Category: Evangelical Christian

STOP SINNING

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 15:34 Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse in American courts; those who continue to sin when they know better, know better and are without excuse. “The fool (imbecile) has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’ and that’s exactly what we do when we leave good sense in a ditch and sin without abandon. When there is no remorse of sin, there is no knowledge of Jesus. If you will be honest with yourself you will have to admit an aunt, mom, friend or stranger has been used of God in your past to convict you of sin and draw you to repentance. Your iron heart zigged and zagged a path to fight the Godhead magnet of unmerited election. Looking back you can see how hard the Holy Spirit had to work to get you to this place of reading this article.

When you return to the foot of the cross not only do you have a deep remorse over sin but a mighty sense of trust in Jesus returns. Doubt and fear are the key to the gate of hell. Faith and trust are the passwords to glory. The armor gets heavy and our sword drops and our knees buckle from time to time. We are only human.

But with renewed trust, we step out of the boat with overpowering peace. Whatever happened to Shalom, Salaam and Peace be with you? All three faith groups; Jews, Muslims and Christians claim they worship Abrahams God of peace and then they continue in war. Go figure?

When was the last time you had an overwhelming joy? When did your dopamine level surge without the boost of cannabis? When was the first time you got a real rush of the Holy Spirit? Have you been flat-lining lately? Then come home fellow Christian, come home. The foot of the cross is a great place to start your journey to glory all over again.

Have an intense sorrow for having wandered away. Tears wsh the soul and it rises to exhilarating praise. The Holy Ghost dynamite will once again explode within you and your zeal for ministry will return. Welcome back!

 

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

By Rick Mathes

Luke 4:18-19 (NASB77) ¹⁸ ” The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, ¹⁹ To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

The Bible teaches us that Jesus grew in stature and wisdom. That means he went from less to more in both. His childhood textbook was Isaiah and the following verses must have sent a thrill up His spine as He realized that they were talking about Him!

Isaiah 42:1 (NASB77) ¹ ” Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. Isaiah 61:1-2 (NASB77) ¹ The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives, And freedom to prisoners; ² To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,

When I put my hand on the scriptures in Isaiah I sense a kinship with a brother in Christ that I will be very happy to meet when I go home. His prophesy is electrifying and the Lord must have been wide-eyed and excited when He realized that He was the Servant God spoke to. I was very skeptical of church, religion and the Bible. But since I had given my heart to Jesus I thought the least I could do was to learn all I could about Him so I read just the “red parts.” It only takes 3 hours to do so.

Then I outlined that all I needed to know was:

• Was He really born God of a virgin?
• What did He do while He was here on earth?
• What did He teach His apostles to do?
• Did He really die for my sins?
• Did He really rise from the grave alive?
• Did He really ascend into heaven?
• And is He really coming back for me?

If all those answers were in the affirmative column then the only question left was, “What does He expect me to be doing when He gets here? His “Statement of Purpose” is quite clear as to what you and I should, as believers be engaged in if “the Spirit of God is upon us.”

• We are to bring good news to the poor.
• We are to set the captives free.
• We are to provide recovery of sight to the blind.
• We are to set free the downtrodden.
• We are to proclaim that today is the day of your salvation!

Well, is the Spirit of God upon you? Then get with it; the Lord is nearer than you think!

STARGATE

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 3:2 (NASB77) ² ” Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

There is a famous movie and follow-up TV series titled Stargate. It is an ancient Egyptian arch with the entry, a wall of shimmering water. What the film adventurers do is bravely step in and through this glistening wall into another whole new world. Well, I love to daydream about stepping through the Gate into heaven. I know this is not biblically described as a Stargate to glory but this imagery serves the purpose of satisfying my imagination. I pretend I am stepping through that wall of water into glory and seeing Jesus and the New Jerusalem.

This amazing vision of stepping into glory was trumped by a real vision I had one night. I was on my knees in the pitch black darkness of my bedroom repenting of my sins back to the day I was born! I wanted to attain a new level of holiness not like anything I had ever reached to before.

Suddenly, I burst into an expanse of blue sky with wispy clouds that I could sense were alive. I was aware of all my body parts but I couldn’t see them. I just knew I was there in a body. I hung on nothing but this beautiful sky.

Have you ever been totally immersed under water? They you must know what it is like to be fully encompassed by liquid. Well, that was my experience except the liquid was love. I can’t explain it any other way.

Now just as I was basking in this wonderful feeling, it got much better!

I became love.

That’s right, like sponge absorbing water I soaked in love completely. I became love! This is the best I can describe this “taste of heave.” I know that the Lord is love and he is as near as a repentant prayer.

You may not have this sampling of His glory a I had. Your reward may be entirely different and in fact you may not feel anything at all this side of Stargate as I did. But rest assured that if you repent and step through the Gate, the reward of heaven will be yours.

