Monthly Archives: February 2012

Sin comes like a thief

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Sin comes like a thief

A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.

Galatians 5:9

Sin works just like yeast-a little of it will spread through your whole life. A little false doctrine can compromise a whole church, just like a little bit of alcohol can compromise your ability to think and function.

The truth is that sin doesn’t announce its plan to destroy you or your life. It comes in like a thief…subtly waiting for the perfect opportunity to cause the most damage-like during times of stress and strain.

If you get the leaven out beforehand, sin cannot cause harm-it cannot destroy. How can you get the leaven out?

By making a diligent search for it! Where should we search? In the pews…the pulpit…and in our homes. Who should make the search? The deacons…the elders…the preachers…and you!

As you turn over every item, as you look in every crack and crevice, whatever is not of God or in alignment with His Word should be thrown out.

It is time to get the leaven out. Sin is not a pet…it is not cute…it cannot be managed…it cannot be counseled…it cannot be reasoned with. The only solution is to eliminate it through faith in Jesus.

Further Reading

•1 Corinthians 5:6

•2 Corinthians 6:14

•1 Corinthians 5:9

God Bless

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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled

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Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled

Matthew 5:6, “Blessed [are] they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”

MATTHEW 5:1-9

In the natural world, people eat even when they aren’t hungry. Many of us can prove that by turning sideways and looking at ourselves in the mirror. But in the spiritual realm, only those who are hungry can get fed. One of the worst things that can happen to us is spiritual complacency.

Being hungry for the things of God is one of the best things that can happen to us. Most people don’t feel that way. They would rather have the feeling of being full. But Jesus promised us that fullness would follow hunger. No hunger, no fullness.

Therefore, what many people hate is actually a sign of spiritual health. Longing for more of God is a healthy sign. No one hungers for God on their own. That is not the nature of man. No man hungers for God unless the Spirit of God is drawing him (Jn. 6:44).

Hungering for God doesn’t cause God to move in our lives, but it is a sign that God is already at work in us. We should praise God for spiritual hunger and be encouraged. He doesn’t make us hungry and then let us starve. He does so in order to fill us with His blessings and love. We need a hunger that will never be satisfied until the marriage supper of the Lamb.

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They’re ordinary people Who love God from the heart

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They’re ordinary people Who love God from the heart

Steve was just an ordinary guy. He quietly served in a church I attended years ago. He helped prepare communion, shoveled the church sidewalks in the winter, and mowed the lawn in the summer. He spent time with teenage boys who had no fathers in the home. I often heard him telling people at church in his quiet way how good the Lord was to him. During prayer meeting he didn’t talk much about himself but would ask us to pray for those he was telling about Jesus’ forgiveness and love.

A verse in John 10 about John the Baptist makes me think of Steve. People said of him: “John performed no sign, but all the things that John spoke about this Man [Jesus] were true” (v.41). John didn’t perform miracles as Jesus did. He didn’t talk about himself but came to “bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe” (1:7). He said of Jesus, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29). My friend Steve bore witness of that Light as well.

Our aim, as followers of Jesus, is to do the same—to “bear witness of the Light.” We’re just ordinary people, serving God in our little corner of the world. With our quiet deeds and words, let’s point others to the Light! —Anne Cetas

Just what do Christians look like?

What sets their lives apart?

They’re ordinary people

Who love God from the heart. —D. De Haan

Christians are ordinary people who are committed to the extraordinary person of Christ.

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Jesus saves

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Jesus H. ChristJesus saves!

John 3:17 says: “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Here we see the entirety of the purpose of everything that Jesus did. What did He do? He came to save. He did not come to condemn, and He did not come to sentence anyone. Not then, and not now. He does not come to enforce a sentence upon us or to heap upon us the reward of a wrong that has been done away with. Jesus comes for our greater purpose, the purpose of God. He comes to save. Everything Jesus does has to do with salvation – even a rebuke, even an instruction, even the cleansing of the temple. All of these things have to do with salvation. We will look in the coming days at what Jesus did, and all of the things that are related to the salvation He gave to the world and to us.

Jesus saves!

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Empowered by the Holy Spirit

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Empowered by the Holy Spirit

“Do not be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

(Ephesians 5:18)

Do you ever feel like the Christian life doesn’t work for you? Do you feel it’s just too hard? If you answered “Yes,” read on.

D. L. Moody was talking with a friend one day about this very problem. Placing an empty drinking glass on the table before his friend, he said, “Tell me, how can we get the air out of this glass?”

His friend immediately replied, “You could remove it with a pump.” Moody reminded him that the resulting vacuum would shatter the glass. The friend thought hard before admitting he was stumped. Moody then brought a pitcher and filled the glass with water.

“The air is now removed,” he said. “In the same way, it doesn’t work to try forcing the sin out of our lives; more sin just rushes in to replace it. But being filled with the Holy Spirit does the trick.”

