SHOULD WE PRAY FOR.....THOSE WHO HATE US?

27 But to those of you who will listen, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also.....(Luke 6:27-29)
The Christian life is not the way of the world. In fact, God Himself, Abba Father said so in Isaiah 55:8. Thank God, for that ….that His way of thinking, doing things and dealing with matters concerning humanity is not the corrupt, narrow-minded and incorrect thinking of all mankind. By the way, thank the Good Lord also for what He has done. If it were not for His Grace, Mercy and Longsuffering and patience with us, no one on this planet would make it to adulthood. He is a good, good Father.

It is this mindset, of a loving patient Father, which allows each of us who were perishing in our sins to be even alive to be forgiven, if we ask Jesus to be the Lord and Master of our lives and to forgive of all our sins. There is a reason He said immediately in Mark 1:15: “The time is fulfilled. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel”.

This shows us the urgency of our redemption, since we who are saved can grasp this bold truth. It is this positional truth which gives us the latitude to be magnanimous towards those who hate us, who will always hate us and who will never come to faith and repentance as we have.  We are heirs of a Kingdom of the One Who forgave us and then commands us to pray for our enemies.

There are those who will never like us on a personal level and as human beings. There are those who offend us in the world of the corrupt culture; media; academia and political leadership. We are called to pray for them, even those who promote abortion and every abhorrent anti-God thing out there. We are in the age where every man does what is right in their own eyes. God will deal with those things and its by-product. Our job is to pray for them especially for those who harm us.

It is not easy, to be perfectly honest. I had one of my supervisors who hated me for almost a decade. This person hated how I looked, the color of my skin, my wife and my lifestyle.  I had to put up with blood-curdling rants with eyes building and spittle flying and not respond with a single word of anger or self-defense. Instead I prayed this person constantly into the most capable Hands of the Lord. The end result of all of this, turned out to be a rare positive. The super used to asked me to pray for her family whenever there was an emergency. She ended up getting saved after her husband passed away and is now a regular church goer. This is a rare occurrence resulting from “praying for those who hate you”. A broken widow coming to the Lord after a  life of hate and bitterness is a rare and wonderful thing. However it is not so for the majority. They perish in their sin and apparently seem to prefer this, rather than submit to the Lord of creation.

What is beneficial to the Christian is this – obey the Lord and pray for those who hate us. We do so not because we want “burning coals" on their heads,  but because He says so and we want to be obedient. No matter how disgusting and evil those who have wronged us may be, when we pray for those kinds of people, we are being Christ –like just like our Lord Who looked down from the Cross and said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. Our enemies know what they’re doing….but so does God and unless they eventually find His forgiveness and grace, they will have been storing up wrath for themselves, for a Day to come, while we remain above the fray, safe in the Arms of our God.

Father, in the Mighty Name of Jesus, help us to see beyond the immediate, even the hurt and pain caused by those who despise us, destroy us, degrade and deny us. Give us the wisdom to know that it is better to follow Your Word and Your counsel completely and to pray for the salvation and forgiveness of those who have done us wrong,  no matter what they have done. 

We pray that by doing so, You will give us a true peace which passeth ALL understanding and bring us to a place where we can rest under the shadow of Your wings, knowing that our position in You is not only secure, but that You, in Your Power, Might and Sovereignty – have this situation under control. We can rest in this, my God and my King. Thank You. We bless and praise Your Holy Name and ask for the strength and courage and yes, unconditional love to love like You love us, so that many will see, including our enemies and come to the Knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is in His Name, we pray, amen.

(Photo Credit Here)

SEVEN THINGS GOD HATES - #4: A DEVIOUS HEART

This entire concept (of a "devious heart") goes completely against every western concept that we are really "good people". You would never hear about the "fallen nature" of man, or corruption of the human race; or even the word "sin". Nobody, in these days of extreme political correctness would even think they (you and I) were born with a devious heart.

Proverbs 6:16-19 New King James Version (NKJV)

These six things the Lord hates,

Yes, seven are an abomination to Him: 

A proud look,

A lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that devises wicked plans,

Feet that are swift in running to evil, 

A false witness who speaks lies,

And one who sows discord among brethren.

Yet, the Creator Who made us, recognizes every single one of us as not just capable of unimaginable evil, but possessing a bent towards it. Jesus Christ, God Who became Man said as much in Mark 7:21 "For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come--sexual immorality, theft, murder,"  This is the outflow of the Adamic or sinful nature which each human is born with.  

Mark is the first book of the New Testament ever written and it was dictated to him by the Apostle Peter himself - an eyewitness if there ever was one. Peter is an interesting study of a man who was sold out to Jesus, the Disciple of Disciples and all that. Yet, the same man who cut off Malchus' ear trying to defend Jesus from the Temple Guard was denying Jesus three times, outside that same temple as the religious leaders captured Him for their kangaroo court.

