Straight From His Mouth

Straight From His Mouth

Mark 1:14-15 ESV

14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying “ The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent and Believe in the gospel."

Sometimes when you hear preachers on radio or podcasts, or when you watch them on tv, or listen to them on Sundays and Wednesdays…..It’s pretty common, in my opinion, to wonder what style of preaching Jesus had.  I mean, we are all to follow Jesus' lead and tell others about Him right? So how did He tell others?  Well, let's see...

Reading the above verse should be a good indicator of how Jesus preached, and to put it in terms we can understand…..the above verses would kind of be like an alter call at church.  Notice no frills, no puffed up preaching, and certainly no feel good about your sin type verbage either.  Plain and simple….Jesus said REPENT and BELIEVE…

Wonder why there is such a problem with the simplicity of salvation.  He didn’t say Repent, Believe, and say 3 prayers per day…or Repent, Believe, and tell your sins to your preacher….Nope, it is as simple as Repenting ( turning from your sinful life, being sorry for your sinful life) and Believing ( grow in faith by Knowing God had a Son named Jesus who died for YOU). 

After we are comfortable with the above mentioned commandments from Jesus himself, we need to pursue a truly close relationship with Him, by reading His word, by prayer, and by fellowshipping with other Christians. 

We should never be comfortable with where we are spiritually…we should always long to be closer to the one who gave His Son.

God Bless!  Please sign up as a member below….It allows you to receive updated blogs automatically, which frees up a lot of time for me.  I will continue to send out emails as long as people want to read these, but it would be a great help for me if you choose to sign up.

Thanks!

How Does God See YOU?

HHow Does God See YOU?

Titus 3: 3-7

3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace,we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

Hebrews 9:22

22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Had a great thought this morning that I thought I'd share.  What do you think God sees when He looks at people?  Does He see deeds, or maybe thoughts?  What about maybe our past, present, or future?

I'm here to tell you that when God looks at people, He only sees 1 of 2 things....sin or Blood!  Look at Titus first...Paul is explaining about a saved persons past, before they were washed by the Blood of Jesus..." At one time" (past sins) ..."we Lived" (past sinful life) You see Paul is telling them , about their lives before they were saved.  Hence the past tense verbage.

Now to my favorite verse...Hebrews 9:22.  It is obvious here what is being stated...Had there not been a sacrifice and shedding of Jesus' blood, then we would still be in the sinful life that is mentioned in Titus.  Stay with me here, I'm fixing to tie it all together...

So, God sees 1 or 2 things when He looks at us...If we are lost (unsaved) he only sees sin...period...that's all He can see...But if we are saved by the blood of Jesus, then He only sees Jesus' blood.  How awesome is that?!  No matter our past, no matter our old ways or thoughts...God looks at us with the love of a Father, because Jesus' blood allowed us to be forgiven.  Basically He only sees His Son in us! 

OK....so I ask you today....what Does God see when He looks at YOU?  If He sees the blood of Jesus, then fight the good fight...go tell others about your salvation experience...!!!  If he doesn't see Jesus in you and you feel like you are being convicted then just ask Jesus to be your new Lord, above work, family,ect...  Yield your life to Him, the way He yielded His life for You...Ask God to forgive you and ask Him for wisdom on how to move forward as a christian.  Now go tell somebody about Jesus!

God Bless!  Keep your emails coming...Sign up on this blog for me so you can automatically get updates and messages.

In an effort to get the word out in a more effective manner, I’m asking all of you to please sign up at the bottom of this page as a member of this site.  Thanks in advance!

Just GO!

Judges 6:12-14

12 And xthe angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, y“The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13 And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir,1 if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are zall his wonderful deeds athat our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14 And the Lord2 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; bdo not I send you?”

Ever feel like God is asking you to do something that you just don't think is possible?  It may be talking to the person beside you at work about Jesus or maybe you feel sometimes like He is asking you to be a missionary, pastor, or lead a Sunday school class.

Well imagine you are Gideon, and God asks you ( the weakest of all your brothers) to lead Israel to freedom from their enemies.  That's  exactly what happened though.  Gideon was perplexed to say the least, and started asking questions like,  "God, if you are really our God, then why are we in bondage in the first place."  I personally think he was trying to convince himself that this couldn't really be God speaking to him. ( Ever thought like that?) Look at verse 13 again and see if you agree.  Now what is interesting here, to me, is that God never really acknowledges Gideon's fears.  He just tells him to Go!  Why?  God knew His plan for Gideon. He knew He was in control.  All He needed Gideon to do to receive his power, blessings, ect.. was to be willing to GO!  See where I'm going with this?

If you feel the Lord telling you to do something, especially if it scares you to death....Don't worry you can be assured it's from God, and you can also be assured that to get where God wants you to be... All you have to do is be willing to GO!

God Bless!

The Afflicted

The Afflicted

Judges 2:13-18

13They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. 14So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress.

16Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. 17Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they whored after other gods and bowed down to them. They soon turned aside from the way in which their fathers had walked, who had obeyed the commandments of the LORD, and they did not do so. 18Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. 

Lots of verses today guys and gals.....Please read all of them so you will fully understand this message.  As most of you know, when I write a message it almost always is a message to myself and today is not unlike the norm.

These verses describe the period of time in Israel's history where they would repent of following other gods and turning away from the one God, then fall back into sin.  When they followed the one true God they were blessed with peace and prosperity, but each time they fell away they were punished at the hands of their enemies.  Sound familiar?  Isn't this what we all do as Christians most of the time?   We follow the road map set forth in the bible and have that peace in our heart that " surpasses all understanding", then we go back to whatever sins we were committing before.  And when we do, our peaceful feelings go away as God then directly or indirectly punishes us like any good father would.

I guess my point today is this.....We should all strive to keep focused on our relationship with God...Strive to do it just like striving to "enter through the narrow gate" like we are told to do in Luke 13:24.  Will this mean our lives will never have stress?  Absolutely not!  But the comfort of the relationship with our Father will help us better than any counselor could ever do. 

 Imagine you are 5 and you did something bad...maybe real bad....you struggle with the guilt until you dad finally finds out, or maybe you even tell him....He punishes you for the wrong, but then hugs on you and tells you it's ok and that he loves you!  Immediately the guilt from the sin goes away because it's out in the open and you have been forgiven.  THAT SHOULD BE THE RELATIONSHIP WE STRIVE FOR WITH GOD.  We will make mistakes, I assure you, but when we do and repent of them, the comfort that comes to us from Him will make us understand Grace all the more.

God Bless Ya'll!

Please email me and let me know if any of these messages have helped...I would like to start posting some of the messages I get.  I won't use your name unless you agree to let me.