Jan. 29, 2016

MY FRIENDS, BEYOND THE POOL THERE IS GREATER GRACE!!

The narrative begins in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate, a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water….John 5:1-3 (NKJV)

“Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty- eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, He knew his condition and how long he had been there. He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” John 5:5-7 (NKJV)

My friends, focus today on the words “He knew.” As a verb the word knew tells us He perceive or understood as fact or truth; and apprehended clearly and with certainty the man’s conditions and how long He had been there.

This is at a time when divinity is at the forefront of humanity and Christ has firsthand  knowledge of a “certain man” and his condition. Now today let’s make it personal and make ourselves “a certain man or woman” and like “this certain man” Christ knows how long we have been at the pool of  Bethesda in the Hebrew language Bethesda means house of mercy or house of grace.

So why does Jesus ask? “Do you want to be made well?” We can only imagine, Jesus asked this question because he knew this man had wasted many years of his life waiting on the movement of water, in a pool, that had no supernatural power to heal.

In addition, God needed him to exemplify his faith, as with us, into believing what He is capable of doing because He is God and He is willing to give us what we ask in His name, if we believe.

So Christ ask, “do you want to be made whole?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

And that is when confusion settles in, and like “a certain man” we look to others to attain some glimmer of hope when our hope, Jesus Christ is waiting patiently right in front of us. But our attention is averted so we lose our focus and just sit on our mat by the pool of grace and mercy.

“Not realizing grace is free, but Salvation can only be obtained through the blood of Christ so to say, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will not give us entrance into the kingdom of heaven, but only he or she who does the will of “our Father who is in heaven” will enter.” Matt. 7:21 (NASB)

So friends, does the poolside become a familiar and safe environment where we become used to inactivity while also failing to recognize Christ presence and what He is willing to give us? And are we spiritually sick, enjoying what the god of this world has to offer, so we really don’t want change or to be made whole?

Have we become complacent, lackadaisical, and self-indulgent, forgetting even how to respond to Jesus presence as He knocks at the door of our hearts? Remember my friends this is personal even though a “great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, are waiting for the moving of the water”

He seeks out us, and ask, do we want to be made well in the midst of our “Sin and despair, because Christ knows like the sea waves cold, it threatens the soul with infinite loss; but grace that is greater, yes, grace untold, points to the refuge, the mighty cross.” and that my friends is where we will receive grace more abundantly.

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.

Jan. 27, 2016

MY FRIENDS, FOCUS, AND THEN ASK YOURSELF WHERE ARE MY TREASURES?

“Their land is also full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures; their land is also full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots. Their land is also full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made…….

For the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up. And it shall be brought low……..Also, in that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, Which they made, each for himself to worship…..” Isaiah 2:7-20 (NKJV)

My friends, today it’s personal because we all have accumulated our idols of things, and money and made them our gods. In addition, Ezekiel tells us in Ez. 7:19 (NKJV) “They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord.

In addition, they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity.” If I am reading this right, Isaiah and Ezekiel each gives us a synopsis on our material possessions that we have made out of gods, god’s which are totally worthless towards our Salvation.

The finances and things that we hold so dear to our heart will not get us into God’s kingdom. But then Christ put’s everything into perspective when He tells us to “seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

In our 21st century got to have it now society, everyone is focused on self and the mentality of greed and the newest cutting edge technology and innovations that the god of this world has set our sights on.

Sights which takes our focus off of our salvation, as the things above become irrelevant. But today to give it all to the Master should be our only goal as we begin to move across the threshold with our hearts set on the promise land.

“For our salvation is nearer than when we first believed”. But what I need you to really focus on today are the words. “They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord”

My friends, we cannot pick and choose what we want to believe in God’s word, that passage tells us one day it will all be useless as we cast it into the streets. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be” Matthew 6:19-21 (ESV)

Today we must reevaluate what is important to us, because “now it is high time to awake out of our sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” Romans 13:11 (NKJV) As we study God’s word diligently each day, while at the same time we are seeking God’s Spirit, we must begin to lay up our treasures in God’s kingdom.

