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Archive for May, 2010

What Are You Filling Your Spirit With?

11 May

You’re a sponge.

You’ve have been a sponge since the day you were born.

We’ve all heard the adage you are what you eat.  The real matter of fact is you are what you absorb intellectually and spiritually.

It’s true, if you don’t eat healthy it will catch up with you and your body will start to remind you of that as life goes along. 

What you put into your mind on the other hand is how you run your life.  We have a tendency to spend our time doing what’s most important to us.  It is a direct reflection of who we are.

If you don’t like the opera are you going to spend much time at the opera?  Probably not.  Could we then call you an opera enthusiast?  Probably not.

You are what you feed your body.  Are you watching shows on TV that break all Ten Commandments, but then not taking any time to watch godly programming?  What are we feeding ourselves?

Are we listening to the secular radio?  Have you heard the words to songs?  I have to ask the question because the words are absolute darkness.  Are you listening to talk radio?  All of it may be entertaining, but it isn’t spiritually healthy.

Matthew 6:22-23 –  22“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

I used to listen to almost all secular music.  Usually the older stuff as the newer didn’t do much for me.  My Wife only listened to the Christian radio station.  She was feeding herself with the word of God.  When the music came on she was listening to someone else singing praises to the Lord.  Guess what?  When she started singing along with them, who was she glorifying?

Jesus! God!  The Holy Spirit!

Who and what are we singing about when we are listening to other stuff?

All my rowdy friends?
Margaritaville?
She’s buying what kind of stairway?
You are on a highway to where?

Most of us know all these songs that and the list goes on and on.  

Guess what, you still going to like the beat of your old favorites.  When they come on at a reception, your passing through and can’t find something else on your going to want to stop and listen.

Here’s my challenge to you.  Start filling your spirit with good spiritual God loving stuff.  Like His Word, Christian television, Christian music, etc.  You are what you take in.  Make the effort today.  You will find yourself thinking more of Jesus.  You will find yourself praising God automatically.  You will find yourself leaning on God for help, healing, and your needs being met. 

Instead of doing something and the song in head being Hells Bells or Welcome to the Jungle, it will start to become “I was made to love You” by Toby Mac.  It will be “Blessed be the name of the Lord” by the Newsboys and Rebecca St. James.

When people start trying to tell you join them in doing things that are contradictory to what the Lord wants you to do, a voice from the Holy Spirit will go off in your head.  Why, because you have been reading his word which is the Bible.  If you’re not reading the Word and you don’t know it, you can’t.

Life is a walk.  You don’t just stop everything 100 percent and start everything 100 on a moment’s notice.

My challenge to you is to start listening to more Christian television, more Christian music, and please if you know Jesus as your savior, please get into the Bible. 

You’re a sponge.  Every one of us is a sponge.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Motivation

 

The Greatest Commandment – Part 2

10 May

Yesterday we hit on the most important commandment.  Today we will hit the second, which is like it. 

Matthew 22:34-40 – 34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Love your neighbor as yourself.  Would we have the problems in this world that we now have if we were more concerned about others versus ourselves?

The answer is no.  We’re sinful selfish creatures. 

If two married people only cared 100% about the other person would that marriage fail?  No.

If the people around you cared more about you and you cared more about them than you do yourself, what kind of world would it be?

You see this is how it was supposed to be before the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden.  The system received a short circuit.

Where did the phrases “I’m going to take care of number one”, or “I’m looking out for numero uno”, come from?

You think it came from God?  Fwamp!  That’s the sound of my wrong answer button.

Oh, here’s a classic, “God helps those who helps themselves.”  Yikes.

Do I really even need to tear this one apart?  This statement is so far from Love your neighbor it’s ridiculous.

So what’s the number one reason we fail at the second most important commandment?

Because it’s all about, ME! It’s about being S-E-L-F-I-S-H-!

My observation and what I see is this.  The more were hooked into God the more we have victory over our sinful nature.  Thus in this area, we start thinking a little less of ME, and a little more on the practice of caring about others.

In the last days the ME factor is rampant.  There will be many scriptures and many posts coming in the future on this topic. 

It is essential that we love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.  It is also essential that we love others as much as we do ourselves.  Why?  Because the Lord didn’t request it, suggest it, or wish it.  He commands it!

 
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The Greatest Commandment – Part 1

09 May

Matthew 22:34-40 – 34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The first and most important commandment Jesus reminds us is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Simply stated that’s a command to make him number one, before anything else in our lives.  Before we think of ourselves, our wants, our goals, even our family, we are supposed to give it all to God first.

Here’s where the trickle down method finally does work.  Once you serve God and love Him with every fiber of your being and seek what He wants for your life, the rest will fall into place.

You see He wants you to take care of your family.  He wants you to make Him first in your family.  He wants you to pass this commandment onto them and have you all serve Him every day. 

God wants you.  He wants your love and He isn’t looking for a robot that has no choice. 

