Tag: Rick Mathes

ANOINTED

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ANOINTED

By Rick Mathes

Luke 4:18 THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE DOWNTRODDEN,

The biggest assurance I have of being saved from sin is my conviction of sin. Satan would not nag me to repent so it must be the Holy Spirit within me. Only the offended can demand restitution form the offender. And only a sinner who has a Savior can respond and be regenerated and baptized in holiness, not of ourselves but the holiness imputed to us from the final sacrifice of God’s Son and our Savior on the cross that was risen from the dead.

I thank Jesus with all that is within me that He left His Holy Spirit behind to teach and guide me and to intercede when my sinful knees hit the ground and my soul aches for only the salvation Christ can gift us with.

The anointing of the Holy Spirit fills us with His righteousness and cause to rise on behalf of the King. From the top of our head to the soles of our feet we are committed to the cause of Christ. We put on the armor, lift the sword and dig in our cleats to keep the faith, fight the good fight and finally finish the race.

The best analogy of being Spirit-filled is being in love. You can’t see it, you can’t hear it, you can’t taste it, you can’t smell it but you sure can feel it! You start out being the hand and the blood of Jesus becomes the glove that protects the hand: that’s justification. Then you exchange places. You become the glove and your skin covers our Lord who becomes your hand. Then you go about the Father’s business with Him working it out through you.

The witnesses of Father, Son and Holy Spirit agree that you are theirs and sealed until that last day when you will be released: like a caterpillar into a butterfly, from black and white to color. He indwells in you and when people get to know you they get to know Jesus.

Once born-again and exchanged for Him we are endowed with all the blessings of our first nature to walk in the coolness of the evening and have communion with the God of our creation on earth as it is in heaven.

AND THEN

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AND THEN

By Rick Mathes

2 Timothy 2:13 (NASB77) 13  If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.

What does a hopeless unbeliever expect will happen the moment after their last heartbeat? It musts be scary. How about expecting to fry in the flames of Purgatory for thousands of years like the Roman Catholics believe or soul-sleep nothingness of the Jehovah’s Witnesses? At least the Mormon men believe that they will become a god on their own planet! You can’t make this up. Thank you Jesus the God-breathed words of God assure us otherwise.

The blessed hope evangelists live for is drawing near when we will step into the presence of the Kind of this universe and our personal friend Jesus the Christ. It’s a sure bet because it’s the Word of God and He keeps His word. It would be contrary the very fiber of His being to be mistaken or unknowing or eternal things.

The Word of God washes and purifies the soul. Holiness is a rush if only for a moment so you can imagine how it will e in glory when we are wholly His!

What price would you put on comfort or contentment? I had the wife of a famous millionaire call me and ask what I need and she would write out a check for it. It was the first time I realized that I didn’t need anything. Imagine that! Having a clear conscience and clean record is priceless; no amount of money can buy it. Our Lord promised our needs would be met and they are.

A hope of eternal life in heaven sustains a taste of heaven here on earth. Consider that it all was created for our pleasure and we were created for His. He’s coming back and in fact very near at this moment. We are about to embark on an adventure beyond compare so fasten your seat belt and hold on!

How satisfied can one get, to know that now and forever He will never leave us nor forsake us? We will soon see Him as He really is and receive our reward: now that’s what I call total satisfaction no matter what I had to go through to get there. We surely will be blessed: that is, we will be happy beyond words or any joy we have ever experienced. It’s all about Him and His return that anchors us in the Faith.

 

AMBIENCE

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AMBIENCE

By Rick Mathes

Acts 28:2 the natives showed us extraordinary kindness; for because of the rain that had set in and because of the cold, they kindled a fire and received us all.

There is a special comfort in building a campfire to gather around in Christian fellowship. The chill of the winter air is so refreshing but the crackling flames, songs that fill the air and wholesome laughter transform both body and soul. Such is the emanation from Holy Spirit from the pages of God’s love letter to us. The Bible brings an enlightenment that awakens a love within that only His cross could provide. It embraces our body, mind and soul in a rush of His resurrection and the enablement of the Holy Spirit to step forward as an ambassador of the King, in peace.

