General Articles

The Living and Breathing Word of God! :: By Don Twobears

Published on: by RR7

How well are you able to experience your own Soul or Spirit? Do you think this is strange of me to ask? In the Grand scheme of things, it is more important than most would believe. I am sure there are many that have read the story of the ‘Rich man and Lazarus’ in Luke Chapter 16. If you haven’t, then it would be worth your taking the time to read it.

Luke 16:19 “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day.“ I have purposefully emphasized the first two words, “There Was,” for a reason. Jesus Christ was telling a story of someone that had existed in this world at one point in time. In other words, this is NOT a parable, but an actual person and event. Let’s move on now.

Luke 16:20-23 “And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”

This is NOT in the ‘past tense’; it is in the ‘Present Tense.’ The Rich man has died as well and is in Hell. He is able to see things and know them as well; in other words, the Rich man is Self-aware. He knows he is in Hell, in torment, and he asks for a drop of water. The Rich man was always looked after in life, and so now he asks that Lazarus dip his finger in water and then on his tongue to cool it! Stop and think on this y’all; He would have never eaten anything Lazarus had touched, because of his status in life, and then because of all the sores on Lazarus. Evidently, the Pharisees did not catch this as a Story of a current event! Otherwise, it would have had a completely different outcome for them!

It is evident, that the Pharisees did not “THINK” concerning the Story by Jesus. Otherwise, their perception of the story would have had a completely different reaction in them. They would have seen that Jesus Christ IS God in Human form, and was able to SEE all of this. Who else would have been able to do so? NO ONE! This is huge, my Friends, because this is still evident to each of us…Today! The Bible is a real and breathing entity, given to you and me by God Almighty. It is NOT…just some book! We should NOT want to be like the Pharisees; we should see the evidence for ourselves and Believe it!

How many other scenarios are there in the Bible that prove its authenticity? Sodom and Gomorrah, the Birth of Jesus Christ to a virgin, Mary? How about the Crucifixion and then Death of Jesus Christ and HIS Resurrection? Does this make sense to you…NOW? And if you are like me, the Revelations of God’s Word keep on coming and coming. This is absolutely amazing! BUT…how many people are able to see this for themselves? Can you say, this is evidence of the “Wisdom and Discernment” of the Lord?! It literally Blows me away! I have no words to explain it otherwise.

We read stories to children from the Bible…do we see these stories of real people and real events? I am having a difficult time containing myself every time I read the Bible! How much do we miss with every reading because we are not in the correct frame of mind?

So, if we are now able to see the difference for ourselves, what about things like the soon-to-be Rapture of the Church of Jesus Christ?! Jesus Christ was giving us a front-row seat of events that are…right now! Again, may I take you back to the beginning of this article? The difference between your Body and your Spirit? Your body stays right here on earth but your Spirit continues on, as if your death here was just another event in your life. Your Spirit never dies, it never pauses or stops, it continues on and on…for Eternity! Having stated that, where in Eternity will YOUR Spirit reside? Heaven or Hell?

Please, my Friends, read and read this again! Not that I am saying anything but that the Holy Word of God is able to speak to each and every one of us, that it literally moves in our hands! The thing is, Every word in the Bible, every story, is NOT past Tense; it is real Present Tense…as in the Real Truth, right now!

It begs the question, what is Time? Is it as important as we make it out to be? We humans keep referring to time on a constant basis, but on whose timetable? Again, I refer you to the story of events in your own life and how they seem to have taken place just a few days ago. The Rich man is still in Hell, still in torment, and still wants a drop of water! Do you really think that if you disregard Salvation through Jesus Christ…that you will fare any better than the Rich man? YOU WILL NOT!

Heaven and Jesus Christ are absolutely REAL…Right now! And by the same token of speech, so is HELL! And if you do NOT belong to Jesus Christ…HELL is where YOU are presently headed! This is real, my Friends! There is NO doubt in it. The question is…which place do you CHOOSE to go to?!

I Hope and Pray this article helps you to make the same realization as it has for me! It has literally changed the way I read and understand the Holy Word of God. It literally changes the way I view Sin in my life, and I Pray it will do the same for you. Jesus Christ is the only answer there is to our lives, for our own Spirit and where we want to call Home.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

All Passages of Scripture come from the King James Version of the Bible.

All Emphasis is mine.

twobears44@gmail.com

Center of Life :: By John Lysaught

Published on: by RR7

I don’t know about you, but I love living with Christ as the center of my life. I love being a Christian. I’m so glad that I am an adopted son of God’s. I am overjoyed with the knowledge in my mind and the assurance in my heart that my trust in Jesus is not for nil. I wouldn’t want this any other way.

