External Ins for a Roland MKS70 11/2005 (Version 1) The MKS70 uses an integrated VCA/VCF via a custom Roland

IR3R05 chip. In my opinion, these filters are the MKS70s best feature. The filters are pure analog, 24 dB low pass with resonance that will self-oscillate. All in all, they sound pretty decent (a bit too polite for extreme sounds, a bit too much bass drop with increased resonance) and sit very well in a mix. In addition, they respond to MIDI and allow MIDI control over the cutoff frequency (from MIDI velocity and note numbers), key following, and dynamics (for the VCA). Unfortunately, a stock MKS70 does not allow you to run external signals through these filters so a stock box will never know anything except its internal DCOs. Real analog filters fatten up just about any sound, and are a great way to add analog juice to an old (or new) digital keyboard that you might have laying around. This document explains how to add external inputs to the MKS70 filters and should provide enough gory detail that just about anybody can do the mod. With this mod, you can run any line level signal through the MKS70, however you will have to use a MIDI device, typically a keyboard or sequencer, to gate the filters. This mod works best for simply running another MIDI keyboard signal through the MKS70 filters. To do this mod you will have to: 1) Take the case off the MKS70 2) Drill wholes in the back case (or if you are lucky enough to have a chaise punch, punch a whole) 3) Install jacks and solder a resistor and two wires on the jack 4) Solder a wire from the jack to the input (opamp) stage of the filter For the experienced installer out there, simply do this: Add a wire to resistor 54 (the side of the resistor that is furthest from the component label/the side furthest away from IC41), add a 10k resistor to this wire, and hook this wire up to a mono jack. You can now skip to Section II How to Operate. For the not so advanced, or for the advanced installer that wants to make the job as easy as possible, just keep reading and follow all of the steps in this document. The document contains four sections: Section I Installation; Section II How to Operate; Section III Advanced Operations; and Section IV - a final personal note. If you do this yourself, MAKE SURE YOU UNPLUG YOUR MKS70 FIRST!!! Although unlikely, you might just find a way to electrocute yourself if your unit is plugged in. Also, stay away from the transformer and big capacitor area of the power supply, and make sure you discharge yourself of static electricity before going inside the MKS70. It is a good idea to read all of this document before you start, but I strongly recommend reading Section I before doing anything to your MKS70.

Please note DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK it worked for me and sounds great on my OS 1.02 MKS70. However, if somehow your MKS70 winds up dead after you try the mod, please dont blame me a lot can go wrong when you take a power drill and a soldering iron to a piece of very sensitive electrical equipment. If you want to have the mod but dont have the skills to do it yourself, take this document to your favorite tech and him/her read it, and then pay them to do the mod. Parts you need for each External- In 1) About 2 feet of insulated wire (22 24 AWG) 2) input mono jack 3) 10k Ohm resistor (best would be watt 1%, but any 1/8 to watt 10% will work fine) 4) Optional: 1k Ohm resistor and a 0 60k variable pot (a resistor knob) Note you will need these parts for each input. So if you want four inputs, you need 4 of items 1 3. Tools you will need 1) Phillips screw driver 2) A volt/resistor meter 3) Wire cutters/strippers 4) Solider iron and solider 5) A drill 6) Drill bits that can go through the metal case and put a big enough whole to install a jack (I suggest a series of titanium bits something like 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, , 11/32) 7) Optional a chaise punch instead of the drill/bits

Section I: Installation First some terminology on how I describe things in the MKS70: The FRONT of the MKS70 is where the display and alpha dial is. The BACK is where the MIDI ports, power and output jacks are. The TOP has nothing on it but air vents. The BOTTOM is where the feet and screws are located. Step 1: Remove the MKS70 case (See Photo 1) a) Turn the case over and remove the six BOTTOM screws (labeled 1-6 in photo 1) along the outer edge of the box. There may also be a single screw on the top of the case in the middle of the back near the TOP of the case (just above the MIDI ports or the a in the Roland lettering.) If you have a screw here, make sure to remove it. All of these screws should be the same size.

b) If you have rack ears, remove the four screws holding the ears and remove the ears. Note that the rack ear screws are a different size that the case screws, so dont mix them up with the case screws. The screws likely have small lock washers, make sure to remove the washers and keep them with their screw. c) You now need to slide the case off. The case slides towards the BACK. Slide it back slowly, there are some ground tabs that tend to get caught on the case so be prepared to fight it a bit. Make sure the case does not get caught up on any wires.

