9-28-2019        WHAT IS SARAH?

 

What is Sarah?  Does SARAH reference the wife of Abraham who bore him Isaac?  Is it a reference to Sarah Vaughan, the renowned jazz singer from decades ago who was considered to have one of the best voices of her time? Or perhaps actress Sarah Jessica Parker?  Or maybe even former Alaska governor and presidential candidate Sarah Palin?

Answer: none of the above. 

OK, so what is SARAH then?  (glad you asked)

The foundation of SARAH is

Matt. 7:7-8      Ask and it shall be given you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.

                        For everyone who asks receives, everyone who seeks finds and knock and it shall be opened to you.

SARAH is an acronym that applies to every aspect of our Christian experience.  In our ‘salvation, our calling, our Christian walk.

S                     Seek

Matt. 6:33       Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.

First and foremost we seek the kingdom of God, letting Jesus into our hearts (John 3:16). 

This is our salvation experience.  Realizing our need for Jesus and that He is the only one who can guarantee eternal security.  Jesus says “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No man comes unto the Father but by Me (John14:6).

So we put God before all else (Mark 12:30, Jer. 29:11-13).

When we don’t put God first in everything, we have one “hell of a battle” the rest of our lives meaning we fight alone. 

When we do put God first, we still have one hell of a battle to fight (Satan and the powers of darkness are our enemy) BUT we have Jesus to help us with whatever we face and those things become a whole lot easier to deal with.  Jesus said “Take My yoke for it is easy to bear” (Matt. 11:29-30).  Because the Holy Spirit is “in us” (John 14:17), Father works through Jesus, through the Holy Spirit to accomplish things in our lives.  Jesus says that He will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5).  We can always count on Him.  Father tells us that we should not be afraid for He is with us and shall strengthen us because He holds us in His right hand of righteousness (Isa. 41:10).

Then we seek the calling Father has placed upon our lives (Jer. 29:11, 1 Corinth. 12:27-31).

Father knows us before we are even conceived and assigns a task to us before we are born (Jer. 1:5).  He has a plan for us (Jer. 29:11-13).  We just have to come to know what that plan is.  Father has given us a gift or multiple gifts through which we may serve.  That gift reveals His assignment for our life.

Now seeking God’s help isn’t just for knowing the ‘calling’ He has placed upon our life, but applying it, that is taking action and pursuing it.  If we desire to become a doctor, we don’t become one simply because we desire to be.  We have to go to school and get training so we can more effectively use our gift.

We seek God for salvation and direction.  His guidance is for every aspect of our life.  The more direction we get from our Father, the smoother any of our roads in life will be.

A                     Ask

Mark 11:22-24 Have faith in God.  Truly, I tell you that whosoever tells this mount ‘be removed and cast into the sea’ and does not doubt in his heart, whatever he says shall come to pass.  Therefore I tell you, whatsoever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive and you shall have.

Seeking God first brings positive results into our prayer life and paves the way for our asking of Him.

Notice the word ‘shall’ in this passage.  Father isn’t saying it will happen at the snap of our fingers, but shall is the process of bringing it into existence.

So why don’t answers to prayer always come immediately?  Daniel had to wait for the answer to one of his prayers because of spiritual opposition (Dan. 10:10-14).  There are spiritual battles going on the ‘heavenlies’.  The enemy does not want us blessed and resists God’s attempts to do so.

The man told Jesus “I believe, help my unbelief. (Mark 9:23-24)”.  At times, our own doubt gets in the way. 

The prodigal son determined (in his heart) to go ask his father for forgiveness so he went back to his father, confessed his error and asked for that forgiveness (spoke it out, Luke 15:21). We need to clear out any ‘dead wood’ (unconfessed sin) then speak out our requests before God.  Think our core verse in the gospel of Matthew.  And it sure helps to have already applied the “S” here.

We don’t have because we don’t ask (James 4:2).  We don’t have because maybe we doubt or there is unconfessed sin yet in our lives. 

R                     Receive

            Mark 11:23      Again, believe that we will receive. 

Matt. 7:9-11    We know how to give good gifts to our children and do so.  How much more so will God give good things to those who ask?

