Transcript
Hi Everyone, I just wanted to take this opportunity to share some things that might be on my mind and my heart.
I want you to know that the Lord is faithful. If I can say anything about the Lord Jesus Christ, He’s faithful, He’s true. You can trust Him, completely.
When you first start in your walk of faith with Him, you’re turning away from sin. Of course, you have to confess and repent of your sins. You do have to do that, of course.
That’s what it’s all about. That’s where you start. That’s an absolute necessity.
And you need to confess to the people that you‘ve wronged, you need to apologize to them. You need to make restitution wherever possible.
There is no such a thing as a repentance without doing your neighbor good, without doing your neighbor right.
When people came to John the Baptist in the Gospels, he called people to repentance and it says in the Scriptures they came confessing their sins. They came confessing their sins.
You don’t just sit in a meeting and some preacher at the front will say to you, “Well, anybody that wants to ‘accept Jesus in their heart,’ just raise your hand. Nobody look; everybody have their heads bowed and eyes closed. And just raise your hand If you accept Jesus Christ.” People, it does not work that way. It does not work that way.
People came confessing their sins, it says in the Scriptures and in the Gospels. If the Bible isn’t trustworthy for guidance for us, I’ll tell you all these preachers that try to convert as many or proselytize as many people as possible and join them into their kingdoms and to their churches, they’re not gonna, they’re not gonna give you the straight goods. They’re just not going to do that. You need to get the straight goods from the Lord.
And, you need to get straight with the Lord. You need to come clean with Him. If you have sins, you need to get right with God. You need to get them… dealt with among all people with whom you have to do and with the Lord.
And that’s part of the cross that you take up. It’s to let go of yourself. It’s to, it’s to… deny yourself. Now, instead of you coming first and hiding things, sheltering yourself, from what? Indignity? From shame? From humiliation? No. You have to make yourself, you have to get right with the Lord. He’ll give you the grace to come through. He’ll just do that.
And when you do step forth and obey Him, obey the Scriptures, do things the way the Lord wants you to do them and not the way you want to do them or that others might want you to do them, the Lord will honor you. He will demonstrate His faithfulness – His truth to you. He is the Truth. He knows what He’s doing and you need to trust Him and you need to let go of your profits, your desires, your ways of thinking.
His ways and thoughts are well beyond ours. Get honest with Him, get honest with yourself, get honest with people. Be right. Be right. He’ll give you that grace.
I’m thankful for what the Lord has done for me and for others. And He’ll take you through fires. He’ll take you through the valley of the shadow of death. But you’re not to fear any evil. He comforts you; He’ll bring you through. Yeah, the fires can get hot. The cross can be very difficult to bear. But that’s not a problem for Him. That’s not a problem, but it is the gateway into the Kingdom of God.
That’s the way things work. It’s the reality. It’s not easy. It is not just so simple as people say. Yeah, there is that simplicity in the Lord. It boils down to something very simple. Yes. But, when you take up your cross when you’re going to do the will of God and deny yourself, it’s… not easy; nobody says it’s easy.
The Bible doesn’t say it’s easy. Preachers will tell you it’s easy, many will, as long as you join their organization or their church or become members and profess faith in Christ… people try to make it sound easy, make it easy for you, but taking up the cross and dying to self is not easy. That’s all there is to it.
But, it’s the way to go. And the Lord will do whatever is necessary. He is able to take care of anything in your life. I don’t care what you are dealing with, whether it’s social problems, or health problems, or occupational problems of any kind, economic problems; whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. There is no problem that the Lord can’t solve for you. No problem. No problem.
And He is the only one that can really do what is needful for you. There is nobody else, there’s no religion, there’s no person, there’s no denomination, there’s no church system, no group of people, no set of doctrines that can do that for you. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can do that. He laid down His life for you, nobody else did. He’ll do everything that’s needful.
Believe me, I’ve walked with the Lord now since 1973 and He has proved Himself faithful. There were times when I doubted, there were times I was disappointed, angry, frustrated, full of unbelief, but none of that mattered. He brought me through, He brought me through.
I’m no hero, for sure. I’m no better or no different than anybody else. The Lord is very, very different and He’s the best, He’s not just better, He’s the best. He’s all goodness, all righteousness, all truth. How can you lose? He’s omnipotent. He knows it all. He can do anything. With men, these things are impossible but with God all things are possible.
I want you to know that. I’m taking this opportunity today to just share those things that are on my mind and my heart. And I’m thankful for being able to bring these things to you and I hope that if there’s any kind of helplessness or hopelessness in your life that you’ll understand the Lord can take care of all of that. He can.
There’s hope in Him, sure hope.
That’s it.
Victor Hafichuk
May 23, 2017
Harvest Haven