Disillusionment: With God and Everyone Else!

Disillusionment: With God and Everyone Else!    By Capt. Kelly Durant  9-27-15

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” Jeremiah 17:9-10

2. Ever see a toddler in a store fall on the floor and scream when the mom puts the toy back on the shelf? Toddler is angry thinking, “How could mama let me down!” How many of you have ever been disappointed in someone? Most of you right now are probably disappointed with someone in your life! It might be with a relative or friend, with a parent, with a son or daughter, and some of you may even be disappointed with God! But it is not human nature to confess that! You might also be disillusioned with yourself as you have not been able to fulfill your dreams of having your idea of a perfect life! Disillusionment, bitterness, and anger is killing many people today! As Christians we must conquer disappointments!

Disillusionments are a reality in the life of everyone! Some are your fault, and some are other people’s fault. We can either face them, or deny them. Today I want you to identify which disillusionments bother you most in life.  Why do we as people experience them? Do all of us suffer from unrealistic expectations?

According to the dictionary disillusionment is “A feeling of disappointment, akin to depression, arising from the realization that something is not what it was expected or believed to be, possibly accompanied by philosophical angst from having one's beliefs challenged.” People often become competitive and proud trying to conquer their feelings of disillusion by deceiving their heart that they are better than others. This why we must weigh our deeds because as humans we exaggerate, placing ourselves either too high or too low. We need God’s strength, or we lose the battle in our own hearts and minds!

3. The heart, as the Bible describes it, is the seat of emotions, the source from where all feelings come. Why is it as humans we never learn how to dominate our feelings, which include pride, ambitions, expectations, and disillusionments, and we seem to always be deceiving ourselves with our own personal dreams and expectations in life?

The verse today in Jeremiah confirms that we as people are beyond comprehension, we often don’t even understand our own feelings within us, nor do we understand others as people seem to always “let you down”, sooner or later. After a certain amount of inflicted disappointments, the average person becomes bitter, angry, or disconnected, and puts the blame on others. Many people try to deal with their intimidating feelings of disillusionment but without depending on God, even trying to deny that these disappointments exist in life but this is dishonesty with God and one’s self.

You and I are motivated by our thoughts and feelings, which become our passions and expressions. This transfers into good or evil, depending on the person’s relationship with Jesus. Jesus can motivate you and me with an amazing love beyond description, but few people practice the true love of Christ to its fullest! Imagine even loving your enemies! Sadly, the vast majority of humanity are motived by negative stimuli, by what they hate! And why do they hate? Did something tragic happen sometime in the past? Or is a person’s hate infused into them by the influence of other haters? 1 John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Nazis, Communists, politicians, and certain false religions are experts at imputing hate into minds and hearts, and murder is the result!

4. A reaction to some disillusionment might cause a person to become an “activist” type, connected and involved in the community to make a difference fighting for better conditions and a better world. There is a place for righteous anger. God, however, will weigh our deeds. How have you dealt with your personal issues in the end? We will get the “deeds we deserve” as in Jer. 17:10.

What I observe that is most deceitful about the heart is that most people are setting their selves up for failure with passions and feelings that are from the false expectations of the world and not from God. (repeat) In the materialistic competitive climate of our society, how many people do we know who dream, not to live to please and serve God with all their heart, but rather dream to become rich and important.

People set their selves up for failure when they dream to make millions, when they struggle for the wrong things, and when life hits them with disillusionments, the loss of a job, the death of someone, a divorce, they often change becoming cold, abusive, and insulting to others. James 4:1 From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? 2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

5. If you are disillusioned today and don’t see your surroundings being all of what you expected them to be, you are not suffering alone. Consider Jesus’ disillusionments. Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

Jesus had only had 3 and half years to train a group of gruff misfits to fulfill God’s mission of spreading the Kingdom, and look what happened! Jesus depended of them to establish this new way of life, a pure counter-culture evangelizing community living as an example of God’s love and peace: the kingdom of God on earth. And up to the last minute it seemed they were just not catching on! When He was getting ready to die, could Jesus see his follower’s dedication and the volunteer laying down of their lives to the cause?

No! His right-hand man denied him, his treasurer betrayed him, all the rest of His followers abandoned him! At His cross was only his mother and possibly a few other faithful ones! How does the Son of God pour out his blood in tortuous pain and at the same time endure the pain of not being supported by those He taught, loved, and healed? Now that must be disillusionment to the “nth” degree!  

6. But was God or Jesus disappointed in the end with his investment in humanity? No! Peter rose up in power a short time later to preach and his message saved 3,000 one day and 5,000 on another! And today 2 billion Christians exist!

