There are two things that I would like to talk about today; love and sacrifice. These two words are deep in their significance and meaning, they are a totality of scripture in a wonderful summary. They are so simple, yet so extremely difficult. These two words are both defined by the world and by the Bible, with the definitions in contrast. If you were to take all of scripture as incredibly vast as it is, it can be summarized in love and sacrifice.
The first message is this. God loves you, so love God and other people. How is God’s love demonstrated to us? On the cross, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God does not love you because you are lovable, God does not love you because you are good, God does not love you because you are someone great, God does not love you because of your beauty, God does not love you because you are desirable. God loves you because He is love, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Isn’t that wonderful? No matter what you have thought, no matter what you have said, and no matter what you have done, God loves you. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
So let us define love from the Word of God. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Jesus is the expression of God in a man. Jesus before going to the cross gave a command to His disciples, and that command is love. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). Not only does He tell us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ but he also tells us to even love the unlovable, to love our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). People will often love someone because being around that person gives them good feelings. When is love true love? Love is true love when it benefits you nothing. Jesus loved the world, and the world spit in His face. Jesus loved the world, and the world beat Him. Jesus loved the world, and the world hung Him on a cross until He suffered and died. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). So if God loves you like that, don’t you think you should love like God, in loving other people?
The second message is this. God sacrificed everything to save you, so sacrifice everything. God sacrificed everything, Himself, so that you might live. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God the Father gave His only begotten Son. Begotten is the best translation and it literally means came out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is God. So when the Bible says He gave His only begotten Son it is saying He gave Himself. And what He gave was everything. Think about this for a minute, go outside on a clear night and look at the sky and the vastness of the universe and all it contains. Climb a mountain and gaze at the wonder of the earth. Watch the birds fly, fish swim, a horse run, and a child play; all of which magnify the glory of God. Then think about this; Jesus was with God before time began, before creation. God had Him lower Himself to take on the form of lowly man to redeem man from this fallen world. Think about how difficult that most have been, and to do that knowing that the very people He was saving would curse Him, spit on Him, beat Him, hate Him, and murder Him. Amazing!!! Jesus while being fully God was also fully man. The fact that he subjected Himself to this fleshy state is a sacrifice beyond imagination. Jesus felt pain, hunger, thirst, sadness, disappointment, and He also faced temptation.
Let us just for a moment look at one of these, temptations. What an incredible thing it is that God would subject Himself to this. We as fleshy human beings have real physical needs and it is our desire to have those needs met. Sin occurs when a real physical need meets desire, which desire gives way to temptation, and temptation to sin. Jesus while He was fully God He was fully man, and being fully man He was subject to everything we as men are subject to. I will use to describe this, a sin that easily besets a man. God created in man a real physical need to procreate, to have sex and multiply, and what God has created is good. God said: “Be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). God set this to be done within a marriage between one man and one woman. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (Matthew 19:5 & Genesis 2:24). The two become one flesh. “Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:6). So God created in man the real physical need to multiply. That real physical need that is good, gives way to desire, a desire to have sex, which is good. Once a man has that desire then he can become subject to temptation. Not all but many women in our society flaunt themselves; they expose themselves in many different ways. So you have a man with a physical need to procreate which gives him the desire to have sex, then a woman with a low cut dress comes into his eye site exposing here breast (her cleavage); so then you have instantaneously within this man a temptation to lust. He has a real physical need to procreate, which causes sexual desire, which is good, and then he is exposed to this woman’s cleavage which gives him the temptation to lust. Lust is an intense, strong, passionate, craving, appetite for, to delight in, or to wish for. So in this case this man who has a real physical need, which causes desire, is tempted to lust. Lust in this case would be that he desires to have sex with this woman that has come into his view, that no longer does he just have an innate sexual desire, which is good, but he desires to have sex with her, the woman he just saw, he takes delight in her, and has an appetite for, which is sin. Lust is sin, Jesus said: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28). There are three things this man cannot avoid: His physical need, his innate sexual desire, and temptation. Once faced with temptation he has a choice; to turn away and put it out of his mind, or to allow his innate sexual desire to turn into a directed desire for the woman that has entered into his vision.
