MERRY CHRISTMAS

THE NARROW ROAD

Whenever I read the word of God, I will write what I got out of it and what the Holy Spirit has revealed to me. I want to share with you something I wrote last year during my reading/studying.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I was reading Matthews chap. 6 and it was so helpful. All I can do is seek the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and all will be added unto me. Even the date of my death is in his hands and it’s a wonderful place to be. I can take comfort in knowing that.

I can not care about the cares of the world and put God first at the same time because it is contradicting. What God want is not what the world want so if I love what the world has to offer me, than I will go against God’s offer which is perfectly made for me.

Chap. 7 taught me that there are only two roads, one that lead to heaven and one that leads to hell. The road to hell is considered wide because there is no conscious. If I enter it, it would be due to lust governing me (being a slave to sin). I hear it, I listen to it, and I obey it without stopping. I do what I feel is right and what I feel is right is what is comfortable and feels good to me.

The road to heaven is best described like a drug addict and the drug is sin. When I became saved my desire was to get well, and that means that I will have to go through pain because my body wants what it is craving. It will keep nagging and nagging at me until I feed it. I will have no peace because my flesh is fighting hard but it must be put to death.

This is why the road to heaven is narrow. The rules are strict and strictly enforced. The only comfort I can receive is the comfort in knowing that I am fighting to keep my close relationship with God and for my place/reward in heaven. There is a reward waiting for me when I over come the temptations in this life. Deny the flesh. Being reassured that my life is in Jesus and in the Father’s hands every step of the way! Focusing my mind on Christ and the will of God will lead me to healing.

Thanks be to God that He gave me a comforter who is the Holy Spirit. He came with the mind of Christ. Christ lived a perfect life on earth and it is the job of the Holy Spirit to teach me the same thing. To think like Christ, live like Christ, Love like Christ. It is my job to tap into the Holy Spirit allowing Him to do His job in me. The way to do that is to give up my will and thinking and replace it with God’s will and thinking.

The way this works can be compared to being a student in school. I have the text book but it’s still not enough to know how to be a doctor or a lawyer. I need a teacher to instruct me and teach me what the text book is saying. The teacher gives me homework to study at home. It is up to me to apply the text book by studying and practicing it. If I study, I will know it. If I apply myself I will be good at it. It was the teacher that gave me the understanding of the text book and showed me what to do. But, I have to do the work. So that means I have to read his word and let the Holy Spirit teach me what God’s word is saying to me. Once I learn what to do I can move on with confidence knowing that God is with me and teaching me and instructing me always and that I can do exactly what the word says.

Living a Christ like life is not easy because I am like drug addicts, my body want the opposite of what God wants. So I have a choice, to give into the nagging of sin, or to kill it by not giving into what it wants.

Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all his righteousness and all will be added onto my life. I must live for pleasing God with no worries about what tomorrow will bring or what I am going to eat or where I’m going to work. God want me to depend on Him for everything. God wants me to know that the things I have came from no one else but God. The world is ignorant and thinks that they made it happen when it was God who did it all. He wants me to be like the sparrow that never worries about where their food is coming from for they have faith that they will eat everyday.

Again it’s not easy it’s a learned behavior but I can’t learn it if my focus is not on God. Also I must be at the point were I will take the good with the bad, the bitter with the sweet that God has coming for me for all that comes from God is good and for his glory. I am living on God’s grace (time) that is my lifeline.

 Everything is in His and the Father’s hand. And He has the reward waiting for me in Heaven when I get there.

DON'T TAKE YOUR LOVE ONES FOR GRANTED.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

EGOS NEED NOT APPLY

We are all ministers of God whether we recognize it or not. We minister in the way we live, we minister in the way we dress. We minister in the way we talk and we minister in the way we act. And of course, we minister in the way we preach. The world is watching and they get their opinion about us in the way we minister. Today I want to talk about arrogance. This is something that we have to watch out for because, sometimes we forget why we are ministering and lose focus on our purpose and start making it out to be about us (me). I will give you an example of this. 

There are a few Christian Jews/Hebrews on the Internet that are ministering and I personally believe that some of the Jews, while they recognize that we (Gentiles) are now a part of them, they love to remind us that it's because of them. That's an arrogant attitude. They are not doing like Paul where he explained this so that we Gentiles will not become boastful in our salvation, it's just because they feel they have to DE-program the Gentiles from thinking "Christianity" is our religion. I found this out when I visited a particular website. I do not remember the name because I did not stay on the website long. Also I am sending this because I am a big advocate for Christians learning Hebrew and I feel I should warn you about websites that are not on the same page as us (for lack of a better word)

I will say that I could tell that the man loves the LORD and that he have a lot of knowledge. He is working on his 3rd doctored degree and he have been teaching this for a little over 30 years.


 He starts out by saying his message is highly controversial and that what he has to tell us is something that we are not use to hearing and if we don't like what he has to say than he would say things like "Don't bother to write me if you disagree with me because there is nothing you can say to change me and I will not read it because I have a filter for all the hate mail." "Even though I don't know it all, I've been doing this for 30 years so I've studied enough to know what I am talking about". He even said that if you don't like it, then you would serve best to do your own website. I will only say this in his defense that he probably got a lot of complaints and possibly hate mail from viewers and he felt the need to make a statement about that, however, this is no way for a minister of God to behave. Paul stressed in great details that without love, your work means nothing to God. One of the biggest dangers a messenger of God have is when they discourage a believer and cause them to doubt their salvation. Not based on because they are living in darkness totally against God's word like John explained in his three letters, but for example, because they believe salvation only comes to those who follow the law of Moses. Paul had a problem with members of this group all the time and this man is one of them. This is what you have to watch out for when you look for a place to study "Christian" Hebrews and I wanted to warn you about this.

