Praise the LORD!!!
This is going to be a first. This morning while reading my personal devotionals, the LORD led me to post one of them to this devotional, the one I normally write by HIS leading. I believe you will find this to be a topic of interest. Not from my personal opinion, for I enjoyed it, but for the fact that the LORD had me post it here for a reason and most likely a very good one at that.
"Building for eternity Luke 14:28
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred; the deep unfathomable agony in Gethsemane, and the onslaught at Calvary—the pivot upon which the whole of Time and Eternity turns. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. Men are not going to laugh at Him at last and say—“This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”
The conditions of discipleship laid down by Our Lord in vv. 26, 27 and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “If any man come to Me, and hate not …, he cannot be My disciple.” Our Lord implies that the only men and women He will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately and devotedly beyond any of the closest ties on earth. The conditions are stern, but they are glorious.
All that we build is going to be inspected by God. Is God going to detect in His searching fire that we have built on the foundation of Jesus some enterprise of our own? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for His enterprises, His building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put."
May 8th
Chambers, O. (1993). My utmost for his highest : Selections for the year (NIV edition.). Westwood, NJ: Barbour and Co.
Though this was originally written several centuries ago, it is very relevant today also! Especially so, when you can look around an see so many ministries out there and most are named after the one wanting the glory. Why else would a person name something after themselves? I may be wrong on this count, but I've a feeling that I'm truly not that far off in saying it. Too many people have taken on works for the LORD, only to end up building them with wood and straw( erroneous ways and motives.) Then there are some of those ministries that bare the founder's name, yet hold true to the GOSPEL. I'll not be the judge, but I know one that will be and the day is coming when all that bare HIS name shall stand before HIM to be judged for the works that we've done. On this day and it alone will we all know the full truth. Not just on the works that others have done, or those of our own hands, but we will know every little detail of HIStory, as if it had just happened. Then we will know who taught the total truth and who were in error. I look forward to this day. Do you?
There are also several other reason we need to look deeply at the verses here. For many people today call themselves Christians yet there is no proof of it within their lives. If one has truly had a "Born Again" experience within their life, they've become regenerated by the presence of the HOLY SPIRIT within them and there is a visible proof of this fact. If someone tells you they're a Christian and there is no sign of of the HOLY GHOST on board, you should think about talking with them and introducing them to the real JESUS CHRIST and what it means to truly be Born (Again) from Above!!!
Prayer request can be sent to: prayers@vineofchrist.org
GOD bless and good day,
Rev. Marshall Barth
Vine of CHRIST Ministries
Vine Ministerial Network International
Friday, May 7, 2010
5.07.10_1 Cor. 1:26-28_What were you...
Praise the LORD!!!
Many times we tend to forget what we were when GOD laid HIS hands on us! Now I don't know about you, but I definitely wasn't a choirboy or the Pope. I was one heck of a messed up mass of emotions and problems. One of those people a psychologist could write their thesis on. But right down to the smallest of details, GOD had it all under control and planned out. I'm sure there will be many that will read this and either laugh and call me a fool or they'll blow a fuse, "because that isn't what GOD is" will come to their minds.
1 Cor. 1:26-28
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,
Too many people these days have been brought up with the idea that GOD is totally loving and that HE wouldn't allow bad things to manifest themselves in this world. Well if this were so, why would HE of chosen people like those mentioned above to represent HIM before all of mankind? Plain and simply put, HE wouldn't of. HE would of chose those that we representative of HIS likeness. As it is HE's shown us through our imperfections that we've great needs within our lives and that HE is the only means to fulfill them. Then HE's picked the cream of the crop to reveal this to the rest of the world, with all their imperfections shining forth in their glory.
For me I can say this is true, 100%, for I was a real work of art when GOD pulled me up by the shirt tails. I'd spent the last quarter century addicted to drugs of all sorts. Longer then this addicted to the lust of the flesh and pornography. An arrogant, manipulator that would lie to your face and then jump in... well I think that is enough for you to get the hint that I wasn't of what you'd call the highest caliber of person. Heck, I wouldn't even say I resembled a person at all at times. There may of actually been those types out there that were worst then me, which I know there were, because while I was in prison I got to see a bunch of them. Now I'm getting a little off coarse here, so back to our verses.
As you can see, I've not forgotten that which I was when CHRIST found me and pulled me up from out of the mire. I was covered by filth from head to toe and reeking to high heavens of all the ways of the world. Pulled up from what I knew to of been the lowest point of my life, having been completely crushed and ground into the finest of powder. My heart was to say the least, 'contrite'! All that I had known and cherished had blown away, or was running for the hills to escape being pulled down along with me. But after the LORD had picked me up, dusted me off and began to lead me in the proper directions in life, none of that mattered in the least. Sure there was my family, which I cherished greatly, but even when I found out my wife had been cheating on me with my partner in crime, it didn't bother me. Even when my son began to rebel an talk to me like trash, because his mother did and he didn't want anything to do with that 'Christian baloney.' This too didn't even stir me like one would think it would of. Sure these hurt, but they had become associated with the happens of this world and the man that I'd once been and those things didn't matter.
