Purified Through Christ

Greeting Brothers and Sisters in Christ. Time to time, God brings us through trials to bring us closer to Him and to make us more like Him. We will be talking about Job 23:10 -

"But he knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth
as gold."

God brings us through trials to make us more like Him. I have been through many trials. The main thing to remember in the trials is that God is always in control. In the movie "Facing The Giants" they have a single plan, "To praise God when they win, and to praise God when they lose." God will always be there, so embrace him. A misconception seen by many people is that God doesn't bring trials and that it is the devil. No, the devil bring pain and hate to us, God gives us trials to build our endurance and to keep us close to Him. And don't think God has left us naked and desolate during these trials, he gave us the armor of God. Ephesians 6:10-18 -

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up
the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and
having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,
having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with
the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16above all, taking the shield of faith
with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And
take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being
watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the
saints—"

He wants us to use these in times when you're in a trial. Another way you use them is in spiritual warfare, but that's another topic. Trial refine us, they purify us from sin. When we go through a trial, we become like a beautiful precious metal, such as gold. God will be with us during these times too. You may think that God has abandoned you, but he hasn't. Remember this verse. Hebrews 13:5 -

"Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things
as you have. For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake
you.'"

There is also a great poem called, "Footprints" and that also shows how when you're in trials God carries you through them. Brothers, trials are good, the Lord makes us better when we go through them. Remember to be always on the alert for the devil and not to confuse trials with devilish attacks. Remember to pray and read the Bible to prevent that from happening. Until next time, God Bless!

Subscribe Now!

I you read this blog often, subscribe to get the latest posts sent to you via email. Just send a message containing your name, email-address, and the name of the blog in the message to evangelist1999@gmail.com and you will recieve the latest updates from the blog.

A Call To Action

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today I give a call to you. A call for action among the believers. We as believers have fallen from God's plan for our lives because we have become inactive for Christ. Isaiah 42: 5-7 reads as follows:

5 This is what God the LORD says—he who created the
heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out
of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on
it:
6 “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I
will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant
for the people and a light for the Gentiles,
7 to open
eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the
dungeon those who sit in darkness.

This passage of scripture has much to talk about, but I will summarize it in 3 sections.

The first part of verse 5 shows that the author (Isaiah) does not miss an opportunity to praise God. He shows God's infinite ability to do anything, including but not limited to creating the entire universe and the planet Earth. He shows that he is the source of our lives. He gives us the breath that we breathe and gives us life everyday.

The second part (in the beginning of verse 6) calls us to be righteous, and shows that God will be by our side the entire time if we trust and obey him. Hebrews 13:5 says:

5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

He says that he will guide us and lead us bringing us closer to him. Some ways that we can allow him to do this would be praying more often, reading the Word, and worshiping Him.

The third part and final part is the call to action. God wants us to be a light to the Gentiles (or in our case, unbelievers.) He wants us to go and break free prisoners of the devil. He wants us to go and set the captive free. He wants us to go into the world, reaching, teaching, and keeping people in Christ. God very much wants the lost to be found and it is our job to do that. Matthew 28:19-20:

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded
you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

God bless you and be with you brothers and sisters, today, tomorrow, and forever!

Kyle

Suffering For Christ

Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ! Today, I'm going to address the issue of suffering for Christ's sake. In 1 Peter 3, starting in verse 13, Peter talks about suffering for wrong and right. In verse 17 he says, "For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil." What Peter is saying here is he wants us to witness. No matter what the cost, we must stand up for Christ. If you are a student, like me, you are exposed to evolution in school almost everyday. The theory itself is absurd! If the teacher tries to force it on you as fact, you have the right to stand up and say that it cannot be proven and there is more than just one view on this topic.

For Christ's sake, we all will suffer, that is if we are doing good and not evil. And don't think of me as Mr. Perfect. I've had my bad days too. (I've noticed those are days when I don't pray and read my bible in the morning.) The truth is, God has a plan for each one of us. Though some days we may get in trouble or just have a hard time. God has a plan to work it into our future. Sometimes he may want us to stop doing something in our lives and that is the way he does it, if we don't cooperate when he tells us to stop. I would know, for the past month and a half, I have been addicted to Toontown Online. God was telling me to stop, but somehow I figured out an excuse to keep playing it anyway. Then, God took extreme measures to stop me. I was suspended from school and grounded from all online games until Feb. 1 2008! Talk about a quick end to that!

Now back on the subject. Because I was addicted to that game, I lost the opportunity to witness and drifted away from Christ. That is what caused me to stop witnessing and not suffer for Christ. You know you are doing something wrong when you are not suffering for Christ! God has called us all to do different things. He called me to be an evangelist. When I am older, I am going to travel the country and spread God's word. I will suffer. Period. There is no doubt about it. But, since I am in God's will, It will all be for the better.

