A Fresh Vision of God

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.’” (Isaiah 6:1-3)

As the prophet stood in awe, beholding the glorious vision of the Lord described in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, we can imagine how he must have trembled as he heard a voice so powerful the doorposts shook; and His presence was so strong, the house was filled with smoke, symbolizing the glory of the Lord.

What Baggage Are YOU Carrying??

When we think about baggage, it naturally reminds us of preparing for a journey. We want to make sure that we take everything we need with us to make our trip comfortable, enjoyable and hassle-free. I know that when I travel I always end up taking way too much “stuff”. I figure it’s better to have too much than not enough, and I never know what I will want to wear while I am away. So I take it all! Whenever we prepare for a trip, how to handle the baggage is always one of our biggest concerns. 

If you want to fly, of course you need to be concerned with how much you can take with you, how much it weighs, whether you will check it in or carry it on board with you, and then the biggest concern for the airport is what you are taking in your baggage. They want to make sure that nothing you have in your baggage will cause difficulties for you or the other passengers on the plane. When you check in your baggage, they ask you questions like, “Has anyone approached you to place anything in your baggage that could be dangerous” or “Have you been with your baggage at all times”. Also, you are limited as to how many pieces of baggage you can take and how much it weighs. Then when you think about your carry-on baggage, you need to be concerned the size. It needs to fit in the designated overhead area, so it has to be within a certain size limit. Then you need to be concerned with how much you are allowed to bring into the passenger area of the plane. And you need to be careful of what is contained in your carry-on baggage, because if you try to take items that are not permitted, you may have your personal belongings confiscated.

But if you are traveling by car, you need to consider the amount of space you have in the trunk or baggage compartment of your vehicle as to how you should pack and how much baggage you can take with you on your trip. And not only that, but if you pick up any souvenirs or other things while you are away, then you also need to consider how you will fit them in with the other things you have with you in order to get them all home again. So, as you can see, how we handle our baggage is very important. It can be a very cumbersome ordeal, and it can take a lot of thought and preparation in order to get it right.

All this talk about baggage got me to thinking about another kind of baggage. No I don’t mean soft-side or hard-side, or the kind with wheels or the kind you have to carry. I’m not even talking about whether all your baggage matches or not, or how hard it is to find at the baggage claim department in the airport. What I want to talk to you about today has nothing to do with your physical baggage that you carry with you on a trip. I want to talk about a different kind of baggage, a kind that can weigh you down and make you miserable and unable to do anything effectively. And the thing is that no matter who we are, we all carry around some of this kind of baggage. I’m talking about our spiritual and our emotional baggage.

I Chronicles 29:15 says, “For we are aliens and pilgrims before You, As were all our fathers; Our days on earth are as a shadow, And without hope.” The King James Version defines us as “strangers” and “sojourners” in the same passage. That word “sojourn” was a bit intriguing for me, so I looked up its definition and according to FreeDictionary.com, the definition of the word “sojourn” is to “spend a certain length of time; reside temporarily”. So from this scripture, we can look at our life on this earth as a journey, or a trip. We are not permanent dwellers here, but we are traveling through this life on our way to the “promised land”, which is our Heavenly abode. But while we are on this trip, we also need to be concerned about the baggage we are carrying with us along the way. I’ll explain…

