Casting pearls- Who wants to win something free!

Ever want something for nothing? Ever want to be the winner of a great lottery, or sweepstakes? God is offering that right now! He has a gift for anyone who is willing to believe on His Son, Jesus, Profess Jesus’ name before men, and that is all you must do. It is simple and it is free. It costs you nothing, only your willingness to receive.

The Christian religion is different from all the religions out there because it does not ask you to give anything to receive something. All other religions ask for something to prove yourself before you receive. The Christian religion doesn’t. It is really not fair to call Christianity a religion, it is more of a relationship. That is also one of the differences. 

  God desires a relationship with all believers, He loves them and wants them to return that love to Him. When you have a relationship with someone, you wish to spend a lot of time with them. Since there is no way to physically spend time with God, the Lord has provided the chance to spent time with His Word, The Bible. The Bible says in John 1:1 that Jesus was the Word in the beginning, He is the Word now, and the Word is God. Speaking of the Word of God which is the Bible. The Bible also says in 1 John 5:7 that there are three which bear witness in Heaven, The Father God, The Son Jesus, and The Holy Ghost.; these three are One! So, reading God’s Word is the same as spending time with Him, and Jesus, and The Holy Ghost.

  As believers in Jesus we should attempt to spend time with God every day. I personally spend time with God every morning to start my day off right. I also pray to Him every morning as God wants not only to speak to us, but to hear from us as well. We speak it in faith, knowing that the Lord already knows the things we need to pray about, we only need to show God our faith that He will move on these requests. Faith was how Abraham was able to show his righteousness, and it is how we show God our righteousness as well. It may be more to your liking to read God’s Word in the evening, It doesn't matter what time of day you spend with God, only that you do.

One of the Commandments of God is to Tithe to God a tenth of all you have. Do you give God a tenth of your time? Many people think that if they just give ten percent of their income they have given all that is required. They would be missing the real meaning. We all need to think about the time we have been given and the family we have been given, and the things we have been given, and anything we have been given by the Lord. We are required to give ten percent of it ALL. The Lord wants us to give up all control we think we have, to Him, and let Him take us where we need to go. Just as the ship that Paul was in on the way to Rome, we must not try to fight the storm, just allow it to blow us where He would have us and praise His name the whole time we are on the way there. 

You might say, well, that is asking something from me. I would tell you that if you have the Holy Ghost living inside you, you will want to do these things and more for The Lord. Spreading the Gospel to the people who need to hear will become important to you. What is truly sad is someone who has said ,well I am saved and thats enough. They have the Holy Ghost living inside but have ignored the calling of it to the point they are a detriment to God and His Church. They are so tied up in the things around them and the world that they don’t feel the urgings of the Spirit or help the Church to spread the Gospel of Jesus. 

  What all people must decide is wether they want to be in the world or to influence the world for Jesus. The world is watching you, are you wanting them to see everything about you? The programs we watch on TV are tracked, the sites you go to on the computer are tracked, the phone calls you make are tracked, the visits you make to the store are tracked, every time we do anything where a piece of electronics is involved is tracked. Our entire life can be tracked by the people, what kind of example are you? What do others see? Do they see what you want them to see? What kind of example are you setting for the world around you to follow.

The entire thing is that we are a example to the world in the life that we live. To be a good example and receive the free gift that Jesus is offering is what God desires us to do. The world says we have to give so much up to be a Christian but the truth is that you will gain so much more if you only will. 

Casting Pearls- Have you cleaned out your temple?

Our bodies are temples in which God lives. Not only are we supposed to be living temples of God, and a representative of God to the world around us. In 1 John 3:24 we see this proof. God dwells in us who dwell in Him. The Holy Spirit reveals to us whenever we begin to stray into things which will make our temple defiled in the sight of God. The Spirit’s conviction lets us know God lives in us. 

We all become agitated with others in some way or another in our lives, we talk meanly to our children, to our co-workers, to our neighbors, to our family members. We are god’s temple and representative in this world, and we may feel as though we are justified since we are told by the Bible to be righteously angry at sin, and to not ‘spare the rod’ with our children. 

What we must remember, is that as we are temples in our bodies, the other people we are agitated with are temples of God too. Our children are temples as well. Everyone is a temple in some state of being built just as we are not yet built. The temple of our lives is still under construction. We need to fight not to be overcome with pride or selfishness that our temple is further along with construction than someone else's. The devil will use any opening we give him to attack us. we must always stay under the protection of The Lord. 

As we are temples, and they are temples, what are we to do? Well as always I refer to the Bible for all the answers. In Romans 12:1-2 the Bible tells us to present yourself both to God and to man as a Holy Acceptable temple, not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the Word of the Lord, so that we may be acceptable to the Lord. We only have control over ourselves. We cannot make anyone else do what we think is right. 

The key word in the previous sentence is ‘think’. In our minds, we see things one way, in their minds they see things another way. We are responsible only to do what is right in our minds, not their minds. If we feel we need to excuse what we have done, it probably is wrong. If we feel that what we want to do is wrong to our own conscience it is probably wrong. Everyone sees things in a different way, they will react differently. What we must do is be willing, as God is, to be understanding of others seeing things differently and act accordingly. 

