Monday, November 28, 2016

Are They All Spiritualy Healthy?

Are you concerned about the Spiritual health of your brothers and sisters?

Do you think because someone is a member of your assembly that they have a good grasp of their salvation in Christ?

Or because someone comes on Sunday, or to any studies, or Bible activities in your church building that they are safely living their new life of Christ in the world?

God shows us that just by asking a few simple questions, we can find out the spiritual health of a fellow believer. To know this, read the gospels and the book of Acts to see how the many gifts of God are used to bring people to know Jesus and His death on the cross. It was for their Spiritual needs; the immanent necessity of knowledge to obtain the righteousness given by Jesus' death on the cross.
God has more concern for the spiritual health of His people than their physical needs.

"Therefore, do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" Matthew 6:31-33

  • We trivialize the cross of Jesus Christ by making it pretty.
  • We make the cross of Jesus Christ frivolous by making it a symbol.
  • We accessorize the cross of Jesus Christ as what God did from love.

The cross of Jesus Christ is the wrath of God.

"The only ground on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the cross of Christ; to put forgiveness on any other ground is in unconscious blasphemy."
Oswald Chambers: My Utmost for His Highest

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge" Proverbs 1:7

"Bear one another's burdens , and so fulfil the law of Christ" Galatians 6:2.

(Jesus said), "This is My commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you" John 15:12

Ask a few questions to see how your brothers and sisters in Christ are doing in their Christian walk and help them where they need strengthening.

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Friday, November 25, 2016

Leaders In Faith, Leaders Of Faith

"Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven" James 5:14,15.

It is the example of faith in the leaders of the church that helps in the healing faith of the sick. The oil may be medicine from the Doctor, or it may be the action of using the symbol of the Holy Spirit (the oil) that helps the sick recover.

But whatever way God choses to interact in response to the elder's prayer, it is the action of believing faith exhibited in our elders that comes to the forefront. It is all faith in the Lord that is the power.

The showing of faith is like the faith of the four men who brought the paralytic to Jesus by lowering him through the roof. It was their faith that brought God's blessed healing on the sick man. (Mark 2: 1-5)

In seeing the godly faith of others brings conviction of sins and repentance and finally forgiveness. The sick are healed physically and maybe healed spiritually also, if need be.

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Monday, November 21, 2016

The Continuity of The Bible

The theme in Psalm 136, 137 & 138 is God's enduring Mercy and it repeats through these three songs.

I am so amazed at how God designed the Bible, (For I believe the Bible is all God's doing from cover to cover in any language) and I am constantly amazed how certain books and passages line up.

Psalm 136 seems boring with its repetition but when reading it as listening to a leader speaking and then a crowd giving the echo, I imagine God smiling. It is a great song of praise and worship.

Then psalm 137 follows and leaves the wonderment of why so sad a follow-up? It recounts the horror of Israel's captivity in Babylon. The atrocious treatment at the hands of their captors.

But because the sadness of 137 follows immediately after 136, I return to the refrain "For His mercy endures forever" (or as it actually reads "For His mercy forever!) You can't help but recall the mercy of God. People are seldom merciful, but God never changes. His mercy endures forever.

The life of a person on earth is so short as to never even cause a blip on the eternal. Yes, the captivity was horrible, but God's people have the remembrance of God's everlasting mercy. The Rock of Salvation, A Mighty Fortress.

And Psalm 138, a song of David placed seemingly out of context, for David wrote it long before the Babylonian captivity. Yet reading 136, 137. & 138 altogether, the song continues and completes.

For David is the author of the chorus of 136 as he writes 138:8b: "Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever"

How awesome to have thee three Psalms lined up to be read as one song, with a common chorus.

"Your mercy, O LORD, forever"

Amen

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