Wrappin up...

Well we're about to wrap up another year and as I reflect back over 2008 I realize what Jesus meant when He said......

Mark 13:13 And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The funny part is when you see "hated for my name's sake" you would figure that would come from the one's who you counted as "lost". But to be honest, the most hatred comes from those who profess to be "christian". I can say this because I see it first hand. I've lost friends and have family who won't speak to me because I took a stand for the Gospel and Jesus Christ and I will not give in even a little on the things that are against God. Do I stumble, yes we all do, but I can't condone or go along with something that is an obvious defiance of God.

Our world has an "it's all about me" mentality. Okay, what can God give me and how can God make me feel better about myself. The gospel is not about "us" and what God can do for "us" and how God can make "us" feel better about ourselves. The gospel is not about making more money, obtaining a better life on this earth, or giving Jesus a trial run for 60 days.

The gospel is about the love of an almighty God, that through that love He sent His only begotten Son to pay the price for us so that we might be reconciled with a just, righteous, and holy God. That's what the gospel is about. Jesus paying the price for our sin. Jesus taking the wrath of God for us in our place. To reduce the gospel down to being a "what's in it for me" mentality is just plain wrong and it's self centered.

Christ told us to deny ourselves. Matthew 16:24 "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me".

Have you denied yourself to the point that friends and family notice the difference? Have you become a new creature in Christ? Or are you still living the way you were before you got "saved". As we enter into the new year, I pray that Christians across this world will live there lives for Christ and not for themselves.

It's not about us, it's about Christ.

What are your sights set on?

It was an awesome time at the Community Kitchen tonight. It's always a blessing when the Lord opens the door to preach His gospel. I spoke out of Matthew 14 when the disciples were in the boat caught in a storm and they see Jesus walking on the water. When Jesus calms their fears and they realize it's Him, Peter says Lord if it's you command me to come to you. So Jesus says "come". Peter steps out of the boat and he's walking on water. He's fixed on Jesus and he's doing the impossible. Then Peter starts to notice the wind and the raging water. He's taken his eyes off of Christ and he starts to sink. How many times does this happen to us in our daily lives. We take our eyes off of Christ and the wind and raging sea's of this world start to make us sink. As long as we keep our sights on Christ, He get's us through the mess we're going through and we know this and we don't let the ways of this world bother us. It's when we take our eyes off our Lord and Savior that we get sucked back into the world. The bible tells us to examine ourselves daily to make sure we're in the faith. If your catching yourself being fearful of the wind and the raging seas of this world do as Peter did. He cried "Jesus save me" and Christ pulled him back up. My question is what are your sights set on, Christ or the world?

The only Truth..

There’s one thing I’ve noticed that disturbs me. The dependance on everything but the bible to try and learn about God. Everything from the Shack, to certain “classes” that deal with everything but God’s holy, inerrant, infallable word. The Shack first and foremost is just fiction. It in no way shape or form can show you who God and the Trinity truly are. It’s a fictional book, so let’s keep it in perspective. Classes that some churches teach that are created by other people are not based on scripture but on what someone says that effects your “emotions” instead of what God says in His word. They use more secular means of proving their point instead of the Bible. If it can’t be shown to you in God’s word, in context, then once again take it for what it’s worth which is not much it’s just entertainment. Everything must come back to the Word of God.

2 Timothy 2:15-16 “Study earnestly to present yourself approved to God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. But shun profane, vain babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness and their word will eat lika a gangrene”

You want to know God, read and study His Word. That’s the only truth there is.

You are my rock...

Psalm 31:3 is an awesome verse on how we should look at God and how we should be utterly submitted to Him.

You are my rock and my fortress…

We are to depend on God knowing that no matter what happens we can trust and depend on Him. He protects us from the ways of this world and gives us strength to deal with it. He’s to be our rock and our fortress in times of need and struggle. And because of this…
Therefore for Your name’s sake, lead me and guide me.
We are to be lead and guided by His will, not ours. For His name’s sake, he will lead us and guide us.

Spurgeon says, “To lead and to guide are two things very like each other, but patient thought will detect different shades of meaning, especially as the last may mean provide for me. The double word indicates an urgent need, we require double direction, for we are fools, and the way is rough. Lead me as a soldier, guide me as a traveller, lead me as a babe, guide me as a man, lead me when thou art with me, but guide me even if thou be absent, lead me by thy hand, guide me by they word.”

