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Years to Your Life and Life to Your Years

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A little late for my “meaning of Christmas and New Years” article. This is close enough. I heard Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California talking to Piers Morgan on CNN on Christmas Eve. He was talking about the meaning of Christmas being salvation. Not just salvation of your souls, but from a more holistic point of view the salvation of your entire being.

During this interview, Pastor Rick Warren was quoted as saying “you don’t need Jesus because you’re going to die tonight, you need Him because you’re going to live tomorrow.” We don’t just need to experience salvation simply in just having our sins forgiven so we can get to heaven when we die; we need to be saved from ourselves so that we can better serve God and help build His Kingdom on earth. Eternal life isn’t something you get when you die, it starts in this life; therefore you can experience your best life now if you have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in your life.

In Luke 17, Jesus told the religious people of His day that the Kingdom of God was within them. If it’s within them as egotistical as they are, think of how much more He’s in those that are on fire for Him. In another story in the book of John, Jesus was telling told Martha that her brother Lazarus would rise again. Martha responded by telling the Messiah Yeshua that she knew he would rise again in the resurrection.

The point is, if Martha believed in the resurrection, then why did Jesus go on and say “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever lives and believes in me, though he die, yet he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” Well, do you? He’s asking.

Because the resurrection doesn’t take place in the next life. It’s completed when Jesus comes back. You are literally raised to new life the moment you receive the Son of God into your life. That’s the meaning of New Year’s. Starting over and second chances. God’s grace and mercy renew every day, every month, every hour, every second, minute, year, decade. If you are alive and your heart has not hardened so that you can still hear His voice.

The last thing Martha said was that she believed Jesus was the Anointed Messiah, the one coming into the world. All you have to do is believe. Yes, even demons believe but because they are created perfect salvation is not offered to them. You can believe something intellectually but not really receive or accept it if you are resisting it. You can’t believe in Jesus and cherry pick the bible to pick out what you believe and what you don’t. Being fully surrendered means accepting Him for who He is. If you don’t accept His teachings, then you can’t accept Him. They aren’t that hard to the spiritually discerning. Humans, for being lazy creatures, have a tendency to overcomplexify everything.

It’s all about a relationship. Jesus said in John 10:10, “I came to give them life and give it abundantly. The enemy comes to still, kill, and destroy.” If you aren’t living the abundant life maybe you don’t really believe in the Son. Of course it says in Acts that many believed but have not received the Holy Spirit. They haven’t been empowered because they don’t know who they are or what they have in Christ.

No wonder we are struggling with debt and sickness and the world can’t see the Messiah in His professing followers.

The Law of Sowing & Reaping

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Society has always been caught up with trying to keep the letter of the law. Most people even base their own goodness on their keeping of the law. Being omnipotent, God knew this when He established the Torah in the OT times.

When His Son, the Messiah, was revealed, He revealed a new law. He taught that the entire law of God was summed up in loving God and loving your neighbor. We humans have a tendency to miss the point because we get too focused on ourselves. In other words, because of our ego, we tend to be our own worst enemy.

I once met an engineering student who said that the reason most people can’t do calculus is because they overthink it. It’s human nature to always try to overanalyze, or figure stuff out. My friend, you will never figure stuff out. Even Solomon taught in Ecclesiastes that the pursuit of wisdom is meaningless.

Instead, seek first the Kingdom of God. Hunger and thirst after His righteousness that is imparted through Christ. With that comes true wisdom that won’t puff us up. Stay connected to your source as New Age guru Wayne Dyer puts it. (not sure if he’s a believer or not as I never heard him deny Jesus nor confess Him).

The fact that some Jewish person broke down ten commandments into 613 laws shows how anal we are. If you bow down to a man-made image (2nd commandment) you break the 1st and 3rd as well. It’s a downward spiral. When you break them all. When you study the law you realize that, aside from dietary laws, they talk about putting God first out of love and devotion and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

You can only love God and your neighbor as much as you love yourself. Seeing yourself as a good person will puff you up. Seeing yourself as a bad person is false humility. It’s a form of pride because it puts down God’s creation.

The law of sowing & reaping says whatever you sow, that you also reap. Proverbs teaches the diligent soul will be made fat; or have an abundance. It overflows back into you. The secret is not to focus on yourself. Deny your selfish impulses because anything you do affects you relationship with God and affects those around you. So if it’s not loving, then we shouldn’t do it.

