5 Ways to Keep Your Faith

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him

Jesus said that "if you have faith the grain of a mustard seed you shall tell this mountain to be removed, and tossed into the see, and it will be removed and tossed into the see". Wow that's powerful! Faith is a powerful thing. There is even a place in the Bible where we find that Jesus could not do any great work because of the people's lack of faith. So it isn't surprising to me that one of the things we find most under attack from the enemy of our souls is faith.
Satan is a liar, and He is the accuser of the brethren, and when we go through trials and tribulations he tends to use those things as moments to rattle our faith. To rob us of our joy of faith in Christ. We live in a world where faith has become a rarity.
As powerful as faith is, doubt can be just as powerful. It was the Israelites doubt that God would actually bring them into the wilderness into the promised land that actually kept them from entering into the promise land! They felt abandoned by God. However if they would have had faith, the wilderness wouldn't have lasted long at all.
Here is what to do to preserve your faith:
1.) PRAY IN THE HOLY GHOST! Jude 20: ²⁰But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost... The Bible says that praying in the Holy Ghost builds up your most holy faith. When you pray in tongues The Spirit is making intercession for you (Romans 8:26). This affects your faith positively because who knows what to pray for you better than God? God is actually praying for you when you pray in tongues! Your heavenly prayer language confuses the devil, so he can't hear your prayers and mess with your faith anymore. Your spirit also gains strength because God is having His way as you pray in the Holy Ghost, and your faith recieves a major boost!

2.) PRAY, PRAY, PRAY! Not only pray in the Spirit but just pray in general. The more you pray, the more God reapays! James 5:16 says Confess your trespasses^[a] to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. When you pray you are talking to God, and when you are talking to God you are reminding yourself that God is there and He is listening. And since the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails much, the more you see God mightily answer your prayer, the more faith you will have!

3.) Repent A lot of times we find ourselves having a lack of faith in our life because sin hinders our faith. Sin hinders our prayers and sin hinders our worship. The first part of James 5:16 says to confess your trespasses, and the Bible also says if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Repentance is not only confessing, but also turning from their sins. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says ¹⁴If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. God has promised to hear us from heaven and heal our land, if we turn from our wicked ways! When we turn from our sins and turn towards Jesus we can feel His power moving through us again, giving us the power to walk away from sin and towards righteousness. This is a huge faith booster!

4.) Fill Your Mind with the Word of God Hebrews tells us the Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two edged sword... the Word of God has a way of piercing through darkness. When our faith is running low, we must fill our mind with what God has already promised us. When the devil tells us that we are defeated, think "We are more than conquerors" or "you have overcome the wicked one, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world". When we feel the doubt that God loves us read or think "God commendeth His love toward us; that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us". If there is a lie in your head attacking your faith there is a promise from God in His word to counteract it. When Jesus was tempted by Satan saying "do you really think you're the Son of God..." Jesus responded "Shut up devil, for it is written". A lot of people will tell you to have more faith you have to positively self talk, but don't just say anything, make sure it is in the Word! When it's in the Word, satan can not win.

5.) Fight to Hold On to Your Faith Paul said fight the good fight of faith. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. Faith is depicted in the Bible as something precious that must be visciously held on to, so when that old liar comes around trying to attack your faith, get such a strong grip on your faith that he can't pry it out of your hands. Even if it doesn't make sense right now, hold on to your faith, and it will only prove you right!

Holding Back

 Acts 5:
 ³But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
 ⁴Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
 ⁵And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
  ⁷And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
 ⁸And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.
 ⁹Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.
 ¹⁰Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.

Ananaias and his wife are guilty of a crime against God I think a lot of church folk are guilty of. What they did was they had taken a part of what they had, and kept it from God and His work. They went out, sold a posession, knew that they should have given all of it to the church, but decided they wanted to keep some for themselves.
I wonder how many reading this (I'm not pointing fingers, I'm guilty too) when God gave you the Holy Ghost, When God saved you, When God bought you with His own blood, said "oh Jesus, I love you, I'm going to give you everything, you can have all of me" and you have not done it. Like Annanaias and his wife we hold back when God wants all of us.
Too many of us would rather hold on to sin, then be completely submitted to God. Too many of us would rather hold on to our posession, or what we think is ours, then giving everything to God, who deserves it.
1 Corinthians 6:19 tells us that we are not our own, we were bought with a price.
JESUS DIED FOR YOU! When we have areas of our life that are not God's, or are not of God, we are telling Him, sorry Jesus, you didn't pay enough for me, I'm too expensive for you. Your death on the cross wasn't good enough to buy me. I don't know about you, but I don't want to face the Lord on judgement day and tell Him the price He paid for us was only enough for part of our life. You only paid enough for Sunday and Wednesday. No way!
We all have had times in our life where God required something of us we weren't willing to do. When we first get saved it's all nice and easy, but if you really consider Him your father, He's going to ask you to obey Him. He knows what's best, He's trying to save you from destruction. God will never ask anything out of you, or ever ask you to let go of anything without good reason. Give the creator of all the universe some credit.
Alot of times we want to give God the way we dress, but not the music we listen to. We want to give God the things we watch on TV, but when he starts telling us to dress modestly we say no. We want to give God tithes but when He lays on our heart to give offerings we hold it back for ourselves. We want to give God our lives for a calling but aren't willing to make sacrifices for that calling. We want to give God the easy sins, but not the ones that are hard to let go of.
God is calling you today, hold nothing back, give it all.

