Here I Am, Lord – – tqministries.com

Called Out of Darkness

“Which in times past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (1 Peter 2:10).

For those of us who have been called out of darkness; we are the people of God. What could be better than to be known by God as His people? We are blessed by the Mercy and Grace of our Heavenly Father Who loved us and sent His Son to make that possible. We were dead in sin and living in darkness. We were without hope before the Lord reached down in His Mercy and saved us from our fallen nature.

The Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed Himself on the Cross so that the way could be opened for forgiveness and fellowship with God. We are the people of God due to Calvary alone. All blessings come through the Lord’s sacrificial death on the Cross. Our faith must be in His great work there for our Salvation and for power to live a holy life as His people – the people of God.

The Bible tells us that we, as the people of God, are a chosen generation, or race. We are a royal Priesthood and “kings and Priests” (Rev 1:6). We are a Holy Nation set apart for God. We are a peculiar people speaking of the uniqueness of each member of the family of God. It also means that God surrounds His people as with a circle. This speaks of the Lord’s protection and great care for all He calls His own.

We, as His people, should worship and praise the One Who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. We are so blessed to be called the people of God in a world that neither knows Him nor honors Him as the one true God. Many look back on there lives and see all the failures and things that they have done that they are now ashamed of. If we have experienced the Mercy and Grace of God in our lives and are now children of God, then we have chosen rightly the only path that will lead us to Eternal Life with the God that loves us. We have found the way, which is, inspite of all our failures, the most important decision we can ever make! We, of course do not condone sin, but our failures made us realize our sinful state and our great need for a savior. We now know it is impossible to live a right or Righteous life without being born spiritually into the Kingdom of God. The Lord said the following to Israel but it applies to all those who walk out their lives as the people of God:

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6)

The Lord is our, “Shield and our exceeding great reward.” As David said in Psalm 3, ” He is a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. The Lord watches over us as we pass through this darkened and lost world. David saw the Lord as protecting and guiding him at all times, and so should we.

We are so privileged to know the Creator of all things and to walk in the fellowship He graciously offers to all those who come His way. We don’t know all that awaits us as we pass from this life into His very Presence, but His Word tells us that it will be glorious. He is our reward. We must seek to draw near to Him and His ways as David prayed in Psalm 25.

“Show me Your Ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your Truth and teach me: for you are the God of my Salvation; on You do I wait all the day” (Psalm 25:4,5).

In closing this article I can’t help but feel that I have not given the subject the justice it deserves. We are so blessed!  Being known as the people of God is a great honor beyond compare. But knowing our wonderful God and His ways is the true reward. Imagine, you and I can say that the God of all creation is “my God.” It’s personal – a personal relationship with the Lord. Nothing can compare with that. Praise His Holy Name for the mercy and Grace He has shown us.

Surely Mercy and Grace will follow me all the days of my life: and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” (Psalm 23:6).

Prayer Changes Things

The Lord wants us to come to Him with all our needs. Prayer requests can be left on the comments page of this website.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers…” (1 Peter 3:12).

The Lord hears our prayers and is faithful to answer.

Always Remember,

God Loves You!

Find podcasts of this article, and all the articles on this website on the “Here I Am Lord” podcast on Spotify for Creators, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic.

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Here I Am, Lord – Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2024

Even as Your Father in Heaven Is Perfect

“Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

Jesus said these words as part of the Sermon on the Mount. But what did He mean by telling us to be perfect like the Father. Was He advocating sinless perfection? No, that is not what Jesus was saying. 

We are saved by Grace. We come to the Lord with nothing to offer toward our Salvation but repentance and faith in the Lord’s great sacrifice at Calvary. When we are born again we understand that our Salvation was totally given to us on the basis of Grace. Grace that was afforded us only by what Christ accomplished at Calvary. Our part was to accept the gift of salvation.

“For by Grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

What happened to us when we were born again? We were washed, we were sanctified, and we were justified. All of this by Grace and the work of God in our life. We were washed by the Blood of Jesus, we were sanctified meaning that we were set apart to God, and we were justified which means we were declared not guilty. Washed, sanctified, and justified all due to Calvary. All by Grace.

“….But you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

Romans Chapter 6 tells us that spiritually we were baptized into His death, we were buried with Him, and just as Christ was literally raised from the dead, we were raised spiritually to Newness of Life. Again, we did nothing to bring this about but come by faith. Christ accomplished it all on the Cross. His death paid the sin dead and opened the way that we might be born again into Newness of life.

