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Archive for the ‘Motivation’ Category

Do Not Imitate Evil

19 Dec

3 John 1:11 – 11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.

Anyone who does good is from God.

Why is this?

Because no one is good accept God.

Luke 18:19 – 19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.

The only reason we can do good in this fallen state we’re in is to tap into the good of God.

When we imitate evil, we are helping the camp of the enemy.  Do we really want to do that?  I don’t think any of us really want to help out the enemy.  But if we turn our backs on God, we are doomed to do so, because without Him we are not good.  The question is how not good?

Matthew 6:23 – 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

Scripture after scripture after scripture, warn us to obey God and die to the world and our old sinful nature.

Don’t ignore the warnings and quit listening to the voices that suggest whatever it is your doing isn’t really all that bad.  Get into the Word and you’ll discover that our Lord isn’t keen on evil at all.

 
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Some Earthly Obedient Guidelines

09 Dec

Colossians 3:18-25 – 18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

21 Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from
the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. 25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.

Two things I want to point out here.

One, if we live the way we are told to, life works smooth instead of being a mess.

Two, you’re not doing it for yourself or just to please others.  We are supposed to do it because this shows obedience to the Lord.

The Lord says if you love me you will keep my commands.

John 14:21 –  21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

Don’t listen to the world.  This country is broke and in debt negligently.  Divorce is at 50 percent.  Suicide is rampant with alcoholism and drug use.  Do you know what the news media and powers that be have to say?  We need to remove God more.

Obey the Word of God.  The Lord wants us to succeed in the Kingdom.  He wants us to succeed in reaching others with His love.  As a result He wants to reward us and doesn’t wish for any of us to have to be repaid for our wrong, but there is no favoritism because our Lord is fair.

If you can’t obey now how will you be able to obey later?  Start putting it into practice if you haven’t, today.

 
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Satan Masquerades As An Angel Of Light

06 Dec

Paul was warning the Corinthians that were trying to preach a different gospel.

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 – 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Paul takes pretty seriously God’s truth.  People who are teaching all roads lead to Rome such as  Universalism or that there is no Hell are certainly not following the Word of God.  Their truth comes from
their own self or understanding.

Satan masquerades around like an angel of light.

Why are people teaching these things?  Because there popular for one.  They rationale that God can only be love and could never punish anyone for eternity.   Is that what the Bible says?

Were His own people punished when they rejected Him?  Constantly!

God’s Word when tested is perfect.  Man is not.  It wasn’t written by men, but by the Spirit of God.  To pick and choose which parts of the Bible you want, leads to the above problem of not teaching the truth.

Satan likes it when man gets the courage to be smarter than God.  It plays right into his hand.

Their actions in the end according to Paul will lead to what they deserve.

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

 
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One Foot On A Banana Peel And Another In The Grave

05 Dec

Are you excited for the return of Jesus for the Church?

If you came home to meet your family after being away for a long period of time and they didn’t want to see you, how would you feel?

Matthew 22:1-14 – 1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Now this parable was speaking of the Jews of the day.  However, when I read it, it still applies for the so called Lord’s people that are too busy for Him.

Be honest.  If you’re not wanting Jesus to appear because things are too good for you on this earth,
would you call that loving the world?

I don’t know how you can call it anything but that.

There is a crown for those that love His appearing.  That means that people that died 1900 years ago that loved His appearing will get that crown.  Those who don’t will not.

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.

If you’re not excited about seeing Jesus, how well is your relationship with Him going?

Put yourself in the shoes of Jesus when it comes to bringing home His own during the rapture.  How do
you feel about those who didn’t really like the idea of you coming back?

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation, Rapture

 

The Importance Of The Truth

02 Dec

John 8:32- 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

What’s the importance of the Truth?

It’s the difference between Heaven and Hell and eternity with the Lord or without.  The total importance of your whole existence is on the line.  That’s the importance of the Truth.

So what is Truth?

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.

 Do we seek Truth or do we seek what’s true to us?

The difference affects eternity.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation, Reflections

 

Who Will Not Inherit The Kingdom Of God?

01 Dec

We really have to realize what the Bible says.  We cannot look at salvation as a get out of jail free card.

1 Corinthians 6:9 – 9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex
with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Galatians 5:19-21- 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not
inherit the kingdom of God.

Take a look at the list!

My heart is troubled.  Not only is the world steeped into these very things, I believe we ourselves always try to look past them or justify them.

Humans are good at grading on the curve.  The scriptures are never talking about us, it’s always the people struggling just below us.

