Tag: mission gate

GO!

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GO!

By Rick Mathes

Hebrews 4:12 (NASB77) 12  For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Read the Word of God to:

  • Know
  • Grow
  • Glow and
  • Go!

It is the mirror for the Father’s heart and guidance for all those He loves and sent His Son to die for. His character and integrity is on every page with His blessing and best wishes for you to pursue holiness and the joy of your salvation.

Every word that falls on good soil will grow and prosper but it’s our calling to spread the seed. Shockingly the most fertile ground is in your church! Our post-modern watering down of Christianity has starve the souls of believers and has given unbelievers a false sense of security. Most of the condemned in hell were faithful church attendees. Too many demons have found their way into the pulpits and leadership of churches because the sheep could care less about sin, hell and death or the absolute truth.

The Word of God, like fresh water, will nourish your spiritual thirst and wsh away your sins so that you can be a sparkling clean lamp on a hill to enlighten all to the narrow way to glory. When danger approaches clean, above board, bright and in an attack mode, the Word of God becomes a Sword that slays evil by “It is written!” The Holy Spirit is the upholder and defender of the Father’s instructions and He will not tolerate the devil to move the street signs and guide us into the flames.

But back to the basics: a new baby Christian needs milk to grow on not a sword for combat. Bless the Holy Spirit for being so tender in His teaching and guidance through the volumes of the Bible. The Word is deep enough to drown an elephant but shallow enough for an infant to splash around in.

It time we grown and need to feed on the meat of the Word; If you have a Pastor that follows the Master, hang on to him! You need a Paul to learn from and a Timothy to pass it on to. That’s how faith to faith has worked these last 2,000 years. Jesus is the bread of life and it’s in Him that we grow strength and press on to His return!

 

 

GIVE ME SOME

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GIVE ME SOME

By Rick Mathes

John 4:15 (NASB77) 15 The woman •said to Him, ” Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty, nor come all the way here to draw.”

We cannot exist physically without water nor can we exist spiritually without the living water that only Jesus has to offer. Water is a word used to denote cleansing by the Word of God as in baptism or doing spiritual laundry. The woman at the well wants it but isn’t sure what it is. We are told we need to be baptized with water and fire: repentance and spirit-filled. The Holy Spirit is the fire but that’s for another devotional. Let’s focus here on the attributes of this living water.

It is thirst removing. Nothing can satisfy nor quench that burning thirst in our soul but what the Lord has to say in our Holy Bible. We hunger and thirst for this refreshment and our Lord graciously put His 66 books of heartfelt appeal to grace in our hands to read, listen, learn, apply and evaluate.

It is life preserving. We try to get our life together on our own and the more we try the more it disintegrates. Only from what proceeds from the mouth of God will keep us in Him until the Day of the Lord arrives!

It is filth purging. You can’t remain stained in sin when you are washed in the blood of Christ. His words cleanses from all unrighteousness in the power of the Holy Spirit.

It is softening. Even the biggest men with the hardest hearts will fall to their knees and cry out, “Lord, save me!”

It is fire quenching. Amen! The Word gives us fire insurance and even the gates of Hell cannot prevail against us.

It is spring creating. You will be filled to the brim and your cup will runneth over. Your veins will just pumped with the Gospel until you shout out, “Jesus is Lord!”

It is fruit producing. You will know them by their fruit. If He is truly their Lord, their walk will speak more loudly than their talk.

It is heaven ascending. Like the fragrance of a bouquet of flowers, your reading, speaking, singing and thinking the Word is very pleasant to the God whose hand wrote the holy pages of our Bible, whose Son lived the spoken word of God even unto death, and whose Holy Spirit quickens the message of our eternal Creator in your mind, heart and soul.

GIVE AND GIVE

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GIVE AND GIVE

By Rick Mathes

Philippians 4:15 (NASB77) 15  And you yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I departed from Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone;

I was blessed to preach a service in a well-known national shelter for the homeless. The chapel was paced out with toothless, smelly, rag-tag winos to be there. I preached my heart out on encouragement and then an unexpected thing happened. The staff took an offering! I was shocked because this was a multi-million dollar ministry and the men were penniless indigents.

After the service I blew my top at the officer in charge, “How greedy can you get to squeeze the last drop of blood out of these poor homeless men? He explained, “Giving is a vial part of worship and that bum’s quarter was sure worth more in sacfificial giving than was your check fo $25 last Sunday. They are learning an important lesson in worship aren’t they? Wow!

