Maintaining Faith…Don’t Get Shipwrecked!

Maintaining Faith…Don’t Get Shipwrecked!                     By Kelly Durant  

 

1 Tim 1:18-2018 This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare; 19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

 

2. We are entering into the summer, then soon the fall season! The European immigrants who arrived to this country were worried about getting food stored up for the winter or they were going to die, and sadly many in that first colony did die in that first winter! They did not die at sea but in the new land, which for them was a type of Promised Land escaping persecution.  

In the end all of us as strangers on this earth are preparing to migrate to heaven but some will not make it through the winter of the cold harsh persecutions on earth if not maintaining the faith in God which strengthens the soul, fighting to be uncontaminated by the world conserving their lives and of those of our loved ones and family! We have a daily fight!

   

This is a story about a poor young man, somewhat lazy, and an old rich man; the lesson in this story is applicable in real life today. The world is full of people, some like this young man, who do not think things through, to assess the whole picture. Observing the patterns of rule in dictatorships in Latin America and the Caribbean, we note that some people who are uneducated and unfaithful in little things believe they deserve position and power just for the fact that they are poor. The young man employed by the rich man in this conversation was envious that the rich man had a yacht, and it took a crew to maintain it in top running shape. The young man thought, “Life is not fair, why doesn’t someone give me a yacht? He thought, I deserve to have one as much as the rich man! He wanted one but he was not willing to work day and night like the rich man had to do to get it. 

 

The young man even thought, I am going to ask him to just give me his yacht! He has so much money he could give it to me and just get another one! 

So he spoke up the next day, “I think you have so much that you could just give me your yacht! Share the wealth, give me your yacht! The rich man paused a minute and then he answered quite wisely, “I could give you this yacht, and I have been generous in the past to people, but there is one big problem; if I give you my yacht, you would not be able to afford to maintain it!” For anything in life, a person must have the means and preparation to do the upkeep or it would be a waste and like sinking the ship! Each person must seek wisdom to measure and judge what they are capable of maintaining and with God you must do one step at a time to build up to greater things. Capacity and faith go hand in hand and it is a learning, growing, and applying timely process. 

 

3. Certain material things you and I are not trained in or called to maintain in this life such as a yacht but faith is not one of them! God requires faith from everyone! Faith requires work as we practice God’s Word and faith is something free strengthening anyone, rich or poor. The question today is: are you maintaining your faith? You as a Christian are as a rich man or woman with a promised eternal life in heaven, even having blessings on earth, but are you maintaining your yacht, an anecdote comparable to your soul, keeping it clean and pure and running for God as He expects? 

 

There are many people in life, sometimes like you and myself, that have at one time or another wanted things, and then more things, and then power and more power. 

It is quite sad when you and I see people killing their selves sacrificing their time with God and other with Christians in fellowship (on Sundays or any day) trying to catch hold of their material dreams, like reaching for the yacht of their dreams, only to wake up one day to see that they are shipwrecking their faith. 

 

Jesus stated “You cannot serve God and mammon” (the God of riches) and people saved by Jesus will always be fighting in the long process to subdue their flesh, seeking to overcome their weakness in faith.  The usual case is people have their own set of dreams and priorities but they’re not God’s, and they pursue the illusive rusting rotting material goods of this world that sink easily in a storm. How tragic that a majority of people are feeding their bodies yet starving their souls… shipwrecking their faith!

 

4. How disturbing that you and I see people with shipwrecked faith every day and they do not even see it! By not caring about God, their own soul and the salvation of others, these people have taken on so much water that they are sinking fast and they don’t perceive it! How many people do we see in and out of our Corps church doors? It is very sad they do not stay to learn to grow in faith! People are ignorant to the fact that their soul and relationship with God must be constantly maintained or it gets lost at sea! Maintaining faith is maintaining a good conscience as expressed in verse 19 of 1 Timothy today!

 

We must fight to keep it! This is what holiness is all about! William Booth stated that as long as men go in and out, in and out of prison as they do, I’ll fight, I’ll fight to the very end! We can apply that to church where God’s Word is studied too! We who have faith must fight to help those who do not have any! Our doctrine commands us to maintain salvation, which is in essence our faith. Doctrine 9 ‘We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ’. But it is more than one’s own faith at risk, it is our influence of helping others in their faith.

 

Many people have a shipwrecked faith and they do not even care or are aware of it! They are going nowhere in life! They come a while to church in certain times of the year when things are pretty, but they are not maintaining cleanliness in their lives and conscience as God wants them to.  They remain their same old carnal bad selves, and Jesus calls us to be changed, to be radically and totally like Him, humble, loving, and helpful being a new creation!  If a person continues in sin after learning of God’s word, then they ruin and sink their selves out of belligerence, not out of ignorance. 

 

5. Imagine that big yacht not maintained; it gets rusty in the hull, has the wood deck rotted from the sun and saltwater, and it could sink at any moment! This is what the scripture is referring to as it describes many people’s lives today. 

19 Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:

 

There are people in this church and in all the churches who think they are saved and Christian but they actually have little faith and few fruits to prove they are worthy enough to be called a good Christian. There is no Holy Spirit fire of conviction moving them! 

