Make Jesus Proud of You: Be Daring, Bold, & Brave!

Make Jesus Proud of You: Be Daring, Bold, & Brave!     Kelly Durant

 

Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

 

2. Some people love excitement more than others. There are some people that love adventure, being in somewhat dangerous situations, while others are happy to just stay at home and be inside of their safe space wishing the world would just go away.

 

For example, I know of people, who love to drive their Jeeps on top of the Colorado mountains, almost flipping them over, having their hearts pump wildly for the thrill, and this is rewarding for them. This involves risk, but it is fun for them and I hope they have insurance!

 

And then I know some people like how my mother use to be that would only go to the grocery store and to church on Sunday and never wanted any excitement at all. The world has all kinds of people. But all of us take decisions ‘to do or not to do’ many things, but when it comes to our faith and Jesus, we must choose ‘to do’ as it’s known, “nothing ventured, nothing gained’ as God expects it of us.

 

3. People will do bolder things when they are with others in a group than when they are alone. I recall when I was young there were people who would not want to do anything, but if a group was going somewhere, they would go too, even if it meant danger.

 

Think about Jesus and the disciples, he only had a group of 12, not of 12,000 like some mega churches, and they later went on their own, going out two by two, and they accomplished great things spreading the gospel. Mark 6:7 And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.  Here we frequently only have a dozen of faithful ones!

 

We must never lose our vision of what we are to accomplish in life as Christians, and that is of the saving of the souls of the lost, of bringing love and comfort to the hurting, of obeying Jesus to love God and others as ourselves. 

 

4. Have you thought about it, The Salvation Army was founded on being risky and exciting! Every day the Officers and Soldiers would go out and preach on the smelly muddy street corners and sometimes a few hundred at a time would come forward around a bass drum to cry, repent, and pray to receive Jesus! How glorious that must have been to have witnessed that!

 

But at the same time, many of them got hit with tomatoes and other objects as they brought the good news to others. But did that stop them? No! Even after they knew about Samuel Logan Brengle almost dying from blow from a brick, they continued on, even going around the world to start up new outposts, missions, and Corps. They opened hundreds of new Corps in 40 countries within the first 40 years! Now we are in 130 countries!

 

Samuel Brengle spent about a year and a half in a hospital bed recovering from a skull fracture that some violent demon inspired person did to him with that brick. But his heart was for God, and he wrote several books on holiness, he used his time to learn about God and today we honor him by studying his theological contributions. You cannot stop a man or woman of God, wounded or impaired, they will continue on in the fight for good!

 

5. We have studied the book of Acts in the recent past. What did we learn of Peter, John, and of the other disciples? Many of them went to jail for preaching Jesus! And they were killed! The idol worshipping pagans, and the hypocrite Jews, did not want to hear about the love of Jesus. But did even being jailed stop them from talking about Jesus? No!   

 

Have you ever made Jesus proud of you by going to jail for Him? I got that opportunity a couple of times. Once it was in a small southern town in Rio Grande do Sur, Brazil. Five policemen stopped me with machine guns for passing out salvation flyers at some apartments. One policeman got really mad and was yelling in my face that I was preaching blasphemy and if he could have his way, I whould be locked up and tortured the way the Catholic Church historically use to do it! Imagine, if a Catholic wants to harm or kill you for preaching Jesus, then could Jesus really be their center of their worship? But they are made up of good and bad like most all organizations. 

 

He took offense because in the gospel pamphlet it mentioned that God had to turn His back on Jesus a few hours to allow Him to die for our sins. God allowed Jesus to die on the cross to be the ultimate sacrifice for us, but obviously this man did not know theology very well. I am thankful I was set free after being about 5 or 6 hours in that tiny facility. I have seen angry red hateful faces many times while out preaching a loving peaceful Jesus! God sees what everyone does. The world is a dangerous place and people are lost, ignorant, and really need Jesus! 

 

6. So when something bad happens, it sometimes scares you, or others nearby, to not want to be risky or carry out the mission of preaching Jesus. My friends, if you can ever learn something in life, learn this, never let anyone intimidate or belittle you for standing up for your faith! Remember, Peter and John had boldness, and God expects us to have boldness and the Holy Spirit power as well!

 

Let’s read on the reaction of the people to Peter and John’s boldness. Acts 4:18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

 

Can you do that? Can you not do anything in life but proclaim the good that Jesus has done in your life? 21 “So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding no way of punishing them, because of the people, since they all glorified God for what had been done”. It happened to them and may happen to us as well if we speak up for Jesus!

 

7. Later in this chapter we see they prayed for boldness, and they stood on God’s Word to give them strength. They quoted Psalm 2, one of my favorites, as it affirms the final destiny of the evil people of the world who hate Jesus.

 

 Acts 4:23 And being let go, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said: “Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them, 25 who by the mouth of Your servant David have said: ‘Why did the nations rage, And the people plot vain things? 26 The kings of the earth took their stand, And the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.’ Now look up Psalm 2 to hear the rest of it. Vs.3“Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.” 4 He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. 5 Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: (skip down to the final verses) 10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear,  And rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

 

8. So it is clear, we must be wise and stand with Jesus no matter the cost, no matter how the red-faced agitated demons who hate us for proclaiming Jesus’ message yelling insults at us, hit us, or even jail us, we have God’s boldness and Holy Spirit power!  

 

To serve in this Salvation Army Church, when you serve Jesus for real, you need to be thick skinned, you need to be bold! You need to be a Soldier that battles! No one respects a wimp. I was at the International Market the other day and the young Hispanic cashier I knew went to a Hispanic church (because I had seen him with other Christians before) and I asked him about his faith. I said, “You are a Christian and you go to church, don’t you?” I was hoping to start a conversation.

