Monthly Archives: December 2015

Holding Back?

Proverbs 13:7 There is one who pretends to be rich, but has nothing;
Another pretends to be poor, but has great wealth.

I came across this in study; to good not to share. My comments follow his below.

Matthew Henry:
This observation is applicable,
To men’s worldly estate. The world is a great cheat, not only the things of the world, but the men of the world. All men are liars. Here is an instance in two sore evils under the sun:
1. Some that are really poor would be thought to be rich and are thought to be so; they trade and spend as if they were rich, make a great bustle and a great show as if they had hidden treasures, when perhaps, if all their debts were paid, they are not worth a groat. This is sin, and will be shame; many a one hereby ruins his family and brings reproach upon his profession of religion. Those that thus live above what they have choose to be subject to their own pride rather than to God’s providence, and it will end accordingly. Some that are really rich would be thought to be poor, and are thought to be so, because they sordidly and meanly live below what God has given them, and choose rather to bury it than to use it, Eccl. 6:1, Eccl. 6:2 . In this there is an ingratitude to God, injustice to the family and neighbourhood, and uncharitableness to the poor.
To their spiritual state. Grace is the riches of the soul; it is true riches; but men commonly misrepresent themselves, either designedly or through mistake and ignorance of themselves.
1. There are many presuming hypocrites, that are really poor and empty of grace and yet either think themselves rich, and will not be convinced of their poverty, or pretend themselves rich, and will not own their poverty.
2. There are many timorous trembling Christians, that are spiritually rich, and full of grace, and yet think themselves poor, and will not be persuaded that they are rich, or, at least, will not own it; by their doubts and fears, their complaints and griefs, they make themselves poor. The former mistake is destroying at last; this is disquieting in the mean time.
Sometimes you just realize that this world is one big lie……we live in a state of deception because of the level of sin in this world. We are not only deceiving others, we are deceiving ourselves. The level of sin has crept into our pulpits, deception at the highest level. We repeatedly hear of all the blessings of God, yet never of the punishment of sin. We hold out our money from God for ourselves when He has given us every cent we posses. We build ourselves up to be rich, yet we are poor. We label ourselves poor to hide away every dime that will pass away with time. We are robbing ourselves of countless blessings, and blessing others by investing completely and honestly at whatever level God has given us. Are we being true stewards of not only monetary means, but spiritual blessings and gifts? Are we holding back………

The Way

Where are you
If Jesus came back today
Would it be clear
That you know The Way?

Has religion become
Your answer to Thee
Has just a weekly day
Prepared you for eternity?

Has living your life
Like a good person should
Given you salvation
With less bad than good?

Do you feel that God
Won’t condemn us all
Do you realize sin
Began at the Fall?

God created it all
He will judge it one day
He cares only
That you know The Way.

He gave his only Son
To die for you and me
He paid the ultimate price
For paradise in heaven you see.

He is the only means
You can never earn the way
You can repent and believe
You can live for him today.

This world needs you
To make a difference today
To share Jesus with it
To show them The Way.

God has prepared
Your life and theirs too
Jesus is tugging your heart
For things you can do.

Get to Work

Matthew 9:36-38 But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Jesus had been performing miracles throughout chapter nine in the gospel of Matthew. He had been healing the sick, blind, lame, and even raising the dead; can you imagine the crowd that had begin to follow him? He was not able to be whisked away in a limo by an armed guards (well, really he could have), he walked everywhere he went. Jesus was filled with compassion for those that sought him for every reason. The crowds would have been filled with either those seeking a miracle, those that had faith because of what they had experienced or seen, and those that were simply so curious, yet undecided in their faith in Him. It is the curiosity that God places in our hearts that draws us to Jesus. It is only the most hardened hearts that never even investigate, but simply turn away and deny in many ways. It is that curiosity that Jesus is wanting you to be a laborer of his in the harvest of eternal souls; to be a worker spreading the Gospel to all that are curious enough to hear.

The harvest in this context is spoken about in three of the four gospels by Jesus. Here in Matthew, in Luke ten, and again in John four. In all accounts Jesus is sending out, proclaiming the need, and showing the evidences of the need for his disciples to be evangelist. You are not a follower of Jesus, you are not truly saved if you do not possess the inner urge to share the gospel. A mark of your salvation is that desire to share what you possess with others. If you do not have that feeling, if you have doubt, that is God stirring your soul; repent and believe in the Hope you know is true; Jesus has been building that testimony in you to share with others now.

This world is falling apart because Satan is peaking in his limited power before Jesus returns very soon. The need for laborers, true disciples of Jesus, is greater than any time in history. There is a number, a need, a people group that God has not reached with the Good News yet. He will not return until all have heard. Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Jesus has put the circle of influence around you; your circle may be the as large as the internet or as small as your family. Jesus is pointing you to churches and sheperds to guide you along the way. Begin today to get to work for Jesus, doing your part to bring Jesus one day closer to his return.

