​Tuesday’s Truth is a free weekly devotional shared by Rev. Gary Mimbs.
 
“The Zits Of Sin”
 
          I woke up one morning and looked in the mirror and there was a huge zit on the end of my nose. My first reaction was “eww, gross, where did that come from?” It wasn’t there when I went to bed.
          I next had the inclination to ignore it. Then I thought that I needed to pop it and get rid of it (eww, gross again). I thought about it and wondered if I could put something like my wife’s makeup on it and hide it. After all it is on my nose in the center of my face. Nobody wants to go around all day with a huge zit on their nose. I am 67 years old not 14 but I still don’t want a huge zit shinning like a neon sign.
          So, I took and popped it (eww, gross again). I then shaved and took a shower and scrubbed my nose and face really well with soap. It was cleared up real soon and no one knew that I had even had one.
          How many times when we have sin in our life do we want to hide it rather than deal with it and get rid of it? Since it may not be seen many times, we want to ignore it and hope that it goes away. We want to cover it up and hope that no one even knows that we have it in our life.
          The best thing to cover sin with is the blood of Jesus. It cleanses us of the sin and takes away the shame and guilt associated with it. I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sin, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  Zit cream or make up may be your solution for pimples but for sin only the blood of Jesus will work.
The old hymn says, “What can wash away my sin, NOTHING but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again – NOTHING but the blood of Jesus”. The chorus says, “Oh precious is the flow that makes me whiter than snow – no other fount I know – NOTHING but the blood of Jesus.”
 That is why we celebrate Easter. Jesus came and gave His life blood on the cross so that we can be cleansed of our sin and make us whiter than snow. He then arose from the grave with victory and resurrection power to help us when the zits of sin appear.  In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs 

​Each Sunday I do a Kingdom Kid’s pastor Children’s moment. It is one of the hardest things that I do every week. I have lately tried my hand at doing some magic tricks with a spiritual application for the kids. Some Sundays the magic trick works and they get the spiritual application. Other Sundays – not so much. Either I don’t fool them with the trick or they don’t get the spiritual application.
          One Sunday I was trying to show them how they could always trust God and not always be able to trust people. In the trick I was trying to get a young man to do something but he saw right through it and wouldn’t fall for what I wanted him to do. I went on and emphasized how I was trying to trick him and that we had to be careful with people but that we could always trust God because He would never try to trick or fool us.
At the end another little boy said, “Preacher what I learned today is that you can trust God but you can’t trust Pastor Gary”. Of course, the whole church laughed at his wisdom. Instead of getting upset I told the little brat (I mean fella) that he was right. That even people that we trusted sometimes would deceive us and we had to make sure and trust in God who never would deceive, fail, or do anything wrong to us.
The Bible tells us in Psalm 118:8 “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man”. Mainly because Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart (of man) is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”  We have a sinful heart with a sinful nature. So, we can and will do things that are sinful. Sometimes we do these things willfully and other times we do them without bad intentions but they are still wrong. When we sin, it hurts our reputation of being trustworthy as well as the reputation of God.
The Bible also tells us in Proverbs 3:5 that we can’t even trust ourselves, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”  Many times, we will even deceive ourselves. We will convince ourselves that what God calls sin isn’t really that bad and besides everyone else is doing it. We convince ourselves that our sin really isn’t that bad and we judge others whom we see as have really bad sins.
We want kids and others to be able to trust us. But we must live in such a way as to show the trustworthiness of God in the way that we live, what we say, and the love that we show. GOD trusts us to be a witness and a testimony for Him, so let’s don’t let Him down.
In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs 

