Prosperity or pampered

Why don’t we call Christians out for subscribing to a pampering gospel, one that makes them feel safe, and keeps them within the confines of their comfort zones? There are also teachers who are preaching a gospel which promotes the idea that anything that you feel a need for can be asked for in Jesus’ name and it is yours. God is not a genie and the name of Jesus is not a magic word to get anything and everything that you feel that you need.

During His ministry, Jesus didn’t even heal every person who was in the crowd or near Him. Could He have done that? Yes, He could but that wouldn’t have given the glory to God if He had. He could’ve just thought or spoken the words over those who were seeking a healing in the crowd but how would God have gotten the glory for that? He healed people specifically and He raised some people from the dead, again specifically.

At the tomb of Lazarus, if Jesus had not said his name, every person in the graves around his would’ve come forth! The miracles which He performed were very specific to those who were seeking them. As for prosperity, Jesus said that it was as hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven as it was for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Whether that was an actual gate into Jerusalem, as I have heard before, or not I am not sure. The point is that it is very difficult for a wealthy person to give their life and their heart to believe in Jesus for salvation.

Just as the rich, young ruler, which prompted Jesus to say those things, came to Him asking how he could get into Heaven. Jesus asked him about his religious life and he told Jesus that he had kept all of the Law during his life, so Jesus told him to sell all that he had and give it to the poor so he would have riches in Heaven, but since he was wealthy he went away saddened.

Jesus did not teach that we were all to live as paupers but He also taught that unless your heart was focused on the Kingdom of God rather than riches, then having wealth did you no good either. Regarding wealth Jesus said, 25 “For how would a man benefit to gain the whole world but destroy his soul or lose it?” Luke 9:25

By this Jesus meant that your soul individually is worth more than all of the wealth of the world! God loves you and cared enough for your salvation to send His Son to take your place on the cross in order to pay the price for your soul and mine and every person on the Earth. This is the gift of God to each of us which we can’t pay for and yet it is offered to us freely through belief in Jesus for our salvation.

Jesus also said that we are to take up our cross each day and follow Him. What does He mean by that? He means that for each of us there is something in our life, like the rich young ruler, that we need to nail to the cross and give it to Him each day then follow Him each day throughout our lives. Salvation is not a one day or one decision commitment, it is a daily commitment which we are to do in our lives. Does that mean that we have to work for our salvation?

No! Salvation is the gift of God through grace by belief in Jesus. We must move through life becoming more like Him and to do that we have to learn more about Him through the study of His Word in the Bible. Putting away the temptations of our old life by study and prayer. Being His is easy when we realize that we need Him, becoming more like Him is the so-called “work” which we do each day through prayer and study of the Bible.

Jesus only taught His disciples for three years while He was here, but they kept meditating on His teachings throughout their lives while they were teaching and preaching to the churches in the first century. They lived in prayer and meditation on His teachings every day and that is what we should be doing too.

What will you do?

When you feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit, what will you do? Will you act on it like you should or will you ignore it and decide to do it later like so many others do? We are not guaranteed the rest of the day by God let alone next week or next month, so why put off a decision which will affect your eternal home?

If you don’t think there is an eternity, then you haven’t read the Bible much. Even in Genesis God told Isaac that He was the God of Abraham. Not in the past tense but in the present tense meaning that Abraham was alive in Paradise at that time. Jesus said that He would come back and receive us unto Himself, meaning that there is an eternity which we will be welcomed into one day.

The life which we live in today is not the only life that you have. There is an eternity which all of us will go to one day, which destination that we spend it in will depend upon our choice here and now. Give your heart to Jesus and follow Him in this life, repenting of your sinful ways and you will spend eternity in Heaven with Him. Refuse the Holy Spirit’s call on your life and continue in your own ways, living like the rest of the world around you, and you will spend it in hell with Satan and anyone else who refused God’s offer.

This is the only time which you will have to make this decision and it is while you still have breath in this life. Don’t be foolish enough to think you will get a second chance to change your mind after death because that is not possible. God’s Word says so.

Why do I bring this up now? Because, if you haven’t heard about any of this before now, then you need to know as soon as possible! God made it possible for each of us to have a wonderful eternity in Heaven IF we will trust and believe in Jesus as your Savior. There is no other way to gain your way into Heaven, even though many people think there are many different paths to get there.

Satan has been working through the different “denominations” and their pastors behind the scenes so that many people are led to believe a lie. That lie is that you can work your way into Heaven. Another one is that you have plenty of time before that decision needs to be made. The biggest lie is that you can get to Heaven by worshiping any way you choose to worship, even if you don’t worship God.

