Category: Evangelical Christian

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 hounds 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.

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 YOUR BODY

By Rick Mathes

Romans 12:1 (NASB77) ¹   I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

In no creature except man is there any act which involves such an interactivity of matter and spirit, boy and soul.

We are the sacrificing priests within the Temple of our bodies. This Temple is a house possessed by the Holy Spirit and preserved by the faith and blood of believers throughout the whole world. We, men of God, must be diligent keepers of His law in our heads and His passion in our hearts. As obedient slaves we go about the Father’s business and we don’t even notice we are doing so. Being a saved believer is a serious choice that cannot be violated or broken: a covenant.

C.H. Spurgeon: I scarcely like this word “sacrifice” because it involves nothing more than a reasonable service. If we gave up all we had and became beggars for Christ, it would display no such chivalrous spirit or magnanimous conduct after all. We would be gainers by the surrender.

Faith keeps the man who keeps the faith.

Our Body of Faith has:

• Eyes to see
• Ears to hear
• Hands to grip
• Feet to walk
• Mind to think
• Heart to love
• Taste to appreciate.

The first most grievous sin is to have a god more important than God.

The second is to desecrate the Body which is the Temple of God. Immoral sex, obesity, alcoholism, drug addiction, crime, etc. is essentially spitting in the face of our crucified Savior!

How dare you shame the House of God, your body and then yet expect God’s blessing.

God is reaching out to touch you physically, mentally, educationally, vocationally, and spiritually. It’s your body to do with as you choose. It is my expectation that this devotional will motivate you to do some housekeeping and wash your soul in living water.

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YOU WILL SEE

By Rick Mathes

John 1:39 He •said to them, “Come, and you will see.” They came therefore and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.

How can anyone resist His central command, “Come.” When the King issues a demand, all he wants to hear from you is, “Yes Sir!” Yet, with just a gentle invitation, one of the greatest Apostles, John and his brother stepped forward and spent the afternoon with Him.

I don’t know what Jesus discussed with the two teenagers but they never left His side until James was martyred and John lived out his old age in Ephesus.

Here are more notable requests:

• Follow Me:

John 1:43 The next day He purposed to go forth into Galilee, and He •found Philippians And Jesus •said to him, “Follow Me.”

• Come to Me:

Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

• Learn of Me:

Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and YOU SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.

• Abide in Me:

John 15:14 “You are My friends, if you do what I command you.

I can’t tell you how many times I have taught my sheep to hear, listen, learn, apply and evaluate. We are the sum total of all our choices and for the life of me I will never understand why anyone would have a problem with the Lord’s good news.

He lays out for us to follow, come, learn and abide.

Many shallow, carnal Christians will put on a wonderful show of following Him. They are dot-to-dot perfect in the church attendance, Bible studies, good works and fellowship. But when things don’t go their way the turn inward to self and lose themselves in their own feeble and failing efforts.

Others only come to Him in time of need. They believe that Jesus is their servant not the other way around. Our mentors, those we learn from, are found often by chance instead of choice. We all need to hold on to Paul and drag along a Timothy. It is then that when you follow His steps the Holy Spirit will make His dwelling in you like your father’s blood runs through your veins; He will abide in you and you in Him.

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YOU LET THEM

By Rick Mathes

John 20:13 And they •said to her, ” Woman, why are you weeping?” She •said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”

Why are you crying? Have they taken your Lord away? It’s worth analyzing and taking a close look at it because this is a very serious matter. Life without Jesus is literally a living hell even if you go into denial or drink and drug your mind into neutral: truth races on. Let’s face it, they have taken your Lord away.

Is it a selfish sorrow when you pour your heart and soul into someone who lets you down big-time, or a church you have helped build folds? If you crash too, they have taken your Lord away.

It just might be flat-out rebellion to what is right that has made you take the wide road that is headed in the wrong direction. This usually happens when your old habits and old way haunt you until they overcome you. You allowed them to do this.

How about being in the midst of a crowded mega-church where you feel painfully alone in the midst of them and hopeless in a packed out sanctuary: they are just plastic people playing church. I call this nonsense Kentucky Fried Christianity! They have taken our Lord away in most churches and left Satan, with a mask on, in the pulpit. Flee from those flames and destruction.

A dead church and your emptiness grieve the Holy Spirit to no end. It always is preceded by the prayers you feel that God is not answering nor is even listening. You are right, He isn’t.

The biggest villain of emptiness or a lack of the Lord’s presence is that you are not serving Him. When you are in Him and He is in you, you must do something. It is true that you are saved by grace alone apart from works but when you enjoy His grace you do His works. St. Francis of Assisi once said, “All I want to do is go about the work of our Father and not know it.”  When you are humbled they can’t take your Lord away.

The old nature of doubting will raise its ugly head and if you leave them they will stir up your past sins and make you totally miserable. The problem is you, not them! Listen carefully to what I am about to say and memorize it:

“The sin you have you want more than Jesus because if you didn’t want the sin more than you do want the sin, you won’t have it.”

It’s all a matter of driving them off with, “It is written.” To do that you need to get into the Word more than them. It’s only when you know the truth that you will uncover the lie. The truth will prevail and they will never take your Lord away again, I promise!

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YOU DIED

By Rick Mathes

Colossians 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Our sinful nature dies when our first nature is resurrected. It’s second nature to sin. Our first nature was to walk in the cool of the evening with God. Once we are born again and justified, our journey of sanctification, the pursuit of that original holiness has begun.

There is the essence and form of our being. We are distinguished from each other by our varying forms: gender, age, size, color, features, etc. Our essence though is Christ’s Spirit when we die to sin and live for His purposes. Jesus puts our skin on and continues to go about he business of the Father. That’s what it means to be ‘in Him.”

It’s a totally new but safe life because we are His and He gave His life for our well being. Our spirit is in His and our heart beats with His. WE are a new creature, the old has left and the new is pouring in as quickly as we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us.

We can actually stand bravely before the face of God because of he blood of Jesus. How marvelous! Once the armor is on, the sword lifted and our feet firmly planted on holy ground, the battle is ours. We win!

How wonderful can it be when that joy swells up in our spirit? We just want to shout and sing praises to the King. It’s a rush that no drug can equal and it’s all from Him and the glory that comes upon us because of His Son.

Once your past is past and the present is forgiven, your future blessing is assured. Nothing beats a clean conscience. Contentment is the reward of the comfort we enjoy because of our freedom in Him. So what can we yield when planted in good soil but good fruit? Our works display our essence grounded in His grace. It’s our invisible life that is His greatest joy.

When we die to sin we rise to His glory and the Holy Spirit works through us all that are in the will and purposes of our Lord. So don’t look for my form to glow in the dark with holy works. Just enjoy the invisible Spirit of His that lives in me. One moment the other side and we will make visible with His eyes the genius He displayed in us that no one, not even us were aware of. Won’t that be exciting?

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YING YANG

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 12:33
Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.

It’s only common sense that a tree that bears fruit that is sick, is probably dying. I can see with my own eyes the condition of the plant as well as the man. They both bear the signs of death, or life. The fruit does not lie. In other words, how you live is who you are. How you walk trumps how you talk.

Plants and men need water to ive but men take a step upward. He’s upgraded to living water which is the Word of God. And like a plant without water dies, so do men devoid of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit administers the Lord’s gospel into your parched soul through the Holy Writings from God’s own hand.

The spiritual vitality is obvious in the believer’s zeal for the Word. What can be more exciting than a new convert leaping into the arms of our precious Savior? The old life not only dies but becomes progressively repulsive in direct proportion to our growing love for Jesus. Let me warn you here that we leak this spiritual nourishment and must constantly replenish the living water so as not to lose our health and restraint of the evil one.

The best funeral you will ever attend is yours. I can recall my “born again” day like it happened yesterday. The death of your old life is a date to celebrate. I refuse to hang out with the old me. In fact I find who I was as very repulsive.

As a Father to a Son our Lord will prune us to strengthen our roots and maximize our spiritual energy through God the Spirit. That’s His job to chasten and prune. I praise the Lord that now I have a Daddy (Abba) that will take a belt to my butt when I have it coming.

And of course I want a Father that will put His tender arms around you and say, “I love you son!” That is abiding in Christ! That is being grafted into the root and the promise that He still sustains our spiritual growth with his vitality and zeal for the Gospel.

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WRONG SHEPHERD

By Rick Mathes

John 10:9 (ASV) ⁹ I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture.

Father Lucifer is Satan with a mask on and he is totally committed to bringing you down into his inferno so that you won’t glory in your Savior Jesus. The devil is the absolute opposite of our Lord by every measure you can even imagine. The antithesis of good is evil as light is to darkness and heaven is to hell.

Satan doesn’t care one whit about you because his only into his own self-interests: only that which gratifies his evil intentions. He has an “I” problem because nothing else is important. Everything and everyone must be destroyed and plundered to show Jesus that he is the ruler of this planet and he is passionately committed to take all to his flaming dungeon.

Diablo purposely scorns the weak and ignores the sick. He has never experienced compassion but is quick to abandon the lost because he knows that they are beyond recovery. Too many of these heartless demons pose as uncaring elders and deacons that are motivated by their titles but lack any substance of mercy and care.

If the wrong shepherd can divide and scatter the flock he can seal off the weakest to attack first. Sad but true, the ignorant and naive of our churches will believe anything a persuasive, charismatic preacher say. The devil doesn’t cae what you do to receive Jesus as Lord just don’t do it today!

The King of Kings will one day permanently punish him and remove and ban him from the congregation of the saints. He will be cast into the bottomless pit and will be judged to eternal damnation with all the pain and discomfort God can inflict. Just seeing this hell scared the Son of Man into sweating real blood of His own anxiety.

Satan will be severly judged, condemned and sentenced to death with no parole. He will not be destroyed but will be in the process and pain of eternal blistering, burning and dying. It will ever end so be on alert for wrong shepherds. The Good Shepherd is retuning for all of His soon. Just have discernment and hang in there, ok?

