Jesus: The Most High!

Jesus: The Most High!                                                        Kelly Durant

John 14:27 Peace 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.

2. When I first started out evangelizing in the 1970’s, there were a lot of drugs, oriental religions, and strange philosophies influencing the culture. When I would meet young people they almost always would expect me to be someone who gets high, because I had long hair like most everyone back then.

So when I would go to pass out salvation tracks at concerts I would often get asked by people before they knew what I was doing, “Hey you got a joint?” (Marijuana cigarette) My response was, “No, but I got something better!” They would then get curious and say what’s that? Then I would take out the little New Testament with Psalms and say I am high on the Most High!

Really, God makes you higher than anything, He’s better than any drug, and I know what I’m talking about! Psalm 9:2 I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High. Some people would laugh and listen to more but others would run away scared because they knew they did not want to be reminded of God when looking for a high! Ha!

3. So how are you handling the daily grind? Life is hard and there are many dozens of things that need to get done in a day and this provokes stress, the secret killer. The sound of our own wheels can make us crazy! Everyone wants relief! Those without ‘The Most High’ don’t know how to get the relief and some turn to refined substances that hook and destroy their bodies and spirits faster than the stress of life itself!

In the 1970s pot was considered the de-stresser used by many young people (and still is, legalized in several states now). However today’s prescription drugs have replaced pot in most places due to the greedy pharmaceutical companies and that is like going from a beer to hard liquor consumption!

Listen to this alarming quote, “Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug, and more than half take two, Mayo Clinic and Olmsted Medical Center researchers say. Antibiotics, antidepressants and painkilling opioids are most commonly prescribed, their study found. Jun 19, 2013 Nearly 7 in 10 Americans Take Prescription Drugs, Mayo Clinic. newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/.../nearly-7-in-10-americans-take-...Mayo Clinic

4. Isn’t this statistic alarming? In 2013 it was a 213 Billion dollar industry! Must be $250 Billion today! People want relief from bodily harm pain and certain drugs are acceptable, but the greater problem is with the opiates and drugs to get high with. People are spending a big part of their money on these pills and then they not having enough money for food, so they come to us, the Salvation Army and other local pantries, to get food. All the time I hear people say that they have to choose between their prescription payment and groceries!

Here is a thought, Genesis 1:29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” There is an natural herb for almost everything, a headache or a stomachache, and God’s design is life creations are amazing! God is above all and evolutionists don’t ever want you to discover how the symbiotic relationship of the human mind and body with plants proves how High God is above all our understanding of design.

My sister in law has a Homeopathic Clinic in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and she attends to dozens of people daily because there a majority of people prefer a natural means of healing to a synthetic means to cure aliments. One of the worse aliments of today is stress as we all here have a life of non-stop stimulations and near death experiences in traffic with deadlines to meet. Stress is unavoidable but we must recognize it when it is getting to us and take action against it not with a stimulant high which fades but with a permanent high which comes from the Most High’s Holy Spirit.

5. So what is the opposite of stress, is it not peace and comfort? To chill and relax is an action needed for the physical body, like recharging a battery, but to have inner peace, that is the real key to total well-being and that is where faith comes in. It is allowing God to be in control, above you and your thoughts and worries.

Jesus knew that people would stress over their daily needs so he pointed out excessive thinking and worry fixes nothing but rather God is the one who takes care of things. Matthew 6:27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Trusting in God, which is where faith comes in, is something you and I must build up, like building muscle. You actually can have trust and faith in God to solve all your daily problems but you must put forth the effort of consciously praying and asking Him to guide you in order to have it; to have real peace.

6. The solution for a healthy body is to give it rest and time away from the busy-ness. Jesus often went alone to a quite place to pray. Here is a verse that expresses God’s will for us. Isaiah 32:18 And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;

But if not, there are times when you can be surrounded by a storm, by the storm of life, but if God is your refuge and strength you can have peace in the midst of the storm! God’s original idea of creation was for people to live in a Garden full of life; we were designed with frail flesh to live a life with no stress at all, but a life of full of only peace and happiness. A paradise, a heaven, a safe place for all is what God wants for all His children but evil ones have turned our earth into hell.

Much of our stress in life is from our worry for our daily needs as the money seems to never be enough, but some of the stress we suffer comes from our man made environment as we survive in filthy cities full of crime, theft, exploitation, injustices, war, murder and more! These things are man’s fault, not God’s! Even our basics foods have been modified and corrupted.

