Hello Guys and Gals!
I am asking you a question today. Whoever said life was fair? The reason I am asking this question is because I have been seeing many people saying 'that's not fair' or 'why me' lately. It seems like everyone is exhibiting an entitlement to fairness in their life. Why? Who said life was fair? Who said you get the rose garden with the little house and the white picket fence?
In my own life, I have come through a lot of adversity to say the least. I am addicted to methamphetamines! Yes I still claim it as an active addiction because I believe it will never go away! Do you know what that is like? Well, some of you do. Some, on the other hand, do not. It is the most addictive substance known to man! There is nothing more addictive in the eyes of the medical community today. Yes even compared to Heroine!
I am beating that addiction! I had no help doing it other than Jesus. Everyone seems to want these drug treatment programs and seem to say that this is the only cure. I didn't use one. But I can honestly say that without Jesus in my life, I would still be on that junk today! But He was the only one! Not my family! Not my friends! Not my co-workers! Not even my church! It was solely Jesus! I had no help whatsoever from anyone in beating this addiction except for Jesus!
Yet, you do not hear me complaining about why did I have to be tempted with Meth. You do not hear me complaining about why did I not have anyone help me through this like a drug treatment program. I don't complain because I am running the race set before me! 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 states:
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
Now the race that I run and the the race that you run are not the same race! Every single one of us runs a different race! There is a different race set before each one of us! Yet our goal is that imperishable wreath! The one given by Jesus alone! So what that my race is different from your race! Run the race set before you to win it!
Is your race easier than mine? Is your race harder than mine? I do not know the answer to that question. I only know that they are different races. It does not matter if the race set before you is easier or harder than the race set before someone else! What matters is that you strive for that wreath! What matters is that you run the race before you to win! What matters is that when you fall down, and you will fall down, that you get back up and continue on toward the goal! That is your race! This is my race! They are different and fair does not even enter into it! You have what you have and I have what I have! Both are challenging to the runners! Will you overcome your challenge? I am sure striving to overcome mine!
May God bless you all this day!
30 October 2011
13 October 2011
Adhere Yourself To The Truth!
Hello Guys and Gals!
When Jesus spoke the truth to people, often times they did not want to hear the truth and went away as we see in Matthew 19:21-22,
21 Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.
As you see here, Jesus did not chase after him saying, 'Wait, maybe you did not understand. Maybe I should try explaining it yet another way!' No, Jesus did not chase after him but simply let him go! Yet Jesus is willing to be there for when that man came to the full knowledge of the truth and was willing to come back to Jesus. Did this man ever do that? I don't know! But I do know that we must all struggle with the truth before we come to a full acceptance of it!
But what if the person who walks away is family? Then let them walk away! But what if I love them? Then let them walk away! If you have told them the truth, meaning the Gospel or possibly something else that has happened in your life that has brought strife, then the truth will do your speaking for you. You do not have to try and convince them of more truth by more talking!
Do not throw your pearls before swine who will trod on them and grind them into the mud! In other words, if they are not receptive of the truth you are speaking, then let them walk away and let them be as a Gentile to you! This means you let them, by their choice, walk out of your life! Do not go and chase after them begging them to stay in your life!
Why not? Because this puts them in a position of authority over you! Do not let this happen! Do not let them think within their minds that they are the one who has the truth because you have come back to them! Stand firm in the truth as God has revealed it to you and as you know it! Adhere yourself to it even if it means that they are cut off and out of your life!
I have had to do this because certain people would not hear the truth. I have cut off these people and let them live in their lies until they come to the full knowledge of the truth! I have to adhere to this because if I do not, then they will think that I am somehow less than the liar! I will not have that! You should not have that! You should have your firm conviction the the truth which God has shown to you! Stand up for it! Speak it in love! And when they walk away, do not chase after them! Let them face the truth and come to terms with it! Even if it takes years and years! Even if they never come to terms with it! Stand firm in the truth and adhere yourself and your life to it!
May God bless you all this day!
When Jesus spoke the truth to people, often times they did not want to hear the truth and went away as we see in Matthew 19:21-22,
21 Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." 22 But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.
As you see here, Jesus did not chase after him saying, 'Wait, maybe you did not understand. Maybe I should try explaining it yet another way!' No, Jesus did not chase after him but simply let him go! Yet Jesus is willing to be there for when that man came to the full knowledge of the truth and was willing to come back to Jesus. Did this man ever do that? I don't know! But I do know that we must all struggle with the truth before we come to a full acceptance of it!
