It's Alright Already

Matthew 6:33 "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness:And all these things shall be added unto you".

If you are going to worry, don't pray; and if you pray ,don't worry.Worrying is a sign that we lack sufficient faith in God's willingness or power to come to our defense. It also means that we are attempting to shoulder the weight of things we are not intended to carry.

There are certain things that we can't change.For example, we can't change the end of the world,but we can impact where others will spend eternity.We can't change Bible prophecy, but we can intercede for a lost world.We can't number our days on this earth,but we can eat right and take care of ourselves so that we can honor and serve God with our life.We are to pray about everything and worry about nothing, for it is alright already.Worrying impacts our rest and incresses our stress.It is alright to plan, but let us not obsess.Some of the best advice about not worrying is found in 2Corinthians 4:8-11. We should read these verses to help us balance what we experience with what God promises.Yes we are troubled on every side,but we are not distressed or worried.We are perplexed or puzzled, but not in despair or hopelessness.We will be persecuted, but not forsaken,abandoned or left alone.We may be or appear to be cast down or knocked down but not destroyed or taken out.We bear the dying of the Lord, but we also bear His life.It's alright already Jesus has made a way out of no way.

God has a corresponding answer, plan of delieverance, a way of escape out of every situation.We have the promises that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has given us,the promise of a rewarding life here on earth and an eternal joy in heaven with Him.Worrying has no ruling authority in the life of believers.If we walk in fear or worry,then we are not perfected in love,for perfect love cast out doubt and fear. Remember "It's alright already".

The Great Head Of the Church

Colossians 1:18 "And he is the head of the body,the church:who is the beginning,the firstborn from the dead;that in all things he might have the preeminence".

In this day of the self named,self famed,and the self proclaimed we have a great picture of Christ and of the church.It is a clear picture of the relationship between Christ and the church.Jesus Christ is the head of the church, the only head of the one and only church.Your pastor, bishop, apostle, or what ever name we choose to be called by this week, do not have the church.They could have a following but not the church, they could have a congregation of people ,but they are not the head of the Church.

Jesus Christ is the head of the church.The church is his body, made up of  born again ,blood washed, baptized believer.It is through Christ that the church has life and through the body that a lost world comes to know Christ.A body cannot live apart from the head.They both are needed to do what it is we were save to do.It is through the church that Christ chooses to makes Himself known to a lost world. The church is totally dependent upon the head,Jesus Christ.The body finds it's purpose, meaning, and significance in the Head who is Jesus Christ.So the body must learn of the head to understand it's will plans, guidance, motivation and direction for the body. The head is to rule over the body,the body is not to act apart from the head.When ever a body part acts separate from the instructions of the head, it generally means there is a sickness or deformity within the body.But Jesus held the cripple hand, the lame leg, the blind eyes, deaf ears and the dumb lips, so his body is perfect and he is returning for a perfect church.

The church body is to let Christ control it.The church is to walk a disciplined,controlled life just like Christ says.When Christ does not control the church body, it is because there is some malfunction, some problem within the body.When the church lives like Christ dictates,then the church body lives a life free of disease and injury.Let us put aside our different denominations, and unite as one body under the headship of the great head of the church that we might lead a lost world to the salvation of the Lord.

He Paid For Me!

2 Corinthians 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us,who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him".

Jesus Christ death;the message is unbelievable,a message of redemption,that is a substitution for sin. This is one of the great verses proclaiming the unbelievable love of God.It is impossible for man to grasp the fact that God made Christ to be sin for us,yet that is exactly what the scripture says.He who knew no sin made to be sin,the perfect sacrifice for an imperfect people,and yes he paid for me.

Why was this act necessary? Because man needs more than just righteousness to stand perfect before God.To stand righteous before God is not enough,for man has already sinned.Man already stands guilty of breaking God's law, and the judgement and condemnation of death has already taken effect upon man. So the condemnation and judgement of sin had to be taken care of,God did this by laying all the sins of man upon Christ,all the guilt and condemnation of sin,God placed it all on Christ and let Him bear it all Himself.God's purpose for this was that we might be made righteousness of God in Christ.When a person believes in Jesus Christ,I mean really believes,God takes that man's faith and He counts it as righteousness.The man is not righteous,but God considers the man's faith as righteousness.God does this because he loves man so much,so much that he sent His only begotten Son to die that we might have a right to life.Jesus secured righteousness for man.He came into the world to die for man.He came and arose from death and thus conquered death for man,thus His resurrected life could stand for the resurrected life of the believer.

