RIGHTEOUS ACTS

Rev 19:8
8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear."
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) NIV
** The wedding gown of the bride is our righteous acts…. If we don’t apply ourselves in our actions and those actions are not righteous, then we will not have a gown to wear on the day that He comes to take us to the wedding. I’m not sure what all of this means but it does seem clear that there is great importance at our meeting with Jesus on the righteous acts that we do while we are here on the earth.

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL OF YOU! I HOPE THAT YOUR NEW YEAR IS FILLED WITH RIGHTEOUS ACTS THAT ARE PLEASING TO GOD!

REVELATION

** Ah, Revelation….. oh how I stand amazed at every word. I didn’t say I understood every word, I said I stand amazed or should I say dazed? What does it say? Is it talking about our future or the time we’re living in now or did all or some of this already happen? I suppose it talks about all three. I guess the thing that I see the most in revelation is that Jesus will be there and we who have remained faithful will be there with Him. And we all will watch as the serpent, the great dragon, the devil, will be thrown into the lake of fire. Oh, and then there’s the 24 elders who keep bowing down and throwing their crowns at His feet, angels are flying around and thunder and lightning is cracking the sky and peeling the air back. An awesome thing we will see one day and we’ll be there with Him who gave His life for us all so we can be with Him forever and ever…… AMEN!

ENDURANCE

Rev 14:12
12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the saints who obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus. NIV
** During this time of tribulation and people all around receiving the mark of the beast, God says this will call for patient endurance and faithfulness to Jesus… The difficult thing about this passage is, it you haven’t been patient and have endurance now, will it be possible then? It’s kind of like body building. You can’t body build to get muscles today. You have to body build to get muscles for 4 months down the line. In the same way, if we don’t start practicing patient endurance now, we will not be able to accomplish it when the time comes in the future. It’s amazing to me how easily people give up waiting on the Lord. Let’s start by just doing a little bit each day and then get more patient and endure a little bit more until one day we find ourselves armed and ready for anything we need to go through.

EMPTY NETS

John 20:21-22
21 So Jesus said to them again, " Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you." NASU
John 21:5
5 So Jesus said to them, "Children, you do not have any fish, do you?" They answered Him, "No." NASU
** Ok so I felt like these two scriptures would fit together because Jesus said that the reason He was here on this earth is the reason we will be here on this earth…..To seek and save that which was lost….. Souls for His kingdom…. Fisher of men. Then later he asked them in a statement. “you do not have any fish, do you?” Their answer was…. No. Often times I feel the Lord calling to me and to Celebration…. “you do not have any fish do you?” and my answer is…. No. Today I call out to God and ask Him to show me where to cast my net here in Renton. Where are the fish that we’re to catch? I don’t want to come to the shore empty handed so I want to listen carefully to the master fisherman and hear where He will tell me to cast my net…. Where Lord? Show us where and how to catch these fish in such difficult waters….. we’re waiting with open nets….

IN HIM IS ETERNAL LIFE

John 17:3
3 "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. NASU
** This is eternal life….. To know Jesus Christ! There is no salvation in any other name for there I no other name under heaven given among men where by we must be saved…. The name of Jesus Christ….. ooooh how it irritates satan and all his followers. Every year they try to dismiss the true meaning of Christmas. They put an X before mas so they can cross out the name of Christ. I know, the X is a symbol written in the Greek or Hebrew that means Christ but there definitely is a controversy over the X so why even go there? We wouldn’t want anyone putting a one letter to shorten our name, at least I wouldn’t….. and why am I even wasting time explaining this? If you truly love Him, then this is not even a debate….It is now 2 days until CHRISTmas and time is just flying by so fast that I can’t even keep up most of the time. Let us continue to remember what this time of the year is all about as we hustle around buying gifts and spending our hard earned money on stuff. Jesus THE Christ, came into this world to save sinners…. What an awesome God…..Thank You Jesus!