This is but one temptation that men face every day. This is but one type of temptation amongst many. It is so incredibly difficult to wether all of the temptations that you face in just a single day, sometimes in a single hour much less a lifetime. Thank God that Jesus did it for us. God really did sacrifice everything. Can you imagine having the same body we have, and being faced with the same temptations we are faced with everyday and never once giving in to temptation and sinning, the incredible sacrifice that it took. Then the cross; He was cursed by sinful men, spit on, mocked, beaten, carried His own instrument of death, hung on a cross to suffer and die. And He felt everything; the physical pain as well as the emotional pain. Then God the father turns His back on Him and He dies a sinner’s death going to Hell so you wouldn’t have to. Jesus went to hell, He died a sinner’s death, He died and went to hell. But because He is God when He was ready He defeated death and hell and rose from the grave. The sacrifice is so incredible we will never in this life understand it in partiality much less fully. So if He sacrificed everything to save you, shouldn’t you sacrifice everything?
God loves you, so love God and other People. God sacrificed everything for you, so sacrifice everything.
Mike Peek
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
God is Not Like Us
God had recently led me to read the Bible in 90 days. In the week following I prayed to Him and reflected over what I had read the preceding 3 months and God showed me a couple of different things. As you read the Word of God this rapidly you see things a little differently than you do when you focus on specific passages, you see the overall plan of God unfold before your eyes. Just a few words about the Bible, 2 Peter 1:21 tells us in talking about the Bible that “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit”. In other words God used these men as instruments to write His Words. Just like you would use a pen, pencil, or computer to write what you want to convey to someone else, God literally used these men to write His word. The Bible is written by men inspired by the Spirit of God, it is literally God breathed, the Bible is God’s Words given to man. The Bible is amazing; it is 66 books, written over a period of 1500 years, by 40 different authors, on 3 different continents, written in 3 different languages. Most were separated by hundreds of years, yet the Bible is amazing in its clarity of meaning and how the story line flows throughout scripture unhindered, and you really see this when you read it through quickly.
That brings me to what I would like to talk about today, God. People often try to attribute human qualities to God. People will say, I cannot believe in a God who would send a man to hell for telling a lie. That’s because you’re not like God. God is so incredibly different than us. The same person who would say, “I cannot believe in a God who would send someone to hell”, will curse someone with obscenities for mistakenly cutting them off in traffic. Once again, that’s because you’re not like God; there is a beautiful passage in the book of Isaiah that explains this, and became vivid to me when I was watching a video message given by Frances Chan. It speaks of the attributes of God in words that we can understand, in how different He is than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Let us take goodness for example, God is good, God is literally goodness. People have a measure of goodness but the goodness of God is so far and above anything that a human mind could possibly comprehend. God’s goodness is perfect, “as the heavens are higher than the earth,” His goodness is above our goodness. The Bible tells us that no man has ever seen the face of God, (ref. John 1:18) and there is a reason for that, God loves you. God is so extremely good, to see Him in His glorified state would destroy a man. No man could look on the face of God and live, He is that much above us. Comparing God to man is like comparing an Elephant to an Aphid. While the Elephant is currently the largest land animal the Aphid is a tiny insect that you need a magnifying glass to be able to see on a plant. I use the law of God often in my writings and in my witnessing with people, and there is a reason for that. For a person to accept the Savior they need to be able to see their state before Him. The Apostle Paul said that the law was the Tutor to bring us to Christ (Ref. Galatians 3:24), it quite literally is the school master as C. Spurgeon puts it, the law teaches you of your state before God, that you are in need of salvation. That is why it is such a tragic state of affairs for anyone to ever think that they could ever earn favor with God by keeping the law. Our best is so far below His mark it is not within millions of miles from hitting the mark. Take archery for example: God is so precise with His goodness He is splitting arrows in the middle of the bulls eye on a target two million miles wide and we at our best might barely nick the outer ring one million miles from the center. The word sin is an old archery term yelled out when you were off the mark, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We all fall short every time, even at our very best we fall short, we are not even aware of how short we are. That is why it is futile, the law simply gives you knowledge that you are sinful, at your best efforts you will never match the goodness of God.
