Tag: crime

AN EXAMINATON

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AN EXAMINATION

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 11:28 (NASB77) 28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

No one enjoys the “final exam.” There’s something foreboding and nerve wracking about it and my hands are perspiring already! This is, however, what our Lord commands us to do before we share in the communion of the saints. We shouldn’t be afraid to test our faith and beliefs is we are secure in Him. The adage, “Birds of a feather flock together,” is so true.

So start your self-examination by looking around you and see if those you keep company with respect the Jews ou have come to respect in bread and wine. Are you one of them? When others see you will they label you by the company you keep? Remember that you can’t hang out with dirty people and not get some dirt on you.

If I followed you around day in and day out for a week would I collect enough information to convict you of being a Christian? I an speak for me that my habits changed drastically when I made Jesus my Lord. You won’t find me anywhere near blatant sinners if I can help it. I have a brand new regimen of activities. I only continue in those that please the Lord and magnify His name.

Once Satan has your thoughts for even a moment He advances to conquer your mind. I have even had evil thoughts in the midst of my praying. That scoundrel is so low life he has no respect for any thought but that which is evil and offends our Lord Jesus Christ.

Looking closer you will notice that my affections have done a real one-eighty. My heart beats with His and I love what He loves. I’m under new management now and my love of life has changed from temporal to eternal.

Certainly not last nor least but yet most important is for you to examine your motives. What are your underlying and ulterior motives? Underlying motives are on the table for all to see and ulterior motives are under the table, out of sight. If you are honest with yourself, you have both and for your best interests you need to be very aware of them and pray that both would be pleasing to Him. Take a private exam and let Jesus grade it, not hu.

AN ANGEL SPOKE

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AN ANGEL SPOKE

By Rick Mathes

Acts 6:15 (NASB77) 15  And fixing their gaze on him, all who were sitting in the Council saw his face like the face of an angel.

Stephen was one of our first deacons. He was an honorable disciple of Christ that had no problem letting his fellow Jews know that their sins killed the long awaited Savior. The more popular he got the time of his execution drew closer. In those days the church was primitive and fresh from the personal fellowship of Jesus. Our Lord was very real to them and they expected He would return at any moment. So in the faith of certain martyrdom, this brave young man preached his own funeral sermon with vitality and truth. It was a model message for all the ministers to follow would admire and meditate on.

To keep listeners close attention, the speaker should be courteous and appropriate to the circumstances. Cracking jokes at a somber funeral would be quite out of place.

The audience deserves a certain respect for having went through all the inconveniences associated with them all assembling to be uplifted and edified by the message and music. In our economy, sad to say, most attend church with a “score card” they fill out to rate the service and decide if returning is worth all they went through to attend.

For a discerning member the sermon is the main focus of the whole worship service. It’s only logical to expect a clear brief and Christ-centered Word from the Lord.

We don’t go to church; we are church that takes time to assemble together in our chosen House of Worship. I’m burnt out on “Kentucky Fried Christianity” and I have a personal mission to point all who will listen to the early church that denounced sin and lifted up the Body of Christ in their pursuit of holiness.

All the onlookers needed to hear and see for a powerful sermon could be found in Stephen’s last words and actions. He preached that Jesus rose to glory with his last breath on holy ground and Oh, Lord I pray I go home the same way!

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AGAINST GOD

By Rick Mathes

Acts 5:39 (NASB77) 39  but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.”

No matter what your denomination or form of church government may be, we all have a commonality as evangelical Protestants that the liberals and catholic heretics just cannot quench no matter h0w hard they try. I would like to name a few and expand on them a bit.

Take up your Cross: True sermons include somewhere in the message repent, submit or obey. All others are largely ear-tickling stories, pontification, or catchy illustrations designed to have you return next Sunday. Evangelical services hammer on the soul to pursue holiness.

I know what is from Satan; don’t pray right now. The devil doesn’t want you to do the very thing God created for you: to pray to Him. He loves prayer.

Division divides! How can the Body of Christ function if its body parts are scattered about or in conflict with each other? I’m not really fond of my big toe. It’s really ugley and usually smells but when I stub it, my whole body says ouch! WE must be in one accord: this is from God.

