Have You Had A Desert Experience?

Have You Had A Desert Experience?                                                  Kelly Durant

Luke 4:1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness

2. On the way home with our grandkids we had some hours to kill in the car and we were looking for things to do to make the time pass. We found some self-discovery psychological tests online and we each did them and had fun talking about it. I thought it would be good if you did one of the tests as well as it is connected to the message today.

Imagine you are walking in a solitary desert all alone and then you come across a cube. (pause) What is it made of? How big is it? Take a mental note. Now you see a ladder. Where is it in relation to the cube? What is it made of? Now you see flowers near the cube. How many are there?  A storm is coming in now. Do you see it near or far, as a danger or as something passing? This is just a piece of the test.

Now let’s find out about it. The desert is your journey in life. The cube is your ego. How big is it? Big or small? What is it made of? And the ladder near or far? It describes how close your relationships are to you. And how many flowers were there? This represents your children, or the number of people you take care of. Your fear of the future is revealed in the danger of the storm. If you are curious my cube was as big as a house made of steel, and the ladder was made of aluminum and it was on the front of the cube so you could go on top, and the whole thing had hundreds of flowers all around it! And I saw the storm far away and not a threat! Strange mental games, right? What were your answers? 

3. Here is a reality, life with God will lead you into the wilderness, or the desert at some time in your life! Do you realize how many people had to go into the wilderness because God led them there? I don’t think any of them really wanted to go because as human beings we always seek comfort. But whether they wanted it or not it was a process that was needed for them to understand the deeper things God needed to teach them so they could be rewarded and broken into a vessel that is useful for God’s service.

Adam and Eve were forced into the wilderness out of the garden. Physically and metaphorically all of humanity is still in the wilderness and not home yet! Then after Adam there is Abraham. At a certain point in his life God spoke to him and told him to travel across unknown places. 

Genesis 12: 1 Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country, From your family

And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2. I will make you a great nation;

I will bless you,  And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.

3. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you;

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

 

So for God’s purpose and blessings, whether we decide for it or not, may include that you and I will have to move one day! And who was the next person in Genesis to be forced to leave into the wilderness out of the city of Sodom? Sodom was a comfortable prosperous place, but it was full of sin and violence, comparable to many huge cities today. It was Lot and his family! And then there is another one who had to go into the desert sent away; it was Hagar, who had her son Ishmael. And what about Joseph who is next on this list in Genesis? He was sold into slavery by his brothers and was taken through the desert to Egypt. And after the children’s children of Abraham spent a few hundred years in Egypt how did they escape the idolatry and slavery? God’s man Moses called them out and took them out into the desert! 

 

4. So God’s Word from the beginning describes how his children literally have to move from one place to another, and often move into a desert place for some time for a purpose, and this begs this question, how does this relate to you and me in our life? Can you describe a time in your life in which you felt like you were in a wilderness? A place and time where the heat and survival to live was so intense it was a life changing purge? Or maybe you are feeling that now!

 

God’s word since the beginning has recorded these personal stories of faith journeys in the wilderness for a reason. It is for each one of us to learn and mature by the life threatening experience because we usually do not do that on our own. We must ‘feel the heat’! Each of us have been, or will have to be in the desert at some point in our life in order to learn what God wants us to learn. Some people go through it young as Joseph, while others go through the desert when they are old, as Moses did.

 

Sometimes we get frustrated with each other as many people tend to be impatient, rude, prideful, unsympathetic, and unloving and these characteristics are what we saw in Moses and many others before their purging desert experience. The desert purge will change you because you are in a place where you will die if you do not depend on God! The quicker you and I learn the better!

 

5. So how do we relate to the desert wilderness experience to Jesus as in the verse of today? It is interesting to note that even though He was divine, Jesus still had to learn to dominate His human nature and He had to learn that alone in a desert battling it out with Satan.

 

Here is a verse that always troubled me because I always thought, well, if Jesus had to suffer to learn, how much more I must suffer then to learn as well! Hebrews 5:8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. I always pray, “Lord make me a quick learner of your will! Please, Lord, I really do not like to suffer!”