He is a Jew that believes on Yeshua. He denies the name Jesus because he says this is not the real transliteration and that the real transliteration is Yeshua which is true that Yeshua is the true transliteration of His name. He says the believing Jews do not recognize the name Jesus nor do they recognize the name Jehovah for both are incorrect transliterations (because there is no "J" in the Hebrew transliterations). He also denies the word "church" because he says "the Gentiles got it all wrong, you belong to (our faith) not us belonging to (your faith)." He is right in that sense that some Gentiles may have forgotten how we became saved in the first place, meaning, we forgot that our roots are from the Jews and that they always had the truth and we are the ones who converted to their faith. He says the proper name, for us, is "THE WAY" which was the name given to them during that time. He also deny the name "Christian" because it was a derogatory name given to those who followed Jesus and that that name is tagged to those who persecuted the Jews. Most importantly, to him, the name "church" means that we think we are the true or new church and that we are trying to convert the Jews to join our church. Regarding forgetting where we came from, he is really dealing with "The Replacement Theology" group and he probably believe that most Christians think this way. NOTE: The replacement theology group does not have the correct understanding. He believes that the only reason Paul sent the letter to the Gentiles that they did not have to follow the law of Moses was because it was too soon for them to receive all the information at once so to resolve the separation issue with the Jews and the Born again Gentiles, is to have them to refrain from things that are offensive to the Jews but it was not intended for them to NOT obey the law of Moses. He says that anyone who does not follow the law of Moses is not truly saved and is not living a righteous life.

Well what I have to say about that is...

 First, if that was the case than Paul would not have been so against the group telling the Gentiles about the law and circumcision since according to him, it is something that they need to do to be righteous. This is not the only account where Paul got after the Gentiles for believing the others who pushed the law of Moses on them. In Galatians when Paul saw that the Gentiles were observing the law he said who bewitched you Gal 3:1-5.

Second, he forgot that only Jesus Christ was the only one who walk on the earth as a true Torah observer. With that being said, that means that this man get no credit for his "so called observing the law" (using his expression) because it's the faith and the belief in Jesus Christ that has saved him and made him righteous, not of any works he is doing. He is in the same boat as the rest of us.

Third, he was born Jew not by work but because his mother and father are Jews. He does not get Brownie points for being born.

Fourth, as far as the name "church" and "Christian", he is putting too much emphasis on a name just to make himself look like he has something great to argue about. If the Gentiles called the gathering place a church, than so be it. It is not a thing that will make a difference in your salvation by using the name Church and Christian. The Bible that have been translated for the English speaking people have the words Church and Christian in it and both words were used before the publishing of the King James Bible. We are not sinning because we call the gathering of Christian people a church. Regarding the name "Christian" even if it was true that they called them Christian hoping to upset them, they gave us a word that is actually honorable because the word derives from Christ. Christian simply means Christ-like and that is how the world recognize it today.

He seems to hate anything that would appear to be the idea of a Gentile and that we must stop that and follow everything that they say for it is the only way and right way. When the disciples went to Antioch, that is when they first used the name Christian (notice the word church listed also) and yes, it was the Gentiles who used that name and I didn't hear anything about the disciples disapproving of it. Acts 11: 26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

I've made a choice to embraced my spiritual heritage by learning the Jewish culture. I learn better by not only studying the word and going to school, but also doing/observing some of the things they do and celebrating with them some of the things they celebrate (Hebrew Christians). Again it's just to embrace the Hebrew culture, not because I think I will get brownie points from God. I also want to have fellowship with my Christian Hebrew brothers and sisters but that is because the Holy Spirit moved me in that direction and because I prayed and asked for this as well. It doesn't make me better or less in God's eyes. It is my desire and the LORD approves. This is why I appreciate the school that I am going to because he embrace and love the Gentiles and welcome us to get to know our new roots now that we are saved and he lovingly invite us to join them in how they live only if we choose to and if the LORD places it on our hearts. There is no pressure at all because it's not necessary.




No one has the right to boast about being saved or being born a Jew. It was all God's work and will period and He gets all the glory. We work because we love the LORD, not because we are made holy by works. Works make no one holy. Jesus was not holy because he worked however, because Jesus is Holy, He worked. He was holy first before doing any work at all. I will say it again, WORK DOES NOT MAKE YOU HOLY OR RIGHTEOUS!



This man's problem is that he want us Gentiles "to get it straight" and that is, the Jews are the true vine and their ways (Moses Law) is the only right way to live and if you are not obeying that law, you are not living righteously. What this man failed to realize is that God called Abraham righteous because Abraham believed God's word. What act did Abraham do that was so great that made him righteous compared to the works giving in the law of Moses that was given after Abraham? God gave Abraham the promise and Abraham believed God's word and it was then that God called Abraham righteous.


So the work that Abraham did that made him righteous was not only that he believed, but that he also ACTED on that belief. When God told Abraham to go, he went. When God told Abraham you will have a child (when Abraham was old), he believed. When God told Abraham to use his ONLY PROMISED son as a sacrifice, Abraham obeyed and followed and believed God. See the pattern? The work that Abraham did was faith.