For the Bros: FLEE fornication and youthful lusts.

1 Corinthians 6:18-22
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is a temple of the  Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.2 Timothy 2:22
Flee also youthful lusts:but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
I don't know why, but I felt lead to remind all my brothers in Christ out there, it is VITAL that we flee fornication and lusts. 
 Fornication and lust - for men at least- is the most deadly sin, b/c it is a more addictive sin than most, and impossible without complete relience on the Holy Ghost to stop committing once you have.
Let's face it dudes, we got a problem. I just want to tell it plain. When the Bible talks about the law of sin being in our members, there is one member in particular that is more strong willed than any other member. It will bring you down, and will destroy you, if you don't let God have control. You know what I'm talking about.
Now listen, Im just gonna put this out there- I AM SICK AND TIRED of seeing young men and even seasoned men of God- ruining their ministry, forfeiting their anointing, and giving up on  their calling, because their either fornicating or lusting after women. Women are hot, I agree, but seriously, the flames of hell are pretty hot too! So in case I am not being plain enough, let me spell it out for you.

1.) DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES watch pornography! Statistics show that over 25 million americans view pornography a day. The top 2 viewed websites on the internet are pornography sites, above even facebook! Not only are you committing sin by lusting after women you don't even know and are not married too, and sending yourself to hell, it is highly addictive. Take it from me, I will be transparent in telling you I struggled with pornography for 7 years before God used a trustworthy man of God and good friend to help me get saved from this destructive force. Chances are, 99% of men in your church have viewed pornography at some time. Studies show porn users are angry, violent, and abusive. This is not the type of man you want to be.
2.) Young men: If you find a girl you like, even if you believe she is the will of God for you, and there are signs and lighting from heaven, do not get too serious until there is a ring on her finger!! Seriously just trust me, this is going to save you alot of trouble.
3.) If you didn't listen to me in step 2, or you already have a girlfriend, (once again this is for young men only) DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES go anywhere where you two can be alone. Come on man, you don't wanna 'just talk'. Ain't a dude alive that wants to just talk. There is a whole lot less of a chance, I don't care how good of a kid you are, of "stuff happening" if people, especially her dad, your mom, or your pastor is around. Unless... of course... you want to get shot.
4.) If you have been sexually active with someone that is not your wife, I don't care if you two really messed up and your having a baby, you need to repent and stop doing it. If you aren't married, fornication is a sin. It doesn't matter if you've fornicated before or not. In fact, if you guys aren't committed, you should probably seek guidance from your pastor, be upfront with him, and tell him what you are struggling with, it would probably be a good idea to break up, too... if you think heaven is worth it. Think about it like this, you are cheating on your wife, even if you think the person you're with is your wife, your wife is the only one meant to be sexual with you. She is the only woman God says, "ok you can lust after her all you want, go crazy". She deserves you brand new, not used.
*edit*4.5) I was going to add this earlier but did not have the time. Dude, do not undress a woman with your eyes!! Jesus said that is the same thing as committing adultery with her in your heart! Like I said before, it doesn't matter how hot she is, hell is hotter. Making your you know what happy for a moment isn't worth your calling, ministry, friendship with sisters in the Lord, or anything God has for you! Do not even go there, just don't even think it. Seriously, control yourself!
5. ) I could say alot more, but the Bible already said it perfectly, FLEE also youthful lusts, FLEE fornication. If your walking down the street and someone pulls a kinfe on you, your not gonna look at them for a minute and think "hmm... are they really gonna kill me?" or "boy that knife looks really nice". Your gonna run away. Be careful what you watch, who you hang out with, where you go, and what you listen to. If you wouldn't watch it, do it, go to it, click it, read it, think about it, stare at her, with Jesus sitting right next to you, don't. Cuz guess what... Jesus is watching, and he knows the very thoughts of your heart.
God is looking for men that are pure in heart to use in his kingdom. If your heart is stained with a lust problem, you will not make it.

Erosion

     The definition of erosion is this: The gradual wearing away of solid materiel. It happens to rocks, beaches land, normal everyday things -like wind, water, and ice- take something that was once so strong and durable and make it weaker and softer, until eventually it carries it away and deposits it somewhere else.

     The Bible says in Mark 4:19 "And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful." The Word of God is the bread of life. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1). Jesus was the Word made flesh (John 1:14). Jesus came to trade His life for ours, by his substitution for us on the cross. When the earth was formed by God, it was at first without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the earth, nothing living was on it. Them God spoke the Word and life came to the earth. The word fruit means the offspirng of, or what is born of. The fruit of the Word is that it gives us life! When we start eroding, the word becomes unfruitful, and it stops giving us life. We become spiritually dead, instead of alive in Christ.

