MIND OF CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC.
PASTOR THOMAS E. OGLESBY
P.O. BOX 85
NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY 07110
website: mindofchristministries.net
Phone: 973-818-2750
e-mail: mindofchrist@verizon.net
July 2022
“Everlasting Freedom”
Dear Believer(s):
As we have acknowledged and celebrated America’s 246th birthday, what did it really mean? Just more fireworks, empty speeches, and hearty eating? Were we thankful for our country with the joy of the Lord in our hearts? Did we not see how God’s grace is not being shared with each other? Are we blind and have we been deceived with the lies of men and the spirit of hopelessness, fear, and discouragement?
We have experienced rising fuel prices, had to deal with infant formula shortages, threats of nuclear strikes surge throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East! New pandemic out-breaks, political divisiveness that is threating to destroy our country, and Supreme Court rulings that caused serious disagreements regarding our way of living. Farmers have not been able to afford fertilizer, which triggered anxiety of higher prices at supermarkets. We’ve had to deal with raised interest rates, inflation fears, threats of low wage earners who need more monies just to meet the necessities of life, and the ongoing war in Ukraine. We have gone through gun violence, and mass shootings/killings that have brought death to the lives of so many loved ones. We have worries of safety when we leave our places of living to go out. It seems as though there are some factions in our country who do not care about our children. Are we really trying to help the mentally ill?
Our leaders have no answers that truly resolve our problems and lead to freedom for individuals of this nation. So many of our leaders do not fear God. They are all about doing things that only benefits themselves, controlling others and being in power. We need leaders who are filled with the Spirit of God and willing to share His Love.
We are faced daily with the lack of concern for our neighbors, and the disrespect that we show for each other. We live and make decisions based on national and local news without seeking what God would have us to do.
Today, and even from the beginning of civilization man has wanted to be free and experience freedom. He has sought so many manmade idols to be free. He has used his intellect, his mind, his will, and even his emotions to have freedom.
The only way for man to have the complete or total freedom and peace that he so desperately seeks is to have the Almighty God controlling his life. He must surrender his soulish realm and five senses to the Spirit of God that can live in him.
Man has always rejected the Eternal God and his creator. He realizes that not only can God give him freedom and peace, but he chooses to try and give freedom to himself. He disavows the love, greatness, and total freedom that God can give. He instead chooses to try and govern himself with the rules, regulations, and laws of the world. The world cannot give freedom. The world only gives death and destruction. Man spends so much time seeking worldly pleasures. The Bible says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”(2John 2:15) The pleasures of the world lead to sin, and to spiritual and physical death. Man, desires power, money, status, material things, and control. All of these worldly pleasures cannot give an individual the freedom that he seeks.
God knows our needs. He can give us the freedom that causes us to love Him, to love others and to love ourselves. There is no earthly freedom without the love of God. The freedom that God gives brings peace, joy, happiness, long life, success, and health. God’s freedom empowers and enable us to live and experience all the abundance of life.
First of all, God can give us individual spiritual freedom. This enables us who are saved or born-again to stand strong and stand in the gap for those who are not saved. These unsaved individuals want to steal our country’s freedom by trying and convincing us to live by the standards of satan and the world. Christ saved individuals can tear down the strongholds of the devil. Read your Bible and see what it says in Luke 10:19;Ephesians 6:10-12; and1John 4:4.
We are allowing satanic forces, and men and women controlled by the devil to steal not only our individual freedom but the freedom of our country. There is a lot of idol worshipping going on in America. Men and women controlled by social media, doctrines and traditions of the church that are not godly or scriptural. Many worship money, greed, the stock market, and man’s economic system. Total freedom will only come when we bow our heads and hearts to God. When we surrender our lives to God and cry out, Lord, forgive us, let us follow you. Let us be led by Your Spirit to obey the commandments in Mark 12:30-31.” “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
America is hopeless, lost and being destroyed by our sins. We are not honoring and obeying God. We are not manifesting the love of God throughout our country, nor in our institutions, and not in the lives of our citizens. Without the Spirit of God operating in our daily lives, there is no freedom. For America and its citizens to have freedom, we must do as Joshua says in Joshua 24:2,15, “And Joshua said unto all the people of Israel, choose you this day whom ye will serve; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. ”As in the days of Joshua, so it is with us today.
If you don’t have freedom today, you need Jesus’ Spirit living in you. America needs “The Spirit of Jesus.” The Spirit of Jesus can remove hatred, idolatry, jealousy, selfishness, anger, adultery, greed, wanting to control others, and immoral ways, and other evil things as well. In order for each of us and America to have freedom, Jesus is the only way.
Let us pray together. “Dear God, You are the One who can do all things. You can give us long life, cure all of our diseases and sicknesses. You are the One who forgives us of our sins. You give eternal life. Father God, there is nothing impossible for You. We ask in the name of Jesus that You give us the Spirit of Freedom and give the same spiritual freedom to our nation. We surrender our total lives to You. We pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!”
I want to thank all of you who have been so faithful in supporting the ministry. I need your continued support to carry forth the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost, the hurting and those without hope. Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.”
With Love & Prayers,
Pastor Thomas Oglesby
Pastor Thomas Oglesby
