Tag: Allah or Jesus

HOME ALONE

By Rick Mathes

Ephesians 2:22 (NASB77) ²²  in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

The best I can understand is that there is the spirit of physical life and there is the Spirit of spiritual life. Jesus gives both but the spirit of life dies eventually as the Holy Spirit of hereafter survives for eternity in heaven.

Jesus displayed this when He gave up the spirit of His life on the cross as a man and His Holy Spirit rose Him from the grave and He ascended into heaven as our Savior. Those who refuse to believe in Him die and rise to hell with the fallen spirit of Satan.

Jesus, bless His heart, directed the Holy Spirit to remain behind for us until His return in glory. So now we are not alone, ever as we walk a walk pleasing to Jesus. Just what does the Holy Spirit do?

First and foremost, He is the ultimate teaches. Who could know everything better than God? And the Holy Spirit and the Holy Word of God are here so that we are without excuse. We can walk our talk as long as we ae hand in hand with God’s Word and His Spirit.

The Spirit is our finest advocate as we pray our supplications to Jesus. In fact, He intercedes and prays for us words that escape us. He also knows what our needs are so that nothing misses its mark.

And in times of worry and anxiety, He is our Comfort as the waves grow larger and more threatening. As long as our eyes and faith are on Jesus we cannot fail to live our lives within His will. But if we turn we burn!

He not only gives us comfort but when indwelling in us He becomes the Comforter. You know you know that the peace that surpasses understanding is real because it lives in you. He said He could never leave us and forsake us and He meant it. The third person in the HolyTrinity helps us to press on and in His time be restored to our first nature to walk in perfest image and likeness of Him.

So you are never home alone when God’s Holy Spirit lives in your Temple. You are a priest filled with the Holy Spirit as He promised you would be.

HOLY SPIRIT

By Rick Mathes

Acts 1:5 for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

When the Lord returned to His former glory the Holy Spirit rolled up His sleeves and went to work. The following is a brief list of some of the Holy Spirit’s efforts to tune you in and focus on the Lord’s pleasure in living and acting out His purposes that touch you.

• Strive:              contend, combat, fight, attempt, struggle, insist on
• Convince:        persuade, emphasize, comfort, be irresistible, influence
• Quicken:          raise up, revive, being around, resurrect, revitalize
• Seal:                validate, confirm, ratify, certify, document, surety
• Reveal:            be transparent, show through, transmit light, brighten
• Witness:          testify, vouch, attest, inform, verify, validate
• Intercede:        mediate, arbitrate, umpire, intervene, negotiate
• Calling:            conscience, honor, duty, conviction, belief, reason
• Ordain:            predestined, appointed, foreordained, intended, degreed
• Commission:   deputized, empowered, responsible, intended, assigned
• Invite:              entice, allure, attract, influence, prevail upon, induce
• Lead:               direct, manage, spearhead, excel, predominate, win
• Comfort:          pacify, placate, appease, lull, reassure, set at ease
• Overcome:      prevail, influence, master, conquer, dominate

The Holy Spirit was sent to us to reveal the risen Christ to us that we might live and abide in Him until He returns. At that time He will make us like Him and we will know Him as He really is. This is accomplished through such witnesses as John the Baptist together with those the Holy Spirit moved upon to open the Word of God for us: the Rhema. The Father testifies of the Son through the Holy Spirit as a breeze fills the sails or a boat or lifts a kite or turns a windmill that produces electric power: dynamite.

The Old Testament testified to Jesus Christ through the hovering and mothering of the Holy Spirit like a hen with its clucks. A mother hen has a general cluck that says, “I’m right here if you need me.” And there is the special cluck that warns, “Get under my wings! Danger is near!”

HOLD ON!

By Rick Mathes

Hebrews 3:6 (ASV)

 But Christ as a son, over his house; whose house are we, if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end.

If you read just the “red letters” of the Bible, Christ’s actual words, it will take you three hours at normal reading speed. I did that many times and I paid close attention to what He said especially His promises.

Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against us, He would never give us more than we could bear, He would always provide us a way out, He would never leave us nor forsake us, No one would take us out of His hand and where He is now, we will be. I believe this.

Consequently, this 70 year pilgrimage we are on for the Lord is one we are assured we will complete. There’s no guarantee will remain unscathed but we didn’t sing up for al inclusive 5 star resort vacation when we made Him Lord. We promised to put on the armor, lift the sword and fight the good fight for Him. Let’s face it, we have declared war on Hell!