Prayer is that special ability to bridge the gap from the created to the Creator: this is a privilege for believers only. In private, we can dialog with Jesus our deepest secrets and fear without restraint. It’s a social intercourse that words sometimes cannot capture. The Holy Spirit intercedes, the Lord brings our praise or petition to the Father and He nods His approval. Think of what can be accomplished in our church society if we would all point our swords in the same direction: that’s when the warming assurance and comfort comes up on the Body of Christ.

We then lift our spiritual ears to the heavens and have that special communion and fellowship with Jesus. Meditation is the lesson we receive from Him often prompted by our prayers. For a seeking sinner or forgiven saint, it’s a big bear-hug from our best friend, Jesus. If you are astute and have your spiritual antennae up you feel that in the fellowship of like believers. The Body of Christ, the church, the visible and invisible engulf our very being when this experience occurs with a repentant heart.

The fellowships of Christians help us to return to our first love, to worship and enjoy our Savior and Lord. The Holy Spirit invites us to join Him in the friendship and love of fellow believers. This is a fulfillment of returning to our first nature of actually being love in His Shekinah light: perfecting once again an ambience that only a submission to Him can provide in holiness.

AM I?

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AM I?

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 11:28 (NASB77) 28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

The actual words of God say, “A man ought to examine himself.” When God speaks, we listen! So, let’s have a go at it. As I quiz myself why don’t you join me and do the same?

Let’s start with the foundation of all sin. Am I self-sufficient? I remember like yesterday how exasperated my wife would become as I paraded through our house singing, “I did it my way!” It’s enough to make you gag. But that’s how it was until I made Him my Lord. Now I’m in the process of exchanging all I am into all He is. I’m becoming lesser so that He can become greater. The question now is, “Do people get to know Him when they get to know you?”

Am I self-serving or self-sacrificing?” As I exchange all I am for all He is, we exchange places. He becomes the hand and I become the glove. This way He can go about His business for the Father in my skin; to be effective though, ghere needs to be an “ouch” to give it value. When you reach beyond your grasp it is painful but that’s where He begins: when there is no pain there is no gain.

How deep is your love? The Bible is deep enough to drown an elephant but shallow enough for a baby to splash in. Am I still a baby? Do I still impress non-believes with Romans 10:9 and Psalm 23? Maybe it’s time to jumpinto the deep end of the pool. What do you think?

How about “spiritual constipation;” are you all bound up in the law? Are you driven by grace or works? I have learned the hard way that I can’t do enough to “wash away my sins.” There is always a residue and more filth and decay on the way. You can’t walk through a coal mineof laws in a white suit without getting dirty from violations.

God is in the process of rebuilding our form and life-style but not hyper-sensitive because perfection in this lietie is not possible. We can be too hard on ourselves and not get a real sense of “Who I am?”

 

ALL TOGETHER

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ALL TOGETHER

By Rick Mathes

Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

Peter stood with a sword to fight an army to protect his friend Jesus only to collapse in curses because of a servant girl’s accusations and then dropping to his knees when the Lord forgave him. As he was volatile and bore his strengths and weaknesses, so do we in our everyday lives.

Unbelievers look in and see with natural eyes and marvel that even though we have many denominations, we have one Lord, one faith, one Bible and we are in one accord in the same baptism. Our unity as a family, as brothers and sisters in Christ is baffling to those without any objective truth.

The vocabulary of Christians has been twisted and distorted by the devil so completely that we, believers and unbelievers can use the same words while having two different understandings of each other. This has caused the majority of onlookers and seekers to despair and revert to relativity: this is what I believe. With all our outward appearance of dispersion, the Body of Christ undamaged, fully armored and battle ready. When the right moment in his-story arrives, rest assured our swords will all be pointed in the same direction; at the demons.

So many doubt that we are one body and in one place: holy ground. We have always been scattered throughout the nations of the world. We have only one flag and an allegiance to the only King, Jesus. No country has any grip on us more powerful than God’s hold. There is this beautiful blue pearl hanging on nothingness that is our temporary home untiiil He makes it new again.

Sadly, to our shame, some mock us and we often deserve the ridicule. Slowly but surely the demons have slipped into our tent and have made laughing stocks out  of us on their wide-screen IMAX theatre in Hell. While we have been re-arranging the deck chairs the ship has continued to go down. They don’t understand that we have been filled to the brim with the same Holy Spirit into one filling: one baptism.

