Thursday Evening Blog With Pastor Williams (January 2009)
Posted on January 8th, 2009 by TADCCBLOG
Pastor Williams will be active on this blog site Thursday from 8:30 to 9:30 pm. Please suggests topics or questions for discussion.
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How much does God love you? During this time of the year many people are feeling lonely. They survived the holidays, but the loneliness followed them from last year to this year. Loneliness is a frame of mind that is not eased by people surrounding you. Loneliness is best expressed by intimacy. It is through intimacy that loneliness is overcome.
Intimacy is a human state that occurs when people engage in behaviors that allows them to know someone at a close personal level. It is this type of intimacy that the world craves but looks for it in the wrong places. My father once said you can be married to a woman for twenty years and wake up and say good morning stranger. We as people are constantly in a state of change. Whether we are growing older, learning more, health failing, or loosing our youthful looks, we are changing.
It is change that destroys intimacy. People love knowing they can take comfort and trust in someone or thing that is close to them. We need to trust and believe that there are things in live that will not change. Things like the love of a parent, the love of a spouse, Christian fellowship, reliable job, safe neighborhood and financial security are some of the things that we would like to see never change. But as stated earlier, we are in a constant state of flux. We do not know if the job, loved one or anything else will be the same years down the road as it is today. How many couples do you know that married for love, but a few years later, they are in divorce court saying the most horrible things about each other.
Intimacy requires work. if we really want to know someone we must work at the relationship. There was no better person on earth than Christ Jesus our Lord, but yet people turned against Him. It required work for the disciples to develop relationship with Christ. Initially they denied Him, cursed Him, deserted Him and betrayed Him. Did Jesus change who He was for them to love Him. NO. The people changed. They began to work on their relationship with Christ Jesus our Lord. The more they worked on who they were in approaching Christ Jesus, the more intimate they became with Him. The more intimate they were with Christ Jesus, the better they knew Him. They knew Him well enough to give their lives for Him. Now that is love. When you love someone so much that you would be willing to give your life for that person. That is what Christ Jesus did for us.
If you want to know intimacy and love this year, work on your relationship. Forget about changing the other person and focus more on changing yourself.
Even if the person or people that you are trying to show affection toward do not respond, you can always depend on Christ Jesus, the Son of God not changing. And because He does not change you can develop intimacy with Him that will not leave you disappointed but lead you to true love.
With such
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What does it mean to say that one is a Christian? Many say that they are Christians. A well known person recently said that only 39% of the people in this country are Christians. If that is the case, how would you define the 39%. What qualities and characteristics are universal for all Christians?
It is important to know what a Christian is because if you do not know who you are others will define who you are. Christian means Christ like. We should have the attributes and characteristics of Yeshua (Jesus) our Lord.
There are many that refer to Romans 10:9,10. These verses or some simulation of these verses are often said in altar calls given to the repentant. Is it merely enough to simply make a confession with your mouth and say that you are saved? The misunderstanding of the word heart has misled some people. “That if thou shall confess with thou mouth and believe in thy HEART…..thou shalt be saved.” Your heart is the seat of your emotions. What is in your heart is what you do without thinking or rationalizing. It is similar to a knee-jerk reaction. Yeshua HaMashiach said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. What we believe in our heart is that everything that Christ Jesus did for us is settled in our hearts. There is no doubt about His atoning death and resurrection, His sinless life, that He is the only Begotten Son of God and that He will return again for all believers to take them with Him.
Now if we believe these things, then we should also want to please our Heavenly Father through His Son Yeshua HaMashiach. Once again our Lord said they honor me with their lips but their hearts are from me. If the Son of the Living God is in our Hearts, we should keep His word. His word is the Bible. It is the Bible that points out our shortcomings and where we have come short of the Glory of God. A saved person that has accepted Yeshua HaMashiach, will live by the Word of God given in the Bible.
In other words, one way that we know that we are saved is a changed life. Our life changes because of our Love for Yeshua, the Son of the Living God. We love Him so much that we are willing to change our life based on His word. Everyone has to be changed because all have sinned. No one comes before the Lord perfect. It is through our faith in HaMashiach (Christ) that we allow His word to change us. And if we are changed then can we truly know that we are saved.
Beware of wolves in sheep clothing. It is not enough to say that you are a Christian. There must be a lifestyle that follows. Jesus is the Word as written in the Gospel of John. The only way we know Jesus is by wearing the Word of God.