 

He said, “Hum” and nodded his head about one inch to indicate yes. I thought within myself, how sad! He has no boldness; he is almost ashamed to admit he is a Christian! Then I had another terrible thought, ‘Could it be some of the people in our Corps Church are the same way?’ Are they also afraid to admit they love Jesus and come to worship here’? Please, let’s be bold and make Jesus proud of us! I try to talk about Jesus with every person I meet!

 

 9. The decision is yours day by day, hour by hour, will you be bold for Jesus? All day long we will meet people who were like the pagans mentioned in Psalm 2 who want to undo us, or like the hypocrite Pharisees who hate us for standing for Jesus who is righteousness, holiness, and God’s love. The government was on the shoulder of Jesus, (Isaiah 53) and the ones of the top too want your adoration and absolute dedication as they do not like a competitor controlling your spirit!

 

In the Christian faith, you had better get use to adventure, excitement, danger, risk, resistance, and the battle. You are not in a Salvation Army just to look pretty in uniform, you are here ‘to fight for the good’ and to be so full of the Holy Spirit that your glow attracts others to want to get to know the Jesus you talk about!

 

Is Jesus proud of you? Am I and your leaders proud of you? How long has it been since you have come with a testimony to talk about who you shared your faith with? Jesus expects it of you and if you get persecuted, it will motivate you even more as the Holy Spirit will be filling you up. Be sure you live to reach the poor lost souls out there who need the hope of salvation, or you will regret it after death in heaven when you arrive empty handed! 

Matthew 10:32-33

32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

Let’s pray…

Facing 2023: Be prepared!

Facing 2023: Be prepared!

Proverbs 22:3

A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, But the simple pass on and are punished.

 

2. From conversations, I often see people do read or listen to the news and know what is happening with the weather, and that is important! But what about the rest of the news? As Christians we cannot be simple-minded anymore, we must search the scriptures, we must search the news that is suppressed, and we must discern what is happening!

 

In the past few years look at the disasters unforeseen by the masses in Venezuela, Central & South America and in China lockdowns and pandemics still happening?! Since 2020 it’s been disastrous and in 2022 the war in Ukraine began. Some informed people knew for a few years that something was brewing, something drastic was on the way, and some got out, while others ignored it, or they had faith in the corrupt system to save them, but now they live miserably with no way to travel out, often with the electricity often cut, and with little to no food!

 

Jesus said this in Matthew 16:3 …and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. We need to be ready because the stage is set, and by all evidence, the end-times is here. Be ready to go, ready to stay, ready to be with our Lord too!

 

3. We saw in the past 2 years, the government, the media, the professionals, and even some churches, all tried to scheme on how to get people to live in fear for their lives, so they would run and get the remedies they concocted as the only solution. Now the reports show these remedies, which made mega billions for certain companies and political parties, have not been so effective after all and last year we started having the “died suddenly” syndrome affecting even young hearts! The presupposition here is we must all be ready to die suddenly!

 

What did Jesus say about this fear and heart failure?   Luke 21:26 Men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. The real concern here is how to save the souls of the people who trust totally in the systems of man and do not have faith in God to save them from evil. Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.”

 

We all must live and learn. We must learn that science is no longer respectable science, it is the combination of misconstrued data with the schemes of demons in “high places” who seek new ways to enslave and exploit the populous. God revealed truth in His Word, in the sacred scriptures, and Satan’s people at the top seek all means possible to make scripture look like a lie when they are the liars! By their fruits you know them! (Matt. 7:20) 1 Timothy 6: 20 O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge (science)— 21 by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. 

4. Christians are witnessing the “falling away” that we were told about 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Many recent articles have come out to show that after covid, those who thought they would die suddenly, did not even have a change of heart and repentance to start going to a church to get right with God! Imagine, almost dying and not even caring where your soul will spend eternity! 2 Thess. 3 “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,”

 

It is sad, but lying propaganda works on those who do not pray and ask God’s Holy Spirit for guidance. Look how in Nazi Germany they got most all the people to target certain individuals to be hated, then killed, and tortured women and children! Hitler was a precursor type of the final “anti-Christ” to come; Hitler worshipped Satan and consulted spiritists summoning demons, the Vril, and these demonic channels for demons helped him develop weapons of war and horrific fear-provoking methods to control the people. Satan will use his same tricks again. 

 

Seeing how millions have lost their worship spirit, we should be shocked and on extra alert for our own souls! Philippians 2:12, (b) continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

 

5. Fear is our adversary’s repetitive tactic! It is proven already that through our phones, internet use, and conversations that our phones record, the techys and the 3 lettered agencies know all about you, your faith, or lack of it, your habits, your politics, your bank account, and everything! When the “mark of the beast” comes out, which will be a complete control over all people with a new digital currency, the resistors & protesters, the Christians and the freedom fighters, all will become “targeted individuals”. We must be ready to die for our faith if need be! Or ready to disappear and live like the Amish in a small communal farm in the hills. With every year that passes, we know the end is getting closer.

 

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Speak this verse out loud when you feel afraid of the current events and the future! Most Biblical scholars interpret that some Christians will go through the “great tribulation”, but it seems many will hang on hidden in the mountains or somewhere to the end without submitting to the New World Order of Satan’s kingdom that the globalist powers are currently setting up. 

