Stand Fast In Your Faith.

“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” 1 Corinthians 16:13

It is not my intentions to hurt anyone’s feelings with the doctrine I believe and teach. I believe that the Holy Spirit has taught them to me and therefore I intend to stand fast on them and to defend them with all the tools God has given me to do so. I have changed my thinking on the scriptures many time over throughout the years, after I reached the conclusion I was mistaken or wrong. I understand in this flesh I am not infallible and neither is any other person. When God tells us to stand firm in our faith, He is telling us to be stationary or to persevere our faith. When God speaks of what we are to persevere it is our faith which means our Christian truth, or the truthfulness of God. Therefore, I must conclude that God is telling me it is my work as a Christian and a Pastor to defend and persevere the word of God as He has taught it to me. God did not tell me in doing so to hurt, condemn, or to mock other people. In fact, God told me in defending His word with steadfastness that I am to defend His doctrine with love. “Let all your things be done with charity.” 1 Corinthians 16:14 As I have already said, I understand that as Christians who are in the flesh, we will not always agree on the entire doctrine of the scriptures, and therefore I am not to hate those who disagree with me. But as a defender of God’s word it is my job to defend the truth as I see it. If you disagree with me doctrinally and you are a believer in the salvation of Jesus Christ, then I love you regardless. We can fellowship to a point but there is a point of cut off when it comes to advancing your doctrine. God said in 2 John 1:10 "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:" I believe the Lord is saying not to let them speak in your house, nor to serve in your house as an avenue to promote their untruthful teaching. God also told us not to pray for their advancement in their doctrine when He said not to bid them God speed. In fact, the Lord went on to say in the very next verse (11.) “For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” This means if we help them, pray for them, or allow them to use our house to speak, we are taking part against our own teaching for theirs. This is as far as God has told us as believers and churches to go. We are not to fight them, hate them, or to harm them, at any point. We are all (as believers in Christ Jesus) Christians no matter what we believe doctrinally. However, as believers and as churches we must decipher Christians and non-Christians, those who disagree with us in doctrine and those who are false leaders all together. Those who teach doctrine against Jesus Christ as our Saviour are more than “one who disagrees”, those are total heretics and anti-Christ altogether. These are the ones we should never listen to and any way or any form. These are not real Christians they do not understand the scriptures in any form or understand it in very little form. God said if you teach that salvation in in any other than Jesus Christ, then you are calling God a liar. “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” 1 John 5:10. The fact that salvation is in Jesus Christ is the record of God, it is not the Baptist record other than it is God’s record. God went on to say in Acts 4:12 “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Beloved, let us as believers in Jesus Christ be kind to one another, and to learn it is ok to disagree because if you are infallible then cast the first stone. If I see I am wrong then I will change my thinking, but only if I can clearly see it. But to those who hate us because of little disagreements let them answer to God for their sins. God never said for Christians to hate one another under any form. “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” 1 John 4:20 All I ask of my beloved Christian friends is to think before you act, God is our Judge.

There Are None That Seek God!

