God Owns All Things, Share Back His Part!

God Owns All Things, Share Back His Part! (Giving is worship helping others)      by Kelly Durant 

Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

 2. Whenever you or I bring up money matters most people clam up like one of these Florida clams and change the subject, right? Most people consider their money matters very private. Why? Because having an abundance of money, or not having enough money makes life complicated and people quickly feel intimidated, embarrassed or threatened when talking about it. My opinion is it’s best to not be rich or poor! A Proverb I read stuck with me, and I accept it. All you and I really need to be happy is moderation … Proverbs 30:8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.

So many times people are jealous of others who they think have more than them. The funny thing is most of the time most of what people have is owed to their bank on the credit card! Instead of the envious derogatorily saying, ‘Oh what a nice house and car you have’, they should say, ‘Oh what nice credit you have!’ The perception of what people appear to have is often very misleading. Appearances really do deceive as millions of people lose everything overnight every year! People have gotten mad at me more than once when I have given a bag of canned goods to a person driving a Mercedes. I tell them it is not our place to judge; for all we know it could be their car is getting repossessed tomorrow!

Today I will bring up the topic of what belongs to the Lord and what is being lent to us by the Lord in this life on this temporary planet. The Lord, contrary to the belief of some, is not against wealth or political power and He does grant it to his children. Joseph, Daniel, David, and many men of God had money and power in the past and they honored God with it sacrificing in worship; and also they used it to provide for those under their care. Proverbs 11:24 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. So what about those who had or have little?

3. When we look at Jesus we observe he accumulated no wealth at all but instead He had wealth by His powerful life! Matthew 8:20 And Jesus saith unto him, ‘The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.’ Why did Jesus model poverty and not exemplify wealth? He was too busy with his ministry and message to be involved with the management of wealth. Buying and selling, looking for big profits in business opportunities would have been a self-defeating time wasting endeavor for Jesus while preaching about the eternal kingdom of God.

Jesus did not need money! Do you recall the feeding of the 5,000, how Jesus without owning a bakery or a fishing business fed everyone with Him? Mark 6: 41 “And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. 42 And they did all eat, and were filled.43 And they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments, and of the fishes.” Notice that Jesus without money took care of the people who were hungry, and we should do the same. But Jesus was the Son of God who could do miracles, what about you and me? Well, we are still called to collect resources to feed the hungry And Jesus even said we too could do miracles if we only believed!

God has created us all differently to apply our different gifts in this life and some people are simply called to administrate more material things than others. And then some people are called more to tend to the spiritual affairs of the gospel but not many as we hear from Jesus in Matthew 22:14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.” If you can obey God to the point that you have a balance in all that you do materially and spiritually, then you are residing within His purity and perfection. Proverbs 11:1 A false balance (being too materialistic or too much of anything) is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.

4.  I think all of us have dreamed of having lots of money, right? I know as a young man starting a family in South America I dreamed of gaining more in life but gaining wealth never seemed to come into fruition with my calling to serve God.  I use to ride in 6 or more buses and taxis every day and I wished to be richer and have a car. All of us were most of the time able to live in decent neighborhoods and even though we had little, I know we had a lot more than most all the other poor people out there just down the street. I learned to appreciate the beautiful things in life, the Word of God, my energetic children, just having plenty of food and clothing and not worrying about having any money being left over after paying rent. Proverbs 13:7 “There is that maketh himself rich, yet hath nothing: there is that maketh himself poor, yet hath great riches”. In actuality what makes a person rich toward God is living as the Word of God teaches! I feel like I have been happy for the most part of my life so for me that is wealth!

From my many past experiences I have learned to appreciate living moderately. Why? I have seen it all!  I made friends with the rich, poor, and those in between and I got exposed to many lifestyles. If you do this you too will learn of the many distinct afflictions each class suffers from. In Bolivia I tutored several students after teaching in the daytime and I use to go into the homes of multi-millionaires some of whom had 10 or more servants and they owned factories with hundreds of employees. I would help their children with their homework in English and I observed many fine art collections on mansion walls and beautiful luxurious rooms. I was, however, always troubled by their stress, lifestyle, insecurities, and inconveniences.

It became evident to me that many rich people live in fear. I can also tell you stories of those I knew who had relatives kidnapped for ransom in Colombia! But back to Bolivia, in one home the attack dogs (German shepherds) had to be chained up so I could walk in the front door. In another house where I started tutoring, I was interrogated extensively and then they insisted on taking me home to see where I lived. Often in 5 minute conversations with the parents they could complain about lazy employees in one breath and then boast that they could not wait to go to spend a month in the USA at Disney in the summer. I lost any envy I had for their lifestyle just learning about their troubles, lawsuits, pickiness, and psychotic paranoias.   

5. Why are we exploring money and how it affects people and what people do with it? Because…Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. All things are God’s but people quite often are not glorifying God with the riches they are entrusted with. Many are not sharing what they should with God. People get the illusion that what they gain is all theirs and they forget it is God who gives them the physical strength, intelligence, and ability to earn it. Riches are a curse for some: I have met many sons of the rich who have wasted much of the family fortune in riotous living like the prodigal son. We all have seen God blesses hard honest work, but too few people give back to God’s work by some means to show appreciation to Him. We all should give to God’s work.

I recall one time in Santa Cruz, Bolivia I had a neighbor who was your typical worldly person who did not go to any church and I always invited him to my house to come to our Bible studies. He wanted his son to speak English with me and when we would share a coffee often in the evenings, we would talk about the Bible. One day he asked me, “Why is it all of you Christians think that people like me should give up our hard earned money to support you or the church?” He thought that to give up his money was unfair since the money he had was his!

I showed him the verse of today Proverbs 13:22 A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. I explained to him that he was a sinner and that it is God’s idea that all sinners end up giving their wealth to God, and the way to do it was to give it to the ‘Just’ people doing God’s work. I explained, ‘If you will not obey Jesus and go preach the gospel every day as He commanded, then you should be supporting someone who is’! It was uncomfortable for him to think that he was considered to be a sinner because He did not honor God realizing God owned everything. He started giving us a donation after that from time to time. In the end we are all saved sinners and it is only right that you and I support God’s work with our substance. The gospel is free but it does incur costs in materials and manpower to get it out as well as to truck other donated goods to the people.

6.  All of us are familiar with the giving of tithes, the 10%, the first fruits for God, as done in the Old Testament; it was to support the priests who ministered full time the things of God to the faithful. In the New Testament we read about the life of Jesus and Paul and how others supported them in their mission. Luke 8:3 And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance. The plan of God is… 1 Corinthians 9:14 Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. Each believer supports those who do God’s work according to how they are able.

It really is a paradox but I have seen this everywhere I have ever been, that those that give to God’s work seem to always be the ones most blessed by God! God rewards the faithful givers with more security and frequently with good incomes. But the people who have almost nothing we must encourage to give anyway so they will get blessed too. We all know that giving to God’s work is the way He teaches us sacrifice and practicing that blesses us. Mark 12:41 “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. 42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. 43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: 44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” 

Jesus and His disciples passed the collection plate and all those serving God depend on others to support them. 2 Timothy 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. God always blesses a person’s generosity and sacrifice! God’s wealth should be used as we use it in all the Salvation Army Corps or churches, not just for our own expenses of the facility, bills, and salaries, but most importantly we use it for helping those in need in the name of Jesus Christ! A big part of God’s work is blessing those who have nothing providing for them help however needed. We cannot have the wherewithal though unless we all put bread in the common pot so we have something to draw from.