 

Christians need to stop being silent and going with the flow of our sick evil culture! Some Christians are so weak they fear rejection from the people in schools, in their jobs, or families; how absurd as the perverse, shameless, deceived people do not have anyone’s back in a time of need! These are ones on the highway to hell, and they want to drag you to die the second death with them! Never conform! Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (God! Fear or respect Him)

 

6. We must fear God and obey His word even if it means total rejection or death if you want to inherit heaven. James 1:12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

Revelation 2:10 (b) Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

 

So, the way to prepare for any New Year is with spiritual preparation! Make a plan to pray your 10-15 minutes after you wake up, then in the day, a 20-30 minutes of reading God’s Word, so you learn and gain strength and assurance, then you will be assured you are connected to God in the time of trouble, and He will guide you when a major event happens.

 

Pray to have discernment! It is a gift of the Spirit, and we all need it in these days when people are so confused about everything! The enemy always uses the divide and conquer method, the hate one another propaganda. Remember to read through the lines of today’s information to discover that things are most usually the opposite of what these news outlets are saying!

 

Luke 16:15 And He said to them, (b) For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Forsake all desire to support all the evil corporations who promote “woke” ideologies which are nothing but lies and divisive attacks on people with moral convictions.

 

7. The greatest threat to the human existence, this year, is not what the world tells you they are such as climate change, lab created viruses, war, discrimination, or an economic collapse, (all of which are man generated for obtaining more power!). The greatest threat we face is the persistent deception by Satan, who entices undiscerning people to buy into his misinformation while he unashamedly accuses truthful ones and God of misinformation! Unprayerful weak Christians are falling away swallowing up the flood of lies! Warn them!  Revelation 12:15,16.

 

People that believe lies and then go berserk when you disagree with their dystopian evil stances, people who propagate perversions and corruptions for their own personal gain, and people that disrespect God and His people as dumb and gullible for being righteous, holy, and spiritual, these mouthpieces, being demonically powerful ones, are the real threats to humanity’s existence! Expose their hypocrisy and warn others to shun them! World leaders are now more than ever guided by demons from hell, and they are hellbent on killing as many people as possible by all means possible because they hate God, life-creations, Jesus, and you and me!  (And they are, as revealed with the 4 horsemen in Revelation, destroying us by means of injustices, starvation, wars, and pandemic sicknesses).

 

We currently still have freedom to worship God in churches on Sundays, we still have money to buy food with (even though it is almost twice as expensive as a year ago!) so, we must be thankful for that, but the day may come when we may not have that freedom! Every year we pray for God to take care of us, and He does!  Philippians 4:19 And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

 

8. Jesus described the times we would be living in. Matthew 24:4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences (pandemics), and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.

 

We do not have a very bright future in this world, but we have a very bright one in heaven! Revelation 21:4

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

 

What we want for 2023 is a closer relationship with God! Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

 

9. Without a vision the people perish, so we must have a vision, one of surviving and diverting anything the enemy throws at us! Make goals to get closer to God in prayer, in His Word, and to stay busy for Him while it is still the daytime, because the night will come one of these years when no man can work.

 

C-19 is over for 3 years now so invite people back to church! Church is where “the called-out ones” fellowship together, and as one candle gives light, many together can shine very bright in this dark evil world! Pray for discernment! So many Christians are getting deceived and falling away like the seeds without roots! Pray against laziness, lustfulness, gossip, divisive people, envy, temptations, and against trusting in the news of evil men who believe we are all just dumb lambs destined for slaughter and that we should be existing just to produce tax money for their lustful consumptions. The truth of Jesus will make us free, but without it people are destined to become slaves to evil men! 

 

Do not accept the salvation schemes of men. Remember in Job, Satan said Job 2:4

So, Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.” Do not accept remedies from corporations or governments run by evil men that claim you can be saved from mass sicknesses that later will prove to be destroying your humanity, your mind, and corrupting your soul.

 

Jesus called us out for a better purpose than to just go through the motions year after year, and a never-ending mission that is to win souls to Jesus’ righteousness! Pray to be a God-fearing, loving, holy person in Christ! Pray to keep resisting all the lies that all the systems hammer you with daily! Pray to daily prepare well, one day at a time with Jesus as your guide.

  

Mary’s Song: A Christmas Day Message

Mary’s Song: A Christmas Day Message  

12-25-2022 By Kelly Durant 

Christmas seems to always arrive with so much resistance! The “prince of the air”, Satan, seems to always blow in a storm, or always brings the focus away from Jesus by whatever means possible in the news. Christmas often comes with discouragement, family issues, greediness, sickness/pandemics, and breakdowns, loneliness, but still Satan cannot stop us from worshipping Jesus!   

In the past weeks I mentioned how we all should strive to be pure and Holy like Mary, but do you know in what way she was holy? We know she was willing to let God do with her anything He chose but look what it cost her emotionally! We know she followed in the footsteps of her Judah-ian predecessors from her family’s bloodline, but from her own words, what was she like?

Do not let the words of traditional prayers made up by other past church members be the only thing you know about her, pray to know God’s spirit in her. In her own words, what did she reveal?  Why do people not read her words more often? Let’s read below and learn how she thought, how she was inspired.  

 
46 And Mary said: “My soul ^[i]magnifies the Lord,⁴⁷ And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.

Let’s start there, do you praise the Lord and lift the Lord up in your day-to-day activities? Do you get happy in your soul like she does in your spirit, and let the Lord be your joy, your everything? Her passion was God her savior! And how are you?

⁴⁸ For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;

What is a low state? It means she was not anyone important to the world, nor she wanted to be. She was a humble person. She called her own self a maid-servant of the Lord, one who serves God. Who here can say that? …Lord I am yours to serve and nothing else matters in life?
“For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed”.

