PASTOR’S CORNER: Stay the course in Jesus Christ

“Stay the course in Jesus Christ” is the message.

This is the only way that we are going to make it and hear our Lord say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” When we leave the path that God has marked out for us; when we leave the roadmap of the word, the Bible, and go in another direction we set ourselves up for failure and start a downward spiral.

The nation of Israel is a prime example, despite God’s goodness to them and the miracles that He worked right before their eyes. He told them to choose either life or death, to choose life that they may live and if they obeyed him he would fight for them, prosper them and bless their children’s children. He gave them the Ten Commandments. All they had to do was stay the course, but they wouldn’t do it, and as a result, a whole generation of them died in the wilderness.

Community family, we have the word of God to guide us. We know the way, we are a peculiar people, a holy nation called out of darkness to walk in the marvelous light (I Peter 1:9). God wants to bless us; we are His children, we carry His name and “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk upright before him,” but so many sell themselves short by taking shortcuts.

They wander away from the truth and compromise their Christian testimony. They believe the lie that the devil tells them that the grass is greener on the other side. They leave the path that God has laid out for them. They do not stay the course and wonder why nothing is working out for them.

Their relationships don’t work, jobs don’t work, money goes through their hands like water, and friendships don’t last. Community, we don’t have to take shortcuts to get what God has for us; remember that. We don’t have to lie, scheme, deal under the table and lose our integrity to get ahead. All we have to do is “stay the course in Jesus Christ.” And we will receive everything that God has for us.

Community, stay the course in Christ. I don’t care what nobody else does. Disconnect from anybody who tries to get you to compromise or do what you know is wrong. Pick your friends who have their heads on straight and try to do the right thing. Stay with the church and the saints, get active and get involved.

King Saul did the right thing. He put away all those familiar spirits out of the land (1 Samuel 28:3). Familiar spirits in our day are fortune tellers, palm readers, psychics who claim to tell you about your future, those who read the horoscopes. They are those who practice witchcraft, and those who do seances to talk to the dead. God does not want his children to deal with these kinds of spirits.

The Philistines came against Saul. Saul prayed to the Lord for help, but the Lord would not answer him. But why wouldn’t God answer him? We need to understand that King Saul was not walking in the will of God. He had got off course. In fact, God rejected him from being king back in I Samuel 15:26, and therefore he did not have any divine guidance.

But now community, when we get out of the will of the Lord and when we get off course, we lose our divine guidance. We will find ourselves doing things we would not ordinarily do. When we open up ourselves to the enemy, the devil, he’ll take us further than we want to go. You’ll do things you said you would not do. You’ll lay down with dogs and when you lay down with dogs, you’ll get fleas on you!

God told him to go and destroy the Amalekites and all that he had: the men, women, infants and their livestock (1 Samuel 15:3). King Saul goes and destroys all the people with the sword. But he spared Agag the king, and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the lambs and all that was good to offer as a sacrifice to God. But, God told him to destroy everything and everybody and not spare anything. When he disobeyed God, he got off course.

“Stay the course in Jesus Christ” is the message.” My friends, if you are not rooted and grounded in the word, desperation will take you out of yourself. The devil will have us sitting up in Madame Mary’s house reading our palms, calling in on the psychic hotline to know our future, sitting at the table looking at a crystal ball and looking at the stars (horoscopes) for direction.

But community, we don’t look to the stars for direction, We look to the one who MADE the stars for our direction. And he said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding; in ALL your ways acknowledge HIM and he, (not witches, palm readers, or the horoscopes) will direct your path,” (Proverbs 3;5,6).

Friends, get in the word and stay the course.

But so many sell themselves short by taking shortcuts. They wander away from the truth and compromise their Christian testimony. They believe the lie that the devil tells them that the grass is greener on the other side. Christian friends, your best days are ahead of you. God has great things in store. He wants to bless your children’s children. Don’t let the devil cheat you out of it. Stay the course in Jesus Christ.