2 Corinth 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness."

     With all this talk about making the right choices, we need to go to the practical side of life.  Sometimes, regardless of how much we make the right choices and do the right things, we're going to make a bad choice.  It's just human nature.  If we were perfect then our name would be Jesus.  So, what do we do when we make a bad choice?  What do we do when we mess up and feel like crap? (Excuse my French)  Well, it's very easy.  God tells us to "confess our sin, and He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)  After we're forgiven, which is every time we agree with Him, that He's right and we're wrong, we pick ourselves back up and start walking again.We don't have to feel ashamed and guilty for the next two weeks, or however long it lasts in you, because, " there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)  When you start walking again, you will actually be stronger.  That's hard to understand because in the natural man when we fall, we usually have to wait and rest because of the injury, or the embarrassment.  But in the spiritual realm we actually get stronger.  I don't understand it any more then you do but I do know that what we experience in these circumstances is His grace.  I've heard a lot of definitions for God's grace but I can tell you that in my experience, it's hard to explain.  It's one of those things you just have to experience.  So release your authority by making right choices, but remember always remember that God's grace is there to pull you through.  No matter what, God's grace will bring you through the storms of life.  All you have to do is keep walking on the paths of righteousness.  I know that there are probably some of you who are just lying there because of hurts and pains.  Today's the day.  Get up and let's go, times short!!       God Bless, Rusty

Luke 10:19, " I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you."

     He gave us authority over the enemies' power.  Authority, over power, will always be victorious.  We have for, well as long as I have been in the Pentecostal realm, stressed power.(Acts 1:8)  That's been one of the problems we've had and still have in our churches.  Power against power will always be a life of conflict.  We must forget about power and concentrate on authority.  It's not ours anyway, it belongs to the Holy Spirit.  We have the authority to defeat the enemies of darkness in our life.  Satan's army exercises three types of power, deception, accusations and temptations, which all fall into the category of lying power.  He will always try to get us into the ring and match power against power in these three areas.  The problem is that if we try to match our power, not Holy Spirit power, but our power, against his power, we'll get knocked out every time.  But, his power cannot compete against authority, which Jesus took back and delegated to us.  Jesus gave us authority over all his power, but having it is one thing and learning how to release it is another.  Releasing it is a lot simpler then you would imagine.  You see, in order for any of Satan's power to be effective over your life, deception, accusation or temptation, you must yield.  He can't make you do anything.  You must yield.  Therefore the way we release God's authority in our life over his power is by choice.  This sounds to simple but it's true.  Choice is the supreme power that sets you in authority over Satan's lying power.  Flip Wilson used to say, "The devil made me do it,"  which is a lie.  The devil cannot make you do anything.  If you will yield to the word of God instead of his lying power , you will start walking in victory. The power of victory is the power of choice.  Choose today, lie or truth.  It will determine the outcome of your day and possibly your life.               God Bless, Rusty

Ephesians 5: 13, "But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light."

      We have a problem in our nation.  We don't tend to believe in spiritual warfare much.  We don't tend to acknowledge darkness.  That's the reason that so many of the enemies forces are hidden.  This is why you don't see much deliverance in our churches.  The enemy is hidden and very quiet.  He likes to be a hidden foe because if no one is trying to hunt him down he can just hide and take pot shots at us whenever he pleases.  He can do anything he wants because most people don't even believe in him.  He's deceived most of the church to believe he's not even real, which is just the way he likes it.  If you go to another country where they believe in him and his hidden forces, you will see manifestations and deliverance all over the place.  The people in most nations understand that he is real and they always try to find ways to expose him.  These nations are much better off.  Let me explain.  When I was an alcoholic, before I met Jesus, I didn't have any battles going on inside of me.  I was just happy to go out and party.  Meanwhile, in secret, the demons were leading me down a path to destruction.  I would have been dead many years ago if I would have stayed in that lifestyle.  But I would have just loved drinking and partying as long as I could.  I didn't have any problems, in fact the battles didn't start inside of me until I got saved.  What I'm saying is that our nation is just quietly being led down the path to destruction and no one cares because everything's all right, no problem.  Don't worry about the economy, it'll come back, it always does.  I'll take care of my problems tomorrow, after all I'm not hurting anyone.  Homosexuality is their choice.  If it's what they want then who am I to argue.  Abortion is good, after all she could have never raised that child properly.  Let's just take the ten commandments down and take the name of God out of everything.  After all we don't want to offend anyone.  I'm tired of it!!   I want to offend someone.  In fact, I'd like to offend the very forces behind all of it and expose them by the light.  Not the people, God loves people, but the forces behind these things that continue to lie to us.  It's time to get busy.  It's time to go to war.  It's time to fight for our nation and our families.  Are you ready?     God Bless,  Rusty    

Matthew 12:28, " But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you."