The rest of the disillusioned disciples transformed and radically changed and travelled far away to preach about the Messiah, the savior of the world, Jesus the Christ! Most of them got killed preaching Jesus as well! So look at the good fruit!

Years later many people of the pagan murderous debauched Roman world renounced their false worship of worthless gods for Christianity. The world’s conditions did slowly get better over the centuries in many ways due to Jesus’ influence. The murderous Vikings slowly converted as well. Later, the Renascence years serve as an example of more of God’s truth awakening His intelligence in mankind through science, math, art, and theology.

7. Our deception and disillusionment with human life cannot be compared to that of Jesus and of God’s! We have to conform to being happy with the little things and the faithful few that make life worth living! Consider how God is made happy by what Jesus did. Isa 53:10 (Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin), he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Jesus focused on the faithful few who chose Him. John 17: 6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. 7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.

 John 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

8. I have had to endure many disillusionments in my life. I have even prayed that God would take my life several times! Have you ever prayed to die? Be honest, life is hard! Sometimes we have to ask the Lord to forgive our desire to want to give up! Deep inside you and I know it is wrong and an attack of Satan to deceive us so he can get us to die to prevent all the good we could keep on doing for God.

Jeremiah preached his entire life never seeing any one repent and then he had to endure the consequences of this evil, the enslavement of his people as recorded in Lamentations. Read that and you will discover what discontentment looks like.  

Job is another one who prayed to die when discouraged by his afflictions. I have been down like him, and you? At times I have been EXTREMELY frustrated that the local people would not listen and convert to God. But every time I was discouraged, God helped me through the trials by inspiring something wonderful to happen giving me a purpose to live for. God gave me a wife when I was lonely and angry with the stubborn Bolivians; God gave me 5 wonderful kids as well. God gave me many beautiful friends when I needed to help me educate my son that was born deaf. God opened many doors and supplied many places for our family live despite being in the midst of desperation with no immediate job or money.

9. So if in life you are disillusioned with people, disillusioned by your own expectations of greater things in life, disillusioned that God seems to not do what you want, cheer up to know God is about to do something good in your life! Consider how Jesus suffers alongside you! He will be your strength, He can be your hope, He can fill you with the Holy Spirit so you want to live and face tomorrow. He gives you and I purpose, He clears our minds, and makes our hearts feel His reality, not the deception in our own hearts.

In the old days of Israel when God freed them from the oppressors they were made glad. The day will come when you and I will pass on out of this world of oppressions and we will see heaven and you will be elated with bliss! Psalm 126:2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. 3 The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.

It is a fact, while on earth in this weak body, our flesh and circumstances can only offer us a limited amount of happiness. The human spirt will always be restless and frustrated so it is imperative we find rest in God, in His trust. Only Jesus offers us peace. John 14:27Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Let God replace your all that is in your heart and emotions with His plan! He encourages and calms, He gives us a purpose and reason to live!

Cities Geographically Condemned by God

Cities Geographically Condemned by God                       9-20-15     by Kelly Durant  

Ezekiel 26:1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste 3 Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.5 It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.

2. How many of you have heard of Timbuktu? When I was a kid if you did something wrong you always heard that they would send you to Timbuktu! People would get scared but nobody knew where it was but you imagined that that figure of speech meant some hellish lonely place. And Timbuktu exists and is actually a hellish lonely place! It is city in Mali, Africa on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. It use to be a part of one of the most important trade routes for centuries. The people there for a few centuries were very wealthy. It was a prestigious educational center trading in gold, ivory, salt, and slaves. Over time the city was conquered and today it is extremely poor, partially covered in sand, and has no tourism. Consider this verse: Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God!

Have you ever wondered why some cities on earth get destroyed or turn into hell? Is it due to poor management, bad economics, natural phenomena such as earthquakes or volcanos, or is it random coincidence that wealthy corrupted cities throughout history just seem to get destroyed and abandoned? Or is there the possibility that God curses and judges certain cities over their sins? In today’s secular mentality, a loss of reasoning mind frame, to suggest that God would destroy a place for their sins implies you are hateful bigot! But is God cruel to allow destruction? Or does He allow strategic destructions with a purpose to put the brakes on evil man’s global contamination of his horrendous sinful practices?

3. Today many people, except some of the Christian or Jewish faith, live in ignorance of what brings on God’s blessings or cursings on places! People would like to believe that God is only a god of the forces of nature and not a God of morals interfering and punishing men’s sins. If you try to discuss God’s repeating patterns of blessings or judgements with the “so called” prestigious educated ones in the universities, the political correct, or the ultra-wealthy you soon discover that your Christian convictions and values will be mocked and shunned as ignorant and judgmental. You will be condemned as one of those bigoted hateful conservatives that society should hate and stone! But the people who ignore God’s active hand in the world are the real ignorant fools being rejecters of

God’s historical record; sadly they have no possible way to understand or interpret blessings and punishments intelligently!

