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Because of our victory in Christ we should live from the position Christ won for us.  When we’re fixed in our faith, God uses us!

Can you say, my face is set. My stride is fast. My goal is heaven. My road may be narrow, my way rough, my guide is reliable and my mission is clear?

Can you say, I do not want to be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed?

As a child we played a game called “you flinched.”  If you flinched it was a sign of weakness in adversity. I do not want to bargain with the enemy, get caught up in the desire for popularity, or fall to mediocrity.

 Can you say, I won’t give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and preached up for the cause of Christ?

Realize you are a disciple of Jesus. That means you will  give until you can’t, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when He does come for His own, He’ll have no problems recognizing you.

1 Cor. 15:3-4, “for I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the 3rd day according to the Scriptures.”

Is something holding you back?  As Christians, we must be forward-focused in serving our Lord and trusting God for results.

God has won the victory. You are fighting from ‘Victory.’

Are we giving our best to Jesus’ work? 1 Cor. 15:58, Romans 8:5.  I knew a preacher once who would wear him self out on Saturday and could hardly make it on Sunday.

How do we do his work?  To teach our children about Jesus at home and at Sunday school. We serve.  We encourage those believers who are down, we call and lift up others.

A church is a caring body. But when loafers don’t pull their part of the load, it falls on others to do it.

The word says, be “always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Always. Over-and-above. Knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Some people hate washing dishes because more dirty dishes magically appear overnight. Sweeping and vacuuming are the same way. Things never stay clean. Someone is always tracking in dirt. You get discouraged. It’s only when you consider the alternatives that you get out your vacuum cleaner and have another go at it.

Your wife may not keep track of how often you change the spark plugs. Your husband has no idea of how often you have to dust.

But God keeps track of our faithfulness in His work. He sees us serving Him when no one else sees; and seeing us hanging in there brings joy to his heart.

Our Christian service is not done in vain for three reasons:

1. Christ’s work is built with our service; that phone call, kind words, prayers. 
2. Seeing your faithful service brings joy to God’s heart.
3. God will reward you for your faithfulness, even when no one else sees. Notes of service are made every time you serve Him. In a word, your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Yes, I get discouraged and so do you. But God keeps bringing us back to this verse to build us up and help us to see the importance of faithful service. Don’t give up. Your labor in Christ is not in vain.

God wants your best not your leftover efforts. God gave his best, in Jesus his Son!

Be immovable. Stand in the victory that is yours. And give God your best. Leave the results to Him.

As a christian, how do I overcome Negative thoughts and live an abundant  positive life as Jesus said in John 10:10?

Most people don’t see things as they are, they see them as THEY are.  Having a positive mental attitude is asking how something can be done rather than saying it can’t be done. “It’s better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right.”

Negative thinking starts with a thought or a feeling. Then it starts to drag you down to feeling sorry for yourself, even thinking “what’s the point of taking any action at all?” So, you walk around in a funk with your own personal rain cloud above your head.

Once the sin of negativity gets inside of you or in the world around you,  you quickly become toxic and you do not have the life they want.

The following behaviors have helped me, and still help me to prevent and to overcome my own negative thoughts.

1. When you’re in a negative situation, look for  positive  thought. What’s one good thing about this situation? What’s one thing I can do differently the next time to likely have a better outcome.

2. Reminder: people don’t care that much about what you say or do. It’s easy to fall into negative thoughts when you think about what people may say or think if you do or do not do something.

We can zap our personal power and may trap ourselves in analysis paralysis. Getting stuck in your head and in thoughts like that will drag you further away from what you want and from reality.

Because the truth is, people don’t have that much time, attention or energy to think or talk about what you do. They have their hands and minds full with their life.

3. Question our thought process. One thing I like to do when a negative thought taps me on the shoulder and tries to start growing in my mind is to question that thought.

I ask myself:  Should I take this seriously?  This most often leads me to say: well, no, I honestly shouldn’t, because at that moment in time I may be tired, or hungry, or overworked and so negativity can try to cloud my mind.

I can’t be too focused on one small mistake or one bad day instead of focusing on the other 95% of my life that tends to be positive. Sometimes this question helps me to see more effectively. Because I did one small thing wrong doesn’t mean that I did poorly overall.

4. Replace the negativity in your surroundings.  What you let into your mind in your everyday life will have big effect on you. So start questioning what you focus on.

