Really know your Bible!

What a day we live in. I am so astounded at the number of Apostolic preachers who do not know their Bible. It is sad in our day and time. We have the true plan of Salvation so we should of all people regard the Apostle Paul's admonition to Timothy and study to show ourselves approved. We can use many excuses but to enter the pulpit of a church when people are taking time to come and hear what we have to share and not preparing something worth learning
is outrageous and lazy. The Bible speaks of the sluggard and the sloth and what Jesus thinks of them. We should never be slothful in Jesus' business. To teach or preach the Word is a divinely appointed ministry. We need to always be ready to give an answer to all men of the hope that is within us. If we are to give an answer it cannot be from our own fleshly philosophies or the philosophies of men but divinely inspired from the Words of Jesus. Shame on us when we trust in the arm of the flesh and only study when we have a sermon or Bible study to teach.
We traveled over four hours to a church meeting someplace between the North and South Pole. When we arrived the Pastor was on a trip. He had another minister come and fill in
for him. The Minister was a really nice guy. He began to preach that the reason it was
so hard to work for Jesus was because the ground was still cursed from the days of Adam and Eve and the fall. He failed to study the rest of the chapter and sadly folks came up short. That is what happens to us when we try to preach a message off of old stale bread we preached years ago or on recollection. We need to be prepared to give Jesus' people fresh bread. If the young man with the loaves and fishes were not prepared he would not have been part of the miracle that fed the five thousand and preached all over the world two thousand years later.
I don't care if you work two jobs. If Jesus gave you a place to teach then he should come first not mammon. We so many times remember the scripture not to give place to the devil but forget the one that says seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. We cannot love this present world more than Jesus. He does not play second fiddle to anyone. Either He is your first love or you have no love at all.
He does not play the mind games that man plays. We so often love to equate Him with the
God who bends low for little children but forget He is also the one who made the mountains tremble so much that the children of Israel would rather that Moses approached Him than do it themselves. We cannot fit Him into the religious mold of today that makes Him a
god who you can use when you want to. He is not the make a wish coordinator. He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, The First and the Last, He who came and is and is to come. He is the only Savior. We need to rethink our position in the Kingdom.
Read your Bible for your own self. Don't go by what you hear over every pulpit.
The truth of the matter is that Noah's own Dad prophesied over him. He was a descendant of Enoch. The Word says that La'mech in Genesis 5:29 spoke of Noah saying, This same shall comfort us concerning the work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. In Genesis chapter 8 verse 21 it says this, "The Lord smelled a sweet savour, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake: for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will i again smite any more every thing living as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and the day and night shall not cease."
Noah was a deliverer in his time. He was a child born with a destiny to fulfill and he fulfilled it. If we are to fulfill our own destiny then we need to obey Jesus' words to us. Thankfully Noah obeyed or there would not have been left a man or woman upon the earth and the curse would not have been lifted. If you want the curse lifted off of your family that has plagued them for centuries then obey and lead them out of sin into the safety of the ark of Jesus Christ. Noah's obedience is again mentioned in the New Testament when it is spoken of that eight were saved by water concerning salvation and the necessity for water baptism for salvation. How anyone can read these verses and say Baptism is just a type and an outward sign is a sure indicator that they do not study and read to get either just enough for a sermon or did not read the whole chapter or study the verses. They are like the man who preached that the earth is still cursed and that man still toils in the same manner. Sorry folks it just isn't so. The earth is back in order thanks to Noah and Jesus lifted the curse. I am so glad I know who Jesus is. May I encourage you today to read the whole story and preach the whole message because if you do not you will be left behind. Those movies called left behind have nothing on what is going to really happen. Read the book for yourself.
In Jesus,
Dana Klein