50 Years of Bliss.......Not......50 Years of Love and Training

Next Saturday we will be celebrating our 50th Wedding anniversary. I know I have Facebook friends who have been married a long time too, some longer than us, I believe they will understand what I am about to write. The time just flies by, I still don't know how we crammed all those events and moves into just 50 years.

For those of you who think you are going to make it to 50 years of living having an easy life, think again. It was the moves, the illnesses, the trials, the people, and the life experiences, yes and many joys that grew us into the people we are today. There can be no spiritual or emotional growth without boot camp. Christ is always working on those who seek Him.

I do not regret all that we went through except the sin that had to be dealt with, even that trained us to depend more on Christ than we do on ourselves. I wish we could have gotten through life "sin-free" but it's just not possible. The flesh gets in the way but does not have to destroy us if we just repent and begin obeying Christ again.

With each confession of sin comes a growth spurt. The key is self-reflection and prayer to learn to grow in holiness. Forsaking the sin, even if it's nothing more than a wrong attitude is the key to growing into a more holy person.

1 Peter 2:1-2 "2 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 and like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord."

1 John 1:9

"9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

These verses were not written only to those who have committed the "really big" sins, these are for everyone who is born again. It isn't the size of the sin that keeps us stuck it's all sin, especially the attitudes sins that would cause us to judge others while refusing to look at ourselves.

It is a sin to gossip, to lie, to judge others for things we know nothing about, to act superior, to pretend we are righteous when in our heart dwells much angst against others for no good reason. So many people judge others according to what they wish to believe about them out of jealousy rather than what they actually saw with their own eyes. All these things are sins of the heart that people cannot necessarily see, they too will send anyone to hell who has not trusted Christ. However, for the believer these sins can keep the believer lacking joy, discrediting God, and suppressing spiritual and emotional growth to maturity.

No sin is so big one cannot repent of and continue better than before. Confession and turning from sin is the key to relationship restoration. There will be those who don't want you to believe you are forgiven or that Christ has changed you, ignore them, remove yourselves from them and continue on with great joy the path God has for you.

All of us must deal with sin in our hearts so it will not turn into actions and discredit God. When we are born again believers our witness is far more reaching than we realize. Unrepentant heart sin can cause a terrible witness if there is any witness at all.

Marriage and life itself are a battle against the devils who influence and infect minds with lies causing feelings to misguide us into thinking something is wrong when there is nothing.

Isaiah 5:20

"20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"

Those who follow feelings instead of facts will become irrational, even hostile to the resolution of problems.

Devils are using feelings far more than facts in our culture today. The devil loves to make couples feel hopeless and unable to work things out. He may even bring in the extended family to cause problems that would not otherwise be there.

1 Peter 5:8 "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

When you see a person attempting to ruin or lie against your marriage you know who is behind it....the devil. A person is merely a useful tool of the demons, they are in a sense willing victims, even willingly ignorant.

May the Lord strengthen the marriages of believers to be able to resist the devil and carry on to learn wonderful lessons with each conquered battle. The devil cannot destroy a born-again believer!

2 Corinthians 4:8-10 "…8 We are hard-pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.…"

Marriage is a wonderful thing designed by God, however, it is also a battle against the power of darkness who love to ruin families. Engage in the battle by prayer and standing firm in the Word of God and your marriage can survive anything.

Hallelujah!!!!!

Claiming is Blasphemous!

"Claiming" something to cause it to come about as many Pentecostals do is an attempt to do what only God can do, that is bring about what they want using words.

Only God spoke things into existence mankind cannot do this. Even with Christ dwelling in us we have not been given the power of the words of our mouth based on our own desires.

When we think our words have the same power as God's Words we have become our own gods. This thinking is blasphemous, it presumes that all our thoughts and desires are as valuable as God's thoughts and desires.

Our words have no power, our desires are not relevant! The power of God in us is dependent on His Will not our own.

Romans 8:11-14

11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you are living in accord with the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God."

To declare your own desires to God is to make you equal to Him. We are to ask the Lord for His will in our lives that we might glorify Him and not ourselves.

Romans 8:28

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

An important phrase in this verse is "His purpose."

1 John 5:13-15 "13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have before Him: If we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him."

Notice this: "if we ask according to His Will" we will have what we ask for because He will answer His own desire for us.

Why do so many people think they can pray in their own will and get what they want when Christ clearly said we will get what we want if we desire His will? It is His will we seek for our lives if we love Him. He knows what is needed, what He wants us to do with it and where it will take us, we cannot know these things.

A good example of this is the person who wants a red car, so they pray for a red car, the one they like with all the bells and whistles. But wait a minute, perhaps God has a car that serves them better but it is green?

Every time I have prayed for something specific God never gave it to me, but when I prayed for His will, perhaps a good price with some things I "need", He brought me something better than what I asked for. He did this because He knows my needs better than I do and He knew the future and what I would need in the future.

God loves us, He always takes care of His own providing the needs of those who love Him. However, what we think are needs in our day are more than likely merely wants and not needs. He gives us our desires too at times but we ought to be content with the supply of food and clothing, the desires are gravy if they come making us even more grateful that He cares about them.

Our joy is full because we know He sees the future that we cannot see and He will not abandon us.

Next time you are tempted to "claim" something from God remember it is not Biblical to do so and it is even a form of demanding something from God, sort of like a bratty child who refuses to let go of their own will. God is not a genie in a bottle to bark orders at with every whim.

By the way, the people I have known who "claim" things from God have always never waited for His answer but set out to make their desire happen. When they make it happen they lied and said it was God that did it. Pride goes right before the fall, it is not proper and is even blasphemous to demand things from God while doing the work to make it happen, that is a form of presuming they are the god they worship.

Be careful to check with scripture every time you hear a doctrine, especially if the masses love it. Often if many people are following a popular doctrine it is probably wrong. Popular doctrines usually appeal to the flesh and pride.

1 John 2:15-16 "15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.…"

Remember; the world is now in the church, perhaps there are more pew people who are not born again than are, so we must be watchful for false doctrine and ritual practices that come from paganism or psychology.

Acts 17:10-12 "10 As soon as night had fallen, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true. 12 As a result, many of them believed, along with quite a few prominent Greek women and men.…"

Our faithfulness to the word of God is crucial in these end times when most people who say they are Christians have never been born again. Even those who know the Bible are twisting it to fit their desires rather than believe what God actually said, beware of these people.

Matthew 7:21-23

I Never Knew You

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

If someone says they follow the Bible but becomes angry when you use the Word of God to address their sin, these are people who are lying. When we believe the Word of God we do not become angry at the Word or deny it, we embrace it and pray to be sure of what God said, not what people are saying.

Christians in An Era of Global Crisis – Jeff Kinley