Cry Out To Jesus!

"The greatest obstacle that many face is admitting that their child molestation or their rape is not an excuse to sin. The desire to indulge in fleshly lusts (that can be attributed to past sexual victimization) rather than trusting in Jesus is the evidence that you are guilty too and in danger of hell fire just as everyone else is. We know the way out, but we rather indulge." -Tyrell Lee Samuels
       
If I had known how to kill sin. If only there were a Power strong enough to deliver me. If only there were a God loving and gracious enough to save me from my deleterious self. I know I need Him, I'm just too weak to call out to Him. We were all too weak, but He stepped in and saved us. If there were ever a time to believe in original sin, then the time is now. The truth is, there is a lie going around that floods your ears. It tells you to hate God because you're in the circumstance that you're in. You want to indulge, yet you know there is a way out. You wonder why He allowed it in the first place. The humbling truth is that you are a sinner just as every son of Adam and daughter of Eve is. Everything boils down to the fact that you are a sinner and you NEED Jesus too! That's all that matters, but you don't want to hear that. You want to go in your corner and sin without God bothering you. You might not think it's fair, but you still need Jesus. God could give you up to your own desires but you have the opportunity to be saved. God allows different things to happen to different people in a wicked and evil fallen world. Everyone is a victim of sin, and everyone needs a Savior. Because you're a sinner, and you rather place your desires above obeying God, you deserve HELL, and you will go, if you do not repent of your sin, believe in and make Jesus Christ your Lord. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and He came down to earth to save mankind from their sin. God loves you, and is compassionate towards your situation, that's why He died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sin, if only you would trust in Him. He loves you that's why He died to save you from hell. 


Admit that you to are a sinner and believe in Jesus Christ and what He has done for you. Be saved from this perverse generation. You must press forward and stop returning to the vomit that enslaved you in the first place. Christ came to set you free, and those who are free in Christ are free indeed. Press forward to the glorious hope that you may have in Jesus Christ! It's not so much that you were sinned against and now you sin...it's more that you were born a sinner, and this is how you respond to sin...with more sin. And sin leads to death, but there is life in Christ. Cry aloud to Jesus and ask Him to save you, I say, be saved from this perverse generation.

Are You on the Narrow Path?

Memory Verse: 13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because[a] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.-Matthew 7:13-14

No story today, I want to go back to Matthew 7:13-29. This has to be one of the most important but mistaught passages in all of the gospels. Go with me on a journey if you will. Jesus, one of the greatest teachers of our time has been walking around doing miracles, teaching the jews of His day. His teachings were none like anyone before Him, and yet they carried the same doctrine as the law of the old testament. Most of the people of His time were too blind to see this however. Because of His teachings, miracles, and authority by which He taught, He had worked up quite a following. He was like a modern day celebrity with many people flocking after Him trailing behind whereever He went. Many times He had to lose them so that He could get away with His disciples privately.

Imagine, that you were one of those followers. In fact, if you profess to be a Christian you are one of those followers. You who profess to be a Christian are one who follows Christ. One day, Christ in one of His many great teachings turned to those "following" Him and said “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Why would Jesus say this to a people who were already following Him? It's a deep and poingnant question that sets the basis for this devotional. We need to understand that this passsage isn't directed to the whole world. This passage doesn't give the difference between those who profess to be Christians and those who call themselves athiests, or worshippers of other gods. This passage takes a sword and divides the people who follow Christ. This is not to say that there are some who are saved that will go to heaven and some who are saved who will lose their salvation and be headed for destruction. This simply points out that there are many...many...many people who profess to follow Christ, but are really following their own desires. In verse 15 it's no coincidence that He begins to warn His followers about false teachers. He gives this warning because many false teachers have and will creep into His flock of followers and lead them astray. There are many people today who call themselves Christian and serve in ministry who are not even truly saved. They "follow" Christ but their hearts are far from Him.

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’-Matthew 7:21-23

If this is the case, it is no wonder that many that we think are true believers are really headed for destruction. Jesus said that BROAD was that gate...this is broad in the number of those who "follow" Christ. That means that only a small portion of those who follow Christ will truly follow Him into Eternity. Why do I give this warning? Because when I look among you, I see the very thing that Christ was talking about. So " Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith." Many of those who fill our churches, especially the young ones think they're following Christ, but if you examine their fruit as it says in the rest of Chapter 7 you see that they are indeed not of the faith. This has happened because false teachers in sheep's clothing have snuck in and become one with the true followers of Christ. These teachers are among you, they're nice, they're smart, they have results in their churches, they have large congregations and what they say has an appearence of truth but do not be deceived. So examine yourself...are you on the narrow path? Are you finding your Christian walk becoming increasingly difficult? Is it becoming hard to live out this life for Christ? Or are you having fun and chilling? The narrow way is the hard way, but it leads to life...everlasting. Are you on the narrow path? Is it truly Christ you're trusting in, or are you trusting in something else? Is He all you have in this life...or are you building your house on other things of this world? Are you exercising your faith when things seem hopeless, or are you planning out things and securing your own future? Do you live in total dependency on Christ, or have you worked out your life by trusting in man's wisdom. Test yourselves please! Have you been deceived by ministers who tell you that you can serve God in your own way...or are you following scripture? I highly encourage you to read the whole passage of Matthew 7:13-29 and meditate on it. Few will find life because the narrow gate requires you to live totally different from what mainstream Christianity is telling you. You will look like fools for the sake of Christ. Your very obedience to Him will have even those who profess Christ to rebuke you. Again I ask...Are you on the narrow path? The narrow path is the way that leads to Christ and eternal life. The broad way is the way that leads to hell and all those who do not accept Christ as their LORD and SAVIOR will perish by it. Those who perish by it are known by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-19)...they do not glorify God, they sin without conviction, and they do not trust in God for life. This is the truth as is outlined in Scripture...accept it, or reject it.

"But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bring on themselves swift destruction." 2Peter 2:1

Love As A Covering

Isaiah 40:5-And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

On December 21 at 1:33AM thousands of Americans across the eastern time zone gazed their eyes outside their windows, peeked open their doors and surrendered their warmth to see an event that hasn't happened in over 400 years, and would not happen again for almost a century. I took a nap at 11, and told my best friend to wake me up around 1:30. I too was one of those Americans anxious to see the earth pass between the moon and the sun in what is called a Lunar Eclipse. I was excited just because I'm particularly interested in phenomenons that happen in space. I didn't want to miss this one, and considerably so since I had missed the meteor shower that happened earlier this year. Out of zeal for the Lord, and possibly boredom my friend asked, “Ok, this is cool...how does this relate to Christ.” So I stopped for a second, thought then quickly replied. My reply wasn't enough, and so began our journey...

We peered into the sky and saw the earth casting it's shadow onto the moon. Like a creeping thief in the night, the darkness took away from the full glory of the bright abounding moon. That light could not shine to it's full potential because of the darkness creeping in. Just as Christ isn't able to get the full glory in our lives when we stand in the way of His will being done. Many occasions we try to take things into our own hands, when the Lord is trying to do a marvelous work in us. When in pain, we say "stop!" when the Lord is trying to use it to perfect us. We run, we hide and take matters into our own hands. It's only when we try to take matters into our own hands, or even pretend as if it is our own good works that will enter us into heaven that we fall short, and tarnish what the Lord is trying to do (Romans 3:12). We must decrease so that the Lord in us may increase! (John 3:30). It's amazing because when we stand in the way of God's will in our lives we create darkness. When the earth was moving between the sun it created darkness shown in the form of the shadow on the moon. In fact, the very absence of light is darkness, just as the absence of love is sin. When we stand in the way of Christ, people cannot see His love. This is the very definition of modesty, that we decrease so that others may see His love, that others may see His glory, and not our own. And If we fail to acknowledge His love for us, we will not respond in love to Him, and we will not obey Him. Instead we're left in our own pride and selfishness doing our own thing, going our own way that inevitably leads to destruction. We must yield to the Lord, let Him have His way in our lives, because when ever we take control, we create darkness and like the moon, that darkness is cast on everyone who is in the midst of it. We're only casting shadow on the moon, tarnishing the witness of Christ in our life. If we don't yield to the Father, If we don't decrease so that Christ increases how can we be light in the world? If the salt loses it's flavor, how can it be made salty again? (Matthew 5:13).  Why should we increase our self, or point others to our self? There is no light in us apart from Christ, (Isaiah 64:6) we are filthy, scarred, wretched beings aside from His grace (Romans 7:18). We're only inhibiting God's marvelous work if we stand in the way.

Something began to happen though as we watched intently, gawking at the dark moon. When we thought everything would be turned black something remarkable took place. The moon began to turn red. What a most beautiful red it was. The red shined through the dark shadow that the earth cast on the moon...just as Christ's blood shines through, and covers our sin. Yes! His love is a covering (1 Peter 4:8, 1 John 1:9). Everything started to look red as I gazed upon the sky. The clouds, the stars...they all appeared red reflecting the glory of the Son's death on the cross as payment for our sins. Yes, the whole sky was washed in His blood just as all mankind now has the opportunity to be washed in Christ's blood(Psalm 51:2). His blood, that reflection of red in the sky shrouded the night in front of my eyes. So even when we stand in the way, there is grace in that His blood shines through and covers us, it covers our darkness.  It can cover any sin. We cast our sins on Christ on the cross just as the earth cast it's shadow on the moon. But instead of turning black, the moon turned red. JESUS BLED! His true glory was revealed on that cross. When we were dead in our trespasses, He died for us, He has redeemed us! (Titus 2:14). His love came in spite of our darkness (Romans 5:8). And for those of us who have accepted the Light of the world, Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, we do not have to abide in darkness, but in light (Isaiah 1:18)...just as the moon does not stay in darkness, but follows the natural course of it's orbit and moves into the light. ( John 12:46)

It all became apparently clear to us, as the Lord was revealing His salvation and restoration to mankind in the form of a Lunar Eclipse. Indeed the heavens declare His glory (Psalm 97:6, Psalm 19:1). The moon began to turn white, just like every other night, but then the darkness began to encroach in. By 3:17AM the whole moon had shown red for a period of time. After that, it began to turn white again as the shadow began to recede. While Jesus Christ was on earth He was the light of the world, perfect, blameless before men, the standard, the example in which man should follow. He shined while on earth but He knew He came to die. While on that cross, He bled, pouring out His blood for the remission of the sins of all mankind. His blood shed as a covering over our sin, our darkness. He died, and rose and ascended into heaven. The time we have now, is the time to choose Christ. We are in a time of grace. We have the freedom to choose Him now lest we perish in the eternal flames of hell. We can be cleansed by His blood, and made children of light (Ephesians 5:8). We can only do this when we step out of the way, die to our own will, cast down our pride and admit our sin. Only then will we be washed in His blood, and be made new. And just like the light was coming back, Christ is coming back! And when He comes, He'll be riding on a white horse in full glory with judgment in His hands for those who have not repented, just as the moon had returned whiter and brighter than I had ever seen it. It pierced through the edges of the darkened moon encompassing it all within an hour and a half.

If you have not already, surrender your life to Him now, while there is still time! Choose Christ today!

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.-Hebrews 1:3

Written by Tyrell Lee Samuels and Marie-Marthe Rousseau, given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit!