Doctrines That Free vs Doctrines That Enslave

Doctrines That Free vs Doctrines That Enslave                                by Kelly Durant

Galatians 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. 10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. 11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man 12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2. One time there was a man on a farm out west that owned an eagle. He put a ring on his ankle and a stake in the ground with a chain attached so the eagle could not fly away. Over several years the eagle had made a big rut in the ground from walking in circles day after day. The man after several years felt sorry for the eagle and one day he decided to set it free. He took off the ring on his ankle and tossed him up in the air. Did the eagle fly away happy? No! It had forgotten how to fly and it landed back on the ground not to explore new land but to return to walk in the same circle of his rut! How symbolic this is of those who forget what flying and freedom are like! How much freedom can a person lose before they forget what it is?    

Today it is imperative to have the fire of Holy Spirit for discernment concerning what is truth! Jesus John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me’. The multitudes of people in the world today who do not have discernment over the stances they are being sold are going nowhere but in circles as this unchained eagle was. Freedom is under attack! Unbeknownst by them, the people of the world have been mentally conditioned by the social political and religious manipulators to defend illogical, hypocritical, and enslaving ideas that rob their freedoms. Ideas are like doctrines.

Apathy towards God and others is eroding our freedoms as erroneous postures fill the voids. This story of the chained eagle is tragic because you and I were created by God to fly wild and free like a healthy eagle, to be at the top of the pyramid of nature, to be the rulers and to roam free! But too many people get stuck in a rut refusing to get out of their comfortable misery due to their limited vision and beliefs so they then condemn their own selves to live out sad and pathetic mundane existence! This is because Jesus’ way, truth, and life  was not at the center of their lives! 

Here is a sad reality, any one of us, being unprepared to recognize false ideas, might entertain some belief or practice that does not coincide with Jesus teachings! I have seen us lose a few people from this Corps over the years and it saddens and disturbs me that someone persuaded them ‘with another gospel’. They convinced them they had something better to offer them than what we have here. But you and I know very well anything beyond Jesus’ simplicity is condemning. Even a Christian not on guard can be potentially deceived by a false premise, an altered belief, or by a doctrine not in line with the general essentials of Christianity. Often when a person falls away from their freedom in Jesus it stems from being broken in spirit or vulnerable, or from conforming to pressure from the pusher of enticing, enslaving arguments.

3. Have you ever noticed how many thousands of groups, religious and secular, follow and teach erroneous presuppositions as benevolent dogma? We must protect our own and focus in on those seeking supposed greener grass, those with a low self-esteem, or those with almost no information concerning the dangers of the ‘agendas’ of the groups in the world to warn them of the dangers. Too many people become enslaved too easily because it is human nature to want to show off knowledge or spirituality! Too many people conform to peer pressure to tolerate abusive systems, be it in a so called church, or in an organization in the world. People tolerate awkward postures for rewards, such as a false sense of being loved, or for money or position, or some conform out of loneliness and a false sense of at least having a purpose to live for. People as well may get into politics, secret societies, or false religions, out of pride to show off they know more than you and have power than you! The good news is a Christian can escape these traps as Jesus brings to ‘whosoever will’ His freedom! Conforming to man’s systems built upon false teachings, premises, and doctrines will force you into a miserable life of oppression and more and more today we see, feel, and suffer from the oppression.

First let’s start off with the positive; the positions, postures, or doctrines, we adhere to which are Biblical, logical, practical, time proven, and Holy Spirit guided. The principles that you and I adhere to as Christians as in the Salvation Army are postures held by a majority of fellow Christians everywhere as well. Legitimate and enduring churches have doctrines based on God’s truth alone. Doctrines in general usually vary over the sacraments, or other traditions, but most everyone will agree on the basics of salvation. I love it that the Salvation Army articulates a basic 11 point doctrine that any Christian can agree with and understand! You must know what you stand for or you will fall for anything!

The Salvation Army Doctrines contain the basics of what a Christian should believe without obliging one to any dubious sacramental practices, elaborate rituals, concocted traditions, or mandated practices invented by man. In the Salvation Army there is no cult figure, no worship of leadership, no false spirituality by those who put on a show and no possibility of an uncontrolled financial gain because there are internal and external controls. The principle requirement is holiness, to live holy, faithful, serving others being an example of a true Christian! And if the uniform seems like too harsh of a rule, just recall that the uniform is simply a way to show that one is dressed to serve others as winning souls to Jesus is the ultimate agenda and goal. 

4. In my 20 years with the Salvation Army I have seen dozens of people come and go from our loving serving community church Corps! It affects me and I have felt very sad and sorry for those who fell victim to some other church’s false doctrines. False doctrines are a curse! In Atlanta I recall one time a half dozen members moved over to a small church where they did prophecies over each person. To answer why they left our church, they answered that they felt (notice the word felt) that they had to go with that church’s way because there they were told what their mission would be by prophesy. And then some of them even accused that we had a false doctrine because we did not prophecy over people! Not every place that claims to be a church has truth guided followers of Jesus! It is not by ‘feelings’ but by faith, and not by strange words, prohibitions, sacrifices, sacraments, or self-proclamation that makes one holy!

1 Timothy 4

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.

More and more so called churches today fit this bill of being a false church as described in these verses! I have observed that they seem to seduce people with the premise that no matter what church one is a part of, they will always accuse that that church and your beliefs are false! Ones that are false, as in the nature of Satan, always accuse the true ones of being false! The people of false churches are always holier-than-thou attacking your devotion to God as nothing belittling what you believe, criticizing your doctrine, good works, and convictions. If you don’t abstain from the things that they do, or if you don’t do things as they do and study their books only written by men then they claim you are false! False churches always claim that they, and only they, have the true doctrine! To clear up the prophecy part, only Jesus and no one else, has the spirit of prophecy and He spoke concerning the future of the world, not over others like a fortune teller. The only 2 times he spoke prophecy to his disciples was concerning how Judas would betray Him, and how Peter would deny Him 3 times. Not very pleasant prophecies, right? It is sad that people in ignorance follow what they are told without investigating deep in the Bible what Jesus really wants us to follow and obey! As Paul says in Gal 1:10 “for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ”.

5. To know about true and false doctrines, everyone must study Galatians! Since the beginning of Jesus ministry our freedom in Jesus has been attacked by those not “in Jesus” and they have been consciously or unconsciously persecuting everyone freed in Jesus to bring them into some kind of submission which according to them is the only way of ‘truth’. Always the converts of these aberrant groups or religions are submitted to rituals, traditions, observances, and practices while forcing one to submit to their rigid dogma.

In the case of Galatians, the believers in that church accepted and believed what they had first heard about Jesus death and resurrection and how He reconciled all races (not just the Jews) forgiving all sins but then a few Jews there felt uncomfortable with this freedom. It felt strange to them to be free from the law and the traditions, so they like the eagle unchained, returned to their rut to impose their previous beliefs on the new believers. They wanted everyone to get circumcised and observe all details of the old law. In other words Jesus alone was not enough to save a person, the person was also going to need them and their priests and their rules, rituals, practices, and doctrines to be saved! This is slavery and Satanic compared to Jesus’ freedom! Paul was right to rebuke them and point out that they are cursed by nullifying` Jesus salvation!

They were preaching another gospel, not the one Paul had given them ‘by the revelation of Jesus Christ’. This is the same problem today, in many places they are preaching ‘another gospel’ and adding to what Jesus had taught making the gospel a manipulation tool to exploit human capital! Manipulators try to get you to jump through their hoops to qualify you as being authentically spiritual.  It is our obligation to expose these errant teachers and tell them they are cursed (as Paul expresses it in vs 9) for being usurpers of Jesus freedom! 2 Peter 2:3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

6. Following the wrong doctrine gives a person the illusion that they are having a real faith. But it is a pseudo faith of ‘doing’ instead of ‘being’, harboring the false hope that one can buy God’s favor by climbing up the ladders of requirements. It is a works vs. grace dichotomy and never, never forget that we are people saved only by the grace of Jesus!

Ephesians 2:8 ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works lest any man should boast.’ It is not by anything you can do! Jesus has freed us from laborious processes to gain God’s appeasement!

Being redeemed by Jesus we are truly free!  Tell your neighbor right now, “I am free!” Every non-Christian or pseudo Christian cult religion is one of works; it is a rigid enslaving model of discipline and prohibitions, of climbing the ladder of processes, of do-this –never-do -that- read-only-this or we-cast-you-out-to-hell type of structure. These systems of trying to gain God’s favor by works are manipulatingly designed to control every aspect of one’s life; they guilt-trip you, and put you in fear of hell, and in fear of leadership’s severe punishments for not following to the tee their man-made systems. The Kingdom of God structure frees not enslaves!

7. In the verses of Galatians 1 today Paul is attacking those who are enslaving new Christians to become subject to the laws of Judaism contradicting how Jesus fulfilled the law and freed us from them! It is sever that Paul says that those teaching ‘another gospel’ should be ‘cursed’, but contracting Jesus teachings will by default bring a curse. The law was needed, and still is in society to control man’s sinful criminal acts, but spiritually the Christian stance now is the law (referring to the former one of Moses) is to be taken as our teacher and guide but never as what can justify one before God to please Him. The law enslaves, Christ frees! (read all of Galatians)Only obeying Jesus, loving God and others is what fulfills all the law and the prophets! 

We have a problem with man’s laws today as many are unjust and dysfunctional. “Freedom, freedom”, a song at the Woodstock concert in the late 1960s epitomized the desire of dozens of millions of youth to be free from the injustices of an abusive system. After 50 years are we any freer? You have to have lived under oppression to value what freedom is! Today my fears are real that people are being lulled to sleep unaware of how they are losing their freedom being pressured to accept politically correct worldly laws and postures deemed necessary for the equality of all or for your own ‘security’. Most people are unaware of how conditioned they have become to the Satanicly oppressive anti-Christian influences robbing their freedoms in almost every sector of society! In the State and church! Jesus said John 8:32 ‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’. Only Jesus has the truth to free us! The more Biblical a society is, the more free and trustworthy it is! The experiment to impose laws to condemn Biblical values out of schools and governments is disastrous and now that the state or cult churches are in charge we are reliving slavery and without the chains!

As Christians we have a duty to speak up against any oppression originating from any source, be it secular or religious! What a person believes influences everything! Choosing to be indifferent to the damage false beliefs cause breeds hypocrisy and insanity! Such is the world today!  And if social political oppression is not enough, a persistent plague is the oppression of false religious with doctrines that enslaves minds, bodies, and souls!     

8. Does freedom matter to you anyway? Why does Paul get so upset at those taking away our freedom in Jesus? Did not Jesus want every person to be free? This implies you and I should be ‘storming the forts of darkness and bringing them down’ as we sing in the Salvation Army! Did Jesus or Paul praise the Romans, politicians, or religious leaders as liberators because they were so eloquent and effective? No! They exposed their oppression and hypocrisy and how they claimed to offer freedom but instead were enslavers of men!

Jesus knew very well that no one could ever live happy if they had to conform to the rules, doctrines and oppressive systems of man! This is why He gave us John 8:32 ‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free’.

9. Let’s review the Doctrines we adhere to in the Sal. Army.       We believe that…

1.         That the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God;    and that they only constitute the divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

2.         That there is only one God who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things and who is the only proper object of religious worship.

3.         That there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost   undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory.

4.         That in the person of Jesus Christ the divine and human natures are united so that he is truly and properly God, and truly and properly man.

5.         That our first parents were created in a state of innocency but by their disobedience they lost their purity and happiness and that in consequence of their fall all men have become sinners totally depraved and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

6.         That the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

7.         That repentance toward God faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation.

8.         That we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ  and that He that believeth hath the witness in himself.

