Saturday, July 30, 2016

Serving God, It Includes Rejecting The World.

“No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Luke 16:13 If you are a Christian then you are the property of God, you have been bought and paid for with the blood of Jesus Christ. Think about this, God saved you for a reason, He put you in a church for a reason, and His Holy Spirit leads you through life because we cannot lead ourselves. “For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.” 2 Corinthians 13:4

There are way too many Christian getting in trouble with the Lord who don’t even realize it. As long as we are in this flesh we are weak, we may think we are strong, but we are truly weak. The weakness of Jesus was the separation on the cross from deity and flesh, when God allowed the man Jesus to die on the cross there was a separation of the Godhead from the man. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46 the word “forsaken” here means - to leave behind in some place – this was done to allow the man to die because God cannot die. This is why God had to raise Jesus from the grave. This is how He was “weak” and He had to be raised by God’s power. Now understand that all power was given back to Him and all authority was also given to Him. "...All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Matthew 28:18 This is why God promised Jesus “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” Acts 2:27 Jesus was without deity and had to be raised from the grave by the Father’s power. (I know some of my brethren disagree this fact, but I still love you.) I believe this is a glorious example to us believers that we live every moment by God’s power. Just as God saved us, just as God moves us, we live by God’s power and outside of it we will fall. As Christians we must understand that this world is not for us, we are just pilgrims passing though until we reach our new home. Jesus said "...My kingdom is not of this world..." John 18:36 and it is not our home. This world is evil, it was conquered by Satan and he now controls it. "In whom the god of this world..." 2 Corinthians 4:4 Therefore to enjoy the world is to enjoy Satan. We as believers must learn to separate ourselves as much as possible from worldly things because these worldly things will separate us from our service and worship of God. If Jesus was weak, then we are many time weaker because He was not a sinner by nature as we are. Fleshly speaking, we are sinners by nature, and by nature we will flock to sin if God does not hold us back. This is why we must keep away from the world and allow all our attention to be on the Lord. The reason is, the world will cause us to despise the Lord and His ways. This is why so many Christians have changed their thinking from the power of God to their own power. Therefore, worshiping the creature more than the creator. “Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator…” Romans 1:25 Beloved, worldly things will cause you not to walk and fellowship with God. We are weak, and we must not tempt ourselves with worldly things. This is why God warned us to “Abstain from all appearance of evil." 1 Thessalonians 5:22 not just from evil but even the “appearance” of it. If it even looks evil stay away from it. This is why the Lord told us "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts..." 1Peter 3:15 that is to make the Lord Holy in your hearts and then follow your hearts. The Lord even give us instructions on how to accomplish this, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:17 Beloved, this world has not been for us since the fall of Adam, therefore do not allow it to harm your fellowship with the Lord. Do not allow it to change the doctrine of God into a lie for the sake of fleshly doctrine. Go to church on regular basis and learn what God expects, and live in His word and not the world. Have a good fellowship with God and He will have a good fellowship with you. I will end with this thought with this verse, please read it really carefully. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves… 2 Corinthians 13:5

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Evil Men And Evil Times.

