The halfbaked Bard

Jude 23 Hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. Oh! Child of God, what is your approach to stain? Why compromise to wear a cloth Which the Lord loathes It brings intense detest to Him! But it allures you. Why? It disgusts Him. It actually smells so bad. But why are you attracted to it? Why do you admire? Why do you cherish? This is not just on the clothing It spreads. It disseminates into you It makes the air around you impure too. It brings in a stench. It stinks like skunk. But why has it becomes a fragrance to you? Why don't you realise your folly? Why do you compromise the best To settle for something that is actually the worst. Love the Lord with all your heart, mind and soul. Love His holiness. And His purity. And detest whatever He detests. For sin cannot stand in His presence, but a forgiven sinner can. Image courtesy : gemini 

Kept by Jesus Christ Jude:1 Loved by Jesus Christ Predestined by Jesus Christ Saved by Jesus Christ Justified by Jesus Christ Sanctified by Jesus Christ Glorified by Jesus Christ. Kept by Jesus Christ. He who has taken care of your eternal future, will He not take care of your present? Isa:49:16 I have engraved you in the palms of my hands. John:10:28-29 No one can snatch them out of my hand. No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. Kept by Jesus Christ. Where? In His own palms. Where is His palm? Underneath is the palms of the Almighty Sovereign God. He and the Father are one. In salvation He has kept you. For inheritance He has kept you. Predestined; not to leave you midway somewhere.  But to take you home with Him. He will take care. He is enough. He will bother.  He is in control. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Phil:1:6 Image courtesy: gemini 

3John:11 Anyone who does what is good is from God. Being good is not something that you formulate within yourself. It is not something that you decipher out of nothingness. Not something you figure out in due course of your life. Not something that you strive to do. Jer:17:9 The hearts is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. The inherant nature of man is wickedness. And no good comes out of him. So any good that you think you do is according to God's standards like filthy rags, because it is marred by your filth. It cannot and will not please God. Only God is good. And only He is the source of all goodness. So unless God wills, noan can be good.  For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. My will, my determination, my inherant nature will not make me good. Only God's transforming Spirit will make me good. Apart from Him I have no goodness Image credit: gemini

2 John:6 And this is love, that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love. Love is obedience. Obeying His command of love. Everything you do is based on love. Love to God; and love to others. Love is the source based on which you act; you live Love not manufactured from broken cisterns But love that pours out from the source of unending living waters. Without love you do something is not genuine, but superficial and mechanical And that is not walking as He walked. He walked with love. He lived with love. Love to the Father.  And love to us, the fallen ones. He first loved us. He is love. And therefore He obeyed. Image credit: https://www.istockphoto.com/search/2/image-film?phrase=child+foot+step+on+sand&tracked_gsrp_landing=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.istockphoto.com%2Fphotos%2Fchild-foot-step-on-sand

1 John5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of Him. He has the choice of answering our prayers or not. He has the choice of saying no. But still He says yes to every prayer in accordance to His will. It doesn't depend on His mood swings. It doesn't depend on whether He woke up in the wrong side of the bed. It doesn't depend on whether He is frustrated because of unspecified reasons. It depends consistently on one thing. Who He is. Isn't that wonderful to know that you are relating to someone who doesn't change like shifting shadows? A consistent true being He is. He never changes. Image credit: gemini

1John:5:12 He who has the Son, has life; He who does not have the Son, does not have life. The equation cannot be simpler. If you have Jesus Christ you will have life. Eternal life. Abundant life. Life to the fullest. Life as intended by the Creator Himself regarding you. The Lord Jesus, once asked to Simon Peter, whether the disciples want to leave too. Simon Peter replied confidently but desperately, "Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life". In times of overwhelming trouble, remember this. Where else will I go. In you alone is my completion. Not telling God. But telling yourself. Where else shall I go? In you alone is my refuge. You alone are the source of my life. Image credit: gemini