Culture Shifts: Good vs Evil

Culture Shifts: Good vs Evil                                                  Kelly Durant

I Corinthians1:22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks[b] foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

2. Today is Cultural Day celebrated by the Salvation Army in the Southern Territory! Here in Hialeah we are authentically culturally diverse with people from over 10 nations in our midst! We are atypical! The typical with most churches is they are predominately 90% white, black, Latino, or something else! Church, across the nation, is the most segregated day of the week! But you cannot stop people wanting to meet with those with whom they feel comfortable.  It is natural for birds of a feather to flock together but a wealth of knowledge can be gained from mixing with those different from you and even better is living years immersed in another culture.  I feel privileged by God to have gained 14 years of wealth in South America in 5 different countries that are not similar in culture, music, food, or political pasts.

Cultural events are an opportunity to get to know people from other experiences in life other than yours. I grew up in your typical mid-west American setting where 90% are white and I only met a foreigner, a Chilean, for the first time when my best friend had an exchange student live in his house.  We experienced many funny situations because Fernando arrived not knowing any English and everyone had a laugh and a hard time communicating with him in the beginning. Many youth today go to schools surrounded by hundreds of others who are different and from other countries. But different is often either accepted and embraced or protested and mocked. Reality checks need to be done on the motives of either. Movies influence attitudes.

Have you ever noticed how jokes about another culture shape how many people may view that other culture? When I was young people use to tell Pollock jokes; How many Pollocks do you need to change a lightbulb?  Five, 1 to hold the bulb and 4 to spin the ladder! The impression I had a long time ago I recall was that they must be pretty dumb, but I have read articles on the intelligence of different nations and they actually rate quite high in intelligence. Read about their fight for solidarity! One deduction I make concerning these jokes is that those of another culture concocted these jokes to counter the influence of them and to diminish their influence as immigrants.

3. Today I want you to think about how you see other cultures, how others see your culture, and then determine what you think God’s view is concerning your culture. How is your culture influencing you for good or for bad? Are you aware of the strengths and weaknesses, the historical and current influences which overtly or subliminally influence and control your decisions, habits, and attitudes? How Biblical is your personal culture? To be counter-culture is often a positive, have you ever thought of that?

Today we are extrapolating the implications of the cultures using the example of what Paul said from his time: “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks[b] foolishness”,

Basically, the attitudes from his time still remain today! Paul was criticizing his own race! Paul really rips his people in the book of Romans Today the people of the humanist secular type mentality who are resistant to the things of the spirit and the miraculous and think of themselves as logical and scientific, are basically the same as the Jews who wanted a sign to believe. We might compare this mentality to certain liberal European or communist influenced cultures. There have been and there will always be people who are doubtful, unbelieving, unspiritual, and unwilling to accept that more realities exist in the world than what their limited experiences offer them as a reference. In other words, these types of people thinking they are smarter than those who believe in signs are actually more ignorant and they are “fools”.  Faith is a real quality whether it is backed up by a sign or not!

4. The Jews, and all cultures around Jesus in his time, were given many miraculous signs of healings, demon liberations, and even the one of the raising of the dead (Lazarus). But the sign that Jesus came out of the grave is the one that is most important to proclaim to all! If a person will not accept this amazing feat by the Son of God, then they by their unbelief cannot be saved into eternity. If you doubt that Jesus holds the keys to life hereafter, then God honors your choice; the hereafter and resurrection will simply not be there for you after you die. You chose, but..

Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”.

Anyone from any culture must become as a child to believe. It is God’s test. It was God’s test for the Jews and still is for all cultures.  Faith is not seeing to believe, faith is believing and then you will see, or I should say you will have no more doubts of the unexplainable of God because God will reveal Himself in small but noticeable ways to you through the Holy Spirit.

5. It is carnal and prideful to want a sign from God, but many people want one. I even asked God for a sign to know if I should serve Him or not (but I did already believe) and soon afterwards I dreamed a few very vivid dreams confirming God was perusing me and that I needed to escape with my life away from the selfish self-absorbed culture in my day. This is one reason, along with being convicted by the Word of God that I chose to serve Him as a young man at age 21. So God will even show you or me signs, but it is usually not through miraculous signs but through the witness of people with whom He makes us cross paths with. The gospel of Jesus is preached everywhere and multitudes of people everywhere get a chance to hear, believe, and follow, or to reject and mock. But you and I must be a messenger of God’s love! Acts 2:17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams.

