elections – The Arrow Preacher

What Did Jesus Say?

God doesn’t love you just the way you are. God loves you enough to give you a chance. We all face judgment because of the sin we are born in. God loved you enough to send his only Begotten Son to this filthy rotten earth, so you may have a choice, to follow or not, to trust or not, to submit or not, to Jesus’s authority God the Father has given Him. There is only one verse where scripture says God loves the world, John 3:16. What does scripture actually say? Repent. Repent because you are facing judgment. We are born into a world that comes with a choice, and that choice is to accept God, or not. Hell is not full of people who are repented and sorrowful after death,

Matthew 8:12 But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Meaning the sons of the kingdom (earth) those who follow the prince of the power of the air (Satan) will not find nor see Jesus, but instead will be cast into darkness, and there they will not weep from sorrow, and not cry out in regret, instead will be like Anakin Skywalker burning alive on the side of the lava flow. “I hate you!” he cried out to Obi-Wan. Scripture does not say God loves you the way you are. God loves you and wants a relationship with you, but you have to repent and turn from the world, and embrace his Son Jesus. Only then, are you given a new heart, born a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” Scripture doesn’t say we can remain in our sins. Scripture doesn’t say that as long as you’re happy in your sin you can keep it. Or to turn a phrase, “if you like your old sin you can keep it.” Scripture is clear, we are to murder our sin, turn away from our sin with all malice. If it was a sin 2000 years ago, it’s still a sin today. While this notion is not a culturally popular outlook, homosexuality is indeed a sin still today, as it was 2000+ years ago. Abortion is a sin. Steeling is a sin. Rape, murder, incest, are all still sins today. While these are the sins we know of, a recent video I saw said the first sin was the lie from Satan. While that is the first visible sin, I disagree, the first sin is pride. Pride the sin of self, is the sin that leads to the first lie. Pride is what leads Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Pride, the idea that we know more than God, that we can make better decisions than God, that we want what we want, and we will take what we want. In today’s fallen society, upside down society, indeed a mirror of the society found at the end of Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” We live in a world full of subjective truth. Objective truth is vilified, and society today tells us to live our best life now. Tells us to live our truth, and do what makes us happy and feel good.

Jesus doesn’t ever tell us to follow our heart.

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the Lord,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Meaning, when you follow God he changes your heart, and gives you new desires that line up with God.

Jeremiah 17:9

“The heart is deceitful above all things,

And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Of course Jesus doesn’t want us to follow our hearts, Jesus wants us to follow him. As Paul says no one is righteous, no not one, lest any man should boast. All men have fallen short of the Glory of God.

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Jesus did not say live your truth, John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Jesus doesn’t say do what makes you happy, instead he said this:

John 15:10-11 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

Joy comes from knowing the Lord. People these days are seeking joy and happiness in all the wrong places. People seek happiness in sex, drugs, people, stuff, money, all the things of this world, rather than God. Stuff and people pass away, they get old, the new wears off, and we are left seeking the next thing. True joy must be found in the Lord and only the Lord.

Jesus never said believe in yourself. Instead he said this John 14:1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”

Again, we see the pride in our life. We see this abundance of pride everywhere in our lives. People elevate self-esteem as the utmost importance but really the important thing to remember is we are dead in our sins. We are wretched sinners, and it’s in that sin we find the truth. We find who we are in Christ, and Christ alone, and it’s there we find that all our works, our best days, our accomplishments are gifts from God, not our own.

And finally Be true to yourself, instead Jesus says this

Luke 9:23-27

23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. 25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? 26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. 27 But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”

We have entered into a scary time in History. A time in which like in times of ancient days, things seem upside down. We know that God sees all things, and knows all things, and is in control of all things. This is the type of time that Paul warns young Timothy about. A time in which men will gather up those who will entertain and tickle their ears. A time in which people will not adhere to sound doctrine. We live in a time where people do and say what they want for they fear not the Lord. We live in a time where wrong is called right and right is called wrong. We live in a time where the peacemakers are the villains and the villains are the heroes.

We are about to go into an election, and I hear people say, ‘vote your conscience’. I hear people say Jesus would be a republican, or a democrat. If we are to call ourselves Christians, we have to accept scripture as truth. We have to know what it is scripture actually says, so we are not to be lied to, or misdirected. How do we follow Christ if we don’t know what He and His word actually says? How can we vote for a sinful politician that best represents what we believe, if we don’t know what our faith actually says? We are called to pray for our leaders, our governments, and we cannot expect the world to change through any political party or person. The world changes through Christ, or Satan, one or the other. Either we trust Christ and we follow him, and we find leaders who follow Him, or, Satan’s people will be in charge. As God allowed Israel to be given over to their own reprobate mind, so shall God allow the U.S. to do the same. If we are not going to follow Him, a time will come, if it hasn’t already, that the U.S. will fall to its own sinful desires. Things will either get better because God allows it to get better, having people who follow him, or it will get worse because Satan has been given control and people who follow Satan. Make no mistake, you don’t have to be a worshiper of Satan to follow Satan. Anyone who denies Christ the true Christ, are children of Adam, and to be a child of Adam is to be in Darkness, one who is born into Sin, and the Sin nature is that of pride and self.

We cannot live our lives in a perpetual state of misquoting scripture, taking scripture out of context, and thinking one man or political party is going to save the world. We cannot expect our taxes will save the world. We cannot expect the giving up of rights and freedoms will somehow save the world. We cannot expect those of the world to have the same respect for life and conscience a Christian has. Those who are still ‘plugged in to the Matrix’, are perfectly happy in their ignorance, and of course we know ‘ignorance is bliss.’ (The Matrix) What we can do is share the love of Christ. Show others love in everything we do. Live the life Christ calls us to live and be that Ambassador He expects us to be. We cannot stand on our Christian faith if we ourselves do not know what it says. We cannot expect to hold others accountable if again, we don’t know what the WORD OF GOD SAYS!

