Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Invest in souls

 


Invest in Souls

Remember when Jesus called the disciples, being fishermen, they left their father, they left their nets, they left their boat, and those disciples knew that if Jesus was truly the Messiah, then people would forsake everything that they had and they would leave it behind to follow Him.  They knew that Jesus was worth deserting the world for.  What a better day than today to surrender everything that we have to Jesus Christ.  What can we possibly give in exchange for our soul, in the end we are doing to die and if we haven’t lived a life worthy of the calling that our Father in heaven has called us to, we won’t be able to bring anything into everlasting life we will just being what we have to the grave.  People wonder where to invest their money, what to do with their life, what to do with their money.  Jesus called those fishermen to fish for men.  He didn’t say; “Go continue to fish, become great merchants, build bigger barns to house all your stuff, become a big company and supply the needs for your family for future generations…”  Jesus said; “Seek FIRST the Kingdom of GOD and His righteousness, and everything else will be added unto you…” He calls us to be disciples who will be fishers of men, who will invest in human souls.  What a better thing to invest in.  There is no greater thing then investing in human lives, to seek FIRST the Kingdom of GOD.  Jesus does not care about our stuff, He cares about US, He cares about our hearts.  IF we seek first His kingdom, we will love the Lord our God with all of our heat, soul, mind and strength, and we will love our neighbor as ourself.  So, what does that look like?   What does that practically look like to invest in humans, to fish for men?  Well, it first starts of with being free of the leaven of the Pharisees, which these days is being separate from the leaven of the culture of “church”.  A lot of Christians think ministry happens in church and so the first thing they do when they want to get their life right with God is they get into a church, they get plugged in, but the problem is, because the churches are NOT seeking first the Kingdom of God in righteousness, but living in sin themselves, they then cause others to fall to hypocrisy and to sin.  So, where do we go?  The true church is led by the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!  That is Jesus Christ.  We go to Him in spirit and in truth and we say LORD, purify us from all unrighteousness, lead me out of sin, lead me out of idolatry, lead me out of the world…. And then when He starts to purify you and dross you and make you a new person, a new heart and a new soul, THEN what spills out of your life is righteousness!  And you go out with your new tongue, singing the song of the Redeemed and people all around you see that you are a changed man or a changed woman.  THAT is the moment that you start to fish for men and you start to make disciples.  NOT because you started a Christian church or a Christian ministry or because you thought up some ministry, but because the HOLY SPIRIT is now residing IN YOU.  No longer is it YOUR ministry, YOUR personality, YOUR agenda, BUT the HOLY SPIRIT is filling you, and the over-poring, or the out-spilling of the Holy Spirit from your life is what encourages other to repent and to seek the LORD!  THIS is where we have to be if we want to be affective, affectively bearing GOOD FRUIT.  Those who bear good fruit the vinedresser prunes, God prunes us so we can bear more fruit, and those who are not bearing ANY good fruit, who are a bad tree, THEY ARE CUT DOWN, those branches are cut off, they are chopped up and they are thrown into the FIRE.  What is the fire?  The fire is HELL.  Many people are not bearing good fruit, they reject the Holy Spirit, they reject God for living their own life or for a bit of religion.  We need to make sure that we are living free from hypocrisy.  That is the FIRST STEP.  Are you free from hypocrisy?  Are you living HOLY?  Because without righteousness and holiness you are not going to see God, you are not going to bear good fruit and you are not going to be part of His Kingdom.  Make sure that you are living without hypocrisy, without the hypocrisy of the Christian culture.  THEN you can start to invest in human souls, you can encourage others in the way of the TRUTH.  Remember that Jesus says; “Whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.”  Many of us have not forsaken all to follow Jesus.  We are living for ourselves, are we living for a retirement plan, we are living to make life better for our family, which seems good, BUT Jesus did not call us to just seek after all the things of the world, but to seek FIRST His Kingdom!  So, we need to get real with ourselves and ask ourselves, are we really denying ourselves, are we taking up our cross daily, are we bearing our cross?  Have we left everything like those disciples did on that day that Jesus called them because we know that Jesus is worth it?  Remember that those disciples forsook ALL to follow Jesus knowing that He was the Good Teacher and they did that without turning back.  Every single day they were fishing for MEN.  They were not just fishing for money, they weren’t fishing for women, they weren’t fishing to look good in the economy or in the world, they were fishing for SOULS that people could be saved, that they may put their faith in JESUS and be the sons and daughters of the Kingdom of GOD!  Check your own life and see if you are really bearing good fruit.  Is Jesus pleased with you?  Does He know you as His son or as His daughter and are you doing His work, bearing GOOD FRUIT for the Kingdom of GOD?  Are you investing in the lives of your fellow brothers and sisters?  May the grace of Jesus be with you.  

