Did you know that snakes have no sense of hearing? Rather they rely on their ability to sense vibrations, such as an animal walking nearby. The Lord links faith to hearing so it is fitting that the enemy, represented by the serpent, cannot and does not live by faith! When the enemy strikes, he is actually trying to damage our faith. He wants us to be faithless - deaf to God! Stand firm because right on the heels of faithlessness comes discouragement, anxiousness and the leaning toward sin!
The next time your faith is waning, remember who you are in Christ! You are 'born of God ... and the evil one cannot touch you.' 1 John 5:18
Take up the shield of faith so you will be able to defeat all evil attacks (Ephesians 6:16) by trusting His Word!
...[A] true story from the banks of the Ganges River in India.
Hardware is a holy city on the Ganges River, not far from the more famous city of Varanasi (or Benares). Hundreds of thousands of Hindus travel there every year from all over the world to bathe in the river's "holy" waters. Police estimate that 35 million people come to Hardwar's "Kumbh Mela" festival, which takes places for two weeks every 12 years. These millions believe that taking a ritual bath in the Ganges will wash away all their sins.
One day while Brother Varghese, a native missionary, was walking through the packed throngs of people at the water's edge, he saw a young woman crying uncontrollably. She was beating her chest with her fists as she wailed in grief.
With compassion, the native missionary knelt down and asked what was wrong.
"The problems in my home are too many and my sins are heavy on my heart, so I offered the best I have to the goddess Ganges, my firstborn son," she said.
At that, Brother Varghese began telling her about Jesus, about how He loved her and her baby, and that through Him her sins could be forgiven.
"I have never heard that before," she replied through her tears. "Why couldn't you have come 30 minutes earlier? If you had, my child would not have died."
... Right now, nearly 3 billion people are unreached by the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Most live in Asian countries. Many of these nations are closed or greatly restricted to outside missionaries. But God has raised up thousands of native missionaries like Brother Varghese. They are willing to take the Gospel to their own people - in spite of the suffering and persecution that await them. ... While you read this letter, all across Asia there are young women just like that mother, young fathers, children, trying to wash away their sins through pagan rituals. The sad truth is that most of them are dying without ever hearing the precious name of Jesus Christ. ... What if there had been a dozen native missionaries out there on that day when the young mother threw her baby into the river? Or a hundred? Or a thousand? This of the difference their presence could have made!
The real reason Brother Varghese was witnessing alone is that it takes someone like you, who believes in the Great Comission, to send out more native missionaries.
...Even today is not too late for you to begin helping to win thousands of souls for Jesus in some of the most unreached areas of the world. ...
KP Yohannan
"tip of the week-It is so easy to become complacent and fall into sin. Over the last two weeks I reduced my time in the word, my time on my knees, and added more TV time. Last week I skipped the Wednesday prayer meeting, and this week I made an excuse to skip Wednesday night service and the prayer meeting. Then I fell to the flesh. I found my thoughts turning to material things (lust of the eyes), comfort food (lust of the flesh), and I made a few sarcastic remarks for attention (pride of life). I took off the armor of God and left myself vulnerable. Then on Friday I was tempted to skip Team Hope. But God is gracious! He reminded me of how David fell into sin (w/Bathsheba), when he became idle because he wasn't with his troops on the battlefield. I quickly repented & went out with Team Hope in the rain, even though I really didn't want to. God is sooo good! He stopped the rain when we got to Bay Walk & opened the skies again when we were returning. As soldiers in the Lord's army, we must daily put on our armor of God. We are in a battle, we need to stay alert!"
I've come to learn that devotion to the Lord is like having a constant communion with the Lord. Afterall, the Holy Spirit doesn't reside within you just so you can boringly go to work and school or listen to your music or do whatever it is that you used to do before you got saved just as normally... Yes, and the scripture says not just to live in the Spirit, but to Walk in the Spirit, also. That Galatians Chapter 5 doctrine.
