The Devotional - USA06

The Devotional

Comment: With each season of life there are adventures that will not pass our way again, yet the adventures are not foreign to us either. One early day in life we could not walk, yet we noticed all around us people were walking. We kept trying and soon we made it from one chair to the next, soon also we learned to run. From that point life seemed to take off. Going to and fro, increasing in strength and stability and for a period of time not giving much thought that the clock of life is winding down. As we age the same adventure of walking may turn into difficult periods of time and adventurous stumbling as we move about from chair to chair again. Walking has not changed has it? No not at all, only the legs that carry the body! The body, the mind and spirit say GO! And the legs, if not too painful at the moment “chuckle, I mean shuffle” to the next support station! I have this pod counter on my smart phone, it wants me to walk 10k a day, and I dropped it to 7k, I barely get it up to 2k throughout the day. In New England where I live I can travel through 4 States in less than two hours, “big deal”; I looked at my pod counter and observed this 100 miles journey only took less than 500 steps.

Challenge: Sadly many believers (born again) children of God live out their lives in the flesh and as the physical body gets old and perishes so does it seem that their relationship with God does the same. This ought not to be, yet many will turn away because they are exhausted and burnt out from laboring in the flesh. Defeated in the Spiritual power of abiding in Christ. Why? Because they have failed to study, apply and obey the Holy Bible. These went merrily along in life forgetting that time runs out and being satisfied, clothed in the self-righteousness of “I did it my way!”

Most of us do not understand the commands, the regulations or the ordinances and statutes of serving in the military. Wiki-Pedia describes Koine Greek as a common dialect within the armies of Alexander the Great. Now guess what the whole of the New Testament is written in, yes you guess it, it is written in a language that is full of commands, regulations, statutes and ordinances. A Greek “common language” that was modified by Alexander the Great so that he could teach all of his conquered nations and their military to follow him and perfectly understand without question. His thinking was that if he were to conquer the world, than those conquered must speak the same language.

Does this mean that all of us people saved by grace of God should be speaking Koine Greek? No! No more than all of us Blood Bought saints should be speaking Hebrew, but it does mean that we should understand that God is not to be mocked since whatever a man or woman sows, is what they will reap. Religion compels a person to pervert the Gospel of Grace in order to avoid the suffering that comes from being persecuted for Jesus Christ. Religion boasts that it accepts the world views of today, these religions have lost or never heard the command. “Put on the LORD Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh – See Romans 13:11-14.

The apostle Paul in Galatians 6 and before concluding this epistle says – “But God forbid that I should boast except in the Cross of our LORD Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Do we fail to see the Ordinance of this verse? The world is defeated and ashamed of the Cross of Christ and believers on the opposite side of this are victors and ashamed of the world. If the apostle Paul could have this mindset we too should strive to have it as well. This being said, we must understand that what we religiously approve or disapprove in church has little to do with what we should be doing. We are not to be ritualistic which has nothing to do with Spirituality or the Gospel of Grace.

Notice – Galatians 6:15 the example and theme of Galatians – For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails ANYTHING, but a new creation. The regulation of circumcision was never carried forward in the New Covenant (Testament), but the statute of being a new Person in Christ was commanded – Ephesians 6:10 Finally my brethren be strong in the LORD and in the Power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil… through Ephesians 6:20. You have heard it said that the Holy Bible is all about Christ. If this is true and it is, then what are we doing by agreeing with the world that good can be achieved by accepting what is evil? Bah! Humbug! Let us therefore return to the calling of God, 2 Peter 3:9 and Matthew 28:17-20.

The commands, regulations, precepts, statutes and Word of God speak loud and clear in the New Testament. Yet churches have become traitors by accepting what is shameful and converting to liberal diction without power. Any theology that accepts the world views of today has traded the Power of the Living God for the worthless flesh of an uncircumcised pagan. However I Praise God; there are churches in this nation who are sticking to the command of presenting the Gospel of Peace to the world of which we are ashamed of, because we are not ashamed of the gospel for it is the Power of God to Salvation for ALL who believe – Romans 1:16-17 as the just will live by faith.

The Devotional - USA05

The Devotional

Comment: Every human analogy to identify a spiritual truth has limits. In other words we may be familiar with certain activities that connect the cosmos (world) we live in to the Kingdom of Heaven, but the connection may be faulty. This is the third heaven we know about through the revelation of God as described by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:1-6. The apostle had many such encounters through visions and dreams, see Acts 16:9; 18:9; 22:17-18; 23:11, even his encounter and conversion in Acts 9:1-9. Now I used the apostle as this example, yet there are many recorded visions and dreams of encounters with the LORD Jesus, both in the Old and New Testaments. Jehovah in the O.T. and Jesus in the N.T. One might ask; do we have visions and dreams these days? With me personally I cannot make an oath that stands in absolute confidence; in other words I cannot let my “yes be yes and my no be no” thus I do not make an oath to confirm this either way – Matthew 5:33-37 and James 5:12. I believe the “signs and wonders movement of religion” in the 1960’s attempted to destroy this marvelous work of God in Christendom. Yet I believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever and we are not to be carried away by various and strange teachings that seek to lead us from the truth as the truth is in Jesus – see Ephesians 4:17-24.

