Tag: God

WHY ME LORD?

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WHY ME LORD?

By Rick Mathes

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?

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.

TWO ARE ONE

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TWO ARE ONE?

By Rick Mathes

What is the best explanation you can come up with to explain the Trinity? The egg shell, the white and yellow yoke? I’m sure you can do better than that. Here’s a few I have read or heard about over the years. I’m sure there are more that you can add.

The Father is the lover, the Son is the loved and the Holy Spirit is the love between them.

The Father is the sun, the Son is the illumination and the Holy Spirit is the warmth between them.

How about ice, water and steam? (Really poor!)

Try light, heat and air that need each other to exist and cannot exist apart from each other?

My favorite is one times, one equals one.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the Triune Godhead is a concept we will never understand completely. All we can rely on is that the Trinity is clearly taught in the Word of God and the ancient Fathers, Puritans and Calvinists agree to this moment which leads me to think about man made in God’s image and likeness. Try this one on.

Man is also a trinity of mind, soul and spirit which I believe survives the physical death of the body and in the last days will be rejoined in the new eternal body we will enjoy in eternity. So I have been studying the Word now every day because I really believe we take our mind’s knowledge with us. I have focused all these years on the Word and Works of Christ. It is called Christology, the study of Christ.

This has led me to think about my marriage to Trish. The Word teaches that we are complete when the two of us become one in marriage and divorce is never an option except for a partners infidelity. Ummm! The two shall become one in the covenant of marriage.

He Word teaches that there won’t be marriage in heaven. I can’t help but hope and expect that my wife and I will be one soul in glory. It makes sense to me that the Trinity of God can be three, and the trinity of man can be three and the trinity of marriage can be two in one, surely the completeness of husband and wife in His image and likeness.

What God close in eternity for two to be enjoined as one in the covenant of marriage will certainly continue in heaven? Just wondering: won’t you join me in this happy thought?

POWER OR PROVISION

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POWER OR PROVISON

By Rick Mathes

It is very heartbreaking to see the sheep fooled and they destroyed so subtly by the ravenous wolves of the faith, speak it into existence charismatic movement. The greatest proponents of this works driven nonsense begin with Kenneth Hagen and now Joel Olsteen. Both are agents and work for Satan.

The ways of deceit are so subtle but the red flags are all around.

The most likely to be taken in by these snake-oil salesmen are those that are attracted to them because of the crowd they draw. That’s no surprise because the road to hell is a wide one. They are looking for the supernatural excitement of the original signs and wonders that faded out with Apostle John’s death. Drug users are very attracted to the music, lights, and often stage productions and laser shows before the star preacher (poacher) shows up!

To a man they are seeking earthly, materialistic benefits. God is just a great big jolly Santa Claus waiting for their requests, so eager to please them. The more they are blessed the more indifferent they become to true and holy worship. Chattering in tongues, gyrating in seizures, falling in the spirit and even holy clucking replaces prostration at the feet of a Holy God.

They all seek personal prosperity and that is the weak like in man that Satan seizes upon. Their relationship to God is measured by their limos mansions, jewelry and bank accounts. Everything on the outside but hollow and empty on the inside. All they are consumed with is, “What can God do for me,” instead of, “What can I do for God.” They are selfish instead of selfless.

Do you feel fulfilled in God? When you confess Jesus AS Lord, you have made your last selfish statement. Everything is Christ only to true believers.

Please make a special note: Satan is an expert at counterfeiting feelings. I almost wish I were Dr. Spock: pure logic. Feelings lie to you. Loving Jesus is not a feeling necessarily, but rather a decision. Feelings frequently follow but don’t trust them. There are a legion of demons all over America that make us promises and make us feel good for a season. But eventually the truth will prevail!

NO ESCAPE

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NO ESCAPE

By Rick Mathes

We are in a revolt against God: as a nation, as a civilization, as a church and personally. We are warring against heaven itself. Satan is our Lord because we are obeying him. Scary isn’t it? But it is the truth. We have been in rebellion with God since we left Eden and there is no sign tht we will be letting up.

Think about it. Man has renounced Divine Lordship. Even professing ministers hare rejecting the light of God’s Word and being consumer friendly with large music productions and stage shows instead of a solid sermon from God’s Word. This is a complete rejection of the purpose of the Holy Spirit to bring to our remembrance God’s Words and guide us through the deep knowledge of who Jesus is and what He did: the words and works of our Savior.

