Overlooked

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Overlooked
 
6 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:12

It has become common to preach and advocate the second part of this verse while ignoring or overlooking the first. We need to be honest with each other and the world. The first part of this verse has not been invalidated or eradicated. "For the wages of sin is death" this is still the promise for the unforgiven. It will be their reality at the return of Christ. Both parts of this verse will be realized in the future. We need to be aware that this is a reality for those who sin. Life with Christ will be a reality for those who receive God's gift. They are both concrete future realities. Let us not gloss over or misrepresent the reality that the separation from God will be a hideous existence. Let us not perpetuate the ideology that death is the cessation of life. Death is the complete separation of the living from God. We are not going to cease to live. We are going to cease to live with God which is death. Or we can accept "but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."  As wonderful as the expectation of living with God is we must also be aware and conscious of the utter sorrowfulness of living totally without God will be.

Leia Mais…

Repent Revival

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Repent Revival

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Mathew 4:17

I have repented. Yes, I'm still working on it. I am still in the process of receiving all that is associated with repentance. This commandment of Christ still haunts me. It rattles me to my core because it is still a valid call. There are those around me that have not repented. I am not talking about those in Hollywood or in politics or business. Nor any other category of people, I am talking about my brother, sisters, nieces, nephews in short my family. There is an entire world living all around me that have not repented that have not accepted Christ. I pray for revival in this country, state, and city. I need to start praying for revival in my family.  Is it possible that we have not seen a great revival in this country because we are praying for someone else? The next great revival needs to begin at home. The great field of harvest is not in some far away city or country. It is within our homes. With the people, we break bread with. With those that will no longer listen to our message. If they won't listen how can we reach them? We need to pray for them. We need to stand in the gap for them. What that means is we need to chase after God on their behave. We need to cry out to God for their salvation. We need to get into the battle for their souls. They may not listen to us, but God has the resources to reach them He has the means to touch their hearts. 

Have we given up on our families? Have we written them off as unreachable, unworthy, hopeless unforgivable? Have we become blase about their eternal destination. Have we accepted them as a lost cause? Have we turned them over to eternal death? If we are to see revival it needs to start at home. If we have written off our families do you really think we will care about the lost of the world? This is a call to action to pray for your family to begin a revival in your home.

Leia Mais…

Eternal Life

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Eternal Life

⁷ then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Genesis 2:7

The writer of Genesis almost casually inserts this statement about the creation of man.  So much so that in my over 30 years as  Christian I have never heard a sermon or read an article on this verse.  In the story of creation, nothing else is formed by God, nothing. Everything is spoken into existence by the sheer power of God. God forms man from the dust of the ground. He forms mans as it were with His own hands. He actually stopped everything to pay singular attention to Adam. In the rest of the story, we see God commanding the created world into existence by His will, by forces we do not know of or understand. But not here, here, He is the one doing the action He is not commanding He is personally creating. Nowhere else does the Bible suggest such an intimate interaction between God and His creation. Humanity was formed and continues to be formed by God.

Now when He is done forming man from the dust of the earth what is left? A lifeless perfectly formed human. A being that is without blemish, sickness either present or genetically inclined or any dormant disease in his DNA.  He is a perfectly formed human being in every way. But He is not alive. In my mind, I see humanity is laying on the dust of the ground from which He was created perfect but lifeless. 

What God does next is what separates humanity from the rest of creation.  God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." It is not just air that is forced into the lungs of man that brought humanity to life. God breathes the breath of life into man. What is the breath of life? It is the essence of existence that has aways existed, it is the life of God. God infused His life into man to bring him to life. Humanity is eternal because the life of man is the eternity of  God. God who is eternal and cannot die has shared with us a part of His existence, and since He is eternal, all that is of Him must by association be eternal which makes us eternal.  Righteous or unrighteous we will live throughout eternity. 

The only question is will you spend eternity with God, or will you spend eternity permanently separated from God? 

Leia Mais…

Welling Up

Something to think about.

Welling Up

John 4:14, NIV: "but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'"

 The word I am focusing on is "welling"  synonyms:  flow, spill, stream, run, rush, gush, roll, cascade, flood, spout.

Jesus is not speaking about real thirst which can be quenched with H2O. He is referring to the thirst of the spirit, the quest of the soul to find meaning in life. He is saying if you accept the words I give you, you will find the answer to the quest of the soul. And once you find it, it will grow into and effervescent flow that will sustain you into eternal life.  

As you look at the synonyms of welling, you can see he did not simply mean sustenance he meant an overabundance of supply. So much so that, that the word of life He gives you will cascade out of you. The word of God in you cannot be capped or contained.

Leia Mais…

Glory and Honor

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Glory and Honor

“"Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."” Revelation 4:11 ESV

Glorify, honor, recognize and acknowledge God for what He has already done. What has He done? He created you He gave you life. The purpose of His creating you was and is so He can love you. By His will, everything in creation was created. He is worthy of glory, and honor and power just because He has always existed.  

Leia Mais…

Eternal Life?

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Eternal Life?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Have you stopped and pondered this first? This verse is the reason I became a Christian. Eternal Life that is what we are promised have you ever thought about eternal life? I definitely would not like to live eternally under the rules of the world's societies. I would not like to live, and eternal lie where the most I can hope for is more of the same. I don't want to live forever having to fight the never ending battles of this life. I don't have it within me to struggle for that long I would prefer to die and cease the struggle. However, I look forward to the eternal life God has planned for me. A life lived in His perfect peace, His joy, and His provision. I want to live forever but only if I live with God.

