Witness - "Wake-up Call"

The Devil Has You Fooled........

I know the title of this blog caught your attention, so I want to say Thank You for taking the time to read this blog and see how you are being deceived.  I honestly believe that this blog can be applied to people who don't know Jesus, Baby Christians (people who have bits and pieces of Jesus), Mature Christians, and people who want to strengthen their faith walk and grow.  The devil entangles us with his lies and deceit, so it is up to us to do our research and study the Word and find out his tricks.  There are several tricks that I will name that he has people deceived by:

- That he doesn't exist
- That "Hell" is not a real place
- Since God is SOOOO Good and Just, then he won't send anyone to Hell
- That the Bible is just a story and misinterpreted
- That there are MANY ways to Heaven
- That if you do enough "Good" then you can earn your way into Heaven
- That there is NO afterlife or Eternity

    It would take me a long time to go into all of these that are listed here so I wanted to focus on one of them that I feel traps people the most.  The one that I am going to cover in this blog is: That if you do enough "Good" then you can earn your way into Heaven.  In our society today we like to classify ourselves into two categories: Good People and Bad People.  We actually believe there are certain barriers between the two.  For an example if you commit a crime then you are a "bad" person and if you struggle with addiction then you are a "bad" person.  Now another example of the other category would be: "I gave $20.00 to a homeless person today, I am such a good person."  "I go to church every Sunday, I am a good person."  "I only bend the truth just a little bit, so I am doing much better than the "bad" people, so I am still a good person."  If I did a survey and asked people to categorize themselves into one of the categories I would bet that I would hear that everyone would put themselves in a "good person" category.  We can honestly try so hard in our heart to do the right thing, and to have the right intention but to be honest NONE OF US OUR GOOD.  Did you hear what I just said?  I will repeat it again so it soaks in for a little bit "NONE OF US OUR GOOD!!!!"  In Gods eyes there is only ONE level and that level is "Bad People."  We are so sinful and we mess up DAILY that we can't even stand on our own two feet and boast of our good works or intentions.  In Isaiah 64:6 it says- ALL of us have become like one who is unclean, and all of our righteous acts are like filthy rags, we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.  Do you see that in the first line of that scripture it says "ALL?"  The scripture did not say "Some of us."  On our very best days that we try to do good, we still fall short.  The best example is trying to throw a rock to the moon.  I can only throw my rock so far, and you might be stronger and able to throw father than me but the bottom line is that we both have missed the mark and we are nowhere near the target.  Our God is so loving and knew this already in advance so out of his love for us he went to his plan.  He knew we needed a perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins and it needed to be an unblemished lamb.  It would be His Only Son that is sinless and perfect.  He would become human and humble himself by coming down to live with mankind and live a perfect life to where he would be punished for no crime but take OUR crime and take OUR sins and die for US!! He would be the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  I am just getting to the point where the devil comes into play and deceives people.  Now Jesus died for EVERYONE on the cross but not EVERYONE accepts him as their Savior.  Some people are deceived by saying "I am good because I went to church when I was younger, so I am covered"  Some people even say "I have picked up the Bible a few times and I know that there is a God out there"  Some even say that they have heard that Jesus died for their sins and that it is enough to just know that.  The devil puts SOO many methods out there and practices to where it makes people believe that there are MANY options to becoming Saved.  Jesus is very clear on that, in John 14:6 Jesus says "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."  Jesus makes it very clear that we aren't good enough to come on our own, so the only way is through him.  So the purpose of this blog is to understand that NOBODY is good and we are all in the same boat.  There are just some that have Jesus and some that don't.  There are some people going to Heaven and some people going to Hell.  I am going to put a category below to break it down just in case you are still thinking that you are a "good" person.  Take this survey and see how you do:

Have you ever told a lie?                                       If you have told ONE lie then that makes you a LIAR
Have you ever stole anything?                               If you have stolen one thing then that makes you a THIEF
Have you ever taken Gods name in Vain?              If you have then you are a BLASPHEMER
Have you ever looked at someone from the opposite
sex and had lust toward them and sexual thoughts?     If you have then you have
                                                                                 COMMITTED ADULTERY in your heart.