5. Stop making mountains out of molehills. To stop a small negative thought from becoming a big monster in your mind, confront it early. Ask this question, will this matter in 5 years? Or even 5 weeks?  This answer in most cases is likely that it won’t and that you were only starting to make a mountain out of a molehill.

6. Let it out and talk it over.  Keeping negative thoughts that are starting to cloud your whole mind bottled up won’t help.  So let them out. Talk the situation or your thoughts over with someone close to you. Just venting for a few minutes with a friend can often help you to see the situation in a new light.  If not, then a conversation about it where the two of you find a more useful perspective and perhaps the start of an action-plan can be both relieving and recharging.

7. Live in and come back to this moment.  When you’re tapping into negative thinking then you’re often thinking about something that happened. Or something that may happen. Or both, all jumbled up as your mood and thoughts sink.  Start making it a habit to spend more of your time in the present moment and you’ll have less negative thoughts and be more open and constructive.

8. Exercise a little.  I find that when I’m having trouble with thinking myself out of negativity then it often works well to change my headspace by using my body.  So I go for a 20-30 minute walk or work out. This helps me to release inner tension and worries and it makes my mind focus and become constructive once again.

9. Don’t let the vague fears drag you down.  One common mistake people make when it comes to fears is to become scared and run away from them instead of taking a closer look. It’s of course natural to feel that impulse and to want to avoid it, but when fears are vague they can become so much scarier than they need too.  So what can you do? One thing that has helped me is this question:  Realistically, what’s the worst that could happen in this situation?

When you start to ground a fear like that and begin to look at it with your feet firmly planted on the ground then you most often realize that the worst that could happen isn’t really that bad.

It’s often something you can make a plan to come back from it were to happen.
You can also probably start listing and taking action on a few things that will reduce the likelihood of this worst case scenario happening.

By doing this you gain clarity about the situation and what you can do about it and so the fear does tend to become quite a bit smaller.

10. Bring positivity into someone else’s life.  If you get stuck in negative thoughts or victim thinking then one of the simplest ways to get out of your own head and the thoughts bouncing around in there is to focus outwards and on someone else.  By adding positivity to his or her life in some way you too can start to feel better and more optimistic again.

A few ways to add positivity to someone’s life are to:  Be kind. Give them a genuine compliment.  Help out. Give them some good advice that may have helped you.

Just be there. Listen for a few minutes in a focused way as they vent, or talk their difficult situation over to help them to start finding a way out of their situation.

11. Be grateful for a few of the things you may often take for granted.  When we get negative it’s easy to forget the positive things in life. Especially the ones that are just a normal part of life that we may take for granted a bit too often.

A few such things that I like to put my attention on and feel grateful for during such negative times are:

Food on our table.
A roof over my head.
As much clean water as I need.
Kind and helpful family and friends.

12. Start tomorrow in a way that sets a positive tone for your day.  How you start your day often sets the tone for it.  A pessimistic or negative start makes it hard to turn things around. But a positive start makes it a lot easier to just keep going with that emotion and the optimistic way of thinking until it is bedtime again.

In closing, God gave us great advise in Philippians 4:8 KJV.  “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

God bless you

The doctrine of eternal punishment is a foundational doctrine for believers in Jesus.  Hell is not a popular subject and certainly not preached much anymore. Even in church settings, it is statically a fact that fewer and fewer people believe in hell.

Today some who call themselves Christians deny the doctrine entirely. Even some religious high profile television preachers admittedly avoid the doctrine.  The pastor of one of the largest churches in the country located in Texas told CBS reporter Tracy Smith he refuses to preach on hell. He said people already feel guilty enough.

A recent survey on Hell reports that 71 percent of adults in the good old USA believe in hell, but don’t want to hear about it .  Why? Because the influence of a secular society that stresses individualism over authority and the human psyche over moral absolutes.

The Pope has pubically said, Hell is not so much a torment by fire but it’s a separation from God. The worlds most popular evangelist, who preached to multiple thousands is on record as saying “He believed hell is essentially separation from God. Whether there is actually fire in hell or not, he said “He did not know.”

Jesus spoke often of hell with graphic details of torment from flames that never went out. In the book of the Revelation, John had a vision of a lake of fire.  The pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in California is on record as saying, “I don’t ever want people to become Christian to escape hell. Why not? In Luke 15 Jesus said to fear Him who can cast your soul into hell.  Hell appears 23 times in the KJV, 14 times in the NIV, but it’s changed to words like Hades, “the depths” and “the grave”. It appears 13 times in the NKJV.

