Forgiving Grace Ministries

Biblical Illiteracy, its Results and its Cure

2009-09-20T15:34:00.002-05:00

Brothers and sisters this is a very disturbing topic, Biblical Illiteracy is a huge cancer not only in our world, it is also very prevalent in our churches. There are a lot of churches that are dying, homes that are wrecked, lives that are faltering, and the reality is that this very problem “Biblical Illiteracy” is likely the major contributor to the all the rampant immorality in our midst.
Well, I guess I need to ask the question; Are you Biblically Illiterate?
I want to encourage you to take to heart the reality of this message; your eternity will depend on your answers to some very powerful questions that will be asked of you.

Who is Jesus?

2009-09-13T15:13:00.001-05:00

The whole of the Bible is the revelation of the story of God’s love for the human race. It is amazing when you study the scriptures and discover that from before the foundation of the world Jesus has been working, either in the creation of all that is, or He has been being revealed in and through various Old Testament figures, such as Job, or Moses. In the New Testament you have men life Simeon who longed for the revelation of Jesus and was promised that he would not see death until as he put it “the Salvation of God is revealed” and it was in Jesus.

Beyond the question of Who Jesus is, lies two more prevalent question that are birthed from knowing who Jesus is and they are; What does know who Jesus is mean to me? And What do I do whit Jesus now that I know who He is?

I guess for me the most important realization of who Jesus is manifests itself in these two statements.

Jesus is the Love of God

And

Jesus is the Heart of God

Well you can check out the message here

Dying Without Regret

2009-09-06T18:46:00.001-05:00

I am just in awe at the wonder working power of God, maybe I am just easy to amaze but God is just doing some amazing work in our midst. I want to just share this, it is just so amazing, but several weeks ago, I got some visitor information cards for the church and began to pray over them and distribute them in the pews, that same day we had two visitors that have been pretty regular attendees since, and today we five more visitors, God is so faithful and so good, and I am so thankful for all He is doing in our midst.

This week we looked at 2 Timothy chapter 4, and this was a very different sermon for me and while I normally flesh out a fair amount of my sermon here, instead I want to ask you the reader the same questions I asked of my congregation and then encourage you to go and listen to the sermon for yourself.
Do you have any regrets about the way you have lived your life?
What about the things you have done or have not done?
How about this are there any regrets in any of your relationships, ones you have currently or ones that are strained or broken?
How about any regrets with the way you have raised your children?
Within your marriage, have you done things, said things that you regret?

If you answered yes to any of these then I would encourage you check out this weeks message

Ladies & Gentlemen Please Welcome...

2009-08-29T13:04:00.004-05:00

Ladies & Gentlemen Please Welcome, Tobias Samson Zeubie II, about a month ago our dog Jasper died suddenly, he was sick on Monday and the doctor could not see him until Tuesday afternoon and Tuesday morning while we were out he passed away.
At this point we decided that we would not seek to get another dog right now, but did purpose in our heart a prayer that if God wanted us to have another animal, He would provide. Well, within a few weeks my former boss at the college library contacted us about a young lady who was moving into the dorms at our college, and how she could not keep her dog, we contacted her and took the dog for the weekend and fell in love with him. He is a Great Pyrenees mix, much like my dog Zeus who died at the ripe old age of 13, just before Christmas last year. In looking at Tobias and in getting to know him he reminds us so much, not only of Zeus but of my wife's dog Willy who also died at age 13. It is so neat how God has allowed this animal to come into our lives and how a little piece of each of the three dogs we have lost in the last three years is present in Tobias.
Tobias welcome to the family and we pray that you have a long and happy life with us.

Salvation, God's Plan Not Man's Part 2

2009-08-23T16:09:00.002-05:00

What another phenomenal day! We awoke this morning to cooler temperatures and clear blue skies, the kind that says fall is in the air, ahh, I love this time of the year. Anyway, I need to get on with it, last week we left off with these three “Hearing, Belief, Repentance” as things that are in the scriptures when it comes to a plan of salvation, now as I told the congregation this morning do not get too hung up on order, as we go through this it appears the only things that require order is the first two, hearing and believing anyway, we looked at confession and how Jesus says we must confess Him before others and how He will do the same before His Father.
Next we looked at Baptism, which is probably the most argued point in all of Christianity. The scriptural teaching is reasonably clear, the scriptures command that we submit to baptism; it is a part of the salvation process and as much so as any other piece. Now, I am not arguing in favor of Baptismal regeneration, I am not arguing at all, I am simply stating the facts from scripture, for example, that word “for” is said to mean because so in other words, you are baptized because your sins are forgiven, (Acts 2:38) how ever if you were to turn your Bible to Matthew 26:28, you will find another “for” where Jesus said His blood was poured out for the forgiveness of sin, when you look to the original Greek text what you will find is this, εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. The words are pronounced Ace, Aphesin, Hamartion, which in the English is for forgiveness “of” sins. OK, I know that is a lot to swallow, so I will refer you to the phrase study sheet which I have prepared. Anyway, the first word is the preposition “for” according to Thayer it means “to obtain” the second word Aph-es-in is a Singular Feminine Noun in the accusative case, the accusative case is the case of the direct object and it means “forgiveness” and finally Hamartion, which is a Feminine Plural Noun in the Genitive case, this case roughly corresponds to our English possessive case. The genitive expresses possession, and it means sins.
OK, Greek class is over, hang in there you are doing well, the only difference between the Acts passage and the Matthew passage is these two things which are both found in the Acts passage. In the Matthew passage, Jesus is referring to sin in general and at large, you know your sin, my sin, his sin, her sin and so on, while in the Acts passage, Peter uses the article “the” and the personal pronoun, “your” both in reference to a particular persons sin, yours, in other words “the sin of yours” Bottom, line is that there are five places where that phrase “for forgiveness of sin” occurs and in each and every case it is the same, so if we are to understand the Acts passage to read, the we are baptized “because” our sins have been forgiven then we must conclude that Jesus’ blood likewise was poured out “because” sin was forgiven. I simply can not do that because that really goes against everything the whole Bible teaches.
Next we moved to the last thing the scriptures say that lead to life and being saved and this my dear friends is perseverance, Jesus said just as He overcame we should also, for all practical purposes it works like this if Jesus can persevere against all He did surely we can manage in this life being faithful to the call and being faithful means, living our lives trusting that Jesus is who He said He is, that He will deliver on the promises He gave, and Obeying, this is lived out by following the commands of the scriptures and living life in a such a way as to say, no matter what because I love Jesus, I am going to do and teach what His word says.
Well, if you want to get a deeper understanding listen to both of the messages and look a the phrase study sheet, it is an excellent resource designed to strengthen and encourage you in your walk and growth in Christ Jesus. May the Lord Bless you in direct proportion to your study of His Word.

Salvation, God's Plan Not Man's Part 1

2009-08-16T14:58:00.003-05:00

Have you ever looked at all the "Plans of Salvation" that permeate the internet? Well, when redesigning the Forgiving Grace Ministry website, I was torn about putting one on the site. It is not because I do not want to share with people how to be saved, because I desperately want everyone to know the joy and peace contained in a relationship with Jesus, a relationship that brings salvation can not be beat. I was reluctant because scripture in every case of salvation that it tells us about involves the telling (verbally) of the Gospel and then there is immediate action. So, my issue is that Salvation at least as presented in the Gospel is not a thing done in private, it is done in relationship. Now that is not to say that God can not move an individual to Salvation without the aid of another human, because He is sovereign, and He can do all things, Amen.
What really got me though was that I really felt that God wanted me to search out all the plans I could find, and when I did I came away astounded, and in some cases absolutely appalled, about what I was reading. One plan said that the whole idea of the Gospel teaching a need for repentance was absurd, yet Jesus said in Luke 13:3, 5 repent or perish, loose translation but you get the point. In Luke 15:7, 10 Jesus has told two parables one about the lost sheep and one about a lost coin, and He ends both with the idea that there is a party going on in Heaven when just one sinner repents. Now I do not know about you but how am I supposed to process these verses if we can be in our sin yet believe and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the one that really got me; another site said that just by acknowledging your sin and your need of a Savior you were repenting, now the last time I checked that was not good hermeneutics. In fact that would or should qualify as heresy, and that brings me here to that page and this 2 week sermon series.
Friends we need to mine the whole of the scriptures and if they say something leads to salvation we might just want to check ourselves and see if that is what we are teaching, it should not matter if we personally agree with it or not. Are you teaching what you are teaching because the Scriptures teach it or because your denomination teaches it? Read the Scripture for all they say and ask yourself, am I teaching what it says or what I want it to say or what I have been told it says. You know many times when I read the Word of God, I come face to face with His perfection, His Holiness and it shines a light on my imperfections and that usually causes shame, especially if I am not doing or living the way I ought to be living, and many people want you and I to think that, that shame is wrong and God does not want us to feel bad, Yet Paul, God's chosen vessel said that Godly sorrow produces a repentance without regret, leading to Salvation. Go figure, huh!
Well, we covered three things in this week’s message that the scriptures say lead to or bring one into a place of accepting salvation or being saved. So, check out the message and mine some of that Gospel treasure.

The Unconventional Faithfulness of God

2009-08-11T16:15:00.004-05:00

It is not an ironic thing, just another testimony of the unconventional faithfulness of God. A week ago today our three year old American Eskimo, Jasper died unexpectedly, Thursday my wife had a cartilage graft done on her knee. So, I am having to be dad, nurse, cook, maid, driver and all the other duties that go into raising a family of four, when one spouse is down.
Sunday was a long day I left the house at 7:40 and got home about 5:40. I got to the church about 45 minutes before Sunday school so I could spend some time in prayer over the visitor cards as I placed them into the pews. I want to be the kind of minister that practices what he preaches, over the last month I have been preaching that as a people of God when we are faithful, obedient, and humble, that is when we could and really should expect God to work miracles in our midst. Well, as I was saying I was praying over the visitor cards and placing the in the pews, I finished with the cards that I had about 10 minutes before anyone arrived at the church, one of the elders was the first to arrive and I told him what I had been doing, we talked for a few minuted and then, I went on and finished preparing my material for the Sunday school lesson. Wouldn't you know it, just as we were getting ready to begin the song service, I turned and in walked two visitors. God is so Awesome, and He made a certain impression on the people, after the service I herd them telling each other about what had went on earlier that morning. I can take no credit, but I can say Thank You God for being so faithful. Even when it seems the whole world is falling in around me, God is there in our midst, faithful as ever and usually working miracles.
Well, during the message we were looking at the 1st and 2nd chapter of Hosea, we spent some time looking at the meaning of the names of Hosea's children. We looked at how God used the marriage between Hosea and Gomer, to give a reflective view of the marriage relationship between God and His people, see Gomer had gone astray and played the harlot and so too had the people of Israel, and when we look at the condition of the church at large today, so have we, in many aspects. Twisting the word, allowing openly sinful people into positions of authority in the church. Let's be honest it is spiritual harlotry and the church needs to turn form its many lovers and return before it is too late.
If you like to listen to the sermon in its entirety you may do so by either visiting our ministry web site or by clicking on the title of this post.
I pray that you have a blessed week and I can not wait to see what God has in store for us this week.

Sin; Reality, Results, Cure

2009-08-02T17:05:00.002-05:00

I hate to keep sounding like a broken record, but, WOW another great Sunday! The first Sunday of every month we have a potluck and this Sunday we also had a business meeting following, so this has been an extremely long day.
The lesson today dealt with how in our society today and in the past 20-50 years there has been a societal push away from personal responsibility. People sin and in our day they are told "Oh,t it is not your fault," that you are this way or did this or that. Instead they are told to blame issues to their genetics, the upbringing everything but being told that they need to take responsibility for their own actions. Scripture is very clear we will have to account for our own actions, for the believer they will give an account for what they have done with their new life in Christ. For the unbeliever they will give an account of their sin. One thing is for sure this world wants you and I to believe that sin is just some outdated, antiquated idea, but the truth is that Sin is a reality, and it has most dire results, it will cost everything eventually, including the very souls of those who reject the free gift offered by God, which takes me to the cure. In short Jesus is the cure to the sin problem.
Well, like I said it has been an extremely long day so I am going to end this post this way. John 3:16 is probably the most quoted verse in all of Scripture, but most people do not know the following verse which has the power of verse 16, so I will leave you with John 3:17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."

(As always the you can click on the title to this post to be take to the sermon) If you want to hear more sermons please visit Forgiving Grace Ministries and click on the Audio Sermons link on the home page!t

The Master's Miracles (Message 3)

2009-07-26T14:55:00.004-05:00

Well, this was the last message in our three week series on the Miracles of Jesus. I thought what I would do is incorporate the last sermon sheet into this post. We have seen many great applications in this series and we look forward to applying these to our lives and teaching others the great magnitude of God's enduring love!

Previous Lessons
Lesson 1: Life in the will of God only gets better and better and the best is yet to come.
Lesson 2: When it comes to God and miracles many times we just have to accept by faith that which we can not understand.
Lesson3: Many times we must get out of the boat, or move out of our comfy place to a place that is not comfortable if we are to expect a miracle in our life.
Lesson 4: Just because we are experiencing troubles does not necessarily mean we have done wrong
Lesson 5: Jesus knows where we are even when we do not know where He is
Lesson 6: Weak faith creates troubles
Lesson 7: Obedient people walk on top of their troubles
Lesson 8: Faith + Obedience = Miracle
Lesson 9: When God deals with people and performs miracles there is an expectation of Obedience
Today’s Lessons

Lesson 1: Everyone Is Important in the Kingdom of God.

