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Archive for April, 2011

Psalm 34:1-3

19 Apr

Psalm 34:1-3 –1 I will extol the LORD at all times;
   his praise will always be on my lips.
2 My soul will boast in the LORD;
   let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
3 Glorify the LORD with me;
   let us exalt his name together.

David was a man after God’s own heart.  Look at the praise he had for the Lord.  The Lord created us and He wants us to love Him.  Do you want the Lord to look at you and say, “There is one of my children that truly has a heart for Me.”  You can be one of those people.  What’s the secret?  The biggest one is to concentrate on the Lord and not yourself all the time.

Walk with Him, talk with Him, and seek Him all the time.  Care about what He cares about.

Praise Him.  Boast about Him with your lips to others.  Glorify His holy name.

Do you think He cares if you do?  Do you think He cares if you don’t?  If you don’t think He cares, then you don’t know the Lord. 

David was a man after God’s heart.  What did he do?  He loved God and made Him the focus of His life.

 
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We Must Work While It Is Still Day

18 Apr

To continue on John chapter 9…

John 9:4-5 – 4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Jesus is the Light.

John 1:4-5 – 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

In chapter 9, Jesus said we must do the work of Him who sent me.  It doesn’t say I must do the work.  He says I am the Light and He is the Light.  So He is saying WE need to do the work as Christians.  Now that we have the Holy Spirit, He dwells within us so we may still do the work shining His Light.

When is the night coming that he is referring to?  I believe it is still to come.  I believe he is referring to the end of the church age.  When is the end of the church age?  I believe it is the rapture.

Will people still get saved?  Yes.  I believe that is the tribulation saints you read about in Revelation.

I look at these verses in 2 Thessalonians when Paul is talking about the man of lawlessness.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-10 –1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

 5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. 7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, 10 and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.

The lawless one is the antichrist and these passages talk of one who holds him back.  Who else could this be besides the Holy Spirit?  The Holy Spirit isn’t taking off and allowing the lawless one to be revealed without taking believers with Him.

Night is coming and it’s coming soon.  We need to work before the midnight hour is up.  It’s time for us to grab our tool which the Word of God and keep on sharing the Good News.

 
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Posted in Inspiration, Motivation

 

Quote – A W Tozer

16 Apr

The Word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection. And we must not select a few favorite passages to the exclusion of others. Nothing less than a whole Bible can make a whole Christian.
A W Tozer

How important is the Word of God?  Three times when the devil tempted Jesus, He said, “It is written.” 

Also to pick and choose what one wants in the bible is worth nothing.  It’s like picking a couple of things in your job description and not doing the others.  The Word of God is our manual to get back to being the type of person that we are supposed to be before the fall happened.

It’s easy to pick a couple of things that come naturally to us.  Even people who don’t know the Lord can do that.

Use the Word of God as a living manuscript that helps guide you towards a closer relationship with the Lord.

 
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Posted in Quotes, Reflections

 

He Has Plans For Us To Prosper And Knows Our Future

15 Apr

Jeremiah 29:11 –11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

My Pastor’s favorite verse.  God Bless you Skip and Gale.  You continue to preach God’s Word right on track, while at the same time the church as a whole in this country is not.

As humans we seem to have our eyes on the present.  The future is as long as I am alive on this earth.  God sees you as an eternal being.  Your future is continuous.  If you’re one of His children that are seeking Him, you have a promise above.  The plan the Lord has for us started before we even knew of our own existence and goes on forever.

That’s powerful.  That means He is looking over us right now and if we choose his sacrifice and salvation, forever and ever. 

We can’t get hung up on our wants.  Why?  As sinful creatures, our wants our more than likely not the same as the plan God has for us.

I can tell you the more I concentrate on the Lord and His Word, the more I know He has plans for me.  I know by reading the Word that this life isn’t about me, it’s about the Lord and what we can do to be servants.

Challenging?  Difficult?  It sure is for me in some areas more than others.  The more I study the word of God the more lacking I realize I am.  However, the strength comes from the Lord.  Any strength we can muster needs to be put into Him and then allow Him to work through us.