“For Your name’s sake”. This is why God leads and guides us. For His sake, not ours. For His ways, not ours. For His will, not our will. His will be done, not ours.

Because He is our rock and our fortress we know that no matter what way God send us, even if it’s into new territory for us, we can depend on Him to help and guide us. As long as we’re in the will of God, He will lead and guide us. It’s all for Him and His glory. We must take our selfish wants out of the picture. We may not undertand why certain things happen or why we’re lead in a certain way but as long as we’re dependent on our rock and our fortress, we know that no harm can come to us.

“Shadows are faithless, and the rocks are false;
No trust in brass, no trust in marble walls;
Poor cots are e’en as safe as princes’ halls.

Great God! there is no safety here below;
Thou art my fortress, thou that seem’st my foe,
‘Tis thou, that strik’st the stroke, must guard the blow.

Thou art my God, by thee I fall or stand;
Thy grace hath giv’n me courage to withstand
All tortures, but my conscience and thy hand.

I know thy justice is thyself;
I know,Just God, thy very self is is mercy too;
If not to thee, where, whither shall I go?”

Francis Quarles

Two criminals and a Savior

In the book of Luke 23:32-43 we see that Jesus is accompanied by two criminals that are being crucified with Him. As we take a look a these two criminals, we can see ourselves in them. The question is which one do you see yourself in. Let's break'em down......

Criminal One:

A). V39 "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us"
He needed proof. He wouldn't believe that He was the Son of God until he saw proof with his own eyes. How many of us are like that? We must see to believe, we must be able to touch something. In other words, we have no faith and like Thomas we must be able to put our fingers in His wounds before we'll believe. The criminal had now faith and didn't believe.

B). v35-37 "And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One! The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!"
He followed the crowd. He fell in line with everyone else. Doing what the crowd was doing. We're worried about what our friends will think, we worry about what our families will think, so we fall right in line with them. Doing what they do, instead of what God wants us to do.

So we see where criminal one had no faith or belief in Jesus and he just followed the crowd, fell in with popular opinion instead of believing in the Son of God. Without repentance, and faith in Jesus alone for our salvation we are condemned, just like criminal one. Now let's look at Criminal two.

Criminal Two:

A) v40 "But the other rebuke him saying, Do you not fear God since you are under the same condemnation"
He believed in God. He knew He was the Christ, the Son of God. He knew who Jesus was. He had faith and believed. "Do you not fear God". Do you fear God? If more people did, I think this world would be a better place.

B) V41 "We are getting what we deserve.."
See's his guilt and stands against the crowd. He know's he's guilty and know's he deserves what he's getting. He doesn't follow the crowd. He rebuked the first criminal.

C) V42-43 "Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom and He said to him "Today, truly I say to you you will be with me in paradise."
He is forgiven. The second criminal because of his belief in the Son of God, was welcomed into paradise with our Lord and Savior.

The question is which criminal do you relate too? Do you need proof, do you follow the ways of the crowd or do you believe in Jesus the Son of God alone for your salvation and live your life by God's will and not by what's popular with the crowd.

You see one criminal was destined for hell, the other destined for eternal life with Jesus Christ. Which criminal do you relate too?

Thank you Jesus!

Last night God gave me the opportunity to preach His word at the WNC Rescue Mission in Asheville, NC. My brother in Christ John Galloway and myself got there and we started a little early. God was definitely in the house as what normally is finished in about 30 minutes went well over an hour. The message was on the two thieves that hung on the cross beside Jesus and I asked the question "Which criminal are you?"

One thing I love about preaching at the Mission is the opportunity and the openess for the guys to ask questions. Questions last night ranged from someone believing in works to get them into Heaven, to someone asking why God just doesn't wipe out evil and sin altogether, to thinking that God is only love and if He is, why would He send someone to hell. A great night of fellowship with guys who are not scared to ask questions, guys who you can give God's word to in a straight up fashion. They want truth, not a watered down "come to Jesus for your best life now" gospel. Truth, and that's Jesus. "I am the way, the truth, and the life".

As we were leaving, one of the guys was able to get a bus ticket back home to Alabama so I rode with John to give him a ride to the bus station since he had no way to get there. Then John and I stopped and grabbed a cup of coffee and just spent time talking and fellowshipping together talking about God and praising His name. It was a great night and one that was needed. Pray for the men at the Mission and pray that John, myself and everyone involved with Hellfire Ministries stays bold in the word of the living God. There is no compromise.

