Hear the Call, Die and Live!

Hear the Call, Die and Live!                                     By Kelly Durant  9-21-14

Colossians 3:24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

2. Evil men with evil religions or ideologies always want you to die for their cause! But is it worth it? Here is a shocking story in Napoleon’s Army. Everyone admires extreme devotion, and loyalty to country has its place but always ask yourself, who am I serving and for what reason, is it for good pleasing Jesus or is it for an evil cause? There was a little bridge that the wooden posts were falling down on and some men had to get in the icy water and hold the posts up so the men and horses could cross. When then last person crossed the men were called to come up from the river but they did not come out of the water. They were permanently frozen to the posts, as one piece they were an ice mass frozen under the icy bridge! This extreme devotion made Napoleon shed tears! Today we know that these men died for a egomaniac dictator that lost all in the end! How sad we never learn from history! Today many young men continue to kill and die for evil regimes. How sad it is so many are deceived to believe they must kill and accept being killed for someone’s sadistic agenda!

There are so many war stories about people who killed others and then also died for their country. Those on the right side destroying evil are true heroes. However, what about all the martyrs of God who did not kill others but rather laid down their lives for Jesus? What about all those who died for Christ? We don’t praise them enough! Name 2 martyrs, can you?  Millions have died for Jesus but few of us remember and praise them! All of those that died in the faith inspire us, convict us, and in a certain way make us ashamed that we are not as heroic and brave as them! God called them to that!

Like it or not, dying is a part of our reality, a part of our human condition, a part of our fallen world and we all will die sooner or later of natural causes or for a cause. In this life, some get to age and live long, while others die young. The death of someone always makes us feel pain and the best thing that can take away that pain is to know that they lived in love and holiness and had eternal life in Jesus!

3. Paul, who was martyred wrote, 1 Corinthians 15:55 “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” How do we explain this, Christians usually die praising Jesus! They know their reward is in heaven!  But their suffering and the suffering of Jesus on the cross is a testimony to how evil Satan and his people are in this cruel world! Hell is not hot enough for some horrible ones to get paid back for their evil!  

Many people, like as were in Hitler’s army, loved to kill and love to see others suffer from torture! They will pay for their deeds. But here is our consolation; we will not share heaven with those who are murderers! 1 John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

Those that die having Jesus have eternal life and we will reign with Jesus forever and ever! But those that kill for whatever reason and even in the name of God, do not know God and their God would be Satan.  John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

4. Right now you may be asking yourself, I thought the sermon today was going to be about the calling of God, a Candidates Sunday to answer if God is calling you to the ministry. Well, the connection is, getting called to the ministry is an invitation to come and die and live for Jesus! The first step to answering the call of God, whether for salvation, or for full time service is to recognize that your person inside, your ego, your being, must die and then be reborn in Christ.

Jesus himself associated his calling, and His salvation, with death; death to yourself, death to your dreams in life, death to your idea of what you want in life, death to your pride and intelligence, death to everything! You have to let it all go! The fact is we are called to kill our pride, rebelliousness, and forsake all that we have for the greater cause of our own salvation and the Kingdom of God! If we are later called to die as a martyr, as Paul, and millions have been, then we lose nothing here because we have already lost it just by living submitted, and we gain eternal life with rewards in heaven.

Consider these verses: John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Luke 9:23, 24 23 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.

5. God is always calling out to everyone to be saved and to serve Him! In the Salvation Army the argument of one answering to the call of God is like this, ‘I have not heard the call, I have not heard God call me to the ministry!’ The reply to this is, “You have not heard the call? Then what is wrong with your hearing?” The call is always there for everyone! The problem with too many people is that they do not want to hear it because they know it implies a total life change, a death to self! People live unhappy, but still want to hang onto their old miserable self, how insane!

Here is a deep reality, no one can escape the calling of God and live well if they reject it! John 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. Jesus choses everyone, but as in a volunteer army, only the willing ones answer the call.