Christ Jesus said we are washed clean through the Words He has spoken. It is through the Words of Jesus, that we know who the Heavenly Father is. Jesus our Lord said that He came to declare the Father. He had to declare the Father to us because we do not know who He is. This is why we worshiped idols and were slaves to our passions as we though that we loved God. The Son of God declared that our thinking of God was in error. It is through living by the Word of God that we know who Jesus is and that He commands us everywhere to repent.
The false prophet, teacher and hypocrite try to give a religion that does not require change. They portray themselves as being righteous without requiring any change. Christ Jesus came because we were sinners. He came to declare us as sinners. We learn about sin through the Bible. Galatians 5, I Corinthians 6, and Romans 6 show us sins that we choose to ignore. Whether it is homosexuality, prejudice, pride, adultery, fornication, we live in a time that these sins are being made acceptable by the false teachers.
The true man of God chooses to deny the flesh and all the false teachings that he may be one with God through the Living Word. Trust the Holy Spirit who comes from the Father and is sent by the Son to lead you to the truth. The Bible says we have an unction from the Holy One and no man need teach you. If you have truly accepted Christ Jesus, then you know the sheep from the hypocrite. Christ Jesus our Lord said My sheep know my voice and another they will not follow. Trust Jesus. He will not deceive you.
The Wages of Sin Destroys Economies
“Humanity is undergoing in the post-Cold War era an economic and social crisis of unprecedented scale leading to the rapid impoverishment of large sectors of the World population. National economies are collapsing, unemployment is rampant according to Global Research website. The website also states “Food prices in Haiti had risen on average by 40 percent in less than a year, with the cost of staples such as rice doubling…. In Bangladesh, [in late April 2008] some 20,000 textile workers took to the streets to denounce soaring food prices and demand higher wages. The price of rice in the country has doubled over the past year, threatening the workers, who earn a monthly salary of just $25, with hunger. In Egypt, protests by workers over food prices rocked the textile center of Mahalla al-Kobra, north of Cairo, for two days last week, with two people shot dead by security forces. Hundreds were arrested, and the government sent plainclothes police into the factories to force workers to work. Food prices in Egypt have risen by 40 percent in the past year… Earlier this month, in the Ivory Coast, thousands marched on the home of President Laurent Gbagbo, chanting “we are hungry” and “life is too expensive, you are going to kill us.
Similar demonstrations, strikes and clashes have taken place in Bolivia, Peru, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Yemen, Ethiopia, and throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa.”
World Markets Collapse
Fallout from the sub-prime market continued to weigh heavily on the world markets for all of 2008 and into 2009. The stock markets from around the world are turning in their worst performance since the Great Depression. . To allay recessionary concerns and boost sluggish economies, Central Banks cut key interest rates to historical lows. In addition, many nations announced stimuli packages in an effort to turn the troubled economies around.
Why are the world economies troubled? Proverbs 14:34 states Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. Sin causes nations to go into recessions. When a nation goes into recession the poor are hurt the most. The Heavenly Father through His Son Christ Jesus gives us the consequences of sin, but He also shows us a way out.
Jeremiah 44:12 And I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed, and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine: they shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine: and they shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
In the above verse there are two things that God said He would do to Judah for refusing to obey His Word. He would bring upon them the sword and famine. The sword represents war and famine represents a failed economy.
Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kondratiev (in some sources also referred as Kondratieff), Russian: (4 March 1892 – 17 September 1938) was a Russian economist in the Soviet Union. He proposed a theory that Western capitalist economies have long term (50 to 60 years) cycles of boom followed by depression.
The Russian economist discovered a principle that God expressed in the Bible. It is called the period of Jubilee. During the Jubilee period, which was the start of every fiftieth year, the nation of Israel was to rest soil, restore property and release all slaves.
The Jubilee allowed a nation to get a fresh start. It teaches a nation that we are no stronger than the weakest of us. Many nations have fallen into the trap that they exist without the poor. Therefore they do not care for the poor . When you refuse to care for the poor you destroy your own nation. Look at all the nations that are run by dictators and despots. The poverty is great and the nations are weak. It is only when we take of the least of these that a nation prospers.
Even though Christ Jesus our Lord said that the poor will always be with you. The principles that God gave then are applicable now as we expericne a world wide downturn in economic growth. The word economy has its origin in the Greek word, oikonomos, which means household manager. Knowing how to manage our house is the key to managing the economy. The word is used eight times in the New Testament.
