Looking For Help?

“The Lord is my helper, I will not fear” – R. Nelson

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“…for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Hebrews 13:5-6

ENCOURAGING WORD:
There were some men years ago who were on a leaky old ship in the middle of a rough and stormy sea, fearful for their lives. They didn’t know whether they were going to sink or not. So one of them went to see the captain and said, “Captain, are we safe?” He said, “Well, I’ll put it to you this way. The boilers on this ship are very weak and may explode at any moment. Also, the ship is very old and she’s taking on water. To be honest with you, we may have an explosion or we may sink. “We may go up or we may go down. But,” he continued, “At any rate, we’re moving on.”

That is the way we are to think as we face this New Year. Jesus may come for His bride at any time and we may go up to meet Him in the cloud as we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:17; “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. “Or we may just pass on and be forever with the Lord. But at any rate, we’re moving on even though we don’t know what the New Year is going to bring. Colossians 3:2; tells us, “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” In other words, don’t get caught up with all disturbing news that we hear about daily and all the evil that is going on, focus on the eternal. 1 John 2: 15-17; we read, “Do not love the world nor the things in the world, If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” Jesus Christ is in control and if you have received Him as your Lord and Savior, and accepted the Holy Spirit into your heart, you are spiritually protected and nothing can harm you without His consent. We need to stay focused on Jesus Christ and then we can be sure that everything in our life is working out for the good as we read in 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.” That does not mean that you won’t go through rough times, it just means that Jesus will guide you through each trial and bring you on the other end more purified than when you went in. It is the purifying process that we, as Christians must all go through if we choose to serve Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. When you truly trust the Word of God and His promises, you should be able to go through life without fear, and then you will experience the joy of life that God had intended for you to live. 

Friends, this coming year may be difficult for you, only God knows, but I am telling you that you can stand upon the promises of the Word of God. Our God is a God of love. He will guide you through every situation that may come into your life. But whatever that may be, you can be certain that whatever happens in your life is Father filtered. The trials that we go through are a necessary component of our spiritual growth. As we go through these trials, we need to stay focused on the Word of God, otherwise we will be drawn into the world and the evil therein. Romans 12:2 tells us, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” It is an absolute fact that if you don’t follow Jesus Christ and get to know Him personally, you will conform to this world. There is no middle ground, you are heading in one of two directions currently. We read in Matthew 6:24; “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” You may have been told that mammon is money, well money is a source of mammon, but it goes a lot deeper. Mammon is anything that you put before Jesus Christ. Jesus did not throw words around, so it is significant that he used the word “mammon” at least four times in the New Testament. When he used it, he did not simply mean money. He deliberately used the word “mammon” to show us what happens when we become attached to money. But mammon’s influence does not just stop with wealth. If we are not watchful, the evil spirit will indwell in to every area of our lives and convince us to trust in material possessions instead of God. He tries to motivate us to do put more faith in stuff, with the ultimate goal of replacing God as the source of what we feel we need. In the book of Exodus, this evil spirit convinced the people that they did not need God, and its strategy has not changed.

This evil spirit will deliberately lead us astray and then abandon us, but God will always extend his mercy and grace when we need him. We need to understand, that money in and of itself is not evil, it is the love of money that is evil. 

There are many prominent citizens in our society that are extremely wealthy, and still serve Jesus Christ. With that being said, there are also a lot of rich people that hind behind the banner of Christianity. You would be surprised to see how many of America’s pastors are doing just that. I am mostly referring to the mega churches. Without mentioning any names, they are the wealthiest churches in America. They are known as prosperity churches and are in it for the money only! We read in the Old Testament in Genesis 13:2; “Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold.” Abraham is one very good example of a man of wealth being used for Gods purpose. Another man in the Old Testament was Joseph, one of the sons of Jacob. We read this in Genesis 41: 40-41; “You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” The story of Joseph and how He became second in command only behind the Pharaoh is one that we all should read and understand. Nobody but Pharaoh was richer than Joseph at that time or had more power, but God used Him to bring into existence the nation of Israel. Joseph and His brothers went into Egypt as a family, but came out of Egypt four hundred years later as a nation! God does give riches to certain people, but those that He gives it to are people that He knows will use it for His glory! That is the difference. Ask yourself this question, if God gave you great wealth, what would you do with it. If you are honest you would most likely do what everybody else does. They use it to buy stuff, gain popularity and all kinds of things that God abhors. You may say, “I wouldn’t do that,” but let me tell you, God knows exactly what we would do and in many cases I believe God keeps His believers in a position where we need His daily provisions, otherwise we may go astray. We read in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” He did not say give us this day our yearly bread. We need to call out to Him every day of the year. If you do, He will provide for you your daily needs. 