The key to living the Christian life is not the result of trying to act like a Christian. That only leads to frustration. The secret is developing your relationship with God empowered by the Holy Spirit. As God’s Spirit fills us, and as we come to better understand who God really is, our lives are changed—from the inside out. Right behavior is merely the end product.

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I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth

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“I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?  My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. Psalm 121:1-2”

The Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you.  Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day.  On the sixth day they’ll gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”

God meets daily needs daily!

You look at tomorrow’s demands, next week’s bills, next month’s calendar.  Your future looks as barren as the Sinai Desert.  “How can I face my future?” you ask.

God tells you to look up!

Trust Him.  Make it your day changer.  Give your attention to what God is doing right now.  Don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.  Mark 7:37 says, “God has done it all and done it well.”

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Don’t be drawn away by the lust of the flesh.

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Lust

Lust (Photo credit: Leonard John Matthews)

Don’t be drawn away by the lust of the flesh.

Proverbs 6:24-29 “To keep you from the evil woman, From the flattering tongue of a seductress.

25 Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, Nor let her allure you with her eyelids.

26 For by means of a harlot A man is reduced to a crust of bread; And an adulteress will prey upon his precious life.

27 Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?

28 Can one walk on hot coals, And his feet not be seared?

29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;”

It has become the plague of the 21st century and the strategy by the devil to destroy the family. Marriage and the family is ridiculed and scorned on by the world and Children of God need to make a stand against the wave of sexual perversion that has us sweeping the world. The kingdom of God needs men with backbone and moral integrity that will take their place as priests in the home and not be drawn away by the lust of the flesh.

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  • If you allow yourself to be captivated by lust, don’t be surprised when you’re it’s captive. #Jesusfrees. (god-still-speaks.com)

God is more than able to give you what you need and more. He is able to make you rich!

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God is more than able to give you what you need and more. He is able to make you rich!

Follow the Directions

by Pastor Andre Butler

Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and

cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when

thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that

take, and give unto them for me and thee

Mathew 17:27

Look at this example of how God is able to provide with abundance, even

for paying tax. Jesus told Peter to take a hook, throw it in the

water, take the first fish that took the hook, open his mouth, and find

four days wages.

Notice two things. First, God gave this fish specific directions. The

fish had to go down to the bottom of the sea, eat the gold coin, swim

over to the shore, and wait. When the hook came, he had to jump on it.

Secondly, Peter had to be obedient to God’s specific instructions.

When you start worrying about how and what’s going to happen, you take

your focus off God and start looking for the person you think God’s

going to use. Forget the how—just know Who! God is more than able to

give you what you need and more. He is able to make you rich!

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Sons of God

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Sons of God

You received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba,” Father.

Romans 8:15, NIV

What makes you and I  think we can do without a personal prayer life? It’s through prayer that we come into a personal, intimate relationship with our heavenly Father.

Do you long to have a closer relationship with God, but you don’t feel worthy? Are you convinced you are a nobody and therefore would never be accepted, much less welcomed, into His presence?

Praise God! Our entrance into His presence is not based on our own worthiness but on the worthiness of Jesus Christ! When we enter God’s presence in Jesus’ name, we are as accepted by God as Jesus is, because God counts us as His own dear children!

Jesus invites you and I, in His name, to come into His Father’s presence through prayer, crawl up into His lap by faith, put our head on His shoulder of strength, feel His loving arms of protection around us, call Him “Abba” Daddy, and pour out our hearts to Him.

Blessings

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The Wages of Sin. Death!

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1980s (mid) - Eve - tree - pigtails - 0033

1980s (mid) - Eve - tree - pigtails - 0033 (Photo credit: Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos (ClintJCL))

The Wages of Sin

by Bishop Keith A. Butler

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto

the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and

unto dust shalt thou return.

Genesis 3:19

This verse records the actual death sentence that doomed Adam and

Eve-and you and me-to physical death one day. Death, sickness, disease

and lack were never included as parts of God‘s perfect plan for man.

These are the sad by-products of sin, of Adam’s fatal choice to seek

knowledge and identity outside of and separate from God’s plan.

God never intended for a single human being’s body to be put into the

ground. He created us to live eternally-every our physical bodies. As I

understand it, the cells of the human body appear to be designed to

live forever. Scientists have long been puzzled as to why they

gradually run out of energy and die. The answer is in God’s Word in the

Book of Genesis.

It even appears that the animals in Eden never died-or they didn’t

until God had to kill two animals and use their skins to cover the

nakedness of Adam and Eve after they sinned. Those innocent animals

died to provide a covering for Adam and Eve’s shame and nakedness. This

incident marks the first appearance of the blood sacrifice of innocents

as atonement for the guilty, and it drives home the horror of the wages

of sin.

Prayer for Today

Father,

You are the all-powerful, all-wonderful, almighty Savior of the world.

Thank you for redeeming me from the power of sin and death and for

giving me life eternal through your Son. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Think on These Things

* Daniel 12:2

* Ecclesiastes 3:20

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