Sowing & reaping is in the Bible. New age teaches Karma and Law of Attraction which is similar. Though the nonbelievers that teach that tend to be more self-focused. The root of sin is worshipping the creation rather than the Creator; that includes ourselves by trying to be a god as opposed to worshipping God.

Acknowledge God and He will direct your path. He’s already doing that anyway, we just become more discerning of where He’s leading us. Once you have an idea what God wants you to pursue, then you have the confidence to step out boldly in faith.

Proverbs 28:1 says the righteous are as bold as lions. Revelation says the cowardly will not inherit the Kingdom of God. The King James translation says effeminate rather than homosexual; meaning soft. Men that have forgotten how to be men and lead so they choose more passive roles.

Remember it all starts with God. You must be born-again, or pure in heart, to see the Kingdom of God at work around you. That’s done by turning from our selfish way of living and receiving the sacrifice for our sins that God has provided. We can only love God by realizing how much He loves us. As the Holy Spirit makes us more like Jesus, we have a greater influence for John the Baptist once said “He must increase and I must decrease.”

Can God Heal The Broken Hearted?

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This question inspired by watching a show I hardly ever watch; the 700 club. I was just too lazy to change the TV and I was working online right now anyway.

The answer to the question is-yes. All things are possible with God but God is the source that makes things happen; this is what it means that we are slaves to righteousness-slaves to right-living. Is this necessarily a bad thing? A slave to living right? Doesn’t mean God wants you to give up all of your desires since it seems some believers believe that all of our desires are basically evil. They are only evil when we pursue them in the flesh as opposed to seeking first the Kingdom of God.

I can testify to being healed. Lost my maternal grandmother when I got baptized in July 2001. I was actually closer to her husband. Yes, that would be my maternal grandfather if anybody out there is slow to pick up on that.

On Good Friday I lost my dad to cancer. Come to think of it, I believe he passed away in the morning at the same time Jesus did in Israeli time. :) Remember Jesus is the firstborn among all of creation so He didn’t stay dead very long. This is the basic truth that all believers agree with even though various denominations go off on tangents. That’s another blog in itself.

Losing my dad was even harder. I actually wanted to kill myself because of that. By the way, I didn’t go through with that just so you know.

Since my spiritual revival in the last two years, which led to deliverance from a Mood Disorder w/ Psychosis in July 2011 when I learned how to wean myself off antipsychotics (anticrapcotics is more like it), I lost my mom and on Veteran’s Day of this year I lost my first sibling. Another victim of cancer on the last part and just two months shy of her 60th birthday. However my parents smoked and made it to their 70′s so I can torment my audience for another 50 years provided i quit smoking the pipe, occasional drinking of beer & wine, don’t get martyred, or Jesus doesn’t come back first.

God can do all things. The question is whether we let Him. Jesus posed the question that when He returned “will the Son of Man find faith?” Sounds like a soap opera to me.

The African-American fireman in the Christian movie Fireproof was quoted as saying that if you treat a woman like a rose she will bloom. In reality if a person is insecure and doesn’t learn to value and love themselves, they will still reject someone who only wants to love them. Otherwise, calvinism is true and God only wins who He wants. I prefer Unitarianism that believes God is working to save all mankind in some form and that no one is a “good person” in and of themselves since God is the source of all goodness. We all have some measure of the Holy Spirit; that’s how God draws us.

In the end, God does get what He wants. He gets children that love Him from the heart and not just in the mind. God can heal the broken hearted but you have to let Him by taking your spiritual medication in seeking first His Kingdom and making a choice to hunger and thirst after His righteousness; this means acknowledging that you have no capacity for righteousness in and of yourself.

The Jesus 500: Running the race to the Son

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Actually more like running the race to the Father through the Son but that would have made the title too long. Paul, or whoever the writer of Hebrews is, compared walking with God to a race. However since we are all equal at the Cross we can all win; especially if we love our neighbor and stop to help those that lag behind. The ultimate sacrifice you can make in this life is using your spiritual gift to the point that the people you serve end up passing you up in the race. Maybe that’s what Jesus meant by the last would be first. However there are many OSASer’s who are still stuck at the starting line because they haven’t been grounded in their faith enough to know who they are in Christ. Paul talks about the faith of the believer in an unequally yoked marriage sanctifying the unbelievers. Maybe that could apply for those strong in faith asking God to transfer some of it (or overflow) into those that lag behind. So it’s more evenly distributed. Like a Pastor said once (Pentecostal obviously) being religious, meaning trying to be “good” because you feel you have to or it’s the “right thing to do” is dancing around the Cross. When you actively step out in faith and pursue God by embracing the Messiah and live out in belief in Him by following Him then you actually get up on the Cross and carry your own.

