Thoughts ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZONPRTOFF dateof comment Look Inside Data Conditions:Order: 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16| Dateof Comment 04/27/2023 Have you ever thought about how much emphasis Jesus puts on the individual. Jesus would have come to this earth just for my sake to save just me. That is how much he loves us. The parable of the Sheep tells us his dedication to locate us and bring us back into the fold: Luke 15:1-7 NLT 15 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them! 3 So Jesus told them this story: 4 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? 5 And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders. 6 When he arrives, he will call together his friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away! Unlike the Sheep though, Jesus will not drag us back like a Shepherd for the Sheep would do. We still have the choice to reject him and he would leave us alone. But he never really leaves us alone. He still hopes that we will decide later to let him bring us back into the fold willingly. Always remember though that tomorrow is never promised and if you do not make that choice before that day you will be separated and sent to the Lake of Fire. Zacchaeus is proof of one who accepts the offer of Jesus Christ: Luke 19:8-10 (New Living Translation) 8 Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!” 9 Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” Just remember every time that person returns to the fold of Jesus Christ, the angels in heaven rejoice. This shows you how valuable you are that they would do this. It was hard to fathom that this is the whole purpose of Jesus Christ coming to Earth in the first place. 04/17/2023 We should know by now about the only place in the bible that God commands us to test him: Malachi 3:10 NLT 10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test! I firmly believe we are going to see in this decade the largest transference of wealth from the wicked to God's people who tithe because of God's plan. Have you ever thought about what that would be like? Sounds pretty cool but remember what Timothy said about the power of money: 1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. I have thought about this and have talked it over with my prayer partner asking these questions about wealth: 1. Am I going to change my friends? This will be the first sign of trouble in your life. You are beginning to exalt yourself. 2. How are planning on using it? If you use it all on your own pleasures you are on the path to trouble. I believe one should spend money on yourself to prove to everyone that God can bless people financially to have some cool stuff. Do not forget about contentment though or it can ruin you. Remember Malachi 3:10 where you cannot out give God. Invest his money back into his Kingdom to be blessed even more. Have fun doing it. I have seen how investing money into God's families in the Ghetto has changed the community forever. Those who have received God's blessing have experienced large increases in faith and are coming together to worship God in a King Soopers parking lot. It is the type of worship that make me envious on how well they worship God. Nothing fancy at all but they are totally focused on pleasing God putting the clock out to pasture. God deserves this Kind of worship. The people in the ghetto greatly appreciate blessings. The first thing they do is put you on their prayer list. Could you imagine that if everyone who is blessed by your obedience is praying for you? You could have 100's of prayers going up into the heavens lifting you up. Now, that is a lot of prayer power. I believe Jesus Christ is going have the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit ever. He needs us and our resources to accomplish his great plans. God's desire was to have the families protected in the Ghetto. I was given the privilege to help fill his desire. I do not want to have great wealth deviate me from seeing and filling God's desires. I believe as long as you heart stays in God's Kingdom, you will use great wealth wisely. 04/12/2023 When Jesus Christ hung on that cross, the criminals spoke to Jesus: Luke 23:39-43 NLT 39 One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” 40 But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? 41 We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” 43 And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” I thought about what the criminals said to Jesus when I read this verse: Romans 5:6-8 (New Living Translation) When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. Even though both criminals were probably scum, Jesus did not care. He was looking at the one man's heart when he laid his life down for us. Jesus laid his life down for the loveable and for the unlovable. This includes the politicians who run our government today. I never have seen so much hatred they have against the people. Unlike Jesus, I would have extreme difficulty laying my life down for these kinds of people who persecute the innocent. This next verse emphasizes even more what he did for us: 1 Peter 2:24 (New Living Translation) He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. But remember there is no record of the other criminal giving his heart to Jesus. This means he is spending eternity in the Lake of Fire while his buddy is in the Kingdom of God where Jesus is. So, it will be with those who persecute us today. Until we all come to Jesus Christ, our fate will be the same as the criminal who rejected Jesus Christ. 