 

The basics of this experience that Jesus had was to allow Him to go through all the situations and temptations that all of us must go through which are temptations to seek for bread alone, (implying the selfish desire for survival or seeking this world’s goods only) forgetting to worship God the provider who provides in His time. Next is the temptation to gain power and riches which Satan can grant by worshipping Him but you lose your soul in rebellion and get hell in the process. And finally there is the temptation to test God and to show off which is spiritual pride. Apart from life’s tests, add in the feelings of extreme discomfort when the heat is on, and these will include hunger, thirst, loneliness, anger, pride, and depression.    

 

6. When I was a young radical passionate Christian I always had in the back of my mind that I too should get away and fast for 30 days as Jesus did in order to connect with God. I always wanted to be just alone with God but I never really got the chance as Jesus did it. I have fasted a few days at a time though. 

 

And then one day God seemed to speak to me in that still small voice that I was not Jesus, so why should I want to copy Him in everything exactly? My life and yours may be on God’s path but it would be spiritual pride to copy Jesus exactly if imitating Him is just to show off that we could be exactly like Him. But obviously we can never will be as holy, as strong, as loving as He was! But we do need to do our best!  I think you or I might get pretty sick after 30 days of no food! And traumatized as well from the isolation, heat, and mind games! 

 

We do seek to imitate Jesus in our lives and I have seen miracles after praying for others, but no one of us can ever be on the deserved respectable level of Jesus in His passionate dedication to God’s will. But we try! We obey to be holy as He is holy! But here is what God showed me then, it was almost as if He said, (in my thoughts) don’t seek a desert, your desert will come, but not the one you imagine, but one I will show you. In other words the purging, the maturing, the time of feeling all alone and having to only depend on God alone will happen but it will happen in God’s time and in the time and place where God will take you. 

 

7. But what do we learn from Jesus? He was called to a mission from God, and He got baptized as a symbol of His start down that path of mission. And then the heavens opened for all to see that the Holy Spirit would dwell with Him and would soon come for all of us, it was at that moment the Holy Spirit was leading Jesus.

 

Luke 4:1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. This was the path God had for Him and God has a distinct destiny for everyone, but you have to be sure that it is His Holy Spirit guiding you. How do you know? Believe me, you will know if you are praying and seeking God!

 

When I was called as a young man to serve God, I was a confused mess wanting to escape this world after learning about all the hell and injustices that exist with all the hellish demonic people and wars dominating this world. But after I decided to serve and follow Jesus, I suddenly felt peace, joy, love and an unexplainable desire to help others and to give them what I had found, which was a new start in life, salvation with Jesus in the center of everything! 

 

8. So while serving Jesus the desert experience in my life came after about a year later of serving Him. The first 6 months I was in the clouds very elated with Jesus, studying and preparing to go to the mission field. The next 6 months after that with the people in Brazil, where they were amazingly receptive to the gospel made me love life and God’s mission even more. But then after that there were days in LaPaz Bolivia, where I met many closed cold hearts that I literally cried day after day for a few months out of frustration that no young person would convert to serve Jesus full time. Everyday I would pass out gospel tracts and pray with someone the sinner’s prayer, but no one wanted to forsake their miserable life, poor possessions, and shallow existence to follow Jesus. I felt like all my labor was in vain and that I was sowing in the desert, and I was alone in my fight, but I was not going to quit! What a test!

 

I often felt stupid inside trying love people who would not respond. I felt like a fool and then I read in my Bible that that was exactly what Paul felt as well. 1 Corinthians 4:10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are dishonored!

 

This is only one of the mini-deserts I have had to cross. But a few years later going back to LaPaz for 3 years I had a better experience. There are moments in our lives that we will feel like we are lost and spinning our wheels, walking in circles in the desert as the Israelites did with Moses because they were not mature and ready for the promised land. I prayed, “God get be out of here, change me totally to be what you need me to be! Don’t let me be a punished rebellious one!”

 

9. In the study of holiness in TSA you will discover Samuel Brengle, the Salvation Army theologian who wrote more than a dozen books on holiness, and how did he gain so much insight into God’s nature and change to become God’s man? He went through several long and trying deserts. For one he was very well educated when he came to The Salvation Army as a young man but the founder, William Booth, chose to put him in charge of shining the hundreds of shoes of all the Officers daily that went out preaching in the muddy streets of London.

 

He must have felt humiliated, confused, and angry, but he was not going to quit, he remained faithful and took it like a test that he was going to pass and after months of being a nobody, God was preparing to use him as a great somebody. But later, after passing through the purge of Cadet training while in one of his appointments do you know what tragedy happened to him next? An evil person who did not like street preachers dropped a brick on his head from a tall building! 