My song of 2011 was Mercy Me/Move

My 2012 song of the year is by the Afters/We Won’t Give Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ddmincSys

Word Digestion & Instant Grits

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Hungry? Jesus said “man does not live on bread alone buy by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” The only food you need is the Bread of Life that’s found in the Messiah as well as the Living Water He offers that will fill you up to everlasting life and overflow into others enabling you to show your  love for God by the way you love them; thus fulfilling the Law of God.

Many churches talk about devouring the Word of God (not literally like my rat terrier did one time). Even charismatic Baptistcostal preacher Charles Stanley said you can study the Bible and miss God. The question is why do you study the Word of God? Many people, especially in America, have enough head knowledge about the things of God to enable them to miss heaven by 18 inches (the difference between your head and your heart). Do you study the Word to get to know God personally? Are you seeking His Face? Are you you guilty of be a gnostic, or worshipper of merely knowledge?

Full Pentecostal preacher Steve Hill of Heartland World Ministries Church in Irving, TX. declared one time “it’s not how much you get into the Word; it’s how much of the Word gets in you.” There’s truth to the Prosperity Gospel. However many fall away because they expect God to deliver on demand; making  Him sound like a Sear’s Catalogue. First off you can’t just pray for whatever you want and expect God to cater to your every whim. That’s trying to manipulate your Heavenly Father. You seek Him and His Kingdom and all else will be added; including the desires of your heart or what God wants you to do with your life.

Do the desires of your heart glorify God and line up with His Word? Are you asking amiss if you aren’t receiving? God won’t bless you with anything on your timetable. If He did there would be no need for faith that perseveres. You would just be seeking God for what He can give you rather than what you can give Him; which is only your heart and life in exchange for Him giving His life for you.

America is a fast paced society. We want everything now! We are willing to settle for what’s right now rather than what’s right for us in the long term; I.e.; instant grits (actually gratification but grits fits the title of the Blog). God’s timing may line up with your timing but that’s still not exactly when you want it and it’s not exactly what you want. You should be thankful He doesn’t give you everything you want for it might destroy  you. It all depends on how close you are to God; meaning how Christlike you are.

Shabat Shalom in the name of Yeshua Mashiach

 

 

Are You Up For Repossession?

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It has been taught among preachers that Egypt in the Old Testament symbolizes the world and the crossing of the Red Sea is salvation. Yeshua Mashiach is the passover lamb whose blood when God sees automatically gets passed over when He sees it. The question is: Have you been repossessed out of the world? The underlying issue of all sin is not trusting in God and insisting on our own way. When we do this we become blind to the things of God; in Finance terms we fall behind and become indebted to our Creator. Then we have to go through a mediator to settle accounts. The good news is the debt has been paid long before we ever walked away. We don’t owe God anything except the debt to love Him and one another which you can only do by the power of the Holy Spirit. We were created to serve a living God but our selfishness gets in the way which is why Jesus calls us to deny ourselves. The new life we now live we live by faith in the Son of the Living God. Meaning we allow God to restore us to our prefallen nature by His Power and for His glory with the same Power that He used to raise Christ from the dead. So once again the question: Are you still driving your automobile that you can’t pay for or have you surrendered it to the one who really owns it and trust Him to be your Driver’s Ed Coach?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V369OngXwhw

Appropriate song: Carrie Underwood/Jesus Take the Wheel

Our Unmet Need

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It’s true we will always have an unmet need in life. However whether we have unfulfilled desires depends on our drive, passion, and where we’re at with God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Spiritual hearing comes when you open your heart to the one true and living God, which is Him drawing you to the Cross of His Son; the more you seek after the things of God the more He fills you and you know what you truly want out of life. Then the Holy Spirit will empower you to git er dun. 2 Peter says God adds to faith virtue; this is moral excellence or a striving for holiness, i.e.; to be made whole. If you are not striving for this you are out of fellowship and your faith is small. To virtue He adds knowledge which leads to temperance. Knowing how to live right and having the self-control to do so by keeping your focus on Him. These lead you to steadfastness and godliness which leads to brotherly love (Phileo) and Charity. As we become more humble and dependent on the Holy Spirit for His Life we are filled to overflowing and able to supernaturally love God and others unconditionally. So the only unmet need we really have is for more faith which is where it all begins with the size of a mustard seed. Also when you do step out in faith God and receive His blessings He is going to continue to draw you to a deeper level of faith and dependence which only serves to enhance your ability to do the other things that follower; namely leading to a greater love of God and others which makes you more Christlike and fulfills the Law of God given to Moses.

