ABIDE IN CHRIST

John 15:4
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." (NKJV)

The other night I was at a Bible study with some friends and we were studying what it meant to "abide in Christ." We see this word a lot in the New Testament and specifically in the Gospel and letters of John the Apostle. So what does the word mean?

In the original language it means "not to depart, to continue to be present, to be held, kept, continually."

In keeping in the same theme as my last post regarding Jesus as our Lord, if we claim He is our Lord then we will abide (or continue or dwell) in Him. We will not be living a deliberate lifestyle of sin. We will not say we are His followers and yet live a life that is not accurate with that profession.

1 John 2:6
"He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." (NKJV)

1 John 3:6
"No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him." (ESV)

Can we say that about ourselves? If we claim Him as our Lord and Savior and tell people that we are "Christians" and "believe" in Jesus, do our lives reflect that statement? That is what abiding means. It means to not just hear His Word but to put it into practice and having it be a reflection of your life.

We will not continue a life of deliberate sin if we are abiding in Christ.

1 John 3:9
"No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." (ESV)

If we are abiding (dwelling) in Christ, we will not abide (dwell) in sin.

Mike

Just Lord or OUR Lord?

Psalm 8:1

"O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth,
Who have set Your glory above the heavens! " (NJKV)

This verse was read yesterday in church and a something came to mind so I thought I would share today. The neat thing is that the writer, David says "O Lord, OUR Lord." How many of us declare Jesus as OUR Lord? We know from Phillipians 2:11 that one day everyone will confess Jesus as Lord but for some He will be their Lord and Judge while others who have committed their life to Him will look upon Him as their Lord and Savior.

It seems that many are quick to accept Him as Savior but is He Lord? Does He rule and reign in your life? Where is He in the line of priorities in your life? In the back or the front? Is He someone that you only think about and talk to on Sundays?

We sometimes wonder why we don't hear from Him or feel that our prayers are not answered or feel that God is distant. Can it be that it is because we are the ones that are moving away from Him? That we are the ones becoming distant? If we want to hear from God and feel Him in our lives, we need to draw near to Him, pray to Him and spend time with Him through His Word.

Jeremiah 29:13
"And ​you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me ​with all your heart." (NKJV)

Our pastor read this verse yesterday as well and I wanted to close with it because it tells us what we need to do in order to find God and make Him our Lord. Jeremiah was prophesying regarding the 70 year Babylonian Captivity of the Jews and said that they would find the Lord God and He would restore them when they FIRST sought after Him.

Maybe some of you are in a captivity of your own and feel distant from God. Maybe it is a sin or a sinful lifestyle that you are leading. God wants you to seek Him with ALL your heart and as verse 14 from Jeremiah 29 says:

"I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity;"

Let Him set your free today!

Mike

SMART OR FOOLISH?

1 Corinthians 1:25

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. "


So many people thing you have to be a dummy or ignorant to believe in God. I don't like to think of myself as a dummy. I am an engineer and an analytical thinker and when I was first seriously pondered the existence of God, I was overwhelmed with the extreme scientific evidence and the sheer simplicity all at the same time.

Many famous thinkers of our time believed in God. Blaise Pascal, Sir Issac Newton, Michael Faraday, Robert Boyle, Galileo, Johannes Kepler and Albert Einstein to name a few. Now I have to add that while some of these men did not believe in a personal God, they did not let their intellectual wisdom cloud their spiritual thinking.

That is the problem people have today. They think they are too smart to believe in the Bible or to believe in God or to believe that God came in the form of the Son, Jesus Christ to die for our sins. Paul said further in 1 Cor 1 that Christ crucified was a stumbling block to the Jews and Greeks because the Jews wanted signs and wonders, which Jesus refused to give when they asked and the Greeks wanted wisdom. Both of these were confused by the work on the cross. When the Pharisees asked for a sign, Jesus said the only sign He would give was His resurrection by referencing Jonah and his spending 3 days in the belly of the fish.

There will come a day when all man's wisdom and worldly intelligence will be compared to the "foolishness" of Christ crucified and will fall away and leave those smart, intellectual, wise and intelligent people eternally separated from God forever.

We simply need to just surrender to God and seek a personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.

Mike

RELY ON THE LORD

Deuteronomy 32:36-37

"For the Lord will judge His people
And have compassion on His servants,
When He sees that their power is gone,
And there is no one remaining, bond or free.
He will say: ​‘Where are their gods,
The rock in which they sought refuge? " (NKJV)

In this verse the phrase "will judge His people" means "will be a judge for", "plead a cause for", or "to vindicate" and the imperfect tense means that it is a continuing act that is not yet complete.

