Inspirational Reflections for Believers
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- Allah or Jesus
- All together
- A special baptism
- A brick wall
- A new command
- A Judas goat
- Ambience
- April Fool's Day
- Bad Shepherd
- Bait & Switch
- Be Complete
- Be Filled
- Be Godly
- Be Ready
Allah or Jesus
I attended my annual training session that's required for maintaining my state prison security clearance. During the training session there was a presentation by three speakers who represented the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Muslim faiths who explained their belief systems. I was particularly interested in what the Islamic Imam had to say.
The Imam gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a video. After the presentations, time was provided for questions and answers. When it was my turn, I directed my question to the Imam and asked: “Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that all the Imams and clerics of Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war] against the infidels of the world. And, that by killing an infidel, which is a command to all Muslims, they are assured of a place in heaven. If that's the case, can you give me the definition of an infidel?"
There was no disagreement with my statements and without hesitation he replied, "Non-believers!"
I responded, “So, let me make sure I have this straight. All followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of your faith so they can go to heaven. Is that correct?”
The expression on his face changed from one of authority and command to that of a little boy who had just gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He sheepishly replied, “Yes.”
I then said, “Well, sir, I have a real problem trying to imagine the Pope commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Pat Robertson or Dr. Stanley ordering Protestants to do the same in order to go to heaven.”
The Imam was speechless.
I continued, “I also have a problem with being your friend when you and your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me. Let me ask you a question…would you rather have your Allah who tell you to kill me in order to go to heaven or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to heaven and wants you to be with me?”
You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam hung his head in shame.
Chuck Colson once told me something that has sustained me these 20 years of prison ministry. He said to me, “Rick, remember that the truth will prevail.”
And it will!
ALL TOGETHER
Acts 2:1
And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
Peter stood with a sword to fight an army to protect his friend Jesus only to collapse in curses because of a servant girl’s accusations and then dropping to his knees when the Lord forgave him. As he was volatile and bore his strengths and weaknesses, so do we in our everyday lives.
Unbelievers look in and see with natural eyes and marvel that even though we have many denominations, we have one Lord, one faith, one Bible, and we are in one accord in the same baptism. Our unity as a family, as brothers and sisters in Christ, is baffling to those without any objective truth.
The vocabulary of Christians has been twisted and distorted by the devil so completely that we, believers and unbelievers, can use the same words while having two different understandings of each other. This has caused the majority of onlookers and seekers to despair and revert to relativity: this is what I believe. With all our outward appearance of dispersion, the Body of Christ undamaged, fully armored and battle ready. When the right moment in his-story arrives, rest assured our swords will all be pointed in the same direction; at the demons.
So many doubt that we are one body and in one place: holy ground. We have always been scattered throughout the nations of the world. We have only one flag and an allegiance to the only King, Jesus. No country has any grip on us more powerful than God’s hold. There is this beautiful blue pearl hanging on nothingness that is our temporary home until He makes it new again.
Sadly, to our shame, some mock us and we often deserve the ridicule. Slowly but surely the demons have slipped into our tent and have made laughing stocks out of us on their wide-screen IMAX theater in Hell. While we have been re-arranging the deck chairs, the ship has continued to go down. They don’t understand that we have been filled to the brim with the same Holy Spirit into one filling: one baptism.
Now, the evidence of this radical conversion is that we are all together and repenting of our sins. This is repulsive to the lost. We have been baptized into the oneness of the Triune Godhead: one God-Jesus. And as I write this, you and I are receiving to this moment the teaching and illumination that all believers are blessed with together in unity of being all together.
John 1:6
6 There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.
A SPECIAL BAPTISM
Luke 3:21 (NASB77)
21 Now it came about when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,
Let’s join for a moment and take in the wonder of why our Savior would willingly experience the outward manifestation of baptism by immersion. Jesus was sinless, so what was the significance of this unique event?
First it was to equip, anoint and strengthen the manhood He has clothed Himself with and secondly to demonstrate obedience, humility and prayer to all generations that would follow.
What an astounding set of circumstances that clearly brought together the visible and audible Trinity of the gospels. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all sharing truth in a single verse. How blessed is the Word of God to us as it shares this precious and golden moment, never to repeat itself in the infinity of time.
What a wonderful seal of approval for our God-man to launch His ministry of salvation and begin His death walk to the Cross, one firm step following another. From this point forward, He never looked back. Oh, how I wish we could do the same and not ever be ashamed of Him with our doubts and fears. Just to put on the armor of God, lift up the sword of the Word and firmly place my feet on holy ground is my fervent prayer!