7. God owns it all! Psalm 50:10 “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills”. It is obvious that neither you nor I created this world and that God the Creator is the owner of all things. Even our own bodies are on loan from God! God expects us to invest in Him and we do that by showing gratitude to Him by expressions of worship, service, and love. Giving is a part of worship.

Giving is an expression of love! From the beginning in Genesis chapter 4 Abel showed love with his gift to God but Cain gave with a bad attitude. Giving to a work that grows God’s kingdom on earth is what Jesus set up. His kingdom has many expressions through many Christian missions and churches but personally I think we all should invest in a church that uses their funds to serve others alleviating the suffering of those in need while offering them the gospel. Consider that what you are giving to His work here is well invested: It is applied without discrimination to help people here in the USA but also in 130 countries to get food, clothing, education, toys, book bags, camping trips, mission trips, and offer the opportunity to learn the Bible, serve in disaster services, and help in the community dozens of different ways.

The problem with the world is the majority of people are feeding Satan’s kingdom of consumption instead of God’s Kingdom. With the unconverted there is no 10% going to God, but instead 100% wasted on their own bodies having carnal appetites consuming all things in excess. Imagine in the final judgment the fate of those who only served themselves, of those who wasted all their money with corrupting pleasures and gave nothing for God’s work. When I was age 20 reality hit me by the Holy Spirit that I was just a condemned selfish consumer of illicit luxuries producing nothing beautiful for God. The unconverted selfish ones will be like the case of the rich man in Luke 16:22 “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame”.

8. So if you are decided to give but have doubts you can find research on which churches are the most worthy using their funds most wisely (these are the churches that practice holiness, truth, and serve the suffering world), and you can also of course find out which churches abuse their funds most. Most non-profits in the USA have CEOs and a majority of them greatly misuse funds. Read up on giving in general. The Barna Group always does a great accurate job of compiling statistics and I recommend an article at this website.   https://www.barna.org/component/content/article/36-homepage-main-promo/606-barna-update-02-19-2013#.VOvYAPnF-So  Many people are amazed how the Salvation Army spends only 18% of its funds on administration. It’s too bad the world does not know it is Jesus Christ that inspires this work to continue on with holiness and honesty with people serving with no elevated salaries. We have a double, even triple check system by auditors so that it is next to impossible to steal funds. I do not even handle the checkbook but rather it is Area Command and I like it this way. This system has prevented embezzlement and engenders trust.

  

According to the Barna report above a large majority of people do give to the church or charity but it is usually less than $500 per year. People who year after year give their 10% tithes to the church are in a special honored class and all of us must respect and admire their generosity, faith, and worship! There are several of you here that do give generously and you are one of the reasons this Corps is surviving financially. May God bless you greatly for doing your part!

9.. Our tithes have decreased about 20% over the past 2 years due to some of you losing jobs or changing to jobs that pay less, so our decrease is not altogether the fault of you being less generous. The economic crises of this decade have stripped away thousands of dollars of income from the middle class. There are fewer jobs of late, this area does not have the manufacturing capacity it did 20 years ago, and maybe only 60% of the people in this immediate area even have a job! But for those who just give anyway, God knows your heart and He provides and blesses! Many of you are older or unemployed and live from government checks and these subsidies in our 318 million USA population means an approximate 149,000,000 people are getting several hundreds of dollars monthly! No wonder the USA is $7 Trillion dollars more in debt now than what it was 6 years ago! But people’s checks have been reduced; the military is decreasing, so the feds are due an audit!

Many charities and churches are down in their income due to many factors in society. About a million groups compete for your donated dollars! The combined income of all charities annually in the USA is around $600 Billion but even this is not enough to cover for the needs of those in hard times. Many millions remain homeless and desperate! Imagine the combined amount of money help from the government and from all the charities and churches still do not provide enough to solve our society’s needs. Corruption is what is killing us! A lack of integrity and holiness! A de-Christianization of our society! If we could win others over to the good side and have a more addiction free society, a more greed free world, if all the money spent on drugs, alcohol, prostitution, bribes, and embezzlements were self-controlled, I am sure we could have an extra trillion dollars a year for truly righteous causes! It is money in the hands of evil people destroying our communities, not the money going to churches!

10. It is not God leaving people poor, it is man’s injustice to his fellow man leaving Him poor! Why? Because people are not obeying God’s Word, honoring Him and helping the needy! People are simply not honoring God with what belongs to Him! A fool and his money are quickly departed! Proverbs 23:5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. People are unjust with their own selves mismanaging their money and not putting God first and they never have enough as a consequence. They have little happiness and they should practice this verse.. Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Between family and community I know about a thousand people (and have known of hundreds more in years past) who live clean holy lives. They do not consume drugs or alcohol; they work hard and never accept corrupt money, they contribute to God’s work to support a mission or church and help people in need. And what do all of these people have in common? They are all authentic Christians! Jesus is the only salvation for the world to turn the tide of corruption around and save us all from this course that is headed for a crash! Satan siphons off most all the world’s money for evil and destructive causes even though God owns it all. He is the master thief! To counter this Jesus taught us to give and to share the wealth with the suffering ones; and His way is with generosity helping and healing others.

The greatest mission we have is to convert others to Jesus! Only Jesus can save others out of their poverty, corruption, and guilt, and convert all the world’s wasteful destructive useless eaters into productive helpful wise investors in God’s kingdom. Give 10% or all you can and see how God will resolve things in your life! Put Him first with your time, talent, and treasure and notice how your life will start getting blessed! We give to God because it is an integral part of our worship and obedience. May God bless you as you do your part!                  

Your Situation Is Very Temporary! Focus on the Eternal!

Your Situation Is Very Temporary! Focus on the Eternal!               By Kelly Durant

1 Peter 1:23-25

23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

2 Corinthians 4:18

While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2. Did you ever think like me as a kid? You smash your finger really hard and it is swollen and hurts so bad it takes you forever to go to sleep because of the throbbing and you just wish your accident would not be real? Then you wake up and to your horror your finger is still pulsating and hurting? You hoped your pain was just a nightmare that would be gone by the next day but instead you have to endure many days of pain until it heals. Have you gone through these types of things in your life? But thank God the finger healed and you no longer think about it!

All of us without a doubt have to endure things we detest in life. Sometimes pain is from your physical hurt body and other times pain is from your mind when you see no light at the end of the tunnel. And then other times pain comes from compassion and empathy; a transferring of despair injected into your being from the sufferings that another is enduring. Pain or oppression may be produced by cruel people not of God as well. 

I do not like pain and thank God the word of God helps me get through it! 2 Corinthians 4:17 “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;”  So when you pray, remind yourself that whatever it is you are going through is just “but for a moment”. In life nothing is easy but remind yourself that God has something better for you after it all passes! All things in this world are temporary, be they living quarters, driver’s licenses, or clothing styles. Speaking of passing, first let’s determine the nature of how temporary all things are!

3. The problem we have as humans is a perception one; a lack of a big picture perception. In the forest we often only see one big tree and we think all things will remain as they currently are forever and that we are going to be here on earth years without end. How easily we blindly forget that this world is not our home; that we are just passing through. 

Problems or prosperity are very temporary! Look at it this way, losses come quickly! How many people gather their millions of dollars thinking they will always have them? Sadly some people gain prosperity by evil deeds, ripping off investors or tax paid money, ripping off their workers, even a few evil preachers rip off faithful givers, and others a few blocks from here are selling drugs or exploiting children and women as slaves in the sex trade! But how many times do we witness that these same rich people die young or lose it all! Jesus spoke about this. The wealth of the rich in Jesus time has pretty much vanished, right? Only Roman ruins remain in bankrupted Italy! No dynasty of Herod or Cesar lives today with wealth from their forefathers.