     Mark 4:19 is a formula of how to spiritually erode. When we first recieve salvation, we are as solid as a rock. We are standing on the rock. The church was built upon a rock, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against. I recall times in my life where I just would witness to anybody, my worship was unhindered, there was no such thing as depression or discourage touching me, I felt like I could do anything through Christ. Then I started to erode, not overnight, but slowly and surely, without even recognizing it immediately, little parts of me began being carried out to sea, far from the peaceful shore. If not for the goodness of God I would not be back to where I was, but He remade me and I am now better than I was before!

    First, the cares of this world are involved in spiritual erosion. These don't have to be sin. They can be anything. They can  be a weight. Hebrews tells us to lay aside every sin and weight that so easily besets us. The Christ-follower should not be entangled with the things of this life. God will give you blessings, but never let your blessings become a curse. "Things" have a way of gripping your heart, and exalting themselves above God in your life. Whether it's a relationship, a new car, a house, a career, NEVER let it steal your heart. Colossions says set your affections on things above, not on things of earth. John wrote that if you love the things of this world, the love of the Father is not in you. The best thing you can do with material items is just giving them to God. The things even the people you love were loaned to you, to show the world Christ's glory.
     The deceitfulness of riches is next. Man can not serve God and mammon. The love of money is the root of all evil. It is easy to get a job that pays more money, and start loving money. Money buys you things. Money is good, but money is not God. As Christians we are to count everything we gain as loss. You know you start loving money when you recieve a paycheck and say to yourself "how can I spend this after tithes", and not how can I honor God with this money. What you spend your free time, and extra money on, tells you where your values are. Money starts pulling you away from Christ, when you start using it to make yourself comfortable, not to bring Him pleasure.

    The lusts of other things is the last in the tri-fecta. Lust doesn't just mean sexual desire. It is in fact a strong overwhelming desire for anything. This is the underlying cause of any heart problems. Jesus wants all our love, all our affection. When you lust after something, it blinds your judgement, you will sin in order to get it. These things we lust after, they consume us, when God is the ultimate consuming fire. It is time the church cast down their idols and returned to their first love. Every man is drawn away when enticed by his own lusts, and when lust is conceived it brings forth sin, which brings forth death.

    Spiritual erosion happens little by little. It will take you by surpirse, it will happen before you even know it. It happens when you take your eyes off the prize, when you stop pressing towards the mark, when you become distracted. Little by little the things of this world fight for our attention, and we become colder and deader to the things of God, and we start eroding far from the peaceful shore. The way back is to passionately pursue Christ. Christ is the reason to live, the reason to die, the only thing worth living for, the very blood flowing through our veins. He is ours and we are His, he paid for us, and not a cheap price at all. He was ripped off, but He loves us so much, that He was willing to pay too much for us. He owes us nothing, yet He still gives. We owe Him everything.
  
    Stop being washed away by the things of this world, let Christ rule everything you do.

Driving Under the Influence

Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
John 16:13 ¹³Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
    One of the greatest tragedies of my era has been drunk driving. Statistics show that drunk driving
Statistically, one motorist dies in a drunk driving related inident every 50 minutes. One in three will be in an alcohol related crash in their lifetime. It unfortunately kills a lot of young people, leading to great grief among family and loved ones.
    As my grandpa always says, as it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. As destructive as a force that drunk driving is to the United States, being drunk and yielded to the Holy Ghost is even more dangerous to the kingdom of hell. Paul tells us to not be drunk with wine wherin is excess, but to be filled with the Spirit. The book of Acts tells us that when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all in one mind and one accord, and they were all filled with the holy ghost, began speaking in tongues and magnifying God. The Bible then says that others mocking, said these men are full of new wine.
    We all are driving in life towards a destination, for those of us who are saved, it's heaven. For those of us who are not saved it's hell. The problem is that the car of eternal life was not meant to be driven carnality, but was meant to be driven drunk- under the influence of the Holy Ghost!
    When a delinquet is driving druck his judgement is impaired by the alcohol. He can't really get a good girp on his car, things start to blur, he kinda just has to start making it on a little bit of faith, and a hope and a prayer that he doesn't run into an oncoming car, or into a tree. He is really at the mercy of how drunk he really is, if he is just a little bit drunk, he might be able to make it home safely, if he is really drunk, there's not a chance that he will make it home safely.
   I don't know about you my brother or sister, but I don't want to make it home safely! There is a dying world out there, that needs to know about the God that I serve, and I don't want to make it to heaven and face a holy God, without having gone all out to do His Will, without having yielded to Him in every area!!
   We get into situations on the road of life, that we just can't make it by with our own understanding. The Bible says in Romans 8:26 ²⁶Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. We need the Holy Ghost to pray for us and make intercession for us. When we are yielded to the Holy Ghost, He gives us a new perspective on life. We are given an understanding of our situation, where if we were in our right mind we would have lost our mind, but because the Holy Ghost is working through us it gives us a divine understanding, that all things are working together for the good of them that love Him. It gives us a divine understanding that think it not strange the fiery trial of your faith! It gives us a divine understanding that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers Him out of all them! Oh I feel like praising God right now, for the power of the Holy Ghost working in my life! It enables us to bare spiritual fruit in situations where we wanna cuss somebody out. It enables us to preach anointed sermons when we can't seem to get a thought down on paper. It enables us to not be anxious, but take everything with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving to God!
    Don't try to drive through life on your own power, the Bible says we can drive underneath the influence of the One who is all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, all-present.
   I encourage you right now find a place to pray, get some praise music going, and begin to ask God to fill you with His spirit! Speak in tongues, cry out to God, praise Him, stir up the gift that is within you! It is so necessarry to be drunk in the Spirit. The more drunk you are, the more control God has. Yield to Him!

