Overcome Evil

Overcome evil with good, this is very easy to say but not always easy to do.  It seems to me that many people try to overcome evil with guns and violent reactions.  I truly think in some situations you have to use force, but in other situations you need to speak to people with a gentle answer and a calm voice.  Did you ever read or hear this before, a gentle answer turns away wrath?  please read Proverbs 15:1-4, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise treats knowledge correctly, but the mouth of fools spouts folly. The eyes of Adonai are everywhere, observing the wicked and the good. A healing tongue is a tree of life, but a deceitful one crushes the spirit.”

It seems like since President Trump took office there has been devastation all over the world, in the churches and in the streets.  A great divide has taken place just because of who he is or what he is doing, or both.  It seems there are ‘never Trumper’s,’ who dislike him so much they would never vote for him, or those that are undecided or those that seem to love him.  Maybe some of us need to be reminded that President Trump is just a man, a rich man, but just a man.  Some people seem to treat him like he is a god.  His past and some of his actions and tweets are not something to be desired or anything to write home about, but then think of this, many of us have a past that has been somewhat shady and something many of us are not proud of, if we were honest about it.  Now think of this, should we ever hold a man up as a god regardless of who he is, I think not.  I am not even sure if he is a true believer or not, one thing I do know is that he is not our Savior or a god and no one should mistake him as one.

This reminds me of when they tried to make Paul and Silas gods in the word of God in Acts 14:11-19, please read, “Now the crowd, seeing what Paul had done, lifted up their voices, saying in Lycaonian, ‘The gods have become like men and come down to us!’ And they began calling Barnabas “Zeus” and Paul “Hermes” (because he was the main speaker). The priest of Zeus, whose temple was before the front gate of the city, brought bulls and garlands; he wanted to offer a sacrifice with the people. But when the emissaries Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their clothes and rushed out among the crowd, crying out and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We too are human, just like you! We proclaim the Good News to you, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations He allowed all the nations to go their own ways. Yet He did not leave Himself without a witness—He did good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with joy and gladness.’ Even saying these things, they barely restrained the crowd from sacrificing to them. But Jewish people came from Antioch and Iconium; and after they won the crowd over and stoned Paul, they were dragging him out of the city, supposing him to be dead.”  

I wonder how many of us would have acted the same way Paul and Barnabas did.  I wonder how many would have acted like the words of the song that says, “I get the grace, He gets the glory.”  How many of us would have been tempted and allowed these people to worship us, instead of responding like Paul and Barnabas did, giving the Lord all the glory?  Think about the people that hunger for love and acceptance just like Judas, who betrayed Jesus, who hungered for money because he loved it and helped himself to the money he carried for Jesus that he was in charge of.  

Temptation comes in many forms and evil can be around every corner.  It is very important that we overcome evil with good!!  If you want to overcome evil with good, start loving and praying for your enemies instead of attacking them. In order to accomplish this and be an overcomer, we need to resist the Devil and he will flee from us!!  We need to draw closer to God and He will help us in our daily walk, praise His holy name.  We need to seek God’s kingdom above all things and not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may know what God’s good and perfect and just will is!!  So, let us overcome evil with good, by loving God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and to love our neighbor as ourselves and the other things I have put in here plus putting God the very first priority in our lives!!

I hope this has been a help and a blessing to you.  May the good Lord bless you and yours with His perfect peace, love and joy and health and happiness and if you haven’t yet, give the Lord some thanks and praise for He is worthy!!

Who Is Affected By Sin

Question: Why do people sin from a very early age, before they even know that they are sinning?  Is it because they just want to, or they just like to?  You may be able to argue the point that both of these reasons are true.  But what happened before these things were even a problem?  God’s Word says that God had a plan before He created all things, before the earth came into being.  

If you go to the first book in God’s Word, which is Genesis, you will find how things came into being, if you read the first three chapters.  As you read, you realize how and why Adam and Eve sinned, which brought all of us under condemnation.  Because of Eve being deceived, and Adam choosing to sin, and both of them rebelling against God, we inherited their sin nature from birth, and we became slaves to sin.  That is why we sin at a very young age, even before we realize that we are sinning and at that time we are not accountable for our sins because we are only accountable for what we know.  But there is an age of accountability where all become accountable for their sins.  God’s Word says in Romans 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” and in Romans 3:10, “As it is written, there is no one righteous—no, not one.”