Luke 12:16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

There are many warnings in God’s Holy scriptures to the oppressive, ungenerous rich who invoke suffering. Commenting on this topic I am not referring to those who have wealth by God’s blessings because they worked hard to get it. I just wish to emphasize that wealth frequently tends to be very temporary! Jesus told the young rich ruler to “sell all that you have and give to the poor” but he failed the test. Jesus had compassion on the poor since the wealth of many is too extreme and excessive. It has always been this way in throughout history. Here I found a chart to show you just how rich the rich are in the USA. (see chart).  James 5:1 “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.” Why this warning? Jesus wants all to invest in the eternal kingdom of God which is an investment you will never loose! The main idea is that one must support God’s work in a manner that alleviates the pain and suffering of others!

4. So what has been established in this temporary moment in time spent with you discussing this matter? That all things pass away! Pain or pleasure, it all passes. Even this message will fade from your memory shortly, some after a few days, and for others it may vanish after about 5 minutes! I know there are many people who love spending hours in movies or playing dominoes or basketball, but to sit through a 20 minute sermon seems like an eternity to some! Working, studying, resting, all activities are always temporary. The Word of God however is forever but our circumstances are always temporary like the grass that dies and is forgotten.

What is predestined in life is that all situations will always be just for a moment in time, whether they be moments of pleasures and wealth, or moments of pain and suffering. The shifting of the power of nations has always been changing. Some of you older folks know the song, “The times, they are a changing”. Look how the world has changed in the past 50 years! Nothing is permanent, all things change but God never changes. No matter our up or down circumstances, His promises are true, God’s holiness remains, and His mercy and love endures towards us forever! His Word is forever Malachi 3:6 (a) For I am the Lord, I change not.  

The problem with time and our situations and our perception of things is that time in our minds transforms into intense (or dull) recorded experiences relative to our feelings. In the good times time flies by fast, but in the bad times time drags on and on. You are familiar with Einstein’s theory of relativity, that all things around you appear to speed up or slow down according to your position of speed in relation to what’s near you. You must control how this moment affects you by believing God is here!  The earth is spinning at about 1,000 miles per hour right now and yet we never seem to feel it, right? God is in control of your and my life and quite often we rarely take the time to sense it: feelings in moments are relative. There are many invisible forces of God at work within you and without you! God knows everything about you, even the number of hairs on your head! We must thank Him in every moment as He has a plan.

5. Just to point out how amazingly temporary you and your situation is I would like to share an interesting fact with you. Did you know nothing about your body’s cells are the same as they were a decade ago? Your body remakes all of its 50 to 75 trillion cells between every 7 to 10 years. You have been renewed by a few dozens of thousands of cells just in the time you have been sitting here listening to me! You are a conscious, self-regenerating miracle machine!  http://www.livescience.com/33179-does-human-body-replace-cells-seven-years.html

Life has a start and an end because we live in the ever changing material world; a world of highly sophisticated organized bio and physical matter. You were born as an innocent baby but overtime your increasing size, age, and circumstances forced you to change and you become responsible for yourself. No one can stop the changes and the seasons of life, it is God’s design as so precisely articulated in Ecclesiastes 3. No one can change the fact that ”All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth…” The reality is you and I have a beginning and you and I will have an end. We may gain a temporary abundance or we might be in a time of the “lean cows”. But all circumstances are what? Very temporary! Paul says, Philippians 4:11Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. God can inspire us to be happy despite our changing conditons.

Take into account apart from your temporary body you also have a spirit, a form of a piece of God’s consciousness. God is eternal, so if you have a spirit that will be released from this temporary body one day, where will your eternal spirit spend eternity? All cultures have been obsessed with this destiny since the beginning. Many cultures obsessed over if they would be found holy and worthy enough to abide eternally with God. This worry can be over once you accept Jesus, who is eternal and proved it by his resurrection! John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Jesus is an eternal circumstance changer! Before Jesus you paid with a second death for disobeying God’s laws, but now you are forgiven so you start over having a clean slate. We must concern ourselves much more over the eternal things than over our temporary situations. The soul’s eternal situation matters more than the body’s temporary one!  

    

6. And I am sorry to have to warn you but the connection you may currently have with God may not remain so strong unless you work at it. In any relationship it is up to you to cultivate it and keep it going. Your closeness to God depends on you and your spiritual life development, whether you are praying and getting filled with His word reading it daily and obeying it living life in holiness.

The 9^th doctrine of the Salvation Army states “That continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ”.  Scripture confirms with many real life stories how some people remained faithful yet others lost their connection with God. Unfaithful Israel of old was referred to as being like an unfaithful harlot in the Old Testament which exposed the sad reality of a people not remaining in God. People have a choice daily to keep their love for God and Jesus going or not.  Whatever choices you make determines your eternal future! Revelation 2:10 (b)… be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.  

John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;” We choose to continue on with our faith growth in God’s Word or not. Also, it is clear that we must time and again depend on the Holy Spirit to renew us. Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” It is up to you and I to get renewed and washed clean from our sins frequently! We need exposure to the eternal things of God to gain the power to move past our temporary contaminated human condition!

7. And on the bright side, let me give you an example of how an unpleasant temporary situation can be made into a good one. General Catherine Booth, the wife of the founder of the Salvation Army, when she was around 12 years old in the mid-1800s was bedridden and sick for about a year. What did she do? She read the Bible several times over, and later over again and again to add up to more than a dozen times. She applied her temporary situation as a time to prepare herself, and the Word of God formed her into a powerful spiritual leader! Like it or not we must accept the fact that God wants to use everything we go through, and all that we have been through, for His good purpose in the here and now.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. The factor is though, we must be in His will because if not we will have suffered everything in vain; years of temporary pain can be for nothing if we are ignoring what God has for us to do in the present.

8. How many of you feel like you are in a dark tunnel right now? When you are in a long unexpected tunnel it may be easy to forget the better times from before and the long bumpy detour of setbacks seems to go on forever, right?

Maybe you are temporarily down due your own poor choices, or possibly the abusive ones in positions of power could be to blame for provoking your circumstances, but God knows all and God sees injustices.  It is a fact that the rich are exponentially getting much richer in this past decade while the middle class is now the poor class, and the poor class is suffering greatly! Despite discouragement we have our hope in God’s promises. Here is a powerful Psalm;  

Psalm 37 1. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

5 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. 6 And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

7 Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. 8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

9. Many people, more than you ever imagined, have lived through many months of sickness, many years of financial drought, or many weeks of depression being stressed over hard situations. But what we must not lose sight of is that God has a purpose for all things that each one of us goes through. There is a light at the end of the tunnel that is always temporary!

My wife and I for our 14 years of time as missionaries in South America literally cried in prayer many times when we seemed one step away from being homeless with several small kids to take care of. But God always came though time and time again and supplied by some miraculously unexpected means! Our situations turned out to be only temporary! I know by experience you can improve your circumstances for good things to come your way by trusting in Jesus. When you are born of God in Him,  you gain that which never corrupts, and you will see that God has your back, and that in all situations you may despair in you will always only be there in that hard spot temporarily! God is preparing  you and me for the eternal!

Now we are closing, and my time with you has been temporary. Life is very temporary! All things will pass! Keep in mind that all the evil people will pass away too! Jesus will return and the word of God and His kingdom of love and light will reign and endure forever! Don’t worry about all the oppressive rich and political powers as they are very temporary.  All poor conditions and injustices are temporary! Our hope is real in the Word of God. Heaven is real and eternal! Live claiming the promises of God, and know that His Son Jesus who resurrected will also resurrect you and you will reign forever and ever incorruptible with Him!  

