LIVING FOR GOD!!!

 A Living Witness

by Pastor Wes Higgins

Have you ever wondered what your job as a

Christian is? Someone may say, "My job is to sweep

the church after services,," or "My job is to mow the

church's lawn,'' or "My, job is to serve coffee and

cookies at the church socials." These are duties that

need to be done, imposed on us by ourselves or by

others, but these are jobs anyone can do - even non

Christians.

God has a job for every Christian He calls. lt is the

same job, to be carried out in as many different ways

as there are individuals to do it. What is that job?

"You shall be witnesses to Me [Jesus Christ]...to the

end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

This job we have to do is the very reason the gift

of the Holy Spirit was given. (See Acts 2 and Luke

24:48-49.) Notice in Peter's words it wasn't just the

job of the 120 who were assembled for that first

Pentecost: "For the promise is to you and to your

children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the

Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:39). Has God called

you? Then the job is yours.

As Peter infers, God's calling is a very personal

calling. So personal that the Father doesn't even

leave it for the Son to do, but does it Himself. As

Jesus says, "I have said to you that no one can come

to Me unless it has been granted to him by My

Father" (John 6:65). 

The realization of what this says

is staggering - that the great God, the creator and

sustainer of all that exists, looked down from His

throne in Heaven and chose you and me to have a

relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. This is

absolutely astounding! Every day we wake and walk

and have life, we should count how blessed we are

that God has chosen us. By God's grace, we have

been given direct access to Him any time, night or

day. We are to make known to Him all our cares,

anxieties, and our requests, and He promises not

only to hear us but to guard us and bring us peace,

for the scripture says, "He cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7

and Philippians 4:6-7).

There are those who consider the job of

witnessing for Christ to be the job of the church as a

group, that all the individual has to do is to pay and

pray. 

Activities that require groups, churches and even

groups of churches to support and fund. One

example of a church group activity such as this was

when the church at Antioch sent Saul and Barnabas

out on a mission (Acts 13:1-5). The church

sanctioned, commissioned, and funded them.

Another example is mass worldwide Bible

distribution. Groups such as the Gideons

lnternational have put out millions of Bibles. No one

person or no one church could accomplish what they

have done. But at no time should we rely on the

church to do our job of witnessing.

Starting with Genesis, take a walk through the

Bible. You will find over and over again that it is the

individual whose personal faith in God has produced

a witness for God: Righteous Abel; Enoch, whose

testimony pleased God; Noah, the heir of

righteousness; Abraham, God's friend; and Sarah his

wife, who judged God faithful. The list goes on:

Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Rahab....

"And what more shall I say? For the time would

fail me to tell of Gideon and Barok and Samson

and .... the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms,

worked righteousness, obtained promises,

stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the

violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword,

out of weakness were made strong, become

valiant in battle, turned to flight the enemies of the

aliens. Women received their dead raised to life

again. Others were tortured, not accepting

deliverance, that they might obtain a better

resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and

scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were cut in two, were

tempted, were slain with the sword. ... They

wondered in deserts and mountains, in dens and

caves of the earth. And all these have obtained a

good testimony through faith" (Hebrews 11: 32-39).

And the New Testament account adds many

more individual witnesses who are all members of

the body of Christ. The body of Christ is the church

(Colossians L:24), of which we are all "members

individually" ( 1 Corinthians 12:27 ).

....................

THE  BOOK  OF  HEBREWS  IS  QUITE  THE  BOOK,  RELATING  MANY  TRUTHS  OF  GOD.  CHAPTER  TWO  IS  MIND-BLOWING,  AS  JESUS  IS  NOT  ASHAMED  TO  CALL  US  HIS  BROTHERS/SISTERS.  WHAT  THE  FATHER  WANTS  TO  GIVE  US  IN  ETERNAL  LIFE  IS  TO  BE  LIKE  JESUS  IN  EVERY  WAY  BUT  AUTHORITY;  JESUS  WILL  ALWAYS  BE  NEXT  IN  AUTHORITY  TO  THE  FATHER.  THE  APOSTLE  JOHN  SAYS  WE  SHALL  BE  LIKE  CHRIST  WHEN  WE  ARISE  IN  THE  RESURRECTION  AT  JESUS'  COMING--- 1 JOHN 3:1-3; 1 CORINTHIANS 15.

HEBREWS  IS  THE  BOOK  THAT  ESTABLISHES  THE  4TH  COMMANDMENT,  THE  7TH  DAY  SABBATH,  TO  STILL  BE  IN  EFFECT--- HEBREWS 4.

HEBREWS  IS  THE  BOOK  THAT  GIVES  THE  TRUTH  WITH  JERUSALEM,  THE  TEMPLE,  COMING  TO  DESTRUCTION  IN  70  A.D.  IT  GIVES  THE  TRUTH  THAT  THE  TITHING  LAW  WILL  NOW  BE  CHANGED  FROM  THE  LEVI  PRIESTHOOD  TO  JESUS'  PRIESTHOOD--- HEBREWS 7.