The dove quietly settled in peacefulness, not known to mankind until that moment. The gentleness of the flight, the landing and the harmlessness of the message of affirmation: the Holy Spirit had arrived to anoint Christ the man for the timeless message of the ancients who spoke of Him in times past.
The voice rang out to a startled universe of angels, and every devil shook in mortal terror. God became man on a mission that only the Triune god could ever accomplish. In an eye-blink, salvation arrived with healing and deliverance in the wings of a dove. The provision of love for His elect and eternal doom to those who would reject and murder His Son, as your sin does at this very moment.
Submit to the reality that you are owned by the Father, saved by the Son and anointed by the Holy Spirit and you too will have that once in a lifetime special baptism in a way demonstrated by our Lord Himself. A moment that will change a lifetime of eternities if only you will accept and savor the fullness of the Trinity of which you were made in Their likeness: body, spirit and soul.
A BRICK WALL
Philippians 3:12
12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Physics has taught me that if I apply a constant pressure against any object, in time, it will move. It may take a thousand years of my diligent effort, but the wall will go down, and the bricks will be scattered until they become the dust from which they were made. So it is with sin and all the agents of corruption: they will come down and return to dust if only you will apply the pressure long enough: persistence of the saints.
Take for example the allurements of the world and all the creature comforts that we are inundated with in every area of merchandising. I expect that when all the surfaces have an advertisement on them, someone will figure out how to project ads on the face of the moon for the whole world to see!
It is second nature to covet or lust for all those things that are dangled just out of our reach. This includes advancement in our career moves. I was so diabolical that I would teach those under me only to a point, and I would keep key information and training of special skills to myself so that they would never threaten my position of power and authority. The presumption of corruption and underlying schemes was elemental and necessary to outmaneuver those clamoring to take me down with a smile on their wretched faces. The old leaven surely does foul the whole being and cause a tension of heart-ache only the blood-soaked Cross of Christ can heal.
When your soul has lost ground and Devine life has declined, take a good look at that which was and remind yourself: I can, I will and, I must overcome in Him. My heart has lost its softness and my conscience is no longer tender. The Cross has lost its attraction, and grace no longer seems sweet to me. I’ve lost my mind to the seclusion of the Netherlands, and it is red meat for the prowling and devouring lion, I am terrified!
Bring me back, Oh Lord, the convictions of my offense before your holy throne with a godly sorrow that is couched in true humility and confession. I ache to return to You and the sweet comforts of your embrace.
That brick wall will come down, and my effort will persist. I will persevere against the immovable obstacle of sin in a measure consistent with my renewed and growing faith. The victory is ours, mine and yours, as my besetting sin crumbles into the oblivion of my past, gone and never again an obstacle to the gateway and cornerstone of deliverance.
The wall has come down!
A CALLING
- Ye call me Master and obey me not;
- Ye call me Light and see me not;
- Ye call me Way and walk me not;
- Ye call me Life and desire me not;
- Ye call me Wise and follow me not;
- Ye call me Fair and love me not
- Ye call me Rich and ask me not;
- Ye call me Eternal and seek me not;
- Ye call me Gracious and trust me not;
- Ye call me Noble and serve me not;
- Ye call me Mighty and honor me not;
- Ye call me Just and fear me not;
If I condemn you, Blame Me not!
FAITH
Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.
Faith is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.
Faith is ideal when circumstances are right, only when they are adverse is one's faith in God exercised.
Faith, like muscle, grows strong and supple with exercise.
Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.
A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.
Faith is not believing that God can, but that God will!
Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
Faith in God is indispensable to successful statesmanship.
Arabic Proverb
He that knows not and knows not that he knows not:
He is a fool; shun him!
He that knows not and knows that he knows not:
He is simple; teach him!
He that knows and knows not that he knows:
He is asleep; wake him!
He that knows and knows that he knows;
He is a wise man; follow him!
A NEW COMMAND
Matthew 13:34
All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable,
I have often imagined myself the President of the United States, and the most unnerving ability I can imagine would be the office of Commander of the Armed Forces. All other duties, however important, would pale in comparison to having the lives of a million young soldiers in your hands. How his heart must break in wars when these men give their lives for their country, as my Dad did in WWII.
