Archives for September 2015

Good morning,

I try to get to the gym five times a week. My body is getting older and needs to be exercised to stay healthy. It is important to be active so that I can continue to write, teach God’s word, and preach. The goal is to be able to minister for Christ till the Rapture or death.

Paul had the same perspective.  First Corinthians 9:24-27 states, “²⁴ Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. ²⁵ And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. ²⁶ I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: ²⁷ But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

Paul wanted to finish strong. He desired to always be fit to preach the gospel. He never wanted to lose the right to preach God’s word.

Each one of us has a unique ministry that God has given us. We need to make ourselves ready for the opportunities to share God’s word with others. Spiritually does that mean more time in prayer, Bible study, stepping out and sharing Christ with others? Whatever it is, GET BUSY!

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

 

Good morning,

Please read and reflect on this devotional. It will be an encouragement to all.

A special privilege and comfort of old-age

(Richard Steele, “A Discourse Concerning Old-age, Tending to the Instruction, Caution and Comfort of Aged People” 1688)

“The silver-haired head is a crown of glory–IF it is found in the way of righteousness.” Proverbs 16:31

Now the older a man grows–the wiser should he grow. And the wiser he grows–the less likely he is to chose evil. The more divine strokes and judgments he has seen upon evil-doers–the more he should be afraid of tampering with it.

A special privilege and comfort of old-age is that it is richer in experience than any other age. The aged believer can tell experimentally . . .
of the wisdom and justice of God’s providence,
of the truth of His promises and threatenings,
of the devices of Satan,
of the deceitfulness of riches,
of the wisdom of integrity,
of the vanity of all carnal delights,
of the wickedness of his own heart.
Old-age is rich in the experience of these things, whereby they are able to govern themselves, and to advise others. Their . . .
judgments are more refined,
passions are more sedate,
graces are more strong,
actions are more consistent,
and their spiritual stature is taller.

Trace some godly aged men from morning to night, you shall still find them . . .
so discreet in their charity,
so grave in their counsels,
so savory in their discourse,
so constant in their piety,
so considerate in their resolutions,
so faithful in their reproofs,
so poised in their temper,
so charitable in their censures, and
so uniform and useful in their lives–
that their practice may be a perpetual sermon–and an example to teach others their duty to God and man.

By long experience, aged believers are taught to avoid many dangers, which others fall into. Their manifold experience of the deceitfulness of the flesh, of the world, and of the devil–has enabled them to counter and somewhat conquer them. And their experience renders them able to give the most prudent counsels, and to forewarn others of those consequences which they easily foresee–IF they have treasured up wisdom according to their years.

“The silver-haired head is a crown of glory–IF it is found in the way of righteousness.” Proverbs 16:31

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

Good morning,

We may have audience with the King of the universe!

(Jared Waterbury)

Prayer is a difficult, and often an arduous work–but it is the life and soul of a Christian.
It is not only his incumbent duty–but his most precious privilege.

My Christian friend, the Throne of Grace is yours!
Your Father is seated on it.
Your Savior has sprinkled it with His blood.
The Holy Spirit draws you sweetly to kneel before it.
The promise, when there, is, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it!”

What an honor thus to approach the King of kings! Were we to have audience with an earthly monarch–we would deem it the superlative event in our history, and boast of it through life. But we may have audience with the King of the universe! Nay, we have liberty to approach Him at any time, and under all circumstances!
Have we needs? He can supply them.
Are we in trouble? He can extricate us.
Do afflictions press our souls? He can mitigate and remove them.
Does sin pollute our joys? With Him is the fountain of cleansing.
Does Satan vex our souls? He invites us to His arms as our refuge.

God knows your infirmities, your temptations, and your trials–and is ever ready to afford you relief.

There is nothing which so elevates the morals and character, as deep and intimate communion with God.

The godly man converses with God. At the Throne of Grace we acquire a benevolence, a dignity, a humility, which . . .
throws around us an attractive luster,
puts sweetness into every action and expression,
makes us . . .
contented in every condition of life,
patient under every affliction, and
faithful in the discharge of every duty!

“Let us therefore come boldly to the Throne of Grace–that we may obtainmercy and find grace to help in time of need!” Hebrews 4:16

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

Good morning,

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement is over. The yearly process of seeking God, identifying and repenting of sin completed, the sacrifice made by the High Priest has been accomplished, so now comes the process of renewal.

The Bible speaks of several areas of renewal.

Mind

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans 12:2)

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; (Ephesians 4:23)

Spirit

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Titus 3:5)

Knowledge

And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: (Colossians 3:10)

Strength

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment. (Isaiah 41:1)

Youth

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s. (Psalm 103:5)

Allow God to renew you today.

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

Good morning,

Last evening began Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. The Bible prescribes Yom Kippur as a day of affliction (Lev 16; 23:26-32). In the ancient world, the High Priest woke up early, donned his priestly garments, and sacrificed a bull for both himself and his family. He then cast lots over two goats, choosing one for the Lord and designating the other as the goat to remove sin. Only on this day did the High Priest enter into the Holy of Holies in the Temple to offer incense and sprinkle blood on the Ark of the Covenant. Before concluding the sacrifices by burning both the bull and the goat, the High Priest placed blood from the Lord’s goat onto the second goat. He then cast the second goat into the wilderness, thus symbolically removing Israel’s sin.

