Christian Fellowship
“That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving...” Psalm 26:7
Vol. 22 No. 9 September 2013
“Oh how great is your goodness, which you have laid up for them that fear You; which You have reserved for those who trust in You before the sons of men.” (Psm. 31:20)
I am continually amazed at the goodness of God, especially toward those who love Him and hold Him close to their heart. There is much phoniness in the body of Christ, but these days are made to clean up our hearts and make us what He wants us to be. For we shall be spotless and without wrinkle or any such phoniness as we draw near to the Lord’s return.
As we prepare our lives in this purification process, we go through a transformation in our personalities to make us more like Christ. We will have His thoughts and His attitudes, and we will act more like Him than we ever dreamed possible. This change has been our desire, but now it is being manifest.
We must be careful not to judge people through this process. When we see something take place that we do not understand or embrace, let us turn it over to Jesus and allow Him to reveal His glorious working in us and others. Learn compassion and His love for the things He loves; in the same manner, learn to hate what He hates.
Elijah hated sin and was greatly misunderstood. But He loved the ways of the Lord. The closer you draw to the Lord, this is the way you will become and it will cause others to withdraw from you. But you cannot compromise the ways of the Lord. The problem is that we are not enough like Christ to know His ways; instead, we respond with our carnal personality and say it is Jesus. THAT IS DANGEROUS. You know when it is Jesus if you are listening to Him, repenting with a humble heart, and walking with your cross before you as you follow Jesus.
Oh the goodness of the Lord. It is truly great when we know Him!
In Christ,
Pr. Steve
What Makes God Happy?
Mat 22:36-40 (KJV) “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? (37) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (40) On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
I have said on many occasions living for Jesus is not about how happy our lives are. It is about making God happy. If we are willing to die to our own self-interest then we will automatically begin to live a joyous and fruitful life in Christ.
Our life to a great extent is our will. So if you can say with every decision you make, "Not my will, but Yours be done," you are saying that you want to live by His life rather than by your own will. The Apostle Paul said he was not living any longer, but it was Christ who was living in him. By that statement, Paul was saying, “Not my will, but Yours be done.”
If we choose this kind of life style by making all our decisions and choices in Christ, we will live a happy and contented life.
There is only one way to keep this condition operating continually in our lives. Let us remember how it all started. God made a man and a woman perfect. Satan came and tempted them to be disobedient to God, and they were. Pretty soon there were many people on the earth. But they did not love God with all their heart, and they did not love their neighbor as themselves; so God became unhappy.
As a result and over time, God sent Jesus to the earth to die for our ungrateful, unkind and sinful lives. And now anyone who comes to Him can ask and God will forgive that person and reconcile him or her through Christ Jesus to the Father.
Over the past 2000 years there are more people on the earth than ever before, and even more people in the spirit realm who have asked God to forgive them. But they still do not love God with all their heart and their neighbor as themselves.
So God is going to take three steps to solve these problems of people not loving Him with all their heart and their neighbor as themselves. First, He is going to remove every bad attitude that we have living within us. Second, He is going to fill us with Jesus; and third, He is going to teach us to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves.
You see, what makes God happy is people loving God with all their heart and loving one another as they love themselves. But we can’t do that as long as there is any evil in us. We can’t do that unless we are filled with Jesus. And we can’t do that unless we are taught in the ways of God.
So how is God going to remove the evil from us, the things in us that do not want to love God or our neighbor?
God said that in the last days He would send messengers who would remove the evil from us. How does that begin? It is through Jesus who helps us to love our neighbor as ourselves.
QUESTION: Who is our neighbor? Jesus said it was the Good Samaritan who helped the man who had been hurt – that was a neighbor. So any time you help someone else out, you are being a good neighbor.
It is not a matter of choosing those who are the best at what they do; it is a matter of helping others become better at what they do so they can live a fulfilling life. That service is loving your neighbor as yourself.
Unfortunately, it is sometimes easier to love your neighbor than it is to love the Lord with all your heart; for in order to love God with all your heart you have to be filled with Jesus. How do you get filled with Jesus? Every time we are tempted to do something wrong, we can pray that Jesus will give us the strength so we won’t give in to the temptation. When we call on Him, Jesus will help us to turn away from the sin, and a part of Jesus will fill our being.
This requirement about love is not automatic. Instead, as you continually ask the Lord for His love, He will test you and bring you through some tough situations to reveal what is in your heart. He is a forgiving Father, but only if you ask.
When we have done something wrong and we go to Him in repentance, we receive forgiveness and we receive strength not to commit that sin anymore as the life of Jesus begins to fill our being.