     John the Baptist started his ministry by telling the people to, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matt 3:2)  Jesus started His ministry by telling the people, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matt 4:17)  In our scripture today, He is in a long conversation with the Pharisees.  A demon-possessed man was brought before Him.  This man had physical problems, he couldn't speak or hear.  Jesus wound up healing him, but not in a normal manner of healing.  He healed him by casting out a demon.  The Pharisees confront Him and accuse Him of working with the devil and Jesus actually rebukes them.  But the interesting part is that He ends by telling them that the casting out of demons by the Spirit of God changes things.  No longer is the kingdom just at hand, or close by, but it has now arrived.  It's now upon us!  When we took the bible out of school all of our trouble started.  The devil and his gang deceitfully moved in and have been at work ever since.  Not that they weren't here before, but they are fighting a war.  The only trouble is that no one's fighting back so they just go in and destroy territories and then occupy them.  There's no resistance.  They took over the families and started to ruin them as the divorce rates shot out of sight.  They took over the cities of abortion and have pretty much free reign there murdering our babies.  They took over the cities of homosexuality and lesbianism and are having a field day.  They are very slowly taking over everything until God's name won't even be able to be mentioned.  We need to wake up and get in the battle before it's to late.  We need to put on our armor, take out our swords and get on the offensive.  We've been on the defensive to long.  It's time to stand up and fight.  We need to take our country, states and cities back.  We need to take our children back and restore our families because it's up to us.  If we fall as a nation it will be the Christian's fault, no one else.  We are the only ones who know the truth.  So what will we do with it?     Continued tomorrow but for now, God Bless,  Rusty  

Luke 9:1+2, " And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over the demons, and to heal diseases.  And He sent them out to proclaim the Kingdom of God, and to perform healing."

     My church is a full gospel church.  You might ask, "What is a full gospel church?"  "Well, one that teaches the full gospel, of course," I might add.  But what does that mean?  Well, it's not to complicated, but not very much the norm at most churches.  Are you ready?  It means, preaching the gospel, casting out demons and healing.  Now, right away there are those that would say, "That's ridiculous.  Demons aren't real."  To those people I would say very simple and as lovingly as I could, "When is the last time you read the bible?"  There are demons all over the bible.  I wonder if they disappeared when Jesus went back to heaven?  Not a chance.  And then there are some that would say, "Healing is not for today."  Again I would ask, " when was the last time you read the bible?"  You see Jesus Himself said that He came to preach the gospel, deliver the captives and heal the sick. (Luke 4:18)  He sent His disciples out to do the same.  When He left He gave us authority to do the same. (Matt 28 + Mark 16)  We have settled for salvation in the church in America.  Now, don't get me wrong, salvation is very important because it starts the process in one's life.  But we stop there.  That's why the church has such a hard time keeping people.  Do you realize that in churches that just teach salvation, there is about 5% of new converts that stick around for at least a year.  But in churches that preach and practice the full gospel, that stat goes up to 80%.  What makes the difference?  People today are so full of darkness that if we don't get the darkness out and get them healed, they have no power to stand on their own.  They eventually fall right back into the same sin.  We must all start taking the full gospel to the people.  This country cannot be saved by just telling people about Jesus.  We need to get the devil and cast him out.  It's our only chance, and probably our last chance in this dark hour.  We must take the battle to the source of our problems.  Our problems are not in Washington and they are not in your state or city government.  They are in the spiritual realm.  We must wake up before it's to late!    I'll continue this tomorrow.   God Bless,  Rusty                                                                      

