Am I A Good Person?

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Am I A Good Person?

People around me may applaud and praise me as being a “good” person, but am I? What does Jesus say?

You know, the hungry, the thirsty, those I do not know, the naked, the sick, those who are in prison? The people whom the Father wants to be safe and sound in His kingdom as sons and daughters, treated just as though they were His beloved Son because they are His kindred, they ARE His flesh and blood –what does *that* Jesus say about me?

Do I deal with them on the basis of how they can or cannot advance my interests?

Or, will I deal with them on the basis of having an intense intolerance for the incongruity of insufficiency, illness and imprisonment with God’s kingdom and act with a sincere desire to bring their circumstances in-line with His intent?

That’s what Jesus did, after all.

How I engage the inconvenient and disinherited is a more accurate reflection of who I am and whether I ever knew Jesus than praise from other self-promoting people who I trade favors among.

“Then He also said to him who invited Him, ‘When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind.

And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.'”
—Luke 14:12-14

I have failed this test many times.

I repent.

Love seeks to remedy the inconsistencies between God’s heart and what’s happening, with whomever it’s happening, everywhere it’s happening.

“[Love] does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;”
—1 Corinthians 13:6

Love goes.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and COMING in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
-Philippians 2:5-8

Do you have such a heart? Is the same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus? To go until there is no place that His light has not shined?

There is a lot of work to do Christians.

How “good” we are is determined by whether we share the same heart as the only One who is good, who so loved the WORLD that He sent His only begotten Son that they may not perish but have everlasting life.

A desire to see “Your kingdom come, Your will be done” EVERYWHERE determines whether we hear “Come, you blessed of my Father” (Matthew 25:34), or “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:23, Matthew 25:41)

Love is the law. (Romans 13:8-10)

Let love be without hypocrisy. (Romans 12:9)

Father, help me to not be deceived by my own or the world’s sense of goodness. But, give me a heart that wants above all else to see Your kingdom come.

Create in me the heart to go, as Jesus did, to bring the Gospel not only to people’s hearing but also to what’s happening in their lives, to live as He lived that I may through obedience manifest the only One that is good: God, so that I can truly proclaim as my Lord did, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand”.

I ask this in service to my Master, your only begotten Son Jesus’ name.

Amen.

As Christians our constant occupation should be where to bring the Gospel, both to ears (word) and circumstances (deed), next.

“My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
—1 John 3:18

That’s good.

Good News

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Good News

We were hopelessly separated from God, but God provided a Way to overcome the sin that’s separating us, a Door to bridge the impossible chasm between us, the Truth that we may know Him, and Life that we may be with Him forever.

The gospel is we can be with God. Jesus is the Way.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'”
—John 14:6

When we realize that our most desperate need, our soul’s greatest desire is God, the Gospel becomes good news indeed!

#gospel

I Can’t Believe My Eyes

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - I Can't Believe My Eyes

Jesus said we are blind.
Jesus said we are deaf.

Yet we perceive an image and we register sounds.

What does this mean?

It means we’re hallucinating. The natural man is deluded.

We are under the influence of something.

Satan deceived us and we sinned. We declared ourselves enemies of God. We grasped for His power and sought to obtain knowledge apart from Him and we fell into delusion, under the spell and rule of the evil one.

We sought to know God on our own terms according to our own understanding but God will not allow it.

He has hidden Himself that our knowledge of Him is not obtained by our own wisdom, power or will, but that is obtained through Him.

“Just as it is written: ‘God has given them a spirit of stupor, Eyes that they should not see And ears that they should not hear, To this very day.'”
—Romans 11:8

We don’t get to say who He is, He tells us who He is, because nothing is more important than getting that right!

“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.”
—Isaiah 11:1-2

“And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!'”
—Luke 9:35

The only way to know God is if He reveals Himself and gives us sensitivity to perceive it.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
—John 1:12-13

God has revealed Himself and has ordained His Word as the means that we receive perception.

