Is Fear Holding You Back?

Has the Lord directed you to do something you feel totally inadequate to do? If so, know that you’re not alone. Gideon was working in the field when the Lord spoke to him words that totally shocked him: “And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!’” Judges 6:12 Gideon was stunned. “Who, ME? Mighty man of valor? That’s surely not me!” vs 14: “Then the Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?’” So Gideon argues to the Lord what he felt the Lord should know. He told the Lord that he was very unqualified: vs 15: “So he said to Him, ‘O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’” But of course, the Lord wasn’t mistaken and he said to Gideon all that Gideon needed to know: vs 16: “And the Lord said to him, ‘Surely I will be with you…'” Something the Lord delights to do is to tell someone to do something that the person feels is way out of his league. In Exodus chapters 3 and 4 God speaks to Moses and tells him he’s being sent to bring the Jewish people out of bondage in Egypt: “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:10 But Moses has the same reaction that Gideon did: vs 11: “But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’” And the Lord tells Moses the same thing he told Gideon: vs 12: “So He said, ‘I will certainly be with you.'” But that wasn’t enough for Moses, he was shaking in his boots and he expressed his fear: “Then Moses answered and said, ‘But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, “The Lord has not appeared to you.’ ” Exodus 4:1 Let’s not be harsh with Moses, he was shocked at God’s directive that he go back to Egypt and bring them out. This was causing great anxiety in him, and he starts to tell God why this isn’t a good idea. He tells the Lord that words don’t come easily to him, and that no, this is not a good idea at all, Lord, please send someone else: “Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue... But he said, ‘O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else you may send.’” At this point God becomes angry. He’s answered all his objections, but Moses is still asking to get out of this. vs 14: “So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses…” Moses realized it’s probably not a good idea to resist any longer, and he finally gave up and agreed to go. When the Lord tells a person what he wants that person to do, MOST of the time the person will feel unqualified to do it. And that’s by design. God does that on purpose so that it will be obvious that the mission is God’s doing, not the doing of the person he sends. The glory will go to God, MUST go to God, not to the person he sends. And because it is the Lord who sends a person to do something he feels unqualified to do, one can be sure that God will provide all that is needed to get the job done. It comes down to this: do you trust God, or don’t you? Later, when Moses sent twelve men to spy out the land of Canaan, ten of them came back saying it can’t be done. They said there were giants in that land, (which was literally true) and that the cities were well fortified, and that there’s no way Israel could take that land. Only two of them, Joshua and Caleb, said that because God said he was giving them this land, then he surely is able to bring it about! Remember - this was after all the miraculous signs Israel had seen the Lord do when he brought them out of Egypt! Was parting the Red Sea not enough for them to trust him to bring about what he sends them to do? The Lord was so angry with the ten that he said that only Joshua and Caleb would ever see that land, the other ten would never see it! Has the Lord spoken to your heart something that you’re reluctant to do? Is there a call on your life which you have hung back from accepting? Don’t you realize that when God sends you to do something, that HE will cause that something to succeed? Have you made the mistake of hanging back because the call is to do something you know in yourself that you’re not up to? If so, then you’re judging it according to what YOU feel YOU can accomplish, not according to the understanding that when God tells someone to do a thing, it is HE, not YOU, that will make it succeed. Certainly you can ask for confirmation to make sure it IS God who is speaking to your heart. When you’re sure it is his will, do not come under the anger of God, do not resist when he calls. If you do, you will MISS what God had planned for your life. TRUST him, and do as he leads you. What he will do and how he will do it will absolutely amaze you. TRUST him!

If Your Religion Was Wrong Would You Want To Know The Truth?

"Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; noses they have, but they do not smell;" Psalm 115:4-6 When I was a child, I got up one night in the middle of the night and I went to the dresser and took down every statue I had there, and put them face down. This was so very vivid that all these years later I remember it as though it were yesterday. In the morning when I woke up I was appalled at what I had done, and very distressed at the insult to "the blessed virgin Mary." Little did I know that that was a prophetic event in my childhood showing that someday I would be led out of idolatry. At that time, I did not know the Word of God except for bits and pieces that I heard during the mass all those years. My church did not allow us to read the Bible, claiming that it was too difficult to understand and that an order of priests was given the responsibility to read and interpret it. Thus Satan kept us from the Word of God. I had a second similar dream when I was a child, a dream which again, I remember as though it were yesterday. I dreamed that I was in church, and the large statue on the wall in front of me came crashing down. I was horrified. I woke up trembling. Many years later, when I read the Bible for the first time, I was appalled to find the many contradictions between what I had been taught versus what the Word of God actually says. I was absolutely shocked to find that what I had been taught and what I believed was all wrong. My journey through the Word of God was something I could never have imagined, so eye-opening was it, it changed my whole life. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; YOU SHALL NOT BOW DOWN TO THEM nor serve them." Exodus 20:4-5 I did not know when I took those statues down, that they were in direct violation of the commandment of God. Clearly, God states that to bow before statues is idolatry. His Word, the Bible, states repeatedly that ONLY GOD is to be bowed before. ONLY GOD is to be worshiped. ONLY GOD is to be consulted. From reading the Bible for the first time and seeing that it spoke the opposite from what I had been taught, this led to a tremendous crisis of faith. To realize that what my religion taught contradicted what the Bible teaches - this discovery propelled me into a crisis unlike anything I had ever experienced in all my life. They couldn’t both be right, and one of them had to be very wrong and that eventually led to the point where I was forced to choose one and leave the other. According to the second commandment in Exodus chapter 20, which the Catholic church removed, we are forbidden from bowing before any image, so it occurred to me that something must be wrong with the apparitions of "the blessed virgin Mary," because the apparition told those who saw it that they were to have a shrine built to her, and that they were to make medals of her. I wore three "scapulars," which were cloths one wore around the neck with images of "the blessed virgin Mary" on them, plus I wore the "Miraculous Medal" which was a medal which the apparition commanded to be worn, and then also the medal to Saint Christopher. I truly had CHAINS around my neck! After reading the Word of God, I knew those had to go, and I also knew the apparitions seen by many were not "the blessed virgin Mary," because the mother of Jesus would not have commanded that images of her be made and bowed before. Clearly the apparitions were not someone from heaven, and the implications of that were huge. Think about it! As I progressed through the Word of God I learned that ONLY God is "omni-present." That means that ONLY the Spirit of God is everywhere and available to us. Mary is NOT "omni-present." She is NOT everywhere. She is in heaven and there she stays. She does NOT hear the prayers of the people on earth because she is NOT everywhere and neither are any of the so-called "saints." Saints are not "good" people who are declared "saints" by the Catholic church, that is heresy. The Bible says that the "saints" are the believers in Jesus Christ on earth who have been born again. Friends, God created mankind and placed us on this earth. He did not then leave us saying, "So long, hope you make it." No, he has given us his Word. His Word ALONE contains the truth. Every religion has its extra-Biblical version of "the truth." The Moslems have the Koran, the Jews have the Talmud, the Catholics have the Catechism, the Jehovah's Witnesses have the Watchtower, the Mormons have the Book of Mormon, and so on. These books are NOT sanctioned by almighty God, and in fact are Satan's COUNTERFEIT of the Word of God. Satan's number one goal is to keep people away from the Word of God, the Bible. ONLY the Bible is the Word of God, and every tenet taught by any religion which contradicts the Word of God is ...heresy, and more than that - they come under a CURSE. This is so important that the Word of God says it twice: "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be ACCURSED. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be ACCURSED. Galatians 1:8-9 Paul, who wrote a large part of the New Testament, never said a single word about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Not one word! And Peter - not one word. Those making her the "co-redemptrix" actually come under the curse. Those teaching people to bow before statues of her - come under the CURSE. There is a question I have approached people with and have had mixed results because it's a hard one. The question is this: If the truth is something other than what you've been taught, would you want to know the truth - or would you want to remain with the traditions of your fathers? Your answer will determine your eternity. "Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things." Jeremiah 16:19

Why They Want To Get Rid Of Him

"Then the Jews surrounded him and said to him, 'How long do you keep us in doubt? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.' Jesus answered them, 'I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.'" John 10:24-25 The Jewish leaders were prodding him to declare that he was the son of God because they wanted to catch him in what would be "blasphemy" in their estimation, so that they would be justified in GETTING RID OF HIM. vs 26: “But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I said to you." John 10:26 You have to stop here and wonder WHY they were NOT of his sheep. Doesn't God want all to be saved? Yes, absolutely: "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires ALL men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 1st Timothy 2:3-4 So if God desires that all be saved, then why aren't many saved, and especially religious men of position? "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:24

Riches are not necessarily lots of money. There are other kinds of riches. The clergy of any religion are held in the highest honor among men. Their high positions and their adulation are their riches, and it is very hard for a man of high position not to be corrupted by pride, in fact, it's nigh to impossible. Pride is the deadliest of all sins. Pride was Satan's downfall which got him cast out of heaven, and it is pride that keeps men from salvation. When a man gains high position, he loves the accolades and the praise of men. He feels he has earned them. Such a man cannot be reached because he is blinded by pride which is the most blinding and damning of all sins. Jesus said, "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Mark 2:17 Men of position consider themselves righteous and very few would ever admit that they are not. That's why they are not his sheep. Sheep are docile and tender, not corrupted by pride. The call of the Spirit of God is the call to repentance. Before one can repent, he has to see the truth about himself. The Holy Spirit starts here, because if the man cannot receive the truth about himself, then there's no point in going further, as the proud only desire to "get rid of him." One of the world's greatest but totally deceiving "riches" is the richness of "self esteem." The world tells us that we are wonderful, that we are good-hearted, and that we "deserve" good. But who is "the god of this world?" Where does this deception come from? Satan is "the god of this world" (2nd Corinthians 4:4) and Satan ...is a liar (John 8:44). We are NOT good, we have all broken God's commandments many times, and it is up to man to choose which voice he will receive, the voice of truth, or the voice that makes one feel good. “The heart is DECEITFUL above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9 “There is none righteous, NO, NOT ONE;" Romans 3:10 Who wants to believe that his heart is wicked? Who wants to hear that in spite of all the good he/she does, he is NOT righteous? Jesus did not come for those who already think they're righteous. Jesus came to bring sinners to repentance. What IS repentance? The Spirit of God shows man his sinfulness and calls each person to surrender himself and his life to the Savior. Repentance is the acknowledgement of the truth about oneself and turning to the Savior. Repentance is the surrendering of one's pride to the only one who IS righteous. How high is your estimation of yourself? The higher it is, the more your heart is deceived, and the more you'll want to "get rid of him." But if you ARE willing to turn to him - get to a quiet place and ask the Lord to show you what you really are, and be willing to believe the truth. He will not show you the truth to hurt you, he will show you the truth from his great love for you and his desire to save you. Pray with me: Father, the hardest thing in life is to acknowledge the truth about ourselves. It's excruciatingly difficult, Lord. Father, I recognize the calling of your Holy Spirit who has been showing me what's in my heart. I want to be ready to accept it, but I need your help to get there because it's very painful. Please help me. Help me acknowledge the truth. Help me to put down my pride and surrender to you. My standing in eternity depends on it. Please receive me. I need you and I'm willing to surrender if you will help me.