“Whereas ye know not, what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14, emphasis added).

We have talked extensively about how mortal we as humans are, but there is one thing we missed, so to speak, we also have immortal Spirits. It’s actually that area in you and I, that we can sense there is definitely a God. It is also that one special spot, that is more about “me” than any other spot and this is where God speaks to us:

Psalm 14.1, emphasis added:

“The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”

You must understand that most of those who renounce the Lord as their Savior, do NOT know they have a soul and a spirit. All they know are their physical bodies and they believe they are able to “think” with only a brain and will NOT accept any information of any kind, unless they are able to “measure” it. Funny, how they dream every night and yet they have never been able to “measure” their dreams. We can bicker and argue till the cows come home and never move a single inch from where we are right now, for either side.

You must understand that those who are lost KNOW something is going on, they just can’t put their finger on it and yet because they started with a LIE, they must continue with that lie! So in the end, it comes down to the fact that the first “lie” breeds the next and so on and so on, all lies, one after the other. As I have said before, isn’t PRIDE wonderful?

All of this falls into the folder named SIN. The next important question about this folder of SIN is their SIN forgiven or not? It’s as simple as that! Then as they stand before the Lord at the Great White Throne judgment they need only to answer whether their SIN is forgiven or NOT!

There’s no need to open the folder and list all the sins by name, being forgiven or not is the only answer needed. What will be so unique is that the people standing before the Lord at that judgment are NOT saved by HIS blood from the cross! And why is that? They weren’t able to measure it? How profoundly sad!

I can NOT tell you how many times, or how many ways, they are willing to give anyone that is willing to listen to them, how there is NO God. They have their minds filled to brim with all the garbage that Satan feeds them on a daily basis. Bluntly speaking, they are more willing to “Believe a lie.” It says in

2 Thessalonians 2.10-12: “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

These two verses say it all, reread it for yourself and see, because the Lord God is very exact and to the point here! The point is though, that Satan makes them stupid to a point that they will never willingly accept what the Word of God is telling them! Again, it is so unique to see they have lied to themselves and then to notice that they believe their own lies!”

Even though the Word of God, tells them they are wrong! Then we read where the Bible says that the “truth will set you free.” It can easily be seen that the lost do not want to be set free, how amazingly ignorant of them. This alone is so desperately sad, that it makes your heart cry for them!

It is easily understood that man from the beginning desires peace and harmony! The problem comes, to what degree? Or it could be, peace and harmony for whom (usually they want that for themselves but not for others)! And, the ultimate degradation begins and usually with the “thought,” my favorite for sure: “It’s all about ME!!”

We can use the older axiom of “Hooray for me…to hell with you!” Still, these people desire peace and harmony as they stand there and shoot themselves in the foot! Then they cry and cry about all the pain they are suffering and then it’s: “Why does this always happen to me?” Or it can be seen as, “Poor me, don’t you feel sorry for me?” Here is where the whole thing begins to show its ugly head, the other person (also unsaved) looks at the whiner and lies “Oh yeah, poor baby!” The whole time, laughing at the others stupidity in their heart!

See…the entire charade begins to fall apart at the seams, but they still want peace and harmony! You have to wonder, do they really KNOW what peace and harmony truly are? Most of us are willing to call these types of individuals “manipulative.” Here’s another tidbit for ya, “manipulative and liar” are synonymous, wouldn’t you agree? The question is however: WHO is being lied to and WHO then believes the lie? In my humble opinion, I am tired of reading all about it and trying to figure it all out! It’ enough for me to predicate the outcome and still be able to sleep at night, therefore I digress. It is mind-boggling, the extent they are willing to go to! Here is where the being “set free” from sins’ gnarly grasp becomes a thing of beauty! It makes the verses, Matthew 11:28-30 seem like an oasis in the desert:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Here is the point, where we begin to see for ourselves the verse that says mankinds intellect is like “foolishness” to God! Sort of strange, that we never understood this until WE were saved to Jesus Christ. This is also the point where the Lord GIVES you and me HIS wisdom and discernment!

