Today’s message will focus upon a founding principle of our nation: “Justice for All”  

“Preparing for Salvation”

Isaiah 56:1-2, 57:11-13 NIV
June 13, 2010

 

God brings about salvation and righteousness in His time, but He still wants me to prepare for it.  

I am preparing for salvation when I maintain true justice.  

Isaiah points out that my pursuit of maintaining justice cannot be separated from keeping the Sabbath without desecrating it.  

When I fail to separate myself from the influences of the powers of this world for a full day every week those powers have unlimited access and opportunity to corrupt and destroy my covenant relationship with God.  

A fifteen-minute quiet time every day plus two 45 minute Bible studies per week plus an hour a week in worship plus another hour or two per week in service to others do not count for a thing if they are desecrated by the presence of this world.  

Satan wants us to focus our conversation upon money, politics, other people who are missing the mark, our own parties and celebrations, etc. so that he can steal the seed of the word from us before it ever takes root within us.  

Any dog can guard, keep and gnaw on one bone, but what about five bones?  

When I lose a bone the first one to disappear is always the one called the Word of God!  

Without the word of God I cannot prepare for Christ’s return.  

I renew my relationship with God by remembering God and pondering the fear of the Lord in my heart.  

The goal of the Sabbath is to have my heart and mind so full of God and His word that there is no room for world.  

The fruit that I am maintaining true justice and keeping the Sabbath is that God is my refuge!  

When God is my refuge in the midst of the storms and trials and troubles of this world the one thing that I see is God and the one noise that I hear is the still small voice of His Spirit!

“In the Last Days”

Jude 17-25 NIV
June 6, 2010

 

Do we live in the last days?  

Jude reminds his readers that in the last days the church will be filled with both godly and ungodly people.  

While godly and ungodly people share the same social network, there are obvious differences between the two.  

The ungodly choose to follow their own natural instincts and inner desires.  

The ungodly ridicule the message and the messengers that come from God.  

The ungodly set boundaries in place that divide us.  

Have you ever noticed that boundaries always puff up the people who set them?  

According to the apostles we can expect to find the ungodly actively participating in every church in the last days.  

How do I avoid joining with the ungodly?

            I must live by the Holy Spirit.  

I must build up my faith and not my ego.  

I must silence the desires of my heart and the ramblings of my mind so that the I can cooperate with the Holy Spirit in seeking the will of God.  

I must obey God when I do not understand and when my heart desperately desires something else and when every instinct within me is terrified that the end result of my obedience will be disaster.  

I must be kind, encouraging and helpful to the people who do not believe what I believe.  

I must risk my well-being for someone who has already failed and fallen.  

I must break down the walls that divide with the mercy of Jesus Christ.  

My actions reveal which kind of person I am:  

Either I am the good guy who ridicules others and finds reasons to separate from them or am I the spirit filled child of God who is a friend to and a servant of the least and the worst.

“Filled with Sorrow and Grief”

John 11:17-44 NIV
May 30, 2010

 

This passage of scripture reminds me that God does not act according to human understanding, desires or wisdom.  

Everyone in this story believes that Jesus could have prevented Lazarus death.  

If Jesus really loved Lazarus why did He let him suffer and die?  

Jesus cares even when we doubt.  

Even though He was filled with grief and compassion, Jesus was not governed by His emotions.  

Holiness is doing what is right regardless of how I feel.  

We see the glory of God when we obey Him despite the certainty that the outcome of the action will be horrible.  

Martha claimed that she believed that Jesus was the Christ and that whatever He asked for would be given by God, yet she tried to stop the opening of the tomb when Jesus called for it.  

Martha’s trust in her own knowledge of life and death was stronger than her faith in Jesus.  

Miracles happen when I stop opposing God and start doing what He tells me to do.