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Archive for January 2017

When It Is Finished!

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When It Is Finished!

 

James 1:15 …and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

  • When The Holy Ghost Is Finished With You, You Live!
  • When Sin Is Finished With You, You Die!

 

If There’s Not A Day When You’re Through With Sin…

There Will Be A Day When Sin Is Through With You!

 

When An Artist is Finished,

  • Signs his name on the canvas.
  • Puts his thumbprint on the canvas.

When A Student Is Finished With School

  • They give him a diploma.

When A Cook Is Finished,

  • She turns off the stove.

When An Author Is Finished,

  • She writes, “the end.”

When A Prison Sentence Is Finished,

  • The prisoner is released.

When A Letter Is Finished,

  • The writer signs her name.

When A Diner Is Finished,

  • He wipes his mouth with a napkin.

When A Mechanic Is Finished,

  • He wipes his hands.

When A Sin Is Finished,

  • You’re done for!

 

When Sin Is Finished With You…

You Die

  • A Physical Death
  • An Emotional Death
  • A Spiritual Death
  • An Eternal Death

 

Some Never Learn, They Keep Going Back To Sin

2 Pet 2:22 But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

In The Bible, Leprosy Is A Type of Sin.

  • Because it eats away destroying it’s victim one day at a time.

When Leprosy Is Finished With You, You Die!

  • But, Jesus can heal a leper!

Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

  • Sin may be about finished with you now.
  • Sin finished with some while they were still in their teens, 20’s and 30’s.

But, Just Because Sin Is About Finished With You

  • Doesn’t mean God is finished with you!

 

Sin Demands That You:

  • Doubt God, but trust your sinner friends.
  • Disobey God
  • Not fear God
  • Not love God with all your heart.
  • Accept what God rejects.
  • Make light of God’s Word.
  • Ignore God’s Call.
  • You reject God.
  • That you miss church.
  • That your job that keeps you out of church.
  • That you justify worldly friends.
  • That you feel like God doesn’t love you.
  • That you feel like the Church doesn’t love you.
  • That you feel the Pastor doesn’t love you.
  • That you believe sinful living is really freedom.
  • That you die.
  • When Sin is finished with you, you die.

 

But God Is Not Finished With You,

  • That’s Why You’re Still Here!

 

Sin Demands Your Innocence.

  • The early loss of your virginity to be accepted by the world, the in-crowd.
  • Sin wishes to devalue you in your own eyes and the eyes of others.
  • Sin demands that you live in shame

 

Sinful Styles Demands:

  • That Holiness and modesty be ignored.
  • That you wear things that God calls an abomination. (It’s in style)
  • That all clothes be designed without the church in mind.

 

Sin May Try To Finish You Off With Lust.

  • Lustful Gratification becomes important, regardless of the cost.
  • You risk your health.
  • You risk your reputation.
  • You risk your soul.
  • You disregard risk of embarrassment or injury to your friends, church, family
  • Become immoral.
  • Experience shame.
  • Live with fear of STD, HIV, Aids.
  • When Sin is finished with you, you die.

 

Sin May Try To Finish You Off With Perversion

  • You become without natural affection.
  • You live in a closet of deception all your life.
  • You continually risk your health.
  • You continually risk HIV infection.
  • You continually risk the violent reactions of others.
  • You live in fear of being outed.
  • You live in fear of rejection by your family and others.
  • You live a lifestyle that God hates.
  • When Sin is finished with you, you die.

 

Sin May Try To Finish You Off With Drugs.

  • It takes some drugs just one time to hook the user.

 

Drugs make you do whatever you have to do to get the money.

  • Sell your body for more drugs.
  • Steal
  • Get a criminal record.
  • Become HIV positive (dirty needles)
  • Live a lie.
  • Change into a crazed animal at times
  • Beat and abuse others.
  • Birth children with serious birth defects.
  • Risk losing the ones that love you.
  • Warp your personality.
  • Damage your ability to think clearly.
  • Fry your brains for life.
  • Live with flashbacks for many years.
  • Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

 

Sin May Try To Finish You Off With Alcohol .

  • Destroys your family
  • Puts your marriage on the rocks
  • Makes you choose the Bottle over your own family.
  • Forces you to miss work.
  • Lets you lose your job.
  • Lose your career.
  • Consider homelessness an option.
  • Damage your vital organs.
  • Destroy your liver.
  • May make you lose your Driver’s license and possibly your freedom.
  • Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

 

Hollywood Demands:

  • You accept it’s morality.
  • That TV becomes More important to you than Heaven.

 

Your Senses Become Hardened By:

  • Murder
  • Violence
  • Vulgarity
  • Nudity
  • Pre-marital Sex
  • Infidelity
  • Perversion
  • Humanistic values

 

Hollywood Demands Christians be portrayed as:

  • Weirdo’s
  • Wicked and Hypocritical people.
  • Churches put in a bad light.

