ARE YOU SURE?

1 John 5: 6 – 13
How many times have you been in a conversation with someone who was sure that if they were good enough, they would get to heaven? I've heard people say that because they donated to charity, helped an elderly neighbor, even helping a little old lady cross the street (several times, and sometimes against her will); “That should be good enough, ain't it?”
The most common statement I have heard is; “I'm basically a good person” and I even had an aunt say to me; “He's going to take us all honey, don't worry about it.”
I felt that way once, I even thought that because I was my grandmothers primary care taker, that that was good enough, and felt relieved when people would say that there was a special place in heaven for me for my efforts.
Even though being good enough sounds like a really good thing, and makes us feel good and as in my case relieves a little fear of the future, the truth is the Bible (God's word) says differently.
11 This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in his Son.
12 So, whoever has the Son, has life; whoever rejects the Son, rejects life.
13 My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God’s Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion. (The Message)
Plain, simple, and to the point. God “gave us” eternal life through his son, we don't have to work to get it, and we can be confident in knowing that we will be in heaven when we pass from this life into the next.
Acts 16:
31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household."
Romans 10:
9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
So, there are the choices believe what other people tell you, or listen to what God has to say.
1 John 5:
9 If we take human testimony at face value, how much more should we be reassured when God gives testimony as he does here, testifying concerning his Son.
10 Whoever believes in the Son of God inwardly confirms God’s testimony. Whoever refuses to believe in effect calls God a liar, refusing to believe God’s own testimony regarding his Son.

PERSEVERANCE

James 1: 1 – 8
Perseverance is; A steady persistence in adhering to a course of action, a belief, or a purpose; steadfastness.
According to the book of James, this is a good thing being a blessing when we face many trials.
I really dislike the prospect of many trials, heck, I'm lazy and don't like the idea of even one trial. It's going to hurt at least for a little while whether physically or emotionally, and at first it is very discouraging. It takes me a while to realize that whatever I am going through is going to be good for me in the long run.
I can only remember one time when the first thing that came to mind was to praise God and give him glory. (I was running a prayer group at a transitional facility for those in recovery which was well attended, getting @ 30% of the population.)
as I was waking up from my mornings sleep (I worked the graveyard shift) I got a call from a fellow worker saying that he had gotten suspended and that I was probably going to be too, when I got a call from work telling my that I was suspended for running the prayer group.
Oh, how I praised God that day. I called my co-worker and told him not to worry but to rejoice for we had been put on trial for God's sake. (He didn't get it and was not comforted by this knowledge)
My co-worker had reason to worry because when I wasn't on shift,he had been laying on hands in an inappropriate way on female clients,and that's why we were suspended. I walked into the bosses office on the day I was called in to face the charges against me with my head raised and praising God for his presence in my life, and walked out restored to my position with back pay for the days of work I had missed. The other guy got his job back without any back pay, and was soon fired for his actions.
4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;
8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.
My co-worker was double minded, using his position and prayer to satisfy his fleshly desires, while I became blessed for standing on my belief in God and that what I was doing was for the greater good of those I served.
All we need is a sincere desire to follow God’s direction and faith that His way is best. Because the Lord gives generously to all men without making them feel foolish or guilty.

SUNDAY FUNNIES

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

2 Timothy 4: 9 – 22
Just days before his death, Gandhi wrote, “All about me is darkness; I am praying for light.” By contrast, evangelist D. L. Moody’s last recorded words were, “This is my triumph; this my coronation day! It is glorious!” In both cases, their last words were significant expressions of their perspectives on life, death, and everything in between.
The difference between believers and non-believers is never more apparent than when we are faced with the specter of death, whether it is our own, or a loved ones.
Recently a friend of mines father passed away, he was the leader of a Christian family, when I spoke with my friend to find out the particulars of the wake and funeral, he told me that there would be no wake and no funeral. There would, however, be a memorial service at his fathers church, and that it should be a good time.
A good time?
When a friend of mine who wasn't saved died unexpectedly, there was a wake and funeral, the funeral home was filled with people consumed with fear and sadness, there were lots of tears and cries of anguish.
Not a good time.
The memorial service that I went to was filled with the joy of life in the knowledge that our friends father had gone to be with his savior. Yes there were tears, he would be missed by those of us left behind, but there was also celebration.
A good time.
Paul gave us some of his last words in the book of 2 Timothy, words of encouragement and warning for others.
When it comes to my time to “shuck off this mortal coil”, I am comforted by the fact that I am sure where I am going, I am prayerful that I will have words of encouragement and not words of fear.
Other than death and taxes, there is also another certainty. Eternity is a long time, and after we pass from this world we will be faced with that reality. Now, there are two choices that have to be made before we go. Do we want to spend that time in heaven or in hell.
I pray that your family will invite people to a good time when it is your time to go, not invite them to a place of fear and sadness.

