The Mystery of the Ages

The Heavens Declare The Glory of God

2012-02-13T21:11:00.001-05:00

Psalm 19

This is the sunrise that greated me on February 1 during my stay in the Carolinas.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. 3 There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. 4 Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, 5 which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy. 6 Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat. 7 The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; 8 the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; 9 the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether. 10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. 11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. 12 Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. 13 Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

We have all seen the glory of God in some way, some where. Who then can say with Isaiah and me: (Isaiah 6:2) Woe is me, Woe is me for I am undone because I am a (wo)man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the Lord of Hosts. When you see God's glory, it opens your eyes to how small and insignificant you are, doesn't it?

The Northern Lights

I have been, in some ways, very naive about the state of the world. I don't watch a lot of TV or movies and I don't listen to secular music very often, and quite frankly, other than going to dinner, my excursions to public places are pretty few and far between.

Recently, though, because I am staying with some friends in the Carolinas, I have joined in watching a little more than normal TV and movies, and with the death of Whitney Houston, I watched a little of the grammies and perused the online news sites.

What I found is more evidence that we are, indeed, living at the end of this age, in times where people show little restraint about anything...how they talk, how they dress, how they dance, how they...well, do anything.

Here are a couple of things that I have found very disturbing recently :

Freak dancing: I saw a friend on facebook comment on how her child and various other children were so upset with their school officials because they weren't able to dance as they wanted at their latest school dance. I decided to run through the comments, and found one parent who said: "...As long as they're not ripping each other's clothes off, let them dance and have fun." I then looked up the term freak dancing to discover that it is, according to the Urban Dictionary:

Freak dancing is a style of urban dancing, usually performed to R&B, pop, rap, hip-hop, or Latin music. It involves two or more people making extremely close physical contact, and facial expressions and physical movements that are sexually provocative and/or that imitate sexual intercourse and foreplay.

We all know what word the word freak is imitating, right?

I then made some sort of idiotic statement about agreeing with school officials that it was not appropriate for kids in any school age to be dancing like this and that my mom always said "give an inch and a mile will be taken" with anything, including freak dancing (she didn't say it about freak dancing, though), and the next thing you know, it's sex like this. Isn't it a known fact that the more you do something or are subjected to it the easier it is to do it or something to the next level like it?

That mother then told me she had successfully raised two daughters and had a third child in school and that she thought it was more productive to talk to her teens about self-respect, birth control and various other things because if they want to have sex, they will find a way to do it. I did not respond because I sensed the uselessness in it and because I didn't want to get into a social network battle of the words.

But here's what I'm thinking: "Yeah, well, does that mean we stop telling them it's not God's plan, it's immoral, it cheapens the act meant to be an act of love, commitment and oneness for a married couple?" Do we stop giving our kids boundaries?

Next, I ran into a name and a photo which stopped me cold. I've never heard of this girl, let alone the fact that I can't figure out why in the world she would go to an awards dinner dressed like this and take the "Pope" as her date:

Nicki Minaj @ The Grammys

I subsequently found out that this girl had taken part in Madonna's superbowl "holy of holies" performance.

Then, last, but certainly not least, there's this British MAN who allegedly gave birth last week. Can you imagine...a man giving birth? As soon as I read the article, I lifted up a prayer for the world. We are living in bizarre, immoral days where men and women definitely call good evil and evil good. Even so, Lord Jesus, come!

I know this blog has gone from one extreme to the other, but it helps me to look at the goodness and majesty of God when I see how far astray mankind has gone. It helps me to know that God's eyes are running to and fro around the world, and He knows how sick His creation has become. It helps to know that any moment of any day could be the moment when the trumpet sounds and we'll no longer be subjected to sin and immorality and evil.

So, in closing, I will leave you with the words of Paul to the Philippians (4:8):

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things.

A Work in Progress

2012-02-12T08:12:00.000-05:00

We've all seen that bumper sticker, "Christians aren't perfect; just forgiven", haven't we? These days there seems to be quite a discussion going on about Christians who are taking advantange of grace by using just such statements as that bumper sticker to explain their continuance of sinful behavior and Christians who believe that when you accept Christ as Savior all your sinful behavior stops.

I have recently begun reflecting on this in a more serious, sober way because I was having doubts as to whether or not I could say for certain that I had given my life to Christ because there was still sin in my life. My last POST: Am I Truly Saved reflects how this subject has been uppermost in my mind lately.

This past week there was a story in the news about Kylie Bisutti. Kylie is a young woman who in 2009 won a Victoria Secret modeling contract. She had gotten married shortly before she won the modeling contract. It seems that now, some two to three years later, Kylie has been convicted by the Holy Spirit of the appropriateness of modeling lingerie and underwear which for the most part is designed to enhance and expose the wearer and excite the audience. If you would like to read the whole story about Kylie, you can go HERE.

This is one of the comments made on the news article I read:

…how refreshing it is…to see someone getting PLAYED!… TANNER where was her “faith” before she entered and won the VS modeling contest? what do VS models do…model pant suits? huh? now that she has fame and a platform to work from she NOW finds her modesty so she can play the christ card….gimmee a break. anybody else falling for this b.s.?

God has shown me during this time of reflection how He has changed me; how he's taken me a step at a time from the glory of asking Him to re-birth me, to regenerate my heart, and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness to the glory of hating my pride, to the glory of wanting to be humble, to the glory of wanting Him to be glorified in my life. It didn't all come at once. It was a process.

God is in charge. If you read the Scriptures, it is not hard to understand that it is He who brings us to a place where we recognize our sinfulness; it isn't anything that we do. The Word is very clear that He is the one that calls us, and He is the one who changes us. Can He change all of our sinful behavior at once? I believe that He can. I believe that in most of us who accept His call on our lives though that He changes many things in us initially but that there are still many, many things that are changed in our day-to-day walk with Christ.

There are so many things that through age and living our lives and not knowing God that we come to think of as "normal" and right and not harming anyone that we don't even think of changing until God turns on a red light in our minds. Just like Kylie Bisutti who always wanted to be a model, and I'm sure thought modeling to be okay because in our culture, modeling is involved in advertising everywhere (and the Victoria Secret models are considered "THE MODELS" to be). From the time you are a small child (selling you the latest clothing, toys, etc.) through the teen years (selling you the latest hot footwear) to adulthood (selling you youth, class; whatever), we are bombarded with images trying to sell us something.

The Christian faith is one of GROWTH and CHANGE over time. Few who accept Christ today become a perfect role-model tomorrow, dropping all of their vices and issues overnight! As we live, we grow and learn, and the Spirit of God convicts us of our sins and issues. This is a LIFELONG PROCESS! Any Christian who looks back and cannot see that God is changing him/her, needs to re-evaluate whether or not they have truly surrendered their life to God.

I can't begin to write here all the things I have learned (by reading God's Word, meditating on it and being convicted by the Holy Spirit) is sin that once upon a time seemed so "normal" and acceptable to the world, but I can tell you this: Our adversary has done a really good job of deceiving us down through the ages, and unless and until we begin to deligently seek God by reading His Word, praying, meditating and spending time with like-minded believers, we can't even begin to know just how deep the deception goes.

I pray that all who stop here today will be prompted by the Holy Spirit to do just that.

Heavenly Father, we are literally like the sheep you call us. We need a Shepherd who loves us to keep us on the path which will not lead to our destruction. Thank you for being that Shepherd. God, I ask that anyone who visits here and reads this will be prompted by your Spirit to honestly examine their life to see if they have truly done what you require in order to claim that they belong to you. Lord, in these days of deceit, selfishness and self-satisfaction, we need you to help us see ourselves as you see us. Thank you for continuing to work in my life, helping me to see my sin as you see it and then helping me to change. All glory to you, Lord Jesus! In your name I pray. Amen

Am I Truly Saved?

2012-01-29T22:20:00.004-05:00

Have you ever asked yourself this question? Do you ever doubt your salvation? If you have, you are not alone. I think we have all doubted our salvation at some time, and we are admonished in the book of 2 Corinthians:

Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Our salvation is the most important thing in our lives, so it is critically important for us to examine ourselves and question our motives and to ask God to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

My attention was grabbed and my heart stabbed by the wonderful message given by Pastor Paul Washer HERE.

I simply don't know how to express the importance of his message. All I can say to you is... "Please listen to this message." It's only 53 minutes long and I believe God will speak to your heart through it. There are very few men who preach like Paul Washer. I pray with all that I have within me that you who stopped by here today will listen to it; even if you have proclaimed to be a Christian for years - listen to it.

May God bless you and regenerate your heart so that you are born from above.

The Valley of the Shadow of Death

2012-01-19T09:48:00.000-05:00

PSALM 23

1 The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. 4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Psalm 23 has long been a psalm of comfort to the dying and those who are losing someone to death. I can remember a time when little children were given stars at Sunday School for memorizing things; like the Ten Commandments, John 3:16 and the Psalm 23...I was one of those children. The 23rd Pslam was hard for me for some reason; I never did get that star as a child in Sunday School, but 45 years later, everytime I read it, I draw great comfort from that Psalm.

Because it's always read at funerals and probably because the word "death" seems to stand out (probably it did in my childhood anyway), I've always associated it with death. However, when you sit down and take time to meditate and ponder it, this Psalm is really about right now - life in the here and now. This life we live...getting up, going to work, eating, drinking, sleeping, learning, growing, rejoicing, hurting, sinning, repenting and learning to walk in the wisdom of God is the SHADOW of death.

Today could be the day I die...or you, maybe, or someone close to us. There's about 7 billion people in the world, so that makes a lot of people dying everyday around us, too. We ALL live in the shadow of death because we are all sinners according to the Bible. It is within us all to do bad, bad things, and the Bible says that the consequences of committing sin is death.

If you are like me, you don't like shadows. Walking in the shadows when I'm alone is very scary; you never know what's hiding there, and as a kid, shadows always meant sure death when you played hide and go seek. Being out in the light is much more preferable. A lot of children (and adults when you come to think of it) need to have a night light on to go to sleep. When you think about how big the world is and beyond that, the universe; and add in to the equation just how small and helpless you are in that big world/universe, thinking about being a part of it be a really scary thing.

How comforting it is to know that you can walk everyday in the presence of the Creator of the world/universe and that his rod and staff are there to hold you up and for your protection, and even though you might be surrounded by enemies (human or otherwise), you can trust Him to take care of you. Not one thing will happen to you today that God did not say was okay to happen. Are you hungry? He will feed you. Are you in need of clothing? He will clothe you. Are you a sinner? He will cover you.

When that day comes that is appointed for you and me to take that last breath, we can take comfort in knowing that we can dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

If you have never entrusted your life to God through Jesus Christ. I urge you to take the time today to sit down and make an account of your life. Pray for forgiveness for the things you have done wrong and ask Him to lead you through the rest of the valley.

Can Your Family Be Saved?

2012-01-15T15:51:00.001-05:00

According to Ask.com, the divorce rate is right around 50% and in Christian families,it is between 40 and 50%; 41% for first time marriages. The pressures within a family are great and the preparation and the mindset going into marriage so unreal and so romanticized by society that it's a wonder that percentage is not higher. I often wonder what God is going to do with things like divorce and remarriage when we appear before Him at the Judgment Seat of Christ. What started my wondering about this is a book I read by Joseph Herrin, the author of the Parablesblog and owner of the Heart4God.ws web site. I refer you specifically to his book entitled The Marriage Covenant if you, too, would like to wonder about this.

With that being said, I believe the Lord gave me a word to share with someone out there; a family; a family in pain. A family to whom the word conflict is not unknown. A family who gets up fighting, eats dinner fighting and goes to bed fighting. This is a Christian family, or maybe not - maybe only a portion of the family is Christian. It's a family with an older child - not a young child - perhaps a teenager or a tweenager.

The family feels hopeless and in agony. It gets to the point where none of them want to go home and face it all again but where else can they go? Home is supposed to be a haven; a place of love and acceptance, but it's gotten so out of hand that now they are trying to hurt each other on purpose. "I'll show you; you do that to me, and I'll do this to you."

The Bible says in Mark 3:5: AND IF A HOUSE BE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF, IT CANNOT STAND.

If the above description fits your family, your house is divided and is in line for imminent destruction if something doesn't change and change fast.

The word that I believe the Lord gave me for you today is this:

Ephesians 6:1 Children obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 6:2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise); 6:3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

You don't know what body aches and pains or heartaches and pains your parents might be going through. Life as an adult with all the responsibilities that go with it is not easy and the world expects success, wealth, beauty, aggression and ambition. Look at them through eyes of compassion and love. The world isn't all about you and your problems. Try thinking about what they may be dealing with: how to pay their bills, job loss or insecurity, their health, maybe one of them has an addiction to something you don't know about, maybe one of them has done something they are not proud of, maybe a special friend or family member is dying - you just don't know what they're dealing with, so give them a break. Show them some love and kindness and compassion - and obedience and respect.

And for you, parents: Ephesians 6: 4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

You don't know what your child has been through today away from you. Look at them through the eyes of love and compassion. The world is different today than it was when you were young, and you have no idea what kind of pain your child may have been assaulted with today, and if your child is in the throes of puberty, then everything is multiplied 10x. What if you knew your child had been taunted, teased and made fun of by other kids today, would you tread more gently with him or her? What if you knew your child had failed a very important test today and is failing the class and may be held back, would you take back those unkind words? What if you knew your son had been cut from the team and told to go take a ballet lesson instead, would you act differently, and what if your daughter had been called a slut or some other equally insulting name, would you show her some love and kindness instead of berating her because she didn't get her room cleaned? You just don't know and unfortunately, our children don't tell us everything.

Your family can be salvaged with determination, love and dependence on God. First, everytime you look at your parent, mate, child: pray for them; pray for God's best to be given to them. Do you know what God's best is? It's His son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. Pray it every day; pray it every hour. Ask God to help you look at them through His eyes, with love and compassion. Count to ten before answering anything that could possibly lead to a confrontation. Realize your part in the equation - children = obedience, honor and love for parents; parents = love, nurturing, teaching your child about God and His desire to know them and set them free from a life of sin and to give them a hope and a purpose. Determine to live your part in the equation without exception and in complete dependence on the Lord for strength and wisdom.

You CAN do it with His help and IF you really want to. Is this His word for you today?

Love God....Hate My Family???

2012-01-14T21:55:00.000-05:00

1 John 2:15,16:

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

The Father's thoughts and ways are much higher than mankind's ways, and so is His speech. Jesus said that He spoke in parables so that only those who truly loved Him and followed Him would be able to understand what He was saying. Also, Psalm 78, verse 2 says: I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

Reading Romans 9:13 one day, I was stopped in my tracks:

As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

What? Why would God ever say that He hated anyone or anything? My mind could not grasp this, and I was puzzled and confused.

Thank God that in studying the Word, I recently learned that this was not a real, true "hatred" of Esau but a type of comparative speech that when you look at the blessing that God bestowed on Jacob in comparison to that of Esau it was like saying that God loved Jacob and hated Esau.

Sometimes our minds work like that; thinking just because someone has been blessed by the Creator with brains, money, possessions and what appears to the world as "anything and everything" they could ever want, that God must have loved that person more than He loved the one who was not so smart, poor and had very little in the way of worldly possessions. I remember being asked once why I thought God had blessed us in such as a way as allowing us to be born in America when so many others in the world were hurting or in need. I don't remember my exact response but I remember it being something totally stupid and incorrect and lame.

I say that it was totally stupid and incorrect now because I know what the Word says: Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.

Have the people of the United States really been blessed by God? Of course we have, in many ways, but in others maybe not so much. I read these days how thousands (and I mean like 30,000 a day) of people are coming to know the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in countries where you wouldn't think it would be happening, like the communist countries and the muslim countries (and I mean real, true, die-for-your-beliefs saving knowledge). And, here we are in the U.S. where everyday you read about someone saying or doing something to undermine being a believer and follower of Christ and people are trying to have the name of Jesus and anything to do with Him erased from American laws and culture.

There are a lot of things that I love in this world; my husband, my children, my home, my pets, my friends, my extended family. I can think of materials things that I love, but, with all thanks to God, I know in my heart I could give those things up without a huge fight if need be. My God is a jealous God, and he wants to be first in my life. He wants to be the main love of my life and if my heart is in the right place there, then He's okay with me loving my family. He just wants the love I feel for them and everything else to be like hatred in comparison to how much I love Him.

The wonderful thing is that the more time I spend with God, the more I love Him. The better I know Him; the more I love Him and want to be with Him. There's only one way to get to know God...read His word and talk to Him about it and all the things happening in your life. I can't begin to tell you the difference it has made in my life, but I wholly encourage you to try it. The change it makes in your life may be the difference between love and hate or life and death.

The Hour is Late and Time is Short

2012-01-05T02:29:00.002-05:00

It's late; 1:30 in the morning and I should be sleeping, but the Lord has laid something on my heart - something I believe He wants me to put down in words. It is late here on earth and our time is short. What do I mean, the time is short, you ask? Well, I believe that the time is short for anything that we might consider a life of being somewhat "normal". I hear in my Spirit that soon "normalcy" will be hard to find and unless we are "in Christ", we will all be in a state of flux and chaos. I keep hearing the words "be sober".

Things have been very unsettling in the world for a long time, but especially since this new century began with 9/11 and then the financial chaos that the world experienced in 2008. So, I believe, it is not unusual for us to try to find things that make us smile and laugh and remember better times. We want to "feel" happy.

With this in mind, and the fact that I keep hearing the words be sober, I want to send out a message of caution to all who pass by here. The word sober is used 12 times in the KJV of the Bible in 12 different verses.

2 Cor. 5:13

1 Th. 5:6

1 Th. 5:8

1 Ti. 3:2

1 Ti. 3:11

Titus 1:8

Titus 2:2

Titus 2:4

Titus 2:6

1 Peter 1:13

1 Peter 4:7

1 Peter 5:8

In all of these verses, the word sober pertains to keeping one's self in a state of mind which exercises self-control, discipline and curbing one's passions (and although it's not the same word in the greek, specifically, it also includes the sobriety of not being drunk) and being in a state of watchfulness and readiness.

The Spirit is directing me specifically to the use of the word in relation to "curbing one's passions". It seems to me that sometimes as human beings when things are down, we want to just throw all caution to the wind and do something we consider adventurous, or "fun", and not necessarily true to our nature. This is not the time for that. This is the time for soberness.

As I write this, I'm thinking "Hmmmm, that's interesting. So many times when I am with people, I find myself thinking what a bore I am, always thinking seriouosly and "soberly" and I find it hard to get in the swing of things when talk gets a little off color or rowdy." Now I know why, I have become sober because the Lord's Spirit has shown me the lateness of the hour. I realize that this is not a time for that. I still laugh (usually at myself) and I smile, and unbelievably, I find myself not anxious or afraid, but I just don't find myself being "giddy" for lack of a better word and I don't tend to join the fray of joking, getting "involved" in tv programs or sports, etc. My mind is usually on the things of God and how they are intertwined with the things of the world.

I'm going to be blunt here, I guess, because I can't find another way to put this. Time is short; Jesus is coming back, and I think it's soon. Passions a lot of the time lead us to do things that we wouldn't normally do; and (believe me I know) usually they are not things God wants us to do (and I'm not talking about passion for your job, your ministry or art!) Don't do something stupid, by throwing caution to the wind, just to have a moment of passion fulfilled. What if He returns right then?

I'm talking to those who say they know Christ and claim Him as their savior. You're bored, or lonely or scared or tired or frazzled. Something appears in you life that looks to be the thing that could give you relief, a moment of pleasure, fun, satisfaction; whatever. Get out your Bible, read it; get on your knees; pray. Ask God for direction; ask Him if it's the right thing to do. Don't be like the foolish virgins who got tired of waiting and ran out of oil. Now is not the time to be giving in to passionate urges.

That's what God wanted me to write tonight.

Do You Know My Jesus?

2012-01-01T00:48:00.001-05:00

Another year is here. For those of us in many areas of the U.S., winter is here and we have several months of cloudy, cold, possibly rainy, snowy, icy weather ahead of us. When you add to that the fact that there could be war any day in the Mid East, the European Union is on the verge of a break up due to over indebtedness and our own country is basically broke and our money could be worth nothing any day, you find yourself asking where's the hope?

So I ask you: Do you know my Jesus? He's the one who gives me hope and a purpose in life. He took my focus off of myself and put it on Him. He makes me feel safe. He gives me peace. He loves me just as I am, and yet, because of who He is and the way He expects the best of me, I don't want to let Him down and I find myself being more honest, more open, more vulnerable, more giving, more loving, more understanding and accepting; so that even though He loves me just as I am, I find myself changing.

Jesus carries me through the hard days and walks beside me on the easy ones. He's never too busy to listen and His advice is always given with the intent to do the best for me and for anyone else who is involved. He heals the hurts deep within me by giving me a new understanding of things and an ability to forgive that is, itself, supernatural.

He's as old and wise as anyone ever could be, but He's young and hip and at the forefront of invention and imagination. He has no equal in artistic and/or musical ability. He wants to know everything about me down to how many hairs are on my head. He's never stuck up or too proud to hang around with the likes of me and He never makes me feel like I'm lacking or unimportant. He never gets tired; and he always energizes me.

If you do know Him, you know exactly what I'm talking about; if you don't know Him, you should! All you have to do is speak His name, tell Him where you're at in your life, what you've done wrong and how you want to do right. Give Him your hand. Ask Him to show you the way and then go with Him. Once you've experienced real life in Jesus, you'll never want to go back.

That's my hope for you for 2012; a real, living, breathing, one-on-one relationship with the best friend, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, God-Man you could ever imagine. You know what? This could be the year we see Him face to face! So get to know Him, get ready and get excited. This could be our best year yet! There's the hope!

"Until an Opportune Time"

2011-12-29T08:38:00.000-05:00

Last month, I posted a blog about how satan is like a hungry lion seeking those whom he may devour. During my Bible reading time this morning four small words caught my attention:

Luke 4:13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

I knew that Jesus had been tempted by the devil as it is explicitly detailed in Luke 4:1-12, but those four words never hit me before. These four words tell me that satan tempted Jesus on other occasions; that satan saw Jesus as someone he could devour. Now, that's hubris! Not only did satan think he could ascend above the throne of God when he was in heaven, he thought he could be greater than God and when God dressed in the body of a man came to earth, satan thought he could devour him!

I always wondered why satan thought he could defeat God at the Battle of Armageddon. This is an angel whose pride and self-esteem know no bounds. He is so full of evil and himself that he doesn't give up; he just keeps going in his attempt to defeat God so that he can "be" God.

Be aware then, and be cautioned: If satan really believed that he could devour Jesus and was just waiting for an opportune time, know that he is just waiting for just such an occasion to come after you and me again and we need to be ready. Be prayed up and wearing the armor of God every single day! Don't give the enemy a foothold. Get rid of your anger and forgive. These are the things that God is saying to me today.

Lord, Jesus, I thank you that you are my high priest, interceding on my behalf to the Father. Thank you that you know what it's like to be tempted and tried. Thank you that you defeated satan on the cross that day and death when you were resurrected. Thank you that you now live inside of me and that you are greater than he that is in the world. Be my strength today, my source of power and inspiration to forgive those who hurt me and love those who hate me. I pray that you will be glorified in my life today, and I ask it in your name.

ThoughtsThat Plagued Me During Christmas

2011-12-28T11:48:00.000-05:00

This morning as I finished up my quiet time, I asked the Lord what I should write about today, and for some reason, He led me to write about these things that have been on my mind since Thanksgiving.

One thing that kept jumping out at me over the last few weeks is how frequently Christmas carols include the word "peace". For example, "sleep in heavenly peace", and "peace on earth". Everytime I heard the word "peace", I would stop and think about how Jesus said in Matthew 10:34:

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

We love to romanticize things, don't we? The birth of a beautiful baby boy doesn't make us think of swords; it makes us think of sweet smiles, brights eyes, puppy dog tails, knights in shining armor, and happily ever after. It's hard to associate the precious little baby born in a cave and placed in a manger named Jesus with the grown man who was beaten beyond recognition and crucified on a cross as a criminal.

I think of that often when I hear of some horrible crime that has been committed - that the person who did it was at one time someone's precious little one.

It seemed to me like I moved through the month of December in a fog. Having in-laws who insist on keeping the Christmas tradition of gift giving and two children who I raised in the traditions that were taught to me as a young girl, it's very hard to completely divorce yourself completely and all at once from the melee known as "Christmas". Each year I take part less, and hopefully, soon I can just stop all the nonsense.

I say nonsense because as I walked through December, I felt like I was on the outside looking in all the time, and I kept thinking to myself that all this hustle, bustle, spending, eating and general over indulging had its roots in the birth of a child who grew up to be a man that a majority of the people hated and wanted dead and whose name people today hate to hear and are working tirelessly to have wiped out. Yet, they continue to "celebrate" the day. It all looks like a trumped up excuse to eat, drink, be merry and have some time off of work and not a day of celebrating the fact that God left heaven to live among us and show us how to live a life devoted to Him and free of sin.

Finally, another topic that kept cropping up was that of forgiveness; not God's forgiveness of us, but our forgiveness of each other. In Matthew 6:14,15, Jesus teaches us that we are to forgive others who have harmed us just as God forgives us and that if we can't find it within ourselves to forgive others, God will not forgive us either.

Giving grace to others and forgiving them for hurting us is hard. We feel justified in our anger for the harm done to us, but the Bible tells us that anger gives satan a foothold in our lives (Ephesians 4:26,27 and that we should not let anger control us. So, no matter how deeply we have been hurt, it is up to us to forgive the one who hurt us. Some hurts require God helping us to forgive because it is not within our ability to do it. Don't think God doesn't understand how it feels, because He does. Think about all the hurts and injustices perpetrated against Him while He walked this earth in a human body. Yet, He was able to forgive those who harmed him. I believe He shows us understanding in our desire to forgive and our inability to do so, and as long we seek His help in giving forgiveness (showing an honest desire to do so), I am sure that He grants us the ability to forgive over time. Surely that is where the old saying that time is the healer of all wounds came from.

I am living in the midst of a situation right now where one person needs to forgive another. I know that God wants us to forgive each other for our own mental health because as I watch the situation develop, I see the distress and destruction that both individuals are suffering. Anger destroys relationships, yes; but anger also destroys individual people, and families and innocent bystanders, like pets and friends. All who are around a simmering anger are singed by its fire, and that is where satan gets his foothold. If he can make us simmer with anger, then we will continue in our childish attempts of one-upping each other by committing another wrong and if we catch others around us on fire with the anger and hurt, that's all to his good (and definitely not to ours).

I know this must seem like a rambling piece today, and perhaps it is, but these are things that have weighed heavily on my mind here at the end of the year. The ads on tv and in the newspapers and magazines have begun for losing weight, but the real weight many need to lose is the noose around their neck of unforgiveness. Take time to take bow humbly in front of God and ask Him for help in forgiving those who have hurt you and then ask Him to forgive you for the ways that you have hurt Him, yourself and others. That, my friend, is the best way to start off a new year filled with sleeping in heavenly peace and could just possibly help to bring in peace on earth, good will to men.

May your new year be filled with the presence of the spirit of God, peace on earth, good will to men and peaceful, heavenly sleep.

Does God Still Speak To the World?

2011-12-20T10:01:00.000-05:00

Are you like many in the world today who claim that God no longer speaks to us as He did in ancient days?

If so, I am here to encourage you today; to show you that God IS indeed speaking to us today.

God said in Genesis 1:14-15:

14 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars.

You may have read in the news recently about a comet named Lovejoy which had a close encounter with the sun and was anticipated to be burned up as a result. You can imagine that anything that has a really close encounter with the sun would be destroyed, right? Well, I believe God spoke to the world through that comet. Please read this well documented piece by my friend, Art at the New Wineskins blog.

Is that amazing? To me, this is a direct message from God saying that it is time for His followers to give Him the headship in our lives and we are to follow Him implicitly; even into things that are unpalatable to us and possibly very trying. The pouring out of the latter day rain in the form of His holy spirit is imminent. It is vital that we lay down our love for this world and lay down our lives in service, praise and worship of Him.

May God richly bless YOU with an outpouring of His spirit at this time and may 2012 be one in which God is glorified in all of our lives.

Deja-Vu

2011-12-15T09:34:00.000-05:00

According to "How Stuff Works", deja-vu (déjà vu) is French and means, literally, "already seen." Those who have experienced the feeling describe it as an overwhelming sense of familiarity with something that shouldn't be familiar at all.

Have you ever experienced deju-vu?

In the past several weeks, I have experienced this anomaly about three or four times. This is unusual for me as I have experienced it on occasion in the past but never as frequently as this.

The interesting thing is that each time I have experienced deja-vu in the past few weeks, it has been in relation to things that I "seemingly" have experienced that relate to the rapture of the church. What I mean is that as I think about the experiences, in each one of them, when it happened originally, whatever the event was, occurred at the time of or immediately before or after the rapture.

I don't know if this is God's way of telling me that the rapture is near or if it's just my mind getting out of control, but it has caused me to stop and think about the oddness of this happening so frequently to me right now.

I do think the rapture is close, though. I think that not just because prophecy is being fulfilled daily, but I feel within myself and around me a sense of hopelessness in the world unless Christ comes soon and corrects all the things that are wrong. In other words, the world is so bleak and there is so much ugliness being exhibited that I can't believe that God will put up with us much longer.

I saw a video on Facebook yesterday that Johnni Depp had put forth with some guy named Babybird about Jesus at a stag night club. It filled me with mourning for mankind's ability to continue mocking Jesus 2000 years later.

And then, I was reading a news item online and just perusing the comments and one in particular stood out. It said something to the effect of "why don't you Judeo-Christians go find yourselves a Jew-deo Christian country of your own to live in..."

Needless to say, the events going on in the Middle Eastern countries are just one spark away from being a major forest, fire called World War III.

I find myself calling out to the Lord a lot about things I see and hear and the answer I hear is always hold on tight to me, stay close and always check with me on the truth of any given thing.

The other night as I ended my day in prayer, the Lord brought to my mind how He loves me, that He died for me and that nothing can separate me from Him. I saw Him on the cross whispering my name, "this is for Kimberly." It seems possible to me that when Jesus was on the cross, that the name of each and every person who has ever lived or ever will live crossed His mind.

I see the world as having so little love in it today, real agape love, that when I think about how Jesus loves us, I get chills. This week I had a brother in christ tell me that I was on his mind and the he was praying for me, and I "felt" the truth it in and it made me feel very special. How often does that happen?

With Christmas being just around the corner, I have found myself watching the commercials and the "christmas" made-for-tv movies or otherwise related programs and thinking, all this for a holiday which (whether or not you believe it to be pagan) supposedly celebrates the birth of child who grew to be a man hated by most people.

Knowing that the hour is short and that at any minute, Jesus could rapture the church (or that your life might just end), I encourage you to seek Him with all your heart, mind, and soul and show some love to your fellow man today:

Let us love one another: for love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. (1John 4:7)

Caution...There's A Hungry Lion on Your Trail!!

2011-11-29T01:03:00.000-05:00

This world is currently under the rulership of the prince of the power of the air (satan), and he has a type of governing authority consisting of powers, principalities, and wicked spirits in high places Ephesians 6:10.

Satan was a liar and a murderer from the beginning John 8:44. The Bible tells us that he's like a lion seeking for prey to devour 1 Peter 5:8 and so we are to be on guard, sober, and vigilant in order to protect ourselves from him.

The Lord, our God, is able to keep us and protect us from all the wiles of the evil one. So we must depend on all the weapons of spiritual warfare that he has given us: constant communication with His indwelling holy spirit, our God-given intuition, daily reading ofHis word which reveals only ALL truth, long minutes in our prayer closet with God learning His plans and movements to defeat the evil one in battle and of course putting on our armor as laid out in Ephesians 6:13-18.

The spiritual war is heating up all around us and is beginning to manifest itself in our everyday lives. All you have to do is look around you or watch or listen to any newscast. People are not acting rationally and we know the power behind confusion 1 Cor. 14:33 and violence, don't we?

When we leave our prayer closet everyday we must approach the day with the knowledge that there is a hungry lion on our trail everywhere we go and one wrong move could bring about our being his meal for the day. I would much rather have the Lord God within my reach than that VISA card the TV tells you that you shouldn't leave home without.

Is Thankfulness for Family and Friends Enough?

2011-11-21T11:29:00.000-05:00

Many times at the Thanksgiving dinner table, families have a tradition of going around the table and sharing the things they are thankful for (at least we do in my family). There is never a shortage of hearing individuals' thankfulness for "family" and "friends", or their "home" or "job". While these things are significant and very worthwhile, the repetitiveness with which we hear these four items named cause me to wonder if we are failing to reach deeper than the obvious to come up with things that we are thankful for.

On Facebook a couple of weeks ago, someone posted this: What if you woke up today with ONLY the things you thanked God for yesterday? To me, this is a profound statment, and it got me to thinking about what it is that I am truly thankful for in light of Thanksgiving coming around so quickly.

Am I thankful for my family and friends? Of course I am. I couldn't have gotten through many things in this life without them. I'm extremely thankful to have a home to live in, and without a job, my husband would seriously drive me crazy (Ever heard the story about the man who drove his wife crazy when he retired because he didn't have anything to do but be home with her?), not to mention how would we pay for our home without one?

Niggling around in the back of my mind is how, while much of the world will be starving, we Americans will be shoveling food in and watching football; counting the minutes to black Friday and the excessive consumption/shopping that will ensue for the next month. Also tickling around in the back of mind are thoughts about why aren't we deeper, more in tune with what's really important and where's God in all this excess?
I
Please hear my heart. I'm extremely thankful because I know that God has been especially kind to me, but I guess I'm just a little tired of the superficiality of life and I want to get real when thinking about things to be thankful for.

It seems selfish not to be thankful for all the beauty that we live in and around? And how come we hear so little about how God loved us so much that He came to us in human form to provide a way for us to be reconciled to Him? Are you thankful you have a winter coat or a hat and gloves and perhaps a raincoat? Maybe you're thankful for your bike or your scooter or your car or that you have a warm, comfy bed to sleep in or that you get three meals (and more) a day.

Are we thankful for all that? Of course we are. I know we are. We have SO MUCH to be thankful for that it seems trite and selfish to look no further than my family and friends or a home or a job! I'm feeling sort of like it seems to trivialize being thankful by eating a huge meal, stuffing yourself to the point where you can't or don't want to move and then doing nothing but watching football (or whatever) ad nauseum all day long?

Maybe I'm not talking to the public at large. Maybe I'm really just talking to myself here. Maybe it's The Lord talking to me! But thankfulness seems to be so much bigger than all that. True thankfulness seems to require me doing more than that. Maybe what would be a real show of thankfulness would be to have a smaller meal, to eat less, to give more so that someone who doesn't have a meal today will have one. All I know is that God is not allowing me to have my normal Thanksgiving dinner this year. I keep hearing His voice in my ear telling me that less is more and do something different this year. Spend some of yourself, Kim, to show me how thankful you are, ...and it's not about money; no, you give plenty of money. Sometimes it's just not about money.

So I say to The Lord. Okay, so I give enough money. You know the things I do to honor you, Lord. (And He does know and now that I'm into writing this, I know that God is speaking to me...most likely not to you.) You know I've helped the sick, I've taught classes, I serve in my church, I minister as a watchman, I spend hours each days reading, studying and talking to you. What is it that you want from me to show my thankfulness?

You know what the Lord says to me? Pick up the phone and call that person whom you would never think about calling (as a matter of fact, that person you would never want to call) and invite them to dinner; make them the guest of honor. Make it a small meal, Kim, with the focus on quality; not quantity. Turn off the football game and put on something that honors Me (music or a movie; it won't matter) but make the focus on Me. Tell your guests a story about how I've provided for you this year or in the past and invite them to do the same. Whatever you spend on your meal, Kim, give that amount to a family who will have no dinner.

There's more; so much more that God is saying to me...things like getting before Him on my face in prayer and praise, thanking Him for all He provides me with materially, for every minute of every day that I can operate normally in a body that doesn't cooperate because of disease, sharing all that He gives me more sacrificially in these days when so many do not have the basic needs of life, and coming out of and not being a part of the way of life today in America; the life of excess.

It can be done. We can celebrate Thanksgiving without shoving a fist in the face of so many that have so little or nothing to eat. All that really matters is that our hearts are in the right place, that we have something good to eat, that we have our loved ones around us to share in the joy, that we give all the praise, honor and glory to God for all that we have and hold dear and that we share something more of ourselves than the obvious.

I pray that your day of Thanksgiving will be one filled with the knowledge of Jesus Christ and what He has done for you and a day spent in love, rejoicing and appreciation of all you have with your family and friends.

Hear these words from the hymn, Come, Ye Thankful People, Come...

1 Come, ye thankful people, come,
raise the song of harvest home;
all is safely gathered in,
ere the winter storms begin.
God our Maker doth provide
for our wants to be supplied;
come to God's own temple, come,
raise the song of harvest home.

2. All the world is God's own field,
fruit as praise to God we yield;
wheat and tares together sown
are to joy or sorrow grown;
first the blade and then the ear,
then the full corn shall appear;
Lord of harvest, grant that we
wholesome grain and pure may be.

3. For the Lord our God shall come,
and shall take the harvest home;
from the field shall in that day
all offenses purge away,
giving angels charge at last
in the fire the tares to cast;
but the fruitful ears to store
in the garner evermore.

4. Even so, Lord, quickly come,
bring thy final harvest home;
gather thou thy people in,
free from sorrow, free from sin,
there, forever purified,
in thy presence to abide;
come, with all thine angels, come,
raise the glorious harvest home.

Jonah and Jesus...How They Were Different

2011-10-28T11:52:00.000-04:00

It seems like most people are familiar with the story of Jonah and how he was in the belly of a giant fish for three days, but do they know how Jonah came to be in the belly of the fish?

The Word of God came to Jonah and asked him to go to the city of Nineveh and tell all the people there that God was very displeased with them. God wanted him to tell the people that if they did not repent within 40 days, he would destroy the city and all the people in it.

Jonah was a jew, of course. The people of Nineveh were not. As a matter of fact, the people of Nineveh were known to be cruel, evil people; people who did horrendous things to others along the lines of the Nazis. Jonah hated them, and he didn't want God to warn them because he knew that God was gracious and merciful and loving and if the Ninevites, by some miracle, did repent of their sins, he knew that God would forgive them and not destroy them. He would much rather that God would destroy them, so Jonah ran away from God. God wanted him to go east and Jonah "went down" and hopped the first boat west.

God decides that He is not going to allow Jonah to shirk his duties and so He decides to shake things up on the boat by creating a big storm. Jonah "goes down" into the depths of the boat where he will feel as little of the storm as possible and goes to sleep. Everyone else on the ship sees that this is no normal storm and they begin doing anything and everything they can to lessen its impact on the ship; they throw stuff overboard, they weep, cry and they begin praying to all the various gods represented on the boat. Jonah, meanwhile is having a good nap.

Finally, the captain of the ship finds Jonah and asks him who he is and why he isn't praying to his god. Jonah tells him he is a jew and he is running from God cause God wants him to do someething he doesn't want to do. The captain is frightened and dismayed and tells Jonah to get with the program and start praying.

(Can you see how when we run from God and doing His purposes in our life, we seem to go down, down, down; further and further away from God?)

Finally, Jonah tells the captain to he knows God has sent this storm and that the captain should just pick Jonah up and toss him overboard "down into the deep" and they would be saved. It is my opinion that Jonah was thinking that he could not run from God so he would just die rather than go and preach to the Ninevites. So, the captain says okay and tosses him overboard.

God is in control of everything and he knows exactly what Jonah's going to do, so he purposes to have a huge fish there just waiting and it swallows Jonah, and he spends three days there while the Spirit of God deals with him and his sinfulness and disobedience. Jonah calls out to God while in the fish's belly, and God has the fish spit Jonah out onto shore where the Word of God comes to him and tells him to go to Nineveh to warn the people of their impending doom if they don't repent.

Well, this time Jonah dusts himself and runs directly to the east to Nineveh where he does just what God told him to do. You know what happens? The people of Nineveh repent, fast, pray, dress in sack cloth, and sit in ashes and God decides that's good enough for Him and does not destroy the people or city.

You'd think that's where the story ends, wouldn't you? But God is good and always wants those who love Him to come to a full knowledge of Him and His ways.

If you can believe it, Jonah is mad; well not just mad, furious; so furious he tells God that he knew this is what would happen and asks God to kill him; to take his life. God asks him if it's right for him to be angry about this and Jonah goes out, sets up a tent for shade and sits in the desert.

God makes this plant grow up next to Jonah and Jonah is very thankful for it and the shade that it brings; as a matter of fact, Jonah takes quite a liking to the plant. The next day the plant dies and God sends a big wind and the sun is shining down on him and while Jonah is mad about the plant dying, he has no shade and is about to faint, he asks God to again take his life. So God asks him if he has a right to be mad about the plant and Jonah tells him that he does have a right to angry and that God should
kill him right now.

God tells Jonah, "Look, Jonah, you took a liking for the plant, you didn't do anything to make it live or grow, but you cared for it and when it died, you took pity on it. Why should I not take pity on the people of Nineveh? I created them, gave them life, loved them, saw their error and offered them forgiveness if they repented. When they did, why shouldn't I, who gave them life, take pity on them?

That's how the story ends. It's the story of a selfish, rebellious, prideful man that God used to bring about one of the largest revivals in history. We are not told what happens to Jonah. It is believed that Jonah himself wrote the book of Jonah, so at least we know that he saw himself as he was and that hopefully he came to repent of his shortcomings.

Now, let's look at Jesus, who was also a prophet of God, sent to preach the Kingdom of God was at hand to those who would repent and believe His message.

Jesus never disobeyed, never went the other way, never refused to do, say or be whatever God wanted him to be. Jesus steadfastly walked the path God set before him. Jesus divested himself of all of his abilities as God and aligned himself completely with mankind and yet lived his life without sin. Jesus not only preached the message God gave him to a sinful world, he endured the world's hatred, scorn, beating, spitting, mocking, and crucifixion. He then spent three days in the belly of the earth and then God had the earth spit him back up to preach a message of eternal life and blessed hope to those who would believe his message, accept that he had come to pay the price for their sins and devote their lives to him.

There's a big difference in the stories. Jesus said that someday the Ninevites would sit in judgment of the ones who had heard his message and not repented because they (the Ninevites) had repented at the preaching of a mere man (Jonah) and that one greater than Jonah (Jesus) was among them preaching and yet they didn't repent.

After meditating on these two Bible accounts, the holy spirit asked me, "Kim, what are you running from doing for me today?" Is there something that God wants you to do that you are avoiding or running from. Is it as simple as saying "Yes" to Him? Or is He possibly asking you to make a change in your life now that you have believed on Him and asked Him in to your life and that change is one you don't want to let go of? The purpose of this blog today is to tell you what God is telling me. Don't be fooled, my friend. God will have His way and what He purposes will come to pass. It can come the easy way or it can come in a more difficult, painful way, but it will come to pass. Stop running from God. Sit down, get quiet and listen to what He is saying to you. I know from personal experience that life is sweeter, more joyful and peaceful when you are at peace with God. His promise to us in His Word is this:

Matthew 11:28-30

Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke [is] easy, and my burden is light.

Stop trying to do everything in your own power. Allow Him to lead you and live in and through you. He will do the work, all you have to do is obey.

1 Cor. 10:13

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear [it].

In other words, God is not going to lay something on you that you are unable to handle; and He will always make a way for you to bear the circumstances He puts you in.

Friend, He is so worth it. It is hard to put into words the changes He can bring in your life...changes that are hard and if He were not there seeing you through them, there would be no way on earth you could do it. And yet, He is there, so the changes take place and you feel joyful and at peace only to find that there are more changes to come...things you need to do and things you need to stop. You think, O God, I can't do this, but you do, indeed, do it, by His grace and with His hand leading you. It hurts, but the hurt is nothing compared to the joy in knowing that you are doing what your Creator/Father/Savior wants you to do. It brings you to your knees in worship and makes you want to dance in joy and exhiliaration. Do it. Take that step. Reach out to God. Ask Him to reveal Himself to you and you will never regret that step. All He asks is for you to listen, hear, and follow Him. He will never make you do it alone.

Father God, may we all hear your call and obey without questioning. Give me a heart of obedience to you. Make your wants my wants. I want to love what you love. I want to show your love to all people. Use me today to bring your love to someone, anyone. And Lord, if someone reads this today who doesn't know you. I pray that a seed has been planted so that you may water it and make it grow or perhaps, Lord, the seed was already planted; in that case, I pray that something in this will cause rain to fall on the seed and that you will cause that seed to grow. To you who sits on the throne, we give honor, glory and praise today for who you are and all that you have done. In Jesus' name. Amen

The Truth Hurts

2011-10-24T15:52:00.000-04:00

This morning, I watched a video from Aloha Bible Prophecy's Pastor J.D. about how Libya plays in end time prophecy. There is so much in this one video, that somehow I got into my mind that surely the blogosphere would rampant with blogs today about all that is going on; but to my dismay, I couldn't find anything. I felt the Lord telling me I should say something, but I feel inadequate when it comes to prophecy and end time events. Elizabeth at The End Time is a great one for that, but for some reason I feel God pushing me in the direction. Well, here goes.

We've all heard that old axiom..."the truth hurts", and we've all used it a time or ten when we've hurt someone by saying something rash and unkind, haven't we?

The truth, as I see it, with regard to end times Bible prophecy events, is that the majority of people, and I am referring specifically to so-called christians, don't want to know what is going on. Why would they not want to know you ask. Humbly I say to you that if everyone who proclaimed that they were christian knew that Christ was going to return at any moment and that every single major event occurring in the world today is prophesied in the Bible, they just might have to change their ways. They wouldn't be able to continue pursuing their own agenda and life as they want to live it without consulting God. They might have to stop playing golf as they want, or might not be able to buy things they don't need or can't afford, they might have to stop overindulging in alcohol, food, shopping or their addiction to sports programs or movies...just t.v. or entertainment in general. I don't think any of these things are wrong, in and of themselves, well, except for the things specifically called out in scripture, and some of them are, really, have you seen how rabid people are about sports? I often say, if people would get as excited about Jesus as they do the Pittsburg Steelers or whoever, the world would definitely be a better place and look mighty different.

The truth of the matter is, and I'm quite guilty myself, that we all have a life pattern that we are used to living and we don't want to have to consult God on whether or not it meets with His okay if we do this or that, or have this or that, or if there's something He would prefer for us. God is a good God and as our Father, the Bible in Matthew 7:11 tells us that He is the giver of all good gifts and that if we, who are evil, give our children the things they want, why wouldn't He give us the "good" things we want? So what do we do? We stick our heads in the sand and pretend not to hear, or we listen to the slinky serpent who is busily promoting his doctrine, you know, the "doctrine of devils" which include replacement theology, the no-rapture theology, and/or dominionism theology. Listen to Pastor J. D. explain it, he's much better than I am at it:

Paster J.D. has quickly become one of my favorites when it comes to prophecy regarding the Middle East, and he's exactly right, America has been a great country, and we have been unbelievably blessed by God from the time of its birth. It seems to me now, though, that everyone hates America, not just other nations and especially the Muslim nations, but even the inhabitants of America. As a youngster growing up in America, I remember everyone being proud to live in America; not anymore. You see signs like the one in the video which says...Arab Spring...American "Fall". Everyone wants our country to fail, our money to fail, our people to be in chaos. It meets their agenda, and I'm not saying go out and protest or get involved in politics, or anything like that, but I am saying, if you can't see that the world is fulfilling Bible prophecy every single day, you need to get your Bible out and start reading it. I have, and I can see it and hear without needing a pastor or anyone else to tell me.

It struck me, as I listened to Pastor J. D. - this is why IT IS so important to read your Bible; so that we can know the truth. Otherwise, in the days ahead, it will be so easy to fall prey to the doctrine of demons.

There, I've said it...people don't want to know because they don't want to change and in accordance with the other axiom, "Ignorance is bliss", they can just go on like nothing's happening out of the ordinary. There've been wars for years, and the weather is just global warming or some El Nina or whatever. Well, don't let it be said that I was politically correct. I have news for you, folks. Jesus is coming back, and it's soon. The birth pains are just about passed and we're just about to the pushing phase. I say this all the time to my daughter: Read your Bible. Don't rely on a pastor, a friend, a video, a counselor, a weather-person or anyone else. Rely on the holy spirit and the word of God. They won't let you down. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

God's Remnant

2011-10-20T23:41:00.002-04:00

I watched a movie entitled "Agenda: The Grinding of America" with my family tonight. This is a documentary by Curtis Bowers about the overt agenda of the socialists and communists in America to destroy the country from within. You can watch the trailer HERE.

It was very interesting watching the movie with my husband and son and listening to their comments and questions. My husband is not born again and my son who is 12; well, it's questionable, to say the least, that he is born again, but they both had a lot of comments and questions throughout the 90 minute movie which took us 2.5 hours to watch. It was quite a challenge for me to answer their questions and comments correctly and in a way that I thought would please God, but I believe the Holy Spirit had been preparing me for this moment for the past couple of months.

The book of 1 Kings, chapter 19, tells the story of how Elijah, the prophet of God, (the same prophet who had caused a 3.5 year drought, the one who had been fed by ravens and caused the widow of Zarephath to have food for him and her many days when all she had was a little oil and a handful of meal; and yes, the same one who raised the widow's son from the dead, and killed 400 prophets of Baal after their God failed to show up at the contest of whose God was God) was running for his life because one little woman, Jezebel, had told him that she would kill him within 24 hours. Can you believe that an individual that God had used so mightily would be running for his life because a mere mortal woman had threatened his life...an individual who only had to call on God to get His attention!

Elijah ran a day's journey into the wilderness and sat down under a juniper tree and told God he wanted to die; he'd had enough, he wasn't better than his ancestors and God should just take his life. That night while he slept, God sent an angel to minister to his physical needs by providing him with bread cooked over hot coals and a jug or water. You know how it is, once your tummy's full and you're warm, your body has a tendency to relax and want to go to sleep, which is precisely what Elijah did. The next day, the angel of the Lord did the same thing and told him that he had a journey to take that was too far for him to take without sustenance.

That bit of bread and jug of water carried Elijah 40 days in the wilderness to the mount of God. He found a cave that he could sleep in and verse 9 says that the "word of the Lord came to him and he said unto him, What dost thou here, Elijah?" We are told in the first chapter of John that Jesus is the word made flesh, so, in other words, Jesus spoke to Elijah and asked him what are you doing out here, Elijah. Elijah replies telling him how zealous he has been for God and the children of Israel (who have BTW forsaken their covenant with God and worshiped other gods) and killed God's prophets and that he was the only one left and now "they seek to kill me".

So Jesus tells Elijah to go and stand outside on the mountain (which he does) and then, lo and behold, the Lord passes by and there's a huge wind which tears at the mountains and an earthquake but the Lord is not either one of those two huge occurences, nor in the fire that happens next. No, it is in the still small voice (delicate whispering voice in my Bible's notes) Jesus shows up and asks Elijah again, "What doest thou here, Elijah?"

You'd think Elijah would be down on his hands and knees cowering before God, saying "I don't know, Lord; what am I doing out here" but instead Elijah repeats his earlier montage of how zealous he's been for God, etc., and now "I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

The Lord tells Elijah to go and annoint the new king of Syria and the new king of Israel and to annoint Elisha as the prophet to succeed him. Verse 18 sums it all up when the Lord says:

Yet I have left [me] seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

In other words, Elijah, I still have 7,000 others in Israel who are loyal to me...you are not the only one left.

Hold that thought for a minute and I'll tell you how that applies to the Agenda.

I became very active during our last presidential election; mostly because I felt that democratic candidate expressed so many ideas and political rhetoric that had a definite "anti-God message and/or feel. However, over the course of the last three years, God has shown me that politics and earthly governments are not where my (or anyone other follower of His) focus needs to be. I believe I am to be educated and wise about who is being offered up as the leader of my country and to inquire of God who I am to support, but that being said, no leader or nation or government on this earth will ever really have the answer to what ails the world. Actually, I'm at the point where I'm beginning to doubt if I am even to be concerned with elections at all and I'm beginning to think that God has given our country over to our own evil wishes and desires. I know that it is only in God that we will find peace, liberty and happiness with life.

God will always make for Himself a remnant, and because of that He will accomplish His purpose and plan for all of creation. The only important question is: "Are you a part of the remnant?" God can do more through a measly 7,000 followers than satan and all of his evil associates along with the whole world can. God does have a plan and it is unfolding daily right before our eyes. I have been studying and learning so much that proves over and over that the Bible is true and correct and infallible; things that take away all doubt about the veracity of the Bible and it being the inspired Word of God.

If you are not part of the remnant, I can't say enough to encourage you to seek God with all of who you are. The Bible tells us that those who seek Him with their whole being will not be disappointed. He will let you find Him. He will answer you, and while the rest of the world is upset and angry and fighting and picketing or whatever they do at their protests, you will be quietly going on with your life knowing that nothing is going to happen to you today that God does not already know about. You can rest in Him and trust Him not only to take care of your physical needs but to love and care for your soul like no one else ever has or ever will.

If you are in the remnant, you know what to do...only what He tells you.

I pray for anyone who may read this to be blessed by the presence of God in a special way in their life and that they would be drawn ever closer to His throne, that they would learn to worship and adore Him and and to praise Him for who He is and what's He's done and that they would be filled with a peace that only those "in Him" can know.

The Passion and the Rapture

2011-10-09T09:02:00.002-04:00

Ahhhh, the passion and the rapture...sounds like the title of a new movie outlining an online dating event, right? Not so much here on a blog devoted to spreading the call of Jesus to follow Him.

The Passion of the Christ is a movie by Mel Gibson about the final hours of Jesus' life and the crucifixion. It is well known for its depiction of the brutality Christ suffered for us prior to being crucified. Yet, it's not just the movie that calls these hours the Passion; the Catholic church refers to this time period in Christ's life as the Passion, and there are many others who refer to the closing hours of Christ's life as the Passion. Why? Because Jesus was so passionately in love with mankind that He was willing to give up His life for us.

Last week I posted a blog about a study at Radical Grace about the secret life of Christ; a study that uses scripture to show what Jesus' thought life was from childhood to the cross. According to this study, the events in Jesus' life were revealed to Him step by step, day by day, by the Holy Spirit. Everything Jesus did was a choice given to Him by the Father. He lived 100% as a human being, and God gave Him the choice to continue or not. Jesus chose to identify Himself 100% with man and went the distance by completely forsaking His "God-hood" and dying to provide us with a way to reconcile ourselves to God. I've heard of people applying themselves to various organizations or hobbies or their "passion" but Jesus is the only one whose passion was so intense He was willing to die for it.

The term rapture seems closely associated to passion because in today's society it's readily accepted and almost "expected" that men and women indulge in their passion for sex and the rapture that is supposed to result from it.

The actual term used in the Bible is "caught up" and it is translated from the greek word "harpazo". This word is used in the Bible several times to describe being taken by force unexpectedly.

For the past three years, I have been diligently following blogs and news and Christian teachers who believe that the rapture is imminent. I, obviously believe that to be true, too. I have been taught about a rapture event for the past 30-35 years or so, and there has been at least one time period each of the last three years that really looked promising for the rapture to occur. But as you can see, we are all still here.

During that three years, I have been introduced to the teachings of Joseph Herrin at Parablesblog who has made me look at interpreting certain things in the Bible differently, and the rapture is one of them. Just last week, Sarah Beveridge of Believer's Journey posted a blog referencing a teaching by David Eels of Unleavened Bread Ministries about the Separation of the Bride. You can find it HERE.

I believe both of these men are teaching that the spirit of God will be poured out on the true body of believers in Christ which will bring forth the "manchild" referenced in Revelation and that there will be a period of persecution of the church unlike any seen before (and there have been some really bad periods of persecution). If you don't believe me, go to your library and check out Fox's Book of Martyrs and read it for yourself. People have died for Christ in the most unbelievably horrible ways. The Book of Revelation indicates that the guillotine will be reintroduced in the last days and if you read my blog often, you know that last week I wrote about Roseanne Barr saying that bankers who fail to repay bailout money should be be-headed.

Is it possible that the rapture of the church is still far away and that we will have to endure real, true persecution in order to burn off all the fat the church has put on due to hearing too many sweet, ear-tickling sermons? CindyBytheSea wrote a blog this morning that features a news article from The Trumpet.com about the protesting going on across the world and now the U.S. It is an excellent article and should be read by everyone who is associated with Jesus Christ. You can find it here.

What I'm saying is that Christ was so passionate about us that he went to the cross and died for us. Are we ready to show him how rapturous we are about Him that we will endure any persecution for His name's sake? That is what the Spirit has been saying to me for a few months now. If you are watching the news at all, you cannot help but see how the Church of Jesus Christ is getting all kinds of bad press and being held responsible for many of the bad things happening around the world right now.

We need to dig into the Word in a new, deep way; we need to reach out to Jesus and pray for a fresh indwelling of His Spirit and we need to be praying for each other that we will all be prepared for whatever the day will bring because of our belief in Christ. I pray that we are not so caught up in figuring out when the "catching up" will be that we are not prepared if we are called to suffer for Christ today.

Jesus Was Completely Human

2011-10-03T08:06:00.000-04:00

I hvae heard many, many times in the years that I have been following Christ how Jesus was 100% God and 100% man. That was very confusing to me. Doesn't that add up to 200%, and isn't there only 100% of anything? If what makes me Me is that I have 1/2 of my genes from my mother and 1/2 from my father, doesn't that make me 50% of my mom's family and 50% of my dad's family?