Heaven is available to anyone who feels the conviction of the Holy Spirit and responds to it by inviting Jesus into their life and repenting of their sinful ways. Even if you don’t think your life is sinful…answer one question about your life: Would you be okay with Jesus walking with you for a few months and going everywhere you go, seeing everything that you do and hearing everything you say? You know, God already knows all of this because He can see and hear everything that you do, whether you have given your heart and life to Him or not!

There is nothing hidden from God, so don’t think that He can’t know what you say and do because He certainly does. Make the right decision and turn your life and your heart over to Jesus before your time is up because if you have a wreck tomorrow and stand before Him there are no second chances to fix the decision that you didn’t make before your death.

My sermon for tomorrow

I pray that this sermon touches someone who may turn their lives over to Jesus.

Acts 14:8-20

The Visit to Lystra and Derbe

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: 9The same heard Paul speak: who stedfastly beholding him, and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, 10 Said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked. 11 And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. 12 And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker. 13 Then the priest of Jupiter, which was before their city, brought oxen and garlands unto the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people. 14 Which when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, 15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: 16 Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. 18 And with these sayings scarce restrained they the people, that they had not done sacrifice unto them.

19 And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. 20 Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe.

Paul preached the gospel of Jesus the Christ, the Messiah even though at first he wanted to destroy the Way as they called it in those days. Why did he have the conviction which he had to preach salvation through Jesus? Because Jesus called him personally just as He called each of us! Do we live our Christian life like we are called by Him? Most Christians don’t live that way. We have salvation, we believe that Jesus saved us from our sins but are we thankful enough to be useful to Him?

If you know the hell that you have been saved from then you should be very thankful. Many people think that those who go to hell will endure for a while but their punishment will end. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says that “the smoke of their torment will rise forever”!

Your spirit, your soul is immortal and the body which you enter into eternity with is immortal so your torment is eternal and forever! Just because you don’t go to heaven doesn’t mean that you don’t have an eternity to look forward to, but going to hell is an eternal life which is called the “second death” because you are in the place where Satan is and you are not in the Presence of God, where Life is.

Paul was called to be a disciple and the apostle to the Gentiles so that they, you and me, could learn about the Jesus which paid our debt for our sins so that we don’t have to go to an eternity of punishment. We have the hope of an eternity with Jesus in Heaven and with those of our family who believed in Jesus for their salvation. We are supposed to be the apostle in our family telling others about Jesus. It is our JOB to do this because when we are called to be saved then we are supposed to give that salvation away to others, especially those in our family!

God has chosen you to be His disciple in the place where you work or in the areas where you live to be the person that people can see Jesus through and tell them of His love for them. If you don’t, they may never hear about Him or know about Him because you may be the only contact that they have with a true Christian.

Jesus died in your place

This is the message of Christianity. The Son of God came down to Earth, to be born of a virgin and to become the Savior, the Messiah of the world! He wasn’t a conquering King that many were looking for and He was not a copy of other “messiahs” as some had claimed prior to His birth. He was and is the Lamb of God sacrificed to redeem the whole world if they will only believe in Him as their Savior. Knowing about Him or His message is not the same as heartfelt belief in Him.

Knowing about Him and what He did is not the same as being His spiritually and taking His spirit into your life and your heart.

“The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” John 1:29

Salvation through belief in Jesus is the only way to Heaven, there is no other. This is the message which was taught about Him and by Him during His ministry and it is the only message which can save your soul from torment in hell. When you repent of your sinful life, which we have all lived at some point, believing in Jesus as your Savior will change your life forever! Not just here on Earth, but your eternal life will be totally different from those who think they know Him or “have an understanding with God”.

Those ideas will send many people to hell thinking that they are deserving of Heaven. While it is true that many good people may do many good deeds in their lifetime with this idea of their righteousness, some of them may even be pastors, but that idea is not salvation. Satan can convince you that it is and many have believed this lie but when they stand in judgment after death they find that their idea and reality are not the same.

God loves each of us and He does want a relationship with us but that relationship only comes through our conviction of our sinful nature and our belief in Jesus as our Savior. No amount of church attendance or even reading the Bible will save your soul, only your belief in Jesus as your Savior can and will do that!

Jesus came to bring salvation to Israel but when they did not believe that He was the Messiah, He knew that salvation had to be taken to the whole world. This is the command which He gave to His disciples and to Saul a little while later. It is also the command which the church should be following today! Take the gospel to the whole world so that others may hear and know Jesus and the freedom which comes through Him.

