Wonder and Astonishment

Question:  Have you ever seen something that filled you with wonder and astonishment and left you just amazed, something that was so spectacular that it was very hard to believe?  I want to tell you about a man in the word of God who was lame from birth, which is only one out of so many other stories I could tell you about.

This story is found in Acts 3:1-10, please read all about it, “Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the ninth hour, the time of prayer. A man lame from birth was being carried—every day they used to put him at the Temple gate called Beautiful, so he could beg for tzedakah from those entering the Temple. When he saw Peter and John about to go into the Temple, he began asking to receive tzedakah. But Peter, along with John, looked straight at him and said, ‘Look at us!’ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, ‘Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you—in the name of Yeshua ha-Mashiach ha-Natzrati, get up and walk!’ Then grabbing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began walking; and he went with them into the Temple, walking and leaping and praising God! Now all the people saw him walking and praising God. They began to realize he was the one who used to sit begging for tzedakah at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were filled with wonder and astonishment over what had happened to him.”

Now think of this, this man had never, ever walked in his life, he had been carried around all his life and now he is walking and leaping and praising God.  While we set back and read about these things we don’t normally get  to excited about what took place because we either don’t believe it or we have never experienced a miraculous healing before or maybe we are just not into what is really going on here or it happened so long ago.  Or maybe we might be just like the people in the story, filled with wonder and astonishment over what we are reading especially if we believe the story is true.  

Think of this, we have seen movies that showed fake healers, so we may have a hard time deciphering the real from the fake.  You may have seen or heard of fake healings in the church in the past and you are completely turned off when you hear about miraculous healings today, but I believe that there have been many miraculously healed today, including me, praise the Lord.  Maybe that is why I think differently about these stories.  Just try to put yourself in this man’s shoes, if you can, then think about what your response might be.  Maybe only the people that have had a miraculous healing can really understand what this man felt like.  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super day!!   

Hypocrisy

Question: Are you a pretender, saying one thing but meaning something else and acting differently than what you proclaim?  People get so turned off by hypocrisy, because of people that claim one thing and then change their minds so often.  Look at the way that many people talk about the church.  They say many in the church are just hypocrites.  I realize some of these people use this as an excuse because they don’t want to go to a church building, but what about those that truly feel that way?  

Think about it, are we hypocrites saying one thing but living another, always judging, trying to find fault with others and pointing the finger at everyone else but us?  When we claim to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and love our neighbors as ourselves, do we really love, or is it mainly talk and not much action?  These are very concerning questions that all believers should consider asking themselves.  I know I, for one, have fallen into this sin on more than one occasion, what about you?  Is it easy to be a hypocrite?  Yes, it is, it is much more difficult to live what you proclaim and be transparent.

      

Think of this, every time we live contrary to what we say we lie and bring shame on the Lord and His word, and I know no true child of God would want to do that.  I realize that none of us are perfect but we can’t use that for an excuse, no, what we need to do is truly repent and confess our sins  and try to do our best not to do them again.  Read what God’s word says about temptation in 1 Corinthians 10:12-13, “Therefore let the one who thinks that he stands watch out that he doesn’t fall. No temptation has taken hold of you except what is common to mankind. But God is faithful—He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can handle. But with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape, so you will be able to endure it.”  That tells us that we have no excuses to allow temptation to overtake us.  I know this is not an easy pill to swallow and sometimes the truth hurts, but the truth is what sets us free!!   

We know if we repent and confess our sins, He will forgive us.  God’s word says this, in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  

If you are living a life of hypocrisy, come clean and turn away from that sinful behavior, truly repent and confess that sinful behavior and have a

change of heart and mind so you can receive the grace of God and be forgiven and washed and cleansed by the precious blood of Jesus, God’s only begotten Son.  Then you should want to thank and praise the Lord for He is worthy!!  God bless you and yours and keep you in His perfect peace, love and joy and health and happiness.  Praise the Lord!!

Together

When the true church, the blood washed saints of God, come together there will be true worship and praise.  It will be a thunderous worship and praise, why it may be so exuberant it may even shake the ground.  That is where I want to be found, right in the center of all that worship and praise.  Now let’s think about this, because it is so important, this is the time to get our house in order because not everyone who claims to be a believer really is and that is a fact and a real shame.  Think of this, people that are thieves, claim counterfeit bills are real also, but on closer examination they are found to be false.  I don’t say this to condemn anyone, no not at all, but now is the time to examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith and not wait until it is too late.

Please read 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Examine yourselves! Or don’t you know yourselves—that Messiah Yeshua is in you? Unless of course you failed the test.”

God’s Word says this, you will know them by their fruit, and doesn’t the Word of God say this also, judgement starts in the house of God?  It seems to me that we need to judge ourselves and take action so that we will not be judged.  It is not the judgement of others that really matters, it is the judgement of God, that in the end will really count.  He knows our going in and going out, our sitting down and our rising up and also the thoughts and intents of the heart and everything else about us, even the things we don’t want anyone to know about.

Think of this also, it is not the will of God to condemn us, but to give us life and to give it more abundantly.  We are already condemned, what God wants to do is clean us up and set us free!!  From the moment we were born we were condemned because of the sin nature we received at birth, like King David said in Psalms 51:1-7, “For the music director: a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he went to Bathsheba. Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your mercy. According to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was born in iniquity and in sin when my mother conceived me.”   Even David acknowledged the fact that he was born in iniquity and in sin.   

Now please read John 3:16-21, “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. The one who believes in Him is not condemned; but whoever does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not put his trust in the name of the one and only Ben-Elohim. Now this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world and men loved the darkness instead of the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. But whoever practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be made known that his deeds have been accomplished in God.”

God’s desire is that all will repent and turn from their wicked ways and turn to Him, having a change of heart and mind, confessing and forsaking their sins and putting their trust in Him, so they could be forgiven and set free, praise the Lord.  If you would like to truly repent and be set free, pray this prayer, “Lord I am a sinner, in need of your saving grace and to be washed and cleansed by the precious blood of your precious Son, Jesus Christ.  I am truly sorry for my sins and I choose to turn from them and forsake them, but I know I need your help, please help me.  I believe that you willingly laid down your life so that I could be forgiven and set free of the bondage of sin, and for that reason He was willing to die by crucifixion and agonizing painful death, but death couldn’t hold Him or the grave, He rose on the third day and He lives on as Savior and Lord!!  I thank you God for your grace, love, mercy and forgiveness, I pray these things in the precious name of Jesus, Amen!!”

Someday all of the saints will get together and praise the Lord and what a day that will be.  I want to be in that number when the saints go marching in, praise the Lord!!  Have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours with Hs perfect peace, love and joy and health and happiness!!