Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming

 1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

All shall be made alive.

Every man in his own order.

Now answer me this? If we are *alive* immediately upon death- transitioning instantly into some other form of living- why would we need an order to be made alive?

Every man in his own order-  Christ the firstfruits.

After Christ the firstfruits then those who are Christ's at His coming.

1Co_15:20  But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

Them that slept.  The sleep is death's sleep. 

1Th 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

1Th 4:15  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

1Th 4:16  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

1Th 4:17  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air

Sleep in Jesus.

The dead in Christ shall rise first.

Why, I ask this again, why do people believe they immediately live after dying?  What does 'Dead in Christ' mean if no one is truly dead in death?

I have to bring this up and I do often because this world we live in has dupe the majority of people into believing that death means transitioning from living in our flesh to living in a spirit form with all our same thoughts and feelings. Some choose to believe they live in this spirit form with their same thoughts and feelings and go on to live in heaven. Others believe they live on earth in the spirit form walking about interacting on some level with humans that still have their flesh. Then there are those who believe you live in a place to do your time as punishment for your sins. And again others believe you are sentenced to a life of spirit form living- knowing and feeling- while being burned in a place they call Satan's home- hell. You also have those who believe you don't go into a spirit form but are reborn in a newborn's body to live another life- just not knowing who you were before. There are SO many different beliefs, but the majority of those beliefs have to do with living in another form right upon the death of your flesh.

Lies.

Satan's grand lie- 'Ye shall not surely die.'

But death is an end, a REAL end of things, not a simple transition.

You will stop thinking. You will stop feeling. You will stop knowing all things.

The only time you will know something again is when CHRIST comes for His people- the dead in Him and the living in Him. The dead in Him- they will think again, they will know again, they will feel again when they are woken up from death's sleep.  How glorious that will be! Waking up from death's sleep and rising to meet the Lord in the air, your mortal body now an immortal body. You won't be awake in spirit form looking down at your dead body, venturing off into some new spirit life. You will wake up and know the oneness of being with Your Savior! You and all those who are His will wake to this indescribable glory!

Of course then there are those who are not Christ's and they will wake to the horror in realizing what they chose, and it wasn't life in Christ. They will not put on immortal bodies. They will not live on forever in torturous conditions.  Eventually they will be as if they never were, something no living person can fully comprehend- never being.  Yes, we know there was a life before us- history proves that- and we know there will be a life after us- history proves that possibility will be a reality.  But we've fashioned some notion that once we are alive, we will not ever truly die from that point on-  a lie.  We can die without any spirit body thinking and feeling after our death. We can die only to be raised again to die again and then raised to die to never be again.

We choose. 

If we choose Christ we choose life because He is the Author of life, He is the Sustainer of life, He is life.

Every man in his own order will be raised from the dead. This is truth. This is life. This is Christ Jesus our Savior now and forever! Amen.

Truly we reap what we sow

Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

Gal 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

*******

Sow to the Spirit.

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Gal 5:24  And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

TRUTH!

So denying ourselves our flesh affections and lusts that want to consume our lives is necessary.  Is there  ANYTHING in your life you would choose to do over doing the will of God?  Would you rather sow to your own lusts than sow to the love of God, of Godly love, of joy, of peace, of longsuffering, of gentleness, of goodness, of faith, of meekness, of temperance?  Seriously? We have to examine ourselves! We are accountable for examining ourselves.

2Co 13:5  Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves.

1Co 11:27  Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

1Co 11:28  But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.

Examining ourselves is necessary!

We are told NOT to be deceived. 

God will not be mocked.  We mock God when we refuse to examine ourselves. We mock God when we believe that we do not have to be accountable for all of our actions. We are accountable and we must seek forgiveness and repentance when we fail, which is often and always. We cannot be stupid enough to believe that we are doing God's will when we are sowing to our flesh, when we are sowing to our selfishness.