Today God gives us a word on what to do through the Holy Spirit. We must live our lives and walk by faith. Being saved means truly believe on Jesus as the Son of God who is fully God and human and that He was the sacrificial lamb who carried our sins on the cross who died on the cross and who finished the work when He rose again the third day as it was prophesied and that He showed Himself to the disciples and others and that He accented into heaven and is currently sitting on the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. The Bible says if you will confess with your mouth and believe it in your heart, you are saved. And now the promise that was given to all people who believe on Him is the Holy Spirit who is our Teacher. Now if the law was our teacher than what is the need for the Holy Spirit when we already have a teacher? The Holy Spirit teaches us how to obey the LORD and law correctly. Love the LORD with all of your heart soul and might and to love your neighbors as yourself. As Christians, having the Holy Spirit in us, it is automatic that we will have no other gods before Him and that we know not to kill or steal and that we will honor our parents and we know not to covet and not to bare false witness and not to commit adultery and the Holy Spirit will show us through our walk what to do and what to say. Obeying the Holy Spirit is the same as obeying God's law because it's God's word and God's word or command is law. Jesus said that the Father works always even on the Sabbath and so does the Son. The same goes for us, our work is never done. We have liberty in our salvation and we serve the LORD always. Our lives and our living is a holy sacrifice unto the LORD. We don't stop helping people because it's the Sabbath. We are still at work if we go to church on a different day. God is working in the church on Sunday and God is working in the church on Saturday as well. And any other day that a person can go to worship the LORD, the LORD will be at work there as well. The LORD is always at work and never stop and we never stop. John 5:16-18


I am writing this because I hate for anyone to be discouraged over something that is not true. It's so easy to come across something like this on the Internet and feel bad about yourself. I know someone who constantly post on his Facebook page the same message that this man is saying and he is related to me. My main purpose on this blog is to encourage others but there are times when I will give a warning message about living right and checking yourself because God requires us to do that. I do it all out of love because when I write this, I am checking myself also. I do not think highly of myself more than anyone else. We all have to crucify our flesh and carry our own cross. We are all working out our salvation. Not saying we are not saved but living in sanctification. Walking in the word of God. 

All foolish ego has to go and it has no place in our lives. We are saved ONLY because of what God has done. If God did not do it, we would all go to hell. It's just that simple.


Bless the LORD, oh my soul and all that is within me bless His holy Name!


As always I love you. God bless you.

MUSIC FOR THE SOUL

FREQUENCY this is my testamony

I mentioned before that I was going to every now an again use some of the writings I've written years ago. Well here is one I wrote back in 2006. This is my testimony.

Frequency

This is my story.

I can always tell when I am outside the will of God, because things become fuzzy. God's voice in my ear, in my heart becomes fuzzy. I start to question right and wrong, good and bad, good and evil.

I find myself rationalizing bad trying to make it sound good. I lose all spiritual senses. The bible tells us that God named his creation, including good and evil, right and wrong. We have no authority to change what God has made so.

I found myself trying to make wrong, right and trying to make right, wrong. This is a terrible sin and it put me in a place were l lost all spiritual sense. My relationship with God becomes fuzzy and sometimes null and void.

The first time I got caught up in a terrible sin, living in sin, God sent two people to rescue me. I believe that they were prophetess or messengers because they knew things about me and things that were happening in my house that they could not have known unless God revealed it to them. I was outside in public when they stopped me. They knew that I was living in sin, and I had my children mixed up in my sin. They knew I was serving in the Church while I was mixed up in my sin. God sent them to me to rebuke me, to comfort me, and to move me back into his will. He used great force.

I was immediately fine tuned back in with God and my eyes were opened. Bad become bad and good became good. I knew what I needed to do and I got out of that relationship.

It didn't take me long to fall right back into wrong. Once again I tried to rationalize wrong. Once again I put my kids in the middle of this wrong. The worse part about this is I married the wrong again. God told me from the beginning that this was wrong. He sent people in my life to tell me this is wrong. And if the truth be told, he didn't have to send anyone because it was obvious that this was wrong. Once again I rationalized wrong to make it right,(in my eyes). I committed a horrible, great sin. I married wrong! Of course nothing went right. How can this wrong be made right? I became confused. God's words become fuzzy the frequency was off. I kept mixing up wrong with right and right with wrong. I need to hear the fine-tunes of God. I heard wrongs voice loud and clear telling me in my ear how this wrong is so right. Even though it didn't make sense to me, I started to see this wrong in a right point of view. God’s message in my mind was twisted because of my sins. There was so much wrong, so much pain, and so much suffering.

I thank God for my suffering because I knew this suffering did not come from God which means this suffering was not by God but by him.  God is right always.  God is righteous always.

God was always speaking to me it was the frequency that made it hard for me to hear clearly. This time He didn't send two prophetess to rebuke me. I was tired of hurting God. I was tired of hurting my family, I was tired of hurting my friends, and I was tired of hurting myself.

I saturated myself with the word of God. I didn't wait for God to send someone again I went to him. As I started reading the word, things began to become clearer. God's voice in my ear became louder; his voice in my heart began to pound. I started to recognize the difference between God's voice and Satan's voice. I was in the right place to hear the voice of God.

I realize that when I am walking in darkness, things that are wrong seems right to me. I rationalize wrong. I listened to wrong. I followed wrong and my station with God become fuzzier and fuzzier. Wrong began to make sense to me. But, when I made a decision to walk in the word, all of a sudden, light began to shine through. Wrong became very wrong and I wondered how did I get the two confused? The frequency of God's voice became loud and clear, my new eyes were opening. I became confident. I started to rebuke wrong in the name of Jesus and accept it for what it is. I started to embrace right. It doesn't make things easy when you have to do what you have to do, but do it anyway.