                       

All believers are God’s children.  We seek to please Him and He seeks to bless us.  Once we’ve asked, we need to learn how to receive from God.  Oft times we have asked, but we don’t really believe God will give us that for which we have asked.   Especially when we don’t see an answer right away.  It is coming.  God has His timing.  Again, remember Daniel and our own faith.

Now, in receiving, there is one catch.  Yes, we absolutely have to believe, but Father also expects us to walk in His will.  He told Israel to put Him first, keep His laws, statutes and commandments then He would bless them richly (Lev. 26:1-12).  More pertinent to us, Jesus said seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these wonderful things shall be added unto you (Matt. 6:33).  As we live in God’s will, expect to receive that (whatever) for which we have asked.  Receiving is believing even when we don’t see it yet .  Sound like the definition of faith (Heb. 11:1)?  The lame man, Peter and John encountered, took Peter’s hand and stood up, receiving the healing from God (see the “A” next section).  Jesus spoke healing to ten lepers but only one received as he turned and gave God the glory (Luke 17:11-19).

Too many times we don’t have because we haven’t asked or really don’t expect Father to give it to us.  Perhaps we ask amiss, to consume it in our own lusts (James 4:3). 

As our life lines up with God, we don’t doubt and understand God’s timing, ask.  It will come.

A                     Activate

1 Peter 4:10-11      Even as every man has received, minister the same one to another as good stewards of the many graces of God.  If any man speaks, let him speak as a representative of God.  If he ministers, let him minister with the ability God has given him.

Once we have asked, we need to believe.  Once we have believed, we will receive.  Expect it, but then, we may need to take some sort of action on what we have requested and believed.  Peter and John encountered the lame man at the Beautiful Gate.  They said “Look on us.”  Looking at them, the man expected something from them.  Then Peter said “I have no silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you.  In the name of Jesus stand up and walk.”  Then Peter took the man by the hand and helped him up (Acts 3:1-7).  He didn’t just pray then walk away.  He took an action.  This works when we pray for others.  This works when we pray for ourselves.  Are we bold enough to take action on what we have confessed and believed. 

Sometimes, there may not be anything we can immediately do (except pray), but often, Father uses us to fulfill our own requests.  If a man sits in a chair in a room and he desires to leave the room and he believes God to get him out of the room, does the man just stay, sitting in the chair and say “God, get me out of this room”?  No!  He needs to get up out of the chair, walk over to the door and open it and walk out of the room.  When the man is fully capable, Father will not “Scotty, beam me over.”  We just may have to do something. 

There are times we may have to wait.  Yes, we do have to understand God’s timing for us.  All things are done in His timing (Eccl. 3:1-8). 

There may be something in our own life which is blocking God’s response or spiritual influences (Daniel again?).  Unconfessed sin, doubt … When we ask Father for something for the wrong reason, He won’t answer (James 4:3).  When I consider doing evil, in my heart, God will not hear me (Psalm 66:18). Or when I continue in sin (Isa. 59:2).  Or when I continue to live contrary to God’s guidance, evil will befall me (Jer. 14:10-12).  God does not hear sinners, but when we worship Him and do His will, then God hears us (John 9:31). 

However, there is one prayer anyone can pray and God will hear.  The sinner’s prayer (John 3:16), when one confesses Jesus and receives Him into his heart.  God does not desire that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9).  When someone seeks God and truly repents his sins, God WILL honor that request every time.

We need to understand God’s timing and those things that hinder our prayers.  We need to believe God will answer our prayers and even then, we just may have to still take an action.  We may have to do something.  We need God’s discernment to know when to do what.  Just ask Him.

H                     (be) Holy

1 Peter 1:14-19      As obedient children, don’t follow those lusts you learned in your ignorance.  But He who has called us to be holy as He is holy, so be holy in all the ways you talk (or walk).  For it is written “Be holy for I am holy.”  And if you call upon the Father, who does not respect anyone’s position in life but judges each man according to his (own) works, spend this life in fear (reverence and respect of the Father).  For you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things such as gold and silver or by your own vain conversations, which you received from your fathers.  But with the precious blood of Christ who is the Lamb of God without blemish and without spot. 