Firewood

Luke 23:27-31 And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. 28 But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ 31 For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

Jesus was on his way to die, and was being followed by many people who were mourning for many reasons. Jesus turned to them and selflessly told them to weep for themselves, not for him. He told them to weep for the coming judgement of God upon Israel, and quoting from the Old Testament prophets, made it clear of the coming calamities. We can even look into our own judgement coming in the book of Revelation; when God’s judgement is released upon the world. Jesus has given reference to judgement of Israel, and the coming judgement spoken of in Revelation. Both of these references tell us how we will want to hide from the judgement of God; we will seek refuge in caves and plea for them to bring death, rather than suffer God’s righteous hand. Revelation 6:15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

The call God has placed on my life, a call to preach repentance, is as unpopular as it was for the Old Testament prophets. A call placed on my heart for especially the American Church, is to get on our knees and repent. I grew up in religion, I have seen and lived the level of hypocrisy in the church, and God took me to India to see what true Christianity can look like. Many of them fail just like us, but many have a purity that we can only desire. We as the American church have mocked God for too long, have weakened the Gospel to 60 seconds of time, and have preached of prosperity that comes to those of great faith. We have removed Hell from our preaching for fear it offends, and pursued entertainment as the way to pack pews. We stand before the judgement seat of God as a nation now, as he permits levels of evil as never seen before. We will either succumb to evil, or prayerfully repent and experience revival. We are at a pivotal point in eternity for our nation, and we must remember and wonder why our nation is not in the final book of history, the book of Revelation.

If God allowed the suffering of the world to be poured out on his Son, what will be the level of our suffering as those who have turned our backs on God? If Jesus is the pure, green wood of verse thirty-one, what happens to the dry dead wood of evil? In John 15, we are given the call to abide in Christ. We are told of the blessings and the warnings of those passages. John 15:6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. Jesus is the green vine, the living vine that does not burn. If we become disconnected from Jesus, letting sin rule our lives, we spiritually die and become dead wood; therefore we are thrown into a fire and burned. Get the idea?

Rich or Poor?

James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?

We have all heard
Money is the root of all sin
But ones heart of pride
Is the open door it walks in.

We seek with all our might
To constantly attain
Riches and possessions
That bring only pain.

Jesus tell us camels
Pass through needles you see
Easier than rich men
Will enter heaven and be.

Jesus tell us daily
To lay down our cross
To follow him only
No matter the cost.

We are known by our stuff
Measured by our wealth
Satan holds the ruler
Jesus holds our health.

If riches we pursue daily
Satan measures what we gained.
Jesus measures our hearts
Where spiritual health is attained.

Our pride opens the door
Of our desire for all we see
Missing the simplicity of life
Found in one’s poverty.

Brokenness may come
In so many countless ways
Jesus uses the trials of life
To build perseverance for days.

Strength is built in trials
We look to God when we are poor
We wonder how we will make it
Our faith may become unsure.

When He has changed us
When he does the hard thing
We begin to understand what he wanted
We asked what we may bring.

We desire after the trial
To repay our debt in some way
We seek to praise him
With our cross laid each day.

When we lay down our cross
We give our lives for the day
We seek to be poor
To be used by him in some way.

We want the riches of heaven
We see the futility of them here
We care not of Satan’s measure
But Jesus’s measure we fear.

Help us today to be humble
To be all we may be
Help us to not worry
But for eternity with Thee.

Do you feel the urgency?
1 Thessalonians 5:1 But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. 2 For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night.

A night of broken sleep; nightmarish battles with Satan. Awakened to so much urgency on my heart; the enemy comes in flooding my head with worldly tasks distracting my eternal one. You must realize these days we are living in; the evil that is peaking before you. Satan is gathering his armies for a final battle, and he is seeking many of you in cunning ways. His ultimate tool, his greatest weapon, is deception. We are told he is the father of lies (John 8:44). Today he will use every means possible to take your attention off God. He wants to distract you from church, from prayer, and time in God’s Word. Will you let him deceive you, or will you read and grasp the urgency of Paul’s warning in this epistle?

3 For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.
4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief.
5 You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.
12 And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you,
13 and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all.
15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.
16 Rejoice always,
17 pray without ceasing,
18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
20 Do not despise prophecies.
21 Test all things; hold fast what is good.
22 Abstain from every form of evil.
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
25 Brethren, pray for us.
26 Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.
27 I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read to all the holy brethren.
28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

Life’s Scales

Proverbs 11:1 Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, But a just weight is His delight.

Integrity is
What you do
When nobody
Is watching you.

Integrity is a trait taught
By both God and man
Integrity is built through life
Going against successes plan.

Solomon wrote of integrity
He wrote of it’s gain
Solomon wrote of perversity
How dishonesty brings shame.

The world teaches do
Whatever to get ahead
God’s Word teaches dishonesty
Finds the rich people dead.

American dreams take us
Down filthy roads to make a deal
Doing whatever it takes
From clients we steal.

We make profits and such
We smile at our gold
Have we gained everything
Have our souls been sold?

Everything the world values
Heaven regards as shame
Are we investing with Satan
Our heart’s desires to blame?

This world will perish
All in it will be no more
Nothing will matter
When Jesus closes the door.

Time will forever change
When you leave this life
You will see the cost
Of your gains through strife.

We are all measured
By our integrity you see
God knows what is going on
Behind the curtains of we.

He knows our hearts
Why we do what we do
He is measuring our integrity
Preparing eternity for us too.

On our honest scales of life
Not of salvation you see
But of our thoughts and works
Will measure our eternity.

He will place our life
In the balance of integrity
Souls headed for heaven
As his disciples will be.

False scales of dishonesty
Never were His to begin
Chasing money and pleasures
Satan leading them deeper in sin.

You know your life
God knows your heart
Your integrity draws closer
Or it tears you apart.