Listen carefully in the stillness of prayer

Greetings:
Our God is so good and always there when we need him.
The trouble is we don't hear his voice because we have not devoted the time in prayer to be able to hear him and recognize his voice when he does speak to us
Then, when we don't hear him, we take things upon ourselves running too quickly, unproductive, confused engulfed in busyness and always pushing -- ahead of God.
Instead we are commanded in Psalm 46:10 to "Be still and know I am God.
Our spirit can thrive in solitude, silence and the stillness of our prayer time, if we use it properly.
Be blessed.

We are in good hands with God

Greetings:
We are always in good hands with God.
Scripture teaches that our God does neither slumber nor sleep. Rather,  he continually protects us. Here is what is written in the Psalms 121:1-8 (NIV) “Lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going  both now and forevermore."
Since God is our protector, He delivers us out of our dangers. 
I like the Living Bible version of Psalm 91, which reads: "Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you. Just open your eyes, and see how the wicked are punished.

If you make the Lord your refuge, if we make the Most High our shelter, no evil will conquer us; no plague will come near your home.  For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!
The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.”
Understanding this concept increases our love for God and assures us of God's love, protection, and provision for each of us.
Let us remember that the umbrella for us is a perfect reminder that we are always under God's watchful eye, his care, and his protection. 
Delight that God protects us with that always present umbrella of love and care.
Be blessed.

Pray without ceasing

Greetings:

I am becoming more and more aware of the importance of prayer in my walk with God.

But what does it mean in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 when it says we are to pray without ceasing? How is that possible?

To me, praying without ceasing means several things.

We need to have a personal spirit of dependence on prayer. Even when we are not speaking consciously to God in prayer, there is a deep personal dependence on him that is woven into our heart through faith. 

In that way, we have the spirit of prayer continuously.
I believe praying without ceasing means praying repeatedly and often. 

Look at Romans 1:9 (NIV), where Paul says, "God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you.”
Now we can be sure that Paul did not mention the Romans every minute of his prayers. He prayed about many other things. But he mentioned them over and over and often. So "without ceasing" doesn't mean that verbally or mentally we have to be speaking prayers every minute of the day. But we should pray over and over and often. 

We are not talking about repetitive prayers written in a book. We are mean heart-felt, heart-born, heart-serious prayers.

Our mental mindset should first be: "O God . . ." I think praying without ceasing means not giving up on prayer. Don't ever come to a point in your life where you cease to pray at all. Never abandon the God of hope. 

So the key to delight in the Word of God is to pray continually - that is, to lean on God all the time. Never give up looking to him for help, and come to him repeatedly during the day and night.
I think it would be good to notice here that in real life some discipline in regular prayer times helps keep this kind of spontaneity alive. We should have a disciplined regular meeting with God. 
That time is what works for you. 

Your 'prayer time' will be different than mine, but it is essential that we set aside a personal time to praise him, honor him with our request and then listen to him. Slow down and listen to God's instructions, his lessons and what your steps need to be.

In the Old Testament we read that Daniel had some remarkable communion or prayer time with God when it was critically needed, even when the decree was passed that no one could pray except to the king, under penalty of death. But what did Daniel do, according to Daniel 6:10 (NIV), “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before.”

Daniel was committed to prayer no matter what. 

Do we have the same commitment?

We are to pray in order to have the delight in God and his Word that will keep us meditating and fruitful and durable and spiritually prosperous and healthy.
What do we pray to keep the fires of delight in God's Word burning?

For many of us our hearts incline more to the computer or the TV than the Word of God. We should plead with God that he reaches in and change our inclinations, our hearts so that we love to read and meditate on the testimonies of God.

We need to pray that we have spiritual eyes to see great and wonderful things in the Word, so that their desires and delights would be sustained by truth, by reality. Psalm 119:18 (NIV) says, "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.”

If we are going to be inclined to the Word and stay with it and delight in it and meditate on it, we must see more than dull facts, we must see "wonderful things." 
We must see that God's Word is alive. That is the work of the Spirit to give you a mind to see great things for what they really are. Prayer and the Word of God are tied together. The Word is the means God uses to fill our minds and hearts with truth about him that makes us fruitful and durable in drought and prosperous into eternity. 

Nobody becomes like a tree planted by water by prayer alone. It is by the delighting in the Word and meditating on it continually that we grow.

Be blessed.

Our words are lasting; be careful how they are delivered

Greetings:
The words we speak and write can have a tremendous impact.
It is important to remember that whatever words we utter or write should be chosen with care because people will hear them and read them and be influenced by them for good or evil. 
As a writer I know how words are constructed and how the meanings can be altered by something as simple as the placement of a comma.
The basic tool for the manipulation of truth is the manipulation of words. If one can control the meaning of words, one can control the people who use those words.
Likewise, the basic tool for the preservation of the truth is the preservation of God's words. If one understands the original meaning of God's words, we can more easily recognize those who try to manipulate and control others through deception and the altering of the original definitions of words.
How many times have you said, “Oh, I wish I hadn't said that.”
Our spoken words cannot be retrieved or re-written.
The spoken word is powerful.

Proverbs 12:18, tells us “...the tongue of the wise is health." 
As in the health of the body, a doctor can often assess our state of health by looking at our tongues.
The same is true in the spiritual realm. 
James tells us in James 1:26 that the way a man uses his tongue is a test of his spiritual strength.
He also says that if a man can control his tongue he is a perfect man (James 3:2).
Jeremiah was told in Jeremiah 15:19 by the Lord that he could be God's mouthpiece only if he was careful about the way he used his tongue - if he separated the precious from the vile in his conversation.
Therefore, we should be very careful about the words that we choose to speak.
The words that Christ spoke testified who he was. 
God told Moses he would raise up a Prophet (Jesus) and would put His words in his mouth Jesus confirmed this in John 14:10 by teaching that the words he spoke were not from himself, but from his Father.
Our words also reflect who we are.
Proverbs 12:18 says, “There are those who speak rashly, like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”
Can you think of some simple words that have big meanings?
How about...thank you, I appreciate you, you are amazing, I forgive you, good job, bless you, I'm sorry and I love you?
Let us learn from The Word of God what kind of words we need to be saying and writing to uplift those around us.
Be blessed.

Let us always remember this day

Greetings:
The date Sept. 11, 2001 will forever stand out as a day to remember and reflect on our nation and its future.
On this day, 19 cowardly, heinous terrorists flew commercial planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and into a field in Pennsylvania.
The September 11 attacks resulted in 2,996 immediate deaths and 2,977 victims. The 19 hijackers also perished.
These suicide attacks on our nation that produced horrific carnage stunned the world and caused many to turn for consolation in spiritual faith and God's Holy Word.
This just wasn't an attack on the United States. More than 90 countries lost citizens in the attacks on the World Trade Center alone.
In different degrees we all experienced a kind of emotional meltdown that day and for some time afterward.
The pain and grief of 9/11 has moderated some, but still they remain so real years later. 
We have had other attacks and threats by the cowardly Islamic terrorist ISIS. These are real  threats that we all need to take seriously and be praying for God's protection and guidance on how to eradicate this human cancer.
The wise know that there can be such a thing as good grief — not that tragedy and death are good, certainly, but that there can nevertheless be something good coming out of the pain that follows them. 
Good grief finds hope grounded in truth. It’s a much large challenge when violence and tragedy strike on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001,  but the principle remains the same. We must not let something like 9/11 make us run from God's truth, when what we need is to run toward it all the more.
One part of that unwavering truth is that evil is real. We all saw the manifestation of evil that historic day.
Let us take comfort on this day from the words that Pa

ul etched in Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,  filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.
On this day let us remember the many innocent lives lost that day and the lessons learned that day. This nation was rocked on 9-11, but let it be said and remembered that the U.S.A. still stands strong, a blessed nation where freedom reigns and in God's holy name is where our trust lies.
Let us never forget what we felt that day. Remembering that hurt and sorrow will make us strong in our faith. We were punched hard, but we arose from the disappointment and shock of that blow to the depths of our souls. 
Let us call on God and all his names: El Shaddai - God Almighty, the All Sufficient One; Immanuel - God with Us; El Olam - the All Poweful One, The Creator; Jehovah - the One Who Is; Jehovah Jireh -The Lord Will Provide; El Elyon - The God Most High; Adonai - My Great Lord; El - The Strong One; El Elohe Yisrael - The God of Israel; Elohim - the All Powerful One and  El Roi - The God Who Sees Me; to look over this great nation of ours for protection during these turbulent days.
Be blessed.

