All The Counsel of God

There are some practices and some phrases of worldliness which are so clearly unscriptural and inconsistent with true Christian testimony that there is no question as to the right and wrong of them. They are clearly recognized as in violations of proper Christian conduct. But there are other things which are not so obviously contrary to the Bible concerning which many Christians young people, and other folks alike, are puzzled. Desiring to be true to the Lord and obedient to His Word, and yet wishing to avoid unreasonable extremes, they sometimes find it difficult to decide as to their participation in a particular thing.

The Bible has a lot to say about the world. It uses the word world in three different ways: 1) The world of lost men. “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16); 2) The material world we live in. “For we brought nothing into this world…” (1 Timothy 6:7); 3) The third use – the one we are interested in – refers to the conditions and the influences around us that are opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, Jesus said, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).

Jesus is saying that believers are in the material world, but they do not belong to the system that controls it! In other words, there is an invisible “world” of evil that uses the material world and its activities to keep people from coming to Christ and obeying Him. It is that unseen system controlled by Satan that we refer to when we talk about the “world.” “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” (Ephesians 2:2)  “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

True Christians are recognized because they have no part in the activities of the Christ-opposing world around them. What a powerful testimony! “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15) “…know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4) Take notice and you will find that in all places where man finds his worldly enjoyment, he shuts out Christ-lest He should come in and spoil his pleasures.

We realize that part of the problem today is that standards are drastically changing. Deed and acts that were once labelled “unbecoming” for a Christian or “worldly” are now accepted and acknowledged without shock or shudder. What is your attitude toward all this? Are you going to accept the lowered and lowering standards around you? May God help you to say, “Most surely not!”

May you seek to walk with the Lord Jesus Christ and to daily guard your conduct. His standards have not changed – nor should ours.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)

“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16:13)

“If we allow natural affection and human admiration or the lack of these to govern our efforts, we will surely fail in our work and our lives shall be ruined. To obtain genuine fruitfulness, we frequently need to disregard fleshly relationships. Our thoughts and desires must be offered completely to the Lord.” -Watchman Nee

 

When Jacob Deshazer went as one of Jimmy Doolittles raiders on Japan on April 18, 1942, he was an atheist. He was captured and imprisoned by the Japanese. He saw two of his companions shot by a firing squad. He saw another die of slow starvation.

During the long months, he pondered the question of why the Japanese hated him, and why he hated them. He began to recall some of the things he had heard about Christianity.

Boldly, he asked his, jailers if they could get him a Bible. At first they laughed boisterously, as at a good joke, then grew ugly and warned him to stop making a nuisance of himself. But he kept asking.

A year and a half later – May 1944 – a guard brought him a Bible, flung it at him, and said, “Three weeks you have. Three weeks, then I take it away.”

True to his word, in three weeks the guard took the Bible away, and DeShazer never saw it again.

In 1948, DeShazer, his wife, and infant son were on their w back to Japan as missionaries, all because he asked for a Bible and a Japanese guard gave him one for three weeks.

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword…” (Hebrews 4:12)

 

“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction” –H.A. Ironside

“Never think that you can live to God by your own power or strength; but always look to and rely on him for assistance, yea for all strength and grace.” –David Brainerd

“There is power through prayer. For many Christians, prayer is nothing special, just something we’re supposed to do-go to church, tithe, read the Bible, pray. But prayer should be so much more than an item on our ‘to do list.” –E.M. Bounds

A burden is something carried in a sea-going vessel (Acts 21:3). God’s people carry burdens in their earthen vessels (2 Corinthians 4:7). The use of this word in connection with a ship’s cargo teaches us that a burden may weigh down a man, but that he is well suited for the purpose of burden bearing. In fact, for a ship to sail without a burden would be very dangerous. It needs to sit low in the water or it cannot be rightly governed. When a ship has no cargo, its hold will be filled with ballast to ensure that it does not sit too high in the water. This elevated position would cause it to fall over, so it is deliberately weighed down for its own safety.

Thus, every man has burdens and though some may help him carry them (Galatians 6:2) none can, or should, remove them (Galatians 6:5).

It is often said by preaches that Jesus will take away one’s burdens. This is not true. He will make that burden light by assisting us in carrying it (Matthew 11:30) but He knows we cannot sail safely without a burden.

Meditation from the Words of God

Scripture- Romans 12:1-2

Perfect Will of God

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Often Christians ask how I can know what the perfect will of God is for my life.

The Apostle Paul tells us clearly how a Christian can know the perfect will of God for his or her life.

First, we present our bodies a living sacrifice.  God wants us to present our bodies to Him, to be used as a sacrifice for Him.  Notice the verse says “a living sacrifice.”  Remember, to sacrifice it going cost us something.  The Christian martyr of old and today in other lands sacrificed their very lives for the cause of Christ.

By living sacrifice God means He wants us to sacrifice and surrender our lives totally to Him.

Also, notice in order for our living sacrifice to be acceptable to God it must be “holy.”

The word holy means consecrated or set apart solely for the worship of God.  Notice the word of God says “which is your reasonable service.” In other words, this is what is expected of a Christian.  When you present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,”  You are not doing something extraordinary but doing what you should doing.

In verse 2 we are instructed not to be conformed to this world.  In other words in every aspect of our lives we should not act or live as the world does.  The apostle Paul reminds us in Galatians 1:4 that Christ gave himself for us for the purpose of delivery us from this “present evil world.”  You see the world is evil because the god of this world is Satan.  The apostle John reminds us 1 John 2:15-16, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

So, how do we avoid being conformed to this world?  The answer is found here in verse 2, “but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,”.  We are to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.”  The only way we can renew our minds each day and be transformed is by reading, studying, meditating on the Word of God each every day.  We should be entering into our minds each day the things of God not the things of this world.

If we follow the instructions given in verse 1 and the first part of verse 2 the end result will be “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

The word prove means know what the perfect will of God is for you life.

By following God’s instructions as found in Romans 12:1-2, we will be able to know what the perfect will of God is for our lives.

 

 

IF YOU DIED RIGHT NOW, ARE YOU 100% SURE THAT YOU WOULD GO TO HEAVEN?

“…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” Acts 16:31

1. YOUR CONDITION: “As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one.” Romans 3:10 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23
2. YOUR DESTINY: “For the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23 “And it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27
3. YOUR SUBSTITUTE: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
4. YOUR OPPORTUNITY: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:9 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved…” Acts 16:31
5. REVIEW: (a) Do you acknowledge that you are a sinner? (b) Do you know that the final result of sin is death? (c) Do you realize that God loves you and sent His Son to die for you?
6. RESPONSE: Then acknowledge and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins according to scriptures; and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures; and be saved TODAY! PLEASE DO NOT PUT OFF BEING SAVED!

 

1. Its origin: Although Halloween has become a night of fun and superstition, it had a serious beginning with the ancient Druids. They held a celebration in honor of Samhain, Lord of the Dead on November 1st. It was their belief that on the eve of this festival, Saman (Samhain) called together the wicked souls that within the past 12 months had been condemned to inhabit the bodies of animals. They believed that on this night, ghosts, spirits, fairies, witches and elves came out to harm people. From them came the present day use of witches, ghosts and cats. Trick or Treat originated from Ireland when a group of farmers went from house to house begging food for the village Halloween festivities in the name of their ancient gods. The Celts added the custom of wearing costumes made from the skins of sacrificed animals. The Romans added a ceremony honoring their goddess of fruit and trees, from which we got bobbing for apples. The Jack-O-Lantern, symbol of a damned soul, was named for a man named Jack who could not enter Heaven or Hell and as a result had to wander in darkness with his lantern until Judgment Day. Finally, Halloween was “Christianized” by the Roman Catholic Church in the A.D. 800’s and incorporated into “Allhallowmas”, the evening before being “All Halloween”. The celebration of Halloween is a survival of ancient pagan beliefs! Orange, black and red, Satan’s colors are used.
2. It is obvious that the elements, symbols and traditions of the Halloween observance with its emphasis on goblins and demons, witches and skeletons, ghosts and apparitions constitute a dabbling with the very things which Scripture forbids, and places Christians in the realm of demonic activity. Anton Lavey, “Black Pope” of the First Church of Satan, in his book “Satan’s Bible” states Halloween is one of the three highest days of satanism and is not taken lightly by them.
3. Please read these Scriptures: Lev. 19:31 and Deut. 18:10-13. True Christians should separate themselves from these symbols and be identified with God’s people!

 

Greeting in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,

May you grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Our Text for today comes from the Book of Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 16.

“But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”

I ask you this today do you desire a better country?  Or are you still mindful of the country from whence you came out.  “The country from whence you came is the world that Jesus saved you out of when you trust Him as your personal Saviour for the forgiveness of your sins.

The better country that you should desire is heaven.  Are you home sick for heaven?

Are you looking forward to that day when you will see Jesus face to face?

My dear friend let us see why it is “a better country”

Let return to verse 16 of Hebrews 11.

It is “a better country”  number 1 – Because of its “Place”

Verse 16 – “…they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly:…”

It is a better country because of its Place – Heaven!!!!! – Please read Revelation Chapter 21 – for a complete description of the better country awaiting you.

 It is a “better country” number 2 – Because of its “Person”

Verse 16 – “…wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God:”

It is a better country because of its Person – God!!!

We will dwell eternally in the presence of God never to be separated from Him!!! – Amen!!!

It is a “better country” number 3 – Because of its “Preparation”

Verse 16 – “…for he hath prepared for them a city.”

It is a better country because of its Preparation – Jesus said in John 14:1-3,

“Let not your heart be troubles: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”

It is a better country because Jesus has prepared it for us.

John the Apostle wrote about the city in Revelation 21:2 – “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”

Praise God for the better country.

I pray that you desire it!!!

May God richly bless you.