“Know you not, that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ were banished into His Death? Therefore we are buried with Him by Baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from from the dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in Newness of life” (Romans 6:3,4).

With Christ having paid the sin debt and having been Resurrected and seated on the Right Hand of the Father, the Holy Spirit now indwells all believers bringing Newness of life, that is, the Life of God to all those who come His way. And what is His way? Well, just as we came in by faith through Grace, we receive the life of God – The Newness of Life – the very same way. When we make Jesus Christ and Him Crucified the object of our faith, the Holy Spirit will work mightily in our lives. We could not bring about Salvation ourselves and we cannot bring about sanctification ourselves as well. The way to sanctification is a Law of God with the Holy Spirit working in our lives as we exhibit faith in Christ and Him Crucified as the following verse tells us:

“For the Law (Law of God) of the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) of Life (Newness of Life through the Holy Spirit) in Christ Jesus (Newness of Life is only made possible by what Christ accomplished at the Cross) has made me free (complete victory) from the Law of Sin and Death (the only way to defeat sin and live in Newness of Life)” (Romans 8:2 plus ESB and commentary mine).

What Jesus was saying in our opening verse about being perfect like our Heavenly Father is that we are to strive to be like Him by placing our faith in the Father’s gift of His Son. He sent the Lord Jesus to die on a cruel Cross that the way might be opened for whosover will to come by faith into a relationship with our Heavenly Father and experience Newness of Life which is the very Life of God. The object of our faith must be Christ and His sacrificial death on the Cross. The Holy Spirit will then make this Newness of life, or the Life of God a reality in our lives.

We are saved by Grace through faith and we are sanctified by faith through Grace. All made possible by the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary. He has done it all and He calls out to all those that have ears to come and receive of the goodness of our God. Our God is seeking those who will believe Him and seek to follow Him with all their heart. Let us seek to be perfect, that is, to live the life the Lord has provided for us which will make us more like Him.

“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole Earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9a).

Prayer Changes Things

The Lord wants us to come to Him with all our needs. Prayer requests can be left on the comments page of this website.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers…” (1 Peter 3:12).

The Lord hears our prayers and is faithful to answer.

Always Remember,

God Loves You!

Find podcasts of this article, and all the articles on this website on the “Here I Am Lord” podcast on Spotify for Creators, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic.

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Here I Am, Lord – Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2024

Repeat After Me!

Finding the Knowledge Of God

“…The Word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the Word of Faith, which we preach” (Romans 10:8).

I remember playing a party game as a child. I don’t remember the name of this party game but it was popular back then. One person started it by whispering something to the person next to them. What the individual passed on was up to them and could be anything. It wasn’t an individual word but could be a phrase or even a story. There usually were at least a half dozen people attending the party and this phrase or story was passed from one person to the next until the last person would say it out loud. There was always a good laugh from this as the final attempt to repeat what was originally given was nothing like what the original person had passed on.

I thought of this party game the other day because it is similar to what has happened to the church down through the years. The partygoers only had their memories to go by in passing whatever was given to them. The church, however, has had God’s Word to reference and to make sure that they were following the Word God has given His church so that they may know His will and follow Him in all their ways. The Gospel message was entrusted to the church through God’s Word that it be passed down as the Lord intended, and not corrupted by the church substituting their own ways for God’s. When you leave the Word of God, you lose your way.

Good intentions will merit those disposed to such – nothing. Many have left God’s Word for their own thoughts and ways. The church, as a whole, has drifted away from the God Who offers forgiveness and Eternal Life to all those who go His way – His way is the Bible. The church must return to the infallible Word of God.

The Bible teaches us about God’s great God love for us in sending His Son to rescue us from our helpless and fallen condition. The Bible is the Lord’s love letter to a world lost and undone. Fortunately, there is a remnant of good churches that make the Bible the centerpiece of their teaching, but many professing Christians don’t know the way to Salvation when the Bible clearly shows us the way. The Bible is the story of Christ and His great redemptive work for mankind. For Salvation, our faith must be in Christ and Him Crucified alone – the Bible tells us so.