I'm NOT talking about our survival needs- rest, food, drink-  but when we seek in excess selfish desires we are not sowing to the Spirit but to self and to sow to self is to sow to the flesh. I'm guilty of it! God forgive me and help me, I am! I need to sow to the Spirit! By His grace and power alone it will be possible!

People truly will REAP what they SOW.  If you sow to self you will reap self, not God.  If you sow to the Spirit you will reap to the Spirit!

May we all reap to the SPIRIT because we SOW to the Spirit!

May we be truly God's!

In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, now and FOREVER!

Amen!

Who introduced you to Jesus?

Who introduced you to Jesus?

 If someone asked me who introduced me to Jesus I'd probably start out by saying my parents.  I'd say my parents because I have a memory of myself being very, very young and kneeling by my bedside hands folded, head bowed, and reciting our bedtime prayer.  I also have the memory of saying grace before dinner. Another memory of myself as a very young child was in the nursery at church and being taught the song- 'Jesus Loves Me'. So I'd definitely have to say my parents were the ones who introduced me to Jesus.   My parents laid the foundation that was built upon but it wasn't a steady building, but rather a build-up and then a tearing down only to rebuild and tear down over and over and over again. The only thing that has ever remain solid is the FOUNDATION- JESUS CHRIST MY SAVIOR. 

I went from being raised a Methodist to a period of rebellion, then joining the Seventh-Day Adventist Church only to find out a few years later that they'd apostatized from their original beliefs and so I discontinued my membership with them.  After that I entered another period of rebellion. Then by the grace and mercy of my Savior, my Lord Jesus He pulled me out of that rebellion and now, by His continued and constant grace I seek to worship Him in all truth.

Do you see? It truly has been a building upon the foundation of Jesus only to have the buildings torn down and then built up again, and I can only hope and pray that the building going on right now by my Savior will continue on until He returns to takes all those who choose to be His in all truth home with Him. 

Php 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ

I have to believe that through all the ups and downs, that my Savior, Jesus Christ will see me through until He returns.

He is the good work in me, He is the ONLY good in me!

I must be confident that if HE began in me, that He will see me through to the very end when we can be truly face to face.

By His amazing LOVE, I must believe! He will save me, even from myself and especially myself and my many failings.

Please Father in heaven, please, through the Holy Spirit may I have the confidence I need in Christ to do all for me, because I can do nothing myself. Please, Father in heaven, I would be YOURS.

In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ my LORD and SAVIOR now and forever!

Amen.

Evil-Wickedness Exists

People are not gods.

People love to play gods and believe they have powers within themselves to predict things, to control things. Time and time again we are shown that it just isn't true.  The following verses talk about the wicked…

Isa 47:9 But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. 

Isa 47:10 For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me. 

Isa 47:11 Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. 

Isa 47:12 Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. 

Isa 47:13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. 

Isa 47:14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. 

Isa 47:15 Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.

The wicked say- none see me.

The wicked think nothing evil in sorceries and enchantments.

The wicked believe they are the I AM.

The wicked believe they will be saved- but not by God.

So many of the wicked do not believe in God.

So many of the wicked do not believe they are wicked.

So many of the wicked have embraced others of like mind and the delusions they have engulfed themselves in are so strong they will never let the light of truth shine upon them.

Evil exists.

The wicked exist.

The wicked will perish, there is no other recourse for those who choose evil, for those who choose self.

We may NOT think we are wicked or have wicked tendencies but our hearts are wicked-

Jer_17:9  The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

This is truth!

God must create in us clean hearts, we cannot create them in ourselves.

We have filth that can't be washed by ourselves, we must be washed.

Our stained garments must be removed by God, not us.

Our Savior does the saving- we LET HIM.

We cannot forget the wicked exist. That wickedness is a reality.

Please Father, help us to remember NOT to call evil good, no matter who much the world has twisted it to appear so.

FORGIVE ME.

By Your mercy, Your grace, Your love!

In the name of our SAVIOR- Jesus Christ our Lord!

Amen.

We can never keep all our promises

Promises.