Who gets blessed by God? Those that are willing to do anything God wants! The blessings of the Lord are for those who love and obey Him, but of course Mary was very blessed to be the mother of Jesus, that was special! She would not have wanted to be worshipped though. Not even the angels in heaven want to be worshipped! She is honored but it was her son, not her, that came to be the savior of the world, to be born, to live healing and teaching, and then to die as a sacrifice for our atonement.

⁴⁹ For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.  Every week I ask for testimonies. Do you tell of the great things God has done in your life? God has done something great for all of us and we must tell it, so others praise God’s name! We must always be reminded that God is Holy, which means pure, clean, and righteous. He wants those qualities in our lives reflected back to Him.

⁵⁰ And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.

This reveals that if you fear, or obey God, you gain His mercy! (In this context, through Jesus!) We know full well that God will punish every person for not doing right, for resisting His Holy Spirit of conviction. With mercy, however, you have a chance of correcting yourself with a total change of lifestyle, with the guidance of His Holy Spirit, repenting from your pride, wrong deeds, and lack of love for God and others. His mercy is for all the future generations of whosesoever will, meaning for everyone, for all generations; Jesus is the door for a clean slate. KD      

⁵¹ He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

Often God’s word speaks of how the “arm of the flesh” will fail us, how we in our own strength are nothing compared to God. But Jesus was different. His flesh, or human body made up of the mix of the Divine with the human, had a power no one had ever seen, that of doing miracles, of casting out demons, of being superior in all regards, a strength firm like a rock. His strength was also in His wisdom to respond wisely to not allow the bullying hypocrites and arrogant leaders out smart Him. He exposed their evil concocted schemes. He came to bring truth, salvation, and to tear down the proud.

⁵² He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly. Jesus chose common people to be His disciples, those who were low nobodies to preach the gospel. By empowering the humble, ordinary people like you and me, he has bypassed the arrogant ones in high places. People in power don’t care to be humble disciples of Jesus as they already follow Satan. They are usually corrupted and perverted condemned souls that are psychopaths having no love or compassion for God or anyone! His return will be the ultimate de-throning event! Jesus will set up a kingdom that will reign forever and ever!

⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty. The people who seek Jesus with a hungry empty soul find Him and He fills them up with His comforting Holy Spirit. Those that want to learn about God get filled through Him. But the people full of themselves, have nothing for God, you and me, or nobody. These are the ones that remain shallow, ignorant, arrogant, and ugly, ugly to be rejected by God because they are full of themselves.

 
⁵⁴ He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy, 

Jesus first preached to the Jews, so He did help Israel as many did believe in Him, while the leader Jews, wanting power and wealth, wanting the filth of this world, rejected Him. He spoke to them about how the merciful will obtain mercy, and all who believe may receive His mercy and love. But when His ministry began, how did He show you obtain mercy? By repentance, by washing away, or burning away your sins so that forgiveness and mercy from God could take place.

⁵⁵ As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his seed forever.” This part implies that Jesus responded to the desire of all the past forefathers, that the Messiah would come and then His seed would be established forever. And Abraham had many children, not just from Sarah, but from Hagar as well. In other words, His salvation came for all the tribes and nations of the world. And everyone born throughout the ages are descendants from the seed of man and Jesus saves all who choose Him forever. His seed (His descendants) are the mega millions of followers who join Him on earth and remain with Him in heaven forever!

Who are Abraham’s children? Those who have faith in God! And with Jesus you must have faith for Him to work in your life! Without faith, without Jesus, without God’s mercy, we will not be with God in the future! A child of God must be one who is full of faith following Jesus all the way for all his/her life!

Mary’s song is a prayer! A confirmation of what Jesus would bring, of what standards we should heave, a fulfilment of prophecy, a new start for those of faith, plus it’s a warning that the proud would be humbled, and that His salvation by His birth and death on the cross would bring on a mercy that would last for all generations! Amen!

Christmas Controversies: It’s Been Scandalous from the Beginning!

Christmas Controversies: 

It’s Been Scandalous from the Beginning  

By Kelly Durant  12-18-22

                                                                                                                     

And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

Luke 1:30-33 KJV

 

2. We have known for the past 20 years that many U.S. companies have created policies that do not allow greetings or signs with Merry Christmas in them anymore. Evil people want Christ out of Christ-mas! More and more the persecution of baby Jesus persists! How does Satan attack God’s people? Quite often he uses the scandal tactic! Satan and his followers are the ultimate guilty hypocrites seeking always to scandalize all the things of God. Satan empowers demons in humans to create conflicts, commit murders, start wars, spread disease and immorality with the goal to destroy humanity through the lusts of the flesh with pride while accusing others of being guilty of his or her own game. He hates the pure and innocent as represented by Jesus birth. The people of the world are already in Satan’s pocket but his target is God’s men and women who are active Jesus lovers, and sadly some fall from temptation due to their pride, adultery, theft, and scandal! Some abandon the Christmas tradition as well!  

 

Scandal is a violation of the society’s norms. Today the ruthless media uses a double standard to create scandal. For example, they steal information and then instead of paying for their crime of theft, they defame others with this scandalous information which often turns out to be outright lies. Both parties may be guilty and should be punished but only the one attacked gets condemned and that public condemnation comes with no trial or any proof of truth in the accusations. Satan is the ultimate hypocrite who accuses and condemns others while being totally corrupted himself! But God beat him at his own game by creating scandal for him with something wonderful, something we love and enjoy, Christmas!

