over him, or to determine who shall possess him. The devil or Hell attacks man and calls out his evils, while the Lord protects him and calls out his goods. Although that conflict takes place in the spiritual world, still it takes place in man between the truths of good and the falsities of evil that are in him; therefore man must fight wholly as if of himself, for he has the freedom of choice to act for the Lord, and also to act for the devil; he is for the Lord, if he abides in truths from good, and for the devil, if he abides in falsities from evil. From this it follows that whichever conquers, the internal man or the external, that one rules over the other; precisely like two hostile powers contending as to which shall be master of the other’s kingdom—the conqueror takes possession of the kingdom, and places all in it under obedience to himself. In this case, therefore, if the internal man conquers, he obtains dominion and subjugates all the evils of the external man, and regeneration then goes on; but if the external man conquers, he obtains the dominion, and dissipates all the goods of the internal man, and regeneration perishes. Another prominent theologian, Rev. Noble, explained sanctification this way, "When man continually receives from the Lord the graces of which God is the author, and ascribes all to God, in the manner represented by the sacrificial worship of the Mosaic law; when every affection and perception of his heart and mind of which the various kinds of sacrifices were representative, or himself in regard to such affections and perceptions, is thus continually dedicated and hallowed to the Lord; it follows, that when his sanctification is completed, the whole man is thus devoutly consecrated. This is the state which the Apostle exhorts us to attain, when he says, "I beseech you, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable, unto God; which is your reasonable service" Romans 12:1. Such a living sacrifice is a man wholly devoted to the Lord, who is wholly renewed by the reception of new principles of love, thought, and action, from him: whose selfish life is extinct, whilst he lives by a new life, which is life indeed. This, the same apostle speaks of as being his own state, when he says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me:" Galatians 2:20 where, by the flesh, and, in the preceding quotation, by the body, the Apostle, as in other parts of his writings, does not merely mean the material body, but all that is called the natural or external man. Here then he clearly describes a state of renovation of the whole man, in which he is made a living sacrifice unto God. The apostle says we are to be crucified with Christ because similarly the sacrifice of Jesus Christ consisted in the hallowing of every principle or element of his Human Nature to the Godhead, till at length his whole Human Nature became a living sacrifice, or thing fully consecrated, sanctified, and hallowed, by perfect union with his Divinity. Christ said, "For their sakes I sanctify myself: that they also may be sanctified through the truth:" where, by sanctifying himself, the Lord means, his purifying his Humanity from the infirmities inherited from the mother, and thus making it Divine. The same thing is frequently spoken of by the Apostles: as by Paul, when he speaks of Jesus as being "made perfect through sufferings: “the sufferings were the temptations and conflicts by which he put off the imperfections inherited from the mother: and the making perfect was his rendering the Humanity into the perfect image of God, the appropriate Form and proper Person of his Divine Soul." Christ says we are to be "sanctified through truth" because by learning the truth from the Word, believing it and living it we allow him to put off the imperfections of our hereditary and self grown evils allowing our Lord to perfect us into an image of himself after which we may also declare that "Christ liveth in me." Again we do this as of ourself with the understanding that the overcoming is being done by the Lord. However if a man during this process believes in meriting salvation by works, and confirms himself in this belief, - the merit itself i.e. self-justification, and confidence, are evils that come from it which will not bring salvation. Rev Clowe explains Good Works this way,"Good works are evil works unless the things that are of the love of self and the world are removed; for when the truths are done before the removal of the love of self and the world these truths are lived for the purpose of self-preferment over others or for the sake of reward and honor. However, when the evils of the love of self and the love of the world are removed, then the works become true good and are goods of charity because nothing in the works are self-seeking, regard worldly ends, or bring intentionally sought reward or heightened reputation." Conversely, one who believes that it is impossible to have piety of life without placing merit in works, -the evil from this is that he extinguishes himself all piety of life, and gives himself up to his avarice and pleasures and no longer tries to follow the commandments of his Lord and gives up salvation as well. Luke 13:26-27 teaches this point, "They shall say, We did eat and drink in Thy presence, and thou didst teach in our streets; but the Lord says, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity." Clowe states, "Eating and drinking in the Lord's presence, "denotes instructing and preaching the good and truth of faith from knowledges that are from the Word, which is meant by the words, "Thou did teach in our streets." But as they did this from themselves, for the sake of their own honor and gain, and thus from no affection of good and truth, and were thus in knowledges of truth but in a life of evil, it is said, " I know not whence ye are; depart from Me all ye workers of iniquity." This again makes clear that knowing God's Word without living it leads to spiritual death and the loss of salvation. For truths exist to the end that good from the Lord may flow in; for without these receptacles of good the Lord finds no state that is of his image, so where there are no truths, or where these truths are not lived and received, there is no rational or human good i.e. there is no true spiritual life in such a person and as such they cannot be saved in this state after death. This is why the Word uses food to represent good/ charity and drink and water as faith/ truth. Just as the physical body dies if we only consume drink and water, or only food, the spiritual body dies if we only seek truth/faith without good and charity or vice versa. This is why the Lord commands that we eat his body and drink his blood i.e. lead lives of truth and faith while living these principles as good and charity because both are required for salvation. From this understanding we can see there is a narrow path between the wide road of believing faith alone saves and the wide road of believing we can merit heaven by our own works. This narrow path between these two massively held beliefs reminds me of Mat 7:14 which states, "But small is the gate and narrow and difficult to travel is the path that leads to life, and only a few find it." Nothing should motivate you more than this passage which essentially tells everyone to ignore the two easy broad paths, which most self-professed Christians are on, which leads to death and instead take the narrow path of faith with works to find your way to eternal life. Therefore there are two things that are put off by all who enter into heaven, first, their own self love and the consequent confidence that they deserve heaven through their own works, and second, the merit of self or of their own righteousness; and thus they put on a heavenly own which is from the Lord, and give credit only to the Lord's merit or righteousness as a gift of grace and mercy.