7. Suicide rates have been up in the past recent years. There is a conspiracy by Satan to throw every discouragement he possibly can at you and me so that we just want to give up and die! Don’t let despair and depression overtake you! Recognize that sadness, depression, discouragement, are all tools of Satan and we must flush him out of our head by connecting to God and Jesus. Go into a quiet place and pray, and read God’s word which will take you to a higher plane. Time with the Most High will take you into the clouds above the hell here below on earth! Science experiments over and over prove that people who pray and have faith have healthier outlooks which transfers into having better health, mentally and physically.

It is alarming though how when one thing goes wrong in a day how usually 3 or 4 more other things will show up as well making the burden so heavy it seems like it is the last straw breaking the camel’s back. We need to confront the attacks of the enemy by rebuking him. I have often prayed out loud, ‘I rebuke you Satan!’ when terrible things have happened. James 4:7 It is all in knowing that trust in the Most High will bring you and me through the lowest moments of afflictions, be it suffering from your own self or from suffering over someone you care about.

8. So until now I have identified several things that can harm us, several things that can pull us down away from our blissful high place with our Most High Lord. There are many things more than what I will list here that can cause stress, but God can lift you above all of these things if you put forth the effort to change it. Stress killing us can be a product of:

-A. Not worshipping God; which basically is a proof of your love and trust in Him. Not enough of Jesus in your life will cause stress because without feeling close to Him (which you can achieve in prayer), you will be afraid of too many things in life. It is the ‘Know Jesus, know peace, No Jesus, no peace’ formula.

-B Consuming the wrong substances; people who eat unhealthy foods, consume alcohol, or take the wrong kind of prescription pills will pay the price of it taxing their mind and body. When the relaxation of alcohol, pills, or pot wears off, the mind and body counter balance by releasing the stimulant chemicals held back inside which then makes one extra nervous, mentally taxed, and stressed.

-C Worrying about not getting what you want in life. Some people stress over their daily needs and Jesus taught us to ask God for them, but the worst stress is being angry and bitter all the time because you want to be rich and famous and feel life is unfair because you are not getting what you want out of life.

-D Evil spirits are real and attack you and me, and this provokes stress. Christians most of the time live in peace and are protected by God but sometimes the enemy and his demons will attack us. These attacks come in our minds either with perverse temptations, heavy discouragements, or evil thoughts of doing violence to ourselves or to others. Don’t listen to other people’s voices, only God’s!     

9. God wants everyone of His children to feel good and be happy! Obedient loving Christians do feel good most of the time, do you not agree? They live too blessed to be stressed! But it is up to us to learn how to weather the storms of life.

Since one of God’s names is “the Most High” we are reminded that He is high above all things, over all creation, over all people, and over all that happens to us in this life. If He is above all then we trust in His control of matters.

Jesus said that He and His Father God are One, so in effect Jesus is the Most High! He’s King of kings and over ‘all things’. Ephesians 4:10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.   

Come and pray for strength to overcome all of the things that pull you away from the high heavenly places where God wants you! Pray for friends and relatives that are sinful, greedy, abusive, and substance abusing that bring you down. Time with the Most High will take you high up to his level of peace eliminating all fears and worries. I want to be high, full of peace, and happy, how about you?

Thankfulness: With It Honor, Without It Shame!

Thankfulness: With It Honor, Without It Shame!                     Capt Kelly Durant

1 Thessalonians 5:18 In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

2. My wife and I lived near a blind institute in Santa Cruz, Bolivia and one day we decided to go in and see if we could sing some songs to them and they said yes. We did not know what to expect when we went back to go in, I think we expected to see sad faces and introverted people. Our hope was to cheer them up with a few songs and Words of Jesus from doing a devotional.

To our surprise it was not how we imagined at all! These blind folks were quite a lively group and they were so appreciative of our simple songs they begged us to come back again soon. To our amazement they memorized all the words to the songs on the first visit!  So we started visiting them twice a month for the time we lived there doing devotions, singing, and talking with them. What a great time!

We got to know each of them personally and they made us feel very appreciated. They were some of the most thankful people we had ever worked with! Imagine yourself being blind right now? I think most of us would expect one to be angry with God and the world, but instead these folks were thankful to Him and to all those who helped them in their live-in institute. We learned many things from them, like how they can distinguish colors by feeling the heat of the material. I am thankful God allowed our lives to cross paths teaching us thankfulness. In the Bible we know David went blind, Samson was blinded, but later we read how Jesus healed the blind! We need to be thankful for our sight! Even our oldest son has a vision problem of retinitis pigmentosa and my wife and I have done courses on how to lead the blind.

