As we approach the Feast of Pentecost, we are encouraged because we are reminded of all God has done for His people on this day, down through history.

The Ten Commandments were spoken by God to His chosen people on the day of Pentecost — a law, which defined sin and distinguished right from wrong — a standard to live by.

God gave His Spirit of Power to His Church on that first Pentecost following the death, burial, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, whereby, it would be possible for those God calls, to live by that standard He had established.

And, God established the New Testament Church on the day of Pentecost, at that same time, so that people of like mind could assemble together as a help to one another as they worked toward the goals established by the Almighty.

We are thankful for these wonderful gifts from our Father.

However, there is a god of this world. His purpose is totally contrary to God and His perfect Way of Life. And, he injects himself into the lives of those God has called, with the express purpose of thwarting the plans God has established.

In Genesis 3: 1-4, we see Satan as he came to Eve in the garden. Through his lies, he convinced Eve to go contrary to God’s Way, thus causing her to reject God’s Spirit (Genesis 3: 24). Satan has not changed his ways. He has been able to influence mankind throughout man’s generations.

In Job 1: 6, we read that Satan came among the angels of God, as they presented themselves before the Lord. His express purpose was to attack and destroy God’s servant, Job, whom God described as “a blameless and upright man, who fears God and shuns evil” (Verse 8).

To add to our problem of having to deal with this spirit being, we are told he is a liar (John 8: 44) and that he walks contrary to our calling (Ephesians 2: 1-3). Yet, he transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Cor 11: 14). He is our enemy.

We must become even more cognizant of his strategies and of his tactics, since we are living in the end-time. We are warned in 1 Peter 5: 8, to “be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

Our admonition in James 4: 7, is to “Submit to God and resist the devil.” We must draw near to God (James 4: 8). And we must hold fast, as Paul instructed Titus, to “the faithful word” we have been taught, “that we may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict, those who contradict (Titus 1: 9).”

If we do these things, God tells us in 1 Peter 5: 6, that “He will exalt us in due time.”

Let us keep these things in mind as we approach this season and realize that we have the power to overcome Satan and those who walk in his way, if we will obey our God and stay close to Him.
 

We are all aware that April 15 here in the U.S. is income tax day. It is settlement time for one more year with Uncle Sam. Of course, he makes it relatively painless for a majority of taxpayers with the current withholding system established to collect taxes at the time a person gets paid, thus transferring a good part of the burden of the collection effort to the employers in this country.

God has a system of collection for funds due Him to be used in carrying out His work on the earth. He calls that system tithing. The big difference in the two systems is that God depends on the honor of the individual, thus allowing the individual to properly pay the funds due Him.

The thing many do not consider is that the obligation to pay God’s tithes is just as binding under God’s system as is the obligation to pay the U.S. Government for taxes due. Most people, today, are not even aware that such an obligation is due from them. But those called of God have been apprised of the truth in this matter. Yet, many have begun looking for any and every reason not to pay God’s tithes. This is a serious error!

Christ tells us in Luke 20: 25 to “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

God told Adam, in the Garden of Eden, that he was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, lest he die. (Gen 2: 16-17) He and his wife chose to go contrary to that command and established a pattern of death.

Today, God raises the question in Malachi 3: 8 … “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me. When asked the question, “Wherein have we robbed You?” … The answer comes back … “In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse: for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation.”

This nation is cursed, brethren, because it has failed God in the payment of His tithes. But even more critical, many in God’s Church, today, are suffering from this same curse, because of disobedience. Let us not be guilty of committing this sin against our Creator.
 

Well, brethren, the Days of Unleavened Bread are upon us. The feast of Passover begins at sundown on Tuesday, March 26, and ULB begins 24 hours later. These days picture our coming out of sin. We know that “Sin is the transgression of the law.” (I John 3:4) God’s law is the law of “Love,” and is defined by the Ten Commandments.

But Christ tells us (Mark 7: 20-22) “What comes out of a man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within and defile a man.”

The problem, then, begins in the mind. Notice (James 1: 14-15) “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” Thus, it is in the mind where we must begin in our effort to come out of sin.

So it is temptation that we must concentrate on, brethren. Temptation begins in the mind. Temptation begins with the things we think about, things we contemplate in our minds. It is here where the lusts of the flesh are conceived. And it is here where sin is born.

And we know this requires that God’s Spirit be in our minds, if we will ever be able to overcome the lust of the flesh. Once we have God’s Spirit, we have a fighting chance to do this. We must utilize that Spirit which God gives us at baptism, through the laying on of hands of the ministry, after we have repented of our past sins. (I Tim 4: 14) We must, then, change the way that we do things “…that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Rom 8: 4)

How do we do that?

We must fill our minds with thoughts of God’s Way of Life. “Set your mind on things above, not on things of the earth.” (Col 3: 2) To do this we must be drinking in of God’s Truths from His Word, the Holy Bible. We must meditate on these things and make them so much a part of our lives that when we do begin to go off in our minds from God’s thoughts, from His Ways, we immediately replace those thoughts with God’s Truth, thus thwarting Satan’s effort to see us go contrary to God’s Way.

We must remember, brethren, to hold fast to that which we have been given, that no man (including ourselves) steal our crown.