Jesus is holy, that is set apart from the world.  Even though He was in it, He didn’t live His life according to world standards.  As His followers, we should set ourselves apart from the actions and traditions of the world – even though we are still in it, we don’t act like it.  God is not a respecter of our titles or position in life (Rom. 2:11-13), but He does judge us for the works we do (or don’t do) for Him (1 Corinth. 3:12-15).  Do our works glorify the name of God?  Proclaim His mighty works?  Express His love for/to those around us?  

How can we be holy?  Live in God’s love.  How do we know God’s love?  The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) give us a basic understanding of love.  As we read through the bible, we see God expressing His love in many different ways.  From His relationship with Adam through Israel and culminating in the ministry of His Son, Jesus, whom we call the Christ (Messiah, Emmanuel).  The apostles continued expressing that love through the writings of the New Testament and should be expressed by every Christian, even through today as an example for those yet to come.

We are holy (set apart) because we live in God’s love.  When people look upon us, it should be clearly evident we are different from the world.  So, being ambassadors of Jesus Christ, we should be careful how we conduct ourselves in the world.  When we ae truly living holy, we may not even realize it but those around us will.  WE can live a holy life because the Holy Spirit dwells within us, being our help.

So, should we implement SARAH in our lives?

SEEK                          Father through Jesus Christ

ASK                            For what we need

RECEIVE                   And believe we have

ACTIVATE    Our request by putting our faith into action and ‘doing’

HOLY                         Living in and for Christ Jesus while we are yet in this world

It is your decision.

Amen

9-15-2019   An extra little tidbit

This past Friday AM, as I was in my prayer time, I was thinking something about 2019.  I don't remember what.  It isn't important.  But,Father stopped me as asked me "What is next year?"  I said "2020".  He asked me "What is 2020?" I said "Huh?"  He took me to the list of number meanings.  REDEMPTION.  

“20” represents redemption or the perfect waiting period

If you have been waiting for things to come your way, especially for 20 or more years it can come

If you have been waiting for doors to open, they will open

2020 will be a year of redemption

            Of Spiritual growth

            Of time

            Of faith

            Of blessings

            Of knowledge

            Of whatsoever we need redeemed

For the full year Father will be bringing things back into our lives which have been lost

Redemption of our losses will be double

We need to bring our relationship with Father closer

A closer relationship means yielding more and more to Him

The more we aRe able to yield to Him, the closer we can walk with Him

The closer we will be able to walk with Him, the greater is the redemption of things lost

In this redemption comes a greater capacity for God to fulfill His plans in our lives

This AM, Father took me to Matt. 6:33       

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you

I was considering how to share this with the church and Father said "This isn't just for you (me) but it is for the fellowship to which you belong.  This is't just for the fellowship, it's for any and all who will received and do.

Amen

PS:  He also said to add the song. to here it is.

9-14-2019 Now I know You for Myself

Job 42:5

(Job says to God) I have heard about you by hearing through the ear but now, my eye has seen You.

Today, in church, we “hear” about God all the time.  We hear about Him from the pulpits.  We hear about Him in Sunday School or church bible studies.  We hear about Him from our friends in the church and even those outside the church.  We even read about Him in our bibles.  Despite all the world’s attempt to take God out of our awareness, we still hear about God or see His works all around us.  We even do many necessary tasks needed in the church, knowing God will smile upon our efforts.  Yet, in all this awareness, learning and doing, how many of us have truly discovered a personal relationship with the creator of all things?  How many of us continue to learn but never come to understand the truth (2 Tim. 3:7)?

Ezekiel 37:12-14

Prophecy and say “Thus says the Lord God. behold my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel.

You will know that I am the Lord because I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of those graves.

And I shall put my Spirit in you and you shall live and I will place you in your own land.  Then you will know that I the Lord have said it and done it.  Thus says the Lord.”

The church has been “sleeping” far too long.   Even in service to Him.  Father is bringing us up out of our graves – our living a comfortable life, our complacency, our listlessness.  Israel represents today’s church.  The Spirit of God will infill us as never before and living in our own land is living in the kingdom of God, even though we are still here on planet earth.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10).  This means other people seeing the kingdom of God operating in us and through us because we have come to know God - personally.

