HE IS
HE IS the first and last, the beginning and the end!
HE IS the keeper of creation and the Creator of all!
HE IS the architect of the universe and the manager of all times.
HE ALWAYS WAS, HE ALWAYS IS, and HE ALWAYS WILL BE…unmoved, unchanged, undefeated, and never undone!
HE WAS bruised and brought healing!
HE WAS pierced and eased pain!
HE WAS persecuted and brought freedom!
HE WAS dead and brought life!
HE IS risen and brings power!
HE reigns and brings peace!
The world can’t understand HIM,
The armies can’t defeat HIM,
The schools can’t explain HIM, and
The leaders can’t ignore HIM.
Herod couldn’t kill HIM,
The Pharisees couldn’t confuse HIM, and
The people couldn’t hold HIM!
Nero couldn’t crush HIM,
Hitler couldn’t silence HIM,
The new age can’t replace HIM, and
Doubters can’t explain HIM away!
HE IS light, love, longevity, and LORD.
HE IS goodness, kindness, gentleness, and GOD.
HE IS holy, righteous, mighty, powerful, and pure.
HIS ways are right,
HIS word is eternal,
HIS will unchanging, and
HIS mind is on me!
HE IS my Redeemer,
HE IS my Saviour,
HE IS my guide, and
HE IS my peace!
HE IS my joy,
HE IS my comfort,
HE IS my LORD, and
HE rules my life!
I serve HIM because HIS bond is love, HIS burden is light, and HIS goal for me is abundant life!
Charity, The More Excellent Way
1 Corinthians 12:31-14:1
The argument is that wonderful as a “way” is that is enriched by miracles and healings and tongues, a walk with God, in the energy of the nature of God–that is, love–is much more wonderful, and very much more to be desired. Love is conformity to the nature of God–the expression of what He is.
Love acts in benevolence to others; it is the opposite of selfishness. It has its source within. It is not moved fundamentally by circumstances. Its strength is independent of outward things–even of the objects which it blesses. Thus it can bless men in circumstances which usually produce irritation or jealousy. It acts according to its own nature, for love is its own motive.
It feeds others, not itself; hence the first eight qualities of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-5) express renunciation of self. Where love is, reality is; it never changes; it is always itself.
Miracles, like childhood, pass away, but love never does. A man may possess all “gifts”, but if destitute of this Divine Nature, he is a stranger to God and to grace. For gift is not grace. Balaam was a gifted man, but he was by choice an enemy of the truth.
Miracles, healings, and tongues characterize childhood, but love and preaching characterize manhood (1 Corinthians 14:1). Love saw nothing in these miraculous powers, but instruments to be used for the good of others and not for the gratification of self, or for the promotion of self-importance. The great things that love aims at is the profit of others; hence the importance of preaching, for it edifies, encourages, and comforts.
But in Corinth, as today in Christendom, men exercised spiritual gifts for their own selfish enjoyment, or in order to attract the admiration of others unto themselves. This is selfish vanity, rather than love.
The God of all grace may not withdraw the gifts from those who use them unworthily, but this by no means indicates He approves of how they are being used. God blessed Solomon in measures far above the usual. But in the end, Solomon did not use what God had given him to glorify the Lord. The parable of the talents (Matthew 25) reveals that the giving of gifts do not guarantee those who receive them will, or are, using them for the God intended purpose. But in the judgment, all the gifted will be judged as to whether they used their gifts for the God intended purpose.
SHARINGJudging Ourselves
“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:31-32
It is very hard to undertake the task of being our own judge. I said undertake, not do. For the doing of it, if we undertake it, will have God’s blessings. Plus, we know more about ourselves, thus we have the greatest ability to undertake this noble effort.
Good character is the product of being objective minded about ourselves. For it is through wanting to see ourselves as we really are, versus what we should be, that we become able to recognize needed changes on our part. To care not to prove ourselves, leaves us lopsided, one-sided, and blinded to what we really are.
God’s challenge to judge ourselves is not to shame us, but to perfect us. A good navigator is constantly checking his instruments to make sure he is on course. A good builder checks everything he puts together to assure the measurements are correct. Steering wheels are put on cars so as to constantly correct the course of the vehicle. Should a navigator, builder, or driver resent and resist the “check and correct” process because they see it as an affront to them personally, they are headed for disaster.
God’s challenge is to judge ourselves when things are going good, as well as when things are bad. For the most part, when we are comfortable with ourselves the way we are, that is when we are most likely to be distracted from where we should be. It is easier to build a wall to separate ourselves from our problem than it is to resolve our problem, but then to solve the problem, we have to tear the wall down again.
In judging ourselves, we take everything, whether we are comfortable with it or not, and say, “Is this really the way it should be?” The church at Ephesus, in Revelation 2:1-7, was very comfortable in their unconcerned state. Human nature is very comfortable with the state of having sinned and come short of the glory of God. But we must address the issue, “Is this the way it is supposed to be?”