I know that's confusing, but that's what I was...confused! I came to realize that what I was hearing, or rather, what was being expressed was that while Jesus had 100% of the benefits of being God available to Him, while He walked this earth, He walked it 100% as a human being just like you and me, all the way to His death on the cross.

The following link is to a Bible study about what the life of Christ from a small boy all the way through to his death on the cross and what scripture reveals his thoughts to be during each stage of His life. It is a paradigm-shifting study!! It puts Jesus Christ in a whole new light -- at least it did for me. It helps you comprehend Jesus learning from a child that He is the Messiah, studying the scriptures and seeing Himself in them, applying the verses of Isaiah to His own life based on what his mother and father had told Him. It shows Jesus' confusion, His doubt, why He wanted to know who people thought He was and why He confronted Peter with that question and why He responded like He did to Peter's answer.

It fosters intimacy and opens communication lines to the Savior. It produces understanding and empathy and sympathy and repentance and grief. Most of all, it produces joy! Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior, WILLINGLY gave up his pure, clean, lovely, holy relationship with God the Father; He BECAME sin for me so that I might become the righteousness of God!

It's a great study. It's one I wasn't going to do, but God moved me to read and once I started, it was hard to stop. Maybe you already saw Jesus in this light. If you did, good for you; God blessed you with second sight, but, if like me you need some help seeing your Savior, read it, you will be glad you did.

The Hidden Life of Jesus

The Chopping Block

2011-10-03T07:42:00.000-04:00

There's a program on the Foodnetwork these days called "Chopped". Four chefs compete in preparing an appetizer, a main dish and a dessert with special, almost-unheard of ingredients. At the end of each course, you will hear the words, "whose dish is on the chopping block"? This is weird, I'll admit, but those are the words that came to my mind this morning as I read the following news article:

Roseanne Barr: Behead Bankers, Rich Who Won't Give Up Wealth

Can you believe that? Here is a well known American advocating bringing back the guillotine for purposes of punishment, and when you add that to the fact that there are so many reports of beheadings in Iran and other countries where militants and extremists live and also in Mexico where there seems to be a bag of heads found every other day (according to the news), you can see how easy it is going to be to implement the use of the guillotine in the last days of the age as stated in the book of Revelation! Who'd have ever thought (as a child learning about it in history) that awful instrument would be brought out for use again?

Lackluster Faith

2011-09-27T08:45:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite worship songs is Open the Eyes of My Heart
by Mercy Me. The reason it is one of my favorites is that that is exactly what I want God to do. I want Him to open the eyes of my heart so I can see Him and know Him.

Do you ever feel like your walk has become lackluster and long to really know the Lord better? That is where I have been for the past few months and especially the last few weeks.

I read a couple of new books which I would highly recommend to you if you are feeling this way, too. One is "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan and the other is "Radical" by David Platt. Both of these books opened my eyes to the shallowness of my christianity and why my walk had become lackluster. What do I mean by "shallowness" and "lackluster"?

I was only looking at Christ as far as my front door and most days as far as my feet. My prayers were filled with requests for the Lord to "Help me..."

We are, by nature, selfish. Just think about any baby or small child and you'll immediately know what I mean. It's ALL about them, what they want, what they need, how they feel. We're born with that nature. We're born needy. We can only think as babies that we're hungry, or uncomfortable, or we don't feel well or we want to be held or put down, whatever; and we have the lungs and vocal ability to let one and all know about it.

I know that my faith in Christ has produced fruit in my life and in other's lives. I've seen it and have been told about it, but I have been feeling altogether too self-focused in my prayers.

Then I read these two remarkable books while on vacation and I started a Bible study (among other new ventures) and I felt that God was speaking directly to me telling me that I had enough knowledge and faith and had known Him long enough to get out do something with it.

One thing that really hit me hard for some reason unbeknownst to me was reading the Philipians 2.

I have read this chapter many times and it has been gone over in Bible study many times and I've heard many sermons preached on it, but for some reason, this was my TIME to read it and for it to sink in and touch my heart. (You know, the Word is like that sometimes.) It really hit me that God Almighty, who CREATED everything, KNOWS everything, and IS everywhere at ALL times loved everything and everyone He created so much that he didn't consider it BENEATH Him to go and take on the form of a created being, to live as a created being in the flesh and without using any of His ability as God to make a way for everything and everyone to be restored to the original, intended relationship that He created us for.

He didn't have to be born poor. He didn't have to learn a trade. He didn't have to be hungry, tired, or sick but he willingly became a man subject to all those things; not to mention being subject to aggravation, impatience, lust, all the things that the human body is subject to being simply because of being human. But He did it all willingly. And then, he allowed little ol' people, mere men and women, to mock him, spit on him, beat him to within a heart beat of his life, pull out his beard so that you could not even recognize him, and then let them hang him on a cross so he could pay the penalty that we, you and me, should have paid because of all the lousy, horrible, impure, unholy things we have thought and/or done.

I realized that Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, paid my debt to the Creator for my part in the sinfulness of the world. I should have hung on that cross, and I saw it ALL so clearly - how it should have been, and several times now since that happened, it has come back to me, and I have seen it again, and Jesus is looking real precious to me right now. I can see what a debt I owe to Him.

The authors of Radical and Forgotten God then showed me that I was not "asked" to go and make disciples of all nations, but I was "commanded" to go and do so.

Another thing the Lord showed me was in the book of 1 Samuel how Eli who was the prophet prior to Samuel had two sons who did not know the Lord and did sinful things at the Temple by taking advantage of people and sleeping with women and taking the best meat meant for sacrifice and how God held Eli responsible for his sons. You know, folks, God is going to hold us responsible for our children, too. You can find the story about Eli and his sons in 1 Samuel Chapter 2. Colossians 1:16 tells us:

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Did you see that: All things created were created by him AND FOR HIM. Our children belong to Him, and if we are not diligent in preparing them to know and receive Him, how can they be FOR Him? Won't they be AGAINST them?

One last thing that God showed me, and this one really caught me by surprise. I was driving home from my trip south yesterday, and I stopped in a convenience store to get some ice, when I heard the following conversation (all said with a "very" southern accent)...

"How ya doin Ms. Kirk, law, I haven't seen you in ages?

Well, Roy, I am doing so fine this morning. God has blessed this old body in so many ways I just can't tell you how good He is to me.

I know what ya mean Ms. Kirk. He sure is good, and He's coming back soon, I think.

Yep, I believe He's coming soon, too. I got a lot of things ain't so good, Roy, but I sure know that God has blessed me and I praise Him every day....."

What a blessing to me to hear this conversation. How many times when someone asks me how I'm doing do I say, "fine, thank you, and how are you?" From now on, I am going to glorify God. I want everyone to know how God has blessed me. He called my name, I heard Him, I answered Him, and now I am His and He is mine. I'm alive, I'm breathing. I can use all my senses. I can laugh and cry and feel. I can understand and I can explain. He loves me. He died for me and paid my debt. I owe Him my all and yet when this life is over I will inherit all the wonderful things I can think of and many that my mind cannot even conceive because of HIS generosity, faithfulness and love.

So why was my faith becoming so lackluster and shallow? Because I was focusing on me and not on HIM; because I was only caught up in my life instead of the lives of others, and because not only wasn't I looking at my life as blessed, I wasn't telling others how blessed I am! When you look at it all from the other direction and live it that way, your faith will be real shiny, and it'll show on your face!

Be blessed today in Jesus!

Childishness

2011-09-07T11:33:00.000-04:00

Don't you just hate it when someone calls you childish? I certainly do, and from the looks of the people who I have called childish in the past, I believe most other people hate it, too.

Likewise, when I visit other web sites, weblogs or read publications, I get very perturbed when I hear people who profess to follow Christ bashing each other over things in the Bible that they don't agree about.

In thinking about all the parts of scripture that I have read (and I have read almost all of the Old Testament and all of the New Testament), I don't remember that Jesus had "word battles" with anyone. He said what He believed, back it up with why He believed it (scripturally or with facts), and then kept quiet and let the Holy Spirit work.

God is working, through the power of the Holy Spirit, on each one of us who have committed our lives to Christ. It's a lifelong process, this becoming like Jesus, and the things we do and believe today may not be the same things we do and believe in six months, three weeks or even tomorrow.

We are earthen vessels that hold his precious Holy Spirit and we are being molded and formed by God each and every day just as Adam was molded and formed by God at the beginning of time.

And in that molding and forming, we are becoming less childish, and more and more like Christ.

Ephesians 4:13-16:

13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

So if you and a brother or sister in Christ don't see eye to eye today, don't write them off as lost or not your friend, say what you believe, why you believe it, and be quiet. Then, ask God to show you if you are wrong about what you believe and ask that if you brother or sister is wrong that God will open their eyes to the truth.

Let's leave childish fighting and bashing behind and work for the glory of God in a better way.

Take My Life and Let It Be...

2011-09-03T10:26:00.000-04:00

I've been praying for some time for God to give me more and more of His Holy Spirit; that there would be more of Him and less of me.

As I look back over my christian life, I can clearly see that there have been occasions where the fruit of the spirit was evident in my life; that I was growing in the knowledge and understanding of God; and that God was using me to impact other peoples' lives.

But I feel like I've been living a life of christian mediocrity for some time and so I began to cry out to God for more of his holy spirit.

Yesterday I began reading Francis Chan's new book, "Forgotten God, Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit".

I would like to share this quote:

Right now i want you to take a break from reading and spend some time asking yourself why you want the Holy Spirit. Is it for power? Is it for your own betterment and purposes? Or is it because you want to experience all that God has for you? Is it because you love the church and desire to be a better servant to your sisters and brothers?

This really grabbed me, so I began to think about it and pray that God would show me the truth of why I wanted it? In all honesty, I'd have to say that for a time I wanted it just to have something to show; so I guess that's for my own purposes. But that has changed, and as I look deep, I know that the real answer is because I'm tired of living a lackluster life of spirituality. The God of the Bible is mighty, awesome, and powerful; moving ordinary, unskilled, uneducated, every-day Joes to to do unimaginable things, and my life as a christian looks so much like everyone else walking around today. I want to know the power that raised Christ from the dead; the power that spoke creation into being; the power that caused all the apostles to live lives that ended in martyrdom. I want it all. I want to be so sold out to God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit that I will die for it. I have reached the point of hating my life/soul!

Matthew 16:25
“For whoever wishes to save his life (psuche - soul) will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Luke 14:26-27
"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

I'm there. I'm tired of praying for people and seeing no results. I'm tired of having no impact on my immediate family for God. I hate my christian-light life. I hate how little God uses me to help people. I'm tired of living a life that looks like everyone else around me. I guess I'm saying "here's my life, Lord, take it, always, only all for you".

Take my life and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
*Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in endless praise.
Take my hands and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
Take my voice and let me sing,
Always, only for my King.
Take my lips and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold,
Not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use
Every pow’r as Thou shalt choose.
Take my will and make it Thine,
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own,
It shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee

When the Son Doesn't Shine

2011-09-02T08:46:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I was in the car with some friends heading home when the southwestern part of the sky became filled with large, black, billowy clouds. All of a sudden, the rain started pouring down, it started thundering, and large, sharp, bolts of lightning streaked from the top of the clouds down to the ground. Needless to say, it was a little frightening. However, when you looked just a way off, in a more northwestern direction, the sun was shining as bright as at noon and there were absolutely no clouds around. We were all quite entranced by it.

Yesterday morning as I was walking along my quiet little country road, I could hear thunder getting closer and closer, so I walked faster and faster to make sure I got back home before the rain hit. Again, the western portion of the sky was black and the rain started pouring down. I could hear the thunder but I didn't see any lightning. The eastern sky was cloudless and the sun was shining.

I don't recall ever having thought about it before, the way the sky doesn't always get completely dark when it rains, but the thought hit me that even when the rain is pouring down and the storm is at its worst, the sun is still shining; you just can't see it.

I began to ponder this thought a bit because I thought maybe it was something the Lord wanted to speak to me through. I asked Him what it was that I was supposed to hear.

For the past three or four months, I feel like I've been caught up in a storm. There are a couple of situations in my home life that have been quite trying and then there has been my son's illness and trips back and forth to North Carolina and Ohio to see doctors who practice integrative medicine (rather than just shoving pills at you and trying to keep you medicated), and frankly, I just felt like I wasn't hearing God's voice.

In that moment, there on my country road, I felt like I heard God's voice telling me that even though I have been going through a great storm in my life, I haven't seen or heard Him because I wasn't working at it hard enough. I was caught up in my own agenda more than I was wanting to hear from Him, speak to Him, or try to find Him in the clouds of my day.

I want to take the time today to thank the Lord for reaching out to me and drawing me back to Him.

This morning, our electric went off for some unknown reason. We didn't have a storm so something else must have occurred. I woke up, though. I'm a light sleeper and because of the way our home is built, our bedroom (upstairs, over the garage) is very warm and the air conditioner does very little to help cool it, so I have three large fans blowing in there all the time in the summer and it's very noisy if you know what I mean.

So when I woke up, it was dead quiet and as dark as, ... well, night! I opened the windows and thankfully, there was a breeze blowing in so I just lay there looking out the window at the beautiful sky and the stars and I felt the Lord very close to me telling me the things He has wanted me to do which I have avoided and how He had to work in ways which would bring me to a place of having to do what He wanted.

Two years ago, more or less, the Lord told me to home school our son and in a dream around the same time, Lord told me to start teaching my son more in depth than Sunday school about Him. I diddled around with Bible study with my son, but didn't get serious about it, and well, of course, the home schooling thing went by the wayside.

On Tuesday, we begin our first year of home schooling and it is Bible based. It took my son's illness and the integrative medical doctors' strict diet and advice not to send him to school because of his problems to get me here, but here I am.

I've been setting up the school room and looking over the curriculum, and it's not a piece of cake. It's going to difficult, and my son is difficult. So, would you pray for me? I mean, pray for the Lord to give me what it takes to do this as unto Him; in a manner that will be pleasing to both the Lord and my son.

I guess the lesson I've learned is that just like nature, the storms in our life make it seem like God is not there because there's so many clouds, and the thunder is loud and the lightning distracting. But He IS there if we will only look harder for a glimpse of His light, listen more closely for His soft voice, and learn how to exercise our faith by doing the things we know He wants us to do even though it does not match up with our plans. After all, He has called us out of the darkness, to follow Him and His path is not the easy, well traveled path, but the hard-to-find, hard-to-stay on path.

I pray that today the Lord will open the eyes, ears and hearts of any who stumble upon this little blog to His greatness, His awesome power to forgive, His abundant mercy, and His unfailing love. I also pray that He will pour out His spirit on me in a new, fresh way which will cause me to become less and Him to become more, and I ask these things in Jesus' name and for His glory and honor.

My God is Not a Wimp

2011-08-21T13:23:00.000-04:00

I worship the same God who spoke all that is into being;
I worship the same God who had the power to flood the earth;
I worship the same God who divided the Red Sea and enabled the
Israelites to cross over;
I worship the God of Elijah; the One who set fire to the sacrificeI
Elijah placed on the alter;
I worship the God of Elisha, the One who healed Naaman's leprosy;
I worship the God of David; the One who slew Goliath;
I worship the God of Job; the One who makes Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades;
I worship the God of Solomon; the One who has ALL wisdom and shares it if you ask for it;
I worship the God of Isaiah; the One who washes our sins as white as snow;
I worship the God of Jeremiah; the One who knows our heart;
I worship the God of Ezekial; the One who sanctifies His great name;
I worship the God of Daniel; the One who can close up the mouths of lions;
I worship the God of the Prophets; the One who knows the past, the
present and future;
I worship the God of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, Timothy, James, Titus, Jude, Mary, Martha and Lazarus, the One who teaches,
leads, forgives and loves;
I worship the God of John the Baptist; the One whose sandals I am not
worthy to tie or untie;
I worship the God of Jesus Christ; the One who has the power over life,
death, heaven and hell;
I worship the God the Father, Jesus Christ, his only begotten son and
the holy spirit;
The One who lives within me and has promised to give me the power to do
ALL things in HIS name and for HIS glory, honor and praise. God has ALL POWER, ALL KNOWLEDGE, HE IS LOVE, HE REMOVES my sin as
far as the east is from the west; HE CAN RESURRECT THE DEAD!

THAT IS POWER. My God is not a wimp, and so, neither will I be a wimp.
I will go forth today in HIS power against satan, his followers and
all the enemies of God. Nothing can harm me or touch me that HE
does want to do so. I am nothing. I am here today and gone
tomorrow. HE IS ETERNAL. May He see something in me that is
worthy of HIS use.

May God be praised throughout HIS creation today.

Humble Thyself in the Sight of the Lord

2011-08-20T08:08:00.001-04:00

When I started this blog, I wanted to write about the Lord and the way He works in my life from my heart. Then I got all caught up in a being a blog that was "scripture based", and I got lost along the way. I have not blogged for the past couple of weeks because the Lord has stopped me. I have been asking Him for something to write and this morning He has given it to me as I layed in bed.

I saw the movie The Help yesterday. It is a poignant tale about relationships between employers (wealthy white women) and their maids (black women) in the 1960s. As with all poignant tales, there are things you can laugh about and things that make you cry. If you're like me, those things that make you cry also make you ashamed.

I have a friend, who has now moved to the east coast, that I met about ten years ago when I sold her a home here in SW Ohio. She is a beautiful, sophisticated, intelligent, kind, christian black woman. We've been in many prayer meetings together and sat together in church many Sunday mornings.

I can remember one particular Sunday, I believe it was a Sunday just before Martin Luther King day when our pastor ran a movie about Rev. King and it showed the bigotry and prejudice the people of my race showed to the people of his race back in the day. I cried with shame. I reached out to touch my sister's hand and told her how sorry I was for all the hurt and harm done to her black brothers and sisters. That's how I felt during The Help. I hate bigotry and prejudice and have tried all my life to shake off the drops of it that fell on me from my parents. I hope my children have been able to shake off more. Maybe someday we WILL all come to know that Jesus loves everyone, no matter what sex or color they are.

I came away from the movie with a few thoughts that I quickly posted on facebook last night: 1) there has always been bigotry and prejudice on earth (you only have to look back at Israel becoming slaves of the Egyptians); 2) There is still bigotry and prejudice but I believe many people have taken a giant step away from it; and 3) We must all pray that God will enable all of us to love each other the way He does.

However, this morning, as I lay thinking about God, my thoughts drifted away to the movie and how black families were portrayed in the movie as being so godly, and that caused me to think about the rich heritage of godliness that the Black Americans had as I grew up.

It came to me that when our lives are filled with difficulties and prejudice and persecution and hard time, period, we are humbled to the point that we cry out to God; morning, noon and night we call on Him. We realize our great need for Him. But, just as soon as it all lets up, we get out and make a little money and get our confidence in ourselves back, we lose that humbleness of spirit and mindset that shows us just how God-needy we really are.

I would rather, right this minute, lose everything I have and be humbled and dependent upon God than to have everything the world has to offer and not have God. God really is what life is all about even though most of us don't want to accept that. This story that we're living our right now is not about us, but about Him, and just like Moses, David, Esther, Ruth, Naomi, Deborah, Elijah, John the Baptist, Paul, Peter, John, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King and Abiliene and Winnie (from the movie), we have a moment etched in time for us to stand up, be brave and do that for which God has brought us into being. It is not a moment of self-reliance, self-assuredness or dependence on anyting that this world has to offer but it is a moment when we realize that all we are and ever will be are reliant on God and His work in our lives and that unless we stand up and do that thing which He calls us to do our lives will have been lived in vain.

Some will have great tasks that require much knowledge, strength, wisdom and/or courage, and some will have a small unknown task. The THING is that we have to recognize it as something that we were born to do and then DO it, and I believe it will be a HARD thing. No, it can't be easy because then it would be something that you can do without putting your heart and soul into it.

I have been a very self-assured, self-centered person in my past. God has used my illness and now this summer the illness of my son to show me that it's all right to achieve success as this world sees it, but it's not what is really important. What is really important is being there when someone you love needs you, when the people you love needs you, when the world you live in needs you; being there completely in mind and body and giving your heart and soul to the task at hand, realizing that without Him you couldn't do "it" (whatever "IT" is) and giving God the glory and honor and praise while you do it.

That's what the movie The Help is all about. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord and HE will lift you up (when He's ready to).

Finally, then, this blog will go back to being about my thoughts and feelings about the Lord. I may quote scripture to back it up and I may not. I am not a teacher of scripture. I am woman living out my life and loving and trusting God to lead me to and through all the HARD things he has waiting for me to do in this life...affectionately called "the race" to those who love Him and are called according to HIS purposes.

God bless you with His presence today.

A Crazy, Mixed Up World

2011-08-02T10:58:00.001-04:00

I have been saying for the past three years that we are living in the final days of this age. I still believe that, and I believe it more and more with each passing season. One thing that really makes me believe we are in the end of days is the acrimony amongst various churches and the body of Christ.

One says that we are to be tolerant and accepting (not negative or pointing out one's sin) of all people. That makes sense doesn't it? Jesus spent most of his time on earth amongst sinners stating that he did not come to save the healthy but to save the sick (Luke 5:30).

One says that we are to adhere strictly to biblical teachings, pointing out false doctrine and standing against sin being committed, winning the lost and setting the oppressed free. That, too, makes sense, doesn'it, because Jesus came to do that very thing. Luke 4:18

One body of believers says that the tribulation is 7 years long; another says it is 3.5 years in duration.

One group of Christians says that Christ will return to rapture the Church prior to the tribulation; another group says the Church will be raptured in the middle of the tribulation; and yet another group says that Jesus will rapture the Church at the end of the tribulation.

One segment of the Church says that it's okay for homosexual and divorced people to teach and preach, etc., within the Church. While another group considers this to be apostasy.

The Church is SO divided. Where are people getting their doctrine, their beliefs, their truths?

2 Peter 3:3, we are warned that in the last days, people would scoff about the return of Christ, and we are warned in Galatians 1:8,9 that anyone who preaches or teaches any gospel but Christ is to be cursed.

2 Timothy Chapter 3 espouses all kinds of aberrant behavior that will be evident in the last days, and that behavior is all around us.

Everything, everywhere seems so confused and out of control and mixed up and unusual. Does anyone else feel it? From politics, to finances, from sexual perversion, to the weather and earthquakes and volcanoes and weird bird and animal deaths and global catastrophes; everywhere I go I feel an uneasiness, a wariness and whether people believe in God or not, I feel that, unless a person is totally out of it, we are all waiting and watching for the other shoe to drop.

Where do I stand on all these much-discussed, many-sided issues to the Church?

First and foremost, Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man can come to God without going through Christ.

Secondly, we have to rightly divide the Word of God in order to determine what is right and wrong, and I believe it is specifically stated that the preachers, teachers and leaders of the Church will be the "husband" of "one wife" (1 Tim 3:2 and Titus 1:6).

Last, we cannot make our own doctrine, rules and laws. We must search the scriptures daily like the Bereans did and we must ask the Holy Spirit to teach us ALL things including THE TRUTH even when we don't really want to know the truth. We have to be honest with ourselves about what we want to know and don't want to know, and then seek God's help in learning and accepting His truth.

It is, indeed, a crazy, mixed up world right now...just one more sign that we are living in the last days.

Father, you cannot lie, and your Holy Spirit lives within me. Please, I pray, help me want to know the truth and give me a desire to find the truth in Your Word. My heart is very wicked, and I want to deceive myself, if I can, into finding a way to mold my beliefs and actions into what your word says. Don't let me do that, Lord. Make me face the truth; whether I want to or not. Let me see myself as I really am. In Jesus' name I pray.

Does Worrying Weigh You Down?

2011-08-01T17:05:00.000-04:00

My mother worried a lot. She even called herself a "worry wart". I've often wondered about that nick name and why anyone would want to wear that title. I looked it up today on the Word Dectective, and here is what is stated about this much used moniker.

“Worry” itself is an interesting word, one that has traveled far from its origins. When “worry” first appeared in Old English (as “wrygan”), it meant, not “to fret,” but “to strangle” (putting a whole new light on “put your worries behind you”). That grisly meaning of “worry” softened a bit over the subsequent centuries, first to “bite and shake” (as dogs “worry” their rubber toys today), then “to harass or vex,” until finally arriving at its modern meaning of “to make (or to be) persistently anxious” around 1822.

“Wart,” on the other hand, has meant “a small excrescence on the skin” since it appeared in Old English from a Germanic root. Several centuries of development gave “wart” a variety of figurative meanings, including that of “a defect or unattractive feature” (as in the phrase “warts and all”) and, perhaps inevitably, “an annoying, obnoxious or insignificant person” in the 19th century.

Thus the stage is set for decoding “worry wart” as “a person who annoys others by worrying loudly and constantly over nearly everything.”

Worrying is really quite fruitless and so I guess it can be annoying to others because they realize that there are times when no matter how much you try, you just can't change the way things are and no amount of worrying will change that.

If a worry wart is indeed a person who annoys others by worrying loudly and constantly over nearly everything, and if one's parent is a worry wart, then it stands to reason that their children might learn to be worry warts by watching their parent in action, right?

On the other hand, if we as parents show our children that when you are perplexed and challenged by the the things of life you take your problems to God in prayer, perhaps, that, too, can become a learned response.

The Bible tells us that we are not to worry about anything; not what we are going to wear, or eat or what is going to happen today, (Matthew 6:25-34) or tomorrow or what might not happen. We are not to worry about logs or specks (Matthew 7:3 and Luke 6:41) in our friends' eyes, we are not to worry about what we are to say Luke 12:11).

I have found myself worrying many times in the last few weeks; worrying about whether my son was going to get his health back, whether he was eating enough, if he was eating too little, whether he was taking his medication correctly and on and on and on. The Holy Spirit is teaching me that this is wrong and is, in fact, a sin. I am showing a lack of confidence in God. I am not trusting Him, and I am trying to be in control of a situation that is completely out of my control.

God knows what He's doing. He has a purpose and a plan for our lives. He doesn't want to hurt us. He wants to give us a future and a hope Jeremiah 29:11.

When we accept the gift of God's forgiveness, redemption and become joints heirs with Jesus, we are entering into God's rest. He is our strong tower, the lifter of our head, and we need to learn to let Him "be" in us. We need to rest in the assurance that He is in control and that He is working "all things" for good because we love Him and have been called according to His purpose. It is hard to make these big life changes but that is what those who follow Him are called to do...trust Him implicitly just because He is God and He is good (and only God is good).

Even if the end result of our turmoil turns out to be not what we wanted or wished for or hoped for, if we just focus on Him and how He loves us and how He sees the big picture and knows how it all turns out in the end; then it becomes a little easier to rely on His wisdom, goodness and love.

When the circumstances of life bring on worry, that is the time to boost your courage with these two thoughts:

First, God did not give us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-control 2Tim 1:7; and

Second, Isaiah 55:11 says: So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth; it shall not return to me void--without producing any effect, useless--but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it (AMP Bible).

We do not have to worry and fret because we have his spirit living within us, a spirit of power and love and one which enables us to say, "no, enough; I will not be afraid and worry".

When God allows things to touch us in this life, it is for a purpose, and when He says "so be it", then it will happen to accomplish that thing which He has planned.

It sounds difficult, doesn't it? Rest in him, trust him, lean not on our own understanding and yet we are to be on our guard, wearing our armor and standing firm in the presence of difficulties, trials and even evil.

I believe that means that even though we have responsibilities with regard to our faith, ultimately, we have to realize that God holds us in the palm of His hand and as we learn to let go of our worries and allow Him to do His work in our lives, we will grow in our knowledge of Him and His righteousness.

Lord Jesus, as I walk the path of life that you have directed me to, I pray that you will make me aware of the places where I am most susceptible to failure. Show me where I am to be alert to obey and where I am to rest and watch you. Give me the mind of Christ today. Help me focus on today for tomorrow has worries I don't even know about today. I ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

If You Love Me, You Will Trust Me

2011-07-26T11:11:00.000-04:00

Everywhere you turn you hear people talking about the long, hot summer. Here where I am, it is, indeed, hot; and the summer is feeling especially long because I have been dealing with my son and his illness. We came to North Carolina because of a clinic nearby my friend's home that treats illness holistically. The doctors at the clinic are medical doctors and chiropractors who employ massage therapists, colon hydrotherapists, medical assistants and nurses and use not just allopathic medicine but integrate it with homeopathic and holistic care.

My son is really just a little boy even though he is on the brink of teenager-hood (he's just about 12). You know how it is when you're a kid; you just want what you want. This child loves to eat, and it is very easy for him to tell you what his favorite foods are: steak, pizza and hamburgers. Any chance he has had in lifetime to have any one of the three above items, believe me, he has taken full advantage of it and eaten all he could handle. Unfortunately, what you eat has an impact on ulcerative colitis. So my son provided the lab with material to do a complete study to determine what he is sensitive to and/or allergic to. The lab came up with three items that my son can eat with complete abandon: apples, raspberries and apricots! For the next six months, he is relegated to a diet that is vegetarian, gluten free, sugar free, and dairy free.

