Walk with us today

Greetings:
On this morning we pray for peace and compassion today. Big decisions are ahead of us today and we ask for the Lord's blessing and guidance.
You are the God of understanding, wisdom and mercy and we appreciate it so much. Let us walk in grace today and standing under the protection of the Holy Spirit and an army of Godly angels who battle the forces of evil that are lurking around us.
God, you are the author and creator of all we are or that we will ever be, despite what those who believe in evolution have taught us in our schools.
We know the truth and with the truth we enjoy the freedom of knowing the difference. We choose to believe in our ever-present omnipotent God who is powerful, just and good.
Look around and look at the majesty and magnitude of God's creative touch. View the beauty and the complexity of nature and its various animals, insects, fish and birds of all sizes, the landscape, oceans, the rivers, the flowers, the plants, our weather patterns  and the tiniest of things such as a grain of sand.
Who would dare deny God's hand in all we see, hear feel and the things we touch?
God on this day we praise you and thank you for your loving hand around us, guiding our steps in our daily walk.
We pray for our nation and its leaders on this day and ask that your kindness, wisdom and mercy be poured out on this land we call home.
Let us be reminded that we are all sinners who have fallen short of God's desires, but by his mercy and the shed blood of Jesus, we are miraculously forgiven, redeemed and made right in the sight of God by his grace. We don't deserve any of this, but God has given us a path to sunshine and eternal life.
Each day we are reminded that you are a good God who loves us more than we can ever imagine.
Let is never forget to pray for those who have not heard about your salvation and those who have heard, but chose not to believe.
Remember to lift those up in prayer who are hurting, poor, confused, neglected and lost in earthly terms and spiritually.
Never forget to pray for you enemies and remember someone prayed for you when you didn't believe, when you didn't walk with the Lord and when you were lost.
God in his amazing grace bent down and picked each of us up.
Let us smile and not fret because God has given each of us another day on this planet earth, in this great nation and in the family of believers.
Be blessed.
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Aim high and walk in faith

Greetings and good morning.
Let us take time this day to have a conversation with God – meaning we will talk to God and listen to God. God's presence is such a blessing and calling on him is a great uplift to our mind and spirit.
Strive today to understand that God's ways are higher than our ways and many times we don't get pr see the whole picture at first. At times, things may look like they are falling apart or spiraling out of control. Actually, these may be the times when things might just be falling into place.
Trusting God means what it says.
We must have faith to see the big picture and the outcome in God's time. Walking in faith builds our faith along with our patience. Sometimes, we just need to slow down and let God be God.
Thank you Lord for you majesty, power and abilities that we can't even comprehend. Help us today to be better at just letting go and letting God take the steering wheel of our lives.
Be blessed.
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Be kinder than necessary

Greetings and good morning.
 Let this be the day to open our eyes to God's majesty around us. Even in the midst of trouble and tribulation we can praise and be thankful to God. We have breath on this day and that in itself is reason enough to be filled with joy. Look around, there is always someone who needs your prayers, a kind word or just an encouraging look.
God has placed you to be a blessing. Let us all be kinder than necessary, for everyone we meet may be fighting some kind of battle that we don't know about. Never forget, we serve a kind, loving, merciful and forgiving God.
 Remember we are all sinners and unworthy of God's mercy or his presence, but by his grace and kindness, we are redeemed and loved each and every day.
Be blessed.

Delight in the Lord and he will make a way

Greetings:
How many of you know that you know that God knows what we want before we for ask it?
In addition, how many of you know that God has his own way of doing things and sometimes our plans are not his plans?
Also, how many of you know that when you give something to God, he is able to make sweet lemonade out of sour lemons?
I am reminded of the words written in Psalm 37:4-7A, which read:
“Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.
Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;”
I experienced this lesson in an exciting eye-opening fashion this past week in a most unlikely way.
To put this into context, for Christmas I received from my wonderful wife a gift of two tickets to the Purdue-Michigan State basketball game that was conducted this past Thursday night in West Lafayette, IN.
Arrangements were made for both my wife and I to be take off work on Friday so we would not have to take the three-hour drive home after the night ball game and could stay overnight with our daughter who lives in West Lafayette.
I was so looking forward to going to the game and to top off the experience Purdue officials were going to honor one of the greatest players to ever suit up as a basketball Boilermaker, Glen “Big Dog” Robinson that night. Robinson was going to be at that game. As a tribute, the school was offering a miniature 'bobble head' statute of Robinson to the first 3,000 fans who entered Mackey Arena that night.
Now “Big Dog” is one of my favorite Purdue players and I thought it would be so cool to be able to arrive early enough to get one of the bobble heads.
If you're not a Purdue fan, I know you won't understand, but the Big Dog was a big deal during his playing days for the Boilermakers.
Nonetheless. as the game date approached I was comfortable in knowing that both my wife and I would not be able to leave Greene County earlier enough to arrive at the game much before 6-6:30 p.m. – which was probably not going to be earlier enough to get one of the bobble-heads.
The story of going to get to go to the basketball game got complicated about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning.
I was scheduled to be off work to go to a doctor's appointment in Bloomington, so my normal time for going to work was much later than normal.
I left the house just a few minutes before my wife in order to scrap some of the ice off of her van windows.
I was chipping away at the ice when I saw my wife coming towards me with a couple of things in her hands. All of a sudden, almost like it was in slow motion, I saw her fall.
She fell to the frozen, ice-covered ground hard.
I knew she was hurt.
After she laid there for a few minutes, so she could catch her breath and regain some sense of if she was really hurt bad. Her right ankle had been bent back under her body in a direction in which God did not create it. She had a badly sprained  ankle – with a lot of pain coming from the backside of leg.
I was able to get her into the house.
Thank the Lord her leg, her ankle or her hip wasn't broken.
As the next couple of days went on she was in a lot of pain and Wednesday night came and we determined that a trip to the basketball game would not be a wise thing to do. So I made a call to a friend, offering him the tickets to the game.
He wasn't able to go. Three more calls were made on Thursday morning to other individuals offering the tickets to them.
None of them could use the tickets.
I really wanted someone to be able to use the tickets.
Finally, I placed a post on Facebook offering the tickets to anyone who wanted to use them at no cost...just come and pick them up.
Within 10 minutes, a young woman from Jasonville posted that she would like them, if I hadn't already found someone to take them.
I told her if she came to my newspaper office in Linton, the tickets were hers.
She came about 30 minutes later and said she was delighted to get them because she wanted to take her young son, who I would estimate to be around 10, to the game.
I felt good about giving the tickets to someone who truly wanted to go to the game.
As I was driving home after work, the tickets came to mind and I kind of really wished for a moment that that I had been able to go to the game. It was a selfish thought, but that tiny little bobble head was really something I desired. I really wanted it to place on a shelf of Purdue memorabilia that I have at my house.
That night, my wife and I watched the game on television and were relieved that because of heavy winds and stormy conditions outdoors, that we didn't have to make the trip to the game.
How many of you know that God was still in control of the situation?
The next I was at my office, and the woman who works the front counter came walking in and handed me an envelope and a boxed up bobble-head of Glenn Robinson from the game the night before.
The card in the envelope read: “Thank you for help making memories for my son. It was a great time.”'
Wow, I was so touched and humbled that God was able to turn a really bad situation into a blessing for some other folks. In addition, I had the bobble head that I had desired.
The small material token from the basketball game will be something that I treasure, but the lesson behind that bobble head will be something I won't forget.
Be blessed.