Sunday, March 21, 2021

The Covid-19 Vaccination

 



The Covid-19 Vaccination

Give GOD glory today because HE is still speaking to us, Jesus Christ is ALIVE and He is leading His children.  Yesterday my wife and I were talking about the vaccine, covid-19 and how some people are excited to get their shot, to get vaccinated.  My wife mentioned or said something about how, maybe those people will get sick or should we should be scared for them, and I said they will probably be fine, physically probably nothing will happen, everything will go on as normal.  To the eye for most people nothing will seem to change, but what immediately came to my mind from the Holy spirit was the story about Adam and Even.  Remember how God told Adam and eve that they could eat from every tree from the garden except the one in the middle which was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were not supposed to eat from that tree.  And God specifically told them that in the day that they ate from that tree, that they would surely die.  Now we know the story, Adam and Eve were deceived by the serpent, the devil, they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and satan told them that they would not surely die, but that they would gain knowledge and wisdom, and Adam and Eve ended up eating it and as we know it sure looks like they did not die, physically on that day, but they lived beyond that point because of course they had children, and here we are today.  The serpent is a liar, and he gets people to look at the physicality, he gets people to look at the world and to reject the Spirit of GOD.  Men in our carnal mind cannot understand the Spirit of God, we cannot understand what He is saying.  But the truth is, on the day that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they died, AND THEY WERE DEAD IN THEIR SINS.  And each of us are dead in our sins when we reject the WORDS OF LIVE, when we reject the HOLY SPIRIT.  On that day that they rejected God THEY WERE CURSED BY GOD.  Remember that God cursed the serpent to eat dust all the days of it’s life, to be more cursed than every single beast of the field, to this day that is still true.  To this day, woman are still cursed when they have children they bring forth children in PAIN.  Bringing forth a child for a woman is the line between life and death… MAN is still cursed, Adam was cursed, the ground was cursed, God said that you will toil and that all the day of your life you will have that sweat on your brow as you eat your food and that the ground will bring forth thorns and thistles, burs.  And to this day LOOK AT THE GROUND!  Every farmer knows about pesticides because of this problem.  To this day the curse of God, that God has cursed humanity with is still here, and that is because Adam and Eve rejected the words of God for the words of satan the serpent.  How great God’s curse is upon the wicked who disobey! But how wonderful His blessing is upon those who REPENT and put their faith in JESUS CHRIST.  We need to make sure that these days, during Covid-19 and these vaccinations that our faith and our hope and our trust is completely in the LORD, not in the vaccine, not in the healthcare not in the economy, not in men of this world, but that our faith truly is in JESUS Christ.  And what I see as a man of God who is following the LORD is men and women who are putting their faith in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the are eating from it, and then they are saying; “See, we are not dead, we are alive, the devil told the truth…”  And because they listen to the father of LIES they look at everything in the world, they look through their carnal eyes, and they call GOD a liar, and they set up satan and their image as god.  Most Christians have done this, that is the appalling thing,  most Christians are tying to make unity with satan, saying that THAT is god, that is the body of Christ, they are setting up an image, and they are worshiping it, they are bowing down to it, they are making an image to the beast.  That’s what they are doing, that’s what is prophesied would happen and that’s literally what is happening.  What a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of an angry God, of a GOD who is going to CURSE YOU!  Don’t think that it won’t happen to you, it happened to Adam and Even and God’s words are STILL happening today.  We want to make sure that we are in His blessing.  Don’t think that you can reject God and in that day NOT DIE.  Adam and Eve may have lived to have children, but in the day that they sinned THEY WERE DEAD IN THEIR SINS.  And we ALL are dead in our sins and on our way to hell and death and destruction, to damnation, IF WE DO NOT REPENT AND GET IT RIGHT.  Most people are perishing, they are on their way to hell.  They have no hope, they are committing suicide… and a lot of these people are Christians that think that if they just get the vaccine, that they are doing something good for themselves and their family.  I fear for you, I fear for those who are getting the vaccine BECAUSE I FEAR GOD.  God is going to CURSE THIS WORLD.  He’s going to curse YOU if you reject Him.  WHO are you setting up as your God and who are you following?  Are you following Jesus Christ?  Are you a spiritual man who is spiritually discerning what the LORD is saying?  Or are you like your earthy faither Adam, your earthy mother Eve, who rejected the words of God and who were cursed by God?  Will you receive God’s blessing, or by default will you receive His curse? 