04/10/2023 I noticed that a lot of people seem to be worried about a lot of things. I mean banks are failing, inflation It's the worst that it ever has been. The borders are open with lot of chaos going on and there's a lot of child trafficking going on. Look at all the weird stuff that people are doing that are not scriptural. The craziest thing that's going on right now is that good is bad and bad is good. We definitely have things switched around . A lot of people are worried about all this going on.Paul had something to say about this when he wrote a letter to the Philippine church: Philippians 4:6-7 (New Living Translation) Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Praying is a good thing. But until we learn to trust God, our prayers will be weak. I also believe having support from other brothers and sisters also takes away the worrying by encouragement. God has had even had me produce funny videos, just so people can laugh. Laughter also decreases worrying. We need to trust God that hes got everything under control. There is so many verses in he Bible that talk about heart aches. David talked about them and had to turn everything back to God. Sin can cause us to worry. Paul wrote about this to the Romans: Romans 8:1-2 (New Living Translation) So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. Jesus Christ is the answer to the worry of sin. He will forgive anything we may have done but do not abuse this gift. If you have no desire to change you better start worrying. 04/04/2023 Easter is on April 7, 2023. Paul summed up Easter in one sentence. Ephesians 1:7 (New Living Translation) He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. This arrangement made by God and his son at the beginning of creation changed everything for you and me. It made it possible for us to enter the Kingdom of God. No one could go into heaven until Jesus conquered death. Everyone should appreciate what Jesus did when he sacrificed himself for us. Before him, a lot of blood had to be shed to purify us. It never reached the purity of what his shed blood accomplished. Jesus really had to love us a lot to put himself through the intense beating and finally crucifixion. The least we should do is honor him by serving him and standing for the things he holds dear. Next is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Loving our neighbor still is not as difficult as the sacrifice he made for us. Jesus even sent the Holy Spirit to help us to love even the worst neighbor. Let's give Glory to Jesus Christ this Easter. 03/23/2023 I am beginning to believe that the only place you can find truth is in God's word. I get up each day and all that I see is the lying mainstream media and government. I know that I am right because God is exposing them like never before. They have been lying to us for a long time. I am not even sure if the people we see in the news are even real. So many people have look alikes or they wear masks created by Hollywood to look like someone else. At least God doesn't fake a thing. He is always real and never deviates from truth for no one: John 17:17 NLT 17 Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. I like how God's number 17 is used twice for truth. But this is what happens next if we do not get to hear the truth. There are only 2 options in life. We serve either God or the devil. You cannot serve two masters. John 8:44 It’s because you can’t even hear me! 44 For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 So when I tell the truth, you just naturally don’t believe me! We need to fill our minds with godly truths or we will be like those that Jesus was talking about above. 03/21/2023 I know God is looking for the thankful heart but what happens when we complain. DEUTERONOMY has something to say about our complaining: Deuteronomy 1:34-37 NLT 34 “When the Lord heard your complaining, he became very angry. So he solemnly swore, 35 ‘Not one of you from this wicked generation will live to see the good land I swore to give your ancestors, 36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see this land because he has followed the Lord completely. I will give to him and his descendants some of the very land he explored during his scouting mission.’ 37 “And the Lord was also angry with me because of you. He said to me, ‘Moses, not even you will enter the Promised Land! Complaining can take us far away from the things that God wants to do for us. In fact, God can give what he planned for us to someone else. Even if we stop complaining we still need to listen to what God says or we may see the same results like Moses faced. 03/15/2023 Have you ever thought about what it takes to love like Jesus. Peter did in one of his letters. He created a list and I feel like it must be in this order: 1. Moral excellence 2. Knowledge 3. Self-control 4. Patient Endurance 5. Godliness 6. Brotherly Affection 7. LOVE Of course, there are seven steps. We know of the number 7 in God's Kingdom. 2 Peter 1:5-8 (New Living Translation) 5 In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. 8 The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The amplified version adds a lot more detail to this verse: 2 Peter 1:5-8 (Amplified Bible) For this very reason, applying your diligence [to the divine promises, make every effort] in [exercising] your faith to, develop moral excellence, and in moral excellence, knowledge (insight, understanding), and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, steadfastness, and in your steadfastness, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly affection, and in your brotherly affection, [develop Christian] love [that is, learn to unselfishly seek the best for others and to do things for their benefit]. For as these qualities are yours and are increasing [in you as you grow toward spiritual maturity], they will keep you from being useless and unproductive in regard to the true knowledge and greater understanding of our Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot get up one day and love. It is a process and the work required to make Christ like love with greatly please our King once we implement it. Here are some more encouraging verses that show what love can do: Colossians 3:12 (New Living Translation) Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Philippians 2:1-5 New Living Translation Have the Attitude of Christ 2 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. 