Now the real question is, have you been drifting away. It there something holding you back from Christ. If so, ask for forgiveness today! God will bless you and you will fulfill your full potential. Until next time, God Bless!

Obedience To God Our Father

Now on the topic of obedience, we must remember, though we may under some person's authority here on earth, we are still to be obedient to God's commands. That doesn't mean to disobey authority, it means if they are making you do something against scripture or against God, than may you should confront him about that. If he doesn't back down, as hard as it may sound, you should leave that job or what ever it is. Now in 1 Kings chapter 17, it shows that God rewards obedience to Him because you are showing Him respect.

Another good question is, Should we as Christians obey the government? The answer can be found in Romans 13 by saying in verse 1, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exsist are appointed by God." You can keep reading about it up through verse 4.

Some of us may wonder, how important is it to obey God? Well the answer can be found in Jeremiah 11. It shows it is very important to obey God. Many times the Israelites were captured and taken into captivity for disobeying God and for not following his commandments. We must obey God if our lives are to run smoothly. It says in Luke 11 that those who obey God's word will be more than blessed! I've been blessed, I can't even imagine being more than blessed!

A lot of ask, what will obeying God get us? Well it says in Jeremiah 42 that obeying his voice will make us well with the Lord our God. Well, we want to be well with Him, and we don't want to be against Him so we should all do what he says. Now in 1 Samuel 15 it answers the question, Is it better to obey or to ask for forgiveness? It says that it is better that to obey God than to ask for forgiveness. That is a really puzzling question, but it makes sense that God would want us to do His will over asking for forgiveness.

One good example of following God's will can be found in 1 Chronicles 6. Where it talks about how Aaron and his sons make offerings as God commanded them to repent from their sins. Well, until next time, God Bless!

The Value of A Friend

Greetings brothers and sisters in Christ. Today, I'm going to talk about the value of friendship. In this, I find my reference in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12. I'm going to brake it down for you. Let's start in verse 9. "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor." That starts out very strong. Two are better than one, very true. Things are much easier with two people than with one. Two people have a good reward because of their hard labors.

It continues in verse 10. "For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up." This is a very powerful verse. For starters, it shows how if one person is going through a hard time or "falls", his companion will be there to help him back up again and give him support. Then it goes on to say, that it is a shame to be alone for when the hard times come, you have no one to support you. Nothing to help you through. So that shows, two really are better than one!

It then says in verse 11, "Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone?" This is very true. If there are two people they can build each other up and help each other progress in the faith. So if there are two who lie down together, they sure are going to keep more warm when the cold comes. But the the one who is alone freezes and grows weak in his faith because he has no one to support him and keep him warm.

It concludes the section in verse 12. "Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is no easily broken." This is really true and it reminds me of the game "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots", where the two boxers keep punching at each other until one punches out the other. If there was two on one side against one, that one would go down so easy. He would be defeated by outnumbering, just like the devil when we fight him together. It also says a group of three is very strong and not easily broken. It works really well working together as friends. Well, until next time, God Bless!

Evangelism: Starting New Houses

For starters, you never stop being in training as disciples, I forgot to put that in the previous post. Now evangelism, is when you reach out to a neighbor and witness to them and spread the word of God. A good example of evangelism can be found in Acts 2 after the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit, they went out and preached to everybody. That day alone 3,000 people were saved and after that point the numbers kept growing. If you want to read the story for yourself, read Acts 2:1-41, it's a great story.

Now I have noticed that most people consider missionaries as people that go to a place far away and spread the word of God. Now the first missionaries, the apostles, instead of going far away first, they had home missions in their towns. It says in Acts 1:8 that they were to be Jesus witnesses throughout Jerusalem (home town), Judea and Samaria (like states) and to the utter ends of the earth (self explanatory). I think that, that is what we should go by. It works, we reach to our neighbors, than other friends in our state, and anyone we know worldwide!

All Christians are called to evangelize PERIOD. Don't think it's the leaders job or someone else job, it's yours too. Now one good and effective method of reaching out is a house church (sometimes called a cell church or a micro church). People are feel more welcome to come into someone's house than a church building itself. Another way would be having a Christian concert and having it in a public place (not a church, people don't like it there if they're not saved). Having a movie night or trip to the movies normally gets people more loosened up and feel more comfortable.

On a day to day basis, we need to spread the Good News of the Gospel to our neighbors and everyone for their own sake. How do you think they would feel about spending an eternity in hell? I don't think they would like the thought of it. Most common people today are open to hearing the word of God because it's comforting and relaxing. It really helps them solve their problems. A lot of people have been hurt by church because of their vicious nature. They would be more open to a house church and listen more providing the opportunity to evangelize and disciple.

Some good books to read on this topic would be, Starting a House Church by: Larry Kreider and Floyd McClung, House to House by: Larry Kreider, and Cell Church Solutions by: Joel Comiskey. Until next time, God Bless!