The word ‘Christian’ has become a word that is taken so lightly.  We hear it in the lyrics of today’s music.  We see it on t-shirts, bumper stickers, and it seems most everyone today is a ‘Christian.’   The word, “Christian” only appears twice in the New Testament while the word, “Christians” appears once.  If the Holy Bible scarcely uses the word, why do we use it so much?  Well, like most of ‘today’s Christianity’ we totally over emphasize things.  We have somehow created a ‘Christianity’ that does not resemble the New Testament at all.   Today we have ‘pastors’ and ‘apostles’ and ‘leaders’ pulling the strings and making things happen that we have come to know as ‘church’ and ‘Christianity.’  Now, oh course, these people will hurriedly say, “I’m not in charge, the Holy Spirit is.”  The truth of the matter is men are in charge of most of what we see today regardless of what ‘words’ come out of their mouths.   The word, Christian, was first used by the people to describe those who were like Christ or those who followed Christ.  No doubt used as a slam against them.  We never see Paul or any person used of God referring to themselves as ‘Christians.’  “And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch” Acts 11:26.  Notice, THEY WERE CALLED CHRISTIANS.   Not that they would have denied being one if someone had asked them; but we never read where they announced it either.  They realized what the term meant.  To say, “I am like Jesus” is a huge confession.   Am I really like Christ?  Are you really like Christ?  Are any of us really like Him?  Think about it.  A lot of people truly think they are Christian IF they go to church, pay tithe, give offerings, and do good through out the week.  Some think, if we memorize scriptures, fast often, pray so much time each day, witness to people, and attend church, this will let my light shine.  When in reality the early church never performed any of these things.  As a matter of fact, the first church didn’t even have a Bible, but yet they preached the Word (Acts 8:4).  Sure they prayed at times and fasted at times and other things too.  But the mistake that many make is to think that if we build some type of repetition, we will become more like Christ.   The more I do, the better I become.  This dear friend is a ‘spiritual-treadmill’ that will usually lead to burn out.  We never find where the early church told anyone to DO these things.   Yet they shook the world without Christian TV, Christian radio, Gospel tracks, church buildings, classes, men’s groups, ladies groups, youth groups, networks, books, revivals, seminars or even a Bible.  True, some of these things are somewhat effective.  We must ask ourselves the question, are we doing something wrong?    However, there are lots of good things and lots of good people are a part of the institutional church system.  But, we must ask ourselves this; did Jesus or Paul go from town to town encouraging people to memorize verses and fast twice a week?  Jesus did teach His disciples to pray (Matt. 6) but we never find where they actually did it this way.  They never repeated the model prayer, nor is it recorded that they purposely used it as a model.  To be like Christ, surely is an ‘inward’ Christ likeness…the nature of the Son of God producing His life in us.   Christ did not come to make us better people.  He came to destroy who we are and raise up a person with His nature in them.  We can do all the right things…read, pray, fast, witness, give, and still NOT be a true disciple of the Lord.   A true disciple will encounter hardships and difficulties mixed with times of uncertainty and sore displeasure.  His heart will be tried and tested and pruned over and over.  God may grant him many material things, but they won’t be his focus at all.  For he knows they will all surly pass.  He will experience the loss of his own life, but the grace of God will be there to strengthen him.  Yes, this is the true disciple.  One who presses on after the will and call of God.  He may fast, pray, give, and memorize scriptures, but they won’t be his focus either.  Only Christ and Christ alone will be the apple of his eye and the true desire of his heart.  Truly, Christ is found through death and the surrender of all things.  Christ will allow the true disciple to, at particular seasons, sore with the eagles.  He will feel the life of God rustling through his feathers.   His death has brought life and life to others!  He will gaze down to those who struggle and will encourage them to press on and to keep Christ as the focus.  For the true disciple knows this ‘soaring’ will be short lived and the Father will call him back down again for more lessons about life and winning Christ.   Discipleship is in the heart of the man or woman who is sincere and determined to follow Christ.  The wisdom of God chose twelve men to follow the living Christ.  Discipleship is never meant to be experienced alone, but with others who are denying themselves along with you.   These twelve men heard and saw things that no one else on earth experienced.  Day after day the word of Christ would pierce their hearts and leave them stripped totally naked.  Not with harshness, but in truth as a brother.  At any given time they could have left their crosses, but they had found love; they had found life!  Love that would tell them the way it really was.  Not watered down or compromising; but in truth and in love.   I can imagine some of the ‘behind the scenes’ talks of the disciples.   I’m sure at times they wondered where this guy came from and who does He think He is?  Still they stayed where He had called them, in the furnace of affliction.

