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In Season and out of Season

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on May 12, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: 2 Timothy 4:2

The first two thousand years of the existence of Earth man had gotten so wicked, so vicious, so cruel, so godless that he had entirely rejected God. He had piled up so much sin that the debt was so great that it demanded the life of every living creature. There were only eight people: Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives who remained steadfast to God. Can you imagine, out of a whole world of people, only eight people, “…Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water” (I Peter 3:20). God selected to let them die by water and in dying by water they got the opportunity of repentance. But remember now, no man can go to hell unless God gave him a square chance to go to heaven (John 1:9). The Bible says that He died to save every soul on the face of the earth. Now, Jesus had not yet come in the time of Noah, therefore, at that time there was a special way of salvation. They would go before God, offer a sacrifice and God would forgive their sins. But these people were not able to do that. They came against Noah. So, God built an ark and He was going to send water to drown them that they might be saved by water. This is a truth laid down in the Bible. Let us go to I Peter 3:18 and there we see that they were saved.

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison…”

Remember, no one can go to hell unless God Almighty has given him a square chance of going to heaven and he refuses or accepts it. Now, these people when they were drowning, they must have called upon the name of the Lord or else Jesus would not have gone down into hell to save them. Verse 20, “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, (120 years) wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, [in other words, not taking a good bath,] but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”

Now, you can understand what this is saying. This is saying that people did not get the chance that you have now. They were not in a position to call upon the name of the Lord, and God allowed them to be drowned, to go into a compartment of hell where they could be saved. Jesus Christ died and the first thing He did was go down into hell. He couldn’t get into hell without sins, so He took our sins and went down into hell with all this burden of sin and there He was resurrected in hell and preached unto the spirits in prison and led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men (Ephesians 4:8). He took them out of hell and brought them into heaven. That is a mighty rescue. Jesus Christ went to hell and rescued the people who were in hell. In looking at II Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” Hallelujah.

So, God Almighty is saying to us that if a man goes to hell, he could never blame God, because God is going to do everything possible. Sometimes even on his deathbed the last thing that will happen is that Jesus will appear to him and present Himself to him asking if he will accept Him. If he does not accept Jesus at that time, then he would never accept Jesus throughout the eternal ages, because at that time a man is brought to spiritual consciousness. No matter how dumb he was in the natural world, no matter how carnal, how natural, how brutal he was, at the end when he finally gets serious – he is about to enter into eternity – Jesus Christ presents Himself to him. If that man accepts Jesus at that time, he will be saved.

This is the reason, brethren, why we should not forsake to “speak the Word of God in season and out of season” (II Timothy 4:2). I am saying that sometimes it is not convenient to talk about God. Sometimes you are in a place where people would look down on you if you ever mentioned God – God says you should mention, because that is out of season. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 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…

Brethren, God is saying to us that we have to be different human beings from the normal human being. We have to be different from the human being that will say, “Well, you have to be wise as serpent and harmless as a dove. You can’t preach everywhere.” You cannot be “out of order” in preaching the Word of God. Believe you me, you might be looked down upon, you might be scoffed at and that is all good. If somebody scoffs at you or looks down on you for the preaching of the Word of God, then you should feel good that you are in good company. “Ye (we) are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” That is found in Matthew 5:14. Verse 15, “Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September, 2009)

Thought for today: Brethren, we should not forsake to “speak the Word of God in season and out of season.”

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Death Has a Demand

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , , on May 11, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Romans 8:2

Have you ever considered the fact that sometimes obedience to the Holy Spirit clashes with what was the righteousness of the law? Let us look at that thought. Jesus was walking through the corn field on the Sabbath day. He actually disobeyed the law of their time by picking corn and eating. David disobeyed the law by going in and eating, and giving to his men to eat, the shewbread, because they were hungry. That shewbread, according to the law, was only supposed to be eaten by the priests.

Let us look at the difference between the righteousness that is of the law and the righteousness that is of Christ. The righteousness which is of Christ says that I must obey the Spirit of God. “I must walk in the Spirit and I will not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). We find, then, that there are two laws working one against another: the law of righteousness of the Spirit, and the righteousness that is of the law that was given to Moses.

Now, it is all well and good to be a philanthropist, but it profits me exactly nothing if my motivation in giving is that I might be a great name as a philanthropist and be looked up to and respected by people. My motivation makes the very act of righteousness unrighteous. It cancels the righteousness that I would actually do. So, then, I have no redress from God for my righteousness, and because of this, sin, therefore, is no longer an abstract thing, but it becomes very personal. Sometimes sin will even reason with you because sin is the opposite of God and the opposite of God is Satan. So, Satan is the master of sin and he works in sin and in sinners. Paul, speaking to us in Romans 7:22, says that he sees another law. “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

Now, the law of sin is also the law of death (Romans 8:2). The law of life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death become personal and active since the Spirit of God uses the law of life and the spirit of Satan uses the law of death. Let’s go over that then. The law of life in Christ Jesus cancels out the power of the law of sin and death and it makes me free from the other law of sin and death. Now, what is the difference? If I am in the law of Christ and I make a mistake and do the wrong thing which normally is called sin – the law of life chips in and says you need to do something immediately to cancel the wages that are coming to you from that death, from that mistake. So immediately I would repent and the law of life would come into focus and cancel the effect or the wages that would normally or naturally come upon me for the sin.

