Month: February 2015

COMFORTER

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COMFORTER

By Rick Mathes

Who or what is the Holy Spirit? If I ask 100 Christians I will get 100 answers that share a shred of similar gold: comfort. Isaiah 40:1 pleased God to comfort His people unaware that the God he was praying to was comfort personified in the third person of the Holy Trinity. He is the Comforter and the comforted.

All His attributes intersect at comfort. What are the components?

Let’s begin with the relief that comes with knowing we have the heaven’s best attorney, our Paraclete before the highest court of law. This ultimate Judge only has two sentences; eternal life or eternal death. So it is very comforting to have the Holy Spirit stand in our defense of deserving the death penalty.

Once we have been exonerated of all culpability of crimes worthy of the flames. We now have our best Friend monitor our activities, kind of like a house arrest. We are under constant surveillance and every infraction of God’s favor is dutifully brought before our attention by a genuine guilt that causes a sincere repentance before the bench of justice.

Now we are teachable and willing to hear, listen, learn, apply and then evaluate all the Holy Spirit lecture us on. We become His most apt and attentive student. Oh, what will our report card say!

This last stage is a real “follow the leader” stage. Whoever the Holy Spirit leads we must follow without question. Faith means just that. Our Lord is going to do with us what He wants to, when He wants to and if He feels like it. His Holy Spirit is our advocate for all the good we do to please Him and all the bad we do that angers Him is forgiven.

It is refreshing to know that there is a God that loves the weary and those perplexed with life’s complexities. It is so comforting to know who or where we are to turn when life seems unbearable. Jesus said he would not leave us without the Holy Spirit to walk with us as He would until His return. How comforting to know that He is with us when we need Him the most. We are never alone and always have Him to turn to when our world is upside down. He really is our Comforter and for that reason we need to thank Him!

WHAT IS MAN?

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WHAT IS MAN?

Psalm 8:4 (NASB77) 4   What is man, that Thou dost take thought of him? And the son of man, that Thou dost care for him?

Man lives on the fragile edge of life. His future can cut either way as God permits. The dilemma is in what he is made of. Prior to the fall he was God’s image and likeness but after the fall a deadly transformation occurred. The man became a monster!

His heart is wicked beyond measure and there is no good in him at least not enough good to be worthy to step into the Lord’s presence. Unless the mind is in motion the body and soul won’t respond. When you are blind to the Holy Spirit the Bible is just a volume of useless words. In this condition your affections are prostituted from our Lord’s approval to the devil’s revelries and shameful enjoyments.

The blind mind, paralyzes the body, pollutes the soul and enslaves the will. Satan knows exactly how to take you down. His only goal is to strip ou of every shred of righteousness so that your condition is deplorable and so unattractive that Christians will pass you by in your anguish.

The moment of truth comes when you realize you cannot better yourself. In a thought, you are not able to not sin. Helpless to every temptation, you are merely a puppet in the hands of any demon assigned to you: a plaything for sordid amusement. You cannot, I repeat, you cannot no nor ever work out your salvation by what you do. It is by our Lord’s gracious mercy alone that you can be spared an eternal death in the furnace of hades. Your only relief is to be born of God.

To survive man must have an understanding of the Word and be supernaturally enlightened. His heart needs to be renewed and his will emancipated. Then he will be able not to sin in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Face the facts:

Jesus saves us from the:

  • Penalty of sin
  • Power of sin
  • Pollution of sin

Be the man of God He created you to be and break the cuffs that are leading you to Satan’s mansion, the Department of Corrections.

BLOODY FOOTPRINTS

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BLOODY FOOTPRINTS

By Rick Mathes

(Author of “Allah or Jesus”)

Luke 23:26 And when they led Him away, they laid hold of one Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.

What was going through the thoughts of Simon as he stepped into the bloody footprints of Jesus? He couldn’t help but wonder why this innocent man was being put through this torturous execution. There must have been a look or a word from our Lord because in time, both of Simon’s sons became the first Bishops of color in this new world conquering religion.

Let’s put ourselves into Simon’s sandals and carry our Lord’s Cross. How can we do this? Pick up and continue His love for His brethren. We don’t necessarily need to like each other but we must love each other. Love is not an emotion, it is a decision. The emotion may or may not follow. The last beatitude is persecution so let’s get used to it and carry His Cross, the weight of Hell’s effort to trash His atonement.

Don’t forget that He walks before us. He is leading us to quiet waters through the reconciliation with the Father through His death; His final sacrifice. The Lord, the real Lord is our Shepherd. We don’t follow Father Lucifer anymore. Our old shepherd only let us to death, insanity or incarceration.

It’s by His grace, will and strength that we can carry His cross, keep the faith, fight the good fight and finish the course. We press on because we know where He is leading us to. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is our partner and the burden is light yoked to Him.

It is only for a short time of three-score and ten that this burden is ours so let’s give it our best shot. The consequences of our sin is truly a heavy load but we did it to ourselves and the least we can do is pick up our cross and follow Him. The reward, like childbirth, is well worth the pain. What a privilege it is to take it to the Lord in prayer.

