By His grace, what the radical life of Christ should look in an American context!

believes the people in Noah’s day, and in Jesus’ day, ran out of time to repent…please repent while there is time! Mat 25:13 @WeeManWest

thinks we must examine ourselves to determine whether we live for our own pleasure or for the pleasure of God. Rom 8:8 @WeeManWest

Matthew 25:3 This assumes or presumes that all of the virgins had oil available to take with them. The five foolish virgins chose NOT to take extra oil with them. They chose to ignore what was necessary.

Matthew 25:13 If we continue the context of the days of Noah this makes more sense to us. In the days of Noah, the days leading up to the flood were the time for repentance. Once the flood was upon them it was too late. The same principle applies with this parable. The time to repent and turn to Christ is now.

Those in Jerusalem, who hadn’t heeded the word of the church and hadn’t fled the city when the Christians did would indeed share in the destruction and desolation of the city. Their time was up.

So also, in our day, this is the day of repentance. Now is the time to turn from our sinful lifestyle to the living God. When He returns it will be too late.

Romans 8:1 We must understand the power of this statement. We have to stop beating ourselves up every time we fall short and understand that we will NEVER have it perfect until we are made perfect. We must accept what God has done for us in Jesus Christ and abide in His work and quit trying to build up our own works.

Romans 8:3 God did what we cannot in Jesus Christ. He fulfilled the Law and in His own death made the way for us to be righteous by faith in Christ.

Romans 8:8 We are no longer to live driven strictly by our flesh and its desires but now we have been given the Holy Spirit to drive us toward holiness.

What are we giving ourselves to, our flesh or His Spirit. One leads to the destruction of our walk in Christ the other leads to holiness and the pleasure of God.

Our lives will either please our flesh or please our God. Are we truly living for the pleasure of God?

Romans 8:9 The person of faith has no excuse. We have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. If we lack the Holy Spirit then we do not belong to Jesus. We are capable of living by the Spirit for the pleasure of God because His Spirit dwells within us and will guide us into holiness.

Romans 8:14 Being a Christian is not about a decision you’ve made or a sacrament you’ve kept. Instead it is about a series of daily decisions you make to be led by His Spirit. His Spirit creates the desire and ability to follow His lead within us by grace through faith.

Romans 8:17 Would we honestly consider our existence suffering with Christ? When we put to death the works of death, the works of our flesh, we will suffer. Whether it is the suffering of our internal struggle with the flesh, the inner battling within us of the flesh and the Spirit that wage war in us like Jacob and Esau warred within Rebekkah’s womb; or it is the external struggle with those intent on putting a stop to those who live by faith. We will indeed struggle and suffer in this life.

Psalm 59:13 We see a glimpse into David’s heart in this statement. This was the heart that was after God’s own heart. God desires to be known as God to the ends of the earth. God has a missionary heart…do we?

Psalm 59:17 In our struggles and suffering, God is indeed our Strength. He is a fortress for us to abide within and the very fiber of what holds us together in our troubles.

Numbers 28:6 We see the daily offering, in the morning and in the evening was considered the pleasing aroma, a food offering to God.

We should daily seek to please God with the offering of our lives given to the will and obedience of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit it is impossible to please God.

Numbers 30:2 God expects that when we give our word we will keep our word.