Photo 1 MKS70 with the case still on. Note this is after the mod and there are 6 inputs and a potentiometer to set the level the last input. Step 2: Identify Resistor 54 for the filter on voice A (See Photo 2, 7 and 8) a) With the case off, turn the MKS70 so the TOP is visible. Find the big circuit board that has the labels A B C D E F on the bottom. Those are the six voices of module. There is an identical voice board below this. b) Now find the section labeled A, we will modify this voice. (Note that you can modify any of these voices, but I will assume in this document you will modify voice A.) c) You need to find resistor R54. It is just below the blue capacitor C71. The label for R54 is printed sideways right next to C71. d) In step 7 you will solder a wire on to R54 (on the side of the resistor that is opposite to the R54 label). Right now just make sure you find the resistor.

Photo 2 - Note the voice labels A-E in the left of the photo. This picture also shows mod inputs into R54 for voices A-D (the green/red/black/green wires mid board). Step 3: Drill the case (See Photo 3) a) Time to drill. I recommend wearing glasses or safety goggles in that small metal pieces can fly around (into your eye!) during drilling. Also, there are a lot of sensitive components inside the MKS70, and once you drill through the case, a long drill bit could lunge into a circuit board or other wiring and destroy your MKS70. Try to us a very short drill bit, make sure there is nothing immediately on the inside of the MKS70 where you are drilling, AND BE CAREFUL! b) You need to mount a mono jack on the back of the case. Make sure you have a mono jack. Take your jack and find a place where you want to mount it. Per Photo 3, I put my first jack directly above output B R. NOTE: There is an old carpenters expression measure twice, cut once. Unlike me, make sure your jack has enough clearance to fit inside after you drill your wholes. This is especially important if you add more that one input jack because there are various devices in the MKS70 that get in the way at various different places. I messed up and put jacks too low. I recommend mounting the jack about inch higher than what I did in the picture. Basically, put the jack so it would be at a height were it is right in the middle of the o in Roland. c) Once you decide where to put your jack(s)- again, measure twice, cut once - it is time to drill holes. I recomment that you start with a very small drill bit (like 1/32 or 1/16) just to drill a pilot hole. With this hole drilled, use a larger drill bit (like 1/8)
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to expand the whole. You can see some of this process in Photo 3. Keep using larger bits until you have a hole large enough to mount your jack. For my jacks (obtained at Radio Shack), the last drill used was 11/32. That was still a hair small so I had to expand the hole with some fancy drilling angles. d) This process creates a lot of metal pieces. Make sure you clean all of this metal stuff out from inside your MKS70. I used magnetic drill bits and then used them to clean up the inside of the box. Dont leave anything inside that can create a short.

Photo 3 Here one jack has been installed and a second hole is in process. Note all of the metal flakes below the unfinished hole. There will also be metal inside the MKS70 that must be removed. Step 4: Install the jack (See Photo 4) a) With the hole drilled, install your jack. The jack slides in from the inside of the MKS70, you may have to wiggle it in. b) Add the washer (on the outside of the MKS70) and screw on a mounting bolt to hold the jack in place. c) The part of the jack inside the MKS70 should have two small tabs. The tabs may want to move while your putting on the mounting screw. If they do, use a screwdriver or plyers to keep the tabs staionary while you put on the mounting screw. d) Dont put the bolt too tight. Just make sure it is tight enough to hold the jack in place for a long, long time.

Photo 4 The jack installed. Note the small tabs on the left and right of the main tab. The small tab on the left is the ground tab, the small tab on the right is the hot tab. Step 5: Add a 10k resistor to the jack (See Photos 4 and 5) a) This input is designed to run a line-level signal (such as the output on a typical keyboard of FX processor) through the MKS70 filter. If a line level signal is feed directly into the filter the signal is too hot and it will distort beyond recognition - no good. As a result, you have to pad the external signal before running it through the filter. I found using a 10k resistor provided enough signal reduction and produced good results for the signal I wanted to process. At full level, my signal will cause the Roland filter to clip and distort a bit. I want that sound, but others may not. To prevent clipping you can experiment with higher resistor values. I recommend trying a 20k resistor, but size to your taste. If your signal is very quiet (like a guitar), you will have to use a much lower resistor value, like 100 Ohms, and I am not sure that will even work. Anyway, for a typical line level signal, 10k should do a reasonable job. You can get 5 pack of 10k Ohm, watt, 10% resistors at Radio Shack for about $1. I would use 1/8 watt, 1% resistors if I had them lying around, but either will work just fine. b) Look at your jack from inside the MKS70. It should have three metal parts: A big metal bar that makes contact/holds the input in place, and two small tabs. (See Photo 4) One of the small tabs connects directly to the large tab. This is the hot tab (on the right in Photo 4). The other small tab is electrically isolated from the other small tab and the big tab. This is the ground tab (on the left of Photo 4). Identify the hot tab that is connected to the big tab. Use a volt/resistor meter to make sure you have the correct tab.