When others have the cancer and you have the cure, you shout it from the roof-tops. And when you know the Savior and His salvation, you become a soul-winner. It’s the natural thing to do.

This will drive ou to the Scriptures to study the Word. When I first became a Christian the Bible was a big book with a small, simple message. Now several generations later it is a small book with more big messages than I could ever preach in many lifetimes.

Preach only to the willing and you will have learned a responsible message from God: don’t cat your pearls to the swine. Go only where you are invied and the doors will open for you to eshort and encourage the children of the promise

Remember, Jesus said, “Whatever you have done these my brothers, even the least of them, ou have done it to me!” This is real heavy dude, heavy! Rebuke and correct the saints and the lessons will fall back on hou just when you need them. But if you look into the eyes of God and spit in the wind, you know what will happen.

AFFLICTION

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AFFLICTION

By Rick Mathes

Romans 12:12 (NASB77) 12   rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,

Sir John Powell: By affliction, God is spoiling us of what otherwise might have spoiled us. When He makes the world too hot for us to hold, we let go.

Jesus doesn’t’ tempt, He tests. It is good for us to learn the pressure points of backsliding so that we can see Satan’s punch coming if our Lord’s permissive will. Satan cannot lay a finger on us without our Lord’s permission and empowerment. Think about this

Sin of course is the final nail in the coffin that couldn’t hold our Redeemer in the tomb. It wears many masks to entice us with its counterfeit pleasures. The devil’s method-of-operation (M.O.) hasn’t changed. First your eyes linger, then your flesh tastes and then your pride holds you captive.

Backsliding is a lapse of spiritual weight-lifting. When you stop pedaling a bike uphill, what happens? You roll back. So when your tongue gets out of control, when resentments rear their ugly heads or pride and self-importance overcomes you, get into the Word!

Some will complain that their environment crafted them to be the creatures of sin that they have become. They claim that they were born into sinful circumstances and to a large extent, this could be true.

Mistreatment, a heart, idolatry, and hypocrisy, wait on every corner to collar you and take you captive in the chains of hell and the home to the fallen angels. Lucifer is there, always there, to welcome you with open, flaming arms.

Matthew Henry: Outward afflictions, wants and burdens are the great arguments Satan uses to make people of God question their Sonship as if afflictions, could not consist with, when they proceed from God’s fatherly love.

No pain, no gain is as true here as it is anywhere. We are to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Consider that there wouldn’t be a shadow if there wasn’t a light in front of us to follow It came to pass….

ABLE NOT TO SIN

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ABLE NOT TO SIN

By Rick Mathes

Romans 6:22 (NASB77) 22  But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.

Was Jesus able to sin? Yes, He was able to sin in the flesh as we all are but in His Spirit, He was able not to sin. This same thing happens to you when you receive the Holy Spirit in your baptism: you are able not to sin. We move from captivity to freedom and salvation by being set free. When He stepped out of the tomb, death stepped out of the sting. We are eternal now and will never see death, only life in His presence now and until He calls us home.

This transaction of imputing sin on Him and righteousness on us infuriates the devil and when He discovers you were baptized he assigns a legion of demons to terrorize you with doubt and fear: the keys to hell.

Sin however keeps out of your path as darkness flees from light as you walk “in Him.” Your commitment to body, mind and soul is certainly noteworthy but probably the hardest promise you have ever had to keep. It’s worth the payout: set free.

If you don’t, your mind and heart will collapse into your soul. Your temple will be condemned when the lights go out. Your joy, comfort and contentment will evaporate in the smoke and sulfur of that caldron of liquid flames called hell.

Your family is first to suffer if you abandon His calling and get caught up in the devil’s entrapments. Your first love will be yourself and your stubborn attachment to sin will eventually splinter your family into divorce and estrangement. This demolished family unit, the nation’s building block will begin a coast to coast demolition of Judeo-Christian values and a disregard for the precepts of our constitution.

The ripple effect of a national meltdown has world consequences that apart from the grace of God are irreversible. The cost of all this destruction is not worth letting Satan get his nose in your tent when you have been set free. It only takes a single match to light a universe. Is that you?