3. Have you ever wondered why it appears that it takes some major loss, some big event in our lives, to make us humble and reconnected to God as we should be? Why do we as human beings have to be so stubborn, so ungrateful, so complainy that we ignore being thankful for our blessings? Why can’t we just show others & God gratitude no matter the conditions? In the Bible great men like David and Samson went through prideful abusive stages until God let them be humiliated by their own wrongful actions which were a product of not being thankful for what they already had desiring more than what they needed not listening to God.

Let me warn you, life is long and hard and all that is going to happen to you is either going to make you or break you! How you get remolded all depends on your attitude, faith, and thankfulness (or lack thereof!) You and I can either praise God for all the good you have had, or you can blame everybody and God for how bad things are! If you don’t have it as good as you think you should maybe God is allowing it that way for a reason. What’s the lesson you need to learn?

Not every person in the blind institute was a happy soul. I recall one man who was sharp tongued and bitter and he would always spoil the party with a negative comment. He would stay in his room and only come out to say that he didn’t care for God because God let him down. No one in the institute wanted him nearby anyway; they always told us to just ignore him. And how could anyone welcome an ugly complainy attitude when everyone is thankful and having a good time?

4. Simple things can make a person happy when there has been a loss. Let’s take for example some of the folks in jails. Some of them use to have hundreds of thousands of dollars defrauding the system, stealing, or selling drugs, but suddenly they become thankful to afford enough for a little transistor radio! Thankfulness is all about the perspective and when there is nothing, all little things and God suddenly are esteemed with their deserving value.   

I will share my take on how to be thankful in life, I believe in the scorched earth policy. In the military this means that when you go through a territory you get rid of everything, such as shelters and weapons so that the enemy can’t use them against you for a future attack.

If you live your life as scorched earth, then you will not hold onto anything or any person, you forsake all that you have as Jesus commanded. In life you will suddenly become thankful when all that exists is a barren empty space where only God and the inspiring things He allows from day to day fill it up. I am thankful for even a smile, in this desert of dry humanity!

5. Christians have a better chance at being thankful than other people, because after all, the assumption is, they will obey and practice the Good Book they hold onto to. In the verse of today, “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.“ We conclude this means being thankful for the good and even thankful for when things are not so good! In everything!

It is easy to praise God for the good, to praise him when times are good, but it is hard to praise him when times are hard, but we can do it if we chose to.  Romans 14:6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

Basically if you eat or don’t eat, have your needs met or don’t, we owe thanks to God. This is a discipline that is hard to achieve, but if you always pray and let thankfulness over-ride your own feelings of disappointment or anger you can reach this level of maturity. How many of you can say you are content in whatever state you are in, with abundance, or in just barely making it?

6. Here is something to contemplate: most of the time we equate thankfulness with the material such as being thankful for your food, clothing , home, car, etc. but what about being thankful for the spiritual things? Are you thankful for your teachers, pastors/Captains and divinely inspired books and hymns that inspire one’s spirit through this mysterious journey we call life?

Thank God for the knowledge of Him, because life without the spiritual things would make life be very mundane, boring, and frustrating a dead endless cycle of meaningless activities. Without the knowledge of God, without the concepts of praise, thankfulness, and joy (coming through the Holy Spirit) we would just be living an enslaving torturous death here and now and then and hereafter!

Psalm 30:4 Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. As Christians we get energized, inspired, and uplifted by learning about God’s Words of life, by praising Him, and by giving Him thanks. Psalm 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

7. And most of all we can thank God for the forgiveness of our sins through the sacrifice of Jesus, the perfect lamb of God! I cannot imagine living a life of slavery trying to be perfect by observing the old Sanhedrin Law. What a frustration to never quite make it, to never feel like God would ever be fully thankful for your sacrifices for Him!

What a business of rituals and traditions that do not erase sins! Could anyone ever be thankful for a life as the Greek figure Sisyphus going up and down with your heavy load, never accomplishing enough to be good or holy enough? Jesus sacrifice on the cross should invoke the maximum of gratitude from every human being! Think about thankfulness, most of us associate it usually over something, over a gift, over something done that seemed impossible. Before Jesus there were the miracles done through Moses, there was the promise to Abraham; there was the glory and beauty of God manifested in so many victories, but the Hebrew people betrayed God and became unthankful despite their blessings.