You will discover that heaven is the fellowship of the love the Holy Spirit flows between the Father and the Son. Repent and you will know you know the Lord is nearer than you thought!

STAND UP

By Rick Mathes

Acts 2:14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words”

There is a lot of needless pontificating in too many pulpits these days. The preachers of this post-Christian era are only showmen putting on the performance they expect you to pay for and return for more. How shameful can it be for us to face Jesus knowing this happens and having done nothing about it? These synagogues of Satan prosper because stupid underfed sheep go to the other side of the fence with the devil’s smile to welcome them. All this happens because today’s preachers don’t have the “spiritual T” to preach repent, submit and obey!

Take a stand! Ministers of America clean up your own backyard before you go to other nations and tell them how to clean up their backyards. Have the courage of Peter to speak up the gospel of Jesus: nothing more and nothing less. When Paul passed the baton to Timothy, the future of our faith went with it. Now it has been passed on to you. Don’t drop it! I guarantee you, every soul in heaven would exchange places with you in a heartbeat to be in the Last Days with our Lord.

You must rise up your voice and let the world know that you are in Jesus as your Lord. It only takes one match to light a universal It only took one Paul to turn the Roman Empire upside down. As the name “The David” in known in New York as “Trump” is known around the world, it is nothing compared to the name of Paul! I might add, your name is known in heaven!

How can they be saved unless they hear the good news and how can they hear it if you don’t declare it to them. The Word teaches that you are a new creature; you have the ministry of reconciliation and have become an ambassador for the King. When people get to know you do they get to know Jesus?

Make know that the time of our redemption is near. Whisper it in the shadows and shout it from the rooftops! And while you are in this state of mind, just stop, stand still and listen. Not only will you hear the endless echo of your own words from the mouths of others but you will hear the precious words of Jesus say, “I love you” in the soft hush of His creation surrounding you. In the trees, the sky and in the wind is the eternal Word of God, “It is finished.” For you, if you will stand up His Return will be seen on the horizon.

 

C.H. SPURGEON SAID

By Rick Mathes

The best proof you can ever have of God being mighty to save,

dear hearts, is that he saved you.

Hell is howling from within because it knows how soon its end must come.

No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God.

Be not proud, and then of what you have, when you remember that you once rejected Him.

1. Judgment to come;
2. No hope of heaven
3. No blood of Christ
4. No pardon of sin
5. No sanctifying Spirit
6. No imputed righteousness

I love my Bible because it is a Bible baptized with His blood.

Getting to know Christ now is the process by which the Christian will become like Christ in the future.

He that stands self-convicted, may look to Christ hanging on the Cross, and see himself hanging there, and see his sins for ever put away by the sacrifice of Jesus on the tree.

Common sense should tell us that when something clean and something unclean brush against one another, the unclean object is not improved but the clean object is changed for the worse.

Jesus Christ did not die to make God loving, but he died because God loved.

We should expect to be among wolves in the world, but beware of them when they are in the church, undetected and unconverted.

Thou hast made us; Thou hast made us what we are, we are nothing without Thee.

We have seen a season of lethargy, of soul-poverty among the saints and of neglect among the ministers to His church. God is about to send times of surprising fertility to His church.

You have an enemy who all his life long has been your enemy: the Devil.

 

SPIRITUAL MATURITY

By Rick Mathes

John 16:15 (NASB77) ¹⁵  ” All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.

There comes a time when we have to take off our diaper, stand up and pee like a man! Using a drug here and a drug there or a drink here and a drink there is like stabbing our soul with an ice pick a little at a time. We are killing the life within, erasing our animation and sealing our future to fames when we sty in Satan’s playpen and breast feed on the goddess Diana. There is a moment of truth when we must put away childish things and grow up. Why don’t we? The anser is simply, growing pains: it hurts as god prunes us.

Knowledge that only the Holy Spirit can provide through the Word of God cultivates understanding no matter how slow the progress. You can’t coast your bicycle up-hill for long until you need o exert the effort to pedal the bike upward. So it is with our imperative to hear, listen, learn, apply then evaluate. We must be more Christ-like today than we were yesterday or we are headed for a massive backslides of which we may not recover. How many more chances do you have to repent, submit and obey Him before He withdraws His Hoy Spirit and lets you plunge into the furnace of flames that is opening wider for you.

Total maturity is total perfection. We are totally depraved so perfection apart from Christ is impossible but this does not excuse us from trying. We must always strive for Christ’s ideal. It isn’t the destination arrival, it is the striving toward the higher prize, we press on.

The deeper truths of the Gospel soon leap of the pages of the Bible. Jesus left God’s only message to us in the Bible, compete without additions or redactions. He also left the Holy Spirit ot teach us these profound truths.

It is only in doing this spiritual weight lifting that we can be empowered “not to sin.” Only the Holy Spirit has this authority over sin, death, hell and Satan. We are overcomers that even the very gates of hell cannot prevail against us. The temptation transforms itself into the testing for the elect and certain condemnation for the unbelievers.

