The Revelation is Near

We are drawing closer to the time when John the Apostle heard these words, "Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, 'Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.'" (Revelation 16:1)

I just want to ask you today my Friend...are you sure you are ready to face the things that are coming upon the earth? Do you know Jesus Christ? Have you truly repented, or turned away from your sins and are you walking with the Lord every day? Have you made Jesus Christ the Lord of your life? THAT is the ONLY way you can possibly escape the judgement of God that is coming upon the earth!

He’s Been There

“Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:4-5)

Did you ever wonder why Jesus was permitted to endure so much other agony besides dying on the cross and shed His blood for the remission of our sins? Of course we all understand the purpose of His death, but it seems that His crucifixion alone would have been enough. So why was He also required to live a lowly life…be forsaken and rejected by almost everyone He was close to? Why did He even have to endure being forsaken by God in His hour of greatest need?

We Serve a NEVER Changing God

I choose to believe God's account of everything! In a world that's gone crazy, ever-changing, flipped upside down... you MUST have a foundation...an anchor... somewhere you can go and Someone you can turn to Who's never going to change, that's always going to be there even when the going gets impossible...a shelter from all the storms this life has to toss your way...that's what God's Word and the presence of the Holy Spirit will be in your life! Trust Him... He's NEVER failed in all of eternity, and He's not going to start now!

“For I am the Lord, I do not change;
Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob."

(Malachi 3:6)

Letting Go of the Past

One of the most powerful lessons the Apostle Paul learned was to let go of the past and move forward. To the Church at Philippi he wrote: "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)

Forgiveness

"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (John 20:23)

As we look at this scripture and the Holy Spirit brings light upon the Word of God, probably the first question that enters your mind is the same one that entered mine as I began to comprehend the power of forgiveness. I questioned, “God, can that be true?” But there it is, spoken by our Lord just after He had breathed on the disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. Certainly we know that Jesus bore the sins of the world upon Himself at Calvary, but has He given us the power to remit or retain another’s sins to them?

Cultivating Faithfulness

I do appreciated the opportunity to share this short but important message with you. I want to talk to you to about the subject of faithfulness…and how we can learn to be faithful Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me if you will to Ecclesiastes, chapter 5, verses 4-5. It says this:

When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed—Better not to vow than to vow and not pay. (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5)

The Prodigal's Brother

“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)

I want to focus on the question of our responsibility toward others, our duty to those whose lives are of greatest concern to the heart of our Father in Heaven.

The central theme of the teachings of Jesus Christ was about love. He spoke of loving God, loving our enemies, and loving one another. He taught about it and He demonstrated in His life. He even proclaimed this very truth as being the fulfillment of the entire law of God and the prophets (Matthew 22:37-40). In order to more fully understand the message of this God kind of love, I'd like look at the well-known parable as found in Luke 15:11-32, The Prodigal Son. But this time, let’s think for a few moments about the older brother of this rebellious young man.

Becoming a Servant

“Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave— just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:26-28)

I want to talk to you today about a subject that most of us have never given very much thought to. I want to talk to you about becoming a Servant. It has always been a sign of prestige to be able to hire servants, people who would take care of the concerns of a master, the head of the household. But in the worldly sense, it is not usually considered a very ambitious desire to become a servant. In fact, the world would teach us to do everything in our power to have others to serve us in some way. We think about hiring a housekeeper, a chef, a babysitter, a driver, someone to do our laundry...But then again, the Kingdom of God is not based on the system of the world, and in seeking to become more Christ-like in our walk with Him, He teaches us in these scriptures the principle of servanthood.

Pressing Toward the Mark

“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 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.