Tag: sin

NO, NO, NO!

By Rick Mathes

Galatians 5:25 (NASB77) ²⁵  If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

Paul and Jesus teach clearly that there is only one Baptist of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: yes, the Holy Spirit once. When you are baptized you have all the Holy Spirit has and the proof of a genuine baptism is that you walk in the Spirit. When people get to know you they get to know Jesus. You personify the Lord you have pledged your allegiance to.

Fruit of this experience is certainly led by humility: the gentleness of a dove. It was pride that drove Lucifer from heaven and it will be pride that will drive you to hell. It doesn’t take much of a provocation for the devil to jump on your weakness. You can tempt the devil to tempt you with the sin of your weakness.

Lusting for all that is around you is a surrender of your eyes to look outward instead of upward. All the weight of hell is pulling your eyes to look at all the devil’s goodies around you. Taste them and then get so hooked in the flesh you are to proud to admit that you are not strong enough to let go and let God. This battle within you will sap all your strength until you become to weary to get up off the canvas and fight back.

Let the Holy Spirit do His thing! This includes a complete restoration of your soul to its first nature to walk in the cool of the day with God. It’s second nature to turn your back on Jesus and run with the devil. The most outstanding evidence of being good is being to all. Being good to good is manlike but returning good for bad is Christ like.

It’s your responsibility only, no one else’s, to make decisions that are within God’s will. When we go through that turnstile to glory we will meet our King one on one. We will be standing alone and be accountable for all the decisions we have made in our lifetime. So your support ministry is to hold me accountable and mine is to hold you accountable. Together we will sharpen our swords and fight the good fight!

NO THANKS

By Rick Mathes

John 1:11 (NASB77) ¹¹ He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

I can’t get my mind around the truth that God inhabited the man Jesus. Creator enjoined with the creation is more than science fiction because it really happened so that we could see as much of God as our mind was capable of understanding Him. Heaven kissed earth and was spurned and rejected. He lived to die.

To this moment He is almost an “endangered species” in America, so to speak. The efforts Caesar (our president) has permitted has chased anything Christian to a common grave of separation of Church and State instead of Church from State. This misinterpretation of our religious rights has opened up the mouth of hell to vomit it’s evil in every area our nation can be found from coast to coast.

Our own hometowns that once were models for Norman Rockwell paintings are nowbankrupting and being bull-dozed as a wasteland; so much for Humanism and all its immoral tenets and doctrines of relativity. Now we can’t leave our home without an alarm system and a semi-automatic weapon nearby.

Quite often our friends become “politically correct” and avoid any and every reference to religion or anything that has to do with Jesus. Unfortunately, too many of so called “ministers” of the same and you will never hear them utter words “sin, death, devil, hell, repent, etc.” The Puritans are turning over in their graves and I have no doubts that the actions of many churches are making God gag!

The whole world of denominations has drifted so far from Jesus, it’s hard to tell that they are Christians. Ask yourself if you have any class in Church of the words and works of Jesus. I thought so! I guarantee that if Jesus doesn’t attend your church, it wasn’t Him that moved. You had no room for Him in your Inn.

NO ROOM

By Rick Mathes

Luke 2:7 And she gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Can you even imagine how embarrassed that Inn Keeper was when he learned that he turned away the Messiah of Israel? I’ll bet he’s kicking himself all over heaven right now. How can anyone refuse Christ a room in their Inn when they know it’s Jesus?

My birth father was killed in WWII protecting the Judeo-Christian values that our country has since trashed. All I have left of him is a purple heat and the flag that draped his casket. And all our nation has is an abandonment of all moral values. God has all but left the USA. Our modern society has no room for Christianity or anything it stands for. How sad!

Society is totally composed of humanists consumed by materialism. Greed has conquered creed. The world has even encroached on the church and made it an entertainment center that is void of the Word and Holy Spirit. It is not politically correct to post the 10 Commandments nor even speak the name of Jesus in public places. Jesus, the Creator has been banned from fellowship with His created. Just think about that.

