The Hour of Decision

1. The Hour of Decision This Call’s For You!

2. Introduction Called at the young age of seven years, sent at the age of 25, and ordained an Elder in the Church of God in Christ to preach the acceptable year of our Lord by the will of God in this end time. I humbly, yet boldly appeal to you in the common salvation. A strange and sudden incident occurred in my early life at that previously stated age of seven; I awaked from sleep to find that I could not move my right leg. After medical examinations, it was found that my hip bone had slipped out of joint. I had to be taken out of school for what amounted to a year for hospital and home stay. During that time, the Lord spoke expressly to me and said “out of all subjects (that I would study in my schooling) get English.” Little that I knew that God had his hand on me to do his will in a very special work. I realized the seriousness of this work when I accepted his call to be holy and the urge to preach the gospel. Acquainting myself with the story of Jacob and the call of God upon his life, I likened my experience to his. The angel said unto Jacob, “As a prince thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Genesis 32:28). I am not Jacob, but God is the same God. The Lord spoke to me as a young child in this ordeal. The Lord has commanded me to write to the Church and to the people at large; for all souls are his. This is my prerequisite to writing these end-time messages. I beseech you at such times as these, when the nations have forgotten God and have not glorified him as God, don’t presumptuously turn him away. “But they said, we will not walk therein” Jeremiah 6:16. The nations shall greatly mourn and sorrows shall take this world as men hast never known before. Please allow God to speak to your heart. Written By: Elder J. D. Lewis, July 1998 Shepherd and Teacher This Call's For You!

3. The Hour of Decision Neighbor, Endeavoring to speak to you in this simple and humble fashion that your confidence may be won toward the will of God that you might be saved in these latter days. As a servant of the Lord, I am very concerned about the souls of men and women everywhere, seeing the day fastly approaching whereas we all must give an account to the Creator concerning the way we lead our lives in this present world. The time is too short; hell is too hot; and eternity is too long to allow destruction to overtake you by surprise. The Lord shall come as a thief in the night (1st Thessalonians 5:2) catching off guard many, whereby the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience. You can avoid that eternal destruction that is only reserved for that O devil and his angels. That tormentor, that tempter had deceived all mankind; but God sent his son, Jesus Christ. God has made one and only one call to all fallen humanity and that is the call to be holy just as he is holy (Ephesians 1:4, 2nd Timothy, 1:9, 1st Peter 1:15, 16). Many of you are already Christians, God be gracious unto your hearts, but still find it difficult to believe that one can grow to perfection as stated in (St. Matthews 5:48, Philippians 3:15): a Christian, but still plagued with uncontrolled sins of all manner and evils of your doings; having no power to put away the evilness of the spirit and of the flesh (2nd Corinthians 7:1). Many of our hearts are full of iniquities and evils lurking in our spirits and in our actions. These evils no one knows of but you sometimes and God at all times. The word of God demands that we must be of a pure heart to see God (St. Matthew 5:8). Well, that’s just it. Many of you, your families have been Christians and some good Christians a long time under an image of who or what you may think Christ is. This Call's For You!

4. The Hour of Decision An image is, in other words, trying to live this life in Christ in one’s own acceptable ways and in what you have heard about him. “Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me” (St. John 5:39). Stop! Take a deep breath and look again. Most people have never experienced the power of God for themselves. Many have only excepted what they have heard probably from parents, or other religious individuals, or even the Church, since you were a child, period. Others of you have not accepted anything concerning Christ. Many say that they love God and maybe you are one of the ones that do. I challenge your conscious here! I indulge your patience under the authority of God’s word. The extent of most people’s love for God rest in the fact that he is so gracious to us and that he extends his bountiful mercies toward us; rightly so. God’s grace, and his goodness to every human being even the fact that he sent his Son into this world to save us are proofs that he loves us. The challenge is, however, what is our proofs that we love him? Until this decision is answered and settled in your heart, you don’t know whether you really love God the way he wants you to love him. The scripture says search, in them you think you have eternal life; you think you love God. You see, no one automatically loves God. In Isaiah 53:2,3 the prophet has said “there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of many; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” So you don’t just automatically love God. No one who loves God continues a life of unrighteousness, 2nd John 5:17. Jesus said, “No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draws him” (St. John 6:44). Furthermore, he has said, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,...” (St. John 15:16). This Call's For You!

