May 20, 2017

MY FRIENDS, WHAT IS THE PRICE OF SEEKING THAT HEAVENLY HOPE?

All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own.

If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Heb. 11:13-16 (NLT) My friends, there is a price in following Christ as we seek that heavenly home.

We are nomads, aliens in a foreign land with no set destination except that place eye have not seen nor ear has heard, nor have entered into the imagination of any man or woman what God has planned for the redeems final destination. The redeemed being His children, heirs through the blood of His Son, and recipients of that free gift, God’s grace life eternal, and that heavenly hope His faithful have received, that “inherited “birthright,” a status given only through Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son.”

And as heirs, the cost of following Christ in Luke 9:57-62 (NIV) tells us there were several who because of the status they thought they would receive as workers for an earthly king came to Christ seeking discipleship. One said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” But my friends, discipleship cannot be impulse driven because somehow as the Spirit was moving during church service we felt a portion of what everyone else was receiving. Discipleship is a committed heart to serve.

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Christ is telling Him I am a nomad of this world my residence is not of this world. Then Christ said to another follow me. My friends, Christ timing for a commitment can never be an inconvenience, we must be always prepared to go where He leads.

His reply, “Lord, first I must bury my father.” Jesus reply, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” consider what it means to desire heaven, and yet to turn away because of the conditions laid down. Procrastination eventually robs us of total commitment and discipleship as we carry our cross. Another said, “I’ll follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” My friends, to look back is to lose focus, on our destination. “Non-essentials must be of secondary importance” when it comes to discipleship, committed faith must be the only factor that drives that passion from within that takes us out on the front lines of the battle field or wherever Christ may lead.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, [choosing the life of a nomad] with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. Moses commitment [to serve God was of] greater wealth than the treasures of this worrld, for he was looking to that final reward. [the promise land] Heb. 11:24 (NLV)

May 18, 2017

MY FRIENDS, LOOK BEYOND TODAY ARE WE PREPARED?

Each decade of our life, history, goals and destinations change, family and love one’s move on. The timeline seems blurred at times, but one thing we can forever count on in our life, are “two forces, both operating simultaneously with each other, both moving in opposite directions with different agendas and different outcomes. One force representing everything changeable, unpredictable, and distressing in our lives where all hope will be lost one day in a state of final spiritual ruin.

The other force, a much more powerful one representing the sure movement of God’s wise and sovereign purposes, forever transcending a deep flow of His unchanging love” along with the power of his Spirit transforming our lives as He prepares us for that place Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which He hath prepared for all that love him.” 1 Cor. 2:9 (KJV)

My friends, where we need to focus today is in maintaining a committed passion that keeps us focused. We are now at the threshold of the promise land, discouragement is not an option, we must hold on, finishing this journey with our “torches still lit.” and shinning bright with the radiance of God’s Son who gave it all for our salvation.

We can never allow our mind to linger aimlessly, seeking after the things of this world, forgetting the prize at the end of this journey, eternal life. Remember, God’s word which allows His Spirit to transform our character is the only curriculum that gives us that final diploma written within our heart that says we “have satisfied the requirements, prescribed by” our Savior who gave it all for our salvation on Calvary.

It’s personal my friends, and as Children of God there can be no doubt our Savior left to prepare a place for us and He will return. In Rev. 21:21 (NIV) John gives us a small glimpse of that vision. “The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl.

The streets of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.” My friends, the discouragement and guilt that keeps us from obtaining and achieving the victory prize, God’s holy kingdom can only occur when we acknowledge Satan who tells us; our dreams, and goals for eternity are unattainable.

And that cross Christ ask us to bear, only a supernatural force has the stamina to carry it. But we must have faith that God will not allow you or I to be tempted beyond what we are able, but with every temptation He will provide the way of escape.” 1 Cor 10:13 (NKJV)

Consistent with this, “as the tempest rages,” we must remember our Savior controls the elements but He also allows those elements to rage in our lives in preparation “for a time of great tribulation like never before,” for today is only the “beginning of birth pangs.”

But, soon the cause for “Christ to which we must devote our lives, will be the only cause that will never fail.” Though we may perish and “heaven and earth may pass away,” the good news will not.” Because Christ lives, and His truth will triumph and then “the dead in Christ will rise first, and we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus, we shall always be with the Lord.” 1 Thess. 4:16-17 (NKJV)

May 17, 2017

MY FRIENDS, IS IT POSSIBLE TO COMPROMISE OUR WAY INTO HEAVEN?