From the day we are born, we begin to pick up things along our journey. By this, I am referring to things like our thoughts, attitudes, opinions, ideas, reactions, decisions, habits, hurts, quirks, anger, unforgiveness, hatefulness, prejudice, self-centeredness, pride, rejection, issues…and the list goes on and on. One by one we pick up these things and very carefully pack them away in our emotional or spiritual baggage. And our baggage comes from a variety of different sources. Some of it may be handed down to us by our parents due to the way they treated us or the things they said to us as we were growing up. We picked up that baggage and we carried it along with us. To some, it may be deeper than just something said or an attitude, it may be a particularly wrong way that we were treated, such as physical or sexual abuse. Then, as we grew up we picked up baggage from people we went to school with, maybe even teachers or other adults who were responsible to care for us. Then when we grew up, we may have gotten some more through our jobs, we may have had a boss who was unreasonable in their expectations, or we may not have fit in with some of our co-workers. Our spouse may have hurt us in some way, our friends may have betrayed us. Someone may have said something that hurts our feelings, and we carefully packed all of that “stuff” away in our baggage and we carry it on down the road with us. Then, when nobody is looking, we sit down and we begin to “admire” the possessions in our baggage, and we may even brag about them from time to time. But mostly, we try to hide them and pretend they don’t bother us. But over the years, as we add more and more items to our baggage it becomes very heavy and it makes our journey more and more difficult, and it makes relationships hard to deal with. Our baggage may show up in our lives in a variety of different ways. Of course, there are the very obvious ones such as drug addiction, alcohol, promiscuity, lying, stealing, to name a few. But then there are the more subtle ways that our baggage may appear in our lives such as loneliness, negativity, insecurity, fear, lack of trust, vanity, self-centeredness, anger, unforgiveness, stress, workaholism, jealousy…and the list goes on and on. We find ourselves isolated; people avoid being around us very much because our baggage has become too difficult for them to deal with. And then it becomes so heavy and so unmanageable that we finally realize that we aren’t really moving forward anymore on our heavenly journey, but we have in fact come to a complete stand-still, and in some instances, we may be falling backward. We end up spending more and more time “admiring” or contemplating about the contents of our baggage rather than admiring our Savior and Lord. We think about it, we rehearse it over and over in our minds, and our thoughts aren’t very pure anymore. We’re not as happy as we used to be, and our hearts have somehow become very heavy, and our load much too difficult to bear. Does any of this sound familiar? Remember how happy and free you felt when you first became a Christian? Don’t you want that feeling back again?

I have good news for you today. The good news is that I believe God’s Word has an answer for us. Turn with me if you would to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. It is here that we are reminded of all the giants of the faith that we see throughout the Bible. There’s Abel and Enoch, and Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and many more of the heroes of faith. When I read about them, I realize how mightily God worked in them and through them, and I know that I still have a long way to go.

But then in the twelfth chapter, the writer of Hebrews takes a turn and he begins to talk about our faith walk…yours and mine…and he begins to compare our life’s journey to a race. Can you imagine trying to run a race carrying all that baggage? Listen to the first 2 verses of Hebrews chapter 12:

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I believe there are six steps in these verses that will help us to deal with our baggage, if we will practice this Word and apply it to our lives on a daily basis.

The first thing we need to do is to consider those that have gone before us. When I look at people like Abraham, I see a superhero. This is a man who was called by God to be the Father of the Faith. He’s the man that it’s all based on, the man whose descendants number as the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore. But he never even had the child of promise until he was 100 years old. And even then, God blessed him and made him great among men. But who was Abraham actually? Was he really that great in his faith when the Lord began to deal with him.

When I read the account of Abraham, I don’t see a mighty man there in the beginning. I see a man who was human, just like you and me. I see a man who had doubts and fears, one who stumbled and fell. I see a man to whom God had to go back over and over again to remind him of His promise to make his descendants great, because sometimes Abraham just doubted God. Don’t you do that sometimes? I see a man who gave up on God’s plan and took things upon himself when he fathered Ishmael; a man who faltered and fell many times. But I also see a man who time and time again worshipped God with all his heart. As you read the account of Abraham, you see him building an altar to God, or returning to an altar he had previously built. What God saw in Abraham was potential, and so He made a covenant with Abraham. And even though Abraham often failed, God was faithful to Abraham, and it was because of God’s faithfulness that Abraham became a man of great faith. In time, Abraham learned that God was trustworthy, and he began to trust Him completely. In fact, Abraham trusted God so completely that he surrendered everything in his life to God!

