Appreciation: For God and Others Who Honor God

Appreciation: For God and Others Who Honor God   6-14-20 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 followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.

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 good works? Who we honor says everything about who 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 today do nothing, and they do not even say, “Thank You!” In today’s world too many people do not appreciate anything!

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?  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 a 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 their ideas?! 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 and winning people to Him! Appreciation for Jesus requires being His disciple full of love for everyone, appreciating every soul you meet as a potential future lover a servant 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! Always esteem the humble poor ones, God does!

Someone asked me one time, what did the shepherds give Jesus on Christmas? (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! We have volunteers that 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! Being a volunteer Army we take whoever will serve!

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 has been true. 

Like it or not, all people always are measuring who does what and they comment about it so try to examine yourself well in what you do for God. 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 calling 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 the 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 many hundreds of 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, or a Bible teacher who brings clarity to God’s word. 

                                                                                                             

My grandmother use to say some people would not do things neither for ‘love or money’, and it is true, many 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! Just be a faithful humble servant! The reality is, however, that by being obedient to Jesus, sacrificial, and generous you do 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 when you do these things in His Name!

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! Appreciate everyone, always, and thank them!  

Society Crumbles Because of a Lack of Biblical Leaders

Society Crumbles Because of a Lack of Biblical Leaders   Maj. Kelly Durant

Exodus 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

2. How many of you have ever done a project together in school or at camp in which everyone needed to give their ideas, but things did not work out like they were supposed to? I recall one year at our summer camp I had a group of boys and they needed to build a water raft in 2 mornings (4 hours) to race one evening against the other 5 groups.

We had plywood, inner tubes, and rope. I recall guiding them to make holes so the rope could tie the innertubes underneath us. They did it their way, of course. The lessons learned from this experience were: The loudest kid may not always be the one with the best ideas, the most pushy one may also not have the best creative ideas either, and finally, after everyone hears all the ideas of everyone, if the team listened to the right kid and made the raft strong with the holes in the right places, the knots tied correctly, etc. then there was a better chance at winning the race. In our case, better teamwork happened on a different team than ours, ha!

As suspected the tubes slipped out from the plywood and did not stay in place so rowing was thwarted. Camps are important as lessons are learned, like this one of not letting the ignorant loud mouths run the show. But many people are missing this lesson, they are following those who want to lead when they possess no preparation or skill for the task, and also they have no leadership preparation to listen to others, only an ability to shout at others what to do!Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.

3. We have had over a week of terrible news! How sad the murder of Mr. Floyd, and The Salvation Army USA come out officially to say they were shocked and do support justice. But the news of violent people burning, looting, and attacking anyone that is in their path does not help! It is understood that injustices, and even deaths from injustices, will happen, and this justifiably deserves an outcry to demand steps be put into place to prevent a repeat of it. But man’s systems will always fail us! Has anyone noticed we as a society seem to never make enough progress in the creation of systems that are more just and fair? Greed, pride, and corruption seems to always rot the fish head at the top, and just one bad apple damages the whole batch!

Why is it history repeats and repeats the same old painful mistakes? Could it be that it is as the Bible states that Satan has done a military coup and he is running the world and the world’s top brass? This has been this way ever since after Noah’s children resettled the world. I lived through the 60s and 70s riots and when I was young it seemed riots were justifiable to prevent more deaths from happening in the Vietnam War. That war alone provoked 300,000 wounded, 60,000 dead, and probably 500,000 addicted to drugs! The youth caught on to the fact that that war was being prolonged on purpose so that arms manufacturers could become filthy rich so they would in turn would make rich the government officials who kept it going. This is mass murder so an elite few can live privileged and rich, how sickening, right? And mass murder still is happening with bio engineered viruses, abortion, starvation, and civil wars!

Here is the problem, and I have repeated it several times, Satan is the one behind the world’s divisive systems and it is he who inspires his demon possessed authorities and rebellious ones to perpetuate war, division, sickness, oppression and the murder of innocent people. And here is another part of the problem, those that know to do good (Christians), those that know to expose the evil, and those that know that only God is the solution often remain silent when they should be offering meaningful Biblical solutions! This is dropping the ball! We are to be salt and light. Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. 

