Do You Know The Jesus Of The Bible?

This came in my inbox this morning from Joseph Prince. This was so good, I had to re-post it:

John 14:77“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
Someone once told me that just because you ask God for something, it does not mean that He will give it to you. Quoting 1 John 5:14–15, he said that we first have to ask according to His will before He hears and gives us what we ask of Him.

Of course, we do not ask for things that are against God’s will or Word. But what is normally implied in the earlier statement is that we don’t always know what God’s will for us is — “what will be, will be”. But didn’t Jesus say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”? (John 14:9) This means that if you want to know what the Father’s will, mind, heart or attitude toward you and your family is, just look at Jesus in the Gospel stories.

So if your child is sick, is it God’s will to heal him? Well, look at Jesus and see how He ministered to children who were sick — the Syro-Phoenician’s daughter who was demon-possessed (Mark 7:24–30), Jairus’ daughter who was dead (Mark 5:22–24, 35–43), and the widow of Nain’s only son who had died and was about to be buried. (Luke 7:12–15) Jesus cast out the demon. He raised the dead. He healed them all!

Beloved, don’t say, “We can never know God’s will. Sometimes He heals, sometimes He doesn’t. He may prosper us, but He may also take away our prosperity.” The Jesus of the Bible never made anyone sick. He never made anyone poor. He made the little become much with 12 baskets full of leftovers. (Matthew 14:20) He gave a net-breaking, boat-sinking load of fish to fishermen. (Luke 5:6–7)

My friend, the Jesus of the Bible loves to heal, deliver, prosper and save people. This Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8) And He says to you today, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” So you can know God’s will for you. You can see what He will do for you when you know the Jesus of the Bible and what He did.

It's The Most ???? Time Of The Year

Today is the 16th of December, 2010. Drawing near is the close of another year in my life, and I have to be honest, this one's been the toughest of my forty-seven years on this planet. The Christmas season is in full swing for most people, yet for me it is just another series of days to get through. Don't get me wrong, I'm still so very thankful for the birth of my Lord Jesus, because without Him, me and my family would not be in as good a shape as we are.

For years I've heard how hard the holiday seasons can be for people who have lost someone to death, and truthfully I've not given it much thought. Not because I'm a callous person, but you know how it is. If you're not having to deal with that type of thing, it really is hard to realize what others go through and even harder to empathize.

This year at the Felts household there has been little joy in the holiday season. As a family we decided that we would not do our traditional Christmas decorating. (Having Micah not do the Christmas tree skirt dance will be missed though.) We have however trimmed our windows with garland along with some new L.E.D. Christmas lights. And when I say "we" I mean my bride has. And in lieu of our traditional Christmas tree with all the ornaments we've collected over the past twenty-two years we purchased a Charlie Brown tree, and put it on top of our television. It does make us laugh a little.

I want to celebrate Christmas; I want the big, old fashioned family Christmas as bad as Clark Griswald wanted one in "Christmas Vacation", but my feelings are raw and putting on the "happy face" isn't as easy as it once used to be. This is not to say that Jesus hasn't showed up and rescued me, He has on numerous occassions, often through my band of brothers & sisters in Christ that have continued to lift me and my family up in prayer.

And while this year's festivities may be lighter than in years past, my family will survive this Christmas holiday, and make it through. We are about to reach a hurdle, probably one of the hardest next to the actual anniversary of Noah's death, and I am thankful that my Lord Jesus has continued to walk with us every step of the way. So even though this is a difficult time in my life, I will make the best of it, spending as much time with friends as possible and loving my family a lot. Because truthfully, it's the people that you will take with you into eternity, not the presents. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Don't Let Disapointment Get You

Disapointment is a large hole that will try to suck you into it and lead you to sin. I am reminded of the Sarlac pit in the Star Wars movie "Return of the Jedi". It was a large, gaping hole in the desert in which lived a creature call a Sarlac.

This creature had long tentacles which would reach out and grab any unknowing creature, pulling them down to its waiting, cavernous mouth to be eaten. Well, disapointment can be just like that. With it's tentacles of self pity, sadness and many other forms of selfish emotions, it can entangle your spirit and pull you towards it's cavernous mouth of sin.

Unlike what was portrayed in the movie, (Jabba the Hutt feeding his enemies to the Sarlac), the way a Sarlac obtained it's food was by feeding on any creature unaware that it was there. Any creature that didn't know better and travelled too close to the edge of it's pit would end up as a tasty morsel for the Sarlac.

As Christians, especially Christians who read and meditate in God's Word, we should really realize disapointment for what it is, an emotion, that if left unchecked, will get the best of us every time. Even though I encountered some disapointment today, I will not fall prey to it's wiley ways. Instead I will give it a wide berth as I pass it by and avoid the sin that it would try to bring me to.

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

War! We're At War!

