THE CHURCH IS STILL ALIVE

The true church will never be destroyed but will flourish forever.  Jesus said to Peter in Matthew 16:18, “And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”  

Satan has tried to destroy the church for many years but he cannot and he will not, ever.  For him to destroy the church he would have to defeat Jesus and that can never happen.  Jesus is the head of the church and He is the chief cornerstone and because of Him the church lives and moves and has its being.  

On the confession of the faith of every true believer the church thrives and grows because the true church is made of born-again people that have been washed and their sins cleansed by the blood of their Savior, Jesus Christ, the righteous and Holy One.  Satan tried to destroy Jesus by inciting the crowds against Him encouraging them to holler, “Crucify Him, Crucify Him” at the time of His crucifixion.  Think about this, it was only a short time before this when Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem on a donkey that some of the people spread their cloaks and branches on the ground and were hollering, “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”  

Satan will never stop trying to destroy Jesus and His church but the Bible says in Isaiah 59:19, “So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” (KJV)  It also says this in Isaiah 54:16-17, “I have created the blacksmith who fans the coals beneath the forge and makes the weapons of destruction.  And I have created the armies that destroy.  But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed.  You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you.  These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from me.  I, the Lord, have spoken!” (NLT)

And don’t forget what it says in 1^st John 4:4, “You dear children are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world,” praise the Lord!  Satan is the influence behind everyone that is against everything that is holy and righteous, he hates every believer and every non-believer alike; he is the father of all lies.  The Word says, for good reason, in Ephesians 6:10-12, “A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”  (NLT)

So remember God has a remnant of people that are true believers that make up the church and these are the ones that will be the overcomers, not the imposters that are just full of religion that think they are a part of the church.  The true believers’ witness and testimonies have been poured out in the entire world for generations and will continue until the Lord returns and takes all His people home to be with Him, what a glorious day that will be!

So if you are a part of the church, just keep on hanging on, never give in and never give up.  Jesus is coming back and from what I see taking place it is going to be soon, praise the Lord!  But in the meantime the true church is thriving and is very much alive and our enemy is very angry.

Let me share some things that the Word has to say about this, check this out in Revelations 12:7-12, “And there was war in heaven.  Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.  But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.  The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.  He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.  Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:  ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ.  For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.  They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!  But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you!  He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.’”  (NIV)

Satan may be angry but the Lord is on our side and through Him we will overcome, praise the Lord!  I hope this has been an encouragement to you whoever you are.  Have a super day and may God bless you richly.

  

Division

Jesus gave us a warning in the book of Luke about what would happen to believers as far as families are concerned and I also think this can relate to friends and marriages.  Jesus didn’t leave us in the dark about anything because He knew we would need some answers for the things we would experience in our Christian walk and this was one of them.

When God draws us to Jesus and we are convicted by the Holy Spirit and we repent, turning away from sin, and receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior we are covered by the blood of Jesus, we are cleansed, washed and forgiven of our sins.  At that point we have been purchased by the Lamb of God, which is Jesus Christ, God’s beloved Son, praise the Lord.  Before that we were controlled by the evil one and we, in many ways, helped to further his kingdom.  Then our eyes and ears were opened and the veil was removed from our minds and we received the Word through faith.  We were snatched from the very fires of Hell and the grip of the evil one and set free by Jesus.  Now we are in the Lord’s Army and, if need be, we need to be willing to forsake all others and follow Him.

Jesus said in Matthew 10:34, “Think not that I have come to bring peace on the earth, I came not to bring peace but a sword.”  Here is where the division comes in, everyone in the family may not choose to follow Jesus as well as some of your friends, then a conflict usually starts and sometimes it may seem like an all-out war.  Don’t be surprised if turmoil begins to tear up your family.  If, or when, that happens your devotion and commitment has to be to the Lord.  The Lord expects you to love your family and your friends but not above your love and devotion for Him.  This is part of taking up your cross, denying yourself and following Him.  You can pray for your family and friends, which you should, but if you need to, you will have to separate yourself from them and cling to Jesus.  

Think of this, usually if a Jew receives Jesus they will be disowned by their families, I think some families go as far as having a funeral for them claiming them dead as far as the family is concerned.  In Russia to become a Christian may cost you your job and the means to provide for yourself and if they can’t find a believing man or women to take them in they might starve to death.  If this happened in the Muslim faith you would be killed if you fell into the wrong hands.  I don’t remember if I have ever heard a sermon on this before but you could say that this is part of counting the cost of being a Christian.