What had grown to be important in my life was dispelling that which it had once been about. Those ways, habits and manors that had for so long controlled everything I said, thought and did. Those things that had held me and bound me to a life that represented the worst that society had to offer. Those mannerisms and standards that are so wonderfully framed in our verses for today. These are the reasons that I forget not that which GOD raised me up from and these are the very reasons that I'll remember them until the day that I die to this world and go on to meet my SAVIOR on the other side of the veil. So if you want to call me foolish or argue about some theological differences in go right ahead, because I'll not listen to either point of view. What GOD has wrought in me, HE's done with a lot of hard work and many a mile of well fought over ground. HE's run me up onside with the Bible and then down the other, and the whole time letting me know what every single blessed WORD within meant. I may not be some multiple doctorate scholar, I may not be some high and mighty theologian, but what GOD has turned me into, is one of a kind and HE has a specific purpose for every breath that I take. But the truth is, I'm not alone in this ranking. Each and everyone of us that has called upon the name of JESUS CHRIST as personal LORD and SAVIOR, is in the same boat as I. For you too were created to stand for GOD like no other person in creation can accomplish. Your job is cut out for you and your calling is secured, you just have to step forward and fill those boots, just as the LORD has led you to!!!
Prayer request can be sent to: prayers@vineofchrist.org
GOD bless and good day,
Rev. Marshall Barth
Vine of CHRIST Ministries
Vine Ministerial Network International
Many times we tend to forget what we were when GOD laid HIS hands on us! Now I don't know about you, but I definitely wasn't a choirboy or the Pope. I was one heck of a messed up mass of emotions and problems. One of those people a psychologist could write their thesis on. But right down to the smallest of details, GOD had it all under control and planned out. I'm sure there will be many that will read this and either laugh and call me a fool or they'll blow a fuse, "because that isn't what GOD is" will come to their minds.
1 Cor. 1:26-28
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,
For me I can say this is true, 100%, for I was a real work of art when GOD pulled me up by the shirt tails. I'd spent the last quarter century addicted to drugs of all sorts. Longer then this addicted to the lust of the flesh and pornography. An arrogant, manipulator that would lie to your face and then jump in... well I think that is enough for you to get the hint that I wasn't of what you'd call the highest caliber of person. Heck, I wouldn't even say I resembled a person at all at times. There may of actually been those types out there that were worst then me, which I know there were, because while I was in prison I got to see a bunch of them. Now I'm getting a little off coarse here, so back to our verses.
As you can see, I've not forgotten that which I was when CHRIST found me and pulled me up from out of the mire. I was covered by filth from head to toe and reeking to high heavens of all the ways of the world. Pulled up from what I knew to of been the lowest point of my life, having been completely crushed and ground into the finest of powder. My heart was to say the least, 'contrite'! All that I had known and cherished had blown away, or was running for the hills to escape being pulled down along with me. But after the LORD had picked me up, dusted me off and began to lead me in the proper directions in life, none of that mattered in the least. Sure there was my family, which I cherished greatly, but even when I found out my wife had been cheating on me with my partner in crime, it didn't bother me. Even when my son began to rebel an talk to me like trash, because his mother did and he didn't want anything to do with that 'Christian baloney.' This too didn't even stir me like one would think it would of. Sure these hurt, but they had become associated with the happens of this world and the man that I'd once been and those things didn't matter.
What had grown to be important in my life was dispelling that which it had once been about. Those ways, habits and manors that had for so long controlled everything I said, thought and did. Those things that had held me and bound me to a life that represented the worst that society had to offer. Those mannerisms and standards that are so wonderfully framed in our verses for today. These are the reasons that I forget not that which GOD raised me up from and these are the very reasons that I'll remember them until the day that I die to this world and go on to meet my SAVIOR on the other side of the veil. So if you want to call me foolish or argue about some theological differences in go right ahead, because I'll not listen to either point of view. What GOD has wrought in me, HE's done with a lot of hard work and many a mile of well fought over ground. HE's run me up onside with the Bible and then down the other, and the whole time letting me know what every single blessed WORD within meant. I may not be some multiple doctorate scholar, I may not be some high and mighty theologian, but what GOD has turned me into, is one of a kind and HE has a specific purpose for every breath that I take. But the truth is, I'm not alone in this ranking. Each and everyone of us that has called upon the name of JESUS CHRIST as personal LORD and SAVIOR, is in the same boat as I. For you too were created to stand for GOD like no other person in creation can accomplish. Your job is cut out for you and your calling is secured, you just have to step forward and fill those boots, just as the LORD has led you to!!!
Prayer request can be sent to: prayers@vineofchrist.org
GOD bless and good day,
Rev. Marshall Barth
Vine of CHRIST Ministries
Vine Ministerial Network International
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