The apostle Paul: “My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1 Corinthians 2:4

What did Paul mean by “a demonstration?”  Merely repeating what the Scripture says about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, isn’t enough to see people getting saved and growing up in the Lord. One must have God’s power “demonstrated” in one’s life in order to preach or teach the Word of God, or else that one is merely a hypocrite, like that man who wanted the power he saw with some of the Lord’s disciples who were casting out demons. He thought he could buy that power somehow, and then just say the words the apostles said and VWALLA! “Look at how POWERFUL I am!”

When God’s power is demonstrated in our lives – the WORD of GOD LIVES.  I listen to some of our politicians using the Word of God to make their political points. They give over the impression that they are Christians, but then you see what they ‘actually’ stand for and what they are ‘actually’ doing to our country “under God” – and it’s obvious they are using the Word of God for their own self-serving benefit of remaining in power. Wicked!

Do you have a testimony of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ – changed your life? Do you continue to have testimonies (plural) of how reading, meditating, studying the whole Word of God – continues to mature you in the Lord?

Hebrews teaches us in chapter 6: “Let us MOVE BEYOND the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to MATURITY….” (vs. 1) What are the “elementary” teachings? Paul gives: 1. Laying the FOUNDATION of repentance from acts that lead to death. (We continue to confess our sins, but we must let the power of the HOLY Spirit free us so we can move on to maturity in the Lord.) 2. The laying on of hands (to be filled with the Holy Spirit to fulfill your calling from God, which is near impossible for you to do in your own power). 3. Instructions about cleansing rites. (Remaining clean in the sight of the Lord, now that you’ve been forgiven past/present/future; quickly admitting sin and asking for the Lord’s help to overcome. “If we confess our sins, He is able and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”) 4. The teaching about the resurrection of the dead (in Christ – forever with Him). 5. The teaching of Eternal Judgment. (We will all be judged, one way or another.)

Then Paul goes on to say that when a person does NOT move on to maturity but remains a nursing infant on the milk (elementary teaching) of the Word, not growing to maturity with the Lord on the solid meat of God’s Word – that infant becomes USELESS to God. What is a baby able to do for anyone? Imagine an adult person still nursing on his/her mother’s breasts. ICK! Right?

Paul even states: “It is IMPOSSIBLE for those who have once (first saved) been enlightened (foundation of elementary teachings), who have TASTED the heavenly gift (God’s wonderful grace in his/her life), who have shared in the Holy Spirit (His love/joy/peace), who have TASTED the goodness of the word of God (early evidence of His goodness) and the powers of the coming age (now looking forward to the return of the Lord) AND YET HAVE FALLEN AWAY, TO BE BROUGHT BACK TO REPENTANCE.” What did Paul actually mean here that “It is impossible to be brought back to repentance?”  He then explains what he means: “To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to public disgrace.” (vs. 4-7)

What? “Crucifying Jesus again?” What comes to me is how those who put Jesus up on that cross over 2K years ago mocked Him for being on that cross, IF HE WAS WHO HE SAID HE WAS. Where’s the evidence? WE ARE! Those who are in Him all the way.

“Subjecting Him to public disgrace?” What comes to me is how people of the world look at most Christians today (especially in America) and laugh at us when we talk about God and Jesus Christ. Why? Because we don’t seem to be living any differently than the people of the world!

As an “infant” we remain in a place of self-deception, living pretty much as we please. What stops us from maturity? Maybe we are fearful of sharing the Gospel of Christ, not willing to be persecuted in any way. We don’t know how to go without things we’re used to having. Waiting on the Lord is too hard. Learning new things isn’t always fun! Maybe we love our sin more than we love the Lord’s will in our life. Maybe we are afraid of what our friends will say, and afraid of being rejected by those we grew up with. Maybe we are afraid of what the Lord would call us to do that we don’t want to do, or what the Lord would require from us that we are not willing to give up.

People have all kinds of reasons for remaining “infants” but an ‘infant in the Lord’ won’t realize what the ‘mature in the Lord’ experience ‘with the Lord’ and are then rewarded in glory for being faithful to the Lord all the way TO THE END.

I love knowing that what my Lord began in me, He will complete in me – with my cooperation of course! For, I need Him to live the life He has called me to; the life that is TRULY LIFE!  Lord, demonstrate YOUR POWER in my life! Give me wisdom in how to use it!

As I was listening to the Billy Graham channel on SXM radio in my car, one of his messages was on why Ezekiel said that only Noah/Daniel/Job would be saved, because of their righteousness, from the judgment of God. Billy wondered why God told Ezekiel those three men, and Billy heard the Spirit say because Noah overcame the world. Daniel overcame the flesh. Job overcame the devil.