Jesus also spoke of the evil of the heart further in Matthew 13:15 and just about described every human being ever born, before the Spirit and Power of God delivered you and I from spiritual wickedness and eternal death! The Messiah said "For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'"

This is never more evident when you watch the filth and degradation coming out of American culture today. Take one look at any American TV award show to see the depths of depravity of western "humanity". The recently concluded 2014 Grammy Awards is Exhibit A. We saw everything God described in Ezekiel 16:48-50 as to WHY He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Read on:

"As I live," declares the Lord GOD, "Sodom, your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it.…

America is modern day Sodom where its wealth, prosperity and power led to such easy living since World War II that we have gone slack in morality and cold in heart towards the Lord. The bad news is that God never changes and He has seen this before....thousands of years now. Man, in the wickedness and lust of everything ungodly, make the same mistakes over and over and over ahead.While these mistakes take several forms, which we can talk about for volumes, the underlying issue is Sin. While we are not allowed to talk about it in modern culture and even most modern churches, that too has never gone off the Lord's Radar....and He will punish it!

To help us avoid this trap of an evil and devious heart, which rebels against God, let us see briefly the sequence of events of Sin and how we can avoid it.

1. The world, the flesh and Satan throws temptation in our faces blatantly or subtly which triggers a thought and desire for that thing or person.

2.  Depending on the current condition of your walk with Jesus and where one is in the process of Sanctification, that thought or desire will trigger two things - either you will seek to gratify your own flesh no matter the cost OR you will be so disgusted that everything the Lord taught you will kick in and you will RUN away immediately (like Joseph and Potiphar's wife).

3.  If you choose the Biblical "RUN" option, you and I are in the clear. But here is what happens if you do NOT consider the cost of fulfilling that temporary lust of the flesh and discipline yourself - your heart will lie to you! YES! Your pride (sin #1 here) will like (sin#2)  and tell you that you "really deserve this. God is keeping him or her from you....or that new Mustang (which will put you $40,000 further in debt)....you deserve this....you work hard", And how about this one "you won't get caught"!!! DOES ANY OF THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?! THIS IS SATAN TEMPTING EVE IN THE GARDEN IN GENESIS 3!!

4.  Failure to run and instead listen to Satan and the flesh and your own wicked heart will result in death. If not immediate physical death, then death of purity...death of a clear conscience...death of a vibrant relationship with your spouse or the bank or worse - GOD!

This is where a prideful wickedly devious heart can lead a person. While God's grace extends to the Christian who sins and fall like this, there is a loss of eternal reward and the spiritual blessings in the eternal kingdom to come. This is the end result of the devious heart. This will work out in the end for the person who has been truly saved, but we should worry about those who walk in constant wickedness, such as we see on full display - not just out of Hollywood, but in our local schools; state capitols and all the way to the top of business and politics.

The only cure to make a heart right is to cry out to God, through Jesus Christ for Him to "open the eyes of your heart"! Great title for a song, as well as good theology like this will focus us on what is truly important - Salvation and getting your own heart, and mine, right with God. While Repentance may be a bad word today, it is still the only road to righteousness - from a Devious Heart! 

(MANY ASK: WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF THE SPIRITUAL HEART? 

ANSWER: Sue Bohlin of Probe Ministries has a great and concise definition for us here - In the Bible, the heart is shown to have three capacities: to think (or believe), to choose, and to feel. The heart is really the "innermost part" of us to which David refers in Ps. 51)

(MANY ASK: WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF THE SPIRITUAL HEART? 

ANSWER: Sue Bohlin of Probe Ministries has a great and concise definition for us here - In the Bible, the heart is shown to have three capacities: to think (or believe), to choose, and to feel. The heart is really the "innermost part" of us to which David refers in Ps. 51)

THE MEANING OF LIFE: PART 2 OF 12

                         A CHAPTER BY CHAPTER STUDY OF THE BOOK OF
                                        ECCLESIASTES......CHAPTER 2
                                   "The foolishness of Pleasure-seeking"
"Eat, drink and be merry...and ignore what those wacky Christians say, they don't want you to have fun anyway..." - This seems to be the motto of America's corrupt celebrity culture and its "worshippers" who seek their fame and fortune and their own "reality show"! Never before in the history of mankind, have we had all kinds of infantile behavior from undisciplined teens and immature adults who make absolute fools of themselves. 

