Selfless Faith

In Matthew 18:16, Jesus says quoting Deuteronomy 19:15, “But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’”

If we are abiding in the love of Jesus Christ, we should be at peace with one another even in our disagreements. The corporate church is quickly falling and fading away spiritually although some may be standing strong financially or numerically. This is caused by strife and separation between brothers and sisters united and made one by Jesus Christ. In the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks of a church being lukewarm and being spit out of His mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) We can portray that same taste to the world by the way we act and treat each other. How many times have we heard, “The Christians did this,” or “Can you believe what those Christians are doing?” We should desire to resolve issues within the body as quickly and quietly as possible amongst ourselves. In a family, we don’t our neighbor to know all of our disagreements by the way we react. It is the same in the family of God. God desires to resolve any disputes that may arise without us having to go to the world for guidance and judgment. In essence, when we let the hands be upset at the feet of the body of Christ, no one gets any work done and we become useless to the cause of Jesus Christ. Holding grudges is foolish anyways. Imagine getting to heaven and seeing the Glory of God and we can only worry about whether we are allowed to eat pork or not and so forth. Let us forgive quickly, love generously, and continue to abide in the undeserved grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

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In Matthew 18:14, Jesus contines to say, “Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.”

As we read in the past two reflections, God has an unfailing and unconditional love for us. He keeps His children safe and if one goes astray, He will go out and get them to bring them back to the flock. God does not want us to die, but would rather us to have eternal life. That is His desire for everyone. If that were not true, He would not have sent Jesus Christ to hang on a cross to die for our sin. Selfish thinking leads us to say, “If God cared, He would/wouldn’t _______ (fill in the blank).” My beloved, God cared enough to sacrifice His ONLY begotten son to die on a cross. If I had 100 sons, I wouldn’t offer any one of them to die for someone else’s mistakes. I thank God that I am NOT God. God allowed Jesus Christ to die for our sins while we still hated Him and lived in direct disobedience against Him. I wouldn’t do that for my closest friend but our gracious, loving, and merciful God allowed His ONLY begotten Son to die for His worst enemies. God does not want us to perish and live in darkness forever. When we exhausted all humanly methods to find salvation through our own filthy self-righteousness, God provided the one and only true answer! Thank God for Jesus Christ! The light has come into the world and has filled our lives. We are no longer blind. We can now have everlasting life through the only Son of God, Jesus Christ, who came to take away the sin of the world.

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In Matthew 16:21, Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.

Right after the glorious revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus began to reveal to the disciples God’s plan to redeem man. He revealed to the disciples the gospel before it even happened. The truth is Jesus was betrayed, beaten, killed, and raised up on the third day. Many of us seem to lose focus on that. We only want to talk about the love of Jesus, the great teachings of Jesus, to follow His examples, or the peace that He brings. However, without the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, everything else is utterly meaningless. Paul wrote without the resurrection of Jesus, our faith is in vain and we are to be pitied the most amongst all men. Without BOTH the death and resurrection, there is no Christianity, there is no redemption, there is no peace. Our faith lies upon two pillars. The first pillar is the death of Christ to wipe ALL of our sins away. We are covered by His precious blood. The second pillar is the resurrection of Christ. Through His resurrection, we have received a new life. Both are the two most essential components of our faith. If one is missing, the foundation completely falls to the ground. Thank you God for this newness of life in Jesus Christ you have so graciously given to us. Lord, let Your world fall on us to bring forth the fruit you deserve.

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In Matthew 16:8-10, Jesus was aware of what the disciples were thinking and said to them, “O you of little faith, why do you reason among yourselves because you have brought no bread? Do you not yet understand, or remember the five loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets you took up?  Nor the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many large baskets you took up?”

Our faith is small. Thank God while our faith is small, Jesus lives within us to be the completion and fullness of our faith. The refining process Jesus did in the lives of the disciples helps strengthen our faith more than we can ever imagine. Sometimes we look on others and say “oh just have faith” or “you need more faith.” That is a bit demeaning or condescending to say to a fellow brother or sister. Who gave us the position to judge the amount of faith someone else has? It is always easier to tell another person to have more faith when we are looking through the window of our well air-conditioned lives on a hot summer day of what the world deals to believers in Jesus Christ. However, what state do we go into when we can’t pay our mortgage, car payments, light bill, or even afford to get some bread and water for our family? Do we tell ourselves to have more faith or are we frantic? Many of us open our mental Rolodex to see who can help us. No one can help us but God. We always seem to forget how much God when we are faced with a tough situation. Instead of telling our brothers and sisters to have more faith, why don’t we help strengthen their faith just as Jesus did for His disciples and does for us? We must come along side each other carrying each other’s burdens in the name of Christ. That is how God strengthens faith. It is not by us telling each other “to have more faith.” Faith is not sold at the supermarket; faith comes by hearing the Word of God and living life IN Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Christ Crucified [ 32:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Have we left our first love? Many times we get so busy being involved in serving the Lord that we forget all about loving the Lord. Then whatever it is that we do becomes a burden for us and we feel the weight of the world upon us. This is how the enemy traps us. We end up Being Under Satan’s Yoke. Have we left our first love? Join us in this special message directly from the heart of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Deliver on how much He loves us and desires us to return back to Him, our first love. Continue reading