"The Word is near, in your mouth, in your heart. The Word, the message, the basis of faith; for those with ears to hear and hearts to receive it is near. It is near because, if you will acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is LORD, if you will recognize His power, His authority His majesty as God AND believe in your heart that God raised JESUS from the dead, God’ promise to all who will believe and receive is eternal life. With the heart each person must believe in Jesus as Christ and Saviour; a belief that frees from the guilt of sin and makes one acceptable to God and then speak aloud acknowledging, confessing faith in Jesus openly, confirming their salvation, their true change of heart, their salvation by faith alone in Christ alone His Word is Truth, that “Whoever calls on the Name of the LORD will be saved.” (paraphrase of Romans 10)

Charles Spurgeon wrote: The children of this world are wise in their generation. Their policy may be short-sighted and their stratagems crooked, nevertheless the world admires the wisdom of their counsel, and makes light of the craftiness of their projects. In their opposition to the Christian church, the men of the world might certainly have been as well able to outwit her by the variety of their maneuvers as to overwhelm her by the force of their numbers, were it not that there is an unseen One in her midst, who is more than a match for the guile of their hearts and the might of their hosts.

It breaks my heart when I realize that it is those called by His Name who are the greatest hindrance to the spreading of the gospel message. For every true Bible believing Blood bought believer, for every follower of Jesus Christ there are scores that are Christian in name only; but we are not without hope:

There are billions of ‘professing Christians’ in the world, but the true church is small compared to the number professing a biblical faith with little or no evidence to back up their claims. But the church does exist - Jesus promised... “I will build My church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” We must keep witnessing, sharing and standing on the promises of God.

Don’t hide your heart of hurt from Jesus. Don’t allow guilt from the past to rob you of a victorious future. Don’t allow the crafty deceit of the world to blind you to Truth. But you might say “you don’t know what I’ve done;” and you would be correct. I don't know, but God does and He made forgiveness available even before you sinned. He has done His part, the rest is up to you.

"My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord.'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8-9

We claim faith in Jesus the Christ. We stand with voices raised heavenward singing, “Standing on the promises of God,” we glibly quote scripture and encourage our neighbors and friends to ‘only believe’. Yet, when we are confronted with trials and testing, when our own world appears to crumble beneath us, we cry in agony, race to the doctor, grab a pill or call a friend to listen to our woes.

We generally feel sorry for ourselves, while bemoaning the unfairness of our circumstance we fail to remember the words of the Psalm - "Be still [cease striving] and know [remember] that I AM God."

While this may be natural, we were not chosen of God to be natural, we were chosen by God, 'out of the world', a new creation in Him - called to be a supernatural people. We all too quickly panic rather than praise and all too soon forget:

“In all [these] things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.”
[Romans 8:37]

Scripture tells us -

“Endure hardship as discipline. God is testing you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?” [Hebrews 12:7]

Again, scripture tells us -

“Consider it all joy when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” [James 1:1-4]

We are powerless in and of ourselves. We read in Habakkuk, ‘it is The LORD God who is our strength. It is He who makes me walk on high places.’

We are admonished to never forget - ‘we are not to conform to this world [the natural] but be transformed by the renewing of our mind [supernatural] so that we might prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.’ [Romans 12:2]