Living Word Christian Fellowship
“That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving...” Psalm 26:7
Vol. 14, No. 3 March 2005
Dear Family of God:
Jesus said, “Why did you doubt?” The greatest hindrance to our faith in this hour of tremendous testing and tribulation is “doubt.” It causes us to see things and hear things that are not true. It knocks us off the throne with Christ because we just would rather be careless with our walk, pampering ourselves, our flesh and our desires rather than allowing the process of coming into Christ’s image to be perfected.
Peter was bold when he stepped out of the boat and began to walk toward Jesus on the water. But as soon as he focused on his circumstances, the natural things, that which was too difficult to endure, he began to sink. Jesus saved Him, but remarked with, “O ye of little faith, why did you doubt?” If doubt cancels out faith, then belief causes one to worship (vs.). Isn’t our Heavenly Father looking for those who will worship in Spirit and Truth? If doubt is ruling the heart and mind how can one truly be worshipping the Lord?
O how crafty the enemy is to keep us from our inheritance today. There is no finer experience in life than worshipping the true and living God. It produces joy, peace, love and holiness, righteousness and godliness and all the other attributes our Heavenly Father is longing for in us.
Doubt has become a defense against all that is of faith today. Destroy it in your life or it will destroy you.
In Christ,
Pr. Steve
Needy Man
Sits behind his desk, ear pressed against the phone,
Oblivious,
Totally, inescapably, completely oblivious
Oblivious to the need.
The need all over himself
All over the floor, the phone, his chair
Like some grotesque, macabre mess
Don’t get me wrong, he does recognize it
He wouldn’t try so hard to clean it up if he didn’t recognize it
He cleans with control
Wipes with manipulation
Polishes with pride
But the harder he tries to clean
The worse this mess gets,
Just smears and smears
You see, he has yet to get to the fountain of this mess
The source of all this need
The source that pumps this mess with every breath, every action.
His Heart.
His undying, unrelentless, unsatisfied, unloved heart
He doesn’t realize he is the source
He is the generator of this ghostly mess
His need just keeps needing.
Oblivious
Utterly, inescapably, oblivious.
Jesus, open his eyes
Open the eyes of his heart
Let him know that he even has one,
So you can come in,
Come in with all that you are
Come in with all you intend for him to be
And clean.
-Henry Wright
The Lord is There
Eze 48:35 “…And the name of the city from [that] day [shall be], The LORD [is] there.”
Somewhere in the last millennium the gospel of the Church was changed to the Gospel of going to heaven. The original proclamation of the gospels is the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth. There is nowhere in the scriptures to support the idea that God intends to bring His Church to heaven to dwell eternally.
The purpose of the operation of the gifts and ministries given to the church by the Spirit of God is that each member of the Body of Christ comes to maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph.4).
Our goal is not a mansion in heaven. This is not what it means to be saved. The purpose for the fullness of Christ is that God might have a house, a dwelling, and a place of rest. His purpose is that He might dwell among people. God wants to dwell in us so He can live among the people whom He has created.
In the beginning God walked in the Garden, but when disobedience entered he withdrew to the spirit realm of heaven. If God wanted to stay in heaven He would have created us there. The physical realm is better than the spiritual; this is why Satan wants to rule the earth.
(Revelation 21:3) What does it say? The dwelling of God is the Church of Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 2:19-21). The dwelling of God (the true Church) is with men, and He will live with them. The Kingdom of God is the Church. God has not called us out of the world in order to be saved. We were called from the world in order to bring the Presence of God to the nations. If you belong to Jesus Christ and He has become your life, your eternal destiny is to be a blessing to others.
If Jesus is King of kings, who are the “kings”? We are – those who rule and reign with him. Isaiah 60-62 clearly identifies two classes of saved people – the Church and the nations (Isa.60:3) It is the glory of God that is going to reveal the Church to the nations. It is the light of that glory they will see.
Before Satan began to exercise his own will there was no knowledge of good and evil. Before Adam and Eve fell they had no knowledge of righteousness or unrighteousness. God is the only one who knew good and evil. Now that we know about good and evil, God wants us to know righteousness. (Ephesians 2:10) This is the righteousness He wants in us. (1 Peter 2:12) There must be a distinction between the Church and pagans.