Hell Is Real

In his most recent bestselling book "Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.", Rob Bell asks Christians to "rethink hell", and to rethink such notions as "Gandhi is in hell". Now it’s hard to tell exactly what he believes, he does a lot of flip flopping and he kind of beats around the bush. I’ve never read the book, but from the excerpts I’ve read, it appears he espouses the Universalism view, and at the very least says it’s a good idea. The universalism view is this: basically, that everybody is saved. That God loves us all too much to send any of us to hell, that if there is a hell, it was just meant for Satan and his army.

     Now I know that Mr. Bell probably isn’t going to read my blog, but if anybody reading this thinks that the church is wrong on it’s stance on hell, maybe this will change your mind. I am just going to say this. Not everyone is going to heaven. 1 Peter 4:18 says “And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”
I’m going to break it up like this. Now there are some theological issues between the difference of “hell” and the “lake of fire”. I am not going to touch that, we all know what we are talking about here. I am speaking of hell in a general term, meaning death, the pit, the grave, the lake of fire, hell meaning eternal death. It’s the place where the unsaved go to die an eternal death.

1. Hell is real, and the Bible supports it!

We know when we read the Bible that Hell (lake of fire) is scripturally supported; overwhelmingly, in fact. Revelation 19: 20"And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him,
with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone." See the book of revelation speaks of a beast, and a false prophet filled with the spirit of anti Christ rising up in the last days. It

proclaims in this scripture that they are thrown in the lake of fire burning with sulfur. There is no mistranslation from the Greek here; it means what it says it means; lake of fire. Revelation 20: 10 says this 10And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Now, it is tempting to believe at this point that the lake of fire is just meant for the devil, but when we read this verse in context; we understand that it is not just meant for Satan. Verses 1-3 John the revelator sees Satan being bound up during the millennial reign in the bottomless pit, and then verse 4 talks about a judgment.

This Judgment is given from God, and it is for those that had denied the mark of the beast, and had been persecuted for Christ. They are the ones that will rule and reign with Christ on the earth for the thousand years. It then says that the rest of the dead remain sleeping for the thousand years. This Judgment is given from God, and it is for those that had denied the mark of the beast, and had been persecuted for Christ. They are the ones that will rule and reign with Christ on the earth for the thousand years. It then says that the rest of the dead remain sleeping for the thousand years.

Then it says that Satan is loosed and deceives the nations, until He is finally destroyed and thrown in this lake of fire. The Bible then goes on to say in the following verses "11And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

12And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

13And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

14And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

15And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

The Bible clearly says that anyone who’s name was written in the Lamb’s book of life was cast into the same lake of fire Satan was cast into. This is what will happen. The Bible says that to be written in the book of life, you must not take away from the words of the Book (Bible) or add to it, and that nothing enters in that commits abominous works, lies, or defiles. The word defiles means to make unclean. If you have anything in your life that makes you unclean, you are not written in the lamb’s book of life. (the only thing that can cleanse you is the blood of Jesus).

Now this is only taking scriptures from revelation for times sake, but there are more I will list for your personal study if you like.

Jesus spoke of it in Matthew 8:11-12, Matthew 22: 12-13, and Matthew 25:29-30, Matthew 13:41-42, Matthew 13:49-50, Luke 13:27-28.

           2.   Sin not washed away by the blood of Jesus will send you to hell

I only need one scripture for this point, though there are many more. Romans 6:23 says for the wages of sin is death. It’s interesting how this scripture in the context says wages of sin, meaning more than one payment. The Bible speaks of 2 deaths, the first death- on the earth, and the second we just read – in the lake of fire.

