KINGDOM FOCUS Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness-Matthew 6:33 CHRISTIAN BIBLE FELLOWSHIP NEWSLETTER Sharing and Caring with the Community of Believers March, 2018 You Snooze, You ll Lose Crisis Memory Verse March, 2018 Judges 15: 19-20- She lulled him to sleep on her knees, and she called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. She said, The Philistines are upon you Samson! So he awoke from his sleep, and said, I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free! He did not know that the Lord had departed from him.
YOU SNOOZE, YOU LL LOSE! Samson played with sin and took a snooze. Jonah disobeyed and ran from God and took a snooze. Peter, James and John did not watch and pray with Jesus, they took a snooze. The Bridegroom delayed His coming and 10 virgins took a snooze. What about you? - Revelations 16:15 Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walks naked and they see his shame. YOU SNOOZE, YOU LL LOSE! By Linda Timco Mark 13: 35-37 Watch therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming, in the evening, at midnight, at the crowing of the rooster, or in the morning. Lest, coming suddenly, He finds you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: Watch! All of us have had the experience of being rudely awaken from the peacefulness of our slumber by the sound of a wake up alarm. The unpleasant, unwelcomed noise of an alarm going off, either from an I- phone (which for some is always on) or a radio alarm pierces the stillness of our sleep. It takes a few minutes or longer for us to shake off sleepiness, stir our senses, and realize its daylight and time to wake up. We groan, our feet hit the floor and our day begins. It s time to wake up! The bible says in Romans 13:11, it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep. It s true; we need the restorative benefits of natural sleep. Spiritual sleepiness, however, is other matter The question at hand remains; do we want to go back to sleep when there is a spiritual alarm to wake up and watch? The dictionary defines an alarm as a device that makes noise to warn or awaken people. Are you one of many who when your wakeup alarm goes off, choose to roll over, hit the spiritual snooze button and fall back to sleep? You purposely decide to ignore the wake-up call and go on with life as usual. Remember, you snooze, you ll lose! The people in Noah s time went on with life as usual. To warn means to give someone notice of possible or approaching danger, harm, risk, unpleasantness or consequences of an action or practice. How many times do we decide to hit the spiritual snooze button that silences the warning of the imminent danger of continuing in our willful rebellion? We fight against the reality of what God s wake-up call tells us because it is unpleasant and not what we want. We choose not to walk in obedience. The bible is filled with many wake-up warnings given for the believer s benefit. In Ephesians 5:8 believers are told to, Walk as children of light. Jesus himself cautioned His disciples in John 12:35 and 36 For a
little while longer the light (Jesus) is with you. Walk while you have the light, that darkness may not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness (with Satan) does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, in order that you may become sons of light. There will be an hour of darkness and severe testing for every believer in Jesus Christ. What will your reaction be? Will you remain alert, and watch and pray as Jesus commands, or will you turn off your spiritual wake-up alarm, hit the snooze button and go back to sleep? We really need discernment to walk as children of light in the suffocating darkness that surrounds us. 1 Thessalonians 5: 3-8 gives a clear warning, For when they say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. They shall not escape! You, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are neither of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day being sober, put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. Examining the pages of God s word, we can find examples of those, who to their own detriment, chose to ignore their Godsent wake up alarms and hit the spiritual snooze button. Samson was raised by God to be a judge in Israel. He had a call on his life to war against a vicious enemy of Israel, the Philistines. Samson was called from birth to be a Nazarite to God. - Judges 13:5 Numbers 6:2 tells us the Nazarite vow was a special vow taken to dedicate or set one s self apart for the Lord and His purposes. You can read more about this vow in Numbers 6: 1-8. Instead of being serious about the holy, separated life God called him to live, this man Samson decided to play with his Philistine girlfriend Delilah. In spite of many warnings that she could not be trusted, Samson told her the secret of his great strength. In effect, he hit the spiritual snooze button and let her lull him to sleep in her lap. In Hebrew the meaning of the name Delilah is to slacken or be feeble, to be emptied or impoverished. Delilah lived up to the meaning of her name in Samson s life. Believers, we are called to live a holy life as Samson was. Will we play fast and loose with sin as Samson did and walk in the ways of the world? Playing with sin will lull you to sleep and without any warning it will separate you from God, your source of strength unless there is true repentance. Jonah was found sleeping in the hull of a ship during the midst of a God-sent storm. He made the decision not to obey God s command to go to the wicked city of Nineveh and warn them to repent before destruction fell. Before he knew it Jonah found himself in the belly of a great fish being tossed about on a raging ocean. Sometimes in our rebellion God has to send a raging storm of affliction to give us an attitude adjustment to get us back on the path of obedience. Jesus invited Peter, James and John to watch and pray with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, in a dark hour of testing for our Lord. They could not do it. They hit the spiritual snooze button and the Lord found them asleep. His question burned deep in their hearts, could you not watch with Me one