Woe is me I have been crying! Seriously, this is no fun. My son is relentless when he wants something. So, at first, I tried to follow the diet but allow him to have a little here and there that he likes so he wouldn't be miserable. Last week he ended up in the hospital because his intestines became so inflamed he vomited and had diarrhea for five days and lost weight so quickly my husband and I panicked and tooking him to the E.R. I learned my lesson.

My son, however, is a different story. We came home from the hospital yesterday and he immediately started asking me for things that he can't have and telling me how he didn't like the things I was offering him (mostly not even tasting them to even find out!). So I told him: "If you love me, you'll trust me. I don't want to feed you bad tasting food. I don't want you to be sick either. This is one of those times when I'm not your friend, I am your mom; and I will not let your feet slip again."

The Lord showed me that this is so consistent with my relationship with Him. I rarely want to do what the Lord wants me to do immediately. It usually takes thinking, pondering, praying, confiding in someone and more prayer. Well, at least, that's the way it is when it's something big I have to change in my life. God is constantly helping us, showing us the way so our feet won't slip either, and we have to choose to trust Him just because we know who He is; that He is good and He loves us with an everlasting love.

It makes it so much easier for us to trust God if we look at it through the eyes of a child with his/her parent and relate it back to our own children and their trust in us to do the right thing for them. God is all about doing the right things for us just as we are for our children. We want our children to live righteous, fruit-filled, happy, long lives; God wants the exact same thing for us.

Psalms 13:5-6

But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me. (ESV)

Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not onto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy path.
Lord,

I want to deal bountifully with my son. When he is grown, I want his heart to rejoice in the things I did for him as a child. Please give me the mind of Christ, the love of Christ, the patience of Christ, the wisdom and understanding of Christ so that I can minister these things to him. Let my child come to know you through me, I pray in Jesus' name. I want Him to bring honor and glory to your name. amen

Hitting the Mark

2011-07-19T12:41:00.001-04:00

I bought my son an airsoft rifle last week. It came with a container of biodegradable pellets and a target. I went out and shot it with him and discovered how poor a shot I am. I really had very little idea how to even operate the dumb "toy". But, my son gave me a few instructions and some encouragement and I was able to hit the target and a while later was able to hit the target getting close to the middle (where you want to hit).

And so it is with walking the walk of a follower of Jesus. You hear the call and accept Christ's gift of life in the spirit. You begin the walk and literally have no clue how to place your feet in the prints Jesus leaves for us to follow. It isn't until you take the first step of faith that you see how out of sync your steps are with His and that you really know nothing about what you're doing and that you need help.

Hitting the mark, so to speak, does not come easily whether you are shooting bebe's or walking the path to righteousness. It takes commitment, practice, following directions/instruction and encouragement.

Thankfully, God has given us the necessary help to live a life more abundant and free in Him. When we accept His call to righteous living in the Spirit, He sends His Spirit to live within us, and through inspiration of the Holy Spirit, He has given us His written instructions in the Bible.

It is imperative, then, that we who are on walking on this path to righteous living in the spirit continually check ourselves against the Holy Spirit who is within us as to whether we are: abiding in our commitment, by putting enough faith into action (which is practicing our calling by following the leading of His spirit); reading His word; implementing its insruction in our lives; and giving and receiving encouragement to others who are of a like mind.

What about you? Are you hitting the mark set for you by our Lord? If not, ask for forgiveness right now and get back on the path toward holiness and God. We all miss the mark sometimes in our walk and because of that the enemy has plenty of amunition to shoot at us in the hopes that we will turn and walk away from the path towards God and move over to the path that is much easier and filled with less self-sacrifice; where the motto of the people on the path is "You Deserve It, You're Worth It, So Do It"!

I encourage you, in the name of Jesus, our Redeemer, to walk forward today in the power and leading of the Holy Spirit of God within you towards your high calling of being priests and kings of The Most High God.

Father,

Forgive me for stepping off the path that you have ordained for me. Your Word tells me that that I have my own idea of what my path should be but that path leads to death. You alone know the way to life more abundant and free. That is the path I want to be on, Lord; the one that only you can direct me to and along.

I miss the mark somehow, someway everyday. Thank you for your patience and everlasting love. Thank you for your awesome ability to forgive me for all the horrible things that I have done against you. I love you for that. Make me want to be just like you. I pray this prayer on behalf of all my brothers and sisters everywhere who are walking the walk you have called them to, as well. Thank you now for hearing my prayer. I know that you will answer this prayer with my welfare in mind because you do only the things that will benefit those who love you and are called according to your purposes. You want us to be the best that we can be in
you, and I thank you for that, too. I thank you and praise you for who you are today, what you have done in the past and what you will do in the future.

I pray this in the mighty, powerful name of Jesus.

Amen

Praying for Our Brothers and Sisters

2011-07-07T10:05:00.001-04:00

Are you praying with me for a revival in yourself, in America and the World? As we have seen from my previous two posts, Are My Hands Clean and Revive Us, Oh Lord, it is possible for a revival to begin right here, right now if the body of Christ becomes a repenting and praying people.

First, we learned that we must look at ourselves through the eyes of Christ and determine what sins we have committed that are keeping us from really, truly coming into the presence of God in order to pray for revival. We have to really clean up our own life before revival can come to it and thus we can begin to proceed to the second part of revival: praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ and for people in general...intercessory prayer.

Intercessory prayer is lifting up the needs of others but continuing to pray that what God wants to accomplish in a person's life will be done. There are several Bible stories that indicate that God's mind can be changed.

Jonah 3:10 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

Luke 11:5-8 is when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray and He told them the parable of about the value of perseverance in prayer.

God is in complete control, and everything He does is for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). I believe that means that if we intercede on someone's behalf and Gods sees our prayer request as being for the best of all those concerned according to God's purpose for their life, He can change His mind about what is happening and intercede in the matter. Don't you love that? He is ALWAYS about doing what is best for those who love Him and want to accomplish God's purpose in their lives.

Dear God,

You alone are great in wisdom and knowledge and what is best for each one of us. I am sorry that I don't give you the time you deserve. I am sorry for each time I have failed to restrain my tongue. I am sorry when I have failed to do what you asked me to do, and I am even more sorry that I failed to hear you tell me. Make me so sensitive to your voice that I hear even your faintest whisper. Forgive me for any sin that I am unaware of. I want to be able to come into your presence today.

Thank you for the blood that Jesus shed on my behalf. Thank you that you love me and want the very best for me. Thank you that you are all seeing and all wise; for you know my thoughts before I even write them down or finish them in my mind. Praise you for this day and all the things I am living with right now for I know that they are for my good if only I will acknowledge you and let you direct my path.

Almighty One! God of the Ages! Blessed Father. Be with my brothers and sisters today all over the world. Lord, I pray that they would let you be their strength and shield. I pray for an extra measure of grace, faith and endurance for those who are persecuted. I pray that the principalities, powers, rulers of this age, and all spiritual wickedness will be defeated today by the prayers of your people. I pray that your people would stand against the evil one and all his followers today in the strength and power of your armor and the two-edged sword of your Word. May your name be exalted and your son be glorified in all your followers' lives today.

Finally, Lord God, I pray that your holy spirit would move; would flow from your throne and fall on us in mighty power and strength so that we would go forth and do your will in the world...to minister to the poor, the needy and set the oppressed free, to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth and to raise up the name of Jesus Christ. Let it be so, Lord.

Amen

Are My Hands Clean?

2011-06-30T08:02:00.000-04:00

After reading and watching the videos and records of the revival that occurred in the Hebrides Islands (see this post), it appears to me that the first step in true revival is a thorough examination of our own lives. We must humbly come to God and ask Him to show us our sin and then to really, truly, once-for-all-time repent of that sin and ask the Holy Spirit to keep us from ever returning to that particular activity or lack thereof. So I ask today: Are my hands clean?

John 14:26

But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

Father God,

I stand in your presence today and proclaim your greatness. You alone are good and wise and all loving and worthy of my praise. Thank you from the bottom of my heart and with all that I am that you chose me and moved me and allowed me to know you. Thank you for sending Jesus to restore me to the righteous place that you created for me. Thank you that I am covered by his precious blood and so, therefore, can approach your throne.

Lord, open my eyes to the things that I need to repent of. I'm lazy and easily distracted, and so I know I don't look at myself closely enough to see if I am hitting the mark that you desire for me. My fire burns high and low, Lord, but I want it to be a steady high flame. Set me on fire for you. Holy Spirit lead me in the way that is right. I only want to love what you love; hate what you hate; want what you want and do what you want me to do. Revive me, Father. Put a light in my eyes and a song in my heart that is constantly reflecting you and singing of your glory and goodness.

Why do my lips stay shut, Lord? Open my mouth and let me sing your praises for you have been so good to me. Your hand has been on me since my childhood, you have favored me with many gifts which make me who I am. You have blessed me with beautiful children, marriage to the one man I told you I loved and wanted, and materially I could not ask for more. Thank you for all of that. You have blessed me with godly friends and a church that has stayed true to you. You opened my eyes to the truth of the world and the things that are happening around me when many are walking in ignorance.

I should be shouting your praise to all I meet. Open my lips, Lord. Let me not be able to be quiet about you and your goodness. Forgive me for being silent.

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. 6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19 then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar

Revive Us, Oh, Lord....

2011-06-28T16:44:00.000-04:00

Oh, Lord, this world that you have created is in trouble. The people you have created have turned from you and walked away from your face. We have committed every type of sin the imagination can come up with. The stink of our sins no doubt have risen as high as heaven and must assail you day and night. We no longer call good things good, but we call evil things good and good things evil. We have forsaken our position as caretakers of your creation and brought destruction upon everything that we touch. We no longer feel a need to keep your laws and are working diligently to erase any evidence of your ever having had a part in making the laws that mankind was to live by.

We have little care of our children's safety, security and purity, Father. We have killed them mercilessly. We pass them off to people we have no knowledge of to teach them and care for them.

There is little compassion on this earth for those who are downtrodden, poor, disabled, without physical beauty, and who don't meet mankinds' standards for what is acceptable physically, mentally and emotionally.

People idolize money and things and spend all their lives trying to acquire more of each. They spend little time reading your instruction manual for life, meditating on it, talking to you; let alone praising you, thanking you and allowing you to direct their lives.

We hate our brothers and sisters and engage in hateful activities and mean gossip and backstabbing. There are many wars going on all over the world and men are devising horrible ways to torture, maim and kill each other. There are awful, destructive bombs just waiting to be set off to kill millions.

God, our food is untrustworthy now due to men thinking they know better than you how it should be and using science to re-create what you, the Perfect Creator, made for us in the beginning.

Our families are falling apart more now than they are staying together, Lord. Instead of mothers and fathers raising their children, we now have single moms, single dads, two moms, two dads and many other family configurations that you, in your wisdom, did not see as being the best for mankind when you put the systems into place.

Purity is as rare as an albino tiger, Father. It is "the norm" to be intimate with men and woman a person has known for only hours. There is no desire to have one husband, one wife for life these days.

Lust is promoted everywhere all the time, and it doesn't matter what a person is lusting after, we're told we're worth it, so we should have it.

We have lost our ability to wait on anything. We are an impatient lot, and we don't mind telling you so. As a matter of fact, Father, we're quite proud of our ability to speak our minds and that we have opinions and wants and we don't care who knows it. We are bombarded by people telling us that our self-esteem is vital to our well being. It's not okay to be humble or to think that we're really not "all that". We'd be looked down upon for that, Lord.

How much more do I say here, Father? You know it all. You know our sin. You know our rebellion against you. Against you alone have we sinned, Father God. Forgive us, Lord!

Have mercy upon us, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out our transgressions. (Psalm 51:1)

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? (Psalm 85:6)

Send your mighty wind, Oh, Lord

Do these words ring true to your heart? Are you aching over the sin that is so prevalent in the world and in your life today? Do you long to see the hand of God working in the world and in the lives of people you know? Are you hungering and thirsting for a fresh outpouring of God's holy spirit in you? Then join me in praying for God to move across the United States and ultimately the world in a fresh outpouring of His spirit. Join me in praying for men and women everywhere to repent of their sins. Join me in praying that people everywhere will come to know the Yahweh, God of the Ages, Creator, and Redeemer of the Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and The One who sent His one and only begotten son, Yeshua, the Christ, who gave His life for the redemption of men and women and to restore our broken relationship with God Almighty.

Can we covenant to pray for this for the next 30 days? Watch the following video about the Revival of 1949-1952, known as the Hebridean Revival:

The Hebridean Revival

You can read more about this revival HERE, and HERE.

All that we know and are familiar with is falling apart here in America and across the world. It is only the hand of God, working amongst us and within us that will bring us true change that we can live with. I pray that you will be moved to begin praying for God to revive us again.

2 Cor. 5:7 For We Walk by Faith; Not by Sight

2011-06-25T10:52:00.001-04:00

Do you really walk by faith and not by sight?

That is a question I am constantly asking myself these days.

It is very easy to speak words that indicate you have faith, but when you get down to the nitty gritty parts of life; the things that really matter, you learn whether or not you really have what it takes to get through tough times...the times that require deeply rooted, unshakable faith.

Since we got to North Carolina, there has been a remarkable change in my son. He's sleeping well, he has an increased appetite, he's lost that "ghostly" look of hollowed out eyes, poor coloring and he's put on a pound or two that he had lost. He's anxious to get out and play and doesn't appear to be tired all the time, too. These are all good things, right?

We spent our first week here taking lots of medical tests. He had lots of blood tests and is working on a testing of the elements of his elimination; an in depth test that will tell us if he has parasites, good flora, bad flora, how well his digestive system is working and if there's anything in his elimination system which is harming him.

We went in to talk to the doctor yesterday to get the result of the blood tests, and it was confirmed that my son is one sick young man. I hardly heard the results of my tests.

My thoughts became so focused on what I was hearing about my son that I didn't notice that my pulse picked up, my hands started shaking, my respiration rate increased and I began to perspire until I got out to my car and began to drive. I looked at his little face and saw the sadness and disappointment because of what he had heard.

We need to complete the stool testing as soon as possible and begin colonics; he has to start a gluten-free, sugar free, minimal fried food diet. We'll know what else he has to do at the completion of the other test. It is possible that my son has celiac disease which is an allergy to gluten and wheat which has caused the ulcerative colitis.

The kid LOVES pizza! He LOVES bread! And, of course, like all kids (and most of us) he LOVES sugar and fried food.

My heart ached for him, not just because of what he won't be able to eat, because really that's minimal in the whole scope of this thing, but because right now, his body is sick and he's going to have to learn one of the biggest and hardest things we all have to learn...self-discipline.

I just wanted to sit down somewhere and cry, and I did cry a little bit but the spirit of God again brought to my mind Romans 8:28, and I kept thinking that I know there's good in this God; good for him, good for me, good for my husband. If we just look for it and trust you, something good has got to be in for each one of us.

Maybe this is the thing that my family needs to build faith that is deeply rooted and unshakable. I have this thought running through the back of my mind that if I can get this right, I am going to know God on a deeper level. God knows all about this situation, and He has allowed it and in my heart of hearts, I know that it's going to work out the best for everyone of us who love Him, trust him and are called according to His purpose (not our purpose).

As I sit and pray that God will heal my son supernaturally; I find myself next praying that God will protect him and keep him healthy until we can find the culprit and begin treating it. Then I hear God's spirit ask me if I didn't just ask Him to heal my son and now I want Him to keep Him safe until we can begin treating him? Well, Kim, which is it? Which one do you want? I want him healed, Lord. I want Him safe in your hands. The spirit speaks to me that whatever I do Kim will be for his good and your good. Trust me. Know that whatever happens, it is good.

I'm a control freak. I know that's sin. It's called pride...pride in my ability, my knowledge, my wisdom. "I can do it" would be an appropriate motto for my life. Prior to 2007 and my parkinson's disease becoming a reality in my life, I had very few things I didn't think I could do, overcome or accomplish. So putting this in God's hands and trusting Him to do good with it is very hard for me as it is, I'm sure, for many of us. But I am in a new place and I seriously want to learn this lesson that God wants me to learn. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I CAN place it in His hands and I CAN trust Him to bring HIS plans to fruition, and HIS plans are good.

I went to my son's VBS closing program last night. I had the pleasure of having his teacher tell me what a wonderful boy he is and how much she enjoyed having him in her class. They had a meal afterwards and I wanted to run and pull the hot dog on a bun out of my son's hands, but I realized that this is not going to happen overnight. Eleven years of eating habits are not changed in a day. I told myself if I really trust the Lord to do what is good and right, then jerking that hot dog out of his hand would accomplish only bad feelings and I decided to let him go. Today we will begin to change things as best and quickly as we can.

As I sat alone on the porch last night, I thought about all the mothers all over the world who are worried sick about their children and whether or not they will get well or not. Until we're in that place, it's so easy not to think about someone else's pain. Please, stop now and pray for me and my son and for all the parents in the world today who are hurting because of seriously ill children.

God is showing me that I really do need to trust him, that I can't just speak it. I have to live it. My son has to know that I have faith in God to do the right thing.

I read this today on T. Austin-Sparks website:

In a sentence, true spirituality is not to live on the outside; it is to live with God right down deep in the inner part of your own being, where He, the Spirit, is.

That pretty much sums it up for me.

Father, I'm still scared, but I know you're here, you're walking through this with me. I feel your love for me and I know you love my little guy. I know you have plans for our family, each one of us, plans for good - not to harm us. Take this burden from our shoulders and show us how good it is to depend on you to carry it. You are all wise, all knowing and your love never ends so let us live our lives like we know that, trust that and depend on it. I thank you for this trial. I pray that my family will come through it leaning more heavily on you and knowing you more intimately so that when the next "thing" comes we will be better prepared to walk in the knowledge of your love and wisdom. I pray that this trial will teach us about your goodness and the great plans that you have for our lives and how you work those plans out. This is my prayer for all who pass through here today.

And father, I ask for a special pouring out of your holy spirit upon parents all over the world today who are dealing with a seriously ill or dying child. Please let them feel your presence and know the peace that you alone can bring. I ask it all in Jesus' name and for His glory and honor.

Be Strong, Be Courageous, and You Will Have Success (Josuah. 1:9)

2011-06-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

We take being strong and courageous for granted. As a matter of fact, I will go so far as to say that in today's world it's very easy to look like we are strong and courageous when we encounter trials and tests simply by not sitting around fretting, crying and wringing our hands. However, truly being strong and showing courage is much more than just not fretting, crying and wringing our hands over our problems.

Recently (one reason I have not posted lately) my family and I were faced with a situation which required us to truly be strong and have courage. My son, who is just a couple of months short of 12 years of age has been having difficulties with his digestive and disposal systems off and on for the past two years. He has been to the doctor on numerous occasions with complaints about how often and long he visits the bathroom. Recently, he began complaining of pain, losing weight and looking very drawn in his face with dark circles under his eyes. I knew whatever was going on was getting worse.

So, off to the doctor we go...again. This time, however, the doctor decides my son needs to return to the GI doctor who schedules him for a colonoscopy and an endoscopy. I was amazed as I watched him being prepped for the procedures in the hospital... not one word of fear out of his mouth, but he did watch everything they did to him very closely.

We were shaken to the core when the doctor came out. She showed us photographs that were taken during his procedures (which she couldn't complete because he was so inflamed that she was afraid she would harm him). Her diagnosis was ulcerative colitis. I had been thinking that he most likely had irritable bowel syndrome, but this was worse; much worse. The photographs made me shake and her advice to begin him on steroids made me ill.

I told her that I didn't want to put him on steroids and asked if there were any other methods of treatment or if there was some way we could treat him naturally. Her only other suggestion was some kind of extreme diet where he was fed like baby food (I forget the exact name of the diet). She also said that he was "incurable" and would have this the rest of his life, and that it could lead to surgery, a colostomy and even cancer in the future.

My son is a beautiful boy. I can still hear him at three/four saying, "When I grow up mommy, I am going to be a righteous man of God". He has a heart for God, and I know for sure that I can claim Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

On top of that, my son is smart (tests "gifted" at school), good looking, an extrovert, a leader and very courageous.

The week before the procedures, he went to church camp. As we were driving there, the poor kid is holding his stomach and asking, "oh, mom, why do I have to be this way?" I told him I'd take him home and asked if that's what he wanted. He assured me it wasn't and told me that "God will get me through this". He asked me if I knew how many times a day he asked God to help him get through and I told him I didn't know and asked how many. "Lots", he said. I asked him if God did help him through, and he said, yes, mom; all the time".

When I picked him up from camp, the counselors told me he had had a rough week but that he was a great kid and a pleasure to have in camp and a great leader of other kids.

My husband and I both take prescription drugs and we hate them. I am constantly looking for things to do which might allow my body to heal so that I can stop taking this last drug. The thought of our son being on steroids for the rest of his life made us both sick. As I thought about whether or not to agree to having my son take these drugs, I thought about God and how He created our bodies to heal. He put the systems in place in our bodies so that when optimal conditions are present, the body will heal itself, and I don't buy that diseases are "incurable" or "unhealable". So, we decided to pray for God's healing, God's leading and God's protection for our son. We also decided to take him to a holistic medical clinic for advice from medical doctors who treat holistically.

In the mean time, family members starting telling me that my son's life was in my hands and that he was trusting me to make the right decision and that he needs to be on the steroids because he was miserable and that something terrible could happen to him (surgery, colostomy, cancer and/or death, I suppose), and I felt myself begin to waiver, and because it's my husband's family, he begins to feel "the pressure" to conform to mainstream medical treatment. I went to the computer and looked up steroids and had him read about them and asked him if he wanted to subject our son to that. His answer was "no". So I told him we had to have each other's back in this and support each other 100%. I told him we had to be strong, have courage for our son's sake and trust God to take care of him.

Last Sunday I left for North Carolina with my son. It's a 7 hour drive and he slept a lot of the way down so I had plenty of time to ponder and pray. What God showed me will be the subject of my next post.

Who Will You Let Win the War Today?

2011-06-11T15:17:00.000-04:00

The Bible tells us that everyone who belongs to Christ has the holy spirit living within them. This brings about a war within us because we are still human beings born with a proclivity to sin. Our old man nature wars with our new man nature of Christ. Do you ever feel that war going on within yourself?

Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Heirs with Christ
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

What, exactly does it mean to let my mind be set on my flesh?

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Walk by the Spirit
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

So, those who are living life by the spirit will not find any jealousy, envy, hatred, adultery, fornication (any sexual sin), drunkenness, fighting, murdering or witchcraft or idolatry in their lives but will find an abundance of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control.

That really spoke to me this morning. You don't know me. I could be sitting her making all this up; saying some nice words, quoting some Scriptures, acting like God is important to me and that I love Him and follow Him; that I want to know Him more and be more like Him. Why would I do that you ask? Just so you think I'm good, Godly, worthy to be liked, that I know something about God or "religion" as some people put it. "Why," you ask. "Why would you want that?" I guess because I need that kind of acceptance and acclamation from man.

I want you to know my heart, right now. I do have a tendency to want acceptance and to be liked by people, but that is not what this blog is about. It's about me writing down my thoughts and feelings and what I'm learning so I can see if I'm making any headway in this desire I have to be known by and to know God. I'm a driven woman. I think about God all the time. I read His Word, I go to church, I listen to sermons and other Biblical teachings online, I pray without ceasing, I read blogs, I listen to worship music, and He's what I want to talk about with people that I know have a relationship with Him, too. God has chased me up this tree, and I know that it's only when I know Him as He really is without the advice or teaching of someone else that I will be able to get down, sit down and rest again.

So, I'm asking myself after reading these two Scriptures today: Okay, make a list of eight of those listed items which show you are not living "in the Spirit", and I get really happy because thankfully most of them are not things I see myself participating in. But then I hear a quiet little voice saying in my ear. "Well you were upset because the Pastor didn't wish you happy birthday and he did wish it to all your other friends on facebook", and I thought about how the thought had run through my mind that I was in this special "giving" group at church (I guess they're the ones who give the most) and how I always get invited to the special "insider" meetings, but the Pastor didn't think enough of me to wish me happy birthday. Silly, huh? But those are the thoughts you have when you think you are somebody. It's called PRIDE, jealousy and envy. So then, consciously I ask the holy spirit to show me my sin as I began writing down the things I needed to confess and repent of and were somehow hidden in words like fornication, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, strife, rivalries, dissensions, and divisions.

My eyes and ears were opened and I really understood that if we are really, truly being led by the Spirit of God, these things will not be present, and our minds will be set on spiritual things. Of course, it couldn't be just that easy. The next question that popped in my head was exactly what are "spiritual things"?

Philippians 4:8 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Having the holy spirit living within you doesn't necessarily mean that you are filled with the spirit. To be filled with the spirit means that you are controlled and empowered by the Spirit. As Paul said in Ephesians 5, being filled with the Spirit is more than a suggestion, we are commanded to be filled. Filling involves confession of any known sin, repentance and total surrender to God.

Ephesians 5:1-21 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them; 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. 13 But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, 14 for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." 15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

If the people of God are filled with the holy spirit, then none in the church would be in need, the church would be of one heart and one soul and one mind, and even more importantly, we would speak the gospel with power and effectiveness.

I'll finish up with this prayer today, found in Acts 4:23:

23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, 25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed'-- 27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, 28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

May you filled today to overflowing with God's holy spirit.

Hey, Jude...

2011-06-10T09:28:00.000-04:00

This week the Lord has set me on a new journey. I have been reading and studying the Bible under the tutelage of many teachers for the past...ummm, how many years, (my goodness, where did all those years go)? Well, believe it not, 42 years, give or take a year, that's how many. Off and on during that time, I've taken a Kay Arthur or a Beth Moore, or a Church led Bible study, but I've never just studied it on my own. Lately, though, I've been hearing the Lord tell me it's time to strike out on my own and trust Him. It's time to become a Berean and find out that I can know the Scriptures on my own. He will teach me. (I did pick up Kay Arthur's "How to Study Your Bible" book, though, to be completely honest.)

It's very appropriate that the holy spirit led me to begin with the book of Jude. One of the reasons I have felt led to begin my own study is that for the past year I have been getting so many mixed messages; i.e, from my past teachings from my mother, my church, blogs, different pastors; teachings about grace, works, the law, prophecy, universalism, eternity, hell and frankly, it was taking a toll on my relationship with God, and I was like, "I know I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died to pay for my sins and to put me back into relationship with God, but where and how does the rest of all this come into play. What is truth, Lord?"

A word of caution, here, folks. I am not a Bible scholar, and I am not professing to be a teacher. I am writing this for my own good, and if you would like to comment and if it helps you,...great! Then, please join me, BUT be a good Berean, like me, and read it and ask Him to teach you, too.

Jude was, according to my KJV Study Bible, a brother of Jesus. He wrote this small, one chapter, 25 verse, letter to a group of Christians who had been infiltrated secretly by false teachers. These infiltrators were teaching a message that promoted moral looseness, doctrinal error, destructive pride and divisiveness. Sound like anyone you know?

In verses 5 through 7, Jude then refreshes his readers' memory of three instances when God judged and punished individuals for similar actions: (1) Israelites who "murmured" and complained after being delivered from slavery in Egypt and were then killed off/died and not allowed to enter the Promised Land; (2) the fallen angels of Genesis 6 who have been put in everlasting chains in darkness until the great day of judgement; and (3) Sodom & Gomorrha and their destruction due to sexual sin.

Jude is very explicit in his criticism of these "filthy dreamers" but cautions that even archangel Michael in disputing with satan over Moses' body didn't just go all viral on him but calmly said, "The Lord rebuke thee." So, it seems in contending* for the faith, we are to know the truth and calmly rebuke those who are teaching a false gospel. We are to know that there are dire consequences reserved for those who do teach a false gospel, and when Christ returns with "ten thousands of His saints" (verse 14) He and His saints will execute judgement upon them. These infiltrators are characterized in verse 16 as being murmurers, complainers, boasters, and persuasive in getting what they want by flattery.

*contend
v contend [kənˈtend]
1 (usually withwith) to struggle against.
2 (withthat) to say or maintain (that).
n conˈtender
a person who has entered a competition (for a title etc).
n conˈtention
1 an opinion put forward.
2 argument; disagreement

Jude then advises Christians to remember the words taught by Jesus and the apostles that in the the "last time" there would be individuals infiltrating the Church but that they were to "contend" for the faith by building up their own faith by praying in the holy spirit, staying in the love of God and looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus for eternal life. Also, we are to have compassion on others who are lost and even though we strive not to be defiled in our own walk, we are to save them with fear as though pulling them from a fire and "hate" even the garment defiled by the flesh.

Kay Arthur teaches that in rightly dividing the Word, we are to try and answer as many of these questions: Who, What, Where, When, Why and How as possible.