BLIND

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BLIND

By Rick Mathes

(Author of “Allah or Jesus”)

 

Romans 3:11 (NASB) 11  THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;

AUGUSTINE

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore, seek not to understand that thou mayest believe but believe that thou mayest understand.

The ignorant man always adores

What he cannot understand.

Our condition before God is so bad we get into denial to hide our real self. If you saw my heart as God sees it you would run from me and yours would be terrifying if exposed. We have an underlying and an ulterior motive. The underlying motive is in plain sight but the ulterior motive is under the table and driven by self and sin.

When we walk in willful sin we cannot really see the beauty of Christ’s countenance. It’s blurred with the smoke from hell. You lose the presence of His grace because you have yielded to Satan’s lordship; Satan has become your lord. It’s like running your hands through the filth and decay of a cesspool and then lifting them to God for mercy. You are only making God gag.

Keep focused on the things of God by seeing through His eyes. It’s like moving from black and white to color; a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. This can be a wonderful adventure as His world, sin-free opens up to you.

I have controlled glaucoma in both eyes. My mom and grandfather both went blind from it. I am so grateful for the gift of sight and I dedicate this medical miracle to the Great Physician. Of all the terrible things that could happen to me physically, I fear going blind most.

The pressure of Jesus points out the need of a new birth. The evil of this world is smothering us body and soul with the filth of sin. This sin killed God’s Son. This is very serious. In your blindness you will have the penalty of sin fade into the wide road that leads to eternal flames. So get your spiritual eyes checked as I did and don’t allow yourself to go blind to the grace and goodness of our Savior, Jesus.

BLESS VS. CURSE

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BLESS VS. CURSE

By Rick Mathes

Romans 12:14 (NASB77) 14   Bless those who persecute you; bless and curse not.

Everyone, including myself, have an obvious motive and an ulterior one. Both or either can be blessed or cursed of the Lord. The motive on the table could be self-sacrificing or under the table, self-gratifying.

There is the form and the essence. The form of God we see with the eyes of the Holy Spirit is the body and life of Jesus. His essence, or what He’s made of is found in God’s breathed Word, our Holy Bible.

A double blessing is a double grace.

Bless the Holy Spirit with all that is within you and He will reciprocate with all that is within Him: the words and works of Jesus Christ. We know His efforts are successful because He is God: all-knowing, all-powerful and all-present. God never fails with His intentions. You might pray, “I’m not having a good time,” but you are in His perfect will nonetheless.

Your heart beats with His and His instructions for your life are perceived and accepted. The Words He has for you leap off the pages of the Gospel according to Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s Words and Works. Try my system: read and parse all the red parts of your Bible with as many commentaries as you can carry. I did. I was a red-letter theologian.

Born-again means you die to the old life which hardly any professing Christians do. They continue to drag that rotting corpse along behind them. His power, the very power of creation itself, think about this, is in you!

  • How big is your God?
  • How much room is there in you for the Holy Spirit?
  • How much of Him will you allow in?

Your yielding to divine grace is absolutely irresistible. Like metal drawn to a magnet, you are being drawn to the foot of the Cross to repent of your sins in the mud, the blood and the tears of those that preceded you to this holy ground of forgiveness.You may not see, hear, taste, touch of smell our Lord but as heaven is real, so are all your feelings of His presence in the Holy Spirit. The blessing is Him and the curse is sure to follow if you stand at the foot of the Cross and give Him the finger!

BETRAYED

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BETRAYED

By Rick Mathes

Luke 13:21 (NASB77) 21  ” It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened.”

Have you ever had a close friend turn on you? I have. I really think I have too high of an expectancy for those few I call friends. Most I know thrown that term “friend” around very loosely but I don’t. I try to use David and Jonathan as a model. But no matter how hard I try I am not the friend to Jesus I expect Him to be to me. I’m just a sinner seeking a Savior and I let Him down time and time again.

You see, deep down like you, I am rotten to the core. I have an evil nature that at times even scares me. It’s natural and easy to sin. Every molecule in my body is attracted to those things that displease Jesus. But when we become born-again we are “able not to sin” in His Spirit. The old excuses to sin vaporized in His presence and of course where He is, are the Temple of God I carry around is called my body. You and I are just animated dust that betrays Him at every chance we get apart from His Spirit which has taken up lodging in our “walking temple of God:” our body.

Sinful betrayal yields evil gain. We are piling up smoldering treasure in Hel with each sinful, self-glorifying act. Our heart hardens to each hammered blow to our pursuit of holiness We’ve done a 180 degree at this point and there aren’t any tears left.

Have you ever sobbed so had your ribs hurt? I imagine that Jesus is that deeply distressed when you or I sin. We’ve turned our back on the Cross and with the kiss of Judas we have begrayed Him and scorned His Word, trust His words to our advanae and join Satan in shaming Him or committing sin blatant, “in your face” sin?

If we have a modicum of intelligence, we can’t misunderstand “Repent the Kingdom of God is near.” Sin murdered God’s only Son. Get a handle on that. This is a dead serious charge to be held a sinner. There is no greater crime on earth than sin!

BELIEVE

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BELIEVE

By Rick Mathes

Acts 16:31 and they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.”