In closing I have to ask those who still want to hold on to their old life, while declaring they believe and follow Christ, to rationally look at Jesus declaration in Matthew 10:39 in which he states: "If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it." and God's admonition in Deut 30:15 " See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and his judgments, that you may live... But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away... I announce to you today that you shall surely perish." And to those who are on the path to spiritual death God declares in Ecl 9:5 that, "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward..." Which more simply stated is read, "If you are committed to a self-centered life, sadly you don't know love, you don't know truth, and you don't know what you are missing." Again, the Lord forgives everyone his sins, because He is mercy itself. Nevertheless they are not thereby forgiven unless the man performs serious repentance, and desists from evils, and afterward lives a life of faith and charity, and this even to the end of his life. If not sin will not be put into "the remission of sins state" but will continue to grow and James 1:15 states, "When sin is full-grown, it gives birth to death." However we pray to God to help put our sins into "remission" which means we no longer are doing them and when this is done, the man receives from the Lord spiritual life, which is called new life. When from this new life the man views the evils of his former life, and turns away from them, and regards them with horror, then for the first time are the evils forgiven, for then the man is held in truths and goods by the Lord, and is withheld from evils. 2 Corinthians 5:17 states, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come (i.e. new life free from habitual sin): The old has gone, the new is here." From this it is plain what is the forgiveness of sins, and that it cannot be granted within an hour, nor within a year. That this is so the church knows, for it is said to those who come to the Holy Supper that their sins are forgiven if they begin a new life by abstaining from evils and abhorring them.” So do not rest in your walk with Christ because of your faith, or your knowledge of the Word, for Christ says in Matthew 7:21-23, "Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who DOES the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them," I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" Another way this could be said is, "I don't recognize my values in the way you live your life, away with all of you who live your life in a way that does not align with my teachings in the Bible." For in Luke 6:46 Christ says, "But why do you call Me "Lord, Lord," and not do the things which I say?" So those who truly believe have given themselves to live a life by his Word. For Divine Order is nothing but the perpetual commandment of God; wherefore living according to the commandments of God is living according to the Divine Order and in Divine Order. It is living by the commandments that the Lord flows in through a man's interiors into his external body and thus through a man's will into his actions; this is done when a man is in good, that is, when he is in the affection of doing good for the sake of good, and not for the sake of his own reputation or self-merit. Clowe states, "Knowledges do not become truth in man until they are acknowledged by the understanding, which takes place when they are confirmed by him; and these truths do not become his own until he lives according to them; for nothing is made man's own except that which becomes of his life, for thus he himself is in the truths, because his life is in them. Nothing else than good (which is from the Lord living in us) acknowledges and receives truth. This is apparent from the affection of truth that is present in the man who is being regenerated. The affection itself is from good, for an affection which is of love cannot come from any other source. But this truth which is received in this first period, that is, before regeneration, is not the genuine truth of good, but it is the truth of doctrine. For at this time the man does not consider whether it is truth, but acknowledges it because it is of the doctrine of the church; and so long as he does not consider whether it is truth, and from this acknowledges it, it is not his, and therefore is not appropriated to him. This is the first state with the man who is being regenerated. But when he has been regenerated, then good from the Lord shows itself, especially by his loving to live according to the truth which he of himself acknowledges to be truth. Then because he wills the truth which he acknowledges, and acts according to it, it is appropriated to him; because it is not as before merely in the understanding, but is also in the will, and what is in the will is appropriated. And as the understanding then makes one with the will, for the understanding acknowledges and the will performs, there is a conjunction of the two, namely, of good and truth which is what the Bible referes to as the divine marriage of our soul, our will, our mind to Christ. Those living by his Word in this manner will find themselves being reformed by our Lord into his Divine Order and in the next life will enjoy Heaven. So, with this understanding we realize the BLAZE ARTICLE, first