 

The Nativity starts with an out of wedlock baby scandal! Who likes babies? Everyone, right? A baby seems to make even the hardest hearts warm and smile. Most people inherently want to give new life a chance in this world. Most everyone when they smile and talk to a baby will get a smile back! How controversial of God to send a baby to rid the world of evil! God controls countless legends of angels but instead of an attack on earth to right the wrongs he sends baby Jesus! God’s attack on evil and Satan begins with innocence and purity in a body weak and dependent on the father and mother for survival. Our lives in Jesus must start there too, in a rebirth of purity of mind, heart, and soul, with a total dependence on God.

 

3. All of the elements in Christmas and in Christians are controversial according to the world’s double standards! Have you ever noticed that? Jesus was a shock to the world and the world has never been the same ever since! Christmas keeps surviving by the efforts of all Christians! 

 

The next controversial Christmas principle, that for many philosophical types is an illogical absurdity, is that God could claim to have a Son that is born from a human, of Mary the virgin. This premise, that God can be the Father of an earth born child, was scandalous when He was born and is scandalous still today with many other world religions and is considered heresy. People are getting beheaded and killed daily even today for affirming that God had a Son whose name is Jesus and His name is above all names! That name, offensive to some yet dear to us who love Him, is Jesus Christ the Lord! His life of miracles and resurrection prove He was God’s son, supernatural, glorious, and worthy of our eternal adoration! 

 

The problem originates from the Greek agnostic line of thought that erroneously deducts that God is made up of pure good positive spiritual material, but that man and this earth is made up of all bad imperfect negative material so therefore the good and bad can never mix together for there to be a son of God. This is an absurd conclusion since the obvious is we as humans contain a spirit, a piece of the pure God, living in our degenerating material bodies. 

 

No evidence supports this idea, or premise, yet millions hold onto it. All things are made up of positives and negatives and common knowledge taught in science proves that matter in our material world, as in atoms, contain negative charged electrons and positively charged protons. God, however, is not containing Himself within or without the material physical systems of our simple universe operating solely within harmonious duality systems. We observe that His material creation is one huge conglomerate of mixtures, of the light and of the void, yet purity is refined out of the material earthly mixtures as one refines gold. Our spirits must be refined as well.  

 

God’s person is in fact pure holiness but God’s attributes are not paralleled succinctly into to His diverse created worlds. God is above restricting Himself within the world He created because He transcends His own creation of weak and great physical forces and spiritual mysteries. Satan desires that all people reject the fact that it is possible for purity, as in baby Jesus, to have entered into our imperfect world but the scandal remains that it did! Another fact is that because Jesus came, you and I too can become perfected by holy living as Jesus lived full of love, grace, and truth. God’s purity of heaven can exist within this hell of a world within our hearts if we connect with the source, Jesus! Christmas with its pretty lights cause many to imagine how wonderful heaven must be where Jesus is preparing a home for us!

 

4. The next scandal that many cultures have a hard time accepting is that God chose not a noble person but a humble woman, a simple pure person, a virgin, through whom to manifest Himself and fulfill all prophecies through in order to establish a righteous kingdom forever. God found only her to be willing and worthy enough to become the mother of the future savior of the world. It is obvious that this world is filled with evil, but for God to choose to combat evil with the weapon of a simple, respectful, obedient woman is too humiliating for many men of distinct cultures to accept. In general 9/10ths of the world’s men are macho with little regard for women and what they can do in the things concerning God’s mission.

 

Imagine, Mary was told not to fear over the fact that she would become pregnant by the Holy Ghost and she, contrary to an average person, actually trusted and did not fear! She knew that by trusting God she was risking rejection from her future husband, rejection and maybe a death sentence from her own Jewish people for a perceived fornication, or the possibility of living the rest of her life as an outcast in shame. Yet she obeyed and trusted God. How many people have this kind of trust in God today? In her shoes, would you accept a challenge similar to this one and be found worthy for your willingness gaining God’s favor on your life? 

 

So the scandal hitting Satan in the face was the fact that a pure, humble person, Mary, honoring God would actually accept anything that God wanted to do in their life. Satan lost this same battle with Job (trying to prove that humans will betray God if subjected to adversities or seemingly unfair requests). Satan is persistent and what he wants is for everyone in the world to believe that it is unfair and unreasonable to accept the controversial things God wants you and I to believe or go through for His high purpose. The truth is many Mary’s do exist in the world, and humble sweet, obedient to God people do suffer rejection by the world but God protects them supernaturally as He protected Mary! Take note: Mary did not fear rejection; she preferred God’s will above all! Are you close enough to God to not fear but to trust and accept whatever God wants to do with your life?      

 

5. Here is a detail we must not overlook in the verses of today, what is implied by the part of the verses of today in verse 33? “And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 

 

Certain Jews were familiar with this prophecy and the local ones would also have known that Mary was from the house of David, a bloodline descendant. But the spiritual leaders of the Jews, the ones chosen of the 12 tribes to teach and live exclusively in service to God were the Levites. You had to be born within that family to grow up to be a high priest, leader, teacher, or guide. 

 

David was from the tribe of Judah so what do we conclude? The Levites must have been scandalized to discover that God would choose his Messiah from the tribe of Judah and not from their refined hierarchical spiritual ranks.  So Jesus came to establish a kingdom like David’s. Didn’t a form of this kingdom already exist within the Jews? The verses here indicate however that Jesus would reign over all the tribes of Jacob forever. This is in essence inferring a new kingdom that would be established over all people and His kingdom will be forever and ever. This was a scandal for the Levite bloodline!