The super availability of free social media has led to once privately held personal and/or intimate conduct which held shame and scorn, going viral on the internet and popping up on TMZ, Gawker or any of those that America's Most Clueless actively long to be on. Somehow, today, that kind of thing is laughed at and lifted up as some kind of virtue. These people have no concept of where they're headed and the accountability awaiting them for their pleasure seeking and drive to accumulate stuff- because this is how America defines success.

This is the focus of today's lesson from the book of Ecclesiastes - the foolishness and wasteland of seeking pleasure, chasing the latest gadget and auto or smartphone or...you name it...and the toll it will take on those who do that. Watch the less than 1/2 hour teaching on it then read the entire Chapter 2.

Ecclesiastes 2

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

The Futility of Pleasure and Possessions

2 I said [a]to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So [b]enjoy yourself.” And behold, it too was futility. 2 I said of laughter, “It is madness,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?” 3 I explored with my [c]mind how tostimulate my body with wine while my [d]mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could seewhat good there is for the sons of men [e]to do under heaven the few [f]years of their lives.

4 I enlarged my works: Ibuilt houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; 5 I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; 6 I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and I had [g]homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. 8 Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myselfmale and female singers and the pleasures of men—many concubines.

9 Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. 10 All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. 11 Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had [h]exerted, and behold all was [i]vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THIS CHAPTER (Bible Gateway)

WHY WE BLESS THE LORD, PART 2

Today, we need to key in on one major fact about God - and this should be a HUGE reason to Bless the Lord! In fact, if we don't bless Him big time about this, we don't deserve anything else.

There is so much that can be said about each of these verses from Psalm 103. However when we look at ourselves, both as individuals and as a people, we never see the way God sees. 
His Ways are not our ways and His Eyes are definitely different from ours!
He sees through the Eyes of Holiness. We see through the eyes of the flesh.
He sees through the Eyes of Righteousness. We see through the eyes of self- righteousness.
He sees through to the very core of our soul. We see only the man in the mirror.
He sees and knows all our short comings. We see ourselves as "not so bad".....not so bad. But is that good enough?

Of course it is not good enough...in fact, that kind of philosophy is called "religion" and it is the same evil that has been perpetrated against God since Nimrod built the Tower of Babel and created every false and evil thing, only a few hundred years after God destroyed the earth with the Great Flood - for the same reason!

So unless we are truly blinded, as most people are, we need to recognize this Truth - THE LORD IS MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS, SLOW TO ANGER AND ABOUNDING IN MERCY! America is a corrupt and godless country which has sown the wind by the kind of leaders they elect; the evil culture they worship and their ungodly lifestyles we have. We deserve the Backhand of God slapping this country around from one side of the ocean to the other. Yet He is holding back! He is holding back! Not for much longer, but God is holding back some bad stuff, for the time being. For that reason alone, we should BLESS THE LORD, oh my soul!

PSALM 103: 6-10

The Lord executes righteousness

And justice for all who are oppressed.

7 

He made known His ways to Moses,

His acts to the children of Israel.

8 

The Lord is merciful and gracious,

Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.

9 

He will not always strive with us,

Nor will He keep His anger forever.

10 

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 

UNDER GOD, UNDER ATTACK

FAMILY LIFE TODAY

(Family Series....in Conclusion)

The assault on the Family will never stop until Jesus sets down on Mt Zion, splitting the mountain in half and wiping out all who have rebelled (this is accurately prophesied in the Bible).


Witness the following:
- A family meets in San Diego county AT THEIR HOME for Bible study. The San Diego sheriff shows up to shut them down. The matter is now in California court.
- California judges are now being asked to state their sexual orientation by Governor Moonbeam and his indoctrination camps. This is to insure only gay-friendly judges are allowed on the bench...and is also unconstitutional, but that has never stopped socialists. This is also designed to destroy the traditional nuclear family.
- California public schools are forced to teach the gay agenda, through new textbooks and curricula, to kids (due to a law signed by Brown in July 2011) while prohibiting parents from removing their kids from this forced indoctrination.....and on and on, ad nauseum, ad infinitum....


Not just California (which will feel the Wrath of God so badly one day, they would wish there were Baghdad), but all across the country, every entity - from liberal school districts, perverted politicians and corrupt city halls to the liberal media and yes, the church - the family structure God created to inhabit the earth, is being targeted for destruction, on purpose!


We can all trace it back to the Garden of Eden when Eve negotiated with a filthy serpent, while Adam stood by and watched his wife talking with a stinking snake! Yes, since then, fathers have fallen down on their jobs, gone weak and passive and let the snake rule his home. Adam, who knew and saw the Shekinah Glory of the Living God...Adam, who walked and talked daily with Jesus...Adam, who knew what it was to be a man of destiny and dominion...that Adam, turn his back on Jesus to follow a snake.


