4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: Isaiah 26:4 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.26.4.KJV
God gives us His strength
Category: Choose to follow Jesus Christ
When you are afraid…
3 What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Psalm 56:3 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.56.3.KJV
All of us are afraid at some point in our lives. We may not admit it and we certainly won’t tell anyone that we are afraid…but deep down we are. It doesn’t matter if you are a police officer or a firefighter or in the Special Forces of the Military everyone feels fear. It is how we deal with it that defines our actions and our reactions in those situations. Courage is the control of our reaction to fear.
God is with us when we are afraid and if you are a Christian you have angels who are with you as your guard in front and behind you regardless of where you may be. So why are we afraid? Fear is one of the emotions that Satan uses to put doubts in our mind about God and His faithfulness. Fear can paralyze you and cause you to run when you should “be still and know that I am God“. Realize that whatever your circumstance and whatever may be causing you to fear something or someone…God is bigger than your fear and the cause of your fear!
God sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the price for your sins and mine so that we could be welcomed into His family. God determined that this would be necessary all the way back in the Garden of Eden, long before any of us were known or thought of by anyone except Himself. He knew that we would need a Savior and that Savior would have to be one of the Trinity…His Son. Jesus came to the Patriarchs as the Angel of the Lord or the Commander of the Lord’s Army. He was also the Rock from which the water flowed in the wilderness and the Bread from heaven that sustained them. In Babylon Jesus saved the three Hebrews who were thrown into the furnace by being the One that was “like a son of the gods” in their trial with them.
God is always with us in our trials, whatever they may be so when you feel fear or you are afraid for some reason…pray a prayer for God’s Presence to be near you and to guard you and give you the strength to face it and move on.
Are we all guilty?
Every human after the fall is guilty of the same sin that Adam was guilty of. The sin of disobedience. Those of us who have chosen not to believe in Jesus for your salvation have disobeyed the call of God. If you have felt the call of God in your heart, it doesn’t matter if it was at church or a radio program or on the TV, then you should answer that call. Some people will answer and ask Jesus into their hearts and some will refuse.
So…are we guilty or not? Yes, we are all guilty of being sinners before we come to Jesus for our salvation. Can we be redeemed? Yes, even for the most heinous crimes imaginable and for the least crimes as well. Every sin, no matter how small, is equal in God’s sight! Sometimes we look at these things, meaning sins, with the wrong outlook. Stealing a pen is still stealing. Looking at a woman/girl with lust in your heart/mind is still adultery even if you never touch her. Your mind can conjure up all sorts of imaginings that you may not even be physically capable of doing sexually but it is still a sin in your mind. Our minds are the places where everything that we do and say or imagine comes to pass. That is why we should “capture every thought and bring it under the control of the Holy Spirit“.
Do we do this as Christians? Many times we don’t do it immediately so we have to ask Jesus to forgive us and give us the strength to capture it quicker when it happens again. It will happen because not one of us is perfectly able to do this. Jesus did but He was totally submitted to His Father’s will for His life and there isn’t a person on Earth capable of doing that today. Some may think that they can do it but they are being deceived by Satan.
Each of the Ten Commandments has been broken by preachers, teachers, carpenters and shepherds all over this world. It doesn’t matter what your occupation is but if you consider yourself a Christian and your heart has been changed to the point that you don’t do the things that you used to do…you will still fail in some way. We are human. Yes our heart belongs to Jesus and we read and study God’s Word but our mind can be tricked so easily into thinking something or imagining something that we shouldn’t. It takes prayer, every day, and seeking Him more than just once or twice a week to be successful in your walk with Jesus.
I pray that whoever reads this short message will seek Him out and give their heart to Jesus. Ask Him to come into your life and change you so that your life will be useful to Him from that point on. Then your eternity is secure and your life can be more than it has ever been or even more than you could imagine.
Obligations
There was a workday at our church this past weekend but I couldn’t attend. The need for getting groceries early because of the heat and our lack of an air-conditioned vehicle seemed greater than the need for one more set of hands at our church. Yet, on Sunday morning I felt as if I didn’t belong there because I didn’t do my part the day before. I prayed for their safety in the heat and for our revival coming up but it still didn’t seem to be enough. Why?
The spirit of “guilt” was affecting my conscience I suppose. Nobody said anything to me about my absence but I still felt out of place. Was it Satan trying to get to me for not being there? It could’ve been.