What is my culture? Now it is just Christian! But growing up American for me in the 1960s meant I had been exposed to a country in turmoil that had a problem respecting blacks and minorities. It meant I learned that the youth should protest against a corrupt system when it creates wars only for certain politicians to get rich. It meant that I knew I was privileged as a middle class person to be able to work and be a little wealthier than most of the majority poor in other nations.  It also meant that I was exposed to powerful loud music, psychedelic drugs, the supernatural beliefs of the Irish, of Native Americans, and of Hinduism. I also had friends of friends who read Ouija boards and followed the Satanic Bible. Good and evil is in abundance in this American culture! I don’t know about you but right now I hate seeing evil growing like weeds overtaking the beauty of the good fruit that could exist in this developed society. We are in a cultural war of good versus evil and we must fight and defend what is Biblical, righteous, and pure or we are failing God and allowing corruption and hell to take over.

I do thank God for the good within this technologically advanced culture.  The predominating American culture of the 1960s meant that people in society were very Biblically literate and God-fearing and most everyone was honest, hard-working, loving and Christian.  Communities were safer, people gave their word and trust was given, few divorces existed, and no one locked the doors to their houses or cars. I miss those days! Christians have failed to fight evil!

6. Cultures shift. The U.S is not what it was. Also, no longer is Cuba the richest happiest island of the Caribbean either. Stale despotic politics leading to poverty and hunger has killed the joy of these formerly highly educated and culturally wealthy people. Extreme corruption is affecting almost every nation today! Google it, you find that India, Mexico, Russia, all Muslim countries, and now even the U.S. is seen as one of the worst! 75% of Americans agree that the current corruption is at its worst and is out of hand!  (by Steve Forbes, a well-respected news outlet) https://www.facebook.com/SteveForbesCEO/photos/a.433882903357704.102553.372261619519833/982226698523319/?type=3&theater   

What happened to the Greeks, mentioned in verse 22? They dominated the world for a time, they brought in enough peacetime that the old men had enough leisure time talk all day and philosophize and write down interesting things such as what we read from Homer, Plato, Socrates, and the rest. They might have been a great culture before, but they degenerated. They became so proud they could not listen to anyone else’s wisdom so they became fools.

Think about what we know now, of all the Greek mythological stories of gods with winged shoes, and others with lightning bolts, and yet they considered that wisdom.  Some of their philosophical deductions and mathematics are quite amazing when you consider the framework of the culture in which they lived. In their society you thanked God you were not born a slave, nor born as a woman! You would think they would have embraced the account of Jesus crucified and then resurrected (which is less far-fetched than their stories) but no, they were too proud of being who they were, and their culture of stubbornness made them become an old bunch of bankrupted degenerated fools who rejected God’s truth and they have not even recovered even until this day! What a humiliation despite trying to be right with God through their own form of Christian Greek Orthodoxy. Things just always had to be their way.

7. So if cultures rise and develop, and then degenerate and fall, what are we to conclude looking at history? In the past 2,000 years the nations that have been the most Christian have prevailed! Did God allow the U.S. to defeat the empires of Japan and Germany? I think so, but only because people were repentant and praying desperately for the mega murderous Satanic evils to be defeated! In the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, the U.S. had a more Godly culture and young people donated their time to the churches. Today young people arriving from Cuba, or even those born in the U.S.A. do not give time to the church because that culture is lost. Don’t forget Miami ranks at the bottom, #51, in volunteering in churches or for the community. Miami with a small Jesus culture has a majority culture of vanity and selfishness. Goodness and Godliness in cultures must be maintained and fought for or evil men take over! The evil kings of Judah cost all the people in the Hebrew nations to lose their freedom many times over. Christian leadership is absolutely essential for the light to overpower the darkness!

When it comes to culture, we must always evaluate what is good and what is evil. Here is the problem, we have people calling the good evil and the evil good. Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

You can see the Hebrews did a cultural shift back in Isaiah’s’ time and what happened? Their idolatries, pride, and sins overtook them to the point that God allowed them to become overtaken, humiliated, and made slaves to another pagan nation. This is the cycle of the rise and fall of nations that is all based around culture, whether the culture is worshipping, honoring, and obeying God persistently or not. Don’t blame God for the fall one day if you don’t fight for Godly values to be conserved in your city.  

