Outward Appearance

  

I thought we would talk about outward appearances!!  Question: Really think about this, if you are a born-again believer do you live out what you say or is your life a counterfeit?  Do you know how tellers in banks know the real money from the counterfeit?  They study and handle the real money so often that when the counterfeit comes along, if they have been working with money for a while, they can tell by the feel or by looking at it if it is the real thing or not.  In this case, I don’t think they study the counterfeit.

Now if we are talking about God’s Word, and have been studying it and asking the Lord to lead us into the truth through His precious Holy Spirit before we read and study, then when the counterfeit comes along we should be able to discern the truth from error.  But there may be a problem in this, do we put into practice what we read or hear?  Pastor Joe mentioned one of these verses last week in James 1:22-25, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” 

This is what I thought of when I was typing this, I thought about wolves in sheep’s clothing.  God’s Word says you will know them by their fruit.  The problem with this is, if you don’t know the person very well it is hard to see their fruit.  Christians are sort of like penguins which all look pretty much the same.  They learn to walk the walk and talk the talk, so they fit in pretty good with the rest of the believers.  I have heard this said, “I would rather see a sermon than to hear one anytime,” or something close to that.  I have also heard this said, “it is easy to talk the talk but not so easy to walk the walk.”  So in all reality, are we really living what we say or are we living a double standard, or a double life?

I feel like many people that claim to be believers need to think about this statement, Christianity isn’t just a Sunday experience, it is a seven day a week walk.  I think there are people who say one thing and do another and some are just playing games with God whether they realize it or not.  Think about this statement, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all the time.”  But there is one that we will have to give an account to someday and that is the Lord, you can’t fool Him!!

I see some of the problem as this; we all know that God loves all His creation, we can know that from reading John 3:16-17 which says this, “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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”

But what we need to remember is that God hates sin, He knows how destructive it is and how it tears down and destroys people’s lives and it also separates us from Him.  Read Hebrews 12:1-9, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” Now think about God’ grace and mercy towards us. Read the remedy for sin in a person’s life in 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

When we sin, godly sorrow is very important, it brings true repentance!!  Now

read what true repentance does for us in verse 11 in that same chapter, “For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, (what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter).

Godly sorrow is very important, it bears the kind of attitude we need in our lives.  A humble and contrite heart is what the Lord seeks in our lives, this He will not despise because He draws to the humble and resists the proud!!

I have given you something to think about and may God bless you and yours and may you have a super, super day!!

Addiction

I heard a powerful message on overcoming addiction and I think the preacher was spot on, in what he said.  He preached from Romans 1.  Think of this, regardless of the addiction what is a person looking to receive from it, whether it is porn, alcohol, drugs or whatever, they are looking to escape reality.  They want a high, they want the peace and the joy that comes from the drug of choice, and they may get that temporarily, but you can’t stay up forever and when you come down you lose all these temporary things and need to figure out how you can get another fix to escape again.  There is only one way to be set free and that is to realize your situation and repent and turn from your sins and ask the Lord to be your Lord and Savior.

Some people may relate to these things as crutches, but what they really are, in all realty, are idols.  You will either worship the living God or the substitute, whatever your choice of escape is!!  You can go to your secular meetings and you will hear that you were born the way you are and be told that your brain is just wired up that way or you can go to the Lord, the only true bondage breaker, and be set free.  You can sit and listen to people tell you that once you are an alcoholic you will always be an alcoholic or whatever the addiction is, or you can chose to hear the truth and let that truth set you free.  God’s Word says that when the Son sets you free you are free indeed!!

I am talking from experience; I have been there and done the escaping thing many times over the years.  Drugs, alcohol, partying and more but in the end all I had was brokenness that resulted from it.  The problem is this; it is not a brain problem, it is a heart problem.  This is a result of idol worship.  We will all end up worshiping something, but we make the choice unless we are forced into the addiction from an outside source.  

When I started taking drugs, drinking, smoking or any of the other things I was addicted to, no one forced me into taking them, no, I chose to indulge in them.   I remember hating the taste of alcohol and smoking made me dizzy, but over time I taught myself to like these things and what they did for me; some of the other things were much easier for me to accept.  Think about food, were people born gluttons?  No, they liked certain kinds of foods and they choose to over indulge, in some cases people just get bored and instead of finding something to do they eat. What does food do for people?  It makes them feel good and it makes them happy.  Can food be addictive?  Sure it can many things can but we have the choice whether we let them be or not, that is called free will.

Why do we indulge in certain things?  It has a lot to do with how they make us feel while we are indulging in them.   Do they become habit forming and addictive?  Of course they do, that is part of the sowing and reaping process, but you are not born that way, nor is your brain wired up that way.  It is the result of our fallen nature at birth.  We are all born with the sin nature and as a result of that we allow ourselves to get entangled in many forms of addiction or idolatry.  Of course we don’t call it that, we prefer saying that we can’t help it, we were born that way instead of us taking the responsibility for the reason we are addicted to whatever it may be.  Remember this, whatever you put before the Lord can become an idol in your life!!

