Books
Time of Judgment
by Linda Sedrick Pearson
Malachi 4:1-3 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts. (King James Version)
Malachi 4:1-3 “That time of judgment is coming. It will be like a hot furnace. All the proud people will be punished. All the evil people will burn like straw. At that time they will be like a bush burning in the fire, and there will not be a branch or root left.” This is what the LORD All-Powerful said. “But, for my followers, goodness will shine on you like the rising sun. And it will bring healing power like the sun’s rays. You will be free and happy, like calves freed from their stalls. Then you will walk on the evil people–they will be like ashes under your feet. I will make this happen at the time of judgment.” This is what the LORD All-Powerful said. (Easy Reader Version)
In these verses, God says that the day of judgment will be like a hot furnace. People full of their own selfish pride will be punished. All evil people will burn like straw. Nothing evil will be left untouched by that burning.
God’s followers will not suffer that burning. Instead, goodness will shine on you and you will be healed. You will have freedom and happiness. You will walk on those evil ones that are burned. They will be like ashes under your feet!
During these times it may sometimes look as if the wicked and evil ones are winning. But as we can see by these verses, that is not the case. When all has been said and done, we will tromp on them as they get their just due.
Which group are you in right now? Search your heart, mind, and soul. Which group would you like to be in? Hopefully you choose God’s side – the Christian side. Choose to be a follower of Jesus Christ who came in the flesh and died for your sins. Confess your sins. Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. Today is the day to choose.
Love and Fear
by Linda Sedrick Pearson
2 Timothy 1:6-7 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (Easy Reader Version, ERV)
2 Timothy 1:6-7 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (King James Version, KJV)
Stir up the gift of God that is in you. What is that gift? That gift is love. Why did Jesus Christ come in the flesh to die for our sins? Because of love. No one will ever love you like God loves you. So stir up that love inside of you. Realize that God loves you. Hold it close, stir it up, fan the flames of that love.
God doesn’t give us a spirit of fear. If you are walking around afraid of things, maybe you need to take another look at the spirit that is in you. It could be that instead of the Spirit of God, it is a spirit of satan. When fear comes, look inside of yourself to see exactly what spirit is causing it. Find the root of the problem and it boot it out through prayer, confession, and most of all love of God. Use the sound mind and power that God gave you – use it to pull up that root of fear that is within you. Cast it out of you, reject it. Clease yourself by confessing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He came in the flesh, was born of a virgin, died on the cross for every sin of every person, was resurrected and now sits on the right hand of God the Father. Confess these things out loud when fear comes and soon that fear must flee away from you. There is power in the name of Jesus and in your confession of all these things that Jesus Christ did. Be set free! God loves you!
Spiritual Warfare – Discernment
by Linda Sedrick Pearson
1. Investigate the facts.
Make sure a statement is true before you accept it as truth. Be willing to fight your own feelings and preferences to find the honesty of the facts. They must line up with the truth of God’s Word even if that goes against what you feel or thought you knew.
2. Make sure it lines up with God’s Word.
A statement or action must line up with God’s Word without you taking away from or adding to the scriptures in order to make it fit. This is the only way to get the real truth. If it does not fit 100% with God’s Word, then it is either a complete lie or falsehood or at least a partial lie. It doesn’t matter what you think or feel about a truth. If it is the truth, it is what God gives us about it and we must accept it as truth.
3. If it is a true fact, accept it even if it doesn’t “feel good” by the world’s standards.
The world tries to convince us that if something “feels good” then it is okay. When God works on us through His Word, it doesn’t always “feel good” at the time. We have to confront our own sins, confess them, ask God’s forgiveness, and receive His forgiveness. We have to deal with anger, disappointments, rejections, and many other “feel bad” things before we can accept God’s whole truth. The key is to deal with these things. Stand up for the truth no matter what.
4. Be careful of what you stand in argument with.
Make sure everything lines up biblically with God’s program of salvation and eternal living. If it has any other purpose, reject it and do not be in agreement with it. Don’t be led astray by something that half true.
5. Train yourself to be spiritually discerning.
You can train yourself through Bible study, prayer, meditating on God’s Word, and by being alert at all times. This does not mean to be suspicious of everything and everyone. It means to test the spirits, think about it, pray about it, look for scriptures to back it up, ask God’s help and advice on how to deal with anything or anyone you are not sure about. Train yourself to be discerning.
6. Be prepared to take a stand even if everyone else is in agreement with a situation.
There are many instances in the Bible when one or two persons had to stand against a crowd because the crowd was wrong. The crowd thought they were right. The one or two persons knew the crowd was wrong and they were right. Right is right no matter what someone else thinks or feels. It is the truth – stand on the truth even if you face rejection. God will NOT reject you.
