Dear
Present Truth Magazine Subscriber:
We
are glad to have you as a subscriber to our Present Truth Magazine. Below
you will find articles from individual authors who have written for our
magazine. Our prayer for all who
receive read these articles is that the Lord "...may give to you the
Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may
know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of
His inheritance in the saints” (Ephesians 1:17-18).
LIVING AS JESUS LIVED ON EARTH
By A. Wilson Phillips
Several years ago, I was having
some inward turmoil in my soul. I set aside some time to get alone with
God to see if I could get some understanding as to why I had this
discontented feeling.
I asked the Lord if He would be
merciful to me and give me a “dual witness” about my condition. The dual
witness I was asking for was His spoken word directly to my spirit and
confirmation of that word in His written Scriptures.
After three days of seeking the
answer from the Lord concerning my troubled soul, He spoke very clearly
these words into my spirit. “I want you to have the same testimony of Me
that my firstborn Son had.”
This word came early in the
morning after a quiet, restful night of sleep. I quickly arose and opened
my Bible to find the confirmation from His Word.
I began reading in the gospel
of John. When I came to John 8:29, these words were illumined and leaped
off of the page:
The Father has
not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.
I felt a great manifestation of
God’s presence encompassing me. Then I said, “Father, is there anything in
my life that is not pleasing you?”
He responded, “Yes, you have
not accepted your son-in-law.” (My son-in-law is of the black race, and I
am of the white race.)
I replied, “Father, you know I
am not prejudiced. Remember when I was employed in a managerial role in
the railroad industry, I had people from many different ethnic and social
backgrounds working under me. I always treated them fairly. I am not
prejudiced.”
Then the Lord said, “I am not
talking about your prejudice—I am talking about your pride.”
I was not expecting to hear
this, but I knew the Lord was right. I was allowing my pride to reject
him. You see, pride deceives the human heart (Obad. 3). Even though he and
my daughter had married out of the will of God, I had let my pride enter
the issue. Father God was cleaning me up on the inside of my heart and
soul.
I said, “Father, you are right.
I will repent and go to my son-in-law and ask for his forgiveness for
rejecting him as a person because of his race.” A great peace flooded my
heart and soul. Father God gave me peace on credit until I had the
opportunity to make the relationship right with my son-in-law.
I learned a great lesson in
that episode. Pride is the number one sin that we have to deal with. When
we get serious with Father God, He will get serious with us. If we are to
grow up into the fullness and image of Jesus Christ, we must allow the
inner working of His Holy Spirit to bring our will into alignment with His
will.
…work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to
will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:12b-13).
We must accept God as He is and
adjust our own lives to His will, ways, and purposes for our lives.
...for those
who honor Me I will honor... For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show
Himself strong on behalf of those
whose heart is loyal to Him (1 Sam. 2:30; 2 Chr.. 16:9). 
We must
follow the pattern Son, Jesus Christ our savior, Lord, God, and elder
brother. Apostle John wrote, “…because as He is, so are we in this
world” (1 John 4:17). Our union with Father God, His Son, and Holy
Spirit gives us the strength, wisdom, and knowledge to do His will in the
earth. He will show us the path of life. In His presence is fullness of
joy and pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).
A. Wilson Phillips is the co-founding and senior
pastor of Abundant Life Covenant
Church.
GREAT
FAITH
By Richard K. Clark
As a young child, I had the
pleasure of being raised in the faith of Jesus Christ. I can’t bring to
memory a time when I wasn’t aware of the Lord; I knew Him and talked to
Him regularly. I also was reared in churches that emphasized miracle faith
for anything from physical healing to financial provision. Still yet, I
would have been hard-pressed to give the true definition of faith. I was
more inclined to think that we “willed” faith into existence, and the more
“will” we exercised the more likely the need would be met, and of course
the more people praying the better. In my case, “begging” was probably a
more correct term than “praying.”
One of the first revelations
that the Lord gave me concerning faith was that I could not produce
it—faith was a gift from God.
For by grace
you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it
is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8).
Though our wills are to be
engaged with faith, we are not the source of faith. We look to Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Whether it is the faith that
leads to salvation or the faith that leads to miracle works, it all
originates with God. Some years later the Lord further clarified my faith
understanding with the following words from Matthew’s gospel.
Now when Jesus had entered
Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, “Lord, my
servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.”
And Jesus said
to him, “I will come and heal him.”
The centurion
answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my
roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I
also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say
to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and
to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus
heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say
to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”
(Matt 8:5-10).
