The Cup and The Coat

 

Mark 10:⁵⁰ And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.

He was used to his situtation and he had gotten and farmilized himself with a way of surviving. He got himself a coat and cup to help him cope with his blindness.

He sat there hearing people move on with there business, walking and leaving him there, but he was stuck there. How many times have you heard of people progressing with there career, there businesses expanding, others getting more education, people getting married but you are stuck there, nothing showing but a cup and a coat.

Look at the blind man cup and see what peole  give him at his hour of afflictions. What have men of this world given you in your time of afflictions, Fake promises, phoney friends, donations that wouldn't help. Because there was nothing they could give that would save him from his affliction. Men of this world can't save you from your blindness.

You may have everything, but there is a spot of blindness that you got that no education, no money, no wife or husband, no friends can fix it. And because of his blindness he could become part of this bigger society at the time. So he had to come up with a way of coping with life.  But he got something.

The blind man could hear and he could scream and he could cast away his cup and coat.

And Jesus stood still. His screams made Jesus stand still. He got the attention of Jesus. Are you willing to get Jesus attention.

Glory be to the Lord, that he stood still and and he commanded them to call him.

The very people that told him to shut were the very people that called him. he very people that couldn't pay attention to him had their eyes on him. I tell you...

GET THE ATTENTION OF JESUS, AND YOU GET EVERYBODY'S ATTENTION

..........the sermon continues....

Should I cast away my coat or shouldn't I, it is all I got, the coat and the cup, it is my way of coping with life,

But Jesus has called........

Humility Test

Now without going into how one develops humility, let's consider how one might measure the level of one's humility. These are some ideas following the  Implicit Association Test (IAT)

• Do you respond to rebuke by getting angry or by giving careful consideration to the rebuke?
• If someone disagrees with your opinion, do you demonize and slander the person, or do you do you try to understand their point of view?
• Do you read the Bible looking to obey it, with an application oriented mindset, or do you try to read into your own ideas and your own chosen lifestyle? Do you find that your study is dominated by trying to get around what it says?
• Do you submit to legitimate human authority figures as the Bible directs?
• If you are a wife, do you accept and practice your God-given role of being subordinate to your husband?
• If you are a women do you accept and practice the politically incorrect gender specific commands in the New Testament?
• For those who speak and teach spiritual things, is your speech and reasoning dominated by your own words and ideas, or those of the Bible?
• When you hear the phrase "Word of God" do your own words and ideas come to mind or does the Bible come to mind?
• Are you generally afraid of what people think of you? (This indicates pride!)
• This is generally a misconception. It is not characteristic of Biblical humility for one to place a high value on other people's opinion of them. The humble are more concerned about doing what is right than doing things to make themselves more popular. Thus "the righteous are as bold as a lion." Prov 28:1 Confidence in God is characteristic of Biblical humility. "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded."Heb 10:35
• When you think of leading someone to Christ, do you tend to replace the "gospel" with your own personal testimony?
• Do you talk more about Christ of the Bible or more about yourself and your own personal experience of Christ?
• Do you tend to pray more for yourself or more for others?
• Are you involved in regularly meeting the practical needs of others?
• Concerning you secular career and ministry objective, are you trying to make something of yourself, or are you trying to make nothing of yourself? (Joh 3:30 "He must become greater; I must become less.") Is your objective to serve, or simply to make a name for yourself?

SoulMates - Bible

Q. Did really God create someone specifically for You?

Nope, he said, a husband/wife is not only not a biblical promise, it is also not a specific element of God’s “plan for my life.” God’s plan is for us to be made more holy, more like Christ… not marry a certain person. There is no biblical basis to indicate that God has one soul mate for you to find and marry. You could have a great marriage with any number of compatible people. There is no ONE PERSON for you. But once you marry someone, that person becomes your one person.”

Having one predestined, predetermined soul-mate always sounded too fairy tale to me.

Eve Made for Adam

Genesis 2:20-25 “But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

A soul mate isn't someone you discover; it's someone you intentionally and prayerfully become. I don't believe that society's definition of "soul mate" is healthy or spiritual. It's great for the movies  but no one's marriage is like the romantic movies you've seen. Anyone in a successful marriage can tell you that "success" in marriage doesn't come from finding that one person you were meant to be with. It only comes from giving up the selfish behavior that served you while you were single, and focusing on selflessly serving your spouse instead. 