God was telling the nation of Israel that He would have compassion on them but not until they relinquished all trust in their own efforts and in the false gods in whom they took refuge.

The same is true for us to today. We will never truly experience the fullness of God's grace and power unless we truly surrender to Him. God does not share His glory and sometimes He will break us down and strip us of our own strength and ability just so we will depend on Him and in that He gets the glory and not us.

Look at what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10:

"And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, ​a messenger of Satan to ​​buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. ​Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly ​I will rather boast in my infirmities, ​that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore ​I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. ​​For when I am weak, then I am strong."(NKJV)

In the midst of our own weakness is when God is the strongest.

When people that are not saved see God do amazing things through people that could not have done these things on their own, God gets the credit and the glory and this acts as a testimony to those who see and may lead them to the Lord.

So surrender to God, rely on Him and His strength and let Him use you in miraculous ways and let the Lord God of Heaven be GLORIFIED!

DON'T LIE TO YOURSELF

1 John 1:6-7
"If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."

This message might hurt a little today and may even offend some, but I am just posting God's Word and not mine.

If we claim to be "Christians" (a better term would be "Followers of Jesus Christ" because most people claim to be Christians) but yet we willfully live in a sinful lifestyle, we are deceiving ourselves. I am not saying that we have to be perfect but when we stand up and ask Jesus to forgive our sins and ask Him to be our Savior, do we honor that and show our appreciation by getting hammered every Friday / Saturday night? By doing drugs and having ungodly physical relationships?

We all have a free will to choose what we do. But if we use that free will to deliberately sin and stay in the darkness of our sins we CANNOT expect Jesus to turn a blind eye to it just because we said a prayer once or we go to church, take communion, go to confession or whatever.

James 1:22
"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

If we go through life thinking that we can live anyway we want to with no regard to God's Word, we are deceived and will never see the light of Heaven.

Think about it...Jesus was whipped, beaten, spit on, slapped, mocked, kicked, punched, skin ripped off by the whips with chards of bone in the leather, a crown with 3-4 inch thorns shoved onto His head gouging His skin, nails driven through His hands (or wrists-like it matters), nails through His feet (possibly right through the ankle area), left there to bleed to death and die.

and what did He say?

Luke 23:34
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

So He does that for us and forgives those that did it to Him just so we can go out and make mockery of it and deliberately sin and defy His Word?

If you need help with an addiction, get help!
If you struggle with an area of sin, remove it!
Ask God for help!

Wake up, get right and come out of the darkness and walk into the light!

THE REAL YOU

Proverbs 27:19
"As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man."(NKJV)

I chose this verse for today due to the sheer simplicity of it. When we look into a mirror we only see the outside of ourselves and when we look at another person, we only see the outside of that person. The outward appearance does not reflect the inner person within.

Our culture today is driven on fleshly desires, material things and outward beauty. I think of Danica Patrick, the female Indy race car driver. She has the opportunity to be a good role model for young girls because of her determination and hard work to be successful in a sport dominated by men. However, she has chosen to further the image that women are objects to be gawked at and not taken seriously. Ironically, this counteracts the very thing she has accomplished in her racing career.

How is she doing this you may ask? I am referring to the tasteless commercials for GoDaddy.com where she is always being shown unzipping her top and with the promise that you can see more if you go online. This is so wrong on so many levels but that is not the point of this post today. My reason for bringing her up is two fold.

The first reason:
We need to teach our young girls that they are not objects to be looked at and used the way they are portrayed on TV.

The second reason:
No matter how good you look on the outside, God sees your heart. By that I mean He can see through the facade that so many strive so hard to create and see their true self. The way you are on the inside will ultimately reflect the way you act towards others and will be the way others see you regardless of how you look on the outside.

I am not just talking about physical appearance. If you go to church, work or wherever and say and do the right things but with the wrong heart and wrong motives, God sees it and so will everyone else eventually.

Again, this verse is so simple and yet packed so full of truth, I think we all need to examine a couple things today:

1. How do we see others? Are we looking outwardly or inwardly?

2. How do others see us? Are they looking outwardly or inwardly?

3. Are we deceiving ourselves in the way we think God sees us?

Mike

I AM WITH YOU

Psalm 23:4
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."

On a day that remember the thousands of lives lost in the worst attack on this country since Pearl Harbor, it is important to understand that God is with us. After the 9/11 attacks people flocked to churches for spiritual healing. Some questioned God's existence by allowing this to happen (I was one of those people). What I, and others, failed to realize is that nowhere in the Bible is there a promise that bad things won't happen to us. We live in a fallen world full of evil where the Deceiver is the ruler. The Bible calls him, "the ruler of this world."