In case you were unaware of this fact, as a Christian, a follower of Jesus, and one who is a disciple of His. The enemy (the devil) has declared war on you. I'm not sure if you were aware of it or not, but you are in a war, if you are trying to follow the Lord. Look at this Scripture in Revelation:

Revelation 12:17 "And the dragon was angry at the woman and declared war against the rest of her children—all who keep God’s commandments and maintain their testimony for Jesus."

The devil rose up against God leading one third of the angelic host in a rebellion in Heaven. They were easily defeated, and the devil was hurled down to Earth. Jesus said that He saw Lucifer fall from Heaven like lightning. (Luke 10:18) So now he makes war on the image of Jesus, and that's us. Those called "little Christs", you know, Christians.

What we need in the Christian community is for the true followers of Jesus to rise up and face the enemy head on. Remember, we do not war after the flesh. That is, we don't fight with flesh and blood, but we do have to fight. We have to fight the enemies of God, and those are spiritual. We have to continue to walk in the light of the Word of God, and wage war on all those principalities, powers and rulers of darkness in high places. (Ephesians 6:11-13)

Don't think for one minute that if you leave the enemy alone, that he will leave you alone. He's looking for ways to destroy you, and you have to meet him head on. We will overcome the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb, and the word of our testimony...but we've got to stand up against the enemies of God and use our one offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit. Speak God's Word to the enemy, like Jesus did in the wilderness, and we will be victorious.

Victory comes to those who fight, not to those who sit on the sidelines. I'm reminded of Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president. He made a statement in one of his speeches that inspires me like almost no other. Take a look:

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

So rise up Christian! Rise up and don't let the naysayers sway you to be timid or shy in this end time assault on all that is holy. Don't be that timid, or critical person who rails against what others are doing, but take your place in the halls of heroes of the faith, and make the enemy pay. Make him remember the day you stood against him with faith in our Lord Jesus, pleading the Blood and holding fast to your confession of God's Word. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Jesus Whipped The Devil As A Man, Not As God

I saw a video clip from my friend Joe McGee this morning, and I'm going to borrow from him in my blog today. If you would like to see Joe's video, click here and you can watch it.

You know the story, how that God had prophesied that there would come a day when His Son would arrive and bruise the devil's head. (Genesis 3:15) The devil cannot read thoughts, nor does he know everything. So he spent the next several thousand years trying to figure out when Jesus was going to show up.

He killed off a whole bunch of children in Egypt when Moses showed up, because he thought that might be who God had been talking about. And then the three wise men showed up looking for the King of the Jews, and the devil moved on Herod to kill all the children two years old and under. (Matthew 2:16)

Then John the Baptist shows up and begins to tell everyone that the Messiah is coming. You know that had to cause the devil's ears to perk up, and he was there watching John waiting to find out who the Messiah actually was. The really cool thing about God is that he didn't leave the devil wondering once it was time for Jesus to start His ministry. John baptizes Jesus, and as soon as He comes up out of the water, the Holy Spirit (in the form of a dove) rested upon Him and then God speaks from Heaven, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17)

Did you get it? God just pointed Jesus out to the devil. The devil didn't know who the Messiah was, and then God goes and points Him out and says basically, "Hey devil, here He is." And it is immediately after this that Jesus went out into the wilderness and began his fast. (Matthew 4:1 - 11) The devil followed Him out there, but notice he didn't attack Him at first. He's just watching Jesus, and on the fortieth day (when Jesus is physically at His weakest) the devil shows up and begins to talk to Him.

Matthew 4:3 - 4: ³And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. ⁴But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Boom! Jesus spoke the Word of God and you know it felt like a two by four upside the devil's head. Nobody had ever spoken God's Word to the enemy before. So the next time the devil figures, Jesus uses the Word, I'll use the Word, so he says,

⁵Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, ⁶And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

But Jesus comes back at him with the Word, in the correct context and says, ⁷Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

So the devil thinks, I know I'll offer to give everything to Him, that is what He's after after all, and he tries again, ⁸Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; ⁹And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

At this point, the devil has tipped his hand and Jesus has had enough, so He says, 10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And Scripture says that the devil left Him, for a season. He had to leave, he just got whipped. And then the angels came and ministered to Jesus. Now go with me here, I'd like to embellish that part of the story a bit, so bare with me here.

The angels show up, and they bring food and water to the Lord. And the conversation might have gone something like this.
Jesus: "Did you see that?"
Angels: "Yes Master, we were waiting for You to call on us for assistance." (Because there are more angels than we can count.)
Jesus: "No, did you see what I did?"
Angels: "Yes Master, You defeated the evil one."
Jesus: "But did you see how I did it?"
The angels just stood there looking at Him.
Jesus: "I defeated him as a man, not God. Don't you see, I defeated the enemy with God's Word as a man, not as God. And soon there will be millions and millions just like Me that will be able to do that too!"

Man I don't know about you, but I think it's time we rise up and start putting knots on the devil's head with God's Word. This is why it is imperative that we put God's Word down in our hearts. The devil is not afraid of us, he's afraid of God's Word in us, coming out of our mouths. I love that Joe said, "I used to tell kids all the time that those aren't horns on the devil's head, they're knots from the beating he took from Jesus."

