Thankfulness: With It Honor, Without It Shame!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Compassion: Without it you are Guilty of Hate

Compassion: Without it you are Guilty of Hate      Kelly Durant 

I Jn 3:14-18

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Words Matter! And Affect Us Greatly

Words Matter!                                                      Kelly Durant

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

Matt 12:36-37

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

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

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

John 6:63

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

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

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

Matt 16:21-23

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

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

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

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

Prov 27:5

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

Let’s look up:

Prov 18:21

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

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

Rom 10:9

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

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

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

Eph 4:29

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

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

Lizbeth for watching the kids every week…

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

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

Pedro for preparing the Bible classes…

Thank you for preparing the food…etc.

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

Haughty Faces, Ichabod, And God’s Glow!

Haughty Faces, Ichabod, And God’s Glow!                  Kelly Durant 11-1-15

Psalm 19:8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

2. How many of you have travelled on an airplane lately? Let me tell you about my most recent experience. Each time I sat in the seat in the middle and the people on each side of me did not speak a word to me the whole time! As a matter of fact, the whole plane both times was eerily silent; people were just not talking to one another at all!

Before when I would travel I would get to talk non-stop to the person beside me about what they do and what I do, and then I’d bring up the subject of Jesus! But do you know what I see is killing our socialness? Our cell phones! The very thing that is supposed to connect us to others! Almost everyone on the plane were on the cell phone non-stop.

Contemplate on the unintended consequence of our current technology; what was presumptuously intended to be a positive for connection has become also a negative (and can be a tool of Satan). Individual devices are dividing us into ultra-platonic realms isolating us to the point that people in general are cognitively floating somewhere in an artificial world. People are regressing in communication skills snubbing strangers sitting right beside them! The love of many is cold!

3. And here is another thing we can observe in society, many people more than ever, have lifeless dead faces incapable of flinching or acknowledging that you are even in front of them! What indifference, arrogance and pride! I am not use to this because I grew up in the friendly mid-west. And also living in friendly South American countries one is greeted dozens of times daily as well. And now I am also accustomed to being surrounded by friendly full-of-life warm Christians faces! But these indifferent looks and proud attitudes of people in public causes me to feel distress and anger. In Miami and everywhere there is a new crop off rude people!

Did you know arrogant lifeless faces and proud attitudes makes the Lord angry as well? One day the haughty indifferent-to-others people will suffer and be judged. Isaiah 24:4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.

The faces of people reflect the spirit and I see haughtiness. They are Godless fools proud of their wealth, position, and power. And sadly all that will be all gone one day and they will be in anguish because God “resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” James 4:6. Many people do not want to talk to anyone anymore because they are afraid a controversial subject will come up and they do not want their evil ways challenged. The godless want to be left alone comfortable in their sins! But then they will attack and demonize good people and Godly things when you or they are not present by doing it online and in the news outlets!

Haughtiness is observed when people are full of sins. Here is what the online dictionary says about the meaning of haughty: ‘1. disdainfully proud; snobbish; scornfully arrogant; supercilious: Scornfully and condescendingly proud. (Synonym- arrogant).’ I know the humble people from other countries get shocked by the arrogance seen on the faces of the rich in the wealthy nations.  

4. The face reveals much about a person; in particular the eyes as they reflect the life or deadness in the soul. There was a song when I was young by a band named Steppenwolf that had a line it that said, “You know, I've seen a lot of people walkin' 'round with tombstones in their eyes, But the pusher don't care Ah, if you live or if you die”

The inference here is that drugs were causing the death of the soul and you could see it in the eyes (back in the 70s), and this remains a reality today still! Drugs, including many prescription drugs, appear to deaden a person to the point of making some of them a zombie. Haven’t you see people walking around in a comatose state with an imprisoned soul? I attribute the presence of so many dead souls out there due to a lack of the knowledge of God. If the God of life is not in the human soul, then it is dead, cold, and dark inside!

Matthew 6: 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

5. So what can I tell about you by looking at your face and eyes? Psalm 19:8 ‘The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.’  People that do not have the light of the life of the Lord in their eyes provoke alarm! I have never met a true Christian yet that had a lifeless dead face with eyes with no light in them!

How conscientious are you of your face? Better yet, how aware are you of how much of the spirit of the Lord is inside you? If you have been sick, with a cold, or tired, then you are excused; no one can expect to have smiling glowing face all the time. The health of the body is always an influence in how we shine or not.

But in general a person’s face should shine after connecting with God in worship, in praise, or by hearing God’s Word in a Bible class or sermon. Psalm 34:5 ‘They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.’ Jesus himself after being with God on Mt, Carmel was literally glowing He is described in Revelation as glowing as bright as the sun.