Jeff Deyo/More Love, More Power

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3GmSupatEs

A New Ministry in Fort Worth For Anybody Looking For Wholeness

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Ever wonder if the 12 steps work? It seems like everytime I went to a support group it was just people complaining about their issues. I never felt uplifted by it and I often wondered who their “higher power” is. To me calling the Living God and His Messiah a “higher power” waters down who God is. It’s like refering to Him as “the Man upstairs.” God is not upstairs. He’s everywhere. Any addiction you struggle with is just a stronghold or idol in your life that you are using to fill the void that only a loving God can fill if you will only trust Him. For information just go to the category labeled Take Heed Ministries. Meeting times are every Friday at 5:30. Address is 1015 S. Jennings #1414 with the gate code of #0049.  Contact Mike Martin at (817)938-0843 or Rusty at (214)cur-hard or (214)287-4272 or myself at (469)245-2132. Emails are takeheedministries@yahoo.com, formikemartin@yahoo.com, bayloruss@aol.com, or myself at ewootenjr@gmail.com. I know it’s short notice but if you get this post and you feel the Holy Spirit tugging on your heart don’t hesitate to pick up the phone or computer and call one of us and find your way there. It might be short notice but with God all things are possible and it is weekly. Also feel free to read the other articles that were formally the Mental Illness & Addiction category. Society tells you “once an addict, always an addict.” Jesus teaches that He is the way, the truth, and the life and the truth will set you free. If you are not walking in freedom then this ministry is for you if you’re in or around the Fort Worth area.

Count it all Joy

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From the words of the half-brother of Jesus Himself. Count it all joy when you encounter various trials & tribulations. Man, that’s easier said than done. They say life is hard, although Psalms says the way of the transgressor is hard. My dad (earthly) taught me life is only as hard as you make it. When you have a personal relationship with the Creator of the Universe, nothing is too hard. Of course it takes years of growth to realize that. Each trial you go through should bring you closer to God as you step out in faith and face it. The opposite would be to try to  hide yourself in the things of the world which brings about depression. The same trial will usually manifest itself over and over until you walk through it faithfully. Jesus Himself declared. . .”In this world you will have tribulation.” Wait, there’s more!!!!! Did anybody “hear” what He said after that? “I have overcome the world.” In 1 John, the writer reminds us that our faith in Christ is the victory that overcomes the world. Romans 8:28 tells us that all things work together to those that love God. Genesis 50:20 says of those who intend to harm us (whether intentionally or not) that what they meant for evil, God uses for good. So all the tragedies that have happened to America, God could have prevented. However, if it wakes people up and draws people to Him, then He will do what it takes to win souls out of love for them and a desire to see them turn from the chains of Satan that bind them. In the words of Mercy Me, “bring me anything that brings you glory.” Featured in this song by the popular crossover group, “Bring the Rain.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8HgAVenbUU

Hide & Seek

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Remember back in the garden when Satan tempted Eve to eat the apple? What motivated the original first lady to eat of the forbidden fruit? Some say pride. A desire to be independent of God. Or unbelief-not trusting what God says and obeying Him. That leaves fear. Later on it says her and her husband were afraid of God, for they were naked and tried to hide themselves. How many of us hide when we do something wrong? Everybody knows the ever popular John 3:16. A few verses down it says (v. 20) that many will not come to the light for fear that its deeds will be exposed. There it is again. Fear. The one thing that keeps us from trusting in God. 1 John 4:18 says that perfect love casteth out fear. When you’re not living by faith, you are living in fear; thus you end up trusting in yourself because you have to have in something. The only way to increase your faith is to realize how much God loves you. Either by remembering where you came from or where you would be if it weren’t for the Lord (for those that grew up under biblicial teaching). The only thing God asks of us is to seek His face. Come out of hiding. Your sins are forgiven. You don’t have to punish yourself with guilt and shame. Thought for today: Are you seeking Him or hiding from Him? My new years resolution for the year after a life of struggling with anxiety and depression is to live life to the fullest. In return God has practically restored the years I lost due to them by reconnecting with friends through Social Media. You can’t enjoy life if you are constantly bound by fear.