Keep Pressing

Luke 9:62 “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

We must keep moving forward. The Christian is not perfect, but presses. The Christian does not excuse sin because of its draw from within. The Christian pushes and strains. Philippians 3:13 Paul says, “I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. We move forward and not back. The Lord forgives sin and we forgive others and we press on. The Lord Jesus Christ the Lamb of God has succeeded to open the book and loose the seals thereof. We need to press. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent and press. You’re caught up in sin. Confess it to the Lord and press. Press forward. If you get anything from this know this Press.

Press Moments:

1.  Ex calling and your lonely.  Press toward the mark of Jesus.

2.  Invited to an after party. Press toward the mark of Jesus.

3.  Drunk driver desires to drive you. Press toward the mark of Jesus.

4.  Out of work pimp decides you need a job. Press toward the mark of Jesus.

GOD SUPPLIES ALL HIS CHILDREN WITH THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE. ALWAYS! DID I SAY ALWAYS? I SAID ALWAYS.

JEHOVAH IS LOOKING FOR:

 He hath shown thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord
require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8

I am amazed by my life as one who requires the greatest of God’s mercy. I was raised in a Christian home, attended a Christian private school, Bible being the first class, and went to Church whether the doors were opened or closed. I have been to Bible camp, Bible conferences, Spiritual Deliverance services, Prayer services, Man of God classes, currently attending seminary, witnessed to those walking in the mall and those on streets in differing states in America and now I come to a point in my life where things have dramatically slowed down. Faithful I am to church attendance and reading the Bible, however fervor is lacking, what am I to do? Walk God says.

For those who have been blessed to own a few things our fervor begins to decline and those in our world serving other gods become attractive, you have horrible things like Christian yoga, Christian porn stars, Christian secular rap artist, Christian homosexual pastors and alike. Many things taking on the name Christian that are in fact not Christian at all. God has shown us how to live.

Be just in your judgment supervisors, parents, friends, and family. Love mercy. We all need mercy, no matter the resume, we need mercy, because we fall and the best and quickest way to get up is through mercy. Finally, submit to God continually by submitting to God’s command to love him and our neighbor. Love is the greatest gift which God is. Love God by spending time in prayer and song in the morning whatever you’re morning is. You may work nights and your morning is 630pm. You must not allow sleep or laziness to stop you from praying in your morning before work and play. God is not pleased with continual sacrifice and desires to reason with us and remind us that he has shown us what to do, we must keep on doing it so that ultimately the world may see, desire our relationship with Christ and we may all safely travel into glory and escape the hell prepared for the devils and demons.

God is looking for the faithful.

The Importance of Good Exegesis

The first most important reason for doing good exegesis is the Bible’s command for it. The scriptural reference for the biblical command for good exegesis is found in 2 Timothy 2:15 written in the 21st Century KJV “study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” This admonition is a result of the mission given by God for preachers and teachers to subvert hearers to the gospel of Jesus Christ and not things which vainly puff up the minds of the hearers.

Jesus leaving words were “…Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).” The preaching of the gospel is of most importance and rightly dividing the word for the subverting of hearers is extremely important. I recall one day while my friend and I were witnessing on division street in Biloxi Mississippi, him badgering this one guy about the gospel of Jesus Christ and he went into arguing and the situation escalated and I was angry, because I recalled the scripture in Titus 3:9-11“But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.”

We spent considerable time with someone who was not worthy of our time and took this time away from someone who would have been more profitable to preach to. Notice how Jesus spends quick moments with the Pharisees and considerable time with the people he healed, delivered and set free, like the multitudes at the mount.

The second most important reason for doing good exegesis is the nature of the Bible demands it. Recorded in the instructor notes “Peter tells us himself that Paul’s letter “contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). A verse that I struggled with personally and not something I taught was Romans 13:8 “Own no man anything, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.” I do not like debt. Many individuals say they do not like debt yet they have no trouble sleeping with $2000 dollars’ worth of credit card debt. The amount mentioned is not a lot but I had this amount and it disrupted my sleep. I used the above verse to mean that I was living in sin with this debt over my shoulders. Did I pay the requested amount every month? Yes I did with a little extra, but it still bothered me. The Holy Spirit convicted me about the verse that my interpretation was in error, so I began looking into what others had gleaned from this verse. I found many hold to the view I held as this appears to be the best interpretation looking at the text out of context and literally.

Good exegesis showed me that the text refers to paying government taxes and that the obligation of a contract is what is required in this passage and that the debt of love is so high that the payoff compared to what Christ did on the cross is not possible while on the earth. This gave me peace at night and the power of condemnation was broken and I was no longer imprisoned by incorrect understanding. As the instructors notes mention “misunderstanding the Bible can be damaging to your own faith, and others whom you teach and or influenced by your ministry.” So because the text is filled with things hard to understand we should take seriously our study of the contents in the original language as well as use other English translations of the Bible, so that while we preach to others we may save ourselves and those who hear us.