6. I have been around a lot of glowing Christians in my life and do you know when people are glowing and shining the most? When they are in God’s will staying busy doing something to help others such as praying with them, giving out food, or witnessing to them teaching them the Word of God.

The Holy Spirit giving a glow to our appearance was God’s idea because on the day of Pentecost the Spirit the obedient followers had a fire on them as described in Acts 2:3 ‘And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.’

When there is the fire of God all over you, you feel full of joy and powerful, you radiate with the glow of the Spirit of God! In the Salvation Army the fire of the spirit is deemed as necessary and essential! On the flag we have the blood and the fire, so we are saved by Jesus blood, but then after that we are purged and filled with the fire to glow and be purified so others witness our love and light!

7. But what about the people of the world who never experience this glow, this light in the eyes and this shine on the face? For the people of the world to appear to be as a lifeless dead arrogant brat as on a Tommy Hilfiger poster is to be normal! People today are alienated from the life of God! Many people out there have never even been in a church to experience happy people with shining eyes!

Today I used a word in the sermon title, “Ichabod”. It is a Hebrew word in the Bible that declares the departure of God’s spirit. 1 Samuel 4:21 And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. (This refers to Israel recognizing God’s punishments on them for their sins, and we will explore this deeper in the future) But apply this in this context: some people have let the fire of God go out in their lives! This is tragic as the “joy of the Lord is our strength!” Without renewing the Holy Spirit daily we become cold and dead!

When the spirit of the Lord is not present in a group of people or nation, you may clam up observing their cold lifeless souls latching onto any dark stimulation to break the monotony. People with addictions or those seeking the rush of doing evil reveals that these poor lost souls just want to “feel something”. What the human soul really wants is “to feel” the elation of the love of God! But people do not know that! And that opportunity will only happen if they humble their selves and admit that Jesus is salvation and has an eternity to offer them if they will only let Him take control their souls with His Holy Spirit. But how will these empty eyed people ever know about what they are missing? We have to tell them! 

8. So how do the dead spirits react when they meet a live shining spirit like yours or mine? Most of them think we are crazy and must have some mental problem to be so smiley and radiant, right? What did the people think of the disciples on the Day of Pentecost? They thought they were drunk! Acts 2: 13 Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

When you and I meet people, people who see our glow they usually either love us or hate us! They immediately react to us. Those that are seeking, those that are of the Lord, or the lost sheep, will want to know us and discover what it is we have that they do not have. They are attracted to us!

However, there are those out there who are evil and they recognize God’s spirit in us right away and they want us as far away from them as possible. It is like when Jesus arrived in certain towns.  Matthew 8:29 ‘And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?’

9. If a Christian is living in purity having God’s spirit inside, it will be impossible to hide! Everyone will see on your face and in your eyes the light, the peace, the humility, the glow! It pains me to when I see a Christian that is lifeless with their fire gone out behind their eyes. This indicates to me that this person has left God’s will or that they may have never experienced His Holy Spirit! And there is the possibility that they are secretly committing some sin and the Spirit of the Lord has departed. Either way if there is no fire either by ignorance or disobedience it is damaging the person and those around them. And you?

From the very beginning in Genesis God warned that He would not always share His Spirit with man. The amount of years we have to experience God’s light, joy, and Holy Spirit power in us is numbered. God is not pleased that a vast majority of people who will not invite His Spirit and His Son Jesus into their souls (or those that let the fire go out not feeding the fire with His Word). God’s gentle Spirit is like a dove and it departs when it is not wanted. Don’t let yourself be seen with a face of flint and eyes that are lifeless, cold, dark like the people of the world!

Do you have the Spirit of the Lord? Do you feel his warm glow inside you radiating out to others? How does God and others see you? If you want His glow, all you have to do is ask Him for it! Don’t commit the sin of bringing others down with your own spirit as the people of the world. Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Let’s ask The Holy Spirit to enlighten our souls and eyes right now! Prayer…

Maintaining Faith…Don’t Get Shipwrecked!

Maintaining Faith…Don’t Get Shipwrecked!                 Kelly Durant  10-25-15

1 Tim 1:18-20

18 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 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 immigrate 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 the lives 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 some 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 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 you and I see people with shipwrecked faith everyday 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 today!

That 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 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, not fallen under Satan? 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 everyday 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!

The Character of the Races Do you know the weaknesses of yours?

The Character of the Races                        Capt. Kelly Durant

Do you know the weaknesses of yours?       

