Matthew 5:17-20

^{Matthew 5: 17}"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. ¹⁹Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (NIV)

If the Church today forgets this we are in big trouble. Unfortunately from what I see much of the Church has already forgotten. Jesus is very clear here; that He came to fulfill the laws not to abolish them. It is so tempting to claim that we are under the new covenant and therefore the laws of old do not apply. The truth of the matter is that they do apply just as much as with the same serious consequences they've had for centuries. How could we then, as ministers of The Gospel, tell God's sheep any different?

Look at verse 18 again this time from The Message, "Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God's Law will be alive and working." I know the last time I looked up I saw stars in the sky and this morning clouds or not the sun did shine. So, why then brothers and sisters have so many ministers, preachers, pastors, and the like stopped talking about the sin that is in our lives. Have we sold the truth of God's word just to collect a few more dollars in the offering plate. If you are reading this and have found that you have made that small compromise then turn now and repent. For verse 19 says that if you break the least of these commands and teach others to do the same then you will be the least in the kingdom. Yikes, I encourage you to take a moment and seek the Lord ask Him if you have this guilt on your hands. Ask Him for forgiveness and return to the calling to make disciples not just entertain the spiritual dieing among you.

The good news is that if we repent from our wicked ways and turn to follow the Lord ask Him for forgiveness He will forgive us and was us clean by His blood. Will you brothers and sisters follow in the ways of Jesus, non compromising, holding fast to the truth of The Father, fulfilling the law even unto death. Yes, Jesus did not abolish the law but He was the sacrifice that we can be cleaned by if we will plead the blood of the lamb over our sins.

Verse 19-20 in The Message says it this way "Trivialize even the smallest item in God's Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won't know the first thing about entering the kingdom."

As this years Christmas celebration approaches take heed of these words and remember also the words of Paul who wrote that if we do these things but have not love then we are nothing for then a clanging bell.

Prosper as your soul prospers, allow yourself to be put through the purifying process of the Lord. That one day you will find yourself resurrected with Christ.

Thank You Loyal Readers

What an amazing few months in the Lord. I feel the need to apologies again for how long it has been since I posted a confession or a new blog. I have posted a new confession recently and felt a burden to greet some of you today.

I want to thank all of you who visit us regularly:

• USA
• Canada
• Russia
• Congo
• India
• Japan
• UK

From drawing us deeper into His faithfulness, to accelerating our growth in the Spirit He is not about to let us stay where we were or let us go back to where we had been. As many of you know, who walk closely to the Lord, this is a process of Love, Mercy, Discipline, a call to unequivocal Obedience, and Repentance.

I pray that I would be able to start writing to you more about this soon, as the Lord would lead.

Until then I encourage you to send me your confessions, but don't stop there. Allow the Lord to do the deep work in your heart and bring you, from that confession, to a place of true repentance; where you never return to your sin again. Jesus tells the young woman caught in adultery after all who wanted to stone her left; "Go and sin no more." That is more than simply receiving your forgiveness and returning to your old ways. It is a change of heart and mind and a breaking of agreement with the strongholds that had bound you to that sin. It is a conscience and deliberate decision to allow the Lord to change you into a person that does not want that sinful way any longer.

Keep watching as we begin to expound on this and continue our "The Sermon" series. I look forward to this summer and what the Lord has for all of us.

God bless and again thank you all.

Rev. Brad Buscher

Confession of Provision

In this time of great need and sorrow in this country it is easy to forget that God is the provider. This fall was very hard and heading into this last holiday season with what looked like the greatest lack I have ever experienced in my life. The Lord was allowing me to walk in a very uncomfortable place. I wish I could say that is all behind me now, but that is difficult to do in light of the circumstances.

Now it is February and most of my bills from January are paid except one, the mortgage. Today the battle field of my mind has not been pretty. So, I decided to make an offensive strike instead of playing defense all the time. This post is to prove to my soul that the Lord is my provider and has provided for me longer than I know.