WE are not under the law anymore so anyone who says yu must tithe, give 10% of your adjusted gross income to the church is mistaken. We are to give to Him what we don’t ned and I call that the “ouch!” level then it is a sacrificial giving: no pain, no gain.

Cheerfully give that amount freely and without worry about how you will get along without it. The Lord will provide and show you the way. So when you go to church with $20 in one pocket for McDonald’s and $10 in the other for Jesus, give $30 and joyfully sacrifice the lunch. You won’t miss it!

Now there has to be a consistency, so give an a regular basis systematically every Sunday or once a month but pray on each gift and give joyfully. This will give you joy especially if you don’t worry about how you can live on less. You need to send a few dollars for investment in the Great Commission.

So simply give what the Holy Spirit lays on your heart regularly and cheerfully. This really pleases our Lord. I  know as a ministry leader that I can earnestly pray all day but if I don’t pay the bill with tangible money, they will turn out the lights! AMEN?

GIFTS TO MEN

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GIFTS TO MEN

By Rick Mathes

Ephesians 4:8 (NASB77) 8  Therefore it says, ” WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, AND HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.”

Who doesn’t love Christmas morning when it’s time to gather around the tree and open gifts? We all love gifts throughout the year for any occasion such as birthday or for no reason at all. It takes a very special love of one person to lavish another with gifts and not expect gifts back or any favor in return. That is a rough definition of grace.

At the top of God’s presents to us is Christ the Messiah Isaiah wrote about. What a fabulous confirmation we received with the Dead Sea Scrolls that included a full copy of the Book of Isaiah exactly as we hve it word for word today over 3,000 years old! This gift was the gift of eternal life. It was the gift I would hold back from my kids until last. We always saved the best for last but God gave Jesus first, there are no other gifts.

Hand in Hand Jesus and the Holy Spirit, gifts from God, will guide, assist and lead us on the narrow way home to our first nature. Salvation is ours because we are His and the “gift giver” will never take us, God’s gift to Jesus, from Him. You heard me right. We are the Father’s gift to His Son and in the care of the Holy Spirit.

The gift of eternal life in glory is totally just that, “a gift.” You and I had absolutely nothing to do with it or it wouldn’t be the gift that it is. It is a real object lesson of grace, undeserved favor. Just think. If you were God look down on you sinning right and left, what would you do with you? We deserve the worst agonizing torture of eternal flames and He showers us with spiritual gifts. God figure!

We are all gifted with a ministry to serve Him which makes us all ministers. A life of all good things wall to wall and endlessly packaged and lined up as far as the eye can see. This is true ecstasy. Like little children we run from gift to gift and encourage others to follow us and do the same. Do we deserve this unearned grace? Of course not! But I’m no fool. I may not deserve to win this heavenly lottery so to speak but I’m coming to cash the check anyway. Don’t just stand there, cash yours also!

 

GET UP!

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GET UP

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 9:9 (NASB77) 9 And as Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man, called Matthew, sitting in the tax office; and He •said to him, ” Follow Me!” And he rose, and followed Him.

I can’t help but think that Matthew had advance knowledge or experience with Jesus. I don’t think a man as educated and firmly rooted in crime and big money would be so frivolous to follow the first man who asked him to. I conclude that Matthew had come under conviction of sin and saw that his only salvation was in the Prophet from Nazareth. Isn’t God good!

There he was, ripping people off with exorbitant taxes and in his darkest conviction of sin when of all things, the Light of God stepped up and said, “Follow me.” He got up immediately knowing that this was his golden moment of freedom from the love of the world that stunk with the filth of the devil that temporarily ruled it. What a privilege to be personally addressed by God incarnate, “Follow me.” Wow!

There was a moment in your life you said, “Yes Jesus, I will follow you.” It was a special time you heard Him attentively because the Holy Spirit had your spiritual ears pointed in His direction. You responded on the spot to His convincing call and you were very earnest to learn all you could about Him.

We are so undeserving of His grace and blessings, yet He loved us so much He took our hell that we might have His heaven. WE are not just ill-deserving, we are hell-deserving. We remove the consequences as best we can and avoid them. We overlook the cause of that which brings us down. Once the worldly cause is replaced with Christ the consequences that were destroying us change to ones that build us up in Him.

Jesus removes the:

  • Penalty of sin
  • Power of sin
  • Presence of sin

Matthew followed Jesus with the same faith we follow Him with now. The faith begins with knowledge and that’s why I believe that Matthew had a foreknowledge of Jesus before he decided to respond so quickly and completely. He believed in Jesus as it was preordained for him to do. Like metal to magnet, he could not refuse his calling any more than you or I could refuse ours. It is all a matter of trust displacing fear.