Church after church has turned a blind eye to adultery, active homosexuality, incest, child molesting and all responsibility to account for the sheep before the throne of God. The revenue of offerings cannot be disturbed because the costs go on for salaries and overhead expenses that must be met, no matter what. We must keep our doors open to everyone! A practical of choice made is to actually avoid messages that mention death, sin, or hell. You will never hear the words “believe and obey” ring from the pulpit of a church for fear of losing tithing membership! The church has totally ignored man’s last condition before the throne of judgment. We can’t be judgmental can we?

Why has Christianity degenerated to a helpless pool of wimps?

The answer is the unsaid escape plan man has of 3 ways to avoid God’s wrath. His first thought and probably yours is you won’t get caught. Somehow your plans to escape the detection of your sin will succeed to allow you to continue to sin freely undetected. You next consideration is that you can escape the jurisdiction of the sin by making life changes of where you live and the people you associate with. If that don’t work you will have to fall on the errors of our legal system and depend on your attorney to find a loophole in the system that lets you beat the charges. But when all this fails your only recourse is to escape!

The formidable difficulty is that none of this will get by the Paraclete and there in no escape from hell but for you to repent right now, this very moment!

The time will come when it will be too late. You must settle out of court of face the consequences, there is no escaping the truth.

MORE THAN A MAN

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MORE THAN A MAN

By Rick Mathes

Maximum security penitentiary leaps off the screen of a James Cagney movie with long metal catwalks and tier after tier of cages holding the incorrigibles locked down 23 hours a day. The level 5 security risks are separated into four geographical quadrants so that even a chow or shower-time, the gangs cannot assemble together. Divide and conquer is particularly applicable to this bizarre nation of murderers and mutilators doing life without parole sentences.

Once a month, at my evangelistic service, the chapel is the place where all the campus general population is restricted to a central and presumed contained location; the chapel! As over four hundred inmates began filing in by group sections, I was painfully apprehensive that two high-powered rifles were being directed at them by sharp-shooters from the safe position overhead and behind my back. They assembled into their respective gangs; Chicago, East St. Louis, gang-bangers, black Muslims, white Aryans and of course the Christians.

The Warden came up to me and he said that he anticipated an insurrection to take place because he was compelled to allow sixty trouble makers and effeminate homosexuals from Protective Custody to join us from the balcony overlooking the auditorium. These infidels could not even live their own kind! The bottom of the barrel.

The balcony began to fill as they flexed their muscles, sneered and could he heard cursing the name of Jesus. The crowd was growing anxious and I sensed the presence of Satan. I signaled the praise team to begin singing and I dropped to my knees in foreboding desperation of the danger I had led my devoted volunteers into. I cried out to the Lord and began rebuking Satan with all the faith that was in me. A hollowed hush fell over the chapel and through tear blurred eyes, I looked out over the assembly and witnessed a modern day miracle.

About two hundred Christian prisoners had turned their backs to me and were standing upright, in the midst of this living hell. They lifted their holy hands to the balcony and began praying out loud in the Spirit of the Lord. Those few minutes seemed like an eternity as I observed the Spirit of God rush through that demon possessed gallery of incorrigibles. Behold, fourteen notorious gang leaders rose to their feet and cried out to Jesus for salvation! With tears streaming down their faces, the overwhelmed gang members on the ground floor began to stand with their leaders to do the same and I had yet to deliver a word of my sermon to any of them. I cried out, “There is a God!”

The service then began and at the completion I gave an alter call. The alter was flooded with a sea of repentant sinners. I was sobbing too hard to even recite a sinner’s prayer, so I handed the microphone to the black Pastor assisting me. He too was helpless to say a word. So a prisoner doing a double life sentence plus 50 years led them to the throne of grace; the old rugged Cross.

When the service had concluded and the men were led out cell block by cell block, I gathered uou team for praise and prayers of thanksgiving. I later learned that 23 shanks (weapons) were left on the stage! Faith coupled with fervent prayer had prevailed.

 

PRESS ON!

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NO ESCAPE

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NO ESCAPE

By Rick Mathes

We are in a revolt against God: as a nation, as a civilization, as a church and personally. We are warring against heaven itself. Satan is our Lord because we are obeying him. Scary isn’t it? But it is the truth. We have been in rebellion with God since we left Eden and there is no sign tht we will be letting up.

Think about it. Man has renounced Divine Lordship. Even professing ministers hare rejecting the light of God’s Word and being consumer friendly with large music productions and stage shows instead of a solid sermon from God’s Word. This is a complete rejection of the purpose of the Holy Spirit to bring to our remembrance God’s Words and guide us through the deep knowledge of who Jesus is and what He did: the words and works of our Savior.