 

6. Referring to a new kingdom presenting itself, scandals occur when the envious controlling people of Satan in this world get threatened by someone hinting that they may suddenly lose their power. Herod was scandalized when he found out through the wise men that a king was born in his region so decided to kill all the babies soon afterward! What a horrible way to prevent a new king from rising! In the 1980’s they found a mass grave of baby skeletons near Bethlehem in Israel confirming this account of what is recorded in God’s word. 

 

Imagine Roman soldiers pulling the babies from the arms of their mothers and fathers and killing them! The entire region of Bethlehem was scandalized by the fact that their despotic envious leader was killing all their babies over a jealous rant believing the prophecies were true, that a new king was born. But the infant king was protected by God and escaped to Egypt. Imagine Herod, a despotic man with absolute power to kill anyone and yet he was in fear of baby Jesus! 

 

7. So Christmas began with several scandals and true Christians that worship Jesus Christ still draw ire by those who will not accept the celebration of Jesus birth. When you declared that you had received Jesus Christ in your life and that you would serve Him, repent, and follow Him, did some of your friends or family get scandalized by your announcement? Mine did! Most everyone’s does!

 

The message of Jesus birth communicates that one who accepts Him must have a total change of mind, heart, and soul. The mind programed by the world, by Satan’s indoctrinations, refuses to accept the fact that God did send his perfect Son and that He is the savior of humanity in this disastrous world. It goes against our logic to believe in the virgin birth, but faith confirms to us it is miraculously possible.

 

Human hearts have to get over having pride to understand Christmas. Most people are shocked at how rich wise men and poor shepherds alike contained so much humility that they bowed to worship Jesus even when he was just an infant. To connect with Christmas one’s soul must merge with God’s spirit in obedience to become touched by the innocence and holiness which implicates one’s repentance. Mary’s heart was holy, so we get the message that it is imperative we too must submit to God’s will to bring about His plan for a new kingdom. The implication is that God expects that we let our lives get totally interrupted by Jesus birth and this creates an internal controversy that all of us must resolve. Scandal and all hell breaks loose when you speak up for Jesus and serve Jesus!

 

Accepting God’s kingdom means we leave behind our petty dreams of grandeur in order to adopt the kingdom dreams of Jesus, to bring about a new world with new loving people with hearts converted made new full of joy and love for God and their neighbor.

 

8. Jesus said that offenses (scandals) would come but he also said in Luke 7:23 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. And imagine today some people refrain from even pronouncing the words Merry Christmas because it offends some people! They replace Jesus with only gifts and Santa too!

 

Concerning Christmas and its original message that some deem offensive we can conclude that the people without faith, that people with mental confusion concerning the mechanics of God’s creation, that the people who reject God’s miracles, that the proud jealous people in high places, that the people governed by their own closed-minded cultures and base carnality, that the people who believe they run God’s kingdom or Jacob’s house already… all collectively are rejecting Jesus until this day! Christmas to them is an offense! Christmas to us who love Jesus, however, is a beautiful wonderful time to celebrate and remember the fulfilment of prophecy that a savior was coming and He did. It is a story of dedication and humility. It is a happy celebration that reminds you and me to be thankful, humble, pure, giving, and loving. Christmas is where our salvation began! Culture has jazzed it up with lights and decorations, but each year there is a new chance to tell the wonderful story of Jesus to others!

                 

Is there a controversy happening in your life? Is it from God to use you for something great? This Christmas don’t let the date pass you up without thanking God and appreciating what it meant for God’s love to be expressed through baby Jesus willing to come down in frail human flesh to be one of us. Merry Christmas and may Jesus’ love flood your soul!

Christmas Is About Bringing Odd People Together Who Normally Would Never Meet!

Christmas Is About Bringing Odd People Together!      By Kelly Durant 12-11-22

 

Psalm 68:6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

 

2. Sometimes I feel very sad for many people! You and I can all observe that there are a lot of people out there that have very few friends! They often don’t have any family nearby either! Often my wife and I will get a call from someone, can you take me to the hospital, can you take me to work? Can you help me move because I’m getting evicted? Too many people are very alone in this world!

 

We are here to serve one another in love and not let our right hand know what our left had is doing but I am shocked and saddened over the poverty of many people! It is a poverty not so much of a lack of food or money, but a poverty of having no friends or family! It’s sad when no one is willing to do anything for another, right? But God makes us meet people we normally wouldn’t meet!

 

Thank God Christmas can change this! Christmas is all about giving and receiving, and in supporting each other, in supporting strangers you may never even meet either! This happens when people buy gifts to donate to children. The kings gave gifts to Jesus but the gift of Maria and Joseph getting to make friends and meet new strangers such as the kings and the shepherds was what made it all special. 

 

3. The first strange encounter that Mary had was with the angel that told her she would bear a child by the Holy Spirit. Of course, messengers, such as angels, do not stick around for you to make friendships with, but Christmas would not be what it is without the sudden appearance of the angels. Christmas connected us humans with God’s angels, and that is a rare thing we must value!

 

The shepherds got to see all of the angels in heaven as well.  13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:  Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” 15 So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one another, “Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us.”  

 

So, the first ones on the first Christmas got to meet angels! Have you ever wondered how many people have been angels to people they didn’t know at all? This happens at Christmas time. Christmas has inspired many people to act as angels, to be messengers of the good news of the arrival of Jesus, and be generous to help people with gifts, and they are helping people they do not even know. 

 

4. Another unusual uniting of people was that of the shepherds meeting Joseph and Mary. This divine couple was chosen by God to raise the savior of the world, but they were nothing more than small town folks whose friendships probably did not extend any further than with their neighbors and family nearby.