God is visiting the earth with judgment. Judgment is not meant to be punishment. It is “the ability to distinguish between right and wrong.” This is a great need today for the Church – to know the difference between what is right and wrong. Instead of teaching “grace covers it all.”
We need to pray that God will pour out on us “the spirit of judgment” so may learn to live righteously (Isa 4:4). The outcome will be great JOY. “The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Notice how judgment and joy go together: Psa 98:4 &9 “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise…for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.”
Because of the changes that are taking place, the enemy has so pressed us down that we are not willing to receive God’s judgment. Notice in these verses the rejoicing is occurring because of the coming of Divine judgment. We should be glad when the Lord comes to bring forth righteousness – we just don’t understand it.
What does the Isaiah 62:1-2 say the light will be? RIGHTEOUSNESS! This is actual righteousness – not imputed. Transformation is genuine in Christ Jesus. This is true salvation. Divine salvation does not work apart from a radical change in the way we are – a new creation is coming forth.
Father always dwells in Christ. If Christ is not developed in us, then Father will not set up His abode.
The New Jerusalem is the perfected and glorious Church, the eternal dwelling place of God and the Lamb. The New Jerusalem will be placed on a high mountain of the new earth so the nations of the earth may be able to be blessed. The name of the city will be “The Lord is there.” In us!
As great as democracy may be, it is in contrast to the Kingdom of God. Democracy resists any attempt by the government to enforce righteous behavior. They want to be free to be whatever they want and do whatever they want. Yet in the Kingdom of God the first duty will be to enforce righteous behavior in the new earth.
God doesn’t want to rule with a rod of iron. He prefers the gentleness of the lamb. That is why God is making covenant with a holy people now, -- so the divine nature will rule a royal priesthood of believers.
-Pr. Steve
. . . My calling as a pastor
Pastor’s Journal 2004
Mar. 1: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you and watch over you.”
Mar. 2: “You wonder why the training is so difficult and misunderstood; it is because I know the future. The road may look safe today, but you do not know what is ahead. So, do you go on haphazardly or do you keep yourself safe? I say destruction is coming, so keep yourself safe today. In obedience I will protect you, never leave you and anything that comes will not harm you. Something may happen today or it may not, so keep yourself in Me.” “He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of the Lord.” (I Cor. 1:8)
Mar. 4: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. May your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best. Be filled with the fruit of righteousness.” (Phil. 1:6, 9)
Mar. 9: “All I ask is that you do what is ‘just’ according to My Word. Seek for mercy and extend all that you do in humility.”
Mar. 11: “I send you forth to see and experience what is taking place in the world and in My church. I draw you back again and again to the cave where I can encourage you and let you know My continuing and unchanging love and safety. You please Me because you are willing to come and go where I direct.”
Mar. 13: My heart has been so shut down because of recent events. It seems like the hurts and disappointments have been more than the victories and blessings of life. But God You never change. You are touched by the feelings of our infirmities. You know the struggles of each of us and You offer new strength and endurance through it all. I open my heart once again for Your love and devotion to me never closes. There is an abundance of living waiting for those who trust You. I walk by faith and I accept my cross.
Mar. 14: “I know thy works, I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it!”
Mar. 18: “Your hurt is fixed, trust in the Lord.”
Mar. 21: Keep your focus on God. Don’t allow agitation in your heart. Walk in peace over everything you are experiencing. Don’t be offended. Don’t be angry with one another. Love is not rude. Keep yourself in every situation within and without. Don’t measure yourself with yourself. Let Christ increase in you and let this be the standard. If you feel let down, don’t become discouraged. It is the Lord stretching you to be able to overcome great devastation coming to America. Your testings prove your value to the Kingdom. The last temptation you must overcome is self. Break through and be thankful for the challenge to what He wants.
Mar. 23: “I set honor before you this day. Now may He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness.” (II Cor. 9:10)
Mar. 25: “This is a time of honor, blessing and fruitfulness. Be strong and do not waver in what you see, but trust in what is yet to come. Trust in Me. He who keeps My commands loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
Mar. 29: True intimacy comes through suffering with Christ.