COME OUT

John 12:17-19
17 So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. 18 For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him." NASU
** I’ve read John a hundred times and I really can’t remember ever reading this verse! My view of Lazarus being raised from the dead was that…. “even when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead many people still didn’t believe in Him.” However, here it tells a different story. Here were a group of people who was there at the tomb that were so life changed that they could not stop telling about Jesus’ miracles. You and I are a miracle! We were rotting in our tomb of selfishness and one day Jesus called our name and took us out of the tomb of sin and brought us out clean and righteous. How much more should we be “still with Jesus” proclaiming His greatness and sharing our testimony with the world.

TESTIMONY

John 4:39
From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, NASU

** How powerful our testimony is to others. “They believed in Him because of the woman’s testimony.” Do you have a testimony? What has Christ done in your life? Is it worth telling others or are you ashamed of the new life that you live in Jesus Christ? Every time I’ve bought a new car or a newer car, I just can’t wait until everyone I know has seen it drives it and watches me drive off in it. I know people that every time they get something new, they run all over the city telling and showing it off. What about Christ? Why is it that now days, it seems like that we have to beg people to tell their testimony to their friends and family? I blame it on me! Pastors and teachers…. We get embarrassed for the new convert and begin to make excuses to just take their time in telling about their conversion? The very first thing that a new convert needs to do is tell everyone they know that they have found a new life in Jesus Christ and that their friends and family should NOT expect that they will do the old things that they used to do that was against Christ. Your testimony is very powerful and there is someone out there just waiting and wanting and NEEDING to hear it…. What you waiting for?

I'M A SLAVE

2 Peter 2:19
19 They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves to sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. NLT
** What controls you? What is it in your life that whenever IT comes up, IT takes first place? I love to eat and it’s often hard to discern the difference between eating because I’m hungry or just because I love to eat. Whenever I’ve fasted in the past, I’ve noticed that after the 3rd day, that eating often times is just a habit or a thing to do because I have nothing else to do. I constantly battle with food trying to be my master. That is why I am constantly fasting some kind of food or liquid so I can keep my flesh in control and keep God as my master to guide me. Right now because of Aaron being in Teen Mania, I am fasting coffee for a year. As I look around me, I see many slaves in this world and the funny thing is, according to this scripture, they are slaves to those little silver boxes they carry around and keep close so they won’t miss on text message. We have become a nation of slaves…. But as the old song goes… “it might be the devil or it might be the Lord, but you’ve got to serve somebody.”

I DON'T WANT TO!

1 Peter 2:20
But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
NASU

1 Peter 4:1-2
Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.
NASU
** I do not like getting myself into situations that I have to apologize! I just don’t like it at all…. ESPECIALLY when the person demanding it of me is not a righteous person. Yes, I got myself in this situation and even though I didn’t believe I owed the person an apology, I know it HAD to happen if I wanted to go on farther in God’s blessing on my life. So what do you do? Suck it up, slap your flesh in the face and obey! After my sincere apology (cause I did it as unto the Lord), I felt sick on the inside. I obeyed but the attitude of the person who demanded I apologize to the other person was eating me up. I prayed and then I prayed some more… then 1 peter 2:20 hit me in the heart this morning….”But when you do what is right and suffer for it…. This finds favor with God.” God is so good…. I love my life journal readings…. He knows just what I need when I need it. Thank you Father for keeping me on the right path of blessing in your kingdom. I choose to forgive and to continue experiencing your presence and power in my life and ministry. I love you!

EFFECTIVE DOERS

James 1:25
25 But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. NASU
** Oh my gosh! I’ve read this scripture a hundred times and it’s so amazing how this jumps out at me. “an EFFECTUAL doer.” Not just a doer of the Word, but a doer that is being effective in what they do! Wow! So, let me get this right. It’s not enough to just hear the word (hear it and read it) and it’s not enough to just do the Word (follow a set pattern just to get things done). Now we need to be EFFECTIVE doers of the Word. This takes time and planning which makes sense, because often times we can get so caught up in just getting the task done for the purpose of just getting the task done. I definitely need to start thinking about what I’m doing so I can be effective while I’m doing everything God has told me to do. Yeah!