They are carnal and not spiritual. There are people who never read their Bibles during the week, and never pray for that matter! Their faith is not a lifestyle but rather far down the list of their priorities.

 

But when a true Christian loves God, that man or woman wants the whole world to know about it and they tell everybody! But some people are like a certain person who came to church for decades and after years later she invited her sister, and her sister came and said she never knew her sister went to church and that we, TSA were a church! Imagine, one of our own members here who never even told her own family about the blessings of God and salvation! That is hiding your faith under a bushel and not putting it on a hill to shine! 

 

6. We are shipwrecked in our faith if what, according to the scripture? If we have put away a good conscience! A conscience is your ability, with the Holy Spirit, to discern between right and wrong. And what is not right and wrong is not according to what we decide, it is right and wrong according to the way God defines it in His Holy Word!

 

The people of the world today, and the children in the churches, are rapidly having less and less conscientiousness of the Christian faith because it is not being taught and lived in their homes. We must teach and regain a conscience awareness of right and wrong because it is not being practiced by our governing authorities, being taught at schools, and not being enforced in the community so we must maintain it at home.

 

The child, relative, or neighbor that sees you or me go to church, but then suffers from your verbal abuse, or sees you or me sinning in some way, suddenly then believes that God and the faith do not really exist, that hypocrisy, not faith, is what Christianity is really all about! Being a hypocrite in your personal life is having a shipwrecked faith!

 

 7. How are carnal shipwrecked and hypocritical people? They stab you in the back after you have been good to them and taken care of them in a time when no one else would help them. They rob whatever they can from you, and even in the church some people have robbed things, thinking they deserve things just because you have them and they don’t, even though you worked for them and they did not. People who lose faith are arrogant and proud and unwilling to sacrifice their time to do anything to help anyone while expecting to get everything in return. They become as those who say they only got faith in their selves (implying not in God, which is humanism), and witnessing their miserable lives you and I conclude that their faith and philosophy is a sunken ship that’s bankrupt. 

Let’s read more about the character of people who are not sincere in their faith.

 

Rom 1:21-25

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator-who is forever praised. Amen. 

 

8. So how do we escape the judgment God has against those that are faithless and do not have a clean conscience but a shipwrecked faith? As Paul put it into words, fallen under Satan? Quite often people cannot appreciate the goodness and justice of God until they have been victim to the injustices of Satan and his people!

 

See Verse 20   Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

 

Some people get confused by that verse that how could Paul want to give someone over to Satan like cursing them? But Paul is simply exposing that if someone leaves the faith by not maintaining it with a good conscience, if someone starts to blaspheme God by vile words or by wrong actions in their lives, doing damage to the saints, then they have chosen to leave God’s kingdom. The reality is that person is to blame for their consequences. There only exists God’s kingdom or Satan’s kingdom! Paul says he delivered these two, but that just means he gave up on them and they chose their own fate! At some point you and I cannot waste any more of our time with belligerent, rude, disrespectful, God insulting people who show off they prefer Satan’s ways! If they chose him and evil, they will have to pay the price! Better it is to keep them far away!

 

9. You and I are in an Army of God, but if someone chooses to be a traitor to what you believe in, no one, not even God will stop them; and Satan and his possessing demons will be there to welcome them.  You and I have a free will on what to choose in life.  But if anyone wants to go over to Satan’s side, it is like sliding down a wide highway full of people on their way to the bottom of self-destruction. Like the Titanic rapidly sinking down! But you and I and hundreds of people suffer and mourn when we lose a rebellious soul or a former Christian to a shipwrecked faith. 

 

There are pastors from time to time from mega-churches who get caught using illegal drugs and being with prostitutes, or preaching compromised heretical doctrines, and the damage gets done and people get offended. This is another example of those who shipwreck the faith.  How horrible to have to answer to God for that! When a ship goes down it often drowns the whole crew with it! A deserter of the faith could be anyone, so always be on guard!

 

Satan wants people to be offended at God and at his loving Christian people, but if you and me are maintaining our conscience, keeping the Holy Spirit close, then we will not have any Achilles heel and we will not become victim to having a shipwrecked faith!

 

10. So how will we make good warfare and defeat shipwrecks of faith? 

By maintaining a good conscience! And how do we do that?

We must live in contact with God who speaks to our conscience at all times.

And how do we do that? By daily reading God’s word and praying all day long!

And how will that protect us?

It will cause us to maintain our conscience clean and keep the faith by having the strength to resist the temptations of the world. It is like a bath of clean water, you will be cleaned every day and you will not desire to get dirty with sin! How did Jesus overcome temptation? He quoted God’s word to Satan when Satan tried to get him to switch sides. Satan fled!

 

All of us have something worth a whole lot more than a yacht, and that is our Salvation and eternal life in Jesus! We not only have eternal life, but we have many blessings on earth too. We have joy and love amongst ourselves and peace of mind due to our clean conscience; we also usually have more prosperity than the average person since we are wise with our money and God rewards our giving to Him and for serving others in need. 