Romans 5:5, "and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

     If our faith is to work through love as we learned yesterday, (Gal 5:6) what kind of love does it work through?  Well, it's obvious to me that the love I possess, that's of this world, will never be enough to carry out the work that God has given me.  I need something stronger then mere human love.  Well, God knew that before He ever gave us good works to perform.  He knew that His perfect, agape love would be needed.  So He made arrangements ahead of time to deliver agape to us.  On the day of Pentecost, Jesus arrived at His seat next to the Father.  The Father gave Him the promise of the Holy Spirit and Jesus turned around and poured Him out onto the people.  The Holy Spirit in turn, brought with Him the agape love of the Father and poured it into our hearts.  It's an amazing story of how God not only loved us, but gave us the same love deep inside of us so that we could walk on this earth the same as Jesus did.  If you've ever received the fullness of the Holy Spirit you know it.  If you've ever been completely immersed in Him like the disciples were on that day, you know it.  It's not something you have to wonder about.  The word poured out means to gush out liberally.  It's like the end of the football games that you see on TV.  When the team knows that victory has been accomplished they lift the whole bucket of Gatorade and do what?  Do they sprinkle the coach?  Do they just pour it over him slowly?  No!  They lift it and just dump it on him until it gushes all over him.  This is a picture of the Holy Spirit being poured out onto us and the love of God being poured into our hearts.  His love overtakes us and we have to react to it.  We can't stand not to put it to use because it will just consume us if we don't.  We have all the love we need in our hearts to do the task that God has for us.  So, what are we waiting for?      God Bless,  Rusty

Galatians 6:5, " But faith working through love."

     We may have faith for a lot of things, but is it the God kind of faith?  Faith is the conviction of things not seen.  Every time we do something it's done by faith.  It just may not be God faith.  Let me explain.  Henry Ford could see the automobile in his mind way before it was manifested in the natural.  He had faith, or he was convinced of it before he started to invent it.  No one else could see it, but he did.  Was it God faith?  No it wasn't, but the same principal applied.  That's why in Mark 11:22 Jesus told His disciples to, "Have faith in God."  What's the difference?  If I have faith for something what defines to me if it's the God kind of faith or not?  If we look at Jesus we see that He always had compassion for the people.  He deeply cared for the people in everything He did.  In other words His Father's plans and purposes were of the utmost importance in His life, and we know that His Father, "so loved the world."  (John 3:16)   So to me, a God kind of faith will always carry love with it, in fact, faith works through the Father's love.  What that means to us is this.  We must always check our motives before we do something in faith, even if it's in the church.  You might say, " I'm doing this for the glory of God,"  but what are your real motives.  You see if we're doing something because our Father led us to do it, then it won't be about us.  It will not carry with it some under lying motive.  That's right!  I don't care if we build the biggest ministry in the world.  If it's not out of the compassion of the Father, if it's not to do God's work, if there's any other motive like trying to build ourselves a kingdom, then we're not acting out of true Godly faith.  We're doing it on our own.  If we want recognition or applause for our efforts, or, we want a position or increase because of it, it's not Godly faith.  If we do it because we love the Father and want to do His will, or if our only motive is to please Him, then it's Godly faith.  Which kind of faith do we walk in?  Is it motivated by love?  We need to take an inward look at the heart motives before we waste to much more time.  Time is short.  Jesus is coming back.  Are we ready?   God Bless,  Rusty

Matthew 15:8, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me."

     Our lips do a lot of talking, but our hearts control our actions.  Jesus was referring to these people as hypocrites, people who talk a good game but don't walk so well.  We all know who they are.  We have them at our places of employment, in our towns and neighborhoods, and yes, even in our churches.  In fact, I think the majority of them, sadly, are in our churches.  Why do I say that?  Well, it's a simple fact that people who profess the Lord Jesus Christ are the ones who are held to a higher standard, and rightly so.  We are held to a higher standard because we are supposed to be above a lot of petty things that go on around us.  We're being held to a higher standard because Jesus called us to come up to a level above normal human thoughts and actions.  He called us to be conformed to His very image so that He could be the first born among many brethren.  We are to transform our minds and present our bodies to Him as living sacrifices.  We are to walk in love and be perfected in holiness.  I know it's a process and I know we're all on different levels.  We can't expect a brand new Christian to walk like someone who's been around the word for thirty years.  But we should expect everyone who professes Christ as their savior to be trying to get better and live differently with the truth that's revealed to them, no matter what persuasion of Christian they are.  I recently heard a preacher say, "What you're doing speaks so loud I can't even hear what you're saying."  That, my friends is truth.  So when we want to find hypocrite all we have to do is go to church and look around.  Maybe they're on the other side of the church or up front.  Maybe they sit across from you or are up in the choir.  But then again maybe they're sitting in our own seat looking for all the other hypocrites.  Is your heart right with God?  If not, take this time to cry out to Him and change your inner man.  Some of us just need to get a good oil change.  So if it's you that needs the change just put the old car in the shop and let Him work on you.  It's probably way over 3,000 miles, don't you think?                        God Bless,  Rusty

