Vote for Jesus
Jesus, others and you! What a wonderful way to spell joy the old chorus we used to sing went.
In a country known as the land of opportunity, when you turn on talk shows or the news seems you find nowadays every viewpoint but joy! We’ve got it bad here is the mantra!
For the most part of the world, the freedoms we experience here would be more than a breathe of fresh air. What we consider necessities are luxuries to many parts around the world.
Yet the condemnation message of the accuser continues to spew the viewpoint no one should be happy, because things are so terrible!
The accuser is very good at preaching doom and gloom. Repetition is the key for any viewpoint to be believed! I’m sure he was pretty good at it, before his exit from Heaven!
Can you imagine trying to convince anyone to leave Heaven? While such a task would seem impossible to any sane person. The deceiver managed to convince 1/3 of the angels in heaven there was something better on the horizon for them.
While we know the description of streets of gold, walls of jasper and gates of pearl sounds amazing, the description falls short...
TBS. “No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
the things that God has prepared
for those who love him.”
We are abundantly blessed here in America, yet we are told things are terrible the way things are and have been for the last 200 years! Sounds all too familiar to me, as of the lies the accuser is still trying to get doom and gloom accepted as a better way of life!
Don’t believe the report of what you are hearing! Vote for the abundant life promised to you, Vote for Jesus!
Illus. From the book “a life beyond amazing”
A worldwide study of 90,000 people showed the 10 richest countries in the world also had the highest rates of depression. United States had the second highest rate, exceeded only by France.
This tells us joy and happiness aren’t dependent on wealth and circumstances. Those who have the most reasons to be joyful are often the most depressed.
Are we to believe all the looters and rioters, all the murders, violence and burning of peoples businesses are done by people who are full of joy?
What we have been witness to is a precursor of things to come and we way things will be after the Rapture and Exodus of all of Gods Children!
Far too many are guilty of playing the peanut and shell game, or the slight of hand game, for life’s circumstances!
Always trying to guess which shell the peanut of happiness is under, only to be continually disappointed by the wrong guess the road of bad decisions leads them down!
Far to many fall prey to the theft of their God given rights! I’m not talking about the constitution here and our inalienable rights!
All though those rights are extremely important, this is far bigger than that. This is God’s covenant of relationship every Christian is entitled too, but far to few realize and experience on the line here as the ultimate prize for the devil.
And the devil will not stop until death and destruction has been experienced by every man, woman and child and no one is left standing!
satan is and has always been in the business of ripping off things that don’t belong to him!
Only, unlike today’s modern cyber thief, who tries to steal your identity and get all they can at once.
I’m not saying the devil wouldn’t do that, but he’s even more crafty than the cyber thief.
satan steals little by little, morsel by morsel, day after day and thing is, most people don't even realize they’ve been robbed until it's to late and everything they value including life, is gone.
Think it’s not possible, then I guess you haven’t heard of meth, or heroine and the complete theft of freedom and happiness!
You see, satan not only attacks physically, but through words, actions, thoughts, dreams, ambitions and whatever else he views as an opportunity, to be taken advantage of!
Jesus said in JOHN 10:10 RSV
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
The MSG. Says: I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.
While some might be thinking of personnel items and I'm not saying the devil wouldn't try to try to get to you, by stealing your net worth.
Because we know the devil took everything Job had including his possessions and his family.
But the devil doesn't need your car or your house, or your money, he is more interested in stealing all the Spiritual treasures you have access to.
The important things having value with God, which are spiritual and of eternal significance.
For example; Our purpose for living.
If someone were really, truly able to get their arms around and experience Gods abundant life!
A more and better life than they ever dreamed of, wouldn't that be enough to take care of all of our wants, needs and desires, we would ever have?
The answer is a thousand times yes and there is no one who knows this to be true, better than the devil!
Because the devil has had it all!
Done it all!
Experienced it all!
Seen it all!
he knows what the abundant life taste, feels and even smells like. he knows first hand what the abundant life God has for us is all about!
Remember the devils position in heaven was one of prominence. he was once the worship leader in heaven, that’s why he continually tries to steal away everything about the abundant life message and I mean "everything"!
You can have all the riches in the world, but without The Lord they are just an empty, lonely place of existence!
The devil doesn't want anyone to experience one second of "a more and better life than you have ever dreamed of"
Because the accuser knows with God in your life, there is no reason for people to turn to Drugs, alcohol, meaningless relationships, and whatever else is in the bag of tricks he has for people to fall prey too!
