Posts tagged ‘Death’

I am in the Place of God!

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By Pastor Jeff,

Joseph had many ups and downs in his journey with Lord, some of his ups include receiving the coat of many colors from his father, becoming the head man at Potiphar’s house, and becoming second in command to all of Egypt in the Pharaoh’s kingdom! Some of his downs would be his brothers attempt to kill him, then selling him to the Ishmaelites, being accused of sexual assault by Potiphar’s wife then ending up in prison, and then being stuck in prison for two years. The one thing is that he never waivered for his love of God and rising above the fray.

When Jacob finally died, his brothers become fearful, Genesis 50:15-20, “And when Joseph’s brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” What a profound statement of faith and love!

We are all well aware that Satan hates us and seeks our destruction by whatever means he can. When sickness, death, suffering are piled on us as result of sin coming into our world we sometimes want to strike out and blame God. But we know He is not the source of evil and if we can real trust in the love of Jesus Christ we will see Romans 8:28 fulfilled, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” 

I will share for a moment on how I see this being fulfilled in my life. In the last year I have experienced a little more suffering than I would like to, my good friend died last October 20th, then a week later on October 28th my oldest son died as well. In the time between then and now my youngest daughter was diagnosed again with cancer and even though I believe she will be ultimately be healed it was a tough pill to swallow. Though I had experienced an occasional meltdown my faith in Jesus Christ is stronger than ever. This then leads to how God is turning it into a good thing!

A couple months ago our church as well I’m sure many churches received a letter talking about the local Sheriffs Dept. desire to start a Chaplain program for it’s officers. As I sat in the training class recently where the discussion was more about death and death notifications I thought to myself, “Why am I here?” The Spirit of God living in me brought me to the scripture from Romans 8:28 and I realized that those things that happened to me were meant to destroy me. But I would never of pursued this new chapter without it! God changed what was meant for evil to something good to His glory!

If you are going through a tough period, keep on loving God, trust Him and somehow, sometime, Jesus will turn it into something good!

picture care of: BibleWordings.com

 

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Why I Believe!

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By Pastor Jeff,

Mark 16:9-18, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Believing in an integral part of the Christian faith and it means to have faith in, but have you ever been asked, “Why do you believe?”, how did you respond?

I recently looked at the question on the internet and how what those that call themselves atheists, give as reason to not believe in God. I will just cover a two of probably the most common reasons and my answers will be fairly brief, but I’m sure you will get the picture I am painting. One of the questions has to start with the origin of this universe we live in which is referred to as Evolution. Hebrews 11:3, “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.” To be honest it takes faith to believe in creation as well as it does in evolution since none of us where there to witness it but as I have researched and studied both theories, (I was once a big believer in “Big Bang” and evolution) it becomes much more apparent that true science matches up with the creation event than it does with the evolution theory (study the first and second laws of Thermodynamics as well as other natural laws). Does anyone really believe that the loss of information in our DNA shows that we evolved or are evolving (Mutations are a cornerstone of evolution proponents and no mutation shows an increase of information but the loss of it instead)  I can go on and on giving evidence of a young earth but you need to make up your own mind if this proves that there is no God!

The other question non-believers pose is “Where is God in all the suffering?” I use to have a hard time answering this tough question, but after studying the fall of man you can only come to the conclusion that is not God that brought suffering and death into the world. It is man! God created man, the world and the universe perfectly and only had one request from us, Genesis 2:15-17, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Our God is not a God that lies, what He told Adam was the truth, and ever since man decided to have things his own way its brought suffering and death for us all.

So that’s why you believe brother Jeff?

Well its much more than that, it really comes down to that my life was a mess, I had no hope, I was angry at the God that I didn’t believe in, I was selfish, bitter, destined to spend an eternity without God. I was going nowhere fast but I was introduced to someone who cared about me even when I didn’t care about myself and His name was Jesus the Christ! He loved me enough to allow me to hear the gospel message, He allowed me to become convicted of my sins, to repent, and to have those sins washed away in the waters of Baptism calling on His name. He loved me enough to fill me with His precious gift of the Holy Ghost.

My life can still be called a mess, but it is a glorified mess through the love of Jesus Christ our Lord, and that my friends is WHY I BELIEVE!

Picture care of: centralchristianocala.org

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