 Discipleship or Spiritual Parroting?

 I have a friend who has a parrot.  This parrot, like many, can repeat certain words or phrases.  You could say, “Pretty bird” fifteen or twenty times (or some other phrase) and it would say it back very clearly.  It still amazes me to hear a real animal talk!  Many Christians today are the exact same way.  We have heard the same phrases over and over.  We have heard the same verses quoted over and over.  We have heard the same teachings over and over.  And soon, if we aren’t very careful, like the parrot, we’ll start repeating them without knowing the deep, valuable, true meaning.  We have all the right answers, it seems.  We know what to say and when to say it.  We know all the catchy clichés in the ‘church’ today.  This friends is not discipleship.   So many times we hear of this.  Like fads they sweep through certain congregations.  One person will coin a catchy word or phrase and before long, most are saying.  This is what I call, “Spiritual Parroting.”  When Paul said to the believers at Corinth to ‘speak the same thing’ I really DON’T think this is was what he was referring to (1 Cor. 1:10).  He is talking about sharing the same heart.   Keep in mind; Paul was speaking to a community of believers who lived in the same location.  He goes on to say, “…and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”  Paul isn’t referring to a ‘good church service’ here, even though they did meet amongst themselves.  When people share the same heart (Acts 4:32) they speak the same thing.  It should be ‘DISCIPLESHIP NOT SPIRITUAL PARROTING’.   I could find twelve men to teach and to spend time with.  I could teach them how to pray and how to study and how to witness and so forth.  And, true, maybe we could get pretty close to each other.  But this in itself isn’t being a true follower or disciple of the Lord; even though it might be Bible based.   Do we realize how easy it is to ‘eat’ someone else’s insight?  Do we realize how easy it is to be a ‘disciple’ of MAN and not of Christ?

 The Great Famine in Samara

 In 2 Kings 6, we read about a horrible famine in the land of Samaria.  People were eating ‘Ass’s heads’ and ‘Dove’s dung’ and even eating their ‘own children.’   Today we can see the ‘spiritual parallel’ to what’s going on.   There isn’t much ‘meat’ on the head of a donkey.  They would eat its ‘EYES’ ‘TONGUE’ and its ‘BRAINS’.   People are still doing to it today.  Were eating the ‘INSIGHT, WORDS, AND REVELATION’ of people all the time.  Because we are in a ‘famine’ of hearing the true Word of the Lord, people are eating this up.  This dear soul isn’t discipleship.  We can swallow the insight and revelation of someone very easily.  We are eating their words, thinking it’s the Word of God!  They were also eating ‘DOVE’S DUNG.’  The DUNG of an animal is PROOF that it has BEEN THERE.  Ask any hunter today.  A good hunter will actually look for the ‘droppings.’  They know by this that THEY HAVE BEEN THERE.  Today, we are still eating DOVE’S DUNG.  We hear so much talk about WHAT GOD USED TO DO.  We study the old revivals and somehow think that if we do what they did, we can have what they had.  We spend much energy on WHAT GOD USED TO DO!  God wants to do a new thing!  Sure we can read about the old men of God and appreciate what they did and praise God for what He did.  However, we should never try to copy them or convince the people of God that we need to DO WHAT THEY DID.  No!  We should only follow what the Spirit of God is saying to us today.  If it parallels with ‘what used to be’ than so be it.  We can’t make it happen.  We can’t spend all our time looking back to what GOD did 200 years ago.  Eating DOVE’S DUNG will eventually kill you.  Next, they were eating their own babies.  This is so true today.  The next generation is being destroyed by our ‘religious’ mind-sets and practices.  We have also fed them ASS’S HEAD and DOVE’S DUNG and they are sure to die!  Look around you at this generation of kids.  Even ‘so called’ youth groups are living as close to the world as they can get.  Sure there are some good teens out there.  But we have fed them a bunch of stuff that has caused them to be malnourished in Christ.  They are being devoured and eaten up and they don’t even know it.   Most copy the world’s looks, dress, and music.  And the sad thing is that they do it in Jesus’ name!  There’s as much sex and divorce in the church as there is in the world.  We are still eating our babies!  A lot of today’s youth are so plugged in the system of the world.  Like a helpless fly in the spider’s web, he’s got them!  Not long ago I was teaching my son about this very thing.  While sitting in our automobile, I programmed a ‘rock station’ and a ‘Christian station’ in my stereo.  While the music was playing I switched the stations back and forth for him to listen.  I asked him ‘which is which.’  He had no idea!  He couldn’t’ tell the difference between the two.  I’m not writing to BASH MUSIC, only to show you what’s going on today.  Today’s ‘Christianity’ has done much damage to what Christ actually came to establish on the earth.  Where is the Holy Nation of God?  Where is His true body?  The truth is, we are in a famine and most can’t discern the difference.