I had always wondered ‘why’ as well. Never thought of it that way.

Were these three men perfect and without sin? No. But they overcame what was in the way – in their pursuit of finishing their ‘call’ from God. What’s my call from God? What’s yours?

It’s not how we start; it’s how we finish – that matters to God. He knows we are sinners in desperate need of His grace, wisdom and strength. We need to understand that as well. That’s why it’s all about Jesus Christ and not any one of us, lest the CROSS OF CHRIST BE EMPTIED OF ITS POWER!

In Revelation 3:5 Jesus says: “All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never ERASE their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine.” Does Jesus write their name in His Book of Life after the person says the sinner’s prayer, or after their words have been tested? Again, only God knows the truth about us. Man can assume by what he sees outwardly, but God sees the heart, the truth in us.

We all will fail the Lord, like Peter did those 3 times (then the rooster crowed to remind him what he had professed) but then Peter finished faithfully. God sees the future result of our verbal confessions, so I’m thinking that because God sees the future result of what we say or confess, He can write our name in the Book of Life at the start.

BUT what would cause the Lord to erase our name from the Book of Life? We can start out with a “positive” (good intention) but then fail to follow through (a negative erasing). If I think my commitment to Christ is about how well I do, then my commitment equals nothing to the Lord at the end. I lose what I thought I had with the Lord.

The Bible states that there are more than one Book. Rev. 20: 11 “Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. The earth and the heavens fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. 12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13] The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done. 14] Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. 15] Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

If someone wants to believe they can be saved by what THEY DO or DON’T DO, or by mere confessions, they have lost, they will be judged by their own work, and sadly FALL SHORT of God’s glory according to Romans 3:23. Jesus either knows you or doesn’t. It’s all about Him and what He’s done for us, that we could NEVER do for ourselves. If He knows you, then your name is written in the Book of Life. If He doesn’t know you then your name is NOT written in the Book of Life. If He doesn’t know you then your name is NOT written in the Book of Life and the Lake of Fire is your end, forever separated from God and the LIFE you could’ve had with Him forever.

Jesus said (Matthew 7:22-24) that the day will come when people will be banging at His door wanting to come in – reminding Him of all they did for Him. But Jesus says, “Go away, I never KNEW you.” He doesn’t acknowledge them as one of His own. Why? They tried to gain salvation THEIR way, not HIS Way, which is the only way, and only a few will go that narrow path, says the Lord.

The Apostle John writes about us “knowing” that we are saved and with the Lord forever. When I hear so-called Christians say, “Well, I hope I’m going to heaven,” it makes me wonder if they are truly saved ‘in Christ.’ The indwelling Holy Spirit is the One who gives us that solid unshakeable confidence and peace no matter how many times we fall or fail the Lord. Thank You Jesus for all You’ve done for us!

When does the Lord put His Holy Spirit in us? When He sees true a true desire to love Him and serve Him, for we cannot do it in our own strength and with our own limited understanding.

God created “the family” FIRST to be the center of life, living out the government of God (on the earth – as it is in Heaven). God’s Son, Jesus Christ, taught us to pray to our Father God “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”

God established the way in which we should live as families (of all races) with our different cultural expressions, yet all united in our worship of God in truth and love, with His principles of life, and with His justice system by which to serve and protect growing communities, states, and nations.

This ‘current’ emboldened anti-God administration feels so free, without consequence or accountability to God, to go after the God-fearing, and all those who refuse to give up their God-given rights. This administration has NO fear of the presence of ‘Christianity’ in this nation. Why?

The breakdown of the family of God, has led to men leaving their role as men (husbands and fathers and community leaders) to lead as God says a man is to lead, which then progressed with women leading, and women not being helpmates of their husbands, women then killing babies in their wombs so they could be free from mothering, women leading men, mothers grooming their sons as to what they want men to be, mothers showing their daughters they should do the same. No wonder men have unnatural sexual relations with men, and women with women, now children are being adopted and raised by homosexuals to go against God’s laws of human life, and now taught in schools that they can’t trust the gender they were born with, and to change the gender they were born with, and on and on it will go – until the return of God’s Son to restore all that God once called “good” that HE created in the beginning.

This White House, on down through all its branches of government, now thinks THEY are the god to be obeyed and supported with the fruits of our OWN labors. They believe they have the right to tell us how to think and live, and if not, to be justified in punishing or killing those who refuse to obey them, the ruling government of evil. (This is the persecution Jesus warned us of when we give over our God-given positions and power to the ungodly!)