Hebrews 8:10-12

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.  I will put My laws into their minds and write them in their hearts.  I will be a God to them and they my people.

Every man will not have to teach his neighbor nor his brother to know the Lord for they all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest.

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and I will no longer remember their sins and iniquities.

God’s law of LOVE will become a viable, living part of our lives.  We won’t just know about God’s love, it will be a living part of our lives.  The benefits?  Our sins will be forgotten. 

God gave Adam and Eve a covenant by putting them in the garden to take care of it (Gen. 1:27-31, Gen. 2:7-7-9).

God made a covenant with Abraham) by blessing Him and giving him a promise to bless the world through his descendants (Gen. 22:15-18).

God made a covenant with Moses on Mt. Sinai, the Ten Commandments, a guide for living for God, in His love (Exod. 20:1-17).

And Father is making a covenant with us by giving us His Spirit so we can be a true reflection, to the world, of His love (John 13:34-35).  When we keep His commandments we become one with Him (John 17:21-23) because we are living in His commandment, through the power of the Holy Ghost (John 14:15-17), which is to love for, God is love (1 John 4:7-15).

John 17:14-26

(Jesus speaking) I have given them Your Word and the world has hated them because they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world

I don’t pray that You should take them out of the world but that You keep them from evil.

            They are not of this world, even as I am not of this world.

Even though we are in the world, we aren’t a part of it.  That is we don’t emulate or copy worldly values.  Jesus asks Father’s protection for us so we can help the world understand His love.  Paul desired to be in heaven but he had a job to do here on planet earth (Phil. 1:21-24).

            Sanctify them through Your truth, Your Word is truth.

            Even as You have sent Me into the world, I send them into the world. 

            For their sakes I sanctify Myself that they may also be sanctified through truth.

Neither do I pray for these alone but for all who would believe on Me through Your Word.

Jesus tells us that the word of God is truth.  As He has sends us into the world, Jesus was set apart so that we may be set apart to demonstrate the positive contrast to the world’s ways through God’s love. It is for us today and until He calls us home.

That they all may be one, as You Father are in Me and I in You that they may also be one in us, that the world may believe that You have sent Me.

And the glory which You gave me, I have given to them that they may be one, even as we are one.

I in them and You in me, that they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.

Jesus shares how “one” we need to be with Him and our Father so we can bring that love to the world.

Father, I also desire that they, whom You have given Me, may behold My glory which You have given Me.  You loved Me before the foundation of the World.

O, righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you but I have known You and these whom You 

have sent Me have known.

I have declared Your name to them and will declare it that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them and I in them.

Jesus is God (John 1:1) so He would that the love of God would fully envelope our lives.  We achieve this through our personal relationship with Father, which He describes here.  We can discover the glory of God through our own prayer life.  The closer we walk with God, the more focused our prayers.  Father will reveal Himself to us.  We may not see Him, but we will know that He is surely with us.

Job discovered Father on a personal level – I have seen You with my own eyes – and then Job was sent to bring his friends to repentance. 

How many personal encounters do we need to talk about?  Father made a covenant with Adam and Eve, Abraham and Moses.  Do we mention Jesus calling the original twelve disciples or those disciples who came through His ministry.  Do we need to talk about Saul (Paul) on the road to Damascus.  Each of these, Jesus brought into a personal relationship with Himself.  Father brings us into a personal relationship with Himself so we can go into the world and bring others into that same ‘one on one’ relationship with the one, true living God, assuring their place in eternity, too.  That relationship is strengthened as we read scripture (bible) and talk with Him (pray).

As Jesus declared that He lost none Father gave Him (save the traitor, Judas) (John 17:12).  Likewise, Father desires that none should perish (2 Peter 3:9).  Nobody, including you and me!

The field (earth) is already set for the harvest (John 4:35).  All we need now is the ‘latter rain’ (https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/the-former-latter-rains-in-israel/ & Joel 2:23) .  The Hebrew word used for latter rain is malsqowsh (4456), the spring rain, which, in 

Israel, means the rains that ripen a crop for harvest.

