Ken Blue Ministries

 

 

 

 

By Ken Blue

Luke 5:31 “Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.”

Occasionally someone will complain of a migraine or a touch of the flu. Another may suggest they see a doctor. However, the person feeling ill will say, “no, I don’t feel that bad.”

My question is, how sick do you feel? Jesus made it clear, only the sick need a physician. Many who profess to be saved have never had more than a heart burn or a runny nose. They have never come to the realization that their situation is terminal.

It is the sick who need the Physician. Listen to these who have realistically looked at themselves. Job said, “Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.” Job 40:4. This was how this great saint of the Old Testament saw himself. Have you come to that realization?  Simon Peter saw his own sinfulness. “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Luke 5:8. A dear woman saw her true condition, and took her place under the table with the dogs. “Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. ²⁶ But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. ²⁷ And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Matthew 15:25-27. Finally, we hear Paul’s estimation of himself. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” I Timothy 1:15.

Now, how sick are you of yourself? Do you see your inward man as vile, sinful, like a dog, and the chief of sinners?  If not, no doubt you have not come to the Great Physician yet. Only those who sense that they are terminally ill really appreciate what the Physician has done for them, and that He is the only one who can make them whole.

How sick are you? If you know you, like I know me, you are sick of you. The only reason men and women don’t come to Christ for salvation is they don’t think they are sick. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 By Ken Blue

These are a few of the members who have been at Open Door for twenty years or more. Without a doubt, there are ten times that many who have moved on, and are serving in other churches, and ministries.

It is results like this that makes the ministry gratifying and rewarding. Sadly, too many pastors change churches about every five years, and never grow their church. It takes years to build a growing, solid, and Bible believing church. Someone has correctly said, “It takes a few weeks to grow an onion, and several years to grow an oak.” Which business are you in?

I am not the Holy Spirit, but I do not believe God is leading pastors to change pastorates ever three to five years. No doubt there is a more personal problem that should be resolved. My advice is for a pastor to stay put, if at all possible, and grow old with your members. Let God’s Spirit continue to work through you.

As a pastor ages, he will need to add younger staff to help with the children and young families. The pastor should give consideration to resigning when he is no longer effective. Time and much prayer is needed for that important decision. Stay put, and reap the benefits of a long term ministry.

Pastor Jason Murphy now pastors Open Door

 

 

By Ken Blue

Job 1:1  ^“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”

“Give an account of roaming, the earth, to and fro,

And why are you watching righteous Job as you go?”

“I have seen thousands like him, secure in their place,

Take away Your bribes, and he’ll curse You to Your face.”

 

So the Lord took down the hedge, and Job was fair game.

Once he’d lost it all, would he live up to his name?

Satan took all his farms, his servants, and his herds,

Still, Job remained faithful, and he was not deterred.

 

“Let me get more personal,” was Satan’s request.

“Let me take away his health, and what he loves best.”

So Job lost his health and his children in that day.

Job replied, “The Lord gives, it’s His to take away.”

 

Job’s friends came to comfort him in his shocking plight.

They gazed on his misery, seven days and nights.

Jobs wife was filled with grief; she could no longer cry.

And in her anger said, “why not curse God and die?”

 

Job was greatly perplexed; he had done nothing wrong.

And now his health, and all else, was dead or gone.

Job didn’t know God’s purpose or the design on high,

Nor answers to millions, who ask the reason, “why?”

 

All his friends believed he was hiding sins within.

“Just fess up Job, and all will be restored again.”

But, Job remained steadfast; he had done nothing wrong.

This was his argument, and would be his theme song.

 

But God appeared to Job in a mighty whirlwind,

And took the argument from his three naive friends.

Job needed to see God, in His wisdom and power,

And realize there’s no escaping life’s testing hour.

 

Job was at wits end, but to answer God he must.

“I see, and abhor myself in ashes and dust.

You are all righteousness; I am completely vile.”  

Unknown to Job, this was God’s purpose all the while.

 

Therefore, Satan was wrong, and so were Job’s three friends.

And Job was the more righteous in the latter end.

God proved that men don’t serve for what is given them.

But, because He is LORD, they love and worship Him.

 

Job was patient, and he proved Satan is a liar.

God is a loving God, as we go through the fire.

And all that Job lost was restored a hundred fold.

And a truth was revealed as the mystery was told.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Ken Blue

 

Ro 8:3. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:”

 This is one of the three laws found in these verses. The first law we dealt with was the “law of sin and death.” That law is a law of progression, and is the end result of sin. The law in this article is the Law of Moses, or the Ten Commandments.

 The above text says the Law was powerless to control the flesh because sin had control of it before the Law came. Romans 5:20 “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:”

Sin will not allow the flesh to obey the Law. Romans 7:7-22 “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. ⁸ But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. ⁹ For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. ¹⁰ And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. ¹¹ For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. ¹² Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. ¹³ Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. ¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵ For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. ¹⁶ If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. ¹⁷ Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ¹⁸ For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. ¹⁹ For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. ²⁰ Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. ²¹ I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. ²² For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:”

The above lengthy passage and others show the weakness of the Law. Galatians 3:24-25 “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵ But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.” Since Jesus has come, no one is under the Law of Moses. It could not make us righteous, and we could never obey it because of indwelling sin. Abraham was justified by faith four hundred years before Law was given.

The Law could not make us better because of our sin. However, Jesus delivered us from every demand, and the condemnation of the Law. Since we died in Christ, the Law has no more power over any believer. Praise the Lord!