So, let’s for a moment, play the game that I played as a child. Here is the verse to be passed on: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life.” Pass this on to the next person you meet for if they believe it; it will save their soul. But unlike the game and our need to remember it as originally intended, we have the reference of the Bible that we can point them to. Everything we hear should be measured by it.

God Loves us and gave us His Word so that we will not err, or stray, away from the truth. God’s Word is truth. It is rudder we need to direct our life here in this world. He stands in the way of Eternity waiting to welcome us. We long to hear Him say “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Follow His Word and it will lead us into His very presence for all eternity. We find in His Word all His promises for those who remain faithful. He has done it all by paying the price for us on the Cross. We need only come His way.

“My son, if you will receive My Words, and hide My Commandments with you; so that you incline your heart unto wisdom and apply your heart to understanding….then shall you understand the fear of the Lord, and find the Knowledge of God (which is the Bible)” (Proverbs 2:1,2,5).

Prayer Changes Things

The Lord wants us to come to Him with all our needs. Prayer requests can be left on the comments page of this website.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers…” (1 Peter 3:12).

The Lord hears our prayers and is faithful to answer.

Always Remember,

God Loves You!

Find podcasts of this article, and all the articles on this website on the “Here I Am Lord” podcast on Spotify for Podcasters, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic.

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Here I Am, Lord – Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2024

A Warning to All Believers! Be Ready!

“Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when He comes shall find watching…. and if He shall come in the second watch (9 to midnight), or come in the third watch (midnight to 3 AM), and find them so (watching for His coming), blessed are those servants” (Luke 12:37a,38).

The Lord is coming for His church. These are the end times prophesied in the Bible; the times the Lord warned us about, and His coming could be at any time. As we look around us today we find lawlessness on a scale that we have not seen before. Also, the moral fiber of our nation and the world is unraveling. These are dangerous times. We, as Christians, must keep our faith strong in all the promises of the Lord. The Lord calls us to be faithful and wise as the following words of the Lord tell us:

“And the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season. Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He comes shall find so doing” (Luke 12:42,43).

We are to occupy until He comes, meaning we are to be faithful and do the work of the Kingdom. The greatest work in the Kingdom is the work of sharing the Gospel in a fallen world. Those that we come across as we walk out this life should see a difference in us that they do not see in those of this world. We can walk out this life of faith and remain faithful as we make Christ and Him crucified the object of our faith daily. When we do this the Holy Spirit will work in us to not only bring us victory in our daily lives but lead us in reaching out to a lost and dying world.

The Lord goes on to warn believers about drifting away. We are kept by the Lord by faith in Christ’s finished work at Calvary. The following warning from the Lord should be considered and heeded by all:

“But if that servant say in his heart, my lord delays his coming; and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for Him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will, appoint him his portion with the unbelievers” (Luke 12:45,46).

Romans Chapter 6 tells us that we are dead to sin and have “Newness of Life” when we come to the Lord in repentance and faith, The sin nature is not dead but we are dead to it. That means that as long as we walk in the Spirit by our faith in Christ and His finished work at Calvary, the sin nature will remain inactive. However, if we do not do this the sin nature will definitely become a problem for us. We can go back to doing some of the unrighteous things we did before coming to the Lord, and worse. If we continue down this path we can lose our faith altogether. The Lord in these verses is talking about a believer who ceases to believe. The result, as we see here is not good.

The Lord warns us against losing faith and encourages us to walk out our lives as faithful and wise servants knowing that He could return for us at any time as our closing verse tells us. 

Be you therefore ready also: for the Son of Man (Jesus) comes at an hour you think not” (Luke 12:40).

Prayer Changes Things

The Lord wants us to come to Him with all our needs. Prayer requests can be left on the comments page of this website.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers…” (1 Peter 3:12).

The Lord hears our prayers and is faithful to answer.

Always Remember,

God Loves You!

Find podcasts of this article, and all the articles on this website on the “Here I Am Lord” podcast on Spotify for Podcasters, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic. Watch on the “Here I Am, Lord – Our Journey of Faith” channel on YouTube. Also, Here I Am, Lord is on Telegram.

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Here I Am, Lord – Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2024

“For sin shall not have dominion over you” (Romans 6:14).

“This then is the Message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie” (1 John 1:4,5).

The Apostle John is addressing this epistle to the church of his day. He is proclaiming to them, and to us, that there is no darkness in God. He is saying that God is light and cannot condone sin of any fashion. He will judge sin whether it be from an unsaved person or a believer. John was countering a teaching at the time known as “Antinomianism” which means “against law” which teaches that we can, as believers, live a sinful life and still have fellowship with the Lord. This teaching was widespread at the time. Bringing this teaching forward to today, there are whole denominations that believe that our faith in Christ covers their continual sinning. This goes completely against the fact that the Lord cannot, and will not, condone sin – no matter who sins. This also goes against the Apostle Paul’s teaching on how we are to walk out our Christian lives to have victory over the sin nature.

The way, and only way, to victory in our Christian walk, is by faith in Christ and Him crucified. The Apostle Paul, in Romans Chapter 6, tells us what takes place spiritually when we come to the Lord in faith. We are “baptized into his death,” “buried with Him by Baptism into death,” and “that like Christ we have been raised up from the dead.” this is a spiritual Baptism into Christ performed by the Holy Spirit who then comes to abide in us. Chapter 8 verse 2 tells us that the Holy Spirit gives us victory over our sin nature in only one way. That way is by faith in Christ and what He accomplished at the Cross. This is a Law of God and is the only way to victory over the Law of Sin and Death which is the law that rules over the unsaved and those within the church who do not know God’s way to victorious Christian living. Going any other way will bring us defeat.

We cannot have the victory we seek by our own efforts. When we talk about the ability to live holy lives before the Lord, we are not talking about sinless perfection, but a victorious walk of victory as we place our faith in Christ and His sacrificial death at Calvary. But what if we do sin? Paul addresses that in the following verses:

“If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8,9)

The Apostle John is acknowledging that the sin nature remains in us as believers and we are deceived if we do not understand that. He goes on to remind us that God is faithful to forgive us of any sin and “cleanse us of all unrighteousness” if we confess our sins to Him.

“If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and His Word is not in us” (1 John 1:10).

The Apostle John is here addressing those who believed in sinless perfection. This goes back to verse 8 where he was addressing this same group that believed that they now had no sin nature and could live a sinless life. This is against what God says in His Word and in effect makes Him a liar. John is saying that if this belief is held then whoever holds it does not know the Bible.

“My little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin not. and if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous” (1 John 2:1).

We are saved from sin. We are not to let it rule in our lives. John affirms all he has said previously by pointing to the answer for all sin and that is our Advocate Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. He is seated on the Right Hand of the Father and makes intercession for us. We are saved by our Faith in Christ and Him Crucified and we are to live our Christian lives in the same manner. It is by faith from first to last. Praise the Lord!

“I am Crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

[Note: There has been a teaching in the church that teaches that chapter 1 of this epistle was written to the unsaved and that beginning with chapter 2 John addresses the church. This is an error. There were no chapter headings when this epistle was written and it was written as one continuous letter. This whole epistle was written to the church. Those advocating that Chapter 1 was written for unbelievers do so to justify the teaching that we need not confess our sins. There is no truth in this. The Lord calls us to confess our sins as John makes clear in chapter 1 of this epistle.]

Prayer Changes Things

The Lord wants us to come to Him with all our needs. Prayer requests can be left on the comments page of this website.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers…” (1 Peter 3:12).

The Lord hears our prayers and is faithful to answer.

Always Remember,

God Loves You!

Find podcasts of this article, and all the articles on this website on the “Here I Am Lord” podcast on Spotify for Podcasters, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic. Watch on the “Here I Am, Lord – Our Journey of Faith” channel on YouTube. Also, Here I Am, Lord is on Telegram.

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Here I Am, Lord – Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2024

“Examine Yourselves, Whether You Be in the Faith.” (2 Corinthians 13:5)

“Nevertheless, I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love.” Revelation 2:4

In the above verse, we have the words of Jesus to the Church of Ephesus as recorded by the Apostle John in chapter 2 of the Book of Revelation. The Lord commended them by saying: “I know your works, and your labor, and your patience, and how you cannot bear them which are evil (those that had departed from the truth) and have tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars: and have borne (kept on going), and have patience (persevering even when things are not going well), and for My Name’s sake have labored, and have not fainted (earnest and unrelenting in their efforts).”

It would appear to anyone looking at this church that it was a very sound church. The Lord commended them for their works, labor, patience, and the fact that they had identified and rejected the evil of false doctrine trying to slip into the church. False apostles had come to them and they had tried their doctrine and found it false. Everything about this church looked good from all appearances.

However, the Lord had this to say to them: “Nevertheless, I have something against you, because you have left (left not lost) your first love.” So, what did the Lord mean when He said that they had left their first love? He meant that they had departed from the Cross as the object of their faith. When they were first saved, they had a great love for the Lord and what He had done for them on the Cross and had placed their faith totally in Him for all their needs. Their faith in the Lord and what He accomplished on the Cross allowed the Holy Spirit to work in their lives and bring “life” and victory to them. By leaving their first love, they had transferred their faith from Jesus and Him Crucified to other things. They had, in effect, separated Jesus from the Cross which always leads to disaster. That is another Jesus.

The Apostle Paul spoke of this other Jesus in the Epistle to the Galatians when he said: “I marvel that you are so soon removed from Him Who called you into the Grace of Christ (by the Cross) unto another gospel (anything other than the Cross). Paul goes on to say: “But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached to you (Christ Crucified), let him be accursed (eternally condemned).” Paul said this twice in Galatians (1:8 & 1:9) showing just how serious it is to depart from faith in Jesus and what He accomplished at the Cross. Jesus cannot be separated from what He did at the Cross. As we have said: to do so is to look to another Jesus. It is by faith in Who He is (God come in the Flesh), and what He accomplished on the Cross, that saves us and keeps us.

The Lord goes on to tell the Church of Ephesus: “Remember therefore from where you have fallen (they had fallen from Grace), and repent, and do the first works (come back to the Cross).” He then goes on to tell them what the result will be if they do not repent: “Or else I will come unto you quickly, and I will remove your candlestick (light rejected results in light removed).” After being commended for so much by the Lord; His rebuke identified such a serious problem, that without repentance it would destroy the church.

The Lord is patient and longsuffering towards us, but we must ever guard against shifting our faith away from the Cross to anything else, no matter how good it might seem. Our love for the Lord and our total faith in Him for all our needs is our “first love”. As Paul reminded the Corinthians: ” Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith (Christ Crucified); prove your own selves (make certain).” These words from the Lord through Paul were spoken to those in the church, not the unsaved; we would be wise to remember them today as well. The first and greatest commandment is to: “Love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind”. This must come first in this dispensation of Grace as well. It is our love for Him (“We love Him because He first loved us”), and our faith in what He has accomplished at the Cross for us, that allows all the blessings of God to come to us. We are “in Christ”. In Him, we stand. When our faith is placed in the Cross we have:

Freedom In Christ

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free (free by faith in Christ and Him Crucified to live a holy life), and not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage (law of any kind).”(Galatians 5:1 with commentary)

Led By The Holy Spirit – With The Fruit of The Spirit Developing

“But the fruit (fruit singular- they grow equally): of the Spirit (not of man) is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness temperance: against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22,23 with commentary)

See the Victorious Christian Living page on this website. Link Below.

https://wordpress.com/page/tqministries.com/211

Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com

The Ascension

“And when He had spoken these things (last instructions to His followers), while the beheld, He was taken up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight (the Shekinah Glory of God, which enveloped Christ as He ascended) (Acts 1:9 ESB commentary).

Wow! Imagine being present and watching as the Lord ascended to return to His Father. The Apostles had experienced so much in the past three and one half years. They witnessed incredible healings, the Lord’s amazing teachings, and His love and care for them. The crucifixion came and great sadness came their way. Three days later they had great joy with the Resurrection restoring their Lord to them. And now, their precious Lord was leaving to return to His Father and their must have been great sadness along with the incredible experience of witnessing His Ascension.

“And while they looked steadfastly toward Heaven as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel (Angels); which also said, you men of Galilee, why do stand gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, so shall come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven” (Acts 1:10,11).

Saddened by the Lord’s departure, the Angels reminded them of the Lord’s promise to return (the Second Coming). The mention of His return by the Angels must have reminded the Apostles of what the Lord had told them just prior to His crucifixion. He said that He would leave them soon, but that He would come again and receive them to Himself which speaks of the Rapture of the church. The Angels told them just how He would come at the end of age, that is, at the end of the Great Tribulation. They told them that the Lord would descend at the very place that He had ascended (Mt Olivet), and in the same manner, at the Second Coming only with a Glory that the world had never seen.

