Year: 2011
A Leap of FAITH!
Once upon a time, two acorns were born in a big Oak Tree in a forest. Their names were Albert and Amanda Acorn.
Picture taken by Benjamin Bruce
Albert and Amanda lived in their shells side by side. It was springtime and they enjoyed the bright green foliage around them. They liked to gaze at the wide blue sky. Albert especially liked this.
They were intrigued as they watched the forest floor far below. Little green plants poked their shoots out of the soil. Tiny flowers poked their purple and red petals out of the leaves, Amanda especially liked this. Albert and Amanda became friends. They were happy in their big Oak Tree in the vast forest.
**** Spring turned into summer ****
Albert and Amanda planned for the future every day. They talked about important things.
Amanda: Ask “Albert? Where do Oak Trees come from?”
Albert: said “Well…..The other day I overheard wise old owl talking about acorns becoming Oak Trees!”
“You mean acorns like us?”
“Well yeah, acorns like us.”
“You mean we might become oak trees?” Albert: replied “Wow! I sure hope so!”
Albert and Amanda both decided they would be oak trees. Day after day Amanda thought about oak trees. One day she blurted out, quite unexpectedly…..
“Albert! How do trees grow? What keeps them from falling over?!”
Albert: said “They have roots, silly!”
“Roots?” Albert said “Yeah, roots. You know, down in the ground.”
Hmmm.. Amanda said. I wonder what it’s like down there.”
Albert said ” “Well, I don’t know.” “I’m just glad we’re up here where it’s nice and snug.” and warm.”
Amanda said “The tree does give us all our food.” Albert: “And we’re getting fat!” Albert and Amanda smile at each other.
**** Summer turned into Fall ****
One day, Albert knew that something was bothering Amanda. <>
“What’s bugging you Amanda?” She said “Remember when we talked about roots?
Yeah.
Do all trees have roots?” “Well…. I think so. Why?” Amanda “And trees grow from the ground up?”
“Yeah. So?”
Amanda was thinking: “And we’re wanting to be Oak Trees.” “Yes Amanda! So what’s your point?” “Albert, maybe we have to start on the ground!” So you think we should jump?”
“Well…..I don’t know…I…”
Amanda “You’re actually thinking about it?” “Sort of… I don’t know…It’s a long way down…But it’s the only way…” “That’s foolishness. You’re nuts! Don’t do it Amanda! Please…” Albert pled with Amanda not to do it.
But one day in late Autumn they said their goodbyes and…Amanda Jumped.
**** Autumn turned into winter ****
Albert spent a lonely winter. And he didn’t feel very well. But he was safe and secure in his shell in the big Oak Tree in the forest. He thought of poor Amanda. She was dead by now. But he, Albert, would still be a mighty oak! And so he dreamed…..
But each day Albert felt worse and worse and he shriveled up more and more. It was too late when he discovered…..He had rotted from the inside out!
**** Winter turned into spring ****
And in the very spot where Amanda had fallen into the ground, a little green sprout poked up out of the soil. The acorn shell was now empty and Amanda grew, and grew, and grew until she became a towering Oak Tree. She provided branches for many bird nests and shade for many weary travelers. Many small acorns began to form on her branches.
She was so happy that she had learned a simple rule:
******A fruitful life comes only through death to self. ******
Our life is all about choices that we make everyday, it is only when we put Jesus first and self last and believe in what he done for us that helps us to make the right choice in life.
Let us Pray!
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There was once a tightrope walker who was crossing Niagara Falls. After he had held the crowds spellbound with his daring act, he asked, How many of you believe I could cross the tightrope again, this time Blindfolded and pushing a wheelbarrow with someone riding in it.
The crowds applauded.
They were sure he could do it. But then he said, Who will volunteer to ride the wheelbarrow?
There was a vast silence.
The audience had just been reminded of the vital difference between belief and trust! It’s one thing to believe that the wheelbarrow would make it safety across the Falls. It’s quite another thing to put your own life on the line.
James 2:19 draws the same distinction: Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
In order to have saving Faith, you need more than simple mental assent. The devils have that much and they tremble as a result. The devils believe – but they don’t trust.
And that my friend is the crucial difference.
There are three words that best describes the dependent relationship of the Christian to God:
Faith, Belief, and Trust.
In modern usage, belief often carries with it the idea of only a mental assent.
Faith is sometimes confused with positive thinking.
But the word TRUST probably comes the closest to describing the biblical dependence upon God.
Wherever you find the word belief or faith in Scripture, you can substitute it for the word Trust, and perhaps understand a new dimension to a familiar word.
For instance Act 16: 31
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Would read
Trust the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved
Faith includes not only belief but trust, “ Faith is Trusting God “.
Faith is dependence upon another, It is probably the closest word to surrender found in the Bible, for it carries with it the idea of giving up your life into God’s control.
Hebrew: 11:1:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
So we see that faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things we have not yet seen. But we believe and Truth that we will receive them.
So how do we get Faith, just where does it come from
- Remember the story of Noah:
God told Noah to build a Boat and really big Boat. Why because It would need to hold two of every type of creature on the earth, soon a Flood was coming to destroy all things
Now understand something about the time Noah lived in
It had never rained,
It had never flooded,
And there were no large rivers where Noah lived
So perhaps Noah made a mistake in what he heard God telling him to do.
It happen everyday people making mistake in what they hear, in what they do, in what they feel, and in what they say.
If Noah lived in our days he would surely have had to go back and ask God to explain exactly what he means by Rain or Flood. Because scientist can prove today that it is impossible for the world to be completely flooded
They said the same thing to Noah but it did not faze him one bit.
Noah knew what God said, he did not understand how God was going to do it and he did not question how God was going to do it. He just believed what God said.
And every time Noah drove a Nail into the side of the Ark he believed, every time he install a plank he believed, His faith grew each day because the Trusted in what God had said.
Faith is Believing! “If God said it, believe it”
- In another story we find Jesus and his Disciples taking a little trip on a Boat.
Matthew 8
The Jesus Film
23: And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
24: And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep. Who was asleep “Jesus”
25: And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
How is that possible How is that possible to perish when the giver of life is with you.
26: And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
27: But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!
Here we find the disciples just like how we are at time, believing but not Fully Trusting.
Faith is Trusting !
A little more then a 100 years ago there was a Sea Captain who heard the call to be a Missionary his Name was Mc Cleane
- Story: Capt Mc Cleane Island of Cannibals
Faith & Trust is going beyond understanding to do what you know is right!
- Story Joshua 3: Story about the Priest going over Jordan
13: And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests that bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of Jordan, that the waters of Jordan shall be cut off from the waters that come down from above; and they shall stand upon an heap.
Faith & Trust is putting one foot forward and walking with both eyes closed
The Bible said if you have Faith so much as a grain of Mustard seed “you could do what”
Faith is like thread
One peace all by its self can not do much, but each time Faith is used it becomes stronger Until that thread becomes a rope, a life line to Jesus
Whatever happens in your life never get positive thinking confused with Faith!
Positive thinking does not produce genuine faith, but faith will produce positive thinking.
John Huss and Jerome were heroes of the Reformation years.
They worked in Bohemia, and their witness preceded that of Martin Luther in Germany.
The writing of Wycliffe influenced both men. Not long after John Huss began to preach the gospel with great power, he was joined by Jerome, who had been in England.
As the preaching of John Huss became more widely known, he was summoned to Rome to give an account of his teachings.
Huss was given a safe-conduct, but after his hearing he was thrown into prison anyway. He was offered the opportunity to recant, but he refused, and before many weeks had passed, he was burned at the stake.
His persecutors scattered his ashes in the Rhine Rive and hoped in vain that they had silenced his Voice.
When Jerome heard that his friend was in peril, he hurried to Rome, not waiting even for the safe-conduct that had proved so ineffective for Huss.
Upon his arrival, he too was thrown into prison and kept there for many months. His courage failed, and he accepted the opportunity to recant.
Then he discovered an amazing thing. There is something worse than being burned at the stake! And that is not to be burned at the stake and to live with the remorse of having denied the Lord.
Jerome recanted his recantation and went singing to his death.
When the executioner stepped behind him to kindle the flames, he cried, Come forward boldly, apply the fire before my face.
Had I been afraid, I should not be here.
The Bible position is that not every promise is for you at this time and under these circumstances.
There may be a times when God will call you to give a testimony of your life before Men, how will you fair.
“When thou walkest through the fire, Thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
Huss and Jerome went to the stake not because they lacked faith, but because of their faith.
Faith still Trust God even when things don’t work out the way we want them to.
It’s easy to trust God when life is going smoothly. The real test of faith comes when our prayers seem unanswered.
The Lord would have you trust in his love and mercy amid clouds and darkness as well as in the sunshine.
To Know Him is to Trust Him
Today we have a choice; remember the Story of “Albert and Amanda Acorn”
You can take a leap of faith in Jesus and live forever, Or you can stay in your nice warm spot thinking you are alright.
But when the time comes and you are not feeling too good it might be too late to find out you have rotted from the inside.
**** Remember this. ****
KNOWING GOD RESULTS IN TRUSTING GOD.
IF YOU DON’T KNOW HIM, YOU WON’T TRUST HIM.
IF YOU DON’T TRUST HIM, IT IS BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW HIM.
Do All to the Glory of God
There were two Families who lived across the street in this particularly neighborhood.
One day they got in an augment over some little foolish thing that happen and vow to never speak to each other again (As long as they would live)
A few years would go by and both couples started having children.
One day they notices that there children were playing together in the fount yard.
This infuriated the parents to see there children playing with those people across the street.
They would go and get the children and tell them they were never to play with the People across the street again.
Only to find the children in the front yard playing again with the children across the street.
The Parents knew they needed to do something to stop this with those fitly no mans who lived across the street.
So the parents on the right side of the street started to build all kinds of play things in their back yard for there children
The parents on the Lift side of the street saw what the pigs across the street was doing and started doing the same in their back yard.
Never would there children play together again!
Time went on and the children grew-up and were ready for School. The parents on both sides of the street made sure that there children would not attend the same school so they all went to a different private school.
Time again moved on and the oldest of these children now made ready for collage.
At Collage both of these young adults met many of new friends, one day the Girl from the right side of the street met a wonderful boy who she fell in Love with.
And the Boy from the Left side met a wonderful Girl who he fell in Love with.
They Loved each other so much they did not want to even go home when the semester was over, So they decided to register and go to school all year long, studying and cramming there curses so they could both finish get Married and start a life of there own when School finished
Funny neither of them every talk much about there family back home.
But the day came and they graduated; now they planed to get married. They were surprised to learn that they both came from the same state, and even more surprised to learn that they lived in the Same City.
What a coincident they said to each other.
The Girl told here Boyfriend the street she lived on and the Boy said why my parents live on that same street.
He told the girl his parent house number and she said why that is not far from where her parent live
They just could not understand how they had never met before, living so close to each other all this time.
Until they drove down the road and seen that they were neighbors across the street.
***********
How many of us today go to Church and never talk to each other. How many times do we pass each other by with not so much as a smile, a hello, a good-by, or a go and drop dead.
We are supposed to be representing God on this Earth, but some times we tend to represent only Satan in Christ clothing.
God said in all that you do, do it to the Glory of God!
Our Question today is “How do I give God the Glory”?
Let us pray !!!!!!
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The Sermon today will be taking from the Scripture found in 1 Corinthians: 10:31:
The King James Bible:
Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
Twenty Century New Testament Bible:
Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything to the honor of God.
Bible in Worldwide English:
So, whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do everything to bring praise to God.
Do all to the glory of God.
Point #1 Is it possible to honor God in how or what we eat?
The Bible says yes it is possible!
In the beginning God created everything Good; it was perfect just out of the creator’s hands
Genesis 1
29: And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
We don’t need a preacher to understand what we just read? What we read is God gave to man his food, and it was not the beasts of the earth, it was the fruit that grew on trees, God call it meat.
