Tag: death

STAND UP

By Rick Mathes

Acts 2:14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words”

There is a lot of needless pontificating in too many pulpits these days. The preachers of this post-Christian era are only showmen putting on the performance they expect you to pay for and return for more. How shameful can it be for us to face Jesus knowing this happens and having done nothing about it? These synagogues of Satan prosper because stupid underfed sheep go to the other side of the fence with the devil’s smile to welcome them. All this happens because today’s preachers don’t have the “spiritual T” to preach repent, submit and obey!

Take a stand! Ministers of America clean up your own backyard before you go to other nations and tell them how to clean up their backyards. Have the courage of Peter to speak up the gospel of Jesus: nothing more and nothing less. When Paul passed the baton to Timothy, the future of our faith went with it. Now it has been passed on to you. Don’t drop it! I guarantee you, every soul in heaven would exchange places with you in a heartbeat to be in the Last Days with our Lord.

You must rise up your voice and let the world know that you are in Jesus as your Lord. It only takes one match to light a universal It only took one Paul to turn the Roman Empire upside down. As the name “The David” in known in New York as “Trump” is known around the world, it is nothing compared to the name of Paul! I might add, your name is known in heaven!

How can they be saved unless they hear the good news and how can they hear it if you don’t declare it to them. The Word teaches that you are a new creature; you have the ministry of reconciliation and have become an ambassador for the King. When people get to know you do they get to know Jesus?

Make know that the time of our redemption is near. Whisper it in the shadows and shout it from the rooftops! And while you are in this state of mind, just stop, stand still and listen. Not only will you hear the endless echo of your own words from the mouths of others but you will hear the precious words of Jesus say, “I love you” in the soft hush of His creation surrounding you. In the trees, the sky and in the wind is the eternal Word of God, “It is finished.” For you, if you will stand up His Return will be seen on the horizon.

 

C.H. SPURGEON SAID

By Rick Mathes

The best proof you can ever have of God being mighty to save,

dear hearts, is that he saved you.

Hell is howling from within because it knows how soon its end must come.

No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God.

Be not proud, and then of what you have, when you remember that you once rejected Him.

1. Judgment to come;
2. No hope of heaven
3. No blood of Christ
4. No pardon of sin
5. No sanctifying Spirit
6. No imputed righteousness

I love my Bible because it is a Bible baptized with His blood.

Getting to know Christ now is the process by which the Christian will become like Christ in the future.

He that stands self-convicted, may look to Christ hanging on the Cross, and see himself hanging there, and see his sins for ever put away by the sacrifice of Jesus on the tree.

Common sense should tell us that when something clean and something unclean brush against one another, the unclean object is not improved but the clean object is changed for the worse.

Jesus Christ did not die to make God loving, but he died because God loved.

We should expect to be among wolves in the world, but beware of them when they are in the church, undetected and unconverted.

Thou hast made us; Thou hast made us what we are, we are nothing without Thee.

We have seen a season of lethargy, of soul-poverty among the saints and of neglect among the ministers to His church. God is about to send times of surprising fertility to His church.

You have an enemy who all his life long has been your enemy: the Devil.

 

SPIRITUAL MATURITY

By Rick Mathes

John 16:15 (NASB77) ¹⁵  ” All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.

There comes a time when we have to take off our diaper, stand up and pee like a man! Using a drug here and a drug there or a drink here and a drink there is like stabbing our soul with an ice pick a little at a time. We are killing the life within, erasing our animation and sealing our future to fames when we sty in Satan’s playpen and breast feed on the goddess Diana. There is a moment of truth when we must put away childish things and grow up. Why don’t we? The anser is simply, growing pains: it hurts as god prunes us.

Knowledge that only the Holy Spirit can provide through the Word of God cultivates understanding no matter how slow the progress. You can’t coast your bicycle up-hill for long until you need o exert the effort to pedal the bike upward. So it is with our imperative to hear, listen, learn, apply then evaluate. We must be more Christ-like today than we were yesterday or we are headed for a massive backslides of which we may not recover. How many more chances do you have to repent, submit and obey Him before He withdraws His Hoy Spirit and lets you plunge into the furnace of flames that is opening wider for you.

Total maturity is total perfection. We are totally depraved so perfection apart from Christ is impossible but this does not excuse us from trying. We must always strive for Christ’s ideal. It isn’t the destination arrival, it is the striving toward the higher prize, we press on.

The deeper truths of the Gospel soon leap of the pages of the Bible. Jesus left God’s only message to us in the Bible, compete without additions or redactions. He also left the Holy Spirit ot teach us these profound truths.

It is only in doing this spiritual weight lifting that we can be empowered “not to sin.” Only the Holy Spirit has this authority over sin, death, hell and Satan. We are overcomers that even the very gates of hell cannot prevail against us. The temptation transforms itself into the testing for the elect and certain condemnation for the unbelievers.

 

SPIRIT’S FIRE

By Rick Mathes

1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit;

There is only one baptism and it includes the fullness of the Triune Godhead. No further injection of the Holy Spirit is necessary. However, you do have your hand on the dimmer switch. You can turn up or down the power of the Holy Spirit’s influence in your life and relationship with those around you.

