Mercy and Forgiveness

The mercy we seek should only be outweighed by the mercy we give. How could we ask for more than we are willing to give? We are to ask God for mercy and forgiveness, yes. But are we willing, better question, are we capable of giving that mercy and forgiveness to someone as unworthy as our self?

Self-centered sinner; you can’t receive what you won’t give. In fact, if you won’t give mercy and forgiveness, you won’t have it and won’t be given it.

Mercy and forgiveness aren’t ours. They’re Gods, so we can never run out, will always be true, and will accomplish what they are intended to accomplish.

Everything of God’s is meant to be given. Mercy, forgiveness, love, peace, understanding, patience, edification, etc. The very thing we need, is the very thing we are to give to the same unworthy folks like our self. Our needs and deficiencies are met and fulfilled and replenished plus some when we give them away. It is a hole that is filled by God, emptied by us, then overfilled back by God. The more we give the more God gives.

Pride punishes, especially those who infringe upon their pride. Pride will justify its actions. And legally, ethically, morally and righteously speaking, the prideful person may be correct. But mercy and forgiveness are not due to those who meant no harm or no ill will. In fact, there is no qualifier for mercy and forgiveness. If there was, then it wouldn’t be mercy and forgiveness.

Bill Hitchcock

Hear My Voice

“Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment.” (Psalm 119:149)

“Hear my voice”. A plea for God’s attention.

“According unto thy lovingkindness”. Lovingkindness comes from the Hebrew “Checed”. It is usually transliterated as “Mercy”. It means the exact same thing as mercy, it’s just the name lovingkindness, or love and kindness gives a better representation as to what it is.

God said I, “will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” (Exodus 33:19)

The Apostle Paul said, “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Romans 9:15)

The Psalmist first asks for God’s attention. He then asks for His mercy, love, and kindness. Then, he asks the Lord to quicken him, or revive him, bring him back to life according to God’s judgment. Really? Most folks equivocate judgment with penalty, guilt, pain, retribution and sometimes even death. But the call for judgement is a call to be revived according to God’s will and way. It’s a conditional call that is asking for God’s conditions not man’s in his restoration process. This means righteousness and truth, which aren’t always band-aids to our wounds, but something better.

How many of us want to be saved from our troubles but on our terms? How many of us want to be restored back to how we were and not necessarily to how God wants us to be?

We must stop and consider why we have troubles, why we are broken. Even though we might not be aware of it, our situation is probably self-induced.

It happens to the holiest and the most righteous. If it doesn’t, then we have a problem.

“My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” (Proverbs 3:11-12)

“For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”

“If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.”

“Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” (Hebrews 12:3-11)

Man is pain aversive. He very much desires pleasure, or at least to be pain free. A call for quickening according to the judgments of God is not going to be easy. This is why so many of us settle back into our routines and set ways; these are adverse conditions, bad situations that God is quickening us away from.

Everything resists change. It’s a basic law of physics and of spirit. Even when the change is from bad to good, resistance can be found. This why we shouldn’t take lightly what the Evangelist says, “no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous”.

But to those who are quickened according to God’s judgment, to those who endure the process in faith is the, “peaceable fruit of righteousness”.

Bill Hitchcock

Black Hole Of The Soul

No one is perfect. No one is always right. Most will agree to that, until an imperfection or correction rears its head. Then we get defensive and sometimes self-righteous, but rarely do we admit fault. Why? Because we can’t see it.

Here’s something to grab a hold of. No man sees clearly. All have blindness to one degree or another. This blindness can be an overall dimness to truth and reality, or it can be spot specific, with perfect vision elsewhere.

Our being, our essence and existence has unseen flaws due to original sin. This is why God gave us Christ as an example, as a target to shoot for. Sin is literally defined as falling out of the way, as missing the mark, the way and the mark being the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Not all sins are premeditated acts of commission or omission. Everyone has dark corners and as such are unaware of them. We usually find the darkness by tripping over them.

I freely admit that I have black holes of the spirit. These are areas of the spirit that I haven’t seen although I look for and pray for their discovery daily. The black holes of the spirit consume right and wrong and spits out either a deviation of truth or no truth at all.

We all have black holes of the spirit. Jesus doesn’t. His word doesn’t. Therefore, our dependence to both must be absolute.

“Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O Lord. Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way. For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” (Psalm 25:4-8,11)

In the song, “Amazing Grace”, we sing that I was once blind but now I see. This sight is the awakening to the sin nature that is inherent to all man. This does not mean that we see all sins. To be frank, man couldn’t handle that ability of sight for that would require absolute righteous. The man of now can’t handle pure and absolute righteousness. It’s why no man has seen God and why Moses had to put a vail over his face after visiting God atop Mount Sinai.

“And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him…..And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a vail on his face.” (Exodus 34:30,33)

All of mankind suffers from the effects of these black holes of the spirit and soul. This is not something we see or feel nor are we aware of its influences. What we see and how we interpret what we see is altered, re-calibrated, different than if not under its influences.

Now if we were without God, we all would be without hope, for the power of darkness would run roughshod over us.

But thank the Dear Lord for Divine Providence! “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Man suffers the effects of original sin. As a child of God, we are to spend our life on earth in the continuous process of repentance, which is a process of search and discovery, revelation and repentance. The devil is a liar and a deceiver. He doesn’t fight us toe to toe. He is subversive, undermining, and undercutting. He wins when we believe a lie and he’s good at that. These are our blind spots, our black holes.

“Nay, the bodily sense may furnish a still stronger illustration of the extent to which we are deluded in estimating the powers of the mind. If, at mid-day, we either look down to the ground, or on the surrounding objects which lie open to our view, we think ourselves endued with a very strong and piercing eyesight; but when we look up to the sun, and gaze at it unveiled, the sight which did excellently well for the earth is instantly so dazzled and confounded by the refulgence, as to oblige us to confess that our acuteness in discerning terrestrial objects is mere dimness when applied to the sun." 

"Thus too, it happens in estimating our spiritual qualities. So long as we do not look beyond the earth, we are quite pleased with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue; we address ourselves in the most flattering terms, and seem only less than demigods."

"But should we once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and reflect what kind of Being he is, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness, and wisdom, and virtue, to which, as a standard, we are bound to be conformed, what formerly delighted us by its false show of righteousness will become polluted with the greatest iniquity; what strangely imposed upon us under the name of wisdom will disgust by its extreme folly; and what presented the appearance of virtuous energy will be condemned as the most miserable impotence. So far are those qualities in us, which seem most perfect, from corresponding to the divine purity.” (John Calvin/Institutes 1:1:2)

God is here, always here. The more we understand that and the more we depend upon Him, the more we are able to advance forward towards God in truth and righteousness.

Bill Hitchcock

Mercy

“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.” (Psalms 25:10)

It isn’t some, or half, or even 99.9% of them, but rather it is “ALL” of the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. Everything of the Lord is done in truth because it is impossible for God to lie (Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18). In Him there is, “no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). God is truth. Truth is a constant or it wouldn’t be the truth.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

The constancy of God is so absolute that everything God says either is or becomes. In other words, there is no difference between what God says, in what God does, and in what is. Because of which, God is always true to all of His promises.

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent (change): hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19)

It is interesting that mercy and truth are put in context of a path in this Psalm. Because the New Testament definition of sin is to, “wander from the path of uprightness and honor” (Thayer’s). The Old Testament definition is, “to stumble in the path of rectitude” (Gesenius' Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon).

In both cases, righteousness and salvation are expressed as a path. Since the Psalmist says all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, then to sin could also be defined as wandering away from the mercy and truth of the Lord.

Aren’t we glad that mercy and truth are God? How else could we be saved if we happen to wander? Mercy and truth “are” God in that God doesn’t possess mercy and truth as an attribute or as some part of a whole. God is mercy and is truth in the same way that God is love (1 John 4:8,16) and God is light (1 John 1:5).

I know it sounds like circular logic, but when we sin, we fall out of the path of God. Since all the paths of God are mercy and truth, then we fall away from mercy and truth. The only way we can return to the path of God is through the mercy and truth that is God! Mercy and truth are the attractant that keeps drawing us to the way (path), the truth, and the light.

