Rebellion Will Be Put Down

And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. Romans 16:20.
Ever since Adam yielded his mind to Satan’s device, the conflict has raged between right and wrong, between God and Satan. Connected with the doing of right there is a power that Satan cannot overcome. Righteousness has a vitality that is divine. Truth will triumph at last over falsehood, and God will vanquish the enemy.
Christ conquered Satan in our behalf…. He is mightier than Satan, and He will shortly bruise him under our feet.
In mercy to the universe … God will finally destroy the rejecters of His grace.
“Upon the wicked he shall rain quick burning coals, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.” Psalm 11:6 (margin).
While life is the inheritance of the righteous, death is the portion of the wicked. Moses declared to Israel, “I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.” Deuteronomy 30:15. The death referred to in these scriptures is not that pronounced upon Adam, for all mankind suffer the penalty of his transgression. It is the “second death” that is placed in contrast with everlasting life.
In the cleansing flames the wicked are at last destroyed, root and branch—Satan the root, his followers the branches. The full penalty of the law has been visited; the demands of justice have been met; and heaven and earth, beholding, declare the righteousness of Jehovah.
Satan’s work of ruin is forever ended. For six thousand years he has wrought his will, filling the earth with woe, and causing grief throughout the universe. The whole creation has groaned and travailed together in pain. Now God’s creatures are forever delivered from his presence and temptations.
It should be the aim of your life to fit yourself for association with the redeemed, with holy angels, and with Jesus, the world’s Redeemer.
The Faith I Live By p. 72
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Prayer Requests
—–Hulda who is retired nurse, has been reported missing. She took a trip to Mexico with friends and apparently went missing. Pray for her safe return! Nancy
—–Please pray for my cousin who is diagnosed with colon cancer stage 3 for God’s healing power. Nellie
—–Please pray for Walter as he’s down with the flu. Let’s pray for God’s healing power and that He will restore Walter’s health in the name of Jesus. Liana
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Friends, 
When Ron and I were first married, I made many mistakes as I was learning how to cook and to clean. It was a “trial and error” learning process since I had never had the advantage of having someone teach me anything about keeping a house, cooking, doing laundry, etc. I didn’t have a clue how to do even the most basic tasks.  It wasn’t entirely my fault for not knowing these things.  When I lived with my grandmother, she didn’t want me under her feet, so she sent me outside to play.  After I went to live with my mother, she didn’t think of having me help her.  After her new husband left and she had to work hard and long, she wanted me to help her with the housework, but I stubbornly refused.  She was too tired to argue. It was easier for her to do it than to force me into learning.
Shortly after Ron and I were married, I began to realize that I was lacking in the skills I needed.  We rented an apartment that had no washing machine, so I had to go to the Laundromat.  Entering the place, I noticed some very large machines that had a sign above them saying, “Four load capacity.” “Aha! Just what I need!” I thought. I could put all of our clothes in that one machine and save about two dollars. It seemed like a great idea. I shoved everything into that giant washing machine.
Congratulating myself for finding a bargain and a time saver, I sat down and read while I was waiting. Finally it was time to remove the clothes. To my horror I found that the white clothes including Ron’s white church shirt, had large splotches of pink all over them. Only then did I realize that red sweatshirts fade in hot water. Not knowing how to remedy the situation, I put the clothes into the dryer and dried them. Of course that made the stain permanent. When I got home Ron was not happy.  He could not believe that I could have been so stupid.  After awhile, he began to see the humor in my mistake and teased me about it for years. 
How often we are like those white clothes—all stained with sin. The stains are “set” and we cannot remove them any more than I could get the red out once those clothes had been dried in the drier. As Jeremiah says, “For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.” “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”  Jer 2:22; 13:23
We cannot cleanse ourselves. We may be able, through stern discipline, to have an outward correctness of behavior, but we cannot clean up the inside. “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isa 64:6
Jeremiah observes, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”  Jer 17:9, 10  He sees our condition to be the same as the Pharisees. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” Mat 23:25-28
We fall upon our knees and cry out in our helplessness, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”  “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.” “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Rom 7:24; Ps 51:10-12, 7
Praise God that He does not leave us in that condition, all filthy and stained with sin!  With love in His voice He answers, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa 1:18 “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Eze 36:25-27 “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” Ps 103:12-14
May we, each day, come to Him for cleansing from the stains of sin, praying as did Isaiah, “Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.”  Isa 38:17  May we walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory.”  1 Thes 2:12 May we daily place our hand in His all-powerful hand and let Him lead us on the upward path to His Heavenly kingdom is my prayer.
Rose