Love!

 “But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you…Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.” Luke 6:27 - 28

We have been working our way through some of the book of Luke on Wednesdays nights. This week we opened these glorious verses. I personally believe the greatest thing a saved sinner has is God’s love in their heart. I believe that everything with God began with love. It was because of love that He chose to save a sinner like me, and to adopt me as His own son. God said in 1 John 4:7 - 8 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God…He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” How can one say they are saved if they do not love God’s children? As believers and recipients of God’s love through Jesus Christ and the gifting of the Holy Spirit, how can we not love? What were we before God saved us and gave us His love? But now, that we have received God’s love then we need to live our life in that love. God tells us how to do that right there in Luke 6, it starts with “Love your enemies”, and continues with “do good to them which hate you”, and “Bless them that curse you”, and “pray for them which despitefully use you”, and “turning the cheek that is slapped” and etc. Folks that is a lot, I do not know about you, but for me that takes a lot of work on my part. But, to truly do it will show you how God loves you. Remember you were at enmity with God before you were saved. You know, as I studied this and remembered my everyday life I realized I was not living to God’s standard’s for me, I have failed in this love area. If we look closely at these scriptures we will see just how much God expects from us, and how short we fall. I have this week tried to have more love for my fellow human being and have discovered it feels good to be nice to them that are lost. It felt good living more like God told us too. People do not need to be Christians for me to love them because God told me they do not. But, I must admit them being a Christian make the love I have for them even more special. I have to admit it has been a hard week trying to live these scriptures closer and closer, especially driving on the roads. But, we must remember that all things are possible through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.  Luke 18:27 “And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” That’s right God can do anything, even with you. I ask you this week to lean on these scriptures, study them and work to do them, and if you slip don’t give-up ask the Lord to increase His grace to help you. Help someone in need, bless them that are angry with you, smile and greet those that despise you, and the feeling will be great. Paul said to the church at Rome of love, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10 how could it work ill if it is fulfilling God’s law? John wrote in 1 John 4:12 “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” God’s love is complete in us when we as believers learn to properly love one another. It takes work, it takes prayer, it takes God’s power, but with all that complete, it perfects God’s glorious love that the Holy Spirit delivered to us as a “fruit”. Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,” Beloved, be kind to one another, but don’t stop there continue the kindness to those who are lost, and God will reward you for it, but it in itself will be rewarding.

Blessings

Proverbs 10:6a "Blessings are upon the head of the just..." 

I have a question; do you know what a real blessing of God is? The word blessings here mean - benediction; by implication prosperity – and that would be prosperity to those who are just, not just saved but those that walk for the Lord. People have a gross misunderstanding of God and His blessings. Please let me illustrate to you in this example. What do you believe that God owes you? A good life, a good home, car, job, does God owe you safety in this life, etc. etc. etc. Well the truth is, God owes you nothing except eternity in the lake of fire. Blessings are like grace both are a gift from God. God never promised us prosperity on this earth, not even the most honorable believer. God never promised that our life would be enjoyable on this earth. Jesus Christ the most faithful man to ever live on this earth, lived a life of sorrow and misery His entire life. With the end of His life being hours of pain on the cross. Many of Gods most faithful servants all through history suffered miserably and died horrible deaths. So again, I will ask you, what does God owe you? Since God’s blessings are like God’s grace then both are given as God chooses. When Christians suffer on this world it is not necessarily a bad thing. When Christians are poor and are laughed at, mocked, and suffer persecution, it is not a bad thing. Let me ask this question, if God was to bless you by making you poor, would you thank God for being poor? Last Wednesday night we studied Luke 6:20 – 23 and if you read the scripture carefully it says “Blessed be ye poor” v.20 What this means is that you are blessed if you are poor. That’s right blessed, Jesus went on to say “Blessed are ye that hunger now” and He said “Blessed are ye that weep now” and He said “Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil”, that’s right folks it is a blessing to suffer in this life because you will be rewarded in the kingdom of God. While people think that only prosperities are God’s blessing they are wrong. If you read on in verses 24 – 26 in Luke 6 you will see this. People sometimes ask Christians when something bad happens “what did you do wrong to God”, but they are failing to see the bad things in their life could be blessings from God. The greatest thing a believer can do in this life is to suffer for the Lord. Walk with the Lord, no matter what. One of the hardest things in life to do is to praise God for being poor, despised, rejected, or etc. Look at Job, he did nothing to lose everything and to suffer as he did, but he was blessed to be used of God at that point. Folks, blessings are not just good things in life. Besides, God never promised us a prosperous life on this earth, as we count prosperous. God promised that “all things work together for good to them that love God” Romans 8:28 But, we just do not always know what good is. It could be anything, it could be a life of misery and death as Jesus suffered, or it could be a time of losing everything as Job did. Believer, what are blessings from God to you? How do you define the blessings of God? Beloved, never look at life as though God is not blessing you, nor look at it as though God owes you something good, because God owes you nothing. Now, look back to verse 22 in Luke 6, He says “hunger now” and “weep now” that means in this life. But, when this life is over rewards are coming our way. God controls everything, that means nothing happens that God does not control. God allows bad thing as He does with good things, and both are blessings to us. Only a fool would think that God’s blessing are the good things. It is a blessing to be poor for the Lord, it is a blessing when God causes us to weep, and it is a blessing to be hated by the world. Jesus went on to say in Luke 6:23 “Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.” I believe the leaping and rejoicing is the suffering for God on this earth. Folks, we take whatever comes your way, whether good or bad as a blessing from God, because it is.  