Imagine a Roman soldier having
greater faith than all the Jewish covenant people of Jesus’ day. Faith is
much simpler than I had known. It is all about aligning our wills to the
will of God the Father. Jesus Himself said:
I can of Myself
do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do
not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me (John
5:30).
As we draw near the Lord
through His living Word and Spirit, He imparts faith into our hearts as He
sees fit. We are then responsible to “speak the word of faith.” God’s
faith-authority comes by revelation, and it must be spoken. We, like
Jesus,
are humanity united in one with divinity as partners in the kingdom of
God. 
It was by faith that God spoke the worlds into
existence, and as those under His authority, we call those things which do
not exist as though they did (Rom. 4:17). We are no less capable than
Christ as agents for healing the sick, restoring relationships, moving
mountains, and even walking on water if God so desires. Great faith is
easy—we humble ourselves and let God be God.
Richard K. Clark is an associate pastor of Abundant Life Covenant Church.
Relating to the King Who Conquered
By Benjamin Davis
The war in Iraq is our most
recent reminder that America preaches the gospel of democracy, both at
home and around the world. Having defeated Saddam Hussein, we set the
Iraqi people on the path of writing a constitution, electing governing
officials, and opening up a free press. By and large, Americans have
come to view dictators as the enemy, wherever they may be found.
Politically speaking, this is understandable since our western-style
democracy has worked successfully for us for over 200 years. However,
spiritually speaking, this mindset can be dangerous. Jesus is a
benevolent dictator, the King who has conquered all, and we are called
to be His heralds declaring His kingship and ultimate authority.
To properly understand what it
means to declare that “Jesus is Lord,” we have to get outside of our
democracy box and think in terms of the days when kings and lords
governed. When the Scripture was written, submitting to kings and lords
was a common thing. One conquering king would defeat another and bring his
new realm under his absolute authority. History is littered with these
conquerors, including King David in the Old Testament, Alexander the
Great, Julius Caesar, and the like.
When a conquering king made war
on another king, the attacked king then had a choice: yield or fight. If
he chose to yield, he would declare the conquering king as his “lord” and
hopefully, depending on the mercy of the new king, be able to serve as a
vassal or underling of the new king. He would then show his loyalty by
paying taxes, declaring to his people the new ruler of the realm, and
living under the new king’s laws and desires.
To understand the kingdom of
God, it helps to apply this concept to Jesus. Jesus was born in the
lowliest station in a stable. He grew up in Nazareth (on the wrong side of
the tracks) and to many was known as a bastard (John 8:41) because of the
virgin birth. However, under the power of the Holy Spirit, He “went
about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God
was with Him” (Acts 10:38). Though He died a sinner’s death on the
cross, He conquered death and the grave and was exalted as the High King
of all the universe. Paul describes it this way:
And being found in
appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point
of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly
exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of
those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father (Phil. 2:8-11).
Jesus is the King who came and
conquered! He not only conquered one realm; He conquered those “in
heaven,” He conquered those “on earth,” and He conquered those
“under the earth.” He rules in every realm.
Most of us who have confessed
that Jesus is Lord did so because one or more of His heralds declared Him
to us. When Jesus was declared to us, we had the choice to fight or yield.
Many today choose to fight by declaring their own sovereignty over their
lives. They say with their words or actions: “We will not
have
this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14). Such are often the feelings
of those who cannot get past the democratic
mindset to genuinely yield to authority in the kingdom of God.
Today, we must acknowledge
Jesus as the King who came and conquered. He rules with absolute
authority. Democracy is okay for human government, but it will not work
for practical living in the kingdom of God.
Benjamin Davis is an associate pastor of Abundant Life Covenant Church
LIVING IN THE LIGHT
By Jonathan Clark
Fascinated! I was fascinated after viewing a recent educational special on
Albert Einstein and his famous equation E = mc2. I had studied
this equation in physics class years ago, but this program gave me renewed
significance on both his formula and his life.
...God is light and in Him is no darkness at all
(1 John 1:5).
According to the program, Einstein was fascinated with light. The physics
of his day had developed concepts and formulas for mass (m) and energy
(E), but mass and energy were considered to be essentially unrelated. As
he pursued his interest in light, he eventually discovered that these
physical entities were related and interactive: Energy = mass x (the speed
of light)2. Energy is a function of mass and light’s speed;
mass is a function of energy and light’s speed; light is related to both
mass and energy. His discovery revolutionized physics and led to many
other scientific applications and theories, including the “big bang”
theory and the development of the atomic bomb. He is credited as having
said that he had finally tapped into God’s thoughts.
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there
was light (Gen. 1:3).
What amazes me most about Einstein’s discovery is that an aspect of
light—its speed—was the missing link that unified our understanding of the
physical world around us. The universe came into existence because of a
direct connection with light. The world as we know it ceases to exist
without it. All substance and power (and time and space) are connected to
it.
For by Him all things were created that are in
heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible... in Him all things
consist (Col. 1:16-17).
Einstein derived E = mc2 after formulating the concept of
“special relativity,” which states that as something approaches the speed
of light, time, space, and mass are altered. This mind-bending concept
shows that as one approaches light speed, time slows down! Think of the
anti-aging benefits of dwelling near this aspect of light.
...for in Him we live and move and have our
being... (Acts 17:28a).
The physical realm mirrors the spiritual realm. Jesus said (many years
before Einstein) in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. He who
follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
Just as mass is a function of energy and light, spiritual substance is a
result of divine illumination mixed with action. This law of Spirit Life
(Rom. 8:2) is embodied in the statement “faith is acting on the Word of
God.” It deals with spiritual growth, maturity, and development; it is
results-oriented (viable faith, miracles, wisdom, guidance, etc).
In the beginning was the Word…and the Word was
God…All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was
made...the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory
(John 1:1, 3, 14a).
Einstein had indeed tapped into God’s thoughts—or, more aptly said, God
chose to give this man understanding of a few of His earthly secrets. God
“shed a little light” on him.(Incidentally, when God spoke light into
existence, I wonder if it sounded like a big bang?)
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but
those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children
forever... (Deut. 29:29).
Even medical science is re-discovering the light. In his book The UV
Advantage, seasoned Boston University dermatologist and researcher
Michael Holick, PH.D, M.D. expounds on the many health benefits of
sunlight. His book reflects what the inspired author of Ecclesiastes wrote
in verse 11:7, “Truly the light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the
eyes to behold the sun.” The psalmist David penned what he experienced
(depression, anxiety, and poor health) when “the light of his eyes had
gone from him”:
There is no soundness in my flesh...
Nor any health in my bones...
I am troubled...
I go mourning all the day long.
For My loins are full of inflammation...
I am feeble and severely broken...
My heart pants, my strength fails me...
(Ps.38:3, 6-8, 10).
Science has yet to discover a way for humans to travel at or near the
speed of light. The spiritual truth behind “traveling at light speed” is
often referred to in the Scriptures as “walking in the light,” such
as in Ephesians 5:8: “Walk as children of light.” We are exhorted
to both dwell in the light (abide, exist) and walk in the
light (respond, move).
Living in the light has tremendous spiritual and physical benefits for us
now and for our future. These include: (1) an unlimited supply of energy,
(2) an ever-
increasing
spiritual substance (glory), (3) a perceived slowing of time (we have an
endless amount of time to obey “the light”).
...if we walk in the light as He is in the light,
we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).
In Him was life, and the life was the light of
men (John 1:4).
Jonathan Clark is an elder of Abundant Life Covenant Church and a physician in
Springfield, Missouri.
THE
LAW FULFILLED—GRACE
By Leesa Hamilton
Recently, God has had me focus
on knowing and recognizing when I or someone else I’m dealing with is
operating with a legalistic mindset. Unfortunately, those of us who grew
up with a church background will find ourselves falling back into these
old patterns of self-effort, self-righteousness, and other seemingly
admirable “self” tendencies, thinking that we are right in our do-gooder
mentality, not knowing that we are grieving the heart of Father God. The
letter of the law kills, but grace gives freedom! Therefore, it is
important that we know the difference.
Here’s a good test to see if a
“law” mentality is still lurking in the shadows of our mind.
LAW—I
resolve
GRACE—I rejoice
I will become pleasing to
God. I am pleasing to
God. I have
His very nature (John 17:23b;
I Pet. 1:4).
I will make myself
worthy. I have
been made worthy
(Col. 1:12).
I will earn God’s
acceptance. He has
given me
His acceptance (Col. 1:20-22).
I will keep myself pure
so I can enter into God’s I am confidently in
God's presence.
presence through
Christ’s blood (Heb.
10:18-22).