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

The gospel is not for personal gain



The Gospel is Not for Personal Gain

It’s a blessing to be alive and it’s a blessing be working for Jesus, to be called out of the world, to be called to the HOLY LIFE.  I was thinking about how EVERYTHING in this life fails.  Everything except the words of Jesus.  When we are old and time has passed, are we going to care about what we were doing today?  A lot of the things that we chase after are things that are not going to matter even in a year, yet we think that they are SO IMPORTANT.  There ARE things that we have to get done in our lives, there are mundane things that we do have to accomplish, our daily chores, going to work…. Whatever it is we need to do those things with a right heart, but as the children of the LORD we don’t chase after worldly things.  The LORD continues to humble me as a man of God, who will not be someone who is going to chase after things of the world.  In my FLESH I want to chase after things of the world like anyone else, like you or anybody.  But I KNOW I HAVE TO BEAR GOOD FRUIT; I KNOW I NEED TO BE HUMBLE BEFORE THE LORD and He needs to become MORE and I need to become less.  I bring this message to you today in humility, to encourage you as a brother or sister in the LORD, to bear good fruit for the Kingdom of God.  None of us know how much longer we have.  The government is being shaken, personal lives are being shaken.  We don’t know what is happening in the world with the pandemic, if it is getting better or worse, or as soon as things clear up if there will be another wave of disaster.  GOD KNOWS.  But we have to constantly go to Jesus Christ for our provision, seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.  And what will matter in 100 years from now, or 50 years or however many years into the future, it will ONLY BE WHAT WE DID WITH THE WORDS OF JESUS.  It will not matter if we pursued a certain job position to make more money at the workplace, we won’t care about that.  We won’t be caring about what kind of car we were going to drive, or the raise we got at work, but we will care about what we did with the WORDS OF JESUS!  Did we stand up for Jesus Christ?  Did we live according to our conscience?  Did we harken to the words of the Holy Spirit, those are the things that are going to matter.  And if we harken to THOSE words, we will bear good fruit.  The Holy Spirit will prune us.  The things that are in our life that are not important, that are not bearing good fruit, He will cut OUT of our life.  It will become meaningless to us because it is meaningless in the Kingdom of God.  And then we will bear good fruit for the Kingdom of Heaven, calling people to really repent, calling people to live righteously.

  THE GOSPEL IS NOT FOR PERSONAL GAIN.  (Freely you have received freely give) This is something that the Holy Spirit put on my conscience in the morning, actually in the night as I was waking up.  And to me it meant something personally.  The things that the Lord has blessed me with I need to make sure that I am using those things for the glory of GOD, not for myself.  But generally speaking, the truth that Jesus has given to us, whatever spiritual gifts He has given, is NOT for our own personal gain.  And a lot of us are trying to run with the talents, the gifts, the blessings that GOD has given us, and we are trying to use them for our OWN pleasures.  But I’m here to warn you and to sound that warning, that whatever gifts we have been given, whether it is in this physical realm… we have been given physical and spiritual legs, spiritual arms, we have been given health… all those things ultimately are spiritual (meaning both sorts of giftings, physical and spiritual are both gifts from GOD) And they have been given to us by GOD to glorify His Kingdom, to give HIM glory.  Whether it be a spiritual gift, you know having faith to pray, having the spiritual gift of healing, or faith to cast out demons… Whatever the spiritual gifting you have been given we need to use those things FOR THE GLORY OF GOD, and truly bear good fruit for HIM.  

There are some people, pastors and Christians that, they may not say this out-loud, but they are using the giftings that they have been given to glorify themselves.  They want to look good before their friends, they want to become popular, they want their family to respect them, and ultimately they are caring about the FEELINGS, the FLESH, what PEOPLE THINK.  And as the Children of God, as brothers and sisters, WE NEED TO CARE ABOUT WHAT GOD THINKS OF US.  And we need to make sure that the things that we have been freely given, THAT WE ARE FREELY GIVING, that we are freely preaching the gospel, not asking for things in return, that we are giving to the Kingdom of GOD out of the goodness of our heart, not out of selfish ambitions, not expecting things in return. 

 It goes back to our heart attitude, how we are serving Jesus Christ.  Are we really His Church, serving Him in humility, really wanting to encourage other brothers and siters in the Lord to reconcile?  Do we want that ministry of reconciliation, that people will be SAVED and come into the faith?  Or are we looking for personal gain?  Let us check our hearts today and make sure that we are really seeking FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and humility and that we are not preaching the gospel or doing anything for our own personal gain.  May the grace of Jesus be with you.  

Love and Truth not pride and empty faith

 



Love and Truth NOT Pride and Empty Faith

Praise Jesus brothers and sisters.  There is a few words that I wanted to share today of encouragement and righteousness to point brothers and sisters of the LORD in the right direction.  First is we always have to remember what our goal and mission is; Remember the greatest commandment, and that is to love the LORD our God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of mind, and all of our strength, and the second is like it, to love our neighbor as ourselves.  What does that mean?  Does that mean that we go out preaching in a way to belittle others, or we want to just sock the truth to others?  Does that mean that we refrain from loving people because we know that they are different and they believe differently than we do and they have different doctrines than we do?  A lot of Christians do NOT have the love of God in them, they have PRIDE and they hide a lot of their pride behind what they pose as “FAITH”.  But as true children of God we need to make sure that we are actually keeping the commandments of Jesus Christ, which is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our brother as ourselves.  How can we do that without being judgmental, hateful, prideful… because these are the things that make us fall into the world, and satan loves it when Christians become prideful and divisive, holding things from one another, wanting to gossip and slander others, being easily angered, easily frustrated, walking over others, becoming bitter, angry, holding things inside, instead of confessing, just holding it up and holding in the bitterness.  These are the things that satan loves.  But how do we refrain from that?  How do we PUSH OUT satan?  Well, we have to remember the greatest commandment which is LOVE.  Loving GOD with ALL OUR HEART, and our neighbor as ourselves.  If we do this, we will be in right standing with God.  We have to remember to love others. That doesn’t meant that we just accept all religions as the truth, or that we go out and say; “I love homosexuals and they’re in the truth also, they just have a different lifestyle…”  It’s not about justifying SINS, BUT IT IS ABOUT THE LOVE OF JESUS, and JESUS CALLED SINNERS TO REPENT OUT OF LOVE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS!  Jesus showed us how to keep the greatest commandment of all, and that is also what we have to do as humble brothers and sisters in the LORD.  We need to make sure that we are keeping the greatest commandment, and as part of HIS true church, that we are not hiding behind our faith, saying; “It’s faith”, when in reality it is PRIDE, it’s ANGER, it’s bitterness, it’s wanting to just put others down for making ourselves look good.  We need to check our OWN hearts daily and make sure that we put on humility, that we put on righteousness.  That we are not thinking ourselves as better than others.  Not trying to prove that we are something when we are nothing.  In Jesus, we are humble servants and we need to take His discipline well.  So, for any brothers and siters in the Lord who are hearing this message, I encourage you to keep the greatest commandment, which is to love the Lord your God with ALL YOUR HEART. 