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

Folks, it is with a very sad heart that I write this article. This last week we saw the murder and the wounding of twelve Police Officers, five of which were killed. This is sad because these are the men and women who have sworn an oath to protect us. People are so evil today that the folks in one group actually thought it was funny and good that these officers were murdered. These same people are so evil that they continually call for the police officers of America to be murdered. They tell lies and reach conclusions on happenings that haven’t even had a chance to have their day in court. They are exciting murder and rioting in the streets. I know there has been some unjustly murders of some folks by police officers, but that does not give reason to kill the very folks they depend to defend them against evil. I would like to personally say to our Police Officers across America, thank you for your service in protecting our communities. And to those who seek to hurt them or wish ill toward them, I will pray that God will cause a repented heart in you. We are living in evil times, times where evil men rule the world. There is a trust factor with the people who are in charge. As citizens we feel like our leaders are exciting violence rather than trying to solve the issues. The love of money is the root of all evil the Lord said, and that is surly true today. Times are not going to get better because God said they would not. God said it would get so bad that deceivers would be deceived. I am afraid we are only seeing the beginning of it all and as time moves on it will only get worse. Christians and people of good will be persecuted for the good in them, were their good is treated as evil and evil takes their good place. God told us in verse 14 “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;” As Christians we must continue to push on with the preaching of the Gospel and most certainly in prayer. To our Police Officers I pray you also will press on to do your job and protect us from evil people. All professions have evil and hurtful people in them. We have certainly seen many ministers, priest, and other members of the clergy who have done evil. We have seen politicians do evil, and we have seen Police Officers also do bad. But people with evil hearts try to condemn an entire population for the wrong of a few. Those that do this is doing are evil, and those who lie to entice evil is even worse. We do not know what the Lord will allow, but we do know in the past God has allowed Christians to suffer greatly. We have not seen persecution yet as our forefathers of the so called “dark ages” did, from about 500ad – 1500ad. Christians must remain strong and even stronger in faith. The Lord did tell us in 1 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” And thank God He does. Last I ask you all to remember Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia. Russia has passed a new law that is going to bring them great harm. As most of you know we and a few others support these churches financially and have for several years. Most of these churches have nothing and hold services in houses. The new laws in Russia is attempting to eliminate these small home churches. If you do not have a building for services, then they are attempting to eliminate these churches. This is to start on July 20, so the prayers are needed now. Right now Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia can continue to receive financial support but they are fearful this also will be eliminated before long. So please make these fellow Christians and churches a matter of prayer. And please remember this scripture, “And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Mark 10:27

Sunday, July 3, 2016

Liberty

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1

If you look-up the word “liberty” it means - the state of being free – here in verse 1 it means - freedom – but if you look deeper into the Greek you will see this Greek word (eleutheria) come from the Greek word (eleutheros) as you can see they are almost the same word and have basically the same meaning. However, the word (eleutheros) means – unrestrained (to go at pleasure) or not a slave. If you associate the two Greek words for the one English word, they paint a very beautiful image for us to see. Paul told us in Romans 6:18 “Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.” This is the liberty that a person who knows and trust Jesus Christ as their Saviour has, they are allowed to be unrestrained or no longer a slave to sin. The beauty here is that sin and its ugliness no longer has a hold on us. Paul told us that we were “made free from sin” and because of that he went on to tell us because of that we “became the servants of righteousness.”. I must shout here because is it wonderful to be able to serve God, but that service is only possible through the redemptive blood of Jesus Christ. Not just anyone can serve God, you must be saved or have freedom from sins bond through Jesus Christ. Paul went on to write in Romans 6:20 “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.” That if you are not saved then you are freed from righteousness and that means you are freed from serving God. God will not accept your good works anyway outside of Jesus Christ. This is a concluded fact, that lost people are not freed from sin therefore it is sin that they will serve. You cannot serve God and sin. Our text scripture concludes that “Christ hath made us free” and no other can make you free from sin. We should never tell a lost person to serve the Lord because they cannot, remember they are “free from righteousness”. If you believe that there is righteousness in any other form outside of Jesus Christ, you are simply fooling yourself. I love Romans 6:22 where Paul said “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Since we are freed in Christ the we are “servants to God” and the fruits of our labors are “fruit unto holiness” and the end of it all is “the end everlasting life”. So beloved, shout from the highest mountain top because you have liberty in Jesus Christ and everlasting life is its end. Where God is, only liberty exist; because sinfulness and death and eternal damnation are all outside of Jesus Christ. This is why they can continue their ungodliness, cursing, murdering through abortion and etc., because they will only be accountable in the final Great White Throne judgment of Jesus Christ. Paul concludes in Romans 6:23a "For the wages of sin is death..." death being the eternal damnation of hell’s hot fires. But today there is hope for everyone who is lost because Paul wrote on that same verse 23b “but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Folks, freedom is not free, people have died for freedom, and Jesus Christ died for our freedom. Our Nation is free because that many men, women, and children have died acquiring the freedom. But as Christians we are freed because Jesus Christ died for ours. I praise all who have died for my freedom and thank them all, but my most thankfulness is to Jesus Christ for the punishing death He suffered to give me eternal freedom from sin, and the hold it had on me. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son...He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:11 – 12 Amen!