As this exchange transpires more and more in our life and we get rid of bad thoughts, attitudes and actions, we begin to walk in the love of God, first toward Him and second toward one another no matter what takes place in our life. We are gaining more and more of Him every day.
These three steps are interconnected:
-We are going to have removed from us every bad attitude and thought
-We are going to be filled with Jesus
-We are going to love God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves
But if we think there is nothing we are going to have to do, we are deceived. We have to obey the Lord every day in order for this transformation to be accomplished. In order to become what God wants us to become--which is to be unblemished--we will have to have all three steps accomplished in our lives. And then God will be happy!
When we see someone else who does better than we do or who looks more attractive than we do and this fact bothers us, because Christ is in us we must confess this reaction as sin to God so that it will not grow in us and we won’t be tempted to speak evil about that person. This realization of and repentance from sin makes God happy! And that is how we can cooperate with the Spirit of God and fulfill the above three steps, each one essential for being made fit for the Kingdom.
This is the Kingdom of God.
-Pr Steve
I am going to be sharing with you thoughts from my journal over the past few years. This is to show you how the Lord has brought about His Word in my life to minister to you and to show you how real this walk can be. Please read and understand by the Spirit about ...
. . . My calling as a pastor
Pastor’s Journal 2012
Sept 7: Bless the Lord, O my soul. Who forgives all my iniquities and heals all my diseases.
Sept 8: What I have done – is it a waste when I can’t see the results? “For God in not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.” (Heb 6:10)
Sept 15: The strength of God is formed only in the consciousness of our own weakness!
Sept 17: You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. (Isa 62:3)
Sept 21: Our weakness is actually the secret of strength and success. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Abide in Christ for your strength.
Sept 22: Ask in faith. Do not ask in fear. And I will answer.
Sept 28: He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. If we believe our sins are forgiven then let us believe in our healing. Our body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for our body. (1 Cor 6:13) So take His body for your own and stay healed.
Sept 29: Do not be afraid of bad news, trust in the Lord. (Psm 112:7)
Sept 30: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.
Saying No to the World
Luk 9:23-26 (KJV) “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (24) For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. (25) For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? (26) For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.”
It is evident that a lax attitude of some who are named to be Christians is prevailing across our land. There is a new name for this ever-increasing dilemma: it is called “Respectable Worldliness.” This dilemma has been described as worldliness that is completely respectable as long as it is kept in check. My question is, “What are they using for their example to measure the respectability level?” If the plumb line is not the Word of God, then there is nothing respectable about it. Many people who claim to be in the heavenly sheepfold are living more like those who are of wolf packs. In fact, the deception of worldliness gets so deep within the soul that the people think that they really are not responsible to actually do anything differently than they want to do.
Rom 8:9-14 (KJV) “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (10) And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (11) But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (12) Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (13) For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (14) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
We need to understand that Christianity is not just our doing, but more about our being. In fact, what we are being will determine what we are doing.
2Co 5:17-19 (KJV) “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (18) And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; (19) To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”
Jesus Christ said (paraphrased) that it is impossible to love this present world and to love God at the same time. Yet more than ever before, Christians are falling into worldly traps and still believing that everything is ok. Church, we must wake up to the fact that it is not just our souls that are on the line; it is also the souls and lives of others whom we affect.
2Ti 4:10 (KJV) “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. The allurement of worldliness caused Demas to abandon the Apostle Paul, and only God knows how many people have abandoned those whom God has sent them to help; even in the days that we live in now.”
-Kurt Thurston
Quotes
"I must honestly declare my conviction that, since the days of the Reformation, there never has been so much profession of religion without practice, so much talking about God without walking with Him, so much hearing God's words without doing them."
-J.C. Ryle.
“To be ‘in the will of God’ is not a matter of intellectual discernment, but a state of heart... It's motto is -- ‘My Father can do what he likes with me, He may bless me to death, or give me a bitter cup; I delight to do His will.’"
- Oswald Chambers
Kids Corner
A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.
As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.
The girl replied, 'I'm drawing God.'
The teacher paused and said, 'But no one knows what God looks like.'
Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing,
the girl replied, 'They will in a minute.'
-Author Unknown
Next course from Christian Life Educators Network - Richmond Center:
Godly Communication in Everyday Life by: Dr. Michael Sedler
This course is designed to help each student become more effective in his or her daily communication patterns. The foundation scripture for the course is Ecclesiastes 3:7, which states that there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak.” Areas of focus will include communication between family members, friends, colleagues, supervisors and church members. Through the examination of scriptures and personal examples by the instructor, the course teaches strategies to avoid peer pressure, how to “ask questions” without questioning, how to present our viewpoint without creating a defensive atmosphere, and others.
October 3-5, 2013
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