Testing of our faith

Greetings:
I don't know about you, but sometimes when difficult things come into my life, I wonder why.
I try to question God.
How do you think that works out?
God has a way of humbling us and show us that we must be willing to trust and obey even if we don’t know why or aren’t given that answer for some time.
We do need to know that God does test and he knows how it will all work out.
Testing makes our faith stronger.
Testing reveals to us where we are in terms of our faith as God already knows whether or not we will pass a given test. It is as we go through the fire of testing and trial that we can be strengthened, sanctified, and purified.
James 1:2-4 says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
Let us discern between testing through various trials and the tempting of the devil.
Scripture denounces tempting in James 1:13 which says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone."
God does allow Satan to tempt us, but we can take hope that we will not be tempted beyond what we can handle and escape from by faith as it says 1 Corinthians 10:13.
Look at Genesis 22 and you'll see a big test for Abraham.
Remember God had promised Abraham descendants through Isaac that would be numerous. Yet, out of the blue, God commanded Abraham to do something that totally contradicted His promised blessing to him. He was to take his son Isaac and offer him up to God as a sacrifice.
Certainly Abraham must have been initially baffled at this stunning directive, wondering why. But Abraham had great faith, and so he obeyed God, even going as far as binding up his son and taking the knife up in readiness to slaughter his only son we read in Genesis 22:9-10.
Abraham’s faith was evident.
There was no denying it and God suddenly told Abraham to stop and provided instead a ram to sacrifice. This was merely a test of Abraham’s heart.
How many of us would have passed that test like Abraham?
We need not fear the tests that God brings to us. Rather, we need only trust Him to bring us through them. Why? Because God is always good, faithful, and true, knowing that we will end up better than we were before.
Be blessed.
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Standing the test of time

Greetings:
Standing the test of time. There is no greater measure of a man than that.
Real greatness is not measurable until the ravages of time have made their mark, and the glamor of personality has given way to the timelessness of character. Then, and only then, can we determine whether or not a person is a success.
In the New Testament, Paul wanted to know if men were so grounded in the Word that the winds of adversity would only make them stronger. He was looking for a few good men. And those would have to be men who would still be standing when the storms had passed, and the years had melted away. He was looking for men whose lives would stand the test of time.
If you take the Old Testament and watch carefully the manner in which God destined men for greatness, you cannot help but notice one common ingredient. Some had great talent; some had none. Some had authority; they were princes and kings, others were shepherds, or farmers. Some were learned men, students of the great teachers of their age; others were taken from the back side of the desert with no formal education at all.
They all had one thing in common. Time.
God seemingly always called them, often exposed them to failure, then let them settle into those seemingly endless stretches of time when it appeared they were washed up, forgotten, or  unusable.
Moses in the desert herding his father-in-law's sheep. Joseph rotting in prison. Abraham waiting, waiting, waiting for the promise. Elijah was by that drying brook. Job sitting on that rock pile, seeming to die a second at a time while the clock ticked on, his pain went on, and nothing seemed to be happening.
God was taking his tender plants and setting them in the sunlight to ripen. Sometimes the heat seemed unbearable. Sometimes the wait seemed interminable. But always the results were predictable. Once they had gained God's perspective of time, they were ready to be placed on the firing lines of eternity. Not before.
And almost always, God's perception of time was far different than theirs. They didn't live in this jet age we live in, where microwaves cook in seconds what used to take hours, and planes take us in hours where it once took us days to go.
They lived in an era of slowness, yet even then God seemed to be taking forever.
Valleys, trials, tribulations, conflicts, and adversities are all a part of this life and all a part of our walk with the Lord.
Let us be grounded in our faith, strong in our knowledge of the Word and intent on standing the test of time.
Be blessed.
These morning messages are now available by email. Simply write me with you email address at schneider.nick@gmail.com, and I'll be happy to forward them to your in-box. Also, all of the photos in my blog are for sale. Contact me for pricing.

Staying up when the world is down

Greetings:
A question looms in my mind this morning, how can we, as Christians, stay “up” when everyone around us is down?
How can we keep our spirits high in a negative environment?
God wants us to be an enthusiastic happy people. He purposed for us to be “up” .
Happiness is a choice.
When we get up each morning – no matter how early – we can choose to be happy or we can choose to be miserable and dissatisfied with everything. It’s entirely up to us. It’s our life – it’s our choice.
Happiness is a quality decision we decide to make, not an emotion we feel. If we are constantly listening to our emotions we will never stay “up.” We must make up our mind that we are going to be happy, in spite of our emotions. Many people live in constant turmoil. They're  always upset at something or someone; or they are always frustrated at not getting the results they desire.
God wants us to be happy right where we are, right now.
Even scientific research agrees that one of the healthiest things we can do is laugh. So why not start by learning to smile more often. We may be going through some tough times, and feel that we have good reason to be unhappy. Yet, being unhappy won’t change anything.
Things only change when we agree with God’s Word, and not with our circumstances.
We can laugh in the face of defeat, and in the face of potential disaster if we know and follow God's Word.
In 1 John 4:4 we read, “For, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”
There is something truly magnetic and attractive about a happy and enthusiastic person.
We want what they've got.
We’ll never rise above the image we have of ourself.  We need to stop looking at our lacks, frailties and weaknesses and be thankful for all the gifts God has placed in us. Thank Him every day for the natural abilities we have – no matter how undeveloped they are. In this way we will focus on them all the more and produce a clear picture of being successful.
Have you ever said, “I don’t know what’s been wrong with me. I’ve lost my drive and my enthusiasm. I feel like I’m just going through the motions.”
Well, regardless of our stressful situation, our financial status, past failures or how we’re feeling – we can remain “up” and enthusiastic because God provided a blueprint for life that will keep us in victory mode – spiritually, emotionally and materially.
The blueprint is mapped out in God's Word. We need to read it, study it and believe it – then put it into action.
Psalm 144:15 declares, “Happy are the people whose God is the Lord.”
Happiness is following the right path towards our God given destiny. We cannot expect to stay enthusiastic about anything we’re involved in if it’s not God’s intended plan for us.  So we must never stay where God has not assigned us. Seek God and then we will find our peace and happiness.
 Be blessed.

