A House Divided Against Itself Will Fall

Let’s talk about divisions in different areas of life

This subject is talked about in different places in the Bible. This is a very important subject. Now think about different families, there has to be a strong bond to one another and much love or there will always be strife and arguing. It will be a house divided by itself with a lot of turmoil.

If you were raised in a non Christian home and then you become a Christian, more than likely there were arguments and fights and disagreements in the home. Why, what would be the problem? The problem would be divisions in the home.

When a person becomes a Christian, the Bible says this in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are past away behold all things are become new.” He or she will become a new creation and their thoughts, attitudes and actions will be very different as time goes on, this is called being born-again.  I remember when I began a real personal relationship with the Lord many years ago. At the time my wife was Catholic and I was Protestant. Right away there were problems and many arguments. Why do you think that happened? Because there are many differences and teachings in the two denominations.

We had become a house divided by itself. But praise be to God our marriage survived and still continues to this day because my wife became a Christian not long after that.

I’m sure there are many marriages that have been split over this problem and many friendships also. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians Chapter 6: verses 14–18, “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness. And what concord hath Christ with Belial?  Or what part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I with dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

To save yourself a lot of problems in relationships and marriages, if you are a christian and you are dating, only date other christians. And if you plan on getting married as a christian, don’t marry anyone unless it is another christian.  And remember just because someone belongs to a particular church doesn’t guarantee that they are a christian. Try the spirit to see if they are really in Christ or not. The Bible says you will know them by their fruits, be careful and don’t be fooled.

If you are a christian and have a business don’t take on a partner that is not a christian and you will save yourself a lot of problems.       

When my wife and I got married neither one of us was living a christian life. So when I committed my life to the Lord, our marriage was divided for a while but thank God my wife became a Christian not long after I did. Now I am not saying that we agreed on everything after that happened, oh no, it takes time to let go of some of the things that you have been taught for so many years.

But one thing we did have was a sure foundation because we had the Lord in our lives and in our marriage. It takes three to have a great marriage one man, one wife and the Lord, you can’t beat that combination.  

Today we are pretty much in agreement on most things because of what the Lord has done in our lives. I can’t thank God enough for my wife she has such a sweet and gentle spirit. When I got her I got a gem. Praise God!

Just like marriages and relationships can be divided, so can the body of Christ, the true Church. The Bible says that the body of Christ has many parts but that all those parts make up one body. Check out 1^ST Corinthians chapter 12 and read verses 12 – 31.   

Question what have you learned from this lesson today?

Why is unity so important in the body of Christ? Without unity the church will become ineffective and instead of ministering to others as it should, it will itself have to be ministered to and healed.

What are some things that cause division in the body of Christ-the church?  Unforgiveness, gossip, competition, jealousy, dissention and lack of love--the list goes on and on.

What happens when the body functions the way it should? God will be glorified and what He wants will be done on this earth and multitudes will be saved healed and delivered.  Praise God.

When the house is not divided and the Lord is in the center of it, it can stand against anything. Praise God!

The Sky Is The Limit

How high do you want to fly? With the Lord you can ascend to a height you never dreamed of before. Remember there is nothing impossible with the Lord.

The Lord’s promises are “Yea, Yea” and never “Nay, Nay.”  In Jeremiah 29:11 it says, “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  God’s plans for you are only good, always.

The Word says in Romans chapter 8: verse 28, “For we know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Think about what the apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 8 verses 31–32, “What shall we then say to these things if God is for us who can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered Him up for us all. How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” God’s desire wasn’t only to bless us with Jesus and the means of salvation, He wants to bless us abundantly in all things! Praise God!

Paul also said in verse 35 of that same chapter, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger of sword!” (These are my words and I say “no way!”)

In verses 37–39 in chapter 8: it says, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come. Nor height nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Stop for a moment and think about what you have just read. Let these truths saturate you heart, soul and mind.

Did you notice I put heart first here? This is the reason I did it that way, you have to get these truths to reside in your heart so they really get a hold of your life! So many times people get things in their head, which is called head knowledge, but it never gets from the head down into the heart.

These things I am sharing are jewels and precious treasures. When you open the Bible it is full of treasures, there is something for every circumstance or situation ~ it is a gold mine of precious treasures.

The Bible says, “where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” It also says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” This is why it is so important that these truths get from your head down in your heart so you can retrieve them at any time.

If God loves us this much what will He not do for us. The sky is the limit so how high do you want to fly. Trust in the Lord and lean not unto your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will guide your path.

Don’t try to accomplish whatever you are trying to accomplish on your own. Spend time with the Lord and let Him get involved. The Lord wants to be involved in everything that you do, in all your activities.