Todays Church

Why do people think that our churches have to “change” with the times? I look at our churches today, not all but most, and they’ve become nothing but entertainment arenas where the gospel of Jesus has been watered down to be only about what you can get out of it. What has God got to offer me? It’s become all about “me” instead of being all about “Him”. Churches are to edify the Saints, not become social gatherings with your friends.
We go to God’s word and see that the church was multiplied because of two reason’s.

Acts 9:31
“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

In the text we see that the church was being built up, why? The next line tells us. “And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied”. We see that they feared the Lord. Christians today don’t fear God. I’ve even heard that preached, that we shouldn’t fear Him, He is a God of love. This is a total misunderstanding of the word “fear”. If we look at “fear” as man looks at fear, we have a wrong perception of it. The greek word used in the text is “Phobos” which means….

“Reverential fear of God, as a controlling motive of the life, in matters spiritual and moral, not a mere “fear” of His power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him, a “fear” which banishes the terror that shrinks from His presence, Romans 8:15 , and which influences the disposition and attitude of one whose circumstances are guided by trust in God, through the indwelling Spirit of God.”

We look at that second part and we see they walked in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Comfort means they depended on the Holy Spirit to guide them. They took themselves out of the equation and depended on the Holy Spirit. Walking in the will of God, being given direction from the Holy Spirit.

As we look at our churches today, how many actually do this? How many actually fear God and walk in the comfort of the Holy Spirit? How many actually truly teach the truth of God’s word whether it offends someone or not? These are some questions our churches must ask themselves. It’s all about God and His Glory, not us and our trivial pursuits to make us feel better about ourselves.

A New Creation

Luke 19:1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.
Luk 19:2 And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich.
Luk 19:3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature.
Luk 19:4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way.
Luk 19:5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”
Luk 19:6 And he hurried and came down and received Him gladly.
Luk 19:7 When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
Luk 19:8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”
Luk 19:9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.
Luk 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

This is a great passage of scripture dealing with salvation. We that Zaccheus was a chief tax collector and was rich. Tax collectors in these times were just plain thieves. Whatever they collected over and above what they were required to collect was theirs to keep. They were despised and hated. But we see when Zaccheus has a run in with Jesus he comes away a new creature.

“Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the [poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”

He’s a new creature in Christ. He’s totally turned from his sinful ways and is going to follow Jesus. My question is this, have you become a new creature? When we become a child of Gods that’s what happens to us.
2Co 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Have you really come to Christ? Or did you just say a prayer one Sunday in church but then continue on in your sin the same as you always had. Was your “salvation” based on the power of an almighty God or just because it’s something you felt you needed to do. If we are truly born again our old self dies. We begin to live for God and not us, our heart of stone is replaced with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26) so that we may know the things of God.

As I write this this morning I’m thinking of people I know who profess to be a christian but live their lives the same as they did when they were still an old creation. So reasonably I have to ask myself, are they truly saved? Are they a new creation? The answer to that question would have to be no. From personal experience I know that you become a new creature and want no part of your former life. You will still have things you struggle with but there’s a difference between trying to live for God and not living for Him at all.

God tells us to examine ourselves to make sure we’re in the faith. That’s what I’m asking this morning out of love. Let’s examine ourselves to make sure. Our salvation depends on it so that one day we will not hear “Depart from me because I never knew you…..”

Are you sure?

As we go through our day to day lives we always get caught up in whatever we’re doing. Stop a moment, take a breath, and ask yourself one question. Am I sure that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior of my life? Am I one of Gods children? That’s the most important question you could ask yourself. I mentioned this when I had the opportunity to speak at Faith Community Church yesterday. I found out that the football announcer for WPTL in Canton died of a heart attack Friday night right after announcing the Pisgah football game. He was 48 years old.

James 4:14 says “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You re just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.”

Our life is but a vapor. In an instant it’s all over. Now if you’re born again and put your trust in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation this really doesn’t bother you. You know that when that last breath comes you’ll be standing in the presence of the Lord! If you’re not born again and Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior then the only home that awaits you is hell. Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me. You see so many people believe that they’ll “do that” when they get older. Let’s be real here, you might not get older. If God has been working on you and showing you your sinfulness and you feel the burden of your sin don’t run from Him. You might not have tomorrow. I know, your thinking “Russ you’re just trying to scare us.” No, I’m just giving you the true facts as to how things are. Biblical truth, something we all need to get back too.