Hebrews 11:8, "He went out, not knowing where he was going”

     In the Old Testament, a person’s relationship with God was seen by the degree of separation in that person’s life. This separation is exhibited in the life of Abraham by his separation from his country and his family. When we think of separation today, we do not mean to be literally separated from those family members who do not have a personal relationship with God, but to be separated mentally and morally from their viewpoints. This is what Jesus Christ was referring to in Luke 14:26.  Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led. But it does mean loving and knowing the One who is leading. It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason, a life of knowing Him who calls us to go. Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a Person, and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world.
The final stage in the life of faith is the attainment of character, and we encounter many changes in the process. We feel the presence of God around us when we pray, yet we are only momentarily changed. We tend to keep going back to our everyday ways and the glory vanishes. A life of faith is not a life of one glorious mountaintop experience after another, like soaring on eagles’ wings, but is a life of day-in and day-out consistency; a life of walking without fainting (see Isaiah 40:31). It is not even a question of the holiness of sanctification, but of something which comes much farther down the road. It is a faith that has been tried and proved and has withstood the test. Abraham is not a type or an example of the holiness of sanctification, but a type of the life of faith—a faith, tested and true, built on the true God. “Abraham believed God ”     God Bless,  Rusty

John 21:17, "Do you love Me?”

     Peter’s response to this piercing question is considerably different from the bold defiance he exhibited only a few days before when he declared, “Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!” (Matthew 26:35). Our natural self boldly speaks out and declares its feelings. But the true love within our heart can be discovered only by experiencing the hurt of this question.  Peter loved Jesus in the way any natural man loves a good person. Yet that is nothing but emotional love. It may reach deeply into our natural self, but it never penetrates to the spirit of a person. True love never simply declares itself.  Jesus said, “Whoever confesses Me before men ( confesses his love by everything he does, not merely by his words) the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8).  Unless we are experiencing the hurt of facing every deception about ourselves, we stop the Word of God from working in our lives. The Word of God inflicts hurt on us more than sin ever could, because sin dulls our senses. But this question of the Lord brings our senses to the point that this hurt produced by Jesus is the worst pain we could ever receive. It hurts not only on the natural level, but also on the deeper spiritual level. “For the Word of God is living and active , piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit ”—to the point that no deception can remain (Hebrews 4:12). When the Lord asks us this question, it is impossible to think and respond properly, because when the Lord speaks directly to us, the pain is too intense. It causes such a tremendous hurt that any part of our life which may be out of line with His will feels the pain. There is never any mistaking the pain of the Lord’s Word by His children.  The good news is, however, that the moment that pain is felt is the very moment at which God reveals His truth to us.  Let this question speak to all of us today.  It could change your whole life.    God Bless,  Rusty

2 Corinth 5:9, "We make it our aim  to be well pleasing to Him”

     We make it our aim  It requires a conscious decision and effort to keep our primary goal constantly in front of us. It means holding ourselves to the highest priority year in and year out; not making our first priority to win souls, or to establish churches, or to have revivals, but seeking only “to be well pleasing to Him.” It is not a lack of spiritual experience that leads to failure, but a lack of working to keep our eyes focused and on the right goal. At least once a week examine yourself before God to see if your life is measuring up to the standard He has for you. Paul was like a musician who gives no thought to audience approval, if he can only catch a look of approval from his Conductor.  Any goal we have that diverts us even to the slightest degree from the central goal of being “approved to God” (2 Timothy 2:15) may result in our rejection from further service for Him. When you discern where the goal leads, you will understand why it is so necessary to keep “looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2). Paul spoke of the importance of controlling his own body so that it would not take him in the wrong direction. He said, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest  I myself should become disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:27).  I must learn to relate everything to the primary goal, maintaining it without interruption. My worth to God publicly is measured by what I really am in my private life. Is my primary goal in life to please Him and to be acceptable to Him, or is it something less, no matter how lofty it may sound?  God Bless,  Rusty