Then you take the things God thinks of. When Adam sinned God cursed the earth, I wouldn’t have thought of that. When the whole world fell into debauchery, He flooded the earth and spared Noah and His children along with some animals; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God picked out Abraham, a simple Sheppard, which his descendents would become the vessel by which He would send His Son into the world; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God gave His only begotten Son to redeem mankind; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Jesus was born in a manger to two very simple people, a young virgin and a carpenter; I wouldn’t have thought of that. His one and only precious Son; begotten is the best translation, it literally means out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is of God, He is God. Think about this for a minute; this is the same world in which men and women curse the Creator and His creation daily, this is the same world that people are murdered in by the millions (six million Jews in the Nazi holocaust, 54 million abortions since Roe vs Wade), this is the same world in which the rich crush the poor, that people die of starvation while others deal with obesity, this is the same world in which people abuse their own children and spouses and leave them to fend for themselves after they have been destroyed psychologically. This is just a few examples, but that is the world in which God sent Himself into, His only begotten Son, His precious Son. He sent Him knowing He would be cursed, mocked, beaten, and hung on a cross to die by the very people He was redeeming. I would not have thought of that. Take hell, outer darkness, a lake of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth where the beast, the false prophet, and Satan will be along with any that are not found written in the book of life; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Would you have thought of that?
I can say this with certainty; God is much much much different than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). So the next time you try to Judge God by human standards, just remember, He is not like us, not even close. I hope this has blessed you. Worship God in the spirit because He is spirit, rejoice always in Jesus Christ because He is our Savior, and have no confidence in the flesh because you cannot earn your way.
Repent and Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord,
Mike Peek
That brings me to what I would like to talk about today, God. People often try to attribute human qualities to God. People will say, I cannot believe in a God who would send a man to hell for telling a lie. That’s because you’re not like God. God is so incredibly different than us. The same person who would say, “I cannot believe in a God who would send someone to hell”, will curse someone with obscenities for mistakenly cutting them off in traffic. Once again, that’s because you’re not like God; there is a beautiful passage in the book of Isaiah that explains this, and became vivid to me when I was watching a video message given by Frances Chan. It speaks of the attributes of God in words that we can understand, in how different He is than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Let us take goodness for example, God is good, God is literally goodness. People have a measure of goodness but the goodness of God is so far and above anything that a human mind could possibly comprehend. God’s goodness is perfect, “as the heavens are higher than the earth,” His goodness is above our goodness. The Bible tells us that no man has ever seen the face of God, (ref. John 1:18) and there is a reason for that, God loves you. God is so extremely good, to see Him in His glorified state would destroy a man. No man could look on the face of God and live, He is that much above us. Comparing God to man is like comparing an Elephant to an Aphid. While the Elephant is currently the largest land animal the Aphid is a tiny insect that you need a magnifying glass to be able to see on a plant. I use the law of God often in my writings and in my witnessing with people, and there is a reason for that. For a person to accept the Savior they need to be able to see their state before Him. The Apostle Paul said that the law was the Tutor to bring us to Christ (Ref. Galatians 3:24), it quite literally is the school master as C. Spurgeon puts it, the law teaches you of your state before God, that you are in need of salvation. That is why it is such a tragic state of affairs for anyone to ever think that they could ever earn favor with God by keeping the law. Our best is so far below His mark it is not within millions of miles from hitting the mark. Take archery for example: God is so precise with His goodness He is splitting arrows in the middle of the bulls eye on a target two million miles wide and we at our best might barely nick the outer ring one million miles from the center. The word sin is an old archery term yelled out when you were off the mark, “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We all fall short every time, even at our very best we fall short, we are not even aware of how short we are. That is why it is futile, the law simply gives you knowledge that you are sinful, at your best efforts you will never match the goodness of God.
Then you take the things God thinks of. When Adam sinned God cursed the earth, I wouldn’t have thought of that. When the whole world fell into debauchery, He flooded the earth and spared Noah and His children along with some animals; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God picked out Abraham, a simple Sheppard, which his descendents would become the vessel by which He would send His Son into the world; I wouldn’t have thought of that. God gave His only begotten Son to redeem mankind; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Jesus was born in a manger to two very simple people, a young virgin and a carpenter; I wouldn’t have thought of that. His one and only precious Son; begotten is the best translation, it literally means out of. Jesus literally came out of God, He is of God, He is God. Think about this for a minute; this is the same world in which men and women curse the Creator and His creation daily, this is the same world that people are murdered in by the millions (six million Jews in the Nazi holocaust, 54 million abortions since Roe vs Wade), this is the same world in which the rich crush the poor, that people die of starvation while others deal with obesity, this is the same world in which people abuse their own children and spouses and leave them to fend for themselves after they have been destroyed psychologically. This is just a few examples, but that is the world in which God sent Himself into, His only begotten Son, His precious Son. He sent Him knowing He would be cursed, mocked, beaten, and hung on a cross to die by the very people He was redeeming. I would not have thought of that. Take hell, outer darkness, a lake of fire where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth where the beast, the false prophet, and Satan will be along with any that are not found written in the book of life; I wouldn’t have thought of that. Would you have thought of that?