Jacob Tricked His Father

 In Genesis 27 we read the account of Jacob tricking his own father in order to steal his brother’s blessing.  Jacob, the trickster, with the help of his Mother, dressed up to look, feel, and to smell like his brother.  Instead of loving his brother and wanting him to receive what was rightfully his, Jacob himself wanted it.  Proverbs 16:18 states, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”   There Jacob stood before his father, totally deceiving him.  Making him think he was someone else.  Who are you trying to be like?  Are we dressing up to look like someone else?  Do we try to quote scriptures like someone else?   Do we try to speak or preach like someone else?  Do we somehow think this is discipleship?  One thing for sure, we can’t fool our Father.  He knows the thoughts and the very intents of our hearts.  We can try to look, feel, and even smell like someone in order to be blessed by the Lord, but it won’t work.  This is not discipleship.  I’ve heard people say over the years, “I wish I could be like him.”  “I wish I could preach like that.”  Paul says in Eph. 4:1 “that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called…” We are called to walk in lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;(Eph. 4:2).  This doesn’t sound like brother Jacob does it?  We must be totally honest before God.  We must ‘be ourselves’ as we are being conformed like Jesus, and stop trying to fool our Father.   It is so easy to copy or master some ‘man’ thinking that we are following the Lord.   A true disciple will be like ‘Christ’ (Acts 11:26).    We may not necessarily grow a beard or wear sandals, but we will possess the Lord’s nature.  Christ never brought attention to His own outward appearance.   He never dressed the disciples up to look like him.  He simply displayed the life of the Father and thousands were attracted to it.  To those that wanted it, it would cost them one thing…everything.  He called men to lay down themselves and take up the cross they must bear to have it.   We have somehow accepted a Gospel that teaches that Christ suffered so we can live!    We have somehow accepted a Gospel that has no cross in it.   I like what one old writer said, “Must Christ pass through seas of His own blood to win the crown, and are we to walk to heaven dryshod in silver slippers?” The jewels of a Christian are his afflictions. Our Master’s experience teaches us that suffering is necessary.”  This is discipleship!  The Captain of our salvation was made perfect through suffering, (Heb. 5:8).  What do we think ‘being a disciple’ is?  What do we think ‘taking up your cross’ is?   Christ Jesus is our example; for he is the ultimate disciple.

 “Believer, lay hold of this thought in all times of agony.

Let the thought of Jesus strengthen you as you follow in His steps.

Find a sweet support in His sympathy; and remember that,

to suffer is an honorable thing—

to suffer for Christ is glory.

 If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.”

-Charles Spurgeon-

Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being…. I think most of us grew up hearing about God and church.   Looking back, I don’t think Joy and I were taught how to LIVE in Christ properly.   We were taken to church weekly.   We were involved in house meetings, revivals, vacation Bible school, youth events, seminars, Sunday school and so forth.  Truly, lots of good can come out of all these things when they are centered on Him.  However, they never taught us how to live.    Most of the activities we have been involved in most of our lives were ‘meeting’ focused or maybe ‘knowledge’ focused.   Good meetings are fine and certainly we are to grow in His knowledge.  Let me try to explain.