Put your trust in something you can trust

Greetings:
We are commanded to trust - meaning to put our confidence in, to be bold, to feel secure, and to rest easy in The Lord. 
God desires that we turn to him for our strength.
God desires that we rest safely knowing that His heart toward us is good...always.
God does allow distress, conflicts and hurts into our lives, but difficulties are our chance to let God work through our hearts to praise him through unshaken faith by his grace. 
If we want to grow stronger in our trusting of God, our faith will have to be stretched in order for this to happen. 
God knows the plan. He has revealed that plan in the Bible. Now, we as Christians, are charged with the task of following the plan.
There is no doubt that as Christians that we need to be pushed beyond where we feel we have things under control and where we sense that we are able to keep ourselves safe by our own means and power. 
Rather than trusting in our own strength, we ought to fall down before God and give our lives and our circumstances to him. 
God doesn’t want to merely come to our aid when things get beyond our control. God wants us to trust Him fully all the time. To trust Him with our hearts means that we let Him rule our thoughts, dictate our decision making, sanctify our emotions, and refine our desires. 
God desires full surrender, taking up our crosses, denying ourselves, and following Him
Read Matthew 16:24-26 if you want to know the criteria for being one of Jesus' followers. It says:“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”
The road to spiritual strength and growth is not for the faint of heart, but for those who know how to pray and are willing to put in the time to build strength and faith. Then, we are directed to follow.
We have to come trusting God and as we come accept by faith our own weakness and inability apart from him. Through God we can do all things as we read in Philippians 4:13, but without God, nothing of true spiritual worth or gain is possible just  it says in Matthew 19:26, “Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
There are no exceptions listed. God says everything is possible.
Be blessed.

Getting alone with God

Greetings:

There are times when we just need to get alone with God.

Feeling the presence of God is refreshing, reassuring and a great lift.

My spiritual relief valve or recharge place is grabbing my camera and seeking to capture photographic images of the beautiful countryside that we are blessed with by God's mighty creative hand.

 I look for the things that we see most days, but pass by without much thought. Those are the images I like to record and etch into photos for others to enjoy.

I do this from the windows of my car or just sitting peacefully on my deck.

I look for birds, animals, flowers, clouds, sunrises and sunset. I look at the trees  to see artistic formations. I look for the beauty of light and to see how it illuminates our countryside and a majestic way.

I look for the smiles of nature that gracefully gives us things that money can never buy.

We so blessed to live in an area where the work of God's majestic work is abound.

We can see it on sunny days and cloudy ones. We can see it in the morning, at mid-day, in the afternoon, at sunset and in the evening when sunshine gives way to bright stars and the illumination of the moon.

Look at Psalms 19:1-6 (NLT). It reads: “The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word;  their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun. It bursts forth like a radiant bridegroom after his wedding. It rejoices like a great athlete eager to run the race. The sun rises at one end of the heavens  and follows its course to the other end. Nothing can hide from its heat.”

The splendor and beauty that I'm talking about is not difficult to find. It's a place to get alone for that prayer time, that time of reflection and personal mediation.

The Gospels give a clear record of the priority Jesus gave to prayer and being alone with His Father.

One example is in Mark 1:35 (NIV), which reads: “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”

In my secret place I find joy and immense satisfaction, It's a place for me to know God's closeness, to hear His voice and sense His smile.

It's all priceless.

Be blessed.

God gets us through the tough times

Greetings:

I never want my daily writings to be a chore or simply a job that I am expected to do.

This is much more. It is a personal joy as I seek God’s guidance through prayer on what he wants me to share each morning.

I am so thankful that he prompts me and inspires me on what to write about.

Today, it’s a tough, but honest subject.

Suffering is a reality of life no matter how rich we think we are.

Only heaven is free of suffering.

In the meantime, we will suffer, loved ones will suffer, friends will hurt, and those in our community of influence will experience pain, some more severely than others.

 There will be times when it will be our turn to be comforted, and there will be times when it will be our role to do the comforting. Those who have experienced comfort know how valuable a ministry this is. Those who have not experienced it in their time of need know how badly it is needed. The ability to appropriately and genuinely comfort is a powerful ministry.