3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. 5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Our attitude has a great impact on what we can accomplish for our King like the last verse says: 03/03/2023 Isn't it interesting how God has to explain himself. Yes, because we do not get it. Our problem is because we think the way humans think. God is not bound by human thought. He had to explain this to Isaiah: Isaiah 55:8-9 (The Message) “I don’t think the way you think. The way you work isn’t the way I work.” God’s Decree. “For as the sky soars high above earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, Doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, So will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them. Even though we think that God may be wasting time, he is a very constructive and organized God. Many times, he waits on us to ask him to make things happen. We are living at a time where the church was enjoying the surplus of God's blessing and ignoring the takeover by evil. Evil was benefiting from are "so what" attitude. I was told many times to stay silent because you will just start an argument. Evil loves to start an argument and that is why it has been winning. Finally, the church has been praying against evil and is beginning to stand up for what is right. I firmly believe that what God is doing today would have been going on decades ago if we asked him and lived his will. Everything he does has a purpose. Jeremiah 29:11 says: Jeremiah 29:11 New Living Translation 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. If you do enough research, you will see that our God has been doing things behind the scenes his way for his children. Wait a little longer and it will be epic like no man has seen before. Look at the moving of God in our universities. The hardest part in all of this is just being patient and obedient to his calling. If you are like me, I would love to see it all happen now. Just watch and see how big our God is going to win. 02/27/2023 Have you ever thought about the God we worship. Many times, we worship based on how we feel. True worship is based on glorifying our King no matter how we feel. You are right when you say this may be a difficult thing to do. The Holy Spirit would love to help if we let him. Here are some verses that someone else came up with. I feel they make our worship purer: Psalm 51:15 NLT 15 Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you. Psalm 63:3 NLT 3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! Psalm 71:23 NLT 23 I will shout for joy and sing your praises, for you have ransomed me. Psalm 120:2 NLT 2 Rescue me, O Lord, from liars and from all deceitful people. Psalm 141:3 NLT 3 Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips. Isaiah 6:5-8 NLT 5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” 8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” Psalm 80:18 NLT 18 Then we will never abandon you again. Revive us so we can call on your name once more. Psalm 119:25 NLT 25 I lie in the dust; revive me by your word. Psalm 119:37 NLT 37 Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word. Isaiah 57:15 NLT 15 The high and lofty one who lives in eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I live in the high and holy place with those whose spirits are contrite and humble. I restore the crushed spirit of the humble and revive the courage of those with repentant hearts. Habakkuk 3:2 NLT 2 I have heard all about you, Lord. I am filled with awe by your amazing works. In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by. And in your anger, remember your mercy. Ephesians 1:17-19 NLT 17 asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom[a] and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.[b] 19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power. If one keeps the flesh from tainting our worship, following these verses will bring the worship our King deserves. 02/15/2023 Everyone can tell you the story of Jesus walking on the water. But unless you read it close, you can miss some important details. Jesus saw his disciples struggling in the boat while he was on land: Mark 6:47-52 47 Late that night, the disciples were in their boat in the middle of the lake, and Jesus was alone on land. 48 He saw that they were in serious trouble, rowing hard and struggling against the wind and waves. About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. He intended to go past them, [Have you ever thought about why he was going past them? I chuckled and thought about how much fun Jesus was having. How often do you get a chance to walk on water. I know that the wind was not bothering him because of the authority our Father gave him. I envisioned the Father telling Jesus to go rescue them. Jesus did not question the Fathers authority and immediately walked towards them. After all, if you could get an ax head to float it would be a piece of cake to walk on the water.] 49 but when they saw him walking on the water, they cried out in terror, thinking he was a ghost. 