FUTILITY

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FUTILITY

By Rick Mathes

Ephesians 4:17 (NASB77) 17   This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,

Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is considered by most as insanity. We need to weed oit those things in our lives that are futile. The Lord commans usto redeem the time and here are a few ways:

  • Don’t try to get rich quick
  • Put your treasures in heaven
  • Don’t follow the crowd
  • Be subject to authorities
  • Choose the best things
  • Work for God
  • Be faithful
  • Seek good of others
  • Don’t be enslaved
  • Your body is God’s Temple
  • Glorify God in all things
  • Live by grace and legalism
  • Give no chance to Satan
  • Use tongue to edify

Certainly this list is only beginning but there ae also other considerations. Your mind for instance is futile ground for futility such as the pursout of that which is nothing more than vanity. Why kill yourself to get more things you don’t need nd won’t ever enjoy to leave to those who don’t deserve them.

When the darkness of futile thinking settles on you, you will become alien to God because God is light. Darkness does not and cannot fellowship with light.

The biggest culprit of futility of thinking is ignorance of the words and works of Jesus. Somehow we become blind in our hearts to what He has to say. Satan is a master at occupying our minds with anything but Jesus and that usually includes lustful thoughts. Sex outside of marriage unclean but within it’s God meant bounds it glorifies the covenant in marriage. God has the right woman for you buit you won’t meet her until you are the right man for Him. Don’t let greed conquer creed!

 

FRUIT OF MERCY

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 FRUIT OF MERCY

By Rick Mathes

Romans 9:15 (NASB77) 15  For He says to Moses, ” I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.”

Thank you Jesus, the police don’t have the rap sheet on me Jesus has! If the police knew all the horrid things I did, I would never get out of prison. Anything I have now is pure mercy. I don’t deserve any good thing. It is entirely by God’s grace that we are saved. We are not capable by any amount of good works to atone for all the filth that lives in us. Thank you Jesus for having mercy on us!

It was His mercy that spares us the punishment of an eternal furnace of flames that we deserve. How do we express our thanks to the Lord but to worship Him in His Righteousness? What can we give Him who has it all? Our Love.

We once were captives of sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling, porno and who knows what else but the devil who invents counterfeit pleasures to meet the need? When you drop your Sword, you become vulnerable to the sin of you weakest link. You know what it I and what I am driving at. That dark closet in you must be opened wide to let the light of the Lord in or you will be taken prisoner in your cell of bars or wallpaper. The gate keeper of hades is quite flexible.

All your despairing is moot if you will just step into the foot-prints of Jesus and walk that bloody path with Him. Do you remember when you were lost, abandoned and without hope? Well hallelujah, the tomb is empty and Jesus is alive in you. Now the light can really be seen at the end of the tunnel as Jesus stands there with arms outstretched to holy you close to Him once again.

We were once lost but now we are found: Amazing Grace!

C.H. Spurgeon: “I have often through that if I had read in Scripture, ‘Charles Spurgeon shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved.’ I would not have felt as sure of salvation as I do now, because I would have concluded that there might have been somebody else of that name and I would have said, ‘Surely it did not mean me.’ But when the Lord says, ‘Whosoever’ I cannot get out of that circle!”

FRUIT BEARING

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FRUIT BEARING

By Rick Mathes

John 15:16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.

We were created in God’s image and likeness to enjoy and worship Him. As such to exhibit our enjoyment, ease, gains and satisfaction in Him for His glory. It is simply a removal of self (no fruit) and the blossoming of a flower (good fruit) as evidence of our born-again metamorphosis. We change from a worm to a butterfly as He intended us to process in our sanctification efforts.

We exist in a playground of God’s mind and vivid imagination. His creative genius provided us with a blue pearl hanging in the midst of a mind-blowing universe of glittering wonders for us to enjoy and reach out for. Here on planet earth is a garden of miracles and endless wonder for us to care for and be in good stewardship for Him.

His creative pride however in man and our “good fruit” responsibility begins with our heath and mental well-being. This includes our ingenuity and creative energies and accomplishments in the material world of things competing for our time and to own us.

One of my guideposts to God is, “I think, therefore I am.” I concluded from this revelation that a “thinking I AM” must exists, the first cause. When you confess Jesus is Lord, that is intellectual ascent but when you confess Jesus as Lord it becomes Lordship salvation, the fruit of sanctification. Your born again experience is true and the fruit is your burning desire is to repent from you sins, submit to His Lordship and obey His smallest command. He is God.

