Standing Alone

Do you ever feel like you are standing for the Lord by yourself?  Are there any convictions that you have that you see very few, if anyone else, convicted of?  I have convictions that it doesn’t seem like anyone else has.  I have what I call a righteous anger over some things that are going on in the church that seem to be no big deal to most people.  Most of the time I feel like I am fighting this battle alone.  

One of my convictions has been many people’s convictions at one time but they seem to have conformed since then and no longer care about it or do it.  I talked to a pastor about it one time and he admitted that he had the same conviction, or did the same thing, at one time and wished he still did it but he doesn’t anymore.  This conviction I have had for about 30 years and I am still doing it but I don’t know of even one person that has this same conviction, or, if they do they are not doing it.  Most people would say it is just legalism; it is weird how easy we can think of excuses for not wanting to do something we just don’t want to do.  I think in a believer’s life they will at times feel like they are fighting and standing alone in the battle called Christianity.  

I think of Martin Luther when he took a stand against the Catholic Church and started, with a few others, the reformation.  Luther wrote the 95 thesis and put them on the door of the Catholic Church which caused him to be excommunicated.  If he wasn’t hidden he may have been martyred for what he did.  If he didn’t take a stand there may not be any Protestant Churches today.  I have heard it said, “If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.”  

It seems like so many believers find it easier to conform than get involved in religious or different controversial subjects and besides they don’t want to take a stand because they might offend someone.  If we don’t stand up and fight for what we believe in we will lose our religious freedoms, which is already happening and will continue if we just sit idly by and do nothing.  Sometimes it is very hard to stand for truth, or your convictions, and it could cost you something but remember the Lord is always pleased when He sees His children standing for the right things and He will bless you.  Many times over the years I have thought I was standing alone over what I believed was the truth, feeling like maybe there was something wrong with my theology, but it seemed that the Lord would give me reaffirming evidence on certain things showing that I was on the right track.  But it is inevitable that we will have to take a stand for something even if we feel we are standing alone.  

I started this lesson thinking about Elijah the Prophet when he stood alone on Mount Carmel during the showdown with the prophets of Baal.  There were 450 of them and Elijah, plus 400 prophets of Asherah that ate at Jezebel’s table.  Here was a man of God that was willing to stand alone for God.  I should remind everyone that reads this that we are never all alone if we are believers even if we feel that we are, the Lord is always with us, He will never leave us or forsake us, praise the Lord!  When it was all over and Jezebel threatened to have him killed, Elijah ran for his life but God sent an angel to meet his needs and strengthen him for the journey.  Then when it was all said and done God took Elijah home in a fiery chariot.  If you would like to read about this whole account, you can find it in 1 Kings chapters 18 and 19.

So when you feel you are standing alone in this battle you are not, the Lord is with you, so don’t despair and never give up.  Stand your ground and you will be rewarded if what you are standing for is the right thing, it may cost you dearly but in the end it will be worth it all.  God bless you and have a great day!!

Bondage

If you are a child of God you are not in bondage anymore to sin, you have been set free.  Every person at one time was a slave to sin except the Lord Jesus.  But praise God!  He sent Jesus to earth, his only begotten Son, and Jesus bought us with His precious blood and set us free.

This reminds me of the story of Lazarus who was bound by grave cloths after he died and then he was buried.  When Jesus got to where they had laid him He said to move the stone away.  Lazarus had been dead for four days.  He was not only bound with grave cloths but he was bound in the tomb, death had its grip on him and the grave cloths had him bound. Lazarus didn’t know it but he was about to be liberated and set free, not only from the grip of death but also from the grave cloths that had Him bound, like I said.  

In John 11:43 it says this about Jesus, “When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’”  Then Lazarus came forth being set free from the grave, but he still had a problem, he was still bound.  In verse 44 it says this, “The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’” 

When Lazarus came out he was free of death but until they took away the grave cloths he was still bound.  Jesus used people to completely set Lazarus free.  I think about what happens to every born-again believer; before Jesus sets them free from sin they are enslaved to it.  The problem is that many believers don’t fully understand this so the Lord uses people to reassure them and to help them understand this mystery.  Many believers act like they are still bound by sin, not completely comprehending the truth.

Let me tell you my version of a story that I read this morning that I think relates to this subject very well.  There was a man that owned a goat that he loved and cared for.  One day he got a call from the Sheriff’s Office and was told that his goat was dead lying in a ditch.  This made the man very sad, but when the man got to the place where his goat was he became very happy realizing that his goat wasn’t dead at all, he was just tied up and was lying in the ditch bound tightly around his legs with the rope.  The man quickly cut the rope but the goat didn’t move.  The man slapped the goat and he still didn’t move, so he slapped him again and told him to get up but he still didn’t get up.  So finally he picked the goat up and pulled his legs apart and stood him on his feet and then the goat started walking, realizing that he had been set free.

