Wed, Jul 19th - 1:16AM
Your Relationship with God
How important is our relationships with God?
Scripture reading; Matthew 5: 23-26
The last thing the Bible says about relationships is in Revelation 22:11(NIV) “Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy”. This is a warning given to John by an Angel of God, that when the time comes and judgment is at hand it is too late, your relationship toward God is judged and it will be literally an up or down vote; heaven or hell. Wow!
The good news is that you still have time! God is offering you the opportunity to get that good relationship with Him. He waits with open arms! In Acts 17:30 God calls for us to repent. Turn away from sin and turn towards Him. We do this by seeking salvation through the blood of Christ Jesus. Romans 5:1 tells us that the justification of this faith will bring us peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
OK, we have repented and have sought salvation, how do we maintain a relationship with God that pleases Him? Through love and obedience, love of God and of one another and obedience to God and His Commandments and the teachings and examples of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, how important are the relationships among us to God? Well our Lord Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:23 & 24 that is some one has a grievance against you, stop what you are doing even if its presenting your offering gift to God and go resolve the problem with that person and after you settle the dispute then come back and present your offering to God. Wow! Jesus says if you are in dispute with someone settle it before you present your gift offering at the altar. NO you are not putting your other relationships before your relationship with God. It simply means that if you are not being obedient to God by keeping ill will between you and others. How can you keep a good relationship with God if you do not have a good relationship with anyone else?
Now when I was working for the State of California, every year the staff was required to attend as interpersonal relationship class. It seems that when you are dealing with thousands of inmates on a daily basis they felt that you needed to know how to communicate with them properly. It would seem that one staff member with a ten inmate work crew or an average of fourteen staff on a yard complex with one thousand to twelve hundred inmates; one would need the knowledge of how to communicate effectively with another person. Fourteen vs. twelve hundred talk about being in a boat surrounded by sharks! For those who do not think communication and relationship skills are important I invite them to spend eight hours surrounded by every street/prison gang and racial group in existence. It is a quick education. Remember the drawing of the boat with the people in it? We all are those people on that boat, whether you want to say it is Starbrick Community Church surrounded by the sea of evil or all of Christianity is in that boat surround by the sea of evil trying to sink that boat. All of us are in that boat and we have to get along; be in fellowship with each other and in good fellowship with God, the Captain of our boat.
It was important to my employer to know how to get along with others and it is important to God that we get along with each other and are in good fellowship with Him. The Bible speaks to us in many places on how we are to get along when problems arise and they will. The Bible also speaks to us on how to resolve those problems. From Genesis to Revelation you will find instruction on how to relate to others and how to relate to God.
A final thought, when Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment in the Law He replied; “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it; 'love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV)
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Wed, Jul 19th - 1:14AM
Who are the 'poor in spirit'?
Who are the 'poor in spirit'?
Read Revelation 22:12-16
“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice the magic arts, the sexually immoral, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the Bright Morning Star.”
In Revelation 22:12 Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, says 'Behold I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”
What have you done? What will be your reward? Will you be blessed because you washed your robes of the filth of sin and enter the gates of the city or will you remain outside with the dogs, those who practice the magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehoods? (Revelation 22:14-15)
Our Goal is to be blessed for washing our robes and enter the gates of the city, the New Jerusalem, and to receive our reward for what we have done.
How do we get there?
First and most important, have you confessed your sin, repented – turned your back on sin, and have your asked Jesus to come into heart and be your Lord and Savior?
Second, we must live our lives as Jesus taught us to. For this we must start with Jesus' first public sermon before the masses.
The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount are a wonderful guide for our lives.
The Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount could be summarized as the Christian Code of Conduct.
'Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.' What does poor in spirit mean? It is the opposite of being spiritually proud. You don't earn the kingdom of Heaven it is a reward for what you have done. Being spiritually proud is doing what you feel is right and proclaiming “I am earning my place in heaven because.....” “I know I'm going to heaven because I do(did)......” You do not earn your way in to heaven it is a reward that is give to us according to what we have done. Being poor in spirit means do as you are taught by Jesus, what is written in God's word, and counseled to you by the Holy Spirit, but you do not boast about it. Scripture tells us this.
1 Corinthians 1:31 “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
2 Corinthians 10:17-18 “But let him who boasts boast in the Lord. For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved but the one who the Lord commends.”
2 Corinthians 11:30 “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”
Galatians 6:14 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For it is by Grace you have been saved through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.”
So you do not boast in what you do. If you must boast you should boast of the Lord and what he has done for us all. Not one of us is better that the other. We can do nothing to save ourselves except confess our sins and ask forgiveness and begin our walk with Jesus.
Psalm 1:1 says “ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners of sit in the seat of mockers” Verse 2 says ' But his delight is in the law of the Lord and on the law he meditates day and night.'
Revelation 1:3 tells us to read and take to heart the word of the Lord for the time is near.
Now that is a lot of verses to take in at one time but if we tie them together we begin to see a picture form. This picture is the poor in spirit. To be poor in spirit one is obedient to the Lord. One does not take credit for that which the Lord has done for them. The poor in spirit knows in their hearts that solely by the Grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that they are saved. Nothing they can do will earn them a place in heaven and they know that in their hearts and they rejoice in the fact that God has made a place for them and has promised it to them for their obedience to Him.