Now the evidence of this radical conversion is that we are all together and repenting of our sins. This is repulsive to the lost. We have been baptized into the oneness of the Triune Godhead: one God-Jesus. And as I write this, you and I are receiving to this moment the teaching and illumination that all believers are blessed with together in unity of being all together.

A SPECIAL BAPTISM

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A SPECIAL BAPTISM

By Rick Mathes

Luke 3:21 (NASB77) 21 Now it came about when all the people were baptized, that Jesus also was baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened,

Let’s join for a moment and take in the wonder of why our Savior would willingly experience the outward manifestation of baptism by immersion. Jesus was sinless, so what was the significance of this unique event?

First of all it was to equip, anoint and strengthen the manhood He has clothed Himself with and secondly to demonstrate obedience, humility and prayer to all generations that would follow.

What an astounding set of circumstances that clearly brought together the visible and audible Trinity of the gospels. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit all sharing truth in a single verse. How blessed is the Word of God to us as it shares this precious and golden moment, never to repeat itself in the infinity of time.

What a wonderful seal of approval for our God-man to launch His ministry of salvation and begin His death walk to the Cross, one firm step following another. From this point forward, He never looked back. Oh, how I wish we could do the same and not ever be ashamed Him with our doubts and fears. Just to put on the armor of God, lift up the sword of the Word and firmly place my feet on holy ground is my fervent prayer!

The dove quietly settled in peacefulness, not known to mankind until that moment. The gentleness of the flight, the landing and the harmlessness of the message of affirmation: the Holy Spirit had arrived to anoint Christ the man for the timeless message of the ancients who spoke of Him in times past.

The voice rang out to a startled universe of angels and every devil shook in mortal terror. God became man on a mission that only the Triune god could ever accomplish. In an eye-blink, salvation arrived with healing and deliverance in the wings of a dove. The provision of love for His elect and eternal doom to those who would reject and murder His Son as your sin does to this very moment.

Submit to the reality that you are owned by the Father, saved by the Son and anointed by the Holy Spirit and you too will have that once in a lifetime special baptism a was demonstrated by our Lord Himself. A moment that will change a lifetime of eternities if only you will accept and savor the fullness of the Trinity of which you were made in Their likeness: body, spirit and soul.

A CALLING

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 A CALLING

Ye call me Master                and obey me not;

Ye call me Light                   and see me not;

Ye call me Way                    and walk me not;

Ye call me Life                      and desire me not;

Ye call me Wise                   and follow me not;

Ye call me Fair                     and love me not;

Ye call me Rich                    and ask me not;

Ye call me Eternal               and seek me not;

Ye call me Gracious            and trust me not;

Ye call me Noble                  and serve me not;

Ye call me Mighty                and honor me not;

Ye call me Just                     and fear me not;

                                                If I condemn you Blame Me not!

FAITH:

  • Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible, and receives the impossible.
  • Faith is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.
  • Faith is ideal when circumstances are right, only when they are adverse is one’s faith in God exercised.
  • Faith, like muscle, grows strong and supple with exercise.
  • Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.
  • A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.
  • Faith is not believing that God can, but that God will!
  • Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
  • Faith in God is indispensable to successful statesmanship.

Arabic Proverb

He that knows not and knows not that he knows not:

He is a fool; shun him!

He that knows not and knows that he knows not:

He is simple; teach him!

He that knows and knows not that he knows:

He is asleep; wake him!

He that knows and knows that he knows;

He is a wise man; follow him!

 

 

 

SEVEN WOES

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7 WOES

By Rick Mathes

Matthew 23:8 But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.

You call me:

  • Master but do not obey me
  • Light but do not walk with me
  • Wise but do not listen or learn from me
  • Rich but do not ask of me for help
  • Eternal but do not live like you believe it
  • Gracious but do not trust in my generosity
  • Noble but do not serve me as my slave
  • God but do not fear offending me

If I call you condemned, do not blame me!

Woe is you as you plunge down the flaming pit because of your preoccupation with everything and anything that was self-gratifying. The sum total of all your love and ambitions now and in the future is only your well-being and materialism. All that matters to you is you. Your egotism is so prevalent that you barely comprehend the purpose of those around you but to satisy your needs and wants. You are oblivious to all else.

