Newsletter

                                                                                    August 2019
Dear Saints,

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. Be glad because you have another day to be thankful, prayerful and praiseful to the Creator of the universe. He called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Take a moment to ponder this. The all-sufficient, all-knowing, omnipresent God, Who could have spoken everything into existence in one breath, LOVES YOU. He had you in mind before He ever formed the world. “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” Psalm. 139:16. To the world most of the time, people who are wealthy only associate with their own kind; that also applies to many ethnic groups (birds like a feather flock together). It is like night and day with the Creator of the universe. The rich, the poor, the black, the white, the Jew and the gentile etc.: He loves them all. Every person has been created by God, but only those who are born again, are children of God.

At times the enemy’s tactic is to get us to doubt God’s unconditional love. Other times he wants us to doubt who we are and the authority that has been given to us. He had the audacity to tempt Jesus during His time in the wilderness. There are times when Satan or we ourselves have led us into a place of temptation. However, according to the Word of God, Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights and afterwards hungered; and when the tempter came to him; he said, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread”. Satan challenged Jesus’ identity as the Son of God by tempting Him to do something apart from the will of the Father. Jesus needed food, so that is what he first put before Jesus.

Many times the evil one does the same to believers. He starts out with the same words as he did to Jesus: “if you are a child of God, then you would not say this or do that.” Isn’t it interesting how the first temptation was the same that brought sin into the world, food. He will keep on putting questions in believers’ hearts and minds concerning their walk with God. In the third temptation, he said the same thing: “if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written ….” Psalm 91: 1-12 Jesus withstood the temptation because He had heard His Father’s voice and knew Who He was Matthew 3:17. How about you? Do you know who your Father is and who you are as His child? In the second temptation the devil wanted him to focus on the things of the earth, and the things He would have gotten if he had worshiped him (how about you?). By quoting the Word, all three times, the Lord resisted the devil’s lies, and defeated him Matthew 4: 1-10.

What I’ve written about is the Father’s love for His children, and Satan’s hatred towards them. That leads me to this scripture; “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all” Psalm 34:19. All afflictions will permanently end in eternity, but until then they will come. There are so many afflictions. They come from within and from without (spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally). Jesus is the same: yesterday, today and forever, and so is Satan. Our Father is always for good, and our enemy is always for evil. The evil one will tell you half-truths, as he did Eve. Eat the fruit and you’ll be as God, knowing good and evil (the truth). He then said, you’ll not die (the lie); however, both spiritual and physical death followed. His tactics have never changed. He will try to put doubt in our hearts about our God, by telling half-truths concerning our situation. His lie could be, “Where is your God? Your affliction has even gotten worse”. Don’t believe him, he is the father of lies and the truth is not in him. The Lord said he’ll never leave you nor forsake you Hebrews 13:5.

Serving Our King Together,   I COVET YOUR PRAYERS. THANK YOU!

Rev. Joseph