So why has the “church of Jesus Christ” allowed Satan (God’s number one enemy) to take over our government as we see with the progressive left having FULL control in government since the last election? Why, when God has given HIS SERVANTS (at the start of this nation’s government) the ruling positions with a government designed by God to protect lawful peaceful people from an oppressive tyrannical government?

When Jesus told us that we should not be caught UNAWARE of the devil’s schemes, why did “the church of the LORD” become UNAWARE of the devil’s schemes in taking over the blessed design of marriage/family, all religious organizations, and the government of America?

Why is it that God’s own people have not remained at their watch-posts generation after generation (aware of the devil’s schemes and constant onslaught) and in their ruling positions in the home, the Lord’s church, and our nation’s government? Why not that disturbed, as PROGRESSIVES have been progressively (generation to generation) getting away with all their godlessness and lawlessness – so that the wicked are not at all concerned about the consequence or coming judgment on their godlessness? Why?

Yet, PTL, we are starting to see the RIGHTEOUS anger we should have over all that this current administration is at work to do with their ‘attack’ on the biblical family and our parental rights to raise our own children, on law and order (as they defund the police and allow lawlessness to destroy cities); with them shutting down our country’s natural resource industries; with INFLATION that never had to happen; with how they left Americans in Afghanistan to be hunted and killed by the Taliban takeover, with their open border policy and all the evil and disease flooding into our country so they can secure more votes; with their vaccine mandates (with many side-effects more harmful than getting COVID), mandates that oppose the TRUTH about this plague and natural immunities and that have put businesses out and people all the more dependent on their stimulus checks (deception); with their attack on the courts’ verdicts that go against their agenda so that they want to pack the courts to get all their way; with them wanting to take our guns and our property; with their protection of their own party’s lies and corrupt ways as they devise ways to arrest the innocent that expose them, and unjustly imprison others who have evidence of their corruption, etc. etc. and the list keeps growing.

Have God’s people decided they have the right from God to be angry and active against all this? Or, are they just cowardly waiting for the “rapture,” that they think will protect them from the worst to come?

Is our ‘persecution’ here in America because of falling away from God? Or, is it because Christians are standing firm with their faith, hope and love for Christ, no matter what? I believe both! But, one ends ‘eternally’ differently than the other!

There is indeed deep astrological significance to the date of Passover. We celebrate the festival of freedom on the 15th of the Jewish month of Nissan, the night the Israelites were freed from Egypt. This is the full moon of the month of Aries, the ram.

The Egyptians worshipped the ram as a god. Aries is the leader of the star signs, the first and most powerful, and the Egyptians saw themselves as the leaders of the world, receiving their strength and fortitude from their god, the ram.

So the strongest time for the Egyptians would have been the month of Aries, when their god is ascendant, and the strongest day of that month would be its full moon.

Egyptian power would reach its zenith on the 15th of Nissan, and that is exactly when the Israelites left Egypt. Aries was rendered impotent at its very moment of strength.

But there’s more. The Israelites ate a festive meal on the night before the exodus, and the main course was lamb roasted on a spit. They were openly eating the Egyptian deity—the ram—in front of the Egyptians, under the full moon of the strongest month. God’s wisdom is much higher than man’s wisdom. He has used His higher wisdom to confound and shame worldly wisdom.

The message is unmistakable. The world is not run by capricious forces and amoral star signs. There is a GOD who rules heaven and earth, who cares for the innocent and exacts justice upon the corrupt. To the stars, our actions make no difference. To, God, our actions matter tremendously. The zodiac demands nothing from us. God, however, demands we live a life of goodness.

The Israelites themselves didn’t always get this message. After the Exodus, some in the Israelite camp suggested that while the ram of Egypt (Aries) had indeed been trumped, it was not God’s doing, rather the next star sign, Taurus the bull, who had beaten Aries. And so they built the Golden Calf—an idol honoring Taurus. It’s tempting to fall back on idolatrous beliefs because they relieve us of responsibility to God Himself, the Creator of the universe. Idolatrous beliefs also rob us of our freedom, which comes from God.

Passover celebrates not only the Israelites’ freedom from Egyptian slavery, but also freedom from being bound by a destiny that is formed by created things, rather than from our Creator. Our lives are not subject to the impersonal forces of the zodiac. We are free to rise above the limitations of fate and conquer our birth signs. This idea of FREEDOM was brought home on the night of the full moon of Aries. You are free to see the truth about your destiny as God has established and we come to understand this TRUTH from reading God’s own Word.