 

SPIRIT’S FIRE

By Rick Mathes

1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit;

There is only one baptism and it includes the fullness of the Triune Godhead. No further injection of the Holy Spirit is necessary. However, you do have your hand on the dimmer switch. You can turn up or down the power of the Holy Spirit’s influence in your life and relationship with those around you.

The Holy Spirit is quenched:

1. BY NEGLECT: I went about the task of painting three rooms in my house in three days. I neglected my devotions, prayers and Christian music. I leaked the Holy Spirit so much that I was slipping cuss words out and seriously thinking about getting a sex-pack of beer. (I am a former alcoholic.)
2. WORLDLINESS: This most certainly includes how others perceive you. I went to the movie staging area of Disneyland and saw that all the houses and buildings were only as thick as the two-by-fours that held the façade up: no depth or the real thing behind it, much like your life right now.
3. INDULGENCE: Liquid levity in alcoholic beverages is short lived and results in an awful hangover. Drugs cause addiction and there are even some who are committing suicide “by fork.” (Gluttony.)
4. THOUGHTS: You really are what you think. I have seen many who have hit the mother of bottoms rise to unexpected levels of success once they developed a relationship with Jesus.
5. FEELINGS: Satan can and often does counterfeit feelings. Just because it feels good doesn’t mean it came from godly sources. Any crack or heroin addict will give this a hearty amen!
6. And then there is the list of corruptions:
7. What you read
8. Who you are employed with
9. A backsliding family
10. Friends that only walk the wide road
11. A church filled with demons

We are triune beings that are composed of three of Satan’s main targets:

• Our flesh
• Our spirit
• Our soul

Nothing would make the devil more happy but for you to quench the Holy Spirit by tuning the dimmer switch down to as low as it will go and put the Spirit’s fire out!

SOUND THE ALARM!

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 7:29 (NASB77) ²⁹  But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none;

The Lord is near! That’s good. The Lord’s return is near! That’s even better if you are a child of the promise. If you are not a professor of His good news, His return is really bad news because you will not even be invited to the White Throne Judgment. Your future in hell’s furnace is already a done deal. You may want to reconsider Him as your Lord. Will you have the breath to say “I believe?”

A backslider by definition is someone who isn’t even trying. Let me illustrate by asking you, “How long can you coast your bike uphill without pedaling?” See what I mean? Staying in a path to glory upward is within the power of the Holy Spirit within you ut you have to keep on pedaling or you will slide back.

If you don’t move forward to His Kingdom you will be lost to this world. The kingdoms of this world are temporarily in the hands of Satan. How do I know this? The devil offered them all to Jesus if He would just worship him. Satan could not have offered what wasn’t his.

So “Sound the Alarm” and warn everyone within your hearing to study the Word as though their lives depended on it. Salvation is the proof of believers that are planted in the good soil of the gospel. The evidence of a true confessing of faith is the service to the Lord. When the cause is God and the effect is godliness which is fueled by the compassion that can only come from His broken heart for a broken people reaching our for mercy only He can extend.

Yes there is suffering but it is only for a season. Lose hands are the devils workshop so remember that the holy hands are attached the living temple of your body and they must be about that work of the Father or lifted up to Him in praise and worship.

Satan will surround you with every amusement he can get his hands on to distract you and to turn your eyes and attention outward instead of upward. Your powerful prayers and petitions then wilt away to small talk and worldliness that forgets that the Lord is near!

SO NEAR

By Rick Mathes

James 4:8 (NASB77) ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The closer you are to Jesus the closer you are to heaven and all it’s glory. To know Him is to love Him and as you learn His Word you draw nearer and nearer until you are consumed by Him. There is no choice but to praise Him with prayers that don’t ask anything of Him. Try it. It’s not easy to pray without wanting Him to give or do something for you. This worship in spirit and truth will increase your fellowship with Him and His. Soon you will see those like you, His church through His eyes.

Sinning against a Holy God is truly a fall from grace. For His reasons, He will withhold His hand and allow Satan and his demons to have a go at you. You brought this on yourself as a dereliction of your duty to serve the King of the Universe not the king of darkness and destruction.

So what is true salvation made of: what set’s the captives free?

• Regeneration
• Reformation
• Revival
• Revolution

It’s all a matter of untangling the bad from the good. In order to do that we need to learn which is which and the Bible is the only place with God’s answers to our questions.

As you read the Word you really will sense an emancipation of evil and a covenant of grace. The words will truly come alive and leap off the pages at you.

You will experience an unshackling so to speak. You won’t be cuffed to the devil anymore! The knowledge of the Lord will give you understanding and the wisdom that supernaturally follows.

Unleashed! The great escape from Satan’s mansion is before you. The Lord’s gate is opened and inviting you to cross over from death to life. Welcome to the Kingdom of God!