In spite of our salvation, Satan can and does get into our heads and he can make us feel things that aren’t an issue as if they are. That is how he can split a church over trivial things that shouldn’t matter that much! Many times we make problems bigger when they shouldn’t be actual problems at all. That is his work. He tries to make our lives miserable even when we are serving the Lord. This is when we should recognize that he is behind it and just tell him to stay out of the way in the name of Jesus.
God carries us through each and every day whether they are good or bad days. Our problem is our own minds can and will listen to Satan’s lies making little things seem to be much bigger than they are. Seek to do the will of God on the good days and the bad days. Read His Word and learn of His Wisdom because your own wisdom can get you into trouble far quicker than you can imagine, especially with Satan’s help. If you think you are above listening to Satan, he will prove you wrong and in a big way. He can place thoughts in your mind that can cause you to think things that you wouldn’t otherwise, so be careful.
God loves each of us and He has given us a way to tap into His strength through the Holy Spirit but we have to initiate it through prayer and by knowing His Word well enough to use it for our defense. Read His Word each day, pray about what you have read and ask Him to give you His wisdom so that you can understand the meaning behind what you have read. It is our obligation to know His Word so that we know His voice when it speaks to us as we read it. It is our obligation to do what His Word commands us to do so that others will know about the Savior Who came to give each of us a chance at eternity. Make sure that you know Him and that He knows you before your time here is through.
So much to do…
How can I put this? The number of people who need to be reached seems to be growing beyond the ability of the workers that are available. Why? Because there are fewer believers willing to get the message to them regardless of the method used. Yes, there are plenty of “ministries” that are working around the world to reach the lost with His Message but there are still more at home who need to hear it too! Jesus came as a child…a baby in a manger and grew up as a Jewish kid learning the carpentry trade from His Earthly father, Joseph. Many sermons don’t tell this because after the time that His parents found Him in the Temple we rarely hear about His childhood or the vocation of Joseph. It seems to belittle or make a light thing out of His early life that He learned from Joseph.
While it is true that Jesus came as the Son of God, He was raised and taught the Torah by His Earthly father. Joseph also taught Him about being a Jew and living by the Laws of Moses and all of the Ten Commandments. I’ve heard some preachers and others say that Jesus was the Living Word, He didn’t need to be taught like other children. Why not? Just because He was the Living Word doesn’t mean that He was born with all of the knowledge of the Old Testament packed inside His brain. Jesus had to learn just like all the other Jewish boys His age although He did have the Holy Spirit to guide Him and give Him deeper insight into the Word that He was learning.
The Christian church needs to seek God’s Wisdom in our daily lives so that we can take His Wisdom with us everywhere we go. People need to see it in our lives and hear it in our speech so they will know that we belong to Jesus. Your life as a Christian is one that begins when you give your life to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you for all of your sins. Then you have to learn as much as you can every day from that point forward in God’s Word so you will know His voice when He speaks to you. Learn about Him and then tell others about Him too!
Listen to Jesus
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/rom.10.17.KJV
The Bread of Life
God sustained His people in the wilderness with manna that was the bread of life for them. The Bread of Life for us today is Jesus Christ! Do you know Him? The Savior and Redeemer of the world and yet Christianity is one of the most hated religions of the world. The fact is that our “religion” isn’t a religion at all. Christianity is a relationship!
This is what God created humanity for! He wanted a relationship with us from the very beginning yet many people still don’t know Him. Why? Because of the “rules”? The New Testament church is bound by His blood and our belief in Him for our salvation, we obey His “rules” because of what He did for us not because of requirements or “rules”.
Jesus gave His life for us and He paid the debt for our sins and not just for the Christian church but for the whole world if they will accept Him as their Savior. We are called to be the light for the world to see. The Light of Jesus should shine forth from the church and draw those who are searching for His Truth to Him. If we aren’t being that Light then how will those who are searching know where to go or Who to seek out for their salvation?
The early church was a community of believers and we should be the same. I see a very different church today. One where couples and families come together as a church during worship services then they separate until the next time. This is fine…up to a point, but we should check on each other between church meetings. There are times when little problems come up for each of us that can grow into bigger problems before we can discuss them with our church family. Sometimes we feel so isolated from our church family until we will push “our problem” into a corner of our mind and suffer with it until it gets so cumbersome that we have to seek out our friends to help us handle it.
It is this community of believers that has come apart in the last fifty or so years and it is something that our church, every church, needs to get back to. Not exactly in a commune way but close enough to each other that we can be there for each other no matter what the need is, big or small or in between. This is the relationship that we should have in the Body of Christ and with Him too. If we aren’t doing this and haven’t been doing this then we need to start…NOW! I’m praying that the church will realize this and seek Him and His influence in this before the possibility of a revival is lost.