But remember this, at an appointed time in our lives, when we exceed the age of accountability, we are responsible for the sins that we have committed before God.  And, if we rebel against that reality instead of accepting it because we think it is unfair since it wasn’t our fault that we have a sin nature because we didn’t ask for it, or cause it to take place, and we hang onto that rebellion, in the end it will destroy us.  But that is not God’s purpose or intention for any of us.  God is very aware of how sin came about, but like I said, He has a purpose for each one of our lives and it is not to harm us but to prosper us and give us a hope and a future as He said in Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know the plans that I have in mind for you,’ declares Adonai, ‘plans for shalom and not calamity—to give you a future and a hope.’”  

Think of this, God could have left us with no hope and let us die in our sins and suffer without a remedy and that would have been the end.  But, because of God’s mercy, love and grace He didn’t do that, He made a way for all of us to be saved and be in heaven, in the new heaven and earth that will come down from heaven someday.  You can read about it in the book of Revelations, the last book in God’s Word, the Bible.  

God sent his only begotten Son down to earth as a babe for different purposes; one of them was to be the sacrificial Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  God did not leave us without hope.  He provided the Lamb, and through Him we can be washed by His precious blood and cleansed of our sins.  Jesus willingly laid down His life, suffered and died so we could be forgiven of our sins if we truly repent, turning from our sins to the Lord, having a change of heart and mind and putting our faith and trust in Him!!  God made this possible because He wasn’t willing that any be lost but that all would come to repentance, please 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.”  Sin comes in different forms; Jesus came to eradicate them all, praise His precious name!!          

       

Let us all praise the good Lord for His love and grace and His mercy and patience and forgiveness!!  I hope this has been a help and a blessing to each of you, have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours with His perfect peace, love and joy and health and happiness!!

Set Free

Let us just praise the Lord and sing and shout hallelujah because of him, and not just for what He has done for us, but just for who He is.  Did you ever just meditate on who God is?  I think it would be impossible to figure out just who He is, although if we are born-again we can read the Word of God and get some kind of a understanding of who He is because of the discernment He gives us as a result of our status in Him.  

People who are not born-again cannot discern the truth of the Word of God, because it takes spiritual discernment, which a non-believer will never have.  Let me explain this to you, just in case you don’t know.  When you are born-again, the Holy Spirit comes into you and your body becomes the Temple of the Holy Spirit.  Please read 1 Corinthians 6:19 20, “Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Ruach ha-Kodesh who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.”

After that takes place, He will lead you into all the truth and as you obtain more and more truth, you will become freer and freer, praise the good Lord, as you put the truth you learn into practice. There are some things that no one can do without, and one them is the truth.

Think about what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit to His disciples when He was going back to His Father in John 16:5-15, “But now I am going to the One who sent Me, and not one of you is asking Me, ‘Where are you going?’ Because I have spoken these things to you, grief has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away! For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I still have much more to tell you, but you cannot handle it just now. But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own; but whatever He hears, He will tell you. And He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine. For this reason, I said the Ruach will take from what is Mine and declare it to you.”

We desperately need the Holy Spirit in our lives to convict us of our sins and to lead us into all truths.  The truth is, if we are born-again our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we can depend on His help; He will teach us and guide us into all the truth and also convict us of all sin.  I believe without the conviction of the Holy Spirit no one will ever truly repent of their sins and have a change of heart and mind and turn from their sins to God, confessing and repenting of their sins and asking the Lord to be their Lord and Savior!!  

One thing we learn pretty quick is that God is love and there is no wickedness in Him.  We also learn that He is merciful, kind and gracious and also patient and very, very holy and just.  We learn that he hates sin but loves the sinner.  We learned He demonstrated His love and grace by providing his Son, Jesus Christ, as the precious Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

If we truly repent with a change of heart and mind and a turning away from sin to the living God, we can be forgiven.  We can experience redemption in our lives through the shed blood of the precious Savior, Jesus Christ.  This could never have happened outside of God having a plan before the foundation of the world, praise His holy name!!  Please 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.”
  

For us to get to God, the Father, we will need to go through Jesus, the Son.  

Please read John 14:6, “Yeshua said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”

God is totally awesome, even if we can’t understand every minute detail of who He is, we can know so much about Him through His Word.  I pray that this has been an encouragement and help and a blessing to you.  May the good Lord bless you and yours with His perfect peace, love and joy and health and happiness!!