9.         That continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.

10.       That it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ

11.       In the immortality of the soul, in the resurrection of the body, in the general judgment at the end of the world, in the eternal happiness of the righteous, and in the endless punishment of the wicked.

Let’s be thankful that these doctrines for the past 150 years have motivated millions of Soldiers, stirred millions of volunteers, and encouraged tens of thousands of Officers to serve God sacrificially all their lives freeing multimillions from poverty, sheltering millions who were homeless, freeing multitudes from drug and alcohol abuse, relieving spiritual oppression and most importantly confirming their eternal souls in salvation through Jesus Christ! We must spread the word, we have a doctrine that is effective and liberating! Beware of impostors! Live free in Jesus!

Green Spirituality: An Earth Day Initiative

Green Spirituality: An Earth Day Initiative                           by Kelly Durant 4-19-15

Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.”

   

2. The color green gets a lot of positive and negative attributes, what comes to your mind? Some might think of the Irish and good luck, some might think of life and plants, some might think of it meaning envy, while others think of an old green man (Spanish slang for a dirty old man)!

    Since this week Earth Day (April 22, 2015) will be commemorated, I find it appropriate to

extrapolate on this subject because as time goes on we keep hearing a lot of media news coverage concerning ‘climate change’ and ‘green initiatives’. Some Christians are confused by it but actually we should pay attention to this subject because the earth’s resources are limited and we should always be respecting all the life (in particular human life) that God created. As Christians it is a part of our testimony to take care of and to not waste that which we are entrusted with! Tending to our planet is God’s idea ever since Adam in the Garden of Eden!

                                                                                                          

     Some people today may consider it ignorant, old superstition, or something only of the Native Indian cultures which I know a few things about, to accept that God has some type of nerve pulse connected to the earth. However, an intelligent person must deduct that a supernatural science is at work maintaining the earth witnessing how all the atomic and ecological systems do not degrade into entropy and oblivion but rather they unexplainably retain their forces, forms, and energy. All natural forces and life forces are God’s creation. And a side note, no thinking Christian should be a Deist to believe that God would wind up the universe like a clock and just let it run on autopilot; instead God at every moment is conscious of every action done by every human being, animal, and plant! (No bird falls ‘to the ground’ without the Father knowing, and you hairs are numbered Matt. 10:29,30)

   To make my point about God feeling through nature, how would one explain these verses concerning the murder of Abel referring to how God expresses that the ground (earth) spoke to Him.  Genesis 4:10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. 11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.

   The clear message here is that God became conscious of Abel’s death because his blood was crying out to Him ‘from the ground’; so the implied here is that God’s connectedness to His nature communicates to Him. From the beginning Satan has deceived thousands of tribes and cultures to spill human blood ‘on the ground’ in sacrifice just to defile God’s ground, insult Him, and His creation!

  3. What other evidence is there in the Bible that God is gravely displeased with man for defiling the earth with death and destruction? One verse that always stood out to be is this one… Revelation 11:18 “The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth.”

   We must recall that if God created all things, then He does obviously care greatly about everything He made and He is sensitive to protect His own creation just as any of us are vigilant when we create a garden, a painting, or any type of production. Psalm 24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.” Try to put yourself in God’s place and embrace His pain over what man has done to His creation. God had to destroy the earth which had been defiled by horrific sin once already by a flood, and then God will have to destroy and remake the earth again after the final judgement when He must purge it again by fire. 2 Peter 3:7 “But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Conclusively we deduct that God recycles, and this material world with its greater and lesser forces has been and will be semi destroyed but renovated in His time! How sad it is that Satan uses people to destroy God’s beautiful creation (and people) with war, abortion, and all kinds of sin!

   This physical plane is a very tangible expression of God revealing innumerous eternal qualities and principles of Himself. People were originally created to live forever in this material world and we were empowered to be the caretakers of this wonderful self-procreating world. It was only after sin entered in that God had to change that and limit the circumstances of us as human beings. Genesis 3: 22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”— 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. 24 So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” 

  Due to the disrespect of God’s one prohibition on man (desiring other knowledge), we as Christians even after Jesus reconciliation are limited to have to wait until our death and resurrection in order to partake of the tree of life again to be eternal in a new body enjoying God’s new heaven and new earth. We are like worms that will one day leave behind our ugly frail flesh to become transformed into a flying butterfly to remain in the spiritual realm of heaven forever! How great is that! Job 25:6 How much less man, who is a maggot, And a son of man, who is a worm?”

   4. All the symphonies of nature’s inter-harmonious relationships are an unexplainable mystery of improbable coincidence! Aren’t you fascinated how the earth sustains life within its multitudes of symbiotic relationships feeding each other? Earth operates with the perfect temperatures from the sun, with the precise amount of mass and magnetic rock, with soils that feed life with bacteria and minerals, with the flow of fresh water and air, all combining together to support the life of plants, people, and animals. Isn’t God generous by permitting man (people) to have dominion over the life and chemicals contained in this spherical spaceship of earth? He intended for us to dominate earth but never to rape the land and defile His nature, nor to kill, torture, and abuse one another!

   Psalm 8:5 “For You have made him (people) a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,7 All sheep and oxen—Even the beasts of the field,”  God gave man intelligence, and honorable Christian men and few years ago increased our science knowledge to understand mysteries and use nature’s resources at an advanced level but God did not have in mind for man to use this intelligence for weapons of mass destruction or for producing lethal toxins which sets nature on a destructive path of imbalance!

   In the past I have preached on how we should consume more in moderation, even mentioning taking a Sabbath day rest to abstain from so much consumption. In The Salvation Army practices, from the top leadership down, Christians are encouraged not to be wasteful but rather as frugal as possible. New policies also require us to build all new structures with the green ratings, and multitudes of ‘minutes’ allow replacement of items only by years of use. I know some people hate being told what they can or cannot buy or consume but as time goes on we do have to conform to society’s limitations for the common well-being of all. Any kind of intentional waste is a sin whether it be a waste of tax dollars, a waste of personal resources, or a waste of the earth’s limited assets.   Currently California has a historic severe drought, so wouldn’t you consider it a sin to water your lawn if there will only be a couple of thousands of gallons of water for the entire neighborhood? (It is a $500 fine too!) We must always be willing to adapt, be frugal, and respect what is for the common good of everyone abolishing greed and abuse. Our own government wastes an estimated $500 Billion annually!

5.  We have covered a tiny bit up until now what it means to be ‘green’ and respect God’s creation, the earth, and all that dwell therein, but let’s go deeper into the subject. How can one be ‘green’ spiritually, as I propose? What is ‘green’ or not green? What is the root cause of the destruction of people and of the nature on earth? Is it not war, greed, and every kind of abuse disrespecting God’s laws? Is it not anti-Biblical errant religious and political practices harbored by many demon possessed people amongst us that oppress entire communities and countries with their ambitions for control, power, and wealth?  Sin is the contaminating element, but sin is not just an individual problem, it is a cultural political sociological and biological damaging problem stemming from ignorance, mis-information, and rebelliousness towards God’s will to love Him and others.

What is the color of sin? Colors psychologically and subliminally send a message to either relax or be agitated, right?  Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool”. Some whites are so pure they appear blue, thus the blue on the flag of The Salvation Army. I am imagining the color of death to be that of the color of dark dried blood. Colors are always illustrated to make a point.

My idea of achieving a ‘green spirituality’ is that you and I must purge ourselves from wasteful habits to obtain a clean white spirit in tune with God’s will striving to save the souls of humanity with Jesus seeking to relieve the existing sufferings and destruction of nature.

6. Spiritual maturity is absolutely necessary to our health and well-being! We should conserve and have ‘green’ habits. But being on board with what is ‘green’ means different things to different people. To the government it means handing out $100 Billion in tax dollars in green grants to start-up companies that inconsequentially seem to lose all the money by going bankrupt.  So all those billions of green dollars really do not solve much of anything for our energy starved polluted world! To the politician being green is a selling point to get votes with those who agree the earth should be saved. To the individual it means that you and I should feel guilty for not recycling, or for leaving the lights on, or for wasting food or water. What really can be done to save our planet? It all comes down to a one by one frugal example. Philippians 4:5 ‘Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.’

   To be more ‘green’ in your practical and spiritual life is to be more immersed in the holiness of God! In other words, if you are guided by the Holy Spirit, if you are in tune with God and His creation, it will cause you to be in love with all ‘creation’ to the point  that you will want to protect and save God’s beauty! You need to love the flowers and hate the weeds! With holiness and spiritual maturity it is possible to enjoy and appreciate all the beauty of creation in nature and in people! Contrast God’s creation compared to man’s toxic creations made with grey cement and glass and you may experience the great difference between what is God’s and what is man’s. Cities are a cancer!

Here is a piece of a poem I wrote on man’s creation about 20 years ago. Just gazing out the car window in the city made me realize we are constantly being artificially surrounded so that we are prevented from perceiving the fullness of God’s love through His nature.

Man-made synthetics, minds in stupor,

Redistorted reality, Erase natural knowledge!

What despair in the cement apathy!

Partake and enjoy, converse the silicon minds as they worship fabrications

While mechanical sounds haunt the soul

In this strange world of awry creations

Artificial products, the cocaine of the nonreal economy,

Consume natural beauty!

What pollutions waste victims subtly!

Earth ecology

Shout the endangered as they scheme more machinations,

While neon plastics shade the pain

Of global human limitations.

7. The challenge is for you and I to be more spiritually mature and sensitive to God Himself, and by noticing His earth ‘and the fullness thereof’ so consciously we will be provoked to want to do more to show appreciation and care, even honoring Earth Day. Here is one example of good stewardship and showing care, The Lion’s Club around the world just in the past few years have planted several million trees to help the environment. If Christians and everyone worked together in more projects, we would see huge improvements in the world. General Cox just signed a proposal this past week with the World Bank to ‘eradicate extreme hunger’ by the year 2030. That is an ambitious goal to get on board with!

Being ‘green’ and respecting Earth Day will take on the connotation you want to give it but it is not pagan, secular, or mother earth worship in itself to do something positive to defend God’s creation. It is pagan worship, however, to only honor the creation(s) instead of the Creator. Being respectful and frugal in your management of God’s resources reflects good values and even common sense! If you love God, you will love His nature and make an effort to reduce your consumption or carbon footprint. After all, mankind will sadly reap what he/she has sewn since the brakes are not being applied to this runaway train of excessive wasteful consumption of luxuries in this materialistically consumer driven world of lust and greed! 1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Here is an overview of Earth Day according to this website http://www.earthday.org/node/68 ‘The first Earth Day, on April 22, 1970, activated 20 million Americans from all walks of life and is widely credited with launching the modern environmental movement. The passage of the landmark Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and many other groundbreaking environmental laws soon followed. Growing out of the first Earth Day, Earth Day Network (EDN) works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.’

8. Many good things have happened since this awareness was emphasized in the 70s. I hate to see things wasted or just tossed in a land fill, don’t you? I grew up in the time when you fixed a radio or TV when it broke. This is one more reason I love the Salvation Army because we accept people’s junk and we refurbish it so it will be useful for someone else! God is in the recycling business! All this is a symbolism of our lives as well! When we became all ugly, scarred and stained with sin and when no one wanted us anymore, it was then that God accepted us and cleaned us up polishing us giving us a new shine and a new start! This is what ‘green’ spirituality is all about!

You and I are called to play a role in the community to ‘preach the gospel to every creature‘(Mk 16:15, and does ‘creature’ imply animals as well?) to get people saved and recycled for God’s use! It is just a given that we do care about the earth and most of all we care about the souls of people here with the same desire that Jesus prayed that (John 17:12) ‘none of them is lost’.

Imagine if more people did their part, then God’s nature would suffer less… (Romans 8:22) “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.” Save souls, recycle, live ‘green’, conserve resources, and honor God who has entrusted you and I with this amazing planet earth!  

