In Matthew 25 Jesus is having a discussion with his disciples concerning the end of time.
But before we can look at what he is telling the disciples we need to look at the heart of Jesus!
Actually it starts in Matthew 23, He is heavy hearted for the children of Israel, the Bible gives account in Matthew 23:37-39 that he was very saddened. Then in the beginning of Matthew 24 he walks out of the temple. When He left, God left because they had rejected the Messiah. God will not stay where He is not welcome!
In our life we need to be careful not to reject the Messiah, His leading, His caring, His instruction. Life is full of business, family events, and self indulgences. If we are not careful we will want a Jesus that will fit our schedule, our lifestyle, our desires, and we will reject the real Messiah!
That is precisely what the Jews did! They wanted a king to come and set up a royal throne right then, so THEY could have prominence and position. They wanted to tell the world, "look at us!"
They had very selfish motivation. Jesus came to draw all men unto him! He told his disciples to declare the Kingdom of God has come!
What is the Kingdom of God? Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost.
The Jews were looking for a tangible kingdom, Jesus came bringing a spiritual Kingdom!
Because of their insistence for a tangible Kingdom Jesus was saddened and left!
Jesus will not stay where He is not welcome!
So what is our motivation, the intent of our heart, the real reason we live for Him?
Jesus talks in Matthew 24 and 25 about the last days there would be many false Christ!
What is he saying? There would be many in the last days with a false gospel!
And there will be many that will go in the wrong direction because they desire a false messiah, one who will give them what they want right now!
Oh listen to me! God does here and answer prayer, and he does take care of His Children. But don't be caught up in something that is fictitious offering you a tangible kingdom now, position now, prominence now! If our focus is on ourselves then we are following the wrong voice!
It is not about us it is about Him and them!
Jesus came and gave the ultimate sacrifice so that all me could be saved!
Our life has been given to us as a gift, not for ourselves but for others!
Lets live our life for the Kingdom, giving our all for Him!
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Successful Living!
Everyone wants to be successful!
But how do we maintain a successful life in a world full of emotional ups and downs, unplanned pitfalls, devastating storms, and oh yes and I must include rising fuel costs!
Jesus said;
John 16:33 In the world you will have tribulation; (Trials and Test) but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."NKJV
Jesus said that we would experience rough times, but He also promised that we could maintain a level of victory regardless of what was happening in the world. Jesus said My peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, another words His peace comes from deep within! Not from the outside in, but from the inside out!
So how do we get His peace within? I am so glad you asked!
In order to live in that peace we must experience that peace and we must have that peace deep within! So what produces peace?
Jesus said;
John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."NKJV
It was the words that Jesus spoke that produced peace!
And His word gives the victory over circumstances that sometimes makes a surprising uprising in our lives.
It is through His word that we are able to live a continued successful life.
Josh 1:8-9This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.NKJV
Whenever God speaks of success in scripture, He relates it to the continuous inner activity of meditation.
Ps 1:2-32 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,And in His law he meditates day and night.3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water,That brings forth its fruit in its season,Whose leaf also shall not wither;And whatever he does shall prosper.NKJV
God does not promise success for memorizing scripture, but He does promise success for anyone who will meditate in His Word day and night!
Another words if His Word is in us, then that which is in us will produce life, and bring a positive affect upon that which is outside of us.
This doesn't mean that you will never experience difficulty, but He does promise that His peace through His word will bring you through the difficulty.
And He also promises that your success will be visible to others;
1 Tim 4:15-16Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.NKJV
But how do we maintain a successful life in a world full of emotional ups and downs, unplanned pitfalls, devastating storms, and oh yes and I must include rising fuel costs!
Jesus said;
John 16:33 In the world you will have tribulation; (Trials and Test) but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."NKJV
Jesus said that we would experience rough times, but He also promised that we could maintain a level of victory regardless of what was happening in the world. Jesus said My peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, another words His peace comes from deep within! Not from the outside in, but from the inside out!
So how do we get His peace within? I am so glad you asked!
