We have received several WRAPs that are very personal in nature. Most of these are from people who are hurting. We’ve received WRAPs from young girls who have been raised without the counsel of God-fearing parents, girls who have tried to begin building a life by putting their trust in young boys who for one reason or another are not trustworthy. Now, they are pregnant, dumped by their boyfriends, and seemingly without anyone who cares for them. From the Scriptures, I can show these youngsters where they went wrong and give them advice that might even be correct. We have also received E-mails from young people who have been raised in cults, one in particular who was raised in a satanic cult. I’ve spent time digging out the Scriptures that apply to their situations, and put together comments that are Scripturally correct, but very generic in tone. For example, I compiled Scriptures that show satan to be nothing up a very foolish created being that used his freedom of choice very unwisely, a creature who now has no choice but to be used as a tool in the plan of God. I showed from the example of Job how that this fallen angel cannot touch a son of Adam unless he first gets permission from God and then only to the degree that God permits. In my comments I dealt with the lie that would have the battle between "good and evil/God and satan" having a dubious outcome, showing how that the Church has authority over satan so that it can step on his head without fear of reprisal from him. But when I tried reading my comments from the perspective of someone in the middle of hurt and confusion, I decided not to put them up the web. Oh, there was nothing wrong with the Scriptures that I had compiled, but they were "my" Scriptures because I had gleaned them from the Scriptures during times when "I" was hurting and in the depths of confusion. Consequently, I’ve decided to hold my personal comments to two:

1. When you are in depression and confusion and know only that you hurt, do try the Bible for it is the Word of God and the SWORD of the Spirit. In it is the answer for every problem of man—and woman. If you don’t know where to start, you might try going to our free, on-line Treasure Chest of Bible study tools, click on the Blue Letter Bible, and type in the thing that is bothering you or that you are curious about. For example, if you are undergoing temptation, type the word "temptation" and hit "search." Or if you’d like to see what the Bible has to say about satan, do the same with the words satan, Lucifer, or the devil.
2. Secondly, and maybe more importantly, remember that when you are in a valley of despair, God knows all about it as He knows all about us, having even the hairs of our heads numbered. The Bible also declares that His blessed Holy Spirit is hovering very close, anxiously waiting for us to use our free will and to call out upon the name of the Lord. If you have never accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Bible promises that: "… whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." If you are the Lord’s and you are going through something hard to bear, just remember that He will never leave or forsake His own and He has promised to supply all of our needs.

Now let’s consider some Scriptures that apply to the born-again believer.

Philippians 2:
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

The understanding of this passage is very important to babes-in-Christ and for believers who have come from homes with less than desirable situations. Note first that Paul says we are to "work out" out salvation, not to "work for" it. So, just what does it mean to "work out" our salvation.

If we are to "work out" our salvation, then it must "be in" something—and according to the Scriptures it is "inside" every born-again believer. Consider the following:

I Cor. 6:
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Rom. 8:
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Col. 1:
27 To whom God would make known what [is] the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

So, from the Scriptures we have shown how that God's salvation is in us.  But why do we have to work it out?  Why doesn't it just flow out?  This is because we are who we are.  That is, we are sons of Adam who have inherited his fallen nature.   We are products of our surroundings which very often in opposition to the things of God.  We are swayed by men and teachings, be they sometimes good and sometimes bad; and this influence can give us an anti-Scriptural bias.  In other words, even though God has given the believer a new heart, regenerated his spirit, quickened his mind, and made his body to be the temple of the Holy Spirit, nevertheless,  the believer also has in his being the residue of the old man, the experiences of the old man, the pull of the habits of the old man, etc.  This is why Paul wrote the Corinthians, that they "...put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts." The Bible says that the spirit of every man is subject to the man.  In other words, we have freedom of choice.   This free will was purchased for us by Jesus on the Cross, and we must exercise it if we are to let the salvation that God placed in us come to the fore.  Exercising our free will by choosing the things of Christ and obeying His Holy Spirit are the ways that we each work out our own salvation.

Let’s look at one more passage and then I'll comment on what these Scriptures mean to me.

Eph. 1:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
…

13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

So, the salvation that God "gives" to everyone who by faith receives His Only Begotten Son, the Lord Jesus, is brought to each new convert by the Holy Spirit Who is also a "gift" to the believer—a gift that shall abide forever with the child of God. [And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever (Jn. 14:16)]. In addition, this "salvation" of God comes in a package that includes every thing that we need for our walk in this life plus the "gift" of eternal life which will take care of all of our needs in the life to come. We are told that when He died on the Cross, Christ became "sin" for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (II Cor. 5:21). Consequently, because of the Cross, God "has justified" every believer—i.e., He now sees them as though they had never sinned. In addition, because of the Cross, God is now "justified" before all of His creation when He places to the believer’s account in heaven the righteousness of Christ (Rom. 3:25-27). However, it is important to note that although the believers are no longer of this world, they must still walk in this world while they are in this life. But as we’ve said, God has made provision for our walk! For He not only made us to be a new creature when we were born again, putting in us a new heart and a quickened conscience, but He has also given us of His Holy Spirit to instruct us, to empower us, and to enable us to become more than conquerors in the walk that we are given.