But what if the person who walks away is family? Then let them walk away! But what if I love them? Then let them walk away! If you have told them the truth, meaning the Gospel or possibly something else that has happened in your life that has brought strife, then the truth will do your speaking for you. You do not have to try and convince them of more truth by more talking!
Do not throw your pearls before swine who will trod on them and grind them into the mud! In other words, if they are not receptive of the truth you are speaking, then let them walk away and let them be as a Gentile to you! This means you let them, by their choice, walk out of your life! Do not go and chase after them begging them to stay in your life!
Why not? Because this puts them in a position of authority over you! Do not let this happen! Do not let them think within their minds that they are the one who has the truth because you have come back to them! Stand firm in the truth as God has revealed it to you and as you know it! Adhere yourself to it even if it means that they are cut off and out of your life!
I have had to do this because certain people would not hear the truth. I have cut off these people and let them live in their lies until they come to the full knowledge of the truth! I have to adhere to this because if I do not, then they will think that I am somehow less than the liar! I will not have that! You should not have that! You should have your firm conviction the the truth which God has shown to you! Stand up for it! Speak it in love! And when they walk away, do not chase after them! Let them face the truth and come to terms with it! Even if it takes years and years! Even if they never come to terms with it! Stand firm in the truth and adhere yourself and your life to it!
May God bless you all this day!
11 October 2011
Not Peace, But A Sword
Hello Guys and Gals,
I have been thinking about this topic for a while now. With this mornings devotions though, I feel I must speak about this. Jesus said this in Matthew 10:34-36,
34 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.35 For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW;36 and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.
Jesus draws a clear line through all of humanity! That line separates those who accept His salvation and those who do not accept it! Which side are you on? Are you saved? Or have you rejected His Grace?
Do you not realize that once you have heard the Gospel, that it either looses or binds you by the strength of itself? The loosening comes through Salvation and the binding comes through the rejection of that Salvation!
Matthew 16:19 says,
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
Matthew 18:18 says it again,
18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
And John 20:23 goes on to say,
23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."
Therefore, if you show others how to have their sins forgiven through Jesus Christ, then their sins will be forgiven upon their acceptance of His salvation. But if they reject that salvation, their sins are bound to them by the very power of the gospel.
This is why we are divided and why our very family members turn upon us with violence! They will see that you have been saved through Jesus Christ and they do not want to give up their independence and sin! By not giving up and giving in to His will, they reject, of their own will, the very same salvation that you have received. In that rejection, they have their sins bound to them for all time and having tasted and rejected the gospel are then to be considered as Gentiles or Unbelievers and considered not a member of the church! They see that they do not have the same blessings as you and it results in envy being born in them and that envy turns to hate and anger and violence! This happens every single time in some fashion or another! Do not mistake me, it will happen again and again!
This is why we need to present the gospel in a loving way, but also to make sure those we present the gospel to know the consequences of rejecting the gospel! You must tell them that by rejection of the gospel, they sentence themselves to eternal damnation and hellfire such as they will experience in the Lake of Fire, also known as Gehenna! But the most torturous of all those punishments, and make no mistake, they are punishments from God for the rejection of His Son, is that God will withdraw His presence from them! Do you not know that the Lake of Fire is nothing compared to the withdrawal of God's presence? Even Hitler and Pol Pot and Stalin and every other evil person that has ever lived knew the presence of God throughout their whole life! There was only one who knew the absence of God's presence here on Earth and that is Jesus as he died on the Cross when he said in Matthew 27:46,
"ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"
This was when God withdrew His presence from Jesus so that the full punishment and wrath of God was paid in full by His Son so that our sins through His sacrifice could be forgiven and we be restored to a loving relationship with God Almighty, the Creator of all that was, is, and will be! There is nothing that exists that did not come from Him!
I have often said that you should always speak the truth, for it is like a surgeon's scalpel and while it may hurt when it is heard, it heals through the pain it brings! So you must speak the truth in love about the gospel! And part of the gospel is Gehenna and Separation from God! It is the truth and unbelievers deserve to know the whole truth!
But remember this, when you are attacked, and you will be attacked, it is because you have gained salvation and they have not! They are envious of your salvation but they want that salvation their way and not God's way! They think they have the power to control their own lives and when they see you have given that power to God, as if he never had it all along, they begin to hate you for your surrender of yourself to Him and that is why they attack you! So pray a simple prayer. Pray that God draws near to them! If their heart will be changed, then salvation will come from it. If their heart will not be changed, then His presence will drive them far from you!
May God bless you all this day!