 

If God spoke to you today, if you feel your yacht, or life and relationship with God and others is in need of repair, if you are embarrassed because you know God and others see the rust in your faith, then come forward to pray! Faith in God is everything!

Don’t let yourself get in such bad shape that the water gets in and sinks your ship and shipwrecks your faith all the way down to hell on earth and hell hereafter! 

Faith…Without it God is not pleased!

Faith…Without it God is not pleased!                           By Kelly Durant 10-29-25

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

2. How many of you have been in a situation to need “faith”? There was a van load of nuns (or in our case, it could have been Cadets) that were on the side of the road obviously out of gas. The gas station was a block away so one of them said they would go get enough gas to get to the gas station but the only container in the van was a “bedpan” (a urinal used in hospital). Upon returning, one of them was pouring the liquid in the gas tank opening from the bedpan, and big truck of two guys were passing by. The one said to the other, “Look at that! I have never seen so much faith in all my life!”  

Faith does require believing in the impossible. God specializes in doing the impossible as it seems almost every Bible story, ever miracle, and every act done by God required faith. We often focus on God’s love, or on His creation, but when do we focus on having faith as He commanded?

We just read the verse in Hebrews 11 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Read all the chapter!) So, we must ask ourselves, are we pleasing God by having “faith” as God requires? We often want answers to our prayers but do we use our muscle of faith?

3. What did Jesus say about faith? Matthew 6:30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? The lack of faith is the curse of the people of the world! It leads to worry and sickness! Faithless people are always obsessed over having more money, more clothing and luxuries, and over gaining for themselves all their personal things when God wants us all to depend on Him for all our needs.

Matthew 17:20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, be removed hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Jesus rebuked folks when they did not have enough faith. Jesus gets upset at those who doubt and lack faith. He even says that if your faith is the size of a mustard seed, like the size of a speck of pepper, you can do impressive impossible things! So basically, few have that kind of faith and it is not good. 

Jesus on the other hand praises those who have faith, like the woman that got her daughter healed.  Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. What was she healed of? Of being possessed by a demon! This proves that the answer to freeing young people taken over by demons, and doctrines of demons the world pushes on them, is faith in Jesus. And proves that Jesus honors and praises women (or men) of faith for believing.

4. So, what have we learned so far? That we need faith to please God, that we must believe that He is real and blesses those who practice faith in Him. It implies we must humble ourselves and believe in a greater power. Jesus made it clear that to have healing you need faith. 

Jesus made it clear that for life’s necessities you need faith. Even food, for example! Matthew 16:8 Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Jesus did the miracle of multiplying the fish and the loaves of bread but his disciples did not even believe that would happen.

The very first sermon of Jesus on the Mount included having faith for your daily needs. Matthew 6:28-30 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

5. So how can you proclaim and practice your faith? For one, you need to ask the Lord in prayer for your needs, for enough to get the food and bills paid, and also for healing when you are sick. Too many people rush to the hospital when they have a little cold or some ache when God is expecting them to pray for their healing first and trust in Him.

What testimony is there when the doctors get the glory for healing you? God does use doctors but we must glorify God for using the doctors! Jeremiah 17:5 Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord. We cannot trust in our corrupt broken systems, nor trust in unrepentant sinners who happen to be professionals, God wants the glory for taking care of His children.

Apart from prayer we must act upon our faith. There have been times when people have prayed for rain but how many of those people brought with them an umbrella to church expecting there to be showers within a few hours after prayer? If you have faith, you will step out on the water like Peter did when Jesus invited Him to meet Him and walk on the water too.

6. There have been many times my wife and I have had to have faith in tough situations. More than a dozen times when we have moved, gotten into a new home (in South America) been in the situation to not be able to have the coming next month’s rent and we got desperate. Just arriving in a place implied I did not have English classes yet or supporters to get funds. But then out of the blue someone would pay me a full month of classes up front, or a person would donate to us as they honored missionaries. Even one time in the 70s, the mayor of Santa Cruz, Bolivia showed up to donate $200 which was the exact amount of our rent due!

Psalm 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. God will take care of us but it implies we live in righteousness. James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

This verse, along with what Jesus taught, ‘Matthew 18:20 or where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them’ implies God wants us to pray together and have faith as a group together for each other. Faith is not a personal lonely endeavor, it is a reaching out, a connection with God and others believing God will do what you cannot.

7. In the Christian world we often speak of having faith to heal, faith to prophecy, faith to do miracles but faith cannot be something that happens when a preacher gets on television. False faith healers, apostles, and prophets have done Christianity a great disservice! I have seen healing faith work. One time a friend in Colombia was going to get surgery on both his knees but they did one more x-ray before the surgery and found that no surgery was needed! We (a dozen of us) had prayed for a miracle of healing, and that was one time I got to see one happen. The x-rays from the past compared to the present proved he had been healed by a miracle.

Faith happens when it is God’s will. Faith healers that want money for healing napkins or some talesman are an insult to our faith. God wants us to just believe and He does what we cannot do and does the unexplainable act. Some folks do have a gift of faith, but they are never proud, seeking remumeration, or boast that they will heal you because they have “the gift”. None of us can do anything without it being God’s will.