Whose your God?

My brother John Galloway gave the word last night at the WNC Rescue Mission and what a blessing it was. It never ceases to amaze me at how God puts us in certain places at certain times for His will and glory. The message John gave last night was choosing your God. When you take a hit off that crack pipe, you’ve just chosen your God. When you turn that bottle up, you’ve just chosen your God. When you can’t live without your cellphone or video games, you’ve chosen your God. That becomes your idol. So my question this morning is what’s your idol? Anything that you put ahead of God is an idol.

Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

So who is your God? Thank you John for the word last night and delivering it. It was truly a blessing!

Vanity of Vanities

I've studied through the book of Ecclesiastes and if you've never taken the time to not just read it but break it down and study it I highly recommend it. We here from a man who's had it all, Solomon was the richest and wisest man to ever live. Yet toward the end of his life and starts to wonder about it all. What good was it all and what was the purpose and did it make him happy. His conclusion is in the book of Ecclesiastes, is that none of that mattered. He came to the realization that everything is meaningless by itself. Pleasures, wisdom, money, it's all meaningless without God. He closes in 12:13-14 "Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." So the question that we have to ask for ourselves is are we serving the living God and living our lives for Him, or are we living our lives searching for what Solomon had? "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

5 Become One...

Well I think it’s finally froze over.:) We finally have five churches in our area that realize it’s not about denomination, it’s not about each individual church, it’s not about them, it’s not about the building that great grandpa helped build, it’s all about the saving grace and love of Jesus. We finally have 5 churches that are willing to put their small differences aside and come together as one to show and share the love of Christ to a lost and dying world. It’s about time and I praise God for it. The pastors of these churches have their hearts in the right place, now I just pray that the congregations of each church will as well. Bobby, Matt, Heath, Nick, and Steve, this is awesome and I praise God that he’s laid this on your hearts. It’s not about “church”, it’s about Jesus. My God bless this endeavor and we realize it’s not about our small differences and our pettiness, it’s about doing the will of a holy, righteous, and just God. It’s about showing the love of the one who died for us, it’s about telling people about the hope that lives in Jesus and Jesus alone. May God bless you all!

Awesome Night!

Just touching base on the events last night at the WNC Rescue Mission from last night. The Kingdoms a little more crowded praise God! It was a great night last night and it was awesome to see God work. Once again it was proven that we have absolutely nothing to do with the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. All we have to do is present the gospel and get out of the way and let God work. My brother in Christ Richard Mills from His Laboring Few motorcycle ministry came down and provided the music and my brother John Galloway and his son Kaine were there as well. We preached the gospel and stepped aside and let God show them their need for a Savior. There was no begging for them to accept Christ (which isn’t biblical anyway), there was just the saving grace of the Gospel. The shepherds sheep knew His voice and it was an awesome night! I thank and praise God for the opportunity to serve Him. To God be the glory forever and ever, Amen!

What have you done lately?

As I sit here this morning and I think about Christians as a whole, that question came to mind. We see so many churches and christians hiding behind the four walls of the church and never stepping foot outside to do as Christ did. In Mark 10:45 Jesus says even He came not to be served but to serve. When is the last time you did anything to show the love of Christ to someone? That’s an honest question that we need to ask ourselves on a daily basis. Matthew 25:35-40 is a powerful passage on how we are too serve others. Let’s stop thinking about ourselves, and start thinking about how we can serve others not for us or our church but for Christ. It’s all for His glory.

Reflections

I praise and thank God for this week as I sit here early on this Friday morning. As I look back over the week I see how God has been working in my life to fulfill His will. It’s amazing how God works when we just get out of the way and let Him do His thing. Do you do that? I’ve always had a problem with a case of the “I can do it on own’s”. If there is one thing God has shown me, it’s that when I try to do it on my own I’ll mess it up. But by God leading, and listening to His will, everything always seems to work out for His glory. Even in times when I’ve been at a complete loss about something, He’s always provided and shown me the way.
One such way was with the WNC Rescue Mission in Asheville. I had the opportunity to speak there a couple Thursdays ago, filling in for Richard Mills of His Laboring few who had to be out of town. It was such a blessing that I prayed that if it was His will, that I would be able to preach there again. I got a call yesterday from the mission locking Hellfire Ministries into once a month to come preach. God is soooo good! As Hellfire Ministries grows I see how God is at work. Just this past week we’ve added The Community Kitchen in Canton twice a month where we’ll not only be preaching but feeding them as well, plus the WNC Rescue Mission once a month. I thank and praise God for the opportunity to reach this lost and dying world with the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you’d like to help out just let me know.

