Revelation 20:1-6 Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for 1,000 years . He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the 1,000 years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time. Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the people who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of God’s word, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with the Messiah for 1,000 years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the 1,000 years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of the Messiah, and they will reign with Him for 1,000 years. It almost impossible to imagine what a thousand years would be like. I have yet to reach half of 100 and to think 1000 is 20 times 50. Time is measure but it is relevant as well. When things are going good it seems time flies but when they are bad time seems to go soooooo slow.
This 1,000 year reign of Christ will be a reality one day and we will not have to worry about the devil and temptation at least during this time for the devil will be bound during Jesus' reign of a thousand years. Because of the absence of the adversary, the devil, I wonder if it time will fly during Jesus' reign? Either way we will just go from better to best after that because then comes the eternal state, which will get into the following weeks. Could you imagine the shame the devil will go through. It is not the Almighty God who throws him into the Abyss it is another angel. Not that the devil is any way God's equal or even opposite, God is holy and stands alone. It is fitting that God would send an angel with chains to bind satan and hurl him into the Abyss. There are "mighty" or "strong" angels mentioned throughout the book of Revelation but I find it interesting the this angel is not referred to as a mighty or strong angel just an angel. I am in know way saying the this angel or even satan himself is not strong but I am saying that the Spirit of God made sure at this point in future history to exalt Jesus Christ and His reign not the imprisonment of Lucifer. Once the light bearer of God, Lucifer will spend 1,000 years bound in chains in darkness. Those who regarded Jesus' Name as more important than what they could have this side of glory, including their own lives, will enjoy the presence of Jesus Christ and rule with Him for a thousand years. It is said blessed and holy are those who take part in the first resurrection. These will be those who believed and trusted Jesus to save them from sin's penalty. Interesting that they don't speak of second resurrection only a second death. Those who believe will die once and live twice but those who refuse to believe will live once and die twice. Which group do you fall in? Of course our prayer is that all of our students would know only one death, our physical one for the second death has no power over the believer as John records for us. This is good news worth holding on to when life just seems like it will never get any better. Brother/sister we look forward to Jesus literal 1,000 year reign here on earth. Have a great day Loved Ones and God bless you real good!
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Humility, at least it's meaning, can be something hard to grasp. Being proud of our accomplishments hardly seems evil or wrong and it is usually what comes to mind when we teach about pride and humility. Only humility doesn't mean we cannot be proud of our accomplishments. We can and should but it should be for the right reasons. The child who comes running to mom or dad with his coloring page completed full of pride shows it to them not just to say look at what I did but to share the joy of their accomplishment with them knowing it was them that taught them to color in the first place. The child's desire is to please the his/her parents, so it should be with each believer. Humility means you recognize where your gifts and abilities come from and you're excited about accomplishing something that God wanted for you in the first place. The Spirit of God through Paul tells us... And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:1-10 So it is that we are NOT saved by good works but we are saved for good works. We are NOT to boast (be proud) of ourselves as if we are the reason we have what we have or have done what we have done rather we boast because of what God has done in and through us. We don't come like proud children looking to show off but like children who are proud wanting to share their joy with their parents. The final model today is that of a person who knows and has trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of their sin yet is still being led by their flesh (body) rather than telling their bodies what to do. This believer is meant to be led by Jesus but instead they are being led by what their body wants. The funny thing is that it could look the same on the outside, what makes the difference is the motive (why we do what we do). Are we living for self or for Him. The one who knows Jesus and is telling others about Jesus and does his best to be patient, kind, gentle etc. yet is doing so looking for God's approval doesn't understand the love of God. They are looking for it as if we haven't received it in the person of Jesus Christ. "We love because, [God] love us first." 1John 4:19 Let the love of God propel you toward the good work He prepared beforehand so that you will produce the fruit of the Spirit not just good works to glorify yourself. Ask yourself today, who sits on the throne of my life? If the answer is you let us get off the throne and surrender it to Jesus the rightful KIng of kings and Lord of lords. There's no place we should rather be than the love of God in Jesus Christ. Have a great day Loved Ones and God bless you real good! "Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience." Colossians 3:12 Of all the people Jesus encountered it was the religious hypocrite that he was the harshest to. They knew what the Bible said and may have even done what it said but their hearts were far from God. It is our hearts that God will transform that we may learn to humbly depend on Him for all things. The religious hypocrite is looking to himself to find strength and purpose in what he considers religious duty. But the spiritual person is trusting Jesus and relying on the Spirit of God to fill her/him with the fruit of the Spirit. Yesterday we started a series of three devotionals that center around our lesson for this week's Club Night and around this simple model which I said we would look at in three different forms. Yesterday's was natural, that one depicts someone without the Spirit of God sitting on the throne making all of her or his decisions apart from Jesus who is Lord of all. If you remember... The circle represents our life, the dots represent the various decisions we make, the chair is the throne and whoever sits on it makes the decisions, the white silhouette of a person is you and the cross represents Jesus. Today we'll consider the second model, the spiritual person. Notice where the spiritual person is in this model, she/he is sitting before Jesus who is sitting on the throne of her/his life. This is how the life of a believer or christian should look or be led, with Jesus on the throne of our thoughts, feelings and actions. Of course it is always easier said than done but this will not happen by accident. It has to be intentional on our part. It takes forethought, intentionality and most importantly surrender. We have to be willing to give up our idea of what should be and embrace whatever reality Jesus has for us at any particular time. Like our verse today we must put on these things like clothes that we put on each and every day. If we believe that God is good, which He is and Jesus is God, than we can and should trust Him. There are so many things surrounding us, inside our hearts and minds that make this difficult but NOT impossible. God can and will make you like His Son inside and out. It is His promise to us. We just need to trust Him and surrender. The one time for salvation and then the rest of lives for sanctification, the life long process of being made like Jesus as we surrender and the Spirit of God does His work in and through us. God is good, will you trust Him today? Have a great day Loved Ones and God bless you real good! To read more of this model just click on this link: www.cru.org/us/en/train-and-grow/spiritual-growth/the-spirit-filled-life.html l When He saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. Then He began to teach them, saying: “The poor in spirit are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. Matthew 5:1-3 Their is man whom I called my pastor for many years at the church I came from. He was not a large man, he was actually a small man in stature but what he lacked in height he commanded in presence. When he would walk into a room it was as if you knew you had to stop what you were doing and listen to what was about to come out of his mouth. It is a strange concept for us nowadays to think of paying attention to someone who just sat down, it is usually the one who stands up that we give our attention to. But in Jesus day, they understood that when a rabbi or teacher was going to teach, he would sit down. So as Jesus sat, His disciples knew they should listen. Jesus could have started His sermon anywhere but He chose pride. Now notice He didn't even say the word pride but the very first thing out of His mouth could not even be heard by an individual full of pride without God's help. To recognize that you have need and ask for help is not something that comes naturally for most people. We are taught that we can "fix it", "figure it out", "things will work out in time" or even "there is no problem". Yet Jesus says our attitude should be one of humility, we should recognize God's absolute control and our bankruptcy. People file for bankruptcy once they realize they don't have what it takes to pay off what they owe. It is usually after trying for some time but never getting ahead, you realize that it would take forever and you are just exhausted of trying to do it on your own. To be be poor in spirit is to realize that I cannot pay my sin debt. I owe God a perfect life and it is impossible for me to ever give it to Him. Our good deeds will NEVER make our bad deeds disappear. So Jesus says very plainly, "The poor in spirit are blessed, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs". The blessings of God, starting with salvation, will only be ours if we humble ourselves. To humble ourselves means we recognize our place before God and our need of Him. Some beggars will rather eat out of a garbage can rather than accept help from someone else. As strange as that sounds it is the spiritual heart condition of every student and adult since the day Adam introduced sin into the world we were barn to. We would rather each the garbage we can get on our own rather than the feast God offers through His Son. For the next three days we'll look at this simple picture in different forms. It is an illustration used to help assess the spiritual condition of a person by CRU, a ministry dedicated to raching the world for Jesus starting with college students. The circle represents our life, the dots represent the various decisions we make, the chair is the throne and whoever sits on it makes the decisions, the white silhouette of a person is you and the cross represents Jesus. The picture shown today is the natural person which is the person who does not have the Spirit of God living inside them. Notice that Jesus is outside of the circle of their lives and they are making all the decisions as they sit on the throne. We will look at 2 other models in the next days but for today I want you to consider, is this you? Does this model represent the reality of your spiritual condition before God? Is Jesus on the outside of your life? Are you making every decision apart from Him? You may be like the person who needs to file bankruptcy yet you think "you got this" and you make it to heaven on your own by just doing your best. Listen to Jesus today and recognize your spiritual poverty before him and let Him into the circle of your life. It is simple, if you know your need and believe only Jesus can do what I can never do, Jesus will do just that. He will place you into the circle of His life and make you His own forever. If this is something you desire and maybe do not understand exactly how it works let me know on the comments below of email privately. Just click on the tab that says "Contact Me" and I will as soon as I see you message. My prayer as well as those our your other leaders is that we step off of our thrones and surrender to Jesus not just for salvation but daily in our decisions. Have a great day Loved Ones and God bless you real good! So we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love. God is love. Everyone who lives in love lives in God, and God lives in them. 1 John 4:16 Through Jesus we have already found true love in the One who is love- God. When you accept the fact that we are loved in and through Jesus Christ we can stop searching to be loved, it can and should change our daily pursuits.
Some of the decisions we make because we do not accept that we are loved can have life long consequences. When we are driven or moved by what we see rather than what we know we walk a dangerous line. How many of us knowing we can only eat so much still put WAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY too much food on our plate because we feel hungry. God knows that we desire physical touch, attention and even someone to talk to. The sad thing is, if we don't first receive these things at home in a healthy way we tend to fall for the first person who gives them to us. It may even be unintentional at first but then some pursue it because that individual makes them feel special. This is not just girls either. There are boys and men that fall for a girl because they give them compliments or genuinely care what they have to say or even seek them out for advice. None of which are bad but they can lead to a relationship that was never meant to be. Jesus himself needed all these things while He walked this earth in a human body yet He didn't allow His body to tell Him what to do rather he told His body what to do. The Apostle Paul put it this way... I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. 1 Corinthians 9:27 The Apostle Peter writing to a church that knew what real suffering was said, "Though you have not seen [Jesus], you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter 1: 8,9 Living a life of love and abundance was little to do with what happens on t he outside and even what we feel. As believers we are called to live according to what we know by faith. God is good and has love us ultimately by giving His Son to die in our place. What more can we ask for yet we are told... "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" Romans 8:32 Thank You Jesus! Have a great day Loved Ones and God bless you real good! |
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