Tag: hell

 

THE SWORD

By Rick Mathes

Ephesians 6:17 (NASB77) ¹⁷ And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

What is it about the Word of God that equates it to the sword of the Spirit? We’ve always been taught that a sword is a weapon for combat and our enemy si not out there in the world, the battle is within us so we need a weapon that will combat our most inner places the enemy can found.

When you are torn down to basically nothing, that’s when the Word of God will build you up. When your knees are weak and your countenance is trembling, and then is the time to put on the armor, lift up your sword and let the Holy Spirit go to battle on your behalf. Heed these words that were breathed by God into the spirit of those who wrote for Him. He will never let you fall so low that He cannot lift you up and restore you to carry the flame of your salvation.

The fruit of the effort is obvious as it orders your steps to walk as Jesus would, not as earthly sons of the devil with his smoldering footprints. So it is our responsibility to heed it, to know it in our heads because when, an actual Bible may not be handy.

Once the guidance of His words is ingested, so to speak, they need to be digested; that is it needs to be stowed in our hearts. The effect is a rush of joy unspeakable and we have a strong desire to immerse ourselves in its wisdom.

By preaching the Word, its reverse effect is that we will desire it passionately and displaying its truth in our lives. So strengthened we can give hope to others and sow it in the world.

The light of His countenance illuminates a life to live by becoming easier to understand. It’s practical value lies in our using it’s wisdom in the strength of His resurrection. God’s will becomes clearer as we suffer for it. This persecution, which is sure to follow, is our yardstick and abandonment in Him.

The closer we get to Jesus and the more His words become ours, the better we will perform in battle. The Word convicts, converts, cleans, cures, confirms and consecrates our body, mind and soul for the constant battle within us and the one yet to come.

THE MINISTER

By Rick Mathes

Colossians 1:25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,

May we as minister love, trust and worship Jesus. This can be a difficult task to accomplish. I can speak for me that I fall short in all three of these critical categories of our ordained duties. There is expectancy on a minister’s life and discharge of responsibilities toward his sheep.

The main issue for God’s spokesman is to reflect Christ; to be a little Jesus clothed in our skin. He certainly cannot be the light because it matters not how brightly the sun shines among blind men. He is through charged with illuminating, blossoming and planting  the seed of election and predestination.

On the whole we sheep have a very anemic announcement of God. Our shepherd must impart understanding of the Word to us. We need to have a clear interpretation of God Words. What has the Father disclosed to us and what obedience to His commands does he expect. Most pastors as I have mentioned, forth-tell or rather blossom the Word exegetically. I parse a verse, light the flame and let it explode to manifest God’s glory. Scriptural interpretations and understanding is an enormous flash-bang that quickens the Holy Spirit and imparts life to that breeze that God first breathed into my wings.

His glory is manifest in pointing to our Savior with instruction, prophesy, and inspiration. This enables us to step into the pulpit with much determination and patience. Proclaiming the name of Jesus is our centerpiece of calling and anchor of our faith. We need to reach into their gut, grab his heart and point to Jesus.

C.H. Spurgeon suggests that we relax, disturb and relieve our audience with the God-breathed message of salvation. Our great short coming is that in our acknowledgment of God we must live our lives on God, live with Him and rely on no one else. Once this step is taken, there is a turning back to basics. We must press on!

THE MESSAGE

By Rick Mathes

Romans 10:13 (NASB77) ¹³  for ” WHOEVER WILL CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

What is the message of salvation?

William Grede: “Freedom as we understand it in America is not an economic discovery. It is not even a political discovery. Freedom in the last analysis is a religious discovery.”

We believers are saved and free of the culpability, complicity and fault of guilt the moment we put our face in the mud, the blood and the tears at the foot of the Cross and cry out, “Lord save me!” Our fall from grace, lapse and errors rebound to the height of His Excellency instead of our level of incompetency. All adversity, woe, grief and misery vanishes as the “Son” rises over the doom and gloom of Lucifer and his moron demons.

This message of salvation is offered to every nation, country and democracy. It has no preference to sex, gender or orientation. Everyone who calls on His name and confesses Him “as” Lord will be saved! No rank, status or position is barred. Don’t’ stir the coals on cultures because the community or race soul is born in is as precious to Jesus as yours is to you. No character defect or regard to reputation for integrity is in consideration for a heart breaking over the offenses to Jesus. Sins are incorrect, illicit and bad: the killed God’s only Son. Think about your sins nailing Jesus to that death stake. He’s reaching out His bloodied arms as far as they will go and showing you that He loves you that much. How can you even dream of missing the message?

What is the message of salvation?

In begins and ultimately ends with faith in Jesus. Faith is the conduit that grace flow through: the greater the faith, the greater the flow of grace. It is immediately followed by the realization of sin’s offense to God and the confession and repentance thereof. Forsaking sin is the birth of holiness. Your relationship to sin is the window to the love of you have for your only Savior. The more you hate the sin the more you love the Lord. The supernatural response is to pass it on: discipleship. Everyone needs to hold on to a Paul to learn from and drag along a Timothy to pass it on to.

A public baptism publishes to the believer’s community the interior death to sin you have experienced and the resurrection of His Spirit within you. This naturally leads to witnessing the message where this article began.

THE MAN

By Rick Mathes

John 17:5 And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.

There is certainly enough extra-biblical information to prove that Jesus was a real flesh and blood man. There is no longer a question of this fact. There are at least two credible physical descriptions of Him and plenty to confirm that He did miracles, died, rose from the grave and had a continued following of those that watched Him rise into a cloud and disappear into the seventh heaven. They were first called Christians at Antioch, the home of Chrysostom and other primitive church fathers.