Place your hope in God!
13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Romans 15:13 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/rom.15.13.KJV
Be still…
In our busy world today it seems almost like a joke when someone asks or tells you to “Be still!”. We want to say, “I don’t have time to be still, I have too much to do!”. Many of us think it, some of us may blurt it out but this is very true today. Our world, whether it is in a developed country or a third-world country or a war-torn country, is very busy, constantly moving in some direction regardless of whether it is the right one or not. When God says, “Be still and know that I AM God“, He is speaking of being still in your Spirit. Sometimes it does involve being still physically because many of us can’t focus on Him if we aren’t being still.
Can you be still? Many people are so busy running here and there trying to get things done yet most aren’t successful at getting the most important things accomplished. We do many little things during our day but many times we don’t get around to the really important decisions. “What is a really important decision?”; how about the decision to make Jesus your Savior so that your eternity is sealed with Him?
We live our lives and our careers so focused on “getting ahead” and “making sure our retirement is comfortable” but many people don’t consider their eternity. We live seventy or eighty years and spend maybe fifteen or so “enjoying” our retirement years by going to doctor after doctor. It doesn’t sound very enjoyable to me. Some do go on vacations and trips, then spend a month or more recovering from them. Consider eternity for a moment though. Even a life that lasts for a century is but a puff of smoke in comparison to ten thousand years and ten thousand years is only one tick toward one million years. Eternity is beyond our comprehension, so why not get prepared for spending it with the One Who loves you the most in all of the universe?
God sent Jesus to pay our penalty for every sin for every person from the beginning of Creation to the end. All that we need to do is believe it, repent of those sins and accept Jesus as our Savior and our eternity will be sealed with Him. Don’t believe the lie that you have plenty of time to make that decision because not one of us is guaranteed tomorrow. Just as the rich fool who built more barns to enjoy his wealth but God said “your soul is required of you tonight“, you or I don’t know when our time will be up! So, prepare for your eternity and make the decision to follow Jesus because not making that decision will send you to a place where you will regret your lack of decision for eternity.
Why is there persecution?
There are many reasons for Christians to be persecuted at this time. One is because it was foretold by our Lord Jesus Christ. Another reason is because our belief in Jesus and the Truth of the Gospel and God’s Word is offensive to many religions because of our claim that it is the only Truth. One other reason is because there are many people who don’t want to believe in Jesus and they fervently believe that their religion is the “right” belief to have in order to enter into eternity. The problem that is present in our world today is that God designed us with an eternal soul regardless of our belief in Jesus or not we will have an eternity ahead of us after death. Our eternal problem is our destination after death, will it be in Heaven or will it be in the lake of fire, not for any sin that we’ve done in this life but for rejecting the Savior that God sent into the world to save us!
Whether you believe in Jesus for your salvation or not doesn’t change the fact that eternity is still out there ahead of you. Oh, some people may tell you that there is nothing after death. You’re just dead!
That isn’t what is taught and shown in God’s Word. Jesus spoke many times about Paradise or Abraham’s bosom and hell, so if the Son of God speaks about a life after this one then the end of this life isn’t the end at all. But there are many religions and beliefs that don’t teach about an eternity beyond this life, let alone that you will experience it as a living soul! The soul that comes from God Himself, the breath of Life that was breathed into Adam, is eternal. When this body, this “temple of the Holy Spirit” is dead, your soul goes back to its Maker. If you have given your life to Jesus and followed Him, even if it was only for a few days or weeks, your soul will be in His Presence from the moment of your death into eternity. If you did not give your heart to Jesus and you lived like the end was going to be the end…period, then your soul will go into eternity to be judged by God without the blood of Jesus covering your sinful life.
Which one of those situations would you rather be in? The one where your soul is welcomed into eternity or the one where you are facing the Judge of all, God Himself?
It is an easy choice to make while you are alive here but it has to be made before you draw your last breath. This life is a “proving ground” in a way because God proves each of us while we live. Whether we will obey Him and follow Jesus and repent of our sinful lives or not. Those are the only choices in this life that have real eternal consequences. When you feel convicted of your sins, whether you are in church or in your car or at work, begin to pray right then and ask Jesus to forgive you and come into your heart and change you so that you can be useful to Him for the rest of your life regardless of how long that may be.
You and I are not guaranteed tomorrow, so when that conviction does come on your heart please don’t ignore it. Immediately begin praying for Him to come in and save you from your sinful life and it’s consequences. Don’t wait until Sunday because you may not make it to Sunday!
The Living Message of Christ 