2Pe 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Promises, we've all made them, we've all kept some and broken others. I don't know a person alive who hasn't broken a promise. We break them, why? We get into a position that keeps us from being able to keep them? Something interferes with our ability to do so? Sometimes very legitimately we cannot keep them. Something unforeseen happens. A car accident? An unexpected visitor? A job that must be done? There are so many unforeseen things that can pop up to break our promises and that war between our ability to do so. And when we break a promise the person who is on the other end of that promise can either be understanding, or not so understanding.  

Sometimes when a person becomes a chronic promise breaker it becomes harder and harder to be understanding about the broken promises. 

The truth is, we ALL can ONLY make promises in accordance with the WILL of God, not our own will.

When we make a promise we have NO power to truly keep that promise unless God wills that we do. Seriously!

We break our backs (figuratively speaking) trying to keep promises, never meaning to break them when we are making them but something comes up and then we can't, and this truly CAN happen over and over again. Circumstances beyond our control. We claim this as real, because it is. So very little IS within our control.   Some very disappointed people will tell us that we always have a choice and we choose other things rather than them and keeping their promises.  And we do have that choice in their eyes but in our minds we feel as if our hands are tied. We choose and end up choosing wrongly in either way.  No win situations we call them. We definitely do not win when either choice will cause pain in someone.

Yet we keep on making promises that are beyond our control to keep because SO much is out of our control.

The GREAT and PRECIOUS promises of God's are NEVER broken! NEVER!

The PROMISE of eternal life is real, is true and is a promise we can cling to when ALL other promises fail us. The promises others make us and the promises we make others will always have the tendency for failure, they can never be FULLY counted upon, never. And it doesn't matter HOW good the intention is, it just doesn't because things can be beyond our control. When we realize this we have to comprehend that our promises must only be made to all others under the WILL of God. If you promise someone you make that promise with the understanding it will be kept by the WILL of God. 

Make NO mistake, there will always be people who don't intend to keep the promises they make. There will always be people who make promises and intend to keep them but cannot.  And there will be people who can keep their promises, but very few can always keep them. 

If we make a promise we make it with the provision that circumstances will allow us to keep the promise. We can't make a promise based upon our OWN ability to keep it.  We can trust in GOD'S promises because He will NEVER fail us, NEVER.

2Pe 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Those EXCEEDING GREAT and PRECIOUS PROMISES given to us make us able to PARTAKE of the divine nature of GOD, because through the promises we have ETERNAL LIFE, those promises ARE OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF!  He promises to SAVE US by HIS BLOOD, by HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, by HIS LOVE. He WILL save us! He will RESCUE us! He PROMISES!

By HIS grace we live!

In His name always.

Amen.

Wicked separated from the just

The angels will come forth and sever the wicked from the just.

This is truth! I didn't make that up, I didn't say it- JESUS said it! Read it for yourself--

Mat 13:47  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

Mat 13:48  Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

Mat 13:49  So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,

Mat 13:50  And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Mat 13:51  Jesus saith unto them, Have ye understood all these things? They say unto him, Yea, Lord.

The wicked and the just.

There is NO middle ground, NONE. There is no gray area to fall into, no fence to sit upon. At the end of the thousand years all will be decided. Every single one of us will fall into one of two categories- wicked or just.

People want to believe that there are no real wicked or just, but something in between the two. But deep down I think everyone knows there is one or the other.

We make choices and those choices ultimately make us one or the other, just or wicked.

We choose to love or not to love.

We choose others or self.

Love or evil.

It's not up to us to choose who is evil or who isn't…  that net was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind.  At the END of this world-  ANGELS WILL come and then and ONLY then will all the evil be destroyed, and the wicked and the just permanently and forever, and ever, eternally separated. ALL wicked will be DESTROYED.  The wicked WILL be cast into the furnace of fire- there WILL be wailing and gnashing of teeth.  This is the HELL everyone is talking about all the time- only it's not a place people will live, it is a place they are punished according to their evil as they are destroyed permanently, blotted out of existence, as though they'd never been.

Think about it for a moment. 