5. The Hour of Decision Hold on; not so fast! It would be wise to find first who he really is and how he commands us to live; what is required of us all before we can claim or be sure that we are willing to love God. His ways are not naturally attractive says the prophet Isaiah. In his earthly ministry, multitudes followed Jesus wherever he went. Some followed because they wanted to hear what he had to say, many others followed because of the miraculous powers he possessed. He would heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils and feed thousands at different settings. Now, those are very good reasons for anyone to believe or think that they could love the Lord; don’t you think so? But when he confronted them with a challenge of loyalty and love for his following, there was a problem. When Jesus spoke to them about a genuine faith that they must have in him, their love and their faith failed them. In brief, Jesus told them if you are to dwell in me and I in you, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood (St. John 6:56). The Bible said many walked no more with him (St. John 6:66). They did not know until they saw by the way of revelation of himself to them what loving him really was about. They thought that they could love him, but found rather that they had never known him. Please find that you must live this Christian life in God’s way, which is the only way by which man must be saved; that way is the one of holiness (Isaiah 35:8). You must sanctify the Lord God in your heart (1st Peter 3:15) and allow the Lord to sanctify you wholly through the truth of God’s word, “I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (St. John 17:17, 19). Don’t fool yourself and don’t let anyone else fool you. This is too much of a fatal matter to not take serious. The absence of such true's have become the failure and cloak of the attempt to live in only an image of Christ rather than the full knowledge of who Jesus Christ really is, St. Matthew 11:29, Ephesians 4:20. Let your will to please God work! Whosoever is willing let him come unto the Lord. Whosoever is willing to do what? Sanctify yourself and be ye holy (Hebrews 12:14, 1st Peter 1:14-16). This Call's For You!

6. The Hour of Decision Sanctification is a state of being free, or separated from sin, condemnation or defilement, 1st Timothy 4:5. To sanctify means to wash, make you clean (Isaiah 1:16, Hebrews 10:22) from all unrighteousness whereby one is made fit for the kingdom of God (1st Corinthians 6:10) through the redemptive and cleansing power of Jesus’ blood (1st Corinthians 6:11, Hebrews 9:14). Setting oneself apart from the love, the trend and the ways of this world by coming out from among them that continue to live an unrighteous life is sanctification (2nd Corinthians 6:17, Ephesians 5:11 , 2nd Thessalonians 3:6). You must create the will in your heart to please God in the conditions of sanctification. Being holy is to purify your heart through the word of God (St. John 15:3) so that you can think and act not only right but righteously. Behold, God can not have you any other way because he in his very existent is holy; therefore, you must live holy to see him in peace. Strive to enter in at the straight gate, the true way of God (Ephesians 4:24). Do you think you know the way of a Christian? I’ll show you a more excellent way of God - the way of his holiness. Though a Christian, many toil with what seems to be unbreakable, impossible habits and manifestations of an evil heart. Even if we are one of the best Christians, we still have the need to know the Lord in the beauty of his holiness. You can’t save yourself, you need the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood. It would be useless to attempt to justify your conscious by trying to stop doing certain sins or trying to “do the best you can do” as some people say. God is not interested in you attempting to itemize each of your sins away. This Call's For You!

