Bread Crumbs

[MessageOfTheCross]

Bread Crumbs “Revelation is for Babes” 7-12-18

The Bible plainly states that God will not reveal Himself to the proud, the arrogant, the wise, or those who deem themselves prudent. In fact, not only will God not reveal Himself to a prideful individual but God will go even further and firmly conceal things from this kind of person. Often times, the moment of revelation comes after a time of great hurt, desperation, or loneliness. God always knows what we need and how to bring it to us. But God will hold back the information we need until we humble ourselves before Him. Jesus said that God revealed Himself only to ”babes.” This has nothing to do with age and much more to do with the attitude of our heart. Those who are humble, those who are small in their own eyes, those who have no faith in self, are far more likely to receive insight and illumination relative to their situation. God will sometimes have to take us through the fire and nearly drown us in the water before we arrive at the proper attitude. Wouldn't it be better if we simply lived with a low opinion of ourselves? Then we would always be ready to receive from God exactly what we need at any given time on any given day.

Matthew 11:25 - At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

Pastor Loren Larson

 

[MessageOfTheCross]

The Doctrine of Giving - Part II

• “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts.” —Malachi 3:8-12

Last month we left off discussing tithing under Jacob. Seeing that we aren’t really told as to whom Jacob paid tithes, we can only assume that he paid these tithes directly to God in the form of sacrifice. In other words, he would offer a tenth of all of his vast herds, which meant that he offered a staggering amount of sacrifice unto God, probably unlike any other person who has ever lived.
As would be obvious, these sacrifices represented what Christ would do at Calvary’s Cross, all on our behalf, and these tithes pointed to the finished work of Christ. In our previous article, we showed how Melchizedek was a type of Christ as our Great High Priest. The sacrifices offered under Jacob were a type of Christ as our sacrifice. Tithing pointed to the Cross of Christ then, and it must point to the Cross of Christ now. This means that what we support must also point to the Cross of Christ. If it doesn’t, then we are not really supporting the work of God, but something else altogether.

Tithing Under The Law
Under the law, Israel was not required to tithe 10 percent, but rather 23 and one-third percent. Ten percent was to be given to the Levites, along with the priests, for the upkeep of the tabernacle. This was the only means of support for their work, which was to be done constantly and never stop (Deut. 14:22; Lev. 27; Num. 18).
Another 10 percent was to be deducted from their incomes and set aside to cover traveling expenses to attend the feast days. It was required by God that at least one male from each family attend these feast days, which were held three times a year in our April, June, and October. This was done so there would never be an excuse for someone to miss these feast days.
The last percentage—three and one-third—was to be given every three years for the poor and needy (Deut. 14:28-29). This was God’s welfare plan. There were people who could not take care of themselves for many and varied reasons, and these gifts were a tremendous help to those people.

Tithing Under The New Covenant
I do understand that some people claim that tithing is not in the new covenant. However, seeing that we are children of Abraham by way of justification by faith, which was given to Abraham (Gen. 15:6), and Abraham paid tithes, then we are to continue that practice today. We should not discontinue what was given to Abraham for the sake of opinion, but rather continue this approach as a way to receive blessings from God.
Think of it this way: someone, some-
where gave something so that the gospel of Jesus Christ could come to you. And when you heard the gospel message, you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, meaning that you were instantly justified—declared not guilty, innocent, as though you had never sinned a day in your life, and perfect. You were purchased back by God through the offering of Jesus Christ on Calvary’s Cross, and your sins were instantly washed away. You became a new creation in Christ Jesus; old things passed away, and all things became new (II Cor. 5:17).
Seeing that you received the gospel through someone else’s gift, don’t you think that you should continue to pay it forward? I believe you should. Tithing doesn’t stop with the old covenant. It is meant to continue so that others might have the opportunity to hear the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Where Are We To Tithe?
Giving is to be used to further the gospel of Jesus Christ. Without tithes, there would be very few churches, little to no missions outreaches, and not very many people blessed.
Seeing that the temple is no longer standing, and the priesthood has been done away with, where does that leave us today regarding tithes? I firmly believe that what must be supported is the Message of the Cross, which is the story of the Bible. If you are giving to a church or ministry that does not proclaim the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, then you are giving to the wrong work, plain and simple. I know many would disagree with that statement, but I believe that I am right in what I’m saying. If any church or ministry is not preaching the Message of the Cross, not only for salvation, but also for sanctification, then they are not preaching the gospel.