The gospel is good news because it makes our life better, because Jesus paid the price for our sin so we can have eternal life and escape the eternal death.  Many who claim to be Christians do not believe that.

The truth is that Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone else in Scripture. Jesus referred to Hell as a real place and described it in graphic terms. He described it as a place of fire that burns but doesn’t consume, an undying worm that eats away at the damned, and a lonely place of darkness. Jesus says the unsaved will be thrown into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth – Matthew 8:12.

Jesus taught that an unbridgeable chasm separates the wicked in Hell from the righteous.  The wicked suffer terribly, remain conscious, retain their desires and memories, long for relief, cannot find comfort, cannot leave their torment, and have no hope  – Luke 16:19 &31, Our Savior could not have painted a bleaker picture of Hell.

The clear teaching of the Word of God on both heaven and hell stands or falls together. If the one is real, so is the other; if the one is a myth, so is the other. The best reason for believing in Hell is that Jesus said it exists.

Isn’t it strange that we’re fine when Jesus says, My peace I leave you, my peace I give to you. We love it when Jesus says things like: Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. However, we’re not so excited when Jesus says things such as: John 5:28-29 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.

Matthew 25:41: Depart from me ye cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever believeth not the Son of God will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.

We cannot make Hell go away simply because the thought of it makes us uncomfortable. If I believe the bible I must believe Hell is just and right.

So, those who want to believe Hell is not hot anymore are seriously wrong.  Hell is hot but Heaven is sweet. 

Thank you Lord Jesus, because I trusted you as my savior I am going to the beautiful Heaven not a hot hell.

Job’s main complaint against God is not His control or His care — His main complaint is: God, are truly aware of what I am going through?

Job pours out his heart to God, wanting assurance that God really knows what is happening in his life.   What  Job does is something that should bring us comfort when we’re hurting—that God is a Father who knows what we’re going through, who knows what we’re facing.  A God who has never left us in all our trials of life.  Job realizes how he sees God in the final chapter:

 Job 42:3 – God speaks to Job about Job  questioning God’s  wisdom. Job realized he (Job) was talking about things he knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for him (Job).  The word wonderful is used and it’s a word that you don’t expect to be used in the middle of discussing pain and suffering. When Job realizes what God knows, he truly sees God in the right way.

How do you see God? Hopefully, you see God as your guide, your master, your hope of eternal life through Christ Jesus being your Lord and Saviour.

God bless you.

When it seems like everything is driving us to isolation, we get to unite as the Church.

Each person has a different impact – whether it’s kids at home from school, businesses closing, or health concerns; we all need to lean on each other for care, support, and encouragement.

This is when the Church gets to take action, when we reach out to the hurting and those with other needs.

Amen

I often run into husbands who want to lord over their wives because “God made me the head of the home so, you need to submit!” Such men may call themselves whatever they choose, but their heart is not Godly.  They don’t know the word of God; they don’t know the first thing about God. If they did, they would know that they are sent as servants. “Even so, Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.”

When I read 1 Peter 5, it reminds me of bullies on the playground or dictators in the pulpit who are like cancers on the body and must not be tolerated. 

The parable of all parables on this subject is Luke 17:7-10
7:  But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?
8: And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?
9: Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.
10: So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Always remember, we must keep saying to ourselves – even when we have done everything Jesus required – “I am only an unworthy servant; just doing my duty because of love.”

God bless you.

Would it make a difference in your life if an archeologist announced he had found the bones of Jesus?  What would you say?  That would mean no resurrection. SO WHAT!!

1 Cor. 15: 17-19 says ¹⁷And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. ¹⁸Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. ¹⁹If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

If Christ is not raised from the dead, if his bones are buried somewhere in Palestine, then we cannot know Him. That man is dead. We might read about him, we might revere him, but we cannot know him.

This is why the resurrection is so central to Christians: Christianity is not just a feel-good religion.  Christianity is a relationship with a living Savior, a Savior we can know, a Savior who infuses our life and empowers us, who transforms us into his likeness.

Today we will look at what the bible says about knowing Christ and what is this power of his resurrection? There are a lot of opinions about what knowing God means.

Some know facts about God, but do not know him.  I know more about my wife than any of you.  I could give you many facts about her, tell stories about her. I know her because for 46 years we have been in a relationship, sharing joys and sorrows. So, knowing her is much more than knowing facts about her life.

