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Abiding
 Abiding Grace
roines@slip.net
Today
Three hundred thousand people
Came into the world,
And
One hundred thousand people
Left the world.
That is as it is
Each day.
Those who came into the world today
Know nothing,
But the world will teach them,
And if they learn no more
Than what the world teaches them,
After their decades upon the earth,
They will follow
The generations before them
Into the Abyss.
But some
God will teach
While they are yet here.
In that moment
These will ignore all the teachings of men
And rather place all their trust for salvation
In Jesus Christ alone.
In that instant,
Christ will come into their hearts
As Eternal Life.
But by and by
The Deceiver will be coming by,
And unless those saved are aware,
Through men the Deceiver will attempt
To bring in trust in other things
To divide the trust in Christ.
If those the Lord has saved
Give heed to that evil ploy
And drift away from him,
They will not lose their salvation
(for the Lord keeps his own),
But they will lose their assurance of salvation
(their knowing they are saved),
And their knowledge of the gospel of grace
(and thus their ability to share it),
As well as the working of the Lord within,
And their readiness for his coming.
They will remain on the earth for the Tribulation--
How indeed could those who remain not in Christ
Be ready for his coming?
Some believe all the people of the Lord
Must pass into the Tribulation,
As though the Tribulation were not the judgment of God,
Or as though the saved
Would pass through some or all
Of the judgment of God upon the world,
Or as though Christ has announced the time of his coming
For his bride
(as though the same as his coming in fury)
As after the Tribulation rather than unexpectedly before,
Or as though the newborn Kingdom
Would be left on earth by God
To be devoured by the Dragon after all.
You who believe your salvation
Depends on your willingness to die
During the Tribulation,
By whose death are you saved?
If you are saving yourself,
You are saving no one.
But if Christ has saved you,
It is not by your death,
But by the death of Christ you have been saved.
Are you now going to save yourself during the Tribulation
By placing your head on the block?
Those who die for the Lord in those days or these days
Do so because he who dwells within them
Gives them the grace to do so
In that very hour.
It is not the determination of the flesh
Whereby we stand in Christ,
But by his presence within.
Many there are
Who seek to justify themselves by their works,
Whether it be by the death of the body,
Or by the suffering of the body,
Or the efforts of the body.
Did not James speak of justification by works?
How many there are who appeal to his words
(the Lord revealed not to James as he had to Paul
the utter futility of seeking justification by works)
Yet will not do as he said,
For he observed the law given to Moses,
Knowing that to break the law in a single point,
Is to become guilty of breaking all the law.
Are you who seek justification by works
Also to offer sacrifices at the temple?
Israel, appointed to do so, shall indeed.
Those seeking justification by law
Are not at all free to pick and choose
From parts of the law,
But must keep the whole.
How well have you done to date?
You who trust in the law to save you,
Will it save you or put you to death?
The law commands that you covet not
That which belongs to your neighbor.
In the end, those who covet
Are guilty of breaking the whole law of God.
The wages of transgression of the law is death not life.
What!
Shall God drive Adam and Eve out of paradise,
And bring them and their descendants down to death
For one act of eating fruit forbidden,
But receive you who seek justification by works
After breaking the whole law of God?
Who is your righteousness?
It is either you or it is Christ.
It is not part you and part Christ.
If you seek to justify yourselves by your works,
You have become your own righteousness.
But if you trust not in your works,
But in Christ alone to be your righteousness,
You have passed from death to life.
So then,
You who are justified by faith in Christ alone
Have been nailed to the cross with him,
And henceforth the law cannot condemn you,
For you are dead to the law,
And Christ is your life within.
Be diligent therefore
That you grieve not the Holy One
Who dwells inside,
For he is the Riches of Eternity,
The precious Abiding Grace of God.
Go after no other,
For within Christ alone do you stand.
Let not the vile pursuits of the flesh
In its self seeking,
Self righteousness,
Self trust,
Self will,
Ever rise again.
In the days of Moses,
The people of Israel
Wanted not to take the land of promise
When God wanted them to go and take it,
But they afterwards wanted to take the land
When God wanted them not to take it:
But you were unwilling to go up;
you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God.
(Deuteronomy 1:26 NIV)
You rebelled against the Lord's command
and in your arrogance you marched up into the hill country.
(Deuteronomy 1:43)
Not an earthly land of promise do we seek,
But an heavenly shall we now receive.
Not a kingdom of laws of men,
But of the inward abiding of the Son of God,
Not a kingdom other than that which the saints already have,
But that very kingdom now established
By their abiding forever in him.
Now therefore,
Why are some of the people of the Lord
Preparing to go through the Tribulation
When the Lord is calling upon his people
To get ready for his coming
By returning to faith in him alone?
For it will come upon all those
who live on the face of the whole earth.
Be always on the watch,
and pray that you may be able to escape
all that is about to happen,
and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.
(Luke 21:35-36)
Be dressed ready for service
and keep your lamps burning,
like men waiting for their master
to return from a wedding banquet,
so that when he comes and knocks
they can immediately open the door for him.
You also must be ready,
because the Son of man will come at an hour
when you do not expect him.
(Luke 12:35-36, 40)
Here I am!
I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,
I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
(Revelation 3:20)
Are the saints going to wrestle on earth against flesh and blood?
Is the Lord going to put away the devil
By leaving his people here to be devoured?
Is the god of this world going to be cast out of heaven
Without the Lord bringing up his redeemed?
But in you who are willing and ready
(by the grace of God),
In you the Lord will do his work.
As he has foretold for generations,
In you will he bring forth that Kingdom,
Christ in us,
That shall reign for endless ages
Over all who are in the flesh and in the spirit
In heaven and upon the earth:
The dragon stood in front of the woman
who was about to give birth,
so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.