When the Lord gets involved, the sky will be the limit that you can climb. With a strong faith nothing will be impossible for you with the Lord’s help. If you are a Christian you have all the power of the Lord within you. So whatever God’s will is for your life you can accomplish it. Remember, “we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” The Word says, “greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.” It also says that, “we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” 

So like I have said before, “reach up as high as you can and the Lord will reach down the rest of the way.” The sky is the limit so go for it and never give up and fly high.  God Bless You!          

A Great Crowd of Witnesses

I heard a message quite awhile ago about a speaker’s experience dragging his luggage from place to place at an airport. He either carried it or dragged it and it was not a great experience and he was getting very tired by the time he got to where he was supposed to be. His luggage was getting very heavy the further he had to go and he wasn't a “happy camper” so to speak.                  

To the reader, have you ever been to an airport to take a plane trip?

What kind of luggage did you have?  Was it the kind you had to carry or drag around or the kind that had wheels on it so that you could pull it. It is a lot easier to pull a heavy bag than to carry one all over the airport.

The reason I used this example is that I want to talk about carrying extra weight that we don’t have to carry. 

Hebrews 12: verse 1 says, “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 easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Now try to get a spiritual picture of this.

Try to picture yourself in a coliseum where all the other believers have signed up for the big race.

It says, “We are surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses,” so who are they and what is this talking about?  These witnesses are the ones in the great hall of faith that it talks about in Hebrews 11 in what is called the “faith” chapter in the Bible.

They are not literally watching us but they are the inspiring examples for us, in other words, they have already run the race before us and kept the faith.  So we are surrounded by their witness, or their examples, that we can follow.

Have you ever watched a marathon race on television? There are many that start out but only one who wins the race. There may be some that drop out and never finish the race. 

What do the runners wear when they are racing?  As little as possible.  Have you ever seen one running with a fifty-pound weight on his back?  Of course not!  Why?  Because it would slow him down and he would not be able to finish the race.

Well now think about the believer, they are in a spiritual race and the thing that weighs them down is the sin that he or she has allowed in their lives.

There are a lot of people that start out running well, but before long they fall out of the race because they are weighted down with a heavy load of sin and they can’t run any longer so they give up.

The important thing is not how you start out; it is how you finish the race.

When you sin and hold on to it, it will weigh you down.

Sin is sort of like dirt in this way, if you play in dirt it will cling to you and if you continue in sin it will cling to you also. The difference is you can wash dirt off but you can’t just wash off sin.  

Think about sin and how many times you sinned last week?  Let me refresh your memory, young people and adults alike.

How many lies did you tell last week?

Did you disobey your parents?

Did you cheat on a test or do something else that you knew was sin?

And how about gossip?

Did you steal something? 

Did you hurt anyone this week intentionally?

Are you bitter or angry with someone?

Have you been watching or reading things you know you shouldn't have?

Maybe there is something you have done that I didn’t mention and you know it is sin and you need to deal with it?

There are many more things I could mention but I think you got the picture. When we allow sin to cling to our bodies it weighs us down and it also separates us from the Lord.  If we continue in this destructive path we will soon be disqualified from the race.  

So now we have a problem, how do we get rid of the weight of sin in our lives? We need to yield to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and stop grieving Him with our rebelliousness. We need to confess our sin and repent from our hearts asking the Lord to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

There is a good example of this in Psalms 51: 1–17, it is King David’s repentant prayer. It wouldn’t hurt to use this example for yourself.

God bless you and have a great day!

        

Attitudes

Question: how is your attitude?

If we are not careful we can put on or have a bad attitude and we can go around very negative.  Negative people seem to have a lack of faith.

Think about Peter when he got out of the boat to walk to Jesus, he demonstrated a lot of faith!

Can you imagine Peter’s excitement when Jesus said to come to him on the water?  Peter showed faith and a positive attitude. His excitement level was "through the roof", so to speak, but then something happened, he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the winds and the waves and he started to sink.

Think about this~nothing had changed from the time he stepped out of the boat, no, everything was the same except for Peter’s attitude.  He became afraid, his faith level was very shallow and his excitement had vanished and he was in trouble and he began to sink.  It is amazing to think about how his attitude changed so quickly.  He had a great positive attitude one-minute and within ten minutes his attitude stunk.  What happened?  He allowed his thought pattern to get the best of him. You can find this story in Matthew chapter 14 verses 28–33.

How many times does this happen to us?  We get up in the morning with a positive attitude and before long our attitude changes for the worst.  Many times the only thing that changes is our perspective of what is happening at the time. Sometimes our attitude changes over a greater period of time because of circumstances and situations.  I want to say this, no matter what goes on in our lives our attitude can stay the same.

Our attitude changes because of the choices we make.  Over the years I’ve heard my kids say, "he or she gave me an attitude."  My question is, how can anyone give you an attitude?  Do they take it off and hand it to you?  No!  You receive whatever the person says or whatever is going on in your life at the time and then you form the attitude you are going to have.  It is your choice, no one can give anyone an attitude.

