Tag: confession

BEFORE AND AFTER

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BEFORE – AFTER

By Rick Mathes

The following is a good overview of an unbeliever. I know it describes my thinking until I received my Lord’s invitation to be saved and accepted it. It might sound like you.

  1. I will not give up my sins.
  2. I will not worship an invisible God.
  3. I will not attend a place of phony worship.
  4. I really have no love for the man Jesus,
  5. I will not pray in public.
  6. I will not do a morning-evening devotional.
  7. I will not pray in the air to an invisible God.
  8. I really don’t believe anyone is really saved.
  9. I will not tithe or make donations to this nonsense.
  10. I don’t believe He rose from the dead.
  11. I will not be a hypocrite and fake it.
  12. I don’t believe in sin, death and the devil.
  13. I don’t believe the Bible, it was just written by men.

The downside of our pilgrimage on planet earth is that Satan’s kingdom is thriving and for all intents and purposes succeeding to twist the Christian truths with alternative thinking contrary to God’s purposes. The history channel’s Ancient Aliens, UFO’s, visitors from other planets, Nostradamus, the list goes on and one to prove every celestial appearance by provable and repeatable science.

Christianity is not a blind leap of faith nor man’s invention to explain the unexplainable. But unbelief is the easy, most comfortable way out. Jesus was spot-on when He published in His Word, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.”

God blessed me to my earliest remembrance as a youth to question “Why?” and “What is truth?” Those two questions have hounded me all of my life even to this moment. I can tell you before God and man, with all the honesty, logic and secular investigation I am capable of, Jesus rose from the dean of His own volition and in His perfect timing!

This is the hinge that will take you from the before to the after if ony you will make it a priority in your studies. You won’t have a second chance. We only pass this way once. There is no room for error!

Before or after, it’s your decision!

BE REASONABLE

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BE REASONABLE

By Rick Mathes

Greg Albrecht: “In the latter half of the 20th century the politically correct view that all lifestyles, behaviors are equally valid gained acceptance and came to be known as postmodernism. If we accept this, we must conclude that there is no objective truth and that each of us are lfet to subjectively decide moral trust” and everyone did as they thought right.”

Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Jesus didn’t waste His breath on him and neither should we. It is so ignorant. Consider that when a dummy says, “There’s no such thing as an objective truth,” what he just said then was relative! Stupidity trumps stupidity.

An indisputable fact is true no matter what you think is. There’s the law of non-contradiction which stats that two diametrically opposed facts cannot both be true. Duhhh!

It takes a wise man to humble himself and keep his rationale modest and simple. Satan makes it so enticing to muddy the waters and confuse the issues in circular reasoning. It’s a dog returning to its vomit.

The liberalism of the majority confirm that flattering and complimenting religious doctrines win the day with the wishy-washy sassiest that don’t man up and have an objective answer for when they profess to be their faith.

Where are the wholesome, uncorrupted and refined apologists who have a fundamental evangelistic doctrine that will depend on their faith and fight for the true doctrine: the truth?

What is sound? Try Bible only, Jesus only, Faith only, and Grace only. Now that’s reasonable.

 

BASIC TRAINING

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BASIC TRAINING

By Rick Mathes

This worst case training is a professing Christian who lives for Satan! I would like to see the sermon more than I want to hear it. Words are cheap and deceiving because unbelievers don’t understand the true definitions of our vocabulary such as what a real Christian is.

You should know by now if you have followed my writings at all that my bottom line is Jesus only, Bible only, Grace only and Faith only. So it is very important for an ambassador of Jesus to represent Him. In other words, as you get to know a Christian you should get to know Jesus.

For me there have been four areas that I have had to work at so as not to shame my Lord.

Being zealous for doing God’s will is sure a blessed gift but it must be tempered with patience. It is better to do less well. The devil’s most effective weapon to stop or at least slow down a mighty work for the Lord is to get us too far ahead of God’s will so that problems arise and energy fails. Or he will get you way behind where you should be by persuading you that you can do this tomorrow and tomorrow never comes without an admonition that there is plenty of time: just don’t do it now.

When you finally get past your hurry you need to have the courage to press on. The evil one will put up all kind of scary circumstances in front of you to persuade you that your efforts are dangerous and futile.

It takes a Holy faith in Jesus to knock Satan on his butt and push on through to success you know is a certainty because God’s Words says so. If the bible says it, I believe it and that settle it! The small steps soon become giant steps as you crawl to walk to run.

You will so learn that our Lord teaches through trials. What good is untested faith? A true soldier of the Lord completes his basic training and experiences a rush of happiness. What a thrill to overcome all of hell’s road-blocks and press on in faith to the finish line. Let happiness, true happiness fill your mind, heart and soul. Did you know Jesus loves you?

 

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.

MINISTERS ONLY

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MINISTERS ONLY

By Rick Mathes

Author of “Allah or Jesus”

Ephesians 4:11 (NASB77) 11  And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,

There is not better feeling than the confidence of saying, “I know, I know!” That assurance of assurance is indescribable. Does that make sense to you? Well, you can rest assured that you are a minister of the Gospel according to Jesus. You might have to drive a bus, wait tables, be a professional to support your ministry but don’t lose sight of the fact that your job is to minister the good news to every “Divine appointment” the Lord makes for you. This is how He perfects His saints. While you are ministering you are reinforcing His Word and Truth in your inner-most bowels.

The sun comes up and the sun goes down and another day is history and you are 24 hours nearer to your funeral. Dismal isn’t it? Solomon missed the mark when he penned “vanities, vanities, nothing but vanity.” Clearly, the Spirit of the Lord wasn’t up on the actions of his life because if he was called and chosen of God all the work he put his hands to would be to God’s glory and profoundly worthwhile.

It boils down to this: what pleases Jesus? And by extension: what edifies the Body of Christ (the Church)? What are we called to do or rather what has God commanded you to do on Christ’s behalf? Each of us has a vital part to play in our lifetimes so that collectively we walk in His footsteps. St. Francis of Assisi said that all he wanted to do was to go about the Father’s business and not know it. That is total commitment and humility that can’t be touched by any mortal.

All these efforts culminate in one result only and that’s to persuade men of faith to point their swords at the enemy and not at each other. There is only one Body. A house divided against itself will fall. We must stand together and a great place to start is to ban denominations that divide instead of unify evangelical Christians men.

The only perfect Church is “the called out ones” (elect) in Christ!

It’s been over 2,000 years since our King said, “It is finished!” Don’t you agree that it’s time for us ministers to mature? It only takes one candle of hope to light up a universe. Let worldwide revival begin with me?

Won’t you join me? Together we can spark His return in glory.