This is also talking about marriage and relationships.  In 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 Paul had this to say, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?  Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?  What harmony is there between Christ and Belial?  What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?  What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?  For we are the temple of the living God.  As God has said, ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.  Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.  Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.  I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

So in everything we need to put the Lord first regardless of the cost.  I know that people struggle with some of these things but I want to encourage you if you find yourself in any of these situations pray hard and fervently and don’t quit, plead the blood of Jesus over your family members and your spouse and your friends and trust Him to deliver them. Have a great day and God bless you.            

Will You Be Ready

Will you be ready on Judgment Day

Will your sins be as scarlet or be washed away

Will His peace and joy fill your heart that day

Will you be ready on Judgment Day?

This is a part of a song I wrote quite a while ago.  This is a song that asks a very important question – “Will You Be Ready On Judgment Day?” -- which by the way is the title of the song.  

The church that I was going to at the time was rehearsing this song, which I was told they were going to sing.  They rehearsed it for a while but never sang it because they didn’t know if it would be appropriate or not at the time.  I had a hard time trying to understand their way of thinking, maybe they thought it might be offensive to some people.  

I know that many people don’t want to hear about the final judgment but it is a reality, it is going to take place whether we want to hear about it or not, so why are we so timid to talk about it?  Someday everyone will stand before the Lord and the Books will be opened and your sins, not your mistakes, will be exposed to the whole world.  On that day their will be no excuse, if your name isn’t in the Lamb’s Book of Life you will be ushered into Hell, where you have chosen to go, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.  And make no mistake about it, Jesus died for your sins and not your mistakes.  So no matter how many times you hear about your mistakes from a preacher, Jesus didn’t die for anything but your sins and we better call sin, sin, Jesus calls it sin and we had better make it quite clear also.  

Jesus talked about the leaven or hypocrisy of the Pharisees which is sin in Luke 12:1–3, “Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: ‘Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.  There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” (NIV)

There are many in the church that have this same problem, they are hypocrites.  I have heard this saying, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.”  And one person you will never fool is the Lord, you are either born-again or you are not, end of story.  What is a hypocrite?  It is a pretender, an actor, someone who is playing a role pretending to be something they aren’t.

There was a lot of peer pressure on the Pharisees to look respectable among their peers plus they were the leaders in that day and they enjoyed the popularity and prestige they had with the people so it would be hard to expose themselves as being power hungry imposters and be humiliated by the people and be excommunicated from the sect.  In our day these same things are taking place, there are many people full of religiosity in high positions in the church, they are there for many reasons and some may even think they are born-again but just like the teachers of the law in Jesus’ day they have no idea what it means.  It seems like every religion or sect or cult claims to be Christian but without being born-again they are just fooling themselves.  

The greatest thing is that God loved all of us so much that He gave His Son, Jesus, to be our sacrifice, our atonement for our sins.  What an exciting thing this is when you really grasp it!  This was a miracle, something only Jesus could do for us and He was willing to suffer and die in our place so that we will never have to die spiritually if we repent of our sins and confess them and ask the Lord to forgive us and to be the Lord of our lives.  If anyone sincerely does this he will be born-again and will have eternal life, praise the Lord!  If this has taken place in your life you have something to shout and get excited about, so don’t hold back.  

But if this hasn’t happened in your life, it can.  If you do what I mentioned above, and mean it, you will know what it means to have the peace that surpasses all understanding and be born-again, praise the Lord.  God bless you richly and have a great day.            

Agonizing

To be successful in God’s eyes you will have to speak the truth in love and be a living testimony.  Have you ever felt like you needed to speak to someone about their sinful condition but you held back because you felt intimidated or fearful not sure what the person’s response would be?  I think that this may happen to most believers who take witnessing serious. I think many believers are fearful and intimidated in this area.  Confronting people about their sin is not easy especially in the culture we live in today where we are taught not to offend anyone and also about political correctness.  But if you think about it every generation had its problems in this area and persecution has always been the result in many cases.

If you read the Old Testament you know about the prophets who were killed for speaking out for God, as well as many disciples and prophets in the New Testament and all down through the ages until now, and it will continue to be that way until the Lord returns.  Jeremiah was a prophet in the Old Testament who was called the ‘weeping prophet’ because he agonized over what he was told by God to tell the people.  Jeremiah prophesied what we would call gloom and doom prophesies today about repentance and judgment, like other prophets in his day he was hated by many.  His chief message was to call God’s people to repentance but most of the people rejected his message including the kings who continued in their sinful ways.  

