Forever Perfect?

The pastor at my church has off and on for the last few years brought this verse up and its a huge encouragement to me in my life.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Hebrews 10:14 ESV

God bless,

Jason

How Can You Be An Atheist Pt II – Lake Minnewawa Sunset

This is a sunset on October 18th at my cabin on Lake Minnewawa in northern Minnesota. It was an amazing sunset. Sure, atheists will be atheists unless God draws and calls them, but if somehow when they see this their heart is touched by the beauty and order of creation I would be happy.

What is Phileo and Agape Love?

I wanted to write up an explanation of phileo and agape love and also use an example from Scripture to encourage you.

This comes from Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament Vol.3, #28, pg.62.

“‘Phileo’ is a love which consists of the glow of the heart kindled by the perception of that in the object which affords us pleasure. It is the response of the human [soul] to what appeals to it as pleasurable… The word was used to speak of a friendly affection. It is a love called out of one in response to a feeling of pleasure or delight which one experiences from an apprehension of qualities in another that furnish such pleasure or delight. ’Agapao’ on the other hand, speaks of a love which is awakened by a sense of value in the object loved, an apprehension of its preciousness.”

This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest (agapao) thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love (phileo) thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest (agapao) thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love (phileo) thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest (phileo) thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest (phileo) thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love (phileo) thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
John 21:14-17

This is after Peter has denied Jesus and went back to a life of fishing (John 21:3) because he felt he totally failed. Jesus is seeking to re-affirm Peter as a disciple.
Based upon the definitions above I want to render the above verses according to the Greek.

Jesus asks Peter do you see my value and understand how precious I am? Peter responds, yes Lord, you provide me with pleasure. Jesus asks, but Peter, do you recognize my intrinsic value and preciousness? Peter responds, yes, I take pleasure in our relationship. Jesus then cuts to the heart and says, but Peter, do you even take pleasure in me? Peter says, you know everything, I can’t hide anything from you, you know that I take pleasure in you. Jesus reaffirms him again and tells him to feed his sheep.

Even though Peter failed greatly and Jesus cuts him to the heart he reaffirms him and sends him to feed Jesus’ disciples. I’m so thankful to know the patience and love that God has towards his elect. No matter what the elect go through Jesus will stand by them and affirm them. The Lord Jesus will do whatever it takes to bring us to heaven. “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” (John 10:28-29) All power in heaven and earth is given to him and all that power stands behind him bringing his sheep, his elect, to eternal life in heaven. Nothing will pluck them out of his hands and nothing, no devil, no bad relationship, NOTHING will separate the elect, the sons and daughters of God from his love!

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39

Pray For Your Enemies

I received this question from a sister on Facebook. It’s a great question because this is not an easy thing to do in the natural.

“towards the end of the sermon brother Branham, mentions “We shall pray for our enemies and love them; do good to them that do bad to us.”

Now i would like to ask simple question: How is it possible to pray for enemies whose mission is to hurt one? or when we pray to God for our enemies, what do we tell Him about them? Especially enemies who do not fear the Lord and are always trying to discourage a christian’s faith?”

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Matthew 5:44

How is it possible to pray for someone whose mission is your hurt? It certainly isn’t an easy thing to do, but the first thing to do if you do not feel able to pray for them then you have to ask God to take away any bitterness you might have towards them and to give you a spirit that is willing to be obedient and pray for them. It is not easy because there can be years of hurt in your heart, but if you want to be obedient to the word of God – pray that he will help you overcome the hurt you have in your heart and pray for that person.

When we pray to God for our enemies it is in a spirit of meekness and fear not in a spirit of self-righteousness like the Pharisee that said, “God I thank you that I am not like these sinners over there.” Pray that the Holy Spirit would soften their hearts and change them. Pray that their hearts would be converted to hear and believe the word of God. Pray that they would make things right in their life so that Satan would no longer have dominion over them. There are many other things you can pray for, but none greater than their salvation.

Those enemies who are discouraging will not and cannot have dominion over you. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Pray that the Holy Spirit would convert their hearts to receive Jesus. God is omnipotent and able to do all things. We need to pray and have faith that He will. Jesus prayed for those who crucified him as an example, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” My, what love the Son of God showed and gave as an example! When you pray for those who discourage and use you pray that the Father in heaven would forgive them and grant them repentance.

I trust that this is a blessing to you. Make sure to subscribe to get our updates via email in the upper right hand of the screen.

If you have anything to add to this please comment below.

God bless you.

Jason DeMars

What Are You Looking Forward To?

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. (Proverbs 23:7, King James Version)

This is an awesome truth. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. The popular saying goes, ‘you are what you eat” and while that may be true here we understand that “you are what you think.” This is very powerful. Whatever you think you are that is what you are.