Ephesians 8-10, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

     We are saved by God's grace alone.  Salvation is a free gift that's given to us on the merits of faith alone.  Faith in what?  Faith in the name of Jesus.  Faith in the fact that He was crucified, died and was buried, but rose again on the third day.  Faith in the fact that as we repent, through His name, we have forgiveness of our sins and receive everlasting life.  This is all a free gift from Him.  It's a covenant that He, Himself established for us, we had nothing to do with it.  And so it's not by any works that we do or don't do.  But what happens after salvation?  Do we just sit around and say "thanks for the free gift?"  No!  May it never be!  We were created in Christ Jesus, or saved by His grace for good works.  In other words, salvation has nothing to do with works but the whole purpose of giving us this free salvation is so that we can fulfill the destiny He has for us.  Salvation does not come by works, but salvation is for works.  We all have works to walk in that God created beforehand, or, in other words, before we were born He created the works that we are destined to walk in, and then He gave us the free gift of salvation so that we could in fact accomplish what He has for us.  Now I've got some good news and some bad news.  Are you ready?  We all have destinies in this world.  Things we are to accomplish for Him.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that our destinies don't involve sitting on our back side in the church.  That's right!  Our destiny is not to warm chairs at our favorite watering holes but to get up and walk in the good works He's prepared for us to walk in.  What are the good works?  I believe that whatever they are for each one of us, one component these works always have is telling people the good news about God's free gift.  The free gift of salvation.  By God's grace only, and not of works that any man should boast!  God Bless, Rusty

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave."

     Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ  The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.  If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us.  In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us—totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.  The question is, "Are we ready to give all?"     God Bless,  Rusty

Romans 3:23+24, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by the grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus."

     Why is it that we are always in competition with each other?  We always try to out do everyone in our family.  We try to have the best car on the block and make our homes look the best.  We try to stand out in every situation and sometimes we do what ever it takes to make our competition look bad.  Well, what about the church?  You would think that we are better because we are Christians.  Anyone, however, that belongs to a church will tell you that the competition is almost more unbearable in the church.  We're always trying to be more holier then someone else and we're always trying to do better and get the recognition.  When someone else gets recognized, we immediately become jealous.  Now, I don't want to offend anyone so I'll talk about myself, since after all, I know I'm not perfect.  I have a habit of putting people down.  Not in an obvious way mind you, but in a way that's hard to detect by an un accomplished putter downer. (Nice word, huh!)  I don't actually lift my self up, I find myself putting other people down, which is actually a way of lifting myself up.  You see if I can make the other guy look bad, then I will look better without even saying I'm better.  I see this happening all the time in my own life.  The real question is why?  If we, every time we see a fault in someone else, realize that no one is perfect and that we all fall short, the tendency to talk bad about other people seems really stupid.  If we understand that God's gift of salvation comes from His grace and no one will have eternal life except by His grace, then we can start to realize how stupid it is to put other people down and compete with everyone else.  After all, I've got enough problems in my own life that I'm trying to take care of without worrying about everyone else's.  How about you?             God Bless,  Rusty

Ephesians 2: 8+9, We are saved by grace through faith; not by any works that a man should boast."

     I just got back from preaching my brother's funeral.  First, let me thank all of you who where there and supported me.  You were truly a blessing.  Second, let's have a serious talk.  We must stop putting God in a box.  What do I mean by that?  Simply, if someone doesn't say the sinners prayer of do things the way we do them, we tend to think that they're not going to make it to heaven.  Last time I read my bible Jesus said, "No one can come to the Father but through Me."  Notice that He didn't say that man couldn't get to the Father on less he followed some particular means to get there.  In other words, if he didn't come front and say the sinners prayer the right way or he didn't live like we think a Christian should.  Maybe someone didn't even say a prayer out loud in front of other people.  Maybe they just believe in their heart, which results in righteousness.  And maybe they confessed Jesus as their Lord, which results in salvation, but not to anyone else.  You might say, "if they didn't do these things and if they lived a lifestyle that was contrary to what we think they should have then they couldn't have been saved.  This could be truth but then again it could be putting God's sovereignty on hold.  He is the only One that knew Bill's heart and the only one that gives the gift of salvation, we don't.  I can only believe in faith that I'll see my brother and all the ones that have gone before.  I believe that God's grace is far greater then my intellect.  Any way, it's good to be back home.  I missed all you guys and I'd love to hear from you.    Have a blessed day, Rusty

My dear brother passed away yesterday so I'm traveling to Pennsylvania today.  I won't be back until at least next Monday.  If you've checked the weather you'll notice that there is a northeaster moving through my exact travel route to reach home.  So please pray for me for safe travel.    God's Blessings and I'll see you soon.      Rusty