But after Jesus’ death and resurrection all humanity was faced with the fact that we owe an entire life of thankfulness to God! Through Jesus we get an undeserved gift of forgiveness and eternal life!

8. It is sad that many Christians throughout the world share mega amounts of resources and man hours to help millions of needy people in many ways but the reality is few ever come to thank God in the church, or thank those who helped them! Think about the institute where my wife and I went, almost none of their family members would visit them and express thanks to the staff.

Even in the Salvation Army shelter here, where 250 people can sleep in a room and shower with no cost being without a home, do you think gratitude is shown? No, little gratitude is shown as only about 25 come to any of the Sunday services!

And whenever anyone is on the subject of thankfulness almost everyone is reminded of the 10 lepers that were healed but only 1 came back to give thanks Jesus. I suppose anyone of us should be content with 10% of the people being thankful, but what a disappointment! The reality is this: forever this one leper, a condemned nobody, has the honor of God for his thankfulness! But the 9 are shamed eternally for a lack of returning to God His deserved praise! I want to be the one, and you?

9. Let’s be thankful for how God works in our lives and does miracles we may not even be aware of protecting us from car crashes, and innumerous dangers! I am thankful as well for the Holy Spirit that keeps me upbeat and encouraged! “In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you”.

The alternative to living without gratitude for the spiritual and the physical is living only with your own spirit prone to mistakes. Thank God that He protects us from being a victim to the spirits of the evil people out in the community as well.

Every morning I thank Him! Psalm 100: 4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. 

Compassion: Without it you are Guilty of Hate

Compassion: Without it you are Guilty of Hate      Kelly Durant 

I Jn 3:14-18

Compassion is sympathy for the suffering and a desire to help!

They say that giving a beggar a piece of bread is a civil duty, but to give him a bread with butter on it, now that is compassion! Compassion is a divine quality something that is in all cultures with a certain measure, but the strange thing is that it is also something very much lacking in most cultures today. The level of the spiritual development of a culture or people could be measured by how much compassion they have. But think about it, only Christians throughout time have proven over and over to be the ones to help when there is a need or crisis. As a Christian how much compassion do you have? How much compassion does this community have? I think it lacks a lot!

Are you the center of your universe, or is Jesus love at the center?  In order to have compassion, you must have the ability to put yourself into the shoes of the other person. This takes not just a creative mind, but a willing heart! Think about what is inside of you. If you are only full of your wants, your needs, then you are self focused. You have your self as the center of your life, or at the center of the universe. But if you have Jesus at the center of your life & heart, you will have the same heart of compassion that he has, and you will be willing to help anyone, anytime, of any race, like in the story of the Good Samaritan.

Do you, to get what you want, be childlike, intimidate, and hate? Selfishness means no understanding salvation! The verses we are studying have within their context a relationship of hate connected to the idea of refusing to help someone in need. What is the difference between an adult and a child? A child only wants to get what he wants no matter the situation and they scream to get it. Some kids, even as big as teenagers will yell to their parents, “I hate you!” just to try and get what they want from them, They do not care if they do not have the money or conditions to please them, they are just self focused. Those who hate do it when they see someone else get something they wanted, people hate it when the attention and money they wanted goes to a good cause.

Hate=Murder: not giving to others in need! In the state of Alaska, if a person s on the street with a car motor stalled, by law you must stop and pick up that person. The reason for this is that person could actually freeze to death and die in some -30 below 0 temperatures with 10 minutes! Not helping someone with a need is not only heartless and insensitive.  But a real sacrifice to help someone with a need, that is a must, and people usually receive honor and praise for being loving and saving someone’s live or situation!

Only love, not hate makes you pass from death to life! What we do in this life brings us either praise or scorn from those around us, and from God too. The people who let their selves be touched by Jesus love to the point that they want to be like Him, implies they have entered into life with Him. However, hate, a which is a violent rejection, is a carnal, natural occurring human quality, but no one really admires this horrible quality. These are those who are terrorists, those that are racists and make wars, are those that bring death and suffering to others and themselves. Everyone is on one path or the other, life, or death!

Who do you hate secretly? Have you ever really tried to look deep into your heart as to why you do not like someone or somebody? You have undiscovered bitternesses, everyone does, and you need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what they are so you can be free, as hate manifests itself in bitterness. These past things separate you from the God of love. I have discovered many people secretly hate pastors, or sincere Christian leaders because they are envious of their power and influence over people.  Jesus warned that if they hated Him, they will hate you also.

