Too Late

There are times in our lives that we figure things out when its too late, however there are plans that must be made for our eternal security that need to be made now.  For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation [2 Corinthians 6:2].

We find in [Acts 16:22-24] that Paul and Silas were imprisoned, Paul had angered some merchants when he freed a young woman from possession.  These merchants derived their living by exploiting the  possessed girl's ability to tell fortunes.  Her owners delivered Paul and Silas to the magistrates, who had  Paul and Silas beaten and thrown into prison.  Now Paul and Silas could have said, "Its been a long day and we have been wrongly accused and beaten; let's go to bed and start tomorrow fresh."  But they didn't do that, the bible says that at Midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God [Acts 16:25-26] and suddenly an earthquake shook the prison and loosed everyone from their bonds and opened all the cells.

The keeper of the prison was so distraught because he thought that all the prisoners had escaped that he took his sword and planned to kill himself, because he knew that if one prisoner escaped that he would have to pay for it with his life.  It is here that Paul stopped him from leaving this life without eternal security.  Paul said, "Do thyself no harm: for we are all here."  The keeper of the prison immediately asked them, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"  Isn't this counter intuitive, this is the same man that planned to kill himself mere moments earlier, and now he has come to the realization that he wants to be saved before it is too late.

Paul and Silas responded by saying, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."  Isn't it great to realize that a saved person will persist until he convinces his entire family to be saved.  Now again, Paul and Silas didn't waste any time; they preached the word of God to the keeper and his family that very night, and also baptized them.  Isn't it great to realize the timeliness in which the apostles worked within; they didn't put anything off until tomorrow; they acted swiftly, moved by fear of losing one soul.

Will you act swiftly now and accept Christ Jesus, or will you wait until its too late?

Overcome Evil with Good

There are still a good bit of prejudices in this world, and as long as men keep and nurture these prejudices then we know that the adversary is still resisting the call of the church.  Christians are commanded to be neighborly and treat all men with charity and kindness.  When Jesus walked the earth, the Jews considered the Samaritans to be unclean and would not fellowship with them.  They would not even so much as drink a glass of water from a Samaritan's cup.

We find in John chapter 4, that Jesus was traveling to Galilee and had to pass through Samaria.  Jesus and his disciples came near a parcel of land that Jacob had ceded to his son Joseph, which had a well there.  The disciples went into town and Jesus waited at the well for them to return with food.  At noon a Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water out and Jesus said unto her, "Give me to drink."[John 4:7]  The woman asked Jesus how could he, a Jew, ask her a Samaritan to drink water from her waterpot; she knew that if Jesus drank from her waterpot, that he would be considered unclean, because she being a Samaritan was considered unclean.

We find here that, even though this is water from a well that Jacob dug and left to his son Joseph, the same Jacob that had the promises of God, the same Jacob that dug the well, drank from the well, and left blessings to his seed; Jacob left the well to the Samaritans, so how could this water be considered unclean?  Jesus had already said that there is nothing that enters the body that can make a person unclean [Mark 7:15].  The water wasn't unclean, the waterpot wasn't unclean, but somehow the person handing the water to you, could somehow make it unclean.  Isn't that how racism works; a segment of people are ostracized for some unimportant reason, and are hated and mistreated for something that they can't even control.   People who if you look back far enough on their family tree are related to the people, that hate them.  The woman then reminds Jesus that the Jews have no dealing with the Samaritans.  Have you ever said, "I don't want anything to do with that person?"  This type of attitude goes against the mind of Christ.  So how does Jesus respond to this situation?

Jesus overcomes: [1] the hatred the Samaritan woman has for the Jews, which was based on how she had been treated; [2] the woman's perception of what cleanness is and the incorrect idea that something unclean can make what God has made clean, to be unclean [Acts 10:15].  Jesus bassicly tell her, I am the Holy One of God, neither you nor anything else can make me unclean.  I am here to make you clean.  Jesus tells her, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water." [John 4:10].  Jesus overcomes her prejudices by giving her the word of God and offering her the gift of salvation.  The woman tells Jesus, that she must have this gift, the living water that Jesus spoke of.