c) Solder a 10k resistor to the hot tab. When finished, you might want to test the resistance between the unsolder end of the resistor and the big tab. You should get a 10k reading. d) As an option, instead of putting in a fixed 10k resistor, you can also wire up a potentiometer (a variable resistor that you control by turning a knob). To do this, you will need to drill an extra hole in the MKS70. (Again, make sure you find a good place to drill this whole, measure twice, cut once.) I did this for one voice, using a potentiometer that ranged from 0 60k ohms. I first soldered a 1k resistor to the hot tab, then I connected my potentiometer to this 1k so I have a range of 1k-61k. This should let me put in just about any level input signal, and then just turn the potentiometer until the level sounds correct.

Photo 5 The 10k Ohm resistor attached to the hot tab of the jack. The green wire is added to the resistor in Step 7. Step 6: Ground the jack (See Photos 4, 5 and 6) a) You now have to ground the jack. Per step 5, identify the ground tab. (It is the small tab on the left in Photo 4.) b) You need to find a good place to drop a ground wire. Anywhere that connects directly to the MKS70 case will work. I used the screw just below the MIDI ports (as shown in Photo 6) but you can pick anywhere there is a good ground. You should use your volt meter to test any location to make sure the resistance from your proposed ground to the case of the MKS70 is very close to 0 Ohms. c) Once you found a good ground, measure the distance between your ground tab on the jack and your ground. Cut a wire that is long enough to reach, and then add some slack. d) Strip both ends of the wire. e) Solder one end of the wire to the ground tab of your jack (See the bottom of Photo 5). f) Solder (or screw in) the other end of the ground wire to your ground location. (See Photo 6)

g) It is a good idea to insert an actual cable into your jack at this time. Make sure your ground wire and your resistor (from step 5) do not make contract with the tip of the cable when you plug it in. If there is accidental contact, bend the hot or ground tab until there is no contact.

Photo 6 Ground wire. Here the ground wire is screwed in place on ground of the MIDI board. Step 7: Wire the input to resistor 54 (See Photos 6, 7, 8) a) This is the most important step and you will have to solder on to a MKS70 circuit board. Make sure you are clear on exactly what you need to do before you do this step. Make sure you have identified R54 on the MKS70 and you understand which side of the resistor you will be soldering a wire on to. b) Measure the distance from your 10k resistor on your hot tab, to resistor 54 on voice A of the MKS70. c) Cut a wire that reaches this distance. Add some slack just in case. Strip about inch on both sides of the wire. d) Solder one end of the wire to the 10k resistor on your hot tab (so that the resistor now has the jack soldered on one end and this wire soldered to the other end). (See photo 5)

e) Now find R54 (it is just below capacitor 71). Solder the wire on to R54 on the side of the resistor that is furthest away from the R54 label. (It is also the side furthest away from IC41.) Look closely at the pictures and make sure you solder the wire on to the correct side of R54. (See photos 7 and 8) f) Make sure your solder did not melt over to R55 or any other electrical contact! g) It is a good idea to measure the resistance between this wire you just soldered and the big tab on the jack. It should measure about 10k. If it does not, you did something wrong and you need to check all your connections and solder contacts. h) Good news you MKS70 should now allow you to input a line level signal through the voice A filter! Before you close up the MKS70 case, I recommend running a signal through it to make sure it works (see the How to Operate section to test this). If there are any problems, you will be able to make corrections while the case is still off.

Photo 7 - Resistor 54 with external-in wire attached. Note the green wire is attached to the right side (the side furthest away from the R54 label and IC41) of resistor 54.

