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Weekly Reminder...
The Weekly Reminder is an informative tool to help people who read it consider what the man of God has said. This weekend’s articles are based on what was heard on June 13 & 14, 2009 in the Westbury assembly.written by Br. Samuel Philogene
Overconfidence is a dangerous state; if we feel that we are all right (perfect) we won’t be looking for adjustment or even correction. As a child of God we must always watch our lives with God to see if there is any deviation from the truth or if we are still standing and walking in the right direction toward the goal which is eternal life (Philippians 3:14).
Last weekend the message was like an alert telling to stop just thinking that we are in Christ, we are child of God, we are the Body of Christ, but we have to look around and see if we are really in Christ. We have been called to examine ourselves to see if we still stand in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). This is our part in the work of salvation. Most of the time we wait for God to do the job but here is our part. God did His part; He sent Jesus to Calvary; Jesus shed His blood and made a way for us today by giving us the church and a man of God to give us the His words. Now we have to do our part; see where we stand with God, what His word is doing in our lives and how far we are with God. If we fail to evaluate ourselves we will fool our own selves thinking we are righteous before God when our righteousness just might be an abomination before Him (Luke 16:15).
We might think we are in Christ but we can leave Him far behind while demonstrating all the religious façade of Christianity; this is a dangerous and perilous state. The prophet Jeremiah made a statement in Jeremiah 2:20 saying, “For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, ‘I will not transgress’; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot”. Here is an example of a people transgressing the law of God. They are doing everything wrong, leaving God behind, doing things on their own but never understanding that they were wrong, because they were not conscious or they did not want to recognize they were wrong and something had to be changed. The preacher might be anointed by God but if the people don’t do their part of the job (examining themselves) nothing will change; that is why after many years in the church some people don’t change because they feel good, they identify the message to someone else because in their mind they are alright.
That was why the Jews rejected Christ; they were moving on thinking because they were Abraham’s children they didn’t need anything (change), they left God far behind, they thought they were alright, holy but when Jesus looked at the inside He saw sins, sicknesses. Jesus came to offer them liberty from the bondage of sin but they couldn’t understand saying “We are of Abraham’s seed” (John 8:33-44). We can’t expect any change from this people because they were not aware of their state. Change will surely come when we know that we are wrong, that we need God to help us.
It was the same for the Church of Laodicea they made an evaluation but they were wrong, we need God’s help to do this examination. In Revelation 3:17 we read, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”. Once this job is sincerely done we will see that we are not as far as we think, not as strong as we think. Paul said, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10:12). So what we think we are might be far from what God see in us. We need God more than ever before to help us to know our state, so we won’t run the race in vain (Galatians 2:2).
On Sunday night we were visited by Br. Richard from the Elmont assembly and six brothers from Africa and they were a blessing to us. Br. Meme talked about the birthright in Genesis 25:29-34. The birthright was a privilege that God gave to the first born of the children of Israel, so the first son was generally the one that the father would bless before his death. But in this case Esau sold his birthright because he was hungry. Br. Meme and all the other brothers after him took that illustration to show us how we should be careful because pressures of life can force us to give up our birthright. Being a part of the Body of Christ, being a member of the move of God in the earth today has to be considered as a birthright giving us the privilege to partake in the blessings of God the Father thru Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:12). By His grace God created us to be the firstborn of His creatures (James 1:18). So we have to fight as a good soldier (2 Timothy 2:3-11) to preserve our birthright today until the end and not let anything in this world steal it from us. We can see how the Lord sent the message last weekend. God was alerting us to be careful, to not leave Him behind but to examine ourselves so we can be sure we are still on the way to the kingdom and to not give away our birthright but to stay faithful to our calling until the end.
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