Last September, I celebrated my 50th anniversary in the Christian faith. In this article, I would like to share the 8 most important lessons I have learned from the Lord over that time. It is my ardent hope that I might encourage some of my readers to pursue God more closely as we launch out into 2023, a year that prophecy watchers believe to be greatly portentous!

1 – God is ALWAYS willing to FORGIVE us and RESTORE us!

This saying is not just for the first 5 years of your life in Christ. I have been forgiven and restored at 45 years with Christ! The Bible tells us that “His mercy endureth forever.” It means exactly what it says! Philippians 1:6 comes into play here when it reminds us that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Even when WE CHOOSE to leave the path of life, Jesus will still seek us, for He promises us this, “‘Return to me, and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Malachi 3:7).

2 – God is a LIVING & LOVING GOD who is always willing to give us HIS wisdom!

I am not a man of great faith. I have always asked God questions about scriptures or situations which confuse me or cause me doubt. Not once in 50 years have I ever felt His frustration or displeasure with me for asking. I used to think that perhaps there may be a “statute of limitations” that goes into effect after 25 or 30 years in the faith, whereby God no longer is willing to answer our questions due to our small faith. As a school teacher, I know that if I were God, there would be. Well, I have discovered that there isn’t with our God! He answers me just as faithfully and patiently now as He did in 1971 when I was seeking Him!

And why should I be surprised by this when James 1:5 promises, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” One last thing… when I ask and He answers me, my heart swells with wonder and gratitude all over again! And again, why should I be surprised by this when John 16:24 promises, “…ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

3 – David’s Secret will establish your INTIMACY with God!

In the USA of 2023, American Christians often underestimate the degree of commitment and devotion required to walk with the Lord as closely and as obediently as God wants them to. We congratulate ourselves if we get a 15-minute quiet time in the morning. Following this, we get so immersed in our work that we forget the Lord for the rest of the day. Then we wonder why we do not have the power over sin or the zeal for God’s purposes that the Bible says we can have! I should know because, for many years, I was just like this. I had often noticed that even with a 45-minute devotional time in which I had been freshly “filled with the Spirit” by 1 p.m., I had all leaked out! I kept trying to lengthen my morning time, but the same leak would take place.

Then one day, some years ago, I came across “David’s secret,” as shown in bold-face print in the passage below.

“As for me, I call to God, and the Lord saves me.
Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress,
and he hears my voice.
He rescues me unharmed from the battle
waged against me, even though many oppose me” (Ps. 55:16-18).

I restructured my devotional times to 15-20 min. each and sought out the Lord 3 times a day as David prescribes. The results have been amazing! The Lord gives me more power and more joy throughout each day. I hope you will prove Him faithful in this way in your own life and see what He will do! One last thing… you may have heard it said that “you can’t out-give God.” I have found this to be true! The time I give Him is returned to me in various ways via more efficient decisions/actions on my part or often by others coming along at just the right time to assist me with tasks.

4 – Practicing the “Disciplines of the Faith” will strengthen your WALK with God!

For myself, I have identified 7 streams of living water that flow into my spirit and float the boat of my faith. They are these: prayer, scripture study (not just reading), worship (throughout the week), fellowship of the “koinonia” kind (not just bowling with other Christians), obedience to God’s commands, ministry and tithing. None of these affect God’s promises of salvation, but all of them affect the degree of our victory, our joy and our fruitfulness for God’s kingdom. The work of sanctification is to keep all 7 of these streams flowing clear of the fallen timbers and boulders sown by sin, self and Satan.

For many years I tried to float my boat higher by diving down to hack away at the underwater “stalagmites of sin,” which threatened to poke holes in my boat. Then I discovered the wonderful truth in Romans 12:21,

“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”

I applied this truth in my life by increasing my practice of the 7 “disciplines of the faith” mentioned above. What I found was that doing this “good” raised my boat much higher than by my efforts to fight against or avoid evil in my life. Lesson #5 elaborates on this.

5 – God wants us to have an “exchanged” life, not just a changed life!

Another way to say this is that we were not created to be fountains but rather “garden hoses.” The power to obey and to minister does not come from us but through us.

By accessing the 7 streams above, God will exchange our weakness for His strength, our apathy for His zeal, and our flesh-contaminated efforts with His anointing to “do exploits for our God!” as Daniel says.

