Category: Faith Fix

Free Stuff

I love free stuff. I don’t know why really, but I know I’m not the only one. Marketing through giveaways is a very popular and very effective tool. The funny thing about it is that, by and large, the free stuff we get in society has two major characteristics: It’s generally never free and it’s generally never of very great value.

There is a gift that’s truly free, that is Jesus. The only requirement is that you take it. No strings attached, the doorway to God and all He offers requires nothing other than you accepting it. Notice I said, doorway. There are a few big misunderstandings about this Gift. Firstly, Jesus is the open door to God. He is the bridge. He is the way. That does not mean that acceptance of the gift is the end all, be all. This leads to the second misunderstanding. There is much more to the gift than receiving it one time. There is the using of the gift.

Along with free stuff, I also love coffee. Imagine someone gave me a magical coffee maker that made the best tasting and freshest cup of coffee imaginable and that I could take it anywhere and use it as much as I wanted. They would have truly given me a wonderful gift! Now, let’s say I just put it in the cupboard and forgot about it or used only on occasion. Though I had the access and the ability for the best cup of coffee, if I didn’t utilize it, I wouldn’t benefit from it. If I don’t take it out, plug it in and operate it the way it was intended but instead go to the local convenience store and buy old burnt nasty coffee, how could I ever rightfully complain? Would I be right to email the Heaven Sent Perfect Coffee Maker maker stating that though I have their perfect coffee maker, I’m still drinking terrible coffee? Ridiculous, right? Yet this is exactly what people do with God’s most perfect gift.

See the first thing a believer needs to realize is that what Jesus did was so much more than what people think. In John 10:10 Jesus tells us, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” One of the number one ways the thief (that’s the devil) steals is that he convinces people of the opposite of the Truth. Because he operates in the realm of thoughts, people automatically assume that what they’ve thought is good. Instead of lining it up with the Word of God, they swallow the lie hook, line, and sinker! The devil has stolen the Word before it ever produces life!
Actually, in reality, most times he never has to steal because people hand it over willingly. It will never make sense to me how people will receive a lie from the devil, yet having God’s Word written and before them, they’ll willfully reject it. This is why God’s people go without. It’s not because He doesn’t want them to have it, but because they refuse it.

God wants His people blessed. You cannot read the Word in context and ever come to any other conclusion. You also cannot separate our role in bringing His will to pass. We were never exempt in the operation of the blessing but rather, overwhelmingly required to participate. From Genesis to Revelation, humans always have had their part to play. First we receive, then we do. It’s the way our Maker made us.

Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff

How Long Does Faith Wait?

Hebrews 6:12 writes, “that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”

Faith is an interesting thing. We know according to the Word that we are to live by faith, that we all have a measure of faith, and that we should grow our faith and do that by hearing the Word of God. I think, however, that the true concept of what faith is gets lost on people.

Hebrews 11:1 gives us the exact definition of what God says faith is, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Before we get too far into this, we must do a little prep work. The words “hoped for” do not mean what we commonly assume they mean based on our modern day usage of them. When the Bible mentions hope, it is referring to an expectation; not that you hope it happens but you rest in the hope or knowledge that it will. Looking at it from this perspective drastically changes the meaning of this verse. Now faith is the substance of things that you expect will happen. Expectation is a sure thing. Expectation does not change. If I expect someone will do something, then I know with every fiber of my being that it will be done. Expectation of God for so many is subjective. The Word is eternal, it is truth, and therefore cannot ever be subjective. Neither, I might add, is the Lord. For He and His Word are the same thing.
I expect God because I believe His Word. This is what faith is. We would all do well to wake up daily saying this. We need to believe God for and because of what He has said and that’s it. Faith has no expiration. It continues because that is the very essence of true faith. This is what is meant by the idea of the just living by it. They live it, as long as they live faith as the truth. What faith says is what we are to be. Faith says yes, faith says it will happen, faith says I can, faith always works, and faith leaves NO WAY out! Glory to God!!!! Faith is our truth and the day we stop living by faith is the day we stop living.

I have a certain expectation of God that is formed by and only by His Word. It isn’t something that people who are influenced and controlled by the world understand. It isn’t even something I always understand, but who says you have to understand the truth to make it truth? Truth will always be truth because that’s what truth is. Truth that changes was never truth. Why do you think God said in Malachi 3:6, “For I am the Lord, I do not change…”? He is the same yesterday, today, and forever so that we can have something solid to rest our, you guessed it, faith on!

