Category: Uncategorized

Pastor’s Blog 9.5.18

Last week we ended with this set of scriptures:

2 Peter 1:5-11

5 But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,

6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,

7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.

8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.

10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;

11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. NKJV

There is an old school saying that “a man is only as good as his word”. I have never found someone I agree with on everything, have you? If you answer yes, I would say “so far”. With the current rate of divorce and relational betrayal going on in our secular and church cultures, one thing we must remember is – God is faithful! He will never leave or forsake us, and even though we can leave and forsake Him, he will never be to blame. All change is with us because God isn’t changing… He doesn’t need to because He is right. Verse 10 above says “if we do these things we will never stumble”. That’s about as close to an ironclad guarantee as you will ever get!

So, as we begin in faith and continue to allow God to mold our virtue or character, we begin a blessed successful life don’t we? The corresponding list of developmental things that follow are like building a house sequentially and ending up with a home that will protect us from the elements for a lifetime! I think of so many who start in faith but don’t continue to develop the other characteristics (being Godliness) and self-sabotage is the result.

How about you? What if you rated yourself on a scale of 1-10 with each of these characteristics. How would you rate yourself? Can you be honest in self-assessment? Can you allow others to help you see your blind spots so you can grow into the blessed life? Or will you become offended when someone points out your needed areas of growth?

Virtue
Knowledge
Self-Control
Perseverance
Godliness
Brotherly Kindness and love

Here are so verses to meditate on:

Proverbs 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. NKJV

Psalm 141:5 Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked. NKJV

Hebrews 12:5-11 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;

6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”

7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?

10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.

11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. NKJV

Pastor’s Blog 8.29.18

Principles; they are what they are. I was watching an old rerun of the “Rifleman”, the western series shot in the 50’s and early 60’s, and the star Lucas MCcain, was about to put his life on the line to speak the truth at an outlaw’s court hearing. The town Doctor, and many of his friends, were telling him he was crazy to risk his own life for something he could just walk away from. He answered the town Doctor and said “this is about a principle of doing what is right.”

The Doctor responded, “sometimes principles need to be changed so a man don’t get himself killed”.

“If it could be changed it would no longer be a principle would it?” MCcain responded.

A principle is an irrefutable law, not a law of convenience. It is a standard of truth, a measurement of motive if you will. Principles are rarely convenient and are self sacrificial by nature. They cause us to live by a standard rather than changing standards to live. John Ruthorford said it best in his classic book on leadership, “Character matters”. “When a society’s values become quality of life, instead of life itself, the only really valuable people are those who pander to culture’s lusts or provide it’s needs.”

This would be the mindset of a “Christian who is pro-choice”. I know many Christians who continue to vote for a liberal pro-choice government because they truly have been converted to this cultural mindset. They don’t lay down their lives for the principles of Christ, they lay down the principles of Christ for the quality of their lives!

Hebrews 5:12-14 “Spiritual Immaturity 12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” NKJV

Hebrews says “those who by reason of use have trained themselves to recognize good and evil. In other words, living by the principles, further trains us to live this way and to recognize when we are not! The old saying in the world is- “use it or lose it”. One can primarily do the same with God’s principles. They don’t use them, but they do lose them. God’s principles are the opposite of our human nature! That is why I said principles are self-sacrificial by nature.

2 Peter 1:5-11 “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. 10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; 11 for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” NKJV

Interesting that Peter said the first thing we need to add to our faith is virtue, or character, which is a strict adherence to God’s laws of living. Adherence to God’s laws of living: living according to the principles of God, not changing them to fit our culture, but submitting to them regardless, even at a sacrificial cost.

Holy Spirit, convict us all of any area of our lives where we are not adhering to Your principles. Our hearts are to obey! AMEN!

Be blessed!Thanks,

Pastor’s Blog 8.23.18

“Are you walking in your current life situation by chance or choice?”

That was the question I heard the Holy Spirit ask me as I was praying about 2 weeks ago. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. I believe the current state of crisis in our culture, with people living irresponsible lives is revealed in this statement.

Studies in sociology over the last couple of generations have demonstrated that the entitlement, and a victim mentality of a fatherless culture is wrecking our economy. Every week I have employers tell me that they can’t find anyone who wants to work. They tell me that they will hire someone and they won’t show up for work during the first week!

Last week I shared this scripture:
Genesis 18:19 For I have known (chosen, acknowledged) him [as My own], so that he may teach and command his children and the sons of his house after him to keep the way of the Lord and to do what is just and righteous, so that the Lord may bring Abraham what He has promised him. AMP

We read that the Lord says He instructed Abraham to command His children to walk in the ways of God so He could bless him. So what if he and his children did not walk in His ways? Would Abraham still be the father of our faith? Well the answer is no, because faith without works is dead!

James 2:14 TPT “My dear brothers and sisters, what good is it if someone claims to have faith but demonstrates no good works to prove it?”

How could this kind of faith save anyone? For example, if a brother or sister in the faith is poorly clothed and hungry and you leave them saying, “Good-bye, I hope you stay warm and have plenty to eat,” but you don’t provide them with a coat or even a cup of soup, what good is your faith?

Faith that doesn’t involve action is phony.

However, someone might object and say, “One person has faith and another person has works.”

Go ahead then, and prove to me that you have faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works as proof that I believe. You can believe all you want that there is one true God, that’s wonderful! But, even the demons know this and tremble with fear before Him, yet they’re unchanged—they remain demons.

James 2:20-24 “O feeble sons of Adam, do you need further evidence that faith divorced from good works is phony? Wasn’t our ancestor Abraham found righteous before God because of his works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? Can’t you see how his action cooperated with his faith and by his action faith found its full expression? So in this way the Scripture was fulfilled: Because Abraham believed God, his faith was exchanged for God’s righteousness. He became known as the lover of God! It is clear that a person is seen as righteous in God’s eyes not merely by faith alone, but by his works.” TPT

Are you ready to own the things you should own in your life situation? I am. If I don’t own my personal mistakes, I can’t move from the past curse to the future blessing! How deep is your, “We won’t do that again file?” Mine is the biggest file in my brain. I have said it for years and I believe it today more than ever. “Wisdom is the anticipation of consequences.”

Be blessed! And make good choices!