The Poor In Spirit do not go around in a depression, that is not what poor in spirit means. You are to be on fire for the Lord, praising Him in all that you do. Do not become lukewarm like the church in Landicea in Revelation chapter three. Poor in spirit means being righteous not self-righteous. For nothing is possible with out the Lord.
Being poor in spirit means to stand in the spirit of righteousness. We rightly give the credit where it is due, on the Cross of Jesus.
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Wed, Jul 19th - 12:58AM
Responsibility
Responsibility
Scripture Luke 23:26-43
Since the original sin in Genesis no one has wanted to take responsibility for his or her actions. After Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God had to look for them as they were hiding because of the their sin. They knew that they had done wrong and did not want to face up to what they did. When questioned Adam said the woman made him do it, the woman blamed it on the serpent, the devil made her do it. Adam and Eve were passing the blame on to someone else other than themselves. Not much has changed with mankind. No one wants to accept responsibility for their actions.
There are a whole list of excuses that we all have to us to not take responsibility for our own actions. We blame society, violent neighborhoods, abusive parents and broken homes, drugs and alcohol. There is no end to the line of excuses that we will use to try to get out of the responsibility of our actions.
The Bible teaches us that we are responsible for our own actions. Paul tells us in Galatians 6:7 “what you sow you will reap”. You will be held accountable for your actions and your words. If you sow evil you will reap evil and if you don't pay for it now you will in eternity.
God does not accept excuses. Matthew 16:27 tells us that Jesus is coming back and “He will reward each person according to what he has done”. The 'yeah but' card will not be accepted! You know the 'yeah but' card, 'did you do that? Yeah But......' 1 Corinthinans3:8 says 'each will be rewarded according to his own labor'. You will be rewarded according to you own labor, you own what you do, no one else! You will be held responsible for your own actions. Good for good and bad for bad.
Christ was crucified between two thieves, one mocked him and to the end did not take responsibility for his sins, taunting Jesus to save himself and them from their crosses. The other thief understood that he was paying for his actions, accepted his responsibility and asked forgiveness of Jesus as he knew in his heart Jesus was the Christ.
You are behind the wheel of your own life, you decide which direction it goes, up or down the road. You alone are responsible for your actions and only your actions.
The lesson in Matthew 7:1-2 is that we need to stop looking at the faults of others and judging them ourselves. Its ourselves we need to be worried about. By keeping our eyes on ourselves and our own actions and by accepting full responsibility for our own lives we can have a closer walk with Jesus.
Now this being fathers day lets look at what the bible says about the responsibility of fathers. First to be a father you need a wife to be a mother. Ephesians chapter 5 tells husbands to love there wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. Love your wives as you love yourselves.
The love between and mother and a father is the example for their children. Children will live by the example they see their parents set.
Ephesians 6:4 'fathers do not exasperate your children instead bring them up in the teachings, training, and instruction of the Lord.' Not exasperating your children means to act responsibly with them. An unreasonable father will not hold the attention nor the respect of his children.
Colossians echoes this in 3:21 'fathers do not embitter your children or they will become discouraged', Proverbs 22:6 'train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not stray from it'.
Deuteronomy 6:7 says about teaching your children God's commandments, “Impress them on your children, talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Basically there is no wrong time to talk to your children about God, his commandments, the teachings of Jesus and what they mean in our lives.
As fathers your are certainly responsible for your own actions but your have been given the additional task of showing your children how to be responsible for their own lives to God. And the bible tells us that you not only teach by instruction but by example. You have to live the life you want your children to live because children learn by seeing and hearing.
John 3:16 'for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life'
Jesus, the manifestation of God in human flesh, came to be with us to teach us, to fellowship with us, to lead us. When Jesus was carrying that cross, bloody and beaten, to calvary he was not carrying just some old hunk of wood to be nailed to, no He was carrying the burden of our sins, he was nailed to our sins, he was raised and hung on our sins and he bore the entire burden of our sins. He died for our sins. Then he arose again to defeat our sins and give us forgiveness so that we may have eternity in heaven with the Father. Sent by the Heavenly Father to teach us, lead us by verbal and visual example and self sacrifice, Jesus showed us all, even fathers, how to walk closer to God. Jesus bore the burden of our sins so that all we have to do is be responsible for our sins, repent of our sins, ask forgiveness of our sins and lead a Godly, God centered life so that when our judgment comes we will find that the our fine has already been paid in full by the blood of Christ Jesus and we will have everlasting life in the peace and glory of heaven.
If you haven't done so, ask God to come into your heart and forgive your sins. Tell Him that you know Jesus is the Christ, the one who died for your sins. Take responsibility for your sins and turn from them now, turn away from that sinful life and turn towards God. Take him into your heart and begin your walk with the Heavenly Father.
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Wed, Jul 19th - 12:54AM
Thoughts
No matter how we plan out our lives and wish them to go if they are not God centered nothing good will come of it. God and obedience to Him is the center point of life, without that there is no fellowship with the Master and no happiness in our lives. Make the time and seek out a relationship with God you will be happier for it and so will He.
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Mon, Jul 17th - 2:13AM
small update
Alot has been keeping me busy the last few months. Keeping up with Doctors and Health issues and assisting the Senior Pastor with activities at the Church. The are alot of irons in the fire.
Always take time to pray and meditate on God's word. Remain in fellowship with the Master.
More Later.
Rev. Mick
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Name: Mick Griffin