I’ve said all of that to say this. In your WRAPs, some of you are struggling with staying at home because your home is not a "Christian" environment; and I feel that you would like for me to give you a "Scriptural answer" for your dilemma. Well, it is not by business, or the business of any "minister," to decide this matter for you. For every believer has the same Holy Spirit and the Spirit is given to the believer to help in such decisions. Because every person and every situation is unique, the leadership of the Holy Spirit can vary with each believer. Therefore, my "Scriptural answer" is that I have no answer for you other than for you to take this and all problems in your walk of faith to Christ and to rely upon the Holy Spirit for the answer. (Even if the Lord chooses to give you an answer through another believer, if the Holy Spirit does not bear witness with the answer, it should be ignored lest you find yourself not only walking after the flesh, but after someone else’s flesh.)

Finally, it seems that the problem that many of you are having in your walk of faith has to do with "sin" in your life. There is a Scripture that deals with this.

Heb. 12:
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Here, the writer of Hebrews is telling us how to deal with sin or with anything that will hinder our walk: i.e., we are to lay it aside. With this, as with everything else in the spiritual realm, satan has a multitude of alternatives; but the truth is, the only way that we can overcome sin in our lives is by laying it aside. Before we can understand this laying sin aside, we need to understand the basis of sin; and to understand the basis of sin, we need to look at the first sin committed by the first couple. If you remember, God told Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, for the day that they would eat of it, they would die. Satan, then, came along with his version of God’s word—saying that what God said wasn’t really so, that God just didn’t want them to be wise. In this we see the basis for all sin: i.e., sin is believing the devil’s suggestions that God has not always been truthful with man. This has been the devil’s approach throughout the ages, simply suggesting that the things that God has forbidden for our good are really things that are good and desirable and that God is just keeping them from us. If you’ll think about it, you’ll see that all "sin" follows this pattern. For example, to get men and women to use drugs, the devil plants the suggestions that life is boring; that the good things that God has given us are really a drag; and that to really enjoy life, one needs mind altering drugs that "expand the mind" and "heightens awareness." Of course, the truth is that those who choose to believe such lies are throwing away the good things of life that bring true joy. In their place they have put things that dull the senses, infect the body and mind, and will eventually bring a premature, painful death.

The same principle applies to drinking, illicit sex, etc.; but I will not belabor the point. The question that we’re dealing with is, "how do we lay aside the sin that doth so easily beset us?" My contention is that we can do this if we are totally satisfied that the thing that the devil is using to entice the fallen nature in us is a full-faced lie. As long as there is still a lingering suspicion that one may have a little more fun when he’s drunk than when he’s sober, or that it might be more fun to play the field rather than have one mate, etc., then one has to wrestle with the temptation rather than laying it aside for the lie that it is.

The Apostle James explained the process thusly:

James 1:
12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Some find it easier to lay aside sin and hindrances than do others. Moses, for example, was in the Pharaoh’s court where the devil’s lies were rampant. He chose, however, not to partake of the pleasures of sin for a season, but to suffer with God’s chosen people. (I’m not sure how Moses was so inclined. We do know that he had a Godly mother who faithfully instructed him in the things of the Lord.) Many of us, however, have to learn the hard way; but we can still learn.

The Scriptures tell us that all have sinned and fallen short of the mark. In fact, John tells the believers that, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (I Jn. 8-10). The Bible also tells us that, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it]" (I Cor. 10:13). So, with each temptation comes a way to escape, but if we’re not quiet sure that the temptation is really as bad as the Bible teaches, then we will not be prone to take the way of escape.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that God did not set limits and restrictions to "tempt" us, but to protect us from hurt and self-destruction. The devil twists the Words of God so that these restrictions seem to be desirable. If we are to "lay aside" the devil’s wiles, we have to make up our minds about who is the Liar. Is it satan or is it God? If we truly agree with God and His Word, the devil’s temptations lose their power and we can draw nigh unto God with confidence that He will draw nigh unto us. If this is our mindset, then we have truly "received God" and the Bible promises that as many as receive Him, to them give He power to become the sons of God.

It is my prayer for each of you who WRAPPED with us that you will settle it in your heart that the devil is a liar, a thief, and a murderer; but that God is Truth, and Love, and Light—and that in Him is no darkness at all. In fact, this is my prayer for all of my visitors, as well as for myself.

DON WROTE:

There is another purpose behind the denomination insanity, and it appears that you and I have both inadvertently fallen prey to it--and perhaps we had no choice in the matter. I'm talking about the waste of time that it took for us to make sense of the denominational confusion in the church world. Ideally, the church would be one as the Lord instructed; and every babe-in-Christ would immediately apply themselves to a study of the Word so that they could grow in the grace and admonition of the Lord. If this were the case, the first years of the believers' walk in the Lord would find them busy preparing themselves to answer the great commission: i.e., "...Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."--rather than trying to discover which is the "right" church! Sadly, it would seem that many in the church world never get past the denominational snare, and they spend their lives fighting for some man-made beliefs or some charismatic preacher who tickles their ears. To me, this explains the phenomenal growth of cults and militant religions. When God designed man, His original intent was to fellowship with His creation. However if man does not invite God into his life for fellowship and worship, then something else will fill that empty spot, because God's creation will not tolerate a void. Since the church has turned in on itself and neglected the great commission, Satan has been able to move into that void with his substitute cults and false religions, many of them being militant as the world has recently learned.

B'ANN WROTE:

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