 

That injury almost killed him and sent him to the hospital for more than a year and half! Did he ever doubt and tell God that he was finished because serving him only got him into situations of suffering? No! He used his time alone in that hospital bed to write about how to live in God’s perfect love and holiness. His insight and writings live on, and his life was changed into something supernatural forever after that.  

 

10. So what desert have you been through? The desert is not always a physical one but it is a spiritual one, it is a time when you are tempted and tried, a time when everything around you seems meaningless and is just sand, uncomfortableness and nothing. You feel the heat!

 

Here is something I know, the desert is not forever for the Christian! The desert for Jesus was for 30 days but the desert for some may be for much longer, even years! In the case of the rebellious Israelites under Moses it lasted a lifetime but most of us are not that rebellious! When you feel a trying time coming on, with loneliness and overwhelming heat and trials, it is time to seek God as never before! Today the Holy Spirit talks to us to teach us about where to be in God’s will but we must ask God to mold us and remake us as we, with overwhelming discomfort, learn to listen and obey His Word and will for our lives.    

 

The sad reality is many people in this world, even some Christians are too preprogramed by the culture and system that they have opted for the bread of materialism instead of faith, this world’s power positions instead of God’s future kingdom, and they tempt God by acting invincible with over confidence that God will just do for them all of what they desire. Sad that too many Christians are simply of no use because they are like babies with no maturity! I wish that everyone would have a wilderness experience so they could turn their entire life around and be close to God! That is our goal… holiness, intimacy, and love dominating our lives and love for our amazing Savior Jesus who proved victory over evil and death is possible! Let’s pray…

God’s Laughter, & Ours. You can be happy at the right moments

God’s Laughter, & Ours                                                 by Kelly Durant  7-17-22

Psalm 126:2 “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.”

2. A little boy opened the big and old family Bible with fascination and looked at the old pages as he turned them. Suddenly, something fell out of the Bible, and he picked it up and looked at it closely. It was an old leaf from a tree that had been pressed in between the pages. "Momma, look what I found," the boy called out. "What have you got there, dear?" his mother asked. With astonishment in the young boy's voice, he answered: "I think it's Adam's suit!"  

How many of you like to laugh? We don’t usually think of the Bible as humorous but from all the different stories, we can conclude God often did some humorous things to get our attention! I think God must laugh at our feeble attempts to understand the mechanics of the universe!  

God made us to laugh and to want to enjoy life! What is the Christian conclusion of the purpose of mankind? “To enjoy God and love him forever!”

3. God seems to have made us with an appetite for laughter! Science cannot explain laughter, it is involuntary. Think about it, can you premeditate laughter? Ok, in 3 seconds I am going to laugh! Hum, it didn’t work! Ha! Maybe it is because we need our internal organs massaged a few times a day, right? Little kids and even teenagers laugh a lot more than us as adults. Sometimes the teens in back laugh during the sermons and I have no clue as to why! It is sad, that many stop laughing with age! Laughter is all about connections and the people we love.

Most laughter is not even sparked by a joke. For example, Olga (Corps member) may be telling me about where to buy some shampoo that makes the hair fluffy, and how everyone could all use some of it, and I answer, ‘that’s how it is’, and she tells me more and when I say it another time, ‘that’s how it is’, we both laugh out loud because we both know I say that when I really don’t know what to answer back on that subject, ‘Isn’t that how it is?’ When I am lost for words I also love other sayings in Spanish (English too) like, “Oh, don’t tell me that!” Say that 3 times and that’s funny too, right? Well, you can see how what’s funny relates to the relationship you have with person! With some people, one can never be funny though! That’s scary! People without God are bone dry, rude, serious, and frightful!

So how funny is the Bible? Some parts have funny expressions; did any of you ever finish reading Song of Solomon?  However, other parts are very sobering with heavy lessons. We might actually conclude God matures us more in the sobering trying times than in the fun times in our lives, but the balance is found in Psalm 127:2 “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.” Laughter, seriousness, and sadness all have their time and place in our lives and we must pray to have discernment. 

4. There is a time for everything, and the Bible teaches us to be connected to our family of brothers and sisters as in one collective heart! James 5:13 “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.” What we can conclude is we will laugh and sing when the mood is right, but if a brother is down or sick, we will be serious and pray for him or her.