MAKE IT EASY FOR THEM

Heb 13:17
17 Obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they know they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this joyfully and not with sorrow. That would certainly not be for your benefit. NLT
** I just got into a chat with a few people on facebook about tattoos. I won’t go into all the details because it would probably bore you to death, but in the process there was a young man who showed great disrespect to my position as a pastor. I’m praying for this young man because obviously he doesn’t know the dangers of the path he chose to take. To him there is no position of authority and that we are all on the same level “as sinners” in the body of Christ. In that case, then why would any of us want to take any position of leadership? The scripture is very clear that we will be judged stronger than the people we teach.
James 3:1
3:1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. NIV
Besides all of this, the scripture is very clear that God has placed people in the church and their roles are to be roles that are respected and honored even when they don’t deserve it. (see the story of David and Saul…. He would not touch God’s anointed). This young man is not a part of my congregation but I do feel for his pastor and teachers because the student has brought himself to the level of his authorities and that only spells trouble. Hopefully this young man will see his error and in about 20 years will see the path he has walked needs to be repaired. I would like to say that I have been honored beyond all by my church that I oversee. You, CFC, have made my job as your pastor a joy and I always look forward to meeting with you. Thanks!

TIME TO MATURE

Eph 4:11-13
11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. NASU
** I’ve often wondered where people in the past came up with the pastor’s job description. I mean, according to the way I was raised, someone really got our pastor’s job description wrong. Maybe it was a pastor who went beyond his calling or maybe the pastor was just a good person with hospitality gifts and did everything for everyone, who knows? But some were along the line the pastor’s job description got all messed up. I don’t understand or know how some pastors can even do what they do with the little time that they have…. Something else has to suffer, maybe it’s their family or their spouse or ???? God set this up for the good of the pastor’s and the good of the people. Without the time, the pastor cannot plan and equip the people for the work of SERVICE and for the MATURING of each individual person. If people would just read this verse and understand that they need to step out and do the work of the ministry and become mature members fulfilling their duty by giving the pastor time to study and train the people….. I know I get strange looks when I mention that “I just don’t do that or that I’m not gifted to do that.” But I plan on leading a mature church that are great Eagles in the kingdom of God.

DO YOU STUMBLE?

Rom 9:33
33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, "I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that causes people to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who believes in him
will not be disappointed." NLT
** Wow, this is definitely true for today! The stone that causes people to stumble…. That stumbling stone appears this time of the year. CHRISTmas…. Why is everyone so bothered by the stone CHRIST? All the other times of the year like valentines day or Easter or Fourth of July…. They don’t get bothered by that. They don’t say happy holidays on those days…. And they are holidays… ???? It’s because Jesus CHRIST is a stumbling stone to those who do not believe in Him. Satan hates the name CHRIST and all those who complain about the name CHRISTmas are just following their leader satan. Because I am of the second part of this verse that says, “anyone who believes in Him will not be disappointed.” I AM NOT DISAPPOINTED but I am APPOINTED! To say to you MERRY CHRISTmas!!!!! JESUS IS CHRIST AND LORD OF THIS EARTH!!!!!! AMEN!

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING FOR?

Rom 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NASU
** Oh how we love to work for sin! I see it everywhere I go. People are so busy sinning that they don’t realize that pay day is coming and they will soon reap the pay check of sin. What is the pay check? Death. Sometimes it’s physical death but most of the time I see spiritual death in many many Christians. They have no power to overcome obstacles in their way because they are cashing in on their wages of sin. But look! The FREE gift of God….. Eternal life! If we would but look at the choices we have before us every day and see where they will take us in the reaping, we would make better choices for life…. Right? Would we? I hope so…. Be blessed and make the choice to receive the free gift today… ETERNAL LIFE!