A grateful heart pays close attention to the blessings that come its way. Nothing is taken for granted because all things received are derived from a source. Even though they may have passed through the hands of an individual, the truth remains the same that “Every good and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of Lights where there is no variation or shadow or turning” (James 1:17). The Word of God admonishes us to find something to give thanks for in every person by “Giving of thanks be made for all men” (1 Timothy 2:1). It could be the mercy extended to those who deserve punishment, or the grace extended to bless others. The Book of Genesis recalls how Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Although their cruelty meant to end his life, the outcome was left in the Hands of God. As a result of his journey, Joseph was used as a resource for his household and nation.

Gratitude opens our hearts to see God and people in a different light. He is in charge of every situation and will ultimately cause all things to work together for the good of those that love Him and are the called according to His purpose. It takes foresight to thank Him for valleys as one would thank Him for mountains. The pressures of life prove our faithfulness to Him as we are assured of His faithfulness towards us. Our faith must precede our gratitude, and that faith is exercised before what we trust Him for manifests while gratitude is after He has shown us where He is and what He has provided. 

We must pray to God for the gift of faith and request a heart of gratitude. This is the heart of Jesus, the Son of God, towards His Father. His absolute dependency on His Father was exercised throughout His earthly ministry. This was left as an example that we may follow in His steps. Our fruitfulness is then increased in every good work, for all things done through us will be done for His glory. I pray that our hearts will align with the rhythm of His heartbeat. As we give thanks to Him in and for all things, may all things be done to the praise of the glory of His grace.

Eph 3:8-9 “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.”

The comprehensive vision of Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, was to affect the whole world. He would speak of it as being a “heavenly vision,” a revelation from God and a clearer revelation of Jesus Christ. The keys to the Kingdom of Heaven were given to him as well as Peter. This revelation of Christ would open doors that no other could open and shut doors that no one could close. Yet, he was quick to acknowledge that all the revelations he received were merely viewed through a smoky and clouded mirror. He was not able to pursue a clearer and more profound view of what he had originally seen. The spiritual insight of Paul challenges us to pursue a vision into the mysteries of Christ and not merely to observe from a distance what could possibly become a new reality for the new creation in proportion with the newness of life. Unless the individual becomes new, all the newness of a future world would be meaningless to him. God will one day cause His Kingdom in Heaven to descend upon the earth. The manufactured kingdoms of this world system will soon vanish away at His Appearance, and the true value of what was once treasured will be exposed as trash in comparison. He called what can now be gained by those who seek to know Christ as “unsearchable riches,” and on another occasion, the permanency of what can be attained is referred to as “enduring riches” that do not fade, cannot be lost, corrupted, or stolen.

It requires more than surface knowledge and mental or emotional stimulation. Colossians 2:7-9 in the New Life Version states, “Have your roots planted deep in Christ. Grow in Him. Get your strength from Him. Let Him make you strong in the faith as you have been taught. Your life should be full of thanks to Him. Wisdom of the world is empty (8). Be careful that no one changes your mind and faith by much learning and big sounding ideas. Those things are what men dream up. They are always trying to make new religions. These leave out Christ. (9) For Christ is not only God-like, He is God in human flesh.”

Finally, the key that unlocks the mystery of God is within the soul. Within the soul is a composition of historical data whereby human beings attempt to express the truest meaning of their lives or what it means to live. What does it mean to be a woman? What does it mean to be a man? Simply put, what does it mean to be? The restlessness within the soul is borne out of frustration. Too many merely settle for what they think they know and conclude that the mysteries of God are unknowable. Paul discovered the mystery and was committed to making it known to all. It is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory!” He expresses His life in you and through you, thus demonstrating through us His will to the world!

“We surely toil among weeping, carrying the burden of seed; he surely comes with rejoicing carrying his sheaves.” Psalm 126:5-6

The burden of hope is the burden of the seed carried with the promise of future glory. When a woman is pregnant, there is no other option but to wait for the time of delivery. Those who have placed their trust completely in the Lord must currently suffer the agony and pains of pregnancy. Although the appearance has changed, the physical obstructions endured, and the attractive figure is not the same. It then can only be appreciated by those who know and understand the reason behind it all, especially if the former pregnancy culminated with a miscarriage. Why take the risk again when the outcome may be uncertain? There are those who dreamed of a bright and glorious future merely to suffer setbacks and disappointments. It is difficult to recover from a thing that may have left you shipwrecked and feeling momentarily isolated. There are many who have walked in your shoes and suffered what is called, “The dark day of soul” when they possessed more questions than answers. Yet why didn’t the setback destroy all hope? Even though the fire may have been extinguished, the embers of hope remained. God has placed within the heart of His own a resilience that no experience in this life is able to destroy.