The Cross
Look at what Paul said in his epistle to the Philippians: “Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account. But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God” (Phil. 4:17-18).
Here, Paul likens the offering sent to him as a sweet smelling savor, a sacrifice that is well-pleasing to God. All of this points back to the sacrificial system, for all of it represented the one who was to come—Christ—and it had to do with God’s redemption plan. When we give to the right work, which should always have its foundation as the Cross of Christ, Paul tells us what will happen: “But my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19).
When tithes and offerings are predicated on the finished work of Christ, and we support the proclamation of that gospel, then we have the assurance of God’s Word to know that He will take care of our needs.
God has entrusted this Message of the Cross to us, and we should never use the platform given to us by God to exploit anyone or to further our kingdom here on earth, but we must be about our Father’s business.
But the sad truth is that too few do so much—the minority always does the majority—and it should not be this way. God does not want the few to do it all. He desires that all do what they can in giving their tithes, which is 10 percent of their gross, to support the work of God. The far greater majority give nothing to the work of God, and that’s a shame.
Do not shoplift the gospel. What do I mean by that? I mean if you have been blessed by a church or ministry, then you have an obligation to support that which has fed you. Think about this: when you go out to eat at a restaurant, after the meal they bring you a check. You would never dine and dash. No, you pay the bill. The same principle applies when it comes to the gospel.
Don’t be like those who receive something from the Lord and are fed spiritually by a ministry or church but never give anything. That is wrong. Remember, the gospel can only go as far as the dollar bill will take it. If people don’t give, then the gospel can go no further.

Pastor Gabriel Swaggart

 

[MessageOfTheCross]

Bread Crumbs “Stay on the Wall” 11-17-18

There are many attacks that will be leveled against the believer who is operating in the will of God. God has designed a specific placement for each of us in the body of Christ. Once you are established in that place, there will be any number of enemies that will try to remove you from the performance of the will of God for your life. One enemy that attacks us is distraction. We start off completely focused on what it is that God wants us to do. Then the opportunity to do something else creates a side road that can take us far away from where God intends us to be. Beware of distraction! Another enemy that attacks us as we attempt to accomplish the will of God is fear. Fear can be experienced because of any number of circumstances. We can be fearful of a lack of ability, finances, the presence of enemies, or what appears to be a hopeless situation. But God has not given us the spirit of fear. Recall to mind how God lead you to your current position through His Spirit and His Word. The call to leave has to be even stronger than the original call that placed you where you are. If it is not, stay on the wall!

Nehemiah 6:3 - And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?

Pastor Loren Larson

 

[MessageOfTheCross]

Bread Crumbs “A Throne of Grace” 11-16-18

There is a place that the believer can go that will meet his every need. If we will but travel to the feet of Jesus Christ, who sits at the right hand of God, we will begin to experience the supernatural ability of our all-powerful God. His blessings cannot be worked for, labored for, or earned. All that we need has already been paid for by Christ's sacrifice of Himself on the cross of Calvary. His blessings are currently stored within the framework of “His riches in glory” and we who are in Christ Jesus are encouraged to approach His throne to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need. I am so thankful that His throne is not a throne of judgment, filled with criticism, or a place filled with harsh statements declaring all the mistakes we have made. But rather, Jesus’ throne is a throne of Grace where He desires to impute righteousness and grants blessing to all who approach Him in faith. He Himself has stood on this earth and has experienced its evil, its harshness, and its wickedness. He is ready to help us in our time of need and He will freely supply to all those who rely upon Him. He's never turned one away.

Hebrews 4:16 - Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Pastor Loren Larson

 

[CharliRenee]

I have much more to examine and read, but thanks be to God, you shared here. What a blessing He is. Thank you for your time and efforts.

 

[MessageOfTheCross]

Bread Crumbs “Waiting on the Answer” 11-14-18

The Scriptures declare that our Heavenly Father is a God who answers prayer. We are repeatedly exhorted to ask and keep on asking, no matter how long the situation might last. We are to seek and keep on seeking, regardless of the extent of the silence that echoes in our souls. We are encouraged to knock and keep on knocking even though our spiritual knuckles are scarred with no adequate answer forthcoming. Waiting on the Lord is never easy. At times, the Lord seems to take us far beyond the time frame that we expected, and still we have no answer. It is then that I am comforted by the knowledge that He has never deserted me or failed me. In every circumstance, He has always come through. So battered and bruised by the spiritual warfare I head once again to my private place of prayer. There I once again lay out my needs before the Lord. Here I will openly declare that I am depending upon Him to do for me what I cannot do for myself. Then, as His presence fills my heart and soothes the pain of waiting, hope is once again renewed in my soul. For me, there is nothing left to do but to keep on asking and keep on believing.