Now once you have your answers you now have a "TITLE" that goes before you.  Whenever you stand before God during judgement he will see the title "Liar, Thief, Blasphemer, Adulterer, etc"  Since God is a righteous God and a Fair Judge he has no choice but to sentence you to the crime that you have committed against him.  The sentence is Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death.  So if you go by your own standards you aren't going to be good enough and you are destined for Hell.  Now since God loves us so much he sent his Son Jesus Christ to sacrifice his life for us so that if we have him as our Savior we can stand before him in right standing with God.  When God looks at us he will see his Son Jesus Christ and the sins have already been paid for so we now can come boldly to Gods throne!!!!  Do you understand now?  Jesus is the ONLY way and HIS way is the ONLY RIGHT WAY!!!  I am praying that the Holy Spirit made this message come alive to you to where you repent for your sins and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior today.  You can have a CLEAN slate today!!! You can be a new creation in Christ Today!!! Your name can be engraved on his Hand today!!!  

     

Prayer Warrior...............

What is the definition of a Prayer Warrior? Someone who is committed to praying for others, engaging in spiritual warfare against satanic forces.  Prayer Warrior take the FULL AUTHORITY they have in Christ Jesus and do battle for themselves, others, and situations.  When Prayer Warriors pray, things happen!!! So now you may ask yourself; What battle are we in? In Ephesians 6:12 it says- For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. In Ephesians 6:11 it says- Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  Did you know that Satan disguises himself as the Angel of Light? (2 Corinthians 11:14)  There is a battle going on that we are not able to see.  There are demonic beings that are operating behind people and attached to people.  There are people who are in Hell, there are people who are on the path to Hell.  We need to have our entire Armor of God on (Ephesians 6:10-18) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith, which can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and request.  With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.
We have a duty and responsibility as a disciple of Christ. We can't just be passive and weak.  We can't just care only about our family members.  We must be on guard interceding for the lost and the broken.  We have to remember that the battle that is going on is between angels and demons that operate behind people.  When something evil happens we have to know where it comes from and take the authority we have in Jesus Christ!!! Get on that front line and get on the FULL ARMOR OF GOD!!!

BIBLICAL WISDOM ABOUT FORGIVENESS....

Bible Verses Regarding Forgiveness:

Matthew 6:14-15
For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

-When we hold onto unforgiveness the enemy gets us to “think” that we are proving a point to that person that we hold unforgivness to. Remember the enemy is the Father of Lies. We can see that when we CHOOSE to forgive people, we are actually doing ourselves a favor and giving them over to God. We no longer hold that person, we release them to God and now it is up to God to deal with.
**** We must follow Gods Commands because if we truly say we are disciples of Christ then we need to act like it. We need to lead by example and we must keep our “communication flow” open between us and God.*****

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

-This verse deals with when we hold onto unforgiveness dealing with ourselves. So many people cannot forgive themselves for their past or with choices they have made. The enemy would love to keep throwing your past in your face and people in your path to bring up your past. He wants you to look in the mirror and see the same old person you were and that you have not changed!! **** Put this scripture on your mirror *** When you are saved you are IN Christ, and as you can see in the scripture it says YOU ARE A NEW CREATION!!! ****

Mark 11:25
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. "
-When we pray we have to make sure that we repent from anything we have done that day. We need to ask for forgiveness from God and we need to forgive others. (See the Prayer Handout that we gave a few weeks ago)

Luke 6:37
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven
- God is the ONLY righteous judge, so let us leave it up to him. When we hold ourselves as a “judge” we are putting ourselves BEFORE God and we are then a false idol. If we want to be forgiven we MUST forgive others!!