When Jesus commands His army to war, He provides the armor and sword. His victory is in the heart of those that are His because that’s where the war is waged. He commands us not just to love one another, but to love our enemies, “for they know not what they do.” As soldiers in God’s army, we are to dig in our cleats and unleash the dynamite of the Holy Spirit that is within us at Rev. Lucifer and his wimps. The battle and victory belong to Jesus, and the peace resides in our hearts that are joined to His.
Jesus breathed a soul into Adam, and His mind and heart followed. So reason and emotions are the pathway of comfort to the soul, in His image and likeness. Satan’s whole being is committed to snatching your soul into his fiery clutches. He knows his time is running out and like the desperation of a rabid hyena facing death, he is determined to take you down with him; he’s that evil!
Your mind is where the backsliding thoughts are hatched if there is nay fertile ground for them to grow such as: pornography, drugs, booze, gambling, etc. When your mind is in the gutter, your heart will follow and your soul will fall from grace. All you have to do is blink and Satan will slip into your mind, with the flesh not far behind.
So loving each other with His love is not an option. Our Commander-in-Chief demands it because He knows that love is life and without it, you become a casualty and a victory for Lucifer and his hellhounds.
Receive your marching orders like a good and obedient soldier for Christ. Each time you say no to Satan temptations, you earn a higher rank in the Savior’s Survivors Squad of warriors. You have His strength as the Holy Spirit partners with you in the conflict for your soul. Jesus says for us to love and then watch the feeble efforts of the devil wither before our very eyes.
A JUDAS GOAT
Matthew 25:45
45 "Then He will answer them, saying, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'
When you look carefully at the division of the sheep and the goats in chapter 25 of Matthew, you will notice that it wasn’t what the goats did that sent them to hell; it was what they didn’t do. They didn’t pursue holiness and the effects of genuine works that are not masks of self-gratification.
The evangelicals like to throw around the label “carnal Christians” to describe plastic believers that are attached to the world and measure their faith by what power, money, prestige and influence their church may have. I once preached, “Is Judas still treasurer of your church?” at a large Baptist church. Needless to say, they never invited me back!
Holiness and good works were in the air the Lord breathed. As St. Francis of Assisi once said, “All I want to do is go about the work of the Lord and not know it.” You can’t be a practical atheist for too long before true Christians take your mask off and uncover the horror of your twisted motives: a midnight of your soul in the abyss of endless shock and awe. The hell that is displayed will startle you into insanity if you look long and too hard at the truth of your depraved mind. If you really believed in Jesus, you wouldn’t embrace your favorite sin: it was the weapon that killed God’s only Son!
There was a time in Rome when the dead body was attached to the murderer, chest to chest, until the corpse rotted off of him. Such is the sin you willfully acknowledge that you love more than the Savior. It would drive the Roman prisoner over the edge of rationality, and you are also on your way to a chaos of mental confusion, such as you may never recover unless you repent.
The goat turned his life toward the wider road that led the sheep to slaughter. The Judas goat gets his name from the fact that he is trained to have the sheep follow him to the butcher block. They blindly line up behind him, and he returns again for more that dutifully follow him to certain death. The Judas goat isn’t doing evil, he just isn’t doing anything but leading to an oblivion of endless torture without relief, ever!
And so it is also with you, not what you are doing as much as what you have not done. No decision to repent is a vote to reject salvation. Following the goat soon transforms into being the Judas goat, as others see and imitate your example by what you didn’t do.
When faced with sin, just stop, stand still, turn around and return to Him. No decision is a decision to be a Judas goat. How many souls have you sent to Hell? When is the time to stop? What or who is holding you back?
Slay the goat and line up with the sheep that the Good Shepherd has chosen for His today!
AMBIENCE
Acts 28:2
The natives showed us extraordinary kindness; for because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all.
There is a special comfort in building a campfire to gather around in Christian fellowship. The chill of the winter air is so refreshing, but the crackling flames, songs that fill the air and wholesome laughter transform both body and soul. Such is the emanation from Holy Spirit from the pages of God’s love letter to us. The Bible brings an enlightenment that awakens a love within that only His cross could provide. It embraces our body, mind and soul in a rush of His resurrection and the enablement of the Holy Spirit to step forward as an ambassador of the King, in peace.
