Category: Are You In Need of Cleansing?

“¹⁰ On the seventh day of the feast, when King Xerxes was in high spirits because of the wine, he told the seven eunuchs who attended him—Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas— ¹¹ to bring Queen Vashti to him with the royal crown on her head. He wanted the nobles and all the other men to gaze on her beauty, for she was a very beautiful woman. ¹² But when they conveyed the king’s order to Queen Vashti, she refused to come. This made the king furious, and he burned with anger.” ~ Esther 1:10-12

Now, this may seem sexist, and I’m not saying it isn’t, but when the king calls for someone, no matter who they are or the reason, they must go to him. That is his authority. For that time, that was a usual thing to show off the beauty of your wife, this wasn’t an unreasonable nor odd request. This was a different time and a different culture.

With that said, Jesus is the King of kings. LORD of lords. His authority is above all else, yet we lower Him to our level. We think we know best, so we ignore His instruction. We think His way is unfair or unjust, so we make our own. Jesus has called each of us into His presence, yet most of us refuse to do so. He has called each of us to a specific purpose, yet very few of us fulfill it. Even though Jesus is King of kings, we feel as though He will have mercy on us even though we refuse to enter His presence.

If we continue reading this chapter, King Xerxes not only banishes Queen Vashti but also replaces her with Esther. Queen Vashti lost everything because she refused to enter King Xerxes’ presence. What are we losing when we refuse Jesus?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Fulfill His Request.

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“³⁷ Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment.” ~ Matthew 22:37-38

The hardest thing you can do is the most important thing you have to do, love God with everything inside of you. But what does that mean exactly? Jesus simplified it for us, He described love as keeping His commands. In today’s world, that seems like an unrealistic and horrible request, but is it really? What is Jesus really saying?

Jesus was saying that if we love Him, then we won’t go to other gods. We’re in a covenant relationship with God, so when we succumb to sin, we place that above God. Our love is no longer just for God, it’s now split between Him and others. Why is this such a problem? Throughout Scripture, God compares this to sexual immorality. In other words, God is saying that we’re in a relationship, and I don’t want to share you with anyone else.

Just like most of us want a monogamous relationship, so does God. We don’t want to share our significant other with the world, why should God have to share His? Is it too much of Him to ask us to love Him the way He deserves to be loved?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Love The LORD Your God.

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“⁵ David was furious. ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ he vowed, ‘any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! ⁶ He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.’ ⁷ Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are that man! The Lord, the God of Israel, says: I anointed you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul.” ~ 2 Samuel 12:5-7

David was King of Israel, had 3 wives already, and everything he could ever dream of, yet he went after another man’s wife. He then killed the man, Uriah, because he slept with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba, and got her pregnant. The LORD was angry about this, so He sent Nathan the Prophet to speak to David. When David heard what Nathan had said, he didn’t know that it was him that Nathan was speaking about, so he became furious with the man in the story.

When David found out that it was him that the story was about, he saw the error of his ways and humbled himself before God. Sometimes we forget to look in the mirror before we cast judgment upon another person. We sometimes forget that we’ve committed that same sin, without repentance, while condemning someone else. That’s what Jesus was speaking about in Matthew 7, take the plank out of your own eye before you can take the speck out of another’s.

Repent, change, and then correct. Don’t forget to first be the example before you try to correct another person’s faults.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Look In The Mirror.

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“¹ If you see your neighbor’s ox or sheep or goat wandering away, don’t ignore your responsibility.Take it back to its owner. ² If its owner does not live nearby or you don’t know who the owner is, take it to your place and keep it until the owner comes looking for it. Then you must return it. ³ Do the same if you find your neighbor’s donkey, clothing, or anything else your neighbor loses. Don’t ignore your responsibility. ⁴ If you see that your neighbor’s donkey or ox has collapsed on the road, do not look the other way. Go and help your neighbor get it back on its feet!” ~ Deuteronomy 22:1-4^NLT

As a Church, have we lost our compassion? How often do we stop when we see someone in need? Or give the dollar the homeless person is asking for? Or help the older woman struggling pump gas? How often do we help our fellow man? Many excuses come to mind when these questions are asked, but the bottom line (no matter the excuse or reason for not doing it) is, where is your faith? If you have complete faith in God, then you will have the faith that God will use you and all that you do and give. Jesus compared not feeding the hungry or clothing the naked as not taking care of Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Fulfill Your Responsibility.

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“¹² So Micah installed the Levite as his personal priest, and he lived in Micah’s house. ¹³ ‘I know the Lord will bless me now,’ Micah said, ‘because I have a Levite serving as my priest.’” ~ Judges 17:12-13

Micah was a man who wanted to be a High Priest but was not a Levite. Micah wanted to be in a different area, then God had placed him. He wanted more, which is why I believe his mother had the silver he stole from her, turned into an idol for him. Micah desired to be everything he wasn’t, in doing so, he rejected everything God called him to be.

