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Friday, October 30, 2009

Freely You've Received Freely Give

Jesus gave these instructions as He sent His disciples out to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. The mandate of New Testament Christianity is we must freely give what we have freely received. The question should be asked what have you received from Christ. Well the first thing we must receive is Christ as Lord and Savior. He must be Lord before He can be your savior. Who is your Lord today? There are many lords in the world today. Even for those who claim Christianity. When Jesus is Lord You are committed to be His disciple and to following Him wherever He would go. The Cost does not matter and obedience is not an option. To have Jesus as Lord is to serve Him and to lay down our lives for Him, for His Body (the church) and for the world. All of this is out of Love and devotion for what He has done for us. When Jesus is Lord of your life the proof of this is that are giving your life to Him, His body (the Church) and to the world that it might be saved. I love the story of the woman in Lk 7:47 who the bible described as a sinner. It seems that she must have been a prostitute. She is the woman that broke the costly oil at anointed Jesus' feet with it. She rinsed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair. At the end of the story the religious Pharisees were wondering why Jesus allowed this woman who was a sinner to do this to Him. They were very uncomfortable with this show of love and affection. It's still the same today. Religious and people who claim Christianity but have not received Christ as Lord are very uncomfortable with this type of devotion. He explained that she was doing this because her sins were great and she was showing her love because her sins, though many, were forgiven. He who has been forgiven much loves much. Wow what a picture of what every forgiven soul should be doing. She was giving what she had received. We have been forgiven much so we should be giving much. Scholars say that the oil that she used was very costly but cost didn't stop this woman from loving. What we have been given in Christ is very costly it was given at a very high price. But once we have been forgiven it all belongs to Jesus. In the great throne of Judgement our proof that we were His sheep will be that we freely did things for the least of these. Jesus said as much as you have done it to the least of these my brethren you've done it unto me. As we give to the least of this world, those in prison, the sick,
and the poor and broken we have done it to Jesus we have anointed His feet with the costly oil of our lives and our loving devotion. Hallelujah!!!! Please judge your life by the word of God and not by what you have justified yourself with. Does what I am saying describe your life? Are you giving and pouring out your life to Christ and for Christ? Is it out of a loving gratitude because your sins are forgiven and you've been set free? Jesus said you will know a tree by the fruit it produces? Is this the fruit of your life? Please Judge yourself harshly by the word of God. If it is not than begin to seek Jesus and his word and pray that He will become the Lord of Your life. Become His disciple and follower and He will give you the same devotion and love that this woman had!!!!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Alive in Christ

Eph 2:1 - "And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin" One of the definitions I found for the word dead is to be destitute of a life that recognises and is devoted to God, because of being given up to trespasses and sins. I can remember being dead to the things of God. Growing up I knew about God but I never knew them. When I think of the word destitute I get a picture of the desert. This is how I was in my sin, barren and dry a place where no life existed. The problem with being dead is that those who are dead don't even know it. I was dead to the life of God. I couldn't see it, taste it, smell it or hear it. Dead men are just that they are dead to life. One of the wonderful things about God and His grace is that in our dead state He is calling out to us so that we can be made alive. God is the only one that can speak to dead men. Somewhere is our dead state God calls out too us. Man throughout his history has used Religion to try to make himself alive. Your or my religion cannot bring life only Jesus can. Spiritual dead men can go to church, synagogue, start doing good things, turn over a new leaf but they are still dead. Jesus Christ is the only means by which spiritually dead men can be made alive. Jesus said if any man believe in me though he were dead yet shall he live. Jesus died and rose from the dead so that we who are dead can rise from the dead. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is life eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord. Please do not resist those times when God is calling out to you. He is calling you out of your death. The time when you begin to think about the meaning of life and what is life all about. This is God calling out to you don't resist or let His voice go away. Don't allow other things to give you a sudo-life. Seek Jesus and His word. Start reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Ask God to show you the way to true life. Jesus said that His words are spirit and they are life. Thank God that He lets dead men find true life!!!!!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Seeing What God Sees!!!

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen then afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and Pilgrims on the earth" Heb 11:13.