Through my efforts I will fulfill the law (pray
Through Christ’s work on
more, read the Bible, attend church, do good
God
hasfulfilled the
law for
works, etc.).
the cross,
me—now
I rejoice! (Rom. 8:2-3)
To be sure I’m
pleasing to God, I will continually
Because I am under
impose more and stricter rules on my life.
grace not under the law, I
(Results: Sin increases,
Rom. 5:20).
will trust that I am pleasing
to Him. (Results: Sin
decreases, Rom.
6:14,
4:15.)
With God’s law as my
standard, I will keep a With God’s love as
my close check on others.
I will judge no one, not even my
self(1 Cor.
4:3-5).
Jesus said I must
keep my commandments
His commandments were
(John 15:10), so isn't that the law?
summed up in this "Love
others as he loved us" (John
15:12).Love fulfills the law (Gal.
5:14; James 2:8)
Operating in the freedom of
grace, I do not have an irresponsible approach to life where I live
sinfully and feel okay about it. That is to not understand grace at all!
Grace has freed me to live and love just like Jesus. I have His
nature, His mind, His desires, His love, His very life—through His
finished work on the cross for me!
I no longer have to go on an
inward witch-hunt to look for hidden sin in my life that separates me from
God. I am not separated from God, not ever; I am one spirit with Him. As I
renew my mind with the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is quite capable of
showing me anything that needs to be corrected in my attitudes or actions.
Even then, I do not walk in condemnation but have a thankful repentant
mindset that yields to Him and walks in His victory parade!
Hallelujah—what a great life!
Leesa
Hamilton and her husband Byron own Med-Soft National Training Institute in
Springfield, Missouri.
I
AM SOMEBODY
By Liz Frater
When I was an early teen, my
stepfather told me I had to decide what I wanted to be when I grew up:
doctor, lawyer, or Indian chief. I really wanted to be a homemaker but
thought that was not a good choice. Then I wanted to be a social worker.
This was still not a good choice, or so I was told. I had to be
“somebody.” Finally, I decided to become a doctor and took all the college
prep courses I could manage in high school.
I did well in high school and
headed off to college as a pre-med major. My parents had split up by this
time, and my stepfather was no longer in the picture. After the first
semester, I was disillusioned; school was harder than I thought it would
be, and the competition was a “killer.” I no longer had my main motivator
in my life (my step dad), so I tried a few other majors until I settled
into social work.
I graduated top of my class
with many honors and then could not get a job in the field. I was
devastated. By this time, I was a Christian, so I went to God and asked
what was going on. He told me it was not His will that I have a social
work position. I was shocked. I had performed above and beyond; didn’t
that make Him happy? Wouldn’t He reward me for a job well done? He didn’t
answer me at that time. He led me into a position as an activity leader in
a nursing home.
I have had several jobs since
then: receptionist, caregiver, nurse’s aide, housekeeper, nanny, senior
citizen center director, homemaker, inside sales rep, retail sales clerk,
business manager, and now an office manager. Looking over my resume, it
would seem upon casual observation that I could not keep a job, get along
with my fellow workers, and/or not find a job that keeps me
interested/happy.
While counseling a woman who is
looking for another job, I talked with her about the checkerboard of job
experiences we both shared. Something an elder in our church told me
recently came back into my mind and solidified. God leads us into
circumstances, jobs, school, etc., to teach us, train us, and develop the
life of Christ in us. We are looking for an outward goal or achievement,
where God is looking at our heart to accomplish His purposes and His goals
for us. He places us where we are so that we can meet people, minister to
people, and serve others for His glory, not ours. It is humbling to have a
work history that is all over the place, yet I know that each job was
designed by God to develop and perfect the life of Christ in me. It is my
responsibility to die to what it looks like and choose to focus on the
goodness of God in my life. I am a child of the Most High God; He leads me
and guides me where He desires I go for His glory.
Liz Frater is the office manager at MTS
Contracting, Incorporated.
TRUTH NOT FICTION ABOUT
THE APOCOLYPSE
By Ed Gibson
Not long
ago, I was listening to a book on tape that opened my eyes. I was
enlightened to the fact that the Roman armies used catapults nicknamed “scorpions,”
with which they would hurl large stones and pots of burning pitch! Ouch!
They were called scorpions because the business end was the “tail,” a
sling that threw projectiles. These were used in siege warfare like in the
siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The historical writer Josephus recorded this
and also wrote how the Jews defending Jerusalem tried to burn them.
The Romans also used very large battering rams with iron heads on them.