Be Radical for Jesus! Or Other Radicals Will Fill The Void!

Be Radical for Jesus! Or Other Radicals Will Fill The Void!                    by Kelly Durant 4=12-15

Acts 2:44-45 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.

2. The disciples of Jesus were radical! What is a radical? Is it not a person so obsessed with a cause they perceive as just so much that their passion moves them to invest their whole life into bringing about a beneficial change to others? Radicalness can be extremely good or extremely bad! Do recall how Jesus called others? Matthew 4 18 And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 They immediately left their nets and followed Him. They quit their jobs on the spot and followed Him, isn’t that radical? At that moment they didn’t know much about what they were going to follow, but it was an obvious mission, an invitation to go on a journey with an anointed impressive teacher (Rabbi)! Inside they knew it would be well worth it! Today they will remain famous forever because they followed Jesus, the Son of God!

That radical lifestyle change today is like someone walking into your workplace or school, pointing at you and saying, “Hey walk out the door with me and follow me on a mission that’s worth much more than this waste of time!”  Have you noticed that everyone that has chosen to serve God has done exactly this? They have forsaken their nets, their former jobs, or their former lives that had them trapped to go on a mystery journey of Jesus’ mission. We all know it is better to die for something than live for nothing? Today, however, sadly confused people may choose certain missions that are horrific!

I actually never fully understood enough about Jesus myself until I witnessed other radical Christians living for Him. When I discovered that following Jesus was much more than just being dedicated to going to church on Sunday and following certain ethical rules, I caught the fire to want to be radical like Him and live like Him in every way! When I was exposed to others who loved Him so much they were willing to leave behind everything to serve Him just for love, to deeply study His Word daily and then go off to be a missionary, it was then I understood that God had a mission for me. I had to see His words in practice, not just on paper to get it! Ask yourself, do others see me, loving, doing, and obeying more than in a mediocre way?

3. Most everyone, even the atheist and communists I have had conversations with, have admitted they have respect for the radicalness of Jesus! Jesus gained followers (mega millions for 2 millennia already!) giving His life suffering for a righteous cause; it was for a better world saving others to come into the Kingdom of God. And what is this Kingdom like? What was His radical movement about? As Christians we understand it more as we grow in faith, but the mis-interpretation of non-Christians of His message leads to disaster as many people are blinded by the filters of their own agendas. Without God’s truth people become blinded by the agendas sold to them by deceivers who use them as useful idiots!  Radicals sometimes may even speak of Jesus fitting Him into their ideas of radical solutions to cure the ills of the community. Judas aspired that Jesus would fit into the mold of becoming a zealot leader to lead the fight against the Romans. But most radical agenda motivated people live in a dark vacuum ignoring and rejecting what Jesus taught! People who do not become a radical for Jesus either become mediocre narcissists or they become radicals for any trending controversial cause! Radical agenda puppets ironically become hypocrites ‘straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel’ as Jesus phrased it!!

Here’s an example of not understanding the ways of God, the case of a cocaine drug Lord in the 1980s, Roberto Suarez. At one time he was the Pablo Escobar of Bolivia (but he never murdered hundreds of people as Carlos did!). You may be aware that mission minded people such as myself always dream of meeting these big drug Lords with the hope of bringing them to Jesus. Actually several prominent ones have been converted over the years in Colombia and all South America, glory be to God! In Bolivia one time my wife and I actually did meet the mother of Roberto Suarez. She said he had to hide every day and she did not know where he was but she agreed to give him a salvation tract the next time she would see him! She was a Christian living a modest average life not accepting her son’s money and everyone in town knew her.

So to make a point of how being a radical can be deceiving and misguided from Jesus original intent, I will share a few words of what Roberto said in an interview in a news article (about 1983). He said (by how I best recall) something like this, “I am sort of like Jesus, I gain wealth (but by drugs!?) and then I share it with everyone, so I help people like Jesus and the disciples did when they shared” This has an inference to the verses of today, Acts 2:44,45. He said, “I am like a communist in my own way doing good like Jesus did”.  No one could deny that the influx of millions of dollars did help the economies of some of these small towns but it is sad that he was blind to ignore the sin of the damage being done to people by his version of illicit capitalistic marketing! Drug addicts destroy families (I have seen too many!) producing poverty, anger, and despair. And the reality is the ruthless under lord pushers do not mind killing if they can make more money! Drugs in general from illegal markets or from legal drug companies have become a curse from Satan chaining souls to the fires of hell itself!

 

 4. Too many people in this world want to believe that they are “doing good” being a radical like Jesus but they, by their actions, reveal that they do not really know Him and sadly He will tell them this verse one day… Matthew 7:23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ To practice God’s form of radicalism you must study the Bible every day, intensely pray, and then seek to serve and obey the life changing actions that you have learned! A radical doesn’t fade after a year either, you must then remain in the way of holiness, serving and loving others for the rest of your life to gain a “crown of life”! Revelation 2:10 (b) Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

I survived the 70s and that was time when many radicals rose up riding the wave of resistance to the system over civil rights, the Vietnam War, racism, etc.. Considering the world political climate at that time, the U. S. people were correct in defending civilians and also in doing what they could to stop the spread of evil communism in all the world considering that the communist leaders, from the Bolsheviks to Mao Tse Tung, had been responsible for an estimated 100 million people! Disdain by protesters was justified as Korea, Vietnam, and other internal endeavors were rendering catastrophic results.  This suffering and upheaval did cause many people to seek God and there were several Jesus movements birthed at that time. Jesus has always been the solution to the pain in all the communities of the world! If everyone in all nations were to get converted then people would “learn war no more”! Isaiah 2:4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore.

Why am I mentioning this? Because currently in this nation there is a massive indoctrination taking place amongst the populous (in particular in the universities) with the media outlets in cahoots with the powers that be to persecute, ridicule, and demonize any conservative or Bible believing Christian! I am appalled that too few pastors will be radical enough to show any resistance to this ever increasing Satanic ‘machine’! Franklin Graham speaks out. But take note that in the year 2017, we will be surviving 100 years of communism and its imposition is not fading away in infamy even after 100 million deaths! Here is the factor of Acts 2:44,25, sharing the wealth is originally a Christian practice, and annually about half million groups in the U.S. give help to dozens of millions of people out of love voluntarily because they are practicing their Christian faith or the altruistic Christian values! 

Communism, however, is an imitation of compassion, and it reigns with military mandated despotic control over the masses eliminating dissenters by murder in order to create a (false) utopia. Has this experiment concocted by Satan inspired Karl Marx ever been successful anywhere? It is a failed system augmenting poverty and atheism which consequently debases people into the survival dog eat dog mode erasing human respect and morals allowing corruption to reign free resulting in despair, mass depression, and psychosis.  It is the preposterous plan of Satan to demand the replacement of Christianity by the state in order to try to prove that a ‘no God’ or if you want a god, then a ‘caliphate’ system would govern so much better than the traditional righteousness of God Himself! The lie that redistribution of wealth and stealing from the rich solves matters has proven to be unrealistically impossible due to the corrupt state of man. Only Jesus can change the nature of corrupt man!

5. I really never cared to study about the life of radicals but today the world is getting full of them and they are affecting all of us so we must uncover their game in order to confront them with our faith. A radical, Saul D. Alinsky, wrote a book called the “Rules for Radicals” and today we will study this ideology. Many have schemed how to manipulate societies and he mentions eight levels of control that must be obtained before you are able to do that and have an effective socialist state. With each radical activity he proposes, I will offer a Biblical rebuttal as the solution. Take note that each proposal here has been employed by all dictators from Lenin to Hitler (And fascism is comparable to what is practiced by communist dictators or current caliphates)  Have you seen these practices implemented recently?

1) Healthcare: ‘Control healthcare and you control the people’. Jesus healed the sick and he sent His disciples to care for them. Consider Matthew 25:37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? 39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ In the U.S. and abroad a majority of hospitals are Christian run and they are very efficient! The government run hospitals, such as the VA, or the ones In Cuba, persistently have serious issues The ACA is still in chaos not covering all the poor as proposed while leaking the private information of millions of people with mega billions of dollars proven to have been wasted already.
2) Poverty: ‘Increase the poverty level as high as possible, poor people are easier to control and will not fight back if you are providing for them’. The U.S. has lost its war on poverty! When Lyndon B. Johnson signed the welfare law the government provided for 4% of 180 million Americans (about 7 million). Today the government provides for 47% of 320 million (150 million!) The reality is man’s governments cannot resolve the poverty problem! Matthew 26:11 ‘For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always’. The only solution is to help one by one as mentioned in Matthew 25. If all the churches used the bulk of their budget on social services as the Salvation Army, no one would even need government assistance! Christians must practice our verses of today, Acts 2:44-45 and provide for each other and the needy! But an unmentioned factor here is that many people make their own selves poor from sinful habits and waste! Enabling a wasteful modus operandi and encouraging sin will destroy everyone!

6. 3) Debt: ‘Increase the debt to an unsustainable level. That way you’re able to increase taxes, and this will produce more poverty’. The scripture warns us, Proverbs 22:7 “The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender”. Jesus solution was to live free, free from the corrupted systems! Romans 13:8 “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law”. Justifiably many people protest against the consequences of debt (personal and national) as it enables control by the rich privately owned world banks. Debt interest payments (or the lack thereof) invokes the need for more taxes obliging the middle class to pay for the waste. Debt enables corruption and greed provoking market crashes causing the poor to go deeper into unrepayable debt just to survive. Live debt free! If all Christians and people strived for this our economy would be much stronger.

4) Gun Control: ‘Remove the ability to defend themselves from the government, that way you are able to create a police state’. Consider these words by Jesus… Luke 11:21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. Jesus also stated, Matthew 5:9 ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God’. God never intends for arms to be used for criminal or personal gain, only for defensive purposes. It would be suicide to turn over one’s arms until it is the millennium under Jesus! A time will come, but is not yet here, when everyone can do as in Isaiah 2:4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. 

7. 5) Welfare: ‘Take control of every aspect of their lives (Food, Housing, and Income)’. Why did Jesus teach us to pray.. Matthew 6:10 “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread”. God expects us to depend on Him for our needs and He does supply! When you wait on the government for housing they put you on a waiting list 5 years long and expect you to eat nothing for months until they approve your job layoff or injury. So much abuse and embezzlement is done with these welfare programs that someone could declare it a failed system according to the government’s own standard of laws of solvency by which they impose on private industries. In the end, those who don’t work should not expect to eat at someone else’s expense very long, especially all their life. Our portion on earth ever since Adam is to earn our way from the sweat of our brow! Work empowers people. Rulers fear when the people have power! But each person must fight for the good of all!

6) Education: ‘Take control of what people read and listen to, Take control of what children learn in school’. Today most major news channels and schools are not sources of information but rather sources of propaganda. The new national teaching scheme of ‘Common Core’ has been implemented in schools and it contains historical heresies and other content that is very confusing. People today are graduating from schools and colleges with knowledge increased (Daniel 12:4(b) many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase) but sadly we observe that young people are totally confused morally, politically, historically and religiously. Consider Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” We should follow this is advice: "A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education." - Theodore Roosevelt

7) Religion: ‘Remove the belief in the God from the government and schools’. I was a kid when they took prayer out of school. Just a few years after that unheard of drug overdoses and crimes infiltrated the schools. In my High School 4 died from overdoses in one year! The respect or fear of God (taught in religion) is the best self-control any society could ever rely own! The problem with the Christian religion is it is in direct competition with Satan! God is a jealous God and only He deserves worship as our creator while Satan is a murderously jealous want-to-be-God and he hates righteous holy Godly religion, specifically Christians. It’s tragic how extremely few let out an outcry over Christians being slaughtered in the world today! You need to be ‘radical’ to confront the evil radicals out there! Those who don’t fall on the rock (Jesus) will fall for anything!  Matthew 4:10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ Worship is a need! Beware: education in the government schools and prestigious colleges are not what they use to be!

