2nd
Corinthians 4:16-18, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward
man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are
not seen: for the
things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are
eternal.”
I memorized two awesome Bible passages this week. This is one of them. I'll
mention the other later. Our text verse is precious!!! The dear apostle Paul
said that our light affliction is but for a moment, “working for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” The Bible often uses a
weight scale to convey truth. Paul said that our earthly afflictions work in
our favor, with eternity in view. Visualize with me if you will a weight
scale, with the burdens of this temporary life on one side, and the
blessedness of eternity on the other. If we merely dwell upon this
troublesome temporal life, focusing only on the miseries, problems and
troubles of today, then our afflictions will seem like an unbearable heavy
weight.
If you want to make your
afflictions lighter, LOOK AT THE UNSEEN ETERNAL THINGS!!! What are some of
these eternal things? Well, good night, Heaven for one! Bless God, I'm going
to Heaven when I die. I can't wait with excitement. I'm gonna see my dear
Savior for the first time when I die. I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING MY BLESSED
AND PRECIOUS REDEEMER!!!!!!! I'm going to see my saved loved ones. I'm going
to see my parents, Brother and Mrs. Hyles, my grandmother, people whom I've
led to the Lord who are already in Heaven with the Lord. 2nd Corinthians
5:7-8, “For we walk by faith, not by sight: We are confident, I say, and
willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be
present with the Lord.” As soon as we leave this earthly
tabernacle, we are going to be present with the Lord. That is precious!
What's another unseen thing?
Romans 1:20, “For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and
Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” So we can clearly see God,
and His omnipotent power throughout creation and the universe. The
Scriptures plainly warn that ALL mankind are WITHOUT EXCUSE, because the
eternal things of God are CLEARLY SEEN. Wow! What a remarkable truth. Folks,
there is no such thing as an atheist, only wicked people who choose to live
as if there were no God. I like what Pastor Danny Castle recently said in a
sermon titled, “LAST DAYS MOCKERS,”
and I quote: “An atheist is a temper-tantrum thrown at God!” Yes Sir, that's
good preaching!
Moses saw the invisible God. I see
the Lord. Do you see Him? Hebrews 11:27, “By faith he forsook Egypt, not
fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing
him who is invisible.” God is as clear as the blue sky above.
God is as clear as the bright sun at noon. Psalms 14:1, “The fool hath
said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done
abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” Oh, the joy of
acknowledging God in my life!!! Oh, the joy of acknowledging the Son of God,
and trusting upon His name. We have to believe on Jesus' precious name,
because we cannot see Him bodily today. John 1:12, “But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name.” We believe in He
Whom we have not seen. Faith is not the absence of doubt; but rather, the
presence of trust in despite of doubt. By the very meaning of “faith,” doubt
must co-exist. Faith is placing our confidence in the unseen Savior.
Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.”
We cannot see the Holy Spirit, but we KNOW HIM as
believers, because He lives inside of us (Romans 8:9). THANK YOU GOD FOR YOUR HOLY
SPIRIT!!! John 14:17, “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot
receive, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you,
and shall be in you.” We're never alone as God's children, if
you are born-again, because the Holy Spirit is ALWAYS with you and in you.
That is so beautiful.
Jesus beautifully told us not to worry about tomorrow, because we have
enough problems to cope with today. That advice came directly from our dear
Savior! That is an important Biblical principle.
Matthew 6:34, “Take therefore
no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for
the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” We
are commanded not to take thought concerning the future. The Greek work
carries a negative aspect, that is, fretting over tomorrow. Jesus is not
telling us not to plan for the future; but rather, not to fret about it.
Lord willing, we hope to live to serve God another day here on earth, but if
not, Heaven sounds even better. Philippians 1:21, “For to me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain.”
I love the preceding and the following passages
of Scripture...
Colossians 3:1-3, “If ye
then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
Let's break down Colossians 3:1-3 to see what
we can learn here shall we...
-
JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN; THEREFORE,
- WE ARE TO SEEK HEAVENLY
THINGS, WHERE CHRIST SITS ON THE FATHER'S RIGHT HAND.
- WE ARE TO SET OUR
AFFECTION (THINK ABOUT) HEAVENLY THINGS, NOT EARTHLY THINGS.
- WE ARE DEAD IN CHRIST,
AND JESUS IS OUR NEW LIFE.
Very few Christians live this Scripture. This
is the key to the believer's happiness. No Christian who walks in the flesh
can ever truly be happy. What type of heavenly things should we think about?
