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And the devil said to him, "I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whom I wish. Therefore if you worship me it shall be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, You Shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." Luke 4:6-8
So, the Questions are: what are we wishing for?, what or whom are we worshipping?, and whom are we serving? Self is probably a correct answer to each question for a great number of us. Let's face it, we do not enjoy being uncomfortable, we are always looking for bigger, better, and easier. Most of our homes are filled to the brim with so much stuff we can't find anything, so we think we need bigger houses to store all our stuff. The lure is intoxicating and the weight is crushing to our very souls. The irony here is that someone must labor to pay for all these things; and yet we wonder why we are so busy and miserable. To quote Shakespeare we have become like Lady Macbeth " out, out, you damned spot", stained in the consequences of our own sins. We have dug this hole and how do we climb out? Seem impossible? it is! We have no strength, no wisdom, no common sense of our own. We cannot will ourselves to climb out, but that is just what we try to do. Like mice we jump right back on that treadmill working as hard as we can to end up nowhere except exhausted! Sounds like the life I work so hard to live, yet I somehow find it the greatest challenge to surrender, give it ALL up, to admit I cannot manage; that I have failed. I must be joking here, or I must be mad to do such a thing. The rich man asked Jesus, what shall I do to receive eternal life? When Jesus told him and he said "I do these", Jesus said "you lack one thing. Go sell all you have and come and follow after Me." The rich man was heartbroken and turned and walked away. We are that rich man. Failure is never something we want others to see in us and yet we are here to learn. We must learn to invert the paradigm. If we indeed are saved by the blood of the Lamb, then we indeed have spiritual eyes to see. We do not want to see our reflection because... well it's not so pretty for any of us. We must be willing to open our spiritual eyes and see through the eyes of Christ, having great joy in being a failure, letting the world see us with all our imperfections. The world is great at producing masks for us to wear so we don't have to come to grips with our true image. "Every knee shall bow..." We must die to ourselves now to live. Like jumping off the high dive for the first time, we must take the leap not turning back. We will discover the exhilaration of a selfless us, filled with the joy we have been searching for in this materialistic world. We will lose our appetite for possessions because we will have found a much greater joy in the presence of our Lord. Sound tempting , it should because it is the very life Christ Jesus died to give us my friend. Let the devil give all these worldly things to whomever he pleases for it is written " Greater love has no man, than to lie down his life for a friend, and Jesus said " I call you friend." "You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." Our part is to jump off that high dive each and every day and walk in the presence of the Lord and "He shall direct our path." That's it we must surrender all and not be the sad rich man who walked away.
Are ye able said the Master to be crucified with Me? " Are we willing to put ourselves in the arms of Galilee ? This is the only way my friend to invert the paradigm.
"I surrender all, all to Him I owe , sin has left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow!"
Heavenly Father I pray you will forgive us, you will walk with us and talk with us, grant us favor in your eyes for your Glory alone, may we have the grace to stay centered in You. Grab us when our minds wonder, so we may joyfully acknowledge we are yours in all things. In you Son's Jesus Christ name I pray Amen
Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)
Friday, December 21, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
food for thought
"When He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days in the same place where he was." John 11:6
The sounds of silence. Silence is golden unless... we are desperately needing to hear... test results, the safety of a loved one, and most of all - what God's will is for your life. In case you need that answer, His will is for you to be in His presence, totally abandoned to Him. "He shall direct your paths." Too simple? Need detailed instructions? Sorry, that's all you get, that's all any of us get and yet it is everything, for it is the very presence of God. We all deal with complete surrender each and every day and we either do or we don't. When I am faced with a concerning situation, I may at once pray about it, but rarely does it end there. We pray, then we do every thing humanly possible to find an answer. That doesn't mean we are not to act, there are times we must. You cannot say, "I saw my little one running toward the street, I prayed you would stop him, so I'm done here, right?" We all know that is absurd and we would instinctively save our child from harm. God gave us those instincts for our good and the good of others. We do things instinctively all the time, and God is the director of those instincts if we are walking in His presence and so much of the time, through His grace and mercy for us, when we are not. Where we have a spiritual check here is our worry and impatience for a result. We cannot have peace that surpasses all understanding if we cannot be content without knowing the outcome. The sounds of silence, we must all walk through the deafening sounds of silence without fainting, and we will continue to faint away until we surrender all. Is it well with our soul, when sorrows like sea billows roll? It can be, but the choice is up to us each and every day. Are we willing to step out into the darkness of our faith, lay down our lives and surrender all so indeed it is well with our soul? Does that mean we will not grieve, that we will not experience heartache? No. We all will and have had those experiences, but those who walk in the presence of the Lord have a healer, and a revealer of all things worked out to the glory of God for those who trust and walk with Him. Is it well with our soul? That is the question we all will answer one way or another. You don't get to skip it. And if you ignore it, your answer is no. Let us rise to the occasion of the question with total surrender and we will know what it is to be in the presence of the Lord.
