February 7, 2010

  • sermon seeds gathered from Frank Gerke's email

    Hi ROL family and Karen's dad, Frank,
     
    First from Karen's dad, then from Karen Roark to me  and now from me to you (and back to Karen's dad ), the story that follows my note here:
     
    In this  story  (below), there is a great lesson both for our country's finances and for learning principles in the kingdom of God:
     
     .cI immediately accept both the natural lesson  in it and  I am adding a spiritual lesson:
     
    The people who will not receive in this life (and the one to come) the favor and rewards from the Lord  through communion with and obedience to Christ  therefore must, as did Cain,  watch from afar the favor shown to Abel (read the account in Genesis 4).
     
    If we all want the same favor and awards from the Lord that are given to the ones who obey Him, then we need to find  out what the following passage means and see to it  we  do it ourselves no matter what anyone else does or does not do.
     
    Ps 24:3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
     
    4 He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
     
    5 He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
     
    6 This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
    KJV
    How can I have a pure heart?
    To receive a pure heart, I must be  born again. I must identify with the death, burial , and resurrection of the Lord, i.e., die to self , let the sinful nature be crucified and buried, and then rise up into the new nature in
    Christ which He give us through sending His Spirit to live inside of us.
     
    When we do that, we can walk in His righteousness.
     
    God will judge individuals in their own right according to what they did .  God will NOT  take  rewards from me and give them  to someone else who lived for the world, the flesh, and the devil!!
     
    He has enough favor and rewards for ALL of us ; however, the path towards victory and favor is prescribed and there is no circumventing it!
     
    The communist/socialist thought of "from each according to his ability and to each according to his need" could only be adopted by someone who thinks that  the rewards (money, resources, etc.) are limited so we have to share them. In the Lord's kingdom, there is an infinite amount of rewards available.  If we have walked according to His directives from His Word and therefore win  rewards from Him, we will never be forced to share those rewards!  Everyone has an equal opportunity to acquire their own..
     
    So...STOP feeling sorry for those who are lazy, fearful, unbelieving, etc. The same opportunity is laid before us all to win His rewards !  Wealth, race , culture, gender, IQ, etc. are all irrelevant in the kingdom of the Lord.  Obedience and  loving communion with the Lord through His Spirit and abiding in His Word  can be accomplished by anyone, anywhere through His grace!!
     
    Don't be jealous of the Daniels who are 10x better than others! BE a Daniel (Daniel 1:20).
    Daniel's secret  to success and favor was being obedient  to his Lord God no matter what the cost  (including facing being thrown into the lion's den for not bowing to the devil). 
     
    Phil 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling .13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.KJV
     
    Ok...I see a sermon coming here.....
     
    oh...I think you thought that WAS the sermon...nope...I could easily write a book on this topic!!!!
     
    Love you all, Rosemary

     
    From: kroark@centurytel.net
    To: RBarnesROL@aol.com
    Sent: 2/6/2010 8:34:02 P.M. Eastern Standard Time
    Subj: Fw: Is this teacher truly a genius
     
    From one teacher to another.  A great principal.
    ----- Original Message -----
    Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 5:30 PM
    Subject: Fw: Is this teacher truly a genius


    Subject: Fw: Is this teacher truly a genius


     
     
     
     Subject: Is this teacher truly a genius



     

    This teacher is truly a genius!

    As the late Adrian Rogers said, "you cannot multiply wealth by dividing it." 

    An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class.
    That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
    The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". 
    All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A. 
    After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. 
    The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. 
    As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. 
    The second test average was a D! 
    No one was happy. 
    When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. 
    The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. 

    All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. 

    Couldn't be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on)