The Defender

The Gospel is so much more than a self-help message. Without Christ, we weren’t just bad. We weren’t unchurched. We didn’t need a "little" help. We were dead. And being dead is a huge problem. Dead people can’t do a thing to help themselves. Not one thing. So the Gospel begins with really bad news—all have sinned and can’t do a single thing to improve their standing with God. But the Gospel ends with great news! The Gospel begins with people who are spiritually dead because of the penalty and the power of sin, but through Jesus, the spiritually dead are raised to life.  

Christian, do you know the power of the resurrection of Christ? Are your thoughts those of one who is risen with Him, set on things above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God? Are you, as being raised up with Him, dead to sin, dead to the pleasures, to the greatness, to the fading glory of the world which crucified the Lord of glory? Do the things of the world—those things which, as far as man was concerned, caused the death of Jesus—no longer exercise any influence over your thoughts and over your life?  

 We are a unique people formed by the life-changing message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ—in effect, a worldwide message tribe. But if we are recipients of a pay-it-forward-type message, then that makes us all messengers! Every believer is, therefore, a messenger and a missionary. And Christianity itself is an intrinsically missional faith. Even the newest believer seems to understand the universality of the Gospel message; they rightly intuit that because it is “good news,” it is meant to be passed on and that somehow to sit on the message is to fail in our obligations to Jesus and his cause. 

Self-love is the very hallmark of this age, and all the others that follow are results of it. It is this selfishness, broadcast at us incessantly, that causes men to be proud and blasphemers, traitors and boasters, unthankful, and unholy because everything is inward. "Me first, and if I have time, maybe I'll think about seeing to your needs" is the credo of most. But Christians are supposed to have a different hallmark (John 13:34-35; 15:12-13). A Christian's attitude, his outlook, the way he approaches life, is 180-degrees away from the way society has been set up to function by Satan the Devil. We are not to be lovers of ourselves, but we are to love one another as Christ has loved us - totally opposite to the way we would naturally want to go. 

 All the believers in Christ have the privilege to be God’s fellow workers, those who work the work of the Lord(see 1 Cor. 16:10) and even abound in the work of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58). The way to do this is not by seeing the need to do something for God and going to do it right away, but by first allowing Christ to work Himself into us and make His home in our heart (Eph. 3:17) so that He may grow in us and fill our entire inner being with Himself (Col. 2:19). 

 The Bible describes mankind in much the same way. Isaiah 59:7 says, “Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths.” This tendency for sin is something that every person has. 

 Prayer is seriously powerful business. So often, though, we treat it as a perfunctory task to be checked off our daily to-do list. How can we shift our attitudes from boredom and obligation to joy and expectation? The Lord always inclines His ear to His children. Learn the foundational principles of effective prayer, and how to confidently approach God with our petitions and requests. 

 If we want to accomplish anything in either the natural or spiritual realms, we must engage in spiritual warfare(Ephesians 6:12). In Mark 3:27 Jesus said, “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house.” When Adam and Eve sinned they turned over the title deed of the earth to Satan. Satan is called “god of the world” in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “Prince of this world” in John 14:30 and “prince of the power of the air” in Ephesians 2:2. In 1 John 5:19, the Apostle John said, “We know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the grip of the evil one.” We must “first bind the strong man” (Mark 3:27) if we are going plunder his house – this world over which he rules. This is particularly true in seeing people “rescued from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). This is what was taking place in Mark 3:14-15 – “He appointed twelve, so that they would be with Him and that He could send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons,” which Jesus Himself had been doing. 

Brother James interviews Prophet Jeremy Caris. Jeremy Caris is the founder and president of Caris Ministries. Since he is called as a prophet and gifted as a teacher, much of his focus involves equipping believers to hear, know, and follow God in their own daily experience. He teaches the foundational truth of the Word with simple clarity while revealing deep things of the spirit in practical ways. He has the unique ability to demystify the supernatural side of a real relationship with a living God and make it an embraceable and accessible reality for all believers. Jeremy has been married to his best friend, Mandy Caris, for seventeen years, and is the proud father of two boys.

 Pastor Rene Llanos and his wife Acenet has been in ministry since 1991. They are church planters currently serving as presidents of House of Restoration Ministry with churches in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Florida. They have served as missionaries to the Dominican Republic where they built an orphanage that provides assistance to 160 children. Pastor Llanos serves in several non-profit agencies and is a board member in Montgomery County as the Minority Representative. Pastor Rene and his wife Acenet are active members of The Tabernacle under the leadership of Pastor Anthony & Julia Daley. They have been happily married 31 years and are the proud parents of three children and two grandchildren. 

Our God is good. When He asks us to obey Him, choosing to do His will even when it is not our will, He is giving us the opportunity for blessing. The will of God always leads to a happy place. The ultimate example of this is Jesus in the garden before His crucifixion.  