Judge People? No! Love People and God!

Judge People? No! Love People and God!                                        by Kelly Durant  2-15-15

Matt. 22:35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

2. Have you ever seen unusual couples? I hear in Cuba today you find several old men with young girls. In life we often hear the phrase, “You don’t have the right to judge me!” Often this type of shout out is coming from a person who is feeling guilty and they do not want to be reminded of what they know is not quite right in their life so their defense is to try to disarm you. We often hear this concerning matters over people’s love life, right? In general, pure loving sacrificial faithful people pleasing God alleviating suffering invoke praise, but selfish unloving rude people who use others provoke their own rejection and disgust. Like it or not there is no way in life to stop people from always mentally quantifying one’s attributes, attitudes, sizing up position, and possessions. All day long people will always be sizing you and everyone up whether you are right or wrong compared to their standards: but God has His own standards of loyalty and purity. People always question, are you rich enough, strong enough, spiritual enough, professional enough or (be warned!) dumb enough to serve their purposes? But people are either connected to other people due to God or due to the devil!

We are in February and I wish it were a month of real love, but sadly it often turns out to be a season of abuse with 2 people using each other for their own personal interests in the name of love! And later the hate for the other turns out to be more intense than what the love was! Because few are the Christians who love God and each other with a pure heart being unjustly ridiculed by the anti-Christ hateful jealous people it means that we are living out the prophesy of Jesus “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matt 24:12). Is your love cold? Pray that you never turn cold; ask God to keep you warm and loving!

In my personal testimony I always emphasize that it was the love I received from others that changed me. Love shown to me made me want to live for love and be in love with God, life, and others! It turns out that those who hugged me even though I was a stranger, those who prayed for me because they really cared, those that connected deep into my soul through my eyes, those that fed my soul with words from God were Christians who loved Jesus. Their influence impacted me so much that I realized that all I had to offer others was trash by comparison. I have lived to serve Jesus for 39 years because His love is amazing, powerful, intense, overwhelming, deep, and eternal and this is the most extreme best kind of love I could ever love anyone with!  

3. So, for couples, (or even singles) what was it like when you were in love? Everything with your new found love was fun and even the muddy streets were beautiful and full of color, right? Even brown mud sparkles with colors in the sunlight, have you ever noticed?  When one is young and in love the depressing news of the world and your mundane schedule of work or study does not distract you from the dreams you have of when you would be able to spend time with your love.  It is an obsession and craziness that we as humans crave, right?  

This being the month of love everyone should reread Song of Solomon. Here is a vs. 8:7 “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned”. What this verse is telling us is many people would give up everything they own just to have love and many people have done exactly that! It may turn out good or it may turn out bad when one, “gives all the substance of his house for love”. But this we observe in real life, when someone is in love it seems to take over all of one’s emotions and judgment. Some people do crazy things when they get crazy in love! But if the so called ‘love’ is worldly and possessive with a demonic jealousy, people have been known to spy, stalk, harass, or even kill the one they supposedly love thinking that’s just what love does! (But actually it would not be love but rather envy, lust, hate, and murder!)

When you and I were first in love we were solely focused on how to make the other one happy, right? And you were electric and in the clouds as your love was making you feel like you were high on drugs and it was a better feeling than being drunk! Song of Solomon 1 :2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine. Did you ever experience a love like that? I hope so! If not yet, you still can put wood in the fire, right? God answers prayer!

4. Was your experience that way for you? Have you ever really been in crazy in love? What a sickening reality it is to conclude that for the past 40 years real love, pure love, the innocent love from God that is intended to be shared amongst couples and a family has been defiled and dirtied in every way possible by the world. I feel sorry for the recent generations because they have not known love in a more protected unblemished sense, in a more pure manner.

Before I recall many television shows with couples in love like on 'The Brady Bunch', and happy couples and families in the sitcoms were the norm. These were produced by the generation that said “There are no atheists in foxholes”: the generation of our parents who suffered through the horrors of WWII that had a strong faith in God and they wanted to create a bright future for their offspring in the booming 1950s. There was a healthy appetite in society for love to be the highlight and healthy families endured into the '60s but started ending in the '70s with shows that mocked fathers and families like “All in the Family”.  So what happened to make this climate of 'love' dissipate? It is an obvious conspiracy to destroy love and families.

There has been progressively these past years a relentless concert of opposition against God’s pure love by opulent ones who have sold their souls to Satan. They have become disdainfully too present in the content of books, magazines, news, music, internet sites, and movies opening Pandora's Box defiling innocent youth and the pure minded. The continuous suggestive attack is that corruption must be more pleasureful and rewarding than the simple love that God had originally designed to be shared. By experience I, and millions, affirm that this is a lie! The reality is happy people, people who are in love, are people with very alert healthy pure minds. A married happy couple is a powerful example of God’s love in the community! An active love and heart increases blood flow and I believe it even improves one’s intelligence. A happy couple in love resists all outside threats of attacks of filth and corruption because purity in love is worth fighting for!  

5. No sane person would ever trade a pure love, a high in the clouds feeling of warmth and security, an inserted eternal attribute, for a strange temporary stressing feeling of excitement which leaves one feeling shameful knowing God’s law of what is right and what is wrong.  

Satan's scheme is one of dominating everyone in this world but love dissolves evil and controlling domination! Satan’s theme in all flashy productions, or in dictators, is always domination and submission and he accomplishes it by fear with the motive of eliminating the most powerful force in the world, love!  1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Satan, the first rebellious angel who precipitated His own condemnation for rejecting God’s love, who lives with His own rejection complex, who demands the worship of Himself by horrific acts of evil, repeatedly tempts all to disobey God and insult God by not loving and obeying Him. Don’t we all see that? Evil people, even under the guise of love, trying to imitate a counterfeit love, invite and provoke others to participate in their activities which will condemn and enslave them.  The ultimate consequences of not living and loving within the context of God’s design is fear, shame, and solitude. The final consequence for a lack of love is a spirit that will be chained in hell because if not caged and confined it will continually contaminate and destroy all others that it comes in contact with. No love? Then no trust or freedom for one under God’s rule!   

6. All throughout time, for the manipulation of the masses, the evil few who are ambitious of greed and power degrade, ignore, and mock the love of God. Destroying love in general for them is a general goal! For fear to replace love, there must always be a changing the game; a purposeful misapplication of the rules which is bold hypocrisy and injustice. Subjugation can only come about by frustration, discouragement, and fear and this includes the sacrilegization of everything pure and lovely that inspires hearts to love God and create a perfect happy world!  

Certain political and religious groups by their manipulation have satanically perfected the art of domination, submission, and the desecration of love quite effectively! Take into account, only Christianity proclaims that “God is love”. (I John 4:8) Review all world cultures from the start, Egypt, Babylonia, Greece, Rome, the Mongols, the Vikings, the Aztecs and Incas; all of them made war, took slaves and committed atrocities in the name of their false gods with murderous satanic appetites (Diametrically opposed to our God of Love!). The crimes of war, murder, rape, thievery, slavery, and countless other abuses against innocent ones conjures up a terrible nauseating feeling that provokes one to question, has there ever been real love in the world?

For me the obvious is the world only learned about love, real love, God’s love, after Jesus Christ came and lived it out, healing others and showing it by sacrificing himself as the payment for the forgiveness of all sins. Love how I see it, if being from God, if not defined within the context of sacrifice and forgiveness has no eternal value. The love that Jesus gives to all is what makes us feel like a new creature through the Holy Spirit and His love is our only hope to save others and prepare them for a future world of heaven; the kingdom of God where love reigns!