Mar. 30: “When you are in the center of God’s will, sometimes it’s overwhelming because the power of God is operating. You truly are coming into My power.”
Recognizing the Blessings
Phi 4:4 (KJV) “Rejoice in the Lord alway: [and] again I say, Rejoice.”
Sometimes it is hard to see the full benefits of what God is allowing to happen in our lives while we are in the midst of change, but we must always remember that those who serve the Lord with a whole heart will not be put to shame. All things considered, if God is in control of our lives then we should always rejoice; even if we don’t like what is happening. That is truly much easier to say than it is to do, but so is everything in the word of God. Thanks be unto the Lord for giving us the examples of successes and failures found in the Bible. So many times the people would be faint hearted and complaining right in the midst of getting blessed. For example, when the Israelites were being freed from the bondage of slavery and paganism in Egypt, they complained every time something happened to change their situation. Even after God did miraculous signs and wonders against their captors, the Israelites were willing to go back into captivity. Here is what they said right before the Lord parted the Red Sea:
Exo 14:10-11 (KJV) “And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. (11) And they said unto Moses, Because [there were] no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?”
One would think that after seeing plagues, and giant hail, and thick darkness, even death overtake the Egyptians, that the people might have had a clue that God would show up for them at the Red Seas as well. Just think, what if the Israelites would have started shouting, “Praise the Lord! The Almighty will deliver us! Our God is about to finish our enemies forever!” Well, they didn’t, and too many times our failure to praise the Lord in the midst of our circumstances causes us not to see the blessing in the midst of the situation. We know that the Israelites did praise and sing to the Lord once they crossed the Red Sea, and saw there enemies destroyed; but the blessing they still did not realize was how not to lose heart. We know this because when the people wanted water, they murmured against Moses; then when they wanted meat, they murmured against the Lord until He gave them what they wanted. Eventually the constant complaining cost them their very entrance to the Promised Land—a sad but unnecessary result.
Exo 14:13-14 (KJV) “And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. (14) The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”
The words of Moses here should remind us of how we should react when we feel like murmuring and complaining because of the circumstances in our lives. We should not wait until after the Lord shows us the victory to praise Him. If we find that situations beyond our control are affecting our peace in the Lord, we should start rejoicing right away because our God can, and will, do the impossible. Rejoice and rest in the Lord your God, and you will begin to recognize the blessings.
-Kurt Thurston
Growing Up is Hard to Do - part 1 of 3
Eph 4:11-16 (KJV) He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to perfect the saints, to work the ministry, and to edify the body of Christ until the body is unified by the faith and knowledge of Christ, which is a perfect man, which is the fullness of Christ. He gave us these Leadership Gifts that we would grow up and not be children anymore. They speak the truth in love so that the body may become proportioned to the head (or that is to say we become symmetrical to Christ). When this happens we then will pass along our understanding. We will be a pastor, a prophet, a teacher, an evangelist, or an apostle to others. The body of Christ will edify herself in love, will do all of the work of the ministry and He will be made PERFECT in us!
How do we tell if we are immature? Vs. 14 Do we have discernment? Are we tossed to and fro with every doctrine? Are we tossed to and fro by deceitful men? Are we tossed to and fro by craftiness, sneakiness?
Eph 4:17-10 (KJV) “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, {18} Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: {19} Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”
Six ways to tell if we are immature:
1. Vanity of mind
2. Darkened understanding
3. Alienation from the life of God because of ignorance
4. Blindness in the heart
5. Lasciviousness (exciting lust)
6. Work all uncleanness with greediness
How do we know if we are mature?
(Eph 4:20-24 KJV) “{20} But ye have not so learned Christ; {21} If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: {22} That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; {23} And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; {24} And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”
Six ways to know if we are mature:
Have we learned Christ (not Jesus)?
Have we put off our former conversation?
Do we not have lusts of deceit? (do not lie about lust)
Have we been renewed in our mind?
Have we become a new man?
Do we understand the difference between righteousness and true holiness?
