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Archive for the ‘Motivation’ Category

Feast Of Trumpets This Week

23 Sep

I was going to post something somewhat similar to lasts years post, but after reading it, I’m just going to repost it.

Rosh Hashanah is coming up again for the year at the end of the week. It is the Feast of Trumpets. So why do I get excited at this time?

1 Corinthians 15:51-53 – 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 – 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

Revelation 4:1- 1 After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”

In the last one the voice that was first speaking to John was Jesus.

One thing I have learned over time is God doesn’t do anything that’s not calculated, especially on things as big as this. The Lord rode into Jerusalem the first time on the very day it was prophesied.

Don’t get me wrong, we don’t know the day or hour. No idea of the year. No date setting here. I wouldn’t ever attempt it. He can come at anytime. Immanency is heavily taught in the Word so we are not to let our guard down and to always be living as Jesus is coming back today.

One thing about Rosh Hashanah is that it covers two days. There are trumpets that are blown and it is one of God’s seven Jewish feasts. I repeat God’s…..feast that He appointed to the people which He has ran the Messiah line down through. And He is coming back (Jesus) to rule and reign on His throne over them. God doesn’t break promises.

Some of those promises are to meet His own (church) in the air like the verses above. Come down and judge the nations who have rejected Him at the end of the Tribulation. Then rule and reign for the millennium over the Jews who remain as their Messiah.

So when the Feast of Trumpets come around every year, it’s hard for me not to get excited and hope that the Blessed Hope could happen. If not, it’s safe to say were closer than before. Do you long for His appearing? There is a Crown of Righteousness for those who do.

2 Timothy 4:8 – 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

 

Who Is Your King?

08 Sep

Do you serve somebody?

Whom?

Nobody?

Something?

Yourself?

The one who tries to convince you that you can serve yourself and you’ll be just fine, is this person:

Revelation 12:9 – 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. ……………

I quote the first part of that verse because it clarifies who the serpent is below.

Genesis 3:1-4 – 1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The lie is that you can be like God. Satan calls God a liar and tells Eve she won’t die. Satan is telling Eve that once you know good and evil you can now independently make those decisions for yourself.

The truth is God has no use for any other gods. That starts with Satan and then any else trying to take his advice.

Isaiah 45:22 –  22 “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

God wants us to choose Him to worship and serve. He sent His only Son to die in our place if we are willing to ask for that forgiveness and call Him Savior and be our King.

Almost all opinion conversations have the words, “ I think….”. Somebody who wants God to be in charge should refer to, “God’s Word says ……. regarding that”

We have bad tendency in this country in thinking God thinks exactly the way we do. I promise you He doesn’t. The best we can do is study His Word, pray to Him for guidance, and do our best to serve and follow Him.

 

Is It About You Or Is It About God?

02 May

For some reason people in America think that God wants for us exactly what they want for themselves.  However, when I read the next scriptures, I read that God wants us to want we He wants from our lives.

Matthew 10:39 – 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 16:25 – 25 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

Mark 8:35 – 35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

Luke 9:24 – 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

Luke 17:23 – 33 Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it.

I read that and I see a God and Lord that is warning me I don’t have good ideas, unless their His ideas.  Who’s trying to convince me that God gave me a brain and by golly I am capable of knowing what is right and wrong and what’s good and evil?

Genesis 3:1-5 – 1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Serpent indicates that by knowing good and evil like God, opens your eyes and you can be like God.  Have people today embraced that idea?  I sure see it.  Most people could care less what God thinks.  They are the god of their own domain.  Well, that’s what the devil was selling Eve.  She bought into it and the wide path of people are doing the same.

So I believe we should be narrow minded.  I believe narrow minded leads to the narrow path.  It also gets us to the place of wanting to believe what’s right in our Creator’s Mind and not chasing after our own fallen sinful desires and ideas.

Matthew 7:13-14 –  13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

It’s His way or the wide way.  Most choose their own way which is the wide way.