8. 8) Class Warfare: ‘Divide the people into the wealthy and the poor: This will cause more discontent and it will be easier to tax the wealthy with the support of the poor’. Matthew 12:25 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand”. It is common knowledge that Satan and his people use the tactic ‘divide and conquer’. Be careful and ask for discernment from the Holy Spirit so you are not like the common people who buy into the false perceptions sold by the media. They bring division by making you feel justified to attack and hate the cops, to hate the other race, to hate the rich, to hate the Christians, or to hate bigots. The reality is they are blind to their own hate making them the worst bigots and hypocrites ever!

As Christians we must compromise when needed and be united! I know some doctrines are skewed and some churches are eccentric but in the end like Benjamin Franklin said, “If we don’t hang together we are going to hang separately!”  As Christians we must recall Jesus had disciples that were from the rich and poor classes, some of them were educated and others not-educated, but for God everyone is loved, needed, and useful! There is no excuse to despise or reject anyone, even one: the drug addict, homeless, or prostitute. Healthy churches should have a variety of rich and poor, black & white and all shades in between! “Let there be no division among you” (I Cor. 1:10) In Holiness Meetings and fellowships is where everyone gets to express love for the other despite any differences of color, class, language, or anything else! Jesus commanded, ‘Love one other!’

As much controversy as it caused with its counter culture trappings, the hippie movement ( with Jesus sub-movements) did help somewhat in dissolving class and race divisions for a season. In the 70s for the first time mixed marriages could exist with less rejection, the rich and poor shared the same sentiments against corruption, and love and peace were in the air. So “Where have all the flowers gone?” The dark powers and social engineers were threatened by the people being empowered by “love and peace” so they then had to subvert everyone’s cry for righteousness diverting it into hedonism and debauchery. It has been proven our past leaders corrupted movements by introducing pot and drugs (then later arresting everyone with them!). They also supported and continue to support violent radical bomb planters such as Bill Ayers. Free love and sex along with sexual perversions destructive to solid family ideals flooded the media news. Hypocritically we witness the money flow for movies exalting violence, and the music industry has filled the hoods not with songs of love and peace but rather with superfluous hate filled propaganda tricking people into a life of crime. All these agendas continue on undisturbed. So, sadly, divisions and hate persists today in many of our communities due to these influences from these despicable radicals in power in politics, Hollywood, and the media industries! And today the Christians, yes you and Jesus Christ, are their target!

9. Does this bring clarity to explain why we see the world so messed up today? It is because the radical evil people are relentless, aggressive, and loud to impose radical policies destroying society while Christians have taken a back seat due to the intimidation. How tragic! Have modern day Christians lost their radicalness? How radical were others for Jesus? His disciples dedicated their lives, even their deaths, for the cause of the Kingdom of God! And Jesus proved that this kingdom was worth fighting for. Jesus proved His kingdom is eternal by his resurrection! Jesus holds the keys to life and death now and those who are in Him will gain the same right to life eternal in an authentic utopian world: heaven!

At this point in the world with all the horrible murder and persecution every Christian is going to have pray down more dedication, more radicalness, more willingness to confront evil and trust that God will win in the end!  1 Timothy 6:12 “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses”. Being aware of Satan’s tactics helps a lot in knowing what to expect from the enemy so you prepare. But there is no formula for preparation.  We must trust Jesus as He said that He will give us what to speak in the hour.

I have always been amazed at how communists and other religious radicals can have so much conviction to talk non-stop attacking others, and even killing others for a cause that will reward them nothing in the end! Actually they will have hell to pay for unrepentant evil deeds! How much better it would be for people who are generally predisposed to love the fray, conflict, and fight in life to be dedicated to something of real honor, something righteous, something holy, something eternal, something elatingly emotionally and eternally rewarding. Only Jesus can offer this type of mission!

10. Being radical for Jesus is all about holiness, conviction, love, and defending what is Biblically right! If you really love the lost, you will do what you are able to do to convince them out of their enslaving deceptions as covered today! To do as Jesus did we must share the truth with everyone so they can have opportunity to accept Jesus’ salvation for a cleaning of their soul which will bring them into a new wonderful eternal life.  Just talking about Jesus seems radical to many folks!

If you are as radical as the first disciples you will even share your life, goods, and everything with your brothers and sisters to be sure they are living as well as you are as we learned about in Acts 2:44-45. Real love loves all and it is only that kind of love that is worth living and dying for!

Acts 4:13 “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus”. Radicalness attracts others! May the Lord help us to be more radical for Jesus so we win others to His cause away from the futile selfish and hateful causes offered in the world! Come and pray to be more on fire, more filled with the Holy Spirit, more apologetic, more aggressive, more of a radical for Jesus Christ our Lord who reigns forever and ever!

Resurrection Power The reality of Easter!

Resurrection Power  The reality of Easter!                     Kelly Durant 

I Thess 4: 14For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.16For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 18Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

When I was a kid about age 10 I loved being a scientist. I had a chemistry set and I did all sorts of experiments.  I use to catch bugs and put them in a jar and then freeze them and a day later I would go back and then unthaw them and time how long it took in seconds to see them come back to life. It is amazing to see flies, cockroaches, and all kids on bugs that would relive again!  But some stayed dead! I thought back then, wow, I want to be frozen! But that is a bad idea!

Actually, there is a company today that will freeze your body for a pricey payment. You can look up the names of people in storage at this web site. There are quite a few.  http://www.cryonics.org/patients.html   the hope of these people is that in the future there will be cures out of the miracles of science; substances that will make human bodies live forever.  I think these people have too much faith in science I!  With all the water in our bodies, the cells tear open as they ice up, so to come back to life after freezing really would really take a miracle!

Everyone would like to live forever if they could, right? Look at all the billions people spend trying to make their bodies look young! But to be able to be young forever we need faith in Jesus, not in science!  Amen?  Besides, wouldn’t you rather have a resurrected body better than this frail one redone by science?

