The Gospel Trumpet Not Muted
“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:52-55 KJV)
From the steeple of St. Mary’s Church in Cracow, Poland, a bugle has been sounded every day for the last seven hundred years. The last note on the bugle is always muted and broken, as if some disaster had befallen the bugler. This seven-hundred-year commemoration is in memory of a heroic trumpeter who one night sounded a blast on his trumpet and summoned the people to defend their city against the hordes of the invading Tartars. As he was sounding the last blast on his trumpet, an arrow from one of the Tartars struck him and killed him. Hence the muffled note at the end.
No muted note shall muffle the sounding forth of the gospel. Christ has been given all power over every enemy. No satanic arrow can reach or harm Him. He will continue to sound forth the trumpet call of salvation loud and clear until the very end of the age. Then, with an omnipotent blast from the last trump, Christ will raise the dead and bring all men into judgment before His throne. No, we need not commemorate a dead Hero, whose final trumpet call was muted by an enemy. We can celebrate the fact of a living Savior, and the mighty crescendo of His final trumpet call will rock the entire universe and usher in His eternal kingdom!
Read MoreGiving When It Counts
“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1Jo 3:16 KJV)
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, “Yes I’ll do it if it will save her.” As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, “Will I start to die right away?”.
The little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her. ~Unknown Author~
I wonder…how many of us would do the same…? Do we love God that much? Jesus did!
Read MoreJesus Says You Should Forgive because God has Forgiven You
“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.“ (Matt 6:12 KJV)
Seventy times seven
There never can be an end to your forgiving because there never can be an end to your need of God’s forgiveness. Be ungracious to someone…and the next minute you will find yourself having to say, “Pardon me,” to someone else, and feeling small. Watch the way it goes. Much more, refuse to forgive someone; very soon you will find yourself needing God’s forgiveness and unable to get it.
Even as I had pity on you
How great His mercy to us. We cannot compute our debt. If we lived more in the mood of thankfulness, we should be so conscious of our canceled ten-thousand-talent debt that we should delight in forgetting the hundred pence our neighbor owes us. When our salvation becomes commonplace to us, our hearts will become hard.
From our hearts
Every hurt that comes is an opportunity to be like Christ. But the opportunity comes disguised; all we see, for the pain, is the injustice of it. Don’t use part of the Atonement only. Let Jesus carry your hurts as well as your sins. [Study Matt 18:21-35]
Tremendous Power in United Fellowship
“If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.“ (Matt 18:19 KJV)
Your prayer on earth rings a bell in heaven; rather, it pushes a button that releases power from heaven. Something happens every time you pray-unless a barrier between you and your brother blocks the current. Fellowship is just that important. If the circuit is cut, the circuit of Christ…your brother…you, you had better get to work at once on a repair job.
Prayer is a personal contact. It involves a strange three-cornered personal relationship which is: Jesus is with me if I am with my brother or my sister. When we get together He too is with us in a peculiar sense. Our relationship with Christ cannot be a self-centered, ingrown affair.
How sorely God’s cause needs prevailing, united prayer. How foolish, then, for us to let trifling differences separate us and hinder the flow of the Spirit in our prayers. The “agreement” that defeats the devil is no superficial, casual lip-asking; it is the outgoing of the depths of hearts that know only one desire…”as the hart panteth after the water brooks.” [Study Matt18:18-20; Acts 12:5-17]
Read MoreMustard Seed Living
“And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith. And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.“ (Luke 17:5-6 KJV)
One of Jesus’ favorite ways of illustrating faith was with the mustard seed. He used this tiny seed to show how a big thing can come from a small beginning. The size of our faith is not the critical ingredient in Discipleship. Our tiny amount of faith in God is all that is needed from us. Our relationship with God is what the Old Testament called a “Suzerainty” Covenant; or, a partnership between a weak partner and a very strong partner. It is a legal term in today’s world, as when a person with a few thousand dollars enters into a business partnership with a partner who puts tens of thousands of dollars into the new business. Often, the weak party has some experience that will be of practical use in operating the new company. For example, a person who has years of experience operating a gas station, but little money, joins with a rich man who has no practical experience but a lot of capitol. Our weakness is made strong through God Almighty’s infusion of grace and power. Our contribution to the New Covenant, relationship with Christ is just a tiny, mustard seed sized, amount of faith. Indeed, our willingness is all that is necessary to enter into friendship with God.
In fact, our faith is so small that it is often described as “nothing.” There is no-thing that we can do to enter into partnership with God but present ourselves to Him. We are valuable to God because He loves us. God is our spiritual Father, and as a Father loves His child, so the child inherits a place at the table simply because we are a daughter or son. Thus, Jesus minimized our ticket price by comparing it to the tiniest of seeds.
