Gems from Pastor Jim 5/23/2023

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by Jim Hughes 

CrossPs. 51:10-12 Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

This is a prayer that when prayed sincerely God will answer every time. There is no greater need in life than to have a clean heart before God. Sin dirties up the soul. It puts up a barrier between God and us and it won’t go away on its own. We must have God’s help in order to get rid of it. Only the righteousness of Christ can make our heart pure before God. This is a prayer every believer should live by. We should always desire to have pure hearts before God.

When we sin there is something drastically wrong with our spirit. The decision to sin indicates that things are out of kilter with God. It means that we have neglected our soul. It means that we have not stayed close to God like we must. We have neglected His Word and failed to spend time alone with Him in prayer.

If nothing is done about it, God will have no choice but to banish us from His presence. A sinful soul that will not repent cannot draw near to God. God is holy and will never let sin go unpunished. A broken and contrite heart enables God to forgive us and wash away our sin. Unconfessed sin prevents the Holy Spirit from working in us. God cannot help us as long as we insist on defying Him by harboring our sin in our hearts.

The joy of salvation floods the repentant soul. There is great relief and rejoicing in knowing that the soul is right with God. There is not only renewed fellowship with God, there is a renewed willingness to obey Him. There is a real desire that when faced with the same temptation again to not yield to it. There is a desire to do what is right with God and not what is right in our own eyes. Obedience follows repentance every time.

About the Author:

Jim Hughes

Spending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.

C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chapter on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one’s self from such failures.

I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn’t broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.

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