Compromise by definition is “an agreement reached by adjusting, conflicting or opposing claims, and principles,” But in regards to our Salvation “no man or women can [compromise between] two masters…..Matt. 6:24 (KJV) Remember my friends, a divided heart is an unstable heart. James tells us “…….he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:6-8 (KJV)

So as a Child of God, we must ask, what is our mission statement or standard we live by? Did Christ live by those same standards and principles? “And are we willing to stand up for what’s right though the heavens fall, and the earth passes away.”

It is a grave mistake for God’s children “to seek to bridge the gulf that separates the children of light from the children of darkness by yielding principle, [while] compromising the truth. [Because,] It would be surrendering the peace of Christ in order to make peace or fraternize with the world.

The sacrifice is too costly to be made by the children of God to make peace with the world by giving up the principles of truth. . . . Then let the followers of Christ settle it in their minds that they will never compromise truth, never yield one iota of principle for the favor of the world. Let them hold to the peace of Christ.” (E.G. White, My Life Today P-82)

Land mines are devices that kill, placed just below the surface of the ground by the enemy. In regards to our salvation it is those sins that the forces of evil lay just at the surface of our hearts. Those grey areas of our life, the things we watch on TV, the things we say in conversation and the truth we are willing to compromise in God’s word.

Or may not be in God’s word so we compromise because it does not say, “thus says the Lord.” My friends if you listen to our modern day prophets, prophet meaning the Shepherd’s who we think are chosen to speak for God and to guide His flock in all truth and understanding.

As they give us their account of God’s Spirit Guiding them through His word, you would think God’s word was obsolete and void of any real consequences if the precepts were not adhered to. In many instances our all-knowing, all-powerful, Omnipresence God has been reduced to a trivial being. If you just live within the grey areas of life you will be all right, being good is the new, being perfect.

But Christ tells us in Matt 5:48 (KJV) “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” My friends we are all servants of God with a ministry and a message that we must begin to reveal to the world. We cannot become complacent and compromise with this world because the Master has delayed His coming.

For soon, “the Master will come on a day when we His servants [are compromising,] and at an hour they are not aware of,” and each who have “yielded principle, by compromising the truth will receive their just reward, Perdition. But “blessed is that servant whom his Master, when he comes, will find Them not compromising His truth, “but doing and working and feeding His flock.”

May 10, 2017

MY FRIENDS, WE ARE CLOSER THEN WE HAVE EVER BEEN BEFORE!!

Paul tells us, in 2 Tim 4:1-5 (KJV) “I charge or “testify earnestly” before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” So my friends, our responsibility is to stay focused on where God is leading, as we make full proof of our ministry to others in the final days of what we call the history of this world, which by definition is a “continuous, systematic narrative of past events written as a chronological account” beginning with, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

And now, we are at the threshold of the promise land where every person who seeks God’s presence and kingdom should be searching “the scriptures” and seeking the Spirit of God while praying without ceasing with a passion as history and prophecy unfolds before our eyes in the form of “breaking news.”

But the masses are not concerned with hearing the truth. It’s all a fable or a “a story not founded on fact.” But friends, where do you and I stand in this time of total chaos and confusion we find ourselves living in today. Can we say with no reservation that we are not like the five foolish virgins who had lamps, but no oil?

For you and I, our lamp would be the word of God, but like the foolish who had no oil to sustain them as they waited on the bridegroom, we lack the oil of God’s Spirit found in His word that would sustain us with a continuous connection to God during that time Christ speaks of in Matt 24:21 (KJV) A time of great tribulation, which has never been since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be.”

My friends, look from within, are we like the wise, who search the scriptures daily as we develop a personal relationship with God and His Spirit. Yes, the bridegroom has delayed His coming. But His promise remains, because He is patient with all His children.

Not wanting any one of us to perish, but [His desire is that] everyone will come to repentance” and be a-part of the redeemed who will live throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity in His kingdom. Yes, from time to time we have all became drowsy and fallen asleep.

But today we must work the works of him that sends us out on the front lines of the battle field to serve, while it is day: for the night cometh soon, when no man can work.” John 9:4 (NIV) But, it is during that time, we will hear the sound of a mighty rushing wind but we must understand it’s closer now than it’s ever been.

We can almost hear the trumpet as Gabriel sounds the call for God’s faithful to come home. I don’t know about you, but I can almost hear also the father saying to His “Son go get my children.”