We are assured that He will meet our needs and make available the provisions we need to fight the good fight. Rest assured we are protected from evil. Satan can only fire blanks at us unless Jesus gives him real ammunition in the last days.

One thing for sure, He will give you strength in your weakness. Satan is a bed-wetting, thumb sucking punk, in the Name of Jesus. He is nothing but a pimple on God’s butt. He is a created angel that fell from grace and can only do what his Creator permits and empowers him to do.

My main assurance of salvation and passing through these trials to glory is that He is right there with me. I like to imagine that I am hand-cuffed to Jesus. This imagery gives me a sense of empowerment. With Him at my side I know that if I press on I will prevail and you will too.

Put all your worry and café behind you and hang on for the ride. I guarantee you it will be an experience you won’t soon forget. As His guest in His house we will enjoy privileges inexpressible if only we will hold on to the Him. Let’s go of you and let God be God!

HITTING THE ROAD

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.

There is no worse pain than heart-ache and that’s what I get when I preach and it just doesn’t register and a person just leaves untouched, never to return. I wonder what I could have done differently to reach them. I have finally concluded that apart from the election of God. I can’t do anything to turn a walking dead into eternal living.

This sad-sack is just plain inattentive to what is being said or sung. It is a distant indifference. This guy lives in a “whatever” world of relativity without anything to anchor on and no moorings to tie up to. This is a negligence of the highest order that has eternal consequences that are not within his vision.

It is really a hostile situation or rather a heart to heart combat with the devil for his soul and he isn’t even fighting back: whatever! With this wishy-washy attitude he has no sorrow for sin because his ears ae closed to what sin is. No guilt because he has become his own god and has done as he pleased. Others, including God are not a consideration.

The real deal is that he has no concern for Jesus because he doesn’t know him and really has no desire to. This is an inexcusable careless attitude that speaks values about his integrity and character or lack thereof. This guy is a real deadbeat that has calloused himself against the teachings of Scripture and conviction of sin, offenses against God.

This visitor is so hardened; the Word just bounced off of him. It’s like I’m preaching to a block of cement. I really believe that some people ae addicted to stupidity, not just ignorance but are flat out stupid! One thing I do know and rely on is that if this person belongs to the King, his knees will one day bow and his mouth will voice out, “Lord save me!” I will continue to preach into lifeless eyes and do my best to raise the spiritually dead to life. You have my promise.

HIS NAME

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.”

I went to court and had my last name changed to “Mathes” to honor my step-father. I have since learned that “Mathetes” means “disciple” in Greek. I enjoy being named “a disciple” and I am proud of my last name and my Lord and I am learning from. Many other names have a root meaning that is descriptive of their nature or occupation. Jesus was named for both the essence and form of God.

There is so much publicity attached to names such as, “The Donald” referring to entrepreneur Donald Trump in New York or Pau the Apostle in Rome. But no name turns more heads than when you read the name Jesus in any secular writing. Caesar hates Jesus but more and more we are hearing and reading His name. I can sense that Jesus is alive and near.

Each time I read His name, whether it be in a liberal newspaper or our Holy Bible I learn something more about Him: some true and other very derogatory but I can’t escape learning something from the context I read His name in.

Repeating His name reinforces all we have read and learned about Him as well as drive off the devil and his demons. Just thinking His name cleans my thoughts and energizes my commitment and faith in Him. I often sing, “There’s just something about that Name” in my head to keep me press on in His name. I don’t ever want to shame Him in my mind nor in my actions.

So I read, learn, repeat and pray His Name. Sometimes there isn’t time for a long thoughtful prayer and sometimes I don’t know how to pray during a certain experience so I just call out “Jesus” and the Holy Spirit intercedes for me. When you put these all together, you can’t help but break out in song.

“How great Thou art” still gives me “Holy Ghost bumps” and brings tears to my eyes. And what’s wrong with crying tears of joy and doing our spiritual laundry. My knees automatically bend at His name and the closer my knees are to the ground the closer my heart is to Jesus. “Jesus” is where heaven and earth meet and that’s exactly where I want to be. How about you?

HIS INITIATIVE

By Rick Mathes

Romans 11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!

One of the main reasons I’m not an atheist but a believer in God is that there had to be the first bump for everything to be put in motion. Then it followed that if I have intelligence the first bump must also. It all took the first initiative for all the secondary causes to be set in motion.