My blood boils when someone says that Jesus was just a good man. Jesus made many claims that He was God and He accepted worship from His followers. In his book “Evidence Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell, he says that Jesus is either a liar, a lunatic or Lord. There’s neither basis nor room in reasoning that will allow Jesus as just a good man. He must be Lord!

If you haven’t noticed on CNN TV News or Arabic Al-Jezeera News, the world is on course for an inevitable train wreck. We are on a collision course with self-destruction. It is an insult to monkeys to claim we were descended from them!

There is no more hope for world peace apart from the hand of Jesus Christ; The chaos or nations s almost insanity in the fullest definition of the word. We, in America, are in a post-Christian era. The Lord in His permissive will is slowly but surely holding back His protective hand and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Our only salvation is in the hands of “The Man” from Galilee. There is no Savior apart from Jesus.

The King is coming as He promised and His chosen are preparing a straight path for His precious feet to tread. He is our Savior, Lord and only God. There is no other truth but the atonement of the last Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The Carpenter is my man’s man. He has the calluses and the scars to prove it!

Look unto the Cross and be healed; Sense pity for His condition, bleeding and dying for our salvation. Watch the mockery of His executioners and the religious who’s who of His day and have faith. He said that where He is we will be and He meant it. This has got to kindle your admiration for Him. He said he would do it and He did.

Look on that man hanging there naked and sense His unique dignity and humility. Nothing has compared to Him since. The completeness of Scripture fulfillment and His purity to the last brath is truth that we may never completely comprehend.

The thief welcomed Him into glory will welcome you. He has your name in the book of life written in the blood of “The Man” and is commanded to open the gates of heaven when you arrive.

THE LIFE

By Rick Mathes

John 14:6 (NASB77) ⁶  Jesus •said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.

I watched an open heart operation on the television one night and saw the surgeon remove the man’s heart and put it into a pan as a variety of machines kept the patient’s body operational. I was astonished when the doctor reattached the heart and it resumed beating and the machines were shut down so his body would return to life.

It occurred to me that every organ he had could likewise be separated from the body and returned. So I wondered, “Where is life?” It sure wasn’t of this world nor was life any more visible than love, gravity, electricity, etc.

I concluded that we are just animated dust, well composed mud that encompasses a life that is indivisible but with Godly vision can be observed to the image and likeness of God our creator.

We all have a distinguishable form; our facial features, height, weight, skin tone, etc. that is visible and differentiates us one from another. Our essence that is the life of Jesus within us is indistinguishable one from another. In other words, when our dust returns to dust, we all look identically alike. You can’t tell us apart becaue the image and likeness of God is the same for all of us; there is only one God and His image and likeness does not change. He is the unchangeable “I AM.”

In service and adoration to Him we distinguish ourselves one from another by our actions: the effects of our common cause. As we walk in humble obedience to Him we become lesser and He becomes greater until we don’t exist and He dominates our entire being. Now this won’t happen until His glorious return.

In the meantime we must accept that the only life we have is in Him. We owe every heartbeat to His stooping grace and selfless sacrifice on that death stake of redemption. Our overcoming countenance gives us the unmatchable authority to keep the faith, fight the good fight and finish the course of life laid out before us as more than conquerors of the life within us!

 

KISS OF DEATH

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 26:49 (NASB77) ⁴⁹ And immediately he went to Jesus and said, “Hail, Rabbi!” and kissed Him.

We can argue endlessly about predestination and free will and many do to this day. My conclusion is that in the Lord’s divine providence, to please Himself, he became the magnet and we were created the metal. The elect have irresistibly drawn their decisions to him ever since.

I marvel at those who willfully resist His grace while all the time professing faith in the words and works of Christ. From my observation, they compose a large part of the attendance in our entertainment centers we too often call churches. Many are blatantly sinning but have found a comfortable fellowship of carnal Christians like themselves, of like sins. “What is right to me is right” is their unifying banter; devils with masks parading around in counterfeit sanctity with all of the demons in Hell howling in laughter and clapping in approval.

Such was the infection of the First Church the moment Jesus welcomed His chameleon apostle Judas Iscariot. For purposes known only to Him initially and then revealed in His last hours, Judas was setting himself up for the “kiss of death.”

I can almost feel you recoiling at the thought of Judas betraying Christ with a kiss, a kiss! An emblem of love and devotion; such is the unfathomable depths of evil a soul such as Judas’ could fall to, beyond comprehension.

How long have you proclaimed that you are a Christian and in the fellowship of believers: a year, 5 years, 10 years or more?

How many times have you presented yourself as a devoted follower of Christ in Church services, Bible studies, prayer breakfasts and the like?

How many true believers have been fooled by your acting abilities and blindsided from seeing through to the real you?

Judas had only 11 peers but he spent all his time in good church standing to boldly betray Jesus with “the kiss of death” as you have for neglecting to repent of your sins that killed God’s Son. You need to repent, submit and obey. How do I know you so well? I know me!

You are giving our Lord the kiss of your death, death in the eternal flames of Hell. He gives life but you have chosen death. You will forever be reminded that Jesus loved you, up to the last moment and Satan took a permitted grip on you. You let him. The kiss of death is from the acid mouth of the Devil unless you stop, stand still, turn around and come back to Him.

Kiss the Son lest He be angry!

(With the kiss of life.)