The word is a powerful thing my friends and at the end of the day, its anointing is the only thing that can overcome the things that truly make us unclean like racism;  "And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."  [Mark 7:20-23]

Who is Greater?

There are instances in the bible where the disciples disputed with each other about who would be greater in the kingdom of God [Luke 9:46].  Often times we see that today in churches, when members of one church begin to feel that their pastor is better than another pastor; sometimes its even the pastors themselves tooting their own horns, but what does the bible say about this?  When these types of disputes arouse, Jesus brought forth a child and set him before his disciples and said, "Whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me receiveth him that sent me: for he that is least among you all, the same shall be great." [Luke 9:48]

There was also an instance where John's disciples came to question Jesus as to whether or not he was the Messiah [Matthew 11].  After receiving their answer, Jesus told them to return to John.  But wait...why didn't they stay with Jesus like Peter[John 1], another one of John's disciples did?  This is Jesus we're talking about here, shouldn't he have a mega-church?  Yes, the disciples needed to send word to John, but why send all of them back to John?  Jesus would never have told them to return to John if John was working outside of Christ's spirit of soul saving.  Jesus had already said, "No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God" [Luke 9:62].  So, going back to John could not be somehow conceived as walking away from Christ, even though technically that's what they did, lol.

There is another account where the disciples told Jesus that they saw a man casting out spirits in Jesus's name and they stopped him, forbid him from doing so.  Jesus told them "Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us."  (Us) what an appropriate term, because there is no big me or little you in the Kingdom of God; we are all one.  To think of oneself above others, is worldly thinking and Christ's Kingdom is not of this world.  Jesus said, "  My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence" [John 18:36].  God's servants do not fight amongst themselves because the kingdom of God is not divided [Luke 11].

Servants of God and Jesus Christ all have the same command, because we all have the same ability to accomplish the command of God on our life, there should not be any reverence of persons.  Servants of God and Jesus Christ are commanded: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned [Mark 16:15-16].

Every servant of God has the ability to testify of Christ Jesus.

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Bread In The Wilderness

In Mark 8 we find a well known miracle performed by Jesus; the four thousand being fed.  However there had to be a choice made by the disciples to not only [1]share what they had, they also had to [2]trust Jesus with what they had.

Have you ever had company over to your house and said to yourself, (I wish that they would hurry up and leave so I can get me something to eat.  I would gladly share but I don't have enough to give everyone)  I assure you that I understand this because I have been on both sides of the situation, lol.

But Jesus saw things so much differently than we do, he said: "I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now been with me three days, and have nothing to eat:"[Mark 8:2]  Now, I must say here that there are some people who won't leave until you give them something to eat, lol.  The bible talks about these sorts of people also.  However, here we find people that have traveled great distances to follow Jesus and be healed, they have stayed for his ministering word, and now are too weak to leave.  Have you ever been exposed to the word, and fellowshiped so long, that you lost track of time?

Jesus had compassion on the multitude but his disciples experienced helplessness, they felt powerless to do anything about the situation.  (And his disciples answered him, from whence can a man satisfy these men with bread here in the wilderness?)[Mark 8:4].  Now that is an extremely hard hearted statement my friends, the disciples should have known by that point, that all good things come from God! [James 1:17].   God can take the little that we have and to exceedingly, abundantly more with it than we can even think to ask [Ephesians 3:20].  Jesus chose that moment to do the works of the father[John 5:19] and commanded his disciples to bring him what bread they had [Mark 8:5].  We find here that in obeying the command from Jesus, the disciples also found a few small fishes[Mark 8:7].  Isn't that amazing, because the disciples followed the command, they found so much more than they had hoped to find, and what they had and found turned out to be a blessing to others [Mark 8:8-9].  Because the disciples were willing to share what they had, God left them with more than they had in the end.  What started as seven loaves and a few fishes, fed four thousand hungry people, and what was left was seven baskets of food.  See what can be done when we take what we have and put it in the master's hand; its his anyway.

How many people are broke today because they trusted a banker or some other wall street type with their money; when you place what you have in God's hand, you don't ever  have to worry about loosing what you have.  You will find more than you thought you had, you will even find bread in the wilderness.

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