Power for Living the Christian Life - by Jim tharp

This message today addresses the weaknesses among professing Christians in many of our churches throughout America. My Scriptural text is found in Ephesians 1:13-14: “In Him [Christ] you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

This message has to do with why many of our Christian churches are so weak—weak in worship, prayer, winning others to Christ, and reaching out to their communities. The real problem is that many Christians have not paid attention to what is to happen once they have trusted in Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. As we read in the above Scripture, we receive the Holy Spirit when we trust Christ for our salvation. But the Spirit is a Person, a Member of the Triune Godhead, who is as divine as are God the Father and God the Son. The Holy Spirit is the invisible Agent (representative) of God the Father and God the Son who indwells believers to give them the power to live the Christian life. The Holy Spirit is within us, a Spirit, making our human body and mind His dwelling. All three members of the Godhead are one in thought, authority, and love for the entire human race.

The Bible, God’s Holy Word - by Jim Tharp

In these days of division, tension, confusion, and evil, I am praying that more of us from all walks of life will feel the need to turn to the Bible, which is the Word of God. We read in II Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Why the emphasis on this Holy Book? Because God and His Word are inseparable. The average person and his word may be two different things, but our Eternal God, Our Holy God, our Omniscient God are one and the same in all times—yesterday, today, and forever. Our Eternal God has spoken His Eternal Word. Our Holy Bible is a miracle Book because it comes from our Eternal God who is the miracle Worker; God created the world by His Eternal Word, and through His Holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, He created a new redeemed human race.

Our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, is introduced to us in John’s Gospel chapter 1, verses 1-5: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

No book ever written has been attacked and despised as much as this Holy Book—a sure proof that evil was angrily on planet earth to make every effort to hold the human race in eternal bondage. While the Bible has been opposed throughout many nations, it remains the most powerful book ever written because it is the Living Book, the Word of God. Our Holy Bible is the Written Word, and our Lord Jesus Christ is the Living Word. We read in John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verse 14 that “. . . the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Our Coming Presidential Election - by Jim Tharp

In November 2020 millions of Americans will have the sacred opportunity of participating in the most significant presidential election since the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860. President Lincoln was elected to guide the United States through a time when it was a horribly divided nation with evil forces allied against the free exercise of faith and freedom. He had to deal with demonic, immoral forces operating in political, intellectual, and religious fields.

Abraham Lincoln, knowing it was impossible for any mortal to succeed in the impossible assignment of being President of the United States, called for prayer.

I am suggesting that we take seriously what Abraham Lincoln proposed and pray as instructed in I Timothy, chapter 2, verses 1-8 (The Message):

“The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth. Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God.”

Rekindling the Flames - by Jim Tharp

Believing that the greatest need in the American church today is a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit, I call attention to the apostle Paul’s urgent appeal to his closest partner in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is found in II Timothy 1:3-8, NKJV: “I thank God, whom I serve with a pure conscience, as my forefathers did, as without ceasing I remember you in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see you, being mindful of your tears, that I may be filled with joy, when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.”

On his first missionary journey Paul visited the city of Lystra and discovered there the unusual young man named Timothy. Learning of the strong spiritual heritage in his grandmother and his mother, the apostle sensed the call of God upon this young believer. Spending months in the area and having a sense of this promising minister of the Gospel, Paul laid hands on Timothy and prayed for Him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. For several years Timothy traveled with Paul and demonstrated the power of the Holy Spirit in his personal life as well as in his successful delivery of gospel messages. Paul even sent him out on his own to help start churches in several cities. But those were years of persecution and many other hardships for messengers of the gospel. 

While suffering alone in Rome’s old dark Mamertine Prison, Paul felt the Holy Spirit impressing on him that he had more to pray about than his coming execution ordered by the emperor. Before his imminent death he longed to see his dear friend Timothy and pray for him to receive a fresh filling of the Spirit.

We read in Acts 4:31 that all twelve apostles, who had previously been filled with the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, received a fresh filling of the Spirit. The preceding days had been filled with much opposition—some apostles had been beaten, put in jail, and threatened. They had not lost their faith, but they were hungry, weary, and discouraged. General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, warned his preachers to stay full of the Spirit “because the tendency of fire is to go out.” John Wesley, the great spiritual leader in England during the 1800s, confessed “When I fail to fast and pray, I soon lose my spiritual heat and passion.”

The Valley of Dry Bones - by Jim Tharp

The prophet Ezekiel reveals how the Lord compared His Old Testament Israelites to a valley of dry bones: “The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ So I answered, ‘O Lord God, You know.’ Again He said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.’” (Ezekiel 37:1-5, NKJV)

In the verses that follow the prophet tells us how he obeyed the Lord, and he reports the miracle that happened just as God had promised. Let us consider the scene that Ezekiel was commanded to view back in that day. He was led out into a valley where long ago a great battle had left hundreds slaughtered. No one had survived to bury the dead. Vultures had long since picked the carcasses clean, and the very dry bones were there. The rains of the centuries had washed them thin, and hundreds of summer suns had bleached them as white as snow. It was not a pleasant sight!

Let there be no misunderstanding about the purpose of this vision! The Lord had a mission for this prophet—Ezekiel was to prophesy. Later we read, “So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone. Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.” (Ezekiel 37: 7-10, NKJV)

We read about the backslidings of God’s Old Testament Israelites in several places; in many ways they failed to meet the conditions of their covenant with Jehovah. So to the Church of Jesus Christ throughout its more than two thousand years of existence has all too often failed to live up to the New Covenant of Grace because of periodic seasons of disobedience, division, selfishness, worldliness, and unbelief. This grieves the Holy Spirit who enables us to pray, worship, witness for Christ, and find our place in the Kingdom of God.