Thank you, Lord, for your salvation. Thank you for your presence with me now and from before the foundation of the world. I bow before you as Lord of heaven and earth.    I don’t understand or know  all the “how’s”,  but I believe your word and I have seen your hand in my life. In so many ways your spirit has testified to my spirit. Thank you for giving me a measure of faith and for encouraging and enabling me to believe.

ed opinion:  we must have correct knowledge of our father God as well as a zeal for him. We must come to know and understand and submit to God’s righteousness.

God’s word (with some paraphrasing): for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Righteousness based on faith says, “don’t look for Christ up there or down there, but realize that Christ is as near you as the word”.  He should be on your lips and in your heart.  Confess with your mouth your lord Jesus’s words and believe in your heart that God, your father, raised him from the dead, and you are saved.  With your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you agree with what your Lord says. Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame; for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

God is for me, who can be against me? Will he not with Christ graciously give me all things?  It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for me.

Who can separate me from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, or famine, nakedness, danger, sword?  No, in all these things I am more than a conqueror through Christ who loves me. I am sure neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate me  from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.

“This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. “Luke 22:20

“I will make with them an everlasting covenant; that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. “Jeremiah 32:40

I, by God’s grace and proclamation will not turn away from God. Christ sealed the covenant with his blood. He purchased my perseverance. Jesus bought my perseverance.

God the spirit works in me what God the son obtained for me. The father planned that I would endure, the son bought it, and the spirit applies it. All of them infallibly!

(note: I believe some of these statements are quotes from John MacArthur)

God is totally committed to my eternal security. “He leads me in paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake. ”

By the Spirit of God in me I put to death the deeds of the body and I live.  All who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. I have received the Spirit of adoption as a son, by which I cry Abba, Father.  The Spirit himself bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God, and if a child, then an heir, heir of God and fellow heir with Christ provided I suffer with him in order that I may also be glorified with him.

The suffering of this present time is not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in me. The whole creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. The Spirit of God helps me. The spirit intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God. I know that all things work  for my good because I love God and I’m called according to his purpose. I am predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s son in order that he may be the firstborn among many brothers.

I want to talk for a moment about something that I call our “stuff”. By our stuff I mean the various arguments and opinions and beliefs and practices that we hold in our mind.  If these are negative thought patterns, I believe the Bible calls these areas of our mind strongholds or arguments or lofty opinions or pretensions or high places . II Corinthians 10:3-5

In the context of this post, I’m talking about those beliefs we have that are negative in nature. My definition for negative would mean anything that causes us to think or believe things that disagree with God.

It seems that often to compensate for something we think we are lacking, or because of some mistreatment or perceived mistreatment, we build up a story offense, a reason to be angry or hurt; bitterness, hatred, sourness, etc. often result.  Here is how one woman described that type of mindset becoming a part of her thinking and ultimately her character and her personality:  “She (my grandmother)  infected my mother with this violent acrimony, and I, the grand child, also became horribly contaminated by it.  It is as if a venomous liturgy were composed among us, and we recited it day after day, religiously. It became to us larger than the real world. Our entire focus is upon the bitterness and anger felt toward the perpetrator and any associated things.”

I believe the quotation stated above describes one way that strongholds are planted in our mind. They are put there liturgically when a story of offensive treatment is steadily repeated.  I believe these liturgically planted  thought bases become a strong hold in us where all the bitter thoughts and conclusions can remain secure and festering in us and then sally forth from time to time to cause us to react in the flesh and tear and wound our relationships.

They are liturgically planted and they can be overwhelmed (made to obey Jesus words) by liturgically planting the word of God in our mind.  The word of God brings life and the light to our thinking and ultimately to our feelings.

The Lord drew me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay,

And set my feet upon the rock. He steadied my steps and established my goings.

He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to my God.

Do not be too concerned about what may happen tomorrow, the same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day. Either he will shield you from suffering or he will give you unfailing strength to bear it. Be at peace, then, put aside all anxious thoughts and imaginations  and say continually, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart has trusted in him and I am helped.  He is not only with me but in me and I in him.”

Jesus is the guarantor  of a better covenant. He holds the priesthood permanently. Consequently he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.  When Jesus, the Christ, appeared as high priest of the good things to come, he entered once for all into the holy place by means of his own blood thus securing eternal redemption.

The blood of Christ, who offered himself without blemish, purifies my conscience from dead works to serve the living God. He is my mediator of the new covenant so that I may receive the promised eternal inheritance.  Christ has entered, not into the holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God the Father on my behalf.  He appeared once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He will appear a second time, to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Lord Jesus, I believe you are the Messiah, the Christ, sent by God the Father to reconcile His people to Himself.  You are Jesus, the apostle and the high priest of my confession. You are faithful to God who appointed you. I hold fast my confidence and my boasting in you, Lord Jesus, you are my hope.

You are a sure and steadfast anchor of my soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the veil where you have gone as a forerunner on my behalf; having become my high priest forever.  Since I have a great high priest who is passed through the heavens, I hold fast my confession. I have a high priest who is able to sympathize with my weaknesses because he was in every respect tempted as I am and yet without sin.  Therefore, because of Jesus, I have confidence to draw near to the throne of grace, to receive mercy and find grace in times of need!

From time to time in this blog I may pause to state some personal opinion or thoughts or a teaching. I pray I will be accurate and helpful but I just want to point out that if you see an “Ed Opinion”, you will recognize that it is an opinion and not something taken directly from the word of God. Most of my posts will be the very words of God.