KEEP WATCHING THE SKY'S

Colossians 3: 1 – 13
The title of this teaching is taken from the last line of the classic movie “The Thing”. The movie is a classic parable about the dangers of the spread of Communism.
But if we tweak the meaning just a teensy bit, it can be used to help to remind us to keep our eyes on the higher places of heaven and not focusing our attention on the earthly desires that we have.
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
When we try to imagine the immensity of God’s heavens, our problems indeed seem trivial. Yet God doesn’t think so! With all the galaxies He has to attend to, God is mindful of us. And not only are we on His mind, He cares for us.
It is no wonder the apostle Paul advises us as new believers to set their minds on things above. In doing so, we raise our thoughts above the level of earthly disputes and focus instead on our loving, heavenly Father, who wants us to know Him, to know how to live peacefully with one another, and to know that we can live eternally with Him in a place even more beautiful than the heavens.
A poem written thousands of years ago still rings true: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Ps. 8:3-4).
we truly serve an immense and awesome God one who can multi task with the best of them, well I guess he would be the best at it after all he is God, and to think that with all that he has on his plate, he still chooses to care for us not as a group, but, as individuals. The children's song goes; “Jesus loves me this I know, 'cause the Bible tells me so”.
God loves me.
And because of this fact, I will keep watching the sky's.

LIVIN' ON A PRAYER

Galatians 5: 16 – 24
I so wish that I could live by the spirit all day, every day, but I haven't been able to do that yet.
We’ve all heard the prayer:
“Lord, make me more patient—and do it now!”
Why is it that patience evaporates when we are late for a critical engagement and are caught in a traffic jam? Or we rush to the “10 items or less” line at the store, only to find someone in front of us with 16 items!
Being forced to wait ratchets up the stress and shortens our fuse. When that happens, we not only fail to be patient but we undercut the Spirit’s work in our lives.
I know that I have to keep reminding myself that patience is not a virtue, it is a fruit of the spirit, and that my Dr. tells me that I need more fruit in my diet.
A few years ago I went out to the Stop and Shop in my town on a Sunday night (I wasn't saved at the time) to get a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of soda, and a loaf of bread. While walking towards the checkout, a man with a carriage full of groceries rushed in front of me. As he was unloading his “23”ITEMS! I began to fume and call him everything but friend, when it came to my mind; “I'm about to get into a fist fight over a pack of smokes and some soda and bread”, and I left my items on the counter and walked away all the while hearing the guy with the groceries, yell at my back about the marital status of my parents at my birth.
I had very little fruit in my diet that night.
As I said before, patience is not just a virtue, it’s a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22)—which means that demonstrations of impatience reveal the sour fruit of our fallen hearts rather than the sweetness of Jesus in our lives. Since God is a patient God, when we abandon patience we miss the opportunity to show our world the glory of God through our lives.
Bursts of impatience only demonstrate that we are more concerned with our own agendas than the needs and struggles of others. There may have been many reasons why that man rushed in front of me that night many years ago, but all I thought about was my own situation So let’s all take a deep breath and turn our focus away from ourselves by patiently loving others instead of ourselves in the midst of stress.
Patience gives us the privilege of sharing the refreshing fruit of God with others.

Be patient. Show your world what God is really like.

BY FAITH...

Hebrews 11: 8 – 16
I really don't know where to go with this subject. ODB talks today of monuments to success, buildings in particular, that each record building is surpassed by the next. I suppose that each builder thinking that theirs was the biggest, was soon beat by a bigger and taller building.
But where does faith fit into all this?
Because he was urged and prompted, Abraham listened to God and left his homeland to go to a new country and believed that even though he and his wife Sarah were beyond the age of child bearing, that they would become the parents of a great nation. They never got to see these things come to pass, but they knew that they would because God told them that it would happen, and they believed.
Where do buildings and monuments fit into that? Am I missing the point?
Anyway Abraham was following God and knew that he was a stranger in a strange land and was in search of a better country, the heavenly country where he would have full citizenship.
13 Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world.
14 People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home.
15 If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted.
16 But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.
Like I said in the beginning, I don't know what to make of this teaching and am leaving it up to you to read the scripture meditate on it and let it marinate in.
I love you guys
Yours in Christ
Roadblock
><>