Nowhere in the Bible does God say anything about soul mates. God gives us the simple details on how to have a great marriage: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Wives, respect your husbands. Both of these are intentional acts of selfless sacrifice that will guarantee us to have a happy marriage.  

Most people don't like the idea of having to work for a soul mate. But you will never speak with a happily married couple that will tell you that they haven't had to work hard for the happiness they have together. 

The Adage of soul mate has been spread my those that love themselves. As the bible says, in those times men will become lovers of themselves.. what other way can this been shown than to love yourself so much to the extent of thinking that out of the billions of people; there is one who was specifically made for you.

Methuselah

"And about these also Enoch, [in] the seventh [generation] from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
( Jude 1:14-15)
 
Methuselah comes from muth, a root that means "death"; and from shalach, which means to bring, or to send forth. The name Methuselah means, "his death shall bring"
Methuselah's father was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood, and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld; but as soon as he died, the flood would be brought or sent forth.

Gen 5:21Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah. 22Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, ...

It was after Enoch received a prophecy from God about the future that he walked faithfully with God. Jude 1:14-15.

Seven days before the beginning of the Great Flood Methuselah died. Apart from having Noah give the people of the message of the flood God and graciously given them a living prove for every-time they mentioned Methuselah they knew that the day the man would die there would come destruction for the earth by flood.

Many have preached about the flood without ever mentioning the oldest man who ever lived, hiding the mercies of God of how lonhg our Lord postponed Judgement on earth. Already currenlty we are told we are on borrowed time for our Lord is coming but graciously has he extended the time.

969 years -- this were the years man was reminded of the flood and requested to repent and for 969 years men still refused to heed to the call.

The Lord says "For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies," declares the Lord GOD. "Therefore, repent and live." (Ezekiel 18:32).

Matthew 24:37 ...'But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.'

Luke 17:28-30 ...'Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.'

Get Ready

Moses preached to the Egyptians day in day out but their hearts were harden and they couldn't hear him. One day he preached to the children of Israel and told them to get ready and that was that. A time has come for the born again Christian to get ready, The Lord is coming to get you out of the world, smear yourself with the blood of the Lamb, that you might not be forgotten. For now, the message is no longer to the world but to the church ---- Get ready to go

A time has come for the Offering, Sacrifices and Tithe to speeak to those who embrace them it. They say "I will bear witness against you"

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? Says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; ... Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. ...When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. (Isa. 1: 1 I- 1 7)

Today I look back and see how many born again christian are oppressed in the very buildings we call the church and places of worship. Where many claim to sacrifice  to the cause of the Almighty and at the same time oppress the those that have little to to the Lord apart from their service. Since they got no big cash to offer to  to the "church god".

With what shall I come before the Lord, bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has told you, 0 mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (6:6-8).

You sacrifice alot and yet oppress the poor, in humbleness you walk before your peers but in the midst of those that can give you nothing, you oppress them making sure that they remain the same way so that they may continue to serve you. Dangling hope before their eyes, keeping them trap in the hope that one day you might changed their future, showing to them that you are a small "god" to them.

"The covering that you had is now gone"  says the Lord. "The one righteous person that would have made Sodom not to be punished is now taken away from you. Will you turn back to Me?" asked the Lord

Why would one pay one wages and not pay the other wage in the name that one is sacrificing for the Kingdom and the other one honestly did ask for a wage. It is a matter of incorporating the world into the church ---  The employed and the Intern

Does it feature in your church?

Workers of the church are at increased risk of sadness, despair, stress, frustration, anger, and disappointment. There are inherent vocational risks involved when your job is to serve others and these risks are increased when one's vocation is to connect human experience and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These risks are increased even more as workers of the church walk closely with the life experience of the people that they serve.

 

When a worker of the church walks closely with his or her people, sees the Gospel-to-human experience connection in the lives of people and acts on that connection, often meets more-than-the-average stressors, and is in a people-oriented service vocation, the odds rise dramatically in terms of the risks to body, spirit, and self. 

 

Is it not the work of the offering and tithes to support those that server in the church or is it to only support the Bishops, Pastor and Apostles. I appluad the churches that take into consideration the welfare of their workers but a time is coming and the time is now, that the tithe and offering will speak against those that have taken them and and used it to finance their comfortable life.

Speak for the poor, seek justice for the oppress, cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. That is what the Lord is asking.