How important is it then for us to be in control of what we are thinking? Sometimes we forget that all around us there is a battle taking place in another dimension over our life and eternal destination. There are angelic beings and demons fighting over us. These demons will speak things into our mind. When something vile or filthy enters our head we tend to identify that it is our thought. When this takes place we need to quickly recognize that a battle is about to ensue. A demon has spoke something to us and we can’t identify with it. We have to fight against it.

How do we fight against those thoughts?

We take the Scriptures that we have hidden in our heart (you have memorized scripture right?) and speak it back to the demon. We live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

With that said, what is occupying your thought life? What are you looking forward to?

I find that in my own life I’m looking forward to some circumstance taking place. I very much would love to be able to work from home and spend more time with my family, but sometimes I look forward to that so much that I get obsessed with finding the way to do it and spending so much time on that and when it doesn’t happen overnight I’m so disappointed and frustrated. Then I tend to get upset and depressed about it.

Instead of letting those things occupy my mind the things that need to occupy my mind are the things of God and how can I serve Him and others right now and not chasing something that is ahead. If I serve Him today and seek Him FIRST and let Christ be my dominate thought he will give me the desires of my heart.

Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (Psalm 37:4, King James Version)

If my thoughts are dominated by delight in the LORD God and I seek after His kingdom and His righteousness the desires of my heart will be fulfilled. Unfortunately when the desires of our heart are set on things that are temporal you won’t receive those desires. If your mind and your desire is focused on the delight that comes from God alone then those desires can and will be fulfilled. See many of our desires are short sighted. We want bigger houses, nicer cars, a better cell phone, a newer laptop or a different job when eternal delight is right before us in the person of God.

So my thoughts need to be on God and not on myself. When my thoughts are on God then if that desire is truly from Him to work at home and spend more time with my family it will come to pass. If that desire isn’t from Him then guess what? That desire will slip away and I will find my contentment in Him. My desires will be quenched by the unsearchable riches of Christ.

My prayer as you read this post is that the Holy Spirit would search your heart and reveal to you the places that need to come under the gentle yoke of Christ.

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (2 Corinthians 10:5, King James Version)

Make sure to subscribe to our updates via email and if you have enjoyed this post, have questions or thoughts to add please comment below.

Jason DeMars

Confess the Word

I’m currently working in a temp job doing mortgage refinances at a location in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. I met a few believers that are working here and we were talking about having either a negative or a positive confession.

I mentioned the fact the Esau when he was in the midst of a trial and was suffering due to a famine in the land sold his birthright because he felt that the birthright would do him no good since he was going to do. This was a confession that was in fact denying the reality that God promised him seed and land. Jacob’s confession was, that yes he was hungry, but he was willing to give away his food for the birthright because he knew that if he had the birthright God would preserve him. God said he would have seed and land. You can’t have seed and land when you are dead.

Jacob’s confession was positive and Esau’s was negative. God desires us to confess with our lips and our lives that he is truthful. It doesn’t matter what is going on around us our confession should be that of what God’s Word says about it.

When you are working in a temp job the atmosphere is typically a negative one and its always what if we lose our job, what if they cut our department. We were talking that instead of speaking those words and being negative we should start saying God is going to turn these jobs into full time ones. So we decided we were going to meet together once a week to pray here at work and confess that he will open the door for each of us in this department to have full-time jobs with benefits and vacation.

This is why it is so important for us to have the word of God hidden in our hearts. We need it memorized and placed in our heart so that when the time comes we are ready to confess what God has already said about it.

I can’t wait to report to you what the Lord Jesus will do.

Definition of Agape and Phileo Love

This comes from Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament Vol.3, #28, pg.62.

‘Phileo’ is a love which consists of the glow of the heart kindled by the perception of that in the object which affords us pleasure.  It is the response of the human [soul] to what appeals to it as pleasurable… The word was used to speak of a friendly affection.  It is a love called out of one in response to a feeling of pleasure or delight which one experiences from an apprehension of qualities in another that furnish such pleasure or delight. ’Agapao’ on the other hand, speaks of a love which is awakened by a sense of value in the object loved, an apprehension of its preciousness.

Christ Our Substitue in Death

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. Romans 3:23-25

The reality of life in this world is that every single person alive is born full of wickedness and sin. Every attribute to committ evil and sin against God is right within our souls and by nature we are children of wrath. By nature we are evil not good. Some would argue this point but God does not argue with man. This is the truth of his word. Man is by nature a sinner and is worthy of death and everlasting punishment in hell. As it is written, “there is no one righteous, no not one.”

That is exactly what God demands in order to have fellowship with him and eternal life. Perfect, complete righteosness is the only thing that he will accept.

However, we are unable to be righteous because “by nature we are children of wrath even as others.” We have sin imputed to us through Adam and by nature we commit sin.