8. All cultures offer good and evil so how can you discern what is what if you grow up in just one and do not have anything to compare it with? The less there is of God the more the ignorance. Can you see the point of why everyone needs to mix with other cultures to discover how others do things? It is really frustrating to see certain closed cultures lose out by always relying on their own ways and people while living in another country, trying to live as they did back home in the new land instead of trying new ways appreciating a new culture.

Christians have their own culture as well, depending on the denomination. People who attend a church usually have a community experience of worship, Bible study, camps, meals, and fun with people which they normally would never mix with. Rich and poor, white, black, and brown often mix together and everyone enjoys one another because we are all of the same blood, the blood of Jesus. Only Jesus can unite cultures, and the church is the last resort for racial healing! Jesus brought us the culture of the kingdom of God which is one of love and it must preside over all! Col. 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

But be careful with the Christian culture you associate with! Some churches are stuck on philosophies, or on ancient irrelative traditions, or on doctrines proven to be erroneous, and on their own self-righteous stubbornness thinking that only they are the chosen ones going to heaven. Sadly, many Christian churches are essentially useless to Jesus’ cause and mission of loving people into God’s kingdom because they have accommodated the modern day cultural shifts degenerating their mission. Cultures are always remaking their selves and you must ask the question, how are we as a collective group changing and shifting? Where will it lead to, and is God in it? Again, do you really see your culture as God sees it?

9. The Salvation Army has its own culture as well but it has adapted to the cultures of 130 countries! What is the main theme of our culture? It is holiness, service, compassion, and love! Serving others in the name of Jesus! For me, no matter how long a Captain or Major has been commissioned if there is not a spirit of holiness, service, compassion, and love in them then they have shifted away from the original culture of being what a true Salvationist is! May God help you and me to never shift away from this legacy because it is what the true kingdom of God is made of: It is in doing as Jesus did! And we always say, Do something!”

Diverse music, marching bands, camps, clubs, shelters, rehab centers, all of these things make up our culture and you can be proud of it for enduring 151 years. Past great great-grandfathers at a great sacrifice built these operations and today people called by God maintain them all in action all with the motive to win souls to Jesus. You as Soldiers are the front lines keeping our Corps in order, inspiring, and alive with programs, mission, and effectiveness.

So, no matter your race or culture, Jew or Greek, Cuban, Nicaraguan, Colombian, or North- American, you can have the culture of Jesus in your life superseding the surrounding culture you live in now or the one of your past upbringing. Don’t seek signs or worldly wisdom from the so called halls of higher learning of any culture. Accept the good and eschew the evil of all cultures being aware of what is what in each of them. The reward for you will be: “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” in you!

Prophecy, Nuclear Signs, and 2016

Prophecy and 2016                                                                Capt. Kelly Durant 1-10-16

Matthew 24: 4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

2. Do you want to know my future predictions for 2016? One, I predict that many so called self-ordained “prophets” will predict that the end will arrive in 2016! One reason is because 2+0+1+6=9 so it must be a bad omen since 9 is a mysterious number! (Do you see how people can invent anything?)  And the passing of planet X (Nibiru) near earth must mean that the anti-Christ will come to power! Have you heard of that and other strange predictions already?

Well, I predict that everyone of us will get older this year… (ha!) so that this means that Jesus return is closer than it was before, thank God! But in the meantime it is no laughing matter how we as true sensitive compassionate Christians with alert minds, worn out bodies, and perturbed spirts ache due to all the pain we see the world in! So much deception, poverty, and murder! The suffering is as Jesus described as ‘birth pangs’ that get more and more frequent!

 

Well, you know enough Bible by now, due to the great Bible teachers we have around here, to know that I and no one is qualified to add anything to what we already know from Jesus predictions and revelations! If you or I put an exact timeframe on predictions then we become as a false prophet because… Matt 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But many have tried, and nothing has happened yet!