Prayer is that special ability to bridge the gap from the created to the Creator: this is a privilege for believers only. In private, we can dialog with Jesus our deepest secrets and fear without restraint. It’s a social intercourse that words sometimes cannot capture. The Holy Spirit intercedes, the Lord brings our praise or petition to the Father and He nods His approval. Think of what can be accomplished in our church society if we would all point our swords in the same direction: that’s when the warming assurance and comfort comes up on the Body of Christ.
We then lift our spiritual ears to the heavens and have that special communion and fellowship with Jesus. Meditation is the lesson we receive from Him, often prompted by our prayers. For a seeking sinner or forgiven saint, it’s a big bear-hug from our best friend, Jesus. If you are astute and have your spiritual antennae up, you feel that in the fellowship of like believers. The Body of Christ, the church, the visible and invisible engulf our very being when this experience occurs with a repentant heart.
The fellowships of Christians help us to return to our first love, to worship and enjoy our Savior and Lord. The Holy Spirit invites us to join Him in the friendship and love of fellow believers. This is a fulfillment of returning to our first nature of actually being love in His Shekinah light: perfecting once again an ambience that only a submission to Him can provide in holiness.
APRIL FOOL’S DAY
It’s amazing how the years slip by, but we are past our 25th anniversary of Mission Gate. It seems just like yesterday when Trish and I were standing in our living room the first day of our new commitment to the Lord and I asked her, “What day is this?” and she replied, “It’s April Fool’s Day!” I couldn’t believe it. I was convinced that I was either daffy, in midlife crisis, anointed or some combination of the three, but I knew the Lord was playing with me our first day I called the Pastor that led me to Christ and I asked him, “What verse do you think of when you think of prisoners and our ministry?” He replied, “John 10:9 where Jesus said, ‘I AM the Gate.” Amen! We knew the name of our ministry would be Mission Gate Prison Ministry and that’s how it started, and I continued to be fascinated in that verse. Let’s take a closer look at it.
John 10:7-10
7 Therefore, Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.
8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.
He will come in and go out, and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Allow me to make a few points about this revelation of the “I AM.”
First, thank you, Jesus, there is a gate! Stepping through the gate into and then out of Satan’s mansion called The Department of Corrections (prison) was a nightmare. But now, there is another gate that offers life instead of death.
Second, thank you, Jesus, there is only one gate! I just know that if there were two gates, with my luck, I would choose the wrong one.
Third, thank you, Jesus, the gate is a turnstile! We can go through one man at a time. We aren’t herded like the cattle or prisoners in most institutions. We can put our shoulders back, lift our heads and step through the blood of Jesus, one born-again man at a time; each special in His sight.
Fourth, thank you, Jesus, it’s a strong gate! Jesus assured us that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against us, that He will always provide us a way out, that He will never give us more than we can bear, that no one can take us out of His hand, that He will never leave or forsake us and that where He is we will be.
Fifth, thank you, Jesus, by stepping thought we pass from failure to victory, sorrow to joy and from earth to heaven. Let me encourage you to step through the Gate for an experience you won’t soon forget!
Dear Lord, some people just don’t know how to step through the gate. I remember running from you. It is so amazing that the sinful life we are afraid to give up really amounts to nothing. And the minute we believe, you offer us everything…everlasting peace and eternal life.
THE BAD SHEPHERD
Galatians 2:4
4 But it was because of the false brethren who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.
We are so accustomed to the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 that it never occurs to us that Satan would make every effort to be the counterfeit bad shepherd that would entice us to follow him. The devil is deception personified, the father of lies. His lure is the wide road that leads too many Christians to carnality and false professions of faith: plastic Christianity.
The evil one is a master of scripture twisting and turning the doctrines of grace upside down into works, as the Church of Rome is severely guilty of. Papery spells out their faith in the “Syllabus of Errors” and reading their doctrines will shock your protestant senses. The original gospel of Paul as revealed to him by our LORD is trashed for “another gospel” that is smoldering in the embers of the Hell it came from.
The demon of your most choice weakness will guide you to the nearest death house of alcohol, drugs or sex. The flashing lights and energy is irresistible if your invented god will wink at it. “Don’t repent until later” is whispered in your ear by that moron devil assigned to your demise.
All the sensations of carnal satisfactions are already manufactured by the evil one and marketed to you in a package of delights that will make your knees weak and your will to resist collapse. He knows the buttons to push, and you respond like an obedient, hell-bound sinner should; How stupid!
He won’t protect you from the consequences, and you will know and remember the insides of a drunk tank. The clash of bars, the smell of stale urine, the cries of the raped and screams of the insane flash back to the jelly of your spiritual spinal cord. He destroys anything that remains of your soul and replaced the image of God with his mirrored mask of carnal, phony holiness to mock our Creator and destroy God’s precious creation.
