Tag: aftercare

BEFORE AND AFTER

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BEFORE-AFTER

By Rick Mathes

1 Timothy 1:11-12 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. 12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service;

The beatitudes of Matthew chapter 5 are a wonderful but unattainable goal for Christians to reach for. I learned real soon in my walk with the Lord that I being Christlike was impossible. But in studying Paul, I found it was possible for me to be Paul like because he and I had so much in common. Let me just touch on a few characteristics of Paul then I will summarize with an overview of the amazing Jesus we will all be like in His Day.

Paul was a blasphemer of Christ which shouldn’t shock you because Peter and Judas were too. The thing that made the differences between a Saint and an ain’t was repentance. Peter restored himself. Judas destroyed himself. Paul was dead to sin the moment Jesus struck him on the way to Damascus. He said, “Lord, what must I do?” Confessing Jesus as Lord saved Him and me.

Paul persecuted Christians by having them beaten, whipped, incarcerated or killed. He was a national figure that was greatly feared for his hatred of what was then called, “The Way.” Isn’t it an interesting play on words when Jesus said, “I am the Way.”

He was a killer of Saints. This was before people invented a Pope who would preside on who was a saint and who should be executed as an infidel. (Study the Inquisition) The Word however clearly teaches that all believers are Saints. It doesn’t take any special anointing from a vicar of Christ to announce you are.

His only excuse for such dastardly behavior was that he was ignorant of the truth. Ignorance is not a bad word that denotes mental instability. Everyone is ignorant or has a lack of knowledge of something. But when you have heard the Gospel according to Jesus Christ, from that point on you are without excuse if you ignore it.

The only unpardonable sin is unbelief. There is no sinner that is worse than someone who refuses to confess Jesus as Lord. God can’t help you if you refuse His grace. You belong to the devil and your eternal home will be in hell watching your skin and flesh blister and smolder in the endless flames of the eternal furnace.

What a contrast that Jesus took Paul, Satan’s trash and turned it into His treasure. Just like you and I and I’m not too sure about you! (Just kidding)

 

BEFORE DAWN

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BEFORE THE DAWN

By Rick Mathes

John 3:36 (NASB77) 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.”

The world is a howling wilderness to those who go recklessly through it, stumbling in their self-made darkness: world gone mad. They have no concept of the consequences of their random and unleashed actions of sinful aggressions. It becomes a merry-go-round of evil, careening before them with a forever of no beginnings or ends of cowardly suicide of integrity and character.

Another night of lurking fear as the streets darken and the shadows flee the sundown and beams of thinning traffic headlights: loneliness no human should ever be asked to endure. Road-rage and taunt nerves cause tempers to flare and fights to spontaneously ignite. The irresistible lure of the taverns and relief of liquid levity is only one swallow away: the devil knows. “Pass that joint my way, bro.” The shakes from last night still linger. I can’t believe there is another day when I prayed last night would be my last: a dog returning to his vomit.

My sorrow is overwhelming me when I revue those shadows that follow me. Skinned knuckles, bloody mouth, vomit and shame: night after night: Can I ever be truly sorry for living the same horrors day after day, after day, after day?

The shroud of death, coffin and hearse are lined up and prepared for my demise: my enemies would rejoice. “Oh look, there’s a big Mack truck!” It’s coming my way and all I need is a sharp turn to the left and this nightmare would end and who would care: no one? They can hold my funeral in a phone booth.

Some would fake tears and regrets but the day would dawn and if the truth be said, my passing into oblivion of the abyss would be secretly celebrated. What hope is there for me for you for that matter?

If ever there was a time for the Holy Spirit to breathe His life into me once again it is now and I pray that it will be for you also! Suck it up and drink it in deeply right now as you read this.

I need the right loving spirit to give me a Son-rise (sunrise) in my soul that will quench my prideful and hardened heart. I don’t even know what “humble” is so I cry out to You Lord, “I can’t!” and I can hear the heavens echo your response, “I CAN!”

I come to your Cross and beg forgiveness and as your Word promises, you forgive me with your atoning blood. Help me to accept it and put the past behind. It keeps rearing its ugliness to destroy the flickering joy within me. I receive the forgiveness and pledge to become a forgiver, forever.

The dawn has come to light and the night drifts slowly into the horizon of defeat. It has not power over the Light of the Word, the only Son of God, and my Savior!

 

 

 

 

BEARING FRUIT

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BEARING FRUIT

By Rick Mathes

Colossians 1:10 so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

No one can say for certain if another person is saved or not because even God’s elect will slip and sin from time to time. As a shepherd, I look for the fruit of the Spirit to craft a sermon or Bible study for my sheep. There are definite sign posts along the narrow road to heaven or the wide highway to hell.