I have learned over the years that setbacks are merely setups and what is lost is preparation for greater gains. Cain slew his brother Abel and the future that was assigned to Abel was assassinated. Even though Abel was killed, his murder did not destroy the promise. “Adam knew his wife intimately again, and she gave birth to a son. She named him Seth because God has given me another child in place of Abel, whom Cain killed.” The question is, will Cain strike again and kill the second one as he did the first? Surely God can preserve the seed of promise and carry the evidence of faith that has been tried by fire.  The delay was only a test of Cain’s character, and through that test, God does not merely wish to produce something through you, but to reveal what He is developing in you.

The day of rejoicing will surely come! The fruitful life will never be barren, and the testimony of your faithfulness will impact many lives for ages to come! The most blessed part of all of this is that it is not merely restricted to time, but it is for all eternity. “Your weeping may endure for a night, but your joy will be forever fresh as the dew of each oncoming morning.” Raise up high the sheaves that you carry, for they represent the burden of your hope and the faithfulness of your God who never disappoints His own!

It is essential to remember that holiness is not a denomination. Over the course of the last few centuries, the standard of God has been reduced to suit the lifestyles of those who have rejected God’s requirements. Our generation has been raised in an environment where God serves man, and where the highest good runs contrary to the Westminster Catechism, which believes that man was made “to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever”, but rather to deify the flesh and enjoy the pleasures of life to the fullest. Holiness has the connotation of being drab and dry, and those who ascribe to the standard of holiness appear not to have a life. That is why so many avoid God’s standard like a plague because it appears to counter and be an affront to their very nature.

The initial work of the Holy Spirit is to create a holy passion within the individual. By nature, because of our fallen state inherited from Adam, we despised God. This is hard for good natured individuals to accept because most are so busy trying to develop their positive self-image and build up their self-esteem that they fail to recognize the effect of original sin. “We were by nature children of wrath.” The spirit that worked within us was one of disobedience, and even our best efforts led to rebellion because we lived in a state of rebellion. The initial objective of the Holy Spirit is to produce within the individual a new nature. This is what it means to be “born again.” He convicts the person of sin which was unknown as sin beforehand. None of us were fully aware of the sinfulness of our nature until the Holy Spirit brought us to the awareness of sin. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, all would seek to find justification for acts of rebellion against God.

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, ² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, ³ among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Eph 2:1-3 NKJV

God alone is Holy. It is His Spirit alone that can produce holiness within us. Without holiness, wholeness is impossible. Fragmentation and fragmented lives are lived by those who religiously pursue goals that only lead to a partial pacification of the longing within their souls. Holiness must be our objective because without it no person can see God in His reality, but rather is left to create a god that agrees with his present state of being.

 The Holy Spirit produces within the heart a new passion that is after God. Only then can this message and others like it have an appeal to you as an individual. Otherwise, you would naturally gravitate towards a more passive language that is easily agreeable. The Word of God, when preached by way of the Holy Spirit, will challenge the very foundation of our being. A disturbance occurs, and restlessness will follow. The question will be “what must I do”, rather than “how can I be relieved.” When the message is received, the individual is “born of the Spirit.” This is often called, “The New Birth.” There is the will to do His will, but the power to do it is still left to be desired. Only when our will and His will converge will the power be released. He empowers us to participate in what He is doing. The joy of participation with God in His greater works is a fulfilling experience, so therefore, “be filled with the Spirit speaking to one another with Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.”

Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us” (John 14:8). Philip asked in simple terms, “make Your Father known to us.”  Jesus would regularly reference God, the Creator of all things, as Father. This was strange and unfamiliar language to all who worshipped Him, or even acknowledged His existence and authority. His references were relational rather than jurisdictional, and the request was to reveal to them what had been revealed to Him. The acknowledgement was apparent that He was the only One who could make Him known in that manner. He then disclosed to them a major component of His earthly mission by saying, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father. Have you been with Me this long and known this?”  

The role of fatherhood is shrouded in mystery. God wondrously allows his seed to become a life that can live apart from its origin. What is in the father is in his children, and his DNA is a self-replicating material that can continue from generation to generation. Philip’s request is akin to the request of Moses when He asked God to show Him His glory. The difference between the two is that Moses would have to die if he saw it, but Philip would live by seeing what he requested. Jesus is the glory of the Father! He said, “if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” 

Likewise, a prophetic picture of Christ is presented through the prophets who spoke to fathers and communicated God’s Word to their families. In these last days, He speaks through spiritual fathers that serve as shepherds and lead His people on a predestined path. Spiritual fathers are to make Christ known to earthly fathers for the sake of raising healthy children and maintaining a happy home. They are obligated to know the Father through His Son for the sake of their relational health. Unhealthy relationships, however, are formed when the original structure is either compromised or abandoned. The eternal Father/Son relationship of God in Christ is extended by the same DNA as Christ and His Church. To see God as Father, He must be seen through the lenses of His Son, as fatherhood on earth is intended to reflect the relationship established in Heaven. To see Christ as the Son of God is to see ourselves from the perspective of God’s ultimate intentions for us, where His intention is for us to become sons and be led into the blissful state of eternal sonship. There, His love is completed among individuals who are positioned to receive the full effect of His love.