These morning messages are now available by email. Simply write me with you email address at schneider.nick@gmail.com, and I'll be happy to forward them to your in-box. Also, all of the photos in my blog are for sale. Contact me for pricing.

Just keep on walking

Greetings:
I experienced a day at the office yesterday that would be considered in kind words to be a crappy day.
It was one of those days when any thing that could go wrong, did. It was a day of technological challenges with computer woes and tension heaped hours of frustration.
The words didn't bounce easily from the keyboard. It was a struggle.
It's one of those days that you'd like to get a 'do-over'. It was a day once the end of the work shift came, you'd like to forget it ever happened.
It was a dreary Monday to top it off with chilly rain and gray skies.
It was blah.
As I sat down in my easy chair last evening and thought back on the horrid day just past, God spoke to my heart a simple truth.
“Don't look back, you are not going that way,” I heard him say to me.
It was simple, but the truth.
Even on a bad day, we can praise God and be thankful that we are moving forward.
We read in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight”.
How many of you know God has a way of taking the blinders off and getting our attention focused on the things that really matter.
It was not the time to fret and beat myself up on my personal shortcomings and woes of the day, but a time to look forward with hope that there won't be a repeat of such a day. It was time to look at the big picture and not focus on this one speck in time when things were not so good.
The day was done.  It was time to forget it.
An old proverb states that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.
We don't worry about the potholes, the cracks and the dips in the road.
Indiana native John Wooden was perhaps the greatest college basketball coach in the history of the game. He had four full undefeated seasons. His UCLA teams won 10 national championships. At one point, he had a streak of 88 consecutive wins.
One of the first things Coach Wooden drilled into his players when they arrived on campus was something his father had taught him when he was a boy growing up on a small Indiana farm.
“Don’t worry much about trying to be better than someone else,” his father said. “Learn from others, yes. But don’t just try to be better than they are. You have no control over that. Instead try, and try very hard, to be the best that you can be. That, you have control over.”
What a great piece of advice for those ball players and advice we can all learn to follow in our spiritual lives.
As we read about the great souls in the Bible who have preceded us, we learn that they too had times of discouragement and sorrow. We learn that they persevered in spite of hardship, in spite of adversity, sometimes even in spite of their own weaknesses.  We learn that they also had a few crappy days, like I experienced yesterday, but they continued to press forward, one step after another.
So yesterday is gone as a memory.
Sometimes we just have to smile. Pretend that everything is okay, hold back our  tears, know that God is with us and just keep walking.
 Be blessed.

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Encourage one another

Greetings:
Encouragement.
Most of us need encouragement.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:11,  Paul wrote to that church stating, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are now doing."
Sometimes we might get worn down such that we could use a little encouragement to keep us going. As Isaiah 35:3 (Amplified Bible) says, “Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble and tottering knees.”
The message of encouragement is also found in the New Testament.
Hebrews 3:13 (Amplified Bible) says, “But instead warn (admonish, urge, and encourage) one another every day, as long as it is called Today, that none of you may be hardened [into settled rebellion] by the deceitfulness of sin [by the fraudulence, the stratagem, the trickery which the delusive glamor of his sin may play on him].”
There is not a day that goes by that we couldn’t benefit from some encouragement or that we should be lacking in giving some encouragement to others.
Encouraging one another matters because it keeps us from being deceived into sinning. When we get exhausted and in a weakened, worn down state, it is easy to give into sin and stop resisting the devil’s temptation. When we are tired, sometimes we decide that we don’t care anymore, and our sensitivity to wrongdoing lessens. Encouragement keeps our focus right. It lets us know that we are not alone but that others are supportive of us, praying for us, and caring for us.
Romans 15:4 also says, “For whatever was thus written in former days was written for our instruction, that by [our steadfast and patient] endurance and the encouragement [drawn] from the Scriptures we might hold fast to and cherish hope.”
We need to be active in encouraging one another so that we can keep motivating one another toward love and good deeds.
God’s call to us is that we encourage one another regularly. Even when others fail to encourage us or are unavailable to encourage us, God and His Word are available and sufficient to encourage us. Let us take care that we stay in the Word to be encouraged ourselves so that we can be an encouragement to others. We never know when even a small gesture of encouragement might make a very significant difference in the lives of those around us.
Encouraging one another is so important whether you're talking about a family, a person, a ministry or a church. The real question is what role are we playing.  Are we building up or tearing down?
Be blessed.
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Walking in God's courage

Greetings:
How many of us have the willingness to say and do the right thing regardless of the earthly consequences?
Having Christian courage is key to our walk.
God promises to help us, be with us, but still we fear and lack courage at times.
The pain we experience may be physical, as in war and rescue operations. Or the pain may be mental as in confrontation and controversy.
Courage is indispensable for both spreading and preserving the truth of Christ.
In Matthew 24:9 (Amplified Bible), Jesus promised that spreading the gospel would meet resistance: “Then they will hand you over to suffer affliction and tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.”
Therefore, true evangelism and true teaching of The Word will take courage.
Do we tell only the truths that are safe to tell?
Nobody respects a coward. We admire people who are courageous. In every movie that has a hero we admire, it is because of their courage. The bad guys nearly always turn out to be cowards.
Some of us can remember when we were still a kid in school and someone would dare us to do something dangerous. Some of us probably did some of the stupidest, most dangerous life threatening things we've ever done. Why? So that we wouldn’t be labeled with that dreaded word 'chicken'!
We wanted to come off in the eyes of our peers as courageous…not as a coward.
In our Christian walk,  every one of us faces choices every day in which we come out either courageous or a coward. It takes a great deal of courage to face the daily challenges of life without becoming considered a wimp.
It takes enormous courage to be a Christian when most unbelieving people automatically despise you when you openly reveal that you are a person of faith in Jesus Christ.
Even though I am a journalist by trade, I can tell you the elite mainstream media in America hates Christians with a passion in terms that they are threatened by those who have an absolute moral standard and they punish them, belittle them, and try to discredit them at every opportunity.
But you know, it's doesn't matter what they say, or what they write about us as Christians. God knows our heart and he will get us through it all.
We must remain steadfast in our love for God and deserve to serve him by spreading the good news of God's salvation no matter what is said or written about us.
We must remain constant in our morals and stand up for what is right and confirmed in the Word of God.
An amazing amount of courage comes from settling in your heart and mind that our beliefs and values are right and line up with the Word of God.
We must humbly ask the Holy Spirit to give us understanding as we study and meditate on God's Word. We are strengthened when the rightness of our beliefs are reconfirmed in the experiences of everyday life.
We should increasingly feel and express our dependence on our Lord, ask Him to empower us and accomplish His purposes in us and through us in all we do and in all we face… and believe Him to do it. We will find ourselves living with the supernatural courage that only God can give   May each of us learn to live with the courage God wants us to have.
Be blessed.