 

So now they are making new friendships with the shepherds who live outside the city. Imagine a bunch of strangers arriving after your baby is born saying we have come here to this barn door to see you and to worship the newborn child?! It must have surprised them for sure!

 

Mary and Joseph made new friends that night! These were humble folks, and they were humble as well. What they had in common was they both experienced something heavenly and supernatural, and they both were aware that a chosen special child was born, Jesus the Christ.       

 

5. The next characters to appear on the scene were the kings of the Orient, the wise men. Think about this, these men were strangers and did not know each other until they met each other in Bethlehem after their long journey. They probably did not speak the same language, but they did have the same purpose in common, to meet Jesus! Here we see it again, Jesus is uniting people together.

 

They then went on to meet Mary, Joseph, and Jesus by following the unexplained phenomena of the star over Jesus’ temporary residence. These kings would never have left home and travelled for months had they not been on a spiritual mission to see the mystery at the end of their journey. They wanted friendship with the King of kings whose presence was foretold and foretold even in the stars!

 

These wise men knew to bring gifts, but how? They knew the star was leading them somewhere special, they knew they would meet someone special, but I suspect they really did not expect to find some common folks with a baby so small! What we observe here is that when you have Jesus with you, you can expect kings to come, pay respect, and be generous to support the mission of God’s work! Common people make friendships with the rich to do Jesus’ work!

 

6. I love the verse of study today with God’s promise of “God sets the solitary in families”. This is what Jesus was all about, to bring together you and me and all kinds of groups of people together that never would meet under ordinary daily circumstances. With Jesus we become family! Forget your flesh family as many of them may often let you down, Jesus gives you a real family in God!

 

I think most everyone, either rich or poor, live quite isolated from each other. But Jesus wants to bring us all together over Himself! Jesus is the supernatural uniting force that causes you and me to meet and to be friends with each other!

 

The people of the Christian faith travel to do mission work and make friendships that last a lifetime. Christians make deep friendships with unusual characters far and wide because it is all about Jesus! Jesus was the first one to get poor shepherds and rich kings to come together and be in awe at the work of God, was He not? With Jesus and your Christian family, you should never be alone!

 

7. Here is something to ponder, Jesus not only united odd people together, He was the first to unite us on all levels, a socio-economical-racial-&-religious one! He united the uneducated with the educated, which was Mary & Joseph with the shepherds, He was with the kings and wise men, and He is with you and me! KD 

 

Jesus united the rich and powerful with the common folks, Mary and Joseph with the Orient Kings. And here is another factor, the kings were of different races too, Jesus unites us from different races!

 

And what about religion? Jesus unites those of other faiths to Him! The kings had a religion that included astrology and who knows what else, they were not Christian before meeting Jesus. God loved them anyway and revealed Himself to them. Jesus and God brings us all together when often our own people will not be close to us. Spiritual brothers and sisters are formed over our common faith in Jesus, and we should value each other as family.  When Jesus called His disciples, they too were from very diverse backgrounds; Jesus was iconoclastic to the established set of societal customs. 

 

8. Psalm 68:6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land. So, we see now how God unites us, an odd family, over Jesus but what about the rebellious, the faithless, the haters and the ones who refuse to honor Jesus?

 

The rest of this verse makes it clear, if you have God with you, and His Son Jesus as your focus, you can expect prosperity and the blessings of God. It is an observable truth that many of the children of poor immigrants, or people in poverty, have risen above their level because they received the support of their family of friends, those from the Christian church community.

 

“But the rebellious dwell in a dry land”! In all families, and throughout the world, there are so many that seem to go from bad situations to worse ones and why? Often because they are just brute beasts, living selfishly to survive, never thinking of helping others, never considering making friends with people very unlike their own selves. If a person doesn’t have Jesus, either by ignorance or flat-out rejection, then this person will not learn the beauty of being made rich with friends and family that are near them everywhere.   

 

9. Christmas is about family and friends, and the sharing of good experiences together, even with people very different from you. Giving gifts and getting gifts can reveal to you that there are good people out there! Who knows, you might even make a new friend this Christmas.

 

Take advantage to tell others about Jesus this Christmas, that is the best gift you could ever give anyone! Giving Jesus to another means you are opening up the door for them to learn a new way of life, one where God is in control, one where God forgives, and one in knowing you are loved that you will go to heaven in the end! 

 

Because of Jesus, life is worth living! Because of Christmas we can all meet new people! I have made friendships with a few thousand people in my lifetime, and this never would have happened if it were not for Jesus telling me to go into all the world to preach the gospel. I have been to more than a hundred cities and Jesus has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams!

 

I thank God I have met you, you who are here today, and I met you because we share in the same faith, that of having Jesus! And I thank God you are in the Salvation Army serving God as well!

Christmas: A time to reflect on the EFFECT Jesus made

Christmas: A time to reflect on the effect Jesus made       Kelly Durant

 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

2. How many of you have seen a movie, “Back to the Future”? It was about a young man that went back into time and then goes back into the future, and he saw how it would be if something were changed. 

 

There is one part where something didn’t happen the way it was suppose to in the past, and if Marty McFly, the main character, didn’t get things the way they were supposed to happen while in the past, and in this case it was the getting together of his parents, then the world was going to become a different, horrible, hell of a place. 

 

This scenario caused me, and should provoke us all, to reflect and ask ourselves this question, what would the world be like today if it had not been for the birth of the Son of God on Christmas over 2,000 years ago? God made hundreds of things come together for Jesus birth at the right place and time.