When we think of The Lord’s Supper we think of a church thing….or good worship, or foot washing, or giving……In our minds it’s hard for us to see these things other than a church or meeting setting.   We usually hear that we should go to church and let church  carrying over into our lives….this sounds good, BUT…..He never meant that these things be carry- overs….he never meant them to be a church thing BUT A LIFE THING NOT A SPILL OVER INTO LIFE….WE HAVE IT ALL BACKWARD.   It shouldn’t be GOOD MEETINGS so we can have a better life….It should be GOOD LIFE that spills over into all that we do and is a witness to everyone who sees it.  These are to be practiced in our life….and be as natural as taking a shower or brushing your teeth or paying your bills…..God in a very natural way wants to be God in our lives.   God isn’t THIS THING we have to perform for on Sunday or Wednesday, rather a way of life.  We have made church the place where if we pray enough, fast enough, seek enough, give enough, praise enough, shout enough, maybe He will pass by.  You hear, “Maybe TODAY He will fill this house (the church building) with glory and fire!”  This is NO WHERE TAUGHT in the New Testament.    And how many times have we heard, “No power in the pulpit, (which is another thing never taught in the New Testament) no power in the pew.”    Truly, God CAN DO ALL THESE THINGS.  But what I’m saying is that they are not why Jesus came.   He didn’t come to bring us GOOD MEETINGS.  He didn’t come to make our church better.    He came to bring the Kingdom of God to earth and to give us LIFE AND LIFE MORE ABUNDANTLY (Jn. 10:10).  We have such a TEMPLE mentality of Christianity.  Truly, God did come down in the OLD TESTAMENT and totally filled His Temple.   In the NT, we ARE THAT TEMPLE.    God came down in the person of Jesus Christ and filled US the TEMPLES.  Hopefully I am making since to you and I hope I don’t sound critical.  These things are meeting and church serviced focused and not LIFE focused.  (Now don’t take me wrong, I love a good meeting, BUT we must understand that Christ didn’t just come to give us good meetings.)  This, temple mentality, seems to be taught almost everywhere…would you agree?   I used to hear that it was a shame to churches to have padded pews and air conditioning.   Some of the more traditional people felt better if THOSE things were left out.   BUT, it was fine to have these things at home…it’s fine to be cool and a nice sofa to sit on a home.    It’s almost like at church me must sacrifice and be uncomfortable for 3 hours a week.   As though this would somehow please God.  Can we see how UNNATURAL this is?   We have developed a UN- Natural Christianity.   It’s not LIFE.   It’s a THING we have to please and perform for.  Thank God it’s not as bad as it use to be in some places.    God help us to understand what the New Testament really teaches concerning these things.

James

2008 reprint

*Both start out new and without a scratch, but end up old, out of date, and worn out.

*Both are an instrument used for talking

*Both get lost a few times and have to be found by their owner

*Both can be used for good or bad

*Both have a name

*Both need their batteries charged

*Both can have wrong buttons pushed

*Both were bought and paid for

*Both come in all sizes, shapes, and colors

*Both can have a blue-tooth

*Both light up at times

*Both can be put on silent

*Both have memory and can pull up names, numbers, and dates

*Both can be disconnected

*Both are too numerous to count

*Both are in every state and in pretty much every country

*Both were given a security code number

*Both cause car accidents

*Both can reach out and touch someone

*Some have more memory than others

*And lastly, both start to die as soon as they are disconnected from their cords.

 James Coates- Feb. 2010

jameshcoates@yahoo.com

A simple statement of Jesus is always a puzzle to us if we are not simple.
How are we going to be simple with the simplicity of Jesus? By receiving
His Spirit, recognizing and relying on Him, obeying Him as He brings the
word of God, and life will become amazingly simple. “Consider,” says
Jesus, “how much more your Father Who clothes the grass of the field will
clothe you, if you keep your relationship right with Him.” Every time we
have gone back in spiritual communion it has been because we have
impertinently known better than Jesus Christ. We have allowed the cares of
the world to come in, and have forgotten the “much more” of our Heavenly
Father.

“Behold the fowls of the air” – their main aim is to obey the principle
of life that is in them and God looks after them. Jesus says that if you
are rightly related to Him and obey His Spirit that is in you, God will
look after your ‘feathers.’

“Consider the lilies of the field” – they grow where they are put. Many
of us refuse to grow where we are put, consequently we take root nowhere.
Jesus says that if we obey the life God has given us, He will look after
all the other things. Has Jesus Christ told us a lie? If we are not
experiencing the “much more,” it is because we are not obeying the life
God has given us, we are taken up with confusing considerations. How much
time have we taken up worrying God with questions when we should have been
absolutely free to concentrate on His work? Consecration means the
continual separating of myself to one particular thing. We cannot
consecrate once and for all. Am I continually separating myself to
consider God every day of my life?

Today I spent most of the day with my son Brenton.  Brenton will be 16 next month.  I love that boy os much!  We share so many interests together.  Today we worked on setting up a studio (recording).  Brenton is a gifted young man.  He writes and sings his own songs and soon we will be recording them. 

