BE CONFIDENT!!

STEPHEN RICHIE

"So do not throw away your confidence.  It will be richly rewarded.  You need to persevere so that, when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  For in just a very little while, He Who is coming will come and will not delay.  But my righteoous one will live by faith and if he shrinks back  I will not be pleased with him.  But we are NOT of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved."  Hebrews 10: verses 35-39

Optimism is a strong trait in any businessman.  It has helped many to overcome tremendous obstacles in the life of their business.  Many who are ill depend upon optimism to get better and go home to spend more time being healthy and lead a productive life.  Eternal life is the key to us as Christians.  It gives us the opportunity to witness and share Jesus with others.

Optimism is NOT enough, though, in the Christian's life.  We must have FAITH.  Confidence in our faith is the key to becoming a stronger Christian and growing in our witness.  It helps us not to shrink back from the faith our LORD has instilled.  He has instilled faith in each one of His believers.  Our witness is how others can tell that you are a Christian.  There is a silent witness in faith....CONFIDENCE.  We are confident that He is returning soon!  This is our faith that Jesus will save us from the tribulation yet to come upon this earth. 

Faith and confidence go together are are symbiotic in relation to the life of a Christian.  Symbiotic....that word means one (faith) cannot exist without the other one (confidence).  They depend on each other to survive and thrive.  His grace that He gave at the Cross has allowed us to be strong in the faith.

When we look at the early Church we can see their faith was very strong.  Their faith thrived because they believed that God Almighty had just come and left in a short period of thirty-three years.  JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD!  Some of them had just been witnesses to the most important event in history.....the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.  Wouldn't you have been thrilled to have been there in or around Jerusalem during the ministry of Jesus?

What a time that must have been for those that saw Him call out to the tomb and raise Lazarus from the dead.  What a time that must have been for those that saw Him feed the four thousand and feed the five thousand and still have food left over!  What a witness those Hebrews had to actually have seen what Jesus had done.  They had even greater faith and confidence after witnessing those miracles.  They saw the Son of God minister to them as no one else had done before.  They saw John the Baptist baptize Jesus in the Jordan River and actually saw Jesus perform a miracle.  What faith that must have instilled!  Look on into the first chapters of Acts.

In Acts chapter two we see the display of the Holy Spirit in a way that surely confirmed the faith of those there at the day of Pentecost.  There was a great wind and the speaking of men in tongues that the Holy Spirit gave to them.  They were able to hear their own native tongues spoken by others who had never spoken in that tongue (language) before and they were able to understand each other.  Many thought that they were drunk with wine but they were consumed by the Holy Spirit!

Peter explained what the prophet Joel had prophesied years before.  God had poured His Spirit upon His people on the day of Pentecost.  Three thousand souls were saved and baptised that day. (Acts 2:41)  Their faith in Jesus and the message of Peter caused others to be added to the first Church.  The LORD Jesus added daily those who should be saved .  (Acts 2:47)  These first three thousand souls who had faith and were now Christians had shared their faith and their witness with confidence that what they had heard and seen was truth and that they would soon be seeing the LORD again upon His return to earth at the end of the world.

Peter preached in his sermon (verse 17) on the day of Pentecost that the last days were predicted and prophesied by Joel. (Joel 2:28)  Peter preached faith and confidence in Jesus to all those there and as we can see and read here, it was CONTAGIOUS!  C. S. Lewis called Christianity an "infection".  We see here in the second chapter of Acts that C. S. Lewis was correct.  It was contagious as long as the confidence in the faith and in the Holy Spirit was present.  The presence of the Holy Spirit caused all of them to believe and to be baptized.

Faith was increased by miracles.  More saw the power of the Holy Spirit.  In Acts chaper three Peter commanded a lame man to walk (verses 6 and 7) and the lame man did exactly that.....he stood and walked! (verse 8).  We see again in chapter five that the miracles continued. (verse 12)  Those that were ill were even healed by being in the shadow of Peter's garment! (verse 16)  Imagine being in the shadow of Peter's garment and being healed by the Holy Spirit right there on the streets of Jerusalem!  The number of believers continued to grow as they saw the miracles that occurred and as they heard The Word of God preached by Peter. (verse 14)

Jesus' resurrection and His ascension had cause the great growth in faith and numbers of the first Church.  What of those that were not able to witness the events of Jesus' ministry?  They believed by the faith of the witnesses.  How was their faith strengthened?  By companionship, communication and confidence that what others had witnessed and told them about was the truth.  Their belief in The LORD Jesus sprouted and was nurtured by the Holy Spirit.  Faith, confidence, companionship, and their witness caused the numbers of believers to increase.  There was no doubt in their minds that Jesus was Who He had said He was...The God Man...The Messiah in the flesh.  God had come to earth and been among them and HIS witness had caused all of them to believe in Him through His actiions after His death.  Jesus had to die on the cross for all of us.  He was sent and ordained by God to save the world from its sin and He used Peter and John mightily to spread the gospel.  The Gospel of Jesus had begun to grow just as a mustard seed is planted.  Jesus had prophesied this.  Jesus knew that the faith would grow after His ascension.  Jesus died and ascended in heaven for all men of every tribe and nation.  Peter preached this message to all that would hear. 

