Do we give enough time to God?

And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. Ecclesiastes 1:13 

The writer of this book is Solomon who is identified as “the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem” in verse 1. King Solomon was a great man; I believe spiritually he would have been a very strong servant of God because God said he was. “And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea shore. (30) And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt.” 1 Kings 4:29 But with all this wisdom and understanding he continually gave his heart to search out by wisdom the thing God did on the earth. Imagine the spiritual intelligence we could have if we gave our hearts to want to know everything about the workings of the Lord. Solomon also wrote in Ecclesiastes 7:25 “I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness:” To search out the wisdom of God in the events, not only in the good things but in the evil wickedness, foolishness, and madness in this world. Imagine if believers today attempted to follow Solomons lead here, and instead of worrying about things, instead of complaining about things, instead of losing their minds over things happening in this world, we simply remember that God is over all things, and God has promised us, “… that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28 And in believing God and knowing that this is His promise to us, that everything in our life, everything happening on this earth, that every event, is under the ordained power of God. So, to us it is our obligated work, to give our hearts to enough study time in attempting to search out by wisdom God’s purpose in doing these things. And once we get those answers, imagine how much more spiritually powerful we would be. Nothing just happens, everything is by a designed and ordained will of God, we just need to search out why He did it. Solomon also wrote these words, “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him. (15) That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.” Ecclesiastes 3:14 - 15 Can you we see what King Solomon saw? Can we understand what God is telling us through Solomon’s writings, if not, we need to keep searching for the answers. Solomon went on to say these words, “And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there. (17) I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.” Ecclesiastes 3:16 – 17 Believer, do not worry about the wickedness, not even the wicked judges because God is the final Judge, and He has put all that judgment into the trusted hands of Jesus Christ, the Son of man. I cannot personally answer why things happen in this world, nor why God allows so much evil to reign in this world. However, I can tell you the answer to all your questions are in God’s word and it is up to us to “gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven”. Because it is our study time that makes us better Christians. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 Because it is through this study time that every Christian will grow and excel in understanding God, His ways, His doings, His will, and everything else in your life and in the happenings in this world. So, I will ask, do we all give enough time to God, do we seek to know His will and His doings in our own life and in the world that we live? If not, then we are missing such a blessing!    

“all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

2 Timothy 3:13 “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”

In the last days, (and I do not doubt that we are in the last days), the world shall wax worse and worse. People who claim that the world is a good place and claim that things could get better have been deceived. God has ordained evil times, and those evil times are here today. The Tribulation Period is closing in and as they do the world becomes more and more evil. People are deceived by deceivers and as the days pass the seducers will wax worse and worse. It will not stop, the end to it is when Jesus Christ returns to sit on King Davids earthly throne. The deceivers will also get deceived by the other deceivers and they too shall be deceived. A seducer is defined as a wizard who is also defined as one who is a master in fairy tales. This is the world we now live in; it is a time where people are living in a lie, the lie of Satan. As Christians we must remain faithful to God and His doctrine, we cannot allow ourselves to be unfaithful. We know in the end that only a few will remain faithful until the end because said there shall be a falling away. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;” 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Before the Anti-Christ shall come there shall be a falling away first, that falling away will be by deception, or being deceived by the deceivers. People, that includes many Christians and churches shall turn away from the Truth and follow doctrine of deception. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. 2 Timothy 4:3 – 4 The time of the falling away is here, it is happening today, and it is spreading through social media like fire. Many Christians and even churches have fallen into the deception and have no idea that they have fallen for the lies of Satan. What about those remaining faithful to God, the churches, and the true doctrine? We shall suffer loss, God said, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Timothy 3:12 I do not believe that word “shall” is a “maybe” but rather a promise from God who cannot lie. Both the churches and the membership will suffer persecution because we “live godly in Christ Jesus”. God’s people have always suffered at the hands of the great deceiver Satan ever since the fall. Look at Able, he suffered and was murdered because of his righteousness. Millions died martyr’s deaths because they refused to surrender to the lies of Satan. And here in the 21^st Century we too shall suffer at the hands of Satan just as Jesus Christ did. Churches have suffered since Jesus began the first church at Jerusalem during His earthly ministry. Almost all His Apostles died horrible deaths as martyrs. And this persecution continued through time and here we are today still suffering through the deception of Satan. Christian we are not safe, God has not promised us safety but instead His promise for us is persecution. Just as Judas betrayed the Lord Jesus and those believers with Him, other Christians, whether true of imitation Christians can and will betray those “that will live godly in Christ Jesus”, and living godly is living in the Truth of God’s word. Beloved, do not be deceived, the persecution will get worse and worse because God said it would. We all need to be in much prayer, not only for our own but for all Christians and churches.            

A Lamp Under a Basket

Mark 4:24 “And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.”