Since then, we have King David, not satisfied with the wives he had, weaseled out on his troops and spent the time on a roof top ogling Bathsheba. The fruit of that abomination is Solomon, whose sons not just destroyed Israel but Solomon's pagan worship led to Israel being a secular godless society today. Abraham's refusal to say NO when Sarah told him to sleep with Hagar, gave us Ishmael and every terrorist in the middle east. 


If you fast forward to the 1960's and the massive debt-ridden trillion dollar Great Society social experiments by US President Lyndon Johnson and the liberals, we can trace the breakdown of not just the entire African American family, but those in rural Caucasian America. When government assumed, on purpose, the Role of Father, weak men pulled an Adam, and let their women negotiate with the snake....this time, the snake had grown to the size and spirit of Leviathan! 


(By the way, if you ever wondered why, or where Evolution and the attack on the Book of Genesis and Creation came from, look no further than Genesis 3. The evil one does not want anyone, especially those in the church, to know he is out there, and the devastation he has wrought! So he has built a lie - the Lie of the Big Bang...food for another study, some other time!)

All of the inner city decay, death, destruction and despair can be traced back to  President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was never saved and is now regretting everything he ever did. For most of the past 2000 years, the Church had been the meeting house and bedrock of the family. 


It was Christians who started the first missions to help the poor.
It was Christians who started the first hospitals.
It was Christians who started the first universities and schools.


Christians give the most to charities that feed mostly non-christians. Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse ministers to disaster areas, behind the scenes, while loud-mouth politicians, who never give a penny of their own money, decry those who do.


All of this came about because God established the Christian Family as the core of civilized society, when He sent the Apostle Paul to Rome to establish the Spread of the Gospel. This blog is not long enough to go into the history of how the early Christians lived, survived persecution, flourished, survived persecution again during the Reformation and then landed in America - once known as the land of the Free!


Today, in 2012, we see the most vicious frontal assault on the family of God ever. We see it from the highest echelons of power to the lowly city council alderman. We see it happen because parents and churches have become by-standers and enablers like Adam, while perverted and corrupt minorities set the tone and agenda to corrupt and destroy our children.


We sit by while Hollywood feeds the vilest trash on Television, night after night.
We sit by while comedians make foul jokes against traditional institutions and laugh with them.
We sit by while music promotes alternate lifestyles and have no idea if our children are downloading these songs to their ipods.
We sit by while pastors and churches in New York City are arrested for praying, by that mayor Bloomberg, and all we do and say is "we will pray for you"....and never do.
We sit by while churches are burned in islamic countries while cowering when the media say Christians are the problem. 
We sit by while the entire secular world gives us the finger, then throw up our hands and wish "Jesus would come and rapture us now"!


WHAT?


Men of God, where are you? You and your mega-churches said nothing when Bill Devlin and Manhattan Bible Church, in NYC and 60 other poor churches were kicked out of the empty school buildings they were renting. Rich Mega-church  pastors like A.R. Bernard and Tim Keller only ended up making "statements of support" for the real brethren out there, after the Christian Post and some of the persecuted pastors embarrassed them for their silence over the travesty happening this very month, in New York City. No thanks to Keller and these other rich dudes, a Federal Judge just this Friday told the City that the churches had to be allowed to rent the buildings.


Here is what God told Adam after he allowed Eve to not just eat the forbidden fruit, but then to eat it himself "And to Adam He said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

(Genesis 3:17-19 ESV)

Men, it does not matter to  if you're an atheist politician, a corrupt businessman,  the local electrican or Mega-church pastor, GOD IS GOING TO HOLD YOU ACCOUNTABLE FOR THIS ABOMINATION YOU HAVE ALLOWED!


Men, you and every man, who stood by, while the Culture, the Media, Big Education, Big Government and Big Lies destroyed the traditional family, will answer and unless you are barely saved by the Blood of Christ, you have no idea what the Wrath of God will be like. Men, you who are not walking in the Light of Christ, will wish you were stick in traffic again on an LA Freeway, or some such thing.


So why  no mention of moms and single moms....well, as a man whose father died when I was eleven and being raised by a single mom, I know what it took to get here - it was prayer and my Heavenly Father - no welfare state and no man in the house. Moms and the women of God have their own sin and other issues to deal with, which is not the focus of this message. It was Men whom God called to lead the family. As a man and the leader of several men's ministries currently and in the past, I know exactly what my role is.

Those whom God has ordained, He called and equipped. Men, put on your robes of righteousness now, or be stripped of your command one day. Our Nation, our Family used to be UNDER GOD, now it is mercilessly UNDER ATTACK.


The time is now, to correct this...in Jesus' Name, amen.

(image courtesy Google Images)