 I Want Your Mansion Right Next To Mine
           God has blessed Michelle and I in that every church that we have pastored we have been connected to at least one couple who were a bit older than us. These Godly couples took time and invested in us and helped us grow as Christians and as human beings. We called them our spiritual parents.
          I was talking with one of these couples from a previous church the other day and they made a comment that made my heart swell with love. This couple is approaching their nineties yet they are still vibrant for the Lord. The lady of the couple said in all seriousness, “We have been praying that when we get to Heaven that God will put your mansion right next to ours so that we can be together for all eternity”. WOW. What a statement.
          I know that God is in charge of mansion placement in Heaven but imagine people thinking so much of you that they want to be your heavenly neighbors for all of eternity. What a blessing to have people think of you that way. I know other people who are probably asking God to make sure that my mansion is on the other side of Heaven from theirs.
          I appreciate the sentiment of this couple but the most important thing about Heaven is that I make it there and that I get to see Jesus. It will be nice to see great Christian friends and relatives but it will pale in comparison to get to meet the one who died for my sins.
          Have you ever thought about us in Heaven getting to meet Moses, Abraham, John the Baptist, Mary, and the disciples? How awesome that will be to get to know them. These giants of the faith will now be Brothers and Sisters in the Lord. I can just see me and Peter fishing in the river of life.
          All of this is so wonderful to think about and look forward to. But it makes my heart sad to think of the millions of people who will miss out on this awesome time for all of eternity. Their experience will be quite shockingly different as they face all eternity in the torments, pain, and agony of Hell.
          So please make sure that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life so that you can go to Heaven when your time comes. The only way to Heaven is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and to ask Him to cleanse you of your sins. Then you must repent and try to live a life that is as close to God as you can. He will send the Holy Spirit to live inside of you and help you become a new creation that is fit for Heaven.
In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs 

​  I have the privilege to be a part of a Bible study every Monday morning at a local Christian business. One Monday as I was going in the door behind one of the employees, I heard a question that stopped me in my tracks. As the employee that I was following into the hall by the office entered the office another employee asked him “How is salvation coming?” I froze to hear the answer. The first employee answered, “Real well. I checked on it and it will be here on Thursday”
          SO – I stepped into the office and asked about the question – “How is salvation coming? They explained to me that they use a trucking company called Salvation Trucking and they were checking on a load of parts that they were expecting. I said OK but it put my creative juices to flowing.
          I know both of these guys and know that they are Christians. But what if we approached people that we worked with, people in our family, people that we fellowshipped with, and even strangers and asked that question – “How is your salvation coming along? I can already feel the tension rising up as you are reading this. Should we be so bold as to ask people about their salvation / relationship with Jesus Christ? I mean it is THE most important question that we can ever ask someone.
          Salvation is a private matter between a person and Jesus Christ. I get that but we should not be afraid or ashamed to ask someone about it. If they are saved then they should not have problem answering the question with a sense of security that they have been saved and their relationship with Jesus is up to date. It should give the person being asked a sense of pride to say that they have given their life to Jesus.
          One reason that we don’t ask is that it gets tricky if the person is not saved. We fear that we will offend them or even worse, not know how to tell them how to be saved if they confess that they are not saved. But telling someone about the greatest thing that has ever happened to you (Getting saved) should be easy for you. Just tell them how much Jesus has changed your life.
          We fear that the unsaved person will thank that we are judging them or that we feel that we are better than them because we are saved. Both of these are the wrong attitudes for us to project. We should want other people to have and enjoy the blessings of salvation and be willing to share the love of Christ with them. So give it a try sometime. When the time is right ask a friend, coworker, stranger- “Tell me about your relationship with Jesus Christ” The way that they answer will tell you a lot about if they are saved or not.
          Genuine Christians will not be afraid to share with you. Others will be so bold as to admit that they don’t have an up-to-date relationship with Jesus. A lot of people will either try to lead you on a wild goose chase or make excuses. Some people will tell you about their “spiritual resume” – I go to church, I sing in the choir, etc.  All of those things are what they do. I want to know about their relationship with Jesus Christ. Have they accepted what Jesus has done for them? That is the only way that they will make it to Heaven.
In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs 

 I like to look at words and how they are spelled and how adding or removing one letter can change the meaning. Take the word immorality. It means something or someone that is immoral, wicked, evil, vile, impure. When we say that a person or something is immoral, we are painting them in a negative light. Most people would not be flattered to be called immoral.
          If you take the word immoral and add a “t” in the middle you get the word immortal. This word means living forever; never dying or decaying. Quite a difference from the word immoral. This is very important because every human being has a soul that is immortal. Our bodies will die but our souls will live forever. When God breathed into Adam the “Breath of Life’ He breathed immortality into the soul. It will live forever somewhere – either in heaven or in Hell. That immortality has been passed along to every human being after Adam.
          It is interesting that the one letter added to immoral is a “t” because it is the shape of the cross. When a person accepts the price that Jesus Christ paid on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, it opens the door for us to be changed from immoral to what the Bible calls a “new creation”. This will allow us to be cleansed of our immorality and given immortality to live in Heaven forever. What a difference a “t” (The cross) makes. It can change your destination for all of eternity.
          I must point out that if a person rejects the cross then their immoral behavior will give them immortality in a place called Hell. They will have immortality forever but without the cross the destination and outcome is different. The Bible describes the horrors of Hell in many places. It will be a place of eternal damnation and punishment. It is described as a place of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” and the burning fire never ends. It is a place of total darkness, awful smells, and people screaming all the time because of the pain. The worm gnawing on your flesh never dies and the agony never ends.
          What a difference one letter “t” (The cross) makes. Choose to accept what Jesus did for you on that cross. It can change your destination and outcome for all eternity.
​In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs

 I was watching two small boys playing war with toy soldiers, tanks, jeeps etc.  One of them said that the soldiers could prayerachute behind enemy lines to attack. Instead of correcting him that the word was parachute, I kind of took a liking to the word prayerachute. It seems to have a spiritual application.
          A parachute can be used in an offensive way if, like the little boy said, the soldiers deliberately jump out of a plane and use the parachute to allow them to land in enemy territory. The soldiers can use the stealth of the quietness of their landing from high in the sky unto the enemy location without much noise and attention. This could be an effective means of an offensive attack.
          In the spiritual realm we can use prayer to attack our enemy Satan and his demons. We can go on the attack with prayer and win victories over him. Some situations call for us to just drop a prayerachute into the middle of what the enemy is trying to do. He may think that he has someone defeated and then the church starts dropping prayerachutes into the situation and things will change.
We can even use prayer to take back what the enemy has stolen. Many lives have been changed, marriages restored, addictions broken, and people healed – all because of the power of prayer. At the end of the description of the Full Armor of God in Ephesians chapter 6, in verse 18 we find that we are encouraged to call in not the AIR support in this battle but the PRAYER support. Prayer changes things and prayerachutes are an effective means to deliver prayer into the right spot.
On another view of a parachute, they are used to provide a rescue for someone who has to make an emergency jump out of an aircraft that is going to crash. The parachute is a means to help the jumper to survive. We should not use prayer as a parachute unless we are put into a situation where there is no other way. If we use prayer FIRST in our lives then we won’t need a prayerachute to rescue us. Many people cry out to God to rescue them when they have put themselves into crash mode by bad decisions.
I am going to send out a prayerachute for you right now so that you will give God first place in your life and have a daily prayer conversation with him. This will keep you from needing a prayerachute to rescue you. You can then learn how to use a prayerachute to intercede for others whom the enemy is attacking.
In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs 

​I was with a great Christian brother and we were talking about a local Christian charity. I kiddingly told him that I had pledged $10,000 in his name. He laughed and reached in his wallet and there were five one-dollar bills. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out 2 quarters. He laid the money on a table and looked up to the sky and said, “Lord you are going to have to do that loaves and fishes thing if I can pay this $10,000” We both laughed and went on about our day.
I got to thinking, do we really have enough faith to believe that the same Jesus who turned 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes into enough food to feed 5,000 people can still today meet great needs like that. I fully believe that He can but do we have enough faith to believe and ask Him to do miracles of such magnitude?
In building projects in other churches, I have seen him supply hundreds of thousands of dollars and unlimited resources right when the need was the greatest. Those are exciting times to see our prayers move the heart of God to release miraculous amounts of money and resources to meet the need. When you have no idea where it is coming from but you trust God and He shows up and shows out in supplying your need it will make you shout.
The Bible reminds us that we have not because we ask not but we also must ask according to His will – not frivolous stuff. Another interesting aspect is that God uses some unusual ways to meet the need. In the Bible and the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 none of the disciples would have chosen the small boy with only 5 loaves and 2 fish to be the hero. But God knew who had what and who would willingly give up what they had to meet the need. (The movie “The Chosen” really hits this point great in this scene. If you have not seen it – please do)
Why don’t we see Biblical proportion miracles today? It isn’t God’s fault – He still has unlimited resources. It is our fault for not having enough courage to attempt something for God that is so big that it will fail if HE doesn’t provide. Our lack of courage is tied to our lack of faith to ask and fully believe that He can exceedingly and abundantly more than we can think or even imagine.
God is still God! Try Him and see what he can do. But you have to be faithful on your part to obey His Word and tithe and even give sacrificially. We also have to use wisdom and ask for His guidance to not get ourselves into foolish situations where we need a miracle to rescue us.

In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs