Month: October 2015

YOUR CHOICE

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YOUR CHOICE

By Rick Mathes

John 3:3 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

It is biblical to examine our selves and the first test question is to ask “Have you been born again?” Now the weight of that answer is dependent on your perception of what “born again” means. If I were to ask 100 Christians, “What is born again?” I would get 100 different answers. However, they would share one common thread: are you becoming lesser that He might become greater? Born again proof to me is when you are in the process of exchanging all you are for all He is.

In whom do you trust? Doubt an fear are the keys to hell and the opposite of faith and trust, the keys to heaven. You can’t partially trust anyone or any institution with your life when danger is eminent. When someone points a gun at you all you have is you and your trust in God’s sovereignty. But you still duck the bullet. God gave us inherent desires for self preservation.

Whose work are you doing; As James so aptly pointed out in his epistle, “Show me your faith by your works.” The word teaches that we will be judged by our works. What you do is in direct parallel with who you spend your time with.

What company do you keep? It is absolutely true that birds of a feather flock together. What you do and say is reflective of those you keep company with. Losers always hang out with losers. WE downgrade and disintegrate as we drift from the children of the promise to the hell houds of the flames.

It all boils down to, “What have you learned from your master?” You mirror either Jesus or Satan depending on who your Lord is. When you are born again you are reborn to your first nature to obey Satan fades and your submission to Jesus rises on the horizon.

YOUR CHURCH

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YOUR CHURCH 2

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.

Sad to say but His Church can and probably is a far different place than your church or the ones that Paul preached in. I can’t help but apply simple logic to my faith and understand form the Word that if my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, where I stand is Church. However, like metal drawn to a magnet, others of like blessing are drawn to each other to form the visible Body of Christ which is the fellowship we attend corporately. So there is the invisible Church within us and the visible Church where we can gather together.

Putting worldly merchandising and marketing strategies to building a successful church really depends on what we consider successful and the manner in which we seek to attain it.

Inevitably we end up with programs and no prayers. We feverishly do all we can to have classes on anything that will attract the masses to attend. Prayer, if there is any at all is manufactured, mechanical and without life. People go to church on Sunday morning because they love the fellowship. They go on Sunday night because they love the Pastor but they attend the Wednesday night prayer meeting because they love the Lord. If your church has abandoned the mid-week prayer meeting, run from it!

So the main effect of this worldly effort to stage church gives you religion (in the image of man) without regeneration. All it becomes is a lot of ritual that escapes the reality fo the pure Gospel that if perverted. Paul said you would be accursed. Can you see the deplorable condition of what we accept as church? It has become nothing more than as entertainment center in most cases. Anything to draw a crowd but too much like a bright blue bug light that is eventually the demise of the unsuspecting bugs that fly too close to the flame and get zapped!

The sermons offer no salvation to those in the congregation who are not looking for it. Preaching “turn of burn” is not politically correct. It is ancient and certainly old-fashioned to preach “Repent, the Kingdom of God is here!” as John the Baptist did followed by Jesus, Peter and Paul. Open your spiritual eyes and pray that the Holy Spirit will lead you to His holy ground.

YOUR CHURCH

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YOUR CHURCH 3

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.

Cool marble floors, silent statues, golden altar utensils, and stain glass windows can give you spiritual chills but have absolutely nothing to do with winning souls or reaching God. All the bells and whistles in the world can’t get someone to say, “Save me Lord!” but the Word of God quickened in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. Like metal seeking the magnet, those elect are drawn to Jesus, drop to their knees and confess Him as Lord.

Beautiful organ music, huge choirs, over-head visuals and even indoor-fireworks and earthquakes ae all pushed to the limit and new gimmicks are yet to be invented to draw the gullible into these Christ-less rip off buildings with a cross on the roof. The Lord’s Church is barely visible in the “add hot water” “you blink you miss it” instant fast food religion that has infiltrated and captured most denominations.