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
—Romans 10:17

Jesus is the Word in flesh.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
—John 1:14

“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;”
—Hebrews 1:1-2

The Gospel, the good news, is we were hopelessly separated from God -man’s most desperate need, but God has provided a Way to overcome the sin that’s separating us, a Door to bridge the impossible chasm between us, the Truth that we may know Him, and Life that we may be with Him forever. Jesus is the Way, The Door, The Truth and The Life.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'”
—John 14:6

However, the evil one is still actively working to separate us from God.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
—1 Peter 5:8

He is the god of this world that we gave over to him when we obeyed him and disobeyed God.

And, this world is the hallucination, the wool pulled over our eyes to distract us, to deceive us and blind us.

“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
—2 Corinthians 4:3-4

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
—1 John 2:15-17

So, we cannot trust our natural senses, what we see.

But thanks be to God,

“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
—2 Corinthians 4:6

Light is how we see. There is false light and the True Light.

“But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!”
—Matthew 6:23

We do not walk according to what we see naturally (sight) and according to the wisdom of this world.

“This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic.”
—James 3:15

We walk according to what Jesus reveals (faith).

“But, the just live by faith, not by sight.”
—2 Corinthians 5:7

We distrust our senses and trust Jesus, following Him, who, upon the revelation of Himself, commands us to come to Him and step out on what we cannot see.

“Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ And they cried out for fear.

But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid.’

And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’

So He said, ‘Come.’

And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.”
—Matthew 14:25-29

I endeavor to follow Jesus and “walk on water”.

If He is not real, I will perish.

But since I’ve been following Him, I have not yet utterly fallen.

Because, He is real.

This world is the delusion and the myth that it, under the rule and sway of the evil one, purports Jesus to be.

“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
—1 John 5:19

“We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
—1 John 4:6

We are in the Matrix for the sole purpose of saving people out.

Jesus is real. The world is not.

Which are you going to trust?

#gospel #lookagain

The One With The Most Fails

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The One With The Most Fails

Imagine if God gave to us with the intent that we give to others, to the extent that when He comes to judge our work that is counted as a failure if we have anything still in our account!

I believe Jesus drops a truth bomb here:

Consider the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30)

The Master gave varying amounts to three servants.

The only servant that failed was the one who still had what the Master had given.

But what about the two that succeeded?

They understood that they never owned what they were given. It was always the Master’s and they used it for His profit, not their own.

I repent!

My goal is to succeed and do likewise: to own nothing and use everything the Master gives me for His profit. And at His coming, my goal is for my account to be empty but for His house to be bursting at the seams.

The reward I seek is, “Well done good and faithful servant. Well done.”

#lookagain

Love Is More Than Kindness

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Love Is More Than Kindness

We often confuse a kind face with love. But love is not always approval, hugs and kisses. Sometimes love is resisting you to the face and telling you you’re wrong.

Love is much more than kindness.

Love will bruise you to make you better.

Love will brave the risk of your rejection and retaliation to help you.

Love will bear the expense for your profit, often ridicule and sorrow.

Love will boldly resist iniquity; what causes harm.

Love is so much more than kindness.

#perfectourlove

The Peculiar Prescription For My Peace

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - The Peculiar Prescription For My Peace

I was in trouble and Jesus rescued me.

He lifted me out of despair and set my feet on solid ground.

For more than a year now, Jesus has been turning my world upside down, teaching me the things that make for my peace.

Jesus has been teaching me to secure me, the things that make for my peace;

The more I give away, the more I have.
The less I possess, the more I can rest in Him.

“Forsake all and follow Me,” is not only the price of discipleship, it is the prescription for my peace.

Expect Trouble

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Expect Trouble

I believe the unhealthy and unrealistic expectation to always be happy contributes to a lot of misery.

As Solomon wisely wrote, “There is a season for everything under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3)

Well-being is not the absence of storms.

Well-being is being able to weather them.

Well-being is:
full consciousness of my feelings without relinquishing control,
anger, without sin, (Ephesians 4:26)
grief, with hope, (1 Thessalonians 4:13)
hard-pressed, yet not crushed,
perplexed, but not in despair,
persecuted, but not forsaken,
struck down, but not destroyed,
surrounded by death, but I still share life, (2 Corinthians 4:7-12)
tribulations, but I still have joy. (James 1:2)

You don’t develop such a temperament without being tempered, without difficulty. (James 1:2-4)

Storms will come. They’re a part of life, in fact, we need them to be well. Don’t hide from them. Harness them.