There is nothing more irritating than some kid or adult laughing when everyone is trying to get everyone quiet for a serious message, right? And also, when everyone is happy and singing “Happy Birthday” laughing that one of our teen is wishing for a new car, how out of place it would be for someone to be hanging around with a bored ugly angry face, right?

Kids seem to help us laugh the most! This is why the Bible mentions children as a blessing!  Psalm 127:3 “Children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward”. Our kids do so many funny things! They even make TV shows on the funniest home videos with kids and people in funny situations. My mother told me that when I was little I was putting ice cream from my bowl into my pocket. When they asked me what are you doing I told the babysitter that I liked this stuff and that I wanted to take some home to eat it later, ha!

5. You can read the Bible and even laugh out loud at times. For example, do you recall Balaam’s ass that argued with him? To begin with, an ass or donkey is an ugly, funny, and temperamental creature. Balaam beat him 3 times to make him go straight but angels were in the way. Imagine, instead of Balaam passing out from fear when the ass spoke to complain about being beaten, Balaam argued back! Isn’t that funny? Many things are humorous in the Bible!

And speaking of funny, just think how silly Jesus looked riding on an ass through Jerusalem? The Romans would ride in chariots or on powerful stallions, and yet Jesus, the King of the universe is on this silly little colt! A big guy on a little animal!

Sometimes we laugh after we have been frightened to death, has that ever happened to you? You fall down playing basketball and everyone thinks you broke your back and is quite and serious but then you jump up and laugh to make the pain go away! Can you imagine the disciples laughing after Jesus calms the sea? They probably could have said, “We were like (terrified face) during the storm and then we were like (mellow face) afterwards!”

6. Certain false churches even included long sessions laughter in their services in the 1990s in the Neo-charismatic churches teaching that ‘holy laughter’ was a Third Wave of the Holy Spirit. It was funny for a few sermons but then the fad passed. Laughter is mentioned in the Bible, KJV, seven times and of those 7 most of the time laughter is put in the context as something not of much value. Ecclesiastes 7:3 Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

James 4:8-10 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

The conclusion here is that God is not happy with people that entertain their selves with laughter while they ignore cleansing their selves from their own sins indifferent to recognize the suffering in the world and how each of us need God. Some people pay big money in big cities to go to big comedy clubs to hear some stand-up comedian tell foolish jokes, even offensive and vulgar jokes and why do they laugh? I can’t stand to watch one of these over-rated comedians for even 1 minute when on a show on TV! I think most of the audience laughs because they are embarrassed for the stupidness of the person. Is this really having a good time? People seem to have to be drunk in order to laugh, how sad! Most all of the mocking is not funny but rather degrading. They laugh, then what? Nothing! Ecclesiastes 2:2 I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?

7. There will come a day when we will be able to laugh as much as we want! For the moment, however, laughter helps us forget about how our earth’s basement is on fire and how at any moment of the day an earthquake, a war, or someone’s accident can provoke a sudden life of suffering! As compassionate sympathetic people we always will suffer after some news channel announces another disaster, another plane down with hundreds dead, or another 300 more school kids captured by extremists into slavery! How much evil, and how much more scandal can we take?  Lately most people are not laughing at what is happening in the world, they are angry at the injustice and apathy, at the lack of resistance to the violence and abuse, and at the fact that their privacy and legal rights are being mocked by officials. The Romans rulers had servants to follow them around and repeat in their ears, “You are a man and not a God”, we need hire a few thousand of these types of servants again to speak to our leaders as blatant disrespect for the law and abuse is at an all-time high!

People when in a crisis will cry in despair and that can haunt and depress you! No one with a heart like God’s heart likes to see any other person suffer. Most of us feel the urgency and the need to help those who are in pain! But many times we are on the other side of the world and we are helpless to act, all we can do is pray, and keep on praying, prayer does do great things! Locally you can do something though by investing your time, talent, and treasure.

So if I, or someone, were to laugh all day while living on this earth in this miserable life we would either be considered as vain and shallow, high on drugs, or out of our minds and mentally insane! The truth is laughter is a gift and a commodity that lasts only a few minutes of every day! We should appreciate it more! 

8. There will be a day when we will be able to laugh all day in heaven! But until then, let’s try to create more laughter (like creative ones amongst us)! The world knows enough hell, let’s show them a little more heaven!