Church after church has turned a blind eye to adultery, active homosexuality, incest, child molesting and all responsibility to account for the sheep before the throne of God. The revenue of offerings cannot be disturbed because the costs go on for salaries and overhead expenses that must be met, no matter what. We must keep our doors open to everyone! A practical of choice made is to actually avoid messages that mention death, sin, or hell. You will never hear the words “believe and obey” ring from the pulpit of a church for fear of losing tithing membership! The church has totally ignored man’s last condition before the throne of judgment. We can’t be judgmental can we?

Why has Christianity degenerated to a helpless pool of wimps?

The answer is the unsaid escape plan man has of 3 ways to avoid God’s wrath. His first thought and probably yours is you won’t get caught. Somehow your plans to escape the detection of your sin will succeed to allow you to continue to sin freely undetected. You next consideration is that you can escape the jurisdiction of the sin by making life changes of where you live and the people you associate with. If that don’t work you will have to fall on the errors of our legal system and depend on your attorney to find a loophole in the system that lets you beat the charges. But when all this fails your only recourse is to escape!

The formidable difficulty is that none of this will get by the Paraclete and there in no escape from hell but for you to repent right now, this very moment!

The time will come when it will be too late. You must settle out of court of face the consequences, there is no escaping the truth.

PRESS ON!

http://www.RickMathes.net

http://www.RickMathes.org

HIS WILL

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HIS WILL

By Rick Mathes

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This statement of permission, compliance and execution. Our Lord gave us this model of prayer to guide us in His holy righteousness. It helps us to accept His will over ours, we are equipped to submit when our human nature rebels and it becomes a blessing to carry His will out and experience practical blessings. But what exactly is His will? How can we recognize it? How do we know it’s His will and not a deception from Satan?

It is God’s will that we be saved. You should thank God every day that He chose you because you never would have chosen Him. Apart from His Holy Spirit we are not able to not sin.

It is God’s will that we be Spirit-filled. He instructed His disciples to baptize in the Name (singular) of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. To be baptized again in the Holy Spirit is insulting to Jesus. You only need “one baptism” now. Remember He said, “It is finished!” No more revelations, “Thus saith the Lord” because He has said and done all He is going to do until we meet Him.

It is God’s will that we be sanctified. Every time you sin the devil writes your sin on a chalk-board in heaven for the Father to see and every time to repent the Holy Ghost goes over and erases it. The Father never even knows you committed even one little sin! Notice I said “repent” not “confess.” Confession is because you got caught an repentance is because you have offended AJesus and you are devastated for doing so.

It is God’s will that you be submissive. God so loved the world that He didn’t send a committee, He sent Jesus. When Jesus says, “stop cussing,” all He wants to hear from you is “Yes Sir!” period. Jesus doesn’t want to arm-wrestle with you and He won’t. He wants nothing less than your complete, immediate obedience and if you believe, you obey.

Now we get to the part the new modern preachers ignore completely:

It is God’s will that we suffer. Look at the Beatitudes in the Gospel of Matthew. The last one is persecution. How do we know that suffering is inevitable?

Jesus said with authority and very clearly, “No one comes to the Father but through Me.” This separates us from all the rest of the religions in the whole world! Roman Catholic, Muslim, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, etc. They all are going to burn in Hell if they don’t confess Jesus as their Lord. This includes your little old Aunt that wouldn’t kill and ant. She is hell-bound without Jesus: this is the urgency that you have to lead others to the throne of Grace. Remind her, that her sin killed God’s only Son!

PRESS ON!

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GROUND AND POUND

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 GROUND AND POUND

By Rick Mathes

Satan is a formidable opponent and is the champion of all unbelievers. He has won all his matches with those that train in the flaming camp of this world’s kingdom. Prejudice is his number one weapon for becoming the forerunner of many future victories: fools fall so easily for it stealth blow. It doesn’t matter if it sex, skin color, faith, natural origin, political sway or economic status. I can’t help but comment that the believers understand that we are all equally created in His image and likeness. Stripped of our bodies, we would all look identical to each other! If only those infested with sin specialties knew that only Jesus and His are beautiful just as they are.

These scavengers of sins garbage dump called earth will love sin over the Savior, selling Him out for “chump change.” The will consent to the beating they have taken from their life choices, pass blood and vomit the return of their investment: red eyes and throbbing headache it’s reward. How sad. And then they look for more sewer sludge to wallow in as darkness covers their deeds and the odor overwhelms their senses.

