Aug. 27, 2014                                 MAKING  YOURSELF  READY

Revelation 19:7: “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.”  In the book of Revelation we get a glimpse of the purposes of God and we see His plan unfolding in the earth and in the heavens.  There are two major themes in Revelation, and really all of scripture; one is the total defeat of Satan and his followers and the second, the total redemption of those who have been purchase by the blood of Christ. Believers make up the church which is referred to as the bride of Christ and the great event coming for the bride is the marriage supper of the Lamb. In the verse above we see that the bride has made herself ready. The obvious mandate for us is to be making ourselves ready and throughout Revelation we see how we are to make ourselves ready. As said in previous blogs, we see many times the admonition of being “overcomers” in this life and we learned that we overcome the enemy by the blood of the Lamb, our testimony, and by “not loving our lives even to death”. (See last two blogs). Back to the marriage supper that is yet to come-who can imagine how awesome it will be. In verse 19:7-8 we read: “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage supper of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”  The “righteous acts” and good deeds we are to be engaged in are a result of us being made righteous in Him-that’s who we are now-people that are doing “righteous acts”. Apple trees produce apples and pear trees produce pears-the tree is known by it’s fruit. What are “righteous acts”? In a sense, we are to clothe ourselves with righteous acts.  Basically, anything we do can and should be righteous acts if they are done in faith and in obedience to what God has said and may say to us. For a starter, just put the “one another” verses into action-love one another, pray for one another, exhort one another, and etc. Then, implement the teachings of scripture; be obedient to what the scriptures teach-be a giver, forgive others, grow in your faith, be honest, prefer others above yourself, be faithful, study the word, worship God, think the right thoughts, visit the sick and etc. Many have bought into the lie that says that all that matters is that we know Jesus as our savior. That is certainly important, but it is only the beginning.  (A good question to ask is; “why are we saved”? It’s for more than just going to heaven.) As we mature in the faith, our life will more closely resemble the life of Jesus as Jesus is our example. Let us not lose sight of what glorious things are to come- that is, glorious for those who have made themselves ready. A wonderful side benefit of being in the process of making ourselves ready and being an overcomer, is that we find purpose in life, we are not defeated by the “world system” and all of its troubles, we find that God gives us wisdom and we are at peace. May we not be so caught in the here and now that we forget our destiny.  I look forward to seeing you at the marriage supper of the Lamb! (I heard that it’s going to be out of this world!)

Revelation 19:9: “And he said to me, “Write, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ “  And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

Blessings,

Buddy

Aug. 23, 2014                                                    OVERCOMING

Continuing from my last blog, we will now look at the absolute need to be “overcomers” in this life. Throughout Revelation we find that those who are overcomers in this life are the ones who are blessed it the life to come. Revelation is a book in which John tells what he saw and what he was told when God allowed him to see into heaven-wow! If anything should get out full attention, it should be what God has said (through His angles) from Heaven directed to us.  As you read in Revelation, you discover that Satan obviously had a lot of power but we also discover that this power was given to him by God. Revelation 13:7 -9: “And it was given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them; and authority over every tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear.”  Even though we see great and terrible things happening in Revelation, God makes a way for those who overcome in this life. In verse 12: 11 we read: “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even to death.”  We overcome when we do not buy into the ways and schemes of Satan and we do not buy into the world system. It is by the blood of the Lamb (Jesus dying on the cross) and that being our testimony that we overcome. The other critical ingredient of being an overcomer that we see in this verse is that “they did not love their life even to death”! This perhaps is the acid test for us. Is the gospel and all it stands for our “testimony” and is the gospel more important, more precious than our life? We may not know how we would respond to facing death because of our faith but let us examine ourselves and resolve “not to love our lives even to death”.  In Revelation we see horrible events unfolding as Satan is given power for a season, but we also see that God has wonderful things in store for the overcomers. I believe that the “big idea”, the “main thing” that God has in mind for His people is that they become overcomers in life on planet earth. To become an overcomer, it is necessary that we have opposition. The scriptures, especially Revelation, are sobering because when we read the scriptures we come face to face with true reality. In a very real sense, the truth of the scriptures is non-optional; they are the plumb line that our life is and will be measured against. For the ones that love God and are maturing in the faith, there is every reason to have hope as we look to future events even though we face opposition in this present life.