The love of God was poured out into all the world through Jesus and His message and it is still being told today. I pray that whoever reads this might seek Him out as their Savior because the days are coming when it will be hard if not impossible to find a Bible or a preacher. Plan for your eternity now because tomorrow may be too late.

RomanRoad2Salvation

If the church was a hospital…

“The United States now ranks third (3rd) following China and India in the number of people who are not professing Christians; in other words, the U.S. is becoming an ever-increasing “un-reached people group.”

If the church in America was a hospital the government would investigate it for the number of “deaths” (people leaving) and shut it down entirely! Why is this happening? America was begun by people who were looking for a place to worship without persecution concerning their faith or religious practices, so what has happened in the 240+ years that America has been a nation?

In a way, the church is a “care facility” for Christians or rather that is what it is meant to be. We are or at least should be studying the Bible there at least once every week, listening to a sermon about Jesus or God’s plans for our lives and learning from these sermons exactly how to live our Christian lives!

The survey, which is at the link above, tells us that people are leaving the church as hurting people because they have not been getting what they need from the sermons there. They feel empty instead of being filled with hope for the week ahead. Jesus is the Author of LIfe and if you leave a church service feeling more dead than alive, something is wrong!

God didn’t send Jesus here to bring people from life to feeling dead! The hope that we find in Jesus should be life-giving and life-sustaining because we will be with Him into eternity if we have given our hearts to Him and live accordingly.

So…what is going on in the church today? People seem to be disillusioned with the message or the messenger but it is difficult to tell which one is actually the problem. Is it possible to fix this? The only way that I know of is with lots of prayer with the entire church body involved in the prayer. If those in the congregation don’t want to participate or even feel the need to participate, then it is likely that the church will soon close its doors.

I was called into a pastorship a little more than seven years ago but the number in attendence on a regular basis has been dwindling for a few years now. Mostly due to jobs being elsewhere and people moving and the fact that our congregation was small to begin with (less than 30 people). Churches are closing at an alarming rate, not just in the so-called “Bible Belt” of the South but all over America.

Only if we will come back to our core beliefs in God and humble ourselves with prayer about this situation will things get better. Although, we are very close to the time of Jesus’ return for His Bride, at least that part of her that is left. It is during this time when the faith of many will grow cold and after the church is taken up things will only get worse. I pray that we will come back to our faith and trust in the Lord and maybe things will turn around before it is too late.

Humble

Consider…love

There is so much hate and discord in the world today, why are we seeing all of these terrible problems all around us? In my opinion, it is because we haven’t tried to love people more. I don’t mean physical love or some kind of superficial love. The kind of love that I am speaking of is God’s kind of love.

“Well, now how do we do that?” you might say. The same way that Jesus did. If He can do it and His disciples did it then why can’t we do it today? If you truly are a Christian and you’ve been changed by His Spirit then you should be able to love someone in the same way that Jesus loved them. Not by looking at their skin color or how beautiful or handsome they are…but by seeing them the way that God looks at them. By seeing the value of their souls to God!

Jesus said if a man gained the whole world but loses his soul, what good would it do that man? In this, Jesus was speaking of the wealth of the whole world! I am not sure how much that could be but I know it would be in the trillions of dollars! That is still less than the value of your soul to God.

AngelsRejoice God created the entire universe and your soul, your salvation is worth more to Him than all of the wealth of the entire world or even the world itself! Imagine what the souls of every person on Earth are worth to Him. The blood of His Son, Jesus (Yeshua). That is what every person on Earth is worth. When you accept the atonement which Jesus’ death provided for your sins and for my sins, you have to agree that we are not worthy of His sacrifice. But He considered us worthy, which is why He did what He did for each of us.

It is not a great stretch to look at the Scriptures and realize that God has loved humanity since He created Adam and Eve. Even though they rebelled against His command and ate from a forbidden tree, He still loved them. He could look down through time and see you and me and each person who will choose to follow Him and believe in Jesus. He could also see those who will choose not to believe, but that doesn’t mean that He loved them less than anyone else.

God’s love for us is not dependent upon what we do or what we say or even if we believe in Jesus or not. God IS Love, so He expresses His love for all of us in that Jesus died for all of mankind’s sins. Whether we choose to follow Him and give our lives to Him is still our choice but I think when you realize everything that is provided for you in this life, then you will make that decision. I just pray that it will be a decision to follow Jesus and give your life to Him.

Our God is Awesome!

Psalm 47

Clap Your Hands, All You Peoples

(2 Kings 18:13-16; 2 Chronicles 32:1-8; Psalm 46:1-11; Psalm 48:1-14)

1{To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.} O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

2For the LORD most high is terrible; he is a great King over all the earth.