7. Consider this, God is love, so this implies that in essence worshipping love is worshipping God! If you live to love, if you live to show love, and if you do kind deeds for others proving you love them despite their faults that you do forgive them, then you are obeying what Jesus taught. Jesus was the embodiment of pure love! People who truly love are lovers of Jesus!

John 13: 34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

This love applies within the context of us being his disciples or followers, and His love applies to couples, families, other fellow believers, and our love even must extend to loving our enemies! Luke 6:35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.  Do you have so much love you are compassionate with the unlovely and those who deserve none? Jesus did! We must fall in love with Jesus to imitate Him fully!

8. Deduction: some of the people of the world doing wrong things are right about one thing, that I am not in an appropriate position to judge them over their love relationships! I am not commanded to judge other people but I am commanded to love them! I witness the acts of people and I, like anyone of you, are unable to avoid automatic conclusions about whether a person is doing an action in love or not. But only God is the judge and those who fail to love, for those that fail to love Jesus and love as He taught, are sadly steering the destiny of their soul towards a crash chosen by their own devises and actions. Rejection of God’s love manifested in Jesus is the worst sin of all because it eliminates the possibility of a person’s soul ever learning to love as God intended. God’s love is in essence His holiness and it transforms our souls so we are worthy to share heaven with Him: so in effect love (God’s) is what enables one live forever!   

The reality is we as humans “feel” love, and we also feel when it is absent! We know in our spirit that those that love others are proving they love God as well.  And just loving God with “with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” is enough to induce a love in your spirit for all other people. Love begets love! Also, we love Him, because He first loved us!

Here is a poem I wrote in Brazil in 1977 to encourage someone and I pray you will love God and Jesus, and love everyone who ever crosses your path in life! Love is your and my mission, love is God’s healing touch, but He has no other hands but yours to show His love in every way possible! Let Jesus be the one you are in love with and everyone else will catch the love too!

Love isn’t blind, Love has an eye

Extra that sees the good that others cannot see

Love sees the good that others will not see

No one can separate, No one will eliminate

Our Love, Yes love, The most powerful force in that’s in the world! 

Comfort: From God and Others as We Live Through Earth’s Hell

Comfort: From God and Others (Through Earth’s Hell) by Kelly Durant   2-1-2015

II Cor. 1:4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God

2. The love of God within its multifaceted qualities surrounds anyone who seeks it with a comforting protection: a consoling or comfort in action that alleviates a person’s pain. Today what makes the people of the world sick, paranoid, and psychotic is the knowledge that instead of other human beings being loving and looking out for you, there are people in this condemned world full of Satanic narcissistic despots that would kill you in an instant over your choice of religion, political views, or social economic status! The murderous demons out there have always been too numerous!

There was an old Roberto Carlos song that said, “I wish we were civilized like the animals”? Do you recall that song from the 70s? Our world is scientifically and technically advancing in intelligence yet still the vast majority of people are remaining barbaric in their human behavior and relations! Here is an animal story of a bird to illustrate a point on how humans should love and protect one another.

Maybe you have heard this story about the firemen that after putting the fire out on a house that burned down they noticed there was a dead bird that had built a nest in the attic. It was all black a charred and disfigured. Then as the firemen looked around the rubble they heard a little chirp. It turns out the bird was a mother and she had given her life covering her chicks from the fire and they came out from under her dead body alive running to fly away.

What a powerful illustration of love and comfort! As Jesus said, John 15:12 “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Notice here that Jesus did not say family, he said friends. Those that love Jesus share a bond together that is a love and friendship bond more than what any of us could even have with a family member (unless they are your friend in Jesus as well)!

3. How many people have died and are dying today as martyrs protecting their Christian friends from being discovered and killed? It makes me sick every time I pray for those in other countries to be reminded that there is a modern day holocaust happening and that dozens of thousands of Christians are being killed every year! Why isn’t anyone is speaking up!? Let’s start a campaign, start a mantra, “Stop the killing of Christians!” Who is going to Africa and the Middle East to comfort the abandoned and broken survivors of these modern day holocausts? Who is freeing the child slaves? As Christians we all need a whole lot more solidarity and much louder voice of outcry to battle against the enemies of God who are murdering and enslaving good men, women, and children today!

When the police locally arrest a murderer there is consolation in the community that this person cannot kill another innocent one, right? But today around the globe hundreds die by the hour! When will governments ever see the wisdom of practicing God’s law which is a life for a life? Murderers can only be stopped by their execution or by being in chains until they die. If not stopped, demon possessed murderers murder out of control until dead! If someone would have had the chance to kill Hitler before he attained power, I think no one today would argue that it would not have been morally ethical to take his life in order to prevent the murder of millions of others!

The past week there was a 70 year memorial observance for the Jews that died in the Auschwitz gas chambers. How little news attention it got! How it sickens me that for days on end the news channels will talk about a deflated football yet when it comes to exposing that dozens of millions were murdered just 70 years ago in a World War few highlight its importance! Millions of Christians and priests died as well! If the youth today do not learn from our recent horrible history, then God forbid that it should be repeated again soon by another Satanically inspired murderous dictator! The world offers us hell and more hell, while Jesus offers us love, peace, and the comfort of the healing of our wounds from these atrocities and all suffering! On His return He will stop those who are evil and divide the sheep from the goats! Here is consolation, 1 John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

4. So, what is comfort? The people in the world without Jesus cannot give it nor do they understand that it is needed! I think most of us have at some time or another received comfort or consolation from someone close to us. They listened to us and helped us, but the sad reality is the people of this world offer us no, that is zero, comfort in our pain! Here is an example of this.

One time my wife when she was going to go on a flight, trusted in another flight attendant and told her how our son had been taken to jail and that life was really hard for us at the moment. She just wanted a sympathetic ear. The flight attendant saw her tears and probably said, oh, sorry for you. A few weeks later she was on the same plane again with the same flight attendant and preparing the plane she overheard her while preparing the trays telling another one on the crew, stay away from Regina, when she talks to you she will start crying!

In other words her cold hearted attitude towards another was, I do not care for your tears, I do not care for your pain, I only care that you make me feel uncomfortable! How selfish people in this cruel world are! How true the statement is, “If you cry you, will cry alone, but if you laugh, the world will laugh with you”!

5. Back to the scripture of today… What is the response God expects of us when we encounter a person in pain? We are to comfort them! How do we do that? First of all we must love them as we love ourselves! For example, if someone says I am sad because my son is suffering, then what you and I should do is imagine our own son or daughter suffering in order to empathize and lend a sincere listening ear and practice compassion. You have to accept the fact that your planned activities and priorities just got reshuffled when you are needed.

Always you will need to listen, and you may need to hug them, and you may need to read them some encouraging scriptures and promises of God and pray for them. Your comfort should include acts of service so you may need to serve them somehow taking them somewhere, or cooking them something, and you may need to be there for them a few dozen times! Comfort has many ways of being expressed but the fact remains comforting consolation is a product of love and is an action that does something positive to alleviate the pain!

6.  So what are the tribulations as mentioned in II Cor 1:4? The tribulations back in the time of the Corinthians for sure included being persecuted by harassment and being made fun of for preaching Jesus Christ. Tribulations take on many forms, but the obvious is that whatever form it takes on that it produces in the one affected a spiritual, physical, and mental anguish. Paul the apostle went to jail, was beaten many times, and suffered greatly for Jesus. He still came out strong!