This my friends allows Christ and what His needs are to be the foundation in which we base our character on which allows God to say they are my children and they are “safe to save.” Because soon our “Riches [will] provide no security in the day of wrath and judgment, but righteousness and those treasures we have laid up in God’s kingdom will) deliver [us] from death and destruction. Prov:11:4 (PAV)

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.

Jan. 26, 2016

MY FRIENDS, IS GOD’S PLAN FOOLISHNESS TO US?

“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew.

In addition, “unconverted men do not seek in understanding the wisdom and foresight of God. But yet, God has made a wonderful revelation of His wisdom to those who love Him. But this same revelation tells us that the riches of God’s grace are not discerned by “those whose affection are on the things of this earth, and not on the things above”

But the Christian sees the beautiful things of this world as an expression of God’s love to man” (SDA Bible Commentary) But also, through our faith, we go beyond this world to a “place eye have not seen nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man [or woman] The things God has prepared for those who love Him” 1 Cor. 2:6-9 (NKJV)

My friends it’s personal, because it’s our individual decisions that we make that allows each of us to surrender our mind and body totally to God’s Spirit. This surrender then allows us to fully understand the gospel of Christ and what that means in our life as we grow daily in knowledge and understanding of all truth.

Truth that will adapt to every phase of our growth in Christ. For the scriptures tell us “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” John 16:13 (NKJV)

In 1 Cor. 2:7-8 (NKJV) Paul speaks of the mystery of God and the mystery of the plan of Salvation that was formulated before creation which is contrary to man’s finite mind in understanding who God is and the depth of the trinity’s plan to save us.

So the Messiah was rejected by the Jewish nation as a whole because they were looking for an earthly ruler to deliver them from the Roman occupation, not One who would deliver them from their sins.

Also like the unconverted in the 21st century they were depended on the elect to dictate what the scriptures and the coming Messiah meant in regards to their Salvation. But, Before Christ came the first time, many prophets had predicted Christ coming and what it all meant.

What about you and I and our understanding of the Second Coming of Christ hopefully in our lifetime. Are we searching the scriptures and seeking understanding through God’s Spirit, or are we complacent, and satisfied with what others say? For, “the natural man, [one who is not spiritual minded] does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him.” 1 Cor. 2:14-16 (NKJV)

But for all who seeks God’s kingdom through our faith in God’s word, understand that Christ left the first time to go and “prepare a place for us…And He will come again [for the redeemed]….John 14:2-3 (NKJV)

As He “descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, then the dead in Christ shall rise first. [And all His Faithful who have endured] which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:16-17 (KJV)

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.

Jan 25, 2016

MY FRIENDS, THE SPIRIT WORKS HARD FOR OUR SALVATION ARE WE RESPONDING?

“Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”? James 4:4-5 (NKJV)

Let me get this straight. Becoming a friend of the world makes ourselves an enemy of God” because the Spirit inside us, yearns jealously or is passionate about who our allegiance is towards.

My friends, as one who seeks God’s Spirit daily I can only imagine the work that the Holy Spirit goes through at transforming our character into the image of Christ and then for us to go out and give our allegiance to an enemy of God, there is no explanation needed even with our finite minds as to why He yearns jealously.

“The Spirit is [also] zealous because He knows what potential we have and what we can become. He is vigilant because He knows how to lead us out of the quandary, the dead-end situations we are in, the difficult circumstances we face, into the fullness of our God-ordained future.

The Holy Spirit is not jealous of us; He is jealous for us to be all that the Father has destined for us.” (David Patterson Ministries, The Holy Spirit Is Jealous,) One of the precepts of God, it tells us “thou shalt have no other gods before me……,nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God……” Ex. 20:3-6 (NKJV)

Remember my friends The Holy Spirits also restores us into the likeness of Christ, He also “empower us “ “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Act 1:8 (NKJV)

“He will comfort and encourage us” “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:14-21 (NKJV) “He will also guide and reveal things to us” “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” John 16:13 (NKJV)

My friends how many “breaking news” of the day must occur in our life time to understand that we are at the threshold of the promise land, and it is Gods Spirit we must seek daily if our goal is to cross over into that place.