For this reason you will find many Adventist who are vegetarian and not meat eaters. Not that there is anything wrong with eating Clean Meat.
The diet of man was altered after Sin entered into the Human family.
In the scripture we are told; God said I have given you every herb bearing seed & and every fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for Meat.
When God uses the word Meat; is does not mean animal flesh.
When I was growing up sometime we would get a young Coconut to eat and cut them open, and eat the Meat of the coconut on the inside, the fruit inside was conceded the meat of the Coconut. It is no part of any animal but the Meat of the Fruit that God had giving this is what God was saying
So where did Man start eating Flesh or animal protein.
Let go back to the Book of Beginning and see what happen
Genesis 6
5: And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6: And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7: And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
I am glad we have men Like Noah / even though he was called a Fool by the World Standards He Remained Faithful to Gods Laws. Out of the hole World God found only Noah righteous
We are not going into the story of Noah, because of time; let’s just take a look at what happen.
We know that God told Noah to build an Ark because he was going to destroy the earth with a flood. God gave Noah the plan for the size of the Ark, why because he knew it would have to hold a pair of all the beasts of the earth.
Lets pickup on the story where God is calling the animal and they are going on into the Ark.
Genesis 6
19: And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.
20: Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.
Let dig a little deeper here into what is happing and see if we can shade a little more Light on this subject
Genesis 7
1: And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
2: Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.
God say to Noah Clean beast by sevens and un-clean by two. That is 14 of every clean the male and female and two of every un-clean one male and one female.
Did God make a distinction between what animals were clean and unclean back in the time of Noah?
So why do we hear men preaching today and telling us we don’t have to worry about those Jewish Laws, we can eat anything we want, just put a little more gravy on it. It is ok to eat what God said is an abomination, because those Law’s were for the Jews only.
Were those laws for the Jew only and not for us today? Was Noah a Jew?
Do you know there are a lot of similarities between Jews and Muslim?
One similarly is that neither one will eat Pork,
Do you know why?
Because they both had the same great Grand Father, the patriarch Abraham who taught his children of Gods Laws!
Not because they were Jews or Muslim but because they were his Children; and Gods Law was the delight of his Life.
The Jewish line came from Abraham Son Isaac who begat Jacob now known as Israel, The Muslim line came from Abraham other sons Esau & Ishmael
Now if it is understandable to be able to Give God Glory in what we eat, it is also understandable to believe we can Dishonor and not give Him Glory in what we eat and that is by eating what God said is an abomination to Him.
Isaiah 66:
16: For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many.
17: They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.
If you have any drought as to what animals are Clean or Unclean just go to the Book of Leviticus and read in chapter 11:
1 Corinthians 6:
19: What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20: For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Where now is also the augment for abortion?
When is the Woman that said it is my body and I can do what I want with it. WRONG, God said your body belongs to him, he bought you with a price whether you like it or not. Now he will not force his way on you, but he will let you choose to do right or wrong that is a choice he has giving you.
Point #2 Can we Honor God in our Relationships.
Christ and Family
1. Life is built on Relationships
Can we bring Honor to God by having friends?
Yes we can, God did not create us to be independence of each other, we were created to be social, in other words to have relationships with other.
One of the worse things that can happen to someone is to be totally isolated, put away from everyone else. We were not made to be alone; we need the fellowship of others in our life to be totally happy. When we are a Friend to others or as Jesus said a neighbor to others we give God the Glory.
Mathew: 22:39:
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Why?
Because It give Glory to God.
Just the opposite is true if you do not love your neighbor, you do not bring Glory to God
► God holds the Marriage relationship as a Most Holy Thing.
It was giving to mankind in the garden before Sin, when God took the one Man and one Woman and joined them together, and they two became one flesh.
What God has joined together let no Mankind separate or come between.
Let me ask you a question? Can Sex bring Glory to God ?
When in the confines of the Marriage relationship even Sex can bring Glory to God. It was Gods way of forming the bond between the Man and the Woman, for God said and they two shall become one flesh
The Intermit relationship between the Man and Woman forms a strong bond and holds them together, but even it is not complete!
There is one missing element, and that is the need for his creator to be part of that relationship. That brings Honor to God in the Home and the Children of that Home will also bring Glory and Honor to God.
Because they will learn of Him by the example of the Parents, Children watch everything there Parents do, and imitate there very actions and words.
If they are words of Love and cheer of compassion and Faith, they too will have the same. But if it is words of hate and violence words of markery and slander they will become exactly like the Parents and that brings dishonor to God.
Marriage is a commitment to each other a way of saying I love you and want to be part of your Life. It is a way of saying I Will Always Be There for You
That is what God is telling us; when he is part of that relationship he will always be there for you, if you accept him into your Life.
In the Marriage relationship; if Sex brings Glory to God, Then the opposite must also be true.
Sex outside of the Marriage relationship brings Dishonor to God
Adultery is when the Marriage relationship is Broken.
In other words when the Covenant, when the Agreement, when the Promise, is made Void by one of the parties involved in the Marriage relationship and that is by Sex whether Physical or Mental is committed our side of the Marriage Relationship the Vow is broken and bring dishonor to God.
Satan loves nothing more then to destroy the Family, because there are two things that came out of Eden, One was the Marriage; our relationship to Each Other, and the Sabbath; our Relationship with God.
Satin will stop at nothing to break our relationship with God and with each other.
He attacks our very Homes when we are the lease expected; so we can dishonor our Creator
We are attacked everyday by the T.V. in our Homes, every time you look there is a Sex seen on the tube. Just about every Movie you see will has at lease one seen with people having Sex.
Most of the time T.V., Magazines, and Movies don’t give Glory to God
You open the News paper and there are pictures of Woman in there undergarments, the same with a magazine from JC Penny or Sears. All to lead your Mind away, and into a place it should not be and to help you break that covenant relationship you made.
By Far the worse Magazine you can have in you Home if you have Men or young boys is a Victoria Secret magazine.
It is Pornography at the first stage (it opens the door to Sin in young boys)
Look at what Jesus said in Matthew: Matthew:5:28:
But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Please notice here there is nothing wrong looking at a beautiful Woman. That is not the problem; it is what a man does in his mind when he looks that is the problem.
There were a sect of Men in Israel that were called the Burse and Bleeding Pharisees. Why because they believed that to look at a Woman was Sin.
And so to keep from Sinning if they were walking and a Woman was coming down the other way, they would cover there eyes, thus running in to Buildings or in a Ditch
As Paul Harvy would say now you know the rest of the story… Burse and Bleeding Pharisees
To look at a Woman is not Sin but to “Undress her in your Mind is Sin”.
Because you have committed Adultery with her in your heart
That is what Jesus was saying, if you Lust after her, if you desire her, if you long for her, if you hunger for her you have committed Sin because you have broken the covenant with your Marriage Partner.
God also liked the Marriage relationship to Himself by the Church.
The Church is his Bride
He is coming back for a Pure and Holy Bride that has not committed Fornication or Adultery with the world.
But for those who have kept themselves as a Virgin awaiting the coming of the Bridegroom to give Glory to God
Phil:2:11:
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Rom:3:23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Jesus did say Be ye Perfect as I am Perfect, It is only as we are in Christ that we can become Perfect not in ourselves, In ourselves we are imperfect becuase we are sinners
We Glorify God in our acceptance of His Sacrifice on the Cross in Man behalf because we could not do it ourselves
The opposite it true we Dishonor God when we try to do it ourselves, it is like saying God I don’t need you
Point #3 Can we Honor God by keeping the day He blessed and said was Holy
Gods Holy Sabbath day
Can Worshiping God on the 7th day of the week the Sabbath bring Glory to God?
The Jewish people had a very big problem; they refused to keep Gods Law. Jesus said; If you Love me keep my Commandment. So we may say if keeping Gods Law shows that we love Him; then by not keeping them or braking even one of them shows that we don’t really Love Him; or at lease not totally; and if you don’t love Him totally, then you don’t love Him at all. And so Jesus has no choice but to let you have your own way
At the restoration of Jerusalem, in the days of Nehemiah, Sabbath breaking was met with the stern discipline “Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. , “ Nehemiah 13:18
Christ, during His earthly ministry, emphasized the binding claims of the Sabbath; in all His teaching He showed reverence for the institution He Himself had given.
In His days the Sabbath had become so perverted that its observance reflected the character of selfish and arbitrary men rather than the character of God.
Christ set aside the false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented Him.
The Sabbath was embodied in the law given from Sinai. The people of Israel had knowledge of it before they came to Sinai. On the way there the Sabbath was kept. When someone profaned it, the Lord reproved them, saying, “How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?” Ex. 16:28.
The Sabbath was not for Israel only, but for the world. It had been made known to man in Eden, and, like the other precepts of the Decalogue, it is of perpetual obligation. Of that law of which the fourth commandment forms a part, Christ declares,
“Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in nowise pass from the law.Matthew:5:18:”
So long as the heavens and the earth endure, the Sabbath will continue to be a sign of the Creator’s power. And when Eden shall bloom on earth again, God’s holy rest day will be honored by all beneath the sun. “From one Sabbath to another” the inhabitants of the glorified new earth shall go up “to worship before Me, saith the Lord.” Isa. 66:23.
In the days of Christ the Sabbath had become so distorted that its observance reflected the character of selfish men more than God.
They began to worship the Day, more then the Creator of the Day.
The Religious leaders virtually represented God as giving laws which it was impossible for men to obey. They led the people to look upon God as a tyrant, and to think that the observance of the Sabbath, as He required it, made men hard-hearted and cruel.
It was the work of Christ to clear away these misconceptions. The Religious leaders followed Him with merciless hostility because he did not keep the Sabbath by their traditions. He did not conform to their requirements (Traditions), but went straight forward, keeping the Sabbath according to the laws of God.
The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27″
Does the Sabbath make us perfect, No it don’t, but it does make us dependence on Gods Grace, for it is by Grace that we are Saved through Faith and not of our works.
So if keeping the Sabbath brings Glory to God, then not keeping the Sabbath brings Dishonor to God.
How did the whole thing get mixed up in the first place, look at the Book of Daniel?
Daniel: 7:25:
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
God knew these things would happen, because he knew Satan would stop at nothing to dishonor Him.
He knew Men would try and bring in another day; that He God did not bless and did not make Holy.
You must understand God did all He could do for Man
1. The Sabbath Came out of Eden,
2. Marriage Came out of Eden
3. The Food God gave us to keep us in good Health came out of Eden
God did all this to keep mankind happy and healthy, why because of His great love for his Creation.
Do you know who wrote the Bible, Men who were moved by the inspiration of Gods Holy Spirit?
Do you know the only part of the Bible God did not let man write?
His Ten Commandments, He God wrote them himself on stone with his own finger. Are his laws importance can man change something that God himself wrote. I don’t think so.
What every you do, ask yourselves this first
In what I am going to eat, will it bring Glory to God?
In what I think does it bring Glory to God?
In how I worship does it bring Glory to God?
If your answer is yes then you have no problems, but if it is NO I leave you with a Choice you need to make.
Give God the Glory by your obedience to his will and live forever or take your chances with the world.
To God be the Glory, Great things He has done so love He the world He gave us His SON.
Forgiveness is free But not Cheap!
He Died for YOU
Kim and her six year old son prepared to eat dinner at a restaurant and her son asked if he could say grace. As they bowed their heads, he said “God is good God is great, Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if mom gets us ice cream for dessert and liberty and justice for all! Amen.”
Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby; Kim heard a woman remark, “That’s what’s wrong with this country. Kids don’t even know how to pray. Asking God for ice cream! Why I never!”
Hearing this, her son burst into tears and asked, “Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?”
As his mother held him and assured him that he had done a terrific job and God was certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table. He winked at the boy and said, “I happen to know that God thought that was a great prayer.” “Really?” her son asked. “Cross my heart,” the man replied.
Then in a theatrical whisper he added (indicating the woman whose remark had started the whole thing), “Too bad she never asks God for ice cream. A little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes.”Naturally, of course, Kim ordered ice cream for her son at the end of the meal. What happened next came as a complete surprise. Kim explained.