It seems like many Christians feel this same way, they have been bound by sin so long that they still act like they’re bound to it.  Romans 6:1-2 says this, “What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”  It also says this in verses 6-7, “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”  When we were born-again we were set free of sin so that sin no longer has control of us.  So instead of yielding your members to sin you need to yield them to righteousness.  We need to make this disconnect in our minds and hearts, that we are no longer ruled or controlled by sin or our sin nature.

So stop feeling like the victim and take control, resist temptation and sin start walking in the Spirit then you will not gratify the works of darkness or the works of the flesh, then start praising the Lord and rejoice for being set free.  The Word says in John 8:36, “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”  I hope this is a help in your walk with the Lord, God bless you and have a great day!!                  

Reality

I have got some questions for you to think about:

Have you ever said to the Lord, where are you?

Have you ever prayed and felt that your prayers got no higher than the

ceiling?

Have you ever felt like you are just wasting away, spinning your wheels but

going nowhere accomplishing nothing or very little?

Have you ever felt like you are fighting a battle with no help whatsoever? Have you ever just been totally depressed, felt totally betrayed with no one

you knew who seemed to understand you?

Did you ever feel like you would be better off dead?

Did you ever go out of your way to try to encourage and help people and

all they did in the end was ‘vomit’ on you, so to speak, with all their negative comments throwing water on your joy and faith?

Do you think a man of God could feel this way?  If your answer is no then

you haven’t been reading your Bible.

Think of King David when he said this in Psalms 41:9, “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”  This is also considered a prophecy of Jesus and Judas whom Jesus knew very well traveling with him for three years as one of His disciples then betraying Him.

This is my next question:  Do you think a believer that is living a righteous life could feel this way?  I already answered that question, with what happened to Jesus, but I want to use a one more example.

This one is Job, it says this about him in Job 1:1, “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.”  This is a story that is very hard to understand.  If this happened to someone today most people would say that the person had to have unconfessed sin in their lives, but Job didn’t sin.  Even after all that happened to him and the horrible loss that he experienced he still didn’t sin.  In fact it says in Job 1:21, “He said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there.  The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the LORD.’”In verse 22 it says, “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”

Then in his second test Job said this when his wife tried to get him to curse God and die in 2:10, “But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”  Here was a man that loved God and was very faithful to show it.  If you read through the rest of the book of Job you will read that he experienced most, if not all, the things I typed questions about.  If God allowed Job to go through these things, why should we be surprised if we experience some or all of the same things.

God was the same God in the New Testament as He was in the Old Testament and we as believers still can’t understand some of the things we go through.  There are many things we will never be able to explain.  But in all reality bad things happen to good people!  This reminds me of a book that Dr. Dobson wrote called, “When God Doesn’t Make Sense.”  God always makes sense but we can’t understand at times what God is up to or what or why He allows things to happen the way they happen.  So if you are going through some things that you don’t understand, I hope this ‘Tidbit’ will encourage you.  Remember these things will pass ~ hang on.

In Job’s case he ended up blessed with twice as much as he had before plus he became even wiser.  In this world sin and evil exist and even God’s people will suffer at times, it is reality, but don’t despair to the point of giving up, try to do as Job did, Praise the Lord and wait for His deliverance, He is faithful.  God bless you and yours, have a great day.                  

  

  

Persecutions

Do you ever feel like you have been misunderstood?  Have your words ever been used against you when you were trying to help someone?  I seem to run into this problem quite often.  Have you been misunderstood while trying to share your faith with someone and been persecuted in some way for it?  How did you feel when that happened?

I remember many years ago being out knocking on doors trying to get parents to allow their kids to come to a Christian movie that a pastor friend and I would show, we would use it as a ministry and witnessing tool for the believer and the lost in Binghamton.  It was sort of like a coffee house get together where people could go and have snacks, drinks, fellowship, watch a movie, be taught and discipled and have a great time.  One time when I was out knocking on doors I went upstairs to a second floor apartment and knocked on the door and before I left one of the men there wanted to throw me down the stairs and was very verbal about it.  

Many times over the years witnessing was fruitful and I have seen many conversions, praise the Lord!  But there were many times over the years I have been rejected by people I was witnessing to.  Sometimes it was very, very discouraging and I would feel terrible, sometimes felt confused and even angry at times not knowing what to.  There aren’t many things in life that are more important than the Lord using you to win a soul to Him and not many things are more exciting.  

I did a blog on Jonah a while ago and it is hard to imagine how angry he was when he finally went to Nineveh and spoke the Word of the Lord to the people there.  That should have been the highlight of his life, he should have been so excited, yet he was so angry he wanted to die.  Just think of it, he spoke the Word and everyone from the king to the least important person put on sackcloth, which was a symbol of sorrow and repentance, and ate no food and drank no water, even the animals.  According to Jonah 4:11 there were over 120,000 people that responded and God relented and didn’t bring about the calamity He said would, what a revival that must have been!  Jonah had such a great response from the people but a very bad attitude.