          3.  You want to avoid hell!
A best selling book was written called: "I hope they serve beer in hell". It seems that our western culture has made eternal death a joke. I’ve witnessed to some young people using Tim Down’s heaven or hell method(asking if you want to go to heaven or hell), and they say hell. When I asked them why they said that’s where all the partiers, good music, and my friends will be. The lake of fire is no joke! The Bible says that the flames will be so hot, yet will not kill you, you will constantly wish you were dead. Imagine being in so much searing pain forever, with no end, ever, the rest of eternity wishing you were dead. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Now some people may ask, why would a loving God, send people to hell? The answer is this: sin sends us to hell. The Bible says it separates us from God. We can’t live with God for all of eternity without having our sin washed away by the blood of Jesus. Sin is literally the substance of Satan. All sin is rooted in pride, b/c Satan was the first to sin. Sin is rebellion to God, when we sin, it is b/c our pride tells us we know better than God. We then become just like Satan. 1 John 3:8 says: "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."And get this:

The truth is eternal death will happen not just to evil wicked people like Hitler, Bin Laden, and Genghis Kahn - if they haven’t been or don’t get saved before they died -perfectly good people will go to hell too! Matthew 7:22-23 Jesus says “²²Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
 ²³And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Not only did these people not do anything bad, but it says that in Jesus name they did “MANY WONDERFUL WORKS”. And they will be cast out of the presence of God! Now how can this be? Well easy, the wages of sin is death. You can be a Christian all your life sitting on the front pew and still go to hell. God is more concerned with you knowing Him. The only way to know Him is through salvation, dying daily, being full of the Holy Ghost. The blood of Jesus is what gives you a relationship with God.

Jesus died, was buried and resurrected from the grave.

We must repent, dying to our fleshly ways, bury our old sinful man with Christ in baptism (Romans 6:4) (acts 2:38), and be resurrected with Him through the Holy Ghost. (Acts 1:8, Acts 2:4, Acts2:38, Romans 8:11). Then after that we must continue to live in consecration to Him, b/c the truth is, hell is not going to be worth it. Trust Jesus, let Him save you from Hell. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 says "For I delivered unto you first of all that

which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:" Revelation 1:8 Jesus says this: "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."

Amen.

Perfect Praise from a Broken Vessel

Perfect Praise from a Broken Vessel



Mark 14 :

 ³And being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head.
 ⁴And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made?
 ⁵For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her.
 ⁶And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me.

As we read in the scripture above, Mary, had come to pour the ointment for Jesus' burial upon Him. This was shortly before Jesus was to be Crucified.
The part of this scripture however I want to focus on, is in Mark 14:3 when it says she brake the box and pored it on His head.
Broken, that's a word that has some deep meaning for me. To make this blog a little personal, God has just been...breaking me. He's been taking all my plans, all my desires, all my dreams, and breaking them.
Now why would a loving God who loves me enough to die for me, to be broken and poured out for me, want ME, to be broken. It's so my life could be poured out upon Him. So I can pour perfect praise out upon Him. So that I can be used. So that He could give me new life.
We have 3 portions of this act by Mary Magdelene I would like to talk about:The Box, the ointment, and Mary, pouring it out on His feet.
First let's talk about Mary Magdelene. A lot of times when speaking of her, we think about her being the woman caught in the act of adultery, or the woman who had devils cast out of her. Jesus saved this woman from a horrible and broken life, just like He did all of us. While the other disciples were rebuking her for buying this box instead of giving the money to the poor, Jesus said she was doing a good work upon Him. I find it so awesome how the ones that God uses are the ones that most people (even church people sometimes) look down on. God loves to use the outcasts.
If she hadn't done what she did, who would have prepared Jesus to do His greatest work, the death burial and resurection of Himself to conqueor sin.
Let her represent the situations in life that come and make you broken. Here you are, an alabaster box, ready to be poured out upon Jesus, but you won't do it yourself. Most of us love our comfort too much, so the storms of life, the toils and snares, come to break us, so we can be poured out upon the Master.
Next is the alabaster box itself. I would like to make this alabaster box represent the people of God. Alabaster is a very precious stone. The alabaster of back then was very hard to break.
Alot of times, when we start being used by God, when we start seeing His work in our life, we become like this alabaster stone. We start to make ourselves look very presentable. We come to church on Sunday, wearing our festive ties with matching suits, and we don't go to the altar and shed a tear. We can become so hard. We become so sure of ourself, that we forget where God has brought us from. God REQUIRES for us to be broken. When we are broken laying down at the feet of Jesus, is when His strength can be shown in us.
God has been showing me this lately. I am personally in a season of repentence. A season of change. God is drastically changing me, breaking me, and making me new. In order for us to be made new, we have got to constantly be at a place of brokenness and repentence before God. If my people who are called by my name will humble themeslves, and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven says the Lord in 2 Chronicles 7:14. We must be softened, and broken, before Him.
The last part I'd like to talk about is the ointment inside the alabaster box. As precious as the alabaster stone was, it was what was inside that was even more precious. The parfumed oil that was to prepare Jesus for His burial. Inside of us who have the Holy Ghost, is something so much more precious than our exterior. Much like that hardened alabaster box, our resistance to the will of God holds our destiny within.
GOD LONGS for what is within us to be POURED OUT!
Each one of you reading this has a purpose, an ultimate destiny, something God has put deep inside of your heart, something for His kingdom, for His glory. Something you have been saving up for. Something your Spirit wants to do to say "thank you Jesus, for saving me". We were all like Mary Magdelene, lost in sin, but thanks be to God for saving us.
Something in us cries out to give Him perfect praise, perfect obedience, however it is held inside by our pride.
It is held inside by our disobedience. It is held inside by our resistance to His will. He wants to take over. He wants to take control.
Warning: You will have to be broken. What is inside of you is screaming to be poured out upon Jesus, let Him break you, and make you new.
Maybe you are reading this, and you feel God telling you to give something up. You hear Him asking you to deny some things, to live by faith and not by sight. You may be afraid of the brokenness, but I have come to tell you that your brokenness... is what God will use for the furtherance of His kingdom! Your life can be something so beautiful! Let go of your alabaster box of resistance! Let the ointment of the Holy Ghost be poured out of you! Stop resisting, start letting the Master break you, and trust Him to pick up the broken pieces and make it a even more beautiful life. A life of perfect praise poured out before Him.

