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The “The Voice Of The |
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You Were Asked To Pray For: |
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A Thought From C. H. Spurgeon: A MOUNTAIN
CHOIR So sweet are
the comforts of the Lord, that not only the saints
themselves may sing of them, but even the Heavens and the earth may take up
the song. It takes something to make a mountain sing; and yet the prophet
summons quite a choir of them. |
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A Thought For The
Week: “Walking in light” You know there is a funny
thing in 1 John 1:5 -7. It says “This then is the message which we have heard
of him, and declare unto you, that God
is light,” that is God is light, not “a light”, but “light”. The word
“light” means “Holy” so God is Holy, and it goes on to say, “and in him is no
darkness at all.” That means no sin. Now here comes the funny part, “If we
say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie,” so what
is funny you ask? We hear all of the time “Christians” who say they are in
fellowship with the Lord and walk everyday in darkness. It never ceases to
amaze me at the folks who call themselves Christians that do not mind missing
church, who do not help their fellow church members,
who do not give money or enough money to church, who will use God’s name in
vain, and etc. but call themselves to be in fellowship with the Lord. The
reason I find it funny is because the word of God says, if we say we are in
fellowship with the Lord and do not walk in light or holiness we are liars.
What John is saying here is that he was with the Lord, he heard Him, saw Him,
and looked upon Him which means he “beheld” Him. John knew who the Lord was,
and he also knew what the Lord expected of him, and that was, to follow His
example. John says in V. 5a “This then is the message which we have heard of
him, and declare unto you” in other words John is saying this is what it
takes to be in fellowship with the Lord. John goes on to say in V. 6a “But if
we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another,” John is saying we are not in fellowship with the Lord if we walk
outside of “light” in any way. We as believers withdraw fellowship more and
more every time we are not walking in holiness and the further away we drift
from the Lord the more blessings He withdraws. I was working on a study in
Eph. That Brother Oscar Mink had written and as he was speaking about the
church Brother Mink said, The Lord has supplied all the things the church
needs, it is up to the church members to keep the church in fellowship with
the Lord or loose some of the things she needs. This is what John is
basically saying here to us, if we do not walk in the light, that is His
Light, then we are not in fellowship with Him and if we say we are then we
are liars. However, John goes on to say if we do walk in His Light, then, “we
have fellowship one with another,” that is us and the Lord. Beloved, I do not say this
in anger or in hate, but to make us all see that the Lord is not happy with a
lot of our actions. We have come to believe in this very sinful world we live
in, that a lot of thing does not matter, but I am here to tell you it does.
It matters when we miss church, it matters when we withhold money from the
Lord’s church, it matters when we use His name in vain, it matters when we do
not love our brother’s and sisters in the Lord, and it matters how we act and
do everyday of our life. We all want to have fellowship with the Lord, but in
order to do that we must everyday walk in “light” or else we deceive our own
selves. By Pastor Randy Johnson, |
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The Solitary Life Of A Disciple: The
path of the serious disciple is a lonely one indeed. In the past couple of
weeks, three professed believers have indicated to me that for various
reasons they are choosing not to pursue a thoughtful commitment to follow
Jesus Christ: For
one it has to do with the crushing pressure of getting a new business up and
running. Another,
it seems, is seduced by the pleasure his newly acquired affluence now affords
him. And
a third honestly admitted to me that applying Biblical ethics to the
operation of his business would prove his financial undoing. Why
should I be surprised or chagrined, as the life of the serious disciple has
always been a lonely one: Jesus
faced the prospect of the cross alone. "Then
Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Paul
faced the trial for his life alone. "At
my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it
not be held against them." (2 Timothy 4:16) Over
a period of time, as the Holy Spirit puts His finger on various issues in our
lives, we are faced with the choice of obedience, or of going our own
stubborn way. The
more we obey, the greater will be the sense of alienation from the vast bulk
of fellow-believers who have long since chosen the easier path of compromise. During
one of Jesus' critical interactions with His followers, "many of his
disciples turned back and no longer followed him. 'You
do not want to leave too, do you?' Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter
answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have
the words of eternal life.'" (John 6:66-68) QUESTION:
Are you prepared to walk the passage of obedience alone with Jesus – at
whatever the cost – while most fellow-believers are surrendering to the
world's seductive forces? I am sure you are! Source: “Facts of the
Matter” |