Challenge: How then do we walk in Christendom today? This brings us face to face with our daily walk with Christ. I like what the apostle has to say in Colossians 1:13 – He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Experientially we are alive and well on earth and spiritually we are alive and well in the kingdom of the Son of His love. Therefore we have a dual citizenship that while in this body of flesh we are at home, yet in Matthew 6:10 the LORD Jesus explains that His disciples should pray that God’s will should be done on earth as it is being done in heaven.

In Ephesians the apostle Paul explains the practical application to this, starting in Ephesians chapter 4 and ending in chapter 6, he states clearly that we saints of God ought to walk in unity, Ephesians 4:1-16, we are to walk knowing that as the body of Christ which we are, we are to be in agreement. One LORD, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all (believers). God is above, through and in us all. We are a temple with the Holy Spirit of God in us. The Spirit and the gifts are God’s gift to us in Christ and we should be no longer children who are tossed here and there with every wind of teaching. Man has no claim to God’s gifts even though he can use these to Glorify God.

We are the workmanship of Christ created in His likeness for good works, see Ephesians 2:10 and 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, knowing this we ought to walk circumspectly (carefully or wisely) because the days in which we live are increasingly evil. We are to walk in love and in the light, that is God’s love and God’s Light, Ephesians 5:1-14. Practical application/obedience to the Living Word of God is never an option. 

Those who forfeit the responsibility of redeeming the time are unwise and do not understand what the will of the LORD is. As a result our marriages and our churches in this nation are missing some very important labors (love, light, wisdom, prayer and power). The armor of God is worn in sloppy array and we are not shod properly with the gospel of peace – Ephesians 6:10-20. Yet God remains faithful to His church, behold I stand and the door and knock, a message to the church at Laodicea – Revelation 3:20-22. His Name is above all names, His Name is Jesus and soon and very soon we will confess to the Glory of God this Truth. Romans 14:11 and Philippians 2:11. This is not a dream or a vision it is however – the TRUTH.

The Devotional - USA04

The Devotional

Comment: The problems faced in life could be identified, the fault is that in doing so I may miss some or all of yours. I know the ones I have as well as you knowing the ones you have, so the application of solving the problems of living life peacefully cannot be complicated. In other words; of the multitude of circumstance (yours, mine and all others around us) there can be only ONE solution. There are many religions, many so-called gods and many books written to ease the pain of living and obtain liberty and the pursuit of happiness. All nations and people groups are involved with this search of peace and happiness, none are exempt. This ought to be prove enough that there CAN BE only ONE solution, all nations and people groups have failed. If this were not TRUE, then why is it that we still suffer so in crime/sin, illness and death?

Challenge: (Exodus 20:1-17) – 1 And God spoke all these words, saying: 2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 3 You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. 7 "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. 8 "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. 12 "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. 13 "You shall not murder. 14 "You shall not commit adultery. 15 "You shall not steal. 16 "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's." 

Today, in the hearts and minds of our young people the Ten Commandments are more than a foreign language. If the Commandments of God were simply a language to learn, it could be learned and applied. In the minds of our young, (let me push this thought to the bursting point). In the minds of most all peoples of this land of ours to the age of sixty-five, God is either dead, gone on vacation or is nowhere near them. He could be in a rock, or a cloud, He could be the moon, the sun or even be one or all of the so-called gods of the universe. So the Ten Commandments are forbidden fruit, obsolete and even rejected. Sadly this means that our nation cannot be the so called “Christian nation” as some may still insist.

Even the Holy Bible is used to Reject and resist God and His Commandments claiming that the God identified in the Holy Bible is the religion of the Jew only and that every nation has the right to choose a god and a religion to follow. This thinking is simply “horse manure” please read chapter three in Romans 3:1-31. Here is an excerpt in this chapter to ponder as you read (verses 3:27-29). Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man or woman is justified by faith apart from the deeds (outworking) of the LAW. Or is He (God), the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of the Gentiles (all nations and people groups as well as you and me)? YES, of the Gentiles also… 

In concluding this morning let me add, less I be remiss. Oops! There is another god, the god of this world and his kingdom is proclaimed by all of the false religions and religious leaders of our day. Their mission is to substitute their teaching for the Truth and it is no wonder that in the process of this transformation that Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11:14. This said; therefore, there are two kingdoms (not religions) for you or me to pursue. One will bring peace and joy to your life, the other; that is if you do not have peace and joy this moment is the kingdom of darkness, Ephesians 4:12. The Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I could go on and on the Kingdom of God is PRICELESS, we cannot afford it and as we will see, God is willing to give His Kingdom to you, a gift worth living and dying for.

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