The fruit of love is the object of affection and God is love. How deep is your love and where is it placed? One gage is your checkbook registry. Where you money goes is where your heart led it. And there is the yardstick of your friends and family. Your world-view is reflected by the world you have nurtured around you. Understand that love is not an emotion; it is a decision. Satan can and does a counterfeit emotion so I don’t trust them even though they may be genuine in reflected your Godly love.

Our body is the home, the temple of our living God. All other sins are outside of our bodies but sexual immorality is within and a grievous sin against the Holy Spirit and a defilement of the soul. Abstaining from immoral sex is the fruit of the holiness God demands and it is a natural blessing of a healthy three; purity of true nature.

The fruit of religion rituals and man’s best efforts to reach God are fruitless works of no value. Christianity is being in Christ. It is His election and choice of you. The greatest fruit is complete abandonment in Him as Lord and Savior.

 

FROM GOD

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FROM GOD

By Rick Mathes

Acts 5:39 but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.

When I was quite young I was cleaning out our garage and I stumbled upon a box of letters my natural dad had mailed to my mom with in a field of battle in WWII before he paid the ultimate cost with his life. The first thing I noticed was that our handwriting was very similar and I got an insight to a daddy I had no memory of. Most important was when I touched the letter with my hand I felt a connection with him as I do my Jesus when I handle the Holy Bible. The Word of God is just that, the words of Jesus to us. It’s a love letter from God and it sends us the instructions we need to follow from our maker that will optimize His image and likeness in us. Isn’t that just like the daddy (Abba) you have always wanted; lessons and instructions from God?

Our first and most important task is to pick up our cross and follow Him. We must die to self so that all of His gifts may be seeped, watered and blossomed. This is the invitation as we fervently pray in one accord.

The natural outcome of his death to self and resurrection in Him is to teach the gospel or be a soul winning evangelist. Both gifts come graciously from the hand of God empowered and guided by His partner the Holy Spirit. I have never attended or lead a Bible study that I haven’t gotten something worthwhile out of it. You just need to put up your spiritual antennae and let the Holy Spirit lead. When you’ve attended a powerful study you just have to tell someone and that is evangelism.

Discussing the Word is of God but dividing is of the devil. There aren’t any denominations in heaven. Father God is not a Presbyterian. Jesus is not a Southern Baptist and the Holy Spirit is not a Pentecostal. It isn’t what you know that get’s you to heaven, it’s who you know

When the Spirit is upon us we preach Jesus and are responsible to His commands as we exhort, rebuke and encourage fellow Christians with His words and admonishments: all from God. Iron truly does sharpen iron. Remember He sent them out in twos. There was much wisdom in this and we should learn from it.

We can accept what is of the devil by commission, omission, and permission. You can flat out boldly sin: commission. You can package your sin in religion: omission. Or you can permit others to sin without correcting: permission. All three are smoldering form the flames of hell because they aren’t from God, they are from Reverend Lucifer!

FREEDOM

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FREEDOM

By Rick Mathes

Romans 5:8 (NASB) 8  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Over 30 years ago, on my knees, “It is finished!” sunk into the depth of my soul and with sobbing and many tears I stood up, lifted my hands to the King and exclaimed, “I’m born again!” I have relived that moment hundreds of time. His death on the Cross says it al.

Francois Fenelon: The greatest of all crosses is self. If we die in part every day, we shall have but little to do on the last. These daily deaths will destroy the power of the final dying.

The death to self can and is expressed in many ways.

There is a universal salvation that encompassed the entire Church “the Body of Christ”. Every ethnic origin and color beautifully forms the rainbow of salvation. Our skin tones are all to God’s glory and pleasing to His eyes. Why should we separate over anything that Jesus loves? Racial prejudice is a virus for the disease of sin.

We are most familiar with the redemptive value of a born again experience. We have “broke cuffs” that is freed ourselves from the chains of sin. Satan’s grip has lost it’s strength and we have slipped out of his grasp.

The universal salvation of all is the seal of His covenant with His people. We are the “called out ones,” the “royal priesthood.” Where we stand is holy ground and the covenant because the covenant He signed was in His blood. The gates of Hell cannot ever turn against or break us. Satan’s power has been nullified and he is dropping like a rock into the bottomless abyss of flames without hope of restoration to his former estate of being the “morning star. Lucifer is finished too!

The basic unit of all is the family on its knees at the feet of their Savior, Jesus Christ. This intimate fellowship is the heart of our Lord. We are made in His image and likeness and the family is returning to their first nature and leaving their old world behind in the dust. This is what the rapture is all about. What a glorious day that will be when we can also say, “It is finished!”