Now let’s think about Moses for a minute…when God first approached Moses from that burning bush, Moses was afraid, as we all would have been. Then, when God revealed to Moses what it was that He wanted Moses to do, Moses began to make excuses. He told God all the reasons why he was the wrong man for the job…he had a speech problem, and besides that, they wanted to kill him back in Egypt. But God saw past all of Moses’ insecurities and fears, and He saw a man who had the potential to be great with the power of God in his life. God had a plan for Moses’ life, and it was His desire to fulfill it. God made a mighty man of Moses in spite of his failures…because God is faithful.

The thing that I believe we can see in this scripture is that God is not looking for perfect people, He’s looking for willing people, people who love Him. He is looking for that man or woman who will go despite the odds; a person who will allow God to prove Himself mighty on their behalf even though they are aware of their own weaknesses. God wants us to be His instruments, His vessels that He can pour Himself through to touch a lost and dying world. He wants to use each one of us to prove His glory on the earth. He wants to use me, and He wants to use you. But we need to let Him.

The second thing I believe this scripture tells us to do is to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us”. “Well, that’s easier said than done” you might be thinking. “You don’t know how many times I have tried to quit…..” whether it be drinking or drugs or lying or stealing or gambling or gossiping, or whatever the weight is that you are carrying around with you. If it’s not God’s will for your life, it is going to weigh you down and it’s going to hold you back from being the spiritual “superhero” that God wants you to be. The bottom line is that God cannot pour His Spirit through a dirty vessel to touch a lost and dying world. We need to clean up our act.

I’ve known Christians who spent more time and effort trying to rationalize their sin than they did admitting they were in sin and seeking the Lord to give them the power to overcome it. They would make excuse after excuse for the sin in their lives. “Well, I’m only human after all” or “I’m as good as the next guy” or “Well, God knows I’m not perfect”. Yes, He does know we are not perfect, but He also tells us that our goal is to imitate Christ. He is our example; not our next door neighbor, not our co-worker…not even other Christians, except as they are imitating Christ. In the New Testament Church at Antioch, the people were trying so much to be like Christ and to set a good example that they were given the name of “Christians”. If we are to carry the name of Christian, shouldn’t we be striving to be more like Christ too?

So, how do we shed those heavy weights, or that excess baggage we’ve been carrying around? First of all, we need to admit that we have sin in our lives. Sin is anything that is against God’s will for your life. We must renounce it…we must hate it and then we must ask Him to take it out of our lives. Some of us have attitudes and feelings that have been with us all our lives. There are some hurts and sorrows we have been carrying around for years, and it is too hard for us to just walk away from them. We are not strong enough to overcome. But the good news is that “we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us.” (Romans 8:37) In our weakness, He is strong and He will give us power to overcome if we ask Him to. We must admit the sin is there and then repent of it. We need to put it down and walk away. God will empower us to shed that excess baggage and we can be free. Our journey will be so much easier without all that excess stuff to weigh us down.

Then the third thing I believe the Hebrew writer is telling us that we must do is to “run with endurance the race that is set before us”. The word endurance here means with patience and steadfastness. We keep our eyes pointed forward, we maintain a steady pace and we keep moving toward the goal. Our life is not a relay race or a sprint. It’s a lifelong journey that won’t be over until we reach the finish line. It would benefit us to pace ourselves so that we have enough steam to finish the race. Many Christians start out fast and strong, and by the time they get a little ways down the track, they burn out and then give up long before the race is over. And you will find them on the sidelines broken and bruised, unable to go on. But this race is not for the strongest or the fastest. It is for the ones who persevere…those who endure to the end. The key is to get rid of the excess baggage as you accumulate it. Throw off the sin that so easily besets us. If the Holy Spirit convicts us of an attitude or an action that is displeasing to our Father, we need to repent of that thing right away and get rid of it. It will only hold us back and make our success more difficult. And then we need to ignore all hindrances and keep going forward. It is said that we can’t go forward if we are always looking back. As long as we are moving closer to the goal, no matter how fast or slow it may be, we are sure to win. We need to keep going forward.

