~Pastor's Message~
Welcome to the web home of Mountain Meadows Christian Center and evangelistic outreach ministries. Thank you for blessing us with your presence at our site and we hope our web home will be a blessing to you during your visit. We are a solid Bible based ,spirit filled church in the Adirondack mountains of northern N.Y. state reaching out to our neighbors in northern N.Y.,Vermont and along the Candian border with the Word of God. Please check back frequently as our site and messages are updated often.
Do you have a personal relationhip with Jesus Christ? If you do not or are not quite sure please visit our salvation page,or feel free to call or email me with any questions or needs. We at Mountain Meadows Ministries would be honored to pray for you; so please visit our prayer page or call us.
In Christs Love,
Pastor Martin T. Mischenko
DON'T FOLLOW THE CROWD
NEW KING JAMES JOHN 6:53-68
Notice Verse #66
"From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more."
There are many people who have started the journey with Jesus but because of the words of Jesus or the demands by Him for a sincere heart and life have caused them to stop, and then, leave him. Notice the words in Verse #66... "went back". These are very sad words indeed. They imply here that perhaps these disciples returned to their old associations. Isn't this a sad thought? Or perhaps they retruned to the religious guidance of the Scribes and Pharisees. What a depressing thought!
Jesus insisted that His disciples have a life that is Self-Surrendered... One that will follow His plan for their lives. He states in Verse #64... "some of you believe not". And He knew that those would "betray Him". This word betray means to Fail or Desert. What I believe He was saying is that they were FALSE... HYPOCRITES... INSINCERE... And YO-YO Christians or Followers. And there are some Disciples of Christ today who fall into these same categories.
We must walk sincerely with Jesus to be blessed with all spiritual blessings. There are those Professed Christians who FORSAKE The Lord! Let me tell you why I believe many people forsake their Lord! MARK 7:6 "He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Many people have a MIND salvation and not a HEART salvation. Their heart is in the world like the CROWD is. Some are personally influenced by others (The Crowd), and by things and situations. And some folks have only had the SURFACE of their soul reached.
Here are some reasons I believe this happens today and many walk away from Christ and return no more... The moral requirements by Jesus are too high. The Doctrines of Jesus are too Spiritual. They are miserable because Sincerity, Honesty, and Earnestness are required of them. Some become Self-Seeking and Self-Righteous. Jesus preached Repentance, Self-Sacrifice, Holiness, and Practical and Genuine faith! This is too OFFENSIVE (Jesus asked them this in JOHN 6:61) and too hard for many folks to comply with for the long haul of following Jesus and going to heaven. The ministry of Jesus was Uncompromising and Unchangeable! Either the followers of Christ have to CHANGE and follow Him, or leave Him! Some choose the latter... they leave. Many of the CROWD does, for "Many are called but few are chosen"... Amen? Please, I beg of you, don't follow the "CROWD", but follow Christ.
To follow Christ all the way we must have a face stedfastly set. There must be a concentration of our mind. And we must follow Him with Full-Hearted service. Let us remind ourselves of this by reading this scripture... LUKE 9:62 "And Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." We dare not get to a complacent stage in our walk with Christ and become... Unstable... Unreliable... Uncertain... Unusable.
In Verse #67 of JOHN 6 Jesus asked them, "Will you leave me too?" What a sobering thought and question. But, Peter had the answer and this must be engraved in our hearts so that we shall never go back and walk no more with Him. Peter said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." Sometimes the CROWD will cause you to leave Christ... but the Holy Spirit will always guide you to follow the words of Jesus, and to obey His words and not be offended by them. For the words that Jesus speaks..."are Spirit and life." JOHN 6:63 AMEN!
What CROWD are you running with?
FOLLOW CHRIST!!!!
Pastor Marty