The siege of Jerusalem lasted about five months (from spring to
August of AD 70). With this information, let’s study Revelation 9:1-11:
...And I saw a star fallen from
heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.
And he opened the bottomless
pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So
the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.
Then out of the smoke
locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the
scorpions of the earth have power.
They were commanded not to harm
the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those
men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
And they were not given
authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their
torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man.
In those days men will seek
death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee
from them.
The shape of the locusts was
like horses prepared for battle. On their heads were crowns of
something like gold, and their faces were like the faces of men.
They had hair like women’s hair,
and their teeth were like lions’ teeth.
And they had breastplates like
breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of
chariots with many horses running into battle.
They had tails like
scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to hurt
men five months.
And they had as king over them
the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, but in
Greek he as the name Apollyon.
When
studying Revelation chapter 9, I realized that the locusts with tails like
scorpions inflicting torment for five months sounded like a description of
armies with catapults. They had on their heads something like gold (battle
helmets); they had a king over them who was Abaddon or Apollyon
(translates as “the destroyer”). The shape of the locusts was like horses
prepared for battle (perhaps a huge battering ram hanging from a tower
built to swing it back and forth).
I have
heard Hal Lindsey and others say these “locusts” and “scorpions” are
modern machines of war like helicopters. I have also heard people
interpret this passage literally (large locusts that torment men for five
months). I believe it makes more spiritual sense to accept the internal
evidence of the book of Revelation. In the first verse of the book, we see
that Father God gave the revelation to Jesus so that He would show His
servants “things which must shortly take place.” In Revelation1:3
He says, “…the time is near,” and throughout the book or Revelation
emphasizes that these events would happen quickly.
In
Matthew 24:15-16 Jesus stated:
Therefore when you see “the
abomination of desolation” spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in
the holy place” (whoever reads let him understand), then let those who are
in Judea flee to the mountains.
As a
student of history, I assumed that the prophecy of Daniel regarding the
desecration of the temple just had a dual application—the destruction of
Jerusalem in 168 BC and then again in 70 AD.
The
original fulfillment of the “abomination of desolation” was when
the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes conquered Jerusalem. He had the
audacity to offer a pig on the altar!
When I
read the Matthew 24 passage, it bothered me that Jesus used Daniel’s
“abomination of desolation” reference as a sign for the Jews living in
Judea to get out of town—because if the Jews had waited till the Romans
were desecrating the temple, it would have been too late to escape the
horrors of the siege. However, I discovered in Josephus’ The Jewish War
(Book 5, Chapter 11) that there was a leader in the Roman army whose
name was none other than Antiochus Epiphanes! This is not the same guy, of
course; it was someone who was named after him. But when the Jews in Judea
heard that Antiochus Epiphanes was coming, I think they would have
recalled Jesus’ warning and gotten out of town quickly. Thus, Jesus knew
exactly what He was saying, and the people were properly warned.
I
believe that as we take the approach that the Scripture is absolute, even
though our understanding may be limited, then God can show us what His
Word really means. But if we water down His Word, take it out of the
original context, and/or try to bend the timeframes, then we are asking
for trouble.
I cannot
explain all the symbols in the Bible, and I am okay with that. However, I
believe that all of the Bible is absolutely true, and God will show me
little by little what I need to know.
Ed Gibson is a
territory sales representative with MWM Dexter in Springfield, Missouri.
WHAT IF THE BEST IS YET TO COME?
By Michael
Lawrence
I remember that a few days
after being reborn into the Lord, I thought what a different place the
world would be if all its humans became Christians. As I pondered that
possibility and its ramifications, the idea quickly became more than I
could get my mind around.
Sometimes while discussing
eschatology (the study of end times) with my brothers or sisters in
Christ, I get this response: “What difference does it make what we believe
about the end as predicted in the Bible. It’s no big deal to me. Why
should it be?”
Have you ever wondered what the
church on planet earth would be like if her vast majority believed in and
fully embraced a past-fulfilled eschatology?
What if the overwhelming
majority of the church leaders in our world believed and taught that
Christ had returned as promised in 70 AD, and He used the Roman army in
judgment to bring an end to that old covenant world? The Scriptures are
replete with examples of God appearing in like manner at critical times
through people and natural phenomena to do His bidding.
What if within Christianity
universal this other end-time reality was fully grasped, and it was
consistently taught that this parousia appearance included a taking away
or rapture, if we must, of those first-century believers? What if almost
all of our Christian brethren and their children were taught that Satan
was totally defeated in the process of that enormously effective event as
well?