Don’t bring it on yourself (1 Peter 4:12-19), but expect trouble. (John 16:33, 2 Timothy 3:12) Prepare for it. Sit and glean wisdom at Jesus’ feet, fast, study, pray.

Learn to grow in strength so, like Jesus, you can weather anything and help others through the storm. (John 16:33, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

And, when you find yourself in a storm, count it all joy because you have sure shelter in Jesus Christ. (Matthew 7:24-25)

Not only will you and those sheltered with you not die, the storm will make you stronger. This is more than conquering.

Count it all joy.

Preach The Foolish Gospel

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - Preach The Foolish Gospel

I have a tendency to intellectualize things and want to make a compelling argument.

But far be it from me when God has chosen foolishness for me to make it reasonable and render it of no effect!

“For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”
—1 Corinthians 1:21

I was not called to win debates.

I was called to preach the gospel.

“And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
—1 Corinthians 2:4-5

Jesus said His sheep know His voice and they follow Him.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
—John 10:27

So, my aim is simply to speak with His voice by His Spirit to gather His Sheep to Him that He leads to good pasture in God.

If the preaching of His Anointed Word does not cause them to hear, nothing will.

If the foolishness of the gospel does not save them, nothing will.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
—1 Corinthians 1:18

The foolishness of the gospel is the God ordained means by which He chooses. It is His dividing rod. I must be careful not to modify it or corrupt it to make it suitable lest it is no longer the gospel.

I must trust God.

I must do it His way.

If I don’t, those who are “saved” by my “ministry” are not saved at all, rather they are deceived again by the deceitfully wicked heart of man.

Preach the foolish gospel.

Here it is:

God alone is good.

We sinned and thereby died, becoming instruments of death, killing and being killed, languishing in darkness, hopelessly separated from God and condemned to the same destruction of every evil thing by a good and Holy God.

But, God demonstrating His exceeding goodness and love provided a Way, while we were His enemies, that we can be with Him. Jesus is the Way.

God came Himself, to do what only He could do, taking the form of man by sending His Son to live a sinless life so that He might be the perfect sacrifice -a sacrifice infinitely greater than sheep, goats and bulls, a sacrifice sufficient for the sins of the whole world for all time. Because, without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

But, God through Jesus, who having the riches of God, paid the debt and took the penalty we owe -death. God made Him who knew no sin become sin that we might become the righteousness of God.

God through Jesus provides a way of salvation from the death we are dying now and the death to come.

But, God not only had Jesus to die for us. Jesus being God laid down His life and took it up again. He was raised from the dead as the firstborn of a new creation which we become part of as a new creature when we believe.

And, this is the good news: we can be with God.

Our sin is great but God’s love is greater and God has provided a Way to be with Him for all who will accept it. Jesus is the Way.

We accept it by believing God, that Jesus is God who came in the flesh, that He is the Word, that He alone makes the truth of who God is known to us, that He died for our sin and that He was raised from the dead.

Acceptance is indicated by repenting of our sin: denouncing the world -the kingdom of darkness, forsaking it with joy in exchange for the kingdom of light, seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness above all, confessing Jesus as King and Master and giving our lives to Him who in turn reconciles us to God.

When we believe God, not only does He account Jesus’ payment on the cross to our account so that our current, past and future debt is forever paid, He gives us new life, making us righteous and acceptable in the Beloved, making us instruments of life rather than death through the same Power that raised Jesus from the dead -the Holy Spirit, and by Him makes available to us all of the riches of God, including a bodily resurrection on the Last Day so we can be with God forever.

God has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.

God has done this, not we ourselves, so it will not fail.

God did it for Himself, not for us, so His reason will never change.

God didn’t do it because we earned it, deserve it, or because of anything desirable in us, quite the contrary.

God did it because He’s just that good.

And, the good news is that we can be with God.

Repent.

Accept what God’s done.