She gave birth to a son, a male child,
who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.
And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
(Revelation 12:4-5)
Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much
as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens
and you who dwell in them!
(Revelation 12:10-12)
In the time of those kings,
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom
that will never be destroyed,
nor will it be left to another people.
It will crush all those kingdoms
and bring them to an end,
but it will itself endure forever.
(Daniel 2:44)
Some will say,
The prophecies speak of ten nations
Opposing the Kingdom of God in the end,
And that there are already
More than ten nations in the European Union.
Well, that is so,
And there will yet be many more.
Take heed therefore,
Seeing that there are more than enough already,
And when God brings ten from the midst of those
To give their power unto the beast,
The Greater Tribulation will be set:
For God has put it into their hearts
to accomplish his purpose
by agreeing to give the beast their power to rule,
until God's words are fulfilled.
(Revelation 17:17)
The Tribulation hastens to come.
The Parliament of the European Union
Advises that the member nations
Set up so-called "cult observatories"
Whereby the governments
Will publicize warnings against
So-called "harmful cults".
In France, Germany, Belgium, and Austria
Already such governmental power is being used against
Evangelicals and Charismatics.
Such denial of freedom of religion in democracies
Is now also taking place in Russia,
And is being proposed in Israel.
Moreover,
ISO has already begun moving into ethics regulation
Through its international standards--
This global assembly from nations
Is predominated by the European Union
In both numbers and agenda.
Meanwhile in America,
Students in public schools
Must often fight for their freedom of religion,
And even in the workplace
An assault by the EEOC
(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
To restrict religious expression
Was turned back only after
Massive public outcry to Congress.
He who now restrains
The rising global rebellion against God
(and so restrains the rise of the beast)
Will continue to hold it back
Until the time that he who restrains is taken out of the way:
And now you know what is holding him back,
so that he may be revealed at the proper time.
For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work;
but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so
till he is taken out of the way.
(2 Thessalonians 2:6-7)
Who is this One
(this Restraining Power, this Person)
That holds back the evil and rebellion?
Who has always been the One who has held it back?
Christ the Lord,
He who dwells within us,
By his presence and by his Spirit,
Is the One who holds it back,
As in the day of Paul,
So in our day,
It is the Lord who keeps and preserves his own:
And pray that we may be delivered
from wicked and evil men,
for not everyone has faith.
But the Lord is faithful,
and he will strengthen and protect you
from the evil one.
We have confidence in the Lord
that you are doing and will continue
to do the things we command.
May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love
and Christ's perseverance.
(2 Thessalonians 3:2-5)
Now may our God and Father himself
and our Lord Jesus clear the way for us to come to you.
May the Lord make your love increase and overflow
for each other and for everyone else,
just as ours does for you.
May he strengthen your hearts
so that you will be blameless and holy
in the presence of our God and Father
when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
(1 Thessalonians 3:11-13)
We proclaim him,
admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom,
so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ.
To this end I labor,
struggling with all his energy,
which so powerfully works in me.
(Colossians 1:28-29)
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Put on the full armor of God
so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world
and against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly realms.
(Ephesians 6:10-12)
For though we live in the world,
we do not wage war as the world does.
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.
(2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
It is not written that all the saved will be taken
Before the defiant one is revealed,
But rather that he who restrains shall be taken out,
For the Lord shall remove his presence
And therefore all those in whom he dwells
From the face of the earth,
And then shall the rebellion
That is the Tribulation
Start.
Then shall all those others who were saved
But who were left
Because they would not return to faith in Christ alone,
Be sought out by the Lord in the midst of judgments
That when he comes again
After the Great Tribulation of 3-1/2 years
And the sealing of the firstfruits of Israel
And the harvest of the wicked,
That those who were left
Whose lives have been spared
May then be ready in Christ
For his coming
And to be taken from the earth.
So it is that part of the saved will escape the Tribulation
And part will not.
Indeed most of the saved
Will go into that judgment upon the world,
But not all.
That they may escape,
The Lord now calls upon all his people
To return to him alone,
But as in generations past,
Only some will heed the call:
The kingdom of heaven is like a king
who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
So the servants went out into the streets
and gathered all the people they could find,
both good and bad,
and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to see the guests,
he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
Then the king told the attendants,
"Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside,
into the darkness,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
For many are invited, but few are chosen.
(Matthew 22:2, 10-11, 13-14)
But unto those
Who will hear his voice,
And respond to his knock,
And open the door
That he may come in,
Unto those he will come,
Now into their hearts
And they into him,
For they will be clothed in Christ,
The garment of Righteousness,
That when he descends into the air,
Unto him will they go.
Therefore
None who are in the Lord need fear,
For not one of you will he leave behind.
He who has begun a good work in you,
Will surely also complete it.
Over you he rejoices;
In your redemption shall he dance.
For it is the good pleasure of the Lord
To take his people unto himself
That they be with him and in him forever,
There in his glory
In the city of his Father on high,
There in him our Song, our Praise,
In the temple of our God in heaven,
There in he who is the Kingdom and the Power
Who in us and through us
Upon the mountain of God
Shall judge this world
And the prince of this world,
And cast him and his angels
Out of the heavens
Down unto the earth
For the judgment to come.
Praise be unto our God and his Christ,
The Lamb who has redeemed us from all evil,
And who calls us unto himself,
And comes for us,
His Bride.
He the Lord is our resplendent apparel,
He is our unassailable righteousness within,
He is our Abiding Grace,
Our Life that never will end--
Here on earth
In mortal bodies
Already begun,
There in heaven
In immortal bodies
About to begin.
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