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God's grace is amazing

Greetings:
There isn't a song or a hymn that speaks to my heart more than Amazing Grace.
The tune keeps repeating in my head as I am reminded of God's mercy and his amazing grace for teaching down and touching me at a time when I needed it the most.
Each day, I thank God enough for loving me, even when I didn't deserve it
The song “Amazing Grace”, which my pastor friend The Rev. John T. Parish, of Benton, KY, has labeled the National Anthem of the Kingdom of God, has stood the test of time with a message that is as fresh today as when it was written and published in 1779.
The song brings tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat every time I hear it and realize God's goodness and grace in my life.
It's humbling to understand how God works.
With the message that forgiveness and redemption are possible regardless of sins committed and that the soul can be delivered from despair through the grace of God, the song was written by Englishman John Newton, who once was the captain of a slave ship. He converted to Christianity after an encounter with God during a violent storm at sea. He eventually became an ordained minister in the Church of England.
Through this song, I've realized that the Lord is looking for people who are weak enough to be used. We read in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. The key to experiencing liberating strength is personal weakness and then ability to admit we are weak and he is strong.
Understand that personal weakness does not mean weak character or faulty Biblical knowledge.
On the contrary, God is looking for a people who have come to the place where they have lost confidence in their fleshly power to accomplish the work of the Spirit. Only when we embrace the weakness of ourselves apart from Christ can we become strong and "graced"enough to accomplish things for the true advancing of God's glorious Kingdom.
The song sings to me a melody of opportunity, of obedience and service.
I am in awe that God would save a wretch like me. I can do nothing to pay for the debt of salvation.
Thank you Lord seems so short and shallow, but it's all I have to offer.  I am without words on this snowy morning that can express the amount of gratitude that is in my heart.
God, let me be a better person today than I was yesterday.  Let me strive to put a smile on someone's face by what I write, say and do.
God's grace is truly amazing.
Be blessed.
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Husbands love your wives; wives love your husbands

Greetings:
To all of the ladies, my sincere wish of Happy Valentine's Day – with a special greeting of love to my incredible wife, Sharon, who has endured more than any woman should be expected too in our marriage, which will soon observe its 40th anniversary.
There have been plenty of peaks and valleys over the years, but through many things God's love for both of us has made it all work. For that, I am forever thankful and indebted to this special praying woman of God.
While I've disappointed her, myself and God in thoughts, words and actions, I am thankful for her love, kindness, compassion and forgiving spirit. I am thankful to God for the love we have for each other that has endured many years and I pray many more years are in our future.
We've brought two wonderful daughters into his world, who are married now and we are blessed and thankful they have Godly husbands and they have and continue to bring offspring into our family. We are truly blessed with a growing family and I pray a special blessing on each of these marriages on this special day of love.
While there is some question about who St. Valentine was since three early martyrs shared the name, the best guess is that Valentinus was a priest in Rome around AD 270. One story says that the emperor, Claudius II, believed that single men made the best soldiers and so he forbade weddings. Valentinus performed weddings for Christian couples anyway in defiance of the emperor. He was arrested and imprisoned. As a prisoner he won the emperor’s favor until he attempted to convert Claudius to faith in Christ. His personal evangelism proved fatal. Claudius had Valentinus killed on February 14.
While marriage is important because it provides companionship, an outlet for sexuality, and a setting for procreation and rearing children, the Apostle Paul made it clear that marriage is preeminently a picture of the love and fidelity between God and his people.
Couples can find much guidance in the words that Paul has for the church in Corinith that we read in the first book of Corinthians. These scriptures are commonly used in wedding ceremonies, but doesn't hurt to read them often and let them sink into our soul.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV) reads,  “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing."
In 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 we read, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
1 Corinthians 13:13 sums it up, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
 In marriage, we have a picture of God’s covenant faithfulness. The love and fidelity of the husband and wife —inconsistent and imperfect as they may be—are an icon of God’s perfect love and fidelity.
In this nation, marriage has fallen on hard times and an all out attack and needs to be rescued — first of all in the Church.
We pray for our nation and our state as lawmakers mull over changing ideals and are too accepting of ungodly acts like same-sex marriage, which is clearly contrary to God's law, his Word and teaching about spiritual unions.
It's wrong.
If we need to legislate against it, then the Church and God's people should be out front sounding loud support for laws and amendments to constitutions that support the preservation of marriage as between a man and a woman with no variations from that.
God’s people need to be the bright spots in a declining marriage moral culture and too often, we are not.
Renewal begins as we understand and begin to live out the high calling of Christian marriage. Husband love your wives. Wives love your husbands. That's our mission.
Be blessed.

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Keep climbing, keep going

A look at the ice-covered Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area
 near Linton, IN.
(c) Nick Schneider/NJS Photo Images

Greetings:
This morning the Lord is impressing on me that our Christian walk is a stroll up a staircase.
The steps are steep and there are many challenges along the way. These challenges are learning moments designed to increase our faith –– show to us God's mercy and loving grace.
I am reminded that the staircase is like the eight Beatitudes described in Matthew 5:1-12 because they are all aspects of being in close communion with God.
There is a pattern and a progression. Each step leads to the next. Remove any one of steps, and we fall or we are stopped. It is a carefully built staircase. The steps are not in a random order. To reach the second step, we need to make it past the first step.
We are directed to keep climbing, even when it seems it takes every ounce of our strength to keep going up. It's difficult to put one foot in front of the other on some days.
We don't know why, but for some this flight of stairs is a long one.
The Lord has made a way where there is no way, if we just keep walking, keep climbing, keep trusting in his guidance which whispers in our spirit.
As we keep climbing, sometimes we wonder if we will ever make it to the top. Our muscles and bones ache and our heart pounds with fatigue at times.
We pray for an another route to make the climb easier, but there is none.
Keep walking and keep climbing.
We must consciously make a choice to go to the next step, and God is not in a hurry. He waits patiently, lovingly and relentlessly for us to catch our breath and relax along the way.
At these times of rest, we know that by looking down, we see and comprehend what we have overcome just to get to this place. But if we look up at the number of stairs still left to climb, it seems daunting and almost overwhelming.
God showed me that we cannot look at only the stairs. We need to fix our eyes on what we cannot see. We must gaze at the top, keep looking up, and taking one step at a time. It's by faith that we walk.
Our soul speaks to us and prods us on because we know that climbing back down would be a mistake. Going back down is not an option.
There is no going back. We've been set free.
At times we just want to sit right where we are at without continuing in the climb. We just hang out for a while in one place.
That's a time of rest. But we shouldn't get too content and we must continue upward and know that the temptation to stop is not a viable option because we hear the Lord calling us to keep climbing.
In our heart, we know that when we finally arrive, we will be so happy we kept climbing. There is no hurry, but no advantage to slowing down either. So we pray today for a steady pace, understanding each level and making a conscious decision to move up and onward as we climb the stairs on this day.
 Be blessed.