The Book of Jude

Who: Jude to Followers of Christ
What: Letter advising them to contend and defend the true gospel
When: Not mentioned in the letter.
Where: Not specified.
How: Praying in the holy spirit, staying in God's love, seeking
to reach others for Christ, and waiting anxiously for Christ's
mercy unto salvation.
Why: Because certain men had infiltrated the church and were teaching
a false gospel which gave license to loose morality, divisiveness,
doctrinal error and pride.

Father,

As I leave your Word today, keep me ever aware of those I come in contact with who need a touch from your hand for healing and restoration. May I contend for and defend only the gospel that you and your disciples taught. Thank you for the Bible, your instruction manual for my life. May I hold it in high regard and importance and may my desire to know what it says increase each day.

Amen.

It's Time to Put the Word "Sin" Back in Our Vocabulary

2011-06-08T10:11:00.000-04:00

I read with interest Michael Hyatt's blog (found here) entitled The Difference Between a Sin and a Mistake.

This blog is especially timely in light of a news story that has been flooding the internet, tv and radio concerning Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-New York). You all know the story, so I am not going to recount it, or the photos or "twitters" associated with the story here. That is not the real issue of this blog.

However, this morning, on Fox and Friends, I was watching a segment in which Brian Kilmeade was interviewing a marriage therapist, and he asked her (paraphrased) whether the Congressman's twittering to these other women was "cheating". I waited with baited breath to hear her answer and was pleased and astounded to hear her actually say, "yes, I think so". In Matthew, Chapter 5, Jesus spoke to the masses about what actually constituted adultery: 5:27-28:

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

He's saying that there is more to adultery than a physical act, but that adultery is committed when a married person even thinks sexual thoughts about someone other than their spouse. It is a heart and mind act as well as a physical act. As with most things, God looks at where the heart and mind are in addition to what our bodies are doing.

The purpose of my sharing this is not to denigrate the Congressman...he just happens to be the one of us currently in the news trying to make himself look good by lying and back pedaling his actions so as not to lose his job...but it is to remind my sisters and brothers in Christ and anyone else who might cross this path, that yes, it is sin to send tweets, emails, FB messages, phone calls, text messages, anything that even has an inkling of sexual misconduct with someone who is not your spouse (which means unmarried people, too)!!

I use that word often with my children, my husband and myself so that we won't forget who we are answerable to. It's so easy to say, "I made a mistake" and so hard to say, "I'm sorry; I have sinned against you". Why? Because you'll see, if you read the excellent BLOG of Mr. Hyatt's that we just don't want to acknowledge that God is there watching us and that we CAN and DO do things that are against HIS law. We don't want to recognize a higher power.

Without recognition of the fact that we do, indeed, sin, how can we ever commit ourselves to turning away from sin and allowing God to bring us to a state of holiness? Maybe this is too simplistic; I don't know. It just seems to me that I hear a lot of "I made a mistake", but never any "I sinned..."

Lord, God, You created me to be in relationship with you, and I thank you for that. Why do I want to rebel against you and do what is wrong in your sight? I appreciate that I am not a puppet and that I have a choice to do what you want or what I want to do, but God, please, in the name of Jesus, lead me not into temptation and deliver me from the evil one. I want to be holy as you are holy. I thank you that when you look at me you see me washed clean by the blood of your son, Jesus the Christ. I cannot praise you enough for that because I know the things I have done. Your Word says that you remove my sins from me as far as the east is from the west and you "remember" them no more. God, take them from my mind because I know you know my every thought and I don't want you to remember my deeds. Take them away, Lord, far away and help me to live this day for you. May everything I do and say bring glory to your name. Amen

The "Things" of Life CAN Bring You Peace

2011-06-06T09:29:00.000-04:00

When events like the tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri and Tuscaloosa, Alabama and the earthquake in Honshu, Japan happen, it's very hard to think (let alone see) that there is something good happening within the event. Everything looks like a twisted, topsy-turvy mess. People's lives are in complete disarray and pain, suffering and death is everywhere you look.

God's Word tells us that ALL things work "together" for good to them who love God; to them who are called according to his purpose.

I put emphasis on the word "together" because if we were to look deeply in to the mayhem, destruction, pain and death in Joplin, Tuscaloosa and Honshu, we would find "things" happening.

"Things" that if we had eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying, we would see and hear that God is working in the lives of those who love him. Maybe in the loss of a home, God is working to show someone that "home" truly is where the heart is; that a home is nice for protection from the elements, but that if you love God and your heart is in His hands, home is wherever He puts you; in whatever circumstances He puts you into.

Maybe in the loss of a loved one He is teaching someone there compassion - compassion for others who, too, have lost a loved one or two, or three.

Sometimes I think that unless we are suffering some"thing", we (as human beings) just stop thinking about other people's pain and suffering because we are by nature selfish and self-focused.

Give me a full cupboard and refrigerator, a roof over my head, a blanket, a pillow and my loved ones around me and I can almost forget the rest of the world exists. That's one thing we can thank the Internet for...keeping us connected to the rest of the world (and it's pain and suffering)!

As I am learning everyday, it is the circumstances of our lives that God works in to bring us to trust Him completely and to live in the circle of His provision. We are "needy" beings, but we don't like to think of ourselves as such. We want to think we need no one, no thing and we can overcome any obstacle and/or opponent.

The truth is, even when all of our needs are met, i.e., food, clothing, shelter, love and human interaction, we still, at heart are in need of a relationship with the one who made us and who is The One who gives us the final stamp of approval. Without His stamp, we continue to run through people, places and things trying to find that one "thing" that will give us peace, and until and unless we finally accept that the thing we need most is God, we won't find that peace.

Is it possible that part of the reason for this is that we need to know that our lives our not completely in our control; that there is One who is control of everything and that nothing happens to us that He is not aware of and is okay with? I think so.

As I said at the beginning of the ramble within my brain this morning, Romans 8:28 tells us that ALL things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to HIS purpose. If you look a little further down the page, then Romans 8:31 says "What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us?" and Romans 8:35 "Who (What) shall separate us from the love of Christ? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"

Even when the very things we "need" (as we see it) are taken from us, when we have that "one thing" that gives us true peace - that being approval of the One Who Created Us - nothing can separate us from Him. We can walk daily in the reassurance and confidence that ALL things that happen to us WORK TOGETHER for good because we love Him and have been called according to HIS purpose. It's much easier (but still not easy) when we can lay ALL things at His feet and trust in His wisdom (which is far greater than ours) and His love (which is much purer than ours) to do what is going to bring the most good to the most people.

Father God, I pray today that you would help me to really put my trust in you into action today; that I might really grasp that everything that happens to me works together for my good because I do love you and I know that you have called me and your word tells me that you have a purpose for me. Lord, I want to put my life wholly in your hands. Help me do it. Stay especially close to me today and open my ears and eyes and let me hear and see you at work in my life. I ask it in Jesus' name.

Spiritual Warfare -- Libya, Egypt...and now Sudan?

2011-05-26T16:41:00.000-04:00

Daniel 11: 40-45

"At the time of the end the king of the South will engage him in battle, and the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. 41 He will also invade the Beautiful Land. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand. 42 He will extend his power over many countries; Egypt will not escape. 43 He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, with the Libyans and Cushites (modern Sudan) in submission. 44 But reports from the east and the north will alarm him, and he will set out in a great rage to destroy and annihilate many. 45 He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.

The Christian community, at least the one aware of and following prophesy, has been closely watching the events unfolding before our very eyes in the Mid-Eastern nations, now seemingly referred to as "The Arab Spring".

I believe the Lord makes some of us interested in prophecy and others - not so much. He gave me a love for and interest in prophecy a few years ago. The Bible tells us that we are not fighting flesh and blood here on earth, and it is very easy to forget that and try to the lay the blame on someone. The Lord has put His hand on me recently and keeps reminding me that the real enemy is a "spiritual" entity, or entities, rather (principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places - Ephesians 6:12). These spiritual entities are working throughout the world to bring about a time when their ruler will literally take over. Their ruler being none other than satan, the old devil, the serpent, the accuser of mankind, God's fallen angel, Lucifer.

Thinking about this, then, leads us to the conclusion that satan is alive and well and thriving in the Middle East right now. His spirit began inciting turmoil in Egypt bringing about the deposing of Hosni Mubarak, who had led his country "peacefully, if not democratically". The world looked on puzzled as we wondered where that came from and now who would be in leadership there. Two or three months later, we still do not know for sure.

The next thing you know, without understanding how exactly, the U.S. and its NATO partners are involved in a war in Libya The old despot, Muammar Gaddafi, is putting up a heck of a fight, not want to give up his throne. Americans are wondering why we are involved in another middle eastern war and we read every day about the exploits of NATO troops.

My church, right here in rural Ohio, is a very large United Methodist Church. It is not your usual U.M. Church. The gospel is preached, the Bible is used, mission is emphasized and Jesus is glorified. It is a living, breathing church. About five or six years ago our Pastor got involved in the genocide occurring in the Sudan, and our church has been instrumental in raising millions of dollars for teaching the Sudanese to farm so they can eat, for building schools so that they can teach their children and to build safe drinking water facilities. Just two months ago many in our church assisted local Sudanese by taking care of their children while they went to designated voting areas so that they could vote on whether or not to divide the country into Southern and Northern Sudan.

Now, the news is bringing forth stories about how the North portion does not want the division and lo! and behold who do we hear stepping up to take the part of the South Sudan? None other than the European Union...whose countries make up the biggest portion of NATO.

From Answers.com:

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). This alliance of sixteen sovereign Euro-Atlantic countries is dedicated to the proposition of maintaining democratic freedom by means of collective defence. The Atlantic Alliance, as it is also known, has been the dominant feature of European security and defence for half a century and remains at bottom a device designed to guarantee continuing US military commitment to western European defence. Latterly it has begun to find a new role in peacekeeping. Like the UN, it has been an expression of a US foreign policy based on ideals believed to be intrinsically favourable to US interests and will continue to exist as long as it serves that purpose.

NATO began with the Washington Treaty of 4 April 1949, drafted upon the basis of the Brussels Pact of March 1948 (UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), and is a landmark of the start of the Cold War. Primarily intended to deter Soviet expansionism, it was also a response to the questions of collective security that did not find satisfactory answers in 1919-39 and rested upon Article 51 of the UN Charter, which gives UN members the right to individual and collective self-defence. It had three fundamental objectives: to reduce the possibility that Soviet military threats would reduce western Europe to client status, to counter US isolationism, and to co-ordinate the armed forces of western powers occupying Germany. Later it was to provide a safe framework within which Germany herself might rearm.

Read more: HERE

So, referring back to the opening scripture, we are told that these three countries, Egypt, Libya and Sudan will at some point be ruled by the Anti-Christ and that the King of the North and the King of the South will come against him.

Keep an eye on this area. Soon, this fall, I think; Egypt is supposed to elect a new leader. Libya could fall at any moment and now we have conflict in the Sudan immediately after a vote is taken to divide the country. Is it possible that soon some"one" will be appointed by the Muslim Brotherhood or come out of the Muslim Brotherhood (the group who seems to be at the helm in the conflicts and just happens to be the peoples' pick for leadership in these countries) that will become the Anti-Christ?

I am just a lowly handmaiden of the Lord, so I cannot say "yes" positively; but to my ever-watching eyes, that's what looks to be on the horizon!

Sometimes I think to myself: "The Lord could have put me alive on this planet at any day in history, why did He choose to have me be here now?" These days are not for the faint hearted nor the wishy-washy. I was listening to a talk radio program yesterday, and the topic was the fact that a study had been done and it showed that "born again Christians" have smaller brains that other people! Can you believe that? I wanted to call and ask the "Talkmaster" why, if he was not advocating this theory, on earth would he give it one minute of air time. Unfortunately, there was only ten minutes of air time left and when I dialed the number, I got a busy signal. You would have to be blind not to see hard times ahead for anyone who believes in and lifts up Jesus Christ and/or professes to be a Jew.

I believe in the rapture. Will it happen before we experience persecution? I believe we will suffer some persecution and we will be subject to the birth pains. The Great Tribulation is prophesied to be 3.5 years long. I do not believe we will be here during those 3.5 years, and I believe the things happening now and building up to that time is very close.

Keep your eye on the Sudan and Libya.

Are You Too Earthly Minded to be of Any Heavenly Good?

2011-05-24T13:57:00.002-04:00

Have you ever seen the movie, "Witness" with Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis? The premise of the movie goes something like this: Kelly McGillis is an Amish woman taking her young son on a visit to a big city, and while waiting in the train station, her young son goes to the bathroom and is a witness to a murder. Harrison Ford is the policeman who is sent to question the boy and ends up in Amish country after being shot while trying to protect him. It is an excellent movie with some foul language and some nudity and lots of apparent lust.

My quiet time study made me think of this movie this morning. I was reading a study by T. Austin-Sparks on "The Overcomer". If you would like to read the entire study, go HERE. I wrote on being an overcomer HERE earlier this year, and my desire to be one.

One of the main plots in the movie "Witness" is corruption within the police department. Corruption is defined as:

cor·rup·tion [ kə rúpsh'n ]
dishonesty for personal gain: dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain
depravity: extreme immorality or depravity
undesirable change: an undesirable change in meaning or another error introduced into a text during copying
Synonyms: dishonesty, exploitation, sleaze, bribery, fraud, venality

As a general rule, the police department has a reputation of being a brotherhood of sorts. When one member is hurt or killed, it affects the whole unit. So when corruption creeps in, because of the tight nature of the group, it begins to eat its way through the whole unit and has an effect on the menmbers.

Mr. Sparks' study speaks of the position of the overcomer in Christ:

"What then is the Church's place, centrally and supremely? It is what you have in the letter to the Ephesians (so-called), which was an encyclical letter to the churches including that of Ephesus. Well, the Church's place is there seen to be in the heavenlies in Christ. That is the ringing note throughout the letter to the Ephesians. First of all, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; then seated with Him in the heavenlies; then ministry in the heavenlies — "that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies..." So you go on to the end, the warfare in the heavenlies: our wrestling is in the heavenlies. In virtue of a state of righteousness through faith, the Church is represented as having a spiritual position above."

What Harrison Ford (as John Book) does in the movie is rise above the corruption in the police department and clean it out in order to restore it to its position of obeying and enforcing the law. It is not possible to enforce the law and be held in a position of respect, honor, and obedience if all the members of your organization are involved in or associated with corruption.

Likewise, as Christians, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:52-54 that when we are raised from death to enter the heavenlies for eternity, our bodies are changed from corruptible to incorruptible.

Here in this life, we are filled with corruption from the moment we are born. Satan's number one job description is to corrupt mankind, and if by God's grace we come to a knowledge of who Jesus is and submit our lives to him, satan will redouble his efforts to corrupt us and keep us from living a life of holiness and devotion to God in the manner that God planned from the beginning.

Jesus is our "John Book" so to speak; cleaning out the offices of this mortal body so that all the members of his body can be clean, honorable, holy and devoted to loving God and loving and protecting all of God's creation.

And, while the young boy in the "Witness" was a witness of the evil act of murder committed by a corrupt member of a corrupt organization, we as Jesus' followers are to be witnesses of Christ's transformational power in the lives of the corrupt. When we submit to Christ, we literally "put on" an incorruptible "new man" and shed our corrupt "old man".

I haven't watched this movie for quite a long time, so I'm not sure why this study brought it to my mind but the Spirit gave me a really clear vision of the similarity in the corruption in an organization and our human bodies, minds and souls, and why we have to put on a new body, mind and spirit in order to enter into God's realm in the heavenlies. This life doesn't just begin after we die or after the rapture. Christ came to introduce the kingdom of God now as we live and breathe today. Our minds are to be stayed on Him, and He will keep us in perfect peace. Isaiah 26:3

Also, Philippians 4:8 tells us to keep our minds on heavenly things, i.e., things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy.

It's hard for corruption to be found in places where the focus is things that are of this nature. This was another one of the moments when God gave me a glimpse of what this verse really implies and what our lives are to be representative of in the here and now. Life in Christ and all the things inherent to that do not have to wait until I pass on from this life to be enjoyed; they can and should be a vital, vibrant part of my life now if my mind is focused on the "heavenlies".
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This and That...

2011-05-23T12:33:00.001-04:00

Much has been said about the prediction of Harold Camping last week that the rapture of God's Church would occur on May 21 and that the end of the world would come six months after that. I really don't have anything to add to the thoughts that have been promulgated throughout Christendom and the general public. However, what has been on my mind as a result of all the publicity Mr. Camping's prediction received is how sad I felt for the name of God. Everywhere I turned, people were mocking Mr. Camping's prediction and right along with it, it seemed to me that they were mocking God by intimating that He wasn't going to return for His church on May 21st, and as a matter of fact, He isn't really coming back after all because that, along with heaven (thank you, Mr. Hawking), is a fairy tale.

God doesn't need my grief on His behalf because He is more than adequately armed and equipped to defend His own name, but I did grieve. I felt sad all day, everytime someone quipped about what to wear to an "apocalyptic dinner", what time they needed to be ready for the apocalypse, where was I going to be waiting for the big moment, etc., I thought, "God, they just don't get it. They don't want to think that yes, you are coming back someday to gather your church and then to judge the nations. It would make them have to think about changing their lives, beliefs and actions." It made them "feel" better about themselves by harping on ad nauseum on Saturday about Mr. Camping's prediction and on Sunday about "well, I'm still here". I wanted to say to each and every person who I knew did not have a personal relationship with Christ, "well, you'd still be here even if He had come", but I managed to keep my mouth shut.

I wrote the other day about how society has lost its respect for God's holiness, and this whole episode reinforced that to me. It's a good thing I'm not God.

Another thing that has been on my mind is, of course, our leadership here in America and how it is day after day destroying the nation I have always thought of as being the beacon of all things great on the earth today. Needless to say, my opinion has changed greatly in the past three years, but our President's decision to not stand on the side of the Israelis with regard to the "land for peace" negotiations made me greatly uneasy in my spirit all weekend.

Now, here we are again at the beginning of a new week with unbelievably violent storms/tornadoes bearing down on the "heart" land of America. Jeremiah 31:33:

But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; an I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 23:19

Look! The LORD's anger bursts out like a storm, a whirlwind that swirls down on the heads of the wicked.

Nahum 1:3

The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet.

Is it possible that, since the word of the Lord does not seem to be written on the heart of this land, God is pouring out his anger on America in the form of never before seen tornadoes, storms, fires (Texas California, Colorado) and are earthquakes in the offing? Many think so.

I venture to say that most people believe in a "god" of some sort. However, one thing I have noticed is that everyone, even people who do not believe in heaven, hell, the rapture, Jesus Christ, and the Bible, is starting to notice the severity of the storms and the tornadoes and the earthquakes and are talking about it. Yes, I know, 2012 and the Mayan prophecy has brought around an uptick in that kind of talk, but I also am hearing (in news reports that I see on TV) a lot of people talking about how they are "praying to God" in the midst of the storms, tornadoes, and earthquakes.

Even if the world and our leaders were not trying to divide God's land, then the way we mock Him, ignore Him and rebel against Him gives Him more than enough reason to just wipe us all off the globe. The Book of Revelation tells us that that is God's purpose in bringing the many disasters that occur during the end days...to bring about mankind's repentance and return to God.

Praise God, that He is long-suffering, full of mercy, grace and kindness, and He loves us so He doesn't just wipe us all out at once. Instead, He waits patiently, calling out to us to come to Him, to get to know Him, and let Him: (1) take away our dissatisfaction with ourselves, (2) remove our blinders and show us who we really are, (3) teach us to love Him, ourselves and others, and (4) give us a peace that is beyond our ability to understand.

If you have not submitted your life to the kingship of Jesus Christ, won't you please take the time to meditate on the Bible, pray...ask God to reveal himself to you and begin seeking to restore the most important relationship you could ever be a part of. I pray that God will bless all who read this with a new revelation of who He is today.

Is Sudden Destruction on the Horizon?

2011-05-20T08:07:00.005-04:00

1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

Below is the transcript of President Obama's speech regarding the division of land with respect to the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict:

For decades, the conflict between Israelis and Arabs has cast a shadow over the region. For Israelis, it has meant living with the fear that their children could be blown up on a bus or by rockets fired at their homes, as well as the pain of knowing that other children in the region are taught to hate them. For Palestinians, it has meant suffering the humiliation of occupation, and never living in a nation of their own. Moreover, this conflict has come with a larger cost to the Middle East, as it impedes partnerships that could bring greater security and prosperity and empowerment to ordinary people.

For over two years, my administration has worked with the parties and the international community to end this conflict, building on decades of work by previous administrations. Yet expectations have gone unmet. Israeli settlement activity continues. Palestinians have walked away from talks. The world looks at a conflict that has grinded on and on and on, and sees nothing but stalemate. Indeed, there are those who argue that with all the change and uncertainty in the region, it is simply not possible to move forward now.

I disagree. At a time when the people of the Middle East and North Africa are casting off the burdens of the past, the drive for a lasting peace that ends the conflict and resolves all claims is more urgent than ever. That’s certainly true for the two parties involved.

For the Palestinians, efforts to delegitimize Israel will end in failure. Symbolic actions to isolate Israel at the United Nations in September won’t create an independent state. Palestinian leaders will not achieve peace or prosperity if Hamas insists on a path of terror and rejection. And Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist.

As for Israel, our friendship is rooted deeply in a shared history and shared values. Our commitment to Israel’s security is unshakeable. And we will stand against attempts to single it out for criticism in international forums. But precisely because of our friendship, it’s important that we tell the truth: The status quo is unsustainable, and Israel too must act boldly to advance a lasting peace.

The fact is, a growing number of Palestinians live west of the Jordan River. Technology will make it harder for Israel to defend itself. A region undergoing profound change will lead to populism in which millions of people -– not just one or two leaders — must believe peace is possible. The international community is tired of an endless process that never produces an outcome. The dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation.

Now, ultimately, it is up to the Israelis and Palestinians to take action. No peace can be imposed upon them — not by the United States; not by anybody else. But endless delay won’t make the problem go away. What America and the international community can do is to state frankly what everyone knows — a lasting peace will involve two states for two peoples: Israel as a Jewish state and the homeland for the Jewish people, and the state of Palestine as the homeland for the Palestinian people, each state enjoying self-determination, mutual recognition, and peace.

So while the core issues of the conflict must be negotiated, the basis of those negotiations is clear: a viable Palestine, a secure Israel. The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine. We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.

The Palestinian people must have the right to govern themselves, and reach their full potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.

As for security, every state has the right to self-defense, and Israel must be able to defend itself -– by itself -– against any threat. Provisions must also be robust enough to prevent a resurgence of terrorism, to stop the infiltration of weapons, and to provide effective border security. The full and phased withdrawal of Israeli military forces should be coordinated with the assumption of Palestinian security responsibility in a sovereign, non-militarized state. And the duration of this transition period must be agreed, and the effectiveness of security arrangements must be demonstrated.

These principles provide a foundation for negotiations. Palestinians should know the territorial outlines of their state; Israelis should know that their basic security concerns will be met. I’m aware that these steps alone will not resolve the conflict, because two wrenching and emotional issues will remain: the future of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees. But moving forward now on the basis of territory and security provides a foundation to resolve those two issues in a way that is just and fair, and that respects the rights and aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians.

Now, let me say this: Recognizing that negotiations need to begin with the issues of territory and security does not mean that it will be easy to come back to the table. In particular, the recent announcement of an agreement between Fatah and Hamas raises profound and legitimate questions for Israel: How can one negotiate with a party that has shown itself unwilling to recognize your right to exist? And in the weeks and months to come, Palestinian leaders will have to provide a credible answer to that question. Meanwhile, the United States, our Quartet partners, and the Arab states will need to continue every effort to get beyond the current impasse.

I recognize how hard this will be. Suspicion and hostility has been passed on for generations, and at times it has hardened. But I’m convinced that the majority of Israelis and Palestinians would rather look to the future than be trapped in the past. We see that spirit in the Israeli father whose son was killed by Hamas, who helped start an organization that brought together Israelis and Palestinians who had lost loved ones. That father said, “I gradually realized that the only hope for progress was to recognize the face of the conflict.” We see it in the actions of a Palestinian who lost three daughters to Israeli shells in Gaza. “I have the right to feel angry,” he said. “So many people were expecting me to hate. My answer to them is I shall not hate. Let us hope,” he said, “for tomorrow.”

That is the choice that must be made -– not simply in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but across the entire region -– a choice between hate and hope; between the shackles of the past and the promise of the future. It’s a choice that must be made by leaders and by the people, and it’s a choice that will define the future of a region that served as the cradle of civilization and a crucible of strife.

He uses the word "Peace" 7 (number for completion) times and secure/security (safety) 11 (the number for disorganization/confusion) times.

Genesis 12:2,3

And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Zec 2:8,9

For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.

It seems to me, now that we have, as a nation, thrown Israel under the bus, that the U.S. is now among the those nations who have cursed Israel and could be the imminent recipient of God's curse. What do you think? Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and for God's mercy on our country. Pray that our legislators will not back any legislation which supports the division of God's land.

Don't Give Up, God Can Do More Than You Can Even Think - Updated

2011-05-16T18:03:00.002-04:00

Ephesians 3:20

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, ...

The accuser is good at his job. The Word says that he accuses "the brethern" before God "day and night" (Rev. 12:10). I can hear him, can't you? Everytime I think a thought or do something I know I shouldn't...he's immediately whispering in my ear the same thing he's tattling to the Father. After a while it starts breaking down my will - my confidence that Christ is my savior, my portion, my redeemer, and he starts convincing me that I'm still lost, worthless, unredeemable, unworthy. But my friend, that is not what God's word says. His Word tells us He can save the worst sinner. He is all about redemption and salvation. His very nature is love and forgiveness. I believe if satan would lay down his pride, fall on his face before God and repent of his sin, God would forgive him, too. It's the heart that matters, and no one knows our heart like God. He knows when we catch ourselves doing something or thinking something we know He wouldn't like and so He knows when our heart mourns when we let Him down.

There are days when the circumstances of life are more than we can handle. Those are the days when we must be vigilant to listen to His voice and no other. We must trust in His wisdom and leading and lean on Him to get through the day. The wonderful thing is that He is there always, ready to be your strength, your wisdom, your fortress.

It is our own mind and satan's accusations that cause us to doubt. So, my friend, don't give up. Don't let the accuser push you off the path and make you think you don't belong to the Savior. We have to march on in faith and remember that it was Abraham's (and many other old testament saint's) faith that was counted to him as righteousness. We are saved by grace through our faith in Christ, God's only begotten son, the spotless lamb of God, who gave his life to make atonement for our sin. It is our faith that accounts for our righteousness, so please don't let the accuser put holes in your faith today. That is his game plan...knock out the faith, make them believe they aren't saved - they're not changed; undermine their trust in God and they'll walk away, they will fall.

Father, I pray today that you will, by your holy spirit, help us to remember to put on your full armor. We know that each piece of armor is important, Lord; vital, in fact, to our spiritual life, but that breastplate of righteousness (our faith) is where it all begins and everything flows and grows out of that. Lead us not into temptation and deliver your body today from the evil one. Thank you for being our advocate and taking our part against the accuser. Lord, Jesus, we pray this in your name, for your honor and your glory. Amen

This teaching about righteousness by T. Austin Sparks will be most helpful to you in learning about satan wants to destroy our faith and thus our righteousness in Christ.

...and this by my facebook friend, Zac Loh, who is a Pastor in Indonesia:

Text: Matthew 14:28-32

The petrol price went-up for the third time within two years. And this, the third time, was 40 percent more than the second hike. Food prices and a host of other prices would follow suit. Almost everyone was nervous and somewhat depressed. I decided to text SMS messages to a few friends. After a while, I felt that I should end in an encouraging note. So, I text this: Our God is God Of Miracles, n tis is D Day Of Miracles!!

I used `D’ as short for `The’. A few days passed, and I realized that this `D Day’ can also stand for Decision Day. Originally D Day was used in the military to merely denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. After the term became popular due to the Normandy Invasion of World War Two, someone invented Decision Day to stand for D Day. In the Normandy Invasion, a paramount decision had to be made for the exact day to embark on the invasion which was to land and create beachheads for the Allied forces in the beaches of Normandy, France.
The Allied forces involved 6,900 sea vessels and 850,000 troops crossing the English Channel. There was a tremendous difficulty in the decision-making of D Day – because the commanders had to take account of the conditions of the weather, the tide and the moon. These conditions had to be just right, or it could have been a great failure notwithstanding the cost of thousands of lives.

And Peter answered Him and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” (Matthew 14:28)

If God is God, He does miracles. This is what Peter rightly perceived, understood and believed. His focus was on the One Who Does Miracles. And he decided to act on his faith. When you look at your failing situation, you have got to make a decision. When you look at your downward spiraling circumstance, you have got to make a decision. You have to decide to have faith!

So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!” And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. (Matthew 14:29-32)

Paul taught and fought the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 4:7). God impressed upon my heart to not lose the fight. You see, if you lose the will and determination to fight, you will surely lose the war. Before we lose the war, we first lose the fight. You may have lost battles but you can win the war provided you’ve not lost the will and determination to continue fighting the good fight of faith. So, keep-on fighting to have faith no matter what arises.