“My son stared at his ice cream a moment and then did something I will remember the rest of my life. He picked up his sundae and without a word walked over and placed it in front of the woman. With a big smile he told her, ‘Here, this is for you, Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes and my soul is good already.’“The story illustrates the power our words may have upon others, either for good or for bad.
It seems to me that since we want to be ready for Jesus’ coming, we will also want to make the best use of our time. And since part of that preparation involves encouraging and strengthening our fellow believers, and our family members, we will want to be very careful in what we say.
The Bible emphasizes these themes clearly. Satan is like a lion seeking whom he may devour. Troublous times are coming, it tells us. The Lord is coming. Time is indeed a precious commodity. How we treat each other is an important part of that preparation.
Let us Prayer !
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Luke 24: 6-7
6: He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
7: Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
Have you every got something for free?
Somehow every time someone tells me this is free, I find out later that it cost me something in the end.
I had once had a phone call once and the guy on the other end said Hi Mr McNab I have great new for you today, you just won and all expense paid Vacation for two, to the beautiful island of Jamaica.
He said how does that sound I said well that sounds great.
He then started to tell me more about the package and other things I could do while there in Jamaica.
After we were on the phone for about 15 minuets and got all the stuff needed out of the way, he said now all I need to do is to forward him $139.00 for the processing fee and I will be on my way.
Then I said, I thought you said it was free, $139.00 is not free to me.
There is only one thing in this world that is Free and that is salvation, WHY ?
Because Jesus gave his life for you and gave it to you for Free.
But it was not free to God dears Son, he would have to paid the price for you,
Free to you, but it cost the life of God dear son.
John 1
1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. The same was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
If God is so good and if God is so wonderful WHY?
Why did God permit Sin?
Why did he create the earth?
Why did he permit our firth parent to sin?
Why did he make me?
The only answer I have is because of Love
It is a hard question to understand unless you understand what true Love really is all about.
STORY: The Prodigal Son
STORY: The Father Love for his Son
Truth is we are all like the Prodigal Son and God the father is waiting for us and rejoice when one his children except Jesus sacrifice on the cross and come home.
Because the Father Loved his children, even when they ran away His love followed after them, the Father did not say well that’s over, He stayed waiting for the return of his runaway Children
Satan is always trying to keep us from knowing one thing, how much God cares and Loves us.
A few years ago there was a young girl, who brought a friend to church,
As the friend heard the pastor and how much Jesus loves her. This young girl gave her life to God and was baptize.
When the parents found out about it they got angry and got a layer and sue the church. The Court was in favor of the parents because the girl was only 16 and considered a miner
You don’t need parental permission in this country to get an Abortion but you do need it to get Baptize. How amazing!
Is there something wrong with this Picture? How far have our morals falling in this country
When Noah finished building the Ark, the great door in the side was open and Noah said to the people.
There is safety only in the Ark; soon there will come a flood to destroy the earth.
But no one went in Why? Everyone was too busy with the cares of this world to believe a foolish old man about something that never happened before. Really Rain like if water will float up to the sky and fall down again, impossible.
They all said He is just a crazy foolish old man as everyone laugh at him.
When you except Jesus as your savior can you expect to have problems too.
Why 1Peter: 5:8: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
We will have problems but Jesus will be there to help us through.
Remember Peter for only one second took his eye off Jesus and he started to sink. And like Peter all we have to do is say Lord save me.
Satan will put many roadblocks in our way even people we know. He will use every means possible to lead us the wrong way. And a way from the finish line “away from God.”
Satan hates Jesus and he hates people who love Jesus all the same.
For three and a half-year the deciple followed Christ, yes they loved him. They were also proud to be associated with him.
Jesus said one day let us go to Jerusalem, There the son of man will be betrayed and they will kill him but I will “rise again the third day”.
As Jesus made his way in to Jerusalem his deciple were full of joy as they heard the people saying Ho-san-na blessed is he that comet in the name of the Lord.
Now they thought that Jesus would take his place as King of Israel “But he did not”
And only a few days later in the upper room, After washing the deciple feet and breaking bread and giving them the cup that would represent his blood shed for all mankind.
He said one of you will betray me. When we Sin we too betray Jesus
They could not believe what he just said. “Who witch one of them?”
STORY: In the garden 3 times Jesus came looking for someone who understood
The arrest filthy men put there hands on him as if he were a Thief
The trial they beat him and spit on him
Hung on a cross He said Father forgive them for they no not what they do.
Jesus disciples were there watching him as he hung on the cross. They could not believe that he would let himself be crucified.
All there hopes all their dreams of Jesus being King and they by his side.
There had hoped that he would redeem Israel from the grip of Rome.
But now every thing hung on the cross.
As they looked, they heard Jesus say IT IS FINISH and bow his head and died.
Their hearts almost stop beating when there realized that Jesus was now dead.
Is it over, is it all over they though to themselves.
There minds were so blinded by Jesus death that there did not remember Jesus saying the 3rd day I will rise again
John 19:31
The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was an high day,) besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
That Sabbath day was a special Sabbath day
It was a hi-day “it was the Sabbath and a feast Sabbath” making it a Hi-Sabbath
Death by the cross was slow and the Jews did not won’t the body of Jesus hanging were all could see what religious leaders done.
Jesus Disciples watched as Joseph and Nickodemos remove the body of Jesus and place it in a tomb and seal it.
In the book of Luke 24:1-7
1. Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices, which they had prepared, and certain others with them.
2. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre.
3. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
4. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
5. And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
6. He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee,
7. Saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.
That evening two of the disciples were walking, and as they walk they did not noted the man walking with them.
Till he said what kind of communications are these that ye have one to another, as walk and are sad
One said to him art thou only a stranger here in Jerusalem and have you not know what had come to pass in the last days.
Jesus said what things
Luke 24:
21. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the “third day” since these things were done.
Jesus looked with love in his heart and said O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
They felt hope as he talks for it is what Jesus would have said
As they reach there home they invited him in but he did not except but they said the day is far-spent come and enter and spend the night
So Jesus went in (our savior does not force himself on anyone) he will come in only when he is invited to.
As they sat for the evening meal they look
Their companion spreads forth his hand in the exactly the same way their master used to do.
They look again and low they now see in his hands the prints of NAILS
Both exclaim at once it is the lord Jesus. But he vanished out of sight.
As they look at each other and said did not our heart burned with in us as he talked with us.
They go to tell the others
When they find the disciples and knock for entrance and the door open for them and another unseen enter in with them.
As the disciples tell that they seen Jesus and how he open the scripture to them and was know in the braking of bread.
They heard a voice saying PEACE BE UNTO YOU.
They started back in terror for his radiance fills the place; Love was shining from him it was coming out his face.
Then he spoke the word of love that left no need for douth, and just because he knew our heart he spoke our feeling out.
Why are you so troubled why are you in fear; see my hand and see my feet for I my self am here. Reach out now and handle me till all of you been shore.
My life is more then spirit for I am here in flesh and bones.
Before Christ left he made a promise that he will come back for all that believed in him
STORY; The little Girl and her new doll
She wonted to give the best she had
God the Father gave the best heaven could give his son Jesus Christ
God gave his life for all who by Faith will believe & Trust in Him
What a shame that so many will pass-up the opportunity to accept Jesus as their savior and accept His free gift of eternity Life.
All because they are too busy with the cares of this world to believe a foolish story about something they believe never happened. A God dyeing for me impossible, they are all crazy and foolish people, as the world laugh.
But when the door of the ark closed and it started to rain, it was too late.
Forgiveness is free for who will believe, but it was not cheap! Jesus had to die to pay the price for you and me.
Does GOD still have Laws?
Are laws important?
Do laws put us in bondage?
Have you ever lived in a place where there were no laws?
What would happen to the USA if there were no laws to govern the people?
Just think, no laws so you could just do what ever you want and no one would stop you. Except everyone else is doing the same thing as you, and there is no one stopping them either.
Do you see where a problem could come from?
What if I don’t like stopping for a red light, there are always a pain and turn red at the wrong times. So I am going to just drive straight through them from now on. I might not live long doing that but remember there are no laws telling me I can’t.
Laws are not made to keep us from something good! They are made to keep us happy and safe. So everyone knows what to expect from the other person.
Did God give us laws?
Were Gods Laws to be a burden or a joy to mankind?
What about Grace if we have Grace Do we still need Laws?
GRACE:
We don’t have to earn it. It is the most valuable gift of all. The Scripture says in Ephesians 2:8, 9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” Salvation does not come from any human effort. It is a free gift without a penny and without price. It is the science of salvation that deserves our attention and our study.
In Revelation 5:9, the redeemed are pictured as standing before the throne of God, both those redeemed from the Old Testament times and from the New Testament times, singing glory to Jesus, the Lamb, “Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” A great, fundamental truth is expressed here—the only way a sinner can be saved is through the blood of Jesus. Since the time of Adam, sinners have been saved only by believing in Jesus.
If men are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, where does the Ten Commandment law come in?
Throughout all the ages of controversy between Christ and Satan, the devil has sought to destroy the authority of God over man by casting the law aside and by preventing knowledge of the truth about the law.
The enemy of Christ brings this about by rejection of the law or a wrong concept of the dispensation of the law as opposed to the dispensation of the gospel.
Satan could bring in the principle of salvation through works, and prevent the functioning of the law according to God’s design.
The role that the law fulfills in relation to the gospel is two-fold. First, it is God’s standard of what is right and true. As a standard the law expresses the mind or will of God, for in Psalm 40:8 it says, “I delight to do thy will, 0 my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.” The law also declares man’s duty to God, for in Ecclesiastes 12:13 we read, “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.”
How often I have heard Christians boast that they don’t care about the law of God. They hide behind Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
They say that since they are saved by grace, through the atoning blood of Christ, they don’t have to keep God’s commandments at all. Have you ever heard that theory? Well, I am sure the Bible doesn’t teach that.
In Romans 6:15, the very next verse in the chapter, Paul says, “What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” The fourteenth verse has stated, “Sin shall not have dominion over us,” or “it shall not be our ruler.”
We are not under sin, or the condemnation of the law either, when we obey God. Why? Because we are saved by grace. But does that license us to sin? “God forbid.” Friends, when an individual is saved by grace, he is under greater obligation than ever before to keep the law of God.
As it says in Romans 3:31, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Are we licensed to break the law of God because we are saved by grace and saved by faith? God forbid. “Yea,” he says, “we establish the law.” The law is firmer than ever in our lives.
Who is under the law today in your city? Those who have broken it; they are under the law, and in jail. The man who keeps the law is the man who is free today. The law breaker is under the condemnation of the law.
Right here let us stop a moment and read the definition of sin in 1 John 3:4. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” That is very clear. When a man sins he has transgressed the law.
Every sinner has broken the law. What is sin? “The transgression of the law” When a man sins, what does he do? He breaks the law of God. There must be a law, otherwise he couldn’t break it. We are not under the law unless we break it.
I would fear to be called a minister of the Lord today, telling people that it is OK to break Gods laws or to say it is OK to forget what God said to Remember
Matt: 5:19: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
How does God feel about man making his own laws and rules and teaching people to live by them instead of his commandment Law’s.
Matt:15:9: But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Mark:7:7: Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Colossians: 2:22: Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?
Is there danger in not keeping God Commandments?
Titus: 1:14: Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
Let’s pretend there is a line drawn in the sand that said those who are on God side stand here and those who are not on God side stand over there.
What side would you want to stand on?
You might say; Lord I am saved by grace I was told I don’t need to need to keep those old laws.
Let’s look at it this way!
The governor of the state has life-and-death power. A man has been sentenced and condemned to die. He is under the sentence of death. Friends intervene. They present evidence to the governor, special factors involved in this case—contributing factors as to why this individual was caught in this particular crime.
As the governor investigates the evidence, he feels that this man deserves clemency; so he uses his official prerogative as the head of the commonwealth. He takes his pen and dips it in the ink and signs across those condemnation papers, “PARDONED,” and then signs his name.
That condemned man, my friend, has been saved by grace, not by his works or by his goodness.
He was doomed to die, and being ever so good in that death cell would never, never in this world save him. That is very obvious.
In other words, after an individual has broken the commandments of God, he cannot be good enough to save himself. The wages of sin is what? Death. We have all sinned, so are under the sentence of death. And there is only one way of salvation, through Jesus Christ.
Now the condemned man is pardoned. He can hardly believe his eyes as he sees the kindness, the stroke of generosity and love shown by that governor.
PARDONED, SAVED, FREE, You meet the freed man a little later and he says, “Wonderful what that governor did for me, and wonderful this new freedom of mine.
Now I can break the law all I like, for the governor set me free from the law and from the sentence of death. I was saved by grace.”
Did the governor pardon him so he could go out and become a greater law breaker? Shall we who are saved by grace continue law breaking? “God forbid.” We are under even greater obligation to keep the law because we are saved by grace
Matt:22: 36-40
36: Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38: This is the first and great commandment.
39: And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40: On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Is that Jesus we hear saying on these two commandments hang all the “WHAT” Law’s and Prophets.
Love the Lord thy God is the first four of the Ten Commandments;
Love thy neighbor is the last six of the Ten Commandments;
Do we find any evident of keeping the old Jewish Ten Commandment Law in the New Testament
Matt:19:17: And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Mark:10:19: Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.
Luke:18:20: Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother
Luke:1:6: And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
Over and over and over again we hear Jesus telling the people to keep his commandments.
.
If you really Love the lord, and want to show him that you Love him, then do what?
Show him you love him by doing what he tells you to do.
I have heard some say, “Those commandments were only for the Jews.” Then a Christian can lie and steal, and murder people, and do anything else that he pleases. Is that possible?
Jesus says in” John:14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments. It was because these were broken that Jesus gave His life. If these were to be abolished, why not abolish them before Jesus came to die? Then His death would not have been necessary.
John:14:21: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
John:15:10: If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
Somebody says, “Well, I can’t leave my church.” We’re not talking about churches today, friends.
We’re talking about following God.
Don’t look at the people. Look at the Light God is showing you.
We need to take one more quick glance here at what Jesus said. Matthew 7:21. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
Now notice verse 22. This is an amazing statement by our Lord. “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?”
Oh yes, miracle workers in the name of Jesus.
Don’t you see? Notice Christ’s answer now in verse 23. “Then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Oh, this is one of the most sobering passages in the Word of God, because we’re led face to face here with the understanding which we can’t escape—that it makes a difference to God what we believe and how we live.
It isn’t enough to say, “Yes, I believe. I’m a church member.”
It’s a matter of how we live and what we believe about our God that makes a difference.
Many will say, “Lord, we’ve cast out devils. We’ve done miracles. We’ve prophesied.” And yet, they’ll be lost.
It makes a difference what we believe. Anchor your faith firmly, my friends, to the rock of Scripture.
Christian can you say you know Jesus and not keep his Commandments
1John:2:3: And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1John:2:4: He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
That’s not my saying brother and sister, for it is written in the book called the Bible, which is none other then God word.
1Cor:7:19: Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
1Cor:14:37: If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
1Thes:4:2: For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
1John:3:22: And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
People are always looking for bargains, for special discounts. Some churches advertise, “Come to us, we will give you a bargain, 10% off of the Ten Commandments.” But will that stand in the judgment?
Just because some great churches tell you that they will make it easy and only ask you to keep nine of the Ten Commandments, is that sufficient? Will you pass in the judgment day?
Has any church the right to discount the commandments of God? How do we dare to imagine that we are on the high road to heaven when we knowingly break any of God’s commandments?
Matt: 5:19: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
1John:3:24: And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
1John:5:2: By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1John:5:3: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
2John:1:6: And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
So now we know that it is very importance to keep God’s commandment WHY?
If you love God then who are you enemy with?
That’s right the world.
For you can’t love God and the world!
What are we told will happen to God people because they love the Lord their God and claim to be his people. His people who keep his Laws and keep the testimony’s of his Son Jesus Christ.
Rv:12:17: And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Rv:14:12: Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Rv:22:14: Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Some time ago one of the items of interest in the newspaper was about a cave-in in a mine down in Pennsylvania somewhere—I think you might remember it. There were some miners trapped but there was reason to believe they were still alive under ground.
There was no way to dig down through the mine shaft that had caved in so they were hoping the miners were off to the side of the main shaft in a little room in a horizontal shaft.
So they brought in a great drilling rig and started drilling down through that virtually solid rock trying to get into that room where they felt they were probably entombed.
Hour after hour, day after day, while the world watched, virtually holding its breath, as the news media portrayed for us the picture of how they went down there 6 inches and then another foot and down finally to three feet.
The families camped at the mouth of the mine where the rescue operations were going on.
Finally the day came when that great boring rig bore through the ceiling of that room where the miners were trapped. Rapidly it was withdrawn and they lowered a microphone to a little speaker down that hole.
The man who was directing the rescue operation at the top spoke into his end of the microphone and said, “Are you alright? Are you alive? Are you there?”
And then a voice came back from the heart of the earth. “Yes, we’re here. We’re alright.”
A great shout went up from the rescue workers at the opening of that pit. Then the director said this into the microphone. “What do you want the most?” There was a pause and then a voice came back, “I want a cigar.”
Oh friends, heaven is involved in the greatest rescue operation the world has ever known.
The entire universe is watching. Day after day, week after week, year after year, for the last six-thousand horrible years,
God has been seeking to rescue those of us who have been entombed by the avalanche of sin.
What must it do to His heart by our procrastination, our idleness, our spiritual postponement of eternal things. We send back a message and say, “Oh, we’re satisfied with the trinkets, we’re satisfied with the things, but thanks just the same.”
How shall we escape if we neglect so great a Salvation?
The Needs of the many outweighed the needs of the one!
Story: During the American Civil War a young soldier lay wounded in a hospital far from home. As he grew worse each day, he felt that his only hope of recovery was to be with his family.
Hebrews 10:7: Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
One morning President Lincoln visited the hospital to comfort the wounded men. As the homesick soldier watched the president, he saw how kindly he treated every man, passing by none without some fatherly expression of interest. He decided that when the president approached his bed, he would ask him a favor.
Finally his turn came. President Lincoln asked the soldier, “Are you comfortable?”
He answered, “Not so comfortable as I would be, Mr. President, if I were back home.”
“What’s your name?” asked Lincoln.
“Samuel Stover, Company H, 2nd Maryland Volunteers,” he quickly replied, hope rising in his heart.
The president looked at the young man for a few moments, gave him a friendly nod, and continued through the ward, visiting every patient.
Private Stover kept a close watch on the president until he left the hospital ward. He was dismayed that, after seeing so many men, Lincoln hadn’t jotted down his name or taken a single note.
Sinking hopelessly back into his bed, Private Stover was certain that he would never see his family again.
How surprised he was a few days later when an order came in Lincoln’s own handwriting to transfer Private Stover of Company H, 2nd Maryland Volunteers to the military hospital at Annapolis, his hometown!
Young Stover got better under his family’s care at the new hospital. Years later he said, “It has always been a mystery to me that a man with so much to think of should keep in mind the name, company and regiment of a private soldier and care about his need.”
Lincoln’s kindness to the soldier is a miniature illustration of the loving, deeply personal interest God has in every one of us.
He knows our cares and needs, including the needs we’re not even aware of.
He doesn’t have to take notes to remember our lives and burdens, because He says in the Scriptures that our names are written on the palms of His hands, and that we are set as a seal upon His heart, and as gems in His crown.
We may come to God with our prayers, and He will hear us, and send us merciful and loving answers far beyond our expectations.
Let us pray!
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Tell the Story: At Ground “Zero” Young Louis Scotland ………..
****** Two hemisphere of uranium 234 One day the screwdriver slipped
******You will do alright he said but I have not a chance.
*** There was another young man who said the same thing about 2000 years ago on a
Hill side we call Calvary
As we approach the cross of Calvary we hear the rulers and religious leaders marking him and saying…..
Mt:27:42: He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
Mk:15:31: Likewise also the chief priests mocking said among themselves with the scribes, He saved others; himself he cannot save.
Lk:23:35: And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
*** What was all this about, why did this man have to die***
He was dying for a falling world dying and for a Sin that he did not commit
Jesus did not have to come to this world, and he did not have to take the abuse of evil men and he did not have to give his life for us, but he did, because he who created us loved us.
Why did this happen, how could this happen
It all started in heaven many thousands of years ago, with the jealousy of a created being trying to be equal with his creator.
Isaiah 14
12: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13: For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
God knew in his heart that someday this would come too passed, why did he permitted, because God did not want people who could not think, could not act, could not Love.
He knew the cost of giving Angles and giving People the freedom to think and act for themselves, none of this came as a surprised to God.
Timothy:3:5: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Christ could not comedown off the Cross, because he could not save himself and us at the same time so he chose to save us instead.
Do we understand just what happened at the Cross, Do we fully know the price that Jesus paid?
Ezek:18:4: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. But this man did nothing, he did not sin
The world is a stage:……….
It was set that way to test Man if he would be obedience to the laws of God or would he rebel against God.
It was all about a simple test of who you believe ….
The Universe: ………………
Long before God started Creation he knew of the possibility that Sin would one day inter in. But yet it did not stop his Creation Love for what he was doing.
Try telling a Mother or Father that there wayward Children will someday hate them, will someday despise them, will someday want to kill them. Tell them that it would be best to just Kill your Son or Daughter right now before that happens.
What do you think that Mother or Father will tell you, even knowing that they could not kill their Children. God was no different even knowing that one day his children with rise up against Him He still loved then with a God love. Sin must work its way till the entire heavenly host can see what Sin really was, so that it will never rise up again.
God could have made robots who would have never sinned but then they could not have freedom of choice.
God could have make beings who could not think for themselves, but then how would love be expressed.
God could have made machines but then where would companionship be.
So with Love God created, knowing that someday it would cost him his life.
The plan of salvation was a plan lay down before the dawn creation.
It was a plan knowing that someday the two hemisphere of Sin would collide together over a place call Calvary.
There at ground “Zero” the Son of God would have to step in and with the same hands that created the heavens and the earth he would forever have to pull apart the deadly change reaction of Sin by giving his life.
Not only for mankind but for all the other unfailing worlds, they too must understand the cost of infantine love
John:15:13: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
My friends, nothing in this universe is stronger than love.
Christ was God, and God is love.
It was love who fainted beneath the cross that day. It was love who prayed for His murderers, it was love who felt the thorny crown upon His brow.
Listen, those hands that were stretched out and pierced that day, were the same hands which had fashioned the universe.
1John:3:16: Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
On the Cross Jesus was paying for our sins, for the soul that sinneth, it shall die, that is the Law.
The needs of
the many out weighted the need of the one, so in order to restore heaven God gave the life of his Son in payment for mans Sin as our substitute.
John 3:
16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17: For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Nineteen Centuries ago the Son of the living God walked directly into Sins most concentrated radiation, allowed himself to be touched by its curse, and let it take His life.
The accumulated guilt of all the ages released its deadly contamination over Calvary.
And he who make the atom permitted Himself to be Nailed to the tower at ground Zero, allowed men to trigger the cruel device we call Calvary
But it was by his act that He broken the deathly chain reaction and broken the power of Sin.
Strangely true were the mocking words of the rulers who watched Him die.
He saved others Himself He cannot save.
Never were truer words spoken. For to interrupt the chain reaction of sin, to stop its deadly fallout, He must give His own life.
He could not save his Himself and others too. It is as if He spoke to every man, you will come through all right. But I haven’t the faintest chance Myself.
Could it be that the God of the universe, in a final attempt to help our limited, Restricted minds to grasp the true meaning of Calvary, had permitted our tampering with the cosmic forces to give us a vocabulary that might better explain it?