Let us look a little deeper into the situation of these two laws. Why are the wages of sin death? The wages of sin is death because it is a transgression against God and God Himself has laid it down that every transgression against God must be paid for by life. In other words, death has a demand. It has a demand that “this person is mine because he did so and so and so and so. Because he fell, he belongs to me.” Jesus said, “No, I redeem him by life – I pay for it, I pay for the debt.” So, what we are doing is demanding from God a certain amount of payment for the things that we do.

Now, you ask yourself the question, “What kind of a thing is this? How is it that Jesus is going to pay?” The scriptures say that Jesus Christ came and by His Blood He paid for every man that cometh into the world. My goodness! He pays for every man, every sin, every wickedness, and every error that comes into the world. When He pays, the man himself has to accept the payment or else he is still in debt, so that some human beings have a preponderance of debt hanging over them. They have become bankrupt in the world of the spirit so that the wages that they owe are so great that they are in debt. They have become a slave to death and they no longer are free as human beings. But the Blood of Jesus is available for everyone who accepts the payment.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September, 2009)

Thought for today: The law of life in Christ Jesus cancels out the power of the law of sin and death and it makes me free from the other law of sin and death.

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Righteousness under Christ

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , on May 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Romans 6:1-11

When we look at the word “sin,” we notice that is it always contrary, opposite to righteousness. If we define the nature of God as being that of righteousness, then it would follow that that which is unrighteousness (sin) is therefore the nature of the devil. So, we find that there is an opposite pole to every thought, every action, every desire, as well as every plan. What this means is that anything and everything outside of what is God/Righteousness must be sin. Now, thoughts, actions and circumstances, can be of man or of the Devil but we understand from the scriptures that anything that is not of God, that is of the flesh or of the Devil, is sin. Therefore, when we try to find out what sin is, we find that the very fact of our redemption by the Blood of Jesus Christ means that we were redeemed from sin, we were redeemed from sinning and continuing in sin. So, whatever is not of God is sin. Now, this concept brings a very, very sharp distinction. That is to say that if I should say that I am a free moral agent – I am free to think my thoughts and to do my thing and to walk as I please and to help my family and everything like that – it would mean that I would be living in sin, because I am excluding God from my environment.

Living in sin is the opposite of living in Christ. If a man obeys Christ, he is living in Christ, but how can we obey someone whom we cannot see? And how can we obey one whom we cannot hear? And how can we obey one in whom we don’t believe? First of all, to obey Christ we must believe Christ – not only to believe that there is a Christ, but to believe IN Christ so that we know that every thought, every action, every plan is motivated, delivered, sent and executed by the Christ in us and not by the selfish thoughts of our own imagination. So, when it comes to the gifts of the Spirit: there is no space for imagination; there is no space for human conjecture; there is no space for our reason.

What this really means is that we become prisoners to truth and righteousness, if we can put it that way, because righteousness, therefore, is no longer just doing right things. Under the law, righteousness was doing right things. You gave to the poor, you gave your body to be burnt; basically, you sacrificed yourself for others. All that looks very good and it is, in a sense, righteousness, but in Christ it cannot be righteousness unless it is motivated by the Spirit of Christ. If, for instance, I give to the poor because I believe that the Lord said that he that giveth to the poor shall receive blessing, and I am motivated to give to the poor in order that I might receive a blessing – then it means that I am not serving God, I am serving a law of giving and receiving.

Over the radio or the television sometimes you hear the ministries that preach that “if you give you will be blessed” and how many people were blessed because they gave so and so and how when one gives so much, he receives back so much in return. I can well see Satan working with this law to capture people. It becomes a psychological trick to capture you. So, one can actually be in sin yet think that he is in righteousness.

We can see, therefore, that we must walk in righteousness, obey Christ, in order to be righteous. What is righteousness? Righteousness under the law was one thing: a set of do’s and don’ts and the adherence to those rules that made you righteous. But under Christ, righteousness is obedience to the Holy Spirit.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September, 2009)

Thought for today: Righteousness under Christ is obedience to the Holy Spirit.

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Remember Thy Creator

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , on May 8, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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By Mavis duCille

Scripture reading: Ecclesiastes 12:1

There is a scripture that has been very strengthening to us, and to many people with whom we come in contact, who have been having problems and difficulties. We encourage them by saying, “Remember now thy Creator, in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them” (Ecclesiastes 12:1).

When we store up while we are young in the Lord, it comes back to bless us. As we grow older, as the scripture says, “when the eyes begin to fail, when the grinders cease” (Ecclesiastes 12:3), those are the days when we are to have pleasure in the Lord. If we do not have pleasure in the Lord while we are young and while we are strong, we will not be able to endure the end of the day. But praise God, His goodness endureth forever. Hallelujah. So, as we partake of His goodness while we can, we are storing up, storing up, storing up, because there are many who have entered into evil days when they cannot store because they have not stored while the days were good, and so the evil has caught upon them. You go into the hospital and you see it. But praise God for what He is giving us now to store that His goodness will endure forever in us.

We are in the days when the battle of good and evil is seen clearly and God has helped many of us to store, to store, and store and we are encouraging young ones, store, that the Lord can enrich and give you all the strength, that we walk in the goodness and not in evil. We reap the goodness and not the evil. Praise God. Amen.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, May 25, 2003)

Thought for today: When we store up while we are young in the Lord, it comes back to bless us.

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Kept in Perfect Peace

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on May 4, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Isaiah 26:2-3

Have you ever thought about the distraction that comes upon this nation, upon this generation, upon your children? It is something greater, much greater than we have ever seen before. I never suffered the kind of distraction that the children suffer today. Even some of you parents, you never suffered what they suffer, what they are under. Therefore, it is our duty to protect them, to help them to be concentrated upon God. When you read the story about Elijah being taken up into heaven, you find something very interesting. Elijah knew that there was going to be a distraction. But Elijah did not warn Elisha, “Watch out now, remember now, there is going to be a chariot of fire, you must keep your eyes on me.” Nothing of the kind. The man had to pass the test upon his own merits. He had to pass the test according to the godly calling that he had, for he was not worthy to receive a double portion of Elijah if he could not pass that test of distraction.

Brethren, I am talking to you about the distraction that we are undergoing and how you must keep your eyes on Jesus, for everything in this world at this time is designed to take your eyes off Jesus! Hallelujah. Your poverty is a distraction. Your affluence is a distraction. Whether you have money or you have it not is a distraction. You cannot get away from it; anywhere you turn it is a distraction. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Elisha heard the chariot of fire. The scriptures tell us that it was a chariot, horses of fire, chariot of fire. Who saw it? It had to be Elisha that saw it. It had to be Elisha that told the story. So, he had to see it, and quickly take his mind off it, take his heart off it, and pinpoint Elijah. And then, he saw him taken up. You know, I always preached that Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire. But he was taken up in a whirlwind. You see what I am saying? On top of the chariot of fire, there was a whirlwind. He was taken up by the whirlwind, not the chariot of fire! So, you can see how much distraction that there was. I don’t think it was all silent. It must have been an uproar, everything that was necessary to get the man’s mind off the concentration on Elijah. The truth is, I don’t see Elijah taking off the coat and waiting for the wind and then throwing the coat to him. I see him shedding the coat when he put on his heavenly garment. He put on a heavenly garment as he shed off the earthly one. I think Elisha caught it. I don’t think it dropped on the ground. The man was on the ball. He caught it. Do you remember the scripture which says that He will keep him in perfect peace? Isaiah 26:2-3, “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” God wants us to be concentrated, to be focused on Him at this time.

The time is now so short that you are going to have to drop off all the unnecessary things. Drop all the unnecessary things and look towards God. In other words, we are on the home stretch, brethren. We are on the home stretch. God is saying to divest yourself of every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run, strip down to a minimum, because God wants you to run the race and to win at this time (Hebrews 12:1). It is a short time that we have. I believe that we should lay down everything that we have and concentrate absolutely upon God and upon the things of God. It is not everybody who is doing that. It is not every Christian who can do that. If God gives us the privilege and the ability, let us use it! Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us (Hebrews 12:1), because I tell you something: the sin that easily besets you is one of the heaviest weights that you carry! When the Bible talks about your besetting sin, it is talking about ancestral sin. I know some people who cannot get away from it. Every time you talk to them they say, “I am so and so and I have to do so and so because I am so and so.” Well, I would like to see you get to be nothing. We don’t want any German, any Jamaican, any American, any whatever you are! We just want to see people say, “I am a son of God, therefore I cannot bow to this. No matter how my grandfather used to do it, I cannot bow to it! No matter how much I have of them in my veins, I cannot bow to it! I can only do what God wants me to do, because I am a son of God.” God bless you.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 12, 2004)

Thought for today: Drop all the unnecessary things and look towards God. In other words, we are on the home stretch.

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