Faith is reaching beyond your grasp and when you do in Christ you become a believer. So the Christian faith begins with you believing in Him. Once I knew I knew He rose from the dead, I believed and have never turned back since. It is finished business because the Lord said so from the Cross but it isn’t done. He doesn’t announce that until after the white throne judgment when He will say, “It is done.”

The bone chilling consequence of this is that there will be a moment, a blink of an eye from that point forward no one will be able to be saved. It will be too late for those that have put it off and rejected Jesus as their Lord. The Muslims, Roman Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christian Science and other eastern cults will drop into the flaming pit, the abyss of the dark-side with evil personified in Father Satan.

Receiving our Lord’s offer is the best choice you will ever have to make. His grace is handed to you and all it costs is everything you have and you are. In fact, the rest of your life is none of your business. You didn’t come to Him, He extended His hand, the Master’s hand and you reached back a slave evermore subservient to His slightest wish. This is the biblical truth! Don’t let anyone “soft-soap” you out of this fact with any scripture twisting.

He earned your trust through the witnesses of the sixty-six book library we call our Bible. They looked forward to the Cross and now we look backward to the same Cross.

WE do this to hear His voice ring through the ages in word and deed; As Josh McDowell has put it in his book “Evidence Deserves a Verdict.” Is Jesus a liar, lunatic or Lord? Let the Holy Spirit open your eares to hear the saints as they speak to you from the precious pages of His gospel.

“Look and be saved!” Moses had a foreshadow of His crucifixion. By His stripes we have been healed. Once you look into those pitiful eyes of our dying Savior, what choice is there but to yield to His call, “Believe in Me and be saved.” What is your plan B compared to Him?

BELIEVE OBEY

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BELIEVE-OBEY

By Rick Mathes

Luke 6:46 And why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

When you confess Jesus is Lord you have attained intellectual ascent. But when you reach down 18 inches to your heart and confess Jesus as Lord, you have put him on your throne and made Him the boss: you are under new management. There are a few guidelines along the way that you should use as a check-list and it is my purpose in this article for you to live under His Lordship and leave easy-believism in the dust of your history and step into His-story.

Jn. 3:7 There is no justification without regeneration. No matter how politically incorrect it is, you must be born-again. This is the catalyst for all that follows.

Jas. 2:20 Faith without works is a dead faith; no faith at all. For every cause there is an effect. When I’m happy I smile, sad I cry. When I love Jesus I work for Him.

Mat. 10:22 The mark of true justification is perseverance in righteousness. This means that if you are truly born-again and He’s your Lord, you never give up.

Lk. 6:46 Faith in a Jesus who is Savior but not Lord is a faith in another Jesus. It is an inevitable experience of a true believer that if you believe you obey.

Lk. 9:23 If one wants to serve Christ: pick up your cross and follow Him. You have no one to blame for your sins and their consequences but you alone.

Heb. 12:14 We must pursue holiness. To be holy we must be wholly His. We can’t hold anything back. You can’t be part saved. Indecision is a decision: you remain in the filth of sin.

In total these sign-posts are there along the way to measure your relationship to Jesus. Satan’s greatest delight is for you to live the illusion that you are saved when you are not. That’s what carnal religion is. It is a faith in Father Lucifer’s doctrines, ceremonies and traditions.

Satan uses men to invent a religion when they make God in the image and likenss of God. They turn your eyes out instead of out. You begin to obey the Lord of Hell and in short you become a Satanist if you confess you believe and don’t obey. (Read this last sentence again.)3

BELIEVE IN HIM

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BELIEVE IN HIM

By Rick Mathes

Romans 4:24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

What we do with our belief is not prescribed by manmade rules or rituals such as the Church of Rome are so choked by. No, real belief results in a real spontaneous response from our mind, to our heart and from our soul. Hands up, down, folded, all this is not something to follow because others do it that way.

What I do know about believing in Him, worship just happens. So as not to be distracted by others, when I want to approach Jesus and worship Him I close my eyes and get into my own little private chapel. I also have observed that everyone who approached the Lord fell on their face and were overwhelmed with shame at the sin they were still infected with. How horrible can it be to be transparent before our Lord and have Him see us as no one else can?

Repentance is the issue believers constantly wrestle with. Repenting of our sins is the absolute opposite of what our natural self wants to do. It is down-right ugly how we resist the holiness required of us by God’s breathed Word in the Bible.

Once we make an honest confession as believers in the Holy of Holies, we are supernaturally to let Him live through us. We imitate in our flesh the Lord of heavens that is clothes in our skin. When people get to know us, they get to know Him. As a bond servant, it is not too hard to conclude that we are to live to serve Him.

This can be done in a number of ways but it all begins with selflessness and sacrifice. The Lord knows all that needs to be done by us to advance the Kingdom but the heart of all efforts is our relationship to Him. It isn’t what you do t counts, it’ who you are in Him that is everything. St. Francis of Assisi said it so well when he said, “All I want to do is go about the Lord’s business and not know it.” That’s what I call humility.

Would make this suggestion to you, “Do the best you can for Jesus and let someone else get the credit” or “Replace thyself.” It’s all about Him not you.