              Secondly is this idea about “doctrines”;  A lot of Christians think that following God is all about doctrines, all about being biblical.  And that is why, when they first start a church, they think that they have to write out all of their beliefs, and they think that as long as they get people into their church that believe LIKE THEM that they will get people saved, they will get people evangelized, that they will get people doing mission trips and they will MAKE people holy.  We CANNOT make any disciples of Jesus if we ourselves are not in the LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST.  And we cannot teach people correct doctrine if we ourselves are not really in the truth FAITH.  It is better to have the LOVE OF JESUS IN YOU and to have FALSE DOCTRINE, THAT IN HUMILITY JESUS WILL CORRECT, than thinking you have ALL the correct doctrine, you know, believing all the correct things about God, all the correct things about church and about the bible… being in the KNOW about these things, BUT NOT HAVING TRUE LOVE.   What is more important is that hour HEART IS RIGHT BEFORE JESUS CHRIST, and that we allow Him to correct us and to mold us and to discipline us in the truth.  It is about WORDS and DEEDS, ACTIONS AND TRUTH, not about just doctrines and believes, you know; “I BELIEVE correctly, I was born as a Christian so I KNOW I am going to heaven…”  It’s not about that. 

Jesus can work with our funny ideas, because all of us have silly ideas about afterlife or about who God is, but those things will be corrected in time IF WE ARE HUMBLE TO BE TAUGHT BY THE GOOD TEACHER.  Those things are really irrelevant, but what IS important is to keep humility on, righteousness on, and THEN Jesus will correct all those things in us that are doctrinally not sound, that are not even true, He will correct those things, but we need to make sure that our hearts are ready to be molded by GOD and not by men.

              The 3rd thing is… (this is something the LORD has been showing me lately), TO NOT MISTAKE GOD’S MERCY FOR HIS APPROVAL.  And what I mean by that is, when we go through our life with Jesus, a lot of times we make certain mistakes, and because Jesus had mercy on us, and we didn’t fall into sin or we didn’t fall into big trouble, we think; “We’re okay, God had His approval on my life.”  And maybe we were doing something that was actually very harmful to others, very harmful to ourselves, and because God had mercy on us and He didn’t allow us to fall back into the world or do die, then we start to mistake God’s mercy for His approval, and just because God has mercy on you or someone in your family or someone else, doesn’t mean that He approves of our lives. (Some will say, “My dad did it and he turned out okay.”)  And if we know that, if we know that we were doing something sketchy, something that really wasn’t within the will of God, and we got away with it in our own mind thinking; “We got away with it and God blessed it…”  Really inside of us we know something is wrong and we need to CORRECT IT, we need to apologize for things that we have done that were wrong before God and others, and make sure that we correct those things that are not right before God.  We need to correct our mistakes. 

              I want to encourage you as brothers and siters in the Lord to stay humble.  Don’t think that following God is just about correct doctrine, getting in a good bible study, knowing the bible more, searching up more things on the internet… it’s not about sensations, it’s not about just knowing things about God, knowing the bible, getting in a good Christian gathering, a good Christian circle, IT’S ABOUT HUMILITY, LOVE, RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE, HONORING GOD WITH OUR LIFE.  And if we have THOSE characteristics because we are seeking FIRST the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, THEN He can work with us.  But God turns His eye away from those that are prideful and arrogant, who think that they are self-entitled do everlasting life.  Most Christians are FULL OF PRIDE, they are full of arrogance, they are full of themselves.  They could care less about the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and serving others.  Are we truly humble servants before the LORD?  Are we where we are supposed to be, not thinking much of ourselves, saying; “I want Jesus to become MORE, and I want myself to become less.”?  Is that where we are today as brothers and sisters?  May the grace of Jesus be with you.