Let’s expand our thinking and see where mercy and truth resides. Mercy and truth are in love. Mercy and truth are in faith. They are in joy, forgiveness, judgement, righteousness, forbearance, patience and temperance. In short, if it is of God, then you will find His mercy and truth in it.

Conversely, look at where mercy and truth cannot be found. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and more. All these things are works of the flesh and not of the spirit. Mercy and truth can’t be found in them because you can’t find God in them. But, through the mercy and truth that is God, we can return to God’s holy way.

Mercy is a love, a kindness and leniency afforded to those who don’t deserve it. It is the love expressed as favor of God when wrath is due. Sometimes mercy is transliterated from the Bible into English more appropriately as the word, “lovingkindness”, as for example in Psalm 51.

“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.” (Psalm 51:1). In this verse the Psalmist is asking for God’s mercy according to His mercy.

Grab ahold of just how important the loving kindness that is mercy, is to us all.

“Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name” (Psalm 63:3-4).

Wow! The Psalmist says that God’s mercy is better than life. In fact, there would be no life without the loving kindness mercy of God because, “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

No one deserves mercy, and that’s exactly the point. The very nature and essence of God’s mercy is that the receiver of mercy doesn’t deserve it. This is why mercy from man can only come from a man of God, for mercy requires man to rise above his carnal self.

Mercy is strength expressed as love and kindness for the edification of another and the betterment of circumstance. Punishment, no matter how just, simply terminates. It ends the story where it is at with no potential benefit to the convicted or possible improvement to the situation. For a man to be all punishment and no mercy can only come from the ungodly, for there is no mercy and truth in him. And because there is no God, no mercy, and no truth in this type of punishment, then the punishment itself is nothing but sin.

Mercy allows the repentant spirit and soul to live and flourish past the condemnation and to influence others in mercy and truth as well! Punishment hinders, hurts, and sometimes kills that very loving kind spirit.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (Psalm 103:2-4)

Bill Hitchcock

We Will Not Fear

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.” (Psalm 46:1-3)

This message is ended with the word, “Selah”, a bit of instruction to the musicians to stop playing so that everyone can contemplate the gravity and depth of what was just said.

God is our safe and secure shelter. He strengthens, empowers and emboldens us. We get that. But it’s the next thing that usually gives us some difficulty. God is a very present help. Notice how the Psalmist is stressing how present God is by adding “very”. How can you be very present? What is more present than being present? Maybe if we stop thinking of God as a separate entity and start thinking in terms of one and not two, maybe then we can understand how God can be “very present”.

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

God said, “I am married unto you” (Jeremiah 3:14). Marriage is defined as when two become one. Yes, God is a very present help. So present that he lives in you and you in Him.

By the way, the word, “trouble” means more than distress and tribulation. It implies an adversary.

But just look at what the Psalmist tells us not to fear; We should not fear the earth altering, that mountains move into the sea, even though the seas roar and foam, and even if the mountains shake, rattle, and roll. Because God is with us, in us, we should not fear. Think about that.

As an added note, look at the fear the sea level rise and climate change advocates (terrorist) push. They claim mass destruction in a handful of years. They cry “It’s happening NOW!” all in an effort to panic people into action. This is a classic trick of the trade from the devil, the adversary himself. Fabricate a problem which creates panic in an attempt to get people to react in fear and act irrationally. Sales people create panic, it's called creating a sense of urgency. It is a control technique to motivate people to buy right now.

Jesus can sleep during a storm at sea. God will make you to "lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul" (Psalm 23:2-3) But the devil, "your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8)

Panic is of the adversary the devil. Peace is of God. Who among us brings panic and who is it that brings peace?

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear.

Get it? We will not fear!

Bill Hitchcock

A Matter Of Spirit

(Consider this a stream of consciousness, a continuous flow of thought uninterrupted.)

Understanding and comprehension are a matter of spirit. Intellect and reasoning, our IQ or Intelligence Quotient aren’t just affected by spirit, they are dependent upon the spirit within.

Human intelligence is anchored in the spirit.

For example, two people with the same IQ, the same degree of education, and in all aspects of intellect and training they are the same. Both hear the good news of Jesus Christ. For one person it makes perfect sense while the other sees it as total nonsense. What else other than spirit formed their conclusions?