Matthew 7:7 - Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

Pastor Loren Larson

 

[MessageOfTheCross]

“Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” —Nehemiah 8:10

The Background

In Nehemiah 8, the children of Israel, those who had returned from the Babylonian captivity, were being reacquainted with the law of Moses. None of them had been raised under the leadership of God’s Word, and as such, they were very sad to hear of the numerous ways in which they had failed to follow God’s instructions. Their first response was the right one: They wept. Whenever we become aware of a failing, we too should mourn. But God’s people do not have to mourn over sin as though their failures cannot be forgiven and their wrong actions corrected. In God’s redemption plan there is a means by which we can obtain forgiveness and freedom from both the power and penalty of sins committed. The children of Israel were sorry for their failure to adhere to the Word of God. God accepted their repentance and assured them of that fact. In fact, the timing of their spiritual restoration coincided with the required feast of tabernacles. God instructed them to both celebrate and share their good fortune with others, especially those who had no provision by which they could celebrate.

God’s Provision

Many Christians today are not walking in the provision of the Cross of Christ. They fail to understand justification, progressive sanctification, forgiveness, and restoration, or the process of deliverance. All of these terms are truths that the modern believer must understand and apply in order to consistently experience the joy of the Lord. In Psalm 51, David cries out to the Lord to return to him “the joy of thy salvation.” Note that David did not say that he desired the joy of “my” salvation. David wanted the joy that was brought to his soul by the embracing of the salvation that God provided him. There is a vast difference between the two thoughts. The “joy of thy salvation” is achieved by the believer when he experiences the benefits of that which God has provided in Christ. If we are failing to walk in the benefits afforded us by Calvary, we are sure to lose the joy of the Lord. Let’s look quickly at some of the benefits that Christ won for all by going to the Cross.

Justification

Let us look at the term justification. Justification is a declaration of God—a legal verdict. A person is justified by this legal declaration of God. That declaration states that the justified one has freely received a status of innocence—a verdict of not guilty—in regard to any and all wrongdoing. God makes this declaration for all who will place their faith in Jesus. This declaration gives us a right standing with God. It is an established position granted in exchange for the believer’s faith in Christ. Since we do not earn justification by works, we cannot lose justification because of a wrong action. Justification will only be withdrawn if a person fails to continue to believe exclusively in Christ for salvation. The joy of the Lord is my strength!

Progressive Sanctification

Progressive sanctification speaks of the continued growth of the believer. When we understand how God’s plan works, we continuously keep our faith in Christ. We should learn from the content of God’s Word that Jesus didn’t just pay the penalty for our sin on Calvary, He also destroyed the power of sin’s dominion over us on the cross. Our union with Him at conversion brings this benefit into effect. And as long as we continue to trust in Christ and what He did, the Holy Spirit will continue to supply us with grace. This grace will provide to us the supernatural power needed to overcome the weight and sin that does so easily beset us. The promise of God is that “sin shall know longer have dominion over me.” The joy of the Lord is my strength!

Deliverance

We have already spoken regarding God’s willingness to forgive the sin that we forsake and confess to Him. But many Christians don’t realize that there is a vast difference between forgiveness and deliverance. Forgiveness frees us from the guilt of sin. Deliverance frees us from the power of sin. After being forgiven, believers can still possibly find themselves in a battle with the desire to sin. The Holy Spirit, who lives on the inside of every born-again believer, has the power of God that is needed to overcome every wrong desire or evil pull from the enemy. He is there to strengthen our hearts and deliver us from the efforts of wrong desires within and ferocious attacks from without. As the believer learns to depend upon this aspect of God’s grace, the Spirit quickens our mortal bodies and brings us the deliverance and victory we so desire! The joy of the Lord is my strength!

In conclusion, once the believer understands where to place his faith on a regular and consistent basis, then all of the benefits of God’s salvation plan begin to manifest themselves in his life. Through faith in who Christ is and what Christ has done, the believer finds himself existing in the joy of the Lord!

