V.I.C. Ministries

But God…

Sat, 14 Jan 2017 03:11:00 GMT

(Ephesians 2:1-7)

No two words when combined together can bring such conviction as well joy to a Christian’s heart. The phrase indicates that, whatever was understood from the preceding thought, God has a different idea.

The first three verses in the passage above describe every child of God’s previous condition before God: We were dead in trespasses and sins; doomed to eternal separation from God; made captive by the Devil himself- slaves to our lustful flesh. We enjoyed indulging our wicked minds and hearts.

With such depravity of heart and mind what hope did we have? What hope could anyone have to be reconciled and made right before a Holy and Righteous God?! How could our hearts of stone be turned to flesh and the eyes of our hearts be opened to the truth of God’s love for us?!

Well, thanks be to God for what follows! Verse 4 begins with those two amazing words, “But God”.

But God, in spite of our depravity, according to the riches of His mercy and great love for us, made us alive together with Christ in order to show the unbelievable riches of His grace in the kindness that He showed us! Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

This is why every child of God should joyously give thanks to God the Father for qualifying us to share in the inheritance of the saints (Colossians 1:12).

And so, when you start to feel the weight of the trials of this life, find strength and take courage in knowing that every child of God has the privilege and right in Christ Jesus of approaching the throne of grace to ask for help. Think about it, if God’s amazing grace lead Him to send His Son to die for us, how much more will He give us the grace to endure whatever trials we are given?! We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!

“Amazing grace how sweet the sound

that saved a wretch like me!”

“Amazing love how can it be

that thou my God should die for me!”

May the grace of God overwhelm us every day, the peace of God be with us every hour, and the love of God comfort us always! Amen!

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How Much Does God Love His Children?

Thu, 12 Jan 2017 02:05:00 GMT

Have you ever wondered what Jesus meant by “even as you have loved me”? We know God loved His only begotten Son. Have you ever thought about exactly what His love towards us looks like or tried to put it into words?

Though no human words can ever express God’s love towards us with any accuracy that does it justice, here is something to think about when trials come as they most definitely will:

God loved His children before the foundation of the earth. He chose us to be adopted as His precious sons in Christ Jesus. While we were in our mother’s wombs, He was there forming our inward parts. Even though we were born in iniquity, He loved us before we knew that we needed Him. He made us in His image so we could reflect His glory and love, which He has for us, onto others. He has numbered every hair on our heads and all the number of our days from the beginning. His thoughts for us are good and not evil. He loved us and gave Himself for us when even we hated Him and did not know Him. He made us alive together with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses and sins. He sought us when we were wandering from the fold. He saw us afar off and ran towards us and embraced us as sons. He has hid our lives together with Christ in Himself. He poured His love out into our hearts and loves us with an everlasting and unfailing love. He blessed us and raised us together with Christ in the heavenly places and gave us an inheritance with Christ. We are Christ’s inheritance. From His amazing grace He drew us to Himself out of His everlasting and unfailing love for us. He had mercy on us and found us when we were alone and without God in the world. According to the riches of His grace, He redeemed us and forgave us our trespasses. He chose us to be conformed into the image of His son and to be Holy and blameless before Him.

He demonstrated His great love with which He loved us by, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He saved us from the wrath to come by His shed blood on the cross.

And what does He ask in return? Only that we walk humbly before Him and keep His commandments. Given everything He has done for us, this is our reasonable service.

So remember

Our purpose is to glorify Him,

Our duty is to serve Him,

Our strength is through Him,

Our hope is in Him.

All praise and glory and honor to the only one who is worthy, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen!

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Have You Made Someone Your Enemy?

Thu, 15 Sep 2016 08:39:00 GMT

Odd question, isn’t it? I was reading Psalm 7 recently. This Psalm was written by David. He wrote it as a prayer to God to defend him against false accusations. As I read, I came to vs 3 through 5:

3      O LORD my God, if I have done this,
If there is injustice in my hands,
4      If I have rewarded evil to my friend,
         Or have plundered him who without cause was my adversary,
5      Let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it;
And let him trample my life down to the ground
And lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

In these verses, David is basically declaring his innocence to God by asking God to severely punish him if he actually treated someone as his enemy who had not done anything to deserve to be treated as an enemy. The fact David prayed such a thing implies David believed that God, in fact, would grant such a request if deserved.

With our sin nature, it is all too easy to make someone our enemy and not know it until it is too late. A major sin that can cause a person to make someone their enemy without cause is the fear of man. The fear of man has many facets and can manifest itself in many different ways. One way is jealousy. Sinful jealousy is defined as:

If you think you may be experiencing jealousy, please read this resource jealousy-and-envy . We at V.I.C. Ministries strongly encourage you to seek help from your local church. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or concerns. We are here to serve you!