But just as your children have a choice, you want them to love you.  You want them to make the right decisions.  You want them to have a respectful loving relationship with you.  Your desire is to reward them and take care of them.

Unless of course, they’re bent on evil.  They never call you on the phone.  They never care to know how you’re doing.  They’re too busy fulfilling their selfish desires, or worse.

Do you still love them?  Let me answer that one for you.  You should.  I would like to also add right here that if you are in this situation, pray.  Every day.  Don’t under estimate the power of prayer.  Satan would love for you to under estimate the power of prayer.

God has given us a model in many things in our lives that we either overlook or choose to ignore and this is one them.  God loves us as His children and constantly wants us to snap out of it and reconnect.

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Yet in our society and in these last days, were lucky if we squeeze in 60 seconds for Him.

Tomorrow is the second most important commandment, which “is like it.”

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation

 

Everybody Dies – What’s Your Plans?

08 May

You plan to go on vacation.

You plan many times what you’re going to have for dinner.

Any organization in your life calls for planning.

This earthly body is going to die.  Even in the Rapture this earthly body dies.  What’s your plan?  Pretty important when you think about it. 

If you’re not thinking about it, start.

Closing your eyes and cupping your ears and yelling lalalalala, isn’t the answer.

You’re eternal destiny is going to become real important, real fast when the body stops breathing.

I hope you choose Jesus.  If you don’t know him as your Savior I have a page dedicated to that very thing in the right upper column.

 
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Posted in Motivation, Salvation

 

The Valley of Dry Bones – End Times Prophecy

07 May

Ezekiel 37:1-14 – 1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
      I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

 4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ “

 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

 9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’ ” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

 11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.’ “

This is another detailed prophecy of Israel going back into their land in the last days.  It won’t be the last one I write on.  I will follow with a few more in the next coming weeks.

Why?  Because Israel is the time clock for recognizing the end times.

Without Israel back in the land, were not in the end times.  Israel is linked to many of the end time’s prophecies one way or another.

The Dry Bones in the valley signify a great nation that lived there, but it’s been a long time.

Verse 2 again says – 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.

 However, Ezekiel’s ministry was believed to be 7 years before the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC and 15 years after it.  So the vision Ezekiel is getting reveals a desolate land for quite some time and then all the sudden, God brings the nation Israel back to life. 

This prophecy happened only 62 years ago.  These Dry Bones now live just as prophesied in Ezekiel 37.  God has brought His people back into their land.

3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
      I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”

Ezekiel was right, God alone knows.  He shared it through Godly men such as Ezekiel.  How privileged we are to have this available information.  We need to cherish it and study it.  Nothing helps you live for the Lord better than knowing you could be caught up with Him in the air at any second.

 
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Posted in Bible Prophecy, End Time Prophecies

 

Let Go, Let God

06 May

Let Go, Let God

If you let Him, God will take care of you 100 percent.

What does that mean?

It means God knows what’s better for you, than you do.

But you say, “Patrick I know what I want.  Nobody else knows what I want, better than me.”

That very well may be true.    

A lot of people know what they want.  A lot of people are driven and go out and get that very thing.  In America it’s called dare to be great.  But is what God wants for you, the same as what you want for you?

I can’t help but to go to a verse that you will see a lot with me.

Proverbs 14:12 – 12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

For the most part it’s easy for us to think worldly, not heavenly.  It’s part of the fall. 

The more you connect with God, plug that branch (you) into the Tree (Jesus and the Holy Spirit), the more you will grow.   

Psalm 23:3 – 3 he restores my soul.  He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Proverbs 4:10-13 – 10 Listen, my son, accept what I say, and the years of your life will be many. 11 I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. 12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble.  13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.

Jesus wants us to jump in.  He wants us to commit to God and concentrate on the big picture in the end.  He reminds us in Luke 17:33 – 33Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”

We need to do a lot less of ME, and a lot more of HIM.

Let Go!  Let God!

 
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JESUS – Just A Great Teacher?

05 May

I was recently inspired to write on this after reading a book by Josh McDowell.   Josh is a great apologetics teacher and speaker.  I encourage everyone to read some of his books as they can only strengthen your faith and possibly give you the information you need down the road for someone searching for the truth.  I believe he states the following in many of his books, but I was reading Skeptics Who Demanded A Verdict.

Many people and other religions out there belive that Jesus was a wonderful man or great teacher, but they don’t think He is the Son of God. 

Jesus in Mark 14:62 when asked if He was the Son of God.
 62“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” 

The Jews knew the phrase “I am,” referred to God.  They understood Jesus was stating He was part of the Godhead right there, and sentenced Him to death for Blasphemy.

John 14:6-7 – 6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

So the question becomes if Jesus claims He is the Son of God, one with the Father, God in the flesh, is He a good teacher if He’s not whom He claims to be?

If He is not The Way, The Truth, and The Life, and others can get to heaven besides through Him, doesn’t that make him a liar?  In verse 7, He’s letting them know they (disciples) do know the Father now and they have seen Him. 

Once again, there are many people and religious groups out there that think Jesus was a great teacher, but wasn’t the Son of God, God in the Flesh, or is the Messiah.  But that’s a contradiction in terms.

Jesus was either who He said he was, or He’s lying.  If He’s a liar, He’s not a great teacher or good moral example at all.

One of the most important questions in your life is who’s Jesus?

I believe in researching and seeing the miracles in peoples lives, that He is the Son of God.  I believe He is God in the flesh and part of the Trinity.  If you don’t, Josh McDowell has many books on this subject and I challenge you to read them.

I don’t believe I quoted any actual lines in Josh McDowell’s – Skeptics That Demand A Verdict, but want to put down here that this post was inspired by it.  I encourage you once again to look at strengthening your faith by reading some of his books.  Evidence That Demands a Verdict is a great book and I think he has a revised edition of that also.

Jesus is either who He says He is, or He is the biggest imposter in human history.  He can’t be both.  Who is He going to be for you?

I stated before that one of the most important questions in your life is, “who is Jesus?”  The most important question is, are you going to make Him your Lord and Savior?

 
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Posted in Apologetics, Reflections, Salvation

 

Why the Rapture? – New Body

04 May

Next on the radar I’m going to write on why the rapture?

I believe there are a few different reasons.  The first one I will be writing on is we are going to have a new body.

1Corinthians 15:50-54 –  50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

We’re a sinful fallen creature.  We began to die at the time of our birth.  This happened because of the fall in the Garden of Eden.  God couldn’t allow a sinful, fallen, evil creature like man to live forever once he fell.  So he was no longer allowed to eat from the Tree of Life.

This body is not going to enter Heaven the way it is now.  However, if Jesus is your Savior and King, you’re going to receive a new body.  In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.  That’s fast.  They say that is about .11 of a second.  

This body is corrupted.  It needs to put on incorruption.  In fact that’s what the King James Version uses instead of perishable and imperishable.

1 Corinthians 15:53-54 – 53For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  54So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

It’s not just perishable but corrupted.  It doesn’t take a private investigator to know our thinking is corrupted, not of God, and this body is deteriorating.

Those that have died already are waiting for their resurrection bodies.  To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  Jesus told the thief on the cross next to Him, today you will be with Me in paradise.  However, the dead in Christ are still waiting for their resurrection body.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 – 13Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

The dead are raised and then bam, we’re right there just after.

If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, you’re going to receive a perfect resurrected body to go through eternity.  You’re not going to be a ghost, playing a harp on a cloud.  It’s time to get excited and start putting your effort into Jesus and not into a corrupted fallen world.

 
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Posted in Bible Prophecy, Rapture

 

Worldly Goals Can Be Blinding-Part 2

03 May

Now for Part 2.  Continued from yesterday.

God and Jesus are not fond of laziness as we read yesterday.  So let’s now do a little more research on what the Bible has to say about ones focus and hard work.Matthew 6:19-21 – 19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Luke 12:  –  14Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

 16And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.‘

 18“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” 20“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 21“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Matthew 19:   – 21Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”  22When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

These are not the only warnings we get in the New Testament.  Why so much on this topic in the New Testament?  Because I believe it is the number one warning we need, especially in our day.

If you are an ambitious Christian who has focused his life too much on this earth and not enough towards the Kingdom of God, today is a new day. 

Start putting your ambition to work for the Kingdom of God.  Start storing up treasures in Heaven.  Start working for your crowns that will last forever.

You know who you are.  You’re a talent.  Each one of you has a ministry.  Start using your talent and ambition to further the Kingdom of God in these last days.  What you do for Him lasts forever, everything else passes away.

 
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Worldly Goals Can Be Blinding-Part 1

02 May

I know many talented individuals and go getters in this world.  They are driven.  They set their sights on a goal and they either accomplish it or give it all in their defeat.

There’s a problem though.  This Earth is for only 80 years maximum or at least before the body starts to put on the brakes.  You really don’t get out and start doing your hard work and building your achievements until you’re at least 30 on the average.  So were talking 50 years to enjoy the fruits of your labor, if you live that long.

Nothing wrong with ambition, in fact the complete opposite is laziness. 

God loves hard work and there is nowhere in the bible that praises laziness.  Solomon wrote on it quite a bit.

Proverbs 10:4 – 4 Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.

Proverbs 6: – 6 Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. 9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? 10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest- 11 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.

Jesus in the parable of the talents finishes it like this.

Matthew 25: – 26“His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28” ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

Now this parable has a lot to it, but I think you get the point on where I was going with it.  God and Jesus are clearly not socialists by the definition of this parable.   They want you to work and there not to crazy on laziness.

Tomorrow we will wrap up this message concerning hard work.

 
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Posted in Inspiration, Motivation

 
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