Upon personal reflection it is my conclusion that the cause of Christ both in essence and form is simply love. The Father is the lover, the Son is the loved and the Holy Spirit is the love between them. So it is in the human trinity of mind, heart and soul. Love permeates, encompasses and encloses love in the highest level, that which God alone has had the Holy Spirit known is known in the Son.

What else can explain His choosing you and I to be His. I’m sorry some will not accept this doctrine of election but you just can’t ignore the agreement of so many rock-solid statements of fact that support this doctrine without even mentioning predestination. Calvinism is not my choice of favorite guideposts but it is the Gospel according to the Word of God and any argument against it goes limp in the face of facts.

There is a redeeming grace that could only be initiated by God and no one else. Sin runs the depth of hell and the fallen angels wouldn’t repent in the light of day. They have no truth in them and the father of lies, Rev. Lucifer, has fallen from grace that Judas now knows cannot be recovered. Hell is home to those who belong there. The world carries on encouraging sin, forgiving the unrepentant sinners and throwing more souls on the bonfire of eternal flames.

Many are called but few are chosen. Even in my lifetime of more than 70 years of adult reflection, it appears as though evil prevails and the remnant of faithful of Jesus gets smaller and smaller. Praise God, I am a Savior’s survivor!

Once He says yes and you agree, you are preserved in Him never to be snatched into hell by the blistering hands of the evil one. Nothing can infect your soul nor condemn your flesh. We were chosen, saved and not reserved a throne in glory that is as elegant as the very one Paul is seated in right now. I began and finished it His way, all because of Him!

HIS BREATH

By Rick Mathes

2 Timothy 3:16 (NASB77) ¹⁶   All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

We must have doctrinal balance between the curbs of soggy Wheaties and frosted flakes. Too much Word and we dry up and too much Spirit and we blow up. But just the right amount of both and we grow up! Father God is not a Presbyterian, Jesus is not a Baptist and the Holy Spirit is not a Pentecostal. There aren’t any denominations in glory and there aren’t any minsters on earth that are 100% accurate in their interpretation of the Word.

The proof of that is our unity in the fundamentals of faith. We might vary a bit on our distinctive but we are not slaves of the Roman heresies, we strongly protest the arrogance of man-made Popery!

The Bible is complete in itself and anything added is not of God but an invention of man. The Words of God are superior to any penned since the “mark of Cain.” Nothing compared in world influence but the 66 books written by 40 authors, in three languages, over 1700 years all seamless and without contradiction or any major difference in teaching or doctrine. It is the essence or character of God in writing and wholly beyond our understanding.

It was written by God as He moved the pens of the writers as wind moves the sails of a boat to the perfect course ordained before the beginning of time, the safe harbor. All of man’s needs are met and god’s thoughts are preserved in a heavenly content that no other writing can compare.

The Holy Book affects the fery root of our soul with an infinite depth that will extend into all eternity of understanding and fulfilled prophecy. Its miracles are not just within its pages but within the very lines of those who study it. Life changing to be sure and ever pressing on to perfect holiness without which we wil never see god as He really is.

The Word has adapted to every generation of readers and is as alive today as it was when the ink was still wet on the parchmens. Who can even measure the Spiritual power that has exploded from its doctrines oer the centuries of history AS His-story was unfolded refusing to die in the face of Lucifer’s best efforts to kill and bury it. The ground couldn’t hold it as He setpped from the tomb and reminded us tht He never left nor will He ever leave us nor forsake us!

HIGHWAY TO HELL

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 5:5-11 (NASB77) ⁵ “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. ⁶ “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. ⁷ “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. ⁸ “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. ⁹ “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. ¹⁰ “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Beatitudes are to be tackled progressively; that is the first one must precede the second and the second the third and so on. They build upon each other step by step, precept by precept they lift you up to the image and likeness of God.

The ultimate but naturally unattainable goal of godly perfection as enumerated here cannot be accomplished until the Lord returns. This does not excuse us from striving to rise to our Lord’s level of excellency instead of falling short to our level of incompetency.

A curious turn of outcome occurs when the stairs are reversed and lead downward to hell. The antithesis of these steps to glory, this stairway to heaven becomes the fast-lane to hell.