Pastor Loren Larson

 

[MessageOfTheCross]

Psalms 141:3 – “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

THERE IS AN OLD children's nursery rhyme that says, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” It sounds quite good; however, as we all can attest, words do hurt, words do bring harm, and words cause great problems.

The tongue of man can either bring forth life or death. James, Chapter 3, beginning with Verse 5, says, “Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindles! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison” (James 3:5-8).

Then, in Verse 10, James says, “Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.”

I think it can be said that an unruly tongue has destroyed marriages and relationships, has split up churches, and even has caused young believers in the Lord to get discouraged and lose their way with the Lord. Not long ago, I heard someone say that the hardest thing for a Christian to do is to “tame his tongue.” When I heard that, two things came to mind. First, I agree. Secondly, the reason man can’t tame the tongue is that he tries to do it through his own efforts and labor when the fact is that the only way it can be done is by our yielding our tongues to the control of the Holy Spirit.

THREE SINS OF THE TONGUE

1. Slander: The dictionary defines slander as “the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another’s reputation.” In Romans 1:29, Paul used the word whisperers, and in II Corinthians 12:20, whisperings. Both the singular and the plural mean “slander, gossip, backbiter, an accuser, secret detractors who pretend secrecy and carry out accusations against men, whether true or false, blasting their reputation by clandestine gossip.” Actually, when one slanders another or when one passes gossip about someone, he is, in reality, murdering that person’s reputation. Do not pass over this statement lightly. To slander another person is to murder his reputation and degrade his character in the eyes of those who are told such things. There is no such thing as idle gossip or slander. How many people believe horrible things about someone simply because someone said something about him? As James said, we can either bless or curse, and if you can’t bless someone’s reputation, then please don’t curse his reputation. As the old adage goes, “If you can’t say something good, then don’t say anything at all.”

In saying this, please don’t get the idea that one can’t point out wrong doctrine. That’s totally wrong. If one’s doctrine is wrong, then we must, for the sake of the sheep, speak up. However, we leave it at that. We deal with the error and not the heart or motivation.

2. Judging: In Matthew, Chapter 7, Jesus taught on judging. Without a doubt, it is one of the most misunderstood passages in the Bible. In Verse 1, where the Lord says, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” this actually refers back to Verses 25 through 34 of Chapter 6. There were those in the early church who were mired in poverty, which caused others in the church to judge them as having committed sin, and the poverty was a judgment of God. This is exactly what Job’s friends did. The Lord was simply telling us not to judge one’s heart according to circumstances. Yet, in Chapter 7, Verse 20, the Lord plainly states, “Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.” Our fruits should be judged. We don’t judge one’s heart, but we do judge the fruit of one who calls himself a believer. John 7:24 references this: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.”

Only the Lord knows the heart of the individual, so let’s not try to play God.

3. Doubt: Doubt is speaking words of doubt regarding God and His divine provision. When one speaks words of doubt, it, in effect, calls God a liar and places doubt about His ability to perform what He has promised. Think about what you just read. To speak doubt is to call God a liar. From our lips, we will either speak faith or doubt. To speak faith is to speak life; to speak doubt is to speak death.

WHAT WE ARE TO DO

We are to follow the words of David in this great psalm: “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

What David is saying is that we are to yield our tongue and our words to the Lord. We are to allow Him to stand, if you will, as the guardian of our lips. We are to daily yield our tongues to the Lord that we might become an instrument of praise and encouragement and not an instrument of doubt, slander, judgment, and death.

Pastor Donnie Swaggart

 

[MessageOfTheCross]

Bread Crumbs “The Power of God” 11-23-18

Is there anything too hard for God? Is there anything beyond the reach of His magnificent arm or the influence of His miraculous power? Is there an enemy that can stand before Him, reduce Him to the state of being incapacitated, or take away from Him that which He claims as His own? What financial catastrophe can overcome the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills and lives in the city whose streets are paved with the gold? What evil can reach out and eliminate the love of God extended towards those who have chosen His Christ? No demonic power can destroy Him. The devil is not His adversary because God is too big to have an adversary. No one can successfully stand in His way and stop Him from accomplishing whatever it is He desires to accomplish. If an enemy raises a standard against you, God can send a single angel to annihilate that meaningless effort. If you require something that you don't have, God can use someone to send it your way or, if He so desires, He will create whatever you need and drop it on your doorstep. If God be for us, who dare stand against us?

Romans 8:31 - What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

Pastor Loren Larson