 

A NEW COMMAND

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A NEW COMMAND

Matthew 13:34 All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable,

I have often imagined myself the President of the United States and the most unnerving ability I can imagine would be the office of Commander of the Armed Forces. All other duties, however important, would pale in comparison to having the lives of a million young soldiers in your hands. How his heart must break in wars when these men give their lives for their country as my Dad did in WWII.

When Jesus commands His army to war He provides the armor and sword. His victory is in the heart of those that are His because that’s where the war is waged. He commands us not just to love one another but to love our enemies “for they know not what they do.” As soldiers in God’s army we are to dig in our cleats and unleash the dynamite of the Holy Spirit that is within us at Rev. Lucifer and his wimps. The battle and victory belong to Jesus and the peace resides in our hearts that are joined to His.

Jesus breathed a soul into Adam and His mind and heart followed. So reason and emotions are the pathway of comfort to the soul, in His image and likeness. Satan’s whole being is committed to snatching your soul into his fiery clutches. He knows his time is running out and like the desperation of a rabid hyena facing death, he is determined to take you down with him; hie’s that evil!

Your mind is where the backsliding thoughts are hatched if there is nay fertile ground for them to grow such as: pornography, drugs, booze, gambling, etc. When your mind is in the gutter your heart will follow and your soul will fall from grace. All you have to do is blink and Satan will slip into your mind with the flesh not far behind.

So loving each other with His love is not an option. Our Commander-in-Chief demands it because He knows that love is life and without it you become a casualty and a victory for Lucifer and his hell-hounds.

Receive your marching orders like a good and obedient soldier for Christ. Each time you say no to Satan temptations you earn higher rank in the Savior’s Survivors Squad of warriors. You have His strength as the Holy Spirit partners with you in the conflict for your soul. Jesus says for us to love and then watch the feeble efforts of the devil wither before our very eyes.

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A JUDAS GOAT

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 25:45 45 “Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

When you look carefully at the division of the sheep and the goats in chapter 25 of Matthew, you will notice that it wasn’t what the goats did that sent them to hell; it was what they didn’t do. They didn’t pursue holiness and the effects of genuine works that are not masks of self-gratification.

The evangelicals like to throw around the label “carnal Christians” to describe plastic believers that are attached to the world and measure their faith by what power, money, prestige and influence their church may have. I once preached, “Is Judas still treasurer of your church?” at a large Baptist church. Needless to say, they never invited me back!

Holiness and good works was in the air the Lord breathed. As St. Francis of Assisi once said, “All I want to do is go about the work of the Lord and not know it.” You can’t be a practical atheist for too long before true Christians take your mask off and uncover the horror of your twisted motives: a midnight of your soul in the abyss of endless shock and awe. The hell that is displayed will startle you into insanity if you look long and too hard at the truth of your depraved mind. If you really believed in Jesus, you wouldn’t embrace your favorite sin: it was the weapon that killed God’s only Son!

There was a time in Rome when the dead body was attached to the murderer, chest to chest until the corpse rotted off of him. Such is the sin you willfully acknowledge that you love more than the Savior. It would drive the Roman prisoner over the edge of rationality and you are also on your way to a chaos of mental confusion, such as you may never recover unless you’re repent.

The goat turned his life toward the wider road that led the sheep to slaughter. The Judas goat gets his name from the fact that he is trained to have the sheep follow him to the butcher block. They blindly line up behind him and he returns again for more that dutifully follow him to certain death. The Judas goat isn’t doing evil, he just isn’t doing anything but leading to a oblivion of endless torture without relief, ever!

And so it is also with you not what you are doing as much as what you have not done. No decision to repent is a vote to reject salvation. Following the goat soon transforms into being the Judas goat as others see and imitate your example by what you didn’t do.

When faced with sin, just stop, stand still, turn around and return to Him. No decision is a decision to be a Judas goat. How many souls have you sent to Hell? When is the time to stop? What or who is holding you back?

Slay the goat and line up with the sheep that the Good Shepherd has chosen for His today!