My other children spent the evening playing in the snow and sledding.  THey came in all red all over.  They had a blast!   I truly thank the Lord for all my children.  They are such gifts from the Father. 

Thankful, James

 I’ve been hearing a lot of Christmas songs with the word ‘YULE’ and/or ‘YULE TIDE’ in them…thought I would check it out…WOW!!

Yule or Yule-tide was a Germanic midwinter festival involving a sacrificial feast that was absorbed into Christmas. The pagan Germanic peoples celebrated Yule from late December to early January on a date determined by the lunar Germanic calendar, and various theories surround the festival. The term is still used in the Nordic Countries and to a lesser extent the Anglosphere to refer to Christmas. Customs such as the Yule log, Yule goat, Yule boar, Yule singing, and others stem from Yule. In modern times, Yule is observed with religious rites by some Christians and by some Neopagans.

Hmmmmm,

Thinking again,

James

The more I learn about Christ the more I’m amazed.   I think most of us have a pretty good understanding of Christ.  We know mostly about His ‘earthly’ life.   We know where  He was born, lived, taught, died, rose, and ascended.  We know, according to the Bible, things about Him and His life.  

However, we know LITTLE about the Christ here on earth…THE CHURCH!  When I say ‘church’ i’m NOT talking a building or any denomination.  I’m talking about the people of the Living God.   Do we really see and understand that WE REALLY ARE HIM ON THE EARTH?  Many members, but ONE body…the body of Christ.  This body is called CHRIST….Christ in the earth.   Remember Jesus asked Paul/Saul ‘why persecutest thou me?’   He didn’t say WHY ARE YOU PERSECUTING MY PEOPLE.  NO!  ‘ME!’   He never seperates Himself from His people….they are ONE! 

The next coming of Christ will simply be THE HEAVELY CHRIST RETURNING FOR THE EARTHLY CHRIST.  CHRIST CATCHING AWAY CHRIST…  I hear people from time to time talk about WHO IS GOING and WHO WILL BE LEFT BEHIND…Well, really its easy…those that are IN CHRIST or that IS CHRIST will go and who aren’t Christ WILL NOT GO.   If you IN CHRIST and CHRIST IS IN YOU, you ARE CHRIST IN THE EARTH.   

Are you  IN CHRIST?  Are you CHRIST in the earth?

James

Another AWESOME day here in KY…I am really blessed…what can I say…God is so good to me and my family…He is a good God and He makes people good…we aren’t good on our own, but His nature in us in a GOOD thing…Aren’t you glad to have Jesus Christ living INSIDE you?  WOW! What a thought!

James

Egypt, in scripture, is often a place that represents ‘BONDAGE’.  The people of God were slaved there for some 400 years.  As the story goes, God raised up MOSES and brought His people out.  God Himself refers to Egypt as ‘the house of bondage (Ex.13:3).  In other words God was going to remove them OUT of one culture and INTO another…God’s.  God’s culture is all together different than Egypt’s.  The people of God had gotton so used to the Egypt Culture that they knew NO OTHER way of living.   God was going to ’save’ them.  They weren’t just ’saved’ from the whips of the slave-drivers, or the hard labor, but from THAT way of life entirely.  

Today, I think we are SO MUCH like that account in Genesis.  The people of God are still enslaved in the culture/system of this world.  We know NO OTHER LIFE.  We think it, talk it, walk it, and prepare our children for it!  Maybe we HAVE been ’saved’ from our sins, but have we been saved from ourselves and the evil culture that’s all around us?  NO!  I think not!   The purpose of the worldly culture is to rob you from knowing God’s ways and God’s true heart.  It robs you from spending quality time with your family and friends.  It wears you out and replaces  you in an instance!  It’s Egypt!  We are in it ladies and gentlemen!  Like it or not, we are in it!  We cannot serve God wholeheardly and money at the same time…it is impossible.  God will have to raise up a MOSES to bring us out.  Moses represents the culture of God…the land of promise!   Does anyone know where THIS LAND OF PROMISE IS?  Where is the place that Yahwey has prepared for us?  Where is the land of Yahwey?  Is it out there?  Where is the place where Jesus is really Lord of all…and I do mean all.   Where is the Ps. 133 living?  I realize this kind of living will cost a person everything.  It would have to.  No such life isn’t cheap!  Maybe this is the cross Jesus spoke about.   Even Jesus certainly used MONEY (Mt. 17:27), but He nor His disciples were a slave to it.   I will end this blog with this verse…

Ac 2:40 “And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward (warped, twisted, perverse) generation.”