I found myself holding back my tongue. I start to love those who clearly hate me. I started watching what I say, how I act, where I go. I started to surround myself with people who are healthy for me, and I for them. I started to recognize all sin, not just big sin and I stayed away from it. I learned how to love others and myself. I learned how important God relation to me is, and that I couldn’t live without his voice. I need that clear frequency. I started to hate sin. The more I Love God the more I hate sin, the more I hate sin, the more I hate wrong.

If you too are unsure of the direction you are going in life, you have lost your frequency with God. Just like a radio, you have to move in the right direction where you can hear the voice clearly.

These are some things that I would like to share that got me caught up in the wrong direction. I hope this will help you if you find yourself in a similar situation:

1.) Do not rationalize wrong. Keep wrong and right in its right place.

2.) Stay in the word daily, never miss a day. Buy something that will help you gain a better understanding of the word. I use the Nelson's Quick Reference Chapt-by-Chapt Bible commentary daily along with the Bible.

3.) Trust God always, trust your faith trust right.

4.) Be obedient. Stay away from things you know will lead to sin. You know your weakness. Develop yourself so that you will be strong against your weakness.

6.) Keep people who don't belong in your life away from you. Don't make friends with people who do not love the Lord and only have the cares of this world. That is how your thinking becomes twisted and things that are wrong seem good to you.

7.) Do well for someone else. If you have a lot of time on your hands the devil would love to keep you busy. Volunteer, do charity work. Keep yourself busy in well doing.

8.) Don't start None, won't be None. Don't start putting things in your heart that don't belong. Don't say to yourself, I'm not going to give 100% to my job or my marriage. Be at work on time. Do what you are paid to do regardless if you feel you are appreciated or not. You represent God at all times. He must be glorified at all times.

9.) Married people, don't act one way in public and another way at home. Don't be a hypocrite. Be kind to one another. Respect one another qualities they have to offer. Appreciate them. You are one unit!  Don't grieve your mate with harsh words; remember you can't take them back. Show your love in all the ways God commanded. Lovemaking is a form of worship. It's the physical way to show how much you love one another you are one unit. Don't neglect the one you love. Learn to put your love in its rightful place. The bible says to love your mate more than you love your children. Remember don't confuse wrong with right. What seems right to a man isn't always right. That is why you need the bible.

I am speaking to Christian people so you know that I am not referring to abuse. If your husband or wife is abusing you, you must leave that unhealthy situation. We weren't always in Christian thinking and we may have gotten ourselves in a situation that was not pleasing to God and married the wrong person. However, if you are married to an unsaved person and you are saved, if they want to stay and there is no abuse, than stay and let God in you shine so bright that they have no choice but to choose God.

10.) Be ye separated from the world. Don't do what they do, don't respond like they respond, don't talk like they talk. Control your tongue. What you say out loud is what is in your heart. When God transform you heart, your tongue will reflect it.

Remember, if you have Christ in you, you don't have to say a word. They, the world, will see God in you. Keep that frequency connection with God. If what you hear is fuzzy. Check yourself. Pray daily for your family, yourself, your nation.

Add on: Isaiah 5:20-21²⁰Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
²¹Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!

Cross references:

1. Isaiah 5:20 : Amos 5:7
2. Isaiah 5:20 : Job 17:12; Matt 6:22, 23; Luke 11:34, 35
3. Isaiah 5:21 : Prov 3:7; Rom 12:16

MARCH 2^th, 2006

AMAZING GRACE

NO BREAKFAST IN HEAVEN

Here is another that is funny. The thing is, they are very serious. I felt like showing some comedy. God's people can laugh. It's not a sin. Enjoy!

CHURCH ON TIME

This is a cute song that I saw on facebook some time ago and my family love this song. I thought it would be a good idea to add something funny today so here it is.

Question for my Christian family

SLOTH

Oh Lord, this is not a good time for me to do the study on lazy, also known as slothful. But then again, yes it is! This was placed heavily on my heart to do this study and I must not be lazy and disobedient but to be obedient to the Lord!

There are so many verses, especially in Proverbs, that talks about lazy. I will use lazy because we are more familiar with that word and it means the same as slothful. Here are all the verses dealing with it that you can read for yourself and I will touch on some of it. Prov 10:4, 26; 12:24, 27; 13:4; 15:19; 18:9; 19:15, 24; 20:4; 21:25; 22:13; 24:30; 26:13-16. That's just proverbs only. Not talking about the other scriptures.

The thing that really stood out for me was not the physical lazy but the spiritual lazy. There are spiritual lazy people in the world who have no idea that they are lazy! That's where I come in. I am here to bring awareness to the things that Christian may have no idea what they are "suffering" from. This is what we can consider a self diagnoses. If you happen to follow under any of these things that the Lord is sharing with me, than it's time for you to change your ways. Remember, we are in the world but we are not of the world. That means that our lives should not be so consumed with worldly responsibilities that will cause us to neglected our spiritual responsibilities. I will not focus on the physical slothful because we already know what that is. We know what it means to be lazy and I gave you a few scriptures to back it up in proverbs. What I am going to focus on is the spiritual laziness because most of us have no idea that there is even a such thing as spiritual laziness.