Do you know Jesus as Lord and Savior? His Spirit living inside of you is the only way these resources will truly help you. To accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, you must accept that God has standards and that you have failed to meet them. We all have. The Bible calls this sin (Romans 3:23). The Bible also says that sin is deserving of death (Romans 6:23) and to spend eternity in a place that even God calls hell. This means everyone who has ever lived including me and you (Romans 3:1-951-760-1797. The good news is, God also provided the only acceptable way that we could have our sins forgiven, once and for all time (1 Peter 3:18)! The only one who has ever met God’s standards is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to earth to pay the penalty that we owe to God for failing to meet His standards. He suffered the most excruciating death known to man, death on a cross, so that we could be made right in God’s eyes (Philippians 2:8). And He rose again three days later (1 Corinthians 15: 3-4) so that we could have eternal life with God in Heaven! Glory to His name!

“… if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” –

Romans 10:9,10

It is our prayer that you would come to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior today!

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Is Being Nervous A Sin?

Mon, 05 Sep 2016 20:54:00 GMT

If you’re nervous, does it mean you are not trusting God? That is a good question isn’t it? Being Nervous is not necessarily a sin. Being nervous is a sin, if it prevents us from doing what God would have us do.

You see, in Genesis 1 we are given the account of creation. God created man in His image (Gen 26-31) and He declared all of His creation very good at the end of day 6 (Gen 1:31). This means that before the fall in Genesis 3, everything was very good in God’s eyes. This includes man and, yes, even his emotions. However, after the fall, God’s image in man, including his emotions, was distorted. Now, what used to be a very good emotion, is corrupted by our sinful nature.

Nervousness is an uneasy feeling about something or someone. This can be good. For example, being nervous about a strange person that is walking around our neighborhood is a good thing. It keeps us on alert until we determine if the person is a threat or not. However, this feeling of uneasiness becomes sinful if, once we determine the person is up to no good, we decide to let them continue about their suspicious business without informing the proper authorities. Maybe we made the decision out of fear of getting involved or fear of what the person might do to us. In any event, by doing this we put other people as well as ourselves in danger. Our God-given emotion of nervousness has just turned sinful.

Nervousness turned sinful is called anxiety. The word translated “anxiety” in the Bible is “μεριμνᾶτε” ( merimnate ). This word has the sense of being unduly concerned about something. When we become so concerned about something (e.g. a situation, a person, etc.) that we stop doing what is right in God’s eyes this is being unduly concerned. In the example above, God would have us consider the safety of others (Matthew 22:39). The fact that we made the decision to not think of others is a sin.

So, are you in a situation that is making you nervous? Has the natural, God-given emotion of nervousness started to turn into sinful anxiety? If you are a Christian, God has given you everything you need to get the victory over sinful anxiety – Jesus! (1 Cor 15:57). Please, contact your church counseling ministry or pastor if you are having or think you are having issues with anxiety. Feel free to contact V.I.C. Ministries for help. Also, read this helpful resource Getting a Grip on Stress .

Do you know Jesus as Lord and Savior? His Spirit living inside of you is the only way these resources will truly help you. To accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, you must accept that God has standards and that you have failed to meet them. We all have. The Bible calls this sin. The Bible also says that sin is deserving of punishment in a place that even God calls hell. This means everyone who has ever lived including me and you. The good news is, God also provided the only acceptable way that we could have our sins forgiven, once and for all time! The only one who has ever met God’s standards is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus came to earth to pay the penalty that we owe to God for failing to meet His standards. He suffered the most excruciating death known to man, death on a cross, so that we could be made right in God’s eyes. And He rose again three days later so that we could have eternal life with God in Heaven! Glory to His name!

So, according to the Bible,

Romans 10:9,10

This means you must admit that you are a sinner and deserve eternal punishment; you must believe that Jesus was who He said He was and did what He said He did; and you must come to Him in faith, trusting in Him, and Him alone, for your salvation. It is our prayer that you would come to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior today!

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Should We Be Afraid To Give An Account Before Our God?

Fri, 12 Aug 2016 02:07:00 GMT

Ok. So, we are studying the book of 1 John and we were talking about chapter 2 verses 18-29. In verse 28 John wrote,

“ Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”

An obvious question concerning this verse is what did John mean by “…we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.”? This is a great question and I believe it means that if we live a life that glorifies God, we will have no reason to be ashamed when the time comes for us to be judged at the judgement seat of Christ.

However, this question begs another question, “Should we be afraid to stand before a Holy God and give an account of our lives?”

What an important question. The Bible clearly says we will give an account of our lives before the judgement seat of Christ. The judgement I am referring to is the judgement Paul mentions in Romans chapter 14. In the process of explaining that it is not right for one Christian to cause another Christian to violate his or her conscience, Paul mentions that every one (Christian and non Christian alike) will stand for judgement before God.