I can say this with certainty; God is much much much different than us. “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9). So the next time you try to Judge God by human standards, just remember, He is not like us, not even close. I hope this has blessed you. Worship God in the spirit because He is spirit, rejoice always in Jesus Christ because He is our Savior, and have no confidence in the flesh because you cannot earn your way.
Repent and Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord,
Mike Peek
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Food for the Soul
Recently God had me do something that I thought was carrying on with the same but in reality it was something much different. I have read through the Bible cover to cover several times and have read through the New Testament more times than I know, but recently God had me do something a little different. He had me and a couple of other men read His Word in a rapid way. Beginning on the first of September 2011 we were to read the Word of God from Genesis 1:1 to Revelations 22:21 over 90 days. I came to repentance and faith in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in May of 2003, so I began following my Lord at that time. One of the things that He has had me do as His disciple is to read His Word daily. His word is quite literally the food for my soul. Before becoming a believer I was in the church on and off, I read the Bible some and even knew many scriptures; but the Bible was to me a book to read. Sure I believed in God and even believed in Jesus Christ but did not have the Spirit of God because I had not put my faith in Him as the payment for my sins. I was so full of sin too, my heart was deceptively wicked. Sure looking at me as a member of a church you would have never known, I myself did not know. But God revealed to me my sin (my lawlessness), I knew I would face Him in judgment and when I did I was guilty as charged, a law breaker and it was then that the Lord gave me His Spirit, that I believed Jesus Christ paid the price for my sins on the cross and rose from the grave defeating death, it was then that my faith was transferred from myself to Him. He saved me, I didn’t, He did. I didn’t do a thing, He did it. He led me to where I needed to be at that moment when He saved me. I don’t know if you’ve had this experience, one minute you’re just like the world, living for yourself; the next minute your prostrate before the Lord with complete gratitude for what He has done, paying the price for your sins. The only way I can explain this is that God gave me His Spirit. The Bible is no longer a book it is quite literally the Word of God, it is God breathed. It is food for my soul; I wouldn’t go without feeding my body so why would I go without feeding my soul.
Reading the Bible in 90 days requires a lot of reading, for me more than an hour every day. I normally get up every morning, read the Word and pray before doing anything else. No matter what, I have planned for the day, I will get up at least 30 minutes early to spend time in the Word and pray; but this required a whole different level of dedication. In the beginning I tried to keep my same schedule in the morning, then read in the afternoon or evening as well but something always interfered. So after a week or two I began to wake up earlier to get that days reading in one sitting. I have to tell you that it was so worth it. Sure for those 3 months I was sleep deprived, Satan, and my flesh were attacking me in so many different ways, but praise be to God He got me through it. Typically when we study the Word of God we will study passages and put everything into those passages and that is good. When you read the whole Word of God in a rapid way like this you get a different perspective. You see the entire plan of God, that has been revealed to us, unfold before your eyes, and you see some things that you may not have clearly seen in any other way. So over the next two weeks I will write about two things that God has shown me in His word these past three months. “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’” (John 6:35)
Repent and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
Reading the Bible in 90 days requires a lot of reading, for me more than an hour every day. I normally get up every morning, read the Word and pray before doing anything else. No matter what, I have planned for the day, I will get up at least 30 minutes early to spend time in the Word and pray; but this required a whole different level of dedication. In the beginning I tried to keep my same schedule in the morning, then read in the afternoon or evening as well but something always interfered. So after a week or two I began to wake up earlier to get that days reading in one sitting. I have to tell you that it was so worth it. Sure for those 3 months I was sleep deprived, Satan, and my flesh were attacking me in so many different ways, but praise be to God He got me through it. Typically when we study the Word of God we will study passages and put everything into those passages and that is good. When you read the whole Word of God in a rapid way like this you get a different perspective. You see the entire plan of God, that has been revealed to us, unfold before your eyes, and you see some things that you may not have clearly seen in any other way. So over the next two weeks I will write about two things that God has shown me in His word these past three months. “And Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.’” (John 6:35)
Repent and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Give Thanks to God in Everything