Jeremiah didn’t seem to have much success by worldly standards but in God’s eyes he was very successful because he courageously and faithfully proclaimed the word that God told him to speak.  Jeremiah 1:5-8 says, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations.  Then said I, Ah, Lord Jehovah! behold, I know not how to speak; for I am a child.  But Jehovah said unto me, Say not, I am a child; for to whomsoever I shall send thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak.  Be not afraid because of them; for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith Jehovah.”  Jeremiah may have had a lack of self-confidence and fear like so many of us today but, just like God said to Jeremiah that He would be with him to deliver him, He will also be faithful to do it for us.

The Bible says, “No weapon formed against us shall prosper” and it also says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  The Lord never promised that it would be easy to witness but like He helped the disciples to be fishers of men He will help us also.

This reminds me of Moses who seemed to have the similar problem as Jeremiah.  When God wanted to send him to Pharaoh Moses had a big problem, it’s recorded in Exodus 3:11-12, “But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?’  And He said, ‘Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.’”  Then it goes on to say this in Exodus 4:1,10-11, “Then Moses said, ‘What if they will not believe me or listen to what I say?  For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’  Then Moses said to the LORD, ‘Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.’ The LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth?   Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?’”  

You would think after hearing all this from the Lord Moses would be ready to go, not so fast, it seemed Moses had one excuse after another until God finally sent Aaron, Moses’ brother, to be his mouthpiece or to speak for Moses.  So you can see that you’re not alone if you feel frightened or intimidated witnessing for the Lord, there are many that have felt the same way.  

And think about this, if you are rejected by someone they are not rejecting you they are rejecting the Lord!  So pray for boldness like the disciples prayed and go in the strength of the Lord and start turning this world upside down like the disciples did.  There is no greater joy than being used by the Lord to win souls for the kingdom.  God bless and have a great day.  And don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord.         

Happy Thanksgiving

 Although we should be Thanking and Praising the Lord every day, this is the day that the whole world seems to get involved in it. The believer and the non-believer alike have a lot to be thankful for.

The first thing we all can be thankful for is that God loves all of us, He was willing to shed His blood for us in the form of His Son Jesus.  He is not willing that any be lost but that all will repent and receive Jesus into their hearts and lives in the form of the Holy Spirit.  The Word says in 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.”

We all can thank the Lord that He blesses everyone allowing the sun and rain to fall on each of them.  Regardless of what situation or circumstance we find ourselves in we have something to thank and praise the Lord for. There are many that don’t believe in God and they especially have something to thank the Lord for because He doesn’t just wipe them off the face of the earth but He is patient with them giving them time to repent.

We can all be thankful that we still live in a free country.  We can be thankful for all the men and women that have made that possible. Christians can be thankful that they can still worship freely depending on where they live.  We should thank and praise the Lord in all things.  

It says this in Psalms 34:1-9, “I will thank the Lord at all times.  My lips will always praise him.  I will honor the Lord.  Let those who are hurting hear and be joyful.  Join me in giving glory to the Lord.  Let us honor him together.  I looked to the Lord, and he answered me.  He saved me from everything I was afraid of.  Those who look to him beam with joy.  They are never put to shame.  This poor man called out, and the Lord heard him.  He saved him out of all of his troubles.  The angel of the Lord stands guard around those who have respect for him.  And he saves them.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.  Blessed is the man who goes to him for safety.  You people of God, have respect for the Lord.  Those who respect him have everything they need.” (NIRV)

I could write a long list of things that you and I could and should be thankful for but it won’t be personal unless you do it and I hope you will.  So count your blessings today and every day and thank and praise the Lord for all of them, He will be pleased and you will be blessed.  God bless you and have a great day!

P.S. I will leave you with this Psalm 150:1–6, “Praise the Lord!  Praise God in his Temple; praise him in his mighty heaven.  Praise him for his strength; praise him for his greatness.  Praise him with trumpet blasts; praise him with harps and lyres.  Praise him with tambourines and dancing; praise him with stringed instruments and flutes.  Praise him with loud cymbals; praise him with crashing cymbals.  Let everything that breathes praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!”  (NCV)