Lesson 2: There Are No Impossibilities with Jesus!

Deeper Meaning
Jesus expects us to have nothing of greater importance than He, (Jn 21:15-17) there should be nothing in our life of more importance. We should willingly sacrifice everything we have and all of our desires and dreams to that of the will and direction of God. As we walk in these truths and apply God’s word and commands to our lives we will begin to experience a whole new level of joy in our life and triumph over life’s circumstances.

The Master's Miracles (Message 2)

2009-07-19T15:03:00.004-05:00

The weather is absolutely beautiful, we have had a Canadian cold mass blow in and we have had days in the 70's and nights in the 50's. The sun has been shining, you know those partly cloutdy days, where you have blue skies and white fluffy clouds, well if you can pitcure that ou know the wonder of the days we have had this week.
We looked at Matthew 14, this week where the disciples are sent out to sea by Jesus and they being obedient go and they find that the weather has gotten rough, a strong head wind, these guys were working it hard just to keep from getting blow backwards, well here comes Jesus walking on the water and now they are really afraid. They cry out it is a ghost but to their surprise Jesus calls out "Fear Not, It is I." Now you have Peter and he says Lord if it is You command me to come to You on the water. Notice Peter did not say in the water, He said on the water. Peter acted in faithful obedience to the command of Jesus and the result was a miracle. Faith + Obedience = Miracle. We can not expect a miracle if we do not have those two ingredients front and center in our walk. I related a story about how I had a meeting in Macon, MO this week and how God had laid it on my heart to come to the church and fix our basketball goal, well I dropped the kids off for VBS and ran a couple of other errands and when I was set to leave for church and my meeting it was pouring the rain. Well I knew God had placed it on my heart to fix the thing, so I went on in spite of the rain but the further I drove the harder the rain fell, and it was raining so hard by the time I reached Macon, you could hardly see it was raining so hard. Well I had prayed on the way "God I know that You have done a lot for me, and I should not ask but could you stop the rain long enough for me to fix the basketball goal" Well I got about two miles form the church and it was still pouring, and I drove to the church and when I turned into the driveway it went to a sprinkle and by the time I got to the basketball goal it had stopped completely. Well I got the goal fixed without a drop of rain and after I fixed it I shot three shots and no sooner than the last went through the hoop and hit the ground it began to pour again. Well the moral of the story is that sometimes, many times we need to act in faith and obedience expecting that God is going to work that miracle. Now I know there are those who would say preacher what if it had not quit raining, well I would not have had a story to tell, but I still would have fix that goal. And that is where the test of our faith and obedience are checked. Will we still be faithful and obedient even in the face of our storms and trials, will we still go where God wants us to go, we will still say what he wants us to say?
Well I have had a full day and I am ready to spend some time with the wife and kids just relaxing watching some old TV shows.

Grace and Peace to you all and again there will be a link to the sermon if you just click the title.

The Master's Miracles (Message 1)

2009-07-12T15:59:00.006-05:00

Wow, another great Sunday and a great service, wish you all could have been there!
I just began a three week series on the Miracles of Jesus, we spent our time today looking at the first of Jesus' miracles recorded in scripture.
Jesus, His mother and disciples were are all at a wedding in Canaan, and they ran out of wine, and Jesus tells the waiters to fill the stone pots and then dip their pitchers in and draw out some water and take it to the head waiter, and to their surprise the head waiter exclaims that "everyone brings out the good wine and then when people have had plenty to drink, then he switches to the poorer wine, but you, you saved the best wine for last" (loose paraphrase)
We will be focusing on several aspects involved with this and other miracles, this week we focused on the faith and obedience of the event. If the waiters, had not dipped out the wine and had not taken it to the head waiter, then what would have happened? Would there have even been a miracle? What about the miracle involving, the raising of Lazarus, or the lame man at the pool at Bethesda?
In each of these as will all miracles involving people there is an expectation of faith and obedience. When we examine these miracles though what we see are people who hesitantly act, not instinctively move expecting God to work wonders beyond their imagination. But is that not true for the majority of the Christians, we have this tendency for sight walking, even being short sighted when it comes to God and His ability to work miracles. We may even have a tendency to be corrupted in our thinking and believe like the world, as so many do not even believe that miracles even happen.
As we worked through this we examined the simplicity of the faith in each of these examples and how, oh what was it Jesus said, yeah, "if you had faith like a mustard seed you would say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and be planted in the sea': and it would obey you," so I pulled out a single mustard seed and stood at the edge of the riser and asked can you see, the size of faith it takes?
Anyway there were three main lessons today;
Lesson 1: Jesus enjoyed life, Jesus loved life and so can we and we should
Lesson 2: Life in the will of God gets better and better
Lesson 3: When it come to God and miracles, many times we just have to accept that which we do not understand

Bottom line believers must exercise their faith if we expect to grow and mature, we must get out of the boat and often, it is OK to expect a Big God to do Big things in our lives and in the world.

Here is another truth, you need to understand that the only way to enjoy the hugeness of God's grace, the Hugeness of God's peace and the Hugeness of God's miracles, then you must first give ourselves over fully to Him, accept Jesus as Lord of your life, accept His will for your life and stop the sight walking and walk in faith and by faith.

See the One True God will always keep you safe when you are wholly committed to being His and walking where He desires you to walk in obedient faith, then you can being to experience the hugeness of His peace, His grace, His love, and His miracles.

Well, until next week, be safe, be strong in your faith, in your walk, and always live a life that Lifts Him up!

FYI: if you want to hear the sermon, just click the title of this post!

Solemn Assembly

2009-07-06T15:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday as my first official act as the minister at Graves Chapel, we participated in the "Family Research Council's, Call2Fall." I felt that it important to join with the 5,000 plus other churches and pray for our country, repenting for the past and present, and praying for a time of renewal. The other reason I felt it important was the fact that yesterday was my first official Sunday as their new minister, and honestly I just felt that it was prudent to spend our first hour together in prayer. We prayed for our country of course,but we prayed for the church at large and for our own congregation. We prayed that God would forgive us for turning away from Him as a nation, we prayed that God would move our leaders to repentance and they would repent and fall to their knees and turn or return to Him and His ways. We prayed to seek forgiveness and healing, we prayed that God would move within our communities and bring a revival. In praying for the church at large, we asked that God would forgive preachers and congregants for not being diligent in handling His Word. We prayed that we would return to the Bible as our only source of authority and our only guide for growth and missions. That we would teach the Bible to people where they are and that God would again be honored not only in the church, but in our homes, communities, states and our country. That both the churches (corporate) and the individuals would train up their families, would make disciples and live lives that are Holy and Blameless before God and men.
The major difference in our gathering from the majority if not all the other churches around the country participating Sunday, was that instead of fasting, I felt it prudent that we celebrate this new beginning. We celebrated in anticipation of what the Lord is going to do, not only in our country,communities and lives, but in our congregation as well.
I shared this from the pulpit, "We need to act in anticipation of our prayer. We need to celebrate this new beginning, and celebrate in anticipation of what God is going to do among His people."
We will work toward a time of regular personal and corporate fasting, but yesterday we needed to praise God for the blessings He has already provided but for the blessings to come!
All in all it was a great Sunday and an even greater beginning, and I look forward to all that the Lord is going to do in our lives, our congregation, our community, our country and our world!

2009-06-28T13:17:00.002-05:00

I am ever so amazed at the complexity of God, I have been preaching at this church for the last four weeks, and had applied at the church as their minister retired at the end of May, well they narrowed it down to two men, myself and a dear brother who I greatly admire. Well, today they had a congregational vote, and I am the new minister. It is so strange, that is what we came here for to become equipped to be ministers of the Gospel. So, today as I sit here and write I am amazed, amazed at a life transformed by the Power of God, amazed that while I once was so many horrid things, now I am a minister of the Gospel and am now responsible for a flock.

Lord, I said send me, and you did, Lord I said I am willing and You have given these people to me, Lord I said that I wanted You to use my life both old and new, to make a difference in this world and today we begin a new chapter of our life. Lord may I honor You above all and always use these opportunities to bring Glory to You, and may I be Salt and Light, and always yielded to Your will.

Lord Thank You and now that You have brought me here, I am looking forward to the work that You have prepared for us.

Who Really Killed Goliath?

2009-06-24T13:03:00.004-05:00

I subscribe to Bible Study Magazine and they have an interactive side as well. While you get the printed publication you also get the cool advantage that only Logos could offer, web content. This month, they have a very interesting article on who really killed Goliath. There seems to be a manuscript variance that can cause what seems to be a contradiction, equip yourself today and find out more by reading the whole article.

Phrase Study

2009-05-22T14:59:00.005-05:00

Wow, another semester gone! It is hard to believe that with the commencement of the 09-10 school year I will be a senior. I have been preaching more recently and have been doing some more personal study too, I much prefer to do study when it is for me rather than an assignment, though I do enjoy many of those also.
Recently, in doing a phrase study from the Greek text, I ran across some interesting similarities across some texts that many render into English different ways. My first reaction is to scratch my head in wonder. How can three to five words that are in the same context, the same case, gender, number etc mean two different things?
I have to come down on the side of order and put my presuppositions to bed and look intently at the meaning of each and in doing so I have come to a new conclusion. What is that conclusion you might be asking yourself or what in the world is this nut talking about. Well, I do not want to try and sway you by saying what I have concluded just yet. I will, in due time. I would really love to do this in a discussion format as it would be much more profitable to your own study. But since hardly anyone ever reads this blog, that would make discussion impossible. Since that is the case, I would ask that if you have any preconceived notions about works, or about the blood of Christ, John's Baptism or Christian Baptism, put them to bed and let them get a good rest while you wrap your mind around these facts. I have prepared a phrase study sheet that I made as I went through this it is a concise sheet, and I ask that you pray earnestly before you read beyond the solid line that separates this section and the phrase sheet. I would ask that you look at each of these in the Greek text, as I have given you the words and if you have a Bible software like Logos and have a language package use it, do not be afraid of the Greek, if you do not have a program go to this site from there you need only put in the text and click the Greek tab and you will go to that text and they use mouse over technology so it will show you the grammar. The idea is that if grammar rules apply then you can have one and only one way of understanding these texts, if the rules do not apply then scripture can be made to mean whatever we want it to be. Though some days that option would be nice, especially when I am running behind and the speed limit is not as fast as I would have it to be,you know what I am saying, but that is not God or His way. He is not a God of chaos, He is a God of order, or law and order. Which means that He has set rules that must be obeyed if we are to truely understand and enjoy the full richness of His word and His Kingdom. I pray that you will be strengthened, encourage, and blessed by this study, and further more I pray that you will consider that once I believed differently than I do now. And the change came because I have taken the time to learn the language and do dozens hours of tireless study all the while not favoring what I want to hear or favoring what is popular. Rather, I have desired to know God's truth no matter how hard it is to understand, no matter how much it flies in the face of man centered teaching, or no matter how unpopular it may be. I also ask that you remember God said He would use that which seems foolish to confound the wise, which my dear brother or sister I no longer consider myself wise but woe, according to the popular mindset I am a fool, and I am grateful to God for humbling me. The last thing I would ask is this, Pray, Pray that God would give you a real desire to know His truth, and that no matter what, you would come to Him in total submission and that if you find what you currently believe in contradiction to what you are about to study, that you would be honest with God and yourself and that before you close your heart and your mind that you would bow in prayer again and ask God to help you understand. Well, here you go, May the Lord richly bless your desire to know the truth and may the truth set you free and may you mine from the study the wealth of the Kingdom riches!_____________________________________________________
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(Mark 1:4, NASB95) "John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."

(Luke 3:3, NASB95) "And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;"

(Luke 24:47, NASB95) "and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem."

(Acts 2:38, NASB95)"Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

(Matthew 26:28, NASB95) "for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins."

εἰς ἄφεσιν ἁμαρτιῶν. The words are pronounced Ace, Aphesin, Hamartion, which in the English is for forgiveness “of” sins.

The first word εἰς “Ace” The preposition “for” (Greek, eis) means “to obtain” (Thayer, 94). The phrase may be rendered: “so that sins might be forgiven” (Arndt, 228)

The second word, ἄφεσιν “Aphesin” is a Singular Feminine Noun in the accusative case, the accusative case is the case of the direct object

The third word, ἁμαρτιῶν “Hamartion” is a Feminine Plural Noun in the Genitive case, this case roughly corresponds to our English possessive case. Hence, the genitive expresses possession.

Some believe that this phrase in Acts 2:38 means that we are baptized because our sins are already forgiven, and if this is true then we must by the rules of grammar, hold that grammatically in each of the examples the same construction must be true.

For example:

(Mk 1:4 & Lk 3:3) John was preaching a baptism because the sins had already been forgiven.

(Lk 24:47) And Jesus talking to His disciples would be saying that we repent because our sins have already been forgiven

(Act 2:38) would be baptism because sin has been forgiven, (please note the only grammatical difference in this text, is the article and the personal pronoun, denoting your personal sins)

(Mat 26:28) would have to read that Jesus’ blood was poured out because sin was already forgiven. (No body holds to this, though they should if they say Acts is to be rendered this way)

In each of these examples if we interpret them as I have described above, the Christ’s death was senseless, as would be repentance.

However the truth is, the rules of grammar, will not allow such a loose and inconsistent interpretation. We know Jesus’ blood was shed for the forgiveness of sin, not because sin had been forgiven, then by the rules of grammars we must conclude that Repentance and Baptism are for forgiveness. Christ’s shed blood makes it possible for all to receive forgiveness, and in order for us to receive it we must believe, confess (both our sins and Jesus’ name), repent, and be baptized. It is not salvation by works it is submitting to God’s will, and doing God’s will, God’s way, not ours.