There were Jews in Jerusalem that felt threatened by Christianity and became jealous of those that were performing miracles. (Acts 5:17)  The high priest had Peter and John imprisoned for proclaiming Jesus to the people but they were freed by God's design and continued to publicly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus again. (verse 21)  They again were seized and flogged and commanded to never preach the Gospel of Jesus ever again.....but their preaching continued! (verses 40, 42)  These were men that had seen the work of God and they HAD to proclaim it!  Jesus' message burned in their hearts.  They had been commanded to proclaim the Gospel by Jesus Christ Himself. (Matthew 28: verses 19 and 29)  Theirs was a faith in Jesus that caused them to desire with all of their hearts to follow Jesus.  They had a living hope in Jesus.  Theirs was a patented faith.  They continued, as did all Jesus' disciples, in a confidence in Jesus that could NOT be shaken by any man nor by any form of government.

Paul was added as an apostle of Jesus by Jesus' Own Word to Paul and Paul continued to spread the Gospel all over the Great Sea area. (Acts 15:12, 36)  The number of believers continued to grow by the faith of these disciples (apostles) of Jesus.  Churches were added and flourished in this time period.  The confidence and faith that Paul had was only increased day by day by The Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit was contagious...just as C. S. Lewis had stated in the mid-twentieth century.  Many were consumed by faith in Jesus by the ministry of Paul.  Paul, too, was imprisoned and faced many other trials in his ministry.  He was even imprisoned in Rome but he was not held back.  He wrote letters to the Churches at Corinth, Phillipi, Ephesus and others.  Paul was confident that the message he had for them was required of him and that even being imprisoned would not stop the enlightenment of the saints. 

John went on while imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos to write the Revelation.  (Revelation 1:19)   He was used by The LORD Jesus to reveal that Jesus is the King of kings and that indeed He is coming again! (Revelation 1:1)  John was inspired by The Holy Spirit to know and write in exact detail a chronological history of the events leading up to Jesus' ruling of the world and the placement of satan into his bottomless pit of Hell!  This was also prophesied by Joel.  (Joel 12:28)

We are all blessed to know that The King is coming again!  All of these disciples (apostles) were inspired and empowered by The Holy Spirit to spread the work and the witness of Jesus.  They spread the good news of the prophecy that Jesus will indeed return again soon.  This prophecy of Jesus' return to earth to rule and reign as King of kings and LORD of lords is found throughout The Bible just as it was stated by Peter in Acts 2:47.  John, however, relayed special messages from Jesus to seven Churches in the Book of Revelation.  (Read and study Revelation chapters 1-3.)  Let us now look at what The LORD Jesus had to say to the Church of Laodecea.  The LORD told them that their Church was luke-warm and that even with all that they had in riches, they were still wretched.  Jesus asked this Church to buy gold from Him and white clothes from Him to cover their nakedness.  Such are we today.  We have but we are not rich.  Only God is rich.  He has it all!!  We are so small-minded and do not really understand a thing about what The LORD is about.  He is in charge of it all!  What should we do in this case?  REPENT!!  Open the door and let Jesus into your wretched heart and let Him live within you. (Revelation 3:19, 20)  Jesus will give you the right to sit with Him at His throne.  Join Him and others wearing their crowns and be close to Jesus!  He is the ONLY way to Heaven!  (John 14:7)  We need to remember NOT to shrink back in our faith and confidence in The LORD Jesus. (Hebrews 10:37)

Our LORD Jesus Christ is offering us the only free gift of eternal life if we only believe in Him and let Him into our hearts.  This is where Jesus wants to abide here on earth.  He doesn't only want to be a Person to give alms to.....He wants to be the living hope in our hearts that He is LORD!!  A LIVING HOPE IN JESUS is what you need to face the world each day.  He desires to place that hope in you that knows He will carry you and that you will see Him face to face in Heaven when He returns to take His own back to live with Him for all eternity.  STAY STRONG IN JESUS!

He desires for you to have the strength in knowing that HE is THE ONE TRUE GOD and that as He came so long ago, so He will come back again and take us Home to live with Him for all of eternity.  KEEP LOOKING UP AND FACE THE EASTERN SKY FOR HIS RETURN IS NIGH AND HE WILL JUDGE THIS WORLD FOR WHAT IT IS--A VILE AND EVIL PLACE.  BE SAVED!!  Learn to let Jesus control your every breath and your every thought.  PRAY EVERY DAY!  Let Him cleanse you and keep you from evil.  He WILL, my Friend.  Just ask Him and YOU will receive the gifts that He has to offer. The harvest is righteousness and peace. (Hebrews 12:11)

While we wait we must be at peace with all men and strive to be holy and wait and watch upon The LORD.  We must work to see that no one misses the grace of God.  All mankind should know that Jesus came to die for their sins and that theirs is eternal life through Jesus if they believe, confess He is LORD and are baptized.  Listen to them.  Let them begin to ask questions but be CONFIDENT in your faith and do NOT shrink away!  Your Heavenly Father will reward your efforts when you see Him face to face in Glory!!  Hallelujah!!

Holy Father God, please help all of us to have the fire that the first Church had and may we always watch and wait on You.  May we be kind and humble as we reach out and communicate to others to help them understand what You did for all of us so long ago.  Help us to be confident in our faith so they will come to know You as their Savior.  Come LORD Jesus!

AMEN!!