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him” 1 Cor. 2:9 (KJV) Remember my friends, this place that no mind created of God and with our limited intelligence could ever imagine, we have now become recipients and heirs of this place and joint heirs with His Son.

But we must also have the faith, endurance and passion to want to live there, which then allows self to die through God’s Spirit which then allows Him to transform our character into a Character that Christ can then say with no reservation, they are my children.

And they are “safe to save” and as we leave this foreign country and cross over into God’s kingdom it is at that point we then hand Christ our Cross that we have carried as His disciple for “a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give [us] at that day: and not to [us] only, but unto all that love his appearing.” 2 Tim. 4:8 (KJV)

Jan. 23, 2016

MY FRIENDS, ARE WE A SLAVE ON THE AUCTION BLOCK AND DON’T KNOW IT?

“Return unto Me, and I will return unto you.” Malachi 3:7 (KJV) “But if the erring one persistently refuses to heed the voice that calls him with pitying, tender love, he will at last be left in darkness.

The heart that has long slighted God’s mercy, becomes hardened in sin, and is no longer susceptible to the influence of the grace of God. Fearful will be the doom of that soul of whom the pleading Saviour shall finally declare, he “is joined to idols: let him alone.” Hosea 4:17 (KJV)” (E.G. White. Patriarchs and Prophets p 165)

Many from week to week practice the attributes of being a Christian, but we fail to hold ourselves accountable for the truth that we profess to others. We agree with the message we’ve known from our youth and we claim to love the Lord but we never learn to fear the Lord.

We have grown accustom to our on rhetoric while ignoring Gods Spirit telling us, “whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21(NIV)

God’s Word must be a part of every thought, activity, conversation, and motive, of our life, until our lifestyle magnifies Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Christ must take full control. Sometimes change is painful because we are so use to doing it our way, but God has told us In His Word what we need to do to have a total Transformation.

But if we choose not too focus on the sound of His voice, one day that voice will become faint and incoherent, then it will become harder and harder to seek what we do not hear above the clear sound of the god of this world who we have become accustomed to listening too.

But Christ still calls, He never leaves nor forsake His lost sheep. But we make the choice to turn away and “wander down some pointless road to nowhere with our salvation” determined by the god of this world, and then he begins to make our decisions for us and we then become addicts, with our drug of choice being sin.

Harriet Tubman the “African-American abolitionist, humanitarian, who during the American Civil War, was a Union spy. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made about thirteen missions to rescue approximately seventy enslaved families and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.

She is quoted as saying” “I freed a thousand slaves, I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” Today the world is at its worst “but God’s grace still pleads at the Auction block for all sinners that are bound by “sin and shaped in iniquity.”

So please remember, Jesus love has done it all, and only when we actually allow that love to penetrate every fiber of our being, as we give it all to the Master along with telling the world what God has done in our lives will we be free.

My friends we must never forget we have been bought with a price by the blood of Jesus Christ. So we must allow Him to set us free as we fall on our knees in total admonition and say, “all to Jesus, I surrender.

Humbly at His feet I bow, Worldly pleasures all forsaken; Take me, Jesus, take me now. All to Jesus I surrender, Make me, Savior, wholly Thine; Let me feel Thy Holy Spirit, Truly know that Thou art mine.

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.

Jan 22, 2016

MY FRIENDS, WE MUST BE CONVICTED BY OUR CONSCIENCE!!

The Jewish elect brings a woman to Christ that was accused of adultery, claiming she had been caught in the act. So my friends what were there real motive. “The question was then asked Teacher, what do you think her punishment should be.

Now Moses, in the law Commanded she be stoned. But the reaction of Christ was swift and to the point, He stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, ignoring all of her accusers. But persistent, they continued to ask.