Sufferings in this life are inevitable! I have never met a person yet that has had a perfect life! Everyone has to deal with pain but often we forget that is that way for everyone. Sometimes people are so jealous of others who have fame and money, but if they had to live in their shoes they would not really want their lives. Many people of wealth and position often deal with a child with autism or a problem. They may also be dealing with the embarrassment of a father, mother, or brother who is bankrupting the family due to selfishness or addictions. So if all the envious dreamers could be exposed to the real world of pain and suffering of others that is always masked and hidden from the public, then they would for sure change their mind immediately about the so called good life of fame and fortune!

The truth is many people never receive comfort in their pain because they are too proud to expose their weaknesses and hurts to someone in order to allow that person to comfort them. As Christians we must build up trust with others so that when a person gets up the courage to express how much they hurt or how sad they feel, then they must have full confidence in you that you will listen and understand and console them with God’s love! The front mercy seat here (prayer area) is where comfort is found when anyone wants it.

7.  Never minimize another person’s pain! A person grieving over their cousin with cancer may be in as in as much pain as a person who is actually getting an amputation! I hate pain, but God has allowed it to work in our lives, so we just have to accept that reality of life: that pain changes us and it accomplishes what God desires in our growth if we will let it. It is tragic though when people fail the tests of tribulations of life. We feel it differently in different intensities but must not let our pain become a selfish obsession. Those without faith usually do not know how to deal with the pain of life and that is where you and I should step in. We listen, we serve, and we share God’s promises on consolation from the Bible.

I recall seeing a documentary on suicide, and it exposed how some people got affected so terribly over something that they took their own lives. There was a case of a strip tease lady that was in a car wreck and in the crash her face got cut on the broken windshield glass but it was stitched back together. She was going to be fine but she was going to have a noticeably big scar on her face. Then a worse tragedy happened, after she saw herself in the mirror she went out and took her own life! She told a friend that she had to end her life because she would never be able to have a way to make a living ever again! How sad a lesson and how wrong her assessment! Her overwhelming emotions were too much and sadly no Christian friend was close that could talk to her first. We must be ready to comfort ANYONE!

Try to be sensitive to notice when another, even a person you may not like, is going through a serious crisis, an accident, or a suffering of some kind, because a life just might be saved if you or someone will just reach out and talk to the person comforting them in their pain! It is sad how many people in this cruel world are helpless and abandoned when they are suffering! We need to step up to the plate!

8.  Don’t think you need all the answers, just be there for your friend in need! Here is an example from the Book of Job of what his friends did when they saw him in extreme pain. We all know Job lost everything, his family, wealth, and health. Empathy or love is all you need: you may not even be able to have words!

Job 2: 11 Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.13 So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

Always ask for the Holy Spirit to be present in all situations. Jesus said he would not leave us comfortless. John 15:26 “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:” God covers us with truth from His realm!

The world knows enough hell, let’s show the people in it more heaven! Come now and pray if you are in pain. Know that the Holy Spirit will be with you! Come now and pray for comfort, for the power of God to be present to comfort, and may God use you to comfort another person you may know that is in pain. We are comforted so we can comfort others! Be moved with compassion on suffering humanity today! Your neighbor or your friend needs you!

Relationships: Do Unto Others As...

Relationships: Do Unto Others As...                          by Kelly Durant 1-25-15

Luke 6:31

31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

2.      I recall not long ago I saw a true life detective TV show about man and woman who had been married for over 30 years. The man had become increasingly deaf through the years and used a hearing and he liked to watch TV and was lazy in his old age. When ever the wife would start talking to him he would just turn down the hearing aid and not pay any attention to her.  

      Obviously this was a great frustration for her but she got so frustrated she decided she could not take the relationship any more. She did something terrible and started putting poison in his food. When he ended up in the emergency room dying she had to confess what she had done!

    What a terrible example of not maintaining a good relationship, would you not agree?

    Life is all about relationships! You have one with your spouse, one with your children, one with your parents, one with your brothers and sisters, one with your boss, one with your church, and most importantly one with God!

     We all deal with dozens of people in different ways all day long.

Love can easily turn to hate and then hate can become acts of violence!

3.     What we will look at is our selves today and may God help you to judge how we are BEHAVING in society we must ask ourselves. What reactions are we provoking? We may see ourselves a certain way, but God and others may see us different.

Jesus said;  Luke 6:31

31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

     The reality of life is that everyone of us are sinners living with blindness to our own mistakes and we may not even be aware of what we are doing to other men or women close to us. We usually are denying the offenses we are doing against our spouses, our children, to others, or even worse against God.

    

     God will allow us in heaven or allow us to slide to hell by judging the relationship we had with Jesus Christ! And how sincere we were in our love for Him will be reflected in how kind or how cruel we were with others around us!

4.    Relationships are everything! Only with good communication, sincere dedication, and with supernatural love will any human being be able to have relationships that last.

    Jesus words imply to us that if we are want others to treat us well, we should be the first to show the example of treating them well, as we heard, “ And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”

   

 In relationships we see applied the law of “you reap what you sew”. If you sew love, you reap love, if you sew indifference, you reap indifference, hate, or even wrath! That is what happened to the man who ignored his wife! People who stop listening to others are usually filled with pride and pride comes before a fall!

 5.   And there is the reality that those that resist God’s love, those that refuse to come and learn about Christ, those that refuse to be living the Christian life and have a relationship with God, are people that are provoking God’s wrath. We all inherently perceive the ominous truth that God does have an eternal punishment for those who are evil, unloving, rebellious, violent, and cruel who do not want to know of His ways!

     The first thing to keep in mind is that God wants us take care of our relationship with Him and if we do all other relationships usually just fall into place. Some people do not treat God as they want to be treated and then they wonder why God let’s them down and why so many things happen to them. God wants our worship, time, loyalty, and faithfulness! Ask your self, am I giving Him that in the measure that I should?                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

     If you are seeking to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love others as your self, if you are worshipping God in fellowship as we are commanded to do it, if you are giving your time talent, and treasure for his use, then your relationship with God will be healthy! You know when it is healthy and when it is not.

     A healthy relationship with God will set you up to have all your other relationships healthy too! It is as simple as that!

6.     For good relationships with anyone in life what we need to practice is what God demands from us and that is to manifest our love, dedication, and time

(with God time =prayer) and time= communication, and absolute faithfulness.

     Remember you or I can love intensely someone but we must never worship them as worship must only be reserved for God and Jesus Christ! God over time always removes idols, or anything that is before him.

    We can get inspired to worship God anywhere! Have you ever been in your car and a beautiful sunrise (or sunset) comes up and you are in awe of God’s beauty? Or in the car, have you ever sang along with a praise song on the radio? God wants your attention and inspiration; treat Him as you would treat someone riding in your car! 

    But there are always some people who do not obey God, or they are rebellious to God and they do not practice this simple law “that we should do to others as we would have them do unto us.”

      Some people only move their tongue for hours because they only want relationships in order to be able to use people (maybe you) for their own desires, to get something carnal or material. How worthless and shallow is this kind of relationship!

7.   When I was about 16 it was the custom to give Valentine cards in the classrooms to all the girls (or boys if you were a girl) and we would make new friends and ask others out on dates. After a few dates I discovered there were some girls that only wanted you to give them stuff and invite them to dinner, but in the end you find out they really don’t even like you! There was no intention of love and faithfulness, just a taking advantage to get to get out of the house on your expense. We all learn early in life there are good relationships and bad ones! Let’s get rid of the bad relationships, the people close to you who do not love God and do not treat others as their selves. For the love of your own self-protection, listen to that soft inner voice of God and get bad people out of your life today!