In order to live in that peace we must experience that peace and we must have that peace deep within! So what produces peace?
Jesus said;
John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."NKJV
It was the words that Jesus spoke that produced peace!
And His word gives the victory over circumstances that sometimes makes a surprising uprising in our lives.
It is through His word that we are able to live a continued successful life.
Josh 1:8-9This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.NKJV
Whenever God speaks of success in scripture, He relates it to the continuous inner activity of meditation.
Ps 1:2-32 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,And in His law he meditates day and night.3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water,That brings forth its fruit in its season,Whose leaf also shall not wither;And whatever he does shall prosper.NKJV
God does not promise success for memorizing scripture, but He does promise success for anyone who will meditate in His Word day and night!
Another words if His Word is in us, then that which is in us will produce life, and bring a positive affect upon that which is outside of us.
This doesn't mean that you will never experience difficulty, but He does promise that His peace through His word will bring you through the difficulty.
And He also promises that your success will be visible to others;
1 Tim 4:15-16Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.NKJV
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Revival
What is revival?
Revival is nothing more and nothing less than God's Arrival. My heart cry is to live in His presence. We seem to lose our intimacy in life because of life itself. We become self indulgent, self satisfying, self pleasure seekers. We have adopted a seeker friendly attitude where we seek to please self more than we desire to please God!
John said it best, "He must increase and I must decrease." We must seek Him with all of our heart and we will find Him when we do! He has promised us that! My challenge to you is to take 30 minutes and Seek Him! Lay aside other priorities TODAY and Seek Him! If we really want Him, we will Seek Him. For a heart goes after what the heart desires! I must Seek Him!
Pastor Buck
Revival is nothing more and nothing less than God's Arrival. My heart cry is to live in His presence. We seem to lose our intimacy in life because of life itself. We become self indulgent, self satisfying, self pleasure seekers. We have adopted a seeker friendly attitude where we seek to please self more than we desire to please God!
John said it best, "He must increase and I must decrease." We must seek Him with all of our heart and we will find Him when we do! He has promised us that! My challenge to you is to take 30 minutes and Seek Him! Lay aside other priorities TODAY and Seek Him! If we really want Him, we will Seek Him. For a heart goes after what the heart desires! I must Seek Him!
Pastor Buck
Monday, February 12, 2007
Jesus, Where are you?
Have you ever had a time when you wondered if God was anywhere at all? Or if he even cared about you? The disciples who walked with Jesus day in and day out for over 2 years of the 3 1/2 year ministry, found themselves feeling like that.
They were doing what Jesus had told them to do, but still they found themselves in difficulty. Have you ever felt that way?
The disciples were told by Jesus to set sail, and go to the other side of the Lake.
Jesus went down below and found a nice place to rest and fell asleep.
While Jesus was asleep, the disciples found themselves in the midst of a horrendous storm. The waves were overtaking the boat, so much that they were taking in more water than they could bail out.
Have you ever been there?
More bills coming in than you can pay off?
Problems overtaking you, relationships falling apart, and in the midst of it all you wonder, "Jesus where are you?".
There are times in life when it seems that all is lost, that there is no hope, and that the ship is sinking.
When we are in this crisis, there is one thing we must remember; if Jesus is on board the vessel will not sink.
Creation can not kill the creator!
We must know that our hope, our rest, and our peace is in HIM!
He is our peace! He is our hope, and in HIM we find rest!
Question; Did Jesus know that the storm would occur?
Does God know everything?
Yes He does! He is all knowing!
Jesus knew that the disciples would face a larger storm in the future, so he was preparing them, using a small storm to develop their faith.
What larger storm would they face?
Jesus knew that there would be a time when the disciples faith would be shaken because he was destined for the cross.
They would have to stand without His physical presence.
He wanted them to mature, grow and be able to handle the obstacles of life.
When the storm occurs, Jesus is not abandoning you, he is there.
He wants you to know that your trust must be in HIM regardless of the storms around us.
Jesus where are you? He is with you, trust him and you will see!
For we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal!
