122. SETTING CAPTIVES FREE. Exodus 3:7.

The Bible tells us in (Exodus 1:14.) That for four hundred years (About six generations) Israel was enslaved by Egyptian taskmasters who oppressed them and ‘made their lives bitter’ You can understand their feelings of helplessness when you consider the areas in your own life where you have struggled for freedom from old habits. for years or even generations, Whether it’s Anger, Food, Alcohol, Drugs, Sex, Money or Abusive relationships, we experienced or are experiencing the same sense of powerlessness in our struggle. And repeated bids for freedom from these habits or addictions only seem to produce increased feelings of hopelessness that lead us to give up trying altogether. But, the Israelites cried out to God, and He responded. (Exodus 3:7.) ‘I have seen the misery of my people… heard them crying out… and am concerned about their suffering.’ Today God sees you, God hears you, and is concerned about you. He told them in the very next verse (3;8) what He was going to do for them. He said “I have come down to them to rescue them… to bring them up out of that land, into a good and spacious land flowing with milk and honey… Notice, He had ‘come down to bring them up’ How did He do that? Their deliverance called for the death of the spotless Passover lamb and applying its sacrificial blood to their doorposts, and having cooked and eaten the lamb while being dressed in their travelling clothes, staff in hand, were ready to leave captivity behind. Now, God wants you also to prepare for your journey to freedom, but not by your own futile human efforts. As we are told in (1Corenthians 5:7) ”Remove the old yeast of sin so that you may be a new batch of dough, being ready to leave your old life behind. Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.” Freedom in Christ now awaits you. When the Israelites (Psalm 107:13-14) ‘cried to the Lord He saved them...He brought them out of darkness...and broke their chains’...And He can set you free from whatever is holding you captive. Not just for a short temporary space of time, but long-term freedom. 1(John 8:36) tells us ‘If The Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed’ Believe it! Here are two steps you can take to freedom. (1) God said in (Jeremiah 29-13) “You WILL find me when you seek me with all your heart” So forget about dignity and decorum, desperate situations call for desperate measures!. Stop trying to handle it alone. If you could save yourself, you wouldn’t need a saviour!. Give it to God. (1Peter 5:7.) tells you to ‘Cast all your cares on Him, for He cares for you’. The word Cast means to throw something away from you just like a fisherman casts a net or a line far away into the ocean. Jesus will handle it. There is nothing so big that God can’t handle it, and nothing so small that He won't bother about it. That’s how much your God loves you. Dare I say it but, this is our biggest problem. Understanding and believing just how much God loves us. And to try to understand that, we need to ask ourselves this one question “For whom would I give my Son’s life?” and then multiply your answer a million times. There is absolutely nothing God wouldn’t do for you, unless He knew it would do you harm and no good So think on that for a few minutes before you complain or criticize Him who said in (Jeremiah 29:11) “For I know the plans I have for you, plans for good and not for disaster. To give you a future and a hope.” (2). Feed your Soul. Your Soul is a Spirit, and just as your body needs feeding regularly with proper food such as vitamins, calories, proteins etc so your soul also needs feeding regularly with spiritual foods, like Prayer, regular, Teachings and Scripture reading. Just as your body will die without being fed and nourished with the necessary vitamins, calories etc. so too your Soul will die if it is not nourished with the necessary food it requires to stay alive and receptive to God’s Word and prayer which is the food for your soul. God has shown us very clearly that how it is with our body, so it is with our spirits. Just as we wouldn’t put anything bad into our own bodies, God wouldn’t put anything bad into our soul. Why? Because we are The Body of Christ .(His Body) And He will prepare, preserve and protect His Body. But for that to take place, we have to feed and nourish it regularly with spiritual life-giving food. Freedom is a two-part process. The first is communion with Jesus Christ. The Israelites fed on the passover lamb in preparation for leaving slavery. And Jesus, The Lamb of God. declared. in (John 6:51) “I am the living Bread… Whoever eats this bread will live forever.” Sharing your feelings and needs with Him will lighten your burden, relieve your loneliness and nourish your soul. In (Luke 4”18) we read, Jesus came to proclaim freedom to the prisoners. And To set the oppressed free. The second part is meditating on Scripture. Rejecting God’s Word caused the Israelites to become slaves; (Psalm 107:11-12) “Because they rebelled against the Word of God and despised the counsel of The Most High, They fell down, and there was none to help” To have a healthy soul and to be set free and stay free, feed it everyday on God’s life-giving Word. There is no way around it Do it, or slowly die! Some things in Scripture are plainly Black-and-White, and this is one of them. Do it and you WILL succeed, don’t, and you probably wont. God is faithful to His Word. Thank you for reading these few words on being set free. If the Doctor told you to take a medication once a day to keep alive, I’m sure it would become a priority in your life, A daily half hour reading and meditation will keep your Soul alive, alert and vibrant. Because The Bible is one of the main ways God communicates His Will to His Children. To opt for the alternative could be disaster for your soul. Think about this very seriously, the eternal life of your soul can slowly starve to death without it. God Bless Phaline ----------------------------------