I've found that if I'm not lead of the Spirit, I'm being lead astray. If I don't follow under the Shepherd, and I'm not constantly making sure every step is on that narrow, straight path, I'm like a sheep wandering away from His Shepherd. He puts you in the flock of fellowship so you wouldn't be lead astray. For the past 2 1/2 years, I had barely any fellowship with any other Christians, at all. Now I see how important it is - I fell into false teaching for the past two years. I followed the Savior from afar for so long. Don't do this: it's not God's will - get under the authority of the anointing and fellowship with people that follow Christ also. If you're in the will of God, you'd follow as a lamb in the flock, not afar off from under the protection of the Shepherd, where you fall pray to false teachings/wolves and treaturous terrain. Thanks!
We're called to be living sacrifices in a covenant we have made with God through blood not our own.
I go to work and I'm surrounded by sin. Temptation is all around, constantly. The reason why I stopped watching television was because of the temptation, and I have to go to work and face it. The Lord's put me there to face it. The only way I can sin is if I'm lead away from Walking in the Spirit. If that shield of faith is broken down, or I forget the Word, and it's not written on my heart. That's the only way I'd look with lust at a woman. That's the only time any saved person can sin.
I refuse to sin against my Savior. I refuse to say 'Well I'm only human, we've all sinned.' I know the great lengths that God went to set me free, and I refuse to sin against Him. It's kind of funny that the way to win a spiritual battle isn't by fighting, it's by surrendering... Submit to God. Surrender to Jesus Christ.... That to fight this battle, I can't 'fight.' All I must do is cast down myself and be sacrificed and die, to win!
Every time the Lord has me overcome a temptation in Him by the Spirit, I kill my old self. He's crucified in Christ on that cross. I put down myself. I'm listening to something called The Cry From Hell right now, and they said, 'That's 15 years of selfishness!' Every customer that comes through my line that isn't lead by the Spirit and are truely serving God is serving themselves. And that's idolatry. I did this for 17-18 years before God accepted me and I found Grace in the sight of God... You ignore God, so great, all of your life and crawl around in the dark until then. And I'm no humanist, I understand now the sinner! I know how evil it is to use the Lord's name in vain, to lie, to look at a woman with lust. To sin! If they could truly see how evil it is...
How can they see what they're doing in the dark, without the light?! It's disgusting! I hate it... I HATE sin... I hate it. I despise it. But it's not about me. I used to love it. I was worthy of death, was brethren with the world until I 'got free-ed,' and didn't think anything about any of this until then. Now I see with eyes that aren't mine how vile it is. It's all about Him! It's all about the Savior! We have nothing to do of ourselves but to serve and to praise Him! There's no other way... Truly no other way to truly see. You're not free from anything until you've been 'set' free...
So long as I'm in this flesh I was a slave to serving my own lusts! Then my Savior came, sin died, grace revived, and by the Spirit I'm truly alive! I saw what I was doing that it was evil and repented of it, and now I live for Christ... Set free. No more passions or lusts, all are dead. Now, the only two words on my lips are Jesus Christ. Are 'Repentance' and 'Faith,'
Let the lamb slain receive the rewards of His suffering: ME. To live is Christ. And to die is gain... So lets live. Living isn't thinking about cherishing a day because you'll die the next. How can you think about death everyday if you have eternal life? To live isn't to walk around helping people or being nice. It's to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit and be patient and kind for God! To live isn't to give to charity, as if God could be pleased by some extravagant act: it's to say I die a penniless pauper in Christ every time I sacrifice self for you, O Lord, and I only live to see your will done, and your name praised.
