Shrinking Back from Proclaiming Truth

Why do people shrink back from proclaiming the truth?  There are many reasons for this.  One is deception, also popularity, another fear.  Some claim to know the truth, but don’t and I could go on    Why is truth so important, after all some claim that there is no truth and no absolutes, which as far as I am concerned is definitely not true?  But think of this, if you tell the truth you will never have to think about what you said.  

I think it is very self-explanatory that truth does exist which needs no explanation!  For instance, if someone told someone else that didn’t know any better, to stick their finger in a live 220 socket and told them that it wouldn’t harm them if they did, I think we all know more than likely what would happen, that person would be jolted and may die.  So, truth is very important, and it does exist and so do absolutes.

Jesus wasn’t afraid to proclaim the truth, in fact in the Word of God He claimed to be the way, the truth and the life; He also claimed, that no one could come to the Father except through Him, check it out in John 14:6.  Jesus wasn’t deceived, He was the truth, He wasn’t trying to be popular and He truly had no fear!!  He knew how important truth was and He never told a lie.  

One day Jesus stood before Pilate and was speaking to Him and He said this in John 18:33-38, “So Pilate went back into the Praetorium, called for Yeshua, and asked Him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ ‘Are you saying this on your own,’ Yeshua answered, ‘or did others tell you about Me?’ Pilate answered, ‘I’m not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and ruling kohanim handed You over to me! What have You done?’ Yeshua answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I wouldn’t be handed over to the Judean leaders. But as it is, My kingdom is not from here.’ So Pilate said to Him, ‘Are you a king, then?’ Yeshua answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, so that I might testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’ Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’ After he said this, he went out again to the Judean leaders. He said to them, ‘I find no case against Him.’”  

Think of this, the embodiment of truth was standing before Pilate and he didn’t even recognize it. This is what I call spiritual blindness.  When Jesus made that claim that He was the way, the truth and the life, it was true then and it is still true today.  How important is the truth?  It is so important that I have heard it said that the truth is so important that it is covered by a body guard of lies.

Read what Jesus said about the truth in John 8:31-32, “Then Yeshua said to the Judeans who had trusted Him, ‘If you abide in My word, then you are truly My disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!’”

Maybe you need to be set free today, if you do, I have good news for you, Jesus is still setting people free today and you are no exception.  Over the years He has set multitudes of people free from all kinds of things because He came to set the captive free, nothing is too hard for him.  Put your trust in Him and tell Him what you need, believing He will do it without doubting and see what He will do, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

There were blind people that called on Him and went away seeing, there were lepers that asked Him to heal them and went away healed, He even raised the dead at times.  He healed the crippled and they walked away.  He set the demon possessed free, there is nothing He can’t do.  He loved us so much he gave His life a ransom for many.  He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, the true living sacrifice.

If you feel the pull of God in your life and the conviction of the Holy Spirit and you want to be forgiven of your sins, all you have to do is put your trust in the Lord and truly repent of your sins, which means to turn away from your sins and turn to the Lord and confess your sins and asked Him to forgive you of your sins and to come into your life and to be your Lord and Savior.  If you are truly sincere, I believe that He will set you free and cleanse you of all unrighteousness, praise the Lord!!

Please read 2 Corinthians 7:10, “For the grief that God wills brings a repentance that leads to salvation, leaving no regret. But the world’s grief brings death.”

Now read 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Then read John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”  

This is the good news, I hope this has been a blessing and an encouragement and a help!!  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you all have a super day!!    

God’s Communities (Church)

Question: What do you want to experience when you go to God’s community and what do you expect to take place?  Do you expect to hear what you want to hear or what you need to hear?  Do you want to be entertained or do you want to grow in your walk with the Lord?  Do you really want to be convicted through the Holy Spirit, if you need to be, or do you just want to feel good?  Do you want to feel loved and accepted, regardless of the cost, or do you want to feel real genuine love, one that will shake you from your comfort zone?  

Think of this, if you know someone that loves sweets and that over rides everything else they eat, but because you have a genuine love for that person you try to get them to eat some fruits, vegetables and other things that would be far better for them plus you try to get them to cut down on or eliminate sweets all together and eat food that they kind of despise but would help him or her to be far healthier, that is what is called real love.   

Would you rather have the pastor cater to what the unchurched wants, or what would honor the Lord?  Would you rather be entertained by hearing what many call ‘watered down’ sermons or would you rather hear the truth?  God’s Word says that the truth will set you free.  Today’s communities are like smorgasbords, you can hear or experience or pick or choose so many different things and teachings from what many call the fire and brimstone preachers to the ones that like to tickle your ears, to make you feel good to keep you coming back; but remember the Lord knows those who are his.  

Today there is the prosperity gospel, then there is the name it and claim it gospel, then we have the motivational preachers, then you have the hyper grace preachers and the universal doctrine.  Then of course there are those that preach a works-based gospel, so you can pick and choose but there is only one gospel that is the truth.                  

If you want to know the truth, first you must be born-again.  You need to truly repent of your sins and turn from your wicked ways as the Holy Spirit convicts you and directs you and confess your sins.  Please read 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Then ask the Lord to come into your life and to be your Lord and Savior and then spend time in the Word of God searching out the truths.  It is very important that you search out a matter.  And when you think you have decided on a community (church) listen to what is being preached and taught, then do what the Bereans did, they went and checked out the matter to see if what they heard really checked out and was correct.

Read 2 Timothy 3:14-17, “You, however, continue in what you have learned and what you have become convinced of. For you know from whom you have learned, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to make you wise, leading to salvation through trusting in Messiah Yeshua. All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for restoration, and for training in righteousness, so that the person belonging to God may be capable, fully equipped for every good deed.”  

Now please read in the fourth chapter of that same book verses 1-5, “I solemnly charge you—in the presence of God and Messiah Yeshua, who is about to judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His Kingdom— proclaim the Word! Be ready when it is convenient or inconvenient. Confront, rebuke, encourage—with complete patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not put up with sound instruction, but they will pile up for themselves teachers in keeping with their own desires, to have their ears tickled. And they will turn away from hearing the truth and wander off to myths. You, however, keep a clear mind in all things, withstand hardship, do the work of proclaiming the Good News, and fulfill your service.”

People that want to hear preachers and teachers that will tickle their ears, they can find them, we have no shortage of them in our day.  So, be careful of who you are listening to and what they are saying.  The Lord will expose them all in due time.  I hope this has been an encouragement and a blessing.  May the good Lord bless you and yours!!  May you have a super day!!

Thoughts Come And Go

I got thinking about this yesterday, so I thought I would do something with it today.  This is something a pastor told me years ago and I have never forgotten it.  Maybe this will help someone with their thought life.  Did you ever think of something and kick yourself, so to speak, because you never thought that, that thought would ever enter your mind being a committed believer, and it just seemed to hound you?  I know I used to be plagued by things that would come to my mind and it would really bother me.  I would wonder why a committed believer would ever think these things.

As time went on it must have bothered me so much that I went to my pastor at the time to ask him about what was going on.  I had come out of a messed-up life; partying, drugs, alcohol and motorcycles and everything that went with that lifestyle, and I had been in that lifestyle for years.  Then I had a radical and life changing experience with the Lord, and I was set free of most of the things that I had been doing.  I was so excited by the deliverance and the radical change in my life, and what the Lord had done and what He was doing, I had a hard time believing what was happening in my life and so did many others.  

But there were times that thoughts would come to my mind that really bothered me.  For instance, I would pray sincerely for different people and when I got done, I realized that I didn’t like some of the people at all that I was praying for.  As time went on these thoughts subsided and I started to have a better attitude towards the people I prayed for.  But then there were other thoughts that came that were bothering me and I didn’t understand why they would even be there.  I had a terrible temper for a long period of time that had pretty much subsided and I was doing what I thought was very well, considering the lifestyle I lived for so many years and I was so thankful.  

But regardless it seemed like no matter how many times I prayed or how much these thoughts bothered me they kept coming, so, like I said I went to my pastor at the time and asked him about them and he gave me a very simple answer, which I hope will help everyone in this situation.  Now remember this, this was many years ago so to my recollection this is what he said, ‘thoughts come and go, and you can’t control them, it’s like a bird flying over your head, you can’t stop them, but you can stop them from building a nest in your hair.’  In other words, you can’t help the thoughts that come to your mind, that is not the sin, the sin comes when you act on the thought, depending on what thought comes to the mind.

Let’s say you are in a store and you see something you would really like to have

but you can’t afford it, and the thought crosses your mind to steal it, but you dismiss that thought quickly and go on your way.  Did you commit the sin?  No, I don’t think so.  But on the other hand, if you reached out and took it, that would be stealing, which is definitely a sin.  The thought may bother you that it would have even entered your mind, but that is what I would call temptation, which I would say is not sin if you didn’t respond to it.  It is when we act on the temptation that we are guilty of sin.

Jesus said this in Matthew 5:27-29, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that everyone who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And if your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away! It is better for you that one part of your body should be destroyed, than that your whole body be thrown into Gehenna.”   Jesus didn’t say that you couldn’t look at a woman, we would all have to be blind.  He said if you look at a woman to lust after her then the act of adultery has been committed, which is the sin.

Be very careful which thoughts you choose to entertain.  And don’t forget the enemy of your soul, who is out to destroy your life!!  Please read 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but powerful through God for the tearing down of strongholds. We are tearing down false arguments and every high-minded thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Messiah— ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.”

Whenever a negative thought comes into your mind, anything you don’t want in your heart, do what those verses say and nip them before they bud, yes before they take root and bud fruit in your heart.  This will help, be sure to study the Word and hide it in your heart that you might not sin against the Lord!!  When Jesus confronted the enemy in the wilderness, what did He do?  He responded by quoting scriptures and He never yielded to sin, He defeated the enemy, praise the Lord!!  I think you got the message.

I hope this has been a help and a blessing to you and that the good Lord will bless you and yours with His perfect peace, love and joy and health and happiness and may you all have a super day!! If you haven’t already today, I hope you won’t forget to thank and praise the Lord, for He is worthy!!