Calvary seems so far away, so disconnected from the restless age in which we live. But as Christians, we reverence it.
To most of us Calvary is a little more than a devotional exercise that we take off like a cloak. And even when we stop to think about it, do any of us really know what it means? Or why it had to happen?
We are too busy, too restless, too insecure, too frightened, and revolutionary.
Years of our history, years of surge and change, year’s heavy with anticipation and mystery.
Every seam and fabric of our thinking has been strained in the struggle even to understand what is happened.
How God could love us so much to allow himself to be touched by sinful man and to be killed all to save us.
Truth is that Jesus could not save this world and himself at the same time; it was a one or the other.
So he chose to save this world rather than save himself,
Why, Why, did the God of the universe choose to die in place of a guilty race of people who are no more worthy then a paper clip.
What a story of Love it tells to the unfailing worlds
That God cares for all the creatures that he has created, And that he would stop at nothing to seek out that which was lost.
Because the needs of the many out weighted the needs of the one
A Dogs Blessing
A Dogs Blessing
What do you do when people call you names!
No one likes to be called a dirty name even if it is just joking or playing a round
Why! Because names hurt, don’t they.
Sometimes people say the cruelest thing not even realizing they are hurting someone else.
If you lived in Honduras where I grew-up and there left for a few years, and then went back this is what you might expect hear.
People who new you would say, Boy look at how fat you got, Well SHOULD I GET OFINDED HERE OR WHAT!
In their way of talking it is a complement, meaning man you really look good.
But if I did not know that, I might have gotten insulted. And said I will never go back there again.
Well, what if you got accused of doing something you did not do. No matter where you go people would look at you and say, yep that the guy, HE did it.
Did what? I did not do anything. I was just blame for it. I took the fall.
It is hard to prove that you are innocent when every one thinks you are Guilty
Church is a place where we should feel safe because we are around other who believed like we do, and we feel like we are all part of God’s Family.
And yes it is true when someone you trust hurts you by saying something or calling you a Name that you’re Mother did not give you it really hurts; sometimes it hurt to the bone. Specialty when it is at church.
Jesus would not do that would he, would He, well would HE?
So we know we need to be very careful
Even when telling the truth. You can hurt someone feelings.
Have you every had a sister in the church come to you and say “How do you like my new hat”.
That’s a Hat ! O yes I see now, O yes love it, it’s really you.
All the time you are thinking it looks more like a Birds nest.
Well you know I can’t lie, so I must tell the truth. I will just hurt the person feeling.
There are ways to tell the truth, and not hurt someone.
One way is to change the subject. By saying “well how many hats do you have”. Or find something about it you like. May be the cooler, You know I love that color blue.
God has giving us wisdom, and we should use it and be careful of the tongue.
It only take one second to hurt someone and forever for the hurt to heal!
We don’t know where a person is in life, they may be on the edge of life and death and the very thing we say to them may be the stick that will push them overboard.
And then that Soul is lost forever
Now I have a question for you,
What would you do if someone called you a Dog?
Don’t tell me just think about it while I go on with the sermons. Let usPray.
******************** ********************
I am going to pose another Question to you:
Faith !
Exactly what it is?
Confidence, Trust, Reliance, Assurance, Conviction, Belief, Devotion, Loyalty, Commitment, Dedication.
I think that sum it up!
Faith is total Trust in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross, where I have Conviction through Belief that it is he who can save to the up-most. I am Confident that through him Jesus, that Loyal Christians will have the Assurance that through there Commitment, Devotion and Dedication Relining on him we will have eternal life.
Yep that’s Faith.
Let’s explore a little about Faith.
Acts 14:
8: And there sat a certain man at Lystra, impotent in his feet, being a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked:
9: The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed,
Why is it that some people pray and get healing and other pray and do not receive healing?
Why did not Jesus heal every one he passed?
Does God inflict pain and suffering unto us because of our sin’s?
Or because of Sin do we inflict suffering upon our self.
We are told that we must have Faith. The Bible said
Heb:11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
One day a Man told HMS Richard that he did not believe that there was a God. HMS Richard asked the Man why that is. Because I can’t see Him!
Well HMS Richard said Sir. You know, I don’t believe you have a Brain. The Man said pardon me Pastor. Well I can’t see it, so how do I know you have one.
It is not by sight or by hearing or by feeling that we know God! It is only by Faith.
Faith that if God said it I am going to do it. I am not going to let anything get in my way of serving God.
STORY: How many of you like to go Boating?
Yea that what I am talking about, just kicking back letting it all loose, having FUN.
Well in Jesus day’s people did not go boating for Fun, why because it was work and a lot of work.
There were only two ways of making a boat go forward.
#1. Was Wind power, and #2 was elbow grease.
Story of Peter in a Boat: One day Jesus sent his disciples on a head of him onto the other side by boat. That night the weather got bad…
Peter getting out of the boat took a lot of Faith and then he started walking on the water with his eyes fastened on Jesus.
Matthew 14:
30: But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. Or lost his Faith
When he took his eyes off the Savior he lost his Faith
We today are no less different then Peter, if we take our eyes off of Jesus for only a second we will perish in this Sea of sin.
31: And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Or Why did you doubt
Peter cried out from within his soul JESUS please save Me! Only then did the Son of God reach out and took the hand of faith that called on his name.
As we cried out in despair, as we cried out in trouble, when we are at our last rope JESUS please save ME there we find the hand of Jesus reaching to grab hold of the faith that called in his name, ready to heal, ready to save, and ready to forgive.
You see we can’t judge, why, because only Jesus knows the heart, only he can hear the faint cried from deep down in the soul of man, the cry for help that cry for forgiveness.
Jesus is never late my friend he is always on time. Your life may be one minuet till midnight your mind may be in the darkest darkness but the love of God will always be come through.
Jesus looked at Peter and Said, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
O thou of little faith, why for even a moment would you doubt God?
Do we sometime hear the same words, when we pray asking for God to help us?
How many times have we prayed and it seamed as if God does not hear what I am saying.
Is it because he did not hear or because I did not believe he would hear.
Matthew 9: A Woman of Faith
20: And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:
21: For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
Did touching Jesus garment do anything? No! “So what did, She had Faith in the one called Jesus”
Who was this Woman? And what was her problem?
She was sick and for the passed 12 years she spent all she had trying to get well. Going from one doctor to another, trying one new cure and then another and still nothing worked.
Sounds a lot like us today don’t it. We try everything else first and when nothing seams to work we rub a little Jesus on it and it goes away.
Finally in her desperation she turned to the only real source of healing, Jesus. She listened to him talk each day and felt herself being drawn to him, until at last unbelief gave way to Faith and Faith turned into action and this Child of God was healed.
Faith turned into action! That is what happens when you believe things start to happen because of your Faith. If you are looking to see it you won’t, if you are looking to feel something it will never come, only as you Believe will it happen. Why because it is Faith.
Jesus said who touch me. There were many people there but Jesus knew the touch of Faith, he understood the hand that had reached out unto him. That is why he told Nickcodeanus and if I be lifted up I will draw all Men unto Me.
Lk:6:19:
And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.
Is there any different to day in how God works with his people. They could reach out and physically touch him, what about us.
We can physically reach up and touch him in faith. We can grab hold of his garment and say I will not let go till thou has blessed me. The problem is we don’t have time to wait
Luke 8:48 (KJV). And He said unto her, “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.”
This woman hade Faith my friend and She was healed.
I want to tell you a story about another Woman who hade Faith, her story is told in the Gospel of Matthew 15: 21-28
One day Jesus said to his disciples lets go for a walk, the Bible says that Jesus went and came unto the cost of a place called Tyre and Sidon.
21: Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
What was Jesus doing here; he had never before gone out of Judea, why now.
So as they were walking guess what started to happen, someone recognized him as Jesus. People all over knew who he was, except for the Jewish Leader that is.
So as he was walking a Local Woman came out when she heard of him.
22: And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
What was so different with this Woman then anyone else, who here would have came out to see Jesus. She had a problem and could not do anything about it. But she recognized in Jesus that he was someone who could do something about her problem.
More then likely she had never seen Jesus before; she only could hear the Stories that people told coming out of Jerusalem, Stories about a Man of God who could heal with just the power of his Word. Perhaps she heard the Stories about how Jesus fed over 5000 Men plus Woman and Children with only two small Fish and a few loafs of bread, or about how he held 10 Men all at one time who had the incurable disease of leprosy.
We are not told how this Woman knew about Jesus we are just told her story. She saw Jesus and she went to ask him for help.
23: But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.
Now this just does not sound like Jesus does it. This Woman was asking for help pleading with him even crying after him for help. And what is Jesus doing Nothing
It did not turn her away she just kept coming.
There is nothing worse that someone who cries all the time. We call them winners; in fact my wife is always telling me if I would like some cheese with that wine, I am not to sure what she means by that.
In other words after a wile you just get tired or just fed-up with there Constance cry. But that was not the problem here was it.
No; Jesus knew who she was, but Jesus also wanted to teach his Disciples a lesson to see what they would do in this type of situation.
The Woman was not a Jew or a descendent of any Jewish family. The Jews had nothing to do with those people who were not part of the promise giving to there Father Abraham.
Jesus finally gives this Woman an answers look at verse 24
24: But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
So Jesus told her to go away I am not going to help you. I am here to help only those who are the children of the promise.
25: Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
The heart of Jesus was yearning to help this poor child of God, but he must first teach his disciples a lesson. They would need to know how to treat other after he is gone from them.
At first when you read this part of the Gospel, you would come away with the through that Jesus did not want to help this woman. But if you study the lesson closely you must first ask a question. What was Jesus doing in this part of Palestine anyway, he had no business for being there, very few if any Jews so why was he here.
There is always a reason when Jesus does something. Jesus knew this child of God needed help and so he walked all the way there to help her.
Listen to what Jesus now tells her.
Matthew 15: 26
26: But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
I am not sure I read that right, I know some where I must have made a mistake!
Any one in here has a different version of the Bible.
What does your say
Just about all Bibles will translate this scripture exactly how Jesus said it.
But why?
If this was you, what would you have done. You are in need of some help so you go to this guy who has help many of others but when he gets to you he calls you a Dog.
Listen: He is saying I am not going to take the Blessing that belongs to the rightful airs of the Father and through it to a Dog.
But this lady was different you can see that in her answer to Jesus.
27: And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.
What she is saying is Lord I am not looking for one of those big blessings just a little crumb Blessing and I will be satisfied.
Jesus could not help but to honor this Woman.
28: Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.
Great is your Faith Woman you will have what you are looking for because you have the Faith to believe you have received it.
And the Bible said that from that very hour, her daughter was made whole.
Would you have passed the test,
Don’t answer the question to me, answer it to Jesus. Do you have the faith that if some one would call you names to bring your case before Jesus and seek his strength
We know from God word that trouble times are just ahead of us and we will need Faith to get through it.
But we need not fear all we need it to Believe, Jesus will take care of the rest.
Remember that the closer to the flame the hotter it gets it is at that point that only Faith can take hold and move forward. It is at that point that Jesus will pick you up and carry you through the trials until you can stand again on your own. My friend all I can say is thank you my Lord and savior for giving me just a Dogs blessing.
God Bless and Keep you all and don’t worry when the world calls you names just be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the Masters table to his blessed and loving Children
Walk A Mile In My Shoes
Have you ever wondered why people are so funny looking? No two are alike unless they are born twins.
One day I was walking in the mall and as I turned the corner I busted out laughing at what I saw!
There was a girl standing there who was about 4 foot tall and about 200 lbs, her hair looked as if she had stuck her finger in a light socket and it was all kinds of different colors. All I could think of was frosty the snowman with a rainbow color hairdo.
Her boyfriend was no different, he was about 6’ 2” with a mohawk cut and rainbow color hair and it was all I could do to keep from falling on the floor and dying from laughter. But you see, they were making a statement on the outside about how they felt on the inside.
We are all different no matter how we look, we see things in different ways and through different shades of gray.