And finally I am reminded of what the Lord will laugh at. He will laugh at the evil people and fallen angels when they think they have conquered Him in the final battle. Listen to this prophetic Word and what the Lord answers to those who think they will usurp Him, Psalm 2:3-5 “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4 He that sits in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.  God, who laughs last, will laugh best!

God will separate the evil ones from the good ones and put us under His protection where we will laugh and the evil doers will be punished! 

9. Listen to this Word, Psalm 126:2 “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.” 

In order to laugh, you have to have joy and Joy comes from obeying God's Word.  A person at peace with God will have a happy, free, and forgiven spirit and heart right with God as He brings joy, peace, and the conditions to permit laughter" John 13:17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them

Do you have Jesus in your life? Jesus can help you laugh with real joy because of the purity you will have in your heart by being in God’s will! Every one of us has to pass through a repentance, a breaking process, an uncomfortable unhappy time period, like going through an operation to extract the sickening infection of sin, like a bad tooth! But then, after the pain, after the storm comes and goes the sunshine of happiness comes out and you suddenly feel elated, happy, and laughter will fill your voice! Let’s pray…

Disillusionment: With God and Everyone Else! Don't give up!

Disillusionment: With God and Everyone Else!    Kelly Durant  7-10-22

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is a fact, while on earth in this weak body, our flesh and circumstances can only offer us a limited amount of happiness. The human spirt will always be restless and frustrated so it is imperative we find rest in God, in His trust. Only Jesus offers us peace. John 14:27 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. Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Let God replace your all that is in your heart and emotions with His plan! He encourages and calms, He gives us a purpose and reason to live! Let’s pray…

Our Independence as a Christian People! It's not just the 4th of July

Our Independence as a Christian People!   Re: 4th of July    

By Kelly Durant     7-3-22

 

John 8:36

36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Gal 5:1

1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

 

3.How many of you here celebrate the 5 de Mayo? Not many of you, right? Because you are not Mexican, right? 

 

Here we have the 4^th of July. When do others celebrate? I’ll name a few countries and dates…Venezuela (used to before communism), July 5^th. Bolivia is the 6th of August. Did you know it is Biblical to remember when you as a people were liberated? In the Old Testament we see the clear example of the Jews remembering the Passover, the day that marked when they were set free.

 

That highlighted the day that pharaoh decided to let those enslaved people go with Moses to the Promised Land. Even today, the Passover is celebrated as a very holy day for the Jews. We should always reflect on the O.T. because it teaches us parallels to the life of Christ. We learn about oppression and freedom.

 

4. Easter for the Christians is our day of liberation, the liberation from death, and did you recall it happened the next morning after Passover? Jesus’ resurrection brought freedom from death! The Jews then and even today still remember their freedom which was about 1,500 years B.C. from their slavery in Egypt!

 

Christians celebrate obtaining their freedom from the slavery of death at the same time the Jews got liberated from Egypt, which is a total fulfillment of the shadow of God’s parallelisms in revelations! It is okay to be patriotic and share in the roots of your people and believe me, knowing the history Latinos have educated me on, I am very glad that Mexico, and South America did not remain under the domination of the Spanish. Spain freed them from the slavery of the Mayans, Incans, & the rest but then Spain made them slaves so liberation is continuous. 

 

5. In English a famous saying is, “God and country!” and the supposition is that you reverence God first then your country. That is an ideology, and it would make a more perfect world if every man reverenced the hierarchy in that order. We must remember these traditional phrases as they teach how things should be. The Salvation Army was founded July 2^nd, 1865, a new start for God’s calling.

 

In the Salvation Army there were a few good men that after they got out of the service in WWII, joined the Salvation Army. Many people have served country and then God. We are God’s Army, and there exists two totally different organizations and ideologies here. Our fight is to ‘free souls’ doing all the work we can to liberate the spiritual captives’. The soldiers of the world keep us free from outside oppressors. Let’s look up a part in the scripture where Jesus gives his very first message in his mission: to give people freedom! 

 

6.  Isaiah. Isa 61:1

61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

God and his son are very interested in the liberty and spiritual freedom of each of us! When you first repented and received Jesus that was your Independence Day of sin, and death, and it was your rebirth into the family of God with eternal life!