Again, knowing God goes beyond learning facts. We must have our own relationship with him. How?
a. Putting your faith in Him; believing that He is the Son of God,
b. Spending time in prayer,
c. Read the Bible and follow Him even if it doesn’t make sense.

Four aspects of knowing God’s resurrection power:
1. The Power to Have Sins Forgiven – 1 John 1:9
2. The Power to Conquer Sin – Eph 4:24
3. The Power to Be God’s Agent – Eph 2:10
4. The Power to Be Conformed to His Likeness – Rom 8:29

So, do you know the resurrected Jesus? Do you believe he rose from the dead? Has he been working in your heart? What better day than Resurrection Sunday to fall on your knees and acknowledge Him as your Savior!  Can you say with Paul that you consider everything else you’ve done to be rubbish compared to knowing Him? Do you know the power of the resurrection in your life? It’s one thing to make a decision to know Christ, it’s another to make a commitment to follow him, so that you might be conformed to his likeness.  Christ is risen from the dead! Believe it! And know Him!

1.   I believe the bible teaches that suffering is a necessary part of the Christian life.  We love to share in Christ’s glory, but what about sharing in His suffering? The Bible teaches that we must suffer trials if we are to share in the glory.  In Romans 8:18, Paul said, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present times (life) are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”  That means in us, for us, and conferred on us!

2.   Could it be that God uses our present suffering to prepare us for future glory?  This life is just getting us ready for eternity. God is using everything that happens in our life to prepare us for future glory. Get this: there are a lot of questions in life we simply can’t answer.  But in the life to come we will either know the answers or it won’t matter because the glory of Christ will be so great.  

3.   Either way we will know that our suffering can never separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.  If in all that I have said you can’t find any comfort, hang on to this: God still loves you. He loves you as much in the darkness as he does in the light.  Nothing you are going through can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. So, let us keep on going for the Lord. Be encouraged as a Child of God. He loves us even in and through our pain. He loves us even when we don’t act like we love him. He loves us when we feel totally alone. He loves us with an everlasting love. Suffering robs us of our health, happiness, and abundant life God desires for us.  Also, there’s one thing suffering can’t do. It can’t take away the love of God.  Once we’re in the heaven God has prepared for us we will discover that God himself was with us every step of the way. We will stand in his presence redeemed and glorified. Every trace of this decaying world will be left far behind. The sufferings of this life will have faded away. Until we look on his glorious face let us trust in his infallible word that endures forever.  God bless you!

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17

When a person trusts Jesus Christ as his/her savior, changes will occur.  Others will see the transformation in them.  You won’t see perfection in a Christian, but what you will see is that something will be different in that person. You will see some evidence that a person has a relationship with Christ.

Now, it’s very important to understand that we aren’t talking about being saved by works. You aren’t a Christian because you don’t curse or smoke or cut people off in traffic or because you go to church or give money to charity.

Rom. 3:23 -26: Everyone sins and comes up short of God’s glory, but through Christ we are forgiven of those sins. A Christian is someone who calls on Christ to save them from their sins.  You’ll see these differences more clearly in some Christians than in others – we’re all a work in progress and we all grow in Christ at different rates. But eventually the person who is following Christ will:

1) They will love the Lord Jesus Christ

We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

2) They will hate Sin

Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. (Rom. 12:9)

3) Followers of Christ Will Want To Pray

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7)

4) They will want to study God’s word and apply Biblical Teaching

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. (James 1:22)

5) They will turn from the works of the flesh

The works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. (Gal. 5:19-21)

6)  They will produce the Fruits of the Spirit in their life

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Ga. 5:22-23)

7) They will live by faith

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for

It is not God’s will that we have doubts about his will, his calling, his word and his power to save a soul and keep them saved as he has promised, “unto the day of his appearing”.  Many sincere believers battle this.  It’s terrible to be insecure and God is not in it!  It is God’s will the we be free from false doctrines regarding his promise of eternal security. 

One desire of my ministry is to resolve doubt.  One of Daniel’s gifts was resolving doubt.  The king said, “Daniel resolving doubt is in you.”  I enjoy seeing God turn on the light in the life of people. 