Be Holy As I Am Holy

2011-05-15T18:04:00.000-04:00

We are told numerous times throughout the Bible that the Lord, our God, is holy, and we are, therefore, to be holy, too.

1 Peter 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

What exactly does it mean to be holy? The Blue Letter Bible Site describes holiness as such:

...The idea behind the concept of holiness is "separation." It comes from a word meaning "to separate or cut off." God is separate, or cut off, from everything that is sinful and evil—He cannot tolerate sin. John wrote this truth in figurative language.

To say that God is holy means that there is no trace of evil in His character. God does not look upon or take part in any sin, and He always does what is right.

Mankind, on the other hand, is well acquainted with sin and finds it hard to do what is right for anyone other than himself.

For some reason, it came to me today that we have lost touch with just how perfect, without sin and holy God truly is. If we were able to really relate to God's sinlessness, His perfection, His holiness -- just exactly how DIFFERENT HE IS from mankind, there would never be a time when we would not enter into true praise and worship of Him. We would join the likes of Isaiah, Elijah, Moses, and the Apostle John (and many others) who fell on their faces when confronted with God's holiness.

Maybe it's just me, but sometimes I forget to think about how God is PERFECT, sinless, HOLY; I take His holiness for granted and don't spend enough time reflecting on it, and so it loses its impact on me. He is set apart from and cannot even be in the presence of anyone or anything that has anything to do with sin, evil, imperfection and/or sinfulness. We're all so used to sin, evil, disobedience, rebellion and unholy living that we become immune to it; we accept it. We become "dumbed down", so to speak, to it.

Just a few 55 short years ago, Ricky and Lucy on "I Love Lucy" were husband and wife and morals were so strict that even though they were married, they were not shown to share a bed on that TV program.

In the 60's and 70's, that morality wall was broken down and in the 80's and 90's you began to hear more and more cursing and fowl language, seeing body parts "jiggle" (as in Charlie's Angels and Three's Company) became acceptable, skirts became shorter, necklines plunged, and eventually, we saw more and more nudity and language became more and more vulgar (as in Dallas). Today on HBO, Showtime and other premium cable channels, it is not unusual at all to see full frontal nudity, and sex acts performed and alluded to and the main stations of CBS, NBS and ABC offer such gems as Desperate Housewives and Sisters and Brothers.

In the last couple of weeks, I have heard the "f" word spoken by Steven Tyler and an advertisement promoting homosexuality to kids and teens during American Idol -- prime time TV, folks.

There is no doubt that we have become immune to sin and evil.

God's word says that we are to be holy as He is holy. He is set apart from it all, and He doesn't take part in it all. As I am writing this, the Holy Spirit is convicting me; telling me that I am not to be a part of sin and evil either; if it looks like sin or sounds like sin, it probably is sin.

God is holy and set apart and cannot and will not be in the presence of sin.

What does that mean to us as His people? We are commanded to be holy; we are to separate ourselves from sin and evil. If we were truly living holy, separated lives, wouldn't that mean that we would be removing ourselves from everything that has anything to do with evil or sin? My answer is, "yes", I believe we would be.

Who is Like Unto the Beast?

2011-05-05T13:16:00.005-04:00

When we are really serious about seeking what God's truth for today is by reading the Bible, studying with a Concordance, listening to inspired, Bible-preaching, Bible-teaching sermons, reading Bible-based books and blogs and praying throughout the day, once in a while, he opens our eyes and allows us to have a glimpse of something that without His intervention, we would never see.

We know that he alone is able to open what no one else can and he, too, can close up what no one else can close up. "Write this letter to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. This is the message from the one who is holy and true, the one who has the key of David. What he opens, no one can close; and what he closes, no one can open." Rev. 3:7

I am often reminded how just four short years ago, in the build-up to the 2008 election, I found myself asking many people if it were possible that Barack Obama was the anti-Christ. I also had quite a few conversations with other like-minded Christians as to why the USofA was not mentioned, specifically, in the prophecies of the Bible. It was quite often the opinion that America cannot be found in Bible prophecy because being a Christian nation, a large portion of the population is removed at the occurrence of the rapture.

I have since come to see those opinions as quite laughable. I learned about the rapture theory in my 20's and prior to that time, I don't believe that I had ever heard anything other than references to "Jesus is coming back someday" in my childhood. In the course of the last three years, I have flip/flopped back and forth in my belief about a rapture and when it occurs, so I am not trying to get into a discussion about whether or not there is one; I do believe there is one; I am just not 100% convinced about when it happens.

Also, in the course of the last three years, my faith in Christ, my hope in Christ and love for Christ has matured and my knowledge of who He is and what He has done for me, my knowledge of the Bible and what end-time events are comprised of has increased greatly. I often pray that God will only let me take in what is His truth and that if I start reading something that is not His truth, He not allow it to just not take root in my mind and not hold my interest. I believe He is faithful to do this for me, and I always look to my own scripture reading/studying and the prompting of His Holy Spirit to confirm anything which resonates in my spirit.

That being said, I would like to share with you where I have been led in recent days and what I believe God showed me this morning.

As you can see in my last post, I was greatly distressed at the passing of one of my mentors from the past three years, David Wilkerson. Sarah Beveridge, author of the blog, Believers Journey published a piece written by one of her readers entitled As in the Days of Noah - The Righteous Methuselah of Our Time which said, in part: "I am reminded that the name Methuselah means "when he is dead, it will come." The same year that righteous Methuselah died is when the flood came upon the earth. So that is one example of how God removes special servants before a great change in world events." To read the whole piece, click on the link above.

Then there was, of course, the big, splashy, well covered wedding of Prince William and Her Royal Highness Katherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge which occurred on Friday, April 29.

At that time, Jeff at Look Up Fellowship presented a blog about The Prince, The Pope and the President which set forth these startling statements:

A CLONED JESUS!?! THE ULTIMATE COUNTERFEIT TO CHRIST!?!

I know this is something that has been explored by many others in the past. Actually, soon I'll be publishing a new book review here on a series of Christian Fiction novels about the end times that were written and published long before the wildly popular Left Behind series even hit the market.

To quickly recap, it's called The Christ Clone Trilogy and it should be required reading for students of Bible prophecy particularly those who are well aware of what's known as "Predictive Programming" (a.k.a. "mass conditioning") via the Arts, Hollywood, and Pop Culture.

Curiously enough, it was written by -- get this -- a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). End times, CIA, written/published BEFORE the Left Behind book!?! Yeah, if that's not enough to get your pulse racing and your brain firing, then I don't know what will.

All kidding aside, and without giving anything away that the title of the series doesn't already do, the author portrays the coming Antichrist of his fictional plot as being a man who will be cloned from the DNA present on the famous Shroud of Turin! Do I have your attention now? I thought so.

Look, we all know how much more advanced Science and Technology is in the "Black Ops" world of "Secret Societies" and "Shadow Governments" that are all beholden to Satan as his loyal subjects (whether they realize it or not). The point is that it's definitely a plausible scenario even if the world has been led to believe that humans haven't been cloned yet.

Gosh, if we wanted to we could go far off on a tangent right here and explore all the compelling evidence that seems to suggest (not confirm, but seems to suggest) that President Barack Hussein Obama is somehow a clone of an Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh (as incredible as it sounds). But you'll have to investigate that possibility for yourself at another time. Right now, I have to show you something that will blow your mind.

Ok, so why in the world am I even bringing all of this up in an article about the symbolism surrounding Prince William? Well, because of an amazing email I received over a year ago that I just recently remembered while putting the finishing touches on this entry from one sister in Christ who shared the following with me...

Now on to the Shroud of Turin. The fact that you mention this very thing in your email could be an indication that it really is true that satan will possess the cloned body of our Lord (I prayed for clarity about this, because it's so huge). It's just something satan would love to do, just to mock our Lord and His Father in heaven even more. That brings me to Prince William. The info below will show you how much he resembles the face on the shroud of Turin. Remember that satan offered Jesus all the earthly kingdoms if He would only bow to him? Well, I believe, based on many sources on the Internet, that the Windsors and other royals and aristocracy, like Lady Diana's family the Spencers have done just that: sell their soul to satan in exchange for the kingdoms of the earth. I believe the Windsors already offered up Diana in a satanic ritual under the overpass in Paris where a flame or torch is situated. And that Prince William will be offered up to satan as well. He will probably be the next King of Britain, instead of Charles, who supposedly has too many health problems to become King. The info below is astounding to say the least! Again, have a look at Prince William, and how he does not look at all like Charles, or his brother Henry. He starts to look more and more Jewish, actually....... (copy and paste links below into your browser) It's a lengthly email, but I trust it will be helpful.

Read the whole thing AND WATCH AMAZING VIDEOS HERE.

Then Sunday night/Monday morning, the world is stunned when President Obama presents us with the news that the US government had ordered a military operation which killed Osama Bin Laden. Reading about this story led me to this article written by the The Latter Days blog. This excellent post includes the following:

Thou Art the Man!
"And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, as the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.

And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man.

Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things.

Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun." II Samuel 12:5-12

It is times like these when I wish I had a bridge to sell, for there seem to be numerous people ready to buy it. All it took was for there to be a public announcement that Osama Bin Laden was killed, and folks are celebrating in the streets. Are you kidding me??

It is reported that Osama Bin Laden is behind 9/11, and everyone believes it. It is reported that he has been found & killed, and people start rejoicing. Want to see a body? Oh, I am sorry; it was already disposed of in the sea.

I am not saying that Bin Laden is not dead; after all, there been "reports" of his dieing/death for the past several years. I am simply noticing what good little puppets many have become. We are so accustomed to swallowing what we are fed, that there is no longer even a second taken to process or digest the information given or examine evidence. We simply hear it and assume it is true because "they" said so. Has anyone ever heard of the War of the Worlds radio broadcast?

Tell me people, if God said that we are "more noble" to test for truth that which is spoken about Him (even by His own apostles), then shouldn't we at least be as circumspect in regards to words about men? (Acts 17:11) Are the words of men more trustworthy - and therefore require less scrutiny - than the words of God? Foolishness!

Yet, some will say that even questioning the veracity of world reports makes one a "conspiracy theorist". I tell you that the Scriptures say the god of this world is the father of lies! (John 8:44; II Corinthians 4:4) Do you really believe that??

Again, I am not saying that Bin Laden is alive; such matters not as we will all see death one day. I am urging people to stop being so quick to put more trust in flesh than is placed in the word of God. Don't be so quick to believe, internalize, and act upon what you hear, but by God's Spirit seek a revelation of truth for what we need to know in this hour. And that goes for everything. The one recurring theme that God uses to describe the end times is deception; and that is for a reason.

The issue is not really about whether a particular claim is true. The point is to be unmovable and unmoved until we hear from the Lord.

Nonetheless, such a turn of events could represent a significant moment in the history of the world...but perhaps not for the reasons that one may think. Pastor Gary C. Price of Omega Church & Ministries Center put it this way:

Saints this is the final straw that broke the camel's back. As thousands of Americans flow into the streets to celebrate the killing of the iconic figure "Osama Bin Laden", don't be too quick to rejoice. The killing of an accused murderer - who allegedly killed 3000 Americans on 9/11 - also pronounces the final judgment on this nation.

The same United States that has killed a supposed "mass murderer" has also legalized the murder of 53 million baby Americans in their mother's wombs. Every year 1.7 million babies are slaughtered in this nation and the same people rejoicing in the streets because Osama Bin Laden is dead say absolutely nothing about the murder of these defenseless babies.

So now, spiritual forces have been put in motion to bring final judgment to this nation. We can expect severe supernatural occurrences since we celebrated the death of this man and everyone rejoices over his death; not because Osama Bin Laden is a righteous man, but because the same government that killed him has also killed 53 million Americans.

When David killed Uriah in the Scriptures, God let David pronounce his own penalty on himself. God killed David's first born son as a result of David's killing an innocent man like Uriah. Uriah was Bathsheba's husband and David had committed adultery with her, conceiving a child. That child had to die because of King David's sin.

We have just witnessed a nation pronouncing final judgment upon itself and most don't even know what has happened. When you killl a man for killing Americans and you have also killed 53 million Americans, then the judgment has been finalized and God has already moved to execute His decrees

The next piece of the puzzle included a couple of studies done by William Males who writes the Gates of the City blog. The first one is entitled Biblical End Times Players of Revelation and which he followed up with The Eighth Beast. You should read the entire well-thought-out articles, but here is the portion pertinent to what I am looking at here:

Therefore Assyria is represented by the second head of the beast. Let’s take a fresh look at the present order of those heads representing the beasts which we have clarified. First we have the five that are fallen at the time of the Apostle John’s vision -

1. Egypt
2. Assyria
3. Babylon
4. Mede/Persia
5. Greece

Then we have the “one is” which would be Rome, the sixth head represents the beast Daniel said “shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.” For that is what Rome did to Israel in 70 A.D. At that time, Jerusalem was destroyed according to the prediction of our Lord, and it was never again in the sole possession of the Jews until after the conclusion of World War II.

But who had possession of the land back then? Who had gain possession of it prior to Israel’s rebirth? The British Empire had it. It was said that “The sun never sets on the British Empire.” England had conquered so much that all around the world there were subdued provinces of the British Empire. It was in 1948 that Israel was “born again” on land that was part of the British Empire. It was also because of England that America sought to get involved in World War II. Plus, it was World War II that brought the sudden decline of the British Empire and gave America it’s occasion to rise to global supremacy.

So if we look at the whole list of those nations or empires which have had a direct relationship with Israel, either by taking her into captivity or having dominion over them and their land, it would be as follows:

1. Egypt
2. Assyria
3. Babylon
4. Mede/Persia
5. Greece
6. Rome

(Israel was not)

7. England

But look now what the scriptures says:

Rev. 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

Now, “the eighth” is either (1) a direct branch or decent from the seventh, or (2) it is a mixture of the seven being an end time conglomeration of multitudes, languages, nations and tongues, as a nation existing as an international melting pot, a land made up of immigrants.

Either way, America alone comfortably wears this Cinderella slipper.

Mr. Males also has written a really good disertation on the subject of America not being present in prophecy HERE as does The End Times Forecaster HERE.

Further, I encourage you to watch this video which shows how events in the Middle East are lining up with the book of Daniel.

And if you get an hour or so, please be sure to check out this video and its subsequent videos of Alex Jones of Prison Planet interviewing a former US government insider about the death of Osama Bin Laden:

In summary, from all the above, I believe the Lord showed me this morning that America is the beast that John saw rising from the sea and how this country is involved in the re-designing of Middle East nations in order to bring about end times prophecies.

I know this is long, and I'm sorry for that, but hopefully, it helps you to see what I see transpiring in the world today.

A Legacy of Love - Updated 5/4/11

2011-05-03T12:45:00.006-04:00

I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me
And I enjoy an accolade like the rest
You could take my picture and hang it in a gallery
Of all who's who and so-n-so's that used to be the best
At such'n'such ... it wouldn't matter much

I won't lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights
We all need an 'Atta boy' or 'Atta girl'
But in the end I'd like to hang my hat on more besides
The temporary trappings of this world

I want to leave a legacy
How will they remember me?
Did I choose to love? Did I point to You enough
To make a mark on things?
I want to leave an offering
A child of mercy and grace who
blessed your name unapologetically
And leave that kind of legacy

I don't have to look too far or too long awhile
To make a lengthly list of all that I enjoy
It's an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile
Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroy

Not well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred
Just want to hear instead, "Well Done" good and faithful one...

These words resound within me. I thought of this song a couple of days ago after several days of reading tribute, after tribute, after tribute about Reverend David Wilkerson who, if you are in christian blogosphere at all, then you know, died last week in an automobile crash in Texas.

I did not know David Wilkerson, personally, but when I heard the news of his death, I cried as much at the loss of Him as I have in the past when a family member has gone on. I felt abandoned and deeply sad. Why, you may ask. I learned about Rev. Wilkerson in the on-line community, through blogs written about things he had said. He became an integral part of my morning routine of quiet time with the Lord. He taught me about struggling as a christian to follow Christ, and about serving others; He taught me about submission to Christ and letting Christ live in me; I learned the value of reading and studying God's Word and persevering in times when I felt like the Lord had left me. I always felt like Rev. Wilkerson was saying to me, "watch me, Kim; look at me and imitate me as I follow Christ".

Even today, a week later, all I have to do is read something or watch a video about him, and I cry like he just died.

I watched this video this morning:

Tribute to Rev. David Wilkerson from World Challenge on Vimeo.

That my friend is what leaving a legacy is all about.

We ALL want to be well thought of; and if you're like me, you may have way too much of a tendency to be a people pleaser. The Lord has taken away my people-pleasing ways in the past few years. It's not that I no long wish to please people, but it is no longer the focus of my life. Just like Pastor Wilkerson, it has become more about pleasing my Creator, my Savior, and friend, Jesus Christ.

The wonderful, amazing, awesome thing is that when we focus on pleasing God, tremendous results occur; like, Teen Challenge, World Challenge and Please Pass the Bread...all ministries that David Wilkerson began at God's prompting. The Pastor who took over Reverend Wilkerson's place at Time Square Church in New York City, Carter Conlon, gave a message to his church this past week end and in the message he talked about how TSC needed a time for private grief and reflection on the life of Pastor Wilkerson. You can hear that message HERE.

He also spoke about the fact that their church was planning a memorial for Pastor Wilkerson and that there would be people coming from all over the world to attend! I repeat: people will be attending his memorial from all over the world. I thought it was just me thinking that if there was any way I could be at his memorial...I would be.

number.

UPDATE: Here is the Times Square Church schedule for the Memorial Service:

Memorial Services for David Wilkerson in New York
April 29, 2011
The details for the official memorial service for Pastor David Wilkerson have been finalized as follows. All are welcome to attend the service.

Date: Saturday, May 14, 2011

Time: 2:00PM
(Doors will open at 12:00PM)

Location: Times Square Church
237 West 51st street
(between Broadway & Eighth Avenue)
Manhattan, New York City

Seating & Overflow
Seating will be on a first come first served basis. There will be overflow locations. Once the full capacity has been reached at the Times Square Church sanctuary and Education Annex, ushers will direct attendees to the various overflow locations nearby.

Live Webcast
The service will be streamed live all over the world on the Times Square Church website starting at 2:00PM EST.

Simultaneous Translation
Simultaneous translation will be available in the following languages:
Arabic, Chinese, French, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish

The simultaneous translation will be available via conference call lines accessible by land and cellular phones. The conference call phone number and access codes for each language ;will be posted on the live events page of this website during the webcast.

Courtesy Access
Closest friends, denominational leaders and dignitaries requesting courtesy access, are asked to send an email to memorialservice@timessquarechurch.org specifying your request. Please make sure to include your full name, title, church, ministry or organization’s name, address and telephone number.

Please note that seating is very limited and while we will try to accommodate your request, we may be unable to do so.

David Wilkerson left behind a true legacy to those of us fortunate enough to have become familiar with him and the message he rendered. His message was a message of love, mercy, forgiveness and grace to all people, espcially those that this world does not love; i.e., the poor, under privileged, the drunkards, the drug addicts, the prostitutes, the murderers, the thiefs, adulterers, the pedofiles, the rapists, the homosexuals, and idolators. It didn't matter, anyone who had gotten off the path that Christ called them to walk - anyone who had been deceived by the deception of satan, the lust of their eyes, their flesh or their pride - he wanted to love them back onto the path, headed back in the direction of the Savior.

It's hard to reconcile the message of love that David Wilkerson taught to the message we received the past couple of days about the death of Osama Bin Laden. I realize that this man's legacy was completely different than the one David Wilkerson left behind.

Osama Bin Laden left behind a legacy of terror, pain, hate, and deception. He was well know for hating the people of the land of Israel, the Jews and and the people who supported them (the U.S.) and yet how different are those who waved banners, shouted USA and celebrated at the news of his death? Were they not, too, supporting that legacy of hate, fear, pain and unforgiveness?

Please hear me, I feel for those people who lost loved ones in the terror attacks plotted, planned and carried out by Osama Bin Laden. I cried with them on the days their lost their loved ones. I am glad that he can no longer promote his agenda of terror and hatred. However, then, I think about Jesus and how he suffered as a result of the legacy of terror and hatred that others were practicing in His day. Yes, He was God, but He was also fully a man, and because of the love and forgiveness He practiced, He left behind a legacy that affected mankind forever and brought about men like David Wilkerson.

What kind of legacy are you leaving? Are you promoting love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, service to others and reconciling lives to God or are you leaving behind a legacy of selfishness, hatred and separation from God?
I know which one I choose.

Father God, Thank You. Thank you for your legacy of love, forgiveness and being brought into your family through the sacrifice of Jesus. Thank you for men and women like David Wilkerson who are teaching your message and leaving behind legacies of service to you. I pray in the name of Jesus that your holy spirit will minister love to all people everywhere in the world. Inspire your people to stand up, reach out and lead others to you. May the deeds of darkness be stopped cold today by the love of those who follow you and are obedient to your leading. Lord, may we love the people of the world like you did. Fill us with your love today and a desire that all should know what it's like to be forgiven, loved and accepted and given a new beginning and a second chance at living life under the umbrella of your love and care.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it's hard to accept someone who has done horrible things but how can they ever know the love of God if we don't? It is hard to trust those who have done evil things. We must use caution and the discernment of God. God has a plan for everyone, and David Wilkerson was the person that He used for the salvation of many. Pray for people you hear of who have hurt others. There is no other chance for mankind than for all to come to know Christ, to repent of their deeds and then to live in love and ministering the message of Christ to the world.

Rain, Rain, Go Away.....Come Again Some Other Day?

2011-05-02T09:01:00.002-04:00

Like so many other people in our nation and around the world these days, my mind has been on the rain that has been falling this spring. I live on a country road and there is a beautiful creek that runs alongside most of that road, and my home sits on a hill that looks down over the creek. When we get a lot of rain (and it happens usually at least two or three times a year), my road floods out and we have to take another direction to get out to civilization.

I like to say that I live in a land flowing with milk and honey because we are surrounded by milk producing cattle farms and the creek across the road is named "Honey Creek". Our home is surrounded by an 80 acre farm and across the road where Honey Creek runs, there is a property that encompasses a 100 acres of woods.

It's lush and beautiful, and there are lots of different types of wildlife including deer, groundhogs, raccoons, oppossum, fox, coyote, bullfrogs, owls, and waterfowl and birds galore. I walk my road most everyday when the weather allows, and I always feel very close to God as I traipse along in wonder in His creation.

Mankind has become very self-centered in his outlook on weather. Any time that it rains for more than a day or two, we become very petulant and bad tempered because we feel that we can't get out and do what we want to do, and I used to feel very much the same way. As a real estate agent, the rain was a definite thorn in my side when I had to show homes - in and out of the car in heavy rain is no fun, not to mention driving in it amongst people who never seem to slow down or take road conditions into consideration - and rain always seemed to be a detriment to open houses and such. However, now that my physical condition is such that I spend most of my time at home, my appreciation of rainy days has changed. The rain has a cooling, calming, cleansing effect on the atmosphere, and when the sun comes out, it's like the whole world has been bathed.

In God's Word, rain is oftentimes used to relate to the spirit of God. On Pentecost, it is said that God "rained down" His holy spirit on the apostles. It also seems to me that Egypt and "the World" can be used interchangeably and also the promised land and the kingdom of God.

Deuteronomy chapter 11 tells how God warned the Israelites prior to entering the promised land that if they would obey His law and cling to Him and be His witness to the world, that He would drive out all the other nations in the land, give the land to them, bless them and the land and they would be His people and He would be their God...and life would be good.

Specifically, Deuteronomy 11:14 says:

That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.

I have learned that a lot of Bible passages have meanings for the time in which they were written and also a future meaning. If this is true, then is it possible that Deuteronomy 11:14 is talking to those of us who live in the latter days; that God is telling us that if we want to possess the promised land (His kingdom), we need to be listening to his voice, following His direction and command in our lives and if we do, He will once again pour out his rain on us...fill us with the second outpouring of His Holy Spirit?

I recently listened to this sermon by Dr. David Wilkerson in which he sets forth this very idea. It's an excellent one, so I hope you listen to it.

So, today, we have another rainy day and instead of saying, rain, rain, go away, come again another day; I say, "fall on me, rain, pour down over me, I want to be drenched in the rain of the Lord. This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it."

Walking in the Light - Updated

2011-04-30T08:24:00.004-04:00

My son has had behavioral problems since he was a little child, and I have struggled off and on with finding new and effective ways to discipline and punish him. A few months ago, he had a issue at school where he got sent to the principal, and I had told him that the next time he got in trouble at school I would attend school with him the next day and sit next to him in each of his classes. I called the principal to make sure this was okay with the him. I received his permission, and I could tell this was a new method of discipline to him; one that he was quite impressed with, but he asked me to come in for only an hour or an hour and half and then we could make it longer if he got in trouble again.

So, yesterday, off I skipped to school with my son whose face looked like one of the thunder clouds that had so recently been seen passing over our home, and it just so happened that the class I got to sit through with my son was science and the teacher was teaching on light.

I learned that light reflects and light refracts.

Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated, i.e., a mirror.

Reflection, as used above in relation to God, would be that as the light of God shines on us who turn our faces to Him in a direct angle, we become a mirror to the world and we reflect His image to it.

Refraction is the change in direction of a light wave due to a change in its speed. This is most commonly observed when a wave passes from one medium to another at any angle other than 90° or 0°. Refraction of light is the most commonly observed phenomenon, but any type of wave can refract when it interacts with a medium, for example when sound waves pass from one medium into another or when water waves move into water of a different depth.

I've been thinking and praying for God to reveal to me what the proper analogy is with regard to refraction. I believe what He is showing me here is that with reflection, we turn our faces in a direct angle towards Him so that we can soak up all the light that He is pointing in our direction, but in refraction, our faces are not pointed towards him in a direct angle, so the light bends and we don't get the full force and effect of that light.

This seems to be the state of many christians' lives because their eyes are darting around in so many different angeles to so many different light sources instead of settling on the light giver.

1 John 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Dr. Joseph Mercola a naturopathic physician advocates that for a person to get a really good night's sleep, their bedroom needs to be in total darkness. He says that total darkness provides the best conditions for deep sleep, health and healing. Being a person intent on giving my body the most desirable conditions to bring about health; I, of course, followed his advice and took out all nightlights, covered up the TV and bought black-out blinds for the windows. The room is completely dark, and he's right; I do sleep much, much better, but it is also pitch dark when I get up; say to go to the bathroom, in the the middle of the night, and I'm always afraid of running into something or stubbing my toe (you know how much that hurts, right?) It is very hard to get around in the dark!

Similarly, Dr. Mercola promotes Vitamin D3 as one of the proponents of nature which is very beneficial to our health and you need to be outside, in the sun, in order to take advantage of it, soaking it in; so to speak.
The public has been told for years that being in the sun is very dangerous to our health in that it causes skin cancer. Personally, I believe that being in the sun is healthy as long as we have a healthy attitude to it and don't spend prolonged time in it every day.

Likewise, we can look at our spiritual lives in relation to sleeping in the darkness and soaking in the sunlight. If we are not in relationship with God, through His son Jesus Christ, we are literally walking through life in the darkness, and we are subject not just to stubbing a toe or running into something, but we are in danger of falling, being run over, or even drowning in an unseen body of water.

However, if we are sitting in the presence of God daily, soaking up His light, we are filling ourselves with the knowledge of Him who is our life, breath and strength which promotes a healthy spiritual life.

The darkness of sin and death is growing around us, and walking in the light of God's love, direction, admonition and correction is the only way to get through it.

My prayer today, Lord, is that you will inspire me to look upon you, to soak up your life-giving light. I ask that I would not hide your light from those around me butthat I might put it out there on a lampstand for all those who are in darkness to see and be drawn to. Father, the time is growing short and your Word directs those who believe in you, love you and follow you to go and tell others about you and the freedom you have to offer. I pray in Jesus' name that the people who love you and are called according to your purpose will be filled anew today with your holy spirit, the spirit of power and of love. Give us a boldness in speaking the truth in love to others. Give us merciful hearts and a willingness to forgive all who transgress against us. May your will be done today on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

T. Austin-Sparks has a wonderful on-line devotional, and today's was about God and light. I add it here for your consideration.