50 They were all terrified when they saw him. [Jesus gave up where he was going because of his great love for us.] But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Take courage! I am here!” 51 Then he climbed into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were totally amazed, 52 for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in. Verse 52 is the clincher. I thought about this for a week to make sure that I understood it myself. It was amazing, but a person who has no idea who I am gave a message on this exact verse and confirmed my thoughts. The disciples had the opportunity to see the healing of the sick and cast out demons. They just witnessed the feeding of the 5,000. In man's world the feeding of 5,000 men is impossible because of the law of the conservation of mass. This is where we make our first mistake by putting limitations on God. Even worse, is seeing God work once and believing it will not happen again. Jesus fed the 4000 later proving it could happen again. When dealing with God we are in his realm where the impossible is possible. If we see it happen once it should not be a surprise to see it happen someplace else. I even believe that the disciples could have silenced the wind themselves if they understood the authority Jesus gave them. Fear kept them in the dark. Listening to bad advice can make us dense to the things of God. Mark has more to say on that: Mark 7:13 13 And so you cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition. And this is only one example among many others.” Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. {21st century lingo->Get it through your thick head.} 15 It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.” Checking things out and comparing them to God's word, is really the only thing we physically have to learn who God is. Spiritually, intel from the Holy Spirit helps prevent us from becoming dense. Expect a Miricale in your life and don't be surprised when it comes. Even more so, when you see many miracles. Do not let unbelief kill your miracles. These people may never see a miracle their entire life. Mark 6:5 (New Living Translation) And because of their unbelief, he couldn’t do any miracles among them except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them. Never forget that God loves us. We have to make sure our heart is right with him to see miracles in our life. 1 John 4:10 (New Living Translation) This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:19 (New Living Translation) We love each other because he loved us first. 02/02/2023 Have you ever wondered why sometimes it takes a long time for our prayers to be answered. It is not because God has not heard them. But it is many times like what's going on in Daniel's life: Daniel 10:12-14 NLT 12 Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. 13 But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. 14 Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.” Paul talks more about this spiritual warfare going on: Ephesians 6:10-12 NLT The Whole Armor of God 10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. We can prepare for ourselves but we cannot put the armor on other people. Our only option is to pray asking God to bind the devil so our prayers are not hindered. The enemy wants to make sure that every person you pray for fails. The next step that hinders prayers is unforgiveness. Jesus talks about this in Mark: Mark 11:25 NLT But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.” If you pray for things that glorify yourself and put God on the backburner you may also see slow answers to your prayers. Make sure you believe it is possible that God can do it. Doubters will see slow response times to their prayers. Other times you may be doing everything right but since we serve an event oriented God, the timing may not be right. The other case is that he may be testing your faith. Whatever happens do not give up praying. Always look at condition of your own heart to make sure that it is not the problem. Jesus is ready but are we. 01/23/2023 I hear about the grace of Jesus Christ quite often. It was provided for us at a great cost to our Saviour. But very seldom do people ever speak about the cost of serving Jesus Christ. It does require some sacrifice from us. Mark explains it vividly: Mark 8:34-38 New Living Translation 34 Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. 35 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. 36 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? 37 Is anything worth more than your soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” You may ask why is it necessary to give one's life up in order to serve Jesus Christ? Matthew explains this very well: Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money (Could be any distraction). This last verse shows your soul is at stake if you try to serve things other than Jesus Christ. I have found out myself that too many distractions can keep me from learning everything God wants me to know. Once we commit ourselves to serving Jesus Christ, we need to be bold for him. It is not important what people think of us talking about Christ but what Jesus Christ thinks of us. Verse 38 says "If anyone is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, the Son of Man will be ashamed of that person when he returns in the glory of his Father with the holy angels." This definitely describes the times we live in. Are we going to be an embarrassment to our Lord? Or are we going to be somebody that Jesus Christ is going to brag about in the Kingdome of God? It is your choice. Choose wisely! 