Today we celebrate the day of the cultures and we will explore some of the different characteristics of a few races. Does the Bible speak of the races, and their good points and bad points, yes, it does.

I Cor 1:22-24

22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

Do you know how to know if you are truly strong and wise in the Lord? You can only be strong and wise by knowing your weaknesses! (repeat)  How many of you know your own weaknesses? I know there are some people that think they don’t have any faults or weaknesses! But everyone does have faults, either by the influence of your people, or race, or by your own human nature.  In the case of the Greeks, what should you know about the Greeks?

The Greeks looked for wisdom, and they considered their selves to be too intelligent and too good to accept that Jesus crucified was what God offered for our restoration. One of their weaknesses as a people was that they could not accept a simple faith. Why did Paul mention this? Because he wanted to let them know their fault, and also to tell others who would share Jesus with them about this so they could know what they need to overcome. He had to tell them that the Foolishness of God was wiser than that of men. They held a philosophy that God and his children (and Son) were spirit and by being spirit, they were positive energy while people in the material world were negative and the 2 could never meet. There are still many people today that hold this wrong Gnostic view.

The Jews were doubters, they wanted more than words to believe, they wanted proof, a miracle, a sign. Jesus himself once told the Jews that the only sign they would get was the sign of Jonah and He stated this in reference to the fact that no one can be saved unless they believe in the miracle and power of God that caused Him to be raised from the dead. Matt 12:39-40

39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Considering now the Greek and the Jew, let’s compare them to the Hispanics and the Northamericans.  What do you think God would say of Hispanics? Do they seek signs and miracles? Do they discern between traditional teachings and Biblical teachings? (pause) Each person should be his or her own critic… with the Holy Spirit convicting and guiding. Just always remember that every man sees his own way as pure in His own eyes, but it is God that weighs the hearts. I think each person knows his or her own self and race better than any one else, isn’t that true? I will take the liberty to talk about the Northamericans, which is a race made up of a soup of many races. I am a mix of 4 races myself! I observe the church here in the USA has become a lot like the Laodicean church in Rev. 3:14 who are lukewarm with their faith and they are not pleasing God due to all their wealth and riches that has divided their hearts, being too interested in the material.  

 Rev 3:14-21

14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Did you know this description can describe many Hispanics who live in this country too? How many of you have know people that when they were down or just arrived, with no money and desperate, they were seeking God and soon afterward, because they sought God, God blessed them and prospered them, and helped them to obtain prosperity? Have you seen that? But the sad part is that once they had it made to a good position, they backslid and got proud and arrogant and decided they no longer needed God. They later thought their riches could save them. How many of you know people in this condition? God’s message to them is that they should repent, they are worthless to God, and that is scary when God says he will throw you away because you do not have a hot love for Him! God tells us to overcome! He says that if we overcome these weaknesses of our character, that he will cause us to have eternal life and to sit on His throne! The problem is that most people want their treasure here and now on earth, but those that use up all their time seeking their needs and greeds will miss out on having heavenly rewards later!

It is wonderful we learn about the beautiful things about each other culture and race. God has blessed each nation with it’s own talents and gifts. But what we must learn as Christians is to distinguish between the good and bad and know well each person and race you are dealing with. There is a problem since Hispanics get close and are more friendly and intimate more quickly than other races that Hispanics often end up disliking each other once they get to know each other in the workplace and in society. Amongst Mexicans, Cubans, Colombians, and Puerto Ricans I see a lot of differences and dislikes of each other, once they know each others faults, but if God brought everyone here to this country, then it is for you and me to learn to respect one other despite the good and bad and the differences! The famous founding father Benjamin Franklin stated that if we don’t hang together, then we will hang separately! ( referring to the Independence War with England, without unity we all fall!) I think most all of you here, despite your great differences, do an excellent job of loving each other in the Lord! It is great we have this special day to focus in on the beauty of our differences! The church is the place where we overcome our differences and love each other! Look how different the apostles were, Peter messing up, Thomas doubting, John always loving and being strong. We should do out best to bring every Hispanic race we know to our church! Here it is where we find the hope for the future! It is up to you to love your neighbor as yourself, and love encourages! Amongst yourselves, remember a hand on the back with words of appreciation will help another person to change and grow better than a sharp criticism which is like a hand swat on the rear! Do you know your weakness? God will work with you and your weaknesses as He worked with the Greeks and the Jews, and with Peter but you cannot be weak in your love for Him, nor in your love for your neighbor!  That is a real sin! Do you want to be blessed? Then love those that are different from your self! Be realistic, see the good and the faults, but love anyway, and love with the love of God despite them! Let’s pray to love more to and appreciate our beautiful qualities!