When a miracle happens, when someone becomes cancer free, when someone gets released from the hospital, it is God who gets the glory. Like the lame man who get healed, what did he do? Acts 3:8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God. We praise God when a miracle happens, right?

8. Sometimes we are put in dire circumstance when we need God for an answer, when He appears to be our only hope. That is often unsettling, but Jesus always told us often, “fear not”. Not fearing or worrying in hard situations takes practice, it goes against our nature, and it can only come by having a strong faith to override these feelings and impulses.

We can develop a strong faith by first asking God for it. John 5:15 And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Faith hinges on believing in God’s active involvement in our lives. We must realize that we cannot even take in our next breath unless God is the one keeping us alive! 

We often sing, ‘Great is thy faithfulness’ and this is a reminder of God’s faithfulness to us, but what about or faithfulness to Him? It’s a love relationship, He first loved us, and must love Him back! He saved us by faith, Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9. It took faith for Jesus to agree to dying on the cross. He had faith God would resurrect Him and give to Him the inheritance of the souls that love Him. Psalm 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

Isaiah 53: 11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. He is on the right side of God’s throne!

Millions of souls throughout all our earth’s history will go to heaven and be rewarded because of Jesus’ faithfulness to do His mission. We need faith as Jesus had to fulfill our mission as well to win souls for His kingdom. If it implies going through a trial and a test of our faith, so be it! We pray we can please God in all that we do, amen! Pray for faith, and then trust in Him!

 

 

 

Easter: The Uncomfortable Reality!

 

Easter: The Uncomfortable Reality!           By Kelly Durant     4-20-25

 

Mark 16: 14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

 

2. How many of you have seen the classic movie “Risen”? I thought it was extremely well portrayed with much detail as it was in Jesus’ day. It was about the story of the resurrection from the point of view of a Roman Soldier that was sent to investigate what happened at the tomb. Try to rent it or see it, it is well worth it! 

 

My favorite part was when the Roman Soldier found the ropes that sealed the rock frayed from being burst open. This Roman knew what a cut rope would look like, but ropes burst apart? I am sure many people in Jerusalem experienced revelations that caused them to believe in the resurrection as in the story of this soldier! 

The truth is no one will respect or follow a leader once they are dead if they were an oppressor, liar, or a con. However, Jesus’ teachings still rule over thousands of millions even today because He was pure love and truth! 

 

When an evil person dies, as in the case of King Herod, the whole town celebrated! When Jesus died, many mourned but few, we observe by scripture, really expected Him to rise up out of the tomb. The first Easter, His resurrection, transformed humanity into a celebrated victory over death! But the first Easter did not exactly start out as a celebrated moment though.

 

3. Let’s go more into depth of the verses today. It says in Mark, “He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen”. I don’t know how you feel after getting rebuked for doing something wrong, but personally I feel embarrassed and humiliated! I would not feel too festive and happy. We celebrate Jesus’ resurrection today but the first encounter with Him made everyone feel afraid and ashamed of themselves.

 

Imagine witnessing a person die in such a horrific manner as Jesus did, and fearing the Sanhedrin might come to arrest and kill you now, but then you see the crucified Son of Man walking around with holes in their hands and feet, I think it would make any one of us so scared we would faint. It is like when you see a ghost, you feel mortified because you know it is a creature with supernatural power. Jesus showing himself to be supernaturally alive contradicted what is understood concerning reality, logic, and the physically possible!

 

So, to prove it is Himself, Jesus appears out of nowhere to sit down at the table with them to talk. In another instance, He also ate fish with them on the beach. He took time with them but despite being undeniably in this world, they doubted in the beginning. Jesus does not like to see people afraid and doubtful and many times he repeated to all who saw Him the word, ‘peace’! For the doubters and unrepentant Jesus’ presence brings fear, but for those who love Him His presence brings peace! John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid”. 

 

4. To illustrate it was not such a celebrative moment at first, recall that the disciples when they first saw Jesus, they were full of fear. Jesus had told them all several times that He would be killed and then come back, but it almost seems as if none of them really believed Him. Mark 8:31 “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again”.

 

Imagine seeing all the miracles the disciples had seen and then still not believing that He had resurrected! Remember these are dedicated followers that had given up everything to follow Jesus, they had no hopes to go back to their old life, and they saw dozens and dozens of miracles and yet they still doubted?!

 

It just goes to show how we cannot depend on all those who say they have experienced Jesus’ power to remain totally faithful and doubtless through every moment of their lives. Even the most dedicated have their weak moments but the comfort is that Jesus will still love you and receive you even though He may have to rebuke you and correct your lack of faith.

 

5. So, take it to heart, if Jesus rebuked the disciples who were in it all the way until their own martyrdom, how much more you and I should expect to get rebuked by Jesus for our lack of faith, unbelief, and obedience! John 5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.

 

Our world today is the same as it was in Jesus’ time, there is a vast majority that will not even believe though there is proof that one was raised from the dead. And then there is also a large group that will not believe because they have not personally seen it. Both are hopeless doubters choosing death over life because they love darkness rather than light.