Revelation 3:18,21,22: “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may cloth yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eyesalve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Blessings,

Buddy

Aug. 19, 2014                                                       THE  TIME  IS  NEAR

Even though the book of Revelation has some passages that may difficult to understand, there are many passages that are abundantly clear. The book of Revelation gives us a glimpse of future events but this glimpse of the future has as its purpose impact on our lives today.  Revelation 1:3 sets the stage for Revelation: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.” We will not be blessed just by reading Revelation but by “heeding” the things we read.  In chapter two and three we read what God had to say to the seven churches. The first church God addresses is the church in Ephesus and He had some good things to say about the church, but He also had a warning for the church. Revelation 2:4-5: “But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you, and will remove your lampstand out of its place-unless you repent.” In several previous blogs I have talked about the importance of deeds and how that a misunderstanding of grace may cause us to neglect the call to be about good deeds.  It’s interesting to see how in the great book of Revelation dealing with future events, we find a warning not to neglect being about good deeds. Remember, it’s not about good deeds for the sake of good deeds, but about us reflecting the goodness of God out of the new heart that we have been given. Deeds are important because good deeds are an expression of love. Love motivates us to be engaged in good deeds.  As said above, if we heed the admonitions in scripture, we will be blessed by our Father. Revelation 2:7: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” There are a number of verses in Revelation that promise blessings to “he who overcomes.” I think that the “overcoming” He is talking about is us overcoming anything and everything that distracts or hinders us from walking in His ways-according to the new creation that He made us. In other words, living in all that Jesus accomplished on the cross is being an overcomer. Satan’s goal is to keep us from living according to God’s design; so ultimately, we must overcome Satan and his schemes.                                                                                    Our Father always makes provision for us. If we find that we are not about the good deeds that God has for us, God gives us the opportunity to repent and get back on track with Him. Let us remember that He is coming soon-the time is near. God is not limited by time, so 2000 years since Jesus birth is not a long time – the point is that today is the day to overcome.

Revelation 2:26: “And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations;”

Revelation 2:29: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Blessings,

Buddy

Aug. 19, 2014   

Rom 8:12                          WE  ARE  DEBTORS

If we belong to Christ, it is because He paid a great price for us; He paid for our sins, making us debtors. The good news is that we are not debtors to the flesh, but debtors to walking in the Spirit. This is a great debt to “owe”. It is not far-fetched to say we “owe” this because Jesus paid the highest price to redeem us from our most lost condition, deserving of hell, having no righteousness of our own. Jesus purchased us with His blood. Jesus did not purchase us to have us as His slaves but to set us free in deed. We are now “slaves of righteousness” however. To choose to not walk “after the Spirit” would be the greatest travesty. I think it is proper and in line with scripture to realize that we are indeed debtors, not free to choose our own way, but called by our Lord to walk after the Spirit.  It may sound contradictory, but we can be free only by being slaves; slaves in the sense that my life is not my own. In fact, when we lose our lives, we find our lives. The root of unredeemed human nature is self-preservation whereas in the Kingdom of God, giving ourselves to Him is the norm. God has set everything up so that real life is found only in Him. So, let us realize and confess that we are indeed in debt to walk after the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh.