7. The Hour of Decision You have but one thing to commit to: “Will” the desire to be pleasing in the sight of the Almighty God. Submit yourself unto God (James 4:7). Take the best way out, the way of the transgressor is hard (Proverbs 13:15). You don’t have to negotiate with darkness to leave the room when you turn on the light. Just flick the switch the light comes on and darkness disappears. So it is with the power of Christ. You don’t have to try cleaning yourself up through your own righteousness nor own concepts; just “will” the Lord into your hearts and minds giving leave to bad habits, evil thoughts and acts of sins of the spirit and the flesh. All of these weights shall disappear just as the darkness does when the light has come into the room. Give yourself to Jesus, you don’t have much time; give yourself to his holiness. There is no other way. Let him really save you and fill you with his Spirit that you may live victoriously in him and that you may love his appearance when you shall see him coming in bright glory. Once upon a time I was one of the chiefest of sinners, just all wrong before the Lord. God saved me with his grace and turned me around; my mind, my heart, my spirit and baptized and filled me with his Holy Ghost that I might keep the will and the desire to please him. Now if you are willing, repent of your sins again, but this time repent with a commitment in your heart. It will be impossible to live this new life in Christ on your own spiritual strength, therefore you’ll need outside spiritual and brotherly support to help maintain your commitment to the Lord. A new born babe, assumed healthy at birth, can’t continue to be in good health except he or she is properly nourished; so it is with a newly committed person to the way of the Lord. It becomes vitally important that you unite yourself to a church group that can give you the spiritual nourishment that’s needed for your continued growth in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This Call's For You!

8. The Hour of Decision A church must be sought out as to which doctrine and teachings it has as its foundation - rooted in the way of God’s holiness; teaching that you must live holy (St. Luke 1:74,75; Ephesians 1:4) and that you can live free from sin in this present world (Romans 8:1; Galatians 5:1; Titus 2:11,12) in Christ Jesus. The church must teach that in order to live this life gloriously in Christ, you must be filled with the indwelling power of the Holy Ghost and fire (St. Luke 3:16) which God gives to them who obey him (Acts 2:1-4, 5:32, 19:6) or those willing to keep his word. The baptism and the filling of the Holy Ghost is signified by the speaking in heavenly tongues as the Spirit gives utterance (Acts 2:4, 10:46, 19:16; 1st Corinthians 12:10; St. Mark 16:17). If this doctrine of the apostles is not taught and practiced that church is spiritually insufficient. Hopefully, now that you have repented of all of your sins and have accepted Christ as your savior, don’t stop at this point as most people do. Now and only now are you ready to learn the way of Christ. If you are willing to live the life that the Lord has commanded us to live, walk away from the evil of your doings before the eyes of the Lord, and cease to do evil. Learn Christ, learn how he (Christ) commands you to live (Ephesians 4:20, St. Matthew 11:28, Philippians 2:15, 1st Thessalonians 5:23). I beseech you man! I beseech you woman! Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. “The day is far spent, and the night is at hand.” Accept God’s way for your life, the way of holiness. Peace be unto you until we shall see him coming in all of his glory. (References Pg. 9) Elder J.D. Lewis, Shepherd and Teacher Old Paths Church – The Hour of Decision Ministry P. O. Box 9742 Jackson, MS 39286 This Call's For You!

9. The Hour of Decision Reference Scriptures: Be Ye PerfectBe Ye Holy • St. Matthew 5:48 St. Luke 1:49 • St. Luke 1:73-75 Acts 26:18 • 1st Corinthians 2:6 Romans 5:5 • Galatians 1:4 Romans 12:1 • Ephesians 4:12 1st Corinthians 3:16,17 • Colossians 1:22,28 Ephesians 1:4; 2:21; 5:26,27 • Philippians 3:15 2nd Thessalonians 4:7,8 • 2nd Timothy 3:17 1st Timothy 1:9 • Hebrews 6:1 2nd Timothy 2:8 • Hebrews 13:21 Titus 2:12 • Psalms 37:37 Hebrews 3:1; 9:14; 12:14 • Proverbs 2:21 1st John 5:4 • Proverbs 11:5 Leviticus 11:44 ### This Call's For You!