ALWAYS AND NEVER

ALWAYS AND NEVER

 

I have often said that as followers of Jesus we should eliminate these   2 words from our vocabulary. I have often heard "you always say that", or perhaps "you never do what I tell you to do". I'm sure I am not the only person who is used to hearing these words spoken in this negative sort of way. But I recently read a devotional thought in ODB on Aug 6, 2012, which put a very positive spin on the words "always" and "never". We only have to think of the promises given to us by Jesus in (Matt 28:20) where He declared "I will be with you always". And then in (Heb 13:5-6) where He declares "I will never leave you nor forsake you! So we can boldly say: the Lord is my helper, I will not fear". These are only 2 of many similar passages that we can depend on because they are direct promises made by Jesus who is TRUTH. (John 14:6). So as long as we know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and have been "born again" by the Spirit of God and adopted by Father into His Forever Family, we are assured of eternal life in heaven when we die.

 

Many people are trusting in other things to get them to heaven when they die because there are many false religions that have been spreading through church circles in the past several decades. Some of these originated in the Far East many years ago and have come to NA as part of what has been called "New Age Philosophy". This basically promotes the idea that there are many roads that can lead us to heaven when we die. They are all lies started by Satan, the enemy of God, who started out as Lucifer who was one of the three arch angels in heaven. You can read about him in the OT books of (Is 14:12-21) and (Ezek 28:12-19). Lucifer was one of the highest created beings to share the leadership of God's Kingdom until his beauty and wisdom caused pride and rebellion to enter his heart and he introduced "sin" into the perfect environment of God's heaven. The result of this rebellion was God casting him out of heaven, and he chose earth as his abode because it was the only planet in our universe that was created to sustain life. The rest is history, as they say, and is accurately recorded in the Bible. Thank God He has provided His "Written Word" to guide us on out journey through life. And of course we have His Son Jesus Christ who is called the "Living Word" of God, who paid the price of our redemption from sin and then returned to heaven to be seated at Father's throne. (Ps 110:1). They then sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of followers of Jesus today!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                                                                   20/08/12

CONSUMERS OR PRODUCERS

CONSUMERS or PRODUCERS

I recently read an article in a magazine we receive called Mission Frontiers by Mike Breen called "Obituary for the American Church". He used an expression that caught my attention "Disciples are not Consumers, they are Producers". You would need to read the article yourself to see what he really meant by this expression but I will try to explain a bit about how this pertains to us and the local churchs we attend. It is not difficult to realize that we all live in a "Consumer Culture" in North America. It seems everywhere we turn some advertisement is telling us about some new product that we must have. The fact is that most of us already have more "stuff" than we know what to do with, why would we need more? But that is what drives our society, the need to want more of the latest things available. We have all been affected to some extent simply by living in this culture, whether we are a follower of Jesus or not. We all live in a "fallen world" that has been separated from our Creator God because of sin, and we have an enemy who Jesus called the "father of lies" (John 8:44), who is constantly trying to deceive us. God has already dealt with this problem of sin, by allowing His Son Jesus to die on a cross to redeem us, but He leaves the decision up to us as individuals whether we will believe this truth and accept it or not!

 

One of the last commands Jesus gave to His followers before He ascended back to heaven is recorded in (Matt 28:18-20). The main point of this so-called "Great Commission" was "go and make disciples", baptize them and teach them everything He had taught them. In other words teach them to not only be disciples but to make disciples. From my vantage point of being involved in various churches of different denominations for many years, my observation would be that churches have not done this very well. The sad result is that we have churches full of members who are not real disciples themselves who have no idea how to make disciples. And we have come to be "Consumers" and not "Producers" as our brother Mike said. I assume what he meant by producers would be the making of disciples as Jesus commanded His disciples to do. So what can we do as followers of Jesus in this year 2012? Most of us are not church leaders, but if we attend a church we should discuss this matter with our spiritual leaders and gently bring this scripture to their attention. If they are truly followers of Jesus themselves they should see clearly that we have a problem. As a submissive member of the flock under their leadership he or she should appreciate your concern!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                             28/07/12

STOP& LISTEN& OBEY

STOP! & LISTEN & OBEY!

Back on July 6, 2012 Joe Stowell wrote the devotional thought for ODB based on (Ps 131:2) which reads "surely I have calmed and quieted my soul". I wonder how many followers of Jesus could truthfully say that today about their very busy and stressful lifestyle. I know it seems like there is no way to escape the pressure of the "information overload" that our high technological world of emails and smart phones etc. places on the average person, but stop and consider how Jesus handled the pressure He must have felt by times. He was often followed around from town to town by throngs of people looking to be healed by Him, and remember He was Divine but He was also human, the only God/Man who ever lived, and scripture tells us that He was "tempted in all points such as we", so He would know personally what His followers would face. Check out (Mark 6:31) to see how He handled the situation, where it is recorded that He said to His disciples "Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile". If we claim to be His followers today don't you think the same advice would apply to us?

I think the same words that the Psalmist used in Psalm 131 that we quoted at the start of this article would certainly apply to us today, because it is part of His eternal Word. So how can the average follower of Jesus in this very busy world we live in, in this 21^st century cope? I would think that common sense should tell us, "The same way they did in the first century". It should be a "no brainer", all we have to do is stop and listen for the still small voice of His Holy Spirit, and then obey immediately what He says to us. That is one of the functions that Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit would do when He came to earth to replace Jesus when He ascended to the Father after He had completed His task He was sent here to accomplish. (John 14:16-17). So it would appear to me that the first thing we should do when we feel overwhelmed by the pressures of our stressed out life is to simply follow the pattern laid down by our Lord. But of course that presupposes that you already know Jesus as Lord and Savior, and if you haven't yet done that, of course that is your first step. Just read (Eph 2:1-10) and follow the clear instructions given to us by Paul the apostle. Of course there is a maturing process to become a fully mature child of God, but the Holy Spirit will help you understand the Word of God as you faithfully read it!!

Sincerely submitted

Dave Jamer                                                                                   11/07/12