 God's will can refer to His perfect plan known since the beginning of time, God's teachings for all people, God's specific desires for a community of people, or God's unique plan for our individual lives. God knows all that will take place, has commanded us to follow certain teachings, and leads and guides both individuals and communities of believers toward certain actions that bring glory to His name.  

 Terrilski Davis, a native of Georgia is a man of God who currently residing in Tacoma, Washington with his wife and 3 children. He’s an army veteran, entrepreneur and a man after God’s own heart. His desire is to see God’s love activated in every individual he comes in contact with. He has served in ministries across the country for over 15 years including Iraq and Kuwait. He volunteers throughout the community providing free financial services and mentorship to those who are in need of guidance, advice, and purpose. His journey has been a life of trials, setbacks, challenges and triumphs through which God has used to shape and mold him into the leader he is today. 

 Pastor Terry Kirby is a lay pastor with The Tabernacle Church at the Stewart County location in Dover TN. He has served as a youth pastor and mentors to countless young people. He and his wife have one son and has fostered two children in their home that they adopted while being parental guides to many. Terry and his wife have been married for 25 years and in active ministry for 27 years. They have a heart for the young and seeing souls saved into the grace of Jesus Christ. Pastor Terry demonstrates the heart of the Father for all those he comes in contact with letting them know that every soul has value and every soul has worth in the eyes of God. 

 The breaker is come up - He who is to give them deliverance, and lead them out on the way of their return. He who takes down the hurdles, or makes a gap in the wall or hedge, to permit them to pass through. This may apply to those human agents that shall permit and order their return. And God is at their head may refer to their final restoration when the Lord Jesus shall become their leader, they have returned unto Him as the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls; and they and the Gentiles forming one fold under one shepherd, to go no more out into captivity forever. Lord, hasten the time! 

 If we allow the Lord to touch us through His Body concerning our demeanor, attitude, function, and measure in the meetings, we may have a way to go on with Him. We need to come to the Lord personally and let His light– in His time and in His way – shine on us concerning our living in the church life and our function in the Body. 

 You’ll find this all through the Scriptures in the lives of God’s hidden servants: God hid Joseph in prison before he came to the palace. He hid Moses in the desert for a third of his life before he led the people out of Egypt. God hid David in the mountains, running in and out of caves from Saul before he was recognized as king. In the New Testament, God hid Paul for three years in Arabia after his conversion, before he became a missionary. And, God hides Elijah at Cherith before his great life contribution at Carmel. Don’t count it a strange thing if God hides you. Here’s the principle: When God chooses to hide you for a time, He is preparing you for a greater purpose. 

The whole of Romans 6:4 says, "We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into death that as Christ was raised from among the dead through the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life." The Greek word translated "that" here can be rendered "in order that" pointing to a result, an issue. If we are not buried into Christ’s death, we cannot have the result spoken of in this verse. We have been buried into death in order that we may walk in newness of life. The reference to Christ’s being raised from among the dead through the glory of the Father indicates a glorious resurrection. As Christ was raised from among the dead in a glorious resurrection, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. However, many do not experience the death of Christ; yet they endeavor to walk in newness of life. You were the one buried into death. The one who has been resurrected to walk in newness of life is not the original you, the one who was buried; it is Christ with you. We Christians are too natural. Our thinking and our understanding are so natural. We even understand the Bible according to our natural mentality. Because we are still governed by our natural concepts, we may say, "The Bible tells us that we should walk in newness of life. Therefore, let us walk in newness of life." But this is not possible if we have not been buried and if we do not remain in death. If we come out of death, how can we walk in newness of life? It is impossible.

You know that God has something good in store for you. You don't believe he intends you to live a life of painful drudgery in which each day is a total drag. After all, the Bible is chock full of passages about joy. While this certainly doesn't mean that every single day is a parade and circus, it does mean that an overall sense of gladness should permeate your life.

For most of us, the place where we first met the Christian faith was at home. Maybe it was Dad telling Bible stories, or Mom getting dressed for church, or maybe Grandma telling about how it was when she was younger, in a day when faith was a bigger part of life even for those who didn't have any faith. Maybe it was prayers at mealtime, or before going to bed. Or a cousin's wedding, an aunt's funeral, or a baby brother's baptism. As life itself does for little children, faith-stuff revolved around the family and family members. The sad thing is, this is getting less and less true, and not because some cynical atheists declared a subtle war on Christian values (though that is out there in today's social ether). It is less true because we all have much less of a family nowadays, often without one of the parents, and with the children, all split off doing their own thing. And it is less true because the believing Christian parents have forgotten how to pass the Christian faith on to their children. We have less of a family spirituality today because we have less of a family. It takes teaching. It takes talking about why you are Christian, and what that means in any given situation. But most of all, it takes actually going about being Christians every day. You have to model it yourselves. Children need to see you when you struggle with the faith. They need to see you live according to the faith, they need to see you fail and try again, they need to see you hurt and celebrate and doubt and shrink and grow and be hypocrites (as we all sometimes are) and still turn to Jesus and live in God's grace.