3He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.

4He shall choose our inheritance for us, the excellency of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.

5God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.

6Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises.

7For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.

8God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.

9The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

5thingsgodwantsyou2know

Angels and Demons

This is a subject which I have not been exactly jumping up and down to write about but it needs to be out here for everyone to see. We read in God’s Word that angels exist because the Angel of the Lord appeared a few times in the Old Testament. Gabriel appeared a couple of times as well. So, if angels have shown themselves occasionally then why can’t demons be real?

Of course, they are sneaky and crafty in their ways but did you know that many of our conflicts have been influenced by their presence as well? In fact, we likely invited them right into the meetings with us. Many times in the Bible you read about something which was done in anger or resentment and then regret comes and a person seeks forgiveness.

It is our own feelings of anger and resentment and fear which invites some demons that will inflame those feelings to a point that we may do something which we would regret. Don’t think for a moment that Satan and his demons and other spirits don’t exist because they exist outside our senses just as angels do. We don’t see them and likely it is a good thing! We would be terrified to go anywhere, especially at night, if we could see the realm which exists beside us here.

Christians are not subject to being possessed by a demon, but that doesn’t keep us from inviting them into our homes and our lives when we are stressed or hurt emotionally. When they are invited they will stay as long as possible and make your life miserable, so be careful about your hatred or bitterness in your daily life. Guard your heart with prayer and study of God’s Word and try to live according to His teachings daily.

GodsBlessing

Where Love is

This word is used so flippantly in our world today until it seems to be almost meaningless. Is love still what it was many years ago? Is it just a word which we say but really don’t mean? In many ways it is both of these and so much more. Consider the definition found in 1 Corinthians 13:

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

God is the ultimate definition of Love because it was His Love which sent Jesus to redeem mankind from our own sinful ways, to give us a chance to be pardoned and atoned for so we could be worthy of attaining entry into Heaven. This we can do through belief in Jesus and no other pathway or other works is needed so that we can be saved!

God made this possible so that, while we were yet sinners, our sins were already forgiven and paid for and all we need to do is accept Jesus as our Savior and repent of our former sinful ways and follow Him. Today, this seems to be a hard teaching for many but if you want to live into eternity, it is the only way. No other religion in the world gives you access to God in Heaven regardless of the teaching you may hear!

Seek out a Bible teacher that is truly teaching from God’s Word and then pray for your salvation and accept Jesus as your Savior. Then your heart will be changed and you will be able to follow Him as your Savior and Lord!

Immortality

It seems that there are more commercials on television about making you look young again or at least younger than you are. Why do we have such a fascination with youth? When we are young, we can’t wait to get older and when we are older we want to be young again…does that make any sense to you?

We are born needing help with everything, then we grow to a point where we think we are doing everything for everyone else, then when we get old we are back to the point of others helping us with everything all over again. It seems to be an endless circle. But honestly, I don’t want to be young again! Yes, there were many things which I could do when I was younger that I can’t do now but are those things really useful today?

Some of them may be but most of my younger days and nights were spent doing things which I would consider counter-productive today. Many of those which I thought I enjoyed way back when were sinful and dangerous. Like drinking and then driving home or smoking two and three packs of cigarettes every day. Those behaviors are thirty years or more in my past now, but some people seem to want to go back to that point.

Being young is a good thing but why can’t we look ahead of us instead of behind in our life here? Many of us see a life ahead with pain and the maladies which come with old age but I am talking about eternity…immortality with Jesus in Heaven! That life will not have the ailments and frail body which all of us have now. We will be in a body which will never die with no contacts or eyeglasses needed to see the world around us! We won’t need a cane or a wheelchair to get around in or with.

The life that believers will have in Heaven will be one of worship and praise and working in God’s Kingdom forever! There will be no night or heat or suffering or pain and anything which we associate with getting old or being old!

I know, it sounds too good to be true! But, just think about this a minute. Anyone can be saved through the name of Jesus and by His Spirit just by believing in Him and what He did for you and me. You don’t have to be a deacon or a church member for decades, just answer the call of the One Who calls you to be saved. That is all that is needed. God prepared the way for you through Jesus and all that you need to do is believe in Him and accept the atonement provided through His shed blood.

You can get baptized and become a member of a church when you accept Jesus as your Savior but the church membership isn’t a requirement for salvation. The baptism isn’t a requirement either but it is a public statement showing that you are raised to walk into a new life with Jesus. God loves you, don’t forget that bit of information. Seek Him earnestly and you will find Him.

IamtheWay