3 May
.by Daily Open Windows on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 at 5:57am.God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)

Light is transparency; light is clearness; light is absolute purity; light is honesty; light is openness of character. Light hides nothing; its whole action and nature is contrary to hiding anything. It has nothing to hide; it shows everything; it shows all: in other words, it is not deceitful. It does not want to cover anything, or to pretend or make believe that something is other than what it is. Light is single; it is not double; there is no duplicity about light. And light is just - light! There is “no darkness at all” where there is light.... How many shades and aspects of darkness there are! - a whole vocabulary of words. The Spirit has come to bring all that to an end by applying the Cross, in which it was all brought to an end in the Person of the Lord Jesus; to work out the meaning of the Cross in our lives, so that everything that belongs to that kingdom of darkness is removed: so that in the end, with us too, there is no darkness at all. Is that really what we think of, when we think of having, receiving, and being filled with the Holy Spirit? Here again, perhaps, a little re-shaping of our ideas is called for. It is true that He is many other things, as well as light: He is the Spirit of Power, He is the Spirit of Wisdom; yes, He is many other things; but, with them all, He is this. And we must not make more of those “demonstration” aspects of the Spirit, in power, in gifts and capacities, in works, than we do of His character side. If He really does His work in you and in me, He will make us to be people who can bear to be “looked into” without any fear, without any drawing of the blinds. Our lives and our motives will bear looking into.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Holy Spirit, the Church, and the Nations - Chapter 5

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Asleep in the Storm

2011-04-24T21:47:00.000-04:00

Don't you love going to sleep to the sound of a quiet, calm rain hitting against your windows and falling softly outside? On the other hand, when it's lightning and the thunder is rolling and the wind is blowing so hard you think your roof's going to fly off, sleep doesn't come so easily.

Because of social media, namely, Facebook, I became friends with a wonderful pastor in Indonesia, whose name is Zac Loh. He posts the most profound thoughts which truly have been helping me grow in my faith. He posted this today:

Text: Matthew 8:23-27

“why are you fearful, O you of little faith?”

One wonders: "How could Jesus have made such a statement? Didn’t He know that the boat was covered with the waves?"

1. Hear And Obey

You and I would’ve been fearful being in that same boat. But if you and I had the faith like He had, we wouldn’t be fearful. How then can you and I have the faith to be asleep in the storm?

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans 10:17)

Faith comes by hearing. But faith takes control when you are obeying.

There is such a great power in faith. Jesus was sleeping at the resting place of faith. Faith was His sleeping bag. Faith was His cabin. No sea could swallow His faith. No water could drown His faith. Faith was His submarine.

How can you and I have the faith which Jesus had?

Let the turbulence do all it can. Let the waves roll as much as they want. You are resting and sleeping in the centre of God’s will. That’s the power. That’s the faith. Hear and obey.

2. Know Jesus, Look At Jesus

“Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”

It’s obvious from the disciples’ remark that they didn’t know Jesus enough. They were looking at the waves of the sea, rather than looking at Jesus. They saw Jesus asleep. He was resting. Everything was in control. If only they knew full well Who Jesus was (is). If only they kept looking at Jesus, and fixed their eyes on Him, instead of the waves.

Peter had the same faith opportunity in another encounter (Matthew 14:25-31). It was another storm. Peter came out of the boat by Jesus' consent. He walked on water. Along the way, he sank, because he was afraid - having looked at the boisterous wind and he reasoned out within himself. He didn’t learn enough to fix his eyes on Jesus all the way looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Jesus did more than walking on the water. Let us learn from His life on earth from the very beginning until the cross when He cried, “It is finished.” Let us emulate Him. Let us finish our marathon race of faith. For He was the One Who designed our faith. And He was the One who made our faith workable today.

3. More Faith, Less Fear

The opposite of faith is fear. Your level of faith is dependent on your level of fear and vice versa. The more faith you have, the less fear you have. The more fear you have, the less faith you have.

So it’s a matter of getting in more faith and getting out more fear. It’s a matter of accepting and embracing faith. And it’s a matter of rejecting and denying fear.

What is troubling you? What are you worrying about? Fix your eyes on Jesus. Fix your faith on Him. Jesus will take you to the journey's end. It is said that it is the arrival that matters. It is the destination. Paul was shipwrecked. Yet he fulfilled God’s purpose for his life. He was jailed. Yet the plan of God flourished.

Do not fix your eyes on the storm nor the waves. Jesus was asleep in the boat. Know that you can rest in faith. You can rest asleep in the boat of life. You can rest assured that the storm and the waves are in His control. He is not a mere man that He should lie. He was the Son of God in that boat. He is the Son of God today, tomorrow and forever. He changes not.

God is calling his true followers to build their faith; so His true followers must learn to live in obedience to His voice, His leading and follow His example in dying to ourselves. This is God's response to my prayer for Him to help me build my faith. He wants and expects His true followers to hear Him and obey.

May your walk with God this week be one where your obedience can be seen, felt and heard and your faith grows in leaps and bounds.

Obeying the Lord

2011-04-22T07:48:00.000-04:00

The Lord is working in me these days about being obedient. He is making me very aware of how many times He speaks to me about things I should or should not do in my life and I just ignore Him. Are you aware of this happening in your spirit life?

He led me to get Foxe's Book of Martyrs at the library last week; today I picked it up and so I started reading it. I was, needless to say, shocked (and ashamed of myself) to what extent believers in Christ have been tortured through the centuries since He came and was crucified for us. I always knew about martyrdom, but I guess I never thought about how many died long, slow, torturous deaths. Were you aware that the Apostle John was put into boiling oil and came out unscathed? Also, he is the only original disciple/Apostle who died without being a martyr.

Many died in ways, that when I picture myself going through it, that I'm just not sure I would be able to stand.

The Lord woke me out of a deep, dream-filled sleep tonight, and He brought this to my mind. He told me that this is why He has been telling me to do the things I have been ignoring. It is to prepare me for things that I may someday have to suffer. Have you, too, noticed how unpopular it is becoming to be a true follower of Christ: One who does not take part in pagan, babylonian-inspired traditions; one who does not follow the prosperity gospel preachers and teachers; one who lets Christ lead his or her life and dies to him- or herself and stands up for things that are godly and against things that are not? I have.

Have you ever made a decision to go against the mainstream? Let's say, for example, that you had been diagnosed with a progressive disease which required you to take a medication in order to function properly for the rest of your life. And then, let's say that God told you not to take anymore in order to build your faith. Do you know how many people would look at you like you were crazy; especially if it kept you from living a normal life? Do you think your husband or wife might actually resent it and lose respect for you? Would you be able to do it anyway? I think God wants me to prepare my faith for a time when I may have to experience hardship and who knows maybe some kind extra hard circumstances because of my christianity and this is how I need to practice to build my faith.

Think about this...What if God began to tell you to think about every morsel of food you put into your mouth? What if He told you that a time was coming when food would not be readily available and that you needed to train yourself to eat less and not to expect three square meals and a few snacks to get you through a day. What if He told you to fast and pray for a day or two or three instead of eating, could you do it?

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, Redeemer and Reconciler of Mankind, came to do the will of his Father God. He said that He did nothing of His own initiative but only the things His father told Him to do. Imagine that. His Father told Him to heal people, to teach, to clean out the Temple, to cast out demons, to take that beating without a word, to carry His cross without complaint, to be nailed to a cross and to die. While I'm sure it was not difficult to heal and teach and cast out demons, walking through life, your whole life knowing that you were going to be beaten almost to death, then nailed to a cross, pierced and die separated from God must have been enough to cause Him to sweat drops of blood.

On this Good Friday, let us keep these things in mind and focus on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

That's the message I am hearing from the Lord these days: build your faith, endure, trust Him, obey what He tells me no matter what anyone else thinks, prepare for difficult times when I will be called to show forth my faith and trust in Him. And then I hear, "and people won't understand or agree, Kim" and "but it's for your own good".

Lord, my prayer tonight for myself and for my brothers and sisters who love you is that you give us a fresh revelation of who you are and that you would give us a fresh filling of your holy spirit. I ask that you enable us to endure hardship with a true faith in your provision for strength and the ability to do all things with your help because you know how hard it is, Lord. We cannot do it without you. I ask that we would desire truth above all else and that we would minister to each other in true brotherly love. I ask this in your name, Jesus, and for your glory and honor. amen

were YOU there when they crucified the Lord?

2011-04-21T09:23:00.001-04:00

JOHN 19:1 So Pilate then took Jesus, and flogged him.

19:2 The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown, and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment.

19:3 They kept saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and they kept slapping him.

19:4 Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him."

19:5 Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, "Behold, the man!"

19:6 When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, "Crucify! Crucify!" Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves, and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him."

19:7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."

19:8 When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid.

19:9 He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.

19:10 Pilate therefore said to him, "Aren't you speaking to me? Don't you know that I have power to release you, and have power to crucify you?"

19:11 Jesus answered, "You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin."

19:12 At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you release this man, you aren't Caesar's friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!"

19:13 When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called "The Pavement," but in Hebrew, "Gabbatha."

19:14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, "Behold, your King!"

19:15 They cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"

19:16 So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away.

19:17 He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called "The Place of a Skull," which is called in Hebrew, "Golgotha,"

19:18 where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle.

19:19 Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, "JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

19:20 Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

19:21 The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, "Don't write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'he said, I am King of the Jews.'"

19:22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

19:23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

19:24 Then they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be," that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says, "They parted my garments among them. For my cloak they cast lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things.

19:25 But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

19:26 Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!"

19:27 Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

19:28 After this, Jesus, seeing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I am thirsty."

19:29 Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth.

19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished." He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.

19:31 Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn't remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.

19:32 Therefore the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him;

19:33 but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they didn't break his legs.

19:34 However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.

19:35 He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe.

19:36 For these things happened, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "A bone of him will not be broken."

19:37 Again another Scripture says, "They will look on him whom they pierced."

19:38 After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus' body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body.

19:39 Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds.

19:40 So they took Jesus' body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.

19:41 Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid.

19:42 Then because of the Jews' Preparation Day (for the tomb was near at hand) they laid Jesus there.

I am the thorn in your crown; I am the sweat from your brow; I am the nail in your wrist; I am Judas' kiss; I am the man who yelled out from the crowd for your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking ground....BUT YOU LOVE ME ANYWAY.

You Love Me Anyway

For this reason you came. Because you love me anyway.

ISAIAH 53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? [1]
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected [2] by men;
a man of sorrows, [3] and acquainted with [4] grief; [5]
and as one from whom men hide their faces [6]
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief; [7]
when his soul makes [8] an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see [9] and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, [10]
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, [11]
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

He was CRUSHED for us. He BORE our sins. He DEFEATED death. He LIVES even now in heaven. He is STILL working on our behalf as our INTERCESSOR.

Praise Jesus Christ, He is risen. We serve a RISEN savior!! May His name be praised forever!

Broken Things

2011-04-19T08:55:00.001-04:00

What does it mean to be broken? The Bible says that God will not despise a "broken and contrite heart" (Psalm 51:17) and that He is near to those "that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit" (Psalm 34:18).

When I think of broken, I think of several things: shattered or put into various or many pieces (not whole), and/or unable to perform activities an object was made for (inoperable).

And what exactly is "contrite"? Gesenius's Lexicon says very much crushed. A person who has a contrite spirit, then, is one who's spirit has been crushed.

Can you remember a time when your spirit was crushed? I certainly can, and I am sure we all have such a memory from our childhood, grade, middle or high school that we could recount, not to mention the ones from our adulthood (probably because kids are really mean to other kids and don't even think about their actions most times). As I ponder one such event in my middle school days, I can still recall how shattered I felt, how alone and like I had no one who really, truly cared about me.

Why would God want me to have a heart broken into pieces and a spirit that has been shattered? Because it is when we have been broken, shattered or crushed that He can begin to work in us to make us a new creation, a one of a kind piece of art shaped and made lovingly by the one true master carpenter.

Mark 6:32 tells us that Jesus was a carpenter. Carpenters can either build something from scratch or repair something that has been broken. When I think of a carpenter, I always imagine that they love the piece they are working on and are intent on making it a one of a kind object, or have a desire to restore it to a one of a kind state if it is broken.

When I think of Jesus' hands with their nail holes, I imagine that His hands are very kind and gentle and able to sooth and calm like my mother's hands did when she caressed my back when I was a little girl.

I have been feeling broken and shattered lately. I know it's my enemy making me feel that way. He hates it when men and women are growing in God, and he is determined to break us, shatter us and if possible completely destroy us and our faith in God. Whoever said that faith is easy was a liar. Faith that God loves you and forgives you for "everything" you ever did or will do in your life is hard; especially when your number one enemy is in your face telling you that you're a phony and a liar and God doesn't love you; how could when you're as bad as you are, and how could God forgive you for this or that especially when you just can't seem to get it right?

I asked my mentor once about why I constantly felt that I was hearing that I was unworthy and unforgiven and a phony. Her answer to me was that hearing those things are a good thing. It's when you don't hear any accusations that you should be aware because if satan isn't attacking you with this kind of stuff, he's very happy with you right where you are. James 1:1-3 tells us to be thankful for this kind of testing because it builds our endurance and our patience which when they complete their work in us, we become perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

So when you are feeling broken and shattered, put yourself into the hands of the master carpenter; the one who can fix any broken, shattered thing; the one who builds one of a kind art pieces; the one whose hands have nail scars in them, the one who was crushed and shattered for our benefit. He has healing in hands and comfort, peace and love in His touch.

Perfectionism and Pride

2011-04-06T16:22:00.001-04:00

Okay, you can probably tell by the tone of my last several posts that I'm in a valley right now. My heart wants to be more and more like my Father, but my flesh is very, very unwilling. I am struggling every minute of every day to hear my Father's voice and to respond in obedience, love and acceptance of His plans for my life. Oh, but there are parts of me that are not happy about it...the fat, happy flesh of mine is quite content to stay fat and happy and is not willing to sacrifice anything that God is requiring of me. Needless to say, it puts a bit of stress and strife within me.

But the way of the cross, so I've been told, is never easy; so I am seeking God's help in focusing on the big picture - his picture - and trying to keep my mind on things that are pure, and good, and holy and true, and going on in faith that I am His and He is mine. I know I'm not going to get it right every time, every day, but this darn perfectionist trait I carry around on my back beats me up every time I fail in something. Perfectionism and pride, my two biggest enemies. I have struggled with them for years, and I know that God is telling me it's time for me to defeat these two enemies of mine. I am not perfect. As a matter of fact, it is only through His life within me that I even am able to have anything good within me.

I'm also learning that pride is a trait that is very bad, and it's one that parents are particularly strong about teaching our children. "Be proud", "we're so proud of you", "where's your pride"; schools teach it...Viking Pride; as a Realtor, I've always been oh, so happy, to list homes with "Pride of Ownership"!! It's everywhere. Pride was satan's downfall, and I certainly do not want it to be mine. Once you've learned to be proud, it's very hard to unlearn; take my word for it. God honors the humble, the meek and the poor in spirit.

One of my favorite blogs to follow is The Latter Days (the blog has nothing to do with The Latter Day Saints). Recent posts at The Latter Days have related to a project called The Fuel Project by Mark Fairley. I have watched quite a few of these videos, and in my humble opinions, they are excellent. If you go there, you will be A M A Z E D at what you will learn. I will not go so far as to say that everything He states is correct or perfect, but his theology agrees quite strongly with the Bible and christianity as I know it.

Here are several of the videos that I really found informative to get you started, and the one about the jezebel spirit was especially enlightening to me. I highly recommend these videos.

God's Master Plan

Plan A/Plan B

Ahab and Jezebel

The Jezebel Spirit

A Letter to My Father

2011-04-04T15:21:00.000-04:00

Dear Father,

How can I say to you the things that are on my mind today? You are a wonderful father and you have always done what was best for me every step of the way in my life. You have blessed me to live in a land of plenty, allowed me to grow up in a family filled with love, and povererty which was good for me. You taught me as I was growing that I could do more and be more if I put my mind to it and my heart in it. You led me to church every Sunday even though no one else in my family went. Rain or snow, hot or cold, I loved going to church with you.

I know I hurt you many times when I had to toss off the reins and learn the hard way about disappointment, not taking your advice, and doing things my way. I'm sure I hurt you even more so when I didn't even consult you on the important things in my life such as who to marry, and what type of career would be best for me and how to be a mother; not to mention the small things like did I really need another pair of shoes, should I save my money or use it for someone else's benfit. I know you must have wondered about me and if I was going to ever choose to just be your child again. You probably thought I couldn't see how good and simple life can be when I was making it so tangled up and confused.

And so here I sit in my comfy big chair, looking out the window thinking of you and wondering what it is I need to do to cross that big bridge I put between us. You know how scared I am of water and I don't particularly like crossing bridges. It's raining; the down pours coming and going, the wind is blowing very hard, too; and every so often the lightning streaks through the clouds and thunder booms. But they make me think of you.

Father, I want to be that little girl again; the one who's eyes lit up when she thought about putting on her best dress and shoes and combed her hair and then put her hand in yours and walked with to church every Sunday. I want my life to be all about doing what you want to do. The things you do are ever so much more interesting and fun than the things I do.

But I'm scared, Father, because it's been ever so long since I really talked to you, heart-to-heart talking, you know what I mean. So much of what I say is so shallow or superficial. And I'm scared because of that water and bridge. And I'm scared that I won't be able to live up to what you want for me.

Please help me, Father, come take my hand. Help me cross the bridge and the water. Help me open my heart back up to you. No little girl ever felt as loved as I did when I let you lead me and I just held your hand and went along. Oh, how I want that now, Father. The world is big and scary and every day as I walk through life, I realize there isn't really anyone out there for me to rely on. Not unless you come back and help me over that bridge; then, of course, there'd be you...and there's nobody else like you for making me feel safe and loved.

Please. Can you hear me? Is it too late? Can I still be your daughter or do I have way too much time to make up? If I could just hear your voice...no one else has a voice like you - warm, inviting, kind, loving reassuring, firm, gentle, decisive, encouraging. In your voice is every emotion that can make me feel like I can do anything and am so deserving of your love. Why would I ever have been so stupid as to turn away from you? Will you forgive me for that? I am so sorry. Search my heart, see if I'm not telling you the truth and if you see anything dark or dirty or untrue in there, please help me get rid of it. I know with your help I can do it. I was so happy when I was with you, Father; I could just be me - silly or serious or doing weird cartwheels cause I couldn't really do them at all, singing in my best little girl voice to please you. I took delight in you. I want to do that again, Father. Can we, please?

I just want you to know that I'm here; waiting to hear your voice, or feel your touch.

...oh, my goodness, Father. How'd you know I was calling out to you, and how'd you get here so fast? Oh, my, Father, it's so good to be with you again. I love you, Daddy. Please don't ever let me leave you again.

A Need to Hear the Truth

2011-03-29T06:45:00.000-04:00

Condemn: 1. to express an unfavorable or adverse judgment on; indicate strong disapproval of; censure. 2. to pronounce to be guilty.

We all know and many have memorized John 3:16 which says that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son into the world that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

That verse is the hope of salvation for people today. The Word of God teaches us that there is much more to salvation than "belief" in Jesus because we are told elsewhere that demons, too, believe in Jesus and shudder. James 2:19

John 3:17 tells us that God didn't send Jesus into the world to condemn the world but that the world, through him, might be saved. Jesus came to preach the good news that He had come, at the Father's urging. He was there, in their presence, Emmanuel, God With Us and that any who believed in their heart that he was God's only begotten son and confessed it with their mouth, would be saved from their sin. But, and this is a big but, as he told the woman at the well, he did not come to condemn her; (he was there to offer her his atonement for her sins) that she was to go and sin no more. He didn't condemn her, he forgave her, showed her mercy and when she looked at herself in the light of his glory and grace, she knew, too, that she needed to go and sin no more and follow Him.

This is where so many people are; even today. Living in sin; maybe not even knowing it is sin because somewhere along the way, long, long ago, we lost our way, we lost what it meant to tell the truth to ourselves and others what is right and what is wrong. We stopped using the word, "sin", and stopped looking at ourselves in the light of His glory and grace. And so began our deception of ourselves to the point that now we're not really even sure we are sinning.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped seeing excessive drinking, now known as alcoholism, as sin and started telling ourselves we were "sick"; we have a "disease".

Somewhere along the way, we stopped seeing gluttony as a sin, we started seeing it as needing to diet or overeating or food addiction, and again gave ourselves another sickness.

Somewhere we forgot that lying is a sin and started calling it the "little white lie" or "stretching the truth" or "not hurting someone's feelings".

Somewhere we forgot that having sex outside of marriage is called fornication. Now it's called "a trial"; most people would probably never get married today without at least "trying out" their partner to see if they "click" or "if it's any good".

Adultery? What is adultery? Divorce and the fact that it's so easy to get one and they are so easily accepted has caused us to stop looking at the fact that God intended us to have one mate for life.

I remember when I was growing up people only mentioned homosexuality behind closed doors or in whispers. Now it's the "alternative" life style and it's become "cool" and in words from my youth "in style" to be homosexual; no longer called queer or odd but "gay".

I would bet my last dollar that most people don't even know what the word "covet" means, let alone the fact that God called it a sin. We covet people's money, fame, cars, homes, clothing, children, spouses, yards, etc., on a personal level and oil, gold, silver, gas and other costly, highly essential materials, needed to operate in the world today, by countries far and wide.

The commandment to honor our father and mothers is a lost art. We are all struggling with the loss of control over our children as the government gives them more and more rights and gives parents less and less. It seems as though the parents' world revolves around their children instead of their children being a part of their world (and not necessarily in a good way). Many are want to have it all, a job everyone will covet, a spouse everyone will admire and a fine home, two, or more, high end automobiles, toys galore and what can we do with these children, who will watch them, train them, take care of them, why can't we have year round schools? Our children are suffering as a result of our need to show everyone how great and successful we are and our failure to tell them the truth. This failure to tell them the truth comes from our not knowing the truth and our not knowing the truth comes from a famine of hearing the word of God.

In the book of Amos, Chapter 8, verses 11 through 14, God spoke of a time when mankind would stumble around in darkness because of a lack of hearing his word, the truth, and that few would know the reason for their failure. Go HERE to read a study done by the Bereans on this famine and how God came to enact this curse.

Obviously, in 6,000 years of mankind's dominion over the earth, there has always been a very small number of people who have clung to the the rules and regulations set forth by God and a desire to know the truth. They're there in the Bible; the faithful ones. (The unfaithful ones, too.) But for us who live here at the end of this age, the lies are so deep, the disconnect so old that sometimes it's very hard to find the truth. I can even see why some people choose not to believe. For me, personally, life has no appeal or purpose if all I am here to do is take up space, have a really "successful" me-centered life and die and return to dust.

I have to believe that God created me for a purpose, that I am to lead a God-centered life, that I am here to do what He wants me to do. I know the real me - the selfish, dirty minded, mean spirited, self-centered, me-centric person - who could, would and has broken each and every law set forth by God in His commandments.

Thank God, He knew my frailty and my ability to fail, so that He provided a way for me to get back to Him and the truth, by accepting and loving His son, by inviting His Spirit to live within me, to lead me by living inside me; and giving me a hope for the future - a blessed hope that when my body dies, my spirit will live on, through ages to come, with Him, in a place that is far kinder, more lovely, beautiful, loving, and just, and without sin, sickness and death.

Are you, too, tired of lies, deception and a meaningless life, then turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full in His wonderful face, and the things of life will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace. You will find the truth waiting for you when you do.

Remember this, though, He is coming again and the next time, it will not be to offer atonement for our sin and salvation; it will be to judge and he will condemn those who did not seek him, hear his voice, accept the gift He offered and follow Him.

Gifts of the Spirit - Updated

2011-03-27T07:55:00.002-04:00

Do you wonder, like me, what your gift is? I hear so many say that they do speak in tongues; I never have. When I say that I never have spoken in tongues, Christians look at me with doubt; then I doubt and then I wonder, "Lord, why haven't I been given a gift".

For the past two days, the Spirit has lead me to this scripture:

1 Cor. 12:1-31

And now, dear brothers and sisters, I will write about the special abilities the Holy Spirit gives to each of us, for I must correct your misunderstandings about them. You know that when you were still pagans you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. So I want you to know how to discern what is truly from God: No one speaking by the Spirit of God can curse Jesus, and no one is able to say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but it is the same Holy Spirit who is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service in the church, but it is the same Lord we are serving. There are different ways God works in our lives, but it is the same God who does the work through all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us as a means of helping the entire church. To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another he gives the gift of special knowledge. The Spirit gives special faith to another, and to someone else he gives the power to heal the sick. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and to another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to know whether it is really the Spirit of God or another spirit that is speaking. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, and another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. It is the one and only Holy Spirit who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

to continue reading this scripture, go here.

Paul then goes on to write the famous chapter of scripture which is known as the "love chapter", 1 Corinthians 13. As a former church organist, I can say without doubt that this scripture must be read at every wedding I have ever attended or played for. But do we really know what it says?

It comes immediately after the chapter about the gifts of the spirit and how as the body of Christ we are all connected and all have different purposes, uses and gifts. Yes, gifts. Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:29-31:

Is everyone an apostle? Of course not. Is everyone a prophet? No. Are all teachers? Does everyone have the power to do miracles? Does everyone have the gift of healing? Of course not. Does God give all of us the ability to speak in unknown languages? Can everyone interpret unknown languages? No! And in any event, you should desire the most helpful gifts. First, however, let me tell you about something else that is better than any of them!

Read The Love Chapter

All the other gifts will become useless, but the one who has the ability to love, the gift of being able to love others will never pass away. It is the greatest gift of all. Christians get all worked up about being able to prophesy or speak in tongues or work miracles and all these other important, glorious gifts which seem to bring credit to the one who has been given the gift, but just like all the other incredible parts of the gospel, it is the small, inconspicuous gift that is the most important. It is the gift of love, one that we can all practice and ask God to perfect in us that is the most vital gift of all. And yes, we can ALL practice it in the smallest, non-noticeable, non-attention-getting ways every day, every minute of our lives. As we practice love, by helping the underprivileged, reaching out to the lonely elderly woman or man down the street or in the nursing home, taking time to care about the child whose parents are never around or giving financially to an organization who helps the hungry, poor and suffering all around the world, we are doing it to Him. Yes, Him, our Father, our Creator, our Savior, Jesus Christ. His word says that when we do it for the "least of these", we do it to Him. I can't think of a better way to show our love for Him and for our brothers and sisters, can you?

Lord, it is my prayer today that you will perfect this gift in me. I have your spirit in me, so I know that I have the gift of love, for you ARE love. So, perfect it Father. Lead me to the ones you have chosen for me to show your love to. Open my eyes and ears and my spirit to the call of your voice. I ask it for the sake of the kingdom in Jesus' name. Amen.

ADDENDUM

I received the following comment from my friend "Wendyworn", author of the Wake Up People blog and I feel that I should share them here for edification and discussion. I need to point out that I usually read from the King James Bible but use the New Living Translation in this blog for ease of reading. The KJV verse 30 does not use verbage claiming that "no," we do not all receive the same statuses or gifts as the NLT does.

I have always thought, myself, that God in His wisdom gave gifts to people based on who they are as individuals, and that all the gifts are equal, none better or less than the other (because God is no respecter of persons) but Wendyworn sees it this way:

"Dear Kim

I think what you have written in your latest post is very very important. I am so glad that the Holy Spirit is leading you to read I Corinthians 12 - 14. You are so right about love being the key to all of it, the Holy Spirit and God's Word and this whole life. Love is THE most important part and I also believe the hardest to achieve. Which is why we are unable to do this on our own, but that the Lord works on us, to change us from being "us" to forming Christ in us, which is the image of God - which is love. Awesome.

I am however, concerned with the bible version that you were quoting, because I think that version twists the scripture just enough to change the meaning. Here is I Cor 12: 7-11 from the King James version, (I'm not saying that the King James version is the only correct version, but please read this next part because it does change the meaning)

"But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another [divers] kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."

from here

There is the one gift of Holy Spirit - which we both know you already have. But that one spirit has nine manifestations listed. But verse seven clearly states that the manifestations of the spirit are given to EVERY MAN. Verse 11 seems confusing but it isn't if you understand it like this (my comments in parenthesis). "But all these (the manifestations) worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit (the Holy Spirit in you that you get when you are born again, that we both know you already have in you) dividing to every man severally as he (the man who has the spirit - meaning you and me) will."

God is not a respector of persons. He does not give some people tongues and not others. And also the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. God does not possess people. He has already given you the Holy Spirit. The other bible version makes it sound like the Holy Spirit for whatever reason has chosen not to give you the gift of tongues. That is SO FALSE. The adversary does not want you to manifest speaking in tongues because then you have one more weapon in your spritual arsenal against him. It is absolutely the Lord's Will that you manifest speaking in tongues. (I'm not saying this to make you feel bad, but I am trying to help you, please know - you can already manifest speaking in tongues - you just don't know it yet.)"

Thank you, Wendyworn for these great and encouraging comments. I guess I interpreted verse 11 to say that all the manifestations of the gifts were distributed by the Spirit individually as "he will".

I would love to hear any reader's thoughts on this. What do you think?

Do You Know What You Believe?

2011-03-20T03:00:00.000-04:00

The Lord is pressing upon me to examine what I believe; to write it out; study it and make sure I know what it consists of.

I spent the day today with two of my very closest friends, one of those friends' husband and another friend of my friend. Most of the day was spent in the car as we drove to visit a place where my friend and her husband had bought some building lots. For a good portion of the time, I distanced myself from the conversation and just listened to what was being said. Keep in mind as you read this that these people are good people, kind people, caring and loving friends that I have known a long time.

