Jesus Dropped the Charges, by the O'Neal Twins (Say Amen, Somebody!)

 You have got to hear this amazing Gospel song!

Jesus Dropped the Charges, by the O'Neal Twins

I was guilty (guilty)

Of all the charges (charges)

Doomed and disgraced

But Jesus (Jesus)

With His special love (special love)

Saved me by His grace

He pleaded (pleaded)

And He pleaded (pleaded)

He pleaded my case

I'm so glad that

Jesus dropped the charges

Jesus dropped the charges (now I'm saved)

Now I'm saved through grace and faith

I was guilty (guilty)

For so long (so long)

Lived in sin too long

But Jesus (Jesus)

With his special love (special love)

Reached out with His arms so strong

He picked me up (picked me up)

Turned me around (turned me around)

Gave me a brand-new song

Jesus dropped the charges (Jesus)

Jesus dropped the charges (now to Him I belong)

Now to Him I belong (look here)

You may remember (remember)

And remember (remember)

Some of the things I've done

But Jesus (Jesus)

With His special love (special love)

Forgave me from everyone

He put me (put me)

On the right road (right road)

Lifted my heavy load, yeah, yeah

Jesus dropped the charges

Jesus dropped the charges (now I'm free)

Now I'm free down in my soul, I am

He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges

Although I was wrong, ooh

He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges

Showed me right from wrong, yeah

He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges

Cast them all away

At Calvary

At Calvary, I heard Him say (at Calvary)

At Calvary, I heard Him say (at Calvary)

At Calvary, I heard Him say

"Case dismissed, case dismissed

Saved by grace"

He dropped the charges Jesus dropped the charges

Although I was wrong

Yeah, He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges

Showed me right from wrong

Yeah, He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges

And cast them all away

At Calvary

At Calvary, I heard Him say (oh, yeah)

At Calvary, I heard Him say (Calvary)

At Calvary, I heard Him say

"Case dismissed, case dismissed

Saved by grace"

He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges

He dropped the charges (He dropped the charges)

Jesus dropped the charges (when He died on Calvary)

He dropped the charges (dropped the charges)

Jesus dropped the charges (when He died)

He dropped the charges (for you and me)

Jesus dropped the charges (dropped the charges)

He dropped the charges (yes, He did)

Jesus dropped the charges (I heard Him say, "It's finished")

He dropped the charges (it's finished)

Jesus dropped the charges (it's finished)

He dropped the charges (finished)

Jesus dropped the charges (yeah)

He dropped the charges (I saw Him)

Jesus dropped the charges

He dropped the charges (when He hung His head)

Jesus dropped the charges (in the locks of His shoulder)

He dropped the charges (He died)

Jesus dropped the charges ('til the sun stopped shinin')

He dropped the charges (He dropped the charges)

Jesus dropped the charges (when He died for me)

He dropped the charges (He, yeah)

Jesus dropped the charges (when He died for me)

He dropped the charges (He dropped the charges against me)

Jesus dropped the charges (when He died for me)

He dropped the charges (dropped the charges)

Jesus dropped the charges (at Calvary)

At Calvary, I heard Him say (at Calvary)

At Calvary, I heard Him say (at Calvary)

At Calvary, I heard Him say (case dismissed)

"Case dismissed, case dismissed

Saved by grace"

He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges

He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges (dropped the charges)

He dropped the charges (yes, He did)

Jesus dropped the charges (dropped the charges)

He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges

He dropped the charges (yeah), Jesus dropped the charges (yeah)

He dropped the charges (yeah), Jesus dropped the charges (yes, He did)

He dropped the charges (when He died for me)

Jesus dropped the charges (He dropped the charges)

He dropped the charges (when He went to Calvary)

Jesus dropped the charges (yeah, and died)

He dropped the charges (between two thieves)

Jesus dropped the charges

He dropped the charges (dropped the charges)

Jesus dropped the charges (dropped the charges)

He dropped the charges (dropped the charges)

Jesus dropped the charges (dropped the charges)

He dropped the charges (yes, He did)

Jesus dropped the charges (when He died for me)

He dropped the charges (He dropped the charges)

Jesus dropped the charges (I heard Him say)

He dropped the charges

Jesus dropped the charges (on the cross)

He dropped the charges (it's finished)

Jesus dropped the charges (it's finished)

He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges (dropped the, yeah)

He dropped the charges, Jesus dropped the charges (at Calvary)

At Calvary, I heard Him say

At Calvary, I heard Him say

At Calvary, I heard Him say

"Case dismissed, case dismissed

Saved by grace"

Can I hear somebody say yeah?