7. Resist deceptions of Satan and build up your discerning spirit.
Satan will do anything he can to deceive you, including giving you just enough of God’s Word – with his twist on the end of it. This is when you need to go back to number one above and investigate the facts. Is it all true? Is it 50% true? Is none of it true? Discern the truth. Open your spiritual eyes and wake up your spiritual mind. Pay attention to the details. That is the Godly way of handling things. Spiritual discerning is having the right wisdom to know the truth.
God Always Calls You by Your Name
Linda Sedrick Pearson
Scripture: 1 Samuel 3:4-10
God knew Samuel by name even though Samuel did not know the Lord yet. God knows you by name also even if you do not yet know Him. He calls you by your name. He speaks it – utters it out loud, waiting for you to respond to His voice.
God doesn’t give up when we don’t answer Him the first time. Do you hear Him calling you? Is He whispering your name? Maybe He is shouting your name to get your attention and you still don’t answer Him.
God always calls you by your name. He knows everyone’s name. God didn’t just stumble onto you. He always had a plan and purpose for you. God works through people. He needs us and we need him. Be thankful we serve the one and only God.
When God called Samuel the third time, Samuel still did not answer Him. Did God stop calling Samuel? No. Instead, the fourth time the LORD came and stood in the room with Samuel and then called his name.
Samuel responded, but only because he had been taught by Eli how to respond. The older servant of God (Eli) taught Samuel that all he had to do was lay still and respond, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears you.” When Samuel did that, God began to speak and tell Samuel things that were to happen.
The next time you think you hear someone calling you, but everyone says they did not say your name, maybe you should respond, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears you.”
Doctor It
by Linda Sedrick Pearson
Have you ever had a sore that you didn’t doctor? You know that if you don’t put any salve on the wound soon it will become a huge festering thing. Every minute, hour and day that goes by without medicine makes it grow bigger and it hurts more.
There are lots of things in our lives that are like that.
Are you a person without Jesus Christ in your life? The longer you go without Jesus, the worse you become. If you continue in this way, your whole being is eventually consumed.
Perhaps at one time, you tried serving the Lord. Then, one day, someone said something that hurt your feelings. Maybe this person did it intentionally and maybe not. Instead of confronting that person, you sit and think over and over again what the person said to you. Every time you think on this, the sore gets bigger. Why not take the salve of the Holy Spirit and put it on the wound? How do you do that? Go and talk to the person who caused you injury.
There is a good chance that the person didn’t realize what he or she was doing. Not only will you rescue yourself, but you may even rescue the other person from festering sores. It may even stop them from injuring someone else.
It’s time we stopped giving the devil entry into our lives. Stand up for God. Let’s learn how to handle these things in a godly manner.
Church is NOT a Building
“Upon this rock I will build my church,” (Matthew 16:18) “and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
The rock is the foundation plan to life. It is the salvation plan of God for all mankind. Salvation never wavers. It is people who waver, not God’s plan of salvation.
Salvation is the rock upon which all faith, hope, spiritual gifts, and all else from God is built upon. And salvation is “Christ, the Son of the living God,” (Matthew 16:16)
All those who will be saved are saved throguh believing and accepting and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That is the foundation of our faith. That is the rock Jesus was telling Peter about in Matthew 16:18. When saved (when you receive the free gift of payment for your sins) Jesus Christ, the Rock of your salvation, protects you. The gates of hell, which is all evil and wickedness, will not win because it is all battling against that Rock – Jesus Christ.
So, now that we have established what the rock mentioned in Matthew 16:18 actually is, let’s look at what the church is NOT. First, it is NOT a building made with hands, although we use the word “church” to refer to a meeting place where a local body of Christians gather for Bible study, prayer, praise, teaching, and preaching.
Matthew 18:17 is talking about how the people (“the church”) should handle a situation if there is a sin against one Christian by another Christian. First back up to verse 15 in Matthew chapter 18. The Christian that was sinned against is to go alone to the Christian that harmed him or her and try to work out their problem in a Christian manner (verse 15). If the Christian that committed the sin does not correct the offensive behavior, then the one that is sinned against should go back to him or her and this time take one or two other Christians with her as witnesses to confront the offending Christian (verse 16). If the offender still does not listen, then Matthew 18:17 says to “tell it to the church.”
Now, this is one verse that shows us that the “church” referred to is NOT a building. Common sense tells us that we would not stand in front of a building and speak to it about someone offending us or about troubles we are having between one another. Or suppose you do believe that one speaks to a building. That is possible. Any of us could stand in front of, or inside of, a building and speak to it.