Quick, Get Back Up!!!!!

QUICK, GET BACK UP!!!!

    Proverbs 24:16"For a just [man] falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief."

            In Rocky II, the final scene is played out like this: Apollo Creed has a lead on rocky through their entire fight that Rocky couldn't possibly beat. However, due to Apollo's obsession to knock Rocky out, he tires himself out (thus the rope-a-dope effect). Finally in the final round Rocky lands a punch on Apollo that knocks him down, however the exhausted Rocky falls to the canvas as well. The ref starts the 10 count of defeat. Both fighters are on the mat. Rocky barely stammers his way up pulling himself up by the ropes right before the referee reaches "10".

         It's true we are fighting a hard fight against the devil. You may not see it, but all your prayers, all your fasting, all your worship, all your witnessing- has beaten him down beyond belief. He already came into this fight defeated. Our Savior went 3 rounds with Him and whooped Him by a mile; defeating Him on the Cross in the burial and in His ultimate resurrection for the K.O.. Your enemy knows where his destination is. A win for him means that you're gonna fall with him. Under no circumstances is it o.k. to stay down until you're out. Now it will get tiring, you may get knocked down a few times, but that's why there's a ten count called grace. With the strength of God within us, we are destined to be champions.

    
      So what do we do when we fall? What do we do when we get exhausted, and forget to go to our corner to renew our strength in the Lord and the power of His might? When the devil as he's falling sneakily grabs us by our collar and yanks us down with him? That's why the scripture says "For a just man falls 7 times and rises up again, but the wicked shall fall into mischief." Even the just men fall sometimes. The thing that makes them just is they confess their sins, and get the strength to go on and win this fight! They get up before it's too late. According to Strong's concordance, the Hebrew for the word mischief is "ra". Besides doing wickedness, a meaning of this word is also to be in "distress". This comes from the root word "ra'a" which means to be broken. When we fall, God intends us to get back up before the 10 count, to go on to be champions with Him in the resurrection. Not stay down in our broken calamity until God says 10, falling deeper and deeper into darkness. 

     So life is rough. Painful times will come. We might get knocked down. We might feel like it's over. The waters may seem to be overwhelming us. But the Lord on high is mightier than the voice of many waters. Fight with His inner strength, and go on to be the undisputed heavy weight champion over the world, over death and the grave. Amen.

Breaking Through

Breaking Through!

I had no Idea what I was going to write here in this blog.

I sat here staring at the title the Lord gave me for a few minutes before I got this parable in my head.

A man and his family were kidnapped and locked in an all brick room(with exception for the ceiling) in the middle of a plenteous city.

The man understood that on the other side of this brick wall was a marketplace full of food, bathhouses, and warm places to sleep.

The man knew that he had to get out to save his and his families life.

So he tried to climb over the top, but slipped back down and could not get any footing.

So he then tried to dig underneath, but came to a place where he could dig no further down quite quickly.

He then got desperate and began calling out to see if anyone would hear him.

The response was utter silence.

The sun had gone down and the room got dark.

He then did the only thing he knew how to do.

He began clawing through the brick, picking it out with his nails and bare hands chip by chip.

He kept crying out "if anyone's out there, save us, we need somebody to help!!".

Just then over the top of the wall some bread came down.

He yelled thank you, and kept crying out for help, reminding whoever threw that bread that he was still stuck in there.

For the next week all he got was bread and water bottles thrown over the wall, as he continued to chip away to very little avail at the brick wall. His hands had become a bloody mess.

He had worn the nails off his hands and his skin was numb on his fingertips.

The next morning, he found a miniature pick ax lying next to him. 

He used it to chip through the other 75% of the brick wall and reach His arm out.

The man on the other side, who had been throwing them bread and water, and threw them the pick ax, grabbed his arm, pulled enough bricks away, and helped him out of the prison.

The Parable means this.

We sometimes get stuck into situations, where God seems silent and we seem stuck.

And all he seems to throw us, is daily bread, that doesn't seem like enough to break through a wall.

But the bread helps us survive, and is what gives the strength to chip at that wall.

But God never intends for you to break through on your own.

The pick ax is the holy ghost, and it is the only way to finally make it through.

God is going to allow you to ware yourself out with prayer, ware yourself out with fasting, ware yourself out with worship.

You feel like God's not there, like you're praying to a brick wall, but yet there seems to be that evidence, that daily bread, thats enough to survive, that you know you didn't get on your own.