The Holy Spirit is quenched:

1. BY NEGLECT: I went about the task of painting three rooms in my house in three days. I neglected my devotions, prayers and Christian music. I leaked the Holy Spirit so much that I was slipping cuss words out and seriously thinking about getting a sex-pack of beer. (I am a former alcoholic.)
2. WORLDLINESS: This most certainly includes how others perceive you. I went to the movie staging area of Disneyland and saw that all the houses and buildings were only as thick as the two-by-fours that held the façade up: no depth or the real thing behind it, much like your life right now.
3. INDULGENCE: Liquid levity in alcoholic beverages is short lived and results in an awful hangover. Drugs cause addiction and there are even some who are committing suicide “by fork.” (Gluttony.)
4. THOUGHTS: You really are what you think. I have seen many who have hit the mother of bottoms rise to unexpected levels of success once they developed a relationship with Jesus.
5. FEELINGS: Satan can and often does counterfeit feelings. Just because it feels good doesn’t mean it came from godly sources. Any crack or heroin addict will give this a hearty amen!
6. And then there is the list of corruptions:
7. What you read
8. Who you are employed with
9. A backsliding family
10. Friends that only walk the wide road
11. A church filled with demons

We are triune beings that are composed of three of Satan’s main targets:

• Our flesh
• Our spirit
• Our soul

Nothing would make the devil more happy but for you to quench the Holy Spirit by tuning the dimmer switch down to as low as it will go and put the Spirit’s fire out!

SOUND THE ALARM!

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 7:29 (NASB77) ²⁹  But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none;

The Lord is near! That’s good. The Lord’s return is near! That’s even better if you are a child of the promise. If you are not a professor of His good news, His return is really bad news because you will not even be invited to the White Throne Judgment. Your future in hell’s furnace is already a done deal. You may want to reconsider Him as your Lord. Will you have the breath to say “I believe?”

A backslider by definition is someone who isn’t even trying. Let me illustrate by asking you, “How long can you coast your bike uphill without pedaling?” See what I mean? Staying in a path to glory upward is within the power of the Holy Spirit within you ut you have to keep on pedaling or you will slide back.

If you don’t move forward to His Kingdom you will be lost to this world. The kingdoms of this world are temporarily in the hands of Satan. How do I know this? The devil offered them all to Jesus if He would just worship him. Satan could not have offered what wasn’t his.

So “Sound the Alarm” and warn everyone within your hearing to study the Word as though their lives depended on it. Salvation is the proof of believers that are planted in the good soil of the gospel. The evidence of a true confessing of faith is the service to the Lord. When the cause is God and the effect is godliness which is fueled by the compassion that can only come from His broken heart for a broken people reaching our for mercy only He can extend.

Yes there is suffering but it is only for a season. Lose hands are the devils workshop so remember that the holy hands are attached the living temple of your body and they must be about that work of the Father or lifted up to Him in praise and worship.

Satan will surround you with every amusement he can get his hands on to distract you and to turn your eyes and attention outward instead of upward. Your powerful prayers and petitions then wilt away to small talk and worldliness that forgets that the Lord is near!

SO NEAR

By Rick Mathes

James 4:8 (NASB77) ⁸ Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

The closer you are to Jesus the closer you are to heaven and all it’s glory. To know Him is to love Him and as you learn His Word you draw nearer and nearer until you are consumed by Him. There is no choice but to praise Him with prayers that don’t ask anything of Him. Try it. It’s not easy to pray without wanting Him to give or do something for you. This worship in spirit and truth will increase your fellowship with Him and His. Soon you will see those like you, His church through His eyes.

Sinning against a Holy God is truly a fall from grace. For His reasons, He will withhold His hand and allow Satan and his demons to have a go at you. You brought this on yourself as a dereliction of your duty to serve the King of the Universe not the king of darkness and destruction.

So what is true salvation made of: what set’s the captives free?

• Regeneration
• Reformation
• Revival
• Revolution

It’s all a matter of untangling the bad from the good. In order to do that we need to learn which is which and the Bible is the only place with God’s answers to our questions.

As you read the Word you really will sense an emancipation of evil and a covenant of grace. The words will truly come alive and leap off the pages at you.

You will experience an unshackling so to speak. You won’t be cuffed to the devil anymore! The knowledge of the Lord will give you understanding and the wisdom that supernaturally follows.

Unleashed! The great escape from Satan’s mansion is before you. The Lord’s gate is opened and inviting you to cross over from death to life. Welcome to the Kingdom of God!

SIN

By Rick Mathes

Romans 6:11 Even so consider your selves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Sin remains an outlaw. It’s field of battle is the body. The devil knows that to get to your soul he must go through your mind and heart, intellect and feelings to get there. It’s your eyes that are the entry level to acting out sin. Looking at a temptation is not the main issue because temptations are everywhere you go or look. It’s lingering on the sin that deadens your resistance taste it.  Once you taste of that sin, it is sweet and you want more and more until it owns you. Then you become too proud to admit the devil has you in his fiery clutches and you are slowly being lowered into that endless abyss of flames.