Ever though there are people who are born twins and look alike on the outside they are still very different in how they think and act. You can’t judge one by just looking at the other.
A few weeks ago I was in the bathroom and my wife heard me saying “oh no” so she asked what’s the problem. I said my ears, she said what is wrong with your ears?
I said they don’t hang right anymore, one is higher then the other, and all I could hear was her laughing.
You see, when I had radiation treatment for my NPC Cancer, it damaged how I looked.
So I told her that was fine, she could laugh all she wants at my ears. She said I am not laughing at your ears, I am laughing at what you said, there is nothing wrong with your ears.
I think she said that just to make me feel good.
We as Christians should not judge any one, but sometimes we do!
Romans 14:10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
A member of a Church was going to prayer meeting one late Wednesday night, and while passing the truck of deacon John she smelled something.
She started looking around to see if she could find the source of this smell and low and behold there it was. It appeared that the deacon John has started drinking again. She again surveyed the back of the truck and even picked up one of the many beer cans that were there.
Being the good Christian that she was, she pulled out her new I-pod 4G phone and began taking pictures of the back of the deacon’s truck.
I am going to bring this to the Pastor right away, no time to loose; this type of problem needs to be dealt with right away.
She showed the pictures to the Pastor and also brought him to the truck so he could see for himself, the pile of beer cans in the back of deacon John’s truck. She then said, “the deacon must have fell off the wagon”.
You know Pastor, years ago he was an alcoholic, then we had a seminar that our old Pastor put on, and many new people came into the church. John was one of them; he had a lot of battles at first trying to give up his drinking. Then one day he said that the Lord gave him victory over it, he never drank again, until now that is.
It just happened that night there was a Church board meeting and the Pastor brought up the problem with the deacon to the Church board. The Church board decided that the Pastor would need to go to John and relieve of his duties as deacon right away; he was to be put on probation until the Church board could meet again to deal with the problem. It was getting late and everyone wanted to go home for supper.
The next day the Pastor went over to deacon John’s home. He said, “John, I have some bad news! The Church board met last night to decide what to do about your drinking problem. We think it is best that you step down from being a deacon for now. The board also has put you on probation until you get some help.
John then asked, “Pastor, what are you talking about, I have not had a drink in many years. The lord has given me victory over alcohol, a long time ago.
The Pastor said, “John, don’t make it hard on your self. We have all seen the beer cans in the back of your truck. The only way you are going to get help is to admit you have a problem and ask God to help you.”
John then looked up at the Pastor with tears in his eyes.
He said, “Pastor, because of the beer cans in the back of my truck you think I am drinking again?
Pastor, do you remember last week, the director of the youth club asked if we could start saving cans for the club. This was their project to help pay their way to summer camp for many of the boys whose families could not afford the cost.
It is true, at one time I was an alcoholic, but God, through his Son Jesus gave me the strength to overcome it, for no other reason then He Loves me.
I wanted to share this love with many of my old friends, so after Church that day I went over to see them. Because of the youth director’s request, I asked them if they would mind if I took all their empty beer cans to help pay the way for the kids to go to camp this year.”
John was looking at his Pastor, who’s head was now bent very far down in his lap. He said, “Pastor, if you thought that I was drinking again, you should have came and asked me first.
Why did You judge me, try me, and condemn me, without even asking me?”
Do we sometimes jump the gun, as it is so called?
Do we read the book, by only looking at the cover?
Do we make discussions without all the facts?
We are all human, and everyday we make discussions based on nothing else but by what we can see.
It’s called the first impression syndrome, and here is how its works.
- If it smells good, it is good.
- If it smells Bad, it is bad.
- If it looks pretty, it is pretty.
- If it looks ugly, it is ugly
Isaiah 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
I always wondered what Jesus looked like; all we have is the writhing in the Bible to go by. As I read this scripture is does not appear Jesus came looking like any of the people I seen playing his part in the movies.
He was kind of plain Jane looking, standard model with not a lot of extras
John 7:
24: Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
Some of the books with the worse covers have been the best book to read.
Some of the people in this world who have not been the best looking have always had the hearts that were full of Love. They are the ones who are kind and always willing to help other, even going out of there way to do something for someone who has a need.
Matthew 7: 1-5
1: Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2: For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
The scriptures warn us about judging, Why ?
Many years ago before there were cars, there were horse drawn carts. The streets were made of mud not cement.
The driver of the cart would put on the horse a set of blinds so the horse could not see on the sides, he could only see forward. This way he had better control of the horse and it also help the horse from getting spooked.
Wend we judge we are like these horses only looking forward we can’t see the real picture of others people lives because we have on our blind that keeps us from see through the skin to the heart.
If we are not seeing the hold picture then our judgement is incorrect.
3: And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4: Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5: Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
If you are in need of a heart transplant would you go to a doctor who it blind or would you want someone who could see what they are doing. All mankind are blind, we all have eye problems it is only when we go to Jesus that he can change this heart of stone into a heart of love.
There is not one soul on this earth that is not importance to God, he loves all.
Jesus died that all may have access to eternal life, and salvation. We have all sinned and are worthy of death.
Luke 6:
30: Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.
31: And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
32: For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.
33: And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same.
34: And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
35: But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
36: Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
37: Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
38: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
Children pick up the values that are lived constantly before them. Inconsistency creates confusion and doubt.
But a faithful Christian life as a parent does not mean a flawless life. Show me the perfect parent and I’ll show you someone who has no children.
God does not require us to be perfect parents, but in our brokenness and imperfection we are to direct our children to the perfect Savior that we have found, and to guide their feet along the path to find Him for themselves.
• If a child lives with criticism, He learns to condemn.
• If a child lives with hostility, He learns to fight.
• If a child lives with ridicule, He learns to be shy.
• If a child lives with shame, He learns to feel guilty.
• If a child lives with tolerance, He learns to be patient.
• If a child lives with encouragement, He learns confidence.
• If a child lives with praise, He learns to appreciate.
• If a child lives with fairness, He learns justice.
• If a child lives with security, He learns to have faith.
• If a child lives with approval, He learns to like himself.
• If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, He learns to find love in a world that is filled with hate.
Children learn by what they see, if they live by being judged all there life, they too with grow up judging others by the standard they were judged.
If they live being loved all their life they too will learn to love.
Be careful parents, Satan is roaming the Earth like a Roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and our Children are no exception.
John 12:
46: I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
47: And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
48: He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
49: For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
50: And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
There is only one who is worthy to Judge and that is Jesus. Why because he is the creator, by his might, by his power, by his Love, we were created.
It was not the Father’s plan that sin should enter into our world, but when it did God did not forsake his children.
By all rights he God should have Judge us right then and there “Guilty”, and destroyed us, but he didn’t.
With Guilt still written on the face of man, Jesus came unto mankind. But because of sin man went, and as if he could to hid from his Creator.
Love played a great roll in our relationship with God, not that we love, but that God loves-us from the beginning.
So great a Love that he would give his life in the place of his Children.
For the Bible said in John 3:16
16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
That is why Jesus said:
If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
By rejecting the salvation Jesus officer to you as a free gift, you judge yourself.
Rom:2:12:
For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
God’s law is the standard that we will someday be judged by. It is the same standard that the entire Universe is Judge by.
For it is his Law, the standard that all things are measured agents.
So if you know the standard that you are going to be judge by, doesn’t it make it essay so you can be ready and be judge worthy and not unworthy.
If I am traveling down the road and the sign say Speed Limit 60 mph. It is saying that the Law said, as long as I don’t go over that posted speed I will be OK.
Now freedom of Choice comes into play here. I am free to keep the Law and I am free to break the Law.
I can keep the Law by doing the speed limit 60 mph, I can get where I am going with no problems.
Or
I can break the Law go as fast as I want, but if there is a Cop hiding up the road somewhere he is going to stop me and give me a find for going to fast.
The find says I was breaking the Law and must now make restitution, in other words “I will pay for the Law I have broke”.
It is the Law that I broke that has Judge me and the salvation of Jesus Christ that saves me.
Acts:17:31:
Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
No one knows the though of the heart, but God only. We look only at the out side of what we see and never see the inside of the struggle going on in a person’s life.
We sometimes judge only by what we see, when all the time we should have been praying for the ones in need.
There will be many of people in Heaven who we will be surprised to find there, why because of the thief on the Cross. Many just like him after committing the act which condemned him to death still asked Jesus in the last moments of life for forgiveness and found there a Savior reaching out to bring them home.
Salvation is free my friend but never has it been cheep. The price paid for all Mankind was of the ultimate cost: The life of God’s only Son Jesus Christ.
Rom:14:13:
Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
STORY:
There was a lady who had 4 daughter and they loved going to church.
One day the pastor made an announcement that in two weeks we will be taking up an offering for the poor. He encouraged his congregation to start finding ways to save money to help families that were in need.
So the Mother and each one of the girls looked to see what they could do to raise money to help the poor Families.
They themselves did not have much there Father passed away about a two years before. But the Mother who was a strong Christian kept the family together through the good times and bad. They did not always were the best of closes sometimes they had patches or two on them but they were clean, and there shoes were old but were always polished. Mother also made sure no one ever went hungry.
On the way home one of the girls say Mother:
For the next two weeks I am going to bake cookies and go and sell them. Another said.
For the next two weeks I am going to ask if anyone needs any sowing done. The other two said we would offer to do baby-sitting.
The Mother was so proud of her girls and how hard they worked for the next two weeks.
One the Friday just before the offering for the poor, the Mother and girls took up all the money that they had made and put it into a pill, when they finish counting they had $99.85 Mom put in the other .15 to make it an even $100.00 dollars.
Mom then pick-up all the money and went to the bank and brought back 5 new just off the press $20.00 dollar bills.
The girls were so excited that week; they could hardly wait to go to Church. When the offering plate was passed Mom gave each one a $20.00 dollar bill to put in, they were so happy just thinking about the poor Family who will be receiving all that money; for the church was full that day
On the way home they were all so very happy singing and thanking Jesus. After supper the girls went outside in the swing as Mother finish in side.
As they looked they could see the Pastor coming, he went inside and was talking to there Mother and then left kind of fast.
They went in to see if all was OK because Mother was not saying anything. Then she said to her Girls the pastor gave me this envelope, they took up and offering for the poor today.
When they open the envelope there was 5 new $20.00 dollar bills and six one dollar bills.
The oldest Girls looked at the Mother and said. Mother they think that we are the poor family.
We may not have the best to put on, or ride in the best cars, or live in the best house. But we are rich when it comes to Love and knowing Jesus as our savior.
They would have never known they were poor until they were told they were poor
Their Heart was in the right place. By the standards of the world they were judge poor. But by the standard of God love they were judge worthy.
In the eyes of man things don’t always look like what they are.
Man looks only at the out-side; he does not look at what is in the in-side. It is hard to Judge someone unless you can walk in there shoes, and see what they see, and feel what they feel, to hear what they hear, and to love how they love.
2 Tm:4:8:
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
There is only one who will Judge and Judge righteously
Rv:20:12:
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Of all the joys of heaven, the greatest will be to see Jesus face to face, to worship Him and our heavenly Father. “for there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and THEY SHALL SEE HIS FACE; and his name shall be in their foreheads.”
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord.” Isaiah 66:22,23.
Rv:20:13:
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Wasps are numerous. They build nests in our houses and under our eaves in the summertime.
One day a wasp flew in and landed on the dinner plate of a man eating his dinner, he saw the wasp. It had landed near a slice of bread that had jam on it.
The man didn’t like the wasp there eating his jam. So he took his table knife and cut the wasp in half.
The wasp was so anxious to keep eating that he kept doing it. Somehow that insect went on with his meal. The man observed a tiny stream of jam trickling out the end of the severed body.
Only when the insect tried to fly away did he grasped the dreadful thing that had happened to him. And you know, a lot of Christians without Christ are just like that wasp. They are dead and don’t know it.
