Tag: devoctional

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.

BEFORE THE DAWN

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BEFORE THE DAWN

By Rick Mathes 

John 3:36 (NASB77) 36 “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

The world is a howling wilderness to those who go recklessly through it, stumbling in their self-made darkness: world gone mad. They have no concept of the consequences of their random and unleashed actions of sinful aggressions. It becomes a merry-go-round of evil, careening before them with a forever of no beginnings or ends of cowardly suicide of integrity and character.

Another night of lurking fear as the streets darken and the shadows flee the sundown and beams of thinning traffic headlights: loneliness no human should ever be asked to endure. Road-rage and taunt nerves cause tempers to flare and fights to spontaneously ignite. The irresistible lure of the taverns and relief of liquid levity is only one swallow away: the devil knows. “Pass that joint my way, bro.” The shakes from last night still linger. I can’t believe there is another day when I prayed last night would be my last: a dog returning to his vomit.

My sorrow is overwhelming me when I revue those shadows that follow me. Skinned knuckles, bloody mouth, vomit and shame: night after night: Can I ever be truly sorry for living the same horrors day after day, after day, after day?

The shroud of death, coffin and hearse are lined up and prepared for my demise: my enemies would rejoice. “Oh look, there’s a big Mack truck!” It’s coming my way and all I need is a sharp turn to the left and this nightmare would end and who would care: no one? They can hold my funeral in a phone booth.

Some would fake tears and regrets but the day would dawn and if the truth be said, my passing into oblivion of the abyss would be secretly celebrated. What hope is there for me for you for that matter?

If ever there was a time for the Holy Spirit to breathe His life into me once again it is now and I pray that it will be for you also! Suck it up and drink it in deeply right now as you read this.

I need the right loving spirit to give me a Son-rise (sunrise) in my soul that will quench my prideful and hardened heart. I don’t even know what “humble” is so I cry out to You Lord, “I can’t!” and I can hear the heavens echo your response, “I CAN!”

I come to your Cross and beg forgiveness and as your Word promises, you forgive me with your atoning blood. Help me to accept it and put the past behind. It keeps rearing its ugliness to destroy the flickering joy within me. I receive the forgiveness and pledge to become a forgiver, forever.

The dawn has come to light and the night drifts slowly into the horizon of defeat. It has not power over the Light of the Word, the only Son of God, and my Savior!

BAIT AND SWITCH

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BAIT AND SWITCH

By Rick Mathes

Acts 20:28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

The sheep or our post-Christian era are being sheared by false shepherds that only care about themselves. I have attended enough Baptist minister breakfasts to know that the main topic of their passion is not baptizing new believers. I spoke at a Baptist pastor’s conference and scolded them. I said that they had fifty ministers in the room and collectively hadn’t had fifty baptisms in the last ten years. I even preached on, “Is Judas still treasurer of your church?” Needless to say, they gave me their left hand of friendship and turned their backs on me ever since.

I’ve had it with demons in the pulpit preaching another Christ. They have exchanged the Word of God for the words of men! Emperor Constantine began the smoldering sacraments and rituals of Father Satan and the Roman Catholic Church, cults and the carnal Protestant churches have continued the apostasy. It’s called religion. My unsaved, hell-bound half-brother once said, “All our world’s problems can be traced back to their origin in religion!” He was dead-on right.

Religion is man’s best effort to reach God, faults aplenty. Christianity is Christ’s faultless efforts to reach man. Believers reach back because we are made in His image and likeness. When someone insists on evolution I respond, “If you think your great, great, great grandfather was a monkey, I am inclined to agree with you.” So much depends on you believing that, “In the beginning was the Word, etc.”

Religion provides a manmade Poe or some other such officer that bloats with pomp, power and becomes a despot seeped in tyranny. We are misguided from faith to presumption and that we worship the creature instead of the Creator. It becomes a satanic cult community.

Christianity does not separate and isolate it’s followers. It unifies them in superior splendor far above the hell bound fallen angels. The true salvation of faith and fear can overwhelm trust Christianity has been marketed by bait and switch con-men. They will attract you with enough plausible truth to disguise the lies that are to follow.

BARNEY THE BEAR

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BARNEY THE BEAR

By Rick Mathes

Many years ago the City Council of a large metropolitan city was researching diverse options that would stretch out a hand of brotherhood to the impoverished shanty town across the railroad tracks. They were seeking some benevolent gesture they could make that would give them positive public relations.

One day a Councilman spoke up and suggested, “Let’s help them start a free public zoo. Everyone loves animals!” The proposal was passed unanimously and it was voted to donated a cub bear to begin it with.

A ten by thirty foot cage was constructed and a cub named “Barney” was delivered to a neighborhood that had much crime and brutality. And the people responded by being mean and heartless as their displaced aggression took focus on Barney.

They would poke fun at Barney and flick lit cigarettes at him. He growled his first mean growl, snarled his teeth and paced six steps to the right, and then six steps to the left. Months dragged by and Barney began growing larger and meaner. The town’s hoodlums had already set him on fire twice and some men kids had poked out one of his eyes. He was a prisoner in a cage. They were doing horrendous things to him. He couldn’t escape his captivity. Barney was the victim of society and totally at their mercy. He didn’t know hatred, distress or brutality until it was inflicted upon him.

So, he paced six steps to the right and then six steps to the left, growled and then paced six steps to the right, and the six steps to the left, then six steps ….. He was incarcerated with no means of escape. No future. No hope. No one who cared!

One day an anonymous phone call to the city’s news-desk alerted a reported of the atrocities big, mean and ugly Barney was suffering. Intolerable! The feature story was run front page and the public was outraged that someone had fed him meat mixed with ground glass! Unanimously they decided to rescue Barney and transport him to their multi-million dollar zoo that had acres for bears and the tender loving care of dedicated attendants.

The truck was dispatched and the cage with Barney in it was brought back to the City Zoo and lowered down into an absolute dream come true, “Bear Heaven.” It had everything and anything a bear could ever dream of. Rolling hills, cold, clear streams, spring fed lakes teaming with delicious fish and the companionship of loving, bear hugging and joyful fellow bears welcoming their new friend Barney.

All this attention had made Barney fearful and angry as he paced the only home he had ever known; six paces to the right, and six paces to the left, then six paces to the …..

Very carefully, they slid up and opened the gate to his life-long prison of bars. Open at last! His way of escape was finally staring him right in the face! He nervously stuck his head out and looked over the breathtaking beauty of the new life that was open to him. And guess what he did? You guessed it; six paces to the right, then six paces to the left, and …. He wouldn’t take that first step to freedom.

Perplexed, the attendants hurried off to prepare the most delectable and delicious bear food that money could buy and a chef could prepare. This banquet was laid out before him just outside the gate to his cage. All he had ever eaten was foul garbage. The irresistible aroma filled the air as he lifted his snout, sniffed and salivated in extreme hunger. His eyes scanned the full array of any delicacy a starving bear could ever imagine. Guess what he did? You guessed it; he paced six steps to the right, then six steps to the left, and then…. He still would not be enticed to leave his old life behind.

Freedom was staring him right in the face. The gate was wide open but he stubbornly refused to leave the life he had led. He was hardened and institutionalized; an incorrigible that just knew society would reject him. There just had to be a catch. A whole banquet of life giving food lay before him and yet he rejected even the multitude who had eaten the same food and had been nourished and saved.

Night had fallen and the City Zoo attendants knew that desperate measures had to be taken. They knew that this new home was Barney’s only salvation so they risked their relationship with him and determined that they must use a confrontational means of reaching him. So they found a torch and set it aflame! Poking it into the cage and threatening Barney with consuming fire was all it took. He felt the approaching flames and bolted through the one and only gate of salvation! Terrified but free of his prison at last!

Even though the banquet of the Word is laid before criminals, it sometimes takes fire and brimstone to bring them to the foot of the Cross.