An Arranged Marriage, What are You Wearing?

Do I believe in an arranged marriage?

I want to show today why God has arranged our wedding  with him and the importance of wearing his robe and talking on his name in order to be considered his bride.

The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding and they were not willing to come... they made light of it and went their own ways (Matthew 22:1-5).

They made light of it and went their own ways.
Why make light of a wedding when you have a personal invite?

Salvation and our wedding with Christ are uniquely linked. I do believe that many who think they are the bride are mistaken, by falling in love with one yet have not actually taken on the vows, for they "make light" of the ceremony which many know as the new birth born of water and spirit as in (John 3:5).

I was in conversation on Friday which a group of sisters who told me the vows are irrelevant today and something of the past. I thought how sad. One young lady said she did not trust men and therefore the vows are irrelevant today. Now we could say she was making light of the vows and it made me think of this but so do many Christians today when it comes to our own salvation and our marriage ceremony with the Lord, our  new birth.

We make light, of John 3:5 when we say "oh its not important to be baptized into the name of Jesus
in order to enter the relationship with the Lord!" But friends it is for if one has no name then one has no righteousness with God.

Scriptures tells us that the groom saw a man who had no wedding attire.

He saw a man that did not have on a wedding garment (v 11)

So he said, "friend How did you come in here without a wedding garment?" and he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants bind him and and cast him into outer darkness (v13)

What is the proper attire for our wedding union with Christ? It is the righteousness of God. The garment that indicates we are in right standing with God. How then do we know we are right with God? The command of Jesus in John 3:5 tell us how to be his bride. Jesus shows us through his baptism how we become the bride or his sons and it is through baptism. 

Baptism into the name of Jesus fulfills all righteousness (Mt 3:15).

Baptism is where I exchange my filthy rags for his robes. We go from rags to robes, or rags to riches. Yes this is God's idea of a marriage He selects those who obey him. Yes in this sense I believe in arranged marriages for it is by God's divine plan that he arranged for me to wear his robe and dress in his garment and to come any other way is to deny my own salvation.

Notice too the context of scripture for in Mt 22:15-22 for the conversation continues on the same these.  "Render unto Ceaser that which is Ceaser's and to God that which is God's. (v21). Whose image is on the inscription? (v20) Those of the name are his. His name is their ID as a bride. His image is stamped on their lives their character their conversation. Those of the name are his.

Yes I believe in arranged marriages, one where its arranged for me to take on the name of Jesus. One where its arranged for me to be baptized into the name. I'm chosen not because I love him but because I obey him! and desire to please him and serve him and love him.

Yes I believe in arranged marriages. For Jesus arranged it for me.  Calvary the place of proposal, Pentecost the place of feast. I know the one who I love and I know the name that will be mine. Yes Jesus arranged it for me. I haven't got to think what will be the name of the family I enter into or will it be rich or poor will it be of this land or that land. I haven't got to worry where the reception will be for I know its in a upper room. I haven't got to worry about my script for its in John 3:5. I haven't go to worry about the wine because I know it will never run out. I haven't got to worry about the robe because its custom made at Calvary. 

It's arranged I know the family, I fit in there. The JESUS FAMILY.

Yes I believe in an arranged marriage!

What are you wearing?

God's Word Must Find Its Prophet

God's word must find its prophet. I'm not sure that what certain prophets today are speaking out is God! Here's why. A True prophet listens not to the times but to the God of the time. A true prophet listens not to the troubles of the age but the God of the age. If he looks around and sees what all others see, how can he then claim to be a "seer?" God's word will find God's prophet, and it wont be what be what the BBC, Al Jazeera or ISIS is telling us either!

Dealing with a Poverty Mentality

Its time to deal with our attitude toward money.

We've had so much negativity toward money in Christian circles, its ridiculous. Money is not my God and I don't believe its yours either. I'm not a prosperity preacher but I do believe the preacher needs wealth in every area of his life. Our dreams can never be powerful without money.

Some folks don't believe that they are entitled to money. They say things like "OK its Just not in my heart to want it" OR "God don't want me rich!"