The Lad

As I was looking at a synopsis of the Gospels on the feeding of the five thousand I came across the mention of a lad in John 6:9. None of the other gospels mention this lad. In John 6:8, Andrew tells Jesus there is a lad here with five barley loaves, and two small fishes. We don't know who this lad is, who he was there with, why was he there. We just know that this lad helped Jesus provide for the multitude. The disciples didn't know who this lad was, but the lad did what Jesus asked. The lad must have seemed irrelevant to Matthew, Mark, and Luke because there's no mention of him. But this lad played a vital role in Jesus's plan. How many lad's do you know? Those in the background helping out. The unsung heros of your church. Those who are not in the spotlight but do their part for the growth of the Kingdom. While alot of people didn't know who this lad was, God did and God knows who you are too. God bless you.

How Awesome!

In my studies today I was lead to John 14:2-3. "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." It’s a powerful piece of scripture about the hope we have for that which is to come. Jesus talks about preparing a place your us in His Fathers mansion. But two words stuck out at the first part of verse 3 “And if…”. Anytime you see the word “if” there is a condition attached. For instance, “If it doesn’t rain, we’ll go to the lake”. There’s a condition with “if”. What’s Christ’s condition? We must be a child of God. We must be born again and cleansed with the blood of Christ. If Jesus is your Lord and Savior at this very moment Christ Himself is preparing a place for you in Heaven. How AWESOME is that!

But there are two sides to every story. If your not a child of God’s, Christ isn’t preparing a place for you in Heaven. You won’t need it because you won’t be there. I know that sounds harsh but that’s what’s wrong with Christianity today, we’ve tried to water it down so that it doesn’t offend anyone. Christ didn’t water it down and neither should we. Christ paid the price for our sin. He suffered the wrath of God so that we could be reconciled with God. Romans 5:1 "Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The only way into eternal life is through Jesus. Sorry Oprah, there is only one way and that’s through Christ.

So my question is, is Christ preparing a place for you today?

Cheap Christianity

As I study this morning one thing that’s on my mind is the amount of people who think that because they claim to be a christian, they can still live and do what they want and it’s okay. I hate to break your hearts but that’s impossible if you’re truly a child of Christ. We are held to a higher expectation.
1 Peter 2:24 tells us that we’re to live to righteousness. 1 Peter 1:14-16 tells us “You shall be holy as I am holy”
There’s a cheap Christianity that’s prevelant in our church’s today. J.C. Ryle said, “There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in the day, which many have, a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, requires no sacrifice, which costs nothing and is worth nothing“. Our churches have gotten away from the true word of God and present a watered down, man-centered gospel. The gospel isn’t about what your going to get out of “coming to Jesus”, it’s about the good news. The news that God has provided His children with a way out of the desperate, sin laden life they live that’s put them on a straight path to hell. The gospel is about being reconciled with God the only way we can. Through the death and sacrifice that Jesus paid for us.
I pray for every church in our county that it will get back to preaching and teaching the inerrant, infallable word of God. In the words of Paul in Galations 1:6under the guidance of the Holy Spirit he says, ”I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel–not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
Cheap Christianity is nothing but a distortion of the true gospel of Christ to make you feel better about your sin. If we expect to see any healing for our land we have got to turn back to the one true God, not the one that we’ve created in our minds.

Why are we here?

Have you ever asked yourself that? What’s our purpose, what’s our reason for being on this earth. There has to be more to our existence than just living for ourselves and going through life acquiring stuff. Getting up day after day, doing the basic same routine. There has to be more to life than that. Well as always, all we have to do is turn to God’s inerrant, infallable word to find our answers.

Colossians 1:16 gives us the answer “For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him.”