The song says, "At Calvary, I heard Him say

I heard Him say

You know a lot of folk were standing around Calvary that day

But as He was hanging on the cross, I heard Him, at Calvary

At Calvary, I heard Him say

He was carrying the sins of the world (at Calvary)

"At Calvary, I heard Him say

He said, "Hey! O'Neal, I'm gon' save you"

I heard Him say

"Case dismissed, case dismissed

Case dismissed (case dismissed)

I'm gon' save you

Case dismissed (case dismissed)

You've been guilty

Case dismissed (case dismissed)

Case dismissed (case dismissed)

Saved by grace, saved by grace

Alright, alright

Oh, Lord, alright

Rest In Jesus' Righteousness, In the Midst of Every Storm

"29And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. 30But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me." (Matthew 14:29-30)

Times are very difficult right now.

In the United States, lawlessness is become the law. Courts, executives, legislators are ignoring the spirit of the law, and they are dispensing with the Laws of Nature and Nature's God.

When the United States Supreme Court ruled that words in a statute could be reinterpreted to mean something entirely different, I was crushed, devastated. I had so hoped that the current court appointed by the current President would rule in a righteous, judicious manner.

But they did not.

This prophecy is coming to pass in our midst, in our times, in our generation:

"For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way." (2 Thessalonians 2:7)

I was so dejected, so unhappy. I just felt like giving up the calling that God my loving Father had given me.

Of course, in times of great hurt, trial, pain, we don't have to run and hide, and we do not have to hide our pain.

Let us call out to Him when we are in trouble:

"I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears." (Psalm 34:4)

I had faced similar privations before, a sense that all was lost. I still remember years prior when I had no money, no vehicle, and a number of other pressing engagements against me. I cried out, and then I recalled those days when even though I had every material need taken care of, a sense of deep shame had cast a terrible pall over me. What good are the goods of the world if you feel condemned in your Spirit?

And then I remembered: God's gift of righteousness overcomes all hurts and pains! No matter what may happen in this world, I know that I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21)

That has to be the most important prize to us. Christ is our Wisdom, and our Righteousness. In Him, we are justified from all things, from which we could not be justified through the Law of Moses (Acts 13:  38-39)

Righteousness produces the very peace that all of us crave:

"Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." (Hebrews 12:11)

So, what is the discipline, the child-training that is happening for me?

I must admit that I was basing my peace on political and judicial outcomes. "When the courts rule this way ... " and "When the President accomplishes this action ..." and "When this legal outcome occurs ...", those were the thoughts that I was still entertaining without realizing it.

The most important thing that we are to rest in, to rejoice about? That we have been made the rightoeusness of God in Christ! That we will never be condemned, shunned, or damned for our sins!

"Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." (Luke 10:20)

God does not want us to rejoice because we are saved, that we have all things in Him ... AND something else, too.

If we are trusting or taking comfort in other things, God is going to shake those complacencies away from us:

"27And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:" (Hebrews 12:27-28)

When I rested back in that Gift of Righteousness, and keep receiving the gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17), an immediate and lasting peace overwhelmed me! I was not worried about the bad courts, the lawlessness in the streets, the upsetting tumults of leaders who refuse to lead.

I may have felt like Habakkuk, when he cried out to God that so much evil was happening in his generation, and yet God seemed absent (Habakkuk 1:1-4), but I realized that the tumults, my upsets would not dissuade Him from taking care of everything.

That revelation brought me to Jesus walking on the water in Matthew's Gospel (Matthew 14: 22-33).

Peter asked Jesus to invite him to walk on the water, and Jesus did so. Peter began walking on the water toward Jesus, but when he was distracted by the wind, he began to sink. Peter called out to the Lord to save Him, and Jesus "immediately" reached out to him to rescue him (Matthew 14:31).