May 8, 2017

MY FRIENDS, ARE WE CAPABLE OF RUNNING THIS RACE UNTIL WE SEE HIS FACE?

Alvin Slaughter sings a song “I will run to you.” He goes on to tell of the challenges of making that happen. Starting with the hang man’s noose that was around his throat. And friends, because we are all born in sin, “and shaped in a gross injustice of wickedness” that same noose was placed around our throat as “death traps tried to keep every exit” to our salvation in strategic locations throughout our life.

So now in this hostile world, there seems to be no signs of escape as we fall daily, prey to the things of this world. But we must understand, we will flat-line with no way of survival, if we fail to believe and send out distress signals, SMS, save my soul. And from the throne Room Christ will hear our cry for help and bring us into His presence. But my friends are we committed to seek His presence?

To “become a private audience of one as God begins to put the pieces of our life back together” with a new beginning? Remember friends, He is God and because He is God only He has that power. Now look around, prophecy is closing so “we must be alert to Gods ways” and where He is trying to lead us.

Which means daily we “review His ways,” and seek His face and understand how He operates and what He expects of us, because the plan for our life is now set. God’s grace has re-wrote our destination which goes back to His original plan that “gives us hope and a future.” If we believe.

Remember, the road to God’s kingdom is narrow, and straight, but every direction and every turn we make to the right or left has been “road tested” by the one who gave it all for our salvation and now we must run towards our Savior and never look back as we prepare each day to live throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity in the presence of our Savior.

My friends, heaven “is cheap enough.” So, no matter what we encounter in this world, the trials, tribulation and pain, it’s worth it, because “no eye have seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered man’s heart what God has prepared for those” who are willing to run this race and stay on course in anticipation of seeing the face of our Savior.

But it must become a shared vision that God’s chosen takes to the world. And as we run towards Christ in anticipation of entering the promise land, we must “make disciples of all nations,………Matt. 28:19 (NIV) But that is an impossible task if we are not Christ disciples ourselves.

And making disciples means to evangelize and to evangelize means to “preach the gospel” and the gospel I speak of is the “good news” and the good news is what Paul explains in 1 Cor. 15 (ASV) which is the message of Christ death and resurrection then one day “cometh the end, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

For He must reign, till He hath put all his enemies under His feet. And the last enemy that shall be abolished is death.” 1 Cor 15: 24 (ASV) So, until we see His face we must be “stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” 1 Cor. 15:58 (ASV)

April 2, 2017

MY FRIENDS, WHO ARE WE GOING TO BELIEVE?

Like a thief, Christ will come and we know not the hour.” Also, “Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lust, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 2 Peter 3:3-4 (NKJV) “He delayeth His coming” is how Satan plants the seed within us, because he knows His time will run out soon, he just seeks us to join forces with him.

“He does not say that Christ will not come. He does not scoff at the idea of His second coming, But in his heart and by his actions and words he declares that the Lord’s coming is delayed. He banishes from the minds of others the conviction that the Lord is coming quickly. His influence leads men to presumptuous, careless delay.

They are confirmed in their worldliness and stupor……. He mingles with the world. Like grows with like in transgression. It is a fearful assimilation. With the world he is taken in the snare. “The lord of that servant shall come . . . in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites.” (E.G. White, Desire of Ages p 635)

Because, it’s those hypocrites who deny God by saying, “Peace and safety!” [But the promise in God’s word tells us] destruction will come….suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and [the scoffers] will not escape.” 1 Thess. 3:5 (NASB)

My friends, God has not left His children in darkness, simple because prophecy after prophecy in His word points to His Son’s second coming. And if we diligently pray and study and allow God’s Spirit to transform us into Christ image daily, we will not be overtaken “like a thief in the night.”

Yes, It’s been two thousand years since Christ said “I will go and prepare a place for you. And if I go……I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

And one of His disciples who doubted, asked. “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus reply to Thomas and also to you and I was, “I am the way, the truth, and the life……” John 14:3-4 (NKJV)

My friends, what that text tell us is; we can only enter that place, “eye have not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” [through Christ, because] “there is salvation….in no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” 1 Cor 2:9 (NKJV) Acts 4:12 (NKJV)

In addition, because of God’s love towards His children, His grace and mercy continues to abound. But, we must understand “the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8-9 (NKJV)

But, one day soon, Christ shall appear and “He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Matt. 25:32 (NIV) [and the sheep shall] be like him; for they shall see him as he is.“ 1 John 3:2 (NKJV) Today my friends, the only question we must ask is, what side will we be on?