This phrase study was inspired by Brother Alger Fitch, from a conference in which he spoke on Baptism, in 1998 which I purchased from our church library.

Excellent Post to Pass Along

2009-03-10T17:00:00.000-05:00

One of the blogs that I read frequently had a link to this article and I too am going to recommend this short reading. And like Brother John, I will be working on incorporating this within my family as well, it certainly sounds like a neat way to open up some excellent discussion and Bible study among the family. Please follow this link "Pray Through the Bible" and maybe you too can work this discipline into your daily routine.

May the God of Heaven reward your efforts to bring your family closer to Him through His Word!

Bring BSM into your New Year!

2009-01-01T12:33:00.001-06:00

By the title I am guessing you have at least two questions, what is BSM and why would you want to bring it into your New Year?
Well, first let me introduce you to Bible Study Magazine “BSM” is published by Logos Bible Software. My first thought when I heard about a paper magazine produced by a company who deals only with electronic resources, well let’s just say it was less than favorable, after all how good could a company who deals in e-publications do in a paper world.
Well, I got the inaugural issue and I flipped through it and noticed the quality of the production, so my first impression was good. I decided to jump right in and find an article, well being in college and just finishing my third and final semester of Greek, I naturally chose “Greek Word Study without Greek” which lay out in four easy steps to get at a realistic and usable definition of Greek words from scripture. I just finished Greek Exegesis and in four steps, they did an excellent job of conveying one portion of the exegete’s task. BSM’s explanation of the use of resources used in doing these studies was thoughtful, clear and backed-up by their own powerhouse of on line resources.
From there I decided to involve my whole family, so I made 6 copies of the Bible Word Find, from 2 Kings 18, and the race was on, unfortunately for me the wife won and finished the puzzle in a matter of a few minutes, followed by me and then each of the kids rolled in one by one. Fun was had by all and we spent sometime connecting in a different way and the kids can’t wait for the next issue and neither can I, I want a rematch.

Included in this magazine is a 8-week Bible Study, that will keep you engaged in each issue until the next one arrives at the door. This is a useful and encouraging resource for everyone, from an average Christian who just wants to learn more about the God who they serve or the Bible Professor who is looking for something different. Bottom line I liked the magazine so much that I am now a subscriber and am looking forward to the next issue.

Great Job Logos and Bible Study Magazine, I highly recommend this magazine as a resource no house should be without, so get yours today at www.BibleStudyMagazine.com

What is in your Bible?

2008-12-30T10:37:00.002-06:00

Have you ever wondered why some bibles have 66 books some have more some have less or maybe who has what books? well with this handy little chart by Logos Bible Study Magazine will be of great interest to you.

I hope you enjoy and have a wonderful and safe New Year and may 2009 be the year of The Lord in my life and yours life and in our World too.

I hated to say good-bye

2008-12-08T13:48:00.005-06:00

Well... I am not sure even where to begin. Almost 14 yrs ago we brought home a not so little fur ball and named him Zeus, we knew he was going to be big, after all what choice would a dog that was 50% Black Lab and 50% Great Pyrenees have but too be large. And he was not only large he was larger than life. Zeus had the best disposition of any animal I have ever known or seen, he was a lover of both animal and human.
With our kids he was the greatest, he was a friend and a protector, he loved and watched over each one of them. I generally am the last one to go to sleep in the house, I think it is the dad in me, I don't know. There where many of nights when Zeus would get up look over to me and the wife to make sure we where alright and he would make his rounds. He would check on each kid and make a trip or two around the house to make sure all was right and in order and then he would return and lay down and take his place by my side.
For the past few months he has been down with degenerative arthritis of the hips and in the past month he has not been able to get up on his own and has relied on us to help him up so he could go out or get some food and we were happy to oblige since he has always been there for us.

Yesterday, my friend began to passing blood in his urine and this morning we had to put him to sleep as he was now in pain and not even able to woof. And you have to know Zeus to appreciate the bark because it was not just a bark or a yap, it was a WOOF, one that would bring fear in your heat just when he wanted to say hello.

The lady where I work offered to allow us to bury him on her farm since we could not afford to have him cremated. Thanks to our neighbor for going with me and helping me dig the hole and place Zeus in and gently cover him up. Zeus now rests under a beautiful Oak tree, in a pasture where I am sure if he were still alive he would have loved to run and play.

I hated to say good-bye, I hated it when my wife's dog Willy passed away in 2007 and once again I hated to say good-bye. I hate it for my kids who have all grown up with Zeus, so please pray with me for them that they are able to share their pain, share their feelings, their grief and their sense of loss, and pray that they will be able to share the love and memories that they have a of the greatest friend (wife not included) and dog I have ever had or known. Lastly pray that in this they would find peace and comfort from their family and friends and that we would all enjoy and cherish our treasured memories of Zeus who was more than "just a dog" he was one of a kind and a member of the family who we will all miss greatly.

Coming home will never be the same again, Zeus we love you and we will always miss you!

Tagger

2008-11-30T14:30:00.006-06:00

Libronix (Logos) have created a neat script for your website/blog, called "RefTagger" it is a web based tool, when the script is installed on your site allows visitors to mouse over any scripture reference Eph 2:5 and the scripture will display in a pop-up window. If you are familiar with "InstaVerse" it works on the same principle except it is a web tool that you write into your site, not a program you download.

Another nice feature is the end user control panel that allows your visitors to set their version of scripture they prefer. You will find this tool just to the top left side of this blog.

When you install "RefTagger" you set your version, like mine is NASB, however as for me the coolest thing is, if you own any Libronix Bible Software, the "RefTagger" will actually launch the program, if you look at a scripture reference, like Jn 12:2 there is a lilttle "L" and when you click that it will launch your Libronix Bible Software. What is even cooler, and I have yet to use it or figure it out completely but it appears that if you do a study in Libronix you can also add an icon to any Libronix links that you create manually, that links to most resources and reports.

This is proving to be a very valuable tool for site users and for those who own the Logos software.

Well if you would like to get yours you can get it for free by following the link "Tagger" in the title of this post.

In His Service, For His Glory!

Steven

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T08:13:00.005-06:00

Well it has been a year since our disaster Thanksgiving and in one sense a ton of things have changed but unfortunately in other respects nothing has changed. So my wish for Thanksgiving is best communicated through prayer.

Father God, I come before You on this eve before Thanksgiving to pray that Your Spirit would be poured on Your church and that each an every person counted Yours would begin to live their lives as You will, forsaking all that is against You and counted evil by You, Lord that we would forsake even the appearance of wrong-doing for no other reason than for Your Glory. Lord help us all be ever aware of everything that we have to be thankful for. Lord I pray for those who do not know You, that those who know You would not waste another day in their comfy place and bring Your truth and Your witness to lost every opprotunity that You provide. Father I thank You so much for this life You have given, Lord I thank You for the blessings, I thank You for friends and family, I thank You for Your word, Lord I thank You for trials and hardships. Father most of all I thank You for Your Son, and for Your forgiveness. Jesus I thank You for Your sacrifice for me. Jesus help me this day and every day live my life aware of what You have done and may I motivated to live my life as a sacrifice to You for Your Glory. Jesus it is in Your name I pray Amen!

Happy Thanksgiving!
If you do not know the Lord of Glory may You turn and seek Him know!
If you do know Him, go and make sure everyone you know, understands how much God loves them and the sacrifice He made for them that while they were still sinners Jesus died for them!

God bless you all!

Steve

The 5 Steps!

2008-07-22T20:57:00.002-05:00

Well, it has been a long time since my last post and I thought that while I am taking a break from my sermon preparation for this Sunday's message, I would share with you a nice tool that I use for my personal studies, for Lesson planning and for my sermon prep.

We have all heard about 12 step programs for this and for that, and as long as Christ is the First Step, then I am OK with most plans of that sort. However, these 5 steps are not part of a recovery plan, or are they.

This is a tool to help you stay focused on God's Word, and to help you make sure that you are always letting scripture speak for its self and that you are not relying on someone else to give you the meaning of the text. Likewise, this is a great tool to check what you are being taught. Maybe there is just a point of contention; or someone is trying to persuade you to his or her belief and you are just not sure. Well, this tool with elbow grease applied can help.
As you go through each step, it is very important that you do not skip ahead, remember that when one mines for the purest ore or rarest diamonds, there is protocol, procedure, and it requires intentional hard work!

As you work each step in order, you will find yourself getting deeper into the text, in the genre, in the world and language of the Biblical writers. All the while you are getting such an awesome, inspiring, up close and personal view, that not only can, but will change your studies, understanding of the Word and with some time even your life.

Step 1, Survey the Background, this is where you find out, who is writing, where they wrote, to whom are they writing and the like. Here the only intention is to find out information about the players. You might find that Matthew wrote his Gospel before 70 AD and it was likely written in Antioch or Palestine, and that it s genre is a gospel, and that he wrote for primarily a Jewish audience. These are the types of thing your looking for in this step.

Step 2, Examine the Context, this is where you dig in a little more and begin to find out the setting of the passage you are looking at, from the previous step, you may have been looking in Matthew chapter 5, at the sermon on the mount, here you find out Jesus is teaching, He is message is oriented in instructing about life as a disciple, life as a believer in the World, and our personal relationships and how we are to live.

Step 3, Analyze the Grammar, simply put this is looking at the relationship between the words of the text. You are looking for the important key words/instructions, verbs, nouns, phrases, clauses etc.

Step 4, Define the Words, here you get back to the original language whether Greek or Hebrew and find the definitions. Here you will be so surprised how many teachers today will use today's definition, when more times than not, this just does not fly with the "AIM" Author's Intended Meaning.

And lastly;

Step 5, Consult the Commentaries, this is a way to make sure that you or the teaching you are checking on is not out in left field, peddling a message outside the intended message of scripture.

You see, many teachers out there today will try to sell you the easy-believism, the idea that we are just fine the way we are and that all we need to do is, “just believe” or that God only wants to bless you and increase your fortune, if you just sow a little seed of faith. BEFORE YOU BUY, SELL IT OR BELIEVE IT, DIG IT OUT FOR YOURSELF AND SEE IF YOU ARE HEARING THE TRUTH!

My task is not to beat you over the head, my task is to educate you and speak, teach, preach the truth, and that is it, (disclaimer... this is very over stated, my task is much greater but for my purpose here, and to keep this post manageable, this is a sufficient representation of my task.)

Well, time has come and I must return to my sermon, I pray that you will find this tool most useful in your day-to-day studies of the scriptures, and that it will likewise prove most useful in your ability to ward of the flaming arrows of the false teachers, who are already among us.

So, I guess this may just be a recovery program for those who have strayed from the path of diligent study of the scriptures, well may the Lord bless your studies and I will try to share more tools as time allows.

In His Service, For His Glory!

Steven

As I Contemplate…Goodbye.

2007-11-25T12:57:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving 2007 will not be one my family and I will soon forget. As we set out for our home in TN, we drove the 8 hours and 500 miles, to spend the holiday with our friends and family, but it would not turn out to be. On Thanksgiving day after taking one of our children to the emergency room for an asthma attack, we soon realized that we could not stay where we were any longer. With only enough money to get back home or stay in a hotel, the choice was obvious, we had to make it back home, in MO, so we spent Thanksgiving night in our van in a parking lot of the local Wal-Mart. We did not get to spend the holiday with many of the people we had hoped to, other plans prevented that, we did get to see a friend we have not seen in awhile and it was good seeing that his life is turning around in such positive ways. Dave, man, we love you and are praying for you!

We learned a lot this Holiday, about Life, God, Family and Friendships. While in some ways, this is not a huge revelation for our family, it was a tremendous demonstration of the total awesomeness of God, see the most important thing we learned, is that God, is Alive and on His Throne, while we spent Thanksgiving night both in the Hospital and later in a 7 passenger mini-van with six people and two dogs. We spent a total of 20 some hours in tight quarters, we learned, everyone can and probably will let you down or turn on you, but the Love God demonstrates in our lives is priceless and worth whatever sacrifice, that either comes or is required. We harbor no ill will or harsh feelings toward anyone, and just pray that the Lord will guide us all to the place of total surrender to His will.

Well, I guess with the title I have chosen it might be good, to get on with it.
This will be my last post for a long while, after all, no one really reads this anyway, and I have to get more focused on God and living His will for our lives. I have begun my calling as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, proclaiming the Good News to people whom God loves and are without hope. With a wonderful and full family, going to school full-time, working, and ministry, I simply do not have the time right now to keep up four blogs and a website. One might say I am stretched a bit thin. So, as I contemplate, this Thanksgiving past, and Christmas to come, I say GOODBYE!

From Our Family....

2007-11-19T08:08:00.000-06:00

From Our Family to Yours!

May you have a Happy Thanksgiving! And May the Lord Bless you richly!

A Precursor!

2007-10-29T09:40:00.000-05:00

Joshua 24:15 says… "If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

In John Chapter 6 verse 26… Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled

Jesus said in John 5:40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.

On the day of Pentecost, Peter preached Jesus Christ crucified and raised from the dead and all that where there were pierced to the heart and behold, they asked Acts 2:37 "Brethren, what shall we do?"

In the Beginning…just before the fall the serpent posed a question to the woman… "Indeed, has God said, `You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
To which the woman replied… From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, `You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.' "

Jesus taught many parables, many that contrasted between two,’s, the parable of the wise and foolish builders, is one.