Now I want to get into the grace, mercy and love part of this message.  God gave us a remedy for all these addictions in the form of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  He is the One that can give you true peace and joy and His desire is to break the bondage in your life no matter what it is.  So, if we will stop making excuses for our addictions and call our addictions what they really are, sin, and repent of them and confess them, then we can ask the good Lord to forgive us and be merciful to us and to come into our hearts and lives and to be our Lord and Savior.  If we are serious, and only the good Lord knows the heart, I believe He will be faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  And I believe He will break whatever bondage we have in our lives and set us completely free!!  The purpose that Jesus died for our sins was to set the captive free, praise the Lord!!

Enough said.  I hope this has been an encouragement to you.  I have given you something to think about and I hope you will.  May you have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!   Don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!

Encouragement Through Hardships

Hardships are hard for many of us to accept but we can be encouraged if we are truly believers.  Please read 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

There are many people suffering and the result of their suffering might result in the salvation of souls.  It seems like suffering brings us closer to God.  I have said over the years that when a person is lying on their back, they are looking up.  Many times we are so busy running here and there with so many things that we or our kids or grandkids are involved in, that we seem to forget our commitment to the Lord in the process.  It seems like our Bible study time becomes shorter and shorter and also our prayer life suffers because of so much time spent in other activities.  Sometimes there are different sports events on Wednesday and even on Sunday so we don’t make it to church.  But think of this, when we are down and can’t get around and wondering what happened to us and we want answers, we will in many cases look to the Lord.  I think that it has been proven that persecution helps build a strong community (church).

I can testify that in my experience I went through years of depression, which was what I call a blessing now.  At the time I was going through it, it was a very hard and long struggle, but in the end I realized it drew me much closer to the Lord.  I pressed into the Lord closer in my prayer life and all the other aspects of Christianity and now I can thank the Lord for what He did in and through my life.  

God can use sickness or lose or persecution or difficulties or whatever circumstance we find ourselves in to help us get back on track where we should have been all along.  And if we look at these things in a positive way, the Lord can also use the things that we have experienced in our lives to help others when they may be going through difficult times in their lives, praise the Lord!!  You may not think that this is true but suffering perfects the followers of the Lord and helps them to persevere.

Please read Hebrews 10:32-39, “But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

I have given you something to think about and I hope this will encourage you.  Fight the good fight of faith and never give up!!  May the good Lord bless you and yours with His perfect peace, love, joy, health and happiness and may you have a super, super day!!

Neighbor

Just a reminder to love your neighbor, who is not just the person next door but everyone that we come in contact with wherever we may be!  I know if you are a believer you have heard the story of the Good Samaritan in the Word of God but just to refresh you mind, please read Luke 10:30-37, “And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”

In this story I can understand why the priest and the Levite might be fearful of helping this man.  Just seeing the situation and knowing that thieves and murderers would hide on these roads to do their dirty work when un-expecting people would travel on them, could cause them to be leery.  But what about the Samaritan, he may have known about these things, but he was willing to risk his life in this situation and help this poor man who, from my understanding, was a Jewish man.  He not only risked his life on the road but these two would have been mortal enemies, hating one another because the Samaritans were considered half breeds by the Jews and they would have nothing to do with them.  But in this case the Samaritan man put all that aside and put the wounded man on his animal and took him to a place of lodging where this man would get the help he needed and, not only that but, he paid for the man’s services and the place where he would stay until he was well enough to leave.   That was true love!!

Many people toss this word around, but do they really understand its meaning?  Jesus understood what loving your neighbor meant, in fact He went far beyond that, He loved His enemies also which according to God’s Word they are also our neighbors as well.  Love isn’t just a word; it is an action word, something that causes us to do something for those we love.  Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice, He willingly laid down His life for His enemies because that was what we all were until we repented and turned away from our sins and asked Him to come in and be our Lord and Savior.  He actually was crucified, died and was buried and rose again; that is how much He loved us.  

Jesus, in the scripture above, was telling a lawyer that it was important to love his neighbor when He said to him, go and do likewise, and this is a good lesson for all of us.  Something to think about and may the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!  PS don’t forget to thank and praise the Lord!!

Practice

Reading, studying, along with memorizing God’s Word are all great things that we believers should be doing!!  Please read 2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

But is this enough?  I don’t think so, I think we need to also put the things we read and learn into practice.  Without applying the things we learn, we will never grow spiritually in the Lord, which should be one of our main goals so that we will be more like Jesus.  

Please read James 1:19-25, “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

There is also something else I would suggest that you may want to do before you read the Word.  First, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you all the truth and to bring it back to you when you need it because the Holy Spirit is the true teacher.  Read what Jesus said to His disciples when He said He would send them the Comforter, the Holy Ghost in John 14:23-26, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”

Another thing you might want to read and pray is Psalm 119:9-16, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord: teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.”

Let me suggest this; always get the Lord involved in our studying, our reading and also our hearing, and to listen to His Word so that our faith will be built up and become stronger so that in time we may have mountain moving faith.  Read what the Word says about this in Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

It may be beneficial if we do all these things, then if we make a practice of doing all of them our faith will grow and we should put our faith into action and allow the Word to change and shape our lives by doing what it says.  So let us practice the Word and live it out in our lives.  Something to think about and may you have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!