Photo 8 - Another view of the external-in wire (red wire) attached to resistor 54. Step 8: Close the case (See Photo 1) a) Carefully slide the case back on. Be very careful, you have added wires that may get snagged on the case. b) Test your box to make sure the filter input still works now that the case is on. c) Install all of the case screws and lock washers. If you had rack ears, install the rack ears. Congratulations you now have an external input to your MKS70! Enjoy. Step 9: A final word of warning This is an unprotected mod. I mean, this a raw wire into the filter there is no limiting, no breaking, no fuse, heck there isnt even a shunt capacitor to ground to protect against transient spikes (but I am seriously thinking about adding these and I will update the document if I do). Bottom line if you input a signal that is too hot/loud you could permanently destroy your MKS70. I think that by using a normal line level signal this is very unlikely, but if you feed a 100W Marshall guitar head to this external-in, expect to kill your MKS70. To help prevent bad things from happening, follow these suggestions: 1. Never plug in an external-in, and then turn on your external device. Powering on the device might create a pop that could hurt your MKS70. Rather, first power on

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your external device, turn its volume ALL THE WAY DOWN, and then plug it in to the MKS70 and slowly increase the volume. 2. Dont source an external-in that is hotter than a line-level (unless you have compensated for this by using more than a 10k resistor). The output of a normal keyboard or F/X processor should work fine.

Photo 9 An MKS70 with six external-ins. The hole on the far left is for an optional potentiometer to adjust the level of input F. Inputs B and C are slightly out of line for internal clearance reasons try to avoid this mistake by putting all inputs about a higher than the inputs shown here.

Section II: How to Operate The MKS70 has 12 individual voices; you only have an input in to one of these voices. The MKS70 has several methods in which it decides which of its 12 voices it will trigger. In order to get your external signal to where you can hear it through the filter, you will have to use MIDI to force the MKS70 to trigger the filter/VCA at the exact same time you run the external signal though it. Although there may be several ways to accomplish this, this how I do it.

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1) Set the MKS70 to A Whole mode. You can just hit Shift then A, or you can go to Patch edit mode, hit 17, and turn the alpha dial until the MKS70 is in A Whole Mode. In this mode, all twelve voices will play whatever sounds are in the A bank of the patch. 2) Set the MIDI base channel to 1. To do this, hit the MIDI button, then hit 21. Use the alpha dial to set the base MIDI channel to 1. 3) Set the MKS70 to Mono mode. To do this, go to MIDI edit mode, hit 11 and set the MKS70 to mono mode. Mono mode was designed for people using a guitar synth, but we will use it to control the triggering of our filters. A typically guitar synth setup assigns a unique mid channel to each guitar string. In mono mode, the MKS70 assigns a unique MIDI channel to each voice. By setting the MKS70 to A whole - Mono Base Channel = 1, your filter (assuming you are using the filter on the top board, voice A) will be triggered each time a MIDI note is sent on MIDI channel 7. If you added more that one input, here is how the voices will map in this setup: Voice A (bottom board) = MIDI channel 1 Voice B (bottom board) = MIDI channel 2 Voice C (bottom board) = MIDI channel 3 Voice D (bottom board) = MIDI channel 4 Voice E (bottom board) = MIDI channel 5 Voice F (bottom board) = MIDI channel 6 Voice A (top board) = MIDI channel 7 <<<This should be your filter input Voice B (top board) = MIDI channel 8 Voice C (top board) = MIDI channel 9 Voice D (top board) = MIDI channel 10 Voice E (top board) = MIDI channel 11 Voice F (top board) = MIDI channel 12 Note: If you increase your base MIDI channel by 1, all the other values will increase by 1. (Since there are only 16 MIDI channels, I am not sure what happens on all the voices if you set the base MIDI channel to a value greater than 4.) This may be important if for some reason you want to trigger your filter with some MIDI message that is not on channel 7. 4) Assuming you are running another keyboard through the MKS70 filter, set the MIDI send channel of that keyboard to 7. 5) Run the output of your keyboard in to the external-in of the MKS70 and connect the keyboard MIDI out to the MKS70 MIDI in. Every time you hit a note on this keyboard, your sound goes into the MSK70 and the MIDI message triggers the MKS70 filter/VCA. Monitor the MKS70 through the headphone, the back outputs for A, or the mix out. You should now hear your keyboard going through the MKS70 filters! This works perfectly for a mono synth, including proper keytracking of the filter. If you start hitting multiple notes, the last note you hit always triggers the filter, and all of the output of your keyboard goes through the filter. So in short, it acts paraphonic.