Plenty of theology is invented to have you thirst for more: anything but repent, submit and obey. Father Lucifer does care if you want to give you heart to Jesus, repent of your sins and become born again, just don’t do it today. Apathy and lukewarm emotion is reflected in the new generation of young adults that live in a “whatever” world. The tail is wagging the dog and the dumbing down the children has come back to haunt the elite.

So here you have a beautiful church with only one problem: it is empty of believers!

When you open your doors to unbelievers without discipline you are guilty of he sin of permission. By not rebuking and correcting the sinners, you take on that sin as your own. Can you get a full understanding of this?

As ministers of the Word, to have His Church there has to be limits of which we will not go beyond. A true Apostolic Church of His is Bible only Jesus only, Grace only, Faith only. You can tell they are true to the Word if they ascribe to predestination of the elect and teach: Total depravity, unmerited salvation, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints. Step into the real church and hear the heavens echo “Welcome to the Body of Christ”, the called ones, the true Church.

FURTILE GROUND

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YOUTH: FERTILE GROUND

By Rick Mathes

Author of “Allah or Jesus”

2 Timothy 2:22 (NASB77) 22  Now flee from youthful lusts, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Ask yourself these four questions:

Do you have bad habits? For the sake of understanding, a bad habit is a sin againt God that habitually offends Him: of course, you too. The bad habit you have you want more than Jesus because if you didn’t want it more than you do want it, you wouldn’t have it. (Read this again.)

Do you look and linger? The look is not the sin the linger is because it will cause you to do the sin, enjoy it and be too seeped in it to repent.

Are your actions His? When others get to know you do they get to know Jesus? Sanctification is exchanging all we are for all He is.

Where is your treasure? Where your heart is, is where your treasure is. If you place it in the temporal goodies of the devil, you will see all the toys you have accumulated in your lifetime flame up around you in hell.

What are you to do:

Flee from lusts. Your eyes are the entry level for the devil.

Follow righteousness: only Jesus is righteous.

Avoid foolish questions: some things only God the Creator knows.

Do not strive with men: press on with heavenly angels around you.

Be gentle with all men: put forward an open fist of peace.

Be apt to teach: don’t perish for ack of knowledge.

Be patient: we have ll of forever to reach any objective.

Restore rebels: never give up because you were once one.

The Bible is the launching pad fr all that is pleasing to our Lord so take heed that if you can’t find and answer within its pages, you don’t have a question. Aim your efforts at righteousness, faith, love and peace. This is ot an impossible task because these targets are well within the range of our Lord’s agenda.

Our Lord lived His life to establish the landmarks of holy living and the pursuit of righteousness in Him. There is no mistaking what His clear objectives were and there is no misunderstanding His principles of godly living. Put your toys away an grown up!

MINDBENDING

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MINDBENDING

By Rick Mathes

Author of “Allah or Jesus”

Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

I know Jesus because He first knew me and made both He and I known in His Word. As a believer, I looked into the mirror of the Gospel and saw my sinful self in the flesh and as I repented my image faded and His came into view. When Father God looks on me He sees His Son Jesus! The wisdom of the Godhead is communicated to me in the essence of the Word made manifest in the form of Christians that exemplify Him to me. It’s a new spiritual awakening, one which gives me the insight and vision to see with His eyes and think thoughts through with His mind. This knowledge and subsequent application of His words and works is the sum total of all that is. Someday we will see Him as He is and this adventure of discovering Him will rise to a new level.

All His three years of actions clearly pointed to our redemption on His cross. He knew the minute He left the family wood-shop He was headed to a wood-cross. There was no turning back because of His deep love for those the Father left Him. He was in a no-choice situation because He was the only one the Father would accept crucified for our sins. There wasn’t any “Plan B.” He had to go through with this terrifying ordeal and could not turn back or we would all be condemned and the Godhead would have been dissolved into the fiction non-believers thint it to be.