mentioned above, did get right that we are to subject every thought we have to be in alignment to the teachings found in the Bible. The Apostle Paul clearly states this in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5," The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Steve Lenk, summarized Paul's passage this way, "By the Holy Spirit we can get grace and power to bring our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and in this process, we become transformed into the person He wants us to be. We have the wonderful hope that by overcoming sin in our thought life, we can become a little more like Christ as each day progresses in our physical actions. In this way, we become valuable tools in God’s hands. Allowing this inner work of God to take place in us is the greatest task we can take on in life." As first stated in this article above, we get to keep the loves we form in this life for eternity regardless if they are evil or holy. Those who form evil loves in this life will continue those loves after death in the horrific environments found in hell but those who let God form righteous loves in themselves through resisting sin and participating in their own regeneration through the study of God's Word to develope a living faith will enjoy holy loves for eternity in Heaven. For the Lord regenerates man out off Divine Mercy; and this takes place from his infancy (from the remnants of good given by the Lord) to the last period of his life in the world, and afterwards to eternity. Out of Divine Mercy the Lord thus leads a man away from evils and the falsities and leads him to truths of faith and the goods of love, and then keeps him in those principles; and afterwards out of Divine Mercy, He raises him to Himself into heaven, and makes him blessed. These acts of Divine Mercy are what are called the remission of sins as ungodly ways of life are put away and traded in for righteousness with the Lord’s help. Man however has free will and may chose to learn the truth but turn away from the leading of the Lord and decide to live in unrighteousness which those who turn away from righteousness do not truly believe in God’s Word and will not inherit eternal life. Faith Alone therefore does truly save because the works which are present from this type of belief and faith are from the Lord not from us. This is why James says in James 2:24, "You see a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone." He also says in James 2:17 "Genuine faith in Christ will produce a changed life and result in good works." The Apostle John in 1 John 2:15-17 sums it up this way, "15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever." Again, the doing of God's will i.e. our works are not done by us but are done by Christ's spirit in us and not as something earned but as a gift of grace and mercy to those who believe his holy Word. If you want to understand what you truly believe you only have to look at your life. If you say you don't believe in adultery but look at pornography regularly you actually believe in adultery for we truly believe in what we do not what we have knowledge of or what we just profess with our lips. The Word shows that, "Man can abstain from evils from himself; but he cannot receive good from himself. That man can abstain from evils from himself is because the Lord continually inflows into the will of man with this endeavor, and thereby puts in his freedom to desist from evils, as also to apply himself to good. The Lord also gives him the faculty of understanding the truth, but that he does not wish to understand is because he does not wish to understand, and this on account of the evil that is of life; for falsity defends evil, and truth condemns it. This principle is taught in Luke 16:13 , “You cannot serve God and Mammon”. That is, by faith serve the Lord, and by love the world; thus acknowledge truth in the Word, and still do the opposite of what you learned by doing that very evil which you have professed a belief is wrong. He who does this has a divided mind, from which comes its destruction. Hence it is that a man cannot be presented with spiritual good by the Lord, thus cannot be led through mercy, unless he desists from evils." With this understanding we pray for the Lord to guide all our thoughts as we dedicate our lives to living by his example and teachings and may each of our lives become a reflection of our loving and merciful Savior.
- John Kreitzer

"Faith is an internal affection which consists in a heartfelt desire to know what is true and what is good, and this not for the sake of doctrine as the end in view, but for the sake of life. This affection conjoins itself with the affection of charity through the desire to do according to the truth, thus to do the truth itself. " -Rev. Clowe

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James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Romans 2:13 for not the hearers of the word are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the word will be justified;

"The good and truth of faith is that which constitutes the church, yea, which is the church, for in the good and truth of faith is the Lord, and where the Lord is, there is the church. Let us all live our faith to bring good and truth together and with this conjunction our life truly is our church."

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