Eternal life is possible, we all will live forever! The strange thing is Adam and Eve had bodies like hours and they could have lived forever if God had not taken away the tree of life from the garden! But the flesh we have is now considered to be unworthy of eternal life. We need a new type of body!

One of the purposes of Jesus resurrection was to show his disciples and all the world what a supernatural body is like!  It is a type of flesh you could touch, remember doubting Thomas touched him, and Jesus ate fish on the beach.

But what was amazing is he had a shape shifting body. Remember they thought he was a gardener until He revealed who he was. He could change His appearance and even disappear as it mentions in Luke 24: 31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. Now that is the kind of body I want! 

So haven’t you been curious? If you will inherent a heavenly body forever for your faith in Jesus and obedience to Him by Holy living, don’t you want to know how it will be for you after your death?  

We currently have bodies that require blood, which makes us dependent on air and food and other things, but the resurrected body of Jesus was one that did not need blood as it was flesh and bones, not flesh and blood. This is curious detail, a living material, yet heavenly body.  Luke 24:39

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.  And why could it not have been flesh and blood? Let’s look up …

1 Corinthians 15:50

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Think of our world and compare it to the ocean. We do not have gills as fish do and we cannot live under the sea, we would die after a few minutes. And it is the same in the heavenly realm, like the people who die for a few minutes and then come back to talk about the light at the end of the tunnel, if our current human body were to stay dead, then our spirit would not come back.  

So God will extract from the earth the souls of people from all history and implant their spirits into a better heavenly body like that of Jesus! This is comparable to the software in a computer, you don’t see the electronic memory, but the complexity is there. Your identity, just like with a computer, the software, will be transferred into a new system, a new incorruptible heavenly body, but God will wipe away all the viruses, or tears and memory of the pains of earth!

I can’t wait to have a new body that will not bleed or suffer aches and pains. It will be a body similar in looks to ours now but resistant, and invincible! I look forward to living in a new body like that, don’t you? It will be like changing from being a worm to a butterfly!

But Jesus made it clear to us that we have to believe on Him and be faithful unto death, obeying Him to get that reward of eternal life! Imagine how God made our earthly bodies, which are amazing with an estimated 50 trillion cells in hundreds of interacting systems. Jesus said that God knows even how many hairs we have. Now imagine, God will have reserved for us a heavenly body, a machine even more sophisticated and perfect than this one! But how are you treating this body you have right now?

1 Corinthians 6:19   What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

Think of your current body as your first car. Your dad gives it to you to see how you will treat it to see if you are worthy to get a better one in a few years. There are some young people that don’t appreciate their first 10 or 15 year old car they get. I recall many of my friends in school complaining about their piece of junk so they mistreated it and it they killed it within a year. But does the dad have the money to run and buy a new one? No!

The pinnacle of our Christian faith centers on believing that Jesus had the power to raise Himself up and that He will raise you up! If you do not accept this miracle, then you are not a Christian! In today’s world there are a lot of unexplained miraculous events. But the only way to explain this one is that He truly was God! This was something never done before! Nor done ever since!

Recall Matt. 28:  that Jesus said, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”.  That power implies controlling the life force and souls of all creation, Jesus has demonstrated that He has the keys to heaven and hell, and Jesus promised us, his followers, the same type of resurrection as He had.

The return of Jesus to earth to resurrect all of us will be a massively huge event of colliding cosmic forces of God’s spiritual realm with our material realm.

In the resurrection God will first cause the ones who are asleep, or the dead, to rise up. In other words, when you sleep, you do not perceive time, so when you die, whenever that is in the future, you will not feel the time that passes you by until Jesus takes you home with Him!

I think death is one of the most feared things there is in life by most cultures.  It is a mysterious journey you know you will have to take, to transport from this world to another realm, to the other side, and considering our bodies may feel pain, no one really looks forward to dying really, unless they have followed Jesus and know He will be there for them!

So today, Easter, is the best day in the world for Christians! It is the day in which we celebrate the resurrection and this gives us hope of a future life in heaven! What does it say in vs.18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words. What a great comfort!

 1 Corinthians 15:18-20 18Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

In other words, if there is no resurrection then having this faith just for now and not eternity would mean our lives are being wasted! But that is not the case!

We believe and we lose nothing by believing! We can feel Jesus when we pray, we see answered prayers, we see the testimony of changed lives, of our own and that of others!

What has anyone got to lose by having faith in Jesus? Like the atheist who challenged his Christian friend, He said, “If your faith is false and there is no Jesus and resurrection then you have wasted your 70 years of life when you could have partied, had all the women and drugs you ever wanted!” But the Christian’s wise reply was, “Well, it is false, you are right, but what if my faith is true? Then you will have wasted an eternity!”

Some people today want proof of a resurrection and the Lord even allows things like the Shroud of Turin to be a type of proof. It is a cloth with an image of an imprinted image of a face (of a crucified man who must be Jesus) and our science cannot explain it! It is a 3 dimensional imagine burned into the cloth by some unknown type of energy and no one can explain it! God is merciful to people like Thomas who doubted to provide evidence! But whether this cloth is real or not does not matter, the fact remains that you wither believe in the resurrection or you don’t!

Jesus coming out of the grave on Sunday morning around 2000 years ago was so amazing, so spectacular, so impacting that later when Peter preached in Jerusalem where they yelled to crucify him and thousands believed there and in all Israel and in the rest of the world! Today, Christians cover more than 2 billion believers in the world, and every Christian looks forward to coming out of their graves one day as Jesus did!

So let’s envision it! Our spirits, will be preserved after we die as asleep and then given supernatural bodies to enjoy heaven in!  Let’s spread the good news! If life has not been so fair to you, if sufferings seem like too many, if all the news of wars and death in this life has been too depressing for you, then recall, God is going to make all things new! And you will get a perfect body on that great and glorious day when the trumpet sounds!

If you have the doubt of whether you truly have Jesus in your heart, come pray and accept Him now!