|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

Works are different than fruit. Fruit is the fruit of the leadership of the Spirit of Jesus: growing in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control, and faithfulness. The aroma of the fruit of the Spirit all mixed together is humility, meekness, loyalty to the word of Jesus, and primarily HOLINESS. That is different than works. Works are the things we do BECAUSE of what we believe. You can do works apart from fruit. The Bible lays this out clearly: Revelation 2:2“I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3“and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5“Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lamps...

Greed is antithetical to Christianity at the personal, church, city, and ESPECIALLY the national level. The charges God makes regarding the judgment of the nation of Israel are mostly related to greed and making wealth a priority at the national level. He feels this way about ALL nations. Ezekiel 7:10-19 'Behold, the day! Behold, it has come! Doom has gone out; The rod has blossomed, Pride has budded. (11) Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness; None of them shall remain, None of their multitude, None of them; Nor shall there be wailing for them. (12) The time has come, The day draws near. 'Let not the buyer rejoice, Nor the seller mourn, For wrath is on their whole multitude. (13) For the seller shall not return to what has been sold, Though he may still be alive; For the vision concerns the whole multitude, And it shall not turn back; No one will strengthen himself Who lives in iniquity. (14) 'They have blown the trumpet and made everyone ready, But no one goes to...

Greed is antithetical to Christianity at the personal, church, city, and ESPECIALLY the national level. The charges God makes regarding the judgment of the nation of Israel are mostly related to greed and making wealth a priority at the national level. He feels this way about ALL nations. Ezekiel 7:10-19 'Behold, the day! Behold, it has come! Doom has gone out; The rod has blossomed, Pride has budded. (11) Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness; None of them shall remain, None of their multitude, None of them; Nor shall there be wailing for them. (12) The time has come, The day draws near. 'Let not the buyer rejoice, Nor the seller mourn, For wrath is on their whole multitude. (13) For the seller shall not return to what has been sold, Though he may still be alive; For the vision concerns the whole multitude, And it shall not turn back; No one will strengthen himself Who lives in iniquity. (14) 'They have blown the trumpet and made everyone ready, But no one goes to...

Revelation 7:15“That is why they stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his Temple. And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter. The only safe place in the Great Tribulation is standing before the throne.... How close to the throne can I get on Earth? Psalm 24:3 Who may climb the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. 5 They will receive the LORD’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior. 6 Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob. Interlude 7 Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter. 8 Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty; the LORD, invincible in battle. 9 Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter. 10 Who is the King of glory? The LORD of Heaven’s Armies— he is the King of glory. This is why David put up a...

Revelation 7:15  “That is why they stand in front of God’s throne and serve him day and night in his Temple. And he who sits on the throne will give them shelter. The only safe place in the Great Tribulation is standing before the throne.... How close to the throne can I get on Earth? Psalm 24:3 Who may climb the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies. 5 They will receive the LORD’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their savior. 6 Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob. Interlude 7 Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter. 8 Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty; the LORD, invincible in battle. 9 Open up, ancient gates! Open up, ancient doors, and let the King of glory enter. 10 Who is the King of glory? The LORD of Heaven’s Armies— he is the King of glory. This is why David pu...

Matthew 10:32“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33“But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. 34“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Denying Jesus, betraying Him, or falling away, isn't limited to an inner complete loss of faith...it is defined as a verbal choice rooted in fear of the consequences of loyalty to Jesus, or offense with Jesus' leadership. We cannot redefine what the Bible says this means and call it hope. Contending in faith for some miraculous conversion of someone literally denying the Lord before the whole world is not wise... Being real about the consequences is wise. We need to be sober about what the Bible says...not fall in to the trap of faith leaders trying to reason Bible verses away. If you deny Jesus before men, He WILL deny you before the Father. It isn't a line to get close to....

Matthew 10:32“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33“But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. 34“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. Denying Jesus, betraying Him, or falling away, isn't limited to an inner complete loss of faith...it is defined as a verbal choice rooted in fear of the consequences of loyalty to Jesus, or offense with Jesus' leadership. We cannot redefine what the Bible says this means and call it hope. Contending in faith for some miraculous conversion of someone literally denying the Lord before the whole world is not wise... Being real about the consequences is wise. We need to be sober about what the Bible says...not fall in to the trap of faith leaders trying to reason Bible verses away. If you deny Jesus before men, He WILL deny you before the Father. It isnt a line to get close to. Fear...

Jesus isn't hiding from the news as a strategy to stay joyful and peaceful. He isn't guarding his heart from the truth. If you are following him, you aren't either. Jesus is dealing with the truth. He IS the truth. The truth is the news reflects a very specific time: Matthew 24:11-14 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (12) And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (13) But he who endures to the end shall be saved. (14) And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Every sanctuary is being destroyed except the one that the destruction comes from. Judgment is coming from the place Jesus sits...it isn't happening in opposition to Jesus...it's coming from Him. The reason that it works this way is to get people who claim to want to know him to actually repent and come into the only safe place...the place of His presence. If you are a believer a...

Followers of Jesus are the light of the world...witnesses that the cost of becoming right with God is actually worth it. Right now, there is so much division, so much finger pointing and arm-chair quarterbacking of what is going wrong in the church, yet there are so few witnesses that the pain is worth it to follow Jesus. Rejection is guaranteed if you follow the rejected son of God. The world hasn't gotten more holy since Jesus hung on the cross...no, it's gotten much worse. Some, here and there, are starting to touch the truth: What Jesus is looking for are those willing to pursue His personality in theirs. This is called Holiness or abiding. Without it, you won't bear fruit (John 15). If you are going after this lifestyle ... A holy lifestyle obtained by following Jesus and letting Him adjust your personality to become one with His...then you need to testify that this is the way. This happens in a very certain order laid out in Matthew 5. There are 8 steps laid out in th...

True unity comes from telling the truth and growing in love while doing so. This is a challenge. It takes Jesus' help. It requires prayer before speaking. False unity happens by ignoring the whole truth and focusing on small agreeable details. This doesn't build up the body of Jesus, it tears it down. Jesus is the fullness of truth. Every "white lie" that spares us from confronting truth hides some part of who He is. When we bring ourselves to see the truth, we have to admit that we desperately need Jesus just to see the truth, let alone agree with it. Speaking truth in love imparts humility to the speaker because it requires we yield to Jesus in real time. It brings the speaker closer to the one who always loves and never lies. We commit to the truth and just simply try to say what He says about any given situation, and He empowers. We need to be more prayerful and less forceful right now. The pressure of what people think about us, called the fear of man, is a snare...

From Wikipedia's 'Mass Shootings in the US': "Studies indicate that the rate at which public mass shootings occur has tripled since 2011. Between 1982 and 2011, a mass shooting occurred roughly once every 200 days. However, between 2011 and 2014, that rate has accelerated greatly with at least one mass shooting occurring every 64 days in the United States. According to the non-profit Gun Violence Archive, there were 251 mass shootings between January 1 and August 4, 2019—the 216th day of the year." What we are seeing is a judgment. Peace is being taken from the earth: Revelation 6:4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. This will get much worse, not better. It is God who is allowing it to happen, and it is directly related to the coming of Jesus: Revelation 12:12 “Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell...

Sanctification, or getting ready to meet Jesus, requires meeting together with other believers. This is something I didn't understand as a young believer. In fact, I didn't understand it until I understood that sanctification was a REQUIRED aspect of salvation: John 17:15“I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16“They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18“As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19“And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth. 20“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21“that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. This passage is a recording of Jesus praying to the Father. When He prayed for us, He prayed t...