I have been thinking about this topic for a while now. With this mornings devotions though, I feel I must speak about this. Jesus said this in Matthew 10:34-36,
34 "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.35 For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW;36 and A MAN'S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.
Jesus draws a clear line through all of humanity! That line separates those who accept His salvation and those who do not accept it! Which side are you on? Are you saved? Or have you rejected His Grace?
Do you not realize that once you have heard the Gospel, that it either looses or binds you by the strength of itself? The loosening comes through Salvation and the binding comes through the rejection of that Salvation!
Matthew 16:19 says,
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
Matthew 18:18 says it again,
18 Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
And John 20:23 goes on to say,
23 If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."
Therefore, if you show others how to have their sins forgiven through Jesus Christ, then their sins will be forgiven upon their acceptance of His salvation. But if they reject that salvation, their sins are bound to them by the very power of the gospel.
This is why we are divided and why our very family members turn upon us with violence! They will see that you have been saved through Jesus Christ and they do not want to give up their independence and sin! By not giving up and giving in to His will, they reject, of their own will, the very same salvation that you have received. In that rejection, they have their sins bound to them for all time and having tasted and rejected the gospel are then to be considered as Gentiles or Unbelievers and considered not a member of the church! They see that they do not have the same blessings as you and it results in envy being born in them and that envy turns to hate and anger and violence! This happens every single time in some fashion or another! Do not mistake me, it will happen again and again!
This is why we need to present the gospel in a loving way, but also to make sure those we present the gospel to know the consequences of rejecting the gospel! You must tell them that by rejection of the gospel, they sentence themselves to eternal damnation and hellfire such as they will experience in the Lake of Fire, also known as Gehenna! But the most torturous of all those punishments, and make no mistake, they are punishments from God for the rejection of His Son, is that God will withdraw His presence from them! Do you not know that the Lake of Fire is nothing compared to the withdrawal of God's presence? Even Hitler and Pol Pot and Stalin and every other evil person that has ever lived knew the presence of God throughout their whole life! There was only one who knew the absence of God's presence here on Earth and that is Jesus as he died on the Cross when he said in Matthew 27:46,
"ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" that is, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"
This was when God withdrew His presence from Jesus so that the full punishment and wrath of God was paid in full by His Son so that our sins through His sacrifice could be forgiven and we be restored to a loving relationship with God Almighty, the Creator of all that was, is, and will be! There is nothing that exists that did not come from Him!
I have often said that you should always speak the truth, for it is like a surgeon's scalpel and while it may hurt when it is heard, it heals through the pain it brings! So you must speak the truth in love about the gospel! And part of the gospel is Gehenna and Separation from God! It is the truth and unbelievers deserve to know the whole truth!
But remember this, when you are attacked, and you will be attacked, it is because you have gained salvation and they have not! They are envious of your salvation but they want that salvation their way and not God's way! They think they have the power to control their own lives and when they see you have given that power to God, as if he never had it all along, they begin to hate you for your surrender of yourself to Him and that is why they attack you! So pray a simple prayer. Pray that God draws near to them! If their heart will be changed, then salvation will come from it. If their heart will not be changed, then His presence will drive them far from you!
May God bless you all this day!
05 October 2011
If Not You, Then Who?
Hello Guys and Gals!
I would like to talk about our attitude of careless disregard today. I don't know how or why, when someone speaks the truth about any situation, they can be dismissed out of hand by uncaring people because what they speak about 'does not really matter'!
I do not know if I am a considered a 'prophet' by any stretch of the imagination. I am not saying that I am. What I am saying is that History repeats itself and we can look to the actions of those in the past to predict the actions of those who are doing the same things in the present!
Yet we have seen 'prophets' rejected even back before the time of Jesus! In Matthew 23:34-36 we see Jesus speaking about how the prophets He has sent have been rejected time and again:
34 ``Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city,35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
So when people speak the truth, whether it be from God directly, or whether it be from knowing the where the actions of those leading us will lead if we continue to let them go down that path, why is it that so many do not take it to heart? Why do so many dismiss it out of hand? Why do so many think that the person who is speaking this truth is a 'Kook'?
Is it because your hearts have hardened so much that you no longer recognize truth when you see it?
Today, of all the times in the world to have the privilege of living, we can research the facts given so easily! Just twenty years ago we did not have this ability. If someone did research, they had to go to actual libraries and spend hours researching facts to come to the truth behind what someone was saying. They had to go to the archives of newspapers and seek through microfilm to find the reference that would allow you to pull up the actual newspaper and read what it actually said back at that time! Today we have the internet and search engines! We have the ability to type in key words and pull up tons of information that has been written about those key words!