There is a total vacuum of spirituality within you mainly because your unconfessed sin keeps getting in the way. You can only wall off righteousness for so long until it bursts its walls and destroys itself and all within its path. Now the challenge you face is to put up a face of righteousness around you so that no one will be able to penetrate your façade of holy living.

This impenitence arouses God’s anger at your audacity and deception. He will try His best to have you take a good hard look at who you really are on the inside that place in you that no one is welcome but you.

It’s been over 2,000 years of this nonsense with no change in your perverseness. The sad thing is that there is never another second chance. You may have used them all up and you have no options left. This delusiveness of living is denial of sin, Satan and hell will open up within you.

Go back over this article and see if you can’t pick out the 7 woes and then whip them to submission for the glory of the King of Kings, your Commander in Chief or else!

YOU’RE A LOSER

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YOU’RE A LOSER!

By Rick Mathes

My name is “Unbeliever.” I’m also known as Liar, Criminal, Jerk, Stupid and worse. I’m going to do it my way. I’ve lived with the Devil so far and I will deal again with him when I see him eye to eye. Life is Hell, admit it! When J.C. said, “Depart from me I never knew you,” He declared war on me and my kind. It was at the moment that I knew I was bound to the flaming throne awaiting me. I decided to “get what I can get while I can get it. I know, I know, don’t keep harping on me. I’m undeserving, ill-deserving and on my way to an unforgivable eternity in hell. So what’s new!

My heart has hardened to you bleeding heart do-gooder wimps!

I have chosen to be obstinate to your pleadings with me to get born again. I have the parents that born me. Why would I want to be born again? Once was enough for me besides my thoughts are so volatile hey shoot in and out of my mind and I have no peace to sort them out. I can’t even approach a moment of contentment.

My imagination of God, hell, angels and demons is out of sorts and very ungovernable. My sinful desires are extraordinarily evil and running wild, preying on the victims within my reach. These mind altering drugs I take mixed with alcohol cloud my mind so that I don’t have to think, just flow from one feeling to another. There is a den of wild beasts within my deepest and most hidden places.

Let’s face it: the world we live in removes you from thinking out the consequences of your choices and overlooks the causes.

There was a time when it was fun to say it was fun,

There was a time when it was crazy to sad it was fun,

But now it’s crazy to say this is fun!

There comes a time when you put your life on pause and consider the only thruth God or man has ever learned. God’s Word is Truth and it is the total annihilation of Lucifer and his fallen angels. Jesus said, “My people perish for lack of knowledge.” Duh! I think you may be getting the message by now. How many times are you going to hit the bottom? Think, do you even have one more new start in you? I doubt it. Only He can remove the penalty, power and presence of sin. Your only relief, are you listening? Your only hope is believe and trust in Jesus as Lord. Don’t let Him say those deadly words to you, “Depart from me.” You’re a loser!

WHY NOT?

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WHY NOT?

By Rick Mathes

There are two questions that have nagged me from as far back as I can remember: Why and what is Truth? Apart from Jesus and the constant teaching of the Apostles, neither question can ever be objectively answered. To this day my mind goes haywire when I hear people philosophize in a relative and often circular manner of reasoning. To them, truth is whatever they believe to be true. They cross their eyes when I remind them of the law of non-contradiction: A cannot be both A and B at the same time or A and B cannot both be true.

Socrates drove everyone nuts with his incessant questioning of “Why?” His dialectic method of questioning made fools out of those who lived without constants, nothing objectively secure.

My parents would say, “You need to be in by 10PM!” I’d ask, “Why?” and they would say, “Because we said so!” Made no sense to me the difference between 9PM and 11PM so I would stay out until midnight which made more sense to me.

And my second nagging question was, “What is truth?” I read almost every word in the Great Books Library, had a I Q of 140 and still didn’t know what truth was. I didn’t learn until I read the Bible Jesus say, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

I still can’t understand how Jesus can be the truth. I can understand how he has the truth, or he knows the truth, or he teaches the truth but how can a man be a concept, and why?

There I go again, I’m right back to where I started!