God wants us to accept the responsibility for “what should be”. He will judge us if we fail to do this. Our testimony, and thus our over all life, is measured by what should be. Simply put, to ignore what should be, testifies that what we are doing is not the way it should be.
SHARINGThe Anti-Christ
The anti-christ has several identifications in the Bible, all of them being descriptive of him or his empire… “the Wicked”, “the beast”, “man of sin”, “son of perdition (destruction)”, etc.
The anti-christ is a man, who is a secular minded politician, who is an unbeliever, who had opportunity to be saved before the rapture, but received not the love of the truth and will be under strong delusion, who yields himself totally unto Satan, to do the lusts of the Devil, who is the god of this world and the prince of the power of the air, John 8:44, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Ephesians 2:2.
To make the anti-christ out to be some supernatural creature other than a man, as some have, is unscriptural. He is a man, “whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders” 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Some say Cain, Judas Iscariot, and the anti-christ are all the same person, who just appeared on the earth at different times. But since the anti-christ is cast alive into the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20), then who will inhabit the bodies of Cain and Judas Iscariot when they are resurrected? To invent such a triune person would mean Satan has the power to raise the dead, to incarnate into humna flesh and to reincarnate those of a former life into a new life on earth. So if all this is true, then maybe Saddam Hussein is really Nebuchadnezzar reincarnated after all??? To declare Satan to have power over death, to reincarnate the dead into a new body, thousands of years later, is an anti-christ doctrine, as Jesus Christ is the only One who has the victory over death, to raise the dead and give them a new body. Christians, let’s not lose our heads in superstitious thinking and accord the anti-christ the status of “The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men” Acts 14:11
The anti-christ will arise out of a power base, revived out of the old Roman empire (Daniel 7). This explains “the beast that was, and is not, and yet is” (the Roman empire having been, then passing from the scene politically, but not religiously, and then coming together again as a federation of 10, under the anti-christ–“was, is not, and yet is”).
The anti-christ comes to power after the rapture as a great political conqueror, Revelation 6:2. He appears to be a man that has made a great political comeback, to the admiration of the whole world, Revelation 13:3-4.
In the middle of the tribulation, having been cast into the earth by Michael and his angels, Satan uses the anti-christ to launch his campaign, seeking to destroy Israel. The anti-christ breaks the mid-east peace treaty, leads a U.N. army invasion of Israel, sets up his headquarters in the Temple (yet to be rebuilt) declaring himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4), thus the abomination of desolation, as prophesied by Daniel 9:27, Daniel 12:11, Matthew 24:15-22, and Zechariah 13:8-14:2.
Jesus will then return with His saints to deliver Israel, by destroying the U.N. armies at the Battle of Armageddon, Revelation 14:14-20, 16:13-16, 19:11-21, Joel 3:9-16, Zechariah 12:9-14, 14:3-15, with the beast and the false prophet being cast alive into the lake of fire, Revelation 19:20.
Then shall Christ establish His millennial kingdom on earth, while Satan is bound for a thousand years in the bottomless pit. THUS THE GREAT DAY OF THE LORD!!!
SHARINGThe Blessings Of Faith
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.” 1 John 1:7
As people walk together in the Lord, their association and fellowship has a perfecting effect upon each other, because they are concentrating on each other’s spiritual advancement, rather than mistakes or imperfections. The desire is to share what God’s grace has enabled all to have, instead of resorting to fleshly strivings and contentions. The outlook is for the ways of overcoming spiritually, instead of being overcome by the flesh.
This faith enables Christians to go on serving and working together instead of being divided by conflict. Charity compliments every Christian effort for success in the circumstances and situations of life. It enlarges the heart for the will of the Lord to be done, which is the way of spiritual victory and advancement.
Apart from being completely surrendered to the Lord, a person may be able to rejoice when the church is rejoicing, but are unable to weep with the church when it is weeping. This leads to a separation from the fellowship when one’s own desires and expectations are not catered to. This failure to be effectually joined together spiritually, will lead to one only being able to accept prosperity, but unable to cope with adversity. Thus one finds themselves unwilling to work and be a part of anything that requires self-denial and personal cross bearing. Unless one is given over to the conviction and faith for, “Not my will, but thine be done,” they will not be able to submit to the Lord’s way of overcoming sinful faults and failures.
Our grand purpose must be to do all for the glory of God, rather than be controlled by other influences. We need to know that waiting upon the Lord in the midst of trial, sinful failures, sufferings, etc., allows God to take the reigns of our lives for removing the dross and replacing it with the virtues of spiritual mindedness.
What a blessing we secure unto ourselves through the desire to be clay in the Potter’s hands; to possess the conviction that the Christian’s exaltation comes through placing the cause of Christ above our personal concerns; to believe that the resolution of all things will take place as we are given over to supporting the plan and purpose of God without bringing offense upon the work of the Lord.
There is nothing richer than to have abode in the Lord’s will to the extent of having God respond by working all things together for the good of those that love the Lord, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Full surrender brings the blessing every time!
SHARING