So, what are we left to work with? 

 

Christians or believers that believe… but have doubts! But the hope is they will come around to have real faith and trust and obedience to what Jesus taught because the Holy Spirit will convict them.

 

6.  Easter then, in many ways, is an uncomfortable rebuke to the world! It is a mortal blow to Satan and his followers who can no longer reap dead men’s souls when those souls have been cleansed in the redeeming blood of Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection stripped away Satan’s power of maintaining a death over humans; that is if that person is repentant, believes, and obeys Jesus. 

 

Easter, being a supernatural event, puts to the test every human mind and heart. A test usually provokes fear but after passing it, relief and peace come. It is amazing to me how many people in this life chose foolishly what they will believe in, thinking they will never answer for their actions. Read the Proverbs, they teach much about fools who refuse to fear and honor God, and their own destruction comes by their own choices. 

Easter is a reminder that Jesus rebuked the doubting followers! 

 

Year after year during these special moments of celebration we must face the fact that some of our Christian brothers are not living pure repented lives displaying that they truly fear God, believe His word, and obey. Once you realize Jesus is alive and present in the here and now through the Holy Spirit speaking in your mind, it will make you be afraid as the 11 disciples at first were!

 

7. The most foolish thing one can do in life is to doubt something that gives you a win win situation such as is the case in believing in the resurrection of Jesus. If you and I simply accept and believe, then we can be sure that we are saved by faith: saved meaning saved from the judgement for the wrongs we have done and also saved from a second death (spiritual one) and be resurrected. 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.

 

What have you got to lose by proclaiming Jesus as risen except losing a dozen worthless prideful friends who are materialistic atheistic self-lovers? Start talking about Jesus to everyone you know for a week and see how many still keep you as a friend! They will be a good friend indeed if they are brave enough to allow your light of Jesus to shine in their darkened heart. I lost a few dozen so called friends at age 21 when I got on fire for God, yet I have gained thousands of trustworthy loving Christian friends in dozens of cities in return! You here are my friends that I never would have met if I had not taken the path of proclaiming Jesus risen!

 

The resurrection is real as 2 billion Christians proclaim today! However, if one were to entertain an idea that it were not real, we would be as Paul states in I Cor 15: 16 “For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. 17 And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! 18 Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” But I KNOW we will not be disappointed! He will make us rise up as He did!

 

8. You and I have full trust that these ancient records in the Bible are truth and come from God’s anointed; that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and all the 11, plus the hundreds of other men and women, had a supernatural experience witnessing Jesus’ presence in His resurrected body. This is an experience you and I have not personally had but choosing to believe their story will unexplainably fill your spirit full of hope, peace, and a sense of eternity. When you believe, you inherently know it is truth and you will even die for it!

 

I also trust the testimonies of the millions of Christians that have lived before me sincerely having convictions of the truth of Jesus resurrection. If His resurrection was not something real, then what miserable lives Christians have lived being tortured, martyred, and humiliated by most every evil government that has ever existed! And remember how Jesus even showed himself to doubting Thomas.\

 

Here is a personal belief, I think that people who ask God if Jesus is really who He says He is or not, that God reveals His truth to them. Jesus in a dream revealed to me I had a mission to stop being who I was and to go into the world and save souls. And I obeyed the call! I have been reading testimonies from Christian news sources that many Muslims are getting revelations that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is here, now awakening!

 

9. Now back to our verses of today. Did you catch how Jesus rebuked the 11 for not believing (vs14) “those who had seen Him after He had risen”. Who is He referring to? That was Mary & partners! Jesus showed his resurrected body first to her. What does that mean? It means He trusted her to be the witness to all the others and it seems they thought that she was just a woman being emotional and delusional.  

 

So, Mary was in essence being praised while they were being rebuked. The pride of man is an evil thing. Then the next uncomfortable part is vs 15. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature”. This verse, in my opinion, has been one of the least obeyed verses in the Bible. Very few Christians, dedicate their lives to travel in all the world just to preach Jesus. Thank God every first disciple obeyed! Soon afterwards every believer obeyed and went out preaching Jesus after gaining power from the Holy Ghost as we read in Acts 1. 

 

Conclusively then, doubting the resurrection and not recognizing the first Easter as a reality will get you a rebuke from Jesus! Not listening to those who make you uncomfortable with the good news will get you a rebuke from Jesus. But being spiritually uncomfortable is the way God gets you and me to move out into action! Conviction is what changes you and me!

 

10. And the final inconvenient uncomfortable reality is vs.16 “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” How clear is that? If you believe that Jesus lives, you will live as well! If not you will be condemned to let nature’s death taking its course; it’s as simple as that. 

 

And the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a must! John states in Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

Do you feel uncomfortable at Easter? Let Jesus peace come in!

The fire of God is what purifies our hearts and minds of all sin. It brings on the full repentance bringing us into holiness, obedience, and most importantly, living our lives motivated by God’s love! The Salvation Army’s mission statement makes it clear; we are “motivated by the love of God!” 