Now, Paul says in Romans chapter 8, verse 1,

“ Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

The Greek word translated “condemnation” in this verse literally means punishment or penalty. Paul just said there is no punishment for anyone who has placed their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation. Paul is reiterating what Jesus plainly said in the gospel of John, chapter 3 verse 18,

“ He who believes in Him is not judged ; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

The “Him” in verse 18 is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The Greek word translated “judged” has the sense of divine condemnation or punishment. Jesus is saying in no uncertain terms that no believer will be punished. Praise God!

In fact, Psalm 103, says

10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

David wrote this psalm in reflection of the great mercy God had toward him. The “He” that David refers to is God. The “fear” David speaks of is not what we may typically think of when we here the English word. The Hebrew word translated “fear” means to have a reverential awe toward something. David was confident that, even though he was a sinful human being, God would not hold his sins against him because he revered God and trusted in God’s lovingkindness towards him because of it.

These are just a few of the many passages that make it clear that believers will not suffer divine punishment for the sins they have, are, and will commit. (There are consequences, however, but that is topic for another time).

The point here is that God does not and will not deal with His children according to their sin. He will deal with the sin that is committed by His children, but not as the Holy and Righteous Judge of the universe that must punish sin. No, he deals with His children as a loving father deals with his children-out of love and wanting the best for them.

(However, this does not in any way imply that Christians can or should go about sinning with no thought to what happened on the cross of Calvary. We should not take God’s grace for granted. We are told quite clearly by Paul in Romans,

“5:20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more , 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

6: 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

In this passage, Paul is explaining that God’s grace in Jesus Christ was shown to be even greater than the sin that the Mosaic Law brought to light (sin is abomination in the sight of God). However, we are not to take the grace for granted because it goes against who we are in Christ. We are dead to sin and should act like it.)

Now, it is clear that no believer will be punished. So, what will happen to Christians at the judgement that Paul is talking about in Romans? Well, it certainly will not be a finger pointing session with the Lord scolding us for things we did wrong. As was pointed out above, He has not dealt with us according to our sins. Paul says a similar thing in 1 Timothy In fact, God separates our sins from us “as far as the east is from the west”. Thank God!

Jesus said in John 15:11,

“These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you , and that your joy may be made full .”

In John chapter 15, Jesus is talking to His disciples about abiding in His love and glorifying The Father. What is Jesus’ joy? Well part of it, and its a BIG part, is that He could come and give us a way to be reconciled to God! So, when He says that our joy may be made full He is saying that we can rejoice in the fact that we are reconciled to God through our Savior Jesus Christ!

In fact, in Philippians chapter 4, verse 4 we are commanded to rejoice,

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”

So, if you’re a believer, you have no reason to be afraid of our great and mighty God and Savior! Rejoice that we have been saved and will not be punished nor our sins brought to bear against us!

What a wonderful Savior we have!

1 Christ has for sin atonement made—What a wonderful Savior!

We are redeemed, the price is paid—What a wonderful Savior!

2 I praise Him for the cleansing blood—What a wonderful Savior!

That reconciled my soul to God—What a wonderful Savior!

3 He cleansed my heart from all its sin—What a wonderful Savior!

And now He reigns and rules therein—What a wonderful Savior!

4 He gives me overcoming pow’r—What a wonderful Savior!

And triumph in each trying hour—What a wonderful Savior!

Chorus: What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Jesus!

What a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord! ^{^[1]}

So, do you know Jesus as Lord and Savior? If you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, the judgement Paul speaks of will be very different. The Bible says that you are an enemy of God and as an enemy deserve to be punished by the only righteous judge. In order for you to be at peace with God, and not have your sins held against you any longer, the first thing you must understand is that Jesus died for you because you have fallen short of God’s standards. You must understand and accept this. Second, you must believe that Jesus died for you because there was no other way to pay the debt you owe to God for falling short of His standards. And third, come to Jesus in faith, believing that He paid your sin debt when He died on the cross, but when He rose again three days later He made it just as if you had never sinned in the eyes of God. You will not be condemned any longer!

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”- John 3:16

All glory and honor and praise to the only blessed God and Savior, Jesus Christ!

^{^[1]} Logos Hymnal . (1995). (1st edition.). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

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God’s Love For The Saints!

Sun, 07 Aug 2016 04:54:00 GMT

So, how often do you find yourself thinking about how much God loves you and why? I find myself thinking about this every so often. It usually happens when I am listening to worship music during my drive to work in the mornings. I’ll be singing along and all of sudden I will be overwhelmed with His amazing grace; or I will be listening to a sermon or Sunday school lesson and the Holy Spirit will bring to mind passages of Scripture that I have read at some point. At these times the messages and lessons just come together in such a profound way that my understanding is so clarified on certain aspects of His love and grace.