Today, I remember a friend Donna Kluesner, who just passed early this morning. She was a pillar of our county’s artisan community. She worked tirelessly to help acquire and restore the old library in Linton and turned it into a beautiful art gallery - Carnegie Arts Center - that has been enjoyed by many. I was fortunate enough to have a photo exhibit there a couple of years ago with my daughter and Donna was so encouraging to us.

She has battled a variety of ailments for a number of years and suffered.

I don’t know why good Christian people have to suffer so much pain in a world that is full of other people who despise and don’t follow God. That is something only God can answer.

God has shown me about the importance of being a comfort to others, a beacon of hope in a dark world.

The best comforters are those who genuinely care and are able to express their care. It is not necessarily comforting when someone tells us in our time of need, “Well, things could always be worse. After all, there’s got to be somebody who has it worse off than you.”

Maybe there is, and maybe there is not. Suffering is often very unique to the person. It brings little to no comfort at all to know that things could be worse when things are as utterly bad as they are.

Christ provides the ultimate example of what it means to comfort.

Psalm 23:4 says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

The key phrase is that Jesus is with us. He is not absent in our suffering. He is alongside of us.

 It is good enough just to know that God loves us and cares for us? It is sufficient to know that God is in complete control even when we hurt? It is enough to know that we have God?

Following Christ’s example is the best way to bring others comfort. We need leave no doubt that we support them, that we feel for them, that we care for them and that we won’t abandon them in their time of need.

The state of being comforted is a state of knowing that someone is there to watch over us and take care of us out of real and genuine love for us.

Where is the person who sympathizes?

Where is the person who will try to understand and listen?

Where is the person who will offer a shoulder to cry on?

Where is the person who weeps with those who weep?

Psalm 69:20 says, “Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick and I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.”

King David was alone and he didn't recognize his comfort was already there.

God is a God of comfort. It is time that we learn to be effective ministers of God’s comfort to a hurting world that believes there is no comfort, only pain.

Be blessed.

Hang onto your faith no matter what

  Greetings:

Faith is something we hear about often in any Christian walk. Faith is one of those things that is hard to describe because we can’t see it, touch it or feel it.

The Word says without faith it is impossible to please God. That should be enough to make each of us dig deep into The Bible and find out exactly what this thing is that we call faith.

Hebrews 11:1 would be a good place to start.

Over the last couple of years I have put together some of what I call ‘faith nuggets’ that express in my limited vocabulary what faith means to me.

This morning I will share a few of those.

+Have you ever felt like you were in sinking sand? God and faith are the only way out.

+It's pretty easy to believe and have faith when all is going well in our lives. But when we are hammered by the devil and feeling down, faith brings us through.

+Faith gives us the ability to hold our heads high in the midst of our personal life storms because we are confident there is going to soon be sunshine and peace.

+Faith allows us to wake each morning and say, "God, what can we do for you today."

+Our faith allows us to smile in a hurting world that needs God.

+Faith is walking into a dark storm and knowing with confidence that sunlight will soon be shining on you.

+Sometimes our lack of faith turns into doubt and robs us of a real blessing.

+Faith is not a Band-Aid. It's the complete fix for whatever we face.

+It is hard to take direction from God on some days and in some things without our own human conditions attached to it. That is where faith comes in.

+When God speaks to us, we need to step back and put what we feel away, put what we think away and put the whys away and just do it.

+You know it's God's direction if you have peace in your heart, even when your carnal mind might be telling you something different. Don’t be afraid to walk in faith.

+Faith gives you the boost when the mountains around us are crumbling.

+Faith can't be seen, but it is there every minutes of every day, if we believe.

+Faith is that invisible blessed assurance that everything is going to be okay.

In closing let me say that the world can be divided into two groups: those who have heard already the Good News of Jesus, and those who have not heard yet. I have confidence that God will take care of that latter group.

Be blessed.