There’s our answer. “…and for Him”. We were created for God. Kinda throws a kink in our man-centered way of thinking doesn’t it? We weren’t created for us, we were created for Him. Shouldn’t that be the way we live our lives? For Him and not for ourselves? Doing God’s will instead of what we want? If you’ve been living your life just for yourself, you probably feel that something is missing. What’s missing is God.

Changed my life...

A friend of mine Bryan Spencer from SC posted this on Facebook. I'm reposting it here because the message is of utmost importance. If you never read anything else, please read this.

Romans 5:6-8 "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

During Sunday morning worship this past week I was once again brought to my knees through God's Word. During cooperate worship there is two set times that the church has public reading of Scripture. I praise God that we are going through the Book of Romans, and this week God sovereignly appointed for this text to be brought up. I have been so overwhelmed lately of my sinfulness toward a Holy God. That I deserved the wrath of God because of my sin. So many people ask how could a loving God send anyone to Hell? In contrast I ask them how can a Holy God choose to send anyone to Heaven? Upon stating that how can a loving God choose to send His only Begotten Son to come to this world to die on a cross for the sins of His chosen People? It seems as if some people believe that God owes them something special. As if we did God a favor by claiming to be a Christian, as if we had any part of our salvation. If you so desire to have a part in it then let me tell you what we you did. You sinned against a perfect and holy God, and you became dead in your sin. So there is your part in the redemption story my dear friend. Now the amazing part comes in, because according to this verse it states that while we were still helpless, God at the right time sent His Son to die for us. As a Christian if you are not brought to your knees by the Sovereign plan of God to redeem His people, then what will ever do it then? That I was dead in my sin, and totally not able to save myself. Just as Lazarus was dead, I once was also! I was of my father the devil and did the deeds according to Him. But God being rich in mercy choose to send Himself to this sinful fallen world to redeem His people from their sins. Praise be to God that He did not just make salvation possible, but that He actually accomplished it. That He came and sought out what was lost and found it. Not only did He find me, but because of His great love toward me He bought me back. The Bible states that my righteousness is like bloody rags, that is totally corrupt. But God because of His perfect righteousness choose to live that life on my behalf for His glory. In addition He choose to count me righteous on Christ's account. Finally while I was still yet dead in my sins, God states that He loved me still. He loved me because according to Scripture before the foundation of the World He predestined me to adoption. The Bible states that God fore loved His children, that He was patient and long suffering toward them wanting all them to repent. While I was living everyday against God for sixteen years, God loved me still and sent His son to died for me. O praise be to God alone for His great love that He choose to save this sinful young man, and to adopt me as His son. That although I deserve the wrath of God and a eternity in Hell, God because of His mercy, not because of anything in me, but because of Him who calls choose to do this work in me that I could not do in myself. So I cry why o God, why? The only answer I have for this is simple to say for His glory alone!

The Spring is bad

In 2 Kings 2:19 we see the men of Jericho have come to Elisha and said "...Behold now, the situation of the city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful". We see the "situation of the city is pleasant". Jericho is a beautiful place, it's a great place to raise your family, it's a great place to grow up, but there's just one problem; the spring is bad. The water flowing through Jericho is nasty and filthy. As I look at Haywood County, I'm reminded of this passage and the description of Jericho. Haywood County is the same way. It's a great place to raise a family, it's a great place to grow up, it's a beautiful place, but like Jericho our spring is bad and the only thing that's going to cleanse the spring is God. Our society and yes even our church's must turn back to God. Our church's must work together instead of working against each other. Our church's must put God first, not our wants or needs and get back to preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must do the will of God and stop our petty bickering. The bottom line is, who do you love more, your church or Jesus?

Put up or shut up.

I must say as I think about the state of Christianity in the western world I'm ashamed. Ashamed that we have taken the gospel of Jesus Christ and turned it into a "what's in it for me" gospel. So many church's and preachers are preaching a false gospel today. It makes me wonder what Martin Luther, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Johnathan Edwards, D.L. Moody and other great preachers of Gods word would think if they saw our version of the gospel today. As I read about christians in China being thrown in jail and beaten for just studying their bible I think about christians in the western world that won't even take the time to read their bible much less tell someone about the true gospel. It's time we took a stand for Christ. Get out of our own petty problems, get back to studying our Bibles and do what Jesus told us to do if we were to follow him.