Now it is true that you have to use reason and logic and follow sources listed and check them out to find out if they're true or not in order to disseminate whether what you pull up is accurate or not. But you can do that in record time today! Why do people not do this? It is so easy!
The simple answer is that, because it is so easy, we have become lazy! We do not see if someone is lying or telling the truth! We simply render a judgment on what we already perceive to be the truth and either judge it to be accurate or false on our perception! What ever happened to doing your homework?
What if what someone says is actually from God in His effort to put a stop to what is happening today through the warnings of the past? What if you have dismissed what this person has said without doing the research? What if it comes true? What if, had you listened to the person previously, you could have been instrumental in stopping it from happening? What if you had that opportunity and you failed in it? What if millions of people were killed because of your inaction?
Personally, I'm not willing to be one of these people who are indifferent to the truth! I do my research! I do my fact checking! I do compare everything I have to God's Word and see whether it lines up with His truth or not!
Mostly, and most important to me, I do not want to stand before the Throne of God and have no excuse for me not doing everything I can do to help other people come to a saving knowledge of Him in my lifetime! I do not want to stand before my Lord and my God and have Him be disappointed in what He gave me to work with and not having done all I can with it for His glory! Even though I am already afraid I have failed Him for the past I have lived.
So what about you today? Will you stand idly by and dismiss what is the truth because you didn't do your homework? Will you stand before the Throne of God and have no excuse because you stayed silent when you could have spoken out?
All it takes for Evil to succeed is for Good Men to do nothing!
May God bless you all this day!
I would like to talk about our attitude of careless disregard today. I don't know how or why, when someone speaks the truth about any situation, they can be dismissed out of hand by uncaring people because what they speak about 'does not really matter'!
I do not know if I am a considered a 'prophet' by any stretch of the imagination. I am not saying that I am. What I am saying is that History repeats itself and we can look to the actions of those in the past to predict the actions of those who are doing the same things in the present!
Yet we have seen 'prophets' rejected even back before the time of Jesus! In Matthew 23:34-36 we see Jesus speaking about how the prophets He has sent have been rejected time and again:
34 ``Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city,35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.36 Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
So when people speak the truth, whether it be from God directly, or whether it be from knowing the where the actions of those leading us will lead if we continue to let them go down that path, why is it that so many do not take it to heart? Why do so many dismiss it out of hand? Why do so many think that the person who is speaking this truth is a 'Kook'?
Is it because your hearts have hardened so much that you no longer recognize truth when you see it?
Today, of all the times in the world to have the privilege of living, we can research the facts given so easily! Just twenty years ago we did not have this ability. If someone did research, they had to go to actual libraries and spend hours researching facts to come to the truth behind what someone was saying. They had to go to the archives of newspapers and seek through microfilm to find the reference that would allow you to pull up the actual newspaper and read what it actually said back at that time! Today we have the internet and search engines! We have the ability to type in key words and pull up tons of information that has been written about those key words!
Now it is true that you have to use reason and logic and follow sources listed and check them out to find out if they're true or not in order to disseminate whether what you pull up is accurate or not. But you can do that in record time today! Why do people not do this? It is so easy!
The simple answer is that, because it is so easy, we have become lazy! We do not see if someone is lying or telling the truth! We simply render a judgment on what we already perceive to be the truth and either judge it to be accurate or false on our perception! What ever happened to doing your homework?
What if what someone says is actually from God in His effort to put a stop to what is happening today through the warnings of the past? What if you have dismissed what this person has said without doing the research? What if it comes true? What if, had you listened to the person previously, you could have been instrumental in stopping it from happening? What if you had that opportunity and you failed in it? What if millions of people were killed because of your inaction?
Personally, I'm not willing to be one of these people who are indifferent to the truth! I do my research! I do my fact checking! I do compare everything I have to God's Word and see whether it lines up with His truth or not!
Mostly, and most important to me, I do not want to stand before the Throne of God and have no excuse for me not doing everything I can do to help other people come to a saving knowledge of Him in my lifetime! I do not want to stand before my Lord and my God and have Him be disappointed in what He gave me to work with and not having done all I can with it for His glory! Even though I am already afraid I have failed Him for the past I have lived.
So what about you today? Will you stand idly by and dismiss what is the truth because you didn't do your homework? Will you stand before the Throne of God and have no excuse because you stayed silent when you could have spoken out?
All it takes for Evil to succeed is for Good Men to do nothing!
May God bless you all this day!
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