Let's look at the parable in Matthew 25:14-46. Believe it or not this parable is dealing with the spiritual and physical life of a servant. Jesus is explaining what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.
A man was going on a long trip. He called together his servants and entrusted each one his money to take care of while he was gone. One of the servants he gave 5 bags of silver, another he gave 2 bags of silver and the last he gave 1 bag of silver and then he left. He gave them the monies based on their abilities. No one had more or less than what they can handle.

The first man began to invest in his boss money and as a result, he ended up with 5 more bags. He doubled what he started out with. The second man also went to work and earned two more bags. He doubled what he started out with. But the third man dug a hole in the ground and hid the boss's money. He did absolutely nothing with the money.

When the boss returned, he called for his servants to see what they did with the money he had entrusted them with. The man who had 5 bags said boss, you gave me 5 bags and I have earned 5 more bags. I can picture the 1st guy feeling good about what he had done for his boss. The boss was full of praise! Well done my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful (continually) in handling a small amount (even though he had more than the others, the boss considered it a small amount) I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together! (he was testing his faithfulness)

Same thing happened with the second servant, he had 2 bags of silver and presented 2 more bags to the boss. He said, Well done my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful (continually) in handling a small amount, I will give you many more responsibilities. Let's celebrate together!

With both servants, God was testing their faithfulness. He gave them portions based on their ability so it's not how much you receive from God that counts, it's what you do with what you receive that counts. Both men received different amounts and began working on taking care of his money. It was his money not theirs and they understood that. They WORKED and EARNED double as a result.

Now last and least, the lazy servant. He came with the one bag and presented the bag to his boss. He said to his boss, I knew you were a harsh man. Harvesting crops that you didn't plant and gathering crop that you didn't cultivate. CAN YOU BELIEVE THE NERVES??? He is basically saying to his boss, you want me to do all the work and you get to keep the stuff that I did. I have to grow this stuff, I have to take care of it while you are gone somewhere and than while I slave and work, all you have to do is come back and get what I have done. Than he said, I was afraid I would lose your money, (just in case I didn't do it right is his excuse) so I hid it in the earth, look, here you can have it back. LAZY! 

This man has more than laziness going on but he didn't even take the time to try. He did not want to work for his master. He did not want to do all the work so that someone else can take it back all the hard work he has done so while the other two where out working and earning and reaping and doubling the money, he sat and did absolutely nothing!!!

The boss replied. YOU WICKED AND LAZY SERVANT! You knew I harvest crops I didn't plant and gathered crops I didn't cultivate. Why didn't you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it. Than the boss said, take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the 10 bags of silver. vs29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'

31-40 summarizing The Son of man will come in His true glory and sit on His throne with the Angels and He will separate his sheep from the goats. He will say to the ones who are His sheep, come who are blessed by my Father's inheritance that was prepared from the beginning of the creation of the world. (MEANING BEFORE HE EVEN CREATED MAN, THIS WAS ALREADY SET UP IN HEAVEN FOR US) This is the reason you will enter into this place, when I was hungry, you feed me, when I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was in prison, you visited me. When I was sick, you cared for me. When I was naked, you clothe me. And when I was a stranger, you showed me hospitality. You did these things. 

Now this is where people get confused about salvation and I will explain after I give what the Lord said about this. 37"Then these righteous ones will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing?39When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?'40"And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'. BUT TO THE GOATS OR UNRIGHTEOUS Skipping to 45"And he will answer, 'I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.'46"And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life."

When Jesus said then the righteous will reply: He is referring to those who are saved. The others were like the pharisees and the Sadducee who put up this righteous front but their actions have proven differently. The clue is in the verse where Jesus said He separated the sheep from the goats. The sheep where on the right side of Jesus and were saved. The goat, the unsaved, are the ones who were domed to hell. So this verse does not prove that one can lose their salvation. Those who are saved are separated. 

Jesus is making a distinction between those who worked and harvest and those who did absolutely nothing, the lazy ones, with the gift that was given to them but thought of God as mean and a boss who asked for too much from them and who hated the thought of doing all the work and receiving nothing for it but have to give it back to the master. Jesus made the note that the boss will say, you already knew how this work. You already knew that you will go and do the work that I have given you. You knew that when it comes to the Kingdom of Heaven, that there is work that my people must do while I am gone and when I come back, I will expect that you would have done something with the thing that I have given you. In this example He is using money and he called him wicked and lazy.

Everyone is given a task to do. What is it that God has given you to do? Have you even picked it up and used it? How many people did you bring to the Lord? Did He drawn men unto you to witness to or are there people that need help that you are supposed to help out? Are you spiritually lazy? These are things that you can only answer yourself. If you know what it is that you should do and you are not doing it, as long as you are alive and as long as Christ have not come back again, you have time to do those things that you are responsible for doing. Do not get caught in the end where you have absolutely nothing to present to God. Those who are saved will be faithful but I want to encourage you if you find yourself being stagnant without a cause to go and server the Lord. 

Laziness is a great sin that God loathe. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit by the way you live. If you need to make a change, do it now. There is physical laziness as well as spiritual laziness and we don't want to fall under either one of these. Do a self check.

As always, I love you and God bless you.