Ask God to come through you like living water through a garden hose. As you tighten your connection to the faucet, ask Him to adjust and direct the flow how and where He will. Not only will you be liberated from the burden of performance, but your performance will be greatly enhanced by the Holy Spirit doing the work for you!

And the best part is this: your works will then never be burned up but will greatly glorify God and be well-rewarded!

6 – Keeping a Prayer Journal will increase your LOVE for God!

Two of my greatest regrets in my Christian life are these: not praying more and not keeping a prayer journal to record God’s glorious answers to my prayers. I finally began to do both of these things some years ago, and my faith has shot up like a skyrocket!

By the time I sat down to record some of the more dramatic answers to prayer in my life, I could only recall and record about 150 of them. There have been many more than that, but now, sadly, they are lost to time. I would urge my readers to begin keeping a prayer journal and update it regularly. King David understood the joy of remembering God’s answers to his prayers when he said this in Psalm 116:1-2:

“I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live.”

7 – Studying fulfilled prophecy will increase your FAITH in God!

As a young Jewish believer, the study of Old Testament prophecy became a big part of the foundation of my faith. As an old Jewish believer, the study of Old Testament prophecy has become the super-structure of my faith. Reminding oneself that our God is the only God who has accurately fulfilled His own prophecies strengthens our faith like very little else can! Studying the 109 separate prophecies of Christ’s first coming filled me with faith when I was young. Now, studying the 300 prophecies of Christ’s second coming fills me with a holy urgency to share that faith now that I am old.

In a public library, I once looked at 5 or 6 encyclopedia-type volumes, each devoted to a different world religion. I searched through the index of each book for an entry on “prophecy.” Can you guess what I found? Nothing!! No other so-called “holy book” contains any prophecies which have been fulfilled in the pages of history! Only the Bible features this amazing evidence of its divine authorship! Just yesterday, I marveled again at Isaiah’s 45th chapter, where the prophet accurately describes an event that would not take place for another 150 years! The rest of the day, my faith and joy in Christ just soared! Along with that, my desire to share the gospel also zoomed skyward. Why do you suppose God spent over 25% of His holy word on prophecy? Start to study it, and you will find out!

8 – Practicing your God-given gifts in ministry will increase your JOY in the Lord!

Keeping God’s commandments is not just intended to increase His glory but also to increase our faith, peace and joy. I have had a long and blessed marriage and a long and blessed career, but the ministry I have had the privilege to be part of over the years has brought me a special kind of gladness of heart not obtainable in any other way.

This is most especially true when the ministry I performed entailed the exact gifts I have been given by the Lord. I call it “finding one’s place on the wall.”

In the book of Nehemiah, chapter 3, there is a list of about 44 separate jobs performed by perhaps 100 different tradesmen, all mentioned by name. Each one was contributing his own special skill to the building of the wall surrounding Jerusalem. Though in constant danger from enemies, they all persevered and succeeded. I have no doubt that, to their dying days, these men all counted these tasks as the most important and the most joyous of their entire lives!

We are the same. In the great work of building God’s Kingdom, we each have our own separate places on the wall, but we each combine to complete the necessary preparations for the return of our King, the Lord Jesus Christ! And He knows us all by name!

The short time we have left before His arrival should give us all a greater sense of urgency, industry and courage. Once our “faith becomes sight,” we can never again earn the kind of reward that comes from “obedience by faith,” as Jesus explained it to Thomas in John 20:29b,

“blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

There are many more lessons than just these 8 which the Lord and the Holy Spirit have taught me, but I pray that these, like the 8 lights on the Hanukah menorah which we just lit this month, will warm and illuminate your hearts to produce a greater faith and fruitfulness in the coming year. It may be our last year before faith becomes sight!

May God help us all to make the most of it!

To my dear family of the Christ King,

I recently wrote this article as a homily to a small fellowship of internationally located believers.

They are folk who originally replied and commented upon some earlier articles I submitted to R/R. And I always invite those who reply to continue the correspondence through ongoing fellowship. I’ve been so blessed to ‘meet’ online with some wonderful folk and have made some great friendships. Praise God!

