R U A Backslider?

Every now and then, you hear about a person, that has been living, hand to mouth, in the streets. Sometimes, they have been living this way, for so long, that they really don’t have any idea, who they are, and what they have become. Usually a person crosses their path daily will take an interest in them. Often times they will try to figure out, if they have any family. At least they will want to see, what kind of people, which they were. 

There are rare times that they will find that their family is very wealthy, and often had looked for them, but had given up after a while. They simply assume that they were dead. This is not true in all cases. Sometimes the other family members were more than happy, that the trouble had left the family. They are content to go on living with one absent.

This can be a lot like when we turn our backs on God, and become in what is referred to as, a backslidden state. I can tell you that I am speaking from experience when I say that this is not a good way to be. I have spent a lot of my life in this condition, and it is no fun, especially, if you didn’t stay in your relationship long enough to be grounded.

Ephesians 3:17  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

When a person runs in a different direction away from God, they tend to forget, who they really are in Christ. That is if they ever knew to begin with. It could be that you have never had the opportunity, to set under a real Godly preacher, who wanted to disciple his congregation. I don’t recall hearing the word discipleship, until I came to Florida, and was around thirty-six, at the time. 

Who in their right mind, would run from Father, if they knew much about Him?   Or Jesus Christ who died paying the high cost of our sin life?   One thing for sure is when you a member of the family of God, and take out on a running trip. It is not even like some of our families can be, wishing us a farewell. Holy Spirit knows where we are at, and will continue, to make us as miserable as possible in love, to drive us back home. 

Please allow me to go back up here to the questions that I asked, and give you my answer.      The answer is nobody.       That is nobody in their right mind.       The right mind is the mind of Christ.     You might have had that mind, at one point and time.

 Do you think that Adam and Eve had the mind of God, at any time in their lives? I would have to say yes, because we don’t know how long, that Satan had been working on Eve. It would be highly doubtful that he simply walked up, and she fell for his trick on the first shot.

Genesis 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

According to the Webster’s of 1828 the word Subtil has a meaning of: 

Sly; artful; cunning; crafty; insinuating; as a subtil person; a subtil adversary, Deceitful; treacherous.

Now, that same joker that got those two in trouble is the same one that lures us from Jesus if we don’t know how to handle him. We have to study the devil, because he has only one tool, and he is very skillful at the art of deception. Paul called it the wiles, which is the tricks to deceive.

Ephesians 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Satan is a worthy adversary, because he has been doing this madness, since before the earth was created. He has around one-third of the angels in Heaven duped, in following his destructive path.  Satan knew Father, and so did those angels that he deceived. If someone has stood in the presence of God Almighty, and they can still be fooled, that should scream volumes at us!!

There is no shame in being deceived, especially with the deceiver being the master of deception. The only shame is not coming back, into the arms of Jesus. It don’t matter what people might say to you, because anybody that says one thing against living the Christian life, doesn’t know Jesus. They simply don’t understand, that He left His home, in Heaven as the King, and came down to the miserable existence of a planet, to die for our redemption. The truth is once you have been touched by Jesus, you can never be happy again separated from Him!!

That is am incomprehensible form of love, which only Jesus could show, on our behalf!! I think that it is quite an amazing feat to never be guilty of sin, not even one time. He has paid the price, of the sins of every person, in this world. Now all we have to is come back, and allow Jesus to love us whole. Just because we have been Saved, does not mean, that we have been made whole. That part is on a time delay, but we will get better, as we go forward. 

Please take this to heart. Being Saved doesn’t make us any better than anybody else. It simply makes us better, than we were with Jesus.    Ain’t Jesus awesome?

            .....Much Love

The Woman at the Well

This has to be my favorite scene from, “The visual Bible- The Gospel of John.” It is taken from, the forth chapter of John, where Jesus must needs to go through Samaria. This is really a powerful event, in all the lives, that were involved with this story. The disciples got a taste of Jesus’s view on the gentile people. The people of Samaria were accepted in this small, but Jewish crowd, for they went with the Samaritans, for a two day visit.