Heavenly Father envelop us, may we be caught up in Your Spirit, being poured out for your glory. Ah, the sounds of silence, may they be music to our ears and peace that surpasses all understanding to our souls. In Jesus name Amen
" Turn your eyes upon Jesus , Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace"
Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)
The sounds of silence. Silence is golden unless... we are desperately needing to hear... test results, the safety of a loved one, and most of all - what God's will is for your life. In case you need that answer, His will is for you to be in His presence, totally abandoned to Him. "He shall direct your paths." Too simple? Need detailed instructions? Sorry, that's all you get, that's all any of us get and yet it is everything, for it is the very presence of God. We all deal with complete surrender each and every day and we either do or we don't. When I am faced with a concerning situation, I may at once pray about it, but rarely does it end there. We pray, then we do every thing humanly possible to find an answer. That doesn't mean we are not to act, there are times we must. You cannot say, "I saw my little one running toward the street, I prayed you would stop him, so I'm done here, right?" We all know that is absurd and we would instinctively save our child from harm. God gave us those instincts for our good and the good of others. We do things instinctively all the time, and God is the director of those instincts if we are walking in His presence and so much of the time, through His grace and mercy for us, when we are not. Where we have a spiritual check here is our worry and impatience for a result. We cannot have peace that surpasses all understanding if we cannot be content without knowing the outcome. The sounds of silence, we must all walk through the deafening sounds of silence without fainting, and we will continue to faint away until we surrender all. Is it well with our soul, when sorrows like sea billows roll? It can be, but the choice is up to us each and every day. Are we willing to step out into the darkness of our faith, lay down our lives and surrender all so indeed it is well with our soul? Does that mean we will not grieve, that we will not experience heartache? No. We all will and have had those experiences, but those who walk in the presence of the Lord have a healer, and a revealer of all things worked out to the glory of God for those who trust and walk with Him. Is it well with our soul? That is the question we all will answer one way or another. You don't get to skip it. And if you ignore it, your answer is no. Let us rise to the occasion of the question with total surrender and we will know what it is to be in the presence of the Lord.
Heavenly Father envelop us, may we be caught up in Your Spirit, being poured out for your glory. Ah, the sounds of silence, may they be music to our ears and peace that surpasses all understanding to our souls. In Jesus name Amen
" Turn your eyes upon Jesus , Look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace"
Love to all in Christ Jesus C:)
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Food for thought
I thank God each and every day for the truth He reveals to me for there is no greater joy than to be in the presence of my Lord.
Tolerance or love? You cannot have both!
My Lord is the Lord of love, not love and tolerance. One is life, the other is death. Strong words, I know. Read on.
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10
This verse brings a drowning feeling of helplessness, and it should, for we are the ones drowning. It is a narrow gate that leads to air and it is a breath of Heaven indeed that we so desperately need to live. In our society, in our own lifespan, up to now, we have watched life's moral "bar" lowered. Those who have spoken in defense have been called every name in the book. No wonder very little revival of the heart has come. The water is very deep, and we are drowning in the water of tolerance. Our language and understanding is drowning with our society as well. We have been led to believe that tolerance and love have the same definition. Webster's Dictionary defines tolerance as "the act or practice of tolerating; sympathy or indulgence of beliefs or practices differing from one's own, capacity for enduring or adapting, the allowable deviation from a standard."
Love is defined as "strong affection, warm attachments, attraction based on sexual desire, a beloved person."
God's ways are not our ways. Tolerance and love are not one and the same. America needs to wake up, step up as a nation under God, and with great sacrifice, follow after Christ. It takes great faith in God and we are drowning as a nation. When push comes to shove (which it has), the line is drawn. Which side are we choosing? The world's definition of love as tolerance? Or God's Holy Word as our definition of love? "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friend" and Jesus also said, "I call you friend".
By our tolerance, we are not a friend, but by our willingness to lay our lives down. Down to what? I believe many of us stumble here and fall into stressful traps of others' expectations of us. Jesus came only to do the will of His Father, not to live up to someone else's ideas of Him. Jesus did not tolerate sin at all, He came to abolish sin, so "whoever believes in Him shall not die but have eternal life"..."I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me".
I cannot even begin to tell you how many conversations come up in the name of tolerance. I believe it is because that is the question. It is the very line drawn in the sand. Are we going to compromise to give the false impression of love? Are we so brainwashed (deceived) that we believe this lie as a truth? If so, we have decided to drown, not to run the race of a good saint. We have chosen this life over eternal life. Tolerance is not love, it is death. Death to our beliefs and our faith in Christ Jesus.