What a mighty and wonderful God we have. Jesus said in Matthew 7:24-25, that building on Him means that we will not be shaken but will stand through every storm. “Will stand” means won’t fail. This my friends is the attitude we must have. Do you have room in your prayer for God not coming through? Do you leave provision for some hope you are standing on to fail? If you do, you are not in faith. We must remain in faith no matter the wind, the trial, the storm because that is how and only how we stand. Faith bets it all. Faith has no other option. How can I say all this? Because faith works through God’s love and 1 Corinthians 13:8 tells me love never fails. If my faith is rooted in His love, it can’t fail.

Let me tell you this. You can have this faith but not on your own. God has commanded us to come together in unison of faith to stir this faith up in us. He wants us to have it in abundance but we can’t without our local church and without the ministry gifts. Why do you think He said where two or more are gathered I am there in the midst? (Matthew 18:20)

So how long does faith wait? Faith never asks, “how long?” because faith doesn’t just know it will happen, faith is convinced of its PRESENT reality! Faith waits continually because that’s what faith is. Now faith is the expectation and knowledge of the reality of that which already exists, the unwavering and very proof of things which you cannot see yet.

Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff

Immovable Mountains

Psalms 37:3-5, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.”

The Word works if you work it. The promises of God are for those who believe them. If salvation ONLY comes through believing or trusting in His Son, why would we think that anything of lesser importance would require a different measure of our belief. After all, God’s greatest gift IS salvation. But don’t take my word for it. Romans 8:32 tells us, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” All things are just as free as the gift of salvation, but they all must be received, and received through faith.

I hate when the devil convinces good people of his lies. One that is particularly on my heart is about what God won’t do and specifically as it pertains to mountains. Yes I know, we have songs that sing about how tough it can be and how defeated we feel and how if the mountain doesn’t move it’s just God’s will, but in reality, these are lies from the pit of hell. Before you get mad at me, consider some logic and then consider the Word of God.

First off, have you ever had an issue with focusing on the trial you face? Have you ever had a hard time thinking and talking about how big the mountain is, how great the pain feels, or how lost you are? The truth is, most people steep in their misery like spiritually devoid teabags in boiling hot water and soak it all up. When was the last time during trial that you put your focus on God’s greatness, ability, or promise to deliver you? When was the last time you talked about how big God is instead of how big the devil is? By constantly focusing on the issue and all it entails, you fall victim to the devil’s plan, you glorify him.

I know the pain of tribulation well. I am no stranger to fear, addiction, depression, self-hate, loss, or the like. I will say this, no matter how much I talked about the trial, things never ever changed but only grew worse. It wasn’t until someone taught me the Truth that my life began to change…and oh man did it! Fear gave way to strength and inability to ability. Yes friends, God is real and His Word works! My life is a living testament to this.

Now, I want you to read the following scriptures very carefully, considering the words that are used. Mark 11:22-24 tells us, “So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, WHOEVER SAYS to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and DOES NOT DOUBT in his heart, BUT BELIEVES that those things HE SAYS will be done, HE WILL HAVE WHATEVER HE SAYS. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, BELIEVE that you receive them, and YOU WILL HAVE them.””

I know what your thinking, “But I believed for this and that and asked for this and that and it never happened.” I say, you didn’t believe long enough. The Word clearly says in Hebrews 6:12, “that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those WHO THROUGH FAITH AND PATIENCE inherit the promises.” I know patience isn’t fun and isn’t popular but it is the “how”. Faith and patience are water and fertilizer to the harvest you’re believing for. It took Abraham, Joseph, Caleb, David and many others years sometimes, but as they waited on God in faith, it happened. I SAID IT HAPPENED! In the meantime, we are to do just what His Word says, worry and fret. NO!!! We are to rest, KNOWING it will come to pass. Don’t try and change God because you don’t fully understand. We have things that our forefathers of the faith didn’t, the complete Word of God that tells us exactly Who He is and what He will do.

You also must remember this; you can’t believe God for His blessing and knowingly disobey His Word. His Word says to be in church and be connected to the brethren. Being disconnected will put you in a position of losing your harvest. So many Christians reject what the Lord has told them to do, and then blame Him for their lives falling apart. These things ought not be so. I implore you, wait on the Lord. Trust Him and stop glorifying the devil. God will come through for you if you trust in Him. I promise. Psalms 25:3 says, “Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed;
Let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause.”

Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff

Would You Do Service For Jesus Your King?