Luke 23:34
Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots
-This is Jesus speaking here and he is forgiving the sinners (which is US) So many times we think we are fully aware of our actions and words and the truth is that once you study the Word of God you know that there are battles in the Heavenly Realms. Since we know where the REAL battle is then we know that when someone hurts us or is evil to us that they are not in their right mind and there heart is hardened. We must take the words that Jesus said and apply them to our Everyday Lives!! ** Next time someone causes you pain say this: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Do You Find Yourself Not Feeling Worthy?................

So many times we find ourselves feeling Unworthy of Christ.  We may even find ourselves trying to "earn" our worth because we know we are so unworthy.  We know we are sinners and that we aren't good enough.  We know we mess up daily and that no matter how hard we "try to be good" we STILL fail.  We have these horrible thoughts, we do these horrible things and then we have trouble forgiving ourselves.  At times we feel hopeless and feel like we are trapped with no way out.  We only have a vision of a "Dead End" Road sign.  Before we ever knew Christ we lived with no guilt.  We had the seed of Satan and we felt justified by our actions and works because we were our own God.  We didn't have anyone to answer to because we went to ourselves.  When someone did us wrong we were the judge on what they deserved.  When we had a horrible thought or feeling, we justified that it was ok because of what happened to us.  These are things we felt and experienced BEFORE we knew Christ.  This is what happens as soon as we Accept Christ for the very first time..........

We realize that we are unworthy of HIS GRACE but it was His grace that saved us through faith and that this was a gift from God!  We fall in love with Jesus Christ, we find ourselves on the floor at his feet soaked in tears because of HIS grace and mercy.  We are so humbled by this gift so we ask for forgiveness and ask for a new way of living and thinking.  Jesus is so loving and gives us himself, fully!!!!  Jesus holds NOTHING back from us.  He loves us so much that we are now HIDDEN IN CHRIST JESUS.  There is nothing more intimate than this.  We are HIDDEN in OUR Sinless Savior!!! We want to have new thinking and new living because we are so thankful for him dying for us.  So we pick up his word and read the instructions of how we can truly honor God.  God makes the guidelines clear to understand and shows us how we are to live.  We are to keep God first and give love at ALL times!!!  We need to daily repent and daily seek him!! We need to pray to the Holy Spirit to speak to us and guide us onto the Narrow Path.  We need to be different from the world! The world rejected Jesus, so now since we are hidden IN Jesus, the world will now reject us.  There are Christians today that are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus.  To me this shows that they take Gods Word seriously!  We need to take it to that level of belief.  We start walking with Jesus and now find that......................

Do You Find Yourself Asking "Where Are You God?"

I am sure that EVERYONE can relate with this topic in this post.  We go through trials and tribulations to where we feel alone and like we have nobody to talk to.  We know what the word of God says but still we have trouble finding the faith to believe it during the storm.  We hear in the word of God that He will never leave us or forsake us but still we feel like that verse speaks to everyone but as at that very moment.  We ask God questions and wait on his answers.  We are so weary and tired to where we can barely put one foot in front of the other.  Does this sound familiar to you?  Maybe you find yourself walking step by step at the moment.  We see it say in Psalm 119:105- Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.  What does that verse mean exactly?  Let us break it down together and dive into that verse.  Gods Word is his living breathe to where it is our guiding light.  We are to follow on the narrow path (Matthew 17:13-14) and since God is guiding us on this narrow path we need to just follow his word.  God is not going to shine a spotlight that is as bright as the sun on our path because we then would see everything that lays ahead.  We would see our trials and refuse to take the next step, we might even try to wander off of the path to avoid suffering for Christ's kingdom.  God holds that lantern right in front of us by our feet to where we can see one step at a time.  God has his provision for each step we take.  His job is to tell us his truth and it is our job to believe him at his word.  So maybe in the past or maybe at this very moment you are having a moment of asking God "Why?"  Let me remind you that he will show you the way.  He has NOT left you, he will NEVER leave you.  God Almighty goes before you and fights your enemies for you.  The major lesson to learn in this is that: He doesn't leave us, WE LEAVE HIM!  We abandon him and give up on him.  We want answers NOW, and when he doesn't give us what we want, we then walk away.  God just stands there with his arms stretched out waiting for us to repent and come back into his arms again.  Jesus wants to give us such an abundant life but the key is that we have to do it HIS way and choose HIS road.  Many people struggle with this concept because they still want to be in control and do things Their way.  To be a true follower of Jesus Christ, we must DENY ourselves, pick up our crosses and follow him.  (Luke 9:23-24)  We must study his word and seek him at ALL times.  When someone does something wrong to us we need to do what Jesus would do and forgive and show love.  Remember that GOD IS LOVE!!! Did you hear what I just said?  Let me say it again: GOD IS LOVE!!!  Our Society tries to tell us what true love is and they have it ALL WRONG.  Love is a commitment not a feeling.  God CHOSE to give his only Son and followed through with it.  God did not back out in the middle of it, he made a commitment because he is love and followed through.  This is what we must do in relationships today.  When someone does you wrong, turn your cheek.  God commands this, so are to do it.  We can all walk around and call ourselves Christians and pretend that we are good, or we can actually start showing it in our daily lifestyles.  Do your friends know that you love Jesus?  Does your family know that you love Jesus? Do strangers know that you love Jesus?  Time to bet your life on it and get ALL IN WITH GOD!!!

