Tag: hell

REJOICE

By Rick Mathes

Philippians 4:4 (NASB77) ⁴   Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

If you are having a bad day it’s because you are only into you and you’d better have it your way or else! The reality of our born again experience is exactly the opposite. When you are a true Christian, the rest of your life is in fact none of your business. Jesus will do what He wants with your life, what He wants to do, where He wants to, if He wants to, if He feels like it, period. So if He is the hand and you are the glove, He’s doing with you everything He needs to do to accomplish His wishes. If He is always having His way with you everything is a cause to rejoice!

Everything that happens then with your surrendered life has a delightful blessing attached even if you are being persecuted. All things happen for His glory for and by those who are His. So lighen up when the clouds grow dark and remember from the KJV, “It came to pass.” Rejoice that yu can evidence Christ at all thimes.

Your response to world events is demonstrative of what you are made of. Of course I predicate this on the fact that you walk His talk. You might be the only Bible any unbeliever will ever see. Who you are in your lifestyle speaks volumes. I would rather see your sermon than hear it.

When His Spirit is upon us it is a very stimulating experience. We are activated and in an operational mode: alive to Him. Our minds and bodies leave our levels of mediocrity and reach beyond our reach to His level of Excellency.

Others will seek you out because you have become so influential. Your joyfulness is contagious and others will catch your smile and it will go a mile. Here Paul was in a jail cell and he was having a Holy Ghost revival over all the churches he planted were prospering.

Joy begets joy and heart to heart it continues like ripples on the water. It’s not an option to rejoice it is commanded. Paul didn’t ask us He told us that we must open our spiritual eyes to our Lord’s purposes. So don’t go around singing, “I did it my way,” when He did it all His way. Rejoice because His way prevailed, not yours.

REJECTED SON

By Rick Mathes

John 1:11

He came unto his own, and they that were his own received him not.

Lonely is a hollow place, a hole in time, that someone who has been lost in the abyss can speak of; the dark, scary chord that changes the dancing spirit to a cold and lifeless stone. Well, The Rock condescended to His creation and caused quite a stir: the turmoil has lasted to this day. The darkness hates the light and Satan and his demons went into a frenzy of insanity upon the arrival of a baby in Bethlehem. They made a flaming covenant between them to kill destroy, annihilate and obliterate every last speck of Him. Satan would kill God’s Son and be like God, a permanent King of all the principalities of heaven and earth!

We know, of course, what happened. Jesus died for our sins, resurrected from the dead and ascended to be seated at the Father’s right hand. Jesus is the King of Kings of heaven, earth and below but Satan isn’t giving up until Jesus says “It is done.” But the world still doesn’t recognize or accept Him. How sad.

We’ve all but run God out of America. Every principle of our Constitution and rule in the 10 Commandments is being trampled and disregarded. My father gave his life in WWII for both and all I have is his purple heart and the flag that draped his casket.

Even our own community schools, hospitals and businesses forbid Bibles or prayer. You can hear at any coffee gathering “god dammit” but if you even say “God bless you” you are reprimanded immediately.

Our friends about us reflect the cultural cancer and infection of sin the devil is a master at advertising, marketing and providing. There isn’t a place to look that you can avoid the enticements of Hell and one by one our friends look, taste, touch and enjoy the counterfeit pleasures of the wide road that says, “This Way to Heaven!”

Moe close to home is our fractured families where mom and dad work all week and fight on the weekends. Toys, internet and gadgets have filled the gap with anything that will distract us from virtue, integrity and character.

This cavalcade of dominos folding on each other only takes the first push by the carnal church. The world has invaded and conquered the church to make entertainment centers out of them. Demons clutch most pulpits and sinful and unrepentant members never hear the words repent, submit and obey. The blood of Jesus has been squeezed out of the Word and all that is left is Kentucky Fried Christianity. Oh, how I hurt for Him!

REGENERATION

By Rick Mathes

2 Timothy 3:5 (NASB77) ⁵  holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.

New wine will burst an old wine-skin. Your heart, mind and spirit cannot be repaired by your efforts. You know this because you have tried, tried, and tried again to reform and you have and always will fail. You need a new heart, mind and spirit that only the Holy Spirit in you is a greater miracle than the creation of the universe.

This transaction is what I call a unilateral agreement. God changed your life and you had nothing to do with it. Like metal seeking out and being drawn to a magnet you were irresistibly called to your own exclusive born again experience. It is of Divine origin. You did nothing nor could you do anything to be saved. Jesus did it all on the Cross when He chose you. You can wiggle like a worm on a hook but when Jesus wants you, He will have you: period!

