Love One Another
By: Rev. Ronald B. Stamets

1Thes. 4:9: But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
 
Today’s thought is a simple thought ... It isn’t about great revival, or the revealing of great theological revelation, it is about the simplicity of loving our neighbor, our children, and our wives.  Those we come in contact with.
 
It is easier to preach a great spiritual truth than it is to love.  It is easier to teach a Sunday school class than it is to develop a close loving relationship with those we are closest to.  It is easier to go to another church where "people will like me better" than it is to work through difficult personal relationships.  Somehow we think if our problem relationships are out of sight ... they are gone.  Wrong!
 
Jesus said love your enemies.  If the commandment is to love my enemies, how can one call themselves a Christian and hold the view that brothers, sisters, husbands, wives or other denominations are the adversary?  Sorry ... The proof is in the taste of the fruit.
 
The truth of the Kingdom is that it is not in "doing the work of God" (He is quite capable of that, thank you very much) but in the simple uncomplicated act of just being a child of the Lord of love.  We honestly need to be set free from doing ministry, so we can become ministries.  That is the heart of the Master and a purpose for our lives.

Hopelessness
By: Rev. Ronald B. Stamets

Jeremiah 29:11: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
 
Another translation of the Bible puts it this way ... "For I know the plans I have made for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
 
If there is one common denominator that I have noticed in many people today it would have to be a general sense of hopelessness.  Even in the "church" one can often overhear another saying "I wish the Lord would come back soon, I’m ready to get off this old world."  Perhaps we have made a relationship with the Lord more difficult than He intended for it to be.  I remember my son once expressing a sense of "why should I be planning?  The way everyone in church is talking about Jesus coming back, I’ll never get a chance to experience life anyway".
 
In one sense, we look for a way of escaping life and in another sense we see the fulfillment of the advent of Christ as a "take away".  There is something wrong with this picture.  It appears that there has been "another gospel" preached somewhere because the Bible clearly states that God loves ... So much that He made it possible to have an intimate personal relationship with him.  In other words to walk in kingdom of God dynamics now!  That was His plan in Genesis and He never changed it ... Man’s religion did.
 
Here is God’s simple (yet challenging) requirement to prosper in all that you put your hand to.  (Matthew 22:37-40)  Only intimate relationship with God through the internal power of the Holy Spirit can bring us to the place of Biblical Prosperity.
The Apostle John said that he would that you prospered as your soul prospers.
God’s will is that YOU PROSPER!  A relationship with Jesus Christ is not a take away, it is the most exciting adventure of a lifetime.  To find out more about the benefits of a relationship with Christ, send me an e-mail at revron@yeshuwah.net . A partner will e-mail you back with the answers you are looking for.

A Commitment
By: Rev. Ronald B. Stamets

Luke 18:22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
 
Jesus had just had a brief dialogue with a wealthy man.  The fellow had prided himself in his ability to follow the letter of the law.  He probably prided himself in being certain to tithe his ten percent and to fulfill all of the required Rabbinical practices of his day.  In essence, he was chasing after the shadow of the law.  Jesus was about to expose the young man to the fulfillment of the law.
 
The first point of Jesus&$146; conversation in this verse is that in terms of finances and giving, the Old Testament Law set aside the tithe as holy, and belonging to God.  Read this in Lev:27:30.  It is generally accepted that the tithe is established as 10%.  Lev. 27:30 identifies that the 10% applies to everything on the earth.  What Jesus was establishing is the New Testament principle that fulfills the tithe.  It is the "I commit 100% of everything to the Lord".
 
Think about it.  When you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior how much did you decide to withhold from Him?  How much of you and what you possess did you present to Him.  If you are a Christian, the answer is everything.  10% was acceptable to the young ruler who was accustomed to religious tradition, but when confronted with the cost of intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, he was unwilling to pay the price; at least as far as we know here.  So it is today.  Many have a religious tradition marked by an observance of politically correct performance, but never reap the benefits of intimate relationship with the Living God.
 
The second observation the reader will see is that Jesus presented the truth and then a choice.  Then he left the choice up to the wealthy man.  As a matter of fact, a few verses later, v-31, Jesus said to his disciples "Let's go up to Jerusalem ..." He didn’t stop and try to convince the man he was going to hell if he didn’t come along.  The Bible says that "The truth will make you free".  Darkness holds men in bondage.  It is a prison.  The truth opens the prison doors ... We are then required to walk out of the prison.  It is a choice we need to make daily.

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