Be Sure

1st John 4:1

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

We have to be careful. We have to be wise. Everyone who says he is of God......is not. Jim Jones, David Koresh, and others have deceived folks. They used fancy words and even godly things to deceive. Jim Jones operated in the gift of healing. He laid his hands on people and prayed in the name of Jesus, and MANY were healed through his ministry. He allowed it to go to his head. He began believing the lies of the devil rather than humbling himself before God, he lifted himself up as God. As we are told in Romans 11:29 the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable. Jim Jones still had the gift of healing even in his insanity (demon possessed mind). He convinced over 900 people to commit suicide! David Koresh told his followers that he was the Christ......that only he could have sex with the women, including the daughters of 12 years old and up. He used common brain washing tactics to ensure complete and utter loyalty even to the point of death. That is true of Jones as well. These men twisted scripture in order to fit their own lusts and desires. We had a fellow recently come and tell us at the church that we needed to keep the Sabbath holy and all women needed to wear (what amounted to) potato sacks, no pants, jewelry, or makeup. We were told we were in error. I had to ask him to leave. He was scaring the children and freaking out the adults. He was adamant that the law was the only way to go. But if we trust in the law, we've left grace behind. TEST the spirits. Make sure that you're basing your life upon the bible, and not upon someone's interpretation of the bible. Many folks are confused and led astray, because they don't really read the bible, and believe what anyone tells them about it. I can pull out any scripture out of the bible and twist to mean what I want it to mean. That doesn't make it right. We need to be careful about pulling a verse, or verses, out of context and building a whole belief system upon it, or them. Even with these messages, I want you to read these scriptures yourselves. Don't take my word for it, read it yourself. Even read different versions to get a better understanding of what's being said. A great way to do that is to do a bible verse search, or word search via http://www.biblegateway.com/ and you can see different versions of the bible in several different languages. Find out what God says about different topics that you're curious about. Healing, mercy, love, tithing, spiritual gifts........you decide. There are three things I tell the youth that they MUST know, and you had better know them too. 1) Know what you believe. 2) Know why you believe it. 3) Be able to intelligently discuss both. Of course the answers are: 1) I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, and died on the cross for my sins.....and on the 3rd day He was risen from the dead. All my sins are forgiven because of His sacrifice not because of anything I did or could do. All I have to do is receive His forgiveness, His free gift of salvation. 2) I believe all these things because I choose to believe the bible, and I've seen changed lives personally, including my own. 3) I can give biblical evidence of everything I believe. Romans 10:9-10 John 1:11-13, John 3:1-21 (with emphasis on verses 16 & 17), John 14:1-6 (emphasis on verse 6), and I'm sure you can find more examples, as can I, but for time sake we'll stop here. These are the principles, the staples of our faith. We cannot stray from those. And we must know what we believe and why we believe it. If not, we're not even convinced of what we believe if we don't know what, why, and how. Have a great day and God bless. :-) James

Sufficient???

2nd Corinthians 3:5
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God.

You are not perfect. Neither am I. We see several times in the New Testament that we are to strive towards perfection, but we aren't there yet. I don't trust in my ability to keep the law, but I trust in Jesus. I strive to keep myself from sin, and I shun it......but nevertheless, I know I am not perfect. God doesn't require perfected vessels, only those willing to be perfected. (I really recommend your reading all of chapter three to understand completely what is being said here.) Our salvation is not based upon our ability to be holy. Quite the contrary. Jesus came because He knew we couldn't do it on our own. Now we do have to be willing to grow, and to let go of things that hinder our walk with the Lord. Forget the mistakes of the past that we have already repented of, and carry on with the Lord. The enemy, and some people, will try to remind you of the mistakes you have made in the past, but God doesn't remember them. Let them go. And if you are the one who is constantly reminding someone of how bad they were, or of the horrible things that they did......STOP IT!!! The bible speaks of the accuser of the brethren. (Revelation 12:10) His name is satan. When we accuse our brothers and sisters and remind them of their past sins, we are doing satan's will. The Lord's will is that we encourage one another and help them not to fall in to the same kind of temptation and sin again. None of us are perfect. Some have grown more than others. Some are kind of stuck in a rut, because that's as far as they're willing to go with God right now. I'm not saying that's right or wrong, it's just where they are now. The Lord wants us to move on, to get out the ruts, and continue on with Him. But sometimes we are stubborn, or perhaps that's just me. But I've been known to do dumb things. But praise God, I learned through those things, and I've grown through them as well. The Lord has really been working on me in the area of patience. ESPECIALLY on the road. I am easily frustrated and lose my patience. Now I don't scream and shout or point at them with a finger or anything.....but I can get upset and/or frustrated. But, I have calmed down some in that area, and I still have some growing to do there. In other areas where patience is required, I have learned much faster. Just remember, no matter where you are in your walk with the Lord, there is always more. If we want more of the Lord, we have to be willing to give Him more of us. Have a great day folks and God bless. Pastor James

Pray, pray, and then pray some more!!!

2nd Thessalonians 3:1-2

Finally brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith.

Here's a great bit of advice PRAY FOR ME! Pray for us, pray for each other. I pray for you, and you pray for me. It's the way it works. Pray for protection and that the word of the Lord would go forth and accomplish what He has sent it forth to do. We are only stewards of the mysteries of God, but if we don't speak them, how will they hear? Many folks claim to be ready to die for Christ, while they have little desire to live for Him. Besides, you'll know you're ready to die for Christ when that gun is in your face. I've been on trips to Mexico and the military checkpoints can be pretty scary. But if you know why you're there, and Who sent you.......you don't have fear. In fact when you leave, they have smiles on their faces, because the joy of the Lord is your strength. No one has put a gun in my face and asked me to deny Christ or die. But seeing those AK-47s sure makes you think. It sure makes you realize that without being sent, we shouldn't just go on a whim. It had better be God that told you to go. I have a friend who was on a staff in a large church in CA making about $40,000 a year......his wife was in marketing, and was making about double that. God told them to go to Uganda. They quit their jobs and went for a year. They've been back once or twice, but have remained there for the mostpart. When they went there was wars going on over there........uprisings and whatnot. I was concerned for them, but I know my friend. If he said God sent them.......then God sent them. So please remember your brothers and sisters in the faith. Pray for them daily, and pray for your unsaved friends, loved ones, and colleagues from work as well. I've been doing that more and more. And I'm seeing customers of mine come to faith in Christ, and suppliers and competitors as well. It's not about me or what I want, it's all about Him and what He wants. Have a great day and God bless. :-) James

Check it out

Hi folks......sorry for the delay in between posts. If you go to JesusfreaksRus at Yahoo groups, you can join that, and get posts (sent to you in email by the group) every weekday, give or take. I post 3 to 4 times a week there as does someone else once or twice a week. I have so much going on that sometimes I take on too much. Posts here will probably remain few and far between for about another month or so. But at present I'm reading the Purpose Driven Life, and have started a blog for those who are participating. Tomorrow (Feb 14th) is day nine......chapter nine. It's a forty day commitment to read it every day and ponder what's being said. Here's the link even if you're just curious....pop in and see what's going on.

Purpose Driven Life Study

Have a great night/day and God bless. :-) James