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Have a teachable spirit

Greetings:
One of the keys of growing in our Christian walk is having a teachable spirit.
As we delve deeper into God's Word and begin to understand what is said our mind and past religious teachings can sometime get in the way of our comprehension.
Often in my early years of being a Christian I can recall saying to myself 'that's not the way I was taught'.
We read it, see it in letters, words and sentences, but it doesn't soak in.
That's where we call on the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds and open our hearts to understand God's truths and the light that connects our mind with our soul is turned on.
Proverbs 9:9 says,  “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; Teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.”
The benefits of having a heart that is open to instruction are exemplified in the lives of many Bible characters both in the Old and New Testaments.
Moses was a meek man with a teachable heart and spirit.
God was faithful to lead Moses step by step in his journey giving him instruction along the way. Moses was also hungry to learn from and lean on the Lord’s guidance.
David was  a man who sought to do God’s will.
Psalm 25:4 says, “Show me your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.”
David was  repeatedly calling out to God asking for his guidance and instruction.
 “Lead me in your truth, and teach me: for you are the God of my salvation; on you do I wait all the day.” David says in Psalm 25:5.
In Psalm 27:11 he cries out ,“Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me in a level path, because of my enemies.”
And in Psalm 86:11, he calls on God and says, “Teach me your way, O LORD; I will walk in your truth: unite my heart to fear your name.”
In David’s words we learn of the relationship between being teachable and following God. When we ask the Lord to teach us, we must accompany our request with a heart and desire to do his will. As we seek to know God’s will, we must understand that the process of discerning God’s will for our lives requires us to learn from him. It is imperative to have a teachable spirit.
Jesus himself was a great example of being teachable.
In Luke 2:40 it is written, “And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.”
Jesus showed us that our ultimate teacher is not man, but God our Father. By giving us the Holy Spirit, the Father has made it possible for us to also listen to him and learn to follow his leading.
In John 14:26 it is written, “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
It is tempting to try doing God’s will in our own wisdom and with our own strength.  Instead of trying to figure everything out in our heads, we should aim to discern the voice of God’s Spirit more intimately in our hearts.
Spending time studying God’s Word is essential to our growth in Christ.  But simply reading the Bible won’t do the trick.  We must approach God’s Word with a teachable heart and a willing spirit and ask God to open our eyes to his great things with understanding and comprehension of what it all means.
Be blessed.

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Do what The Word says

Greetings:
This is a subject I've written about before, but it's heavy on my heart this morning so I want to share my thoughts.
How many times have we said, even cried out to God, ‘What do You want me to do? If you just show me, I’ll do it.
I've lost count of the number of times I spoke to God in this way, but despite my pleading he did not give me a specific task or job to do other than writing about my Word and the use of my God-given talents.
I've tried to do that in the last 11 months or so with daily message blog and many months have included photos that I have taken.
I have been blessed with compliments many times and learned through the tracking statistics that this blog has been viewed by individuals from 11 foreign countries aside from those in the United States.
I sincerely thank God for using me in this way.
On recent day when I was struggled to come up with a topic to write about I again prayed to God, “What do you want me to do?”
I was led to John 6:28-29 (Amplified Bible), which tells of the crowds of people questioning Jesus about doing the works of God.
“They then said, What are we to do, that we may [habitually] be working the works of God? [What are we to do to carry out what God requires?]
Jesus replied, This is the work (service) that God asks of you: that you believe in the One Whom He has sent [that you cleave to, trust, rely on, and have faith in His Messenger].”
His answer is so simple – believe in Him!
These words from Jesus hit me between the eyes and reminded me that we are ‘human beings’ not ‘human doings’. It’s not what we do, it’s who we are and what we believe in our hearts that is important to God.
Look at Hosea 6:6, “For I desire and delight in dutiful steadfast love and goodness, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of and acquaintance with God more than burnt offerings.”
Jesus himself quoted this scripture to the Pharisees when they asked why He ate with tax collectors and sinners in Matthew 9:10-13.
In Matthew 25:35-36 Jesus gives us our mission, our task for each day when he tells the parable about the sheep and the goats and describes the mercy we can all do every day. By doing these things for others Jesus said that we do them for Him.
The scripture reads: “For I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you brought Me together with yourselves and welcomed and entertained and lodged Me, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you visited Me with help and ministering care, I was in prison and you came to see Me.”
Does anything else need to be said? That's my mission. That's your mission. Let's get on with God work and be the Word in action.
Be blessed.

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Let God direct the paths

Greetings:
Letting go and letting God direct our paths is sometimes a tall tasks for myself.
I'm not the most patient person and letting go for me is no easy task. Sometimes, it's painful when we know what God is telling us, we know what the Word says, then we still go ahead and try to do it our way.
How has that worked out for us?
I like to be in control, but  I am slowly learning to trust God for things that are beyond my control.
How many of you know that we can not hurry up God or move ahead of God and find success in our prayers and petitions.
Laying our burdens on the altar requires faith.
Too many times, we want to give it to God, but then try to remind him all of the circumstances that are going to hamper him from doing what we have asked.
God doesn't need to know all that. He knows the outcome, he just wants us to line-up our faith with his Word in the Bible and wait for the Word to manifest.
I am constantly reminded that we serve God best when we step aside in obedience and just watch God work. It's then that I we realize that God really is in control.
Do you remember the action of Moses' mother. She physically let her baby go when she put him in the basket and placed it in the water to save him. Because she trusted God, she was given the opportunity to do more for her son than she could of ever hoped for.
Could we as parents do that?
What does it say in Psalm 50:15?
It reads,“Call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.”
This morning, I ask you to join me in asking God to help us to be able to get out of the way and let go and let God work in our lives.
Letting go is not giving up.
Giving up is quitting.
That's not what we're talking about.
Letting go is allowing God to direct our paths and next moves in a walk of faith.
Be blessed.
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"It's finished", receive your answer to prayer