GLUTTONY

1.) Gluttony:

God told Ezekiel to tell His people that Sodom's sins were pride, laziness, and gluttony, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. She was proud and did loathsome things, so I wiped her out, as you have seen. “Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more loathsome things than your sisters ever did. They seem righteous compared to you! You should be deeply ashamed because your sins are so terrible. In comparison, you make your sisters seem innocent! Eze 16:49-52

The church

This is the least talked about sin in the church and we can see the results of that. So many Christians are living their lives unhealthy and over weight. I know because I am one of them but, I have made a vow to change and by me following God’s instructions, there will be a change. With gluttony comes laziness. When you overeat you are very sleepy. Food is supposed to be energy but, when you overeat the opposite happens. In one situation, God caused a famine to happen because of people overeating, over indulging. Gluttony has also been associated with not thinking about the poor. You have enough to feed the poor but instead, you would rather overeat than to share. We say that there are no big sins and little sins and that all sin is the same. Well, when we repeat that saying we deceive ourselves because God himself put a degree on sin. We miss quote or miss-understand what that means and we get that miss-understanding because of the part where if you brake one law you broke them all. That in its entirety means…you are a law breaker. You can’t say I broke a little law so that makes me a law abiding citizen. No, if you break one law, you are a law breaker period. If someone is not saved and some lied to a brother and another killed the brother, your fate will remain the same. You will both go to hell. If one who is not save steal a candy bar and another steal a diamond ring worth millions, you will both go to hell. The fate is the same. However, God does put degrees on sin if you pay attention to His word you will see where He puts degrees on sin. Even the punishment is based on the degree of the sin. If a man takes someone’s donkey he will have to pay it back three fold but if a man kill his brother he will be put to death. If a woman is caught in adultery she is put to death but if a woman take bread that do not belong to her, she will have to pay it back 3 fold. So as you can see, even though they are guilty of doing wrong, the punishments fit the crime and there are degrees to the crime. When we say the punishment fit the crime is because God was the one who establish what is fitting. So we can quash the notion that there are no little sins and big sins. Yes there are. But, God still hate sin, big or little God hate sin. We have to get that straight.

So what is the earthly punishment for gluttony health wise?

Well, there’s diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol to name a few. All of these things you can die from. You reap what you sew. God just allows what he has set up to take its course. Now the problem is…there are so many health issues that comes with obesity and in the church, we have people coming to the alter praying that God will heal them from their diabetes or high blood pressure but go home and continue to eat the foods that got them in that situation. Do you really expect God to heal you every time you lose control of your eating habit? God has given us the tools we need to live a healthy and sin free life and He is the Holy Spirit. But…instead of taking heed to the Holy Spirit we lose control. You will reap what you sew and that is a fact. It is time that the church start teaching on the earthly repercussion for sinning the “7 deadly sins”. 

Gluttony is also a learned behavior sadly by most of the Christian families. Teaching bad habits is a terrible thing because the kids do not know that it is wrong to over eat. It is one thing to know that it will change your outer appearance but it’s another to learn that it is a sin. A lot of people find it hard to believe that it is a sin because so many Christian leaders are over weight. You see the pastor with his big belly giving the sermon on how to live right when he clearly has no self control. When was the last time, if ever, a minister preached about gluttony? He can not be a proper witness because he cannot deliver ALLthe instructions of the true word of God.

Why is it important to teach this?

God punished prophets for not delivering the word to his people because they were afraid of the reactions they knew they would get from the people. The same goes for those who feel they can’t deliver that message because of how they look. We must be a good/right witness to represent God properly so there will be no guilt when we are doing the job God has instructed us to do. Blessings come to those who are obedient. Now we must be an example not just in words but in actions. Those who are not a right representative God will remove their lamp stand. What is a lamp stand? It’s one that gives light. You will no longer shine but remain silent and dim. It doesn’t mean you are going to hell it means your services are no longer needed because you are causing more damage than good.

I use to wonder what it means when God said that those who sin certain sins must be stone to death because they will corrupt the whole camp “if you will.” Well we can look today and see how that is possible.

In conclusion

I just gave the example of the church and how almost every member is over weigh. They are teaching terrible habits and people are following the same terrible habit. We have our so call fellowships were everyone brings a potluck dish and what we end up doing is indulging in the sanctuary. Do we think about inviting the poor so they can see our example of love by giving? We most likely over eat which brings shame to God. Also outside people will start to judge goodness by your example. Some people who are not saved may feel that they are better than the saved because they do more and live better.They start to judge us calling us hypocrites and it is a well deserved title. We will bring shame to ourselves and will be judged on what is right by the unsaved like the example in Ezekiel. This is what happens when God allows our sins to take its course. But, God is so good because even though he will allow that to happen it entail brings shame and embarrassment which will cause us to wake up and change. God said he will keep his covenant with us. This is why we are saved even when we mess up. Everyone should lift Him up and give Him praise!!!

7 DEADLY SINS

Even though I just stated my blog in June of 2011, I've been writing for a very long time. I've saved up my writings and I decided to every now and again, post some of those writings I wrote years ago. The Lord placed on my heart a few years ago to discuss the sins that we call the 7 deadly sins. These are sins that have such a strong hold on us and this is why I believe it was placed in my heart to write about it. It's all to help bring awareness to these sins and how it work and to stay away from it. Here's the introduction of it.

“The seven deadly sins.”

Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity

Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness

Sloth: is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

Why is it called deadly sin?