“Listen my son, to your father’s instruction, and do not reject your mother’s teaching, for they will be a garland of grace on your head and a gold chain around your neck.” (Proverbs 1;8-9).

Memories are built upon the things that leave an impact, and there are moments in history that are indelibly printed within the mind and heart. It is not a matter of forgetting those things that were negative in the past, but rather, as we grow up, seeing them differently. Fatherly instructions provide correction and guidance, and guidance without instructions would only be premature encouragement as one follows his or her own path. It is like accelerating the engine of a car without using the steering wheel. The guidance of Godly fathers provides a track for children to progress in life, not only for success in a career, but also for success in life. The enemy’s objective is to pit the role of mothers against fathers and fathers against mothers, and when that division exists, a schizophrenic mindset is inevitable. The role of both parents in harmony with God displays the divine order of the Father (God) and the Son (Jesus Christ). As the marriage of roles is honored, a healthy attitude towards the Lord can be established within the household.

The instructions are not arbitrary, nor should they ever be. Godly instructions must be embraced by fathers if they reverence God and wish the best for their families. They must possess and employ prophetic insight, having their sights set on the future outcome of whatever instructions were given or modeled by them. It is not just what is being said, but also the instructions given by practice that establish the course that their children follow. Additionally, the mother reinforces what has been given to the family, and then it becomes law within the hearts of those who carry out the first commandment with promise. “Honor your father and mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (Deut. 20:12).

God’s principles of growth can be applied to every sphere of life. One does the planting while the other does the nurturing or cultivating. Even though both roles are often interchangeable, the primary roles remain constant. “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and loving instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.” (Proverbs 31:26-27). When she opens her mouth, her words are empowered to validate the wisdom that came from the Lord. This is why it is important that both parents seek the will of the Lord before they give instructions to their children. Household salvation applies to the decision and development of every household member. We pray for Godly parents so that God may be honored in each family.  

Acts 1:9-11 “Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. (10) And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, (11) who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” “Why Stand Ye, Gazing Looking Up”

Even though instructions were given before the phenomena occurred, their amazement left them in a fixed position. The two men in white apparel, possibly angels, questioned the position of the men of Galilee as gazers to remind them of the Lord’s promise and their assignment. Whatever God does before us, to us, or within us is for a purpose yet to be discovered. These experiences are a part of the revelation of Christ that leads to the discovery of the mysteries that are contained in Him and exist for our benefit. Although the disciples were in the right place, their purpose was to remain for a moment. After witnessing the event, they were to wait in Jerusalem to be spiritually empowered. Likewise, God prepares us as we consecrate ourselves before Him to receive the fulfillment of His promises. Initially, the disciples were told to gather together and wait in Jerusalem in the Upper Room until something occurred. This time, they had the opportunity to see a miracle happen not only before them, but rather as direct witnesses. Moreover, this is what happened to Jesus, He was lifted up by the Holy Spirit as He ascended to sit at the right hand of His Father. The disciples were to be filled with the very same Spirit to become witnesses that would propagate the Gospel message in both word and action to the entire world! 

Notice their position – they were standing still enough to hear the message of the angels. Their eyes were lifted up to Heaven and their sights were set on where Jesus Christ was going. Previously, the Roman soldiers lifted Him up on a cross, but now God raised Him up from the grave and He ascended into Heaven. A vivid contrast was made between what mankind did to Him and what God was doing for Him. His victorious ascension provided proof that He is the Son of God! Now to those who had witnessed it all were empowered to tell the story as eyewitnesses of His glory! 

There is still much remaining to be told of His glorious ascension and He now commissions us to tell the story. Our effectiveness in telling His story requires the very same power required of the disciples. We must wait before Him and receive the endowment of power to minister effectively to an unbelieving and dying world. It is our calling not to remain as spectators, but full participants in what God is doing in this present age. 