"There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." Romans 3:11

This passage of scripture verses 9 - 20 is a conclusion to what has been written before it. God through the Apostle Paul wanted the Jews to understand their standing before Him. But He was also speaking to the entire world because God also told us that there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile or non-Jew. Romans 10:12a "For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek..." We are all condemned the same way and we are all saved the same way, Jesus is Lord over all. Romans 10:12 "...for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." God also said in Romans 3:9b "... for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;" Therefore we conclude that while this conclusion is written to the Jews it is also written to the Gentiles. In these scriptures here in Romans 3 we find a very awful description of mankind, we find a description that tells us that man on his own will never understand, seek, nor find God. But it also tells us that man on his own will never understand God. God also describes man as so awful that " Their throat is an open sepulchre...", and that "...their tongues they have used deceit...", and their "...mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:" and He goes on to describe man as "Their feet are swift to shed blood...Destruction and misery are in their ways...And the way of peace have they not known...There is no fear of God before their eyes." And then God concludes with verse 19b "...all the world may become guilty before God." This is why God said in verse 20a "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight..." How could there be? If what we read here in Romans 3 includes all of mankind then there is no way a Just and Righteous God could ever allow anyone to be righteous unless it was a gracious and merciful act on His part. Folks, do not be deceived by the deceivers and believe God, all mankind are rotten throughout, it is known as total depravity. Total depravity is defined just as God has done here in Romans 3. People have delusions that man is really good, that deep down all mankind is good in some way, but God's record tells us it is not so. If you ever wondered why people hate God so much, hate His people, and His churches, this is why. People, no matter how they look to us, they are truly evil, and all people. God told us in Philemon 1:6b "...every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus." out side of Jesus Christ "... There is none righteous, no, not one:" Romans 3:10. This is why people are evil in everything they do. We only see a few things but the heart and intent we cannot see, only God can see that. We are now in the 21st Century starting to see exactly what God is talking about. We see the exact things in mankind that God has described here. I know preachers want to talk about the good in people, the willingness to accept God/Christ and to live and work for Them, but they are wrong. Mankind may want to be religious, they may want to serve a god, they may think they want to be righteous, but in reality they are thinking and living in a mirage and not reality. When God says there are non righteous, then believe me there is none, no not even one. We can only be righteous in Jesus Christ, only our sins can be forgiven and us made whole and holy in Christ Jesus. No amount of works, no amount of trying, no amount of religion will ever save you or make you holy. If you are not saved then you are exactly whom God is talking about. Jesus Christ said "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest...Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls...For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28 - 30

Ungrateful Servants, But A Merciful God.

"The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation." Numbers 14:18

This is a prayer that Moses prayed on behalf of Israel. After all that God had done for the Israelites they were impatient with the Lord, they had discussed returning to Egypt. At this point they had even thought that God had brought them to this land to simply die. In verse 4 we see "And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." What total stupidly on their part. Folks, if we are to learn anything from the Israelites it is that we never give up on God. Jesus told us He would return, Jesus told us to occupy till He returns, and there are some in this world giving-up on God. After all that God had done for the Israelite people, they had no right to be ungrateful and give up on God's promises to them. Here they are wanting to return to the land where they had served many years in slavery. Folks, God never, ever, reneges on His promises. God is not a man, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Numbers 23:19 When Believers and churches began to doubt God and His word then they also become "ungrateful servants" of the Lord. We as believers must remain faithful to God, He will fulfill His promises to us just as He did with the Israelites. Moses said that if it's God will's then He will delivers to us on His promise. "If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey." Numbers 14:8. Moses went on in verse 9 "Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land..." Folks, we have nothing to fear, God's will, will see us through this. Verse 10 "But all the congregation bade stone them with stones..." Now it is not believed that all the people wanted to stone them but some were. As minister we cannot fulfill the will of God, God has a plan and God will accomplish that plan as He chooses. It is our responsibility as God's elect, and the blessed of God to wait on the Lord. We will not be destroyed in this world unless it is God's will. We are to do what no other people have ever done before, and wait patiently on the Lord. God went on to say in verse 12 that "I will smite them with the pestilence, and disinherit them..." God said what I ought to do is to cast them out as I have done with the non-elect. People, even Christians sometimes gets impatient with the Lord and I am sure that God sometimes says the same about some of us. Moses went on in verse 17 to say "And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken..." Moses says Lord, you have the power to do as you please but we ask for grace and mercy. In verse 18 Moses said " We thank the LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression..." The God of longsuffering and mercy that He is, we sure need a merciful and longsuffering God. Folk, with all that has went on in history, all that people have done to God, He has not ever cast His people out. God was under no obligation to choose Israel, He was under no obligation to choose the remnant of the world that He did, but He did. We ought to be grateful to Him that He has chosen us, so much so that we ought to have the longsuffering of God within us to be patient to His will. Just as God had freed the Israelites from the power of the Egyptians, He has freed us from the power of Satan to the slavery of sin. We ought not be ungrateful servants in not being patient with the Lord. God has never let us down, and He never will. We need to continue to serve the Lord with everything we have and not grow impatient. God's predestinated is on God's time table and when it is time for something to happen it will.