Tag: apostasy

WHY NOT?

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WHY NOT?

By Rick Mathes

There are two questions that have nagged me from as far back as I can remember: Why and what is Truth? Apart from Jesus and the constant teaching of the Apostles, neither question can ever be objectively answered. To this day my mind goes haywire when I hear people philosophize in a relative and often circular manner of reasoning. To them, truth is whatever they believe to be true. They cross their eyes when I remind them of the law of non-contradiction: A cannot be both A and B at the same time or A and B cannot both be true.

Socrates drove everyone nuts with his incessant questioning of “Why?” His dialectic method of questioning made fools out of those who lived without constants, nothing objectively secure.

My parents would say, “You need to be in by 10PM!” I’d ask, “Why?” and they would say, “Because we said so!” Made no sense to me the difference between 9PM and 11PM so I would stay out until midnight which made more sense to me.

And my second nagging question was, “What is truth?” I read almost every word in the Great Books Library, had a I Q of 140 and still didn’t know what truth was. I didn’t learn until I read the Bible Jesus say, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

I still can’t understand how Jesus can be the truth. I can understand how he has the truth, or he knows the truth, or he teaches the truth but how can a man be a concept, and why?

There I go again, I’m right back to where I started!

YOU WILL SEE

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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.

NOW WHAT?

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NOW WHAT?

By Rick Mathes

Acts 1:6-8 (NASB77) 6  And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” 7  He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; 8  but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

We never forget the first time we dropped to our knees to confess Jesus as our Lord and we look forward to the last: the moment after our last heartbeat when we meet him eye to eye,

Let’s go through a here and not quiz first:

  1. What do you think about Jesus?
  2. Is His name an important matter to you?
  3. Do you sense He tests your condition?
  4. Have you seriously considered His Word lately?
  5. Was He sent from God to you?
  6. Is He your all in all?
  7. Have you deliberately picked up His Cross?
  8. Will you repent of your sins right now?
  9. Are you a faithful disciple of His every circumstance, Does your future only include Him?
  10. The future is not for us to know and I wouldn’t want to know it if I could. Like to me is a continuous adventure with fun and challenges behind every door in my fun house of salvation.
  11. When the Spirit of Go comes upon you:
  • You have courage you never know you had.
  • Your confidence level soars to a high but calm level.
  • You have a fresh and pure affection for all that affects you?
  • Your zeal for Jesus flames up and consumes you.
  • Your patience becomes that of Job’s.
  • Your perseverance through anything for the saints that are His.So now what you ask?Be a witness for what Jesus has done in your life. When people get to know you they should get to know Jesus. Witness what He has revealed to you through your faith and obedience. Your experience with Jesus should always be uppermost in your thoughts, words and actions. And most of all, persever. Fight the good fight, keep the faith and finish the race. Press ON!

YOUR BODY

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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.

YOUR CHOICE

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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 houds 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.

YOUR CHURCH

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YOUR CHURCH 2

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.

Sad to say but His Church can and probably is a far different place than your church or the ones that Paul preached in. I can’t help but apply simple logic to my faith and understand form the Word that if my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, where I stand is Church. However, like metal drawn to a magnet, others of like blessing are drawn to each other to form the visible Body of Christ which is the fellowship we attend corporately. So there is the invisible Church within us and the visible Church where we can gather together.

Putting worldly merchandising and marketing strategies to building a successful church really depends on what we consider successful and the manner in which we seek to attain it.

Inevitably we end up with programs and no prayers. We feverishly do all we can to have classes on anything that will attract the masses to attend. Prayer, if there is any at all is manufactured, mechanical and without life. People go to church on Sunday morning because they love the fellowship. They go on Sunday night because they love the Pastor but they attend the Wednesday night prayer meeting because they love the Lord. If your church has abandoned the mid-week prayer meeting, run from it!

So the main effect of this worldly effort to stage church gives you religion (in the image of man) without regeneration. All it becomes is a lot of ritual that escapes the reality fo the pure Gospel that if perverted. Paul said you would be accursed. Can you see the deplorable condition of what we accept as church? It has become nothing more than as entertainment center in most cases. Anything to draw a crowd but too much like a bright blue bug light that is eventually the demise of the unsuspecting bugs that fly too close to the flame and get zapped!

The sermons offer no salvation to those in the congregation who are not looking for it. Preaching “turn of burn” is not politically correct. It is ancient and certainly old-fashioned to preach “Repent, the Kingdom of God is here!” as John the Baptist did followed by Jesus, Peter and Paul. Open your spiritual eyes and pray that the Holy Spirit will lead you to His holy ground.

DIVIDED WE FALL

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DIVIDED WE FALL

By Rick Mathes

John 7:43 So there arose a division in the multitude because of Him.

The Word teaches us that we are the Body of Christ that must be in one accord. The devil wants to squeeze in between us and Jesus any way he can because he knows that if we are divided we will fall.

What can be much worse than for us to divide because we have diverse opinions about our doctrine and church liturgy? Christians have never been in total agreement about either. We do, however, agree on the basic foundations of Christianity. If you confess Jesus as your Lord, which means living accordingly, then you are going to heaven just as you are. If your church or denomination excludes other Christians for disagreements over anything else, they are acting on behalf of Satan. We can agree to disagree and still have a wonderful opinion of Jesus together.

It’s all a matter of trust whether you are a Presbyterian, Baptist or Pentecostal, you still trust Christ as I do and love Him with your whole heart, mind and soul with all your strength. Truwst is what got Peter out of the boat and fear is what almost sunk him. You and Jesus must have a mutual agreement that you love each other and share an eternal destiny of glory.

Love is the super-glue that holds the Body together. Now understand that we don’t have to like each other but we must love each other. Yes, what I just stated makes sense when you think about it. WE don’t have to enjoy the same music, clothes or even culture to love each other.

It’s all in the development of obedience. There are not just growing pains but there is a learning curve involved also. This takes time so don’t allow a division because of things outward but rather has a unity of things upward. We’re back to the destiny of life with Christ here and now as a unified body.

Roman Catholics point out that we are divided because of our many denominations but they are not aware of our unity in the Spirit. Any true Christian knows that when we put aside our distinctions, our fundamental doctrine and beliefs are the identical. In my humble opinion we are all Calvinists but some haven’t matured enough to realized it yet, AMEN?

DEVOTED

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DEVOTED

By Rick Mathes

Acts 2:42 And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

How simple can it get?

  1. Teaching
  2. Fellowship
  3. Breaking of Bread

I ache to step back in time to the Primitive Church before 325AD when Constantine ruined it all until Martin Luther raised the true faith from the ashes and the Puritans brought it to our shores. It was a time when correct doctrine was not optional and the gospel still had the ring and memory of John the Revelator.

The fellowship was as much a struggle then as it is now but restoration was mandatory and love was unconditional. They had the problems as we do but their world view was fresh from the forty day seminar the Lord held with His disciples before He went home to the Father. We don’t have to like each other but we must love each other.

Our communion is unbreakable because our body is one: it is in unity with the Triune Godhead with our own trinity of mind, heart and soul. We can sense the spirits in our midst and the love that flows between us. We are only one heartbeat and one glimpse away from all of glory before us.

The communication that seals our security is prayer. It is a fragrance of praise to take to our Daddy (Abba) and tell Him how much we love Him. The fuel of faith is the prayer of a righteous saint and the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

The Baptist of believers makes us one in the Spirit and faith. Oh there are denominational distinctives yet to be agreed upon, but the basic fundamentals of Protestantism are unified and cannon. There is the rock solid agreement of Bible only, Jesus only, Grace only and Faith only. Any deviation from Calvinism is heresy. We believe that everyone else has a God given rightr to be wrong or too stupid to understand that TULIP is the only gospel. (I’m in trouble now!)

So let’s praise Him with joy in true worship. It can only be found at the feet of the Master. Just a look in His eyes will cause you to be devoted to Him to the end of eternity.

CORRUPTION

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CORRUPTION

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree, and there be no divisions among you, but you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Corruptions on every front occur in the world and the church before our very eyes and we let them happen; everyone, whether in politics or in the pulpit is afraid to speak the truth because truth has been corrupted beyond recognition.

In either circle it begins by following humanist leaders. We call them liberals but the fact remains that they are conservatives with masks on. They are not just “Joe six-packs” in taverns or legislators in government; they are also graduates of seminaries.

They favor earthly, carnal, self-centered wisdom no matter how it’s packaged or marketed. I live in the real world but my heart is in the heavenlies. I see and you do too the nonsense that is offered as good-sense.

You can’t help but flounder in the flesh of relativism. It’s like throwing darts at a moving and changing target. There is no objective bull’s eye there is only bull s—t.

With an ever changing truth we give little or no thought for future judgment because what is there to judge? When there is no right there is no wrong and the lie becomes the truth. The Word of God warned us and the fulfillment is upon us. Why fear a judge of no laws or punishment. Muslims call it “kismet.”

The spiritual leaders flatter themselves by the attendance and wealth of their churches. All of hell has put its weight on their eyes to look outward instead of upward.

When you aren’t eye to eye with Jesus you are well on your way to sink to the depths of Satan’s evil abyss of fire. Faithfulness to Christ is measured by three words: repent, submit and obey If you will do these corruption wherever you feet are planted will flee.

Otherwise you are fragmenting the Body of Christ. You have corrupted to the point where you are not the solution, you are the problem. Guess what happens when you spit into the sky; it falls back on you.

CARNALITY

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CARNALITY

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.

A carnal Christian is one who claims allegiance to heaven but lives only for everything on earth. The temporal toys are worth more than the eternal blessings later. Carnal Christians are just demons with a mask on. The devil has learned that to beat the church to death you must o it from the inside with a pillow instead of outside with a sledge hammer

A church with no real spiritual leaders is defeated before it has ever begun You would shudder if I told you of the experiences I have had with demonic churches over the years. I was even paid to get a Bishop and two Priests a hooker for the week-end on time I now the darkside of Satan’s synagogue well because I worshipped there for 25 years. Then as a minister for over 25 years I saw from the inside that all I saw on the outside was just a prelude to an orchestration of demons behind protestant altars.

Evil associations and personal material gain are rampant to those that gather under the cross to achieve worldly success. Why even the prostitutes in South America gather to pray to the Virgin Mary for a profitable evening!

The shallowness of this tragedy is the lack of a solid gospel message. The carnal church is built around doing instead of done All these empty lives are reinforcing each other with trivial distractions, plays, music, videos and laser shows to attract those with no spiritual insight to return next Sunday for some more entertainment, with an offering of course.

Endless hours are spent on the business plan and the sermon soon becomes a brief after thought. There is no love of God but there is an all-encompassing love of the world to build bigger and better buildings: for denominations to outdo each other in worldly attractions instead of the exercise of spiritual gifts. If you call yourself a Christian and you love this world more than the next, the love of the Father is not in you. You are a carnal, demonic moron.