Loyalty: Do You Know Where Yours Is?

Loyalty: Do You Know Where Yours Is?             Capt. Kelly Durant  10-11-15

Matthew 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

2. Don’t disloyal people make you angry? This world is full of disloyal backstabbing people! One of the common illustrations that preachers give about their discontentment with church people’s behavior and disloyalty in the church is this: How can it be right that a person eat at Jose’s Restaurant but then when finished cross the street to pay McDonalds for the bill? This refers to how many people go regular to a certain church, but then they don’t help the church as they should but rather send their money to some other church, or to some other country, or to some rich pastor on TV or something.

Obviously it is offensive and it hurts to discover that a person expects their church to provide for them bible teaching, spiritual food, trustworthy friends, free meals, camps and other benefits but then they decide to put their money or time into some other church or ministry?! You have known a few people like this who have come and gone, right? There are those who rarely volunteer or help with very much at all! It is common to see in this world that people use people, churches, or systems. Then they betray the ones used by ‘moving on’! Please pray for our Corps and for each other! How loyal are you anyway to your brothers and sisters and to this church Corps despite their flaws?

And churches and other establishments can be disloyal to their people as well! Usually it is over money. I have known people that have told me they have sent some mega church $1,000 because the preacher on TV said they would get back 100 times more if they sent it in?! (What a misapplication of Matt 19:29!) They never got rich as promised! And these friends were poor and didn’t have a spare $1,000! And for sure their local church was in a dire need of money to keep things going! Jesus warned that in the end times they would make “merchandise” out of the followers. 2 Peter 2: 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. Do you see how disloyalty works both ways and it is Satan’s tool to divide us as Christians?! Once burned, twice shy!

3. Time reveals a person’s loyalty. Today we must apply much precaution to whom or to what we are loyal to! Most people do not deeply reflect as to why, or from where, they get their loyal convictions to someone or something, be it a friend, sports team, political party, or a religion or church! Often people blindly follow a family tradition, or their peers, or they are just fascinated by people who are outlandish. Sadly, discernment of truth is becoming a lost art! Pray for it!

Over and over we observe stubborn people turning a deaf ear to the acknowledgement of truthful facts about leaders; facts which reveal inexcusable evils done by people they should never have been loyal to ever! An intelligent person learning of the corruption of someone should immediately exchange their admiration with disgust! When God’s truth reveals lies pay attention. Appallingly you and I observe a blind allegiance and loyalty over-riding common sense and intelligence in today’s world! (repeat) How is it people are so blind to continue to support blatant criminal abusers and put up with insulting absurdities from so called pretend be leaders who count on charisma to justify whatever they do?  Jesus warned that the blind do lead the blind! Errant loyalty blinds the soul!

The people of the world who have sought power, money, and high positions are usually the most unworthy of anyone’s loyalty or dedication! Why would anyone be loyal to the abusive cruel rich who only use and exploit you and me? Consider James 2:6 But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? 7 Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?

But despite this warning in God’s word, people continue on to be supportive and loyal to the ultra-rich powerful despotic abusers!? If you have a blind loyalty then you are like the wife who will not divorce the husband who beats her every weekend! What a Satanic curse to be loyal to the people of the world who are exposed to be liars, users, and even murderers! These people gain position and power by deceiving and winning loyal followers doing as Satan taught them how to do as in the Communist manifestos employing people as ‘useful idiots’! So beware of your loyalty to dubious world rulers, controversial religions and religious leaders, or adoration of the arrogant rich and famous.

4. Your loyalty or identity with something or someone will either bring you praise and salvation or death and condemnation! Jesus said in Matthew 12:30 “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.”

My first concern to know about a person’s soul is to question if they authentically have Jesus deep inside or not. With Jesus as the foundation, no other person of the world can be built upon in. Those of Jesus speak of Him and they are not swallowing, following, or being deceived by all the filth of the current culture.  It is my job, and every true Christian’s job, to bring Jesus saving love to everyone and liberate each one from false prophets or oppressive leaders of horrific religions, and of wicked criminal empires reigning in high places. (Eph. 6:12)

Some people authentically are loyal to Jesus and by the fruits in their life we can see they are passionately seeking holiness, love, and God’s will. We can observe by their actions, words, and opinions that they are revealing the transform-ness, or lack thereof, by their heart simulating the mind of Christ. Loyalty involves imitation, the imitation of Christ! Loyalty requires obedience and loves!

