KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS!!!

I've heard in past years everyone changing the familiar sound of "Merry Christmas" when in passing around Christmas time to "Happy Holidays." It is now politically correct to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. CHRISTmas is the celebration of Christ's birth. The whole reason for Christmas at all is to celebrate our savior coming to this earth to give mankind a chance to be born again and be brought back into right standing with our father God and know that we can live throughout all eternity with Him! This is the only reason good enough to celebrate this time of year. If you don't want to call the Holiday what it really is then don't celebrate it at all but don't try to call it something else to make everyone happy. IT IS CHRISTMAS, the celebration of our Lord's birth. That is the reason for the season. Nobody worries about offending the christian, so let's as christians stand up for Christ and the reason for this season and call it was it is.

If it's not now....it's not faith!

Hebrews 11:1 NOW  faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If there is anything I have learned during my time here at New Life Bible College, Norvel Hayes Ministries it is that you can't leave out the NOW in that verse. The Word of God is truth now! Anything other than the Word of God is a lie. The Word says in James 2:23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straight way forgetteth what manner of man he was. When we become born again we decide that God's way is truth and we will believe everything He has to say ( or at least we should) The whole Bible is true. The Word says that God is not a man that He could lie. and it also says let God be true and every man a lie. We see in the Word in different places that when Jesus went to the cross He took all of our sickness and disease, all our sin, all our poverty, depression, and the list goes on. HE made us totally victorious. Anything that isn't victory in our lives is contrary to the Word of God and is a lie from satan. Because it is a lie we can know that our faith works NOW to believe God at His Word. If you knew that your hair was black and short and you looked in the mirror and it was black and short, but you walked away and someone tried to convince you that it was actually red and it was really long even thought you knew that it was short and black. You wouldn't believe them because You know who You are and that your mirror doesn't lie to you. It is the same thing with the Word. We look in it and it tells us that we are healed and that is just the way it is, but we walk away from it and the devil puts a symptom on us and tries to convince us that we are sick. We need to get the Word on the inside of us so that we know exactly who Jesus has made us so no matter what it is he brings we know that it is contrary to the Word and we won't believe his lies anymore than we would let someone  tell us our hair is red when it is obviously black. It should just be second nature to us. So our faith is NOW! It doesn't matter what anything looks like, feels like, sounds like, etc. We know that our faith works now and it's the truth whether we see it right away or not!!

There is therefore now NO CONDEMNATION!!

The Bible tells us in Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The God we serve is such a good, loving God. He wants us to walk upright, knowing that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus! The second that we became born again, God set us free from ALL sin and everything that comes from sin. It says in Romans that sin  no longer has dominion over us. As we read in the new testament we can see so many examples of this "no condemnation" going into effect to the born again believer. Paul killed christians before he was born again and afterwords, he wrote 2/3 of the new testament. Peter denied Christ three times before Jesus' death and crucifixion, and Jesus wanted to make sure Peter knew that He had risen again which shows me He wanted Peter to know He still loved him no matter what and then no time at all later Peter preached on the day of pentecost. Another story that always touches my heart and reminds me of God's great love for his people is in John 8. In John 8 there is a story about a woman caught in adultery. She was caught in the very act and brought into the church where Jesus was preaching. The men that brought her in asked Jesus what they should do with her because according to the law they should stone her to death. Jesus stooped down writing on the ground as to say that He was the one that wrote the law. He turned and told the men, he that is without sin, cast the first stone. All the men left and Jesus was left alone with the woman and said where are those that accuse you ? and she said nobody and Jesus Himself said neither do I condemn you! Go and sin no more! We are given the ability to walk free from sin because we are not condemned by our God. Thank God we don't have to walk around beat up and always thinking of where we messed up but we can walk free knowing we have been made righteous and this causes us to walk free from sin. OUR GOD IS A GOOD GOD! that loves us and made it possible to live a peaceful, free, joyful life. Just like these people in the Bible, we will mess up and do the wrong thing at times but God NEVER changes His mind about us and how much He loves us!  Lift your head up and walk worthy and don't let anyone tell you different.