2 Samuel 24:12 says…“Go and speak to David, ‘Thus the LORD says, “I am offering you three things; choose for yourself one of them, which I will do to you.” ’ ”

I love these next two, Proverbs 3:31 Do not envy a man of violence And do not choose any of his ways. And, Isaiah 56:4 For thus says the LORD, “To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold fast My covenant,

What does all this mean…? Dig in and find out...! Let me know what you discover.

Preach the Word.. NOT the World!

2007-09-30T07:43:00.000-05:00

This is such a timely quote and every man who dares enter the pulpit or embarks to step on the platform should check himself for the properness of his heart and humbleness of spirit.

"When a man steps into the pulpit more interested in telling us about his week so that he can 'relate' to his people - he is not preaching the Word. When a man seeks to be funny behind the sacred desk rather than faithful with the text - he is not preaching the Word. When a man claims to have a 'word from the Lord' a part from the divine revelation of Scripture - he is deceived and is not preaching the Word. When a man designs his sermons to attract a target audience, appeal to the culture, and has as its primary goal a thirst to be relevant - he is not preaching the Word. When a man strives to change the world through politics, representing America as the new Israel, seeking to bring a societal morality through legislation, and honors the flag equally with the cross - he is not preaching the Word. When a man fails to tremble at God's Word privately before ever preaching it publicly - he is not preaching the Word. And when a man treats the pages of holy writ with a cavalier, seeker-friendly, watered down, cream of wheat irreverence - he is not preaching the Word."

- John MacArthur Jr.

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. - 2Ti 4:1-4

May we, who dare, tremble at the very thought of our tremendous and frightening responsibility and never take it lightly, rather respectfully, humbly, fearfully and with reverence for the Creator God who called His creation to preach His Word, Jesus!

1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
3and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

1 John 4:1-3 (NASB)

In Response to..."Here Is Your Sign"

2007-09-23T13:21:00.000-05:00

This post is my thoughts on a post from the site "My Front Porch"

I can understand how you feel. It reminds me of a time driving back from Mo. after a visit, the wife and I saw a Lincoln Town Car fly by with a bumper sticker that said Clergy, however it also had an inverted cross on it and in the window another, which said the church of Satan. This person dressed all in black, driving his black car, drove in front of us for nearly eighty miles, we were in TN, when we saw this guy. The thing that struck me as I drove behind him was the presence of evil. I could feel it in my bones before I saw the sticker in the window. The difference between our two experiences is that with most people they put these bumper stickers on their cars thinking they are cute. This guy had this as a proud proclamation that he is a child of the devil and that he is a servant of Satan, and an enemy forthright of our GOD.
It is not just a matter of we need to reach out, we are commanded to share the good news to those who do not know the Lord. For today they may just have what they see as a cute little bumper sticker, soon they may not just have a cute little sticker, but may have a mark that will identify them forever with the damned. The scriptures tell us that we are not guaranteed a moment here on this Earth, for those of us who know The Messiah, we have no other choice but to tell others of His mighty work in our lives and throughout history, so they too may have the opprotunity to become His. Evil is real! Far to many people, and even Christian play these little games with the culture and by entertaining evil, by opening themselves up to vile vision through the movies and television shows they watch. To grotesque mental images by the music that they listen to, or by what they read, all along saying I am a Christian, this stuff is not real, it is only make believe, when the Lord has forbid it. They look on these things as acceptable because that is what the culture does, make no mistake that as we open the door , Satan will have his way as he only need a crack to enter in and far too soon we will be no different than the culture but we will be nothing like our GOD. The enemy is real and he does prowl like a lion seeking who he can destroy, and the duty is ours to expose his lie and his way, so the veil can be lifted, so that the scales might be removed from the eyes of those who are blind, so they may see the SON and know His love and light.

Do not delay, in doing today what the Lord called you to do yesterday! For the destiny of many hang in the balance!

Lullaby, lullaby,

2007-09-06T15:28:00.001-05:00

Lullaby, lullaby,
Do not wake and weep;
Softly in the cradle lie,
Sleep, O sleep!
Softly in the cradle lie,
Sleep, my darling, sleep.

This seems to be the clamor of the emergent church; it would appear that they want you to be comfortable, to wear your facade, to be never changing, to be comfortable in the darkness of your sins. With statements like “We don't teach from Books of the Bible because it gets in the way of evangelism.” No wonder Christianity is in such a way, such a perverse way.

Let it be known, let this be proclaimed from the highest peak, with the loudest voice! Scripture never gets in the way! It leads the way, it lights the way, it is our schoolmaster. It should be taught, it should be loved, adored, and respected and it should be the prominent in our personal library’s and be the book most worn. While this is “of my opinion” it for the most part is a command of Christ. In Matthew 28:18-20 (NASB95)
¹⁸And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (emphasis mine).

How can we go and make disciples and teach them to observe all that is commanded, if we do not use the Bible? We must teach! What must we teach, what Christ taught and what the apostles taught!

Maybe there is some confusion… about what a disciple is. Let us look real quick at two definitions for Disciple the first is from “Easton’s Bible dictionary”. It defines Disciple in respect to being a disciple of Christ as follows; “A disciple of Christ is one who (1) believes his doctrine, (2) rests on his sacrifice, (3) imbibes his spirit, and (4) imitates his example (Matt. 10:24; Luke 14:26, 27, 33; John 6:69).”

In the “New Bible Dictionary” it states the following, “A disciple (from Lat. discipulus, ‘pupil, learner’, corresponding to Gk. mathētēs, from manthanō, ‘to learn’) is basically the pupil of a teacher”

And from Strong’s concordance it show us that a disciple was some one who was “learned, or one that was taught”

So, even from the basics we can so clearly see that if one wants to be and do as instructed by Christ Himself, “Go and make disciples” we must also, as Christ commanded TEACH them. And that which we teach them is scripture, we do bible studies, so they can know the real power of God in their lives by seeing a radical change in who they were to who they are to be. God may want them the way they are but He does not want to keep them there!

In 1 Timothy 4:16 Paul admonishes Timothy to”Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. (emphasis mine).

There is the goal, is it not? Put the Bible on the shelf and you will have shelved Salvation, for both yourself and those who hear you.

I heard this quote and do not know who to give credit for it, but it is ever so true. “The world does not need a NEW definition of Christianity, it needs a NEW demonstration of it.”

So, I leave you with final thought and a quote form Ian Paisley, first the thought, when did a preacher become so much smarter than the Author of the book to tell Him we do not need to use it, it gets in the way? When did the messenger become more important than the Message? When did the preacher reign on High, so as to tell the Almighty that he knows better? Friends, life is from and through the Cross of Jesus Christ. There is no other way, to the Father, no other way to teach, than that which is commanded by our LORD. Return to the Scriptures, hold them as they ought to be held, with both hands, in love, wonder and awe, with respect and admiration for the Blood stained pages for which the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords died, so we could know Him and His Glory. For truly that is what it is about… His Glory!

May you be moved, may you be blessed, if needed may you repent and return to your first Love. Now the quote form Ian Paisley,

“The church of Jesus Christ is largely sleeping, like a great bedroom and you have all the Christians in bed and they’re all sleeping ... and they’re saying "Please, don't wake me up! I want to sleep on!" And of course when God starts to operate a revival people cannot sleep, you can't sleep in church when the Spirit of God awakes the people. Look at the 1st verse of this 52nd chapter (Isaiah 52) ..."Awake! Awake! Put on strength!" Wake it up! You're sleepy Christians! Awake thou that sleepeth, Arise from the dead! Christ will give you life!”

-Ian Paisley

May we all by the power of the Lord be awakened to the Power, Relevance and everyone’s need of…The Word of God!

Wanna be Humbled?

2007-09-02T13:23:00.000-05:00

As Christians, we from time to time get humbled and for some, from time to time, seek to be humbled. And that, is today’s story.

Friday August 24th, was the second day of class for this semester and our first chapel for this semester. If you do not know me or have not been told I am a 41 year old man, I am a full time student, I am married to a wonderful and godly lady, who is the most incredible mother of our four children. Life is FULL, AMEN!
So, today, I set out for my only two classes for Friday, Life of Christ 1 and New Testament Greek, which was followed by Chapel. As I made my way into the gymnasium, the place was all a buzz with the incoming freshmen and all the returning students, the podium was in the middle of the floor and behind that the praise and worship team. We come in and get settled, have a few announcements and reading of scripture.

The passage came from 1 Peter 1:3-9 “3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, 7 so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.” And 1 Peter 1:13-16 “13 Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

Amazing verses, so we stand and sing our praise of worship to our Divine Lord and this is one of those times, since it is the first Chapel of the semester when it is just amazing. About 500 of us singing praise to our King, it is enough to give (and it did) you chills form your head to your toes.

As we end our time of singing, we are introduced to the speaker today and as always a treat, it is the President of the College, Dr.Oakes. This is a man when you hear him preach you know that God is with him and using him to share His (God’s) heart with you. He has a passion for helping mold us into “real servants and real leaders”. He is one of those men that you could (at least I could) sit for hours and just listen to preach. Very few men fit into this category, but Dr Oakes fits it like a glove. I would try to give you some of the points of his message for us, but I fear that it would never do. So here is a link, please take about 25 minutes of your day today and let the Lord through His messenger Humble you. Christ said in the book of Luke Chapter 18 and verse 14 said "I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

So, I ask, wanna be humbled?

Who, I am

2007-08-15T14:27:00.000-05:00

Well, where do I begin, I almost feel as if this is another personal testimony, but that is not really, what I am thinking through. I see myself first and foremost as a servant, not a very good one, but never the less a servant. My desire is that no matter the difficulty or obstacle, that, I would be a great one, but some days I am quite uncertain on how to obtain this stature of being a great servant. I do not wish or desire that I be praised or receive acclaim or the adulation of men, rather to just live a simple and humble life of servitude. Servitude to what you may be asking yourself about now. Well, most importantly as servant of God, to be His in totality, secondly, to be to my family what God would have me be, a husband that is there for his wife, to encourage, to help lift her up when she is down and to help her in ways that make her walk and her life more enjoyable. To love her as Christ, loves His church. Again, I do not do very well at this either, most days; I feel that I am at a total loss in how to be what God would have me be to her. Next, to be a father, a godly man who shows Christ and teaches God’s plan and lesson with His love, to train my children up for God and His purpose, once again I miss the mark a lot. Next, would be my call the be a minister of the Gospel of Christ, to serve in that capacity with zeal, humility, love, honesty and righteousness, to always put God and His priorities for my life before that of my own desire or ideas about how I think things should be, as the U.S Army puts to “Be All I can be”, And while this falls last in priority of a list, they are of all great importance.

At these points, I often wonder why? Why would the God of the Universe want me, what is in me that would be so special that He would care about the numbers of hairs on my head, let alone love a miserable wretch of a man, that never seems to get it, or get it right. Last night as I prepared to go to sleep, as I have done for the past couple of weeks, I have read a chapter or two, sometimes even three of the Book of John. In John 14:15 Jesus says, “if you Love Me you will keep my commands” and I wonder, do I love Him as much as I should, am I even capable of Loving Him that much. Would I, if a gun were held to my head or the heads of, one of my own, would I love Him enough?

In the Book of Acts, in the sixth and seventh chapters, we read of a man named Stephen, probably not who I was named after (I will actually have to look into that question) and I am a “v” not a “ph”. Anyway, in Acts six and seven we read of His love for God and how He was not only willing to but did, without protest, defense or equivocation, surrender his life and became the very first person to be martyred for the cause of Christ. Can I be such a man? Would I be such a man? So the question remains, Who am I? I am not a doctor or a lawyer, not an electrician or a carpenter, as I said in the beginning I am a servant.

See the reality is we are all servants, we all serve something or someone. I never really looked at it, that way, but when I smoked, the cigarette was my master. When I was an alcoholic and a drug addict they were my masters. We can be servants of our desires, or wants, basically like I said we are all servants of something or someone. What or who do you serve? It can even be things we think of as good, donating our time to good-will type organizations, being the team mom or dad, when and what makes it bad is when it replaces God as the Master over our servitude. I am not in charge of any but my own household and that, I submit to the desire of my Master, Christ, at least I desire too and I do try, some days harder than others, I am sure that you know what I mean. Outside of home, I am a student, going to college fulltime working toward a Bachelors of Science, this I do pretty well, I guess to some I am a pretty smart man, I have a strong desire to please God and I care deeply for the people who will someday be placed in my charge. I care about these people, whom I do not even know, yet, but I know that they will be sent from Him just as I too will be sent from Him to them, we will be a match made just for each other. I know it will not all be easy, hey it is not easy now, I suspect that it will get harder as I go along but at the same time I will become stronger as I face each new challenge.

I guess to understand these things we must first realize that God sees nothing in us worthy of His Love, He made man in His own image, He made us for communion with Him and thus far through history, at every chance we are given we have turned away to follow after our own devices. So, what does God see in me? Well, He does see that I believe, that I have and continue to confess my sins and I am heartbroken over them. He sees that I was baptized into the death of His Son and raised into the newness of life in Jesus. He sees the blood of His very own, covering my frailties, my shortcomings, my sins! Without His seeing this, to Him I would be someone that He would be lamenting over.

I made God cry, please do not think that I say this in some sort of lofty arrogance, I do not, it is just understanding some of His nature and besides that, we have all grieved God’s heart. I knew deep down, that when my dad said he did not believe in God, that was wrong yet, I lived my life like my earthly dad was right. That broke God’s heart, and if you are reading this and your getting this idea that I think I am somebody then you are dead wrong, or if you think God’s heart does not break, then, I say you are wrong again. I do not like putting God on human terms but we are human, that is all we have. If you have a child and that child grows up under your love and care, turns from you and denies you, you will be heart broken. Likewise, if God’s heart were not broken over our turning away from Him then why did He send His son Jesus to die for us? Jesus was sent to make it possible for God to keep His Holiness in tact and allow us to be with Him?