Let’s look at verse 17 again in Matthew chapter 18. It continues on to say “…but if he neglect to hear the church…” In order to “hear the church,” the church must be speaking. Right? Does a building speak? NO! So how can a person “hear the church?” It means that the people are “the church” and they are speaking about this matter and how to deal with it.
Next, let’s take a look at Acts 20:28. “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” We need to break this down and take a look at the different phrases given here that helps us understand that the church is a group of people and not a building.
Let’s look at the phrase “feed the church of God.” This means that the people are to be fed both spiritually (always) and physically (as needed). Does a building hear teaching and preaching (spiritual feeding)? NO! Does a building eat food (physical feeding)? NO!
Moving on, the next phrase to look at is, “which he hath purchased with his own blood.” In this verse the word he is talking about Jesus. Jesus purchased the church of God with Jesus’ own blood. Did Jesus come to die on the cross and shed his blood for a building? Absolutely NOT! He came to shed his blood and die for people, for us. So we are to “feed the church of God” or in other words, “feed the Christian people.”
One more verse, in case you are still not convinced that the church is NOT a building (even though we call some buildings churches). Colossians 1:18 reads, “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.” Jesus Christ is the “head of the body.” He is the head, we as Christians are the body. We, the people, are who God uses as His tongue, mouth, hands, feet, eyes, ears, heart, and all other parts of the body as God has need to use. We are “the body” mentioned in this verse. It is NOT a building made with hands, but instead is a group of saved people. These people are saved by the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins. When you accept the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, you receive eternal life and become a child of God. You also become one in that body – groups of Christian people joined together by one Head – Jesus Christ! This is done so that Jesus “might have the pre-eminence.” Pre-eminence means first place. Jesus Christ is to have first place in all things.
(Written by Linda Sedrick Pearson.)
Be Prepared
God expects us to be prepared at all times. Prepared for what? Several things. First, we are to be prepared to by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. That is step one.
Next, we are to study our Bibles daily and know the word of God. This prepares us to battle the temptations and trials that come against us. We are to pair this with constant prayer. These tools will prepare us for spiritual battles.
We are also to be prepared by knowing what we believe and why we believe it so that if someone asks we have answers. As Christians, we should always be able to tell exactly what we believe. Do not say, “I believe what my church believes.” That is not an answer. If that is what you usually answer, think about what exactly does your church believe.
Questions to Ask Yourself and Answer
- Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?
- Do you believe that Jesus was born of the flesh to a virgin (she had not had sex with any man)?
- Do you believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, impregnated the virgin, Mary?
- Do you believe that Jesus Christ took on the sins of everyone and those were nailed to the cross?
- Do you believe that Jesus Christ is our gift from God so that we can be saved?
- Do you believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven – He is the only way to cross the gulf of sin that separates us from God?
- Do you believe that you cannot do enough good works to make it to heaven?
- Do you believe that baptism does not save you?
- Do you believe that no matter what you do, you cannot be good enough to make it to heaven on your own merits?
- Do you believe that you have to confess your sins to God and accept (receive) Jesus Christ as your Savior in order to be saved?
If you could answer yes to everyone of those questions, you are close to being prepared. I say “close” because I do not know if you do daily Bible study and prayer. Those are important tools that feed our spiritual bodies and we must have a daily diet of each one.
Be prepared, stay prepared. Grab that Bible, carry it with you. Read it during the day. Read it in the morning with your breakfast. Read it in the afternoon with your lunch. Read it in the evening with your evening meal. Read it at bedtime. With each reading, pray. Pray for God to give you understanding and knowledge of what you read.
Soaring Servants: Women in God’s Service – New Book Release!
New Release!
My new book, Soaring Servants: Women in God’s Service, is published and available for sale. You can read all about it and order you copy at PS Publishing (USA).
Witnessing
by Linda Sedrick Pearson
A witness is someone who testifies of things he knows because the witness has personally seen, heard, and experienced what he testifies about. He does not tell of things he does not personally know about. It has to be things he has personally experienced through his own eyes and ears.
If you have been struggling with how to witness to others, just tell what you know about God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Read 1 John 1:1-4 and those verses, written by the apostle John, tell you how they witnessed. They witnessed about things they knew, heard, and saw. Continue reading
How Important is Discipleship?
Did you know that there are 257 verses and 274 times within those verses that the word disciple or disciples appears? This means that disciples and discipleship training must be a very important aspect of the Christian life. Or at least God must think so. Why else would He have mentioned about disciples so many times in His word – the Bible.
The first mention of disciples is in the Old Testament, Isaiah 8:16. Although God was talking to Isaiah and the houses of Israel and Judah, He was also talking to us and commanding us to teach the ways of God to others.
“Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples” (King James Version). Continue reading