“For as the lightening comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27).

So what were the Lord’s last words to His beloved followers. Our introductory verse references these. They are of extreme significance as they were His last instructions to those present and to those that would follow down through the years. He told them the following:

“But you shall receive power, after that thee Holy Spirit is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of earth” (Acts 1:8).

The Lord was telling them that the Holy Spirit would now come to help them and, in fact, abide within them. This was made possible by His sacrificial death on the Cross to pay the sin debt. They would be empowered by the Holy Spirit for victory over sin (Romans 8:2), and would receive power and leading to proclaim the Gospel (Acts 1:8 -the Baptism with the Holy Spirit). The Lord had not left them alone, but would come to them through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

It is the same for us today. As believers, we have the Holy Spirit living within us and leading us in work of the Kingdom. The Lord commanded us to occupy until He comes, which calls for living a Holy life and sharing the greatest news the world has ever heard with this fallen world. He came and paid the price at Calvary so that we could be saved from our fallen nature and brought into relationship with the Father and the Son. We are to share our certain hope of His soon return with all those that we meet. We’ll close with the Lord’s last words to us in the last chapter of the Book of Revelation which closes out the Bible.

“I am the Alpha an the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and last. He (Jesus) which testifies these things says, Surely I come quickly (suddenly)” (Revelation 22:13,20).

Prayer Changes Things

The Lord wants us to come to Him with all our needs. Prayer requests can be left on the comments page of this website.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers…” (1 Peter 3:12).

The Lord hears our prayers and is faithful to answer.

Always Remember,

God Loves You!

Find podcasts of this article, and all the articles on this website on the “Here I Am Lord” podcast on Spotify for Podcasters, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Pocket Casts, and RadioPublic. Watch on the “Here I Am, Lord – Our Journey of Faith” channel on YouTube. Also, Here I Am, Lord is on Telegram.

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Here I Am, Lord – Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2024

A Heavenly Welcome For a Martyr

“Who (Jesus Christ) is gone into Heaven, and is on the right Hand of God; Angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him” (1 Peter 3:22).

The Lord Jesus, having been victorious at the Cross, is now seated on the Right Hand of the Father. He paid the sin debt for all mankind and rose victorious from the grave and is now highly exalted with Angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him. Jesus spoke of this power after his Resurrection in the following verse:

“And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given to Me (by the Father) in Heaven and in Earth” (Matthew 28:18).

After his Resurrection the early church went forth in His Name. It is recorded in the Book of Acts that “many wonders and signs were done by the Apostles.” Great persecution came upon the church in Jerusalem with many believers arrested. Because of this there was great need among the believers and the first deacons were appointed because of the complaints of Grecian believers regarding the lack of care for their widows. The twelve Apostles appointed seven men regarding this need. One of the seven was Stephen.

Stephen was a man “full of faith and the Holy Spirit” and that he “did great wonders and miracles among the people.” Certain Jews in Jerusalem arose and began to dispute with Stephen. They were unable to “resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.”  The future Apostle Paul, then known as Saul, was among their number. They brought false witnesses against Stephen accusing him of saying things  that he did not say.

Stephen defended himself, and the faith, with the longest recorded sermon in the Bible outside of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount and the Olivet Discourse. His words hit hard against the Jews and leaders who were present. The Bible said they were “cut to the heart.” and “gnashed on him with their teeth.” The Holy Spirit had them come face to face with the truth and their reaction to the Truth of God’s Word was to  martyr Stephen. The Word says the following:

But he (Stephen) being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into Heaven, and saw the Glory of God, and Jesus standing on the Right Hand of God” (Acts 7:55).

They stoned Stephen, with Saul, the future Apostle Paul, witnessing and approving of this heinous act. The Lord Jesus Christ, seated at the Right Hand of God, stood to welcome His martyr home. What a picture!

We may experience persecution from those that claim to be Christians, but have not been born again. Just as the religious leaders of that day came against Stephen for responding to their threats with the Word of God; we too are to stand upon the Word of God. It may bring persecution or even martyrdom as it did Stephen, but we will be standing on the Truth and we will see the Glory of God and our blessed Savior when our days here are complete. We can rejoice in this knowledge today and eagerly await the Lord’s coming for His church in the Rapture.