Love and compassion is giving your life in service to Jesus! There is no society where selfishness is really worshipped as virtue, all cultures value sacrifice to others. But sacrifice should be done in the way Jesus defined it in Matt 25, caring for the hungry, thirsty, and poor. Compare this bad example of sacrifice. Imagine how in India with the Hindu religion the tradition has been that wives will allow their selves to be burned alive with their husbands dead bodies when they are at their funerals. That is a type of sacrifice our God of love does not desire, they do this because their idea of God is sadly distorted from the truth of God. Do you see how Jesus redefines what compassion and sacrifice really should be?

By their fruits you will know them! The people that do good things for others and claim they do it for the love of our Lord Jesus, and they obviously are not seeking glory, compensation, or recognition should be honored as true. Those that show compassion can only be motivated out of love. I recall how in the community ever now and then a person may comment terrible things about someone good! This person is obviously someone who has an evil heart and does not understand how people can be sincere in doing good works, that people do good in the Salvation Army. So these bad people accuse, oh they help so they can get the Toys, or their rent paid. I recall often times some people who would volunteer and help us many days later found out that others would be accusing that they were getting their rent paid by us, and these were totally false accusations. The people who accuse falsely have never been the ones to do good works and help, have you ever noticed that? 

The compassion of the world?! Satan is compassionate, in his own way, have you ever thought about that? He wants to show he is more just than God in his sharing of the goods from the rich to give to the poor. He works hard with his demons to run this worlds government systems, usurping God’s authority, and how does he do it? He establishes political systems of abusive murderous power to give some crumbs to the poor to show how he will take care of the people better than what God’s people can. Communism, the forced sharing of wealth offends God and everyone since it puts a gun in the face of those who worked to get what they have to give it to those who do nothing to deserve it. What makes them deserviing of these stolen goods is their faithfulness to worhip their socialist leaders as gods for being so compassionate. Abhorant, don’t you think?

Excuses or compassion? In the end Satan convinces people to follow corrupt systems of false hopes when God’s people are doing too little to help. With all the churches in the United States, you would think there should not be a need that the government give a check to the unemployed or sick. Christians are supposed to be taking care of each other and of others outside of the church who are suffering. In the new testament recall God’s sharing system: Acts 2:44-45⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. If we’re not helping each other, then we are failing God, and he will accept no excuses.

Love implies action! Compassion! Think a minute, what evidence is there for you to prove you have showed compassion to someone? Could you tell me about something you have done recently, and do you have a habit of helping those in need? If you are not in action, if there are not deeds to back up your words of good wishes for others, then compassion to you is just an esoteric term, not a reality manifested in this world. It is not too late to get busy for the Lord!

The SA is known for its compassion. I probably have told you many times that I love the Salvation’s Army way of serving others. Imagine you are not just being a part of a church but a part of a massive social work with 3 million Soldiers and volunteers with thousands of shelters, rehab centers, schools, and assistance happening world-wide! For me it is the most compassionate church that exists, that is why I choose to belong to it. But our compassion is limited to each person’s willingness to express it and what you do does affects a piece of the whole picture. It makes you proud to have a good name, right? But how sad when people report that a work someone is doing nothing to help anyone!

People with compassion are full of love and not just compassion. Choose today how you are going to live, showing mercy as God shows mercy, or being hard hearted? Consider this: Proverbs 21:13 ¹³Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard. God will deal with each person by how they have dealt with those he has created, your fellow man. Jesus said Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

People without love & compassion have never had a repentance! I am convinced here on how the Word connects the scripture of these verses that we have read today that those who do not love and help those in need are still full of hate and this makes them guilty before God as being a murderer. Imagine those who selfishly always only took care of themselves and never showed compassion? God will be angry with them and they will have no part in heaven! If you have the doubt that you are not full of compassion, that you are cold hearted, and you really do not care if your brother is suffering or if he, or she has a need, then come and pray ask God to break you. In heaven there will only be those who have shown compassion. The ones who have been rich and shared their riches will have rewards in heaven too. All the disciples had it, and every true authentic Christian will have testimonies of helping others too as a proof of their love for God, Jesus, and their neighbor! Now is our prayer time to ask the Lord for forgiveness if he is reminding you of sometime that you failed someone with a need. Or if the Lord has not converted your heart, then come and ask for Him to change it today!