Proverbs 14:12 –  12 There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

We need to choose God’s way.  What way is that?  Since Eve fell because she bought the lie of Satan, we all inherited that sinful gene that has been passed down.  If anyone is honest with themselves, it isn’t hard to identify that gene.  The penalty of sin is death.  Someone has to die for our sins.  There’s two choices.  It’s either one yourself, or two, God in the flesh.

Romans 6:23 – 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  

The Lord’s sacrifice is sufficient for us to spend eternity with the Lord.  Dying in our own sins leads to separation from God forever.

God wants to be God.  He wants us to freely choose to ask for forgives and then choose to walk the way he wants us to live and walk.  God doesn’t want you to be God.

Choose to make Jesus Lord.  Ask for Him to forgive your sins and accept His sacrifice in the place of your own.  Choose to die to your own life and find it by walking with Him.  For those who have not accepted Jesus as Lord, I have a page over to the right in the column you can click on to help you get started in your new life.

Pride help cause the devil to fall.  Pride is what will keep many people from choosing God to be their God, instead of them being their own God.  Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord.

 

Many Parts Of The Body

16 Apr

Last post I emphasized that everyone has a ministry of some sort in us.  We have gifts from our Lord that we can use to help out the Body of Christ.  We are all different individuals and we are all uniquely made.  Together though, we combine to make up the Church.

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 – 12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

We are not all mouths, we are not all eyes, but together we can use these wonderful gifts He has blessed us with to reach others.

You have a gift.  Pray and seek to have that gift used by the Lord for His Kingdom.

 

Action Speaks Louder Than Words

09 Apr

Matthew 21:28-32 – 28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’

29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.

30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.

31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”

“The first,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

The Parable is directed at the main body of the Jewish leaders at the time, but the thing I key into is the action.  Talk is not as important as actions.

If the Body of Christ and Church sits around and doesn’t get involved in the ministry, there is no ministry.  If the early Church followers and apostles don’t commit their life to the Gospel, we have no written Word or account of how they went about spreading the Good News.

We all have a ministry.  The Body is made up of many parts.  I’ll continue with those familiar verses in the next post.  Serve your Lord.  Listen to his voice.  To tell Him you love Him is great.  To show Him that you love Him speaks louder.  Both are so important, but we can’t forget the action.

 

If They Persecuted Me, They Will Persecute You Also

26 Mar

John 15:18-25 – 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

Living true to the Word is becoming increasingly unpopular in the American culture.  The world today is geared up for the new world religion, which endorses all roads that lead to Rome.  The only intolerance is to state there is only one way.  What did Jesus say?

John 14:6- 6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Man has a choice to choose the Lord and Creator’s way, or to believe whatever he wants and choose his own.  Only one leads to the Father and Heaven from our fallen sinful state we are all in.

There a many absolutes in this world, but when it comes to God, they want Him to be whatever it is they want Him to be.  That’s not reality.

Choose to serve the Lord who gave you His Word which happens to also be the number one best seller of all time.  He is the One which created you and paid the penalty for you so you don’t have to.  Times are going to continue to reflect what’s written in John 15:28-25 more and more every day.  The world has nothing to offer you.  Your loving Lord and God has everything to offer to you.  But one has to choose Him.

 

What Should We Believe?

11 Mar

People more than ever are living their lives by their own beliefs.  That’s why I believe the Holy Spirit has me writing on this again.

To take the Bible and choose what you like about it and then discard what you don’t is a form of creating your own Gospel.

In fact, like I mentioned it before it’s like having a spiritual buffet.  I’ll have a little of that, and that, oh I like that.  Wait a minute, I don’t like that at all.  I don’t even understand why that item over there is even in the buffet, it’s not appealing at all.  Who likes that?

By the time 100 people choose to go through the spiritual buffet route, we have 100 different spiritual beliefs.

Is that a problem?  Yeah, it is when we are supposed to serve a perfect God who gave a perfect Word to a fallen corrupted human race.