Father is preparing His church to be the latter rain to the church (which has strayed) and to the world.  That we may bring those final drops of living water ripening and preparing the crop for harvest.  That means salvation (for the world) or getting back on the right track (for the church), so all might be ready to go ‘home’ when that time does come.  Take care of our own house first (1 Tim. 5:8) so we can more effectively help others.

Should the church not really know God on a personal level, have a solid relationship with Him, how can we help others to have a meaningful relationship with Him?

God IS about relationships, mano e mano, or (not to be selective) womano e womano.  We need to understand the bible as the Holy Spirit reveals, apply what we learn into our own lives AND learn how to talk with God.  I said ‘with’, not ‘at’.  That means a two way conversation.  I talk, then I zip my lip and listen.  You ask ‘how does God speak to me?  Ever ask God something and then a huge urge to go look in the bible?  Father may send another person to us who will speak according to the Word of God.  He may even show us something that’s around us and it will click ‘that’s the answer!  Or, He may speak directly to our hearts, which is what He prefers.  So don’t be surprised if this carries on as a conversation as you might have with a friend.  After all, God is not just looking for people to come into His kingdom.  He looking for a whole bunch of friends.

Amen

8/31/2019   RESETTING OUR LIVES

For the past month (August) our church has been discussing “Life reset”. 

When I was in the Southern Baptist church as a youth, once a year, a preacher would come and hold a three to four day ‘revival’ meeting.  These were intended to be ‘spiritual shots’ in the arm to get that spiritual blood flowing again or anew.  If you will, a reset or a restart for the church.  Often, these would be young men fresh out of bible school getting their feet wet for preaching sermons, but at times, they would bring in a seasoned vet.  Being an evangelical church, these revivals were heavier doses of “you gotta get saved”!  Now, I understand, we were supposed to bring ‘unsaved’ friends to those revivals but Father has shown me that we can share how to walk closer with the Lord and the Holy Spirit can still work in the hearts of those who don’t know the Lord.  Yet, for the Christian, were supposed to already know Jesus (hopefully), so instead of ‘getting to know Him’, we need to get to know Him ‘better’.

During this month, Father has brought four good studies, about resetting our lives, through three different people.

In the first presentation, Father showed us that there are five major restarts in life.  God tells Jeremiah that He knew him before he was conceived and sanctified him before he was born (Jer. 1:5).  We can translate this to every human that ever existed or exists – God knows us before we are conceived and has set a task for us before we are born.  After all, God knows the beginning and the end (Isa. 46:9-10).  Ergo, our first reset in life is coming from however God knows us into and through our natural birth; our second reset is our spiritual rebirth, our salvation experience, transitioning from living in this natural world to living for Jesus in this world; our third reset is recognizing our calling Father has placed upon our lives – He ordained Jeremiah to be a prophet (for what has He ordained us?); Our fourth reset is the toughest and busiest reset of all – learning to keep Jesus in our hearts – confessing and repenting any sin in our life and continuing to press forward (an ongoing process as long as we are in this world); our last reset is our departure from this world – our natural death – the beginning of our transition into eternity.

Our next presenter brought us to an understanding of what ‘reset’ means and the need to get our souls back into proper alignment with Father.  She used examples as to how important it is, that once we mess up, the need to get ‘our’ spirit realigned with Father.  That is confessing and repenting (turning away) from whatever sin we had committed.

Our next presenter used Job, King David, King Solomon and the Apostle Paul to contrast the benefits of a life reset after sin and a life not reset after sin – the blessings or the consequences.

Our last presenter brought the following:

Several years ago, Father used one verse to draw my attention to Job’s problem.  Job said I heard about you from others but now my eye has seen you for myself (Job 42:5).  Job came to know God for himself – a personal relationship.

Let’s go just a little deeper for our fourth presentation.  Our relationship with God.

Luke 15:11-24

11        A certain man had two sons

12        The younger said to the father “give me my portion of goods that will be mine.”  And the man divided what he had. 

13        Not many days later, the son took all that he had and traveled to a far country and wasted all that he had on riotous living.

It is important to know God’s will and here, the younger son seems to know God’s will.  I mean, he lived with his father from infancy.  But now he was grown so he decided that he was his ‘own man’.  He was an adult.  He could make his own decisions.  So he did contrary to what he knew his father would approve.  Yet his father let him go. 