The fourth thing we see in our passage in Hebrews is the goal: “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”. Imagine that Jesus is standing at the finish line (He really is you know) and He’s cheering you on. If you stumble and fall, He gets on the track and helps you up and strengthens you. And He’s standing there…waiting, praying, hoping, and believing that you will win. By keeping our eyes on Jesus, we know the prize is worth the effort because He is our prize. He’s the One who entered us into this race, and He will make sure we make it to the end, as long as we keep our eyes on Him.

The fifth thing we need to see is “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame…” The reason that Jesus is worthy to deserve our praise and adoration, and the reason that we are to keep our eyes on Him is because He is the only One who ever got it right. He has already run the race, He already made this journey, and He opened the way for us to win it. He lived this life in perfection, without sin, and through His overcoming power, He freed us from the power of sin over our lives. We don’t have to continue with all that baggage weighing us down and keeping us from being the winner He wants us to be. Verse 3 says, “For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”

And the last reason I believe we can make it to the finish line is because He “has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus is always interceding on our behalf. “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25) When the accuser comes and points a finger at us when sin enters our lives, when we fail, when we feel guilty because of something we have done in the past, Jesus pleads our case to the Father. He has paid the price for our sins, and He reminds the Father that we belong to Him and Satan has no hold over our lives.

Now I realize that some of you may not have a clue what this race is that we are talking about because you have never even made it to the starting line, and you’ve not entered the race. You need to realize that the journey you are traveling will not lead you to a Heavenly home. It will only lead you to death and destruction. You’ve been carrying baggage all your life, and it just gets heavier and heavier all the time. You may wonder if there is any way that you can live freer, lighter, and if your life has any purpose at all. Let me assure you, you can, and it does. But the first step is confession. Romans 3:23 tells us “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Sin is that heaviness you have been feeling. There’s never been a perfect person besides Jesus Christ. We all have sinned. And there is a price to be paid for sin. Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because we could never pay the sin debt that we owe, Jesus came to the earth as a man, lived a sinless life, and through His death, He paid that price for us. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” We need to repent of our sins. And the Bible tells us that if we truly repent, if we are truly sorry for our sins, then He will forgive us of our sins and then we can receive eternal life. Jesus will take that sin burden from you, and set you free. He will remove all that excess baggage, and enter you into the race, the journey to your Heavenly home. There is no other way. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6) He paid the price of death for your sins, and He wants you to be free. Won’t you trust Him today? If so then I would ask you to pray this prayer with me:

Dear God,

I know that I am a sinner, and I have repeatedly hurt You and sinned against You. It’s my fault that our relationship is broken and I am sorry. I’m so thankful that You loved me enough that You sent Your Son to pay the price for my sin, and that even while I was still a sinner Christ died for me. Thank You Jesus, for taking my sin upon Yourself and dying on the cross for me, and then rising from the dead on the third day, that I might have eternal life. I ask You to forgive me for my sins and come into my life and live with me forever. Please change me and make me into what You want me to be and become my Savior and my Lord and help me to live forever for you. Thank you Lord...Amen

Dispelling the Darkness

"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

The Holy Spirit has been reminding me lately about a Truth that is found in God’s Word and we are seeing come to pass all around us, and He also tells us the solution to the problem this truth brings. But sometimes in our everyday “busyness” of life, we forget about this truth, and therefore we fail to apply the solution that God gives us so that the world will be a better place in which to live. But we need to be reminded often, because we, as children of God…and especially as ministers of the Gospel…have the ONLY solution there is to this problem. The problem that we are seeing more and more as we get closer to the return of our Lord is this…its DARKNESS! I am going to talk to you about darkness for a few minutes, because I want you to understand the impact that darkness has on the lives of those we come in contact with…in fact the impact this darkness has on the world…every day!