A god

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A god

By Rick Mathes

2 Corinthians 4:4 (NASB77) 4  in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Father Lucifer fell with his angels because of his pride. This sin is the root of all evil and the devil is all deceitful false pride. He has nothing to be proud of because of his blindness to sin and all that brings in its tow. Things of this world become gods and the more of them you own, the more they own you. Eventually there is nothing more of you and you are too prideful to walk away from those that are irresistible. Like metal to the wrong magnet, the devil lures you into the bear-trap of worldly toys and then snaps it’s jaws shut.

The attractions the demons drag out for their god Satan and like decorations on a Christmas tree, they blink and glitter in a sensual manner that can pierce the self-protection unbelievers expect will protect them and it doesn’t. No matter what your occupation means to you, it can’t remain your god for too long otherwise you need to be worn down to where your resistance to more and more and more evaporates in the smoke of hell’s chimney.

The devil’s appeal is stronger than your resistance. You are a spiritual prostitute of the highest order his gang of evil hall-hounds will form an attack-pack and tear your unbelief to shreds. Apart from having the Holy Spirit within you, you are not able not to sin. You not only are hopeless with your god, you are being fed false hopes from demons in the pulpits of many churches. It’s the false god Satan and his doctrines of lies that will distort the true Christianity so bad that it becomes a confusing battle of contradictions and denominations that are hell bent on earing the Body of Christ apart.

Man makes god in his image and likeness to deflect notice of his sin by hiding it in a barrage of false teachings. It doesn’t take long to have a man become your god and bow to the wishes of this pope or senior bishop or priest. Once layered by sinful men the fear of man replaces the fear of God. This is the death knell of religion. You get a false assurance that the true faith is whatever you personally believe it to be.

A CHRISTIAN IS

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A CHRISTIAN IS

Acts 26:28 (NASB) 28 Agrippa replied to Paul, “In a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian.”

C.H. Spurgeon: “Almost persuaded to be a Christian is like the man who was almost pardoned but he was hanged; like a man who was almost rescued by was burned in the house. A man that is almost saved is damned.”

To be a Christian is not:

An Irrational Leap of Faith

Be sure to read, “The Evidence Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell. It is the intellectual ascent and proof of all we believe. It is an absolute must read.

Emotional Crutch

Christianity has been characterized as an emotional crutch for weak people. Ted Turner, CNN founder, said that Christianity is for losers. If you feel that way as he does, you will have an opportunity to explain that to Jesus one day.

Our faith is not for losers. Just look at the lives of those who have refused Christ. Don’t get blind-sided by carnal Christians who haven’t made Jesus Lord. They are so obviously trashing truth. They bow to the creation instead of the Creator.

All too often our faith is written off as a superstition. The sinners have been claiming that from the moment we were distinguished as Christians in 70AD. The Gnostics turned Roman Catholics and the Charismatics have played on people’s emotions and mystical feeling long enough. Slowly but so steadily and superstitions are falling by the wayside as we open our bible and learn what it really says. There are a lot of useless rituals that grieve our Lord.

Watching the charismatics on TV or being in their services is quite an experience. They are manipulated into fanaticism by repetitive music and long prayers in tongues must like the eastern mystical faiths.

Christianity is not only moral teachings and it is not just one of many ways to God, Allah is not God, Yahweh is and He had a Son and His Son’s name was Jesus. I only ask one question of other faiths, “Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life. NO ONE comes to the Father but through Him.”

Is Jesus a liar, lunatic or Lord? I won’t proceed in the conversation until they answer the question. The Muslims usually shut down and walk away. And rightly, they should!

 

A BRICK WALL

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A BRICK WALL

Philippians 3:12 12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

Physics has taught me that if I apply a constant pressure against any object, in time, it will move. It may take a thousand years of my diligent effort, but the wall will go down and the bricks will be scattered until they become the dust from which they were made. So it is with sin and all the agents of corruption: they will come down and return to dust if only you will apply the pressure long enough: persistence of the saints.

Take for example the allurements of the world and all the creature comforts that we are inundated with in every area of merchandising. I expect that when all the surfaces have an advertisement on them, someone will figure out how to project ads on the face of the moon for the whole world to see!