How many of us have known someone with the calling of God on their lives, and they tried to deny it and run from it? Then later we observe that in life no matter what they do with their time, be it to study, make money, or have a family, this marked person finds that nothing ever satisfies them! That’s the way life is! I had an experience similar to this as I thought I would finish 4 years of college, but I could not even sleep at nights thinking about how souls were lost and I needed to tell them about Jesus immediately! I felt guilt that I was saved, and others were not! It was God’s design and Holy Spirit in me for me to just go to the mission field. What did it matter it was my first year in college! I am not suggesting what you should do, each person has a different calling, but when everything seems empty and worthless as it did with me, maybe God is allowing it to make you uncomfortable in your comfortableness so you answer His call.  

6. When you are dissatisfied with your life, it is time for a change! I chose to serve God with a small Independent church that offered me no benefits, just a mission home to land at in Brazil to work with the poor and part of the mission included evangelizing on the streets with tracts.  Back in the 70s it seems everyone gave out tracts and many people accepted Jesus by this evangelism method. I prayed with many while out in the streets. It was a method that worked for its time period. I had a lot of fun actually meeting all kinds of friendly people daily, but of course every other day I would meet a devil too that would curse at me and tear up the tract! It’s amazing how just reminding some people of Jesus causes them to get red in the face and murderously angry! Serving Jesus means getting mocked as He was! I bit my tongue and died to my pride!

So how did I de-stress from Satan’s attacks while living right obeying God? I memorized scripture like the beatitudes…(Matt. 5) ”Blessed are you when you are persecuted…for great is your reward in heaven”…and I also sang and repeated verses from hymns like Martin Luther’s famous hymn of a “A mighty fortress is our God”. I love this hymn. Listen to this…

Vs 3 And though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us.

We will not fear for God has willed, His truth to triumph through us.

 Vs 4 Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also.

The body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still, His Kingdom is forever!

From my own experience, after reading the Bible for myself in college, after many Bible studies and getting offered the mission to die to myself, to leave my country, to serve Jesus, and after “hearing” the call, I knew I had to leave and obey God or I was going to die thousands of deaths daily for not doing what I knew God wanted me to do! I treasure all those first days of serving God when I was younger, and now that is almost 40 years away in my past. But still I am the changed person I became then, I am still in love with life, in love with Jesus, in love with the work of God and in love with all my Christian brothers and sisters! Yes, with you and you!

7. Who watches the “America’s Got Talent” show? When someone sings half-hearted, what happens? They do nothing for no one, they do not move the audience or the judges, but when someone gives it all their heart, what happens? Everyone gets touched and inspired! It is the same with our walk with God! We are not called to just give out a piece of bread to the hungry, we are called to put butter on it, and let people know they are loved, and by that example, they will get the message that God loves them too! But giving your all means dying to your pride and to yourself! It means doing embarrassing things; it means serving without being told a thank you, it means just doing it for God nothing more!

God calls all kinds of people but He needs extreme followers to change the world, He needs leaders, but He wants people willing to die to their selves so they can be alive with the Spirit of God in them! God needs people who will go the extra mile and love until it hurts! He wants you and me to die to ourselves and follow and obey Him in the mission He has for me and you!

Always God needs you and me now, today! John 4:35 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. His work is always there, but not enough people are doing it!

8. Many Christians will always think, I am not called, and I have no talents or ability.  They may explain why they are not called to the mission field; their assessment may be true, not everyone has the calling to learn a new language and culture. Others often argue, I am not called to the full time ministry, to be an Officer or pastor, and this may also be true, but only you and God know if it is as you say it is. But there is a universal truth: everyone is called to obey Jesus and serve Him in some way! If Jesus of a truth is in you, you will have a calling of some kind! No matter what you agree to do for God, remember it will cost you, you will need to die to yourself in some way.

A good analogy of God’s callings is in our church example, we are like an Army! Some are called to the front lines and they are praised as the heroes, but they could not do their job without the cooks, the drivers, and the supporters behind them. Everyone is needed!