Do not follow your own heart, nor follow your own understanding. Do not seek your own truth, instead seek God’s truth. Seek the heart of God, and know his purpose for us, know his Truth, and follow His word. We may not always like what scripture says, but we are not a Holy and Righteous perfect God. Also, consider this, God is merciful and patient. Thank God for not giving us what we deserve. We often find ourselves upset that God does not give us the desires of our hearts right away, or at all, but often fail to recognize we don’t get what we deserve right away from God either. What we deserve is death, righteous punishment for being enemies of God. We did not deserve Jesus, but instead we received love and mercy.

We must turn from our wicked sinful ways and repent. We must turn to Jesus and know His words. We must go forward in our lives not keeping one foot in righteousness and one foot in the world. We cannot be of two worlds. Know God, and follow Jesus, or reject Jesus and face the consequences for following Satan. Jesus loves you and He desires a relationship with you, but He will never force you into that relationship. He will not force you to Hell, you will walk through the gates of Hell of your own choices and be consumed by your own Pride. We do not follow Jesus for the benefits. We follow Jesus because He created the world, and this is all His. We follow Him because He is Holy and we are not. We follow Him not for the benefits of health and wealth in this world, but rather that we are servants for a Holy God. We must have the servant heart, and put others before ourselves. For what is it worth to have the whole of the world, but give up your soul in the process? Do not wait till you face the Lord Jesus in the afterlife, for if you wait that long, you have made your choice and will face the consequences of those choices. Choose to follow Jesus now, and know His Love, and warmth, and peace, and find true Joy.

Plenty of Blame

I recently saw a report where New York Gov. Cuomo attempted to place blame of Covid-19 deaths on former President Trump. It occurred to me that this is nothing new, but rampant right now. IF we spent less time pointing fingers, and instead acknowledge that first we all share blame, down to the individual household, and also less time pointing fingers, and more time sitting at the table to work on the problem, we would be able to find reasonable solutions. Problems such as these are often much bigger, far larger, than one person. Every single human is currently responsible for the outcome we face. From not wearing masks, to not staying home, to hosting parties, to unnecessary travel, etc. We all place blame, but largely, if you want to be more specific, how much can we really do to fight a pandemic? While this isn’t the first time, it is the first time that a virus could travel so easily around the world, so quickly. I would say, preparedness is largely problematic. Were we ready? No, of course not. This problem goes back a long way. Pointing out all the failures could easily be an entire blog on its own, but right now I don’t feel that’s what we need. Suffice to say, we are ALL responsible for the current conditions we find ourselves in.

God has allowed this virus to take hold of the earth. We may not know if this was caused, or allowed to happy, but either way, God is still in control of all things. God’s love is sufficient, and in these troubled times, we need to remember where we can go with our broken and lost hearts.

Hebrews 4:16 ESV “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

WE must remember that no matter what we are facing we are accepted into the arms of the Abba Father. We must take this time and turn to the Lord. We must trust in the Lord that He is sovereign over all, and we must trust in His will.

2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”

WE have all lost something in this pandemic. We voted and a new President took office. We may not like, we may love it, but regardless, for the next four years, we are here. We are one nation under God, and unless we want to see this great nation face judgment, we must turn from our ways and find it in our hearts to repent. God has been more than gracious with giving us time to do so, but now’s the time to stand firm on our beliefs. Are we to allow our country to go down a dark path? Perhaps, we will. We must all face ourselves and check our hearts. We must start with the man/woman, in the mirror. We must turn to the Father and ask for the forgiveness, and the courage to stand where we must. We cannot continue to pass blame and point fingers.

Start Right Here By: Casting Crowns

We want our coffee in the lobby

We watch our worship on a screen

We got a Rockstar preacher

Who won’t wake us from our dreams

We want out blessings in our pocket

We keep our missions overseas

But for the hurting in our cities

Would we even cross the street?

Huh but we wanna see the heart set free and the tyrants kneel

The walls fall down and our land be healed

But church if we want to see a change in the world out there

It’s got to start right here

We cannot continue to expect the light to shine if we ourselves are hypocrites. Do we stand against abortion? Sure, if you’re a Christian you should, but at the same time, are you supporting low income families? Are you helping that single mother hurting? Are you supporting foster parents, and adoptions? It’s not an easy ask, but if Christians would truly support those ventures and not just in prayer, but in time, money, and support, those supporting abortions wouldn’t have a solid argument. Make no mistake, abortion is a sin, but no more of a sin than the over consumption of alcohol, the adultery, the lying, the gossiping going on all around us. IF we want a change we have to start right here, right now, in each of our hearts.

Christians, I call to you, I implore you to seek a Biblical worldview, instead of following along the secular one. I beg you to see the light of Christ. WE must come together, and we must stop the infighting, stop the complaining, stop the hate. We must not judge others by their skin, their clothes, their social status, or the country they hail from. We must find balance. We must find love in our hearts, and find a way to uphold the law of the land, uphold the law of scripture, and love our neighbors. Are we really taking care of the church as we were asked to do so? Are we managing the talents we were given, or burring it in the sand letting it go to waist? Church, let us do better. Let us live in love. Let us shine the light of Christ in the tumultuous times. Go in peace, go in prayer, and go in love.