Attitudes are not caught they are taught and many times it will start with our kids. We can either teach our kids to be positive or negative, it is our choice.  Kids many times will mimic their parents.  Teaching our kids to be positive or negative is not only accomplished through the words we say but also, more often, by our actions.  Saying one thing and doing another speaks volumes to your kids.  We all have heard the old saying, "actions speak louder than words" which is very true.

The good news is we don’t have to have a bad attitude.  It is not easy, but we can choose to have a great positive attitude all the time.  We don’t have to let the way people treat us or our circumstances or situations dictate our responses or our attitude, no, we have a choice.  Praise God!  I hope you and I make the right choice.

P.S.  I am glad the Lord had me do this lesson because I definitely don’t have this perfected and I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit in my life over my attitude. This is a good thing, with His help my attitude will get better.  Praise God!

God Bless you as you strive to have a better attitude!  And remember God is for you and not against you and He wants you to have a positive attitude and He will help you.  You reach up as high as you can and He will reach down the rest of the way to help you.  Praise God!

Prayer

I thought I would write about prayer today.

Prayer is most crucial in a Christian’s life.  If you are a believer and you have no consistent prayer time, how can you expect to be an overcomer?  Prayer is communicating, or talking, with God.  The Apostle Paul said that we should pray without ceasing, that is how important prayer is in a Christian’s life.  Prayer is not only very important but also the way you pray is of the utmost importance.

In the book of James chapter 1 verse 6 it talks about praying with faith. The Bible also says in verse 9 "that without faith it is impossible to please God for all who come to Him must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him."  If you pray to the Lord without believing that you will receive what you prayed for, then you can’t expect to receive anything.

Question: what is faith and why is it so important anyway? The Bible in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1 tells us what faith is, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen."  It means that when you pray for healing, or whatever you pray for, you expect it to take place.  I think it means that you won’t take no for the answer.  So if it doesn’t happen you press into God and you keep coming back until you get what you pray for.

So, why is faith important? Because it shows that we trust God to do what He said He would do believing He will do all we ask and much more.

There is something else we need to keep in mind when we pray and that is to fear the Lord out of respect and not try to take advantage of Him.  Remember God is our provider and not our sugar daddy.  So when you pray don’t pray silly, foolish and selfish prayers and expect to get your prayers answered.

Now I am going to come back to not giving up in prayer.  There is a parable or story that Jesus spoke of in Luke 18:1–8 about a woman and an unjust Judge. This Judge didn’t fear God or respect man.  The woman was a widow who came to the Judge with a request saying, "help me against mine adversary."  He refused for awhile but because she kept coming he granted her request because he knew she would eventually wear him out and not because he cared anything about her, no he just got tired of her pestering him.  Then Jesus went on to say, "hear what the corrupt or unjust judge said! And shall not God avenge or protect his own elect who cry day and night to Him though He bear long with them. I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh will He find faith on the earth."  Jesus is talking about persevering in prayer, with faith, and not giving up. 

Just prior to Jesus' coming, things will be very difficult, there will be much persecution and turmoil, the love of most will wax cold.  Please read Matthew 24 verses 4–14 it explains what the conditions will be like. No wonder Jesus made this statement, "nevertheless when the Son of Man cometh will He find faith on the earth?" I sure hope that He will!

There is a big difference between God and the unjust Judge! They both are judges but God judges from a heart of love and compassion, plus God is a just judge knowing the end from the beginning of the story.  He knows the thoughts and the intent of the heart so He will always judge fairly.  The unjust or corrupt judge cares only about himself and what he can gain.

Let me share with you my version of a story I had heard or read somewhere.  This story is about a champion boxer named Sullivan, it was many years ago when this fight took place, and it was with a virtually unknown boxer.  This match was for the Championship and it went on for 25 rounds.  The contender went in the ring round after round and was beaten severely.  After each round the referee would ask the contender if he wanted him to call the fight and he would respond with, "no I want to go another round."  This went on for 24 rounds and the contender was in horrible shape.  The referee asked again, "do you want me to call the fight," thinking this man could take no more. But the answer was the same, "no I want to go another round." When the contender went in the 25^th round he punched the champion so hard he knocked him out cold.  Just think, what if he would have quit in the 24^th round look what he would have missed out on, he would have still been a contender but now he was a champion.

What if I had stopped praying for my healing the day before it happened, I would have never experienced the miracle healing that I received more than once.  Praise God!

I said all this to encourage you to never give up doing whatever God has called you to do until He releases you of that calling and never, never give up on prayer. Remember you reach up as high as you can, in prayer, and God will reach down the rest of the way.  Praise God!