Worship: What Is Real Biblical Worship?

"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24

The scriptures tell us that we must worship God, and this is normally done at church, but is your church service a worship service to God? I ask this question, because most church services do not worship God. After speaking on this subject last Wednesday night I have made some brief and small changes to our services to more meet the definition of this word. The word worship here means - an act of homage or reverence to God – To God and nothing else. I believe three things are required to have a proper church service. (1.) There must be a worship, now this worship is to God and nothing else. Prayer, song, and the sermon. I do not believe anything else is proper in a worship service. Pastors will spend half the worship time talking about stories, bragging on people, or etc. God does not share time, honor or praise with anyone else. We do not praise man, we do not tell jokes, we do not talk about the weather, or etc. etc. etc. From the first act of the start of the service nothing else should interfere with our worship of God. (2.) God is a Spirit and we must worship Him spiritually, not physically. This is why lost people cannot truly worship God because their spirit is dead. They can attend services, hear the sermon, but spiritually they will receive nothing and their worship of God is pointless. People who have no living spirit worship outwardly, because they have nothing inside to worship with. (3.) There must be truth, not Baptist truth, Catholic truth, Pentecostal truth, or etc. but biblical truth. Nothing else will work. Biblical Truth is truth that only praises God, declares that God is Sovereign, and Gracious. However, I believe real Baptist Truth is biblical truth, if not I would change it. Now one might ask “where is the fun”, when did God ever say church was supposed to be fun?  If you go to church for fun, then you are not going to church. Once the door shuts, the prayers start, and the music is sung, nothing but the praise and worship of God. Anything more or less subtracts from the worship of God. Give it some thought and prayer.   

Matthew 15:8 - 9 "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me...But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

Romans 1:25 “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”

How would you describe you worship service? Does it only praise God or not.

God Is The Original Power.

“Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” Romans 13:1
When one thinks about power and its source, that thought must start with the source of all power and that is Jehovah God. Some folks believe that this world and the universe circles on their own, but they are wrong, everything works as God chooses. Mankind is one of the most ignorant and uniformed of all God’s creatures. Mankind has the ability to see and to learn that God created everything in creation itself. Man looks into the universe and sees all that God created and somehow believes that it just appeared. That somehow a seed dropped from another world and landed here on earth and from it man evolved. Mankind with all the intelligence he has, totally misses God, and His connection to creation. Man talks about what he can do, and never credits God with anything. If one is going to think about God, he must begin with God controls everything. God is Sovereign and sovereign of any other source. He needs no one, or anything. God is not dependent on His creation, but His creation is dependent on Him. God created everything for a purpose. He created the devil and evil for His own glory. Proverbs 16:4 “The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.” God created Satan and Satan has done as God has ordained. Everything operates by God’s power and will. Man does not love God, man does not think about God, and man does not have proper knowledge about God. Romans 1:28 “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” Please understand, God controls everything. God leaves nothing to chance, God has before the foundation of the world predestinated everything that is going to happen. God knew when you would be born, what your life would be, and when you will die. God knew all this before the foundation of the world. God said “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers…” The powers of the world will be what they are, God has given them powers. God is the one who sits world leaders up and He takes them down. God never said these world leaders where His children, but they are His tools inserted into place to accomplish His will. God went on to say in Romans 13:3 “…For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil…” These people are not good people, they are not Christians, they hate God, but God still uses them to accomplish His will. God has a plan and the plan is unfolding before our eye every day. God can use anyone He chooses at any time He chooses for any reason He chooses. People get this thought that God works by our will, our thinking, or our accomplishments, but He does not. The President of America is set in office by God, and he or she will accomplish Gods will for America and the world whether good or bad, but always to God’s glory. They will realize one day as they hated God and Christians, that God used them and they accomplished His will. God does not do things to our glory but to His own glory, but to us who know Jesus Christ, it is glory whether we recognize it or not. God said in Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” He did not promise everything in life would be to our good, but that it would all work to our good. One of these days we will see it all put together, we will see it worked out, and we will see no matter what happened God got the glory. He did in the fall of Adam, through Pharaoh, in the death of Jesus Christ, and in the fall of the world will get glory. He promised we would suffer, loose, and fall down, but in the end it is for God’s glory, and because He gets glory so will we.