Consider these verses, Romans 1: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. (Read the whole chapter)

One thing that Satan cannot hide is the geographical and historical evidence recording cataclysmic events. One of the first arguments of the uneducated is that the Bible is just a collection of fairy tales and fables, but geographical evidence around the world backs up the Bible.  Sea shells are on most every mountains, proving that there was a flood that covered the earth and other evidence proves none of the Holy Scripture records are myths. I am going to take you on a journey to give examples of how certain places fell out of God’s favor and were destroyed. When one can find a dozen examples, then no longer can one with any intelligence claim that the Bible is fallacious, that it is just coincidence, and that God is not involved in rewarding the righteous and stopping the wicked. Ezekiel 33:11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?   

4. From the beginning in Genesis there is the record of the tower of Babel how men in their pride to become as “gods” were dispersed experiencing language confusion and a reduced mental function. That language and mental confusion continues on until today! Sodom and Gomorrah were warned but the people after many warnings did not repent (Genesis 18) and only Lot and his family escaped the total destruction.  Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities have been unearthed and skeletal evidence shows the people died instantly by a disaster, possibly a volcano, a meteorite, or a nuclear event. Glassy rock can be found in the sands proving extreme heat (fire from the sky) which likens a nuclear event. It rained fire from heaven, do you recall?

Exodus 1:8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

Egypt prospered under Joseph but when a pharaoh arose that ‘knew not Joseph’ their worship became as covered in Romans 1 with the worship of creatures and God’s blessings departed. They were condemned by God until finally Moses left with all the Israelites and the Egyptian empire fell drown in the river and it has ever since been conquered over and over by neighboring nations. Egypt in the Bible represents “the world” or the worship of false gods in the world.

When we get further along in the Bible we observe how the Israelites won battle after battle wiping out pagan tribes that practiced human sacrifice (of children too) and other perversions. However, King Saul lost a battle and a city that cost him his life due to a disobedience. We deduct that God does take the side of the ones who are righteous helping them to win, but if the righteous fail to remain obedient and pure, then the wicked prevail by default.

5. The verses of today concern the city of Tyre of the Phoenicians that was prosperous for several centuries. It was a city on an island where world trading took place and no one was able to conquer it due to its height out of the water and fortifications. It was a prosperous but wicked city. It was made an example of and this is why I chose it for today. (See verses of today Tyre=Tyrus)  

God’s prophets historically have been known to prophesy over certain future occurrences and this is one of the means through which God proves to be true and supernatural. In the prophecy above in Ezekiel 26 about the 6^th century B.C. God exposes the destruction that will happen to the city. There are some main points that the walls and towers will fall, that it will be scraped flat and the rubble will be used as a bridge for the fisherman to cast their nets from. Did this happen? Yes it did a few centuries later! It happened in part with an attack from Babylon but later it was fulfilled totally with the Greeks. If you want every detail you may read about it at this website     http://apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=13&article=1790

The ultimate fulfilment occurred centuries later when Alexander the Great arrived and he took rock from the shoreline with his dozens of thousands of men to build a land bridge right up to the island of Tyre. With ships no one ever could conquer the island before as no army could breach the walls but the land bridge idea worked and they seized the city with siege towers. When in the city he decided to destroy it completely and cast the towers and walls out to sea as well. The original island remains abandoned and even still today the land bridge is used for what? For fishing and from there nets are cast out! It was also prophesied in that chapter that it would never be inhabited ever again and it has not been. When too many fulfilled coincidences coincide no intelligent person can deny that it is supernatural prophecy fulfilled by God! Remember Ezekiel, like other prophets never saw the fulfillment of these things in their lifetime yet they believed them to be true. Another thing, the Greeks and their false gods did not please God either, half of the great city of Alexandria is found submerged in the Mediterranean Sea!

6. Why is it that most all the wealthy cities throughout time that get corrupted with cruelty, slavery, thievery, prostitution, perversions, greed, arrogance, violence and idol worship all seem to have their destruction in common? If we were to review the ancient world we would conclude that many cities in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and everywhere where centers of wealth and power were, there later suddenly came destructions by unexpected events. The entire country of Israel is an archeological museum where hundreds of cities lay empty as the Canaanites were horrible. Volcanos, earthquakes, famines, pestilences and plagues, wars, and even meteorites play a role in controlling man’s spread of oppression, suffering, sin, and filth. God is in control, and it is obviously not coincidence that dozens of times over these places just happen to be destroyed.