This parable is called “A Lamp Under a Basket” because our Lord Jesus asked this question in verse 21 “Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed?” As Christians and especially as church members we need to understand our important responsibility to the Lord and the world. Jesus said in the “Great Commission to, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew 28:19 It is not just the gospel we take to the world but also the entire word of God. We are to take the gospel to them so that they may be saved, but we are also to take the complete doctrine of God’s word to them. How can people learn the truth of the word if “we” who have been blessed with the revelation of His word fail to teach others. God does not bless us for us to hide His word but to teach it to others. If we who are blessed do not continue to spread God’s truths, then why would God continue to bless is with the truth. One problem with a lot of Christians and even churches is they have not enough, or maybe no zeal to accomplish the task that God has given us. God does not teach us to hide the truth of the word, He teaches us that we will take that truth to the world. Christians that fail to attend church are failing to study and learn God’s word. Our purpose and goal should be to the Lord who graciously saved our souls and taught us His word. We are God’s children and our goal in life is to surrender all to the Lord and to learn of Him and His word and to be servants to Him. The life of a Christian is to do the work of God’s calling of us and working every day to serve Him. If we surrender to the will of Satan, then we drop out of church, stop studying God’s word, and start caring what the world thinks. No one in our life is as important as the Lord, nothing in this life is as important as the Lord, and nothing is more pleasing as serving God. However, if we lose sight of what we are supposed to do as Christians and especially as churches then we are no longer serving the Lord. If we ever began to think of self-more than God, we have lost our calling as Believers and lost the purpose of God’s command of us. When a Christian fails to understand the importance of church, they start going in a downhill spiral of serving God. Day by day they become less useful to God because our usefulness begins and ends in the school of higher learning, and that is the local church. The church is where you hear, it is where your biblical improvement is made. How is God going to teach you if you are not working to learn His word through His place of learning. How will others learn if we are not teaching them, we are not self-taught. Think of church as school, the more you attend the more you learn and the more you learn the more you can teach others. If our schools were as empty as our churches, then look how ignorant our society would be. We simply cannot hide our gift of learning from those that are without, and we cannot help others that are without if we are hiding our light under basket. Every believer has the responsibility to help make disciples in this world, and this all works through the Local church. However, we cannot accomplish this if we are not the light of the world and if we are hiding our light under a basket. Matthew 5:14 “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” How bright is your light shining, or do you have it hidden under a basket? The world is a dark place, it needs all the light we can give to it.             

We must worship God as He is, a Spirit.

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

We must worship God as He truly is, as a Spirit, He is not a man nor is He anything like a man. God has no body because He is a Spirit. God as a Spirit is defined as - a current of air, that is, breath (blast) or a breeze – Per Strongs. God has not body nor can He have because God is Omnipresent which means He is always everywhere. God said of Himself in Acts 17:24 - 26 “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; (25) Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; (26) And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;” Therefore, it must be concluded that God has no body, no hand, no brain, no heart, no hand, not body part at all, He is a Spirit. The bible speaks of body parts but only to make God’s actions understandable to us. For example, Jesus said, John 10:28 - 29 “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (29) My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.” For us to be safely in the hand of Jesus is the same as being in the Hand of God. Jesus is expressing our security as the children of God being figurative in the hand of Him and the Father. Jesus has a body, and He has a hand because He is also the Son of man. We are as safe as though we are tightly in God’s hand, and spiritually speaking we are in God’s hand because He is Omnipresent. Since God is a Spirit, He cannot ever be absent from us. He has promised that no matter what, He will never leave us, He is forever with us. God does not dwell in temples made with hands, but He is in the temples that are His and those temples today are called churches and the bodies of every believer. For us to rightly worship God, we must first know Him, know who He is, and know what He is, otherwise how can a person worship Him if we do not know and understand Him. God said we must worship Him not only in Spirit but also in Truth.  A believer worships God in spirit, when, under the influence of the Holy Sprit because it is spiritually that we worship God. But also, God must be worshiped in Truth because God is Truth, and He will only accept worship that is spiritual and in truth. We must know and understand God’s being or else we cannot understand His Sovereignty. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:17 “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” How is one to worship God in Truth, we worship His true being. To worship God in truth is to worship Him according to His word, as He truly is. God will not accept any other kind of worship because to worship Him any other way is to falsely worship Him. Sometimes Christians ignore God’s word and accept the teachings of worldly religions, this is a big mistake. If God is not worshiped properly according to the scriptures, then your worship is useless. Just because other forms of worship feels good to the flesh doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to God. As Christians and churches, we must be careful and not allow ourselves to get caught up in human feelings or in worldly attractions. Everything we do in the form of worship must be strictly according to God’s word and our worship of God must be in spirit and truth.