THE ATTITUDE OF THE WORLD TOWARD GOD:

Unfortunately, it has become impossible to avoid those whose hatred of God or just plain denial is always ‘in your face.’

At one time, they would smile to your face and, with smirks, sneer behind your back.

Always, but always, they considered themselves so far above us.

Spiritually blind to the glory of God and the grace he offers through Jesus, they revel in their pseudo-intellectualism. The latter is tied to their commitment to that which they consider constitutes the ‘real’ truths of the age: science and technology. And far too many of these folk represent academia, unfortunately.

Along with them, deluded, biblically ignorant ‘talking heads’ continue to spread a satanic message that is successfully destroying all societies. Many who, in their conceit, believe they have been gifted to bring ‘truth’ to a dying world are those false gods of celebrity whose every utterance is treated with awe and gob-smacked belief. The world treats them as demigods: basking in this satanic limelight, many see themselves as gods as they spread a false narrative and evil gospel.

What do they appear to have in common? They deny God, our divine creator, and they loathe us: presently, even calling for our personal destruction.

Shortly, this world (as we believe we know it) will pass away amid what is described as ‘the day of wrath.’ Though those given to Jesus are to be spared (as the judged church of faith is called away), the remainder of the world is to await their own personal judgment.

Scripture teaches us that those whose souls have spread the false gospel of denial will, at their resurrection, face an eternity too awful and miserable to contemplate. Yet, even they, prior to the death of their flesh, still have the opportunity of redemption through Jesus.

God granted redemption to all through the death and resurrection of the ‘first-born from death, ‘His own Son, Jesus Christ the righteous, our paschal lamb. Jesus offers redemption to ALL who, in repentance, call upon his name, declaring their affirmation. In this sense, ‘redemption’ is to be understood as being the only way that each of us can be reconciled throughout eternity to our Creator God and eternal Father.

What about ‘us’ as we continue to await delivery?

To a large extent, we are now confronted by the hard rump of Satan’s own. They are those who not only loathe and deride Jesus and deride the Living God but increasingly use every legal lever to prevent us from adhering to the Word of God. And, increasingly, they invade our churches and pervert the pulpit.

Unfortunately, there are not many Bereans who can use the Word of Scripture to defend themselves. Many go to ‘church,’ but few read and familiarize themselves with the Bible. For in truth, we all need to rally to such an extent that, as one congregation, we deny false pastors and ‘priests’ the right to occupy the pulpit to preach to God’s people.

We read how Jesus called out the Sadducees and Pharisees for their false teachings. The Apostles were constantly having to reaffirm the true system of faith, for no sooner had they departed from one of their missionary journey locations, ‘wolves would quickly emerge’ to pervert the truth.

Jesus said, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Paul had the same kind of group in mind and the same kind of error in mind in Philippians 3:2:

“Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh.”

And then in verse 18: “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.”

Then in Romans 16:17, he warned, “Watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”

We clearly see then that those who pervert and attempt to destroy the truth of the Word represent Satan and this dying, secular world, as now it swiftly passes away.

Every day that passes, we continue to see this foul fruit of denial as its purveyors constantly spit out all manner of perverted heresy. Each day, it oozes like poisonous sap from its satanic source. Have no doubt, Satan himself is the diseased tree (as constituted by the world he set out to destroy from the beginning).

However, while it is the ‘wolves’ who appear to outweigh the ‘sheep of the pasture of Jesus,’ it is the sheep (irrespective of their number) that will be spared the ‘Day of Wrath’ that is shortly to begin.

Make no mistake. You know the end is near when ‘good’ is called evil and ‘evil,’ good (Isaiah 5:20-21).

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight…” (Berean Standard Bible).

Brothers/Sisters, we are living in the days in which the family unit has been struck a near-fatal death blow. This cruel world of denial has all but destroyed the major means through which the Word is passed down through the generations.

God created ‘family’ as the means through which he would be worshiped and adored AND through which delivery would come. The human birth of Jesus, the Christ King, clearly testifies to the truth of this claim.

The God who had previously wrought great miracles through his servant Moses, befriended Abraham, and spoke through the medium of a burning bush was no longer a disembodied majesty who could not be ‘seen.’ Instead, ‘He’ came to us in human form. He was touched physically by humans, and he touched them also. He laughed, he wept for Lazarus his friend, and finally, suffering terribly, he died an awful death in the midst of his own physicality.