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Section III: Advanced Operations There are ways of increasing the paraphonic response of your MKS70. He is what I do. First, add multiple external-ins to your MKS70. I have 6 ins, one for each of the top board voices A F. Some keyboards have multiple outputs and let you map various sounds/parts of the keyboard to these outputs. For example a typical keyboard might have a left and right output. Also many keyboards let you assign different sounds to different key ranges (e.g. bass in the lower octaves, piano in the upper octaves.) Depending on your board, you might be able to also split the keyboard such that you will hear low notes on the left channel, and higher notes on the right channel. If you are also able to assign a unique MIDI out channel to the upper and lower parts of the key board you can do the following: i) Setup the MKS70 as above (A Whole, Mono, MIDI Base Channel 1) ii) Route your Bass to the left output and assign it to MIDI channel 7. Run the left keyboard output into the external-in for voice A. iii) Route your piano to the right output and assign it to MIDI channel 8. Run the right keyboard output into the external in for voice B. Now your bass and piano each trigger there own unique filters! If you keyboard has additional outputs, you can repeat the above process giving each output its own MIDI channel, and then putting each output in to the corresponding MKS70 external-in. Even More Advanced Ideas Although a lot of keyboards let you split and even select left or right outputs, not many boards left you assign unique MIDI output channels to the splits. For example, the keyboard I am using for this project (a Kawai K5) lets me send signals out to four different outputs, but the keyboard only transmits a single MIDI out channel. What do you do in this case? I use a computer running MIDIOX to transform the single output MIDI channels into multiple channels. MIDIOX is a great FREE utility available at www.MIDIox.com. In addition to many other features, MIDIOX lets you transform the MIDI channel based on the key range. For example, I can set my K5 to send on MIDI channel 7, then I route the lowest octave of the K5 to its output 1, the next octave to output 2, the next octave to output 3, and the remaining keys to output 4. (I actually use a more complicated scheme, but this gets the idea across.) I run the four K5 outputs to the corresponding external-ins on the MKS70 (K5 output 1 feeds MKS input A, K5 output 2 feeds MKS input B,). Then use MIDIOX to translate the MIDI channel of the octaves. I run the MIDI out of

