Tag: Are You In Need of Cleansing?

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ~ John 3:16

God loves everyone, but not everyone returns to the Father to receive their free gift of eternal life. So, His love for us is Eternal. Psalms 136. It’s unconditional. Romans 5:7-8. But His love can only do so much.

His love is what allows us to return to Him and receive salvation, but His love for you won’t save you if you don’t come to Him. Just as the Prodigal Son couldn’t receive food, shelter, water, life without returning to his father, neither can we receive Eternal Life without returning to our Heavenly Father.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Return To The Father.

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¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ~ Matthew 6:14-15

In Matthew 18, Jesus tells the parable of the Unforgiving Servant. There was a servant who owed his master 10,000 talents, but he could not pay his debt, so he pleaded with his master, and so the master forgave him of his debt. When the servant went out from his master, he found a fellow servant who could not pay him, which was 100 denarii, and he choked the servant. Because the servant could not pay what he owed him, the servant, whose debt was just forgiven, threw him in prison until he could pay what he owed. When his fellow servants saw this, they went to their master and told him what had happened. His master then says that he will be put away until he can pay his debt. Let’s just put this into perspective for a second.

The servant who was forgiven owed 10,000 talents. A talent was worth about 20 years’ wages for labor, whereas the other servant owed the forgiven servant only 100 denarii, which was only a day’s wage. In January 2019, the average wage for a workday was $184.8, so the servant owed the forgiven servant about $18,480. The forgiven servant owed his master about $9,646,560,000. (average day 184.8*100 = 18,480) (average day 184.8*average days in a year 261=48,232.8*20=964,656*10,000=9,646,560,000)

And this is what a lot of us are doing today. We hold on to the pain, hurt, anger from an event caused by someone in our past or in our present, and we refuse to forgive them. We feel entitled to unforgiveness because we were wronged so badly, but yet we expect God to forgive us for all that we have done. We expect God to turn a blind eye to our debt when we can’t turn a blind eye to the debt of others.

Our debt to God is so much more than anyone’s debt to us. When we forgive others, God forgives us. He pays our debt for us. Then He takes the weight off of our shoulders so that the pain can no longer hold us down.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Forgive Each Other’s Debts.

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¹³ Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7:13-14^NIV

If you knew that you only had two roads to choose from in life and you had to choose one to follow, would you like to know about them? How would you go about choosing?

Jesus makes it clear there are only two roads you can travel through this life on, the narrow road and the broad road.  So, what is the difference between these two roads, and how do we get on one or the other? I’m glad you asked.

Look at what Jesus said in v 13: …For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. It seems to me that the broad road is the default road. In other words, it is where everyone starts from. You don’t have to do anything special or different; it’s the default road. It is the most beautiful road. It is the easiest road. It is the biggest road. And contrary to what Texas might believe, bigger is not always better. Yes, it might be easier, you don’t even have to look for it, cause it’s just there, but it’s definitely not better.

For the Broad Road, there are huge lanes you can drive on making it feel good. But Jesus said at the end of it is destruction.

The other gate is small, and the road is narrow; therefore, it makes it unappealing. Not only that, but one has to look for it. Did you see that? It said only a few find it. Therefore, you have to look for it, or you won’t find it. And many are not looking for it. Very few people, if any, can say they just happened to stumble upon the small gate. They either have to be looking, as in the case with Lee Strobel. In his own testimony, he admitted that he was an atheist and set out to prove the Bible wrong and Jesus not who he said he was. But he had a praying wife, and so, the facts lead him to the small gate that leads to the narrow road.

For the Narrow Road, you have to be looking, or searching, or somebody has to be praying really hard for you.

This narrow road, we have to make sure we are on it. We can’t fool around and make a mockery of salvation. It was a heavy price Jesus paid for it. Not only that, we who are saved should and must be telling others about the goodness of God. For He has been faithful to us, now let us be faithful to Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Find the Narrow Road.

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¹² There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. ~ Proverbs 14:12

There is a way that seems right to a man. This path is familiar. The road is well-trodden. The highway is buzzing with traffic all going the same way. No one is concerned; this many people cannot be wrong. But the Scripture says, “but its end is the way of death.”

Let me ask you one question, in a couple of ways:

1. 1. If you were dying of a terrible non-curable disease, but someone knew about a pharmacist who actually had a cure, but it was very politically offensive, and the pharmacist himself was hated, because of his politically offensive cure, would you want someone to tell you about him anyway? Or would you rather them not offend you, and just let you die from the disease instead?
   2. Or if you lived in a world where everyone made their own decisions and it was politically incorrect to make suggestions, would you want someone to warn you, despite the risk of offending you, and save your life, or let you go ahead and do whatever you were planning on doing, keeping you happy temporarily, but you die prematurely?

It seems very farfetched, but that is where our society is today. The pressure of political correctness and the societal hate for God has stripped most Christians of their boldness and their willingness to witness and win souls.

Society wants to be left alone on their way that seems right to them; they either don’t believe or don’t care that it will lead to death.

Something is wrong with that picture.

As Christians, regardless of how the world feels or what they tell us, we still have to warn people of the lies of the enemy. Jesus didn’t allow the offense of anyone to shut Him up. He warned everyone He had the opportunity to. That’s how we need to be. Our focus should be on saving as many souls as possible and helping as many cross the finish line as we can.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Save Souls.