But it doesn’t always happen that way. Sometimes the opposite response happens and people won’t accept your message no matter how you try to present it and you can have very mixed emotions.  I just want to encourage you not to give up witnessing regardless of the response you get, do it in love with the right attitude and you will be blessed and the Lord will be pleased.  This is what Jesus said about this is Matthew 5:10-12, “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” 

So be encouraged and never give up, the Lord loves you and He will never forsake you, He will help you.  Because I didn’t give up I had the pleasure of praying for a lady that said the sinner’s prayer with me about a month ago to receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior, praise the Lord!  I hope this has encouraged you, have a great day and may God bless you and yours!!          

Will You Be Ready (2)

Are you prepared for judgment day?  There are many people that will not be ready on that day, and the shame of it all is that many that think they are ready, are not ready.

There are many that don’t believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God who came in the flesh as a babe, lived a sinless life, grew up and at the end of His life was crucified, died and was buried and then rose again, and now sits at the right hand of God, His heavenly Father.  They have this idea that Jesus was a good man, teacher or one of the prophets.  Jesus said to His disciples at one time, “whom do men say that I am,” and they replied, “some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and still others, one of the prophets.”  Then Jesus said, “but what about you, who do you say I am?”  Then Peter answered, “You are the Christ!”  

As I was typing this, I thought about the time Jesus said to His disciples in John 6:67-68, “So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘You do not want to go away also, do you?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.’”  This happened because Jesus said this to His disciples in verse 56, “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.”  After that conversation many of the disciples left Jesus and followed Him no more saying, “this is a hard teaching who can accept it.”  

Everyone needs to realize just as we need physical food to survive, we also need to appropriate Christ in order to have eternal life.  Peter was aware that Jesus was the One that he needed to follow and to listen to, no one else spoke like Jesus and He was the one teaching about eternal life.  If everyone who claims to be a follower of Christ would take the stand that Peter and some of the other disciples did and take the words that Jesus spoke to heart, what a difference that would make in their lives, they would know the truth, and that truth being applied, would set them free. So many people try to lean on their own understanding and they miss out on the truth that is available for them in God’s Word.

What about you, who do you think Jesus is?  This is a very important question.  Unless you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, you are not ready.  Jesus claimed there was only one way to get to His Father and that there was one truth and one way to receive eternal life when He said this to His disciples in John 14:6-7, “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.’”

The disciples who put their trust in Jesus knew who Jesus was and I hope this will help you to at least consider what you have read.  Get a Bible and start reading it to find out if what I have typed is true, you don’t have to take my word for it.  Start with the book of John and read it with an open mind and ask the Lord to lead you into the truth.  If you are sincere, I think He will and you will be set free like I was many years ago, praise the Lord.  Try it, what can you lose?  God bless and have a great day!!               

The Good News

The Bible is abundant with good news.  When I think of the news stations on TV, along with other sources, most of what you hear is bad news and that is what most people feed on which can produce negativity, stress and worry which in turn brings out the worst in people.  If all you do is feed on negativity you will become a negative person prone to sickness, stroke and heart attack.

This is the reason inspirational speakers are so popular in our society. Although being inspired is important, a steady diet of it can be harmful because the results of it may be a spiritual high but it does little to change the inner man.  People can be inspired to do great things and that is a good thing; that is what a coach does for his or her team hoping to get the best outcome possible, but the real good news goes beyond spiritual highs and shows us how to have a relational and balanced spiritual life.  

This will not take place without hearing about sin, repentance and confession plus the blood of Jesus that was shed for our sin because we were totally lost and separated without His blood being applied to our lives at the time of our rebirth. We need to be aware and hear of the Crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  I don’t think some of your leading inspirational preachers teach these things.  Without teaching these truths you are not teaching the most important things that a non-believer needs to hear.  

It is a strange thing to me that the Bible has been the top selling book for years but probably is read the least.  It says of the Word in Psalms 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  If the Psalmist thought that the Word was that important so should we.  Think about the Word when it talks about the blind leading the blind in Matthew 15:14 when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees about food, Jesus said to His disciples, “Let them alone; they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into a ditch.”  Jesus told His disciples to leave the Pharisees alone because they were blind to God’s truth.

Many Christians have this same problem because they don’t study God’s Word for themselves.  Many Christians rely on pastors or teachers to guide them into the truth; the problem is that like the Pharisees there are false teachers and preachers that are also blind to the truth. We as Christians have a responsibility to read and study the Word ourselves.  The Word says in 2 Timothy 2:15-16, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness.”  

Paul was encouraging Timothy to tell the believers to stay away from unprofitable teachings, to study the Word so that they would know what God’s will was for their lives. Christians that don’t read and study the Word of God will be ashamed when they stand before the Lord someday.  It says this about the Word in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”  

The Bible is God breathed, thoroughly accurate and trustworthy because it was inspired by God.  Let’s not neglect it , it is far too important for us to leave it on the shelf collecting dust depending on someone else to teach us, open it up and start reading, making it a priority.  I hope you will, God bless you and have a great day. And don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!