A tiny amount of simple childlike faith is all it takes to get started, but as with a seed that is planted, it take sunshine, rain and most of all time for the seed to germinate and grow up to become a 35 foot tall mustard tree. Do we really want Jesus to increase our faith or, do we think that such notions are the signs of weakness? If we start taking this religious think really seriously, we might end up giving chunks of our money away, or volunteering our time, or forgiving folks whom we have judged as unforgivable. Christ likeness might remold the tough character that we have been trying to portray. Our secular foundations might begin to crumble. Faith might unveil a new you!
Read MoreFacing the Storm, Jesus is Victor!
“And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” (Mark 4:37-39 KJV)
In the archives of British admiralty at Whitehall , London , England is the record of one of the finest examples of maritime strategy and courage. The ships of five nations were anchored in a bay in the South Pacific. A fierce storm was gathering off shore. It was reaching hurricane proportions. There was much discussion among the ship captains to the best course of action.
The British captain decided to run not away from the storm, but into it. Everything available was tied down. Out crashed the ship into the boiling seas, pitching, tossing, rolling, and shuddering. She did everything but capsize and go down. The struggle was intense.
A couple of days later, buffeted, battered, but not broken, and without the loss of a single life, she returned to port to find the wreckage of the ships of other nations piled in heaps on the beaches.
The storm of the ages is breaking, but the Lord Jesus Christ, the Master of every storm, the Victor in every circumstance, is still at the helm flying the bloodstained banner of the cross. So, though tribulation billows roll and Antichrist winds blow and all hell rages, there is still but one answer for us. In faith, follow our Captain right on into the storm…Jesus is Victor! His grace is sufficient! He will not fail us!
Read MoreBlank Check
“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19 KJV)
At one time J. Wilbur Chapman experienced a great sorrow that nearly shook his faith. In addition, his finances were almost depleted just when it was necessary for him to take a long trip to the western United States . One of the elders of his church who was a wealthy banker came to his home to offer a word of comfort and encouragement. As he left, he slipped a piece of paper into the pastor’s hand. Chapman looked at it and was surprised to find that it was a check made out to him and signed by this rich friend. But the figures to indicate the amount of the gift were missing. “Did you really mean to give me a signed blank check?” he asked.
“Yes,” said the man. “I didn’t know how much you’d need, and I wanted to be sure you would have enough.”
Later Chapman commented, “While I never had to use that check, it gave me a secure feeling to know that thousands of dollars were literally at my disposal.”
God too has given us a signed check in (Philippians 4:19 ) to provide for every genuine need that arises in our lives. Start filling it out today!
Read MoreForget the Repairs
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2Co 5:17 KJV)
London businessman Lindsay Clegg told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash all over the place. As he showed a prospective buyer the property, he took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage. The buyer said, “Forget about the repairs. When I buy this place, I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want the building; I want the site.”
That’s God’s message to us! Compared with the renovation God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. When we become God’s the old life is over. He makes all things new. All He wants is the site and the permission to build. There are still some trying to “reform,” but God offers “redemption.” All we have to do is give Him the “property” and He will do the necessary “building.”
Read MoreWhen The Time Comes
“And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” (Revelation 21:4 KJV)
When Corrie Ten Boom of The Hiding Place fame was a little girl in Holland , her first realization of death came after a visit to the home of a neighbor who had died. It impressed her that some day her parents would also die. Corrie’s father comforted her with words of wisdom. “Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam , when do I give you your ticket?”
“Why, just before we get on the train,” she replied.
“Exactly,” her father said, “and our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things too. Don’t run out ahead of Him, Corrie.”
When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need — just in time.”
Read MoreAre You Prepared?
“Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:13-14 KJV)
A story is told of a married couple who enjoyed their luxury fishing boat together, but it was the husband who was always behind the wheel operating the boat. He was concerned about what might happen in an emergency. So one day out on the lake he said to his wife, “Please take the wheel, dear. Pretend that I am having a heart attack. You must get the boat safely to shore.” So she drove the boat to shore.
Later that evening, the wife walked into the living room where her husband was watching television. She sat down next to him, switched the TV channel, and said to him, “Please go into the kitchen, dear. Pretend I’m having a heart attack. You must set the table, cook the dinner, and wash the dishes.”
It’s not a very pleasant thing to pretend such a thing, but there are some legitimate concerns we should have. I wouldn’t consider it at all out of place for an insurance salesman to ask the question, “If you were to have a heart attack today, would your wife and children be taken care of?”
An even more important question needs to be raised as we consider our spiritual relationship with God. If I were to have a heart attack tonight and die, would I be prepared to stand before the great judgment seat of Christ? It’s a legitimate question. When I was a teenager, I thought that I would live forever. As I grow older, I become more and more aware of the fact that each day is a blessing provided by God, and I am not promised even one more.
I know it requires a degree of seriousness that may make you a bit uncomfortable, but just for a moment, pretend that you are having a heart attack. Are you prepared for eternity?
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