The Fight of Faith

The Weekly Dinner - The Fight of Faith Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Dear Weekly Readers! God’s Blessings to you this week! This week I am asking for your prayers. By the time you get this, I will be with a team on the other side of the world, Lord willing! Pray that God would bless this trip and that His Word would be proclaimed in truth and purity! Hopefully I will be able to post the Diner from where I am, but the time will be very short as we have so much scheduled for the 3 weeks that we will be there! This week our article is by a guest pastor! May God Bless your week! John R. THE FIGHT OF FAITH Dear brothers and sisters in faith, God’s Peace! I am sensing within my spirit a burden that I believe is from the Lord, and He is moving me to tell it. The message from the Lord concerns our fight of faith. What I believe concerns our Lord, and ought to concern us, as well, is the fact that many seem to be afraid to confess their faith; both in word and deed. There are several verses of Scripture the Lord has joined together in my mind that have to do with the confession of our faith. The first is from Paul’s first epistle to Timothy. We read in 1 Tim. 6:12 where Paul gives the following counsel to his young co-worker: “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and have professed a good profession before many witnesses.” The reason this counsel was so timely is the context surrounding that verse. The way of life by which Timothy was surrounded was vile, harsh, ungodly, self-centered, self-serving, and in every other way anti-Christian. It is in the midst of this kind of society, Paul was exhorting Timothy to stand strong in the faith. And every one of us knows this is an accurate description of our own society today. No matter what country in which you live the spirit of antichrist is on the rise. We may not feel the impact of this growing, deepening, strengthening anti-Christian worldview until it begins to impact our own cities, towns, schools, homes, and children. Not long ago at a Bible study in our local congregation, the pastor was saying how many of the young people in the congregation do not dare to confess their faith because of ridicule and rejection from other classmates, and even the class teacher. That comment brought to my mind two other passages from Scripture. The first is from Luke 18:8 that reads, in part, “…when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” The context of this saying of our Lord is within the parable of the importunate woman whose determination to be avenged of her adversary kept her pleading with the unjust judge until her helped her. Our Lord’s comment at the end of this parable ought to be taken seriously. I believe what God is saying to us through this Holy Spirit inspired Word is for us to not give in to our foe! No matter how much we must suffer from an unbelieving world, let us now cower in fear before them but unceasingly cry unto the Lord to give us boldness and courage. We are to do this not for our sake; not that we would get some relief or comfort. Rather we do it so that the Lord’s will would prevail; so that the kingdom of God, the kingdom of true light, will begin to transform the lives of those who are opposed to Christ. And it is only as we are “salt” and “light” (Matt. 5:13,14) can we be the vessels through whom Christ can do His transforming work in this world. The second passage of Scripture the Lord brought to my mind is from Mt. 11:12—“…from the days of John and Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” I honestly have not understood this verse until now. The larger context within which this verse is placed is preceded by the ministry of John and Baptist and succeeded by the ministry of Christ. The point our Lord was making is that both the ministry of repentance and forgiveness is not only necessary but essential. What is meant by “violence” and “violent” in this context is the boldness and courage that is necessary to confront hardness of heart of the “hearers”; not merely the hearers of this parable, but the hearers of our own day. The “violence” or “courage” we need is not the arm of flesh, but the power of the love of God. We have no choice, as disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, but to become more aggressive, courageous, and determined to bring to bear upon our world the truth of the Gospel. Because we know that on the day of judgment every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father,(Phil. 2:10, 11), let us bodly, lovingly, faithfully, and consistently love our “enemies” that they may be drawn to Christ and humble themselves in repentance and faith now in the time of grace when they can be blessed with the assurance of forgiveness, so that when they bow before the Lord on that Final Day, they will bow, not in fear, but in adoration and praise to Him, the Lamb of God who takes away our sins! www.missionsite.com | forward to a friend Copyright © 2012 The Foreign Mission, All rights reserved.

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Behold, I Make All Things New!