One very telling characteristic of a fellow believer is we put away childish things. There was a time when we did some really crazy things and we marvel that we escaped unscathed. So thee was a time when it was fun to say it was fun, then it because fun to say it was crazy but then came the time when it was crazy to say this was fun. That’s when we had to put them away.

Another effort a born again believer will make is to cultivate a good solid understanding of God’s Word. Unless someone has their head in the bible, I really doubt they know Jesus for who He is. If you are His, you read His love letters to you (The Bible).

Striving after Christ’s ideal model of a follower of His is found in Mathew chapter 5 and is called the Beatitudes. These guidelines are in a progression so you need to do the first before you tackle the second and then the third and so on to of all things, persecution. If you do the opposite of each step you have the stairway to hell.

The best signpost of your being on the narrow road is your partaking of deeper things. The Word is shallow enough for an infant to splash in and yet can be deep enough to drown an elephant.

It mainly boils down to overcoming temptation. My surest test of your salvation is when you consider the temptation a testing of the Lord to find out how deep your love for Him is. The most valid assurance of your love for Him is your hate of sin. You hate the sin that killed God’s Son. That despising of evil things means you are bearing good fruit of good things. Sounds like you are saved! AMEN.

BAIT AND SWITCH

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BAIT AND SWITCH

By Rick Mathes

Acts 20:28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

The sheep or our post-Christian era are being sheared by false shepherds that only care about themselves. I have attended enough Baptist minister breakfasts to know that the main topic of their passion is not baptizing new believers. I spoke at a Baptist pastor’s conference and scolded them. I said that they had fifty ministers in the room and collectively hadn’t had fifty baptisms in the last ten years. I even preached on, “Is Judas still treasurer of your church?” Needless to say, they gave me their left hand of friendship and turned their backs on me ever since.

I’ve had it with demons in the pulpit preaching another Christ. They have exchanged the Word of God for the words of men! Emperor Constantine began the smoldering sacraments and rituals of Father Satan and the Roman Catholic Church, cults and the carnal Protestant churches have continued the apostasy. It’s called religion. My unsaved, hell-bound half-brother once said, “All our world’s problems can be traced back to their origin in religion!” He was dead-on right.

Religion is man’s best effort to reach God, faults aplenty. Christianity is Christ’s faultless efforts to reach man. Believers reach back because we are made in His image and likeness. When someone insists on evolution I respond, “If you think your great, great, great grandfather was a monkey, I am inclined to agree with you.” So much depends on you believing that, “In the beginning was the Word, etc.”

Religion provides a manmade Poe or some other such officer that bloats with pomp, power and becomes a despot seeped in tyranny. We are misguided from faith to presumption and that we worship the creature instead of the Creator. It becomes a satanic cult community.

Christianity does not separate and isolate it’s followers. It unifies them in superior splendor far above the hell bound fallen angels. The true salvation of faith and fear can overwhelm trust Christianity has been marketed by bait and switch con-men. They will attract you with enough plausible truth to disguise the lies that are to follow.

 

ASK, WILL YA?

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ASK WILL YA?

By Rick Mathes

John 16:23-24 (NASB77) 23 “And in that day you will ask Me no question. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in My name. 24 ” Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.

There’s a song that has a line, “Oh Lord, Dear Lord, won’t you give me Mercedes Benz?” I’ve sang it a few times and it doesn’t work. Oh how often I have prayed for something or someone and my prayer wasn’t answered. I know, I know, He said, “Yes, no or not yet.” That doesn’t help. I have even felt it was futile to talk to an invisible God in the empty air, no answer. Do I hear an Amen?

Well, the first thing you and I need to learn is to pray in His name. When you use His name, you can only pray for those things He would be blessed by because you arfe coming to God on the coattails of Jesus. When you do this you are praying according to His name and you are praying in faith.

Faith and trust are the keys to heaven while doubt and fear will drop you into the abyss of liquid flames of unlimited intensity and duration. Point a flame-thrower down your throat for a sample.

So what’s holding the Lord back from answering your prayer? Let me enumerate just a few that I’m sure we both are familiar with.

  1. Insincerity: Praying to win a lottery ticket and having the chance to have your prayer answered is the same as winning it. Flippant prayers that are half-hearted and beneath His dignity will go unanswered.
  2. Selfishness: True prayers before the Lord are always selfless. Try praying for 15 minutes without asking Him for anything and see how hard that can be.
  3. Impatience: We live in an instant-presto, just add hot water society and move too fast to often. Blessings that last often take time to seed, plant, water, grow, and then harvest. What’s the hurry? We, as elect, have forever!
  4. Unbelief: This is the real show stopper. It’s the only sin God will not forgive and it’s at the top of Satan’s lust to entice you to sin. How can you run your hands through a cesspool of vile sin and then lift them to God and have the audacity to expect He will answer you.

