Easy First Steps!  by James Lantz

        Finishing our race well and hearing the words, well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord, is what we should be living for. The majority of people are not going to hear these words from the lips of the Master! The good news is that you and I can still hear those words! It makes no difference, how old you are, what you have been through or what you are experiencing right now. God didn’t appreciate Sarah laughing when he told Abraham that Sarah would have a son. Being ninety years old does not make any difference to God.  Gen. 18:14  Is any thing to hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.  One time the children of Israel began to lust for meat before they entered into the promised land. God was gracious to them by providing them fire by night for heat and a cloud by day for air conditioning and manna for food. Lusting for something is not the right way to receive from God, so they angered the Lord. The Lord told Moses he would give them meat to eat in the desert, not for one day, not for two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days, but for a whole month, till they were sick of it.  Numbers 11:21  And Moses said, The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footman; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. 22 Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?  23  And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord’s hand waxed short? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not.  God blew in so many quail that they were piled three feet high but it cost them. The ones who lusted died from a plague with the quail meat in their mouth. Isaiah wrote the things that would cause God’s good hand of blessing to come on his people in his fifty eighth chapter (though Isaiah did not write in chapter and verse). He mentions that we are to humble our selves. Quit putting ourselves first but rather put his commandments first, loose the bands of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, let the oppressed go free, break every yoke, deal your bread to the hungry, bring the poor that are cast out to your house. Cover the naked, help your own family, stop blaming others, stop speaking vanity, don’t do your own pleasure on the Lord’s day and be glad about it, don’t speak your own words (this is a new thought for some).  The word says when we do these things that God’s power will heal us, make us fruitful and cause us to receive our inheritance.  Isaiah 59:1&2  Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.  Now there is a lot of wisdom in these scriptures but the emphasize I started with was that God is a big God, and he can do anything (not sin), and he wants us to receive of his grace! God has extended great grace to all men in offering Jesus as a substitutionary sacrifice. All that receive Christ are raised up with him and seated together with him in heavenly places at the Fathers right hand. This is way beyond what we could have ever asked or even thought of asking for.  Acts 13:39  And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

       God’s great mercy and wonderful blessing will not come on us if we don’t take the first easy steps! It is impossible to receive the heavenly reward if we don’t get started. Finishing is better than starting but we can not finnish if we don’t ever start.  Hebrews 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. The believing and deciding come before the receiving of the blessing. Now I realize that you must hear the word of God before you can believe the word of God because faith comes by hearing the anointed word. Some people cut themselves off from receiving from God at this early stage by not reading the word, missing church services, and closing their ears to what God is saying.  Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee .   .   .   .  We must open our hearts to hear what God is saying and then faith comes. You know how little children can have selective hearing when they are playing and Mom calls them to come inside to get a bath and go to bed. Sometimes they just keep on playing like they can not hear, but those same children can hear you open the refrigerator door from their bedroom. Jesus said that if we (his children) would hear his voice, and open the door of our hearts to him, that we will enjoy close and rich fellowship with him.  John 14:21  He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Answered prayer is one way Jesus manifest himself to us. Our babies get healed when others don’t, our lives are spared when others are not, we have peace and joy and direction for our lives when others are confused and in turmoil. It pays to serve God and stay close to him! No one can have a good relationship with God without believing what he says. In fact, you can not have a good relationship with anyone if you don’t believe what they say. Believing is a choice!  Romans 10:10  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  God requires us to believe in him and in his goodness in order to be saved.  Mark 16:16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.  It is harder to believe that this earth and all of creation just happened by itself than it is to believe that God created it just like he said. Nothing evolves from a broken down, dilapidated, or void condition into something new and beautiful! You can not take powerful explosives into a junkyard and set it off and come back to find a brand new Lexus in its place. No, you would find that the junk would just be junkier and in more pieces than before.  Rom. 1:20 (Amp.)  For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made – His handiworks. So (men) are without excuse altogether without any defence or justification. (see also Ps. 19:1-4)  Those who choose not to acknowledge God or approve of him or consider him worth the knowing will be given over (by God) to a base and condemned mind to all kinds of evil. God expects us to believe and he made it easy by showing us his glorious creation. You could show someone a copy of this Bible lesson and say Pastor James wrote this. He is Pastoring here in the Parkesburg area, teaching and training those who are wanting to live the life of faith in God. It would be easy for a person to believe that their really is a Pastor James Lantz based on seeing a creation of mine and hearing your testimony about me. If we can believe the school teacher, the Doctor, and the Policeman just by seeing them in the classroom, at the hospital, or just seeing their uniform, we can easily believe God by seeing and hearing his creation. Believe that God is as good as he says he is. We must believe that we are saved in order to become saved. We believe that we receive healing and then we are healed. It is amazing how natural human thinking seems to be challenged with God’s way of receiving of his grace. Many times people want to wait and see and feel that they are healed before they believe they are healed, but God’s grace has to be received by faith.  Mark 11:24  Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.  The believing comes before the receiving, thats why we can begin the rejoicing as soon as we have released our faith in prayer. Everything that was given to us through Christ has already been granted to us. The Father does not say to this person, I don’t care so much for you so you can not be saved. The Father has already said who he has granted salvation to. He grants salvation to everyone who will receive his Son Jesus. Everyone who comes to the Father in the proper way will receive forgiveness of sin and eternal life. The proper way to receive is to acknowledge your need of salvation and believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he was raised from the dead for you. When you humble yourself before God, commit yourself to him, and believe that you are saved you become saved.  Eph. 2:8  For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.  When you believe that you are saved you have peace and joy on the inside of you and confidence that God has received you just like he said he would. When we are born again we are empowered to live the life he requires of us. We don’t get saved because of acting good, we act good because we are a child of God. The good news is that every grace (gift) of God is received the very same way we received salvation, by faith. We receive healing by faith because our healing was purchased when Jesus took those stripes on his back and bore our pains.  Mt. 8:17   That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.  Again, God does not pick and choose who gets healed any more than he picks and chooses who gets saved. He has already chosen who gets saved as I mentioned above. God has predestinated the church, the body of Christ, to be the recipient  of his grace, and whoever responds to him properly gets in the church. Another easy step is deciding to obey the Lord Jesus. When we are born again we still need to decide each day to take up our cross and follow Jesus. The cross speaks of death and there are things that need to be removed from our life in order for us to be Jesus disciples.  John 8:31  .   .   .  If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.  It is wonderful how quickly God will turn situations around for us as soon as we decide to do what God said, God will take us at our word (on credit). Now I know there are some that say it is not easy to believe and to decide. If you look at the right things (future good things that will come when we believe) it will be easy compared to what will happen if we do not believe God. Jesus endured the cross looking forward to the joy that was set before him. It was not easy on Jesus flesh but it was a no brainer, so to speak, he was going to please his Father and he was going to enjoy eternity with his new family. The apostle Paul calls the things we suffer in the flesh temporary light afflictions that are working a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.  2 Cor. 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.  When you make the decision to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh you are taking your authority and resisting the devil. Staying with God is a sure victory!