If you truly had faith in God, you'd live like His will was true. To live like there's a hell and to know it's true when Jesus said 'Many there will be that will go there...' and so you share the Gospel more fervently. It's to know that there's a heaven awaiting where you'll be like Jesus taught a 'King and a priest' before God, because Jesus said so in such and such a chapter and so and so verse. And so every insult someone slings rolls off like water on waxed leaves. And so you have a greater hope... Live for Christ! Live for the King! Live to serve! Live by Dying in Christ! This is the only way There's no other way, and the time isn't today, it's NOW! You've heard it again and again. Those that wait until 12 o'clock for repentance die at 11 1/2. The same: those that wait until tomorrow to serve God die today! Yes, 10 out of 10 will die. Everyone will die. But how many few of those 10 wiill have died serving the true God? How many of them would have already been dead to themselves in Christ?
We're Jesus's bride. He loves us, saved. But if those that walk by faith and not by their own sight haven't made themselves ready, Christ can't return for us. The bride isn't ready for the Groom.
:-( Lets live for the Savior... Live like we're worms. Bury ourselves in the dirt and muck and purify it for our Savior by shining His light... Lets bear fruit...
I got a call from Jason Macedo, and I went back to some of the old posts on my blog because wanted to show him one where I posted that I'd start learning the guitar the next day, and what happened. But, as I was looking, I was reading on some of the things that I was typing, and the evil comments from a few people, and why I hadn't replied the way I supposed to. Why I was typing all sorts of things that were true, but weren't really too relevant, and my style of typing. It's all there in the archive. Some of it's embarrasing! Some posts about women... Some about embarrassing things I thought were ministry... Superbiblical ideas that I'd gotten from false teachings.
I fell into false teachings because I hadn't repented from sin. I was built on a foundation of sand... On a me-centered thing rather than the Christ-centered Gospel.
It's all about Jesus Christ. Not me. I found the exact time I fell into sin within the blogs. January of some year. It blinded me for so long, and I hadn't repented of it until 2005. I fell headlong into false teaching because of sin. The true passion died, and I'd began to read scripture not for the Lord but to satisfy the lusts of my mind or intellect. What a disgusting thing. Somehow I thought I was serving God through this false Shepherd's Chapel Arnold Murray Gospel, when I was lifted up with pride. Eventually the Lord hit me so hard with the law, I was completely crushed, and He delivered me from it, after crushing me with it. But boy is it sad to follow Christ and because you're not in the Spirit, be led astray from the Shepherd! What a treacherous world and area around that perfect path of Jesus Christ.
That's why it's so important to click on this link: www.needGod.com. And why it's so important to be in the light of God's own goodness and righteousness: to see your true spiritual state before God and repent. Why the law is so important. And why God is so good... Now I scream Repent! Repent and be converted! Repent and trust in the only Saviour! Turn from sin, and surrender to the only one to return from the dead: God in the flesh!
You can adore the Savior. You can worship Him. You can love Him. You can praise His name. But until you trust Him, you've wasted your time. Until the white flag of repentance is raised, and your whole is surrendered to God. Until you've come out of the dark completely to the light, you haven't repented. You're not in the will of God. Pretty hard. :-( But I type it in love... Cheers!
I could tell you God's mercy and forgiveness, His grace and His glory. But you wont let me Finish, Nor hear my story. You go about your business, Obliged oblivious to the up above. You ignore my witness, insidious rejection of Christ's love.
I was driving home from Wal-mart, where I work, and a police officer pulled me over for a broken tail light and a broken head light. I thanked him for not giving him a ticket. And I even shock his hand, at which he was reluctant. But I failed to share the Gospel, and thus I was afflicted in vain. :-(
I really want to learn to share the Gospel in season, out of season. I didn't even have any tracts. What kind of disciple am I?!
The Lord taught me a lot today... Today He used two very taught and experienced men to really hammer it into my head that I need teaching. The Lord's heard my cries! And He's provided a church. And He made me come in at exactly the time when they are being taught to 'Go ye, therefore,' and share the Gospel. They've told me that I need to be taught, and put under the authority of a Pastor. And fellowship. And there is nothing I can say to deny that - it's true. So I'm glad they really grilled me that night, and told me that I need more teaching. They put me against a stick of dynamic that has its fuse lit. And a shot gun being shot. I really appreciate them for that, because I've been asking the Lord for a church for a long time, and He's provided me one in a strange way. So I am thankful for Mr. Rainey, James Smith, and the Reverand Walker who I haven't spent any time with. The Lord allowed me to screw up a demo of sharing the Gospel with someone there at the church that night to discipline me! All I could think of was Club Frustration that Ray Comfort kept saying. That's not exactly scriptural, but I was really frustrated. And when Mr. Rainey asked me how many people I'd led to the Lord, it was more frustrating because it didn't seem like this very wise man in the Word of God understood! We sow by faith not by sight, and because I don't have any influence in bringing someone to the Lord, but the Lord Jesus does that, that my seed-sower success rate is 100% because I've used the law, used grace, and the seed is planted. That's God's job! The Seed Sower doesn't fail if he uses the law lawfully and the Gospel is shared... I mean, everything else he said was great, but that one thing isn't that great - sharing the Gospel is always law/grace! Always Repent/Believe! That's the message, that's what the disciples used... And I was so frustrated that they glossed over it, and then when it was over and they had the talk, they hammered me for not joining the church, and I conceded. And I hope that on Sunday I can become a member of this church, where the Word is taught. One thing Mr. Rainey said was. "If it's in the Word, if it's scriptural, then it's okay!" ...when I asked him how he took Way of the Master and the whole Share the Gospel the Way Jesus Did, Not as the World, message. I'm glad! They listened to the Hell's Best Kept Secret message last night, and I can't wait to see what the Lord's done to them afterwards! If they will understand the frustration or not... I hate having it turned around on me - it's about Jesus! He's the Lord. He's the Savior. He's who we should be serving. So I thank God for bringing me there, and for humbling me. And giving me a church, and thank God for you to anyone who's seen my post! And prayed for me!
Yes, it's a sin for homosexuals to marry. Yes, the bible actually states that homosexuality is a sin (Romans Chapter 1, Verses 26,27). And no homosexual can inherit the kingdom of heaven (1st Cor. 6, 9 & 10). I was just sitting with my family, and they had an article about the Gay Marriages Amendment on the evening news. They looked in shock and revoltment at the pictures of old women and men kissing each other, same sex.
I just wish that everyone saved would look at consider and be that revolted by ALL SIN. Because that's how much of an abomination it is to the Lord. Isn't that true holiness? That when someone uses the Lord's name in vain, just in common tongue, And says Oh my ___... You'd be just as revolted and perturbed?! Isn't that what the Lord wants? And you rag on homosexuality like that's the only sin! There's lying: when did it make you want to vomit when you heard of someone telling a lie? Does it make you feel horrible when someone looks with lust at a woman? I see sites of people saying the homosexuals are destroying the country. Yes, but what about the liars, thieves, fornicators, pornography websites and addicts, and everyone that takes pleasure in them?
When was the lust time you beat on or called a man names for looking at a woman's behind as she walked by? No one seems to care that these are things that God hates and that if you remain unrepentant of them, YOU can't enter into the kingdom of heaven either, just like someone fallen into homosexuality. That if you haven't been baptized twice, once of the water in repentance, and once of the Holy Spirit, having repented and put your trust in JESUS, that there's no hope of YOU entering into the kingdom of heaven either. Who do you know who hasn't ever told a lie? That's what God's standard of Judgement will be - not that if you practice, but that if you've ever done it. And if you've broken one of the 10 commandments, you've broken them all.
America is going to hell because the whole country's fallen into sin. It's a spiritual pandemic - all have broken the law, the 10 commandments, are wicked and separated from God as far as the widest part of the Grand Canyon (excuse cliche), and are a part of the ultimate statistic - 10 out of 10 die! 100% of the world has this 'disease.' And unless you call on the Lord Jesus Christ in repentance, NO ONE will see heaven. And I didn't write it. God did. See Matthew Chapter 5:28, 6:33. http://www.blueletterbible.org/" title="http://www.blueletterbible.org/" target="_blank"http://www.blueletterbible.or...
