ENCOURAGE SOMEONE

God will never leave you empty. He will replace everything you lost. If He asks you to put something down, it's because He wants you to pick up something greater.

God is truly wise. He made sadness so we'd know joy, pain so we'd have pleasure, war so we'd seek peace, hate so we can love and a morning so we can face a new day.

Step by step, the journey goes on. Little by little it may seem so long. The things we learn will keep us on. With faith in God He'll keep us strong.

A word of love gives spice to life. A word from a friend gives pleasure and happiness to the heart. And the word of God gives light and meaning to our lives. Good morning.

If you keep God inside your heart, there is nothing that will come into your life that you won't be able to handle.

Sometimes GOD pushes us to our LIMITS...HE tests us beyond our ENDURANCE, because He has greater FAITH in us than we have in ourselves!

God makes us brave when we're afraid, makes us strong when we are weak, but most of all, he teaches us to hold on to him when things keep falling.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING JESUS CHRIST IN YOUR LIFE

Sometimes I think 'What can be the worst thing in life?" Probable you can say its just a simple question which needs a simple answer. Is that so. OK!!! the worst thing is to live a life which is a lie. A life without Christ, beleiving in other foreign gods, when He is there for you.

Then where is the risk there? The risk is that Satan the father of all lies will tell you that there in no Jesus. That one is a peril on its on. Let me asure you today, just look around you, what do you see? Do you think it just boomed from nowhere? Definitely someone is behind its creation. Someone who knows your thoughts. Ok lets get to another one...Brethren who are in Christ Jesus, lets arise and open our spiritual eyes and eyes. The Devil is there out there looking for you like a hungry lion looking for a buck.

In fact, Satan's greatest success for those of us who are IN Christ Jesus is to get us to believe his lies.  The less we know about God's Word (The Holy Bible; especially the New Testament), the easier it is for him to get us to believe his lies.  The less we know about how to understand and correctly APPLY God's Word  the easier it is for Satan to get us to believe his lies.  Satan is constantly trying to convince people that the Bible cannot be trusted, and/or it is necessary to go to sources other than the Bible to learn how we are to please God. 

The less we know about our position IN Christ Jesus, the easier it is for Satan to keep us bound in emotional and spiritual prisons we may not ever realize we're IN, let alone know God wants us to be freed from.

  Seeking God with everything in you to receive revelation and understanding of who God the Father says you are IN Christ Jesus will greatly hinder Satan and his demons from keeping you locked up in emotional and spiritual prisons that God doesn't want you to be in and/or remain in. 

Knowing fully who you are in Christ Jesus will make you much more "fully armed and dangerous" in the Army of our Lord and Savior, whose precious name is Jesus Christ. 

It will also hinder Satan greatly from messing with your mind, because your mind is the primary battle ground where peace and joy in your relationship with God is gained ... or lost.

Now then ... If you have decided to believe that God paid full penalty for your sins by dying on the cross - taking full punishment for your sins so that your sins are forgiven forever and will not be held against you on the Judgment Day ... do you KNOW that God the Father says "You are NOW the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus"? 

Follower of Jesus Christ, that is NO small, insignificant matter!  As a matter of fact, it is a fact of HUGE importance!  What this fully implies is that in one moment in time, when Christ rose from the dead and ascended back into glory, as a believer in Him, God the Father declared you as legally holy and righteous as you can possibly ever BE!  You are NOW 100% justified to receive forgiveness for sins, and to start receiving eternal life from God.

(Which NOW means you're to keep diligently striving to live UP to it - because you STILL have your fallen sin-nature that wants its way!  The only difference is NOW you have the power of God to help you STOP sinning ... and sin does have its consequences to various degrees in this life; ask any Christian spending time in prison for one or more crimes they were truly guilty of.  Though God has forgiven them of those crimes and they won't be - aren't now - held against them by Him, the LAW here on earth says: "Pay up for them!").

For He (the Father) made Him (Jesus Christ) who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God (the Father) in Him (Jesus Christ). (2 Corinthians 5:21)

IF JESUS HAD NOT BEEN CRUCIFIED

ROMANS 14 ANSWERING THE QUESTION OF SABATH

ROMANS CHAPTER 14

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Romans 14:1

Who is the weak person described in this verse?  He is weak, not strong, but he is a believer because he is "in the faith." He is weak in his doctrinal understanding. Perhaps he is a new believer or perhaps a believer who has failed to grow in the things of God (2 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 3:1-4). Perhaps he has not been under sound teaching. This weak believer is not living in sin. There is no indication from the context that there is a moral problem involved. However, the person does not understand what Christian liberty is all about.

What is our responsibility toward this weak brother? "RECEIVE" such an one. Do not reject this person. Receive him, take him to yourself, accept him, count him as one of you, consider him a beloved brother in Christ. This word "receive" is illustrated in Acts 28:2: "And the barbarous people showed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and RECEIVED us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold." Paul was received kindly by these uncultured people and treated very well. Weak believers need to be treated kindly and well, for Christ's sake.

Why should we receive this weak believer? The reason is given at the end of verse 3: "for God hath received him." See also Romans 15:7. If Christ received him, how can we reject him? How thankful we should be that the Lord received us: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out" (John 6:37)!  God has received us and will never cast us out or turn us away. 

"Doubtful disputations"--do not receive the weak believer for the purpose of having a big dispute and quarrel. Do not take him in just to criticize his scruples and to pass judgment on his opinions: "I'll let you come into our assembly, but you need to realize that when it comes to what things Christians are allowed to eat, you have much to learn!" "You are welcome here, even though you have some serious hang ups and we will need to straighten you out." "Now that you are one of us, let's have a debate about what we should and should not eat, and I'll prove from the Scriptures that you are wrong!"  This is not the way the weak brother is to be received.

Romans 14:2

The believer with a correct doctrinal understanding knows that he may eat all things. Under the law, the Jews had certain foods that they could eat and certain foods that they could not eat (see Leviticus 11). God was teaching them to make a distinction between the clean and the unclean, the holy and the unholy (Lev. 11:44-47). During the present dispensation nothing which God has created is off-limits if it be received with thanksgiving: "For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer" (1 Tim. 4:4-5). The weak believer mentioned in Romans 14:2 was in the habit of eating only herbs or vegetables, believing that it was not permissible to eat all things (believing that meats were off-limits).

Romans 14:3

This verse serves as warning to both the strong and the weak believer. The strong believer's tendency would be to despise the weak (hold him in contempt, look down upon him). The weak believer's tendency would be to judge or criticize or condemn the strong believer.

The strong believer might say, "You foolish vegetarian! How can you be so doctrinally weak? Don't you know that as believers in Christ we can eat all things?" [DESPISING]

The weak believer might say, "You should not eat meat. You should not eat pork. You are wrong to do this!" [JUDGING]

The last phrase in verse 3 ["for God hath received him"] may refer only to the strong believer who is being judged by the weak believer, but it may refer to both ["him that eateth not" and "him that eateth"]. Even if it refers only to "him that eateth" it still remains true that God has received both. God has graciously received every believer (Romans 15:7) and because of this we are to receive our fellow believers, whether weak or strong (see Rom. 14:1 where believers are told to receive those who are weak).

It should be noted that God (through Paul) mentions the one "who is weak" (verse 1) but does not refer to the strong believer as "strong." Even a believer who is mature and understands doctrinal issues is very weak apart from the grace of God (compare 2 Timothy 2:1, "Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus") and is even prone to certain sins such as despising his brother (Romans 13:3,10) and being lifted up in pride because of his knowledge (1 Cor. 8:1). It is in our weakness that we learn God's strength (2 Cor. 12:10)

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