Let the joy of The Lord be our strength

Greetings:
The Lord keeps impressing on me to let his joy be our strength when we are tired, drained and needing more than another cup of coffee or a hit from a 'Five Hour Energy' container.
Let the joy of the Lord lift us up and guide us on those long days and short sleepless night.
Let the joy of the Lord pick us up and direct our paths when we are lost and searching aimlessly for direction in our lives, our careers, our future.
Nehemiah 8:10 says, “This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
Read Nehemiah 8:1-12 and you will get a better feel for what is happening, and why the joy of the Lord is our strength, and what brings about real joy for us. 
In the passage, the people of Israel are encouraged to eat, drink and be joyful after they have heard the law of the Lord. It has been thoroughly explained by their teachers/preachers, and they have wept in repentance. 
And what do I hear God saying in all of this? Read the Bible, seek its meaning, repent, and then go and share over food and drink to receive real joy. 
This joy, gladness, is not happiness that depends on our circumstances and our moods, which has to do with our emotions or station in life. 
This joy is something that is constant. It is from within us because He lives within. One can have the same joy in terrible circumstance that they would have when all is well, the same attitude of being on the mountain top when they are in the valley.
Paul who wrote to churches from the solitude of a prison cell said to the Philippians “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord” (Phil. 3:1). 
Christian teacher Charles Spurgeon gives a marvelous explanation of the joy of the Lord being his strength. He says, “Never be content with hearing a sermon unless you can understand it, and if there be a truth that is above you, strain after it, strive to know it. Bible-reader, do not be content with going through the words of the chapter: pray the Holy Ghost to tell you the meaning, and use proper means for finding out that meaning; ask those who know, and use your own enlightened judgment to discover the sense. When shall we have done with formalism of worship and come into living adoration?”
There a song “The Joy of the Lord is my Strength” and at times the words run through my mind. When thinking these thoughts I am not bummed but uplifted. I realize that this is what Godly songs can do, they reiterate the Word and build our faith, our believing, because they are speaking the Word to us.
Joy is just part of our strength. When we have the joy of the Lord we will rely on the strength that God has given us. If we are joyful we can more easily trust in God who is our strength. 
In closing, my prayer is Romans 15:13 (NLT), which reads: “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Be blessed.

Trust to learn God's mysteries

Greetings:

The mysteries of the way God works are just that. They are a mystery to us, but a mystery worth looking into or investigating through studying his Holy Word.

For whatever his reasons, God has chosen to keep many things a mystery to us.

I guess some things of God are simply on a 'need to know' basis.

In Proverbs 3:5 (NIV), it says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

I like the words of Proverbs 3:4-5 in the Living Bible, which reads: “If you want favor with both God and man, and a reputation for good judgment and common sense, then trust the Lord completely; don’t ever trust yourself.”
  Until we know the answers, we need to keep looking, praying and asking for God's wisdom and discernment.

We have to believe beyond our ability to understand how our problems can be solved.

God has revealed many great and wonderful truths in His Word, but He has also withheld the meaning of many things. In many respects, it seems almost as if there are more things we don't understand than we do when it comes to whys and wherefores of the way God operates.

It must be remembered that God knows everything and thus He knows every detail regarding our lives, our bodies, our hearts and our minds. God knows what we have done with every minute of our lives. He knows the times we have trusted Him totally and the times we have drifted off to do our own thing.

There is nothing about us that is a mystery to God.

The mystery comes in us understanding what and how God thinks about us and our situations.

I take comfort in the words of Psalm 37:4-7 (NIV), which says, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 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 Gthis: 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...”

If there is one thing Jesus taught us it is that great patience and understanding must be manifested when dealing with people and their situations.

Jesus did not heal every person he met. Jesus did not tenderly allow every sinner to wash His feet. Jesus did not come to the defense of every person taken in the sin they were trapped in. Jesus looked at each person and each situation individually and dealt with them accordingly.

We must remember that God loves us not because we are healthy, wealthy or wise. God loves us because we are his children.

God is a God of great compassion and is always eager and willing to help us through difficult times.

God looks at our heart and he knows the battles we are facing. God will never judge or condemn us if we keep giving to him our challenges and keep trusting in him to take care of us.

Be blessed.

Grace is truly amazing

Greetings:
Grace is an interesting topic to discuss and some would like to turn it into a debate, but there is little to debate based on God's Word.
Grace means to receive something that we have not earned or we do not deserve.
We can not understand Christianity apart from a grasp of grace. The doctrine of grace distinguishes the Christian faith from every other religion in the world, as well as from the many cults.

By Christian definition, graces is God’s unmerited favor. 
We know that grace is a description of the character of God., which is displayed by his gifts to mankind.
We must remember that we haven't paid for and haven't earned grace. It is a free gift.
In God, we have redemption through the shed blood of Jesus Christ as well as the forgiveness of our trespasses (sins), according to the riches of His grace.
The Apostle Paul taught us a lot about grace and the power it produces.
In 2 Corinthians12:9-10 (NIV), we read: “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Grace works within the believer in such a way as to bring spiritual growth, maturity, and progress in our process of becoming Christ-like.
In Ephesians 1:7 we read, “In Him we have redemption through the blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.”
Grace continues to remind me of the goodness of God in his dealings with mankind in general, and with believers in particular. Whatever comes into our life, has come from the God of all grace, who has purposed to enrich our life by His gift, whether it be in what he gives or what he denies us.
It’s almost a shame that a word like grace, which is used for a quick prayer before a meal, is the same word we use to describe God’s unfathomable love for us as sinners. It is grace that moves God to offer us the free gift of salvation and forgiveness.
God is able to far surpass anything we ask or think – and he does it according to the power that works in us through grace.
God's amazing grace can be dumbfounding through our carnal eyes. But if we look thought our spiritual eyes it all comes into focus and we can see it, feel it and understand it.
May we we humbly trust God to pour out His amazing grace on us so our lives can bear fruit, produce good works, and increase our obedience based on His Holy Word..
Be blessed.

Going all in for God

Greetings:

In the card game Poker, when you declare 'all in' you are doing just that. You are wagering all of your available chips on the stock or worth of a particular hand.

You are betting on your hand to be better than anyone else's hand that is sitting around the table in confident hope of winning the 'pot' or the prize of the game.

In our Christian walk, are we 'all in' for God?

Is God first and foremost in our lives?

I read a quote last night and I don't know its origin, but it says, “Following Christ isn't something that can be done half-heartedly or on the side. It's not a label we can display when it's useful. It must be central to everything we do and are.”

In Matthew 6:33 there is a familiar scripture that says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”

When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the some of the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “

It says “Seek first the kingdom of God.”

Do we seek the kingdom of God first?

The great concern of many is our own personal lives, not the kingdom of God.

Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.

It does make sense.

If there is any hope for nation and the nations around the globe, it will be found in families turning back to God.

I hear many Christians say America needs to return to God. I hear many Christians lament that America no longer gives God His rightful place in our government or in our schools, but what are we doing about it?

I am concerned for Christian families today because I see a disconnect between what we say and what we do. The evidence of what we really believe is revealed in what we do and do not do.

Do you recall those first tender moments after your new born child arrived?

Do you remember holding the small vulnerable frame for the baby against your proud chest?

Do you remember caressing the soft skin and breathing in the fresh scent of baby powder?

Fast-forward a few years. The baby powder smell is gone. And, under normal circumstances, our expectations have changed. We continue love the child without condition. But we want them to do more than receive our love. We also want them to give theirs.

Like a helpless infant, we can do nothing to earn God’s favor. But that doesn’t mean we limit ourselves to passively basking in His tender, loving care. Like every good parent, God expects His children to grow up.

In Mark 12:30,  Jesus, when asked to identify God’s greatest commandment, quoted an ancient Hebrew text and said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

In John 14:15 Jesus, connected the dots between loving and doing when He said.

We read, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”

Jesus did teach that His disciples must make their relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, be focuse

d absolutely on God.

To seek the kingdom of God first is to desire to know God’s will and do it –– to seek God concerning your job, business, career choice, marriage or friends.

How many of you wish you could go back in time and seize the opportunity of wise counsel years ago to seek God’s first?

Do we give God the first hours of our day, worship Him, sing praises, talk to Him, read the Bible?

Do we wake up with God on our mind?

The benefit of being 'all in' for God is that He directs our path and we respond to His leading.

When our priorities are right, God is able to opens doors that no one can shut. Are we 'all in' for God?

Be blessed.

Remain thankful always

Greetings:

When the waves of strife drive our faces into the dirt, we must not give up, lose heart, or stop trusting God.

That's the time to get up, dust off and be thankful.

The Apostle Paul didn’t learn contentment overnight, but it was over time through a great deal of suffering that he learned not to overlook the basic, small provisions of God, but to be thankful for them.  With mere food and covering, he could be content. 

Sometimes, God allows suffering to help us be mindful of all of the many smaller graces that He has given us in our lives.  It is easy to overlook things and take them for granted.  We should be thankful to God for them, as insignificant as they might seem.  Just comparing our life to somebody who is in a worse state does not necessarily make us feel better.  But if we thank God that we have the things that we realize that others might not be so fortunate to have, then our thanksgiving can change our perspective and bring us contentment. 

We need to maintain Paul’s attitude of thankfulness for all things and in even the most dire and unfair of circumstances.  We need to make a point of it to thank God for the blessings that He gives us each and every day. 

We ought to wake up every morning and our first thoughts ought to be 'Thank you, Lord'.

We ought to yell it loud so the devil himself can hear our commitment and love for God.

One of the first steps into spiritual decay is to refuse to or neglect to give God thanks after experiencing his goodness and seeing his power manifested on our behalf. If we fail to acknowledge God,  we can begin to feel proud and self-sufficient, which is a dangerous road to walk on.

Rather, we need to acknowledge God’s provision in everything as it says in Proverbs 3:5-6 so that we can stay on the straight and narrow path. 

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (Amplified Bible) we read, “Thank [God] in everything [no matter what the circumstances may be, be thank

ful and give thanks], for this is the will of God for you [who are] in Christ Jesus [the Revealer and Mediator of that will].”

This verse says that it’s God’s will for everyone who believes in Jesus to be thankful. There are some things that happen in our lives that we are truly thankful for. But some things that happen are really difficult.  Let’s look really closely at the verse. Some might think that this verse says to be thankful FOR all of our circumstances. But the verse actually says to be thankful in all circumstances. The original Hebrew word for 'in' that is used here means 'in the middle of' or 'during'.

In other words, no matter what is happening in our life, we can be thankful.

Be blessed.

Don't let yesterday use up too much of todày

Greetings:

God values the emotions he created in us. The Bible bursts with emotion from Genesis to Revelation and God is often the main character in these scenes.

Our God is different from the array of other gods that we have seen through history – those carved out of people's imaginations and out wood, metal or images of spiritual darkness.

Our God loves, forgives, feels our pain.

He's a God of mercy, grace and power we can't even understand.

Showing emotion is natural.

But those who do show a lot of emotion are sometimes labeled  as shallow, loony, crybaby, hysterical and weak.

If we shed tears a little too often, we're perceived as unstable or wimpy.

On the other hand, if we rarely show emotion, people say we're cold-hearted. It's easy to see why some of us  become so uptight about others' judgments that they tiptoe through life walking on emotional eggshells.

Just relax. Don't worry about what other people say or think about you. Be yourself and listen to God's direction.

Importantly, we need to remember that God gives us the ability to learn how to be ourselves, express emotions and come to the relaxed peace of his presence.

In Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT) we read, "But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!"

We must not lose touch with God, even when life is tragic or very busy. We have to be careful not to do to much for God that we miss God in the process. What I'm saying is, we can get to busy doing 'God things' in the church that we miss what God is telling us or directing us to do.

There must be a balance.

We must simply stop ourselves and reach out to touch reality, both physical and spiritual, otherwise, we can gradually drift away from the very one who gave us life and vibrancy in the first place.

People can get spiritually burned out as well and become too busy and consumed with 'church things' that they grow weary in life away from the church. Some can even loose touch with their families because they are too busy working  for the Lord.

God calls us to lead a balanced life.

Why do you think ministers and others go away to retreats – away from the pressures and rat-race of normal life and try to get closer to God through relaxation.

I'm guilty of not doing this enough. It's hard for me to unwind and just relax. But God is still working on me. He's not done yet, I have to confess.

Be blessed.

Ditch the crutches; find the rock

Growing in and walking the Christian life is a process.

Sometimes we are bruised coming in and are little fearful not knowing if we have the strength to endure the journey as a Christian.

How many of you have ever broken or sprained a bone in your leg, ankle or foot?

What did the doctor do? Generally, some part of your recovery process involves using crutches until your injured limb gains enough strength to hold your weight and function normally.

I have used crutches on a couple of occasions and I can tell you crutches are no fun to use. They are sometimes painful and frustrating.

However, the crutches helped me to navigate until I healed enough to throw them away. It was much better using the crutches than it was to hop around on one leg like a crippled rabbit.

A crutch is a noun that describes a long staff of wood or metal having a rest for the armpit, for supporting the weight of the body. A crutch is something that supports or sustains.

A common charge laid against God and Christianity by non-believers is,  “They’re just a psychological crutch for weak, needy types.”

The implications here is that strong, independent people don’t need a “crutch”. They can make it on their own.

But the truth is we all have psychological crutches –– the need to be loved, for example, and the need for companionship.

Author and former pastor Bob Prall writes,“If Christianity is a psychological crutch, then Jesus Christ came because there was an epidemic of broken legs.”

Prall says everyone needs assistance.

“The question is, what will you lean on? Christianity provides what atheism or other religions never can: spiritual fulfillment, peace, and forgiveness,” he wrote.

When you come to rely on your mental or emotional crutches permanently, your spirit, your courage, your passion and your zest for life become weak. They waste away from lack of use.

The crutches of self-doubt, low self-esteem, wavering confidence, hopelessness, purposelessness and sheer frustration have crippled many of us and rendered our spirit weak. We’ve hobbled around long enough using those same old tired excuses as to why we can’t seem to get on a good foot. It’s time to break the crutches and get back to our life.

What's your spiritual crutch? What's the thing or things holding us back from getting closer to God? What's the thing holding us in our comfort zone and stunting our spiritual growth?

There is nothing wrong with leaning on something as long as we are leaning on the Lord.

Deuteronomy 33:27 says, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

In Isaiah 41:10 we see one of my favorite scriptures, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

The truth is when all of our own crutches are broken and removed and all the we have left is God –– that God is more than enough.

Be blessed.

What we say does matter

Greetings:
The way we think does matter in our Christian walk.
What we choose to think about and dwell on in our lives will make or break you as to what type of person you will end up becoming and how you are able to serve God.You know it doesn't even have to be a major, catastrophic event to send us back to the land of negative thinking. 
It can be something as simple as someone cutting us off in traffic or pushing ahead of us in checkout line at Walmart.What gives those seemingly simple occurrences of every day life so much power to literally throw us into a tizzy all over again?
Evangelist/teacher Joyce Meyer in her book, “Battle Field of the Mind” tells us not to entertain negative thoughts like: "If I don't expect anything good to happen, I won't be disappointed if it doesn't." She says, “These thoughts are obstacles in your mind, and simply recognizing them will pave the way to your freedom. As Christians, we need to learn to fight for our thoughts, because our minds don't automatically come into agreement with God's plans.”
Have you voiced negative things about yourself, like:
• I never do anything right.
• I'll never change.
• I'm ugly.
• I'm fat.
• I'm dumb.
• Who could ever love me?
Are you afraid to believe anything good might happen because of past disappointments or shortcomings
Matthew 12:37, says, “The words you say will either acquit you or condemn you.”In Proverbs 23:7 (NKJ) we see where it says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”That tells me it is important how and what we think
Before I became a Christian, I didn't understand this way of thinking and at times even despised those “happy people” who were thinking that way.That's changed.I now see the people who are not happy and fulfilled, and who are always pessimistic and depressed all the time, and have negative attitudes towards anybody and anything, are all choosing to think and dwell on the negative side of life.I choose now to see the glass half-full, instead of half empty.
In everyday life, I choose to look something as simple as a weather forecast a little differently.The weatherman might say there is a 30 percent chance of rain today, but really he ought to be saying there is a 70 percent chance that it won't rain today.It's all in the way we think.Call on the Holy Spirit is to be the Master Surgeon of your mind. 
Ask God through the Holy Spirit to take out what He does not want to be operating in your mind and thought process, and put in what He does want to be operating in it.The truth is, God doesn’t work in us through negative attitudes full of self-pity, laziness, passivity or an “everybody owes me” perspective.God works through faith. But before we can have faith, we have to have hope. Hope comes from the way we think and view our next step.
Focus your mind and thoughts on the things of God to boost your faith and get rid of what Joyce Meyer calls that 'stinkin thinkin'.
Be blessed.