Our parents should be helping us to learn how to deal with life the best we can and hopefully, when we are ‘of age’ we’ve learned enough to survive. Likewise God gives us direction (if we listen) but then lets us make our own choices.  When we think about it, our natural life parallels or reflects our spiritual relationship with Father (the Family of God?).

14        And when he had spent all that he had, a mighty famine arose in that land and he began to be in need.

15        He hired himself out to a citizen of that country who sent him into the fields to feed the pigs.

16        He would have fain (desired, lusted, been in need) had he not eaten the husks which the pigs didn’t eat for no man helped him.

How often does the grass look greener on the other side of the fence?  How many of us want the ‘good life’ which we feel we can’t enjoy at home?  Once out there, he discovered that his friends were his friends as long as he entertained them.  Yet, once all his money was gone – so were all his ‘friends’.  The depth of his plight is reflected in that he had to eat what the pigs wouldn’t!  Is that desperation?

17        When he came to his senses he said “How many of my father’s hired servants have enough bread to share and here I am dying of hunger?

18       I will get up and go to my father and say to him ‘I have sinned against heaven and before you

19        I am no longer worthy to be called your son so make me as one of your hired servants’”

Fortunately (by the grace of God) the son came to his senses realizing that even his father’s servants had it way better than the situation in which found himself.   

Once we realize that we have erred from our Father’s will, we need to do what the son did – repent and humbly go back to Father, willing to accept any status less than that what we had before.  Think about it, that’s humble.  A prince to a pauper.

20        And he arose and came to his father.  Yet, while he was a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion and ran out and fell on his neck and kissed him.

            His father didn’t chastise him as to how stupid he had been.  He was so glad to see his son, he ran out, kissed and hugged him.  (forgiveness without even being asked for - yet). 

21        and the son said to him “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and am no longer worthy to be called your son”

The son had already asked forgiveness (in his heart) when he decided to go back to his father, yet he (the son) still needed to go before his father and ‘say it’.  So it is with us when we sin, if no one else, we sin against and/or before God.  We seek forgiveness from our heart, but we still need to speak it out before our heavenly Father.  Where other people are involved, we need to do the same and ask their forgiveness (James 5:16, 1 John 2:1).

22        But the father said to his servants “Bring the best robe and put it on him and a ring for his finger and shoes for his feet.

            The father had restored his son to full sonship.  Remember that there is joy before the angels in heaven over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). 

This passage does not ‘say’ whether the son was saved or unsaved, but this parable does imply a relationship prior to his falling away.  Father and son?  Consider, through Adam and Eve, mankind knew God from the beginning.  God knows us from before conception (Jer. 1:5).  He knows us when we give our lives to Christ and when we stray.  The parable as repentance stands for both ‘unsaved’ and ‘saved’.  Getting on track and getting back on track.  Father knows our hearts.  He knows if we are sincere or not (Matt. 15:7-9).

23        Bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry

24        For this my son was dead and is alive again.  He was lost and is found.  And they began to be merry.

There’s joy again.  Whether someone comes to know Jesus for the first time or if we ‘mess up’, then repent and get back into proper alignment with Father’s will.  There is joy in heaven!

Remember, the bible is not written to sinners.  The Old Testament was written to the Jews to    help them to discover God for themselves and then keep them on track (through obedience) so they can help others to enter into the kingdom of God.  they were supposed to be God’s witnesses to the world. 

The New Testament is written to the Christian church so we can get to understand ?God’s love in terms we can understand.  So we can know God for ourselves and then (through our obedience) the Holy Spirit can keep us on track so we can help others enter into the kingdom of God.  Today, we (Christians) are God’s witnesses to the world.

Just as Job knew about God, his thinking changed with his personal encounter with God.  When he came to know God – personally.  Paul knew about God.  After all he was a Pharisee (Phil. 3:4-5).  Then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus.  That’s when he came to know God personally.  We go to church and do things in service and learn about God, but until we start really communicating with Him, we really don’t know Him.  When we talk with God from our heart, then we really come to know God personally.  Of course, we have to understand something about the bible in order to know to whom we are talking.