After this takes place, we begin to see the multitude of levels of understanding, of the Word of God that we never knew existed before. What is unique, the unsaved are not able to understand the words and verses they see right in front of them.

It is also unique, that the Lord gives us this understanding with HIS wisdom but HE does not give to the unsaved. “We” are able to understand what HE has told us, information that the unsaved and Satan would give their arms and legs to understand or know.

And WE can stand on a corner and scream this info at the top of our lungs, but Satan and the unsaved will remain befuddled. Strange right? The Lord simply amazes me ever time I turn around!!

This is a strange situation where we have all this info from our Lord and Savior and we can bring it to the unsaved and they can bark and harass us all about it, all day long! They can stand there and belittle us and tell us how stupid we sound as we preach God’s Word.

But take a small step back and look at this again, now we see who is truly ignorant and who is not! If you and I were sitting around the campfire one evening, enjoying the pine scent in the air and the mountains of Colorado and I told you all about the Rapture and the Tribulation, and just how close they were, being unsaved, you’d laugh your head off at me!

The proof is in the Bible─Gods holy Word to us, which has been around for better than 2600 years! And in that time we have witnessed every single prophecy come true up and until today. Now I tell you (the unbeliever) about Bible prophecy that has yet to come true but is written out in the Bible and has yet to be fulfilled. Would you believe there is some validity to those prophecies? What I’m trying desperately to get you to understand is: faith! Everything concerning our Lord and Savior is about you and me having faith in Gods truth. In other words, what is written in the Bible!

Believing God’s Word is having faith. It is the understanding in our hearts and the entire Bible as truth. This is the spot where the Lord meets us, face to face and asks us if we would like to live forever? Then HE shows us how this can be, through HIS Word─the Bible. Why would anyone want to measure this, how would it affect the outcome? It would change nothing!

When you come to Jesus Christ as your Savior, you leave that “old” person and his intellect, nailed to that cross. NOW…you know better, you know the truth and it indeed sets you free from all that cumbersome load of lies and deceit. You already know, you can’t change the world! The only thing you can change for the better or for worse is YOU. When this truly takes place in your life, it goes from, “It’s all about ME to, “It’s all about the Lord!”

If you are great in the world, your hardship and pain are all yours to deal with! With Jesus Christ, there is NO pain and suffering, no death, no fear, no longer being lonely, but there is an eternity of love, harmony and true peace. The likes of which no man is able to imagine! It really comes down to, which do you prefer, pain and suffering or love and harmony…for eternity?

Oh, the platitudes that are given to those who work for Satan, even in the churches that are supposed to worship the Lord God. I can scarcely believe that a certain person was going to receive 10 million dollars for judging on the “X Factor!” $10,000,000.00 dollars for what? To entertain the masses that need Jesus Christ, for outrageously more than even what little food they have? Am I missing something here? Can you imagine for a moment what could be accomplished for the Lord with that amount of money?

Then I saw a few pictures on the Internet concerning a Houston, Texas pastor who believes the only way to have a fulfilling life is to use Jesus Christ…as an ATM machine! Yes, I have known for a while about this individual but it wasn’t until I saw the pictures that I decided to listen to a sermon by him. Of course, Youtube.com had quite an assortment to this man’s benefit.

While on the Internet I decided to look up some information on the Crystal Cathedral (bad idea). I read where one family was being driven around in limos, all to the view of the congregation, which according to the report said: “See…follow Jesus Christ and this is what you get!” Oh! The “prosperity gospel” is alive and in full swing and the congregation is thrilled at the sight! All I can say, I hope that all this is worth it to them! Standing before Jesus Christ will be a very sobering event for them! I shudder to think on that!

On one hand, I can see why the singer is going to earn so much money as a judge, but then, we already know that this individual displays anything but Jesus Christ in her life. As the Bible says in John 15.19:

“If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”

Do you really think the world would be accepting of anyone that sings the gospel? To a degree, but not to the tune of ten million dollars! Do you think the hymn “The Old Rugged Cross” would ever go platinum? Do you think a gospel singer will ever be inducted into the “Whatever…Hall of Fame?”