Forgetting the Past and Reaching Ahead

“No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

“Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14) 

Perhaps we need to understand that the opposite of reaching forth is to go backwards, or in our religious terms, “backsliding”. It’s called that because that’s exactly what happens…a person stops growing, or moving forward in his or her Christian life. He may sit still for a while, and during this time he stops praying or reading his Bible, and many times he stops going to church. If he does attend church, he is uninvolved in the activities of the church. His prayer life becomes less vibrant and exciting, until before long, he finds more pleasure in hanging around with the world’s crowd than with God’s people, and in doing worldly things than Godly things. At some point, this person may completely lose all interest in God, and to reach him will be very difficult. You may hear him make statements like, “I know what I need to do” or “God is still with me”, but he shows no interest in getting his life back on track with the Lord. That is why Paul is warning us in this scripture to forget the past, don’t hang on to thoughts of the worldly things and activities that once held us captive. We need to cut loose from them and walk in the opposite direction. We have been made free from the bondage of sin if Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior. The activities of the world will destroy us if we keep looking back to them.

In Luke 9:62 Jesus said, “No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Imagine this scene, a man goes out to the field to plow the soil and make it ready to plant his crops. But as he goes along, he is constantly looking over his shoulder to see where he has been rather than where he is going. By the time he reaches the other side of the field, the row he is plowing will be so crooked and he will be way off the line that he intended to plow that he couldn’t think of planting there. He wouldn’t be fit to be a farmer. He cannot keep his sights on where he has been in the past and expect to move forward. No! He must look straight ahead…He needs to fix his eyes on an object at the place where he wants to go, and then keep striving until he gets there. That is his vantage point…and Jesus is our vantage point! We need to keep our eyes planted on Him until we get to where He is and become like He is. Hallelujah!

Over and over in scripture, we are shown examples of people whose hearts remained back in the world from where they came. In Genesis 19, we are told of God’s destruction of Sodom and how Lot and his family were delivered from the destruction. They were given orders to leave the city and not to look back. But his wife’s heart was so attached to that evil city and her life there that, as she was leaving, she looked back, and God immediately turned her into a pillar of salt. The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:10) “for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world”. Demas had previously been a faithful brother in the Lord to Paul, but he failed to forget those things which were behind, and so he stopped reaching forth. 

The Israelites kept thinking of Egypt when things got tough in the wilderness. Exodus 16:2-3 gives us this account of them, “Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” They trusted the Egyptians rather than God to fill their needs. Isn’t it ironic that they had forgotten about the bondage, the cruel taskmasters, and the harsh and violent treatment they received back in Egypt? All they could remember was the food they had eaten and how it satisfied their flesh.

Paul said, “I press toward the mark.” Until living like a Christian becomes normal for us, we will struggle with those things in our past. We must deliberately press forward. We cannot allow ourselves to become complacent or comfortable with the place where we are in our walk with the Lord…our Christian life should be one of constant growth. No matter how far we have come, we should never stop becoming more like Christ in our lives and we should never stop learning from His Word. There will be times of stillness when it seems that nothing is happening. But those times are rare, and even then we should be aware that we will start moving again, longing for and praying for God to move us forward. But we should never allow ourselves to begin moving backward in our Christian growth. We should be continually “reaching forward to those things which are ahead.” We will never know Him completely until we see Him face to face, but how exciting our lives can be now as we strive for that goal. Are your heart and spiritual eyes planted on Jesus as your vantage point, or are you still glancing back at “Sodom” from time to time? The world has nothing for the child of God. All the old life offers is pain and misery. Remember what it was that brought you to Jesus in the first place and make sure you are pressing forward. In the world there is destruction, but in Jesus, there is Life forevermore.

Has Your Manna Become Stale?

“Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again, and said, ‘Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes.” (Numbers 11:4-6)

Isn’t it amazing that when we are having a “pity-party” how we always seem to remember the pleasures of our old lives back in the world? We never seem to remember how horrible it was to live under the bondage of sin, how our souls ached to be set free and how we longed for the peace and love that only God can give. We tend to miss the material possessions of “the good ol’ days”, the so-called friends, the short-lived pleasures of sin. Well, that’s exactly what was happening to our Hebrew friends in this scripture. God had delivered them from four hundred years of harsh slavery to their Egyptian taskmasters, yet in their hearts, they longed to go back to Egypt. They had forgotten that back in Egypt they had been unmercifully beaten and forced to work as slaves continuously, but all they could think about once they were in the wilderness was the wonderful food they ate back in Egypt.

