Category: Evangelical Christian

LIVING WATER

By Rick Mathes

John 4:11 She •said to Him, ” Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?

There is nothing more refreshing to a parched throat than cold, clear water. Our body is about 80% fluid so you can see that venting and perspiration causes a thirst to our body engine that must be quenched or we over heat and die like a dry car radiator in a waterless desert. Our soul or spiritual body engine is no different. We need living water or we wither and die. Too much Word and you dry up, too much Spirit and you blow up but a balance of both and you grow up! What is it about his living water that we can identify and respond to?

My first thought is that the Living Water is refreshing, not only to my thirst but it does my spiritual laundry. When I am drinking in the Word of God such as when I read Psalms, the Spirit comes up on me in a wonderful way. I might be old and wrinkled on the outside but on the inside I am an enthusiastic and vibrant teenager.

As Living Water it is powerful because of the energy it generates. The hydraulic principles appy as that water rushes over the edges of my life. Everyone around me notices that I have a special smile, glow and purpose in all that I do for Him and for His glory.

Once we ingest the Word and it flows in our spiritual veins, we attach ourselves to the vine and abide in Him. Even though we are engrafted, we share the same vitality of everyone who believes. How exciting can it get!

With this new nourishment, it’s like we are doing scriptural steroids. WE bulkup and abound in good works that are fully in His will. There are three things that can we can never recover: a sped arrow, a spoken word and a passing opportunity.

Your opportunity has arrived! Let’s do an inventory you can underwsta

He has it.

He has it to give.

He has it for the asking

He alone can give it.

Won’t you drink deeply and live as you have never lived before?

LIVING DEAD

By Rick Mathes

Romans 6:23 (NASB77) ²³  For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

C.H. Spurgeon:

It would be an awful experiment to set a house on fire intending to let it burn just so much and no more. “This far you shall come and no further?” If you could say it to fire, among standing corn, blown b the wind, yet you would say it in fain to sin. Sin swiftly grows from a pygmy to a giant, and ever increasing in its awful powers, it crushes down the man who is in its grip and holds him under it dreadful sway.

We have enough religion to make us hate,

But not enough to make us love.

Carnal Christians:

1. No spiritual leaders.
2. Evil associations.
3. Worldly success.
4. Shallowness.
5. Empty lives.
6. No spiritual insight.
7. Love of the world.

C.H. Spurgeon:

That sin must die or you will perish by it. Depend on it, that sin which you would save from slaughter will slaughter you.

Sin would have a few takers if its

Consequences occurred immediately.

Alexander MacLaren:

Every sin is a mistake as well as a wrong; and the epithah for the sinner is, “Thou fool!”

Sin Destroys:

• Soul: core of one’s being.
• Family: household, relatives
• Nation: character, temperament
• Church: denomination, service
• World: everyone, society, church

LIVE UP

By Rick Mathes

Philippians 3:16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

Anything the devil has to offer you will only degrade and lower you until you need to jump up to touch bottom. So it is critical that we set our goals up and take a real inventory about what we do have in Christ. Let’s take a look at the practices of Paul and see if there are any similarities.

Most obvious is the attribute that Paul worshipped God in the Spirit. He turned his dimmer switch up to the top. He put his pedal to the metal. He was all out a buddle of humility at the feet of His Lord and Savior. Many times his tears were those of Jesus and his heart beat with His. It gave him great cause to die to sin and rise submissively to the Holy Spirit even to the third heaven and hear words and see scenes he was forbidden to speak about.

Here he was in a hole in the ground called a prison confinement, with the searing heat, stifling humidity and odors and vermin beyond civil description and he was having a 4^th of July celebration of joy for the Churches he had birthed. His heart leaped from his chest knowing tht he had lit the fuse that caused the holy explosion of the Spirit everywhere he traveled. He had been chosen to throw the rock into the cesspool of civilization and cause ripples of salvation, one family at a time!

Paul had no confidence in his flesh even though he had all the credentials of a pedigree. He knew that all he once staked his reputation on wasn’t anything more than a handful of sand that slipped though his fingers to be forgotten: meaningless.

This transformation left him absolutely void of any self righteousness. He began the sanctification process of exchanging all he was for all Christ is. He never attained complete holiness but he did all he could to live up to Christ’s excellency and put his own incompetence behind him.

Paul knew to treat anything of Satan’s as trash. As long as we bless the Lord with all we have, the devil will never have a toe-hold onus. Live up to Christ and don’t look outward to temporal distractions.

LIVE IN HIM

By Rick Mathes

Colossians 2:6 (NASB77) ⁶  As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

Your walk is more convincing than your talk. S when your knees shake and our faith waivers, take a look at where and in what are you rooted. I am particularly fascinated by the giant sequoia redwood trees along our west coast. Some were planted in the days of Christ and yet they continue to grow and prosper. How do they do that? Their roots don’t grow deep they grow out and hang on to each other. This way they don’t stand alone. Isn’t that neat? Let us go and do likewise.

As a writer, I enjoy a blank piece of paper as a challenge. It gets my creative juices going to put down something of value. I suspect the same thrill occurs to a contractor as he looks at a cant lot that will soon be enhanced by a building of his creation. So it I in being built up in Christ. Jesus is blessed to enjoy His image and likeness in you. What could be more perfect?

As you are rebuilt in Him it is apparent that the old you is gone and the new has come. So make them know clearly that you are a Christian to all who come in contact with you. This will establish the fact that you are His and are not interested in fellowshipping with those who aren’t His. I know of a fellow minister that wears a priest’s white collar when he travels. He explains that the collar establishes that he is a cleric and it holds off all kinds of temptations real and imagined.

Understand the enemy or he will put you under. Satan is a better liar than you because you believed him for all those years before Christ. Beware of his deceptions and live in Christ. The better you know the real Jesus the more adept you will be at spotting the phoney. Satan temporarily has the wold as we know it in the palm of his smoldering hand. But the day is dawning s you are illuminated by the Word to seek Him out and destroy every last vestige of his insane persona.

When you live in Him you become dead to the world. A man dead to sin is dead to sin. Unleash the Holy Spirit within you and you will live on another plane that you have never even imagined.

 

LITTLE FAITH

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 8:26 And He said to them, “Why are you timid, you men of little faith?” Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and it became perfectly calm.

God never had a bad day. If you are having a bad day it is because you are into “I, me and mine” instead of “He, Him, and His.” You are looking outward instead of upward. Not is the time to ask you, “Have I been born again?” I don’t mean patched-up in good works but completely replaced of the old with the new. Do you see as He sees and hear that which is pleasing to Him? Do you have the mid of Christ and do your works express those thoughts that are filtered through His new heart beating in your chest? Are your hands going about His business and have you planted your feet on holy ground? Lastly, are you honoring your body as the temple and home of the Triune God?

In other words, in whom do you trust? Or are you still shaking in anxiety and artificial uneasiness! Go about His work, let others have the credit and you will know the humility that must open your eyes to those you keep company with.

The old adage, “birds of a feather flock together” is as true today as it was a hundred years ago. I consider it more like metal being attracted to a magnet when Christians irresistibly come together for corporate worship. We can’t stop the body parts from assembling inot the body so to speak.

The dry bones shout “Hallelujah!” When the Word is flowing through your veins like fire and you can’t shut up, your words will display who your heart belongs to: you or Him. When Satan owns your heart he controls your tongue and your speech betrays who your Lord is.

As this process unfolds over three score and ten what I have attained, each year that follows will display a bonus I don’t deserve and a Holy Ghost faith in Christ that has sustained me to this moment. The witnesses, the Word are in my life one step at a time. My faith grows and I establish myself on fertile soil and in the fellowship of believers. My master sustains me and His faith has found a home in my heart. How about you?

LIFE OR DEATH

By Rick Mathes

Romans 5:10 for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Do you have any idea or how much you are an enemy of God without our Lord’s intervention? You are destined not the death but eternal dying in flames of fire. When we realize how blessed we are to be His, we burst with joy and endlessly worship Him with our thoughts, words and deeds. This generates the Holy Spirit to the next level of our awareness of His love.

I always thought a man loving a man was homosexual and a man with a woman was lust. It wasn’t until I experienced His love that I began to plumb the depths that cannot be fully discovered. He not only has the only genuine love, He is the love. In other words, Father God is the lover, Brother Jesus is the loved and best friend Holy Spirit is the love between them.

Can you get your mind around not only eternal life later, it is now. Isn’t that astounding! This very moment as you read is is a moment lost if you don’t live it to its fullest in Him. How? The Holy Spirit will speak eternal life and truth to you even in this article I am penning right now.

We hit speed bumps, brick walls and frequently stumble through the sanctification process but His righteousness is never tarnished. We display His holiness when we take on His righteousness. We become virgins all over again. There is an exciting freshness when we leave the iron and clay behind and become a golden trophy to His sacrificial offering.

The world blames all the problems on religion and they are right. The problem is religion not Christianity, there is a difference. Religion of men brings kingdoms of the world by permission of the Lord, of course. It is only in this lifetime that we can say yes to Jesus and no to Satan because in glory there will only be yes to Him and no devil to say no to. This is our only chance to make a choice that blesses us and Him.

There is a rest in His in His peace that cannot be described and only experienced by real Christians. You have to step up in faith to Jesus then step back in a peace that surpasses understanding.

A Letter from Paul

By Rick Mathes 

A certain church found itself suddenly without a pastor, and a committee was formed to search for a new man. In due course, the committee received a letter from a clergyman applying for the position. The letter went like this:

“Gentlemen: Understanding that your pulpit is vacant, I should like to submit my application. I am generally considered to be a good preacher. I have been a leader in most of the places I have served. I have also found time to do some writing on the side.

“I am over 50 years of age, and while my health is not the best, I still manage to get enough work done so as to please my parish.

“As for references, I am somewhat handicapped. I have never preached in any place for more than 3 years. And the churches I have preached in have generally been pretty small, even though they were located in rather large cities. In some places I had to leave because my ministry caused riots and disturbances. Even where I stayed, I did not get along too well with other religious leaders in town, which may influence the kind of references these places will send you. I have also been threatened several times and even physically attacked. Three or four times I have gone to jail for witnessing to my convictions.

“Still, I feel sure I can bring vitality to your church even though I am not particularly good at keeping records. I have to admit I don’t even remember all those whom I’ve baptized. However, if you can use me, I should be pleased to be considered.”

Hearing the letter read aloud, the committee members were aghast. How could anyone think that a church like theirs could consider a man who was nothing but a trouble-making, absent-minded, ex-jailbird? What was his name.

“Well,” said the chairman of the committee, “the letter is simply signed…PAUL.”

 

 

LETTER FROM HEAVEN

By Rick Mathes

John 5:39 (NASB77) ³⁹ ” You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me;

The Word is Truth. The Word is the essence of Jesus and Jesus is the exact representation of God Almighty. Now that was a real mouthful but it helps to understand when Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” Jesus is Truth. I can’t get my mind around a person being a concept except the Word is inhabited by His Holy Spirit and we learn the truth of Jesus. Can you follow this line of reason, this syllogism?

What does the Scripture expect of us?

1. Take up your cross and die to sin.
2. Pray fervently in words of understanding.
3. Be of one accord with your church.
4. Be a soul winner and be bold.
5. Preach to all who will listen.
6. Be responsible in all things.
7. Be sure to always exhort and encourage/
8. We are commanded to rebuke and correct.

Now brace yourself! You have not just opened a can of worms, you have shaken a hornet’s nest of demon’s hell bent on destroying your efforts to do any of the above. Their poisonous darts are about to fly and they will attack unexpectedly if you blink.

Satan knows your weakest point. The question is “Do you?” When I learned to box the first thing I was taught was to see the punch coming and then develop the skill of counter-punching. The same goes here.

The devil will keep on friendly terms and close to Him until he feels the time to strike is at hand. He’s hunting souls and he’s good at it.

To make matters more challenging; he often uses God’s Word to entice and entrap you in sin by twisting it just a little to make the poison go down more smoothly. He knows the Bible word for word with power of creation, the Scriptures, Satan is only a created creature and he’s no match for the inspired Word of God.

 

 

 

LETTER FROM DAD

By Rick Mathes

My father was killed by a V3 Rocket in Antwerp Belgium during WWII when I was only 2 years old. So I never knew him and never had a father who loved me as his son. My mother remarried and I was just unwanted baggage by her new husband. I don’t have a happy memory of anything connected with my childhood. In fact I was smoking and stealing cars at age 13 and I robbed my first gas station at age 16 and ran away from home during a race riot. So you can see how happy I was when I found a big stack of letter my dad had written my mom while he was in the Army and in combat.

This was a great chance to learn about him ad get a better idea of what a dad he would have been had he lived. It was amazing to me that we were so alike, even our handwriting was very similar. I always regretted not having a dad for the next 25 years until I met my new Abba and got born again! At lasgt I had a Father that was alive and loved me unconditionally.

I began to read His letters to me in the Bible. I was impressed that all the letter about His saints came first-class because they were so important for me to read from my friends; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The letter came immediately and never got jammed up in a busy post-office, they were post-paid, registered and personally handed to me by a courier, the Holy Spirit.

All the rage and resentments of an unhappy child evaporated and were replaced by a love rush in my heart I had ever known. I was set free! Sin no longer had a hold of me I felt like a guided missile and all I wanted to do was brag about my new Daddy to anyone who would listen.

His letters taught me that I was free of the penalty, power and presence of sin. Take caution here and remember that a man who truly repents is never satisfied with his own repentance and neither am I. I truly forgive my mom and step-father for all the damage they did to me but I will never be satisfied until I love them with the Lord’s love. It’s tough but every time I read a letter from my new Daddy I get more excited about meeting my birth-father in heaven. It just feels right!