Why did He go out of the way and save the human race and work the plan that would meet the requirements for Holiness, which would at the same time allow an unworthy people in His presence? Love! He loves us even though we did not and some still to this day do not love Him, it is only love that could explain the why. See darkness and light cannot inhabit the same space and time, one must be dominate and Light is that dominating force, in every situation Light extinguishes the darkness. God is Light, since we are darkness we cannot be with the light unless we become light and we are just not capable, that is why God sent His Son for you and me, to be light for us.

So in this, I am now no longer counted as darkness but rather light, not light in the sense that I emanate it, but more like the moon in the sense that I reflect it, for His Son is my light. He is my source of and for being, He is my protector, my comforter, He is my healer. He is both my cup and my portion, He is my source for peace in my time of affliction, He is the calm in my storms. Jesus is the answer to all of my questions about who I am and am to be.

Amazing Quote!

2007-07-26T08:34:00.000-05:00

This is an Amazing Quote, that I heard recently and thought I would post it as a testimony to the original author. Lord may my spirit, faith and dedication be no less, and may those who read this be encouraged to grow stronger, and remain steadfast, it is in the Name above All names, the name of Jesus, I pray!

“I’m a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit Power. The dye has been cast. I have stepped over the line the decision has been made. I am a disciple of His. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, platitudes or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith lean on His presence, walk by patience, am lifted up by prayer and labor by power. My face is set, my gate is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions few, my guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, let up until I’ve stayed up. I am disciple of Jesus. I must go till He comes, give till I drop, preach till all know, work till He stops me, and when He comes for His own, He’ll have no problem recognizing me at all!”

Author Unknown

The Five-dollar bike and a Christ-like Attitude

2007-07-15T21:50:00.000-05:00

There it was, faded purple and looking like it had been left out in the weather for a couple of years. Six-speed and a chain that has more rust than and old Chevy, the chain was off the sprocket in the front and jammed between the sprocket and the frame in the back. For a bike, it certainly looks like it was rode hard and never put up. On the seat of that bike the sticker said five-dollars. My wife called me over and with a whisper can you fix it? My first reaction, pay me five and I will haul it off to the heap, but I tabled that, thought about it, and said yeah, I think so.

You see where we are right now the kids have not been able to ride bikes so, one of the kids has never had a bike, and two of the remaining three have outgrown the ones they have. So any way, we find this bike and looking to my oldest son and ask him well do you want it? Yeah, I would love to have it! Son, I said, it is a bit of a mess but I think I can get it to where you can ride it. That would be great, he rather happily responded.

My wife pays the clerk the five plus tax and we loaded up the bike and we are off. Once we get home, I begin undoing the mangled chain, and begin to put some lubricant on all the metal and working parts, this thing was soaking the liquid up like a sponge that had spent an eternity in the desert. I mean the more I put on the more it soaked up. I finally got the chain unstuck and straightened out the chain guard and finally get the chain to stop jumping off the sprocket. Then, on to getting the rear brakes un-jammed, now they are working, in all this my son is very patient and being a good helper.

After about an hour and a half I get the bike on the ground with two inflated tires and a son grinning from ear to ear. After two or three trips around the house in the grass my son stops his “new” bike and says thanks dad for my “new” bike I sure am lucky to have such a nice bike. I am glad that God made it so I could have this nice bike.

My friends this is a nine-year-old boy who gets it. Here is a kid that is thankful for an old junky bike that most kids today would never ride and this kid is showing it off to the neighbor boys and telling them just how great his new bike is. I heard him telling one boy, I know it is old and it has a lot of rust but I sure am thankful to have it.

At supper tonight, I told him how proud I was of his attitude I praised him for a very Christ-like attitude. My wife and I told him how most kids today would not like it very much if their parents brought home a bike like that. I told him how they might not be as grateful as he is, dad he said, this morning I did not have a bike I could ride, but thanks to God now I do.

I have been greatly inspired by my nine-year-old son today and I am writing this as a testimony of his heart. Many of today’s youth would consider this bike to be a piece of junk, that they would never ride, but to my dear boy, it is the finest bike ever made.

I want to leave you with this thought, when we drive that not so nice car, or wear that slightly worn shoe or maybe even live in that not so fancy home, can we stand before God and man as this kid with his five-dollar bike and his Christ-like attitude?

Today my son represented each of these passages below and I too am thankful, I am thankful to God for a growing young man who gets it!

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13, NASB95)

"Rejoice always;" (1 Thessalonians 5:16, NASB95)

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4, NASB95)

"as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things." (2 Corinthians 6:10, NASB95)

We are a World in Need of Revival!

2007-07-11T13:15:00.000-05:00

In Searching through some sermons, I came across this video of an audio sermon compilation that I heard some time ago and thought it needed to be posted. My you be inspired by the Holy Spirit to walk the path less traveled and my you be so inspired that a fire ignites within the deepest recesses of your spirit and may God give us REVIVAL!

A Sacrifice is Required!

2007-06-24T20:24:00.000-05:00

Over the last three to four months, I have had some serious and sometimes intense debates with a number of people about the Bible. We have debated things from the simple to the sublime, to the down right ridiculous, and every time I come away with a new found respect for both the simplicity of un-comprehendible complexity of this one single book.

I read a quote one time that went something like this, “The bible is so simplistic that if it were a body of water, the smallest of children could not drown in it, while at the same time, so complex that the most learned theologian could never touch the bottom”
That is a powerful insight that I think many of today’s churchgoers and even some pastors have lost sight of, and that is a shame.

In some of these debates, we have discussed free-will verse pre-destination, Baptism, “is it a work”, and the authority of scripture. This is the one that I really want to concentrate on right now. Sometime ago my wife and I were talking at a football practice with one of her friends, she held the view that the Bible is just a collection of moral stories intended to guide our lives but we really do not have to read it or live it as long as we are generally good people. In our conversation I asked her how she came about to this particular belief, she very honestly and bluntly said that was her churches teaching. “God is all loving and fair and just and died for everyone so as long as we try to live good lives then we are all heaven bound,” she said. We talked about Hell and according to her belief, only Satan and his legion would be going there, if it even existed to begin with.
We continued our dialog about the Bible and our differing believes and when trying to explain some things in scripture, the most remarkable thing became evident, her mind was not open to any truth from scripture. For example I asked what her church taught about the scriptures like Rev 21:8 that say "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Frankly, her response was scary to me, Revelation, is just a book written to scare people into being obedient to the church leaders. This was somewhat of a defining moment for me, in my call to the ministry. I had a light shine brightly over this time, shortly after, I began to dig deeper into the scriptures and make even more careful observations about the nature of people and their believes about the most definitive and authoritative book ever written.

The moral character of the church going masses has eroded away along with their collective belief in God’s Holy Word as the final authority for their lives. When someone who is un-churched looks in to the church these days, he sees very little difference between his life and the lives of the average churchgoers. There are sure to be many contributing causes of this from the pure lack of day-to-day personal bible reading, to churches that wont use big words like “propitiation” in effect they are dumbing down, so as not to offend. To the continual onslaught of pastors themselves who have been caught in immoral activities from drugs to illicit sex scandals, you name it and there could be counted a reason for this slow drift from shore into the treacherous waters of disbelief.

From this conversation to some of the more recent, I have found that people are fulfilling scripture in masses and they are not even aware of it. They are living 2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths."

With the continuing rapid moral decline and increased church attendance, yes you read that right, church attendance is on the rise while moral decay is increasing. I have been left with one single question, why. A friend commented to me the other day about how many seem to be playing church and walking around as if some kind of daze of blindness to the scriptures.
The answer seems to be clear churches are turning toward the doctrines of men, rather than embracing the hard doctrines of God. In the same text of 2 Timothy 4:1-5 we are urged to stand up for truth and for the Word of God.
“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

If I am to be true to God and to myself, if I am to love, God and love His people then I must, when compelled speak out in favor or defense of God and His unyielding truth. In the past year or so, I have had conversations with many folks about the rising level of worldliness in the church. Churches supporting questionable movies, music and practices while at the same time for example not standing up for the sanctity of life. Refusing for insurance purposes to reach out to people who are infected with the disease of drug addiction, alcoholism or warning their flock about the dangers of pornography. Letting members knowingly live in a state of sin without lovingly confronting them. Having people as staff members or even volunteer’s who are living in sin, working with children, either couples living together without being married, to open and practicing homosexuals preaching from the pulpit. None of these things would be so, if, men endured what God has set out as His plan for our lives. God’s position for our lives is summed up in one passage repeated four times, three times in the Old Testament, and once in the New Testament, "because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” Peter 1:16,

All of these things when approached from the position of the scriptures is at best denial of God’s word, and on the straight up and up, absolute disobedience.

When we look upon the Word and do, what it says we should not, then we are wrong, that is not a man’s opinion that it the fact of God’s Word. In John 14:15 Jesus said, “if you love Me, you will keep my commandments” And just eight verses later He repeats and deepens this thought, John 14:23-24 "Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me."

Being a follower of Christ is not just going to church and living life the way we want, He has given us clear directive and they are not bending, not changing and they certainly are not debatable. I know that we a humans are not perfect and will never obtain in this life anyway, perfection, but just because we know we cannot achieve it, does not mean we should not strive for it.

Living a Holy life is not something that just going to church and living life as usual will make come about, it is hard work and will require many sacrifices in the way we live life. I used to love hard core heavy metal and alternative music, when I encountered Jesus, I was convicted by His Word that what I was putting into my mind and the minds of my children was wrong. I had to give up something I loved, that is a sacrifice. The truth is as long as I opened my heart to the evil in the music I was listening to, righteousness could not grow in me. I have talked with families and they would make sure nothing bad ever went into the hearts and minds of their children. But they would send the little angels to bed and watch some “R” rated movie that is borderline pornography, movies that would glorify adulterous sex, blasphemous language, glorifying drugs, alcohol, lying stealing, and when you ask them they see nothing wrong with living this way. The hard-core truth is that living that way is hypocritical; I know it is because I used to do it too. If it is not good enough for the mind of God’s precious little gift, then you might want to remember you are God’s precious little gift too, and he does not want you watching that filth either. We have a, could, should, rule in our household, the rule works like this, if we could not watch it with Jesus, then we should not watch it at all.

There will never be any sacrifice that we could make that could every repay the sacrifice Christ made for us, however, there should never be a sacrifice we are not ready and willing to make for Him either. I write what I write not out of some overwhelming desire to show my superiority like some will accuse, I do not write from lofty position without knowing the cost of these kinds of sacrifices personally. Rather I write out of sacrifice and love to urge you as in 2 Timothy 2:3-4 "Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier."

And since 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." I write for those reasons.
So, my hope is to encourage your fight, to spur you on to let go of the things that are vile and evil in the sight of the Lord and sacrifice the filthy rags of what this world has to offer, in exchange for crowns of righteousness. To promote a higher standard of living by the body of Christ, for us to honor God by living life for His pleasure, His honor and His Glory, by living a Holy life pleasing unto the Lord. To encourage you to love one another enough to speak out when one of our brothers or sisters are drifting away form the narrow path, to lovingly help bring them back, just as the Great Shepherd does.

What are you waiting for?

2007-06-13T19:33:00.000-05:00

This is going to be just a series of questions; I am not going to provide any answers, just a short explanation, and then just some questions.

Through the years, my wife and I have come across many couples, who will say things like “when we get the money” or “we cannot afford kids right now”. Maybe even “there are so many things going on right now we just cannot do it”. Now not all these things need to be said by couples, they can be said by anyone.

I guess the reason for this post and these questions is to get you to move beyond yourself, to move out where God has called you. Maybe it is just a dream that you want to fulfill, or new career you would like to pursue. There are many detractors in life, I have mine, and I know you have yours, like me, you too may very well be your own detractor at times, my goal is to stir you into action that will fulfill your calling, or your dream.

If you are a believer then hear these words of Jesus before I ask the first question, ponder it thoughtfully and prayerfully before you go any further. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command...If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching...He who does not love me will not obey my teaching (John 14:15, 23-24)

The reason I chose this verse is simple, first we are all called to service, secondly, when we are gifted with certain talents and do not use them, then we are in disobedience. I am called to the ministry, in the beginning I did not want to be apart of this, but that has changed. One thing I know, we have a choice, but even in that choice, we are not exempt from being obedient. If I had not left my home to pursue what God had called me to, that would be disobedience, but that choice was mine. So, as you ponder these things ponder also this, does God continue to bless us when we are disobedient to His will, His word, and His call?

Let us begin the questions!

1) Do you have unresolved issues with God?

2) What is your talent or gift?

3) Do you have a desire to do something other than what you are doing?

4) Are you using your gift or talent where you are to serve God?

4) Are you living up to your potential?

5) Do you really trust God?

6) Has God called you to do something new?

7) Has God sent you a sign?

8) Why do you doubt Him?

9) Why are you still when called into action?

Okay, that is the deal, I think for each of those questions if you are very honest with God and yourself you should be able to raise at least one or more questions of your own off each of the questions above. I understand how it is when people tell you that you cannot do it, that you just do not have the skill or talent. I understand more than you know to look at your bank account and see single digit figures, trust me I know. More importantly I know this, Philippians 4:19 says “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

If we skip back a few verses, we also find out in Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

So, that brings me to my last question.