01/17/2023 Paul wrote this one because he knows that God is not pleased whenever we complain. I can relate complaining with being ungrateful. Paul also knows that God does not like arguing either. But what determines what is an argument or speaking up against evil. The latter is required of us. If love is used like Jesus did and with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, everyone had difficult time challenging his logic. He also knows that man can be bullheaded and he did not stand there trying to beat us up with the truth. He speaks the truth and lets it go. Paul tells us how we can please God: Philippians 2:14-16 (New Living Translation) Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. People watch us every day to see what we are doing. They notice if our lives reflect those of Jesus Christ. Darkness will flee but those who God has called will want what we have. We then can share the good news with them. In the end we can say, "I am proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless." 01/06/2023 John 17 talks more about God calling people to Jesus Christ. Jesus only reveals himself to those people who are called by the Father. I want Jesus to say the same things about me as he did his disciples: John 17:6-9 "I have revealed you to the ones you gave me from this world. They were always yours. You gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything I have is a gift from you, 8 for I have passed on to them the message you gave me. They accepted it and know that I came from you, and they believe you sent me. 9 "My prayer is not for the world, but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. 10 All who are mine belong to you, and you have given them to me, so they bring me glory. It is amazing how we are called by God. He knows me and you because he knows that we can give glory to his son, Jesus Christ. Just remember that Not everybody is called. It is quite an honor that we are called to come to Jesus Christ by the Father. We need to give Glory to God for who he is and Give GLORY to his son who makes us righteous in front of God. Don’t forget the HolySpirit who was sent by Jesus to bring wisdom and the abundant life while we continue to bring glory to God's Son. This is where the powerful Christian walk starts under the Holy Spirits control. 01/05/2023 David, in the book of Psalm talked a lot about the enemy getting away with everything. A lot of times when people totally reject God they are abandoned. Hebrews 12:8 talks about those who are not children of his at all. We who are his children have to be disciplined to achieve that life of proper living. This is never fun and many times it is painful. God does this because he loves us. HEBREWS 12 does a good job of explaining this: Hebrews 12 God's Discipline Proves His Love 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won't become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin. 5 And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children? He said, "My child, don't make light of the Lord's discipline, and don't give up when he corrects you. 6 For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child." 7 As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? 8 If God doesn't discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. 9 Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn't we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? 10 For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God's discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. 11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening, it's painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. This training will turn us and then the church into something that will set an example to others who are watching. We need to show others why Jesus is the King of Kings by how we live and how we love others. The Holy Spirit is excited to help us do this if we let him. 12/29/2022 One of the reasons why God has us study the Old Testament is so we can learn his patterns in the way he works. I think one of the Kings favorite verses is Jeremiah 29:11. But to entirely understand it you have to go into it a little bit more in depth. Israel was in captivity in Babylon for 70 years and it was getting towards the end of that period. God was now going to bring his people home. This is the story of Jeremiah 29:11 Jeremiah 29:10-14 10 This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.” God does this because he loves us so much. You may be saying to yourself that I am not a captive. Being captive is much more than being held by another man. Many of us are held captive by things like lust, greed, pornography, laziness, drinking, drugs and ect. This list is too large to list everything. Everytime my buddy witnesses to a gang, he meets men who are being held captive by broken hearts. I am sure you can think of something you are being help captive by. Now you know why it was necessary for Jesus to come to earth. He said to the people reading from Isaiah 61:1-2; Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, That personal relationship with Jesus Christ will set us free from any captivity we may be facing. Jesus Christ sent the Holy Spirit when he returned to the Father to give us wisdom to continue to stay free from any bondage. Now God can set plans for our life. But how do we know what God's plans are? This is the quickest way to find out what God's plans are: Proverbs 3:5-6 New Living Translation 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. If you do this you will see God at work in your life. Just remember that any plan you come up with minus Jesus Christ will not get God's blessing. His Son did an amazing thing for us and he should be receiving Glory