 

7. Apart from everyone knowing the date from which your country was liberated from the oppressors, do you recall the date you personally were liberated from the oppression of the devil who would have destroyed your soul?

 

My date is the same as my birthday 3-24, because it was coincidently then when I was 21 that I began a training to go abroad with a Christian mission group, and I left 6 months later to serve the Lord in Brazil, and then in other countries for 14 years! I think God I did that instead of staying bound in the world of sin I was in!

 

So now let me hear yours. When were you saved? Let me hear some of you tell me the date Jesus gave you a new start, when was your independence day? (Others should speak out loud their dates)

 

8. How many of you have read the history of countries that get free from oppressors? Liberation and independence is a gift from God! 

But how many people do you know who could be free, remain captive?

 

How many of you have know of a young woman who wishes to escape the heavy abusive oppressing control of her father or mother, only to marry a man that does the same thing, that is, oppress and dominate? Or have you seen a woman leave a marriage from a dictatorial abusive man, and with her freedom rejoice that she could start again only to see her end up with another man who dominate and abuse her the same as the first one did?

 

9. Why does that happen in life? Why can’t we just live out the verse we read in the beginning, how if the Son (Jesus) makes us free, then we are free indeed? Some time we should do an in depth study into Galatians but what was happening here in 5:1 was that the common people who were being converted to being a Christian were being told by the Jewish Christians in control that they had to now submit to every one of the Jewish laws and customs. That’s not freedom but slavery.

 

In other words, Jesus came to free each of us from sin and to fulfill the law, and we are to obey His commands to love God and our neighbor and preach the gospel and serve others, but we will never be made perfect by legalism, be it Jewish or from some aberrant church! With Jesus, for 2,000 years now being “the way” to heaven, communicates that there is no other way or rules that will save you!

 

10. In vain the church in Galatians was tying to obtain perfection by legalism, and what it turned out to be was a church full of oppression! How many of you have darkened the door of Christian churches that are full of oppression?

 

I have visited many of them and I have questioned this matter extensively, why do people choose to attend there if there most of what they offer is a dark, unloving, legalism and oppression? Is it fear? Is it that they are too weak to stand up and proclaim what is right? Do people, or do you read the scriptures to know wrong from right? In the end Satan wants the whole world in bondage to his world power system, the New World Order of the Anti-Christ system! That will be slavery at its worst as you will not be able to buy or sell, and Satan will demand you worship Him!

 

11. My conclusion is this; many people live years under the fear and oppression of Satan. However, when they accept Christ they experience a new strange feeling, freedom!

This is true independence!

They feel freedom from fear, a clean conscious, and a warm strength within, but soon the Enemy comes back to tell them, this is too good to be true, this is uncomfortable, this is not normal! But security comes not from some domineering and controlling devil. 

 

So, since the devil often cannot persuade a person to stop believing in Christ, he persuades them to go to a church that is not a loving holiness Christian church like the Salvation Army, but rather a church where they will be dominated by fear and oppression! Those with false doctrines, those who are deceivers must be unmasked and shut down. Today we see apostacy everywhere!

 

12. Remember our salvation and freedom does not come by the completion of heavy works or rules, (Ephesians 2:8,9) and it is not by deceptive feelings either! So if you feel uncomfortable that there is freedom in Christ that is a good thing! Get use to it! That is what Jesus came and died to do for you, to liberate you for now and forever! 

 

Venezuela, Mexico, Bolivia, and dozens of countries were liberated in the past, but many fell back into oppression (Communism), either from a Satanic government, or by the oppression of the rich. Examine your own life well. Are you being oppressed? Jesus’ truth can free you! 

 

Evil rules with dark spiritual forces. It can be coming from a coworker, a family member, a political group, or even your own mind enslaved to sin! You can make your own self miserable when not fully transformed under the liberty of Christ! You can be your own cruel oppressor as in the case of addicts, those who allow in demons! Enslavement is revealed by submission to propagators of false religions or enslaving political ideologies. Escape oppression and being an oppressor by knowing Jesus’ love and teachings!

 

Freedom is not anarchy; In our church, we need organization, and rules, in order to function, but those are for our own protection and good, but they are not our main message. Our message is Jesus Christ’s love! Amen? Let’s pray now for you personally to be free in Christ! Free from oppression & fear! Remember If Christ has made you free, you are free indeed! Are you free? If not say the sinner’s prayer with us…