Think of the famous examples of wicked cities destroyed such as Pompeii, Italy; The abandoned Aztec and Inca cities such as Machu Pichu, Carthage that Rome destroyed, Constantinople, and on and on. Could it be God is slowing down the entire corruption of man permitting these judgments? In cultures past the effect of witnessing a destruction or a fallen city for the people of the world meant that they would fear God and repent and get their lives right! More than ever today people must get back to that healthy respect for God!

Here is a strange coincidence to think about, man has always been careless and foolish to build again where danger fault zones exist such as in San Francisco. Today people know about the “ring of fire”, yet prideful ones do not heed warnings. What did Jesus say? Matthew 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.:

7. Man has always been setting his own self up for destruction by his own foolish choices with the confidence that it would never happen to him. Another city famous for being “the wickedest city on earth” is where all the loot of the pirates resided at Port Royal, Jamaica. An earthquake sunk the city on June 7^th, 1692. More sunken ships are around there than any other place on earth! It never regained its glory. It was a city built on the sand, or an earthquake fault, and God hears the cries of the oppressed to free them.

What a physical coincidence that man builds castles on the sand, so can dark spiritual forces present in a certain place invoke upon it an early end as in these places?

Certain geographical places have been cursed in the Bible. Jesus even cursed cities where they rejected Him and His message. Luke 10:13 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. All of these cities do not exist today, only buried or sunken ruins!

8. God’s history repeats to us this message of warning: your house is built on the sand! This implies the wrong foundation, morally, religiously, financially, geopraphically, and politically. The world’s places are divided by evil replacing the good, yet the evil falls! Six major world empires have fallen, the next one, the seventh, being a united new world order will fall as well. When we read Revelation we get the warning that a massive earthquake will tople towers and level many great cities in the world. I think the ones most wicked, as the ones on fault lines. Will they get hit the hardest? Even Jerusalem (refered to as the great city in ancient days) will be divided into 3 parts.

Revelation 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

We are living on borrowed time! When you read what the major religions predict, what the scientists warn, and observe what the governements are doing, it all points to the fact that everyone believes a major destruction is headed our way. People are nervous like how we see the animals get spooked just before and earthquake.

9. Is it possible that you or I are living in a wicked city that will see judgement one day? God only knows! Well, actually God does warn us when danger is near. Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

We all need to be ready to face God at any moment! Never think you will get a last minute chance to repent when panic is everywhere. The perverse pompous citizens of Pompeii were covered in ash almost instantly! Maybe not all of them were guilty, but God sorts that out when their souls arrive to Him. The sad reality is that even if God warns people for years and years of impending doom, as in Noah’s case, people still do not repent. God may warn us only a few hours or minutes notice as in the case with hurricanes and tornados, yet those who turn to him will be saved but yet they are almost always few in number.

Matthew 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:  The destruction of the God hating rebellious, destructive, sinful, divisive, evil people will inevidently reoccur as history proves it does. But if you are God’s child, you can be assured you will go to heaven! Have you truelly accepted Jesus? All human bodies, yours included, will pass away so are you sure you are doing God’s will warning the world of it’s sin? History proves sinful people in sinful cities are punished with destruction. What a wake up call! Spread the warning! Jesus is the rock of salvation! He will guide and protect in our future.

Jesus Frugalness: Compare It To Yours!

Jesus Frugalness: Compare It To Yours!                   9-13-15      By Capt. Kelly Durant

Matt 10: 9 Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses,10 Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.11 And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, enquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence.

2. You have heard stories about people who are tight with their money. Q: What does one penny say to the other penny? A: Let's get together and make some cents! The subject of money is always a hot topic! It is necessary for life but the love of it is the root of all evil!

How many of you know that Jesus spoke more about how to be faithful with money than he did on many other subjects? How you manage the physical material world reflects on your spiritual life! Remember Jesus took action against the rich false leaders who exploited their followers!

Those that appreciate and maintain well their scarce few assets display a parallel of how they are appreciating and maintaining their spiritual life walk with God. Out of control spenders create debt, offend others and live tormented! And to the contrary, hoarders or the too frugal are so selfish they don’t provide enough of the basics for their own families or God’s work! They hide money, they pass on, and no one ever gets to use it! Either extreme, be it the selfish savers or the wasteful extravagant ones are unfaithful servants according to God’s Word!

