Finish What You Started

(2nd Cor 8:10-11KJV) “And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago. Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.”

In this text the Apostle Paul is encouraging the Corinthian Church to finish collecting seed money for the poor at Jerusalem. They had started a push to be a blessing to those less fortunate; however, they didn’t finish the work. Thus, Paul says “you began this effort a year ago, now I need you to perform and finish what you started”. Saints of God, how many of us have promised the Lord we were going to do something for Him only to discover it was just words going nowhere?

How many of us have started out with a great zeal to do something for God only to discover some how we got distracted and never got back to the work we started? Child of God the Lord is looking for finishers. He’s looking for those believers who will finish the work they have started for him. The Lord doesn’t want excuses, He wants results; thus, it behooves all of us who have made promises to the Lord that we were going to do this, that or the other to get other people with like minds involved in what we are trying to accomplish for God.

Therefore, if we get sick, or God forbid death was to come upon us the work; the vision; the plan of God would continue to push forward. I’m sure all types of things happened to the Church at Corinth to cause them to get sidetracked; however, the Apostle Paul encouraged them to finish what they had started for God, because there is nothing worse than a quitter, or a broken promise to the Lord.

God Bless You

Pastor Versal Mason

Who Are You going To Serve

That’s a question we can all ask ourselves, who are we going to serve? Will it be God or will it be man? You can’t serve both, because when it’s all said and done you will never be able to please both. That’s an important decision which all Christians will eventually have to make because to serve man incorporates our supervisor on the job, church leaders and even our families. Too often, mothers’ get too infatuated with their children or fathers’ make their jobs way too important.

It’s not to say that our jobs or our families are not important to us because they are. We should produce when we are at work-we should be at work on time; we should love, care and spend quality time with our children. However, to prefer our jobs or our children over our time with God on a consistent basis puts us in a very dicey situation. The Apostle Paul said “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of Christ (Gal 1:10 KJV).” Thus, we must get the motivation of our heart, and our priorities in line, which starts with putting God first.

He is the one who is able to take care of our families and meet our needs. All of us who are born again have to be sure we don’t cross over into the territory of pleasing men. Not many people get saved with the idea of pleasing men. Their hopes in the beginning are to live for and please God. However, as we grow in Christ (especially if you are in ministry) and gain a name, or begin to make a certain amount of money or live in a certain neighborhood, we have a propensity to change our message.

We begin to water it down so that it will appeal to the masses; thus, it begins to sound good to everyone but God; even the world would agree. When you become more mainstream (where everybody receives you), instead of flowing in the stream of the Holy Ghost, be careful because you could be operating as a man pleaser and not a God pleaser.

God Bless You

Pastor Versal Mason

Some Trust In Everything But God

It seems that believers today are trusting in everything and everybody, but God. We trust that our jobs will always be there, we trust that our family and friends will be there in the time of need, and we trust that our finances will be right for certain things we have planned to do. In fact, we trust in the very things that God has allowed us to have, such as our material possessions. However, one thing is certain, God has always meant for the believer to trust in Him above all else. In the unstable times that we live in everything you own can be lost in a matter of seconds; all you have worked for can be gone up in smoke; then what do you have when you are left with nothing?

My hope is that your ultimate trust is in God. King David said “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God (Psalm 20:7)”. In David’s day if you had an abundance of chariots and horses, then you essentially had a great army and victory in battle was yours. However, David didn’t put his trust in what he could see on the battlefield through natural eyes, he put his trust in the God who is seen only through the eyes of the Spirit.

David is encouraging us to trust God and remember Him above all else. It’s important that we remember the Lord, and what he has done for us; because if He brought us out of a bad situation one time, it’s important to trust Him for the next battle that will come upon us. If we notate and remember what God has done for us in our past battles (down to the smallest of details) then trusting Him in future conflicts won’t be so hard. But we must pay attention to what God is doing in our lives and one of the best ways to do that is to record our conflicts and victories which the Lord has brought us through so that we will have them for future reference. Thus, saints when it comes to trusting God and walking this word out in our daily lives here are some things we should do with the word: Read it out—Write it down—Pray it in—and Work it out, and leave the rest to God.

God Bless You

Pastor Versal Mason

God Does What He Wants To Do

The God of the Holy Scriptures is said to be sovereign, omnipotent, and perfect. He can do what He desires and He doesn’t have to get anyone’s permission to do it because He is God. In fact, the psalmist said “Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places (Psalm 135:6).” Therefore, because we know him to be sovereign, all powerful and perfect, we who are born again believers ought to allow him to direct our lives in every way.

There is no one that can counsel the Lord. There is no one who can really understand God except they understand Him by and through the Spirit God, and even that which we understand is given by the grace of God so we have nothing to boast about, as if we attained it through our own righteousness.

Thus, saints of God because He is perfect we have the opportunity to become perfect. The world has certainly led us to believe that Christian perfection on earth is unattainable. However, Jesus didn’t think so because (Matt 5:48) says “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Thus, if Jesus said it we who are believers in his word must press toward perfection. Whether we get to that place or not, shouldn’t determine our press toward it.

God could do what he pleased because He is perfect, however, because whatever perfection we would ever attain must come through Christ, believers are never in a position to do what they want to do, they are only in a position to do what Christ tells them to do. And as you do what Christ tells you to do every time and act as he would act every time you put yourself in a position to reach perfection.

God Bless You

Pastor Versal Mason