What are you waiting for?

Practice makes perfect, Perfect is Christ

2007-06-03T20:47:00.000-05:00

Today in Sunday school we discussed being deliberate about living (practicing) the fruits of the spirit. To set out with the purpose to Love, be Patience, be Joyful, it is or at least it should be our cause as “followers of the way” that is Christians, to live our life in such a way as to “imitate” Christ. How we do that is not totally at our own discretion, we must do that which Christ did. In reading “The Imitation of Christ” by THOMAS À KEMPIS, in book 1 in the 25th chapter some insightful words, ones that should lead us to the realities of our daunting task.

“BE WATCHFUL and diligent in God’s service and often think of why you left the world and came here. Was it not that you might live for God and become a spiritual man? Strive earnestly for perfection, then, because in a short time, you will receive the reward of your labor, and neither fear nor sorrow shall come upon you at the hour of death.
There is one thing that keeps many from zealously improving their lives, that is, dread of the difficulty, the toil of battle. Certainly they who try bravely to overcome the most difficult and unpleasant obstacles far outstrip others in the pursuit of virtue. A man makes the most progress and merits the most grace precisely in those matters wherein he gains the greatest victories over self and most mortifies his will. True, each one has his own difficulties to meet and conquer, but a diligent and sincere man will make greater progress even though he have more passions than one who is more even-tempered but less concerned about virtue.
A fervent and diligent man is ready for all things. It is greater work to resist vices and passions than to sweat in physical toil. He who does not overcome small faults, shall fall little by little into greater ones.
If you have spent the day profitably, you will always be happy at eventide. Watch over yourself, arouse yourself, warn yourself, and regardless of what becomes of others, do not neglect yourself. The more violence you do to yourself, the more progress you will make.”

It is much for us to be forceful with our own selves, but it is something we must do, we must crucify our selves, we must put to death the sinful carnal self that if left to its own self would destroy us and lead us even unto death, a death from which there is no recovery.

This is a job that one cannot do our self, or should even attempt to do without Christ. He is our strength. Isaiah 40:28-31 says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary".

Christ is our victory, it is in Him, we find the strength we need to overcome temptation, and it is only in Him. Likewise, it is He, who is our place for rest and renewal.
The old adage says, “Practice makes perfect” as Christians, we need to practice being not perfect but practice being Christ, and that takes humble intention.

Time for Repentance?

2007-05-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

Repentance, as we now know it is a intentional turning away from our sin. Leaving old ways and habits far behind, most of the times it will even involve “new friends” along with our new character. Repentance is absolutely a requirement of God; true salvation cannot be completed any other way. Yes you must believe, Yes you must confess your sins, Yes you must be baptized, however without repentance you are doomed…Doomed to perish, for doing all of the above without repentance would be like planting flowers, you have the flowers and the pot and the soil and some fertilizer, but no water. Without water your flowers are doomed to dry up, wither away and die. Likewise, it is for us when we do not have repentance.

Jesus, tells us in, Luke 13:3-5 (NASB95) 3 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? 5 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
No better time than the present, right? Why put off to tomorrow what you can do today? These are just two sayings of the dozens, I am sure, but the wisdom they provide are immeasurable, what they mean in the area of repentance is that we must do it now and do it often. Even as believers we will fall into sin, sometimes we may not even realize that, an attitude is sinful or dwelling on certain feelings can lead to sin. However when we realize or are convicted by the Holy Spirit, we must confess and repent, scripture teaches us in, Revelation 2:5 (NASB95) 5 ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.
This is a serious warning, some might want to take it as a threat but God does not threaten, He will warn us and let us know the consequences of our chosen actions, but it will be our choice to turn or not to turn. Make no mistake God’s desire for this would be to turn but it will be your choice. In Genesis, we are given the account of the Noah and the flood. God told the people to repent and to turn from the wicked ways, to abandon their lives of immorality, He was overly patient with them in fact, and He gave them over “One Hundred years” during this time Noah built the ark and preached to the people of his day, letting them know of Gods heartbreak over their condition. The people choose to remain in their sin, they clung to their idolatry and to their sexual immorality, you see they refused to turn to their creator and turn from their evil ways,
One of the things that I have found most interesting of the account of the days leading up to the flood is that even though Gods heart was grieved and His intention was to destroy everything. His intention was to destroy every man, woman and child, every animal, be it in the water the air including to the tiniest insect, every plant, tree, literally every living thing. God was going to destroy it all, but Noah found favor in Gods eyes and he alone with his family was spared the doom. There is a great lesson here for us today, while in those days your own righteousness was accounted to you and maybe even your family, however God knew that when left to our own righteousness there would not be many who would be able to achieve. It is here Gods love for us is shown through Jesus, again one mans righteousness was to be salvation for others. God is truly amazing and awesome in love and mercy.
John the Baptist began his ministry preaching in the wilderness of Judea with some very hard words Matthew 3:2 (NASB95) 2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” These are the very words that Jesus started His ministry with as well, in Matthew 4:17 (NASB95) 17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
The word repent from the Greek is the word “Metanoeo” to change one's mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's past sins.
Now in looking at the last part of this identical statement we see that the “Kingdom of God is at hand” looking at the last word “Hand” this is the Greek word, “Eggizo” the phonetic spelling is “eng-id'-zo” this word literally means to draw or come near to, to approach
So both John the Baptist and Jesus explained or need to change our mind toward our sin (repent) for Gods Kingdom has drawn near or is to approach. With that in mind, it is very easy to see that now is the time for repentance.
We should find ourselves sorrowful over our sinful condition; our heart should be broken to the fact that we have done such evil in the face of a Holy God. In this state of sorrow we can go before God and confess our sins, and repent of them and in our sorrow, we can be made joyful. God’s formula is clear and concise, a contrite heart sorrowful over our sinful condition, given to repentance, leads to salvation through Christ.
2 Corinthians 7:9-11 (NASB95)9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. 10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.
Gods heart made joyous… You and I make our Lord’s heart sing when we come to repentance, in Luke chapter 15 Jesus tells two parables the first of the lost sheep and the second of a lost coin, and the joy that is derived when the lost is found. Now, in our natural sinful state we are lost, not that God cannot find us but that we cannot find Him. For most they do not even look for him, but Jesus tell us that God is drawing us to Himself by other people that He sends into our lives by His word, by the Holy Spirit, all who call us to this repentance, by showing us our condition. In the Gospel of Luke Jesus tell us of the joy of the angels of God over one sinner who comes to repentance. Luke 15:10 (NASB95) 10 “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
How awesome to know that God and His angels are so joyful over one sinful person who come to repentance. Also in the gospel of Luke Jesus tells us that he came for this purpose to call sinners to repentance not the righteous. Luke 5:32 (NASB95) 32 “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
I want to wind down with a trip over to the gospel of Matthew, where we will see where God stands on our self-perception of being a good person, how easy it is to be self-righteous, and some places where we set up idols or where we make other things the object of our worship. God cannot come second to anything or anyone nor should He have to.

God loved us so much that he let the true righteousness of one man Noah, keep the bloodline alive. God has loved us so much that He came and took our place of punishment, so we could know Him. While for most the cost is to high, they just could never give up the pleasures of this world for the pleasure that is to come. I dare say that is as much a lack of faith as it is a lustful desire for their own selfish pleasure, pleasure not delayed but the gratification of doing it all now. Oh how selfish man is, how depraved, how undeserving of the expensive love that God has given so freely.

If you have a child think about this…Would you let your child die out of your selfless love of another? What I am asking is consider God for just one moment. Could you send your child to be brutally beaten, spit on, nailed to a cross, just so you can have a relationship with the people who your child died for, could you do that? Lets look at the verses in Matthew, 19:16-26 (NASB95)16 And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” 17 And He said to him, “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 Then he said to Him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. 23 And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” 26 And looking at them, Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Jesus was clear and the message is that with God “ALL” things are possible; it is only God through the blood of Christ that can get you and me through this life and be able to enter into he Kingdom of Heaven.
Who can be saved? Only the one who has been washed in the blood of Jesus!
The only way that one gets washed in His Holy blood is to accept the gift of salvation, believe that Jesus is, confess your sins to God, Die to this world, and eternity can be yours. God is the only one who knows your heart, but I can say this much, the condition of your heart will be reflected outwardly to the rest of this fallen world. After we repent we die to this world we must choose to take the narrow road, as Jesus said it is the only path to life, but he also said that few will find it. Matthew 7:13-14 (NASB95)13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Therefore, Time for Repentance is today lay down your sinful selfish life, deny yourself pick up your cross and follow Jesus. My friend if you are not a “follower” then now is your time. Follow in the Greek is the word “Akoloutheo” and the definition is 1 to follow one who precedes, join him as his attendant, accompany him. 2 to join one as a disciple, become or be his disciple.
I wanted you to clearly understand what it means to follow but you must also know one other word and it is Deny, in the Greek it is “Aparneomai” to forget one's self, lose sight of one's self and one's own interests.
We cannot do this on our own, nor does God ask it of us, but we must come to that place in ourselves that say no matter the cost “I Will Follow Jesus” no matter the cost. In Matthew 16:24 (NASB95) 24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.

Today the hour of Repentance has come, what will you do?

Clinging to the feet of Jesus

2007-04-24T12:04:00.000-05:00

What a week of tragedies, many times these tragedies can be means that crack the stone heart, other times people use tragedies to reinforce the wall and add another layer of height or the depth of the wall.
Though we look at life choices as many, but the truth of the matter there are generally two choices to any situation. One we can rebel, turn and haw at God claiming that He is not a God of love or justice. When we do this we set ourselves up in judgment of God, imagine, the created judging the Creator. I suspect that some who will read this will not agree and will go on their merry way, for those very people I ask one favor, please read on.
There are a few facts that we need to get clear, when Adam sinned, death and tragedy were introduced into this world.
God had given man a wonderful place to live and dwell and meaningful work to do, more importantly, He gave man a relationship with Him, He loved him enough that He walked in the garden where he dwelled. He loved man so much that He knew it was not good for him to be alone so He made him (Adam) a suitable partner/helper (Eve). Being that God is Holy and Loving and Just, He had given them one rule do not eat form the tree in the center of the garden. The day that Eve ate form the fruit and gave to her husband who was there, began a downslide that continues to this day. Tragedy and death entered this day into the world this very day. In talking about death, it was not physical but rather spiritual.
The eviction from the garden came with some harsh realities, the earth would no longer just produce, it would be by intense labor and on that note, and the woman would feel increased pain, in giving birth.
Over the history of man, we seem to come repeatedly finding ourselves staring at our own rebellion to the God who gave us life and loved us enough to give us a perfect place to live and a relationship with Him. Through all this, man continued to rebel and God continued to love. Being a Holy and Just God there were times when God had to hold us accountable, which is proper. If we are honest, we have to agree that God has always been just in His dealing with us. Actually He has been far more just than we would have been if we were able to sit on His throne.
Through it all God was willing and determined to provide for us something we were not able to and in some instances no longer interested in, a relationship with Him.
That brings us to the very means by which God would ultimately give to us as a means of relationship with Him, His very Son Jesus. It is through Jesus, through our belief in Him and by confessing Him, and following all that He commanded. Jesus taught many wonderful and inspiring truths, but one of the best for our condition and the pain that comes into our lives as a result of the nature of a fallen world is found in Matthew 11:29. It is here that Jesus instructs us “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Clinging to the feet of Jesus? When tragedy comes into our lives we will choose one of two Reponses, and as discussed earlier, we will either turn our hearts from the one who truly loves us or we will turn and cling. I do not mean to minimize anyone’s lose or the magnitude of any tragedy on ones life. My prayer is that if you are not the one who clings to the feet of Jesus, that you will.
Many people wrongly blame God for every wrong that happens in their lives, parents who lose a child, a child who loses a parent. As a parent, I cannot imagine the pain that must accompany losing of a child; I can however understand the pain of losing a parent, I lost my father at age 14. Life has taught me many things, very few were all that great, for in the eyes of the world we must rely on our own selves to get our comfort in our times of tragedy. Drugs and alcohol were then and are still the worlds antidote to suffering. This led me down a horrible and even more tragic existence, than that of a fourteen year old boy who would have just grown up without a father.
I am forty-one now, and came to truth late in life, but it is so very important, for me to convey the power of these truths. Where I came to find the most comfort and relief for my pain, the pain of a child, who turned to drugs and alcohol and who had to lived the hardest part of a child’s life without a dad, I came to this relief at the feet of Jesus.
My friends we cannot change the days passed by, we can only live today and change tomorrow. If you are at a place in life where you are dealing with the tragedy of a loss, please know that the one true God of the universe feels your pain and He shares your hurt and sense of loss. See, if you do not know the story, God knows the story of loss and of tragedy. He created this place, created two people, asked only two things, that we get to know Him, and asked us to obey only one rule. The result of that as we seen from above, the two failed and this broke His heart, several thousand years later, God sent Jesus, so He would die for us, so we could once again be able to dwell with Him. God loves you and I so much, that He sent His only Son to die for us, that is love in the highest degree. I know many do not understand or cannot equate this to love, but think about this would you send your only son to be brutalized and to die for people who do not even care? The fortunate part for us is that He did and we have a chance while we are still here to learn and apply that knowledge to our life.
If you have lost someone, especially a little one, a parent, or maybe a sibling, know this truth, you can know that God loves that child, and He is taking such wonderful care of that child. The child will experience no pain, no scrapes or boo-boo’s, never a tear to be shed. However, one does still grieve and shed tears, that one is God, He loves us so much and He does not want us to miss an opportunity to be with Him, and experience a hope in this life and in the life to come, a hope that is liberating from the may pains of this world.
We all live in this world, the same world that Jesus left Heaven to come to, so we could have the ability to come to Him in faith and inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Without Jesus, there is no hope, for us or for those little ones.
Therefore, if you know Jesus, do not let the devil get a foothold in your times of tragedy, Cling to the feet of Jesus. If you do not know Jesus, I urge you, know this, we are not guaranteed one day on this planet, do not let another breath proceeded from your lungs, please turn today and ask God to forgive you of your sins, ask Him to save your soul, go and be baptized. Get into a bible believing and preaching church and get to know Jesus, and you can know the peace, He so wants you to have in Him, and you can be confident that He is not alone in wanting to see you in Heaven. Turn my friend and cling to the feet of Jesus.

The Church of Cultural Relevance or The First Church of Idolatry

2007-04-07T18:43:00.000-05:00

It is said today that we in the church must conform to this world, or at the very least make the world comfortable in our midst. How sad of a day when the 10 Commandments are removed from our society because they offend a minority of people. How much worse when the Church of the very God who gave those commands removes them because they may offend someone?

The truly offensive here are the ones who remove Gods Word because someone may become offended. That is the worldliest bunch of garbage I have ever been confronted with. Where are the bold men of God who proclaim His Holy and Mighty Word without fear of anything or anyone? Where is this man of God today? He is not in too many pulpits today.

In our culture right now we have men in charge of the largest churches in America, and they stammer around the issues afraid to say that sin is sin. You have these wimpiest of men afraid to say that Christ is the ONLY way to be SAVED, that He alone is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE! We have men who will associate themselves with ungodly, unbelieving men who represent a cause, just because an ungodly world sees them as popular. It is akin to having Satan preaching in the pulpit. I am being general for a reason, I know who these men are and more than likely you do too. I am being so general because it is the right thing to do. My purpose is that if you are in the congregation of one of these harlots, that you yourself confront them, according to the biblical standard. Go to your brother, and confront him is he repents, you have won your brother, if he does not, go to him with two or more witnesses, and confront him again, if he refuses to repent remove the evil from your presence.

I am not in favor of churches splintering or splitting, at the same time, there are procedures for discipline in the church and they must be followed to remove those who are distorting the truth of God’s Holy Word.

Recently I listened to a sermon based on the message of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 9:19-27, I was completely appalled! The message of Paul was ripped out of its Historical context, and became a message that we should embrace this world and that we need to immerse ourselves in the culture, read what the culture reads, listen and watch what the culture listens to and watches, the only good in the message was he did say that we are not to sin, when we do this. According to this preacher, that is what Paul did. The only problem with that is the fact that the Apostle Paul, also know as Paul of Tarsus, who was a Jew, but was a Hellenized Jew, he grew up in a culture that was predominantly Greek/Roman. This pastor said that Paul went so far as to learn the poets and philosophers of the day, this is contextually wrong, he knew some of these things because he grew up in that culture. Let it also be known that He (Paul) considered himself a Jew of Jews. He took what he knew and used it to confront people about there unknown god, to show them that this God was not unknown to him and did not have to be unknown to them. A couple of things that this pastor forgot were, that we are not to do things which could cause another brother to stumble, and we are to be Holy for the Lord our God is Holy.

This particular pastor went as far as to say, “we are in sin if we do not contextualize” the Holy Word of God, which is to take the scriptures out of their natural context and make them apply however, the situation warrants. I am here to warn us against such pagan principles.

Situational ethics are not scriptural and they are wrong, just as this too is wrong! One the first part of this pastors statement, he is dead wrong, and man cannot pronounce what is sin, only God can tell us what sin is! As for the way we present scripture, we do need to make application that applies to our present life and time, but we cannot rip them out of their context so we can apply some cockamamie and half-baked truth. The biggest danger with these pastors is their inherent desire for us to mold to the culture to win people to Christ.

Friends we cannot win one person to Jesus, scripture is clear, faith comes by hearing. We are to be faithful in our preaching of the word of life. We are to come out of the world, we are not to be defiled by the world. In James 4:4, we see the message is clear, “You adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Do you and we really want to become once again at odds or become enemies of the God who saved us from sin and death?

Brothers and sisters, remain faithful, remain strong in the faith and challenge these ungodly methods, these worldly ways that have been introduced either by men who are blinded by the enemy or are willing participants in evil. We are called to be a Holy and Blameless people of God. James the brother of our Lord Jesus tell us in “James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

I desire to make clear they way we are to be toward this heresy that has entered into our midst, we are not to love the world or the things in it. 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world nor the things in the world If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

We need to go forth and preach the Gospel as we are commanded but we are not to compromise with the world or the enemy or anyone in that task. NO COMPRIMISE! When we compromise our faith and God’s Word we step out of the obedience that we are called to. I want everyone who hears me preach come to know God’s mercies, His love, and the Joy that waits for His children, but I cannot compromise His Holy word to get the job done. When any man puts himself in the position that he compromises the Word of God, he just tried place himself above the Thorne of God, and that is exactly what Satan tired to do and that is the reason he was cast down form Heaven.

Friends it only makes since that Satan would continue to try to exalt himself above the Throne of God as he did before, and it makes even more sense that if he can get a man who is preaching the Word of God to stray he will get him to try to place himself above God’s Throne as well.

If we set out to make ourselves the apple of the world’s eye, if we desire their love we will find ourselves in an awful way. We have been called out of the world for a reason, and the reason is so very simple to share our joy with those we come in contact with, to share the love of Christ, to Preach His Word, to those around us, not to compromise with them. We are not going to have the love and the friendship of the world because of Christ. Jesus told us this in, “John 15:19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”

Lastly, I plea with you to fight the good fight, to race the race with a desire to win, we must confront the evil in our midst. We need to be steadfast on our resolve that we never compromise the Word of God or our relationship to Him, for any reason. Diligently seek Him and His Wisdom, for it is not the wisdom of this world. Paul tells us in Romans “12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

If you find yourself in one of these worldly churches, confront your pastor or your leadership with your concerns; confront them with love and with scripture. We have no business compromising the Word of God for when we do we set ourselves up as a supreme authority, over and against God. We are the created not the creator and should respect our place, Jesus said “if you love me then you will obey me” and we are not to add or remove from His word, and we are to do all that He commanded and teach other to do the same.

May the Lord grant us the strength we need for the battles that lie ahead!

Understanding Repentance

2007-03-29T13:10:00.000-05:00

Repentance…

Contrition…

I wanted to start with those two words, many times we hear people speak of “repentance” or even of a “contrite heart”, so what are these and how do they help, hurt or affect us.

First, let us look at the definition of each word, to get a firm foundation to begin our understanding of what these terms mean, how and what their affects on us will be. We will look at both side of these and the affects thereof.

Merriam-Webster’s defines “Repent” as 1 : to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life 2 a : to feel regret or contrition b : to change one's mind (transitive senses) 1 : to cause to feel regret or contrition 2 : to feel sorrow, regret, or contrition for. They define contrite as : grieving and penitent for sin or shortcoming 2 : proceeding from contrition

As we see, “Repentance” is a physical turning from sin, and an intentional dedicating of one’s self to the amendment of one’s life. In essence first we must have a deep rooted grieving for the sin that we commit against God and others, then we must confess and intentionally turn from these sins and never commit them again, so we may further a right relationship with God.

Let us take this a step or two further and dig deeper for a deeper meaning and an even better understanding of the true meaning of the word. Looking at the Easton’s Bible Dictionary, we find that there are three Greek words used in the New Testament to denote “Repentance”.
(1.) The verb metamelomai is used of a change of mind, such as to produce regret or even remorse on account of sin, but not necessarily a change of heart. This word is used with reference to the repentance of Judas. Matthew 27:3 (NASB95) 3 Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, (2.) Metanoeo, meaning to change one’s mind and purpose, as the result of after knowledge. This verb, with (3.) the cognate noun metanoia, is used of true repentance, a change of mind and purpose and life, to which remission of sin is promised.

For Judas (who betrayed Jesus) this would have been to turn away from his betrayal of Jesus before, not to take the money, or even after taking it, refusing to lead them to Christ, but as we know this was not to be.
So it is clear that one can have a form of repentance without saving knowledge, or as stated “to which remission of sin is promised” and in order for us to have this saving type one must have a firm grasp on their own sinfulness, their own guilt before God. However, it still goes deeper than just that; we must have hatred of sin and a rightly defined conception of God’s mercy in and through Jesus. Furthermore, you must turn in submission to God and from your evil sinful desires and actions. Scripture tell us in several passages how we should treat sin and repentance.

Psalm 51:1-4 (NASB95) 1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.

Psalm 130:4 (NASB95) 4 But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared.
Psalm 109:21 (NASB95) 21 But You, O God, the Lord, deal kindly with me for Your name’s sake; Because Your lovingkindness is good, deliver me;

Psalm 119:128 (NASB95) 128 Therefore I esteem right all Your precepts concerning everything, I hate every false way.

Psalm 51:9-11 (NASB95) 9 Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
2 Corinthians 7:9-10 (NASB95) 9 I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. 10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

While we now have a better understanding, we must do a little more here, like application. God has called us to repent, to turn from our wickedness to Him who is Righteous, He is our creator and the day is coming that we will acknowledge Him and His Glory. Today we may do it by our choice but the day is fast approaching that we will do it before our judgment to eternal hell. “For every knee shall bow and every tongue confess” There are three things we must do “Believe, Repent and be Baptized”,

I want to leave you with several scripture texts that hopefully will convey the urgency for our need to “Turn” May the Peace of the Lord God be with you.

Romans 14:11 (NASB95)11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.”

Philippians 2:8-12 (NASB95)8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

Revelation 3:15 (NASB95)15 ‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot.

Revelation 3:19-21 (NASB95)19 ‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

Revelation 14:11-12 (NASB95)11 “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” 12 Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

Scripture plainly tell us that we will be a slave to sin or a slave to God. The big difference is being a slave to God has an inherent freedom, that is beyond reason and understanding, on the other hand being a slave to sin has also eternal consequences, while some might think hell is the worst of those, truly the worst is not hell but separation from God and His creation forever.

Next time we will look at why now is the time for repentance.

I Patiently Wait!

2006-04-26T12:48:00.000-05:00

1 Peter 5:8 (B)Be of sober spirit, (C)be on the alert Your adversary, (D)the devil, prowls around like a roaring (E)lion, seeking someone to devour.

Today as every other day, you, and I are going about our business, the business of daily life, most do not give much thought to what is really going on around us. Yes, we see the hustle and bustle, we are aware of the things of this world going on, but how often do we give thought to the “Spiritual World” around us, and all that is going on in this place?

The goal here is to help make us more aware, that what is going on in this “Spiritual Realm” does have a direct and profound effect on us.

We find that the Apostle Peter, while in Rome around 63-64 AD was writing this letter to the “Aliens” scattered around the world. These were the Christians of the day, and his letter was to acknowledge, comfort, and encourage them during their time of suffering and trial. One of the themes of this letter is to call Christians to rejoice in the face of private and public persecution, to live above such intimidations.

As we look at this verse in context we will pursue a better and life saving understanding of how we should handle these times of trial and persecution.
1 Peter 5:7-9, 7casting all your (A)anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8(B)Be of sober spirit, (C)be on the alert Your adversary, (D)the devil, prowls around like a roaring (E)lion, seeking someone to devour. 9(F)But resist him, (G)firm in your faith, knowing that (H)the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
In verse 7 we are told that we are to cast all our anxieties, in the Greek the word is “Merimna” which means care, anxiety. We are told to cast these on Him, being Jesus, who cares for us. Again, we are given instruction to be of sober spirit, here sober is the word “Nepho” to be calm collected in spirit, to be temperate, dispassionate, circumspect, so literally we face this world with our eyes open and not live by the knee jerk reaction of our emotions.
Be on the Alert, “Gregoreuo” to give strict attention, to be cautious and active, to take heed lest through remission and indolence some destructive calamity suddenly overtake one.
We are being warned here to be ever diligent, to be ever seeking, and watching, lest we let our guard fall and we are over taken by sudden destruction. Have you ever just had a good day or week or even a month where you just knew that you were in your spiritual zone, you were living the life, you were in a place of oneness with God, that you could do no wrong? It is when we are in these zones, that we most often let our guard down and it is in, this very place that we receive this ominous warning. We should take and pay close attention, never to rest or turn our back to the reality that, we do have an enemy and his desire is to destroy our witness to the world and our relationship with God.
When a lion prowls, it is crouching down, so it is close to the ground as not to alert the prey of its presence and so it is with Satan. When we are going about our life in such a carefree manner, with little or no concern, unaware of the presence of our assailant, this is when the attack usually begins. Dear friends, it is to our own demise that we walk about our daily lives, blatantly ignoring the many warnings provided in pages of scripture.
Resist, Firm in our faith, knowing that we are not alone in this peril, there are brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world who are suffering the same and many even worse fates than we can imagine. I recently heard of some believers in a country where Christianity is illegal, imagine, against the law to serve and worship Christ. These brothers and sisters were living in an underground tunnel, and when there government began a road project and found their tunnel and arrested them. Given the chance to deny Christ, to say that they would no longer believe, they each refused. When faced with their death the answer was still, no. They watched the hanging of their children but still each and everyone held diligent to their faith in Christ. Each of these people were laid on the ground in front of a steamroller, with their feet closest to the roller with the next persons feet at the formers head, so this steam roller would crush each of them from feet to head. These brothers and sister were each and everyone rolled over by this steamroller, none of them rejected Christ, but each of them resisted the enemy and they held firm to their faith, and they did not ignore this warning from scripture. They gave their lives in faith to Christ and the lost their lives for that faith, but they never once failed to resist the devil, and they are to be an example for us today.
Through out it all these believers lived and died these three verses. Now it is for each and every one of us to remember and to cling to this truth, and it comes from Christ Himself.
He said in Mark 8:34-36, 34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and (A)take up his cross and follow Me. 35"For (B)whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. 36"For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?
So clearly, lets keep our focus on the eternal, lets not loose site that we have an enemy, and he is prowling at our heals, even at this very moment. Lastly, hold fast to the truth that we must be quickly willing to give up our very lives for Christ and His Holy Word, and for our brothers and sisters in Christ, for Heaven and Hell are in the balance. Do not forfeit your soul for the passing things of this world but cling tightly to your treasure, which is in Heaven!

