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Gen. 16:11-12 - The angel of the LORD said to her further, "Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the LORD has given heed to your affliction. 12 "He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone's hand will be against him;…" NASU
God told Abe and Sarai, they were going to have a son. There is the promise from God. Sarai and Abram were both old when they were given this promise from God. It is going to take 25 years for this promise to be fulfilled. He didn't say when the promise would be fulfilled. He simply said they would have a son. They must have thought He meant immediately and when it didn't happen immediately Sarai decided to help God fulfill His promise by replacing His plan with one of her own. So she tells Abram to have a sexual relationship with her handmaiden, Hagar, and then she will raise the child as her own. This may have been accepted culturally but it surely wasn't going to work when it was in direct opposition to God's plan. I can't imagine anything going wrong with her plan, can you?
America's 911 was caused by the descendants of Ishmael. The radical Muslims who have bombed England, France, Pakistan, USA and the list goes on and on as this prophecy is fulfilled day after day. His hand is against every man and every man's hand is against him.
When God makes a promise believe it and don't put a time limit on it. If you think that God should act within a certain time frame does that make it so? God made Abram and Sarai a promise and 25 years later He fulfilled his promise. Sarai and Abe waited 11 years and when they were not the parents of this promised child they took matters into their own hands. Then after another 14 years or a total of 25 years God fulfilled His promise. If I can give you any encouragement today let it be this: God Always Fulfills His Promises and below are some scriptures I hope will encourage you. Ps 9:8-9 - And He will judge the world in righteousness; He will execute judgment for the peoples with equity. 9 The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble;… Ps 34:15 - The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous and His ears are open to their cry. Ps 34:19 - Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. When God makes a promise simply wait for it. His timing is perfect and He never forgets. Think About These: When God allows a burden to be put upon you, He will give you the strength to carry it. There is one thing for which you should be thankful - only you and God have all the facts about you. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word
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Luke 3:7-9 - So he began saying to the crowds who were going out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? "Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ' We have
Abraham for our father,' for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. "Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." NASU
I have heard more than one teacher say, "You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. So make your messages palatable to the hearer." I always thought after I heard that, "Yeah, but I am not trying to catch flies. I am trying to convert people." John has no time for "fakes". I know a few Collegiate Wrestling Coaches and I have learned this much from them. They don't want any pretenders on their team. They want men who want to learn. Men who want to be the best they can be. If you want to just go through the motions then go somewhere else and do it, would be their thoughts.
In Matthew 3:7 we can see he's specifically addressing the Pharisees and Sadducees: "But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" John's first point: he is telling them to Stop Playing Their Silly Religious Games. He calls them out when he says: "You brood of vipers." In other words, those that came in contact with them were poisoned by their teachings and the hypocrisy of their lives. Jesus later in His ministry will say it this way in Matt 23:15: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves." WOW! Jesus and John didn't waste their words. You didn't have to wonder: "What did they just say?" John's second point: to "Bear Fruit." He is saying, "If you think for one moment you are going to use the trump card that you are children of Abraham you're sadly mistaken." God is able to make stones turn into children of Abraham. John's third point: "Judgment is Coming." "The axe is laid at the root of the trees" is John's way of saying, "Judgment is coming." He goes on to say, "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." So let me ask you are you bearing any good fruit? You might be thinking I am not sure. What exactly is good fruit? Here is what Jesus said in Matt 10:42 - "And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." It could be as little as giving a cup of cold water to one of these little ones. I believe the "little ones" are those who are new to Christianity. The newly converted.
He probably would not have to change his message at all: 1. Stop Playing Silly Religious Games 2. Bear Fruit 3. Judgment is Coming We can do this. We can bear good fruit today. Think About These: God wants spiritual fruit, not religious nuts. The Gospel of Jesus Christ breaks hard hearts, and heals broken hearts. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 - "… Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so that I would not exalt myself. 8 Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times that it would leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me."
God said, "My Grace is sufficient for you." In other words, come on Paul man up will you, great day in the morning it isn't killing you and we both know what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger. Not only wouldn't it kill him it would make God's power perfected in Paul's weakness. Paul has a change of attitude and then makes this concluding statement - "I will most gladly boast all the more about my weakness, so that Christ's power may reside in me." How about us? Are we dealing with any "thorns in the flesh" today? Many people like to speculate about what Paul's thorn in the flesh was but does it really matter? What matters is he changed his attitude about it after God informed him that God's grace was sufficient and that God's power was perfected through Paul's weakness.
God's grace is sufficient for us and His power is perfected through our weakness. Do we really want to glorify God through our physical being? I would say that we do but we don't always know how to accomplish that. The answer is we may have to glorify Him through some type of suffering or some type of thorn in the flesh. I have seen Christians with all types of thorns in the flesh that glorified God with them. People have been blind, had missing limbs, health issues of all types, and one preacher friend on mine passed over 300 kidney stones. But God used them to bring honor and glory to His name. I can testify having passed two kidney stones that I have never felt anything more painful. He prayed that God would correct his body so that he didn't have to keep passing kidney stones but God never removed that thorn from his flesh.