Leia Mais…

The Chosen

The Chosen

As a Christian and in the interest of civility I have restrained myself from commenting publicly about the upcoming election, but I cannot any longer. I am writing to Christians, because the secular world will not comprehend what I am writing about.  The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)

“Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”( Genesis 2:7) I don't know how many of you appreciate the significance of this verse. God formed man from the dust of the earth. Man is not alive after he is formed. He is laying, I suppose on the ground in a lifeless body. Do you realize every other creature on the earth was spoken into existence, but not man! God breathed the breath of life into man. The essence of man's existence is not his wonderfully made body. The spark that began life was the very spirit of God that He “God” breathed into man. God did not speak man into existence. He formed him with His own hands and breathed His life into man.

There was, and I suppose there still is, within some circles an argument about when life begins. God answered that question in Genesis 2:7. Life began when God breathed life into Adam. The practical means by which life is propagated on this earth is the blessing God has allowed us to experience through the birth of a child. But make no mistake; life began when God breathed into the lifeless, perfectly designed body of Adam. The amazing reality of this breath of life is, it never dies. The breath of God that he breathed into Adam is part of the essence of God and therefore will never cease to exist. Humanity does not continue to exist because of sexual copulation. Humanity continues to exist because the spirit that was breathed into Adam is the eternal spirit of God. All of humanity exists because of the living breath of God, the Spirit of God sustains humanity.

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  John 1:1-3 John says all things were created through Him and without Him nothing can exist. That unborn child is not something that can be created without Christ.

What does God say about the beginning of life?

5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb.

    Before you were born I set you apart

    and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 1:5 (NLT)

The only way God could have selected Jeremiah before he was born was if He already knew everyone else. You cannot make a selection without having others to select from.  And, if He knows everyone before they are born, it must be He knew us before we were born. 

 David says:

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

Psalm 139:14 (NIV)

    

David is talking about How God made Him. He is not just talking about himself because we are all made the same way we are all “fearfully and wonderfully made.”

Look at what Job says:   

                            

The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4

Job understands that the breath of life that was breathed into Adam now gives him life. Job was not brought into existence directly from God as Adam was.

Jeremiah, speaking on God's behalf said: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;“I Appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV)

God is no respecter of persons. If He formed Jeremiah in the womb and He knew him before he was born, God knows every unborn child, and God has chosen each one of them to receive the same breath and spirit He gave Adam.

    The standard, the call of defiance is women have a right to chose. That is a lie! God chooses that woman to have that child. Regardless of the condition, socioeconomic, poor, or rich and everything in between God has chosen to give that child His breath of life. No one, no woman or man, has the right, authority or moral superiority to tell God He made the wrong choice.

The choice of life was made by God long before the creation of the world. He knew, and He knows the condition of all humanity, and he has predetermined, pre-chosen to give life to every unborn child in the world.

Who are you Hillary Clinton to decide that the creator of the world was wrong and to condemn His chosen ones to death? Who will we be if we chose to side with her? Will we stand with her in defiance of the choice of God? If we do so, we are openly sacrificing our children on the altar of self. We are no better than those who in the past sacrificed their children to wood and metal gods. The one and only God has been replaced by the god of self. We have determined that we have the right to exterminate life on the basis of our own selfish desire.

If you are a Christian and believe in the biblical narrative, how do you justify the unrelenting genocide we are committing against the unborn. Consider this for a moment. What happens to the spirit of the unborn child? That same eternal spirit that is in you exists in that unborn child. The breath, yea, the Spirit of God that gives life has been discarded as a piece of trash by an ideology of selfishness.

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, (Hebrews 9:27 ESV) Christians, we will all stand before God on the day of judgment. What will you say when God asks you what did you do when America was killing my children? I voted for Hillary!!! Will that be your answer? This election is not about economics. It is not about an ignorant buffoon. It is not about foreign policy. It is not about free education. All of these issues will continue to be debated and addressed throughout the existence of the United States. This election is about the continued sanctioned murder of the unborn.

You might try to say I never supported abortion but I can not stomach Trump and all he stands for. All he stands for can be fixed. The dead unborn child can't be fixed. Don't be a fool! Do not be misguided! God will not allow us to prosper if we as a nation continue to defy Him. The continued unjustified assault on His life will not go unpunished. We will reap the rewards of spiritual adultery. God will judge us not only on judgment day, but also today. We are powerless to prevent His judgment against this nation and on us as individuals. 

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14 KJV)

God is talking to you, not to the rest of the world. He is talking to all who believe they are His people. This is our responsibility.

               

               

Leia Mais…

The Life to Come

Something to think about.

The Life to Come

1 A good name is better than precious ointment, And the day of death than the day of one’s birth; Ecclesiastes 7:1

The day of my death will be the best day of my life, for only then will I meet my saviour face to face.

Leia Mais…

From Death to Life

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From Death to Life

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. John 5:24

Have you heard Him? Do you believe Him? Do you have eternal Life?

Leia Mais…

Wages

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Wages

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (ESV)

We have earned death because we have sinned, we have been offered eternal life in Christ. Why do so many of us choose death over the glorious life Christ offers?

Leia Mais…

A Prayer of Blessing

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A Prayer of Blessing

24“ ‘ “The Lord bless you
and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.” ’ Numbers 6:26

Pray this over your, wife, husband, brother, sister over anyone you love. Pray this for your enemies, competitors, adversaries and opponents. Because when God blesses, everyone concerned is blessed.

Leia Mais…

The Father's Love

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The Father's Love

27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. John 16:26-27 (NIV)

God loves us because we recognize and  love His son.

Leia Mais…

Believe, Salvation, Life

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Believe, Salvation, Life

15 And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:15-16

Jesus put it very plainly, simply, believe in me and be saved. The gospel (good news) is Jesus.

Leia Mais…