What we need to do is to ‘crucify the flesh’ as is spoken of in Galatians 2:19-20. We need to be dead to the flesh and the desires of the flesh. The flesh is controlled by the Law of God that can never be lived up to. The Lord gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside us when we are saved so we will be acceptable to  the Lord and to others as a representative of God. The problem comes when we have more than one face we show to the world. We come to Church and say ‘God Bless You’ and ‘Praise the Lord’ but when we go home, we are totally different. A ‘poor at best’ representative of Christ. It is common in people to be this way. We put our best face on when in public, but our real face when we think no one is looking. That is why a persons true character is shown when no one is watching. The whole world would be better off if we all realized that God is always watching, He sees everything we do and knows everything we think. We can hide nothing from God.

We also need to take into account how our representation of Jesus will appear to other people or our children. Will we influence others or our children to be good temples for God to inhabit in the future? That is exactly what God wants us to do. Make them acceptable vessels for God to inhabit. The best way to make others an acceptable vessel is to make ourselves an acceptable vessel and show them how wonderful it could be.

Casting Pearls- Faith or Mammon, Which do we serve?

                     In Matthew 6:24 we find that Jesus is telling us that we have a choice of serving God, or Money. EIther we serve one or the other, they are not mutually exclusive but both are very different. We must either serve one or the other. Which ever one we serve, we must HATE the other to serve the one. God's ministry must needs have money to reach out in this world, and if we love money, we HATE and shortchange God. God is the original maker of money, or mammon, and all things in this world, so you must love the maker or the thing he made. In 1Timothy 6:17 the Bible says to tell them that are rich in the things of this world, that they should not be high  minded and trust in their riches, but rather trust in God who gives us everything we have. Or James 4:4 which states that we act like a cheating spouse when we give our allegiance to the things of this world instead of Christ. To love the things of this world that you have more than God, who made them, is the same as being an enemy of God's.
                     Then we go on to Matthew 6:25-28 where Jesus says that we should not worry about the things of this life. Our food, drink, and even clothes will be provided, if we only trust in the Lord and let Him have control. Jesus gives the examples of birds, and then  later on of the flowers. neither really work or plant but both are well fed and clothed beautifully. If you think of the most finest dressed person you know, are the flowers not more beautiful than they are? Jesus gives the example of Solomon in verse 29 as he was the richest and most fancily dressed man from that time. In verse 30 Jesus says if God clothes even the grass in the field so beautifully and feeds it so well, when it will only be here for a short time then burned up or used as food for the sheep, do we not think He will not do the same for us? In Job 38:41 the Bible states that ' doesn't the Lord even feed the ravens and their young? If one of them were to cry out in hunger, God would even hear them. '
                      In verse 31, the Bible quotes Jesus as saying, that we should not take up our time even thinking on the food or clothes or drink for the day ahead, as will provide all we are in need of. Thinking and worrying about such things will not help us or anybody else, neither will it provide any of it for us. We see in  verse 32, the Bible says, the things of this world is what  the world seeks after, and we should keep our minds on God's riches and save up in our heavenly account instead  of here. The things God provides to us here, in this life, are only to be used by us in the building up of God's kingdom, not ours. That leads us to verses 33&34  where Jesus says that we are not to plan for tomorrow or worry about it, not to say planning is a bad thing altogether, but if we worry about any of it we are showing a lack of faith in God!  It is fine to plan if this and tis and this happen, then I'll do that, but don't let it become your sole focus. Let God be the one in control. Some people say I gave control of it to God and nothing great happened, well maybe you didn't give up complete control of things to God. Did you give up control of your funds, your things, yourself, Your provisions? the common theme in all these things is YOU! YOUr funds, YOUr things, YOUr provisions, YOUrself. The main problem with giving God control is YOU.
                     There was a man in England who was raised on the 'wrong side of the tracks' so to speak, named George Mueller 1805-1898, Who was not the greatest Christian to begin with, and even got in some trouble as a youth, then when he was a young man, he was sent to be trained in a Christian college by his father and try and become an evangelist, after going to college and not having enough money to pay the tuition he broke down and actually began to pray to the God who he had before just made fun of, Soon a knock came at his bedroom door and it was a servant of the proctor of the college, asking him to become a tutor and the job would pay enough to cover all his upcoming college expenses, This is when the trust in prayer to God began. Mr. Muller was known for having started over ten different orphanages with over Ten thousand children having grown up in them. He never ran an ad to hire someone or tried to get donations from people, he merely prayed for God to provide, and He did. The part in the Lord's prayer about give us this day our daily bread, was personified in his actions. For over forty years he ran the various orphanages and started almost 120, Christian schools which educated over 120,000  children. Never once asking anyone for funds or help with the exception only of God Himself. Later at the age of 70, having outlived his first wife and getting remarried, he began 17 years of missionary evangelism.
                   Mr. Muller traveled all around Europe and overseas to Canada and the United States, preaching and spreading God's Word. He paid his own fare for traveling from the unsolicited gifts given him on his travels, and even once or twice had someone pay for him to travel on to his next stop. In one well known and documented instance, Mr. Muller had the headmistress of one of the orphanages bring the some 130 children in to the dining room for breakfast, though nothing had arrived yet for them to eat. He prayed and thanked God for the food they were about to receive, and right after he finished praying, the doorbell rang, it was the local baker, who explained that he woke up a 3am feeling as though he should bake some bread and bring it to the orphanage. Soon afterwards a milk delivery man came up and said his wagon wheel had broken on his wagon and all the milk he had with him would ruin before anyone could come and fix it, so would they want five large canisters of milk which just filled 130 glasses. After breakfast each day was a time given to bible reading and prayer and every child upon leaving the orphanage, was given a small tin trunk with two changes of clothes and a Bible.
                  Would that we all had that kind of faith in God and all that He provides. If we can move YOU out of the way God is more than able to provide.