from our plans. A plan inspired by God will never fail if he remains on the throne. We all know what happened when we kicked God out of our educational system for our children. There is little hope and not much of a future for our kids. Kudos to those parents who kept God in the family. They will have a bright future because of the God they serve. God is not done with our schools yet. The Holy Spirit is about to shake things up and our youth are going to start living for Jesus. Could you imagine seeing the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the classroom. God will take out anyone in academia who may interfere in this next great move of God. 12/27/2022 I do believe he has hit the mark on this one. I support him 100% This interesting prayer was given in Kansas, USA, at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people. When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas Senate, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard: "Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says: "Woe to those who call evil good", but that is exactly what we have done. * We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. * We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism. * We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism. * We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle. * We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. * We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. * We have killed our unborn and called it choice. * We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. * We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. * We have abused power and called it politics. * We have embezzled public funds and called it essential expenses. * We have insitutionalised bribery and called it sweets of office. * We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. *We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. * We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh GOD, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!" The response was immediate. A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest. In 6 short weeks, Central Christian Church, where Rev. Wright is pastor, logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those calls responding negatively. The church is now receiving international requests for copies of this prayer from India, Africa and Korea. With the LORD'S help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and WHOLEHEARTEDLY become our desire so that we again can be called "ONE NATION UNDER GOD.” forward this prayer 12/16/2022 Jesus gave his disciples a great promise on what they would be able to do when he went back to the Father. This same promise works for you and me. John 14:12-14 12 "I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. 13 You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. 14 Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it! Some may feel cheated when they read this verse. Maybe this is your problem: James 4:3 Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. 3 And even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong, you want only what will give you pleasure. I know a pastor who had the gift of healing. He laid his hands on many people and they all got well. His son became deathly ill and he prayed for him like he would anybody else. He continued to pray over him for over a week but eventually his son died. The pastor began to feel that he lost his power of praying. God finally said, "You do not understand. Your son did not want to come back. He wanted to go home with me." God may not answer our prayers if there are conflicting wills. Other times he may not answer our prayers if they put us in danger or if he knows that we will be disappointed in what we ask for. Other times he may be just testing our faith to see how we respond. But he will many times answer our prayers later if we are patient. We may have the faith to pray that God will move a mountain. But if his children are giving Thanksgiving to God because the mountain is not moving there is a pretty good chance that your prayer will not be answered. The best way to make sure that a prayer is answered is that God gets the glory and the victory in anything that you may ask for. This is the best way of guaranteeing that you have your prayers answered. 12/13/2022 Isaiah would have recognized Jesus if he would have been alive when Jesus walked the Earth. Other people even when Jesus performed many impossible miracles still did not believe in him. But others did, but like the modern church of today many became lukewarm: John 12:41-43 41 Isaiah was referring to Jesus when he said this, because he saw the future and spoke of the Messiah's glory. 42 Many people did believe in him, however, including some of the Jewish leaders. But they wouldn't admit it for fear that the Pharisees would expel them from the synagogue. 43 For they loved human praise more than the praise of God. We are embarrassed to speak up about Jesus because we may not appear cool. After all it's more important what people think about us then glorifying Jesus. John also had something to say about that: 1 John 2:23 Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. If you want to be big in heaven you need to start bragging about Jesus Christ right now. Even Jesus has something to say about this: Luke 12:8 “I tell you the truth, everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels. Let's keep our minds in the kingdom of God and realize it is more important what our King thinks about us than what the people around us do. Wouldn't that be cool to be bragged about in front of God's own angels.
