Tag: church

SEVEN WOES

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7 WOES

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 23:8 But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.

You call me:

  • Master but do not obey me
  • Light but do not walk with me
  • Wise but do not listen or learn from me
  • Rich but do not ask of me for help
  • Eternal but do not live like you believe it
  • Gracious but do not trust in my generosity
  • Noble but do not serve me as my slave
  • God but do not fear offending me

If I call you condemned, do not blame me!

Woe is you as you plunge down the flaming pit because of your preoccupation with everything and anything that was self-gratifying. The sum total of all your love and ambitions now and in the future is only your well-being and materialism. All that matters to you is you. Your egotism is so prevalent that you barely comprehend the purpose of those around you but to satisy your needs and wants. You are oblivious to all else.

There is a total vacuum of spirituality within you mainly because your unconfessed sin keeps getting in the way. You can only wall off righteousness for so long until it bursts its walls and destroys itself and all within its path. Now the challenge you face is to put up a face of righteousness around you so that no one will be able to penetrate your façade of holy living.

This impenitence arouses God’s anger at your audacity and deception. He will try His best to have you take a good hard look at who you really are on the inside that place in you that no one is welcome but you.

It’s been over 2,000 years of this nonsense with no change in your perverseness. The sad thing is that there is never another second chance. You may have used them all up and you have no options left. This delusiveness of living is denial of sin, Satan and hell will open up within you.

Go back over this article and see if you can’t pick out the 7 woes and then whip them to submission for the glory of the King of Kings, your Commander in Chief or else!

YOU’RE A LOSER

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YOU’RE A LOSER!

By Rick Mathes

My name is “Unbeliever.” I’m also known as Liar, Criminal, Jerk, Stupid and worse. I’m going to do it my way. I’ve lived with the Devil so far and I will deal again with him when I see him eye to eye. Life is Hell, admit it! When J.C. said, “Depart from me I never knew you,” He declared war on me and my kind. It was at the moment that I knew I was bound to the flaming throne awaiting me. I decided to “get what I can get while I can get it. I know, I know, don’t keep harping on me. I’m undeserving, ill-deserving and on my way to an unforgivable eternity in hell. So what’s new!

My heart has hardened to you bleeding heart do-gooder wimps!

I have chosen to be obstinate to your pleadings with me to get born again. I have the parents that born me. Why would I want to be born again? Once was enough for me besides my thoughts are so volatile hey shoot in and out of my mind and I have no peace to sort them out. I can’t even approach a moment of contentment.

My imagination of God, hell, angels and demons is out of sorts and very ungovernable. My sinful desires are extraordinarily evil and running wild, preying on the victims within my reach. These mind altering drugs I take mixed with alcohol cloud my mind so that I don’t have to think, just flow from one feeling to another. There is a den of wild beasts within my deepest and most hidden places.

Let’s face it: the world we live in removes you from thinking out the consequences of your choices and overlooks the causes.

There was a time when it was fun to say it was fun,

There was a time when it was crazy to sad it was fun,

But now it’s crazy to say this is fun!

There comes a time when you put your life on pause and consider the only thruth God or man has ever learned. God’s Word is Truth and it is the total annihilation of Lucifer and his fallen angels. Jesus said, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” Duh! I think you may be getting the message by now. How many times are you going to hit the bottom? Think, do you even have one more new start in you? I doubt it. Only He can remove the penalty, power and presence of sin. Your only relief, are you listening? Your only hope is believe and trust in Jesus as Lord. Don’t let Him say those deadly words to you, “Depart from me.” You’re a loser!

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!

WHY ME LORD?

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WHY ME LORD?

By Rick Mathes

Author of “Allah or Jesus”

I love the outdoors! The fresh smell of a spring breeze, sunshine and lazy summer days, the gentle falling of autumn leafs, and the gusting winds of many winters past and yet to come. Oh, how I love life and the liberty to reach for the sky with all that is within me.

What a blessing to live in the midst of my ancestors and yet have the privilege of watching my families grow up around me, tall and strong. Rooted and settled in a land of flowers, sunshine and gentle rains, and God’s creation in its fullest.

It was a dismal day, my worst in memory when I was uprooted and taken to a foreign land on a hill that was so depressed and foreboding. I ached with pain and terror as this wretched group of carpenters fashioned me into something I never dreamed of becoming, a cross. As wooden as I am, I still marveled that man was taking me the good and changing me into bad, the cross that the Son of God would be nailed to. What greater horror could I possibly go through!

I was totally depressed and dismayed until I recalled the lessons that were passed on to me from tree to tree since the Garden: What man has made for bad, God will use for good. This comforted me that maybe there was a reason for me to be picked to be the death stake of Jesus the Christ.

I bore the body of the King as they nailed him to my arms. I felt His pain and wallowed in His sorrow. His blood streamed down to the ground that wept in agony. The King was crucified and I was what held him up. Wait a minute. I held Him up! He was the King! Then that made me the throne. I was blessed to hold the King of Kings in my arms and lift Him up to the Father as He became the salvation for mankind. What greater honor could any tree have but to have embraced Jesus for the last time before He slept in the ground and then raised Himself up to His former glory?

I just know that I will be remembered for all times: the symbol of His sacrifice. When others look at me the will think of Him. And when they look to you, will they see Him?