They were doing what Jesus had told them to do, but still they found themselves in difficulty. Have you ever felt that way?
The disciples were told by Jesus to set sail, and go to the other side of the Lake.
Jesus went down below and found a nice place to rest and fell asleep.
While Jesus was asleep, the disciples found themselves in the midst of a horrendous storm. The waves were overtaking the boat, so much that they were taking in more water than they could bail out.
Have you ever been there?
More bills coming in than you can pay off?
Problems overtaking you, relationships falling apart, and in the midst of it all you wonder, "Jesus where are you?".
There are times in life when it seems that all is lost, that there is no hope, and that the ship is sinking.
When we are in this crisis, there is one thing we must remember; if Jesus is on board the vessel will not sink.
Creation can not kill the creator!
We must know that our hope, our rest, and our peace is in HIM!
He is our peace! He is our hope, and in HIM we find rest!
Question; Did Jesus know that the storm would occur?
Does God know everything?
Yes He does! He is all knowing!
Jesus knew that the disciples would face a larger storm in the future, so he was preparing them, using a small storm to develop their faith.
What larger storm would they face?
Jesus knew that there would be a time when the disciples faith would be shaken because he was destined for the cross.
They would have to stand without His physical presence.
He wanted them to mature, grow and be able to handle the obstacles of life.
When the storm occurs, Jesus is not abandoning you, he is there.
He wants you to know that your trust must be in HIM regardless of the storms around us.
Jesus where are you? He is with you, trust him and you will see!
For we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal!
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Power to Change
Everyone is wanting to change. People are having plastic surgery, liposuction, face lifts, etc.. people are caught up in exercise and dieting, because they have seen some commercial depicting a very skinny man or woman who does not have an ounce of fat on their body selling some new diet plan or exercise machine saying just 30 minutes a day and you will look like this in 6 months.
Oh please.........
And the sad part is that many people fall prey to these schemes only to find out that their now new expensive hardware makes a pretty good clothes rack.
But why do we fall prey?
Because there is something on the inside of you that wants to be better than what you are!
Now that is not necessarily a bad thing, but the question is to what are you comparing and how do you hope to get real joy and happiness. Will it be getting those abs or losing 10 pounds, is that the source of true happiness?
Don't misunderstand me, eating healthy and exercise is very important, but that is not the source of happiness.
Some people think that appearance will make us happier. Oh if I could only look like so and so.
This stems from and an attitude of dissatisfaction.
If we reject God's basic design in making us, it may be difficult to put confidence in the designer for other areas of our life.
The Bible says; For we are His workmanship... Ephesians 2:10, and Psalms 139:14 states; I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works; and that my soul knows right well.
The change that brings happiness is not change on the outside, but rather change on the inside.
I had a sister come up to me at church and told me that in the middle of the night God had spoken a word to her, and she saw the word vividly; ALCHEMY.
Now she didn't know what the word meant or even if it was a word. So she began some research; alchemy is the attempt to change base metals into gold. It was a medieval philosophy that tried to bring change through transmutation.
Now please understand me; Change is Good if we are changing to be more like him! But the power to bring that change can only come through the power of the cross.
You and I should be changing every day of our lives, but it cannot be a futile attempt to take the old metal and change it into Gold. It does not take transmutation, it takes TRANSFORMATION.
Transmutation - a change, or the process of changing, from one form, substance, nature, or state to another
Transformation - a complete change, usually into something with an improved appearance or usefulness.
In order for us to be completely changed we must die! There is no real change without the cross!
Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead in Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.
Romans 6:6-8
The Power to Change comes from not adding to this old man but rather seeing this old man die!
In HIM
Pastor Buck
Oh please.........
And the sad part is that many people fall prey to these schemes only to find out that their now new expensive hardware makes a pretty good clothes rack.
But why do we fall prey?
Because there is something on the inside of you that wants to be better than what you are!
Now that is not necessarily a bad thing, but the question is to what are you comparing and how do you hope to get real joy and happiness. Will it be getting those abs or losing 10 pounds, is that the source of true happiness?