Everyone is needed in the church because the church is an organized battalion making war on evil with the mission to save souls! We cannot afford to have people who say they will do something and then at the last minute fail the church being busy with something else! This causes us to lose battles and get stuck instead of marching forward! Everyone is called to be an extreme Christian but each person has to “hear” God speak to them to know their place of service.  Like it or not, no one can claim to be a Christian while not obeying the command to love God and their neighbor and preach the gospel to every creature; and this requires a dying sacrifice meaning you and I must ‘Do something!’

9. The real issue and important question we must ask ourselves today is: Am I hearing and obeying the calling God has for me? You will never have peace with God until you answer the call He has for you! Another good question would be, am I being fair and just with my brothers and sister in the church, carrying my fair share of the ministry work load?

Everyone gives or hears excuses all the time, but excuses are only one’s vocal justifications; they do not mean they make it right. A lot needs to get done! A real calling means dying for Jesus! Matthew 4:19-20 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

The challenging reality is that Jesus calls everyone to live for Him and to die to ourselves serving Him. What a waste that in the world many youth will die young from a reckless lifestyle of serving their selfish selves with drugs and pleasures. What a waste many youth will dedicate their selves to a dictator that demands that they kill others, and then later they are killed for submitting to a lost cause.

10. We all must recall the end of it all; in the end each one of us will die. Wouldn’t you like to have the consolation to know that you served Jesus as He expected you to so that you gain rewards in heaven? Colossians 3:24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.  Remember our rewards are in heaven! Matthew 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

It is not hard to die to yourself for Jesus if you have a real faith to know He will help you and be there for you for the whole journey! It is like trading an old ugly car for a nice expense new one. Matthew 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Matthew 13:46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

I traded my empty life and dreams to do Jesus work and I have never regretted it! What is God calling you to do? Maybe He is convicting you to do more for our Corps, or more for Him, speaking up for Him! Be willing to die for Him, He already died for you! If you feel you want to be a candidate for full time service, today is the day to say yes!

Escape The Sins of The Cities!

Escape The Sins of The Cities                                                            Kelly Durant 9-14-14

Revelation 18:1-3 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

 2. We are currently in the future we wondered about 40 years ago! When I was young there was a TV series called “Green Acres” and it was a comedy about a farmer man that married a lady from New York and daily they clashed over their appetites and ways of being. The farmer, for example, would be proud of his new born piglet and bring it in the house to show his wife and she would scream or faint! She was a delicate, extravagant, rich, proud woman and always upset and complainy. He was rough, humble, modest, and happy no matter what type of guy! Also, The Beverly Hillbillies, were a hit as well and these were real to life scenarios in the 30’s 40’s and 50s!

The clash between country people who depend on God, who are humble and sweet, compared to those who are ugly and proud in the cities exists in all countries, don’t you agree? Some Cubans tell me that some people from the country don’t want to be embarrassed for being from some tiny place so they often claim they are from Havana to be accepted as educated. In Colombia you have the sophisticated Bogotanos who tell jokes about the simplicity of the country people, the Pastusos. The clash between the simple with the proud in all countries is usually a parallel to the ones form the countryside compared to the ones from the city. The real issue are the sins of the people in the cities that clash with God! The question is, can you here, while living in this mega city of Miami stay free from its contamination?

In order to please God we must identify and flee from sins offered in the cities such as greed, lust, excess, intellectual arrogance, and pride. Arnold J. Toynbee stated, “Cities are a cancer on the body”, and he also said, “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” Most mega cities produce and consume physical and spiritual poison catering to people’s greed and self-destructions resulting in mega waste, debauchery, and organized circles of evil!

3. Farmers are always hard working, depending on prayers for rain and they enjoy the simple things of God, the animals, the plants, and their family. But people in the mega cities often have appetites for strange neon light entertainments, materialism, luxuries, crime and destruction. Having leisure time, people in cities incite clans of followers of diverse ideological movements and propagate support for satanic destructive ideals. To give an example of doctrines inciting hate, Google ‘humans=cancer’, and many articles will appear describing humans as a cancer, a bacteria destroying mother earth; humans, consequently then, deserve to be eliminated for their high crimes of destruction, guilty for global warming, and over population! But take note a new science report came out last week that proves the polar poles are actually growing in size! We are fed lie after lie! Over 100 Billion in our tax funds have been spent on ‘Green Initiatives”, and ironically most of the solar companies bankrupted and disappeared with mega millions!