We all must choose. Either we adapt to this world, or we choose God, there is no two way street here. We choose life or we choose death. Love is sacrifice, it is the laying down of one's life. It is not an ooey gooey feeling of giddy happiness or a puffed up feeling of our acceptance. Jesus did not tolerate sin, but He loved the sinner! Yes, we are to come as we are, so we may lay down our lives. Demanding our own rights is and never was an option. People will always demand and "we are never going to win the war if belief is what we're fighting for" to quote John Mayer. Why? Because it has already been won! "No one comes to the Father except through Me".
Are we living what we profess to believe or are we trying to find a solution in our human mind of reasoning, playing into the hand of the traitor by buying into acceptance and lowering the bar. This is not love, you cannot love as Christ has loved if you tolerate any thing other than Christ. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me", it doesn't get any plainer than that. Now, what is the question? We are to love as Christ has loved, and dying to ourselves is the only way we can experience true love for others. Tolerance or love? You decide. But they will remain on the opposite sides of the great divide.
"I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back."
Heavenly Father, burn these words upon our hearts. Kindle the flame within us so that we may share eternal life by the dying of our selves for You alone. Let us know the incredible joy of the laying down of our life for a friend. In Christ Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Love to all in Christ Jesus. C:)
Tolerance or love? You cannot have both!
My Lord is the Lord of love, not love and tolerance. One is life, the other is death. Strong words, I know. Read on.
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10
This verse brings a drowning feeling of helplessness, and it should, for we are the ones drowning. It is a narrow gate that leads to air and it is a breath of Heaven indeed that we so desperately need to live. In our society, in our own lifespan, up to now, we have watched life's moral "bar" lowered. Those who have spoken in defense have been called every name in the book. No wonder very little revival of the heart has come. The water is very deep, and we are drowning in the water of tolerance. Our language and understanding is drowning with our society as well. We have been led to believe that tolerance and love have the same definition. Webster's Dictionary defines tolerance as "the act or practice of tolerating; sympathy or indulgence of beliefs or practices differing from one's own, capacity for enduring or adapting, the allowable deviation from a standard."
Love is defined as "strong affection, warm attachments, attraction based on sexual desire, a beloved person."
God's ways are not our ways. Tolerance and love are not one and the same. America needs to wake up, step up as a nation under God, and with great sacrifice, follow after Christ. It takes great faith in God and we are drowning as a nation. When push comes to shove (which it has), the line is drawn. Which side are we choosing? The world's definition of love as tolerance? Or God's Holy Word as our definition of love? "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for his friend" and Jesus also said, "I call you friend".
By our tolerance, we are not a friend, but by our willingness to lay our lives down. Down to what? I believe many of us stumble here and fall into stressful traps of others' expectations of us. Jesus came only to do the will of His Father, not to live up to someone else's ideas of Him. Jesus did not tolerate sin at all, He came to abolish sin, so "whoever believes in Him shall not die but have eternal life"..."I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me".
I cannot even begin to tell you how many conversations come up in the name of tolerance. I believe it is because that is the question. It is the very line drawn in the sand. Are we going to compromise to give the false impression of love? Are we so brainwashed (deceived) that we believe this lie as a truth? If so, we have decided to drown, not to run the race of a good saint. We have chosen this life over eternal life. Tolerance is not love, it is death. Death to our beliefs and our faith in Christ Jesus.
We all must choose. Either we adapt to this world, or we choose God, there is no two way street here. We choose life or we choose death. Love is sacrifice, it is the laying down of one's life. It is not an ooey gooey feeling of giddy happiness or a puffed up feeling of our acceptance. Jesus did not tolerate sin, but He loved the sinner! Yes, we are to come as we are, so we may lay down our lives. Demanding our own rights is and never was an option. People will always demand and "we are never going to win the war if belief is what we're fighting for" to quote John Mayer. Why? Because it has already been won! "No one comes to the Father except through Me".
Are we living what we profess to believe or are we trying to find a solution in our human mind of reasoning, playing into the hand of the traitor by buying into acceptance and lowering the bar. This is not love, you cannot love as Christ has loved if you tolerate any thing other than Christ. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me", it doesn't get any plainer than that. Now, what is the question? We are to love as Christ has loved, and dying to ourselves is the only way we can experience true love for others. Tolerance or love? You decide. But they will remain on the opposite sides of the great divide.
"I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back."
Heavenly Father, burn these words upon our hearts. Kindle the flame within us so that we may share eternal life by the dying of our selves for You alone. Let us know the incredible joy of the laying down of our life for a friend. In Christ Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Love to all in Christ Jesus. C:)
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