Jesus said that even all 'Liars have their part in the lake of fire.' If you've ever told a lie, you have a place with those that are sexually immoral. And speaking of sexual immorality, Jesus said that if you've ever looked at a woman, even the same sex, and glance at them as you pass by and see how attractive they are, or have lustful thoughts, you've committed fornication/adultery with them already! And will be judged as a fornicator or an adulterer! That's pretty heavy... ALL sexual sin is immoral apart from what is lawful (sex within marriage, with a man and a woman). All thoughts pertaining to it carry weight of eternal condemnation, and every time you sin, you store up wrath to be revealed on the day of judgement.
Jesus taught, Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Whether the lusts be homosexual or hetero- it's lust! And we're called to repent of it, put our trust in Jesus Christ, Walk in the Holy Spirit, retaining God in our knowledge and setting our affections on things above. This is the walk that Jesus commands us to walk! The only way into the kingdom of heaven and to see God is to have a pure heart (Matt. 5:8), and that can only be done through the Spirit of Holiness.
"Pretty good way to test your Christianity tonight - Do you honestly want all the light that you can get? Or do you want this thing shaken down and arranged to suit your whims and prejudices? Have you ever walked across a field and turn over a large stone and the moment the sunlight struck underneath all the creeping and crawling things began hurrying and scurrying for cover? That's what happens to your heart when the light of the world Jesus is turned on. It makes you uncomfortable. You don't know what's in the dark cellar until the light is turned on. ... And you don't know the state of your heart until the light is turned on. ... Our business as Christians is to let the light shine. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them - turn the light on them.
"Now the world's in the dark tonight. You know why it's in the dark? Well, I wish everybody knew the verse after John 3:16... Now, 19. 'And this is the condemnation,' this is the test by which men are judged... The word in Greek really means crisis. ... 'that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light...'"
"We see this communion between light and darkness in all directions. TV Programs, 30 minutes of foolishness, and then sing a hymn to give God a tip at the finish. 'He's Got the Whole World in His Hands' sung to Jazz tempo. Teenagers dancing to God Bless America ... followed by a beer commercial. Hollywood portraying the bible. And Hollywood is no more qualified to handle scripture than a gangster to lecture on honesty. ... There is a slow and subtle brainwashing that which we are gradually merged in this age, homogenized into this faceless mess... World church, world state, getting ready for the anti-Christ, I don't know what's coming. ... We're being smudged into gray! When the Lord's sheep are a dirty gray, all black sheep are more comfortable. If you're one of these gray Christians, all the black sheep take comfort in your condition. You've become a thermometer to register the temperature, rather than a thermostat to -change the temperature."
"We're not here to learn how to walk in the dark, we're here to learn how to walk in the light. It's hard to find an old-fashioned sinner anymore. They're as scarce as whooping crains. ... The woman at Jacob's well did not get under conviction as long as my Lord talked about the water of life, the best place to worship, and those are good topics - she got under conviction when He said go call thy husband. Call She had too many of them already. She went back and said 'Come see a man who told me,' The water of life? No. The best place to worship? No. All things whatsoever I did. Is not this the Christ... We need some more preaching that names something. That particularizes rather than generalizes. It's not popular I found that out a long time ago. But it's scriptural!"
"When young people have question and answer periods: so many times, usually they have the same questions. And it generally boils down to this with a lot of them - How much like the world can I be and still be a Christian? How much of this world can I enjoy and still go to heaven? How near the precipous can I walk without going over? Instead of asking how much like the Lord can I be and how little like the world, it amounts to this, and old people are the same way, they just never put it that way. The point really is, how much of the world can I incorporate into my program and still get to heaven? ... Now there was a time when sin shocked us... As the brainwashing progresses, what once amazed us only amusing us - we laugh at the shaded joke, and unfortunately the tragedy has become comedy in America. We're laugh at things today we ought to cry about. It's the strategy of tolerance and acceptance and [this] permissiveness. ... {and talking gray...} And nothing's definition - everything's definite today! Black and white have become smudged into indefinite directions."