 

Today, if believing that Jesus is as alive as He was over 2,000 years ago has not penetrated your doubtful heart, come and pray to accept Him in your heart and then Romans 10:9-10 will be a reality for you. You will be saved and resurrected when He returns. John 6:40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” Pray!

The New Year: 2024 Have Faith within the Decay!

The New Year: 2024 Have Faith within the Decay!               

 12-31-23   By Kelly Durant

Mark 11:20-22, 20 And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.21 And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursed is withered away.22 And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

2. We are all creatures of habit. Studies show that if you can make something a habit for 2 weeks then probably you will be able to keep on with the good habit for the rest of the year. So what new habits do you & I need? Are our priorities really in order?

Often for the New Year we hear of people starting a new diet, or getting into an exercise program while others create a strict budget. These things are good but they are only personal and benefit the body. These things are just things of the flesh, and in general as humans we get bored with the flesh easily. John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. Try making a goal centered around spiritual growth and getting closer to God: that goal will last you as it is invigorating!

The truth is we all must review the bad news of the past as this can be a motivator to get you and me to react! Like when a king gets news of losing a battle, the news makes him and everyone disturbed and upset so they unite, work hard, get fired up, prepare tools and supplies, and then go on the attack so they can win the next battle! God wins battles through people, and he needs you to be in action for Him in benefit of yourself and others in this New Year of 2024!

3. Every year many of us make new goals but to our own frustration! A 2007 study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that,”88% of those who set New Year resolutions fail, despite the fact that 52% of the study's participants were confident of success at the beginning. 

Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting, (a system where small measurable goals are being set; such as, a pound a week, instead of saying "lose weight"), while women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.” In other words any one of us will succeed better if we plan to how to make our goals and then make our goals public and then get support one from another to be accountable!

But imagine how different the world would be for you and for me if people’s goals (yours and mine) were to be centered around growing spiritually having more faith, to respond more maturely to life’s difficult events, to pray more, to study the Bible more, to get involved and become more useful to God and more active in the Corps!  I wish each one of us could say as John the Baptist said, (John 3:30) “He (Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease”.

4. Don’t get discouraged but setting New Year goals seems for the most part in vain because usually they are left unaccomplished! Man proposes but God disposes! The factor is people have pride and a lazy sinful flesh that gets in the way so most people put forth very little interest in their own physical or spiritual development: but this we must change. People in general are undisciplined and do not pay attention to their inner voice of conscious of right and wrong, and then take the conviction to do what is right for God no matter the cost & sacrifice! 

To please God you and I must produce fruit for God’s kingdom and that requires seriousness, dedication, work, sacrifice, discipline, humility, and a resilience to the resistance, mockery, and persecution that others will lay on you for doing what’s Godly. These attributes mentioned do not appear to be attractive qualities at first since you must put forth so much effort but in the end, these are values that will invoke respect from others (of high caliber people anyway) and this will produce respect for one’s self, not to mention God’s respect!

5. One simple doctrine of the Salvation Army is to live a Holy life. Today, because so many people have lost their holiness and failed to live as a real Christian should, there exists an increasing overpowering subliminal Satanical passiveness to just let things go in everyone’s mixed up world.  Every year more indifference dominates. The promoted politically correct posture that no one should ever have feelings of guilt or remorse over any sin, scandal, or damaging failure is destroying us!  People are not being punished with appropriate consequences and they have no shame. Lawlessness abounds, and with it comes indifference!

A true Christian, however, does not live as a brute animal that falls into any simple trap repeatedly but instead will have the Holy Spirit as an inner voice to correct them to do what is right in their lives and not be as the cursed decaying ones in the world. Instead, we as God’s people, progress in holiness from year to year sincerely evaluating what was done right and what was done wrong.

Due to an increase in the amount of people who erroneously rationalize, legitimatize and endorse sin in the world, the world is decaying beyond repair, like a losing battle with a deadly disease! Only a rise in reactionary moral movements could swing the pendulum back to the other side, but these types of movements always get heavy ridicule and persecution by the media and the powers that be. Individuals in collective groups in society have in general lost their legal ability to fight-for-the-right to uphold Godly standards in leadership; however, the church should be the exception to this trend and be a light in the darkness! We must live what we pray when we repeat as Christians’ “thy kingdom come!” 

The trend of 2024 will be ‘more of the same’ (and worse) for this year and it is not good! Unless Christians wake up, pray and do their part to bring God’s holiness back into all areas of establishments, which includes within the home, the workplace, the government, and in the churches; the world’s systems will continue on with their rapid decay. 2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

6. Do you remember when Jesus was walking with his disciples, and he was hungry and they came upon a fig tree that had no fruit and Jesus condemned the tree and it withered up that same day? Mark 11:20-22 The message of eliminating the useless is affirmed by this act.This we should do at the end of a year to begin a New Year: eliminate the fruitless things out of our lives quickly!

The way God assesses the useful and non-useful is collectively and individually as He takes into account that you and the group are either going up or going down in your walk with Him.  The Christian life is kind of like a roller coaster ride, you are getting higher, lower, going back up again, or slowing to a stop! Where are you on the growth track? 2023, was it an up, or down experience in your walk with God? And your spiritual fruit?  So where are you headed in 2024, up or down? Your free will is in control, and you must make serious commitments to see new fruit.

