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Comments by Joan Boney:
Our life is in Christ, The Word.
Make a routine of reading, exhortation, doctrine.
Read the New Testament Bible.
I start with Matthew and read a few chapters daily until I reach the end of Revelation. Then I begin again with Matthew.
The second reading there will be some other scripture that stands out to me. I stop and meditate on that scripture. I put that scripture in my meditation scriptures and usually review it mornings and evenings with the other scriptures which have been given to me by the Spirit of God.
God taught me to live the scriptures, doing that which I see to do.
God taught me to do the following:
Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Consider this promise:
Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in HIS law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in HIS law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
When we stay by the "rivers of water" and drink from those waters, the scriptures, we become like a tree.
It is not easy to knock down a tree. And even in times of drought, that tree does not wither because it is drinking from that river of water, the scriptures.
As the Holy Spirit draws our attention to a scripture, we focus on that scripture, drawing all that we can for our lives from that scripture, doing that scripture.
I'm convinced we could never "wear out" those scriptures. They just keep nourishing us in the way of God in a very dark, crooked, perverted world.
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Give attendance to exhortation: advice & warnings
We examine ourselves by scriptures and godly exhortations. For this world drifts farther and farther away from the doctrines of Christ.
Cling to what God says in HIS doctrines, in the New Testament Bible, doing those doctrines and holding forth HIS doctrines.
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For example:
* The creation of man and the creation of the woman and the function in life of man as created by God and the woman as created by God.
The world today is insisting that everyone be the same and do the same. God did not create us this way. There is a different appointment for man and woman.
* There is a great difference between the church and the world.
The world cannot be righteous for they do not follow the Spirit of God who shows us the will of God, for they do not have the Spirit of God in them, so they follow their own thinking.
I Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The world today is trying to eliminate various works of the flesh, such as hatred.
We cannot eliminate hatred, for the flesh of man hates. It is one of the works of the flesh.
We control the hatred that would rise up in us as we turn to God for HIS help.
We overcome our flesh through God not through fleshly plans.
And the natural man does not turn to God but thinks himself to be wise.
In a secular book about WWII, I read the following statement about Germany. "We do not have revolutions in Germany because it is against the law to have revolutions in Germany." (I laughed!)
This is the legislation of men of this world.
Nothing changes by the flesh. It just keeps doing it's own works.
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
After we are born again by the Holy Spirit of God, HE leads us in the works of the Spirit.
Galatians 5
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
We walk in the Spirit as the Spirit brings the way to our attention and we follow the Spirit going in the way of God, choosing "that" way over the way preferred by our own flesh.
It is not that we try to love or walk in another of the works of the Spirit. We cannot do this by our flesh.
But it is the Spirit of God who dwells in us who shows us what to do in the specific issues that arise in this life and we choose to follow HIM instead of doing what our flesh wants to do.
We cannot be led by the Spirit unless we are born again by God's Spirit.
I Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
So the world legislates against "hatred" ... but 100 years later there is still hatred.
We are righteous because we follow God.
They can't follow God because they don't have God, they have only rules made by that which is wise in their own eyes.
Our righteousness is of God because it is God telling us what to do by HIS Spirit and we follow HIM.
Our righteousness is of God because the Holy Spirit of God brings to our mind scriptures and concepts as we walk on this earth and we follow HIM, doing those things which HE shows us to do which are authored by God.
For the Spirit of God searches the heart of God to reveal to us the will of God so we can follow HIM in the trials of this life. (I Cor. 2)
We know the will of God by that which the Spirit of God reveals to us.
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by HIS Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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