Well, this past Sunday was just such a time when God’s love was so magnified in my heart that I had an overwhelming feeling of joy and contentment. We are studying the epistle of 1 John. We happen to be discussing the passage in chapter 2, verses 18 thru 25. John begins this passage by addressing the antichrists which have apparently left the church in Ephesus. The tone is one of encouragement as he explains that the departure of the false teachers was a good thing. You see, the antichrists had done a number to the Ephesian congregation by spreading the false belief that Jesus was not a real person and so the believers could not really have a relationship with Him. This happens to be one of the main reasons John wrote this letter-to combat these false teachers.

So, the discussion took us to passages throughout the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, in order to show that Jesus was, is and always will be, God the Son, the second person of the Trinity. So, one of the passages was Psalm 2. This is one of the Messianic Psalms that prophesies of the Messiah. As we read this Psalm and we came to verse 8,

‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.

This is God speaking to His Son. God is saying that He will give the nations as an inheritance to His Son if His Son asks.

Well, immediately I thought about the epistle to the Ephesians. In chapter 1 the Apostle Paul tells the Ephesians his prayer for them. In verse 18 he says,

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints ,

The pronoun His in this verse (for emphasis, I put the last phrase in bold) is referring to the Son, Jesus Christ. Notice, the saints are His inheritance! In light of Psalm 2, we can conclude that Jesus asked the Father to give all those who believe in Him to Him. Jesus asked to come to earth and ultimately die on the cross for His inheritance! Praise God!

In chapter two of Ephesians we see the following,

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,… 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Paul is writing to the Ephesian church. It would seem they were having issues with their salvation and understanding exactly what God had done for them. While they were dead to God, He gave Jesus to them so that they could be reconciled to Him! And what God did for the Ephesian Christians, He has also done for us!

In the book of Hebrews we are told in chapter 12 verse 2,

… Jesus , the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross , despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The joy that was set before Jesus was His inheritance in the saints! His joy was that He could provide the only way for His children to be reconciled to The Father! What amazing love!

And can it be that I should gain
An int’rest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God shouldst die for me?

Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me!

So, do you know Jesus as Lord and Savior? Do you know about this love that God has for His children? In order for you to be at peace with God, and know His amazing love, the first thing you must understand is that Jesus died for you because you have fallen short of God’s standards. You must understand and accept this. Second, you must believe that Jesus died for you because there was no other way to pay the debt you owe to God for falling short of His standards. And third, come to Jesus in faith, believing that He paid your sin debt when He died on the cross, but when He rose again three days later He made it just as if you had never sinned in the eyes of God and you can have the relationship that He wants to have with all those who have put their faith in the risen Savior! You can experience His Amazing love!

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”- John 3:16

All glory and honor and praise to the only blessed God and Savior, Jesus Christ!

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The Goal of Teaching

Sat, 06 Aug 2016 19:49:00 GMT

Hello All,
This is Arnie Shirley of VIC Ministries in Temecula, CA. This is the start of a blog on the Bible and its application in our lives. This has been a long time coming. I have had a passage in 1 Timothy on my heart for the last year. The passage is from 1 Timothy chapter 1,

Paul wrote the letter of 1 Timothy to encourage Timothy to stand-up to false teachers whose teachings were leading the members of the congregation at Ephesus into useless arguments about God rather than training in God’s provision of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (v3-4).

Then in verse 5, Paul says that the goal of teaching should be “… love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
As we read v 5, a few phrases jump out at me “pure heart”, “good conscience” and “sincere faith”. Let’s look at each of these and determine how they are applied to the goal of instruction in the word.

So what is Paul saying? He is telling Timothy that when done in a way that honors and glorifies God, instruction in God’s word should produce self-sacrificing love towards God and others from a heart free from moral guilt. This freedom from moral guilt comes from the application of the truth of God’s word through which the conscience is made clean towards God. The result of seeing God work to clean the conscience through application of the word produces a growing and increasing faith that is without hypocrisy.

So, this is the goal that the Lord has put on my heart: to present the truth of God’s word in a way that is honoring to God and causes people to love God and others more. I pray that this blog would be a blessing to you.

However, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, the true power of the Scriptures are not available to you. The Bible says that you are an enemy of God. In order for you to be at peace with God the first thing you must understand is that Jesus died for you because you have fallen short of God’s standards, just like I have. You must understand and accept this. Second, you must believe that Jesus died for you because there was no other way to pay the debt you owe to God for falling short of His standards. And third, come to Jesus in faith, believing that He paid your sin debt when He died on the cross, but when He rose again three days later He made it just as if you had never sinned in the eyes of God and you can have the relationship that He wants to have with all those who have put their faith in the risen Savior! Salvation is a free gift from the one true God! I hope that you will accept it!

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”- John 3:16

All glory and honor and praise to the only blessed God and Savior, Jesus Christ!

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