We’re severed from Christ and yet we’re still greedy, we’re still consuming the sweetness of the world and we don’t realize that we’ve been separated from life. And only when it’s time to fly away will we really realize our dreadful condition. We’re lost. We’re dead in the water. We’re shut out of the New Jerusalem, the Holy City. We can’t go in. The gate is shut.
Satin is every ready too severe the connection between God and man. He wants nothing more than to keep man under his power, and he does this in many different ways.
All that defiles must be rooted out of our lives so that we may be purified and sanctified, that our names may be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Not every one that said unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21
So Don’t Judge someone until you have Walk a mile in there shoes and seen the part of there life that they see and live everyday.
God bless and be with you and remember what Jesus said in that you have done it unto one of the lease of these my brethren you have done it unto me.
Elder Tim McNab
Restoring Gods Truth
Preaching Another Gospel
STORY: Island of Lost Sailors
Every time a bad storm went by, sailors would be found washed up on the beach of this island sometimes dead, sometimes still alive.
The local islanders decided to build a rescue station on the beach and when there were storms at sea, they would each take turns manning the station. The governor heard of this endeavor of the islanders. He saw this as a good thing for his hope to get re-elected, so he contributed to the building funds and also donated a small generator to help power the place.
With the government’s help it was not long before there was a full size, fully equipped rescue station operating on this island.
The people enjoyed coming to the rescue station. They couldn’t wait for a storm, just so they could go out and look for sailors who got caught in the storms.
Soon someone voted to make meeting at the rescue station a weekly event. What better choice as it had everything, running water, electric Power, etc.
Before long, the people found themselves meeting two, and sometime 3 times a week at the station.
Now and then, a storm would blow in, and a lonely sailor would wash-up on the beach and find his way to the station, only to find the local island people busy. By some chance of luck, he may get someone’s attention.
Daily the island people met at the station, it was where you could hear the latest news and get latest reports on what was going on through the islands.
Before long, someone wondered, why hadn’t they built the meeting hall in the middle of town instead of so close to the beach?
It is so very easy to loose site of why we are here today….
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Do you remember Peter Marshall, the famous Scottish preacher and chaplain?
As a boy he worked one summer in an English village of Bamburgh, 16 miles from the border of Scotland.
One very dark night he had to walk home and decided to take a shortcut. He knew there was a deep, deserted limestone quarry in the area, but he thought he could avoid the danger.
The night was dark, there were no stars. It was black as the inside of an ink bottle.
He had walked slowly for some time when he suddenly heard someone call: “Peter” in an urgent tone.
He stopped and all he could hear was the wind. He called out, “Who is there?” There was no answer.
He thought he was mistaken and walked on a few steps and then he heard that voice again, even more urgently: “PETER!” This time he stopped dead still and tried to peer into the impenetrable darkness.
He stepped forward and fell over something and reached out to catch himself but there was nothing there! He groped around to the left and to the right. Then he realized that he was right on the edge of the quarry, one more step and he would have fallen to his death! There was nothing there.
He was right on the edge of death. He was saved, but just barely in the nick of time.
Peter never forgot that voice his whole life. He always listened to that voice through the rest of his life. God had warned him and he shuttered that he almost did not listen.
Has something like that ever happened to you? Has God ever said to you, “there is a time when you need to wake up.
Has some sign happened to you that you didn’t listen to?
How many times will God warn us?
How many times will we not listen?
God is capable of saving us to the uttermost if we will just respond to Him. Don’t put off responding to God, to listening to God.
It is dangerous to put off responding to the leading of God. The road to spiritual loss is usually greased with the slime of indifference and neglect.
Sometimes I feel that we walk in darkness in our Christian experience. We all like to feel that we are safe because of what we believe, but how do you know it is the truth?
After all, everyone today believes that only their Church is the true Church and that they are living and teaching the truth.
What makes a church a church? What makes your church different from any other?
If someone asks you: Are you saved? What would you tell them?
What if they ask you: Are you a Christian? What would you say?
You can be 99% saved and 1% lost and guess what, you are still LOST…
Church is a body of believers, no one part is better then the others, and that is what makes Christianity different from all other religions.
It is the belief in the power of one Man’s life that will transform others. Lifting them up and giving them the power to go and tell others about God.
We call this word “Gospel.”
But what is it about “this Gospel” that makes it so much different from the many other world religions?
Do you know what the Gospel of Jesus is?
Do you know what truth is?
Can you tell a fake from the real thing?
In the world we live in; there are two Gospels and only two.
No matter what religion or faith you keep, you are either one or the other.
1. The Gospel of Truth.
2. The other is the gospel of lies!
The Gospel of truth is that which God himself has given unto mankind.
The gospel of lies is also God’s Word, but turned around by Satan’s lies.
Look at Genesis 3:1″Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Very true what the serpent said is it not; God did say that our first parent could eat of every tree of the Garden.
2: And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
Notice how the serpent applied his tactfulness. He is not denying the fact he is clearly stating something that was already known. He has the woman off guard now, being that he is quoting the same thing that God had told them.
3: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
Now, the woman goes on to repeat the rest of what God had told them. That in the day they eat or even touch this fruit, they would die.
Now notice, there was nothing in the fruit that would cause death. This tree was like all other trees God had made, the only different was God said not to eat the fruit off the one tree.
4: And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Here is the first and biggest lie ever told in our world by Lucifer!
5: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Satan again, puts doubt into the mind as to what God’s true propose is! He has taken the truth that God has given, but turned it into just the opposite.
And it is no different in our world today, the same lies told 6,000 years ago are still at the corner stone of the very popular religions in our world today.
97% of all world religions today teach that when you die you don’t really die. They teach that you get transferred to some other place or transformed into something else.
It is only true Christians who study the word of God that have a clear understanding of what God said. That when you die you do just that, you die!
Genesis: 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
So what is death?
Death is the opposite of life.
Before you were born, did you know anything? NO
Why
Because you were dead, you did not exist, you were not born yet.
You are a living soul because of two things.
1. You have the dust of the ground
2. You have been giving the breath of the living God, and so you became a living Sole.
1+1 always equals = 2
Remove one; and what do you have “you have, death”, because God said in Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:17 . . . for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Come, let’s turn to the book of Galatians and see what problems Paul was having in his days.
How old was the Church then, not quite 50 years.
Galatians 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Paul left to go on a mission trip, no sooner is he gone, then other men came in preaching something a little different. Just like in the Garden of Eden, not much different, just enough.
What does Paul tell them? I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
7: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Paul goes on to say, not that it is another gospel, but the words are distorted. Meaning something different from what God told Paul and the other disciples to preach.
8: But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Paul knows that Satan will stop at nothing to pervert the Word of God, so he makes it very clean that even if an angel comes and starts to preach something different, don’t believe it.
We as Christians, have only one way of knowing Truth, and that is by knowing God’s Word!
Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Read it! Live it! Believe it!
We know that in the last days Satan will try an impersonate Jesus Christ and deceive the whole world. Why? Because of people who will not study to find the truth, they went with only what they heard from preachers!
Galatians 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
There is only one Gospel my friend, and that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, anything else that deviates from that, even one millionth of inch, is not the Truth.
10: For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
11: But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
12: For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
I have always said this one thing, don’t believe a word I say, study for yourself, search the scriptures, for only in them will you find the truth.
Understand what Jesus is telling you. You might say, “how I can do this; I can’t understand what the Bible is saying.”
Understanding will come through prayer and giving God your time.
Ephesians 6:10 Paul said, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11: Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
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Truth has never been popular
But truth has always been the truth.
When you are surrounded by the enemy, don’t fear, Jesus is right there with you…
Sometimes, we in Church forget the reason we are here. It is not about pot luck or fellowship, it is about how to bring the message of Jesus to a fallen world; How to bring those who have been washed-up on the shore of sin into Gods heavenly kingdom.
Just like the story of the island people, before long no one remembers why the building was even built on the beach.
The same thing was happening to the Church in Thessalonians.
2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, 2: That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
3: Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4: Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5: Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6: And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
7: For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
8: And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
9: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
10: And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11: And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
Why are there so many different religions in our world today?
One of the main reasons is because of Burger King. That’s right, everyone wanted to have it their way!
We are a society of having everything fast.
Fast life, fast food, fast cars, fast family, and fast religion.
I am amazed by some of what we here in the U.S.A. call, ‘Church.’
It has very little to do with worshiping God, it is more to do with pleasing oneself.
I looked on the internet the other night and this one Church was advertizing itself.
Showing pictures of the Church basketball court, weightlifting room, swimming pools.
We have a lot to offer, the ad said, and yes, we even take our tithes and offerings by e-mail.
Well that’s great, but what about going to Church to find Jesus, have they gotten so big, the main reason they go to Church is no longer necessary?
What does Jesus say is going to happen?
Matthew 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23: And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Remember The ten virgins?
Five went into the wedding and 5 were left out.
Why was this? Why was only half of them ready when the Lord came?
What does a ‘woman’ represent in bible prophecy? “A Church.”
So this is not the world we are talking about here, this is God’s people, the Church.
Half of them will be ready and the other half will not.
So what is the difference? The difference will be in what they teach at the end time. We live in a time of grace because the Gospel has not been given to all the world yet.
But the time is coming when the Spirit of God will convict all, rich and poor, small or great..
Everyone will have the same opportunity to know and believe, or to reject the truth!
Revelation 14:6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
7: Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Praise God and our Lord Jesus for rescuing all who have washed up on the beaches of this world of sin, by just putting their faith in Him.
God Bless and be with you all.
In the Eye of the Storm
I met a man many years ago who in fact changed my life.
He turned my life from a Church back pew warmer to a Church Leader.
But the thing that amazed me most about him was his Faith.
No Matter what happen to this man, he always had a smile and always said thank you Jesus, whether good or bad…
Daniel 3:17 “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.”
STORY: Pastor Frank
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We must understand that the King of this world is Satan, and he has only one aim and that is to
keep you from Jesus, by letting little things get in your way and become an obstacle between you and salvation.
Don’t let the little troubles in life get you down. Jesus knows what you are going through, He knows your problems. He says “just put your truth in Me and I will take care of you.”
There are many Storms in life that we fight everyday, and if we try and fight them with our human strength we will fail, it is only as we depend on Jesus and put our trust in Him that he will enable us to meet the trial ahead and in His name be Victorious!
Let us Pray!
When thing are going bad for you, can you still hold up your head and say Praise you Jesus?
Bad things may happen, but if a bad thing happens at the right time is it still a bad thing?
Story: The Van in Florida:
When God has His hand over His people there is no need to worry, He is taking care of the little matters that we forget.
Have you ever been between a rock and a hard place?
Where no matter what decision you make it is going to be the wrong one…
Look at what happen to Jesus:
Some of the leading priest of his times, who he came to save; gave Him the hardest times and made His life very bitter.
Mark 12:14 “And when they were come, they say unto him, Master, we know that thou art true, and carest for no man: for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth: Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?”
What a deception, if they knew that he was a true teacher, why did they keep on him with their malicious hate?
Continually they kept-up with their words of hate and drought. Beating upon God’s dear Son for no other reason then because He was different.
His holy life made there sinful life all the more revealing; In the presence of Jesus they could not hide or cover up there Sins.
15: Shall we give, or shall we not give? But he, knowing their hypocrisy, said unto them, Why tempt ye me? bring me a penny, that I may see it.
Jesus fully understood their motive and read into their malice therefore He said unto them
16: Whose is this image and superscription? And they said unto him, Caesar’s.
17: And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s. And they marvelled at him.
Even though Jesus was the Son of God, He did not use any of His Godley power to withstand the attacks of satin,
He just like us today must fully rely on the protection of the Father.
We too, need to learn this lesson; many times we try in our ‘Human way’ of thinking to do it our own way, and it never works…
Too late sometimes, when all we needed was to trust in Jesus!
When in time of trouble, don’t worry about what you are going to say, just rely on Jesus, He will give you the right words to say that will convict the hearts of people who are truly seeking.
Hardly any stories in the Bible matches the Faith of three Hebrew young Men.