Believe in Him who God sent: Jesus.

And, be saved.

#gospel #preaching #perfectourlove

52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #21 – A Quiz (About Fasting)

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - 52 Weeks Of Gratefulness #21 - A Quiz (About Fasting)

In week 21 of 52 Weeks of Gratefulness, I give thanks for a quiz.

I was at Rosey Baby’s for lunch and as I was leaving I passed a table where Monica Banks was having lunch with a colleague.

She was aware that I had recently accepted my call to the ministry and she motioned for me to come to her table.

Now Mrs. Banks was constantly investing in people, looking to develop leaders in the community and trying to help them get to the next level.

She asked me a question, “What does it mean to fast?”

She was quizzing me, because, being a seasoned woman of faith and also a minister, she knew the answer better than I did.

I gave her an answer that may have been technically correct but I could sense from my delivery and from her response that it was from my head but not from my heart. It was something I thought, not something I knew.

She responded, “Thank you, Reverend. Hug Melissa and those babies for me.”

That was almost two decades ago, and since that moment I’ve been pondering her question in my heart.

Providential factors: life, seeking, surviving a crisis of faith, and reading the following passage at just the right time brought her question full circle.

“And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”
—Deuteronomy 8:2-3

All that God does is to make Himself known. There is not only no higher good, there is no good beside that.

It is during a fast where the cloak of our sufficiency is removed and we are confronted with the depth of our earthly dependencies to the point of idolatry. We are confronted with our reaction to withdrawal from them and the true condition of our heart from which our reactions spring.

God’s objective toward us is to perfect us so that He can shine through us, like He does through Jesus, His only begotten Son.

**We can either do it with Him** and cooperate by willingly putting things down and exercise ourselves to godliness through disciplines such as fasting, **or it can happen to us** through a “forced fast” like the one experienced in this passage by the Children of Israel as they are tried and trained in the wilderness.

Either way, we’re going to be made to learn, if we’re His. And, it’s for our good.

“If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.”
—Hebrews 12:7-8

We can either seek out opportunities to confront those things that get between us and God, that block His love to and through us, or find ourselves thrust into situations that cause us to confront them, or both.

He desires to make us stronger, to conform us to the image of Christ, until like Jesus we are steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

It is a work that He will complete without fail.

“being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ”
—Philippians 1:6

God wants to grow us to the point where, when the enemy attacks us at our weakest point, tempting us, our Strength is so overwhelming we can respond, “Man shall not live by bread alone [our earthly dependencies or whatever Satan’s offering], but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

But [Jesus] answered [Satan’s temptation] and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
—Matthew 4:4

Fasting is a spiritual discipline of forsaking natural satisfaction in pursuit of spiritual sustenance.

Without the **pursuit** of God, fasting is just dieting.

But, a real fast is much more.

Fasting is more than abstaining, it’s availing ourselves of the sustenance only God can provide, through seeking His revelation, obedience to what He reveals, while putting aside our earthly comforts and dependencies to rely on Him alone.

“In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’

But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat of which you do not know.’

Therefore the disciples said to one another, ‘Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?’

Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.'”
—John 4:31-34

Fasting is strength conditioning, where at the point of our weakness, His strength is made perfect. It is preparation for the trials that are sure to come.

I’m so thankful to my dear sister in Christ, Monica Banks, for her quiz that prepares me for the test.

I’m grateful.

#52WoG #fasting #spiritualwarfare

What To Do When I’m Not Feeling It

Paul Luckett | Brainflurry.com - What To Do When I'm Not Feeling It

Anyone who has been married for any significant amount of time can tell you that there are days when you’re “not feeling it”.

It’s the whole reason faithfulness is a thing.

If I were “feeling it” all the time, there would be no need for faithfulness.

On those days that I’m not feeling it, I **feel** like doing something that makes me feel better, that satisfies my craving, that soothes my pain, that fills what I’m lacking…

But, I **choose** to be faithful: to continually advance that which I have committed to.

“Feel”
Sense
Senses:
Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing, Sight

Sight

But, the just live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7)

I must choose to be faithful.

#perfectourlove #thriveday