I have heard that this nameless woman has been accredited with making the first ever Evangelist trip. She ran home, and shared the good news with all that would hear her. “I have met the Messiah!!” Isn’t it strange that Jesus did not have to tell her to do this? She just naturally did this, because she realized the value of her discovery. 

Yet, we have the entire story written out in front of us in God’s Word. We have so much that happened sense creation, and beyond our time. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus commands us as believers, us as children of the most high God, us as redeemed, forgiven, and have the hope of eternal life, to go into all the world telling the good news. Most of us sit on our lax daisy thumbs, rearing back while saying that there are enough people doing this already. 

WRONG!! Living the Christian life is living a life of action. We have the opportunity to share what has been freely given to us. We should look at this for what it truly is, and that is a privilege. For those who don’t see it in this way, Jesus commanded that we Go!! 

Matthew 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20  Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Enjoy the video. Meditate on the power of the story, and go ye therefore!!

 

Ain’t Jesus Awesome?

          ….Much Love       

Grab Ahold of This….

It seems that I never read a passage, in God’s Word, where I don’t get excited anymore. Sometimes the words leap off the pages at me, and other times, they come to life before my eyes. It never used to be that way. I will assume that it is simply another added blessing, from Holy Spirit.

I am going to share with you, a shameful event, from my past life. I never gave Holy Spirit the time of day. I simply could not relate to Him, in the manner, that I should have. I believe in Him, and I knew that He was there. In my prayer often times I would apologize to Him, for not saying anything to Him. I know that this sounds crazy, but there might be somebody out there reading this, that has the same issue.

If you do, then I am going to tell you what I did, before I move on. I had to purposefully call on the name of Holy Spirit, in the same manner that I called on Father, and Jesus, in the beginning. I have come to realize, that nothing about being a Christian happens by accident. Every move that we make has to be on purpose, and for it to be on purpose it has to have meaning.

Now, if you just buzzed right past, that humongous truth, that I just stated, I will repeat it again. . “I have come to realize, that nothing about being a Christian happens by accident. Every move that we make has to be on purpose, and for it to be on purpose it has to have meaning.” If the readers can get ahold of that, then it will save a good bit of frustration. Even though, I said these words, the same effect will apply to me!!

In the book of Isaiah, there is a verse, which makes it possible for me to relate, to the Prophet Isaiah. Sometimes I use the commentaries, of the Theologians to make a point, and often times their “deeper meaning” gets in my way. In this verse, they are not all that far off my attraction. They take what he is saying figuratively, and I am talking it literally. 

Isaiah 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

I would imagine the first time, which I laid my eyes on God, that I would have the same reaction, whether I could speak or not. Woe is me, because I am undone!! The part that makes me relate to Isaiah is the fact, that he has unclean lips, and he lives among people, of unclean lips. 

I personally live downtown, in the inner city, of a heathen nation, here in Jacksonville. Almost everywhere that I go, there are folks spouting derogatory words off, in a machine gun fashion. Although, my potty mouth has come a long way, I still can get right with them, if I am not paying attention.   (Remember purposeful)  I also live in one of the rougher neighborhoods in this city. It is not uncommon to hear people cussing each other, from the distance of a block apart.

I am not making any excuse, for my loose lips at times. I am a work still in progress. Jesus has really been good to me, and I have come a long way. That is another extra from having a relationship with Holy Spirit. I have grown very sensitive to His voice as He guides me into the truth, so I can be more like Jesus. I know that it is the will of Father, for all His children to be just like Jesus.

Romans 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Have you come far enough, in your Christian walk, which you can get a good grasp on God’s plan, from start to finish?       What I am asking is, can you see how involved, that God is with making sure, that we don’t fail in our part, of this relationship?    Creator, Redeemer, and Guide, all in One!!    Ain’t God awesome?