It’s important to understand exactly what this means. Jesus wasn’t just a godly person with great spiritual insights, nor was He only a great moral and spiritual teacher. He was more than these because He was both fully human and fully divine (which is why He was called the Son of God). Think of it: God became a man, and that Man was Jesus Christ. As the Bible says, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Colossians 1:19). (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association)

The work of Satan is moving at great pace, for his time is short. His goal is the total destruction of mankind, which, he falsely believes, was deliberately created by God to replace the premier position he believed he alone should occupy.

Satan has used every legal tool that nations can devise to destroy the family unit. All of them are now in play. Chief amongst them is the destruction of marriage and the matrimonial bonds that this holy Sacrament was designed by God to cement. Not content with this, Satan stands directly behind the destruction of both family and society by destroying our children through the process of abortion.

Now has come the deliberate derogation of fathers as ‘head of the family unit.’ Men are being shown as inherently weak. If they are strong in their faith, they are portrayed as bullies. Satan has used the mantra chant of feminism to help accomplish this. When this movement cries, ‘equality is our goal,’ beware! And be alarmed! What is sought is moral and physical ascendancy, with males reduced to the effeteness of near emasculation so they will become silenced voices.

No more so is this apparent than within the falsity of television advertising, which depicts the ‘laughably effete man.’ He is vividly contrasted against the strong and purposeful woman, who (as de facto head of the family) ALWAYS appears to make the ‘right’ decisions.

What can we say to this? “Dear LORD, deliver us swiftly. This poison has already all but destroyed us!”

Against this backdrop, children are learning to despise their fathers as the State conspires to corrupt them within the school system.

My friends, The ‘Good Ship Lollipop’ is sinking fast. She definitively represents this dying world. Those who are to be saved are already in the lifeboats as they pull away from the impending vortex caused as she founders. And, at the last, there will be a mad panic to get off the doomed vessel.

Alas, there are no more boats or rafts left.

As I cruise the Net (wherein I spend probably too much time), I continue to be amazed at the conviction of the deluded. Mostly, they now appear to be spiritually blinded by their continued denial of God and the atoning grace of salvation offered by our Christ King.

What constitutes their conviction?

>A belief in the perverse untruth that mankind has induced such diabolical changes on the earth that it is now dying. (Actually, they are partially correct. However, it is not the earth that is dying: it is the world, as peopled by this perverse generation.)

>Only man can turn things around and ‘save the planet.’

>In order to ‘save’ mankind, some Draconian changes MUST occur. (These include giving over ALL national power to a ‘new’ world order and, within this ‘reset,’ thereby creating a ‘new’ system of values.

>This system must be arbitrated and forcibly ruled by one international system of governance.

>All personally owned assets must be seized for the ‘good’ of mankind and be utilized at the sole discretion of one individual. (The new King of England has long been a proponent of this nonsense.)

>The family unit must be destroyed in favor of the ‘common good.’

>Gender identification has to be redefined. (Re-identification of gender is a major tool in the destruction of human fertility.) Worse, it is heretically contrary to God’s command that we are to ‘go forth and multiply.’

>Every step must be taken by existing national governments to forcibly reduce their populations. (Therefore, abortion, euthanasia, death by falsely administered medicine, contrived war, and pestilence are also necessary tools to accomplish this, and national laws should be redefined accordingly.)

>The ‘myth’ of Jesus as a Saviour and Christ King, along with the worship of a ‘non-existent’ godhead, must be destroyed at all costs because it encourages all those things that are seen as ultimately destructive to the planet.

Proverbs 30:11-17

11 “There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers;

12 those who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth;

13 those whose eyes are ever so haughty, whose glances are so disdainful;

14 those whose teeth are swords and whose jaws are set with knives to devour the poor from the earth and the needy from amongst mankind.

15 “The leech has two daughters. ‘Give! Give!’ they cry. “There are three things that are never satisfied, four that never say, ‘Enough!’:

16 the grave, the barren womb, land, which is never satisfied with water, and fire, which never says, ‘Enough!’

17 “The eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.

Always,
With many blessings and hearts full of hope but never despair,

Denis Bowden

denisjbowden@gmail.com

(all emails answered and continuing fellowship on offer)