I want to get out there and whip the snot out of the devil, who's with me? Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

How Well Do You Wait?

I read this passage of Scripture this morning, and several things jumped out at me that I want to share with you today. Take a look at John 6:15 - 21 NLT 15 When Jesus saw that they (the crowds He had just fed) were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped away into the hills by himself. 16 That evening Jesus’ disciples went down to the shore to wait for him. 17 But as darkness fell and Jesus still hadn’t come back, they got into the boat and headed across the lake toward Capernaum. 18 Soon a gale swept down upon them, and the sea grew very rough. 19 They had rowed three or four miles when suddenly they saw Jesus walking on the water toward the boat. They were terrified, 20 but he called out to them, “Don’t be afraid. I am here!" 21 Then they were eager to let him in the boat, and immediately they arrived at their destination!

I've highlighted the sections that jumped out at me, see if you can relate to them: Jesus slipped away into the hills by Himself. Jesus' disciples went down to the shore to wait for Him. But as Jesus still hadn't come back, they got into the boat and headed across the lake, and the sea grew very rough.

Isn't that just how our lives work? We decide to wait on Jesus for an answer to prayer, or some direction in our daily walk, but when the answer doesn't show up as quick as we think it should, we make plans to go ahead and step out all by ourselves. Usually with disastrous results, at least for me anyway.

One of the things that I've noticed about Jesus in the Bible, is that He was always going off to spend time alone with the Father. I believe that the Holy Spirit was telling Jesus the things that were to come in His life during those times. Remember He said, "I do what I see my Father do, and I say what I hear my Father say." (John 8:26) I believe that He would go off on His own, talk with the Father and get His marching orders for what was to come.

I was watching a "making of" video about the Lord of the Rings movies a couple of years ago, and was fascinated to find out that the actors many times don't receive a full script of the movie. Usually they get the pages of the script that they will be shooting the night before. As I was thinking about this blog, it dawned on me that this might be how the Holy Spirit works. He won't show us everything, but just what we need to know for today.

Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6:34: "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." I know that this was being spoken in the context of seeking the Kingdom of God first, but I see the principal here of not being concerned with tomorrow.

I know that for myself, I don't wait on God nearly enough. I'm ready to charge the fields, only to find out halfway towards the enemy that there is no army behind me...yet. I'm going to work on waiting on God in the morning time for my part in the Story, then perhaps I'll fulfill the Scripture in John 14:12 by doing those even "greater works". Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Karl Marx Made Me Think

I have been attending a class at my church for the last several weeks called The Truth Project. It's been very interesting to see how God really is intertwined into everything that surrounds man, there is nothing that He is not a part of.

In last night's class the host was laying the foundation of history, and gave us a quote by Karl Marx that made me sit up and take note, literally. It said, "A people without a heritage are easily persuaded." That is where we are at right now in the United States. A people without a heritage. I don't mean that we don't have a heritage in the United States, because we do and it is an amazing one actually filled with all kinds of characters and actions that molded this great country into what it has become.

No, we have a society that has forgotten it's heritage. Take for instance one of the instances that was discussed in last night's class. The Mayflower Compact. Here it is:

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are under-written, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November [New Style, November 21], in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620.

Now look at how it is taught in most text books in school:

Having undertaken, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually,covenant and combine our selves together into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the eleventh of November [New Style, November 21], in the year of the reign of our sovereign lord, King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Dom. 1620

Did you notice the difference? They have taken the parts about God out of what is being taught to the children of America. They have taken out part of our heritage. This is something that truly concerns me for the simple reason that the people that came here to the new land came for religious reasons. But you take God out of the equation, and it appears that they just came here for the heck of it, because it sounded like a good idea.

I'm reminded of a story that I read in a biography on George Washington. In it, he wrote a letter to his family while he was serving in the French/Indian war. He stated that he had had several horses shot out from under him, and that when the battle was over and he retired back to his tent, when he removed his powdered wig, several bullets fell out of it. It was years later in the story, when he was President that an Indian chief came to visit him. The Indian chief told Mr. Washington that he had to meet the man that God would not let die in battle. It seems that during the battle that George had written home about, this Indian had told his braves to target the leader, (George Washington), which they had done, shooting several horses out from under him in the process. But they were unable to kill him, and this chief said that he personally had shot him numerous times as well.

Now that is an amazing story of God's protection on a man who would end up leading our country in one of it's most dire times. Yet how many of you have read that story in your history books in school? I know I never did. What I did learn about him however, was that he chopped down his father's cherry tree and could never tell a lie. Which of those two stories gives you a better perspective on the heritage of our country?

I think Karl Marx was correct in his statement, and an even scarier thought is that we may be living that out in our lifetime...remember where you came from, because if you don't, you are destined to repeat history...and sometimes that's not a good thing to do. Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!