121. CARE FOR THE NEEDY. Acts 5:1

In New Testament times, The church took on the responsibility of caring for the Widows and Orphans. Unfortunately bias raised it’s ugly head, and Jewish widows and orphans were given preferential treatment over Gentile Widows and orphans. How did the church leaders respond?First they called a meeting to resolve the problem (See acts 6:2) They let every member know that their church took poverty very seriously, and that they were each personally responsible before God to do something about it. The Scripture doesn’t enforce forced communism, but it clearly teaches Spirit-led volunteer-ism. Secondly, They assigned the problem to seven of their brightest and best men who were well respected and full of The Holy Spirit and wisdom and gave them the responsibility. See (Acts 6: 3) Instead of grooming our children for important fields like medicine, politics, law or teaching, First, let’s teach them “Caring for the needy”, it is one of God’s highest callings. Here is a question, Why does about 10 percent of the worlds population go to bed hungry every night? Or seventeen thousand children die everyday (one every five minutes) from malnutrition and preventable diseases when we can do something about it? In (James 1:27) we read “The Christian who is pure and without fault, from God the Father’s point of view, is the one who takes care of the orphans and widows.” Now, I know we can all quote Jesus “The poor you will always have with you’ but that doesn’t let us off the hook to help them. Jesus also said one of the questions we will be asked on arrival at the judgement seat is “Why didn’t you feed me and give me a drink when I was hungry and thirsty? Each of us needs to think seriously about how we will answer that question. No your, salvation does not depend on your answer, but, somebody else opportunity of life its self could depend on it. By refusing to help the needy, we are refusing to give life to a dying child or medication to a dying refugee. There are those of us who say things like “Most of the money goes on administration costs and it never gets to the right people.” or “it serves them right for having such big families.” How do you know these things? Where did you get your information? Check your source: It sounds like malicious gossip. Or a convenient way to opt out of our responsibility. We can all find legitimate reasons not to give, but none of them will stand up before a just and righteous God who knows our hearts and how much we have; Who are we to judge others? In fact, we are all required to give to God. Jesus said “If you give even a drink of cold water to one of these the least of my brethren, you are giving it to me.” So, use your discernment and make an informed decision. Because, when and what we give, or don’t give it’s God who is the recipient of our actions, He will deal with the giver, the gift and the poor. Our problem seems to be telling God what He has to do with our gifts, talents and finances; which come from Him in the first place. But things shouldn't be that way, just give your gift, and allow God to be God and deal with it as His wisdom directs. You and I are giving to God, so, Once we have given, we need to step back and take our hands off. Our job is to give, and His job is to use it as He thinks fit. Don’t try to play God, it never works. When Jim Wallis was a Theology student, he and some of his classmates took scissors to the Bible and cut out every verse which was about poverty, wealth justice or oppression. When they were finished there were over two thousand verses lying on the flour! The fact is, when you cut out concern for the poor from the Bible, you cut the very heart right out of it! Here is one such verse from (Jeremiah 22:16) “He defended the cause of the defenceless and poor...so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me.? Declares the Lord.” Jesus often quoted Scripture, But only on one occasion do we find Him selecting and reading from it. And what portion did He choose to read out publicly? (Luke 4:18) “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, Because He has anointed Me to proclaim Good News to the poor… to proclaim freedom to prisoners...recovery of sight for the blind, to set captives free”. This was His to-do list. Help for the body and the soul Strength for the physical and the spiritual and therapy for the temporal and eternal. Some people (albeit a minority) are poor because they are lazy and need to be taught that God’s Word says in (2 Thessalonians 3:10) “Those who are unwilling to work do not get to eat.” But most are poor because war or disease has claimed their parents, or the cost of living has become too high, or rebel armies have destroyed their farms, or a struggling system has left them without support. These are the kind of people God has assigned us to care for. Three quarters of the world’s income ends up in the pockets of 20 percent of the world’s population. Think of it this way. 10 Dairy Farmers live in the same valley, and among them they own 10 cows. But the cows are not evenly divided up. Two farmers have 4 cows each, while the other 8 have to share 4 cows among themselves. Does that seem right to you? What responsibility does God place on the haves’ with regard to the have-nots’? First of all, that you allow yourself to feel concern and compassion towards them. Secondly, That you get out of your comfort zone and do something about it. (Psalm (41:1-3) says “Blessed are those who have regard for the weak; The Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them – They are blessed in the land...He does not give them over to the desires of their foes. The Lord sustains them on their sick bed and restores them.” You see! When you bless the poor, The Lord blesses you. So, as one leader wrote, make this your prayer; Lord you said “We would always have the poor among us. Help me to remember the reverse is also true; That I’m always among the poor – Restoring, encouraging and giving a helping hand wherever and whenever I can. Enable me to love the invisible God, by loving the very visible poor in my little corner of the world. Help me to be creative without being condescending, encouraging without being egotistic and fearless without being foolish may the poor bless You because of me...amen. Thank you for reading about helping the needy people. We can’t change the world. Or can we!-one person at a time. We don’t have to look far to see this problem even in our own town. We all have something we can give someone to show Christ’s love: Time, Talents, Money. Or a smile or even a shoulder to cry on can change someone’s day for the better, so go for it, and perhaps your day will change too. God Bless Phaline. ------------------------