1 Cor 13:11 (KJV) "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
-Pr. S. Chad Ross
Storehouses and Treasures - Part 3 of 3
(Amplified Bible)
unless otherwise specified
Within the English expression “from A to Z,” we find the concept of inclusion, meaning enormous content, everything covered. When Christ Jesus refers to Himself as “the Alpha and the Omega” {Rev 1:8}, using the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, His meaning is so expansive as to cover all that is needed to reestablish and sustain man’s relationship with Father God. Ever the same {Heb 13:8}, He personifies everything from the beginning to the end {Rev 1:8}, “… the First and the Last (the Before all and the end of all”) {Rev 22:13}. From His being Absolute Sovereign to His role as Zion’s Beautifier, the following are but a few of the treasures of who He is and of the ways He makes us complete in Himself {Col 2:10}.
Absolute Sovereign Rev 1:8 “I am…the ruler of all”
Bounteous Provider 2 Pet 1:3 “For His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that [are requisite and suited] to life and godliness, through the (full, personal) knowledge of Him Who called us by and to His own glory and excellence (virtue)”
Costly Sacrifice John 3:16 “For God so greatly loved and dearly prize the world that He [even} gave up His only-begotten (unique) Son…”
Death’s Defeater 2 Tim 1:10 “…our Savior Christ Jesus Who annulled death and made it of no effect…” Rev 1:18 “…I possess the keys of Death…”
Ever-living One Rev 1:17-18 “I am…the Ever-living One—I am living in the eternity of eternities…I am alive for evermore…”
Father’s Delight John 3:17 “…This is My Son, My Beloved, in Whom I delight”
God’s Mediator I Tim 1:5 “…there [is only] one God, and [only] one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” John 14: 6 “Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me.”
Holy One Luke 1:35 “…the holy (pure, sinless) Thing which shall be born of you will be called the Son of God” Mark 1:24 “…I know who You are, the Holy {One} of God”
Image of God 2 Cor 4:4 “…Christ, the Messiah, Who is the image and likeness of God”
Just One Acts 3:14 “But you denied and rejected and disowned the Pure and Holy, the Just and Blameless One…”
Kingdom Ruler Rev 11:15 “…The dominion (kingdom, sovereignty, rule) of the world has now come into the possession and become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, the Messiah, and He shall reign forever and ever—for the eternities of the eternities!”
Lamb of God John 1:29 “…Look! There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!”
Merciful High Priest Heb 2:17 (KJV) “…in all things it behoved him to be make like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God…”
New Testament Testator Matt 26:28 “…this is My blood of the new covenant…” Heb 9:15-16 “…he is the mediator of the new testament…For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator”
Overcoming Power John 16:33 “…I have overcome the world. --I have deprived it of power to harm, have conquered it [for you]”
Provider of Peace John 14:27a “Peace I leave with you: My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you”
Quickening Word John 1:1, 4 “In the beginning [before all time] was the Word [Christ], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself… In Him was Life and the Life was the Light of men”
Redemptive Substitute Eph 5:2 “…Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance”
Savior of Mankind Luke 2:11 “For to you is born this day in the town of David a Savior, Who is Christ, the Messiah, the Lord!”
Temple of the Holy City Rev 21:22 “I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Omnipotent [Himself] and the Lamb [Himself] are its temple”
Uncompromising Example John 14:30 “…the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me – he has nothing in common with Me, there is nothing in Me that belongs to him; he has no power over Me”
Virgin-born Son of God Matt 1:20, 23 (KJV) (of Mary) “…that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost…Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us”
Worthy Lamb Rev 5:8-9 (KJV) “…the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb…And they sung a new song, saying, “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tribe, and people, and nation”
eXpectation of the Prophets Luke 24:44 “…everything which is written concerning Me in the Law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled”
Yielded Son Luke 22:41-42 “And He…knelt down and prayed, Saying, Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but (always) Yours, be done”
Zion’s Beautifier Isa 61:1, 3 “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed and qualified me…To grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion, to give them an ornament – a garland or diadem – of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy burdened and failing spirit…”
-Ruth French
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