ACTION POINT:
My Friends, face this New Year by squaring your shoulders, lifting your head, and saying “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” The greatest thing you could do to begin with, if you have not done so already, would be to give your heart to Jesus Christ. This would be the beginning of a brand new life. With Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, nothing can harm you unless it is working out for the good. Are you willing to openly and publicly acknowledge Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? The choice is yours! It will be the best decision that you could ever make! We don’t know what the coming year will bring–sickness, heartache, or some form of trouble, but you can boldly say, “The Lord will be my helper. I will not fear what man shall do to me.” Find your contentment, your companionship, and your confidence in Jesus Christ. In Him you will find your comfort and your courage. The beginning of a New Year is a great time of year to start a new life. Give it to Jesus Christ and watch the transformation that takes place in you as the New Year moves forward. 

The Lord is My Helper – Commentary from our Chaplin – R. Fritz

Those that have submitted to Gods will for their lives are a Blessed people. We have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and believe he will take care of us. “Belief is an action not just a thought.” If we truly believe, we will act on that belief. Nobody knows for sure what is going to happen during this upcoming year. In other words, are you prepared for whatever is going to happen this year? What I am saying is this, is there anybody or anything that you can you believe in during this upcoming year? Who or what has a history that you can believe in, is it the Government, yourself, people around you. Maybe they will contribute, but what I am really talking about is who can change your life. I only know of one, He is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You need to read the Bible and read about the history of Jesus Christ and the future events that are yet ahead. What you need to read and understand are the number of “Promises” that are written in the Scriptures of the Bible. The Bible is where you read about Gods promises, then “you need to Believe” it.  Again, “Belief” is an action word, so you need to live this year with a boldness because of your belief in God’s “Promises.”  I believe when the Bible uses the word “shall”, it is a “Promise”. Isiah 40:28-31 says “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint”. It so easy to find this information on the internet. Just google, what are God’s “Promises” in the Bible. you will hardly believe it. Unfortunately, this is what most people including those that claim to be born-again are not being understanding. 

So now, you have something that you can believe in. We can all look back at the issues that we had last year, whether it be mental, physical or money, and make sure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes again. Let’s take a good look at the mistakes that we made and make sure that we don’t go make the same mistakes that way we did last year! This is what I know, when you believe in something and act on it, our Lord honors that belief and the issues you have, He will change. It comes down to your own level of belief, which will ultimately change when you make it through your issues and move on. This is how I went through my issues. You now have a choice to make, whether you are going to live the same way as last year or are you going to trust in the Lord and let Him help you overcome your issues one by one. Your actions are tied to where you are now in life. We only see what’s in our life at the moment, by our history we speak only what we have and what we have done throughout our whole life. We need to speak the things we need or want in our life and believe it will come to pass. This is what I have done. The words we speak curse or bless ourselves and also people around us. We speak about disease or poverty in our lives because that’s what we see. For instance, when we have sniffles, we tell everybody we are getting a cold, you have now accepted your symptoms and the outcome by speaking it out. I have learned to not allow the devil to know what I am thinking. He puts thoughts in our heads, and then we speak them out. Learn to speak positive things about your life or people around you. You may not understand everything I have said because it is new to you, but trust in the Word of God, and let the proof speak for itself.  Proverbs 18:21 says “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” You see how we curse ourselves by the words we use. We will get into more details about our words at a different time. Ask the Lord to send somebody to help you or “Pray” for wisdom and understanding.

In Closing – R. Nelson

I want to share an example of what I believe our Chaplin is trying to get across, that should make it easier for you to understand: “You can believe a chair will hold your weight, but until you put your belief into actions, you can’t say that you truly believe.“ Our Chaplin hit the nail on the head about belief controlling our actions. We read in 1 Thessalonians 2:13; “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.”We also read in Acts 16:31; “They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Notice: it does not say, “Might be saved” it says, “Will be saved.” The Holy Spirit is our helper in all of life’s dealings if you just believe and give it to Him. I need to express a point that I have brought up in the past. If you are being told that you cannot know for sure that you are saved or not until you die, you need to get away from that teaching and get into the truth of Gods Word. One more verse that I would like to share comes from Romans 10:9-10; “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” Once again, “you will be saved.” If you truly believe in the Word of God, how can you doubt His promises? Stop accepting lies about your salvation and trust in the Word of God for eternal security and know that you are saved. Let’s all move on to a new beginning, and put the past behind us. The past is gone, the future is ahead, and today is a gift, that is why we call it the present!

“Written To the glory of God”. Amen!