Don't misunderstand me, eating healthy and exercise is very important, but that is not the source of happiness.
Some people think that appearance will make us happier. Oh if I could only look like so and so.
This stems from and an attitude of dissatisfaction.
If we reject God's basic design in making us, it may be difficult to put confidence in the designer for other areas of our life.
The Bible says; For we are His workmanship... Ephesians 2:10, and Psalms 139:14 states; I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are your works; and that my soul knows right well.
The change that brings happiness is not change on the outside, but rather change on the inside.
I had a sister come up to me at church and told me that in the middle of the night God had spoken a word to her, and she saw the word vividly; ALCHEMY.
Now she didn't know what the word meant or even if it was a word. So she began some research; alchemy is the attempt to change base metals into gold. It was a medieval philosophy that tried to bring change through transmutation.
Now please understand me; Change is Good if we are changing to be more like him! But the power to bring that change can only come through the power of the cross.
You and I should be changing every day of our lives, but it cannot be a futile attempt to take the old metal and change it into Gold. It does not take transmutation, it takes TRANSFORMATION.
Transmutation - a change, or the process of changing, from one form, substance, nature, or state to another
Transformation - a complete change, usually into something with an improved appearance or usefulness.
In order for us to be completely changed we must die! There is no real change without the cross!
Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead in Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.
Romans 6:6-8
The Power to Change comes from not adding to this old man but rather seeing this old man die!
In HIM
Pastor Buck
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Can you feel His breath?
What a great service we had Sunday! God is doing great things! This weekend we are believing to be even better, we are now in our 8th day of the 21 day fast and God is answering prayer and changing lives. We are seeing a freshness of His Spirit upon His people, deeper intimacy and High expectancy. The Buzz - We are soooo close! That Buzz has more significance than just referring to being in the new building. We are getting closer and closer to God. The message Last Sunday - The Kingdom has come! Really, He has come, and desires to be closer than ever before in all of our lives. Sometimes I can feel His breath He seems so close. He is motioning us to come closer than we ever have! He said, you will find me when you search for me with all of your heart.
Find Him Today!
Pastor Buck
Find Him Today!
Pastor Buck
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Just Talking
We are so close to getting into our new facility, it is soooo exciting. I just met with Chris and Joe, & man these guys are pumped. They came to help set up a drum set for Zack that Janice and I had bought, and all they could talk about was, WE ARE SO CLOSE!
That is the BUZZ! WE ARE SO CLOSE!
Oh yeah, about the part of setting up a drum set for Zack, I am talking about in our home, (in our used to be quiet home), so please pray for us. We too are changing for Kingdom Purposes if you know what I mean.
We Love You All
Pastor
That is the BUZZ! WE ARE SO CLOSE!
Oh yeah, about the part of setting up a drum set for Zack, I am talking about in our home, (in our used to be quiet home), so please pray for us. We too are changing for Kingdom Purposes if you know what I mean.
We Love You All
Pastor
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Pastors Insights
Hello everyone
I thought you might like to know what is on the heart of your Pastor. The church has begun the 21 day fast, we are now on our fourth day, and God is already beginning to do wonderful things. We have seen miracles in healings, Doctors cant explain what is happening, but we know that prayer changes things.
Right now it is almost 11:00 A.M. I have had two prayer meetings this morning, I have met with the workers to get things moving on the new building. I have had one distress call so far this morning for someone who is in need of help. We have already got the ball rolling with thier employer and help for living. God is sooo gooood! And we are so blessed!
I thought you might like to know what is on the heart of your Pastor. The church has begun the 21 day fast, we are now on our fourth day, and God is already beginning to do wonderful things. We have seen miracles in healings, Doctors cant explain what is happening, but we know that prayer changes things.
Right now it is almost 11:00 A.M. I have had two prayer meetings this morning, I have met with the workers to get things moving on the new building. I have had one distress call so far this morning for someone who is in need of help. We have already got the ball rolling with thier employer and help for living. God is sooo gooood! And we are so blessed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
