ambassadors for the risen Christ ministries

by Shawn Brasseaux

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Jesus Christ, Matthew 24:35 KJV).

Imagine a scenario in which everything is going great for you. The bills are paid, you just got a promotion at work, you have a clean bill of health, and you are going hang out with your friends because it is a Friday night. Now, suppose you wake up Saturday morning to find your room filled with smoke, and your house is ablaze! As you hear the sirens of the approaching fire department, you make a quick exit to later discover that your house is a total loss! To make it all the worse, you suddenly remember—“Oops, I forgot to pay the fire insurance!” (Yeah, big oops, but good thing this is just hypothetical!)

Your current net worth may be $40 billion (like Bill Gates), but considering the current financial crises, you might be living in a cardboard box next week! I do not mean to sound morose, but you may healthy today and dead tomorrow. Consider James 4:13-15 KJV:

“13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.”

Nothing in life is certain, and we certainly are not guaranteed tomorrow. Or, consider the fact that yesterday morning I was having peaceful drive on the interstate, when one of my back tires suddenly blows out! Although my earliest class at college was canceled, and though I was about 30 minutes late, by the grace of God, I was kept from any accident. Within a few seconds, the peace and quiet ride turned into me hurriedly pulling off to the shoulder before my car swerved off of the road. See how quickly the status quo can change?

Everything that holds true today is tentative; tomorrow, you will be amazed to see that the complete opposite holds true! Sometimes our lives change gradually and other times drastically. Good days, bad days, horrible days, the state of affairs is always subject to change. Life is a roller coaster with corkscrews, especially for us members of the Church the Body of Christ; however, there is some good news in all of this. The good news is that God’s Word is a stable, solid refuge of hope and truth!

The Bible instructs us to focus on the “things above,” the things we cannot see. Colossians 3:1,2 KJV says: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Compare that to 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 KJV:

“16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Instead of looking at the circumstances that we can see, the Bible says we need to focus on the things that are intangible, the invisible and the eternal. These invisible “things above” include our “Blessed Hope” (the rapture of Titus 2:13), our spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:3), and our joint-heirship with Christ (Romans 8:17). While we can never be certain of tomorrow’s events, Christians always have stability in God’s Word because God’s Word is eternal. Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” The Apostle Peter agreed: “The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord endureth for ever” (1 Peter 1:24,25).

Whether you are black or white, rich or poor, happy or sad; regardless of your circumstances, God’s Word will always be true, for He cannot lie (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:17,18). Just like God, His Word is immutable, and it will never, ever change (Hebrews 13:8)! Christ already died and rose again—2,000 years ago. And you have victory through the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57). Nothing will ever separate you from the love of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:35-39). If you have trusted exclusively in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, God has saved you forever. “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). These truths will never change, no matter what doubts or fears the devil may throw at you.

You can lose your material riches (like so many Americans have in recent months), but you can never lose God’s promises to you as a member of the Body of Christ! A rich relative may cut you from their will, but you have eternal heirship with Christ! Your “friends” may abandon you, but the Lord never will! Even if you physically died in Christ, you would still have the experience of a bodily resurrection at the trumpet call of the rapture! You may lose your job and your membership at a local church, but you will always be a member of the Church the Body of Christ! Indeed, God’s Truth is not tentative like our circumstances.

Every member of the Body of Christ has that assurance of eternal salvation, and all these Grace Age promises we just discussed, regardless of our material wealth, our health, our romantic life, our nationality, or our social status. Praise the Lord!

Just before we conclude this study, we take our point a bit further: “The Status Quo is [Indeed] Tentative.”

• CURRENT STATUS QUO: Today, people are trampling God’s Word (the King James Bible) under foot and/or butchering God’s Word by editing it for the sake of producing a “new, better translation.” They are spurning grace, ignoring what God says, and are “going their own way.” They reject Christ Jesus; they prefer their own works. People refuse the rightly divided Bible so they can keep their vain church tradition. Poor Israel is also fighting to keep what little real estate the Gentiles have not yet taken. Disease, homelessness, genocide, and death are plaguing our world. Tentative, subject to change!
• FUTURE STATUS QUO (a 180-degree turn): We leap into the future, to the consummation of the Dispensation of Grace. With the Body of Christ absent (raptured), God’s wrath replaces His grace. The antichrist comes with Satan’s power, confirming a seven-year peace treaty with the Middle East—false world peace. God’s enemies will suffer His righteous wrath. At the end of the Tribulation, we find the King of kings and the Lord of lords physically and literally returning to earth, to establish His earthly kingdom and remove the curse of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ will establish His earthly Kingdom for 1000 years. God will then destroy this current heaven and earth and create a brand new one! He will punish His enemies in the lake of fire, He will give Israel her land forever, and He will place us members of the Church the Body of Christ in the places of government in the heavens!

Indeed, the status quo is always changing, but God’s Word (the King James Bible) is sure, and unlike this pitiful status quo (which is tentative; subject to change), it shall never pass away!

We shall continue this study next week by expanding on it with, “The Inward Man Versus The Outward Man.”