This poem is taken from Troy’s Creation House. Please check out the site and I highly encourage you to check out the Creation Museum as well.

WHAT BRINGS JOY

What brings joy to a person these days?

Is a question that’s answered in a variety of ways

Some think that money is all that is needed

But often it’s money that makes people conceited

Some believe things can make us feel whole,

But things do nothing to satisfy the soul.

All that is here in this world that we see

Can at best only bring a temporary glee

So what does it take to bring a joy that will last?

In a world where tragedy can bring sorrow so fast

How do you cope when the hard times do come?

Like losing the life of a precious loved one.

The answer for sure is outside of our self

Outside of this world and all of its wealth.

Only a God greater than what we can see

Can provide us the joy that all of us need.

A joy not based on things or net worth

A joy that comes with a person’s new birth

No matter the trial or suffering of this life.

This joy OVERCOMES the world and its strife.

So I ask you today, “Is this joy deep within?”

Or are you in bondage to the dominion of sin?

Do you know the God who is faithful and true?

Or is your confidence solely in you?

I hope and pray that you bow before the King

And receive the joy that only He can bring.

A joy in the heart that only God can form.

A joy that defeats the most perilous storm.

This joy is available to all who will come.

In humble confession to God’s only Son!

By Frank Zitzman

Since the beginning, everyone has sought to be their own god.

“If there’s anything horrifying in its (Satansim’s) teachings, it’s that these are the principles by which most people live most of the time – usually without admitting it to themselves.”

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is more deceitful than all else
         And is desperately sick;
         Who can understand it?

Proverbs

21:2 Every man’s way is right in his own eyes,
         But the LORD weighs the hearts.

14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man,
         But its end is the way of death.

3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
         And do not lean on your own understanding.

28:26 He who trusts in his own heart is a fool,
         But he who walks wisely will be delivered.

“Many… are willing for Christ to save them from hell, but are not willing for Him to save them from self. They want to be delivered from the wrath to come, but they wish to retain their self-will and self-pleasing. But He will not be dictated unto: you must be saved on His terms, or not at all. When Christ saves, He saves from sin—from its power and pollution, and therefore from its guilt. And the very essence of sin is the determination to have my own way ( Isaiah 53:6). Where Christ saves, He subdues this spirit of self-will, and implants a genuine, a powerful, a lasting, desire and determination to please Him.

Again, many are never saved because they wish to divide Christ; they want to take Him as Saviour, but are unwilling to subject themselves unto Him as their Lord. Or if they are prepared to own Him as Lord, it is not as an absolute Lord. But this cannot be: Christ will either be Lord of all or He will not be Lord at all. But the vast majority of professing Christians would have Christ’s sovereignty limited at certain points; it must not encroach too far upon the liberty which some worldly lust or carnal interest demands.

His peace they covet, but His “yoke” is unwelcome. Of all such Christ will yet say, “But these Mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before Me” ( Luke 19:27).

Again, there are multitudes who are quite ready for Christ to justify them, but not to sanctify. Some kind, some degree, of sanctification they will tolerate, but to be sanctified wholly, their “whole spirit and soul and body” ( 1 Thessalonians 5:23), they have no relish for. For their hearts to be sanctified, for pride and covetousness to be subdued, would be too much like the plucking out of a right eye. For the constant mortification of all their members they have no taste. For Christ to come to them as Refiner, to burn up their lusts, consume their dross, to dissolve utterly their old frame of nature, to melt their souls, so as to make them run in a new mould, they like not. To deny self utterly, and take up their cross daily, is a task from which they shrink with abhorrence.

Again, many are willing for Christ to officiate as their Priest, but not for Him to legislate as their King. Ask them, in a general way, if they are ready to do whatsoever Christ requires of them, and they will answer in the affirmative, emphatically and with confidence. But come to particulars: apply to each one of them those specific commandments and precepts of the Lord which they are ignoring, and they will at once cry out “Legalism”! or “We cannot be perfect in everything.” Name nine duties and perhaps they are performing them, but mention a tenth and it at once makes them angry, for you have come too close home to their case. After much persuasion, Naaman was induced to bathe in the Jordan, but he was unwilling to abandon the house of Rimmon ( 2 Kings 5:18). Herod heard John gladly and did “many things” ( Mark 6:20), but when John referred to Herodias it touched him to the quick. Many are willing to give up their theatre-going, and card-parties, who refuse to go forth unto Christ outside the camp. Others are willing to go outside the camp, yet refuse to deny their fleshly and worldly lusts. Reader, if there is a reserve in your obedience, you are on the way to hell.” —A. W. Pink

I saw this video in 2006 and it changed my life. The sermon is very convicting. The main point is that we aren’t supposed to compare ourselves to others and say, “I’m a Christian because I act like all of the other Christians.” We need to compare ourselves to the Bible to find out what it says about Christians. Many today don’t know about regeneration and sanctification. For many people faith is just an agreement in their mind that Jesus died for their sins. So many consider themselves saved, but they live in sin. The Bible says that God gives believers new hearts with new desires. We are new creatures. I watched this today for the first time in quite a while. The video below is an interview with Paul Washer talking about the background of the sermon. Please take the time to listen to it if you have never heard it before.

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