hour? How about us? Ten virgins were called out to meet the Bridegroom. They trimmed their lamps and went to join the wedding party. When the Bridegroom delayed His coming they fell asleep. What about us? Are we watching and waiting with great expectation for our Lord s return? In conclusion, we believers have been given a stay-awake warning in Revelation 16:15 to remain alert, and watch for our Lord s return. Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walks naked and his shame is seen. We cannot play fast and loose with sin and the things of the world, disobeying God s commands and refusing to watch and pray, as we wait for His return. He himself said in Revelation 22:7a Behold, I am coming quickly! Matthew 45b He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. THOUGHTS OF A REPENTANT SINNER Crisis By Russ Timco REMEMBER, YOU SNOOZE, YOU LL LOSE! I personally do not know anyone who can say they have never had what you might call some form of situation in their lives they classified as a crisis. Some are more serious than others. They range in time from a few minutes, to months, years and sometimes a lifetime. Most are very troubling and emotionally they consume our thoughts and drain our energy. Because we are uncertain of how things are going to turn out, we feel as if we are in a holding state of limbo. We also feel a nagging sense of defeat. As believers in Jesus, we should not have a defeatist s
attitude, the same as unbelievers, who have no hope, the hope that is placed within us when we ask Jesus into our hearts and He saves us from the consequences of our sins. Romans 8:28 encourages, and we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. It is easy to have faith in God when everything is going well. Because God wants to know if we are serious about our faith in Him he tests us. Let s look at James 1:1-3, Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. It has been my experience that we learn very little in good times. Most of our learning happens in times of trial or crisis. As I write this it creates in me a momentary feeling of anxiety, remembering that feeling that needs to be overcome by the promises in the word of God. We are not looking to have crisis, but when they come into our lives, we need to make the best of the situation by trusting in God, and since they are for our learning, ask God what He is trying to teach us. We, as believers in Jesus, are in the process of becoming the person God intends us to be, growing us into His likeness for His glory. Listen to Romans 12:2, Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God s will is, His good, pleasing and perfect will. The word transform could more closely be translated as metamorphosis. We are to change on the outside to conform to what we are on the inside. Because of this change that takes place on the outside, we show those around us what has taken place on the inside, how God has transformed us into His likeness. God brings our lives into conformity with His perfect will for our lives. Romans 8:29 says, For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. If you are ever in doubt of who is in charge, read the following verses in Isaiah 55: 8-9, for My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. Hebrews 12:11 tells us, No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Isaiah 41:10 gives us great comfort, fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness. When we are in what we consider a crisis, we should not rely on our own strength which is weak. We should rely on God s strength which is abundantly more than we could ever conceive of. We need to focus on God s promises found in His word. We need to pray, because we have a God who not only hears but answers our prayers. If we have been a believer for even a short length of time, we know how God has changed us by coming into our hearts and forgiving our
sins. Also, if we have been believers for what we consider to be a long time, we can look back and remember the many times God has answered our prayers and worked out our crisis, teaching us to have faith in Him. God wants to know we are committed to believing in Him and we are not going to fall away from Him at the first sign of trouble. He wants to hear us say, Lord, you have not failed me in the past and I have faith you will be there for me in the future. ONE LAST THOUGHT He is conforming us to His likeness. We need to avoid focusing on the pain and concentrate on our faith in God to answer our prayers. Remember, every circumstance we go through in life should teach us something, even if it is not to make the same mistake twice. Many times God is showing us things in our life that should not be there. Since only God is without sin, it is us who need to change not Him. Many times people want circumstances to change, but refuse to acknowledge they may also need to make some correction in their life. When we are in a trial, it is important to pray and ask God what He is trying to teach us. As believers we should pray constantly. We need to thank Him for His protection and guidance. God is responsible for the consequences of our obedience. We are responsible for the consequences of our disobedience. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33 IF WE CAN DEVELOP A TEACHABLE SPIRIT, CORRECTION MAY NOT HURT AS MUCH.