    Probably most everyone here has been used and abused by someone in their past; you were used by someone pretending to love you or be your friend. God, the same as us does not appreciate abusive relationships.  Harmful relationships with deceit in the core are of Satan they are an imitation of what appears real but was not, the opposite of what Jesus taught!

    Be aware of these situations, where someone is abusing and taking advantage of your kindness just because you are a relative or a friend. Some people even go from church to church looking for dumb (their view) Christians that they can take advantage of and get money from through some shady business. And we shouldn’t we have mercy on the homeless ones, or poor immigrants who end up losing everything due to then being a victim to someone’s thievery and trickery!  False relationships deeply wound one’s spirit!

  

 8.   And what happens when a con gets conned?  I have seen they get upset enough to want to kill when it come back to them! Everyone has to hear about it for weeks when one of these types of people gets a taste of their own medicine! The mirror of truth is blinding painful when it reflects back and one is paid with the same kind of unkind deeds! I recall one person at a Corps that worked for a telemarketing firm and he would get people to say, “Yes” three times on the phone. Would you like to win a free TV? Yes! Would you like a better cable service? Yes! Would you say yes to a cheaper service? Yes! But then after the cable service agreement was explained by him if he got a “No” it did not matter as they charged the person anyway. How? Because he said that by law we can bill a person if they say, “yes” 3 times! Later this same poor guy lost his house to foreclosure due to the person who sold it to him did a fraudulent loan! Life is a boomerang, it seems what people do always comes back to them! It boomerangs!

   So we have the standard to live by and ask yourself, would I want to have someone do to me what I am doing to this person? If the answer is “No” then repeat, ask forgiveness, and correct the situation to be right, and “sin no more” as Jesus told the prostitute, “Go and sin no more!” Do not do to others as you would not have them do to you! Ask them forgiveness today to break the cycle of abuse fueling more abuse!

   Regina and I have had to learn lots of forgiveness, thankfulness an appreciation.

To give an example, there have been times when she has worked a long time make a dinner that is special, and I have come home full of things in my head, sat down, ate it, and got up and started working on something. I realized I was rude and that I should go back and ask forgiveness and show thankfulness and appreciation. We need to notice what others do for us! They say one of the principle complaints of people that divorce is that they do not feel appreciated! It takes effort to show love but remember it takes more energy to have to make up for not loving!

9.     If you want to be treated better in your relationships then love God more and teach others to love God! If you want love, faithfulness, dedication, communication and time from someone, then practice these things at home and bring your loved ones to church where they can learn more about these things that only God can offer!

     God is love and the more God in your life the more love there will be in all the relationships around you!

But love implies patience; others may not treat you back with love even though you love!

Did that matter to Jesus?  NO! He gave His life anyway!

1 Cor 13:4-7

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 10.    The only way to have a good relationship with your spouse, your family, and with others is to practice what is the essence of the whole Bible teaches and that is to live and practice love. Love is equal to the “doing to others, as what you want them to do to you”! Dedication, communication, faithfulness all will appear automatic if you have these principles first as the rudder of your life!

    If you are guilty of not maintaining correctly your relationship with God, come forward and pray and change that today! You are affecting others negatively! If you are guilty of not treating others as you treat yourself, then come forward today and pray and ask forgiveness today! Break the cycle of reaping bad things because you are sewing bad things!

   Don’t risk anything bad happening without having your relationship with God and with those around you in order and flowing with love!

Race and Perceptions: Love All As Jesus Did!

Race and Perceptions: Love All As Jesus Did!                                               by Kelly Durant   1-18-15

1 Corinthians 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles

2. Have you heard the story of the little girl about age 5 that got her aunt to let her go to the mall to buy panties for her mom? The girl had saved up her coins and had over $10 and she told the clerk she wanted a pair of panties. The clerk said, “Well what is her size?” The girl answered, “I don’t know that but she is the prettiest women in the world!” The clerk thought that according to that commend for sure she was a medium size. The next day the mom went back to the mall to exchange them for extra-large!

Did you get the point? How you perceive a person determines the beauty you will see in them! Race, size, origin, none of that matters! I have preached about race and culture dozens of times and each time I like to bring some new insight on the subject. Again we will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and thank God for his defense of the abused and the progress that has been made since the 1960s, which many of us still remember! The new movie “Selma” shares a lot of insight on the subject of what Dr MLK and marginalized people had to deal with in that time period, but remember any movie will always fail to capture the full truth of the good or the bad.

I wish people would learn from history, at least from our recent history! Most people will tell you what I hate to hear and that is, “I hate history!” The problem is, if we as a people are not familiar with all of what has happened in our past, it is very probable we will have to repeat the same horrific mistakes! Who knows what race or people will suffer next! And warn others: the injustice of a people group in past history never justifies giving anyone a righteous cause to be cruel or vengeful to someone currently living who had nothing to do with it. Jesus taught us to break the cycle of revenge over offenses with forgiveness. (Forgive 70xs7!) It’s hard but not impossible!  It’s only Jesus (through us) that heals hearts and restores the souls of the wounded.

3. Today let’s look at how we perceive races and people groups different from our own. To begin with, how do you perceive yourself or those similar to you? I recall ever since I was toddler I hated getting burnt by the sun! After 2 hours I would burn and hurt all over and glow red and later peel layers and layers of skin.  My perception was that to be darker skinned would have been better for me! Do you have an issue with your own skin color? Your hair? God made each of us with distinct challenges, amen? Praise God for life! And for differences! 

Do blonds really have more fun or are they just more dumb? Why do we all want to be blond? Hair chemicals are a multibillion dollar industry! Cosmetics and plastic surgery is a multibillion dollar industry! In the end, maybe if everyone would racially intermarry more, the lights with the darks, the world’s people could all have their dream of having olive skinned kids with blue or green eyes like in Brazil. Some global futurists predict that within a few hundred years we will see the trend of the extremes of skin color contrasts mellowing into uniform brown with so many current inter racial marriages. That is if humanity is still here! 

Often dark ones want to be lighter, and most of us are never fully happy with our bodies but God made us with challenges to keep us humble and we must learn to give thanks. It is of Satan that we get discouraged and perceive our own selves as ugly. It is of Satan if we perceive others as ugly as well. It is wrong for anyone to mistakenly harbor the perception that they are superior and have the right to discriminate against another person over color or race. It is good judgment though to size up how the different people groups perceive things, to know how they think, so you can know how to help them accept the good news of the gospel of Jesus! Titus 3:2 To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.

4. Can we apply intelligence to our perception of people in dealing with their peculiar behaviors without discriminating against them? Yes! Referring to the verses of today, a person who would not put Paul’s comments in context might conclude he is speaking ill of the Jews and the Greeks. Is it discrimination to point out a fault of someone, even of someone not of your race? It is not! It is simply being realistic! The problem today is everyone is living in denial of everyone’s faults for fear of offending someone. If people get offended or not should not concern us; the matter is to help make people be aware of all the different ways people sin.

The overall message is Paul is chipping away at the walls of pride, manifested in different ways by different people groups, in order to wake them up so they have a chance at recognizing their errors and accepting how God sees them so they can the salvation of Jesus. There is a difference between presenting something in order to help and in doing it with the motive just to offend. Before a person accepts Jesus into their lives as the savior of their souls, they must start recognizing their personal issues keeping them blind to their faults, preventing the acceptance of a God’s Son whose love heals cultural wounds. Recognition of sins invokes the need for a remedy, and Jesus was the sacrificial lamb, or atonement, for all humanity. The different issues are spiritual and mental, and they are culturally stereotypically identifiable.