We often sing the song, “There’s Power in the Blood.” I love anointed and scriptural worship songs. Worship of the Lord should always include the truth and the praise for His goodness. The truth is that Our Heavenly Father sent His only begotten son to the earth in the form of a man to take the sins and the sickness of the entire human race upon His shoulders. Well, actually, Jesus took all our sin, all our disease, not only upon His shoulders, but upon His entire body. He shed His blood for us. And we are only redeemed and saved by that blood.

Another line of this song goes like this, “Would you do service for Jesus your King?” Well, would you? Would you commit your ways to His service? “Would you live daily His praises to sing?” Would you live in a way that brings glory to His name?

See, in our minds we may want the answers to those questions to be a resounding YES! But, the truth is, most Christians mentally agree to this, but never line their living up with this. 1 John 1:6-9 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

There’s a principle found in the Word of God that tells us those who have been forgiven of much will also love much. (Luke 7:47) Well, when you’ve lived a life apart from God and even spoke out with words that said He wasn’t real, claiming to be an atheist, like I did, and then He accepts you as His very own precious child, trust me, you’ll love much. God is so incredible, so beyond human thinking and human words. His love is so amazing. He created us. He breathed life into us. (Genesis 2:7) He set us up with everything we’d ever need physically, mentally, materially, and spiritually. He gave us the Word of life, our instruction manual for everything we would ever need to know. And though His people, His human beings, those He made in the image and likeness of Himself (Genesis 1:27), walked away from Him, disobeyed Him, sinned against Him, and betrayed Him, He still sent His son to redeem all mankind. We’ve been forgiven much. Do we love much?

In John 14:15 Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Our love for our Lord and our thankfulness for the price He paid for us is seen in the way we live. Do we do service for the Lord? Do we serve in His local church, in our communities, in our families, in our daily lives? Do we live daily His praises to sing? Our we being the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13), the light of this world (Matthew 5:14), and the ambassadors of Christ Jesus Himself (2 Corinthians 5:20), like He calls us to be?

2 Corinthians 13:5 tells us to, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.” How does an exam work? It’s question and answer. I’ll ask some questions, you determine your answer. Do those in your circle know you’re a Christian? Do you treat people with kindness, forgiveness, and respect? Do you faithfully attend and serve in your local church? Is your life any different than that of your atheist neighbor, your agnostic colleagues, or those who don’t carry the name of Christ? When you speak, are your words filled with doubt and defeat or faith and victory? Do you give towards the work of the kingdom? Is your heart to see the world living for Jesus? Do you serve and work towards that heart?

This isn’t meant to make you feel guilty, but to take you higher. We’ve got a work to do brothers and sisters. And He has made us well able to do it! I leave you with this, 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

Be Blessed,
Pastor Renée

Working With God

Matthew 12:30 (NKJV) says, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.”
Humanity is, by and large, fickle. People have a tendency to be all for something one day, then when the wind shifts they are off on something else. As the church has grown away from the things God has intended for them, loyalty has become an all but forgotten concept. This is why the divorce rate in the church is almost equal to that of the world. These things ought not be so.
My pastor always told me, people are one sermon away from leaving you, and I believe it’s true. People will take offense to something spoken, generally either taking it out of context or allowing the devil to distort it in their minds. They will allow the criticism or dissent of others to affect them in such a way that leaving becomes a good idea to them. They don’t even consider that God has put them there for a reason. When God puts something together, His intent (except for very few reasons), is that it remains intact. Separation in Gods’s eyes is the exception, not the rule. 1 Corinthians 12:18 says, “But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”
A scriptural principle that has been taught to me (and I’m so happy for it) is that what God does, He has done before. This is called type and shadow. In other words, if you want to know what God is going to do or how He thinks, look at the precedence set in scripture and you can get a very good clue. Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us, “That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun.” We also see this in Hebrews 13:8 which says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Then in Malachi 3:6, “For I am the Lord, I do not change.”
Like the marriage covenant, God has called His Body together for better or for worse, when it’s easy and when it’s hard. How would your body fair if you broke it up into pieces and scattered them around? Unity in the connection is vital both naturally and spiritually speaking, and any believer’s wellbeing is evidenced in how tightly they are connected. Look at Ephesians 4:16, “From whom the whole body, JOINED AND KNIT together by what EVERY JOINT SUPPLIES, according to the effective working by which EVERY PART DOES ITS SHARE, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” There are no lone wolves in the Body of Christ. It’s simply not scriptural.
In just three years of pastoring there are some things I know are the truth. They are the differences in the victory of those who come into a church and get truly connected and those who don’t. How do you know if you are truly connected? Ask yourself some questions. How often am I in church? If you see your pastor once a month you aren’t connected. Do I think about the church or the people often? Am I serving in my local church? If I were to stop giving (in any way) would it be noticed. Matthew 6:21 says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Your heart, mind, and finances will ALWAYS be found in what you treasure most.
No one has ever done anything that they haven’t first thought about. The problem is people don’t test their thoughts to determine whether they are good or not. The Bible instructs us, that WE MUST BRING thoughts into captivity if they don’t line up with what the Word teaches. I have literally been told on several occasions, “God directed me to leave church and just seek Him.” No He didn’t! How do I know? Because God set up the local church, He gave us pastors (found in the local church), and He intended us to be connected and flourish in the local church connected to these pastors. It’s God’s Word and He isn’t working against it! Yes, you have choice but that doesn’t mean every choice is good. The choice is literally life or death and blessing or curse. Consecrate yourself to God’s will and His way of doing things. You will be blessed and so will those around you. God didn’t give us the church to take lightly. You need the church and the church needs you. Only the people who seek and follow after God’s plan ever enter His promised land. Yes, it’s a promise, but it’s waiting on you to walk in, not walk away.
Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff

Quick & Painless

We are blessed to live in a place with four beautifully distinct seasons of weather, which makes it easier to understand why the Lord used the illustration of seasons so often in His Word. Look at this familiar passage of scripture, Ecclesiastes 3:1, “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven.” Though there are things that I may like more about one season or the next, there’s truly something special about each one.

Recently, I was headed home, passing over Chautauqua Lake on sunny Spring day as the subtle ripples of the water were glistening and life after the frozen tundra was being rejuvenated. It was truly beautiful. I couldn’t help but to consider how quickly the time had passed by and how painless the winter had felt this year. Let’s face it, if you’re not a fan of snow, there’s a certain dread that starts to come as fall begins to approach its end. I’ve failed and fallen prey to this dread many times in the past, but this year, I decided not to focus on that and it seems to have made a world of difference.

Often times, people, and even Christians, though we ought to know better, will get discouraged by the season they’re in. As you continue to read the scriptures in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, you’ll see the Lord explains that there are seasons for different aspects of life. There’s a time to plant, and a time to harvest what was planted. We can’t be discouraged waiting for the harvest, wondering, “why not yet, Lord?” He promised us a season of waiting. He promised us there would be seasons of mourning and seasons of dancing. See, a Christian walk isn’t always rainbows and unicorns, cotton candy, lemon drops and sunshine. There are different seasons we will both embrace and endure.

Look at Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Our ultimate ending is that of great victory, eternal victory, but on earth we have been promised trial and testing with fire, as we have a real enemy. The trial comes, because Satan wants to steal, kill and destroy us, but Jesus came and gave us life abundantly. (John 10:10) If our focus is right, those seasons of trial will work for our good. If our focus is right, we will sail through them into glistening water, rejuvenated by the victory Jesus wrought for us. It will seem quick and painless.

How do we keep our focus right? Galatians 6:9 says, “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” We guard our hearts from becoming weary. We do this through the Word of God. One of the best examples of this is in the book of Matthew chapter 14, when Peter walked to Jesus on the water. Jesus had sent His disciples to cross over the sea, but a terrible storm came against their boat. The scripture says the boat was being tossed by the waves! (Matthew 14:24) This wasn’t a little afternoon rain. This was major. We’ve all had moments of rain, and we’ve all had moments where just a little rain would have been nice, if you know what I mean. So Jesus called to Peter to come to Him; in moments of trial, the Lord wants us to come to Him. Peter began walking on water towards Jesus, without sinking, though it was in the midst of a terrible storm, though everything in the natural told him he couldn’t do it. But, when he lost focus on Jesus, he began to sink. So much can be learned through this account. When we are in a season where it looks like we might sink, we focus on Jesus. When we are in a season where all signs point to failure, we focus on Jesus. When our focus is right, we’ll see the victory on the other side.

I love this scripture, 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season.” Though this is written to a minister, this applies to us all. We need to be ready to answer every situation with the Word of God. We need to keep the Word of God on our lips and in our hearts throughout every season of life. It is in this truth that we find our hope, our peace, and our victory.

Be Blessed,
Pastor Renée