Greetings:
How many of you are frustrated when it seems your prayers are not answered?
We pray and pray and pray and it seems like God has a deaf ear to your petitions.
Believe me it happens. But much of it depends on us and how we pray.
More and more I am understanding that God has already done his part.
When Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished” as we read in John 19:30, He meant just that. His work on earth was done.
The atonement for our sins was complete. He provided everything we could ever need. We aren’t waiting on him to give us anything. He is waiting on us to receive.
Ephesians 1:3 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
Any blessing we could ever need or desire from the Lord is not something to strive for, but something you already have.
The verse says 'has blessed us”. It doesn't say he is going to at some time in the future bless us. It says it has already been done.
God made the provision before we had the need. It is just a simple matter of receiving what he has already done.
1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
Again, the verse says “you have been”, that's past tense – meaning it has already been done.
It’s already a done deal. So, why do we pray for healing to happen in the future.
Instead, we should just receive the healing that the Lord has already provided. There is a difference between fighting to get healed and fighting because we have been healed. That difference is the difference between success and failure.
The Lord has been showing me this truth through my study and revelation knowledge from the Holy Spirit  in recent months and these truths have become alive on the inside.
Many people just can’t grasp them, because they are trapped in their five senses. If they can’t see it, taste it, smell it, touch it, or hear it, they don’t think it exists. Therefore, when you say they have already been healed, they check their physical bodies with their five senses, and if they don’t look or feel healed, they say they aren’t.
God moves in the spiritual realm. Whether or not we see manifest in the physical realm what he has done in the spiritual realm is not dependent on his giving but on our own receiving.
Sometimes the physical manifestation of what God has already done comes with little effort. Other times, there is major demonic opposition that hinders the manifestation of what God has commanded.
We have to know and believe that God has already done his part and that any delay in our manifestation is not his fault. That will keep us in faith. Remember that faith is our positive response to what God has already done by grace.
If I hand you a gift, you don't have to keep praying and ask for it. You already have it. Open it,  enjoy it and be thankful for it.
It's the same thing with God.
Press on in praise, worship and thanksgiving what what God has done and thank him for answered prayer. It might take a only a few minutes, a day, a week, a month, a year or more to manifest, but keep praising and thanking.
We must thank him, thank him and thank him some more for answers to our prayers.
Be patient and know it is God's will for us to be whole and that means healed.
We don't have to ask for it. We just have to receive it and be thankful that God loved us enough to provide the means and the provision for us to be saved, healed and delivered.  It's a deal that is already signed, sealed and delivered to each of us as believers.  Receive it and be thankful because we know the price was paid in full by the Lord Jesus when he died for us on the cross.
Be blessed.

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Open our eyes to be compassionate

Greetings:
The first verse to a popular Christian song “Mighty to Save” by Hillsong, which was written by Rodney Claswson shares a strong message for all Christians today.
It says:
“Everyone needs compassion
A love that's never failing, let mercy fall on me
Well, everyone needs forgiveness
The kindness of a Savior, the hope of nations.”
How true this is. The principle of compassion is the very heart of Christ. The ministry of Jesus flowed from His heart of compassion toward those in need.
Compassion is a word of action. It is the heartfelt care for another with both the intent and action.
Throughout the Old and New Testaments the revelation of God's compassionate character is revealed through his acts of kindness and concern for human suffering. From the beginning of creation God reveals himself as a God of covenant love — one who deeply cares for his people.
Though man sinned, God again and again performed acts of kindness and love to the  people.
Through the demonstration of his life, Jesus calls the people of God to practice love, kindness, compassion, discipleship and servanthood toward those they encounter on a daily basis –– our neighbors, the people we work wit, the people who go to church with, the people on the community in which we live.
The uniqueness and the power of Jesus' ministry rests in his concern for others
The poor, disenfranchised, suffering, and those looked down in society are precious in God's eyes. Jesus cares for the oppressed and downtrodden – those are the people of our own personal mission field right in the backyard where we live.
God's overall view of caring with compassion for those who are suffering can be summed up in Galatians 6:10 (KJV), which reads: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
Notice it says we are to do good to all men as we have opportunity.
I once attended a newly-founded church in Morganfield, KY, that was called “Household of Faith” that had a mission to do just what Galatians 6:10 talks about.
It was a church of action that helped many in the community with an open, non-judging heart. The church exhibited love to many, including my family and I in a time when things were not going well for us financially or spiritually. They church's members reached out and helped us, encouraged us, taught us the Word of God and simply accepted us with Christ-like love.
It made a life-changing difference in our lives to which we will remain forever grateful.
Do we have eyes and ears to see and hear the opportunities to do good to those around you?
Doing 'good' is action.
Doing 'good' is not just seeing a hurting individual, but taking a step further to do something about it.
Doing 'good' is doing more than just praying for a person. It is doing what we can to meet the physical and spiritual needs of that person.
Doing 'good' might mean some sacrifice of time and a portion of our wealth. Meeting needs sometimes does cost money, but it is income that God has provided us with anyway so it is really his, so give with an open heart, with a heart of love and a heart of compassion.
When we are a receiver of works of compassion, we also have to learn to receive it, which requires the tearing away of ego and pride, which is not easy.  But we have to learn that God wants us to long for and expect to receive.
We have to become a gracious receiver.
In Isaiah 30:18 (Amplified Bible) we read: “And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!
The Church and we as Christians can do no less.
Let us seek to be compassionate –– to walk in it daily.
The Church is to be the conduit through which people experience the steadfast love and compassion of God. It is the responsibility of the Church to minister to those in need, to bring the healing and comforting touch of Christ without partiality.
Be blessed and be a blessing on this day.

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Time to get serious - with God

Greetings:
Time stands still for no one.
Each day we grow older as life's clock continues to move with each second's tick.
Standing still is something age never does.
As time goes on, we and the people around us create memories.
We should cherish each and every one of those memories because we don't know the hour or the second, when life as we know it on this earth will end.
In that light, our prayers and actions should be sincere and focused on God, helping others and filled with a yearning to know more and do more.
Let's get it straight.
There are only two spiritual Kingdoms – the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil.
The Kingdom of God is the place where Jesus is King. In God's Kingdom there is peace, there is love, there is hope for the future. There is joy, healing, mercy, justice and living faith.
In Satan's kingdom is pride, lust, disappointment, anger, hatred, bitterness, mockery, anguish, torment and strife.
Anyone who is living for themselves is pleasing the devil because the devil stands for independence from God and a rejection of God's authority to rule. Our separation from God costs us more than we could possibly imagine, and part of the tragedy is that so many people don't see it.
They are so deceived by a different spirit.
We must develop a hunger for God and his Word. We must yearn for more of God and thirst for his teaching, his praise, his worship and his holy presence.
Do you get itchy if your church service goes over an hour, or the preacher takes an extra 10 minutes? Is one service per week your limit?
Look at Acts 2 and we learn that people of the early church met together in the temple every day. They spent their time learning the apostles teaching, sharing, breaking bread, and praying together every day.
Church group wasn’t a hobby, or a part-time commitment.
So what was the secret? What drew these faithful fellowship fans? Was it their cutting-edge media presentations, on plasma screens or an app on their smart phones?
Or maybe it was that their lives were easier, and they were just kicking back with nothing else to do?
That's hardly the case. Everything about their lives was harder, took longer, and was less convenient. There was nothing modern, stream-lined or with short cuts.
And yet, their encounter with Jesus transformed their priorities so much that they hungered to gather in the presence of God, and believe His promise that, ‘Where two or three gather together as My followers, I am there among them’  as it says in Matthew 18:20 NLT.
Taking God seriously means spending time with Him meeting other Christians, hearing His Word together, and encouraging one another as we read in Hebrews 10:25.
It’s a time commitment thing.
There is nothing more true, right, pure or excellent than God’s Word. We are to embed His Word in our heart - run God’s Word through our mind - think about the Word of God often.
God's Word is our offensive and defensive weapon in the spiritual battle with evil.
If you want to know what Jesus said in the Bible – red the red-colored words. Those are his Words. Follow them.
We are in a mighty battle - don’t just sit there and think that it doesn’t concern us - that it doesn’t affect us. It’s time to make a stand and get serious about God - the enemy is serious and he’s out to destroy each of us. Do we really believe God exists? Do we believe his Word?
Then we must act like it, talk like it, and believe it. This is not a recreation game. It's a war.
Be blessed.
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Seek widsom to find peace

Greetings:
Our daily prayers ought to include some petition for wisdom. Oh, how my life would have been filled with much less pain and suffering for myself and my family, if I had used a portion of wisdom that God has already granted to each of us.
Decisions need to be based on Godly wisdom, not on feelings, emotions or on what we 'think' is the right thing to do.
There are several keys to gaining wisdom –– prayer and reading God's Word are essential.
In the Biblical sense, wisdom is the ability to judge correctly and to follow the best course of action, based on knowledge and understanding.
The Wisdom teachings of the Bible follow from the two great themes of the Ten Commandments and the Greatest Commandments of Jesus : reverence to God our Creator, and respect for all persons, everywhere.
A set of commandments or rules can give us important examples of wisdom, but they are only examples. No set of rules can cover all situations, and it is up to us to generalize the commandments to all cases.
Wisdom means always acting according to the spirit of the Commandments and understanding the consequences of our actions and words before we act or speak. Wisdom means having the knowledge and understanding to recognize the right course of action and then having the will and courage to follow it.
Look at James 3:13-18 (NIV) to understand the blessings that follow wisdom.
“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.  Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.  Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”
Look all through the Proverbs for other example of Godly wisdom. Solomon, believed to be the wisest man who ever lived, is the author of the Proverbs.
Following the ways of wisdom helps bring us in harmony with God because these ways are in accordance with His will, as revealed in the Bible, and are pleasing to Him.
Wisdom also brings us in harmony with ourselves, giving us a sense of self-worth and inner peace. This inner peace is achieved because we are acting in accordance with our consciences and avoiding the shame and guilt of following our instincts.
Be wise and follow the advice from King Solomon in Proverbs 4:5-7, which reads:
“Get wisdom, get understanding;  do not forget my words or turn away from them.
Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have,  get understanding.”
Be blessed.
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Overcome fear with the Word

Greetings:
The Lord slowed me down yesterday and I had a lot of time to think and pray. God showed me about fear.
For me, I have a fear of snakes or any critters that crawl on their bellies, high places and driving at very fast speeds.
I also fear dark, confined places like caves
On a very personal level, I have a fear of failure, but God is showing me my fears are simply a lack of faith.
As I laid in bed yesterday recovering from some kind of a flu bug, the message I kept hearing in my spirit was “There is no reason to fear. There is no reason to fear. There is no reason to fear.”
I was assured that God is bigger than any of the fears that can come into my mind and my soul and spirit are guarded if I speak the Word.
Former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt assured people as the nation approached World War II by saying, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
The Bible makes an even bolder promise: We have nothing to fear, period.
This doesn't mean our lives will be trouble-free -- far from it. But the message of God's Word is that fear -- of enemies, of the future, of failure, whatever -- need not dominate our lives and paralyze us.
Psalm 23:4-6 (New Living Translation) says,
“Even when I walk through the darkest valley,
I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.
You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
My cup overflows with blessings.
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”
Fear is a very powerful emotion and can have a negative effect on our spirit, soul, and body. We all have things that we are afraid of, and life provides us with plenty of things to worry about.
Joyce Meyer writes, “Listen to me on this: Everyone experiences fear. There are big fears that we’re very aware of and little ones that we may not even realize we have. Fear is a tool the devil uses to make us miserable and destroy our lives. Because it’s such a common way that Satan attacks people’s lives, I think of it as the master spirit he uses to manipulate people and keep them out of God’s will.”
Being a Christian does not mean we will never experience fear or have worries. The Bible does not ignore this very human emotion. Instead, it offers us an alternative to living in bondage to fear. Are you afraid? Fearful? Worried? Anxious?
You can overcome fear and worry!
Fear seeks to strip us of power, strip us of love and cause us to lose all sense of control of who we are. Fear robs us of our identity in Christ and ultimately causes us to bring down others with us. Because after all, misery loves company.
We must repent of our fears.
Fear is the opposite of faith.
Until we understand that we are an heir of the kingdom, we will continue to live like an orphan. Only orphans live in fear because they have no one to care for them. We are not orphans. This isn’t something we have to strive for. It is ours. We simply have to receive it.
The word repent literally means “change of mind”. The enemy comes with intimidation tactics. Once we stand our ground, he has to flee. It’s time for the sons and daughters of God to take their place and resist the spirit of fear.
Be blessed.
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Look to be joyful

Greetings:
Joy is something that should be a part of every Christian's life. It is not merely icing on the cake to be tasted once in a while.
Joy is a fruit of the Spirit. We often consider happiness or joy as something that happens to us, not something that should flow from us. We don’t consider joy as a duty to be performed, but as an emotional state to be received passively and involuntarily. But when we look at the concept of joy in the Bible, it is expressed as something we do by faith.
Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.…”
Unhappiness and a lack of joy, in many circumstances, is a manifestation of the flesh. Certainly, there are times when we are filled with sorrow. We must understand that it is legitimate to feel sorrow and grief. But a person can have a sense of joy even in the midst of mourning and profound grief. This is because our sorrow is directed toward a circumstance, but our joy is focused on and flows from God.
Joy, therefore, not being opposed to sorrow, is a fruit of the Spirit. It is our duty to be joyful: “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” Being joyful is a matter of the will. The key to being joyful all the time is “in the Lord.” If Christ is in me and I in Him, that relationship is constant. Therefore, there is always a reason for joy. That is why, in the midst of difficulties, we can rejoice in Christ—or because He is always present in us.
Remember the words of John 15:11, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full".
Be blessed.
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Are we there yet?