1 Corinthians 6: 20:  “For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”

Blessings,

Buddy

Aug 15, 2014                                                       WHEN  PRAYERS  ARE  ANSWERED

Prayer is a popular subject. We often hear statements like: “I will pray for you”-“just pray about it”-“talk to the man upstairs”-“God answers when we pray”. The fact that we can pray, or talk to God and God will talk to us is an awesome truth. I fear that we may take prayer for granted or at least take it lightly. What I share today is certainly no exhaustive study of prayer but I do want to share some truth about prayer we see in scripture. I understand that God is sovereign and I understand that you can’t put God in a box when it comes to prayers being answered, but we can glean some insight to prayer. Does God always answer all prayers? When does God answer prayer? I think these are questions that we wrestle with on occasion. In 1 John we find some conditions on prayer. I John322: “ and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.” In verse 10 we read: By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”  We cannot ignore the emphasis that scripture places on keeping the commandments of God and doing the things that please Him. We don’t keep His commandments to be saved or earn His love; we keep His commandments and do the things that please Him BECAUSE we belong to Him. Scriptures tell us that His commandments are not burdensome, but they are life. The book of 1 John is all about the love that God has for His people. Once we come to know this great love that God has for us, it is only natural to love Him and obey Him. Somehow, when God’s love is known in our hearts, we are changed. This change causes us to want to be pleasing to Him, to walk with Him and to love Him in return. When this “change” takes place in us, we discover that keeping His commandments, His ways is something we want to do-praise the Lord! Now, we find that the scriptures are there to help us discover who we are and they teach us what is pleasing to our Father. So, back to prayer. The whole idea of prayer is about love-the love of our Father to us and our love for the Father. Because we can rest in this love, prayer is not a burden and it is not complicated. The key is that we have come to know the love that God has for us. This love of God and our love for Him un-locks the door to a new way of living. In prayer, we not only make our request to Him, we also worship Him and we listen to Him. We can rest assured that however God chooses to answer our prayer is best. Whether God says “yes” or says “no” or says “not now” is absolutely ok and whatever His answer might be, it does not affect our relationship with Him BECAUSE He loves us. Even if we don’t understand, it’s ok. To keep His commandments and to do the things that are pleasing in His sight is a joy-if we know His love for us. The obvious admonition to us is not to let our love grow cold but to be about the things that please Him. We please Him in the way we think, what we believe, how we bless others, how we conduct our lives and by worshiping Him. The scriptures are not “theory” but are instructions for life. The challenge: after reading this, find something that pleases Him AND DO IT asap!

Blessings,

Buddy

James 5: 16: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much..”

Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Aug. 11, 2014                                                           DO  NOT  FORGET

Proverbs 3:1:  “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;.”   

Proverbs is a book that speaks of the wisdom that comes from God and it compares it to the wisdom of this world. As you read through Proverbs, you find many incredible promises for the one who listens to and walks in the wisdom that comes from God. As I have said many times in previous blogs, even though we have a new and better covenant (New Testament), the Old Testament as well reveals the heart of God. Jesus said He did not come to do away with the Law, but He came to fulfill it. When we read the Old Testament, we must filter it through the New Testament. With that being said, let it be our intent, our goal to learn about the heart of God as we read Proverbs and let us not get derailed trying to figure out why in our mind, we don’t see every promise being fulfilled (yet). Below are just a few verses found in chapters three and four of Proverbs that I think are awesome verses.     (I have underlined for emphasis)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   3:6:  “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

3:7-8: “Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body, and refreshment to your bones.” 

3:24-25: “When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.”  

3:32: “But He is intimate with the upright.”

4:20: “My son, give attention to My words; incline your ear to my sayings.”

4:22-23: “For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their whole body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life.”

We need to understand that our God is a being who is wisdom, who has likes and dislikes, who has desires for His people to walk in His ways and who has given us His Spirit and His written word to guide us through life in a world that is contrary to Him. We are called to have faith in what God says-even if and when we don’t understand- as the scripture says it is impossible to please God without faith. As Paul said, may it be our life’s ambition to “try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” We know in general terms what pleases God, but let us seek to know what pleases Him in our own nitty-gritty of life where we live. Let us know how to apply God’s wisdom in our individual lives. If we simply choose to live life according to our own understanding we will surely be disappointed at some point. God would not have given us 886 verses in Proverbs if He did not know the danger of living life outside of His wisdom. (Actually, the translators added the verse numbers for our convenience-but you get the point.) In the coming days spend time meditating on the wisdom of God and how to apply it to your life. We could never exhaust the blessings that come our way when we walk in His way!

Blessings,

Buddy

Proverbs 3:13-14: “How blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding. For its profit is better than the profit of silver, and its gain than fine gold.”

 

          

 

                                                                                     