4. I have emphasized a lot recently that Christians need the Holy Spirit discernment! I see weak Christians on social media posting political things concerning these recent events and many are very misinformed. Politics always operates within the paradigm of making you take sides so this is a lose lose situation to get you sucked into thinking certain political people will solve these divisive matters! The problems we face are bigger than politics, we have a falling away from God problem, a moral problem, a problem of the brute beast mentality in people in power positions, which in the end is actually a demon possession problem! Who is standing up to demons these days? Way too few!

Our lack of leadership problem in most all our burning cities is a product of people gaining power positions by trickery, bribery, or force and they have no spiritual depth, no discernment of right and wrong, and no Biblical values or wisdom as their compass to intellectually guide the public with. We are in a leadership crisis throughout the world!

So what is another part of this problem? People in general are being fools to not investigate seriously who they are electing as their city, state, and government leaders! Some people just go with the flow of being convinced by the person who is the loudest! The bullies may have won in high schools but should they also today win in politics by the oppression, disorder, ineffectiveness, and brokenness?  Dominating with ignorance they are fomenting real damage! Our broken system keeps getting fueled and perpetuated by those who keep on believing the lies of these manipulators.  Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

5. Ecclesiastes 5:8  ‘If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent perversion of justice and righteousness in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for high official watches over high official, and higher officials are over them’. This is a Biblical outline of how governing authorities should function, and those who do evil, should in the end, pay for the evil and suffering they cause. It is up to those who have Biblical values to weigh in on matters requiring justice to be an influence to maintain Godliness and respect and push for the love of our neighbors as instructed by the golden rule. It’s the main law Jesus pushed!

‘The best safeguard against fascism is to establish social justice to the maximum extent possible.’ Arnold Toynbee. Where the government is literally worshipped as god, as in fascism, socialism, communism, and in theocracies, secret society orders, and private fraternities, there will never be any justice possible as there is always death and destruction coming down onto the one(s) who has any word of opposition! The USA is an exception to all historical governing systems which in general have been monarchies, oligarchies, and military kingships. The fact that people are allowed to protest reveals that we still have some hope of justice for the oppressed. I believe we can improve things city by city if we dialogue in peace and get back to Biblical wisdom, elect leaders who practice Biblical standards, and get rid of the bullies with their terrible agendas! Who will take up that challenge?

The Bible does offer us the best solution alternatives to the world’s governing powers who rule as wild beasts, described by God as devouring monsters, lions, bears, and leopards in the book of Daniel. The original governance of Israel was done by judges, men who proved themselves to be Godly leaders, who would rightly serve with justice anyone who was wronged. But what happened to Israel? They became fools and demanded a king and they got king Saul who failed them and oppressed and bullied them, as all kings do. They also fell into allowing monarch kingships and the spoiled grandsons of the previously righteous ones to lead them into Baal (Satan) worship. This provoked God to anger and he allowed them to go into being slaves of the nations that also worshipped Satan but they just had a different name for him! Read Psalm 78 to learn of Israel’s rebellious history and how God dealt with them! Is God dealing with this nation? Is it from the many sins in our cities, not just murder? How are you doing in obedience to God, anyway? Do you live holy?

6. It is up to Christians to be involved and influence for good our corrupted society so more equality and justice can exist (to be salt and light!). This is what the Salvation Army did since its inception but not enough folks take up the challenge. We must be warned that God will allow destruction to the nations that stop honoring Him. Ezra 5:12 But because our fathers provoked the God of heaven to wrath, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this temple and carried the people away to Babylon. 

Don’t ever think that it could never happen to us here, that an outside oppressive nation could take over while we mess around with riots, destruction, and chaos. If God allows a nation to fall because their sins are too many, it will happen! Proverbs 16:12 ‘It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, For a throne is established by righteousness’. Abominations provoke God’s wrath. 

The kings we can compare to are our local senators and reps, mayors and governors, and too many of them lately have passed murderous and perverse laws! They also have made laws to kill our economies and futures proving that, ‘we the people’ have no voice with them as they are bullies! And the righteous are treated as scum by them! And sadly, too many of the righteous passively stay comfortably on their sofas and do nothing against these arrogant, ignorant leaders who demise how to bully, confuse, and subjugate you and me!  

