New Life

Jesus told his disciples three times what had to happen to Him concerning His torture, death and resurrection. They couldn’t understand what He meant because they had no experience in life that would relate to what He was telling them. He was telling them these things so that when He was resurrected they would fully understand that all of the prophesies and scriptures about Him had to be fulfilled. This knowledge would help them in their efforts to spread the ‘Good News’. They could teach the ‘full gospel’ in the future church expansion.

How much do you think God is going to put up with before he brings judgment? In our world today, we see not only a turning away from God, but also the blatant rebuke of God even in our churches. Alcoholism, drug abuse, immorality, pride and self centeredness are rampant. Sooner or later, God will say “that’s enough”. There are things in this life that you just don’t do. You don’t “spit into the wind, Pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and you don’t mess around with Him” . Accept what God freely gives you and you are saved. Mock God and you are left to your own abilities. Unless you are as self absorbed as Satan, you will take the former.

What is keeping you from God, and doing what you know in your heart is right? Is it the love of money, trust in the way you have decided the world should be, or just a lack of caring about God and your fellow man? Have you been swayed by the great lies of today such as collective salvation, universalism and evolution? If you were God, (and thank goodness your not) how would you want your creation to conduct itself? By the way you set things up with everything mankind needed, or rebel the way Satan did? Wouldn’t you get to a point where you said “ENOUGH”? Wouldn’t you put an end to it and rebuild? That’s what God intends to do. Which side are you on: the iniquity of Satan or the love and salvation of Jesus?

If God doesn’t do what we expect Him to do, or what we want Him to do, we question Him; not our own expectations. He doesn’t do what we want; He does what we need. When this happens, shouldn’t we adjust our priorities? If you have been deceived by Satan, you should blame him and not God. If you have been deceived, it is because you left an opening for Satan to enter. If you are blaming God, you are playing into the hands of Satan. God loves you and Satan does his best to hide that from you. Who is God? He is the all powerful one, the mighty one, the all knowing one, the Alpha and Omega, the I Am, the holy one of Israel, Jehovah Yireh (God will provide), Jehovah Shalom (God is peace), El Shadi (God almighty), Jehovah Jirah(the provider), Jesus (the Lord saves), Yahweh, Jehovah Niche, etc. But more than that; He’s your Father , your friend , your buddy, your advisor, your comforter, your strength in time of trouble and more than that He’s there when you need Him. He’s there with you, and for you 24/7, whether you know it or not .

When you deliver the “Good News” (the Gospel of Christ) you must understand that many people will not understand or accept the message. Donald S. McAlvany says, “If, say you are a preacher, you wish to attract as large a congregation as you can, which means an appeal to the masses, and this, in turn, means adapting the terms of your message to the order of intellect and character that the masses exhibit.” “The more mediocre the message, the larger the audience; the more hard-core the message, the smaller the audience.” Some will receive, some will reject and some will be lukewarm. Two of these categories will not receive the gift of eternal life through the salvation of the Christ. Keep in mind; you can believe in Jesus and go to hell. Satan and his minions believe in Jesus, they simply reject Him.

Don’t cast pearls before swine. Kick even the dust from your feet when you leave those who refuse to accept the good news of Jesus. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t treat them well: it simply means that if you see rebellion or obstinacy toward you and your message you should not be overly aggressive or offensive toward them. The fact is that there is only one way to Heaven. Attitude is the problem. Instead of being thankful that there is a way, many are rebellious because it isn’t their way. There was only one who suffered and died for our salvation: not Buddha, not Mohammed, not Confucius; it was Jesus. He is alive and they are dead; enough said? It is not hard to enter the kingdom of God, Jesus made it easy. It is done by faith and not by works.

Science teaches that when all matter is taken to its absolute smallest particle, that particle is light. Even the smallest atom has light as its foundation. Since God is light, it stands to reason that God is the foundation of everything. God is the building block for us and all things seen and unseen. Since God is the light and you are ultimately made out of that light, why would you ever doubt Him? “As we walk in the light as Jesus did, we will have fellowship with one another in the blood of Jesus: we will be continually being filled.”

Man doesn’t let the truth get in his way. In his own mind he is right. He says everything is relative, there are no absolutes and everything is fluid and ever-changing or evolving. The world says the Bible is just a bunch of stories written by men. When you question them, they get feisty. The truth is that everything is, in some way or another, an absolute. You have heard that “for every action there is a reaction”. This would not be true if not for absolutes. One absolute is that the “life of all flesh is in the blood” .

A doctor will cauterize a wound to stop the bleeding. The flow of blood is stopped by the cauterizing of the flow. The life is in the blood and Jesus blood is what covers us as Christians. The flow of that blood is what helps us grow in the knowledge and love of God (the Christian life). If in a Christian’s life something cauterizes the flow of the blood of Christ, such as the cares of this world, the growth in the Christian life is cut off. This cauterization doesn’t mean the loss of salvation but rather the loss of the ability to grow in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord. Since the life is in the blood, the more the blood can flow - the better the Christian experience. If you don’t study the word of God you can’t grow in the knowledge of what you are entitled to in Christ.

Rick Rahn