The entire chapter of Mark 11 teaches us a lesson on having more faith in our prayers, and the final line of verse 22 is of great importance, “Have faith in God”. The disturbing part is that the tree without any fruit was considered by Jesus worthy of quick judgment, of rapid decay and destruction, since its function of producing good fruit was not being exercised. 

 7. The past few years, for many, has been very discouraging and you read can read about it in the news from reports of the previous years. Few people see hope or help coming, but the solution for hope is that you and I have to be one that brings it into being in our homes and community! You and I must increase our faith to bring about more good into this world! Never underestimate yourself, you as a Christian living a holy life, offer the world much more hope than anyone else can! If you are doing good and producing, you don’t have to worry about Jesus drying you up like the cursed tree in Mark 11! The decayed dry ones of the world have the warning of what fate will be coming for them!

There is another verse that sends a severe warning to the decaying, to those who do not progress in their walk with God from year to year, to those who have no good fruit and little desire of God’s ways of correction, but they instead continue in their sin. Revelation 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.

8. This year of 2024 will for some will bring more growth in the things of God, more good fruit, more faith, more blessings and happiness. However, for others that are only concerned for their selves and the flesh, this year may be just as bad, if not worse, than the one that just passed!

How you react to all the challenges that will come, whether you have faith and choose the “good and eschew the evil” in your decisions, will determine how this year’s events will turn out for you. For some the future will sadly bring more frustration, more dryness of spirit, and more bad news. But for us who are sincere Christians it will bring new opportunities to grow in faith, to get a new start to get closer to God, a new chance to climb higher with more fruit produced before the final day of the eternal solidifying of a being permanently good or evil. 

Stay positive and optimistic by keeping your spirit wet with the water of God’s Word so you produce fruit! The past year has brought billions of people disappointments, insecurities, frustrations, shock from scandals, feelings of personal violations, and more decay, but never underestimate the power of one person with God! A righteous Christian person accomplishes much! 

May the Lord this year help you and me to make a real difference in our home, church, workplace, school, and community!  May the Lord help us to be busy this year “doing good” by getting closer to Him, growing more in faith, serving others more, saving souls for Jesus, and doing the most we can according to our gifts, calling, and potential! In Jesus Name, Amen.

Christians Confused: It is by Faith or by Works?

Christians Confused: It is by Faith or by Works? Kelly Durant 4-14 Re 8-13-23 

James 2: 20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? 22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? 23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. 24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. 25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

2. There is a very illustrative picture to describe how a Christian must advance in this life: it is of being in a rowboat with 2 oars. One oar is faith, the other is works. If you row with only one, then you will go in circles. Christians don’t we see this often, that why they don’t seem to not grow much or at all advancing spiritually. Often many of us are not balanced, some people are rowing with only one oar! If someone here this morning is frustrated with your walk with God then let’s stop and examine our lives and situations, habits, and deduct changes we can make.

Some people row with the faith oar. They will affirm they have faith in God, and this is essential but the things they do from day to day may not reflect that they are doing anything for God or others. They believe that having faith, reading the Bible and praying is keeping them going straight but they do not reveal the evidence of being sacrificial or doing anything for those in need.  These people often feel they are fine with God because they are confident in their own idea of what faith is. We need to wake them up as some Christians think faith only requires going to church!

Then there are those who do works only.  There always exists some people with pride in what they do, and they feel they do not really need so much the spirituality trip that the church goers seem to proclaim. They have an idea that they are better than the spiritual people because they do good stuff, and doing good to others helping them is important but this is a wrong idea. Works and service are not all of what a Christian needs; if we serve without glorifying God, then He does not get the praise and we are just wasting our time. Only when you row faith and works at the same time do you mature and grow in holiness and faith a become a balanced and effective Christian.

3. Today we have started with the story of Abraham taking Isaac to be sacrificed. The point is clear, Abraham had faith and he acted on his faith to prove it. His works were that of obeying what God had told him to do, even though inside he must have been dying, crying, and probably doubting why God would require this type of a dreadful sacrifice. After all, wasn’t his son his only son of God’s promise?

Here are a few lessons for all of us: he first had faith, which means he believed God, he trusted God, he submitted to God, and he knew God’s voice inside giving him direction. He was determined to obey no matter what he had to give up or do! It made absolutely no sense either, but he obeyed anyway!  

When you imagine this, it is very disturbing, but the outcome of God providing the lamb instead made the point: that our loving Father God wants the entire world to know that he does not ever want our human sacrifices to appease Him! Works for God never includes cruel sacrifices, as some Satanic and pagan cults require, but rather good deeds originating from obedience. God gave up his son Jesus for us, but he has never required that anyone give up their son for Him! But what do you give up for God? What works do you have to prove your faith? 

4. I am amazed that there are so many comfortable Christians today and they cannot produce hardly any works as a proof that they “do” any works for God. A real believer with faith is supposed to have works in their own personal lives that prove they are obedient to God being faithful, helping, serving, loving, showing up and doing something for any neighbor who has a need.  