The reason is because all will eventually lead to death. God gives us the instructions on how to live and as we follow those instructions, we gain self control, a closer relationship with God and we will be blessed. However, if we go against his instructions, we are doomed to the will that comes with disobedience. The will is sin. In Gen 4:7b NLV God warned Cain about sin by saying But if you refuse to respond correctly, then watch out! Sin is waiting to attack and destroy you, and you must subdue it." Sin has no governed discernment therefore you will be left with no self control, with no way to control sin it will take it’s course and eventually lead you to death. When Jesus died on the cross, He died so that we will be freed from the bondage of sin. Sin ruled over us and no matter how hard we try, sin had a grip on us. When Jesus died, the Holy Spirit set up residence on the inside of us and with Him living in us He is able to teach us how to live a holy life. However, sin is still here. Not inside of us but around us. We can still fall into sins trap just like Eve did in the garden. The hard part is we still remember what sin taste like and feel like.

Reap what you sew: Although we as Christian are saved by grace through faith, we are not exempt from the temptations of sin. If we choose to give into temptation and not rebuke the sin (in the name of Jesus), we are subject to the consequences of sin. Live by the sword die by the sword. So although we are saved, we still can suffer the same earthly punishments that an unsaved person suffers because it is sin taking its course. Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy and that is what sin does once it has taken control over you. God is just allowing sin to do what it do.

You become an example to the world of what can happen when you do not obey. Christians do not get special treatment when they sin. Earthly sin punishment goes for all creation because it was set up that way from the very beginning. The only difference is…the unsaved sinner goes to hell and the saved person goes to heaven. We no longer carry the title of a sinner but some of us carry on as if we were never redeemed. We can not make a mockery out of God because He hasn’t changed His feeling about sin. God still and will always hate sin but in the end, sin will be gone forever!

My focus will be on the 7 deadly sins because it has been placed in my heart. Although you will see an order of how the deadly sins are listed, God has placed in my heart to start with gluttony.

My testimony

Note: I mentioned facebook because it's a habit but it was all Yahoo. You will see what I mean when you view the video. I'm sharing what happened to me last night and today.

WHAT IS YOUR MOTIVATION?

Here is my question to you. Why do you seek God? What is your motivation? Are you seeking to live the way God want you to live so you can follow His ways exactly? Are you seeking to please Him perfectly and that is why you read and learn? Are you making sure you are lining yourself right by the way you are currently living your life? Why do you seek Him or why do you search for Him?

I wrote this months ago and I want to share this because it matches up with this topic.