Luke 16:2: “give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.”
Luke 16:3: “from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg”
Luke 16:4: “when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their”
1 Corinthians 9:17: “but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed”
Ephesians 1:10: “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in”
Ephesians 3:2: “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given”
Colossians 1:25: “a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for”
1 Timothy 1:4: “rather than godly edifying which is in faith:”
Ephesians 1:10 states that in God’s economy He will gather in one all things. Economy,” therefore, refers to any and all of God’s dealings with creation. But it is also used in particular to speak of God’s actions undertaken to save and rescue fallen mankind. The Heavenly Father knows how to take care of His children. The greater question is, are we willing to trust the divine hand of God. God gives the rain which causes crops to grow. God stays earthquakes and tsunamis. We are dependant on God for our self existent.
The world has tried to through money at the problems wihout realizing that if we do not turn to God the problems will only get worst.
Wisdom of Men
The Glass Stegall Act of the 1930’s in the United States of America separated Commercial Banks and Investment Banks according to their businesses. Although this bill was repealed in 1999 when commerical and investment banks were allowed to consolidate, this financial crisis has fomented discussion on greater regulation of all financial institutions. Hedge funds. private equity funds, collaterized debt obligations, credit swap obligations which now operate virtually without regulation could come under the purview of regulators. Merger of federally insured deposits institutions with unregulated institutions with unregulated products led to greater risk in the financial sector. Level 3 assets are holdings that are so illiquid, or trade so infrequently, that they have no reliable price, so their valuations are based on management’s best guess. Both Merrill Lynch and Citigroup experienced significant write-downs because of exposure to level 3 assets. Some financial institutions have exposure to level 3 assets that outstrip the capital base of the company. Therefore if the subprime inspired financial crisis continues not only will we see further regulations of the financial industry, but also the possible collapse of companies with a preponderant exposure to unregulated products. This same action or overreaction happened with the Sarbanes Oxley Act, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002. The act was passed to keep U.S. institutions from financial deception and misleading their investors and shareholders. WorldCom’s and Enron’s bankruptcy precipated this act being signed into law after shareholders lost billions due to unscrupulous record keeping by the corporations’ management. A study done by the Victoria University of Wellington in a study listed the following short comings of Sarbanes Oxley: increased the costs of auditing, governance and human capital, and compliance more generally; induced a mis-match between auditors and firms; encouraged fims to delist or otherwise stay below the regulatory radar; lowered corporate investment and risk-taking; and had ambiguous effects on the quality of investor information and capital market efficiency. If there is inaction by lawmakers the risk of the financial crisis worsening are great, however, with any action there is also the risk of overreacting and causing more harm than good.
Trust In Christ Jesus the Son of God
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. Trust in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. The things of the world may look appealing, but it is God through His Son Christ Jesus that has the answers
I find myself, at times, trying to “prove” my christian walk to other Christians simply because they are looking to see my “good fruit / manifestations of God’s blessings” as evidence of His presence / favor in my life.
Then, I think about His goodness and all He has done for me and realize that He is the One that I owe an account of my christian walk .
It is because of His mercy,grace, love and forgiveness that I am saved and not anything that I have done. Moreover, I can not save myself; lest any man can boast, it truly is a gift of God. The most wonderous gift of Father God, which is Christ Jesus, our Lord and King.
Sometimes we can become so wrapped up in gaining the acceptance of other Christians that we lose sight of God’s purpose for our lives; to bring the lost to Christ by living our lives according to His will and way.
It is good to be accepted by others because we need one another for support, fellowship and companionship. Yet, we must never lose sight of the fact that “Only what we do for Christ Jesus will last and lead to an everlasting reward.”
There are times when I feel so alone. Surrounding myself with others oftentimes makes me feel even more lonely. It is when I turn to the written Word of God that the lonliness subsides. God’s words automatically lead me into a state of praise and worship. The Holy Spirit brings a song to my remembrance and I’m having a wonderful time in the presence of the Lord. The Creator of the universe is fellowshipping with me!
I thank Almighty God, my Heavenly Father, for my family and friends; but I thank Him most of all for my JESUS, my one true friend.
I LOVE YOU JESUS. THANK YOU FOR SAVING ME. THANK YOU FOR BEING MY FRIEND!!!