Tag: born again

WHICH DONKEY ARE YOU?

By Rick Mathes

(Author of Allah or Jesus)

When I study the Word to prepare for a sermon I try to sink my toes into the Israeli sand, look around and absorb all that is around the obvious message the Holy Spirit intended me to preach.

One such scene is the Lord’s triumphant donkey ride, as King, into and through the Jerusalem gate and the throngs of those attending this parade. Let’s do a 360 degree turn and soak in the drama that is surrounding god’s Son as He has His victory march on the Holy Hill.

Can you see them? There’s Peter of course, leading the entourage with John and James marching oh so dignified on the Lord’s right and left followed by the future potentates of the 12 kingdoms. They are so proud and holier-than-thou.

Not so the Pharisees, Sadducees and other officials. They are seething in jealousy and anger just waiting for their hired assassins to put a dagger in our Lord’s ribs. Look over there at the cheering mob of leftist liberals shouting for their entitlements. After all, Jesus could heal their diseases, raise the dead and feed the multitude. They will never have to work a day in their life. Long live King Jesus! Enough of this silliness.  Let’s get serious and ponder, “What was the donkey thinking about all of this?”

I’ll bet he was really angry that on this hot and humid day he had to labor away carrying this heavy body on his back while the crowd was shouting with ear-splitting noise during his migraine headache. Unbearable!

Let’s give this donkey some slack and suppose he really thought the parade was all about him. How excited and proud he must have been with his head held high, his chest pressed out, his tail up and footsteps in precision and perfection of a a pure-bred donkey. I don’t think so.

If I could get into his head, I would bet my last dollar that he was totally astonished that out of all the donkeys in the world, God chose him. How humbling can it get? He knew what unworthy an unworthy ass he was and yet out of all the donkeys that were behaved and more worthy, God chose him.

You know out of all those in the excited and cheering mob, I can relate to the donkey best. Within hours that same crowd was shouting “Crucify Him!” while the donkey wept for his precious Savior. I can feel his pain and I too weep for what I did to cause His death on the Cross for me.

WHAT IS FAITH?

By Rick Mathes

Faith is not a power you appropriate, it is an assurance you grow into for the certainty of things hoped for and not seen. We just don’t pull up to the Holy Spirit and get a fill-up. In Christ we always have a full charge but we control the dimmer switch in us. We can turn its power up or down as we choose to.

Our arsenal is stocked with weapons that are to eradicate or at least seriously cripple our arch enemy, pride. Untamed pride left to grow exponentially was the fall of the Angel of Light Lucifer. He swelled up in his imagined egotism, armed with an ultimate high of narcissism, he challenged Jesus and with just a Word our Lord sent him to planet earth like a flaming meteor; a fallen star that would never return to its orbit of prominence in the endless sea of God’s glory.

There is no greater God-pleasing gift but faith. This is the hinge that opens all the doors of spiritual knowledge and hope. It’s not a blind leap of faith but rather a certain absolute. We may not understand all of God’s actions or purposes in our life but by faith in His Word and the unbending assurance of its absolute reliability, owe appropriate more and more faith the closer we draw to Him and see His truths materialize, even those that defy our natural understanding. Strong faith pleases Jesus.

You were created for a purpose and God has a vision for your life that con only come to fruition by appropriating more faith and doing spiritual weight lifting. A steady diet of His Word will ignite your faith to blossom and to explode in revelation of who you are in Him your mind had never before even imagined. I challenge you to unleash the faith of God in you, get out of the boat and walk on the water!

I know it can be done. I have been out there in the midst of those sometimes terrifying waves for many decades.

It’s so simple and I must add easy: Just listen to the teaching and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Let god be God and step out in faith, face to face with the new you in His image and likeness, not yours.

TWO ARE ONE?

By Rick Mathes

What is the best explanation you can come up with to explain the Trinity? The egg shell, the white and yellow yoke? I’m sure you can do better than that. Here’s a few I have read or heard about over the years. I’m sure there are more that you can add.

The Father is the lover, the Son is the loved and the Holy Spirit is the love between them.

The Father is the sun, the Son is the illumination and the Holy Spirit is the warmth between them.

How about ice, water and steam? (Really poor!)

Try light, heat and air that need each other to exist and cannot exist apart from each other?

My favorite is one times, one equals one.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Triune Godhead is a concept we will never understand completely. All we can rely on is that the Trinity is clearly taught in the Word of God and the ancient Fathers, Puritans and Calvinists agree to this moment which leads me to think about man made in God’s image and likeness. Try this one on.

Man is also a trinity of mind, soul and spirit which I believe survives the physical death of the body and in the last days will be rejoined in the new eternal body we will enjoy in eternity. So I have been studying the Word now every day because I really believe we take our mind’s knowledge with us. I have focused all these years on the Word and Works of Christ. It is called Christology, the study of Christ.

This has led me to think about my marriage to Trish. The Word teaches that we are complete when the two of us become one in marriage and divorce is never an option except for a partners infidelity. Ummm! The two shall become one in the covenant of marriage.