The Jews issue was that they wanted supernatural signs and evidence of the proof of the Messiahship of Jesus.  Jesus himself addressed this issue of the Jews demanding signs (even despite his many miracles),  Matthew 12:38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.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.  The ultimate “sign” or proof of Jesus was in His death because after 3 days He resurrected. You either accept it believing, or you reject it! No matter your race, intelligence, or creed, Jesus is either your cornerstone or He is your stumbling block!

5. Now, let’s cover the problem that the Greeks thought that they were so wise and intelligent that Jesus’ message seemed to be too simplistic:  they perceived it as foolishness. They were basically so arrogant with their intelligence that they could not accept anything new of a different paradigm presented to them by anyone outside of their culture. Do you know of some people like that? They think they know it all and they listen to no one? That is in all cultures and races, right? Know-it-alls are in our families, governments, and even in churches as well! May God break down pride that makes fools out of so many as they harm and destroy!

I see the Greek pride and ‘I am above you’ mentality alive amongst Americans today! I have felt as you have many times the condescending vibes of those who are educated who look down on you or me as inferior for our faith, race, or economic status.  I will add I have a problem with the higher education system of this country with all its pomp as in Harvard and Yale. They began as colleges for Christian education and now they are the antithesis of it! They charge those who can borrow it up to $50,000 per year to study in their aging classrooms under their arrogant overpaid professors that are in the essence of their philosophy Gnostics, atheists, or communists. Are even 2% Christian in these places?  Satan has taken over the education system imposing ridiculous postures! We should join the old chorus, “We don’t need your education”, because it is building mental walls of prejudice in young pliable putty minds shutting out truth.

Only a fool denies the existence of a creator God who has a plan and purpose for those He created. Psalm 14:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good. Only a fool will think they are intelligent beyond God’s wisdom and reject Jesus message because they are so highly intelligent and educated. Even Einstein admitted he did not know an iota of anything!

6. Today the politically correct crowd has sold us the impossible formula concerning race and how they want us to perceive certain people in society; you are condemned as being judgmental and racist if you comment anything factual and unpleasant about certain groups, yet hypocritically it is okay to mock those out of favor with the powerful ones in the government, media, or in academia. In particular those of the Christian faith are demonized as ignorant fools amongst the elitists and supposedly higher classes. Jesus philosophy of love, as being as harmless as a dove, of being ‘a fool for Christ sake’ does not sit well with the cruel demons in power in high positions who as wolves scheme how to pit one group against another with propaganda, violence, and then arms sales to add fuel to the fire. The goal of Jesus was the unity of all races (as we know is in heaven, Rev.7:9 ) and the goal of Satan is the division of all races and people provoking hatred, war, and the destruction of God’s beauty in all created life.

The world continues to be run by cruel paranoid psychopaths as it was in Jesus day. They count on manipulating their own and others with selective double standard applications of the law and rules. They purchase souls by lavishing their admirers with illicit income from corruption and perversions of total debauchery. But the people free from being under their thumb is a disturbing group, the true pure Christians who speak truth! They hate them because they cannot manipulate them with their lies. They are protected by the Holy Spirit’s truth. Those who are righteous seek to expose all things evil with the truth to free the oppressed! It is war!   

Many Christians, as we teach in the Salvation Army, love inclusively all people and races but the world does not return the same love back but rather mockery and hate. In the rest of the non-Christian world Christians are jailed, enslaved, tortured and even killed and this occurs daily in most Muslim and Communist nations covering Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Basically 3/5ths of the world’s nations where the gospel of Jesus has not influenced the culture they mercilessly practice racism, sexism, discrimination, and their human rights violations are off the charts! Racism, slavery, oppression, exploitation and evil within the cultures of the world should be our focus so we can free and save them with the gospel of Jesus!

7. Some non-Christians in the western hemisphere boast of their love to all without discrimination. Beware! If you trust in the love of the world you will always get betrayed! Follow political leaders, almost all of them get stabbed in the back! If the average pagan really loves everyone then why is there no love for those who support Biblical values?

Recently conservative Christian groups in the U.S. are put on black lists by the government and military as being potential home grown terrorists while no evidence confirms that these groups are engaged in any of these activities?  How evident it is that discrimination against those of faith is practiced undisputed while hypocritically discrimination over age, race, sex, or sex orientation by any person in the U.S. A. is fined and prosecuted for the monetary gain of ruling officials.    

As Christians we follow Biblical teachings which teach us to even “love our enemies” and it is evident that Jesus and Paul loved everyone inclusively standing up for those not of their own race and creed, right? Paul spent a majority of His time writing to the Greeks and gentiles in order to convince them of the gospel. Jesus exalted the Good Samaritan (Jews and Samaritans hated each other) as one being favored by God for loving and caring for another while the uncompassionate Jew was exposed as Godless. Are you and I defending those who obey God no matter the race or place they are from? Loyalty to your own people stops when disobedience to God takes place!

8. When we discuss people groups from a Biblical perspective it seems the underlying issue is not the race, skin color, tribe or the geographic region they are from, but rather the person’s faults which are in a big way influenced by the misconceptions of what is important in life as defined by the culture group they are a part of. You cannot change your race, but you can change your faith, attitudes, and deeds to be in line with God’s will!

What defines a culture? The most influential part of a culture is their belief system. As covered in the verses some people want signs and some want wisdom, but the general problem in common is the stubborn arrogant pride of man and his rejection of God and God’s Son.  The people of every culture should painstakingly examine themselves and change what has been wrong for centuries.  Only those led by God and the Holy Spirit can identify what is wrong because they walk in purity and not in confusion and darkness.

Only when people finally perceive their selves (their culture) as God does can they change their erroneous mentality and habits. Wouldn’t it be great if people no longer needed to see signs as relevant to faith? Jesus resurrection is enough! The image of the virgin Mary on the mirror windows on a building in Clearwater , FL, as seen a dozen years ago, no longer fuels their faith. Thousands did a pilgrimage there to honor the apparition, but what does this tell you about the people who follow these things? Superstitions are still alive and well not just abroad but here in the USA! Don’t look for signs!

9. The problem is our American culture has become excessively materialistic, obsessively vain, and flesh oriented. (see I John 2:16-17) Aren’t you tired of plastic surgery commercials, tired of hearing about the addictions and scandals of the rich and famous?  We are witnessing a concerted barrage of music, movies, books, and news medias aimed at fueling people’s animal instincts and pride! If you want a gift from God ask him for discernment: this will give you a higher consciousness and a wider perception of who you are and what errors of your culture rule in you, and you will see who the people are around you for what they really are! Also, keep in mind the perception we may have of anything is often concluded by surface observations and negative news communications.

The conclusion is we should ask God for the ability to size up cultures and see the good, the bad, and the ugly as God sees it. All Christians are empowered to love any people group even though they sin in some way we dislike, even though they may be racist towards us, and bad in every way we perceive. Ask this, what was God’s perception of you before you accepted Christ?

In the end it does not matter what so much what we perceive concerning others because what matters is that we perceive the love that God has for every single one of them (and for you and me)! 1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us (all people): and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Dr. MLK spoke many wise things concerning God’s values and we should learn from them. “I have decided to stick with love, hate is too great a burden to bear!” The truth is the gospel of eternal life through Jesus is for anyone who will accept it, and how are other people groups going to know what it is unless they see us practicing it without discrimination in truth and in deed? John 3:16. God loves all the world’s people, and you?