After a few weeks of church population explosion, things settled down and people no longer needed God to help them in their everyday lives. The crisis had subsided and God was no longer necessary. My friends, that is the wrong attitude. We don't come to God to help us through tough times only to walk away again. I call that "Crisis Christianity." We need to continually walk with the Lord so when we are in need, He is already there.

The writer of this Psalm specifies this in stating that while he is walking through the valley of the shadow of death, he is not afraid because God is with him because he is walking with Him.

Let's not use God or the Bible as a band-aid to help us temporarily. Let's work on a relationship with God and walk with Him everyday.

And that begins with accepting His Son, Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.

Walk with Christ.

Mike

Gospel Made Simple

Romans 5:8
" But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

The Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ is really simple...

Man sinned and was left eternally separated from God destined to hell. You may not like hearing that but God is holy and just and our sin prohibits us from being in His presence.

This gap between man and God was there until Jesus died on the cross. God came down in the form of Jesus Christ to show us the way to heaven and to bridge that gap.

John 1:14
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. "

Jesus was to be the final sacrifice for sin. We read this prophecy in Isaiah 53. His death on the cross bridged the gap between man and God. All we have to do is accept His gift and believe in Him.

We see God telling us that the barrier between us and God had been broken in Matthew 27:51 which states that when Jesus died on the cross, there was an earthquake and the veil in the temple that separated man from the presence of God was torn into.

This veil was 4 inches thick and separated the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant used to sit. Only the High Priest could enter once a year to atone for the sins of Israel on Yom Kippur. By this veil being torn into, God was showing us that Jesus had now broken that barrier for us.

Three verses in Romans sum it up pretty good with the last one being the verse of today:

Romans 3:23
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"
This tells us that we are ALL sinners and will never live up to God's standard.

Romans 6:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. "
This tells us that we deserve (what a wage is) death and this is referring to both physical and spiritual death. But the gift (something we don't earn) from God is eternal life in Jesus.

Romans 5:8 " But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
Here is the key: Jesus died for you and me even though we are sinners because He loves us.

Just so there is no confusion on earning your way to heaven by doing good deeds, here is another verse:

Ephesians 2:8-9
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

See...simple
We sinned, Jesus died, we live if we believe... do you?

Mike

Clay in the Hands of the Potter

Isaiah 64:6

"But now, O Lord,
You are our Father;
We are the clay, and You our potter;
And all we are the work of Your hand." (NKJV)

Jeremiah 18:4

"And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter;
so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make." (NKJV)


I love these verses because it is a perfect representation of the relationship between us and God when we submit our lives to Him. The verse in Jeremiah shows us that God has a plan and a design for our lives and when we come to Christ we are all marred vessels and when we submit to Him, we become a new creation as He molds us again into another vessel that is much better.

Ephesians 4:21-24
"if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you ​​put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and ​be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you ​​put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness." (NKJV)

That is what becoming a Christian is all about. It is surrendering your life to Christ so you can be used by Him and spend eternity with Him. But when we come to Him we are so prideful, arrogant and think we know everything. Everything is about us and our desires and wants. So when we submit to Christ, He scoops all that junk out of our lives just like a potter does when making a vase. His desire is to turn us into vessels that are filled with the fruits of the spirit (Gal 5:22,23):

love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

It is then that God can work in us and through us.

So we need to allow God to mold us into the image of His son Jesus Christ so we can be used for His good purpose!

Mike

WORK IN PROGRESS

Philippians 1:6 " being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (NIV)

Sometimes I think we, as well as other people, think that Christians are supposed to be perfect. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are to be different in the sense that the world does not have hold of us and is not influencing us in our lives, that should be Christ but if we have given our lives to Jesus Christ and have the Holy Spirit in us, one day we will be made perfect in Heaven but until then we are a work in progress.

This verse tells us that Jesus has BEGUN a good work in us and He will continue that work until the final day when Jesus returns. So until then we will still slip up, foul up and mess up. The good news is that Jesus is there to help us through the Holy Spirit.

Below is an excerpt from the "Bible Exposition Commentary" by Warren Wiersbe that I like pertaining to this verse:

[We are not saved by our good works (Eph. 2:8–9). Salvation is the good work God does in us when we trust His Son. In Philippians 2:12–13 we are told that God continues to work in us through His Spirit. In other words, salvation includes a threefold work:

• the work God does for us — salvation;
• the work God does in us — sanctification;
• the work God does through us — service.

This work will continue until we see Christ, and then the work will be fulfilled. “We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).]

Here are the verses that he referenced:

Ephesians 2:8-9 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast."

Philippians 2:12-13 "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose." 1 John 3:2 "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears,​ we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

So be encouraged today. Jesus is still working in you and through you if you have confessed your sins and given your life to Him. That is why it is called a "personal relationship" because He is with us and helps us. So just like any other relationship we need communication, so let's pray to Him daily giving Him adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. (our needs and the needs of others) The acrostic A-C-T-S can help you remember this if you need it.

Be blessed today an remember - God is on the job!

Mike

DON'T BE DECEIVED

Colossians 1:28-29

"Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.”

This verse really shows the heart and purpose of Paul the Apostle. His goal was to lead both Jew and Gentile to Jesus Christ by teaching them the whole council of God. Paul was constantly faced with false teachings that were spreading in the churches he helped start. He refuted them and encouraged the believers to get back to the truth that had been preached to them before.

This is happening today and is why I write these messages every single day. There are so many false religions and teachings being spread that many are falling away or not coming to the Lord because they are following these lies. So how do we know what is a false teaching? If it is not supported by the Bible or tries to do away with sound doctrinal teaching based on scripture, it is false. If it is in the Bible, then it should be taught and it should not be changed.

My goal is to share God's Word so fellow Christians can be encouraged, strengthened and grow in the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ. I also want to share the Gospel with those that do not know the Lord Jesus so that they may come to repentance and into the saving grace of Christ.

Jesus and the writers of the New Testament warned us that there would be false teachers, false prophets and false christs:

Matthew 7:15

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."

Matthew 24:11

"Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many."

Matthew 24:24

"For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect."

2 Cor 11:13

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ."

1 Tim 6:20

"O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—"

2 Pet 2:1

"But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction."

1 John 4:1

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world."

1 John 2:18

"Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour."

1 John 2:22

"Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son."

1 John 4:3

"and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world."

2 John 7

"For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist."

The reason I listed so many verses is to show that the writers of the New Testament, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, were warning us that false teachings would come. They were a threat in their day and they are a threat today. Please read these verses carefully because these warnings pertain to a lot of the teachings regarding Jesus as taught by the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Islam and other religions.

The Bible, God's Word, says these are false teachings and that we should avoid them and teach against them. These false teachings can sometimes confuse us and make us doubt what we believe. I conclude this with the encouragement that Paul gave to Timothy, the young pastor at Ephesus that he had discipled who was dealing with these very issues:

2 Tim 1:13-14

"Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us."

DON'T BE DECEIVED

ARE YOU READY?

Revelation 22:20

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.”Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

People have been expecting Jesus to return ever since he ascended into Heaven. Every generation reads this verse and says "He's coming back soon!" We've seen those people wearing the sandwich board signs saying, "THE END IS NEAR" or "ARMAGEDDON IS COMING."

People laugh and say, "Jesus has been coming quickly for over 2000 years!"

But that is not what the verse means.

Jesus didn't mean he was coming quickly as in a short time from once He made that statement to John.

The words for "I come" are interesting when you study the Tense, Voice and Mood of the words. With the Present Tense, Active Voice and Indicative Mood, Jesus is saying that He is currently on His way and that is a matter of fact and that it WILL happen.

He didn't say "I WILL come." He said "I AM coming," hence the present tense.

The word for "quickly" in the Greek means "without delay" and "speedily." Jesus is telling us that He is returning and it will be at His appointed time and He will be right on time with no delays and when He gets here it will be quick!

This is a warning for people to be ready for His return and specifically for those that say, "I'll get saved when Jesus comes back." or my favorite, "I'll get saved when I the rapture occurs."

When He comes back, if you are not ready, it will be too late. You won't have time to get saved.

Jesus explained this to His disciples and us in the parable of the Ten Virgins in

Matthew 25:1-13:

“Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’

Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming."

Some notes here:

It was dark, they needed lamps: We won't see Jesus coming when He comes for the church (the bride of Christ) (1 Cor 15:52)

He was delayed: Not delayed on His part, delayed from our point of view as in we don't know when He will come

A cry was heard: Jesus will come with a loud voice (1 Thess 4:16)

The five who took no oil were not ready: They didn't have time to get their oil, it was too late, He had come and gone.

Jesus said "I don't know you": They were not allowed in because Jesus didn't know them because they didn't know Him.

We need to be ready people because we are in a time of history like no other. Watch the news and read the Bible and you will see.

Be ready and don't get caught with your lamp out!

Come Lord Jesus Come!