Story: One day a King made a decree, All he was trying to do is to get every one on the same playing field.
There were problems in the kingdom and so he made a plan to resolve it.
This is about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego.
All the King was asking for was a little compromise, a little helping out here, you scratch my back and I am going to scratch yours.
Was that too much to ask? He made this ‘decree,’ and it must be obeyed.
Everyone else was making a compromise, no one will care about you Hebrews, and you can go back to servicing your God tomorrow.
Daniel 3:16 “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
17: If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
18: But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”
Many times in our life we become entangle in a storm that seam like there is no way out.
If we would only trust in God and not in Man we too would say “our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the fiery furnaces of Life, and he will deliver us out of hands of the king’s of this world.
Jesus will take all who put their trust in him through the fire’s of Life.
Story: Fire at Sea….
It was just an ordinary winter day back in February 1976. The M/V Aleutian Island was loading up to make another run to an offshore rig that was a little over 100 miles out to Sea. She was loaded with Drill Mud and 48 inch Cashion and had a full load of Fuel, Water and other drill rig supplies.
The weather started out very nice but by the time the Aleutian Island made it out to the Field the weather started getting bad.
Little to the Knowledge the crew, it would be a night they would never forget.
It all started while in transit from one Platform to another the first of many problems started.
1. Port Main Engine Exploded and caught the Engine room on fire.
After the fire was put out, they continued to the rig on one engine.
2. The Starboard main engine exploded and it too caught the engine room on fire again.
3. All they had was the ship’s anchor while they waited on a rescue tug.
4. Weather was getting bad.
That night there was 70 mile an hour winds and 30 foot seas, the ships anchor was not designed to hold in weather like this!
The Anchor stopper plates were kicked out by the force of the waves, the electrical brake was burnt out, the manual brakes was all they had left and they were not holding. Little by little the chain was being pulled out.
But somehow with God’s help the anchor chain held until the storm passed and help arrived.
No one could believe that we made it through that storm on one little anchor.
God will keep you through the storms of your life if you will trust Him.
Story of Paul:
Paul was taken prisoner, but he did not fear. Why? Because he knew that sometimes, bad things happen to God’s good people. But he was not going to let it get in his way, or let Satan have the victory.
He was going to find a way to let the bad things praise God.
He was put on a ship to go to Rome where he was to answer to Caesar because of his faith in Jesus
Acts 28:3 “And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
4: And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
5: And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
6: Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.”
Each and every one of us will have trials that come before us, there will be times when it will look like the whole world will be against you, and more then likely it will be.
Our Hope must be in Jesus
Look at Isaiah 54:13 “And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
14: In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.”
We have the promises of God that those who remain faithful that He will be their protector.
Psalms 91:5 “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6: Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7: A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8: Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9: Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10: There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11: For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12: They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”
There is not a Christian today who can say he is not without trials in life. If you are having problems give Jesus praise for it.
Thank Him that you are counted as worthy to be tried
1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
Satan is not seeking his own people to persecute, they are already in his bag, he my friend, is after God’s people. To try them and to make sure their life is as bitter as he can make it!
All he is asking for is a little compromise, you will not have to give up much and you can go right back serving your God tomorrow.
Look at what the Bible says:
Revelation 12:17 “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
God’s people will love him so much that they would rather die then to sin.
Revelation 17:14 “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
While we may drink of a bitter cup now; the daylight of Christ’ return is coming. A day of hope and gladness for all who have kept the faith and put their trust in Him.
We are told by the Prophet John in Rev 21:1 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2: And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3: And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4: And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5: And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6: And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
7: He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”
Daniel 3:17 “If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.”
Our God whom we serve will save His people from the fiery trials that Satan puts us through, because greater is He that is in us then he that is in this world.
So if your life is in the midst of a storm just remember Jesus, and like Peter, cry out from the bottom of your heart, Jesus save me, and He will be there to take your hand and lead you out of the fire, but only through your faith.
God bless and keep you my friend
Running From God!
Story: Have you ever been afraid to do something?
Jonah 1:2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.”
There was a young man who lived on an Island who was afraid of the dark.
He would not go anywhere unless there were a lot of lights on all around him, the problem on this particular Island the lights went out every night at 10pm and did not come back on until the next day.
There are a lot of places in the world where there is no 24 hour electricity. We here in the U.S., if the power goes out for 15 minutes, think we are going to die if the air condition doesn’t come back on soon.
One day this man was ask to take a job at the only fish factory on this Island. He worked there for about 4 months, then the factory rearranged the work schedule and this man found himself working the graveyard shift. But that was not a problem because the Fish Factory had 24 hour power.
Now there was an engine driven water pump that needed to be manually started and filled with fuel every night about midnight:
And it just happened that this water pump was right next to the graveyard, need I say more? He was afraid to go there, and some nights did not make it for fear.
But one day he met Jesus and it changed his life, no longer was he afraid.
Sometimes we too become afraid to do something that God is telling us to do and to go where God is telling us to go.
Let us Pray!
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RUNNING FROM GOD
Jonah Chapter 1
The Book of Jonah is a fitting example of our Christian life, we all like to sit doing nothing more with our time then playing Christians, until God calls and tells us He has a mission for us.
Two kinds of Missions
Those we want to go on… And those we don’t want to go on…..
A mission I want to go on is one of fun and Joy where I can take it easy and relax some.
The one I don’t want is full of hard work maybe in a field that has not been sown much. Or maybe I don’t like the place where God wants to send me or I don’t like the people there.
Let’s take for example God tells you to go to Houston and right there in the heart of the City and start preaching.
He tells you don’t worry about what you are going to say, He will give you the words all you is preach.
All God needs from you is for you to be there, open your mouth, and He will do the rest.
That is basically what happened to Jonah
Jonah 1:1″Now the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
How much clearer could God have made this?
Jonah: Go
Where: Nineveh
Why: Wickedness
Serving God should be something that all Christian want to do, right?
Our problem is this; we want to service God as long as it is convenient to us to serve Him.
In other words, as long as I am not asked to do anything it is OK.
Listen to what God is saying to Jonah,
There is work for you Jonah; there are people that need to be saved.
God never gives up on us unless we first give up on God… The Ninevites were a very bad people; they killed, robbed, raped, destroyed people lives, but God in his Mercy and Love sought to save them, and He sent someone who did not think that the Ninevites should be saved. (Jonah)
We need to all understand that the world is full of Ninevites and that it is our duty as representatives of Jesus, that is to say CHRISTIANS, to help them to know that Jesus died for them too.
So why do we try and run from God ?
God tells us what he want us to do.
How many times do we hear the cries of the world as it falls farther and farther away from its creator?
We head out the door to go and do Gods will, but we become afraid when we think of the magnitude of the task God has given us.
Satan enters and diverts us from Gods path.
Have you ever noticed all of a sudden a Movie comes on TV that you’ve been wanting to see for a long long time? Or someone calls you to go with them to a place in the other direction of where Gods wants you to be?
How many times in our life is it just plain rebellion, telling God No! I will not go…
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
4 But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
Jonah shunted God’s will by heading for Tarshish when God wanted him to go to Nineveh. From that moment Jonah started a sad downward course as he tried to run from God.
“Had Jonah obeyed unquestioningly, he would have been spared many bitter experiences, and he would have been blessed abundantly.”
Our problems start when we too, turn away for God, when we quit and go our way instead of going God’s way.
Trouble was just over the horizon. For Jonah it happened so quickly.
5: Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
6: So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
7: And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
God sent a great WIND on the sea. Ships never sailed in the season when the infamous MELtimi winds from the North made sailing dangerously impossible. This was the season of smooth sailing. This savage wind was supernatural.
It would take a super storm to make seasoned sailors begin to send significant cargo seaward. These pagan seamen seize their sharp sword and scurry forth to save their sinking ship. Each sending their own S.O.S. to their gods.
God sometimes sends trouble when we stray from His will. Our God is too merciful and too loving to let his children drift off into open rebellion without trying to save them.
God uses special circumstances to try to salvage his backslidden people. Hebrews 12:6 – The Lord disciplines those that He loves.
Here is how this works:
Perhaps you have been lax in your Christian life. You know you are losing your hold on God.
God realizes this also. Then one day something unusual takes place. Maybe you experience a major setback in life.
It could be that God is trying to wake you up by not preventing certain bad things from happening to you.
In Psalms, David experienced God-sent trouble. David says: “Before I was Afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.”–Psalm 119:67
God does not do it to get even. Psalm 103:3 “He does not treat us as our sins deserve..” If He did, we would be chastised every moment of every day.
Perhaps you may be wondering why Storms are raging around you so often. The storms of life could be a wake up call from God for something in our life that is not in His will.
I’m glad God doesn’t easily give us over to our sin. He probably could, if He did not love us so much..
God was trying to save Jonah. But Jonah was Sleeping, Slumbering in a crisis hour. At ease while the ship is sinking.
Jonah was sleeping during the time of trouble.
Do you know why he could sleep so sound? Because he has a false sense of security!
It is hard to comprehend how he could sleep while the storm is raging. It shows how insensitive we can get. Sin quickly hardens the heart.
Ephesians 4:19 describes such: “They have LOST all SENSITIVITY, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Every time God tries to help us and we insist on continuing our trip to Tarshish, our spiritual sensitivity weakens. Our sleep gets deeper.
Insensitive to the killer storm. Unaware that our very life is on the line. We are sleeping while the world rushes on to its destruction? Jonah should have been praying but he like Peter was sleeping.
8: Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
9: And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
10: Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
Jonah had lost his testimony. It is a sorry day when a prophet of God has to be asked: What is your occupation? If someone has been around us for a period of time and they have to ask us if we are Christians then we have lost Jesus.
Look at all the questions they asked Jonah:
• How can you sleep?
• Who is responsible?
• What do you do?
• Where do you come from?
• Why are you not praying? He was on trial for being a Christian & there was no evidence of it.
Jonah had concealed his identity but it did not work very long. You can run but you cannot hide forever. Do the people that you work with know that you are a Christian?
Jonah made a statement about himself – I Worship the Lord. But he didn’t. If he did, he would have been en-route to Nineveh. Jonah was deceived about his Christian experience.
His practice did not match his profession. He used to be a follower of God. But that was now in the past.
You can’t be saved on past experience. Our walk with Jesus must be fresh and new every day.
The storm was raging. Storms expose character. You can hide for a while, but eventually people will know about you.
11: Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous
Jonah had endangered the very lives of others by being out of God’s will. The storm was his fault.
Men, think about your life. If you are not following God’s will, what legacy are you leaving for your children or your wife or your loved ones?
12: And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
Jonah 1:12- The only prophecy of Jonah that ever came true!
This hurricane will stop the instant you throw me overboard. I will die, but you will be saved.
Running from God is strange. Jonah would rather die than do the will of God. At this point, Jonah was the worst minister in the world? Yet look at all his converts! All the sailors on that ship were saved.
15: So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
16: Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made vows.
They tried hard to row to shore. “But they could not”. Salvation is not by effort alone.
Our best effort is like a filthy rag. It is a happy day when we finally realize that our life lie in the hand of God!
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The Message for us today is to stop worrying about what lies ahead and start worrying about following what God says!
We need to stop being a Jonah, it will only get you in a whale of trouble.
We need to stop worrying about the road blocks when doing God will and take the Gospel to the people who are dying because they don’t know the truth about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes God needs to send a Whale of trouble to open our eyes!
Lord, open my eyes that I may see to do those things that will give you Glory, my ears that they may hear those things that will sing you praise, and that my speech may say those things that will lift up someone who is down in the pit of sin. That all things will be to your glory in Jesus name.
My friend we all have some kind of fear no matter how brave we think we might be. Just remember that if God is telling you to do something He will never leave you to do it by yourself. He knows our every weakness he knows our needs and inabilities. He is waiting to see if we will just trust in Him and go by Faith so that he can bless you and move the road blocks in your life.
May our Lord and Savior bless each of us today as we set out to do his will!
D5 Creation