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WRONG PLANET

By Rick Mathes

2 Corinthians 5:20 (NASB77) ²⁰  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

How many times I have said, “I just don’t belong here” over the years is more than I can count. I put the world behind me and now I don’t even recognize the person in the middle of that sin I once was. I really was born again. How about you? Do you feel like you just don’t fit in with most of those that you come in contact with? Well you don’t!

You are now a stranger in a strange world of phony and fake people, places and things. Like a move set. Everything looks real but when you look around it, it is only one inch thick. There is no substance to Satan’s kingdom. Nothing is as it appears to be and everything is broken. Life is nothing but a living fraud, a poor copy of hwat it will be when Christ returns to reign for 1,000 years.

In the meantime we still have to go about the Lord’s business and be His pilgrims just passing through. We are to live for Him and light in the darkness and populate the remnant the devil can’t touch. We walk on foreign soil no matter where we call home. We live among people with a culture that is contrary to everything we believe to be good and holy.

It may be a strange country or civilization we find ourselves in but we still need to be reminded that we are ambassadors for the King. We are His and on this mission for a season. Sometime in our future is our last earthly heartbeat and our first gasp at the glory of our true home. Our first nature is to walk and talk with God in the cool of the day. Every tick of the clock draws us that much closer to our return s we must make the best we can of what three score and ten we have to represent Him to a lost and dying planet.

We are not just observers to this life experience; we are walking, living cameras that record all we’ve seen. Yes, even our thoughts will not escape a public hearing. Do we need the protection of Jesus? You bet we do. This question remains: will He say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant?” The jury is out.

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WRATH OF GOD

By Rick Mathes

John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

It is against all that is within us not to repent of our sins. The thought of becoming totally belly-up to anyone much less Jesus never occurs to us. The deceitful lie we buy is that we can handle anything that comes our way. My own attitude was that the only one who can take care of me is me. It took a lot for me to die to self and covenant to obey Him with all that is within me. But this is what has to be done or else!

It’s ignorance, indifference, pride and love of sin that gets a grip on a sinner and just won’t let go. God’s wrath is lingering just around the corner. Jonathan Edwards gave an epic sermon, Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” That lack of obedience to the King of kings comes with a terrible price. When you go to Hell there isn’t any attorney to reduce your life sentence. You can’t get free for good behavior, there’s not time served, house arrest or any release from the sizzling fflames ever. You don’t have eternal dead you have eternal dying. A barbeque of you!

All Jesus asked is for you to simply believe in Him and all this horror show goes away. It takes faith. This is something, this faith, that we exercise hundreds of times a day. Every time I see a green light when driving I go. When I turn the switch the light goes on. When in the operating room I lose consciousness, I have faith I will wake up and the operation will be successful. This goes on every day so we sure aren’t a stranger to faith.

So how much persuasion do you need to be confident in a Jesus you haven’t seen? Just depend on Him when you can’t on you and you have it. Surrender: you’ve met more than your match in Him. If you will just obey His commands to believe, it’s then fear will be replaced with truth.

Now what’s the proof of this new found belief and faith? Its perseverance and this eventually develops into holiness. This is the capstone of faith and the ultimate challenge to the truth that is within you. It’s all acceptance not rejection of the Son.

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WORKOUT

By Rick Mathes

Philippians 2:12 (NASB77) ¹² So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;

This is not a proof text for the works driven salvation proponents. It only implies that the salvation process is not just justification, the forgiveness of sins. That’s the cause of the pursuit of holiness, sanctification which takes on an effort in partnership with the Holy Spirit to accomplish and exchange of all of you for all of Him.

In the initial experience of receiving the forgiveness all the guile of past sins is erased from the Book of Life. You put your face in the mud, the blood and the tears at the foot of the Cross and beg His forgiveness for you having offended Him. He then forgives you. Guilt should now be gone as you receive the forgiveness and become forgiven: no guilt. If you still have guilt, you have not truly repented of that sin. You are still holding on to it. Let’s go stupid!

You are now released from the power of sin. You insides are lit up like a Christmas tree and the darkness cannot enter and conquer the brilliance of His glory in you. The wrath of God has now subsided and you have the deliverance from any future punishment. Now that is cause to rejoice!

What lessons can we learn from this?

Let’s start with having firmness off faith. We are virgins all over again and have developing faith and trust, the keys to heaven. Doubt and fear are vile sins in the face of God and must be repented of.

Hatred of sin follows love of Jesus. Have you ever hated before? Recapture that emotion momentarily and replace the object of your hate with a hate for the sin that killed Jesus Christ!

Obedience follows belief. It can do no other. When Jesus is Lord becomes Jesus as Lord you are secure in your salvation and not even the gates of hell can prevail against you!

There is no other effect but humility when you look into His eyes and know He knows everything about you. Nothing slips by His notice and He sure doesn’t wink at your favorite sin, He loathes it!

Your contempt of this world will grow in direct proportion to your love for Jesus. Human glory only rewards you with a crown of thorns. So abandon your old self in heart, mind and soul to Him, your only redeemer.

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