Aug. 7, 2014                                                          YOU  ARE  LIGHT

Ephesians 5:8: “for you were formally darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light….”                                           We may need to be reminded on occasion that Christians and non-Christians are totally different. When one is adopted into the family of God, he gets a make-over; he becomes a new creation and he is no longer who he used to be-the old has passed away. We have no doubt heard the admonition to “walk in the light” and that is certainly good advice. However, we need to understand that we don’t just walk in the light, but we are light. As I often say, it is possible for the Christian not to walk in his or her new identity for whatever the reason, but that is not God’s plan because He made provision for us to walk and live as new creations.  We see in the above verse that we are light and then we are given the instruction to walk as children of light- in other words, be true to who we really are. Every person alive can be put into one of two groups; either in darkness or in light-no in between. According to 1 Peter 2:9, the one who belongs to God has been transferred from darkness to light and that transfer is the greatest transfer we could ever get!  On the contrary, those that do not know God walk in the futility of their mind and lack understanding and are in darkness due to the hardness of their heart. See Ephesians 4:17-19. Non-Christians can appear to be well adjusted, educated, successful according to the world standard and may hold respectable positions in the community, however, they still live in darkness even though they would disagree with this fact. Christians, on the other hand have been called into His marvelous light as I Peter 2:9 reveals. When one experiences this “marvelous” light he then knows that all else is darkness. Because we are now light, we are to let the light shine and not “put it under a bushel” so that all may see and glorify God. Most of the New Testament is actually instructions having to do with what walking in the light looks like. The constant theme we see in the New Testament writers is that of instructing and encouraging believers to live, or walk, in their new identity.  What does it take for a believer to avoid getting to a point where he or she is not being light or what is required of us to be light? Our part is to choose to be renewed in our mind and this is done primarily by reading the word on a consistent basis with the view of getting to know our Father. Another important requirement of being light is to be obedient to what we hear God saying to us. Also important is being an active part of the Body of Christ-the Church, where we build healthy relationships. Finally, we must guard what we allow into our mind-what we look at and what we listen too. There are lots of other disciplines that will keep us being light, but you get the idea. So, let us purpose today to be “children of the light and let our light shine in such a way that our Father will be glorified. By the way, a great place to start being light is in our homes and with those we know the best. May God bless as you go about being light-I know He will.

John8: 12  “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

Blessings,

Buddy

Aug 3, 2014                                                               TRYING  TO  LEARN

If not alert and on guard, life becomes complicated. Without realizing it, we may have come to a place where we have more questions about life than we do answers. We live in a time when there seems to be a crisis on every hand. It is difficult to listen to the news and not become depressed as we hear of wars and terrorism, disaster, plane crashes, the evils of illegal drugs, financial troubles, crime, price increase, loss of personal freedom, corruption in high places, breakup of the home, sickness, political correctness, immorality and the list could go on.  Even for the believer, life can become complicated and even depressing if not careful. The good news is that we have a God who knows the plight of man when man turns from God. Even though we are indeed concerned about the world in which we live, we should not be surprised about the state of the world as the world does not recognize or know God. God has made provision for those who have placed their faith in Him whereby they can find peace and purpose even in a world where chaos and unrest reign. As mentioned above, even for the believer, life can become overwhelming. In spite of a having a “church on every corner”, and having Christian bookstores whose shelves are lined with “Christian” books dealing with every subject, and having “Christian” television networks on the air 24/7, many believers are still longing for answers and clarification in life. To add to the problem, the gospel has been diluted and compromised in such a way that those listening are not hearing the real gospel that does transform and give meaning to life.  Finally, we live in a day when “information” is king. Information is good, but acquiring information for the sake of information is futile. The grand and glorious truth is that God has not made life complicated-man does that.  There is one pursuit in life that will fill any voids in our life and it will bring about purpose in life. In Ephesians 5:10 Paul in just nine words reveals a key pursuit that would serve us well if it is our pursuit as well. “…trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.” Having this mindset simplifies life in a beautiful way in that it gives us a single focus. There are many issues competing for our attention and if not alert, we will be drawn away from the key focus as set forth in this verse. The strategy of our enemy is to get our mind off of the main purpose-that of knowing and pleasing God. Some say that we are pleasing to God already because we are in Christ. I beg to differ with this view. Yes, God loves us as we are and He has placed us in His family through Christ. However, Christians can live life in ways that are not pleasing to God. If I lie, steal, become immoral, etc. God is not pleased. God is a being who has “feeling”, He has desires, He has compassion and He IS love. To say that God is great is an understatement, but God is great and awesome and we can spend a life time getting to know Him and learning what brings pleasure to Him. As we read and study God’s word, we discover what pleases Him and what is not pleasing to Him. So, let us not be dismayed, discouraged, overwhelmed with all that is going on in the world (yes-pray for the world) but let us purpose to learn what is pleasing to the Lord AND DO IT!

2 Corinthians 11:3: “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”

Blessings,

Buddy