Micah then tried to justify his rejection of God’s calling by becoming religious. Because he wanted to be a High Priest, he felt that God would accept his desires and pursuits because he now had an actual priest, a Levite, serving with him. He justified his sin with religious reasoning.

Often times, we do this in today’s world as well. We see what other people are doing and we desire their call more than we desire our own. We want to follow what we want instead of what God wants, justifying it with religious reasoning. Our own desires can’t compete with God’s ultimate plan for our lives, He knows what’s for us. When we do it ourselves, we not only deceive ourselves but also those around us. Micah’s sin deceived an entire tribe, who has been deceived by your sin?

LORD God, I ask that you teach all of us how to follow Your perfect will for each of our lives. I ask that You would forgive us for when we’ve done things our way and polluted your call on our lives and led others astray. Please help us to return to You whole-heartedly, humbling ourselves to Your call and Your desire for our lives. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Justify Rebellion With Religion.

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“³ Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, ‘If you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the Lord and obey Him alone; then He will rescue you from the Philistines.’ ⁴ So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord.” ~ 1 Samuel 7:3-4

The people of Israel were afraid of the Philistines because the LORD was no longer with them. So, Samuel showed the people the way back to the LORD. They had to get rid of all of their false gods, and then the LORD would return to them. See some of us are under attack by the enemy and the LORD is nowhere to be found because we’ve replaced Him with false gods and idols. The only way to get out of the situation we’ve got ourselves into is to return to the LORD fully by getting rid of our false gods.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Get Rid of False gods.

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“²¹ Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. ²² But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. ²³ And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. ²⁴ But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you.” ~ Matthew 11:21-24

Can you learn anything from Sodom? It is better to live in sin, without knowing the Truth, than to hear the Truth and refuse to change.

Sodom was such a wicked city that God Himself went down to see if the cries of the people, against Sodom, were true. When they were found to be true, He sent two angels to destroy Sodom and everything in it.

Imagine how wicked Capernaum must have been to have seen the miracles of Jesus, be face to face with God Himself, and yet refuse to repent. When He compared them to Sodom, He said Sodom would have repented. Then He took it a step further saying, Sodom would be better off on the day of judgment than them.

So where do we stand? Are we those who have seen the Truth, know the Truth, witnessed the Truth, but refuse to repent because of our fleshly desires? Or are we like Sodom would have been, filled with wickedness, deserving complete destruction, but hear the Truth, See the Truth, Learn the Truth, know the Truth, and repent?

The things of this world will not last. For even the Earth, skies, and seas will pass away, but our souls are eternal. We will spend eternity in one place, either the New Earth or The Lake of Fire. Right now, we can’t understand the pains of Hell, nor can we understand the renewal and peace of The New Earth. And even more so we can’t fathom eternity. We can’t understand a timeless place.

To put it into perspective, have you ever been burned? Have you ever felt the heat of fire on your skin? Imagine that pain that felt. The excruciating, nail-biting pain. Now imagine that pain lasting 30 seconds. Then 1 minute. 2 minutes. It becomes unbearable and if the flame is hot enough, you could pass out from the pain.

Those measly 2 minutes don’t even put a dent in eternity. Eternity has no end. Eternity there is no death. There is no passing out. There is taking a break. It’s like a constant fire that burns your entire body. You stay in constant torment. Your mouth thirsts for water, but it can’t have not one drop. What is a few years of giving up your fleshly desires that will never satisfy you, when it compares to eternity? Don’t give up your eternal peace, for a few moments of pleasure that won’t last. If Sodom were here during the time of grace, they would have repented when they heard the Truth.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Like Sodom… Would Have Been.

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“²³ And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.” ~ 1 Samuel 16:23

Music influences our souls. When our soul is in distress, pain, suffering, agony, the only thing that will bring us peace is worship. Worship isn’t for God; worship is for us. Worship is our way of connecting to God and revitalizing our souls. God doesn’t depend on our worship. God won’t grow weak if we stop worshiping Him. We were meant for relationship. We were meant to walk and talk with God, but when sin entered, it created a separation between us and God.

So now, we worship in order to reconnect to God. We worship so that we can revitalize our souls so that we can strengthen our Spirit Man in order to get back to where we were originally. But when we stop worshiping and something else replaces that worship, our Spirit Man is weakened, and another spirit begins to take over, a spirit of greed, sexuality, lust, anger, pride, rebellion, etc.

When we switch our music from mostly worship to rarely or never worship, we separate ourselves from God. We invite evil in, and we don’t even realize it. When we get rid of worship and we change our music, whatever spirit is attached to that music will attach itself to us. Music isn’t just a bunch of words connected with a nice beat. Music speaks to your soul. It affects your emotions and, by doing so, influences your actions.