This heathen world has immersed itself in all forms of business and has left the marketplace without any respect for integrity or good character. Big fish eat little fish and so it goes on and on. Commerce above the table has been paralyzed under the table as necessary for success. What is our lost world to do?

The only salvation for any civilization is Christ’s Church. The backbone of the true faith is Bible only, Jesus only, grace only and faith only. There is no salvation apart from that formula, the Gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The Church, or rather the Body of Christ is composed of all the homes that are dedicated to the Lord and His blessings. Oh, we don’t have blood over our door posts these days that is visible but that blood of Christ, although invisible, covers those who believe in His Lordship and resurrection.

We all bleed red and we all have a heart that we can give to Jesus. When we do, His blood runs through our veins and our heart beats with His. Yes, we always have room for Him and will never turn Him away!

NO RETREAT

By Rick Mathes

Mark 13:13 And you will be hated by all on account of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved.

Real Christianity is exclusive. There is only one Jesus and He is the only way to the Father and entry into heaven. The hard truth is that everyone else is going to be tortured in eternal flames forever. Jesus said that He was “the way, the truth and the life.” And that no one, no one, without a qualifier can get past Him. This is why Satan’s world of false religions hate us so is because this is the truth or we have joined th army of hypocrites.

Our walk must express our tlk or we have joined the army of hypocrites the devil is marshaling against us; when your profession of allegiance to Jesus is violated. You’ve just gien the demon foot soldiers a victory. This arouses their confidence of victory over your shaky faith and they double their efforts to defeat you with doubt and fear.

In other words, your actions speak louder than your words. You are shaming our Lord when your walk is sabotaged by your own lack of resolve. If I were set out to destroy your relationship with Jesus I would just leave you alone. Without a church of believers to lift you up, you will trip and fall.

It’s just a matter of time. WE are mortal and God knows our death date and I do too. Would you like me to tell you the year, month, week, hour and minute of your last heartbeat? Ok, here it comes! You will die the moment your assignment on earth is accomplished. It is then He will take you to your reward.

There are three things that cannot be recovered: 1. A sped arrow, 2. A spoken word and 3. A passing opportunity. Your words are irrecoverable so use them carefully and protect them like precious jewels.

Lastly, your habits are the actions of your habits. Makes sense to me to do those things that strengthen my stanfd for Christ and in time my habit will be to stand firm, put on the armor and lift up the sword. No that’s a great habit and its essence of the hate those who refuse Him will have against us. We just don’t retreat!

NO RESURRECTION

By Rick Mathes

1 Corinthians 15:12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

The very heart and soul of our faith is the resurrection of our Lord from the dead of His own volition. The empty tomb is His Deity immortalized. It was my mission to prove that it wasn’t so. I thought my wife was really weird believing such nonsense so I went to work to think through really strange believing such silliness so I went to work to think through the alternatives from the book “Evidence Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell. Not necessarily in order of importance but here are a few alternative views:

Fraud Theory: The soldiers were paid by the Jewish leaders to say that the Apostles stole the Lord’s body while they slept. There was a death penalty for the guards of the tomb if they fell asleep. Even if this was true, do you really believe all the Apostles that were martyred confessed with their last breath insisted He rose from the dead if He didn’t?

Swoon Theory: Some claim the vinegar was drugged to make it appear that He died when He really went into some kind of a coma. The Centurion who put the blade of his spear into the Lord’s heart knew better and so did those who buried Him. He was really dead.

Vision Theory: I suspected that all those who saw Him alive were just stoned on drugs and were all hallucinating. Well this doesn’t hold water because they couldn’t have all been seeing the same illusion for forty days and then imagine Him to disappear into a cloud. I don’t think so!

Spirit Theory: I was taught that Jesus the man became Jesus the God at His baptism and died Jesus the man when He gave up His Spirit the God from the cross. Believing that God could be crucified and die was not a consideration. The Bible teaches Jesus was fully God and fully man at all times and that His renewed body is how we will be. The angels testified that He would return (bodily) as He left the ground and we who believe have been looking skyward in expectation of Him ever since.

The conspiracy theories and stories have been merchandised ever since but we who are born again know the truth because He lives on in us. I know, I know my Redeemer lives. How about you?