The Lord has shown me a lot in the last few days. And I love it. I've really juiced and meditated a few truths, and I've come to find out... Hey, if I really believe... If I truly have faith, then wont I live like what He's shown me to be true is true? Simplistic statement. Very simple-minded sounding, but there's a lot understanding behind it: Wont I live like these things are as they are?? 'The Just shall *live* by faith.' If this statement truly means, that I'll live by what the Lord's given me a hope in believing, to believe what He's shown me by faith... Then wont I live like these things are as the Lord's revealed them to be true? Maybe I'm just milking that statement, but consider: Wont I live like there's a hell? And if I live like there is, fear God? I should fear God. Wont I live like I know the Lord's pleased with the commandments being written in my heart? And in doing so, Walk in the Spirit? He loves that. Shouldn't I memorize what the fruit of the Spirit are and make sure they're bearing within me? Shouldn't I realize that there's a heaven above me, and that therein lies a stretchable paradise filled with so great a reward that Christ would die to bring us there, but the reward is to be with God? Shouldn't I see how large sin is, and hate it, because it's touched every man? Shouldn't I know that blind people can be healed, and demons cast out, and diseased bodies cured? Wont I know and realize these things?
Wouldn't I share the Gospel by Jesus Christ and do it the way He did it, and realize and really believe that it's 'Repentance and remission of sins/faith towards God,' that He's asked us to teach, first (Luke Chapter 24, Verse 47)? Wont I live like a disciple but think of it too cushy a word to take up and so I call myself a slave for Christ instead? Wont I live a life pleasing to God rather than myself? I mean, wont I humble myself in the sight of God, knowing that God's sight is everywhere and exposes everything as naked and open, and live like He can SEE me?! Really and truly, brothers and sisters, by Christ: You walk by faith and not by sight. If I saw it, I wouldn't have to have faith, and so it would defeat the purpose of hope and faith, what God's set up to prove to Him our love, and our what our actions hinge upon (The whole thing in James Chapter 2, Verse 26, where your faith is the body of your works, which are the spirit). So it's better that I believe God and praise Him for it rather than begging Him to show it to me first and then believe and praise. It's pleasing to Him more that way. Either way, I believe in the end and the Lord never loses anyone He's endeavored to save, because no one can pluck them from His hands. But, isn't He pleased more when you take His word for it, and trust Him. Take His promises and say, Hey, I love you, and so I'm going to trust that these things are truth, take your word for it, and go out and do it? I mean, just an idea that makes sense... You can back this all up with scripture... Isn't that the underlying system, though? Faith? Trust in God?
So if someone is falling into sin, over and over, and trying to repent and get right with God, do they need to wait for God to bless them first before they trust Him and repent? No... Wont they praise Him, and trust Him that they're spiritually dead and on their way to hell and believe Him for why they need to repent and show fruits of repentance first, and then wait for God's blessing, knowing that He's pleased, but that they're not trying to please Him to get a blessing out of Him?! Sounds funny, but... It's a big mistake! God knows my heart, and He knows theirs, but sometimes it's good to hear or know that... And when you deserve death and you know you deserve it, and repent... Why should I seek after a blessing? The friend I'm praying for that's falling into sin, I love, and want to know what the Lord's taught me... I'm 5 dollars in the hole in my bank account. But I can praise God like the richest man on earth, because I know my Lord's will: that He doesn't care about finances but He's promised to take care of the natural needs of those that serve Him... And I don't worry. I trust God! They're not my finances, and aren't my debts, either. They're in His name, spiritually, even though they're in my name physically, and I'm a steward of His funds here on earth, and I know I'll have to give an account of every cent come the day of Judgement. And that doesn't worry me because I have a right heart and conscience towards God, and know His will! I trust Him! Isn't that what God wants? He said it, and I believe it? I guess I'm just asking dumb questions now... Blahs!
