Month: February 2016

HE DID IT!

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 1:23 (NASB77) ²³ ” BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD, AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, ” GOD WITH US.”

Father God called a Board meeting with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. He called the meeting to order and broke down in tears. “I created them in my image and likeness” He sobbed, “and they show their appreciation by constant pride and sin against Me.” He composed Himself and in a solemn note said, “I have no choice but to sentence them to eternal dying with Lucifer and his fallen angels” and He fell apart again. “What else can I do?”

Jesus stepped up and said, “I have a solution Daddy.” “What is it Son?” the His Father asked. “I will become a sinless man, die for their sins and be the last Lamb sacrificed.” “You would do that for Me?” Jesus responded, “I love them as dearly as you do. What do you think Holy Spirit?” “We have the power bro, let’s do it!” “It is done!” exclaimed the delighted Father God.

You know the rest of the story. He was born, lived, died, rose and ascended and is coming back again for us. Even to this moment, though, He is with us in the Holy Spirit. We are never without the lover, the loved and the love between them: Trinity.

God is with us:

• In our poverty
• In our obscurity
• In our work
• In our joys
• In our sorrows
• In our fellowship
• In our prisons
• In our loneliness
• In our weeping
• In our singing

Ins God with you in your life? If you have a doubt, He isn’t. When you receive Him as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and all the angels in heaven are shouting, “He did it!”

 

HE CAME TO SAVE

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 1:21 “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.”

Now who but an all powerful God can save anyone from their sins? It is still breathtaking to me after over 30 years as a minister of the Word that God was incarnate in Jesus: mind blowing!  Oh how blessed were the Apostles and disciples that walked out those three short years with Him as friends. This power was truly harnessed with a power that only God could have. Imagine, He stepped down from His throne in glory, crawled up on the cross, suffered and died just for you. What self-restraint it must have been for Michael and his army of battle-ready angels to withhold their swords and spare the lives of those who killed God’s Son. Imagine that!

If wasn’t the nails that kept Jesus fastened to the death-stake, it was His love for you, yes you alone that held Him there. And He would go through the whole torturous process again, jut for you if it was necessary. Thank God once was enough forever!

Or is it over? He willingly takes the pain again and again. Each time you sin you are lashing that whip on His bloodied back. You are grinding the crown of thorns in His hear once again and you are running that spear into His aching heart. Yes, you make Him suffer the renewed torture of His compassion. He is willing if you will draw closer to the cross and repent of your sins.

A Holy Savior is the only salvation that can ever save us from the hell our sins deserve. His holiness is laid on us when we confess Him AS our Lord. We can only stand before a Holy God in the shadow of a Holy Savior. So that when Father God looks on us, He sees the nail prints of His only Son pleading on our behalf. How can God refuse His Son?

Understand now that Jesus is not just “out there somewhere.” He lives in you. You are the temple now and His glory shines wherever your feet touch ground. You can’t get more personal than that.

His Name is Jesus and He came to save us from the punishment we deserve, the temptation we are bombarded with and the presence of sin that will be obliterated when He comes once again.

HAVE IT ALL

By Rick Mathes

James 1:4 (NASB77) and let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

There’s no such thing as a self-made man. Success, true success can only be achieved with God’s blessing and the guidance and protection of the Holy Spirit. Any and all natural success without our Lord is steeped in unforgiveness and the wages are death as you know.

Oh, you can mask the devil’s work and your efforts in good works or charity (for the tax write-off) and participation in your church (for honor and self-esteem). Rev. Lucifer walks in signs and wonders than are counterfeits and lies from front to back. You can have it all on earth but there won’t be a U-Hall hitched to the back bumper of your hearse.

When you as a child of the King have been blessed in abundance. You lack nothing. All your needs and wants are met and you have found a blessed comfort zone reserved only for the elect. This is when you give back to Him what you don’t need. The works of the Lord need your financial support. Christian ministries stand on the shoulders of all those who support them. They cn only reach as high as your effort and generosity will lift them.

The rock of Christianity is very simple, God is Love! When I love you as I love myself, I am headed in the right direction and I have reversed the turn on this planet most everyone lives on. But this monumental feat is not enough alone to overcome the world. We must love each other as our Lord loves us or rather we must love with His love to return to the fullness of joy Adam and Eve enjoyed before the fall. When I realized and articulated I loved Jesus more than my wonderful wife, I felt I had committed a mortal sin. If I love her with my love alone, no matter how hard I try, my love is conditional and His isn’t.

Your good works that emanate from prosperity are really the consequence of your good stewardship of His assets and the meeting of His needs in others. When you believe, you believe and obey. You have it all right now!