Followers of Jesus the Messiah confidently look forward to eternal life, because our names are written in the Book of Life. When Jesus died, the veil of the Holy of Holies ripped in two, symbolically breaking a barrier between humans and the presence of God. Previously, only the High Priest had access to this room, and he only entered it once a year on Yom Kippur (Matt. 27:51). However, Jesus’ death gives believers access to God, because He entered into the Heavenly Holy of Holies to offer His blood for our redemption (Heb 9:11-12). Unlike the Israelites’ annual sacrifices on Yom Kippur, Jesus’ one sacrifice continues to provide atonement to this day. Yom Kippur, for followers of Jesus, reminds us of the certainty of our redemption through the blood of our Messiah and High Priest, Jesus.

Today our Jewish friends will spend the day fasting, praying, repenting of sin, and beginning the process of renewal for the coming year. It is a time for reconciliation between man and God. However, with no Temple and no blood sacrifice, they are unable to complete this reconciliation. When the Messiah came, paid the debt of sin we owed, by being the blood sacrifice on the cross, the eternal reconciliation was made.

Want to know more? Call me.

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

 

Good morning,

This is short but packed with truth.

Christ must be all!

(Octavius Winslow)

“Christ is all!” Colossians 3:11

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith!” Hebrews 12:2

We cannot keep our eye too exclusively or too intently fixed on Jesus.
All salvation is in Him.
All salvation proceeds from Him.
All salvation leads to Him.
And for the assurance and comfort of our salvation, we are to repose believingly and entirely on Him. 

Christ the beginning–Christ the center–and Christ the end.

Oh sweet truth–to you who are sensible of your spiritual poverty, vileness, and insufficiency, and of the ten thousand flaws and failures of which, perhaps, no one is cognizant but God and your own soul! Oh, to turn and rest in Christ–a full Christ–a loving Christ–a tender Christ, whose heart’s love never chills, from whose eye darts no reproof, from whose lips breathes no sentence of condemnation! Christ must be all!

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

Good morning,

This is an encouraging devotion for the beginning of your week.

The saints’ everlasting rest!

(Jared Waterbury)

“There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.” Hebrews 4:9

All earthly Sabbaths are not worthy to be compared with that eternal rest, where the unfettered, unpolluted soul shall worship the Lamb without interruption and without end!

The body will there not impede, but augment our happiness; for it will be a spiritual body, which can no longer be the medium of temptation, and which shall experience no fatigue.

Nor will sin, O blissful thought, be there, to dim our eye or to pollute our worship.
We shall not only see God–but see Him with unobstructed vision.
We shall not only love Him–but love Him with unwavering affections.
We shall not only praise Him–but praise Him in pure, exalted strains forever.

Glorious rest! Let us rise and hasten towards it with renewed vigor, for “Here we have no continuing city.”

PRAYER
Blessed be your name, O God, that You have prepared and reserved an everlasting rest for Your people. This poor world, You have taught us, is the scene of our toilsome pilgrimage–that we are not to expect our Heaven here. Yet O, how often are we building tabernacles on earth! We act as if this world were to be our permanent abode. Enable us, O God, to cast the eye of faith forward to the rest that remains for the people of God. Give us such views of its alluring glories, as shall make the brightest scenes of earth look dim. Let us see the enthroned Lamb! Let us see the pure company of the glorified saints and angels. Let us have a sweet foretaste of the celestial joys. Then, O God, shall we cease to desire the honors or the pleasures of this vain world. Then shall we forsake its attractions–allured by visions of so much superior luster. Amen.

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

Good morning,

The little book of Jude is very challenging for our day. It addresses the problems that our world is dealing with.

Today we will look at our responsibilities. Jude tells us to pray, preach, and praise.

Pray, preach, praise (verses 20-25)

²⁰ But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, ²¹ Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. ²² And of some have compassion, making a difference: ²³ And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. ²⁴ Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, ²⁵ To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

Encourage one another. Pray for the believers and the un-believers. Tell them about Jesus. Praise God because in the end WE Win!

Conclusion

False teachers will try to deceive you

Contend for the faith

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

 

Good morning,

The little book of Jude is very challenging for our day. It addresses the problems that our world is dealing with.

Today we will look at examples of wickedness, God’s condemnation, and the acts of the false teachers.

Examples of wickedness and God’s condemnation (verses 5-7)

⁵ I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. ⁶ And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. ⁷ Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Numbers 16:1-3, 23-35, Genesis 19:12-13, 24-28

Wickedness always results in condemnation by God!

Acts of the false teachers (verses 8-19)

⁸ Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. ⁹ Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. ¹⁰ But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. ¹¹ Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. ¹² These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; ¹³ Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. ¹⁴ And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, ¹⁵ To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. ¹⁶ These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage. ¹⁷ But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; ¹⁸ How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. ¹⁹ These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.

These are the men and women who are trying to deceive believers and non-believers today.

Now ponder the world we live in today. Jude was spot on in telling us what to expect in our current culture.

Tomorrow Jude tells what we must do.

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001

 

Good morning,

The little book of Jude is very challenging for our day. It addresses the problems that the world is dealing.

Today we will look at contending for the faith.

Contend for the faith (verses 1-4)

¹ Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: ² Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. ³ Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. ⁴ For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jude exhorts the believers to “contend for the faith” because “ungodly men denied the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is very prevalent today. Men and women are denying Jesus Christ. We as believers in Jesus Christ must correct the errors of the false teachers. That entails knowing our Bible and using it to refute the heresies being communicated.

If we fail to act, Satan wins. If the false teachers can distract, get people to believe half truths, or just outright lies, Satan wins. WHY? Those of us who have the correct answers fail to communicate it to our friends, families, and world around us.

CONTEND FOR THE FAITH!

Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001