It is second nature to covet or lust for all those things that are dangled just out of our reach. This includes advancement in our career moves. I was so diabolical that I would teach those under me only to a point and I would keep key information and training of special skills to myself so that they would never threaten my position of power and authority. The presumption of corruption and underlying schemes was elemental and necessary to outmaneuver those clamoring to take me down with a smile on their wretched faces. The old leaven surely does foul the whole being and cause a tension of heart-ache only the blood-soaked Cross of Christ can heal.

When your soul has lost ground and Devine life has declined, take a good look at that which was and remind yourself: I can, I will and I must overcome in Him. My heart has lost its softness and my conscience is no longer tender. The Cross has lost its attraction and grace no longer seems sweet to me. I’ve lost my mind to the seclusion of he Netherlands and iti is read meat for the prowling and devouring lion, I am terrified!

Bring me back Oh Lord the convictions of my offense before your holy throne with a godly sorrow that is couched in true humility and confession. I ache to return to You and the sweet comforts of your embrace.

That brick wall will come down and my effort will persist. I will persevere against the immovable obstacle of sin in a measure consistent with my renewed and growing faith. The victory is ours, mine and yours as my besetting sin crumbles into the oblivion of my past, gone and never again an obstacle to the gateway and cornerstone of deliverance.

The wall has come down!

A CALLING

Ye call me Master                   and obey me not;

Ye call me Light                      and see me not;

Ye call me Way                       and walk me not;

Ye call me Life                        and desire me not;

Ye call me Wise                      and follow me not;

Ye call me Fair                        and love me not;

Ye call me Rich                       and ask me not;

Ye call me Eternal                  and seek me not;

Ye call me Gracious   and trust me not;

Ye call me Noble                    and serve me not;

Ye call me Mighty                   and honor me not;

Ye call me Just                       and fear me not;

If I condemn you Blame Me not!

 

FAITH:

Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.

Faith is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.

Faith is ideal when circumstances are right, only when they are adverse is one’s faith in God exercised.

Faith, like muscle, grows strong and supple with exercise.

Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.

A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.

Faith is not believing that God can, but that God will!

Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.

Faith in God is indispensable to successful statesmanship.

 

Arabic Proverb

He that knows not and knows not that he knows not:

He is a fool; shun him!

He that knows not and knows that he knows not:

He is simple; teach him!

He that knows and knows not that he knows:

He is asleep; wake him!

He that knows and knows that he knows;

He is a wise man; follow him!

 

A NEW COMMAND

Matthew 13:34 All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable,

I have often imagined myself the President of the United States and the most unnerving ability I can imagine would be the office of Commander of the Armed Forces. All other duties, however important, would pale in comparison to having the lives of a million young soldiers in your hands. How his heart must break in wars when these men give their lives for their country as my Dad did in WWII.

When Jesus commands His army to war He provides the armor and sword. His victory is in the heart of those that are His because that’s where the war is waged. He commands us not just to love one another but to love our enemies “for they know not what they do.” As soldiers in God’s army we are to dig in our cleats and unleash the dynamite of the Holy Spirit that is within us at Rev. Lucifer and his wimps. The battle and victory belong to Jesus and the peace resides in our hearts that are joined to His.

Jesus breathed a soul into Adam and His mind and heart followed. So reason and emotions are the pathway of comfort to the soul, in His image and likeness. Satan’s whole being is committed to snatching your soul into his fiery clutches. He knows his time is running out and like the desperation of a rabid hyena facing death, he is determined to take you down with him; he’s that evil!

Your mind is where the backsliding thoughts are hatched if there is any fertile ground for them to grow such as: pornography, drugs, booze, gambling, etc. When your mind is in the gutter your heart will follow and your soul will fall from grace. All you have to do is blink and Satan will slip into your mind with the flesh not far behind.

So loving each other with His love is not an option. Our Commander-in-Chief demands it because He knows that love is life and without it you become a casualty and a victory for Lucifer and his hell-hounds.

Receive your marching orders like a good and obedient soldier for Christ. Each time you say no to Satan temptations you earn higher rank in the Savior’s Survivors Squad of warriors. You have His strength as the Holy Spirit partners with you in the conflict for your soul. Jesus says for us to love and then watch the feeble efforts of the devil wither before our very eyes.