Maybe your thinking came out of a childhood. You never thought you "deserved" more than others or that it was a "shame" to have more than other folks. Well, you don't deserve eternal life either and neither do I, but God gave it to us! how much will he give us the lesser gift of money.

If you believe that money and success are yours and these two do go together, then success and wealth will come to you. Money comes to the confident and the strong, the caring too. You can't take care of anyone without money. Yes money is for those who care too.

Quit believing that you don't need it or deserve it. You do! You deserve to have as much as it takes for you to live a good Godly life and have enough left over to truly bless others.  Now aim for that! God wants to bless you. Believe it!

"God Today I will change my attitude today toward money. I believe I deserve anything that comes from you and that includes wealth of all kinds including money.  Today I break the poverty mindset. I will look for more and more will come my way. Amen!"

Overcoming Your Disqualification

God didn't call you because you were perfect. Neither does the fact that you are saved mean you will never slip up. God's grace qualifies you, his righteousness makes us fit, any weakness he covers with his righteousness. We don't use it as a license to sin but rather we use it as a cover if we do sin. Knowing we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Moses, killed an Egyptian while in an angry fit. He spent forty years in the desert as a result. Yet God choose him to lead three million Israelites out of Bondage. David, A Giant layer, a celebrity, a hero, he had an affair with Bathsheba. God restored back to him the Joy of his salvation. He is remembered today as a man after God's own heart and Israels greatest King.

Each of these men had greatness in them yet greatness often accompanies weakness. Your success lies not in your ability to avoid making mistakes but after having made mistakes be able to quit condemning yourself, get up and move on.

Most folks fail not because of their mistakes but because they can never get up after having made a mistake. We sulk in our own inability, so rather than putting on his righteousness we wollow in self pity and guilt. We struggle to put on Righteousness, because we have set our own standards. But friend only God can set the standard for salvation. You cannot save yourself! Our standard means nothing. Don't base your worth on how much you do for God, your goodness is as filthy rags and in fact the more good we do to earn our standing with God the more we fill our closet with filthy rags.

What disqualifies many is not their sin but their inability to get back up and put on God's righteousness. As Christians we beat ourselves up over our mistakes continually, and in so doing live in a perpetual past, a constant cycle of defeat, guilt and condemnation, zapping our ability and invading our confidence. But the other side of the coin is that we also and at the same time crucify God afresh, negating the power of the blood and its power to free us from such bondage

In sport a disqualification means you have broken a rule and your out of the game. In God's world you break the rules and you are disqualified 'but' your disqualification is no hindrance to promotion and no obstacle to success. Your disqualification is no hindrance to God and it shouldn't be a hindrance to you. In fact your disqualification can become your qualification when you totally hand over your failure to God.

Your failure in not final with God. It's not the end, in fact God allowed you to fail. for its at the point of failure that we truly understand what failure really is. When we come into this understanding its then that we can make the conscious decision to, admit it, confront it quit it, move on and let God turn your weaknesses into your greatest strength.

Its the redeeming power of the blood of Jesus that gives us ability to 'start over' ...

Jesus our Melchzidek

Melchizidek King of Salem priest of the most high God. The writer giving an insight into the divinity of Jesus. King of Righteousness. Without father, without mother, without geneology, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually (Hebrews 7:1,3).

"King of Salem." See Genesis 14:17-20.
He is a King. As a man he was born King. He was king before he was born. He did not come to be king he was king before he arrived here. Jerusalem, city of peace. Not an earthly Jerusalem, but a heavenly city not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

One who is is "made like" unto the son of God. That is God himself "made like" a son, how was he made? He was made of a woman. Only as a Son could he be made of a woman. No woman can make God but as a mother she gave birth to a son God himself manifest in a body.

"Without father without mother"
Only God can be without father and mother. As God, he had no father as he was the everlasting father. As God he had no mother. Then think again of another aspect. Mary was not a mother, she was a maid. He was truly born of a virgin.

"Without geneology"
No trace of his background.
He was before the before.
Before there was anything he was there
Before there was a world, he was everything.
He was the everything that was in the beginning, before there was anything.
He still is everything.
He is my everything.
I Like that old song. He is my everything, he is my all. He is my everything, both great and small. He gave his life for me made everything new. He is my everything now how about you?
Is he your everything?

"Without geneology"
Without a CV
Before ancestry.co

"Without geneology"
What is his family tree?
You and I the redeemed ones!

Is your Life a Gift?

Acts 4:32 the congregation of those who had believed and united in heart  and soul; and not one of them claimed anything he owned for his own use; All that they owned was held on common and in Acts 4:34,35, "Amongst them no one was in want" ... An apostolic solution for all our social problems. It forces me to ask, "What if everything I had was my gift to you?"

What will be my contribution?
How much of me can I give away?
Is that in me valuable to another?
Will my life better this world or will I be a beggar in it?

Paul

Love Made Me Do It!

The Love of God "constraineth" us (2 Cor5:14)
...in that he died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves (v15).

Have you been asked why you preach?

Here Paul gives us a little insight into his passion. The word "constraineth" us means "a grip" that is irresistable. A mother might ask a son, "Whats got a hold of you!"  suggesting that you are not being yourself. Paul suggests here that the love of Christ "constraineth" him  or "compells" him (NKJV). It keeps him in a "straight" (Phil 1:23) Here he suggests he is hard pressed between two choices (in a fix) to serve the flesh of serve the spirit. One could say "hemmed in" that is, he is "held captive" bound, by a love that out-masters him. A love that casts aside self love,  and all value for self. This was the love that led Jesus to Calvary to die for all and this same love had gripped Paul where he too could "no longer live for himself but for him who died for them and rose again" (v15). Its a love which makes a man live for a cause and die for a movement. When asked why do you preach like you do. Simple declare, Love made me do it!   

Do you know the God you Worship?

A generation that knows not God!
Must a man know God before he is born again?
Can a man call on the name of God and not know who God is?

(This article appears on our google + network Apostolic Preachers)

It's an important question because if a man can call on God then later turn around and say "the trinity is God!" Is that proof that he knew not the God he called upon? We know that folks who know God embrace his name upon baptism while those who believe in the three co-equal persons as God, don't embrace the name upon baptism.

Did the apostles and the disciples know God before they called on his name in Acts? I believe they did! How can a man call on someone yet not know him? How can they know without a preacher?

Is this then, a generation of saved folks who cannot admit that they know not the God they worship! Should we not therefore humble ourselves and seek to know him. For until we know him as one, we really don't know him at all! Until we know Jesus as God we really don't know him at all.

Is this not the key reason why Christianity is in a crisis as well as in a confusion. Folks confessing the Lord, yet few knowing him by name and in person.

May I take this a step sideways. Is it possible to be saved and yet not know God? Just because one uses the name?

2. The "gospels" reveal God in the flesh.
Behold the King! Behold the servant! Behold the man! behold your God! God "unveiled" God is uncovering himself in the gospels before presenting us with salvation in his name as in Acts. This is a deliberate, Note the pattern and order or revelation.  God reveals himself to man before he shows man how to be saved! Now if we can present God in this way, the way we are given it,  we can get folks to know God by faith first then they can call on his name and be saved!

3. Can a man worship God and not know him. Yes!
Jesus said to the woman at the well "You worship what you do not know...we know what we worship" (John 4:22). Here he connected himself to the Jews and the God they worshiped. he said "we" worship. showing us the one true God. Here was an ideal opportunity to tell  them that God was a trinity if that was true, but No a thousand times no! For he declared the true God to be the one God the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

But to know God one must have a revelation of his name. This is why as preachers  we should emphasize the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord. His incarnation too. Yes emphasize! The gospel is precisely this. The death burial and resurrection of the Lord. Until one sees Jesus as God then one cannot claim to worship God in spirit or truth. Indeed a church that congregates on a Sunday yet does not know Jesus as God can never know God in person nor his power at work. There is no such thing as being saved without knowing one's God! Indeed it is the Spirit that reveals himself, "himself" as God.

Friend can you work out your salvation in fear and trembling. Then I know this God will come to you!