Thinking again……James

Acts 9:18 is an incredible verse of scripture! Saul/Paul had just met Jesus/Yahsuah on the road to Damascus. He saw a light brighter than the noon-day sun. He heard the voice of God telling him what he was called to do. This must have challenged Paul’s religious mind, because Paul thought he was already serving GOD. After this life-changing experience with God, Paul goes to the city to met ‘his Ananias.’ We as followers of Christ MUST have our Ananias. Ananias lays his hands on Paul and immediately there fell (as it were) scales from his eyes. Did you ever wonder why Jesus didn’t make the scales fall away? We can encounter Christ and the revelation of who He is and STILL have scales on our eyes. God sends him to A PERSON. Here is where THE BODY of Christ comes in. Instead of Christ removing the scales, Ananias does. I have many Ananias’ in my life. Many I have met and many I have not met. These precious people have (through the Spirit) have laid their hands on me and scales have fallen from my eyes. Some of my Ananias’ were passed away before I was ever born. Paul needed BOTH. The encounter of Christ and the touch of the body. Many people today have never had the second touch. It’s sad to think that there are many today EVEN PREACHERS of today who still have scales; scales of religion. Some have encountered Christ, but have never seen the church of the Lord Jesus. Once the scales fall, things become more clearly. Have you ever wondered why certain Christians, it seems, just can’t seem to understand certain things about God. Often we say THEY ARE HARD-HEADED! Well, maybe they are, BUT they, more than likely, still have scales. Scales blind you! You don’t even know you have them until they fall off! We need Ananias to come and lay his hands. We need each other. Many people today attend a ‘church’ but have never seen the true body. Inside the Kindgom of God/the body, is where and what the Lord uses to break the scales of us. Who is your Ananias??

James

Have You Forgotten?

Here’s a video I produced.  My brother Johnny is doing the singing.

The Bible has a lot to say about eternal or everlasting life.  I recently heard someone say, “Everyone has eternal life…some will live it in heaven and some in hell, but everyone has it.”  Well, this may make a great quote for a Sunday morning sermon; it’s really not Biblical at all.  No, not everyone has eternal life and not everyone has life everlasting.  True, everyone will be alive somewhere 1000 years from today, but only a few will find ‘life’ and many will find ‘damnation.’  Some will experience the splendor of God’s awesome presence and some will not.  To those who miss God’s heaven, it is never said that they experience ‘eternal life’, rather eternal damnation. 

Where Did Eternal Life Come From?

I used to think that eternal life started at the cross…the cross of Christ.  This isn’t a true teaching in the Bible.  The cross allows me to have it or possess it, but it didn’t start there.  For it started in the heart beat of a Holy God long before He became man.  It started long before there was a heaven or hell or angels or anything.  Eternal life started during a period,  known in the Bible as ‘the beginning.’  It was in this period of time that God created the heavens and the earth (Gen.1:1).  God was God and who knows what went on?  It was a period without time, without people, without anything but God.  God himself is the ‘life’ of men.  This eternal life was beating in the very heart of our God.  God desired to share this life with someone, but there was a problem; there was no one.  God began a plan for man.  He would create an earth and men to dwell on the earth.  God created Adam and Eve and they possess this eternal life.  They had LIFE!  They would never age and be in need of anything…only the God who loved them and created them.  They were so blessed!  They lived in God.  They moved in God.  They had their being in God.  They breathed in God.  They thought in God.  They talked in God.  And together, they were ONE in God.  They were made in the very image of God.  And they were the first two to have God’s eternal life.  They had God and therefore they had eternal life.  Not an eternal life separate from God, but God was their life.  But of course they fell to sin.  Therefore eternal life didn’t not start when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, rather the cross deals with the problem of Adam (sin) and allows us to enter into the same ‘life’ Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden. 

Please Read These Verses Very Slowly!

1 John 1:1 ¶ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

 2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

 3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

 John is saying that ETERNAL LIFE was in the beginning.  LIFE came down and we have heard about it, seen it, and even touched it.  How can a person touch life?  Only when it get inside a human body and walks among us…JESUS CHRIST!  This life was once with the Father and was manifested unto us!  This is why our fellowship or our communion is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  Eternal Life was beating in the heart of God the Father and Jesus brought it down in the sight of men! 

In chapter five of this great book we read, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son”  (1 John 5:11). 