 

Sin Demands That You Let It Do Your Thinking.

  • Preachers are always bad people.
  • Christians are crazy people.
  • Makes you believe that you will go to Heaven without going to church.

 

Sin Demands:

  • Your involvement
  • Your participation, physically/emotionally.
  • That you recruit.
  • That you not go to hell alone… take others.
  • Your time
  • Your finances – That you throw money to the devil, but have a problem with tithes.
  • Become addicted.
  • Sin Demands Your Life.
  • Sin Demands Your Future.
  • Sin Demands Your Soul.
  • When sin is finished with you, you die.

 

Sin Demands That You Live In:

  • Bondage
  • Condemnation
  • Shame
  • Guilt
  • Regret
  • Reproach
  • In Fear of Dying

 

Sin Demands You:

  • Reject God’s Love.
  • Receive it’s wages.
  • Go to Hell.
  • Feel Uncomfortable in Church.
  • Feel Uncomfortable in the presence of God.
  • Become hardened in your heart.
  • Believe a lie and be lost.
  • You backslide.
  • Get rebellious.
  • Stay away from church.
  • Lose your testimony.
  • Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

 

Sin is working on you right now

  • Day and night
  • Sin demands you never tell it good-by
  • Sin, at best, can only bring temporary pleasure

 

Sin Doesn’t Care About You.

  • Why Not Say Good-bye to the Sinning Business?
  • Just because sin is about finished with you doesn’t mean God is!

 

You Better Pray God Doesn’t Wipe His Hands Like A Mechanic When He Looks At You.

  • He’s Not Willing Any Should Perish.
  • No Such Thing As A Throw-A-Way Soul.

 

Remember The Shepherd And The Ninety And Nine?

  • The Shepherd wouldn’t stop seeking the lamb until He found it.

 

Sin Demands That When It’s Done,

  • You are thrown away.
  • To Jesus, there is no such thing as a throwaway soul!

 

He’s Not Willing That Any Should Perish!

 Sin May Be About Finished With You, But God’s Not…

 

When Jesus Said, It Is Finished,

He meant that mercy was now available for all

 

Mercy Is Available Now…

  • Now, when sin is finishing up with you.
  • Now, when it looks hopeless.
  • Now, when you’re feeling desperate.
  • Now, when the Hell thinks your soul is doomed.
  • Now, when you’ve nowhere else to turn.

 

Jesus is still reaching out to you!

He’s Reaching Out Right Now!

Receive His Mercy Right Now!

 

  1. Repent of your sins.
  2. Be baptized in Jesus Name.
  3. Receive the Gift of The Holy Ghost

 

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

 

 

Written by Martyn Ballestero

January 24, 2017 at 1:25 am

Posted in Backsliders, Mercy, Repent, Salvation, Sin

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They Read You Like A Book!

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They Read You Like A Book!

2 Corinthians 3:2 Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

  • Our lives are read of all men.
  • Everyone can see what we really are.

 

Psalms 90:9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

  • What story does your life tell?
  • Will your story have a happy ending?

 

God is The Writer And You Are His Poem!

Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

  • Workmanship – poiēma – (poem) His “masterpiece” (NLT), His “handiwork” (NAB), His “work of art” (NJB),
  • We are His Poem! God is trying to write a masterpiece for the world to read using nothing but your life.
  • Will your poem be a disappointment or a blessing?
  • Does it have any rhyme or reason?
  • Is the meter in your life poem awkward and difficult to read aloud, especially in public?
  • Would God put your poem in His Book?
  • Or, would you be one of His non-published works?

 

So, If Your Life Is A Poem, What Kind Of Poem Are You?

  • There are many different types of poems.
  • The difference between each type is based on the format, rhyme scheme and subject matter.
  • A Poet attempts to express himself in his poem.
  • I wonder, is the Writer happy with how your poem turned out?
  • Did you take the pen from His hand and try to write your own verses?

 

A Poem Tells A Story. It Is Meant To Be A Thing Of Grace And Beauty.

  • Is yours a love poem?
  • Is it a sonnet of sorrow?
  • Maybe it’s an ode to a bitter regret?
  • Would it so wonderfully describe a place you’ve known in Christ, that every reader would desire to go there?
  • Or, would your poem be one of shipwreck?
  • Would it only tell of earthly pursuits and carnal fulfillments?
  • Would it be about a magnificent obsession for heaven and living for Jesus?
  • Does your poem condone compromise and mock the teachings of the Bible and your spiritual forefathers?
  • Does it make light of standards and holiness living?
  • Does it direct young people down a worldly path?
  • Does it tell everyone to question authority?
  • What kind of poem are you writing with your life?
  • Maybe your poem is about recovery, like the prodigal son’s?

