Do you count your blessings? / Monthly message August 05

Do you count your blessings?

Matthew 5:45 "...for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who won't survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of millions of people around the world.

If you attend a Christian church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than almost three billion people in the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somewhere, you are among the top 8 percent of the world's wealthy.

If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read anything at all.

We are very blessed in so many ways that we may never even know.

Psa 100:4 Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. Psa 50:23 Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God. Psa 9:2 I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart..., Psa 75:2 We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks!..., Psa 105:1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name..., Psa 106:1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD for HE is good..., Psa 107:1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good..., Ps 111,1 I will praise the LORD with my whole heart..., Psa 118, 1 Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good..., Psa 136,1Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good..., Psa 138,1 I will praise You with my whole heart...

PS: …if you are an Apostolic, filled with the Holy Ghost and baptized in Jesus name, living a holy life – you are on your way to heaven. This beats every blessing mentioned above. You are truly blessed and you owe it all to the cross at Calvary.

With all that is in me I give thanks to Jesus for my salvation and for all His blessings. I glorify Him alone; He is the One God and Only Saviour.

Comment:
However, all these things concern our present and not eternity. Poor Lazarus spent his time in front of the gate of the rich man; the rich man, however, was more blessed than Lazarus in material things.

The rich man looked forward everyday to his blessing; however, due to being so wrapped up in all his busy activities, he did not take hold of his opportunity for eternity and did not consider it to be very important. At the end, it was too late for him. When he was buried and went down to the pit, he lifted his eyes up in hell, and he was fully aware that he had not paid attention to the most important thing: THE WORD OF GOD.

How many people today are heading the same way downwards as this man, of whom Jesus Christ spoke about in the gospel of Luke?

Wealth and prosperity is a blessing, however, only in the case when it does not have control over us! In order to find out whether this is the case, you have to examine yourself and take a look at what we have done for Jesus Christ up until now.

a. Have we obeyed His gospel?
Mark 16,16; Acts 2,37-40 ; 2 Thess. 1,6-9
b. Have we been baptized in water for the forgiveness of our sins, just like He commanded?
c. Have we been filled with His Spirit which He promised to all those who believe in HIM?
Mark 1,8; Acts 1,8; 2,1-4; 8, 12-17; 10,44-48
d. Would we be willing to leave everything behind, to also give up our plans and follow Jesus wherever HE wants to lead us?
Math. 10,38; Luc 9,23-25; 18,18-24
e. If just one of these answers happens to be “no”, then the rich man down below will also shake his head about your lack of concern and your doubt - for you will end up meeting him. That is definite. Eternity also has no end there.

Lazarus, on the other hand, when he died, he was brought by angels to a land which is called heaven. He had prepared himself for this. He was wise, he was also poor and yet he possessed more than all the rich upon this earth.

There were many who were poor at the time of Jesus and yet not all of them followed HIM. Lazarus recognized Jesus for who He was and he was accepted by Him.

Whoever does not have Christ Jesus in his life, whether they are rich or poor, will end up spending eternity without HIM. It is a shame that a person wants to be more clever than God; for material blessing is not a sign for their future salvation and poverty likewise.

Do you count your blessings? rw