The calling, Father has given all Christians, is to draw us into a closer relationship with Jesus and live in His love so we can reach out and help others find that relationship for themselves (Matt. 28:18-20).  The biggest reset we can do, other than giving our lives to God through Jesus, is seeking our deepest, personal relationship with Him so we can help others discover a solid relationship with our heavenly Father, as well.

As with Job, our greatest restart or reset in life is getting to know God personally.  Anyone can read a book and know about God.  Our Father wants a relationship with us.  He wants to commune with us, walk with us, talk with us.  Father doesn’t just want children, He wants a friend.  Abraham believed God and was called the friend of God (James 2:23).  Moses spoke with God face to face (Exod. 33:11).  If that’s not friendship, what is?  When we are obedient to the will of God, Jesus calls us friends (John 15:15-17).  Knowing God on a personal level IS our greatest reset.  Walking with our Lord is our greatest benefit.

May the love of Jesus Christ fill our hearts.

Amen

8-17-2019 Ten Virgins and Today’s Church

Let Me in - The Sensations 11962

I’ve shared with people before about how Ezekiel chapter thirty-seven’s valley of dry bones leads up to and impacts today’s church.  That is, the things God is preparing to do in our time – and soon.

But this time I want to talk about the ten virgins in Matthew twenty-five and put people on alert as to what God is doing today and the potential results it will have.  Or rather, should I say what we need to be doing?

1          The kingdom of heaven is compared to ten virgins and took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

            Today, the ten virgins represent the ‘church’.  The bridegroom is, of course, Jesus.  We know that the church contains both ‘sheep’ and goats’.  Sheep are those who truly love and live for the Lord.  The goats are those in the church who look like followers of Christ but their hearts are far from Him.  Sort of like when Jesus reprimanded the scribes and Pharisee for their hypocrisy (Matt. 23:24-30).  Sheep and goats are similar and we may not be able to tell them apart, but God knows their hearts and He will separate them on that day (Matt. 25:31-46).

2          Five were wise and five were foolish.

3          The five foolish virgins took only their lamps but no extra oil.

4          The wise took their lamps plus extra oil.

Jesus tells us that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments (John 14:15).  Here the oil represents living in Jesus’ commandments which are “to love”.  Five virgins continued living in Jesus’ love, five did not.

5          The bridegroom didn’t come immediately and all the virgins slept.

Jesus told His apostles and disciples that He would come back for us but no man knows the time (Matt. 24:36).  The early disciples looked for Jesus’ return.  Here we are, two thousand years later, still looking and waiting. 

6          At midnight, the cry was made “The bridegroom comes, go out and meet him.

7          All the virgins arose and trimmed their lamps

Even after sleeping for a while, they were all still looking for the bridegroom.  Unfortunately, an implication here is that the church has fallen asleep.  Become comfortable, maybe even complacent.  But all the virgins arose and put things in order to go meet the bridegroom.  

8          But the foolish virgins said to the wise “Give us some of your oil for our lamps have gone out.”

            Oops! What has happened here?  Though looking for His return, the five foolish virgins were not living in God’s love and realized that they were lacking.  Rather than getting their own lives together, they thought they could catch a ride on the coattails of the five wise virgins.  They could get to the bridegroom on the faith of the wise virgins.  Know anybody like that today?

9          The wise replied “No, for then there not be enough for all of us.  Rather, go to those who sell and buy your own oil.”

            The five wise virgins said that they couldn’t get the lives of the five foolish virgins straightened out for them.  I mean, we’re talking about a relationship here.  That, the foolish virgins would have to do for themselves.  Were the wise virgins being selfish by not sharing?  I don’t think so.  Should we hang around garbage long enough we start acting, looking and smelling like garbage.  The things around us drag us down to their level.  The foolish virgins were asking to enter into the faith of the wise.  To live off of their relationship with God.  My relationship with God is ‘my’ relationship.  One on one.  I can point someone in the right direction, but I can’t give anyone some of my faith, my relationship.  Take note in reading the gospels.  Though Jesus refused no one who was sincerely seeking Him, instead of sinking to their level, He brought them up to His.  “Go and sin no more” (John 8:1-11).  The wise virgins pointed the foolish in the right direction.

10        And while the foolish virgins were out buying, the bridegroom came.  Those who were ready went to the marriage with him and the door was shut behind them.

            The foolish virgins went out trying to figure out how to get their lives together.  Their lamps had gone out.  They had lost their love for the Lord and now they were trying to get it back.  In the meantime, “back at the ranch house”. The bridegroom had taken those five virgins, who were ready, to His house.  Isn’t it interesting, those who were ready when Jesus called entered into His house and into His eternal rest.  Those who were not ready (when the call comes) well, read on.

11        After a time, the five foolish virgins came saying “Lord, open up to us.”

Think about this part here.  The five foolish virgins knew where the bridegroom lived. They knew how to get ‘saved’.  They just didn’t persevere in God’s love.  Maybe they were beset by hard times.  Maybe things just didn’t go the way they thought things should.  Maybe they didn’t get recognition in the church.  Maybe they never really knew the Lord but were just treading water hoping that was enough because they were associated with God’s people.  We can speculate all day on “why”.  The point is that they didn’t persevere with the Lord nor did they repent.  When the Lord was ready, they weren’t! 

12        But the bridegroom responded “Truly, I don’t know you

Did you notice that the foolish virgins didn’t knock (Luke 11:9)?  But knocking requires a level of faith – believing that the door will be opened.  In faith it will, but they yelled.  The bridegroom’s response, however, puts those five foolish virgins in the place of that perhaps they never really knew the love of Christ.  Like when Jesus blasted the scribes and Pharisee when He called them a whited sepulcher (Matt. 23:27).  They knew the law, but didn’t keep it themselves.  They knew what God expected but they selfishly lived their own lives for their own gain.  When we truly live in ignorance and “don’t know”, Jesus will bear with us drawing us closer. BUT when we know better and still refuse (2 Peter 2:21), that’s when Jesus will lower the boom!

13        Watch, for we don’t know the day nor the hour when the Son of man comes.

Consider the bride as she prepares for her wedding.  She does everything she can to look the best she can for husband-to-be.  Should we be doing any less when our Lord calls?

We don’t know exactly when Jesus is coming back for us.  He does give us indications when that time is nearing.  Wars, rumor of wars, natural disasters going bananas, men against men, etc.   Take note that even though the disciples anticipated and hoped for Jesus’ return back in their day, things are a little different today.  All the signs we are seeing today were not prevalent back then. Read Matthew chapter twenty-four to see the signs of the end times. 

Paul tells us to persevere (Psalm 119:1-8, Phil. 3:12-21).  Run the race and don’t quit (1 Corinth. 8:23-27).  Remember that childhood song “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine”?  Our light shines, as we live for Christ, in this world.  God made us in His image (Gen. 1:27)!  I believe this carries a physical and spiritual connotation.  Even though God is Spirit (John 4:24), He allowed Moses to see His backside (Exod. 33:20-23).  This implies that God may be constructed, shaped, like us; head, body, arms and legs.  But God is pure love (1 John 4:7-8) personified and God is Spirit (John 4:23-24).  To be in God’s image is to live in His love.  That is to be a true reflection of that love so that those around us may see God’s love reflected in our lives.  So we persevere in living God’s love in this world that the world can see His love – in operation.

Jesus tells us that He will be with us always (Heb. 13:5-6) so we don’t have to face life in this world alone.  Jesus tells us to take ‘His yoke’ for it is easy to bear (Matt. 11:29-30).  Jesus desires us to be one with Him and the Father (John 14:10-21). 

The five foolish virgins seemed to love God, but they didn’t continue in His true love.  The five wise virgins continued in God’s love until and into their “homecoming”. 

We have a choice.  We can join the devil, the ‘beast’ and his false prophet in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10-15) by not letting God be a part of or remain in our lives.  Or, because we have persevered in His love, we can experience the new heaven and earth with Christ Jesus where there is no more death or sorrow (Rev. 21:1-5).

The ten virgins represent today’s church.  In this world, the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ abiding together until the angels separate us (Matt. 25:31-46).  The question is: Are we foolish?  Or are we wise?

Amen