Only Jesus can heal this brokenness, and you need to put your face in the mud, the blood, and he tears at the foot of the Cross and cry out “Lord save me!” because Satan will never release you from his fiery clutches until you do. God only can help you right now!
BAIT AND SWITCH
Acts 20:28
Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.
The sheep or our post-Christian era are being sheared by false shepherds that only care about themselves. I have attended enough Baptist minister breakfasts to know that the main topic of their passion is not baptizing new believers. I spoke at a Baptist pastor’s conference and scolded them. I said that they had fifty ministers in the room and collectively hadn’t had fifty baptisms in the last ten years. I even preached on, “Is Judas still treasurer of your church?” Needless to say, they gave me their left hand of friendship and turned their backs on me ever since.
I’ve had it with demons in the pulpit preaching another Christ. They have exchanged the Word of God for the words of men! Emperor Constantine began the smoldering sacraments and rituals of Father Satan and the Roman Catholic Church, cults and the carnal Protestant churches have continued the apostasy. It’s called religion. My unsaved, hell-bound half-brother once said, “All our world’s problems can be traced back to their origin in religion!” He was dead-on right.
Religion is man’s best effort to reach God, faults aplenty. Christianity is Christ’s faultless efforts to reach man. Believers reach back because we are made in His image and likeness. When someone insists on evolution, I respond, “If you think your great, great, great-grandfather was a monkey, I am inclined to agree with you.” So much depends on you believing that, “In the beginning was the Word, etc.”
Religion provides a man-made Poe or some other such officer that bloats with pomp, power and becomes a despot seeped in tyranny. We are misguided from faith to presumption and that we worship the creature instead of the Creator. It becomes a satanic cult community.
Christianity does not separate and isolate its followers. It unifies them in superior splendor far above the hell bound fallen angels. The true salvation of faith and fear can overwhelm trust, Christianity has been marketed by bait and switch con-men. They will attract you with enough plausible truth to disguise the lies that are to follow.
BE COMPLETE
John 15:11
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
I can’t help but think of the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem. What was the donkey thinking? If it was me, I would be astonished beyond belief that out of all the donkeys in Israel, God chose me! Seriously, I know from whence I come and I know the wretch I am. If you saw my heart as He sees it, you would stop reading and trash this devotional. I might add, if I saw your heart, I would run away from you as fast as I could. Let’s get this straight: He chose us. WE had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with it. You and I have been personally closer because of Him.
A pregnant young lady walked into one of my ministry meetings saying that she was going to have an abortion. This was her fourth pregnancy from a variety of men she met at parties. My wife and I persuaded her to keep the baby. In time, she was arrested for shoplifting and sent to prison. We helped her out and when she delivered the child in prison, we took it and came home with a two-day-old baby. When she turned three years old, we adopted her as our own. When I go home to Jesus, my children will have to prove in court they are mine, while my adopted daughter will already have that record available to the judge. In other words, my adopted child has preference over everyone else. Praise the Lord, He adopted us and our family has been made full.
We abide in Him. Apart from Him, we wither and dry up without value except as tinder a fire. This means the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives in making us complete. Here we are shattered and scattered in sin, but thank you Jesus for my conscience convicting me of sin. We are an empty earthen vessel that is filled to the brim with all our Lord has to offer. That sure is a miracle in our lives that only His unconditional love could provide.
Now you and I need to be sensible enough to reach out to all the Lord has to offer. We can’t be a partial Christian. We can’t be partially saved. It is not an option. We must be complete in Him, period.
Once we surrender all we are for all He is we become compete in Him. This is impossible unless we tap the fullness of faith to be possessed by Him. It is worded that we are His servant to sooth some sensibilities but the word is truly not servant it is slave. It is the opposite of what your flesh craves but with the help of the Helper we can be complete and experience a relationship that can only be understood by someone who has experience in it. Press ON!
BE FILLED
Acts 2:4
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
An unbeliever cannot know what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Only we who have experienced being bowed again before Him can ever know, we know. When the Holy Spirit comes over you there is an illumination. It’s like going from black and white to color. You go from being a worm to being a butterfly. Astounding!
A wave of newness sweeps through you with purity, power, passion and prayer; The old dies and the new steps from the grave in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the same power tht spoke creation into existence and lifted our Lord’s corpse to life.