3. In the Salvation Army colleges no one is taught to adhere to any certain interpretation of the signs of the endtime. Take into account most denominations are not totally clear on “how to” interpret certain events so I think it is wise to read all the current accepted interpretations in the Christian community so come what may, one is at least informed as much as possible. We need to know as much as possible so you and I can preach this gospel prophesy from Jesus to warn others so their souls can be saved. The end of man is not good, but Jesus has a place He is preparing for us in heaven! As the prophecies happen, God will reveal more truth so we know.

In William Booth’s day many thought that the 1900’s with the sudden futuristic leap in progress of the industrial age, with all the new technology of railroads and factories, for sure meant that man had reached a new progressive plateau. People over one hundred years ago thought that for sure Jesus Kingdom was going to be established on earth then and today we refer to those of this belief as Postmillenialists. I will share with you a definition from Wikipedia on its deeper meaning.

“Postmillenialism was a dominant theological belief among American Protestants who promoted reform movements in the 19th and 20th century such as abolitionism[2] and the Social Gospel.[3] Postmillennialism has become one of the key tenets of a movement known as Christian Reconstructionism. It has been criticized by 20th century religious conservatives as an attempt to Immanentize the eschaton”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmillennialism

4. Contrary to what certain religious groups accept (that Christ returned to earth in the 1900’s and we ignorant people just don’t see Him because it was a spiritual, not physical event) I find we should just adhere to what people have accepted for two millennium; that His return will be a major invasion from space! His return will change everything locking in the destiny of souls.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

How and when Jesus return will occur has been the debate for centuries. I look at His return as a merging of our physical world with the spirit world, a combining of our universe with the God’s Kingdom universe in our multiverse universe. Scientists, with their mathematical multiverse theories, prove what we already knew, that several worlds (some say 11, others an infinity) currently coexist at the same time. This collision of universes will bring about an eternal kingdom, which is a variable not well understood in our current temporary existence, but with God, all things are possible!

5.  The end is near but not for any man (woman) to know the day and hour or the exact year for that matter. How many times has the exact year of the predictions of Jesus returning failed already? Probably thousands! Trying to be wise, people become fools!

Despite this clear message by Jesus Christ, many Christians ambitious for undeserved attention, predict times and places of destruction. When they predict, you should reject. I have watched several YOUTUBE videos lately that are very convincing that the soon to come nuclear war will hasten the return of Jesus and these wars may even start by April of this year! Just thank God today no nuclear war began, and we must choose to live day to day praying for peace!  

Apart from timeframes, many evangelical groups, and even the History Channel predict the places of destruction in the United States. The assumption is we are long overdue a major hit of destruction, so possibly it could even happen this year. Despite blanket forecasts, it is a reality that a volcano such as Krakatoa, a mega 10 earthquake, a comet crash on earth, an economic meltdown, or a possible nuclear war could cause all the world’s systems to collapse and bring about mega destructions as described in Revelation.  Here is verse that confirms the effects of nuclear war. Zechariah 14:12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

6. Why do we hear about impending doom so much? Because the majority of people in the world who do not know Jesus have an appetite for destruction, they even long even for their own destruction! Some people want the glory of bringing down the system as well! Kind of like how Nero celebrated while Rome burned down, the world leaders today are just as despotic as him and currently practically all governing  systems are being hurled into chaos! This recurring theme of destruction affects you and me in one way or another; to either want to be on a more heightened alert and prepared, or to just live in a denial sleep ignoring the spiritual warnings being deadened with prophecy fatigue.  

Concerning what could happen this year people are either more fearful, concerned, and stressed, or more distracted, asleep, or indifferent! We as Christians are to remain prayerful, patient, and encouraging despite the pain and fear we experience empathizing and supporting those who suffer!

Those who want to see mega-destruction and death, who have a Satanic hateful nature, who want to help usher in the apocalypse, having a secret death wish to die and be killed are this way because their sins and guilty conscience haunts them!  Like the serial murderer who the police can’t catch because he hides the evidence too cleverly until finally he wants them to stop him from his own evil so he leaves evidence behind to get caught. Millions of demon possessed psychos want to help usher in the apocalypse hoping this will bring about a higher new world order of peace reducing the population. The problem here is their spirit will remain forever incarcerated in their disturbed hellish destructive state once they die and Jesus returns! A spirit that rejects God’s love and ways is destined to be sent to the jail of hell to contain that evil.