Mega cities breed modernistic liberal movements forcing humanistic evil ideals on the masses. God owns the earth, but Satan military coup style, has taken it over temporarily.  The elimination of humankind is preached in intellectual circles as the most pious doctrine.  Shouldn't everyone harbor immense guilt for abusing the earth or because your country made wars, and in guilt shouldn't you choose suicide!? Inconvenient ideologies (not truths) are popularized and legitimatized by evil infiltrators (worldwide) so funds can be covertly diverted to support internal power struggles, civil-wars, race wars, abortions, pandemics, and population reductions by any means possible! Don’t just accept my word on this, read about Agenda 21 produced by the United Nations concerning “sustainability”. In Bolivia, in the last G77 summit statements by 100 nations confirm there is a real hatred for America just for it being rich and powerful; also hypocritically, it is hated for its moral decadence. China produces more unregulated pollution than the U.S. but yet they are praised as a global model of austerity under communism and their economy is equal to the U.S.  How can a nation that oppresses and abuses humans and animals so extremely be praised as earth’s salvation? In these circles capitalism is often compared to whoredom. What hypocrisy how Castro, and many dictators, publicly express contempt for prostitutes while daily carrying out ruthless murders to advance their own selfish power grabs in the so called defense of the poor suffering masses that under them suffer even worse conditions of oppression, persecution, and poverty!

Darwin, Marx, Lenin, Hitler and every satanic inspired demagogue provoking war, class warfare, racism, and mass murder grew up in a city full of Godless ideology! Current terrorists recruit people from the cities! Historically, from the first chapters of Genesis, one can conclude that God has never been happy with man’s creation of cities because it is in these conglomerate mega populations of confusion where ungodly pride, lustful perversions, weapons of war, and evil machinations flourish. 

4. How many cities have been condemned and destroyed by God? Sodom and Gomorrah are 2 that always come to most people’s minds, which were destroyed for their excessive lust, violence, and perversions. But consider hundreds of other mega cities have been destroyed throughout time by natural disasters and enemy armies. Archeology confirms it is more than a coincidence that evil places all perish quickly! Basically every city in the world regardless of their immense dominating power has fallen defeated due to God’s judgment on their sins! Jericho, Cairo, Athens, Rome, Pompeii, Carthage and hundreds more bear witness to this!

Destruction of cities create major power shifts; the Spanish conquerors stopped the human sacrifice of adults and children in the mega cities of the Aztecs and Incas in the Americas. An earthquake in 1907 buried and flooded the richest city in the Caribbean, Port Royal, Jamaica, the city of pirates, which was full of debauchery and wealth. Half of San Francisco was wiped in in 1906 where the Salvation Army’s disaster work began!

5. Today, however, we are focusing in on Babylon’s destruction. ‘Babel’, is a root word in English meaning confusion and we assume that this label is due to its size, languages, and diversity. The project of the first Babel, and it’s city, were abandoned by ancient man due to the language confusion sent down by God prior to 3,500 B.C. (Gen 11:4) By conclusion God zapped everyone’s brains capacities to be less intelligent so that most everyone would be stuck with the limited ability of only one or two languages in life. Later, the first city named Babylon in Iraq, fell to the Medes and Persians in 539 BC before Greece and Rome were even a world power, so what is inferred in these verses in Revelation during Rome’s reign?

Obviously the prophecy is referring to a future mega city that is horribly corrupt, sexually perverted, and drunk on the blood of the martyrs (context of whole chapter). Basically this city could represent many of the anti-christ mega cities in the world today! This one, however, was destroyed in one hour, and what is the motive for its destruction? Recall that this is within the setting of the end-time, a time when the final chapter of man’s reign on earth comes to an end and the anti-christ, or Satan in person, is consolidating his power worldwide.

6. This city was excessively rich, so if we narrowed it down to a modern day context, it could be New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, London, or Rome, etc. The 7^th Day Adventists believe this city is Rome but I am more open to other interpretations as Rome is not as wealthy as what is described in these chapters. Let’s not focus on the where, but rather on the how this city is to be destroyed during the rise of the anti-Christ.