Words Matter! And Affect Us Greatly

Words Matter!                                                      Kelly Durant

Scientists have studied how many words we speak a day. They have determined that men speak about 10,000 per day and women speak about 20,000. The problem is when men get home from work they usually have already spoken their 10,000 so that will explain why when the woman asks the man questions, he just gives one word answers. How was your day at work? Fine.  Did you talk to your boss? Yes. What did he say? Nothing. Ha! Words are real things! They have the ability to lift up, or to knock down, to inspire, to encourage, or to discourage! Open your Bibles to:

Matt 12:36-37

36        But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

37    For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Every single word we speak is very important! (repeat) Let’s contrast man’s words to the words that God gave us through Jesus, which give us love, faith, and hope! Not even money can buy that! Open your Bibles to:

John 6:63

 63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

What we all must do is strive everyday to spend our time with these words of God so we will be full of life and full of the Spirit! Comparing words to food, God’s Word is like meat, solid protein, but man’s words are often like a sweet dessert that is laced with bacteria that will make you sick.

Lets now see how Our Lord reacts sometimes to our words, the words we speak when we are defending our wants and thinking about our own selves. Look up:

Matt 16:21-23

21        From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

22        Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

23        But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Any of us often can become the very mouthpiece of Satan if we are not careful. It seems so easy to open our mouth when things are not exactly the way we want them. According to the Word, we should not judge a person on the surface by his words only, but we should know their motive and we also must remember God takes into account they will answer to Him on the judgment day. But amongst our selves here I want you to please feel the freedom to correct with love and patience any brothers and sisters in the Lord when you perceive there are words coming out of their mouths that are just of their own selfish interest, and not in the overall interest of winning souls and building God’s Kingdom! Especially when there is criticism, gossip, and negative things being put into words. The word says:

Prov 27:5

Open rebuke is better than secret love.  The highest expression of your love to your brother is to correct him. Jesus did it and you must follow His example!   I know inside you may be asking yourself, is there a problem here in the church that you are talking about this? The answer is I don’t really see that there is a serious one but the Lord laid this message on my heart to be like a purging fire. You know in order to prevent a forest fire, the foresters will make a controlled fire burn the brush on the ground so that way if a real fire comes it will not be able to stay lit. Also, always there have been many churches that have lost many people due to the words of man and in house quarrelling. Why do you think the mega churches with 5,000 members are so popular? People would rather sneak in, then sneak out, no responsibilities and no commitments, but also there is no maturing on the part of those that choose that way because more than half of the New Testiment is all about relationships and how to get along with each other and with God and He wants us to deal with it.  In a small place like here we are all family and families have their disagreements, but they later hug and they forgive because they have the same blood, the blood of Jesus to unite them!  

Let’s look up:

Prov 18:21

21        Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

Have you noticed it is your own choice of words that determine if you are going to hell or to heaven? I would always get a chill when I would hear someone laugh and say they wanted to go to hell because that is where all their friends are! You cannot get into to heaven without confessing, using words, that Jesus is your Lord and savior. Look up:

Rom 10:9

9          That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10        For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

I believe there are too many people in this world using about 9,900 words a day in emptiness or trash talk, saying many things they should not be saying and only saying a little 100 word prayer to God! We must pray to change what is in our hearts and change what comes out of our mouths! And when you correct someone for saying words that you know are not right, and they do not accept it so well, don’t worry about it! You cannot be responsible for another person’s pride, or immaturity, or whatever, but you owe them in love to set it straight. If a person speaks evil about someone to you, what is to stop them from later speaking bad about you too? We must defend the correct standard God wants us to have. Look up:

Eph 4:29

29        Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

And speaking of grace, how many of you here say kind words to those around you? When was the last time you said: Thank you to those here like:

Lizbeth for watching the kids every week…

Miquel, Joel, Rodrigo, Linda, Miquel Angel for the inspiring music…

Sonia for being a driver all these years and picking up the children…

Pedro for preparing the Bible classes…

Thank you for preparing the food…etc.

And if I forgot to mention you, you tell me later, okay! I want to always encourage you because I sincerely love each person here! Today I have a special request. Like it says in the Word, that God will not hear your prayers if you have something in out heart with your brother. The word says to leave the altar and go to your brother and make it right and then come back to pray. I want us to right now to all come to the front and pray for each other. We can take the time we need. If there is anything you need to share with your brother, anyone here, do it now or call them up on the phone later! Let’s pray for our maturity, spiritual growth, honesty with one another, and healing, and pray about every word that comes out of our month in front of others and behind closed doors.