The first change that others will notice is that you move from pride to humility. When you know your heart as the Lord does, there is nothing to be prideful about. Oh how Satan and his fallen angels knows this well. Father Lucifer, the bright and morning star of heaven fell from grace because of pride to a smoldering living torch of flames in an endless hell of regret.
The selfishness that permeates with I, me and mine is exchanged for the He, Him and His of perfect love. Simon the Cyrene walked in the bloody footprints of our Savior, looking into His eyes and fell in love so much so, his two sons became the first two bishops of color in Libya! Self will die as Christ lives in you.
Peter was a very vivid example of a coward that became courageous when the Holy Spirit enjoined him in his life and service to the Lord. He made a giant step from earth into the heavenly places and he never looked back.
We live in an advertising blitzkrieg of sin that permeates any media or surface is going to put a camera on a satellite and project ads on the moon for a world audience to see and be moved to buy. Sound farfetched? Stay tuned and you will see!
The temporal or rather temporary toys of this world will join the worms that devour your cadaver in the pit. There is nothing made by man that is anywhere as valuable as man in His image and likeness. You and I are His eternal trophies. Nothing else created will survive the holocaust. But don’t despair, we will rise at His call and eternal life will include a new earth and heavens.
BE GODLY
1 Timothy 4:7
But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness;
Once you are born again and have graduated from “Jesus IS Lord” to “Jesus AS Lord” your all consuming passion begins to be to guard the true Gospel from perversion of the truth. Jesus said that He was the Truth so to protect the Word you are protecting the person of Jesus from further heartache. This means that there is no speculation or new revelation. Truth is Truth: objective truth. I accept the Word for it’s obvious message and avoid allegories like the black plague. I have never even read Pilgrim’s Progress and never will. The Gospel as the Holy Spirit authorized it is my life’s challenge to drain the last drop of living Water. I’m convinced that if I had many lifetimes of study I would still be just scratching the surface of the 66 books.
No speculation allowed but I would suggest that you embrace a pure heart and a good conscience. No money or king’s ransom will do that. Only a genuine faith in Jesus, His words and works, sill start in your mind, seep into your heart to point your soul to Jesus with a calling that cannot be resisted;
Our acceptance saves us from the punishment of sin, the power of sin and in the Lord’s Day the presence of sin. When we fight the good fight, the victory is assured. This is much cause to pray and give thanks to our Savior for His sacrifice of that death stake. The only route to a peaceful life is to follow the bloody foot prints of Jesus.
When you choose to be godly, Jesus owns you. You will suffer for teaching truth so the use of your gifts for maximum performances is of paramount importance. The mantra should be justice for all and to keep pure.
The content of your character should mirror the souls of God and the content of His Words. No lust’s allowed when the fruit of the Spirit ripens. When you are wholly His you become holy and blameless in God’s sight. Nothing short of being God is being godly and this can only be done by exchanging all you are for all He is.
BE READY
When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus hurry and come down for today I must stay at your house.”
Luke 19:5
There’s something special about friends having a dinner with friends. It just feels good to enjoy a good meal with good people. In most cultures, it is a special time that can go for hours. It isn’t fast-food fries, it is a golden moment that remains in your album of memories.
How startling can it be to have Jesus invite Himself to your home for quality time of fun, food and fellowship? Would you be ready to have Him as your house-guest? Something to think about isn’t it? So let’s think about it together.
There might be a spouse or child would object to this. It isn’t too difficult to d a quick inventory of the magazines, CDs, DVDs, favorite TV shows and internet history. These few areas might run a cold chill down your spine thinking Jesus would notice and comment to you His displeasure for the sin you are tolerating in your home under your nose.
So right now, do an inventory of the objectionable items in your household. It is good to do your dirty laundry and to begin a godly home because the Lord would like to be the centerpiece. The Holy Spirit will not live in an immoral garbage can.
What if your objectionable friends should drop by to visit when Jesus is your guest? What would He think about how they dress, what they smoke or drink and the language they use? Think about it.
We must be willing instruments of His. He is the one that orchestrates everything in our lives if we have exchanged all we are for all He is. The question remains; Are you ready for Jesus to move in with you and your family? Is there any reason you might have that this would not be a good idea? If you have a home prepared for your Savior, then invite Him in right now.
Write this on the tablet of your heart:
I can permit Him in my household,
I will ask Him to live with us,
I must!