Sunday, August 3, 2014

Why God Waits - Pastor C. R. Stam




  Why God Waits  
  Pastor C. R. Stam

St. Peter was not wrong when he declared at Pentecost that the last days had begun (Acts 2:16,17). They had indeed begun, but God had a secret plan to give the world a period of grace before putting down its rebellion and sending Christ to reign.

This secret purpose concerning “the dispensation of the grace of God” is the subject of Paul’s epistles. However, it is interesting to see how Peter’s last message explains the reason for this interruption in God’s prophesied program and the delay in Christ’s return to reign. First, he says in II Peter 3:8:

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years years as one day.”

Mark well, this is not our feeble explanation now as to the delay in Christ’s return. This statement was made at the beginning of this time of waiting, at the dawn of the age of grace. But let us go on with Peter’s declaration:

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise… but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (Ver. 9).

So the delay in Christ’s return to judge and reign should not be counted “slackness” or laxness, but longsuffering. Thus the Apostle goes on to say:

“And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation…”

Where did Peter get this information? How did he know about “the dispensation of the grace of God”? Verse 15 explains:

“Even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you.”

To Paul particularly was committed “the gospel of the grace of God” which we proclaim today (Acts 20:24). Peter recognized this (Gal. 2:2,7,9), and closed his second epistle with the exhortatio

“But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18).



THE DAY OF THE LORD IS AT HAND TRIBULATION
By Les Feldick
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsXi96tmoh4&feature=share
 



 How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)

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cspivey1953@gmail.com

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Saturday, August 2, 2014

It's a Matter of the Heart - by Pastor John Fredericksen





It's a Matter of the Heart 
 by Pastor John Fredericksen



  In recent months, my wife’s father has had a series of issues with his heart that required different pacemakers to be implanted. After two previous by-pass operations, there have been justifiable reasons to be concerned about him. So, when we see or call him, we frequently ask, “How is your heart today?”

 The condition of one’s heart is just as important in the spiritual realm as it is in the physical realm. It is for this reason the Scriptures say so much about the heart and why Solomon wrote, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23). The spiritual condition of one’s heart will determine how one responds to the Lord and, ultimately, it will have a huge impact on each of us in eternity.

 Since God is “not willing that any should perish” (II Peter 3:9) and “lighteth [or draws to Himself] every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9), everyone has the option to be saved from eternal punishment. The Lord seeks with every individual to do what He did with Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened” (Acts 16:14): drawing him or her to a personal decision of saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, because many resist and refuse this internal wooing of the Lord, they remain as some to whom Paul wrote in the Roman epistle: “But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and… righteous judgment of God” (Romans 2:5).

 Thankfully, many choose to open their hearts to the salvation God offers. Countless numbers of people have “call[ed] on the Lord out of a pure heart” (II Timothy 2:22). Hosts of believers today seek to leave behind the regular practice of sin because they “have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17). On a daily basis, most believers pursue a walk that will please the Lord because “in singleness of heart, fearing God…[they choose to] serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:22-24). Many believers are “doing the will of God from the heart” (Ephesians 6:6). Those who choose such a path do so because they are choosing to “keep their heart with all diligence.” They do so by regularly taking in the Word of God and applying proper truth to the way they live each day.

It is, of course, possible for a believer to choose a path of sinful living. Every believer can choose to allow his heart to grow cold to the things of the Lord. For those who do, the Apostle Paul warned that, while still saved, they could reach a spiritual condition of “having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God… because of the blindness of their heart” (Ephesians 4:18). Such a condition is the spiritual equivalent of a blockage to the heart. Knowing that as believers “we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ… [and] every one of us shall give an account of himself to God” (Romans 14:10,12), it behooves every believer to maintain a soft, responsive heart to the Lord.

Dear believer, how is your heart today, in a spiritual sense? If you have made past decisions of sinfulness that have hardened your heart, you can choose to open the door of your heart and begin to live for the Lord again. You can begin today. You can begin to read the Scriptures again, talk to the Lord in prayer, and seek a church where the truths of God’s Word are faithfully taught. If your heart has been faithfully following the Lord, “Praise His Name.” May we all seek to apply the wise counsel from Solomon to “keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
 



 How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)



Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
https://www.facebook.com/cecil.spivey

 

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Friday, August 1, 2014

What is the Gospel? - Cecil Spivey



 How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which the preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.  For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;  And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.  1. Corinthians 15:1-4




(A 10 Minute Video)

Posted By Cecil  and Connie Spivey 

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The Sword of the Spirit - by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam




   The Sword of the Spirit 
 by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam


“The Sword of the Spirit… is the Word of God” (Phesians 6: 17).

Of all the spiritual armor which believers are told to “put on” in Phesians 6:11-18, there is only one offensive weapon. This is “the Sword of the Spirit… the Word of God.” The Bible is called “the Sword of the Spirit,” because the Spirit of God is its Author. It is called “the Sword of the Spirit” because, thus written by God who knows all, it can cut deeply. This makes it, for the believer, a formidable weapon against Satan and the forces of evil. We are told in Hebrews. 4:12,13:

“The Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

As David said long ago:

“O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me.

“Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off” (Palms 139:1,2).

It is because God knows and understands us so thoroughly that His Word can sometimes cut us so deeply. How wise, then, to bow before that Blessed Book, acknowledge its condemnation of sin and trust the Savior it presents! And, having done this, how wise to “put on the whole armor of God” in our stand against Satan and sin, not forgetting to “take… the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”!




 Transformed By Grace  -

Kevin Sadler


Transformed By Grace #1 - Unity in Christ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qca95hwMWQk&feature=player_embedded
Transformed By Grace #2 - One Body in Christ
hps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lch03dYG99Q&feature=player_embedded
Transformed By Grace #3 - The Apostle of Grace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-zbHErkLB4&feature=player_embedded
Transformed By Grace #4 - The Gifts of Christ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQiWaVlBYzQ&feature=player_embedded


Posted By Cecil and Connie Spivey
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TWO ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY by C. R. Stam



"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free... If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:32,36).

The true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ enjoys glorious liberty, and our Lord Himself said that there are no strings attached... "Ye shall be free indeed," free even from the most oppressive of all slave masters: sin. While the Law never saved one man from sin, the Lord Jesus, by His death on Calvary did, for we read that "Christ died for our sins."

Therefore the Apostle wrote by divine inspiration: "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1). His letters thunder severe rebukes against believers who "desire to be under the law." To the Colossian Christians he wrote:

"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [substance] is of Christ" (Colossians 2:16,17).

But true liberty is used for good, otherwise it only reverts to bondage again, for whatever overcomes a man becomes his master (II Peter  2:19), and doing evil can only harm ourselves and others. Thus the Apostle says further:

"But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak" (I Corinthians 8:9).

"For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another" (Galatians 5:13).

"...Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth" (Romans 14:22).

 

 How God Saves Men
Believing Christ DIED, that’s HISTORY.
Believing Christ DIED for YOU SINS and Rose again that’s SALVATION.
Read Romans 1:16, Romans 10:9-10 and 1. Corinthians 15:1-4


(A 10 Minute Video)

Posted By Cecil  and Connie Spivey 

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