And just when all that attempting to break through gets you to the point of desperation, to where you feel like a bloodied up spiritual mess, you realize you need the Holy Ghost to get through it, and you are endued with a much more effective tool to break through the wall of doubt, addiction, fear, pride, or sin. Endued with a power from on high, just when you realize there is no way out.

Because if you make it through when you still have the strength, it's no testimony, but when you know

I surely would have died if it had not been for the Lord.

Im talking about somebody's whose testimony is if it had not been for the Lord who is on our side!!

Somebody who says he rescued me outta the snare of the fowler.

When all hope seemed gone, He came through right on time! 

2 Timothy 4: 

¹⁷ But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. ¹⁸ And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!

The Wrong Kind of Fear (a blog for the lost, wary, and fallen)

The Wrong Kind of Fear

^{Hebrews 4:16}Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

It is good to fear God.

Let me correct that, it is great to fear God.

We should know that God is all powerful.

That God could wipe us out, if he wanted to (He doesn't).

We should know that God is all knowing.

That God HATES sin.

That He will not be mocked.

That is respect.

Fear of His wrath keeps us in His mercy.

But the devil I believe...

can put a different fear of God in us....

Satan is the accuser of the brethren. 

And if we fall, he will try to keep us from where we need to be,

which is the throne room of all mighty God.

Sometimes we just come to God all wrong.

Like this: "God I know your a sinner, you probably don't 

want anything to do with me, you will never forgive me this time"

The devil can even put the thought in your mind that because

of your arrogant disobedience you might as well not even pray.

That's not true.

We need God.

We shouldn't be afraid of Him when we need Him most;

We should come boldly before the throne to find grace to help in the time of need.

That's what the cross was for.

The blood of Jesus was given so we sinners 

could have a covenant relationship with God.

We should remember God hates sin, but loves the sinner.

If I fall, I'm not afraid to just come to God.

The best way to repent is to just get on your knees and say 

"God I messed up, watched something I shouldn't have, did something I shouldn't have, lied, etc. etc." and then say forgive me, I won't do it again, and sin no more.

That's it.

You and God are cool.

Your beef was already taken care of at the Cross.

Your sins are tossed in a sea of forgetfulness.

You don't even need to remember it.

If you ask him more than once to forgive you,

(out of a sincere heart of course)

then you're wasting precious prayer time.

He did the first time you asked. 

Now it's that grace that makes you

want to sin no more.

Not the fear that God's going to throw a fireball 

at you if you do again, because He won't.

But sooner or later you have to stop sinning.

Let that be known.

Sin separates you from God,

and it is impossible to walk in His anointing 

with unrepentant or unforgiven sin in your life.

However I feel lead to tell somebody this;

if you have messed up, find a place of prayer,

don't run from God.

If you run from God you'll end up in the belly of a whale.

If you run to Jesus you'll find grace to help in the time of need. 

Don't Worry, it's Cooked in 0 Grams of Trans Fat

Don't Worry, it's Cooked in 0 Grams of Trans Fat

 Ephesians 4: 29- ²⁹Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

So I was dropping my friend off after church and drove by Wendy's tonight.

Now this was the first time my friend has ever been

 to church with me so I don't pass by this every night.

And I haven't eaten Wendy's in a while.

America has become a health conscious nation.

Fast food won't sell anymore unless they make us feel not so guilty

by adding ALMOST healthy options on the menu.

So I ordered my greasy Chicken Bacon Club (SO GOOD) (WENDY'S PLUG)

and my fries. 

I ate some fries on the way home.

When I sat down to finally finish my meal, I read on the bag.

"Our food is cooked in 0 grams of trans fat".

I'm like, so..... that doesn't mean it's good for ya.

A wendy's single cheeseburger is cooked in 0 grams of trans fat.

Well that's good.

It's missing the major thing.

If I didn't have half a brain I would almost be fulled into thinking it's good for me.

I mean it's not cooked in trans fat.

However, it still does have 470 calories, 21 grams of fat, and 43 carbs.

So I got to thinking.

It doesn't have one obvious thing that's bad for ya (being cooked in fat)

But that doesn't mean it's good for you! 

And I thought "hey, it's like that spiritually too".

How many times do we justify an activity that doesn't separate us completely from God;

but it certainly doesn't bring us any closer to Him?

We think that just because whatever were doing doesn't have

a "major sin" attached to it;

that it's spiritually good for us.

I recall Paul (who wrote our scripture to start this blog)

saying in Romans 14:23

"That whatever is not of faith, is sin".

The Bible also tells us in Hebrews to

 "lay aside every sin and weight that does so easily beset us."

You've heard it before, just because it's not a sin

doesn't mean it's not a weight.

And we think well it's ok

i can handle this weight, I won't let it keep me from God.

The Bible says it EASILY besets us.

Be careful if you think you stand lest ye fall.

That TV show, that friendship or relationship, that website, those group of people,

that place you like to go, that joke you like to tell,

that secret thing you do you think too many people think is a sin

but you justify it cuz your flesh loves it anyway.