Having His Holy Spirit gives you a spiritual vision which is essential to the process of sanctification: the pursuit of holiness. To be holy you must be wholly His and the only way that’s going to happen is to see with His eyes because your own won’t do.

You are a new creation. Satan ruined the old you and Jesus took the devil’s trash and turned it into His treasure. You are literally a “diamond in a coal mine.” What a rarity you are! Your gack bone is the Bible only, Jesus only, Grace only and Faith only. On the surface, that’s seems clear enough  but Satan is a slick old devil and he will twist and turn the word of God for any loophole he can find by inventing one whenever he has to. He doesn’t cae if you are determined to be born again, repent, get baptized or even become a Christian minister, just don’t do it today!

The Word of God is the devil’s arch-enemy. “It is written” is the sword that will slay the dragon. The “Whore of Babylon” will neer be enticing to you to sin as long as your nose is in the Bible. You obtain the born-again regeneration by faith only. That means, He said it, I believe it and that settles it!

 

RECEIVED HIM

By Rick Mathes

Colossians 2:6 (NASB77) ⁶  As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

“Jesus IS Lord” is intellectual ascent. “Jesus AS Lord” is lordship salvation. “Is Lord” is a fit with the. book Evidence Deserves a Verdict by Josh McDowell. “AS Lord” is explained in The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur Jr. Satan can say Jesus is Lord but he can’t confess Jesus as Lord. Thus he’s not saved and neither are you until you receive Him AS your Lord.

When you seek things from above your eyes and expectations are up not down an out like Satan would like you have you, you build your treasure with Him and He showers you with gifts so that you might forbear one another with a love that surpasses understanding.

It starts with forgiveness. You ask Jesus to forgive your sins, He dies you receive it and then become a forgiver. You know we must forgive each other when we are in Him. This is what He would do In fact we are to do all things in His name. The “what would Jesus do” test is perfect for us to measure our actions. This will level the ground at the foot of that cross so that His peace may rule.

No more war-making! WE are to watch His will unfold around us and give thanksgiving. WE have great cause to do this because we know what we really deserve. By His grace He is saved and by our faith we are sustained.

With Him we can walk with wisdom and reasoning because we have sunk our mind, hear and soul deeply into the Word of God. If you can’t walk your talk then shut up! There is nothing more disgraceful but for a professing saint to live like a sinner. How can you sing praises in church and then MF everything when you leave? Let the Holy Spirit guide your paths to quiet waters. Don’t destine yourself to the lake of fire.

Once He is in you and are in Him you are obligated to redeem the time. Subtract your age from 70 and that is what you can count on to live as a bow on your package before the Lord. Put off the old man and put on the new man! I for one don’t hang out with me anymore. It’s all about Him.

RECEIVE

By Rick Mathes

1 Timothy 1:15 is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

What are the main highlights of God becoming man in the form of Jesus? When I first became a Christian, I didn’t trust the Apostles so I just read the red parts, the words quoted of Jesus Christ. It takes about three hours to read them all at a normal reading speed. Just think, three hours of preaching and 2,000 years later we are still blown away by His Gospel!

When our spirit received His Spirit we have Jesus as our Savior and Lord. I mean that He is in your head and your heart. He has invaded your intelligence and your obedience. You are under new management.

The initial proof of this conversion is your burning desire to confess Christ to others. The Word becomes a fire in your veins and you cannot shut up! I wanted to stop cars on the highway and pass out bible tracts. Now is the time to get a hold of a Paul to learn and a Timothy to pass it on to.

Christianity is infectious. The contagion draws us together like metal to a magnet. We need to be together and we know that iron sharpens iron. Joining a Bible believing church the Apostles would attend is a must. Notice what I said, “that the Apostles would attend.” The Primitive Church wasn’t into bells, whistles and show-time. They came together in one accord on the first day of the week, sang, made oaths, prayed, heard a sermon, went home and returned for a banquet and baptisms.

The maintenance program is simply to read and study the Word. The Holy Spirit stands ready to teach you and make the Words come alive to your understanding and application. This necessitates a prayer time when you can commune with the Lord. I have often mused that Jesus created us because He wanted our fellowship. In part this is true because our Daddy wants to hear from us in prayer. We please Him with our conversation as my little daughter Karlita blessed me with her baby words.