 

May The Grace Mercy and Peace of God be with each one reading today!

God has given us all a brand New Year in the Lord!     We look forward to the New Year with much hope, anticipation and excitement.

No matter what our lot is life is, I think we all can say that we enjoy new things!  Have you watched a child when they get a new toy, a ball, or even a piece of candy!  Such happiness and excitement!   Even as adults we might get a new bicycle, phone, or camera which causes us a temporary feeling of happiness.

But then………………  the candy is gone, the toy breaks, the camera falls into a water puddle.  In other words life happens.  Let us look today at what our Lord says to us when we look at life and find it to be wanting.  

This same thing happened to all mankind when sin entered the world so many years ago in the Garden of Eden.  Sin entered the world and destruction and death began. 

Let’s look into God’s Word: 

Revelation: 21: 5   ..... behold, I make all things new!!    Our Lord God Almighty, the one that sits upon the throne, the one that created all things, says:  Behold, I make all things new! 

See, God is in the creation business, not in the fix up business.  He is not that type of a God that can only fix the small things, neither is He limited in what He can do for us by and through His Son Jesus Christ! 

 2 Corinth 5:17    Says:   Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new..

While the devil seeks to destroy and tear down, God creates and recreates!  God makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus!   There is no news that is more encouraging than to know that when we believe by faith in the complete redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have become new! 

Dear believing reader today!  You are brand new!  Go into the New Year, knowing that the faith He has given is  not of ourselves, it is a gift of God.     Therefore we know that it cannot and will not become old or tarnished!  The things of God are new and fresh!   It is not New Year’s resolutions that will help us in the New Year.  It is the work of Jesus Christ the makes men new!

I believe this is made so very clear even in the discussion of the old and new covenants.

Hebrews 8:13   In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away ……………….

 Now we have a new and living way in Christ Jesus!

Hebrews 10:10 says:  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

The old covenant, the old way would have us to do and live but the new covenant says Live and Do!    Life is in Christ.  Whatever we do when we are in Christ, it is because of Him allowing us to do as He is working in and through us by the power of His Holy Spirit!   Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me

This New Year, God wants us to have a new song in our heart!  Psalm 98 v 1  O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

Are you feeling without hope?    Recall to mind the Word of God in Lamentations 3:23   ²¹This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. ²²It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. ²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.    BEHOLD!!!! All things are made new!   

Do you have so many trials and cares in life?  The Bible has all the answers!  1 Peter 1:6
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:       We must look at this life as a preparation for the next, kind of like a baby in the womb of the mother.  Our reality in Christ Jesus is eternal life, not so much this temporal life that we now live!

Feeling soiled by the sins of the past year?

The Lord wants to as said even way back in Ezekiel 18:31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit:     The New Testament says:  James 5:16
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. 

The One that washes away our sins wants us to hear loud and clear!  Behold, I make all things new!  He does not want us carrying paid for sins!  Jesus shed His blood to wash away our sins!  Let’s believe by faith that this is so! 

As Christians, we even have a new name!  Imagine, even our names are changed!  Our name is no longer lost sinner, no longer the condemned one,  or whatever other name that devil has for his people.   

Isaiah 62:2 …… and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.

In Revelations Rev 2:17   .  We read this: ….   To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

What is your condition today:  Are you going to be appreciating your NEW NAME in this NEW YEAR?    Are you an overcomer, or have you been overcome?

Have you not yet believed by faith and received your new name?  Have you not repented of your sins and unbelief and become totally new in Christ Jesus?

Recently I was in Kenya and there they sing so wonderfully, Jesus is coming soon, coming to take me home!   Come to Jesus, tomorrow you never know!

Are we ready to meet our Lord?  If not, allow Him to recreate us in His time, so that we can then say: Come Lord Jesus! 

There is coming a day when my Jesus I shall see!   There will be no more sorrow, sadness, dying, death, or heartache!   All will be new forever!   This is what waits eternally for the Redeemed of the Lord!

Have a Blessed New Year!    John R.