The covenants were made with all the main characters of the Bible and the new covenant must be kept and fulfilled or God would be found out to be a liar. Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jacob and all the rest have watched Jesus’ life closely and are in agreement that Scripture has been completely fulfilled in Him. Jesus said it when He gasped loudly, “It is finished!”

Now is our time to watch His providence play itself out in these end times. The Lord is near and the writer of the last chapter is organizing the outline of this book right now. The old book will be closed and the new book of life will be opened in that day and we will rejoice in our reward.

MINISTERS ONLY

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MINISTERS ONLY

By Rick Mathes

Author of “Allah or Jesus”

Ephesians 4:11 (NASB77) 11  And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

There is not better feeling than the confidence of saying, “I know, I know!” That assurance of assurance is indescribable. Does that make sense to you? Well, you can rest assured that you are a minister of the Gospel according to Jesus. You might have to drive a bus, wait tables, be a professional to support your ministry but don’t lose sight of the fact that your job is to minister the good news to every “Divine appointment” the Lord makes for you. This is how He perfects His saints. While you are ministering you are reinforcing His Word and Truth in your inner-most bowels.

The sun comes up and the sun goes down and another day is history and you are 24 hours nearer to your funeral. Dismal isn’t it? Solomon missed the mark when he penned “vanities, vanities, nothing but vanity.” Clearly, the Spirit of the Lord wasn’t up on the actions of his life because if he was called and chosen of God all the work he put his hands to would be to God’s glory and profoundly worthwhile.

It boils down to this: what pleases Jesus? And by extension: what edifies the Body of Christ (the Church)? What are we called to do or rather what has God commanded you to do on Christ’s behalf? Each of us has a vital part to play in our lifetimes so that collectively we walk in His footsteps. St. Francis of Assisi said that all he wanted to do was to go about the Father’s business and not know it. That is total commitment and humility that can’t be touched by any mortal.

All these efforts culminate in one result only and that’s to persuade men of faith to point their swords at the enemy and not at each other. There is only one Body. A house divided against itself will fall. We must stand together and a great place to start is to ban denominations that divide instead of unify evangelical Christians men.

The only perfect Church is “the called out ones” (elect) in Christ!

It’s been over 2,000 years since our King said, “It is finished!” Don’t you agree that it’s time for us ministers to mature? It only takes one candle of hope to light up a universe. Let worldwide revival begin with me?

Won’t you join me? Together we can spark His return in glory.

MOM

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MOM

By Rick Mathes

Luke 2:19 (NASB) 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.

His heart beat with hers and her blood flowed through His veins until He cried out His first breath and then the process began to reverse itself. He died so that she might live and He poured out His blood so that she could be born again. That was His mom, Mary.

Only barely a teenager she was found acceptable by God her creator to bear His Son What a privilege!

An unusual calm came over her as the glow in her bedroom grew brighter until the form of Gabriel became clear and His purpose of announcing her conception became acceptable with her submission and obedience. Her name was Mary and she was His mom.

The pain was worth the gain and baby Jesus smiled His toothless smile, Father God proudly looked and saw that this was good and the heavens exploded in praise because the angels couldn’t contain themselves. A silence hushed over the flames of Hell and Satan staggered out with a vengeance in his smoldering heart that he vowed to kill God’s only Son.

A word got out, some were wondering; “What in the world happened?” The afterglow of the departing angels still lingered a bit across the sky and the earth trembled at the Devil’s rage!

The Word teaches that innocent and exhausted Mary slipped into a world of her own and pondered these things in her private heart.

It was a protected moment that she treasured to her dying moment in the arms of the Apostle John in Ephesus; This onetime delivering God’s only Son gave her an introspection of her own heartfelt love for God and responsibility of pursuing holiness and raising His Son to do the same.

But at this moment, in the cave with her beloved Joseph holding her hand and loving on her, was a meditation with God that we will never know the depth of. I can only draw a conceptual understanding of her willingness to be God’s handmaiden and Joseph’s deep love for this truly one a kind Mom.