Rev.22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. 12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

7. There is heavy persuasion in the Holy Scriptures of the Bible that there will be a nuclear war or a mega destruction of some kind in the Bible. Act 2:19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 2 days Act 2:20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. Act 2:21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Nuclear power is now in the hands of dictators in unstable nations such as North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan.

It is tragic how there is evidence of a “falling away” from the faith of our Christian fathers. Many people today are a living abomination to God as they are carnal, sick-minded, destructive, prideful irrational sin-justifiers, being worthless consumers, unrepentant, not honoring God and hateful persecuting God’s saints, the Christian people of the world. Why will God judge with wrath? Because men have insulted Him and disrespected the life he created on earth! War is man’s invention due to his sins of greed, hate, prejudice, and lack of obedience to God’s Word! 

8. The reality is this, there is evidence of an ever increasing universal world-wide apostasy.  Godless materialism, prideful humanism, and murderous cult religions seem to be the god of choice lately as people in many nations mock and murder those of faith (in particular the Christian faith) deeming them as fools. They are the real fools accusing us as fools…I Cor. 1:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The good thing is most of you here in this Corps are wide in the things of God and have the Holy Spirit and you have already studied Revelation several times and are aware of the 4 horsemen and of the 3 major events involving the 7 seals, 7 trumpets, and 7 vials.

It is conclusive that these coming destructions will occur sometime in the future and they will actually involve 1/3 or the entire world with devastations that have characteristics of some type of mega nuclear destruction.  

9. So do not get disturbed by predictions! All things are on God’s clockwork, so all we can do is warn others hoping they understand God wants to be worshipped, obeyed, and served as the time is short.  It is not our fault Satan wants to destroy it all, the victory is God will save our souls!

So I recommend that you do not trust in books on numerology, individual predictions, alarming scientific statistics,  politically motivated charlatans, and preachers who exclude certain parts of the Bible to make fit prophecies to their likings when they are just carnal men and not worthy of interpreting prophecy! We are going to live with peace in our souls, no matter what may come!

There are more and more false Christs Jesus like warned us about! And all the new radical religious people in the world that demand that you worship their prophet (who is not Jesus) are false prophets as well! Any teaching that distorts, adds to, or takes away from the entire teachings and prophecies of Jesus Christ who sits on the right hand of God, who reigns forever and ever, who will have every knew bow to Him, are heresy and blasphemy! The offense of rejecting God’s son carries a consequence! 

10. The time to study more about the end-times is now! The time to wake people up is now! The time to feel time is short is now! More and more prophecies are coming together to be fulfilled and more and more nations are gaining nuclear power. We know that there will be Satanic despots launching them one day.  

'Joel 2:30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

Come and pray and get serious with God! Don’t think we have 7 more years or 1260 days before Jesus comes as those are markers concerning the ant-Christ, but consider this: When you die, that is when Jesus returns for you! The end of man’s kingdoms will come to an end, but our end may be sooner than the final end. If your end comes soon, you will be blessed because you will escape the tribulations to come! No one is guaranteed tomorrow and men’s hearts will fail for fear! As we continue in in this year, pray for strength from the Holy Spirit, warn others, and live in holiness! Just live ready to go, or ready to stay and serve even if earth becomes hell!

Appreciation: For Jesus and Others Who Honor God!

Appreciation: For God and Others Who Honor God!                                 1-3-16 Kelly Durant

John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Proverbs 21:21 He that follows after righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor.

2. Do you want to know about the character of a person? Ask yourself, who do they love and appreciate?  Who do they talk about and spend money or time on? Are they the vain type of person that idolizes mere men or women in high places of power? Ask, who are their favorite performers, movie stars, or rich and famous ones they look up too? Or do they (or you) speak of what God is doing in their lives or in the lives of others having their pleasure in those who inspire by praising their good deeds? Who we honor says everything about we are as a person!

Basically, to appreciate is to reciprocate! Appreciation is a reaction, something was done for you, and now you seek to return a favor or gesture to reveal your thankfulness. Often you and I cannot return the same value of what was given but to do something reveals an honorable heart. Friends are often those whom we appreciate most but often you or I do not get a chance to thank them appropriately! Appreciation can be shown in different ways but one must always be a support to the person. This may also include being an imitator or admirer of their goodness. Appreciating a person by sharing with them something of value like a gift is a good thing but simply time spent with someone may reveal that you appreciate their presence and value them as a person. But often people do nothing, and they do not even say, “Thank You!”