Thank God the Salvation Army established doing works from the beginning. We sent shock waves through the church by doing a social gospel, preaching in the streets, and then taking in the less fortunate or addict! Our foundation is that of seeing the needs of those who are our neighbors (our local community) and responding to it. 

From the beginning we see the Salvation Army was the first church to open up rehabilitation homes for the alcoholics, to provide homeless shelters (and those who stayed in our shelters collected rags door to door for the SA to recycle into mops and other things) and we created a system in which one could be redeemed and reintegrated into society. Some folks donate money, some volunteer time, but it all works together to support those who cannot help themselves.

5. Do you know of any other Seminary like ours at the Booth Colleges that will receive reformed ex-drug users, ex-worldly folks (even prostitutes) and anyone who is willing to obey the call of Jesus to leave it all behind for a life of service to Him? Very few! Many seminars are full of kids who really are not there for the love of Jesus but for the love of a title (diploma) that will gain them a high income somewhere. How wrongly motivated is that! 

When you serve in the SA it is understood that you will follow the Bible all the way, like the disciples did, and not care for this world’s provisions, but be focused on saving lost souls. And Salvation as we know it includes caring for the whole person, their physical needs (food, or water bills, etc.) and for their spirit, praying for them to know Jesus and to gain healing from life’s blows.

People forget that God sees the heart! Whatever is visible to us, works or faith, is not as all important as to how God is discerning the intents of the heart of each of us. Most people never pray, God reveal to me my heart’s intentions, I think they are afraid they will end up like Isaiah 6:5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” Our intentions should always be love, to love & obey God and our neighbor as ourself!

6. From the Scripture today we learn “Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.” How do we become God’s friend? By being righteous? It is revealed here that believing is what makes us worthy, or righteous! It comes by obeying on what God asks of us, in other words by believing! Belief then transfers into actions!

It is like an alternating current going back and forth. We do our part to act on what we believe, and then God does His part by imputing into us righteousness, which is an integral part of faith. Back & forth a connection is then active.

God is Holy and we cannot please Him without Holiness, and it is all tied together, we believe God’s Word, therefore we “do works” according to His commands, and this renders us ‘righteous’ because we are manifesting our faith into deeds in this world. God has no other hands, feet, and voice in this world except ours! 

7. And what about Rahab, the prostitute? Few preachers want to mention prostitutes in theirsermons! We see that even though Rahab was a law breaker (according to the 10 commands (“Do not commit adultery”), she was found to be righteous and protected from God’s judgments, how?  Because she believed in God’s people and she did something that won her God’s forgiveness, and what was that?

She risked getting killed by her own countrymen by harboring God’s children helping them to escape out of the city, and that was a very ‘good work’! There has to be some proof of some kind with each one of us to prove that one is on God’s side and not on the side of the cruel and evil world which is soon to be judged as Jericho was judged!

So, this shows that people caught up in sin, if they will listen to God, if they will obey at the right moment, if they can some to Jesus, then they can be saved, and it is all by the act of believing! Acts 16:31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” All the walls fell, but her house remained!

8. But believing in Jesus is everything! How many do good community groups do you know out there ‘doing good’ but they are not doing it for the glory of God but for the glory of their organization? There are many secret society type groups that do many good works, helping those with illnesses, bills etc., helping those with needs but ask yourself, do they do it for the glory of the name of Jesus?

If not, then those works are nothing to God! Their motives are then for the pride of man, and for money, and a good name. Quite often these groups are being used by Satan (Satan wants to be seen as an angel of light, as a good guy doing good), but in essence they are competing to take funding away from us who serve ‘in Jesus’ name’. Secular groups do nothing for God’s glory, and want to appear to care for others, but without God’s love in their hearts, there is no love in their service or works, it is only a façade.

So beware, today many groups, politicians, and even some churches want to ‘virtue signal’. That is when you do something to appear to be good with the motive of selling a perception that you are so wonderful, but in reality, the group or person is not so good at all. They then become wealthy liars and deceivers like Satan himself, pretending to have good works yet none of those works are done in the faith for God. Pray for discernment (repeat), today we live in a fake world and only God’s Word can reveal who or what is true or authentic! 

9. How many of you have ever seen a corpse? A lifeless body in the casket? You have the impression the eyes should open, but they don’t! A dead body has no chance of coming back as the brain dies within 4 minutes of no oxygen. So, this is how the Scripture describes you or me, or any one of us that does not have the Spirit of God, we are dead with no hope of anything without faith and works. 

What connects us to the Spirit of God and makes us alive? Works that reveal our faith! Faith is something inside our head and heart, BUT no one can see OUR faith unless WE do something; something loving for God and others that reveals our faithful obedience.

So, this is my challenge to you today, to start ‘doing’ more good works so the whole world can see your faith and light shine to glorify our Father which is in Heaven! Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Remember, faith and works go together, one without the other is useless and is not according to the Word of God. Let’s pray to obey, and not stray…from doing our part, believing, trusting, & doing amen?