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.