Worldly prosperity has proven to be a hindrance for most people in their life with the Lord.  Let’s focus on our relationship with the Lord and let the prosperity stem from that.  No one will harm us even on this earth unless the Lord has a plan and says it’s okay.  If He says it’s okay and you’re living for Him, then He has you taken care of ultimately.  One will be rewarded for suffering in His name on this earth.  One example is the martyr’s crown.  Paul also speaks on being rewarded for his suffering in the Lord.

I can tell you that our own selfish ambitions are not part of God’s plan.   I don’t think Paul, the disciples, and the early church had selfish ambitions and if they did, we’d all be in trouble. 

We have a hope and a future thanks to our Lord.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation

 

Our Circumstances Can Always Be Used To Glorify God

14 Apr

I am going to do a number of posts that were inspired by John Chapter 9.  It’s the chapter that Jesus healed the blind man.  All the way through the chapter are things that stood out.

The first one is where the disciples asked Jesus who sinned to cause the man in this story to be blind.

John 9:1-3 –1 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

   3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

You see God didn’t punish anybody ahead of time concerning this man’s condition.  He has a plan for all of us.

Jeremiah 29:11 –11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Many choose not to have anything to do with his plan.

The miracle of Jesus to this man’s blindness has been recorded in the bible and read by billions.  Think about that.  Wow.  This man had a condition that ultimately glorified God. 

Joni Eareckson Tada was paralyzed after a water diving accident when she was 17 and broke her neck.  After building her relationship even stronger with the Lord, she has become a blessing with her ministry.  She could have quit, she could have become bitter, but she got closer to the Lord. 

He has plans for us.  We have great examples like Joni, who have revealed what one can do by seeking a passionate relationship with the Lord.  If you haven’t read her story, please Google her name.  I think you will be blessed by her story.

No matter what our circumstance, even if you have put yourself in a bind, can be corrected with the help of God.  At that point you can stay in line with the Lord and glorify Him on taking care of you.

Always trust in Him, no matter what.  Seek Him through all things.  Your life can be used no matter who you are, but we do need to make Him the center.  He is the Vine and we are the branches.

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration

 

Galatians 6:7-8

13 Apr

Galatians 6:7-8 – 7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

We need to keep our eyes on the only prize that matters.  That would be the Lord who loves us, gives us life, died for us, and knows what’s best for us. 

All earthly things pass away.  Just knowing that for a fact, what are they worth?

 
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Posted in Encouragement, Inspiration, Motivation

 

God Made Us All

12 Apr

We were all wonderfully made by the Lord.  Look around you and you realize he loves diversity and things that are unique.

Psalm 139:13-14 – 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

 That’s one of the worst parts about racism.  Hate because someone is of a different ethnic group.  Not because they do things that are wrong.  They’re not doing things that are just flat out evil.  People will hate others just because they are of a different heritage or skin color.

That definitely comes from sin and the fall.  No man should ever even dislike someone before they even meet them.  This body is a shell and is only just a holding tank of our spirit and soul.

It is important that we have love in our lives.  God is love.  When one hates the love of the Father can’t shine through that kind of a person.  Hate ususally comes from your own bitterness of what you don’t care for and usually it’s about your own feelings.

Are there things we should hate?  There is lots of things in the bible it says God hates.  They all pertain to sin and evil.

Tolerance is being taught widely right now.  The problem with tolerance is that much of it is against the teachings of the Lord.  God is the one who says what’s right and what’s wrong.  I believe we are to Love others around us, but at the same time hate evil.

Romans 12:9 – 9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.

Condoning everything people do is not of God, that’s of this world.  God has absolutes and rules.

The racism card gets played too much in the political sense.  Racism is ugly, but the reason that it truly is, is because God made us all in his image as humans.  He loves the uniqueness of all his creations.  We are all brothers and sisters who are in the Lord and we can never forget that.

The only things we should hate, is what God hates and that is evil and those things that are detestable to Him.

Proverbs 8:13 – 13 To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

 
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Would Hitler Be Happy In Heaven?

11 Apr

Many people believe everyone would be happy in Heaven.  How could anyone who was such a murderer and of God’s chosen people at that, who exalted himself and craved the power ever be happy in Heaven?

We take for granted that everyone would be happy in Heaven. 

Hell has been created for God’s creatures that have rejected Him.  That’s why hell was even created.

Anyone who only wants to serve themselves and not God will not be happy in Heaven.  If I went to a place where they only had opera all day, I would not be happy.  If I went to a place where I had to witness people being severely whipped for no reason, I would not be happy.  If I had to go and watch a horror movie marathon, I would not be happy.

Heaven is for those who love the Lord.  Anyone who is curious at all and wants to seek truth will find Him.  Why wouldn’t someone seek God?  Cause they’re busy.

Busy doing what?  Living for themselves and not seeking the Creator at all.  If you’re not seeking the Creator, you either believe the lie that there is no God, or you don’t care to take the time to seek Him. 

There is no excuse come judgment or accounting time.

As humans are we arrogant?  Oh yeah, we’re arrogant.  We know what’s right, just ask us.  Because the only thing that matters to most people is if it’s right for us.

What we should be concerned about is if it’s right in God’s eyes.  How does the King feel about it?

The truth is people not seeking God or wanting God, will not be happy in a place where God is the center.  Will they enjoy hell?

Revelation 20:10 – 10 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

No parties according to that verse.  No it’s a place of torment.  Would it be heaven for everyone who thirsts for righteousness and love if the unrepentant Hitler types of history we’re in there?  Not that I could imagine.

God can’t make people love Him.  God can’t make people serve Him.  We make that choice or not.

Heaven however, is for those who love the Lord.

 
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Posted in Opinion, Reflections

 

Quote – Noah Webster

10 Apr

Education is useless without the Bible.
Noah Webster

The writer of Webster’s Dictionary was never at a loss for words.

His quote reminds me of this verse.

Mark 8:36 – 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

Our country is full of people seeking education and not God.  The result today is a bankrupt America.  America is Bankrupt in just about every way.  Our nation’s problem is not economic, it’s spiritual.

 
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Posted in Quotes, Reflections

 

The Wisdom Of The World Is Foolishness To God

08 Apr

1 Corinthians 3:19 – 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”;

Man is busy at work trying to fulfill his own ideas or pleasures.  He doesn’t want anything to get in the way of the things he is trying to accomplish.  Right now in the last days man is concerned about the planet. 

We must not destroy it.
We must not destroy ourselves.
We must not overpopulate it.

While being responsible needs to be a concern, man thinks he needs to do them by himself and cannot fathom the idea of obeying God.

Strangely enough if everyone tried to live for God, we would be looking out for each other and we wouldn’t have most of these problems.  Sin is where the problems come in.  Selfishness is linked to many of them.  Flat out demonic evil can be attributed many more that a lot of us can’t even understand.

Isn’t that how the fall happened in the first place?  God I can’t stand the perfect world you provided me, I (selfish pride) have to be in charge!  That happened with both the devil and Eve.  With a little persuasion, you now have one third of the angels and all of mankind that refuses to repent. 

How many refuse to repent?

Matthew 7:13-14 – 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Many more don’t find it than do find it.  All man has to do is seek God and they will find His redemptive plan.  Instead overall man still wants to do it his way.  It is foolishness in God’s sight.

The blind leading the blind is a popular saying.  When people don’t read the bible and know what God’s Word says, they are completely susceptible to man’s foolishness.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to discover the Lord.  Actually over time intellect seems to have driven a certain prideful gene that gets in the way for many in finding the Lord.  However, when one with much intellect does submit to the Lord, wow, we are blessed even more as the body of Christ. 

Foolishness….. it’s thinking yourself away from God and apart from God’s will.

Get into the Word and submit your will to Him and watch your relationship with the Lord strengthen.

 
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Posted in Inspiration, Reflections

 
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