I am convinced in spirit and
mind that God is continually reforming His church and has arranged, as a
term of the new covenant, that the church will lead, either in truth or in
error, and the rest of the world will follow suit.
What if the inferiority complex
that has gripped and oppressed the church to varying degrees at times due
to a multitude of faulty end-time worldviews being taught in error for
over a century now—what if that curse of sorts had been, in time, fully
lifted? One does not know that he has been asleep until he awakes.
What an overwhelming attraction
to the peoples of this world would the real truth of present-day new
covenant Christianity be? Think about it. Finally a scenario that God
could fully embrace versus the fatalistic one that He has rightly shunned
for all of these years. The transformation of all on planet earth would be
such that one could hardly imagine the untold positive
effect.
Michael Lawrence owns and operates
Lawrence Electric Company and is a freelance writer
NEW
YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
By A. Wilson Phillips
Many Americans have adopted the
practice of making New Year’s resolutions to quit bad habits such as
smoking, excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages, overeating, living a
sedentary lifestyle, etc. Of course, most of these well-intentioned ideas
never come into fruition. Let me suggest some ideas that can give you a
very meaningful lifestyle in our postmodern world. I borrowed these ideas
from the first-century writings of Jesus’ apostles.
Firstly, make a decision
to take Jesus Christ as your Savior and confess Him as
Lord of your life.
But what does
it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is,
the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your
mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised
Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation (wholeness) (Rom. 10:8-10).
After you have received eternal
life and the gift of righteousness, if you commit a sin immediately ask
Father God to forgive you and restore your fellowship (1 John 1:7-9).
Secondly, make a
commitment to spend at least fifteen minutes daily in a quiet
time—meditating, reading, and pondering the truths recorded in the Bible.
Especially read the New Testament epistles or
letters concerning who you are and what you have in Christ.
Ask God’s Holy Spirit to illumine the words of God. He will be glad to
help you understand what you read and meditate upon. Begin to write
down some of the words that come alive to you. Act upon those
principles, and you will start a process of renewing your mind (Rom.
12:1-2).
Thirdly, continue to
confess what God has given to you in Christ and who you are
in Him. For example, you could say:
I thank you,
Father God, that You have made me to become righteous by Your
loving mercy and grace. I thank You for watching over me and meeting all
of my needs in Christ. I thank you, Father, that I am loved
unconditionally, accepted, and forgiven in Him (Eph.
1:3-7). I thank You for making my body Your home and giving me access to
communicate with You at any and all times (1 Cor. 6:19-20). I thank You
for never leaving me nor forsaking me (1 Cor. 6:17; John 14:20-23).
Fourthly, ask Father God
to place you in a local church of people where you will feel welcome and
hear God’s anointed Word taught and preached.
Ask for a place where you can grow in your faith and
be a part of the vision of that local church (1 Cor. 12:18).
By making a commitment to apply
these biblical practices in the New Year, you will develop a healthy
mental attitude and peace of mind. You will also come into a
healthy emotional birthright and be free from a crippling inferiority
complex. You will learn to speak the will and words of God as His beloved
child (John 6:63). By God’s Spirit, Word, and grace, your actions,
conduct, and behavior will improve dramatically.
As you
continue to think the thoughts of God by the renewing of your mind,
you will feel good because you have spoken and done
the will of Father God. As 2006 comes to a close, no doubt, you will look
back and say, “The best is yet to come.”
My Walk in Christ’s Victory
By Paul Gabbert
I praise His name, my Lord
and King,
His precious music I do sing;
No blues from me, my lyrics ring
All praise to Christ, My glorious King.
Alleluia to the Lamb,
Hallelujah to the Great I Am
Holy Spirit, Father, and Son
May we always be one;
His kingdom come, His will be done.
When tests and trials come
along,
May I sing this same love song;
And in His presence I will find
The victory of the cross every time.
Though slave or free it’s
all the same—
All for His purpose and His plan;
A slave to Christ and not to man,
My victory song will never end.
His resurrection life is now
in me,
The fruit for all the world to see;
As I daily do my part
And fulfill the vision of my Master’s heart,
May my work always stand,
A witness of the Builder’s hand.
Paul Gabbert currently runs R & P Cleaning
Service
Not
long ago, a friend of mine and I were discussing the “religious climate”
here in Springfield. She made the comment, “It’s just too easy to
go to church.” 
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