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my K5 through my computer. A note played on the lowest octave stays on channel 7, a note played on the next octave is translated by MIDIOX to MIDI channel 8, etc. The end result: A note played on the lowest octave triggers filter A on the MKS. A note played on the next octave triggers filter B on the MKS. This is much more like a true polyphonic keyboard, where hitting four different notes (on different octaves) triggers four different and independent filters for each note. I hope you find this document useful and good luck! If you are interested, you might want to stop by the following link (in the near future) to hear my MKS70 filters in action. http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pageartist.cfm?bandID=120924 Section IV: A Personal Note By the way, keyboards are fun, but my real love is the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ. If you are not sure who Jesus is, or why Jesus is important, I encourage you to read on. Q: Who is Jesus? A: Jesus is God. But God is more than Jesus. God has eternally existed as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, thus Jesus has eternally existed, but took on human flesh about 2000 years ago. The Bible teaches that all that was made (the universe, earth, time, you and me) was made by Jesus. Q: Why did Jesus come? A: Because God loved the world and wanted to provide a way for men to spend eternity in heaven as sons of God. Without the work of Jesus, man will suffer the eternal punishment of God. (That is, a person who dies without Jesus will spend eternity in hell.) Q: Why will God punish me? A: Because God is holy, perfectly pure and perfectly righteous. As a result, He is a perfect judge and must judge all violations of His moral law. Anything less would make God imperfect. God revealed His law (i.e. the Ten Commandments - Thou shall have no other god before me (the true God), thou shall not murder, thou shall not steal, thou shall not lie, thou shall not commit adultery,...-see Exodus 20) and all men will be judged perfectly by this law. Jesus clarified that you break the law if you entertain an impure thought, even if you do not physically perform an evil deed. But I say unto you, that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 4:22) That is, if you even look on a woman to lust after her your have already broken the law against adultery even if you never touched her. Note that this concept of a thought being sin is not new, the 10th commandment is Thou shall not covet (Exodus 20:17) coveting (burning with desire for something) happens entirely in your mind without any physical action. When you break any of God's law (that is, when you sin) you are guilty before God. The Bible teaches All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23). You are guilty, and as a just and perfect judge, God must punish your sin. Q: How does Jesus fit it?
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A: Jesus is the only man who ever lived perfectly according to God's law. Jesus DID NOT SIN. Think about that in light of the previous question - Jesus never stole, never lied, always honored God. Jesus NEVER had a lustful or covetous thought. Jesus ALWAYS loved and honored God, and loved His neighbor always, at all times. As a result, Jesus is the only man in all of history that, based on his works (and lack of any sin) that has a record good enough to gain entrance to heaven. Q: Ok, Jesus was perfect, but I am a sinner - what good is that to me? A: Here is the love of God. God, who cannot lie, promises that anyone who embraces Jesus as Lord and Savior will have their sins forgiven. Q: But if God is a perfect and just judge, how can my sins be forgiven? A: God forgives your sins, but He does not let your sin go unpunished. While Jesus was on the cross, God punished the sins of all who would accept Jesus. That is, God took my sin and placed it on Jesus 2000+ years ago. Jesus, while on the cross, "wore" my sins, and then God punished Jesus while my sins were on Him. Because of His love for me, Jesus suffered the wrath of God that my sins deserved so I would not have to face the punishment myself. Jesus paid my debt. At the same time, God, out of His love, placed the perfect, sinless record of Jesus on me! This is the love of God Jesus wore my sins, I now wear the righteousness of Jesus. My sins, all of them that I will ever commit while I am alive, are justly judged and punished because Jesus bore my punishment through His shed blood, I have remission of sins. I am forgiven because the debt of my sins has been paid. When God looks at me, He sees the perfection of Jesus - not because I am perfect, far from it, but because Jesus is perfect and God. Because God is good and loving, has given me the perfection of Jesus as a free gift. Q: How do I know Jesus did all of this? A: The main proof is that after He was crucified, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day. I Corinthians 15:6 that after He rose from the dead He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once. After the resurrection, Jesus talked, taught, walked and ate with his disciples. The resurrection proves that Jesus has power over life and death, and power to give eternal life to all who believe. In addition, Jesus performed countless healing and other miracles, including raising several people from the dead, to prove He is God. Jesus raised Lazarus up after he had been dead for four days. In addition, there are over three hundred prophesies in the Old Testament that describe Jesus and his work in very specific detail. The Old Testament was finished more than 400 years before Jesus took on flesh. Isaiah 53, which was written about 700 years before Jesus walked the earth, describes in detail Jesus work on the cross. The same goes for Psalm 22 which was written about 1000 years before Jesus crucifixion. Read them for yourself. In summary, the acts of Jesus recorded the New Testament of the Bible prove He is God and that He has power over death and to forgive sins. The prophecies concerning Jesus recorded in the Old Testament, and then fulfilled by Jesus more than 400 years later prove the Bible is Gods true word, and that Jesus is the Messiah, the only begotten Son of God. Q: What good works must I do to earn my way to heaven?

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A: NOTHING you can do no work good enough that it will get you into heaven. God demands perfection and you can't be perfect. And even if today you decided to live perfectly (which is impossible to do), what about all of the sin in your past? you still have to pay the penalty for that sin. Q: Then what must I do to be saved from God's just wrath and eternal hell? A: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. It is a free gift because God loves you and wants to save you! Romans 10:9 says that "if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead YOU WILL BE SAVED". You cannot work your way in to heaven, you will never be good enough such that God owes you salvation. In fact, people that try to work off their debt of sin are in fact calling Jesus a liar, and insulting God by disregarding the incredible sacrifice God made when he allowed His Son to suffer and die on the cross. Trying to appease God by good works is in fact sin, and rather than lessening your punishment, actually increases it. Q: What does it mean to believe Jesus is Lord? A: It means that you accept Jesus as your God and sovereign master, and agree it is proper and right that He govern your life. In short, you recognize His authority as legitimate and in turn, submit to His will. It means that you recognize you have sinned against God and walked according to the lust of your own flesh, and you now willingly repent (turn away) from the bondage of sinful desires, and instead submit yourself to the pure and perfect will of God. Q: Does that mean that if I believe in Jesus I will never sin again? A: No you will still sin, but the direction and the aim of your life will be away from sin and unto righteousness. While you are in this flesh you are not perfect and - even as a true believer - will have to resist the pull of sin which still dwells in your flesh. At times you will stumble and sin, and then, you will want to repent of this sin. However, as a believer, you have comfort in knowing that even these sins have been paid for. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleans you from all unrighteousness. Jesus is knocking. You have to let Him in, as your Lord, as your Savior and as your God. Jesus extends His hand to you to pull out of death and in to eternal life. By faith, you have to reach out and take His hand, trusting in His goodness, His power, His love and His finished work on the cross. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. I hope to see you heaven, if not sooner.

Jeffrey Nelson 11/23/2005

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