 

3. Imagine a world with people who are living as Jesus commanded, as salt and light, who are following Jesus’ love and salvation, how would that world be? We could have the ‘kingdom of God’ on earth! Now, imagine a world without the leadership of God’s righteous people, without God’s people doing good, without missionaries bringing a better standard to the pagan idol worshippers, without the message of eternal life and the forgiveness for sins through Christ. This world would be a worse hell than what it already is! 

 

Without Jesus the world would be a thousand times more full of evil, with more human sacrifices than our current infanticide ones; we would be overcome by violence and war as before the flood ‘as in the days of Noah’. There would gross darkness on the people, being devoid, evil, and ignorant. Starvation and misery would prevail more than what it does today. When the European missionaries went out to reach the world with Jesus travelling by ships, establishing colonies worldwide, it is recorded in the history books that they brought prosperity and peace in many places. 

 

Even in the 1700 and 1800s there was still cannibalism on many islands and places, along with idolatry, human sacrifice, and the slave trades. Where the people had never heard the gospel of Jesus, they lived in constant war with their neighbors. It has been the Christians who helped the world progress out of the dark ages and the ones who founded most all of the prestigious colleges of high learning world-wide. It was the Christians who developed the world scientifically, through Galileo, Pascal, and others. It was the Christians who fought to free those enslaved. The world cannot deny that Jesus’ gospel has brought more peace and development wherever it has been practiced. The problem is it must be practiced to work!

 

4. Jesus was the best gift this world has ever received from God! But let’s look at what attributes were necessary in order for there to be the desired effect by God. First, there had to be a willingness to give on His part. God loved the world and gave us Jesus and He too gave of his own self. He renounced heaven, a place of pure perfection and love and peace in order to come here on earth to give Himself to live a life in frail human flesh. He knew His life was going to end torturous but victorious being a sacrifice on the cross, dying in a horrible manner to redeem whosoever would receive Him! Realize this, Jesus’ resurrection means that He can give anyone anywhere the gift of eternal life if you and I, or anyone, chooses to belong to Him! There is no gift that could be better, ever!

 

The first thing that Christmas should do is convict us to give, to give our lives in obedience to Jesus! He gave the example, he was born in a humble little manger, and came not to be rich and spoiled, nor powerful as the kings of earth are, but he came to serve and to give his life for the souls of us all! 

 

There are many people though that live by the contrary. They believe that Christmas is a time to receive and to get, not to give, forgetting the whole picture of Jesus’ life. We must give to be blessed!

 

5. I recall that as a child I got picky and demanding about what I wanted my mother to give me for Christmas and that was being spoiled and wrong, but it happens often with all kids and adults. Since I had no father in the home, my mother always tried to make it up by giving me many toys. 

 

The toys were fun but only for a few days before the reality of life would return. All that I had received did not bring me a lasting happiness, only a temporary one. It was later in my life that I learned the joy of giving after I dedicated my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

If you want a lasting happiness…then give! It is more blessed to give than to receive! One more time, Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive! We need to teach ourselves and our children to give to others, so we don’t just think about their selves at Christmas time. 

 

6. Give your life in service to God, give your time, your money, your will, everything; and if you do, then you will be following the words and example of Jesus correctly and you will be celebrating what Christmas should really be all about! 

 

The problem is that many people get so materialistic and worried about gifts and the Christmas party and the food that they forget who the party is for and how He wants those at His party to be behaving. Imagine that, Jesus is being left out of His own party in many homes!

 

Another attribute is that we must announce the coming of Jesus, ahead of time. That is what the tradition of the ‘Advent’ is for. John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, recognized Jesus before He was born. The message prepared was that Jesus would bring us peace, hope, and salvation and for all the world. What did God have all the angels announce to the humble poor shepherds when Jesus was born? They all declared, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will to men (all humanity)”. If God’s angels praised Him, how much more we must praise Him and give glory to Him!

 

God showed His love and favor to all of us in all the world for all people and for all time. He gave us a new hope, a new life, a life of peace, an internal peace that gives us strength.  He gave us good will, and God gave His example of healing goodness. Without Jesus we would not have learned how real goodness, righteousness, and love was to be practiced! We would also no know that we could have eternal life in heaven either. 

 

7. The effect or reaction God wants by Jesus coming is that we honor Him as the angels did, knowing that the way we honor him is by sharing the story of His life obeying His words sharing salvation! We must give our lives as Jesus gave His. 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This verse is a follow up to John 3:16 which should be the effect Jesus has on us. How has Jesus affected you? Has His effect on you made you do something to make the world a better place? Have you shared His gift of salvation and love?

 

History proves that we as humans usually behave as brute beasts, full of jealousy for power, full of hate, adulteries, selfishness, and even murders, but when we pause to remember the birth of Jesus at Christmas, we are giving ourselves and everyone in the world a chance to see hope and love: that there is an example of a pure life much better than what we ourselves could ever be. We accept Jesus at Christmas and accept that we must change our lives in order to be like Him! Those that have done this, those that have allowed Jesus to take effect in their heart, mind, and soul, they are the world changers! 

 

Jesus caused prostitutes, drunken partiers, greedy tax collectors, and religious hypocrites to repent and live a holy life! What a powerful effect! For over 2,000 years now His story from start to finish combined with His God-breathed Words of teachings have changed millions of lives for the better! The effect is peace with God and freedom from the desire to sin! I know about this because I am one of those whose life turned around completely! What an effect Jesus made on me to leave behind sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, and new age religions! 

 

Please share Jesus, in your giving and receiving, share His story, and share your story of the effect Jesus has made on your life this Christmas!