The just will be alive for eternity without ANY pain, without ANY tears, but how could this EVER be true if the just will be missing the wicked loved ones that are destroyed forever?

Have you ever lost a loved one? If you have then you know the pain of that loss.  You also know that while your love for them doesn't fade the initial pain of your loss does lessen, the tears come less frequently- life goes on.  I believe, and I could be wrong, but I believe that for a 1000 years after our Savior brings all the just to heaven, during that time, during that 1000 years the just will ALL know WHY their wicked loved ones didn't make it.  They'll comprehend the why, they'll mourn them and when that 1000 years is over, and they've had a 1000 years of full comprehension, they will KNOW why the wicked need to be destroyed permanently. To not destroy them would be EVIL, truly evil. To allow the wicked to live when they've chosen the path of destruction would be against what they truly want. They won't WANT to be saved if it means love in Christ Jesus.  They only would want to be saved if they could continue to live and live forever in their selfishness, in their wickedness, and that cannot be allowed- THAT IS NOT LOVE.

Jesus would have us all love.

In HIM we can all love.

We need to choose Him, to choose love through Him.

Please Father in heaven, please …we would be YOUR through your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior!

In HIS LOVE always and forever!

AMEN. 

Jesus- Not of This World

Jesus- NOT OF THIS WORLD. 

Jesus an alien?  Such a strange thing to say isn't it? But by His own admission, Jesus is not of this world and we call any being not of our world an alien, yes?  

Our own Creator is NOT of this world.

He MADE this world being OUTSIDE of this world. He didn't create what He existed upon.  He, being NOT of this world, made this world exist, He spoke this world into existence. Our Creator spoke US into existence. Then our Creator agreed with His Co-Creator that IF mankind chose to disobey their single command to not eat of a single tree that they would OFFER to save those who would choose to obey their commands and all their commands would be grounded in LOVE.  However, the price to save them would be high. One of them would need to prove that their love IS love and is true, and is right!  To do this- one of them would take on FLESH, human flesh, flesh of a creature they created and in doing this they would have to leave their God powers behind and TOTALLY depend upon the powers of the God that would remain flesh-less, the God that would remain OUT of this world. The God in flesh would prove that a human being could depend upon a God not of, and out of this world for ALL things. 

Our Savior- Jesus Christ- the declared SON of God declared the FATHER, is the co-Creator who became flesh and divested Himself of all power.  He walked this earth in flesh knowing what He had been, knowing He was NOT of this world. He walked this earth and regained all the knowledge of His Father, God in Heaven. He lived His life consistent with a human being dependent upon His Creator. His human flesh made Him susceptible to all the same temptations as EVERY other created human being.  A part of Him wasn't CREATED- the part of Him that made Him - God, Co-Creator, the begotten Son. Yet that part had agreed to give up His God power. To have GOD even in our created flesh lower Himself in that way yet retain all His God-power, would mean very little, practically nothing. It would not prove that a human being is capable of obedience. 

Yes,  God in human flesh with the knowledge of His own God-hood, knew He could not use any of His God-power or He would forfeit everything He longed for, human begins knowing the love of their Creator.  Yes, they could have destroyed all HUMANS, but they didn't want to! Their nature of LOVE prevented them from haphazardly creating humans only to kill them off entirely when these beings of free will chose to disobey, when they chose self over God.

Joh 8:23  And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world.

We are from beneath- we are NOT gods of any sort! Jesus is from above- NOT of this world, but He took on FLESH and walked this world, taught in this world, lived in this world as a human being, died in this world, was resurrected in this world, and returned to HIS WORLD to prepare for us who choose to believe in HIM and His world, His love, His ways, His truth, His life,  so we could go to HIS WORLD and live with HIM for a thousand years, and then He would return to this earth with us.

By the GRACE and MERCY, through the LOVE of our Father God, our Savior God, our Holy Spirit God, may we be taken by HIM to live with HIM forever and ever, and ever!

In HIS name, In HIS love now and forever.

AMEN.