Human intelligence and reasoning are used to justify and support what is spiritually discerned. This is how we make sense out of what the spirit determines to be.

There is but one spirit, but there are many aspects to that spirit. Just like there is one ocean, but there are countless waves of various heights and untold depths to that ocean, as well as billions of things living within it. All off these things compose this one ocean.

The present, what we know to be true and how we perceive truth is dependent upon our spirit.

The past, or our memory, and our future, both perceived and yet manifested, are spirit dependent.

The spirit powers and directs the will.

The spirit is life. Without it, all shall perish.

What you align your spirit with will determine how you think, how you act, how you interact with other people, places, and things, and what you will and determine.

We do not have perfect spiritual vision and clarity while in this body. The great battle that confused and plagued the Apostle Paul as described in Romans Chapter 7 that he had between righteousness and unrighteousness, his will to do or not to do, and the conflict between body and spirit are examples of our inability to see the truth of the spirit clearly and totally.

Another example is with Moses in Exodus 34:29-35. The Spirit of the Lord shone so brightly from Moses face that he had to cover it with a veil when in the presence of people. Pure spirit is too much for people to comprehend. This is why no one has ever seen God. He is beyond the capabilities of the mortal coil.

Paul in the last four verses of Chapter 11 in the Book of Romans describes it as, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).

God sent His son Jesus Christ to be the go between, the mediator between man and God because the spirit of man cannot handle direct contact with pure spirit and righteousness which is God. Jesus is 100% God and 100% man, this is how and why Jesus is essential for the salvation of man. Man has access to God through the humanity of Jesus.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6)

Man is spirit driven. Intellect and reasoning are determined and influenced by the spirit. The intellect justifies the spirit and as a result, things make sense to the man. For the most part man is not cognizant of this process/fact.

Because of the nature of original sin, pure truth in spirit is too much for carnal man to handle. He can’t comprehend it. But to be in touch with God and to have access to all things divine, man must reach God. So, God created the opportunity for man to do so through Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Even with this access to God through Christ, all things of the spirit and truth do not make sense to man. This is why everything is based on faith. Faith is the spirit made manifest. Faith is born of the spirit within.

Everyone is spirit filled. Again, the spirit is life. Without it, all shall perish. Even the atheist is spirit filled. He may not know it or admit it, but he is. Faith is the manifestation of the spirit. What we have faith in is revealing the spirit within. Everyone has faith in something, more than people recognize. For example, you have faith that your care will start, that your heart will beat, that the sun will come up, that you will breathe, and that you will die.

If spirit is made manifest in faith, and faith is manifested in act, then spirit becomes act. What we have faith in, is where our spirit can be found. Your will is jump started by your faith. You do what you will to do.

Now of course, we can be made to do something against our will. Let’s say for example you were forced to give the combination of a safe to a robber while held at gunpoint. But that wouldn’t be your will. Your actions would be the will of the robber exercising power and dominance over your will.

This can happen in a much more subtle manner. Our wills can be subjugated by an outside physical will, (like the robber with the gun) and it can also fall victim to another will on a spiritual level.

What we think and how we think is determined by our spirit. By the way, a lot of folks look at the will as the agency of being not realizing that the will is a product of the spirit, which is the true agency of being. Free will is nothing more than the exercising of the spirit. But here’s what needs to be understood. Just like we have a triune God, one God but with three distinct features in the Spirit, the Son, and the Godhead, likewise our spirit is one, but with many separate and distinct aspects. Remember the ocean analogy above? Our spirit is facilitated by many spirits that make up the one spirit. There are also separate, distinct, and outside spirits that have sway and influence over our spirit in addition to the influence of the Holy Spirit.

We do not always see, feel, recognize, or are even aware of the influences of a spirit, on our spirit. But the effects of that influence can be seen, thought, and felt. This brings us back to Paul in Romans Chapter 7 and the internal war he fought in confusion between righteousness and unrighteousness.

We know what spirit is within or what spirit has had influence upon our spirit through the thoughts and acts it produces from us. It usually requires the act of a spirit to discover the existence of that spirit within. This realization can be a good thing when that act caused by the spirit is love, giving, forbearance, edification of others, etc.