Clear evidence is that the world hated Jesus Christ long before they ever hated us! Is there any doubt in your mind, why the prosperity gospel is at such a high level now days? The Bible has this to say:

1 Timothy 4.1, emphasis added:

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”

2Timothy 4.1-4, emphasis added:

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Now, those in the pulpit who continually preach this gospel of prosperity are fulfilling their desires and you can be sure it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ and everything to do with lining their pockets. Take a moment here and reread the verses above, please note: “seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” and then note “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”

Oh! What was that? A noise, it sounded sort of like “cha-ching”! And here we have been talking about the things that stay here on this planet because they are physical things and that our “spirit” steps into eternity once we die as a human. And if we remember we have made this disparity because of the verses in:

Matthew 6.19-21, emphasis added:

“Lay NOT up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

So here we are facing several different situations, the first with the new “X Factor” judge is an easy one, she doesn’t know Jesus Christ! So after the years wean away that beautiful exterior, what will be left? You can bet the money will be long gone! Then what? The young still have a chance though, as long as they remember, time is short! I can’t help but wonder, what if someone took the time and got her to listen to the soon coming events of this world, what would be her reaction?

The other two situations from above are far worse and need to be more deeply investigated. Nothing has gone on with these preachers that would be considered against the “laws” of this world. I must ask though, how about the “Laws” of God? If you read in Webster’s Dictionary about “speaking a name in vain” you might be surprised to know how desperately wicked this really is.

I’m not talking about cursing, but about “using the name of the Lord God Almighty to gain the trust of people and then alleviating them of needed funds, to perpetuate your chosen level of life! How blasphemous is that? Do you have any idea what the consequence will be for this type of heresy to Jesus Christ, who is GOD? It forces me to continually re-read those verses above and note them in my Life as I write.

Then we read about the “unforgivable sin.” Now we can almost hear ears popping open everywhere! We hate to read about that one for sure! And why is that?

“Well, we gotta make sure we don’t commit that sin!”

Ooh Lord!! Can you imagine the fallout from that one…MERCY!!” You would be surprised how common that sin is today! Let me explain. First you must understand that the “unpardonable sin” is to vex the Holy Spirit, but there’s a bit of a twist here that maybe you haven’t thought about, it’s about vexing the Holy Spirit in your life!

Remember, a relationship with Jesus Christ is your spirit to HIS Spirit. It’s personal, it’s private, just you and HIM! To vex the Holy Spirit is to tell the Holy Spirit, you want nothing to do with HIM! That’s bad enough and it will see you to hell for eternity! But what if you are a preacher in a church with a congregation believing everything you say?

It says in Hebrews 10.25-29, emphasis added:
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”

This means you are like everyone else who turns away from the saving grace of Jesus Christ─hell for eternity! Kind of puts a different spin though on the power of the pulpit and those that stand there…preaching? Nothing on this planet or in this world matters MORE than accepting…wholeheartedly…Jesus Christ into your Life!

Stepping into the “limelight” of being a pastor is a very grave and serious idea! One needs to be sure your faith is completely of the Lord God and that HE has called you. This means that everything about you, your body, soul and spirit and your life are critically entwined with Jesus Christ! John the Baptist once said, “He must increase and I must decrease”! Your life is no longer your own and therefore your life must be “hidden” completely so that all that is ever seen is Jesus Christ!

Between you and me, this lends a whole new meaning to becoming “humbled” by the Lord. If you think about this and see a life of giving continually without concern for yourself, then you will have come close to that spot. If this seems too difficult for you, remember your strength is not yours; it comes from the Lord.

Everything that comes before you, no matter what it is, is from above! For me it feels like a job that requires armor that never fails, strength that never weakens, faith that is stronger than diamonds and an open mind and spirit for Jesus Christ and nothing else! Giving up your life to Jesus Christ, because HE gave up HIS life for you…first!!