- SOUL-WINNING (Luke
15:10; 1st Peter 1:12)
- SECOND COMING OF JESUS
CHRIST (Philippians 3:20; Titus 2:13)
- LAY ASIDE DISTRACTIONS
AND SIN, AND RUN THE RACE THAT IS SET BEFORE US (Hebrews 12:1)
- LAY UP TREASURES IN
HEAVEN BY LABOURING FOR CHRIST (Matthew 6:19-20; 1st Corinthians 3:7-15)
- CARING FOR AND
PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR (Matthew 5:3)
- THE KING JAMES BIBLE
(Psalm 119:89)
- LOVING AND FORGIVING
EVERYONE WITH GOD'S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE (Matthew 6:14-15)
I've just listed but a few, but the entire Holy
Bible ought to be our thoughts. I don't know about you, but I want to
saturate my thinking and life with the things of God. The only way for a
Christian to be happy in Jesus is to TRUST AND OBEY.
Guard Your Heart
Against All the Temporal “Seen” Garbage in the Media Today
Proverbs
4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of
life.” That is how you make your afflictions lighter my friend, you get
your mind off of this sin-cursed world, and start focusing on the eternal
things of God. GET IN THE SCRIPTURES!!! Turn off that damned television (no
pun intended). Turn off the radio. Start listening to lots of
YouTube preaching.
Start listening to the awesome
Bible-preaching on my website. You can hear Alexander Scourby read the
King James Bible for free on YouTube. You can have some Heaven on earth if
you'll surround yourself with the Word of God, fundamental Bible-preaching,
and some Christian friends at a Bible-believing church. Kick Satan out of
your life, or he'll destroy it!!! I've pretty much stopped reading and
watching the daily news. I don't have television. I save $1,500 a year! It's
not something I need, I have better things to do with my time.
May I say, you won't become in five years what you decide to be, you'll become what you decide to be
around. You have to create the life you want, and it starts with the fruit
of the Spirit if you want to please God. That means you MUST get saved. I mean born-again by faith in
the Gospel. Once you are saved, then you'll have God living inside you. The
“fruit of the Spirit” is God!!! Galatians 5:22-23, “But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against
such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in
the Spirit.” God is love. God is peace. God is gentleness. God is all of
these blessed attributes. God is goodness. All goodness comes from God.
I rarely pay attention
to the news anymore. I WANT MY MIND FILLED WITH GOOD THINGS. Folks, there's
350,000,000 people living in the United States. Do you realize that there's
ALWAYS going to be the most hideous, unthinkable and horrifying crimes
filling the news EVERY DAY of your life if you watch the news! Do you want
to think about that stuff all the time? Not me buddy! Philippians 4:8,
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are
honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any
virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” That
eliminates the manure-spreading newsmedia!!! That eliminates the local
manure-spreading newspaper!!! Folks, you cannot truly enjoy a close and
sweet walk with God, while having your impressionable mind pumped full of
every form of evil, crime, sickening thoughts from television, and the
critical and ungodly media!!!
America has gone to
Hell, and the Luciferian-controlled newsmedia and Hollywood are
intentionally re-pumping the criminal garbage back into your brain to
destroy your thinking, family and life. I haven't read any news today,
deliberately. I don't want that garbage in my mind!!! Why should I fill my
mind with the consequences of a sick nation that has abandoned God, spitting
in his face? Here's a
pretty Gospel song that I am listening to by Skeeter Davis. She was a
Christian and a Baptist.[1]
My kind of gal. She was actually kicked out of the Grand Ole
Opry in 1973 for a year, because she dedicated a song to a local group of
believers who were arrested for evangelizing the Gospel in a local shopping
mall. Good for her! Country singers had something beautiful back then that
today's generation lacks.
I recently noticed that
Country music singers today have a dead glaze in their eyes. Our nation's
innocent is gone!!! Back in the 1950's and 1960's and 1970's, music was so
beautiful because Christianity was still strong in our nation. People still
loved their neighbour. Neighborhood gangs were unheard of, except in the
Bronx in New York or other big cities. Today, the smallest towns across the
U.S. are afflicted with an epidemic of punk gangs, street drugs, illegal
aliens and every evil imaginable. When the Holy Bible was removed and banned
from America's classrooms in 1963, it was the nail's in our nation's coffin.
Oh, what fools!!!
I've heard several
sermons already today. I'm listening to pretty Gospel music at the same time
I'm listening to Steven Anderson preach. I keep the music volume low, and
the sermon louder, so I can hear the sermon clearly. I heard a few sermons
by Brother Jack Hyles yesterday. I have Danny Castle queued up next. I
regularly keep up with Pastor Jeff Owens, Dr. Max Younce and other favorite
preachers that God has used to shape my life. PREACHING SHAPES OUR
THINKING!!! And by the way, so does television, music and everything that
enters into our brain. Proverbs 4:23, “Keep thy heart with all diligence;
for out of it are the issues of life.”
Are You Ready to Meet Your
Maker?
My friend, that could happen to
anyone at any time! You could slip and hit your head in the fall, dying from
head trauma. There are quite literally thousands of ways to die, some
remarkable and others just plain common ways that people perish. We know one
thing for sure... WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE ONE DAY!!! The important question
is... ARE YOU READY TO DIE??? I AM! I KNOW THAT I AM BORN-AGAIN!!! I HAVE
PERFECT PEACE THAT I AM SAVED AND HAVE ETERNAL LIFE. My hope is 100% in
Jesus Christ, because of what HE DID to pay for my sins on the cross with
His blood! JESUS IS MY ONLY HOPE FOR HEAVEN. Christ died on the cross for my
sins. He was buried. And then three days later Christ bodily resurrected
from the dead and is alive today!!! That is my only hope for forgiveness of
sins and eternal life.
Did you know that Jesus doesn't
forgive sin! That is correct. Jesus has already paid for everyone's sins
with His precious blood. So forgiveness of sins is a “gift,” that you simply
receive by faith (trust). 1st Peter 1:18-19, “Forasmuch as ye know that
ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a
lamb without blemish and without spot.” Colossians 1:14, “In whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” No one is a
child of God who doesn't trust completely in Jesus for their salvation.
Galatians 3:26, “For ye are all the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus.”
The Beautiful “Unseen”
Eternal Things of God
However, if we look at the unseen
things of God, keeping eternity in view at all times, then the burdens of
this temporal life will seem light in comparison to the glory, peace and
blessings waiting for us in eternity with Jesus!!!!!!! That is what Paul is
saying. The Bible teaches that just as we suffer with Christ, we shall also
share in His glory...
2nd Timothy 2:12, “If
we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also
will deny us.”
1st Peter 5:1, “The elders which
are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the
sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be
revealed.”
Oh, my dear friend, please don't
miss out on all that God has planned for you...
“May I say
this morning, if you're not saved, God has a salvation so wonderful that
words can't describe it. But once you receive that salvation, there's a joy
so wonderful that no sound can describe it. And when you die in Christ and
go to Heaven, you'll see a place that will make you speechless, because of
its beauty and its joy. ”
SOURCE: Dr.
Jack Hyles, a quote from the MP3 sermon, “Unspeakable,
Unsearchable, Unchangeable.”
We are taught in the Holy
Scriptures to set our mind and heart (i.e., our affections) on “THINGS
ABOVE.” Colossians 3:1-3, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the
earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
We ought to live ABOVE THE CLOUDS in our mind and heart, where the Son
is always shining. Living BELOW the clouds we'll endure the constant
unpleasant rains of criticism, hatred and misery which define this temporal
ungodly world. The Bible commands us to set our heart on THINGS ABOVE, where
Christ reigns in Heaven. Literally, we are already citizens of the heavenly
Jerusalem. If you are saved, you are a child of the King! I choose to set my
mind and heart upon divine truths, remembering that my name is written down
in Heaven in the Lamb's Book of Life. God is my heavenly Father. I have a
hope of eternal life that is sure! Titus 1:2, “In hope of eternal life,
which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” I don't
hope; but rather, I have a hope of eternal life. Amen!
The Importance of
Memorizing Scripture
The other great Scripture I memorized this week is Ephesians 6:8, “Knowing that whatsoever good thing any
man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or
free.” I love that!
I encourage every Christian believer to regularly commit Scriptures to
memory. It doesn't have to be lengthy passages. Keep a list of passages that
you've already committed to memory. The saying is very true, which says,
“Use it or you'll lose it!” And another true saying, which says, “Repetition
is the key to learning!” I love the Word of God!!! I've been on an Alexander
Scourby marathon this week, listening throughout the night while sleeping,
and throughout the day, to the precious King James Bible. I heard a
beautiful Scripture the other day from Psalms 111:10, “The fear of the
LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have
all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.”
I promise you my friend, that if you'll plug into the Word of God, it will
plug into you! Just like you plug an appliance into the electric wall
outlet, if you'll plug your mind and heart into the King James Bible, THE
HOLY SPIRIT WILL ENERGIZE YOU WITH THE TRUTH!!! I feel like a child in a
candy store when I hear the beautiful Scriptures. Do you know why it means
so much to me? It is because I am a child of the King! I am born-again! So
when I listen to the Holy Bible, I know it all applies TO ME!!! And if
you're saved, it all applies to YOU TOO!!! An unsaved man cannot claim the
promises of God which apply only to believers.
What are your afflictions this
moment? No matter how heavy they may seem, the Holy Bible teaches that they
are light afflictions compared to our eternal weight of glory.
2nd
Corinthians 4:17-18, “For our light
affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory;
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are
not seen: for the
things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are
eternal.”