3. Why am I choosing this subject? Because everybody would love to have more money! Have you ever met anybody in life that ever said, I wish I were poorer?! Like it or not, many of us are actually poorer because in the past 5 to 10 years most everyone (worldwide as well) has had to learn how to live austerely on less than before! We need more financial wisdom. If you cannot get more coming in then you need to get educated on how to stop it from going out.

I meet people daily who are disappointed that they (we) are not getting much (if any) money back on the tax returns!  If you are getting anything back, you can praise God for that! Our current system is taxing us to the breaking point so that the feds have taken in record amounts in taxes and fines the last several years. Yet they keep borrowing another trillion dollars on average per year! (investigate this on line for yourself). In 2014 they took in over 3.7 trillion and still they still borrowed another trillion to cover black ops projects and secretive projects. Actually they are putting the entire nation at risk for bankruptcy! And talk about bad book keeping, the Pentagon this year can’t account for a missing $16 trillion! Try telling the IRS you lost just $16,000 and take note how they will for sure get the tax from you owe them!

So if you want to learn about frugalness and living in peace in a balance with money forget getting it from the government! All current governments are corrupt and no example to follow! The Americas, Europe, China, India, basically all the world is in a financial chaos right now!

4. Another point is I suggest you be careful with other people who want to invest your hard earned money into stocks or get rich quick schemes. It was blatantly exposed just a few years ago that the privileged government employees get inside trader information so this means they will always be the ones never losing making profits, contrary to your average Joe who obsesses over the numbers trusting investment companies. Algorithms and investors may tell one where to put your money (everyone wants to spend what’s yours) but here is a verse that the Godly live by… Psalm 119:110 The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts.

A fool and his money are quickly departed, so beware of these who use their tongues, paperwork, power, and laws unbeknownst by you in order to gain from you what should stay in your own pocket! Jesus knew people would always want to steal from you everything you own!

Mark 3:27 No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. This verse to me implies a person can be bound mentally (not just physically) by a deceiver and this is how another can take over all that one owns. Gamblers, risky business investors, drug sellers and users, alcoholics, and materialistic envious people are all bound mentally by demons and they lose everything eventually! The only way to be authentically strong is to get your strength from Jesus!

5. Do you recall the prodigal son? He was young and dumb and out of control! He obtained lots of money, which was not yet legitimately his but he demanded it from his father anyway. He thought he had lots of friends but all they wanted was to help him spend it on parties and riotous living. He was like the rap star “50 cents” who is only worth $.50 today, and so many others who have lost millions by being surrounded by parasite friends who sucked away all the wealth. Have you ever met the strange shady people that hang around rich people like I have?

Also, it is common knowledge many times some formerly rich and famous people have even had to stay in Salvation Army shelters because they lost it all!   Proverbs 23:5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven.  All will answe to God for wastefulness doing nothing for Him or others!

Up to this point I am talking about how to not let what you work for in life fall into the hands of others unjustly, or from your own stupidity of having an appetite for the things of the world. You and I are going to have to pray for Jesus’ strength and wisdom to retain what rightfully ours knowing that it is the blessings that God wants us to have.    

6.  Proverbs 30:7 Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: 8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

Why is the management of money important? Why does a balance matter? It reflects on our testimony and spirituality. We gain to share. 1 Timothy 5:8 But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.

A person who works hard and is wise to not waste money but provides for his or her own within their family, and even within their church family, is reflecting maturity. That faithful one can expect more and more to be entrusted to them. Luke 16:10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.

7. Now let’s focus back on the verses of today, on the finances of Jesus and his disciples. In Matthew 10: 9-11, does it appear like Jesus or his followers had any money? Obviously not! Imagine if I were to tell you today, I want you this afternoon to get a ride somehow to the next city a few hours away up the road, and I don’t want you to take any money, and I want you to stay wherever some kind person invites you in to stay because you are preaching Jesus. How many of you think you could survive a mission like this? Yes, no, maybe?

What a challenge right? I observed many Christian groups going on faith trips in the 1970s. Those were years of spiritual awakenings and evangelism. My wife and I have even have done many faith trips on the road in Brazil, and believe us; it actually is possible to live by faith in this way Jesus commanded when you are full of conviction and obedience! God does provide if you are obeying His will preaching the gospel to every creature! 1 Corinthians 9:14 “Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.”

It is obvious, from the beginning Jesus did not want followers who were following not for authentic conviction and a passion for God but rather for the benefits, the “loaves and fishes” or some compensation. Serving God is not for the people who want to just do their own thing and hang around and then be fed for doing nothing to advance God’s love with tangible deeds of service to those in need. The principles of God you and I must live by is to gain all things by the “sweat of our brow”; or in this case as commanded by Jesus, to live laboring for the faith with empty pockets, trusting that God will provide your food, bed, and every need.

8. 1 Timothy 6:8 “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content”. In actuality, God provides for His own, all the basic needs of food, clothes, and even shelter, but if you or I have anything left over, we should count that as an extra blessing from God!

Even in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus taught us to pray , Matthew 6:10 “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread.” Jesus never prayed for His followers to expect to become rich, nor did He ever let one of His own be in absolute poverty. The rich He warned rarely made it to heaven! Yet “blessed are the poor” because they listen the gospel.

Psalm 37:25 “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” When Jesus said, Mark 14:7 “For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always”, the inference here is that the poor are the people of the world. They are not living in obedience to God’s will reaping consequences, or they are a victim to man’s injustice to his fellow man.

9. Have you ever heard the complaint that God is so wrong to allow the poor to suffer? To ask, why does God allow suffering and poverty is a trick question designed by Satan himself! God provided a world that can produce enough for all, but it is the world controlled by Satan’s people and godless governments that are provoking the extreme suffering by their unjust rule of the misappropriation of resources. 

Extremely poor people will always exist. Here are several possible reasons why:

1) They are exploited by the rich, or an oppressive government, not paid as they should be

2) They are idol worshipping people who practice evil and are cursed by God until they repent 3) They are lazy people not working to provide for their selves or their own

4) They are people reaping the circumstances of the past sins of their forefathers who were involved in greedy murderous activities (war, corruption, resource wastefulness, etc)

The analysis is that poverty is directly provoked by man, either those who sinned in the past, or form those sinning in the present, but either way, God’s children will get their needs supplied. One of our most precious promises in the Word is this, Philippians 4:19 “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus”. What a comfort that is!

10. So how frugal was Jesus? Matthew 8:20 And Jesus saith unto him, The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head”. Do you know what this implies? For the fact that we have a bed and a shelter we are living better than what Jesus did!

Jesus is better to us, His children who obey Him, than He even was to Himself! Today we live in a world that has prospered and grown much since the simple days of foot, horse, or camel travel as in Jesus’ day. There is so much food in the U.S. A., the restaurants throw away about half of their food wasting $165 Billion dollar’s worth per year!   http://www.thedailymeal.com/what-do-restaurants-do-leftover-food/52914

Not just The Salvation Army but dozens of thousands of groups provide shelters for the homeless and feed the hungry but the poverty still persists even more. Don’t you think it is time we shifted our expectations and goals in life more away from our own ambitions, cultural ideas, and failed systems and move more towards the way Jesus taught us with compassion?

11. If people would only discover the happiness, love, and joy the salvation of Jesus brings in life then they would no longer conform to trying to be made happy with money and material things! Things never satisfy. I even wrote a poem about this.

THINGS                       by Kelly Durant

THINGS filling up your heart and head

Makes you as them, just as dead

THINGS your every moment occupy

Making you as flat, empty, and dry

How much would you be worth

If you lost everyTHING that you own on this earth?

For THINGS people slave an endless race

For decaying homes, prestige and place

For THINGS people sell their conscience and soul

And feelings die as THINGS turn cold

And how much would you be worth

If you lost everyTHING that you own on this earth?

THINGS cause envy and give you a complex

As addiction to drugs, you die for what's next

THINGS give stress, many victims have died

Why for THINGS be martyred unsatisfied?

And how much would you be worth

If you lost everyTHING that you own on this earth?

12. The joy of obeying Jesus meeting people on life’s road and turning them on to Him is the best joy I have ever experienced in life! Money will not buy happiness, but Jesus gives it freely!

For years we have been informed by the news outlets the concern over our excessive consumerism, the destruction of our earth by factory pollution, the greed and corruption destroying and wasting of our resources, and we are warned that the overpopulation of useless eaters is destroying us, but what can we conclude seeing godless man going down this path of serving the God of money (mammon)? That this system is not going away until all the people convert to Jesus way! And that will only happen when He returns to judge and reign forever!

Only the simplicity of Jesus can save us! He was the example of God of how to live on little and be able to live happy! Get this concept down about life, you and I must focus more on feeding our spirit than on feeding our appetite for things. Dream in God’s heavenly dimension, not for things on earth where “moth and rust corrupts”! Don’t feed the body and starve the soul!

Don’t be guilty as in 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Ask God for a new vision to serve Him! I have tried it and you will live blessed and happier than what you ever imagined! Live as Jesus lived! Earth is passing, heaven is forever!

The Leadership Style of Jesus: Is It Your Style?

The Leadership Style of Jesus: Is It Your Style?                   By Kelly Durant  9-6-15

 

Matthew 11: 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil. 19 The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.

2. The U.S. Presidential elections are over a year away and yet people want to talk about leadership and what the next leader should be like. Some people love to see everyone mowed down and put in their place! The get tough legalistic kind might work well for certain things, but depending on the position, would a softer spoken more evenly balanced kind be better?  

Let’s compare Jesus to John in their leadership styles. John was your tough legalistic accuser!  He was the righteous law upholder, reminding everyone that if you did not repent and be baptized that you would see the wrath of God! When John saw sin, he exposed it with blunt confrontation! This type of aggressiveness served a purpose and may be needed for exposure of the evil of certain people, sins and situations.

Recall how John accused Herod the king telling him God would punish him? That it was not lawful for him to have his sister’s wife! That cost him his head! But despite his rough confrontational style he was sincerely holy and loved God’s righteousness.

3. Jesus on the other was usually a merciful tender-hearted mercy giver.  We recall how Jesus reacted when the people caught the woman in the act of adultery. Did he say, “Okay let God’s judgments reign down, stone her!”  No, he replied that she should go and sin no more!

Jesus was teaching all that there is no one worthy enough, no one holy enough, no one who actually is holy enough that they should condemn another. The point: everyone can and should repent and be forgiven to start a new life in God’s will, not their own.

Jesus was not usually confrontational (except with the hypocrite false religious teachers misrepresenting God) but rather his classic way was that of offering the woman caught in adultery forgiveness while at the same time subliminally  rebuking those who were the hypocrite accusers. He was exposing that all of them were just as sinful as her, and the people hated Him for it! Jesus did not hit them with rebuking words direct like John might have, but he exposed sin by the conviction of the Holy Spirit! How many of you have felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit in your life?  Jesus was confrontational with the perverters of God’s Word, the hypocrites. In general He allowed the Holy Spirit to work on most everyone.

4. So what is happening with the leadership styles? John attacks and condemns with the truth, but Jesus loves and forgives with the truth! Does this remind you of the ways of certain people you know? Some Christians seem to accuse their leaders and everyone of this and that, and are hard, hard, harsh and unforgiving while yet others offer understanding and forgiveness!

In the church when someone has a sin, the reaction of some is to want to throw stones, they want the pastor to confront and expose the person and condemn them, to attack and beat them with the truth.  It is common knowledge that people frequently complain in the churches and say, “Look, the pastor is not rebuking the ones with sin, he is not doing his job! Recall though that sometimes the pastors are not aware of the sins happening because the people are good at hiding and covering it up. The stories people tell about others are usually not the whole truth either. You and I need to give God’s Holy Spirit a chance to work in people’s lives. God has to reveal when we should reject and rebuke or when we should love and heal according to each individual situation. 

5. People who love confrontation do not seem to care if the person accused gets offended and lost from God and the church!  To me this is not very Christian unless there is evidence of some damaging sin. All confrontational people care about is seeing things get done because they are running their mouths. An agenda of proving that another person is more sinful than what they are, and that they want to be looked at as a great leader for wanting punishment is usually spiritual pride. This makes them feel righteous. But this detracts from the sins they have in their own heart that they should be working on! Consider these verses…

Hebrews 12:12-Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

We are in a battle to gain souls for the Kingdom of God and as followers and leaders, God is testing us continually with external battles and internal battles! A principle to live by is this: When you or I hear of sin exposed in someone, it implies that is time that we should examine our own heart to see if we have any sin as well! (Repeat)  Many people one day many have to cross over the same bridge of the ones they are condemning!

6. If you want to lead like Jesus, offering healing, forgiveness, and a new start in life and for the life of others who seem to not deserve it, here is some council on how to deal with your character in these verses..   

Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much

 So the scripture offers the forgiveness of sin and exposure of sin through exhortation through each other, and the time is today or now, before you become like those who have their deep bitternesses on why they no longer worship God or come to church, or do anything for God! You need Christian friends to point out your faults from God’s word from time to time! Agreed?

7. Recall what the people said about John, that he abstained from wine and ate locusts and was considered crazy by some for his abstinence? But then when Jesus drank wine and mixed with publicans, then that disqualified Him too and made Him unholy and a sinner by the accusers who also were sinners?! The confusion is in who accuses who! Can the pot call the skillet black? Often those so quick to condemn others are guilty of the same sins themselves!

In the end you can see the detail of the wine really was not the point. It is the fact that most people will never be happy with what the leader, or righteous Christian does, whether he is harsh or soft, a rebuker, or a healer. The unspiritual carnal crowd will always accuse the leader!