If you do not believe in God who are you giving thanks to? We in America on the 4th Thursday in November celebrate an annual holiday called Thanksgiving. Most in this land celebrate this holiday, but what is it they are celebrating, is it Thanksgiving? I say to you if you are not giving thanks to the Lord you are not having Thanksgiving. Sure you are celebrating something; many celebrate time with family, many enjoy the parties feasting and food, many celebrate their wealth and prosperity, and for many more it’s shopping and buying things. It is a celebration for sure but is it Thanksgiving? The first official Thanksgiving service was given on May 14th 1607 near Jamestown Virginia. You may notice that I said service because that is what it was; it was a service in remembrance and giving of thanks to the Lord. There would be many such Thanksgiving services throughout the American Colonies, the most Famous of which is at the Plymouth Plantation of The Pilgrims in 1621. The lives of these early colonists to America were very difficult; the winters were unbearably cold, they had to build shelter, they had to scavenge for food and learn to grow crops in a foreign environment. There were many lives lost in the winter months with much starvation and hardships but these colonists knew that it was God who provided for them and got them through the winter. They therefore came together to celebrate a feast to the Lord of harvest giving Him thanks for all that He had provided and had given to them.
Jesus in His wonderful dialogue with the Pharisee Nicodemus in John chapter 3 speaks of a time that occurred during the 40 years that the Israelites wondered through the desert with Moses. The Lord said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). The story is found in Numbers chapter 21. God had provided for the people in the barren land of the desert by giving them manna from heaven, a flour like substance that they used in making bread. The people became unthankful, became grumblers and complainers towards God and loathed the food that God had provided for them to eat. So God sent snakes in amongst the people that bit them and many died. They came to Moses with a repentant heart and asked him to pray to God to save them. God told him to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole and it should be that all who were bit when they looked upon it shall live. It was faith that healed them, God provided the method and when they looked upon the fiery serpent with faith they were saved. We have eyes to see the world that is around us, we also have spiritual eyes, for many they are weak from lack of use, but they are still there and can see spiritually and seeing spiritually is called faith. When we look upon Jesus Christ with our spiritual eyes and believe we are saved from our sins, one of which is being unthankful towards God for all that He has given and done for us, and when we look upon Him with our spiritual eyes and step out on faith and believe we shall live and never die.
Every single one of us have problems, this life is difficult, I like you have many difficulties and struggles that I am going through, in many ways this past year has been one of the most difficult in my life. But I am giving thanks to God inside of these struggles, I know through faith that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). You see I have a confidence in this because of faith; God has given me faith in adversity, a hope in tribulation, and a Lord over my struggles in Jesus. You can have joy in hardship with the faith that it is for your good. Even with the struggles God has given me so much to be thankful for, my cup overflows. We have more than enough, he provides for us bountifully, and meets all of our needs. Most of all His grace, He adopted me as His child, He has given me an inheritance with Him in heaven that I do not deserve. It is on Him that I stand, I do not stand on my accomplishments for I can accomplish nothing, I do not stand on my good but His, He is good. It is easy to look around us with our fleshy eyes at our hardships and tribulations then loath what God has given us, but I encourage you to see with your spiritual eyes and see how bountifully God has blessed you and you will know that your cup runs over. Come with me in having a Thanksgiving service to the Lord. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
God Bless you and Happy Thanksgiving,
Mike Peek
Jesus in His wonderful dialogue with the Pharisee Nicodemus in John chapter 3 speaks of a time that occurred during the 40 years that the Israelites wondered through the desert with Moses. The Lord said: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). The story is found in Numbers chapter 21. God had provided for the people in the barren land of the desert by giving them manna from heaven, a flour like substance that they used in making bread. The people became unthankful, became grumblers and complainers towards God and loathed the food that God had provided for them to eat. So God sent snakes in amongst the people that bit them and many died. They came to Moses with a repentant heart and asked him to pray to God to save them. God told him to make a fiery serpent and put it on a pole and it should be that all who were bit when they looked upon it shall live. It was faith that healed them, God provided the method and when they looked upon the fiery serpent with faith they were saved. We have eyes to see the world that is around us, we also have spiritual eyes, for many they are weak from lack of use, but they are still there and can see spiritually and seeing spiritually is called faith. When we look upon Jesus Christ with our spiritual eyes and believe we are saved from our sins, one of which is being unthankful towards God for all that He has given and done for us, and when we look upon Him with our spiritual eyes and step out on faith and believe we shall live and never die.