Listen to how God miraculously supplied every need for this whole nation while in the wilderness, “The people went about and gathered it (manna), ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil.” (Numbers 11:8)

And they also complained about the lack of water in the wilderness, and God provided for them water from a rock, so that none in the camp went thirsty. “Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.” (Numbers 20:11) God had provided everything they needed in the wilderness, yet it wasn’t enough. And now they complained that their souls had dried up and the manna had become tasteless. The bread and water that God had so abundantly supplied was no longer sufficient, and they longed for their old life and the influence of the world where they had once been slaves.

I want to share with you 3 mistakes that the Israelites made in their time of wilderness which caused them to forget about God, and how you can avoid the same pitfalls in your own life:

1. You see, their first mistake was that they gave in to the peer pressure around them. Notice how verse 4 begins, “Now the mixed multitude who were among them…” They had allowed outsiders who had joined with them to set the standard for their lives rather than God. God had given specific instructions that any sojourners with them were to become like them, and one law was to prevail for all the people. (Exodus 12:48-49). The Israelites were compromising with the world’s standards rather than staying completely faithful to God’s Word. And how often do we too look at the things of the world and compare our lives to the lifestyles of the rich and famous? We see the advertisements on T.V. and think we just can’t live without every gadget and luxury item they tell us we must have. When we start seeing our situation according to the world’s standards, we have lost the battle already. God has given us an accurate record of who we are in Christ Jesus, and what inheritance He has stored up for us. No circumstance can change that, and no material possession can match it. God’s Word stands for all eternity. If we start viewing our worthiness according to the world’s value system, we will surely lose. That’s why we must base our thoughts and self-image on the Word of God. He tells us in His Word who we are and what we should be thinking about. The world has nothing to offer to the faithful child of God.
2. The second mistake they made was that they lost sight of the very reason they left Egypt in the first place. Exodus 1:11-14, “Therefore they (the Egyptians) set taskmasters over them (the Israelites) to afflict them with their burdens…And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage – in mortar, in brick and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.” The bondage of slavery was full of pain and misery. The Egyptians had tried to kill every new-born male in an effort to destroy the nation. The men were physically beaten and abused. “Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of their bondage.” (Exodus 2:23) Surely this was not the lifestyle they were longing for when they desired something to eat besides manna! Often times, after God has delivered us from a life of sin, our memories begin to fade about how bad sin was and how it separated us from God and kept us from receiving the good things of the Kingdom. But if we will stay in God’s Word and stay in His presence through prayer…we will remember how good and how loving and how forgiving our God really is. We cannot allow ourselves to get distracted.
3. And the third mistake the Israelites made was that they forgot Who it was who promised to be their Provider. “And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exodus 16:3) You see Jesus promised that He will always be with us and that He will never forsake us, neither will He leave us. He has promised that He will provide for all our needs and we would never be without the necessities of life, if we will keep our eyes and our hearts directed toward Him and His Kingdom. And God has NEVER failed to keep His promises in all of history. He has always been faithful! But too often, we look at the circumstances around us and we forget who our Source is. We forget that God is with us…we forget that He owns everything…we forget that He is the One who spoke the worlds into being…and He is more than able to provide everything we need in our lives. We just need to learn to trust Him and know in our hearts that He will do everything He said He will do.