He Word teaches that there won’t be marriage in heaven. I can’t help but hope and expect that my wife and I will be one soul in glory. It makes sense to me that the Trinity of God can be three, and the trinity of man can be three and the trinity of marriage can be two in one, surely the completeness of husband and wife in His image and likeness.

What God close in eternity for two to be enjoined as one in the covenant of marriage will certainly continue in heaven? Just wondering: won’t you join me in this happy thought?

THE UGLIEST MAN

By Rick Mathes

(Author of “Allah or Jesus”)

Two years after my Christian experience at age forty, word quickly spread about my previous life of alcoholism, drug addiction, promiscuity, violence and worse. One day I received a call from the team leader of a few seminary students that had been doing a weekly chapel service at the local county jail. They asked me to connect up with them and give my personal testimony at their next scheduled worship service. I reluctantly accepted and wasn’t too thrilled to be voluntarily going to jail! In my youth, I had been cuffed and locked down five times that I could remember. Being four locked gated deep in an all too familiar jail was not my idea of having a good time, but I would do it for my Jesus. So I went anyway and gave my testimony. The altar was overflowing with repentant prisoners seeking the forgiveness that only Jesus Christ can offer. I felt like I had put my finger into a 220 watt wall socket; an electrifying experience! I continued to frequent these weekly meetings and in time the students eventually graduated and scattered to all parts of the country, pastoring their respective churches. I was left alone and without new seminary students to replenish them.

That first jail service by myself made an unforgettable impression that would change the rest of my life up to this very moment!

The inmates began filing in and the chapel was swollen to overflowing. They were sitting in the aisles, on the steps and across the stage. The thought of a jail break slipped through my mind and maybe I was going to be taken hostage! Almost seventy street-hardened criminals were between me and the only exit from the chapel. Resigned to the task at hand, I had a message to preach. I did, and at the conclusion of the message my eyes were drawn to the last pew, the inside aisle seat closest to the door out. There sat the most ghastly looking convict I have ever seen.

He was like on of those neckless weight-lifters that are so muscle bound that they can’t even bend their arms to comb their hair. He was brown skinned with white splotches scattered about his face and arms. He looked like he had been randomly splashed with bleach or lye. His left eye was missing and you could see twitching beneath the sunken eye-lid. There was a poorly stitched scar that circled his throat from ear to ear and all his front teeth were missing except the two protruding eye teeth. Satan had taken him to hell and back.

Our eyes met in a steely stare with a serenity that suspended time. My blood ran cold as he deliberately got to his feet, kept eye contact and walked down the center aisle directly toward me. I was paralyzed with fear!

When he finally reached me he began to weep, dropping to his knees at my feet, sobbing as deeply as a man is able. I was dazed and startled at this turn of events. I cleared my head and witnessed a sinner seeking a Saviour. The sinner’s prayer ….. finally focused on my purpose …. Lead him to the foot of the Cross … Holding his ugly fact in my two hands, we began speaking in prayer and repentance together. Looking into his battle-raged face, something very extraordinary happened to me!

You can call it hallucination, drug flash-back, or a vivid imagination, but for me it was an unforgettable, supernatural vision.

I looked deep into his grotesque face and I saw the cherished face of Jesus looking back at me. His Word went through my veins like fire; “Whatever you do to these brethren of mine, even the least of them, you have done it to Me.” I was blessing Jesus!

THE UGLIEST MAN

http://youtu.be/gbHoavZKtQ8

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STAND YOUR GROUND

By Rick Mathes

It’s a frightening prospect to watch the late-night news. Violence, insolence, barbarity, and evil as never before witnessed is the standard fare. I suppose it has always been that way but with instant communications as they are, it’s in your face day after day. The world wonders why and the unbelievers go with the flow and sign up with the majority at the expense of morality and good sense. What are we Christians to do?

1. H. Spurgeon summed up his world view, “I yield to none.” AMEN!

As a Christian I need to take an objective stand, one that doesn’t shift with the blowing sands. There is only one correct doctrine and we’d better know it and plant our flag on it. This is not the time to get experimental as maybe we once were in our youthful moments nor even to handcuff ourselves in practical applications of favorite verses that suit our needs. We need to do spiritual weight lifting and biblical workouts as a daily regimen.

There is no excuse for us to abandon:

• Bible only
• Jesus only
• Grace only and,
• Faith only.

With this foundation all denominations that are true to the Word of God rest. We may argue over the distinctive. We’ve been doing that since we left Egypt! What else is new? When the going gets tough, the tough get going and we have the assurance that we have each other’s back when that time comes.

Well, that time has come!

We must stand our ground and not yield an inch to the evil one nor his fallen angels. If you have eyes, you must see the times are upon us to unite and lift up the Cross of Christ in one accord. Now is not the time to re-arrange the deck chairs, hold lengthy debates, or endless arguments over doctrinal differences. We desperately need to stand on the Rock that doesn’t roll.

Don’t mess with my Lord, my wife nor my family of believers. This is the line I draw in the sand and if you cross it, you have crossed me and I am battle ready. I have on the armor and I have the sword of the Word lifted in honor of my King. Won’t you join me?