         ….Much Love        

Seriously?,……Hell?

Hey James.    Wassup buddy?    Where are you going?   I reckon that I am going to hell if I don’t change my ways!!

This was a normal conversation for the biggest part of my life. After I said that last line, or whoever might have said it, there was always a round of laughter. I was a joke to the crowd that I ran with, because we didn’t take it seriously. I came from the, “Highway to Hell” crowd. We would ride up, and down the roads, with this song blasting on the radio, trying our best to sing over full volume!!

Why do you think that we never took hell seriously?   Could it have been that we never took anything else to be all that serious?  After all, a real loving God could not send us into a place that vile. If He did wouldn’t that make Him bi-polar?   Maybe we were like a child who was whistling in the dark? 

There were all kinds of excuses that were made, but none of them changed the facts. The Bible mentions the existence, of a real hell throughout the entire Bible. It is called by many names, but I can’t find even one reference, that makes it seem like the place to be. I can’t find one reference to where hell is going to be the ultimate party, to not be missed!!

I will show you one passage on hell, and if you will notice the words are in red. Jesus is telling this example of what the real hell is like. 

Luke 16:19-26  There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20  And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21  And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22  And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23  And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24  And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.25  But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26  And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

Instead of giving you my spill on these verses, and what they mean, I am going to a professional. I want to take just one verse from this story, and show you what Albert Barnes derives from this one verse. 

Luke 16:23

In hell - The word here translated hell (“Hades”) means literally a dark, obscure place; the place where departed spirits go, but especially the place where “wicked” spirits go. See the Job_10:21-22 notes; Isa_14:9 note. The following circumstances are related of it in this parable:

1.    It is “far off” from the abodes of the righteous. Lazarus was seen “afar off.”

2.    It is a place of torment.

3.    There is a great gulf fixed between that and heaven, Luk_16:26.

4.    The suffering is great. It is represented by “torment” in a flame, Luk_16:24.

5.    There will be no escape from it, Luk_16:26.

The word “hell” here means, therefore, that dark, obscure, and miserable place, far from heaven, where the wicked shall be punished forever.

He lifted up his eyes - A phrase in common use among the Hebrews, meaning “he looked,” Gen_13:10; Gen_18:2; Gen_31:10; Deu_8:3; Luk_6:20.

Being in torment - The word “torment” means “pain, anguish” Mat_4:24; particularly the pain inflicted by the ancients in order to induce people to make confession of their crimes. These “torments” or tortures were the keenest that they could inflict, such as the rack, or scourging, or burning; and the use of the word here denotes that the sufferings of the wicked can be represented only by the extremest forms of human suffering.

And seeth Abraham ... - This was an aggravation of his misery. One of the first things that occurred in hell was to look up, and see the poor man that lay at his gate completely happy. What a contrast! Just now he was rolling in wealth, and the poor man was at his gate. He had no expectation of these sufferings: now they have come upon him, and Lazarus is happy and forever fixed in the paradise of God. It is more, perhaps, than we are authorized to infer, that the wicked will “see” those who are in paradise. That they will “know” that they are there is certain; but we are not to suppose that they will be so near together as to be seen, or as to make conversation possible. These circumstances mean that there will be “a separation,” and that the wicked in hell will be conscious that the righteous, though on earth they were poor or despised, will be in heaven. Heaven and hell will be far from each other, and it will be no small part of the misery of the one that it is far and forever removed from the other.

Does that sound like something, that you really don’t want to miss out on?   No my friends.    Hell is serious business. It don’t matter how we look at the reality of this place, which was never prepared for human beings. It is a real deal, and once we arrive, in the pits of hell; there is not an escape plan!! The only way to avoid going to hell is by accepted the fact that Jesus has already made a provision for you, by His sacrifice on the cross.    Ain’t Jesus Awesome?

              ….Much Love