Luke 9:23 "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

That wasn't a request, look at the wording "he MUST". If we are to follow Jesus we MUST deny ourselves and take up our cross daily. That means that what we want in life should be what Christ wants out of our lives. We should want what Christ wants plain and simple. Professing Christians have got to get back to living for Christ regardless of who it makes mad or who it offends. I say professing because if you truly are a child of God's you have no problem living for Him but some do have a problem with that. Just because you profess to be a christian doesn't mean you are. Lip service is cheap, it's time to put up or shut up.

Do you study?

It amazes me how many people truly don't study there bible. I'm not talking about just reading, I'm talking about truly studying. Breaking down Gods word to truly get to the meaning of the scriptures. How many of us "trust" what we hear in church on Sunday mornings and figure that the preacher has done all the studying so we'll just go with what he says. That's whats gone wrong. We should study for ourselves to make sure what we hear on Sunday morning is accurate. We hear it every Sunday, scripture that's twisted to suit the message of a pastor. One of the biggies is

Isaiah 53:5 "But he was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, The chastening for our well being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed". The KJV says "stripes" instead of "scourging".

So many people like to take that last line and make it about physical healing. It's not dealing with physical healing at all. It's talking about our spiritual healing not our physical healing.

1 Peter 2:24 confirms this...."and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed." Continue in verse 25 "For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepard and Guardian of your souls".

Spiritual healing yes, physical healing no. I pray that we will go back to studying our own bibles for ourselves and that would eliminate alot of the false teaching that's in our society. We can't blame someone else for what we don't know. We are accountable for our own belief's and actions.

It's all about Christ

Are you totally sold out to Christ? Is He your purpose for getting out of bed in the mornings? He should be. We get so caught up in our daily lives that some people forget about Him until Sunday morning if they even think about Him then. The bible tells us we are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Do you do that? Notice the bible doesn't say we are to simply know who God is. We are to love God with every ounce of our being. Do you? The bible tells us we are either children of God or children of satan. Which are you? It's an honest question, with the answer being the most important answer you'll ever give. We cannot love God and love the ways of this world. You simply can't. There is no straddling the fence. You can't have your cake and eat it to, you can't play both sides against each other. Jesus tells us narrow is the gate, he also tells us narrow is the way. Are you on the narrow path to eternal life or are you on the broad path to hell? Please take time to ask yourself these questions, the destination of your soul depends on the answers.

Consequences

Do we really ever think about the consequences of our sin? Sin is rebellion against God. Sin is something as simple as telling a "little lie". God doesn't classify sin. Sin is sin. One sin is not worse than the other. The day will come when we will all stand before God and have to give an account of what we've done. Have you thought about that? How you're going to explain to God about that porn site you just visited. How you're going to explain that night in the bar when you got drunk. How you're going to explain all the things you've done, said and thought that are against God. It's something to think about. God knows everything we do and think. Try and sugar coat it to make yourself feel better all you want, in the end you'll still have to give an account to the Almighty. Think about that the next time you're planning on doing something that you know is against God.

What we deserve

You know theres one thing we all have in common. That we all deserve hell. The only thing that keeps us out of hell is the love and grace of God. The only thing in us that makes us good is Jesus. Left in our depraved sinful state we would never do good, we would always choose sin. That's why we all deserve hell. But when Jesus comes into our lives our heart of stone is turned into a heart of flesh. He gives us a new meaning and purpose in life. Our sin is washed away by the blood of Jesus and when God looks at us he doesn't see our sinful state he see's his son Jesus Christ. To put it plainly, without Jesus we're still in our sin and we suck. There is no good in us without Jesus Christ. We are dead in our sin and without being regenerated by the grace of God and having saving faith we are hellbound. Paul tells us in Romans that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Amen!

Tearing down the walls....

As we go through life we tend to put things in a certain priority and sometimes those priorities can get mixed up. Christ must always be first in our lives. Work, hobbies, things of this world get in the way of serving Jesus. We even put our churches before Christ. One church against another, we seem to put more concern and pride into our churches instead of into serving Christ. We've got to tear down the walls between our churches and realize that we're all suppose to serve Christ. Imagine how many more people we could reach with the gospel of Jesus Christ if we all teamed up instead of tore apart. We are all the body of Christ and should be working together. As soon as we realize this, the sooner we can quit all the backbiting and childish ways that tend to be prevalent in our churches and get down to what we're suppose to do. Now let's get over ourselves and spread the gospel. Like John the Baptist said, "He must increase and I must decrease".