But, God who is rich in mercy provided a propitiation. That is, He provided a substitue for us. God, in order to show forth His righteousness sent forth His Son as a substitute for anyone who believes in Him. We can be justified freely by God’s grace. God set forth His Son as a substitute for those who have faith and confidence in what Christ’s blood can do for us. That blood stands between God and the sinner. So that when the Almighty would condemn us for our sin and send us to hell the blood of Jesus Christ stands in our place and God says, “you are perfectly righteous through my Son. You can enter into fellowship and eternal life with me.”

Without the blood of Christ that was shed on the cross we would all be bound for everlasting hell, but through faith in his blood we can stand perfect in the sight of God.

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. 2 Corinthians 5:21

Faith and Trials

We all go through our own ups and downs. There are deserts and then there are the mountains. We go through times that we don’t know why something happened and it hurts bad. Whether it be the death of a loved one or cancer or a multitude of other trials.

As Many As Are Led by the Spirit

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

-Romans 8:14

I had a very wonderful experience with God last evening. I’ve had my struggles the last few years and it’s been some time since He has led me this way and spoken to me this way. I’m so thankful for His leadership.

I had to go up to the cabin just for the evening to turn off the heat and the heater that was in the basement where the water pump was. We had went up a few weeks ago and turned on the water and its been colder than normal so we had to leave the heat on at 55 degrees (we have a large propone tank and we generally only go up on weekends so we try to leave the heat off to save money). So I went up to turn off the heat and planned on going out to eat at Big Sandy Resort then come back and have a fire and head back home around 9 in the evening.

After I turned off the heater in the crawl space I headed out to Big Sandy Lodge and come to find out that they closed down October 6th for the winter and were possibly going to open up again in May of this year. I thought wow, that’s a bummer, I really liked that place. So then I decided I’ll go over to Minnesota National Golf Course and eat at their restuarant. I pulled in and parked then went in to the restuarant and there wasn’t a soul there. I stood there for 30 seconds or so and no server or employee even came out to greet me so I left and thought I’d go over to Sather’s Grocery store and pick up a pizza and cook that at the cabin. I pulled in and they closed up about 2 hours before they normally do.

As I walked away from the door something inside of me spoke and said, ‘you should go to Duluth.’ I thought no, that’s another hour drive (I already drove 2 hours up to the cabin) plus I’m driving home tonight that will wear me out completely. So I went on deciding that I’d go to a gas station/convenience store called Willey’s and pick up a pizza. Then I began to have that convicted feeling in my conscience. So I prayed about it and I thought of Gideon putting the fleece before the Lord to help him make his decision. So I thought well, Willey’s usually carries DiGiorno pizza so I prayed “Lord I’ll stay at the cabin if they have a DiGiorno supreme pizza.” I went in to Willey’s and they no longer carry DiGiorno pizza. I asked them about what happened with Big Sandy Resort and they said that they ran out of money. So…

I went back to the cabin shut things off, closed it up and headed on over to Duluth not knowing what the Lord wanted me to do.

As I was going the Spirit was speaking to me the whole way over. I felt the presence of God so strongly with me. He showed me that He loves me so much and that His favor rests upon me insomuch that he will take all these circumstances that have nothing to do to me to lead me in a specific direction if I will listen to His voice. One business had to close down because of money trouble, another closed early on Easter weekend, another didn’t have a soul there and another discontinued DiGiorno pizza. He loves me and wants to use me so much that he will alter circumstances to direct me! What a loving Father we have!

When I got to Duluth I prayed about where I should go and the Lord so go where you like to go. So I went to Canal Park found a parking spot went in to Duluth Pack and bought some Smart Wool slippers for my baby girl Avery.

Then I decided to walk out the back door of Duluth Pack and prayed again, where should I go eat and he said go where you like. I looked up and there was Famous Dave’s one of my favorite places to eat. So I went in there thinking perhaps he would have me witness to the waitress. I just tried to be friendly with her, but she was not reciprocating so I continued to pray about what he wanted me to do and then He said that I should give a $10 tip and write on the receipt that Jesus loves her.

Then I headed over to get a cup of coffee and go for a walk on the Lake Walk wondering what He wanted me to do. Boy it was cold too! Wow! So I walked down there waiting upon the Lord and he told me “Duluth is a spiritual wasteland” and I asked “Lord what would you have me do” and he said “do what I told you to do.” My mind immediately went to how He placed upon my heart to start this blog and to use the things I’ve learned about web 2.0 to bring the message to Duluth. I’ve really fell off on writing on this blog and doing what He wants me to do. Lord forgive me and give me strength to follow your leadership as you lead me in Your burdens.

So pray for me as continue on this journey with my Lord.

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