Some of the most vivid memories I have from when our two daughters were growing up were the road trips we would take to go back to my hometown in southern Indiana to visit with family.
Back then, we didn't have DVD players in the back seat to watch a movie or smart phones to play games on to keep the girls quiet and content on this road journey.
 So on those trips, there was always one question that they would ask over and over again, "Are we there yet?"
I would imagine that now that they are grown up, married and have young children of their own, they can fully understand the plight their mother and I experienced on the road trips.
But in a way, we all still ask that question all the time. We may not vocalize it, but when you and I go through troubles in this life… and we sense that longing for heaven's touch deep down… we quietly ask, "Are we there yet?"
The Bible is clear that God has placed in the heart of every believer an eager anticipation for our heavenly home. God wants us to long for that day and to use that longing as a motivation to finish well in our short time here on earth.
I love how the apostle Paul describes these feelings of longing in Philippians 3:10-20 (New International Version). It reads:
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,  and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.  All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.  For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The day you and I, as believers, come face to face with Jesus in heaven will be glorious. There's great hope in what's to come if you know Jesus personally.
I attended a beautiful celebration life funeral service this week and that fact was brought forward by all who spoke. Death is the beginning of our new happiness, a reunion with those who have passed before us. A time to relish victory because we have arrived at the place we are seeking – heaven.
We should all rejoice when another believer passes on because they have ran their race here on this earthly soil and now is their time of rest and eternal contentment.
It's so important to remember that this life is a temporary stop. As the Scripture says in James 4:14, life "is… a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."
It is also wise to recognize that while we are here on earth, God wants us to lean into him when things get tough. The Scripture is full of exhortations for believers to remain steadfast in the face of hard times. In fact, you are even told to "Count it all joy… when you meet trials of various kinds"  in James 1:2.
Even though we may be going through a difficult situation where we're asking, "Are we there yet?", it is in these difficult times that we need to cling close to God and his promises.
The hope that we have is that our present sufferings are temporary and, as the Scripture says, "are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18). So whatever it is in our life that's making us long for home, it's my prayer that you will stay strong in Christ and finish well!
Do you know what the best part of those long road trips were? It was when the car would pull into the driveway of my in-laws home and I would stop the vehicle and say, "We're here!".
One day when we as a believer in Christ reach heaven, our heavenly Dad will look at us and say, "You're here!"
Until that day comes, push forward in sharing God with others and let us follow him passionately in every aspect of our lives.
The final destination is worth the wait, but take full advantages of the opportunities we all have each day to let our light shine and impact the lives of others by what we say and what we do.
Be blessed.

These morning messages are now available by email. Simply write me with you email address at schneider.nick@gmail.com, and I'll be happy to forward them to your in-box. Also, all of the photos in my daily blog are for sale. Contact me for pricing.

Be the church

Greetings:
More and more God is impressing on me that we as Christian need to do more to impact our communities.
We can no longer be content with 'just going to church'.
Spending time in prayer, worship and praise is key to satisfy our own spiritual needs and yearnings.
We need to reach out into our community, identify the needs and then become the feet and hands who will see that the 'human' needs of those who live in our neighborhood are met.
We're talking about providing food, clothing, medical supplies and mechanical needs. We need to mentor, encourage those in need and struggling and teach job-seeking skills, business skills, mechanical skills and 'fix it up' skills.
We need to be ready to provide teachings in general life skills such as cooking, shopping, and New Testament in the Bible and see that the Corinthians believers wanted to be loved but did not want to put out the effort of being loving and caring to others. To put it mildly, they were not a warm a friendly church. Instead they were proud and selfish.
What makes us different? What makes us attractive when there are so many other organizations or groups to meet with? Why should I become a Christian and attend a bible-believing church when I can stay home and worship with some other church on TV?
We live in a world that is obsessed with being extra-ordinary.
Some buy only award-winning ice cream, the highest-rated brands of electronic goods  and name brand stuff.
Successful authors write 'best sellers' and chefs only use 'extra, extra' virgin olive oil from Italy.
But spiritually speaking, we seldom reflect how extra-ordinary Christians truly are.
The word 'church' is actually a old German word (kirch) for the Latin term of the Greek word 'called out.'
We as a church are called out to be the compassionate people who reach out to touch the poor, the hunger, the dejected, the shunned, the criminal, the hurting, the searching individuals – young and old – in our communities and shower them with the love, hope and salvation offered by Jesus Christ. But before we touch their souls we must first minister to physical bodies and their minds.
A shift back to the biblical definition of church is is needed.
Do we want to continue to be just a consumer church that merely dispenses some religious words and sings a few hymns or songs of praise and then go home – thinking our duties have been satisfied for another week?
A church of action is a church that has burden to be a missional church that is seen as a body of people sent on a mission who gather in community for worship, encouragement, and teaching from the Word that supplements what they are feeding themselves throughout the week.
Members say, "I am the church"
People can't help but feed deeply on the Scriptures on their own to keep their hearts soft and their minds sharp and ready to give an answer of hope they have to those they interact with.
The missional church people see themselves as ambassadors of Jesus and are motivated to live holy, kingdom-minded lives so that they do not dishonor the name of the King they represent.
We once attended a church in western Kentucky called “Household of  Faith” that was founded on the principal laid forth in Galatians 6:10 (New Living Bible), which states, “Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.”
God help us to see the opportunities in our towns, cities and our county. Help us to do good when we have the opportunity to do so.
We pray that we will see our church body as a family, as a community on a mission together.
What is needed a change of spiritual attitude among many believers, who are good people but lack the vision to see the need that is living all around them. Too many times we are blind and don't see that which is staring us in the face.
We all have a mission to do. Please don't become content like the Church of Corinth was before the Apostle Paul spoke boldly and truthfully to them. They were encouraged to step out, reach out and display real brotherly love.
We would do well to reach both books of Corinthians and then get on our knees and pray for God's guidance and discover what our purpose and our mission is to make a difference in the communities where we live.
Be blessed.

These morning messages are now available by email. Simply write me with you email address at schneider.nick@gmail.com, and I'll be happy to forward them to your in-box. Also, all of the photos in my blog are for sale. Contact me for pricing.