THE  11TH  CHAPTER  TALKS  ABOUT  THE  SAINTS  OF  GOD  THROUGH  THE  AGES.  IT  IS  THE  CHAPTER  THAT  BLOWS AWAY  THE  IMMORTAL  SOUL  THEOLOGY!  IF  YOU  READ  IT  CAREFULLY  YOU  WILL  NOTICE  ENOCH  DIED,  HE  WAS  NOT  CHANGED  TO  IMMORTALITY  AND  DID  NOT  ASCEND  TO  HEAVEN.

JESUS  SAID [JOHN 3:13]  NO  PERSON  HAD  ASCENDED  TO  HEAVEN  BUT  HE  THAT  CAME  DOWN  FROM  HEAVEN,  HIMSELF!  HE  WAS  WITH  THE  FATHER  FROM  ETERNITY  PAST;  HE  WAS  THE  GOD  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT,  AS  I PROVE  IN  OTHER  STUDIES.  AS  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  SAYS,  NO  PERSON  HAS  EVER  SEEN  OR  HEARD  THE  VOICE  OF  GOD  THE  FATHER.  THAT  TRUTH  IS  CLEARLY  FOUND  IN  THE  GOSPELS  AND  OTHER  BOOKS  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT,  IF  YOU  READ  SLOWLY [WILLING  TO  BE  CORRECTED] WITH  MEDITATION.  MOST  READ  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  TOO  FAST,  AND  READ  OVER  VERSES  THAT  WOULD  CORRECT  FALSE  THEOLOGY.  THE  VERY  WORDS  OF  JESUS  IN  JOHN 3: 13  SMASH  TO  A  MILLION  PIECES  THE  IDEA  CHRISTIANS  GO  TO  HEAVEN  AT  DEAD.

NOT  ONE  PERSON,  NOT  ONE  CHILD  OF  GOD  FROM  ADAM  AND  EVE,  HAVE  EVER  GONE  TO  HEAVEN.  NOT  ONE  SAINT  OF  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT,  AND  NOT  ONE  SAINT  OF  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT  HAS  GONE  TO  HEAVEN  AT  DEATH.   AND  PAUL  TELLS  YOU  WHY---- "AND  THEASE  ALL,  HAVING  OBTAINED  A  GOOD  REPORT  THROUGH  FAITH,  RECEIVED  NOT  THE  PROMISE:  GOD  HAVING  PROVIDED  SOME  BETTER  THING  FOR  US,  THAT  THEY  WITHOUT  US,  SHOULD  NOT  BE  MADE  PERFECT" [VERSES 39-40].

WE  OF  THE  OLD  SHALL  WITH  WE  OF  THE  NEW,  ALL  RISE  IN  THE  RESURRECTION  AT  CHRIST'S  COMING;  WE  SHALL  ALL  BE  MADE  PERFECT,  HOLY,  RIGHTEOUS  FOR  ALL  ETERNITY,  AS  THE  FATHER  AND  CHRIST  JESUS  ARE.

BEING  A  CHILD  OF  THE  FATHER  MEANS  WE  ARE  FAITHFUL  TO  THE  END;  WE  KNOW  THAT  IN  OUR  CHRISTIAN  LIFE  IT  MAY  NOT  ALWAYS  BE  A  BED  OF  ROSES.  ANYONE  TAKING  NOTE,  MEDITATING  ON  WHAT  THEY  READ  AS  THEY  DIGEST  THE  WORDS  OF  HOLY  INSPIRED  SCRIPTURE,  SHALL  SEE  WHAT  SOME  HAVE  HAD  TO  ENDURE,  AS  THEY  REMAINED  FAITHFUL  TO  THE  CALLING  OF  GOD.

JESUS  TAUGHT  WE  ARE  LIGHTS  IN  A  DARK  WORLD;  A  CITY  SET  ON  A  HILL;  WE  ARE  TO  STAND  OUT  AS  TO  A WITNESS  FOR  TRUTH  AND  RIGHTEOUSNESS  OF  OUR  HEAVENLY  FATHER.

IN  THE  END  TIME,  THE  LAST  42  MONTHS,  1260  DAYS,  ABOUT  3  AND  1/2  YEARS  AT  THE  END  OF  THIS  AGE,  LEADING  UP  TO  THE  RETURN  OF  JESUS,  CHRISTIANS  WILL  BE  UNDER  A  GREAT  PERSECUTION,  FROM  THE  RELIGIOUS/POLITICAL  BEAST  POWER  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  REVELATION;  THE  LAST  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  HOLY  ROMAN  EMPIRE,  THE  BABYLON  WOMAN  DRUNK  WITH  THE  BLOOD  OF  THE  SAINTS--- REVELATION 17.

SOME  WILL  BE  SPARED  PERSECUTION  AS  THEY  FLEE  FROM  THIS  DECEIVING  POWER,  THAT  WILL  RISE  IN  EUROPE  AND  CONQUER  THE  WESTERN  WORLD.  SOME  WILL  NEED  TO  STAND  STRONG  AND  TALL,  AS  THEY  FACE  PERSECUTION.  

IT  HAS  ALWAYS  BEEN  THIS  WAY  FOR  THE  CHILDREN  OF  GOD,  SOMETIMES  MORE  SOMETIMES  LESS.

SUCH  IS  THE  TRUTH  OF  LIVING  FOR  GOD!

Keith Hunt