5. I have covered how some people with misguided loyalties are hypocrites and betrayers but there are people who contrastingly display no solid values of loyalty to God or any mission at all, but rather they just go with the flow of whatever the worldly crowd is following. These non-committed, no loyalty types may say they believe in a God, they may even go to church once in a while to convince their selves that they are a nice person, but their scarce good actions are usually just to appease their deceived minds. James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

This kind of person usually makes excuses for their lack of dedication and loyalty to God’s cause in their church because someone did something they disliked. People who quit with complaints reveal that they are not serving for their loyalty to God, but rather serving for their own interests. Loyalty is a life-long commitment!

The disloyal lukewarm people who ride the fence and never choose sides often do not want to get identified with anything or any church and in particular be labeled for being a religious conservative Christian. In reality they do not have enough loyalty to God to prove that they are living repented, righteous, and compassionate selfless lives serving Jesus and others. Non-commitment is disloyalty.

6. Again, disloyal people are hypocrites and betrayers. Hypocrites often accuse everyone else of being a hypocrite while they are one big one their selves. How many times do we hear about people who dedicate little or none of their time, talent, and treasure to God then accuse that the church people are hypocrites not doing what they should but they are not doing it either. The reality is these disloyal ones deceive their own selves to think they are so good and nice yet they live self-serving having deep character flaws obvious to all. Do you know your character flaws? How much loyalty does God and others observe in you?

Who did Jesus condemn before? Was it the sinners and prostitutes? No, it was the hypocrites, the ones that knew to do good and did not do it.  James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

The most loyal people Jesus should have had obeying and following Him in His day were the religious leaders, but to the contrary they were the most disloyal! Hell is hot for those who are not loyal to Jesus! John 3: 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil  

7. I urge you to investigate inside to what and to whom you are loyal! If you are truly a Christian you know commitments matter greatly! But can your convictions be justified with God if you support, like, or campaign in favor of an evil compromised person? Being guilty by association destroys one’s testimony as a Christian! Or playing both sides! It is like the miners in Bolivia who have a shrine in the entrance to the tin mines with an image of the virgin and an image of Satan beside it so both are honored just in case of danger. The ignorant idea is to keep both Satan and God both happy being loyal to both so nothing bad happens while in the mine. But a compromise of loyalties brings a person under God’s condemnation! What willful ignorance!  

For example, if a person praises some world despot leader saying, ‘Oh, ‘Mao Tse Tung was not so bad but good, he helped a billion people, he saved the Chinese from poverty!’ What this person is doing in essence is justifying this: The end justifies the means! ‘So what if he murdered 26 million of his own to make them accept his communist agenda, it was for the good of the country and humanity!’ What? How hypocritical and absurd to affirm that Mao (or any dubious politician for that matter) is acceptable when they have a horrible record of evil!? How diametrically opposed to Jesus message and example of laying down His life for His friends, right? Evil and good cannot coexist!

8. I am disturbed every time I hear of a Christian supporting someone with the values of the world! Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

I personally am very bothered that there are many Christians out there who rarely study their Bibles and they are far from being loyal to the truth of God, discerning with the Holy Spirit what is evil and what is good in this world! These people will probably be some of the ones deceived to think that the anti-christ when he comes would be good for the peace of the world! Never forget, millions were loyal to Hitler and got murdered their friends and family for his evil empire!

According to Barna Research (a respected Christian stat group) there are millions of Christians out there who deny the faith by being loyal to false teachers, secularism, and anti-Biblical cultural trends instead of being loyal to God’s word! Christianity and faith are not politics where you believe you need a compromise and acceptance of perverse corrupt and evil practices! My loyalty lies with God’s word 100%, and you?

9. Here is a quote that often circulates on Facebook, ‘Some people are not loyal to you, they are loyal to their need of you, once their need changes, so does their loyalty.’ Horrible, right?  Don’t let that person be you! As for myself, I will always be thankful to Jesus as true Christians, and true ones in The Salvation Army opened the doors to me and my family to survive and spread the gospel of Jesus and minister to others. You got to be loyal somewhere, isn’t here the best?

In this life I have learned something, you can only trust Christians to be honest and sincere, to be loyal, loving and caring, and praying for you! And then not even all of the Christians, as mentioned here, are even so loyal to Jesus, the church, the Captains or pastors, or even to those of their own family! 

Take it serious that I and God’s Word warn that rulers, politicians, government leaders, false religious teachers and fighters of false religions will condemn your soul with their evil and a misplaced loyalty will take you to hell.   1 Kings 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” With God & Jesus, it is loyalty to Him all the way! You cannot be loyal to Him and to someone or something else. Will you pray to be His loyal servant, loyal only to Him?