1. Cursed are the arrogant that hold lesser beings in contempt.
2. Cursed are those that smirk in derision at the broken-hearted.
3. Cursed are the brutal bullies that advantage themselves over the weak.
4. Cursed are the sin-seekers who mock those striving for holy ground
5. Cursed are the cold-blooded whose hearts are dead and lifeless.
6. Cursed are the black-hearted, demon possessed carnal Christians.
7. Cursed are the war-makers who thirst for the blood and plunder of the innocent.
8. Cursed are those that persecute the souls our Lord died for on the Cross.

Each step increases the temperature of the furnace; each step brings closer the flames and blistering inferno that is the wages of sin.

Oh how the demons enjoy the demise of the innocent that dip their toes into the alluring temptations that ultimately lead to eternal damnation. One step at a time like the increasing heat ever so slowl and unnoticed until the shock of finality finally sears its bottom of bottoms and the soul is destroyed.

Hell and all its fury is a choice you make with every sin and transgression against the holiness of our Savior.

Burn baby burn!

 

HE’S THE MAN

By Rick Mathes

1 Timothy 2:5 (NASB77) ⁵  For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

We never in our human logic will never understand how Jesus could be fully God and wholly man at the same time. My best explanation is as follows:

When you confess Jesus as your Savior you are the hand and His holiness is the glove of grace that comes over you to protect you from the flaming darts of hell. His is called justification. Then you switch places. He becomes the hand to go about His business and you become His skin. This is sanctification.

Now I know for eal and historically that Jesus was born a human baby in a cave and His parents were Mary and step-father Joseph. He fed from His mother’s breasts and grew physically and mentally in the flesh. He experienced a natural growth being the oldest of at least four brothers and three sisters.

It is not reported that He ever laughed but may witnessed Him often sorrowful and saddened. He often wept and appeared much more aged than what He was because of the grief He bore and the horror of the cross He was headed for.

What can be more natural but for a real man to be hungry and need sleep? Everything about His manhood was normal. I’m sure He looked at Mary Magdalene and notices that she was very attractive but He turned His eyes away and did not lust. Was He able to sin? Yes, in the flesh He was able to sin. But like you and I, in the Spirit, he was able not to sin.

He had a physical body in life and on the cross in death. He would grow weary and even slept in a boa during a violent storm. He drove His body without mercy and we should go and do likewise. We only pass this way but one so we should really try to go and do likewise.

I don’t want to get too graphic but when He died on the cross his eyes rolled back, he passed His bowels, His tongue swelled out of His mouth, His skin turned gray and His muscles stiffened out There’s more I could describe but I have made my point. He was a man from Galilee that stilled the raging waters. His death unleashed life, He rose to glory and one day we will join Him.

He’s the man!

HE’S GONE

By Rick Mathes

John 20:13 (NASB77) 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.”

The sun was slowly approaching the horizon and the night air was thick like black velvet in the silence of the cemetery as Mary trembled in fear. Sobbing in remorse of having lost her precious Jesus, the nightmare of His beating and crucifixion throbbed in her nightmares of three days. The Sabbath hour had come and the skies were about to awaken to that special Sunday morning.

Groping her way from tomb to tomb she faced the hollowed sepulcher and realized the rock was moved and the entrance stood wide open. Terrible thoughts raced through her blurry mind as she frantically peered into the death chamber. The body was gone. Jesus wasn’t there.

As He stepped so quietly up to her she turned and said through tearful eyes, “They have taken my Jesus away.” How sad. Let’s pause for a moment and permit me to ask you the same question. “Have they taken your Lord away?” This may be true for you as it has been for me from time to time.

• Now let’s go through this check-list:
• Have you grieved the Holy Spirit?
• Do you mourn unanswered prayer?
• Are you suffering doubt?
• Do you miss being with Jesus?

You might be a seeking sinner that hasn’t repented. Or that evil nature you thought you left behind has reared its ugly head again. No tears left? Been there, done that. Are you having a hard time understanding the Word of God? I know the feeling, or lack of feeling well; shameful.

You’ve let them take your Lord away. Notice, I said that you let them because Jesus said that the gates of hell will not prevail against you, He will never give you more than you can bear, He will always provide you a way out, no one can take you from His hand, He will never leave nor forsake you and where He is, you will be! Whew. I stand on these promises and you must also.

You are still without excuse because the sin you have is the sin you want more than Jesus because if you didn’t want the sin more that you do want the sin, you wouldn’t have it.  (Read this over several times)

Don t let them take your Jesus away!