 Praise God for Eternal Life and for His eternal purpose!

 James H. Coates

Sometimes when I sit here to write, I have no clue what to say…even though I feel like I should be writing.  So, here I go.  I want to thank the Lord for all my friends.  Over the last three years God has placed some valuable people in my path.  As a matter of fact, God has always done that since I have been walking with Him.  Some are pastors, some are missionaries, some are in villages/communities, and some are ‘stay home’ kind of people.  Some are highly educated, and some have no education at all.  Some are businessmen, and some don’t work at all.  Some are kind, and some are more on the rude side.  Some are quiet and some are very loud and silly.  Some are computer nuts, and some don’t know how to turn a computer on.   Some are in radio, and some in TV.  Some are as close as 300 yards from me and some are 4,500 miles away.  And one couple lives in Africa (15,000 miles away).  I truly thank God for placing so many wonderful voices in my life.  Everyday is like ‘school’ because you can learn something from each one.  If you ever start to feel down and depressed, just look around you at the awesome people Yahweh has placed all around you.  But of course the greatest friend of all is the Lord Jesus Himself.  The FRIEND OF FRIENDS (not a Biblical title but it’s a good one).  Do you have a ‘friendship’ with Christ?  Some may not see Him in this way; but I do!  He is my friend…a real friend.  Someone who will correct me when I need it; and encourage me when I need it.  He is a friend who will spend quality time with me and me with Him.  

Heaven will be so awesome…a huge unending day with friends…wow…does it get any better than that?  Thank God for my big family out there…thanks for being my friends.

John 15:13 “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. “

Well, here it is another day…one song says, ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DOLLAR…how easy it is to get our life’s focus on MONEY.  You know, the great American Dream…baseball, apple pie, God, and CAREERS!  The Bible teaches that the LOVE of money is the root of ALL EVIL.  Wow!  ALL EVIL?  I can sure think of some pretty evil things…and to think that the love of money is at the very root of it all…wow!  The problem in this world isn’t LOVE..it’s WHAT we love.  We LOVE money…who don’t?  We all need it and therefore we must work to get it.  Then it seems that we spent our entire life working and focusing on paying bills and so forth.  I don’t think Jesus’ idea for living was this way at all!  Sure, even He had some money, but it wasn’t His focus.  His focus was to DO THE WILL of the Father…not getting jobs and working to pay bills.  Let’s face it, we live in Egypt.  We live in a system and its whole  intent is to rob us of God.  It’s goal is to strip you, rob you, rape you, and drain you…and it works.  How do you lose the need to GET MONEY?  Anyone have any answers please let me know.  I do realize the early church (Acts 1-7) came together and shared their money and ALL  things.  They had ALL THINGS COMMON.  Is this the solution?  How can money lose it’s strong hold on the people of God?  How can we ‘have it’ and not ‘it have us.’  You might say, money don’t have a hold on me…oh yeah, how much time have you spent this year getting it?  How much time have you spent away from what really matters like family and friends?  How much do you think about it?   How much do you worry about it?  What plans you do have to get more of it?   God deliver us from the ’control’ and the ‘love’ of money.  For the most part, it is SO in the fabric of our being, we can’t imagine a world without  it.  The NEW KINGDOM, that’s coming, will know of NO SUCH THING…PRAISE GOD! 

Lord let you Kingdom come now!   

Thinking again…James

I had a thought yesterday while at a local park.  The children were playing on the playground equipment.  Johnny (my brother) and Joy and I were talking.  At one point in our conversation the sun was so bright in my eyes.  As a matter of fact, I couldn’t see much of anything else.  All I could see was ‘the sun light’.  The only way I could see Johnny or Joy was to move over so that Johnny was between me and the sun.  Then I was able to see Johnny’s face clearly and other things too. 

This is the way it is in our walk with Christ.  All we ‘need’ to see is THE SON.  We get our eyes on others and on ourselves when something or someone is standing between the ‘son’ and us.  The sun didn’t seem near as bright when Johnny was between us.  Things like un-forgiveness, bitterness, sin, iniquity, gossip, or slander can stand between the son and us.  We have to MOVE.  Move your position to where the son is hitting you and even blinding you from seeing others.  When I’m walking ‘in the son’ it also allows others (brothers and sisters) to see me.  It allows them to see things on me that need not to be on me.  If I have a spot here or there on me, a brother can bring it to my attention.  If I’m in the SonShine, I will see it and get rid of it.  There is so much more I could write about this subject BUT this is a blog and not a ‘sermon’.  Thank God for the awesome life giving, illuminating light of the SON.