Now it’s time to walk your talk. We need to put the Word into practice. Go from Jesus IS Lord to Jesus AS Lord. You will be growing from justification to sanctification. This means you went from intellectual ascent to Lordship salvation. Receive the blessing.

REASONS TO PRAY

By Rick Mathes

Luke 11:1 And it came about that while He was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.”

Before I surrendered to Christ you literally would have to break my legs for me to kneel to anything or anyone. Now I look for excuses to pray and I openly plead with others to join me.

It all begins at the altar of worship. I’m not talking about the entertainment shows I call Kentucky Fried Christianity. I’m talking about those quiet moments when you are all alone and you are overcome by our Creator Redeemer who even had the mind and genius to paint our sky blue and the earth green with foliage. I owe my very heartbeat to His grace and mercy and have every reason to prostrate myself before Him and worship His holy name and Triune Being.

This joyful praise is really an open confession of our freedom from the clutches of the devil. Truly you are Satan’s trash that has been converted to our Lord’s treasure.

What did John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, and Paul preach in their first sermon? That’s right! Repentance! Sin killed our precious Jesus. Before you were saved you were not “able to not sin.” Since you received the Holy Spirit, you are now “able to not sin.” The sin you have is the sin you want because if you didn’t want the sin more than you do want the sin, you wouldn’t have it. Duhhh!

Faith is the pipe that His saving grace flows through. It’s like we have an umbilical cord from us attached to Him for His living Word to feed us. It’s all a matter of our prayer making intercession with Him. This special communion escapes words as does the experience of love or contentment.

The bottom line is like a child and his father. We are encouraged to bring our requests before Him. He is a loving “Daddy” that has His arms open wide to receive you and all your baggage. He is always available to take time with you and never tires of blessing His children of the promise that bend their knee to Him.

REALLY

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 13:38 and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;

Can you even imagine willfully turning your back on Jesus and facing another “higher power” instead? There would result in no spiritual leader because none are even worthy to stand in His shadow. Who has ever claimed they were God and raised themselves from the dead? Only our Lord told the Jews and the Arabs, “Before Abraham was, I AM!” Evil associations fill the vacuum left when you show Jesus the door.

I wish we had magic eye glasses that when worn would reveal to us the flaming demons that have infiltrated the body of saints. I’ll bet it would be a very terrifying experience that truthfully I thank God I have been spared all these years. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look around at your friends and associates to know immediately who they belong to: Jesus or Father Lucifer. Don’t try to bluff me, you know if your friend and those you hang out with are godly or not.

When you forsake the Lord for worldly success your morals flee to the shallow end of the pool. Ankle deep in integrity, morals and character will only lead you to the wide road that says, “This way to Heaven!” Your spiritually shallow soul evaporates into an empty dry life of self-imposed agony. You have become a dead man looking for a place to be buried. And it all came about because you left the Lord because of your lack of spiritual insight. You just wouldn’t do any spiritual weight-lifting.

Your selfish absorption of self has left you a broken shell of the man of God you were created to be: all because you wouldn’t lay down your life for Him and live. This religious indifference came about because of the carnage of broken crosses Satan has caused on his quest to be like God. He has fallen from grace and is unfit for the Lord’s Kingdom. His goal is for you to join him and his fallen angels and be unfit also. He does this by luring you into bondage of corruption.

Make no mistake that there is a Divine displeasure with those who won’t give up their lives for Him. The loss of spiritual enthusiasm is my personal heart-break. What passes for churches is nothing more than synagogues of Satan. So all I can do it get out my sword and declare to you to die so that you might live. Be born again and make this moment the first of the rest of your life in Him.

 

REAL THING

By Rick Mathes

Philemon 1:1-3 (NASB77) ¹   Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved brother and fellow worker, ²  and to Apphia our sister, and to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: ³   Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every time any disciple or prophet came into the presence of God, their face would hit the ground and they would tremble in reverent fear. Why? He knows all the evil that lurks in us and yet passes for church in this post-modern world. It is nothing but Kentucky Fried Christianity! If Paul were to come to life and attend our churches, most would make him vomit in the carnal hypocrisy. Let me outline to you the simplicity of what the church service should be according to the Word of God and practice of the Apostolic Church.

First of all “church” means “called out ones” or believers only. Oh there will certainly be tares mixed in with the wheat, that’s unavoidable but the heart of the service must focus on the sermon which is exclusively crafted and delivered to the elect. Don’t worry. There are plenty of special revival services for the evangelists to do but this message I am focusing on is what home churches were and should be again in memory of Philemon, Lydia, Priscilla and the rest.