Attention World, Turn Off Your Television And Hear The GOOD NEWS!!!!!

So many times people start off their morning with watching the News or Television.  As everyone knows that the News Channel is always negative and always brings bad news and if you watch Television shows there are usually trashy shows that appear one channel after another.  So with negative news reports and trashy television shows what is a person to do?  How can you start the day off on a good note?  How on earth do we have a chance at staying godly if our minds are filled with this pollution???  Here is the answer: The Bible.  The Good News of Jesus Christ is all throughout the Bible.  The Bible is the Story of Jesus and what he came to do for us and what he gave us when he resurrected.  So many people feel that their religion defines what they believe and they go with a "label" and feel that is enough said.  When I was a "catholic" growing up I said that label but the way I was living was not catholic at all.  I wasn't seeking Jesus at all, and my lifestyle showed that I wanted to say what was right/wrong.  Many people walk around calling themselves "Christians" but their lifestyle doesn't show that they are.  There are people who live together that aren't married and there are people having sexual relations that aren't married.  There are even people on a daily basis walk around hating one another and still call themselves Christians.  Let me break it down for you.  To call yourself a Christian is a way of life.  It is to TRULY drop everything and follow Christ and be his ambassador here on earth.  We are to represent Christ on a daily basis in EVERY situation we encounter.  That means if someone does something bad to us, we need to act the way Christ did.  If we meet someone having a hard time, then we have compassion the way Jesus did.  The way we learn how Jesus would react is to study his life and get to know him personally through his word.  How can you act the way he does when you don't know him through his word?  Many people can share what Jesus is to "them" but you can't love Jesus personally until you make it your own.  You need to connect with him in the most intimate way to where it is just You and Jesus.  So many people want to be read the Word of God once a week and feel that is enough for the week or that it was enough of "Jesus" time.  The Word stresses on reading it DAILY.  We live in a sinful world so every single day we are hit with Sin non-stop so we need the Word of God daily so we can protect ourselves and our loved ones.  We need to remind ourselves that Satan is King of this World and you can see that by what is happening all around us.  You can see it on the news, television, movies, songs, culture, laws being changed, etc.  Why are we surprised when we see these things?  Jesus already talked about this happening in the Bible.  Do you want Good News????  Start reading Gods Word and see the truth and see the Good that Jesus came to do.  Do you know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God?  Do you know that if you were the only person on this earth that Jesus would of came and died just for you?  Do you know that you could have all the access to the power that Jesus did when he was here performing miracles?  Do you know that you have been redeemed from all the curses?  Do you know that you don't have to be sick anymore?  Do you know that you can be made whole in Christ?   This is the GOOD NEWS!!! People walk around and don't receive fully of what Jesus did for them.  So many people don't know what the Bible says or are afraid to read it.  I encourage you today, turn off your television and read the GOOD NEWS!!