James

Jesus compares Himself to ‘natural things’, have you ever noticed?  He said He was like, water, bread, door, vine, wheat, and rock etc.  He is also like, the wind, fire, and rain.  He also said that we should consider the flowers of the field and birds…they will teach us the heart of God.  Maybe instead of looking up to some ‘far-off God’ somewhere, maybe we should look all around us.  True, the heavens do declare His glory too, but we live here.  God’s thumbprint is all around us.  We are standing on holy ground.  It’s amazing how a God, an almighty God, would reveal His love and His heart to us through things like flowers and birds…the simple.  Maybe it’s because we are simple people.  We are to look to the birds and flowers to understand God for in them we find the pureness of Jesus.

 1 Cor. 1:27  “…and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.”

In year 1992, I heard a song on the radio that I never have forgotten.  The song is called, “The Great Advenure” by Steven Cutis Chapman.  Once this song gets in your head, you will sing it all day.  It’s a great tune!  I would like to share the words with you.  This is today’s blog…

The Great Adventure…

Started out this morning in the usual way
Chasing thoughts inside my head
I thought I had to do today
Another time around the circle
Try to make it better than the last
I opened up the Bible
And I read about me
Said I’d been a prisoner
And God’s Grace had set me free
And somewhere between the pages,
It hit me like a lightning bolt
I saw a big frontier in front of me
And I heard somebody say ‘Let’s go!’

Chorus:
Saddle up your horses
We’ve got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God’s
Amazing grace
Let’s follow our leader into the Glorious unknown
This is the life like no other oh oh,
This is The Great Adventure

Come on, get ready for the ride of your life
Gonna leave long faced religion
In a cloud of dust behind
And discover all the new horizons
Just waiting to be explored
This is what we were created for, yeah

Chorus:
Saddle up your horses
We’ve got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God’s
Amazing grace
Let’s follow our leader into the Glorious unknown
This is the life like no other oh oh,
This is The Great Adventure

James H. Coates

May Be This be OUR SONG!!

Luke 11:34 “The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.”

 Jesus, our example and elder brother, had a single eye.  His eye was SO focused on His Father!  As our perfect example, He showed us the life that can be lived, when we live in the light of the Father.  One might ascribe the awesomeness of Christ’s life to the fact He was God or the Son of God or Messiah.  And even though He was and IS those things, His life was one lived inside the Father.  His eye was single.  Totally focused on the Father.  This is the life He brought down to us.  It’s His perfect will that each of us live the same life.  Not a different one…but the same one!  He said in John 10:10, I come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly.  Many today really believe this means ‘things.’  He came to give us a good life by giving us many material things.  True, He does give us things from time to time, but the life found in John 10:10 is the life of the Father.  Our eye must be single.  Then, and only then, our body will be FULL of life and light!  For those of us who have had a GOD ENCOUNTER know what I’m saying is true.  When you absolutely fall in love with Christ, our eye is single.  Remember the early days?  We were so focused on Him and Him alone!  Sadly, men’s religion got in the way and robbed us of this truth and reality.  Religion gave us a split vision.  We place ‘one eye’ on Christ and another eye on ‘church’ or some ‘program’ or a book or a number of other things.   As Christ lived each day in the life of the Father, many were drawn to it.  This friend is evangelism!  We have somehow drifted to think that evangelism is traveling from state to state and preaching sermons.  Jesus’ evangelism was simply an expression of His life in the Father.  “I and my Father are ONE” (John 10:30).  Can you and I say that?  Are we totally ONE or SINGLE with our Father?  We can’t serve two masters.  We can’t drink from a fountain of sweet and bitter water at the same time.  Our eye must be single.  I’m NOT talking about a set of rules that make us or someone else feel better.  I’m not talking about ‘doing’ more religious things.  I’m not talking about being engaged in more religious rituals.  I’m talking about knowing the Father THROUGH Christ and walking and living in that reality each day.   And if we come across a brother or two that has the ‘same single eye’ it even gets sweeter.   This is the life that the Father brought down to us in the person of Jesus.   He wants to fill our lives so full of Himself that there is no more room for anything else.    The things that Jesus DID, (while He was on earth) is a result of a single eye toward the Father.  May our eye be healed on this journey of life!

 Rev. 3:18  “…and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”

James H. Coates