Jesus is the only one with the privilege of the knowledge of future, and he gave it all to John to write down for everyone. This is a Babylon of the future and it could possibly be New York, or some other place like it, and possibly it is a city that is yet to be built in the future! Some theologians interpret this destruction to be symbolic of the sudden destruction of man’s materialistically fueled corrupted capitalistic world banking system. Certain details we do not know yet about this “Babylon’ but we can take into account that man has developed the technology to destroy the earth within one hour with nuclear bombs! Today a total destruction by a bomb or an earthquake is very probable!

Ever since the 1980s there has existed enough nuclear weapons to destroy the landmass of the earth 100 times over! We are only 10 minutes away from a strike from a Russian, Chinese, North Korean, or Iranian warhead! Actually only the destruction of one city, such as New York, would put so much debris in the air it would create a cloud cover that would create a global climate change producing the coldest winter ever on modern records! That would cause a food crisis and many more consequences!

7.  So what are the offensive sins of this city and the reason behind its judgment so we are informed to not partake of them? Babylon represents a total abomination offending God. The city is referred to as the great whore, and what is the main offense of the so called oldest profession? Unfaithfulness! A prostitute has no loyalty to anyone except to filthy money and this is an unnatural greed and selfishness, an abuse of emotions, and an abuse of the body as it transmits diseases. This choice of lifestyle contributes to family embarrassments, bitterness, anger, divorces, drug use, depression, and even murder! There is a negative guilt and shame inducted by all of the participants of whoredoms and God’s call is to be pure and free from sin and all lustful destructive activity: God wants Christians to be holy, happy, healthy, and loving!

Why does God have a disdain for the sexually perverted and commandment laws exist to punish its activity? For one, how can anyone learn faithfulness to God if a person is not practicing it amongst our own selves first? How can we as people understand and express sacrifice, pure love, protection and provision if not done under the condition of absolute loyalty? God created sex, a wonderful emotional bonding experience, but he never intended for it to be abused carnally just for a selfish abusive satisfaction which is degrading and depressing. Also, for there to exist a bonding love for a child that is a result of sex, a faithful commitment by both parties is imperative! One person can be a parent, but it is a very hard life for all involved.  

In U.S. cities today up to 72% of all babies born are born out of wedlock! Only one in 2 marriages remains together for a few decades. Our society, due to not having stable families, is consequently producing undisciplined, unloving, aggressive mentally disturbed criminal kids! Certain cultures of music genres glamorize these abuses and the gangster stripper club lifestyle. Imitation of these lustful lifestyles produces the financial and spiritual ruin of mega millions of young men and women of all races in the mega cities! Freedom from sin is a must!

8. The city mentioned in verse 1 is repeated in chapter 17 as sitting on many waters (the waters refers to the people). It mentions the merchants becoming rich by her trade, so it causes you to imagine it is possibly a port city. Wealth in itself is not an evil, but the worship of it is! The sin of the people of this city is that they had forgotten God and grown confident in their own power full of horrific sin and luxuries.

It describes the people as drunk on the wine of fornications. Drunkenness, or being drugged, is a serious problem in mega cities today. Basically this verse implicates people being addicted to porn lust, drugs & alcohol, and violence; violence including martyring Christians! The murder of Christians worldwide is horrifically being popularized as legitimate to do!

Rev 17:6 ‘And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.’ Her power seems overwhelming and this implies that not all Christians will escape the coming persecution but many will die as martyrs. Hundreds of thousands were martyred in John’s time and today some reports show up to 100,000 Christians die yearly in Africa and the Middle East! Now, here?

9. This verse will become clearer in the future; 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, ‘Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth’. We do not know specifically the full meaning of this but I think all Christians get nervous when we think of Bagdad (the original Babylon) reemerging as a world power. I doubt this refers to the modern day Bagdad Babylon but the ISIS group could overtake it soon since they are only a few miles away and for sure they would make it a world headquarters for radicals who will continue to behead those who believe in Jesus. More than a million Christians have fled their homes in Iraq and they now live in tent cities. This is very sad! The survivors are taken as slaves, and they are customarily mutilating female parts! Men, women, and children are still being slaughtered!