First know that I have not had regular employment for almost a year now and somehow the Lord has still provided:

• Grocery Money
• Mortgage Payments
• Gas Bills
• Phone Bills
• Electric Bills
• Fuel for the car
• Offerings
• Mission trip money
• Restaurant outings
• New clothing
• Vehicle repair money
• A trip to see family
• Work
• Love
• Friendship
• Health
• Encouragement
• Discipline
• Learning
• Pet medication
• Understanding
• Faith
• Entertainment
• Bumper crop of tomatoes
• Rain, Snow
• Air to breath
• Water to drink

The Lord is surely the provider He says He is. He has not brought me this far to let me die out in the wilderness. He will see me through to the very end. This is my confession of the provision of the Lord.

Matthew 5:13-16

Matthew 5: 13"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

14-16"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Wow! Fellow Christians this is a mouth full. Look, the keys to the kingdom are here in these few verses. You can read pages and pages on how to live a good, successful, even fulfilling Christian life or you can grasp the simple truth Jesus gives us in these 4 verses.

Lets start with being the salt of the earth. If any of you bake or cook you know that even a pinch of salt makes the flavors increase in just about anything you are making. Want to make something a bit sweeter and a pinch of salt. Want to bring out the flavor in a nice steak, add a pinch of salt. Look around you at what God is doing. What part are you to be, inorder to be that pinch of salt. Jesus himself said I must be about my fathers business. Then we too must be about His business. We must be the salt in His perfect recipe. I for one don't want to be cast aside by God because He thinks I have lost my usefulness.

How then are we to be a light? Jesus said I am the light. How then can we be a light? We do what He did. We share with others the love, grace, mercy and compassion that He shared with us. We do for others as Jesus did for them. We correct them when they are wrong we heal them when they are sick, and we feed them when they are hungry. The Holy Spirit is with us to help us establish the kingdom of God in men's hearts, if we will just follow his lead. We lead them to the Lord and He leads them to repentance. Christianity Confesses is just the beginning of this process. We are here to help men confess their sin and lead them to repentance. Christian confession is just the first step once we recognize that there is sin in our heart and life. Therefor be the light to the world take the confession of a brother or sister and pray to the Lord and help lead them along the path of true repentance that they may be saved.

In this day we are called, as many were so long ago, to be a voice crying in the wilderness "Repent, Prepair they way of the Lord." This cannot be done alone in your room, or even just in your prayer closet you must put your voice on a hill top and not under a basket and declair the Lord's work in men's hearts. That is what it means to be a light. Be generouse with your love and the Lord is with His love of us.

Remember we must be about our fathers work.

The Omega Generation

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Cain and Abel one perspective

Genesis 4 1 Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel.

When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground. 3 When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. 4 Abel also brought a gift—the best of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, 5 but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.

6 “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. “Why do you look so dejected? 7 You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.”

There are many perspectives on the story of Cain and Abel. Many sermons have been preached on Cain's offering vs. Abel's offering. So, when I read this passage about a week ago I was surprised that a different perspective jumped off the pages of my Bible at me.

First off notice, in verse 3, Cain is the first to bring a offering to the Lord, then Abel. I also want to point out that at this point in scripture (reading front to back or chronologically) we are not told to the reason the Lord rejects Cain's offering. Except for this one point, we are told that Cain brings SOME of his crop, but Abel brings the BEST of this flock. This is were most teaching on this stops and jumps strait to Cain's murder of Abel. If we stop at this point though we have missed the rest of what the Lord wants to show us, the Lord also reveal to us a warning that is so pointed and relevant to today.

From the end of verse 5 - 7 we see what the Lord wants to deal with Cain's reaction to His rejection of the offering. Look at what the Lord tells him, "if you do what is right you will be accepted." Oh man, you mean it is possible that the sin was not just in what Cain brought as the offering but more so in his reaction to the Lord's rejection of that offering. I know this flies in the face of much church doctrine on this topic but bear with me for a moment. Cain's sin was not just the offering he brought but that he got mad at the Lord for rejecting it. After all he was a farmer and he brought a offering from what the Lord gave him to do. (Hang in there I am not focusing on why the Lord rejected Cain's offering in this post, in order to prove a different point.)