It's all distraction from the real problem anyway... Just Something…anything to try to fill the void, the hole in everybody’s life!
The hole the devil knows actually exists from personal experience and Consistently tries to take advantage of!
I believe there is no bigger hole in anyone’s life than the devils. he has to be the most Pathetic, miserable depressed excuse that ever existed!
The devil doesn't have any hope or joy, he forfeited any chance of hope and joy long ago!
Thats why he tries to steal, kill and destroy everyone else's, that's his only plan.
But that's not God plan, I said that’s not Gods Plans! Gods plans we read about in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah 29:11 RSV
11. For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
We don’t have to wait for Gods plans! God already sent His plans! Gods plans all start with a name, the name above every name, His name is Jesus!
That’s why above else I want to encourage you to always vote for Jesus for every aspect of life!
Satan knows of the good things God has in store for you, because he has tasted them and that's why he also knows once you taste of them for yourself, he will have lost the battle to steal your joy forever!
One might think the accuser would get tired of fighting, knowing he’s fighting a losing battle! Even though he knows how the last chapter of the Bible ends, fighting is the only option he has!
What a miserable state of existence!
That's why the deceiver continues the battle for the degree of relationship someone has with Jesus, even after a person becomes a Christian.
In no way, shape, or form, does the devil want anyone to taste of, experience or know, what their salvation experience in Jesus, really entitles them to....Which is "everything"....
Far to many question the word “everything” to describe Gods willingness to supply and provide a great life for everyone to live?
What can I say, that’s the kind of God we serve! He’s an over the top, super abundant, life-giving, extravagant, inexhaustible God of way to much!
Ephesians 3:8-9 NKJ
8.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 unsearchable riches of Christ, salvation in Jesus qualifies you to partake of everything that God has, no matter what the devil may try to tell you and cheat you out of!
*there are no other hoops to jump through,
*there are no other qualifications to be sought after!
*just You loving on God and God loving on you for eternity, if that’s what you choose!
Choose Life, Vote for Jesus!
Ephesians 3:14-19 MSG
My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.
Paul realized what he thought he knew, he didn’t know! Paul knew the religious laws and there was and are a lot of them!
Paul was an educated man and on the road to Damascus he saw the light and found out there was so much more to be experienced in a persons walk with Jesus, than religion!
What Paul found out was what God has for His followers is a big deal! Salvation is a big deal and the accuser knows it too!
Gods love for those who love Him, is a huge deal! Unscalable, unplumbable, to extravagant to ever exhaust the possibilities in the experience of relationship, yet completely attainable!
God made man to find fulfilment in Him…. Through a relationship, with His own Son, through his awareness of the abundant life God has made available has been stolen from Him!
Because anyone who would read what we just read and not want to experience it and live it, clearly is not aware of its abundant availability. Or has been beat down to the point they don’t think their worthy to receive and partake of it!
Illus. By Steve Lotze
Anyone ever heard the story of Chippie the parakeet? Well anyone who owns a parakeet knows cleaning a birds cage is a hassle, right?
Chippies owner was vacuuming feathers off floor – brilliant idea! – vacuum bottom of cage… another brain storm idea! The phone rang, and she turned to pick it up… and "ssssopp!" No more Chippie! – problem solved! -
The birds owner gasped, put down the phone, turned off the vacuum, and opened the bag. There was Chippie -- still alive, but stunned.
Poor thing covered in dust – so she raced to the faucet – held Chippie under the running water. – wet and shivering she wondered now what?
Of course she did what any compassionate bird owner would do . . . she reached for hair dryer and blasted Chippie with hot air. Poor Chippie.
A few days later, Chippie’s owner was asked how the bird was doing. "Well," she replied, "Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore, Chippie kind of lost his joy-- he just sits and stares."
Far to many can relate Chippie’s story as their own story of life!
The stories not over, there are still chapters to be written! If you’re wondering what the next stage of life is going to be and your still breathing, Vote for the things of Jesus for every aspect of your life!!
I want to remind you the bible says and this advice has no age limit tied to it, “Let Everything That Has Breathe....(that’s right) Praise The Lord!" The call to praise the Lord never goes away!
TBS. In 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 MSG
16-18 Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
What a day that will be! That day will be Awesome! You know what else is awesome? Voting for Jesus today! Voting for Jesus today, begins the transformation process to become the light of Jesus image, the world so desperately needs!
One that will be enjoyed not only by you, but everyone who comes around you!