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¹ As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. ² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? ~ Psalm 42:1-2

We want revival, but again we refuse to spend time in prayer. We’re no longer panting like the deer; our souls are not thirsting for water.

We have lost our desire.

It is like when we want to lose weight, but we don’t have the willpower to eat properly and proportionately. We don’t have the discipline to exercise. Or we want to get good grades in school, but the desire to study is not there.

So, I urge you, consider the things you did when you first got saved and see if they equal what you’re doing now. Do you feel the passion that was there in the beginning? Has the desire to meet with God every day dwindled in your life? You can still get it back. You can still rekindle the dimming flame. Get out of bed and pray, even when you don’t want to. Worship when you feel like doing something else. Read your Bible instead of a secular book or watching TV. When we draw close to God, He draws close to us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Thirst For Living Water.

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¹⁶ … The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. ~ James 5:16b

Ever asked the question, “LORD, why did You not answer my prayer?” The responding question would be, were your prayer effectual and fervent? Now that sparks the retorting question, “What is an effectual fervent prayer?”

That’s a fair question. So, let us break it down.

The word effectual, according to Webster’s New World Dictionary, means:

1. 1. , or able to produce, the desired effect
   2. having legal force; valid

Therefore, in order for your prayers to produce the desired effect, they must first be legal. So, are your prayers legal?

What I mean is that you can’t live any old way and expect to come into God’s presence, looking and smelling like filth because of your sin-ridden lifestyle. Just to be clear, you can’t steal someone’s wife and shack up with her or be someone’s mistress on the side, thus living in adultery or fornication and believe that God hears your prayers.

Well, He actually hears your prayers, but they are detestable to Him. Neither can you actively have sex outside of marriage, live a homosexual lifestyle, or any other type of sexual immorality and believe you can demand an audience with the LORD or that your prayers will be swiftly answered.

The Scripture says you don’t have the right to enter into God’s presence filled with sin.

This isn’t hate speech. This is a concerned fellow human trying to explain what God expects from us. He has standards and protocols. He doesn’t just accept any old leftover thing. He is God, not just that, but He is Creator God. He wants our best. He demands our best. He requires us to put Him first.

Don’t let the world deceive you with its sugar-coated poison. God wants what’s best for you, even if it’s hard to get there.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Want What’s Best.

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^27b …it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. ~ Hebrews 9:27b

Short, but powerful. It hits home. It is appointed unto man once to die. We do not have multiple opportunities to get it right. I realize there are religions that teach different concepts of reincarnation, where at death, the body dies, but the soul continues to live and comes back in a different life form or some other type of animal.

The soul continues the life and death cycles until it has enough merit that it reaches perfection and is united with “The One,” the ultimate being. But God, the Great Creator, said from the very beginning that we are all destined to die one time, and there is no coming back, but only the Judgement.

God does not give us any indication or suggestion that there are multiple lives. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it; we are all destined to die. As they say, “No one gets out alive.” What does that mean?

So, please, please understand that we have ONE shot at getting this right. ONE opportunity to get all of the ducks in a row, so to speak. The time is flying by so quickly now that it seems like one day is morphing into the next and that one right into the next, and so on, until it is just a blur.

Don’t let your life pass you by. We’re all given an allotted amount of time to get things right and build a relationship with God, don’t let that time run out. Today is the day for salvation; tomorrow is promised to no one.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Let Time Run Out.

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¹¹ But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. ¹² Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. ¹³ I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, ¹⁴ to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~ 1 Timothy 6:11–14

Paul instructed Timothy to “take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession.”

Paul understood that they only had the one opportunity to get it right. One opportunity to build up treasure in heaven that lasts for all eternity. People work so hard here on earth building up treasure and wealth that someone else will get instead of building up true wealth that lasts forever.

Jesus warns us not to work for wealth that fades but build true wealth so that we will have a good eternity. This life won’t last forever. Tomorrow is promised to no man. Today is the day of Salvation.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Think About Tomorrow.

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¹¹ Israel has sinned; they have transgressed my covenant that I commanded them; they have taken some of the devoted things; they have stolen and lied and put them among their own belongings. ~ Joshua 7:11

There was no distinction between Israel and Achan. God saw the community as one, and if one fails, they all fail, and if one wins, they all win. I’m sure the Israelites began to question and deny doing it, and if you look at it from their point of view, they didn’t physically do anything. Yet, one man’s sin caused the whole community to suffer.

Sometimes we say, “It is my business; it’s not hurting anyone.” Or “He’s only hurting himself; leave him alone.” But on the contrary, no one lives to himself, but all are in this fight together. No man is an Island. We must be conscious of other members of the family and our community.

No one knew the reason; they just couldn’t figure out or understand why. How could this even happen to them? Who would do a thing like that? Who would take the dedicated things of God?

After the men of AI beat up the Israelite army, Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown before the ark of the LORD. He and all the elders of Israel stayed there until that evening. Then Joshua started questioning God about His intentions concerning the Israelites. And you know what God told him? That the entire community of Israel was guilty and had sinned because of one man.

Nothing has changed today. Today our actions still affect those around us. So, when we act, we have to think of the potential consequences that could fall on those around us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Think About Others.

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