Sin is a plotter. It wants hunger, thirst and pain and it will do anything to destroy your comfort zone. Our strongest desires while we inhabit Satan’s camp are to strengthen our resistance to repentance by lies, deceit and denials. We seek out others of like kind to enjoy our gorging onf sin at the banquet of decadence.

Sin remains an enemy. It craves over-indulgence in the sinful pleasures that will consume your thoughts and deaden your feelings. The devil will put a mask on to be your best friend. His lies and deceits will be dripping in honey. Believe me, he is only offering a pile of horse manure with frosting on it. Gag!

Sin remains a tyrant. It’s pleasures will eat your flesh, spit out the bones and abandon you to your reward of smoldering embers and flaming souls screaming in excruciating pain and agony without end or any relief! Don’t be fooled. Satan can counterfeit all good things and package them to be very desirable. Everything in your humanity will be drawn to look, taste and be hooked on sin. When you play with a rattle snake, eventually you will be fatally bitten. Pretend that you are soaked in lighter fluid and be reminded to not play with a lit match!

Sin is the venom of the original serpent from the Garden of Eden. His methods have not changed. He will sink his poisonous fangs into you if you just give him a chance and turn your back on the Cross for only a moment. God cannot help you if you do! You will sin.

A Simmering Volcano

By Rick Mathes

America is in an epidemic of crime that is sweeping the inner-cities and plying on the young minorities to “join the family.” In St. Louis as well as in other major cities the majority of children are born to fatherless homes and ironically most black men killed are murdered by black men. And our prisons are disproportionately populated by a black population. And now the nation of Islam is sweeping up those that our educational system and racial prejudices have left behind. How can anyone be surprised that minority retribution is cloaking itself within the blessings of Allah? Dumbing-down is backfiring! Financed by the white suburban addicts buying up all the “white” heroin and meth anyone can produce, these home grown terrorists are raping and pillaging their own neighborhoods as gang after gang hook up with radical Muslims that will not denounce their evil intentions. The silence of the American Muslim community is deafening.

Is anyone awake? The volcano is about to explode. Prisons are a breeding ground for those who have found violence, crime and drug dealing as a way out of the ghetto. When an inmate is released to society he returns to those “who will take care of him” and stands proudly as a parole that has “earned his stripes.” The young gangsters look up to him and all that he has learned while incarcerated by the “Department of Education.” (Or was that Department of Corrections?) The system doesn’t work and more of what doesn’t work, won’t work! It has been estimated that at the rate of “black flight” from St. Louis, by the year 2037 the last porch light will go out. The city will be desolate and the suburbs will be the new battle ground. That won’t happen but we can’t ignore those that are left behind and the fractured families that are at the mercy of the militant Muslims that make “Osama bin Laden” look like “Mr. Rogers.” American terrorists are finding their way into the Muslim community and masking their violence and crime with the blessings of Allah.

The Koran points the way to a “better society” that excludes those who don’t believe (infidels). So all those unbelievers are the enemy and the victory must go to Allah no matter what it takes or who it harms in the process. The fatal attraction is not in some far distant country, it is within the very soul of our major cities. Someone, someday will pen the “Rise and Fall of America” and maybe we have helped him write the final chapter with our tolerance of the silent Muslim community that may very well be a simmering volcano.

SILENT PARTNER

By Rick Mathes

John 14:26 (NASB77) ²⁶  “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remsembrance all that I said to you.

How humble can you get? The Father’s name is Jehovah, the Son’s name is Jesus but the Holy Spirit doesn’t have a name. He has titles and descriptions but no formal name; an amazing display of humility. His only function is to quicken Christ in us.

He stands in the place of Christ and temporarily fulfills the Lord’s offices until the second coming and the millennium of His government. Let’s just examine a few of the things the Holy Spirit does in our lives and on behalf of us that we barely give notice to or give Him credit for.

Instructor: We all know that the Logos is the Word of God but until the Holy Spirit brings understanding, it is just words with no instruction with power: inspirational but not life changing.

Advocate: At last we have someone to stand firm in our defense!

Comforter: There is no consolation from the cold lifeless arms or humanity. Now a believer has someone to turn to that is there for you.

Faithful: Time after time and time again people will turn against us if is to their advantage. Even supposed friends will sell us out if the return is worth the abandonment of even a life-long friendship.

Loving: I learned this from a loving Holy Spirit. This includes from time to time to lose the battle and with the war with love.

Wise: The Holy Spirit is Sophia (wisdom) personified in God’s Trinity.

Unwearied: The Holy Spirit never tires of accomplishing it’s task in you.

Active: God doesn’t rest and neither does the devil. So the Holy Spirit is on the scene and at war with Satan every day all day always.

Ever Present: There isn’t anywhere you can go and not have the Holy Spirit at your side. Sometimes when the going gets tough, you may feel alone and abandoned but take the Word’s promise, He is always with you with you without fail.

Successful: The Holy Spirit is not able to fail any more than light can yield to darkness. It is impossible for God the Father or God the Son to have God the Holy Spirit fail. Now that is all the assurance I need to know about my silent partner to trust Him completely.