Since the year is ending, it is time for an inventory; it is time to do an assessment, who and what do you appreciate in life? Like the old rock song that repeated over and over, “Who do you love?” we need to ask ourselves does our love for someone translate into showing them a meaningful appreciation?

3. Let’s start with priorities, how do you show appreciation to Jesus for His love to you by dying on the cross to give you eternal life? The verse of today are Jesus words, He gives us eternal life and the blessed assurance that no “man” can ever take it away. Eternal life? How amazing! How incredible! Jesus had appreciation for His followers so much so that He granted them ( from the present and the future) life after this life in a perfect utopian heavenly world!

How can you or I ever thank Jesus enough for saving our soul? Eternal life in heaven is something that no amount of money can buy and there is no way to earn it! Eternal life has been the obsession of all cultures since mankind’s inception and is usually the basis for all religions, disciplines, and sacrifices throughout time. Before Jesus, the Hebrews, the Hindus, the Egyptians and all humanity have sought ways to gain eternal life and earn position by purification and respect by following Godly standards (laws) which would carry over in the next life. But mankind’s attempts at being worthy and clean are never enough to gain a purified soul acceptable enough for a Holy God who is the embodiment of pure holiness and love.

So how do you and I show appreciation for eternal life? Are you taking it serious how much God loves you? What can you give back to God? I wrote a song inspired by the words of others about 30 years ago and here is a part of it just for a quick reflection:

The gift of God, is eternal life, but it cost Jesus His, to give it to you,

And it will probably cost you yours, to live it too

You are no fool to give a life you cannot keep

To gain a love you’ll never lose

4. For the gift of eternal life people will do anything! Some religions teach you must earn it by being selfless, sacrificial, ritualistic, and generous to their church, or even live separated from society. Some religions also teach that you must kill others who are unfaithful to God (what they think God wants as described by false prophets) so people will also even commit murder and violence. Until when will this time of horrible radicalism dominate mindsets submitting people to misrepresented idea of god?! The only way to conquer is with Jesus! Violence and the murder of the unfaithful brings no justice to any God or to anyone. It is the system of satan and only serves to satisfy man’s lust for power, wealth by robbery, and sexual domination and it is the total opposite of what we know our God of mercy, compassion, and love to be!

Imagine such a perverted way of thinking that in order to please God, to show God appreciation and in order to gain eternal life with rewards you should murder another human being who does not agree with your god as defined by so called prophets?! John 16:2 (b): “Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service”. Appreciation and how it should be expressed has always been misguided by those carnal and dead towards God. God sent Jesus as the ultimate example of how we are to live and love. God Jehovah is the only one who taught us how to love through Jesus granting obedient ones eternal life and God will honor them with crowns and rewards in heaven.

5. What I can witness is this, once Jesus really touches your spirit, you will be changed, you will understand that your life is not yours anymore and that you owe Him everything! To show Jesus appreciation I chose as a young man to give up everything to follow Him. I gave up all my possessions, I gave up comfort for poverty in poor nations for 14 years, and I still am giving up all my years in service to Him, I can never pay Jesus back so all I can do is to show Him I love Him by obeying and following Him! Appreciation for Jesus requires being His disciple full of love for everyone, appreciating every soul you meet as a potential future lover of Him!

We know how we all should appreciate God by living for Him worshipping Him, but who should we appreciate in this life? Should not appreciation be shown to those who do the most for God and Jesus? Think about who you know here in the Corps church, about who are obeying the Lord, “serving another in love” as commanded.

Each person according to their talents do what they can for the Lord and sometimes amongst ourselves we are unaware of what the other is doing for God or the Corps because not everyone is here all the time to be informed about who does what. In general you and I should try to not judge who to appreciate more than the other, but instead just take an attitude to appreciate and love everyone that we know are here for God! It is God that keeps a record of words and deeds.

6. Many times others do many good things for the Corps church that you may not be aware of and often these are things you could not do yourself. For example, some people have a talent to raise several hundred dollars every time they go out ringing the bell for the red kettle and others do not. Some others of you can repair broken doors and locks; others can decorate amazingly while others know how to cook and provide great meals for a hundred people. Each person has value, and to appreciate that try switching the tasks and ask the decorators to repair the sound system!? We all must show honor and respect to one another! All have value!