Will yours be written the same way Judas, Balaam, Achan, Cain, Esau and Korah wrote theirs? (Remember, the beginning of your poem can’t be unwritten, but you can change the ending with God’s help.)

 

Do You Believe Your Poem Will Inspire Others?

  • Will it encourage?
  • Will it be a life example for someone?
  • Will it be a beacon of hope?
  • Will it describe the Joy and Grandeur you’ve found in serving the Lord?
  • Will your readers feel the desire to reach higher, draw closer and believe for more?
  • Could your poem be put to music and become a song glorifying Jesus Christ?
  • Will it be written in sweetness?
  • Will your poem be about self-denial and decreasing so that He may increase?
  • Will your poem make its readers want to live the same kind of life you did?
  • Will God smile approval as He peruses your pages?
  • Will God publish your poem?
  • Will He put yours on His bookshelf?

 

poems

They Read You Like A Book

 

 Have You Ever Read Any Of These Poems?

  • James Kilgore
  • G.T. Haywood
  • M. E. Burr
  • Ike Terry
  • Billy Cole
  • H. B. Morgan
  • Lonnie Marcus
  • Clyde Haney
  • David Gray

 

What Happened To Your Heart When You Read These Poems?

  • Content Faith Ballestero
  • June Starr Davis
  • Nona Freeman
  • Emilie O’Brien
  • Agnes Holmes
  • Willie Johnson
  • Lena Spillman

 

What Did You Feel When You Read These?

  • Dorcas
  • Hannah
  • Ruth
  • Rahab
  • Jochebed
  • Rizpah

 

Did You Fall In Love With Jesus Christ Anew When You Read Any Of These?

  • Carl J. Ballestero
  • W.R. Starr
  • Verbal Bean
  • A.D. Urshan
  • Wendell Gleason
  • J.B. Lambeth
  • G.A. Mangun
  • J.T. Pugh
  • Cleveland Becton
  • Bill Bowman
  • Robert Cavaness Sr
  • William Garrett
  • J. Frank Wilson
  • Patrick Wilson
  • Stanley R. Hanby
  • J.L. Pipkin
  • Charles Grisham
  • Juan Alvear
  • Don Johnson
  • A.O. Holmes
  • Hebert Starr
  • Paul Leaman
  • James Springer

 

(Warning! You Will Soon Become A Product Of What You Read! Choose Your Reading Material Carefully!)

 

When Your Children Read Your Life’s Poem…

  • Will they be enthralled with the sweetness of your story?
  • Will they hold their heads up high and say, “My dad wrote that!” or “My mom wrote that!”?
  • Will they be repulsed by church standards?
  • Will they hate church and preachers because of your poem?
  • Will they look at all Christians as hypocrites because of your poem?
  • Will they treasure the opportunity to live for God because they read your poem?
  • Will they rise up and call you blessed?

 

Here’s Some Advice From Me, An Old Man, Whose Poem Is About Finished.

If we are to be His poem (or handiwork) then we should let Him do all the writing. Why not put the pen back in His hands? You will never regret letting Him order your life. If you let Him be the Author and the Finisher of your poem, everyone will love reading it. Never let anyone, not used of God, make changes or edit your poem!

 

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

God wrote a poem

Just using you!

 

 

 

Remember, The World Can Read You Like A Book!

 

 

Written by Martyn Ballestero

January 15, 2017 at 2:07 am

Posted in Christian Living

Tagged with ,

Will People Who Miss Church Go To Hell?

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Will People Who Miss Church Go To Hell?

 

Schools Take A Student’s Chronic Absenteeism Seriously!

For example:

  • In Georgia makes the parent accountable and takes them to court.
  • In Pennsylvania students who miss 18 cumulative days will be retained at their current grade level.

Sign on a billboard near where I live in Michigan says, “2 absences per month = less likely to graduate”

 

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It’s no secret. A student who finds a way to miss a couple of days a month during the school year, may never receive a diploma.

If you as good students and parents can grasp the value and importance of faithful school attendance, then you are beginning to see the light.

 

What If The Billboard Sign Said:

“2 absences from church per month = less likely to be saved”?

 

Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

 

Faithful church attendance is a Bible requirement!

Every church has those members who are hit-and-miss. They work a job that keeps them out of church. They live on the spiritual fringe. Most never seem to make up for lost time once the do get back in service.

Why gamble with your soul? Make this the year you choose to put your faithful attendance to the House of God at the very top of your New Years resolution list! You won’t be sorry!

 

Will People Who Miss Church Go To Hell?

My answer… Why would you even take the risk of missing church to find out?

 

 

(See you at church.)

 

Written by Martyn Ballestero

January 2, 2017 at 3:02 pm