Proverbs 14:12 –There is a way that appears to be right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

God wants us to serve Him.  He wants us with a free will choose to obey Him.  How can we do that?

Without a guide book how could we ever blindly follow and please Him?  We can’t.  We have to follow His commands and words to please and serve Him.  Where can we find this Word?  In the biggest most sold book of all time.

Not exactly a needle in a haystack is it?  The most sold BOOK of all time.

So why do an abundance of people dislike the Bible.  Cause it points out our faults.  The Word of God warns of coming judgment for those who don’t want to ask for forgiveness and serve Him.  It points out our faults.  Its audience pertains to 100 percent of those who have lived on earth.  The One who doesn’t need the forgiveness part is the One it’s completely about.

In America, for many years now, we have taught how to be a self serving, self seeking bunch.  We have a very unsatisfied society.  God didn’t make us to be self seeking beings.

Romans 2:8 – 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

God really wants us to seek Truth and not our own beliefs.

Here’s a great domino effect that needs to happen.  We seek God and what He wants for our lives and in return we will love and serve others in His name.  Not in our name, in His name.

God wants to be God of our lives.  That means we can’t be.  If you haven’t ask for forgiveness of your sins and accepted God’s perfect sacrifice, don’t wait any longer.  Jesus needs to be your Lord and Savior.  He was involved in creating us and was willing to die for us.  He is worthy.

 

Back From The Break

03 Mar

Well time to get back from the break.  My Mom caught shingles back around the time I stopped writing in the middle of December.  With that I decided to take a little break.  I thought we might lose her as the medicine she was taking for her arthritis depleted her immune system, so getting shingles on face and close to the brain was a perfect storm.  She has recovered rather well now although the infection took a little toll.  She is in a close by nursing home where we get to pop in on her every day.

God is wonderful as always.  The thing my brother and I prayed for was the right answer.  We went to the hospital the next day about a week in and serious considerations had to be made on the next steps.  Mom had her best day by far and the answer was given to us.  Praise our wonderful Lord.

Much has been happening in the world.  Much has been happening in our country.  I enjoyed the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl.  I’m a big fan.  In the sports world as also in the rest of the ends of the earth we are getting a full dose of gay rights.  If one takes the stance of literal Bible interpretation the matter, the world stands ready to pounce on you.

I hate racism.  God made all skin colors, races, etc.  Today the media is using Jackie Robinson’s story and putting it along the same lines as those with the choice of sexual preference.  Those who disagree about it being right or wrong are being thrown into the same category.  This is the way Satan works.

Love the sinner, hate the sin.  Those in the world and without the Word of God can’t distinguish between the two.

What is sin?  It’s missing the mark on God’s ways.  We are all sinners.  God died for all sinners.  However we are asked to look at it as sin and ask for forgiveness, not elevate it as our natural way of life.  This is on all sin, not just one.  The Lord wants us to keep on moving closer to Him in our lives.

We all know that in racism it begins at hating someone because of a certain ethnic background or skin color.  Where does racism end?  When you don’t hold any hateful or ill feelings towards a race or ethnic group because they are from that origin.

Where does sexual preference end?  Man and Man, Woman and Woman?  I don’t think so.  There are many different groups of sexual preference.  Where does it end?  Others will feel discriminated against.  There are those who prefer young children, others who prefer animals, etc.  Don’t kid yourself.  They may be more of a minority, but if the Bible isn’t your guide, where do you have the right to say it’s wrong?

Where does morality come from?  Society?  Whatever the populous says is alright makes it alright?  Right now many in society say it’s alright to abort a life that has started.  That’s bringing life to a halt.  Don’t intervene and it continues on.  Does the populous vote to allow abortion make it right?  If in America the law stated you could kill one person a year if you were drawn in a tag, would it be alright?

No.  Democratic vote doesn’t make something wrong or right.  The One who created everything and the rules, is the One who has authority to say rather it’s right or wrong.