In another time and another place, Jesus proclaimed, “I AM the Bread of Life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35) And to a woman who drew water at Jacob’s well, He also said, “But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14)

Jesus is our Bread of Life, and He is the Rock from which the Living Waters flow. He is our Sustenance, and because of Him we have received eternal life, abundant life and victorious life. He came to set us free from the bondage to sin and slavery to Satan’s domain. He sent His Spirit to dwell in us and to flow from us, giving life to all who will dare to taste and see that the Lord is good. My Friend, your manna has become tasteless and stale, or if the Living Water has stopped flowing from your life to those around you, then maybe you need to check up on your own spiritual health. Is there unforgiveness in your heart that you need to take before the Father and confess to Him? Have you been dwelling on the things of the past and refuse to move forward in your life and relationship with the Lord? Has He been anything other than first priority in your life? Or have you been following the crowd, allowing pressure from your friends, family or co-workers to influence your faithful walk with the Lord? If you see that any of these symptoms are present in your own life, then it may be time to take another trip to Mount Calvary. Confess your apathy and lukewarmness to God, and make a new commitment right now that you will eat of the bread of Life and you will drink of the springs of Living Water. I am not talking about religion, I am talking about a relationship with the Son of God. I am talking about a daily walk with Him that takes first priority in your life. He wants that relationship with you now, and He is waiting for you to come and partake freely of all that He has to offer. Won’t you come?

What Should We Do Until Jesus Returns?

When we think about end-time events, it's human nature to want to know the details of those things that will occur in the future and so many people go to psychics and fortune tellers. Even in some Christian circles, people chase after well-known so-called "prophets" in order to get an update on their "personal prophecy". And many theologians have determined a number of different theories about how they believe these end-time events will transpire, and many of them go around the country teaching and preaching those theories to the masses…each one believing that they have the correct answer and all the others are wrong.

While Jesus told us a number of things that we are to look for that would point to the end of the age, and God even gave the Apostle John and the prophets of old great visions of future events, He never clearly taught them exactly how all these events would take place nor did He give them specific details about the order of events that they saw. And so the debate continues today. But we can be sure that Jesus did outline three steps that He wanted us to follow so that the time of the end would not catch us by surprise, and I think that by knowing these steps, we will be more prepared to recognize what is taking place as we see the end drawing near. I'd like to share those with you if I may:

Finding Your Fulfilment in Christ

Often people are looking for something in their lives and they don’t even realize what it is they are looking for. They just feel that something is missing, and so their hearts have a longing to fill that emptiness, and no matter what they do, they cannot seem to find the fulfillment they need. So they begin trying to fill that longing with many other things. Many people try to fill it with things like drugs, alcohol, sex, material possessions. Some even feel that when they find that one special person and they are married, then the emptiness will go away. But when these things fail to bring the fulfillment they were longing for, then many people lose hope and they don’t know where to turn. But I want to share with you tonight where to look to find the fulfillment you have been longing for. You need to look to Jesus…He is the only One who can fill that longing in your soul. By accepting Christ as your Savior and Lord and allowing Him to control your life, you can finally find the contentment that every human being craves. You will find that all your needs are met in Him.

Peter’s Betrayal

I want us to look at a very familiar passage of scripture today…one that you have probably heard many times before. But I want to look at it this time from Peter’s point of view. And I want you to imagine with me if you will how he must have felt when it all came to pass exactly as Jesus told him it would happen.

Turn with me if you will to Matthew 26:30-35: “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written: ‘I will strike the Shepherd, And the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee.” Peter answered and said to Him, “Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble.” Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” Peter said to Him, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” And so said all the disciples.”

The Most Devastating Event in the World

I want to talk to you today about the most devastating event that ever took place in all of history in all the world, and how even now it affects you and me every single day of our lives. It affects how we live our lives, it affects how we relate to others, and most importantly it has a dramatic effect on how we relate to God. This devastating occurrence has caused more destruction than any natural disaster or any other man-made disaster that has ever occurred in all of history, and without question, it is the cause of more deaths than all the wars put together. And the amazing thing is that even though we have a very detailed account of it, most people simply gloss over it and never even consider the horror and the death that it has caused. The account of this event is right there in your Bible. I am going to be going over a lot of scriptures today so you may want to jot them down so that you can look back over them later on. If you would, please turn with me to the book of Genesis chapter 3 and I’m going to read verses 1-13. It says this: