There are a lot of people who are unstable in our world today. The word unstable just means not fixed or firm, not constant. There are to many people who are not firm about anything that they believe, now why is that?

Our verse for today is found in the book of James, 1:8:
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways

Of course when this verse is discussing a man it means any type of person, and also this verse answers the question that I posed in my title. This verse says that a person who is double minded is unstable.  This verse revolves around our faith. Now many will ask what is faith? And again the Bible gives us the answer:

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is the act where a person believes in something that they cannot see!   So James is saying that anyone who says that they have faith but their actions to not back up their claim then this person is unstable in all that they do.

The writer of the book of Hebrews continues on in chapter 11 and tells us why faith is so important!
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must BELIEVE that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.

So we must have faith and believe that He is who He said that He was!  We must believe that Jesus was the Savior and that He will save all of those who will ask Him to save them.  All of this must be done by faith, we didn’t see Him die, we didn’t see Him rise up from the grave, yet by faith we believe that these things did happen!

These things that I have just mentioned must be established in your heart, if you do not want to be a double minded person who is unstable!  Does that mean that we will never be unstable again? No it means that we will not be unstable regarding our salvation!  We can still become unstable after salvation, but what we will find is those things that cause us to become unstable are things that we have not been willing to deal with.

Things that the Lord has already been dealing with us about and we say no to Him! So to remedy this issue all we have to do is to say Yes and agree with Him and ask Him for forgiveness.

And as soon as we do that then we will find that we are no longer unstable!

So where does this blog posting find you today? Have you asked Him to save you? If you are saved have you said no to Him about any issue He has been dealing with you about?

If either of these things are true then you will be unstable until you take care of them!

Until next week,

Roger Penny

The verse that I would like to examine today is found in the Matthew 22:42: 
Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David.

Jesus is speaking here and He was talking to the Pharisees who would have been the so-called religious people of that day. Just like Jesus posed this question to them I want to pose this same question to you. What do you think of Christ?

There is so much false information out there today about who Jesus was and the life that He lead and how He died and rose again.  I don’t have time to discuss all of these things but I did want to try and get you to stop and consider this question.  What would your answer be? There are many “religious people” who don’t even know the answer. They might say something like this, well Jesus was a good man who lived along time ago, or they might say that Jesus was a prophet who lived a long time ago. You see your answer to this question is very important because it can be the difference between heaven and hell!

Just being a religious person will not necessarily get you into heaven! The first thing that must be established is weather or not you believe in the Bible. If you don’t think that the Bible is true then you will never be able to answer this question correctly! I did not say that you had to understand everything about the Bible, you have to believe that it is the very words of God.  Yes He used different men (40) to write it over a long period of time (1500 years) but it still is his Word and you must come to the place where you except that. Once you do then you can begin to allow the Bible to answer this question for you because as you read it you will see your need and you will ask the Lord to save you. Once He saves you then you will have the right answer to this question!

Listen to Thomas’s answer to this question:

John 20:27-28:
Then saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. [28] And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

Thomas said that He is MY Lord and MY God! You see the only ones who can say this are those who have made Him THEIR Lord and THEIR God, and you do this by asking Him to save you!

Listen to Peter’s answer to this question:

Matthew 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Peter could make this confession because he had the Lord living in His heart!

Now how about you? Does Christ live in your heart? Or are you just a religious person? If you want to answer this compelling question correctly then you must have Christ living in your heart!

Until next week:

Roger Penny

I come to you today, with absolutely nothing new.  In fact, we, as a society, do not need anything new.  We have everything!  I mean, think about it, we have it all...if any society, any people, or any nation in history ever had "It All" it is us!  Most of the people we know have all kinds of "stuff."  Electronic stuff, housing stuff, car stuff, clothes stuff, food stuff...man we have got the "stuff!"  We do not need anything new!  However, we certainly do need something old...we need an "Old Fashioned Revival" at the House of God...with an old time calling upon our hearts from on High...and some old time surrender of our hearts here below.

We need and old fashioned revival that will bring some old fashioned tears, and some old fashioned broken hearts.  Hearts that are broken because of personal conviction.  Some old fashioned weeping because of concern for lost souls, concern for wayward family, concern for sinful friends. 

We need an old fashioned revival that will draw men and women to thier knees in old fashioned prayer.  One that breaks arrogant, prideful, malicious hearts and causes Christian people to cry out to Almighty God for relief, for forgiveness, for assistance, for deliverence.

We need and old fashioned revival that begins as a spark in an open heart, that becomes a flame in that life, and then spreads like a wildfire through the pews, across the altar, throughout the Church, and into the community...We need what Ezra said Jerusalem needed in Ezra 9: 8 "And now for a little space of grace hath been showed by the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in His holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage."

We need that "...little space of grace..." so that we can receive a "...little reviving..." and experience an old fashioned revival that will stirr our hearts anew for the cause of Christ.

Will you join me in prayer for such a "space of grace?"

Hope to see you soon,

Pastor Jerry
Phil. 3: 10

Matthew 16:26:
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

These words of Jesus are very thought provoking.  There are many people who are running around trying to just better themselves and that is their only pursuit in life. Not taking one thought about the hereafter.

Let me first say that the Bible nor is God against any person bettering themselves, what it is against is when that becomes our one and only pursuit in life.  Notice the question of our verse that we read.  If it were possible for a person to gain the whole world and not be prepared for what comes after this life then what have they really gained?

The Bible is very plain that when a person dies they will spend ETERNITY in one of two places, Heaven or Hell!  When we talk of heaven there is little debate about what heaven will be like, however when you start talking about hell there is much debate. My description is that hell will be a place of torment and the worst part is that there will be a total separation from God.  So that means that there will be a total separation from any thing that is good!

Hell will be a place where the devil and all his demons will inhabit!  It will not be a place of limbo it will not be a temporary place it will be forever!  You can’t pray your way out or do penitence to get out, your fate will be sealed when you leave this life.  What all is involved in the torment I can not tell you, the Bible does speak of the fire of that place and the guilty mind that will torment those who populate it.

Now some would scoff at this and say well if God were a loving God then He wouldn’t allow anyone to go there.  True, He doesn’t!  If you end up in hell it will be because you sent yourself there!  You see if I am so preoccupied with gaining the whole world then in the end then I will lose my soul!

So let me ask you Would It Be Worth It?  The thing for you and me to do is to take care of our eternal destiny here and now while we can and then it won’t be to late.  To do that then all you need to do is to confess you are a sinner and believe that Jesus died on the cross for you to pay the price for your sins. Then just ask Him to save you!

If you take these steps and ask the Lord to save you then please contact us so that we can help you in your new life with the Lord!

Until next week,

Roger Penny

Our scripture today will come from the book of Matthew:
Matthew 7:1-5 Judge not, that ye be not judged. [2] For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. [3] And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? [4] Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? [5] Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

Today we hear this said a lot, “Don’t judge me” or “You can’t judge me!” however in these verses it does not say that we cannot judge others.  Let’s examine exactly what these verses are really saying!  The first thing is to establish what we can judge, obviously no one but God can judge a persons heart.

What we can judge is what we can see in a person’s life and then we can hold that up against what the Bible says.  And may I say the proper interpretation of the Bible!  So if I see a brother whose actions and words and manner of living are not in line with the Bible then I have an obligation to point out this to that brother.  If I have an opportunity to witness to a person who is not a Christian then I have an obligation to point out to them the sin that is in their lives.

But why should we do this?  The reason is to help the Christian to get their heart right with the Lord and for the lost person to help them to trust Christ as their Savior!  This is not to condemn them however when you point out the wrong in someone’s life many times they will fill condemned!  If your motive is to condemn and not to love and restore then your heart is not right!

First we must consider the consequences. Verse 1&2 say that when you set out to judge someone that we need to understand that we will be judged by the same standard that we are judging them by.

Second we must consider the conditions. Verse 3&4 say that when we notice something in someone’s life the first thing that we must do is get rid of the junk out of our lives first before we judge.

Third we must consider the challenge. Verse 5 says that the challenge is to get your life clean before you begin to talk to anyone else!

Fourth we must consider the cause. Verse 5 says that once I have cleaned up my life then and only then can I help someone else with their lives.

So to wrap this up the Bible does not say that we cannot judge, however the Bible does say that if you are going to judge then there are some requirements that we need to meet.  If you can’t follow these things then we should keep our mouths shut!  The whole purpose for the judging is to help the one who is being judged! 

Let me make this last statement: You will never accomplish the true purpose of judging if you are not filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit!

Until next week;

Bro. Roger