Kept, Preserved, Protected, Loved Every Minute

Psalm 94:17-19 (NCV)  If the LORD had not helped me, I would have died in a minute. ¹⁸ I said, "I am about to fall," but, LORD, your love kept me safe. 19 I was very worried, but you comforted me and made me happy.

I can so relate with the writer of this Psalm, when he says "if the Lord had not helped me, I would have died in a minute."Probably more like a second!! So many times it seems as if the wind and waves of life come at us from every direction, threatening to sink us! But every single time our Savior comes to us, in His covenant love, in His awesome omnipotency, and brings us out of trouble and into armloads of salvation. Today I am so very thankful for the blessing of this faithful, covenant love of Jesus Christ, which always and in every circumstance comes to meet me on the battlefields of my life.

Psalm 59:9-10 (MSG) Strong God, I'm watching you do it, I can always count on you. ¹⁰ God in dependable love shows up on time, shows me my enemies in ruin.

Today look for God. Look for your Strong God, and look with an anticipation of His coming to you right on time with armloads of salvation!

No longer worried...comforted and made happy,

Pastor Matt

1 Peter 1.2-7 (BWE)

² God the Father chose you as he planned to do long ago. You were made holy by the Spirit. You were chosen to obey Jesus Christ and to be made clean by the blood of his death. May you have much blessing and peace.

³ Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He was very kind to us, and made us his children. So we have a new hope. This hope is a living hope because Jesus Christ was raised from death.

⁴ Because we are God’s children, one day we shall receive special blessings. They cannot be spoiled in any way, and they will last forever. They are kept safe in heaven for you.

⁵ You are saved by God’s power because you believe. You will then be fully saved. The way is ready and you will see it when the end of time comes.

⁶ This makes you very glad, even though now maybe you are sad because you have troubles of many kinds. They are only for a short time.

⁷ To believe is worth more than to have gold. Gold can spoil, but it is tested by fire to show that it is good. So troubles test you to prove that you believe. Then, because you really believe, you will be praised and made great and have honor when Jesus Christ comes again.

⁷ The purpose of these troubles is to test your faith as fire tests how genuine gold is. Your faith is more precious than gold, and by passing the test, it gives praise, glory, and honor to God. This will happen when Jesus Christ appears again.

The Awesome Power of the New Creation Man

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Cor 5:17

Galatians 6:15 tells us that nothing matters at all in comparison with the New Creation. Paul called the New Creation the greatest of the mysteries of God, a mystery that was withheld for "ages and generations, but now has been revealed" to His Church. Sadly though the Church has never truly understood the amazing depths of this revelation, or the power of the New Creation Man. John Lake, one the greatest men of God in the history of the Church, who ministered in the early nineteen hundreds with astonishing signs and wonders said this about the New Creation: "it is not the preaching of escaping the flames of hell or the preaching on the comforts of Heaven. It is preaching and living the very life of Christ. It is the glory of the life of Christ and the demonstration of that life in the earth!"

Lake walked out this revelation of the New Creation like few ever have. Over a million South African's came to faith in Christ during his ministry there and hundreds of thousands were gloriously healed. Lake's revelation of the New Creation was Paul's revelation of the New Creation, which was the book of Acts revelation! This New Creation Man is none other than "Christ in me, the hope of glory!"

What the world needs to today are not nice Christians waiting to go to Heaven, but men and women who, like Lake, are radically committed to Jesus Christ and who are full of the Holy Spirit. What the world desperately needs is a Church walking in the power and the full possibilities of the New Creation Man. The world is waiting for a generation of sons of God to manifest the very life of Jesus Christ over all the powers of darkness!  

Oh the awesome power of the "New Man in Christ!" So few Christians have ever walked even close to the omnipotent potential of the New Creation; but with all my heart I believe the Holy Spirit is bringing this greatest of revelations back to His Church. I am convinced that before Christ returns there will be an army of "New Creation" men and woman who will fear only God and will dominate all of Christ's enemies - Satan, sin, sickness, disease, lack and all the works of darkness just as Jesus did (1Cor 15.21-27).. Through these God-men, the Holy Spirit will validate the eternal purpose which the Father has planned through Christ (Eph 3.19-11).

It is our prayer that God will give His Church the revelation of this New Man which Ephesians 2:10 calls His greatest "masterpiece." May we never look back to the old creation man with his weaknesses and failures, but to this New Creation Man and all of his unlimited potential. Here is the glory of Christianity - not a sinner being saved and one day being taken to Heaven. No! The glory of Christianity is to take a son of the Devil, and through the work of the New Creation, fill that man with Holy Spirit, and see that man live out, in a demon-filled world, this greatest of all miracles – "Christ in me!"

 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Eph 2:10