Today sometimes it's hard to tell who really is a Christian and who is not. Today we don't check people and call them out we just pretty much take them at their word. If you say you are a Christian than I am not going to question whether you are telling the truth. That's between you and God. But, what I love about the books of John is that he is saying I'm going to tell you straight out. If you look like a sinner and talk like a sinner and live like a sinner than you are a sinner and not a Christian. A good example of what John is saying is if you see an Orange tree, you will never see Apples growing out of that tree, it is impossible because it has Orange seeds and the seeds can only bear it's fruit. This is a certainty. There's no questions about it. You don't have to second guess that tree. The tree is going to do and reap what it's seed is period. Well, when it comes to Christianity, John is basically saying the same thing. There are characteristics that a Christian have that can not be mistaken for anything else. Whatever seed or spirit that lives in a person is going to come out and it cannot show any other character. For Christians, that seed is the Holy Spirit that was planted in us and I have already covered what it is that the Holy Spirit carries. The Holy Spirit carries the 7fold Spirit of Christ Isaiah 11:2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;. And now we have that Spirit Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And what I am telling you is bibical 2cr 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? The meaning of reprobate is: A morally unprincipled person. One who is predestined to damnation. To abandon to eternal damnation. It is always extremely important for us to check ourselves often to make sure we are living the life of a Christian and the great book to do a self check on this is the books of John(1st, 2nd, and 3rd).  Let me tell you why this is so heavy on me. Our hearts can and does deceive us often. That's right our own heart.Jeremiah 17:9-10  The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the LORD search the heart, [I] try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, [and] according to the fruit of his doings. And also Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] theways of death.  Good examples of how we do this is instead of judging our living and what is true by the word of God, we often say things like I know I'm not living the way God want me to but I do have good intentions, and my heart is right. We also say things like I know deep down in my heart that God... Our hearts trick us every time. If our hearts do not match with Christ than don't trust it!!! It's the same as if you meet someone whom you are thinking about dating. You would not put your heart out all the way for someone until you get to know them first and can trust them. You can trust God and his word better than your own self/heart so do a Bible check and if your heart is not matching with God's word than rely solely on his word and not your heart and than you will later find that your heart will become pure and will match up with God. Those who are strong in the word will understand completely with what I am saying. Listen to what I am saying because this is so very, very important. Today's Christians get so caught up with these talk shows and feel good messages that tells us that we are ok. If what you are feeling and doing is something that you know is wrong, that is ok, God loves everyone and accepts everyone for God is love and yada yada yada. DON'T GET CAUGHT UP WITH THOSE MESSAGES THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO DEATH! It is only the word of God that you can depend on for 100% truth. People will even get you to doubt the word of God like homosexuality and abortion to name a few. Your heart will trick you into believing that what you are feeling about that subject is right that God created a person to be homosexual and that abortion is ok in certain situations. An authentic Christian walk by the word of God, walking by faith. Believing only in what the word says. Another thing to remember is that God is more real than you and I because, we are not even living in our true body yet. We are not in our "real" resurrected body. We will change into complete perfection but God is already and has always been what He is. Onipotient, Onipresent and Omniscient. Although we know this already but you must understand that because we are not perfect yet, we can't use what is imperfect to rule our members, our members must be under the control of the Holy Spirit only which includes the heart. God is not only real but God is truth, he is serious about us and he is serious about sin. We can not afford to be insensitive to sin because our God is totally sensitive to it. We must be as Christ is. If you know you are sinning and you are having a hard time getting out of that sin than I suggest you do a self check on yourself right now. Before I left SCAN Health Plan I asked myself what kind of condition do I want to be in when God take me home, in otherwords when I die. Well my answer is that I want to be walking as Christ walk and I want to be walking in my assigned gift from the Holy Spirit, not living in sin. I remember talking to a man I met on the internet who passed away about a year ago. He said the reason he does not commit fornication is because he dosen't want to be caught in that sin when Christ comes. No one knows when Christ is coming and I don't want to be in the middle of having sinful sex which is sex while unmarried. I said well that is nice that you think like that but...don't you understand that you are already caught whether he arrived or not in a sinful act? Caught is caught whether He comes now or not so you have the right attitude but just know that any sin is a sin that we are caught in. You still might find yourself caught in or caught up in a sin without having the chance to repent of that sin before you die. Dying with unforgiving sin means you have to answer face to face with God about that sin and you will be held accountable for that sin. It doesn't mean you will go to hell but you will have to answer to Jesus Christ Himself. No one in their Christian mind would ever want that to happen to them. Now I am speaking from the word of God not from myself because if the truth be told, I don't enjoy denying what my flesh wants. If it was up to me, I would be sinning all the time because that is what my flesh desires but it is not me who I have to please but it is God who is my master that I have to please. So what I am saying to you does not come from the "Book of Angela" but from the "Book of the Bible" that was written by God's own words. A true Christian does not practic sin. Practic sin means living in sin. So lets break down what living in sin means. Living a life in disobediance to Gods words and standards is living in sin. If God said thou shalt not and you are doing it everyday than you are living in sin. In the same token, If God says thou shall or thou must and you don't, you are living in sin. I use to think that the hardest part of being a Christian is forgiving one another but really the hardest part of being a Christian is accepting what the word of God says and stepping out on faith living exactly what the word of God says. Not being afraid to call out what is not of God and speaking up for what is of God. Comparing our walk to the Bible to see how well we match up to it instead of comparing ourselves with each other. Here is a blog reference that explains in details about living in sin/darkness http://betchert.blogspot.com/2011/08/building-relationship-part-1.html I can't stress enough how serious God is about us and our living and the relationship that God desires from us. When one of my best friends and pastor died it just took me for a loop. I was so confused and my thoughts were for lack of a better word disorganized. I just didn't understand who, what, how, when, where and why? I was so busy being stunned and confused that I stopped reading the Bible. I say stopped because I read the bible daily and for weeks I just stopped. Than God spoke to my heart and I realized what I was doing. God said when you are in a relationship and you are mad at that person what is the first thing you do? You don't speak to that person. You shut down. You wait until you are not mad anymore to start a small conversation before working your way back up to the relationship being the way it use to be. Normally, when a person is hurt or sad, they run to their friend for comfort, but if they are mad at the person, than they will avoid that person. Now me being who I am had a hard time accepting this because I love the Lord so much but I could not deny my actions. The Lord was longing for our relationship. He was longing for me to talk to Him about anything that is troubling me. When we are honest with God, he brings things to our attention or send someone to give a word that matches with how we are feeling. God is our Father but He is also our friend and protector and comforter. Confusion is natural to feel when something happens that throws us for a loop but it is God that we must run to immediately for comfort. Even when it is God that we are hurt about because of lack of understanding. I'm saying this because a lot of times we think that we are ok. We don't want to admit that sometimes we just don't understand what God is doing and sometimes we feel like we should have been warned about things. God telling us ahead of time so that we can be prepared. God has already prepared me for this I just didn't know it would be my best friend and pastor. But all that was given to me prior now makes sense. So now I am back in the word of God feeding my spirit that was hungry and thristy. Back to authentic Christians. A true Christian according to the Book of John do not practic sin as was stated earlier, and If you are practicing sin, than you are lying about being a Christian. A true Christian do not keep or hang around friends that are practicing sin. I could not be best friends or even friends with someone who speaks Chinese and doesn't know English at all.

I wouldn't know what they were saying and they wouldn't know what I am saying. It doesn't mean that I can't do something nice for someone who speaks another language but we would not be hanging buddies. If we are, than that means I learned some Chinese along the way. I learned to conform to them in some way. This same thing applies to someone who is unsaved. You can not be best friends or even true friends with someone who is unsaved because you two would have nothing in common. If you are able to get along than the relationship that you two share is not one of Christ. Let me explain. Christ love the sinners and came for the sinners because they need him. The end result will be that they will learn that Jesus is the truth and come out of that sinful life. Just like a doctor will visit the sick person but the reason is to fix them. Those who are in the word understand what I am saying. It's what is in common that keeps us bonded together. This is according to the book of John. This is also why it states that if you say you are a Christian and hate another Christian than you are lying about being a Christian. It is the common bond and the Holy Spirit that keeps us together in true Love. If you have an issue with this than you know the drill, do a self check and ask God to help you with this but remember that the Holy Spirit already knows your struggles and is there to help you with all of your struggles. Be honest with God and let yourself go meaning be submissive to God so that He can do a perfect work in you.

There is so much more I would love to say but I have already said a lot! I know, I just can't stop but it's because I love you guys, I have to share because just as God is serious about us, I am serious about you. My love for you guys is real and I will be honest and tell you what is happening with me which is the reason for God dealing with me and the reason why I am spreading the word. I can't say that I love you and keep these things to myself. I just can't.

As always, I love you and God bless you.