Christmas just passed and in general in the church some people are like the kings who brought gifts to Jesus, compared to those who tithe and give generously, while others, especially in our Salvation Army church, are more like the poor shepherds who were without goods and simply brought Jesus their dedication, honor, and worship.

Someone asked me recently, what did the shepherds give Jesus? (Assuming they gave Him a sheep) The Bible does not record that they gave Jesus a sheep, but they did run to admire and worship him! Maybe they did give Him a sheep, I don’t know, but the important part is they gave Jesus their heart, praise, and worship! That surrendering of the will is what anyone can give and is what God wants! We should not expect people to give what they may or may not be able to give.

7. Do you want to know what has been a hard lesson for me in life? It is to appreciate broken-ness and to just work with broken people! Right now many of our volunteers have had bodily injuries and cannot lift more than 10 pounds, some of them are homeless, some of them are not to solid emotionally but do I reject them? No! I appreciate them! At least they are serving God in some manner as best they can around here. Some Christians are too good and too proud to work with a Motley Crew but not me because I know Jesus disciples were a mess, and I know I am still a work in progress!

In this life our Corps church will never be perfect with perfect people altruistically loving and sacrificing for each other to the level Jesus expects. Some of you sometimes I perceive are not happy with each other and you don’t like the way some show or don’t show appreciation to the Corps church as you think these people are benefiting more than giving and in some cases this may be true.

Like it or not, people always are measuring who does what and they comment about it so try to examine yourself well in what you do for God. But also remember none of you are ever seeing the whole picture of all that goes on behind the scenes. Some people with rough edges that may appear undesirable are actually doing God’s work and going out and visiting the sick and helping the helpless while others stay back and clean, serve food, decorate and repair and even provide a gift for someone in need without call attention to it.

8. Concerning the things of God, you and I should concern ourselves with own ourselves first, so ask yourself, do I actually give enough to God as He wants to my Corps, family and friends? Do I do all of what God expects of me? Do I show the appropriate amount of appreciation to God and others? Do I, as in the Proverb of today, concern myself to be full of “righteousness and mercy” which invokes life and honor?

The reality is everyone should take conviction to be more appreciative to Jesus, to their brothers and sisters, and to their Corps church which should shine like a light in the community with evidence of the love a God present in each person. In order to please God we must appreciate every act of kindness, appreciate every visitor, and appreciate and love each other!

There are different types of appreciation. You may appreciate a person who feeds you once, but what about someone who over a course of more than a decade has fed you hundreds of times? Now that is where a deeper appreciation takes place! It is obvious some of the people of this Corps have provided service, food, and acts of kindness for the people of this Corps and for those of the community a few hundred times. Now that is truly worthy to be admired and appreciated on a deeper level! Each one of us will reap what we sew!

9. As human beings and animals of habit we often take for granted the good that others do for us through the church or on their own and sadly we later only take notice of it once it is gone! It is sad reality that ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’? We should all wake up and notice all the good that each person does, whether they be a driver who picks up people on Sundays, or whether they be a cook in the kitchen, or a Bible teacher who brings clarity to God’s word.

                                                                                                            

But just how missed will you be when gone? We lost several people last year and we all can go with the Lord at any time! Are you someone who did things for God and others, or someone who expected others to do for you? Will they say of you that you were you a faithful servant, faithful in the little things so the Lord appoints you worthy to be in charge of the more glorious bigger things in His Kingdom?

My grandmother use to say some people would not do things neither for love or money, and it is true people are motivated or not motivated to do things as it affects their personal gain but with God things works to the contrary. You are expected to love, give, and serve expecting nothing in return! But the reality is, however, that by being obedient to Jesus, sacrificial, and generous you gain things that money can’t buy such as honor, respect, righteousness, and love! And most importantly, Jesus will grant you eternal life and rewards in heaven!

This year Jesus wants your appreciation to Him to go to a higher more dedicated level so let’s ask God to forgive our past failures and ask Him to give us a love and appreciation for Him so deep that it will sustain you and me to do greater things for Him, for our brothers and sisters, the Salvation Army Corps, and for all others out there in the community!