Believe and obey for there is no other way.

ASHAMED

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ASHAMED

By Rick Mathes

Romans 1:16 for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The day has finally arrived for you to climb the golden stairway to the summit of the Hill of Zion and approach the throne of God. You were faithful and He was true to His Word. Now is the time to take that first step, trembling in excitement as you slowly pass walking the opposite way into the abyss of endless flames, you son. “Daddy, why didn’t you tell me about Jesus?” he sobs. There goes your daughter, wife, best friend hysterically calling back to you, “How could you have done this to us. You never shared the Gospel with us and now it is too late!” What would you respond to them.

I didn’t want to offend you. I didn’t want to look like a religious fanatic. You would probably ignore me. Religion is a private matter. Right now, get out a piece of paper and write out in a sentence why you aren’t telling souls destined to hell the way to salvation!. Now shot it to the Lord. Ouch? You bet Ouch!

To convince others you need to be convinced. “Evidence Deserves a Verdict” by Josh McDowell will reach your mind intellectually. “The Gospel According to Jesus” by John MacArthur Jr. will have you confessing Jesus as Lord like you never have had before. Once the realization that God became man, died for our sins and rose from the dad for our eternal redemption, you will never look back but you will press on, keep the faith, fight the good fight and finish the course laid before you.

To convict others of sin you must be convicted of sin yourself. Everything I communicate to others as a minister I first minister to myself. I figure that if it worked for me it might work for you. Then I pray that if I misspeak the truth that the Holy Spirit will change it to your hearing.

Lastly, to convert someone you must first be converted. All of these benchmarks convince, convict and convert mean absolutely nothing if the cross is nothing more than a sing or jewelry. How can you possibly be ashamed of Jesus? Then how can Then how can you hold back the good news from those you love when they have the spiritual cancer and you have the cure? What is your excuse and what is the Lord’s response to it?

APRIL FOOL’S DAY

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APRIL FOOL’S DAY

By Rick Mathes

It’s amazing how the years slip by but we are past our 25th anniversary of Mission Gate. It seems just like yesterday when Trish and I were standing in our living room the first day of our new commitment to the Lord and I asked her, “What day is this?” and she replied, “It’s April Fool’s Day!” I couldn’t believe it. I was convinced that I was either daffy, in mid-life crisis, anointed or some combination of the three but I knew the Lord was playing with me our first day I called the Pastor that led me to Christ and I asked him, “What verse do you think of when you think of prisoners and our ministry?” He replied, “John 10:9 where Jesus said, ‘I AM the Gate.” Amen! We knew the name of our ministry would be Mission Gate Prison Ministry and that’s how it started and I continued to be fascinated in that verse. Let’s take a closer look at it.

John 10:7-10 (NIV) 7 Therefore Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.

He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy;

 I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Allow me to make a few points about this revelation of the “I AM.”

First, thank you Jesus there is a gate! Stepping through the gate into and then out of Satan’s mansion called The Department of Corrections (prison) was a nightmare. But now, there is another gate that offers life instead of death.

Second, thank you Jesus there is only one gate! I just know that if there were two gates, with my luck, I would choose the wrong one.

Third, thank you Jesus the gate is a turnstile! We can go through one man at a time. We aren’t herded like the cattle or prisoners in most institutions. We can put our shoulders back, lift our heads and step through the blood of Jesus, one born-again man at a time; each special in His sight.

Fourth, thank you Jesus it’s a strong gate! Jesus assured us that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against us, that He will always provide us a way out, that He will never give us more than we can bear, that no one can take us out of His hand, that He will never leave or forsake us and that where He is we will be.

Fifth, thank you Jesus by stepping thought we pass from failure to victory, sorrow to joy and from earth to heaven. Let me encourage you to step through the Gate for an experience you won’t soon forget!

Dear Lord, some people just don’t know how to step through the gate.  I remember running from you.  It is so amazing that the sinful life we are afraid to give up really amounts to nothing.  And the minute we believe, you offer us everything…everlasting peace and eternal life.

ANOTHER BAPTISM

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ANOTHER BAPTISM

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 28:19 (NASB77) 19  ” Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

There is only one Trinity so when you are baptized in the Name of the Father, the Name of the Son and the Name of the Holy Spirit you are baptized in the fullness of all three in one. Before Jesus was ascended, there was only the baptism of repentance with John the Baptist. This required a second baptism to receive the fullness of the Trinity. It wasn’t second dose of the Holy Spirit, was not intended to be and is not now more Holy Spirit than your original baptism permitted. Implying that you need more is blasphemous! You are saying the first baptism of the fullness of the Trinity was not enough. Jesus said from the Cross, “It is finished!” and He meant it.

How do you know you have the real deal?