Revelation 20:4 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

It is clear in other verses that murderers and persecutors of Christians will suffer in the lake of fire that burns for ever and ever. These murderers who continue in the future will also be those who will receive the mark of the beast, or the 666 ID. Their punishment will be extreme, the eruption of painful sores is described in Rev16:2 ‘And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image.’ The mark, being a possible RFID chip will make a torturous sore on those that get it! They will have hell now and hell hereafter!

10. So what is your response to this news that God will bring about a major catastrophe in the future and that God has always had His hand in the destruction of evil places? Rev 18: 4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues”. How do we interpret this? For one it may mean that in the future Christians will know which city is being described here, so at that time God is telling them clearly to move out, escape!

There is also a parallel meaning to moving out of sin cities, a spiritually one within the context of holiness: that we are not to participate in the sins of the world! We must purge ourselves with God’s word and prayer so we are not sinful and arrogant desiring lavish riches, to not be drunken by alcohol or drugs, not perverted by sexual appetites, nor lustful for blood and violence. 2 Corinthians 6:17 :Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” Sadly we all know of people that have chosen their own greed and perversions above God’s will and they left God’s ways for the sins of the cities.

Christians have the warning to escape but the wicked who never respect God, who never heed God’s warnings of punishment will suffer the consequences as in the days of Noah. Jesus return will be to take back the earth to establish purity, faithfulness, sanity, justice, peace, love and life eternal and to punish those who have their selves or Satan exalted as God being perverted by the sins and filth of an arrogant wasteful lifestyle being murderers of innocent people.

11. Our spirits are eternal and if we have the same heart as Jesus, loving God and rejecting evil, then we will go to be with Him; everyone knows that after death the spirits are judged! This message of extreme judgment on this abominable sin city of Babylon is actually about a message about how Jesus wins even though Satan thinks he has conquered by corruption! After Babylon falls, all the scavenger birds will clean up the bodies and never again will another city like this one be built. This is a lesson for all the angels and all humans resurrected for all time to observe, that the places of powerful evil will always be brought down by a quick judgment.

Are any secret sins capturing you? The fact that we live in this mega city of Miami implies we are daily exposed to the whoredoms of human trafficking, drugs and alcohol, and the death of innocent people. We fight evil and pray against abusers and open safe house for women trapped in human trafficking! Our solid faith to resist sin must be as firm as it was for Lot in Sodom, to be of a resistant breed that is counter-culture, counter to the delicacies of the appetites of the people who are enslaved to sins, passions, and lusts. Now is the time we must pray for protection, wisdom, and peace as we combat tribulations, in Jesus name, amen!  

Fear Not! A Pre 911 message...

Fear Not!                                               By Kelly Durant  9-7-14

Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

2. Can you recall a time when you have been very afraid? Everyone has to learn to deal with fear and I think we all hate it! I find that this is an important topic considering all that is happening in the world! Usually most people fear death and things associated with it and this is normal! People with no fear who drive 140 mph on the highway on a motorcycle eventually end up dead within a short time for being so careless, crazy, and not a good steward over their body that God sewed together with several trillions of living cells! Our bodies were created by God, so we must treat them as rented property to be respected. Fear and adrenalin rushes serve a good purpose, to get us to move out of the way when in danger, or maybe to stop, and we must pray for wisdom to know when to move and when to stop!

Sometimes our nightmares can be what scares us the most! I recall in Chile and in Colombia, after hearing many stories of people being tortured in my English classes I had a few vivid nightmares in color a few times. One time I dreamed that the guerrillas had captured me and they were going to hang me like Hitler hung the Jews on the gallows because I was a gringo guilty of preaching the gospel of Jesus when they were imposing atheism communism. I recall the barb wire (barb wire?!) that was to go around my neck and I prayed inside, “Ok Lord, give me the grace to just accept that this is the end!” I thought, Lord please let me die fast? When you wake up sweating and shaken you must hold on to God! Have you ever dreamed something traumatic like that, that you were dying? Or maybe you have almost died for real in some accident!