Moses didn't get the answer he wanted to his prayer. Paul didn't get the answer to his prayer that he wanted and Jesus didn't get the answer that He wanted to His prayer. So the way I see it we are in good company if all our prayers don't get answered the way we want them to be answered. People have asked for years this question -What is their purpose here on earth? According to this passage of scripture our purpose is not to "exalt" ourselves and to allow God's power to be perfected through us. Some of us may have thorns in our flesh and some of us may not but we all are to allow our physical bodies to "Glorify God" with them. Think About These: Conceit is what makes a little squirt think that he's a fountain of knowledge. Don't find fault with what you don't understand. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Ezek. 46:9 - "But when the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, he who enters by way of the north gate to worship shall go out by way of the south gate.
And he who enters by way of the south gate shall go out by way of the north gate. No one shall return by way of the gate by which he entered but shall go straight out." NASU
"Each should leave worship a different person than he came in." This is the best way I know to change your life for the good. When you go to worship make sure when you exit the building you are leaving as a different person from the one who entered.
Look at how the early church worshipped God in Acts 4:24 - "And when they heard this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, "O Lord, it is You who MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA, AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM,…" Every place we walk and everything we can see is because of God. If you go and sit in a grassy field it is because of God. If you go and throw rocks in a creek, or put your feet in the ocean it is because of God being the awesome Creator He is. When I look into the sky at night and see the millions of twinkling stars they are there to look at because of God. When Leah had her fourth son she named him Judah, when you translate the name Judah it means "to praise." Gen. 29:35 - And she conceived again and bore a son and said, "This time I will praise the LORD." Therefore she named him Judah. When you correctly Praise the Good LORD for who He is and what He has done it will change you. Ps 34:1 - I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. Secondly, I believe we should Remember the LORD and for what He has done for us when we worship. This is what Moses and the children of Israel did after being freed from their Egyptian bondage. They remembered what the LORD had done for them by defeating Pharaoh and his army. Ex 15:1-6 - Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, "I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. "The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will extol Him. "The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name. "Pharaoh's chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; And the choicest of his officers are drowned in the Red Sea. "The deeps cover them; They went down into the depths like a stone. "Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power, Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. What great things has the LORD done for you that you need to remember as you worship Him today? The one great thing God has done for us is that He has freed us from the bondage of sin. Think About These: Too many people try to get something from worship without putting anything into it. Worship should be a place where you meet God and impossible to forget Him. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago 1 John 1:9- If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. NASB
I can't even count all the times I have been in a counseling session with a "Christian" not an unbeliever but one who is supposed to know the Bible. One who is supposed to know that our God is a God of "Forgiveness". I have found myself trying to convince them that God has forgiven them. So I would ask them to listen to some questions and answer me the best they could from what they know about God. First, why do you believe God sent Jesus to earth? They would in so many words express to me they believed God sent Jesus to save us. I would heartily agree with them and share with them two scriptures to prove to them they were correct. Matt.1:21 - "She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins." Luke 19:10 - "For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost." (You may want to read John 12:47, I Timothy 1:15, and Hebrews 7:25.) Second, why do you believe God would do that? Again they would convey to me because He loves us and again I would share with them a few scriptures to support their belief. Matt. 18:14 - "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones perish." John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." 2 Peter 3:9 - "The Lord is… patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." Please know that God wants you to be forgiven. He has given us a path to travel on in order that we can be forgiven. If you are not a Christian then you should believe that Jesus is the Son of God, make a confession of your belief that He is the Son of God to someone, repent which means to change your mind about Jesus and this will bring about a change in your behavior. You should be baptized (immersed) according to Acts 2:38 for the forgiveness of your sins and to receive the Holy Spirit.
I John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. First, we are to CONFESS our sins to God or to yourself. It doesn't say you have to confess to a priest, pastor or preacher. Confess them to the one you have sinned against and in most cases that is God. (If you have sinned against someone personally by all means go to them and confess to them Luke 17:4). Second, we are to BELIEVE that God is "Faithful and Righteous". God says, if we confess He will forgive us and cleanse us. Now my question for you to think about is this: Do you believe God's Word? Do you believe that God who is faithful, righteous and CAN NOT Lie has said if we confess He will forgive and cleanse us? God has said it. Confess it and He will forgive it. Do you believe God?
Well, I wouldn't forgive someone that easily was a thought that crossed their minds. Therefore, God can't forgive me that easily. There in is the problem. We are not like God in a lot of ways and this is one of them. Do yourself a favor and learn how to forgive yourself and others. You will enjoy your Christian life a whole lot better. Think About These: Our Lord is in the cleansing business not the whitewashing business. We are like beasts when we kill. We are like men when we judge. We are like God when we forgive. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word |
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