7. Don’t let the world go to hell! Christians, it is not too late for you to be a Joseph, an Esther, or a Daniel! Or even a William or Catherine Booth who raised the prostitution age from 12 to 14 in England! Uninvolved Christians, letting the world go to hell, not jumping in to be mediators and peacemakers cannot complain when violence arrives at their doorstep. Proclaim the word of God! Pastors and everyone are needed to push back on this aggressiveness!

If people would agree that entire cities and city leaders must repent of their sins and at all cost get back to the principle of “loving God and your neighbor as yourself”, then we could make some real progress! But no! People without Biblical knowledge, full of themselves and arrogant pride, with no knowledge of anything but how to satisfy their own ego and lusts, want to dictate contradictory laws and damage mass amounts of people. And the sheeple still follow them after all their debacles!? How can the acceptance and endorsing of criminal behavior in a local leader be praised as justice? Romans 3:8(a) And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”? The blind are leading the blind as never before so beware who you listen to! Listen to God’s Word and the Holy Spirit!

Those not declaring in public they are governed by God are governed by Satan, and many of them even secretly worship him doing horrible Satanic human sacrifice rituals in their secret society basements. Much has come to light on that of late (Epstein Weinstein, Nxivm Hollywood sex trafficking, etc.) The evil in our world today is the same as it was in the murderous days of the past oppressive empires and cultures. The focus now is on 1 murder, but 1,000s happen daily!

8. Egypt, despite its worship of pagan gods (comparable to the idolatrous USA today) was somewhat blessed, just, and made prosperous when guided by Joseph, God’s righteous one. But after a generation a pharaoh came that did not care to respect God our Father as Joseph had instructed and this provoked their internal self-destruction, oppression, and decadence which slowly ended the empire. Psalm 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God. It’s simple, obey God’s principles and no enemy (internal or external) can destroy you. Pray that people wake up and return to God!

Today many leaders are like this pharaoh ‘who knew not God’, alienated from the life of God, (Ephesians 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart) and everyone is suffering from ‘a crisis fatigue’ after absorbing an overload of news (much of it fake) about massive deaths and sickness and few did anything about it! People are sick and tired of being propagandized to be ‘sick and tired’ and they want healing and life! God can restore that! Now is the time for the whole world to turn to God because most all our local leaders are godless ignorant bullies, and this is why things are falling apart.

Previous to this 2020 crisis we were hearing all about the exploitations and murders done by the cabal of the global powerful wealthy elites and it seems they got our attention away rather quickly from their horrific injustices. Rarely does justice ever seem to catch up to them! These evil few finance riots and mass murder projects and no one riots to get them arrested! 

9. How disgracefully sad that there seems to exists few sins or evil so heinous that it will shock anyone anymore. We have been dehumanized, desensitized, and conditioned by this Satanic club of elite oligarchs to be outraged only over what they decide. Much proof exists that they plan and plot our division, destruction, and enslavement! ‘Don’t get fooled again!’ ‘We are not divided, all one body we, one in hope and doctrine, one in charity!’ Onward Christian Soldiers! 

Proverbs 1:17 ‘Surely, in vain the net is spread In the sight of any bird.’ For the serious Christians, for those who pray, read God’s Word and seek truth, no machinations can fool them to enslave them into any false paradigm that the world’s deceivers try to sell you. Always exalt Jesus in your sphere of influence as His teachings are the best solution to bring about a righteous ‘God’s kingdom world order’, so we are not dealing with this degenerate injustice ‘world order’ we currently survive under which are systems controlled by Satanic orders.  

Today the violent are praised as just and justified while those offering peaceful solutions to fix the problems are often labeled as ‘unjust’ or ‘racist’ because they will not burn down the city with them! Justice over these recent events will be served in the future, but for now many great injustices are being carried out on innocent people by globalists. Pray that Holy Spirit guided Christians will not fall into this current trap of wanting one to support violence as a solution! Pray for peace! Pray that Bible following leaders will rise up to guide the hurting masses!