Tag: death

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 CALLING

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 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!

 

 

 

100% LIKE NEW

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100% NEW

By Rick Mathes

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NASB77) 17  Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

The center of creation is Jesus because He spoke all you see, all that is into existence. Not only did His superior imagination think of all things but He only had to say the Word and all creation sprang into existence in a fraction of the speed of light! I can’t get my mind around that but I can attest with all truth that all born again believers live through Christ.

Like boiling water through coffee grounds we pass our lives through Him and He filters out all worldly and temporal idols until only He is left for you to worship. As we live with Christ all hat belong to Satan flee from us as darkness cannot last in the presence of light. In living for Christ we pay homage to His love and sacrifice for us even unto death so that we might live.

We Christians are often accused of being judgmental. Sinners hate having their sins exposed to the Savior, so we are hated. They misquote the Word to condemn us of not loving but being mean and judgmental. Well for the record, I am just fine having you or God judge me as I judge you. I can state that because I live to please Him and if I am saying or doing anything contrary to His Word I want you to rebuke and correct me so judge away but also notice the plank in your own eye.

We all have a different purpose in life but be aware of your purpose and don’t neglect it. It was why you were created.  You are to fulfill the desires Christ has in His heart, the heart that broke for you and for the atonement of your sins.

If only we could put our ear to heaven I wonder what we would hear the triune God converse about us. Would they be blessed and ecstatic over our pursuit of happiness? You die to yourself and life for the approval of Jesus.

I fear doing anything that would shame or offend my wife because of my lifelong commitment to be one in her as her soul-mate. How much more are my conversations and actions a reflection of Him when I am born again and 100% a new man I never knew. Won’t you join me for an experience you will never forget.

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 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!

 

 

WHY DO YOU LOVE SATAN?

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WHY DO YOU LOVE SATAN?

By Rick Mathes

We are the sum total of the choices we make. They are sewn together by the family who raised us, sown by those we hung out with and collected with those of a feather: in church or in prison. The constant I have noticed with those in trouble and out of sorts with the Lord is that they make bad decisions and compound the likelihood of wrongdoing with those we associate with.

Peer group pressure can foster bad habits that we hang on to as natural because we don’t know any better. Evil thoughts materialize and become reality that includes the seven deadly sins. Think, who do you love and faithfully follow, Satan? Be honest when you consider your underlying and ulterior motives. You have them both you know.

When you choose sin over the Savior you love Satan and you are call Christ a liar.

(Read this over and over until you get this into your thick scull.)

The first tip off of totally turning your back on Jesus is when you are self-sufficient: when you sing throughout the day, “I did it my way!” Believe me you’re no Frank Sinatra. You will soon be making your jail cell bunk your way.

Another dead give-away is being self-serving. You don’t win because you died with the most toys. But when you do have that last visit to the center isle of your church, notice outside, there isn’t a U Hall attached to your hearse.

My biggest gripe is shallow, empty headed people who are too dumb to get saved. You can spot them having a meaningful conversation with their tossed salad before they eat it! Hello cucumber. Oh look there’s Mr. Radish and his girlfriend Olive. Duhhhh!

The sum of all the above feel they are above the laws of heaven and are led about my moron demons because that’s all that is needed to make them the “Saturday Night Live” comedy show of Hell. They become open sores and diseases corpses: the walking dead in memory of Michael Jacksons “Thriller.” The dead burying the dead.

What is it that makes you love Satan (sin) more than the Savior? You need to answer this.

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 GRACE?

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WHAT IS GRACE?

By Rick Mathes

The simple answer to this question is, “unmerited favor.” But what does grace do? That was my question all through Roman Catholic grade and high schools. I finally have come to this conclusion:

The effect is not the cause of the effect; the cause is.

Works is not the cause of works; grace is.

That is as succinct as I can word it. So I am going to consider that you understand that and move on to some of the effects (works) of His Grace.

I thank God every day that the police don’t know all the crime that I have committed. If they did, I would be in prison for a long, long time. I have a full pardon now and I will be eternally grateful to our Lord’s grace that enables me to devote my life to His works.

  • Bible Only
  • Jesus Only
  • Grace Only
  • Faith Only

It blesses my heart to wave through my rear-view mirror at police putting a “make” on my plate’s numbers. The car is legally mine, the insurance card is real, I didn’t buy my driver’s license in California, I didn’t have a gun in the glove-box, no cocaine in the trunk and no pregnant girlfriends! I am clean and free!

Every time I am confronted with a sin I rebuke it and like a whipped puppy it puts its tail between its legs and crawls off in a hurry. I prefer to take on the big sins first because I know that if I whip Goliath the Philistines (lesser sins) will run like scared rabbits. Grace strengthens me.

One of my favorite verses is, “Though I walk through the valley in the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” Notice we walk “in the shadow of death” not in the darkness of death because we are walking in the Light. By grace we are saved, not by works lest we should brag or boast.

Hope is before you by grace as you have never known it if you will only take the first step, He will take the rest of them with you. He quickens the spark of life in you to into a bonfire of love and desire to exemplify Him. When people get to know you do they get to know Him?

You will be astonished at the changes in your as God begins, by grace, the process of restoring you to your first nature in His Image and Likeness walking with Him in the cool of the evening.