Every single one of us have problems, this life is difficult, I like you have many difficulties and struggles that I am going through, in many ways this past year has been one of the most difficult in my life. But I am giving thanks to God inside of these struggles, I know through faith that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). You see I have a confidence in this because of faith; God has given me faith in adversity, a hope in tribulation, and a Lord over my struggles in Jesus. You can have joy in hardship with the faith that it is for your good. Even with the struggles God has given me so much to be thankful for, my cup overflows. We have more than enough, he provides for us bountifully, and meets all of our needs. Most of all His grace, He adopted me as His child, He has given me an inheritance with Him in heaven that I do not deserve. It is on Him that I stand, I do not stand on my accomplishments for I can accomplish nothing, I do not stand on my good but His, He is good. It is easy to look around us with our fleshy eyes at our hardships and tribulations then loath what God has given us, but I encourage you to see with your spiritual eyes and see how bountifully God has blessed you and you will know that your cup runs over. Come with me in having a Thanksgiving service to the Lord. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
God Bless you and Happy Thanksgiving,
Mike Peek
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Notice of changes to the blog “A Slave of Jesus Christ”
I have enjoyed memorizing, meditating on, and writing about my Lord Jesus Christ as given to us through “The Gospel According to John”. I have reached a point in this gospel where the stories become larger, some more so than others. For example, I have begun to memorize John chapter 4, the story of the Samaritan women at the well takes up the first 26 verses of this chapter, then Jesus teaching His disciples about the harvest takes up the next 12 verses, then a shorter story comprising 4 verses of the Samaritans believing because of the testimony of the Samaritan women. Each of these stories vary greatly in size some are short, some are long; since it has been set before me by God to memorize, then meditate on these scriptures before writing about them, some changes will have to be made going forward which I think are good, because it will give me time to take in all that God has for us in this wonderful gospel. I typically memorize about 4-5 verses a week, since the first full story in chapter 4 is 26 verses long it will take me six weeks to memorize meditate on and take in all that God has in store for me in this; therefore the next addition in writing specially on the Gospel According to John will happen in 5 weeks with the Samaritan women at the well. Each addition will vary in length between additions based on the overall length of the story. I will however continue to write every week. During the intervening weeks between additions to the Gospel According to John, I will write about all the things that God has put on my heart to write about. So come back in 5 weeks for the Samaritan women at the well, but in the interim I hope you enjoy the things that God has laid upon my heart.
God Bless and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
God Bless and Trust alone in Jesus Christ,
Mike Peek
Sunday, November 13, 2011
A Resounding Yes
I have been in a trial this past week and through this trial I have relied on my God, Jesus Christ; He has lead me to Psalm 17 which I have held onto all week and specifically verse 15. I have heard a lot of brothers and sisters in Christ over the years talk about their life verse, I however did not have one. Throughout the word of God there are a multitude of scriptures that I hold dear to my heart and many which stand high above others. Earlier this week one of my brothers in Christ who knew I was going through a trial sent me an email message by Max Lucado called “Contentment”. In this message Max Lucado asks the question: What if God’s only gift to you were His grace to save you? Would you be content? I pray to my Lord daily, I lift up to Him all the concerns of my life continually and I believe with faith that He hears all of my prayers and will answer them. As I told you earlier I have been undergoing a trial this week that has particularly hit me hard. Just like many of you who share this life as a human being, there are several things going on in my life that are trials and difficulties, I lift those up daily, I pray for the concerns of all of those around me, and God who is faithful has answered many of my prayers in a real and profound way, interceding in areas that you know without God the outcome would have been impossible. On the trial I have been through this past week I have prayed about many times. Not only praying about the outcome, but also praying to God to reveal my heart in this situation, and every step I take to be the right one, the step He is willing for me to take. Now in this particular situation I believe that my prayers will be answered, that I will be vindicated, because it is the right and just thing. Psalm 17:2 says “Let my vindication come from Your presence; Let Your eyes look on the things that are upright.”