The recent murder events on the news and on Youtube are quite disturbing! I hope no one is becoming too afraid or obsessive over what is happening in the Middle East! God wants us to know about the evil in the world but not fear it! As a young man, I read history books (look up Will & Ariel Durant sometime) and I became aware that mutilators and sadistic murderers were common place. Some people today are just waiting for an opportunity to be as evil as they want to be as in recent past wars. The events of the times today are calling us to a wake up, to get close to God, and to be ready to confront serious troubles or go to be with God at any moment! After all, a hurricane, a tornado, a fire, another 911, or a disaster of any kind could happen at any moment! This is why I, and all Christians, keep repeating that all should deny their selves and start serving God now! Let’s pause here and pray for those who are still suffering trauma from 911…

3."Fear not" is one of the most repeated commands in the Bible!   In fact there are 366 "fear nots" in the Bible! If you think about it that is one for every day of the year including Leap Year!  God doesn't want his children to go a single day without hearing His word of comfort, and to "fear not." Why? Because we are weak and fear is a real torture!

One of my favorite verses the one of today, Isaiah 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

When you think about it everyone has to deal with fear of some kind. What are your fears? From Adam on down to the present all the major prophets, Moses, Isaiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Job, basically every person of God reached a point where they feared that their life had come to an end! Sadly, everyone has to pass through valleys of death! Have you ever feared and that you would be murdered by the hands of your enemies or that you or a loved one would die from circumstances out of your control? 

4. So what do you fear? To conquer anything you have to identify it! Most people suppress and avoid their fears but that is not the way to overcome them. Fear is an enemy, and God wants us to identify the enemy and conquer him! Here are a few general observations about what fears different people may experience, and meditating on fear instead of the strength that comes from God dries your spirit and destroys your health!

Amongst children the greatest fears they have are those of being beat up or bullied, of being abandoned by their parents separating, or of being rejected without any friends. In many cities already by age 9 or 10 they fear they will be shot in the streets by a stray bullet! And around the world there are multimillions of homeless street children!

Here is a pressure that breaks the spirit of kids that I have always detested. Some parents are impossible with their kids and these adults are such proud arrogant perfectionists that they make their kids suffer immensely by their demands! The fear of failure or of not being perfect drives many kids to drugs, escapism, and even suicide! These victimized children fear they will never win their parents approval no matter how much they accomplish in school academically, by sports, or by their talents. On the other side of the coin, some kids fear that because there is no parental involvement in their present lives that it means they will have no support ever to progress. Many teens fear living meaningless lives, to live lonely rejected by their peers lives, and grow up to be as messed up and as bad as their irresponsible parents are!

5. Parents or adults have their own set of fears as well. Adults often fret over financial ruin, joblessness, homelessness, ill health, rejection, family failure and the list goes on and on! Another fear is not being able to find or keep a spouse and having someone to love in life!

The thing that I have sometimes feared was what Job feared,  Job 3:25 “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”  This means we all have secret fears that no one knows, and the worst nightmare one can have is for one of those things to happen to you! I had a fear of our resident visa application getting rejected in Brazil, and guess what? It got rejected! God wanted us in Bolivia I assume; He will explain all of His reasons in heaven, I am sure.

In other words, all of us want to live with love and have security but in life all these things are not promised and all can be lost from just one mistake, or from an outside attack of the enemy or some unforeseen disaster. The good thing is that with God we at least provide consolation in our fears, we have the promises of the Bible for comfort, and as the great men and women of God in the Bible we will overcome! The faithless people in the world actually lose their minds and become psychotic, irrational, and out-of-control desperate when their fears overcome them! May we never reach a state of despair, God always works things out!

6. Senior adults have their fears as well! We often ask ourselves, how will the remainder of my life be spent, with good health or poor health? Can there still be purpose in my life?  Will anyone care or notice if I am there or not there anymore? Loneliness is a very big issue and those who have no family should have us as their Christian brothers and sisters as family. The elderly need lots of love and attention and they really do have a great need to feel love.