It’s nothing to play with.  I know tons of people and so do you that drink like fish.  Many others are being sexually immoral.  Our society is filled with growing same sex relationships.  Oh and by the way some of
our most popular books and movies are about witchcraft.

God didn’t give us a free will to choose what’s best for us.  He didn’t want robots and He wanted free willed beings that choose to love Him and obey Him.  Christ wasn’t thinking about Himself when He died for our sins.  God wasn’t thinking about Himself when He sent His only Son to do so.

So why do we always seek what’s best for us instead of what’s best for the Lord and the Kingdom?

It’s called the fall.  God doesn’t want us living for our own selfish ambitions.  He wants us to live for Him and the Kingdom.  What will you choose?

 
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Our God Reigns

30 Nov

Pretty soon it will be on this earth.  However, Revelation 19 wraps up a very nasty and deadly 7 year tribulation.  You don’t want to be here for that.

Revelation 19:6 – 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

Since our God reigns on Heaven and soon to be on earth, we need to treat Him like the King everyday of our lives.

 
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I Will Be Glad

29 Nov

Psalm 9:2 – 2 I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.

It’s a choice.

Look around and see how many people take their eyes off the Lord.  They are not glad.  Nothing but the Lord and His Love fulfills.

So many people have the ability to purchase anything they want.  Do whatever they want.  Most are not happy and some to the point that they want to end their earthly lives.

Others are sentenced to death for their faith in God and rejoice until their last breath.

Choose to be glad, the Lord loves you and gave His life so that you may be with Him forever.  Choose to rejoice and choose to praise Him.

Or choose not to.  It does matter to Him, don’t kid yourself into thinking that it doesn’t.

 
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David Was Into Meditating; On God’s Ways And Word

28 Nov

When the word “meditate”  is put in the search engine of the NIV 1984 version of the bible eighteen matches come up.  Sixteen of those are in the Psalms.

David a man after God’s own heart made it a practice to meditate His Word and His ways.  God knows a sincere heart.  How does He know it?  First because God knows everything.  We don’t trick God.

God knows when our heart is sincere, because we seek Him.  He knows if we are just seeking what we want to find, or if it is truly Him.  He even knows to the degree we are seeking.

Matthew 6:21- 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Do you treasure your love and relationship with the Lord?  If you do that is where your heart is and He knows it even better than we do.

Psalm 1:1-2 –  1 Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Meditate.  There is a lot of meditating going on in this world and most of it isn’t towards our thought on the Lord.

Much of the meditating today is connecting with your inner self and the new age.  Where does connecting with yourself help you in your walk with the Lord?  I’ve been trying to write on a regular basis that we need to die to ourselves and let the Lord shine through us. 

Psalm 119-98-100 – 98 Your commands are always with me and make me wiser than my enemies.  99 I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on your statutes.  100 I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey your precepts.

Wisdom and understanding come from the Lord.  Connecting with the inner self only connects you stronger to a fallen, lost creature who needs the Lord.  It’s kind of like a cat chasing its tail, but worse.  While one is seeking their inner self, the enemy gets a stronger foothold.  The light comes from the Lord.  Only darkness is in someone who doesn’t seek God.  The deeper one meditates into his lost spirit the darker it gets.

We need to meditate on the Lord and His Word.  Let’s meditate on Him and make Him our treasure.

 
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Old Testament Offering Of Thankfulness

23 Nov

Leviticus 7:12-15 – 12 “‘If they offer it as an expression of thankfulness, then along with this thank offering they are to offer thick loaves made without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, thin loaves made without yeast and brushed with oil, and thick loaves of the finest flour well-kneaded and with oil mixed in. 13 Along with their fellowship offering of thanksgiving they are to present an offering with thick loaves of bread made with yeast. 14 They are to bring one of each kind as an offering, a contribution to the LORD; it belongs to the priest who splashes the blood of the fellowship offering against the altar. 15 The meat of their fellowship offering of thanksgiving must be eaten on the day it is offered; they must leave none of it till morning.

The Jews were encouraged in one of their types of sacrifices to be thankful.

God gave us a gift to be able to reflect on how you would feel if you were in somebody else’s shoes.  There is only one true God.  However can put ourselves in the place of doing something for someone and then seeing how grateful they are.  No one appreciates someone who is self centered or ungrateful.  

We need always to reflect on our Lord during Thanksgiving.  We all have so much to be thankful for.  Enjoy your families.  Don’t waste an opportunity to try and plant seeds where the door is open.  In America we get caught up in the sale or success that follows, but our Lord just wants us to love and obey Him.  If you love Him feed His sheep.  John 21:15-17

 
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