I heard a conversation about astrological signs and personality traits acquired by being born a particular sign; I heard a conversation about "energy"; one about past lives; another about a dream in which "color therapy" was used for healing purposes and a comment about how the earth "won't keep spinning that long....", and one single person besides me used the name of Jesus all day long.

When we returned, after dinner, I sat down to skim through the internet news. Boy, it was depressing. As I read the headlines on the Drudgereport, all I could think was, "If this isn't an indication that Jesus' return is imminent, then I don't know what is". I shared a couple of headlines with my friends which brought about a conversation with them about the "end of the world" and 2012.

I mumbled some stuff about believing every word in the Bible was inspired by God and that I felt we were watching many prophecies for the end times
being fulfilled right before our eyes.

Needless to say, my friends and I are not on the exact same page where faith and salvation are concerned, and when I got into bed, the holy spirit convicted me of inability to speak clearly, concisely and with conviction my beliefs about God and what is happening all around me. I spent at least two hours struggling in prayer with God about many things and I felt the Lord urging me to write it down. It's like He's telling me that the time for being blase' about my faith is done. It's time for me to be specific and have the ability to clearly tell others what I have based my beliefs on and my faith in.

So, at the Lord's prompting and for my own sanity, this is what I have come up with:

I believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I believe that God created everything and everyone. I believe that God created mankind to fellowship with Him, love Him and to be His children. I believe that to disobey God is equal to sin and that to sin is equal to death. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, preserved and supernaturally protected and made understandable to man by God's holy spirit. I believe that the Hebrews/Jews were the people God chose to bless the world because of the faith of one of their ancestors, Abraham. I believe ALL the stories in the Bible; stories of faith, dishonor, shame, glory, victory, sin, overcoming, miraculous rescues, miraculous destructions, etc., ALL of them.

I believe that Jesus Christ IS God incarnate. I believe that He was born of a virgin by the power of the holy spirit, that He lived upon the earth as a flesh and blood human being for 33 years, was crucified, dead, buried, and resurrected and that He is now seated in the heavens on a throne at the right hand of God the Father. I believe He came to reconcile mankind to God by making atonement for our disobedience/sin and to free us from death. I believe He is THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE AND THE ONLY WAY TO GOD. I believe that when you believe in your heart, confess with your mouth, and repent of your sins, you are marked by Jesus as His and given His holy spirit to dwell within you. I believe it is His desire that we die daily to our wants and submit our lives to Him doing what He wants and directs us to do.

I believe that He is returning to overturn the governments of men and to establish the Kingdom of God here on earth for 1000 years. I believe the earth will be dissolved and there will be a new heaven and a new earth and God will reign in the midst of His people from the New Jerusalem. I believe we are on borrowed time before His return.

As I wrote this, I became aware of just how complex my beliefs are and how easy it would be to question them and that for me to write down all the things I believe about God would take a lot of time. I began questioning them myself. I came to the conclusion that that we must first be sure about the foundation of what we believe and then examine them in light of the Bible everyday and strengthen them by prayer and asking God to show us the truth so that we cannot be deceived. What will you do if you are questioned? Do you know what you believe? Will you be able to stand on the things you believe in? Are you so sure in what you believe that you would die for it?

Tossed on the Waves

2011-03-14T22:06:00.000-04:00

We have examined how God wants us to be rooted and grounded in Him so that no storm in life, no matter how strong and fierce, can separate us from Him. Not even if it is as strong and destructive as the earthquake and tsunami recently suffered by the Japanese people.

Similarly, the Lord, through his half-brother James tells us that when we ask God for something, we are to ask "in faith" with "nothing wavering". James 1:6.

Have you ever noticed that when you're walking along the beach and the surf comes in that even the smallest wave can knock you off balance? Sometimes even the shifting of the sand as the surf goes back out to sea causes me to stumble.

James 1:7....For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

Our faith must be rooted and grounded in Him in order to receive any answer to prayer that we may lift up to Him. But the amazing thing is this: It is only takes a little, bitty, teeny tiny bit of faith the size of a mustard seed for us to be rooted and grounded in Him and move mountains! Luke 17:6

And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

My prayer to the Lord today is: I have this little bitty, teeny, tiny mustard-seed-size faith, Lord, that you WILL complete the work YOU began in me. If you don't Lord, I have nothing and have no idea why I was even put here. I trust you to finish what I can't do on my own. I have no faithfulness in me unless you put it there. I have no strength unless you supply it to me. I have no wisdom unless you furnish it. I have nothing unless you fill me with your love for you and my fellow man. Nothing.

I surrender. Take my life and let it be, consecrated unto you, Lord. I don't know how I can bring you glory, but I pray that you would let me do so. Thank you. Thank you, God Almighty, for considering me; for thinking I was worthy of your thoughts and care and the great act of love and mercy you performed for me.

We are a faithless generation, Lord. Forgive us and have mercy on us.
There is little wonder that Jesus questioned whether He would find faith on earth when He returns. I would like for my mustard seed to have taken root and grown when He returns. I want Jesus to find faith here when He comes back.

Rooted and Grounded

2011-03-04T09:10:00.000-05:00

God has begun speaking to His creation in the weather lately. Around here, you cannot go anywhere without your attention being drawn by the sight of so many large trees and/or limbs which are down due to the two ice storms we have suffered through in the past month.

The ice on the trees and shrubbery was beautiful to behold, glistening and shimmering, especially when the sun came out; there's no doubt about that. But once the ice got about 1/2 inch thick, it became so heavy that it pulled the tree right out of the ground or broke the limb off completely from the tree. There are, of course, plenty of trees still standing tall and firm in the ground so it's obvious that some trees and limbs are more strongly rooted and grounded and, therefore, unable to be separated from its host.

God wants us to be rooted and grounded in Him so that we flourish and grow in our faith and our love for Him and grow in our desire for His purposes to be accomplished in the world.

What does it take to have a strong root? Being the novice gardener, I have seen some of my garden plants thrive while others are lackluster and unproductive.

You need good soil to plant the seed in. The soil has to be prepared. It's obvious when you're talking about dirt, that you need to make sure the dirt is organic and well fertilized, so how do you apply that to a person's heart?

The heart of a proud, self-confident, self-assured, self-reliant person has not been prepared to receive the message of humility, faith in God, and submission to higher authority. So, it seems that our hearts are best prepared to receive the gospel of God when we are experiencing hard times; when we have no hope in ourselves. Is it possible that those times when we can barely lift our heads are the times that God is preparing the soil of our hearts for Him. The Bible says that He is the lifter of our heads: Psalm 3:3

But thou, O LORD, [art] a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.

We also need an accurate understanding of who God is. Psalm 97:2 says that the foundation of His throne is justice and righteousness. We need our eyes opened to God's right-ness; how everything about God is good and true and holy and pure and how He is 100% fair in everything He does and in His judgment about what His creation is doing. Once we understand His holiness and goodness, have been brought down from our high and mighty perch and realize how little we can do in and of ourselves, the seed begins metamorphosis.

Your seed then needs to receive plenty of light or sunshine. From the perspective of growth in your faith, I believe this means you must plant yourself in places where God's light can shine on you. For example, plant yourself in the Word of God, morning, noon and night; go to church, fellowship with other believers, seek His presence in prayer at all times.

The soil needs to be fertilized regularly for optimal growing conditions. Fertilizer is basically food for dirt. Jesus, on many occasions referred to himself as the bread of life. Jesus Christ, who in 1 John is literally referred to as the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, is to be the food of your life. Fill yourself with God's Word, take in as much as you can. Chew on it; listen to good Bible teaching, memorize scripture, talk about the verses that really speak to your heart with other christians; listen to worship music and, of course, pray for growth in faith, hope and love.

Finally, the soil needs plenty of life giving water. Jesus IS the living water and He said that those who drink from His well will never thirst again.

If God has lit a fire in you to know Him, and you have heard the call and want to grow in a relationship with God, then you must follow the call; ask God to reveal Himself to you in a new and greater way today; spend lots of time in prayer and in God's Word, seeking always to be in God's presence, literally living on Him by eating (his food)the Word and drinking His life giving water (the holy spirit) and living in the light of the sun (son).

It is then and only then that your roots will become strong and you will become firmly attached to Him.

He wants us to be strong in Him so that we will never come crashing to the ground. He will never let go of us but we can let go of Him if our roots are not deep enough or if our hold on Him is weak. We are admonished to "hold fast" our profession of faith nine times in the Bible (KJV), including: in Hebrews 10:23, Job 27:6, 1 Thes 5:21, and 2 Tim 1:3. If you have accepted the life-giving message of Christ, hold fast, be rooted and grounded in Him, make your growing conditions perfect for your relationship to grow and bloom and enjoy the sweet scent of the flower of perfection in Christ.

God bless you with His wisdom, peace and love today and may you grow strong in His perfect will for your life.

Death to Myself

2011-02-26T08:13:00.002-05:00

The Lord Jesus came to set us free from the cares and sin of this world; to allow us to live in His power with Him equally bearing the yoke of things we encounter here.

Many think that once we repent of our sins initially that that's it. It's a done deal, but believe me, God is very specific in His Word that even though we are saved by grace, we are to be "working out" our salvation with fear and trembling Phillipians 2:12. Also, maybe I'm wrong but I do think there is a reward system in heaven. ALL who believe that Jesus is the Christ shall be saved, but if you read the first three chapters of The Revelation, in Christ's letters to the Churches, you will see that there are additional rewards for those who overcome certain things. For additional info about that, you might want to read Lord I Want to be an Overcomer

In my reading of the Word and studying additional materials, it has become obvious to me that repentance is only the first step. Turning and going in the opposite direction is the second step and submission of your will is the third step. How we respond to submission of our will determines what rewards or responsibilities we might expect to take part of in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Think of it sort of like this: Sometimes people sit down in a chair or walk out in the yard and drop dead in their tracks (you know them, the people who are completely healthy; wham, one minute they are here and the next, gone!); these are the people who when they repent, immediately and completely submit their lives to Christ (you know them, the ones who haved lived lives of utter degradation, filled with sin, and know how filled with sin they are and when they meet Christ, they are transformed, utterly and ultimately forever changed).

Then there are those people who get a little sick, and for some reason, they don't get well as expected, and it drags out and on and it becomes literally living life through their sickness; day in and day out, and for some reason they never get well but die a long, slow, slow death. So it is for some Christians. They only give up their lives an inch at a time until God finally gets through to them, by whatever means, that they must die to themselves completely, pick up their cross and follow Him.

Being a true follower of Christ means that we take Him at His word when He tells us to take up "our cross" (didn't He die when He did that?). We are to be dead, buried and resurrected with Christ. Otherwise, we are not worthy of Him. Matthew 10:38

What in the world does dead, buried and resurrected with Christ mean? That statement used to really puzzle me, but God has finally shown me that true followers of Christ die just like he did when we daily, hourly, minute by minute in this life we are given forsake what we want in lieu of what He wants until we are living a life completely surrendered to His leading. We are buried with Him when He covers us with his atoning blood and experience water baptism and then we are resurrected to new life by the power of the holy spirit.

We are by nature a selfish people, and giving up the ghost of our wants and desires is oh, so hard. But there comes a time when the fight is just too much and the body gives up, quits fighting and surrenders to death; to rest. We are called to rest in Him. Sabbath Rest

That's where my walk is right now, giving up the ghost of my will to the leading of His Spirit. Help me, Lord, to trust you implicitly and give up all things to you. The spirit is willing but my flesh is so weak. What else really is there to trust in but you? Myself, really? Ha. Others? Ha. Ha. Only you are worthy of my trust, and you have always delivered me in beneficial ways. Help me to see that your ways are right and true and truly good.

And worst of all, any work that we do that is not inspired by God is sin, and I'm afraid that a lot of my work for God is just that...my work for God instead of His work in me. Jesus said that he did nothing of his own intiative, but that He only did that which the Father wanted him to do and so are we to live. The Lord led me to read this this week at a blog called The Latter Days:

So what is God after? Our very lives. He is looking for us to present our bodies as living sacrifices. What does it mean to have given God your bodies? It means that He has control of your eyes (what you watch), your ears (what you listen to), your mouth (what you say), your feet (where you go), your hands (what you touch), your mind (what you think), your heart (what you desire)...It means that you truly no longer live for yourself; you have been crucified and Christ lives through you.

In order for this to happen, we cannot be driven by what we like or what we think. Our wills must be subjected to His will so that we can receive the inspiration of what He wants to be done in us and allow His Spirit to perform it through us.

Obedience is better than sacrifice.

This blog was exactly what I needed and the Lord provided it to me to give me hope and encouragement because I know He IS working in me and I AM giving it up...what I see, hear, speak, think, touch and desire...to Him. I am going to cut this out and carry it with me. Maybe you will want to do so, too. I really, truly hope you will go on and read the rest of this excellent post about submitting to God, resting in Him and allowing Him to have your body as a living sacrifice. It is the truth and a message that we all need to hear today.

Lord, I want to die to my will and ask that your will be done in my life today and every day. Cover me with your holinesss, godliness and righteousness. Jesus, Lamb of God, Worthy is your name to be praised above ALL names.

Colossians 3:3) For you are dead; your life is hid with Christ in God:
4) When Christ (who is your life) shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him, in glory.

Hide me Lord, in Your holiness
Every sin I now confess
Praise to You, forgiving Lord
Hide me in Your holiness

Hide me, hide me, hide me Lord
Hide me, hide me
Hide me in Your holiness
Hide me in Your holiness

Hide Me in Your Holiness

9)...seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds,

10)and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him...

I can guarantee this truth: No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. (John 3:5 GW)

Ruling and Reigning

2011-02-19T08:08:00.000-05:00

True followers of Christ are to rule and reign with Him. The Lord brought this to my mind this morning in my quiet time. Actually I was reading in Isaiah 32:1 where it says: Look, a righteous king is coming! And honest princes will rule under him. (NLT), and my spirit was stirred by the fact that those princes are the people who right now live a life of submission to Christ; the ones who "practice" holiness and godliness by studying their leader, Christ, and allowing Him to lead them through this life by the power of His Holy Spirit.

The Lord asked me if I thought was prepared to be a prince.

Honestly, Lord, no, I don't think I am ready. He spoke to me then, saying, you can't even lead your 11 year old son. You resort to bickering, bribing, manipulation and sometimes even shouting. Learn how to rule over your son and you will learn how to rule in my kingdom. For you must know how to rule in love, for the good of all (fairness), without being able to be bribed (honesty), not wavering (steadfast), with calmness and without anger (sure of my decisions) and trusting that the Lord will honor my efforts and the efforts of my son to comply in order to bring us both into complete relationship with Him.

This brought to my mind these verses in the book of Proverbs:

26: 4, 5 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.

In looking up Strong's meanings, the word "like" means "to agree with, be or become like, level, resemble". In other words, when you're talking to a foolish person, don't answer him according to his way of thinking, i.e., bickering, bribing, manipulating or shouting, because you become just like him.

And yet, in verse 5, we are told that we are to answer a fool lest he become wise in his own eyes.

What this says to me is that we are to be wise in the way we respond to a fool, not according to his ways, but according to the ways of the Lord.

I have many times told my son how he resembles the foolish that are described in the book of Proverbs. I have actually made him read chapters in the book of Proverbs because so much of it pertains to him. Truly, if you have ever read the book of proverbs, it is so descriptive of each one of us. It tells us in Proverbs 9:10 that the "fear (awe) of the Lord is the 'beginning' of wisdom"!! In my opinion, there are way, way, way, more people walking around out there who have no fear of the Lord than there are people walking around who have a healthy fear of the Lord, so odds are, there aren't very many wise people walking the earth right now.

There is only one who knows all, sees all, understands all and has wisdom over and above any other living creature...the Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh, I AM.

If we are to rule and reign in righteousness, wisdom and love, then we need to soak up as much of his presence and personality as we can get, and the only way that can happen is to read, read, read His Word, study His Word and allow more and more of Him to live within us...more of Him and less of us.

May it be so unto me, Lord, Jesus. In your name I ask this. Amen

Will You Take Time to Seek Him?

2011-02-16T08:43:00.000-05:00

The Bible says that God is constantly seeking to reveal Himself to us. Why is it that men and women think they are so wise that they don't need Him or His wisdom? How many times have our ways failed us? His Word tells us that His ways are higher than ours and His thoughts are not our thoughts. If we would only seek Him.

Think how different the world would be if people would have steered the course and brought up their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord - true fear and admonition of the Lord. Fear and admonition that causes them to seek the Lord's face on all decisions that they have to make. I can see it in my mind's eye. The world would be decidedly different.

I remember back when I was working full time, I just plain never thought about spending time with Him. I put in a lot of hours and when I got home, I had a meal to prepare, preparation for tomorrow's day, the "obligation" of whatever my child might need or have going on and some "me" time, time to relax, or take a hot bath or read a book or listen to music, or play golf, or talk on the phone with a friend, but it never entered my mind to pick up my Bible and read...just for fun or put on praise music and praise Him...just for fun.

On the other hand, when trouble arose, guess where you'd find me? You got it. On me knees or face or some such pose asking Him to help me, crying out for healing or mercy or grace or time,...or whatever.

Why should He do that; help those that never give Him the time of day until they don't have anywhere else to turn? If I were God, I'd say..."suck it up, you got yourself here without paying one minute of time or attention to me, so let's see you get yourself out of this".

But thank God His ways are not my ways and His thoughts are not my thoughts. He alone is good. Every good and perfect gift comes down to us from Him.

I was thinking about this the other day with regard to my son. I have raised Him in church, listening to Christian music, in the midst of prayer meetings in my home, reading the Bible with Him and to Him, trying to not provide Him with everything "the world" says he should have and doing my best to give Him all the things "the world" says he doesn't need. In spite of this, my son still doesn't think he needs to consult God on his day-to-day needs, problems, and direction. And, for some reason, it takes him forever to learn from his mistakes.

Deuteronomy 4:29 says, But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and Psalm 10:4 tells us why men do not seek him: The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. "Ain't" it the truth? We're so caught up in our busyness and our own wisdom, that we don't even have the time to give Him a thought.

God, though, in His "Godness", knows who will at some point in time begin to seek Him and through His efforts will work in their lives to bring that day to fruition. Ezekial 34:11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

This is why it is so good to sit and be still; to be totally quiet. We need to teach our children this habit. How can God, who is seeking us, get through all the noise and busyness that goes on in our lives, if we can't hear the still, small voice calling out to us? Oh, He could do it; yes, He could. He could have a car hit us or a fatal illness, or some other such catastrophe, but is that what we want to have to deal with? Isn't it just much easier to sit and be quiet and listen? Once you are fortunate enough to hear His voice, it becomes easier to do and being in His presence becomes more and more desirable. When you feel the touch of the Master's hand, you will be drawn back again and again to that quiet place and quite frankly, you won't want anyone else to intrude on that space. It is a place of refuge; a haven from the unwanted busyness and cacaphony of the world.

What do we gain by seeking him? Hebrews 11:6 tells us that as we seek Him, our faith grows, and our knowledge of who He is increases. 2 Peter 1:3 says that it is through His divine power that He has given us the knowledge of Him and that He is calling us to share in "His glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." Chew on that a minute. He seeks us, calls us to live "in Him" and share His glory and excellence by becoming partakers of the divine nature by His power; not ours!

Peter goes on to tell us that if we are diligent in adding godly characteristics to our lives, i.e., virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love, we will be kept from being ineffective or unfruitful in living a life devoted to God and that if we "practice" these qualities, "we will never fail"!

Would you like to "never fail"? Do you want a fruitful, effective life that brings peace, joy and the knowledge of God to others?

First, find your secret place. Ask Him to come. Be still. Be quiet. Listen. Then, when you hear that still small voice, ask Him for more knowledge of Him, ask Him to purify your heart, practice self-control in doing the things He prompts you to do or not to do, be steadfast, show up every day, keep inviting, asking, listening, set your mind on heavenly things, and practice love for others and God will have your back. He will never let you fail. You might not get it "all right" but God, in His wisdom, knows the outcome and you will never fail.

Let Us Not Sleep, As Do Others, But Let Us Watch and Be Sober

2011-02-13T13:28:00.000-05:00

For the past three years, thanks to God's grace, I have been watching and waiting for his imminent return. The Lord sat me down, after years of aimless running after love, money, and recognition, due to health reasons. I think what made my interest in the end times prophecies catch fire was the election and many things said and done by then candidate, Barack Obama, which caused my eyebrows to lift and say, "Could this man be the anti-christ". My watch has become second nature now due to events occurring world wide. Many say that no man can known the day and hour of Christ's return. I, however, do not agree. If Christ expected the Jews to know when he would show up the first time, do we think He would not expect the Church (His Body) to know when He would return the second time? (I'm not talking about the rapture of the Church.)

I am convinced, due to the diligent efforts of others, that we are indeed living in the last days. I am listing videos and articles below that I believe are very convincing. Please watch them so you cannot say you were never warned.

I would like to tell you, too, that being a Christian, in other words a follower of Christ, means born again (or born over) in spirit and it entails a complete submission of your will to that of Christ. Living your life as He directs you to live it. It is not a quick prayer of I'm sorry I did that God. It is a daily examination of your life being lived out as He calls the play by play. It is not easy, but it is oh so worth it. I have seen his hand at work in my life so many times (in spite of myself) and having his presence in my life is something to watch as He works in me and I learn and grow. I pray that all who come here to read this will seek Him. If you seek Him with a sincere heart, He is faithful to show Himself to you.

The first video is a presentation by Pastor Mark Biltz, a Messianic Jew who has discovered astonishing signs from the NASA web site about signs in the heavens that are consistent with the Bible's prophecies in Revelation which will occur in 2014-2015.

Signs in the Heavens

This video explains why the Body of Christ will/should know when His return to rule and reign is...not the rapture.

Thief in the Night

A document which acts as the "witness" or confirmation of Pastor Biltz's tetrad.

For God's Spirit Shall Not Always Strive with Man...Yet his days shall be for a hundred and twenty years.

More Info

And Yet More Info

Two additional resources which confirm Pastor Biltz's information:

Daniels' Timeline

The Final 7 Years Are Here Now

A Work in Progress

2011-02-09T12:49:00.000-05:00

Isn't it funny how we always expect God to show up in some big, miraculous, showy way? In reality, He sneaks up on us and catches us unawares and makes us smile a secret, knowing smile usually only to ourselves, but sometimes, if we're blessed, we get to experience it with someone else. It happened to me again today. I began my quiet time asking the Lord to come visit with me, make His presence known to me; expecting some major revelation.

As I sat praying to the Lord, I became aware that as I prayed for something, I truly had faith that He would give it to me, and I thanked Him for it. I blogged recently about the motive behind our prayers, and how we have not because we ask for the wrong reasons, i.e., because we usually ask to satisfy our flesh or because we want to own or possess something (sins of the flesh and sins of the eye (coveting)).

The holy spirit showed me right there, right then that I AM growing in Him because I was praying to love what he loves, hate what he hates, cry for things He cries about, rejoice about things he rejoices about and after each item, I would say, "thank you, Lord; I know you will do it" and He opened my eyes to these scriptures and how they are related.

Phillipians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts.

James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

And the presence of the Lord shown round about me, and I knew that He was in the room talking to me. Letting me know that He is working in me, changing me; maybe not monumentally, but little by little, piece by piece, bad habit by bad habit, idol by idol He is forming me into the person He wants me to be. HE IS THE POTTER; i am the clay has never seemed more real to me than it does right now. If you've ever had this happen to you, you know what I'm talking about. If not, it's awfully hard to explain; but it's like a puzzle being put together. It comes together before your eyes and understanding washes over and you say, "Eureka"! Scriptures that had for some reason puzzled you in some ways become clear and point to other scriptures and you see that they are inter-related. It is SO cool!

Lord, I am fearfully and wonderfully made in your image. Thank you for that. Through the works of those who came before me, Lord, I was born to sin. I'm sorry, Lord, for the things I have done. Against you I have sinned. Please forgive me. Thank you for choosing me to be your daughter. Help me to be a proper daughter...listening to your voice of wisdom, following your directions as one who has seen it all, and knows all, obeying your requests to do the things you need or want me to do; and showing you how much I love and respect you for the way you care about me and everything that affects me. My heartfelt plea today, Father, is that you will continue to mold me after YOUR will; not mine. Forgive me in advance for the days I don't want to surrender to your greater knowledge, experience and wisdom. Thank you for not giving up on me. By your presence here with me today, I have a greater understanding of the fact that I am a work in progress. ...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). All praise and glory and honor to you, my precious Lord, Jesus! I ask and pray in your name and I thank you for hearing my prayer and answering it! Amen

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway!
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me.

Mission Trips and Superbowls

2011-02-07T09:50:00.001-05:00

For some reason two things keep crossing in my mind today: the mission trip I just returned from with 29 third through fifth graders from my church and the super bowl. Odd, isn't it? I keep seeing how excited and jubilant probably 2/3 of the children got every time someone brought up the super bowl, but how they failed to show the same excitement and jubilance when we talked about God, Jesus and how our purpose in taking the trip was to be the hands and feet of Jesus here on earth now that He has taken His appointed place at God's right hand.

I stood up during out pizza fest on Saturday night and (probably made a down right fool of myself) enthusiastically told the kids how I would love to see them as fired up for Jesus as they were about the super bowl. As a matter of fact, I would love to see the whole Body of Christ as excited about their savior as they are about the super bowl.

What is the super bowl anyway? Three to four hours of men running up and down a field trying to get a ball across a line; and in so doing, using any and all methods to get it done, i.e., throwing, tackling, hitting, tripping, pushing, and pulling. Of course, they are penalized if they break the rules or do anything "illegal". Part of the so-called fun is to see who can hit the hardest, run the fastest, and throw or kick the fartherest.

Look, I can enjoy a football game (or for that matter, any sport or game) just as much as anyone else, but the extent and nature of the interest portrayed for the "super bowl" is, to me, quite disillusioning. It is disheartening to see how much and thoroughly people love the pursuit of "winning a game" and "their team" and putting extensive energy into making sure that their time is open so they can watch the game or listen to it; and that every chance they get they let most people they come in contact with know who "their team" is or who they are rooting for. However, when it comes to Jesus, their relationship with Him, their faith in Him and their willingness to go to any lengths to live a life like He did, they show very little imagination, energy or even life, joy or happiness about it.

Folks, we are passing this on to our children - BIG TIME! We are not setting a good enough example for our children. There are no ifs, ands or buts involved. As Christians, as parents, our enthusiasm for Christ will directly impact not only our children and their children, but EVERYONE we come in to contact with. If we've truly been touched by the hand of God, how can we help but share that excitement, confidence, happiness, and peace that it brings? A real, living, breathing relationship with Christ can be seen, heard and felt. If a person is walking with Christ, the presence of Christ reaches out and touches others; it can't be helped, not if you're submitting to Him.

I'm relatively new to the mission field, so I'm not sure what to expect in all situations. So I asked the Lord, prior to leaving, that He would direct me to the people He wanted me to talk with, that He would speak through me, and that people would feel as though they had been in His presence after being around me. I don't know if that happened or not, but I continue to pray that it did and that someone's life (that I prayed with) might be turned just a little towards the Kingdom of God and all that offers today.

Think about it a few minutes; do we really want our children to grow up to be uninspired about faith? Faith in the old testament began at birth, by way of the child's parents. Now I realize that even by going on this mission trip these children and their parents are far and away advanced beyond the norm, and I them and God for this. What I am lamenting here is that even in the Christian community, parents and children tend to show more enthusiasm for a sporting event than they do about Jesus and our "hope of glory"! One of my questions being: "Does the church even teach about our "glorious hope" anymore? This life is not our real life. It's a training ground for God's people. I just saw on facebook where the schools in some towns in Wisconsin are closed today as a result of the game, and yet, we're not even allowed to discuss Jesus, faith and religion at school.

I highly recommend this blog written by my friend, Art about the super bowl, the refusal of Fox News to run the John 3:16 ad and how it all relates to idolatry.

I'm not throwing the proverbial first stone, I am just shouting, "wake up"! It was only recently that God showed me what I was leaving behind to my children and future descendants.

The Bible speaks about the blessings and ills that are imparted to our children and their children because of our faith or lack thereof:

Psalm 103:17 Mercy

Exodus 34:7 Mercy and Iniquity to the 3rd and 4th Generations

I remember this poem from my childhood and now, after all these years, I can finally see its wisdom.

Children Learn What They Live
By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect...

The only thing that should be added to it would be that a child who is taught that God is AWESOME, INCREDIBLE, DEPENDABLE, FAITHFUL, LOVING, KIND, JUST, ALL KNOWING, "ALL GOING", and UNBEATABLE(!!!) will be more inclined to live a life expecting God to be all those things (and more!) and live a life of JOYFUL EXPECTANCY when it comes to God. Let's give our children that gift. It is one of the commitments I am making to God today.