It begins by converting the elect to the awakening that they are born again and saved. 5 of the His chosen come to church like metal to a magnet and the message from the pulpit is almost 100% of the reason we gather together in the first place. The message is the centerpiece of the worship experience and should never be second to anything. To awaked the predestined and to feed the believers should be the uncut Word of God, only from the breath of the Holy Spirit.

We worship His holiness and marvel at the blessings of the Cross. We are saved, forgiven and heaven bound. But if we believe we must then obey. A Savior without Lordship is a fraud and boy is the devil good and counterfeiting carnal Christians. The pillars of the original church are Bible only, Jesus only, Faith only and Grace only.

God inhabits His praises so we sing and let our voices ring our joy to the highest heavens which is akin to prayer. He knows everything about us but He loves to hear our voices like a little child to his daddy. Inevitably we have a fellowship of love and the study of His Word to hear, listen, learn, apply and evaluate. We need to return to the home churched or the post-modern culture will bury us in apostasy.

 

REAL CHURCH

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.

The Primitive Church of the first century was a spiritual emergency room. It was a hospital of healing that was explosive of healing: the dead got up and walked! The Holy Spirit exercised some spectacular signs and wonders to validate the reality of the sacrifice in Christ and His followers. Once established, the signs and wonders diminished as the power of God’s Word became more established and publicized. There isn’t any corner of this planet that doesn’t’ have access to God’s love letter to us, His children of the promise.

The real church has broken people that are in need of a healing. It’s by faith that they seek out the Great Physician because His reputation precedes Him. He even accomplished the ultimate healing or raising the dead to life. But it is not just physical but also emotional healing. Let’s face it, we just want to be loved unconditionally.

You will find dependent people in the Lord’s Church that were born again to depend on Him. We tried our mother and father and grandparents and the rest of our earthly family to be our caretakers and there weren’t any takers. It’s really every man for himself as we pass through the turn-style, one at a time, and hacve our day before the Lord alone.

If you are looking for the perfect people and the perfect church and find it, don’t joint and wreck it with your imperfections. Seriously, it doesn’t exist. You may find teachable people but not perfect people. I may not be the man in Christ I should be but praise the Lord, I am not the man I used to be.

Oh, we are a forgetful people but thanks be to God the Holy Spirit is our friendly reminder to pray, do our devotions, attend church, repent and love one another. We may be very   troubled from time to time but we are always reminded that the foot of the cross is level ground for everyone from kings to pauper.

But in a word, most churches that are really His are filled with those who have been lost. It is here that they learn that He is the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but through Him. He is the only real Church.

R.I.P.

By Rick Mathes

Colossians 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

We didn’t as believers realize we were dead and hell-bound until we died: died to sin that is. Our world turned upside down as we stepped away from the old life and began walking the exciting adventure of the new life that lay ahead of us. I visualize my life as walking down the main street of the Lord’s Disneyland with one place after another of fun evangelism and ministering. Life began and continues to be going from one joyful experience to another in the endless narrow road to heaven and holiness. It was like I stepped out onto a different planet when I turned my back on my old employer, the devil and signed up to be a soldier in the Lord’s army.

Adam was the first-created of the flesh and Jesus was the first-born of the Spirit. The first Adam gave us death and the second Adam gave us life: a resurrected life. I love the metamorphosis of a caterpillar as it turns into a butterfly. It proves that the ugly old self that crawled in the dust could rise to a new level of beauty in the blue skies and beyond.

When you exceed your level of worldly incompetence and rise to His level of excellence, you are elevated to new heights that can make your head spin in His glorious wonders. The protection of being His shatters the bars of the iron cage and breaks the steel cuffs. The captives are set free and protected by the Cross of Christ.

Get off your throne. You are not your own god. Now you are Christ-centered and all within and around you are filtered through Him. You died so that you may finally live in His image and likeness as you were created to be in the first place. It’s this hope that keeps you focused on your life ahead of you and beyond. I love to vacation with my wife and it is especially memorable to me because I have stepped away from alcohol and drugs. My lives now has moved from black and white snapshots of shameful memories to a future in widescreen color and surround sound.

There was a dark side in my life where it seemed death would be my only relief: death to the flesh. I never suspected that the death He had in mind for me was death to the world so that I might rise in the Spirit of His life.