Leviticus 18:1-23 – 1The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the Lord your God. 3 You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices. 4 You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God. 5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.

6 “‘No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.

7 “‘Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.

8 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father.

9 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

10 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonor you.

11 “‘Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.

12 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.

13 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.

14 “‘Do not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.

15 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her.

16 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother.

17 “‘Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.

18 “‘Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.

19 “‘Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.

20 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.

21 “‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

22 “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.

23 “‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.

You know what the devil was selling as the serpent in the Garden of Eden?  If you eat of that fruit you will be like God knowing good and evil.  You will be the God of your own life and can choose to do anything you want.  That was the fall.  That the lie.  Anyone that believes that whatever they choose to believe is right and wrong and that is all that matters has bought into that lie.

We need to seek God.  We need to choose His sacrifice of forgiveness and accept that death of Jesus on the cross as our own.  We then need to make Him Lord.

Because the only opinion that will matter when we take our last breath and stand in front of the Creator, is His.

We need to continue to love everyone like our Lord commanded.  But we are also to stand firm on the Truth of His Word, not the world.

 

God Gave Them Over

05 Dec

When man doesn’t want to follow God or His Truth’s, what does the Word say?

1 Samuel 8:1-22- 1When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as Israel’s leaders. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not follow his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.

So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.”

But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.”

10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

21 When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the Lord. 22 The Lord answered, “Listen to them and give them a king.”

The Lord is the one who went before them and fought their battles, but Israel didn’t want that anymore.  They wanted a king, like all the other nations around them.  So God had them warned and then turned them over to their sinful request.  Let’s continue on.

Romans 1:21-32 – 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Kind of scary that not only does God turn over those who chase after evil but those who continue to approve and support those things are held accountable also.  Makes one think they should take their voting record a little more seriously.  Morality is important to the Lord.  To say it’s none of your business how people live and then cast your vote is a vote in favor of that action.  You don’t have to participate in the act.  Onto the next verses.

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 – The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.11 For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie 12 and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

If you don’t want God or the Truth, He won’t force it upon you.  In fact, if you want things that are in contradiction of Him and His holiness, He will turn you over to the things your heart desires.  Scary?  It should be.  In a culture where the finger gets pointed in the other direction, God has to be talking about somebody else here, right?

No.  We all are from perfect, but we have to take serious the warnings we receive from our Loving Lord.  He wants our worship.  However, if we want to choose to worship something else, eventually He’ll turn us over to it.

Let’s stay in the Word, seek His face.  Let’s ask Him to show His desires for our lives.  This world is full of evil.  We are bombarded by it daily.  Seek Him and give yourself over to Him.

 

Godliness With Contentment Is Great Gain

24 Nov

1 Timothy 6:6-11 –6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.  11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.

So what does it seem like every American around us is pursuing?  Righteousness?  Godliness?  Faith?

The world looks at those things as almost an unrealistic mock.  As a result the world is a sad place.

Why?

John 10:10 – 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; ……………

Many a time, people as a whole don’t seek God past one commitment.  Sounds like the old school joke of a couple that gets married and the husband tells his wife that he told her once he loved her and if that changes he’ll let her know.

That’s how people can base their life with Christ.  They ask Jesus once to forgive their sins and then never seek Him ever again.  They never really sought Him in the first place.  They never really made Him Lord.  They never change anything about their lifestyle, so I suppose go and try to sin no more is out also.

Others make the Lord what they want Him to be, then they seek that.  Convenient, but no truth to go along with it.

So what’s a good start to seeking God and Jesus?

Be content what the blessings you have.  You aren’t taken one possession out of this world.  By the way that’s not a nice philosophical statement that most pass it off as, but the truth and a warning.  Those who want to get rich fall into temptation.  Those who want to get rich…love money.  That love is the root of all sorts of evil.  Then eventually comes grief.  So we know those are things we should stay clear from.  How about more do’s?  We should pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.  Know His Word.

How does John 10:10 end? …. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.