Our Salvation Army ministry in the rest homes, hospitals, and jails is very important! Matthew 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Loving those suffering is like loving Jesus Himself!

Many people often worry, will my family love and respect me even when I may be sick and with no finances?  Will I keep my mental sharpness or will others have to care for me? Well, most Christians that I know stay stronger and healthier in their old age because they have lived with the peace and strength of God for decades! Don’t worry!

         

7. Now the spiritual fears: Cadets or new ministers have their own set of fears. Will I measure up? How will I do learning the Salvation Army's administration? The fear of failure, of being in charge one day and making the wrong decisions, is a real torment!

Candidates also have their fears like will I be accepted for EBC?  Can God actually use me in preaching His Word? Will I survive alright leaving behind my family and familiar surroundings?  Can I make it if the enemy attacks me and everyone abandons me? When no friends or family are near, will loneliness and rejection cause me to become weak in the faith? All pastors endure a great deal of attacks from dark forces that they will not share with others about as well!

A fear of a spiritual attack by the enemy using demons torments many people as well! People hear voices in their heads and some say horrible things! We are God’s children and we are a target for the enemy as he is very insistent on trying to gain our allegiance to him either by fear or by temptation and the pleasures of sin for a season. But Satan eventually does go away after we pray in the name of Jesus! James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

         

8. As a nation, we have many fears at the moment. The Islamists threaten us inside our own borders now. Pray extra hard on 911! Extremists in Libya have 12 jets in their possession. The never ending threat of a nuclear bomb remains real, chemical weapons use is not off the table, and life-threatening communicable diseases such as Ebola gives everyone serious reason for concern!

We are witnessing the decimation of our value system as immorality multiplies. Our democracy seems to be elusive as we are reminded daily that our rights are not respected. The threat of wars, the national debt, the apathy and lack of love from the people, all seems to contribute to an outlook of impending doom! The fear of the future is real as well but since Jesus wins the in final battle we do not have to worry, are on the winning side!

Many people believe that this is the ‘beginning of sorrows’ as Jesus predicted would come before the end of days. The fear of this being a time of ‘great tribulation’ that it probably is the ‘end of days’, is not very comforting. What is comforting is that God’s Holy Spirit comforts us despite it all!

9. Joanna Weaver, a best-selling author wrote:  "Fear can make us do slightly crazy, often inappropriate things.  Fear blurts out thoughtless, sometimes hurtful words.  Fear babbles.  It freaks out.  It searches frantically for explanations and solutions.  Fear sews together fig leaves to cover our inadequacies and paints bright smiles to hide our tears.  It forces us to hide behind facades simply because we don't know what else to do. . ."

When you talk to a friend, it doesn’t take long for you to feel what fears they have. The problem is usually you and I are just not giving it all to God and trusting it will be alright as we know to do! We are to pray, give all our worries to God, and let Him stay up all night, not you! Share your fears with a close friend also so you pray for each other!

Consider also some wise words from Mark Twain when he said, ‘I am a man of many worries and fears, most of which never happened!’ It is true, most of what we fear and worry about never does happen! We must conquer worries and fears with prayer, and by quoting God’s promises!

10. The Bible gives us beautiful comforting and encouragement verses for all of us to claim in our time of need.

Psalm 56:3-4  "When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust;  I will not be afraid."

Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation -- whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life -- of whom shall I be afraid?"

Matthew 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

No matter your circumstance, “fear not!” it is a commandment! God is here and He is watching over us. The worst fear would be death, right? Well, that is not so tragic, that will be just the beginning of our new life in heaven! I have always liked Paul’s attitude when he says Phil 1:21 21 “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”.

So “Fear Not!” John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. And as Plato said, “We can easily forgive a child that fears the darkness, the real tragedy of life is that men are afraid of the light.”  God wants us close to Him and He takes away our fears! All your fears are nothing compared to how God cares for you, we must please Him or fear His judgment for the consequences of reaping what our sinful selves deserve.

Don’t entertain fears or let anyone else be overcome with fear! Be encouraged today, and fear not!