Both Jesus and John lost their lives in the hands of those angry that their sin was exposed and envious of the power that made their spirits feel very uncomfortable! These people wanted to be free from the conviction of the exposure of their evil hearts full of sin. They had sin and they did not want to give it up, so the solution was to kill the messenger exposing it!

8. We see this happen today over and over in the communities in which we live and even within the churches! Do you see through the horribleness of the hypocrisy of human nature? It’s all throughout the news medias. When a person or group has a sin or an abuse problem, people criticize and want justice and want to destroy everything for attention, but when a person doing or saying something is innocent, not provoking but just doing good, people still talk trash about them anyway! You can’t win for losing, as the old expression goes!

When one examines closer you and I can determine that the men and women of God have a spiritual power, an intimidating authority that will expose sin for what it is, and this is either by words or good deeds. Different people react in different ways to this righteous authority. Let’s look at 4 different reactions to leadership carried out in a spiritual way.

1. There are those that have truth in their hearts and respect and submit to the Word. These are the good sheep, like John the Beloved, and these make the Lord happy by their submission and obedience. They really want sin out of their lives and they become authentically clean by allowing God to expose it daily in prayer. They change their character to be worthy to be called a Christian and to lead and teach. Few times do these follower leaders ever need to have pointed out their sin. But wait, don’t you think yes, I am like that, I am the good one! Few people really are this mature spiritually. Recall   

Prov 20:6 Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find?

2. There are the ones who want to be first. Instead of trusting in the authority of God’s chosen ones, they want to challenge and show off the authority they assume. This kind of person minimizes or abuses those with the authority over them. Do you recall how James and John and their mother argued over who would have the most power in heaven? (Mark 10:36) What kind of a manipulating mother was that?

There are always people concerned about who is first, and they want it to be one of them, they want to dominate.  Usually they want the title and honor but without the responsibilities. But Jesus said the first are last, and he that is greatest amongst you should be your servant! Could this power seeking person be you?

9.  3. Then there are the deceptive ones. These are people who pretend to be good and follow the leader but they follow for some other personal agenda. Do you recall that Judas was a zealot? He wanted Jesus to help him accomplish his agenda of obtaining power for the Jews to dominate Rome? He followed Jesus but he was not really “one” with Him. His evil heart never converted and he was not really supporting Jesus to spread God’s kingdom to win souls through preaching the word. He always contradicted Jesus when he didn’t like something, like over the oil that Mary Magdalene used to wash Jesus feet with. With that incident he self-righteously wanted to show off that he would give to the poor?! You see, he wanted all the people to see that he had more compassion than Jesus! When Jesus would not do what he wanted in the end, he betrayed him. Could this ulterior motives person be you?

4. Then there are the so called believers, the distant followers, the non-committed. They follow no leader very long. There was a time that there were 70 disciples instead of 12 until Jesus gave a sermon that was too hard for them. These are the comfortable Christians, the just so far and no further kind, that are not willing to go all the way.   

John 6:65-68 And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. 67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? 68Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.

10. Those that leave the churches or go shopping from church to church, do not want to commit nor submit to anything nor anyone! In the end these misguided ones are not really obeying Jesus nor doing a work for Him on earth. They want blessings from God but they are not sending saved souls to the bank of heaven by their lack of commitment, by their non usefulness to a leader. So the blessings they bring compared to the assets they bring to God are at a deficiency! Are you a too comfortable follower doing too little to support winning souls for Jesus?

One can try to look good to others, but God knows our hearts! Which person are you? The real submitted follower?  The power tripping challenger?  The deceptive manipulator?  Or the too comfortable non committed one?

Today God is calling us to a higher level of service! Are you going to look more at the sins of others than the sin in your own life? Do you want others dealt with harshly when they sin, but we all know you would never tolerate your own medicine?      

Matt 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

11. It is better to err on the side of mercy than to err on the side of judgement! How will God judge you? Have you said wrong things to someone and sinned? Now is the time to come clean! Even if you confess something and the one you think is guilty should confess and they don’t, leave it to God, he knows how to deal with them. Maybe they are confessing and you do not know it!

Are you guilty of following Jesus for the power, your agenda, or comfortableness? Now is the day to change and become a submitted one willing to die for our Lord! All of the games of human nature are exposed in the Bible, and you and God know where you stand in your position of submission and remission of sins. 

Be a real leader! The paradox is submission and belonging to Jesus equals real freedom! You lead others on what you follow. Do not let yourself and your plans remain your plans, you will pass and be forgotten, only what is done for Jesus will last! Obey Jesus today!