The Light I out and only darkness prevails on the inevitable downward slide to depression and walking dead. Despair washes over in an overwhelming tsunami of pain, hopelessness and suicide. I know; I’ve been there and I remember those dismal days of sobbing in tears that wouldn’t come anymore, a sinner plainly needing a Savior.

I still had to pick myself up one more time and sing, “I did it my way!” until the joke was on me: my way was death, insanity or incarceration. It became crazy to say that this was fun. I had few alternatives. I had to kill myself or surrender to the King. I was a coward to pull the trigger and end it all (make it all begin again in flames) so I chose the slow death of alcohol, drugs, sex and crime. Maybe you have been there also where death seemed to be the only solution.

Well, I learned that the undefeated champion of hell was “unbelief.’ God cannot save you from the devil’s assault of self-destruction if your name is unbelief. A thousand crucifixions of our Lord could not help you. Satan will make you tap out! Choosing the devil is one you will regret for many forever’s!

What “Plan B” is better than a risen Savior? Think, stupid before you make the wrong choice again!

PRESS ON!

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GOD’S DIRTY DOZEN

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GOD’S DIRTY DOZEN

By Rick Mathes

(Author of “Allah or Jesus”)

If I were to get to know those who know you best and ask them all the questions I could think of about you, I would get to know you very well, wouldn’t I? Well, then it stands to reason that if we get to know God’s best friends real well, we will get to know a whole lot about God, won’t we? Let’s then make some observations of those that he used, each in a mighty way. I call them, “God’s Dirty Dozen.”

First, we have Abraham. His parents were idolaters and I’m sure as a young man, you could see him with his Watch Tower Magazine under one arm and the Pearl of Great Price book under the other, being chauffeured in his stretch limo to the nearest name-it claim-it, go-go cult of carnal hustlers in the name of Allah. And yet, god used him to emerge as the father of the chosen nation.

Now we know that Joseph didn’t do it. Potipher’s wife knows he didn’t do it. God knows he didn’t do it. And we all know he didn’t do it. But when Joseph filled out the application to be Prime Minister of Egypt it read, “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” He was an ex-con with a record of being a sex offender and yet God used him in a mighty way.

Let’s also remember Moses. He looked both ways, killed the Egyptian with his bare hands and then had the audacity to dig a hole and bury him in broad daylight in front of witnesses. That is a classic, premeditated, first degree murder! If that happened today, he would be on death row awaiting execution. And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

And what about David? He didn’t have the guts to assassinate so he ordered a hit man to knock off Bathsheba’s husband so that they could keep their torrid love affair going. David should have had a jail cell next to Moses! And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

Do you really think the Priestess Rahab went around the temple genuflecting and lighting holy candles? Of course not! She was a temple prostitute that sold her body for dirty money just like any two-bit trash on the waterfront. And yet, God used her in a mighty way.

“If the children turn out bad, it must mean that the parents weren’t any good!” It ain’t necessarily so. There aren’t any fathers that raised their sons worse than Eli and Samuel and yet God used them both in a mighty way.

And have you ever heard the saying, “When the going gets tough, the touch get going?” Some Christians have turned tail and ran when the Lord needed them the most. Just like Mark did, so quickly that he left his clothing in the clutches of a cop and escaped naked.! And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

Can you imagine saying, “No, dammit! I have never known this criminal named Jesus!” God forbid, it would never leave my lips even in the torment of torture. But with the gentle pressure of a teenage servant girl, Peter the Rock, turned into a little pebble when he denied the Lord quicker than a New York heartbeat, not once but three times within a couple of hours. His eyes met those to his Lord and he realized the shallowness of his commitment. And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

I am blessed that Paul did not divulge to us the gruesome particulars of all the atrocities he inflicted on blameless Christians or I would be less given to read and study his Epistles. I suspect that I might forgive him but I would not forget. The captivity, injustice and even annihilation of these gentle souls might possibly raise a doubt about Paul’s conversion experience. Was he beyond being saved? And yet, God used him in a mighty way.

If you have been counting, that’s just ten. Including you and I, it makes an even dozen. My life was so depraved that I cursed God, shook my fist at heaven and demanded that if He existed, to kill me to end the nightmare I was living.

He saved me that night and I have been sharing the Gospel in jails and prisons ever since.

What about you?

MissionGteMinistry@msn.com

www.MissionGateMinistry.org

PRESS ON!

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