This morning as I read and meditated on this verse I got a glimpse of how important sight is. There are two realms of sight talked about in the scripture. Physical sight and spiritual sight. People that live by faith have spiritual sight. They see through the eyes of faith. The scripture says we walk by faith and not by sight!!!! God's promises to us is what God sees for our life. The reason these people died in faith is because they saw and embraced what God had promised them. They embraced what God saw for their life. When our physical eyes sees an impossibility faith sees the God that does the impossible. Assurance is being sure that something will happen. The one thing I am sure of is that no matter what is going on in my physical circumstance, God sees something bigger and the bigger is given to us through His promises. For me to overcome the circumstance in my life I must see what God sees and walk accordingly. When I assured and embrace what God sees I will speak and say what God would speak and say. Rm 10: 9 states that "if we will confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved". I believe what we say is what we believe. When we believe in our heart what God has promised than we will confess it through our words. The scripture says that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. People around you can see what you believe by what you say. Parents can you see what God sees for your children if you can than you are probably speaking it to them on a regular basis. Praise God for His promises and we must diligently seek them out for our selves so that we can see what God sees.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Therefore from one Man

Heb 11:12 - "Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitudes - innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore".

Its amazing to see the results of Sara and Abraham's faith. The verse gives us a glimpse of what God can do through the faith of one man or the faith of one man and one woman in this case. From the fruit of Sara's faith was born innumerable numbers of descendants. What a encouraging word for us today. If God could bring about His purpose through two peoples faith why can't he use you. This verse also brings up the physical limitaions of Abraham - he was as good as dead in his ability to produce children. We are all dead and limited in our ability to produce the purposes and fruit of God in our lives. This is whats so wonderful about Faith and the power of God. With man its impossible but with God everything is possible. Rms 4: 17-25, Paul tells the story of Abraham and Sara's faith for the sole purpose of teaching the Romans about imputed righteousness. Through one man's faith and obedience, the way to righteouness or right standing with God was given. Jesus is this one man that lived and gave His life by faith and through His act of faith all men are given the way to become righteouness. Through this one act of obedience many children have been and are still being birthed into the Kingdom of God. It would be safe to say that the numbers of children that are and will be birthed into the Kindom will be as many as the stars in the sky and the sand is on the sea shore. Righteousness is the child that is born through our faith in the way to righteousness as given by what Jesus did at the cross. The fruits of being righteous before God is innumerable but it can be clearly seen by you and by others. We can literally see the result of Sara and Abraham's faith as we look at physical Israel and also at the church of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the seed of Abraham that would be the blessing to all nations and that through Him would come the innumerable desendents. Remember the verse from yesterday talked of Sara receiving strength to conceive through her faith. Well that same strength or power is the same power that we receive through the person of the Holy Spirit. He produces righteouness in our lives. Remember faith can be seen and touched, it is tangible or evident. Many say that they believe in Jesus but the evidence or fruit of this is not being born or produced in their lives. Don't loose hope today. Repent which means to change the way you think and put your faith in Jesus. Start living by faith in who He is and what He has done for you on the cross. Remember just like Abraham you are past dead in your ability to produce the fruit of God in your life. But also Just like Abraham God will do a miracle in your life just like He did in his.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Looking At Faith

"By faith Sara herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised" Heb 11:11

I had a thought yesterday that people of faith do extraordinary things. It should be noted that the faith that I write about is the faith that has it's object as God and His Word as given to man in the Bible. In this verse Sara gives us a glimpse of what can happen through proper placed faith. Through her faith, Sara received strength to conceive a seed. Strength here is the Greek word Dynamis, the word we get the English word Dynamite from. It is the power given by the Holy Spirit that produces miracles. Notice that faith produced power to conceive a seed that gave birth to a child. Giving birth to a child was Sara's desire but she was limited by her age and her physical circumstance. Sara judged or considered in her mind that what God had promised her would come to pass because God is faithful. This is called repentance. Repentance is changing the way we think. Repentance and faith Faith depends, trusts and looks to God's promises which are found in His word and the faithfulness of God to do what He said He would do. God produced the miracle through the power of His Spirit but Sara's repentance and faith was the foundation and catalyst by which the miracle came. One of the greatest promises that God has given man is that He would save His people from their sin. Our Sin seperates us from a God and the penalty for sin is eternal judgement or hell. God in His love has provided a payment for our sin and it was the death of His son. His death and eventual resurrection is the means by which we are forgiven for our sin and by which we are delievered from the power of sin in our lives. The sin nature controls every mans life. It is the thing that enslaves us and controls us to disobey and sin against God. When we place our faith in what Jesus did at the cross we will receive the same power that Sara received to conceive and give birth to a child. This is a miracle of the same magnitude as what Sara experienced. There is a birth here also, it is the birth of a new creation or creature. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things pass away behold all things become new. God has given you the same promises he gave Sara and he has given to all men. Have you considered them. Let Gods word change the way you think and then put your faith in What God has said he will do. Its the only way to live!!!!!!