So I asked myself this past week in prayer to God and in reading Psalm 17; am I truly content with His grace? Is the grace of God enough for me? I am thankful for everything that God has given me in this life; He has truly blessed me and given to me abundantly. Now in pondering these questions, is His grace enough? Would I be content? In thinking about these questions, the trial I’m going through and meditating on Psalm 17, God has given me my life verse, and yes, His grace is enough. The greatest desire of my heart is to gaze upon my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that is what He has truly given me, He has given me Himself. Jesus is the prize, Jesus is the pearl of great value, and Jesus is the treasure head in the field. Psalm 17 was a prayer by David, and the desires of his heart in Psalm 17:15 are the desires of my heart. “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15). God is so Holy and Righteous that a man cannot look upon His face and live. To look at the face of God you must be righteous and by the grace of God I have been cleansed of all my sins by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith in Him. Can you imagine what that will be like; to gaze upon the face of God, to see Jesus in His glorified state and just look upon Him? I imagine since I will have all of eternity that I may just get stuck right there for the first 1000 years gazing upon the face of God, and then realize that I am just like Him; righteous, clean, good, holy. My sinful nature completely cut off, never to sin again. Oh how I look forward to that day, to the day that I will see the face of Jesus in righteousness and awake in His likeness. Is His grace enough? My answer, His grace is everything!
God bless,
Mike Peek
So I asked myself this past week in prayer to God and in reading Psalm 17; am I truly content with His grace? Is the grace of God enough for me? I am thankful for everything that God has given me in this life; He has truly blessed me and given to me abundantly. Now in pondering these questions, is His grace enough? Would I be content? In thinking about these questions, the trial I’m going through and meditating on Psalm 17, God has given me my life verse, and yes, His grace is enough. The greatest desire of my heart is to gaze upon my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and that is what He has truly given me, He has given me Himself. Jesus is the prize, Jesus is the pearl of great value, and Jesus is the treasure head in the field. Psalm 17 was a prayer by David, and the desires of his heart in Psalm 17:15 are the desires of my heart. “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness” (Psalm 17:15). God is so Holy and Righteous that a man cannot look upon His face and live. To look at the face of God you must be righteous and by the grace of God I have been cleansed of all my sins by the blood of Jesus Christ through faith in Him. Can you imagine what that will be like; to gaze upon the face of God, to see Jesus in His glorified state and just look upon Him? I imagine since I will have all of eternity that I may just get stuck right there for the first 1000 years gazing upon the face of God, and then realize that I am just like Him; righteous, clean, good, holy. My sinful nature completely cut off, never to sin again. Oh how I look forward to that day, to the day that I will see the face of Jesus in righteousness and awake in His likeness. Is His grace enough? My answer, His grace is everything!
God bless,
Mike Peek
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Believe in Jesus but also Believe Jesus (John 3:31-36)
(He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony as certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. ~John 3:31-36)
Jesus is the Son of God, the creator of all things. John Chapter 1 told us that He was in the beginning with God and that He was in fact God, and that all things were made through Him (Ref. John 1:1-6). That He became flesh and dwelt among us, that God Himself became flesh. The Holy Spirit of God came upon Mary (a virgin) and she conceived and bore a Son and that Son was Jesus. Now Jesus being God speaks the words of God and John gives witness of this. God sent John to baptize, and while he was baptizing God told John that there would be One whom John would see the Spirit descend on and remain on, and it would be He who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. (Ref John 1:32-33). So John gives testimony of Jesus speaking the words of God, that all He said was of God because Jesus is God. He also said that people were not listening to him, oh they were listening to Him speak, but they were not listening as though they were the words of God. But for those who would hear and believe certified who Jesus was.