Jesus then gently rebuked Peter: "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" (Matthew 14:31)

What was the doubt? Peter thought that the waves, the winds, the whirling around him would be greater than Jesus and His power to keep Peter from drowning. Obviously, that was not the case. Yet also notice that Jesus saved Peter from drowning, and also bear in mind that Peter walked on water to get back to the boat, too!

Now, here's the deeper revelation which came to me, in the midst of these stormy trials battering the nation that I live in, and which may batter against the times and spaces where you find yourself:

For years, I had spent so much of my time mentally, spiritually trying to quite the winds of doubt, hurt, shame, fear, etc. in my mind. I actually believed that I could not "see" Jesus in my life, walk by faith if these tumults of pain, fear, bitterness, anger. etc. welled up suddenly in my mind and emotions.

What I realized earlier this week, and what I receive and share today, is that Jesus simply asks us to rest in His righteousness, to see Him, even if there are storms, winds, and tumults about us. We do not have to eliminate the storms in our lives. He is above the storms, and when we recognize that we are in Him, then we see ourselves overcoming the storms, for "As He is so are we in this world." (1 John 4;17)

There is such a rest in this revelation for me, and I hope that you receive it, as well.

"Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all." (Psalm 34:19)

Let us make His righteousness our most important priority, for after all, Jesus declared in His Sermon on the Mount:

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

Jesus fulfilled this promise for us when He died on the Cross, and then sent to His Spirit.

His Holy Spirit today convicts us of righteousness! (John 16:8-10)

And when we are established in His righteousness, we can know and believe that no weapon formed against us will prosper (Isaiah 54:14,17)

Let us rest in His righteousness, in the midst of every storm. He is not going away, and He has already overcome the world and every terror and tremor that it may contain to harm us (John 16:33).

Not Your Cross -- His Cross

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;" (Colossians 2:14)

Many people draw a lesson for the Christian life from Luke 14.

They believe that we must suffer as Christ Jesus did, that we must "Bear our Cross."

Here are the verses:

"25And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, 26If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 27And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:25-27)

In this context, we find a large, "great" multitudes of people who were walking with Him. It's easy to say that you are on the "Jesus team" when there are lots of other people around you, and no one can really pick you out of the crowd.

Jesus was not pleased with this. These crowds saw Jesus as a status celebrity, a symbol. They were fans. They were followers. They did not see Him as Savior.

Jesus cut through this feigned adoration.

"If you really want to follow me", Jesus told them, "if you want to see Me as a pattern, then you need to do everything I did. You need to give up everything, put everything into despicable disrepute, and then take up the cross."

"Taking up the cross" means more than merely carrying it around. When someone was carrying a cross, it meant that at some point, that person was going to hang on the cross and die.

In an earlier chapter in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says to other would-be followers of Him, those who see Him as a pattern:

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23)

To those disciples, those who earnestly wanted to "Be Like Jesus," He exhorted them to take up their cross daily.

Imagine having to drag that rugged, wooden device of torture up a hill every day. Imagine having to be nailed to that perverse tool of execution every day! The very thought of dying on a Cross was torturous to anyone living in those times.

No, Jesus never intended for us to take up our own cross and suffer like Him. None of us can. We were sinners! We needed redemption. We needed righteousness. There is no way we could achieve it ourselves.

"For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:" (1 Peter 3:18)

Notice that Jesus suffered for sins, all the sins of the world, not just yours and mine, and He suffered once. If we were to suffer for our own sins, we could never "not suffer", so to speak, because our blood, tainted with sin, could never repay the debt we owe to God for our sins.

So, Jesus was never interested, nor did He intend for us to take up a cross and suffer as He did.

Notice what Paul writes to the Colossians:

"[N]ailing it to his cross;"

His Cross, Not yours, not mine, but HIS!

He died on His cross for us!

Indeed, we will suffer for our faith in Christ, but whatever reproach, shame, indignties, or death the world can visit upon us, they are nothing compared to Christ's glory in us! (Colossians 1:27):

"For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18)

Brothers and sisters in Cross, stop trying to take up "your cross". That was never Jesus' intention. See Jesus as Your Savior, the one who died on His Cross, not only paying for all our sins, but granting us His righteousness, and in fact rendering inoperative the Law of Moses against us by fulfilling all of its requirements against us.