For more go to:

www.MissionGateMinistry.org

www.RickMathes.org

PASS THIS ON? THANK YOU!

 

 

WHICH DONKEY ARE YOU?

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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 TRUTH?

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WHAT IS TRUTH?

By Rick Mathes

You have to be real careful when you list the absolutes of your life. When you insist something is “always” someone will come up with an exception. The only yardstick we Christians stake our eternal life on is that only the Word of God holds within it 66 volumes of the only truth.

When Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Jesus didn’t even waste His breath to tell him, “I AM the way, the truth and the life.” “Thy Word is truth.” We have the answer and anyone who disagrees is dead wrong.

So what is truth? Let me begin with original sin. When Adam and Eve believed Satan and defied God, hey knew good and learned evil. That same sin is passed on to every living soul through our DNA. You don’t teach a baby to be bad, it just comes naturally. Good comes supernaturally.

Another truth that so many people just plain hate is election. Consider just good logic. If God is all-knowing, he knows who will be saved and who won’t be before they are even born. After they are born they can’t change what God pre-knew, can they? That’s election or predestination. No one “accepts” Jesus as Lord, He “chooses” them!

When Jesus wants you, He’s going to get you because He is all powerful. Like a worm on a hook, you may squiggle and squirm but you are hooked. This is His effectual calling. A hen has a general calling to let her chicks know where she is and she has her “get under my wings” cluck for the chicks to hurry, they are in danger. Get the point?

My favorite truth is “once saved, always saved.” We just don’t quit. We keep the faith, fight the good fight and finish the course. You can’t knock us down and keep us down. We always get our back off of the canvas and press on!

The least favorite truth is that Jesus didn’t take the unbelievers punishment on that cross. He died for those who would believe. If you are without faith in Christ, you will suffer your own hell that He suffered for me. This is called “limited atonement.”

I just know I know you know the truth. You may hide in denial or your might invent a convenient religion for yourself but in your heart of hearts, you know the truth, Jesus is Lord!

BELIEVE IN HIM

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BELIEVE IN HIM

By Rick Mathes

Romans 4:24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,

What we do with our belief is not prescribed by manmade rules or rituals such as the Church of Rome are so choked by. No, real belief results in a real spontaneous response from our mind, to our heart and from our soul. Hands up, down, folded, all this is not something to follow because others do it that way.

What I do know about believing in Him, worship just happens. So as not to be distracted by others, when I want to approach Jesus and worship Him I close my eyes and get into my own little private chapel. I also have observed that everyone who approached the Lord fell on their face and were overwhelmed with shame at the sin they were still infected with. How horrible can it be to be transparent before our Lord and have Him see us as no one else can?

Repentance is the issue believers constantly wrestle with. Repenting of our sins is the absolute opposite of what our natural self wants to do. It is down-right ugly how we resist the holiness required of us by God’s breathed Word in the Bible.

Once we make an honest confession as believers in the Holy of Holies, we are supernaturally to let Him live through us. We imitate in our flesh the Lord of heavens that is clothes in our skin. When people get to know us, they get to know Him. As a bond servant, it is not too hard to conclude that we are to live to serve Him.

This can be done in a number of ways but it all begins with selflessness and sacrifice. The Lord knows all that needs to be done by us to advance the Kingdom but the heart of all efforts is our relationship to Him. It isn’t what you do t counts, it’ who you are in Him that is everything. St. Francis of Assisi said it so well when he said, “All I want to do is go about the Lord’s business and not know it.” That’s what I call humility.

Would make this suggestion to you, “Do the best you can for Jesus and let someone else get the credit” or “Replace thyself.” It’s all about Him not you.

WHAT IS FINISHED?

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WHAT IS FINISHED?

By Rick Mathes

Jesus commissioned the Holy Spirit to carry on until He returned. It to Him we seek God’s works by grace in us. As Christians, sold out and totally committed to our returning King we have had our vanity transformed into humility. Once we understood His atonement for our sins on the cross we dropped to our knees, put our faces in the mud, the blood and the tears and cried out, “It is finished!” Our old self died.

In the deepest humility we have an earnestness of purpose that only God knows where it came from. It sure hasn’t been natural since we accepted Him in our head and heart as Savior and Lord.

Because of His finished work we are now friends of God. Can you get a handle on that? We are not at enmity with the Lord of our universe but rather personal friends of His now. We can walk into His presence and be more than welcomed at any time we want to. Imagine that for a moment.

We have been declared righteous. This is not a righteousness of our own but one imputed by Christ’s death on the cross. He took our rap-sheet (list of crimes) with Him. Our record is spotless. God will not even know we ever sinned! Isn’t that something? It is finished! I know that because we have been rescued from sin. The devil hasn’t got his claws in us because we are friends of God.

The cell door has come off of its hinges and the bars have been sawn asunder. We have been set free from the power, punishment and will soon be set free from the presence of sin.

How proud can we be when the Lord stepped from the tomb and Satan knew he was finished. Now like a junk-yard dog, he’s trying to take down every Christian he can until he is thrown into the lake of fire.

We have been chosen of god and predestines to be in that parade when the Lord comes back and reins forever. We who are born again will lift up our hands and shout, “Only you O Lamb or God are worthy!”

WHAT IS FAITH?

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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?

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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?