First of all it is inside your soul then demonstrated by the outward immersion in front of you family of believers. The thief on the cross only had one opportunity for the first and that was all that was needed. He didn’t speak in tongues and Paul said not everyone has that gift of languages. He wasn’t’ a quart low or less than a full Christian like so many charismatics make you think you are.

Evidence of a genuine repentance is most obvious. The load of sin is lifted and the tears that wash the soul begin. What a wonderful, unforgettable experience for a might sinner to become a mighty saint. A worm turned into a butterfly. Black and white explodes into vivid IMAX color!

Sin killed the Father’s Son! Get a handle on the seriousness of this. Imagine His pain for the souls He created that would have to suffer His righteous judgment of eternal torture in the flames of His created hell. What would you do with the murderer of your child if you could have immunity from being charged with any crime? Think about this.

So sorrow, deep sorrow from sinning must slap you right in the face and kick you in the stomach. How could you have been so low to do those heinous deeds to those you love much less to those you hate? The next step is insanity or life without.

The determination to turn form that sin must be monumental. Let me ask you: Do you love Jesus more than the sin which infuriates the Father? Then walk your talk and stop that sin dead in it’s tracks and never do it again, never! Ever!

Declare your allegiance to Jesus and never turn back. If you kill the Goliath sin the Philistines (lesser sins) will scatter. Salute your King and prepare for duty. There isn’t another baptism.

AND THEN

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AND THEN

By Rick Mathes

2 Timothy 2:13 (NASB77) 13  If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.

What does a hopeless unbeliever expect will happen the moment after their last heartbeat? It musts be scary. How about expecting to fry in the flames of Purgatory for thousands of years like the Roman Catholics believe or soul-sleep nothingness of the Jehovah’s Witnesses? At least the Mormon men believe that they will become a god on their own planet! You can’t make this up. Thank you Jesus the God-breathed words of God assure us otherwise.

The blessed hope evangelists live for is drawing near when we will step into the presence of the Kind of this universe and our personal friend Jesus the Christ. It’s a sure bet because it’s the Word of God and He keeps His word. It would be contrary the very fiber of His being to be mistaken or unknowing or eternal things.

The Word of God washes and purifies the soul. Holiness is a rush if only for a moment so you can imagine how it will e in glory when we are wholly His!

What price would you put on comfort or contentment? I had the wife of a famous millionaire call me and ask what I need and she would write out a check for it. It was the first time I realized that I didn’t need anything. Imagine that! Having a clear conscience and clean record is priceless; no amount of money can buy it. Our Lord promised our needs would be met and they are.

A hope of eternal life in heaven sustains a taste of heaven here on earth. Consider that it all was created for our pleasure and we were created for His. He’s coming back and in fact very near at this moment. We are about to embark on an adventure beyond compare so fasten your seat belt and hold on!

How satisfied can one get, to know that now and forever He will never leave us nor forsake us? We will soon see Him as He really is and receive our reward: now that’s what I call total satisfaction no matter what I had to go through to get there. We surely will be blessed: that is, we will be happy beyond words or any joy we have ever experienced. It’s all about Him and His return that anchors us in the Faith.

 

AN EXAMINATON

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AN EXAMINATION

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 11:28 (NASB77) 28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

No one enjoys the “final exam.” There’s something foreboding and nerve wracking about it and my hands are perspiring already! This is, however, what our Lord commands us to do before we share in the communion of the saints. We shouldn’t be afraid to test our faith and beliefs is we are secure in Him. The adage, “Birds of a feather flock together,” is so true.

So start your self-examination by looking around you and see if those you keep company with respect the Jews ou have come to respect in bread and wine. Are you one of them? When others see you will they label you by the company you keep? Remember that you can’t hang out with dirty people and not get some dirt on you.

If I followed you around day in and day out for a week would I collect enough information to convict you of being a Christian? I an speak for me that my habits changed drastically when I made Jesus my Lord. You won’t find me anywhere near blatant sinners if I can help it. I have a brand new regimen of activities. I only continue in those that please the Lord and magnify His name.

Once Satan has your thoughts for even a moment He advances to conquer your mind. I have even had evil thoughts in the midst of my praying. That scoundrel is so low life he has no respect for any thought but that which is evil and offends our Lord Jesus Christ.

Looking closer you will notice that my affections have done a real one-eighty. My heart beats with His and I love what He loves. I’m under new management now and my love of life has changed from temporal to eternal.

Certainly not last nor least but yet most important is for you to examine your motives. What are your underlying and ulterior motives? Underlying motives are on the table for all to see and ulterior motives are under the table, out of sight. If you are honest with yourself, you have both and for your best interests you need to be very aware of them and pray that both would be pleasing to Him. Take a private exam and let Jesus grade it, not hu.