But sometimes the manifestation of the spirit within produces pride, hate, envy, lust & covetousness, etc.

There is another aspect of the spirit we must realize. When the effects of a spirit surfaces, be it good or bad, in thought or deed, we don’t always recognize the thought or deed for what it is, a product of spirit. We blame situations and external circumstances for what we do.

Spiritual discernment is a fruit of the spirit.  The quickening or awakening of our Spirit which affords discernment of the spirit is a gift of God’s grace. Some people God blinds, others He never allows to see. It is His elect that He quickens at a time of His pleasure.

The revelation of God, the Son and the Holy Ghost is the start of a relationship between His spirit and our spirit. It must be understood in terms of relationship and not ceremony or agreement. The relationship is a marriage, a permanent bond. The bond is not of chains and fetters nor of legal agreement and obligation.

The bond is between spirits and is of word and of love. The love is not man’s fickle love that can quickly burn hot with emotion or cool to ice just as fast. The flames of love are like any fire. They can be easily enflamed or extinguished. Although this type of love can be a by-product of the relationship.

This love, the love of God, true love transcends emotions. It is best described as two becoming one, in essence and in being. There is no separation between two. There can’t be because we are one, so you don’t think in separate terms. There is not His and mine, only ours. Just like God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, so are you and God one.

Many people try to love others and try to find love in others because they don’t find love in themselves. Any relationship like this will fail. You are trying to get two by adding one and zero. It can’t happen.

But being one with God causes us to be like God and desire to be like God. Our spirit is active and mingles with His spirit. In Him we live, breathe, move and have our being. As a result, we want to do the same with like kind. Loving our neighbor becomes a need and desire. Our spirit, in concert with His spirit interacts with the world. Anything inconsistent with God’s spirit becomes known to us, be it externally or internally.

The progression of God’s love. First it is between us and God. Think of this as the perpendicular post of the cross. From our love of God grows our love for others. Think of this as the horizontal beam on the cross. If we attempt the cross beam of love to our neighbors first, it will fall straight to the ground. We must first firmly establish the beam towards God before we can attempt the cross beam of neighborly love.

God has devised a wonderful plan for dealing with our divine inconsistencies that we discover within, or more to the point, how to deal with our sin. First off, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay the price for sin. We are forgiven of our sins when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Once spiritually awakened and in tune with the Spirit of Christ, we are now blessed with revelation knowledge of sin.

“I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Hebrews 8:10).

God has devised a method called repentance enabling us to root out sin. By the revelation of the indwelling spirit we are able to see the sin and iniquities that are within our self. Sin will grieve the spirit, which in turn grieves us. As a result, we will want the sin done away with. When we discover sin within, are able to recognize it as sin and are grieved by it, then we are to give it to God through confession; we are then forgiven of that sin through the purchased price of redemption by Christ at the cross. Our sin is forgiven.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

As we grow in our relationship with Christ, we also grow in the spirit of Christ. Sin and temptation to sin become more and more obvious and known to us through the revelation of our growing spirit. It’s not always that there is more sin or that we are being attacked by the devil more. Sometimes it is revelation knowledge through the spirit which allows us to see and understand sin and temptation better.

But as we grow, we will encounter sins that we are blind to, and we fall. It is important to understand that everyone is affected and influenced by sin. Everyone. This affect is not always obvious or known to us. The noetic effects of sin is way of describing how sin can distort our thinking, alter how we perceive things, and, “hampers our ability to properly understand our world and the things of God” (H/T CARM.org). This is why it is paramount to stay in and work on your relationship with Christ. This is why the “Once saved, always saved” idea is nonsense and very dangerous. We can not rest on our laurels. We must be active and engaged in our relationship all of the time. We must persevere in that relationship. The only way to do that is on a day by day basis.

Jesus let us know, “he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” (Matthew 24:13).

Our relationship with Christ is an ongoing, day by day effort until we either die or Jesus returns.

“And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8)

Arguably, the most famous prayer of all times is the Lord’s Prayer. Read it carefully and see that if anything, the Lord’s Prayer is a prayer from man for perseverance unto the end.