Some may say, “Preacher, what about Hebrews 6:1?” This is where we leave the school of the Law of Moses, the law of do’s and do nots, and go on to the school of Christ.  That is the school of perfection in which Christ has accomplished in verses 5 and 6 where we read the words, “they and themselves”

Get this! All scripture is profitable, even warning scriptures. We must let the Holy Spirit direct us. First let’s ask, who was the book of Hebrews written to?  In Hebrews 1:1 we read, who is their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jewish people. These people lived in AD 63-64 and there is no indication that these people were saved. There is indication that they had mental accent, they believed Jesus was the Messiah, but not the savior.  They came to the temple and followed the requirement of the Mosaic law, (works). They were good people but they were not saved people.  Some think they were saved but fell away.  But this scripture says it’s impossible; listen – Christians may fall away, but they can come back to Lord.  There is no such thing as a believer going too far for God to forgive them and restore them back into fellowship with him. 

These people in Hebrews were enlightened.  That means they knew more about something (Jesus), they tasted, but did not drink him in.  Jesus said if any man thirst let him taste? No, he said, “let him drink”.  To the woman at well, Jesus said whosoever drinks this water, not taste the water.  Verses-7-8 The ones that taste are the ones who received blessing from God: He is saying your end is to be burned, so your end is coming close.  Verse 9 BUT, (beloved), in 1 John 1 they are not called beloved, but in 1 John 2 they are called beloved.  In 1 John 2 for the first time he uses the word “we”. There are obscure passages of scripture in the bible and there are clear passages of scripture.  Never allow the obscure to rob you of the joy of clear passages.

In John 10:27-30 we read the words, Shall NEVER parish, Gk = You may, never, no way, never ever, cannot, no way.  No one can take us out of the hand of Jesus. I am secure in Jesus and nothing can touch me without touching Jesus.  I’m in Jesus’ and God’s hands, that’s how safe we are. Nowhere does a passage contradict this clear statement of our Lord.

Hebrews 6:10-18  See your, ye, ye saints, we, you, ye – God made a promise to Abraham, and because God could swear by no greater name, he swore by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. God issued a sworn oath verse 18 That because of two immutable things for those in Christ Jesus have nothing to fear.so, rejoice in the faith because it is impossible for God to lie. We might have a strong faith. Why would someone want to keep you insecure? We should have less faith in man’s reasoning than God’s reasoning.

In the Old Testament Joshua ordained 6 cities of refuge, no one could touch those who fled to a refuge city that was run by priest, they ran from the avenger of Blood.  Like us, they found refuge in Jesus.  To lay hold upon the hope set before us: Like many of us they had a weak faith but strong blessing Verse 19 nothing can remove you from him, verse 20.  Heb 6 we see two impossibilities 1. To renew, 2. God’s promise to keep you and bless you. The first was man’s impossibility and the second is God’s ability.

We are in the school of life and it does not give assignments.  It’s the school of life Christ uses to transform us.  Gal. 3 says did you receive the holy spirit by the works of the law or by hearing of faith.  Paul is talking to unperfect people.  Does God work miracles by hearing law or works of faith?

We come to him boldly, not like an abused person, God wants you to know all judgement for his children is gone, there is now no condemnation for those is Christ Jesus.  People bring up passages that you can lose your salvation.  Always remember context has priority over text.  Take text out of context and you end up with the word “con”. God gives a blessed assurance and strong boldness to come into him.  We are his family. If you find a child who is afraid to come to their parents you will find that almost always that child has been abused. 

Some want to make people think they can lose their salvation and it is actually a means to control them.  Only those who are secure in Jesus can rest well.  Get this! Joy and insecurity cannot co-exist.

It is God’s desire for you that you have security, and come to him boldly; all the judgement is past, all that is in front of you is hope.  Every passage I have examined where people try to prove you can lose your salvation, they take text out of context.

Wrong belief will always fail you.  If you have security there is comfort and blessed assurance.  God loves you, accepts you and He is on your side.  I am against sin and I am for repentance and faith.

Some say what about Hebrews 10:26-29, that it is called an obscure passage, John 3:16 is certain clarity and is a clear passage.

Jesus said I give them eternal life and they will never perish. Never in the original language means you will never, never. perish or else Jesus lied. Some think God is on their side until the next sin.  John 3:16 says who-so-ever, are you a who-so-ever? 

Do you know the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, the salvation that is eternally secure?  Not because you’re good, not because you’ve joined the church and been baptized, not because of any good you have done.  The salvation in Christ comes to us by acknowledging that we have sinned and we accept that Jesus paid our sin debt on the cross and we accept him as our personal savior.