HAVE FAITH

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 12:12 Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

There is no faith that is objective and non-changing apart from faith in Jesus. All others are relative and in time will “crash and burn” when put to the test of time. Faith is an assurance and trust held that cannot be changed, altered or scrapped for another. The key to the strength of this faith in the face of alternatives, if here is an option, viable option to believing it, you will eventually succumb to the other, it’s just our nature as sinners.

You can count on the fact that doubt, the opposite of faith, is a sin that must be repented of. All of us have experienced doubt from time to time. There is no limit to the reasons the devil can come up with that will turn our heads from the truth and the faith that is inherent in it.

Are you a sinner seeking a way out? Has everyone let you down or really don’t care what happens to you? Well, don’t feel like you are the only one. But it can change big time if you will get to know those who one walked in your shoes who now have faith to follow Jesus’ bloody foot-prints.

Are you a trembling believer who has lost the faith of your first conversion? Is your faith flat-lining and your emotions tanked? Then rise in faith at least up to the survivors of like kind. Miracles happen when you hang out with those of like needs and wants. Follow the leaders in our fai th!

The Christian in front of you is probably being tempted and the Lord knows you are. We all fall short and need to pray for more faith and trust in Christ. Doubt and fear will drag the biggest Christian to hell if solid faith is evaporated.

Life isn’t fair and sometimes Jesus wants to take those we love home sooner than we would like Him to so we become bereaved sufferes and that lock of faith shows up in our employment.

A discouraged worker won’t last very long without faith in the employers. I didn’t have faith in any of them. My boss is Jesus and my life is for Him. He has never let me know and my faith grows greater every day.

HARD HEART

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 13:19
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.

A hardened heart may at times never soften to the good news. You may tag this reprobate with all the excuses you can dream up making him a victim of society or the church he attends carnal because of weak leadership. But the bottom line is that too many will explore the option of Christ, look around and say, “This is not for me.” Satan puts a mask on, gets into the pulpit and runs off those who have a high expectancy that results in the cold, hard shame of sinners pretending they are Christians in good standing while living in open, known sin. They make all the right moves for an hour on Sunday morning but the mask comes off through the day and the truth prevails through the smoke and mirrors of hell.

Their talk is nowhere near their walk. Many call them phony Christians but they really should be labeled condemned. Not it doesn’t take long for a sincere inquirer to notice that there is no discipline in what is soon to be obvious, an entertainment center, not a church.

Many so called churches have even eliminated the sermon. They may have 10 minutes of inspirational encouragement and many illustrations, but the Bible is only for the more mature Christians at a later date to explore under the guidance of the demon they inadvertently hired to be their teacher.  I once wrote editorial titles “Meet Father Lucifer.” I still get major flack from Roman Catholics but I am determined that the truth will prevail. I respond to their rants quoting their own Popes word for word. I’m letting their own words condemn them.

So this poor soul who wandered into this synagogue of Satan leaves determined that Christianity is nonsense and for good reason. He is left dry, cold and emotionally and intellectually indifferent to what has once been called the “opiate of the low-lifers.” Another one bites the dust and the beat goes on!

I have a wonderful idea for those who have a real Christ-centered Bible church, why don’t you go out of your way to seek out the seeker who did not return and ask them why? Don’t you want to know why your church was rejected? Are you afraid to learn the truth from an unbeliever?

HALF EMPTY

By Rick Mathes

Romans 2:6 (NASB77) ⁶ who will render to every man according to his deeds:

Worldview and attitude determine much of one’s lifestyle and Christian walk. So many professing brethren automatically respond to problems or challenges with reasons why it won’t work or can’t be done. The gears shift to neutral or reverse with little effort. This mindset permeates every strata of society from the top down.

Take for instance our Constitution. The court battles are in the arena of restrictions not opportunities. And as a result, our liberties are cannibalized to feed the void in liberal and permissive society until it can be said with some honesty, the constitution is old and obsolete. Why? The courts have rewritten it with “what we can’t do” instead of what our founders wanted us to do.

How about what passes for church? The attempt to organize an organism fails times and again because man won’t let go of what belongs to the Holy Spirit. We make rules and rituals while we choke on our own vomit of self-gratification. And all the while, the shepherd shakes in his boots for fear of violating the do’s and don’ts the sheep have demanded of him. This then leads to violating the gospel that now “contains the Word of God” when it suits the restrictions of religion that was birthed in the bowls of Hell.

Let’s not forget the family unit. Can you believe that we need to define it as a male father, female mothers and heterosexual children? Where have the boundaries of the gospel gone? Demons dictate from the pulpits, seats of government and at the head of the dinner table relativity instead of objectivity. What is right to you who are in power means more than what is right to me from the Lord’s own words.

So right is wrong and wrong is right and we are in a desperate situation which is clearly half-empty and hopeless. Let’s just throw in the towl and let others define our world, church and family. It’s much easier this way.

Or we can stand up for the truth and let all know that the glass is half full and we are going to fill it up to the top, so help us God. And He will!