Tag: Christian

BY YOUR DEEDS

By Rick Mathes

Acts 26:20 but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.

Pray this: “Father God, by your grace I have been saved; Brother Jesus, by your stripes I have been healed: Holy Spirit, you know the mind of the Father and the heart of the Son, What does God want me to do?”

For openers, it is an answer to prayer when the Holy Spirit convicts you of the sin you have been hiding in that dark closet in your soul. Our deepest desire should be to be wholly holy. Any compromise is spiritual prostitution. A little lie with the truth or a little truth in the lie is deceitful beyond compare: neither integrity nor character. In either case the simple law of non-contradiction occurs: A cannot be non A. Sin is spiritual cancer and it must be removed or you will die and eternal death while still on your feet.

The Lord sees us in ways our natural eyes are unable to. If you could see my heart as the Lord sees it, you would run from me and I would be terrified to see yours. We really are sin-machines and our deeds show it. It is only in His shed blood that we receive a full pardon. When Father God looks upon us all He sees is His Son interceding for us. We truly are forgiven and our sins forgotten.

This is how it works; 1) You approach the Cross and as Jesus for forgiveness, 2) He will extend His blessing, 3) You receive the forgiveness (no guilt) and 4) You become a forgiver. The tough one is to walk away from guilt and become a virgin all over again. Flush your toilet and move on.

The vital life is exhibited by the works we produce. I know it’s by grace we are saved not by works but as James taught, if there aren’t any works there is good cause to question the health of this barren tree with no fruit. As the verse clearly teaches, we must repent, turn to God and prove that transaction by deeds. I wouldn’t trust it any other way.

God inhabits His praises like the fragrance of a rose. He also activates good works like a kaleidoscope of good deeds. I would rather see the sermon over hearing it, wouldn’t you? If you aren’t walking your talk, your talking is moot. It’s a waste of oxygen. The Comforter will bring you comfort in the highest degree.

The proof of repentance is a gift of the Holy Spirit. He is to infuse Christ and His efforts into you. You cannot do it without the Holy Spirit and it won’t get done without you. Your hands pick up the baton of continued blessing. Don’t drop it: press on!

 

BORN TO SET FREE

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 1:21 (NASB77) 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.”

Next to creation the most astounding miracle of God was His birth in the flesh as a helpless little baby at His mother’s breast: a baby “Born to Die.” From His birth, one Caesar after another put a contract on Him until He decided it was time. He said that He would lay down His life and raise it again of His own volition and He did. He finally died on the death stake but the grave couldn’t contain Him. He rose, ascended and promised to be back soon.

Nothing would atone for our sins but the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

When He cried out, “It is finished!” we were set free from the guilt of every sin we have ever committed. We ask Jesus for forgiveness: He graciously forgives us. Then we receive it and become forgivers. If you have any guilt, that is an indication that you did not leave your sin at the foot of the cross. You won’t offend Him, it’s empty!

We become free of the power of sin. It has often been asked, “Could Jesus choose to sin?” Yes. He could choose to sin in the flesh but in the Spirit He choose NOT to sin. The same applies to a “born again” Christian. You are unable to “not sin” if you are an unbeliever.

The sanctification process is the pursuit of holiness. If uyou are walking the light then you have been protected from the presence of sin. The shadow of death might be close behind but as long as you are walking toward the light the darkness of sin and your former life will be behind you.

Most important of all we are free of the consequences of sin both here and in the hereafter. How can anyone describe a clean life and clear conscience apart from Christ? What practical experiences can you discipline yourself to regarding His love letter to us?

• Read it__________________ examine, interpret
• Learn it__________________ discover, master
• Repeat it_________________ repetition, restate
• Pray it___________________ petition, implore
• Sing it___________________ shout out, vocalize

May the Lord bless your every effort to understand His name: Jesus?

 

 

BORN AGAIN AGAIN

By Rick Mathes

Romans 7:21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.

I am happy that God chose me to be saved because the old me would never have chosen Him. I tried new starts with the old me time and time again with no improvement or change. I finally reached the bottom and left crime for Christ. Like a caterpillar the new me blossomed into a fulltime butterfly that has been ministering ever since. I was born again and received a new:

PAST:             Your past was the preparation for your future. You are the sum-total of all that has happened to prepare you to be the person God wanted you to be for His glory and honor.

FUTURE:        Finally you have a hop worth living for when you accept and understand the fullness of His unconditional love for you.

IDENTITY:      You will attend your funeral, death to the flesh as you rise to a new life in Him. This is the real you, no false pretense.

GOD:              Humanism is the religion where you are a god and all your values are relative to your beliefs. There is no God but you. This changes when yhou are born again and Jesus is your Lord.

JOB:                You become a minister and your secular occupation becomes the means of financing your ministry.

COURSE:       When you come to Jesus and face Him, your back is to the devil and your life is then turned around and you never go turning back now. Welcome to Christianity!

FAMILY:          Those of like faith become your new family. The blood of your natural family is not as important as the Holy Spirit running through your soul from you new Father.

INHERIT:        Your bank account is in glory flowing over with all that you have done on earth not taking credit for yourself. Do good and let others have the credit.

ASSURE:        You know His promises are true and when He said He was preparing a mansion for you and would return to take you to Him, He meant it.