God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus into a world that He knew would reject Him. At the end of John chapter 2 the Apostle John writes about Jesus and man. “He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:24-25). God the Father knew what was in man before He sent Jesus, and God the Son knew what was in man. I don’t know about you, I’m a father; I personally would have a hard time purposely sending my child into a hostile environment. The Father knew Jesus would be rejected, and knew that man would kill Him, and knew even after the sacrifice that men would continue to reject Him. The more and more I come to know my Lord, the more amazed I am that anyone could think for a minute that they could earn favor with God. The more I’ve gotten to know Jesus, the more I’ve gotten to know myself, and realize not just how sinful I was, but how sinful I am. Works cannot save a man in fact works themselves are sin when done to earn favor with God. God is a good Judge, what do good judges do to criminals that try to bribe them? You who break God’s laws (The Ten Commandments) are a criminal; if you do good works to earn favor with God, what you are in effect attempting to do is bribe the Judge. Jesus is my Master; any work, is only a good work, when it is done to bring glory to my Lord. Paul said: “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
John the Baptist finishes his dialogue about Jesus with his disciples by giving the good news; that there is a Way to have everlasting life and that Way is Jesus Christ. He tells them: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). The way to eternal life is to have faith in Jesus Christ, that His death on the cross was and is payment for all of your sins. But John is also saying here; make sure that you believe Jesus, His words. There are a lot of people in this world that call themselves Christian but when you talk with them about scripture they will deny the words of Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God? Jesus said He was the only begotten Son of God. Do you believe that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life that no one comes to the Father but by Him? Jesus said this. Do you believe the things he said about Hell? Did you know that if it were not for the words of Jesus we would know little about Hell, Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone in the bible?
Believe in the only begotten Son of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only Way to the Father. Believe by faith that when He died on that cross that He paid for all of your sins; past, present, and future. And believe the scriptures, the scriptures are the inerrant, infallible, Holy Spirit inspired written word of God. Believe what they say about Jesus, and believe what Jesus said.
God Bless you;
Mike Peek
Jesus is the Son of God, the creator of all things. John Chapter 1 told us that He was in the beginning with God and that He was in fact God, and that all things were made through Him (Ref. John 1:1-6). That He became flesh and dwelt among us, that God Himself became flesh. The Holy Spirit of God came upon Mary (a virgin) and she conceived and bore a Son and that Son was Jesus. Now Jesus being God speaks the words of God and John gives witness of this. God sent John to baptize, and while he was baptizing God told John that there would be One whom John would see the Spirit descend on and remain on, and it would be He who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. (Ref John 1:32-33). So John gives testimony of Jesus speaking the words of God, that all He said was of God because Jesus is God. He also said that people were not listening to him, oh they were listening to Him speak, but they were not listening as though they were the words of God. But for those who would hear and believe certified who Jesus was.
God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus into a world that He knew would reject Him. At the end of John chapter 2 the Apostle John writes about Jesus and man. “He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (John 2:24-25). God the Father knew what was in man before He sent Jesus, and God the Son knew what was in man. I don’t know about you, I’m a father; I personally would have a hard time purposely sending my child into a hostile environment. The Father knew Jesus would be rejected, and knew that man would kill Him, and knew even after the sacrifice that men would continue to reject Him. The more and more I come to know my Lord, the more amazed I am that anyone could think for a minute that they could earn favor with God. The more I’ve gotten to know Jesus, the more I’ve gotten to know myself, and realize not just how sinful I was, but how sinful I am. Works cannot save a man in fact works themselves are sin when done to earn favor with God. God is a good Judge, what do good judges do to criminals that try to bribe them? You who break God’s laws (The Ten Commandments) are a criminal; if you do good works to earn favor with God, what you are in effect attempting to do is bribe the Judge. Jesus is my Master; any work, is only a good work, when it is done to bring glory to my Lord. Paul said: “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
John the Baptist finishes his dialogue about Jesus with his disciples by giving the good news; that there is a Way to have everlasting life and that Way is Jesus Christ. He tells them: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36). The way to eternal life is to have faith in Jesus Christ, that His death on the cross was and is payment for all of your sins. But John is also saying here; make sure that you believe Jesus, His words. There are a lot of people in this world that call themselves Christian but when you talk with them about scripture they will deny the words of Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God? Jesus said He was the only begotten Son of God. Do you believe that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life that no one comes to the Father but by Him? Jesus said this. Do you believe the things he said about Hell? Did you know that if it were not for the words of Jesus we would know little about Hell, Jesus spoke more about Hell than anyone in the bible?
Believe in the only begotten Son of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only Way to the Father. Believe by faith that when He died on that cross that He paid for all of your sins; past, present, and future. And believe the scriptures, the scriptures are the inerrant, infallible, Holy Spirit inspired written word of God. Believe what they say about Jesus, and believe what Jesus said.
God Bless you;
Mike Peek
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