Like you, I was lost before I was drawn to Christ. I wandered the world and life going this way or that way in search of something more than myself, something or someone to show me the way to eternal life. I had this emptiness inside my heart that I couldn’t explain or satisfy with the things of the world. There was nothing to be the center of my life that the world offered that fulfilled me. The world entertained me for a short time but was always fleeting to my heart with no permanent joy and satisfaction.

There was a time in my life that I knew of Jesus. I even went to church, but that was the extent of it. I wasn’t really committed and really didn’t know Christ. I knew Him at a distance. I didn’t understand Jesus or what He was really about. I just knew that people prayed to Him and people told me He was the Son of God, which I didn’t understand.

This went on for some time until about 2011. I had a cancer scare during this time and it really shook me. I didn’t have cancer, but that didn’t matter anymore. I realized my mortality on this earth. I knew I had to do something, and the draw to Christ became overwhelming. I heeded that draw and came to Christ.

Grace drew me to Jesus and I didn’t look back, but moved forward in Him.  No more messing around with my life. No more sitting on the fence. No more being self-ignorant about who Jesus was. No more loneliness in my heart. I wanted Christ to be the center of my life.

There is peace when Christ is in the center of your life.  Isaiah 26:3 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Some say this is an unexplainable peace, as I have before, but it is explainable.

When one has this peace, it is from having trust in Christ, His ways, and the promise of the New Covenant. This peace comes with the assurance of our faith that what Christ says is true, that His sacrifice on the cross is true, and that He rose from the grave and ascended to heaven to prepare a place for us is true. This is what the peace of Christ means.

Trust. Trust is something that should be inherent in our faith for peace, but is hard to do at times. To give all to Christ can be difficult for some. We trust in what John 14:6 says, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” but do we practice this truth as the center of our lives?

Giving and surrendering to Christ is an exercise of faith and is part of keeping Jesus as the center of our lives.  Most of us are partial-faith believers. What do I mean? I mean we are part-time Christians in our faith. We have issues giving all to Jesus so that He is the true center of our lives.

Not giving all can stem from not trusting Jesus with your finances, repeating sins such as viewing pornography, coveting, gossip, or something else that has a strong hold in your life. When we do this, we are not really saying Christ is the center of our lives because, if He were, then we would trust Him to help us overcome the ills of our lives so we don’t live in a cycle of sin.

Does this mean we won’t sin? Of course not! We will because we are of flesh and of a sin nature. Yet, when we have Christ as the center of our lives, we are not controlled by sin, such as repeated sin. We are free from the bondage of those sins and future sins. It takes effort to overcome habitual sin but we can with Christ as the center of our lives.

When Christ is the center of our lives, it means we have complete trust in Him to control our lives. We have issues with this as well. We may desire to give Him complete control of our lives, but do we really? If we desire so, what is holding us back from giving it all to Him? It is control. We want to have control of our lives, even just a little bit, aside from letting Christ drive our will and desires.

Why is this? Why do we want to keep control of our lives? I think it is selfishness and pride. These two actions hinder us and prevent us from giving Christ full control of our lives. We want to drive, per se, and are content to only let Jesus drive occasionally, depending on the situation.

1 John 2:16 tells us that, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

Pride and selfishness come from the world and is opposite of humbleness, which comes from reverence and godly fear of God. Jesus wants us to have a humble heart, and we do, in some areas of our lives, but to have Christ as the center of our lives, we must be humble and not have pride in all areas of our lives.

This means giving up self and bowing to our Lord Jesus. Jesus is our King, and to oppose Him is sinful. We must serve our Lord Jesus and not ourselves. We must put His needs and wants for us before ourselves. He will take care of us and will never leave us but we ignore Him when we sin by not being humble to Him and not making Him the center of our lives.

Keeping Jesus as the center of our lives is not something that automatically happens upon salvation. Can it? Yes, but most of us have to work at it. For some, it is a little at a time, much like myself.  We tend to put obstacles in front of Jesus to be the center of our lives so He doesn’t’ have complete control of our lives.

At the end of the day, we should ask ourselves what our obstacles are with our faith and trust in Jesus to be the center of our lives. Is it control? Pray and work on giving all control to Jesus of your life. Is it a habitual sin that you can’t shake? Pray again, and work to let Christ lead you to repentance, true repentance, to not repeat those habitual sins.

When we truly trust our lives to Jesus, then He truly becomes the center of our lives.  We can’t do it alone, but need to be open to Christ to lead us and help us to do this. If we trust Him to control our lives in action and actuality, then He will be the center of our lives, and we will truly accept and treat Him as our King.

Johnflysaught@gmail.com