Has that happened to you brothers and sisters? Did an offering you brought before the Lord get rejected? You know He is a sovereign Lord and He has the right to reject anything He wants, and just because we think a offering should be accepted doesn't mean it has to be. I recently went through a period in my life where I knew that I knew I was doing the Lord's work. Work that He ask me to do and the way He asked me to do it. But as time passed the Lord rejected that work. The reason he rejected it is not the issue at this point and a topic for another time. He has the right to reject or accept anything He chooses He is the Lord, King of Kings. If He should decide he does not want to accept something who are we to tell Him that He has to?

Cain bigger problem was that he got offended by the rejection of his offering, sound familiar? Truth is rejection hurts and we don't like it, especially if think it was the best gift we had to offer. He still had a chance to be accepted by the lord if he would react correctly. How then are we to react when the Lord rejects our offerings to Him? How are we to react when the church or ministry rejects our offering, or help work prayer or even revelation knowledge? What would have been the correct response for Cain? What was the right thing for him to do and then be accepted by the Lord?

Might I propose that the right thing to do is also the hardest for us most of the time. Worship the Lord even if He rejects your offering. Later in Deuteronomy we read that the Lord does not really even want our burnt offerings any more but our hearts. So even the Abel type offering gets rejected by the Lord at some point. The offering the Lord really wants is you. All that you are.

Observing wounded Christians I see, this is what has happened to them. They got rejected by someone or for some reason by the Church body and now they are not doing the right thing. Dear friends if this is you, like God told Cain "sin will come your way and you must subdue it." I know this is a hard message and if you are currently in the position Cain found himself this message is not one you want to accept, but I urge you to come back to the Lord worship Him because He is Lord. Not because He accepted or rejected your gift but because He is the King who reigns on High.

- Lord I pray that if these words reach one, who like Cain, is angry with you because you exercised your sovereignty. Then send your Holy Spirit ahead of the words and prepare their heart to accept your love and fall at your feet and worship you. You rejected the offering not Cain himself. And though you sometimes reject our offering to you, you love us and are calling us back to you. Heal the wounds cause by rejection, strengthen us in your love, that we may come back to you and do what is right.

Amen.

Lord do you love me?

I received this e-mail today that I thought I needed to share. We often find ourselves in the midst of assault on our faith and find ourselves asking "...Jesus, if you hear me, if you love me, I need to hear from you."

This is a dangerous place to walk. Please, if you are feeling this way I hope that this brief testimony will remind you that He does in fact love us.

"In Oct of 2008 I was on a recruiting trip trying to gather teachers willing to come to a little known corner of my state for work. I was hurting in many ways. My leg hurt as I needed a knee replacement and I was walking with a cane. My back hurt, I was short of breath and sure that I was at 61 useless and not wanted. As a sat in the big room I had a pity party for one. I did
not think anyone would come to the table that day and I would be alone and blue all day. I said a little prayer to Jesus, that if he loved me, please, send someone to my table. Within five minutes one of the other presenters came over and said, "I hired you once." I did not recognize the man but said that I had not moved around much in by 38 years in education. He said that
he had hired me many years ago to do an in-service program for him. I remembered going to that little town in the north west of our state. He asked where I was working and what I did. I told him. He then asked if I would like to move closer to home. I said that I was an expensive employee and I couldn't move for less pay. A month or so later he asked me to come and interview for a position with his group. He offered me $4000. more than I make. He offered to pay mileage to and from my job, pay for health insurance and retirement. I have looked at the school where I'll be and I thank God for sending that man to my table on that day. Now I can live at home and be with family every evening. God is really good all the time and has special plans for us. Thank you God for your blessings." -- anonymous.

Thank you for your time to read this testimony. I hope it reminds you of the Lords love. Who knows if the next time the Lord tells you to go up and talk to someone you might just be the answer to someone's prayer. The sad reality is that if you have ever prayed this and it seemed like the Lord did not answer perhaps it was because the one He wanted to use to answer your prayer was disobedient to His call. Will you respond when the Lords calls you into action?

-- Blessings