©Copyright 2006 Forgiving Grace Ministries

Believers and Followers

2006-04-19T07:44:00.000-05:00

Everyday we need to ask ourselves this question. If Jesus would do all that He did for you and me, then why is it that we have such a hard time doing what He did for use?
Now, understand I am not saying that you or I need to go and be crucified, but I am saying that we do need to DIE and do it everyday. We should die more and more each and every day to this world and become more alive in the spirit to the Kingdom of GOD.

That will require more than belief, it will require us to follow. I know for most of us we have heard the old saying that “Even Satan is a Believer” In scripture we see in Mark 1:23-26 and in Mark 5:1-13 that even the unclean spirits, the demons and in Luke 4:1-13 and also in Matthew 4:1-11 we are told that even the devil had his time confronting Jesus. The main difference here is that the demons and unclean spirits just as Satan they all believe, in fact we see that they know that Jesus is the Son of God. However Satan just as he did with Eve in the Garden, brings or attempts to bring doubt, even to Jesus by saying “If you ARE the Son of God” not once or even twice but three times we are told that Satan poses this question to Christ and each time Jesus responds “it is written”.

So we must be very careful for we are not the only believers, as Jesus called each of His disciples He used a very intentional phrase, “come, follow me” this is our clue to how we should respond. We all know that Jesus said that we must believe, confess our sins, repent of our sins, and be baptized. In our act of obedience, to His call for us to “follow”, we must remember Jesus said to pick up your cross and follow Him.

So what then, will you stand with Satan and his legions and just believe or will you “Follow” Jesus? See it is not about what you have, who you hang out with, what style you had, life eternal is in the balance. We must wake up every day and enter into the presence of the Lord and seek His will, we must spend time in His Word, which is the way we learn what He expects from us, in attitude, action, word, and thought. We also get a clear picture of His overwhelming love for His children.

This is not a life for the weak, for those who just want an easy life or a life of blessing. You will suffer, you will struggle, you will lose friends, and people who today say they love you will…well let’s just say that their love might not be a selfless or unconditional love. You will have to have a selfless love, be willing to give all you have and do so if needed. It may, someday soon even be required of you, your very life. Can you live a life for a cause greater than yourself? Are you your greatest cause?

If you are already a believer and or a follower, let me ask you… Will you recant; will you save your life in that day, when you are asked to deny Christ or DIE?
Well Christian, will you take the bullet or let the guillotine drop, will you praise God to the very end? Will you sing the praise of The Lord Jesus with your final dying breath? These are some seriously heavy questions to ask yourself.

Life is easy when you are blind to the truth of God. However, there is no joy when you are blind to His eternal truths. This world can sell you happiness and you can buy it everyday, but your life will still be required someday, oh how bleak a life without Christ, for each moment is fleeting, just as smoke rising from a fire. The fire is this world and it consumes your very soul and the smoke your life lived and wasted in vain.

Defeat is without end, Satan its ruler, no way of escape, except one. Victory, Christ is there and He is its leader, He will subdue defeat in His return. You must choose now my dear friend, do not delay, In Christ, death has no victory, but alas, without Jesus death has a mighty sting, one that will last an eternity.

Jesus will be called upon to separate the sheep from the goats, the believers from the followers, Jesus said, “In that day many will say to me LORD LORD did we not prophesy in your name, did we not heal and cast out demons in you name, and I will say to them away from Me, I never knew you”.

I ask you, are you just a believer?

Butterflies

2006-03-29T09:27:00.000-06:00

For the last, five to six weeks my family and I have been raising “Painted Lady Butterflies”, when my wife brought them home, the small caterpillars were in plastic cups with a large disk of brownish yellow “food” at the bottom of the cup. We set the cups on top of the cabinets and let nature take its course.
Now, I know that this seems like a very odd subject and where and how does it pertain to you and me, and to GOD.

As I watched these little worms each day they would be bigger and bigger just like the directions said, as it is with us, we come into this world little and as we are nourished by the food that is given us, and we grow and grow. Within a week to two, they were huge and were now heading off to the top of the cup, to make their new home. In the humans life we also grow until we are no longer able to stay at the bottom of our world, so we too are off, to build our own home. We leave home and build a life and a home and as it is designed, we too are off to the top.

Now hanging upside-down and the new home tightly woven around them, something amazing begins to take place, this something happens from the inside out, unlike the first part of life. In the butterfly kit there is a “Butterfly Pavilion” just a fancy name for a mesh cage, once put in there, we watched the activity and within another couple of weeks, one by one each new creature began to emerge. In the beginning, they were just worms, small and at the bottom of the cup to larger worms on top, now through the struggle of life to become beautiful and graceful butterflies.

So, in there lies our very essence, oh how dead in our transgression, but worms. We have been born some into good and loving homes while others into abusive homes, but our inward condition just the same. While some are abused, shamed, threatened, beaten, battered and bruised, yet other are lavished in love, the finer things, wonderful treasures, the loving touch of a parent and beautiful heartfelt words, but alas or inward condition is still the same.

Born into the iniquity of one mans sin, and blinded by the world to our inward condition, we set off on our journey of life. We most certainly are fallen and our nature is ever so corrupt. How else could it be, and what else could explain. Life with these butterflies has opened the eye of my heart to really see the plan of GOD for our lives.

Throughout the Bible Scripture tells us of our corrupt nature our inward condition so vile that our GOD the creator of life and the Universe cannot be in our presence. For He is Perfect and dwells in Perfection, and in him there is no sin and no sin can be in his presence. Oh, there in lies the tragedy of our lives and condition, created by Yahweh and not able to be in his presence.

As we begin to understand our relation to this creature, we can see that we in our natural state, our fallen and depraved nature that we too are like the worm. We can hardly consider any other pursuit except that which satisfies our fleshly desire. We claw our way in life from one experience to the next looking and searching for the nourishment that one can only find in Christ.

When thankfully, the day arrives and we begin our walk with Christ, we too put on a new clothing like the caterpillar, we must be tightly woven in the Word and the Flesh and the Blood of Christ. Our relationship with Jesus must now take center stage in our lives and He must be our nourishment. During this time our struggles will be intense, they will in the same stroke be filled with pain and joy, with love and hate, with pride and selflessness, with contempt and compassion, with fear and courage, with peace and rage.

We will struggle against the world and the flesh and he who preservers will be called on that day of judgment to be rewarded. When we look at the outcome from the cocoon of the butterflies, we can see such a wonderful creation, as we too will someday be. We must understand though that it is the struggle that strengthens us for the remainder of our journey.

These butterflies only live two to four weeks and in that time can travel up to one thousand miles, think about it.

Our life is but a vapor, a wisp of smoke to our Lord and our Creator, just as the butterflies life is to us. If not for the struggle of the cocoon, the butterfly could never fulfill its created purpose. Moreover, without our times of trials and temptations we too would never be able to fulfill our God designed purpose.

Father my what a wonderful creation You have made, Lord when I have look intensely into Your creation of this little butterfly, I can se all that You desire for us to be. It is by no mistake that a caterpillar must struggle in tightly woven cocoon and it is no mistake that we too must struggle in the same way, through out daily trials. Oh Lord Your word says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and in that I have no doubt, Lord I desire to give You my all, even though I know that it could never be enough for what You have given me. Father I pray that You would guide me and use me for Your perfect purpose, leave no resistance to Your perfect Will in my heart and use these words to change lives, Father I praise You and thank You in the Name of Jesus, Amen!

Originally written 12/05 Forgiving Grace Ministries

Nourishment for the Soul

2006-03-09T18:02:00.000-06:00

Today it is pouring rain outside and I sit here reflecting on my life. Like the rain helps provide nourishment and substance for the soil and the plants, so the rain in our lives also provides nourishment for our very souls.
The troubles, the heartache and pain that we face in the courses of our lives are used for good by GOD.

My dear friends we must each look back over our lives and take inventory and see the dramatic changes that have been made by and through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and furthermore we need to realize that in this the Word of GOD has not only come true but continues to be fulfilled in our lives. The Word of GOD says in Jeremiah 29

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the LORD. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you home again to your own land.”

As we live day by day we all have many fires and floods but just as they provide a new and different landscape in nature, so too will they in our own lives each Endeavour each struggle each loss is a tool that our Lord uses to shape who we are in him!
The lord’s purpose for our lives is so much larger than what any of us can see or even foresee, even in my own life I would never have imagined that the Lord would use me to convey this message to you.
My brothers and sisters we must continue to grow and become more focused on GOD so he can continue to show us our path in life and our mission to impact the Kingdom.

I can speak volumes on adversity and tragedy, the fact that just because I have faith in Jesus Christ and I accepted his gift of salvation, the things of the world have not ceased to come against me, in some case it would seem to the temporal world that my life has gotten worse, but let me say and reassure you that all of that may be true to the lost but one thing holds even more truth, GOD will use all these things to mold and shape our souls so we can bring peace and joy into the lives of those who are lost and to those brothers and sister who are going through difficult times right now.

The word of GOD says we are to be salt and light to a lost world. We must first ourselves by the will and grace of GOD Almighty be transformed into his salt and light. Our nourishment for our souls began the day we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior for on that day, the very hand of GOD planted the seeds that will produce much fruit for his glory.

Matthew 5
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. 14 You are the light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. 15 Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.[2]

My dear friends I wish to leave you with this final thought:

Rejoice in the Lord, know the trouble of this world shall pass and will be used to build the very character of GOD in us. For if we never suffered any challenge any pain or any loss We could never know Jesus, we would never know the joy of a Father who loves us so much and we would never have the peace of the Holy Spirit! My friends and loved ones we would never know true salvation! It is real easy and requires no faith when everything we touch is gold and there is no strife, for true salvation and incredible faith are built during the deepest floods.

Our GOD and Father in heaven I pray to you today that you would use every situation in our lives, from money problems, addictions, depression, anger, whatever the situation, Lord use it all to shape us, to mold our character into that of your son Jesus.
Lord lift each of us as to your will. GOD use us each and everyone to bring Glory to your name, continue to provide nourishment to our souls so that we may truly be the salt and light you desire us to be, by this prayer Lord we confess you are the only one who can provide such nourishment and we have total dependence on you. Lord we thank you for each gift for it is a treasure, let us rejoice in good times and in bad for we know we are in the Potters hands. GOD we ask today that you move us all into your will, for our lives are yours. In the name of Christ we lift this prayer up to you
Amen

Wonderings

2006-02-22T10:18:00.000-06:00

Has someone ever called you, naive for your belief in Christ?

Have they ever said that your belief was a crutch?

Far too many times, we hear such antagonistic responses to our faith simply because, as the Word of GOD testified in 1 Corinthians 1:18 "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

At the same time such an awesome privilege and an awesome burden, is this amazing journey form death to life everlasting.

Naive as defined in Websters as 1 : marked by unaffected simplicity : ARTLESS, INGENUOUS2 a : deficient in worldly wisdom or informed judgment;

How amazing is the definition, "deficient in worldly wisdom" coming from the world this is somehow not surprising that we must have their wisdom to be counted among the informed and wise.
My friends I am proud to be naive and I am proud that the children I am raising are going to be naive as well. We should count it as blessing and give thanks each time we are reminded of our simplicity.

Have they ever said that your belief was a crutch?

For, could man alone bear this tremendous weight? You see life as a Christian is not a life with a crutch, but more a life with a burden. It comes with the most awesome burden for our brothers and sisters; when they are in need or are hurting, then we feel that need or hurt as our very own. Now, while most anybody could sympathize with that, even more burdensome is a lost and darkened world that is ruled by evil. These are burdens that no one but a Christian is even capable of bearing, let alone understanding.

This, the heaviest of these burdens in the Christian life, they cannot even begin to grasp. It is plain to see why, that those with the blinders of this world can say and even think these thoughts to be rational.

Very seldom in any discussion, that there is zero accomplished. No matter the conversation, someone will leave it with a little different view than that which they came to the table with.
This is why it so imperative as we go through our days, that we keep the Word of GOD foremost in our hearts and minds and on our very lips.

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Father in all our ways, may we confirm, all Your ways, LORD be it through our lives, with our words and our speech. LORD, from the way we raise your children, that you have entrusted us with, to the Ministries that you are equipping us for. GOD we know that the Christian life is not as easy as this dying world thinks it is, so give us each day the fortitude to bring your light to this world. Father for me, I would much rather carry these burdens with joy and a heart growing toward righteousness than spend one minute without you and your love. LORD GOD Almighty, you are my savior and I pray that I am always obedient to your will and longing to know you more, LORD thirsty for your words and wisdom. It is in the Name of JESUS, I pray Amen!