It probably IS a sin; but even if it's not,

it's still a weight if it's not drawing you closer to Him.

God is a jealous God.

He wants you more than any of these idols you need to cast down anyway. 

The scripture earlier basically says;

if you don't have anything worthwhile to communicate,

anything Kingdom related, then just keep quiet.

Communication is more than just words

it's a manner of life.

The next verse says grieve not the spirit (eph. 4:30)

The spirit wants relationship with you.

The Spirit is jealous of your attention.

If it's not a minister of grace.

If it ain't bringing you closer to Jesus,

if it's not of faith,

it's sin.

It's separating you from God.

You're grieving the spirit.

It's a functional savior.

It's an idol

You need to cast it down, for your own salvation.

I'll close with the words of Joel Urshan

"There is nothing wrong with entertainment, but we really make too much out of it.... as a child of God our number one source of entertainment, should be to entertain the presence of the Lord". 

Sweet Submission

Sweet Submssion

 Ephesians 5: ²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

 ²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

 ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[b] her by the washing with water through the word, ²⁷and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless

Why the picture of the bloodied up ufc fighter winning by submission?

I thought it was an awesome illustration.

Just like we should submit to the bloodied up savior. 

So today I'm blogging about submission.

This is one of my favorite portions of scripture.

I mean as I always say, guys, remember this for when you meet a sweet young lady of God;

my saying goes: If she ain't down with Ephesians 5:22, don't make her your boo... :D

Anyway, all joking aside, and yes I'm just ribbing and poking fun.

That's why I made sure I put the rest of the scripture down there.

Paul commands husbands to love their wife as He loved the church.

If a man loves Jesus, he should have no problem loving His wife.

If a woman loves the Lord, she should have no problem submitting to her husband.

The church is the bride of Christ.

God intended for brides to be women. (take that, neil patrick harris)

Now the church's husband Jesus Christ, had no problem loving us.

He loved us before we even knew him.

He suffered an agonizing execution to take away our sins.

Yet when God the husband of the church, wants the church to follow His lead, we get an attitude with Him. 

We make excuses.

We just plain out rebel.

Now Paul mentioned husbands loving wives, because if a man loves His wife the way he should; she should gladly submit to him and follow His lead, do what He says, listen to His voice, let Him handle it.

She trusts Him, she knows He will never lead her astray.

He loves her too much.

Submission or lack thereof to God isn't just a flesh problem, it's a heart issue.

If we REALLY BELIEVED He loved us,

If we really believed He cared, if we really trusted Him, if we want to be the spotless blameless bride, we would submit.

If He wants you to serve Him, if He wants you to speak to that person in the grocery store, if He wants you to preach, if He doesn't want you to preach, if He wants you to follow His word, listen to your authorities, follow His rules, do what He says, you should just do it.

Because just like the wife knows the Husband loves her and would never lead her astray, the church should know that Christ wouldn't.

Submission to God is an act of faith.

The picture up there portrays a scene, where the weaker fighter can't take the pressure anymore.

Where the one who is all bloodied up, is gonna let the weaker fighter go through that pain, until he taps out, until he learns submission. 

Maybe your emotional pain is God having your heart in an arm bar. 

Just tap out to Jesus.

Say yes to His will and His way. 

Feel the release, the freedom of sweet submission.

Eden Experience... today's world

Eden Experience... today's world

Genesis 2:⁵ Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth^[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground,⁶ but streams^[b] came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. ⁷Then the LORD God formed a man^[c] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. chapter 3:⁸ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

So even heathens know this story. God creates man, Adam and Eve, (not Adam and Steve); mankind disobeys God; our sin separates us from Him.
Here's what most of us probably don't know.

We can go back to Eden.

Because you see, what made Eden wonderful,

wasn't the fruit there. 

It wasn't the rivers, or the animals or the scenery.

It was the fact that it was the place where God and man would have fellowship.

They would walk together in the cool of the day.

God is our father.

He created us for no other purpose, than He had fatherly love to give.

We were created so we could cry out, abba, father.

We messed it up.

We ran away from home.

We got ourselves kicked out of eden.

 Isiah tells us sin separates us from God.

But God came down to earth to become sin, and make sin die on a cross. 

To restore our relationship with Him.

To redeem us.

Mission; accomplished.

Praise break!

So how do we get back there?

Simple, get filled with the Holy Ghost.

You see we live in a world, where the Spirit of God is no longer restricted to a veil in the temple.

We can have church anywhere, because the blood of Jesus tore the veil.

Then the Holy Ghost fell.

We just have to learn, especially in our culture, to entertain His presence.

My friend Geral blogged recently about what is man that thou art mindful of Him. (read it here http://beyondbelief-inmyhead.blogspot.com/2011/01/in-air-but-under-my-feet.html ).

How wonderful is it that the president's won't ever know our name, but God of all the universe can visit our house!

Try to get some Eden time in. It will change your life.

Shut off the tv. Turn off the computer! Put the cell phone down! Jesus died, just to bring us Back 2 Eden!!!