When you look on His cross that battle within you is won, it is His!

BORN TO SET FREE

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 1:21 (NASB77) 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.”

Next to creation the most astounding miracle of God was His birth in the flesh as a helpless little baby at His mother’s breast: a baby “Born to Die.” From His birth, one Caesar after another put a contract on Him until He decided it was time. He said that He would lay down His life and raise it again of His own volition and He did. He finally died on the death stake but the grave couldn’t contain Him. He rose, ascended and promised to be back soon.

Nothing would atone for our sins but the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

When He cried out, “It is finished!” we were set free from the guilt of every sin we have ever committed. We ask Jesus for forgiveness: He graciously forgives us. Then we receive it and become forgivers. If you have any guilt, that is an indication that you did not leave your sin at the foot of the cross. You won’t offend Him, it’s empty!

We become free of the power of sin. It has often been asked, “Could Jesus choose to sin?” Yes. He could choose to sin in the flesh but in the Spirit He choose NOT to sin. The same applies to a “born again” Christian. You are unable to “not sin” if you are an unbeliever.

The sanctification process is the pursuit of holiness. If uyou are walking the light then you have been protected from the presence of sin. The shadow of death might be close behind but as long as you are walking toward the light the darkness of sin and your former life will be behind you.

Most important of all we are free of the consequences of sin both here and in the hereafter. How can anyone describe a clean life and clear conscience apart from Christ? What practical experiences can you discipline yourself to regarding His love letter to us?

• Read it__________________ examine, interpret
• Learn it__________________ discover, master
• Repeat it_________________ repetition, restate
• Pray it___________________ petition, implore
• Sing it___________________ shout out, vocalize

May the Lord bless your every effort to understand His name: Jesus?

 

 

BORN AGAIN

By Rick Mathes

John 3:7

“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

The command is quite clear, “You MUST be born again.” So that’s not the issue at hand. My question, a fair one, is “How do you know that you are born again?” Are there any guideposts to let you know you are and what directions to take to continue in grace? I can’t be all inclusive here but I would like to give you a few checks in your life that would help.

First let’s look at those who aren’t born again. By definition of being born again, they will die twice: natural and eternal. They won’t be really living in the meantime. They have no life except burnt bridges, ruined relationships and the toys that they don’t need that they will leave their heirs that don’t deserve.

Their emptiness of everything but “feel good” toys and intellectual comic books betrayed their lace of spiritual capacity. Watching “Sponge Bob” is their mental limit. The fellowship of the lost is almost a foretaste of hell. Watch the old popular “Soul Train” dance show with the volume off and hou will be witnessing the prostitutes of Corinth in their devil worship. It’s all nothing more than cotton candy; Tastes good but no substance.

Conversely, you will notice first the born again pray. The Word is in their veins like fire and they just cannot shut up! What can be more important than talking and having fellowship with Jesus. When you know Him and I know Him we join others of like mind we have Church.

It has to be wonderful joy to Him when we lift our hands and sing praises to Him. Every face in glory is beaming a smile while the hornet’s nest of demons in Hell is stirred up to a frenzy and insanity.

It’s in the church, i.e. Body of Christ that we slowly begin to realize our inheritance. I was disinherited by my step-father when I became a Christian. He died and left a busness worth millions to my unsaved step-brothers. They drank and partied it away and with our dismal economy are not living much of a life. Our ministry is worth millions and even though I don’t own anything more than our modest home, I am living like a millionaire. I have my inheritance from my heavenly Father and the best is yet to follow when I occupy that mansion He has prepared for me in glory.

 

 

BETRAYED

By Rick Mathes

Luke 13:21 (NASB77) ²¹  ” It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened.”

Have you ever had a close friend turn on you? I have. I really think I have too high of an expectancy for those few I call friends. Most I know thrown that term “friend” around very loosely but I don’t. I try to use David and Jonathan as a model. But no matter how hard I try I am not the friend to Jesus I expect Him to be to me. I’m just a sinner seeking a Savior and I let Him down time and time again.

You see, deep down like you, I am rotten to the core. I have an evil nature that at times even scares me. It’s natural and easy to sin. Every molecule in my body is attracted to those things that displease Jesus. But when we become born-again we are “able not to sin” in His Spirit. The old excuses to sin vaporized in His presence and of course where He is, are the Temple of God I carry around is called my body. You and I are just animated dust that betrays Him at every chance we get apart from His Spirit which has taken up lodging in our “walking temple of God:” our body.

Sinful betrayal yields evil gain. We are piling up smoldering treasure in Hel with each sinful, self-glorifying act. Our heart hardens to each hammered blow to our pursuit of holiness We’ve done a 180 degree at this point and there aren’t any tears left.

Have you ever sobbed so had your ribs hurt? I imagine that Jesus is that deeply distressed when you or I sin. We’ve turned our back on the Cross and with the kiss of Judas we have begrayed Him and scorned His Word, trust His words to our advanae and join Satan in shaming Him or committing sin blatant, “in your face” sin?

If we have a modicum of intelligence, we can’t misunderstand “Repent the Kingdom of God is near.” Sin murdered God’s only Son. Get a handle on that. This is a dead serious charge to be held a sinner. There is no greater crime on earth than sin!