Legalism is defined as the “excessive adherence to laws or formulas,” and as its name implies, it is a rigidly constructed concept that does not consider variables that may require acts of mercy and kindness, even when the act may be judged as wrong or substandard. Unfortunately, legalism is the rule of engagement among both liberals and conservatives. Whenever stringent rules are established without mediatorial intervention, the rules eventually become harsh and condemning. The temptation for Eve in the Garden of Eden was to elevate mankind to the level of God through knowing both good and evil apart from Him. God said, “Man has become one of us,” implying that he can then establish stringent rules to govern his own behavior apart from Divine intervention. Whenever and wherever the power is in the hands of a feelingless people who can only reference established laws and lack the understanding of the purpose for laws in general, abuse will always be the consequence. Jesus made it clear that He did not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it. He was referencing God’s intent for the Law in relation to sinful, lawless, and fleshly deeds. All was accomplished through our Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ. His life was lived in keeping with the meaning of the Law rather than the mere letter of the Law. He reminded His disciples by saying, “you have heard that it was said…., but I say unto you,” His life was the full expression of God’s intent. In that moment, He became our Mediator and Intercessor—both standing with us and for us before the Father. 

Whatever view a people-group may have of Christ will determine their position. Some see Him as a Liberator from all oppressive forces, and they can then justify taking whatever means necessary to free themselves from oppressive forces. Another group may see Him as the One who is Righteous and executes Justice, where He develops a police state to impose strict punishment on those who are in violation of the law. 

God became Man in the Person of Jesus Christ. Humankind then is given consideration, but not as an excuse for bad behavior. Forgiveness of sins is granted towards those who put their trust in Him. The incentive to please the Father is motivated by His love that resides in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Jesus prayed a prayer of forgiveness because of the ignorance of mankind. Then He instructed and imparted to them the wisdom and power to live differently. Without a Mediator, the laws that govern the life of the unborn is legislated without consideration given to the life of those who are born. The juxtapositions that cause many politicians, and now theologians, to express these contradictions expose the realization that the mission of Jesus Christ is not fully understood. Because of the expediency of national progression, slavery can be justified while the slogan can still be, “in God we trust.” The history of this nation has been sanitized as if it has always been for righteousness, but when its unrighteousness is in question, those truths are viewed as an evil ploy to undermine the heroes of the Founders of America. To be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ requires an honest assessment of who we are and where we are. Then the grace of God can be dispensed upon this nation as His message can be both heard and received by all.

This year, we are focusing our attention on intentionality, what it means to be intentional, and in reaching or God-given goals. We may have been intentional in the past in relation to goal setting, however, there is a higher goal and greater purpose for life in general and for each specific life lived. To embrace a greater purpose, one must see God as being greater than his or her ambitions prior to encountering Him. When we see Him, as the Prophet Isaiah stated, as being “high and lifted up,” our faith then must rise to the occasion. He can only be described using superlatives, higher than, greater than, or mightier than any other thing used in comparison to Him. It requires all of us to look up with our sights set beyond what we currently see and look out beyond the lengths formerly used as our measure. 

Jesus said, “lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!” (John 4:35) Lifted eyes enable one to both look out and look up at the same time. Spiritual insight can only develop within the heart of the believer when he is challenged to explore the deep and hidden mysteries of God. Forty-four years ago, we embarked on this phase of our journey as a Church. Many things have changed and influenced the culture to consider which course of action ought to be taken. Although there are more choices today than ever before and people making these life-defining choices, God’s Truth remains the constant with the potential to stabilize the instabilities of these uncertain times. Our ministry has served as a stabilizing force, along with many others that refuse to compromise their standard. Yet, our purpose will always remain in constant need of clarification rather than redefining. 

The more we mature as a ministry, growing both in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord, the more we must reexamine our position and engage in introspection. Jesus was specific and clear regarding His mission when He adamantly stated, “for this cause came I into the world.” We are to bridge the gap, change mindsets, and transform culture to the standard of Christ. The cultural gaps between the standard of Christ and collective cultural behavior of this generation are wider than ever before. What we have is much needed, but the question is, are we relevant? Ministry is more than a choice, but it is a calling that requires all that we have and all that we are. The whole person must be wholly involved if every individual called would come to understand the greater purpose for their existence.

As we move forward in the direction that Jesus Christ has commissioned us, we discover aspects of who we He is and who we are along the way. Our truest identity is rooted in our purpose, and life without a purpose for living is a wasted life. You are not responsible for what you do not have, but you are responsible for what has been given to you. As God instructs us throughout the year 2024, may we discover that there is more of life ahead than what has been left behind. Then, we can count the number of our days differently as opportunities in preparation to reign with Christ throughout eternity.

You have undiscovered and unrealized potential, and the wisdom of Christ will reach deep within your souls as you are attentive to His Word and are being discipled to draw it out!