Once you can influence actions, you can have control over someone’s soul. The state of a person’s soul is determined by that person’s actions. All-day long we can say we are a Christian, but if we have no action behind it, it is a pointless statement. It’s the same as someone saying they’ll help you, they’ll be there for you, but they never do. It’s all just empty talk.

Don’t be fooled into damning your soul for a nice beat and some rhyming words. Make a stand and choose where you want your soul to go. It’s not necessarily the journey that matters, but it’s the destination. You can have the time of your life on Earth, but what’s the point if you spend eternity in pain and suffering? Choose wisely how you spend your free time. Choose wisely what you feed your soul. Choose wisely how you worship. Choose wisely what you worship.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Choose Wisely.

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“All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink.” ~ Exodus 17:1

Notice how the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin in stages? Why didn’t God just take them all out at one time, no stages? Because He had to undo all that sin had done. He had to fix their thoughts, their ideas, their faith, their belief, their customs, etc. There was no easy, one-step program back then, and there isn’t one today.

Why? Because renewing your mind doesn’t happen overnight, just like falling into sin doesn’t happen overnight. Sin doesn’t just sneak up on us, we blink, and we’re overcome. Sin sneaks up, plants an idea, turns into a thought, turns to a fantasy, turns to a want, turns to a desire, turns to an action, turns to a habit, turns to who we are. Just as sin comes in in stages so must it leave us in stages.

We have to undo everything we’ve done, in order to be made new. So, after we’re taken out of slavery, we have to walk through the wilderness of sin so God can make us new by the time we get out of the wilderness. And depending on how willing we are to break old habits, break old thoughts, and make new habits and new thoughts, we will either die in the wilderness or make it to paradise. So, don’t allow what you have become used to, what you have deemed as normal, separate you from what God has in store for you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Walk Through The Wilderness of Sin.

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“Esau said, ‘Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.’ Then he said, ‘Have you not reserved a blessing for me?’” Genesis 27:36

Isn’t this interesting? Esau, two chapters earlier sold his birthright for some stew, and the bible says he despised his birthright, but now suddenly he was cheated out of it? Doesn’t that sound like us today? We say the Devil stole this from us and that from us when the majority of the time we sold it to him at a weak point in our life. But what we sell to him isn’t the full birthright and blessing at once; instead, we sell not only the keys to the door, but we also sell the rights to the room which enables him to not only claim but take whatever he wants.

See, when we do something (considered a small thing), we’re now making a contract with the devil. For instance, if we allow horror movies filled with demonic activity and spells and witchcraft, we are now making a contract with those things in the spiritual, so that they have the right to be in our house. They have the right to torture us. To take away our sleep. Our peace of mind. Our shalom, that was promised to us by Jesus.

What many of us don’t understand is that everything we do has either a consequence or a reward, no matter how big or small it may seem. Now we know this to be true, but the majority of us don’t fully understand what that means. And because we don’t understand, we don’t take heed to this.

For instance, we will allow movies/books filled with sexually explicit jokes, scenes, etc. and then get shocked and wonder why we are struggling with lust. See just like Esau, we unknowingly sell our birthright not realizing that it also takes away the blessings that Jesus promised us. That God promised us. Instead of making side contracts with the devil, why don’t you try to stay true to the contract you have with Christ. I know this is easier said than done, but it isn’t impossible. Jesus promised that we would be able to overcome because he overcame. And if you think that there is any sin Jesus was not tempted by, you are wrong. Because the writer of Hebrews ensures us that “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet he did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

There isn’t a sin that Jesus hasn’t overcome or hasn’t dealt with himself, so there is no need to feel too dirty to bring your struggles before Him because He understands and empathizes with us.
Now, just because He has empathy, does not mean He will give any of us a free pass. He expects us to strive for perfection. To strive for excellence not just settle for mediocrity. Which is what the majority of us strive for. The majority of us will overlook the sin, close their eyes and sign the contract, so that they feel better. That’s what we do when we make excuses for our sins, we close our eyes then sign the contract as if that makes everything okay.

Our goal shouldn’t be a mediocre or less life, where we are slaves to Lust of the Eyes, Lust of the Flesh, and Pride of Life, but instead where conquer each and every sin that falls under these categories. Ensuring us not only happiness but joy. For happiness is affected by our situation, but joy nothing can steal and nothing can shake.

But how do we get past the mediocre lifestyle we’ve come to enjoy and feel comfortable in?
We have to start with cleaning our inside. We have to read our bibles daily, we have to pray more than just bedtime prayers, or before meals, we have to seek God during quiet time, we have to spend time in worship, and we have to take every thought captive. Once we have strengthened ourselves, we can start to break every sinful contract we have made. We can lock and close doors we should have never opened. We can cast out every evil spirit that torments us.

But we have to first start with cleaning ourselves from the inside. Because as Christ followers, we have to do better. We have to deny our flesh so that we can overcome. Because once we overcome, we can help another person overcome, and so on. Just remember to keep God first, deny your flesh, and take every thought captive.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Break Contracts.

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