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. (Matthew 6:9-13)

Sin originates in the spirit and is made manifest via thought and finally by deed. This was made clear by Jesus during His Sermon on the Mound (See Matthew Chapter 5)

Because of the noetic effects of sin, sometimes we don’t realize our sin until it has gone from spirit to deed. The pain of this sin for the spirit, self and others can be overwhelming. But never forget Jesus and the price He paid for His children at the cross.

“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah.

(Here God speaks up)

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” (Psalm 32)

We have one security, one safety net, one form of protection, one hope and one recovery; Jesus Christ. Our salvation is in our relationship, acceptance, reliance, and faith in Jesus Christ.

Bill Hitchcock

Spurgeon On Psalms

The spirit is in the word. The spirit gives life to the word. God grace’s some people with the ability to infuse His spirit into what they write. Charles Spurgeon, the 19^th century pastor and theologian was such a man. I’ve given a snippet of his beautiful and powerful writings below.

Spurgeon was known as the, “Prince of Preachers”. He was the Billy Graham of his time and then some. Although he could draw up to 25,000 people at a time for one of his sermons (remember this was before microphones and speakers), Charles Spurgeon is best known for his prolific and heaven-sent writings. One such example is his publication, “The Treasury of David”, which is a line by line commentary of all 150 Psalms. Not only is it an example of his work, but he surveyed the great expositors of all times for their comments on the Psalms as well.

I have made it a habit to read several Psalms each day. One of the Psalms I read this morning was Psalm 32. I must confess, often Spurgeon’s comments are more moving and insightful than the Psalm itself, but that’s just how the spirit works sometimes. Below is a small sample of some of Spurgeon’s comments and as he calls it, “Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings”.

“When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.” (Psalm 32:3)

“Horror at his great guilt, drove David to incessant laments, until his voice was no longer like the articulate speech of man, but so full of sighing and groaning, that it resembled to hoarse roaring of a wounded beast. None knows the pangs of conviction but those who have endured them. The rack, the wheel, the flaming fagot are ease compared with the Tophet which a guilty conscience kindles within the breast: better suffer all the diseases which flesh is heir to, than lie under the crushing sense of the wrath of almighty God. The Spanish inquisition with all its tortures was nothing to the inquest which conscience holds within the heart.”

“I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.” (Psalm 32:5)

“We must confess the guilt as well as the fact of sin. It is useless to conceal it, for it is well known to God; it is beneficial to us to own it, for a full confession softens and humbles the heart. We must as far as possible unveil the secrets of the soul, dig up the hidden treasure of Achan, and by weight and measure bring out our sins….When the soul determines to lay low and plead guilty, absolution is near at hand; hence we read, And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Not only was the sin itself pardoned, but the iniquity of it; the virus of its guilt was put away, and that at once, so soon as the acknowledgment was made. God's pardons are deep and thorough: the knife of mercy cuts at the roots of the ill weed of sin.”

“For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him.” (Psalm 32:6)

“There is, however, a set time for prayer, beyond which it will be unavailing; between the time of sin and the day of punishment mercy rules the hour, and God may be found, but when once the sentence has gone forth pleading will be useless, for the Lord will not be found by the condemned soul. O dear reader, slight not the accepted time, waste not the day of salvation. The godly pray while the Lord has promised to answer, the ungodly postpone their petitions till the Master of the house has risen up and shut to the door, and then their knocking is too late. What a blessing to be led to seek the Lord before the great devouring floods leap forth from their lairs, for then when they do appear we shall be safe. Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. The floods shall come, and the waves shall rage, and toss themselves like Atlantic billows; whirlpools and waterspouts shall be on every hand, but the praying man shall be at a safe distance, most surely secured from every ill.”

“Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.” (Psalm 32:11)

“Happiness is not only our privilege, but our duty. Truly we serve a generous God, since he makes it a part of our obedience to be joyful. How sinful are our rebellious murmurings! How natural does it seem that a man blest with forgiveness should be glad.”

This has been a very small sample taken from Charles Spurgeon’s commentary on the Book of Psalms titled, “The Treasury of David”. This is truly a work blessed by God. You can access the Treasury free online at, “The Spurgeon Archive”.  The web address is listed below.

http://archive.spurgeon.org/treasury/treasury.php

Bill Hitchcock