The Lord loves us and died for us on the Cross. We acknowledge that love and are born into the Kingdom of God by repenting of our sins and placing our faith in His sacrificial death at Calvary. He loves us and awaits are being with Him for eternity when are life here is done. The Bible tells us that “absence from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

Yes, when we do pass from this life, we will immediately be in the presence of the Lord. And yes, should we be here at the time of His return for the church we will be “raptured”without experiencing natural death and we will be with the Lord forever. We’ll close with the Words of our Lord in the Gospel of John. He spoke these words just prior to His Crucifixion and they contain a great promise for all who love Him and are alive at the time of his return.

“As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that He lay down his life for his friends. In My Father’s House are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself” (John 15:9,13 & 14:2,3).

Prayer Changes Things

The Lord wants us to come to Him with all our needs. Prayer requests can be left on the comments page of this website.

“For the eyes of the Lord are on the Righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers…” (1 Peter 3:12).

The Lord hears our prayers and is faithful to answer.

Always Remember,

God Loves You!

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Here I Am, Lord – Tom Quinn Ministries – tqministries.com 2024

A Fictional Narrative

Once upon a time, there was a king, and his kingdom was magnificent. The royal castle was huge and extraordinarily appointed with the finest of everything. He had many happy subjects that all lived within the confines of the kingdom.

It hadn’t always been that way. At an earlier time, one-third of his subjects rose up against the king siding with an evil subject who wanted to be king. Our king was more powerful than the evil subject and his followers and he banished them from the kingdom.

In a matter of time, the king sent two of his subjects to a land on the outskirts of the kingdom. They were to work the land and rule it for the king. The only royal order the king gave them was that they were not to cross over into the land of the evil king; the very one who had been banished from the kingdom.

The two subjects were happy in their new home. The new land was beautiful and was dressed with many fruit trees and wonderful surroundings.

Time passed with the two enjoying their new home and meeting with the king when he came to visit. Everything was grand and the two enjoyed their new life immensely. However, they did notice that the land that ran adjacent to theirs seemed to contain much beauty as well. The king of that land was the evil subject who had been banished, and he encouraged them to come for a visit. He promised that he would give to them from the goodness of his land and show them how they might be a king. In time, the two did cross over and did partake of what that land had to offer. However, once they were there, they felt guilty for they had disobeyed the royal order of their king who had been so good to them.

Shortly thereafter, their king came for a visit and called out to them. They were across the border in the land of the evil king and could not get back to their wonderful land. The king told them that they had lost the privilege of living in their land, but that he had a plan that would bring them out of the evil land and home to him in his magnificent castle one day.

The plan involved the king’s son who would come to rescue them from the evil land by providing a way out. The son did come and showed them the way to all the goodness of the kingdom. He was accompanied by a helper who aided the son in all that the son did. The evil king, however, was able to kill the son. With that done, the evil king thought he had won and that the two would have to stay with him and that he could make them his servants forever. What he didn’t realize was that the good king would now reclaim the evil king’s land and destroy him and his kingdom because he had shed innocent blood by killing the king’s only son and heir.

And then, the most astounding thing happened. With the aid of the helper, the son rose from the dead and pointed the way home to the two. He told them that he was returning to his father, but that he would return to bring them home and that they were to expect that his return could come at any time. He also left the helper behind to show them the way. The helper told them that the only way home was to believe in what the son had done for them in coming and dying to free them. The helper encouraged them by telling them exactly what the son had told them before he left. He continually told them that the son loved them and that he was within the walls of the castle preparing a place for them for when they returned. He told the two to have complete faith in the son as they waited for his return. The evil king did all he could to discourage the two, but they listened to all they were told and had faith in the son, believing that he would one day return for them.

One grand day it happened; the son appeared in a most glorious and breathtaking way. The son took them to the king’s magnificent castle where there was a grand banquet to welcome them home. The two were finally home to stay and they lived happily ever after in the presence of the king who made them joint-heirs of the kingdom with the son.

This, of course, is a fictional tale and has a happy ending. Well, The Greatest Story Ever Told, a true account, has the happiest ending of all time for all believers. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) And as the words of the song say:” We are on our way to Heaven and the journey gets sweeter every day.” First Thessalonians tells us what the end result will be: “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” Hallelujah.

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Tom Quinn Ministries -tqministries.com 2020