The truth is this God loves His Son Jesus Christ so much, that He honors any man who honors His son by believing in Him and believing Him.When we sincerly trust Christ,God takes that faith and counts it as righteousness,thus He judges us , and treats us,as though we are innocent.We are not innocent,us and God both knows this,but God counts us as innocent because of our faith in Jesus Christ.To God we have died with Christ and rose a new creation.Yes he paid for Me

The Pillars of the Christian Life

Colossians1:4 "Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus,and of the love which ye have to all saints"
(read 1:3-8)

This is a powerful scripture that covers the great pillars of the christian life,the pillars of faith and love. And these pillars are the foundation by which the believers are held up.For God is love and without faith it is impossible to please God.we should be thankful to God for faith and love.

The great pillar of faith, is faith is one person,the person of Jesus Christ our Lord.Jesus brings us in touch  with God and makes it possible for God to adopt us as sons and daughters of His.Jesus Christ is able to bring any person who is spiritually fatherless to His Father.Jesus Christ has the right to ask His Father to adopt the fatherless person.Jesus makes the Father-son relationship possible between God and the believer.The believer then lives by faith in Christ.He believes in Christ;therefore he lives by his belief.He governs his life by Christ.He does nothing that his faith in Christ forbids.He lives, moves, and has his being in Christ,in his faith in Chrsit.His faith in Christ becomes one of the great pillars of his life.He walks by his faith in Christ, and not by the things he sees in the world.

Then there is the great pillar of love;now we are not talking about the natural love we are to have for all mankind.This pillar of love, is love believers have one for another.This love is based on  the love of Jesus Christ,and His love is the summit of Love.He proved it in His sacrificial death for men.He laid down his life before God to bear the sins of man.So when we give our life to follow Christ we are giving ourselves to love as he loved,we must be willing to sacrifice ourselves for others as Christ did for us."presenting our bodies a living sacrifice".This love is stirred by the Holy spirit;That is the believers love is a supernatural love.The Holy spirit which lives in the heart of the believer,stirs up the love of God in the heart of the believer,and we are led to love others by the spirit of God.Believers possess a great love for all men,I mean the very love of Christ.But we have a special love for fellow believers,because we have committed ourselves to follow the Lord,are led by the same spirit and hold to the same hope.We all live and move in our faith and love for Christ, the pillars of our Christian life.

A Growth In Faith

John 11:21-22 "Then said Martha unto Jesus,Lord,If thou hadst been here,my brother had not died.But I know,that even now,whatsoever thou wilt ask of God,God will give it thee".

Here we have a dynamic conversation between Jesus and Martha. What happened caused a great growth in Martha's faith.Martha's faith went from a complaining,limited faith(vs21-22),then it grew to a fundamental faith(vs 23-24), then a declared faith( vs.25-26).But we will focus on her complaining limited faith, which seems to plague many weak and young believers on this journey.

Martha believed in Jesus.She even believed that Jesus could have heald Lazarus and kept him from dying.But Jesus didn't come right away when he was called;therefore her brother was dead.Why did Jesus not come when he was called?Why did he not heal Lazarus when her and her family love Jesus so much and done so much for Him?Why did he let Lazarus die?The point is this Martha believed in Jesus, but her faith was a complaining faith.She didn't believe to the point of resting in faith.She did not believe with an unlimited and resting faith.She was not entrusting the matter completely into the Lord's hands.She was not convience that God was completely in control and what had happen was for the best.Many of us struggle in this journey feeling that if Jesus had done this or that, when we wanted or felt he needed to do it we would be better off. But we must realize that God is preparing us for a prepared place.He is working on us, working through us, and working with us for the purpose of building His kingdom and spreading His Gospel.Somethings we go through are not so much for us ,but so that someone else might be saved.

Remember when Lazarus was raised from the dead and was sitting at the table with Jesus,the bible said "Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus". God used the death and resurrection of Lazarus to save many others.Martha started off with a limited complaining faith,but as she spent time with Jesus she grew in faith, to the point where she confessed him to be the Son of the living God". As we spend more time in the of study and the listening to, of God's word, we too will grow in faith, and we to will be able to confess with all our heart that "Jesus is the resurrection and the life," that he is truly the Son of the living God", and he has all power.

The Great Prayer Request

Colossians 1:9 "For this cause we also since the day we heard it,do not cease to pray for you,and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;"(read vs.9-11)

Prayer,the single most powerful weapon the believer has in this war on sin.The sad things is many have no ideal what it is to pray for.The world has us believing we need the things of this world and thus we spend our time praying for these things.The bible tells us Our Father in heaven know we have need of these things and to"take no thought" for them.Our prayers need to be for the things which will allow us to seek first the kingdom of God and His will for our lives.So here Paul tells us what we should pray for:

The first great request is to know God's will.He prays that we are filled with the knowledge of God's will.It is not enough just to know God's will,but we are to be filled with the knowledge of God's will.The will of God is essiential to our very being.There should be nothing flowing in or out of us which is not the will of God.This includes the whole scope of our life,everything we do and every moment that we do it.The will of God must invole in what we say,where we go, what we think,and who we associate with.Simply stated we are to live and move and have our every being in the will of God.God has willed a life that he wants us to live.We are to learn about that life and be filled with the knowledge of that life.

The second great request is to  walk worthy of Christ.This is the critical point in the believers life and this point should be hammered home over and over again.Knowing something and having the ability to do something are very important.We must pray for the wisdom to put what we know into practice,to live the life we talk about.We are to live out the will of God.Knowing the will of God is useless unless we are going to live the will of God,we must committ our lives to this.The will of God is to control our behavior as much as it did the behavior of Christ.

The third great request is for the power of God.God's power is absolute essential for the believer.How can we walk worthy of Christ without the power to walk worthy.It is through and with the power of God that we are able to live the will of God.Only God's power can make us acceptable,can conquer death,and infuse enough strength to endure to the end and walk worthy along the journey. Let us now pray that we be filled with the knowledge of God's will and th ewisdom and power to fulfill it.

The Call Of God

Ephesians 1:1"Paul, and apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God,to the saint which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Jesus Christ".

We all have a calling from God.It dosn't matter who you are, we were all saved ,separated and set aside to proclaim the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.Some of us have been called to be Teachers,Preacher, and Pastors, while others are called to be members of the body, doing various functions..But no matter what the call,we are all called to be servants of Jesus Christ in word and deed.Now there are not many who have the calling that Paul had on his life or who has suffered as much, but we are all to surrender to that call with the same determination that Paul did.

Paul was greatly priviledged, there is no greater priviledge in all the world than to be a servant of Jesus Christ.Jesus Christ, the son of God, the supreme Lord of the universe in all it's enormity.Paul was possessed by Jesus Christ.Jesus the Son of God had took on human form to save the whole world.God's only begotten Son has given man the priviledge of knowing Him in the most personal way, as his Savior and Lord.Paul knew Christ,knew Him personally,knew him as his savior.Imagine knowing the Son of God personally!No greater priviledge could exist.Paul knew this and he surrendered his life completely to Christ.All he was and all he had,Paul turned it over to Christ. He was possessed and obsessed with Christ.He Lived for Christ and for Christ alone.Christ was Paul's Savior,but he was also his Lord and Master.Paul was not his own to do as he willed; he was Christ's to do only as Christ willed.There was also a call to the Church and it's believers;we have been called out separated,consecrated, sacred and holy.We have given ourselves to live a consecrated, holy life,all for the glory of God.So we must also surrender our all over to Christ.His will must be our will, as we live our life for His glory.We must be sure that we are counted amoung the saints of God by living a faithful life for the glory of God.

How many of us can truly say that what we are doing is God's will?How many of us are sure that our work and profession are of god and not for self elevation.Is our calling biblically backed.Remember God dosn't change"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever".Can we truly say we are right where God wants us? Are we working and serving where God wants us or where we want to be?Are we in God's will or are we trying to make our will his will?