He then raised Himself up and said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” Again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard Him and saw the writing, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one.

And now Jesus and the woman was left alone. When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you? She said, “No one, Lord.”

And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” John 8:1-11 (NKJV) My friend’s do you ever wonder what Christ was writing with his finger on the ground. The more popular understanding is, it was the sins of all the accusers.

But as I focus on what actually took place I find myself thinking, He could have just as well outlined a picture of the cross that he would soon carry on His back to Calvary for the sins of the world.

Or maybe he thought of his home in heaven that he had left on our behalf, and begin to draw some of the beauty of paradise, maybe the tree of life or the streets of gold. Or maybe He just wrote the words, “My Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven.”

My friends, we can’t say for certain what was written with those hands that would eventually be nailed to the cross, the same hands that created the world in six days. The hands that reaches no matter how far we have drifted away to rescue us from the clutches of Satan.

As a child of God, I don’t believe He needed to take the time to write the sins on the ground of her accusers. But like the text tells us, “those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, left out one by one.”

In other words their conviction I could only imagine was driven by their conscious which can only occur in the presence of Christ. A conviction that heals our sin sick souls that  begins with “You hypocrites, you are completely forgetful of the time that you yourself have erred.

So, it is only when you are willing to suffer yourself, if need be in order to help your erring brothers and sister that you can “see clearly” and be of any help.” So Their conviction as ours must be personal once in the presence of Christ as we say, I’ve been changed, Healed, Freed, and Delivered.

I’ve found joy, Peace, Grace and now I’ve been changed In the presence of the lord, and right now is the moment, today is the day That I have waited for and I won’t let it pass me by because I won’t go back, to the way it used to be Before Christ presence came and changed [my life]. (William McDowell, I Want Go Back)

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.

Jan. 19, 2016

MY FRIENDS, WHO CONTROLS THE CONSCIENCE OF A CHILD OF GOD?

“For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete.” 2 Cor. 13:8-9 (NKJV)

“Truth as is in Jesus Christ, the truth of salvation, as set forth in the word of God.” “And this Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14 (NKJV)

So now my friends, we have looked at truth and how it deals with our salvation. But the question we must ask and where we must place our focus today is, who controls truth in a child of God? Is it Jesus Christ who is presented before us in the word of God?

Or is it in the god of this world who has said in his heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;….I will be like the Most High.” Isaiah 14:13-15 (NKJV) And once He has become like the most High He has promised “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”

Things meaning “broken hearts, wars and rumors of wars: nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: famines, pestilences, earthquakes, in divers places, which is only the beginning of birth pangs as iniquity abounds, and the love of many continues to wax cold.”

Now let’s look at the word Conscience; which by definition is the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action” My friends once again who controls our conscience?

And who  in our life is deciding right or wrong?  And who decides within us to read God’s word, our Sabbath or Sunday school lesson, or watch Empire, Scandal or House wives of Atlanta on our TV’s sets?

The question was asked who controls our Conscience, but what we must understand about ourselves is “every person has free choice. Free to obey or disobey the Natural Laws [or the laws of God].

Our choice determines the consequences [and where our destination lays. And nobody ever did, or ever will, escape the consequences of his choices [which is life or death].” (Alfred A. Montapert)

But My friends because of the love our God has for us along with His grace, we will never be forced to choose life over death. But each day He does knock and pleads for us to make the right decision. Decisions to love the Lord our God, and walk in His ways, and keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments.

[Because He wants] we His Children] to live more abundant lives in this foreign land. But we must also listen to God’s voice  and not be drawn away from Him by the things of this world, as we worship other gods, and serve them.

But if we will allow self to die and live our life through Jesus Christ then we shall be blessed as we travel on this Journey to a ” A land “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard. Nor have entered into the heart of man [or woman] the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” Deu. 30:15-16 (NKJV) 1 Cor. 2:9 (NKJV)

Every excuse we may give as the reason we cannot serve Christ, was challenged and answered at Calvary.